A Multivariate Analysis of Attitude Towards Teaching

This study reports the relationship between attitude towards teaching and ethnicity, sex, entry qualification, personality traits and motives for teaching. Thefindings showed that attitude ofIndian trainees was significantly different from that of Malay trainees; but there was no significant difference between attitude of Chinese from that ofMalay trainees. Attitude of male students was not significantly different from that offamale students; and the attitude of SPM students was undifferentiated from that of the STPM students. None of the motive factors was significantly related to attitude. Two personality factors were positively related to attitude, viz., emotional stability and surgency; and another two factors were negatively related to attitude, i.e., paranoid tendency and sophistication

Personality Traits: A Comparison of Education and Non-Education Students

Kajian ini melaporkan profil personaliti bagi dua kumpulan pelajar; satu dari sebuah maktab perguruan dan satu lagi dari sebuah universiti. Ujian enam belas P.F. Cattell (Borang A) telah digunakan untuk mengukur trait personaliti pelajar-pelajar tersebut. Hasil kajian menunjukkan perbezaan signifikan antara pelajar maktab perguruan dan universiti bagi enam daripada enam belas faktor. Analisis mengikut jantina menunjukkan perbezaan signifikan bagi tujuh faktor bagi pelajar lelaki dan empat faktor bagi pelajar perempuan. Profil personaliti bagi pelajar Melayu dari kedua-dua institusi menunjukkan perbezaan signifikan bagi sembilan faktor; manakala bagi pelajar Gina, perbezaan signifikan adalah bagi tiga faktor

Job motivation and performance of secondary school teachers

Performance can be regarded as almost any behavior, which is directed toward task or goal accomplishment. Despite extensive research, discussion and debate on how to predict employees' performance, teachers performance is complex and remains difficult to predict and evaluate. Teachers are still uncertain whether they can rely on some specific characteristics of performance. In view of this practice and in evaluating teachers' performance at the work place, it is therefore the interest of the researcher to conduct a study on secondary school teachers, so as to determine their job motivation and job performance. The second objective of this study is to compare job motivation with job performance and the third one is to compare teaching performance with job performance of secondary school teachers. This correlation study involved a total of 245 secondary school teachers throughout Kedah. Data will be analyzed using the t-test and ANOV

Examining the efficacy of the Olweus prevention programme in reducing bullying: the Malaysian experience

AbstractMany countries have adapted or adopted the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme after it was reported that there was a significant reduction in levels of bullying and being bullied. The positive changes were maintained 20 months after the intervention. The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of the Olweus prevention programme in reducing bullying in selected schools in Malaysia. This study used an experimental pre-test/post-test comparison including a control group involving six secondary schools. Results showed some indication of the effectiveness of the bully-intervention programme in one of the schools. Intervention at the classroom level showed more positive results

Correlates of avoidance help-seeking behaviors among Malaysian adolescents

The study examined correlates of avoidance help seeking behaviors among secondary school students in the state of Kedah, Malaysia. Particularly,the study examined the relationship between implicit beliefs about intelligence, academic goal orientations, perception of social and cognitive competence, classroom goal orientations, threat to self-worth, and avoidance help-seeking behavior in learning mathematics. Surveys were administered to 1849 secondary school students (1449 Malays and 400 non- Malays: 900 males and 949 females), aged between 13 and 17 years, who were studying mathematics. The instrument for the survey was adapted mainly from the Pattern of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS). Descriptive statistics was used to examine patterns of avoidance help-seeking behavior:Pearson correlation was used to examine relationships among the variables. Findings indicated that students who perceived math ability as static and students who perceived peers and teachers as posing a threat to their self-worth are the least likely to ask for help. Students who learnt for mastery and who had a high perception of their math cognitive competence were least likely to avoid help seeking when needed. A stepwise regression analysis identified low task focused goals, high peer and teacher threats, low perception of cognitive competence, and a fixed belief about the nature of intelligence as the five main predictors of avoidance help-seeking behavior in learning mathematics. Discussion will center on these significant psychological factors that have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics at the secondary school level

Keberkesanan kendiri dan kerisauan di kalangan pelajar pendidikan tinggi: Tinjauan terhadap satu kursus teras universiti

A total of 940 students who are taking ‘introduction to Writing’ (in Malay) course in semester May 1998/99, were involved in this study. The questionnaire was administered to elicit answers to the following research objectives: 1. To identify the students self-efficacy and anxiety towards the Malay language; 2. To identify the factors involved in influencing the students’ self-efficacy and anxiety; and 3. To explain students’ self-efficacy and anxiety towards Malay language based on sex, early education and university entry-level qualification. The findings from this study show the influence of psychological factors on students and the teachings and learning implications at school and university level