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REFLECTIVE ESSAY The first task in this coursework which I have completed is making video presentation pertaining to the

celebrations of three main races in Malaysia. These include Eid al-Fitr, Chinese New Year and Deepavali which are celebrated by the Malay, Chinese and Indian. Also, I have prepared Power Point presentation showing the similarities and differences of those three festivals. The second task involves essay writing of why teacher needs to have broad knowledge of cultural diversity in Malaysia and how teacher apply the knowledge in the classroom. Therefore, performing these two tasks have helped me to gain a lot of of new and useful experiences. I have also faced some difficulties while finishing the tasks. However, I have managed to find relevant solutions to the problems. One of the experiences that I have acquired while performing the mentioned tasks is I have obtained vast knowledge of cultural diversity in Malaysia. This knowledge refers to the aspects of cultural diversity such as celebrations, religions, beliefs, customs, economics, politics, and values of the main races in our country. For examples, I have made some researches about the festivals which are celebrated by the three races in Malaysia. My researches of the three celebrations are made in terms of time, traditional foods and costumes, prayers, visiting, and others. As as a result, the researches have exposed me to the new, useful and interesting facts or information about celebrations of Chinese and Indians that I had never knew before. For instance, I have been exposed to the special Deepavali food called Gulab Jamun, Gajar Halwa (carrot pudding), Kheer (Payasam), Dahi Bhalla and Gathia (Namkeen). The search, when conducted systematically and employing particular disciplinary methodologies, is research because it advances knowledge and understanding in an academic discipline (Hult, 2001).

Also, performing these tasks have facilitated me to learn the importance of upholding multiracial unity in Malaysia. I have collected the information from different sources in order to complete both tasks such as the articles from electronic resources. The authors of most of the collected articles have underscored the necessity of sustaining good understanding and tolerance between different ethnics in a multiracial country like Malaysia. That is the main reason why the government is putting all efforts to ensure unity among the people of varied ethnics and culture. The Prime Minister said that 1Malaysia emphasized acceptance among the people of various races where any one race accepted the uniqueness of the others so that everyone was able to live together in a situation of mutual respect as the people of one nation (Bernama, 2009). Besides, accomplishing the tasks have made me realized of the implications if Malaysian do not unite. One of the effects is the racial riots like 3 May 1969 tragedy, Kampung Rawa Incident in 1977 and Kampung Medan Incident in 2001. All those bad incidents gave extremely horrific experience to the society although the devastation had left us ages ago. If such incidents reoccur, they can cause severe public injuries, death and destruction of public properties. As a result, Malaysia will not be able to achieve Vision 2020 in a targeted time. Thus, it is crucial for teachers to prepare themselves with the knowledge about these tragedies. Also, teacher have to educate pupils about the lessons that Malaysian should learn from those incidents which is closely related to the effects of lack of unity and tolerance among Malaysian. Apart from that, doing these tasks have shown me the benefits for teachers to have the knowledge of cultural diversity. After I have finished all the tasks in the coursework, I am totally agree that is undeniably vital for a teacher trainee like me to learn about cultural diversity. This is due to the fact that the knowledge can be practiced in my real future teaching. One of applications of the knowledge is I will not simply touch the sensitivity of any races if I teach in multiracial

classroom. This is also can be one of the the ways to show my respect to pupils from different races. Although the Islamic principle of governance is mentioned, a certain sensitivity to other religious groups is also given importance and it is recognized that they also play a crucial role in the government (David & Dumanig, 2007). Also, Norrizan (1992) mentioned that discrimination and stereotypes stemming from differences in racial origin, cultural practices, traditions, religions, and social class are found to be an obstacle for certain groups to achieve success in learning. Thus, if I have the knowledge of cultural diversity, I will carry out many activities that glorify unity between different races in my classroom. This is because the knowledge of cultural diversity have raised my awareness of the necessity of promoting national unity to pupils through the teaching and learning activities in classrooms. Ramlee Mustapha, Norzaini Azman, Faridah Karim, Abdul Razak Ahmad and Maimun Aqsha Lubis (2008) stated that in the educational setting of the multicultural classroom, pupils learn to adapt their behaviours and habits when interacting with pupils from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Moreover, doing the first task in the coursework have assisted to polish my Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. The first task requires me to produce a video clip and Power Point Presentation about the celebrations of Eid al-Fitr, Chinese New Year and Deepavali in Malaysia. So, I have utilized the appropriate softwares such as Windows Movie Maker to make an interesting and captivating clip video. This has aided me to learn and explore the functions of every applications in the softwares. For example, I have acquired new knowledge of inserting the sounds, pictures and effects to the clip video. Also, I have made use of Kingsoft Presentation to create a good and convincing Power Point Presentation. The softwares have facilitated to make the fonts and pictures appears more attractively during the presentation.

I have encountered some problems while accomplishing the tasks in the coursework. One of them is I have faced difficulty to search for correct and accurate information about the Chinese and Indians celebrations. I did not have much knowledge or any experiences regarding the Chinese New Year or Deepavali. So, I have quite worried if the information or facts in the materials that I have collected may not be very accurate and reliable to be used for answering the task. However, I did not have much problems while finding the materials for Eid al-Fitr. This is because I could use my previous knowledge about our own celebration. Also, I have experienced the the celebration of Eid al-Fitr each year. Roschelle (1995) highlighted that a large body of findings shows that learning proceeds primarily from prior knowledge and only secondarily from the presented materials. Therefore, I have utilized my prior knowledge and experience to answer the question in the first task. Thus, I have implemented the relevant step as an alternative for the above problem. Firstly, I have collected as many articles as I could from varieties of reliable resources such as books, electronic journals and web pages. Then, I have chosen only the best numbers of articles as my references to do the first task. The selected articles are the ones that showed logical and accurate facts and information about the aspects of Chinese and Indians celebrations. Also, I have ensured that all the articles are written by established authors who are experts in this field of knowledge. In addition, I have faced problem while answering the second task of the coursework. The problem is I could not find sufficient information pertaining to the topics in the second task. The questions encompass the importance for teachers to have inclusive knowledge of cultural diversity and how they are going to implement these knowledges in the classroom. The information about those two topics in the books and web pages are rarely provided according to the

Malaysian context. Therefore, I was not sure of what points to be included in the essay as I had collected limited references to be utilized for the essay. Owing to this, I have attempted several ways as the remedies for the problem. I have carried out the process of brainstorming in my endeavour to find the needed points of the topics in the essay. Firstly, I have made lists of the points that I have considered as relevant to be written in the essay. The points are suggested based on my general knowledge through my previous readings of the topics. Also, I have implemented question and answer sessions to my group members and peers about the topics. This is to help me generating the ideas about the topics. According to the article titled Research Method (2013), this method are used as one way to get in-depth and comprehensive information which involve one person interviewing another person for personal or detailed information. After I have gone through all the points, I have chosen only the good points to be included in the essay. For this tasks, I have still used the books, electronic journals and web pages as the references. I have applied the information from these resources at certain parts of the essay such as as the supporting points to my views in the essay. Besides, the problem that my group member and I have faced while doing the coursework involves we do not have sufficient time to accomplish the tasks. In this fifth semester, we need to finish all of our coursework earlier than usual. This is because we need to go for the practicum in April for a month. Besides the coursework of this subject, we are required to do several more coursework for other subjects as well. One of the example of other coursework is preparing drama for the subject called Teaching Drama for Young Learners. As a result, my group member and I have found that we were always do not have enough time to complete the tasks for the coursework of this subject. I believe that it is our faults that we are unable to manage our time wisely. However, this problem have only occurred temporarily. My group members and I have discovered an efficient method to solve the problem. We have created

timetable that shows the exact date and time of the meetings. Robert (2000) believed that the most important reason for planning this way is that by having a plan laid out for the coming week, students maintain reasonable control over their time. After practicing this method for a week, it is undeniably true that scheduling assist us to do our works in more systematic and organized manner. In our first meeting, we have divided the tasks equally. Then, after a while, we have sat together and showed our respective works. Then, we have done peer checking. In peer checking, we have carried out discussions. The group members have provided suggestions or recommendations to each other to improve the quality of the works. Lastly, we were able to produce the good final products after our works have been edited for many times. We have rechecked the works for the last time before submitting them to the lecturer. In brief, I am happy and grateful that although my group have encountered some problems in doing the tasks, we are gradually succeed to complete the works. In conclusion, doing the tasks in the coursework have given me hosts of benefits to my learning process. One of them is I have learned to make researches about cultural diversity in Malaysia from varieties of reliable resources. In short, multiculturalism refers to a system of beliefs and behaviors that recognizes and respects the presence of all diverse groups in an organization or a society. Besides, accomplishing the tasks have certainly raised my awareness of why teacher nowadays should have vast knowledge of cultural diversity. Moreover, the tasks have exposed me to the negative effects from lack of unity among Malaysian. And most importantly, performing the tasks have given me some guidelines of how teacher can instill the value of unity in multiracial classroom. Therefore, the knowledge and experiences that I have gained from performing the tasks in the coursework are totally useful and relevant to be applied in my future teaching. Prepared by:

NURAIDA BT MD YUSUF 910418-02-5284

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