The main goal of the nationhood education is to instill the sense of loyalty and passion into the nation. In a Malaysian context, several academic subjects at higher education such as Malaysian Studies, Ethnic Relations and National Language have been implemented in order to achieve the goal. Malaysian Study is one of the compulsory courses offered by all private universities in Malaysia that is intended to educate students with national values, patriotism and belongingness to the country. However, past empirical evidence show that many students have a lack of interest to learn such subject. Therefore, the current study investigated contributing factors to students’ academic achievement and also examined students’ attitudes towards that subject. Using quantitative approach, the current study categorized four main factors namely the suitability and interest in syllabus, being active in class, early preparation and revision, types of enjoyable activities, interest in teaching aids and good class attendance. Using questionnaires and SPSS software as the main tools in this study, the mean score, frequency and percentage were obtained. It is concluded statistically from this study that students’ perception of their lecturers play a significant role in determining their learning outcomes in Malaysian Studies, while the lecturers are of the opinion that learning environment is a factor which contributes significantly to the students’ achievement in this subject. The current study suggests that the teachers build upon excellent rapport with students and create an attractive and enjoyable environment to get the students to dynamically involve in the classroom activities and learn the Malaysian Studies enthusiastically and efficiently

No abstract

The main aim of math teaching at the higher level is to form students’ competency to prepare them for other courses that require mathematical skills and professional task solving. The challenge today is to develop student engagement in math learning. Thus, this study examined the relationship between social factors, student learning practices, and student engagement in math learning. A survey through questionnaires was distributed to 284 bachelor's degree students at a private university in Malaysia. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and Structured Equation Modeling were applied. The results obtained revealed that there were significant relationships between: a) teaching practices and attentive listening, note-taking, working on in-class problems, b) peer influence and attentive listening, c) parental involvement and working on in-class problems, and the amount of homework completed. The results also show that seating location, attentive listening, note-taking, working on in-class problems, and homework completion have a significant relationship with student engagement in math learning.

Mathematics is an important subject as a skill and foundation to further learning at the university level. In this regard, the engagement of students in the learning of mathematics is required so that mathematical knowledge and skills can be learned and mastered as much as possible. Previous study showed that student engagement, parental involvement, and peer influence affect mathematics achievement at a university. The purpose of this is to examine the relationship between mathematics achievement, the three aspect of student engagement, parental involvement, and peer influence. Data were collected from a total sample of 284 undergraduate students at a private university in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Mathematics achievement was positively related to cognitive engagement and affective engagement, while behavioural engagement did not affect their achievement. Parental involvement and peer influence, on the other hand, are negatively related with mathematics achievement. More studies that concentrated on the relationship between parental involvement, peer influence, and student engagement in the future are encouraged to establish students' engagement in mathematics learning that vital to increase their mathematics achievement. A qualitative study should be considered in order to obtain more information from respondents.