Essay.docx

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS BATU LINTANG

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN AMBILAN 2015

TSLB3163 CURRICULUM STUDIES

NAME

: ATHIRA NABILA BINTI JASMAN

IDENTITY NUMBER

: 960508-43-5100

MATRIX NO.

: 201406066

COURSE CODE

: TSLB3163 (CURRICULUM STUDIES)

GROUP/INTAKE

: PISMP BI (SK) JUN 2015

LECTURER’S NAME

: MR CHANDRA MOHAN V. PANICKR

Task 1: Roles of Teachers as Successful Transformers of Malaysian School Curriculum

Education is a major contributor to the development of our social and economic capital. It inspires creativity and fosters innovation; provides our youth with the necessary skill to be able to compete in the modern labour market (MOE, 2013). The goal of a successful education programme and thus effective curriculum development should be to meet the needs and current demands of the culture, the society and the expectations of the stakeholders. Therefore, the curriculum development and educational reform process continually under goes review, revision, and constant change (Alsubaie, 2016). As curriculum development can be challenging, the involvement of all stakeholders, especially individuals who are directly involve with the instruction, are important in order to have successful curriculum development. Teacher is considered as the most important person in the curriculum implementation process. With their knowledge, experiences and competencies, teacher are central to any curriculum development effort. Better teachers support better learning. Teachers and school leaders are the most important school-based drivers of student outcomes. Teacher involved in curriculum organization has many roles and responsibilities. Teachers want to enjoy teaching and watching their students develop interests and skills in their interest area. The teacher may need to create lesson plans and syllabi within the framework of the given curriculum since the teachers’ responsibilities are to implement the curriculum to meet students’ need (Carl, 2009). Language policy in Malaysia over the last ten years has undergone radical changes. In 2003, the Malaysian government announced the policy of teaching English in content subjects, mathematics and science, in primary and secondary schools to try to address concern over the poor results that the students were attaining in English language examinations and to position Malaysia so it can compete in global market. In previous years, teachers were using the national language to teach mathematics and science. With this policy, the teachers need to change their medium of instruction from the national language to English language. The policy has, however cause a furore with both Malay nationalists and Chinese educationists treating the decision as an attack on their identity (Yang & Md. Sidin, 2011). Later in 2009, the Malaysia Government announced to reverse the policy starting from 2012. It is the teachers’ role to keep up with the changes creatively in order to help students at school keep up with the new curriculum policy. One of the teachers role as successful curriculum transformers is teacher takes the role of decision maker. Decision making involves giving consideration to a matter, identifying the desired end result, determining the options to get to the end result, and then selecting the most suitable option to achieve the desired purpose (Fuller, n.d.). Teacher decisions ultimately

will influence students’ learning. Teachers with the knowledge, experience and competencies are the central to any curriculum improvement effort (Alsubaie, 2016). As the teachers are the person who implement the curriculum, it is the teachers who know the best what the curriculum should be like. With their knowledge and experience, teachers know what method and strategies to use to different types of students. The decisions involve fine judgements of the capacities of individual children, determination of their needs and evaluation of their achievements. Hence, when the teachers make the right decision in a classroom or in a teaching and learning session, teachers are able to fulfil the responsibility as transformer of the curriculum. Another role of teacher is teacher as a researcher. In educational practice, there has been a strong move towards empowering practitioners to undertake research (Chand, 1988). Teacher researchers attempted to get better understanding of their practices, and its impacts on their students by researching the relationship between teaching and learning in their work. As a professional teacher, teacher needs to grow in order to develop new insights, skill and practices. Teacher researcher analyse educational problems of concern to them, plan programmes, evaluate what they have done and then repeat the cycle if necessary. Every students is different. The complexity provides a compelling reason for teachers to look more closely into their own teaching practice. One way for them to do so is to conduct research, based on the problem paced by the students in the classroom. By doing the research, teacher can help to improve students learning, and their own teaching practices. Based on the national aspirations, teachers will develop the world-class capabilities needed to facilitate desired student outcomes and gain more enjoyment and fulfilment from their jobs (MOE, 2013). One of the student aspirations in Malaysia Education Blueprint is to ensure that every students in every school in every state achieves their full potential (MOE, 2013). To achieve the aspirations, teachers need to know the best approach, method and strategies that are suitable for the students to achieve the aspirations. When teachers become researchers, they take on an expanded professional role that involves systematic, self-reflective, intentional inquiry into aspects of classroom practice. This role of teacher is consistent with a number of values and trends in the field of curriculum. To successfully transform the school curriculum, teacher also takes the role as reflective practitioners. Reflective practice is a process that facilitates teaching, learning and understanding and it plays a central role in teachers’ professional development (Peechattu, 2017). Teachers as practitioner need to continually observant, thoughtful and reflective about the nature of learning the art of teaching. Teachers are encouraged to examine and interpret their attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning in discipline ways. A practitioner teacher builds and examines knowledge about students, the culture and school curriculum and the

contexts in which teaching and learning occurs. They continually try to understand what they currently believe about learning, articulate to themselves and other why they believe what they do, and use teaching as a powerful tool to enhance students learning and promote their own growth. As the one who implements the curriculum at school, teachers’ role as a practitioner is important in order to improve the quality of the students’ learning. Teacher will be able to identify how to improve their professional activity in order to improve the quality of students’ learning (Rose, 2003). Practitioner teachers evaluates what happened and it encourages teachers to try out new ideas and promote changes in students’ learning behaviour. According to Faghihi (2016), in a Malaysian context, Kabilan (2007) examined the practice of reflecting on reflections by future English language teachers. It is also the case that the issues of how practitioner teachers actually contributes to better quality language teaching performance and what processes are required to make the learning more beneficial. Hence, it is proved that teachers’ role as practitioner is one of the reason to a successful Malaysian curriculum (Faghihi, 2016). As a conclusion, teacher plays an important role in order to successfully implement Malaysian curriculum in the school. Teacher play different roles which are necessary in meeting national aspirations. It is one of the Ministry aspirations to transform the teaching into the profession of choice. The Ministry upgraded the courses in teacher training institutes in order to meet the aspirations.

References Alsubaie, M. A. (2016). Curriculum Development : Teacher Involvement in Curriculum Development, 7(9), 106–107. Chand, P. G. V. S. (1988). Teachers as Transformers: Learning from outstanding primary school teachers. Faghihi, G. & M. R. (2016). Teachers as reflective practitioners : a survey on Iranian english teachers ’ reflective practice survey on Iranian english teachers ’, (January). Fuller, A. (n.d.). The Teacher as a Decision Maker, 1–24. MOE. (2013). Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025. Peechattu, J. (2017). Reflective practices: a means to teacher development, 1–6.

Rose, M. (2003, May). The Reflective Practitioner. France.