Browsing by Author "Olasunkanmi, Abdulhameed Kamoludeen"

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of Malaysian students’ motivation for higher education and to explore the mediating influence of lecturer’s instructional methods and strategies (LIMS) between the exogenous and endogenous variables of the study. The instrument was developed based on existing literature and a focus group discussion involving eight undergraduate students of one public university in Malaysia, and content validated by five experts in the field of Social Psychology, Research Methodology, Assessment and Applied Statistics. The instrument was piloted to 264 respondents and generated 5 variables including the mediating one using Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) procedures. The final respondents comprised 297 undergraduate students from eight public universities (UM, UiTM, USM, UKM, UPM, UTM, IIUM and UUM) in Peninsular Malaysia who were sampled using simple random sampling. The data were analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and full-fledged Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that future economic stability (FES), family influence (FI) and social standing (SS) were confirmed as underlying determinants of Malaysian students’ motivation for higher education (MFHE). The SEM procedures indicated that FES, FI and SS significantly influenced Malaysian students’ motivation for higher education. Likewise, the relationship between FES, FI, SS and MFHE was statistically partially mediated by lecturer’s instructional methods and strategies (LIMS). Practically, this study’s findings would be of benefit to government, higher education institutions, lecturers and parents in terms of policy making, recruitment of competent and qualified teachers, adoption of diversified pedagogical approaches and students’ support for university education. Theoretically, the mediating effect of lecturer’s instructional methods and strategies (LIMS) on the relationship between FES, FI, SS and MFHE has been a token of contribution to the body of knowledge, however, future research should work further on the theory tested regarding students’ motivation for higher education.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception and attitude of students towards the implementation of student-centred teaching (SCT) in the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). This investigation will determine whether it reflects the SCT approach required by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) under the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHEM). It then explores the significant differences among IIUM kulliyyahs (faculties), gender, level of students and their nationality with regards to their perception and attitude towards SCT. The relationship between IIUM students’ perception and attitude towards SCT was also examined in this study. In this cross sectional study, 243 students were surveyed from all eight Kulliyyahs (Faculties) located in the Gombak campus. The questionnaires and the quantitative data collected in this study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential (ANOVA, INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST, CORRELATION and REGRESSION) statistical procedures. The findings of the study indicated that IIUM students hold a fairly positive perception and attitude towards SCT with mean scores of 3.71 and 3.97 out of the maximum score of 5.00 respectively. This implies that IIUM lecturers are implementing SCT approach to a certain extent. The results also revealed that there is a significant difference between Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Law (AIKOL) and Kulliyyah of Engineering (KOE) in terms of students’ perception on SCT. There was however a significant difference between IIUM male and female students with respect to their perception but not attitude towards SCT. Additionally, IIUM postgraduate and undergraduate students showed no significant difference in perception but not their attitude towards SCT. Consequently, Malaysian students showed better perception on SCT compared to their international counterparts, while international students had better attitude towards SCT compared to their Malaysian colleagues. Finally, the findings also showed that there was a positive significant relationship between perception and attitude of students towards SCT which indicated that students’ perception was a reasonable predictor for their attitude towards SCT. This study therefore, found that SCT approach is being implemented in the IIUM community and recommended further studies on the paradigm.