Service Management Systems and MS ISO based products : a reflection.

The MS ISO system is working towards creating a culture of an environment of teamwork by following principles, rules and etiquettes which stresses on the quality of process and products services. The quality excellence of the organization service processes are monitored by an Internal Audit mechanism, which is simultaneously integrated with coaching activities during document examinations to maintain service process and product excellence. This reflection has become a part of the quality evaluation system to ensure work processes which are more sensitive to the improvement effort which focuses on efficiency, punctuality and costs effectiveness

Quality teacher : national aspiration to develop human capital for a knowledge-based economy

Teaching is one of the most challenging and one of the most important jobs in our society. Teachers play the role of producing knowledgeable students with good personality. Quality of a teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. In order to solve the problems of shortage of teachers, government had recruited many teachers with different qualification. Government should make sure that the teachers meet the minimum requirement before letting them to enter the education field. We should not only focus on the quantity and neglect the quality of the teachers. Qualities of teachers should be measured from five categories which had stated in the National Education Philosophy- Physical, emotion, spiritual, intellectual and social. Physically healthy, high emotional intelligence, high spirituality, high intellectual and good social skills are the criteria of a quality teacher. Test should be conducted based on these aspects, such as IQ test for intellectual and EQ test for emotion, to determine the quality of a teacher. Only those who achieve good results in all these aspects are considered as a quality teacher. Better pay as well as promotion should be given to them

Teachers' teaching status and achievements of students of teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) in primary and rural secondary schools.

This study is done through observation of the teaching and learning process in classrooms involving 183 Primary School Teachers and 241 Rural Secondary School Teachers. The main objectives of the study are to; (1) measure teachers' teaching status in Science and Mathematics subjects, (2) evaluate students potential in mastering the contents or in Science and Mathematics achievement, and to (3) determine the status of Computer Technology usage cum the teaching support materials in Science and Mathematics subjects. A total of 4410 primary school students and 4946 secondary school students are involved in the study by sitting for two types of Standard Tests for the primary schools, i.e. the Science and Mathematics while in the secondary students' case, 5 types of Standard Tests are implemented, i.e. Mixed Science, Modern Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Additional Mathematics. The primary schools are categorized in 7 types of schools, while the secondary schools on the other hand are categorized in 6 types of schools. The results of the study shows that 42.5 percent of primary school teachers and 50.8 percent of secondary school teachers failed in the English Language Proficiency Level Evaluation. This situation is critical as it directly affects the pedagogy and teaching efficiency using English as the teaching medium. The teachers teaching observation status through the researchers shows that the beginning of teacher's teaching is average (min=5.1), interaction between teachers and students are also average (min=5.2), interaction between students and teachers are poor (min=3.8), Computer Technology usage is at average level (min=5.7) and the English Language within teachers are average (min=5.5). Generally, the teachers' teaching status is poor (min=4.9;sp=1.8) and the level of Computer Technology usage as teaching support materials are at average level (min=5.7;sp=1.7). The results of the study shows that the PPSMI teachers possess average competency (min=5.3). The effectiveness in the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics mainly relies on the teachers' command in the English language. Students in urban schools produced better achievement results compared to the students in rural schools based on 12 tested subjects tested, whereby students in rural schools are left behind in 10 subjects (except in Physics 1 and Chemistry 1) with the average mark difference of between 3.3 to 19.7. Through the whole study, students in secondary schools and primary schools in rural areas are behind in PPSMI

Quality teacher nation's aspiration : expectation vs. reality

Education in Malaysia is on-going efforts towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the society and the nation at large. Effective teachers are repeatedly listed as fair, democratic, respectful, caring, consistent and good listeners. They are stimulating, creative and confident. They know the students both academically and personally. They have knowledge of what they teach and model strategies of good instruction. However, the quality of teachers in our country is being questioned. The requirements to be a teacher are not standardized. Moreover, there are some of the remark made with regards to our teachers are not very flattering, they have included being "very poor in communication, disinterested in teaching and look down to their peers as well as being of poor quality because the new recruits are that of graduates who were not able to seek employment elsewhere." Over the last 5-8 years, many colleagues have been converted to universities in the country in a bid to improve the "quality of education" and increase the number of degree graduates. What the conversion has managed to do is to successfully increase the number of degree graduates but without being able to significantly improve the quality of education. Hence we are getting diploma graduates masked as degree holders

Motivational predictors of language learning autonomy among ESL secondary school students in Malaysia.

Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this study investigated secondary school students’ autonomy extent and the motivation orientation for learning English in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between language learning autonomy and motivation in one of the eastern collectivist context, i.e. Malaysia. Going more in-depth, the relationship between more self-determined and less self-determined forms of motivation and autonomy in Malaysian context were explored. Additionally, by applying regression analysis categories of motivation which can predict language learning autonomy are determined

Effectiveness of the selected techniques in enhancing the achievement in science among the children with learning disabilities: sharing experiences

In national perception, education is essentially for all. This is fundamental to all-round development, material and spiritual. It refines sensitivities and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, a scientific temper and independence of mind and spirit-thus furthering the goals of socialism secularism and democracy enshrined in our constitution. The objective of the study focuses on achievement of children with learning disability in science. There are 5 null hypothesis tested in this research. The sample used in this study includes 35 children with learning disabilities in experimental group and 42 children with learning disabilities in control group. The different views taken on special education have ignited spark of controversies over segregating some children from the mainstream and providing them with extra opportunities. There are arguments for and against both special education and integrated education. Special education means the specifically designed instruction that meets the unusual needs of special children. It requires special materials, teaching, techniques, equipment and facilities. The design was an experimental research pre and post-test equivalent group. The research shows that there is no significant difference in all learning objective such as knowledge, comprehension and skill between control group and experimental group in the pre-test. This two sample groups also did not show any significant difference in the pre-test irrespective of gender, educational qualification of the teacher, years of experience of the teacher, parents' education, parents' profession, parents income, type of management and type of school. On the other hand, for the post-test all the characteristics show that there are significant differences. This shows that there are effects on the treatment group in learning objective. Furthermore the experimental group showed significantly higher gain score than the control group with regard to the learning objective which comprises of knowledge, comprehension, application and skill

Leadership in the creation of excellent work culture.

Malaysia has set 2020 as the target year to become a developed nation. There are only twelve years left for this to be achieved. Since the launching of the objective, much action has been taken to achieve this status. These actions are in the area of economy, social justice, spiritual strength, morality and ethics (Malaysia 1996). In order to become developed in this globalized era, Malaysia must become the chief player in producing products that are of world class standard. These kinds of products can only be produced if diligence and seriousness, along with efforts of creativity and innovation, exist in members of organizations. According to theory, diligence and seriousness will only come about when an excellent work culture has become the core of the organizational culture in any given organization (Md Zabid, Sambasivam, Azmawani (2004). To achieve this objective is not easy. Problems in delivery in Malaysia today has become an increasing concern, to the extent that the government is obliged to build a group of workers to ensure the implementation of work is more efficient and productive (New Straits Times, 8 February 2007:1). Even though the government of Malaysia has given instructions through Pekeliling Kemajuan Perkhidmatan Awam (PKPA) that every government agency is to regulate the quality of work culture on a daily basis since 1991, these instructions seems ineffective. Now questions have been raised on how many agencies are really putting into practice the PKPA instructions. How many government agencies are able to be accredited by ISO9000? What about Kumpulan Meningkat Mutu Kerja (KMK) and TQM? Through the author's experience, the implementation of PKPA is not encouraging. This question is if the existence of this problem is caused by organizational culture or work culture

Grudge leadership : clarity vs obscurity.

This paper is a venture and an explanation towards recent leadership polls which has been an issue frequently debated within lower level leaders. Collected facts and evidences are one of the simple ethnographic study processes in a few subordinate leadership groups in the line of education management. The information is collected by a few series of chatting, socializing and assimilating facts and elaborations by unwary respondents who has stressed on some parts of their conversation repeatedly. The trustworthiness of the results is analyzed to through cross-sectional checking to standardize the results to be reported. Overall the leaders have a key performance index which fulfils the minimum needed level. The grudge based leadership involves frequent detection of leaders' weaknesses and minor mistakes as shown in the conceptual framework. Because of that, they always received new groups who supported objectives such as mismatch, suppression, denying of other people's rights, acting roughly, providing stress, hating, neglecting, rejecting, discrimination, causing trouble and isolating others without reason. This environment became dominant to the point of causing dissatisfaction within the lower level leaders and officers. This practice implies the existence of interactional understanding gaps which are unhealthy as these leaders are the ones who will succeed to the present leadership. This situation has also created a new space for new leaders. A special committee has to be set up to detect the professional leadership bias through mechanisms of psychometric and personality evaluation for determining the continuity from the aspects of practice, privacy and effectiveness in leadership management

Generic skills needed to produce human capital with "first class mentality".

Generic skills are the general skills, qualities, knowledge, abilities and traits a person should possess to succeed in one’s studies and career. These skills are not specific but are skills which cut horizontally across all industries and vertically across all job from entry level to chief executive officer. It is beginning to be broadly accepted that the contemporary workplace is characterized by continuous change. One impact of the transformation is that lifelong learning has been identified as a means of developing human capital. It is widely believed that such dimensions of performance as learning, innovation and enterprise can be enhanced by placing greater emphasis on generic skills in teaching and learning process. The objectives of the study are to produce human capital with “first class mentality”, identify the generic skills required to produce human capital with ”first class mentality”, incorporate the generic skills in the process of teaching and learning, assess the development of generic skills and discuss the barriers in teaching and learning generic skills. There are several reasons for the current perceived importance of the generic skills, the primary one being employment and industry-driven. To incorporate generic skills in teaching and learn ing, there are two approaches can be implemented that is diffusion model approach and infusion model approach . The other reasons are the need to remain competitive, need to acquire new knowledge in. a knowledge-based world and the need to socialize and interact in an inter-dependent world

The relationship between language learning autonomy extent and learning styles in Malaysian context

Little research has been done to investigate the relationship between autonomy and learning styles. This paper presents research findings that address the relationship of language learning autonomy with learning styles in eastern context. Data from 360 Form 6 students at Selangor, Malaysia were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson Product-Moment. In addition, stepwise regression procedures were applied to explore the highest to the least contribution of different learning styles to language learning autonomy. The obtained quantitative results indicated that most Malaysian students are auditory learners. Besides, correlational analyses determined that students’ language learning autonomy was significantly and positively related to each learning styles, except individual and group learning styles. Surprisingly, the highest contribution of learning styles to autonomy belonged to auditory and visual learning styles, suggesting that having auditory or visual learning styles do not necessarily limit students’ autonomy extent