The Systematic Development and Implementation of a Blog in the Teaching and Learning of a Religious Verse

Religious teaching has predominantly been taught using the traditional method of rote learning. This paper outlines the systematic development and implementation of an instructional design platform (i.e., a blog) for the teaching and learning of a religious text, surah Al-Fatihah. The development of the blog went through five different phases of analysis, design, development, implementation and the evaluation. Qualitative and quantitative feedback indicated that the blog was well designed, with good and relevant contents. Thus, the blog will likely to engage the students’ interest and sustain their motivation in learning to recite the surah. It is concluded that the blog is a useful teaching aid for teachers and students in the teaching and learning of Koran reciting skills. Keywords: Instructional design, teaching, Islam, learnin

Development of soft skills among students through extra-curricular activities in residential colleges

Soft skills are deemed important for tertiary students. Unfortunately, most of them focus too much on content causing them not to obtain these skills. Seeing this, the Ministry of Higher Education introduced seven soft skills for undergraduates to possess when they exit university. Among the seven skills, communication, problem solving and teamworking skills are most sought after by employers. Therefore, this study examines the development of the three skills through students’ participation in the extracurricular activities held in residential colleges. The data was collected via survey. Findings suggest that majority of the students see residential colleges’ activities as effective in equipping them with the skills. The study hopes to provide insights for the better production of graduates to meet the workplace needs

Breaking bad news preferences among healthcare professionals in Malaysian government hospitals

For healthcare professionals, breaking bad news is considered to be difficult and complex. Trial and error, as well as observing seniors, are popular approaches used by healthcare practitioners to improve their skills. These channels of practice are not optimal, and they can have negative consequences for the quality of bad news delivery and overall healthcare. Communication training and the inclusion of breaking bad news models in the curriculum are among the efforts made by the healthcare business to provide skills to healthcare personnel, yet these efforts are found to be insufficient or non-existent. A client-centred approach, which originates from a patient-centred approach, is seen to be effective in assisting healthcare professionals in tailoring their bad news delivery to the needs and preferences of the clients who are the recipients of the news. This study conducted a survey of 100 current practising practitioners to determine their preferences around the delivery of bad news. The data from the survey was analysed using descriptive synthesis analysis. The findings of the study were presented in two main categories: (i) Demographic details and health profiles, and (ii) Breaking bad news preferences. According to the findings, the respondents’ preferences for conveying bad news are similar to one breaking bad news model, the SPIKES model. This research is believed to add to the existing literature on practises of healthcare providers when it comes to delivering bad news

Learning citation conventions through teaching application: from students' perspective

Undergraduates’ writings are found to be deficient in the sense of citation conventions. This lacking engages students in an inadvertent plagiarism which causes them to have no academic integrity. Therefore, an effective intervention is required to address this problem. Teaching application is believed to be the best answer that would fit 21st-century teaching and learning. This study is conducted in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Since UTM uses APA citation conventions in their academic writing, this study developed an APA citation application (ACA). The application contains nine modules in which each consists of an instructional video, assessment, and questionnaire. Students need to complete the first module, as a prerequisite for unlocking the subsequent modules. The purpose of this study is to investigate the undergraduates’ perception of using ACA in helping them to use correct citation conventions in their academic writing. The respondents were 67 undergraduates from five Advanced Academic Writing classes. Findings suggest that students found ACA to be helpful for them to understand the correct way of writing citations and to apply the skills in their term paper writing. This study is believed to equip students with necessary citing skills when writing their Undergraduate Final Project which is a compulsory university exit requirement

Oral corrective feedback: students’ responses to different types of prompting

Corrective feedback (CF) is seen as an inseparable part of second language learning and can generally be divided into written or oral CF. This paper focuses on investigating one type of oral CF which is prompting. This study examines types of prompts used by instructors and how students react to different types of prompting within a context of assessing students’ speaking skills. A qualitative case study design involving 15 thirteen-year-old students and three English language instructors was conducted. Students were given an oral picture-description task and prompted by the instructors during each of the oral sessions. All 15 oral sessions were videotaped and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to categorize students’ responses towards each type of prompt. The findings suggest that the use of clarification requests (implicit CF) are useful in triggering more ideas and facilitating students’ fluency in delivering ideas, compared to elicitation (explicit CF)