Human Resource Development Roundtable 2007

Monday, 27th August 2007 Indera Kayangan Ballroom, Empire Hotel & Country Club

“EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO MEET FUTURE NEEDS: IDEAS FROM GOVERNMENT AND FROM

THE PRIVATE SECTORS”

By Pengiran Dr. Rahmah Pengiran Jadid

Managing Director

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“EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO MEET FUTURE NEEDS: IDEAS FROM GOVERNMENT AND FROM

THE PRIVATE SECTORS”

1. Quality of Education At the World Summit on Information Technology in 2003 at Geneva, Valdimir gave a new definition for quality of education, which is now widely accepted.

“Quality of education…….includes abilities of an individual as: keeping abreast with modern ideas and discoveries in the areas of science and technology, acquiring skills required by the latest technologies and the market; developing his or her resourcefulness through self-education. So, scientific knowledge and professionalism as products of quality education should provide a successful participation of an individual in the development of the evolving societies” Vladimir (WSIS, 2003)

“The quality of education in my view is defined precisely by a person’s ability to meet the demands of contemporary society. The sufficient conditions are related to a person’s ability to transform knowledge and skills received into education, i.e. into customized system of ethical, cultural and professional values, and also to the ability to apply this system in various areas of intellectual and practical activity” Vladimir (WSIS, 2003)

2. (a) Facts about information The advancement of Information Technology has generated enormous information that:

• The amount of scientific information published around the world every 24 hours would fill seven complete 24-volume sets of Encyclopedia Britannica and it would need one man reading around the clock for 460 years to cover one year’s output (Abramson 1964).

• The amount of information that will be produced within the next three years

will e more than the amount of information produced during the last 300,000 (three hundred thousand years) (Tanner 2001).

• The amount of information on the WWW increases every 24 hours by more

than 3.2 million new pages and more than 715,000 pictures (UCLA Internet Report 2000).

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(b) How is information related to knowledge?

• Having access to information is not having knowledge. • Knowledge is not what can be found in data carriers—databases, manuals,

encyclopedias, etc.

• The increase of information production does not necessarily lead to an increase of knowledge.

(c) How is information related to knowledge and learning?

• Information is processed into knowledge individually.

• Processing information into knowledge is learning.

Traditional learning is associated with acquiring knowledge. Learning in the Knowledge Age, cannot be reduced to acquiring knowledge only, it is more than that because:

• Learning is about individual processing information. • When an individual learns he does not only relate the new information to his

existing knowledge but he also constructs meaning before he can create new knowledge.

• Individuals are unique, therefore, they learn differently from others, thus

instruction has to be individualized or tailor to his learning uniqueness which is reflected in his learning styles.

• Learning does not only involve cognitive process but it also affected by

individual’s learning environment, his emotionality, sociological preferences and physiological needs which are identified by Dunn and Dunn (1993) as his learning styles.

(d) Knowledge in the Knowledge Society

• In the Agrarian and Industrial Societies, knowledge was related to productivity specifically used to improve the quality of agricultural and industrial products and also for individuals to get credentials to apply for jobs and for developing their careers.

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• Knowledge in the Information, Communication and Knowledge Societies is not only used as the driver of productivity and economic growth, but also as a resource, similar to natural resources use in the agriculture- and industry-based economy.

• Every individual is a potential resource to generate and build the country’s

economy because of the knowledge he/she possess. The key to how productive an individual is very much depending on how he/she learns, uses and creates/generates new the knowledge and this, in turn, is very much reflected on his/her education and training background.

• Education and training in the Knowledge Society must prepare everybody to

understand the Knowledge Society and to act and behave in such society.

• In the Knowledge Society because learning is individualized, knowledge is used as a resource and driver of productivity and economic growth, and people are required to create and generate knowledge and to continue to learn throughout life, education and training have to be different from those organized for the Agrarian and Industrial Societies.

3. Education and Training in Private Sector

• In Knowledge Society education and training is everybody’s responsibility—individuals and both government and private sectors. Making such sweeping statement and telling people their responsibility are easy, but how can we make people actually carry out the responsibility voluntarily?

• For an individual living in a Knowledge Society, life long learning is

inevitable because it is part of his/her survival strategy. For example, for a housewife, if her washing machine breaks down and she has to buy a new one, then she has to learn how to use the new machine. Even though the basic operation may be similar but each newer machine is normally built with new features or improved technology to make it more competitive in the market. Therefore, to ensure that the machine works properly, she may need to read the instruction or learn how to operate the machine from the delivery man.

• For private sectors education and training are not something new. HRD is

always considered by business as important because it can be as a source of income generating activities, for example, providing professional training programs or it can be part of the corporation to increase its efficiency, productivity and competitiveness in the form of staff development.

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4. Education in Other Countries

• In 2003, at Geneva, Switzerland, an agenda titled “Education and Knowledge Societies” was included for a Round Table Discussion, as part of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In the preamble to the Round Table Discussion, Cornu (2003) mentioned the “four pillars of education” which he referred from report submitted to UNESCO. The report which was prepared by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, chaired by Jacques Delors described the “four pillars of education” as (1) learning to know, (2) learning to do, (3) learning to live together and (4) learning to be.

“If it is succeed in its tasks, education must be organized around four fundamental types of learning which, through a person’s life, will in a way be the pillars of knowledge: Learning to know, that is acquiring the instruments of understanding; learning to do, so as to be able to act creatively on one’s environment; learning to live together, so as to participate and cooperate with other people in all human activities; and learning to be, an essential progression which proceeds from the previous three. Of course, these four paths of knowledge all form a whole, because there are many points of contacts, intersection and exchange among them”

“Learning, the treasure within” UNESCO, 1996)

Today many countries around the world are now focusing on learning how to learn. USA, New York State The New York State/Long Island School Curriculum Plans students are taught among others, the following: • summarizing strategies, • structured note-taking, • content, • vocabulary, • reflection/self-evaluation, • text structure, • metacognitive strategies, • research strategies, and • problem solving/organizational strategies. CEP for Upstate/Long Island Schools (2007-2008)

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Norway In Norway the curriculum plans include 7 principles for teaching, among which include: • motivation, • learning strategies (strategies to plan, execute and evaluate own and

other’s learning), • student involvement and, • adaptive learning.

Gudhal (2007)

England Among the objectives included in The English National Curriculum include teaching their students: • the five headings of information processing, • to reason, • to enquire, • to think and evaluate in creative manner, and • to develop pupils’ ability to think as learners.

Smith (2007) New Zealand

The New Zealand Curriculum plan has eight (8) essential skills among of which include: • information skills, • problem solving skills, • self- management, and • competitive skills.

Humphrey (2007)

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5. Practice that can be considered for Brunei

Teaching students through their Individualized Learning-styles Strengths

• Since learning is about individual processing information, students should be taught through their individualized learning-style strengths.

• Learning style is the way each person begins to concentrate on, process, internalize, and retain new and difficult information (Dunn and Dunn, 1992, 1993; Dunn, Dunn and Perrin, 1994).

• More than three-fifths of learning style is biological; less than one fifth is developmental (Restak, 1979; Theis 1979).

• Learning style change over time, but only individuals’ naturally evolving maturation over years alters those elements of their style that are biologically imposed (Dunn & Griggs, 1995).

• Developmental aspects change more predictable and follow a discernible pattern. Some aspects of style change in some people; others do not (Dunn & Dunn, 1999).

• It is the degree to which each person learns differently from other people that makes identical instructional environments, methods, and resources effective for some learners and ineffective for others (Dunn & Dunn, 1999).

• Thirty years ago, few educators even considered how traditional classrooms might affect the achievement of students with different learning styles.

• Professors Rita and Kenneth Dunn had developed the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model after studying thousands of research on how people learn.

• To date more than 800 research had been conducted in more than a hundred higher institutions on the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model alone.

• Over one hundred studies had documented that learning-style-responsive environments statistically increase students’ achievement-test scores.

• Out of 150 doctoral research conducted by doctoral students at St. John’s University 29 has received either national, international or regional awards.

• All the elements of learning styles also affect how individual works when completing task or assignments at work place.

According to Dunn & Dunn Model (1993, 1999), learning style is divided into five major strands called stimuli. Its stimulus strands include: (a) environmental, (b) emotional, (c) sociological, (d) physiological and, (e) psychological elements that significantly influence how many individuals learn (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. The Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Model

The Dunn & Dunn Learning Style Model is a touchstone of self-awareness. Its twenty three variables affect the way in which individuals:

• Concentrate in their immediate surroundings; • Process information; • Make decisions and solve problems; • Approach and complete tasks and assignments; • Interact with others; and • Retain new and complex information.

The Environmental Elements

Environmental strand incorporates individuals’ preferences for the elements of Sound, Light, Temperature and furniture or seating Design. These are stress-related elements in the physical environment (immediate surroundings) that affect one’s ability to concentrate and remain motivated overtime.

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The Emotional Elements

Emotional strand focuses on students’ levels of Motivation, Persistence, Responsibility, and need for Structure. These elements influence the way in which an individual begins to and completes tasks and assignment productively.

The Sociological Elements

Sociological strands addresses students’ preferences for Learning Alone, in Pairs, as part of a Team, with either Authoritative or Collegial instructors, or in Varied approaches—as opposed to in patterns. These elements affect individual efficiency when learning in social environment. They also affect one’s preferences for either routine or a variety of methods for completing tasks and assignments. The Physiological Elements

Physiological strand examines Perceptual element, Time-of-Day energy levels, and the need for Intake and Mobility while learning. These are the biologically determined elements that influence one’s ability to stay energized and focused when concentrating on tasks or assignments. The perceptual element, which comprises of auditory, visual kinesthetic or tactual strengths, is the physiological element that influences the degree to which individual retains new and complex information for later recall.

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The Psychological Elements

Psychological strand incorporates the information-processing elements of global versus analytic and impulsive versus reflective behaviours. These elements determine one’s inclination for processing new and complex information, making decisions, and solving problems. Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Instruments used to Identifying Individual’s Learning Styles 1. The Learning Style Inventory (LSI) (Dunn, Dunn and Price 1972, 1975, 1979, 1981,

1984, 1989) is the most frequently used learning-style instrument in experimental studies with students from Grades 3-12.

2. The Learning Style Inventory: Primary Version (LSI Primary Version) (Perrin 1983) is the most frequently used learning-style instrument in experimental studies with elementary students

3. The Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) (Dunn, Dunn and Price, (1982) is the most frequently used learning-style instrument in experimental studies with adults

4. Observational Pre-K Primary Assessment of Learning Styles (OPALS) is still under construction for pre-kindergarten and primary pupils

5. Elementary School Learning Style Assessment (ELSA) is newly designed digital instrument to identify the learning style for pupils in Grades 2-4 (ages range from 7-9 years).

6. Learning Style: The Clue to You! (LS: CY!) is newly designed digital instrument to identify the learning style for pupils and students in Grades 5-8 (ages range from 10-13 years).

7. Learning in Vogues: Elements of Styles (LIVES) is newly designed digital instrument to identify the learning style for students in Grades 9-12 (ages range from 14-18 years).

8. Building Excellence Survey (BE) is newly designed digital instrument to identify the learning style of adults in education, corporate and industrial firms.

Learning-Style of Bruneian Pupils and Students

A comprehensive study conducted on Bruneian pupils and students from Primary 4 – Upper 6 (n=1228) revealed the following data as shown in Table 1 and 2. (Pengiran-Jadid, P.R, 1998) Table 1 (below) shows that majority of the primary pupils had integrated learning-style preferences for 17 of the 22 elements (structure, authority figure, alone/peer, afternoon, motivation, several ways, tactile, auditory, design of furniture, responsibility, persistence, kinaesthetic, late morning, light, intake, mobility and sound). This suggests that the

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majority of pupils were not affected by these elements and would only concentrate fully when the subject they were required to master, or the teaching methods/strategies utilized, or the people with whom they were working were interesting to them. However, the study also found that 18 of the twenty elements did affect the ways of some of the primary pupils (from as low as 17% to as high as 80 plus %) learned when they began to concentrate on new and difficult information.

Table 1 Learning-Style Preference of Primary Pupils (N = 282) showing the Variety of Responses for the 22 Learning-Style Elements and different Distribution Score Patterns (Responses in Percentage—Low, Integrated and High affinity for the Element) Elements Low Integrated High

1 Do not require/require structure (guidelines) 2.5 97.5 0.0

2 Do not require/require authority figure (teacher) 13.8 86.2 0.0

3 Alone/Peer 1.1 81.2 17.7

4 Do not prefer/prefer afternoon 9.6 80.5 9.9

5 Low/high motivation 13.8 74.8 11.4

6 Routines/Several ways 1.1 74.1 24.8

7 Do not prefer/prefer tactile learning 15.6 72.3 12.1

8 Do not prefer/prefer auditory learning 5.0 72.0 23.0

9 Design of furniture (informal/formal) 10.3 71.3 18.4

10 Low/high responsibility 27.0 69.9 3.1

11 Low/high persistence 33.0 62.4 4.6

12 Do not prefer/prefer kinaesthetic 2.5 60.6 36.9

13 Do not prefer/prefer late morning 6.7 58.2 35.1

14 Dim/bright light 1.8 53.5 44.7

15 Do not require/require intake 38.2 53.3 8.5

16 Do not need/need mobility while learning 9.9 53.2 36.9

17 Prefer quiet/prefer sound 23.8 50.7 25.5

18 Do not prefer/prefer visual learning 4.3 48.5 47.2

19 Evening/Morning 0.4 34.8 64.8

20 Temperature (cool/warm) 75.2 24.8 0.0

21 Do not require/require teacher motivation 28.0 24.1 47.9

22 Do not require/ require parent motivation 5.7 9.9 84.4

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Table 1 reveals: (a) About one fifth of the pupils preferred to learn with their peers (17.7%) and to sit

in formal chairs (18.4%); (b) About a quarter of the pupils were auditory learners (23.0%), preferred to learn in

a quiet place (23.8%) and using a variety of ways (24.8%). Interestingly more than one fourth required sound in their environmental background (25.5%) and did not require teacher encouragement (28.0%) while learning;

(c) More than a third of the pupils did not prefer intake or food or drink while learning (38.2%) and were not sufficiently persistent (33.0%) to complete their academic tasks in one sitting, whereas, about the same percentage showed that they preferred to learn through their kinaesthetic modality (36.9%), were late-morning learners (35.1%), required mobility (36.9%);

(d) Almost half the pupils preferred to learn under bright light (44.7%), consistently preferred their visual modality (47.2%) to learn, and were teacher-motivated (47.9%); last but not least important

(e) More than half the pupils were early-morning learners (64.8%), preferred cool temperatures (75.5%), and worked better with parental encouragement than without it (84.4%).

The data in Table 2 (next page) shows that the majority of the secondary students had integrated learning-style preferences for 19 of the 22 two elements (light, several ways, responsibility, persistence, motivation, parent-motivated, tactile, design, alone/peer, kinaesthetic, teacher-motivated, visual, auditory, late morning, mobility, afternoon, authority figure, structure, and intake. This means that majority of the students were not affected by these elements and only learned when the subject they were required to master, or the teaching method/strategy to which they were exposed, or the people with whom they were working were interesting to them. However, the study also found that 18 of the 22 elements did affect the ways of some of the secondary students (from as low as 17% to as high as 90 %) learned when they began to concentrate on new and difficult information.

Table 2 reveals (a) About one fifth of the students were low on responsibility (17.0%) and showed

low persistence (20.0%) when involved with academic learning. They did not prefer to learn with an authoritative teacher (17.3%), but preferred to work with their peers (18.5%), wanted to use their visual modality (20.8%) when learning but, interestingly, a similar percentage also wanted to work with an authoritative teacher (21.6%);

(b) Almost one fourth of the students were parent-motivated (23.2%), wanted to use their auditory strength (23.7%) and kinaesthetic modality (24.7%), were self-motivated (24.0%) and teacher-motivated (26.6%) and did not prefer to study in the afternoon (25.1%);

(c) More or less a third of the students preferred a quiet environment when learning (30.7%), were late morning learners (31.1%), did not require food or drink while

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learning (35.5%); rather, they preferred structure (36.9%) or guidelines before they could start their academic work; and lastly

(d) Majority of the students preferred to work in the early morning hours (70.0%) and in a cool environment (90.4%).

Table 2 Learning-Style Preference of Secondary Students (N = 946) showing the Variety of Responses for the 22 Learning-Style Elements and different Distribution Score Patterns (Responses in Percentage—Low, Integrated and High affinity for the Element) Elements Low Integrated High

1 Dim/ Bright Light 5.8 85.5 8.7

2 Routines/Several Ways 10.4 77.5 12.1

3 Low/High Responsibility 17.0 76.3 6.5

4 Low/ High Persistence 20.0 76.2 3.8

5 Low/ High Motivation 0.4 75.8 24.0

6 Do not require/require parent-motivation 2.2 74.6 23.2

7 Do not prefer/prefer tactile learning 12.3 74.4 13.3

8 Design of Furniture (informal/formal) 15.6 74.3 10.1

9 Alone/peer 8.0 73.5 18.5

10 Do not prefer/prefer kinaesthetic learning 3.4 71.9 24.7

11 Do not require/require teacher-motivation 1.9 71.5 26.6

12 Do not prefer/ prefer visual 7.9 71.3 20.8

13 Do not prefer/ prefer auditory learning 23.7 64.6 11.7

14 Do not prefer/ prefer late morning 5.4 63.5 31.1

15 Do not prefer/ prefer mobility 12.9 61.5 13.6

16 Do not prefer/ prefer afternoon 25.1 61.3 13.6

17 Do not prefer/ prefer authority figure (teacher) 17.3 61.1 21.6

18 Do not need/ Need Structure (guidelines) 2.9 60.2 36.9

19 No intake (food)/require intake (food) 35.5 58.0 6.4

20 Quiet/Sound 30.7 48.7 20.6

21 Evening/morning 3.2 26.0 70.8

22 Temperature (cool/warm) 90.4 9.5 0.1

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From the above findings, it can be concluded that Bruneian pupils and students, like their international counterparts, do have varied learning-style preferences. If addressed, it is likely that Bruneian students would perform academically better as demonstrated by hundreds of international research studies (www.learningstyles.net.) Prior to the above study, several small studies were conducted on primary pupils and students. The findings were used to develop an experimental learning style project called LEAPS (acronym for LEearn And Progress in Styles) in several schools in Brunei Darussalam. A video presentation of LEAPS Project may help us to understand how learning styles can help our pupils and students to learn and perform better because they are actively involved and learn in a conducive learning environment where they use strategies and resources congruent with through their natural inclinations to learn or learning- style strengths.

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