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13489 results in Education, history, theory

Page 355 of 675

  • 6 - Vision 2020 and the Chinese Schools

  • Ting Hui Lee
  • Book:
    Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    18 January 2011, pp 187-217

  • Summary

    The 1990s into the year 2003 saw the continued rule of Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister of the country. Mahathir introduced a grand vision for the development of the country called Vision 2020. While the new regime brought blessings to the Chinese schools in certain ways, it also created difficulties for them in other respects. There were occasions of joy as well as occasions of disappointment.

    Vision 2020, Smart Schools and Vision Schools

    Under the inspiration of Vision 2020, the schools in the country, including Chinese schools, were to be converted into Smart Schools. They were also to become Vision Schools. While the Smart School scheme was of benefit indirectly to the Chinese schools, the Vision School plan would work to their disadvantage.

    Vision 2020

    On 28 February 1991, in an address to a business conference, Mahathir broached the idea of Vision 2020. In his visualization, from 1991 to 2020, Malaysia should develop to become an advanced country. There were to be two dimensions to the plan, viz, economic and social. The economic target was to double the Gross Domestic Product of the country every ten years, and the social target was to do away with ethnicity in every aspect, and see the evolution of a unified society. He also mentioned that the nation must meet a series of challenges, economic or social in nature, to achieve these aims. The challenges, which could be considered to be economic in nature, were as follows:

    1. To build a prosperous society which would be economically competitive and which would be spirited, alert, and resilient.

    2. To build a society which would be scientifically progressive, creative, and far-sighted. Its people would not only be consumers of modern science and technology, but also contributors to such science and technology in future.

    3. To build a society which would be free, peaceful, confident and proud of its achievements, and in possession of sufficient alertness to meet obstacles of all kinds. […]

Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia
  • The Struggle for Survival
  • Ting Hui Lee
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    18 January 2011
  • The history of modern Chinese schools in Peninsular Malaysia is a story of conflicts between Chinese domiciled there and different governments that happened or happen to rule the land. Before the days of the Pacific War, the British found the Chinese schools troublesome because of their pro-China political activities. They established measures to control them. When the Japanese ruled the Malay Peninsula, they closed down all the Chinese schools. After the Pacific War, for a decade, the British sought to convert the Chinese schools into English schools. The Chinese schools decoupled themselves from China and survived. A Malay-dominated government of independent Peninsular Malaysia allowed Chinese primary schools to continue, but finally changed many Chinese secondary schools into National Type Secondary Schools using Malay as the main medium of instruction. Those that remained independent, along with Chinese colleges, continued without government assistance. The Chinese community today continues to safeguard its educational institutions to ensure they survive.

  • 2 - From the Japanese Occupation to Self-Government

  • Ting Hui Lee
  • Book:
    Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    18 January 2011, pp 43-82

  • Summary

    The Japanese took over the Malay Peninsula from the British between the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942. Thereafter, they ruled the land until 1945 when they lost the Pacific War and had to return it to the British. While there, as to be expected, they tried to promote education through their own language at the expense of all other languages.

    Before the war, the British had ruled the Straits Settlements directly, and the Federated as well as the Unfederated Malay States indirectly, through their sultans. On recovering the peninsula, they tried immediately to alter this system. They made an attempt to do away with the sultans, join their states into one unit with Penang and Malacca, and rule the whole country directly. As before, they continued to govern Singapore separately. They also treated the immigrant races, the Chinese and Indians, on par with the Malays and granted them citizenship on easy terms. All these would promote the development of a Malayan nation. However, the scheme ran into very strong opposition from both the conservative and radical Malays. Later, the British also came up against a rebellion led by the Chinese communists who aimed to take total power from them. From then on, they made compromises to the conservative Malays step by step. First, while amalgamating the Federated and Unfederated Malay States, together with Penang and Malacca, into one unit, they reverted to the traditional practice of ruling the new set-up indirectly. Not so long after that, they conceded to them self-government.

    Along with all the changes in the power configuration of the country came changes in the field of education. The British at first tried to make their language the premier medium of instruction in schools, while giving the Chinese, Malay, and Tamil languages equal status. In this, they met with vigorous protest from the conservative Malays.

  • 1 - The Years before the Pacific War

  • Ting Hui Lee
  • Book:
    Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    18 January 2011, pp 1-42

  • Summary

    To understand why there were and still are Chinese schools in the Malay Peninsula, we need to know how the land became a British dependency between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries for there were few Chinese living there before the British arrived and even fewer Chinese schools worth noting. The Chinese followed in the wake of the British, arriving to seek a better living which the British could provide. The British initiated vast economic developments which necessitated extensive utilization of manpower. In addition to the attractiveness of the land under British rule, China, from where the Chinese came, was ravaged by wars with foreign powers as well as civil conflicts from about the middle of the nineteenth century, which made life very difficult for ordinary people.

    The first Chinese to come to the Malay Peninsula actually arrived in the fifteenth century during the days of the Malacca sultanate, but they were insignificant in numbers compared with those arriving later. Francis Light and Stamford Raffles set up trading stations in Penang and Singapore in 1786 and 1819 respectively, and these stations became great magnets for Chinese traders as well as labourers. In 1826, the British also acquired Malacca from the Dutch and used it for trading. This former sultanate had fallen to Portuguese rule in the fifteenth century and then to the Dutch. Penang, Singapore, and Malacca were then formed into one administrative unit named the Straits Settlements. Then, beginning from 1874, the British moved northwards from Singapore into the hinterland, to the states of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang which they formed into a federation called the Federated Malay States in 1896. The metal, tin, was found to be abundant in Perak and Selangor, and this was what drew the British northwards. In 1909, the British and the Thais reached an agreement to divide between themselves some Malay states straddling the present border between the peninsula and Thailand, and so the British also took over Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengganu.

  • 7 - Conclusion: Challenges and Responses

  • Ting Hui Lee
  • Book:
    Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    18 January 2011, pp 218-248

  • Summary

    From the first day, when the first old-style school was founded in Penang in 1819, until 2007, Chinese schools in Malaysia have undergone a development of more than 180 years. According to statistics, in 2007, there were 1,289 Chinese primary schools with 643,679 pupils in the country; in 2005, there were 78 National-Type Secondary Schools with 128,459 students; and in 2007, there were 60 independent Chinese secondary schools with 55,818 students. In the tertiary field of education, in 2007, there were the Southern College in Johor, the New Era College in Selangor, and the Han Jiang International College in Penang. Such results were achieved only after serious challenges were met and great sacrifices made in the course of struggle.

    In this conclusion, we propose first to review briefly the salient points of what happened to these schools from 1786 to 2003, as accounted for in the last six chapters in this book, then to discuss briefly what took place from 2004 to early 2009, and finally to anticipate what these schools could expect in the near future.

    1786–2003: UNITARIANISM OR PLURALISM

    The British ruled Peninsular Malaysia from 1786 to 1957. After 1957, political power was transferred from the British to the local races, namely the Malays, Chinese, and Indians, with the Malays as the leading element, who then formed the government of the country. When the British were around, they gave full support to schools which used English as the main medium of instruction and some support to schools which used Malay as the main medium of instruction. They were less than forthcoming in giving assistance to schools which used Chinese or Tamil as the main medium of instruction. They could be said, by and large, to practise unitarianism. The Chinese and Tamil schools had hoped that they could be treated equally as the English and Malay schools, but they were to be disappointed. These schools believed in pluralism. For the years before the Pacific War, the important things to note were the Schools Registration Ordinance/Enactment and their subsequent amendments.

  • 8 - Developing learning websites for student use - content

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 109-126

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As was emphasized in Chapter 7, learning resources for students that are focused on the needs of particular groups of students studying curricular topics in schools are more likely to be seen by students as being designed specifically for them rather than for any students in general. Locally produced learning websites will motivate students more than general ones as the students will recognize not only the name of the school and their class on the website, but also the direct link between what they are learning in the classroom, or what assignment they are completing, and the content of the website. If students can be involved in the further development of a learning website, for example by adding web sources which they have found and evaluated, then this is also likely to motivate and engage students.

    Deciding on the content of learning websites can be a challenge for teachers and teacher librarians. The content of learning websites needs to be guided by the needs of the student group for which the site is designed. Chapter 7 examined aspects of good design for learning websites, but a well designed site with content that does not match the needs of students, for example has an inappropriate level of language, will not be successful. In deciding on content, teachers and teacher librarians also need to consider differentiation, as student groups are likely to include a range of abilities and reading levels, particularly at the primary or elementary level and early secondary or high school level.

    This chapter will focus on presenting subject content in learning websites, developing e-pathfinders, and enhancing student participation in wikis and blogs. The aim is to present a range of ideas for developing the content of learning websites and to provide examples which can be adapted by teachers and teacher librarians for their own schools.

    Subject content

    Including subject content in a learning website can give students an experience of online learning, which can be beneficial for students as online learning is likely to increase in the future. Teachers and teacher librarians planning a learning website have to decide what to include in the subject content part of the website.

  • Introduction

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp xiii-xvi

  • Summary

    The aims of this book

    The growth of the internet and particularly the web, and the increasing need for students and staff in schools to be able to use information effectively when they study, work or socialize, has meant that there is now a greater recognition of the need for information literacy and web use to be seen as key aspects of modern education and society. Most studies of the ability and competency of teachers and teacher librarians (including school librarians and school library media specialists) to use the web effectively show that school staff need advice, guidance and in-service training. Similarly, most research on students’ use of information literacy skills, including effective web use, demonstrates that most students do not use the web effectively, and are unlikely to transfer what they are taught about web use across the subjects which they are studying. The primary aim of this book is to provide schools with a practical guide, built on a sound theoretical base, to developing better use of the web by staff and students, in order to improve learning and teaching in schools. The aim is to change staff and students in schools from web users to critical web learners.

    This book also aims to raise the profile of information literacy in schools, with a view to persuading teachers, teacher librarians and school management that information literacy skills and abilities should be a key focus in the school curriculum. Students are increasingly seen as being independent learners, who make use of the vast array of learning resources of the web, in order to widen their knowledge of curricular topics and complete assignments. If students are to be web-alert, web-critical and webreflective, they need to be taught a range of information literacy skills, so they can develop abilities which make them reflective practitioners.

    A third aim of the book is twofold. First, it is intended to provide new teachers and teacher librarians (including those studying for professional qualifications in these areas) with a resource which they can use for a range of purposes, for example to expand their own learning or to teach students about web use. The book contains many examples of good practice in schools and new teachers and teacher librarians can use or adapt them in their own work.

  • 1 - The big picture: learning and teaching in today's schools

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 1-14

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Teachers and teacher librarians in schools across the world are faced with an ever increasing number of initiatives from local and central governments. They are also encouraged to link these initiatives to greater use of ICT in the school. Therefore teachers and teacher librarians are often so busy keeping up with current trends and new technological initiatives that they are in danger of losing sight of the key purposes of education and the key aims of their school. The use of ICT in schools is now often viewed as a sine qua non for learning and teaching. Staff are reminded of the cost of ICT developments and it may appear that teachers and teacher librarians must use ICT developments such as interactive whiteboards because they are expensive and therefore that expense must be justified. There is also pressure on teachers and teacher librarians to be seen to be using ICT in their teaching, but this use of ICT can often be superficial, for example when they use an interactive whiteboard merely to replicate what was previously done with a laptop and a projector. Thus the way in which ICT can be used to meet the school's aims and promote better learning and teaching in the school should be emphasized.

    In most schools teaching students how to use the web has moved on from isolated classes in a computer lab where students were taught the technical aspects of using Google, how to bookmark sites, and how to cut and paste information. One of the problems schools often face, however, is that although students now use the web for all mainstream subjects, there is often no systematic approach to teaching web use. Teacher librarians in schools may attempt to teach information literacy skills, including web use, but there are only sporadic instances of teachers either developing or reinforcing these skills.

    Web use and information literacy skills should be part of each student's learning and the focus in schools should be on how students can use information literacy skills to enhance their learning. Learning from eresources is the key educational factor here, not the student's increased use of the web.

Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
  • A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Librarians
  • James E. Herring
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010
  • The web is now an integral part of students' lives in school and in society, and they need to be ever more web alert in order to gain the most from their education. What teachers and teacher librarians badly need to help them achieve this is a professional tool that combines knowledge and use of the web, Web 2.0 tools and information literacy for schools. This book fulfils that need by providing a practical guide to using the web effectively in order to enhance learning and teaching in schools. It does this by focusing on the knowledge and skills needed by teachers and teacher librarians to be information literate web users and to develop these abilities in their students. It then focuses on using Web 2.0 tools to create learning resources for students which will develop them as reflective web learners as well as web users. Key areas covered include: * learning and teaching in today's schools * finding and using information on the web * evaluating websites * Web 2.0 and schools * information literacy * improving student use of the web * developing learning websites for student use * the next phase of ICT in schools. Set in a context of theory, this guide offers many examples of best practice in schools from a range of countries. Packed full with ideas which teachers and teacher librarians can use in their own schools, it is unique in providing a guide to the creation of learning websites, which combine subject learning, mediated resources for students, information literacy guidance (including effective web use), and student assignments. This much-needed book is a vital resource for teachers and teacher librarians, as well as being of strategic interest to school principals. It should be on the reading lists of all trainee teachers and librarians.

  • 3 - Evaluating websites

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 35-46

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In 21st-century schools web-based resources are becoming the most common way for teachers, teacher librarians and students to access information. This chapter focuses on the need for teachers and teacher librarians to be experts in evaluating websites (Chapter 7 covers how to teach students to evaluate them). The importance of effective, as opposed to cursory, website evaluation cannot be underestimated. When teachers and teacher librarians are searching the web to find relevant websites to use in teaching, or for students to use, they will ensure that they find the best possible sites for themselves and their students by evaluating potentially useful websites.

    In this chapter a range of website evaluation criteria are introduced, and some examples are critically analysed. Then the author lists his evaluation criteria for websites, which can be practically applied by school staff. The chapter ends with an example of a workshop for school staff, which can be adapted to suit local needs. Being able to evaluate websites effectively is an undervalued skill in most schools, but given the increasing use of websites in schools it should be among the core competencies of today's teachers and teacher librarians.

    Website evaluation criteria

    Why evaluate websites?

    Brown (2002) identifies a number of reasons why teachers and teacher librarians need to evaluate websites:

  • ◆ absence of guidelines – the web allows anyone to post any kind of information on a website

  • ◆ absence of monitoring – there is little reviewing or editing of material posted on the web, unlike that carried out for published books

  • ◆ lack of representation – most of the material on the web is put there by a small minority of the world's population, with many countries, in particular in Africa, lacking a web presence

  • ◆ possibility of bias – the web allows people to add propaganda to websites, and there is much commercial material on the web, which increases the likelihood of bias.

    • Brown (2002) argues that the ‘best form of monitoring available for teachers and students is the use of critical thinking skills and constant questioning about the validity and quality of the information being encountered on the Internet’. For teachers and teacher librarians, perhaps the most important reason for evaluating websites is that they have a professional and ethical responsibility to use the best available information they can find for their teaching and for their students to use.

  • 6 - Improving student use of the web

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 77-90

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Using the web for school work is now an integral part of the modern student's life. The web is the first port of call if students need information for subject learning or for an assignment. Outside school, the web is also the key information source for most students, although not all students have web access at home. As the web is now such a large part of many students’ lives, it is surprising that, in most schools, little time is allocated to teaching students how to be not only web users, but web learners. A web user is a person who uses the web, but this use may be superficial, mainly technical and involve little or no reflection. If students are to be web learners, they will develop effective search strategies (derived from an analysis of their purpose), critically evaluate what they find on the web, select information that is relevant to their purpose, use information and ideas found on the web ethically and effectively, and will learn from each use of the web, by reflecting on what they found, and how they found it. In most schools, there is an assumption that students will be web learners as well as web users, but there is little evidence of this, either anecdotally or in the research literature (Herring, 2010; Kuiper, Volman and Terwel, 2008).

    To develop students from being web users to web learners, there needs to be a focus on teaching web learning skills to students, and to reinforce these skills across the school curriculum. If schools can develop an integrated approach to web learning, there is an opportunity for students to extend their use of information literacy skills and abilities and develop their own model of information literacy.

    This chapter seeks to provide teachers and teacher librarians with ideas and examples for teaching students how to improve their use of the web. Most students need to be provided with scaffolding, which will help them to use the web effectively and to reflect on that use. The chapter focuses on key aspects of information literacy, which relate to students’ use of the web, including planning for web searching, using effective search strategies, evaluating websites and web-based information, reading for information, reflecting on web use, and developing a personal model for web use.

  • 7 - Developing learning websites for student use - design and tools

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 91-108

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter focuses on teachers and teacher librarians as the creators of customized learning websites in school. There is a plethora of information on the web relating to the subjects being taught in schools. There are also examples of learning websites designed by other teachers and teacher librarians on the web. Although these sources can be useful, they often have to be adapted and are not designed to meet the needs of a particular group of students in a particular school. The advent of easy to use tools now makes it much easier and quicker for teachers and teacher librarians to design their own learning websites, which can be designed to be much more relevant and personal to students. For example, a learning website designed by a geography teacher and a teacher librarian which states that it was designed for year 8 students in School X studying climate change, and which includes the opportunity for student input, is much more likely to be seen as valuable by students than a general website.

    The aim of this chapter is to provide teachers and teacher librarians with examples of tools that can be used to design learning websites of a particular kind, providing students with a package that contains elements of what they are studying, the assignment to be completed, mediated resources related to the topic being studied, and information literacy advice on learning from these resources and about completing the assignment. This approach is different from one that provides students merely with a list of websites related to their topic. The focus of this chapter is on designing such sites and learning to use a range of tools. Chapter 9 will focus on the content of learning websites and discuss examples of content.

    This chapter provides this author's definition of learning websites and the benefits derived from developing such sites, evaluates approaches to website design, examines a range of tools for developing learning websites, and offers an example of an in-service session on developing learning websites.

    Learning websites

    This author defines learning websites as websites developed in a particular school, for a particular group of students who are studying a curricular topic. They may also be termed local learning websites as, although they may be adapted for use in other schools, they are focused on the needs of a local group of students.

  • 2 - Finding and using information on the web

  • James E. Herring
  • Book:
    Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2010, pp 15-34

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The use of the web in today's schools by staff and students is now taken for granted and there is an assumption that all staff and students will be effective users of the web. Anecdotal evidence tends to suggest otherwise, however, and this author found when visiting several schools in different countries that many teachers and teacher librarians have limited abilities in searching effectively for information on the web. Staff in schools across the world often have very limited access to staff training that focuses on searching for information. Most staff are self-taught or have learned how to use search engines from colleagues whose experience may also be limited. It can be argued that there is a large opportunity cost for schools whose staff are not fully aware and fully equipped searchers of information on the web. Because there is so much free information on the web that can contribute to learning and teaching in schools, lack of expertise in searching can lead to many schools in effect losing out on finding out about concepts, ideas and experiences that could help staff improve their teaching and self development.

    This chapter will seek to address the issues discussed above and provide a guide for increasing teachers’ and teacher librarians’ knowledge of search engines and directories, and improving their skills in searching for information on the web. It will also present an example of an in-service session on finding information on the web.

    Search engines

    The most common way to search for information in schools and society at large is by using a search engine, and by far the most popular search engine is Google. Notess defined a search engine as ‘an Internet-based search box that provides text-match searching of its own crawler-built database of textindexed Web pages [which provides access to] millions of freely accessible web pages’ (2006, 98). An important point to be remembered in Notess’ definition is that search engines provide text matching, which is different from keyword matching, and this is one reason why people are often disappointed by the ability of search engines to find relevant information about the keywords they have used.

Page 355 of 675