Gurnam Kaur Sidhu

Teaching mathematics and science in English: Looking through the eyes of teachers

This study examined the perception of Malaysian secondary school teachers on the implementation of the national policy on teaching Mathematics and Science in English which was introduced in 2003 and reversed in 2009. A total of 14 public secondary schools were randomly selected using the stratification technique throughout the nation. It was further stratified based on Math and Science teachers and the final sample comprised 154 Math and 160 Science teachers. This study employed a purely quantitative research design which entailed the administration of a questionnaire. The study investigated the perception of teachers regarding the implementation of the policy and the usage of English language in classroom teaching. The findings indicated that about 54% of Math and Science teachers preferred to continue with the implementation of the policy. However, further analysis indicated that 75% of the math novice teachers would like to continue with this policy as compared to 41.9 % and 52.4% of the experienced and very experienced respectively. This relationship was significant at the 0.05 level. The findings also exhibited that 70.3% of Science novice teachers also indicated a positive response whereas 61.7% of the experienced and 41.7 % of the very experienced teachers indicated otherwise. This relationship was also significant at the 0.05 level. These findings imply that the younger teachers are more open and have found it easier to adapt to the change in policy in comparison to the experienced and more experienced teachers. Findings also indicated that in total average, 29.5% of the Math teachers and 34.6% of Science teachers use English language more than 61% in their classroom teaching. This is indicative of the fact that a majority of the teachers are still unable to conduct their lessons using 100% English language.

Vignette 2: Facing the realities of implementing an interdisciplinary approach in institutions of higher learning in Malaysia

Interdisciplinary higher education is becoming more important in learning across subject boundaries. This is occurring in global, national and institutional contexts. In Malaysia, interdisciplinarity is clear in the countrys National Higher Education Strategic Plan (2007). While varying interpretations of interdisciplinary learning and teaching exist, there are also commonalities. These common elements address complex problems and focus questions by drawing on the disciplines. They also integrate insights and produce new understandings of complex problems. In this chapter, 21 senior administrators (deans, deputy deans and program chairs) from three public universities in Malaysia were surveyed, and 10 respondents were interviewed to determine their views on their use of the interdisciplinary approach: that is, their level of awareness, their perceptions of interdisciplinarity, and their self-reported level of knowledge of what interdisciplinarity means. The findings showed that 76% of the respondents were aware of interdisciplinarity, and that most respondents had a ‘moderately sufficient’ level of self-reported knowledge about the application of interdisciplinarity in current courses. The interview sessions also revealed that respondents interpreted the interdisciplinary approach in different ways. The implications of the results from this exploratory study suggest that public universities in Malaysia have various obstacles to deal with before effective interdisciplinary learning and teaching can be implemented.

Analysing the Integration of Moral and Cultural Values through ELT Reading Materials in Malaysian ESL Classrooms

This chapter presents the findings of an exploratory study, which examined the integration of moral and cultural values in ELT reading materials in ESL literature classrooms. The study employed a descriptive research design involving 35 TESL teachers, and data were collected using a questionnaire, interviews, and classroom observations. The findings revealed that the ELT materials used were suitable and had various elements of moral values and classroom observations indicated that teachers were successful in highlighting and integrating moral values from the ELT materials. Nevertheless, the understanding and incorporation of cultural awareness left much to be desired. These findings imply ESL teachers need to be better equipped to communicate the small ‘c’ (culture) in ELT materials.

Teachers’ Perspective on Challenges of Substance Abuse Prevention among Malaysian Secondary School Students (Perspektif Guru terhadap Cabaran Pencegahan Penyalahgunaan Dadah dalam Kalangan Murid Sekolah Menengah)

Applied to grade 9 students in Jordan, this study aimed at examining the effi ciency of using the ‘learning cycle’ strategy in acquiring Arabic grammatical concepts. A sample of 124 students was approved, which was distributed over two schools (boys and girls) and in two groups. The experimental group was taught the subject instructional material through the learning cycle strategy with 29 males and 35 females, whereas the control group was taught through the same material through the traditional program with 32 males and 28 females. In terms of fi ndings, there were found statistically signifi cant differences in the subjects’ achievement in acquiring Arabic grammatical concepts, in favor of the experimental group. Statistically signifi cant differences were also found due to gender in favor of females. Whereas no statistically signifi cant differences were found due to the interaction between group/teaching strategy and gender.Additional Mathematics is an elective subject in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). However, it is treated as a core subject for almost all the science stream students. Many students who can perform well in Modern Mathematics since primary school cannot master the Additional Mathematics. They fail to understand the concepts in Additional Mathematics. This study seeks to identify the factors that affect students in mastering Additional Mathematics at five schools in an urban area. Bayesian network is used to identify the relationship between the factors in the study and to analyze the data as it is able to represent the variables as nodes and the relationships as directed arcs. Constraint-based algorithms and score-based algorithms are used to generate the networks into several categories to compare and identify the strong relationships among the factors that affect the students’ learning of the subject. It is concluded that the new symbols and sign learned in Additional Mathematics affects the students in mastering the subject. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JPEN-2015-4002-11Substance abuse is a current and serious problem all around the globe. In fact, the number of substance abusers including school children and teenagers is growing. This study aims to identify challenges faced by secondary schools and the supports needed in the effort to curb substance abuse. A total of 18 high risk secondary schools were selected from Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. The questionnaire survey involved a total of 258 teachers from 18 selected schools. Data were analyzed descriptively using frequency counts and percentages. The results identifi ed the lack of student participation, time constraints and fi nancial problem as three main challenges in conducting drug prevention programmes in schools while the most crucial support needed by schools in organizing substance abuse programmes are material and fi nancial support, anti-drug talk/clinic and professional advice. It is recommended that substance abuse prevention programmes should involve the students’ families and the community to have better result. As for every substance abuse prevention programme held in schools, feedback from the participants should be obtained and analyzed in order to gauge the effectiveness and relevance of the programme. This study concluded that there are many challenges faced by schools in curbing substance abuse with lack of student participation, time constraints and fi nancial problem posed as the main challenges. Hence, involvement of all parties is needed to provide support needed to ensure the success of the implementation of substance abuse prevention programmes.This study examined the pattern of sexual harassment in higher institutions in Lagos state. Hypothesising, unlike researchers that there shall be a direct relationship between all identifi ed categories of sexual harassment behaviours thus: physical, verbal, non-verbal and quid pro quo and sexual harassment; and the report of sexual harassment is predicted by gender, physical sexual behaviour and quid pro quo. Six hundred students randomly selected from six higher institutions in Lagos State, responded to Pattern of Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (PSHQ). Results were analysed by the use of path analysis. The produced model adequately fi t the hypothesised model; the chi-square result χ2 (6) = 13.02, p = 0.043 0.9 all indicate suffi cient good fi tness of the model. Based on the fi ndings of the study counsellors are challenged to become more responsive than before to counselling needs of students in order to discourage sexual harassment and encourage reporting of sexual harassment.