rote learning or reasoning

Rethinking pedagogy

By AMINUDDIN MOHSIN
educate@thestar.com.my

An education system that emphasises rote learning rather than understanding has no place in a world that demands students to be equipped with reasoning, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Are education systems across the world still relevant to the needs of our society and future? One expert from the United States (US) is not afraid to say that the system – in the US, at least – is obsolete.

According to Tony Wagner’s book, The Global Achievement Gap, there is a huge chasm that divides what Americans are teaching and testing in their schools versus the actual skills students need to further their studies and pursue their careers.

Wagner is co-director of Change Leadership Group (CLG) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which is a research and development centre charged with helping teams to be effective leaders in schools and districts throughout the US.

To keep up with the pace of information and technology, students must be taught how to process and analyse the information. — File photo

“Wagner points out that the relevant skills needed for the 21st century is no longer taught in classrooms and lecture halls,” said Victoria University vice-chancellor Prof Peter Dawkins.

In his lecture, a part of the Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Distinguished Speakers series held at Sunway University, Prof Dawkins uses Wagner’s book to discuss the skills required for employment in the new workforce.

“Today, employers are not just looking for ‘domain skills’ and knowledge relevant to their field in a potential employee.

“They are also looking for ‘generic skills’ like problem-solving and teamwork. Focus on these skills is lacking in our education systems,” said Prof Dawkins.

Even when the study is transposed onto the Australian education system, it points to many areas where changes can be made to better prepare students for transitions – from school to college, then to work, said Prof Dawkins.

In the book, Wagner noted that there was no curricula or teaching method in place to teach students how to reason, analyse and write well.

He explained how the American education system was on the verge of crisis as most of the tests it uses for accountability comprise multiple choice assessments, which require more memorising than thinking.

A teacher playing a board game with her students to give them a practical understanding of accounting. —File photo

Different minds

The concern that an overwhelming emphasis on exam grades, which in turn encourages students and teachers alike to get through the syllabus and memorise key points – rather than taking the time to understand concepts – is all too familiar in Malaysia.

So what can be done to narrow the gap between what is taught and and what is needed?

In his lecture, Prof Dawkins drew upon Howard Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future to identify what students need to learn and how to teach them those essential skills.

“Gardner identifies the types of intelligences we should develop, and points to the various different faculties of the mind,” he said.

The “five minds” include the disciplined mind, which is the ability to focus and develop a deep knowledge of at least one subject matter; the synthesising mind, which allows one to process information from various sources to combine it in a way that makes sense; and the creating mind, which puts forth new ideas and fresh ways of thinking.

The other faculties of the mind are respectful and ethical thinking, which are critical in developing students who not only welcome and respect different people and opinions, but understand them and work to benefit society at large beyond their own self-interests.

“By developing these faculties, we can produce students that can think creatively, bridge knowledge from different fields and act ethically,” said Prof Dawkins.

Although he conceded that not everything can be taught in classrooms, the classroom should take efforts to adapt to the needs of society.

Prof Dawkins shared that when he was a member of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority board, he chaired a committee tasked with writing out a declaration of educational goals for Australian children.

“I was part of the committee that produced the Melbourne declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.

“One of the goals was developing successful learners by teaching them how to think and draw upon a wide range of different learning to solve problems,” he said.

Meanwhile, trainee teacher Nur Hidayah Shukor was of the opinion that there was nothing lacking with Malaysian students.

“Malaysian students have abundant potential and given the opportunity, they can be as expressive, creative and critical as any student out there.

“They only need to be given a platform to do so — something which could be better incorporated in our schools,” said Nur Hidayah, who is studying at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

During her three months of practical training at SMK Taman Mutiara Rini, Johor, Nur Hidayah said she saw what teaching in non-conventional methods could do to boost the students’ interest and morale.

“You should see how even the weakest students who refused to speak a word of English became confident speakers with the correct methods.

“I used drama to get them to speak and detective work to get them to write reports. Eventually they spoke and wrote English comfortably,” she said.

However, she admitted that as a trainee teacher, she could teach students in creative and interesting ways without worrying about finishing the syllabus in time.

“On the other hand, full-time teachers are often worried about completing the syllabus in time, whereas my only concern was impressing my lecturers,” she said.

Some lessons need not even be taught in the classroom. Here, students are learning the history of kites. — File photo

Changing perceptions

According to veteran educationist and Kirkby College Alumni president Tan Sri Dr Yahaya Ibrahim, it is precisely the teachers’ burden of finishing the syllabus in time that needs to change.

“The concept of finishing the syllabus must change — in fact, the syllabus must be malleable and robust enough that it can fit the needs of any situation.

“Teachers should not succumb to tunnel vision when teaching. If they are looking at the syllabus, they are not looking at their students growth or decline,” said Dr Yahaya.

He added that teachers go through four stages of teaching — they start off “telling” as a new teacher, then they progress to “explaining” as they gain experience.

“After that point they educate – a good teacher educates. And the final transformation is the inspirational teacher who inspires,” he said.

On a different front, UTM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Zaini Ujang says that students learn more outside the classroom.

“That is why we encourage students to partake in summer school programmes, conferences, summits and other events held outside the classroom.

“While out of campus, they are expected to learn not just from the programmes they attend but also through mingling with peers and professors abroad,” he said.

In his 2011 new year address, Prof Zaini highlighted what he expects new academia to look like after changes to conventional academia.

“We want to move from the traditional paradigm of having only professors filling up teaching positions to having policy makers, practitioners and entrepreneurs fill some of those spots.

“We also need to change our outlook on what we use as teaching materials — we cannot narrow it down to just academic journals and books,” said Prof Zaini.

Prof Zaini points out that it is important to learn through experience and that failure is a great teacher.

“We need our students to be versatile enough to be able to gain as much as possible through experience,” he said.

As information and technology moves faster and faster, it becomes ever more important to teach students how to think critically and synthesize information.

“We need to develop inquisitive minds. We can’t have students just jotting down notes from their teachers without pondering over what they have written.

“We are transitioning from traditional learning to e-learning at a fast pace, and we must teach our students how to think,” said Dr Yahaya.

As the adage goes, knowledge is power — but this is assuming the person with knowledge knows how to use it.

This is why how we teach is as important as what we teach. Students must know how to relate to what they learn and implementation of the knowledge learned is as important as understanding it, said Dr Yahaya.

A respectful and ethical mind is developed when students are exposed to various people and opinions from a young age. These children are participating in a play to learn about and showcase Scottish culture. — File photo

A shared view

Many policy makers, education planners, deans of faculty, principals, lecturers and teachers have pointed towards a tectonic shift in pedagogy – the art of teaching – to fit global trends.

During the launch of EzLearn2u at SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 3, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the “chalk and talk” method of teaching used by teachers in the past no longer fits the students of this generation.

Taylor’s University School of Communication dean Josephine Tan said the advent of new channels of information makes Gen-Y students less likely to be receptive to one-way learning.

“With so many avenues open for them to obtain information, classrooms must adapt,” she said, adding that students must be allowed to use their smartphones, iPads and laptops to access information relevant to their class.

She also said the short period of three to five years in tertiary education was not enough to fully develop the thinking skills of student.

“These thinking skills must be developed from early education,” she added.

Even with all these little initiatives by various education institutions, the question remains, is it enough? Or is nothing short of an overhaul of they way we teach necessary for pedagogy to catch up with the needs of our times?

Dr Yahaya, who has served under various Education Ministers and Prime Ministers, said he has always posed one question to them: “What kind of Malaysian do you want to produce?”

Perhaps it is only after we answer that question can we choose a path to walk down.

It’s not about national or vernacular schools; we need to master various languages

It’s not about national or vernacular schools; we need to master various languages — Liew Chin Tong

February 19, 2012

FEB 19 — Let me begin by saying that we need a new framework for a new era. The dichotomy between vernacular languages and the national language is an outmoded one. The old thinking presupposes that each of us can only master a language and not more than one. And hence the politics of which language should be taught at school.

Language gold mine

But the reality is that Malaysia is sitting on a “language gold mine”, just like Switzerland, Spain, Finland and Belgium, where everyone speaks at least two languages fluently. Some of us, let’s say a Chinese Malaysian from Kuala Lumpur, who has travelled overseas would have an experience of speaking near-perfect Mandarin with Chinese from Beijing, impeccable Cantonese to someone from Hong Kong, and some form of Bahasa to Indonesian friends.

The world is amazed with us Malaysians, yet we are not treating the diversity of languages that we have as our national asset. We are still caught in the thinking of the 1920s and the debate of the 1960s.

Before I talk about 1920s and 1960s, let me digress a little to reminisce some more recent history.

In 2002, when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was thinking about retirement and his legacies, he thought of reviving English medium schools, which he closed down in the 1970s as Education Minister.

But the resistance from among Umno ranks was too strong.

So, typical of Mahathir, he came up with a quick fix – let’s teach mathematics and science in English. PPSMI, as its Malay acronym is known, was introduced hastily against the wishes of many.

Some were against it from the point of view of language vanguards. Some said no because there were just not enough good mathematics and science teachers, even fewer who can teach the subjects in English. And, frankly, there is not much language content in mathematics and science.

What should have happened is to give more weight to English lessons at all schools. Dr. Mahathir had no time for that. He was indeed a man in a hurry, all the time.

The issue of lack of teachers who were proficient to teach mathematics and science in English, especially in the rural areas, was brought up at the Umno general assembly of June 2002. Dr. Mahathir reassured the Umno delegates that the subjects would be taught through sophisticated electronic material. The teachers, said Dr. Mahathir, can learn English together with the students through the use of PowerPoint and other software.

RM5 billion was allocated to push for this policy over five years. The government spent RM3 billion on LCD projectors and laptop computers in the first year. As they say, the rest is history.

Likewise, when the then Prime Minister said Sekolah Agama Rakyat were bad, these schools immediately felt the brunt of the whole government machinery crushing them.

My point here is that in the last 55 years, power has concentrated in the hands of one party initially and in one person later. However ridiculous the policy was, it was bulldozed through.

Other BN party leaders in the government were just bystanders in the policy process, at best trying to tweak the outcome from the margin, such as the 243 formula.

Three lessons for Malaysians

So, lesson one, absolute power in the hands of a one-party state is not good for education.

Let us ask, where do we get the idea that schools must only focus on one language, one national language? The model came from the Sumpah Pemuda of October 28, 1928. The Indonesian revolutionaries wanted to establish an Indonesia with “satu bangsa, satu bahasa.”

I was in Surabaya in last December. My visit to JavaTV was extremely educational. The producer proudly announced that democratisation in Indonesia since 1998 came with media freedom, which in turn allowed media like his to flourish outside Jakarta while decentralisation since 2001 enabled the economies of cities outside Jakarta like Surabaya to boom. And more interestingly, the combined effect of democratisation and decentralisation was that his TV station became the promoter of Bahasa Suroboyo. No more language police to insist on just one language.

I would imagine when democratisation finally takes place in Malaysia, there will be a Kelantan TV promoting Bahasa Kelate or a Sarawak TV promoting Iban language.

Therefore, lesson two, even Indonesia, the source of Umno’s mono-lingual nationalism, has moved on.

Sadly, we are still caught in the debate of the 1960s. A week ago on February 11, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in Ipoh that the national education system is undergoing a comprehensive review. He said the education system has not been subjected to such review since the Razak and Rahman Talib reports on the system.

As an MP, I am surprised to hear such a review being conducted in secret. But then again that’s BN for you. Anyhow I agreed with Tan Sri Muhyiddin that the education system has not been reviewed for a long time. Mind you, Tun Razak passed away in 1976 before I was even born and the Razak report was released 55 years ago in 1957 while the Rahman Talib report was released 52 years ago in 1960.

In the 1960s, Malaysia was in the middle of the most volatile region in the fight between the West and the Communist bloc. The government, the United States and the Western bloc saw the Chinese language as the language of infiltration. But that was so long ago. There is no more Mao Zedong, no more Berlin Wall, no more Soviet Union.

Even if we do not consider the cultural value of being multilingual, it is an economic imperative for Malaysia to be multilingual.

Today, the declining US and European economies means Malaysia’s immediate economic future lies in our ability to connect with China, India and Indonesia, among others. Isn’t it that our language diversity an asset? Aren’t we sitting in a language gold mine?

Let’s be clear, lesson three, and I have to state the obvious, 2012 is not 1960. We need a new paradigm.

Lip service by means of recognising the contributions of Chinese and Tamil schools is not the way forward. More money to the schools in an “I help you, you help me” form is not going help Malaysia to unleash our full potential.

We can master more than one language

It is time for us to recognise that each of us can master more than one language; that we must not plan education by one man or one party’s wish, that we must move beyond the 1928 Sumpah Pemuda of Indonesia because they have moved on; and that 2012 is a different world from 1960s.

Bahasa Malaysia is and will always be our national language. And we are proud if it. Yet we should face the reality, and do our best to realize our full potential. At least think of our children, and our children’s children.

Let me close by saying, Malaysia deserves better, Malaysians deserves a better government. — The Rocket

* The writer is DAP MP for Bukit Bendera. This is his speech delivered at the Malaysian Chinese at the Political Crossroads conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.


(Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/its-not-about-national-or-vernacular-schools-we-need-to-master-various-languages-liew-chin-tong/)

Bingkisan Menjelang 40 tahun ABIM Selangor (siri 1)

BINGKISAN MENJELANG 40 TAHUN ABIM SELANGOR: DULU DAN KINI 

Oleh : Ustaz Hasri bin Harun

Penggerak Awal 

ABIM Negeri Selangor yang dahulunya dibarisi oleh beberapa pimpinan muda mempunyai tekad meneruskan usaha dakwah dikalangan masyarakat. Ini termasuklah nama-nama seperti Mohd Mokhtar Shafie, Arshad Taib, Mokhtar Ramli, Mohd Kassim, Ghazali Basri, dan beberapa orang lagi yang tidak mampu disebut kesemuanya, kebanyakan dikalangan pendidik dan pensyarah universiti meneruskan legasi pendakwah melalui program-program usrah dan tamrin al-kader keseluruh pelusuk negeri. 

Kegiatan dakwah berjalan dengan baik ditengah-tengah masyarakat pada ketika itu. Antara sekretariat awal ABIM Selangor adalah di Jalan Genting Klang, Setapak Kuala Lumpur. Jihad dan dakwah mereka yang berjuang di dalam perjuangan wadah ABIM ini terus tidak dipedulikan apakah wujud halangan yang bakal di terima di masa hadapan namun mereka terus dengan semangat maka tertubuhnya ABIM diperingkat daerah-daerah yang bermula di Shah Alam, Tanjong Karang dan Sabak Bernam dan beberapa daerah lagi. 

Tamrin Al-Kader, jenama latihan yang menjadi satu program penting menjadi sumber membina kekuatan dikalangan ahli terus ditunggu-tunggu bagi menyemat semangat perjuangan mereka dengan lebih baik lagi. Kini para penggiat dakwah yang bersama dalam program-program ABIM telah berada dimerata-rata tempat sama ada dalam sektor kerajaan dan swasta dan ada sebahagiannya telah pun menjadi tokoh-tokoh terkenal peringkat negeri mahupun nasional. Yang menariknya ABIM Selangor di awal pergerakkannya cukup sinonim dengan aktiviti usrah di pejabat dan di kilang-kilang sehinggakan pernah tertubuh kumpulan usrah dikalangan pekerja kilang. Barangkali media dakwah yang sudah meluas seperti hari ini tidak wujud pada tempoh lalu memungkinkan masyarakat mencari sumber maklumat Islam yang jarang sekali dapat melalui media perdana seperti hari ini seperti rancangan kuliah di tv al-hijrah, tv 9 dan rancangan agama di ASTRO yang semakin meluas. Justeru tidak hairan usrah dikhabarkan dilakukan di kantin, di pejabat, di bawah pokok dan sebagainya. Disinilah menunjukkan masyarakat kehausan ilmu dan hikmah Islam yang dianuti dan ini menjadi tarikan usaha dakwah ABIM mendapat tempat dihati masyarakat.

Tahun 80 an telah bermula era negara kempen penerapan nilai-nilai Islam dalam sistem pentadbiran negara. Kepimpinan negara mula menyedari bahawa betapa pentingnya usaha-usaha yang dilaungkan ini menjadi kenyataan. Dasar Penerapan Nilai-nilai Islam telah mula menjadi topik perbincangan yang akhirnya menjadi satu dasar dan resolusi penting sejarah negara, dimana tertubuhnya Bank Islam, Universiti Islam yang merupakan manifestasi kehendak dari hati nurani umat yang diperjuangkan sejak awal tahun 70 an.

Gerakan ABIM di awal tahun tersebut semakin meluas yang mana para penggerak ABIM telah berada di dalam dan di luar pentadbiran kerajaan. Walaupun sedikit terjejas imej ABIM sebagai NGO Islam bila mana pemimpin utama iaitu Anwar Ibrahim terjun dalam politik bersama UMNO namun ABIM masih terus bergerak sebagai sebuah NGO Islam yang bermatlamat menggerakkan dakwah dalam umat.

Senario perkembangan ABIM peringkat negeri khususnya di Selangor menerima sedikit sebanyak pasang surut dalam perjuangannya, impak daripada senario politik tanahair terutama diperingkat negeri. Satu ketika ABIM begitu dominan dalam usaha-usaha belia bila mana usaha dan gerakan kita mendepani gagasan negeri. Namun kita tidak pernah gentar dalam menghadapi cabaran ini walau ditempuh badai dan duri dalam perjuangan.

ABIM akui melalui pendirian dan semangat atas prinsip non partisan kita, tidak mudah digugat oleh sesiapa walaupun terpaksa menyatakan kebenaran bukan berpaksi kepada pemerintah. Bagi ABIM yang penting kebenaran harus ditegak bukan siapa yang harus dimenangkan. Sebab itu perjuangan ABIM kadangkala dipandang serong oleh sebilangan masyarakat yang berkepentingan dalam menilai pendirian kita yang sedikit tidak memihak atas kepentingan masing-masing berbanding kepentingan umat keseluruhan dan memartabatkan matlamat dakwatul Islam. Dalam pelbagai pandangan yang diterima daripada pelbagai pihak, ABIM Selangor biasa dijemput bersama dalam mesyuarat-mesyuarat dakwah yang diterajui oleh Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor, Majlis Agama Islam Selangor dan jawatankuasa yang berbentuk Dakwah di negeri ini. Pandangan ABIM Selangor sentiasa ditunggu dan diterima dalam erti kata menyeimbangkan pandangan yang umum dalam masyarakat. Bagi ABIM, yang penting suara ABIM sentiasa dinanti walau kadangkala dicemburui dan diragui.

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Hayati Keunggulan Konsep Wassatiyyah

Kesederhanaan atau wasatiyyah adalah identiti agama Islam. Islam mengajar penganutnya agar mengamalkan segala suruhan dan menjauhi segala larangan tanpa sebarang tokok tambah yang menyusahkan. Dalam Islam sesuatu yang menyusahkan bukanlah sesuatu yang terbaik. Maka sebab itulah kita dianjurkan untuk segera berbuka puasa dan melewatkan pula sahurnya. Begitu juga dalam ibadah yang lain. Ini dapat kita perhatikan apabila teguran yang Nabi Muhammad s.a.w berikan kepada sekumpulan sahabat yang mahu mengekang nafsu dari berkahwin, tidak mahu berbuka apabila berpuasa dan mengharamkan diri dari memakan daging yang halal.

Baginda mengingatkan, kepada mereka, sedangkan Baginda sendiri seorang Nabi, Baginda berkahwin, berbuka apabila berpuasa dan memakan daging yang dihalalkan. Lantas Baginda memberikan penegasan bahawa sesiapa yang tidak menyukai sunnah Baginda dia bukanlah terdiri dari umat Nabi Muhammad. Wasatiyyah dalam Islam bukan terhenti sekadar pada ibadah semata-mata, tetapi juga dari sudut pemikiran, akidah dan akhlak. Kesederhanaan menjadikan Islam itu indah dan mampu menarik manusia untuk mendekatinya. Menakrifkan kesederhanaan atau wasatiyyah bukanlah mudah. Ini diakui sendiri oleh Ibnu Maskaweh yang menyatakan: “Sesungguhnya sukar menentukan pertengahan itu dan berpegang kepadanya setelah ,menetapkannya”

Wasatiyyah juga bukanlah bererti menghindari segala bentuk tindakan yang agresif. Baik bersifat persendirian mahupun berkumpulan. Peperangan bagi menuntut hak dan mengembalikan kebenaran ditempatnya adalah satu tindakan yang masih lagi dalam ruang lingkup wasatiyyah. Golongan yang tertindas apabila bangkit menentang kezaliman tidaklah dianggap sebagai golongan pelampau dalam Islam.

Menentang segala ketidakadilan dan penindasan adalah suatu tugas yang wajib dilaksanakan oleh setiap kaum muslimin. Malah membebaskan puak yang tertindas dan dizalimi amat dituntut oleh Islam. Wasatiyyah juga bukan bermaksud menerima kedua-dua pandangan yang berada pada dua hujung yang saling bertentangan. Menerima segala-galanya demi menjaga hati dan menjauhi kemarahan mana-mana pihak. 

Mencampur adukkan kebenaran dan kebatilan bukanlah ciri wasatiyyah Islam yang disarankan oleh Rasulullah s.a.w. Umat Islam perlu memelihara prinsip dengan tegas dan jangan sesekali membenarkan prinsip ajaran Islam diperkotak- katikkan dengan mudah. Inilah yang sering disalah tafsir oleh masyarakat Barat. Mereka mahukan konsep wasatiyyah selari dengan pandangan hidup yang moderat.

Mereka melabelkan sesiapa sahaja yang berpegang teguh dengan ajaran agama sebagai fundamentalis yang ekstrem. Pada mereka muslim yang moderat adalah muslim yang mengamalkan agama Islam seperti kacamata mereka terhadap agama Kristian. Kristian hanya pada nama, bukan amalan dan kepercayaan. Mereka dengan bangga menyatakan I’m a Christian, but I’m not going to the church every Sunday. Pada mereka cukuplah sekadar ada agama tapi untuk mengamalkannya jauh sekali.

Mereka dengan segera dan rakus melabelkan pejuang jihad sebagai ekstremis. Walau apa pun alasannya, jihad adalah satu keganasan. Mereka dengan penuh rasa benci menyatakan bahawa Islam adalah agama peperangan. Kalimah jihad mesti dihapuskan dari kamus ajaran Islam. Bagi mereka moderat adalah kelompok yang berfikiran terbuka dan menerima apa saja dari siapa sahaja tanpa kayu ukur kebenaran. 

Kebenaran bagi mereka bersifat relatif bukan sesuatu yang muktamad. Kebenaran diukur menerusi citarasa dan sokongan majoriti. Pada mereka pula segala pandangan yang bersumberkan kitab suci agama yang mengenepikan pilihan atau kecenderungan manusia adalah tidak moderat dan tertutup. Justeru apabila kita berbicara mengenai wasatiyyah ia adalah satu konsep yang jauh dengan terjemahan moderat dalam masyarakat barat.

Kita mesti berpegang dengan keutuhan konsep wasatiyyah yang dianjurkan oleh Islam. Konsep wasatiyyah adalah konsep yang murni bagi memelihara karamah insaniyah yang tinggi. Bagi memastikan konsep wasatiyyah ini dapat dipelihara dan diamalkan oleh masyarakat, maka satu agenda diperlukan bagi menghapuskan sebarang bentuk belenggu yang bercirikan pembodohan dan pembebalan. Ini kerana sifat bodoh dan bebal akan menjerumuskan kita ke lembah ketaksuban dan kehancuran. Ia mengingkari konsep wasatiyyah seperti yang dianjurkan oleh Islam.

Amidi Abd Manan
(Sumber: http://www.abim.org.my/component/content/article/6-laporan-aktiviti/342-pertahankan-keunggulan-konsep-wassatiyyah.html)

A mighty heart

A mighty heart

By Megha Pai

Friday, January 27, 2012

Sharjah resident Abdul Mannan Jamaluddin wasn’t exactly rolling in money when he started a free school in his hometown in Bangladesh but, as he says, when your heart is set on doing good, help is never far away. Student strength today: 200 and counting… It is perhaps much  easier to be giving and charitable when you have a cool six figure in your bank balance and your next seven generations are taken care of (unless, of course, you are the progeny of Ebenezer Scrooge). But starting a free school in your hometown when you are a security guard living on a Dh1, 200 per month salary, is something to marvel about. So when we heard the story of Abdul Mannan Jamaluddin, we knew we had to meet him and hear his story. Al Qasba is a well-to-do locality in the plush Buhaira Corniche in Sharjah. Not well-versed with the area and relying mainly on a somewhat malfunctioning GPS (at one point it instructed us to go off the road and drive into the water!), we decided to seek the help of a shopkeeper for directions to Bulbul Apartments, where Abdul is a security guard. “Oh! You want to meet Abdul!” came the reply. Surprised as we hadn’t mentioned his name, we asked him how he guessed. “He is a bit of a local hero,” the shopkeeper smiled. “After all, how many watchmen do you know who start a free school from their savings?” Good point. Following the much more reliable directions of the kindly shopkeeper — no need to jump into the Corniche, we were assured — we reached our destination, passing through the graffiti-riddled by-lanes. Abdul was standing at the gate, dressed in casuals, as it was his day off. He invited us to his office, which also serves as his living room and bedroom and offered us tea. A Bangla channel ran on mute on the television. On a shelf above his bed was a small stack of books in Bengali. After some casual banter and lovely chitchat and tea, we came down to discussing Abdul’s extraordinary feat. He tells wknd. the story — from being a high school dropout to starting a free school in his native village, Belchura, in Bangladesh, where he has educated 200 children in the last six years. As a child, I used to dream of becoming a lawyer but I wasn’t able              to continue my studies after the tenth grade as my father couldn’t afford it. After my father passed away, the burden of my entire family fell upon my shoulders. I came to the UAE in 1989 at the age of 26. The only job that I could find was as a watchman. Due to my lack of education, I was not able to move up in life. That’s when I decided that I didn’t want the same fate for my next generation. But there was no school in my village and the new highway that was supposed to connect our village to other places, separated us from the only nearby school. Here, in the UAE, parents drop and pick up kids or there are bus services to take the kids to and fro. But it is not so in my village. The parents have no time to keep a tab on the children. The fathers go to work in the fields every morning and the mothers are busy with the housework. So the children go to the school of their own accord — if at all. Despite making several requests to the government, no provisions were made to provide learning opportunities to the village kids. Every time I saw the excellent lives of the children here in Sharjah, I couldn’t help but wish that the children in my hometown could also have such opportunities. Education is the first step to development. So when I visited home in 2001, I decided to start a free school and I had a few months to do it in before returning to Sharjah. Initially, my wife didn’t approve of my initiative. I had my own three children to take care of. But I didn’t let that fact deter me from starting the school. I thought to myself, if every person thought only about oneself, there would be no goodness left in the world. Besides, I have very little expenses in Sharjah and I own a small garment business back home that takes care of my family’s needs. So I decided to put in all my savings and most of my salary into the project. Now all I needed was land. When you have set your mind on doing good, help is never too far away. One day, I happened to mention my intention to one of the village elders. He very generously offered to donate a piece of land that belonged to his family. Amazed at how easily the situation was resolved, I got cracking on building the school. With the help of the local labourers, I managed to put up a basic building in four months and with the aid of a teacher from the local mosque, I had the school up and running. Slowly but surely, children started coming in too. Soon there were several students in the first grade. I appointed a few more teachers and everything seemed great for a month. That’s when catastrophe hit. The elder who had donated the land hadn’t asked all the family members before making the decision. Out of spite, the family members demolished the school building and there was nothing that I could do.  I was back to square one. It was time for me to return to the UAE. But I hadn’t given up. I took it as God’s way of testing my determination. For the next four years, I continued to save. It was not a matter of salvaging my image. My cause was bigger than that. I couldn’t fail as the future of the children was at stake. After four years of saving and planning, when I went home in 2005, I wanted to include the entire village in the work as I knew I couldn’t do it without their help. But the moment I mentioned anything about the school, the people weren’t interested. So I had to come up with something more novel. I invited the entire village for a feast to announce a wedding. I knew they wouldn’t say no to free food. And they would be curious to know who is getting married as there isn’t anyone of marriageable age in my family. After the villagers had had tea and snacks, I told them that I had bought land where I intended to build the school and also told them that I didn’t expect them to contribute monetarily. However, I was surprised when a few of them offered whatever they could. Some gave money, while others gave sacks of cement, and some others simply put in hours of labour for the construction. Before it was time for me to return to the Gulf, the ground floor of the building was ready, and the first batch of 70 students attended class at the school, called Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique ® Sunni Madrasa. The taste of sweet success at last was like nothing else. Those who had been sceptical and discouraging, including my wife, were now beginning to realise how good this was for the community. Since we started in 2005, we have been adding one grade to the school every year. The number of students has grown from 70 to 200. This year we begin Grade 7. My aim is to see that the school expands all the way to Grade 12. Also, I intend to buy a bus for the school so the children from the village and the surrounding villages can be fetched easily. The day we have 100 per cent literacy in my village, I will have achieved my purpose. For now, the fact that my kids and the rest of the children in the village will never have to live the kind of life that I had to live is reward enough for me. I intend to start a trust so that the progress is maintained even after I am gone

Integrasi dalam pengetahuan

Fikrah: 

Apakah yang dikatakan sebagai 'integrasi pengetahuan' (integration of knowledge)?

a) belajar ilmu fardhu kifayah pada waktu persekolahan rasmi, kemudian belajar ilmu fardhu ain pada waktu petang?

b) belajar ilmu fardhu kifayah dan ilmu fardhu ain pada waktu persekolahan rasmi?

c) belajar ilmu fardhu kifayah diserapkan ilmu fardhu ain pada waktu yang sama?

Dalam sistem pendidikan KBSM hari ini, pelajaran agama Islam disisipkan dalam satu mata pelajaran yang wajib diambil oleh semua murid beragama Islam iaitu subjek 'Pendidikan Agama Islam' (PI). Subjek ini diletak dalam linear yang sama dengan subjek lain, seperti Matematik, sains, Bahasa dan lain-lain. Ini termasuk masa pengajaran dan pembelajaran (P&P yang telah ditentukan dalam sistem, iaitu 5 waktu seminggu.

Sekiranya  P&P PI telah dijalankan di sekolah, maka apa perlunya lagi murid untuk hadir ke sekolah agama petang (KAFA) untuk mempelajari lagi tentang ilmu fardhu ain? Antara sebab yang sering diterima adalah masa pembelajaran di sekolah pagi (SK) tidak mencukupi bagi membina kualiti murid dalam pengisian rohani mereka. Tidak salah sepenuhnya. (Ada betulnya juga). Yang betulnya, masa diperuntukkan untuk fardhu ain seharusnya melebihi keseluruhan ilmu fardhu kifayah atau sekurang-kurangnya menyamai keseluruhan waktu p&p tersebut. Yang salahnya, pembelajaran sebegini tidak menepati konsep integrasi pengetahuan.

Pada hari ini, umat Islam terperangkap dalam sistem sekular, iaitu sistem yang memecah-mecahkan sistem pengetahuan dan pengamalan. Harus ditegaskan, semua Ilmu adalah dari Allah. Sama ada ilmu fardhu kifayah, mahupun ilmu fardhu ain. (Ilmu tadbir alam, dan ilmu tadbir insan) Dalam ilmu tadbir alam, perlu diserapkan aplikasi Islami untuk melihat dan mengenal Tuhan, dan begitu juga dalam ilmu tadbir insan, perlu diserapkan aplikasi Islami untuk melihat dan mentadbir alam. Perhubungan antara kedua-duanya perlu seiring dan tidak harus dipisah-pisahkan. Ini konsep sebenar pengintegrasian pengetahuan dalam kerangka Islamisasi pengetahuan (Islamization of knowledge) 

Seorang kanak-kanak perlu melalui alam kanak-kanak, dan kurikulum untuk mereka perlu memahami fitrah manusia (nature of human being). Ini adalah sangat penting dan perlu diperbetulkan. Model kurikulum sebegini perlu dibentuk. Sememangnya perlu digali diceruk mana kurikulum yang menepati ciri ini? 

model alternatif:

1) http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pondok_Modern_Darussalam_Gontor

2) http://www.iis.edu.my/secondary/

Leave teachers alone

Leave teachers alone!

Azly Rahman

‘Educate! … but first, we must educate the educators.’ - Frederich Nietsche

'Teach your children according to the (changing) times they live in.' - Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

My weekend was spent thinking about poverty and education, and the shape of Malaysian education to come, particularly as we await maybe yet another new educational blueprint to go public, preferably after the 13th general election, depending on who wins.

Will our children become great thinkers and good and tolerant Malaysians? Or will they become good labourers in the international labour system and continue to be more sophisticated racists?

This is how powerful education is as a contested terrain.

Having been an educator and a student of transcultural philosophies for almost two decades, I find the practice of educating constantly shifting whereas its core remains stable.

After teaching close to 50 courses (in the field of education, politics, civilisation, arts and humanities, philosophy, language, international relations, American history and cultural studies) and developing more than 20 graduate courses, I am still learning what Malaysia is trying to do with its  educational system.

Today, I have a perspective to share with its education minister and with the thousands of dedicated teachers. I am fortunate to have practised the gentle profession of teaching in two different worlds - Malaysia and the US.

My analysis of Malaysian education is that we seem to borrow too much without thinking, and like the late 1990s Smart Schools project, we seem to achieve many different types of successful failures in our educational reform effort.

Teachers, the labour force in the world of knowledge capitalism, become subdued, silent, and silenced followers of the whims and fancies of state mandates. We love hype more than substance. We love intoxicating ourselves with buzzwords. We bully our teachers into working hard and not allowing them time to grow and become ‘reflective teachers’.

What if we teach teachers to empower themselves by becoming good and creative curriculum designers? What if we give them a less teaching load, less students, less bureaucracy, less political preaching and less time to prepare for school visits by wakil rakyat and Yang Berhormat who may not have any sense of what the daily toil in a classroom is like?

What if we stop wasting their time on non-teaching matters and let them grow as teachers? When teachers are free from these mental imprisonments, they can then become liberators of our children's imagination.

What if we try all these? Miracles can happen in our classrooms, I believe.

Over the weekend, I picked up an important book on curriculum and education, Conelly and Clandin's ‘Teachers as Curriculum Planners’, a text for my reading at Columbia University back in my doctoral days. As I finished reading it, I asked this question: ‘When will our teachers become masters of their own destiny, helping children become makers of their own history?’

The book provides perspectives which are not entirely new to teachers involved especially in the ‘Whole Language’ approach to teaching. Tools such as journal writing, biography, picturing and document analysis are among those which have been in use in Language Arts in addition to a range of other tools in the domain of creative movement, reading, writing, media and speaking which are personalistic in nature.

The authors have essentially tried to contextualise the principles and strategies within the field of emerging curricular practice partially using the rhetoric of postmodernism. Refreshing, perhaps, is the authors' Gestalt and transcendental analytic approach to curriculum planning they call the ‘rediscovering of curricular meaning’, framed to include the learner, teacher, subject matter and the milieu.

The strength of the work lies in the comprehensive range of suggestions on how to create an inclusionary and meaningful approach to such a rediscovering which in turn would scaffold learners' construction of knowledge. It is thus constructivistic in approach permeating all levels - from administrators to learners.

I find the idea relevant to our realisation of the terms ‘situated cognition’ wherein teachers are also required to define their philosophy and exercise their reflective ability so that they and the learners are together subjectivity knowledge; echoing the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran's idea that ‘... your children are not yours… they come out of you but not of you’ and ‘… children are like arrows of which you are the bow which launch them’ and in Socrates' idea of the innateness of knowledge in the human being.

Teachers as meaning-makers

Teachers, in this postmodernist context, are ones who live in a shared milieu but do not necessarily claim monopoly to knowledge, for in Arthur C Clarke's words, ‘the future is a different world … they do things differently’.

For learners, we are preparing them for a future which, in fact, is a present consisting of an archived past. Through apprenticeship and guided participation, learners appropriate knowledge, skill and understanding of ‘situations’ via scaffolds erected by teachers. Learning then becomes situated, dynamic and transformative.

Reading the underlying assumptions of Conelly and Clandin's work, I could sense a strong undercurrent of complexity and chaos theory, anti-foundationalism, subaltern narratives and reflexivity and futurism as strands. If I could envision the results of many decades of mass deployment of their strategies in all schools, something such as below would develop:

State-mandated curriculum would be transformed in character; from one of ‘rock logic’ to one of ‘water logic’ in nature in which fluidity in growth and shifting grounds in its parameters will be the feature.

Within the disciplines, knowledge will be organic, mutative, and morphic, much more than inter-disciplined. An analogy of this organic-mutative-morphic nature of knowledge construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction (the ‘Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu’ nature of things in Hindu philosophy) would be the three-dimensional pattern created out of Artificial Intelligence - generated patterns derived out of mathematical equations as in the Mandelbrott set manifested within the paradigm of Chaos and Complexity theories.

The water logic transformation as such can give birth to (Thomas) Kuhnian paradigm shifts, which would be characteristic of integrative, comprehensive and complex systems based upon the principles of ‘perpetual transitions’.

Scenarios of change

Since state-mandated curriculum legitimises the state and hegemonises over the minds of those being schooled (echoing the claims of Theodore Adorno and Antonio Gramsci), decades of ‘water logic’ transformation of bodies of knowledge (especially in the area of ‘soft ideological sciences’ such as social studies and history) can soften the state and pave the way for its dissolution, echoing Thomas Kuhn's idea that paradigms will shift when contradictions can no longer be contained. Just as capitalism within a particular nation can no longer carry its own weight and therefore had to transform into imperialism.

Such a dissolution of the postmodern state can then set the stage for peaceful revolutions which can give rise to the leadership of the techno-mystics as such dreamed of by Socrates and Plato who saw the beauty of the republic governed by philosopher-rulers.

Perhaps the nature of world politics will change if the most powerful nations on the face of our Spaceship Earth are governed by techno-mystics who will then spread the message of goodwill through the use of technology towards moral ends and through the sharing of creative products in altruistic ways.

Wouldn't there be beauty in looking at a perfect world, one that would be ruled by those who have understood the ancient Persian maxim, ‘I wept when I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet’?

Managers of virtue (curriculum implementers, principals, teachers, curriculum committees) will become de-centered and ‘empowered by being dis-empowered’ by the postmodern possibility of personalistic interpretation of knowledge constructs while freedom will exist for the individual to make his and her history to demystify power and to deconstruct invented realities.

All these can help create a positive atomisation of society as a critical, creative, futuristic and life-long learning organic entity. Everyone can then find their own meaning for living and truth within themselves and achieve wisdom in their own lifetimes.

The ‘McDonaldnised’ idea of state-legitimated schooling for economic development and social advancement can be transformed into the notion of learning as living and living as learning with the ‘truth always out there, within and everywhere’.

Perhaps the notion of 'Trust no ideology’ (with the greatest apologies to the makers of ‘The X-Files’!) can be the dominant idea of the age. Such comments as above thus reflect the link between the ideas proposed in Conelley and Clandin's work and the possibilities which can emerge if we look at these from speculative philosophical and futuristic perspectives.

A teacher's vision

I have provided a scenario based upon the principles of futurism (trend analysis/scenario- building) from which ideas when extrapolated can perhaps predict changes.

Just as the postmodern perspective can provide us with tools to critically analyse modernity and modernism, Connelly's and Clandin's suggestions - which are postmodern in character - can provide educators with the means to build scenarios of living, learning and creating which must be made more and more humane.

The idea of growth, then, can be looked at not necessarily as one spiraling upwards and acquiring more and becoming material in the process but would mean to live, to simply live and to continually ask the ontological, epistemological and axiological questions of living. In short, to reflect upon Kung Fu Tze, for we may then continue to live with questions and to ask the ones which are simple.

For, echoing Socrates, aren't the simplest questions the most profound?

Teachers unite - you do not have anything to lose except your chains of boredom and dying creativity.

---

DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York) doctorate in International Education Development and Master’s degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 300 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience spans Malaysia and the United States, over a wide range of subjects from elementary to graduate education. He currently resides in the United States.

(Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/184481 )