Malaysian Primary School Research Articles

THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-EMOTIONAL COMPETENCY MODEL FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERS IN THE ERA OF SOCIETY 5.0: A PILOT STUDY

The self-emotional competency model can be used as a measurement tool to increase the emotional qualities of school leadership in facing the change in the education era of Society 5.0. However, validation of the self-emotional competency model using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is still scarce. Therefore, this pilot study is conducted to identify the applicability of the emotional competency model of middle leaders in primary schools through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). This study employed a quantitative approach using a survey method. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument. The instrument contained 18 items. A total of 179 respondents participated in this pilot study. The validity and reliability of the instrument were obtained through descriptive analysis of Cronbach's Alpha reliability and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using SPSS version 27 software. The overall analysis shows that 13 items meet the EFA fit requirements with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) values of more than 0.6. Bartlett's test values were significant, with item communalities values exceeding 0.3 and Eigen values exceeding 1.0 at a percentages of variance exceeding 60 percent. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was above 0.70 for all items. A total of five items were removed. The findings of the study show that the instrument of self-emotional competency instrument has very high validity and reliability and has the potential to be used as a guide in the development of self-emotional competence of middle leaders in Malaysia. A positive impact is essential in generating emotionally intelligent leaders who are competitive and capable to lead the school community towards the era of Society 5.0 especially in primary school in Malaysia.

Developing Personalised Reading Materials for Malaysian Primary School Pupils Using ChatGPT: A Review

Developing Personalised Reading Materials for Malaysian Primary School Pupils Using ChatGPT: A Review

Factors Influencing Teaching Higher-order Thinking Skills among Mathematics Teachers in Malaysian Primary Schools

Integrating higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) into the mathematics curriculum has been a longstanding goal of the Malaysian education system. By recognizing its growing importance in enhancing students’ thinking abilities, this study explores the factors influencing the teaching of HOTS in primary schools across Malaysia. A quantitative research approach is used to analyze 269 randomly selected mathematics teachers from primary schools in Temerloh, Malaysia, to investigate the impact of four influencing factors: teachers’ knowledge of HOTS, pedagogical skills, attitude, and barriers to teaching HOTS. The findings from this study revealed that all four influencing factors significantly predict the teaching of HOTS among Malaysian mathematics teachers. These results hold significant promise in enriching teaching practices and fostering HOTS integration within the school context. By providing valuable insights into the dynamics of teaching HOTS, this study aims to equip teachers, schools, and administrators with essential resources to enhance students’ academic achievements. The implications of this research are far-reaching and hold the potential to revolutionize the learning and teaching landscape in Malaysia, not only in mathematics but also in other disciplines, thereby elevating the overall learning experience.

Satisfaction with School Life: Capturing Malaysian Pupils’ Voice from a Multiethnic Perspective

This qualitative study aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the aspects that shaped pupils’ satisfaction with school life in a multiethnic Malaysian context. The multiple case study design was employed to understand and elicit pupils’ experiences, feelings, beliefs, thoughts and perceptions of their satisfaction with school life in three different types of Malaysian primary schools, namely national primary school (Malay-dominated), national type Chinese primary school (Chinese-dominated) and national type Tamil primary school (Indian-dominated). A total of 18 pupils with six members from each type of Malaysian primary school participated in three focus group discussions. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis of the interview data: (1) emotional contentment; (2) curricular achievement and co-curricular achievements; (3) safe, conducive and comfortable learning environment; and (4) development of 21st-century skills. These emerging four themes from the participants’ views and experiences provided a holistic perspective on satisfaction with school life in Malaysian primary schools. Practical implications that could be beneficial in leveraging life satisfying experiences of the pupils in the school were discussed. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge with regard to satisfaction with school life from a multiethnic perspective.

Implementation of Vocational Skills for Students With Special Educational Needs in Primary Schools in Malaysia

Vocational skills are important in career development and play an important role in the economic growth of a country. However, MBPK (MBPK) face major challenges in acquiring appropriate vocational skills, which affects their employability prospects. This study aims to investigate the implementation of vocational skills for MBPK in primary schools in Malaysia. The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational skills program in improving MBPK employment outcomes. The methodological section describes the research design used in this study, including sampling techniques, data collection, and analysis. The research findings section presents the results of the study, highlighting the strengths and limitations of the vocational skills program. The discussion section analyzes and interprets the findings in the context of existing theory and research. Finally, the conclusion provides recommendations for the improvement of vocational skills programs for MBPK in primary schools in Malaysia, with an emphasis on the need to increase collaborative efforts between government agencies, schools and other stakeholders.

Comparative Study of Education for Children with Special Needs in Malaysia and Indonesian Primary School

The article aims to compare the implementation of education for children with special needs in primary schools in Malaysia and Indonesia. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach. Data was used using literature studies, observations, and interviews. The subjects used were elementary schools in Surakarta City, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The data is analyzed by means of comparative analysis. The results showed that Indonesia and Malaysia apply the concept of inclusion in the education of children with special needs. In terms of Technology, Malaysia is more advanced by introducing educational Technology such as applications and assistive Technology. This study shows a comparison of education for children with special needs in the two countries, and it is hoped that this study can recommend good practices for the effectiveness and improvement of the quality of education for children with special needs in elementary schools.

AMALAN KEPIMPINAN MORAL GURU BESAR LEPASAN PROGRAM PRIME DALAM ELEMEN NILAI MERENTASI ORGANISASI: SATU KAJIAN TINDAKAN PARTISIPATIF

This study aims to explore the moral leadership practices that exist among principals who have graduated from the Prime program (Principals Residency and Immersion Programme), from three primary schools in Malaysia. The element of leadership that is studied among head teachers is the practice of moral leadership that exists in the aspect of Organizational Values. This study was carried out in a qualitative approach using a participatory action research design (Participatory Action Research or PAR). A three-loop PAR model adapted from Crane and Richardson (2000)3 was used. A total of 21 people, from 3 national schools (SK) have become study participants. Those who became study participants consisted of head teachers, senior administrators and academic teachers. Data for this study were collected through interview techniques, observation and journal entries. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis method. The findings of the study show that head teachers who completed PRIme program, in each school studied, are able to develop moral leadership practices in the management of school organizations in planning element of Cross-Organizational Values. The implications of this study provide important information to the moral leadership of head teachers, school organization management and the PRIme module in more efficient moral leadership.

Motivation and Engagement as a Predictor of Students’ Science Achievement Satisfaction of Malaysian of Secondary School Students

Abstract Psychologists consider student engagement as a primary pathway by which motivational processes contribute to students’ learning and development (Connell & Wellborn, 1991). Academically engaged students self-regulate their learning, make plans for upcoming tasks, and persist when encountering obstacles and challenges. The present study intends to analyses the relationship between students’ motivation and engagement and their academic satisfaction and test the effect of some variables (gender, class) on that relation. To accomplish these purposes, this study intends to investigate Malaysian primary school students’ motivation, engagement and achievement satisfaction as predictors of achievement satisfaction in science and test the effect of some variables (gender, grade) on that relation. The students - 460 students (43% male, 57% female) of secondary school- responded to the Self-Developed Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire, Students’ Engagement Questionnaire and Science Motivation Questionnaire. All the questionnaires are valid and reliable according to the Cronbach’s Alpha value. A Multiple linear regression analysis has been used to predict the achievement satisfaction of Science based on the level of students’ motivation and level of engagement in Science classroom. The findings showed that students have a good level of motivation, engagement and achievement satisfaction. Even though students’ motivation is significantly predicted students’ achievement, but neither students’ engagement nor achievement satisfaction are a significant predictor of students’ achievement.

Reliability of a Best Practice Instrument for Beginning Teacher Professionalism Development in High-Performing Primary Schools in Malaysia: A Rasch Measurement Model

The Malaysia Ministry of Education is very concerned with professional development plans, which aim to improve the ability and performance of teachers including beginning teachers across the country to make them more prepared, enthusiastic, and committed in carrying out their teaching duties. This study was carried out with the aim of building a best practice instrument for developing beginning teacher professionalism in high performing primary schools in Malaysia according to the context of the study and further determining the reliability of the instrument administered to 123 beginning teachers. From a reliability point of view, the item reliability index shows a high level of reliability which is 0.98 while the respondent's reliability index is 0.95. The results of the study show that the instrument has high reliability in measuring best practices in the development of primary teachers' professionalism in high performing primary schools in Malaysia.

The Impact of Images in Enhancing the ESL Vocabulary Breadth of Malaysian Year 4 Students

The role of ESL vocabulary plays in language competence and literacy development is increasingly prevalent in language acquisition studies, especially so within the domain of second language acquisition research. In Malaysia, generally, the young learners face difficulties in their learning is due to their scarce vocabulary knowledge. This quasi-experimental study scrutinizes how the employment of images in Malaysian primary school level ESL classrooms via the adapted Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) effects on students’ ESL vocabulary breadth development. Both the experimental group (n=35) and control group (n=35) consisted of Malaysian national primary school Year 4 pupils. The vocabulary recall and retention of the two intact groups were collated. The data of the two groups were collected from pre-tests, post-tests, and delayed post-tests. These collected data were statistically analysed and assessed. The analysis shown that the Experimental group demonstrated higher recall and retention implying the efficacy of PWIM in enhancing the ESL vocabulary breadth knowledge recall and retention among Malaysian young learners. This study and its findings are of significance to shed light on the development of the ESL vocabulary research. Besides, there is a dearth of thorough study pertinent to the use of images for language learning, especially for the Malaysian primary level 2.

Socioscientific Issues Approach on Entrepreneurial Science Thinking among Fifth Graders: Socioscientific Issues Approach on Entrepreneurial Science Thinking

This research was conducted to examine the effects of the socioscientific issue approach (SSI) with thinking wheel map (TM) on entrepreneurial science thinking (EST) and the constructs of Observation, New Ideas, Innovation, Creativity, and Value. A teaching and learning (TL) module was developed to guide teachers in implementing the infusion of SSI with TM TL approach on EST among fifth graders. A quasi-experimental quantitative research was conducted on 345 fifth graders in urban primary schools in Malaysia. A total of three TL groups were assigned randomly; namely, i) SSI-TM approach (n=115), ii) SSI (n=115) and iii) Conventional approach (CONV, n=115). The Entrepreneurial Science Thinking Test Instrument (ESTT) was developed to measure the level of entrepreneurial science thinking. Data analysis was performed using MANCOVA, ANCOVA, and Effect Size. The results of the MANCOVA analysis showed a significant effect across the three groups of TL approach for EST. Meanwhile, the ANCOVA analysis results showed a significant effect of the SSI-TM TL approach compared to SSI and CONV on EST and in all constructs of EST. The SSI-TM TL approach showed a higher post-test mean score than the SSI, and then the SSI post-test mean score was significantly higher than the CONV in all constructs studied except the Observation. The findings prove that the SSI-TM TL approach positively impacts the cultivation of EST among fifth graders.

A systematic literature review on levels and effects of parental involvement in children’s learning

<span lang="EN-US">The objective of this systematic literature review is to analyze the literature on parental participation in their children’s education in primary schools in Malaysia. This review procedure entails searching, screening, evaluating, and synthesizing publications on parental engagement from several electronic databases, including Scopus, Taylor & Francis, ERIC, Google Scholar, MyCite, and Research Gate. The publications included in the analysis were published within the last 10 years (2012–2021). The findings of the analysis reveal that the degree of parental involvement in their children’s education is high in most studies. Furthermore, there are several effects of parental involvement in their children’s education, with a positive effect being the most common. Some challenges faced by parents are also reported, including factors related to parents, children, teachers, and schools. This review suggests that the relationships between parents, teachers, and children could be better organized to maximize the impact of educational opportunities on children. Additionally, more empirically-based studies are needed to enhance our understanding of the effects of parental involvement on children’s learning.</span>

Snacking and weight status in Malaysian Chinese primary school children

Snacking and weight status in Malaysian Chinese primary school children

Classroom Assessment Implementation Practices (PBD) in Primary Schools in Malaysia

This study aims to identify practices in Classroom Assessment (PBD) that need to be applied by teachers in Malaysia. The objective of the study is to identify classroom assessment practices in teacher teaching. This paper is in the form of a concept paper to identify the best practices in the implementation of PBD through analysis of documents related to PBD. The findings of this concept paper show that there is indeed a need to develop an assessment module for each subject to facilitate teachers in the implementation of PBD in schools. This is because teachers need to be guided with enough material so that the generation of Human Capital that is educated achieve what is desired in the National Education Philosophy.

Exploring the Application of ChatGPT to English Teaching in a Malaysia Primary School

As ChatGPT has gained popularity, more academics have looked into its application to English instruction. In this study, interviews with English teachers at a primary school in Malaysia were conducted using a qualitative research approach. This study displays how ChatGPT how ChatGPT was utilized in the preparation of English teaching for Malaysian instructors, which refers to ChatGPT can be used as an immediate help for English teachers in designing or preparing their teaching content, as well as what effect ChatGPT has on the teachers’ instructional strategy, which refers to effectiveness and efficiency.

Using Technologised Computational Corpus-Driven Linguistics Study on the Vocabulary Uses Among Advanced Malaysian Upper Primary School English as a Second Language Learners (ESL) in Northern Region

The vocabulary used by advanced Malaysian upper primary school learners is unknown after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a corpus-driven study. This study primarily uses data from a learner corpus. This main purpose of this paper is to fill in this knowledge gap by examining the vocabulary usage in extended writing by advanced Malaysian upper primary school learners in the Northern Region. The study uses a corpus-driven research strategy and a quantitative methodology. Some 160 advanced upper primary school learners from the Northern Region, Malaysia were included in the study. They attended eight national primary schools with strong English programmes in the Northern Region. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples. This study's main corpus-driven toolkit (LancsBox) was used to analyse the data. A total of 46,185 tokens from 160 extended writing tasks were analysed. The word frequencies were counted both raw and normalised. Results showed that 160 advanced Malaysian upper primary school learners in West Malaysia used the frequently and preferably in extended writing followed by the, and vocabulary be is the twentieth salient vocabulary over other vocabulary such as to, and, a, and I. Depending on their perspectives, one may argue that they described their experiences in the first person. These findings imply that advanced Malaysian upper primary school learners use to, and, a, of, in, is, it, that, for, as and within their extended writing. The findings provide important knowledge and information for ESL teachers to improve the writing grammatical proficiency, especially for extended writing of ESL learners.

Augmented storytelling: effects of making on students’ interest in literacy

ABSTRACT Creating technological artefacts through hands-on practice has gained traction as a means to rethink educational approaches. This study reports the effectiveness of the maker pedagogy on students’ interest in literacy. An evaluation study was conducted involving 112 primary school children, aged 11, in two primary schools in Malaysia with the aim of improving students’ reading interest. The study involved an experimental group of participants creating augmented storybooks using paper-based circuitry and programming. Participant results reveal a significant increase in interest while learning by making augmented storybooks in comparison to just reading using augmented storybooks. The study demonstrates how learning by making can be implemented in primary school settings and highlights key challenges and opportunities for applying the approach in everyday teaching and learning contexts.

Vuca World: The Commitment of Teacher Organization and Student Outcome in Malaysian Primary School

Education is a process for individual development in the physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social aspects that can yield happiness, benefits, and progress in life for oneself, one nation, and religion. The primary-level formal education in Malaysia has two phases namely preschool and primary education is the foreground to the development and expansion of the student’s cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains consistent with the National Education Philosophy (NEP). The sustainability of 21st-century education has emphasized a range of universal noble value-oriented practices. The mainstay of 21st-century learning is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) namely Intelligent Quotient (IQ) Emotional Quotient (EQ), and Spiritual Quotient (SQ), and they must be implemented in balance to fulfill the intention and goals of the NEP. That said, the world turmoil has spawned a volatile, vague even complex phenomenon. Whether it is realized or not, the VUCA crisis (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) has already lingered in the lives of the local community for the past two decades. The findings from past studies explained about the education sector experiencing a remarkable impact from the turmoil caused by VUCA. The challenge of holistic education has become greater owing to the unpredictability of the technological gap in forming the student outcome, especially for students in primary schools. This conceptual paper discusses the commitment of teacher organization and primary school student outcomes in the era of VUCA. Even though the direct relationship between the organization, the commitment of teacher organization, and students is not always easy, it is a significant indirect variable for student achievement. To ensure that our country can compete on the international stage, the quality of our education in this VUCA era needs to be given the main focus, especially at the primary level, involving various stages of implementers.

A Review of Resilience Leadership in Challenging Circumstances: A Case Study of Malaysia Primary School Head Teachers

Educational leaders were faced with the combined difficulty of handling noticeable improvements outside their organisations and all across the ministry of learning plan and execution in addition to reacting to unprecedented requires the social. Education in Malaysia saw an unusual rate and degree of change over some few fortnight in March 2020, trying to equate earlier worldwide trends. The outbreak made it the more crucial to act quickly in the field of education. The syllabus has already been altered, facial expression instruction is in jeopardy, and the public primary school test has already been delayed. Effective school administration is the responsibility of school administrators, especially in basic schools. There were many decisions that needed to be made, conveyed, carried out, and evaluated, all of which called for resilience. Throughout this study, we provide a number of important resilience elements and lessons discovered from the head teachers' perspectives as educational leaders in Malaysian primary schools, both in the now and in the years to come. We depend on the knowledge of six principals of Malaysian public primary schools. Resilient leaders must meet stringent standards in primary schools. The standards are broken down into leadership categories where school leaders' social skills and compassion more towards the school community, parents, and stakeholders should be handled. People as educational leaders gained a fresh appreciation of the resiliency and ingenuity of teachers and elementary school students as a consequence of the ramifications of these responses. In order to prepare for an exceptional event that may emerge in the modern day, we provide illustrations of these classes and topics, as well as suggestions for how to operate the school mostly in "new baseline" of dealing with COVID-19 and help overcome.

Maker-centred Learning Approach to Craft STEM Education in Primary Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

The implementation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in primary schools is a new avenue for researchers and educators. Several studies have reported the needs, barriers and threats and tested instructional methods in general. In Malaysian primary schools, it is still a work in progress and a great challenge to deal with existing issues in teaching and learning primary science. Hence, education futurists have redirected science learning by commercialising the student-centred learning model of makerspace with STEM elements, which combines high-tech tools and materials. Besides, in the Scopus database, the number of researches on the STEM education infused maker concept shows notable figures. Therefore, this study presents a systematic literature review on implementations of the STEM-Maker concept in primary schools for in-depth understanding and application. A checklist of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is referred to and applied. Eight STEM-Maker concept implementations and six STEM-Maker concept practices were identified from 13 shortlisted articles. The citation, purpose and primary results of each shortlisted study are also discussed in this paper. To establish a solid foundation in science with transversal competencies in primary education, the bridging concept of the Maker with STEM education would be a tremendous opportunity to instil future skills under one roof.