The Challenges in Inculcating Islamic Values in the National Educational System in the Era of Globalization: A Case-Study at a Private Secondary School

Globalization has a strong impact on the world of education. it needs to consider the best solutions that can be implemented so that the National Educational System (NES) can play the role and function it should. The process of reformulating educational policies must pay attention to Islamic values, which are the beliefs of most of society in Indonesia. The purpose of this research is to investigate the challenges to the inculcation of Islamic values in the National Educational System (NES) in the era of globalization. Qualitative research was adopted as the method in this study. Five school authorities and five teachers with more than fifteen years of experience were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Previous research found that teachers faced many problems in inculcating Islamic values, such as in the process of teaching and learning, curriculum, methods of teaching, and so on. The limitation of previous research was most of the problems in the process of teaching and learning only. Here we report the problems that become challenges in inculcating Islamic values in the NES in the era of globalization. The challenges are the national curriculum, parents’ lack of support, students’ diverse backgrounds, and the pandemic scenario of COVID-19. Therefore, school authorities and teachers should try continuously to provide the best education to students, such as innovation and evaluation in teaching and learning both related to subjects in the national curriculum, and the activities in instilling Islamic values. Additionally, it needs good cooperation with various parties like the government, parents, and students.

Lecturers' perspective of self-efficacy towards research:'Push or not push'

Lecturers in teacher training institute are encouraged to conduct research and are given the opportunities to present the research findings in conferences or to publish them in journals. However, the number of articles produced yearly is not promising compared to the number of lecturers in the institution. This study seeks to examine the factors which affect lecturers’ self-efficacy towards research activities. A case study was conducted in a teacher training institute, involving four lecturers who have more than 20 years of teaching experience. These lecturers were interviewed using semi structured interview. Through phenomenological approach analysis, five salient factors were discovered from these interviews, namely, subject matter expertise, motivation, positive environment, interest and personal strength. This article discusses the nature of these five factors and their implications on the willingness of lecturers to be involved in research activities. This article also provides some measures that can be taken to enhance the lecturers’ self-efficacy towards research

Reading comprehension processes and strategies in L1 and L2 in Malaysian primary and secondary schools

This study is set in the context of the acknowledged debate, highlighted by the work of Lunzer and Gardner's Schools Council project (1979), concerning the theoretical issue of whether reading comprehension is a unitary competence or consists of identifiable discrete subskills. This long- standing polarised theoretical debate can be traced as far back as the sixties and seventies in the position taken by reading experts such as Spache and Spache (1969), Davis (1971) and Thorndike (1973). Spache and Spache and Thorndike concluded that reading comprehension was a unitary competence, not consisting of separate skills that can be practised in isolation. On the other hand, Davis viewed reading comprehension as composed of separate identifiable skills and abilities. The polarised arguments pose a question as to the nature of reading comprehension. Is there such a thing as discrete reading comprehension sub-skills that can be built up hierarchically and can promote the understanding of texts? With the question in mind this study set out to test whether reading comprehension is a unitary competence of sub-skills or one that can be broken down into separate sub-skills. The research involved the rigorous testing of a series of reading comprehension tests in two languages using four texts taken from the work of Lunzer and Gardner (1979). The texts were modified to suit the socio-cultural context of the students. All of the chosen texts were translated into Bahasa (L1) which is the mother-tongue of the students. In principle, the focus of the study in Part I is centred on replicating the work of Lunzer and Gardner (1979) in some selected Malaysian primary and secondary schools. It seeks to understand whether the main hypothesis holds that reading comprehension is unitary in nature and cannot be broken down into a number of distinct subskills. A selected 300 primary school pupils aged 12 were required to read and answer four comprehension tests written in L1. Another selected 150 secondary school students aged 15 were required to perform the same tasks on material written in L2. Each test has about 30 comprehension questions which are divided into eight categories of subskills. The two groups produced a total of 1,636 valid comprehension tests which were marked rigorously. Factor analysing the data yielded a number of important findings concerning whether reading comprehension subskills are unitary or hierarchic in nature. These findings may suggest some recommendations for improving reading for learning across the Malaysian primary and secondary schools curriculum. In Part I the outlined five chapters discuss the background information which led to the testing of the 450 students, the related literature review, the chosen research design and analysis, the findings and the research implications for the Part II study. The study reported in Part II is an extension of the work done in Part I, in that the remaining five chapters explore the justification of conducting the indepth interviews, the review of the related literature, the design of the interview, the findings and the educational implications of the study. This part explores the reading comprehension strategies that were used by the students in answering the comprehension questions. The second study was successfully made during the summer of 1994. A total of 16 students aged 15 were selected from several secondary schools in Johor Bahru, the capital state of Johor, Malaysia … … The thesis ends with a discussion of the implications from both studies especially for the reading curriculum, instruction, pedagogy, classroom practice and future research

National integration in vision school: towards '1 Malaysia'?

This paper reports preliminary findings of a larger study of the assessments of intercultural communication in selected Vision schools across Malaysia. The main question is to what extent does Vision Schools foster racial interaction among students of different ethnic groups? Since its establishment, there are 13 schools involved in Vision school concept, however only one Vision School in Subang Jaya, truly delivers the ideal state of having three national school/types, to agree to co-exist in one school compound. The rest of Vision school complexes around Malaysia partially involved national and national-type schools. In those cases, Chinese-type national schools were understood to be reluctant to join the Vision school concept. It is imperative given this observation that the main philosophy behind the establishment of Vision schools be revisited and evaluated by investigating whether the school becomes a platform for pupils and teachers of different ethnic groups to engage in effective intercultural communication. The mission of Vision schools is seen as on par with the current national agenda of „1 Malaysia‟, coined by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, which calls for the three major races in Malaysia to be united and project themselves as being one, rather than as being different. In that respect, the establishment of the Vision schools remains significant and fits with the current national agenda which is to further enhance national integration, in the hope to reach the state of „1 Malaysia‟ in various aspects of life, including in the educational system

Four EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices of grammar teaching in Oman: an exploratory case study

Teachers of English and other concerned educators dream to have students who never make grammatical mistakes. Therefore, in order to prepare their learners to be fluent and accurate speakers, readers, listeners, and writers, they have to make sure that students do not make grammatical mistakes frequently. EFL learners should see the difficulties, challenges, and rewards of using English accurately in addition, they ought to gain a better understanding of how language is structured and connected logically. More importantly, teachers and other educators should enhance the idea of how they can use correct English in real life as well as in their own classrooms. The main purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate four EFL teachers’ beliefs of grammar teaching, correcting students' grammatical mistakes and the challenges that they face when they teach grammar in the Omani context. Also, the study advocated some practical recommendations to EFL teachers, supervisors and curriculum designers ascribed to grammar teaching and learning. More significantly, by reading the four observed lessons in this research, the readers will obtain a myriad of empirical, stimulating ideas, meaningful comments and practical advice on how to teach grammar effectively. Therefore, these readers interested in language learning and teaching will be able to distinguish between the praised and discouraged grammar teaching practices; and augment their thoughts pertain to language grammar teaching in particula

Reading comprehension processes and strategies in L1 and L2 in Malaysian primary and secondary schools

This study is set in the context of the acknowledged debate, highlighted by the work of Lunzer and Gardner's Schools Council project (1979), concerning the theoretical issue of whether reading comprehension is a unitary competence or consists of identifiable discrete subskills. This long- standing polarised theoretical debate can be traced as far back as the sixties and seventies in the position taken by reading experts such as Spache and Spache (1969), Davis (1971) and Thorndike (1973). Spache and Spache and Thorndike concluded that reading comprehension was a unitary competence, not consisting of separate skills that can be practised in isolation. On the other hand, Davis viewed reading comprehension as composed of separate identifiable skills and abilities. The polarised arguments pose a question as to the nature of reading comprehension. Is there such a thing as discrete reading comprehension sub-skills that can be built up hierarchically and can promote the understanding of texts? With the question in mind this study set out to test whether reading comprehension is a unitary competence of sub-skills or one that can be broken down into separate sub-skills. The research involved the rigorous testing of a series of reading comprehension tests in two languages using four texts taken from the work of Lunzer and Gardner (1979). The texts were modified to suit the socio-cultural context of the students. All of the chosen texts were translated into Bahasa (L1) which is the mother-tongue of the students. In principle, the focus of the study in Part I is centred on replicating the work of Lunzer and Gardner (1979) in some selected Malaysian primary and secondary schools. It seeks to understand whether the main hypothesis holds that reading comprehension is unitary in nature and cannot be broken down into a number of distinct subskills. A selected 300 primary school pupils aged 12 were required to read and answer four comprehension tests written in L1. Another selected 150 secondary school students aged 15 were required to perform the same tasks on material written in L2. Each test has about 30 comprehension questions which are divided into eight categories of subskills. The two groups produced a total of 1,636 valid comprehension tests which were marked rigorously. Factor analysing the data yielded a number of important findings concerning whether reading comprehension subskills are unitary or hierarchic in nature. These findings may suggest some recommendations for improving reading for learning across the Malaysian primary and secondary schools curriculum. In Part I the outlined five chapters discuss the background information which led to the testing of the 450 students, the related literature review, the chosen research design and analysis, the findings and the research implications for the Part II study. The study reported in Part II is an extension of the work done in Part I, in that the remaining five chapters explore the justification of conducting the indepth interviews, the review of the related literature, the design of the interview, the findings and the educational implications of the study. This part explores the reading comprehension strategies that were used by the students in answering the comprehension questions. The second study was successfully made during the summer of 1994. A total of 16 students aged 15 were selected from several secondary schools in Johor Bahru, the capital state of Johor, Malaysia … … The thesis ends with a discussion of the implications from both studies especially for the reading curriculum, instruction, pedagogy, classroom practice and future research

A Preliminary Study To Determine The Essential Facilities Required For Tourists In Langkawi

The main purpose of this research is to study and determine the essential facilities required for tourists in Langkawi. This research analyses the factor which may increase a hotel’s popularity and level of customer satisfaction based on certain criteria and features provided by the hotel management. Information and data were collected from various sources including past research papers and journals. Questionnaire surveys was used in gathering relevant data. The results from the data analysis shows that the majority of respondents seems to agree with most of the features and facilities provided by the hotel to be an incentive and may influence their decision making. The results also show that most people prioritize several factors such as room facilities, safety features, location and appearances over recreational and entertainment facilities. The results of this research is expected to help hoteliers to increase the quality of their hotels to accommodate the needs of their guests. This research also aims to assist future researchers and developers to identify the quality and traits of a hotel which are more preferable and are highly demanded in order to create a better hotel and resort for the public

The challenges in inculcating Islamic values in the national educational system in the era of globalization: a case-study at a private secondary school

The purpose of this research is to investigate the challenges on the inculcation of Islamic values in the National Educational System (NES) in the era of globalization. Qualitative research was adopted as the method in this study. Five school authorities and five teachers with more than fifteen years of experience were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Previous research found that teachers faced many problems in inculcating Islamic values, such as in the process of teaching and learning, curriculum, methods of teaching, and so on. The limitation of previous research was most of the problems in the process of teaching and learning only. Here we report the problems that become challenges in inculcating Islamic values in the NES in the era of globalization. The challenges are the national curriculum, parents’ lack of support, students’ diverse backgrounds, and the pandemic scenario of COVID-19. Therefore, school authorities and teachers should try continuously to provide the best education to students, such as innovation and evaluation in teaching and learning both related to subjects in the national curriculum, and the activities in instilling Islamic values. Additionally, it needs good cooperation with various parties like the government, parents, and students

Our child is dying: exploring the experiences, challenges and coping mechanisms of Malaysian parents as caregivers of a child with cancer

Parents as caregivers to paediatric cancer patients face various challenges. This paper highlights the characteristics, caregiving tasks, resources, and other role demands/stressors experienced by a pair of parents as primary family caregivers of a child with cancer in the Malaysian setting. Besides, coping strategies are also put forward as a significant element in understanding the functions of a parent as a caregiver. Hence, this study aims to explore the in-depth experiences of caregivers and investigate the challenges as well as the coping strategies adopted by them, particularly as Muslims. Eight (8) main themes emerged from the findings: (i) chronology; (ii) caregiver roles; (iii) routine changes; (iv) making decisions; (v) financial; (vi) letting go; (vii) external support; and (viii) internal support. This study is unique because the patient was an only child, and he managed to score excellent grades in all subjects in the Malaysian Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) despite not attending school for almost one year due to cancer treatments

The Quality of Building as a Whole for Public Preschools at Klang Valley in Malaysia

High-quality preschool buildings are crucial for pedagogy. This paper explores and proposes improvements to the ‘building as a whole’ quality of 26 Malaysian public preschools in Klang Valley. Five aspects (image and scale, circulation, common core of shared facilities, indoor environmental quality, safety, and security) were assessed with the Children’s Physical Environment Rating Scale. The average ‘building as a whole’ quality is rated ‘Good’ and none were rated ‘Excellent’ nor ‘Poor’. However, the ‘common core of shared facilities’ aspect was only rated ‘Fair’ in most preschools. Recommendations are hoped to guide stakeholders to ensure better preschools in Malaysia.Keywords: circulation; facilities; image and scale; indoor environmental quality; safety and security.eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.229