“I will continue teaching until even if the last
student is myself.”
A 73-year-old man who’s never
contented with “perfection”, he values questions more than answers and is an enthusiastic
tutor in performing the art of teaching.
To him, teaching is an art and a
learning process that he would not want to stop.
Haji Adenan is a non-stop questioning
machine, an experienced lecturer and one of the outstanding teachers in
educational field in Malaysia.
He garnered the highest votes from Segi’s School of Communications as the most favorable lecturer in the faculty.
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| Voting session accompanied with comments. |
The most remarkable things about Adenan is that he is 73 this year but still has the urge to contribute knowledge to the field of education.
Adenan has been teaching in SEGi for
four years and he is also teaching in University Selangor currently.
He was a part time lecturer in
American Degree Program (ADP) few years back and being transferred to School of
Communication Studies due to overload of lecturers in ADP.
“He is one of the most knowledgeable
lecturers in the mass communication faculty,” said Anis, 23.
“In my opinion, he is not only the best
lecturer in School of communication study but also the best lecturer in SEGi,”
said Zeera, 23.
“He is always cool during his
lecture.
“He never losses his patience or
throw a temper at the students and that’s the reason why I admire him,” said
Jaja, 23.
Adenan started his teaching career
as a temporary primary school teacher back in year 1961 and went to a training
college to become a qualified teacher two years on.
In year 1967, he went to University
Malaya and he was posted to Johor Baharu and became a secondary school teacher
after graduation.
In 1973, he decided to join the Teacher’s
Training College Johor Baharu (Maktab Perguruan Johor Baharu) as a lecturer for
four years.
“I was then transferred to head quarter
of ministry of education and held the position of assistant director of
research division for the teacher training in ministry of education,” he
explained.
In year 1979, he had the opportunity
to further his study of International Training Course in Sydney, Australia and
finally obtained his Master Degree in philosophy of education in the United
States in year 1982.
After attaining an honours in his
Masters degree, he continued his career as a lecturer in Sabah holding the
position of the Head of Language Department at Maktab Peguruan Keningau, Sabah.
“I was promoted as the Deputy
Principle of the school after few years and actually ended my career as an
acting Principal in Maktab Peguruan Keningau in the year of 1995.”
“But I’m still teaching now,” he
smiled confidently.
“Teaching is in my blood.
“And that’s the main reason that
brought me back here to SEGi to continue my career as a lecturer,” he said.
“I feel very uncomfortable when I’m
not teaching and I felt uncertainty in life during my retirement period,” he
continued.
“Teaching is an art and this is the
thing that I really enjoy doing.
“I am not tired when I’m teaching
because I constantly feel excited during the process.
“Teaching can be done in so many
ways and there are no limits for us tutors to perform in our career which is different
from other careers.
“I will continue teaching until even
if the last student is myself,” he emphasized.
“Because to me, rest is rust, and I
do not want to turn into ashes that early” he added.
“I like the process of teaching
because I personally think that teaching is also process of learning.”
Because when you teach, you learn; and when
you learn, you have more to teach.”
“Teaching and learning are processes
which should go hand in hand,” he added.
 |
| Keep on questioning, keep on answering; keep on improving: the process of learning. |
“Actually, my inspiration to become a
teacher came from Mr Morella, my favorite lecturer when I was in the Teacher
Training College.
“The way he taught the class was very
interesting and interactive which I really admired him.
“He supred my inspiration to do things the way
he did,” se said reminiscing.
Adenan is also a very accommodative
lecturer as he accepts all kind of answers no matter right or wrong.
“To me, there is no absolute right
and wrong, every answer needs to be perfected, always question the answer
because there is no perfect answer in this world,” he said.
“In order to be close to perfect,
you must keep the process of questioning and answering on going because there
is no absolute perfection in this world.
“Even if an answer is right through
our perception, it might be wrong from other’s point of view, so I believe that
there is always room for improvement,” he added.
Adenan also admitted that he is not
a perfect man because he has weaknesses as everyone does.
“I personally think the main
weakness of mine is to reject people.”
“I feel bad to do so and I just
don’t know why.
“Sometimes there are a lot of thing that
people requested to me to do and most of them are the things that are against
my will.
“I don’t feel like doing it actually, but it
is too difficult to say no,” he declared.
Adenan is also a lecturer who values
a democratic style of teaching when dealing with student as he always respects
every single student as a human being and he treats every student equally in
his class.
“Because I think that everyone
should be given opportunity to voice their thoughts in class and it is not a
good idea to practice favoritism in class as everyone should be treated equally
in class regardless of their background,” he explained.
“That’s also one of the reasons why
I always give second and third chances to my students.
“Actually, I consider myself as a very cool
person as I always try my best to maintain my cool.
“Somehow, there are always exceptions
in life.”
“I’ve lost control of my temper several
times when I was a teenager,” he recalled and smiled.
“Because you know, it was the time
when our bodies are filled with young blood.
“And that was the time I’ve actually
failed to control my temper and lost the attempt to maintain my cool most often.
“But that changed as time passed.
“I always keep myself calm nowadays and
try my best to maintain my cool.”
“Because when you grow old, the meaning that
you seek in life will not be the same if compared to younger time and you will
start to appreciate people and things around you,” he explained calmly.
 |
| Adenan: Dedicated to education with no regrets in life. |
Adenan has a very different angle of
expectation for his students which he hope his student will continue asking
question in life like what he is practicing because it is a good way to improve
themselves and brought themselves up to a higher level.
“I hope my student will always try
to strive to the best of their ability, maintain the best of them and do things
not just because asked but the main objective of doing something is to gain the
knowledge while doing it.”
“And this is the time when people
really can achieve their self-actualization”, he concluded.
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