The Application of National Philosophy of Education and Teacher Philosophy of Education in Teaching and Learning 1.

0 Introduction 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. 2.0 National Philosophy of Education (NPE) and its Aim In this philosophy, it was 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. 3.0 Teacher Philosophy of Education (TPE) and its Aim Teacher Philosophy of Education 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. 4.0 The Application of NPE and TPE in Teaching and Learning As stated above, NPE and TPE are the guidelines for the teacher to produce useful and noble Malaysian citizens. Below are some of the important elements that teachers should bear in their mind during teaching:

4.1 To Develop Potentials of Individuals in a Holistic and Integrated Manner Haji Azmi bin Zakaria (2001) stated that the aim of education in Malaysia is to produce students with integrated and balanced development in the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects. God has given each of his creation potentials and sometimes they may have not discovered it. Therefore, education is supposed to help the students to realize their potentials. In order to develop individuals potentials to the maximum, it needs to covers the four aspects that have been mentioned below: 4.1.1 Intellectual aspect This aspect covers the element of cognitive knowledge, including critical and creative thinking. How do the teachers can build up the students potentials in this aspect? This can be done by giving them more practices and give chance to the students to discover their potentials. If the teachers see that their students are good in Mathematics, then they should encourage them to join Mathematics quiz or if the students have interest in playing chess, then they should assist them to join chess competition or club. Dr. Ee Ah Meng (2003) stated that besides teaching a teacher also serve as the innovators. What does this sentence means that teachers see the ability of the students and help them to improve it. However, the teachers should not just stop halfway. After encouraging the students, they need to train and support them for instance, the teachers teach their students on how to write poems and choose the best product to be published on a reputable magazine. Indirectly, this encourages the students to keep on writing. Another thing that the teachers can do is to teach the students according to their potentials. Mok Soon Sang (2004) stated that the role of a teacher as a guide is to assist pupils to prepare appropriate learning plan according to their ability, interest, and intellectual development. If their students are slow learner then they should not force the students to grasp everything that they teach at once. Prepare the lesson plan according to their ability and interest so that the individuals potential can be developed up to the optimum for instance, if the students like to learn and understand more through singing, then the teachers can do lesson plan that involve singing instead of ordinary teaching that involve reading.

4.1.2 Physical Aspect

This aspect focuses more on maintaining physical agility and good health. With the intention to make this happen, teachers should promote the students to actively participate in sports and games in school. There are vast activities that students can join in the school such as athletics, football, netball and many more. Some students think that sports are not important as it is not being examined. Nevertheless, sports help to build up healthy individuals. When the students are physically healthy, they can understand the lesson better as well as being more productive. Therefore, teachers need to change the students mind set. They can attract the students attention by organising only the games that the students interested in. How do the teachers know what are the games that the students like? This can be done through research and observation. From this, teachers can focus on the popular games. Even so, if there are new sports or game that the students want to try, the teachers should not stop them but supporting their interest. 4.1.3 Spiritual Aspect and Emotional Aspect In spiritual aspect, it talks about belief in God, embraces religious faith, and has good moral values. The teachers need to create awareness to the students so that they believe in God and have good attitude. It is not only can be taught through verbal learning but also through showing good behaviours. In primary level, teachers should tell the students what is good and what is wrong. They also can ask the students to do research on the same topic for instance ask the students to question their family members whether stealing is a good thing. Nowadays, students are immoral. This can be clearly seen from few cases in Malaysia such as baby dumping. Many of the teenagers dump their baby, for example, an 18-years old teenager dumped her 2.6 kg baby in a rubbish bin at the petrol station in Kuching (The Star, 2012). If she believes in God, she would not do such things because she knows that every living thing is precious. Only God has the right to end their life. Therefore, teachers play very important role to foster good moral values to the students. From emotional aspect, the teachers ought to produce students with stable and mature emotion. It is closely related to spiritual aspect because when the students have good moral values, it influences their emotion and thought- for example, a man who is responsible will think that it is wrong to do bad things such as vandalism, bullying and stealing. In a nutshell, teachers need to be a good role model to the students in order to guide them to be a better person.

4.2 Progressive and scientific in outlook He will introduce the use of ICT in teaching and thus making the learning become an enjoyable process (Dr. Ee Ah Meng, 2003). The statement clearly shows that ICT is a great help to the teachers and students. Education is a continuous process and it will never stop, hence, the teachers need to equip themselves with the new knowledge. In this new era, ICT is widely used in teaching and learning process. This is why teachers must be updated in ICT. If they do not know about it, they should attend courses, forum, seminar or workshop so that they can get new ideas to be used in classroom for instance the used of multimedia power point presentation, videos, animations, interactive board and many more. This will make the lesson more interesting and the students can understand it better. This is because, they not only hear what the theory all about is, but also they can see what it is. Besides, the teachers can go online to get ideas to make their lesson plan. After several months or years of teaching, the teachers will run out of ideas. So, the information from internet can help them as many people have posted their ideas there. The reference information in the internet also regularly updated compared to the information from the books. In addition, teachers should be able to accept transformation so that they are not left behind in term of professionalism. Nowadays, government has introduced new subject about ICT which is known as science and technology. If the teachers do not know about ICT how are they supposed to teach the students? They will face difficulty to teach the subject. Their professionalism also will be criticised by the society. On the other hand, if the teachers are expert in ICT, they can teach the students practically. They would not need to rely on the text book only. They can bring their students to the computer lab and let them discover the internet and Microsoft Office in the computer. Since teachers know what is inside the computer, then they will not face any difficulty in explaining them to the students. 5.0 Conclusion The National Philosophy of Education was created for the teachers as guidance for them to produce the future generations that the nation wants. Whereas, Teacher Philosophy of education was created as guidance for the teachers to become what kind of individuals they are. The elements that are mention in both philosophies

should be applied by the teachers in their teaching. They should not just know the theories but do not practice them. The teachers should always bear in their mind that parts of their roles are developing holistic individuals, being progressive and scientific in outlook, being a good role model and preserving culture heritage. They should find ways on how to become this kind of teacher.