She was my personality psychology and social psychology class student. An average student. She was also my R1 and R2 student (R1 and R2 refers to a code of thesis writing part 1 and 2 for master programme). When she took all the taught courses classes, I have a quite good impression towards her. But I never thought that she could be a student from H**l when I supervised her.
What went wrong? She seemed to struggle when she was doing her RS1. One of the earliest indications that she could spell trouble for me was when she did not submit her pilot study results in the first semester for her RS1. I was naively believed that she would have time to do it in the following semester. The following semester, I never even once heard anything from her. No email. No message. NOTHING.
Thinking that she might postpone one semester for personal reasons, I didn’t bother to send her any email or message to ask about her well-being. I respect her privacy.
Lo and behold, at the end of the semester, I got a copy of a fully completed thesis in which she never showed before (except the first three chapters). What a heck, man! Even though I was utterly shocked but with a good faith that perhaps she could do it well, I evaluated the thesis. This was the first mistake that I made (Lesson learned: NEVER EVER evaluate RS2 of a student who never submits anything AT ALL for the whole semester). To set the record straight, I did not sign the green form (submission of RS2 form that supervisor has to sign) and yet, somehow she was able to submit her RS2 and thus, “able” to undergo the process of evaluation.
As I read her thesis, I found that she made glaring mistakes. Not only she plagiarised more than 25% (I checked it using TurnitIn and found out that there are more than 25% of quotes are not referred), but she also did the analysis erroneously. I messaged her immediately saying that she made mistakes (yup, more than one analysis mistake) and thus the whole chapter 4 and 5 have to be redone. It was a major correction. This was when all hell breaks loose.
To cut the story short, she was dissatisfied with the results (for obvious reason she could not get passing marks both from me and the internal evaluator). Her dad took matter into his own hand. Made a false accusation and even wrote a poison letter to the Dean. May Allah Bless this family.
I was called by the Dean and the Dean (the late Prof Bahar) said to me which I vividly remember until today “Hadijah, kita ni Bugis tak boleh biarkan orang pijak kepala kita” – Hadijah, as Bugis people, we shouldn’t let others to bully us” May Allah Bless his soul for being kind to me when many others blame me for what has happened.
From this incident, I learn my lesson well. One thing for sure, as Dr Seuss once said “If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew, just go right along and you’ll start happening too“
That incident happened for a reason. I’ve got an idea to turn this incident into a case which I use as a discussion in my personality psychology class as a real example of traits of a person by using different approaches or domains to interpret it. After all, I have to select a learning inventory as my teaching approach that I use in my class. I choose “case based learning”. Case based learning requires the teaching and learning activities involve LOTS of case discussion. So, I need LOTS of real cases as examples. This incident serves as one of the examples. Attaboy!
P.S: It might not be too late to thank this student for being an inspiration. To you and your dad who falsely accused me as an irresponsible and heartless supervisor, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
