Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012

EDU 3083
1.0

Introduction
In this challenging 21st Century where the world is racing to achieve the most perfect

educational system. Educational system keeps experiencing changes and reforms from time
to time. This has affected the teacher profession where they are expected to reach the
professional standards. Nowadays, teachers around the world have been pressure with
higher expectations and greater pressure to perform effectively in classroom. Hence,
teachers need to develop their skills and knowledge in this new millennium as an educator.
In addition, it will be ongoing process learning for teachers to be able to develop their
profession. According to Day (1999), the nature of teaching demands that teachers
engage in continuing career-long professional development, but particular needs and
the ways in which they may be met will vary according to circumstance, personal and
professional histories and current dispositions. Teachers as lifelong learners learn either
in personal and professional lives.
As a lifelong learner, teachers development needed to reach the professional standard.
This is to ensure that the goals in the educational system can be achieved. Therefore, as
mentioned as Trotter (1986) in Noriati A. Rashid, Boon Pong Ying & Wong Kiet Wah
(2010), there are five stages of development for a person to be an expert in his field of
work. Five stages of development are:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

The novice level

The advanced novice level
The efficient level
The skilled level
The expert level

By using Trotters Stages of Development, it can be applied into teaching profession in

order to develop as an educator. As cited as Berliner (1992) in Li Yuen Ling (2003), the
stage model of development suggests that the stages of competence of teacher or
effective teaching range from novice, through beginner, competent, proficient to
expert level.

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
2.0

Trotters (1986) Five Stages of Development

2.1

The Novice Level

The first stage to master the profession as a teacher is becoming a novice teacher.

According to Trotter (1986), at this point the individual's task is to learn to recognize
specific objective facts along with fundamental concepts and specific rules of action
(Huitt, 2007). Based on this statement, novice teachers are introduced to the basic idea of
what it means to be professional educators, learn the specific facts objectively and master
the basic concepts and principles. According to Berliner (1988), the behaviour of the
novices is rational, relatively inflexible and tends to conform to whatever rules and
procedures they were told to follow. This explains novices are just doing what they are
to do with less exposition about their profession. According to Noriati A. Rashid & et al.
(2010), this stage begins when you are registered as a student teacher education
(teacher education students) in teaching degree program; for example, Institut
Pendidikan Guru (IPG). The declaration above explains that once you enter the teacher
education field, you can be considered as novice teacher who only exposed to the general
ideas regarding education in order to prepare trainee teachers to the profession of
educators.
Based on my understanding, the novice level is where the overview of being a
professional educator is introduced. The general idea about the skills, understandings
regarding teaching is developed. From what I experienced during my foundation degree
year, I was introduced to lots of facts, terms and general idea regarding the introduction to
psychology and child development, educational philosophy, social studies and history of
education. However, my understandings are still incomplete at the end of this stage.
Although these introductions have been exposed to me, as a novice teacher, I still do not
acknowledge the complex skills in teaching and learning (T&L) practices.
Since I only got to learn the basic ideas about educator, this made me curious about
what does it feel to teach children in the classroom because I have no chances to
experience teaching children yet. According to Avis, Fisher & Thompson (2010),
teaching skills have been seen as something to be picked up through experience.
Experience is important as it could develop my skills and knowledge.
Therefore, this curiosity turned into inspiration for me to be a passionate educator.
Besides, my inspiration aroused as I looked back at my previous teacher from secondary

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
school. Her aspiration which is a passionate teacher motivated me to become like her
someday. I remembered the efforts that my former secondary teacher named Madam Teh
Soo Lin taught me on writing English essay. Her determination never stops guide me in
producing an excellent essay. This motivated me to study hard because her concern made
me believe that there were people who really care about me to be a successful person in the
future.
2.2

The advanced novice level

Next stage to become a master as an educator is advanced novice stage.

According to Trotter (1986) as cited in Huitt (2007), at the advanced beginner stage
preservice teachers are adding to their knowledge of facts, they are recognizing
previously undefined facts, obtaining more information relative to the teachinglearning process, increasing their knowledge of relevant vocabulary, concepts, and
principles. This stage taught advanced novices to further and deepen their understanding
regarding the profession of educators through hands-on T&L experience.
Based on my understanding, being in advanced novice level is about being clear
about the undefined facts that they learnt in the novice stage. This is where advanced
novices started to experience the real situation and realize that the terms, facts that they
learnt in the novice level was not enough. This made them to search for more information
which could enhance their knowledge.
According to Noriati A. Rashid & etc. all (2010), exposure to real situations in
school through School Based Experience (SBE) and Teaching Practical program will
be experience by trainee teachers. I believe that I am currently at this stage because I
have done tasks that required me to do more research regarding (T&L) process which
include learning the skills that will be taught in the classroom. Besides that, acknowledge the
theories and principles in detail then apply it during my practicum was what I did in this
stage. The practices included preparation of lesson plans and conduct it at the classroom
and made reflections to identify my weaknesses and strengths. This stage helped me to
develop my profession as a teacher because I experienced and being expose to the real
situation of being a real educator. However, theories and principles that I applied in the
classroom sometimes do not effective. This made me realize that I need to obtain more
experience in handling T&L practices in classroom. It could be done by becoming a lifelong
educator. According to Brown (2007), one of the most invigorating things about

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
teaching is that you never stop learning. I believe that being a lifelong educator could
bring endless to my questions regarding T&L practices.
Besides teaching and learning aspect, I also involved in the school administration
and management. The involvement included the collaboration with the headmaster, teachers
and other staffs; for example the meetings that organized and seeking for information
regarding my assignments and pupils background in terms of personal and the class that I
taught. A part from that, my involvement in school activities such as co-curriculum in the
school allowed me to show my ability in managing the club and the sports in school. I was incharge in the Tunas Kadet Remaja Sekolah, Netball Club, and English Club for my past six
months of practicum. I also organized the English Language Festival which was a successful
of one of the school managements. Nevertheless, I noticed that although chances given to
be in charge in certain organisation, I was not satisfy with my performance. I believe there
are rooms to improve. As I mentioned earlier, in order to develop, I need to be a lifelong
educator.
The desire to become a lifelong leaner came from my lecturers in IPG. I noticed that
most of the lecturers have lots of experience and able to overcome any obstacles in their life.
This could be due to their profession as an educator where their whole life is about learning
which is in a long period of time. Some of them have Master Degree and PhD title which
aroused my inspiration wanting to be like them someday. At advanced novice stage, this
aspiration occurred because I wanted to gain more information related to the T&L process,
growing my knowledge of relevant vocabulary, concepts, and principles. Lecturers in IPG
became my inspiration to be a lifelong educator.
2.3

Efficient (Competent) Level

At this stage, teachers are able to achieve the skills in their respective field.

According to Trotter (1986), the individual is beginning to recognize more context-free

principles and contexts as well as situational elements. (Huitt, 2007) Teachers begin to
understand the principles and contexts in most situations.
From my perspective, teachers in this stage are able to solve their own T&L problems
because they can investigate their practice and reflect well. If I could compare to the
advanced novice stage where I could reflect my lesson plan, however, the reflection
sometimes does not clear and the action taken was not effective all the time. I needed time
to develop as in this stage it took about two and five years of one-the-job training for

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
a person to become a competent professional educator (Huitt, 2007). There are many
teachers could not achieve this stage because they do not gain enough experience. A study
in Huitt (2007) shows that 50% of women and 70% of men leave the profession before
they gain five years of experience. Based on this statistic, I should not give up being a
lifelong educator. In order to avoid this, I need to practise lifelong learning process that can
enhance my knowledge as well as self-effectiveness in my profession.
There is a person who inspired me about not giving up easily in teacher profession which is
my uncle. He is the headmaster of SK Kidurong, Bintulu. His aspiration where he once told
me that there is no excuse in giving up, there are always ways. One of the ways is to attain
in-service training. According to Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar (2014), training program
in an organisation is a process by which people are taught with skills and given the
necessary knowledge or attitude to enable them to carry out their responsibilities to
the required standard in the present job and to undertake greater and more
demanding roles for effective job performance. Therefore, I must attend in-service
training so that I can be a teacher who is updated with the skills and knowledge which allow
me to perform well in my T&L practices and in school administration. Through in-service
training I will have the exposition to the latest innovations in the field of education,
complete knowledge and awareness of teachers

on educational policies and the

government and enables teachers to meet current demands and requirements (Akhiar
Pardi, Shamsina Shamsuddin & Muhamad Kushairi Jusoh, 2012)
2.4

The Skilled Level (Proficient)

As cited as Trotter (1986) in Huitt (2007), in the stage of proficiency an

individual can identify the important elements of the task very quickly and easily. He
or she has a fluid style that is used to implement decisions based on intuitive
understandings--understandings that come out of a wealth of experience. This is the
stage at which intuition or know-how becomes prominent.
In my opinion, a proficient teacher can easily identify the key elements in a task.
Besides that, skilled teachers have high cognitive ability to analyse and digest the learning
environment in a creative and distinctive ways. At this stage, I am interested to be a high
knowledge and creative teacher. My inspiration comes from teachers in Finland. Finlands
education system, often held up as an exemplary model for the rest of the world, is on
the verge of making some major changes (Klein, 2015). From this statement, we know
that Finland teachers are considered as the role model for teachers from around the world.

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
Based on an article where a Finnish educator, Dr. Sahlberg said At the University of
Helsinki, where he teaches, 2,400 people competed last year for 120 slots in the (fully
subsidized) masters program for schoolteachers (Anderson, 2011). Teachers from
Finland are mostly Master Degree holder. This showed that they are highly knowledge and
lead to become creative in their T&L practices. Besides, with the experience the obtained
during their studies and practices, they are able to become role model for teachers around
the world. Their aspiration makes me wanting to further my study until Master Degree and
PhD. Thus, I will be a highly cognitive and experience teachers.
2. 5

The Expertise Level

As cited as Trotter (1986) in Huitt (2007), at this stage where this individual is

operating in an experienced based similar to that achieved at the proficient stage,

but in a more holistic manner. This means that they are not focusing on simply one or two
elements, but are able to comprehend and work with a variety of patterns. Consequently,
expertise holds a large quantity of information and gives a very fluid, natural performance.
From my understanding, I could see the main difference between teachers in
proficient and expertise stage. The difference is teachers in the stage of proficient still make
mistakes and those in expertise provide almost perfect performance. This shows that
educators from this stage are known as superior. They could be mentor for educators who
wants to be like them including me.
My desire wanting to achieve this stage as I am inspired by the first Malay woman
who obtained a PhD, Puan Sri Dr Fatimah Hamid Don. For me, she is considered at the
expert level as she was awarded the Eminent Woman Award 2012. Dr Fatimah also urged
women to continue to self-improve as the government was providing ample
opportunities to ensure women were not left behind in development (New Straits
Times, August 13). As a woman, the statement really moved me to keep improve myself in
order to become a well-known teacher in the future and can compete with men in education
field.
In order to accomplish this, I need to be a reflective practitioner teacher. I strongly
believe that reflection do help teachers in their profession. As cited as Redmond (2006) in
Wallace (2010), reflective teaching and learning is not confined to the acquisition of
new skills, rather it creates an environment where professionals are helped to analyse
and re-apprise their practice. Through reflection, I will be able to identify my strengths and

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
weaknesses, take actions and reflect back. I will tend to make mistakes and successes will
occur. It is about what the individual does in the wake of making a mistake, or
achieving success and whether they seek to understand and learn from the
experience, that helps to define them as a professional (Wallace, 2010). In my T&L
practices, I might make mistakes and successful, this however is one of my processes as a
lifelong educator where I will learn from my experience. Therefore, new approach can be use
again to overcome my problem. Based on this stage, an expert tend to work with variety of
patterns allow me to try as many of approach to perform well in my profession.
3.0

Conclusion
In this new millennium era where education is highlighted has affected teachers

profession. Teachers are struggling to achieve the professional standard that society
demand. Therefore, as a teacher, I need to develop my profession. I will go through the five
stages of development by Trotter (1986). Through these stages, I must have aims and goals
to be achieve. By then, I will be able to become a lifelong educator that can mentor other
educators and learners confidently.

Quelice Ling Diu

PISMP JAN TESL 3 2012
EDU 3083
4.0

References

Zhang, W. S. (2007). Teach more strategies in EFL college listening classroom. US-China
Education Review 4(3).