Kepada mereka yang berusaha untuk menyuburkan pembangunan profesional guru berasaskan sekolah maka buku ini perlu menjadi rujukan. Kenapa?

“the most powerful learning is that which occurs in respone to challenges currently being faced by learner and allows for immediate application, experimentation, and adaptation on the job” (Sparks & Hirsh, 1997)

Buku ini berorientasikan “how-to” yang memberi fokus kepada “job-embedded learning” berdasarkan kajian dan pengalaman pengamal. Ada tiga bahagian utama isi kandungannya.

• Pertama – memberikan asas program dan aktiviti pembangunan profesional sekolah yang berkesan. (3 bab).
• Kedua – secara lebih khusus, buku ini memperkenalkan beberapa strategi “job-embedded professional development“. antaranya, Book Studies, Research-in-Action, Coversation Tools, Lesson Study, Teacher Inquiry, Coaching dan Professional Learning Communities. (7 bab)
• Ketiga – mencadangkan penggunaan secara efektif toolbox pembangunan professional berdasarkan keserasian antara strategi dan keperluan pembangunan profesional. (2 bab)

Petikan di bawah digunakan oleh penulis buku ini untuk mewajarkan kenapa pembangunan profesional guru perlu menjadi agenda utama.

“No single principle of school reform is more valid or durable than the maxim that student learning depends first, last and always on the quality of the teachers. Experts may disagree about how highly to value the size of a class or school, how the system functions, or whether it is adequately funded – but nobody’s list of education’s priorities fails to place teacher quality at or very near the top.” (The Report of the Task Force on Teacher Leadership, 2001)

They call these design principles “learner centered” for two reasons: first, because professional development should be driven by the needs of students and by what teachers need to know and be able to do to address specific learning needs of their students. Second, professional development should reflect what we know about how people learn. This means that the content and delivery of professional development should address learners’ beliefs and prior knowledge, motivation, capacity for strategic processing, individual differences, and situation or context.

Principle 1: Professional development should be based on collaborative analyses of the differences between (a) actual student performance and (b) goals and standards for student learning

Principle 2: Professional development should be primarily school based and built into the day-to-day work of teaching.

Principle 3: Professional development should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved.

Principle 4: The content should reflect the best research on the given topic (e.g., how to enhance the literacy of adolescents).

Principle 5: The content of professional development should focus on what students are to learn and how to address the different problems students may have in learning that material.

Principle 6: Professional development should provide experiential opportunities to gain an understanding of and reflect on the research and theory underlying the knowledge and skills being learned.

Principle 7: The way teacher learning is facilitated should mirror the instructional approaches they are expected to master and allow teachers to experience the consequences of newly learned capabilities.

Principle 8: Professional development should be continuous and ongoing, involving follow-up and support for further learning, including support from sources external to the school that can provide necessary resources and new perspectives.

Principle 9: Professional development should be connected to a comprehensive change process focused on specific goals for improving student learning.

Principle 10: Evaluation of professional development should incorporate multiple sources of information on (a) outcomes for students and (b) the instruction and other processes that are involved in implementing the lessons learned.

Dijangkakan deraf terakhir dokumentasi STRAPP BPSH (2010-2012) akan disiapkan dalam perbincangan ketiga pada hujung bulan Oktober 2009 ini.

Bengkel ini adalah yang pertama daripada beberapa siri bengkel yang dirancang, dihadiri oleh semua pengurusan atasan BPSH terdiri daripada Pengarah, Timbalan dan Ketua Sektor. Saya diberi amanah untuk memudahcarakan perbincangan dalam menghasilkan STRAPP BPSH.

Apa yang menarik dalam sesi penghasilan deraf awal STRAPP ialah konsep yang digunakan iaitu menghasilkan dokumen perancangan yang bercirikan Planning is Fun, Planning in Action, dan User-friendly . Dengan itu STRAPP BPSH dapat dijadikan sebagai Communication Tool, Measurement System dan Strategic Management System.

Secara sepintas lalu deraf awal  Strategy Map STRAPP BPSH di bawah dan sebahagian slaid yang saya gunakan (lihat My Slideshare Page) dapat memberikan gambaran tersebut.

Kajian ini boleh dikatakan sebagai satu “landmark study” tentang kompetensi pemimpin sekolah di Malaysia kerana setakat pengetahuan kami tidak pernah kajian sedemikian dilakukan.

Kajian tersebut telah mengenal pasti 26 kompetensi pemimpin sekolah yang dikelompokkan dalam enam domain. Daripada 26 kompetensi tersebut didapati sekurang-kurang sepuluh kompetensi adalah berimpak tinggi yang bermaksud kompetensi itu amat diperlukan oleh pemimpin sekolah dalam pembangunan profesional mereka. Antara kompetensi berimpak tinggi tersebut ialah “Penyelesaian Masalah”, “Membuat Keputusan”, “Mengurus Perubahan” dan “Pengurusan ICT”.

Untuk mendapatkan maklumat lanjut tentang kajian berkenaan, Monograf tersebut boleh dimuaturun daripada pautan berikut: http://ifile.it/9c2yosz.

Selepas membaca buku ini, beberapa perkara yang selama ini menjadi tanda tanya dalam pemikiran saya, telah dapat mendapat jawapan permulaan yang baik. Umpamanya, kenapa sukar memahami perkara yang abstrak dan sesudah memahaminya kenapa sukar pula untuk mengaplikasinya kepada situasi yang baru.

Dalam buku ini Willingham menghuraikan sembilan prinsip yang menjadi asas operasi minda. Prinsip-prinsip itu ialah:

1. People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we all avoid thinking.
2. Factual knowledge must precede skill.
3. Memory is the residue of thought.
4. We understand new things in the context of things we already know, and most of what we know is concrete.
5. It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice.
6. Cognition early in training is fundamentally different from cognition late in training.
7. Children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn.
8. Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work.
9. Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to improved.

Rakan-rakan guru sekalian, sekali lagi saya mencadang, bacalah buku ini. Anda pasti mendapat manfaat dalam meningkatkan profesionalisme  keguruan anda!

Untuk maklumat lanjut tentang buku ini anda boleh melawat laman web pengarang di http://www.danielwillingham.com/.

1. The technical perspective: If the teacher isn’t able to do it, it can’t be done;
2. The cultural perspective: If the teacher doesn’t know how to do it or doesn’t ultimately feel confident doing it, it can’t be done;
3. The political perspective: If the teacher won’t do it, it can’t be done; and,
4. The postmodern perspective: If the teacher has too much to do, it won’t be done well.