THE FUTURE OF MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

30 years ago, education professionals and stakeholders saw a disruptive phenomenon taking shape around them. This phenomenon was the Internet. These people who were at the heart of education systems around the world, looked at it and either could not nor would not take that step to look at this giant with a critical, scientific mind to see how it would forever transform the world and how it would revolutionize education, educational delivery and research systems.

Today, the exact same thing is happening, and educators still refuse to acknowledge that the Internet, formerly known as web 1.0, is again transforming into web 2.0 and beyond. Again, it is transforming learners’ demands and how the very concept of what constitutes knowledge and more importantly, what the new definition of education and curriculum should be.

The standard demands on a student from a century ago were to be TAUGHT and to have knowledge, and this evolved in the classroom from the low order Declarative and Procedural Knowledge to eventually reaching the somewhat higher order Schematic and Strategic Knowledge. In today’s world however, this so called highest order knowledge is no longer sufficient to create Innovation through calculated risk taking, arising from Disruptive thinking.

So, what should classroom learning and instruction encompass? An overview would be:
1) What is the definition of the new Curriculum of the future?
2) What is the new classroom of the future?
3) Who are the new Learner and new Educator of the future – what are their attributes?
4) What will sustain Malaysian classrooms to evolve naturally to meet the demands of new market places, new careers and new global communities of the future?

What are the key issues surrounding these questions, that have to be answered so that Malaysia is ready to face 2015, where it is expected that a sudden surge in innovations and the convergence of NBIC - Nano, Bio, Info and Cogno Technologies - will create rapid transformations and place new pressures on education systems both at the schooling and higher education levels?

Key Issues

In considering the following, it is crucial to consider the importance and relevance of each of them and think about the solutions. Problems cannot and must not be solved with the same, tired ways of thinking. Disruptive thinking is needed to create innovations and take calculated risks, possibly resulting in mistakes, but it will be mistakes made early, quickly and cheaply. The underlying considerations are what the Global Education scene is like currently and then, what it ought to be, to meet global and future relevance; and finally, how Malaysian education needs to transform to meet these requirements

Issue 1. How can we develop new learner centered, critical thinking & enquiry based, skills and research driven curriculum with foresight and futures methodologies and soft skills and communications expertise?

Issue 2. What are the implications for emerging technologies and the convergence of new wisdom? Data is growing exponentially and has reached singularity, where no person(s) is able to know everything about any issue. What are the implications for this in the classroom and for education systems? Will there be such a person as an “expert in a field”?

Issue 3. How does the emergence of brand new areas of study such as Nano, Info, Bio and Cogno technologies affect the need for new subjects and areas of study; and new skills and talents; in schooling and higher education systems?

Issue 4. What are ways that knowledge for anyone, anytime and anywhere - will impact the importance of memorizing data as opposed to having the relevant skills to access, analyze and choose this knowledge?

Issue 5. How can we construct a mechanism which forces us to use our past, analyze what we have in the present & develop and shape what is required for us to stay globally relevant for our future?

Issue 6. We have been operating at current conscious levels of thinking that have produced the curriculum we have now. We now have to operate at different levels of thinking and have new higher level expectations in order to bring about changes that will produce new curriculum. What are these higher levels?

Issue 7. A clear vision for everyone is needed that will provide the mobilising force necessary to move forward. How do we create this vision that will receive the buy-in of all stakeholders, and make the process palatable to all Malaysians?

Issue 8. How can we choose indicators that will be direct indicators of the progress we make and the buy-in that we receive; choosing indicators that are definable, reproducible, unambiguous, quantifiable and sustainable?

Issue 9. How can we design a brand new schooling system that will come to realise the need for 1Malaysia, and possibly through a 1Session in 1School system?

Issue 10. How can we mobilize the existing private tuition and talent (dance, drama, martial arts etc) building industry to support our schooling system and to make national schools, one stop centers of excellence?

Issue 11. How could a new timeline of phases for schooling to tertiary education be developed, in terms of age? Is it still relevant to have schooling systems that cover 11 years and end with no real world training? How can this be transformed?

Issue 12. How do we give meaning and purpose to our children’s lives through curricular reforms?

Issue 13. How can we create excellent and ethical “workers” and scholars among every Malaysian school student through community service that will also address the need to bring all Malaysians together?

Issue 14. What are the ways we must use data from brain research to redesign our curriculum?

Issue 15. How can we create evaluation systems with globally recognised credibility & relevance and who do we benchmark ourselves against when designing this “globally recognized” education system?

Issue 16. What are the physical transformations we must make to transform our classrooms into learner centered learning spaces?

Issue 17. What are transformations our teachers & lecturers must make to be ready for new learning spaces, pedagogies and andragogies; and transform into learning facilitators?

Issue 18. What are methods we must use to incorporate technological advancements in communications; multimedia and “on-time”, “everywhere” mobile access into our curriculums; to achieve our objectives to create a curriculum for the future?

Issue 19. Consider the demand for and importance of offering online modules personalized towards gathering skills in on time expertise, careers and personal transformations. How can we restructure our education system to meet the needs of independent learners with independent needs, in a way that caters to individual learning styles, in order to motivate learners to assume greater responsibility in managing and directing their own learning?

Issue 20. How can the need be addressed to subtly instill into future curriculums; global awareness, ethical and moral values, and empathy for the bottom billion in order to address the widening Malaysian and global rich-poor gap?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
“To realize that we are shaped by education, that learning leads to thought and self reflection, understanding and knowledge and wisdom, and to see that skills in critical thinking lead to
problem solving that helps us discover the truth for ourselves; thus strengthening our minds and giving us sound judgment and character to see clearly and straight; those essential tools that sustain societies and the world. Our student is a Scientist who is able to interpret a poem, a Poet who sees rhyme in the Scientific Method and a Philosopher with understanding and belief in Cross-Cultural Understanding, Faith and Sustainable Living”

a. Development of students with beliefs in and commitments to:
I. critical self-reflection and thinking skills
II. life-long learning
III. programs that will nurture and produce global leaders who are strong, articulate, compassionate and dedicated to creating a sustainable future for the world.
IV. cultivating enquiry, learning and research skills starting from kindergarten (kg)

b. Student’s innate talents and interests will be nurtured so as to have the opportunity to be developed in a learner centered environment that caters to individual learning abilities and differences. This independent, learner initiated individualized learning plan will grant ownership to students to take control of their futures and develop innate talents and abilities towards preparing for their preferred future. They will be motivated to assume greater responsibility in managing and directing their own learning.

c. Interactive learning spaces enabled by internet-mediated collaborative platforms will motivate learners to take ownership of their own learning, develop chosen skills and talents, and be independent thinkers

d. Foresight and futures learning methods will be incorporated into curriculum staring with kindergarten. This will empower learners with the skills of disruptive thinking and risk taking, necessary tools for a transformation process.

e. Learners will learn in an environment and curriculum that has embedded universal values, ethics and moral systems. Effective curriculum will not separate these systems as a subject but will instead integrate it into the everyday experience of the learner in various learning spaces.

f. In order to coexist and gain a multiracial, multireligious, multicultural and ethical perspective of global communities, and to take ownership, responsibility and accountability for global challenges, we will develop students with global awareness, ethical and moral values, and empathy for the bottom billion in order to address the widening global rich-poor gap.

g. Students will be developed to be articulate, independent, committed to EfSD and life-long learning and thus will be relevant to future industries and careers and prepared to meet the severe challenges for global and environmental transformations.

h. Our students will lead and not play follow the leader. in order to gain confidence and to have the tenacity to lead, and provide spiritual, moral and ethical directions in their lives – on a globally relevant future platform.

i. Teachers/lecturers must believe in the concept of an emancipatory curriculum and be willing to hand over power and personal control to learners in their learning spaces and must be trained to nurture talent and develop skills that will be relevant to global futures and relevance.

j. Learners must be trained to develop skills in analyzing and choosing from overwhelming content and information overload.

New Curriculum

Once these objectives are met, the curriculum will have to fulfill expectations that it will:
a. Develop a learner centered curriculum model that will be a sustainable for Malaysia and Malaysians to be exposed to the necessary levels of education and life-long learning to stay relevant globally & for the future.

b. Develop content, pedagogy, andragogy and evaluations that will be relevant to learning styles & spaces where knowledge is available and accessible in all places and at all times.

c. Develop learner centered, critical and reflective thinking, enquiry based, skills and research driven learning spaces with foresight and futures methodologies and soft skills and communications expertise – all packaged into curriculum that nurtures students from kindergarten to tertiary education and stimulates practice in life-long learning.

Question I. How do you evaluate if a Learning Space is Learner Centered?
i. How is the space Learner centered?
ii. How do learners take control of their learning?
iii. What is it that Learners do that reflects independent learning?
iv. How is it ensured that learners are emancipated in independent Learning Spaces, through the structure of the curriculum?
v. How is it reflected that learner’s are self-directed and capable of critical reflection of learning goals, the learning environment, the content of learning, and the broader questions of ethical, social significance, meaning and purpose of the curriculum?

Question II. How are the methodologies and techniques of Critical and Reflective Thinking taught?
Question III. How are LF’s evaluated so they understand the delivery and the rationale, scopes, concepts and objectives of Critical and Reflective Thinking?

d. Develop the necessary, freely accessible technology that will sustain Learner Centered learning spaces. Enquiry and Research skills developed in formal learning spaces will necessitate the availability of online modules and coursework that will provide learners with starting points to gather knowledge directed towards personalized areas of interests.

e. Develop the necessary evaluations that will test skills and solutions and not knowledge. Rigorous and Standardised testing that meet global and industry requirements must be developed that will enable different types of learners to approach this standardized testing but using preferred, individual ways of problem solving, research and determining solutions.

Rationales and justifications for Issues

a. The world is moving away from teacher/lecturer centered classrooms to student centered learning spaces. The term classroom will in effect be changed to learning space and students will have a choice in the way of learning (multiple intelligences) they most prefer and will immerse themselves into their preferred style of learning to develop skills in enquiry and research. This is the age of personalised learning for every learner in a learner centered space.

b. EEG machines will be used to calculate empirically, the effectiveness of teaching/learning/testing models and the environments of learning space. This will cause many traditional learning models to be abandoned and new personalized methodologies will replace them. online feedback software and testing will determine the best way to present learning modules and these will be evaluated and used by independent learners making choices and decisions to retool for on-time time expertise, careers and needs

c. Knowledge is growing exponentially, and has reached singularity – where the knowledge you have today will no longer be the most current tomorrow. This makes memorizing knowledge and exams meaningless as they will only test current levels of learning, which might be obsolete even after just one day. Assessments and evaluations must be geared towards checking skills levels and abilities of learners to adapt to problems and ask the right questions in the real world.

d. With the advent of personalized learning and simulations, new “real world testing” institutions will be set-up to test actual learning and expertise achieved in various fields. These institutes will act as facilitators to match talent and resource. Graduation degrees will not count for much; instead performances in real-world testing will determine hiring patterns and will be the basis for psychometric testing to match talents to careers.

e. All knowledge is everywhere and every time – with mobile technology becoming cheaper and more accessible every day. Just-in-time delivery will no longer apply to the manufacturing industry alone. Just-in-time knowledge and learning will be the standard for retooling individuals for just-in-time expertise. Employers will hire primarily based on talents and relevant skills, not expertise based on areas of knowledge. Schooling systems will have to prepare students for these new career requirements and adapt curriculums accordingly.

f. Formal schooling (primary/secondary) no longer serves the function of gathering knowledge; it should be focused on developing enquiry and research skills. it no longer needs to cover a span of time as in traditional schooling systems. Students will finish formal schooling at 15 with necessary skills in enquiry based learning, skills and research driven learning spaces with foresight and futures methodologies, soft skills and communications expertise. critical self-reflection of present levels of expertise will form the motivation for further involvement in life-long learning

g. Education is becoming accessible from any point of the world to all other points with students never needing to leave their homes. This has and will lead to accelerated developments of virtual worlds, which will be the new learning spaces of the future.

h. Social networks will evolve to become collaborative networks where learners will evaluate and choose their preferred facilitators of learning in their preferred learning spaces, in the real or virtual words. Social networks will also form the foundations of learning groups and collaborations that no longer encompass professional lecturers and teachers only. Home schooling and online courses, even in formal schooling, will grow exponentially on this foundation. Parents and learners will gain confidence through these networks to “stay at home and be home schooled” so this movement will grow stronger over time. this phenomena is clearly seen in developed countries where home schooling support structures are very well developed and easily accessible

i. Online education will personalize knowledge and courses for the individual rather than the collective. World renowned universities will be forced to become autonomous financially and will market themselves to global students at home, who will find it cheap and efficient to receive a degree from a top university, while sitting at home. This will begin a cycle of rise and falls of universities that are desperately trying to maintain a balance between standards and profitability.

j. Based on the premise that learning occurs fastest from making and overcoming mistakes, virtual worlds will provide learners avenues to make every mistake they can and create new scenarios through experimentation in every way possible. Future chemists, biologists, physicists, educationists, psychologist, engineers and doctors in school will have access to all equipment and all environments through virtual worlds. Schools will no longer be limited by budgets and expertise in using lab equipment. Instant online feedback and confirmation or correction of thoughts and knowledge will shape new knowledge, learning and skills.

k. Collective consciousness databases will evolve out of current collective intelligences such as internet search engines and collaborative databases. cc databases will have access to all knowledge like regular search engines but will also be intuitive and provide feedback to users as to whether correct questions are being asked and provide different points of perspectives for consideration. This in effect will provide instant feedback to mistakes and will enable “evaluating” to be built into research and enquiry skills development.

l. The world will only function optimally and peacefully with no threats of war, terrorism, poverty and hunger. The gap between countries with access to education and countries with no access is widening, and this will have serious consequences on global peace and advancements. in order to coexist and gain a multicultural and ethical perspective on global communities, and to take ownership, responsibility and accountability for global problems, learners will have to learn in an environment that has built in values, ethics and moral systems. Family environments must strive to provide cross cultural and cross religion understanding and tolerance.

m. Everyone will be knowledge generators rather than knowledge consumers. Scientific skills will create points of reference and a collective intelligence to provide new truths, where traditionally religion, culture and family environments have provided old truths. With everyone thinking to be experts with all knowledge at their fingertips, official institutions of learning will find it impossible to deliver in-time knowledge and must so reinvent curriculums, pedagogies and andragogies to provide skills to access and understand this knowledge.

Concluding Remarks
When considering issues dealing with the future of Malaysian Education, the above deals with perhaps the opening gambit of the process to initiate the transformation process. When implemented in full and in a comprehensive manner that deals with the breadth and depth of all these issues, it could perhaps be summed up that the final product has to be able to take Malaysian students to levels of knowledge that will sustain Malaysia in the future. What are these levels of Knowledge?

Intuition and Leaps of Logic are phenomena that are Highest Order Knowledge skills, developing when a level of expertise is reached in a field of study where brain networks are able to process data instantly and without apparent conscious effort to provide an answer to a related question in that same field of expertise. This informs and enables decision making processes that appear to be instantaneous, effortless and without a quantifiable sequence of thought.

It is proposed that there exists two phases to achieving this level of skill, by both indirect, unconscious effort and conscious effort. Phase one is to become expert enough so that the learner becomes aware of all the possibilities, research and knowledge in that field and the other, to learn to listen to that inner voice that is called intuition or sometimes, gut feeling. As the learner becomes more aware of intuitive answers that arise from unconscious Leaps of Logic, and experiences the correctness or wrongness of it in the application process, the learner starts learning to listen to intuition and starts relying on the answers that becomes progressively more reliable, although the learner does not purposefully processes the question pathways. What do all these have to do with events and instruction in a classroom?

1) If the teaching of Declarative and Procedural Knowledge is removed completely from the classroom to be replaced with the development of Application and Enquiry Skills in Schematic and Strategic Knowledge, in a learner centered environment, what would be the impact on the evolution of a Learner in the classroom?
a. Declarative Knowledge – knowing that
b. Procedural Knowledge – knowing how
c. Schematic Knowledge – knowing why
d. Strategic Knowledge – knowing application

2) What are the factors in a Field of Play in the classroom that interact in the evolution of a student to evolve the student to the highest levels of knowledge, hypothesized here to be where Leaps of Logic based on conscious and trusted intuition inform and enable a high level learning process?

Fields of Play is the environment in a classroom, and the factors that are at work in a classroom to evolve a student from the initial point where all that is perceived is data that hold no meaning but yet can be manipulated, to the end point where the student is able to evolve the data and through choice, application and intuition, finally achieves an intuitive knowledge level where well informed, thoughtful and mostly correct decisions can be made through the development and cultivation of Leaps of Logic.

Experience through interactions with, and feedback from the world of cause and effect will further feedback to inform and evolve wisdom so that thinking skills evolve further. This is further reflected upon and levels of thought are achieved where fewer mistakes and better choices are made. This feeds thinking and intuitive skills and the student levels up to the next rung of the evolution ladder. The final level is reached when the ability develops to make instant, well processed decisions based on Leaps of Logic. This ability fuels Disruptive Thinking to create Innovation.

There are two phases to achieving this level of skill, by both indirect, unconscious effort and conscious effort. One is to become expert enough so that we are aware of all the possibilities, research and knowledge in that field and the other, is to learn to listen to that inner voice that is called intuition or sometimes, gut feeling. As we become more aware of the intuitive answer, and we experience the correctness or wrongness of it in the real world, then we start learning to listen to our intuition and to start relying on the answers that we know must be correct, although we have not purposefully processed the answer pathways.