[COLUMNIST] Fostering agile mindsets among teachers

Muhaimi Saifuddin Mohamad Salleh
January 8, 2025 20:00 MYT

Teachers with agile mindsets can quickly adapt to real-time situations, tailor their teaching strategies to meet learners' needs, and effectively embrace digitalization in education, acting as role models for their students. -Filepix/Bernama

TEACHERS are agents of change. They have effectively carried noble roles as executors of the nation’s aspirations and education policies.

AI Brief

Teachers play a crucial role in executing the nation's aspirations and education policies, and as Malaysia accelerates digitalization, fostering agile mindsets among teachers is essential.
An agile mindset in teachers involves being open-minded, adaptable, and responsive to changing environments, which leads to a conducive environment for intellectual discourse and collaboration in schools.
Teachers with agile mindsets can quickly adapt to real-time situations, tailor their teaching strategies to meet learners' needs, and effectively embrace digitalization in education, acting as role models for their students.

Now, as Malaysia positions itself to become a developed country in the years to come, the country has started accelerating the process of digitalization, including in the education system.

Digitalization involves a rapid process, which sometimes contradicts traditional ways of how humans do things. Teaching is a profession rich in humanity and humane values.

So, the challenge is how to foster agile mindsets among teachers while maintaining a human touch with their learners.

Agility in a simpler sense means the ability to understand and act on something quickly. An agile mindset trains teachers to act and respond to something quicker than before.

Teachers with an agile mindset should be open-minded, adaptable and responsive to changing environments. Open-mindedness among teachers leads to an ability to accept new ideas and ways of doing things easily.

As the education system is going through vast changes, teachers with these kinds of characteristics would lead to a conducive environment in schools for intellectual discourses and collaborations among teaching teams.

Teaching would not be perceived as individual tasks, but more as collaboration among team members. Team teaching can be easily pursued as a norm and not just an idea to be discussed during academic meetings.

Adaptable teachers can respond quickly to real circumstances they face in the classrooms.

Though teachers are guided by their daily lesson plans, the ability to adapt and respond quickly and effectively to “real-time” situations can only be done by teachers with an agile mindset.

They may need to instantly change their teaching strategies and activities according to the real needs of their learners.

Being agile in thinking and adaptable in their responses, teachers can cater to diverse needs of learners and fulfill complex demands of education.

Responsive teachers can assess their learners based on “real-time” evaluations. The observations are always based on day-to-day or week-to-week data.

While trying to engage with their learners by tailoring to their unique needs, responsive teachers can also monitor and make prompt and effective decisions to meet the needs of the learners.

Teachers with responsive traits balance between trying to meet the objectives of their daily plan and fulfilling the unique needs of their individual learners.

The one-size-fits-all approach is not their choice. This aligns with the aspiration of our PBD (Classroom-Based Assessment).

Teachers who are open-minded, adaptable, and responsive are the ones who already possess agile mindsets. Teachers with these traits will embrace the process of digitalization in education faster.

This happens because their way of thinking and acting aligns with the essence of digitalization. They have practiced effective teaching while acting as ideal role models for their learners in embracing digitalization.

Muhaimi Saifuddin Mohamad Salleh is Senior Lecturer at IPGM Kota Bharu Campus.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.

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