Improving The Quality Of The Mathematics Education: The Malaysian Experience

Improving the quality of teaching and learning of mathematics has always been a major concern of mathematics educators. The four recurring and inter-related issues often raised in the development of a mathematics curriculum are: “What type of mathematics ought to be taught?”, “Why do we need to teach mathematics?”, “How should mathematics curriculum be planned and arranged?” and “ How can teacher ensure that what is transmitted to the pupils is as planned in the curriculum?”.The relatively brief history of mathematics education in Malaysia can be said to have developed in three distinct phases. In the first phase, the traditional approach, which emphasized mainly on basic skills (predominantly computational), was the focus of the national syllabus. In the late 70’s, in consonance with the world-wide educational reform, the modern mathematics program (MMP) was introduced in schools. Understanding of basic concepts rather than attaining computational efficiency was the underlying theme of the syllabus. Finally, in the late 80’s the mathematics curriculum was further revised. It is part of the national educational reform that saw the introduction of the national integrated curriculum (KBSM) both at the primary and secondary levels. This mathematics curriculum, which has undergone several minor changes periodically, is presently implemented in schools. The curriculum also emphasizes on the importance of context in problem solving. These three syllabi, as in any other curricular development, can be seen to have evolved from changing perspectives on the content, psychological and pedagogical considerations in teaching and learning of mathematics. In this paper, I will trace the development of the Malaysian mathematics curriculum from the psychological, content and pedagogical perspectives in relation to the recurring issues. I will argue that the development has in many ways attempted to make mathematics more meaningful and thus friendlier for students both at the primary and secondary levels. There has been also a marked improvement on the quality of mathematics education in Malaysi

Board mechanisms and Malaysian Family Companies' Performance

Many overseas studies discussed the topic of corporate governance and performance in family companies, however, few studies have been conducted in Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to examine the board mechanisms and family companies’ performance using three performance indicators (Tobin’s Q, Earnings Per Share & Operating Cash Flow). The sample size is 189 family companies listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2003 to 2007. The findings from this study reveal that some of the board mechanisms influence family companies’ performance. This study evidenced that family companies with a large board size, low directors’ expertise and duality leadership contribute to higher family companies’ performance. However, this study found that the academic qualification of directors does not influence firm performance. Therefore, generally, regulators and investors need to be sensitive to the fact that family companies do have differences in corporate governance practices compared to non-family companies

TRANSFORMING MALAYSIA TOWARDS AN INNOVATION-LED ECONOMY BY LEVERAGING ON INNOVATIVE HUMAN CAPITAL

Fostering “pioneering minds” is extremely important especially in the effort to shift Malaysia towards an innovation-led economy. The Malaysian government is confident of achieving this transformation agenda provided that the human capital is leveraged in ensuring innovation at the highest level. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the predictors that could nurture the “pioneering minds” by exploring the innovative performance of human capital from the perspective of social embedment and pro-innovativeness organisational architecture which could subsequently lead to excellent organisational performance. This research contributes to the existing literature on human capital and innovation by having better understanding on the specific factors that nurture the “pioneering minds” which are crucial for innovative performance

Time-frequency represetation of radar signals using Doppler-Lag block searching Wigner-Ville distribution

Radar signals are time-varying signals where the signal parameters change over time. For these signals, Quadratic Time-Frequency Distribution (QTFD) offers advantages over classical spectrum estimation in terms of frequency and time resolution but it suffers heavily from cross-terms. In generating accurate Time-Frequency Representation (TFR), a kernel function must be able to suppress cross-terms while maintaining auto-terms energy especially in a non-cooperative environment where the parameters of the actual signal are unknown. Thus, a new signal-dependent QTFD is proposed that adaptively estimates the kernel parameters for a wide class of radar signals. The adaptive procedure, Doppler-Lag Block Searching (DLBS) kernel estimation was developed to serve this purpose. Accurate TFRs produced for all simulated radar signals with Instantaneous Frequency (IF) estimation performance are verified using Monte Carlo simulation meeting the requirements of the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) at SNR > 6 dB

Intellectual property rights and agro-based natural product: Malaysian legal perspective

Malaysia is a country which has been blessed with plethora of natural resources and product such as plants and animals. It is an established fact that the agriculture sector part of our natural product contributed substantially to the growth and development of the Malaysian economy. At the same time, it falls as part of the property which must be protected to ensure its sustainability. This paper will look into the right and protection of agro-based natural product specifically to the plant varieties and geographical indications from Intellectual Property Rights perspective in Malaysia

The efficiency of Islamic banks: empirical evidence from the Asian countries’ Islamic banking sectors

Abstract: The paper investigates the efficiency of the Islamic banking sectors in four Asian countries during the period of 2001–2006. The efficiency estimates of individual banks are evaluated using the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The results suggest that the Asian Islamic banks have exhibited mean technical efficiency highest of 86.5% at 2004 during study period suggesting mean input waste of 13.5%. This implies that the Islamic banks in the Asian countries could have produced the same amount of outputs by only using 86.5% of the amount of inputs they employed. The empirical findings suggest that during the period of study, pure technical inefficiency outweighs scale inefficiency in Asian countries banking sectors. Overall the results imply that during the period of study, although the Asian Islamic banking sectors have been operating at a relatively optimal scale of operations, they were relatively managerially inefficient in controlling their operating costs and utilising their resources to the fullest.Islamic banks; data envelopment analysis; DEA; Asia

Distributed Object Medical Imaging Model

Abstract- Digital medical informatics and images are commonly used in hospitals today,. Because of the interrelatedness of the radiology department and other departments, especially the intensive care unit and emergency department, the transmission and sharing of medical images has become a critical issue. Our research group has developed a Java-based Distributed Object Medical Imaging Model(DOMIM) to facilitate the rapid development and deployment of medical imaging applications in a distributed environment that can be shared and used by related departments and mobile physiciansDOMIM is a unique suite of multimedia telemedicine applications developed for the use by medical related organizations. The applications support realtime patients’ data, image files, audio and video diagnosis annotation exchanges. The DOMIM enables joint collaboration between radiologists and physicians while they are at distant geographical locations. The DOMIM environment consists of heterogeneous, autonomous, and legacy resources. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), and Java language provide the capability to combine the DOMIM resources into an integrated, interoperable, and scalable system. The underneath technology, including IDL ORB, Event Service, IIOP JDBC/ODBC, legacy system wrapping and Java implementation are explored. This paper explores a distributed collaborative CORBA/JDBC based framework that will enhance medical information management requirements and development. It encompasses a new paradigm for the delivery of health services that requires process reengineering, cultural changes, as well as organizational changes

Enhancing economic development through economic empowerment: Challenges for women

Status of women around the world varies among parts of the world.Some developing countries like Africa, the status of women is low compared to the developed countries.There is an urgent need to give attention to the needs and problems of women to enable them to enjoy and exercise their rights and opportunities; thus, women can be part of a group contributing to national development. Generally, women and economy often are separated as two different identities in enhancing the sustainable economy.The facts that the number of women working in the industries is less than the number of men are no longer false.Therefore, the paper aims to discuss women empowerment specifically in regard to economic empowerment. Three elements, namely microfinance, education and legal aid that contribute towards economic empowerment for women also will be argued in the paper.The challenges women faced towards achieving economic empowerment also will be discussed

Integrating ethics into accounting curriculum: overview from Malaysian accounting educators

Ethics in accounting education become a vital issue after a spate of recent accounting scandals that involves multinational companies such as Enron, Sunbeam, Waste Management, and Worldcom, and Malaysian companies such as Transmille Group and Southern Bank Bhd. This paper examines the findings of an in-depth study that analysed the perception of five Malaysian accounting educators on the question of integrating ethics into accounting curriculum. Utilising the constant comparison method comprising purposive sampling, in-depth interviews, direct observation and documentary analysis the study explored the importance of incorporating ethics into the curriculum, its problems and the factors that encouraged accounting educator to integrate ethics in their teaching. The findings revealed that while accounting educators believed in the integration of ethics in accounting curriculum and the nurturing of ethical accountants, there are certain barriers such as time constraints, lack of knowledge, skills and competency in the task, and lack of reference materials to be used in teaching accounting ethics

Solid waste management by considering composting potential in Malaysia toward a green country

Solid waste disposal has become a serious issue for country and municipal governments throughout the nation. As available landfill space decreases and the cost of siting and building new landfill increases, local authorities are struggling to develop alternative means of meeting the waste disposal challenge. Landfilling is the most widely used method for solid waste disposal in countries with tropical settlement. Landfills have created various environmental problems such as emissions and leachate. The public has become more aware concerning landfill issues such as increasing concern on the groundwater contamination, potential release of toxic gases and odor. A big part of these problems come from organic waste into the solid waste. Municipal solid waste in Malaysia has a large percent of food waste (around 50-60 percent) that makes a lot of problems in disposal methods. It has emerged as a potentially viable means by which local governments can reduce the volume of waste entering landfills by diverting the organic fraction. Composting is a biological process, in which the organic matter is biodegraded by microorganisms under controlled conditions of temperature, moisture content, oxygen, PH and the retention time that can be initiated by mixing biodegradable organic matter with bulking agents to enhance the porosity of the mixture. In this study, a composting plant in Malaysia is considered that uses organic waste from the market (market waste). Five tons organic waste per day is received in the plant, and it is treated by the wind raw composting method. After calculating costs and benefits of this method result shows that total quantitative benefit of this plant is not much higher than a total quantitative cost but this result is just for quantitative parameter. This method has a lot of qualitative benefits such as: reducing the amount of municipal solid waste, transportation cost of carrying municipal solid waste to land fill, emissions and leachate of landfill, increasing life span of landfill and reducing land use. Composting organic materials that have been diverted from landfills ultimately avoids the production of methane and leachate formulation in the landfills regarding to 50 percent of organic waste in municipal solid waste of Malaysia. With removing this amount of waste from MSW with using composting method, not only the environmental problems of land filling can be reduced but also the costs of transportation and other costs of disposal can be reduced by 50%. Because of one of the most important problems in tropical settlement is to find proper methods to dispose of municipal solid waste toward decreasing pollution, producing compost can be a suitable way but expanding of this treatment method in Malaysia closely related to economic governmental support