Wacana Latihan Guru

Guru antara profesyen yang paling dipercayai

2006-04-27T16:53:00.000+08:00

Guru antara profesyen yang paling dipercayai

Laporan akhbar The Star pada 19 April yang lalu [ pautan ] tentang kajian yang dijalankan oleh Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM) hasil tinjauan dari 2,074 responden melegakan golongan pendidik.
Integriti terhadap 15 profesyen telah ditinjau dari sudut kepercayaan responden, profesyen guru menduduki tempat kedua selepas doktor sebagai yang paling dipercayai. Tahniah kepada golongan pendidik, marilah bersama kita memartabatkan lagi profesyen mulia ini.

AGEN PERUBAHAN

2005-09-12T14:32:00.000+08:00

AGEN PERUBAHAN
Berikut diperturunkan temuramah Dennis Sparks dengan Micheal Fullan.

Interview with Michael Fullan: Change agent
'We're talking about a change in the culture of schools and a change in the culture of teaching'
By Dennis Sparks
Journal of Staff Development, Winter 2003 (Vol. 24, No. 1)
Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2003. All rights reserved.
JSD: When I first interviewed you 10 years ago for an NSDC publication, you said, "We know that the best way for people to learn about new policies and innovations is through interaction with other people." Some types of interaction are more helpful than others, though, and I'd like to hear your views on the kinds of relationships that are most powerful in promoting innovations in teaching and leadership for the benefit of students.
Fullan: It has become increasingly clear from various sources that we need professional learning communities in which teachers and leaders work together and focus on student learning. But they must be infused with high-quality curriculum materials and assessment information about student learning. David Cohen and Heather Hill, for instance, describe three policy levers--assessment, curriculum, and teacher learning. They say if those levers aren't pulled together, schools can't get very far. Milbrey McLaughlin and Joan Talbert found two types of learning communities. In one of them, teachers work together to innovate to improve their teaching practices. In the second type, teachers interacted around their traditional teaching practices, which simply reinforced those things that weren't working in the first place.
This research tells us two things. First, we need far more intensive professional learning within a culture of continuous deliberation. Second, it has to be continually tested by external ideas or standards about best practices. Outside curriculum ideas and student assessment information help ensure that the process isn't too insular.
Spread positive deviance
JSD: Virtually all schools have some teachers who produce high levels of learning for students. In addition to drawing on outside sources of knowledge, a powerful way to improve the quality of teaching in schools, it seems to me, is to spread the practices of these "positive deviant teachers" throughout the school.
Fullan: The effective schools research found that classroom-to-classroom differences in effectiveness within schools is greater than school-to-school variation. Professional learning communities internal to a school should reduce the variation across classrooms with more and more teachers gravitating toward the best practices.
Positive deviant teachers can be used within and across schools. They have to get outside their classrooms, though, both within their schools and to link to what's going on in other schools--to learn from other teachers as well as contribute to them.
Culture is key
JSD: In the May 2002 issue of Educational Leadership, you wrote an article about leadership for cultural change. Before we turn to what you said, I'd like you to respond to something Roland Barth said in that same issue: "Probably the most important--and the most difficult--job of an instructional leader is to change the prevailing culture of a school. ... A school's culture has far more influence on life and learning in the schoolhouse than the president of the country, the state department of education, the superintendent, the school board, or even the principal, teachers, and parents can ever have." Of course, while the principal, teachers, and parents can have a large effect on a school's culture, Barth is writing about the power of a school's culture to shape professional learning and student achievement.
Fullan: Barth's observation is right on. The question for me, though, is how we get high-quality cultures in schools on a large scale. The two themes we've been interested in since 1990 have been large-scale reform and sustainability.
For the past four years, we have been working in England evaluating that country's literacy and numeracy strategies. Test scores in these areas have significantly increased from 1996 to 2002. While we've acknowledged their success, we've said that this is just a baby step in terms of deeper changes that are necessary. These deeper changes involve closing the achievement gap between high and low performers, developing students' thinking and problem-solving skills, attending to students' social and emotional development, and fundamentally changing the culture of schools.
English policy makers have devised an interesting formulation. Imagine a four-part table. One dimension contrasts teachers who are knowledge-poor with those who are knowledge-rich, which can be termed uninformed or informed. The other dimension contrasts prescription and professional judgment as sources of action. When you cross these dimensions you get a very revealing look at the last four decades of reform.
In the 1970s, "uninformed professional judgment" guided teaching. In the 1980s, "uninformed prescriptions" provided through the accountability movement were a driving force. In the 1990s, England had what it called "informed prescription" because the prescription was based on sound knowledge and curriculum.
"Informed professional judgment" is now the goal in England. We are talking with English policy makers about the kinds of strategies that are necessary to go from the informed prescriptions that have helped them make progress in literacy and numeracy to informed professional judgment that would actually change the cultures of schools. These policies would reduce the unnecessary workload of teachers, create more contact time among teachers to improve what they are doing, and develop more effective leadership at all levels. Invest in leaders
JSD: In your article in that same issue of Educational Leadership, you said that "Cultural change principals display palpable energy, enthusiasm, and hope." It's my sense that many principals today feel more resigned than hopeful because they often feel caught between very difficult problems that require resolution and other people's prescriptions for how they should be solved.
Fullan: Investment in leadership development is important. Getting beyond resignation and the passive dependency that has been created by the prescriptions of the past 10 years requires a different kind of socialization for principals. In England, they have created the National College of School Leadership to develop leaders on a much larger scale. In District 2 in New York City, they deliberately built the capacity of principals through various processes such as intervisitations during which principals developed deeper understanding not only of their own schools, but other schools as well.
Improve relationships
JSD: In your article, you also wrote, "The single factor common to successful change is that relationships improve. If relationships improve, schools get better. If relationships remain the same or get worse, ground is lost." I'm curious about what you've learned about affecting the quality of relationships in schools among teachers and between teachers and principals.
Fullan: Through our districtwide training of school teams, we've learned that structural barriers make it difficult for people to have time to get together and that cultural barriers cause teachers to resist interacting with each other in new ways. To address these problems, we offer seven or eight days of training a year for teams that include the principal and two teacher leaders. We provide evidence of the connection between well-executed professional learning communities and student learning. We also provide skills in areas such as dealing with resistance. We teach about assessment, and teachers look at student work. As a result, student learning improves and teachers become ambassadors to teachers in other schools.
Limit external solutions
JSD: In your Educational Leadership article, you wrote, "Creating and sharing knowledge is central to effective leadership," and "Principals not attuned to leading in a culture of change make the mistake of seeking external innovations and taking on too many projects." And in the third edition of The New Meaning of Educational Change (Teachers College Press, 2001), you observed, "Ultimately, no amount of outside intervention can produce the motivation and specificity of best solutions for every setting." Many teachers and principals don't see their work as knowledge generation and dissemination and often, for a number of reasons, feel very dependent on external innovations and experts. Yet you are saying that it may be a mistake to seek external innovation.
Fullan: People in schools should not take shortcuts in their search for clarity and solutions. They need to engage with all kinds of ideas to improve what they are doing, but not adopt external programs that foster dependency. I want schools to constantly sift and integrate the best ideas from the field, not adopt external programs.
Whole-school reform models make the mistake of thinking that a comprehensive external reform model will solve the coherence problem within schools. It doesn't work because it feeds into the dependency of teachers and principals. In other words, when schools or districts adopt external models, which in itself is not always a bad thing, they fail to focus on changing the culture of the school, and consequently the models fail to become embedded.
In my view, teaching is an intellectual and scientific profession, as well as a moral profession. That means that schools have to constantly process knowledge about what works and that teachers have to see themselves as scientists who continuously develop their intellectual and investigative effectiveness.
When I look at cases of successful businesses, I see explicit discussion about knowledge development and knowledge sharing. Collaboration as an end in itself was not the goal; what these businesses cared about was whether people in the organization added knowledge and contributed to other people's knowledge development.
The cognitive sciences teach us that if information is to become knowledge, a social process is required. This makes great pedagogical sense. Information stays as information until people work through it together in solving problems and achieving goals. This is why assessment literacy, when teachers collectively focus on student performance and develop action plans to improve it, is so powerful. Changing the culture is even more important because it establishes norms of continuous interaction. So, information becomes knowledge through a social process, and knowledge becomes wisdom through sustained interaction.
Build teacher depth
JSD: What have the cognitive sciences taught us about helping educators develop deep understanding of innovations as opposed to skimming their surface features?
Fullan: If you don't have a strategy conducive to teacher understanding, you can't get to student understanding. Part of the problem is that the culture of schools is amenable to superficial rather than deep solutions. As David Cohen, Richard Elmore, and others have argued, teachers need daily, in-depth opportunities to build up the knowledge and capacity to carry out the deeper reforms envisaged in the best curriculum frameworks. This requires a radical change in the norms and working conditions of teachers and administrators and, in fact, the teaching profession as a whole.
Assumptions shape practice
JSD: You've written about the relationship between educators' beliefs and their practices. In The New Meaning of Educational Change, you wrote, "The assumptions we make about change are powerful and frequently subconscious sources of action." The same might be said about educators' assumptions about learning, teaching, and leadership.
Fullan: Leaders who are effective operate from powerful conceptions, not from a set of techniques. The key, then, is to build up leaders' conceptions of what it means to be a leader. I've identified five conceptions--moral purpose, relationship building, knowledge generation, understanding the change process, and coherence building. These conceptions can be fostered, but they must be fostered through a socialization process that develops leaders as reflective practitioners. If leaders are taught techniques without conceptions, the techniques will fail. Techniques are tools that must serve a set of conceptual understandings. When conceptions and techniques go hand-in-hand, we create breakthroughs.
Leaders must reculture
JSD: You've written, "Educational change is technically simple and socially complex," and "Never a checklist, always complexity. There is no step-by-step shortcut to transformation; it involves the hard, day-to-day work of reculturing."
Fullan: We're talking about a change in the culture of schools and a change in the culture of teaching. We know that when we think about change we have to get ownership, participation, and a sense of meaning on the part of the vast majority of teachers. You can't get ownership through technical means; you have to get it through interaction, through developing people, through attention to what students are learning.
Reculturing is the main work of leadership, and it requires an underlying conceptualization of the key elements that feed it. One of the conceptualizations I mentioned a moment ago is moral purpose. Sustainability is based on changes in the social and moral environment. Moral purpose is more than passionate teachers trying to make a difference in their classrooms. It's also the context of the school and district in which they work. That means principals have to be almost as concerned about the success of other schools in the district as they are about their own schools.
The strategies that have provided some initial success in areas such as literacy and numeracy are not the strategies, though, that will take us to a deeper transformation that will enact the cognitive science agenda of problem solving and thinking skills, reculture schools, and close the gap between high- and low-performing students.
To achieve these ends, we must tap the energy that comes from moral purpose. We are now just at the very early stages of a qualitative transformation that is a revolution in the teaching profession.
MICHAEL FULLAN
Position: Michael Fullan is dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He also is a researcher, consultant, trainer, and policy adviser on a wide range of educational change projects with school systems, teachers federations, research and development institutes, and government agencies in Canada and internationally. He has published widely on the topic of educational change.
Education: Fullan has bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Toronto.
Professional history: He has served as policy implementation adviser to the Minister of Education and Training (Ontario) on the Report of the Royal Commission on Learning, was dean of the faculty of education at the University of Toronto, and assistant academic director and professor of sociology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). He has also served as chairperson and professor in the OISE Department of Sociology.
Books: His most recent books are Leading in a Culture of Change (Jossey-Bass, 2001), for which he received the National Staff Development Council's Book of the Year Award for 2002, and The New Meaning of Educational Change, 3rd Edition (Teachers College Press, 2001). He has also published Change Forces: The Sequel (Falmer Press, 1999), Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform (Falmer Press, 1993), and the What's Worth Fighting For series (Teachers College Press).
Accomplishments: An innovator and leader in teacher education, Fullan has developed a number of partnerships designed to bring about major school improvement and educational reform. He is currently leading the evaluation team conducting a four-year assessment of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England. He is also conducting with colleagues training, research and evaluation of literacy initiatives in several school districts, including the Toronto School District Board, York Region, Peel and Edmonton Catholic School District.
To continue this conversation with Michael Fullan, contact him at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor St. W., 12th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S IV6, (416) 923-6641, ext. 3223, fax (416) 971-2293, e-mail: mfullan@oise.utoronto.ca.
DENNIS SPARKS is executive director of the National Staff Development Council.

Ruang Belajar dan Bilik Darjah

2005-08-27T19:01:00.000+08:00

LEARNING SPACES

Terdapat pihak yang berpendapat, pendidikan masa depan akan berlaku di luar bilik darjah.  "The future of higher education lies outside the classroom" - Chronicle Higher Ed, circa 1999.  Ianya disandarkan kepada perkembangan pesat teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (ICT) yang menjadi arus perdana dalam pelbagai sektor, termasuk sektor pendidikan.

Bilik darjah yang wujud secara fizikal, dalam lingkungan empat dinding, secara tradisinya adalah ruang belajar formal di mana guru dan pelajar bersemuka.  Kini umum bersetuju bahawa proses pembelajaran tidak semestinya berlaku di dalam bilik darjah, ia boleh berlaku di mana-mana melampaui batas ruang fizikal.  Kehadiran ICT memungkinkan ini berlaku.  Ia telah membuka ruang dan peluang baru untuk kita memikirkan keperluan wujudnya ruang belajar baru - ruang belajar maya.  Ruang belajar yang baru perlu memenuhi keperluan semasa - keperluan generasi yang lahir dan membesar dalam era ledakan maklumat!  Mereka dikenali sebagai 'Generasi Net' atau 'Technology Natives'.

Dalam kesempatan yang akan datang, isu ini akan dibincangkan secara lebih terperinci, insyaAllah.

Internet access for all schools

2005-03-30T15:13:00.000+08:00

Good news for warga pendidik. There are new opprtunities for teachers to explore in integrating Internet in classrooms. A challenge to Teacher Training Colleges to equip trainees to have competencies in ICT integration. Why not we use Peer Coaching as a vehicle or one of training strategies?

From The Star (30 Mac 2005):

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants all schools in the country to have access to the Internet and has directed the relevant ministries to work towards this end.

The Prime Minister, who chaired the National Information Technology Council meeting here yesterday, said he was dissatisfied with the rate of Internet penetration among schools in the rural areas.

The Prime Minister noted that the gap between rural and urban schools is wide because of a lack of infrastructure facilities.

About 80% of schools now have access to the web but he wants all schools to have such access, Science, Technology and Innovations Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said after the meeting.

He said Abdullah also suggested that the quality and content of programmes in Bahasa Malaysia transmitted to schools via the Internet be improved.

Presumptive Minds

2005-03-26T07:29:00.000+08:00

presumptive
Originally uploaded by mamcom.

Flickering Minds?
What is worse?

* A flickering mind
* A closed mind
* An empty mind
* A mind crammed full
* An unquestioning mind
* A lazy mind
* An unthinking mind
* Mentalsoftness
* Blindness
* Prejudice
* Bias
* Black and white thinking
* Presumption
* Certainty
* Sanctimony
* Hubris

Siswazah menganggur 5 tahun jadi usahawan tani berjaya

2005-03-25T10:25:00.000+08:00

Bersama Kejayaannya

Kesempatan berada di menara gading, perlu digunakan untuk menimba ilmu dan pengalaman sebagai persediaan di alam pekerjaaan. Sistem pendidikan yang berjaya mampu melahirkan individu yang berada menceburi bidang yang bukan pengkhusuannya di universiti. Mungkin inilah yang maksudkan konsep 'relearn' dan 'unlearn', yang kemudian itu lebih mencabar dan memerlukan daya tahan. Saranan YB Menteri Pelajaran untuk melihat semula sistem persekolahan yang terlalu berpusat peperiksaan tentunya mendapat sokongan dan dokongan semua pihak. Anda bagaimana?

Petikan dari Utusan Malaysia (25 Mac 2005):

Tambahnya, beliau sedar untuk berjaya, segala perasaan malu, ego dan rasa rendah diri perlu dikikis bagi mencapai matlamat itu.

Bapa kepada dua anak hasil perkongsian hidup bersama Noraini Sulaiman, 39, itu kini boleh berbangga apabila perniagaannya telah berkembang ke seluruh negara walaupun pendapatan awal hanya sekitar RM400 sebulan.

Menurut Jamaluddin, ijazah yang diperoleh hanya sekadar untuk mendapat pengetahuan serta ilmu tetapi ia bukan lesen untuk memperoleh kerja bergaji besar tanpa berusaha sendiri.

``Saya semakin seronok apabila perniagaan ini mampu memberikan pendapatan lumayan sehingga melebihi empat angka,'' kata Jamaluddin yang turut menyambut baik langkah kerajaan mewujudkan semula Skim Latihan Siswazah Menganggur (SLSM) bagi mengatasi masalah pengangguran di kalangan lepasan institusi pengajian tinggi.

Tahniah YB Menteri Pelajaran

2005-03-22T13:12:00.000+08:00

YB Menteri Pelajaran

Saya yakin ramai para pendidik menyambut baik pendapat YB Menteri Pelajaran baru-baru ini. Sebagai pendidik kita perlu menyediakan diri untuk menyahut cabaran ini.

Menurut Berita Harian (22 Mac 2005):

Menteri Pelajaran, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, berkata kementeriannya sedang memperbaiki mutu sekolah secara holistik dengan memberi penekanan ke arah melahirkan pelajar serba boleh.

Sesuatu pastinya tidak kena jika pelajar hanya melihat sekolah sebagai tempat persediaan untuk menduduki dua atau tiga peperiksaan penting. Latihan akademik lebih daripada persiapan peperiksaan dan pendidikan adalah lebih daripada latihan akademik.

Masa depan anak-anak kita sebagai pekerja, usahawan, pemimpin dan warga negara, tidak terletak kepada kemahiran menduduki peperiksaan semata-mata tetapi bergantung kepada daya intelek dan kemampuan sosial dalam konteks individu serba boleh dan unggul.

Ia bergantung kepada sejauh mana daya intelek, berhemah dan daya kemanusiaan mereka, katanya dalam ucaptama perasmian Sidang Kemuncak Pendidikan Malaysia Kesembilan, di sini semalam.

Petikan dari New Straits Times (22 Mac 2005):

"Academic training is much more than examination preparation, and education is much more than academic training.

"The future success of our children as workers, entrepreneurs, leaders and citizens will depend not on their examination skills but on their intellectual and social capacity in the context of well-rounded and well-developed personalities."

Hishammuddin said the ministry encouraged co-curricular activities, uniformed groups, music and art to enrich the school experience as they not only brought motivation and joy back into school, but also reinforced the point that learning should be a constructive and social process.

He noted that an overly exam-oriented system could be counterproductive as

"students would see learning as a once-and-for-all matter, a painful exercise to be gotten through with gritted teeth".

Is it TRUE? So cikgu ... macam mana?

2005-03-17T11:41:00.000+08:00

The main barriers to teachers developing improved classroom practice with information technology are identified as:

teachers’ lack of access to appropriate technologies (hardware, software, and connectivity) due to costs, rapid rate of obsolescence, and location decisions;
teachers’ lack of time to experiment with technologies and plan lessons using new methods that incorporate technology;
teachers’ lack of knowledge or understanding of best curricular uses of technology (what software to use, how to integrate it into the curriculum, and how to organize classroom activities), owing to insufficient training, support and models of best practice;
teachers’ lack of knowledge and support for resolving technical and logistical problems in the classroom (see chapters 9 and 11) and
more than any other factor, teachers’ beliefs influence what they do in the classroom

Wow.... we should reflect hard..

2005-03-17T10:19:00.000+08:00

Resouce URL: http://www.galileo.org/tips.html

"....Computers are not rescuing the school from a weak curriculum, any more than putting pianos in every classroom would rescue a flawed music program. Wonderful learning can occur without computers or even paper. But once the teachers and children are enfranchised as explorers, computers, like pianos, can serve as powerful amplifiers, extending the reach and depth of the learners."

Alan Kay

Within every living discipline today, knowledge is either furthered or created with the use of digital technologies. Through deep and robust inquiry, digital technologies are used to explore and discover new frontiers and at the same time they are the source of new discoveries. When we take the stewardship of the intellect (1) seriously as an educational charge, students must be given the opportunity to think differently each time they pick up a digital tool. This means that teachers need to use technology in their professional lives and students need to have access to a variety of technologies at every stage of their work

Learning how to teach effectively with technology both enables and requires some fundamental changes to schooling. Along with these changes come impressive results for students, including improved achievement; higher test scores; improved student attitude, enthusiasm, and engagement; richer classroom content; and improved student retention and job placement rates.(2)

We at the Galileo Educational Network recognize that teachers face an incredible challenge in learning how to successfully infuse Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into core curricula. "With technology, more than perhaps any area of education, the general vector of theory-into-practice is challenged. When we place adult tools in the hands of children, some of education's most-deep seated assumptions about the nature of childhood, cognitive development and effective learning environments are challenged. We are committed not only to drawing upon educational research about technology; we are committed to building that very body of understanding by feeding in images of the work of children and teachers that would not otherwise be available. We are not very much interested in what kids can do when technology is simply added to the mix of regular schooling, or is regarded as just another tool. There is lots of that kind of work already." (3) We are interested in getting at:

"What do schools and classrooms start to look like when they become knowledge-building environments in which "all children could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on this most complex world"(4).

What kinds of professional development help teachers to create these kinds of learning communities for others?(5)

End Notes

Clifford, Pat and Friesen, S. (2001). The stewardship of the intellect: Classroom life, educational innovation and technology. In Issues in the Integration of Technology into Teaching, Learning, and School Culture(s). B. Barrell (Ed.). Detselig Enterprises Ltd.

Glennan, Thomas A. and Arthur Melmed (1996). Fostering the Use of Educational Technology: Elements of a National Strategy. Washington, DC: RAND Corporation, 18.

Clifford, Pat and Sharon Friesen (2001). Bringing Learning to Learners: The Galileo Educational Network. Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2001: World Conference on Educational Multimedia/Hypermedia & Educational Telecommunication, June 25 - June 30, Tampere, Finland.

Meier, Deborah (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press.

Grégoire, Réginald and Thérèse Laferrière. (2001) Project Based Collaborative Learning with Networked Computers. Available here.

MELAYU

2005-03-15T18:16:00.000+08:00

Melayu itu orang yang bijaksana,
Nakalnya bersulam jenaka,
Budi bahasanya tidak terkira,
Kurang ajarnya tetap bersantun,
Bila mengampu bijak beralas tangan.

Melayu itu berani jika bersalah,
Kecut takut kerana benar,
Janji simpan di perut,
Selalu pecah di mulut,
Biar mati adat,
Jangan mati anak.

Melayu di Tanah Semenanjung luas maknanya,
Jawa itu Melayu,
Bugis itu Melayu,
Banjar juga disebut Melayu,
Minangkabau memang Melayu,
Keturunan Aceh adalah Melayu,
Jakun dan Sakai asli Melayu,
Arab dan Pakistani semua Melayu,
Mamak dan Malbari serap ke Melayu,
Malah Mualaf bertakrif Melayu.

Dalam sejarahnya,
Melayu itu pengembara lautan,
Melorongkan jalur sejarah zaman,
Begitu luas daerah sempadan,
Sayangnya kini segala kehilangan.

Melayu itu kaya falsafahnya,
Kias kata bidal pusaka,
Akar budi bersulamkan daya,
Gedung akal laut bicara.

Malangnya Melayu itu kuat bersorak,
Terlalu ghairah pesta temasya,
Sedangkan kampung telah tergadai,
Sawah sejalur tinggal sejengkal,
Tanah sebidang mudah terjual,

Meski telah memiliki telaga,
Tangan masih memegang tali,
Sedang orang mencapai timba,
Berbuahlah pisang tiga kali,
Melayu itu masih bermimpi,
Walaupun sudah mengenal Universiti,
Masih berdagang di rumah sendiri.

Berkelahi cara Melayu,
Menikam dengan pantun,
Menyanggah dengan senyum,
Marahnya dengan diam,
Merendah bukan menyembah,
Meninggi bukan melonjak.

Watak Melayu menolak permusuhan,
Setia dan sabar tiada sempadan,
Tapi jika marah tak nampak telinga,
Musuh dicari ke lubang cacing,
Tak dapat tanduk telinga dijinjing,
Maruah dan agama dihina jangan,
Hebat amuknya tak kenal lawan.

Berdamai cara Melayu indah sekali,
Silatulrrahim hati yang murni,
Madah diungkap sentiasa disahut,
Tangan dihulur sentiasa bersambut,
Luka pun tidaklah lagi berparut,
Baiknya hati Melayu itu tiada terbandingan,
Segala yang ada sanggup diberikan,
Sehingga tercipta sebuah kiasan,
"Dagang lalu nasi ditanakkan,
Suami pulang lapar tak makan,
Kera di hutan disusukan,
Anak di pangkuan mati kebuluran."

Bagaimanakah Melayu,
Di abad dua puluh Satu,
Masihkah tunduk tersipu-sipu?
Jangan takut melanggar pantang,
Jika pantang menghalang kemajuan.

Jangan segan menentang larangan,
Jika yakin kepada kebenaran,
Jangan malu mengucapkan keyakinan,
Jika percaya kepada keadilan.

Jadilah bangsa yang bijaksana,
Memegang tali memegang timba,
Memiliki ekonomi mencipta budaya,
Menjadi tuan di negara merdeka.

Hasil Nukilan :
Dato' Dr. Usman Awang

Think Big, Start Small

2005-03-15T11:00:00.000+08:00

Philip Crosby said, "Selecting the right person for the right job is the largest part of coaching." and according to John G Agno,"Coaching helps you develop your leadership skills, clarify your values and guiding principles and build your reputation."

So what?

Laporan Program Pembimbing Rakan Sekerja

2005-03-15T02:32:00.000+08:00

Peer Coaching Program = Program Pembimbing Rakan Sekerja? Mungkin "my direct translation is debatable".

Format Laporan:

1.0 Pengenalan
2.0 Kandungan Program
3.0 Kesan / Faedah Program
4.0 Implikasi Program
5.0 Cadangan / Pelan Tindakan
6.0 Penutup

Ini cadangan saja ... jika ada cadangan lain .. sangat dialu-alukan.

- MAM

"It takes a whole village to raise a child"

2005-03-14T23:04:00.000+08:00

Pepatah Afrika di atas mengambarkan peranan mendidik melibatkan seluruh anggota masyarakat. Mungkinkah elemen ini telah mulai luntur dalam masyarakat kita, sehinggakan pendidikan di bebankan kepada pihak tertentu sahaja. Wajarkah ini berterusan? Atau kita perlu kembali ke pangkal jalan 'back to basic'.

Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere'

2005-03-14T22:56:00.000+08:00

By Richard E. Ferdig, Ph.D., and Kaye D. Trammell, University of Florida

The interest in new media for teaching and learning has highlighted the potential of innovative software and hardware for education. This has included laptops, handhelds, wireless systems and Web-based learning environments. Most recently, however, this interest has focused on blogs and blogging.

Weblogs, or blogs, are Web pages often likened to online personal journals. They are noted for being the "unedited, published voice of the people" (Winer 2003). Winer provides a more technical definition, suggesting that a Weblog is "a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser." Blogging is writing your thoughts into your blog, and the "blogosphere," a term coined by William Quick (2001), is the "intellectual cyberspace" that bloggers (i.e., those who blog) occupy.

While a few educators have already started using blogs in the classroom, more have focused on the potential of blogging in teaching and learning (Shachtman 2002; Embrey 2002). For instance, some claim that blogs may further democratize the Internet, addressing some of the concerns under girding the digital divide (Carroll 2003). In this article, we will describe the pedagogy behind blogs. We will address the reasons why blogs should be used as one of many teaching and learning tools, as well as describe the potential benefits of blogs for educators. Drawing on our own research and teaching, we will conclude with specific strategies for using blogs in the classroom.

The Pedagogy Behind Blogs

Current educational research and theory have demonstrated the importance of social interaction in teaching and learning. Drawing on Vygotsky's educational theory (1978), educators highlight the "knowledge construction" processes of the learner and suggest that "meaning making" develops through the social process of language use over time. As such, knowledge construction is discursive, relational and conversational in nature. Therefore, as students appropriate and transform knowledge, they must have authentic opportunities for publication of knowledge.

Through publication, teachers "can infer the process by which students transform meanings and strategies appropriated within the social domain, making those strategies their own" (Gavelek and Raphael 1996). It makes material accessible for subsequent reflection and analysis, allowing students to revisit and revise their artifacts; thus, enriching the learning experience (Krajcik et al. 1994; Olson 1994). Publication also offers the opportunity for feedback, which, in turn, scaffolds a learner in his or her quest for knowledge construction.

Blogs are useful teaching and learning tools because they provide a space for students to reflect and publish their thoughts and understandings. And because blogs can be commented on, they provide opportunities for feedback and potential scaffolding of new ideas. Blogs also feature hyperlinks, which help students begin to understand the relational and contextual basis of knowledge, knowledge construction and meaning making.

Research suggests that many of these advantages can also be afforded by asynchronous discussion forums. At one level we would agree, because both tools are very similar. As such, many of the same research-based findings about discussion forums would hypothetically apply to blogs. Blogs, therefore, represent the potential to promote interactivity, provide opportunities for active learning, increase student and teacher relationships, increase higher-order thinking skills, and improve flexibility in teaching and learning (Ferdig and Roehler, Unpublished).

On the other hand, blogs provide an environment that is more advanced than simple discussion forums. According to O'Shea (1999), technology can offer ways for students to establish personal and intellectual ownership of new concepts while they visualize and interact with abstract ideas. A blog essentially becomes a student's personal online soapbox. Unlike a discussion forum that is shared by many, a blog gives students full control and ownership over their online content. It becomes a virtual space to try out new concepts that do not have to fit within a hierarchical or topic-based discussion forum.

Blood (2002) further explicates how blogs are different, citing the hyperlink and the frequency of content updates. The hyperlink plays a more important role in a blog because the hyperlinks are designed to stretch outward into the Web to bring news stories, comments, pictures and other items outside of the host's server to the audience. In addition, the hyperlink is used as supporting information for any claim or commentary that the blogger makes on his or her page. Through the hyperlink to the source material, the reader can decide whether or not what the blogger wrote is in line with his or her own beliefs. Blood also suggests that a blog is designed to be visited frequently. This concept is represented by the reverse chronological order of the posts that allow readers to easily identify the most recent posts made to the page since the last visit.

This themed issue of T.H.E. Journal is focused on "using technology to deliver content." One normally thinks of content delivery systems when discussing this topic. In this day and age of constructivist pedagogy - focusing on the students' meaning making - using technology to deliver content should also be seen as using technology to help students create content. Blogs allow students to take ownership of their learning and publish authentic artifacts containing their thoughts and understandings. Blogs also provide a way for students to individualize their content; thus, help us rethink using technology to deliver content.

Practical Suggestions for Implementing Blogs

Blogs can be incorporated into any type of class for all reading- and writing-aged students. They can be used as a knowledge-management tool where teachers and students communicate with each other through the course of the semester, or as a tool to bring reflections or outside material into the class for everyone's benefit. Following are a number of practical suggestions that provide a good environment for successful blog integration.

Consider blogging yourself. Many institutions encourage their faculty and staff to take an online class before teaching one. The obvious benefit is that the instructor sees what it is like to use the technology prior to being on the other side of the virtual desk. The same rule applies for blogging: Take the time to understand blogging and the different possibilities of blogs before using them in the classroom.

Spend time visiting other classroom blogs. Different instructors have used blogs with different objectives in mind. Find classroom blogs that are related to your teaching level and topic to see how they have set up blogs in the classroom. A great place to find classroom blogs is through SchoolBlogs (www.schoolblogs.com). Also, since Google now owns Blogger.com, a quick search on Google for "blog" and your topic area should provide some interesting results. We encourage you to contact the classroom instructor to find out what challenges and successes they experienced with your content area.

Model blogging for your students. In teaching and learning, we have specific outcomes and uses for blogging. Spend several sessions introducing the concept of blogging, how it is done, why it is done, showing good and bad blogs, etc. Then, provide a set of strict rules for blogging such as frequency, length of posts, number of hyperlinks and staying on topic. This set of rules can be created together with students; however, the students should be made explicitly aware of what is not appropriate on the blog. And remember that because the blog is a Web-based, informal communication, students may be apt to use inappropriate language on their blogs. They might also fail to use references and citations when quoting others' work.

Make the blogs more public. We have already addressed the benefits of the worldwide audience in blogging. Take an active role in publicizing student blogs by sharing links with the outside world, as well as trying to get experts or nonclass people to visit the student blogs and comment on them. This interaction with experts not only increases that which is learned through the exercise, but signals that there are real people reading the published content. This can lead to the student spending more time in preparing blog posts and thinking more critically because of this wide dissemination.

Explain the "reach" of blogs to students. Clearly communicate that the messages posted on a blog are publicly accessible. Therefore, an employer, friend or parent can easily access the blog. As such, students should remember that once something is posted on the Internet, communication is irreversible, even if later edited or removed.

Four Benefits of Student Blogging

1. The use of blogs helps students become subject-matter experts. According to Blood (2002), there is a three-step process involved in blogging: scouring, filtering and posting. The blogger visits multiple Web sites relevant to his or her topic to find information to which they will respond, critique or hyperlink. The blogger must then filter the results to post the "best of" content for readers. Through this process, bloggers are exposed to vast amounts of information on their given topic, even if they do not comment on everything they find. The regularity of doing this at least once a week creates a repetitive process where the blogger builds an ever-growing knowledge base on particular topics.

2. The use of blogs increases student interest and ownership in learning. Technology has been cited as a motivating tool because of its newness. Blogs are novel to students not only because they are a newer technology, but also because students are blogging about topics that are important to them. Students direct their own learning while receiving input and feedback from others. They also take ownership of their learning in the blogging activities by actively searching for information.

3. The use of blogs gives students legitimate chances to participate. One goal of teaching and learning is to enculturate students into a community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). While blogging, students quickly learn that posted content can be read by those other than the teacher and their classmates. Blogging opens up assignments beyond the teacher-student relationship, allowing the world to grade students and provide encouragement or feedback on their writings. We have had students in our classrooms actually receive job offers based on postings in their blogs, because their postings provided a legitimate way to interact with an authentic audience in a community of practice.

4. The use of blogs provides opportunities for diverse perspectives, both within and outside of the classroom. Mainly due to time and curriculum constraints, not every student gets to share his or her thoughts in a traditional classroom. Blogs allow all students to participate in a discussion, opening up diverse perspectives. By blogging, the classroom also extends from the physical constraints of those who fit in the room and are registered to a limitless international audience. It is likely that someone outside of a class will come across student blogs, thereby extending diversity to include perspectives outside of the classroom.

Getting Started With Blogs and Blogging

There are several blogging solutions for the classroom, with some more expensive and involved than others. The least expensive solution is to adopt a free Web-based blogging service. SchoolBlogs (www.schoolblogs.com) or Blogger (www.blogger.com) both offer free blogging software and hosting services via the Internet. Creating a blog on most of these free services takes less than five minutes and many provide a multitude of options such as Web-based editing, public and private blogs, support for plug-ins (e.g., adding comments), and various templates. Most sites also have created FAQ and "Blogger Basics" sections to help with technical setup.

If an institution is willing to host blogging software on a locally maintained server, one might consider implementing products such as Movable Type or Radio UserLand. Both solutions offer more features than the free services such as the ability to add comments. Movable Type (www.movabletype.org) is free for noncommercial use and Radio UserLand (http://radiodiscuss.userland.com) user licenses are inexpensive. Other online blogging resources include:

Blogosphere.us (www.blogosphere.us) and Weblogg-ed (www.weblogg-ed.com) offer news on current trends in blogs and educational blogging. In both cases, the bloggers are educators who use blogging in their courses, while one of the online resources even teaches a class about blogging.

Currently, there are two major annual conferences for blogging enthusiasts. BlogTalk (http://blogtalk.net) held in Vienna, Austria, is an international academic conference where scholars from around the world present research on blogs. And BloggerCon (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggerCon), held at Harvard University, is a user-orientated conference where bloggers converge to talk about the social implications and uses of the technology.

References

Blood, R. 2002. The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing.

Carroll, J. 2003. "New Kid on the Blog." CA Magazine, 136 (2): 16.

Embrey, T. 2002. "You Blog, We Blog." Teacher Librarian, 30 (2): 7-9.

Ferdig, R. and L. Roehler. Unpublished. "Student Engagement in Electronic Discussions: Examining Online Discourse in Literacy Pre-Service Classrooms." Article to appear in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education.

Gavelek, J. and T. Raphael. 1996. "Changing Talk About Text: New Roles for Teachers and Students." Language Arts, 73 (3): 182-192.

Krajcik, J., P. Blumenfeld, R. Marx and E. Soloway. 1994. "A Collaborative Model for Helping Middle Grade Science Teachers Learn Project-Based Instruction." The Elementary School Journal, 94 (5): 483-497.

Lave, J. and E. Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Olson, D. 1994. The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading. New York: Cambridge University Press.

O'Shea, T. 1999. Birkbeck Web Forum on Learning and Teaching. Online: www.bbk.ac.uk/asd/view/view02.html.

Quick, W. 2001. DailyPundit.com. 30 Dec. Online: www.iw3p.com/DailyPundit/2001_12_30_dailypundit_archive.php#8315120.

Shachtman, N. 2002. "Blogging Goes Legit, Sort Of." Wired News. 6 June. Online: www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,52992,00.html.

Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Winer, D. 2003. "What Makes a Weblog a Weblog?" Weblogs at Harvard Law. 23 May. Online: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog.

ICT Integration

2005-03-14T21:30:00.000+08:00

Technology integration is occurring if:

teachers are trained in a full range of technology uses and in the determination of their appropriate roles and applications
teachers and students routinely turn to technology when needed
teachers and students are empowered and supported in carrying out those choices

Under these conditions, the potential of digital technologies to improve teaching and learning is likely to be realized. In an overview of the status of the integration of instructional technology in public education, Earle writes: “Integrating technology is not about technology – it is primarily about content and effective instructional practices. Technology involves the tools with which we deliver content and implement practices in better ways. Its focus must be on curriculum and learning. Integration is defined not by the amount or type of technology used, but by how and why it is used.” (Rodney Earle, 2002) Conditions for Classroom Integration of Technology The conditions necessary in a school to support the integration of technology are addressed in this web site in five component areas:

Physical facilities, capacity and conditions
Curricular connections
Teacher actions and characteristics
Student activities
Support To assist a school principal in determining the extent to which integration is occurring on a school-wide basis, the following sections provide indicators in each of the areas and the data collection required to assess them.

Physical Facilities, Capacity and Conditions

Computers, multimedia equipment and telecommunications stations are available at the places where teaching and learning activities will occur: classrooms, library/media center, computer labs or other large group places, and for use outside the school building. • Scheduling of facilities and devices as necessary is easy and quick
There is flexibility in relocation and multiple use of hardware to address learning opportunities.
The ratio of students to devices is small enough to support simultaneous use by a high percentage of students.
Access for students with disabilities is addressed through special software, hardware, and other accommodations.
Software, databases, and materials are available in every content area to address the curricular needs appropriately.
A process and criteria exist for selection of classroom hardware and software.

Curricular Connections

Analysis of curriculum areas has taken place to identify applications of technology appropriate to achieving the goals and objectives.
A set of minimum expectations has been developed for achievement of technology skills for students at various waypoints in their progress from PK to grade 12.
Guidelines identify the places in the curricular areas where instruction and practice in the technical skill expectations will occur.
A general philosophy or framework is in place among faculty that guides expectations for the independence of students in various ways, including the degree of student independence in deciding how and when to use technology in their learning activities.
There is a process in place for continual monitoring of curricular alignment of technology.

Teacher Actions and Characteristics

Teachers use technology in several ways, and such use is observable daily.
Teachers routinely choose the technologies appropriate to their activity and need.
Teachers are using online access to information resources from within the school and from home or other outside settings.
Promising or successful practices are often shared between and among teachers.
Teachers participate in the process of developing the guidelines for technology standards in curriculum areas.
Teachers follow the guidelines for technology use in the curriculum.
Teachers involve students in identifying a range of ways technology may be used to accomplish curricular objectives.
Teachers expect and encourage independence of students in choosing and using technologies appropriate to their tasks.
Teachers design assignments for students based on assumptions of technology use.

Student Activities

Students are involved in planning for their uses of technology in the curriculum.
Students use technology in several ways, and such use is observable daily.
Students routinely and independently choose the technologies appropriate to their activity and need.
The ways in which technology is used represent an improvement over previous methods of carrying out learning activities, or represent a learning activity which could not previously be done.
Students exhibit increasing knowledge and skill in the use of different technologies over a year or several years.
A large percentage of students are using technology in a wide range of applications simultaneously.
In student activities, both individual uses of technology and group activities supported by technology are evident.
In student activities with technology, both uses required of all and uses chosen by students are evident.
Students are using online access to information resources from within the school and from home or other outside settings.

Support

Staff development opportunities to improve skills in technology integration are available for all teachers relevant to subject areas.
Mechanisms for the sharing of promising classroom practices in technology among staff are available and their use is encouraged.
A mentoring plan is in place in which teachers expert in the use of technology are available and encouraged to provide assistance to other teachers.
Technical staff are available to operate, maintain and manage networks, computer stations, Internet connections, videoconferencing linkages, and software contracts.
Technical staff are available to offer technical assistance to teachers.
Teachers are provided with planning time to address technology integration.
An instructional materials budget is available to teachers and/or subject area groups for software acquisitions during the school year.

Peer Coaching Program (PCP)

2005-03-14T07:30:00.000+08:00

One central issue in teacher training is integrating ICT effectively in classroom. PCP offering new and effective approach to help and guide our teachers in ICT integration.