Menunggu pertemuan Obama dan Osama

Dibezakan oleh dua huruf 'b' dan 's', dua jejaka amat popular di abad ini amat dinanti pertemuan mereka, lebih-lebih lagi setelah Presiden Barack Hussein Obama memulakan tugas kepresidenannya untuk empat tahun. Apakan wujud peluang pertemuan sedemikian? Baik apa juga situasi yang menyelubungi pertemuan itu nanti, yang pasti ia dinantikan oleh seluruh dunia khususnya yang ingin melihat perubahan dalam order baru dunia selepas Obama berada ditahta pemerintahan Amerika Syarikat.

Menunggu pertemuan Obama dan Osama

Dibezakan oleh dua huruf 'b' dan 's', dua jejaka amat popular di abad ini amat dinanti pertemuan mereka, lebih-lebih lagi setelah Presiden Barack Hussein Obama memulakan tugas kepresidenannya untuk empat tahun

Experiential learning: understanding adult learners..

Last Saturday, 10 January 2009, I had the opportunity talking to about 70 teachers and instructors of International College of Advanced Technology Sarawak (ICATS) as part of their professional development program. Our six-hour interaction brought us to an understanding about teaching, learning and trying our best to understand what those meant in terms of adult learners.

I began by discussing 'What is teaching?' a preamble session to my second and third modular training sessions, viz-a-viz, "Reflection on our teaching" and "Pedagogy Vs Andragogy". Teachers at private colleges and institutions in Malaysia are of diversified background in terms of academic and professional qualification backgrounds. So the professional development so organised by ICATS was not only relevant but ought to be taken heed of by other institutions because teachers, wherever they serve, need constant professional staff development activities so that they keep abreast with the latest development in the profession of teaching.

In our Malaysian context, teaching is an open profession. However the competency being a professional teachers ought to come along with skill and professional training. Being a trained teacher in government schools in Malaysia, one is recognised as qualified or licenced to teach. Those who are not, are recognised as untrained, temporary teacher; an administrative definition of it.

Learning through experience requires a substantive amount of experience or at least initial exposure to the kind of acquired experience. Several notions to it links to how adult people learn. In teaching terminology 'andragogy' is used and it assumes that adult learn in the following context:

☻ Adults need to know why they need to learn something;

☻ Adults need to learn experientially;

☻ Adults approach learning as problem-solving;

☻ Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.

The issue teachers need to ponder upon is: when pedagogy or andragogy is used when teaching post secondary students (participants)? How definitive is our approach to teaching a varied background of participants especially when they are of different age groups.

Effective delivery of teaching requires a teacher and instructor alike to ensure that learning does occur. How they learn is to be determined by themselves. Facilitation by both teachers or instructors must observe their styles of learning. Methodologies of teaching ought to be diversified taking into consideration several factors: learners, subject matter, time and space made available.

Palestin and Israel... Long lesson on humanity yet to be learnt

Has mankind ever forgotten the history of mankind? The history of mankind is a history of humanity , beginning with the existence of Adam and later Eve (Hawa). Those who forgot this are those who have studied or read about it. But worst is the category of people who does not even know about it.

People talk, discuss and write about a confused state of mind from Darwin's Theory of Evolution but not so many would discuss at length the origin of mankind in a perspective accepted by values close to all mankind. Let us ponder on the existence (the beginning) of Adam and later Eve (Hawa). How the couple later being blessed by the Al mighty God, Allah SWT generated mankind.

Reading the history and actual story from whatever versions of recount, will conclusively suggest that we as the present inhabitants of this beautiful planet called Earth are in actual fact came from the same source that is Adam and Eve (Hawa). We are governed by one source of power, the Almighty God, Allah SWT.

What have transformed the differences are for us all to study and study and study until there is wisdom that God will give us all. Only then will we as mankind understand how to live together, understand each other well and accept whatever differences as God given as God would like all mankind to live peacefully in this world.

May peace be created in the middle east.

The 4th.Inter Universities Conference Kalimatan 2008

Alhamdulillah, saya berkesempatan ikut serta dalam Konferensi Universiti Se Borneo-Kaimantan Kali Ke 4 yang telah berlangsung 24-25 Jun yang lalu di Kota Samarinda, Kalimantan Timur. Kali ini rombongan dari Sarawak agak ramai juga yang terdiri daripada pensyarah UNIMAS dan UiTM. Ada juga dari UiTM Sabah, UTM Johor dan UM Kuala Lumpur.

Saya sempat membentang sebuah kertas kerja bertajuk "Memahami isu keciciran pelajar sekolah di Sarawak" hasil penelitian yang telah saya jalankan 2001-2002 dan 2003-2005. Kertas konsep dalam isu keciciran pelajar di Sarawak pernah saya, Dr. Haji Julaihi Hj Bujang (sekarang Pengarah Pendidikan Sarawak) dan Dr. Sluhi Lamat hasilkan pada 2001 sewaktu Bengkel Keciciran Pelajar anjuran SDI dan telah dibentangkan oleh Dr Hj Julaihi Hji Bujang.














Pengalaman membentang Kertas Kerja pada seminar antara bangsa amat menyeronokkan lebih-lebih lagi apabila banyak perkongsian idea berlaku di kalangan pembentang atau pemakalah (istilah di Indonesia yang mula diterima pakai di Malasyia.

Konferensi kali ini adalah lebih meriah daripada siri yang ketiga kerana terdapat 142 kertas kerja telah diterima untuk pembentangan. Gedung Bundar, Fakulti Kehutanan Universiti Mulwarman Samarinda menjadi tumpuan warga pendidik dan cendikiawan majoritinya dari pusat pengajian tinggi seluruh Borneo membincangkan tema "Transformasi Sosial Masyarakat Pedesaan dan Pesisir Borneo Kalimantan; isu-isunya" .

Jaringan kerja di kalangan pusat pengajian di Borneo semakin menggalakkan bermula dengan siri Dialog Borneo kerjasma Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, dan Seminar Borneo Research Council. Sesungguhnya jaringan tersebut wajar diteruskan dan dipertingkatkan kerana ruang kerjasama demikian begitu terserlah di kalangan masyarakat berbudaya serupa ini malah daripada komen dan pandangan-pandangan di kalangan cendikiawak yang ikut serta dalam konferensi dan dialog Borneo yang pernah saya hadiri, betapa mereka melihat para cendikiawan di Borneo ini wajar bergerak memperhebatkan lagi kegiatan seBorneo pada masa akan datang.

Bagi Sarawak, kebanggaan kita ialah kerana ketiga-tiga aktiviti tersebut adalah cetusan dari Kuching; maka sudah tibanya inisiatif serupa ditapilkan oleh Pontianak, Palangkaraya, Banjarmasin, Samarinda, Kota Kinabalu dan Bandar Seri Begawan- tujuh kota besar dan tidak kurang ilmuannya di pulau ketiga besarnya di dunia itu.

Daripada para sahabat di Jabatan Pendidikan Sarawak, saya difahamkan bahawa ada usaha untuk mengadakan Dialog Pendidikan Borneo kali kedua nanti dengan penglibatan cendikiawan dari Kalimantan, khususnya Kalimantan Barat.

Syabas dan tahniah saya ucapkan sekiranya ia benar dan akan menjadi realiti. Pertemuan seumpama itu nanti akan memperkayakan lagi ruang pemikiran seBorneo para cendikiawan dan sudahpasti ketersebarannya akan jauh lebih meluas.
Salam.

Rakaman kenang-kenangan bersama Prof. Dr. Ir. Syafie serta mahasiswa Universitas Mulawarman.

NOTA:
Gambar 1, Prof. Abdul Halim Ali sedang membentangkan kertas kerja bertajuk:

"Transformasi Sosial Masyarakat Pedesaan dan Pesisir Borneo Kalimantan; isu-isunya" .

Gambar 2. Blogger sedang membentangkan kertas kerja "Memahami isu pelajar sekolah di Sarawak".
Gambar 3. Dari Kiri, Dr. Nelson (UNIMAS), Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Mohd. Taha Arif dan blogger sedang mengikuti pembentangan Prof. Abdul Halim Ali.

of collaboration and cooporation in classroom learning environment...

When learning is traditionally measured by marks and the 'A's, contemporary education psychologist often remarks that classroom teaching is nothing but merely information transfer. "Initiative to learning is said to be driven by systematic teaching (not sure what that means!)", said student-teacher instructor. "In order to make sure that your students learn, the teaching aids you used, the technological gadgets enplaced ought to be interactice", she added on.

I pondered, "have you ever tried team-teaching for your class?" The teachers who filled my staff development session, looked at each other, could be wandering ("what on earth is this fellow talking about?"). "In a class of 25-30 students, English lesson for year one pupils is taught by five teachers. The lesson went for 2 hours with flexible breaks in between skills they planned," I continued to make more sense of my earlier question.

I continued with my elaboration:
A teacher who taught writing (English), began by grouping her pupils. The second and third teacher helped her by distributing printed materials, colourful and big enough that I could see letters printed on them. While the fourth teacher arranged some of the materials on a display table at one corner of the classroom.

The five teachers interacted so lively with the 28 year one students. After writing skills lasted for almost half-an-hour, the grammar English teacher led the class for another hour. She switched on the TV set stationed at one corner of the classroom (I reckoned it was about 40x60 feet in size!). It was screening video-taped animated story "the hare and the tortoise". She later paused the video tape and moved the students attention by looking at the chart prepared at the other corner of the classroom. She asked some questions related to what was shown in the video. The students responded actively non-choral as she politely said out each name who raised their hands. The story telling lesson(for grammar and comprehension) went impressively well that I did not realised I had been observing them for almost 120 minutes!

The class was very lively. I observed only one student seeked permission to go to the toilet, adjacent to the classroom. Students followership and leadership were remarkable. The five teachers (all ladies) facilitated the class so well that the whole episode that was supposed to be traditionally teaching (in Malaysian context) seemed to be scripted and dramatised! During break was amazing. Each student took a marker and dropped some words they have learnt on the blank chart placed in front of the classroom. Some wrote good comments (remember they were year one kid!). It was 1145 am. Lunch time was 15 minutes earlier for the class because they found that the planned activities for the morning were completed and the students learned the lesson very well commented the senior class teacher. I joined them for noon recess with five of them kept on discussing and relating on some students during the lesson.

The basic foundation for effective teaching-learning environment as I observed was: (1) The use of collaborative and cooporative learning strategies employed by all teachers. (The 120-minute lesson was filled with group works with student kept on moving tirelessly at each instruction given by the teachers. The eye-movement and body language displayed were testament of effective instruction at each level.) (2) Teachers' competency and disposition were remarkable in the sense that they mastered both knowledge and skills, implemented well all the classrom managing strategies, and most importantly they controlled too well of the psycho-social climate in the classroom. (3) I observed learning was facilitated and order was established.

(Moved from medang.blogspot.com)

APRCIE 1-5 August 2008

The second Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Islamic Education (APRCIE) jointly organised by Jaringan Seklah Islam Terpadu Indonesia (JSIT) and International Centre of Excellent Education (ICEE) was held at Novotel, Solo, Central Java. About 300 participants from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and host country Indonesia registered for the two-day conference. It was officiated by DPR Speaker Dr. Hj. Hidayat Nur Wahid. This year's theme was "Sharing best practices on Educational Management". I was co-presenter to Dr. Samsiah's paper entitled Information Seeking Behaviour Among School heads in Malaysia, a study she conducted for her doctoral program. Participants came mostly from Islamic Education background and some were quite multi-lingual. The conference was successfully organised and provided excellent opportunities for Islamic Scholars in the Asia-Pacific region to engage in positive discourse on Islamic Education while sharing some of the school management best practices.

Indonesia has an amazing number of private elementary Islamic school nation wide under the JSIT (Jaringan Sekolah Islam Terpadu) umbrella. Contributions from parents, government and the public at large are commendable. After the conference, foreign delegates had the opportunity to visit a JSIT school at Jalan Adi Sucipto, Solo. It is Nur Hidayah Elementary School.

Thank you.

(Moved from medang.blogspot.com)

SMK Kalaka Roban, Staff Development

It was indeed an interesting session I had with members of the teaching community and the general staff of SMK Kalaka Roban in Saratok District last Monday, 11 August 2008. We discussed teachers' job satisfaction on the pretext of understanding work psychology in organisation. They were about 90 teachers and staff who attended the session. The school principal, Dominic Sullang has been leading the school for the past ten years and has successfully transformed the school into an amazing organisation. This is based on my last visit to the school sometimes in 1993. Today SMK Kalaka has Form Six classes and 71 teachers. Its SPM and PMR results have improved over the years. This is of course as result of continuous professional development among its teachers and the supporting staff.

Based on Peter's Grid, our discussion on employees' job satisfaction level was quite interesting because some of Peter's notions on employees' turnover have connection to whether one is both qualified and suitable for a certain position. Peter suggested that a qualified and suitable person will be ideally fitting himself or herself in an organisation compared to one who has got the qualification but unsuitable (Surprise fit). Another category of employee is one who is suitable but is not qualified. That creates a 'poor fit' situation. And, of course the worst being 'a totally misfit' situation whereby one is not qualified and not suitable. Peter argued that the 'surprise fit' employee will be the one who remains in the organisation The totally misfit will create his / her own professional exit. A section of the staff attending the SD session

Thinking students' learning...

I was asked by a participant during a staff development session we had. The question was, "how do you ensure students' learning?" After a brief pause, I began by recollecting my first day at Abang Abdul Rahman Primary School, some 44 years ago! My class teacher, the late Cikgu Abang Busri was teaching teaching us almost everything on the time table. He began with the alphabate chart with Time Roman 150-200 font size. All went well with most of the syllables except for a few. A predominantly hard one was the consonant 'r' . He asked all the 32 of us to go outside the classroom and followed him looking for a grass that looked like 'r' (lower case). Some collected more than one. Everybody was excited with the 'finding(s)'. "Now class say after me 'r (rrrrrr)'' he said. And the whole class ran with the presumably distracting melody, loud and clear until he had to command an immediate halt. Exciting it was, Cikgu Abang Busri revealed his satiafcation with a broad smile, all of us felt the relief.

We were learning. I felt and recollected that I was learning. It was fun. It was filled with joy. Much more when we were asked to say all the syllables in pairs.

Back to the question asked, learning can be ensured if the students: (1) felt the fun of it, (2) enjoyed doing it (activity planned for it), and, (3) students are excited throughout the 'teaching' environment. (this includes teachers interactiveness, ensured collaboration and cooporation among the students as they love working together).

Pondering on how teaching is engaged among present teachers, some are quite administrative in nature, lacks the 'excitement' and seemingly stressful. How students respond to this environment is predictable. Observing some classroom teachings engaged by some young trained teachers, the craft is no longer well-liked by students compared to my days as student. Some good young teachers are of course putting all the lively effort together and produced conducive classroom learning environment often filled with 'emotions' because they managed to 'touch' the hearts of all of them in the class. This is very rare but not impossible as teaching is now becoming a profession of choice among other professional qualifications holders like those with law degree, engineering, accountancy and not forgetting MBBS! (At least I can prove one).

Teaching is now a facilitating role. Learning must take place among students given the conducive environment, proper classroom management style (both social and physical set-up). Students learning can be measured, as mentioned in the curriculum. But what exactly does that mean, especially to most teachers?

(moved from medang.blogspot.com)

Staff Professional Development SMK Bandar Bintangor

If I were to look for one Principal who is as enthusiastic as whom Michael Fullan likened as one with full moral purpose and a sense of direction in leading a school, the most likely candidate would be none other than Sirat Malikin, the Principal of SMK Bandar Bintangor. During our brief interaction while managing Leadership and Education Management Course in Sibu last June he requested that if I could deliver something of collaborative and cooperative learning and my response was I would be comfortable with the subject (I was ringing back some module written when pursuing my doctorate at UWA and a brief visit to Hong Kong in 1999) if I can be available to his planned staff development schedule. Barely two months later he called in the midst of my session with Sabah School inspectorates and gave him my words that I will be coming during the month of Ramadhan as the remaining August I was fully occupied with meetings and evaluation programs.

Last Saturday, 6 September and 6th Ramadhan (both are the ninth month for both gregorian and Muslim Calendar) I took the first flight to Sibu to proceed to Bintangor for the session. Right ath the arrival exit Sirat and one of his teachers were waiting to drive me to their school. Thanks for the good bridge, the journey took us less than an hour, which three years ago took me more than two hours. We started at 0930 with all his teachers turned up. The muslim teachers must found it a little bit difficult to make as it is Ramadhan and having to endure for the next three hours. The teachers were collobarating and cooperating... a sense I thought Sirat was subtly subjecting himself with his knowledge on the subject which he pursued in the 90's in Manila under the Innotech training program then.

Making sense of the significance of the subject I started by socially profiling the teachers using Michael Fullan's four-corners training strategy. The attention was excellent. I accommodated the environment where the session was held. The three-hour session (with 20 minutes break) was used to discuss on approaches in classroom management and approaches to collaborative and cooperative learning strategies.

(moved from medang.blogspot.com)

Staff Professional Development SMK Bandar Bintangor

If I were to look for one Principal who is as enthusiastic as whom Michael Fullan likened as one with full moral purpose and a sense of direction in leading a school, the most likely candidate would be none other than Sirat Malikin, the Principal of SMK Bandar Bintangor. During our brief interaction while managing Leadership and Education Management Course in Sibu last June he requested that if I could deliver something of collaborative and cooperative learning and my response was I would be comfortable with the subject (I was ringing back some module written when pursuing my doctorate at UWA and a brief visit to Hong Kong in 1999) if I can be available to his planned staff development schedule. Barely two months later he called in the midst of my session with Sabah School inspectorates and gave him my words that I will be coming during the month of Ramadhan as the remaining August I was fully occupied with meetings and evaluation programs.

Last Saturday, 6 September and 6th Ramadhan (both are the ninth month for both gregorian and Muslim Calendar) I took the first flight to Sibu to proceed to Bintangor for the session. Right ath the arrival exit Sirat and one of his teachers were waiting to drive me to their school. Thanks for the good bridge, the journey took us less than an hour, which three years ago took me more than two hours. We started at 0930 with all his teachers turned up. The muslim teachers must found it a little bit difficult to make as it is Ramadhan and having to endure for the next three hours. The teachers were collobarating and cooperating... a sense I thought Sirat was subtly subjecting himself with his knowledge on the subject which he pursued in the 90's in Manila under the Innotech training program then.

Making sense of the significance of the subject I started by socially profiling the teachers using Michael Fullan's four-corners training strategy. The attention was excellent. I accommodated the environment where the session was held. The three-hour session (with 20 minutes break) was used to discuss on approaches in classroom management and approaches to collaborative and cooperative learning strategies.

(moved from medang.blogspot.com)

Negara pertama mengambil tindakan diplomatik terhadap Israel laknatullah

Negara pertama mengambil tindakan diplomatik terhadap Israel laknatullah malangnya bukan sebuah negara Islam tetapi Venezuala, sebuah negara yang hampir 90 peratus penduduknya mengganut agama kristian. Tindakan diplomatik Presiden Hugo Chavez mengusir Duta Israel dan para pegawai kedutaannya adalah berdasarkan pertimbangan bahawa Israel telah melanggar undang-undang antarabangsa dan melakukan penghapusan etnik sewenang-wenangnya. Rakyat Venezuala malah kagum dengan perjuangan nekad rakyat Palestin menentang Yahudi terkutuk dengan persenjataan yang amat daif berbanding pengganas Yahudi.

Apakah tindakan negara-negara Islam terutama Oh I See masih ditunggu-tunggu. Hari ini sudah 660 jiwa terkorban sejak 11 hari keganasan oleh Israel laknatullah.