Monday, November 3, 2008

Professional Staff Development Mukah 2008

For the past weeks I had a few arranged schedules (8-29 October) in Mukah. I had an interesting session with paper presenters for the School-Based Assessment Colloquium (2-5 November 2008). More thirty presenters have been invited. All are aspiring School heads from districts in Mukah Division. Melek Arbi, who is the Divisional Education Office's Academic Sector Head initiated the session to provide some sharing for a fine-tuned presentation.

My session (28 October) with another aspiring 39 senior teachers from all the secondary schools in Mukah, shared some strategies in action research. Most were young teachers. With varieties of background, I anticipated they would be very committed to conduct classroom reserach at their respective schools. The 6-hour sharing session was no way adequate. It was an initial discourse for some of them, while a few had had research background mostly for academic acolade.

Reflection is an important aspect in action research because it provides researchers an opportunity to recollect what they have done, are currently doing and going to do. Teachers who intend to do take up action research in the ares best described their teaching, need to reflect upon their practice. Whilst reflection serves as a stream-lining approach to identify problem area, for research, determining a focused issue, guides the research throughout.