Journal for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
Volume 5 Issue 1 Autumn 2009 ISSN 1743-3932
Contents Special Issue Papers from the International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT) 2008: a collaboration between University of Hertfordshire and Universiti Teknologi MARA (Malaysia) Introduction Eddie Blass
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Editorial Internationalising the Curriculum Normah Abdullah
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Articles The Learning Strategies of Successful Research Graduates: a survey on Malaysian PhD holders Faizah Abd Majid, Nor Hashima Mohd Shukor and Fatin Aliana Radzi
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Enhancing Teaching Practicum Internship Programme using the Humanistic Evaluation Model Gurnam Kaur Sidhu and Sarjit Kaur
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The Effect of Pedagogical Agents in Learning Conditions and Possible Impact on Learning Gains Syamsul Nor Azlan Mohamad
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Internationalising Learning and Teaching Mary Thornton
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Mutual Benefits of Collaboration: identification and analysis of continuing professional development outcomes for both parties in an international collaboration Val Warren and Bernice Rawlings
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What Counts as Teacher and Teaching Quality in Schools and Higher Education: a cross-cultural analysis of qualifications, standards and development opportunities in Australia, England and Malaysia? Anne Jasman 79 Editorial Internationalisation and Other Issues for the Future Eddie Blass
Editorial Board Dr Claire Dickerson Professor Anne Jasman Amanda Jefferies Anne Mansey Penny Wiggins
j.e.c.dickerson@herts.ac.uk anne.jasman@usq.edu.au a.l.jefferies@herts.ac.uk p.a.mansey@herts.ac.uk p.wiggins@herts.ac.uk
Cover photograph by Jeff Jones
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Reviewers Professor Helen Burchell h.burchell@herts.ac.uk Dr Claire Dickerson j.e.c.dickerson@herts.ac.uk Amanda Jefferies a.l.jefferies@herts.ac.uk Anne Mansey p.a.mansey@herts.ac.uk Professor Madya Dr Gurnam Kaur Sidhu gurnamsidhu213@salam.uitm.edu.my All articles were double-blind peer reviewed
Introduction
This special issue of JELT celebrates the ongoing partnership between the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM, Malaysia) and the University of Hertfordshire (UH). The Faculty of Education at UiTM hosted the biannual International Conference in University Learning and Teaching (InCULT) in 2008 in partnership with UH, and UH is hosting the 2010 conference to continue this partnership. This special edition of JELT presents a selection of the papers presented by the UH School of Education and UiTM Faculty of Education at InCULT 2008. The theme of the conference was ‘transforming teaching and learning: towards international practices’. The UiTM papers have an editorial foreword by the Dean of Faculty, and focus on the practicalities of teaching and learning in the university classroom in areas that we tend to focus on less in our teaching and learning research. They raise a variety of issues for consideration with regard to international practice. Gurnam’s article on practicums offers a model of evaluation that differs from the UK placement model, but raises issues for consideration that are perhaps ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions here, raising our attention to them and making us question such assumptions. Faizah’s paper on PhD completions offers an insight into an area that is little researched, and challenges the cultural assumptions on which we assume success/drop-out occurs. Syamsul’s paper on pedagogical agents in e-learning is perhaps the most challenging to our e-assumptions, as it is not a familiar practice at UH. The UH papers look more holistically at international practice. Thornton questions our conceptualisation of internationalisation, asking whether the rhetoric and practice meet. Jasman raises the question of quality of teaching and teachers, and demonstrates the need to differentiate between the two using international comparisons. Rawlings and Warren offer a capacitybuilding model for developing international practice which essentially makes the international deliverer redundant over time, offering sustainability to the purchasing nation.
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Eddie Blass Guest Editor Reader in Leadership Development Associate Dean (Research, Consultancy and Business Partnerships) Faculty of Humanities, Law and Education
Introduction
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This special issue closes with an editorial which questions where to next and introduces the theme of InCULT 2010: Issues for the Future. I hope this edition challenges some of your ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions and offers you new insight into areas that you perhaps don’t question often enough.
Internationalising the Curriculum: editorial comment from the Dean of Faculty of Education, UiTM
Normah Abdullah Associate Professor and Dean of Faculty Faculty of Education Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Norma034@salam.uitm.edu.my
Curriculum development is a dynamic process, and curriculum developers at HEIs need to be sensitive to current demands while at the same time anticipating future changes, both local and global. Aligning the curriculum with the ideas stemming from the ‘internationalisation’ agenda can ensure the curriculum does not become out of date or, worse still, obsolete, eventually resulting in a mismatch between what is required by industry and contemporary society and what is being offered by the respective higher education institutions. Internationalisation has been defined differently by different people. Knight (1997: 29) defined internationalisation as ‘the process of integrating an international dimension into the teaching/training, research and service functions of a university or college or technical institute.’ There is much freedom here, as the ‘international dimension’ could mean different things to different institutions, working to differing agendas. Frencken, Jacobi and Jager (2006) have defined internationalisation based on the motives of universities for favouring internationalisation, those being: (1) internationalisation as a quest for foreign (paying) students either on campus or online; (2) internationalisation in terms of status and branding; and (3) internationalisation as a curriculum issue: all students should acquire the competencies to function adequately in an international professional world. In relation to the third definition they suggest that ‘students can accomplish this by doing part of their study programme in another country but also through a local curriculum with a strong international bias’ (p. 4). Tan (2005: 1) has, however, suggested that ‘the meaning of internationalization has been commonly linked with international activities or initiatives and is often synonymously referred to as multicultural education, international
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Internationalising the Curriculum: editorial comment from the Dean of Faculty of Education, UiTM
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education, international programmes and study abroad.’ This is more pragmatic approach without the political and economic dimensions. It is not simply a question of incorporating international perspectives within the existing curriculum; the curriculum content should incorporate competencies that enable graduates to perform adequately in an international professional world. As such the curriculum content should have adequate breadth and depth with an appropriate balance of knowledge, skills and attitude to enable students to function in an international professional world. HEIs should also offer a variety of programmes to cater to the needs of international students, as well as making the curriculum flexible to enable credit transfers and credit exemptions to international students and for local students to gain the same benefits internationally if they are to operate as truly international institutions. The need to align the curriculum towards internationalisation thus requires practitioners to consider developments at the international and national levels, from a subject, school and institutional perspective. There is also the issue of the rapid growth of knowledge that is readily accessible via information and communication technology (ICT). Knowledge, both local and international, is readily and immediately available through the Internet. As such, students need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to gain access to information. To access information via ICT a good command of the English language is necessary. Adequate exposure of students to the English language should be a prime consideration in internationalising the curriculum in countries where English is not the native language. ‘The internationalization of the curriculum incorporating liberal education will help
students to develop global awareness and understanding about diverse cultures’ (Tan, 2005: 1). Knowledge about people and cultures in other countries should be a part of the curriculum. As such elements of multicultural and cross-cultural education should also be incorporated in the curriculum to enable students to interact and communicate with people from different parts of the world. In the context of aligning the curriculum towards internalisation at HEIs in Malaysia, several other major factors need to be given due consideration. These include Vision 2020, Malaysia as a centre of regional educational excellence, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), and the recent transformation initiative via the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (2007) proposed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE). Under this transformational plan Malaysia focuses on the development of quality human capital through a holistic curriculum model based on the premise that each individual must first seek to find identity, meaning and purpose in life through the formation of connections to the community and to the world at large. In relation to Vision 2020 (Mahathir, 1991), the government envisages that by the year 2020 Malaysia will achieve a status of a developed nation, ‘a developed country in our own mould’ (p. 4). In order to achieve Vision 2020, there are nine challenges to be considered. One of the challenges is ‘the challenge of establishing a scientific and progressive society, a society that is innovative and forward looking; one that is not only a consumer of technology but also a contributor to the scientific and technological civilization of the future’ (p. 7). This challenge requires Malaysia to be a global player, producing goods and services for the international market. To achieve this aim, the curriculum needs to be aligned towards internationalisation by
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introducing elements of global education in the curriculum, in addition to the emphasis on ICT, the English language, multicultural and crosscultural awareness and also a third language. In the field of education, the Malaysian government has taken the right step to make Malaysia a centre of educational excellence in this region. In order to achieve this goal, it is thus timely for HEIs to align their respective curricula by offering a variety of programmes and courses to cater to the needs of foreign students to study in this country. The curriculum structure at HEIs should also be flexible enough to allow for credit exemption and transfer of credits to foreign students. With the establishment of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) in November 2007, the academic standard of HEIs is becoming standardised and is being monitored to ensure it meets international standards. The issue of internationalisation was the underpinning theme at the InCULT conference jointly hosted by the School of Education, University of Hertfordshire (UH), UK and the Asian Centre for Research on University Learning and Teaching (ACRULeT) located at the Faculty of Education, UiTM, Malaysia in October 2008. The papers that follow in this volume represent a selection from the faculty at UiTM and the faculty at UH. The papers vary significantly in their focus. The UiTM papers focus on the practicalities of internationalising teaching in HEIs, and demonstrate the progress that is being made in addressing pedagogic issues within the university. The papers from UH focus more on the holistic issues associated with internationalisation, including delivering HE in an overseas environment. This may be reflective of the respective histories supporting this collaboration. Asian countries used to be at the receiving end of internationalisation but now we are working collaboratively with our
western partners and we would like to see how effective it is. Hence we are currently reflecting from different points of experience, and this is represented within the journal submissions, as we move forwards to create new collaborative positions. References Frencken, H., Jacobi, R. and Jager, K. (2006) E-learning and international education in the Netherlands. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 29(2), 1–4. Harari, M. (1992) The internationalization of the curriculum. In C.B. Klasek (ed.), Bridges to the future: Strategies for internationalizing higher education (pp. 52–79). Carbondale, IL: Association of International Education Administrators. Knight, J. (1997) A shared vision? Stakeholders’ perspectives on the internationalization of higher education in Canada. Journal of Studies in International Education, 1(1), 27–44. Knight, J. (2003) Internationalization of higher education: Practices and priorities: 2003 IAU survey report from http:/www.unesco.org/iau/internationalization/pdf/ Internationalisation-en.pdf. Mahathir, M. (1991) Malaysia the way forward (Vision 2020). Kuala Lumpur: National Printing Department. Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (2007) The national higher education action plan (2007–2010). Putra Jaya: Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education. Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education. (2006) Malaysian strategic plan for higher education institutions. Putra Jaya: Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education. Tan, I. (2005) Internationalizing higher education. Bulletin of Higher Education Research, 5, 2–4.
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The Learning Strategies of Successful Research Graduates: a survey on Malaysian PhD holders Summary Each year the number of research candidates who either opt out or are dismissed due to poor performance is increasing (IGS, UiTM, 2006). Several factors are identified in the literature as contributing to the loss of research candidates from the research programme from which they enrolled. According to Brown and Atkins (1990, as cited in Faizah 2006), these factors include difficulties with methodological skills, problems of isolation and, among part-time students, more serious commitment given to life outside their research. Sayed et al. (1998) who conducted a longitudinal study on the difficulties faced by ten research students provided relevant input for best practices in research supervision. This paper reports on a study conducted in Malaysia
Faizah Abd Majid Associate Professor Faculty of Education Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia faiza404@salam.uitm.edu.my
with the aim of investigating the demographic profiles and the strategies employed by 76 successful PhD graduates (53 per cent female, 47 per cent male) who completed their studies either abroad or locally. A questionnaire which comprised of two parts (Part A: Learning Challenges and Strategies, and Part B: Demographic Background) was administered to the respondents who were chosen based on a purposive sampling. The data was analysed using SPSS. A profile of the successful PhD graduates is presented along with an exploration of the challenges they faced and strategies they employed to overcome those challenges during their studies. The findings have implications on future entry requirements, training, and the type of support future PhD candidates need.
Nor Hashima Mohd Shukor Lecturer Faculty of Education Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia norha527@salam.uitm.edu.my
Fatin Aliana Radzi Lecturer Faculty of Education Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia fatin777@salam.uitm.edu.my
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Introduction Previous research has already taught us much about the adult learners and postgraduates that form the sample for this current study (Habibah, 2002; Faizah, 2004, 2005, 2006; Hazadiah and Jamiah, 2006). However, while most of the previous research contributed to a better understanding of the adult learners’ learning styles, strategies and use of institutional support, little is known about postgraduate research candidates’ strategies in completing their studies. The Ninth Malaysian Plan has an emphasis on lifelong learning that is impacting upon many adult learners, encouraging them to make a comeback in the education system by pursuing further postgraduate studies. Postgraduate programmes may include research as a component of the programme or the entire programme may involve research, and hence more and more research candidates are progressing through the university as they complete their studies. Unfortunately, though they may have completed the coursework requirements of their courses, many postgraduate students fail to graduate as they fail to complete the research component of their programmes. This pattern is replicated among the postgraduate students for whom research is the sole course requirement. Each year, the number of research candidates who are either opting out or being dismissed from their courses due to poor performance is showing a rise (IGS, UiTM, 2006). A review of relevant literature supports this trend of discontinuation of programmes among research student candidates (Sayed et al., 1998; Habibah, 2004; Faizah, 2005). Sayed et al. (1998) conducted a longitudinal study of the difficulties faced by ten research students and discovered a range of issues pertaining to best practice
in research supervision. According to them, the candidates in the study were not familiar with the process of conducting research, the methodology involved and the conventions of thesis writing. They further elaborated that these were due to a lack of understanding, uncertainty of the candidates’ own capabilities and high levels of anxiety. In relating their findings regarding supervision, Sayed et al. claimed that the candidates in their study failed to meet the expectation of their supervisors and that they had a learning style that did not match the supervisor’s style. To clarify, while the supervisors expected them to be independent and possess an intellectual capacity suitable to that of a research candidate at a postgraduate level, the candidates were dependent on their supervisors and required important decisionmaking to be done by the supervisors. One reason, therefore, that may account for why research candidates may not complete their research is their lack of understanding of how the learning process should be when attempting a piece of independent research under the guidance of a supervisor in fulfillment of a degree. Hence, the study presented in this paper aims to discover how research candidates may complete their research degrees by looking at the learning strategies that the candidates employ. Additionally, the strategies used to overcome the challenges these students encounter during their research studies will also be investigated in the attempt to understand the effective learning strategies employed while pursuing a research programme such as a PhD. This paper, therefore addresses the following research objectives: a) to ascertain the demographic profiles of successful PhD candidates at UiTM, Malaysia;
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b) to understand the challenges faced by the successful PhD graduates in completing their studies at UiTM, Malaysia; c) to explore the strategies used by the successful PhD graduates in completing their studies at UiTM, Malaysia. This study is very important because it will provide an explanation on how PhD graduates can succeed in their studies, provide information on the challenges faced by the successful PhD candidates while pursuing their studies, provide information on the strategies that can lead to successful PhD completion, and enlighten PhD candidates, their supervisors, postgraduates’ coordinator and policy makers on the effective practices that promote the completion of a PhD. The results of this study should be transferable to other institutions and are not specific to UiTM, Malaysia. Operational definitions For the purpose of the study, some terms are defined accordingly. a) Learning strategies: Intentional learning facilitation that aims to ‘affect the learner’s motivational or affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge’ (Weinstein and Mayer, 1986: 315). b) Completing PhD: Ability to follow an independent full research programme with less difficulty. Completion is acknowledged when the thesis is submitted on time and the viva voce passed which in turn leads to the award of a PhD.
c) Survey: An empirical inquiry meant to ‘collect information from a sample by asking questions, in order to describe some aspects of the population of which the sample is a part’ (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2007: 423). Literature review Challenges facing adult learners Challenges are seen as the ‘factors that inhibit or prevent people from participating in activities such as adult education’ (Silva et al., 1998: 2). Hillage and Aston (as cited by McLeod, 2003) classify challenges into three major categories: attitudinal, physical and structural. Attitudinal challenges refer to a personal lack of confidence and motivation. Peer pressure and the perceptions of irrelevance are also labeled as attitudinal challenges. The following list provides more examples of attitudinal challenges: • • • • • • • • •
fear of failure, lack of confidence in own learning abilities; lack of motivation, prefer to do other things; peer group culture, surrounded by people who are anti-learning; low aspirations and lack of role models; perceptions of irrelevance; insufficient possession of qualifications; feelings of inadequacy; lack of trust in formal institutions or organisations; thinking they are too old to learn.
Physical challenges refer to accessibility, geographical division and financial deficit. The following list provides more examples:
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• • • • • • • • •
financial constraints – direct and indirect costs (fees, transportation, books, childcare); time constraints, too busy with work, family and children; lack of good childcare; lack of information; geographical isolation; disabilities and ill health; multiple conflicting responsibilities; job commitments; lack of support.
Finally, structural challenges refer to the way the training and education were offered and ‘disincentives inherent in the benefit system’ (McLeod, 2003). The list below provides more examples of structural challenges: • • • • •
lack of transport; limited local learning opportunities; lack of facilities and equipment; lack of knowledge on local learning opportunities; lack of knowledge on learning advice sources. (See Azelin, 2007: 14–15)
These challenges are argued to be common to all adult learners. Research candidates face an additional set of challenges unique to the nature of the studies. Challenges facing the research candidate The PhD is a degree that involves research and it grooms graduate students to become future scholars (Golde and Gallagher, 1999). Besides coming from different walks of life and having different needs, the overall graduate student demographics have vastly changed over the last twenty years. The US National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS) data for 2000 reported that the average graduate student is 33 years old and 20 per
cent of all graduate students are over the age of 40 (Woodford, 2005). Hence, a graduate student is also likely to be laden with personal, family and work responsibilities. Woodford (2005) identifies six common concerns amongst graduate students. Firstly, research graduates need role models that they can admire and emulate. According to Woodford this is more apparent amongst minority students and women as they are more likely to face greater challenges to attain faculty role models who share similar experiences. Secondly, graduate students also face challenges when they decide to conduct interdisciplinary research. Traditional PhD programmes include research works that are conducted within the ‘established boundaries’ of the said discipline (Golde and Gallagher, 1999). However, interdisciplinary research involves synergising people and ideas from other disciplines. Therefore the research student is bound to find himself or herself going against the ‘current academic canons’ (Woodford, 2005). The third common concern amongst graduate students, according to Woodford (2005), is the fear of being categorised as a ‘single-issue’ scholar. This often occurs when research students chose issues that relate to gender, race, sexual orientation, or the content of marginalised cultures as topics in their dissertations. The direct consequence of being labeled a ‘single-issue scholar’ is the assumption made by the faculty that the research candidate’s interest is focused solely on that particular topic throughout their career. The fourth common concern is the burden of being a spokesperson. Most research students feel uneasy when they are asked to represent a group and speak about experiences or beliefs in seminars or any formal gatherings. The fifth concern commonly shared among graduate students is the feelings of
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isolation. Graduate students work in isolation and this can lead to loneliness and selfdoubt. According to Woodford (2005), there have been cases where isolation has led to students suffering depression or dropping out, and the problem is even worse for students in minority groups. Finally, the sixth concern deals with balancing work and lifestyle. Often, their role models are devoted professors who spend most of their lives engaged in their work to achieve success. As such, research students worry that they are expected to toil every waking hour on their studies and at the same time find it almost impossible to create a balance between their studies and other responsibilities. Wisker (2001) looks at graduate studies as the ‘opportunity for personal skills development and for professional recognition and status’ (p. 9). The graduate student, as a research candidate, not only deals with concepts, ideas and issues that are complex but also requires good communication skills and time management. Wisker (2001) lists eight areas of common challenge that are prevalent amongst research candidates as follows: 1. research questions and areas: unsuitable, lack of information or simply accruing information without posing questions and suggestions; thus producing a monotonous and descriptive work; 2. access to research subjects, contacts and contexts: often, research candidates face unexpected obstacles even when they have carefully planned their work in advance. There is always the possibility of changes involving people, information and situations throughout the duration of the research that is beyond their control;
3. personality factors: barriers in communication due to age, class, gender, race, work experience, and other factors. Sequentially, this may instigate a clash of personalities or even neglect by the supervisor; 4. professional factors: dealing with an unsuitable supervisor such as one who has insufficient knowledge in the research area or few genuine research interests; 5. organisational factors: having a supervisor who has a number of research candidates to supervise, one who is occupied with administrative duties, or one who is unable to effectively manage the research group; 6. departmental facilities and arrangements: this may result in students being isolated from others; 7. lack of genuine research culture: not having friends or colleagues to share work with or to talk to, especially during eventful moments like discoveries, setbacks, developments, strategies and solutions; 8. life demands and crises: these may cause the research candidate to defer or slow down the development of his or her research. The study presented in this paper utilises Hillage and Aston’s (2001) three categories of learning challenges to conceptualise the learning challenges of adult learners; while Woodford’s (2005) and Wisker’s (2001) list of common challenges are used to establish the challenges faced by PhD research candidates in their quest to pursue academic achievement. Hence, the following table recapitulates the learning challenges faced by PhD research candidates.
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Table 1. Learning challenges among research candidates Learning Barriers challenge Attitudinal
• Lack of role models • Fear of irrelevance (perceived as ‘singleissue scholar’) • Feelings of inadequacy (fear of being the spokesperson) • Loneliness and self-doubt
Physical/ Material/ Situational
• Balancing work and lifestyle • Geographical isolation • Discrepancies in research questions and areas • Access to research subjects, contacts and context • Personality factors • Professional factors • Organisational factors • Lack of research culture • Life demands and crises
Structural
• Difficulties in conducting interdisciplinary research • Feeling of working in isolation • Departmental facilities and arrangements
Source: Adapted from Hillage and Aston (2001), Wisker (2001), and Woodford (2005)
Conceptual framework This study investigates how research candidates, in particular those pursuing their PhD programme, can be successful in their research degree. The challenges faced by the research candidates as both adult learners and research candidates serve as the basis of the conceptual framework. Challenges as adult learners are drawn from Hillage and Aston’s (2001) proposed barriers, while the challenges facing research candidates are drawn from Wisker’s (2001) and Woodford’s (2005) lists. In response to these learning challenges, the research candidates will strategise his or her learning to overcome them. In this study, the learning strategies are classified according to ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ strategies (Oxford, 1990). Direct strategies involve memory, cognitive and compensation strategies, while indirect strategies comprise of metacognitive, affective and social strategies. The following table summarises each strategy and provides examples of relevant tasks under each strategy.
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Table 2. Strategies for accomplishing a research dissertation Strategies Task
Strategies Task
Memory
Cognitive
• Change and develop ideas from literature • Establish procedure for the research • Possess analytical, calculation and interpretation skills • Possess evaluative and creative thinking skills
Metacognitive
• Plan a timetable for the completion of stages of the work • Establish ground rules and working procedure with the supervisor • Network planning of critical path analysis • Set objectives • Plan future publications from the work • Balance research and teaching for those involved in the academics • Manage time with domestic and other work commitments
• • • •
Possess knowledge-retrieval skills Develop a wide literature research base Organise ideas and discoveries to date Be able to contextualise literature and use it to underpin own work • Constantly update literature search and review
Compensation • Engage in a research topic that can potentially produce sound results and be delivered within given timeframe • Acquire necessary facilities and resources • Choose appropriate research methodologies and methods
Affective
• Allow/encourage the supervisor to Social constructively and critically comment work • Use support of the supervisor and colleagues as useful guidance • Know what to expect during supervision • Manage rather than collapse under stress • Become self-directed and lifelong learners • Organise support groups and networks
Source: Oxford (1990) and Woods (2001)
• Establish and maintain good working relationship with the supervisor while avoiding personality clashes • Meet supervisor at regular intervals • Seek opportunities to take part in the university’s research culture (give papers, attend conferences, etc.) • Seek advice from friends and colleagues • Regard the supervisor as a facilitator • Hold peer- and group-based sessions • Be able to manage discussions • Negotiate some support from work colleagues • Gain support from other researchers, family members and friends • Avoid spending all time involved in research at the expense of losing friends and alienating family members • Share and present work in progress with colleagues and in seminars or conferences • Get work published
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Wisker’s (2001) list of research skills required for a successful research degree is used to complement the learning strategies proposed by Oxford (1990). This study relies upon the assumption that learning challenges and strategies share a causal relationship that will ascertain a research candidate’s desired learning goals and as a result, the successful completion of the candidate’s research studies. Figure 1 represents the conceptual framework of the present study. Research methodology Subjects/participants The sample population for this study is successful PhD graduates teaching at UiTM, a public university in Malaysia. In UiTM there are currently 496 PhD holders; 439 from Shah Alam and 57 from other branches. Metler and Charles (2005) recommend that an approximate of 10 per cent of the whole sample population be sampled to ensure that the results obtained are valid and representative. Therefore 76 PhD holders, 15.3 per cent of the sample population, were sent the questionnaire. In summary, the participants were:
Figure 1. The conceptual framework
• •
10 successful PhD graduates teaching in UiTM (pilot questionnaire); 76 successful PhD graduates teaching in UiTM Shah Alam (revised questionnaire).
The 76 respondents were randomly selected from the population of interest. According to Fraenkel and Wallen (2007: 402), in order to obtain a high response rate, the questionnaire should be ‘sent to persons in authority to administer the potential respondents rather than sending it to the respondents themselves’. Hence, the revised questionnaire was distributed to PhD holders attached to the faculties of Accountancy, Art and Design, Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Applied Science, Business Administration, Communication and Media, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Music through the Assistant Registrar of each faculty. The researchers set an appointment with each Assistant Registrar to send the questionnaire and collect them when completed. This had assisted the researcher to ensure 100 per cent response rate.
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Table 3 shows that from the sample of 76 respondents, 53 per cent were female while the remaining 47 per cent were male. 46 per cent of the total respondents were from the Science and Technology cluster, while 32 per cent were from the Business and Management cluster, and the Social Sciences and Humanities cluster represented 22 per cent of the total respondents. Table 3. Demographics of respondents Number of Percentage Respondents (N = 76)
Gender
a need to conduct the research. Wiersma (2000) states that ‘the results of the pilot run should identify misunderstandings, ambiguities and useless inadequate items … difficulties with the directions may also be uncovered’ (p. 172). However, it is important to note that respondents attempting the pilot questionnaire were successful PhD graduates. In addition, the respondents in the pilot questionnaire did not attempt the actual questionnaire. This was to ensure that the information obtained from the actual questionnaire was accurate and not rehearsed. The pilot questionnaire was divided into two parts:
Male
36
47
Female
40
53
•
26–35
12
16
•
36–45
30
40
46–55
30
40
56–65
2
3
Over 65
1
1
Non-response
1
1
Science and Technology
35
46
Business and Management
24
32
Social Sciences and Humanities
17
22
Age
Faculty
Part A: Learning challenges and strategies, Part B: Demographic data.
Part A: Learning challenges and strategies Part A of the questionnaire tackled the issue of challenges faced and learning strategies employed by successful PhD graduates. It was categorised into several sub-parts, which were not made known to the respondents. These sub-parts are presented in Table 4: Table 4. Pilot questionnaire (Part A: Learning challenges and strategies) Codes Categories
Position Professor
7
9
Associate Professor
25
33
Senior Lecturer
6
8
Lecturer
34
45
Others
4
5
Pilot questionnaire The main purpose of distributing the pilot questionnaire was to ensure that the actual questionnaire would be sufficiently comprehensible for the respondents. In addition, it was also to ensure that there was
Number of items
A
Relationship: Supervisor
13
B
Relationship: Friends, family, employer Financial/funding Time management Institutional support Cognitive factors Affective factors Emotional support Prior experiences Metacognitive factors
12
10 Categories
77
C D E F G H J K Total
4 4 8 7 11 4 4 10
17