Application of multiple intelligences teaching approach in classroom instruction based on POMAT model

Instructional practices, particularly in Malaysian secondary schools, have undergone tremendous transformation in order to achieve Vision 2020. Part of it is the use of various teaching approaches in classroom instruction as an effort to help the students comprehend the curriculum content better. One of the major teaching approaches which is widely used in Malaysian secondary schools is Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach or collectively known as MITA. Hence, a qualitative research was conducted to look at teachers’ instructional practices in employing multiple intelligences in classroom instruction. Research subjects were six English teachers who serve as informants. Data were collected from classroom observations, semi-structured in-depth interviews and document analysis. Classroom observations were conducted to record the actual classroom instruction that took place in English reading comprehension classrooms while semi-structured in-depth interviews were administered to obtain precise information from the informants. Raw data were recorded and transcribed manually. Later, the data were analysed interpretively and descriptively based on the themes that emerged from research findings. Meanwhile, triangulating data was done to ascertain the validity and reliability of the findings. The study unveiled the application of multiple intelligences teaching approach in classroom instruction at some secondary schools in Pahang based on the POMAT model. Important aspects being explored included the application of multiple intelligences in instructional procedure, instructional objective, instructional material, classroom assessment and instructional technology

The effect of brain dominance on the relationship between learning styles and Japanese language academic achievement

Languages have become an important tool in the borderless global communication and interaction. A significant increase in the number of foreign language learners has been recorded and the research of Japanese teaching and learning has significantly increased. However, teaching and learning Japanese Language is a challenge because students learnt differently. This study aimed to explore the mediation effect of Left-brain and Right-brain Dominance on the relationship between Learning Styles and Japanese Language Academic Achievement. The results showed that Left-brain and Right-brain Dominance had full mediation effect on the relationship between Learning Styles and Japanese Language Academic Achievement. The effect of Left-brain Dominance on Japanese Language Academic Achievement was statistically significant at 0.001 level with the standardized effects of 0.245. Whereas the effect of Right-brain Dominant on Japanese Language Academic Achievement was statistically significant at 0.001 level with the standardized effects of 0.258. The results showed that four sub-constructs of learning styles were the indicators for Japanese language learning. However, these Learning Styles did not significantly influence a student’s Japanese language academic achievement due to its weak effect i.e. 0.041 in terms of its relationship strength. The Left-brain and Right-brain Dominance has an impact on individuals’ learning styles whereby the activities in the brain halves could overtake Japanese language learning. In any case, the consideration of the strategies of Learning Styles, Left-brain and Right-brain learning strategies would enhance the results of Japanese Language Academic Achievement

Kesediaan murid Tahun 1 mengikuti pengajaran kemahiran proses sains dalam bahasa Inggeris

The Ministry of Education has implemented English as the medium of instruction for Science subject in primary schools in 2003. The students were the most affected by this change. It worries that students would begin to lose their interest and lack of confidence in learning Science. While, teachers and students should be confident with their opinion in order to teach the subject. In addition, the implementation of this teaching also raises problems to the rural students. The students in the rural areas who are not as prone to use English in their daily lives will have problems and are less willing which in turn can cause lose interest and fall behind in their studies. therefore, this study focused on the following aspects: a) to compare the readiness of the Year 1 students in the urban and rural areas to master the process skills and proficiency of Science in English terms, and b) to examine the readiness of Year 1 students to learn the process skill of Science in English

Pelaksanaan Pengajaran Kemahiran Menyiasat di Prasekolah dan Tahap 1 Sekolah Rendah

Pengajaran kemahiran menyiasat telah diberi penekanan dalam kurikulum di peringkat prasekolah dan sekolah rendah kerana ia berupaya meningkatkan penguasaan kemahiran berfikir murid. Penyelidikan yang dijalankan ini adalah untuk meneliti tiga persoalan utama dalam pengajaran kemahiran menyiasat iaitu; (a) apakah faktor yang dipertimbangkan oleh guru semasa merancang pengajaran kemahiran menyiasat, (b) sejauh mana guru membina soalan mengikut Taksonomi Cogaff, dan (c) sejauh mana guru melibatkan kemahiran proses sains dalam aktiviti penyiasatan. Peserta kajian yang dipilih untuk tujuan kajian ini terdiri daripada empat orang guru yang mengajar di sebuah sekolah yang sama. Guru-guru ini dipilih bagi mewakili setiap kumpulan murid yang diajar dari peringkat prasekolah hingga Tahun 3 sekolah rendah. Tiga kaedah pengutipan data bagi kajian kes digunakan iaitu pemerhatian, temu bual, dan bukti dokumen. Penyelidik bertindak sebagai pemerhati dalam pengajaran keempat empat orang guru bagi setiap kelas iaitu dari peringkat prasekolah hingga Tahun 3 sekolah rendah. Data-data yang diperoleh dari ketiga-tiga kaedah ini dianalisis dan dibandingkan dalam membuat suatu rumusan bagi kajian ini. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa peserta kajian mempertimbangkan 23 faktor dalam perancangan pengajaran. Bagi aktiviti penyoalan, kajian ini mendapati guru paling kerap menggunakan soalan tahap pengetahuan. Tahap soalan yang kedua paling kerap digunakan adalah soalan tahap analisis. Ini memberi peluang kepada murid membuat aktiviti penyiasatan. Dari segi kemahiran proses sains, didapati bahawa kemahiran pemerhatian dan pengelasan merupakan kemahiran proses sains yang paling kerap digunakan oleh guru dalam aktiviti penyiasatan murid. Berdasarkan dapatan yang diperoleh adalah penting bagi guru yang terlibat dalam pengajaran kemahiran menyiasat mempertingkatkan pengetahuan terhadap konsep sains. Guru ini seharusnya diberi pendedahan dan pengalaman tentang konsep sains yang akan diajar. Selain itu, konsep sains yang ingin diajar juga perlu bersesuaian dengan tahap kebolehan murid. Bagi menggalakkan murid berminat mempelajari konsep sains guru juga perlu menggunakan alat atau bahan bantu mengajar yang sesuai dengan tahap umur murid. Dalam sesi pengajaran yang dijalankan didapati guru kurang menggunakan soalan afektif dan soalan tahap kognitif tinggi seperti aplikasi, sintesis, dan penilaian. Tahap soalan ini merupakan jenis soalan mencapah yang dapat menggalakkan penglibatan murid dalam aktiviti penyiasatan. Justeru adalah wajar guru diberi pendedahan dan latihan dalam penggunaan dan pembentukkan tahap soalan ini. Bagi aspek kemahiran proses sains, guru kerap menggunakan kemahiran pemerhatian dan membuat pengelasan. Murid juga kurang diberikan situasi atau fenomena yang menggalakkan penggunaan kemahiran proses sains yang lain seperti membuat ukuran, membuat ramalan, dan membuat inferens dalam aktiviti penyiasatan. Oleh itu, guru perlu mempelbagaikan contoh, masalah, situasi, dan fenomena yang berkaitan dengan konsep sains yang disiasat agar lebih banyak kemahiran proses sains yang dapat dilibatkan dalam aktiviti tersebut

Philosophy underlying emotional intelligence in relation to level of curiosity and academic achievement of rural area students

Problem statement: Since emotional intelligence is still not wholly-accepted despite evidences of its powerful influence in general setting, this study is therefore conducted to identify the emotional intelligence level among school students in rural areas, relationships between emotional intelligence and anxiety, as well as relationships between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. Approach: It involved a sample of 223 form 1 and form 4 students. Process of data collection was administered by using a set of questionnaire which includes a self report measure of emotional intelligence adapted from Schutte Self-Report of Emotional Intelligence (SSRI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). T-test analysis showed that there were no significant differences for the emotional intelligence level within all students between ages 13 and 16. However, there were significant differences for the emotional intelligence level among female students in accordance to age. Results: The results showed that there were significant differences for emotional intelligence level among all students between both genders. Mean score of emotional intelligence within female students appeared to be higher than male students. Pearson correlation analysis showed that emotional intelligence levels of all students were significant negatively in relation to anxiety level. Emotional intelligence was also significant positively in correlation with academic achievement of all variables including students’ age and gender. Conclusion: Besides emotional intelligence, the study revealed that anxiety was also significantly correlated in a negative manner with academic achievement among all students

The effectiveness of Drug Rehabilitation Module on the motivation achievement among male inmates in Malaysia.

This study on the effects of a Drug Rehabilitation Module on the motivation achievement of Rehabilitation Centre inmates used an experimental research design. Sixty-six respondents of the centre participated and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Each group comprised of 33 subjects. The hypotheses were tested using t-test and Pearson correlation statistics. Result showed that there is a significant difference between the pre and post-test measures of motivation achievement in the experimental group, thus proving the effectiveness of the Drug Rehabilitation Module in increasing motivation achievement among Rehabilitation Centre inmates, t (32) = -3.88, p = 0.001. Results also show that there is a significant difference in motivation achievement between the experimental and control groups, t (32) = -3.82, p = 0.001 at ? = 0.05. However, result show that the mean score difference was more pronounced for the experimental group (M=111.21), compared to the control group (M=85.94). In summary, results show that the motivation achievement of rehabilitation centre inmates can be improved using the module mentioned above. Achievement motivation is a person’s desire to achieve a goal. Hence, more studies with better control need to be conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the above module. The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the module on inmates in Rehabilitation Centre. The study also emphasized motivation achievement being measured from various aspects such as goal setting, perseverance, expectattion for success, anxiety level, risks, and attitude as important characteriscs of resilience. Hence, it is concluded that the rahabilitation module can be used to improve the motivation achievement of Rehabilitation Centre inmates

The Challenges of Implementing Industrial Revolution 4.0 Elements in TVET

The advent of the industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) impacted the national industry and the need to provide a highly skilled and competitive workforce. However, the previous study on the implementation of IR4.0 in vocational colleges in Malaysia is still unsatisfactory. Previous studies have also focused on Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) at the higher education. Therefore, this study conducted to explore the challenges towards the implementation of the IR4.0 element in the Vocational College (VC) curriculum. VC offers education skills certificate and diploma level to secondary school students. VC needs to be prepared to face this phenomenon in providing national human resources. The study employs qualitative design using in depth semi structured interview method guided by the interview protocol. Seven participants who met the sampling criteria were involved in this study. The Interview recording systematically managed and translated verbatim as interview transcripts. Then a thematic analysis performed using ATLAS.ti software (version 8) to construct appropriate codes, categories and themes to answer the research questions. The results of the interviews found five main challenges identified on the implementation of the IR4.0 element in the VC curriculum; curriculum review, providing teaching workforce, providing infrastructure, industry relations and engaging in education. Overall findings indicate the need for a revisit of the VC curriculum to implement the IR4.0 element and has implications to implement in providing a national workforce that meets the needs of the industrial demand. This study expected useful to Bahagian Pendidikan dan Latihan Teknikal Vokasional (BPLTV) in strengthening the Vocational Education Transformation agenda through the implementation of VC curriculum revisit by considering the challenges of IR4.0 implementation from various angles discussed to ensure students' knowledge and skills meet IR4.0 requirements to contribute to national development

The requirement of grouping technique in English lesson in meeting the demand of philosophy of education in Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the need of grouping techniques in English language lesson in order for the school students to use the language efficiently and confidently. This is one of the available approaches used in meeting the demand of philosophy of education in Malaysia. The application of the techniques is through grouping activities which will be able to stimulate and persuade the interest of study among students. Through these activities, the involvement of student in class is increased. By comparing the individuals learning, student is more active and energetic during studies in group. In addition, learning in grouping is more affective to stimulate and strike the values such as motivation, confidence and diligent

Perspectives of learning science effectively: comparison between Western Australian teachers and Malaysian teachers

Malaysia hopes to be a developed country which is driven by the industrial and agricultural sectors by the year 2020. This aspiration is guided by Vision 2020 and in order to achieve this, the manpower of the country must be developed and furnished with strong technological, mathematical, and science backgrounds as early as the primary level. It is important to note that effective learning influences the attitude of the students towards science, and if Malaysia is to develop in accordance with Vision 2020, this issue must be addressed. In developed countries like Australia, the learning of science is developed humanistically to attract students to science. The learning of science in Australia involves materials, environments, and activities which encourage students to actively participate in the class. Therefore, it is important to investigate teachers’ perspectives towards students’ learning as teachers are facilitators of learning. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study that was carried out to compare the perspectives of primary science teachers from Malaysia and from Western Australia, with the focus on five research questions. The first question is “what are the teachers’ perspectives of learning science?”, whereas the second, third and fourth are, “what are the teachers’ perspectives of effective teaching methods, the importance of teaching aids and implementing science process skills in the learning of science?” and the fifth question is, “how to assess the progress of the students in learning science?” The participants of the study were twelve primary science teachers from Western Australia and from Malaysia, respectively. The data collection approaches employed included open-ended questions, non-participant observation techniques, and document collection. The findings indicated that there are four types of teachers’ perspectives of learning science, three perspectives of the implementation of science process skills in learning science, and five methods in assessing students’ progress in learning science

Students' perspectives on clinical practice in Medical Assistant education.

The aim of the study was to obtain student' perspectives on the clinical practice on the Diploma in Medical Assistant (DMA). The study design was cross-sectional survey performed in the Medical Assistant College, Seremban Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire was used to 67 fourth-semester students who have undergone clinical practice in several hospitals in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Data were analysed descriptively as to gain the students’ perspectives in the aspects of confidence, clinical learning and the use of clinical equipment. The study outcome showed that there were a degree of concern among the students who undergo the clinical practice. Other than that, there were several issues that emerged in the clinical implementation which was the gap that exists between theory and practice such as the different equipment used in the college compared to the clinical placement where they were assigned. Practical exposure in college needs to be optimised so that it can enhance students’ confidence before they undertake clinical practice. Other than that, the implementation of theoretical teaching and practice should be integrated as to prevent the gap from forming between theory and practice