Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education (SHBIE)

The survey assessed the learning styles and study strategies used by 135 randomly selected Brunei secondary school students and compared them by educational level, math ability, and gender. Junior students (Forms 1-3) rely heavily on the use of the written-expressive learning style than their senior counterparts (Forms 4-5). In addition, the more able math students dominantly use the auditory-language learning style than their less able peers. Furthermore, high math achievers were better and more efficient users of the text book reading, note-taking, and memory study strategies than low achievers. Moreover, female students were more effective and superior users of the visual-language and auditory-visual-kinesthetic learning styles including the text book reading, note-taking, memory, test preparation, and concentration study strategies. These are perhaps some of the reasons why females perform better at math than males. Overall, the findings seem to have wide-ranging implications for teaching students with high support needs in mathematics.

Education is important for every Muslim society as the Prophet made it incumbent on all Muslims. However, the issue of what category of knowledge is permitted for Muslims, the method for imparting this knowledge, and what to impart (content) are arguably the main challenges in Islamic education. Many Muslim scholars have looked at the concept of knowledge from various perspectives. In his monumental work, Ta‘līm Al-Muta‘allim, the classical Muslim scholar, Al-Zarnūjī, expounds the basic principles of education in Islam, which, indeed, have been used as the teaching methodology by many scholars throughout the Muslim world. Using content analysis, this article evaluates the concept of knowledge and its imperatives in Islam from the perspective of Al-Zarnūjī. It was found that Al-Zarnūjī classified knowledge into two main categories. One is perceived as the core of society’s survival and is thus seen as binding on the entire society. This is known as fard.u kifāyah. The other is individually required and is called fard.u ‘ayn. He argues that both should be guided by the Islamic religious values. Therefore, Al-Zarnūjī considers knowledge as a means for advancement and the perfection of the individual and the society both in this world and the hereafter. This makes his concept of knowledge inseparable from the Islamic ethical values. Al Zarnuji’s contribution to knowledge lies in the packaging and dissemination of the Islamic academic heritage, particularly, the methodology for teaching and learning which is relevant to all the levels of the education ladder.

There is lack of student engagement noticeably among secondary schools. Willms, Friesen, & Milton (2009), studied that disengagement typically becomes a concern in middle school and high school. The study involved student engagement in the classroom, with three specific interests firstly, to look at the perception of teachers on student engagement, where teachers conceptualized student engagement as only behavioral dimension and both agreed that cultural context is a factor in student learning. Secondly, to look at the degree students exhibiting engaging behaviors and thirdly, to explore the factors that affect student engagement. From the analysis, students did exhibit engagement as they were engaged to do the activity (behavioral engagement) and excited to do a group work (affective engagement). Positive body language, consistence focus, verbal participation, student confidence, fun and excitement play deterministic roles in conceptualizing students’ level of engagement. Hopefully, the study will generate outcome that are beneficial to teachers to be aware on the importance of engaging students in learning especially in Social Studies.

Educational attainment plays an important role in determining an individual’s future social and economic well-being. By pursuing higher education, students are able to pursue occupational opportunities that result in outcomes such as higher income, high-status job prospects and better life-style. Educational aspiration has been linked to occupational aspiration and is considered a valuable predictor of academic attainment and the first step in the process of career choice. Students’ educational and occupational aspirations are influenced and shaped by personal, family and community factors such as family involvement, gender, socio-economic status, parental level of education, school environment and peers. The varieties of influences on educational and occupational aspirations are acknowledged in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Hence, this systems theory was used as the theoretical framework for the study because it contributes to the understanding of the sociocultural environment that affects the development of an individual and highlights the importance of interaction between an individual and the environment progressively over time. Most research to date on students’ aspirations is derived from the Western context. Little is known about Bruneian students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the educational and occupational aspirations of the Year 11 (those re-sitting their Brunei-Cambridge GCE O-Level) and Lower Six (those who passed their Brunei Cambridge GCE O-Level) students in Brunei Darussalam. To achieve the research aim, a mixed methods research design involving three studies was employed. In Study One, 10 school counsellors were involved in designing the Educational and Occupational Aspirations Survey Questionnaire (EOASQ). Study Two was a quantitative study where the EOASQ was administered to 815 students to examine their perceptions of influences on their educational and occupational aspirations. Study Three, a qualitative study, investigated the influences on students’ educational and occupational aspirations through focus-group interviews with 10 groups of students, and individual interviews with 10 school counsellors and nine parents. This study revealed that students had high educational and occupational aspirations. Most students wished to achieve Bachelor degrees, Higher National Diplomas and National Diplomas. The students aspired more to the occupational categories of ‘Professional’ and ‘Technical and i associate professional’. An interesting finding of this research was that male and female students aspire to similar occupations. Some female students were likely to venture into occupations traditionally held by males (e.g., Science and engineering’ professionals), while some male students aspired to the ‘College, university and higher education/religious teaching’ and ‘Legal, social and cultural’ professionals. This study also found little difference between the students’ occupational aspiration and occupational expectation. Parental total monthly income was not an important predictor of students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Academic involvement and support from parents, as well as support and encouragement from teachers, school counsellors, and friends influenced students’ aspirations. Though students viewed school counsellors as helpful and accessible, many still lack of information regarding educational and occupational options and consequently have limited understanding and awareness about the subjects and courses relevant to their occupational aspirations. The findings of this study provide new information for stakeholders such as policy makers, parents, teachers, school counsellors and the community about assisting students to shape their educational and occupational plans to achieve their aspirations. Effective programmes and initiatives need to be in place that includes collaboration between teachers and school counsellors, school and parents, school and the community, as well as the school and the government agencies and private sectors in an effort to raise awareness, shape and enhance students’ educational and occupational aspirations. Consequently, these efforts could help to enhance the country’s economy and competitiveness, and meet the aspiration of the Brunei Vision 2035 that Brunei Darussalam will be known for its well-educated and highly skilled people, its quality of life, and sustainable and dynamic economy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reflection on students’ performance and assessment in civil engineering. In this study, the students in the final semester of a civil engineering programme were divided into two groups: the first group was tasked with writing a reflective paper, and the second group, a control group, was not required to write a reflective paper. Both groups were then assessed through a test based on the content of a lecture. The data were analysed in two parts. The first part comprised examination of the content of the reflective paper and its impact on students’ performance. In the second part, the performance of both groups of students was compared. A research hypothesis was specified and tested. The hypothesis was tested through two independent samples t-test to determine whether there was a significant difference in the mean result between these two groups of students. The study revealed that the use of reflection in civil engineering education potentially could improve students’ performance.

This experimental case-study examined the performance of convenient sampling of fourty-five Year 9 students in solving word problems involving percentage from two classes in one government secondary school in Brunei Darussalam, using Bar Model as a solving strategy. Data was gathered quantitatively through written tests in the form of six word problem items as pre-test and post-test. The mean score of the pre-test was 0.93 indicating that the performance of the participating Year 9 students in solving word problems involving percentage was low prior to intervention. Intervention lessons produced a gain in the post-test mean to 2.87. Although the mean of post-test marks is still lower than the passing mark of the test, paired-sample t-test provided evidence of significance, thus proving that Bar Model Method had positive effect to the performance of word problem involving percentage. Evidence also indicated an increase in the students’ overall marks from pre-test to post-test, with almost all except two students failed the pre-test to twenty-six students achieving marks above passing mark of 3 in post-test. Item-by-item analysis showed increase in correct responses in every item in post-test, even those with no attempts in pre-test. These provided further evidence that there is overall improvement in students’ performance in word problems related to percentage after the use of Bar Model as intervention.

The cross-sectional field survey examined the roles of mathematics anxiety, self-esteem, proactive coping, and test stress in mathematics achievement among 204 (151 females) randomly selected Year 8-10 Brunei secondary school students. The negative dimensions of mathematics anxiety, self-esteem, and proactive coping correlated negatively with mathematics achievement and were both poor predictors of and barriers to mathematics achievement. Both test stress components (intrusive and avoidance) also related negatively with mathematics grades and were poor predictors of mathematics achievement. In addition, females scored significantly higher on negative self-esteem and intrusive stress variables than males. Furthermore, mathematically less able students scored significantly higher on the negative mathematics anxiety and negative self-esteem domains than more able peers. Moreover, positive proactive coping was a good predictor of mathematics achievement. Overall, the findings have practical significance indicating psychological areas where attention, counselling efforts and educational interventions need to be directed to help the at-risk and vulnerable students.

We report on the findings from three social psychology survey instruments administered to78 randomly selected Brunei student teachers of both genders. Males scored significantly higher than females on the masculinity-femininity dimension of the personal attributes inventory. In addition, mean scores for males were also significantly higher than those of their female counterparts on the equal distribution of labor and equal social roles domains of the attitudes towards women scale. However, there were no significant differences among the participants by teacher training programs and race or ethnicity. These results suggest that men have no prejudices over women. The participants might be able to live and work together peacefully. This is important for promoting social harmony and stability in the Brunei teaching profession where more females than males are increasingly assuming positions of higher responsibility previously held by males. Further mixed-methods research was recommended to gain additional insights.

A teachers’ practice cannot be characterised by a single lesson, hence comparison is best made with lesson sequences that better sample the diversity of a teacher’s practice. In this study, we video recorded lesson sequences in four Year 8 mathematics classrooms, as well as interviewed each of the four teachers in Brunei Darussalam. Because of our methodology and based on the findings from the richness in the data that was collected, there were some features in the video and interview data that emerged. One of the features is the significant short utterances made by the students as well as their respective teachers, and the extent of the teachers’ own and their students’ questioning behaviours in the lessons as perceived by the teachers themselves during the video-stimulated recall interviews. In the four Brunei classrooms that we studied, most of the lessons were so rushed, the teachers did most of the talking and when teachers and students do interact, it almost always involved faster-paced exchanges between them. Thus, restricting students to single words (“yes” or “no”) or short choral responses. Overall, the findings appear to indicate that short utterances implied that there were less (or even no) opportunities for fuller student participation in classroom discussions.

Brunei started implementing its two main reformed teacher education programs, MTeach and MEd, in 2009. The reasons for these innovations included upgrading the standard of teacher training, increasing teaching effectiveness, and improving the quality of education in the country. The purpose of this study was to determine how student teachers coped with and sought help on the challenging programs.

We explored the extent to which prisoner sociodemographic variables (age, education, marital status, employment, and whether their parents were married or not) influenced offending in 64 randomly selected Brunei inmates, comprising both sexes. A quantitative field survey design ideal for the type of participants used in a prison context was employed to investigate the problem. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with backward elimination identified prisoner marital status and age groups as significantly related to offending. Furthermore, hierarchical multinomial logistic regression analysis with backward elimination indicated that prisoners’ age, primary level education, marital status, employment status, and parental marital status as significantly related to stealing offenses with high odds ratios. All 29 nonrecidivists were false negatives and predicted to reoffend upon release. Similarly, all 33 recidivists were projected to reoffend after release. Hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis revealed age groups (24–29 years and 30–35 years), employed prisoner, and primary level education as variables with high likelihood trends for reoffending. The results suggested that prisoner interventions (educational, counseling, and psychotherapy) in Brunei should treat not only antisocial personality, psychopathy, and men tal health problems but also sociodemographic factors. The study generated offending patterns, trends, and norms that may inform subsequent investigations on Brunei prisoners.

This article aims to design and develop a Problem Based Learning (PBL) Mobile Application for teaching and learning in Islamic Education at the Polytechnic Brunei Darussalam. The development methodology-based application that divides the ADDIE model of instructional development activities into five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Each phase is explained in detail to bring out what action is taken on each phase. ADDIE model has listed guidelines that should be implemented detailed and systematically which involves analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The priority aspects such as the content, learning theory and learning strategies are taken into account in analysing and designing. The researchers applied the behaviorism and constructivist theory as the learning theory. While PBL strategies are embedded in the application throughout the designing and development phase. Development process of an effective mobile application is not easy or takes shorter time but, it requires detailed and systematic planning. A model conceptual framework is constructed to help researchers to make the action more regular. At the end of the study, the authors present each element of the conceptual framework for the design and development a mobile application in teaching and learning in Islamic Education.

This study explores how Technical and Vocational Teachers’ intentions to incorporate technology in teaching and learning are influenced by their beliefs. It is theorised that teachers’ beliefs about using technology in their instructions are influenced by teachers’ perceptions of technology usefulness, ease of use, and self-efficacy. In the current study, a series of workshops for technology-enriched instructions were mounted for the professional development of technical and vocational teachers. In these workshops, teachers planned, designed and developed 21st century learning activities. Data was collected using a questionnaire, which was distributed to the TVET teacher participants after the completion of the professional development workshops for technology-enriched instruction. The data was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling which were used to analyze the proposed modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) model. The modified TAM model proposed that TVET teachers’ intention to use technology, and their beliefs about self-efficacy are directly influenced by their beliefs about perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of technology, and that the variable, self-efficacy is a mediator variable to intention. It was shown that the proposed modified TAM model is a good fit model to explain the variance in 52% of teachers’ beliefs about the self-efficacy, and 40% variance of intention. The positive outcome of the technology enriched instruction professional development program is that it provided a common language and skills that overcame some of the TVET teachers’ concerns with regards to technology integration in their lessons. This study contributes towards an understanding of the factors that influence TVET teachers’ intentions to use technology in teaching and learning through a professional development programme for technology enriched instruction.

This study was carried out in an attempt to investigate the impact of embedding video technology into classroom lessons designed using technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework in improving students’ conceptual understanding, focused on the concept of breath ing. This study hypothesized that embedding video technology into classroom teaching would assist students in visualizing the dynamic biological processes, while improving students’ concep tual understanding of the biology concept of breathing. This study sought to answer two research questions: (1) What are the students’ misconceptions on breathing? (2) Does the integration of technology in lesson improve students’ understanding of the concept? In this study, participants underwent four cycles of interventions, reflecting on the four knowledge dimensions of the TPACK framework (declarative, procedural, schematic and strategic). Mixed research method was employed in this study. Drawing–writing technique, pre- and post-tests and students’ interviews were used to collect data. The quantitative data derived from the students’ pre and post-tests scores were analysed using SPSS paired sample t-test, while the qualitative data obtained from the drawing–writing technique and students’ interviews were thematically analysed based on the content. Results of this study indicated that there was a significantly greater improvement in students’ conceptual understanding of the biology concept of breathing after the interventions, thus demonstrating the positive impact of embedding video technology into classroom lessons planned using TPACK framework.

Informed by an ethnographic qualitative research study conducted with expatriate teachers of English in Saudi Arabia, we examine emotion(al) labor in the context of transnational mobilities with regards to cultural and institutional tensions. Engaged with wide-ranging interdisciplinary literature on emotion and affect, we discuss the place of transnational emotion(al) labor in four inter-related manifestations: (a) struggles and efforts to interact and communicate with students; (b) internalization and resentment of privilege and deficiency underlying discourses of native speakers; (c) responses to challenges from social, religious, and cultural difference; and (d) prolonged endurance, frustration, helplessness, and resistance to prescribed curriculum, testing, and top-down policy and practice. We also incorporate our reflections and emotion(al) labor as transnationally trained academics as we engage with the participants’ accounts. We show how our study could inspire dialogues with the self and conversations among researchers for support and solidarity beyond constructed boundaries of race, language, religion, ethnicity, and nationality.

This action research study measured the effectiveness of the Balance Method as an intervention in teaching and learning of manipulation of the algebraic equation. The lesson intervention involved twenty-five students from two Year 9 classes in one all-girls secondary school in Brunei. Data collection involved pre-test and post-test attempted by all students, followed by the interview of three selected students. Three lessons designed explicitly as the intervention in the learning of manipulation of algebraic equation, which transition from the use of manipulatives to written work, making use of Balance Method concept. Any improvement or beneficial outcome of the previous lesson was used to adapt the following experience as part of the Design Research process. A paired sample t-test revealed that there was a significant improvement in students’ performance on the topic after the intervention lesson using Balance Method. More answers that are correct were obtained when students used the Balance Method, compared to their previous failed attempts or incorrect attempts when using another method. Whereas interview revealed that whether students prefer Balance Method or others, they correctly attempted manipulation of the algebraic equation through Balance Method, particularly with equations that involved the combination of operations. It provides evidence that Balance Method should be introduced and taught as the correct concept of manipulating algebraic equation at students’ first encounter of the topic.

theory of planned behaviour (TPB) relate to teachers’ intentions and use of technology in teaching. Design/methodology/approach– The current study attempted to provide an understanding of teachers’ beliefs and intentions to use technology in teaching, and their influence on behaviours by applying and elaborating Ajzen’s TPB, a widely applied model for investigating social behaviour. Findings– The elaborated TPB model was found to be a marginally fitting model in predicting and explaining intention and behaviour. The model explained only 17 per cent of variance in intention and 13 per cent in use of technology. Teacher’s use of technology in teaching was predicted by intention and perceived behavioural control (PBC); and intention was predicted by attitude towards the technology and PBC. Subjective norms made weak prediction on intention. The TPB model of direct factors explained 25 per cent of variance in intention and 16 per cent in use of technology. Originality/value– This study takes a theoretical modelling approach, based on a survey assessing psychological variables (such as teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions) to explain teachers’ technology use in the classroom. The theoretical approach of this study is new within studies of computer technology use, which have normally been limited to reporting user demographic characteristics and/or factors influencing its use among users. This study attempted to develop measurement models that might be replicated by other researchers interested in the influencing factors for teachers’ technology use in education.

The interaction among the society at large has been shifted from direct interaction to virtual one across borderless space. However, it seems to have led to emerge the challenging issues such as cyber bullying, uncertain information and etc. An exposure on moral engagement such as trust, care, friendship, and commitment needs to pay a serious attention to provide a foundational framework in driving the user interaction in the digital era. This paper aims to explore the moral engagement in underlying virtual interaction by providing an innovative way to help the human society in a good life. This study attempts to investigate the moral engagement which can underlie the interaction from live to virtual basis. To achieve this, literature review from peer reviewed journals, conferences and books was conducted to propose the framework model of strengthening moral engagement in the digital era. By using keywords on moral values and live and virtual interaction, multiple research findings can be achieved from met-synthesis with integrating, evaluating and interpreting process. As a result, phenomenological and grounded theories and ideas extracted to identify their common features, elements, and functionalities can be integrated and used to propose a framework model. The findings reveal that to exposure the moral engagement with professional and ethical basis associated with the instructional strategy and application in virtual interaction, reference model demonstrates how the human with all the potency they behave can become a significant contribution to the society at large to enhance the abilities to improve their capacities to operate the technological tools wisely and appropriately. Considering the way to go further with more challenging issues in the virtual interaction like cyberbullying, uncertain information and etc., exploring moral engagement should be regarded to provide the framework of interactional basis with human communities such as trust, care, friendship, and commitment.

In Brunei Darussalam, since 1985 Jawi education forms one of the components of Malay language education, whether at the primary or secondary school level. This research intends to identify some of the major variables that influence Jawi education process, identify gaps in researches undertaken till now, and explore the implications of current practices and research in Jawi education. The research methodology employed here is based on Creswell review approach. Research findings show that 13 empirical research works related to Jawi- Malay language education in Brunei have been done during the period from 1999 until now. This review indicates that the research on Jawi-Malay language education pertains largely to issues of Jawi spelling ability among students and teachers, students’ and teachers’ perceptions of Jawi as a subject and teachers’ views of the Jawi subject curriculum.

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti sama ada penggunaan bahan visual dalam pengajaran penulisaan karangan dapat meningkatkan pencapaian pelajar. Kajian kuasi eksperimen ini dijalankan dengan menggunakan 46 orang pelajar di sebuah sekolah menengah di Daerah Kuala Belait, Negara Brunei Darussalam. Mereka dibahagikan kepada dua kumpulan, iaitu kumpulan eskperimen yang diajar secara terancang, dan kumpulan kawalan yang diajar dengan menggunakan pendekatan konvensional. Dapatan kajian telah dianalisis dengan menggunakan ujian-t. Daripada analisis yang telah dijalankan, hasil kajian menunjukan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan terhadap skor min pencapaian keseluruhan penulisan karangan antara pelajar kumpulan eksperimen dan pelajar kumpulan kawalan dalam ujian pasca. Min skor bagi pelajar kumpulan pasca eksperimen adalah lebih tinggi berbanding min skor kumpulan kawalan dalam ujian pasca.