Balamuralithara Balakrishnan

Socio-ethical Education in Nanotechnology Engineering Programmes: A Case Study in Malaysia

The unique properties of nanotechnology have made nanotechnology education and its related subjects increasingly important not only for students but for mankind at large. This particular technology brings educators to work together to prepare and produce competent engineers and scientists for this field. One of the key challenges in nanotechnology engineering is to produce graduate students who are not only competent in technical knowledge but possess the necessary attitude and awareness toward the social and ethical issues related to nanotechnology. In this paper, a research model has been developed to assess Malaysian nanotechnology engineering students’ attitudes and whether their perspectives have attained the necesary objectives of ethical education throughout their programme of study. The findings from this investigation show that socio ethical education has a strong influence on the students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes pertaining to socio ethical issues related to nanotechnology.

Motivating engineering students learning via monitoring in personalized learning environment with tagging system

Personalized Learning Environment (PLE) is a novel pedagogical approach, which has caused a paradigm shift in tertiary education. In this study, a computer‐based PLE system was developed for undergraduate engineering students to help them learn a topic in a Wireless Communications course. The study used a mixed‐method approach, involving interviews and administration of questionnaires, to examine the impact of the system on students’ motivation, and the role of instructors as a motivator. The research instrument used was Science motivation questionnaire (SMQ). The analysis of the data yielded several promising results, notably the students were motivated in learning process using the system and the instructors were satisfied that they could perform the monitoring and motivating tasks effectively. Overall, the findings suggest that such a system has a strong potential to create an effective, appealing PLE to help engineering students engage in learning process with a strong sense of motivation and interest. The study also found out that students exhibited high assessment anxiety and low self‐efficacy in self‐directed learning, thus emphasizing the need to provide them with more guidance and assistance.

Engineering Ethics Education: A Comparative Study of Japan and Malaysia

This paper reports the findings of a comparative study in which students’ perceived attainment of the objectives of an engineering ethics education and their attitude towards engineering ethics were investigated and compared. The investigation was carried out in Japan and Malaysia, involving 163 and 108 engineering undergraduates respectively. The research method used was based on a survey in which respondents were sent a questionnaire to elicit relevant data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed on the data. The results of the analyses showed that the attainment of the objectives of engineering ethics education and students’ attitude towards socio-ethical issues in engineering were significantly higher and positive among Japanese engineering students compared to Malaysian engineering students. Such findings suggest that a well-structured, integrated, and innovative pedagogy for teaching ethics will have an impact on the students’ attainment of ethics education objectives and their attitude towards engineering ethics. As such, the research findings serve as a cornerstone to which the current practice of teaching and learning of engineering ethics education can be examined more critically, such that further improvements can be made to the existing curriculum that can help produce engineers that have strong moral and ethical characters.

Engineering ethics education: A case study in Japan and Malaysia

In this paper, a study on assessing the engineering undergraduates of Japan and Malaysia on the attainment of engineering ethics education objectives and attitude towards engineering ethics has been carried out. This study has been conducted in Japan and Malaysia which consisting engineering undergraduates of University A of Japan and University B of Malaysia. The study focused at the pedagogical point of view of both engineering ethics education that implemented in both investigated institutions. The results of the study showed that the attainment of engineering ethics education objectives and the attitude towards socio-ethical issues in engineering were more positive among Japanese engineering students compared to Malaysian engineering students. This is due to the teaching and learning strategies that applied in engineering ethics classrooms. This study could be a cornerstone for enhancing the current practice of teaching and learning process of engineering ethics education in both Japan and Malaysia.

Unity Through Arts: An Approach for Harmony Among Children in Malaysia in Achieving the Concept of One Malaysia

Art through its own variety of approaches could show possibilities in addressing diversity in a community that consists of multiple ranges of racial and cultural backgrounds such as Malaysian community. Arts education is essential for each child since arts cover the entire learning domain – cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Utilizing the advantages of arts in a child’s learning process and its possibilities to create harmony among communities from different races, a model for arts education called Unity Through Arts was proposed to create unity among Malay, Chinese, and Indian primary school children from different schooling systems – national and vernacular schools.