The development of Mathematics Homework Engagement (MHE) instrument for secondary school students, Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to develop the instrument of Mathematics Homework Engagement (MHE) for secondary school students in Malaysia. This study also identifies the relationship between the factors of Mathematics Homework Engagement, namely students, teachers, parents andschool management towards mathematics achievement.The MHE has been used to measure the engagement of students, teachers, parents and school administrators in mathematics homework. This instrument was developed from student’s focus group interviews and the literature review.The results of the analysis was found that these four factors of MHE item instrument ranged from 54.52% to 69.38% of variance related with homework engagement.Croanbach Alpha indicated that the reliability of each factor is reasonable in context of internal consistency which is more than 0.70. Based on the results of validity and reliability, the instrument remained with 15 items, and states that it is sufficient to measure MHE for secondary school students in Malaysia. Pearson correlation coefficient revealed that, there are positive correlations between the factors towards mathematics achievement except for parent’s engagement. In conclusion, this instrument can be used by teachers, counselors, school administration and the Ministry of Education to assess students’ understanding of MHE. With such understanding, teachers can arrange better mathematics homework for their students

The time spending and availability of reference books to do mathematics homework towards mathematics achievement

Background: Homework plays a major role in education system.There are a lot of researches about mathematics homework and mathematics achievement.However, these studies were showing instability in findings, especially time spending on mathematics homework and availability of reference books towards mathematics achievement. Descriptive analysis was applied and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine relationships between the factors.Objective: The aims of this research were to determine the amount of time spend to do mathematics homework weekly, the level of availability of reference books to do mathematics homework and to identify relationships between time spending on mathematics homework and availability of reference books towards mathematics achievement.Results: In Sabah state, findings revealed that 58% of the students spent more than 1 hour weekly to do their mathematics homework compared to 42% students spent less than 1 hour weekly.Besides that, 60% of the students were having enough references books to do mathematics homework and 40% of students do not have enough references books to do their mathematics homework.Research findings showed a positive moderate relationship with achievement in two aspects: (1) time spending in Mathematics Homework; (2) availability of reference books to do mathematics homework.Conclusion: The research findings implied that teachers should not burden students with too much of homework but need to assign tasks based on reference books that they have and consider about students capabilities while assigning quality mathematics homework

Affective factors contributing to Southeast Asian and East Asian Eighth Graders' science achievement in TIMSS 2015

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that has been implemented by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1995. This proposed study is aimed to identify the affective factors contributing to eighth graders' science achievement in TIMSS among Southeast Asian and East Asian countries. The freely-downloadable secondary data were analyzed using IEA's International Database (IDB) Analyzer (version 4.0) for TIMSS, a plug-in for SPSS. TIMSS uses an imputation methodology, involving plausible values, to report student performance. This study found that students' views on engaging teaching in science (BSBGESL) were negatively and significantly contributed to eighth-grade students' science achievement in Thailand, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and Hong Kong SAR. Students Like Learning Science (BSBGSLS) were positively and significantly contributed to eighth-grade students' science achievement in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR, and Chinese Taipei. Students Confident in Science (BSBGSCS) were positively and significantly contributed to eighth-grade students' science achievement in Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore. Students Value Science (BSBGSVS) was positively and significantly contributed to eighth-grade students' science achievement in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, and Malaysia. Based on the research findings, policy recommendations were made to the Malaysian Ministry of Education to boost Malaysian eighth graders' science performance in the forthcoming TIMSS studies

Southeast Asian Students’ Perspective in Science and science education

The study describes the attitudes and beliefs towards science and science education of Year 9 and 10 Southeast Asian students including gender and year level differences based on the seven categories.  This study involved Year 9 and 10 students from seven SEAMEO countries. Out of 5,375 samples selected, 2,158 were boys and 3,217 were girls. There were seven categories in the survey instrument that was administered, including students’ perceptions about: (1) science; (2) science outside school; (3) science topics; (4) scientist vocation; (5) self-efficacy in science; (6) teaching and learning science; as well as (7) future participation in science. The analyses showed that generally students had positive attitudes on categories such as: science, science outside school, teaching and learning science, scientist vocation, science topics and future participation in science. However, in general, the students in this region had slightly low self-efficacy in science in which included items such as science as a difficult subject and science classes are boring.  The results also showed that Year 9 and boys acted more positively than Year 10 and girls in the attitudes and beliefs towards science. Further research and recommendations are explored. The findings would be used as a tool to revise the national science curriculum of the participating countries in terms of content standards and inform teachers of how teaching and learning practices can be aligned with students’ attitudes and perceptions to obtain better learning outcomes. The research findings could also be used as a springboard for further research exploring deeper the variables affecting students’ success in science and providing intervention for teachers’ training curriculum and continuing professional development in terms of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) that would increase the interest of students in learning and exploring science.

Mathematics homework engagement and mathematics achievement among secondary school students in Sabah

Malaysian students’ achievement in mathematics is lower compared to the international scores between 2003 and 2015, despite spending a large amount of time on mathematics homework (TIMSS, 2015). Previous studies have identified Mathematics homework engagement (MHE) as the most important factor to predict mathematics achievement. This study is aimed to determine the time spent and average mathematics homework done weekly, besides identifying the MHE factors (students’, teachers’, parents’ & school managements) that contribute towards mathematics achievement. The study is also intended to determine whether time spent on mathematics homework moderates the relationship between students’ MHE and mathematics achievement. Here, quantitative and qualitative approaches are used, including questionnaires, interviews and content analysis. Stratified random sampling was used to select 415 Form Four students from secondary schools from four zones in Sabah, Malaysia. To assess the MHE, 22 items, developed from the literature review, were used. The mathematics achievement was measured using the 2015 mid-year mathematics test set by the Sabah Education Department. The MHE involved 15 mathematics teachers and 15 students who went through semi-structured interviews. The findings showed students spent 60 to 120 minutes weekly on 10 mathematics questions on average, comprising low, medium and high level. All MHE factors, except for parents’, were significant towards mathematics achievement. Furthermore, time spent on mathematics homework moderates the relationship between students’ mathematics engagement and mathematics achievement. Interviews revealed that, for effectiveness, mathematics teachers’ assigned homework based on students’ ability, marked and gave encouraging comments, which resulted in better mathematics achievement. The findings of this study is a guideline for mathematics teachers to adapt the existing practice of doing homework to be more practical and relevant, especially those teaching Form Four students in order to improve mathematics achievement at all levels

Students perceptions of mathematics classroom environment, mathematics efficacy, and mathematics achievement : A study in Keningau, Sabah, Malaysia

Mathematics classroom environment, mathematics efficacy and mathematics achievement are some of the important mathematical constructs in teaching and learning of Mathematics in the classroom. This study compared such constructs between rural and urban schools in Keningau, Sabah as well as between genders. This study also focused on determining the relationship between these three constructs. Two urban and two rural secondary schools with sample sizes of 235 and 210 each and total sample size of 445 were selected to participate in this study. Three research instruments were used in this study. A 76-item mathematics classroom environment questionnaire based on "What is Happening in This Classroom" (WIHIS) and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were used to determine the mathematics classroom environment. Another questionnaire to determine mathematics efficacy with 10 items adapted from PISA (2004) was also used. The students' mathematics achievement was determined using a test comprising of 20 multiple choice questions and 5 subjective questions based on the first five chapters in Mathematics Form 4 syllabus. Data from the study was analyzed with SPSS 17 .0 using both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Findings showed the students had a moderate perception of their mathematics classroom environment and mathematics efficacy. Mathematics achievement was low, with female students achieving better than males in their mathematics assessment while urban students did better than rural students. There was no significant difference in perception of mathematic learning environment based on school location and gender. However, differences in perception of mathematics efficacy were insignificant based on school location but significant for gender with female has better mathematics efficacy compared to male. Significant of weak correlations were found between mathematics classroom learning environment, mathematics efficacy and mathematics achievement. The research findings bring some meaningful implications to the teaching and learning of mathematics at urban and rural secondary school as well as the training of mathematics teachers in Malaysia

Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils

Purpose - This study examined the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among Grade Six pupils. Method - Contrary to the conventional approach of relying only on statistics when investigating item quality, this study adopted a mixed-method approach by employing psychometric analysis and cognitive interviews. The former was conducted on 30 Grade Six pupils, with each item representing a different construct commonly found in English test papers. Qualitative input was obtained through cognitive interviews with five Grade Six pupils and expert judgements from three teachers. Findings - None of the items were found to be too easy or difficult, and all items had positive discrimination indices. The item on idioms was most ideal in terms of difficulty and discrimination. Difficult items were found to be vocabulary-based. Surprisingly, the higher-order-thinking subjective items proved to be excellent in difficulty, although improvements could be made on their ability to discriminate. The qualitative expert judgements agreed with the quantitative psychometric analysis. Certain results from the item analysis, however, contradicted past findings that items with the ideal item difficulty value between 0.4 and 0.6 would have equally ideal item discrimination index. Significance -The findings of the study can serve as a reminder on the significance of using Classical Test Theory, a non-complex psychometric approach in assisting classroom teacher practitioners during the meticulous process of test design and ensuring test item quality

Exploring the Effect of Science Teachers’ Age Group on Technological Knowledge, Technological Content and Pedagogical Knowledge in Augmented Reality

This study describes the effect of science teachers’ cognizance of technological knowledge, technological content and pedagogical knowledge towards augmented reality across five age groups. This pilot study involved 44 science teachers from Penang, Malaysia using a 5-point Likert scale instrument. The administered survey instruments consisted of 18 questions on technological knowledge; technological content knowledge; and technological pedagogical knowledge. The analyses showed that generally teachers had good technological knowledge but their technological content and pedagogical knowledge seemed to be less.  The results also showed that two items had significant differences using the Kruskal Wallis non-parametric test. The findings would be used as a tool to revise the servicing teachers’ technological practices using augmented reality incorporated in their daily teaching and learning sessions to obtain better learning outcomes. The research findings could also be used for further research exploring other variables affecting teachers’ technological knowledge. The intervention may be used in teachers’ training curriculum and continuing professional development in terms of determining their level of technological content and pedagogical knowledge that would increase the interest of students in learning and exploring science using Augmented Reality. 

Research on the effects of mobile learning on student education

As mobile devices have become a part of our daily lives, many studies are being conducted on making them more useful for students. It has been found that mobile gadgets are pretty beneficial to pupils, although some studies have found that they are ineffective. Our research on mobile devices in education and learning is summarized in this document, which we hope will be helpful to other educators and students (T&L). These studies have been divided into three main categories: impact and educational environment; specialized applications; and frameworks for mobile learning. " In this paper, we'll look into each of these topics in depth. Our analysis of mobile learning's impact and environment shows that, for the most part, students benefit from the usage of mobile technology by expanding their knowledge and skills. Our study of specialized mobile learning applications showed beneficial effects on learning in numerous sectors. Still, the primary concern was the difficulty of adopting them and the lack of appropriate control guidelines. &nbsp