Written Assignment

Written Assignment Feleon Goh Zhu Ping B1201885 Department of Psychology PSY 225 Psychology of Reading Miss Ruth Goh

Written Assignment Essay One Education is one of the most important tool in order to achieve the dream vision of citizens of Malaysia, which is to strive to become a successful and ambitious citizen and eventually contribute to the growth of the nation as whole. The Malaysian Education Blueprint was launched by the Ministry of Education on October 2011 in wake of preparing Malaysian children for the needs of 21st century as an information rich and advanced century. This writing aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this blueprint which is described as the 11 shifts in supporting the cognitive and socio-emotional growth of the Malaysian students.

First among few of the eleven shifts which is proposed in the educational blueprint is to develop value-driven Malaysians by 2017. With the implementation of this development through various processes, students are able to discover the importance of social services and interaction with the local society. This importance was also highlighted by Vygotskys theory of zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978), where an individual may maximize the learning outcome with the presence of peer support. With the requirement of such social service, students are bound to interact with other peers which also further enhances their communicating skills while also preserving the noble value of respect towards the law and order. In addition, the interaction between the peers could also spark the exchange of interesting thought processes through verbal communication. Such interaction may prove to be another added advantage towards the lifelong learning journey as creative and innovative ideas are passed on and continuously synthesized by the youth generations. The next shift among the eleven, which is to leverage ICT (Information and communications technology) to scale up quality learning across Malaysia can be essential towards the self-growth of the students cognitive processes. With the introduction of ICT to the students, they are now able to access learning materials regardless of geographical location or the difference in time zone. This can encourage students to self-learning as they learn how to access and to process the online study materials on their own. This implementation is in line with Jean Piagets cognitive development theory (Piaget, 1967) where its suggested that it is important for children to gain knowledge and learn through discovery instead of spoon-feeding. Thus, such implementation can greatly benefit the children as they are able to explore the more advanced ICT in a shorter duration compared to traditional reading materials. In addition, within shift number nine, which is partner with parents, community and private sector at scale would also help improve their childrens development through equipping the parents themselves to support their childs learning through a parent engagement toolkit and online access to their childs in-school process. With the involvement of the parents in their childrens learning process, they can aid school teachers to develop the big five personalities (Shimanoff, 2009) which is important to the growth of personality in their children. Parents are able to monitor the development of their childrens behavior through online access to their childrens in-school process. Therefore, parents may be able to help their children with possible problems that they encountered in their school. For example, if their children are found to be hyperactive, it may suggest that their children are very high in extraversion scale. Parents may respond to this by advising their children to behave properly and to control their excitement.

Written Assignment Besides that, in shift five, it was stated that the shift aims to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school. This means that a New Principal Career Package can be introduced where the principals may be given more authority on the development of programs and allocation of school funds. This too can be another added advantage as the principal may develop beneficial programs such as a leadership program. Through the educational platform, students may learn that gender role plays a major part in leadership. This program may help remove the traditional concept that males would always be the leader and would help train female students to step up and take up the leader position. At the same time, these type of programs may also help shape up students perception of gender and this will lead to a higher disciplinary level and eventually lead to decrease in disciplinary cases.

Last but not least, the implementation of the requirement for students to participate in one sport, one club and one uniformed body also supports the development progress in students as they are involved in different co-curriculum activities that can sharpen various skills that could not be learned in the textbook or classroom sessions. The students may gain improvement in physical development through exercise by joining sports club. Whereas a student may improve their language skills through various linguistic activities in participation of a language club. Plus, students will be able to learn various skills and discipline skills through participation of uniform body during co-curricular activities. The introduction and eventual implementation of the blueprint as described as the 11 shifts may benefit the students and give them a better edge in the competition as they strive to be the bright stars of the future.

Written Assignment References Piaget, A Child's Conception of Space, Norton Edition, 1967; p. 178

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Atkinson, Rita, L.; Richard C. Atkinson, Edward E. Smith, Daryl J. Bem, & Susan NolenHoeksema (2000). Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology (13 ed.). Orlando, Florida: Harcourt College Publishers. p. 437.

Shimanoff, S. (2009). Gender role theory. In S. Littlejohn, & K. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory. (pp. 434-437). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412959384.n161