Zalizan Mohd Jelas

Inclusive education in Malaysia: policy and practice

Malaysias move towards inclusion was given impetus by its participation in workshops and conferences set up under the auspices of the United Nations (UNESCO 1990; UN 1993; UNESCO 1994). Inclusive education was introduced in the Education Act 1996 as part of the continuum of services available for children with special needs. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interpretation of policy pertaining to inclusion, its contradictions and its translation into practice within the Malaysian context; and to share experiences on how the national context explains and constrains inclusive practices. This paper examines the problematic issues associated with the interpretation and implementation of inclusive practices at community and school levels. Barriers to inclusion are also discussed from the perspective of conceptualisation and meaning of ‘special educational needs’ and competing priorities of the school system.

Why is inclusive education important to my country

This article presents a collection of personal perspectives of three academics and one ministry official from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand, on the importance of inclusive education. These perspectives offer an insiders understanding of the universal and country-specific contributions of inclusive education, as well as their individual visions for the future of their countries. Although discernibly different in terms of the issues raised by the authors specific to their individual countries, these perspectives, nonetheless, echo and announce the same hope and call – to build a better and more inclusive future for all in society.

Message from the Guest Editors

The International Conference on Learner Diversity (ICELD) 2010 is organised by the Learner Diversity Centre under the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia held at the Equatorial Hotel, Bangi in Malaysia on 19-20 October 2010. The Centre strives to enhance awareness to the diversity of learners and their teaching and learning needs at all levels and type of education – preschool, primary, secondary, higher education as well as in formal and non-formal settings. Educators need to develop the capacity to be sensitive and respond appropriately to the increasing diversity in our schools, institutions of higher learning, at the workplace and the community. It is the aim of the Centre to highlight the diversity and inclusion agenda in its biannual conference. Specifically, the objectives of ICELD 2010 are:

The Reading Strategies of Proficient and Less Proficient Adult Readers.

This article reports on a study that examined the choice and use of academic reading strategies of adult learners who were identified as proficient and less proficient readers. The major objective was to explore the potential influence of their adult characteristics on their use of their academic reading strategies. Data were gathered using student diaries, participant observations, and think-aloud protocols. In addition, the take-home reading handouts were studied and retrospective interviews were conducted immediately after the think-aloud protocols. Data analysis was done at two levels: quantitative and qualitative. While the quantitative analysis yielded the variety and frequency count of the strategies used, the qualitative analysis provided the quality of and reasons for the choice and use of the strategies. Quantitative analysis resulted in the identification of 31 cognitive strategies, 20 metacognitive strategies, and 5 affective strategies amongst the proficient readers, and 26 cognitive strategies, 15 metacognitive strategies, and 6 affective strategies amongst the less proficient readers. The qualitative analysis revealed that the proficient readers were found to be able to manipulate their common characteristics as adult learners to the advantage of their academic reading, while the less proficient readers were found to be ignorant of the potentials of their common characteristics as adult learners. The findings of this study have direct implications on the teaching of academic reading to adult learners and the design of the academic reading curriculum in adult education.

Student and School’s Diversity: A Case Study in State of Pahang

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.