To the Tribe Honour: 9th Anak Sarawak Awards 2016/2017 Recipients

9th Anak Sarawak Awards 2016/2017 Recipient

Multisensory learning strategies for children with Dyslexia; Membantu kanak-kanak Disleksia

Concurrent 20 (ENG) – Multisensory learning strategies for children with Dyslexia This presentation will focus on the theoretical underpinnings of the multisensory brain and why multisensory learning strategies work for children with dyslexia. A hands-on session will then focus on the multisensory learning strategies (best practices) for children with dyslexia. Interactive 5 – Membantu kanak-kanak Disleksia English - In this interactive session, a presentation will be made during the Q & A session about the importance of advocacy, early identification and intervention, and methods for helping children with disleksia

Home-Based Psychoeducational Strategies for Supporting Children with Specific Learning Disabilities during School Closures

Specific learning disabilities (SLDs) refer to a diverse academically related disabilities manifested by significant difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, handwriting, spelling, writing, reasoning and/or mathematics. With the long school closures and the lack of face-to-face teacher presence during the Covid-19 pandemic, it can be challenging for parents to support their children with SLDs during home-based learning. One of the biggest challenges during home-based learning is homework completion by children with SLDs; another challenge is the competition one can observe between doing schoolwork and playing games on technology gadgets. Thus, the focus of this article is to draw from a range of extant literature regarding evidenced based prescriptive strategies for the psychoeducational support of children with SLDs, many of whom have self-regulation challenges, which include difficulty in shifting attention and sustaining mental effort. The prescriptive strategies aim to provide useful research-to-practice information to parents and caregivers on strategies for improving home-based education for exceptional learners with SLDs during the long school closures. These prescriptive strategies can be applied in the daily home-based support of children with SLDs for their academic success and wellbeing

Language and Literacy Assessment for Identifying Specific Reading Difficulties among Multilingual Children in Sarawak

There is limited research on assessments for multilingual children who are at risk for reading difficulties in Malaysia. The goal of this paper is to present an overview of the challenges of developing a multi-componential language and literacy assessment in Malay and English for a multilingual community. The norms and language and literacy errors among the multilingual children were also derived and analysed, respectively. The participants (n = 866) in the study were Primary 1 children from 10 government schools in Sarawak. The findings on the language and literacy error patterns among the poor readers suggest that there is an imbalanced development between the students’ competence in Malay and English. Curriculum-based measurements may play an efficient role in assessment and intervention planning for a multilingual population with reading difficulties. This study shows that children in a multilingual setting should be assessed in their dominant academic language for identifying reading difficulties

Sokongan psikopendidikan kanak-kanak alami masalah pembelajaran

Penularan wabak Koronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) menuntut kanak-kanak di seluruh dunia untuk segeramenyesuaikan diri dengan pembelajaran di rumah (homeschooling). Pandemik itu bukan sahaja telahmenimbulkan gangguan mendadak kepada status quo persekolahan, tetapi turut memberi cabarankepada para guru, ibu bapa dan penjaga yang tiba-tiba perlu mempelajari pelbagai alat e-pembelajarandengan cepat bagi menguruskan proses pembelajaran anak-anak.Antara cabaran yang sering disebut adalah persaingan antara melakukan kerja sekolah dengan bermainpermainan di aplikasi mudah alih atau alat teknologi. Alat teknologi seperti tablet, iPad, dan telefon bimbitdikatakan mengganggu fokus kanak-kanak terutamanya mereka yang tidak mempunyai peraturan diri(self-regulation) yang baik, manakala kerja rumah dan sekolah pula dianggap membosankan.Dalam keadaan itu, sudah tentu ramai ibu bapa tertanya-tanya apakah pendekatan terbaik untukmenguruskan homeschooling selama beberapa minggu atau bulan akan datang, yang menggunakankandungan dalam talian yang disediakan oleh sekolah, kerana usaha mengajar anak sendiri bukanlahsesuatu yang mudah bagi ramai ibu bapa

A professional agenda: An initial step toward enhancing the quality of teaching in University Malaysia Sarawak.

This paper was originally written as a proposal to the management of the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in the bid to enhance the quality of teaching on a university-wide basis. The recent quality assurance movement on teaching in UNIMAS is an important step to foster excellence in teaching and to eventually meet one of Malaysia’s visions of being a center for quality education by year 2020. Although teaching is one of the core businesses in institutions of higher learning, it is ironic that academics in many universities are not required to possess preparatory training in teaching, unlike schoolteachers. As a forwardlooking university, one of the initial mechanisms suggested in this paper is to conduct a workshop series to all UNIMAS academics. The workshop series comprise topics such as Introduction to University Teaching, How Humans Learn? Assessment, Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, and Learning from the Teaching Practice. The aims of the workshop series are to train the UNIMAS academics in teaching on a short-term basis, to initiate a long-term commitment toward excellence in teaching, and to develop a collaborative academic community that places special commitment to excellence in teaching. The required institutional commitment, the success factors, and the long-term plans for enhancing teaching at UNIMAS are also discussed in this paper

Music-based Language Programme for Preschool Teachers' Training and Lesson delivery: A Pilot Trial

Language delay in preschoolers is linked to learning difficulties and persistent communication issues. Studies show that early music-making positively impacts young children's language development. Music-based Language Programme aims to enhance preschoolers’ language skills by training preschool teachers to deliver quality music lessons with language-focused objectives. This pilot trial aimed to determine the feasibility of teacher training for the programme's delivery. Furthermore, the secondary aim was to evaluate the acceptability of the programme's implementation by stakeholders. Methods: The 6-week one-arm pilot trial took place in Sarawak, Malaysia (October to November 2021). It included preschool visits, parent briefings, teacher training, and music lesson delivery. The participants included teachers (n = 4), preschoolers (n = 11), parents (n = 11), and the principal (n = 1) in a preschool that practiced inclusion. A non-probability-purposive sampling recruitment strategy was employed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a case study mixed methods approach to collect data through reports, observations, group discussions, feedback, questionnaires, and documentation. Results: There was a high rate of participant retention (100%) and completion of data collection tasks (91–100%). Additionally, there was a favourable shift (7–27%) in three teachers' self-efficacy ratings before and after the teacher training and a reasonably high implementation fidelity (87%). There were no adverse events related to the study participants. Conclusion: The study demonstrated promising results across multiple participant levels, as it was perceived to be feasible, acceptable, and appropriate by teachers, preschoolers, the principal, and parents. The findings provided direct implications for the progression of the pilot trial to the full-scale main study

The Psychology of Rewards in Digital Game-Based Learning: A Comprehensive Review

A significantly accelerated speed in the growth and acceptance of new technology has been observed in recent decades. This rapid technological transition has affected almost every economy, environment, culture, and education. The rapid technological evolution has led to the frequent use of Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL), where users learn and play simultaneously. DGBL has been implemented to supplement formal classroom lessons. Despite the extensive use of DGBL and other implementation methodologies, no study has yet synthesised the use of the "reward system" and its associated components. This study reviewed over fifty scientific publications on the forms of rewards in DGBL and their effects on learners, published between 2000 and 2021

Socioeconomic and gender group differences in early literacy skills: a multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis approach

Socioeconomic status and gender are important demographic variables that strongly relate to academic achievement. This study examined the early literacy skills differences between 4 sociodemographic groups, namely, boys ineligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL), girls ineligible for FRL, boys eligible for FRL, and girls eligible for FRL. Data on kindergarteners (N = 462) were analysed using multiplegroup confirmatory factory analysis. Early literacy skill differences between boys and girls are more nuanced than previously reported; subsidy status and gender interact. Both boys and girls from high-poverty households performed significantly lower than the girls from low-poverty households in alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and spelling. There were gender gaps, with a female advantage, among children from high-poverty households in alphabet knowledge and spelling and among children from low-poverty households in alphabet knowledge. These results highlight the importance of employing methodologically sound techniques to ascertain group differences in componential early literacy skills