On
Tuesday 23rd of November, RP hosted the 57-member
Malaysian
School Delegation comprising Board members,
principals, vice principals and teachers of 20
Chinese Independent
Secondary Schools in Malaysia. The delegation
was invited by RP to attend the PBL Symposium
held on 22nd November and a follow-up visit to
RP the
following
day. We were privileged enough to rub shoulders
with the Vice Chairman B.O.G and Principal; Mr
Loke
Ching
Chong, Mr Goh Kean Seng of Confucian Private
Secondary School based in Kuala Lumpur and Mr
Sua Sin Zang,
Subject Executive (Physics) of the United Chinese
School Committee’s Association of Malaysia.
We were also honored to have been able to obtain
a first hand perspective of RP and PBL in the
eyes of external educationists. Upon their
arrival, they were warmly welcomed by Professor
Low Teck
Seng,
Principal of Republic Polytechnic. After which
Dr. Alwis, Director of Academic Affairs gave
a
Woodlands
Campus briefing followed by a talk on E-Infrastructure
by Mr. Samuel Liu, Deputy Director of Information
Services.
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During the Tea Reception, some student representatives
from Write.Republic and Interactive Media IG, RP’s
editorial interest groups, had the chance to interview
our distinguished guests with regards to the talks
they have attended and their thoughts of our campus
facilities. When asked about their opinions on
the PBL way of learning, they were amazed at the
very fact that RP is able to carry out PBL in such
a large scale manner.
According to Mr Loke, it is very feasible to introduce
this method of learning into the education system
in Malaysia. However, he expressed slight concerns
about implementing PBL into their schools. As the
schools in Malaysia tend to be rather exam-orientated,
students tend to memorize and regurgitate out what
they have learnt instead of fully comprehending
and applying their knowledge to problems encountered.
Thus, it may be quite difficult for students to
adapt to PBL initially. However, both Mr Loke and
Mr Goh pointed out that this serves as a challenge
for their students to adapt to this new way of
thinking which will help them to be more analytical
in their thinking and learn how to source for appropriate
and useful learning resources.
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For Mr Sua, who took his degree in an Australian
University, he was able to strike a chord with
PBL as this was the learning approach he has employed
since his undergraduate days. He commends the free
learning that PBL extrudes. To Mr Sua, PBL simply
means more choices and more time. With such a learning
approach, students can cultivate independent learning
which had been blurred with too much guidance from
parents and teacher. He feels that spoon feeding
is not the way to bring up our people. Problem-Based-Learning
is an instructional method that challenges students
to learn, to work cooperatively in groups to seek
solutions to real world problems. Through his experience
with Problem-Based-Learning approach, he felt that
it has allowed him to think critically and analytically
and also become more resourceful. Now that he has
become an Astronomy Lecturer of New Era College
in Malaysia, he introduces the same learning concept
to his students, hoping that they will gain the
same or higher insight than he did.
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As Malaysian students have been taught using the
traditional method of teaching for many years,
Mr Sua foresees that there may be some resistance
in students at the beginning. However, changes
hold hand-in-hand with time. It takes times to
change student ideology, it takes time to cultivate
independences in students, it takes time to allow
student to accept PBL. This may take a while but
after time has change their mind set, PBL will
make a dramatic change in them. It’s no longer
memorization of notes that are distributed to the
students but understanding and applying what they
have learnt through self learning and this inevitably
will benefit students even more. There are bound
to have problems but all these can be resolved.
There is no ‘impossible’ in the world,
he says.
In PBL, the traditional teacher and student roles
change. The students assume increasing responsibility
for their learning, giving them more motivation
and more feelings of accomplishment, setting the
pattern for them to become successful life-long
learners. The faculty in turn becomes resources,
tutors, and evaluators, guiding the students in
their problem solving efforts. Hence, Mr Sua feels
strongly that PBL should be implemented in Malaysia
schools. Presently, some schools in Malaysia such
as The International College and Tylas College
already practice PBL. He’s looking forward
to see more school executing such a learning approach.
One way could be to implement partial PBL concepts
at the Secondary schools for a start. This was
also in line with Mr Goh’s thought.
The delegates were also brought on a guided tour
by some RP staff. When asked about what he thought
about our facilities, Mr Sua’s immediate
response was “Splendid”. Compared to
the schools in Malaysia, he commented that Republic
Polytechnic is lovely and very well furnished!
He believes that in 2006, Republic Polytechnic’s
new campus will be much more attractive.
Mr Loke was also impressed with RP’s E-learning
infrastructure. He was happy to note that though
RP uses E-infrastructure in its learning which
may cause students to lose touch of human interaction
and social skills but it has resolved this issue
by making it compulsory for students to attend
classes based in school.
Mr Goh too, expressed his astonishment for the
facilities in the Woodlands Campus come 2006. He
exclaimed that –“It was beyond his
imagination”.
With such positive responses, we can deduce that
our 20-hectare campus in 2006 will no doubt be
an attraction to Malaysian students. Our guests
have also expressed their enthusiasm with respect
to a future collaboration with RP. Future plans
include PBL workshops for teachers based in teaching
Science and Mathematics.
Last but not least, we would like to extend our
sincere gratitude to Mr Loke Ching Chong, Mr Goh
Kean Seng and Mr Sua Sin Zang for their time and
valuable insight. We look forward to working with
them in future.
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