Strengthening islamic cultural heritage of the Malays in Malaysia in the post global society

Malay and Islamic religion has exist long ago in the Malaysian soil, bringing about the Malay Islamic arts and culture. The Malay Islamic Arts and Culture has been the epitome of a Malays in Malaysia. Recently, the wave of globalization has transformed some Malay Islamic Arts and Culture to be less significance in the daily life of a Malay Moslem. The role of Malay Islamic Arts and culture is slowly becoming alien to the heart of Malay Moslems. Many factors has contributed to the phenomenon of less popularity in the Malay Islamic Arts and Culture. The Malays themselves have succumbed to many western influences brought by the introduction of technologies and education. Adopting and practicing modern living with many constraints such as time, monetary and space has led many Malay Moslem to slowly forget their precious gem- The Malay Islamic Arts and Culture. This paper highlights the variety of Malay Islamic arts and culture practice as rituals by Malays in Malaysia. It will also discussed the factors contributing to the dying of these arts and culture as well as recommending some suggestions in curbing the ever disturbing scenarios of Malay Islamic Arts and Culture

Approaches of learning among medical undergraduates of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2016

Introduction: Challenge arises for medical undergraduates as the subject of medicine is intricate and extensive. Although students come from the same pool of excellent academic background, the medical undergraduates are still prone to failure in exams, resulting in them repeating the year of study or even having the thought of changing to other courses. In order to cope with the programme, students may adopt learning approaches that would help them to go through the programme. Therefore, it would be interesting to explore the learning approaches of medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methods: The purposes of this study were to determine the learning approach of medical undergraduates of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (FMHS, UPM) together with its associated factors, which were socio-demographic characteristics and learning environment. This research was a cross-sectional study where the sample size calculated was 554. Self-administered questionnaires were given to the respondents chosen by simple random sampling. The socio-demographic characteristics were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was used to analyse the association between the variables. Results: The response rate was 83% (460 respondents agreed to participate). The majority of the respondents were females (73.7%), Malay (67%), and in their clinical years of study (58.7%). Overall, most students preferred deep approach (DA) of learning (49.6%), followed by strategic approach (29.1%) and surface apathetic approach (21.3%) of learning. There were statistically significant associations between learning approach and gender (p=0.005), as well as between learning approach and year of study (p=0.037). Conclusion: Our study showed an association between learning approaches and year of study and gender. DA of learning was the preferred learning approach in medical students at FMHS, UPM. This approach of learning, where students learn to understand the subject matter, may result in students become effective learners. Their understanding about the subject matter will be applicable to their clinical practice in the future

The Third Gender in the Tourism Industry: A Preliminary Observation

Abstract In South-east Asia, the involvement of the third gender in promoting tourism is remarkably prominent. Many transvestites are involved in cultural performances or paper dolls shows. The Moulin rouge girl sort of shows received overwhelming response from holiday goers. Many transvestites especially in Thailand and the Philippines opted to work as performers as their living professions let alone those who have traveled the world performing as impersonators and make-up artists. This group of people has tremendously contributed to the Tourism industry yet they are a laughing stock to the society. Their important role to tourism industry in some countries are denied and seen as a nuisance to the society. This paper will look at the contribution of the third gender people in the tourism industry especially in the South-east Asia. Discussions on types of performances offered to tourists are highlighted in this paper