I am starting with the second week since there is no class during the first week.
We went through our course plan for the semester and discussed about our assignments.One being this one that I am typing right now.I was actually a bit daunted by the idea about blogging about my weekly reflections because I am a chronic procrastinator and blogging takes a lot of commitment.That is pretty much the reason why I stopped posting on my previous blog.It was because I was too lazy to write and I thought that my life was not interesting enough but my classes are pretty interesting so I am somewhat pretty excited about this assignment and I think I will make great progress.In church,my fellow ministers and I have always been asked to reflect about many situations so I am so stranger when it comes to talking to myself.I also feel that this assignment is a stepping stone for my course mates and I to become better educators.Educators have to reflect every single one of their lessons to analyse and think of solutions to improve the students' learning experience.
During the lesson,we covered the objectives of the course.We were taught to differentiate between the aim,goals and objectives.After learning the exact meaning from my lecturer I became more careful when it comes to using these terms.We learnt about the philosophy of Malaysian Education system which is :-
But giving my honest opinion,I think Malaysia is still really far away from this philosophy and has much room for improvement but it does not mean we will never get there.For now,I believe that the Education System should try various methods to try to reach this philosophy.Revolution needs to happen.I feel that we Malaysians focus way too much on subjects such as Mathematics and Science to the extent we often neglect students with other interests.Mathematics and Science subjects are necessary but they are not sufficient.I feel that the Malaysian Education System should have more subjects taught in school like music,home economics,sports,theatre and many more so that students will be given opportunities to explore what they like to do.When students are exposed to many different kinds of subjects,they will know where their passion lies.I have so many friends who have entered university not knowing what their passion is and decided to take a course that was chosen for them by their parents or what society tells them pays well.Many of them dropped out half way because they realise that what they were pursuing was not their passion.I feel that this is partly the education system's fault for focusing too much on Mathematics and Science.Art steam students were considered lousy and many people thought that they did not have a very bright future.I also feel that many teachers use very boring techniques to teach.It is always the same teaching style for many teachers which is passive learning.In secondary school,I basically had to sit FIVE hours or more straight listening to my teachers talk and talk some more.We human beings are not born with FIVE-HOUR ATTENTION SPANS!!!Sir Ken Robinson who is a speaker on Tedx explains my points very well.He explains my sentiments so well.
I feel that our classes are way too long and not enough activities are being done.Sadly,Malaysian teachers do not get much feedback about their teachings because they are afraid of being judged but just like how we students receive feedback about our academic performance I believe teachers deserve them as well.Some of the top notch education systems in the world make their teachers receive feedback to improve.Feedback is vital for improvement but many teachers are afraid of listening to the truth.The teacher is not always right.To understand my point with deeper clarity I think you will find my point to be very relevant once you have watched the video below.You might know the speaker.He is one the richest people on earth and is the CEO of Microsoft.Does it ring a bell?
Our lesson continued with us understanding the definition of curriculum and the five basic definitions of curriculum which I had to reflected upon two of them.
1.A plan for achieving goals.
This I believe is pretty self-explanatory.A curriculum by the end of the day is a set of topics we need to learn in order to improve ourselves and have knowledge.It is a plan for us to be more intellectually capable of doing more complex tasks.
2.Dealing with learners' experiences
Absolutely.A curriculum creates an environment for students o learn and gain experiences through the assignments and activities carried out in the curriculum.It allows the students to learn from their mistakes through experiences and with the knowledge they have through what they had went through in the past shape them to be better people in society but that is if the curriculum is of good quality and plants the hunger of learning in the minds of the students.Not all curriculum are of great standard if I were to be frankly stating a fact.I feel that Malaysia has a very narrow curriculum,not celebrating enough about the arts and humanities subjects in our country.Our focus goes too much on Mathematics and Science and memorisation.Students are trained to memorise instead of think creatively.I feel that with a broad curriculum,students will be able to find out what they truly love and gain more experiences to become even better citizens for our country.A curriculum is able to shape the minds of students.If we have a curriculum that focuses to much on memorisation and paper and pen examinations,students will lack skills when it comes to hands on work or creative and innovative thinking.I am an advocate for broad curriculum and I hope to see that the Malaysia Education system will one day implement a better curriculum for our future generation.We have to stop treating our students like robots with a narrow curriculum and let them explore other subjects and interests in life.If our education system continues as what it is today,I feel that we would lose the opportunity to build more creative minds for our country.
Moving on,we touched on the importance of curriculum and that is was a strong determinant in a student's learning experience.I can testify that.Allow me to tell you a story about my upper form days in secondary school and how the Moral Education was like for us pitiful secondary school students.
So basically,I had to memorise the DEFINITIONS of 36 different moral values and I was not allowed to have a single spelling mistakes or rearrange the words although the definition still meant the same thing because if the definitions I wrote my examination was not exactly like the ones my teacher photocopied for me,there is be zero marks given.Moral education was suppose to be there to teach me how to become a better person and to contribute to society.Instead the curriculum teaches us to memorise the moral values like robots.The curriculum did not shape any students to become better people but it did plant a lot of anger and hatred in the hearts of students because it was so difficult to memorise every single one of those definitions.We did not learn much.Moral education should include trips to non-profit organisations or having students visit the old folks home or asking the students to do community service.I believe these acts of service are are eye-opening than memorising definitions and it is more enjoyable as well.I feel that the curriculum does determine whether students have an enjoyable learning experience or not.
We were also asked to recall what we liked about our learning experiences in school and what we disliked.This assignment really brings me down memory lane.
What I liked about what my learning experience in school?Although secondary school was honestly the five worst years of my life because of all the studying I had to do and restricted freedom,I really appreciated the hard work of a number of teachers in my school.I had a teacher called Mr Liew.who was very passionate about his job.He was never late for class and rarely absent and he put in a lot of effort in teaching his classes.He always gave us tests to make sure we understand the topic he was teaching and he always used simple methods to teach really complex topics.He was a mathematics teacher and he made mathematics so easy for us.To me the fundamentals were the key and he taught progressively.I think this is how all teachers should teach by using simple examples to explain complex topics.As the saying goes simplicity is the key.I really enjoyed his lessons because I felt that I was learning a lot.
I really enjoyed my Bahasa Malaysia lessons as well.For many of us in my class our first language was not Bahasa Malaysia but it was Mandarin and English.My teacher,Madam Tan was fluent in all 3 languages and she used English and Mandarin to teach Bahasa Malaysia.We understood completely when she explained difficult vocabulary words to us using our first language.I feel that it is much easier to understand a subject when it is taught using your first language.She also encouraged us to think creatively and critically for our essays.It was the only few times in secondary school whereby I was taught to be creative.She was very up to date with the latest happenings and trends in the world and she would relate popular news with what we are learning in the subject.Till this day I still remember so many of the things she has taught me.
Now I shall talk about what I hate.There is a lot of things I do not like about my secondary school.I had an additional mathematics teacher who was the total opposite of Mr. Liew.He was really mean and often insulted us for not understanding what he was teaching us.I shall not mention his name but he was a really smart teacher.He thinks and solve mathematics solutions as fast as a calculator but here's the thing.He thinks that everyone thinks like him.He does not take into consideration that the rest of us learn at different speeds.When he is teaching he is like in his own little world and whenever we tell him that we do not understand he says we are not human or something.I never felt so stupid and insulted before.I went for tuition classes for Additional Mathematics because I had no idea what my teacher was talking about.After attending tuition classes,I realise that the questions were not the difficult but my school teacher made all the easy topics really seem really difficult with his complicated ways and solutions of calculating the problem.My self-esteem was always really low in his class because I often did not understand what he was talking about.I felt so stupid.
I also learnt about the people are responsible for the curriculum and they are the governor and the legislature (state education department or state board of education).The teacher is an employee of the district.These people hold a great responsibility since they have so much power in shaping the curriculum.I quote from the movie,Spiderman,"With great power comes great responsibility".
They have the power to change lives and should use their power wisely for a better generation,for a better Malaysia.
That is all for my reflection this week.
References
(2016). S4.favim.com. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from http://s4.favim.com/orig/50/cute-girl-homework-study-Favim.com-447898.jpg
(2016). 31.media.tumblr.com. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from http://31.media.tumblr.com/de270ef433f9c40053349a3b61ae3fd1/tumblr_inline_nyupi1faxM1qkjeen_500.gif
Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 20 October 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Ub0SMxZQo
GREENIANS FOREVER! XD - Lyndon Jonah Ong | Facebook. (2016). Facebook.com. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202082932465508&set=t.1814200499&type=3&theater
How to escape education's death valley | Sir Ken Robinson. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 20 October 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc
National Education Philosophy | Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2016). Moe.gov.my. Retrieved 20 October 2016, from http://www.moe.gov.my/en/falsafah-pendidikan-kebangsaan
So much knowledge i can get froum your blog ! Thank you !
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