TASK 1 : ESSAY

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The highly-anticipated National Education Blueprint (2013-2025), which was

launched in 2012, is expected to transform the national education system to be on par with

and comparable to that of developed nations, over the next 13 years. According to Education

Performance and Delivery Unit (PADU), Blueprint was developed to understand the current

performance and challenges of the Malaysian education system, with a focus on improving

access to education, quality and equity of education, promoting unity among the students

and maximising system efficiency.

In education, curriculum development, implementation and improvement are the

essential aspects to be emphasized and evaluated throughout the time especially when we

are all living in the Knowledge Age. While curriculum specialists and administrators spend

countless hours developing curriculum, it is the teachers who know best what the curriculum

should look like. After all, they work directly with the students to benefit from the curriculum.

(Stacy Zeiger, 2000). Teachers know their students' needs better than others involved in the

curriculum process. Thus, this proves that teachers are actually influential in the curriculum

development. Since the classroom is basically the workfield of teachers, teachers

experience first-hand the results of curriculum planning and how these make an impact on

the learners (Oliva, 2005). Teachers are the best witness to identify whether the curriculum

is at odds or fulfill students’ needs. In addition, their interactions with students, parents and

guardians allow them to bridge the gap between curriculum theory and practice. Based on

The Star article by P. Kamalanathan (2014), Malaysian government recognize that education

is the bedrock of any successful nation, sought to transform the education system in its

totality in order to ensure that our children are well-equipped to challenge the best in today’s

ultra-competitive world. In line with this, the ministry highlighted six core traits that need to be

inculcated into our students. They are knowledge, thinking skills, leadership skills, bilingual

proficiency, ethics and spirituality, and national identity. Hence, teachers play an extremely

vital role in order to meet all these requirements, as stated in National Education Blueprint

(2013-2025).

1

2.0 ROLE OF TEACHERS AS PRACTITIONERS

Teacher should emphasise the role of being a practitioner in order to bring a positive

change in education is by being a practitioner. Practitioner means a person engaged in the

practice of a profession, occupation (Dictionary.com, 2015). It is undeniable that teacher as

“Practitioner Enquiry” has always been a demand from various stakeholders to bring

improvement in education.

In this modern century, our world is changing at rapid and frantic pace that new

information becomes available faster than it can be taught. One of the eleven shifts stated in

Malaysian Educational Blueprint (2013-2025) is to transform teaching into the profession of

choice. Hence, teachers must foster the continuous development and improvement of the

knowledge and skills from time to time. Teachers must have a sense of urgency to stay

current and continually being proactive to "update" their knowledge and skills. For example,

they should have the interest to participate in-service training in order to increase their

knowledge and skills. While teachers are employed, it is advisable to take advantage of

training, coaching or courses provided. Among courses offered by Ministry of Education are

Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Malaysian Trainers Development Programme,

Specialist Courses and many more. The content of in-service training or courses can be

related to smart school management, curriculum management and transformation.

Moreover, teachers are introduced the latest pedagogical strategies in the education which

allow them to be more aware about Project-based learning and Problem Based Learning.

They also have the chance to involve in the development of curriculum and teaching

methods. Besides improving the teaching quality in the classroom, all these eventually help

to upgrade their professional skills and competencies academically and professionally in

education field.

It is also fact that we are indeed living in an urban society that is evolving at

breathtaking speed which leads to an explosion of inventions and technologies. Hence, it is

essential for teachers as practitioner to stay abreast of technology as a means for becoming

more effective in producing his own materials, accessing the Internet to gain information

which will provide the basis for presentation to the students. Teachers must have the

intention and effort to enhance their ICT literacy. Attending seminars or workshops is one of

the ways to keep up with technology and the newest teaching strategies. For example,

elderly teachers get to learn the methods to access information from multiple sources.

Therefore, these seminars and workshop help teachers to equip themselves with the latest

information to ensure the teacher’s role as a source of information and knowledge to the

2

students is not diminishing. By knowing how to make changes or variations for the future

teaching and learning, this indirectly improves their teaching quality in the classroom. For an

instance, teachers are able to understand the term “Technology Integration” and learn to

apply the method in the lessons. Integrating technology into classroom instruction engages

students and facilitates their thinking. Students learn to access, evaluate, and use

information. Leverage ICT to scale up quality learning across Malaysia is listed as one of the

eleven shifts in Educational Blueprint (2013-2025). Thus, teachers are advisable to

maximise use of ICT to allow more customized learning in education.

One of the reasons it is so important for teachers to keep up with their knowledge

and skills is so they can pass and disseminate them on to students. What the teachers as

practitioners have gained must be taken into practice and application. Based on Malaysian

Educational Blueprint (2013-2025), a specific skill that students would need is thinking skills.

Every child should master cognitive skills such as problem-solving, reasoning, creative

thinking, and innovation. All these include in higher order thinking skills (HOTS) where

students are able to think critically outside familiar academic contexts. One of the roles of

being a practitioner is to integrate elements of higher order thinking skills in the content

delivery to produce students who are capable of being proactive learners. Student-centered

lesson approach is the main focus to promote thought and active learning. For an instance,

Project-Based Learning (PBL) that the teachers learned during in-service training can be

implemented in the lessons. PBL allows teachers to use an authentic problem or challenge

as a context for students to learn problem-solving and acquire knowledge about a particular

domain (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980; Boud, 1985) In phase 1, teachers should motivate

students to reason aloud through the presented problem, defining what they know and do

not know, setting educational goals and creating action plans to meet those goals. During

phase 2, students carry out their action plans by engaging in self-study. In this stage,

teachers can act as a facilitator guiding students to determine how long it will take to address

an action plan item, create a timeline, and determine the required resources. When students

carry out implementation in phase 3, students gain insight as to why resources or methods

used were effective or ineffective and how they can be improved for the future.

Summarization is done at the final phase where students recall and reflect on the learning

that occurred. All these strengthen their reasoning, ability to analyse and evaluate, problem

solving and decision-making abilities. Indirectly, this develops their higher order cognitive

skills which is what 21st century of education strives for.

3

4.0 ROLE OF TEACHERS AS ANALYSTS

The teaching and learning process is basically an interaction within a social context

between humans. As an analysts, the role of the teacher as a social agent is an important

part of the learning process. In the primary school, teachers are one of the most influential

people in shaping the behaviour of the young pupils in terms of attitudes, personality and

positive values. As stated in Malaysian Educational Blueprint (2013-2015), one of the system

aspirations is unity among students where teacher provides education that gives children

shared values and experiences by embracing diversity. Furthermore, develop values-driven

Malaysians is included in the eleven shifts in Malaysian Educational Blueprint to achieve

desired student outcomes.

One of the most important is teaching the pupils about what is appropriate behaviour

as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. Example would be interacting with

the group members or when entering the workplace or relocating to a new environment or

society. This type of secondary socialisation takes place among the peer groups. The most

effective approach to allow pupils to interact freely while learning is by cooperative learning

(Success For All Foundation, 2012). Cooperative learning requires pupils to sit in groups and

have discussion based on the topic or task given. When teacher practice cooperative

learning, there will be a celebration of diversity as students learn to work with all types of

people. It is the role of the teacher to create awareness for the pupils to acknowledge

individual differences while working in group. Hence, this inevitably helps students to

understand better other cultures and points of view. Cooperative learning is simply

interactive and engaging. Besides teaching them how to be cooperative with the members,

teachers must also help to develop their interpersonal development such as learning how to

express ideas and accept other people’s opinions. Programs such as RIMUP, 1 Sport,1 Club

and 1 Uniformed Body also allow greater interactions among various students which

reinforces unity. All these methods will definitely foster the bond among the pupils.

Besides, teachers themselves should be a social role model to the pupils too. It is a

fact that society’s expectations towards teachers’ role as analyst in socialization is getting

demanding. Thus, teachers must exhibit, practice and internalize moral values such as

courtesy, caring, empathy, respectful to the pupils and even the school community (Paul,

1995). Furthermore, teachers’ politeness in speech and language, respect and obey for rules

should be instilled within them. Teachers should portray a good example to the pupils in

order to develop their social character. This is because pupils are the best imitator while

4

learning as they observe people around them. All these will certainly help the pupils a lot

especially when they need to socialize and adapt when they are exposed to working world in

the future. With good emotional intelligence and communication skills, this eventually builds

their leadership skills which is aligned with one of the students’ key attributes mentioned in

Malaysian Educational Blueprint.

4.0 ROLE OF TEACHERS AS RESEARCHER

Every day, the teacher is indirectly involved in the research process. This is because

the teacher is responsible to make various changes or decisions related to teaching and

classroom management. In order to produce better classroom quality, the teachers are

indirectly involved in self-reflection. In fact, it should be a habit for teachers to always reflect

on their own teaching. However, the role of teachers as researcher will be more evident and

efficient when daily activities are recorded and documented formally and systematically

which involves them in the process of inquiry in order to improve teaching practices.

One of the ways to enhance the role of a researcher to is by doing Action Research.

Action Research encourages teachers to reflect on their teaching and promotes a process of

eliciting and testing new ideas in order to produce positive changes in their professional

development (Cochran, 1991). Teachers as researcher should investigate their own practice

in new ways, reflecting deeper in what aspects do they and their students actually succeed

or fail. They must identify the areas they view as problematical and in need for improvement.

The example of questions that the teacher can ask themselves while doing research are

“What am I learning? Is this working? What should I change? What is the next step? How

are students responding? How have I changed?” When a teacher evaluates the results of

their plan or strategies in a lesson, they will try to identify strengths and weaknesses in

teaching and learning. As a researcher, teachers should learn to design, plan to implement

action plan, monitors and collects various data, analyse teaching and learning to meet

pupils’ needs. This is where teachers can learn to create solutions and make improvements

to ensure their teaching is more efficient and interesting. Indirectly, this means that reflective

thinking is involved as it is a part of critical thinking process which allows analyzing and

making judgements about what has happened. Through action research, teachers gain a

deeper understanding of their own teaching style and ultimately, greater effectiveness as a

teacher (Schon, 1983). By being a researcher, teachers indirectly helps significantly in six

student attributes such as their knowledge, thinking skills, leadership, bilingual proficiency,

ethics and national identity which are the focus Malaysian Educational Blueprint.

5

5.0 CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, education is a dominant factor in any country’s pursuit of economic

growth and national development. In this era of modern society, how well a nation succeeds

relies fundamentally on the knowledge, skills and competencies of its citizens. Besides,

education is also fundamental to nation building and unity. It is through these shared

experiences and aspirations that a common national identity and unity is fostered. The

decision of producing Malaysian Educational Blueprint (2013-2025) was to produce holistic

development of children intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically especially with

the expectations and demands of education policy coming from a broad range of

stakeholders in our country. Therefore, it is the Government’s aspiration to adequately

prepare young Malaysians for the challenges of the 21st century.

Without doubt, the most important person in the curriculum implementation process

are the teachers. With their knowledge, experience and competencies, teachers are central

to any curriculum improvement effort. The teachers’ role in the curriculum process is

prominent because it is their responsibility to implement the school curriculum in the

classroom. It is in the classroom where the curriculum is carried out. With their strong

presence in classroom level, teachers are the most familiar about the practice of teaching

while introducing and carrying out the curriculum in the classroom. From the role of being a

practitioner, teachers must be active learners who continuously seek, assess, apply, and

communicate knowledge throughout their careers In terms of being an analyst, teachers

should allow socialization among the students in an equitable and caring manner by

respecting diversity regardless of race and gender. Not only that, teachers as researchers

should have the initiative to develop and apply knowledge of curriculum, principles of

learning, evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of teaching lessons. Since teachers are the

most influential ones to evaluate how relevant and effective a curriculum will be, they are

supposed to be aware of their roles in curriculum development. Hence, every teacher should

be knowledgeable about, committed to, and skilled in every aspect to bring improvement in

curriculum which indirectly contributes to what the Malaysian Educational Blueprint (2013-

2025) aims to achieve in education.

6