Education Reform and 21st
Century Learning
I refer to the cover story
“Towards 21st Century Learning” of Star Educate on 4 November 2018. As
a curriculum and instruction specialist who has strived to keep abreast of changes
and advances in the education arena over the years, I must say this is a move
in the right direction. The pilot project Genosis does sound promising, judging
by the list of learner attributes which reflect the desirable learning
outcomes.
However, as the cliché goes,
the devil is really in the details. As rightly pointed out, the success of such
a project, if it eventually goes nationwide, will hinge on a well-planned and
implemented teacher education and accreditation programs, both pre- and
in-service. How this can be achieved will require a lot of resolves and efforts
on the part of all stakeholders. For starters, we can only hope that the soon-to-be-
rolled-out pilot project involves a truly representative sample of our public
schools attended by both the haves and have-nots in our huge student
communities. With this, perhaps rigorous evaluation -- both formative and summative
-- will produce the necessary findings to guide and ensure the scalability and
adaptability, as well as long-term sustainability of this project nationwide.
The main concern of many
stakeholders right now is how will the implementation of Genosis fit into the
larger picture of education reform. As a proponent of cooperative learning
since the 1990s, I can only say I am glad to see that Genosis is emphasizing on
many learner attributes that can be cultivated through this learner-centered approach
that I have tried to promote over the last many years. To this end, and to facilitate
school-based education programs for teachers, especially those in service, I
have co-authored a book “Learning cooperative learning via cooperative
learning”, first published in the US; then followed by a BM version here in
Malaysia, and later a Chinese version in China. Packaged with the BM version is
an interactive courseware for environmental education that creates awareness in
environmental issues, reinforces cooperative learning skills, and promotes
higher order thinking among students. Perhaps this courseware, which was
distributed to all secondary schools in Malaysia -- with the sponsorship of
Hewlett Packard -- can now serve as some kind of prototype for the development
of more of such learning material to help achieve the learning outcomes as outlined
by Genosis. Project-based learning advocated by Genosis is fine, and in fact, together
with inquiry learning, it has purportedly been widely used in schools in
Malaysia over the years. Unfortunately, without a proper group structure such
as that of cooperative learning, its impact on learning outcomes has remained somewhat
unclear.
In conclusion -- and to cut a
long story short – the Genosis project, like the e-textbook initiative, must be
planned and implemented as an integral part of the larger framework of the
education reform we are all looking forward so much to, with bated breath. As
it is, without knowing enough details, teachers are already whining and moaning
about the prospect of having to do more report-writing and daily data entry,
using yet another platform or learning management system.
Dr Gan Siowck Lee
