Teacher Education in Malaysia:

Some of the Major Challenges and Prospects

Rajendran Nagappan
Nagendralingan Ratnavadivel, Othman Lebar
Maria Salih, Mohd Hassan Abdullah
Mohd Nasir Masran, Mohd Nazri Md Saad, Nor Azmi Mostafa
E-mail: nsrajendran@hotmail.com

Abstract
Teacher Education programs are often put under test and are
scrutinized to further enhance their effectiveness. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the current situation with regards to the
models, programs and curricula used in teacher education in Malaysia,
the quality of current teachers, and the relationships between teacher
quality and the models, programs and curricula used in teacher
education. This study utilized a mix of qualitative and quantitative
methods. Data for this research were collected through interviews,
analysis of documents, and administration of survey questionnaires.
Critical informants and supervising teachers were interviewed.
Documents that contain information pertaining to Teacher Education
models, programs and curriculum from various establishments were
analyzed. A total of 1525 respondents from four different target
groups consisting of school administrators, supervising teachers,
trainee teachers and students were selected at random as respondents
for this study. Survey questionnaires were used as instruments to
collect data for this study. Qualitative data were analyzed using
qualitative methods, while quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS
version 12.0 and presented using descriptive and inferential statistics.
The main findings of this study suggest that prospective teachers, their
students, school administrators and supervising teachers on the whole
seem to agree that the teacher education programs are effective in
producing quality teachers. However, there seems to be a concern in
teachers‟ readiness to manage co-curriculum activities and to motivate
students to learn. Qualitative data also revealed a number of
challenges faced by teacher education in Malaysia. This paper will offer
recommendations to address these challenges in teacher education in
Malaysia.
This paper was presented at the International Council on Education for
Teaching (ICET) World Assembly, Braga, Portugal, 14 – 17 Jluy 2008.
Send comments to nsrajendran@hotmail.com

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Introduction

National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and National

Commission on Teaching and America‟s Future (NCTAF) call for greater
professionalization of the teaching profession through defining the
kinds of knowledge and skills teachers should have in order to teach
effectively; the use of program accreditation to ensure that programs
are indeed transmitting these skills and knowledge; and testing and
certification to ensure that teachers do possess these skills and
knowledge (Kirby et al, 2006). This seems to be, yet another call,
about a long-standing, but still relevant, issue by the stake-holders of
teacher education.
Teacher education programs have been under attack for
decades. They have been decried as “impractical and irrelevant” by
practitioners, and cited as the root cause of bad teaching and
inadequate learning (Labaree, 2004; Cochran-Smith and Zeichner,
2005). There have been similar criticisms about teacher education in
Malaysia as well. Teacher education in Malaysia has undergone
scrutiny from time to time. It is important that such a process is
carried out to ensure that teacher education remains relevant and
accountable to the demands of the society and nation. It seems to be
even more important now when there are new demands on teacher
education to produce teachers who would be able to meet the
challenges of globalization.
In this context, this study attempted to identify major
contemporary issues and challenges in teacher education in Malaysia.
It is an on-going attempt to identify the major issues and also figuring
out ways to address those issues to further enhance the quality of
teacher education in Malaysia. Among other things, this study‟s focus
was the teacher education curriculum, prospective teachers‟
knowledge, skills and attitude, clients‟ perceptions about the
prospective teachers in terms or their knowledge, skills and attitude,
and the appropriate teacher education model for Malaysia.
This paper will address some of the major issues and challenges
which emerged from analysis of the data collected. Discussion in this
paper will be limited to issues concerning prospective teachers‟
knowledge, skills, attitude and teacher education curriculum.

Background

The importance of preparing teachers to exercise trustworthy

judgment based on a strong base of knowledge is increasingly
important in contemporary society (Darling-Hammond & Bransford,

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2005). Education is increasingly important to the success of both
individuals and nations, and growing evidence demonstrates that –
among all educational resources – teachers‟ abilities are especially
crucial contributors to students‟ learning (Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain,
2000).
Not only do teachers need to be able to keep order and provide
useful information to students, they also need to be increasingly
effective in enabling a diverse group of students to learn ever more
complex material and to develop a wider range of skills. Whereas in
previous decades teachers were expected to prepare only a small
minority for the most ambitious intellectual work, they are now
expected to prepare virtually all students for higher-order thinking and
performance skills which used to be reserved for only a few.
To meet the expectations they now face, teachers need a new
kind of preparation – one that enables them to go beyond “covering
the curriculum” to actually enable learning for students who learn in
very different ways. Programs that prepare teachers need to consider
the demands of today‟s schools in concert with the growing knowledge
base about learning and teaching if they are to support teachers in
meeting these expectations (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005).
The question is whether teacher education models and
curriculum in Malaysia have responded adequately to the changing
demands on teachers brought about by the changing nature of
schooling and acquisition of knowledge and skills. The answers for
these questions maybe both yes and no. For example, Ratnavadivel
(1999) found that teacher education curriculum in Malaysia has
consistently responded and kept at breast with the global demands.
On the other hand, teacher education has not responded adequately to
incorporate the teaching of new knowledge and skills to prospective
teachers, as in the case of preparing prospective teachers to teach
higher-order thinking skills (Rajendran, 2004) and teaching students
from multicultural backgrounds (Nagappan, Rajendran, 2005).

Methodology

Data for this study were collected using both quantitative and
qualitative methods. A total of four types of survey questionnaires
were used to gather data from prospective teachers who are currently
enrolled in teacher education programs in 8 different institutions,
mentor teachers, students in schools, and school administrators. The
number of survey questionnaires sent out and received are shown in
Table 1 below.

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 Table 1:

Survey Questionnaires Distributed and Received.

Total Received Total Received

Quetionnaire Total Sent Out
(Numbers) (Percentage)
Students 2000 1028 51.40
Prospective
800 427 53.37
Teachers
Mentor Teachers 60 40 66.67
School
60 30 50.00
Administrators
Total 2920 1525 55.23

Items for these questionnaires were built in accordance with the

research questions and focus of this study. They were pilot-tested and
further improvement to the content and language of the instruments
were carried out. These instruments had Cronbach Alpha reliability
scores of .944 for prospective teachers, .936 for students, .969 for
mentor teachers, and .941 for school administrators.
Besides this, interviews were conducted with 7 critical informants
who are experienced teacher educators and stake-holders. A total of
11 mentor teachers who were providing guidance to these selected
prospective teachers who were performing their teaching practicum in
schools were also interviewed. Relevant documents from institutions
which conduct teacher education programs were also collected and
analyzed for the purpose of this study. Quantitative data were
analyzed using SPSS version 11.5, and qualitative data were analyzed
using qualitative methods.

Results and Discussion

a. Teachers‟ Subject Matter Knowledge

On the whole, prospective teachers surveyed in this study seem

to be satisfied with the acquisition of knowledge of content and other
related aspects which enable them to teach effectively in classrooms.
Selected items presented in Table 1 below suggest that prospective
teachers have suggested that teacher education curricula have
successfully prepared them, in terms, of confidence to teach subject
matter content effectively (4.23) on a 5-point Likert Scale, sufficient
subject matter knowledge in the discipline (4.02), giving the relevant

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theories of teaching and learning (4.26), and opportunities to
understand the National Philosophy of Education (4.16).
.
Table 2 :
Prospective Teachers‟ Perceptions of Their Acquisition of Knowledge

Prospective Mentor Sig

Item
Teachers Teachers
Mean SD Mean SD

Teacher education provides :

Confidence to teach subject matter
content effectively. 4.23 .63 4.10 .67 .22
Sufficient subject matter
knowledge in the discipline I chose 4.02 .76 4.22 .53 .10
to teach.
Me with the relevant theories of
teaching and learning. 4.26 .65 4.20 .60 .61
The opportunity to understand the
National Philosophy of Education. 4.16 .71 4.20 .60 .76

Selected mentor teachers who participated in this study have

also rated high the preparedness of these teachers for these items as
shown in Table 2. It is also important to note that there are no
statistically significant differences between the perceptions of these
prospective teachers and the perceptions of the mentor teachers for
these items.

b. Teachers‟ Pedagogical Skills

On the whole, as shown in Table 3 below, prospective teachers

surveyed in this study also rated high their acquisition of various skills
needed to teach through their respective teacher education programs.
Except for items, ability to maintain classroom control effectively
(3.90), ability to evaluate and keep records of students’ acquisition of
subject matter content (3.81), ability administer co-curriculum
activities effectively (3.85), and ability to prepare tests which are in
line with the expectations of syllabus (3.82), prospective teachers‟
perceptions for acquisition of various skills through teacher education
programs were rated above 4.0.

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 Table 3
Prospective Teachers‟ Perceptions of Their Acquisition of Skills

Prospective Mentor Sig

Item
Teachers Teachers
Teacher education provides : Mean SD Mean SD

Ability to construct teaching

scheme and plan to teach in the
classrooms 4.06 .52 4.02 .52 .65
Ability to teach the subject matter
content effectively to students in
classrooms 4.04 .51 4.05 .58 .91
Ability to maintain classroom
control effectively 3.90 .55 4.08 .53 .06
Ability to evaluate and keep
records of students‟ acquisition of
subject matter content 3.81 .57 3.87 .58 .51
Ability to reflect on teacher actions
and students‟ feedback to further
enhance the quality of teaching in
the classroom 4.15 .55 4.01 .49 .13
Ability administer co-curriculum
activities effectively. 3.85 .84 4.08 .69 .10
Ability to teach students from
multiple background and abilities 4.06 .74 3.88 .72 .13
Ability to make good decisions
about teaching to further improve
my student learning.
4.04 .62 4.00 .59 .72
Ability to prepare tests which are
in line with the expectations of
syllabus. 3.82 .74 3.88 .68 .68

On the other hand, mentor teachers, except for items, ability to

evaluate and keep records of students’ acquisition of subject matter
content (3.87), ability to teach students from multiple background and
abilities (3.88), and ability to prepare tests which are in line with the
expectations of syllabus (3.88), have rated the preparedness of these
prospective teachers in terms of various skills needed above 4.0.
However, no statistically significant differences between the
perceptions of these prospective teachers and the perceptions of the
mentor teachers were found for these items.

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c. Teachers‟ Attitude

As shown in Table 4 below, prospective teachers in this study have

rated high their perceptions of their changes in their attitude and
certain beliefs as outcomes of their teacher education programs.
Perceptions of these prospective teachers seem to be high for all
items, improving leadership skills (4.16), confidence to participate in
social activities (4.26), fostering cordial relationships with all (4.27),
being more caring towards students (4.36), and being prepared to
accept other people’s views (4.37).

Table 4
Prospective Teachers‟ Attitude and Beliefs

Prospective Mentor Sig

Item
Teachers Teachers
Mean SD Mean SD
Teacher education
programme:

Improved my leadership skills 4.16 .70 4.00 .75 .18

Improved my confidence to
participate in social activities 4.26 .68 4.10 .74 .15
Enables me to foster cordial
relationships with all 4.27 .66 4.20 .68 .54
Enables me to be more caring
towards my students 4.36 .57 4.15 .73 .03
Enables me to be prepared to
accept other people‟s views 4.37 .57 4.26 .59 .23

The mentor teachers too seem to have high perceptions about

these prospective teachers in terms some of the aspects which reflect
their attitudes and beliefs related to teaching. All items were rated
above 4.0. However, for the item enables me to be more caring
towards my students there was a statistically significant difference
between the perceptions of the prospective teachers and mentor
teachers.

d. Teacher Education Model

As was seen above, the perceptions of prospective teachers and

mentor teachers seem to give high ratings to teacher education
models in relation to preparing prospective teachers. Some of the

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aspects discussed above include, subject matter knowledge, skills and
their attitude. There were also, except for one aspect, no significant
differences between the perceptions of prospective teachers and
mentor teachers in these aspects.
However, qualitative data collected and analyzed in this study
seem to raise a number of issues in teacher education in Malaysia.
These issues have been raised by critical informants and mentor
teachers. Some of the issues raised by these informants include
curriculum of teacher education, quality of teaching, teaching
practicum, gender issue, and knowledge, skills and attitude of
teachers.
A experienced teacher educator is concerned about the
curriculum of teacher education. He emphasizes the need to produce
teachers with a broad understanding of education and teaching.
Besides, knowledge and skills, he suggests that, philosophy of
education, comparative education, methodology and education in
Malaysia need to be taught to prospective teachers. However, he is
disappointed that some teacher education institutions have removed
sociology of education form the teacher education curriculum.

.. we need to give them broad perspectives of education ..

particularly not only teaching skill, impartation of knowledge to
the child.. but we also give them other areas of education like
what is philosophy of education, methodology, comparative of
education, education in Malaysia.. so we need to be educationist
and then to understand the child better both.. social
environment as well as the the personality, the psychology of
the child ..but unfortunately .. I was told later..the sociology
was taken out from teacher curriculum and that a sad
thing..(CI01)

In relation to this, another experienced teacher educator (CI02)

seems to be concerned about the knowledge of prospective teachers.
She confidently said that knowledge given to prospective teachers is
insufficient when she said that, “In term of the knowledge, ..it is not
enough” (CI02).
The issue of preparing teachers to translate the theories they
learn at the pre-service training into practice and teach effectively was
also raised by another retired teacher educator (CI03). He questions
the approach in which teacher education attempts to integrate the
practice of teaching into academic course. What he seems to raise is
that how effectively does teacher education prepare prospective
teachers to teach the subject matter content to their students. He
suggests that the teacher education curriculum needs to address this
very important issue.

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 Of course the main issue here is the curriculum …. I think it‟ll
take quite a few years to get the kind of curriculum that is a
balance basically between theory and practice, you cannot go
very far from two or three things ….one is people you have took
into teacher education, they must be of sufficient caliber,
sufficient motivation for you to appear on them to have entry
behavior secondly. You need people who are well-versed in the
body of knowledge and expect them to have when they come in
and they go out. The third one is .. how do you integrate the
practice of teaching into an academic course. so I think
curriculum needs to address the issue…the other thing that we
find again throughout the years is a perception that what
happen in training program is not always guaranteed that
teachers can put into practice so this question of the practicum.
I think that we have tried to modify this and put in safeguard so
that we don‟t get somebody who is…inclined and not able to
deal with the day to day problems. These kind of things are
what a teacher finds when he or she goes to school, the
problems of moment that are sometimes not emphasized during
the training period …(CI03)

Another important aspect which seems to be raised frequently by

critical informants is the practicum component in the teacher
education program. There are a number of issues related to practicum
which are often raised which teacher educators think have close
relationships with the quality of teachers produced by these teacher
education models. These aspects include, the duration of practicum
where the prospective teachers spend time in schools, the number of
times during the four-year program they get opportunities to be in
schools, and also the quality of guidance they are given during these
periods.
For example a experienced teacher educator (CI02) is very
concerned about the number of times these prospective teachers get
to go for practicum and whether they are given valuable feedback
after they have spent time in schools. She suggested that,

when I was teaching in maktab (teacher education college) we

had LM1(Practicum 1) and LM2 (Practicum 2)..kan I remember
when I was teaching in UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia) we have
LM1 and LM2, suddenly it become one ..LM so meaning I think
people old timer like me ..we always ask… Tan Sri Murad also
may be ask the same things … we always seems to see what
happen.. in our time was a different thing because when student
pergi (go) LM1 (practicum 1).. they come back .. they have a

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 time to get feedback .. to see lecturer and improve but if you
have one short … what happened? (CI02)

To address this issue, she (CI02) suggests that, instead of having

prospective teachers spending most of the time in teacher education
institutions, they need to spend at least half of the training period in
schools where schools and mentor teachers are given the
responsibilities to groom future teachers. She suggests that,

So half of it in done by the institution … the other half by the

school that the person is attach to the school is responsible for
the grooming of the teachers….(CI02)

A deputy director of teacher education (CI04) concurs with the teacher

education is suggesting that the duration of teaching practicum, that is
giving prospective teachers longer stints in schools, should be
increased. She seem to suggest that, “tempoh pratikum pun definitely
yang lebih panjanglah..… dicadangkan duration of practicum certainly
needs to be increased and that is what is being proposed.
Teacher education is always under attack to address the
expectations of the society. However there are many concerns in
teacher education addressing those expectations. For example, there
seems to be a perception that the quality of teachers have eroded over
the years. This, obviously, means that the teacher education may not
have been effective in producing teachers who are capable of
performing multiple tasks expected of them in schools today.
In relation to this, an experienced teacher educator (CI02)
suggests,
One of the major things that is a concern to the parent will be
quality of teaching in schools, quality of teachers. There seems
to be a mixed opinion about this, people tend to compare what
they find at present and times past and they feel that they have
a definite view of what schools are like. We always hear the
opinion that in the good old days, things had to be done in a
certain manner and we find some of this lacking today.

Another issue raised was the issue of gender in the teaching

profession. What seems to bother this teacher educator (CI02) is the
over-representation of feminine gender in the teaching profession
today. In her opinion, that has made the profession „soft‟ as compared
to what used to be, „all-capable and strong‟. She suggests that,

Researcher : Macam (Such as) teacher training program

yang masa lampau lah (in the earlier

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 times)… compare to the teacher training
program now kan… dari segi halatuju tu
(from the aspect of focus) I mean…..
CI02 :Teacher yang serba bolehlah…(Teachers
who are all-capable) tahan lasak…(strong)
Researcher :Yang previous one lah……
CI02 : Aha…..
Researcher :But now is it…?
CI02 :Lembik (soft)…. because more feminine
….more female….?

Conclusion

Teacher education is in Malaysia has its own share of issues and

challenges. New initiatives that are introduced by the Ministry of
Education, and growing expectations from parents and other stake-
holders bring new demands on teachers. Teachers are expected to
perform myriad of tasks when they are sent to schools. Very often
these demands are unreasonable because, as other professionals who
begin their careers, they have to be seen as beginning teachers who
have yet to learn and experience many new duties in schools. Instead,
very often, they are looked at as “finished-products”.
Also, some of the demands society holds on teachers are
inconsistent and unreasonable. As suggested by Kennedy (2006),
“Society holds many lofty aims for education in general and for
teaching in particular, but these aims are inconsistent with one
another. There is a tension between the societal desire to
accommodate individual needs and the societal desire to treat all
students equally” (pp. 206).
Teacher education is under-going interesting and important
changes in Malaysia today. What used to be teacher education
colleges, which traditionally produced teachers for primary schools
with certificate and later diploma level qualifications are now being
raised to teacher education institutions which are allowed to award
bachelor degrees in education. However, they focus on producing
teachers for primary schools. Besides this, there is now a university of
education, that is Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris which has been
entrusted to produce the bulk of the teachers needed for secondary
schools in the country. Various other universities with their faculties of
education, also produce teachers. There are also a couple of private
institutions in the country which have been approved recently which
are also involved in the business of training teachers.
All these developments bring more issues and challenges to
teacher education in general. Whatever the model or route maybe, the
various stake-holders have high expectations of teachers and teacher

11
education. As has been discussed earlier, they finally talk about the
quality of teachers and teaching. The obvious connection they all make
is to the quality of teacher education.
What seems interesting and also puzzling is that, prospective
teachers and mentor teachers seem to agree that the various models
of teacher education through which these prospective teachers are
being trained are effective in providing the necessary knowledge, skills
and attitude. They seem to suggest that the teacher education models
are good and are effective and responding to the changing societal and
national demands.
However, critical informants seem to raise a number of pertinent
issues on teacher education. They are concerned about the curriculum
model of teacher education, the practicum component, gender issue in
teacher education, and preparedness of teachers. They, being
important stake-holders, have specific concerns and also suggestions.
There is certainly a cognitive dissonance between perceptions of
prospective teachers, and mentor teachers, and critical informants
involved in this study. There is obviously a need to address this
dissonance, to identify why such dissonance does indeed exist, and
also to identify the various factors which make up such a situation.
Since this paper‟s focus is only based on some of the challenges
and prospects drawn from the study, the hope is that a comprehensive
analysis of the data collected and efforts to make meaningful
conjectures made may shed light on this and various other issues on
teacher education in Malaysia.

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