IIUM Journal of Educational Studies

Leadership Practices among Islamic Private Secondary School Principals in Southern Thailand: Validating a Model of Strategic Educational Leadership

2022-05-24T12:03:39+08:00

This study explored the levels of strategic educational leadership practices (PSELP) among the principals of 92 Islamic private secondary schools (IPSS) in Southern Thailand as perceived by teachers at the schools. It also sought to validate and confirm a hypothesized structural equation model of PSELP based on the data provided by 918 IPSS teachers from the districts of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. The survey instrument was a seven-point PSELP scale with 44 items adapted from five previous studies. Descriptive statistics (i.e., means and standard deviations) were used to summarize the perceived levels of PSELP in nine aspects or domains. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied on the data to test the adequacy of the proposed PSELP model. The results showed that the teachers had the perception that their principals effectively practiced all five factors of strategic educational leadership and exhibited the four characteristics of strategic leaders. This discovery contradicted previous findings that school principals’ leadership practices were low or inadequate. The CFA results established the proposed nine-factor model of IPSS principals’ strategic educational leadership practices as valid and reliable, confirming the presence of strategic orientation, strategic alignment, strategic intervention, strategic translation, strategic intervention, restlessness, absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and leadership wisdom in the model. The findings have raised a new concern, that is, if the principals of the IPSS have actively and extensively been practicing strategic leadership, what then could be the causes of the poor performance of the IPSS in Southern Thailand? This concern has paved new directions for future research involving the quality of Islamic schools in the region.

Impact of Social Support on the Psychosocial Adjustment of Children Living with a Disability (CLWD) as Perceived by Parents in the Lagos Metropolis

2021-10-20T16:49:18+08:00

Disability in Africa is usually viewed as a consequence of evil. Thus, people living with disabilities tend to be treated with discrimination and stigmatization, which then leads to the neglect of their needs. A majority of children in this group are helpless and unable to function effectively. Hence, giving them the support they need is important to help them live a purposeful life. This research thus sought to determine the impact of social support on the psychosocial adjustment of children living with disabilities (CLWDs) as perceived by parents in the Lagos metropolis. It examined the differences in the parents’ perceptions based on gender, age, and educational attainment. The study was a descriptive survey of the ex-post facto design where a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The final sample comprised 384 parents in the Lagos metropolis who responded to a 20-item researcher-developed questionnaire on perceived impact of social support (with α = .72 reliability estimate). An independent samples t-test testing for gender differences in parents’ perception and two sets of ANOVAs were used to test three null hypotheses at the .05 confidence level. The results revealed that increased self-esteem, positive behavioural adjustment and improved mental health were perceived by Lagos parents to be the most important impact factors of social support on the psychosocial adjustment of CLWDs. Gender and educational attainment did not exercise any influence on perceived impact, but parents’ perception of it did differ significantly by age group where older parents perceived a greater impact than did younger parents. It was, therefore, concluded that social support (i.e., in terms of quality, type and amount) is significant for CLWDs to make the psychosocial adjustment needed in their lives. With such support, they can be useful to themselves and contribute meaningfully to the development of society. On this basis, family members and other support providers should give adequate attention to the needs of children living with disabilities.

Health Beliefs and Willingness to Engage in T2D Preventive Behaviours Among Malay Youth: A Qualitative Inquiry

2022-12-19T10:35:28+08:00

Due to sedentariness and poor diet and nutrition, the youth of today are increasingly exposed to early-onset Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Malaysian youth are particularly at risk for T2D since Malaysia has the highest prevalence of obesity among its young population in Asia. Our concern led us to the conduct of this study, which was aimed at discovering what sixteen young Malaysian undergraduates knew about T2D, their health beliefs, and their perspectives on T2D and lifestyles. The study also sought to ascertain if the youth would be willing to engage in T2D prevention behaviours to ward off the onset of the disease. The results of the study would help to inform us of the beliefs that other Malaysian youth may have on this issue and also of the possible content that we could propose for Diabetes Awareness Programmes aimed at Malaysian youth. The interview questions were based on the six constructs of the Health Belief Model (Abraham & Sheeran, 2014) and a written interview was conducted via email with the 16 undergraduates. The data, analysed thematically, produced seven themes. We found that the participants generally lacked proper knowledge of and are confused between types of diabetes. Nonetheless, they expressed a willingness to alter their lifestyles to incorporate healthier habits and a more nutritional diet, but were deterred by family attitude, social norms, and social media influence. We recommend two urgent actions. First, an awareness programme to enhance youth’s knowledge of T2D to showcase its gravity and consequences. Second, educating the public, especially families, on rendering support to youth who wish to live a healthier, diabetes[1]free life.

Prevalence and Underlying Structure of Students’ Sejahtera Living vis-à-vis Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah

2022-12-25T09:43:43+08:00

This study explored the prevalence of sejahtera living—an idea rooted in the belief that Islam is a way of life and aligned to Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah —among students at an Islamic university in Malaysia, and tested the extent to which the students’ responses to the questionnaire items on the concept constituted meaningful and interpretable facets of sejahtera living. A total of 596 students voluntarily participated in the study, with the sample being split into two random halves. The first subsample (n1 = 298) was used to identify the underlying facets of sejahtera living, while the other half (n2 = 298) served as the sample for a cross-validation procedure. The respondents filled out an online questionnaire containing 50 items that measured the prevalence of sejahtera living. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were used to address the two research objectives. Results showed that students’ reports of experiencing sejahtera living varied across items. The exploratory factor analyses, with principal axis factoring and the Promax rotation procedure, extracted five strong and reliable factors that explain the inter-correlations among items. The five-factor solution was supported by the results of a parallel analysis. As expected, the underlying facets of sejahtera living were factors associated with the preservations of faith (al-dīn), life (al-nafs), intellect (al-‘aql), property (al[1]māl) and progeny (al-nasl). The findings contribute to our current limited understanding about Muslim students’ sejahtera living, which would lead up to policy formulation and intervention.

Factors Influencing Students’ Understanding of Basic Statistical Concepts

2022-12-25T21:25:04+08:00

This study focused on modelling the influence of teaching practices, students’ attitudes towards statistics, learning practices and perceived ability on students’ understanding in basic statistical concepts using Structural Equation Modelling. A total of 416 students from four Malaysian public tertiary institutions made up the sample for this study. The results showed that students’ perceived ability in statistics has a strong influence on students’ understanding of basic statistical concepts (measured by performance) and students’ attitudes toward statistics. Teaching practices also significantly affect students’ learning practices. This study found that learning practices and teaching practices do not affect students’ attitudes toward statistics and do not lead to an increase in students’ understanding of basic statistical concepts as measured through their test performance.

Higher Education in the Post-Covid 19 Era: Sejahtera and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

2022-12-31T11:16:34+08:00

The Language Faculty between Acquisition and Learning: A Critical Review

2022-11-15T23:07:02+08:00

Experts and practitioners in the field of teaching foreign languages see the difficulty experienced by the learner of the foreign language. These difficulties are different from one learner to another according to the difference in the learning environment and the motivation of the learner. On the opposite of that, the easy acquisition of the first language raises a serious issue that while the child acquires his mother language easily and smoothly, the foreign language learner faces many difficulties during the journey of learning the foreign language. This issue requires proper research, especially in the field of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers. This research attempts to employ the mechanisms of language acquisition in the learning processes considering the considerable experience of the researcher as a language educator in various educational institutes. Hence, this research seeks to identify the aspects of agreement and difference between language acquisition and learning and employ language acquisition strategies in language teaching classes. The researcher explores the literature related to these two processes, then analyzes the aspects of the agreement, disagreement, motivation, reasons, methods, and strategies. He examines how to transform the foreign language class from the process of language learning to the process of language acquisition. There is no doubt that this depends on the teacher's skills and competence and the learners' readiness, strength, and intelligence. Also, there is no doubt that motivation has a great impact on the success of the language learning and acquisition process. Therefore, the research in the field of teaching foreign languages should be concerned with studying the cognitive, affective, cultural, and social variables, rather than attributing failure to innate aspects. The research benefits program developers in building curricula, teachers in preparing their lessons and educational plans, and curriculum developers as well.

Preparing a Teaching Corpora of Arabic Religious Words Borrowed in Malay Language through Malaysian Friday Sermon Texts in 2019

2022-12-20T15:44:59+08:00

The arrival of Islam in the Malay Archipelago was accompanied by the influence of the Arabic language on the Malay language. This influence was at the pronunciation level at the beginning, then it progressed to the written form. Later, the phenomenon of linguistic borrowing became clear in the Malay language, especially the borrowing of religious Arabic words that are common today in religious discourse in the Malay world in general, and Malaysia in particular. Despite that, many Malays cannot understand the meanings of those borrowed words because thir origins are not in their Malay language. Moreover, some of the words were affected by phonetic and semantic changes. This prompts the preparation of an educational code of borrowed Arabic religious words in Malay, by extracting them from the texts of Friday sermons. This paper analyses texts of Friday sermons for the year 2019 issued by the Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) - and then set by (Sketch Engine) to reveal the phonetic and semantic changes occurring therein. This will be useful in preparation for its employment in the context of teaching the Arabic language.

The Effect of Management Information Systems on the Administrative Performance of the Public-School Principals in Oman: Working Experience as a Moderating Variable

2022-12-15T16:30:39+08:00

The main purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional survey study was to examine the effect of management information systems (MIS) on the administrative performance of public-school principals in Oman. It also aimed to test the moderating effect of principals’ working experience on the relationship between management information systems and administrative performance. Employing a previously validated questionnaire, data were collected from 313 school principals and assistant principals from public schools of four Omani governorate, namely, Batinah North, Batinah South, Muscat, and Al-Dhakiyliah. Data were analyzed statistically using structural equation modeling (Amos 24). The Structural equation modelling was conducted in two main steps. First, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to verify the construct validity and reliability of both management information systems and administrative performance measurement models. Following that, the structural model was conducted to examine the effect of management information systems on administrative performance. Accordingly, the results of this study showed that management information systems have a statistically significant effect on the administrative performance of public-school principals in Oman. Using multi-group analysis (MGA), the results also showed a moderating effect for the school principals’ working experience in this relationship between management information systems and administrative performance. Pursuant to the findings, this study urges the Omani Ministry of Education to continue their effort in training principals on management information systems (MIS), taking into consideration the principals’ working experience as an important factor. To obtain a greater depth of understanding regarding administrative performance of public-school principals, other predictors and mediating variables are, therefore, recommended.