Zahara Aziz

The effectiveness of teaching and learning history based on multicultural towards national integration in Malaysia

Abstract This study was conducted using a quasi experiment to determine the effects of teaching and learning history in regards to national integration in the multicultural society of Malaysia. The three multicultural perspectives used in the teaching and learning process contain culturally historical perspectives that are related to the aspect of cultural understanding, ethnic historical perspectives that are related to racial tolerance and national historical perspectives which include the Malaysian identity. The respondents for this study were multiracial students of the Malay, Chinese and Indian origin from two different schools in Selangor, Malaysia. 81 students were assigned to the treatment group while 80 students were at the control group. The experiment was conducted over 15 weeks. The pilot study showed that the items used in this study have a high level of reliability on the Cronbach alpha index, between 0.80 and 0.96. The findings showed a significant difference ( p 0.05 ) between treatment group and control group for every aspects that was studied including gender and race. For the treatment group, the finding showed the highest mean for racial tolerance (mean=4.32) compared to cultural understanding aspect (mean=4.28), Malaysia identity aspects (mean=4.27) and national integration aspects (mean=4.26). Moreover, MANOVA test showed a significant difference for all aspects based on gender and race. The cultural understandings, racial tolerance and Malaysian identity perspectives showed a high correlation with national integration. The regression analysis showed that the cultural understanding is 55%, the highest contribution compared to the other perspectives, such as Malaysian identity 11% and racial tolerance 2.5%. The implication of the study revealed that a multicultural based approach to History in schools was positively accepted by multiracial students. Thus, it could be adopted as a teaching model to promote unity among this multiracial society and in the long run to achieve the “One Malaysia” vision.

The Impact of Cooperative Learning Strategy on the Geography Achievement of Form One: Topics Forest and the Wild Life

Penyelidikan ini bertujuan mengkaji penggunaan pembelajaran koperatif (PK) dalam mata pelajaran Geografi di sekolah menengah rendah dengan menggunakan struktur Jigsaw, Group Investigation dan Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD). Pembolehubah yang dikaji ialah peningkatan kemampuan guru di dalam: (1) memotivasi pelajar dalam pembelajaran koperatif, (2) menstruktur pembelajaran koperatif, dan (3) menilai proses aktiviti pembelajaran koperatif. Penyelidik juga mengkaji kesan pembelajaran koperatif ke atas pencapaian Geografi pelajar dan mengkaji sikap pelajar terhadap mata pelajaran Geografi sebelum dan selepas didedahkan dengan modul pembelajaran koperatif. Penyelidik juga mengkaji kemampuan pelajar dalam kemahiran berkolaborasi iaitu: (1) kemahiran komunikasi, (2) interaksi ahli-ahli kumpulan, dan (3) kemahiran koperatif. Kaedah kajian yang digunakan ialah penyelidikan tindakan. Penyelidikan tindakan ini dilakukan secara berkolaboratif antara penyelidik dan seorang guru Geografi, serta 25 orang pelajar tingkatan 1 di Maktab Rendah Sains Mara Kuala Klawang, Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan. Kaedah pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui pemerhatian, ujian pra dan pasca pencapaian Geografi, dan soal selidik untuk mengukur sikap pelajar terhadap Geografi sebelum dan selepas menggunakan kaedah pembelajaran koperatif. Hasil kajian tindakan yang dijalankan menunjukkan bahawa kemampuan guru memotivasi pelajar dapat mewujudkan pergantungan yang positif antara pelajar untuk berkomunikasi dan berkoperatif. Kemampuan guru menstruktur dan menilai proses pembelajaran koperatif pula dapat meningkatkan interaksi antara pelajar dengan guru yang mewujudkan peningkatan pencapaian Geografi dan kemahiran pelajar berkolaborasi. Keputusan untuk sikap menunjukkan pelajar-pelajar telah berubah kepada sikap yang sangat positif terhadap geografi dengan kaedah pembelajaran koperatif. Implikasi kajian tindakan ini antaranya adalah guru perlu mengubah amalan kepada pengajaran dan pembelajaran menggunakan pembelajaran koperatif. Seterusnya pelajar dalam pelbagai golongan boleh meningkatkan pencapaian Geogafi, perubahan sikap terhadap Geografi dan memperlihatkan nilai sosial.

The Role of Fathers in Developing Adolescents Personality and its Implication Towards Family Value

The objective of this research was to identify the students entrepreneurial career aspirations in the public instituitions of higher education. The research also was designed to determine the factors that influence the entrepreneurial career aspirations of the students. A set of questionaires were distributed to 420 respondents from three universities namely, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Islamic International University of Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The findings showed majority of the students were not interested to become entrepreneur eventhough more than 80 percent of them have positive attitude towards entrereneurship. Profit-orientation factor and the needs to have a successful life are the dominant factors that influenced the students towards entrepreneurial career. However, the entrepreneurial characteristics of the students was high, except for the willingness to take risks. The finding also showed that there are a positive and significant correlations between entrepreneurial characteristics, interest towards entrepreneurial career and attitude towards students entrepreneurial career aspirations. These findings concluded that races, educational fields and family members are considered as the factors that contributed to the students entrepreneurial career aspirations. Based on the findings, several ways are suggested to inspire the entrepreneurial career among the students in the public higher education. Therefore, the students, the universities, lecturers, the ministry, parents and the public are resposible in realizing and believing that the entrepreneurial career is a career option once graduated.

Penggunaan Peta Konsep untuk Meningkatkan Pencapaian Mata Pelajaran Sejarah bagi Pelajar Tingkatan Dua (The Use of Concept Maps in Improving Achievement in The Subject of History for Form Two Students)

The aim of this study is to identify teachers’ teaching approach, students’ learning style, and types of evaluation of Form 4 sport science subject in secondary schools. The study also meant to identify the relationship between students’ learning style with their achievement in sport science subject. Samples consist of 208 teachers who thought in sport science subject and 2729 of students who participate in the sport science subject at selected secondary schools. Instruments used in the study consist of questionnaires for teachers and students with reliability of α = .962 and α = .799 respectively. The results showed that teachers’ teaching approach based on teaching management strategy was at medium level while its teaching techniques and teachers’ content knowledge on sport science were at high level. This study also found that students acquired a high interest towards sport science subject but at of a medium level on perceptual learning style which involve visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic. The evaluation styles chosen for measuring students’ learning achievement was written test, practical test, oral test, semester examination, project, and performance evaluation. Students’ learning achievement of Form 4 sport science subject was 9.2% scored grade A, 21% grade B, 38% grade C, and 18.5% grade D. Learning factor has a low significant relationship (r = .17**, p < .00) with students’ achievement in form 4 sport science subject. In conclusion, teachers’ teaching approach should anticipate with students’ learning styles and include varieties of evaluation process to evaluate students’ learning achievement in sport science subject