Enhancing Persistence on Mastery Tasks Among Young Preschool Children by Implementing the “I Can” Mastery Motivation Classroom Program

Task persistence plays important role in school readiness and helps to enhance young children’s cognitive development and academic skills; thus, designing and implementing programs to enhance it is vital. The objective of the present research was to assess the effectiveness of the “I Can” mastery motivation classroom program in enhancing young children’s persistence on mastery tasks. Altogether, forty-four (n = 44) children between the ages of two to three years selected from three kindergartens in Malaysia participated in the research, which was conducted by using a randomized pretest and posttest experimental-control group design. Persistence on three mastery tasks and mastery pleasure were assessed by using the Individualized Assessment of Mastery Motivation manual. The experimental group (n = 25) was exposed to the “I Can” mastery motivation classroom program, while the control group (n = 19) attended regular classroom lessons. There was a significant gain score difference between the experimental and control groups on task persistence for puzzles but not for shape sorters, cause and effect toys, and mastery pleasure. Thus, the program was effective in enhancing persistence on some mastery tasks. The content and findings of the intervention should help policy makers understand this important aspect of early childhood education

Does gadget usage hamper the psychological aspects of pre-schoolers?

The society is keen to rely on gadgets in everyday life due to versatile gadgets that help them to connect with the world in the 21st century. On the flip side of using gadgets, several researches argued that screen time is affecting children's psychosocial, behavioural and health problems. The present study interviewed 14 preschool teachers to perceive their knowledge in gadget usage, sedentary behaviour and social skills among preschoolers. Besides that, teaching methods and teachers' opinions on gadget usage were also discussed. Inductive analysis (IA) revealed that parents habitually offer children gadgets at home. Also, the teachers expressed a positive opinion on gadget usage where preschoolers simply learn from media and gadget's applications. However, the teachers asserted that usage time needs to be controlled and the amount of usage depends on the role of parents and teachers. Teachers' attitude and habits were found to be moderate in lesson planning and improving the social skills of preschoolers but minimal for addressing their sedentary behaviour

Leadership behavior : structural relationship of emotional intelligence (self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management) among public school personnel in Malaysia

Various changes in the educational system have evolved for educator leaders recently. However, negative impacts on leader’s emotional intelligence due to leadership behavior that arise problems in producing good quality of work can have significant effect on their performance. This study investigates the impact of an emotional intelligence on leadership behaviour aswell as fitness of the suggested hypothetical model and the observed data. Using a structured questionnaire derived from the literature, data were collected from 306 (89%) subjects from a 15 SBT (High Performance Schools) in Malaysia which were chosen by cluster sampling procedur. the data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM); an acceptable level of model fit was found. Two sets of questionnaire to measure emotional intelligence (Emotional Competence Inventory) (ECI) and leadership behavior (Multi-factor leadership questionnaires (MLQ) were administered. The inclusion criteria consisted of leaders in a school setting. Results: Three and-six educator leaders from fifteen SBT schools in Malaysia were recruited into the study. Respondents were on average 41 years old (range= 26-60 years). The Majority were female (n=174), education level (degree; n=255), and working experience (range=11-20 years; n=107. In examining the relationship between emotional intelligence with leadership behavior, EQ was positively related to transformational leadership, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.61, and transactional leadership, p< 0.001, R2 = 0.77. The result shows that the model fit indices demonstrates TLI (Tucker Index), NFI (Normed Fit), RFI (Relative Fit Index), IFI (Incremental Fit Index) and CFI (Comparative Fit Index) are more than .90 (from .932 until .975), RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) also shows 0.055 (RMSEA <. 08) (Byrne, 2001). These values indicate an adequate fit and it’s obviously met the basic requirment of model fit. The values of the Chi-Squared Roots Goodness of Fit also show 1.87, below 3. Therefore, the model is significantly fit and support to the data. On a practical note, the assessment of psychological constructs in school setting eg; EQ and leadership could possibly assist in enhancing the work performances in delivering huge benefits to the society especially in the educational contexts

Effectiveness of ToyBox intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour among pre-school children: A case in Malaysia

Children have been found to spend more time on gadgets in learning and passing leisure time especially in the era of this new millennium. Besides, modern parents also claim that gadgets possess additional education function for children in acquiring new information. Nonetheless, on the flip side of using gadgets, little is known about the intervention in reducing sedentary behaviour, which mainly refers to prolonged sitting, especially among pre-schoolers. Thus, the present study investigates the effectiveness of ToyBox intervention in Malaysia to reduce sedentary behaviour among pre-schoolers (n = 281) via primary caregivers' self-reports. In addition, the Mann Whitney U test displayed significant variances between the experimental group and the control group in reducing sedentary behaviour among five-year-old and six-year-old pre-schoolers. Besides, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test revealed significant differences in the experimental group before and after treatments among four-year-olds, five-year-olds, and six-year-old pre-schoolers. Interestingly, Split-plot ANOVA analysis showed that the interaction terms of groups and treatment were significant, where the treatment for experimental groups was significantly lower in sedentary behaviour after treatment. As a result, the ToyBox intervention in Malaysia is indeed a promising intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour among pre-schoolers

Development and validation of employee trust scale: factor structure, reliability and validity

The aim of this study was to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and convergent validity) of the Employee Trust Scale, a newly created instrument by the researchers. The Employee Trust Scale initially contained 82 items to measure employees’ trust toward their supervisors. A sample of 818 (343 females, 449 males) employees were selected randomly from public and private organization sectors in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 19 to 67 years old with a mean of 34.55 years old. Their average tenure with their current employer was 11.2 years (s.d. = 7.5 years). The respondents were asked to complete the Employee Trust Scale, as well as a managerial trust questionnaire from Mishra. The exploratory factor analysis on employees’ trust toward their supervisor’s extracted three factors, labeled ‘trustworthiness’ (32 items), ‘position status’ (11 items) and ‘relationship’ (6 items) which accounted for 62.49% of the total variance. Trustworthiness factors were re-categorized into three sub factors: competency (11 items), benevolence (8 items) and integrity (13 items). All factors and sub factors of the scales demonstrated clear reliability with internal consistency of Cronbach’s Alpha above .85. The convergent validity of the Scale was supported by an expected pattern of correlations (positive and significant correlation) between the score of all factors and sub factors of the scale and the score on the managerial trust questionnaire, which measured the same construct. The convergent validity of Employee Trust Scale was further supported by the significant and positive inter-correlation between the factors and sub factors of the scale. The results suggest that the Employee Trust Scale is a reliable and valid measure. However, further studies need to be carried out in other groups of sample as to further validate the Scale

Performance of students’ with Learning Disabilities (LD) on Ravens’ coloured progressive Matrices

The main objective of the present study was to explore the performance of students with learning disabilities on test of intellectual functioning. Apart from that, this study also focused on observing the difference in intellectual abilities among male and female students with learning disabilities as well. The participants were 80 students within the age ranges of 8- 11 years old; which consist of 47 males and 33 females diagnosed as having learning disabilities from five public schools in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia. Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1995) was used to assess students’ intellectual functioning. It was found that the performance of 12.5% children were on intellectually superior level, 38.5% were on definitely above average, 22.5% were on average, 11.3 % were below average, and 15% were on intellectually impaired level. As for gender difference in scores, the results of non-parametric Fisher Exact test showed that significant association between gender and children intellectual ability ( =18.94, df = 4, p < .05) was found. On the basis of observed cell frequencies, it can be concluded that male students’ performance was more towards the extreme of higher and lower ends and female students’ performance was more towards average. The differences in basic intellectual abilities determined during the present study can be used as a guideline by the responsible authorities to identify appropriate and individualized interventions which are suitable for different group of children based on their level of intellectual functioning and learning disabilities

Perceiving The Importance Of Job-Related Skills In The 4th Industrial Revolution Era From The Perspectives Of Graduates And Employers

This study focuses on a comparing the perceptions of the importance of seven job-related skills (intrapersonal, interpersonal, computing, entrepreneurship, management, personal organization & leadership) between graduates and employers. These include the four job-related skills emphasized in the 4th Revolution Industry (i.e. communication, critical thinking, creativity, & collaboration). We also compared 17 interview attributes provided in the graduates ’curriculum vitae perceive to be important by both graduates and employers. A total of 279 graduates and 102 employers participated in this study. We predicted there would be a gap between the two parties in how they perceive the importance of each jobrelated skill and job-characteristic. A set of questions divided into four sections was used to measure the variables. These sections are Part A: Demographic variables; Part B: Seven Job-related skills (adapting employability-related questions from Goldsmith’s soft skills inventory); Part C: Four job-related skills based on the 4C’s in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (communication, critical thinking, creativity, & collaboration), and Part D: The 17 interview attributes for the job screening process. The study only revealed that employers perceived three interview attributes (i.e. internship, studying abroad and cocurricular activities) as more important predictors of success in the job screening process. These findings may increase awareness among both universities and graduates of the importance of the three factors emphasised by employers in the job screening process. Universities and relevant authorities should encourage students to be actively involved in co-curricular activities, internships and outbound mobility. This may result in more balanced graduates who can meet the demands of industry

Confirmatory factor analysis of employee trust scale

A The Employee Trust Scale is developed for a study that examines employees’ trust towards their supervisors. This 49-item measure is a newly created scale by the researchers based on the findings of their previous study “Exploring the Concept of Trust in Malaysia Society”. Through the result of exploratory factor analysis, Chua et al. (2015) was able to extract three factors, labeled ‘trustworthiness, ‘position status’and ‘relationship’ which accounted for 62.49% of the total variance and the scale provided reliable assessment. Considering the existing assumptions of three dimensions of employee trust toward their supervisor as established by Chua et al. (2015), in this paper, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the dimensionality of the Employee Trust Scale. This analysis was conducted with Structural Equation Modelling which was used to assess the fit of the model. In addition, reliability and validity of the model was measured. A total of 514 (274 males and 228 females) employees who were selected randomly from public and private organization sectors in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia were involved in this study. Their ages ranged from 21 to 59 years old with an average of 34.34 years old and their average tenure with their current organization was 8.46 years (with s.d. = 8.11 years). Finding of the present research can help in enhancing productivity within an organization by improving trust and relationship building between employees and employer

Psychometric study of bar-on emotional quotient inventory: Youth version in Malaysian sample

The concept of emotional intelligence (EQ) is an important topic among today’s modern society. People are now gaining realisation that these skills can help them in better managing both their professional and personal lives. However, scales available to measure EQ are limited especially among the Malaysian population. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the psychometric proprieties of the Bar-On Emotional Youth Version Quotient Inventory (EQi:YV) in Malaysian samples. A total of 728 students aged between 14 to 20 years old from four secondary schools in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah participated in this study. The EQ-i:YV contains 35 self-report items designed to assess: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Adaptability, and Stress Management. The Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the suitability of the model. The reliability and validity of the model were also measured. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to test its compatibility. Multiple goodness-of-fit indicators initially revealed that the measurement model failed to reach some of the recommended standards for model fitness. After necessary adjustments were made, the modified model, which retained 30 items, produced a better level of fitness and met recommended standards. The analysis found that EQi: YV had a satisfactory level of reliability despite some convergent and discriminant validity issues. Overall, the EQi:YV is suitable for use in the Malaysian context. Recommendations for future research are also discussed