Intel’s pedagogic quest paying off

Chipmaker Intel Corp is further expanding its successful IT-assisted teacher-training programme in Malaysia.

Intel said it has trained a small but ­significant percentage of teachers in the last eight years and hopes to double that to 100,000 teachers over the next five years.

The Intel Teach programme was started in 1999 and has trained about five million teachers worldwide in over 40 countries. Introduced in Malaysia in 2000, about 50,000 local teachers have been trained under this programme, according to Intel Malaysia officials.

Senior trainers host teaching classes for current and prospective teachers who are interested in improving their pedagogic skills.

“The idea of the programme is to help teachers enhance their educating skills by integrating technology into their lesson plan,” said Hasnan Hakim, K12 education programme manager for Intel Malaysia.

“It would be a mistake to think that this course is wholly about information ­technology. It is a pedagogical course on how to teach with the help of technology.”

Teachers are taught how to engage their students more effectively and to help them develop creative and critical thinking skills. This is achieved through project-based and problem-based approaches with the help of technology.

Lim Siew Geck, a lecturer and head of the IT unit of the educational technology department at Institut Perguruan Ilmu Khas (IPIK), said the response to the Intel programme has been very favourable.

“Intel Teach nurtures the students’ ability to analyse and solve problems, make critical decisions, as well as develop a quest for lifelong learning,” Lim said.

“We have many pre-service and in-service teachers who are even willing to come for night classes. This is very encouraging because it shows us that those future and current teachers see the benefit of this course.”

Lim is a senior trainer for the Intel Teach Programme at IPIK.

Intel Malaysia has been collaborating with the Teacher Education Division (BPG) and the Educational Technology Division of the Ministry of Education to “localise” the content of the programme. This was done by the BPG in 2007.

Jayanti Sothinatan, a lecturer at the English Language Training Centre and senior teacher for the Teach Programme, said: “It is not important to know what subjects the teacher will go on to teach or whether the national curriculum changes.”

“This programme is a guide to the ­ methodology of teaching and on how to utilise computers and other forms of technology to aid this methodology.”

In 2005, Minister of Education Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein emphasised the importance of technology in education and the ministry is working with companies like Intel to help provide training and equipment to teachers and schools.