UCSF adopts the US classrom approach
Kota Kinabalu: University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF) adopts the American style classroom approach where students gain exposure outside the class, and then assimilate the knowledge they learned through problem-solving, discussions and debates, said Dr Alan W.T Lim, UCSF’s Dean from the Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship.
“This approach is new in Malaysia. It’s new to us, but we are advocating this,” Alan said during a meeting with American Lance Knowles, who is Co-founder and Head of Research of DynEd International Inc, and Interdisciplinary Circle of Science, Arts and Innovation (ICSAI) Chairman, Fazidah Fariyah Md Ali.
The meetup was in regards to the International Conference on Language Literature, Culture and Education 2015 which was held on April 25-26 at UCSF’s campus in Sembulan.
It was the first international conference from ICSAI to be held at a local university in the State. More than 60 international presenters and participants took part.
The classroom approach is going to be challenging, said Alan, due to the differences in culture. “We were brought up in a different manner. We listen to our parents and teachers. In our culture, they are always right. This other approach on the other hand, requires students to be more inquisitive and thus, forces lecturers here to do better research.”
He pointed out that Malaysian students lack communication skills and critical thinking which is something UCSF wishes to address.
In response to this, Rashid agreed and shared the challenging aspect of his experience as a teaching assistant in the US. “I noticed that American students are very inquisitive. They continuously challenge you with so many questions. They are eager to learn and read prior to entering a class. Students in Malaysia don’t do that,” Rashid said.
Lance, who is familiar with this approach, said that it’s commendable because instead of being passive learners, students get to solve problems.
“It is in their struggle that they will acquire new skills. This is about moving from a knowledge-based education to a skill-based education,” he said.
“Give them the problems. They will have to solve them and not copy or memorise information.
“But the question is, how many teachers in Malaysia are determined enough to go through with this classroom approach when so many of them are so entrenched in their old ways?”
As for English, when asked to comment about an article where the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (Melta) pointed out that the English proficiency level in the country is not that high (published in The Star, March 30), he said this is not unusual in South East Asia.
“Countries like Vietnam and China are facing similar situations. It’s not just Malaysia.
“In the US, in the state of Texas, for example, there are a lot of Hispanics who can’t speak English.
“They are not from a wealthy class, get involved in gangs and can only talk to their friends in the neighbourhood. That’s what matters to them,” he said.
In 2013, it has been revealed that two-thirds of 70,000 English teachers in Malaysia failed to reach a proficient level of English.
In response to this, he said it all has to do with how people are being taught and in most cases, English is taught as an academic subject as opposed to a skill. “They themselves haven’t had the necessary practice to develop true fluency. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s typical. If we test teachers, they would usually test at a level below working proficiency.”
He said DynEd can assist on this matter, but change can be difficult.
Once people are comfortable with a certain point of view, they usually don’t want to change, he explained. “It has to come from a large number of people.”
To illustrate his point, he shared an experience when he won a contract in Malaysia. “Unfortunately, they omitted teacher training because according to them, buying computers is much more easy.
“It made newspaper headlines. Once you deal with a human dimension, it requires leadership and complexity. Change is not always easy and there is not just one theory in regards to change.”
UCSF is the first school in the State to be using DynEd. It is the world’s leading provider of English language learning software and is also used at ministries, private institutions as well as other universities throughout Malaysia.
DynEd’s instructional system combines one-on-one computer-based self-study and regular meetings with a DynEd-trained teacher or coach. This “blending” of computer and teacher time uses the strengths of both to maximise results.
Also present during the meeting at UCSF were UCSF’s Dean from the Faculty of Development and Multicultural Studies, Professor Datuk Dr Abdul Rashid Abdullah, UCSF’s Head of English Department, Zuleika O. Curreem, ICSAI Executive Committee Member, Iskandar Abdul Wahab and ICSAI Academic Advisor, Lokman Abdul Wahid.
Source: Daily Express
