Focused action research

A total of 31 headteachers from 31 underenrolled primary schools throughout Sarawak attended Action Research Course (phase 1) held at BTPN Sarawak in Samarahan. Dr. Abang Hut assisted with the facilitation. For the first phase, the course was to provide basic skills in reflection, approaches and data collection required to start off with small scale research when the go back to their respective schools. The second phase of the course will be held in August where all the 31 participants will present their findings. They will then be guided through analysing, interpreting and documenting the reports. The reports will then be selected for seminar paper presentation.

All the 31 participants have shown keen interest in the research, specifically in management, administration and leadership; centrally focused on their present schools.

Previous action research course were normally conducted to address curriculum issues and attended by senior curriculum practitioners in schools and education offices.

This is the first time Headteachers participated in action research course and IAB is focusing on under enrolled primary schools in Sarawak and Sabah. The two states have more then 50 percent under enrolled primary schools (below 150 pupils).

Isu PPSMI... mengapa ke peringkat 'perarakan' dan 'bermemorandum'?..

PPSM menjadi semakin ranum dan gari sejak pelaksanaannya sejak lebih enam tahun yang lalu. Kini ia sampai ke peringkat popular.. 'perarakan' dan 'bermemorandum' ... dengan tujuan untuk mendapat perhatian serius pihak pemerintah. Dalam kancah dan gelojak maklumat boleh tersebar dan disebar dengan pendekatan yang begitu mudah dan cepat, nampaknya begitu sukar dan lambat untuk mendapat perhatian dan didengar pihak pemerintah. Datuk Dr. Hassan Ahmad dan Datuk A. Samad Said adalah dua tokoh utama dalam Gerakan Menghapuskan PPSMI (GMP). Mereka pastinya disokong oleh pejuang Bahasa Melayu tanahair yang saya yakin tidak sedikit. Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Bedawi dalam kenyataannya telah menyeru supaya dibuat keputusan segera berhubung isu ini dengan harapan ia tidak semakain 'membarah'. Ini dilihat antara pegangan terakhir Pak Lah menjelang penyerahan kuasa PM kepada Timbalannya dan Perhimpunan Agung UMNO bulan ini.

Apa dan siapakah yang akan membuat keputusan? Bagaimana dan bilakah petutusan berhubung isu ini akan dibuat? Empat soalan tersebut pastinya perlukan jawapan pada kadar agak segera. Umpama menangani masalah gunting bedah yang terjahit dalam perut pesakit.. PPSMI perlu 'pembedahan' semula, segera, dijahit semula dan yang pasti parutnya tetap dua.

District Information Officers Workshop 2009

Last Friday, 20 February 2009, I was invited to talk to about 40 District Information Officers from all districts throughout Sarawak. Schedules in the program, I was to give a kind of motivational talk to them. However lately, this sort of talk, especially to government civil service is a little bit a sensitive topic. Because, some may ponder; "Am I not motivated enough all these while?" Nevertheless, I found that they were all motivated, experienced and visionary. This was indicated by some responses they made during the interaction.

Centrally themed 'job satisfaction and building a career path to success', I began by asking what made them satisfied with their present job, a point I had always made when addressing the civil service. The notion that, satisfaction has always been contributed by such factors as pay, promotion, supervision, colleagues and workplace need reviewing. They may give some form of satisfaction but they may not be continuously motivating and satisfying to most people. In Malaysian civil service context, such factors continuous professional development and the nature of the 'work' one is attached to, contribute to long-term satisfaction.

I concluded professional satisfaction contributes to continuous motivation among most civil service officers. The implication is that employers need to constantly provide opportunities to employees to develop themselves.

Dialog Pendidikan Borneo II

Sarawak is planning to host the second Borneo Education Dialogue II 27 - 30 July 2009. A steering committee was formed and had its meeting in Santubong Resort 20-21 February 2009. The theme will revolve around best practices in education and five sub themes incorporating curriculum, management and leadership, teacher training have also been identified.

Chairing the steering committee is Pengiran Merali bin Pengiran Mohemed who is also the education Department Academic Sector head.

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.