Page 143 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2020

The Learner as a Source

As in many parts of the world, teaching and learning in Malaysian schools had
traditionally been more teacher-centred. KBSR and KBSM implemented since 1983 preached
the importance of treating the learner as the centre of education, teaching and learning has to
be student-centred. Student-centered is espoused as actively involving students, encouraging
students to think, questioning, giving opinion, exchanging ideas, building understanding and
collaboration among one another (MOE, 1983). At the same time, classroom organisation,
development of teaching and learning materials need to be flexible and relevant to the needs of
the students and its objective (MOE, 1983).
The idea of emphasising the learner as a source was repeatedly advocated during all
discussions about teaching from 1980s into 1990s (KPM 1981, 1982; MOE, 1997; PPK, 1991a,
b, c; 1992a, b, c, d). However, in 1999, School Inspectorate’s report (Jemaah Nazir Sekolah,
1999) showed that the Malaysian school has not yet fully internalised and practised student-
centred teaching and learning. Thus, in early 2000s with Reviewed KBSR and KBSM, the
Ministry of Education continued its emphasis on students-centered learning (PPK, 2000a, b, c).
The various approaches or strategies of teaching advocated included inquiry discovery,
constructivism, contextual learning, discussion and simulation are all learner-centred. This
trend of students centered continued on to the KSSR and KSSM implemented in the 2010s,
however in KSSR and KSSM the methodologies emphasised has expanded to project based
learning, problem based learning with an emphasis on higher order thinking skills (KPM,
2014a, b, c; 2016 a, b, c, d). In developing KSSR and KSSM, panels of curriculum developers
are also reminded that in mapping out the curriculum content and suggesting activities the focus
need to be more from the perspective of students rather than from the teachers.
As society changes, level of education among parents and communities have risen, in
KBSR, the Cabinet Report (1979) instructed MOE to ‘take specific steps so that education at
the primary school level is in the form of basic education focusing on 3R, which is reading,
writing and arithmetic. In KSSR (2010), KSSR Revised and KSSM (2017), the 3R has been
expanded to 4R where ‘Reasoning’ has been included as a move towards inculcating Higher
Order Thinking (HOTs) among students, a need for the increasing sophisticated society where
knowledge is expanding and changes is imminent, students need to be equipped with HOTs for
survival.

Knowledge as a Source

Knowledge as the content of existing discipline has always been the main source for
curriculum design in most culture throughout the world (Doll, 1964). Knowledge is always
neatly or traditionally moulded by academicians into separate bodies of entities. Change of
mind set and shift of paradigm in this aspect is hard to come by as it is the most comfortable
source of school curriculum. Schools just adopt these bodies of knowledge and teach the
various disciplines separately without much effort to integrate it. This age-long practice of
teaching subjects separately created boundaries between disciplines, it also causes disconnect
in knowledge seeking and de-meaning the purpose of learning. Sensing the need to integrate
the various aspects and disciplines within knowledge, Cabinet Committee Report 1979
proposed that ‘integration’ is important in the curriculum provided to school children. This has
given rise to the concept of ‘integration’ in Primary School Integrated Curriculum, KBSR and
Secondary School Integrated Curriculum, KBSM. Integration in KBSR and KBSM dwelled on
integration between knowledge and practice within subject and across subjects (PPK, 1992d;
BPK, 2014). The concept of ‘integration’ is further expanded in KSSR and KSSM where
learning outcomes related to acquisition of skills is being given the highlight in the curriculum

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