something interesting caught my attention today when i was in class..we were reading an article on reformations in education systems which took place in many Asian countries..and so we looked at some of the obstacles leading to failure in the specific reformations..one of the reasons why reformations failed to achieve the expected result was:
asian culture valued the norm of showing respect to the authority by accepting the status quo with no questions asked..it was even disrespectful for the people to question the authority..
let’s look at our very own education reform..when we tried to move from teacher directed-learning, rigid national curriculum and highly centralised administrative structures to SMART school programs..we were not successful weren’t we..?well, there were politics involved (changed of ruler etc) but if we were critical enough, SMART school could’ve been successful weren’t it..?
we were still not critical because reforms were taken at face value – there were no follow ups and follow through..and teachers couldn’t make sense of the reforms..
can we afford not being critical still..?
so yeah, i’m taking FEDU 101..hello critical thinking and critical actions..
of the vanilla to my melody 
this is what i can say. this whole teacher-directed or student-directed actually depends on the type of students you have. if the classes you have are all smart kids, make them think and as a teacher, you challenge them – so that’s already student-directed (of course i would say this is more suitable for the upper forms). but if your lot are a bunch of problematic, low proficiency kids, the teacher still needs that control because the kids need guidance and a good model.
however, i do acknowledge the fact that some teachers find it hard to let go of that control because as teachers you cant help but guide them but perhaps you are intervening too much.
i hope that made sense to you
i do agree that we practice critical approach to learning implicitly..and that it’s not applicable to some students..but yes, i was questioning why can’t we teach critical subjects to the learners..?we do haf the literature components tapi duh~dia keluarkan baby steps..?how could we be critical..?
haha part literature tu… mmg students cant help but refer buku baby steps tu. what you can do is actually for the lesson, ask the students to shove away their baby steps book and make your students think for that lesson. maybe you can do that for discussing characters eg: why the author named the female character ‘Rose’ in that drama. what does the word rose remind you of etc… make them refer to the text for lit.. that’s a start la.
anyway, i’m still learning how to make my kids critical but i know it is possible 🙂
but yes, it makes sense zarina, thanks for visiting..?