Supervising theses: congruence between the expectations of supervisors and supervisees / Habibah Ashari and Md. Rizal Md. Yunus

Supervising theses at doctoral and master’s level is never easy. Complaints are often heard from both sides. Supervisors lament the fact that their students do not have the relevant skills to carry out research; students complain that supervisors are very difficult to contact and do not seem to provide much assistance. More often than not, supervisees expect the supervisors to guide them through every detail and aspect of the research writing process. The findings revealed that supervisors and supervisees have different conceptions of their roles and have different expectations of each other. The findings suggest that both parties need to clarify their expectations from the outset. This may minimize conflicts between the two parties

Net Generation Student Teachers: How Tech-Savvy Are They?

The present generation of young people is often touted as tech-savvy. They have been variously termed as the "Y Generation" and the "Net Generation" to reflect their technologically inclined nature and living environment. The thrust of this study is to assess student teachers' attitudes, knowledge of ICT (Information Communication Technology) and their context of ICT usage. These factors are important in assessing the tech worth or ICT profciency of this generation of student teachers in higher education. Information-seeking is a behaviour that is tempered by culture and education within the paradigms of a complex social context and not an intuitive behaviour as posited by the Net Generation Theorists. The fndings of this study point to a generation that is undoubtedly active in engaging with technology but not for the reasons cited by Net Generation Theorists. This study utilised a survey method, and data were collected through a self-reported survey questionnaire. Group interviews were conducted to further validate the data obtained. The respondents for this study are student teachers undertaking a bachelor's degree in education at a tertiary institution in Malaysia

Vocational Pedagogical Decisions of Malaysian and Indonesian Non-Engineering TVET Teachers

A teacher’s pedagogical decisions determine the quality and effectiveness of the teaching and learning process while academic content (practical or theories), as well as teachers cultural background (as indicated by teacher's nationality), can influence teachers’ decision makings. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the dominant pedagogical decisions as practiced by non-engineering TVET teachers in two countries namely Malaysia and Indonesia. A survey was conducted on 312 Malaysian Vocational College (VC) and 200 Indonesian Vocational Senior Secondary School (VSSS) teachers.  A questionnaire consisting of 33 items on pedagogical decisions was used to gather data on teacher’s pedagogical decisions. Descriptive analysis conducted on the data indicate that the findings indicate that there are similar in vocational pedagogical decisions used by Malaysian-Indonesian respondents based on "Role of Teacher", "Nature of Knowing", "Organization of Time", "Content of Curriculum", "Organization of Space", "Approach to Task" and "Visibility of Processes". In addition, this study found that there are differences in vocational pedagogical decisions used by Malaysian-Indonesian non-engineering TVET teachers based on "Attitude to Knowledge", "Proximity to Teacher" and "Role of Learner"

Keberkesanan penyampaian kuliah menggunakan teknologi webcast dalam mod yang berbeza

The applications of webcast technology are expanding in both the corporate and broadcasting sectors. However, the use of webcast technology in teaching has not been widely explored, especially in Malaysia. Thus, a study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the webcast technology in teaching and learning institutions of higher education. In this experimental study, three modes of webcast delivery were exposed to the subjects. The modes were live streaming, prerecorded streaming and video-on-demand (VOD. Subjects in these three modes of delivery were considered as experimental groups, while subjects who followed face-to-face lecture were considered as control group. A set of questionnaires was distributed to subjects in order to obtain information on their perceptions towards the use of webcast technology. Pre-test was at first administered to gauge pre-experimental stage of subjects' academic capabilities. Then after the study, a post-test were conducted to determine whether there were significant difference in academic achievement of students who attended the different modes of webcast delivery. The findings showed that perceptions of subjects were moderate and positive towards the delivery modes using webcast technology, lecture method, learning materials used, and the facilities provided in the webcast modes of delivery. In terms of academic achievement, there was no significant difference between post-test and pre-test for all four modes of delivery. This implies that webcast modes of delivery have the potential to be used on a larger scale to the teaching and learning of both on-campus and off campus programmes

Use of webcasting technology in teaching higher education

Schools and universities all over the world are continuously exploring ways to use the web technology in improving teaching effectiveness. The use of course web pages, discussion groups, bulletin boards, and e-mails have shown impact on teaching and learning in significant ways, across all disciplines. e-Learning has emerged as an alternative to traditional classroom-based education and training, especially for distance learning programs. Thus, this research study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the implementation of webcasting technology in teaching in higher education. In this research, three modes of webcasting lectures were experimented on three different groups of students, using the pre test-post test-control group experimental design. The modes are live streaming, pre-recorded streaming and video on demand (VOD). The group that attended the face-to-face lecture acts as the control group. The overall analysis showed that the students who went through the VOD group showed the most gain in the tests

Supervising Theses: Congruence between the Expectations of Supervisors and Supervisees

Supervising theses at doctoral and master’s level is never easy. Complaints are often heard from both sides. Supervisors lament the fact that their students do not have the relevant skills to carry out research; students complain that supervisors are very difficult to contact and do not seem to provide much assistance. More often than not, supervisees expect the supervisors to guide them through every detail and aspect of the research writing process. On the other hand, the supervisors expect the supervisees to have sufficient knowledge about doing research. This mismatch of expectations often leads to frustrations on both sides. This qualitative study reported here investigated the nature of the supervising process at a faculty of education at a large public university in Malaysia, in particular investigating the expectations and problems encountered during the supervising process. The findings revealed that supervisors and supervisees have different conceptions of their roles and have different expectations of each other. The findings suggest that both parties need to clarify their expectations from the outset. This may minimize conflicts between the two parties