TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by
TOC for Education Practitioners
March 2, 2001
CONTENTS
Networking
(1)The Malaysian Experience 3,Part 2:Using the Tools for
Planning, Khaw Choon Ean
Editors’ Notes
(2)Kay
Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
Connections
(3)5th Annual TOCFE International
Conference/First Annual TOCFE International Student’s Conference, Cheryl A. Edwards
NETWORKING
(1 )The Malaysian Experience 3,Part
2:Using the Tools for
Planning
By Khaw Choon Ean,Malaysia
“First
we have to believe, then we believe.”
—G.H.Lichtenberg
(1742-1799) German Physicist
If you believe in
what the tools are capable of, finding out how to use them is a breeze and
comes naturally. Considering that I had
had some blind hits before this TACT course, venturing now into using the tools
to design a curricular program needed less courage and more invention as I was
now going to apply knowledge to practice.
I shall explain how we applied the Ambitious
Target (AT) tool to help us create an interesting and productive workshop for
the Transition Program.
After using the AT tool on my own to anticipate
what we would need to deal with at the workshop, I did a quickie session with
Jaafar who was the desk officer of the project. I had to explain the tool to him and as we hashed over how to
activate the group to productive discussion and curriculum product, an idea
developed. It also meant that I had to
slot in a quick TOC session to fine tune our workshop experts who were going to
use the AT tool at the workshop.
Necessity is the mother
of invention. I
remembered these words my own teacher once told me when I was in school. Cliché or not, it proved true. After studying our workshop schedule, it was
apparent that I could only get a 2-hour slot on the evening of the first day of
the workshop, unofficially dubbed “Input Day.” On that day, we stuff our
participants with child psychology theories, information on childhood
development, and experiences shared by preschool operators and primary school
teachers who taught Year One (planned from an identified obstacle in planning
the workshop: participants come with different background knowledge)!
Out of desperation, I skimmed the materials I
had acquired over the 5-day course to elicit all the vital information on TOC
and the tools. My session had to be
like a miniskirt,
I thought, long
enough to cover everything, short enough to be interesting. I knew I had a challenging task ahead, which
I relished to accomplish. Unknown to me
then, this was the germination of what in the future became the nucleus of our
teacher ’s package in the Transition Program.
So I had set myself 2 personal tasks. Time was not on my side. My TACT course ended on Friday. Our next workshop was starting on Monday
morning with input sessions so that participants could start with as much
similar background knowledge as possible.
My 2-hour slot was Monday evening (8 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and the workshop
proper was to start early Tuesday morning, working through Wednesday. We had to wrap up by Thursday noon with as
much accomplished as possible that was to be shared on Thursday morning itself.
My first task was to prepare for the 2-hour
presentation slot. I started from
scratch as the task was not just choosing what was necessary and sufficient and
good enough, but also to prepare transparencies for projection and to translate
as much as I could into the Malay language.
So hurrah for technology! My
trusty notebook that was like a right hand to me did not let me down.
My second task was to create an example how the
AT tool could be used to design a curricular program module. This one was really exciting and kind of do or die! I
was breaking new ground here on both counts and I think one really needs a firm
belief in the workability of the tools themselves to do this.
The Transition Program was planned as a
curricular program that would be implemented in all primary schools (more than
7000) in January 2001 for all Year One students. Our job was to come up with comprehensive curricular materials in
the form of modules that could be used by these schools to prepare for these
students so that they could make a smooth transition from informal preschool or
home learning to a formal school environment.
These materials had to be a user-friendly and useful a guide to all the
important aspects for a successful transition.
1. Identifying the areas of
concern of the program by looking at obstacles to the main goal (A Successful
Transition Program)
As the coordinating team for the project, we
had earlier used the AT tool to work out the obstacles in achieving the goal of
A Successful
Transition Program. This helped us identify the areas we needed to
address in planning the program. We had
explored the obstacles before confronting our workshop participants. We discovered that we had to deal with the
following obstacles:
From those obstacles, our intermediate
objectives helped us identify that we needed to build the following areas of
concern, to start with.
a)Teacher
Preparation
b)Creating A
Conducive Environment
c)Role of School
Administration
d)A Parent ’s Module
e)Preparation for
Preschool Teachers
f)Preparation for
Preschoolers
g)Planning
Experiences for Year One Children
This step enabled us as workshop coordinators
to decide how we would group our participants to work on modular material that
could be used as an operational guide for schools. It also meant that we would be ready to handle our participants
productively.
2.Module writing using the AT tool
Workshop time was limited. The big challenge here was to get a simple yet
effective technique to get people to focus on the important and the relevant
issues and steps. From experience we
knew that it was easy to be distracted and much time was often wasted on
exploring without direction.
The idea to use the AT tool for creating
modular material came as a brainwave while looking at how it could help save
time. Once I had worked it out and
discussed it with my colleague, Jaafar, I sat down to creating a sample.
First, the goal was A Successful Transition Program. The
obstacles and IOs were planned to be carried out as an Ambitious Target
together with all the workshop participants.
These IOs would become our program’s areas of concern. The IOs would be meted out as separate goals
for each group, who would then use the AT tool within their groups to build
their module.
This is a graphical explanation of the
design.
Setting the main goal to identify areas of
concern for program
Goal: A Successful Transition Program
Example:
This stage is for developing the areas of
concern in the program into modules that were practical and took care of all
the important issues.
Goal: Successful Teacher Preparation For Transition Program
Example:
STAGE 3
An Exercise in Prioritizing the
Intermediate Objectives for A Successful Program.
EDITORS ’
NOTES
Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
Next week, will feature Part 3 of
“The Malaysian Experience 3.” Khaw Choon Ean will explain how the tools were
used to design the curriculum needed for their Year One students. Ean, thanks
for your contribution!
Share your ideas by mail to Cheryl
A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd.,
Cedarville, MI 49719,USA.Or,send
hyperlink to <redwards@sault.com>or
<bucknek@earthlink.net.
CONNECTIONS
(3 )5th Annual TOCFE
International Conference/First Annual
TOCFE International
Student ’s Conference
From Cheryl A. Edwards
“The best way to predict the future is
to create it through TOC."
TOC for Education, Inc. presents
the 5th Annual TOCFE International
Conference and the First Annual
TOCFE International Student ’s Conference!
Date: June 25-28,2001
Location: Detroit, Michigan USA
Hotel: Northfield Hilton
5500 Crooks Road
Troy, Michigan 48098
248.879.2100
The Northfield
Hilton is adjacent to Interstate 75 at Crooks Road, Exit 72
Reservations:1.800.HILTONS
Ask for TOC for Education’s special
room rates.
Single or Double Occupancy Per
night $139.00 U.S.+ Tax (6%Michigan Sales Tax and 7% Occupancy Tax). This rate
includes breakfast for two.
Transportation: Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)