Academic expectations of MARA stakeholders on the Ulul Albab curriculum at a MARA Junior Science College

Ulul Albab is an educational programme of integration between the existing programmes in the MARA Junior Science College (MRSM) with the religious school programme including Tahfiz Al-Quran. The MRSM Ulul Albab education programme is designed to produce professional experts, entrepreneurs and technocrats that are well versed in the field of religion that is based on Al-Quran and Sunnah known as the Ulul Albab generation. This study aims to explore stakeholders' expectations on the Ulul Albab programme in MRSM Kota Putra, Besut Terengganu towards students' academic excellence. The methodology used was qualitative in nature in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with the four MARA stakeholders. Regarding the validity and reliability of data, several techniques were employed such as member checking, rich thick description, clarification of researcher bias, peer review and debriefing, and external audit. The findings from this study indicate that the stakeholders hope that Ulul Albab programme will be able to produce academically excellent students who possess creative and critical thinking skills. Apart from that, the stakeholders also expressed the need towards education that is balanced in both Duniawi (world) and ukhrawi (hereafter)

Honoring the teaching profession: the untold story of oppression and dissatisfaction of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) instructors

Currently, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is one of the most discussed educational fields. In fact, TVET has been included in the nation’s budget especially for the development of facility and policy making. Notably, TVET has recently underlined the significance of teachers’ preparation program with regards to the issue of teaching job dissatisfaction. Purposefully, a mixed-method design was employed by adopting a convergent parallel design where both qualitative and quantitative data were combined in a single instrument. Results from the narrative interpretation were derived from the open-ended qualitative questions. In particular, Qualtrics, an online-survey form was utilized to collect the research data. For this study, the target population comprised of Malaysian training instructors at TVET educational institutions. Next, a thematic analysis was employed using the Atlas.ti software to determine the TVET instructors’ dissatisfaction factors. Accordingly, six themes were highlighted: burdened with administrative tasks, forced to manipulate students’ achievement documentations, improper planning of TVET programme implementation, student factor, inconducive working environment, and unstable TVET system. Although it was hard to grasp the essence of the existing scenario, it is strongly believed that the findings will spark much interest from the educational stakeholders, especially at the TVET division level to modify the current policy and plan a comprehensive teachers’ preparation program. Primarily, the findings of this study are objectively constructive to motivate TVET instructors towards creating a positive image of teaching, besides discarding any negative conceptions or misaligned goals, especially in the TVET field

Fostering interests for teaching: job satisfaction and motivation factors of Malaysian TVET instructors

Often, when the public is asked of what teachers normally do in class, the most common response would be: What else will they do? Teaching students is their core business. In general, the role of teachers in school is restricted to the traditional conception of what teachers should teach. Undoubtedly, the notion of ‘to only teach’ was relevant in the last thirty years unlike now. With respect to this matter, this study explored the reasons why some teachers retain while some leave this noble profession based on previous studies. Also, Adam’s Equity Theory (AET) of motivation was examined. Essentially, the theory served as a guideline for the researchers to ascertain the job satisfaction factors that contributed to the narratives of TVET instructors with regards to their reasoning process. Notably, the research was carried out using a mixed-method design which employs a convergent parallel design. For the purpose of this article, the results were derived from the narrative section through an online survey named Qualtrics. The population of this survey comprised of Malaysian training instructors at the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) educational institutions. In addition, a thematic analysis using the Atlas.ti software was employed to determine the reasons of TVET instructors retaining in the teaching profession and to identify the contributing factors of job satisfaction. Based on the findings, six themes with regards to teaching job satisfaction factors of TVET instructors were identified: conducive working environment, deep interest towards teaching profession, performing tasks well, satisfactory achievement among students, student factor, and students’ understanding during class. Ultimately, the understanding of teaching job satisfaction among TVET instructors can be construed as an eye-opener to enhance teaching motivation in alignment with the overarching advancement of this field

Curriculum orientation of Malaysian university educators in designing learning outcome-based curriculum

The appropriate adoption of curriculum orientation when designing learning outcome-based curriculum is important in order to ensure the success of Outcomebased Education at Malaysian public universities. In regard to the necessity, a question is raised: Do public university educators adopt the appropriate orientation when designing such curriculum? Although Outcome-based Education is deemed to set the appropriate orientation on designing the learning outcome-based curriculum at public universities, the next challenge is how to make sure the orientation is adopted for such curriculum. For this reason, this study examines curriculum orientation when designing curriculum by administering questionnaires to 506 PhDqualified educators from 11 public universities in Malaysia. The questionnaire included items from the Curriculum Orientation Inventory along with questions that reflected age, gender, academic position, field of expertise and years of experience. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as ANOVA, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and MANOVA were used to answer the research questions. The results revealed that the ‘cognitive process’ (M=4.13, SD=0.52) and ‘curriculum as technology’ (M=4.11, SD=0.57) were the dominant curriculum orientations of Malaysian public university educators when designing curriculum. It indicates that university educators adopted the appropriate curriculum orientation when designing curriculum. This study also discovered moderate relationships among curriculum orientations such ‘curriculum as technology’ with ‘academic rationalism’ (r(504) =0.67, p 0.05; Pillai’s trace=0.01; and partial eta squared=0.01). This shows that the orientation adopted by male and female educators when designing curriculum at public universities is the same towards the Outcome Based Education. Overall, it is hoped that findings of this study may create the awareness of how important curriculum orientation is in making sure the success of Outcome-based Education as well as guidelines for university educators’ training on how to adopt the required orientation when designing learning outcome-based curriculum more efficiently in the future. It is also hoped that the findings of this study can promote later studies on understanding the aspect of curriculum orientation rather than too focused on the managerial and practical aspects of curriculum when designing as well as the other domains of curriculum

Education from the eyes of our children: qualitative exploration on implementation of quranic component in the Ulul Albab curriculum

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, they said. But what is beauty? Some might say it is the aesthetic part of anything, while others might say it is the determinant of wages discriminant among corporate worker (Sierminska & Liu, 2015). And who to say some are wrong and some are right, for we are entitled to form our opinion individually. It is the gift of our faculties that provide us our unique understanding on how we process our cognitive contact with the world around us (Efron, 1969). By understanding that individual perceive things differently, this research embarks on exploring how Form Four students in an esteemed Ulul Albab school perceive their education, particularly on quranic aspect of the Ulul Albab curriculum. This research is a case study which involves a total of six informants selected by typical purposive sampling. A semi-structured focus group interview was conducted in this study. The instrument was developed by researchers and its content has been validated by panel of experts. The interviews were analyzed mainly using constant comparative method utilizing Atlas ti.8 software. The analyzed data led to the conclusion of three sub-themes explaining the crux theme; Guidance for the afterlife/hereafter

Expectations Of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) Stakeholders On The Ulul Albab Curriculum At A MARA Junior Science College (MRSM)

Ulul Albab is an educational programme of integration between the existing programmes in MARA Junior Science College (MRSM) with the religious school programme including Tahfiz Al-Quran. MRSM Ulul Albab education programme is designed to produce professional experts, entrepreneurs and technocrats that are well versed in the field of religion-based Al-Quran and Sunnah as Ulul Albab generation. This study aims to explore stakeholders' expectations on the Ulul Albab programme in MRSM Kota Putra, Besut Terengganu towards students' sahsiah. The methodology used was qualitative in nature in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with the four MARA stakeholders. Validity and reliability of data were done through several techniques employed such as member checking, rich thick description, clarification of researcher biases, peer review and debriefing, and external audit. The findings from this study indicate that inculcation of akhlak is fundamental in human capital development. This is the case because stakeholders believe that the main intention of the programme is to develop an Ulul Albab generation who are not only knowledgeable and skilled but also possess good qualities namely devotion, noble, responsible and committed to religion, nation and state. Aside from that, findings also showed that teaching and learning that is based on love is fundamental in fostering good akhlak.