Manyin (third left) accompanied by Hamsiah (left) checking out the students’ robot creation during a tour around the mini exhibition.
KUCHING: Nurturing and developing thinking and analytical habits in children should start at an early age.
It can be done in the classroom and at home, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong suggested.
“If our actions are repeated, gradually it becomes a habit and after months and years, extending beyond ourselves, it becomes a culture,” he said.
“We can’t jump into a culture. We must build the habit first and with more and more people doing the same thing, it becomes normal and will sustain the culture of thinking,” he added, while urging teachers and educators to rethink the teaching and learning approach in helping children form thinking habit starting from the classroom.
Manyin highlighted this when declaring open the National Conference on Thinking Culture (NCTC 2017) held at the Teachers Education Institute, Tun Abdul Razak Campus (IPGKTAR) at Kota Samarahan here yesterday.
Themed ‘Empowering Higher Order Thinking Culture Through 21st Century Education’, the three-days conference was organised by IPGKTAR’s Excellent Thinking Skills Centre in collaboration with the Education Department, Malaysia Teachers Education Institute and Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research.
“Implementing high order thinking skills (HOTS) as early as possible is the starting point of building a thinking culture among our people,” he said.
“We hope teachers attending this conference can pick this up and start incorporating these practices into the classroom so children can learn the habit,” he added.
While the Malaysian Education Development Plan emphasises on HOTS among students, Manyin observed weaknesses in the education delivery system which he noticed as too academic-oriented.
“Our curriculum is excellent, I have no complaint on that but our education system can be changed a little bit (to help children build strong traits and characters),” he shared.
“Our education system is too examination-oriented at the moment in which schools and teachers are focused on helping children get good academic results because that is what parents and industries want or demand,” he said.
“This is the dilemma faced by schools and educators. Good academic results determine your employability but they never ask if you can think or not or how good you are,” he added.
Meanwhile, IPGKTAR director Hamsiah Abdullah Masni hoped that all participants of the conference would pick up knowledge on HOTS to generate better pedagogical practices to create thinking classrooms, hence producing students who fulfil the aspirations of Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025.
Quoting an American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey, Hamsiah reminded that ‘If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow’.