Having an educated and well-trained workforce is crucial for our nation to achieve the goals stipulated in the transformations agenda and more importantly, the Vision 2020. Even though our workforce may have the skills and experience, continuous education and training are essential to enhance their competency amidst the challenging and competitive global environment.
Fundamentally, the objective of education and training programmes for the workforce is to stimulate and help them to learn and eventually, to transfer the educational contents, be it in the form of knowledge, skill or information, from the classroom to their real working environment. Therefore, in order to increase and motivate them to continue learning, the educational contents must be delivered in the most engaging way so that the learners can appreciate the importance of the contents thus will enable them to apply in their daily life and moreover, could spur their interest for life-long learning. This is vital for the nation to progress and excel in this competitive global economy.
Over the years, professional trainers face the challenge on how to engage learners to learn and subsequently practice the theories they learn in the classroom to their work place. In her book “Training from the Back of the Room”, professional trainer Sharon Bowman wrote: “How long you can sit and listen to a fact-based lecture, devoid of stories, emotion, or anything that connects you personally to the content? Your tolerance for such a learning experience is probably minimal, and the actual time you remain sitting without getting fidgety is probably a matter of minute, not hours.” In respond to the challenge, training and education methods have evolved from the traditional lecture-based method which is considered to be passive method to a more active method that will engage active participations from learners. These methods are implemented in the form of case studies, role-playing, problem solving, discussion, and etc. With these methods, training experts hope that learners will be more interested in learning and applying the education contents to their real life. The prestigious Harvard Business School, for example, has long recognised the values of active education methods in creating leaders that are able to adjust as necessary to ever-changing real world. From its inception a century ago, the School has moved away from the traditional lectures and readings methods to case-method to provide a more engaging learning environment.
In view of the forgoing, let us a reflects a significant event which had occurred during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) which was narrated in a hadith. May it lead us to better understanding of the methods that the Prophet had used to educate his companions.
This authentic hadith was taken on the authority of ‘Umar al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the second Caliph of Islam, whereby he said: “While we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah (the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), one day a man came up to us whose clothes were extremely white, whose hair was extremely black, upon whom traces of travelling could not be seen, and whom none of us knew, until he sat down close to the Prophet (the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), so that he rested his knees upon his knees and placed his two hands upon his thighs and said, ‘Muhammad, tell me about Islam.’ The Messenger of Allah (the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), ‘Islam is that you witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and you establish the prayer, and you give the Zakat, and you fast Ramadan, and you perform the Hajj of the House if you are able to take a way to it.’ He said, ‘You have told the truth,’ and we were amazed at him asking him and [then] telling him that he told the truth. He said, ‘Tell me about Iman.’ He said, ‘That you affirm Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and that you affirm the Decree, the good of it and the bad of it.’ He said, ‘You have told the truth.’ He said, ‘Tell me about ihsan.’ He said, ‘That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for if you don’t see Him then truly He sees you.’ He said, ‘Tell me about the Hour.’ He said, ‘The one asked about it knows no more than the one asking.’ He said, ‘Then tell me about its tokens.’ He said, ‘That the female slave should give birth to her mistress, and you see poor, naked, barefoot shepherds of sheep and goats competing in making tall buildings.’ He went away, and I remained some time. Then he asked, ‘Umar, do you know who the questioner was?’ I said: ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘He was Gabriel who came to you to teach you your religion’.” (This Hadith was narrated by Muslim).
This hadith is of great importance as it teaches us the pillars of Islam, Iman, Ihsan and the day of the judgement. The Prophet could had delivered these important messages contain therein through a typical lecture or a sermon. However, with guidance of Allah the Almighty, the Prophet had delivered the important messages through a creative and engaging method.
In this hadith there was apparently an element of role-playing. The Prophet had used a role-play technique to educate his companion. In this role-play, the arch angel Gabriel (peace of Allah be upon him) was descended by Allah in a role of a human-being. He acted as a man or student who did not know about Islam, Iman, Ihsan, and the day of the judgement and asked the Prophet for the answers. Every time the Prophet answers, Gabriel agreed with the answers to the amazement of the companions. Certainly, there is a wisdom of why this event had occurred. The last words of the Prophet in the hadith: ‘He was Gabriel who came to you to teach you your religion’ is something that we need to ponder upon in our education and training programmes. In modern education, a typical role-playing activity would have learners taking on a role of a character, learning and acting as what is happening in the real situation. Researches on education psychology found out that role-playing as a teaching strategy provides advantages for both teacher and student. One of such advantages is that learners’ interest in the subject matter and understanding of the course content will be increased. This is one of the methods of active learning. It involves participants in the learning. According to modern educational experts, by learning actively, learners tend to remember more of what they learn compared with passive learning.
The hadith also demonstrates how the Prophet has changed a teacher’s or trainer’s role from a passive educator to a more dynamic facilitator. In active learning process, the teacher do not provide answers, instead he leads to a gateway of greater knowledge and understanding. This was what the Prophet did when Gabriel asked him “When is the hour? The Prophet did not answer but lead the discussion for a wider and further knowledge.
This hadith in itself resembles the modern day “case-study” format. The narration of hadith contains detail description of the event. In today’s modern education, a “case” is defined as a description of an actual situation, and it involves a discussion, of a problem or an issue faced by an, a community or an organization. In learning with case studies, learners must deal with the event described in the case, and eventually, they will be able to apply it in the real working environment.
In conclusion, what the article calls for is that education and training for the workforce is vital for Malaysia to move forward, and there is no alternative to it. However, there are alternative methods of teaching and training that can be applied in order to motivate the workforce to embark on the life-long education process that will ultimately benefit the nation.
