Assignment Cover Sheet Student’s Name: Zohra Jabeen Class: M.Ed. 2019 Course: Educational Change Assignment #: 1 Title: Reflective paper I hereby undertake that the material provided within: i) ii) represents my own efforts; Has not been taken in whole or in part, without reference to whom or from where the information was attained. Overall comments of the tutor: Name of Faculty: Dr. Takbir Ali Date: May 9, 2020 Signature of Faculty: ___ Reflective Paper This paper discusses about the professional capital, human capital, social capital and practitioners in educational change in institutions in Singapore and other countries. There are two major issues raised in the video as professional capital and human capital. In this paper, I will share my thoughts on the emphasis on teacher reflection in worldwide teacher education programs. In doing so, I will reflect back on the past 10 years or so that I have been a school teacher, on my reading of national and international literature and on how I have experienced the concept of teacher reflection being used in teacher education systems in Pakistan, and in many villages that I have had the pleasure of visiting. During my tenure as a teacher education student and as a primary school teacher in Pakistan private schools, emphasis was put on training teachers to act in certain ways (e.g. asking certain types of questions) that were intended to be successful in increasing standardized test scores for students. There was no study and no clear debate about teacher thought in teacher education and helping teachers consider the rationales behind the use of various teaching methods or helping teachers learn how to exercise their judgment in the classroom to meet their students' ever-changing learning needs. A variety of events occurred that led to a change from training teachers to more thoroughly educating teachers to recognizing the motives and rationales associated with various activities and improving the capacity of teachers to make informed decisions on how to behave on the basis of their carefully defined educational goals, the contexts in which they were working, and on the learning needs of their students. Change is an important part of human development and its essence is knowledge and education. Awareness and enthusiasm have brought considerable change to the human condition and its natural climate, physical, social, and cultural. This resulting transition has, in effect, brought great demands, challenges and opportunities for knowledge creation and the essence of curiosity. Because education systems have taken on the role of producing and transmitting information in society, the struggle to control the cyclical and dynamic relationship between change and information /development has been under way at various levels of systems with varying degrees of focus at different time levels and spatial settings (Harris & Levin, 2009). Capital in any type is an asset to be invested, stored, and exchanged in order to yield sustained growth and high returns. Short-term and non-renewable business capital is mobilized in education in order to get fast returns on business investment and to maximize immediate returns by raising the investment. It favors a teaching force that is young, versatile, temporary, and inexpensive to train, lacks pensions and is technically replaceable wherever possible. Finding and deploying good teachers then means looking for and allocating existing individual human resources chasing talented individuals, working hard on them and moving on to others when they are restless or exhausted. Professional capital has a fundamental relation to daily teaching change, and has many examples of this in classrooms and education systems around the world. Here, Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) discussed the powerful concept of capital and express its importance for professional practice, professional ability and professional performances. Systems invested in skilled capital acknowledge that education spending is an investment in the growth of human capital from early childhood to adulthood, resulting in incentives for next generation economic efficiency and social stability. The factor which affect the quality of teacher education programs in Pakistan is that teachers are suffering from the lack of sufficiently qualified master trainers, the lack of focus on teaching practices and the lack of a proper teacher support / monitoring network. The mere acquisition of a certificate / diploma is deemed necessary to apply for a teaching position in the absence of any approved body to license teachers. The production of quality human resources is the main focus of all the world's developed and developing nations, and the only way to accomplish this is education, which only requires quality teachers. It's well known that no education system can be better than its teachers. It is known globally that teacher is the central figure in every society's education system and it has become almost symbolic that no nation can rise above its teachers' level. Pakistan's education system faces longstanding access, efficiency and equal opportunities problems at all levels: primary and secondary schools, higher education, and vocational training. Despite recent promising developments, such as the rapid expansion of private schooling and increased opportunities for higher education, institutional change remains stubbornly elusive. The inability of successive governments to reform the framework has created severe constraints for the growth of Pakistan's economy and society. Inability to intervene now would increase the numerous challenges in the future as a result of a growing youth population and rising economic demands from other developed countries that concentrate more on education. When deciding how to build a competent capital community, understanding that there is not only one way to communicate is important. Social capital is not just about technical learning groups sitting down and looking at student data spreadsheets together, or even sometimes mostly. Leana (2011) found that high social capital schools received good outcomes from the achievement. Schools that have good social and human resources have done much better. Most notably, she found that teachers with low human capital who served in a school with higher social capital had better results than those with lower social capital in schools. Being in a school with people who work well rubs teachers off and recruits them. Human and social capital are both significant, but human capital isn't as powerful as a lead strategy as social capital. The advice is to use social capital to implement change quicker and more efficiently, to reduce the difference in effective teaching in a school or in and within schools as regards networks. To change the category use the command. This means learning how teachers can better act as a team or group, and respond to individual students' needs. Back that with the human capital that comes with recruiting the best talent in the industry, improving them as they join, and building on that to be successful. In this era of globalization and technological advancement, education for any human activity is seen as a first step. It plays a vital role in the creation of human resources, and is related to the well-being and opportunities of a person to live better (Battle & Lewis, 2002). This ensures that knowledge and skills are acquired which allow individuals to increase their productivity and improve their quality of life. I recognized that human and social capital have ties to the success of the students. Decisional capital, a notion coming from the field of law, is about how you build your capacity over time, particularly your ability to judge. All careers require judgement in cases and circumstances where there is not incontrovertibly consistent facts and answers. We need a decent collection of schools for certain people to work in to draw people into the field. Continuous professional growth in Finland, Singapore, Alberta and Ontario is paying off. The best way to help and inspire teachers in Pakistan is to build the environment where they can work together, day after day. And this is not just about intra-school collaboration. This is about inter-school collaboration and inter-district cooperation. It's about the career at large. Singapore is the highest-performing country on the International Student Assessment System (PISA), and it's a place where people outstand at all levels. Here, educators are giving out their best ideas to others. They make education fun for the students through social media like Facebook a platform for learning, using different technologies like digital media, integration of 21st century skills, useful materials and facilitations from teachers and teacher student relationship is very strong. The teacher critique their lessons with their colleagues in their own school and with others around the world, they discuss with peers for feedback, they believe that learning grows with sharing and communicating, it improves while sharing to high authorities and it creates engagement among each other. Whereas, the standard of the teachers is low in Pakistan, which is a key factor in any education system. The key explanation is the low standard of educational qualifications needed to become a teacher of primary school; which requires ten years of schooling and an eleven month certificate program. Through numerous studies it has been identified that pupil achievement is closely linked to the number of years of teachers' formal schooling. Thus, teacher students with 12 years of schooling do better than matriculate students (10 years of education) teachers, who in turn do better than teacher students with just 8 grades. We should think about this at a school, this notion makes it important for educators to continue to develop new ideas to stay ahead. Society requires teachers who are well prepared to meet new challenges by being well equipped with social and technical skills that are needed in a modern, technology-oriented educational environment. A teacher in a community is a highly respected individual and the teaching is considered the most important and distinctive occupation. Teachers' work and worth gave both reputation and recognition to nations. We also taken prizewinners to countries. A teacher's career was never so daunting and demanding as it has now become. Global focus on literacy represents the international concern about the role of a teacher in the creation of human capital in a community. Various initiatives have been introduced to highlight their role as a role model in society, and also to help them strike a balance between fulfilling school duties and their position in society. (Hala, 2012). One fruitful forum for inquiry was how teachers used their peers as tools to preserve and improve their working environment, and to support students' lives in their classroom. There were over several difficult meetings on the concept of a professional group that centered on the social values and behavioral underpinnings of teacher engagement and its relation to meaningful change. The concepts was shaping the professional culture placed emancipated and influential teachers at the center of the reform process and moved the emphasis away from the members of the administration and to all the leadership professionals. A variety of publications resulted from this initial collaboration, including explorations of the idea of professional association in different samples, and investigations of the role of teacher empowerment in reformed practice (Brik et al. 1999; Louis and Marks 1998; Marks and Louis 1997). Human capital is about enacting societies that are more equitable, more attainable and safer in just about every way that matters. This is why productive countries view their teachers as nationbuilders, and how they produce high returns in growth, social stability, and social justice. It has turned out that skilled capital as a sticky concept, it resonates with where people are and what they see as a potential and appropriate solution. What we need now is a dedication to bringing this important principle of the profession into practice around the framework. The responsibility for that is ours, communities, the education authorities and the government of Pakistan. Let's make our primary investment for the skilled resources in Pakistan. Education provides the basis for socio-economic development. Poor quality education system may be one of the key reasons poor countries do not develop. In Pakistan, the quality of education is decreasing given the fact that drastic steps have been undertaken by the present government to improve the quality and quantity of education. The quality of teachers remains questionable particularly at the primary level. It is clear that we cannot change the education system to increase the standard of education without the transformation of teachers. In this regard, a number of educational reforms were implemented in the field of teacher education in the public sector, but their vision seemed to be limited, allowing no significant effect on teacher quality and teaching process. Eventually, the quality of education provided in schools was further affected. Pakistan's education sector faces new obstacles. It is still to be developed alongside other developing countries in the region. The truth about the more prosperous countries like Finland, Singapore, and Canada is that they are improving the entire profession to the point that students meet good teachers one after the other. They attract and grow the skilled resources, day after day, year after year, of all their teachers in all schools. REFERENCES Battle, J., & Lewis, M. (2002). The increasing significance of class: The relative effects of race and socioeconomic status on academic achievement. Journal of poverty, 6(2), 21-35. Brik, A. S., Camburn, E., & Louis, K. S. (1999). Professional community in Chicago elementary schools: Facilitating factors and organizational consequences. Education Administration Quarterly, 35, 751–781 Harris, A., & Levin, B. (2009). Does politics help or hinder education change? Journal of Educational Change, 10(1), 63-67. Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform (Vol. 10). Psychology Press. Marris, R. (1974). Loss and Change. London: Routledge and K. Paul.
