Green Technology: A Must or a Need in TVET Education in Malaysia?

Green Technology is seen as the optimal solution in addressing most of the environmental issues affecting our society today. The movement towards green technology will undoubtedly change the labour market. Although, there were numerous studies been done in regards to green technology but the question remains unanswered when it comes to Vocational Colleges in Malaysia. Therefore, the main goal of this current study is to investigate and develop an in-depth exploration of the need of incorporating Green Technology in one of the most prominent TVET institutions in Malaysia which is the Vocational Colleges. The study uses exploratory sequential mixed method as the research design but only the qualitative approach is being selected to be discussed in this paper. Hence, we report the findings conducted through semi-structured interview by interviewing 7 industrial players in TVET, associated with Vocational Colleges in Malaysia. In relation to the main findings from this study, we found that all 7 participants believe that there is a need to incorporate green technology in the curriculum of Vocational Colleges as to upgrade and fulfill the industry’s needs. Taken together, this finding suggests that educational reform may be the most important tool in the future of green technology in Vocational Colleges and by all means it is defined as a need rather than a must

Pelaksanaan pembelajaran melalui buku teks digital dalam memperkasakan pengajaran guru di sekolah

Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengkaji persepsi guru dan cabaran dalam pelaksanaan pembelajaran melalui buku teks digital dalam memperkasakan pengajaran guru di sekolah. Selain itu, untuk mengetahui kecenderungan guru untuk melibatkan diri dalam pembelajaran melalui buku teks digital. Kajian ini berbentuk kuantitatif dan melibatkan guru-guru di sekolah yang melaksanakan pembelajaran melalui buku teks digital. Borang soal selidik telah disebarkan kepada 75 sampel kajian yang terlibat. Terdapat tiga buah sekolah yang terlibat dalam kajian ini iaitu Sekolah Kebangsaan Telok Kalong, Sekolah Kebangsaan Paya Bunga dan Sekolah Kebangsaan Kompleks Seberang Takir. Data kajian telah dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistical Packages For The Social Sciences 20.0 (SPSS) dengan menjalankan analisis deskriptif iaitu nilai min dan sisihan piawai bagi persoalan kajian pertama, kedua dan ketiga. Manakala bagi persoalan kajian keempat dianalisis menggunakan analisis korelasi Spearman untuk mengetahui hubungan antara persepsi guru bagi aspek kesediaan, penggunaan dan kemahuan dengan kecenderungan guru untuk melibatkan diri dalam pembelajaran melalui buku teks digital. Hasil analisis mendapati pekali korelasi menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang signifikan, sekaligus menunjukkan HO tidak diterima. Kesimpulannya, kajian ini telah berjaya mencapai objektif yang ditetapkan tetapi pelaksanaannya masih ditahap kurang memuaskan dan masih memerlukan penambahbaikan pada masa akan datang

Continuous improvement CSF framework for assessing CI maturity in ISO and non-ISO certified construction contracting organizations

Continuous Improvement (CI) is being recognized as key enabler for productivity improvement within the construction industry especially since it was emphasized in the Egan Report in 1998. However, core business processes within the construction industry have not been able to take advantage of this philosophy. Research and development efforts in this area has been lacking in terms of its applications from a construction industry-specific perspective. Attempts to focus on CI through specific TQM and of recent ISO 9000:2000 efforts seem to have had little impact, especially complicated by the unique features of the temporary nature of construction project organizations. It has been identified that construction suffers from delays, cost overruns, rework, variations, claims, poor contract administration and lax supervision by the client’s representative. Taking into account that construction projects are unique, temporary and embedded in sub-contracting culture, the task of achieving productivity improvement requires addressing the CI of specific processes. Hence, the first objective of this research is to determine the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Continuous Improvement (CI) as a focused independent management tool in the Planning and Scheduling (P&S) of construction projects. 38 Success Factors of CI for P&S of construction projects from literature review were listed and verified using three rounds of Delphi Method This constituted the CI Maturity Assessment Framework that was used to assess ISO and Non-ISO construction organizations. The finding shows that, ISO certified companies exhibit a comparatively correlation with CI maturity level, however not being significant enough than non-ISO companies. Hypotheses testing used to compare both groups, and it was found that 35 out of 38 of the CSFs did not show any significant difference in CI maturity level. Hence, it cannot be claimed that ISO certified organizations fully practice the principles of CI. Finally, a conceptual framework for implementing CI based on The Kaizen Blitz approach is proposed for construction projects to enable rapid performance improvements over short timescales that is suitable considering the various construction projects peculiarities

Experts’ Opinion Matters! Green Technology Elements for Construction Technology in Vocational Colleges

Green Technology refers to clean energy production, the use of alternative fuels, and technologies that are less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels. It has garnered a significant amount of interest due to increasing awareness about the impacts of climate change and the depletion of natural resources. While the buildings emit more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases than other industries, the use of Green Technology will be able to reduce human impacts on the natural environment and prevent climate change. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the Green Technology Elements for Construction Technology in Vocational College that is seen fundamental as these students will be in the construction workforce in the future. The study was conducted using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) involving a combination of 20 experts with various expertise from a heterogeneous group. A set of questionnaires using a 7-point Likert Scale was formed based on expert interviews in the first phase of this study and the data obtained were then analysed using triangular fuzzy numbers and ranking for each variable was determined using the defuzzification process. The findings showed that all elements listed reached the experts’ consensus. Expert consensus also found that the Carbon Initiatives element ranked first meanwhile the Introduction to Green Technology element ranked last in the list of elements. These elements are agreed upon in preparing academically exemplary individuals while ensuring every graduate from Vocational College, especially from the Construction Technology course is equipped with job-ready skills to tackle real-life problems. 

Facilitating Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Use in Malaysian TVET Research: The Initial Step Of Inter-Rater Reliability Determination

Creativity is a valuable 21st century attribute vital  to innovation, and is  considered as an important aspect in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This study is prompted by the lack of international test use in Malaysian TVET creativity -related research and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), translated into Malay Language (ML) could fill in this gap. The determination of  inter-rater reliability coefficients  cover 5 norm-referenced dimensions or measures of figural creativity, viz. fluency, originality, elaboration, resistance to premature closure,  abstractness of titles, and the overall average score  for the TTCT (Form A).  This study involves correlation research where subjective answers to TTCT (ML) by 35 prospective teachers from Teacher Education Institute - Temenggong Ibrahim Campus, Johor Bahru   were marked by 3 independent inter-ratters, and analysed for correlation.  Data analyses of IRC were carried out using interclass correlation analysis found in the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. IRC values were obtained as follows:  fluency (0.99), originality (0.99), elaboration (0.90), resistance to premature closure (0.93), abstractness of titles (0.98), and  overall average score (0.99), with r≥0.9, as at an excellent level. In comparison, these IRC values  for TTCT (ML) version are consistent with values for the English (international) TTCT version, viz. r, from 0.78 to 0.99. In conclusion, with the determination of IRC values for the TTCT (ML) version, Malaysian researchers will have the choice and facilitation to use this set of test instruments to investigate creative, innovative or higher-order thinking skills of their TVET respondents

Competencies Needed for Improving Teaching Among Lecturers of Polytechnics in North-Western Nigeria

The study was carried out to determine the competencies needed for improving teaching among lecturers of polytechnics in North-western Nigeria. A polytechnic was established in Nigeria to train individuals to learn a specific skill using competent lecturers for employment or self-reliance after graduation. These lecturers are very essential to the quality of students of electrical/ electronic technology in the polytechnics. However, technology dynamism has become a serious challenge for the lecturers to perform their teaching tasks. Hence the need for lecturers to continually improved on their competence and knowledge of the subject matter content they teach. The study is also to identify any difference of competency needed among the institutions. 122 electrical/electronic lecturers from nine universities were purposely selected as respondents for the study whose consisted of 55 lecturers from five state polytechnics and 67 lecturers from four federal polytechnics. The study adopted survey research design and used structured questionnaire as the main instrument for the data collection. The questionnaires were developed and distributed to respondents. Mean and improvement needed index analysis were used for data analysis to achieve the research objective whilst t-test was used to test the significance difference between the institutions. It was found that electrical/electronic lecturers in polytechnics need improvement of their competencies related to knowledge and skills in the subject matter. However, there was no significant difference of competency needed between the lecturers in state and federal polytechnics on the teaching subject matter. The implication of the finding is that the location of the lecturers did not significantly affect their opinion in the competencies. In conclusion, lecturers of electrical/electronic technology from the polytechnics has low competency in executing technical task assigned to them within the study area which required adequate investigation by determining the competencies of lecturers who happen to be the main implementers of the electrical/electronic programme. Therefore, it is recommended that the schools administrators should continually organized workshop and training for lecturers to build their capacity in order for the lecturers to always develop their competencies to effectively teach the contents of the subject assigned to them

Pupils perception towards the implementation of environmental education across curriculum in Malaysia primary school

Education is an important element in enhancing pupils' awareness on the environment. This is because education plays an important role in shaping and transforming society. In Malaysia, environmental education (EE) across curriculum has long been established. However, to date there is no specific assessment done to determine the successful implementation of these elements. Thus, the perception of pupils is needed to identify the needs of the implementer of the suitability and significance of EE across the curriculum on the pupils' environmental awareness. This study aims to identify the grade 6 pupils' perception toward the implementation of environmental education across curriculum in Malaysia primary school. The results showed that the pupils' perception of the environment was overall high and the location of the school does not significantly affect the pupils' perceptions of the environment. The majority of students defines the concept of the environment as objects. In addition, the percentage of pupils who give the concept of environmental rationally is also high. The perceptions of pupils on the need to protect the environment illustrate the majority agree on the benefits of future generations. The environmental concepts are presented somewhat rational and show the relationship between the environment and human beings. In conclusion, students' perceptions of the environment are positive and can determine it rationally and know the nature of natural disasters is a result of human action

Facilitating torrance test of creative thinking use in Malaysian TVET research: the initial step of inter-rater reliability determination

Creativity is a valuable 21st century attribute, vital to innovation, and is considered as an important aspect in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This study is prompted by the lack of international test use in Malaysian TVET creativity-related research where the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), translated into the Malay Language (ML) could fill in this gap. The determination of inter-rater reliability coefficients cover five norm-referenced dimensions or measures of figural creativity, viz. fluency, originality, elaboration, resistance to premature closure, abstractness of titles, and the overall average score for the TTCT (Form A). This study involves correlation research where subjective answers to TTCT (ML) by 35 prospective teachers from a Teacher Education Institute - Temenggong Ibrahim Campus, Johor Baharu were marked by 3 independent raters, and subsequently analysed for correlations. Data analyses of IRC were carried out using interclass correlation analysis found in the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Excellent IRC values were obtained as follows: Fluency (.99), Originality (.99), Elaboration (.90), Resistance to Premature Closure (.93), Abstractness of Titles (.98), and overall average score (.99), with r≥.9. The IRC values obtained for the TTCT (ML) version are consistent with values obtained for the English (international) TTCT version, viz. r, from.78 to.99. In conclusion, the TTCT (ML) version is valid and reliable data collection instrument for research on creativity, innovation or higher-order thinking skills involving TVET respondents whose mother tongue is Malay

Employability Challenges Among Residivists: A Qualitative Study

Crime is a social phenomenon in almost every country. The increasing of crime incidents every now and then could instigate recurrence of crimes. The integration of prison inmates into society after release is a challenging phase to start anew outside the iron curtain. As such, this group might tend to return to prison. Therefore, this study aims to explore recidivism among recidivists towards employability. The design of this study is narrative by using a qualitative approach and aided by a semi-structured interview protocol to facilitate the data collection process. A total of 5 recidivists from a prison around the southern zone were selected as study participants. The interviews obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the study found that there are four recidivist factors returning to prison, namely difficulty in finding a job, unwillingness to change, family and community stigma, and the relaxation of conditions for participating in the Human Rehabilitation Program (PPI). In conclusion, apart from difficulties in securing employment, there are other reasons that cause recidivism to occur. Therefore, the researcher suggests that the PPI provided by the prison to be updated in line with the needs of recidivists from physical aspects, personality, skills and integration into society so that recidivism cases could be reduced