Malaysian teacher standards and the professionalism development of Islamic education teachers

Abstract

Competency is a set of behaviors that construct a competent employee in a certain profession. In the profession, competency describes an employee’s achievement and performance in a task or situation. It enables employees to predict behavior in various situations and functions. Dedicated and trustworthy employees are significant priorities according to Islam. This research paper aims to explain the concept of teachers’ competency, analyze the development of teacher professionalism in improving the quality of teaching as well as describe previous studies related to the implications of the Malaysian Teacher Standards policy on teaching and learning process. The research method used in this study is content analysis from literature reviews and official documents published by the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The findings of the study show that the Malaysian Teacher Standard 1.0 has introduced three teaching standards, namely the practice of the values of teacher professionalism, knowledge and understanding; the teaching and learning skills that teachers need to achieve. Each standard contains a specific domain to create a teacher competent in the duties. Meanwhile, Malaysian Teacher Standard 2.0 introduces four domains of teachers’ competency, namely knowledge orientation domain, instructional domain, community involvement domain; and personal quality domain.