I would like to congratulate my Master student (mixed-mode) Samia Arjumandi for successfully negotiated her viva this morning. The title of her thesis is “Special Needs Education Teachers’ Perspectives on Teaching Children with Intellectual Disabilities in Afghanistan”.
Thank you to the examiners, Prof. Yeo and AP Dr. Zainudin for all the constructive comments and suggestions. Thank you also to AP Dr. Zolkifli for chairing the session, and Dr. Zakiah for assisting the chairman.
This afternoon I delivered an online talk entitled “5 Self-Critical Enquiries in Doing Literature Review” to undergraduate students who are preparing for their Final Year Project (PSM). During the session, I was assisted by Dr. Noorzana who acted as the session moderator.
During the talk, as budding researchers, I encouraged students keep engaging themselves with the following self-enquiries:
Enquiry #1: What is a literature review (LR) actually?
Enquiry #2: Why are literature reviews necessary in my research?
Enquiry #3: How would LR help me in my research?
Enquiry #4: What are the steps necessary to prepare my LR?
Enquiry #5: How would I present my Chapter 2?
I’d also prepared a Padlet activity to make the session more interactive. All in all, it was a fun session with the undergraduate students, whom I rarely have the chance to interact with (and knowing that one of them was listening to the talk while baking kuih raya…)
Many congratulations to Woo Pei Syan and her supervisors Dr. Rustam and AP Dr. Azlina for successfully negotiated her proposed research entitled “Application of Teaching Module Using Concept Maps with Peer Instruction Strategies in Improving Students’ Problem Solving Skills and Interest”. I teamed up with Prof. Yeo as the examiners during the session, chaired by AP Dr. Lokman, assisted by Dr. Ibnatul Jalilah.
This afternoon, we had the opportunity to listen to Kong Yee Hern’s presentation of his PhD proposal entitled “The Relationship Between Academic Research Writing Competencies, Its Problems & Writing Performance of Local Postgraduate Students”.
The session was also joined by AP Dr. Ahmad Johari and AP Dr. Faizah (LA) as the examiners, as well as AP Dr. Sanitah the supervisor. I was assisted by Dr. Ibnatul Jalilah during the session. To facilitate Yee Hern in refining the focus of his research, the panel made a consensual decision in allowing him to attempt his second defense.
Many congratulations to Cikgu Nor Mazidah (MPPB) and her supervisor AP Dr. Faizah (counselling panel) for successfully negotiated her proposed research entitled “Perlakuan homoseksual dalam kalangan mahasiswa dan kecenderungan untuk berubah”. I teamed up with Dr. Sulaiman Shakib of ATI as the examiners during the session, chaired by AP Dr. Sanitah, assisted by Dr. Rustam.
Yesterday, I had the chance to attend an online workshop on how to write teaching case. The morning session was delivered by Dr Farzana Quaquab (AHIBS UTMKL), while the afternoon session was conducted by Dr. Zulkiflee Daud (UUM).
Alhamdulillah my latest purchase arrived yesterday. I’m so excited to go through the contents. All the chapters in this 2019 edition are divided into 5 main themes: (1) Foundations; (2) Science and maths; (3) Reading and writing; (4) General Learning Strategies, and (4) Metacognition. Another new addition to my personal collections on the cognitive aspect of learning.
This afternoon, Prof. Yeo’s PhD student successfully negotiated her proposal defence. All best wishes to Mdm. Norzarina with her proposed project entitled “Enhancing Preschool Student’s Ergonomic Knowledge and Digital Device Usage Behaviour Through Implementation of Teaching Module on Ergonomic”.
Prof. Yeo also shared some tips in organising the write up for chapter 1. For instance, Prof. mentioned that, if the issues goes something like this: Young children should be exposed to the knowledge on ergonomic and cultivate the appropriate digital device use behaviour. Then explain the effect of digital device use which includes points based on: (i) many studies on the effect of cognitive and social skills but limited on physical well being, in this case the musculoskeletal comfort/health; (ii) many studies emphasising on ergonomic fit between adults and their workstations/how they position their digital device in the office but limited research on how a child should position their digital device to ensure musculoskeletal comfort /health; (iii) prolong use of digital device may lead to poor posture and eventually to musculoskeletal disorder and affect their learning; (iv) needs preventive measure from young. Thus, (i) to (iv) and etc are the research gap; next will be the practice gap and the rest follows.
Thank you Prof. Yeo for the tips!
This book arrived today after its online purchase sometime last month via Book Depository. It’s quite exciting to find in it some of the valuable concepts desperately needed for my research references. Glad to finally have this one…
Those who knew me knows that I’m passionate about qualitative research. A self-proclaimed narrative inquirer, I’m drawn towards anything that has some kind of storytelling element in it.
And it so happened that I have this strange “Travis moment” going on in me lately after I came across the band’s latest single “Nina’s Song” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbum2xr3K40.
One song led to the other, and all reminded me of the songs that were the true companions during my doctoral years. Numbers like “Writing to Reach You”, “Driftwood”, “Side”, “Sing”, “Why Does It Always Rain on Me”, “Flowers in the Window”, etc., surely bring back some memories. My personal fav is “Closer”, always and forever (with that Dougie’s smashing bass, and yupp… it was Ben Stiller in the video…).
The fact that Fran Healy and I share the same year of birth (he’s 3 days older than me, matter of factly…), I now realised while I was embracing my own creative flow circa 2007-2009, he was also being experimental about the direction of his own creativity.
So it was a pure joy to stumble upon a recording of him entitled “A Chronological Acoustical Journey Through The Travis Back Catalogue” on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ynLL1U34os&t=2386s
Fran was indeed a great storyteller; sharing the story of each song that he had written over the years, all in chronological order.
Now I wish I had all their the CDs back in those years….
