No abstract

The language acquisition is one of the most important criteria that contribute to the measurement of language proficiency for students and the objectives of teaching of Arabic in Malaysia are currently based on the Standard Arabic Curriculum, which focuses on mastery of the four language skills. However, the inability to master the four language skills is still very significant. This occurs due to the fact that students only learn Arabic to pass the exam and that learning strategies applied to the students are less interactive and effective which led to demotivate the student to continue the learning process. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to examine the impact of mobile learning towards motivation in learning Arabic language proficiency. The research focuses on analysing the participants' motivation regarding the education of Arabic language in particular, via mobile learning. The attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) model shaped the comprehension of the effect of education through mobile app towards the motivation of the respondents. A total of 273 participants in Malaysians Higher Institutions used mobile learning for Arabic language proficiency during teaching and learning process. After this, they will complete the motivation questionnaire. The results showed that attention, relevance, satisfaction, and confidence motivational factors had a significant impact on student's motivation to learn Arabic through mobile app. Hence, this study contributes to the significant empirical results on the effectiveness of the integration of ARCS model in mobile app for learning Arabic language.

This study aims to ascertain teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic factors and their relationship towards the blended learning approach in teaching and facilitating. The study was conducted on 200 primary school teachers who were teaching in a few schools in Selangor and Perak and the sample was selected randomly. The questionnaire contained 11 constructs and self-reporting items were chosen to obtain the data. The findings indicated that there was a moderate positive relationship for intrinsic teacher factors such as individual innovation, information technology specific innovation, computer self-efficacy, ICT knowledge and skills with blended learning practice. There was also a moderate positive relationship for extrinsic teacher factors such as administrators' support, role of change agents, school and training facilities with blended learning approach in teachers' teaching and learning. As such, to ensure the success of the implementation of the blended learning approach as well as to increase its practice, the administrators should work to increase the teachers' academic awareness via promotions, preparing physical and technical facilities, providing support and practice continuously, creating an online learning culture and giving initiative and acknowledgement for teachers who are intent on making blended learning a success.

Purpose – It is argued that the approaches to learning of students undergoing teacher training are likely to be related to their teaching and learning environment, especially as they move from a more regimented, structured learning environment in school to a tertiary learning environment that encourages more independent thinking and perhaps questions ideas. Therefore, this investigation has an overall goal to use the unique approaches to learning (surface and deep approaches) of students in a teacher preparation program to address the needs of this particular group of students during their teacher education. The study examines the associations between scores on student-teachers’ approaches to learning, their academic performance and teaching efficacy. Methodology – The approach to learning instrument used was the Bahasa Melayu R-SPQ-2F and the teaching efficacy was collected through the Bahasa Melayu Teachers’ Sense of  Efficacy Scale (TSES). The sample for this study was a total of 104 second-year student-teachers from two cohorts enrolled in a teacher education degree programme in a Malaysian university. The R-SPQ-2F was administered on the 10th week of a 14-week semester. A cover page accompanying the questionnaires provided general information about the study and specific instructions to answer the questionnaire. Student-teachers were requested to provide their cumulative grade point average (CGPA) score from the previous semester. Data was analyzed by using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r). Findings - Findings showed that surface approach to learning has shown significant negative association with teaching efficacy, indicating that those student-teachers who used surface learning exhibited low teaching efficacy. Deep approach to learning has shown significant positive association with both academic achievement and teaching efficacy, indicating that those student-teachers who adopted deep learning had better academic achievement and also had a stronger sense of teaching efficacy. Implications of these findings were discussed as they related to teaching and learning, specifically in the attempt to facilitate deeper learning strategies. Significance - The study provides further evidence that the translated versions of the Bahasa Melayu R SPQ-2F and theBahasa Melayu TSES are reliable instruments to assess and monitor student-teachers’ approaches to learning and their teaching self-efficacy beliefs. This study also adds to the very limited number of investigations of approaches to learning, academic performance, and teaching self efficacy of student-teachers in Malaysia.

Critical thinking skills are essential skills for life, work, and function effectively in all other aspects of life. The purpose of this study was to identify some of the important correlates of critical thinking skills, in terms of environment, quality teaching, and motivation among undergraduates early childhood education (ECE) in public tertiary institutions. This study employed correlation design. A total of 226 respondents' early childhood education in public tertiary institutions gets involved. The data analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regressions by using software Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive analysis was done to obtain mean and standard deviation value for each variable. Descriptive analysis showed the respondents have moderate level of critical thinking skills 50.60%. There is a significant and positive relationship between environment and critical thinking skills (r = .575, p=0.000), quality teaching and critical thinking skills (r=.454, p=0.000), motivation and critical thinking skills (r=.425, p=0.000) among undergraduates early childhood education in public tertiary institutions. Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity. The outcome showed the multiple regression analyses indicated that the set variables predicted 43.10% of the factors influencing and the best predictors of factors influencing was environment. This study is expected to be form of assessing the factors influencing critical thinking skills of the undergraduates early childhood education in the implementation of effective teaching pedagogy as well as contribute to effectiveness of the education system, particularly the field of early childhood education.