The History Of National Curriculum Education Essay

First and foremost, I am Rubatarshne d/o Vasu as a student from Kirkby International College would take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Mr. Danapalan for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout this assignment. The blessing, help and guidance given by God towards my assignment enable me to complete my assignment successfully.

I would also like to thank my friends in helping me by giving support. In this assignment I have gain abundant knowledge and experiences. I have increased my level of confidence when I met headmistress, senior assistance and teachers. As a future teacher, I also learned that there are two types of activity that had been conducted in school which are school activities and class activities. Besides that, a strong bond of relationship formed between me and my former teachers. I would like to thank once again to my lecturer for giving me a task regarding on National Philosophy of education (NPE).

Lastly, I would like to thank to my teachers that willing to spend time with me to conduct interview. Teachers such as Mrs. Vasugi, Mrs. Chitra and Mrs. Devanagi from Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil, Hicom, Shah Alam and Mrs. Rahinun bt Mohd Noor from Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Uda, Alor Star, Kedah Darul Aman. I learnt about their teaching and learning method which will be useful for me in future.

CONTENT

TOPIC

PAGE

National Philosophy of Education (NPE)

Elements in NPE

National Curriculum

KBSR AND KSSR

School Activity

Sport’s Day

Motivational talk

Qiamullail

Excell program

Gotong-Royong

Class Activity

Role play

Playing games

Spelling routine

Q&A activity

Lady Bird

Conclusion

Appendix

References

1.0 National Philosophy of Education

Education play a pivotal role in Malaysia especially politically, economically, and socially ever since the independence of Malaya in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963. Since then, several education policies were being drafted and altered to meet the education needs of the people of Malaysia from time to time. In 1988, National Philosophy of Education (NPE) was formulated based on ideas and principle of policy documents. It is guide for all educational activities in Malaysia and sets the values and principles of the Malaysian education system from primary to the tertiary level.

(NPE) consist of several elements to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically balanced and harmonic. The first element of (NPE) is education as an on-going effort that acquiring and transferring knowledge skills and noble values which start from an early age till death. It is vital to shape personality of children which will assist them to adapt various types of changes. Next, is (NPE) also develop individual potentials. Each human being has their own hidden talents which can be nurtured and developed, abilities that should be tapped, and enhanced through social interaction with environment. Belief and obedience to God is another element of (NPE) which one must admit the existence of God and accept him as the Creator. Every individual should be fully responsible for his deeds and actions. The last element is to produce knowledgeable Malaysian citizens. We as a Malaysian citizen should have love for knowledge and strive to foster knowledge and implement reading culture in our daily life. So, it clearly shows that if each and everyone in the education fraternity uphold (NPE) when carrying out their tasks with full responsibilities, our educational goals will become reality.

2.0 National Curriculum

There are three time types of changes in curriculum such as Old Primary School Curriculum (KLSR) before 1982, New Primary School Curriculum (KBSR) and Standard Primary School Curriculum (KSSR).Firstly, Old Primary School Curriculum. (KLSR) was implemented since the country attained its independence. In 1960, the Subject Review Committee has been established is also known as Rahman Talib Report. In addition, this level of education system is oriented to the eradiation of illiteracy. Traditional classroom is a place where a group of students will follow the learning process. In this type of classroom, students usually sit in the order of chairs and tables that are arranged line by line. For instance, students who are tall should sit at the back whereas students who are short or have poor eyesight should sit front. In accordance with the aspects of Rahman Talib Report, all students must pass in Bahasa Melayu public examination which the paper is written in Malay Language. It aims to foster unity among multiracial society.

Next, is New Primary School Curriculum (KBSR) which was implemented in 1982 as a trial basis of new curriculum. So, in 1983 government fully implemented Integrated Primary school Curriculum which also known as (KBSR). The curriculum design based on three areas which are communication, man and environment, and development of individual (KBSR) emphasizes students study in group and interaction between teacher and students, students and students are very stressed in this (KBSR). In terms of teaching strategies, student-centered is actively approach in the process of teaching and learning. This is because it raises an interesting environment in classroom and stimulates the process of teaching and learning. The evaluation in (KBSR) emphasize in basic skills (3R) that students should be mastered which are oral, reading and writing. Students who could not master any subjects, the student will be sent to remedial classes. Remedial classes are often used to stress the basics in a subject such as math or language.

Lastly, Standard Primary School Curriculum (KSSR) curriculum design based on six spikes which are communication, spirituality, attitudes and values ​​of physical and aesthetic development of humanities, science and technology and appearance. From 2011, the primary school curriculum start to apply (KSSR) which involves changes in design, organization, content, pedagogy, time allocation, assessment methods, materials and management of the school curriculum. (KSSR) emphasized the use of different teaching approaches learning (P & P) that give more emphasis and impact on students. For example, teachers teach the students by approaching to inquiry findings, solution and problem, constructivism, contextual, teaching based on future and learning based on project. Therefore, the three elements of value was added and introduced in the (KSSR) the element of creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, information and communication technology (ICT).

In short, changes in the era of globalization require a change in the balance of the education curriculum like (KLSR) before 1982, (KBSR) and (KSSR).These changes improve the quality of primary education to be more relevant to the challenges of the present and of the 21st century. It is very vital to conduct activities according to (NPE) especially in schools and universities and guides to a standard curriculum. By implementing the curriculum effectively in schools, it can develop the students cognitive, affective and psychomotor (physical) with other potentials (JERIS) in students. Here, there will be challenging round among students to compete each other. By implementing activities which are in integrated manner will make the students to think out of the box.

3.0 School Activity

Recently, I have interviewed headmaster and senior assistance in two schools which are Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Uda (SKTU) at Alor Star, Kedah and Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Hicom (SJKT) at Dengkil, Selangor. The purpose of these interviews is based on the national curriculum of the school which reflects the objective of (NPE). According to the interviews that conducted in both schools, I identify that there are two types of activities are organized in schools which are school based activities and classroom activities. Various types of activity that are organized in school aligned with (NPE). There are five main activities that carried out in school like Sports Day, Motivational Talk, Qiamullai, Excell Program and ‘gotong-royong’.

First and foremost, Sports Day is carried out during the month of February annually. All the teachers and student from Standard 1 until Standard 6 are involved in this activity. A few weeks before Sports Day, student start to give their names for participate events like high broad jump, 100m race, ‘shot put’ and others. After the school hours, students will start to practice the activities at school field. The importance to organize this activity is to develop students who are healthy. Sports can build up muscles and bones which eventually will make the students to become healthy. Sports day is the time where student is taught and expose to  various types of sports and learning to be cooperate in team games, be discipline as to follow the rules for each game or sport and so much more. Sports are a very healthy activity that can keep away a lot of unnecessary disease such as obese. Students can maintain their personal well-being which is aligned with (NPE). This activity can help to develop psychomotor skills in students.

Another activity that was conducted in school is Motivational Talk which was given by the Sir Ismail who is one of the counselors in that school. This talk is to cater the stability of student’s emotions and self management for their excellence. All students are involves in this talk and given knowledge to prepare themselves for exams. It is carried out in three phases which are learning techniques, time management and emotion control. Students take the importance key features and try to improve self weakness and making use the strength to ensure excellence in their students. This activity helps to produce students who are high moral standards and responsible which is in lined with (NPE). Here, students can stabilize their emotions in a right path.

Qiamulail is also one of the activities that were conducted in schools. All the Muslims students were involved in this activity while non-Muslims students were involved in Moral class. Muslims students stayed in hostel for one day to complete their prayers. Their prayers will start at early in the morning which is at 4 in the morning and ends at 5 in the evening. This activity brings a strong spiritual life and is a way to get closer to God which is highly demanded. The students also have an opportunity to build the spirit of appreciating religion and have faith in God. This activity mould students to believe in god as stated in (NPE). In this activity, students can high spirituality within themselves and avoid them to involve in immoral activities.

Activity like ‘Excell Programs’ which is mean by extra classes are organized in school. Participation of all students is compulsory for this activity. It has two phases which are drilling students understanding in each chapter and techniques to answer questions. Phase 1 is to improve students’ understanding in each chapter so that they can understand and perform well in exams while phase 2 is to give them the correct strategies to answer the questions according to exam standard. Phase 1 is done with the help of teachers at class after finishing each chapter. Phase 2 is carried out after the final assessment. The teachers will give proper techniques of answering to each subject. Here, the students will master the answering techniques when they were given to answer past year questions and exercises. Those students who improved in a particular subject they will be given reward by the headmaster. This will create enthusiasm in learning. Here, students improve their cognitive skill which helps to produce students who are knowledgeable and competent as stated in (NPE)

The last activity that was conducted is ‘gotong-royong’. The spirit of gotong-royong is a core of culture that students should follow. Students were divided into groups to clean different types of area in schools like filed, garden, classrooms, hall and others This activity was held to nurture students to well-behave, co-operate with others, love and responsible to take care of their school, and to give awareness to students about healthy body, mind and environment. After the gotong-royong event, students will pick up rubbish on the floor anywhere in the school if they see it. It is important that cleanliness and beautification will keep the environment to be conducive and comfortable so that the teaching and learning process would be more effective. Besides, the activity actually is in line with (NPE) which is to produce balanced individual from the aspect of emotional. They love and appreciate the school, the nature, have a sense of belonging and solidarity and lastly they will become mature in thinking.

4.0 Class activity

Besides school based activities, there are also classroom activities which are effective to students. Classroom activities should be built primarily on creating opportunities for students to express and understand meaningful language. However, the activities are based on form-focused instruction and corrective feedback which is essential for the development of students in the classrooms. Lesson plan is the guide for teachers to prepare activities for students and put varieties in order to create fun learning environment. The activities that conducted in the class are role play, playing games, spelling routine, Q&A activity and Lady Bird.

The most interesting activity that student enjoyed is role play. Role play is an integral part of the curriculum for speaking and listening. The use of role play provides students to develop speaking and listening skills when they speak as a character, plan scenes, use dialogue and evaluate their own performance and that of others. For instance, the teacher wants to teach about occupation. The teacher can ask their students to act a teacher, doctor, shopkeeper, lawyer and others. Here, students will brainstorm their ideas to act as one of the occupation. Students get to wider their knowledge and experiences when they start to engage with other students while using signs, props, menus, and so on. The school teacher also states that this role play activity can build student’s confidence level when students are brave to present in front of their friends. High moral standards can be created among students to mould good behavior and produce personal well-being as stated in (NPE)

Another amusing activity that carried out by teacher in classroom is playing games. There many types of games that students participated which were jigsaw puzzle, online interactive games, word a day and others. These games are great exercise for brain. It helps the students to improve their memory, spatial and pattern recognition and spelling skills. Game like word a day can create a reading environment in the classrooms. Students were told to bring newspaper cutting during English class. First, students were given instructions by teacher to look for word which they do not understand. After that, they have to look up for the meaning in dictionary and construct them into sentences. In this activity, students who collect a lot of words will be given award as a token of appreciation. Besides that, this activity also emphasizes students to read independently and wider their knowledge in terms of vocabulary. Teachers and students are putting their effort as on-going effort for excellence in order to produce knowledgeable Malaysian citizen as stated in (NPE)

Next, is spelling routine which is conducted by teacher in the classroom. The most helpful way of giving spelling is to write the word down for the students using the ‘look, cover, write, check’ routine which is originally devised by Peters and Cripps (1980). First the teacher writes the word for the students to look at the word and to memorize it. This can be done by tracing or copying it. The correct version is then removed or covered and asked the students to write the word from memory without any help. The students’ spelling is then checked against the correct version. If the spelling is correct, students can incorporate the word into their writing. If the word is incorrect when comparing the two versions, identify where the problem lies and repeat the whole procedure. This strategy helps students to memorize the correct spelling by looking at the whole word. Besides that, it helps students to get the overall visual pattern of the word which they can easily remember it. This activity helps to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent as aligned with (NPE).

Another activity that can carried out in class is Q & A activity which is stand for question and answer. This activity is organized it is easy to be carried out in the class but the activity is able to create the two way interaction between teacher and student efficiently. The questions given by teacher require students to think and able to evaluate what has been taught by teacher during the lesson. In addition, the questions must be organized and good quality because it will help students to sharpen their thinking as well as to create more dynamic and effective learning environment. For instance, teacher gives questions regarding on Mathematic subject. Teacher can vary the questions into objective and subjective form which will evaluate students’ thinking skill. The aim of the activity is to encourage students to think creatively, innovative, logical and critical thinking in line with National curriculum which is to mold students’ behavior and thinking from the aspects of intellectual.

Last but not least, the activity that carried out in class is Lady Bird. This activity creates for students who are slow learners. It is one the way to grab slow learners’ attention to study smart. Teacher lays a vital role here by giving endless support to students as they can be a good learner like others. First, it is conducted by providing a text with number of questions. The question should vary from 3 levels of aspects which are easy, average and hard. Students need to search for key words in the text and highlight or underline the key features that enable them to answer the questions. Students who are fast learner will be junior teacher for those who are slow learners. Slow learners will feel free to ask questions or clarifications to their friends without hesitations. After this session carried out, there are slow learners who are able to read after involve in this activity for three months and showed increase in each school examination. This activity persist in (NPE) by a least number of slow learners which will contribute in producing literacy nation in Malaysia.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion the National philosophy of Education (NPE) gives a very big impact on the development of education that involves the ministry of education, formation of various new concepts in education, curriculum, co-curriculum, schools, teachers and students. Overall this causes a great improvement of the citizen of the nation as mention in the (NPE) in the formation of balanced and harmonious individuals physically, intellectual, emotional, spiritually and socially, citizen that lives in harmony, believes in god and others.

As a future teacher we should apply (NPE) in teaching and learning process so that it produce a better Malaysian citizen.

6.0 Appendix

NAME

BIODATA

176.JPG

MRS VASUGI

45 YEARS OLD

SEKOLAH JENIS KEBANGSAAN TAMIL, HICOM, SHAH ALAM

HEADMISTRESS

15 YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCES

180.JPG

MRS. CHITRA

30 YEARS OLD

SEKOLAH JENIS KEBANGSAAN TAMIL, HICOM, SHAH ALAM

SENIOR ASSISTANTS

5 YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCES

184.JPG

MRS. DEVANAGI

35 YEARS OLD

SEKOLAH JENIS KEBANGSAAN TAMIL, HICOM, SHAH ALAM

ENGLISH TEACHER

10 YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCES

DSC_0095 – Copy.JPG

MRS. RAHINUN BT MOHD NOOR

58 YEARS OLD

SEKOLAH KEBANGSAAN TAMAN UDA, ALOR STAR, KEDAH DARUL AMAN

HEADMISTRESS

38 YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCES