MOE Responds To - "Are Teachers Ready To Think Out of the Box"?

The Sun bertarikh 20 Julai 2010 – ARE TEACHERS READY TO THINK OUT OF THE BOX?

First of all, Ministry of Education Malaysia (MES) would like to thank E-Torch from Kajang for her/his opinion through an article in the SUN newspaper entitled “Are Teachers Ready To Think Out Of The Box?” on 20^th July 2010.

We share the same views with the writer on tapping the students’ imagination. We appreciate his/her suggestions for teachers to put more time into discussing and exploring the topic raised. In the teacher education curriculum, creative and critical thinking skills are in the program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategies as well as course content. These skills are integrated across the curriculum. There is a dual role of creativity and thinking skills for teachers as well as developing creativity and thinking skills in children. There is also specific content area to analyse teaching on, for and about thinking; learning to think and thinking to learn. Learning strategies also emphasize on student based learning with smart teaching and learning approaches. For the pre service teacher education curriculum, creative and critical thinking is integrated in all courses as well as in the core component under the generic skills. There is also a compulsory course The Arts in Education where creative activities are used in the teaching and learning process. The Arts in Education stresses on exploring, experiencing and expressing. It relates the senses, emotions and imaginations. For the in-service teacher education curriculum, there are courses for innovation in pedagogy. Project Based Learning enables students to explore contextual issues, discuss, collaborate and carry out projects for essential problem solving. There are also courses like Creative Teaching in Science and Creative Teaching in Mathematics as well as courses on the 21^st century skills.

We see that central to writer’s points are the teachers. Central to the education system are the teachers. The Education Ministry is currently increasing its efforts in improving the quality of teacher and redesigning the programmes for teachers’ continuous professional development. We would also place emphasis on the impact of each programme and take steps to monitor implementations for continual improvement. Overall, we would be looking into the whole of the teacher growth continuum from the selection of the candidates, to training, to placement, to induction, to continuous professional development for improving and sustaining teacher quality.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION UNIT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION MALAYSIA