More from Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the launch of the International Smart School Conference 2007 being held in Kuala Lumpur as I write.
In his opening address to the conference the Deputy PM has called for a review of non-ICT promoting curriculum, saying
“We can equip our schools and train teachers with ICT. But at the end of the day, if the curriculum is still examination focused, and geared towards memorisation and reproduction of facts and figures, our objectives will not be met
Gone are the days for rote learning or spoon feeding in classrooms, of regurgitating textbook chapters to fill up pages of examination answer books.
The emphasis in today’s learning culture must be on thinking, the use of the mind to find solutions to emerging problems. Students must be taught the means through which they can maximise their creativity and capacity for innovation,”
Our work with teachers here in Perak is entirely in line with these sentiments, and so we are encouraged to hear this sort of challenge. It has for a number of years been the focus of our programmes back in New Zealand, and we are definitely seeing the results in classrooms there.
(Story from The Star Online
This is encouraging. In my Masters’ degree class (MA Education) there is visiting student from India who consistently remains committed to the behaviourist teaching approaches practised there. I was (probably arrogantly) sure she would change her tune, once she had learned more about constructivism and connectivism, but I was wrong. We have had to agree to disagree.