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Purpose: The power of forum theatre in education and various other fields is well known by educators. However, the use of forum theatre in Malaysia, particularly in the field of moral education, is still limited. At the same time, the development of thinking skills is one of the aims of the Malaysian moral education curriculum. Therefore, this study examined the use of forum theatre as a pedagogical tool in developing various levels of thinking skills among moral education students. Method: The study adopted a qualitative research design and was underpinned by Bloom's revised taxonomy as the theoretical and analytical framework. A total of 14 moral education students participated in this study. Data were collected qualitatively using classroom observations, interviews, and journal writing. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyse and present the findings. Findings: The findings revealed that various theatrical activities that underpinned the four elements of forum theatre: (i) writing a script, (ii) delivering a dialogue in an anti-model play, (iii) discussion and decision-making in a forum session, and (iv) improvisation in an intervention play, show the development of students' thinking skills at the level of analysing, evaluating and creating. Therefore, this study suggests that forum theatre can be used in moral education pedagogy to enhance higher order thinking skills. Significance: Meaningful instructional pedagogy must inspire thinking skills to foster creativity and innovation among students. This is considered an important skill in 21st century learning. Hence, these findings are beneficial for teachers, lecturers, parents and instructional designers who wish to plan and implement suitable teaching methods such as forum theatre to empower and improve students' thinking skill levels.

The aim of this study is to discuss the development of education during the British Colonial rule in Malaya. The scope of this study is focussed on four school systems under British colonialists, namely the Malay Vernacular School, Chinese Vernacular School, Tamil Vernacular School, and English Schools and its implications to the society and nation. The introduction of these four school systems is aimed at the economic and political interests of the British in Malaya. The Colonial Education System does not have a National Education Policy and brings many implications to the society and nation. It has caused class and status disparities among the societies and also caused socio-economic differences between races in Malaya. The process of socialization is not achieved among all races in Malaya under the Colonial Education. This study is qualitative and is approached through the library and archival research.

Second language learning motivation is often analyzed as a multidimensional construct involving learner's images of their individual selves and complex statistical measures. While many of these analysis have deepened understanding of various cognitive and affective factors influencing language learner behavior, research investigating the different motivation factors that combine learner types remains scarce. Involving 78 Malaysian undergraduates from a University in East Malaysia taking a proficiency course, the study looked at learner motivation in relation to L2 motivational dimensions, classroom factors and learning goals. An exploratory cluster analysis identified 4 group motivational profiles: 1-motivated, 2-amotivated, 3- externally motivated and 4-self-determined. Initial data analysis found both learner images (the ideal L2 learner) and instrumental (Ought to L2 learner) as main factors influencing motivated learning behavior. The combined findings for learner confidence in the classroom and vitality of L2 speaker communities revealed that except for the extrinsically motivated communities (e.g. International Finance students), most students indicated learning as more meaningful if attention was given to their first language resources. Classroom activities that integrate first language resources have a positive influence on learner's effort and willingness to invest while a strict L2-only perspective have a negative effect on learner motivation. Given the role of English for the digital world, L2 universities may benefit from including learners' first language resources and experience for engaging and helping learners to perform academically.

Writing has always been subjected as a difficult task for students taking English language subjects during their first two semesters studying in tertiary education. For these students, writing a composition has been a task they would prefer to avoid doing. One of many reasons is the inability to first generate and organize their ideas for writing tasks. Besides, they faced difficulty in expressing themselves fluently or being able to write sentences that are grammatically correct in the target language. Realizing the importance of writing skills among undergraduates in the tertiary education, a study was carried out on 200 undergraduates who attended a day Malaysian University English Test (MUET) workshop to examine students' writing ability through a proposed model of Transferring, Restructuring, Engaging, Negotiating and Documenting (T.R.E.N.D.). The findings had shown significant improvement in learners' writing in term of coherency and the development of ideas after the workshop. As a whole, the use of T.R.E.N.D. Model had helped to improve students' writing ability in terms of not only language proficiency, but also their level of confidence.

Little continues to be known about what actually happens in classrooms, particularly from a national perspective. Descriptions of classroom practices from a national vantage point can provide a bird's eye view of salient patterns and variations within an education system, especially one as centralised as that of Malaysia. With these descriptions, especially if the primary data consists of video recordings, one can also begin to compare movements in classroom practices across time and space; theorise about the nature of practice within the system as well as inform policy deliberations. This paper examines key methodological decisions of conducting a national study to research classroom educational practice within Malaysia's public school system. The case is made for the use of such studies to gain a bird's eye perspective of classroom practices in a national system as well as to lay the foundations for inter-system comparisons. Potential implications and opportunities of these types of studies are also discussed.

This study's primary objective is to determine the value relevance of operating performance, represented by earnings per share (EPS), cash flow from operations (CSH) and book value of equity (BVE) during the GST and SST indirect tax periods. The Ohlson (1995) model was used to determine the market value-relevance. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to examine the hypotheses constructed based on 249 non-financial listed firms from the manufacturing and service sectors on the Malaysian Market from 2015 to 2019. Based on the combined 1,245 firm observations of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Sales and Services Tax (SST) periods, the outcome reveals the existence of significantly positive relationships between EPS, CSH and BVE and share price (SHP). The findings suggest that EPS, CSH and BVE were the accounting information adopted by investors to decide on any investments during the indirect tax periods. In addition, by regressing separately GST and SST indirect tax period by utilising 498 firm-year observations, we find only EPS and CSH are positive and significant to SHP. This study has implications for academics, industrialists, regulators and investors, that EPS and CSH validated value relevance of operating performance during the GST and SST indirect tax periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Haemophilia A (HA) is an inherited X-chromosome recessive disorder characterized by the deficiency of factor VIII (FVIII). About 25-30% of HA patients which received FVIII concentrate developed inhibitors towards FVIII. Ethnicity has been associated as a predisposing factor for the formation of FVIII inhibitors. This study characterizes the polymorphism of +49A/G and -318C/T of Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes Antigen 4 (CTLA-4) which relates to the development of inhibitors among Malaysian HA patients of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicity. Cytokines level of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) were also measured to assess the link to inhibitors development. Method: Severe HA patients with and without inhibitor who were being treated at the National Blood Centre, Kuala Lumpur were recruited and consented where their collected blood was genotyped for both polymorphisms using the Polymerase Chain Reaction Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and their cytokines levels were measured using the Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: Analysis of the total 64 respondents who fulfilled the study criteria found polymorphisms of CTLA-4 +49A/G and CTLA-4 -318C/T were not significantly different among patients with and without inhibitors. However, HA patients without inhibitors revealed that the Chinese population exhibited a higher +49G allele which is protective towards inhibitors development. Indian patients expressed a higher level of inhibitors titre. Patients without inhibitors showed statistical differences between ethnicity for both genotypes and allele frequencies of CTLA-4 +49A/G (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The mixed pattern of polymorphisms and cytokine profiles were observed in multi-ethnicity. This finding requires further verification with a larger sample size involving multicenter for further confirmation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this piece, the author invokes Beck's (1997) conception of "zombie categories" to discuss how the virus of neoliberalism has infected ideas and key actors within a highly stratified teaching community in Malaysia. Drawing from the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the author employs a zombie metaphor as a heuristic to trace the stages of a neoliberal apocalypse. The author first considers how neoliberal ideologies have mutated into a new strain of virus that have infiltrated the teaching landscape by comparing teachers employed by the Ministry of Education against teachers who have been recruited by Teach For Malaysia in the public schooling system. The author then explores how sources of zombification have contaminated actors using governmentality (Foucault, 1991) through intensification, corporatization, marketization, metricization, and performativity. This is followed by an attempt to construct a survival response to the apocalypse by suggesting how specific neoliberal competencies are coveted and the implications behind it. Finally, the author outlines how the forces of neoliberalism engender a crisis in education that mirrors a zombie culture of breeding a contagion that could widen existing educational inequalities and inequities. The author concludes by offering a tentative containment plan that considers existing alongside this neoliberal virus that refuses to die. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Broken glass exhibits unique fracture patterns depend upon the nature of the impact. The fracture patterns provide information like point and angle of impact, direction of force and sequence of firing. Recent studies have shown that the use of shotgun in Malaysia is increasing, yet, the relationship existing among the fracture pattern and the projectile impact factors are not well documented. The objective was to analyse the fracture characteristics on different glass types of variable thickness and distance made by shotgun ammunition. Methods: Soda lime and tempered glass panel with dimension of 12'x 12' with 3 or 4 mm thickness were shot from various distances of 4, 6 and 8 m from the muzzle end of the shotgun. Samples were analysed under fixed parameters and observations were recorded. Results: It is found that the bullet hole diameter of 4 mm tempered glass were larger compared to 4 mm soda lime glass ranged from 14.33 to 24.17 cm as distance increased. Tempered glass surface also exhibited dicing fragments unlike soda lime glass where only radial fracture patterns are evident. This can be attributed to high inherent strength and ductility that makes the tempered glass remarkably resistant to external force. Conclusion: The findings from this study can lead to distinguish the type of glass through examination of fracture patterns, whether it is soda lime silica or tempered glass. The type of glass and the source of impact can be determined using the fragments, no reconstruction necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indie books are produced by writers who believe in "absolute freedom in writing". In Malaysia, the Indie books, which uses non-standard language, contains inverse thoughts and often breaks out from the Sunnah wal Jamaah teachings, condemned and perceived as a work against the mainstream. However, the Indie Book has received a warm welcome from the younger generation. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the students' understanding of the moral content contained in the Indie Book, to explain the students' reaction to the moral content in Indie Books and to explore main elements behind the writing of this book. This study uses a qualitative approach using document analysis techniques and interviews to collect data. The results of this study show support positive features such as da'wah and motivational elements. In addition, the negative features found in the Indie Books are very disturbing because they contain obscene, violent and ideological elements that deviate from the state's rule. However, the students were found to be interested in Indie Books because it's contain key elements of attraction. This key element is freedom, realistic and relaxed as well as key feature of Postmodernism and Existentialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in social media has transformed consumer-brand trust relationship into consumer-consumer trust engagement where consumers make similar brand choices influenced by the opinion of other consumers. Consumers establish online networks and conversations embedded in trust, on similar tastes, viewpoints, preferences and other types of brand affinity behaviours. These online consumer conversations across multiple social media platforms contributes to voluminous electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). An average of 70% of consumers look out for other consumers’ opinions on a brand to learn more about the products or services of interest and out of this consumer generated contents, a whopping 50% are consumer grouses or complaints. This study identifies emerging key mobile service consumption elements highlighted by consumers in discussion thread revolving a viral, negative eWOM through qualitative method of netnography. The study findings include eWOM contains multiple and relevant consumer behavioural contextual elements that may be leveraged upon to understand how negative eWOM influences mobile consumer switching intentions in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is one of the cytokines that has been well studied and implicated in many diseases including cancers. The frequency of the IL-6 -174 (G/C) polymorphism had been proven to differ in various populations. Malaysia is a country with three major ethnic populations, Malays, Chinese and Indians. In this study, we proposed to determine the G or C allele frequency of the IL-6 -174 polymorphism in these three populations. A total of 348 blood samples were available for analysis. The median age for the subjects was 31 years. There were a total of 245 males and 103 females. A total of 86 Malays (25.0%), 122 Chinese (33.0%) and 140 Indians (40.0%) were genotyped. The result showed a significant difference in the G or C allele frequency of the -174 polymorphism. The total frequencies for the G and C alleles were 91.0 and 9.0%, respectively. In the Malays, the allele frequency of the C allele was 4.0% compared with 19.0% in the Indians. The C allele was not detected in the Chinese population. This finding is the first reported on the Malaysian population and may be important in determining risk of diseases associated with the IL-6 polymorphism in these three populations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional disorder, one of the common human emotional states is defined as feelings of sadness and tiredness in response to life events, such as disappointments. It is one of the major problems among students and although it consists of more than half of all mental disorders, it is often left untreated each year worldwide. To determine the prevalence of emotional disorders among medical students at a university in Malaysia. A cross sectional study design was used. All medical students at a local university in Malaysia were included in the study. A questionnaire similar to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) was used as a screening instrument. A total of 41.9% of the medical students were found to have emotional disorders. Factors found to have a significant association with emotional disorders were relationship of the respondents with their parents (χ2 = 6.02, d.f. = 1, p < 0.05), siblings (χ2 = 6.94, d.f. = 1, p < 0.05) and lecturers (χ2 = 4.80, d.f. = 1, p < 0.05), as well as pressure prior to exams (χ2 = 10.30, d.f. = 1, p < 0.05). The prevalence of emotional disorders among medical students was high. There was significant association between emotional disorders and respondents’ relationship with their parents, siblings and lecturers, as well as level of pressure prior to exam. Early detection of this condition is important to prevent psychological morbidity and its unwanted effects on medical students and young doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Information regarding the knowledge on the action to be taken during stroke and good recognition of stroke symptoms is mandatory in helping to plan out educational strategies to deliver health education to the community. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of adults aged 18 and above attending a blood pressure screening program in community in conjunction with May Measurement Month 2017 in Malaysia. A structured self-administered questionnaire was given to the participants who gave verbal consent. Data analysis was done using SPSS v. 23 and multiple logistic regression was used to identify the determinants of knowledge on actions to be taken during stroke and recognition of stroke symptoms. Results: Out of 4096 respondents, 82.9–92.1% of them able to recognise the common stroke symptoms. and 74.2% of the study respondents will go to hospital within 4.5 h of stroke onset. According to binomial logistic regression analyses, adults aged 45 years old and above (OR 1.39 95%CI 1.01–1.92), being Malay (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.27–2.40), being non-smokers (OR = 2.491, 95% CI: 1.64–3.78), hypertensives (OR: 1.57, 95% CI: 1.02–2.42)and diabetics (OR: 2.54, 95% CI:1.38–4.69) are determinants of right actions to be taken during stroke. Meanwhile, respondents aged 45 years old and older (OR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.39–2.03), being Malay (OR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.24–1.79), hypertensive (OR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.04–1.66) and those who had a previous history of stroke (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.01–5.00) are determinants of good recognition of stroke symptoms. Conclusions: The overall knowledge of stroke in our study population was good. Older age, being Malay, non-smokers, hypertensives and diabetics are determinants of right actions to be taken during stroke. Meanwhile, older age, being Malay, hypertensive and those who had a previous history of stroke are determinants of good recognition of stroke symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]