We should encourage self-directed learning

We should encourage self-directed learning among Malaysians instead of relying on tuitions centres. Many Malaysian students tend to go to tuition centres when they are in secondary or primary schools. So, when they come to college, they are unable to cope because it requires independent learning on the part of the students. Unfortunately, these students demand lecturers to spoonfeed them.

So, gone are the days when lectures lecture. Instead, now lecturers (in especially private colleges) have to 'teach' instead of lecture. Proper notes/slides have to be handed out to students or else the students will complain. Lecturers have to teach every single part of the syllabus or else the students will complain.

I have heard stories how lecturers in overseas universities lecture. The lecturer will not distribute any notes/slides to the students but instead the students are expected to jot down important points on their own while the lecturer lectures in the lecture hall. Hence, the lecturers in those universities do not teach but they give lectures. Yes, that is what a lecture is all about! The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary defined lecture as a formal talk on a serious or specialist subject. Attending a lecture is supposed to be like attending a talk.

In Malaysia, college students are indeed spoilt by having been spoonfed. Hence, many of these students are unable to adapt when it comes to a distance learning environment such as in Wawasan Open University because it requires independent learning. Over here, the lecturer does not give any lecture at all and all we have are just tutoring sessions delivered by the tutors.

Since there are no lectures at all (because it is a distance learning environment), some students here actually expect the tutors to teach them! To give in to those demands, many of the tutors became 'teachers' instead of tutors. The proper role of a tutor is to engage in an active interaction with the students instead of teaching the students slide by slide.

This is the sad case of our Malaysian educational environment, thanks to the proliferation of tuition centres.