Philosophy of Teacher Education in Malaysia

Teacher education in Malaysia is an on-going effort towards producing teachers who are of high
moral standards, who possessed progressive and scientific vision, who are committed to uphold
national aspirations and cultural heritage, who ensure the development of individuals and who
preserve a united, democratic, progressive and disciplined society.
 I. PREFACE

All praises to Allah S.W.T. because with His permission, I can finished this instructional
book for teaching in museum for course code of ADE465 Museum and Gallery Education. I am
honored to much obliged of my lecturer, Drs. Hery Santosa for being more than a lecturer. I
never thought a person could be teacher, support, mentor and a philosopher all in one. I would
like to thanks my lecturer for all his hard work and dedication and also for putting his trust on his
student in carry responsibility and task given.

Course subject of RK251 Belajar dan Pembelajaran Seni Rupa that must be taken and learn
by Bachelor of Education student this semester in Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia has been
teach by an lecturer name Drs. Hery Santosa. To fulfill this subject requirement, I was given one
task by module of Belajar dan Pembelajaran Seni rupa in Malaysia and Indonesia context.

Furthermore, this task is given in individually to all students. This task is to expand and
develop knowledge, critical thinking skill, social skill and communication skill of student. It also
to investigate and understand some teaching theory, teaching method and strategy and teaching
objective in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Besides, I am excited in doing this investigation about teaching skill, teaching theory,
teaching objective and teaching method because I believe different region and country would
have different types and ways in teaching at school. I am humble and willingly to learn from
below and fulfill my knowledge and information deficiency and I want to share my research
findings with lecturer, friends and family. With this, we might open up our mind more about
teaching skill.
 II. INTRODUCTION

Teaching is an essential part of education. Its special function is to impart knowledge,

develop understanding and skills. It is usually associated with the imparting of 3-Rs which
known as reading, writing, counting. The teacher play vital role in imparting knowledge to the
learners. The teaching skills are defined as a group of teaching acts or behavior intended to
facilitate students learning directly or indirectly.

There are a few basic requirements that some employer was looking for such as a qualified
certificate, experience working with children, and, of course, patience. Teachers need a variety of
professional development skills along with knowledge of their subject matter and experience in
order to be an effective teacher. Likewise, as the rapid developments in technology infuse into
our lives, they affect the way students learn and the way teachers teach. Modern teachers need to
be competent in not only basic skills, but new skill sets.

As a teacher, proactive teaching skills are needed for better teaching and learning
environment. Teaching offers the chance to change other people’s lives permanently for the
better. As a teacher, we can help to develop somebody’s knowledge and even their mind and
personality. Besides, teaching is incredibly rewarding thing to do and good teachers are needed
everywhere such as at schools and college classroom to educate the young as well as in the
workplace and other settings to teach adults and colleagues. As well as subject knowledge, there
are some other, more general and qualities that teachers need.
III. AIMS OF TEACHING SKILL

Every aspect of teaching will be shaped by the role we want to play in the mentorship and
development of our students. Every nuts-and-bolts teaching strategy, even the most practical
advice about lecturing or writing exams, serves the goal of helping us become the kind of teacher
who has inspired us. We must instill strong moral values to our student, helping them develop
confidence and independence as well as becoming kind and respectful individuals. This is
balanced with a requirement for consistently high teaching standards and excellent academic
progress for every student. Below are some examples of some of the highest teaching goals to
remind us that great teaching is more than a handful of teaching tricks strung together with
modest aims and sufficient expertise in our field.

a) To enable the teacher to understand individual differences in learning

Profession as a teacher require teacher to have lots of knowledge of psychology and

sociology. The objective is to understand the child psychology so that the teacher is able to
appreciate the difficulties experienced by children so as to bring about new modes and methods
of achieving the goals in consonance with the reactions of the children. Teacher need to have
good understanding of student differences at class like teacher need to know what student’s
ability and deficiency, and student behavior. As types, ability and behavior of student are not the
same, so the teaching style also won’t be the same. An example, if there are student that are
passive in class, or active in class, teacher need to teach with different approaches.

b) Enable the teacher to develop confidence in teaching

Aims of teaching skills are to make sure teacher can develop their confidence in teaching.
Teacher need to know what kind of teaching theory, teaching strategy to apply in their teaching
and lesson followed by suitable situation and condition of teacher with types of student and
geographical area. Once teacher already know what kind of skill they can develop in their
teaching, teacher can teach with more confidence.
 c) To avoid confusion

Main reason teacher need to study and apply some teaching skill in their teaching and
learning is to avoid confusion in teaching student according to certain subject. An example, if
teacher want to teach language, the approaches will be different and teacher might need to teach
lots of writing and reading. Meanwhile, if teacher going to teach art, teacher need to mastery in
certain skills such as be good in both communication and demonstrate. Art teacher need to
explain what they want to teach and need to demonstrate how to create an artwork. Because
student need to experience and witness how some work process happen. Means art teacher need
to teach with using both cognitive and psychomotor.

d) Facilitate mastery of a field

Teacher need to choosing area of specialization and concentration which teacher can combine
in two or many followed by teacher’s interest. For an example, I am going to teach art. So, I
might mix art with science, history and music in teaching later on. Our classroom is a training
ground not only for future study in our field but also for many aspects of life. Great teachers help
students master the fundamentals of their subject matter, which will pay off both for advanced
study in their field and for students’ everyday understanding of the world.

e) Make the class interesting

Making teaching and learning fun and interesting is very important nowadays because we are
now teaching student that born in new era. We need to be versatile in teaching student to make
sure the teaching and learning are not boring. An example, teacher can teach student with
different ways such as insert and using digital tools, arts and music in teaching. It will be more
interactive between teacher and student in class.
 f) Inspire students

Our effort and enthusiasm as a teacher directly influence students’ commitment to our course
and interest in our field. Great teachers inspire students by demonstrating belief in their students’
abilities and by providing the support students need to meet challenging academic demands.

g) Mentor young intellects

Long after individual facts and phrases are forgotten, our students will carry with them the
intellectual skills we help them develop, from critical to creative thinking. Great teachers prepare
students for lifelong learning.

h) Help students find their voice

Once we’ve helped students find something they want to say, we need to help them find a
way to say it. Great teachers give students the skills to communicate effectively and the
confidence to express what they think. I believe as a teacher, we need to boost student to be
confidence and brave in communicate and speaking up about anything. This is because a student
with good academic result without confidence to talk is not a good example of student. Student
should be good in academic, personality, social and communication skill.

i) Help students articulate and follow their values

One of the main goals of higher education is to help students figure out who they are and how
they can be of service to their community. Great teachers help students understand the social
responsibilities of their field and the social impact of their choices.

j) Help student balance their intellectual and morality

As a teacher, need to embed a balance set of intellectual, skills, emotion, spiritual, mental and
physical and harmony. Then, teacher need to help student build up their personality to have good
ethic and moral which teacher should produce student who will be able to understand and
practice the Five National Principle (Lima Rukun Negera). Teacher need to ensure student have
good ethics such as good manners, treating other with civility, respect each other and against
violence while have good moral such as helping each other, integrity and honesty.
IV. TEACHING METHODS AND STRATEGIES

Teaching methods, or methodology, is a narrower topic because it’s founded in theories and
educational psychology. Figuring out the best ways to deliver knowledge and information to
students can sometimes be even harder that what students go through in discovering how they
learn best. The reason is because every single teacher needs a variety of different teaching
methods in their theoretical teaching from depending on the lesson, students, and things as
seemingly minute as the time the class is and the subject. Using these different teaching methods,
which rooted in theory of different teaching style will not only help teachers achieve their full
potential, but more importantly engage, motivate and reach the students in their classes, whether
in person or online. To me, the best teaching method that I will apply in my teaching is student-
centered approach which I will apply Jean Piaget and John Dewey’s approach in my teaching
method. This approach will give student choices of learning activities. Next, students become the
center of the educational process and teacher only act as facilitator or guidance. This approach
will involve student in work and participate in class, small and big group and also individually.

Besides, I look forward on to Pragmatist teaching method I which believes that we should
select the ideas, actions and consequences with the most desirable outcome, as well as learning
from previous experiences to achieve desirable consequences. I believe that reality must be
experience which student needs to experience trial and error or trial and failure in their learning.
Trial and error is a fundamental method of problem solving. It is characterized by repeated,
varied attempts which are continued until successes or until the agent stops trying. Trial and error
is a heuristic method of problem solving, repair, tuning or obtaining knowledge. I believe in
many ways trial and error is the only form of learning we really have. When we make an error,
or fail at something, we give ourselves an opportunity to analyze that failure, make change and
then try again. I believe it is the engine of self-improvement.

In other perspective, reality that must be experience by student also such as student need to
get through the environment and facilities around them like the class, art studio, carpentry
workshop and etc. Then, student need to experience how to handle certain tools and media which
either it is easy, moderate or hard to handle. An example on how reality must be experience such
as students need to experience paint using both different media of painting like acrylic and oil
paint. Then student will get to know that the reality of acrylic is fastening to dry while oil paint is
longer to dry. Student need to interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn.

Furthermore, I also believe in Progressivism teaching method. I can say it quite similar to
Pragmatism. These philosophies of education can be applied in my teaching method. I believe
that education should focus on the whole student rather than on the content or the teacher.
Progressivism stressed that students should test idea by active experimentation. Learning is
rooted in the question of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not
passive. The learners are a problem solver and thinker who make meaning through their
individual experience in the physical and cultural context. I also believe that effective teacher
provide experiences so that students can learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from
student interests and questions. The scientific method is used by teacher so that students can
study matter and events systematically and first hand. I believe student need to learn through
hands-on approach. Then, I also stand on my view of practice at problem solving instead of
direct questions according scientific method is important. Next, skills also develop in
Progressivism by using psychomotor on any learning.

Moreover, I believe that teacher as a facilitator is a must which facilitator promotes self-
learning and help students develop their critical thinking skills and retain knowledge that leads to
self-actualization. This method trains students to ask questions and develop skills to find answers
and solutions through exploration which it is ideal for teaching.

Meanwhile, I also believe that Constructivist teaching method which contemporary teaching
styles tend to be group-focused and inquiry-driven. Constructivist teaching methods embrace
subsets of alternative teaching styles, including modeling, coaching, and test preparation through
rubrics scaffolding. All of these are designed to promote student participation and necessitate a
hybrid approach that is caters to extroverted, group-oriented students, who tend to dominate and
benefit from these teaching methods more than introverts. However, this assumes introverts
aren’t learning by observing. Student-centered learning does not have to come at the expense of
an instructor’s preferred teaching method. However, differentiated instruction demands that
teachers finesse their style to accommodate the diverse needs of 21st century classrooms.

On the other hand, lecture method is just one of teaching methods, though in school it’s
usually considered the primary one, the lecture method is convenient for the institution and cost-
efficient, especially with larger classroom sizes. Lecturing lets teacher and educator address the
most people at once, in the most general manner, while still conveying the information that they
feel is important the most, according to the lesson plan. While the lecture method give teacher
chances to expose students to unpublished or not readily available material, students play a
passive role which may hinder learning. While this method facilitates huge class communication,
the lecture must make constant and conscious effort to become aware of student problems and
engage the students to give verbal feedback. It can be used to arouse interest in a subject
provided the instructor has effective writing and communication skills.

Conversely, I believe that demonstrating also the best method in teaching which is also called
the coaching method, is the process of teaching through examples or experiments. The
framework mixes the instructional strategies of information imparting and showing how. For
example, an art teacher may teach techniques and media in painting by performing an
experiment for student. A demonstration may be used to prove a fact through a combination of
visual evidence and associated reasoning. Demonstrations are similar to written storytelling and
examples and example in that they allow students to personally relate to the presented
information. Memorization of a list of facts is detached and impersonal experience, whereas the
same information, conveyed through demonstration, becomes personally relatable.
Demonstration helps to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they
provide connections between facts and real-world applications of those facts. Lectures, on the
other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning. In my
perspective view, demonstration method involves the capability to include different formats or
settings and instruction materials to make the learning process engaging. This can leads to the
activation of several of the learner’s senses, creating more opportunities for learning. This
approach is also beneficial on the part of the teacher because it is adaptable to both group and
individual teaching.

Essentially, I also believe on method of collaborating in teaching which it allows student to

actively participate in the learning process by communicate and talk each other and listening to
others opinions. Collaboration establishes a personal connection between students and the topic
study and it helps student to think in a less personally biased way. Group projects and
discussions are examples of this teaching method. Teachers may employ collaboration to assess
student’s abilities to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities. I believe that
collaborative discussion can take a variety of forms. After some preparation and with clearly
defined roles, a discussion may constitute most of a lesson, with the teacher only giving short
feedback at the end or in the following lesson. Some examples of collaborative learning methods
and strategies for teacher are build trust, establish group interactions, keeps in mind the critics,
include different types of learning. Use real-world problems, consider assessment, create a pre-
test and post-test, use different strategies, help students use inquiry and use technology for easier
learning.

Alternatively, I stand on my point of view in classroom discussion as the best method in

teaching which the most common type of collaborative method of teaching in a class. It is also a
democratic way of handling a class, where each student is given equal opportunity to interact and
put forth their view. A discussion taking place in a classroom can be either facilitated by a
teacher or by student. A discussion could follow a presentation or a demonstration. I believe that
class discussions can enhance student understanding, add context to academic content, broaden
student perspectives, highlight opposing viewpoints, reinforce knowledge, build confidence, and
support community in learning. The opportunities for meaningful and engaging in class
discussion may vary widely, depending in the subject matter and format or setting of the course.
Motivations for holding planned classroom discussion, however, remain consistent. I believe that
an effective classroom can be achieved by probing more questions among the students,
paraphrasing the information received, using questions to develop critical thinking with question.
 Particularly, I believe debriefing is one of best teaching method and strategy. The term
debriefing refers to conversational sessions that revolve around the sharing and examining or
investigating of information and knowledge after a specific event has taken place. Depending on
the situation, debriefing can serve a variety of purposes. It takes into consideration the
experiences and facilitates reflection and feedback. Debriefing may involve feedback to students
or among the students but this is not the intent. The intent is to allow the students to judge their
experience and progress toward change or transformation. The intent is also to help them to
come to terms with their experience. I believe this process involves a cognizance of cycle that
students may have to be guided to completely debrief. I believe that teachers should not be
overly critical of relapses in behavior. Once the experience is completely integrated, the students
will exit this cycle and get on with the next.
 V. REFERENCES

“John Dewey: Pragmatism and Progressivism”, Fatiha bt. Rosniza, Siti Hajar Mariana bt.
Mishad, Wan Nur Ayuni Wan Rahim, Nur Wasiqah bt. A. Hamid & Munirah Husna bt. Alias,
powerpoint slides, 2018.

“Jean Piaget”, powerpoint slides, 2018.

“Experience and education”. Simon and Schuster, Dewey, J. , 2007.

“Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking”, Teachers college
record, 104(4), 842-866, Rodgers, C. , 2002.

“The need for a philosophy of education”, (1934). Schools, 7(2), 244-245, Dewey, J. 2010.

“Learning best through experience”, Richardson, J. G. Journal of Extension, 32(2), n2. 1994.

“Foundations of Education”, Ornstein, Levine, Gutek. Books.

“Teacher and the World Of Education”, Hand out chapter 8