WHO AM I?
Dr. Nor Farahwahidah is a senior lecturer of Physics Education and Coordinator for
postgraduate studies in Physics education at School of Education.
She has worked with School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities since 2010. She begin her career as a tutor in 2010 and currently hold the position as a senior lecturer. At the age of 30 years old, she already hold a Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy in physics education and specializing in the field of Scientific Epistemology/Nature of Science. Currently, she is working as a research fellow at Centre of Engineering Education to widen her area of expertise into STEM education and Engineering Education.
Her research interests focus on the norm of practices and policy decision making in science education. This explains her dedication with the study of epistemic perspective on science in general and in physics in particular. Adding to this, she examines science discourse, teachers’ agency when talking and constructing knowledge, students’ agency in developing their own understanding and the norm of the current practices to provide an explanation about the enculturation of scientific practices at school in Malaysia.
Research interest:
1. Teaching and learning processes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field for primary, secondary and higher education level.
2. The role of educators in improving the learning outcome after engaging with policy reform
3. Integrating philosophical perspective such as critical theory in conducting thorough and rigorous qualitative analysis
4. Researching on the role of epistemology for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field
Beside this, she is highly trained as social science researcher with data collection, analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data. She has been working in multidisciplinary research as social science scientist with CETal, University Teknologi Petronas, Johor Education Department, SWM Environment, Iskandar Regional Development Authority that studied industrial practices and policy decision making. Her methodologies are descriptive and inferential statistics, thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis.
She is the recipient of funding from National grant (Fundamental research grant scheme-FRGS), Transdisciplinary research grant (TDR), Potential academic staff grant (PASS) and Double tax reduction-CRDTT grant scheme.
Awarded Grants:
1. Teachers-students; scientific epistemology model through critical theory as social innovation mechanism in STEM education
2. Exploring Nature of Science (NOS) understanding among physics teachers
3. Aligning engineering education and industries expectation in deploying AI in tomography to meet the needs of Industry 4.0
4. Exploring the defining meaning of Nature of Science (NOS) attributes among physics teachers to uphold 21st century learning education
PhD students:
Aliyu Bako
Noorzana Khamis (graduated)
Anis Diyana Halim
Master students (master course work):
Anis Balqis Zulkefli (graduated)
Alya Nazirah Azha
Nadhratulhidaayah Ismail
Dr Nor Farahwahidah Abdul Rahman
Senior Lecturer,
Department of Science, Mathematics and Multimedia creative, School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Academic Fellow, Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Affiliate, Science Education Working Group, Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia