Fatin Aliah Phang

Engineering Education in Southeast Asia: Practice and Research

Engineering education is gaining interest among various stakeholders in many countries around the world especially in Southeast Asia. Many countries in this region have engineering education societies and accreditation bodies that promote quality engineering education, particularly in higher learning institutes. The demands of employable engineering graduates and the twenty-first-century grand challenges have forced more initiatives and attention towards research on the engineering education practices. Therefore, engineering education centers are established to carry out research, training, and services that can improve and enhance the practice. However, without the virtuous cycle of research, the initiatives to research the engineering education practice are not grounded to the related educational theories and cannot bridge the research findings to practice. This chapter provides an overview of the development of engineering education in Southeast Asia and proposes the virtuous cycle of research in bridging theories, research, and practice in engineering education.

Postgraduate Supervision: Supervisors versus Students

Previous studies show that there are conflicts between supervisors and postgraduate students in different areas of concern. This paper focuses on Graduate on Time (GOT) and Impact Factor (IF) journal publication among postgraduate students. A workshop was organised by the School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to determine some resolutions to increase the number of students who will GOT and the number of high IF journal publications among postgraduate students. The workshop was participated by 15 experienced supervisors and 18 postgraduate students from engineering, science & technology and social sciences. They were divided into three groups among the supervisors and three groups among the students based on the fields of study mentioned earlier. They were asked to discuss in their own group to brainstorm on how to increase GOT and IF publication. Later, each group presented their ideas in front of all the students and supervisors. The audience were encourage to question the ideas while being facilitated by the researchers in order for all of the participants to come to a common agreement. The workshop was video recorded and the data from the video recording, discussion and presentation was analysed using thematic analysis. The results show that both the supervisors and students play important roles in achieving GOT and IF publication. There should be a balance between these two areas because by focusing on GOT, there will not be enough time for IF publication; and by focusing on IF publication, the students need more time to complete the thesis. However, consistent monitoring from the supervisors and the commitment of the students can help to strike a balance between these two.

Achieving Low Carbon Society Through Primary School Ecolife Challenge in Iskandar Malaysia

Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge was initiated jointly between Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Iskandar Regional Development Agency (IRDA) in 2013 with the collaboration and full support from the Johor State Education Department (JPNJ). It started with 23 pilot primary schools to complete a workbook designed by UTM to learn about low carbon society as a post-UPSR activity among Year 6 students. In 2015, all 226 primary schools in the Iskandar Malaysia region were involved in the program. This paper reports how the program has helped to reduce carbon emission in this region and changed the behavior of the students as well as the teachers. Questionnaire measuring the students’ low carbon practice at home was distributed every year before the beginning and at the end of the program. Data on the household electricity and water usage, mileage of the vehicle and number of household members were captured. From the analysis of 1,496 completed workbooks submitted, the average number of one household is 5.42 or 5 to 6 persons in a house. The average electricity usage of a household in a month is 478.22 kWh or equivalent to emission of 325.19 kg CO2, while the average water usage of a household in a month is 39.28 m3 or equivalent to emission of 16.46 kg CO2. On the use of a household vehicle, a vehicle travels on average 32.87 km/d and 201.77 km/week. In term of the low carbon practice among the students, after accounting for the household carbon emission using the workbook, the practice on low carbon increase from 2.42 to 3.04 on a 5-point scale. This provides rich data on the carbon emission pattern of a household in Iskandar Malaysia and that the program has helped to improve the students’ practice and awareness on low carbon society.

Sustainable and Low Carbon Practices at Schools in Iskandar Malaysia

In Malaysia, environmental education is not taught as a specific subject in the formal school curriculum; rather its general principles are embedded across the whole of the curriculum. Hence, informal education plays an important role in raising low carbon awareness. Schools in Malaysia organise various green projects but often these best practices were not shared nor recognised. This paper discusses the organising of a sustainable and low carbon schools exhibition. The objective of the exhibition is three-fold. First, from the research point of view, to understand green activities conducted at schools in Iskandar Malaysia; second to give recognition to schools that contributed to sustainable and low carbon Johor and third, to provide a platform for schools to showcase their effort and an opportunity to build network among them. This school exhibition was conducted for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016), inviting all primary and secondary schools to showcase their school effort in promoting sustainable and low carbon practices. For both years, 21 and 23 schools were accepted respectively into the exhibition after sending in their school profiles for preliminary screening. The profiles detailed the activities organised and participated by teachers, students and community around their school area. During the exhibition, each school presented one poster detailing their effort, followed by an oral presentation to a panel of judges. A group interview were conducted after the exhibition among committee members accompanying judges assessing school projects. Drawing data from these three sources (the school profiles, posters and group interview), several main themes of programmes emerged including 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), Reducing CO2, Indirect Programmes and Low Carbon Education Programme. Some of these activities are able to generate income to sustain the activities themselves or support other school projects.

How do first year Malaysian chemical engineering students approach learning

Dynamic technology development and innovation of the 21st century have challenged chemical engineers in their working aspects. Future engineers are required to have high competitiveness in knowledge and skills in a fast changing world, requiring them to adapt and learn fast at a deep level. Consequently, education becomes a crucial means in developing matured learners who can efficiently adapt and acquire new knowledge and skills. Determining the students’ approach to learning as early as possible, whether deep or surface learning, is important to assist the students in their learning. Their approach to learning can reflect their academic performance. The objective of this study is to determine the learning approach of first year chemical engineering students in a Malaysian research university. To achieve this objective, a pre-post quasi- experimental design was used to determine the approach to learning of 57 first year chemical engineering students. Revised Study Process Questionnaire (RSPQ-2F), a 20-item instrument developed by John Biggs and colleagues was used to measure the student’s learning approach at the beginning and at the end of the first semester. The quantitative data were analyzed using pair-sample t-test to measure the mean RSPQ-2F scores. A p-value < .05 was considered as significant. The findings show that the students mostly use deep approach compared to surface approach to learning at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, there was a slight increase in their deep approach to learning, although the increase is not significant. Similarly, there was a slight decrease in surface learning, although the decrease is not significant.

Characteristics of Student Centred Learning from the Perspective of Engineering Lecturers

Student Centred Learning (SCL) approach is recommended worldwide in higher education. However, many engineering educators are reluctant to shift from teacher-centred to SCL approach because they perceive that effective teaching must heavily involve lectures and knowledge must be transmitted to the learners by the lecturer. This research seeks to identify engineering lecturers’ perspective on the characteristics of meaningful learning. The characteristics are compared to SCL characteristics as outlined by the How People Learn framework. Using data collected among engineering lecturers over two years at the beginning of training workshops on SCL conducted in various universities throughout Malaysia, the data is analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The results show the positive characteristics mentioned are SCL-related approaches, proving that SCL is a relevant teaching and learning approach in engineering because it is not only recommended by experts but also concurred by engineering lecturers when seen from their own learning perspective.

Motivating Engineering Students to Engage in Learning Computer Programming

Motivation is essential for successful engagement in learning. This factor is especially important in courses that are considered difficult and require high cognitive engagement such as computer programming. One of the approaches to motivate engineering students in learning is to create an effective learning environment. This paper presents a qualitative study on undergraduate engineering students’ motivation towards learning programming based on the How People Learn (HPL) framework. The HPL framework comprises of elements that can be considered by instructors to design an effective learning environment. The methods designed for this study are observations and interviews while thematic analysis is employed in analysing the data. Findings based on lenses of the HPL framework are presented. Several recommendations for improving the learning environment are summarized as part of the outcomes of the study.

Perception of complex engineering problem solving among engineering educators

According to the Washington Accord, skills to solve complex problems in engineering are important in the curriculum of engineering education. To fulfill the accreditation exercise, engineering educators must be able to design complex engineering problems to assess the learning of this important skill. Therefore, this research was conducted to explore what do engineering educators perceived as complex engineering problems and how did they design these problems in order to foster the skills among their students. A focus group discussion was conducted among 12 engineering educators. The audio recording was transcribed and analysed qualitatively. The result shows that only one engineering educator understands complex engineering problems and most of the attributes. The other were not able to tell more than three of the complex engineering problem attributes. As a conclusion, training on the attributes of complex engineering problems is needed to ensure that the teaching and learning of engineering programmes fulfill the accreditation criteria.