Abstract: The study is essentially an exploratory survey, which sets out to obtain some concrete information on the knowledge and understanding of and attitudes towards the acquisition of job skills in history fieldwork method among Malaysian secondary schools pupils based on the Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools (ICSS). The researcher employed the stratified sampling method and selected two states in Malaysia, namely Perak and Terengganu involving four hundred pupils from each state. The finding reveals that a great number of pupils perceived that basic jobs skills are acquired through fieldwork approaches in history, the response of Yes in Perak and Terengganu are almost the same, the highest response of Yes among schools was the Science, form four scores the highest with 91.2% responses said Yes, the score among boys and girls were almost the same and the highest score of agreement among ethnic groups was the Malays. Interestingly, it was discovered from the interviewed that history fieldwork was related to professionals such as teacher, administrator, archaeologist, lawyer, surveyor and engineer. It is hoped that the study would raise concern, awareness and benefit to all involved in the teaching and learning of history fieldwork to achieve the objectives of the Malaysian Philosophy of Education which is to fulfil the physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and moral development of pupils towards the dissemination of first class human capital in the millennium.

INTRODUCTION

The fieldwork approaches which have great effects on teaching and learning were introduced for the first time in Malaysia in the ICSS history in 1989 and reviewed in 2000 and 2009.

This subject is compulsory for all pupils of lower secondary level namely, Forms 1, 2 and 3. The aim of introducing this subject is to expose pupils in accordance with their age level to the history of the nearest locality, a much smaller area than a district, state or country.

The emphasis of the ICSS history fieldwork is on the orientation and understandings of the community and environment of Malaysia.

It is designed to enable pupils to have knowledge, understand have an interest in and sensitive towards human beings and their environment as stipulated in the Policy of National Development, Philosophy of National Education, Philosophy of History Education, Malaysia. The purpose of this study is to examine the pupils perceptions concerning the acquisition of jobs skill in relation to fieldwork approaches in history. More specifically, it intends to answer questions listed as:

In fact, these questions are considered as guiding hypotheses with the aim of surveying pupils’ perceptions on the ICSS history fieldwork.

Literature review: The aims of ICSS, formulated by the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) Ministry of Education, significant to the learning of the history fieldwork are:

The ICSS in general aims to provide pupils with total school experience which includes the learning processes inside and outside the classroom. The foremost feature in the ICSS is the use of holistic approach which entails integrating, first, knowledge, skills and values; second, theory and practice and finally the curriculum, extra curricular activities and the school culture (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2008).

In fact this is in line with Watts and Ian (1995) suggestion that pupils are entitled to learning experiences which allow them to demonstrate their progress in knowledge and understanding of history, ability to give historical explanation, ability to investigate and research with historical sources of different kinds, ability to provide interpretation of the past are consistent with the evidence, ability to locate, select and organise historical information, ability to present findings appropriately and effectively give historical explanations, sense of the past, awareness of how the past helped to fashion the present, enthusiasm for exploring the past, respect for evidence, toleration of a range of opinions and construction approach to collaborative working.

More specifically, the History Unit, CDC, Malaysia, outlined the objectives of teaching and learning of history fieldwork in accordance with Forms 1, 2 and 3 are as follows:

The aims of teaching and learning the ICSS fieldwork history are not only to know and accept what people say or think but also and very important to encourage pupils to ask, investigate, explore, analyse and argue with sufficient facts and evidence. This is to help children to see for themselves the tools of knowledge in order to answer questions which have arisen in class work. Hooper-Greenhill (1994) says that the exploration of artefacts in the study of fieldwork involves looking, touching, listening, smelling and tasting. However, pupils should be watched so that they do not lapse into wandering around without much benefit.

The pupils could develop further, a knowledge of materials and their uses, methods of construction and decoration. Judy (1994) states that the study of materials, observation of how things have been constructed, how they research and how long they have lasted will draw upon skills developed in the technology curriculum. In addition, the pupils could develop skills of listening, questioning, hypothesising and communicating. Dickinson (l992) said that as a discipline history appears ideally suited to a Nuffield approach for it has long been seen as essentially a process of enquiry.

It is really true, as mentioned by Professor Dr. Watts in a talk to PGCE student-teachers at the School of Education, Birmingham University that a site visit such as a visit to Kenilworth Castle can provide various advantages such as putting knowledge in context, seeing history in concrete terms using source material, developing concepts, empathy and aesthetic sense, stimulating questions and investigation, enabling oral, group and cross-curricular research and giving opportunities for role-play and different methods of presentation. They can also achieve the various requirements of the programmes of study stated in the ICSS fieldwork. In fact, the significance of an inquiry method of teaching and learning fieldwork history is that it can encourage pupils to utilise their logical thought to think of previous and current issues. In fact, pupils might apply their historical skills to present situations. Pluckrose (1993) suggests that the task of the teacher is to take the question and through discussion lead the questionair towards methods that will help them uncover the answer. Enquiries of this type might involve drawing upon memories and recollections of older people in the community again helping to develop in young children the skills of questioning against a backdrop of time past.

Southgate (1997) states that the more specific aims of an enquiry method of fieldwork history are to identify the important elements of intellectual enquiry to encourage a teaching strategy with regards to the enquiry process and to analyse the implication of an enquiry strategy for teacher, classroom and suitability of the lesson. Problem solving has to concentrate on a topic or problem that has to be studied and requires the designation of a framework in order to solve the problem. Black and Donald (1997) stress that the fundamental need is to relate whatever is studied to the pupil’s own experience in particular the study of history from below or the study of the real common people.

Moreover, the teacher has more opportunity to test the educational objectives achieves by pupils particularly in the classroom based on Coltham and Fines (1971) observation measurement. They are first, comprehension the ability to understand the content of a new unit of material; second, translation the ability to turn information from one form to another for the purposes of understanding; third, analysis the ability to recognise similarities or differences between two sources of information to understand the significance of bias or of contemporary witness; fourth, synthesis the ability to select material from a variety of sources relevant to a given theme and to present it in some form, a picture, chart or piece of imaginative writing; fifth, recognition: the ability to recognise fact in a situation different from that in which it was learnt; sixth, inference-making the ability to make inferences based on the subject studied but demanding wider understanding of the field of historical knowledge and seventh, evaluation the ability to make a judgement and to cite the evidence on which the judgement is based. This will enable the pupil to develop the power to reasoned judgement and to apply it to other situations he may meet.

Watts and Ian (1995) observed the idealistic and practical example is a visit like the one to Kenilworth Castle could offer pupils useful cross-curricular links. On this site language work could be covered through asking questions of peers and teachers. Mathematic research would arise naturally from the measurement of the width and breadth of the Great Hall, windows and doors. Even the flower trees in the Elizabeth’s garden or Geometric Gardens are structured in mathematical patterns such as triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon and octagon (Thompson, 1991). They could be required to make observations and record findings using a variety of mathematical skills such as measuring, estimating, map and plan reading, interpreting scales, verifying compasses. Some geographical targets might be covered by locating historical sites on a map using a grid and planning marches for the understanding of landforms and contour lines. In fact there much more could be made of the many instances of technology.

Moreover, science and technology might be introduced by getting pupils to design and build a model machine to hurl stones to attack and defend castles when they were at school provided it was only used in controlled conditions. The small and the large windows have links with some architecture, art and design skills. It is clear that fieldwork gives considerable opportunity to pupils to be more independent in their study and to become more self-confident.

This study will discuss the methods and observations employed in this study to investigate the pupils’ perceptions of fieldwork approaches concerning the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in History, ICSS, Malaysia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The researcher identified that the population of this study are all pupils of Malaysian lower secondary schools involved in the ICSS. The source of information for determining the population was obtained from the Education, Planning and Research Development (EPRD), Ministry of Education Malaysia, the States Education Department of Perak and Terengganu for informing the researcher’s intention to conduct a survey in some of the schools in these states and obtained relevant information needed for this study. The selection of pupils as respondents in this survey were based on the stratified random sampling that involved 400 pupils from Lower Perak District Perak and 400 pupils from Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. The sample population involved in the survey was stratified according to district, type of schools, level of education, gender and ethnic groups.

There were forty-four pupils selected for the interviews. The researcher checked the questionnaires from each respondent in order to ensure that the respondents had properly filled in every item. The data collected were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 14). For content validity, the researcher sought assistance and guidance from lecturers of the Birmingham University School of Education, lecturers and colleagues of the IIUM Institute of Education (INSTED). The questionnaire was pre-tested and pilot-tested upon fifty sample pupils to attain reliability (Louis and Lawrence, 1994). The results of the survey are displayed according to the number of responses and percentage.

All interviews were conducted through one to one. Basically, the interviewees were asked the standard closed and semi-structured questions which had been pre-tested and pilot-tested. The answers given by interviewees were followed up by relevant, provocative questions with the aim of examining their knowledge and understanding of certain issues (Babbie, 1977; Wiersma, 2005). Every answer was referred to the checklist held by the researcher to ease the flow of the interview. The interviews were tape-recorded granted with the prior permission from the interviewees.

The researcher discovered that their statements or arguments were based on the topics they have experienced in history fieldwork either individually in a group or a class visit. This could be the reason that some of the pupils use the plural pronouns, especially we in their conversations. The presentations of the findings were mainly based on the interviewees verbal answers and not so much on their nonverbal communication. Hence, only answers significant to the research questions were selected and included in the discussions. Some of the common answers by the pupils were scrutinised and presented in one quotation, sentence or item.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Description of samples: pupils’ background: The survey was conducted in two districts namely the Hilir Perak District of Perak and Kuala Terengganu District of Terengganu. These districts were selected from the states because they have the criteria required by this research, especially the type of schools, pupils and location. The number of pupils involved in the research were 400 pupils (50.0%) from each state. There were three types of schools involved in the survey, namely regular (n = 520 or 65%), science (n = 140 or 17.5%) and religious (n = 140 or 17.5%) schools. The main sample of this research were lower secondary school pupils, comprising Forms 1, 2 and 3 with 240 (30.0%) pupils each, respectively. The researcher included some Form 4 pupils (n = 80 or 10%) who had experienced history fieldwork learning.

The researcher selected and distributed the questionnaires to the same number of boys (n = 400 or 50%) and girls (n = 400 or 50%). The phenomenon of the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia resembled the proportion of ethnicity involved in this study with a major participation of Malays then the Chinese followed by the Indians. The distribution is the Malays (n = 528 or 66.0%), Chinese (n = 168 or 21.0%) and Indians (n = 104 or 13%).

The findings and results of the research on the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in History, ICSS, Malaysia are discussed in the study.

The pupils’ perceptions concerning the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in history, ICSS, Malaysia: The pupils were asked to determine Yes or No that basic jobs skills are acquired through fieldwork approaches in local history. The results are classified into two sections, first, the responses in general and second, the responses based on different background namely the state, type of schools, level of education, gender and ethnic groups. The distribution of responses in general is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 shows that as high as 83.3% (N = 800) of the responses say Yes and only 16.7% responded No. This indicates that a great number of pupils perceived that basic jobs skills are acquired through fieldwork approaches in history. Table 2 shows the pupils’ responses based on different backgrounds namely the state, type of schools and level of education. Table 2 shows according to states, the response of Yes in Perak and Terengganu are almost the same with 83.5 and 83.0%, respectively. The highest response of Yes among schools was Science with 90.0%. It was followed by Religious (83.6%) and Regular (81.3%).

Table 1:	Pupils’ perceptions concerning the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in history

Table 2:	Pupils’ perceptions concerning the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in history

Table 3:	Pupils’ perceptions concerning the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in history

This indicates that Science pupils have higher perceptions regarding the job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches. According to level of education, Form 4 scores the highest with 91.2% responses said Yes. The score among the lower secondary level were almost the same, both Form 1 and 3, 83.3% and Form 2, 80.4%. There is a possibility that Form 4 pupils have more experience and could make comparison with other methods, thus they have higher perceptions regarding the basic job skills acquired in relation to fieldwork approaches in history.

Table 3 shows the pupils’ responses based on different backgrounds namely the gender and ethnic groups. The score among boys and girls were almost the same with 83.5 and 83.0% saying Yes, respectively. The highest score of agreement among ethnic groups was the Malays with 85.4% followed by the Chinese 79.2% and the Indians 78.8%. Possibly, the high score among the Malays was because they were influenced by the nature of the job of certain people they studied in their fieldwork especially teachers.

In fact, majority of the teachers and government servants in the country are the Malays, while the non-Malays monopolised the private sectors. On the other hand, the Chinese and Indians might be more realistic that they still need a lot of knowledge and exposure to get involved in any occupation.

Discussion on the pupils’ perceptions concerning the basic jobs skills acquired in relation to the fieldwork approaches to history: The respondents raised different views concerning their choices which were discussed in the interview with the researcher. One of the pupils in Perak mentioned that the approach can develop understanding of the variety and location of evidence available for the study of history (P1). This is in line with who has specified that by doing history fieldwork the pupils can acquire the basic skills of site archaeology. Moreover, one of the Form 3 pupils said that the approach can develop understanding of human activity in the past linking it as appropriate with the present and the site (P2). Another Pupil (P3) stressed that it can develop understanding of the concept of causes and consequences, continuity and change, similarity and difference.

Definitely, the study of history fieldwork involves the techniques used by historians such as the collection, classification, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of evidence. The pupil can learn to understand, be aware of and appreciate the systematic research of historians which is not merely based on empty imagination or fiction writing. In fact it is in line with the concept of the little historian that the pupils should so understand especially those who would like to become real and genuine historians in the future.

A Pupil (P4) from a science school mentioned that they can develop essential study skills such as the ability to find, collect, classify and evaluate information from the primary and secondary sources available. This is closely related to the work of students, especially in tertiary education which regularly involved in readings, lectures, interviews and fieldwork. The acquisition of skills through historical processes is a great advantage to the growth or development of pupils learning. For example, the pupil can become familiar with note making rather than note taking, when they are studying the materials. In fact, this approaches provide them with training and practices, at least the research of reporters, journalist and stenographer.

One of the pupils from religious school admitted that this approach ‘can develop social and life skills and communication skills, especially by meeting various kind of people in getting facts and evidence (P5). Another Pupil (P6) stated this also can develop the proper manner in approaching people. This is a good training ground to develop communication skills and other social work based on a real understanding of the socio-cultural background of the people.

A Chinese Pupil (P7) claimed ‘this approach can develop pupil skills as a geographer or surveyor because it involved the study of location, site, land and the surroundings landscape. Another Pupil (P8) argued ‘we used various mathematical skills such as measurement, recording numbers and graph making’. This is in line with who mentioned that the pupil doing history fieldwork can develop the basic analytical skills of the statistician. A pupil from science school said that it can develop life skills such as self-confidence, sense of achievement, curiosity and skills in decision making (P9). If such skills are properly developed, this is a good training of leadership responsibility that regularly involves the skill of planning, strategic thinking and decision making. However, some pupils did not realise the relations between fieldwork approaches and basic job skills. They did fieldwork because of two reasons, first, it is in the curriculum and second, it bears thirty percent to history subject in the Lower Secondary Assessment. The earlier was stated in the interviews by the pupils of Form 1 (P10, 11, 12) and 2 (P13, 14, 15) and the latter by the Form 3 (P16, 17). The possible reasons could be, first, lack of knowledge and experience probably among teachers, second, they wanted their pupils to discover the skills on their own and third, the pupils take for granted of the relation since it still a long way to go for job market. This might be true when Form 4 pupils score the highest with 91.2% said Yes that basic jobs skills were acquired in relation to the fieldwork approaches in history.

If this is the case, teachers should raise awareness as early as Form 1 which consequently may facilitate the interest of pupils in the learning of fieldwork since they know the advantages. This is also in line with one of the aims of fieldwork approaches ICSS to prepare pupils with basic job skills. In fact, the competence of citizens in the development of the nation is really concern by the government. It is useless to design the school curriculum which is not in accordance with the need of the country and produce graduates who are strange to the development of the nation.

It is clear that the study of fieldwork approaches in history can introduce children to the way historians think and research and the way history comes to be written. Children would learn that the research of historians is not only to examine fresh evidence but requires also detailed contextual knowledge of the subject. This may help identify the relationship between historians and their reseaerch and the link between published work on national and local history. They may become aware that history is not a fictional creation of historian, for though historians seek to reconstruct the past, they have to base their interpretations upon evidence.

The historical skills acquired from the study of fieldwork history can help children to progress towards the study of more abstract thought since it is rather difficult to achieve a learning aim that is distant from the child’s manner of thinking. The children can be encourage to progress more rapidly through the stages of intellectual development by employing teaching strategies that avoid the use of abstract formulations at the very beginning for their expression and rely upon the use of materials that the children can handle themselves (Smith and Holden, 1994).

The study of fieldwork history has advantages for the progress of children’s thinking and maturity as well as to furnish pupils with first-hand experience on how to study historical aspects around them. It is hoped that it would prepare pupils for independent research in future, encourage them to develop fruitful ideas and self-confidence and the skills in logical thinking and decision making (Griffin and Eddershaw, 1994).

Teachers should make sure their pupils choose a theme for which the sources and evidence are not too difficult to find. The pupil could try to find a book about the selected theme in the public or school library, read the book and follow any notes at the bottom of the pages like a detective. They would use the bibliography or list of books to read on the same subject at the end to find further trails. The library may have a history card index, computer database or microfiche that will help them. Pupil should not hesitate to ask the librarian if they do not know to use the facilities in the library.

They are also directories, guides, cutting collections, maps, photographs, postcards, documents and people scrapbooks in the library. When pupils are taking note in the library, they should always make sure they write down the name and page number of the book, directory or magazine in which they have found the evidence. Otherwise they can waste a lot of time looking for it again if they want to check them. A good historian will always write down where any information comes from, so that no one will think it is a story they have made. The evidence they find will provide them with many interesting stories.

Pupil may find out old coins, stamps, tickets or fiesta programmes in the junk shops. They might collect modern ones to compare with these. They will be interesting in a few years’ time. If the pupil live in a tourist town for example, they can compare the directories with a tourist guide to trace the growth of the town including shops, factories and infrastructure. Newspapers and magazines can be very useful sources and easily accessible to pupils. Sometimes there are advertisements with amusing pictures which pupil could photocopy and keep.

Pupil can also find out about history from people’s memories through the spoken words or oral history such as their parents and grandparents. The pupil can ask elderly people about their childhood, youngster, stories and great events at the time when the pupils were not yet born (Vansina, 1997). By using these ‘secondary memories, pupil could cover a century and could compare the differences between the past and the present, their school lives, houses, infrastructures, music, songs and dresses.

However, not all oral evidence is accurate or the pupils themselves may not understand something about the past. This needs to check by asking other family members, the elderly, photograph or other documents. The best way to record oral history is with tape recorder. It is undeniable that the teaching and learning effectiveness is depended both on teachers’ commitment and pupils’ participation. With regard to this, Hopkins and Putnam (l994) suggest the role of a teacher as a facilitator in the learning process. As such he or she be sensitive to the group’s and individual pupil’s emotion know when and how to intervene and when to take a back seat show empathy towards learners, especially to those who are experiencing novel events; confront their own and the group’s feelings and not remain distant; be capable of ‘letting go’ of control in reviews; provide facilitation without feeling redundant as pupils take increasing responsibility for their own learning and act as a role model for others to follow, as an example by which to continually review their own experience.

Hopkins and Putnam (l994) suggest basic elements which create an effective learning climate in the teaching and learning both local history and history: optimism, high expectations of the learner; respect for the learner’s individuality and unique experience; variety, balance, integration; risk, novelty, challenge, endeavour, enterprise with learners stretching themselves and exploring the unknown negotiation with learning objectives regularly reviewed and modified to maximise relevance and imagination using modes of experience and expression other than language.

The teacher should realise that the learning experiences offered by history fieldwork approaches help fulfil such aspirations as they are designed to be complementary to those offered in the classroom. There is an opportunity for pupils to be exposed to alternative ways of learning and to a variety of active ways of working with material evidence. For some pupils, this provides an opportunity to demonstrate abilities and skills which are not visible in the more formal environment of the classroom.

Fieldwork visits allow for pupil-centred learning, giving them the chance to improve their own skills in using concrete evidence and developing essential historical skills. At the same time it enables pupils to develop truly cross-curricular skills of various subjects including mathematics, science, micro technology, geography, language, living skills, arts, moral values and self-confident training.

The fieldwork approach could be the most successful strategy used by teachers in planning and conducting independent learning activities at all ability levels. Such should formulate critical thinking, open-ended questioning which, which in turn encourages more responses, inductive thinking, deductive reasoning which can be useful in understanding what the future might be and lateral thinking which is important in solving problems (Smith, 1985). These skills are very important in the development of future job skills of the pupils.

CONCLUSION

It is proved from the findings that pupils acquired the basic job skills in fieldwork approaches in history which include the development and enhancement of their intellectual capacity with respect to rational, critical and creative thinking; development of a mastery of skills and be able to use them in daily life; development of their abilities and faculties for the betterment of themselves and society; development of the confidence and the resilience to face challenges in life and develop understanding, awareness and appreciation of the history as well as the socio-cultural milieu of the country; sensitive to concerned about and appreciative of the environment and its aesthetic value and develop skills to cope with new areas of knowledge and development in technology.

Hence, it is proved that history fieldwork can carve out a respectable position in the academic world, particularly in the ICSS, Malaysia. It could become acceptable and full of enjoyment to a new generation, especially school children. Pupils would acquire the basic historical skills which could develop their interest in learning history as a whole. Teachers could have greater enjoyment teaching history, while informed amateurs would be much happier if the study involved both their personal contributions and places which touch their emotions. The study of fieldwork approaches to history could provide pupils with basic skills of finding, collecting, classifying, analysing and evaluating historical evidence rationally.

It also could develop pupils critical and analytical thinking in order to establish/formulate a basic foundation for them to conduct higher historical research in future as well as preparation for the basic job skills. Interestingly, it was discovered from the interviewed that history fieldwork was related to professionals such as teacher, administrator, archaeologist, lawyer, surveyor and engineer. It is hoped that the study would raise concern, awareness and benefit to all involved in the teaching and learning of history fieldwork to achieve the objectives of the Malaysian Philosophy of Education which is to fulfil the physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and moral development of pupils towards the dissemination of first class human capital in the millennium.