Malaysian Secondary School Teachers’ Readiness in Implementing 21st Century Learning (PAK21)

Abstract

21st Century Learning or Pembelajaran Abad ke-21 (PAK21), refers to the MOE’s initiative which champions a student-centred learning process that is steered by five main elements, which are communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and values and ethics (4C1V). PAK21 defines the pertinent knowledge, competency, and characteristics that students should embody to be competitively relevant and empowered to take on the challenges of 21st Century volatilities. PAK21, which was formulated in the second wave of Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, would generate more creative thinking processes and instil better human values, while preparing the students for the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). Malaysian teachers should embrace the PAK21 to ensure the students are equipped with the right skills and values for the future. This paper shares some findings on Malaysia secondary school teachers’ readiness in implementing PAK21. In specific, the characteristics as 21st century teachers were assessed as well as the level of teachers’ readiness in implementing 21st century learning (PAK21). The analysis shows the mean of respondents’ selfassessment as 21st century teacher (M=3.6170, SD=.56341) was slightly higher than the mean of respondents’ self-assessment on teachers’ readiness in implementing PAK21 (M=2.9813, SD=.31161). Analysis also indicates a significant positive strong relationship between the two assessments (r=.715, p<.01), and hence implies higher scores of respondents’ assessment as 21st century teacher are associated with higher scores of respondents’ assessment on teachers’ readiness in implementing PAK21. Further survey on the professional development was also conducted to see the influences of these programs on teachers’ readiness in implementing PAK21. The findings of this study serve to inform educational policy makers and stakeholders on secondary school teachers’ readiness to PAK21 and how the current professional development influences their level of readiness.