my first CJ article in malaysiakini

CJ stands for ‘citizen journalism’ here, please, not ‘chief justice’. i understand that the initial CJ is more popularly known by most people as ‘chief justice’ – not many people know CJ stands for ‘citizen journalist’! that’s why each time when i want to mention citizen journalist, i’d better mention it in full first followed by the CJ and then later on only use CJ.

well citizen journalism (also CJ!) is kind of something new… at least in our country so i guess not many people are aware of it.  malaysiakini had started training of CJ, first in KL, two years ago. in penang it was in feb. 2008 and i was among the first batch of trainees. i notice though at that time, the training focused more on video journalism and i’m not into video. it was only somewhere middle of this year, that malaysiakini welcome articles. (btw, last sat., us CJs had a graduation night and you can see the pictures here.)

well, the article that i sent in to malaysiakini, in my capacity as CJ was about the la salle learning centre. i wrote a very very long article but it was shorten very much (with some editing).  an article about it also appeared in UCAN.  i find that the article that appeared in UCAN is closer to what i intend to portray in my article – about the la salle learning centre.  well, there are many parts of my long article that were not published either in UCAN or malaysiakini, so what i’m going to do, is to have those parts publish here – in my blog! see, that’s the good thing about having own blog – can choose to publish anything i want!

btw, the la salle learning centre just celebrated its 25th anniversary on last friday (18 dec).  a write-up on the celebration is forth coming!

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The Learning Centre is especially for deprived/neglected students who have general/specific learning difficulties connected with language difficulties, lack of study-habits, inability to learn on their own, have specific problems in a particular subject, inability to follow class-teaching, have dropped out of school or have not been to school.

The Learning Centre promotes an environment and opportunities for the children to develop fully through careful facilitation and a purposeful process. The learning process emphasizes on acquiring basic Learning Skills and Enrichment Skills.

The 10 basic Learning Skills are: talking, listening, thinking, word-building, reading, writing, understanding, counting, creating and discovering.

The Enrichment Skills process includes play activities through educational games, computer literacy and communications technology, group-work to foster cooperative learning, promoting special talents like music, singing, acting and critical appreciation of audio visual and multi-media programmes.

The Centre’s learning approach is two-pronged. During the first half of the daily two hour session, the students practise the assigned three basic skills. They spend 20 minutes at each skills. During the next hour, they keep to the enrichment activities.

“In school, the children are taught subjects and to memorise facts but here we teach them skills, skills for lifelong learning and living” said Stephen Saw.  “Our centre is essentially a place where students learn how to learn rather than a place where students get tuition in certain subjects. The emphasis here, is on some basic skills needed for self-learning.”

A typical day in class in a day (2 hours) goes like this:

John, had been accessed earlier by the Coordinator on what he has to work on (which ‘Tables’ to go to).

He came in, went to his assigned ‘Table 2 – Listening’. He spent 20 minutes at the station, guided by a volunteer as and when needed.

After 20 minutes, a bell will ring, and John moved on to ‘Table 5 – Understanding’.  When the 20 minutes is up again, he moved on to the next ‘Table’ – ‘Table 8 – Counting’.

While John was at the ‘Tables’, he can either learned/revised on his own, or when he need help, the facilitator will be there.

The next one hour, John will spent his time at either recreational educational games, computer, or educational video shows, together with other students.

The volunteers will either observe them silently or guide them as when needed. Some games, the volunteers will also join in.

The purpose of this one hour programme is to develop the student wholly. After they had learned 3 skills, the moved on to learn about interaction, social skills,  dealing with conflicts and so on. This will help them to develop confidence and self-esteem.

For more details about the ‘Skills Tables’ and the last hour programmes, please go to http://www.lslc.wordpress.com

The Centre’s long experience with learners with ‘different’ learning styles is now the foundation for an equally important approach with adult learners. The La Salle Learning Centre has been initiating a number of development programmes that focus on parents, teachers, leaders from religious groups and NGOs and interested individuals from government agencies. These programmes and processes that are now well consolidated include, among others, Facilitation Skills for Human Development, Developing a Civil Society, Learning Skills for Adults, Remedial Education, Conflict Resolution, and others.

The need for continuous research and training and development has become an imperative. In this context, the La Salle Learning Centre has conscientiously set up its Research, Training and Development Division. This is their long-term strategy to continue to serve both child and adult learners.

According to Br. John D’Cruz, future plans in the pipeline for the Centre are to start an Old Boys Club by end of this year, and next year they are planning to set up a permanent Training Centre for Facilitators (housed in the Penang La Salle Learning Centre). For this to happen, he hope there will be generous donations from the public to aid them in setting up the Training Centre.

Br. John’s dream is to see more Learning Centres mushrooming all over, especially in schools. He’s working on trying to start Learning Centres in schools and informed that there are already one Centre in Kota Kinabalu for Form 1 students and one in Kuching for Primary students.  He also informed that there is a housing area in Tanjung Bungah, Penang that is going to start a Learning Centre and another one in Butterworth.

In line with their 25^th anniversary, the Learning Centre will be coming out with a souvenir booklet on the history of the Learning Centre, to be ready next year. A video about the Learning Centre is also in progress.