Physical Environment and Learning through Play: Case Studies in Malaysian Preschools

As acquisition of knowledge includes the role of experience in acquiring knowledge, Learning through Play (LTP) becomes essential for children’s physical, social and cognitive development. LTP has also been identified as one of the teaching and learning approaches in Malaysia’s National Preschool Curriculum Standard (NPCS) to achieve its specified learning and development components. With physical environment capable of providing sensory stimuli and learning opportunities, physical environment aligned with the vision and principles of LTP should equally be given emphasis. This paper examines the physical environment of preschools in an attempt to demonstrate the relationship between LTP practices and a preschool’s physical environment. A case study research was undertaken based on a sampling frame with purposive homogeneous sampling employed to select four privately operated preschools within converted residential houses in Johor Bahru. Findings of qualitative analysis indicated that albeit physical environment of preschools are less supportive of LTP, children used ingenuity to modify and adapt their physical environment in support of their individual play needs. LTP was hindered due to lack of children’s own free will and accessibility to materials and equipment as well as constrained independent mobility and allowable play with restrictions imposed due to safety concern and time factor. Finally, conclusions are presented and suggestions for possible future direction are discussed

Appropriating affordances for learning through play in indoor physical environment of Malaysian preschools

The National Preschool Curriculum (NPC) of Malaysia introduced ‘Learning through Play’ (LTP) as a pedagogy for preschools. However, for holistic growth, quality built environment planned in alignment with principles of LTP in preschools should be emphasized. Theory of affordances was utilised whereby existence of affordance within physical environment creates potential for actualization and is independent of users, namely children. Focussing on private preschools within converted terrace houses which represent the biggest percentage of cases in Malaysia, it was found that enhancement of learning environments reflecting LTP has yet to be addressed. The study aimed to identify appropriate affordances for adaptation within indoor environment of preschools through perceptual study. The first objective examined application of available affordances and physical environment characteristics through four case studies of private preschools within converted terrace houses in Johor Bahru, selected through homogeneous purposive sampling. Data was collected through participant observation. The second objective was to discern parents’ and teachers’ perception on LTP, existing and ideal physical environment, and to discern children’s favourite play themes. Objective three sought similarities and differences between perceptions of teachers, parents and children. For objectives two and three, 20 teachers and 16 parents, selected through convenience sampling responded to a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire survey. Participatory drawing and story-telling were obtained from 43 preschoolers selected through probability sampling. Statistical methods were used for quantitative data, while children’s drawings were coded. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic network and domain analysis. Findings suggested that appropriate characteristics for adaptation based on similarities in perception between the three groups included variety of materials and equipments, places for personalization, provision of challenges, good indoor and outdoor connection and opportunities for social interaction. The findings may open up the possibility of future studies on principles of designing for LTP in Malaysian preschools

Awareness, knowledge and acceptance of community on a non-communicable disease intervention – findings from the “Healthy Community, Developed Nation” (KOSPEN) in the Southern Zone of Peninsular Malaysia

Introduction Community-based health promotion programme has been recognised to reduce modifiable lifestyle risk behaviours for non-communicable diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the proportion of the awareness, knowledge and acceptance of a community-based intervention programme, “Komuniti Sihat, Pembina Negara“ (KOSPEN) (Healthy Community, Developed Nation). Methods This cross-sectional study employed a two-stage proportionate sampling method to select a representative sample of communities in the Southern states of Peninsular Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, and Johor. Face-to-face interviews by trained research assistants using pre-validated questionnaires was the study tool applied. Results The study revealed that approximately two thirds of respondents were aware of the KOSPEN programme (65.5%) and almost half (45.4%) of them were involved in the health promotion activities, namely health screenings (84.8%), health talks (66.4%), and providing plain water in formal occasion (52.9%). About two thirds and one-quarter of them have a very good (73.4%) and good (24.1%) general view on this programme. Four out of ten respondents faced difficulties joining the activities. Lack of time (83.0%) was reported as the main barrier. Conclusions The KOSPEN programme in overall was moderately accepted by the community. However, the need for future improvement has to be highlighted in order to enhance the involvement and participation of the communities

Perceptions on site-specific advanced practice roles for radiation therapists in Singapore : a single centre study

Perception of the radiation oncologists (ROs) and radiation therapists (RTTs) on site-specific advanced practice (SSAP) roles for RTTs, the establishment of SSAP in radiotherapy and the possible implication on current services in Singapore were assessed. Opinions of ROs and RTTs on management support, driving forces, restraints and implication upon successful establishment of SSAP were obtained. Main findings include strong RO’s support for SSAP development and RTTs' requisition for fair opportunities on role development. Other potential benefits include RTTs' career advancement, job satisfaction and retention. Enhancement of inter-professional relationship, service quality and patient satisfaction is anticipated with greater communication and collaboration

Support of smoking restriction in public areas among adolescents in Malaysia-the findings from tobacco and e-cigarette survey among adolescents in Malaysia (TECMA)

Adolescents are the future generation, and their support for smoke-free policies might create momentum for future stringent smoke-free initiatives. This study aimed to determine the levels and factors associated with support for smoking in public areas among Malaysian school-going adolescents aged 10-19 years. The data were derived from the Tobacco and E-cigarettes among adolescents in Malaysia (TECMA), which employed the cross-sectional study design and multistage sampling to select the representative samples of school-going adolescents. Data was obtained through self-administered of pre-validated questionnaire. Descriptive study, cross-tabulation and multivariable analysis were used for analysis. Majority of respondents supported smoking restriction in public areas (86.3%, 95 CI 85.4-87.1). The proportion and likelihood of support of smoke-free initiative were higher among respondents with better knowledge of the harmful effects of second-hand smoke (SHS), been taught in school about the health effects of smoking, older age group (16-19 years), female, those students schooling in urban areas, Malay and other Bumiputras from Sabah and Sarawak. However, current smokers and ECV users were less likely to support smoke-free initiatives in public areas. The level of support for smoke-free initiative in public areas was high among youths in Malaysia, and this might offer promising prospects to expand the non-smoking areas to more public areas in the future

An ensemble of intelligent water drop algorithm for feature selection optimization problem

Master River Multiple Creeks Intelligent Water Drops (MRMC-IWD) is an ensemble model of the intelligent water drop, whereby a divide-and-conquer strategy is utilized to improve the search process. In this paper, the potential of the MRMC-IWD using real-world optimization problems related to feature selection and classification tasks is assessed. An experimental study on a number of publicly available benchmark data sets and two real-world problems, namely human motion detection and motor fault detection, are conducted. Comparative studies pertaining to the features reduction and classification accuracies using different evaluation techniques (consistency-based, CFS, and FRFS) and classifiers (i.e., C4.5, VQNN, and SVM) are conducted. The results ascertain the effectiveness of the MRMC-IWD in improving the performance of the original IWD algorithm as well as undertaking real-world optimization problems

Prevalence and factors associated with smoking cessation among elderly in Malaysia- A findings from the population-based study

Introduction: The information of prevalence and associated factor(s) with smoking cessation among the elderly will assist in formulating the suitable policies and reducing the mortality among Malaysian elderly due to smoking-related diseases. This paper aims to describe the prevalence and factor(s) associated with smoking cessation among Malaysian elderly. Methods: We carried out the population-based study using the cross-sectional study design and a sample size of 2,674 respondents obtained via a multistage sampling method. Validated questionnaire and face-to-face interviews approach were the methodologies employed to collect data from the selected respondents. The interview was conducted by trained enumerator using a standardized and validated questionnaire. Descriptive and multiple logistic regression were used in data analysis. Results: The present findings demonstrated that almost 1 out of 10 of Malaysian elderly are current smokers. The prevalence of smoking was significantly higher among men (28.1%) compared to women (2.9%). Multivariable analysis showed that males and other ethnicities were less likely to cease smoking, while those with advancing age were more likely to stop smoking compared to the younger-aged elderly. Based on multivariate analysis, diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia were not significant factors associated with smoking cessation. Conclusions: The study has shown a low proportion of Malaysian elderly is ex- smoker. Suitable measures and programmes should be formulated and implemented to increase the quit smoking rate among them and subsequently to increase the quality of life by reducing the burden of smoking-related disease among the Malaysian elderly

Construct validity and reliability of Malay language-perception towards smoking questionnaire (BM-PTSQ) among secondary school adolescents

Multitude studies have demonstrated that perception is an integral factor associated with smoking. However, no such tool was available in the Malay language. In this study, we established a Bahasa Malaysia version of PTSQ (BM-PTSQ) and tested the validity and reliability among secondary school adolescents. The English version of PTSQ originally consists of 12 items. It was translated into Bahasa Malaysia and back-translated again into English to check for consistency. After face validity (face-to-face query) was determined among 20 secondary school adolescents, only 10 items were included in the survey. Construct validity was established from 407 school adolescents through random selection in the same locality. More than 60% of the respondents were female, while the majority of them (67.3%) were schooling in rural areas. Then, the reliability of the questionnaire was determined with Cronbach’s alpha. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has grouped PTSQ into two components associated with either knowledge or attitude towards smoking. The variance and Cronbach’s alpha for the first and second components were 38.24% and 0.861 (7 items), 21.62% and 0.661 (3 items), respectively. The PTSQ showed good validity and reliability for measuring perception of smoking among secondary school-going adolescents in Malaysia. Hence, this is a viable measurement tool. But, more importantly, this study showed an urgent need to improve smoking education among adolescents in Malaysia

Self-rated health in middle-aged and elderly Chinese : distribution, determinants and associations with cardio-metabolic risk factors

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) has been demonstrated to be an accurate reflection of a person's health and a valid predictor of incident mortality and chronic morbidity. We aimed to evaluate the distribution and factors associated with SRH and its association with biomarkers of cardio-metabolic diseases among middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Methods: Survey of 1,458 men and 1,831 women aged 50 to 70 years, conducted in one urban and two rural areas of Beijing and Shanghai in 2005. SRH status was measured and categorized as good (very good and good) vs. not good (fair, poor and very poor). Determinants of SRH and associations with biomarkers of cardio-metabolic diseases were evaluated using logistic regression. Results: Thirty two percent of participants reported good SRH. Males and rural residents tended to report good SRH. After adjusting for potential confounders, residence, physical activity, employment status, sleep quality and presence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression were the main determinants of SRH. Those free from cardiovascular disease (OR 3.68; 95%CI 2.39; 5.66), rural residents (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.47; 2.43), non-depressed participants (OR 2.50; 95% CI 1.67; 3.73) and those with good sleep quality (OR 2.95; 95% CI 2.22; 3.91) had almost twice or over the chance of reporting good SRH compared to their counterparts. There were significant associations -and trend- between SRH and levels of inflammatory markers, insulin levels and insulin resistance. Conclusion: Only one third of middle-aged and elderly Chinese assessed their health status as good or very good. Although further longitudinal studies are required to confirm our findings, interventions targeting social inequalities, lifestyle patterns might not only contribute to prevent chronic morbidity but as well to improve populations' perceived health

Sleep quality in middle-aged and elderly Chinese: distribution, associated factors and associations with cardio-metabolic risk factors

Background Poor sleep quality has been associated with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and mortality. However, limited information exists on the distribution and determinants of sleep quality and its associations with cardio-metabolic risk factors in Chinese populations. We aimed to evaluate this in the current study. Methods A cross-sectional survey conducted in 2005 of 1,458 men and 1,831 women aged 50–70 years from urban and rural areas of Beijing and Shanghai. Using a questionnaire, sleep quality was measured in levels of well, common and poor. Comprehensive measures of socio-demographical and health factors and biomarkers of cardio-metabolic disease were recorded. These were evaluated in association with sleep quality using logistic regression models. Results Half of the population reported good sleep quality. After adjusting for potential confounders, women and Beijing residents had almost half the probability to report good sleep quality. Good physical and mental health (good levels of self-rated health (OR 2.48; 95%CI 2.08 to 2.96) and no depression (OR 4.05; 95%CI 3.12 to 5.26)) related to an increased chance of reporting good sleep quality, whereas short sleep duration (<7 hrs OR 0.10; 95%CI 0.07 to 0.14)) decreased it substantially. There were significant associations between levels of sleep quality and concentrations of plasma insulin, total and LDL cholesterol, and index of insulin resistance. Conclusion Levels of good sleep quality in middle-age and elderly Chinese were low. Gender, geographical location, self-rated health, depression and sleep quantity were major factors associated with sleep quality. Prospective studies are required to distil the factors that determine sleep quality and the effects that sleep patterns exert on cardio-metabolic health