Sunday, July 13, 2008

ACTION RESEARCH - The Rationale For Specific Change

Education need "change" to enlighten it and to move it away from the old deep-rooted and long-engrained misconception that teaching is a "lonely profession". Most of our teachers do not anticipate that "effective collaborations operate in the world of ideas, examining existing practices critically, seeking better alternatives and working hard together at bringing about improvements and assessing their worth" (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991, p.55). The call for collaborative enquiry and enquiry by educators rarely surface (McTaggart, 1991, p.2) as the didactic approach and "chalk and talk" method of teaching have held back most of the teachers from the changing trend.

They may find it difficult to 'unlearn' (to forget the traditional teaching method they were told to adopt), to 'learn' (to gain some new knowledge or methodologies in teaching) and 'relearn' (obtain correct information and old things that may have been told in wrong ways). We regard this dilemma as being akin to that of an identity crisis amongst Malaysian teachers.

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