Academic Publication (SHBIE)

The study investigated the degree to which selected sociodemographic variables and social values were related to work-attendance problems in a random sample of 860 Brunei public- and private-sector employees and the nature of this relationship.

This study is an on-going research that aims to explore pre-service and in-service teachers’ conception of ‘a teacher’ at the beginning of their initial teacher training program. This particular study administered an open ended questionnaire that consists of 4 questions to 13 pre-service science teachers and 7 in-service science teachers during the first session of the initial teacher training programme. The open-ended questionnaire explores the teachers’ conception of what makes a teacher, a good teacher, an excellent teacher and a 21st century teacher. A thematic analysis was conducted by two researchers in order to ensure trustworthiness of the emerging themes that emerged found from the data. One of the potential contributions from the findings of this research is the discourse of how pre-service and inservice science teachers’ construct their conceptions on the different dimensions of a teacher i.e. from good to a 21st century teacher.

This paper aims to extend the workplace learning literature by conceptualising the relationship between college-based and workplace learning, through critically examining how trainee teachers learn when they enter an initial teacher training programme.

This action research examined the effectiveness of the Zollman’s Four Corners and a Diamond graphic organizer as a strategy to improve Year 10 students’ performance in mathematics word problems. Quantitative data from twenty-four students from a secondary school in Brunei Darussalam was collected through the use of a pre-test and post-test. Results from the pre-test and post-test were analyzed and it was found that there was a significant difference in students’ performance before and after introducing the Zollman’s Four Corners and a Diamond graphic organizer. A paired sample t-test on the pre-test and post-test showed a significant improvement in students’ mean marks, t(23) = -3.415, p = .002. Additionally, it was found that the Zollman’s Four Corners and a Diamond graphic organizer is capable of helping students of all abilities and particularly the lower ability students. Hence for this study, the Zollman’s Four Corners and a Diamond graphic organizer successfully enhanced the Year 10 students’ performance in solving mathematics word problems.

As part of promoting and improving pattern discovery skills among school children, a Sudoku puzzle can be used as example of a problem solving task. A simplified version of the puzzle will be used first to explain the aim and reinforce the rules of solving the puzzle. Three strategies—Strategy of ‘Obvious Missing Number’, Strategy of ‘Elimination’, and Strategy of ‘Either This or That’—will then be introduced and applied in solving a simplified Sudoku puzzle that is appropriate for children in grades 4 to 6.