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Exploring Dual Language Program (DLP) Science Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Curriculum Change

Nurfaradilla Mohamad Nasri, Sarah Mohamad Yunus, Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah

To Link this Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARPED/v7-i4/4979 DOI: 10.6007/IJARPED/v7-i4/4979

Received: 22 Oct 2018, Revised: 27 Nov 2018, Accepted: 09 Nov 2018

Published Online: 23 Dec 2018

In-Text Citation: (Nasri, Yunus, & Abdullah, 2018) To Cite this Article: Nasri, N. M., Yunus, S. M., & Abdullah, S. I. S. S. (2018). Exploring Dual Language Program

(DLP) Science Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Curriculum Change. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 7(4), 303–318.

Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)

Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com) This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Vol. 7, No. 4, 2018, Pg. 303 - 318

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International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and

Development

Vol. 7 , No. 4, 2018, E-ISSN: 2226-6348 © 2018 HRMARS

304

Exploring Dual Language Program (DLP) Science Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences of

Curriculum Change

Nurfaradilla Mohamad Nasri1, Sarah Mohamad Yunus2, Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed Abdullah3*

1Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia 2Pusat Citra Universiti, The National University of Malaysia

3Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Abstract A review of the literature in Dual Language Programme (DLP) revealed a very limited number of studies investigated the perceptions of DLP science teachers with regards to curriculum change, not to mention the lack of attempt to discover teachers’ experiences of curriculum change. This qualitative study was designed to explore (i) Malaysia DLP science teachers’ perceptions of curriculum change, and (ii) Malaysia DLP science teachers’ experiences of implementing DLP science teaching. Twenty Malaysia DLP science teachers were interviewed to obtain their views on DLP. A point to note, this study does not attempt to make any generalisations, but rather provides an insight into the DLP science teachers’ perceptions and experiences of curriculum change. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to inform the methodological framework of this study, whilst a hybrid inductive and deductive analysis approach was used to analyse the interview data. Informed by the existing literature, and derived from analysis of the interview data, three themes emerged: (a) educator as co-learner, (b) ever-increasing workload, and (c) school and parent support. This study suggest the shift of teachers’ role as co-learner can be explored further as an idea that could possibly contribute to deeper understanding in bilingual teaching paradigm. Keywords: Curriculum Change, Dual Language Programme (Dlp), Teachers’ Perspective Introduction Over the last decade, there is a growing corpus of research on dual language programs (DLP) especially in non-native English speaker countries such as Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. This momentous movement towards improving students’ mastery of the English language through the DLP occurs as English language has been receiving almost equal if not


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greater attention among other languages, especially in professional setting due to its distinct importance and relevance in the current globalization era. Furthermore, it is now almost impossible to find a country that disregard the importance of learning and mastering English language. Despite that, there are still a group of individuals who defend the use of native language to the extent that they deny the importance of English and refuse to learn in English for fear of eradication of native language, especially in postcolonial countries (Milligan & Tikly, 2016). Undeniably, retaining one’s native language is important, but the effort should be in tandem with the current global challenges. The benefits of learning and mastering English goes beyond the four corners of one’s own country as English is the most spoken language around the world.

Language Teaching and Learning in Dual Language Program The English language without a doubt is the lingua franca in various domains such as in communication, commerce, technology and other international affairs. Therefore, the need for bilingual education or dual language program (DLP) in non-native English speaker countries arises with the increasing demands of competent local English language speakers to compete in a stiffer environment and fast-changing world locally and globally (Thuruvan & Yunus, 2017). Knowledge and information are readily and widely accessible via technological gadgets and internet of things (IoT), and this latest trend is evolving and updated every second through the most common, widely-used language - English. In order to prepare for a competent human resource capital, educational system should change to accommodate the current needs and to sustain the future needs. The laid context certainly calls for a better planning and implementation of DLP. DLP refers to the teaching of academic content in two languages, which are primary or native language and secondary language to promote biliteracy. DLP encompasses many types of language programmes which characteristically determined based on each programme’s ideology, language, culture, target clients and objective (Freeman, 2007). Contrary to the belief that DLP is to eradicate an individual’s native language, a proper-ideologically and linguistically planned DLP advocates the use of students’ native language and second language as the medium of instruction in a classroom setting to enhance learners’ mastery of both languages. As mentioned, DLP generally aims to provide equal and balance exposure to both languages (native language and English language) in the schools which have most of the subjects at schools taught in native language. To further exemplifies the teaching and learning of DLP in a classroom scale, we bring into this paper a brief explanation on a methodology called Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). CLIL is different from the normal English language class. The main purpose of CLIC is not to learn language, but to learn content through second language. Since language is no longer the primary goal, the role of teacher and the assessment of language are also different from the traditional English language classroom. Without the language as a primary goal and focus in the the classroom, CLIL enables students to learn the subject content while at the same time acquiring the language used as the medium of instruction during the learning process in a less intimidated environment (Lai, 2009).


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CLIL teachers help students learn the content through cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) and act as a facilitator providing necessary scaffolding based on the students’ proficiency and abilities (Espinar, 2017). More importantly, CLIL provides answers to the problem in terms of a better balance English instructional exposure hours. As stated in Malaysia Educational Blueprint (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013), the 15-20% of instructional time in English language is considered low and insufficient exposure to build and enhance students’ proficiency and mastery of English respectively. Hence by practicing CLIL methodology, students will have more opportunity of practicing and using English in their learning. In addition, CLIL has been used in many European nations many years already as “a core instrument for achieving policy aims towards creating a multilingual population” (Lai, 2009). One of the few researches conducted on CLIL classroom in Malaysia (Yassin, Ong, Alimon, Baharom & Lai, 2010) explored teachers’ roles in promoting an engaging Science lessons in different levels of cognitive processes and knowledge dimension of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. The study revealed that students were most of the times engaged at a lower cognitive levels, that is remember and understand, and teacher talks were far-exceeding the students’ talks and responses implying a teacher-centred classroom in this CLIL of local Malaysian context. A noteworthy point made by researchers described that students were deprived of autonomy, interactive participation and meaningful context to benefit from the learning of content and language in the class. The failure of CLIL class can be ascribed to various challenges and confusion faced by the teachers as a major player to ensure the successful transfer of content and language input to the students. Banegas (2012) describes some of the challenges faced by the CLIL teachers, for instance, unclear roles of teachers as both content and language teachers, teachers’ lack of either content or language knowledge, lack of training opportunities, and lack of teaching materials which resulted to greater workload for teachers. All the problems and challenges found in CLIL evoke questions on the effectiveness of this pedagogic approach which leads to a survey to examine 140 CLIL teachers’ attitudes, perceptions and experiences with CLIL (McDougald, 2015). The result revealed a unanimous agreement that CLIL is beneficial for learners and helps to develop students’ knowledge of content and language skills. It is interesting to add that among the top concern by these CLIL teachers was the large amount of time needed and spent to prepare for lessons. They also contend that cooperation between content and language teachers as well as the administrative support play important roles to ensure the successful implementation of CLIL (McDougald, 2015). All these reviews lead to a conclusive evidence on the importance of teachers’ roles, attitudes and perceptions on CLIL which demonstrates the tenets of the larger concept of bilingual education such as DLP.

Curriculum Change Since the rise of the internet and the advancement of technology brought by the fourth industrial revolution, our economies are changing and transforming at a greater pace than ever witnessed before. Reacting to these changes, the education system must change with it. Hence schools can,


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and should respond accordingly and responsively to the changes by extending and adapting what, and how, they teach effectively. Taking this stance, this paper totally agrees that curriculum change is inevitable and to a certain extent is necessary. Similarly, many renowned curriculum specialists suggested that the curriculum that was practical and operative for former world or even in today’s world is not necessarily appropriate in meeting the demands of the culture, the society, the economy and the expectation of the population being served. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the prominent features of curriculum is organic and dynamic. The continuous changes that are taking place in national education curriculum around the globe present new challenges and put new demands to the school teachers. As a result, a great majority of school teachers averse to curriculum changes. Teachers tend to oppose curriculum changes primarily because they worry about their ever-increasing workload and time constraints. Most importantly, teachers believed that they should not only be involved in the implementation of the new curriculum but also in developing or redesigning the new curriculum. There should therefore be an opportunity for teachers’ “voice” to be heard to an extent that teachers can experience ownership of curriculum change (Al-Kathiri, 2016). In this regard, teachers should be regarded as partners in the process of curriculum change. However, in reality, the teachers’ perspective is often overlooked; hence this study aims to explore the Malaysian curriculum change experiences of twenty DLP school teachers. This current study which considered curriculum change from the perspective of the teachers serves as an initial attempt to gain an insight into what works, what are the barriers to curriculum change, and what are the steps to be taken in easing the transition or embracing the curriculum change. It is hoped that by exploring the teachers’ experiences of curriculum change, the essential role of the teachers in developing and implementing new or revised curriculum will receive wider and greater attention from the researchers and the government. Although there is a growing body of literature investigating the curriculum development, instructional practices in the classroom which serve as one of the most important factors influencing students learning remain less well-researched and most of these studies failed to take into account the central role teachers play in implementing the curriculum. Therefore, more studies are needed to explore teachers’ perspective on how they experienced curriculum change, and how best to support them. Previous researched on teachers’ aptitude for curriculum change highlight three important areas which include: time, support and knowledge (Alsubaie, 2016; Voogt, Pieters, & Handelzelts, 2016).

a) Time The old myth of teachers’ role is focusing on teaching their students has never been so incorrect. Curriculum change often carries increased workload and demands lot of attention from the teachers. Many researchers noted that teachers’ work is becoming more intense and most of the time teachers’ workloads are spiraling out of control. This leads to reduced time for relaxation during the work day, reduced time to self-upgrade one’s skills, and reductions in teachers’ contact time with their students. If these issues are not tackle immediately, it may cause some


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teachers to burnout which then leads to isolation and decreased job involvement. Most teachers said that if they were given extra time, they would use it for preparing teaching materials, work with their colleagues to develop innovative teaching practices and to reflect on their current teaching practices.

b) Support Next, support refers to assistance needed by the teachers from the school administrators, colleagues and government to embrace the curriculum change. Teachers who received tremendous guidance and endless encouragement from the school leaders in terms of financial as well as professional support are more positive and adapt confidently to curriculum change. Furthermore, teachers also need to know about where to look for curriculum resources and when should they seek for assistance. In particular, successful curriculum change requires school leaders to have more background knowledge in curriculum and instructional practices. Moreover, the role of the school leader should change from being an authoritative figure to a motivator who support and explained to the teachers about the challenges that they will faced and how best to dealt with the curriculum change. Lack of support from school leaders was frequently cited by many researcher as a major factor that hinders successful curriculum change.

c) Knowledge Finally, knowledge includes the teachers’ academic background and the availability of professional development training. It is most likely that teachers with high level of knowledge are often able to make accurate professional judgment and are better able to carry out their duties to educate more efficiently. Studies revealed that content-focused professional development training is more beneficial and meaningful in compare to undergraduate teacher training programme as the preceding teacher training positively impact teachers’ teaching practices. This suggests that teachers who received inadequate training during their undergraduate years can be further developed through continuous professional development training. Method This study aimed to explore how DLP science teachers face and embrace curriculum change through the implementation of DLP, thus the analytical framework for this study aimed to answer these two main research questions: (i) what are the DLP science teachers’ perceptions of curriculum change, and (ii) what are DLP science teachers’ experiences of curriculum change? Research Participants The process of selecting and determining research participants was based on the research questions of the study. In this study, purposive sampling was chosen to ensure that the research participants fulfilled the criterion needed which is DLP primary school science teacher. Other than that, purposive sampling was chosen to make sure research participants that were chosen were able to provide the information required to answer the research questions (Patton, 2001). A total of twenty DLP science teachers were purposively selected as research participants based on their willingness to be involved in the interview. Research participants for this research consist of n = 8 male and n = 12 female, meanwhile all research participants have at least degree requirements with two already obtained the master degree. In terms of work experience, n = 10


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research participants have work experience less than 5 years, while the rest have work experience more than 6 years. The research participants’ identities would remain confidential and a pseudonym would be assigned to each research participants to maintain their anonymity. The teachers participated in this study are teaching urban schools which are equipped with internet connection and teaching and learning aids and resources. The table below outlines each research participants’ pseudonym, gender, highest education qualification and teaching experience. Table 1: Research Participants’ Pseudonym, Highest Education Qualification and Teaching Experience

Name Gender Highest education qualification

Teaching Experience <5 years > 6 years

Siti Saleha F Degree /

Iqbal M Degree /

Kusairah F Degree /

Halim M Degree /

Ahmad Zabidi

M Master /

Umairah F Degree /

Nadia F Degree /

Hanisah F Degree /

Amelia F Degree /

Zainol Yunus

M Degree /

Norbanu F Master /

Zulaikha F Degree /

Malik M Degree /

Airis Maisara

F Degree /

Yusuf M Degree /

Khairul Hamid

M Degree /

Hassan M Degree /

Sarah F Degree /

Sofina F Degree /

Mimi F Degree /

The researcher held a preliminary meeting with the research participants to build rapport and to confirm the date, time and location of the interview. Before starting the interview session, the researcher explains the purpose of the study to the research participants and informed the research participants that the interview session will be audio-recorded. Therefore, a letter of


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consent was hand-over to the research participants and need to be signed by the research participants indicating their willingness to voluntarily participate in this study. Most interview sessions were about one hour in duration and were recorded using two recording devices: an iPhone and a laptop. Data Gathering Procedure Interview method was used in this study because, through the format of an interview, research participants would have more space, opportunity and flexibility to express their views without being constrained by predetermined questions. In addition, an interview also provides an opportunity for researcher to gain insights into the Malaysian DLP science teachers’ perceptions and experiences of curriculum change as it is possible in an interview method to provide follow-up questions to help research participants develop their ideas more fully. All in all, the depth of interview sessions and the rigor of the questions and answer sessions were set to ensure the trustworthiness and reliability of research data in spite of the fact that it is the only method used for the purpose of collecting data. Taking into consideration of Pathak and Intratat’s (2012) suggestions on having broad and general interview topics to guide rather than constrain the interview session, four interview topics were developed. The interview topics were as follows:

(i) Demographic information – allow researcher to build up a detailed picture of research participants, which would help researcher to understand why they may hold particular views and opinions;

(ii) DLP science teachers understanding on the nature and disposition of science – a series of questions was carefully designed to explore research participants’ understanding and conceptualizations on the nature of science which will indirectly influence their teaching practice.

(iii) DLP science teachers’ perceptions of curriculum changes in Malaysia - this interview topic was considered to be a useful way of probing how research participants view of curriculum changes in Malaysia; and

(iv) DLP science teachers’ pedagogical practices – the sets of questions was specifically devised to allow researcher to explore in some detail research participants’ teaching and assessment practices.

In order to make the research participants feel relaxed, an informal tone and conversational style of interaction were adopted during the interview. Most importantly, English language was used during the semi-structured interview as a means of language communication as this study was intended to be reported in English, hence it save time and cost to get the interview transcription translated, while also reducing the risk of misinterpreting participants’ responses. Communicating in English was not perceived as a problem since these DLP science teachers have degree qualifications and have grew accustomed to English since teaching also take place in English. However, there is no restriction on the use of Malaysian language or code switching during the session. On occasions where research participants did not fully understand the research questions, researcher provided help, by paraphrasing or providing synonymous examples.


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Data Analysis Procedure For this study, the researcher created a verbatim transcript for each interview session which was further analyzed manually (using a paper and pen strategy). By laying the transcripts on the floor, page by page, it is easier for researcher to see all the individual research participants’ responses at the same time. Then, using a coloured highlighter pen to highlight important parts of the transcripts, researcher then cut and glued the highlighted research participants’ responses in a specified category. This process was repeated with all individual transcripts prior to being used across the whole data set. Following this manual analysis procedure, all transcripts were reread, open-coded and organized into clusters of subthemes and themes. Adhere to the tradition of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014), constant comparative procedure was adopted where the data-driven themes were constantly compared in terms of their consistency within individual interviews and across the entire data set. The constant comparative procedure has helped researcher not only to avoid missing important themes, but it also helped to identify significant trends grounded in the interview data. Most importantly, constant comparative procedure has also acted as one of the triangulation procedures which lead to enhancement of the rigor and trustworthiness of this study.

Results and Discussion This section summarizes the general research findings before presenting a more detailed report based on the research questions respectively. In general, the research findings showed that the DLP science teachers regardless of gender and academic qualification were respectively positive with the introduction of DLP and convinced that DLP gave good changes to students especially because it benefited students in strengthening their English language. Moreover, DLP provides the opportunity for students to access a wider range of information in both Malaysian and English languages.

I believe students should be taught in accordance with the wishes of their parents’... because parents know more what is the best for their children. Therefore, the introduction of DLP is better compared to PPSMI because DLP is not forced onto those who do not want the programme, and they can choose the non-DLP classes. It is clearer that DLP has shown a positive impact on students where they are getting interested to learn science because their reference material now not only focusing on the note given by teachers and textbooks, but they can also do an additional reference on the internet. (Iqbal, 12-20) Information can be easily accessed in printing mode or can be referred online. In my opinion, English language enable students to search and obtain more online information in both Malay and English language. They are accessible to additional information and are not heavily dependent on text books or teachers (Sofina, 18-20)

Plus, majority of the research participants believed that the teaching of Science in English language help students to further their studies in science at higher levels and this will also


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increase their job opportunities. According to one of the participants, Malik, graduates with good proficiency in English are in high demand in current working world because:

Employers are more interested to hire graduates who are able to communicate in different languages including English. Those with poor command of English will find difficulty to be employed. Nevertheless, it also depends on one’s luck, but what I’m trying to emphasize here is the ability to speak and write in English as an advantage to an individual. Today’s rapid development creates global industrialization network among government and private sectors. Reaching global level, we are not just dealing with local clients, but also those who were beyond our expectation. (Malik, 5-7)

Finally, according to research participants, they favorably support the efforts of the Malaysian Education Ministry in implementing DLP at schools and are ready to make changes and improve their English proficiency so they can deliver their teaching effectively.

The introduction of DLP after the abolition of PPSMI is what I really looking forward to, though I know my burden as a teacher will increase. But I am ready to be sent to follow any courses organized by the ministry to improve pedagogical skills and English proficiency. But for now, I do more additional self-reading to improve my teaching methods (Nadia, 20-22) I am convinced that the ultimate goal of introducing DLP is to produce a skilled workforce that is important for national development. I am not saying that workers who speak Malay are not good, but English-speaking workers have the opportunity to compete in the global marketplace and penetrate international jobs (Amelia, 14-18)

As conclusion, all the research participants espoused the implementation of DLP and their two main reasons behind the supports are due to the view of fact that DLP can (i) develop students’ mastery in English and boost students’ confidence to use English in both formal and informal settings, and (ii) prepare globally-competent future workforce. The following section provides discussion based on the findings obtained from the two respective research questions. Theme 1: Educators as Co-Learners One of the significant findings from this study especially in terms of teaching method is the shift in the role of teachers as co-learners. Previously, teachers are regarded as knowledge transmitter before the introduction of teacher’s role as facilitator. However, the findings from this study suggest teachers should consider a more proactive role as co-learners. They should have a strong trust in their students while becoming life-long learners themselves for betterment and be a role model to the students.

The role of knowledge transmitter requires teachers to always think on how to improve their teaching practice, while the role of facilitator requires teachers to


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think how to improve students’ learning. Now with the introduction of DLP, teachers are regarded as knowledge explorers and students are responsible for their own learning. This form of teaching and learning enables educators to take on the role of co-learners whereby teachers will only help to promote active learning, assist in problem-based learning and, more generally… a thoughtful understanding of what the best teachers actually do in classroom. (Halim, 15-20) In my opinion, DLP bring forth new dimension of how I should view the teaching and learning process. Traditionally the teacher-centred approach requires teachers to do something for students with the students… DLP goes beyond that routine. I see DLP teachers have to be with students. What I mean is that teachers have to learn together with students. We are not directing learning, but we learn together as co-learner. Since DLP is a new programme, teachers are also learning. So, in DLP, teachers should take position as co-learner. (Hassan, 32-37)

It is interesting to note that due to participants’ perceptions which aligned themselves as co-learners instead of teacher, most of the answers received are focused on the learning of Science rather than teaching. Assuming their role as learners themselves, these teachers seem to be able to empathize and understand students’ position better. Siti Saleha states that:

A key in ensuring meaningful learning experience is to see learning process through the eyes of students. Teachers must be able to learn and understand the way their students understand and analyze. (Siti Saleha, 20-21)

A great majority of the research participant states that DLP gave a huge impact to their teaching practice. According to them, they believed that science learning is an interesting form of education because it is relatable to our self-occurrence and processes as well as the environment. They added science learning can happen inside and outside of the classroom, and learning of scientific theories in the classroom should be reinforced with the learning outside the classroom in order to create a meaningful learning experience and generate link between content and real-life application. DLP gives students greater autonomy in learning as they are assigned by teachers or take their own initiative to search for more information pertaining to the topic learnt in classroom to enhance their understanding on the subject matter. The familiarity of scientific term and language used in classroom, which they no longer considered as foreign, with words they encounter in general reading materials or online information breeds these initiatives from students and reduce their intimidation to explore for various online information which mostly found in English.

Science learning through DLP programme indirectly build the feelings of amazement and gratitude towards human nature and natural phenomena because students take greater charge of driving their learning (Sofina, 6-8)


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Science learning is a form of education whereby students get to know more about the environment and themselves. They discover natural processes that happened or are happening in their body, for example, excretion and breathing process. Students learn about earthquakes, rain, rainbows and more. Many learning activities are determined by the students depending on their interests as the broad network of internet allows students to explore themselves. (Siti Saleha, 4-6)

Findings also discover that the majority of participants interviewed conduct interactive teaching and learning activities which involves active student engagement ranging from individual portfolio, small group work, and group project. Teaching and tutorials are still apart from the class routine, though may be given in brief and the approach or method used could be different from the traditional classroom as attested by one of participants below. Participants’ knowledge on the more recent teaching approach could be traced back from their educational background since all these participants have a degree in education.

I still have the presentation part in my lesson especially when I want to teach a theory or am important concept. However, I will make sure that my teaching will be brief, concise and interesting through the use of multi-bullet points’ slides and interactive video. (Sofina, 20-22)

Analysis on participants’ responses shows that there is no association made between science learning with examination. Moving away from examination-oriented classroom, most of them believe that an effective Science learning stem from student-oriented classroom as it guarantees a more meaningful learning experience and enhance students’ academic achievement.

For me, science learning is not about studying for the examination. Admittedly examination is important, but what is more important is that the students know about the body system and the environment. They should be responsible for their own learning and should be leading the learning process to ensure success. (Yusuf, 8-10)

Theme 2: Ever-increasing workload The views expressed by the majority of research participants are found to be in line with most of the current literature related to the impact of curriculum change on teacher’s responsibilities and roles whereby many researchers claim that curriculum changes cause uncertainty and demand for changes and teachers’ quick adjustment to the new assumed roles and responsibilities as direct curriculum implementers. The changes certainly call for teachers’ actions, increasing more workloads to the available tasks at hand. Nevertheless, from the cultural point of view, researchers found that, amidst the daunting task and roles played by Malaysian teachers, they rarely complain. This is probably due to sociocultural factor wherein Malaysian teachers view a situation that involves the order from the authority or ministry of education as acceptable and being susceptible to the order, teachers should implement the instruction or changes efficiently and effectively (Hofstede, 2001).


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The majority of research participants agree that the introduction of DLP has given additional work to teachers because teachers need to provide teaching aids in English apart from the Malay language, prepare additional exercises for students in English due to the lack of reference and exercise books on the market catering for DLP, and set examination questions in English. Additionally, DLP teachers require more time to prepare for the lesson since they need to find a precise scientific term to describe or represent a process or a concept of science in English. Despite being very positive and committed to provide the best services to their students, this is certainly an issue towards these teachers. Participants did not view English as a problem or barrier in their self-endeavour to increase scientific knowledge. Their background education has prepared and familiarised them with reading manuscripts and articles in English. In fact, two participants have a master degree, and thus such task is not a problem at all to them. Some even find the tasks as exciting and fulfilling.

My work never finishes. I have to prepare my teaching materials from scratch. But I enjoy doing it. Teaching is my passion. I do it because I want my student to get the best learning experience that they could ever have. (Hassan, 19-21)

Nowadays it is easier to find information in the science field. We can find it from internet, books and even magazines. But, if it is on the internet, the information or the science articles mostly are in English, so it is important for science teachers to expertise in English not only for themselves but to guide their students in finding relevant and related reference material. (Malik, 10-14)

The aforementioned statements by participants matched with Zulaikha, one of the participants who was recorded to say that she doubts there is any problem for the teachers to find information either in Malay or English. Most teachers are able to translate the information obtained from Malaysian language to English and are proficient in writing the examination questions in English, thus explain the lack of complain in terms of preparing examination paper. However, the case is different in terms of delivering the content and lesson in English. As English is not the language used for daily conversation or formal communication at school, teachers feel less confident and intimidated to teach in English. Zulaikha’s recount should be taken seriously for further action to help other teachers alike.

I had seen a novice teacher, enrolled in a school and asked to teach science for DLP. The teacher was from IPG, and he had come to see me to express his deepest feelings for teaching in English as he had never been trained to teach science in English (Zulaikha, 20-22)

The increase of this workload according to research participants has indirectly increased their efficiency and cause them to be more focus on tasks. In addition, they become more efficient in time management. Although the increase in workload is positively accepted by DLP science teachers, they still want the government to control the increase in workload so that it does not exert extreme pressure and cause burnout among teachers.


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The government needs to accept its responsibility in introducing DLP and take positive steps to resolve the issues behind the problems of DLP science teachers’ workload immediately and systematically so that it will not blighting this profession. (Khairul Hamid, 18-20)

Theme 3: School and parent support Finally, all research participants believe the success of the DLP implementation depends on the support received from the school management, as well as the financial and moral support from parent-teacher association and all parents at large to provide various courses for the improvement of pedagogical skills of the DLP science teachers. Apart from Professional Learning Community (PLC) and the mentoring system at school, there are also courses that involves collaboration between schools and universities in providing in-house training and online short courses via massive open online course (MOOC). According to Alsubaie (2016), it is crucially important for the teachers to receive support from all relevant parties to sustain teachers’ motivation in implementing all their responsibilities. All research participants informed that the introduction of DLP has indirectly deepened their relationship with the parents, as some of the highly committed parents have provided substantial financial assistance to assist the teachers in providing suitable teaching aids. It is important to note that the forms of support received by rural DLP school teachers from the schools and parents may varied, thus current study which takes schools in the urban setting may not accurately exemplified the context at rural schools.

My school advocated many short-term courses for DLP teachers and participation in this course was recognized by the school management. This has indirectly encouraged the participation of many teachers. (Hassan, 28-30)

The parent-teacher association at my school is very active. Parents do not interfere with our primary work of teaching and criticize us as incompetent in teaching Science in English although most the parents are professionals. In fact, some of the parents are willing to join the school and help teachers in the teaching process. For an instance, a parent who works as a lecturer in one of the public universities in Klang Valley volunteers to offer additional class to students over the weekend to improve students’ mastery of English. Busy parents will always donate training books and give financial supports to ensure smooth running of DLP despite their pack schedule (Mimi, 20-22).

Conclusion DLP is a genuine effort introduced by the Malaysian government to ensure the aspirations of Malaysian parents and students who wish to study science and mathematics in English. Despite ever-increasing workload faced by DLP science teachers, the findings show that they have never given up and are constantly working to give the best education to the students. The findings also show that teachers consider curriculum changes as a part and parcel towards improving the quality of national education system. The findings highlight teachers’ readiness to assume the role of co-learner when teaching DLP Science. They allow students the opportunity to direct their own learning and willing to learn together with students via various learning activities which


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require the students to be active knowledge enquirer. The role of teacher as co-learner is deemed to be practical and attainable since students of DLP have the access to surf the internet for the additional information and materials in both English and Malay language. Nevertheless, managing the role shift of a teacher from being the one who control the learning to fellow learner will indeed be a challenging task to teachers as they have to put trust on students to gather and evaluate knowledge and information on their own as well as time factor that is also noted through this study. The shift of role indicates a more contemporary teaching paradigm that possibly add the dynamic of interaction between parents and school as additional roles to support the teaching and learning of students, while giving more autonomy to students in their individual learning. The findings are hoped to benefit the school administrators, teachers, teacher training institutes, and researchers on teachers’ perceptions and experiences of curriculum change through the implementation of DLP in Malaysia as the discovery of new teaching role certainly means that teachers are in constant of upgrading their knowledge and skills in language, and thus, more opportunities for training as well as teaching and materials should be provided for the teachers’ improvement and self-learning. References Al-Kathiri, F. (2016). The voice of the teacher in syllabus design. English Language and Literature

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