To Publish or To Perish: The Common Plight of Authors, Graduate Students and Journal Editors

In academia, so it seems, one of the only ways to make it to the top--or the only way to be promoted up the ladder of scholarship--is to publish frequently and in well-regarded journals. That seems to be the way to thrive and survive in the current academic world. As Murphy (2018) succinctly puts it, "publishing frequently and in top-tiered peer reviewed journals is the ticket to advancing in academia." For young researchers and new academics, this demand of the academic world may be a little overwhelming. Having to juggle between new teaching duties and supervisory roles and most likely family life, many might find it stressful and unattainable to publish frequently. For graduate students, the publication of at least one journal article based on their research has now been made a graduation requirement by numerous universities, so much so that many students have resorted to mindless copying and pasting from their theses in what they feel to be a publication feat. Thus, it is not surprising that many a time, the pressure to publish comes at the expense of originality and meaningful thought (Murphy, 2018), and this affects the quality of articles submitted for publication in journals

Finding Meaning in Education

As educators, we often ask ourselves, “Is there meaning in what we teach? If there is, what is that meaning? And do students see the meaning we see? The meaning we want them to see?” Perhaps for many of us teachers and educators, we struggle to build meaning into our teaching, to give context to content, to make learning relevant, and to make students’ coming to class, not in vain. When students “see” the meaning of classroom content in daily life—how it might help them in their various endeavors—that is when we can consider our teaching successful. That perhaps, education has taken place. Finding ways and means of building meaning into teaching is a lifelong struggle for many educators. Some find it in the methods they use to deliver content; some may employ technology tools. Others may reach out to parents and the wider community to help forge this meaning

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Teachers’ Professional Agency during Curriculum Reform and Its Underlying Structure

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an effective instrument to measure teachers’ professional agency and its underlying factors. Of major concern was the appropriateness of the items and the underlying structure of teacher agency. One hundred and fourteen (N = 114) teachers from three primary schools in the Maldives filled out a teacher agency questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the instrument were tested using exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. Ninety-four items were developed in the initial item pool based on Priestley et al.'s (2015) ecological model of teachers’ professional agency. An exploratory factor analysis extracted nine factors from the 94-item instrument on teacher agency, which altogether explained 76.37% of the variance in the pattern of relationships among the items. All the nine factors had high reliabilities with Cronbach’s alphas greater than .791. Fifty-three items remained in the final questionnaire after deleting items with cross-loadings on multiple factors and loadings below .50. Hence, this study validated a nine-factor structure that represented the underlying dimensions of teachers' professional agency. This instrument could be used to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing teachers’ professional agency during a curriculum reform

Internet Plagiarism among Form Four Chemistry Students of a Selected Malaysian Secondary School: Exploring Its Prevalence, Correlates and Gender Differences

This case study was conducted to investigate the extent and prevalence of Internet plagiarism among a group of upper secondary students taking Chemistry as an elective subject at a selected public school in Kuala Lumpur. Eighty-seven (N=87) Form Four Chemistry students were required to write a two-page essay on acid rain as part of the School-Based Assessment exercise. The essays were examined in a quantified document analysis to record the occurrences and prevalence of plagiarism from Internet sources. Researcher-coded scores and Turnitin similarity indexes were used as the measures of Internet plagiarism. The results show that Internet plagiarism in this student body was widespread (99%) as almost everyone plagiarized, except one female student. The amount of information copied was extremely high at an average of 90% for Turnitin similarity indexes and 91.3% for researcher-coded scores. Gender wise, both boys and girls plagiarized at about the same extent, and the slight difference between them did not account for any statistical significance. Most were involved in high-scale plagiarism, and appeared to have lifted their essays completely off the Internet. However, the study could not completely ascertain whether students' lack of ability in English and Chemistry was the actual reason for their plagiarism act as measures of the two subjects turned out to be weak correlates of plagiarism. Based on the findings, the study recommends that students be explicitly taught the proper skills of writing and educated about the nature and implications of Internet plagiarism

Knowledge of Green Computing among University Students and Lecturers in a Malaysian Public University

This study examined the levels of green computingknowledge between students and lecturers, and between ICT andnon-ICT respondents in a public university in Malaysia. Twotypes of green computing knowledge were assessed, perceivedknowledge and objective knowledge. Perceived knowledge wasassessed through respondents’ self-rating of how much they knewabout green computing on eight Likert items, and objectiveknowledge through seventeen True-False items. The sampleconsisted of 240 respondents, comprising 180 students and 60lecturers, drawn using a purposive, random sampling. Datawere collected using a self-developed green computingquestionnaire, which was administered by hand and via e-mail.Descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-tests were usedto analyze the data. Results show that almost half of the samplereported having completely no knowledge of green computing(49.5%), while 14.6% reported having a low level of knowledge.Those reporting having high (2.6%) and quite high (9.7%) levelswere few in number. Results of the t-tests point to a nosignificancedifference between students and lecturers, but astatistically significant difference between ICT and non-ICTrespondents. The findings suggest the importance of conscioustraining in energy-efficient computing to raise students’ andlecturers’ levels of knowledge in this very important area

Exploring Malaysian University Students’ Awareness of Green Computing

This study explored Malaysian universitystudents’ awareness of green computing in two aspects, i.e.vocabulary and issues, and sought to ascertain whether these twoaspects were influenced by gender and field of study (ICT versusnon-ICT). A total of 224 university students from ICT- and non-ICT related fields participated in the survey. Students filled out agreen computing questionnaire with 21 items measuringawareness of vocabulary and issues. Descriptive statistics,independent-samples t-test and Principal Components Analysis(PCA) were used to analyze the data. Results show that amajority of students lacked awareness of terms, ideas and issuescentral to green computing, such as E-PEAT, Energy Star, greenPC, Malaysia Green Technology Policy, e-waste, and carbon-freecomputing. The PCA analysis extracted two factors, namedEnvironmental Protection and Nature of Computers, that couldbe used to explain students’ lack of familiarity with green ICT.Field of study was shown to impact awareness in all the aspectsmeasured in favor of students educated in ICT-related fields, butthe findings produced mixed gender effects. The results indicatethe need for green computing education to be integrated intohigher education curriculum and for university-led greeninitiatives to be implemented on Malaysian university campusesto increase awareness in the subject matter

Second language speaking anxiety among Malaysian postgraduate students at a Faculty of education

This study examined the level of L2 speaking anxiety among school teachers undertaking a master’s degree at the International Islamic University Malaysia and sought to determine if the anxiety level would differ by gender, school location and teaching subject. A convenience sample of 290 teachers completed a 12-item survey on L2 speaking anxiety adapted from Nazir et al. (2014). The survey data were analyzed using the Rasch measurement modeling for polytomous data, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA. Overall, the respondents did not show high levels of speaking anxiety, (Mean -.89 logits). Most were largely worried about being able to express themselves effectively in English (-.66 logits), making mistakes in speaking (-.31 logits), and how lecturers would react to their mistakes (-.38 logits). The sample’s speaking anxiety scores were found to differ signifcantly by teaching subject, while no statistically signifcant differences were observed in regard to gender and school location. The results imply that the teachers need to be helped in terms of confronting the factors that cause them to be anxious about speaking in English. In terms of research, in-depth qualitative studies need to be undertaken to further understand the nature of L2 speaking anxiety among schoolteachers, while quantitative studies with larger samples are recommended to uncover underlying factors of speaking anxiet

Knowledge of green computing among university students and lecturers in Malaysia

This is a conference paper presented in Singapore. The paper talked about the importance of students and lecturers having knowledge about green computing, which refers to energy-efficient and responsible use of computers and their associated subsystems. 180 students and 60 lecturers were surveyed. The results show limited and no knowledge of green computing among students and lecturers generally, with the exception of those coming from the ICT background. Implications on training in green computing are discussed

University students’ subjective knowledge of green computing and pro-environmental behavior

This cross-sectional survey examined the structure of university students’ subjective knowledge of green computing–hypothesized to be a multidimensional construct with three important dimensions–and its association with pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Using a previously validated green computing questionnaire, data were collected from 842 undergraduate students attending ten different public universities in Malaysia. The sample was split into two random halves (n1=400 and n2=442) to allow for Factor Analysis procedures and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to be conducted. Principal Component Analysis extracted a three-factor structure of subjective knowledge consisting of knowledge about green computing (GC) vocabulary, computer nature or characteristics, and e-waste, while Confirmatory Factor Analysis procedures confirmed the structure’s measurement validity. SEM fit statistics indicated a strong influence of subjective GC knowledge on PEB with its three extracted dimensions cumulatively explaining 37% of students’ reported PEB. The results confirmed the study’s hypotheses regarding the multidimensionality of subjective knowledge, the adequacy of the measurement model of subjective knowledge, and its strong positive role in influencing PEB. The article concludes with guidelines for future research in areas involving green computing, subjective knowledge and PEB with an emphasis on the conceptualization and measurement of each construc

National Survey of Research and Development(R&D)2012

This is a technical report that presents the highlights of Malaysia's R&D activities and expenditure over a 3-year period (2010-2012)