Perceptions of supervisors, teachers, and students regarding the new agricultural science syllabus for the Malaysian upper secondary schools

The Ministry of Education, Malaysia has reformed the school curriculum in accordance with the aspirations of the general public and economic development of the country. The new curriculum for secondary schools was introduced in stages beginning in 1989. The agricultural science subject had its new syllabus starting from 1993. The new syllabus was supposed to be more technological and integrative as compared to the old one. The purpose of the study was to obtain feedback from supervisors, teachers and students regarding the teaching of agricultural science subject based on the new syllabus. Specifically, the study sought the perceptions of respondents with regard to various aspects of agricultural science teaching in upper secondary schools. The research was a descriptive survey, employing a mailed questionnaire as the research instrument. The study included all teachers and supervisors of agricultural science. On the other hand, student respondents were purposively sampled. The instrument was pretested, yielding a reliability coefficient of .80. A total of 511 (61 %) usable questionnaires were received and analyzed. The response rate was 194 (57.4%) from teachers, 85 (63.9%) from supervisors, and 232 (58%) from students. The results revealed that all respondents were in agreement in term of their perceptions of the agricultural science project. However, the respondents were in less agreement.in their perceptions of the accomplishment of objectives, subject content, subject performance, implementation, students and evaluation. The study also revealed significant differences and associations between selected background variables of respondents with their perceptions. The research contributes significantly in providing insights regarding the present status of the agricultural science subject at upper secondary schools. The research findings are also useful as a basis for furthering development of the agricultural science subject

Tekad keusahawanan tani dalam kalangan pelajar sains pertanian sekolah menengah

Kajian lepas menunjukkan pelajar pertanian di sekolah berminat untuk menceburkan diri dalam bidang usahawan tani, namun realitinya bilangan mereka yang betul-betul menceburi bidang usahawan tani adalah sangat sedikit tidak seperti yang diharapkan. Literatur menunjukkan tekad keusahawanan mempunyai impak yang penting dalam mempengaruhi keputusan seseorang itu untuk menjadi usahawan. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap tekad keusahawanan tani dalam kalangan pelajar pertanian. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah tinjauan. Responden kajian terdiri daripada 50 orang pelajar yang mengambil mata pelajaran Sains Pertanian di sekolah menengah di negeri Selangor. Soal selidik yang digunakan dalam kajian ini diadaptasi daripada kajian lepas. Data dianalisis menggunakan SPSS. Statistik yang digunakan ialah korelasi dan t-test. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan tekad keusahawanan tani pelajar adalah pada tahap sederhana. Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara tekad keusahawanan tani dengan efikasi keusahawanan dan ciri-ciri keusahawanan. Dapatan juga menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan tekad keusahawan tani antara pelajar lelaki dan perempuan. Kajian mencadangkan supaya diperbanyakkan aktiviti keusahawanan tani di kalangan pelajar untuk meningkatkan tekad keusahawanan tani

Analisis Kandungan Lidah Pengarang Berita Harian Dalam Tahun 1998 Dengan Tumpuan Kepada Isu Kegawatan Ekonomi Dan Politik Malaysia

Lidah pengarang merupakan ruangan bagi akhbar menyatakan pendapat, pegangan dan dasamya terhadap sesuatu peristiwa atau isu. Melalui lidah pengarang, sesebuah akhbar akan menyatakan sokongan, bantahan dan cadangannya. Editorial is a place for a newspaper to state its stand on important events and issues. Through this column, a newspaper makes its suggestion, objection and opinion

Using grounded theory approach to identify value-based factors in software development

Grounded theory is an approach that can be used to analyse qualitative data. It is a systematic approach for data collection, handling and analysis. The objective of this paper is to present adapted grounded theory approach as data analysis strategy to identify value-based factors in software development. The grounded theory procedure started with data extraction and initial coding, memo writing and constant comparative analysis and finally identification of core categories and writing memos. Initial data extracted were 74 which were obtained from 28 sources generally related with software development. After constant comparison and memoing, the valid data (value-based factors) were reduced to 33 with six core categories (classification of value-based factors)

A proposed value-based software process tailoring framework

Software process tailoring is the act of customising the existing software process to suit the specific software project. Current practices in software process tailoring consider project characteristics as the sole input to tailor the software process. In addition, it maintains the traditional approach whereby all the project characteristics factors are treated as being equally important. There is a need to shift the traditional software process tailoring approach to a value-centric approach by using a value-based software engineering concept. This study aims to propose a value-based software process tailoring framework to tailor the software process. A review was conducted to analyse the components embedded and input factors in the selected prior studies on software process tailoring. The framework proposed in this study uses value-based factors as input factors to tailor the software process. The framework also considers value prioritisation component, which rank the process elements according to value priority

Conceptual Metaphor of Eliot’s Waste Land Versus Al-Sayyab’s Rain Song

Of the rhetorical tools, metaphor still has insufficient interest, primarily as a crosscultural phenomenon though it is an attractive and vivid area, so it should be studied and highlighted (Suhadi, 2018) and (Barton, 2017). This comparative study investigated the conceptual metaphor in modern Arabic versus English poetry with reference to Al-Sayyab and T. S. Eliot as two poles of modern poetry in Arabic and English. This study tried to shed light on the frequency of the conceptual metaphors in Al-Sayyab’s The Rain Song versus Eliot’s The Waste Land. Besides, it aimed to explore the similarities and differences between the two poems in using the CMT orientational ’Up’ and ’Down’ strategy. However, to accomplish its aims, this study adopted Lakoff and Jonson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory ’CMT’ (1980); this theory asserted that metaphor is an inborn mental system in which we understand a certain concept in terms of another by drawing a logical mapping between the source domain and the target one. Finally, the study found that modern poetry was wealthy of conceptual metaphors. It also discovered that The Rain Song involved 65.29% conceptual metaphors of its total lines, so it exceeded The Waste Land which comprised only 39.40%. Furthermore, the study revealed that the two poems were generally pessimistic in which the ’Down’ domain exceeded the ’Up’ one in each poem. Also, it detected that Eliot was more pessimistic than Al Sayyab who was more optimistic.     Keywords: conceptual metaphor, orientational metaphor, pessimistic, ’Up and Down’ strateg

Teachers' understanding and practice towards thematic approach in teaching integrated living skills (ILS) in Malaysia

Thematic approach is one of the teaching strategy that uses themes towards creating an active, interesting and meaningful learning. The purpose of this research is to identify the teachers’ understanding and practice towards thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills (ILS). A total of 132 Integrated Living Skills teachers were involved in this study. This research was conducted in the District of Kinta Utara, Perak, Malaysia and the instruments used were questionnaires. The finding indicated that the Integrated Living Skills teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach is high. Findings also showed that ILS teacher were often using thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills. There is a significant relationship between teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach with teachers’ constant practice. The findings also shows teachers’ years of experience in teaching were not significantly different from their practices on thematic approach

Tahap kemahiran dan kecenderungan pemikiran kritis murid tingkatan dua dalam mata pelajaran Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (KHB) di negeri Kedah dan hubungannya

Penyelidikan ini menilai tahap kemahiran pemikiran kritis dan tahap kecenderungan pemikiran kritis dalam kalangan murid tingkatan dua di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan di Daerah Kuala Muda dan Yan, Kedah dan melihat hubungan antara kedua-dua pemboleh ubah. Dimensi-dimensi kemahiran pemikiran kritis yang dianalisis dalam kajian ini ialah 1) Induksi; 2) Deduksi; 3) Kredibiliti Peryataan; dan 4) Mengenal Pasti Andaian manakala bagi tahap kecenderungan pemikiran kritis murid pula meliputi aspek inoviasi, kematangan kognitif dan juga penglibatan. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam kajian ini ialah ujian pemikiran kritis Cornell (Cornell Critical Thinking Test) bagi menilai tahap pemikiran kritis dan bagi mengukur tahap kecenderungan pemikiran kritis menggunakan instrumen University of Florida – Engagement, Maturity and Innovativeness (UF/EMI). Kedua-dua instrument ini diadaptasikan ke dalam bahasa Melayu dan diberi pengujian secara rawak kepada 370 orang murid. Analisis data menggunakan statistik deskriptif seperti min, sisihan piawai dan peratusan. Manakala statistik inferensi juga digunakan untuk menganalisis data iaitu Korelasi Pearson bagi melihat hubungan antara kedua-dua pemboleh ubah. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap kemahiran pemikiran kritis murid tingkatan dua dalam mata pelajaran Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (KHB) di negeri Kedah berada pada tahap lemah. Manakala tahap kecenderungan pemikiran kritis berada pada tahap kuat dan hubungan antara kemahiran pemikiran kritis dengan kecenderungan pemikiran kritis pula menunjukkan wujudnya hubungan yang positif antara kedua-dua pembolehubah

EFFECTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL QUALITY TOWARDS NEW VENTURE CREATION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF SUCCESSFUL NEW VENTURES IN E-COMMERCE IN MALAYSIA

Background  and  Purpose: Studies on entrepreneurship gained attention only thirty years ago and had since highlighted new venture creations and the processes towards quality entrepreneurial growth. Nonetheless, past researches had overlooked e-commerce ventures as one of the aspects of the psychology of entrepreneurship. A critical element in entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur, would be responsible for the creation and establishment of new ventures with suitable personality traits, cognition and motivation. This study, therefore, aimed to describe the importance of personality traits, cognition and motivation that can impact e-commerce new ventures creations in Malaysia.   Methodology: This study was designed as data for this study were collected using interviews on 12 entrepreneurs who ventured into e-commerce. These interviews were carried out from May 2013 to December 2014 using a multiple case study approach. Findings: Results from this study showed that seven personality traits, which were creativity, risk-taking, inspiration, autonomy and freedom, tolerance to ambiguity, diligence and persistence, as well as optimism, were the integral influence for new ventures in e-commerce. Cognitive aspects, such as personal background and experiences, as well as both internal and external motivation, also contributed to the creation of new ventures and developed their businesses. The need for achievement and interest were related to internal motivation, while interactions and networking with family members, customers, and industries, boosted external motivation.   Contributions: It is hoped that the Malaysian government would encourage more entrepreneurial activities within the country by identifying personality traits, motivation, and cognitive factors in potential entrepreneurs to expand the creations of new ventures further that can boost the economy of the country in the future. In addition, the recommendation of future study should explore the quantitative method to examine the relationship for each variable towards new venture creation in e-commerce.   Keywords: Entrepreneurship, new ventures creation, E-commerce, psychology, sociology.   Cite as: Md Fadzil, A. F., Yaacob, M. R., Mukhtar, D., Muhayiddin, M. N., Salleh, F., Mohamad Ibrahim, R., & Sallehudin, H. (2023). Effects of entrepreneurial quality towards new venture creation: A multiple case study of successful new ventures in e-commerce in Malaysia. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 8(1), 184-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol8iss1pp184-22

Strength properties of rice husk ash concrete under sodium sulphate attack

The use of pozzolanic materials in concrete provides several advantages, such as improved strength and durability. This study investigated the strength properties of rice husk ash (RHA) concrete under severe durability (sodium sulphate attack). Four RHA replacement levels were considered in the study: 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight of cement. The durability performance of the RHA blended cement exposed to sodium sulphate solution was evaluated through compressive strength, reduction in strength, and weight loss. Test results showed that RHA can be satisfactorily used as a cement replacement material in order to increase the durability of concrete. Concrete containing 10% and 20% of RHA replacements showed excellent durability to sulphate attack. The results also indicate that the amount of Ca(OH)2 in the RHA blended cement concrete was lower than that of Portland cement due to the pozzolanic reaction of RH