Report: Handbook for ICT projects for Rural Areas

This presentation talks about the completion of an assigned APT Publication grant, to document and illustrate knowledge and experiences accumulated over the past decade by research teams across South East Asia, to design and implement ICT projects in rural areas

Investigating beliefs and evidence of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) in the training of teachers for educational techology in Malaysian universities

This research explores narratives and artefacts that reflect personal conceptions and\ud interpretations about Teacher knowledge and the integration of Constructivism,\ud specifically in the teaching and learning of Educational Technology, in teacher\ud education programmes in Malaysian universities. Two key theories, Mishra &\ud Koehler's TPCK model, and Argyris & Schon's Reflective Learning theory, were\ud utilised as research tools to provide a protocol to acquire, analyse and discuss beliefs\ud and actions about technology in education. Guided by gaps and inconsistencies\ud revealed in reviewed current literature, this thesis produced an adapted version of the\ud TPCK framework and developed a methodological approach to map espoused\ud theories and theories-in-action of reflective narratives and classroom artefacts. New\ud types of teacher knowledge were subsequently introduced with the inclusion of\ud Constructivism into the original framework, allowing closer contextual analysis of\ud how the learning theory was perceived and used when teaching and learning about\ud technology integration. A pilot study explored the feasibility of using the proposed\ud methodological design, subsequently proving its usefulness to capture categories and\ud map findings from the research. A second study was undertaken to capture a larger\ud variety of data at one university. Comparable analyses were produced from both\ud studies, revealing complex relationships between espoused theories and theories-inaction\ud held by teacher educators and their student teachers. Conclusively, the research\ud has illuminated that Technology Knowledge was consistently over-emphasised in the\ud teaching and learning of the observed Educational Technology courses, neglecting\ud crucial exposure to and training of other knowledge types advocated in the TPCK\ud framework. Though deemed highly relevant by participants, the research has also\ud revealed that Constructivism was conceptualised at a cursory level and it was not\ud applied in practice in any of the observed Educational Technology courses

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the Teaching of Science: Determiners for Professional Development

The study investigates how Science teachers articulate their self-confidence in teaching Science with technology. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is used as the primary tool to describe their practice. Using a quantitative approach, with an initial survey of 408 science teachers from 59 secondary schools in a state in East Malaysia, descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to assess science teachers’ level of TPACK and discriminate differences between perceptions on TPACK related to their teaching experience. Findings revealed that the level of Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Technological Knowledge (TK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) are high, in comparison to their Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) which were recorded at a moderate level. The study also found how teachers with more extensive experience teaching reported higher confidence with their CK, PK and PCK. Novice teachers indicated slightly higher confidence in their TK. The study provides a set of determiners for professional development opportunities for Sarawak Science teachers to upskill their knowledge to integrate science content, pedagogy, and technology

Interventions for Enhancing Indigenous Undergraduates' Programming Learning: A Systematic Review

This study reviews the challenges faced by indigenous undergraduates in learning programming and identifies interventions to address them. A systematic review of 37 studies published between 2000 and 2022 found that Indigenous undergraduates face barriers to learning programming related to their indigeneity, motivation, mathematics anxiety, cognitive load, pedagogy, prior knowledge, critical thinking, and programming language anxiety. Interventions such as ethnoprogramming, culturally responsive pedagogy, ethnomathematics, and gamification have been proposed to overcome these challenges. Our review and analysis suggest that culturally responsive pedagogy and gamification show promise in improving indigenous undergraduates' programming learning outcomes. This study highlights the importance of designing effective interventions to support Indigenous undergraduates' learning and career opportunities in the global programming market. Future research could explore specialised interventions tailored to indigenous learners' unique needs and perspectives

Emergency Remote Teaching Scenarios, Struggles and Soundboxes: A Case Study on Malaysian Teachers

The shift to emergency remote teaching has created a ripple effect in education across the globe. Although efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID19 pandemic can be lauded, much remains unknown in terms of the challenges that teachers have gone through in fulfilling their roles during emergency remote teaching. The study is a necessary step to identify and determine how teachers articulate their perspectives as an educator during emergency remote teaching. A case study on a group of trained graduate teachers in Malaysia was conducted to investigate strategies and struggles they faced in the emergency remote teaching period through a survey and a thematic analysis of narratives they provided. Findings show that though respondents were equipped with pedagogical knowledge in integrating technology, they were unable to fully utilise what they have learned in their teacher training programme during emergency remote teaching due to lack of administrative support from school and poor infrastructure accessibility. Their narratives also suggested a pertinent need for future study to investigate the synergy between parents, schools and teachers in working cohesively to ensure learning is supported effectively at home and in school especially during emergency remote teaching

Reading Skills in English using Jolly Phonics at a Chinese Primary School

This study investigates the viability of using a phonics programme for Primary One students who are studying at a National Type Chinese School in Sarawak, Malaysia. Jolly Phonics is a Synthetic Phonics Programme that is used to address common reading problems. In this study, Primary One students who learn Mandarin as their main language in school, while learning English and Malay Languages at the same time. The phonics consists of teaching reading with five skills, namely learning the letter sounds, letter formation, blending, segmenting and tricky words. 39 students participated in the study. Two groups were formed to compare performances between those who used the phonic programme and those who attended the regular English classes. Data was collected on pre and post-test achievements for both the experimental and control group. Findings revealed that the phonics programme did not significantly impact the students’ reading ability when compared with performances of those who attended regular lessons which used existing methods of teaching reading skills for English language learning at the Chinese medium school

Gamification in a Blended Learning Environment: The Mojo of ClassDojo

Although ClassDojo can be directly used, this chapter reports how it was applied to a course through gamified modules. The modules were designed using the core drives in Octalysis model. There are 8 core drives in the model, but the study only applied four core drives: Epic meaning and calling, Development and accomplishment; unpredictability and curiosity; and loss and avoidance. Details on these core drives can be obtained via Chou (2015) or https://yukaichou.com. The modules cover 7 units in a course which focus on computational linguistics, and each module was labelled as a stage in the gamified world. As they completed the challenges set for each stage, their progress was monitored via ClassDojo instead of using conventional ways such as Excel Sheets or whiteboard. Any action or behaviour that is commendable was also given points. ClassDojo makes learning “visible” as students can monitor their learning, which indirectly promotes self-regulated learning