Implementation of higher order thinking skills in teaching of science: a case study in Malaysia

Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) is a skill that should be present in every teaching. Teaching science particularly require teachers to be skillful in planning learning activities that can inculcate thinking skills among students. This study aims to explore the perceptions of science teachers in the implementation higher order thinking skills in teaching science. This is a qualitative case study involving three science teachers who teaches in government school, private school and private tuition center respectively. Data were collected through interviews only. Data were then categorized to form themes for the study. The focus of the study was teachers’ perspective, towards HOTS, its application, assessment of HOTS and the constraints. The results show that the teachers are aware and they are applying HOTS in their teaching. However, they believe they are hindered by some constraints. Therefore this study concluded that knowledge and competence are crucial to ensure quality the implementation of HOTS

Characterization of greater middle eastern genetic variation for enhanced disease gene discovery

The Greater Middle East (GME) has been a central hub of human migration and population admixture. The tradition of consanguinity, variably practiced in the Persian Gulf region, North Africa, and Central Asia1-3, has resulted in an elevated burden of recessive disease4. Here we generated a whole-exome GME variome from 1,111 unrelated subjects. We detected substantial diversity and admixture in continental and subregional populations, corresponding to several ancient founder populations with little evidence of bottlenecks. Measured consanguinity rates were an order of magnitude above those in other sampled populations, and the GME population exhibited an increased burden of runs of homozygosity (ROHs) but showed no evidence for reduced burden of deleterious variation due to classically theorized ‘genetic purging’. Applying this database to unsolved recessive conditions in the GME population reduced the number of potential disease-causing variants by four- to sevenfold. These results show variegated genetic architecture in GME populations and support future human genetic discoveries in Mendelian and population genetics

Correlation between lean six sigma implementation, adoption readiness and SME performance in Malaysian manufacturing firms

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is considered as the current trend method of Quality Management in large enterprises. Yet, its implementation in small and medium sized enterprises is still at an early stage. Small and medium companies have not received sufficient attention regarding the critical success factors (CSFs) to LSS implementation, however 98.5% business establishments in Malaysia are SMEs. Literature review supported that there is an agreement about the importance of CSFs to LSS implementation, yet there is no agreement about what constitutes these CSFs. Further, just few studies are considering the outcome of LSS in manufacturing SMEs performance. Moreover, very few publications to date have scientifically measured the readiness for LSS deployment in manufacturing SMEs context. Accordingly, a standard model for CSFs of LSS implementation is still lacking in the current literature related to SMEs. Recognizing the severe global competition encountering Malaysian market and the influential role of SMEs in enhancing Malaysian economy, there is a need to emphasize the ability of manufacturing SMEs in achieving perfection and excellence in all operational dimension including Quality Management. This study investigated the direct relationship between CSFs to LSS implementation and manufacturing SMEs performance. Furthermore, this study investigated the moderation role of adoption readiness on the direct relationship between CSFs to LSS implementation and manufacturing SMEs performance. The present study limited its scope within the context of Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. Survey-based method has used to collect data. As current literature lack of using an advance analysis method such as structural equation modeling, Variancebased SEM, which is known as SmartPLS method is applied in this study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have used to assess convergent validity, discriminate validity, unidimensionality, and to test the goodness of model fit and to test the hypotheses. This study found that top management commitment, supplier quality management, training and education, reward and recognition system, process audit are positively influence on manufacturing SMEs performance. However, linking LSS to SME strategy was found not effective on manufacturing SMEs performance. Moreover, the study found that the adoption readiness only moderates the direct relationship between top management commitment and manufacturing SMEs performance. Further, this research ended by developing a model for implementing LSS successfully in Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The recommendations and implication also have provided in this research