Category: Random rambling

Publish or perish or…..

I have my own stand on this issue.  But for me, it is all boiled down to being true to oneself.  I know that it is becoming a rare practice to be the slow professor in this fast pace academic rat race, yet it depends on one’s intention.  Publication does not necessarily mean journal articles.  It could be in a different form like module and such. 

“Do what you know best and do it the best you can”.  That’s what I believe in.  It is kind of ironic to succumb into the culture of “stealing” for the sake of balancing your survival based on publish-or-perish principle. 

Why values are important in your life?

I think about this (what matter most to me?) over the weekend.  Teaching the 6 struggling students give me a sense of purpose.  Seeing them struggling and yet feel enlightened after discussion/brainstorm/activity, it motives me to help them unconditionally (I am not paid to teach them, nor I gain monetary thingy from it). 

I find an article about how values important in our life.  The first three sentences resonate with what I was thinking, “Values are what bring distinction to your life.  You don’t find them, you choose them.  And when you do, you’re on the path to fulfillment”

How to change negative emotion to positive?

It has been more than 3 years since the incident with a student that I called as minah-t-test-tak-tahu.  At times, some of my colleagues notice that I still cannot let the incident gets off my mind.  Well, I can forgive, but never forget.   This is my art of letting go.  

Learning Adjustment Psychology with Amber Hague taught me to improvise things when “things” happen in life.  Even though I create a case based on the incident which later on I use in my Personality Psychology class on regular basis (her case is the “must” discussed case) as a mean of healing, some colleagues consider it as an unhealthy endeavor.   

Well, I read somewhere that to change negative emotion to positive is the best way of healing.  HOW?  Channeling negative thoughts and act into something productive and positive.  In my case, rather than concocting revenge on the student and her family (this is a normal reaction but it is negative thought), I choose to do something more productive such as crafting cases for discussion in class and such (this is positive and productive act).  I am struggling to find research findings on this approach for a while.  After searching for a while, finally, I find an article about it from Psychology Today.  

Integrity in the workplace

There is this talk by one of my senior colleagues about professionalism and ethics.  I have been thinking about the same issue for quite some time especially after the incident of “minah-t-test-tak-tahu“.  I am lucky that when I was called by the Dean, the late Prof Bahar, he told me to buckle up knowing how difficult it is to deal with such student.  He told me to stay true to myself no matter what.  His emphatic view is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  For others who blame me for being irrational and take sides on this obnoxious student, aren’t you being hypocrites?   I find this article from Psychology Today about integrity in the workplace.  Yup.  It is worth to have a stand rather than being “boneless” or “chameleon”.  

Beamish Museum, Durham: A living museum

It was summer 2010.   Kam had the courage to drive an old red Nissan owned by one of our friends to Beamish Museum.  It took us around 45 minutes from Bowburn.  We had to pay GBP13 per entry.  Since we were Durham University students, we thought that we could get a discount, but, nope.  No exception here.

When I was in Durham, I went to several museums in Bath, Bristol and Nottingham and castles cum museum like the Edinburgh castle.  But, nothing prepared us when we went to Beamish museum.  It was surreal.  The staff who work there wear costumes and whatsnot.  It is a nice experience to be able to go to an open space museum.  I took many pictures but unfortunately, I wore something which was not shari’ah compliant 😀 

There you go, I only post one picture here.  When we took this picture, the three of us was at this primary-cum-secondary school.  They used wooden-slab and chalk to write, instead of using paper based exercise book.  Beamish was an old coal mine.  So, it has an actual village equipped with facilities like a church, shops, a bank, living quarters for the workers and such.  Summer is the best time to come here if the weather is nice.  We went there when the weather was nice and perfect for summer (i.e. no rain).  So, we had a blast!  This was the year before Kam and Fiqah finished their study.  

 

Academic Integrity: What is it?

What is academic integrity?  Well, there are so many definitions out there but for me, it is simply doing the right thing right as academicians.  There.  Simple definition.  The term was coined by Don McCabe and together with his colleagues propose the 10 principles of academic integrity.

It is a paradoxical situation.  With the yearly KPI and so many things that you need to fulfill (plus your own personal target to climb social ladder etc.), it is not a surprise if some academicians are resorting to “short cuts” and “manipulation”.  But they are the minority.  A minuscule organism in the academia.

I am not saying that we should not do anything about it and just take a stance of “wait-and-see” but it is something that not easy to be tackled.  When my old Durham neighbour said that he would look into the matter of plagiarism and whatsnot carefully, it is something to be applauded.  

Note: I had a bad experience of this in which a junior colleague “took” my class assignment instruction.  The junior thought that it is meant to be used by everybody whereas in fact, I crafted it few years ago (after many cycles of amendment) to be used EXCLUSIVELY for my own class.  This junior did this without having a pinch of remorse.   No action is taken based on what this junior did even though I have evidence of this junior doing that.  So, what can you say about such thing?  Of course, it is neither a journal nor a published work.  But still, it is my idea.  Looking at the definition given by MIT , it resonates with my unique case.

McCabe also published another article about academic integrity.  Please have a look at his article, HERE

 

It is challenging to be educators now

The recent incident about a student who was canned by a teacher because she called him as “aqua” (Translated: effeminate person) has caused an uproar among teachers, students, netizens and whatsnot. 

The way I see it if I were the student, I would definitely get “double” from my parents.  That’s why I never told them if I was punished by my teachers at school.  Their perception is I must have done “something” to make the teachers to punish me.  No explanation needed.  I would always be the one who have done something wrong, not the other way around.  Parents now?  Well, they are different.  The parents who are like my parents are extinct.  This is the reality now.  

Things that I produced when I did my Latihan Ikhtisas_Part 2

Other than posters, I also produced lots of reports during Latihan Ikhtisas.  One of the reports that I had to submit is through online i.e. HIPS report.  For the HIPS report, it is a bit tricky because you have to create a survey that needs to be distributed to students, teachers and parents.  I need to plan the preparation well by collecting evidences based on activities that we organised at school.  It is all about planning. 

When I asked someone who is undergoing her Latihan Ikhtisas now, she said that she does not assign to do any reporting like that.   In this sense, I am lucky because I got first hand experience of what teachers have to do on regular basis (well, there are other many reports that they have to complete, and I was spared from those reports because I am not a teacher).  I can emphatise with teachers in Malaysia who are bogged down with documentation thingy.  Kudos to all teachers in Malaysia!