Mentoring for Educational Profession-Seminar Counselor
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Transcript of Mentoring for Educational Profession-Seminar Counselor
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Mentoring Professional Education Development
Asst. Prof. Dr. Hanipah HussinDeputy Dean Academic,
Center for Academic Services
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, (UTeM)
Jalan Hang Tuah Jaya. Ayer Keroh. 75450.Melaka
Mentoring in Paradigm shiftFrom educational point of view, professional development in education always
move from learning to be and during learning, mentoring is a very crucial part. If one
enter the phase of developing their career to be professional the first thing that involve
is paradigm shift. Paradigm means a way of thinking, while shift is a process of
movement. Paradigm shift is a process of activates new ideas in order to change old
one so that new thought enabling teachers to gain new understanding. New
understanding of image or conception will be able to shift one from unknown to well
known, from discover to create. This process involve mentor that geared learning
movement.
Thinking cant be measured until it was conveyed into a form of writing or oral
transcription. In order to make thinking and the paradigm shift among teachers
explicitly impact, teachers need kind of tool to transfer their thought into an action
behavioral. The tools are reflective thinking and reflective writing whereas a format of
reflective thinking and writing method is to help teacher understand a process of
writing ideas and convey it in a differences issue or problem. Hanipah Hussin
(1999:15) claimed that teacher needs coach to used reflection as a tool and the school
administration system needs to scaffold the reflective practice among teachers. After
teacher gained a skill and competence to use of reflective writing then teacher can
shift their thought into a form of action. The thought and action have to be
complimented implement using another processes that we known as professional
development. Some questions can help teacher to reflect effectively.
KERTAS KERJA
DALAMAN
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1) What is the interesting event that I would like to write about?2) How do I feel about the event?3) How do I rational the reason why it was happened4) How do I gain a new understanding from this experience5) What can I suggest some alternative action?6) What action could I take immediately
Mentoring in Action Research in Education
The effective development of reflective teachers is largely dependent on the
behaviour of teacher educators. Thus the professional development of teacherseducators is the focus for development country. Thus, it was encouraging to note that
in Sharifah Bees (1997) observations of the Staff Development Programs in two
teacher education colleges, teamwork was very much appreciated. Therefore, other
than team teaching that is presently in practice, there should be more provision to
enable teacher educators to work together in pairs or in small teams. Discussion on
planing, implementation, evaluating, reflecting and planing together again in
teaching subject matter is one of the enjoyment moment in teachers life .
This arrangement is not only to facilitate peer observations and to allow the
teacher educator to practice new skills but also to accord them opportunities to discuss
and share their observations reflectively. The example note below show that new
teacher do not have knowledge and skill to reflect.
The school became the host for the under-11 football competition (SouthEast Zone
level). I was elected as a member of the committee manning the information desk.
Upon instructions from the school authority, we, the trainee teachers had to sell food,
to increase the revenue for the student charity fund(M.Majaid Journal Week 8,
30/8/95).
After the format of reflection had enhance for several weeks , the same student
teachers had come out with a new paradigm shift
on that particular day, I found that the students were very enthusiastic in answering
the questions. The PKBS exams are important for the students, as students would be
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streamed into classes according to the results they obtain in this exam, for the
upcoming school session. The students answers showed me that they could grasp
most of the skills that I had been imparting to them. In my opinion, the students were
well prepared for the exams. Only a handful of them were weak in their studies and
took little interest in the PKBS. However, I realized that a bigger responsibility awaits
me when I enter the real school life. Students can be seen as customers of a teacher,
who should be treated well so that the lessons passed on to them, are well received. I
will further upgrade my teaching standard to create a more effective teaching method,
so that even the weaker and average students can compete with the smarter ones. I
will try to guide my students in the best way possible to help mould them into usefulcitizens in the future
(M. Majid Journal Week 16, 4/10/96).
In connection to the above, Hanipah Hussin, (1999) found that Malaysian
Teachers College Staff Development Programs have attempted to provide teacher
educators with opportunities to develop trusting collegial relationships in which they
could help one another. This has been achieved by fostering reflection about practice,
in the production of teaching learning materials, and addressing common problems
more effectively.
The effectiveness of teacher educators who are involved in these Staff
Development Programs can be assessed through the teachers progress and
development during practicum supervision in schools. The aim of improving
schooling in Malaysia drove the Teacher Education Division and the Teacher
Education Colleges to embark on reflective practice in the early 1995. According to
Kamalia, (1999:8), teachers in Malaysia should be given a greater opportunity to take
part in decision making, especially when the issue is about teachers and their
responsibility for a decision to be implemented. Such opportunities for professional
growth would improve the competence of teachers. Thus a future strategy to develop
teamwork and coaching in reflective practice in teacher education is the use of
collaborative action research in schools and colleges.
This book seeks to provide a role model for teacher educators and lecturer in
teachers training colleges and universities, headteachers, NPQH program, teachers in
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school, student teachers, education district officers in Malaysia. I purposely develop
such book like this, provided procedures and plan for Malaysian teachers and
educators from other countries. It is hoped that other teacher educators may be able to
see the value of reflective practice and action research in their own supervisory
practice. Mentoring is a proses of developing confidence. For that reason as a mentor,
always use some provocative questions.
1 What is the interesting event that I would like to write about?2 How do I feel about the event/situation?3 How do I rational the reason why it was happened4 How do I gain a new understanding from this experience?5 Can I suggest some alternatives action?6 What action could I take immediately?
Reflective practice and action research are useful for dealing with classroom
problems. According to Hanipah (1999: 216) during the process of reflective practice
and action research, the educator and teachers learn together to provide with the most
appropriate activities in order to ensure the continuation of each teachers journey
towards expertise. The Headteachers advised to promote reflective writing together
with members from supporting staffs to establish a systematic, orderly procedure for
exploring problems and finding possible actions to eliminate problems or at least to
make the entire school more manageable.
Lecturer Subject Matter as aMentor
Teacher education in Malaysia has placed emphasis not only on the content of
teaching knowledge of student teachers but also on their personal development, which
encompasses moral growth and knowledge of self as teacher. According to Kim
(1994:50) and Hanipah (1999), a high caliber new teacher is one who possesses
teacher knowledge, skills, positive values and ethics. Their teacher belief system must
base on religious thought. God is source of knowledge. Their thought must give a
positive impact to their self-as teacher and self as social leader. Teacher and teacher
educator have to be a researcher and contribute new knowledge to the society.
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A reflective approach by teacher educators in their clinical supervision (Wallace,
1991) may contribute to the development of these aspirations. It is widely
acknowledged that student teachers often have less experiences to draw from in
making sense of teaching experience (Calderhead, 1989). Feiman-Nemser and
Buchmann (1987:272) argued that educators must be actively present in student
teaching to give prospective teachers a concrete sense of pedagogical thinking and
acting. Short (1993) affirms that, for college teachers, action research practice gives
teachers involved the opportunity to take a reflective stance on their own teaching.
This stance helps a systematic inquiry about their own method of teaching.
As a lecturer in pedagogy and a teachers college supervisor, the researcher was
concerned to excel and to live up to the expectations of the student teaching program
at Temenggong Ibrahim Teacher Training College, Johor, Malaysia. This expectation
included notions of a more critical and democratic approach to supervision. It was an
approach that related to Gores (1991:255) portrayal of a critical orientation to
supervision and with Wallaces (1991: 57) concept of a reflective approach in
supervision.
The researcher believes that a reflective approach in supervision must include a form
of critical reflection in which every reflective teacher or teacher educator is aware of
the broad socio-political context in which schooling and teacher education takes place
(Hatton and Smith, 1995). Thus teacher educators in teachers colleges in Malaysia
should be aware of issues such as critical reflection, coaching in reflective practice,
reflective writing as well as be concerned with the content of student teachers
teaching knowledge growth over time.
This evidence in leaning through experiences demonstrated the effort of a teacher
educator who researched her own group of student teachers in seven primary schools
in Malaysia. Like the doctoral students in Feldmans (1996) study, she found that she
struggled with her new roles. Her role was largely undefined and tentative, and both
the researcher and her cohort student teacher experienced and identified issues of
power, voice and reflective practice.
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Data investigation found that the learning cycles through the second order action
research method were useful in enhancing being reflective to both party (student
teachers and educator). The researcher learned how to collaborate with cohort student
teachers, cooperating teachers and subject matter lecturers to work on important and
practical issues during this action research project.
In the processes of doing action research, the researcher gained new knowledge, skills,
insight and a sense of achievement. The researcher allowed her ideas and notions to be
discussed and debated. She allowed time to sit down with student teachers after a
lesson to share all of the perspectives on the lesson and to read the reflective journals
written by student teachers.
She worked together with cooperating teachers in helping and coaching student
teachers. She entered into a critical dialogue with her peers. She carefully shared some
of her experiences, thoughts and feelings before asking her student teachers to reveal
aspects of their experiences. Writing the weekly journal was a good example of
modeling reflective practice to the student teachers (Loughran, 1996). From the
researchers experiences this current study suggests that teacher educators should
complete similar tasks that he/she asks their student teachers to complete. The
researcher as educator must be willing (Dewey, 1933) to work with rather than
over the student teachers (Gore, 1991: 257).
As a teacher educator and the researcher in the current study, the researcher constantly
asked herself questions such as the following: Do I really believe in these practices of
inquiry-oriented teacher education? Why dont I use a reflective journal regularly in
my own teaching? If I argue that I do not have time, can I blame student teachers for
not adopting them as a regular exercise for their teaching? The researcher always
assumed she had two selves and dialogued with herself. One self questions and
another one answers in order to see what was not obvious. One question led to another
question with many questions remaining unanswered.
Thus this current study suggested, individual action research can be extended to
collaborative action research. Everybody involved in the action research contributes
ideas and supports each other and, learning occurs collaboratively. By this process,
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reflective practice could take place in the whole system in schools and in colleges.
These assertions are not to suggest that teacher educators must do the entire task that
they ask their students to do. However, the researcher highly values action research as
a tool in promoting reflective teaching. Teacher educators will learn from their own
action research and, in so doing, will help student teachers learn from and appreciate
such practices.
In this study, the researcher not only gathered data but also concentrated more on
developing an understanding about the nature of the data collected. The data belongs
to both the researcher and the student teachers and was used to improve and change
the situation in classroom practice over time. The following journal extract illustrates
the researchers concern to focus on changing classroom practice:
Siti Ain wrote sincerely about her reaction to her Mathematics lesson. She was
worried that her Mathematics lesson might not have been challenging enough for the
Year Three students. Maybe I could have begun with asking them about yesterdays
lesson to make them interested in todays lesson. Probably some of them can answer
some problems if I ask. I really want them to know that my topic today was not a new
one.
I asked her some questions to focus on that particular issue and always keep my eyes
on her journal (just to show we are focussing on this issue and I was interested to
know more about what she wrote). Why do you think asking about the previous lesson
could help you to make students interested in today lesson? How do you present the
questions to the class? If asking questions was still not effective in this context, what
else might you do to make them learn from you?
She said I dont know what is really the best method for them. I just dont know if it
was challenging! I just wrote what I think it best to do next. I agreed with her,
because I believe there are no definite answers in teaching. Siti Ain continued on to
explain those pupils attitude towards Mathematics and its relation to the classroom
environment. I told her that might be the reason for what happened in her classroom.
The first thing was to bring her back to see what she wrote in her journal, examined
her constraint and think how to solve the problem How to make her Mathematics
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lesson more challenging? I continued and asked her to show me what yesterdays
lesson looked like and how she could plan some interesting lessons from yesterdays
lesson, and create some questions for tomorrows lesson. We had not really finished
when she had to change dress for Physical Education lesson. We must continue this
discussion after she finishes her P.E lesson. (JournalWeek 7 2/8/96)
The above excerpt shows that theorizing about the nature and purpose of practice was
not a separate activity from reflecting about how to proceed competently with it. The
latter must involve theorizing about the practical aims and principles, which shape the
practice.
This understanding of the relationship between the theory and the practice of action
research was exemplified in the way the researcher resolved her dilemma about how to
begin the reflective journal writing during Practicum 2. It led to a considerable shift in
her understanding of being a coach. The cyclical nature of action research allowed the
researcher to test and retest activities over a period of time. Finally, every experience
in coaching and discussion among this cohort generated a range of short-term and
long-term strategies to help translate theory into practice.
The researcher tried to clarify the jumble of incidents which took place, or which she
constructed, throughout the Practicum 2. The processes were not clear or tidy but the
researcher tried to follow weekly cycles as a general plan. It was not her aim to follow
the cycles strictly because it is not possible. Rather, the researcher referred to main
incidents or critical incidents in order to trace the student teachers development of
critical reflection in their reflective writing in this current study.
The developmental approach in this study suggested that student teachers
needed to be coached so that they could use subsequent cycles in action research as a
second chance to improve or to plan one step further. The researcher also thought
about how student teachers in primary schools in Malaysia could undertake the
reasoning processes under stressful conditions.
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First, student teachers were expected to differentiate their own critical incident
and incorporated everything that they had discovered through their own analysis
during reflective writing.
Secondly, student teachers were expected to write their reflections in the
record book that enabled it to be read and shared by everyone in school. This finding,
that identifying a focus for action research can be difficult for student teachers in that
there are so many aspects of their teaching that they would like to develop and change
is supported by Woods research (1988).
This study taught the researcher and student teachers to value time for
reflection. Too often, the pace of classroom and campus activity does not allowteachers or students to pause and look at both the present and the future. Teacher
educators and student teachers require this kind of time, and time is one of the major
challenges for teacher researchers in both schools and colleges. Through reflection
with our student teachers and our colleagues we can come to a collective
understanding and build a theory to guide our shared inquiries. This is true for groups
of student learners as well (Patterson, 1996).
The researcher herself realized that there was insufficient time even for her to be as
thorough as she would have liked with the action research process! Again this current
study acknowledged that student teachers, cooperating teachers, subject matter
lecturers are always stretched to their limits. What is happening in school or college is
always a reflection of the institutional, social and political value given to the teaching
profession and teacher education. Teacher educators from college must create network
systems so that student teachers, cooperating teachers and subject matter lecturers can
quickly develop a level of trust and mutual respect to allow them to discuss critically
with each other, and give emotional and intellectual support.
The researcher believes that the main advantage of doing action research as a teacher
educator was that it forced her to focus and to write and to articulate, it forced the
researcher to allocate the time to think, to reflect systematically about issues that
concerned her. The same processes were applied for all the sixteen student teachers
that were involved in this current study. This study suggests that teacher educators in
college need to be leaders in action research and try to expose themselves, student
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teachers and teachers in reflective practice. This is acknowledged by the Malaysian
Teacher Education Division as a strategic tool for professional development (Hanipah,
1998; Rajendran, 1998; Sharifah Bee, 1997; Khadijah, 1995; Rosalena, 1995; and Siti
Hawa, 1995).
In summary, the process of developing reflective practice through action research in a
school setting was successful. The researcher realized that the practice of action
research was more important than goal setting. What was more important to the
student teachers was the process of getting meaning from what they had done. As
Schon (1987:17)) argues, student teachers cannot be taught what they need to know,
but can be coached. Thus, Schon says:
...He has to see on his own behalf and in his own way the relations between means and
method employed and results achieved. Nobody else can see for him, and he cant see
just by being told, although the right kind of telling may guide his seeing and thus
help him see what he needs to see
The study experience suggested that the Malaysian public education system
staggers under the pressure of great demand and may not be democratic enough to
recognize and acknowledge reflective thinking among teachers and educators. The
current study suggests that it is possible to educate the young generation of teachers
through classroom reflection activity, such as to analyze what, why and how an
incident happened. As young researchers, the researcher is ready to accept the
challenge and the responsibility of learning right now and in the future.