The effect of graphic organizer on student's learning in school.

Graphic organizers are instrument of representation , illustration and modelling of information in visuals or graphics form that use to achieve a meaningful learning. GOs are a set of learning strategies which involve translating words expressed in linear form into visual structures. When written material or difficult concepts are expressed graphically, the students can develop alternative structures for understanding the course concepts. In this paper, illustrate the use of graphic organizers on the effects of students’ l earning in schools. Previous research studies investigating on the effects of graphic organizers on students' learning in schools are reviewed. It was found that graphic organizers had effect on the improvement of students’ comprehension, performance and motivation in learning

Integration of ICT in Malaysian secondary schools: What conditions will facilitate its use?

The integration of information and communication technology or ICT in teaching and learning is an innovation that had revolutionized the educational system. In the Malaysian context, although extensive efforts were made under its school computerizing programme to bring ICT to the secondary school classroom there exist a gap among schools in the use of ICT. What conditions will assist teachers in using ICT in the classroom? This study was carried out to determine the presence or non-presence of the eight conditions suggested by Ely, that when present in the school environment will facilitate the integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process. The participants for the study were 429 teachers from 16 secondary schools who taught several subjects in the Humanities, Languages, Sciences, and Technical areas in the state of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Data for the study was gathered by the use of a set of questionnaires. The findings of the study, indicated that in general only three of the conditions were found to be most present namely commitment by those involved, leadership and presence of knowledge and skills. The other five conditions namely rewards or incentives, availability of resources, dissatisfaction with the status quo, participation, and time were present at a lesser degree in the schools. The results of correlational analysis among conditions suggest that a strong significant positive relationship exist between conditions “presence of leadership” and “commitment by those involved.” Besides that a moderate significant positive relationship also exists between “presence of leadership” and “availability of resources” and with “participation by those involved.

Visual Representations in Mathematical Word Problem Solving Among Form Four Students in Malacca

AbstractLearning how to solve mathematical problems has been a long withstanding difficulty faced by students and has been given constant focus in mathematical development. Successful problem solvers spend more time analyzing a problem and they will find all the alternatives related to the situation. Therefore many educators (Cai, 2003, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000; Smith, 1991) agreed that teaching mathematics through problem solving hold great promise. Furthermore, according to the Malaysian Curriculum Development Centre (2003), one of the important objectives in teaching mathematics is to develop student's mathematical problem solving skills. Mathematical problems are not simply computational tasks type but are problems which also require appropriate selection of strategies and decisions that lead to logical solutions. Word problem solving is one of the important components of mathematics problem solving which incorporate real-life problems and applications. However, many researches revealed that students express great difficulties in handling a word or story problem. This study examined the use of visual representations which posed great difficulties in most mathematical tasks. Secondary students were given the 15Mathematical Processing Instrument (MPI) adapted from Hegarty and Kozhevnikov (1999). This study examined 381 students from eight secondary schools in three different districts in Malacca. Results indicated that less than two percent of the problems were solved using pictorial representation and most of the students preferred to used schematics solutions

Hubungan antara faktor interaksi, protokol persembahan dan aspek teknikal terhadap kepuasan pelajar pendidikan jarak jauh dalam pembelajaran dalam talian

Kajian korelasi ini adalah bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti perkaitan yang wujud antara pemboleh ubah yang mempengaruhi sesi sidang video dengan kepuasan pelajar yang sedang mengikuti pendidikan jarak jauh. Responden kajian ialah pelajar program Pendidikan Jarak Jauh, Universiti Putra Malaysia bagi semester 1 dan 2 tahun akademik 2011/2012. Mereka terdiri daripada pelajar PJJ yang mengikuti Program Master Modular (Luar Kampus) dalam bidang Master Pendidikan (Pentadbiran Pendidikan - MPPP). Sebanyak 109 soal selidik telah diedarkan menggunakan aplikasi Dokumen Google yang telah dihantar menerusi emel pelajar. Bilangan tersebut adalah terdiri daripada 35 orang (32.1%) pelajar lelaki dan 74 orang (67.9%) pelajar wanita. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan semua pemboleh ubah mencatatkan nilai min yang tinggi. Interaksi mempunyai perkaitan yang signifikan sederhana kuat (r=.36) dengan kepuasan pelajar dan sesuai untuk meramal kepuasan pelajar terhadap pendidikan jarak jauh. Aspek teknikal dan protokol persembahan mempunyai perkaitan signifikan (r=.31 dan r=.28) dengan kepuasan pelajar dan menunjukkan wujud perkaitan antara pemboleh ubah, tetapi tidak tepat untuk meramal kepuasan pelajar

Experienced and inexperienced Internet users among pre-service teachers: their use and attitudes toward the Internet

Much has been said about the benefits of the Internet as a teaching and learning tool but to realize these benefits, teachers must be willing and able to use the Internet effectively in their teaching. Studies have also clearly shown that the likeliness of teachers using the Internet effectively and the success of Internet utilization was very much related to the users' attitudes toward the Internet (Liaw, 2002; Moon & Kim, 2001; Johnson & Hignite, 2000). This paper describes a study on pre-service teachers with differing levels of Internet experience, at one of the premier universities in Malaysia, to assess their Internet use and attitudes toward the Internet. The study is exploratory in essence and seeks to ascertain the comfort level of pre-service teachers where the Internet is concerned and hence to provide a glimpse of the future of the Internet in education within the Malaysian context

Environmental awareness and attitude among Iranian students in Malaysian universities

This study focuses on environmental awareness and attitude among Iranian students in Malaysian universities. It evaluates the awareness and attitude of a group of 541 from 14 universities. The figure to 541 is considered the representative of these students and the selection was based on Stratified Random sampling method and G-power soft ware. A set of questionnaire which comprised of 25 questions was applied as instrument for data collection. The results revealed that environmental awareness was overall moderate while environmental attitude was high. The study also found that there was no significant difference observed between sex groups while environmental awareness results indicated that there were significant difference among different levels of education. This trend was in contrast with observation for environment alattitude status. The age groups analysis results revealed significant difference in environmental awareness and attitude. It was also found that the media positively affected the level of environmental awareness and attitude among students. The study concluded that increase on age and level of education would improve the level of awareness and attitude regarding to environmental issues

Makmal Pembelajaran dan Penyelidikan Matematik: Konsep dan Reka Bentuk

Secara umum makmal matematik ditubuhkan bagi menyediakan perkhidmatan sokongan akademik kepada pelajar agar mereka dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan, kemahiran dan keyakinan dalam kursus-kursus matematik yang diikuti. Perkhidmatan yang disediakan adalah seperti menyediakan tutorial, bahan rujukan tambahan dan mengakses laman web yang bersesuaian. Bagaimanapun, fungsi makmal matematik seperti ini agak terhad kerana ia tidak membuka ruang bagi aktiviti penyelidikan dijalankan sedangkan penyelidikan sangat penting dalam menyediakan maklumat saintifik yang diperlukan dalam usaha meningkatkan kualiti pengajaran dan pembelajaran matematik. Justeru, satu kajian telah dilakukan bagi mengenal pasti konsep dan reka bentuk yang sesuai bagi sebuah makmal matematik yang menyediakan kemudahan pembelajaran dan penyelidikan. Aktiviti penyelidikan merangkumi lawatan, perbincangan, pemerhatian dan temu bual dengan pensyarab di bidang matematik dan pendidikan matematik dari dalam dan luar negara. Data-data yang terdiri daripada transkrip temubual, catatan lapangan, gambar foto dan rakaman video telah dianalisis dan dapatannya dipaparkan dan dibincangkan dalam kertas kerja ini

Pengaruh Amalan Jenaka Terhadap Pengajaran Dan Pembelajaran Murid (The Influence Of Humour In Teaching And Learning)

Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan ialah untuk melihat peranan amalan jenaka atau kecindan dalam kalangan guru pelatih dan pandangan murid terhadap amalan jenaka guru serta kesannya terhadap pembelajaran. Selain daripada itu, kajian ini juga adalah untuk melihat sama ada amalan tersebut dilakukan oleh guru pelatih semasa sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran di bilik darjah. Di samping itu, kajian ini akan mengenal pasti sama ada amalan jenaka guru pelatih dapat mewujudkan keseronokan untuk belajar dalam kalangan murid serta intensiti atau tahap jenaka yang dilaksanakan oleh guru pelatih semasa mengajar. Kajian kuantitatif ini menggunakan kaedah kajian tinjauan bagi melihat pandangan guru pelatih dan murid sekolah terhadap amalan jenaka dalam pendidikan. Kajian ini adalah merupakan kajian rintis kepada kajian sebenar yang akan dilaksanakan kepada sekumpulan guru pelatih lain yang terdedah kepada latihan mengajar di sekolah. Murid tingkatan tiga daripada sebuah kelas di sebuah sekolah menengah di Cheras, Selangor dan guru pelatih daripada sebuah institusi pengajian awam di Kuala Lumpur yang sedang menjalani perguruan dalam semester kedua telah dipilih sebagai sampel kajian. Instrumen kajian terdiri daripada dua set soal selidik iaitu soal selidik murid dan soal selidik guru pelatih. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan amalan jenaka guru boleh meningkatkan interaksi sesama rakan sejawat guru dan sesama rakan murid. Suasana pembelajaran yang seronok dapat diwujudkan sekiranya guru berjenaka dalam bilik darjah semasa pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Guru pelatih telah mengamalkan jenaka semasa sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Mereka juga menganggap amalan ini boleh mewujudkan kesan yang positif terhadap pengajaran dan pembelajaran murid. Sementara tahap jenaka yang dilakukan oleh guru pelatih adalah dengan kadar yang sederhana iaitu antara tiga hingga empat kali bagi setiap sesi pengajaran. Kekerapan ini juga dianggap sebagai jumlah yang sesuai bagi seseorang guru melakukannya

Motivation and performance in learning calculus through problem-based learning.

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a student centered and active learning strategies can be used to improve students’ motivation, interests and often lead to deep level learning outcomes in calculus to enrich performance. Objectives of this study are to (i) identify students’ level of motivation in learning calculus based on instruction strategies (PBL and traditional) and; (ii) establish relationship between levels of motivation and students’ test achievement. A group of 42 Foundation Year engineering students was randomly selected to undergo the PBL (n=24) and traditional (n=18) approach in Basic Calculus course. Data was gathered through the instrument based on the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) model and a post-test (Calculus Achievement Test) to measure students’ motivation and performance respectively after undergoing learning approach. Findings showed that there were only significant difference in students’ motivation attention (M=3.98, SD= .486; t (40) =3.905, .000),relevance (M=4.36, SD= .365; t (40) =4.340, p=0.000) and satisfaction (M=3.53, SD= .436; t (40) =2.894, p=0.006) by using PBL as compared to traditional approach. Respondents with higher achievement in test obtained higher overall scores for motivation. Significant positive correlations were established between attention, satisfaction and overall motivation with students’ test achievement. This finding suggests that active learning strategies could be used to motivate students in teaching and learning calculus for engineering students

Use of internet for academic purposes among students in Malaysian institutions of higher education

Students in institutions of higher learning should take advantage of information available on the Internet in their coursework. The Internet is also utilised for social and other non-academic functions. Hence, it is desirable, for students to strike a balance in the time spent online for academic and non-academic purposes. In this study, the durations spent on the Internet for academic and non-academic purposes were investigated based on a survey on 1675 students randomly selected from five different fields of study, viz. social sciences, sciences, engineering, agriculture and computer sciences. On average, the participants accessed the Internet 4.48 hours per day. There were also significant differences in the time spent using the Internet among students in different fields of study, with computer science students spending more time online (5.61 hours per day) than the others. In terms of Internet use for academic purposes, students in social sciences, agriculture and computer sciences scored the highest. In an analysis involving all the students in this study, the total time on the Internet was found to be weakly correlated with the time spent online specifically for academic purposes. For social science students, a low but significant positive correlation existed between the overall time spent online and the time spent on the Internet for academic research. In a similar analysis carried out for science students, a negative low correlation was observed. In the fields of agriculture, engineering and computer sciences, however, no correlation was found between Internet access duration and the use of the Internet for academic purposes. The very low correlations encountered above, even though statistically significant, showed that students who spent more time on the Internet did not make much greater use of it for academic purposes as compared with students who used the Internet less