The paper presents the results of a case study examining students’ difficulties in the learning of integral calculus. It sought to address the misconceptions and errors that were encountered in the students’ work solution. In quantitative study, the marks obtained by 147 students of Diploma in Computer Science in advanced calculus examinations were used as a measurement to evaluate the percentages of errors. Further, qualitative study examined the types of errors performed by 70 diploma students of the advanced calculus courses in their on-going assessments. The students encountered more difficulties in solving questions related to improper integrals for standard functions (63.1 percentages of errors). The three techniques of integration, namely by parts, trigonometric substitution and partial fraction with combined percentage errors of 42.8 also contributed to this. The types of conceptual errors discovered are symbolic, standard functions recognition, property of integral and technique determination. The procedural errors are due to the confusion between differentiation and integration process while the technical errors have foreseen the students struggling with poor mathematical skills and carelessness. The results will thus be useful to Mathematics educators who are keen in designing functional teaching and learning instruments to rectify the difficulties and misconceptions problems experienced by calculus students.

This article reports on a study of how L1 was used by Persian speaking Pre-university learners of English in their private speech while interacting as they were engaged in L2 reading. The study was conducted in a real classroom setting in an Iranian school with the objective of better understand the mediating and regulatory role of L1 private speech in L2 reading. The analysis reveals that learners produced L1 private speech while interacting collaboratively with peers in social context. It presents evidence that L1 was utilized in learners’ self-talk as repetitions, affective utterances, pause fillers, self-directed questions and explanations, self-addressed negations, and self-addressed directives. This served learners cognitive and affective functions and assisted them to focus on the challenging part of the task and to maintain self-regulation. This study provided support for the theoretical orientation that views language not only as a means of communication but as a cognitive tool used to control one’s mental activity. It is hoped to contribute to the body of knowledge on SLA and sociocultural perspective of language learning by illustrating evidence for a shift from being othermediated or object mediated to guiding oneself and being self-mediated in the process of L2 classroom learning.

Decision-problem structuring is conceptualized to be a process comprising activities characterized by the students. The activities are cognitive efforts of a group coming to an understanding and determining the representation of the decision-problem and of what knowledge is relevant to the decision-problem. Cognitive effort refers to the fraction of limited attention with respect to resources that are momentarily allocated to a process. The consensual representation of the decision-problem provides the basis for modeling those activities in some form and order. Knowing how a decision-problem is structured by students based on Management Information System domain will enable the modeling to be based on a simple descriptive behaviour in problem structuring. One such method would be a mathematical model to quantify the problem which ultimately becomes well-structured

The book is written by Neil Selwyn, a Professor from the Faculty of Education in Monash University, Australia to probe our mind regarding issues of technology use in education that seems like inconsistent and often results in unintended consequences and subtle side-effects. The author makes an effort to highlight the problematic as well as the positive aspects of education and technology where most technology development is driven by ambitions to improve and innovate.

The significance put in refining communication skills among teachers plays a central role in connecting students’ various knowledge. With that, classroom management styles with good communication skills become a major focus in achieving fundamental educational aims. Unfortunately, communication skills and management styles for classroom learning are always seen as isolated components. Hence, this study aims to investigate the communication skills used among teachers with different classroom management styles in Malaysia primary schools. This study attempts to achieve four objectives; namely, to examine the teachers’ level of communication skills in listening, ability to get message across, emotional management in the communication process, insight to the communication process and assertive communication; to investigate level of communication skills between male teacher and female teacher; to describe the percentages of the teachers with different classroom management styles; and to investigate the level of communication skills between different classroom management styles. This study employed the survey causal comparative research design that focuses on the quantitative approach. The respondents of this study were 70 primary school teachers who were randomly selected in the area of Perak, Malaysia. A questionnaire was administered in this survey with results showing that the teachers have their personal set of communication skills with different classroom management styles. Nevertheless, the analysis showed that there is no strong evidence that there is a significant difference in the communication skills based on gender. Results also revealed that there is a significant difference in communication skills between the two different categories of classroom management styles

The top ten killer diseases in Malaysia are largely associated with inactivity. In relation to that, Malaysia has come out with policies on prevention, control and management of non-communicable diseases (NCD) into the social, economic and environmental systems through various stakeholders. Thus, this study examined the level of physical activity (PA) among women with regards to demographic profiles, namely marital status, occupation, academic qualification and BMI. A sample of 390 women in Selangor was randomly selected. This research employed a quantitative method using a set of questionnaire adapted from International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) in order to obtain information from the respondents. Then, descriptive analysis was employed to obtain the frequency and percentage of PA level. ANOVA was also used to find out the difference in PA with regards to demographic profiles. This study revealed that women in Selangor were generally at low level of PA. In terms of marital status, single women were moderately participated in PA as compared to married and divorced women who participated in low PA. In terms of occupation, home maker, self-employed, white-collar and students participated moderately in PA. On the other hand, professionals and unemployed women participated in low PA. It was also found that school leavers and women with certificate participated at moderate level of PA, yet, women with degree and above as well as diploma were doing low PA. Women with extra body weight, normal body weight and less body weight were found to participate at high, moderate and low level of PA respectively. Besides, findings proved that academic qualification and BMI were highly associated with PA participation. However, marital status and occupation did not associate with PA participation.

Life satisfaction is a way a person evaluates his or her life and how he or she feels about where it is going in the future. This study was conducted to investigate the level of high achievers’ life satisfaction, the domains of their life satisfaction and its relationship to their academic achievement. Based on the literature review, academic achievement is predicted to contribute significantly to high level of life satisfaction compared to other domains in life. Forty-five (45) high-achieving (those who obtained a CGPA of 3.50 to 3.99) students have participated in this study. This study is adapted from a research of Diener et al. (1985) on Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale (ESWLS). Four domain factors, namely social, self, physical and family were studied. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study. The results showed that the high-achieving students showed a high level of life satisfaction in terms of family supports domains but moderate level of satisfaction on their appearance. Nevertheless, for various reasons, academic satisfaction is not a strong determinant of their life satisfaction.

The National Higher Education Strategic Plan Beyond 2020 aims at further strengthening Malaysian research universities and envisions that two Malaysian universities will be among the Top 100 world universities. To date there are 5 research universities in Malaysia, namely University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) being the latest addition. These research universities are required to focus primarily on research and innovation activities, driven by highly competent academics and competitive student admissions. Research universities too are expected to explore their intellectual capacity and become models of Malaysian universities in conducting research activities aimed at knowledge advancement. Apart from this research universities are entrusted to generate their own income and establish holding companies responsible for conducting business ventures through the commercialization of their research products. Quality and quantity of researchers, research and postgraduates are also expected to increase in these research driven institutions. This calls for a visionary university leadership and the application of a new image and organizational principles. Education, training and employment policies too have to be reviewed, to ensure staff have the skills necessary for the development of research activities.