Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 5(1): 29-37 (1997) ISSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Implementing Educational Innovation:Learning from the Classroom Interaction of

Effective Bahasa Melayu Teachers in Malaysia

MOHD. MAJID KONTINGFaculty of Educational Studies

Universiti Putra Malaysia43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords: educational innovation, secondary school curriculum, good practice, Bahasa Melayuteachers, teacher education

ABSTRAK

Kertas ini melaporkan satu kajian pengajaran di bilik daljah selepas lima tahun pelaksanaan KuriklllumBersepadu Sekolah Menengah (KBSM) di Malaysia. Kajian ini mengambil kira sebahagian amalan 12 guruBahasa Melayu yang dikenal pasti berkesan mengajar pelajar berumur 12-13 tahun melalui cerapan sistematik.Berbeza dengan falsafah KBSM, guru-guru tersebut cenderung menggunakan strategi pengajaran u-adisionalselurllh kelas dan menguasai interaksi dalam bilik daljah. Hasil kajian ini mencadangkan perlunya mengambilkira pengetahuan profesional guru yang sedia ada serta kepercayaan mereka tentang gagasan amalanpengajaran yang baik dalam merancang dan melaksanakan program-program pendidikan guru dalamperkhidmatan.

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a study on classroom teaching techniques five years after the implementation of theIntegrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools (KBSM) in lalaysia. Systematic obsen'ation was made of theclassroom practices of 12 Bahasa Melayu teachers who were identified as effective in their teaching of 12-13year-old pupils. Contrary to the philosophy of the KBSM, the teachers were inclined to use traditional whole­class teaching strategies and to dominate classroom interaction. The study concludes that there is a need toconsider the existing teachers' professional knowledge and their beliefs about the notion of good practicewhen designing and implementing in-service teacher education programmes.

INTRODUCTION

Evidence suggests that the success of educationalinnovation in the classroom is associatedwith the teachers (Fullan and Hargreaves1992). However, with the increasing reality ofimposed innovation in many countries (UNESCO1986), teachers have, to some extent, beenneglected and their participation in thedevelopment and dissemination of mostplanned educational change has beenunderestimated. Moreover, the lack of researchin the developing countries dealing with theunique local situation tends to increase relianceon foreign educational concepts in the planningand implementation of such innovations. There

is a need to consider how teachers implementthe innovation in their classroom teaching insuch a situation (Knight and Smith 1989; Fullan1991) .

One example of recently plannededucational innovation is the introduction ofthe Integrated Curriculum for SecondarySchools, better known by its Bahasa Melayuacronym KBSM. The implementation of theKBSM in 1988 was driven by the need to achievethe aims of the ational Educational Philosophy(NEP) to not only equip individuals with theappropriate knowledge and skills, but also toproduce responsible citizens with strong moraland ethical values.

Mohd. Majid Konting

indicated that the effective Bahasa Melayuteachers used more "open" questions whichstimulated pupils' imagination and reasoning(38.2% of all teacher questions), than questions

A. Making statementsTask:1. Of facts 6.9 16.32. Of ideas, problems 10.2 24.1Task superoision:3. Telling pupil 7.7 18.2

what to do4. Praising work 9.0 21.3

or effort5. Feedback on work 4.1 9.7

or effortRoutine:6. Routine information 1.5 3..1)

7. Routine feedback 0.3 0.78. Critical control 0.5 1.29. Of small talk 2.1 5.0

Sub-total 42.3 100.0

B. QuestioningTask:1. Of facts 1.2 5.82. Closed questions 2.1 10.13. Open questions 7.9 38.2Referring to task 8.5 41.1supervisionReferring to routine 1.0 4.8matters

Sub-total 20.7 100.0

C. Other interactions1. Gesturing 8.5 31.32. Demonstrating 2.7 9.93. Marking 6.0 22.14. Waiting 3.2 1l.85. Reading 6.8 25.0

Sub-total 27.2 100.0

D. No teacher-pupil interaction1. Visiting pupil 0.2 2.12. Totally distracted 8.8 91.63. Out of room 0.6 6.3

Sub-total 9.6 100.0Total 100.0

TABLE 1Teachers' activity in the classroom

Percentagein each

major activity

Percentageof all

observationsActivity

RESULTS

target pupils. There were 264 target pupils(126 male and 138 female), with a gendercomposition mean of 15.3 males and 16.8 femalesper lesson.

The data were gathered from 44 lessons ofForm One teachers. The observation using theTeacher Record yielded a total of 1,100observation episodes, with a total observationtime of 458.33 minutes. The Pupil Record,focusing in each lesson on the six "target" pupils,yielded a total of 1,584 observation episodeswith a total observation time of 660 minutes for264 target pupils. A descriptive statistical analysiswas employed. The initial step of analysis was toget frequencies and percentages of occurrencesof all categories of the Teacher and Pupil Records(Croll 1980).

Teachers' Classroom Activities

The effective Bahasa Melayu teachers spent mostof their classroom time (90.2% of allobservations) interacting with their pupilsCfable 1). The main form of the interaction wasconversation (69.8% of all interactions). Silentinteraction such as gesturing, demonstrating,marking and waiting occupied the rest (30.2%).Their conversation was mainly in the form of"statements", that is utterances which do notseek an answer (67.1 % of all conversations) andof "questions", that is utterances which seek ananswer (32.9%).

Further analysis of teachers' activity indicatedthat the major type of teachers' statements wererelated firstly, to "task supervision", that isstatements which monitor and maintain the taskactivity (49.2% of all teacher statements), andsecondly, to "task", that is statements associatedwith the theoretical, practical or observationalcontent of a pupil's work (40.4% of all teacherstatements). Only a small proportion of theteachers' statements were related to routinematters of classroom management (l 0.4%).

In contrast, most of the teachers' questionsreferred to the task, that is questions about thetheoretical, practical or observational contentof a pupil's work (54.1 % of all teacherquestions) rather than to the task supervisionwhich covered questions which resulted in thepupil reflecting over whether or not she/he hasfinished her/his work and recalling theteacher's instructions about her/his task (41.1 %of all teacher questions). Detailed analysis

32 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 5 No.1 1997

Implement.ing Educational Innovation

associated with factual answers (15.9%). Thehigh proportion of "open" questions is consistentwith the enquiry and discovet)' learning strategiesrecommended by the KBSM.

Patterns of Teacher-Pupil Interactions

The results from the Teacher Record showedthat most teacher-pupil interactions (70.5%)focused on pupils as members of the whole class(Table 2). Less than one-fifth (17.1%) of allinteractions were directed to the pupils asmembers of a group and 12.4% to pupils workingalone.

TABLE 2Audiences of the teacher-to-pupil interactions in the

effective Bahasa Melayu teachers' interactions

Percentage Percentagebased on based on

total observations total interactions

Teacher Pupil Teacher Pupil Teacherinteracts Record" Record Record" Recordwith:

Individual 1.6 I\.2 64.0 12.4Group .8 1:;.5 32.0 17.1Whole class .J 63.8 4.0 70.5

(38.4%), mainly by obsen1ing and listening tothe teachers' presentation (35.9%). Only 17.4%of observations show pupils interacting with theirpeers, mainly on the task (14.1 % of allobservations). This suggests that these teachersneed to improve their pupil-centred strategy ifthey want to enhance their teaching parallel to

prescriptions in the KBSM modules. If this is nothappening, even by effective teachers, it is arguedthat the prescription on pupil-centred strategiesin the modules is contested.

Tasks and A udiences of Inlrraclions

The contents of teachers' conversationsoverwhelmingly (91.5%) related to the task andits associated supervision (Table 3). A distinctionwas made between "task" utterances (i.e. allteachers' utterances referring to the substantivecontent of the topic under study which containsa definite cognitive content) and "tasksupervision" (i.e. any utterances concerned withmonitoring and maintaining the task activitywhich do not contain a substantial cognitivecontent in themselves). An important question,which is beyond the scope of the study, is howgood were the tasks.

TotalinteractionsNo interaction

Total

2.597.6

100.0

90.59.5

100.0 100.0 100.0

TABLE 3

Tasks and class audience of the effective BahasaMelayu teachers' conversations (Percentage of

questions and statements)

Note: "Includes only when there was a pupil-to-teacherconversat.ion; i.e., excluded 35.9% of the pupils'silent interaction with the teacher on-task.

On the other hand, the Pupil Recordindicated that pupils only interacted verballywith their teachers for about 2.5% of allobservations. When the pupils did communicate,they interacted with the teachers mainly asindividuals (64.0% of all pupil-teacherinteraction). This implies that only a smallamount of individual attention was given evenby those teachers considered to be "effective" bythe education authorities.

Detailed analysis of their activities showedthat pupils worked alone most of the time (44.2%of all observations), mainly on the task (29.7%).At other times, they interacted with their teachers

Percentage PercentageTask contents of of all of classthe conversations conversations conversations

1. Task 44.9 49.42. Task supervision 46.6 4\.53. Total (1 and 2) 91.5 90.94. Routine 8.5 9.15. Total (1,2 and 4) 100.0 100.0

Task conversations6. Higher level 28.7 24.57. Lower level 16.2 1.5.4

Detailed analysis of the "task" conversationsindicated that there were more higher orderconversations (statements and questions whichstimulated pupils' imagination and reasoning ­28.7% of teacher conversations) than lower orderconversations (statements and questions about

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 5 No. 1 1997 33

Mohd. Majid Konting

TABLE 5Pupils' seating arrangements in the effective Bahasa

Melayu teachers' classrooms (Percentage ofobservations)

the factual information - 16.2% of teacherconversations). Both types of conversations weremost common in whole class settings (85.4% ofhigher order and 95.1 % of lower order taskconversations) .

Noble Values

The KBSM recommended that effective teachersshould promote noble values. The results ofthese observations suggested that the teachersspent 4.1 % of their time on such promotion(Table 4).

Seating base

AlonePair, of the same genderPair, of the opposite genderSeveral, of the same genderSeveral, of the opposite gender

Total

Percentage

4.2

48.9

13.6

22.7

10.6

100.0

TABLE 4Inculcation of the noble values in the effective Bahasa

Mc1ayu teachers' interactions

Percentage Percentageof of statements

Noble Value observations or questions

1. Kindness 0.5 0.92. Mutual respect 0.2 0.33. Caring 2.4 3.74. Physical and mental 0.2 0.3

purity5. Honesty 0.1 0.16. Co-operation 0.2 0.37. Gratitude 0.4 0.68. Rationality 0.1 0.1

Total 4.1 6.3

Record indicated that there was no significantdifference (X2 = 3.81, P > 0.05) in the distributionof the teacher-pupil interaction between thethree groups of pupils. This may be related to

the very small proportion of pupil-teacherconversations (2.5% of all observations). Thehigh achievers received more attention asindividuals (0.9% of all observations) whereaslow achievers received more attention asmembers of a group (0.6% of all observations)(Table 6).

TABLE 6Pupils' achievement, audience and tasks in the effective

Bahasa Melayu teachers' interactions (Percentageof observations)

Percentage

High Medium Lowachievers achievers achievers

1.1 0.5 0.90.9 0.4 0.3

0.1 0.1 0.6

0.1

0.1

Of the 16 noble values specifically prescribedin the KBSM, only eight were observed in theeffective Bahasa Melayu teachers' lessons.These values were "kindness", "mutual respect","caring", "physical and mental purity","honesty", "co-operation", "gratitude", and"rationality".

Classroom Organization

Most pupils sat in groups (95.8% of allobservations), usually in pairs of the samegender (48.9%) (Table 5). However, it is wellknown that seating arrangements do not implythat the curriculum is geared to group learning.In 24.2% of cases, groups were of mixedgender.

Pupil Achievement and Tasks

The relationship between teacher attention andpupil achievement gathered from the Pupil

Audience andtask contents

1. All teacher-pupilinteractionsa. Individual

interactionb. Interaction as

group memberc. Interaction as

class memberd. Teacher ignores

pupil's attempt toinitiate interaction

2. Task-related contents:a. Interaction on task 1.1b. Interaction on 0.1

routine

Number of cases 88

0.40.1

88

0.9

88

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Implementing Educational Innovation

TABLE 7Pupils' gender, audience and tasks in the effective

Bahasa Melayu teachers' interactions(Percentage of observations)

Further analysis of the results indicated thatthe teachers' gender had a significant association(X2 = 29.83, P < 0.05) with their interaction withboys and girls. On average, the male teacherswere inclined to interact with the female pupilsabout two-and-half' times more than the femaleteachers did.

Pupils' Gender and Tasks

The data from the Teacher Record showed thatthere were highly significant differences in theattention given by the effective Bahasa Melayuteachers to pupils of different genders (X2 =12.9, P < 0.01). The data from the Pupil Recordindicated that girls received more than twice asmuch teacher attention than the boys (1.8 and0.7% of observations respectively) (Table 7).Girls also received more attention than boyswith regard to the tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

What can we learn from the practices of effectiveMalaysian teachers of Bahasa Melayu? Five yearsafter the implementation of the KBSM, thefindings suggested that the teachers followedonly some of the prescriptions of the KBSM,such as those with regard to the types ofquestions and maintaining the engagement ofpupils on the task. However, there is littleevidence, even from the practice of effectiveBahasa Melayu teachers, that the teaching andlearning processes underlying the KBSMcurriculum of inculcating knowledge, skills and

values are being implemented; nor that theKBSM was considered as giving new status tothe pupils as the key players, and the teacher ascounsellor; let alone that the pupils werebecoming an active factor, whereas the teacherwas being the motivator and source of stimulus,a mover of teaching and learning, as claimedby the Ministry (Ministry of Education 1990a,1990b).

Teachers had little involvement in thedevelopment and dissemination of educationalinnovations such as the KBSM. Theirparticipation is mainly at the implementationstage. While their involvement at the earlierstage of innovation is reported to have somedisadvantages (Fullan and Pomfret 1977), withoutit the genuine intention of the innovation willdisperse along the drain of educationalbureaucracy and the "new" content of such aninnovation is subject to variations ofinterpretation before it reaches the teacher. Asthe implementation becomes more complicated,the more the innovation is opened tointerpretation, and the more fragile is thebusiness of innovation.

The early involvement of teachers is alsonecessary to inject current professionalknowledge in the development of innovation,especially since the existing affected teachershave already developed their own sustainableapproaches towards good practice which arehard to change. Quite often, any attempt tointroduce educational change is seen as adisturbance. The unfamiliar "new" content ofinnovation might involve de-skilling of theirexisting practices (Vulliamy and Webb 1991).The failure to implement the innovationsuccessfully has tremendous effect of "guilt andfrustration at not being able to meet thestandards" (Fullan and Hargreaves 1992, p. 6).Faced with the "unrealistic" innovation, theyhave to make an appropriate professionaldecision, often based on their beliefs about goodpractice in such a situation (Knight and Smith1989) ,

Since the implementation of the KBSM isunderway, how should we implement effectivelya policy which is, in practice, being rejected andsubverted? One might say that an alternative isto abandon the KBSM ideals and adopt a morelimited set of goals based upon the moreconservative, teacher-defined view of goodpractice. However, this is very unlikely, at least at

PercentageBoys Girls

0.7 1.80.5 1.10.2 0.5

0.1

0.1

0.6 1.70.1 0.1

132 132

1. All teacher-to-pupil interactionsa. Individual interactionb. Interaction as group memberc. Interaction as class memberd. Teacher ignores pupil's

attempt to initiate interaction

2. Task-related interactions:a. Interaction on taskb. Interaction on routine

Audience and tasks

Number of cases

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 5 No.1 1997 35

Mohel. Majid Konting

present, because not all elements of the KBSMare unusable. Another possibility is to improvethe situation, especially through teacherdevelopment. As suggested by the Minister(Sulaiman 1991), teacher education must do abetter job in identirying the kind of professionalknowledge, skills and values necessary to prepareteachers to work in different contexts. There iscertainly a need to consider the existing teachers'professional knowledge and their beliefs aboutthe notion of good practice in the designingand implementation of in-service teachereducation programmes.

As the best way to improve teaching practicelies not so much in trying to control teachers'behaviour as in helping them to control theirown behaviour by becoming more aware of whatthey are doing (Elliot, in Day 1993), teachers'existing knowledge, beliefs and practice and thecontexts in which they occur should be"scrutinized" and "supported". In-service teachereducation should be designed, as suggested byCaJderhead and Robson (1991), to cater for thevarious well-fixed images of teaching that teachersalready have which affect what they get fromtheir courses. This model of developing in-serviceteacher education is consistent with the idea ofreflective practice (Schon 1983) and the idea ofresponsibility through partnership and coalition(Day 1993).

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(Received 27 June 1996)

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