Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub

Teachers' Acceptance of ICT and Its Integration in the Classroom.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify factors that affect teachers’ motivation to use information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom. The study aims to determine the extent to which selected variables, such as personal experience, school environment and technological factors, influenced teachers’ tendency to accept and utilize ICT in teaching. Design/methodology/approach – The study used primary data sources from Mazandaran, Iran, that included field notes and semi-structured interviews. Findings – Results revealed that adequate support from administrators, directives to teachers to use ICT, appropriate ICT skills and knowledge as well as adequate resources were important factors that influenced the utilization of ICT in the classroom. Findings also showed that insufficient technical support discouraged teachers from using ICT in teaching, while increasing adequate equipment and technical support in schools encouraged teachers in this respect. Research limitations/implications – Because this study was conducted on a small number of participants, its findings may not apply fully to other educational institutions. Practical implications – The results from this study would be helpful to educational departments and institutions in their formulation of policies to encourage the use of ICT in education. The findings would also give a better insight of what constitutes an environment that is conducive for learning where ICT is integrated into the classroom. Originality/value – By focusing on teachers’ intention, this study provides important insights into which factors influence teacher attitude to use ICT into classroom. As a result, the finding will help the development of e-learning quality enhancement and assurance strategies.

Factors predicting teachers’ attitudes towards the use of ICT in teaching and learning

Technology has revolutionized in the field of Education. The importance of technology in schools cannot be ignored. While it is important that mathematics teachers should have positive attitudes towards adopting ICT in their teaching, various problems can arise when integrating ICT into classroom lessons. This study explored the factors that influence the attitudes of mathematic teachers in the integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process. A total of 187 mathematics teachers from the state of Selangor in Malaysia were randomly selected from a stratified cluster sample. The research examined five factors that were postulated to impact teachers’ attitudes towards the integration of ICT in their lessons, viz. teachers’ technology competence, school culture, access to ICT, school support, and years of classroom teaching experience. The findings showed that the teachers’ attitudes towards using ICT in teaching and learning were positively correlated with the teachers’ technology competence [r = .41;...

Collaborative and Cooperative Learning in Malaysian Mathematics Education.

Collaborative and cooperative learning studies are well recognized in Malaysian mathematics education research. Cooperative learning is used to serve various ability students taking into consideration of their level of understanding, learning styles, sociological backgrounds that develop students’ academic achievement and skills, and breeze the social harmony among students of different ethnic backgrounds. Besides academic achievement, process skills and values are required to extend the social harmony among students in today’s multiethnic schools. Therefore, teachers are expected to find the pedagogy that enables students to learn academic knowledge and professional skills to face the challenges in their everyday lives. The Malaysian scholars, based on the findings of their cooperative learning studies, emphasized the use of cooperative learning as an effective pedagogy with the aim to improve students’ mathematics achievement and communication skills. This paper describes the role of collaborative and cooperative learning to the development of students’ mathematics achievement along with their communication skills and with significant integration of values in Malaysian mathematics education.

Barriers of Using Jusur Learning Management System in Saudi Arabia Universities

T he purpose of this study was to determine the main barriers faced by faculty members from using Jusur LMS in Saudi universities. This study was quantitative in nature and employed a descriptive research design. The sample of this study included 454 faculty members from four public universities in Saudi Arabia who had experience using Jusur LMS for instructional purposes. Data were gathered through the use of a web-questionnaire. Findings indicated that barriers faced by faculty members from using Jusur LMS were considered at a moderate level. Further analysis also revealed that respondents identified numerous administrative and technological barriers such as lack of technical, administrative and financial supports. In the technological domain, they faced obstacles with availability of appropriate hardware, poor internet connectivity, the lack of internet access, unsuitable software and technological resources in the Arabic language. It is suggested that for an improved utilization of Jusur LMS at Saudi universities, barriers such as administrative and technological obstacles must be taken into due consideration.

The influence of subjective norm on intention to use of learning management system among Malaysian higher education students

In recent years, the use of learning management system by universities has been increasingly growing. However, the results of several studies have revealed that students do not fully use the information systems. The present study proposes a model which investigates the influence of three constructs of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm on behavior intention to use of learning management system. The sample size was 216 Malaysian undergraduate students. The results of the study revealed that the proposed model accounts for 31.1 % variance of behavior intention to use.

The Development of SightHeart: A Gamified Serious Game Training Tool for Analytical Skills and Values Internalization

This paper addresses the development of a two-dimensional (2D) computer serious game prototype named SightHeart as an alternative informal tool for training students’ analytical skills and values internalization. The prototype was developed using an extension of the ADDIE model called DGBL-ID and was evaluated based on users’ motivation, engagement, acceptance and behaviour intention towards the serious game. The study aims to highlight on developmental issues related to serious games such as lack of entertainment value due to heavily-focused on the learning content. Simultaneously, the game also intends to address learning issues among undergraduate students reported by literature, particularly the lack of critical thinking skills and having poor character that may affect their employability. The concept of gamification, motivation, psychological and other related learning theories were used as a combined approach to overcome these issues to boost their motivation and engagement towards SightHeart. Results suggested that SightHeart is successful in terms of positive influence over users’ attitudes and their perceived learning opportunities, which contributed to students’ better acceptance towards serious games.

The influence of statistics self-efficacy towards statistics engagement among undergraduate students

Students’ self-efficacy is the belief about their capabilities to learn and said to have control over thoughts, feelings and actions. Self-efficacy is one of the important factors influencing statistics engagement. This paper aims to show the influence of statistics self-efficacy towards statistics engagement among undergraduate students taking Statistics in Applied Sciences course in Universiti Putra Malaysia. A total of 293 students were randomly selected from eight different faculties taking this statistics course as a compulsory subject. A pilot study was conducted on 25 students prior to the actual study and had reliability indices of 0.84 for statistics self-efficacy and 0.93 for statistics engagement. Descriptive analysis showed that students have low statistics self-efficacy with the median score of 2.00. On the other hand, the median score for statistics engagement is 4.00 indicating that students’ statistics engagement was moderate. Spearman’s rank Correlation Analysis showed that there is a pos...

Analyzing the Social Networks of High- and Low-Performing Students in Online Discussion Forums.

ABSTRACT An ego network is an individual’s social netwrk relationships with core members. In this study, the ego network parameters in online discussion spaces of high- and low-performing students were compared. The extent to which students’ ego networks changed over the course were also analyzed. Participation in 7 weeks of online discussions were analyzed for 12 high-performing students and 9 low-performing students. Results suggested that ego networks’ compositions of high- and low-performing students were significantly different. Particularly, high-performing students had denser ego networks and tended to exhibit a higher level of centralities than low-performing students. Results of network visualization indicated that high-performing students increased and kept their networks stable over the course in comparison to low-performing students, who had fragmented networks. Several networks’ change mechanisms for high- and low-performing groups are also identified and discussed.

Students’ perceptions of online discussions, participation and e-moderation behaviours in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between students’ perceptions of online discussions, participation and e-moderation behaviours in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions. Using survey data, the learning system’s activity log and discussion transcripts, the authors analysed how 84 learners’ perceptions of online discussions influenced their participation and e-moderation behaviours. The results showed that Cognitive and Skill II (critical thinking skills) perceptual aspects significantly influenced the quantity posting and participation patterns. Meanwhile, Skill I (reading and writing skills) and Efficacy were critical factors that influenced quantity non-posting participation. It was also found that the perceptual aspects significantly influenced learners’ e-moderation behaviours to the extent that Affection and Efficacy were critical factors that influenced lower-level e-moderation supports, while Cognition, Affection and Skill II were critical factors that influenced higher-level e-moderation supports. All e-moderation supports were found to be correlated with peers’ quantity posting and participation patterns, except for Access and motivation support.

Relationship between critical thinking disposition and teaching efficacy among special education integration program teachers in Malaysia

This study aims to assess the level of critical thinking disposition and teaching efficacy among the Special Education Integration Programme (SEIP) teachers in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The level of critical thinking dispositions and teaching efficacy in the SEIP were compared based on teaching experience and gender. The study also examined the relationship between critical thinking disposition and teaching efficacy at SEIP. The research adopted a quantitative survey approach. A total of 190 primary school teachers from the SEIP in Negeri Sembilan were selected using proportional sampling method. The instrument used in this study comprised of three sections; demography, critical thinking disposition and teaching efficacy. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. Analysis shows that the respondents have a moderate level of critical thinking disposition (M = 2.99, S.D = 0.160) and teaching efficacy (M = 3.01 S.D. = 0.128) was at a high level. For teaching experience, the analysis s...