Teacher education

1.4 Teacher education

3. Ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.

While current levels of teacher English proficiency may be sufficient for internal communication within Malaysia, they are very

Getting the right people begins with effective mechanisms for far from sufficient if students are to learn spoken English from their

selecting teachers for training. Trainees are ideally recruited from

6 “How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top” accessed 28 May 2015 at http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Worlds_ School_ Systems_ Final.pdf 6 “How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top” accessed 28 May 2015 at http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Worlds_ School_ Systems_ Final.pdf

Finland, the highest achieving

Starting off with high calibre recruits is important, because the

country in the world in reading,

negative impact of low-performing teachers is severe, particularly during the earlier years of schooling. Top performing systems select

mathematics and science, have no

before training, and limit places in the training programme to those

standardised tests that resemble

selected, and are able in this way to match supply to demand.

ours whatsoever, though they

This avoids wasting money on trainees who drop out, fail to

use teacher made tests in their

find teaching jobs or for other reasons do not become teachers.

classroom and school accountability

The smaller number of trainees leaves more money to spend on training each trainee teacher. The most successful model for

system. Their system uses high

salaries is frontloading compensation, with good initial salaries,

standards for allowing teachers

which in top performing systems tend to be between 95% and 99%

into the profession, awards high

of GDP per capita and in line with other graduate starting salaries. Salary progression was found to be less important in attracting

pay and bestows high status to

recruits and in retaining teachers.

those that enter teaching, provides

The second major factor is to turn trainees into effective

rigorous and extensive professional

classroom teachers and improve classroom instruction. This

development for the teachers, and

should include practical training to close the gap between what trainees do in training and what they are expected to do in the

depends on trusting relationships

classroom. Success in this case relies on the ability of teachers to

to improve academic achievement.

take responsibility for their own development, including (a) being aware of specific weaknesses in their own practice; (b) individually

English Language Education Reform in Malaysia The Roadmap 2015-2025

gaining an understanding of speciic best practices; and (c) having provides rigorous and extensive professional development for the motivation to make the necessary improvements.

the teachers, and depends on trusting relationships to improve academic achievement (pp. 165-166).

Success in the classroom also includes placing teaching coaches in schools, appointing principals who are also instructional leaders,

Finland has set up a system of interventions to support and creating a situation in which teachers are able to learn from each

individual students in schools, employing special education other. Good teacher training makes it possible to reduce total spending

teachers in a ratio of one to seven class teachers. A large number on school systems. The OECD average in 2002 was 20% of GDP per

of students are given support, which in itself lessens the stigma capita per student; but top performers spent less than the average, and

of being perceived to be falling behind, and on occasion the best were able to save money further by increasing class size.

students are provided with additional instruction. The third major factor is that high-performing systems provide

1.4.2 English teaching in Malaysia

the best possible instruction for every child. In the case of the top It is clear from the Cambridge Baseline, which considered teacher

performers in PISA, there is a low correlation between outcomes performance at some length (pp. 9-14), that the standard of English

and the home background. Finland is an example of a country teaching in our schools falls far short of what is required in a high- with a top-performing education system. The Finnish experience performing education system. The most serious cause for concern

underlines the value of high quality teacher training. High teacher is the general level of English language proiciency among teachers,

standards and professional development have brought about a which in some cases could be affecting their effectiveness as teachers.

transformation in the performance of Finnish students. According to Nichols and Berliner (2005):

The greatest weakness is in Speaking, and as pointed out elsewhere in the report, this affects what students learn. It is also

Finland, the highest achieving country in the world in reading, clear from the report that in addition to improved proiciency, mathematics and science, have [sic] no standardi[s]ed tests that teachers need to develop further their professional knowledge and resemble ours whatsoever, though they use teacher made tests in skills. This aspect of the teaching of English in Malaysia is discussed

their classroom and school accountability system. Their system uses

in more detail in Chapter 9.

high standards for allowing teachers into the profession, awards high pay and bestows high status to those that enter teaching,

Frequent mention is made of the need for additional teacher status of teaching to a graduate profession. In this way, teacher training; but what is meant by training is in some cases left vague. It is

training has joined other kinds of training at university level, such not, as is sometimes implied in the materials that have been consulted

as medical training or training in scientific method, which require in the preparation of this Roadmap, a kind of all-purpose medicine to be

high levels of ability and academic acumen.

applied in doses, so that if teachers are insuficiently trained, they must Outside the university context, the term training usually refers to

need another dose of training. Teachers’ needs are in many cases highly the development of low level skills which offer little or no intellectual

speciic, and so it is necessary to spell out in suficient detail what their challenge. People are trained to drive a car, develop physical itness,

precise needs are in order to identify appropriate solutions. operate a factory machine or use a piece of computer software. The

There is a hidden semantic problem in the use of the word very phrase teacher training can be interpreted to imply that teachers training. In the days before mass higher education, intending are trained to do simple things in the classroom. teachers attended teacher training colleges, such as the Malayan

If we are to develop a high-performing English education Teachers’ Training College at Kirkby near Liverpool, and received

system, we have to begin with a fundamental change in the an education different in kind from the academic training on offer

attitude towards the preparation of teachers for a career in in universities. In recent decades, there have been huge advances education. What teachers need is not low-level training but high- in our understanding of learning in general, of the learning of level education. Teachers are not to be trained to do a job, and languages, and of the learning of English in particular. Teachers

they need education to perform as professionals.

need this new knowledge and associated skills if they are to succeed in the classroom, and so the modern teacher needs a much more advanced academic education than the teacher of fifty years ago.

1.5 Preparing the Roadmap

In the research-led environment of universities worldwide, the changing needs of teachers have been taken for granted, so that

This introductory chapter has reconnoitred the road ahead to although the old term teacher training has been retained, the actual

anticipate the consequences of using the CEFR to benchmark our content of courses has changed to include much more academic

English language programme, and taking into account the indings of the university-level material. This is reflected in the raising of the Cambridge Baseline Study. This inal section is divided into two parts.

English Language Education Reform in Malaysia The Roadmap 2015-2025

The irst is concerned with anticipated problems in implementation. Officers in the Curriculum Development Division and the The second is concerned with the seven steps that have to be taken.

Examinations Syndicate have in particular a legitimate interest in the development of the kind of integrated agenda-driven programme that has been proposed, and in order for the implementation to

1.5.1 Implementing the Roadmap

be successful, it is vital that they take ownership of the plans put forward in the Roadmap. However, dealing with any problems

In this connection, there are a number of important issues to that might arise in this connection is not within the remit of the which attention is drawn in the Roadmap, but which will have to

writers of this Roadmap, and will have to be addressed by those

be addressed in the course of implementation. responsible in the course of the implementation process itself.

A third problem arises from the report in the Cambridge

Baseline Study on standards of proficiency in English among English This Roadmap has been developed in accordance with the teachers. This is a matter that requires delicacy and tact, because policy decision that the CEFR is to be used in the development of

Curriculum, Teaching and learning and Assessment

the cooperation of the teachers is essential if the development plan our English language programme. The actual implementation of

is to be successful. We have a systemic problem with regard to our the Roadmap will inevitably encounter practical problems which

national standards of English, and we have to start by understanding will require attention to be paid to the legitimate interests of the

how and why we have a problem. While it would be very easy to many stakeholders involved.

seek to blame the teachers for not teaching English properly, such an attitude is unhelpful, since it takes a logical shortcut that is consistent

For example, teachers have a legitimate interest in ensuring neither with fairness nor with an understanding of the problem. that any proposals made can be implemented in practice in the

classroom. It goes without saying that at some stage we need

A systemic problem does not come about overnight, and the to go through a consultation process giving all stakeholders an problem we have with standards of English is a chronic problem, in opportunity to react to the Roadmap as proposed, with a view to

the sense that it has grown gradually over the years and decades. producing an improved final version.

The next chapter deals with the historical development of English teaching in Malaysia, and it would be difficult to identify a historical The next chapter deals with the historical development of English teaching in Malaysia, and it would be difficult to identify a historical

be said to be blameworthy. the Roadmap will have to be implemented with sensitivity to ensure that all our students achieve the highest level of proficiency in

It would be equally dificult to identify a stage in the career of English that is within their capabilities. Reform in education “must individual teachers when they can reasonably be said to have been

be taken in compassionate, generous and nurturing ways where negligent in the development of their own personal proiciency. In fact, care for the individuals becomes a genuine core value“ (Galway, it makes no sense at all to blame our teachers for their own lack of

2012, p. 22).

proiciency, and they have to be seen not as people who are failing to do a proper job, but as people who need support and a higher level of education in order to carry out the job now required of them.

1.5.2 The seven steps

This point is repeated several times in the course of this Roadmap. The historical reality is that changes in the outside

In accordance with the agenda-driven planning model outlined world have led to much more being demanded of our teachers, and

above, what we need to do in order to transform our English language the reasonable response is to provide them with effective training

programme can be summarised in the form of seven steps:

and expertise to do a quality job as professionals in the classroom.

1. Establishing evidence-based and realistic targets. The It is also true that more is now required of our students. Different

first task will be to establish agreed realistic targets at different groups of learners will in practice have to be specially catered for

educational levels so that the English language programme as a as the Roadmap is implemented. While some students will use whole makes the intended contribution to the national agenda. English routinely at home, for others English may be a second or These targets will be associated with matching levels on the third language that they encounter only in the classroom. CEFR scale A1 to C2, and the initial targets will be determined

The learning situation is different for students in national and in accordance with the findings of the Cambridge Baseline national-type schools, and for students in rural and urban schools.

Report, and will be achievable in the immediate or short term. We also have to cater for children with different learning abilities

Targets are dealt with further in the Editorial Introduction to and those with special needs. As explained in chapter 2, some of

Section B.

these differences have a long history.

English Language Education Reform in Malaysia The Roadmap 2015-2025

2. Revising the curriculum. The national curriculum will need

6. Intervention. Although teaching is typically aimed at to be revised to enable the maximum number of students to

students in the middle range, due attention needs to be paid to achieve the targets set on the CEFR scale. Particular attention

the needs of underachieving students, and of those who excel. will have to be paid to the handover from preschool to

This will require special intervention for both extremes, and primary school and from primary school to secondary school.

also training for teachers to enable them to deal appropriately Independently of the curriculum, it will also be necessary to

for these two groups of students.

manage the handover from school to post-secondary and

7. Training teachers. Teacher education needs to be reorganised tertiary education. to ensure that teachers are provided with the knowledge and

3. Reviewing classroom practices. Classroom teaching and expertise to facilitate student learning in accordance with culture will need to be revised to maximise student success

the revised curriculum. Particular attention needs to be paid according to the agreed CEFR scale.

to (a) the teaching of English grammar, and (b) the teaching of spoken English both in connection with beginning literacy

4. Providing appropriate learning materials. Textbooks and and with the development of spoken communicative skills. other learning materials will need to provide help and support Teachers will also need sufficient knowledge of spoken English to both students and teachers, and facilitate student learning to help students with the development of receptive skills. and progress to the targets set on the CEFR scale. In order

to ensure the quality of learning materials, a quality control mechanism will have to be established and maintained.

5. Assessing student achievement. The aim of examinations and other forms of assessment will be to measure the extent to which students have achieved the proficiency targets set on the CEFR scale. Assessment outcomes (including grades and marks) need to be aligned to international standards.

English Language Education Reform in Malaysia

The Roadmap 2015-2025

The Historical Background to English Language Education in Malaysia

English Language Education Reform in Malaysia The Roadmap 2015-2025