For this assignment, I think I should start by telling my journey of

becoming a teacher.
I was a boy coming from a rural area and manage to get into the
education system and become a teacher. I am a Buddhist, and like other
religion in the world, it teaches me to be kind and compassion to others.
At frst I was very skeptical of being a teacher, and have this
stereotype of thinking that teaching is actually a very easy job, but then I
realie it is not as easy as I!ve thought, or as what people told me. "he
frst would be that the moderniation of education in #alaysia has put a
ton of work to the teachers. "he second, which I consider as the most
important of all, is that being a compassion person, and a committed
teacher, I really do care about how my students would strive and
contribute back to their community.
I have been in agony for years to tell people that students can learn
through themselves and by themselves. I know this because I am a self$
learner when I was in primary and secondary school, apart from the
knowledge that I gain through the formal education.
%hen I was pursuing my Bachelor &egree, I wish to research on
such a topic, but my supervisor had me dismissing the idea. And now, I
guess 'ugata #itra had the answer to proof my (uestion.
In my opinion, 'ugata #itra is a very brilliant person with a very
open minded approach to the dire (uestion of bringing all the education to
the rural area, where formal education is obsolete to the children. "he only
means that are needed is strong internet, a computer with good
performance and electricity.
)ne thing for sure, is that 'ugata mitra has answered the old age
problem, by introducing self learning to the children. "here are a lot of
researches that have made self$directed learning, self$regulated as one of
their research objective. From their researches, they do not always found a
positive outcome.
*ei$&i 'hen, +,-../ have found that, 0*roviding online courses in an
environment that is full of Internet addiction and the allure of browsing
shopping websites and playing online games challenges both instructors
and students.1 From this statement, it is clear that students do not always
tend to use the provided technology to learn, but playing games. 2owever,
who would say that playing games is not a form of education3
From the video related to 0A 2ole in a %all1, there children have
downloaded a game that need them to capture the picture with time
precision. And through that, it can actually train the students to be more
patients and more alert at the same time. 02owever, it is not clear how
attention can be trained in the most e4cient way to achieve good and
long$lasting e5ects.1+2auke, 6., ,-../ Attention is a comple7 psychological
construct with various subprocesses. +*osner 8 9afal, .:;<= >an ?omeren
8 Brouwer, .::@= 2errmann, #. et al, ,--;/. But whenever there is way to
train the brain to be more attentive to the task at hand, it would be a good
way, but of course the commercial games. In their article, #uAo and Bl$
2ani note that the literature on video games in education does not
address suffciently the development of students! ethical values other than
the concern over the ethical impact of violence in video games. + Cwah, 2.,
,-.,/
Anyhow, 'ugata #itra!s idea of using the internet as the resource
for self$regulating learning can make the children to self$discover
themselves. 'uch a way enables the children to learn more about the
topics that they are pursuing. %hat intrigue me in his study are the
e7amples that he shows as the proof of the e5ectiveness of the method.
"he ability of the mind to learn something out of the cultural norm of the
society shows that one need not to be a genius to ac(uire knowledge,
which is said to have a higher level for their age.
From their research, 'immering and *osey +,--:/ stated that
0)nline learning is gaining in popularity as trainers and educators realie
that learning no longer has to take place in the traditional classroom
setting +e.g., 'itmann, Craiger, 'tewart, 8 %isher, ,--D/.1 It is true that
ac(uiring the knowledge to learn a certain topic is made easy as the
internet has vast information.
%hen the research target is adults, %hite 8 'elwyn, +,-.,/ found
out that 0Eevel of internet$based education engagement have increased
only slightly during the period studied, and using the internet for learning
continues to be a minority activity.1 Bven though the results do not show
high increase in knowledge ac(uiring, there is still a 0slight increase1. It
would be another research to know why such incident occurs. But the
slight increase is (uite similar to the result of the self$learning among the
children in 'ugata #itra!s 2ole in a %all result regarding Biotechnology.
'ugata #itra later used a tool called 0encouragement1 to increase
the knowledge ac(uire interest among the children. "herefore, in my
opinion, no matter how the learning implementation or education system
is, encouragement is a very important tool or substance to increase one!s
ability to learn or to ac(uire new knowledge.
From the research Alika, 2. 8 )hanaka, B. +,-.F/ they found out
that encouragement from the parents, along with counseling, play a key
role in drop out students reentering to school in Abia state, Gigeria. "he
conse(uence of this research is (uite similar to 'ugata #itra!s research as
both involve encouragement as their key factor.
According to Cissau, '. +,--</, his research shows that students
who get the encouragement from their parents and teachers are likely to
learn French language and can even strive for a better score. "herefore, it
is clear that whenever there is an encouragement, the children tend to be
able to do better in whatever they are doing. In my opinion, the teachers
play an important role at school in such a matter. By collaborating with the
parents in encouraging the children, teachers can actually boost up the
confdent in the students in every level to do well in every feld.
%hen 'ugata #itra managed to change the students with heavy
mother tongue accent to proper British accent Bnglish through 02ole in a
%all1 project, I can see that this brilliant idea can actually work. %hen the
children forced themselves to learn Bnglish, in order to understand the
biotechnology content of the computer in the 02ole in a %all1 project, I
see that all possibilities unfold in front of me, and I see that, as 'ugata
#itra said, 0there would be many geniuses in making1.
Go matter how unrelated a subject to the learners, they can always
learn something through self$learning or peer teaching, and I see this as
an inner encouragement. %hen someone who are not within the learners
group give them 0a nick1 of encouragement by saying 0that is very good1,
it will defnitely boost up the children!s motivation to learn, and I truly
believe that this is how a genius in the making takes place.
2ere, I would like to talk about myself again. Apart from being a
Biology teacher, I am also a 'cience teacher. I teach 'cience longer than
Biology, and heretofore had not found any better way to enhance better
teaching strategies to increase my students! learning ability.
"he only sense knocked into me saying that I have done it the
wrong way was when I attended *edagogical Bnhancement %orkshop
+Bengkel Pemantapan Pedagogi/. "hen I started to include e7periments to
encourage my students to learn, and my low achiever students have
shown wonderful results, the results that I never thought possible.
"his year, I took one step further by keeping myself as the science
teacher to the form @ 8 H weak classes. %hen they actually perform better
than I e7pected, I knew I hit jackpot. But since I was being in charge of
disciplinary and school prefects +which are not even part of work, but
feeling obliged to manage it for the betterment of the school/, I have been
lagging o5 my duty as a teacher. %ith 'ugata #itra!s new way of thinking,
I think there is a better chance for the students to perform, even when
teachers are not in the classroom.
'ugata #itra has had the learners to utilie the usage of internet to
search for the information needed in their learning, and it is undoubtedly a
good tool when you need a vast reference for learning. It is a widely
accepted fact that scholars would often time use the internet as their
primary reference when they need to clarify their fndings. IAs many
librarians have noted, usually with a touch of regret if not outrage,
students fre(uently look to the Internet frst, and, if the information found
is satisfactory, they may not look any further.1 +Clopfer, E., ,--H/
It is therefore undeniable that internet is a useful resource, but I
think the printed media would also be a very good resource when there is
no internet connection, and teachers are needed to do some e7tra work to
ensure that the information can be reached by the students when the
printed media is limited in the school library.
I am (uite intrigued when 'ugata #itra talked about how the brain
shuts down and learning is inhibited, and I fully support that punishment is
a form of threat. Anyhow, I still cannot grasp the idea that e7amination, a
mean that has been used in every region of the world to assess individual
performance is a threat. If so, is it not that when he uses tests to assess
the children for his research is also remarking a threat to them, and why
does he use it3 And would it be not that the world is doing the wrong thing
by putting e7amination in various kinds and forms3
"o me, the world still needs a system to know the individual or
group achievement. B7amination is something that still sustain in the
education system, but it is the approach for knowledge ac(uisition that
needs a di5erent mean. I do not see any di5erence when the government
replaces *#9 e7amination into *"F assessment, as both are the same
thing to me.
"he heart of learning is knowledge, but the center of education is
teacher. "eachers are the people who play the major role in education, and
it is time for them to change the way they teach. "he traditional way of
teaching, or even the modernied constructivism of learning is not working
anymore. 'tudents are getting more and more up to date with knowledge
when they have the internet as their education resource.
I am amaed when 'ugata #itra actually able to let the students to
learn in a very fast pace, which he takes another step from 02ole in a
%all1 to 0'elf )rganied Eearning Bnvironment1 +')EB/ program. "he
students can actually learn a topic as how detailed as they want, without
the intervention or interference of the teachers.
Finally, in my opinion, learning should be a fun and never ending
process. From the story of Atreyu in 0"he Geverending 'tory1 to the well$
known 0"he Eord of the 9ings1 and 02arry *otter1, from the frst
knowledge about the earth being round to the understanding of (uantum
mechanics and the relativity of time and space, knowledge never stops to
stupefy me in its most spectacular way. Bveryone deserves to fnd or put a
sliver of themselves in the vast ocean of knowledge, and education is the
tool to scoop up the ocean of knowledge, be it a spoon or a dipper.
Reference
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