Transformasi Sekolah-sekolah

Pengupayaan sekolah sebagai institusi yang mempunyai otonomi

Oleh: Mohd Rosli bin Saidin (15 Januari 2017)

Sebagai seorang pendidik, sepanjang cuti sekolah yang lalu saya telah banyak berfikir tentang peranan sekolah sebagai sebuah instiusi di mana pelbagai aktiviti yang yang berkaitan dengan dengan pendidikan berlaku. Sekolah bukan sahaja sebuah tempat di mana berlakunya pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahkan sekolah juga boleh diupayakan untuk menjadi  pusat berlakunya inovasi pendidikan dan penghasilan bahan-bahan pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang bermutu.

Selama ini sekolah hanya menjadi pusat aktiviti pengajaran dan pembelajaran manakala penghasilan bahan-bahan seperti buku-buku dan modul-modul dihasilkan oleh syarikat-syarikat penerbitan swasta dan universiti. Tak cuckup dengan itu, sekolah lebih merupakan pelaksana falsafah dan pelan pendidikan yang telah dirancang oleh bahagian perancangan induk di Kementerian Pendidikan dan Pusat Perkembanagan Kurikulum. Kita pada hakikatnya memang maklum dan arif tentang sukatan pelajaran bahagian masing-masing. Ujudnya sukatan pelajaran adalah hasil perbincangan para cerdik-pandai pendidikan di institusi-institusi pendidikan di seluruh negara. Oleh itu sudah tiba masanya kita menulis, menyusun dan menerbitkannya sendiri. Kosnya tidaklah perlu difikirkan sangat kerana ianya amat murah!

Seorang pendidik yang berpengalaman boleh menghasilkan mushaf ilmu yang relevan dan berkesan jika diberi latihan yang cukup tentang penerbitan. Kita tidak hanya bercakap tentang buku yang diperbuat daripada kertas yang dijilid tetapi buku-buku elektronik yang boleh dibaca dan diakses di mana-mana sahaja. Sebuah buku elektronik di alam siber boleh diakses, dibaca dan diekslpoitasi isinya serta boleh dikongsi dengan sesiapa sahaja di seluruh dunia! Bunyinya hebat tetapi ianya benar!

Berbalik kita kepada soal sekolah menjadi pusat penghasilan bahan-bahan pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Langkah pertama ke arah ini adalah dari Jawatankuasa Kurikulum sekoah melalui Panitia Mata pelajaran masing-masing. Jawatankuasa Kurikulum boleh memulakan inisiatif mengadakan bengkel-bengkel penghasilan bahan-bahan pembelajaran yang bermutu. Bahan-bahan yang dihasilkan boleh dicetak sekali sahaja untuk simpanan rujukan dan arkib. Naskah-naskah seterusnya hendaklah dimuatnaik ke dalam laman web atau blog yang yang kapasitinya disokong oleh Google drive atau Google cloud yang boleh diakses melalui komputer riba, tablet, desktop atau telefon pintar.

Faktor gaya hidup kini telah menyebabkan kita lebih banyak berdamping dengan telefon bimbit daripada buku-buku atau bahan cetakan. Oleh itu untuk mendekati Generasi Z ini, kita perlu menurut gaya hidup mereka. Sekolah boleh menjadi agen kepada pembangunan bahan PdP (yang sekarang ini disebut sebagai PdPC) melalui maklumbalas yang diterima oleh PPD dan JPN. Pembangunan sekolah akan lebih komprehensif dan berhalatuju. Keperluan sekolah akan ditanggung oleh warga sekolah itu sendiri mengikut apa yang telah dirancang contohnya:

1.0     Pembangunan Akademik

1.1    Binaan bahan pengajaran dan pembelajaran

 -          Cetakan

 -          Maya

1.1.1        Cetakan  – modul/panduan (comb-binding)

    --soalan-soalan

            1.1.2     Maya      --modul/panduan (laman web atau blog)

                                         --soalan-soalan

            2.0   Pembangunan Ko-akademik

            2.1   Binaaa bahan-bahan aktiviti etos iaitu modul ucap umum dalam Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa
                    Arab dan Bahasa Inggeris

            2.1.1  Cetakan      - modul/panduan

                                         - contoh-contoh teks

            2.1.2   Maya         - modul/panduan

                       - Contoh-contoh teks

21st Century Learning - The Future Education

21st Century Learning - The Future Education

Presented by: Nur Aisyah Mohamad Hadi, Nur Aisyah Jamsari Hussain, Nor Hazwani Mohamad and Nurul Izzati Iman Shafiee
at Co-academic Carnival held at Kolej Tingkatan Enam Hj, Zainul Abidin on 12 August 2017 

Some of us might be wondering what is it like to learn in years ahead of us?: Will there be books. Will there be classrooms? Or the most unpredictable one; will there be teachers?

Some of these questions have already been answered partially. The presence of online materials like e-books, e-magazines and e-newsletters have replaced printed materials on paper. The logical arguments will be a few that I have listed down here:

a)      Easily accessed

b)      Convenient

c)      Exploitable

d)      Economical

It is my privilege to explain each one.

 

Easily accessed means online materials can be accessed anywhere, anytime. A student would be able to read these materials by just keying in the address codes, and ‘BANG!’ the materials would be right in front of his eyes and on top of that he could use any electronic gadgets he fancies.

Materials online are convenient to use. Apart from being readily accessible, they do not have to come in files of paper. A student need not carry huge volume of materials like books or research scripts around to study or for references.

Web materials are extremely exploitable. One could just browse through the webs for appropriate articles to download. Then. They could be edited to suit his needs. He could use other parts of the materials for varied purposes.

Undoubtedly, the internet provides huge volume of information dirt cheap! The users do not have to keep them in hard copies. Keeping hard copies will incur heavy expenses.

I am sure everybody here agrees that the whole files of information can be conveniently packed in a storage device which is only the size of a thumb! I was informed that my school has been keeping all sorts of files like words, excell, jpeg, videos and others in a tiny thumb drive of 16GB for more than ten years and it costs only a little more than RM20.00. This one is equivalent to more than a ton of paper!

We are currently overwhelmed by the fact that we should have proper arrangement of the classroom so that each student will interact effectively among them making learning fun and collaborative; some of the elements listed as revolutionarised pedagogy. That is so much to do with the physical aspect of the classroom. For your information, a school could also be a virtual one or in other words, electronically set up through for example, video conferencing, podcasts, blogging or simply; the simple, fast and versatile what’s application or telegram.

 

The school members could be scattered everywhere and at different times and settings but each could be reached through electronic gadgets almost instantly. It is in fact more effective responding to the students after school via e-mail, facebook or twitter; all meant for the students to be engaged with their lessons or tutorials. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg for his facebook, Bill Gates for his Microsoft and not least worth mentioning, Apple Incorporation for their amazing computer operating system. The web traffic is extremely busy with numerous crisscrossing of information or data. All one has to do is tap and exploit them, and the world is virtually at our fingertips.

One may wonder; if the world-wide web is the powerhouse of information, what would the teacher’s role be? Yes, our dear teachers would facilitate learning. Their job is to get the students fully engaged in the learning process. A student could be individually engaged in a task while others have their own to attend to. Apart from that a task could be shared in collaborative or co-operative learning; all meant to get the students explore or discover knowledge.

The 21st Century Learning embraces student-centeredness in education; the essence of future education. We have to follow the wind of change. If not, what would become of us? The student resort to googling most of the time for references. If a teacher is still teaching, less would listen and more would fall asleep. If a teacher guides and inspires, she is guaranteed to have students who would follow her.  Before I conclude my sharing, let me ask you two questions:

a.  If you are a teacher, would you say 'yes' to 21st Century Education?

b. If not, what are your reasons?

 

Thank you.

DOING THE MORE IMPORTANT THING OR THE PRIORITY

Are we doing the essential thing in our work or otherwise?

Lately we, teachers find that we are confronting with avalanches of clerical work which we should not in the first place. The problem arises since the educational administration has been handled by administrative champions who are more handy with administrative data and tabulations. Now, let me turn the game into a simpler one: We are doing work for other people who are pursuing their administrative mileage. Am I delivering it clear now?

Are teachers professional file keepers?

Give me a break, will you?

 

Teachers need not commit themselves to the administrative workload. The administration has got to make it clear though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY - Articles to Digest

The First Batch of Material for Professionals in Al-Irshad  for Professional Learning Community Programme

The Arena February 6, 2017 Issue

* Dr Travis Bradberry is one of my influencers in linkedin. He is an accomplished writer who has written books on EQ and also the President at Talent Smart
The purpose of uploading the newsletter to this blog is to minimize the cost of printing
and for others to enjoy reading it online!

The Second Batch of Material for Professionals in Al-Irshad for Professional Learning Community Programme

The Arena February 13 , 2017 Issue

Dr. David Franklin, CEO of The Principal’s Desk, is an experienced school administrator, education professor, curriculum designer, and presenter. Dr. Franklin has presented at national and international education conferences as is available for school and district professional development sessions.

The Arena March 5 Issue

The Arena, September 18 Issue

The production of Arena had been postponed until September due to some
unavoidable circumstances

How I See the 21st Century Learning

As I See It

 

 

The 21^st Century Teaching and Learning style has been the most talked-about agenda globally and Malaysia is no exception.

Our plans and actions are based on the goal. In fact, some countries have been on their way to their destination on 21^st Century Education programmes with some adjustments from the errors they have encountered.

Have we started our journey towards the 21^st Century Education? Yes, we have. Firstly, we embark on the physical aspect of it for instance, the classroom arrangement. Some logical patterns have been suggested. Then, every school has to set up classrooms of those patterns. The progress is monitored by appointed officers from the ministry and the education department. The enhancement of management sector follows. This has been very much cared about as compared to the methodology of teaching and learning. Numerous paperwork marked the identity of our managerial business, so we take to filing thousands of sheets of it to fulfil the needs of managerial documentation.

The philosophy of 21^st Century is created for guidance and revolution follow suit. Factually, there had been revolution in pedagogy since 1984 (my experience). The aspect of C and C (critical and creative thinking) had been emphasized. We are struggling to equip ourselves with the knowledge. Currently, we are implementing H.O.T.S (Higher Order Thinking Skills) which I think is just another name for C and C.

 

 

 

 

Let us turn the pages of history. Isaac Newton, a scientist had been critical enough to discover the theory of gravitation in 1687 which traced the falling apple story. Newton chose to think about nature’s phenomenon back in 15^th century! He later developed the Newton’s Laws of motion. In Malaysian schools, the implementation of Nuffield Science in the lower secondary is to tease the students’ intellectual faculty to think critically and creatively and develop their inquisitive domain. That was carried out more than 40 years ago. So, H.O.T.S. business is just like a sequel to C and C.

Back  in the late 70’s, I was taught the basics of physical geography about factors that determine the climatic of a mass of land among which are distance from the sea, cloud cover, altitude, latitude and aspects; BINGO! I got it! You’ll see that from here, the higher order thinking skills could be established and nurtured. Without basic facts, one could not set up proper thinking activity. The tool to thinking is facts; facts are synthesized during thinking.

 

 

LEARNER-CENTRED LEARNING

Learner-driven Learning by Fred Ende

Getting to learner-driven learning is a multiple-pathway process, but here are three intersections where we can look to make the “right” turn when we arrive.

 

Question, rather than answer. In terms of putting learning in the hands of learners, it is much more powerful to know the questions, than to know the answers. The best educators aren’t the keepers of content. They are the sharers of questions, happy to know less about information and more about inquiry. Building a conversation, class or course around a series of questions helps to showcase that learning is about a process. Yes, it is a process of seeking answers, but also one of uncovering new questions to ask. Since a question, by its nature, is not an endpoint, educating through questioning puts the power in the hands of those who will be learning the new questions to ask. And that often allows the power to be shared by all. It took me a long time to realize the value of saying “I don’t know,” but once I discovered that I didn’t lose anything through this statement -- and rather, gained more for myself, and my students -- I felt confident saying it regularly, paired with a “let’s find out.”

 

Keep it interactive. While a quest built on questions serves as a great foundation, we need to make sure that if we want learners to do the driving, we keep the learning about “doing.” After all, we can’t do all our driving from the passenger seat -- at least not with current technology; not yet anyway. We all need to feel engaged, and to do that, we need to feel as if we are a part of the learning experience. In other words, it is doing “with us,” rather than “to us.” When learners drive the learning, they are fully engaged in the thinking, doing and reflecting that occurs. For example, I recently had an opportunity to lead a webinar using a very different virtual tool. The tool, called Shindig, builds in much of what we need to feel in order for a webinar to happen with us, rather than to us. With avatars, integrated video, and opportunities to break up into small discussion groups, it is the most face-to-face virtual experience I have ever had. After that session, I finally realized why webinars had never worked for me before: I had previously felt like an audience member, rather than a participant. The same is the case for any learner-driven experience; learners must be participants.

 

Follow up. Even after learners are doing the actual driving, they can still run into trouble. The tank can be on empty, a tire can go flat, a battery can go bad. In all these situations, support is a necessity. Learner-driven learning can’t be just about the learner doing the driving 24/7. As skills build and/or problems develop, we need to provide follow-up to keep the vehicle -- and the learner -- headed in the right direction, and the right direction for the learner, not necessarily for us. In my book, "Professional Development That Sticks," I talk about the necessity to provide future opportunities for learning and support so that all that has been learned so far doesn’t become deserted and overgrown, much like an abandoned road. One of the best things we can do to keep learning in the hands of the learner is to make it clear that we’re invested in them charting their own course, and that we’re there to help them find their way.

 

There are many potential drivers along the path of learning. But there is really only one subset of drivers who should be behind the wheel. Those are the ones with the licenses to learn, in other words, those who are currently occupying a learning frame. And that means that if we aren’t currently in that frame, we need to be comfortable sitting in the passenger seat and letting the learner take the wheel.