Reflective Essay

Curriculum change is needed in order to cater to the need of the nations current
political, social, economic, cultural and technological states. Malaysias previously used
curriculum, known as the KBSR, has now been updated to KSSR which focuses more on
learners standard based approach. The new curriculum has changed the role of teachers
in classroom, the expected teaching and learning experiences of the classroom as well as
the content (learning standards) that should be achieved in the classroom. Therefore,
teachers should have high understanding of the different aspects of the KSSR, before being
able to implement it successfully.
These changes have impacted trainee teachers in several ways. First, trainee
teachers are now exposed to various learning experiences that we can use in our own
classroom later on. This included the integration of social media trends such as Facebook
and Schoology to be medium of academic exchange between lecturers and trainee teachers.
Other than that, trainee teachers are also exposed to various 21 st century learning
approaches, one of it was the cooperative learning techniques. We experienced learning
through various techniques such as think-pair-share and round robin. These new learning
experiences were very helpful as it integrated active involvement from pupils and teachers as
facilitators of the lesson, and we are expected to implement these activities in our future
classroom.
Other than that, teacher trainees were also given trainings on ICT integration in
classroom. We had a course in developing ICT-integrated materials into the lesson. We
learnt developing of animations, using digital cameras and developing images and short clips
or videos to be used in our future classrooms. In addition to that, trainee teachers were also
given exposure on the new curriculum approaches, through courses on pedagogical
approaches of teaching various language skills and language content and the development
of the curriculum as a whole. Thus, it is hoped that through these courses, trainee teachers
should be able to use their knowledge and implement the curriculum successfully in our
future classrooms.
Based on my past practicum experiences, I realised my strengths and weaknesses
when learning the appropriate ways of implementing the curriculum successfully. Some of my
strengths include my familiarity with ICT and various cooperative learning techniques.
However, some of my weaknesses include the lack in classroom control skills and the access
to ICT in several occasions.

For future references, I shall manipulate my strengths to bring in wider and vast
learning experiences for my pupils, in order to help them learn more. I shall include more
learner-focused activities, to ensure that pupils are able to bring in their knowledge into the
classroom and have high involvement of their own learning. Other than that, I shall also
include the pupils in planning lessons. As my goal is to have lessons where pupils can relate
closely, I shall also include the pupils opinion and suggestions as to what kind of learning
would they like to experience next.
On the other hand, I would also like to overcome my weaknesses as stated above. To
overcome my lack in classroom control skills, I shall learn and research different ways of
classroom control theories to be applied in the classroom. I should try and list down the
possible classroom control techniques such as Skinners reward techniques, Canters
assertive discipline and Deweys democratic classroom, and try them out in different
occasions to see which one fits the classroom I am assigned to. Next, I would also like to
overcome the issue of ICT access Ive experienced several times during my practicum
phases. I usually had problems of when the LCD could not be accessed, various times
during the last practicums. Therefore, I would like to purchase my own LCD to ensure that
my lesson can go as planned. With my own LCD, I can also include more activities and more
presentations by the students without wasting time, waiting in line just to get the LCD from
the school.
In conclusion, the new curriculum changes have brought a great impact to the training
approaches of trainee teachers. More exposure on classroom activities were given in order
to help trainee teachers gain enough experience and knowledge in different ways of
implementing the curriculum in a fun, interactive and meaningful ways for the students.
Trainee teachers should also keep improving themselves, increasing own knowledge to
overcome weakness and strengthen own ability, to become successful implementers of the
curriculum.