INTRODUCTION :

Teaching is the special career as it gives rise to other professions. All other
professions originate from the teaching profession as one cannot acquire knowledge
and specific field skills without a teacher. The teaching profession is special in many
aspects, some being that; a teacher is responsible for the provision of knowledge
and skills in society. The teacher is also responsible for nurturing human beings with
different manners and attitudes so that they can live well in the society. He uses
Educational psychology in creating behavioural change to the learners. Unlike an
engineer who deals with the machines, a teacher uses Education psychology to
determine the learning behaviours of children according to their age.

Behind every school and every teacher is a set of related beliefs--a

philosophy of education--that influences what and how students are taught. A
philosophy of education represents answers to questions about the purpose of
schooling, a teacher's role, and what should be taught and by what methods. There
are five major philosophy of education; Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism,
Existentialism and Postmodernism.

In each philosophy, there are four special terminology that describe these
philosophy which are metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and logic. Metaphysics
deals with the nature of reality, its origin, and its structure. Epistemology examines
the nature and origin of human knowledge. Axiology deals with behaviour,
character,civility and appreciation and expression. Logic deals with how lessons are
organized.

It is important for the teachers to possess knowledge on the history and

philosophy. There are four importance of History And Philosophy knowledge to
Malaysian teachers which are it will help teachers to fulfil the noble aim of the
national education reformation, act as the guidance in their profession, act as identity
builder for the teachers and also help the teachers to understand and modify the
educational process in deeper perspective in order to help the government in
building a better future for our country.
 DEVELOPMENT :

TO FULFIL THE NOBLE AIM OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION REFORMATION

National Philosophy of Education was created based on the Educational

Report and Educational Act, the Five National Principles and national ideology and it
was announced to the public in 1988. From this, another philosophy was created as
a guideline for the country to produce qualifies teachers and it is known as Teacher
Philosophy of Education. These two philosophies act as guidance for the teachers to
perform their duties and helping them in achieving what the nation wants.

Based on the National Education Philosophy, it is important for the teacher to

have knowledge on history and philosophy. It can be clearly seen from the definition
of National Education Philosophy which is to further develop the potential of the
individual in a holistic, balanced and integrated manner encompassing the
intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical aspects in order to create a balanced
and harm.

In this philosophy, it was also stated that education is an ongoing effort to

produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically
balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Therefore,
teachers should bear in their mind that they need to produce well-balanced
individuals when they perform their duties. The aims of National Philosophy of
Education are as guidance for teachers to develop and promote education as well as
to understand the national education system. Besides that, it is as a core to
determine the National Education goals and to eliminate misunderstanding, doubt, or
dispute in any attempt to perform their duties or educational activities.

In Malaysia, teachers are also bound to Teacher Philosophy of Education that

explains about the characteristics that are essentials for the teachers to fulfil the
national aspiration and Vision 2020. For that reason, the aim of this philosophy is to
produce qualified teachers in terms of personal, professional, social, and behavioural
practices. As a result, teachers need to have characteristics that are mention in this
philosophy in order to help them producing the individuals that are stated in the
National Philosophy of Education.
 From the statement above, we can clearly see that it is important for teachers
in Malaysia to have knowledge on history and philosophy as it will helps to fulfil the
noble aim of the national education reformation. As a Malaysian teachers, supporting
the nation in providing a better country is one of their responsibilities.

PHILOSOPHY AS THE GUIDANCE IN PROFESSION

Philosophy of education lays out different philosophers that has different

terminology on the curriculum (metaphysics), methods of instruction (epistemology),
behaviour and morale (axiology) and way of reasoning (logic). Among this
philosophies, it is not regarding which is right and wrong but it is all about which
philosophy is preferable to a person to be used as the guidance in teaching.

A teaching philosophy is important for the same reason that a map is

important when you are going to try to travel to some place that you have never
been. When you go traveling, you need the map to inform your movements.
Without the map, you really do not know where you are trying to go. Your
movements will tend to be rather random since you will just be moving around
blindly, hoping to find your destination.

Without a teaching philosophy, your teaching actions will be just as random as

the movements of the traveler who has no map. In fact, they may even be worse. If
you have no teaching philosophy, you do not really know what you are trying to get
your students to learn. In other words, you do not really have a destination in mind.
Moreover, if you have no teaching philosophy, you will not have any idea as to how
you want to achieve your goals.

To be specific, let's say that you are an English teacher who has to teach
eighth graders how to write complex sentences when they are now writing in only
simple and compound sentences. Your philosophy tells you to take them from
where they are, in simple and compound sentences, and figure out a plan to get
them to write complex sentences and why they want to learn this as it makes their
writing more grown up.

A teaching philosophy establishes what sorts of things you want your students
to learn. It then goes on to describe how you would want to teach them those things.
By doing these things, it allows teachers to know where they are trying to go and
how they plan to get there. A teacher need to use his philosophy of teaching as to
how to treat students, how to teach every kind of learner, the plan to teach the
objective he have, and to make students use the information he have taught them
so that he know he have reached his goal.

If a teacher has philosophy knowledge, it will be easier for the students to

follow their lecture. After I learnt about philosophy of education, I can relate some
philosophies with my teachers’ way of teaching. Based on my experiences as a
student, I found out that it is easier to learn from teachers that hold on to any of
these philosophies. This is because we can easily follow the lesson based on
previous pattern of his teaching. For example, if we learnt on History, I knew that my
teacher used deductive approach in delivering her lesson, where he will start with the
general principals and end with some specific event of history. Therefore, I will
arrange my notes on the same manners before I entered his class. That is how
teacher’s philosophy helps the students.

HISTORY KNOWLEDGE AS IDENTITY BUILDER

The importance of History knowledge is fully aware by the Ministry of

Education. Therefore, the subject of History is included in the syllabus of the
elementary school’s students. In fact, the importance of history has been realised by
Wang Gangwu who wrote History Teaching: Its Problem in Malaya ‘We teach history
because it is an essential part of the education of the young people of the most
countries and all modern nations and will take for granted that is a subject which is
taught in schools and universities and some educationists are agreed upon as a
basic education for everybody (Zainal Abidin Wahid 1965:1). Wang Gangwu
(1968:1) admits that history is important as it will help to preserve the group identity
and strengthen the group’s capacity for service.

Other than that, the Ministry of Education (1987) first stated that as a
continuation from school level, beginning from 1991, the historical development of
Malaysia should become one of the core subjects in the one-year In-service Teacher
Training course. The aim is to raise consciousness among teachers concerning
historical literacy and historical empathy, and sensitivity to the value of citizenship
and patriotism.

W.M Zahid (Ministry of Education, 1992) the ex-Director of Education,

emphasises, since history directly deals with issues of nationality, politics and
citizenship, it is very important for all teachers in training to learn this subject before
being assigned. Thus, history could be used as an effective instrument to create
national identity, reinforce a sense of belonging and loyalty to the country and
cultivate the spirit of patriotism. Consequently, through the acquisition of knowledge
and appreciation of the country’s history, it is hoped that teachers in training would
be aware of the variety of social and national life and could this understanding foster
national unity as stipulated in the Malaysian development plans.

History is considered as one of the important subject to students and

government. So, it is very important for the teachers to have this kind of knowledge,
regardless of their major of teaching. Teachers with a sense of belonging spirit of
patriotism can be the role model for the students. Back in high school, when I was in
Form 4, my Math teacher is a person who has a high spirit of patriotism. As one of
his students, I some kind of respect his spirit and look up to him, more than the other
teachers. He ended up being my role model when it came to serving the nation. He
shows his spirit of patriotism every time, not only on Independence Day. Ironically,
his spirit of patriotism seems to not affect his roles and responsibilities as a Math
teacher.

HELP TO UNDERSTAND AND TO MODIFY THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS.

It helps to identify conflicts and contradictions in any theory. It develops the

human capacity to raise questions about theory. Also, it clarifies concepts and
assumptions that are underlying educational theories. Vividly, it’s clear that the
importance of studying the educational philosophy at the present time is to
understand deeply the educational process. Each fundamental aspect has a basic
function in the education process.

Firstly, the education institution – the school - is a social educational institution

which plays a significant role side by side with other aspects. The primary function of
the school is raising the children by transferring the cultural heritage from previous
generations. Additionally, within the school environment children learn the basic
studies such as: knowledge of religion, history, literature, science, and linguistic.
Those studies will make clear by teaching specific curriculums for each level and
gradually, starting from primary education to higher education. Following this further,
the school seeks during each stage of education to enhance pupils’ values of cultural
identity and principles of Human Rights. Undoubtedly, the significant objective of any
educational institution is to qualify a person for public life and to be an effective
member of society.

Secondly, the teacher is one of the fundamental aspects of the educational

process. The transition from the traditional education system to the E-learning
system made some changes in the teachers’ role. The teacher is a mentor, director,
and educational leader in the educational process. A successful teacher is the one
who is able to organize the work and classroom life. Also, he creates a desire in
each student to do the work. In the concept of emotional intelligence, a person who’s
able to understand his emotions has the ability to understand and to control others’
emotions. Pursuing this further, the teacher affects the learner both emotional and
behavioural ways. He, also, contributes to achieving the objectives of education
process which is a result of his effective role. Basically, the teacher conveys
knowledge to students easily and visibly. Providing a great classroom climate helps
to gain good learning outcomes. The climate that is dominated by warmth is more
likely to achieve most teachers’ objectives. It was found that there is a strong
correlation between the climate during the teaching process and the learning
outcomes. Obviously, it is a positive correlation; as much as the climate provided
was suitable, the learning outcomes were better.

Thirdly, curriculum is not less important than other aspects. It’s defined as all
the educational experiences that are offered by teachers at the school. Another
definition, is all educational experiences that are offered by teachers either in the
classroom or outside the classroom. Besides that, there are several dimensions that
must be accrued in any curriculum. Those dimensions are objectives, content,
teaching methods, and assessment. Objectives mean all knowledge that is
established by the educational institution and achieved by students. The content is
the components of the curriculum which organizes all knowledge in a particular
manner in order to achieve all objectives. Both previous dimensions will be explained
by the teaching method.  It means the way that is used to deliver information by the
instructor to students. The assessment aims to determine if the student may have
reached all educational objectives in all areas or not. All the previous aspects are
working together to create a healthy and educational environment for the student,
who’s considered a fundamental factor to build the future.

Finally, the student role is unclear in the education process. As it is well

known that the student is the centre of the education.  For instance, in Saudi Arabia,
they treat the student as a receiver, which is unacceptable. That action made a huge
gap between student and teacher; also, it changed the real role of the education
process. Therefore, benefits that the student is looking forward to gaining are quite
few. A field of discussion is virtually rare in some classes, as well a creative field. All
those imperfections must be changed by applying new strategies and employing
specialized teachers. Those teachers are able to discuss and explain curriculums
accurately. Special needs students are a forgettable part of the education approach.
Ignoring their needs and not understanding their situation were clear actions in some
education institutions in Saudi Arabia.

Aspirations of the future are changing the teaching methods, especially in

Saudi Arabia, and establishing many institutions that care about early childhood and
special needs students. Moreover, applying self-learning for students will help them
to discover the hidden aspects behind their personality. Providing students with a
good environment will lead them to innovation and creative ideas and thoughts.
Substantially, teachers and students must understand their roles in order to get a
better outcome of learning. There is no benefit of curriculum development if it is not
accompanied by qualification, either for teachers or school environment.

Although, there are many different branches of education, but the present
time requires the presence of philosophy in the field of education, considering that
the educational philosophy derives its subject from the education. Essentially, the
main goal of any learning process is finding a change in the learner’s behaviour.
Therefore, the measurement and evaluation process is an integral part of the
educational process. There is no right or wrong strategy in any function, because
each strategy has advantages and disadvantages. All ways support each other and
each student is on a different level of learning.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, it is important for the Malaysian teachers to have history and

philosophy knowledge. Possessing the knowledge on history and philosophy will
help the teachers to fulfil the noble aim of the national education reformation and act
as the guidance in their profession. Learn on history will help them to build the spirit
of patriotism within themselves and be a role model to the students. History and
philosophy knowledge give advantages to the teachers to understand and modify the
educational process in order to help the government to build a better future for our
country. Government has made a best decision to include the study of history and
philosophy in the syllabus of teachers in training as it is important in producing
qualified teachers in terms of personal, professional, social, and behavioural
practices, as set by the Teacher Philosophy of Education.
 REFERENCES :

1) Web links :
a. https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/teacher
b. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-philosophy-important-
teachers-466738
c. http://www.preservearticles.com/2012061132982/importance-of-
educational-philosophy.html
d. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1741-
5446.1956.tb01176.x
e. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0013191650170302?
journalCode=cedr20

2) Textbook :
a. Foundation of Education 12th Edition, Allan c. Ornstein, Daniel U.
Levine, Gerald L. Gutek, David E. Vocke, Wadsworth Cengage
Learning