TASK 1: THE THEME OF NATIONAL TEACHER’S DAY 2017 “MASTER BUILDER OF THE

STATE OF THE NATION” EVALUATE THE ROLE OF MASTER TEACHER IN REALIZING

AND ACHIEVING THE DESIRE SPECIFIED IN THE THEME

The importance of teaching, and of how teachers teach in their classrooms, is being
recognised as of key importance in many ways. It is clear that teaching their classes is the
most important thing that teachers do, an importance that is recognised in contemporary
educational policies in the Malaysia policies concerning ‘teachers workload’ that are aimed at
making it easier for teachers to teach well. The Ministry of Education has set the theme of
National Teacher’s Day 2017 which is “Master builder of the State of the Nation”. Overall, the
theme that had been set emphasized on the importance of teachers in equipping the skills,
strategies, integrity and professionalism in teaching profession so that they will guide, facilitate
and produce excellent students from various aspects such as sports, emotional, spiritual,
intellectual and social

First and foremost, the role of master teacher in realizing and achieving the desire
specified in the theme of National Teacher’s Day 2017 can be seen in the classroom where
the master teacher able to provide and facilitate the pupils with the knowledge and skills
in teaching and learning lesson. As we all know, the master teacher is an educator who has
a depth knowledge and highly skilled of the specific curriculum (Sharma, 2009). By
understanding and using the most current and effective teaching strategies, master teachers
meet their students' needs. They mastered the variety of the strategies on how to tackle the
pupils’ problem with different proficiency level. For instance, in Malaysia context, the Master
teacher can be known as a Guru Cemerlang. They were highly trained to teach in specific
subject with the new and latest techniques or approaches in teaching. In achieving and
realizing the theme of National Teacher’s Day 2017 that was set by Ministry of Education
(MOE), the master teacher can facilitate variety of strategies to improve the strategies on how
to enhance pupils’ understanding in certain topics.

Based on my experience during practicum at SK Kayang, there was a master teacher

in teaching English as a second language in primary school, she implemented the strategy in
conducting a flipped classroom clip in enhancing pupils’ understanding of the topic which is
“Good Values”. Flipped classroom can be conceptualized as the students have been
introduced to content at home, and practice working through it at school. The master teacher
asked the pupils to watch and comprehend a short movie clip about the real event at the road.
As a homework, she assigned the pupils to analyse by themselves on the moral values that
can be found in the movie clip. As stated in the theme of National Teacher’s Day 2017, Ministry
of Education (MOE) emphasized on how teacher’s ability in guiding and instilling the sense
of moral values in pupils such as tolerance, patriotism and be kind to the others so that the
pupils will become a well-mannered person in daily life. By conducting this flipped classroom
strategies, the master teacher indirectly achieve the desire of the theme of National Teacher’s
Day which is “Master builder of the state of the nation” whereby the pupils able to analyse and
practise by themselves the moral values that can be found in the video clip.

Next, the mentoring session between the master teacher and the normal teacher
who also can be call as a novice teacher will achieve the desire specified in the theme of
National Teacher’s Day 2017 which is “Master builder of the state of the nation”. Usually the
master teacher is an educator who has lots of experiences in teaching for the specific
curriculum. They have demonstrated consistent and innovative teaching practice overtime.
Inside and outside the school they initiate and lead activities that focus on improving
educational opportunities for all students (Pelletiar, 2006). They establish inclusive learning
environments that meet the needs of students from different linguistic, cultural, religious and
socio-economic backgrounds. They seek to improve their own practice and to share their
experience with colleagues.

In order to achieve the goals of the theme on National Teacher’s Day 2017 which is
Master builder of the state of the nation, the teacher himself needs to be fully prepared in the
aspects of knowledge and the skills needed so that they can produce a high quality pupils in
the future. Thus, the master teacher plays a vital role in mentoring the novice teacher to
enhance and develop their skills, techniques and methods in achieving the goals desire. This
is because the master teacher are highly skilled educators with a passion and drive to improve
the instructional quality of their schools by extending their impact as teachers (Rudney, 2003).
During my practicum phase two at SK Padang Kota, there was a master teacher in
Mathematics and there were mentoring sessions that was carried out in the school. The goals
of the theme can be achieved whereas the master teacher plays their role as a mentor in
guiding and counselling the novice teacher on how to carry out an effective teaching and
learning. During mentoring session, all the inputs and skills will be given to the novice teacher
so that they can apply it during the school activities. In addition, the master teacher also
showed and distributed all the authentic materials that he produced by himself that can be
serve as a tool for novice teacher in teaching.

The next role of master teacher in realizing and achieving the desire specified in the
theme of National Teacher’s Day 2017 can be done whereby the master teacher can serve as
a researcher of the issues that frequently occur during teaching and learning session.
Action research can be described as a research that have been used by the teachers,
supervisors and administrators so that it will to improve the quality of their decisions and
actions. According to Pileston (2004), action research is focused on the immediate application,
not on the development of theory. It has placed its emphasis on real problem – here and now
in a local setting. In addition, action research provides practitioners with new knowledge and
understanding about how to improve educational practices or resolve significant problems in
classrooms and schools. For instance, there are many master teachers in the school who
conducts the action research that related to the particular specific curriculum. Apart from that,
the master teacher will investigate their own practise in a new ways, looking deeper in what
are the pupils actually able to do and unable to do. The Minister of Education, 2017 YB Dato’
Seri Mahdzir Bin Khalid in his speech during National Teacher’s Day 2017, he emphasized
the importances on the teacher’s effort and ability to ensure that the quality of education can
be developed and improved from time to time. This is because by conducting and
implementing the action research, the master teacher will be able to develop a deeper
understanding of pupils, the teaching and learning (T&L) process and their role in education.
All the aspects such as the strategies and the methods will be taken as considerations off.
This actions were taken just to ensure that it will help to develop the education in Malaysia so
that our education will compete with the other countries.

As a conclusion, the master teacher plays a vital role in ensuring the theme of National
Teacher’s Day 2017 which is “Master builder of the State of the Nation” can be achieved. From
the roles of master teacher that I stated in the academic writing above, I can conclude that the
role of the master teachers in achieving the goals desire can be divided into two categories
which are the between the master teacher with the colleagues and the master teacher with
the pupils. For the first part, the master teachers serve as a mentor and researcher in whereby
they need to guide, facilitate and conduct a research with the colleagues to become effective
teachers as requested by Ministry of Education. Meanwhile, the master can acts as a facilitator
to the pupils by guiding and facilitating them with the content, knowledge and skills needed so
that they will become an excellent students in the future.
REFERENCES
Alis Puteh. (2006). Language & Nation Building. Selangor: SIRD
Haigh, A. (2009). The Art of Teaching. Pearson Education Canada.
Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2004). Teacher Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Parkay, F. (2013). Becoming a teacher. Boston: Pearson.
Pelletiar, C. (2006). Mentoring in action. Boston: Pearson/A & B.
Rudney, G., Guillaume, A., & Moir, E. (2003). Maximum mentoring. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
Sharma, B. (2009). Technology of teacher training. Jaipur: ABD Publishers.
Tileston, D. (2004). What every teacher should know about student motivation.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
TASK 2: ANALYSIS THE EFFECT OF THIS STATEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF
TEACHING AND LEARNING BASED ON THEORIES OF AWARENESS/ CONCERN

Nowadays, when a fresh trainee teacher graduates from Institut Pendidikan Guru
Malaysia (IPGM) and get posted in the schools, there will be many unexpected scenario that
can be happened. One of the scenario is they will be assigned to teach subject that they are
not mastered or specialised on. This is the common thing that is usually happen especially in
rural schools area due to lack of teachers. The teacher might be given the subject to teach
which is totally different with their major subject. From the statement’s given, which is “In the
increasing challenging world of education, as an educator, a teacher has to master the
subjects that he teaches although not specialised in that subjects”, we need to analysis
the effect of the statement in the process of teaching and learning based on the theories of
concern. I totally agree with the statement above.

According to the Fuller theory of concern, this theory focusses on teacher

development. This theory divides the development of teachers into three parts which are
concern towards self, tasks and impact (Franey 2016). For effect towards self, we can see
clearly the impacts on the teachers himself whereby it will improve teachers’ self-esteem
in teaching subjects that they are not specialized on. Self-esteem can be defined as a
confidence in one's own worth or abilities; self-respect. I depicted this definition from Oxford
Dictionary Online. Self-esteem is the important element that the teacher need to have it in their
life. This is because as an educator, if the teacher does not have high self-esteem then they
might not have the anxiety in teaching the subjects. Thus, it will affect his carrier in teaching
profession. Based on my conversations with the senior teacher at the school, he told me that
once he got posted, the school’s stakeholders or administrator assigned him to teach English
eventhough his major subject is Mathematics. So, by hook or by crook, he needed to master
the strategies, methods that have been used to teach English within the time that was
allocated for him. At the beginning, he feels that he would not be able to do it due to lack of
facilities, master teacher in English subject. However, after a few month, he was able to teach
English as his major subject. By doing that, it will increase the teacher’s self-esteem in
teaching profession. This is because by teaching subject that he is not specialised but he able
to do it, he believe the potential that he has. When a teacher has a high self-esteem in teaching
profession, then there will be no tasks that he could not complete on. In addition, the teacher
will feel self- satisfaction towards himself. As a human being, if we were assigned to do
some tasks that we were not mastered on but yet we able to do it, we will feel the satisfaction
towards ourselves. This feeling of satisfaction comes when we able to do it and we can clearly
see the positive outcomes from our works. By looking the positive outcomes from the pupils,
we will feel motivated and energetic to improve and teach the subject. As an effective
educator, we need to have self-satisfaction in ourselves because we will feel our efforts and
works have been appreciated. Maybe we did not get any prize from our teaching, but the self-
satisfaction will come directly to us. This is because self-satisfaction is more important and
valuable if compared to rewards. Thus, we will feel more comfortable and gain more
confidence in teaching in whatever the subjects that were given to us.

Next, the impact will be on the accountability of teacher in the teaching

profession. Accountability can be conceptualized as a nature of someone being responsible
for a person or an action, a decision and so on is prepared to provide necessary clarification
and justification as required. (Kamus Dewan, 2010) In simplest words, accountability can be
understood as a responsibility of a person towards the task entrusted to him or her. Meanwhile
teachers’ accountability means responsibility that must be understood and implemented by a
teacher or responsibility that should be appreciated and practised by a teacher towards the
teaching profession. In related to the statement that I mentioned in the beginning of the written
essay, the teacher will have the sense of responsibility towards works that were assigned to
him. This is because the stakeholder of the school or administrator will not assigned the tasks
of teaching other subjects if there are not trusted to him. For instance, my major subject is
English and minor subject is Reka Bentuk dan Teknologi(RBT). If I get posted in the school to
teach other than those subjects, I will feel difficulties in carry out the lesson. The problems that
I would face on include the preparing of lesson plan, the facilities and the Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (PCK). From this problem, it will determine either if I have the sense of
accountability as an educator or not, Accountability of a teacher can be measured on how the
teacher struggles in order to overcome the problems. This is because it is our responsibility to
teach the pupils. Teacher and pupils are the two main pillars of the teaching learning process.
The progress and development of the learners can be possible only when the teacher is
sincere, hard work, sympathetic. For achieving optimal learning of students, the teacher
should be accountable and should take care of the pupil's progress according to his ability. In
addition. If the teacher was assigned to teach subjects that are not related to the major or
minor subject, he should think various ways and means to help the pupils to acquire the
knowledge, to develop academic potential and to sharp their future through the process of
teaching- learning. This is because it will show the integrity of the teacher either he committed
in his profession or not. Professionally accountable teachers adopt various methods and
techniques of teaching follow the code of conduct, set the examples for others apply new ideas
in classroom situations.

Lastly, it will develop the teacher’s strategies, skills and methods in teaching the
variety of subjects. We need to bear in mind that the effectiveness of teaching and learning
(T&L) process depends on the strategies and methods that have been applied by the teachers.
This is because the teachers are the only person who know their pupils very well. Thus, the
selection of strategies, approaches and methods are the important elements in teaching and
it must be suitable and appropriate with the pupils’ background of knowledge. In teaching
learning profession, the teacher can apply the same approaches, strategies or methods to
teach different subjects. For instance, if the English teacher needs to teach Mathematics
although not specialised in that subject, the teacher needs to master all pedagogical principle
in teaching Mathematics. The pedagogical principle in teaching Mathematics includes the
techniques, strategies and methods. Apart from that, the English teacher can apply the same
strategies in teaching English as well as in teaching Mathematics. Meanwhile, if the English
teacher mastered the strategies in teaching Mathematics, the teacher has the variety of
techniques, strategies, approaches and methods, he or she could apply pedagogical principle
in teaching both subjects, In addition, the teaching and learning (T&L) lesson will become
more meaningful, attractive and fun when the teacher applied the different strategies from
the others. During my practicum at SK Jalan Raja Syed Alwi, I was required to observe on
how the Reka Bentuk dan Teknologi (RBT) teacher carry out the lesson. I was surprised
because the teacher able to apply the English strategies in RBT lesson. During set induction,
the teacher implemented an activities that required the pupils to solve the incomplete puzzle.
The pupils were required to solve the picture of gardening tools. That activity is one of the
activity that commonly use in English language. When the pupils participate in the activity, the
lesson will become fun, meaningful and enjoy. Indirectly, the teacher able to achieve the goals
of Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran (DSKP) that was set by the Ministry of
Education (MOE).

As a conclusion, I strongly agree with the statement that emphasized on the teacher
has to master the subjects that he teaches although not specialised in that subjects. The
teacher needs to equip themselves with the knowledge, skills, and information. This is
because our system of education keeps changing and developing from time to time based on
the current situation. In addition, the teacher also need to keep up to date with the latest
information so that it will benefit them in expanding their career profession as a teacher.
REFERENCES
Franey, J, J. (2016). UNDERSTANDING TEACHER DEVELOPMENT FULLER THEORIES.
Retrieved from http://www.developingdifferencemakers.com/education-blogs/april-12th-
201611
Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (2011). Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan
Pentaksiran(DSKP) Sekolah Rendah : Spesifikasi kurikulum Bahasa Inggeris Tahun
6. Kuala Lumpur: Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum.
Kuala Lumpur, Kamus Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. (2010)
Kuala Lumpur: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM). TEKS PERUTUSAN HARI GURU
TAHUN 2017. (2017)
Lipka R, P & Thomas M, B. (1999). THE ROLE OF SELF IN TEACHER DEVELOPMENT.
New York: State University of New York Press.
Pushpavalli Appoo, Norain MD. Noor, V. Murali Tharan, Vello Ragavan & Mohd. Roslan Abd
Razak. (2015). LEADERSHIP & TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
Selangor: Pelangi Professional Sdn. Bhd.
United Kingdom, Oxford Dictionary Online. (2010)