yahoo.comChemical Education Journal (CEJ),
Vol. 10, No. 2 /Registration No. 10-12/Received April 26, 2008.
URL = http://chem.sci.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/cejrnlE.html
yahoo.comThe search for best practice is a major concern of all education service providers. The general belief is these best practices can be emulated by other teachers. A case study has been conducted on four Malaysian master teachers teaching the Revised Secondary Science Curriculum (RSSC), specifically the Physics, Biology and Chemistry subjects. Master teachers are experts instituted by the Ministry of Education Malaysia in the respective subject areas. It can be logically deduced that their teaching could qualify as best practice. The study is of the qualitative paradigm and exploratory in nature. These master teachers or participants of the study were involved in the revision of Science Curriculum carried out by the Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry of Education Malaysia. They were also involved as master trainers for the orientation courses conducted to prepare teachers to use RSSC which was implemented throughout the country in the year 2002. The RSSC advocated the concept of thoughtful teaching. Being heavily involved with the formulation of RSSC, it would be interesting to study if these master teachers practiced thoughtful teaching as they implement the curriculum. Long term observations and interviews were the two main methods of data collection engaged in this study. This paper focuses only on the Chemistry master teacher. However a brief comparison with the Physics and Biology master teachers would be made. The outcome of this study revealed that the Chemistry master teacher developed his own idea of thoughtful teaching. Major principles of thoughtful teaching and learning given by RSSC were adhered to but not the prescriptive models given in RSSC and the related curriculum materials. The gap between what is given by the curriculum materials and the actual practice is apparent. In developing thoughtful teaching, the master teacher was influenced by his preference and personal characteristics. In the case of the Chemistry master teacher his preference is developing strategies of learning. It then seem logical to suggest that to close the gap between intended curriculum and the enacted curriculum, opportunities of communication between the curriculum planners and practicing teachers need to be provided. There is a need to establish relationship between teachers' original ideas and the new ideas suggested by the intended curriculum. This also mean that best practice cannot be emulated wholesale but served only as an exemplar where ideas can be adopted and adapted.