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The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) refers to the current rapid technological growth that fundamentally changes how humans live. 4IR is essential to improve higher education worldwide and develop crucial skills such as e-learning and innovation, information and media technology, and life and career skills. This study aims to assess the knowledge of the application of the nine pillars of 4IR in Education among STEM teachers in Malaysia. The nine primary pillars of 4IR that create a digital revolution in industries are autonomous robots, augmented reality (AR), system integration, additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, cloud computing, big data and analytics, the internet of things (IoT), and simulation. A quantitative study approach, through a survey questionnaire, is utilized to conduct the study. Meanwhile, a sample size of 200 secondary school STEM teachers in Malaysia had been chosen through a simple random sampling technique. Mean scores are used to assess the knowledge. The findings of the study showed that the teachers are highly knowledgeable about the application of simulation (M=4.15), augmented reality (M=4.11), and autonomous robots (M=4.06) in education. Meanwhile, the teachers have moderate knowledge in the application of cybersecurity (M=3.29), additive manufacturing (M=3.27), and the internet of things (M=3.11) in education. Finally, the teachers recorded a low level of knowledge toward the application of cloud computing (M=2.48), horizontal and vertical integration (M=2.20), as well as big data and analytics (M=2.02) in education. This study gives implications for ensuring the teachers can meet the demands of the present education system and help their learners become more proficient in learning. In conclusion, integrating 4IR technology is an important aspect that needs to be utilized in teachers' teaching practices.

In an effort to promote integrated STEM education, the Malaysian government has integrated STEM teaching framework within the science and mathematics curriculum specifications to guide the science and mathematics teachers to design and implement interdisciplinary teaching while teaching science and/or mathematics concepts. Some of the factors that make STEM teaching effective include knowledge about integrating the different subjects in teaching and teachers' pedagogical strategies, perceived difficulties (PD), and self-efficacy. This study was designed to measure and model the relationships between these three factors and integrated STEM teaching practices in a sample of Malaysian teachers. Data obtained from 573 science and mathematics teachers were analyzed using a partial least square structural equation modeling approach. Findings revealed that the model derived from a combination of the three factors exhibits substantial predictive power and thus has substantial relevance for STEM teaching. Knowledge and perceived efficacy have significant positive effects on and PD have significant negative direct relationships with STEM teaching. Knowledge has a significant negative and positive mediation effect between difficulties and integrated STEM practices, and self-efficacy and integrated STEM practices, respectively. This study has immediate implications for developing teacher professional development curriculum and STEM education policymakers in Malaysia, and it is a model to be tested in other countries or regions intending STEM education reforms.

Background: There is a somewhat common understanding that links teaching and environmentalism. This may be because schools are pioneers or are often used as platforms for many environmental advocacies. Years of research have demonstrated that teaching increases awareness and concern for the environment and encourages people to protect the environment, however there is a deficit in the literature that probed and determined which among teacher activities may be considered as pro-environmental behavior. Purpose: This study attempted to determine the influence of values, beliefs and norms in teaching disaster risk reduction. This paper attempted to reflect on teaching and environmentalism as deduced from the findings and aims to stimulate and contribute to the discussion on teaching and environmentalism. Participants: Data were gathered from 185 public school science teachers teaching from grades 3 to 6 under the Department of Education -- Division of Biliran located in one of the highly natural hazard-vulnerable islands in the Philippines. Participants were selected through random sampling of schools. All science teachers of the schools drawn were asked to voluntarily participate in the study. Design and methods: This quantitative study made use of survey design using adapted and content-validated Likert scale questionnaire on values, beliefs and norms in teaching disaster risk reduction. Data collected were analyzed through partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS. Conclusion: Results conform to the Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism, which suggest that teacher activities pertaining to the integration and teaching of disaster risk reduction in science lie within the continuum of environmentalism, therefore, they may be considered pro-environmental behavior.

This study reports the effectiveness of nanoscience activities in enhancing secondary school students' understanding of two chemistry concepts: structure of atom and acid and bases. For the purpose of this study, quasi experiment was employed to 163 Grade 10 students from the Northern Region of Malaysia. Sample from the experimental group was exposed to a series of nanoscience activities lasted for 10 weeks. Students' understanding on the two chemistry concepts was tested using Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). The CAT consists of multiple-choice questions and openended questions. Data obtained from CAT was analysed using one-way ANCOVA to identify the effectiveness of nanoscience activity in enhancing students' understanding of chemistry concepts. The findings show that there were statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups' mean scores (F (1,160) = 167.82, p < 0.05 n[subscript p] [superscript 2] = 0.512) with the experimental group students reporting higher mean. The ANCOVA result indicated experimental group students' understanding of chemistry concepts significantly higher than the comparison group. The qualitative analysis of open-ended responses further supports findings obtained from the quantitative analysis. The study suggests that integrating nanoscience into the contemporary teaching of chemistry is relevant and appropriate.

Ecology involves learning the multiple processes that occur in an ecosystem in a non-linear manner. For students to understand the complexity of an ecosystem and the processes, an interdisciplinary teaching and learning strategy is essential. Crossing the four disciplines that constitute STEM education, characterizes STEM education as an interdisciplinary approach. This study prescribes Facebook incorporated STEM education to conduct the lessons on a dynamic ecosystem, and the effects are reported. Mixed method research encompassing experimental research and qualitative interviews conducted with From Four students (equivalent to grade 9) revealed that the new strategy, Facebook incorporated STEM education fostered students understanding of ecosystems. The paired sample t-test analysis indicated significant differences between the pre and post understanding scores. The qualitative interview analysis informed how Facebook incorporated STEM education resulted in students acquiring better understandings. The study entails an interdisciplinary strategy is essential for effective teaching of a complex process such as the ecosystem.

This study investigated the year 12 students' (N = 56) understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts after instruction using two conceptual tests, the "Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 1" ("CECT-1") consisting of nine two-tier multiple-choice items and the "Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 2" ("CECT-2") consisting of four structured questions. Both these tests were administered before and after the intervention. Students' responses to the items in both the instruments indicated limited understanding of the various concepts related to chemical equilibrium. Less than 50% of the students provided correct responses to four of the nine items in the "CECT-1." The total scores in the "CECT-1" ranged from 0 to 8 with a mean score of 4.14 (out of a maximum of 9). In the "CECT-2" the total scores ranged from 7 to 17 with a mean score of 11.0 out of a maximum score of 22. Almost half the number of students (44.6%) scored less than 50% of the total marks in the "CECT-2"; only 0% to 42.9% of students scored the maximum possible marks for each of the four items while achievement in all four items of the "CECT-2" was below 50%. The findings will be valuable and assist teachers in planning their instruction on chemical equilibrium by taking into consideration students' preconceptions about the topic.

The abstractness of certain chemistry concepts demands the use of appropriate teaching strategies to enable students to construct mental images of the concepts. The concepts include understanding the effects of concentration and catalyst on the rate of reaction. The reactions at the molecular level are not visible to human eyes and the use of hazardous chemicals to teach the reactions further had made the learning irrelevant to the students. As an alternative to the existing curriculum, through this study, context-based green chemistry experiments (CBGCEs) were introduced as a laboratory curriculum. Teaching using CBGCEs began with unfolding a relevant context and followed with an investigation using benign green chemistry experiments. The qualitative interviews and responses to the issue-based open-ended questions show that students exposed to CBGCEs and existing curriculum attained better understanding about the effects of concentration and catalyst on the rate of reaction. However, the themes emerged from the responses of students learned with CBGCEs portray that this group of students has attained more specific and scientifically adequate understanding. The quantitative findings substantiated the findings obtained from the qualitative data.

Existing studies report on the importance of instilling environmental literacy among students from an early stage of schooling to enable them to adopt more pro-environmental behaviors in the near future. This quasi-experimental study was designed to compare the level of environmental literacy among two groups of students: the experimental group (N = 120) was taught using science writing heuristics embedded in a green chemistry curriculum (SWH-GC) and the comparison group (N = 90) was taught using a green chemistry curriculum. For the purpose of this study an environmental literacy model that consisted of pro-environmental attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and behavior was employed. ANCOVA with the pre-test as the covariate showed statistically significant differences in all four of the constructs that constitute environmental literacy, with the experimental group taught using SWH-GC exhibiting higher mean values. Interview findings with randomly selected students from both groups further reinforced the quantitative findings. Both quantitative and qualitative findings suggest that after the treatment, the experimental group students were keen to read about the environment, believed their actions would bring changes, were more knowledgeable regarding how to keep streams and lakes clean, and were more engaged in recycling activities. The implications are finally discussed.

In a world where environmental degradation is taking on alarming levels, understanding, and acting to minimize, the individual environmental impact is an important goal for many science educators. In this study, a green chemistry curriculum--combining chemistry experiments with everyday, environmentally friendly substances with a student-centered approach that includes student-student discussion--was tested for its potential to increase the understanding of acid-base concepts and argumentative skills. A quasi-experimental design was chosen intended to take into account teacher/school nested effects. The study involved three classes of 150 16 year old Form Four students (1 experimental, N = 50; 2 control, N = 100) from two Schools A and B serving students from the same sociocultural and economic backgrounds taught by two teachers (Teacher A in School A taught 1 experimental and 1 control; Teacher B in School B taught 1 control). An ANCOVA with a pre-test as a covariate showed a statistically significant treatment effect as measured by an acid-base concept understanding test. Additionally, qualitative analysis of an Argumentation Skill Test (AST) shows that the experimental students used higher levels of argumentation skills following treatment than their peers in the two control classes. Implications are discussed for integrating green chemistry into the secondary school chemistry curriculum to teach the content on acid-base and green chemistry as a tool to assist the construction of arguments.

Globalization, rapid industrial development, and tremendous population growth have significantly increased the demand for energy. Sustaining the energy supply requires that society be energy literate. Existing studies on secondary school students' energy literacy suggest that effective teaching approaches can enhance energy literacy. This quasi-experimental study was designed to test the null hypotheses that project-based energy learning does not enhance knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and beliefs related to energy. For this purpose, two classes from a school were assigned to experimental and control groups. Following the intervention, an ANCOVA analysis with the pretest results as the covariate showed statistically significant differences in the four aspects that were researched. Additionally, interviews with randomly selected students from the experimental and control groups further support the findings. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Climate change generally and global warming specifically have become a common feature of the daily news. Due to widespread recognition of the adverse consequences of climate change on human lives, concerted societal effort has been taken to address it (e.g. by means of the science curriculum). This study was designed to test the effect that child-centred, 5E learning cycle-based climate change activities would have over more traditional teacher-centred activities on Malaysian Year 5 primary students (11 years). A quasi-experimental design involving a treatment (n?=?55) and a group representing typical teaching method (n?=?60) was used to measure the effectiveness of these activities on (a) increasing children's knowledge about global warming; (b) changing their attitudes to be more favourable towards the environment and (c) identify the relationship between knowledge and attitude that exist in this study. Statistically significant differences in favour of the treatment group were detected for both knowledge and environmental attitudes. Non-significant relationship was identified between knowledge and attitude in this study. Interviews with randomly selected students from treatment and comparison groups further underscore these findings. Implications are discussed.

Every day, climate change due to greenhouse emissions, pollution and other environmental degradation appears to make the news. Rather than doing something about the environment, namely in the developing countries where populations frequently are less educated about the long-term impact of human actions, they tend to disregard these problems. There is therefore a need particularly in developing countries to increase the potential for understanding and acting in sustainable, environmentally friendly ways. In this paper, we report quantitative and qualitative results of shifts in environmental value orientations among 110 Malaysian pre-service chemistry teachers during their enrolment in a green chemistry course. We find that the pre-service teachers' environmental value orientations become more ecocentric and less homocentric and egocentric. Ecocentrism and ecocentric values support the development of behaviours that will assist them and the students they teach in leading environmentally sustainable lifestyles. We conclude that our green chemistry course constitutes (a) a suitable context for supporting pre-service teachers in their development of ecocentric values and (b) an effort to educate the pre-service teachers in leading sustainable lifestyles.

The purpose of this article is to describe a best practice: an approach to teaching chemistry that our quantitative research has shown to produce large differences between experimental and control groups in terms of achievement, pro-environmental attitudes, values, and motivation. Our interest in teaching chemistry by focusing on sustainable development arises from the environmental concerns that as the country of this study, Malaysia is facing in many different areas--including rampant logging and pollution. As educators, we are interested in educating future generations so that they can cope with the environmental challenges that not only this nation but also the world as a whole is increasingly facing. The "green chemistry" approach we describe here may be just the answer that other developing nations and emergent economies in closing the gap with industrialized nations. We provide a detailed description of how green chemistry has been implemented in a curriculum for pre-service science teachers and in the curriculum of secondary school chemistry. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)

Green chemistry is the design, development and implementation of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use of sub-stances hazardous to human health and the environment. This article reports on the integration of green chemistry and sustainable development concepts (SDCs) into an existing teaching methods course for chemistry pre-service teachers. Incorporation of SDCs with green chemistry enhances the interdisciplinary nature of green chemistry. It is in line with the course purpose of introducing instructional strategies for teaching chemistry at the secondary level. Through the experiences of hands-on activities, writing lesson plans and integration of SDC content into lectures and discussion, pre-service teachers learned how to integrate these elements into their own courses. The design of this course is an example of how to integrate green chemistry incorporated with SDCs into a teacher education curriculum. (Contains 5 tables.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce green chemistry experiments as laboratory-based pedagogy and to evaluate effectiveness of green chemistry experiments in delivering sustainable development concepts (SDCs) and traditional environmental concepts (TECs). Design/methodology/approach: Repeated measure design was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of green chemistry experiments in delivering SDCs and TECs. Structured interviews were conducted to gather the students' feedback on the course content and course structure. Findings: Green chemistry have enhanced students' understanding of both TECs and SDCs. However, students understanding of SDCs are significantly higher than the TECs. During the interview sessions, students described that the course content as interesting and timely accurate. The course also succeeded in changing students' values and behaviors. Green chemistry was noted as a teaching pedagogy that the student teachers will implement in their future teaching. The course has also provided a space for them to improve their skills in communication, problem solving, and decision making. Practical implications: This paper outlines a new teaching strategy and will be a good source for student teachers engaged in science education program. This new teaching strategy embeds scientific concepts grounded in economic, environmental, and societal imperatives. Originality/value: The paper highlights the importance of education for SD (ESD) in higher education, with particular focus in teacher education. The paper proposes green chemistry experiments integrated with SDCs as laboratory-based pedagogy in a teacher education program as an effort to green the existing curriculum and ultimately addresses the ESD. (Contains 5 tables.)

A socioscientific issues integrated instruction was used in the study to resolve college students attitude towards sexually-themed science content. Some 200 college students participated in the study as experimental and control groups. The former consisting of 98 students from one college was taught the content using the socioscientific issues integrated instruction. The later with 102 students from another college was taught the same content using a traditionally teacher dominated lectures. Both groups were taught over a period of eight weeks. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained before and after the intervention. The quantitative data were analysed using analysis of covariance. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control groups (F(1, 247) = 426.97,p= .00, partial eta squared = 0.64) where the experimental group showed a significant change in attitude towards the content studied. The qualitative data obtained some experimental group students showed a change in attitude the second interview. It was concluded that the use of the approach has significantly made the college students feel comfortable and confident to learn and teach the content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]