Eight Malaysian teachers who participated in the recent Fourth Microsoft Partners in Learning Regional Innovative Teachers' Conference 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam tell SUZIEANA UDA NAGU about their innovations and how the conference has inspired them to enhance their projects.

Loo (centre) presenting her project to judges.

Maznah wants to promote self-directed learning at her school.

WHEN many Year One pupils at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Rawang, Sungai Pelek, Selangor, struggled with reading two years ago, Maznah Zaini decided to take action.

Although Maznah did not teach these pupils — she was then a school counsellor — she was determined to help the youngsters learn to read.

"Slow readers may have learning difficulties or simply lack reading materials at home. They need lessons which stimulate their minds in order to pick up reading faster," says Maznah, who recently participated in The Innovative Teacher poster competition at the Fourth Microsoft Partners in Learning (PIL) Regional Innovative Teachers' Conference 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

But Bahasa Malaysia teachers who taught Year One pupils at her school did not have the time and, more importantly, the skills to create such lessons.
So using her experience as the school's information and communication technology (ICT) coordinator, Maznah worked on an early reading intervention software for the pupils later that year.

The interactive software, which encourages students to learn, read, pronounce and spell independently, proved to be effective.

Of nearly 40 slow readers who used the software, only nine students did not show any improvement in their reading.

"These students were diagnosed as slow learners who needed remedial classes," says Maznah, who was recognised as Malaysia's Innovative Teacher of the Year at the conference.

Maznah was among eight Malaysian teachers who attended the conference.

Innovative Teachers of the Year awards were conferred on teachers with the best projects from participating countries.

Countries which had fewer than three participants were not eligible for the contest.

Teachers were judged on the objectives and outcomes of their lessons; instructional strategies; relevance of ICT tools; innovative use of ICT tools and teachers as a change agent.

Judges comprised PIL Advisory Board members, government officials and educationists from Australia, the United States, Brazil, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Organised under Microsoft's flagship PIL programme, the Hanoi conference was co-hosted by the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Asia Pacific).

Held for the first time in Singapore five years ago, the conference is aimed at sharing best practices in the innovative use of technology in education and recognising teachers' creativity, innovation and dedication to their work.

The recent seminar brought together some 150 teachers from 21 countries around Asia Pacific and North America.

At the four-day conference, teachers — many of whom are award winners in their respective countries — showcased innovative teaching and learning tools as well as project-based lesson plans which they use in classrooms.

Teachers of different nationalities worked in groups to develop specific teaching and learning materials for education in sustainable development, drawing inspiration from field trips to different parts of Hanoi.

Meeting like-minded teachers had inspired Malaysian educators to further enhance their projects.

Maznah wants to explore the possibility of producing software which promotes self-directed learning among Malaysian students.

Local youths depend too much on teachers, says Maznah.

"The education systems in developed countries are moving away from spoon-feeding students and this is evident in the projects dreamed up by teachers at the conference. I want to encourage pupils at my school to learn on their own," she adds.

Suhaimi Endut, a religious teacher at Sekolah Sains Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Pekan, Pahang, plans to share his experience in Hanoi with teachers in his school.

"I would like to work with other religious teachers in my school to expand the scope of the CD-ROM, which currently focuses only on upper secondary syllabi," says Suhaimi of the Islamic studies project he started four years ago.

The software allows students to reflect on their lessons and teachers to determine whether students have fully understood the lesson with a short quiz.

"Teachers get immediate feedback on students' comprehension with the software. It would have been near impossible to do that without computer technology."

With instant feedback, teachers can pay extra attention to students who need it, adds Suhaimi.

The project began as a part of Suhaimi's goal to enhance the image of Malaysian religious teachers in the 21st century, from those who teach in mosques to technology-savvy individuals.

Suhaimi's students responded well to his attempt to infuse ICT into religious lessons.

"I think they are not only more motivated to learn with technology, but they also feel more connected with teachers who use it in the classroom."

He adds that presenting his product in front of international judges has boosted his self-confidence.

"Malaysian teachers tend to have inferiority complex. But if more local teachers attend international events like this, they will see that their innovations are as good as others in the world.”

SMK Sura, Dungun, Terengganu teacher Kamaruzzaman Junuh agrees.
Kamaruzzaman started his project on teaching engineering design through interactive CD-ROM after realising that students learn better when stimulated with multimedia-aided lessons.

“Some time ago, I had instructed my students to refer to their textbook to learn about engineering design when I was away on a course. When I returned, I discovered that they did not learn much from the textbook alone.”

That experience gave him an idea to produce a software that would help students to learn on their own in his absence three years ago.

The result? The school had 100 per cent pass rate for the elective subject in the last Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination.

Many schools nationwide which offer the subject has also benefited from Kamaruzzaman’s software.

“I have also received enquiries about my innovation from Japanese, Sri Lankan and Thai teachers at the conference.”

Zazili Md Nawi from SMK Datuk Seri Wan Mohamad, Gerik, Perak, had also caught teachers’ attention at the conference with his comprehensive software for lower secondary level geography.

Zazili started the project partly to debunk the myth that geography is a tough subject.

“That was the belief among students in my school —so much so that it became the least popular subject,” he says.

Zazili referred to all the geography text and reference books he could find and started designing a CD-ROM that is interactive, colourful, comprehensive yet easy to use and understand.

“After introducing (the CD), more students took geography and started scoring As. They are also more aware of careers which require sound knowledge of geography,” says Zazili, who has won awards for his work at the state and national levels.

Zazili, who is currently in the midst of creating a CD-ROM for geography for upper secondary level, cited Australian teacher Andrew Douch’s podcasts biology lessons as his favourite at the recent conference.

He hopes to incorporate ideas from the convention into his future projects.

Mohd Shohimi Abdul Halim @ Muhamad from SMK Bandar Baru Serting, Bandar Seri Jempol, Negeri Sembilan, hopes his intranet-based project will make accessing teaching tools and lesson plans easier for local teachers.

“Finding teaching tools and lesson plans which teachers nationwide had created is not as easy as clicking a button on a search engine. But I hope to change that,” says Mohd Shohimi, who exhibited a lesson plan on learning about the respiratory system, which is one of his past projects, at the recent conference.

English teacher Loo Mei Yee from SJKC Nan Kai, Kuala Lumpur, on the other hand proved that teachers can also integrate ICT components into project-based learning.

Loo was the first teacher in her school to embark on project-based learning. She was inspired by similar projects conducted by colleagues in other schools.

She chose the process and procedure of preparing food as a topic for her innovation.

Loo wrote her own story titled The King’s Birthday Cake which she read to her class. That kicked off a two-month event filled with activities such as cake-baking, charity cake sale and a visit to the old folks’ home, among others.

Students picked up a wide range of skills set — from language, cooking, Internet to mathematics and business — from the project.

“Students learned to surf the Internet when they had to use an online dictionary to search for word definitions. They use their mathematical skills when they had to adjust the recipe for cakes to feed a certain number of people,” says Loo, who at 29, was the youngest teacher to represent Malaysia at the recent conference.

Loo Mee Lan from SJKC Taman Connaught, Kuala Lumpur, who chose to educate her pupils on protecting the environment through project-based learning, says that such method needs a lot of planning.

“Not many school heads understand the benefits of project-based learning. Those who don’t tend to write them off as a waste of time,” she says.
But Mee Lan considers herself lucky as the learning method has caught on in her school. In fact, her project on environmental literacy has been an annual event that the entire school participates in.

As for Ooi Eng Lye from Penang Free School, Penang, he exhibited his vision of Schools of the Future at the conference.

This was inspired by his six-month fellowship in America which included an attachment at a School of The Future in Philadelphia.

“There, students are given the freedom to learn on their own. Teachers are merely guides who sit at the back of the class as students learn,” says Ooi, who was invited to the conference as an observer. Ooi, however, chose to be a participant.

Ooi considers the conference a platform for Malaysian teachers to not only gain experience but also share knolwedge and forge ties with their peers from across the globe.

“At the conference, I met teachers whom I hope to work with in future projects. I am exploring the possibility of working with an Australian school to realise my plan of conducting a virtual classroom where Penang Free School students can attend a virtual lesson with those from the Australian school,” he says.