Category: Teaching

FSSH Strategic Talk 1/2023: Islamic engagement in Social Sciences and Humanities – 16 July 2023 (Sunday)

There is a strategic talk by two guest speakers from University College of Yayasan Pahang: Assoc Prof Dr Azhar Ramli – Deputy VC of Student Development and Community Diplomacy and Assoc Prof Dr Amran Muhammad – Dean, International Institute of Islamic Civilisation. The session is divided into 2 parts: a talk and a forum. FSSH dean, Prof Dr Arieff Salleh Rosman is the moderator for the forum.

There are some academic staff who were chosen to join the session i.e. compulsory. But there are others who come on volunteer basis. Other than academic staff, students are also invited. But it is examination week so it is understandable that some students could not come. Those who came are PhD students (with no final examination).

Strategic talk is meant for staff enrichment and enhancement of FSSH branding. This is aligned with FSSH 2030 vision. Thus, it is essential to be ready from now to fulfil FSSH 2030 objectives. One of the aims is to have 15% of academic staff with Professor status.

Among FSSH Itqan project’s aims are:

  1. Attractive branding.
  2. Great talent.

PART 1: Talk by Assoc Prof Dr Amran Muhammad

There is a movement in renewal and revival Islamic knowledge. One of the steps is through engaging research in Islamic revealed knowledge with sciences. There is a need of paradigm or platform in which the understanding of al fiqh al akbar as the fundamental of Islamic sciences should be enhanced. The root of Islamic sciences is known as kalam which comprises of usul al din, al fiqh and al akbar. This should be the fundamental knowledge. The root of Islamic knowledge is related to Iman (‘aqidah). The trunk of the tree of Islamic knowledge is usul al fiqh (al fiqh al awsat). The branches of Islamic sciences include fiqh (fiqh al amal and al zahir), tasawwuf (fiqh al qalb) and such which related to shariah (Islam) and akhlaq (ihsan).

All propositional knowledge is based on analytical knowledge (nazari, ‘aqli and mantiqi) which is related to realistism as compared to textual literary knowledge (based on naql, nassar and khabar) which is related to literalism and mystical/ metaphysical knowledge (zauqi, ilham and kashf) is related to spiritualism. The balance between analytical, textual and mystical knowledge is crucial to benefit human beings and civilisation.

As Muslim, being a consumer of knowledge is not enough. We need to be able to be analytic and scientific inviduals to ensure that we are able to navigate between logic, philosophy and revealed knowledge.

Phases of learning tawhid are divided into 3.

  1. ‘Aqidah: the discourse on the fundemantals of the ‘aqidah without the detailed discussion on the rational and textual demonstration.
  2. Usul al din: the discourse on the aspects of ‘aqidah in the light of rational and textual demonstration.
  3. Kalam: the discourse on various sects of ‘aqidah, particularly erroneous sects of elucidating their discourse, correcting their confusion and refuting their claims.

Go visit Kalam Research and Media.

PART 2: Strategic forum

Free floating discussion. There will be a seminar in collaboration of FSSH UTM and University College of Yayasan Pahang in September 2023.

QRAM Online Training Sessions 2023

I received an email and also WhatsApp message from QRAM early January 2023.  But a friend of mine gave the same message.  Being me, I might have the tendency to misplace the information.  So, here I am posting the information for future reference.

 In conjunction with 20th Anniversary Celebrations of QRAM, there are FOUR complimentary (free of charge) online training sessions from February to May 2023. There is no limit to the number of sessions one can join, but members must take up the seat once it has been booked.

To register, please scan the QR code below or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFPHatix_z_VGVQMcHZcLUqZAih5l5MoenBdR5W_7nWQPQJQ/viewform

 

ELPPT 2022: Training

What kind of training that you can upload the information in the ELPPT?  That is the question that I ask myself and few others.  This is also a question that I got from others which I have no answer.  Personally, I received numerous version of the answers.  But, one of them said “Kalau latihan tu ada penilaian, kita boleh letak.  Kalau takat datang nganga, lepas tu lupa, dapat sijil kehadiran atau penghargaan tu, mengada la kan nak letak dalam ELPPT.  Yang latihan ada penilaian ni, bukan senang nak dapat sijil.  Selalunya ada markah.  Tak dapat markah tertentu, ada latihan yang langsung tak kasi sijil tau“.

So, with arm that knowledge, since I attended more than five trainings with evaluation at the end of the session, I tried to fill in and upload whatever relevant certificates in the ELPPT. Being me, I was unsure about it so, I asked more than one person about it.  I even attended a help desk session to ask the person in charge and she guided me.  But, it was rejected.  

In this case, always double check the information.  So, I asked few more people and triangulate the information.  But the best person would be someone who has done it before.  I asked a friend who had attended the same training before and she had filled in the ELPPT for that (year 2020).  She suggested the following:

  • Under “Komponen Perkhidmatan Profesional”, select “Penglibatan Aktiviti Akademik”
  • Under “Nama Projek/Persatuan”, type the name of organisation such as MyDigital Educator @ MOHE – Content Creator Expert (just use the information in the certificate).
  • Under “Peranan”, select “Pengembangan/ Penyebaran Ilmu”

In addition, other information that you need to add depends on the information that you can find in the certificate such as date, place and so forth.  

I do not know if it will be accepted or rejected after I made the amendment.  But, at least I tried.  

One stop center for Research Study Students

There is a new one stop center for research study students (Taught Course programme only). The link is HERE.

There are several functions related to RS1 and RS2, such as:

  1. Plagiarism check (Turnitin etc.)
  2. Workflow chart
  3. Template for project report
  4. Academic circular (due dates will be appeared here)
  5. Rules and regulations
  6. Colloquium (support programs for research students)
  7. Postgraduate Seminar in Education (POSE)
  8. Related videos
  9. For supervisors

Using comics in teaching?

My colleague (you know who you are) and I brainstormed our classroom instruction last year. It is an experiment. However, since the course that I teach is offered alternately (ONLY in semester 1), I did not get to collect data for two consecutive semesters, unlike my colleague. She teach an undergraduate course which is offered on every semester. So, the data collection for our mini research is incomplete due to the way my course is offered.

Alhamdulillah, we had a post mortem a few months ago about the instruction and what can be improved. This is one of the things that I will do in my class.

This is a comic that I created using Canva. I had created a comic before which I used for a final examination.

For the students who really want to learn about this course, please be prepared with the assignments. Unlike previous semester which I instructed students to find existing comics and they just analysed the issues etc., but this semester, the instruction is different.

Students need to identify issue(s) related to a specific stage of development. Then they have to describe the issue(s) by relating it to relevant theories (this involves their HOTs which are analysis and evaluating skills). Then they have to craft/create a comic using the issue(s) using Canva (or any other platform) (this involves their HOTs which is creating skills). There. The highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy. What we want is our graduates to be independent, creative, analytical etc. thinker, right? (tongue in cheek remark!)