MOJES: Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Sciences

ASSESSING THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INVENTORY OF SCIENCE TEACHER READINESS IN IMPLEMENTING CLASSROOM-BASED ASSESSMENT (ISTRI-CBA)

Mat Rasid Ishak — 2024-04-04

Teacher readiness is the willingness of a teacher to implement a planned program successfully. Readiness is crucial in ensuring a program can be implemented at the individual or organizational level. The readiness of science teachers to implement Classroom-Based Assessment (CBA) determines the direction and success of primary school assessments in Malaysia. This pilot study aims to create and evaluate the Inventory of Science Teachers' Readiness in Implementing Classroom-based Assessment (ISTRI-CBA). There have been many studies on CBA. However, there are limitations in measuring the readiness of science teachers to implement CBA. The evaluation will be ineffective without a suitable tool to measure teacher readiness in CBA. Therefore, to determine the level of readiness of science teachers, the researcher needs an instrument that is valid, reliable, and appropriate to the context of the Ministry of Education, culture, and the current situation in Malaysia. It is necessary to have a conceptually and psychometrically substantial inventory. This challenge was addressed by developing the ISTRI-CBA, comprising five measurement dimensions: knowledge about CBA, skills of CBA, resource support, attitudes, and professional values. The development of ISTRI-CBA requires validity and reliability for its use. This study aims to (1) test the quality characteristics of the ISTRI-CBA items and (2) determine the reliability of the ISTRI-CBA obtained using the Rasch Model measurement. The research involves the administration of a survey questionnaire to 44 science teachers in a district in Malaysia. The findings show that the ISTRI-CBA, comprising 157 items, has good psychometric characteristics and meets the measurement criteria of the Rasch measurement model. The item quality and reliability also prove the suitability of the whole dimension. The study's findings provide evidence of the empirical implications that consistently support ISTRI-CBA as a valid and reliable instrument to measure teachers' readiness to implement CBA in science subjects. The findings also reveal that the ISTRI-CBA can measure science teachers' readiness to implement CBA.

USING ADDIE MODEL TO DEVELOP AND EVALUATE LITTLE PERIODIC LEARNING THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS

Yip Chin Chin — 2024-04-04

Learning the periodic table of elements can pose a challenge for students due to the complex organization and relationships between the different elements. Game-based interventions have been shown in past studies to be one of the feasible ways to overcome this challenge. In this research, a tabletop game, called "Little Periodic" was developed to improve students' chemical representation and conceptual understanding. Following the five phases of the ADDIE model—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—the study first analyzed students' needs and identified key concepts for mastery. Additionally, an overview of the five phases is discussed in detail within this study, providing insight into the systematic process to develop and evaluate the tabletop game. Three teachers were interviewed to see the appropriate content that will be included in the tabletop game based on the Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran (DSKP). A tabletop game was designed and developed that could be used in physical learning environments. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed tabletop game, validation forms and questionnaires were administered to three validator experts. The results indicated that the tabletop game was valid and effective, with high scores for content suitability, potential effectiveness, and overall satisfaction. The feedback received from chemistry teachers indicated a significant level of satisfaction with the tabletop game. The developed tabletop games can be employed in various learning situations, including in-person learning, and the effects of tabletop games need to further be investigated to ensure and enhance students to achieve deeper learning outcomes.

INFORMAL REASONING PATTERNS AND INFLUENCING FACTORS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS IN THE CONTEXT OF LOCAL SOCIOSCIENTIFIC ISSUES

Nurcan Tekin — 2024-04-01

Socioscientific issues (SSIs), which are an important component of scientific literacy in science education, are scientific-based issues with dilemmas and no clear answers. SSIs can be local issues that affect a region or global issues that affect the world. This study aimed to investigate informal reasoning (IR) patterns and their influencing factors on science teachers about local SSIs. The research was designedas a case study. The participants consisted of 38 science teachers from various provinces of Central Anatolia, where the local features of context were at the forefront. Teachers were asked to form an IR about the texts with dilemmas addressed to them. Using content analysis, teachers’ IR patterns were based on rationalistic, emotive, and intuitive reasoning; factors affecting their reasoning were analyzed according to sociology-culture, environment, economy, science, technology, ethics-morality, and policy (SEE-STEP). In the results, science teachers mostly use rationalistic IR and rationalistic and intuitive IR patterns about energy-related local SSIs. While the factors that most influence teachers’ IR regarding local SSIs are economy and environment, the factor that least influences their IR is ethics. As a result of the study, IR is closely related to the context and environmental/socio-cultural background that can influence IR. Based on the result that teachers’ IR is affected by the content, the main suggestion of this study is to investigate the IR of different contents in local SSIs.

THE INFLUENCE OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR ON TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Bavanee Gopal — 2024-10-07

It is important to observe factors that affect teachers' self-efficacy as they play a crucial role in students’ achievements. Many factors are involved in teachers’ self-efficacy, with one of them being principal leadership behaviour which plays an important role. This study aims to identify the level of principal leadership behaviour, the level of teacher self-efficacy and the relationship between them. This study adopted a quantitative method based on questionnaires and the data were obtained from 382 primary school teachers from Selangor, Malaysia. Descriptive data analysis was used to study the level of principal leadership behaviour and teacher self-efficacy meanwhile Pearson product moment the correlation to understand the relationship between both variables. Based on the data, the level of principal leadership behaviour and level of teacher self-efficacy is very high and there is a moderate relationship between both these variables (r=.420). These results hopefully will be helpful for the Ministry of Education and departments in implementing courses and programmes for both principals and teachers in improving the education quality. Furthermore, the findings are helpful for policymakers in mapping development courses that emphasise principal leadership behaviour and teacher self-efficacy. The researcher also suggested that further research can be done based on the behaviour of other school leaders and the effect on teachers’ self-efficacy. This research can also be furthered to secondary schools to observe the influencing factors.

COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT AND BUSINESS GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS: MODERATION BY ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ON THEORY OF COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP

Bishanani Omar — 2024-10-07

This research aims to examine the moderation effect of academic achievement in the relationship between competency development and business graduate employability skills at vocational colleges in Malaysia. Applying a purposive sampling method, data were gathered among students studying business programs at vocational colleges in Malaysia and were analyzed using Smart Partial Least Squares (PLS). The findings indicated significant positive associations between competency development and business graduate employability skills at vocational colleges in Malaysia. Meanwhile, academic achievement was the opposite as there was an insignificant effect towards the business graduate employability skills for vocational colleges. Academic achievement has not moderated the relationship between competency development and business graduate employability skills for vocational colleges. It is expected that this study could provide a better understanding of the need of industry for competency development for business graduate employability skills for vocational colleges and institutions improving students’ academic achievement.