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Student-teachers’ online reflections on Computer Enhanced Language Teaching for Teacher Education.
Mastura Othman
INTRODUCTION
Teacher education has always been a crucial and symbolically significant field of education development. This is due to the reason that, teachers are valuable human resources that a nation can count upon to mould and nurture its young minds (Syed Azizi Wafa et al., 2003). It is agreeable that, a country’s nation building lies in the hands of its teachers. Teachers are public figures when something is found wrong in the education system or when there are changes in the policy need to be implemented (Avalos, 2012). No matter how good the curriculum, infrastructure or teaching aids, at the end of the day, it is the teachers who make the difference.
Therefore, a number of programmes are conducted for Malaysian future teachers’ education, colloborating the efforts of Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education. The Ministry of Education conducts courses at twenty-seven Institutes of Teacher Education (ITE) campuses centralised under the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education (MITE) which nationally recognised as Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia (IPGM). The objectives are to educate and produce future professional and holistic primary schools teacher personals by providing educational experience plans for learning and teaching (IPGM, 2007). Allwright and Hanks (2009) supported the objectives with the statement; a teacher training course (which in this context is teaching programmes offered in teacher education) is a major opportunity for trainees to build on. Mainly, the programmes offered are to equip teachers with knowledge to teach at primary schools be it the language and content subjects. One of the courses offered in the non-Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) teacher education programme will be the focus of this particular study.
THE STUDY
This paper reports on an ongoing PhD research. Hence, only part of the data on Student-teachers’ online reflections on the CELT is discussed.
Teaching and learning the English language after the post-colonial era is the most discussed academic issue in Malaysian education development at almost all levels; from the kindergarten, primary schools to the higher learning institutions (Mastura, 2008). It is often a predicament for English language course instructors in ITE particularly at Malay Female campus in Melaka, to capture and sustain non-TESL student-teachers’ interest in the learning of English language. This is mainly due to the reason identified earlier by Asmah (1994); English as a rule is taught only as a subject, not anymore a medium of instruction. She felt that when a language is not fully used as a medium of academic discourse, the mastery of the particular language would hardly attain the best level. It is relevant enough to this group of non-TESL student-teachers since English is taught solely as a complementary but compulsory course for the entire teaching course attended.
The main objective of this study is to implement a computer enhanced language teaching (CELT) environment for a compulsory English language proficiency (ELP) course for non-TESL teaching courses in the Bachelor of Teachership Programme. The implementation is an effort to better capture the student-teachers’ interest into the learning of English, at an advanced level with a different pedagogical approach from their previous learning experiences. The interest is to examine the student-teachers’ perceptions upon the CELT environment provided in their ELP course. The ELP course in focus is conducted at an ITE campus in Melaka enrolled by semester one, first year female student-teachers of this particular degree programme.
The ITE is unique as it offers entry only to female Malay student-teachers for the degree programme to philosophically match the title given to the institute; the Malay Female Campus (Kampus Perempuan Melayu). Data were collected from the online reflections written by respondents at the end of the semester, in one of the discussion boards in the Facebook (FB); a social networking group account created for the ELP course participants.
ICT AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN TEACHER EDUCATION
Knowledge, education and learning are strongly linked with society and its evolution. One cannot teach or learn nowadays the same way as he or she experienced a century ago. More particularly, the quick and deep changes brought by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a strong influence on knowledge, teaching and learning. But pupils themselves are changing and evolving decade after decade and education must permanently adapt to the new generations of pupils (Cornu, 2010). The advancement in ICT also has caused the globe to progress rapidly without boundaries. Everything was done and reached almost instantly with ICT. It does not exclude the development in education. As a result, not only school education system but teacher education is also affected. Zainuddin et al. (2008) emphasised that there is a huge importance of ICT in education. Efforts are put to increase the effectiveness and quality in the teaching and learning processes by integrating ICT into Malaysian education system. The effort is in line with the government’s policy on computer and technology;
…in late 2000, the Malaysian government announced that technology education and high-tech industries would have leading roles in the country's economy which would thereafter be predominantly "knowledge-based" or "K-economy." … The government had emphasized developing a technology infrastructure program called the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)... The 2001 budget provided for the spread of computer literacy on a mass scale, including computers in all schools, building 167 schools and 4 new universities, and allocating $316 million for training institutes. If the trend continues, Malaysia would join nearby Singapore in its efforts to minimize the digital divide.
(Malaysia Higher Education, 2011)
Zainuddin et al. (2008) again, said that the current nation’s education development exhibits the needs of continuous improvement in teaching and learning processes. With all the changes, the way of teaching and learning are conducted in the education institutions needs a paradigm shifting and to be re-evaluated. Not only at the local level, this is also happening worldwide as agreed by Cramer and Amaral (2011), teacher education reform is needed as teacher education is key to quality education and, in turn, to a successful society in terms of an effective and efficient economy. It is seen as part of a globalisation process that affects almost every area of modern societies; policy, economy, culture or religious pluralism. Therefore, as part of the larger process, ICT course in the local teacher education is designed to equip student-teachers with skills required for teaching in a technology enriched environment and to minimise teacher resistance to the change process in teacher education (MOE, 1977).
At the ealier stage, Norizan (1998) has identified that, the content of computer literacy course is best done in conjunction with other studies to provide a meaningful context for the students. To her, learning how to use computer is meaningless and ineffective when it is done in isolation. Similarly applied to the teaching of language skills in which will be more effective if it is integrated with computer literacy; for opportunities are granted for the students to be exposed to the ICT gadgets and hands-on experiences.
Whilst, computer literacy is vital for these future teachers as they are going out to teach the generation who are well-exposed to computers even at the primary school level. Supyan (1996) defines computer literacy in 5 different categories: (1) awareness of the computer’s potential and impact; (2) knowledge and skill on the technical aspects of how computers work; (3) knowledge and skills on how to use computer applications (software); (4) knowledge and skills on how to develop a computer programme; and (5) knowledge and skills on how to use the Internet. Based on the definitions and categories listed, they are covered in the ICT course offered in programmes for teacher education stated earlier. Other than that, the integration of ICT into the teaching and learning processes in teacher education is very much course instructor dependent without clear guidance or outline on how to do about it especially in the language courses.
Where language learning is concerned, Kenning (2007) asserts that the interest in language goes back many centuries to antiquity, but the language pedagogy was in slow motion as then in many parts of the world, teaching modern language was a private enterprise outside the school system. However, the tremendous change took place when computers are utilised not anymore limitedly in the laboratories but more widely to realise the interaction between technology, methodology and theories.
Without a clear document on the Malaysian teacher education philosophy to explicitly explain the system, educating the future teachers takes cue from the national philosophy of education (Mohd. Ali, 1982). He further emphasised that, in order to get the teacher education relevant and effective, it should reflect the current thinking regarding what should be the purpose of education and how this purpose may be actualise in the form of activities in schools. School environment as generally accepted is a dynamic entity and the direction it takes is conditioned, partly by the teachers who work in it. Therefore, courses and training offered in teacher education by all means should be parallel with the latest global progress for the products to meet the latest challeges in education locally and internationally. Being aware of that, this study is connecting the fact into practice in one of the courses offered in a non-TESL teacher education programme conducted at an ITE in Melaka, Malaysia.
As far as the non-TESL programme in teacher education at this ITE is concerned, English language courses are offered variedly and are taught as complement courses. The English language courses are of different categories; compulsory English Language Proficiency (ELP) course coded as WAJ which stands for wajib and ELE code stands for elective courses. The ELP course coded as WAJ 3102 offered in semester one for the Bachelor of Teachership programme is the course focused for this study. Basically this course is an extension of the English Language subject learned while the student-teachers were in the secondary schools. The previous experience is expected to be brought into the teaching and learning processes at a more advanced level with some values added to the conventional teaching and learning styles. The integration of ICT and computer-based activities are some of the added values in which contribute to the CELT environment developed for this particular course offered in teacher education conducted for the future primary school teachers.
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN TEACHER EDUCATION
Reflective practice is crucial in Malaysian teacher education. In context of this study, student-teachers have to start reflecting critically as soon as they attempt the assignments and coursework at the foundation level in the degree programme. Reflective writings must be included in the coursework for almost all courses. Student-teachers are to reflect upon the process of completing the tasks assigned to them be it in groups or individually. It is a process of back tracking their experiences while completing the respective coursework, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, lessons and moral values collected and learned along the process and how would those affect and assist their learning.
Schön (1987) recommended that schools of education redesign their programs to help new teachers more deeply reflect upon their own classroom behaviours and their reactions to teaching situations. Ghaye (2011) suggested that, teaching and learning through reflective practice will assist one to understand and take positive action on questions; who you are?, how you relate to and learn with others?, what you can do (and do not do) to achieve?, be successful and flourish?, and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. According to Tickle (1994), reflection is a thoughtful deliberation, learning from experience (Spalding, 1998); systematic, critical and creative thinking about action with the intention of understanding its roots and processes (Fish and Twinn, 1997).
Reflective practice is made a popular practice in teacher education based on the introduction initiated by Dewey in early 1900’s as a way of thinking and has influenced Schőn in 1980’s, and Larrivee (2009) emphasised that, reflection with an explicit goal is to create deeper understanding and insight, forming the basis for not only considering alternatives, but taking continuous action to improve practice throughout one’s teaching career. This is in line with the underlying principles of the Bachelor of Teachership programme for teacher education at ITE are as follows;
a) Learning outcome based; moving towards Programme learning objectives achievement and course/field learning outcome, in line with the standard Bachelor degree programme outline and Malaysian Qualification Framework (MQF).
b) Coherent; relevance between courses and practical/clinical experiences.
c) Spiral and developmental; well-planned and sequenced learning experiences: based on varied experiences, level of difficulties and contexts in and across offered courses. Three levels according to semesters; Level one-semesters one to three, Level two-semesters four to six and Level three-semesters seven to eight.
d) Holistic; balanced and integrated knowledge, skills and values/disposition, hard and soft skills with global perspective (four pillars of Education: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Intellectual-Jasmani, Emosi, Rohani dan Intelek), curriculum, co-curricular and Building Teacher Personal (Bina Insan Guru).
e) Practical and contextual; in the form of practical/hands-on, school-based implementation (for the semester academic calendar), referring to real practice in school classrooms to implement the best practice.
(IPGM, 2007)
Basically, the student-teachers are required to follow the SWOT (acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis framework in reflecting their teaching and learning experiences in their education. The SWOT analysis has been widely accepted in marketing and business literature as a valuable means of assessing the fit between what a firm can and cannot do; Strengths and Weaknesses and the environmental conditions that influence firm choices and behaviour; Opportunities and Threats (Ferrell and Hartline, 2011:120). Applying the framework efficiently, student-teachers are to identify their Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities encountered as well as find ways to approach and overcome the Threats while completing tasks assigned for them in the semester.
In relation, reflection on practice helps in making sense of teaching and learning. Especially when classroom is a particular context for teaching and learning and it can be created and changeable (Ghaye, 2011: 28). Further actions on improvements is proned to be taken upon senses made from the classroom members’ reflections. The fact has preceded the study to embark at this particular ITE.