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A study of pedagogical knowledge and teaching creativity among Arabic language teachers in Malaysia
No full textPedagogical knowledge is a unique skill that should be owned by teachers, especially for Arabic
language teachers. It is one of the elements in Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. This
study aims to identify the pedagogical knowledge and teaching creativity of Arabic language teachers
in Malaysia. Also, to examine the correlation between pedagogical knowledge and teaching creativities.
This quantitative study through survey questionnaire (by self-administered) conducted on 530 Arabic
language teachers around Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak, participated in this study. The
sample selected by using a random sampling technique. The data analysed using descriptive statistics
and correlation analyses involving mean, standard deviation and Person correlation assisted by
statistical software, namely SPSS-20. This study showed that the Arabic language's pedagogical
knowledge and teaching creativity among Malaysia teachers are categorised as high. This study also
found a positive and significant correlation between pedagogical knowledge and teaching creativity with the correlation coefficient is 63.1 per cent. Its correlation categorised as moderate. In conclusion,
this study has identified that Arabic language teachers in Malaysia have excellent pedagogical and
teaching creativity knowledge
COVID-19 pandemic: How does stress level affect body weight status in Malaysian adults
No full textObjective Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been taking the world by storm with more cases and deaths were reported throughout the year. People are now exhausted physically and mentally as they do not live their lives the same way before, therefore, this study aimed to investigate how stress level affects body weight status in Malaysian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methodology A total of 705 Malaysian adults (80.7% female, 84.3% Malay) aged from 18 to 59 years old (mean age=30,±11 years) were involved in this cross-sectional study. The data were fully self-administered and collected through an online questionnaire which was distributed via social media. The questionnaire consists of several questions on anthropometric measurements, socio-demographics and stress level which was measured using the validated Malaysian version of Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10). The simple logistic regression is used to find the association between stress level and body weight status. The data were analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22.
Results & Discussion Findings showed that 8.8% of the participants were underweight, 50.9% were having normal BMI, 19.6% were overweight, and 20.7% were obese. The overall prevalence of perceived stress was 72.1% (61.7% were moderate stress, 10.4% were high stress). The results from simple logistic regression data analysis showed no statistically significant association between stress level and body weight status (p=0.17). However, perceived stress was significantly more prevalent in Malays (59.9%) (p=0.004), those who were employed (32.5%) and students (32.3%) (p=0.002), and those with no monthly household income (21.1%) (p=0.003).
Conclusion Stress level was not statistically correlated to body weight status in Malaysian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, those who were found to be vulnerable to stress should practice a healthy lifestyle in managing their stress
Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and body weight status in Malaysian adults
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has killed many innocent lives and its cases keep rising every single day. WHO concluded that one in 10 worldwide might have been infected. Some countries including Malaysia have implemented a lockdown as a preventive way. Therefore, many people need to stay at home and their daily movement has become restricted
Digital oriented learning based on the UTAUT model during Covid-19 pandemic
No full textThe presence of the Covid-19 virus invades countries around the
world, has paralyzed all human activities including education. The enforcement
of the Movement Control Order (MCO), has resulted in all teaching and learning (TnL) activities being transformed into virtual or online learning forms.
This scenario has changed the existing learning system, and provided a new
perspective on the importance of digital technology in education. However, the
implementation of online learning is not as easy as one might think, yet presents
challenges for students, parents and teachers. This study was conducted to analyze parents’ perceptions of digital-oriented learning during MCO based on the
UTAUT Model. For this purpose, a quantitative study was conducted randomly
in which a total of 103 respondents were involved in this survey. Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the collected data. The results of this study can provide input for improvement in the
national education sector in the future. Hopefully, the country's education sector
in general, will be more advanced compared to the passage of time
Hypnotherapy smartphone applications for weight loss: A narrative review
No full textIntroduction: Despite the current popularity and potential use of smartphone applications to encourage healthy behaviours, hypnotherapy applications focusing on weight reduction are scarcely available and the credibility of existing ones is of concern. Objective: To compile existing weight-loss hypnotherapy smartphone applications and to evaluate the functionality and information provided in the mobile apps. Methodology: Google Play and Apple's iTunes stores were searched from 20 August 2020 to 20 September 2020 for available hypnotherapy-related applications targeting weight loss. Only free, English applications were included. Applications in which the hypnotherapy was not utilize for weight loss or did not contain any hypnotherapy components were excluded. Results: Of 291 identified applications, 22 met the inclusion criteria and were further reviewed. Fourteen of the apps (63.6%) focused on reducing calorie intake and limiting the intake of fattening and sugary foods through hypnotic suggestions. Most applications delivered hypnotherapy via an audio track (77.3%) and 68% enabled the session to be customized. More than 40% of apps developers claimed to have used a licensed hypnotherapist and 25% contained disclaimers in the descriptions. Additionally, 31 .8% of the classified apps earned high ratings from users (between 4 and S stars). Conclusion: Overall results indicate that weight-loss hypnotherapy applications may be useful as an additional tool to assist conventional weight management strategies. However, several issues regarding the contents and credibility should be highlighted in order to boost the quality and substantiate the effectiveness of weight-loss hypnotherapy apps in future
Solid state photo crosslinking of plasticized starch filled with microcrystalline cellulose
No full textIn this research, microcrystalline cellulose reinforced photo crosslinked thermoplastic starch was
studied to replace petroleum-based polymers on bioplastic application. There are 3 stages in this
research. The first stage will be to find the optimum formulation of microcrystalline cellulose where
the variation of the amount of filler carried out in this research is 0 %, 3 %, 6 %, 9 % and 12 % of the dry
weight of starch. The second stage will be to find the optimum crosslinking time using photo
crosslinking where the properties of irradiated thermoplastic starch for every 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. The
third stage will be to compare the properties of photo-crosslinked thermoplastic starch and peroxide
crosslinked thermoplastic starch. Each formulation has undergone tensile test to study their
mechanical properties and the optimum formula is obtained for subsequent studies. 6 %
microcrystalline cellulose filled thermoplastic starch films was found to have the highest tensile
strength and was chosen to be photo-crosslinked for the next objective. Results showed that 8 hours of
photo-crosslinking time has the highest tensile strength, so this specimen is further compared with 8
hours of peroxide crosslinked specimen where peroxide crosslinked thermoplastic starch films exhibit
higher tensile strength than thermoplastic starch film that is photo-crosslinked for 8 hours
Physical activity & depressive symptoms among overweight & obese pregnant women in Terengganu
No full textIntroduction: Depression during pregnancy would affect not only the mother but also the child's development. The prevalence of depression during pregnancy in Malaysia has increased from 8.3% to 12.2% in 2018. It is presumed that exercise and physical activity prevent depression and decrease depressive symptoms by altering neurotransmitter and depression-related hormone levels. Objective: To evaluate the association between physical activity and depressive symptoms score among overweight and obese pregnant women in Terengganu. Methodology: A total of 26 pregnant women (n=14 overweight and n=12 obese) in their second and third trimester who registered in health clinics in Terengganu. aged ranging from 22 to 41 years completed this study. This cross-sectional study used self-administered questionnaires consisting of socio-demographic characteristics, Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaires (PPAQ-Malay) and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS-Malay). The data were analysed by using IBM SPSS version 23. Results: Majority of the participants working in government sectors (61.5%, n=16), with monthly income range from RM1001-RM3000 (42.3%. n=11). More than half of the participants (61.5%, n=16) were in their third trimester. Most of the participants participated in right-intensity activity (18-1±11.5 MET-hr/week) in the form of occupational type (42.2%,50.6140.8 MET-hr/week) while 31.5% were in inactivity category (37.7e28.3 MET-hr/week) 15.4% (n=4) of them have an EPOS score of more than 10 which signifies depressive symptoms. There was a fair positive correlation between physical activity and depression symptoms score (r=0.469, p=0.016). Conclusion: Physical activity is related to depressive symptoms among overweight and obese pregnant women in Terengganu. Appropriate measures should be taken to increase awareness and reduce depressive symptoms risk during pregnancy
Bridging the gap between government-industry-university collaboration through CEO@Faculty programme
No full textThe government-university-industry relation is a pertinent aspect in developing talents that fulfil the workplace needs. Lack of industry experience among academics may, to certain extent, affect the quality of university graduates. In responding to this issue, the CEO@Faculty programme was initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia as part of an initiative to provide opportunities for young lecturers. The six-month industrial attachment programme at multi-national corporations and government-linked companies is hoped to expose the real experience in the industry to the selected young academicians. The impetus of the study is to evaluate the programme's effectiveness and its contributions to its stakeholders (government. university. industry). The data is derived from questionnaires involving 52 Malaysian university lecturers who participated in the programme. The key aspect that was examined includes the type of collaborations that can be established between the CEO@Faculty fellow and the company. The results of the study reveal that the CEO@Faculty programme has a significant impact on strengthening university-industry cooperation. namely knowledge transfer. research grant contribution. graduate industrial training placement and research collaborations. Besides. this study has also successfully increased the level of leadership competence among the CEO@Faculty fellows who participated in the programme. Thus, the programme's success has directly impacted the personality and leadership development among the lecturers, which is hoped to improve the quality of graduates to meet the needs of the industry
