Meng Yew Tee

e-Learning: A Programmatic Research Construct for the Future

The Internet and its applications in education and industry have significantly influenced how we teach and learn. This has all occurred as a consequence of emerging technologies and the demands for online instruction by consumers. In the midst of this environment of rapid growth, a new form of pedagogy has emerged. However, much of it is not the result of research. This paper addresses the need for a conceptual approach to researching, e-learning instructional design and the technologies employed as a basis for e-learning. A programmatic research construct is offered as a structure for building a conceptual model. Three categories of variables are considered in building the construct. They include outcome, in situ, and independent variables. The intent of the paper is to engage researchers and developers in a process of further defining the variables and translating them into research questions that might serve as guidelines in building the literature base for the pedagogy of online instruction.

Sharing and cultivating tacit knowledge in an online learning environment

Research on knowledge cultivation often focuses on explicit forms of knowledge. However, knowledge can also take a tacit form—a form that is often difficult or impossible to tease out, even when it is considered critical in an educational context. A review of the literature revealed that few studies have examined tacit knowledge issues in online learning environments. The purpose of this study was to develop a greater understanding of the conditions and processes that help promote the sharing or cultivation of tacit knowledge in a formal online course setting. Using naturalistic inquiry as the methodology of this study, an online graduate business course offered at a private, non-profit United States-based university was purposively selected as the research site. The study found that the online course encouraged processes and created conditions consistent with Nonaka‘s model of knowledge creation and the concept of ba (or shared context)—encouraging students to share, and to construct knowledge through socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. The results suggest that purposefully developing a ba-like environment may be a useful approach to facilitating online learning, creating a strong potential to support learning processes necessary for students to cultivate tacit knowledge.

Advancing understanding using Nonaka’s model of knowledge creation and problem-based learning

Nonaka’s model of knowledge creation can provide guidance for designing learning environments and activities. However, Bereiter is critical of the model because it does not address whether understanding is deepened in the process of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. To address this issue of understanding, this paper proposed a framework that synthesizes the basic phases of problem-based learning with Nonaka’s model. This paper reports on a study investigating if a course designed based on this authentic framework can help to stimulate knowledge creation based on deepening understanding. Several types of data were collected in this design-based research, namely: reflections by the participants and instructor; group discussions; student-created artifacts; and documents, records and artifacts that reflect the overall design of the course. The findings suggest that the participants demonstrated advancing understanding amidst knowledge creating conditions and processes consistent with Nonaka’s model. Other key implications are also discussed.

The Educational Landscape of Malaysia

The term ‘landscape’ typically connotes a broad view of the lay of the land – its topography and changing contours of highlands and lowlands and changing vegetation. Etymologically, the suffix scape comes from the Old English word sceppan or scyppan, meaning shape. Thus, by derivation, the word landscape would refer to the shape of the land, and landscape artists, for instance, would seek to represent a view of the scenery seen and capture it with a ‘broad brush’. In contrast to portraits which offer a close-up view, landscapes offer the benefit of a view from afar, thus capturing the big picture. So, metaphorically, Malaysia’s educational landscape, likewise, paints a broad picture of the ‘topography’ of the education scene in the country, covering with a broad brush aspects of its history, the organization of the education system and major emergent themes. The main purpose of the chapter is then to provide the context against which subsequent chapters may be viewed.

Teachers and Teaching in Malaysia

The purpose of this chapter is to broadly describe and discuss the characteristics of teachers in Malaysia and their classroom practices, in the midst of significant and much-needed systemic changes that are expected in the years to come. The data are drawn from various national and international agencies as well as from IMCEP (Inquiry into Malaysian Classroom Educational Practices), a research project that researched teachers’ practices in Malaysian classrooms. The IMCEP study found that the predominant teaching practices in Malaysian classrooms are very unlikely to help students improve higher-order thinking and “learning-to-learn” abilities. It is critical to note that when such practices are so consistent and widespread, system-wide issues must be raised. How pedagogical practice plays out in the classroom is shaped in significant ways by the larger social, cultural and political milieu. The discussion attempts to highlight some of the key narratives within this context.

Education and Politics in Malaysia

In a heterogeneous country like Malaysia, it is not surprising that education policy has often interacted with the politics of race, religion and language. The nature of these interactions, however, has evolved over time as policymakers, politicians and citizens dealt with the challenges of globalization, a growing economy and shifting demands of an increasingly complex employment market. This chapter distils the views of two politicians, one formerly from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) Coalition and the other from the opposition, in order to highlight the continued influence of race and religion in the politics of education but also the emergence of other contending forces of influence, including market-based pressures, especially at the higher education level. Through the various narratives and questions posed, a dynamic and evolving education policy landscape is revealed. The views of both politicians show the tensions and contestations between moving away from a race-based lens of education policy and maintaining a tight control of education policy that serves the larger political interests in the country.

Making Tacit Knowledge and Practices More Explicit for the Development of TPACK

This action research study explored an approach to better facilitate the development of teachers’ technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). The approach combined problem-based learning (PBL) with Nonaka’s SECI framework (socialization, externalization, combination, internalization). Based on the survey data, teachers believed that their TPACK had improved. Qualitative data derived from one of the groups also demonstrated TPACK improvement. The teachers’ initial understanding toward teaching tended to put the blame on students, but this changed through a cycle of action and feedback. Throughout these cycles, teachers began to focus more on what could be done to improve learning, and, as a result, began to realize that technology in itself is not likely to improve ineffective teaching practices. Consequently, their use of technology for teaching and learning became more purposeful.