Category: Teaching

COVID-19: Using Telegram, rather than Whatsapp for teaching

Last semester, when the  COVID-19 hit us all over the globe (well, except some remote islands like Vanuatu and such), I was thrown into a realm of uncertainty.  There goes my hands-on activities and the worksheet that I have prepared but I know that I cannot let myself into the abyss of despair.  Knowing my own ability on ICT and whatsnot, I know that I have to learn something new.  I push myself to learn something that I would never think to try such as video making and editing.  But I am still learning it though.  Even though I have created five videos so far, I am still far from being an expert.  Nope.  One thing at a time.

Some said that rather than using Whatsapp, using Telegram is much helpful.  Full stop.  No specific explanation is given.  I know that I cannot rely on others to learn new things but there are so many things on my hand that I could handle.  This is how I feel at times.

Alhamdulillah, I met a junior who is willing to show me how she uses Telegram by showing one or two examples from her last semester class.  So, since the only small group that I have is the English teachers group that I have since Latihan Ikhtisas, I asked them if I could run a test by using them as my guinea pig.  Well, being ever willing to be in any of my project and experiment, they said ok.  So, I did a quick test on them when I created a poll using VoteBot on Telegram.  Darn!  How I wish I learn this before.  It could make the class discussion more interactive because I can pose a question like MCQ and whatnot by using VoteBot.

There are so many other things that I need to learn but one thing at a time.  Alhamdulillah.

Konsep Tawakkal kepada Allah SWT

Fakta-fakta penting berhubung Tawakkal :

(1) Tawakkal kepada Allah adalah menifestasi dari Kalimah Syahadah pengakuan Kalimah La-Ilaha Illallah. Dalam ertikata lain Tawakkal kepada Allah adalah cetusan dari Iman yang sebenar / Tauhid yang hakiki.

(2) Bicara berkenaan Tawakkal berkait rapat dengan Taqdir, Qadha Qadar, Kuasa Mutlaq Allah Ta’ala, Af’al Allah (Perbuatan Allah) dan af’al makhluq,

(3) Setiap orang beriman di perintah Tawakkal kepada Allah semata2 dan jauhi sama sekali Tawakkal kepada makhluq. Tawakkal kepada Allah adalah tanda-tanda Keimanan dan Tawakkal kepada makhluq adalah menyalahi Tauhid, menjadi Syirik khafi.

(4) Menyandarkan apa jua amal ibadah kepada usaha ikhtiar, kemampuan diri atau kekuatan diri adalah termasuk Syirik khafi.

(5) Bergantung hati kepada makhluq untuk memberi manfaat atau menolak mudarat adalah Syirik khafi.

(6) Menggantungkan apa jua kejayaan atau kemenangan kepada usaha ikhtiar, kemampuan diri atau kekuatan makhluq lainnya adalah Syirik khafi.

(7) Tawakkal kepada makhluk adalah Syirik khafi yang paling halus dan hampir-hampir tidak dapat dikenali oleh orang-orang awam. Lazimnya orang-orang awam tidak peduli akan hal ini kerana tidak mempunyai pengetahuan berkenaannya, akibatnya mereka selalu lah bergelumang di dalam Syirik khafi tanpa mereka tidak sedar.

(8) Orang alim (yang tidak mendidik hati nya dan tidak berusaha menyucikannya dengan pimpinan Mursyid yang siddiq) juga tidak mampu melepaskan diri dari Syirik khafi yang paling halus ini. Meskipun mereka mempunyai pengetahuan berkenaan dengannya, mereka seringkali terjatuh kerana wujud sifat “keakuan” di dalam dirinya.

(9) Seseorang yang memandang keupayaan diri, melihat kemampuan diri melakukan suatu kebaikan serta menyandarkan amal ibadah kepada kekuatan diri ini adalah Syirik khafi kerana mempersekutukan Allah pada Af’alNya dan Sifat Nya Yang Maha Berkuasa memperbuat segala sesuatu.

(10) Memandang keupayaan diri, atau melihat kemampuan diri untuk melakukan suatu kebaikan atau menyandarkan amal ibadah kepada kekuatan diri ini berbeza dengan ‘Ujub. Orang ini BUKAN ‘Ujub tetapi lebih halus dari ‘Ujub. Orang yang ‘Ujub mempunyai sifat “bangga, megah, takjub, hairan dengan suatu kelebihan dirinya”, sedangkan orang yang menyandarkan amal kepada diri sendiri TIDAK mempunyai sifat-sifat demikian, tetapi dia hanya melihat keupayaan serta kemampuan diri melakukan ketaatan dan ini juga termasuk dalam Syirik khafi.

(11) Fahamilah dengan sungguh-sungguh: Menyandarkan amal kebaikan kepada keupayaan diri atau bergantung harap kepada keupayaan makhluq merupakan Syirik khafi yang penghabisan yang teramat halus. Apabila seseorang lepas bebas dari Syirik khafi penghabisan ini, maka barulah di katakan dia telah memiliki jiwa murni serta Tauhid hakiki.

Sesungguhnya hal ini amat rumit sekali dikesan oleh mereka yang tidak menuntut jalan menyucikan hatinya.

Sumber: MAJLIS TAZKIRAH JILANI

FSSH Adjunct Professor Lecture Series: Dato’ Freida Mohd Pilus

I could not attend the FB live session as I had to attend a briefing by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIN).  So, I watched the recorded video on Youtube.  What could I say other than “Wow”.  She is the epitome of resilience, elegance and intelligence.   From a mother’s wish to give the best education to her five children, she embarked on a journey to establish a private school in 1983 which might be considered as a brave endeavor.

She is 73 years old this year and does not look like one.  Her passion on teaching is displayed throughout the session.  With twinkling in her eyes, she answered questions posed by audiences without missing a beat and kept herself poise as always.

I don’t know if I can be like her.  To have such strong determination and perseverance to achieve her dreams without losing hopes.  But I notice that she emphasizes several key points through examples.  Among the key points that are being emphasized are: working hard, be passionate about what you do, believe in your dreams and not losing hopes easily when things are the hardest.  Something that I could not miss.

I would try to emulate her and hope one day I could pass her wisdom to others.

FSSH Adjunct Professor Lecture Series: YBhg. Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim

Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025:….. Examining the journey thus far

Key points:

  • Challenges due to unforeseen event i.e. COVID-19 pandemic prompt teachers, parents and students to adjust to the new norms.  It is not easy to ensure the practice of physical distance yet learning has to happen no matter what.  It prompts all respective parties to use digital learning to the max.
  • The priorities of education would always have to be translated into action regardless of whatever event that could derail the progress of learning at institutions level (schools and higher education institutions).
  • Malaysia Education Blueprint set the stage of where our education is heading forward but we have to understand the current performance and challenges of education system, establish a vision and aspirations for the system and students and outline the transformation program for the system.
  • Outlining the current blueprint is not about just preparing the document but how we would deliver the vision and aspirations (policies) at various levels through dedicated teams.
  • There are 11 key shifts to achieve aspiration (refer to the first 4 chapters in the blueprint): access, quality, equity, unity, efficiency, empower, ICT, transform (accountability), partnership, budget, transparency
  • Rigorous monitoring process: with KPIs, charters and budgeting to ensure continuous supports are delivered and accountability to be assured.
  • 2-12% of students are not in schools for various reasons and yet, there are various attempts, efforts and programmes have been and are being delivered.
  • Access to technical and vocational education is one of the main agenda = to enhance technical skills among students
  • Address the issue of transitioning and dropping out especially among the most disadvantaged i.e. students from Orang Asli community (the rate of completion is still low)
  • New assessment i.e. UPSR and such somehow poses another challenge to improve and bridge the gap of dropping out and school completion among students especially the disadvantaged.
  • Participation in STEM subjects especially in pure sciences subjects has been steadily declined over the years especially as students pursue their education at higher level i.e. post secondary education.  1/5 of students who originally from pure science stream would going to further their study in pure sciences field at post secondary education.
  • The quality of education system would not exceed the quality of teachers.  The quality of education depends on the quality of teachers.  Thus, it is important to ensure we provide the best training teacher education to pre-service teachers.  450k teachers (young teachers) are currently work as teachers in Malaysia and to enhance proficiency in English based on the alignment of CEFR.  For the time being, it is only meant for English teachers.
  • Digital competency among students (primary and secondary) is skewed in which those who go to schools equip with good ICT facilities would have better digital competency.
  • The ecosystem within the school is related to students’ competency on digital skills.

  • Zero Reject Policy is in motion with various programmes such as programmes for special needs students, programmes for children of migrants or asylum seekers, ziarah cakna and such.
  • The emphasis on the results is still prevalent in Malaysia.  We often ask “How many As do you get?” rather on the question “What have you learned over the 11 years of schooling?”
  • The societal value (in Malaysia) makes it a challenge to change the current practice in which teachers still practice “teaching to the test” i.e. teachers teach what would be “appeared” in the examination.
  • School completion requires students to have minimum expected skills and knowledge as set by the Ministry of Education (education system) to ensure our future generations would be future proof to face 4IR challenges.
  • Selection of those undergoing teaching training programmes has been improved and also, there are continuous programmes given to current teachers to enhance their teaching practice.
  • School leadership is the 2nd biggest factor influencing students’ learning after teachers’ instructional delivery.  Thus, it is important to emphasise on the preparation of instructional planning and delivery than administrative aspects.
  • COVID-19 has given impacts on society at various levels especially the most affected are the vulnerable (the disadvantaged).
  • DELIMa (Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia) is a culmination of efforts from the ministry along with Google, Microsoft and Apple.  Yet, it is all go back to the issues of teachers and students’ preparedness in online learning, digital divide and connectivity as well as providing support to the most vulnerable including students with disability.
  • The accuracy of information and speed of information delivers from various parties to different levels of parties.

Hasan Langgulung

Someone asked me if I was Pak Hasan’s student.  Pak Hasan is a nickname that we (his students) fondly use to call him.  His real name is Hasan Langgulung.  He passed away in 2008.  Al-fatihah.

When I was his student in 2003, he was already nearly 70.  He used to go swimming before Zuhr with a colleague.  I used to see him waiting with his sport bag nearby the car park of IIUM Kulliyyah of Education (now it is known as Institute of Education or INSTED).

What I vividly remember until now is, there were six of us taking his Personality Psychology class.  Each of us had to present three times.  Yup.  With only six students in a class, what do you expect?  Our presentation would be based on either article review or our thoughts on Western and Islamic views of Personality.  For the Islamic views, we have to pour over the Holy Qur’an and such.  Of course, there is no direct comparison between theories by the western scholars with Islamic scholars like Al-Ghazali. But, it prompted us to think critically.  Talk about HOTs and whatsnot.  Well, it has been practiced long time ago before OBE and whatsnot.

Another thing that I remember well is there would be one of us who would go to his room before class and this person would walk with Pak Hassan to class.  While walking, this person would have the privilege to have a chat with Pak Hassan.  Normally, the male students would do it.  Or if we wanted to do it, there would be two of us female students who would “on a pretext of having something-to-discuss-with-you” go to his room and walk with him to class after our discussion.  Such a precious moment!  Of course, we could not do that with other lecturers but with him, he is like a father who we could discuss about intellectual stuff.

Calling him Pak Hasan rather than Professor (even though his official salutary title is Professor) shows the kind of relationship that we had as student-teacher.  Oh how I miss those moments!  Do I wish that I could have such relationship with my own students?   That is a question that I do not have any answer yet.

 

Program Kerohanian FSSH bagi Siri 22: Kemuliaan memberi dengan Ikhlas – Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 265-269

Tarikh / Hari     :      10 September 2020 (Khamis)
Masa                     :      8.15 pagi
Pembimbing    :      PM. Dr. Ahmad bin Che Yaacob
Tajuk                     :      Kemuliaan memberi dengan Ikhlas  – Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 265-269
Intipati ayat Surah Al-Baqarah
Ayat 265-269
  • Allah SWT menggunakan analogi orang yang ikhlas memberi seperti ladang atau kebun di tempat yang tinggi (selalunya tiada sungai atau sumber air), yang ditimpa hujan lebat, lalu mengeluarkan hasilnya dua kali ganda.  Dengan hujan itu, ladang itu dapat menghasilkan buah yang banyak.
  • Syaitan sentiasa memujuk untuk kita tidak memberi sumbangan.  Akan tetapi kita perlu melatih diri untuk mempunyai pendirian yang teguh untuk tetap memberi
Ayat 266
  • Allah SWT menggunakan analogi orang yang tidak ikhlas atau tidak mahu memberi seperti ladang yang mempunyai pokok yang pelbagai dan terdapat sungai yang mengalir, tetapi akan datang ribut taufan yang memusnahkan ladang itu dan akhirnya ladang itu tidak berhasil.

Ayat 267

  • Sekiranya ingin memberi sesuatu, tidak boleh dari sumber yang haram seperti barang haram, dari riba’ dan sebagainya.
  • Sumbangan perlu dari sumber yang halal dan dalam keadaan terbaik.  Contoh: Jangan beri baju-baju yang terkoyak untuk disumbang atau makanan yang hampir basi atau tidak elok untuk dimakan.

Ayat 268

  • Syaitan akan sentiasa menakut-nakutkan dengan kemiskinan dan kepapaan dan akan sentiasa menggalakkan pekerjaan keji.

Ayat 269

  • Allah berikan kebijaksanaan/hikmah (wisdom) kepada sesiapa yang dikehendakinya.  Sesiapa yang diberikan hikmah akan dimendapat kebaikan (ganjaran) yang banyak.

Example of CQI for OBE CAR: Based on CLO

This is an example of CQI that I wrote for the courses that I teach this semester (Semester 2, 201920) based on Course Learning Outcome (CLO).

CLO1: One student failed to submit the final examination (take home examination).  There other students who seem to struggle to link concepts relating to various theories of personality with life events.  It perhaps due to misconceptions or overloaded information that they have to digest within shorter period of time especially if they do not have continuous revision on their own.  So, students will be guided to have continuous revision through weekly online quizzes which will prompt them to revise consistently.

If I can break down the above CQI reporting based on three things: 1) Analysis of data, 2) Areas for improvement and 3) Action plan, you will see that I organise the sentence structure according to such order.

1) Analysis of data,

One student failed to submit the final examination (take home examination).  There other students who seem to struggle to link concepts relating to various theories of personality with life events.

2) Areas for improvement 

It perhaps due to misconceptions or overloaded information that they have to digest within shorter period of time especially if they do not have continuous revision on their own (in this sentence, I believe one of the areas for improvement is continuous revision.  So, I highlighted this aspect which I will take action in the future).

3) Action plan,

So, students will be guided to have continuous revision through weekly online quizzes which will prompt them to revise consistently.

Example of CQI for OBE CAR: Based on PO

This is an example of CQI that I wrote for the courses that I teach this semester (Semester 2, 201920) based on Programme Outcome (PO).

PO1: In general, with PO1 = 87.5%, it shows that on average students get above average mark (A range).  It seems that students performance for this PO is better than the previous semester (PO1 = 79%).  What is different in this semester is students are forced to be more independent in their learning due to COVID-19.  With support from the instructor for class notes (Prezi, Powerpoint notes with audio recording), extra ungraded quizzes (that they can take and convert into their carry marks for quiz = 10%) and such, students are scaffolded accordingly regardless of the limitations or challenges that they might experience throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO).  In the future, students will be given continuous formative assessment such as online quizzes which are non-graded assessment to assist students to revise and identify which concepts that they are still struggling with.

If I can break down the above CQI reporting based on three things: 1) Analysis of data, 2) Areas for improvement and 3) Action plan, you will see that I organise the sentence structure according to such order.

1) Analysis of data,

In general, with PO1 = 87.5%, it shows that on average students get above average mark (A range).  It seems that students performance for this PO is better than the previous semester (PO1 = 79%).  What is different in this semester is students are forced to be more independent in their learning due to COVID-19 [in this sentence (italic) is a personalised insight based on what I observe for this particular cohort]. 

2) Areas for improvement 

With support from the instructor for class notes (Prezi, Powerpoint notes with audio recording), extra ungraded quizzes (that they can take and convert into their carry marks for quiz = 10%) and such, students are scaffolded accordingly regardless of the limitations or challenges that they might experience throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO).

3) Action plan

In the future, students will be given continuous formative assessment such as online quizzes which are non-graded assessment to assist students to revise and identify which concepts that they are still struggling with.

How to write CQI for OBE CAR?

How to write Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) for Outcome based Education Course Analysis Review (OBE CAR )?  That is the question that I asked myself few years back.  Being a novice, I struggle to find out what is needed for me to improve my teaching.  So, I did some reading and after that, I just do whatever I think is suitable and appropriate for me to improve my teaching based on my reading.  Sometimes, I discuss with my senior colleagues about how to improve my teaching, asking them to review my rubrics, assignment instruction and such.

For the CQI, it is basically based on what I did, do and plan to do in class.  It is really as simple as it it.  Pssttt…. of course passion for teaching is one of the key ingredients in this case.   Another thing is, since it is our own teaching practice, we have to be honest in reporting what we did and do in class.  I have seen some examples of colleagues who “borrow” the idea of teaching practice from looking from others CQI report and in fact, they don’t even practice that in their teaching or class.  So, it is not right to do so just for the sake of reporting.

In my case, based on what I did and do in class, when I write the CQI for OBE CAR, I will look at the programme outcomes (PO) and course learning outcomes (CLO).  So, my CQI will be based on that.

In the column where it is required for us to write an overall CQI, I will summarise what I find (based on data i.e. students performance), what I did in class that can be improved (class activities, tasks given to students etc.) and what I want to do in the future.

So, basically, I will put it under these three headings:

1) Analysis of data (What do I find from this cohort of students?)

2) Areas for improvement (What did I do in class that can be improved?)

3) Action plan (What are the things that  I want to do in future and how to do it?)

For more details, I provide

* an example of CQI based on PO and

* an example of CQI based on CLO.