1.

0 Introduction
According to the history of education, the term curriculum was originally related to the
concept of a course of studies followed by a pupil in a teaching institution, (Braslavsky,n.d.). The
design of certain curriculum depends on many factors such as the environmental and social
needs. This to ensure the needs by certain society are met, which is why different place have
different curriculum.
In order to meet our high aspirations amidst an increasingly competitively global
environment, we cannot stand still. Our country requires a transformation of its entire
education system.
(YAB Dato Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, 2012)
In Malaysia, it has been four years since the implementation of the new curriculum, Primary
School Standard Curriculum (KSSR) introduced by former Minister of Education, Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yasin. The new curriculum was introduced to replace the earlier curriculum
Primary School Integrated Curriculum (KBSR). It is more dynamic, in line with the current
time and empowers the nations citizens to compete in todays era globalisation. Hence, this
is where the teachers play their role as agents of change in our education. According to
Fullan, (2011) change is in essence, learning to do something differently, involving
adjustments to many elements of classroom practice and everybody is a change agent in
quality education. The curriculum is merely a tool and one of the parties that make it
happens is teachers.Teachers are the main actors in this process and teacher education
training is the key for developing the capacities in teachers to deliver sustainable educational
approaches in the future (Tengku Sarina, n.d.). Most of the teachers in schools today are
professional teachers where since 2007, the minimum certificate for people to be a teachers
in school is a degree. According to Sullivan (2003), professional teachers are the licensed
professional who possesses dignity and reputation with high moral values as well as
technical and professional competence. What can a teacher do in order to act as an agent of
change?
The world nowadays has moved towards the 21st century learning where schools
in the 21st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging
students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions

that matter, (Shaw, 2008). What the pupils will learn in the classroom will be how to use the
knowledge obtained. In the Eleven Transformational Shifts of the Malaysia Education
Blueprint, one of it is to leverage ICT to scale up quality learning across Malaysia. Under
Smart School Project many improvements was done like providing the schools with
computer Lab, Self-Access Learning Room, and 1BestariNet (PPPM, 2013-2025). These
show that Ministry is trying very hard to make the teachers use ICT in the classroom. So,
teachers should appreciate what the ministry had done by implementing the ICT in the
classroom. Teaching in 21st century classroom is different from before because the pupils
are the Gen-Y pupils. These pupils were born in the era of technology, where teaching using
the chalk and talk method will be not effective. Teaching should be interactive and fun,
therefore teachers should continuously improve their teaching method. When it comes to
use of ICT in classroom, most Malaysian teachers tend to seek the use of projectors and
Power Point only. There are Chromebooks given by the ministry in order for teachers to use
the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in school rather than using power point only. This
will surely give positive impacts on the pupils as they are directly involve in the learning and
complete the task by seeking information in the internet. Hence, teachers should change
the teaching method by implementing ICT and move their role to facilitators.
In order to meet the aspiration in the curriculum, teachers should not stop learning when
they have graduated from their institutes. As being mentioned earlier, since 2007, teachers
in Malaysia must at least have a degree in order to teach in schools. Teachers must
continue in search of knowledge and up to date with the current issues. As time pass, many
knowledge that used to be true are not valid anymore. Hence, they have to keep on
updating with the world changes and not be in their safe zone. A 2005 report from the
OECD (OECD, 2005), drew together a wide body of research evidence which suggested
that teacher quality was one of the most significant factors affecting successful student
learning. A good quality teacher will always perform in the lesson by providing the correct
knowledge to the pupils with great plan of activities. In order to do that they will have to
make a research before enter a class. This is what we call life-long learning. Teacher keep
on learning in order to meet the pupils needs so that they are well prepared to face the
competitive world they lived in.

As the new curriculum is being implemented, it does not mean the method that had been
used before cannot be used in the classroom anymore. Curriculum need to be improvised due
time in order to meet with the global change. Based on evaluation, if the curriculum does not
meet the requirements set, it will be improvised. Whenever there are changes in curriculum, the
main factors that contribute to its successful is the implementers; teachers. Pennington (1995)
suggested that a teachers pedagogical decisions and actions are typically colored by their
experience as a learner and act as a psychological barrier, frame, or selective filtering
mechanism to their classroom practices. Though the earlier curriculum was proven to be
ineffective, most teachers still stick to the old method. Some researchers think that it is difficult
to change the pre-service teachers well-formed beliefs as they tend to teach the way they have
been taught (Pajares, 1992; Kagan, 1992; Korthagen & Kessels, 1999). Malaysian Education
Blueprint (2013-2015) was just newly launched in the year 2012, many teachers are still not
familiar with the blueprint. It might be the factors why teachers in schoold are still stick with the
traditional beliefs. Thus, to successfully execute the vision and aspirations above, teachers
should attend courses to get better understanding about the curriculum. Here, teachers should
practice to adapt with current changes because the world now undergo rapid changes. The
normal and traditional beliefs mostly are outdated and are not suitable for the younger
generations nowadays. Teacher must first decide on what they believed is suitable to be
implemented onto their students and what is there in the curriculum for them to adopt in their
teaching and learning principles (Fuller, 2011). Therefore, teachers should change their beliefs
so that they are able to cope with the pupils needs. Thus, it is very important for teachers to
fully and correctly understand the current MEB, so that the main objective could be delivered
effectively to the students.
Apart from that, in order to improve the current curriculum, teachers also can act as the
curriculum analyst. Teachers are mostly the people who implement curriculum designed by the

curriculum designer. Designers usually refer to the evaluation such as test, examination and
coursework in order to determine the success of a curriculum. One of the factors in developing a
curriculum is the needs of the pupils or students. Teachers can be one of the stake holders in
designing a curriculum because they know the pupils and what the needs are. The pupils needs
should be the main factors because according to the Maslows theory, if the needs of the pupils
are not met, their performance will be low. So, teachers should play their role in designing
curriculum in order to meet the pupils needs.
As a conclusion, teachers should know that their profession is the mother of all
profession. Curriculum will acts as guidance only and the one who will determine its success is
mostly a teacher. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be able to act as the agents of
change in curriculum so that the aspiration in a curriculum can be met.

References
Braslavsky, C. (n.d.). The curriculum.

Fullan,M.(2011). The new meaning of educational change. (4th ed.). New York:TeachersCollege
Press

Fuller, A. (2011). The Teacher as a Decision Maker. Retrieved September 9, 2014, from
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/
0132698161.pdf
Ministry of Education.( 2013). Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013-2015). Retrieved from
http://www.moe.gov.my
OECD (2011) International Summit on the Teaching Profession.

Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers beliefs and educational research: cleaning up

a messy
construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332.
Pennington, M. C. (1995) . Eight case studies of classroom discourse in the Hong Kong
secondary English class. Research Report No.42. Department of English, City University
of Hong Kong.
Shaw, A. (2008, August). What is 21st century education. United States of America.

Sullivan, D. R. (2003). Learning to lead: effective leadership skills for teachers of young
children. New Jersey: Pearson.
Tengku Sarina Aini (n.d.). Transforming Malaysian teacher education for a sustainable future
through student-centred learning. Retrieved August 10, 2015, from
www.atea.edu.au/ConfPapers/2010/Refereed/T%20Kasim.doc

Bibliography

KAMPUS BAHASA ANTARABANGSA

LEMBAH PANTAI, 59200 KUALA LUMPUR

PISMP TESL JAN 2012 INTAKE

SEMESTER 8
CURRICULUM STUDY

TSL 3143

NAME

: MOHD AIZAD BIN RASEDI

INDEX NUMBER

: 2012211350038

I/C NUMBER

: 901205036401

LECTURERS

: MADAM HAJAH ZAMRUDAH BINTI HAJI AHMAD RASHIDI

DATE

: 17TH August 2015