Aini Marina Ma'rof

Concept mapping is a visual representation of ideas that facilitates thinking and is applicable to many areas of education with noticeable impacts on learning. Literatures show that there is difficulty in using concept maps among higher education students although empirical studies have shown that its use over time enhances students’ personalized learning experience. This enable better analysis and synthesis of complicated topics which in turn promotes deep learning. Recent development shows the change from using traditional paper methods to the computer-assisted concept maps which are more flexible and less constrained. The present study explored the using of the computer-based/online concept mapping and enrich background image to promote conceptual understanding of undergraduate students in the Thinking Skills subject. A total of 50 first year students majoring in Mathematics and Statistics participated in this study. We conclude that online concept-mapping is a scalable and imple...

This study is conducted to research whether or not a specific thinking style can predict critical thinking skills of undergraduate students in the Faculty of Educational Studies of Universiti Putra Malaysia. This study involves undergraduate students in year 1 until year 4 with their ages ranging from 19-24 years old. It is expected that there will be a significant difference between thinking styles and attitude toward critical thinking skills among undergraduate students. Through a series of ANOVAs, it is expected that executive, judicial and legislative thinking styles could each predict a certain level of critical thinking skills among undergraduate students.

The current research investigates how i-Think graphic organizers impacts on reading comprehension of primary school students. Participants were purposively assigned to aged 9 to aged 11 primary schools’ students. The sample of this study was 264 primary schools students. This study was lasted for four weeks. Data were gathered through a questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively to indicate impact of i-Think graphic organizers in students’ reading comprehension. The results suggest that i-Think graphic organizers can be effective apply in reading comprehension of learners of English as a second language.

The ability for students to self-regulate their learning and to learn effectively with peers become two distinctive competencies in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. These competencies also affect academic achievement, an important variable used to measure attainment of learning outcomes. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the influence of peer learning and selfregulated learning (SRL) strategies on students’ academic achievement. Of the 409 respondents, only 347 were valid for data analysis, forming a usable case of 84.84%. The instruments used was an online questionnaire, which was adapted from pre-existing reliable multi-item instruments. Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis was used to examine the relationship between the constructs in the hypothesised model. Given that the structural model exhibited a good fit to the data (χ2/df = 1.697; CFI = 0.916; IFI = 0.917; TFI = 0.912; and RMSEA = 0.045), the results unveiled that students’ ability to learn with...

The aim of this research is to predict the significance between critical thinking disposition and academic achievement among pre-service teachers. The critical thinking disposition consists of seven elements of cognitive skills which are truth seeking, open mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, inquisitiveness, self-confidences and maturity as indicated by the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI). Data was analysed using IBM Statistics to gather descriptive data and analyse the inferential data through ANOVA. Further analyses are expected to show that there will be a relationship between each elements of critical thinking disposition and academic achievement of pre-service teachers. Based on review of past studies, it is expected that the ANOVA outcome will be significant for the seven elements of cognitive skills of thinking disposition. It is also be presumable that high critical thinking disposition among pre-service teachers could enhance their academic achievement.

A common and maladaptive opinion is that only smart people can succeed with high CGPA. The purpose of this study was to determine the mindset status of bachelor level students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and to investigate the differences between the types of mindset on gender, household income, parents' education level and CGPA. This study used questionnaires which adopted from Dweck, C.S. (2006) to measure fixed and growth mindsets to look at their associations to gender, SES, CGPA and also parents education levels of college students. The results suggested that there is a significant difference between the growth mindset in regard to gender, household income, parent's education level and CGPA. However, for the fixed mindset, the expected result seems to be contradicted as only parent’s education level has a significant difference whereas the other variables do not bear any significance.

The primary goal of this paper is to provide a critical methodological review of literature on homeownership and child academic outcomes. It focuses on the strengths and weaknesses regarding causal inference of different research findings. We first build a conceptual framework on the relations between homeownership and child academic outcomes. In the body of the review, six empirical studies using different quasi-experimental techniques were critically analyzed and compared regarding their strengths and weaknesses of establishing causal inference. A final comment on the quality of literature and future directions are also discussed.

The aim of this study was to examine the overall performance of different levels of autistic children aged from 4- 8 years on a logical thinking test in the Malaysian context. The study was conducted at the National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) center in Klang Lama. The instrument used in this study is the Logical Operations and Conservation (LOC) test developed by by Vianello and Marin (1997). ANOVA was used to compare the mean of LOC score and autism levels among the participants. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between LOC score and autism levels among the participants (F (2,26) =11.449, p=0.000). There is no significant difference between male (M=3.7500; SD = 3.7500) and female (M=3.7500; SD = 8.66025 children). This signifies that logical thinking ability among autistic children is not affected by their gender. The discussions and suggestions are discussed further in the article.

Putra Learning Hub is a one-stop portal being developed as the hub of e-Learning at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and has been officially launched in April 2016. This flexible learning hub is a platform for academic staffs and students to acquire the latest developments of Digital Education at the university to support 21st Century Teaching and Learning.

Teaching the language of thinking is a subject that had gained much popularity as it concerns our future generation. This research reports preliminary reports on the investigation on school teachers’ opinions in using the language of thinking to help young learners (Primary 1) in understanding teaching materials better. In this research, the concentration is on one specific group of teachers – Primary 1 Science teachers in Malaysia. Individual interviews of five Primary 1 Science school teachers from five different schools we conducted. The interviews tarted out in gathering information about awareness of the concept of ‘language of thinking.’ It was followed by simple explanation of the language of thinking. Interviewees were then asked if they think incorporating the language of thinking in their teaching could help their students in understanding the materials better. The results of the interview showed a zero score in the awareness of the concept ‘language of thinking.’ They all...

This research was conducted to study the relationships between academic performance and learning motivation with institutionalised environments and guardian involvement of children reared in a Malaysian orphanage. This study involves 50 students consisting of 21 female and 29 male students. These students are in secondary school with ages ranging from 13-17 years old. This study was conducted in a home for orphans and under-privileged children and all the participants of this study are from this home. The findings of this study hopes to show that there will be a significant relationship between academic achievement and learning motivation with guardian involvement and institutional environment providing further implications on how the home environment affects children’s’ academic and learning motivation outcomes.

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap perilaku individualism dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah rendah dan menengah, membandingkan perbezaan dalam amalan penghakiman dan membuat keputusan antara jantina, membandingkan perbezaan dalam amalan penghakiman dan membuat keputusan antara pelajar berbangsa Melayu dan Cina, membandingkan perbezaan dalam amalan penghakiman dan membuat keputusan antara pelajar sekolah rendah dan menengah dan mengkaji perkaitan perilaku individualism terhadap amalan penghakiman dan membuat keputusan dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah rendah dan menengah tersebut. Kajian ini telah dijalankan di dua buah sekolah daerah Seremban, Negeri Sembilan yang hanya melibatkan responden seramai 60 orang iaitu 30 orang pelajar yang berumur 9 dan 19 tahun sahaja. Metodologi kajian yang digunakan adalah kaedah deskriptif-korelasi. Oleh itu, borang soal selidik telah diedarkan kepada semua responden. Dapatan kajian menyatakan terdapat perkaitan perilaku individualism terhadap...

The overall goal of this study is to observe the relationship between metacognitive skills, learned helplessness and aboriginal performance in LINUS. A correlational design will be adopted to answer the research questions of this study. Two types of questionnaires will be given which are Jr. MAI Inventory and Learned Helplessness Scale in order to achieve the objectives. Purposive sampling technique will be employed to recruit participants. Sample of the population will be taken among the year 2, 3, 4 and 5. Upon completion of data analyses, it is expected that there is a positive relationship between metacognitive skills and LINUS performance among aboriginal school children. Lacking in metacognitive components will indicate poor learning performance among the children. Is is expected that there is also a relationship between learned helplessness and LINUS performance in which aboriginal school children have higher levels of learned helplessness and it is related to the low perform...

In this day and age, critical thinking is one of the most important aspects of education as educators need to pay more attention on producing students with higher order level of thinking. Critical thinking skills have been introduced in the curriculum to help develop strategic thinking skills in students. This study is aimed to investigate the relationship between student’s self-efficacy and critical thinking in student at High School in Selangor. A simple random sampling of 100 students were tested by using Sherer et al.’s (1982) General Self-efficacy Scale and The Cornell Critical Thinking test. The expected result of this study is it will show that there is a positive relationship between critical thinking and self-efficacy belief. Self-efficacy belief will play a role in students’ critical thinking.

The objective of this preliminary experimental study is to investigate the effects of three different backgrounds of music: instrumental, vocal and silence on verbal and spatial task performance in learning. The study samples were from postgraduate students of a public research university in Malaysia which consisted of 36 students. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistics in which independent sample t-tests and two-way analysis variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The t-tests show that there are significance differences between instrumental condition (t = 2.06, p = 0.018), vocal condition (t = 1.101, p = 0.172) and silent condition (t = 2.712, p = 0.022) on the verbal and spatial task performance. Two-way ANOVA music within group Greenhouse-Geisser was reported in the significant level (p<0.05). The findings provide information that music – when listened to in an appropriate form – can actually help students to perform better in their learning.

This study aims to examine the associations between procrastination, perfectionism and academic performance of students at an international school in Selangor. A total of 85 Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 students took part in this study. Lay’s Procrastination Scale (1986) and Frost’s Multidimensional Perfectionism scale (1990) were used as instruments in this research. For academic achievement, mean value of student’s marks from their final examination was calculated. This study employs a quantitative method where a survey questionnaire were distributed to students. Descriptive data analysis was performed to calculate means and standard deviations. Inferential statistical analyses using a series of logistic regressions were conducted to predict students’ academic achievement level based on categorical predictor variables. Since the analyses are still on-going at this stage, this paper therefore reports the preliminary descriptive findings. Upon completion of data analysis, it is expecte...

This study aims to examine the relationships between attachment styles in predicting decision-making skills and emotional intelligence of a total 181 form 4 students in a secondary school located at Negeri Sembilan. The instrument used was adapted from Schutte et.al., (1998), Bakker et al., (2004) and Mincemoyer & Perkins (2003). The study employs a descriptive-correlational design. Exploratory data analyses were performed to obtain descriptive data from the sample. ANOVA analysis was conducted to determine whether there are significant differences between attachment styles and emotional intelligence and also between attachment styles and decision-making skills among subjects. Pearson correlations were employed to determine whether there are any significant relationships between emotional intelligence and decision-making skills among the subjects. The result of this study shows that there is a positive association between emotional intelligence and decision-making skills among secon...

Background: Increasing efforts have been focused on providing a quality education for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) after identifying them at an early stage. Preschool teachers play a major role in the main ASD identification system as they represent the gatekeepers to identify and refer any children suspected of ASD to specialists. However, there is little literature available on the ability of preschool teachers of their perception regarding this role.Aim: The main objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an educational module to identify children with ASD (EMASD). The second objective is to assess the initial impact of the EMASD on improving preschool teacher’s ability to identify children with ASD in a normal school.Method: This pilot study will examine the feasibility of the randomised controlled trial (RCT) using EMASD as an intervention. The intervention will be ten weekly group-based sessions designed to improve the knowledge...

Challenges students face in the online component of blended learning, especially in the areas related to self-regulation challenges, have deferred them in achieving their learning goals. Besides, improper utilization of online peer learning strategy has also been identified as an inherent problem related to self-regulation challenges in the blended learning environment. Therefore, this study adopted Zimmerman's perspective of SRL which draws from social cognitive theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theory to determine the influence of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and peer learning on students' learning satisfaction and academic achievement. This study proposes an integrated and actionable framework covering a variety of constructs, including SRL, peer learning, learning satisfaction, and academic achievement in the context of blended learning. In addition, it also provides insights for universities as to where future efforts need to be directed, especially in ...

Purpose – Students’ ability to self-regulate their learning and to learn effectively with peers are indicators of success in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This study investigated whether peer learning helps to influence online learning satisfaction in the presence of self-regulated learning (SRL) as a mediating variable. Methodology - The study adopted a correlational research design to examine the possibility of relationships between these variables. The sample was selected based on proportional stratified sampling method. Of the 409 respondents, only 347 were valid for data analysis, forming a usable case of 84.84%. The instrument used was an online questionnaire adapted from pre-existing reliable multi-item instruments. Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis was used to examine the relationship between the constructs in the hypothesised model, while Bootstrapping test was applied to examine the mediation effects of SRL. Findings - From the direct effect of the SEM a...

Educational games are often used as teaching and learning tools, with studies showing that game-based learning is widely accepted among children and teenagers. The experience of enjoyment typically associated with playing games provides for a deeper learning experience and allows the individual to connect various concepts, skills, and knowledge, as well as sparking creativity. This paper builds upon previous studies of enjoyment in health-based gaming and aims to articulate a definition of enjoyment in gaming. Drawing on Miles’ taxonomy, the review further set out to identify and bridge gaps in our theoretical understanding of enjoyment. Three theories were found to be particularly relevant for explaining the concept of enjoyment in relation to health-based gaming: self-determination theory, flow theory, and uses and gratification theory.

It is perplexing that some preschool teachers not only advise parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to go to religious healers, but also attribute such neurological disorders to the curse of the “evil eye” or vaccines. Although it is now the twentieth century, this behavior simply reflects the concerns of over-protective teachers and the cultural misperceptions about the actual definition of ASD. In Yemen, the term “ASD”, with its wide range of symptoms, is still ambiguous among preschool teachers. Thus, in a rather insightful piece for the education community, this study has attempted to look beneath the surface of the beliefs (religious belief–social belief–personal belief) of Yemeni preschool teachers regarding ASD. Based on the data collected from 213 teachers (20–30\31–40-~≥40 age) in the Taiz district, this study found that misconceptions specific to autism spectrum disorder were strongly evidenced among teachers who taught preschoolers. Due to personal...

The primary goal of this paper is to provide a critical methodological review of literature on homeownership and child academic outcomes. It focuses on the strengths and weaknesses regarding causal inference of different research findings. We first build a conceptual framework on the relations between homeownership and child academic outcomes. In the body of the review, six empirical studies using different quasi-experimental techniques were critically analyzed and compared regarding their strengths and weaknesses of establishing causal inference. A final comment on the quality of literature and future directions are also discussed. [Aini Marina Ma'rof, Ma'rof Redzuan Impact of Homeownership on Children's Academic Outcomes: A Critical Methodological Review of Literature. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):833-840] (ISSN:1097-8135).

This paper is based on a quasi-experimental study which investigated the impact of Shared-book Reading (SBR) on the development of vocabulary and oral narrative skills of young Indigenous Malaysian children learning Malay as a second language. Sixty three (63) Orang Asli children from two first-grade classrooms participated in the study. One of the classes was randomly assigned to implement SBR sessions while the other served as wait-listed control. Prior to the intervention, all students were assessed on a grade-appropriate literacy screening test (LINUS I), a Rapid-automatized naming task (RAN), and a Children's Nonword Repetition Test (CNRep). After a five-week intervention, all students were assessed on vocabulary and storytelling. Results showed that experiences of SBR accelerated Orang Asli children's oral Malay language production and increased their level of word-meaning knowledge. Specifically, the SBR group performed significantly better than the control group on the word-defining task. They also produced more coherent, higher quality narratives in a wordless picture story-telling task. They told the stories with greater verbal rate which contained significantly greater vocabulary diversity. These results altogether yield significant implications for the literacy instruction practices of Orang Asli children. [Aini Marina Ma'rof, Ma'rof Redzuan, Richard C. Anderson, Aini Azeqa Ma'rof. Improving Young Indigenous Malaysian Children's Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition and Oral Narrative Skills through Shared-book Reading. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):841-848] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 131

To understand systems of knowledge, students need to acquire relational concepts and
develop systems thinking, especially multi-link causal reasoning. The effectiveness of
two contrasting instructional approaches, Collaborative Reasoning (CR) and Direct
Instruction (DI), was investigated in this study. Students’ understanding of complex
systems was assessed in a Sentence Verification Test, policy decision letters, and
policy transfer interviews. The results showed CR and DI have different strengths in
fostering conceptual understanding and systems thinking. Teachers’ explicit instruction
in DI makes the approach effective in helping students acquire a broad range of
concepts. CR does more to support the development of systems thinking, because CR
engages students in an active social process in which thinking strategies are enacted.

The purpose of this study is to identify level and patterns of metacognitive awareness among teachers in primary schools. This study focuses on aspects of declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, monitoring and evaluation of teachers. The study was descriptive in nature. A sample of 100 primary school teachers in Puchong, Selangor answered the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory for Teacher by Cem Balcikanli (2011). The data analysis was carried out using IBM Statistics version 24 to obtain descriptive measures. The results show that levels of metacognitive awareness among teachers are high at ninety three percent (93%). The results also show that there are no significant differences by gender, age, teaching experience, academic qualification and subject of teaching among primary school teachers. The metacognitive framework shows that metacognition knowledge and regulatory expertise were used by individuals to control their cognition. Teachers who have a higher level of metacognitive awareness can produce students with good academic achievement.

This research was conducted to study the relationships between academic performance, learning motivation, institutionalised environments and guardian involvement of children reared in a Malaysian orphanage. This study involves 50 students consisting of 21 female and 29 male students. These students are in secondary school with ages ranging from 13-17 years old. This study was conducted in a home for orphans and underprivileged children and all the participants of this study are from this home. The findings of this study show that there is a significant relationship between academic performance, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and therefore learning motivation as a whole (P<0.05). Findings also show that there is strong correlation between guardian involvement and academic performance (P<0.05). However for relationships between guardian involvement and learning motivation, institutionalised environment and academic performance and institutionalised environment and guardian involvement, correlations fail to exist (P>0.05).

The present study has been conducted to investigate the relationship between sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, social constraints, involvement opportunities, involvement alternatives and social support variables and sports participation among secondary school students. A 27-items scale adapted from the Sport Commitment Models by Scanlan et al. [1] and Casper et al. [2] was used to measure the sport commitment variables. Differences between mean values for demographic factors (i.e. gender and race) in the sports participation were also examined. A total of 105 students attending two public secondary schools in the Kuala Lumpur area, volunteered to participate in the study. Pearson correlation indicated significant relationship between sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, involvement opportunities, involvement alternatives variables and participation in sports. In terms of social constraints and social support factors, no significant association were found in the study. Independent-samples t-test shown no significant differences between mean values for school boys and girls in the sports participation. One-way ANOVA test indicated no statistically significant results among the race groups. The present study demonstrated that sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, involvement opportunities, involvement alternatives have decisive roles to play in the sports activity behavior of the secondary school students and these factors may foster the students' participation in the sports activity. Therefore, we may suggest that programs to promote sports participation among secondary school students are urgently needed, with consideration of the sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, involvement opportunities, and involvement alternatives factors.

Recently, the identification and detection of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become an essential issue under ASD intervention services. The high percentage of ASD among children requires preschool teachers to recognizse children's abnormal development and identify them at an early stage, followed by referral to specialists. Therefore, this identification calls for a specific ability among preschool teachers, identified as knowledge, belief, identification skills, and self-efficacy (KBISSE). This conceptual framework aims to utilize the current literature to present a discussion on preschool teachers' KBISSE in identifying children with ASD and making decisions to refer children suspected with ASD to specialists. The conceptual framework is discussed based on social cognitive theory (SCT) and the health belief model (HBM). The conceptual framework emphasizes the need for preschool teachers to be educated in ASD via an educational module that could increase teachers' self-efficacy in identifying children with ASD. Besides, knowledge in ASD, belief in ASD, and identification skills are also necessary variables for building the educational module. The educational module is useful for guiding future research on preschool teachers' identification of children with any disability, one of which is ASD, and subsequent specialist referral at an early stage.

Several practice-oriented courses are currently integrated into online learning platforms, providing a new wave of instructional approaches among academics. These include the use of Open CourseWare and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It is worthwhile to explore how learners respond to new teaching methods when practice-oriented courses are placed online. The primary purpose of this study is to determine levels of attitude and behavioural intention to develop and use MOOCs and the possible relationships between those variables. Participants consisted of 238 academics in a Malaysian public university. Descriptive and Pearson Correlation analyses were employed to determine relationships. Results show that: (a) respondents are receptive towards MOOCs as an alternative platform to deliver teaching content; (b) they are mostly ready to develop MOOCs; (c) they are generally prepared to use MOOCs in teaching and learning and (d) there are significant relationships between academic staffs' attitude and behavioural intention to develop and use MOOCs. The findings of this study are pertinent in understanding MOOCs from the perspective of academics so that proper support can be provided accordingly .

This is an exploratory research examining written work in English of Malay college students, analysing lexical errors that occurred in their work, which were caused by the negative transfer from the students' mother tongue. The study also categorized the errors and gave some pedagogical suggestions on reducing the lexical errors to improve students' English writing. Students involved were Malays at foundation level, with an age range from 17 years to 19 years old. Out of 40 participants, 15 of them were males and 25 were females. The categorical analysis and findings of this study aim to gain educators' understandings on Malay-based lexical negative transfer problems in learning English and trigger educators to take note on the problems in order to improve students' language learning strategy.

With the increasing popularity of positive psychology, current studies are more concerned
in promoting mental health rather than only focusing on pathological disorders. Hence, the term
“subjective well-being” was introduced as a pertinent area of study where new research has
emerged regarding its components: positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction. The
current study serves as a preliminary study within the Malaysian higher education context with
the aim to examine the impact of a relatively new approach to mindful art therapy, Zentangle®,
on improving the subjective well-being of first year teacher trainee students in a Malaysian public
university in terms of positive affect. This study adopted the one-group pretest posttest design
in which 44 students participated in the study. Participants were required to answer two sets of
questionnaires before and after the Zentangle® intervention. Through descriptive and inferential
analyses of data obtained, this study found that the level of positive affect was not significantly
correlated with stress level. In addition, the most important finding in this study was level of
subjective well-being in terms of positive affect significantly increased after participants’
experience with mindful art therapy. This study serves as the first, or one of the first to study on
Zentangle® in the Malaysian context and aims to provide insights on mindful art therapy and
positive affect, probing future studies looking into related topics.

Undergraduate engineering students often struggle in mastering engineering course contents. Although introductory engineering courses were extensively taught, it was deemed not enough, especially in graphic expression since it requires high levels of spatial ability. Moreover, spatial ability is acquired beyond formal learning through leisure training and not explicitly taught.