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Malaysian Online Journal of Instructional Technology (MOJIT) Vol. 3, No.2, pp 17-25 August 2006ISSN 1823:1144

Development of an Online Resource Centre for Science Teachers

Kamariah Abu Bakar,

Mohamed Amin Embi &

Afendi Hamat

Faculty of Educational StudiesUniversiti Putra Malaysia43400 UPM Serdang, Selangorkamarab@educ.upm.edu.my

Faculty of Education,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia43600 Bangi, Selangor

Faculty of Social Science and HumanitiesUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.Bangi, Selangor

Abstract

The national agenda of making all 10,000 Malaysia’s primary and secondary schools to be SmartSchools by 2010, and being directed to teach Science in English starting in 2003, science teachers allover are facing a monumental task of transforming themselves to realise these agendas. One of the ways to alleviate this problem is to keep abreast of current issues and practices. Thus, new opportunities for professional development ought to be presented in order that the science teachers will be able to optimize usage of the ICT facilities that can help these teachers to contribute to theirstudents’ growth and development. The Internet holds promise to host effective professionaldevelopment programmes. This paper describes the development of the Science, Mathematics andIT Teacher Resource Centre or SMIT-TReC and how the platform could be used for teachers’professional development.

INTRODUCTION

Malaysia has four years to realize the vision that by the year 2010, all 10,000 of her primary andsecondary schools will become Smart Schools, as had been highlighted by the Smart School Project Team (1997), and reiterated by the Prime Minister, cited lately in the Malaysian tabloid. In line withthis declaration and in order to ensure that the future generation will be able to compete in aknowledge-based economy, mastery of English as the International Language is most crucial. Thisled to the change in policy that Science and Mathematics were to be conducted in English, apartfrom the English Language subject, to be implemented progressively in 2003 for Year 1 (7 yearsold), Form 1 (13 years old) and Lower Six (18 years oled) classes. Thus, this placed a renewedemphasis on science pedagogical practices and the integration of technology in science. Scienceteachers all over are facing a monumental task of transforming themselves to realise these agendas.In an effort to achieve the above, the Government, for instance, had allocated RM23.4 billion(RM3.6 = US1.00) to the Ministry of Education in 2004 budget so as to ensure Malaysia responds well to the current changing demands and requirements. In 2004, the Ministry of Education hadprovided teachers with 79,144 notebook computers and 66,685 LCD projectors. Science teachers

MOJIT Development of an Online Resource Centre for Science Teachers

have been given training to fully utilise the hardware and software, besides being provided with Self-Learning packages. This is as part of Ministry Of Education’s commitment to empower and alleviatethe teaching profession, investing heavily in enhancing the learning-teaching environment with state-of-art hardware and software – wired with broadband access.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS

To be an effective science teacher is a continuous process that stretches from the science teachers’pre service experiences in the undergraduate years to the end of their professional career path.Science teachers will need ongoing opportunities to develop their knowledge, understanding, skillsand abilities to keep pace with the continuously increasing and changing national agenda.Professional development generally refers to ongoing learning opportunities available to teachers,through their schools, district, state or at the national level. Effective professional development isseen as increasingly vital to school success and teacher satisfaction. With schools today facing anarray of complex challenges – from working with an increasingly diverse population of students,some with challenging social backgrounds, to teaching of science in English even if one’s academicand professional background do not support this, to integrating new technology in the classroom, tomeeting rigorous academic standards and goals set by the Ministry of Education, - continuousprofessional development on the part of the science teachers are deemed necessary. The current scene in professional development of all science teachers in no way resembles the idealof a sturdy bridge to the science and technologically based future – a critical link that is supposed tobe carefully and uniquely designed to meet particular needs of the nation. Instead, the professionaldevelopment of science teachers experience is typically limited since the courses are rather short, andfragmented, incapable of supporting them as they carry the weight to adequately prepare futurecitizens. Programmes fall far short of helping teachers develop the depth of understanding they must have of science content, as well as how best to help their students to learn it. This weakness in current professional development programmes for science teachers leads to many teachers entering the classroom unprepared to teach challenging science. Teachers’ lack of preparation becomes even more critical in light of current demands of the science curricula. If teachers enter the classrooms not prepared or under prepared, for sure they will not be able toimpart the science knowledge and skills in the best possible meaningful way. If they don’t fully understand everything about what they are supposed to be teaching and the how to make theknowledge meaningful and interesting, then the science lesson can never be fun for the students. Again, if students do not fully understand what has been taught, science knowledge would bereduced to mere facts and due to lack of understanding, will be rote memorized, and may not evenrealize the relationship between the memorized facts and events that are happening around them.Science teachers also, often face obstacles that restrain them from being active in professionaldevelopment programmes. The main obstacle is time allocation for professional development, whichis scarce and limited. In addition, teachers are burdened with endless duties and chores, besides themain task of teaching, that take up most of their professional time. Experts, policy makers andteachers have consistently classified the lack-of-time factor as the greatest challenge to implementing effective professional development (Abdal-Haqq, 1996). Another stumbling block for effective professional development experiences for science teachers inMalaysia is the insufficient up-to-date resources, materials and references that are available in

MOJIT Development of an Online Resource Centre for Science Teachers

schools or in local teachers’ activity centers. For example, Sharifah (2000) found that teachers weredenied of support from all quarters (especially parents, administrators and society), facilities, andmonetary aid in their effort to perform effectively in their schools. So, how is the nation supposedto build up a strong science based human resource to pursue future national scientific andtechnological developments?

ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE FUTURE

Malaysia cannot have educational excellence without excellent teachers. Teachers should takeresponsibility for their personal and professional development. They should be lifelong learners inorder for them to be better prepared for the various challenges being bombarded upon them whileeducating their students. In order to foster the culture of lifelong learning and a passion forknowledge, an alternative to the professional development that does not require the science teachersto continually be away from schools, needs to be developed.Professional development of science teachers need to be continuous and on-going involving follow up and support for further learning – including support from sources external to the school that canprovide necessary resources and new perspectives (National Partnership for excellence and Accountability in Teaching, 1998). The professional development investments must be tied aspowerfully as possible to improvements in student learning. This connection will be most successfulby focusing the content of teacher learning in relation to the curriculum of student learning (Sykes,1999). This is a national agenda. Thus, the Ministry of Education should not try to handle this alone. TheMinistry needs to form partnerships with local universities, linking university expertise to schools,and collaboratively harness the Internet and all possible resources to assist the science teachers todevelop professionally. For a learning community to be effective it must support engagement inpart by giving the science teachers the opportunity to share their histories (Brosnan and Burgess,2003), background, creative practices, successful solutions to problems with others who share thesame outlook.

SMIT TeReC PORTAL AS A PLATFORM FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teachers need to continuously learn. Nevertheless, teachers in many parts of the world facenumerous obstacles that contain them from being active in professional development, such as lack of time, insufficient up-to-date resources, materials and references. The Web with its capacity forcreating connections and the sharing of resources, holds promise to host effective professionaldevelopment programmes. Currently, although open learning is more readily available for teachersthan ever before, with the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, there is still lack of online programmes geared towards teacher professional development, especially in the Malaysiancontext. Hence, there is a need to develop an online resource center for teachers in Malaysia,perhaps in the region, to enhance their professional development. Towards this end Kamariah etal.(2005) developed an educational portal for the professional development and lifelong learning of Science, Mathematics and IT teachers in Malaysia known as SMIT-TeReC. Research has shown thatonline communities have been successful in fostering collaboration among teachers (Harris andNiven, 2002).SMIT-TeReC (see Figure 1) which is the acronym for Science, Mathematics and IT Online TeacherResource Center can serve as a useful lifelong learning platform to help enhance these teachers’