Melissa Ng Lee Yen Abdullah

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Associate Professor at University of Science Malaysia

Online learning is on the rise, and it is becoming an important mode of learning in higher education. However, there are limited models that explain the link between learners’ characteristics, learning processes, and outcomes in an online learning environment. This study aims to examine the influence of online self-regulation on the experiences and...

Postgraduate students need to be equipped with self-determined learning skills in order to meet the demands of higher degree and employment in the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) environment. However, the lack of analysis conducted on item level for validating the measurement of postgraduate students’ self-determined learning skills prompted...

Due to the physical separation of lecturers and learners, many students have expressed dissatisfaction with their online learning experience. The growing prevalence of online education highlights the imperative to explore the factors influencing students' online experience. This study aims to explore the relationships between undergraduate students...

Purpose: Vocational education and training is important to produce skilled and innovative labor to drive the country's development in the 4th industrial revolution (IR 4.0). The employability of vocational college students is crucial to meet the country's demand for 21st-century workers. This study aims to identify the influences of innovative char...

Diverse learners bring a broad range of experiences and perspectives into the classroom and offer a powerful resource for learning. However, they also pose major challenge to practitioners and researchers working in the field of education. Biases and inequitable social consequences may occur when assessing young children, students with disabilities...

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the mediating effect of heutagogical activities on the relationships between (1) social learning environment & self-determined learning and (2) students’ psychological needs & self-determined learning. The proposed model hypothesised that self-determined learning is dependent on the social learning envi...

The implementation of 21st century education is a key factor for successful education reform. Due to a lack of empirical research, practices to develop students’ 21st century skills at the primary school level are still unclear. The purpose of this study was to identify teachers’ contemporary practices and the influences of environmental factors as...

Postgraduate students have to play active roles in self-determined learning, as major agent in their own learning and research activities. There is a lack of validated research instruments to measure self-determined learning among postgraduate students. The Postgraduate Self-Determined Learning Questionnaire (PSLQ) was specifically developed to fil...

Purpose - The study explored the barriers and enablers faced by language teachers in teaching 21 st century skills at Chinese vernacular schools. It aimed to determine the effects of teachers' attitudes, barriers, and enablers in teaching the skills during language lessons. Method - A mixed-method design was used to achieve the two objectives of...

Purpose – The study explored the barriers and enablers faced by language teachers in teaching 21st century skills at Chinese vernacular schools. It aimed to determine the effects of teachers’ attitudes, barriers, and enablers in teaching the skills during language lessons. Method – A mixed-method design was used to achieve the two objectives of th...

Academic self-efficacy is an essential element for effective and engaging learning. In order to improve academic self-efficacy, students need to engage in regular and effective self-reflection to form realistic beliefs about their own academic capabilities. However, students may not be motivated to sustain effective self-reflection. Suitable tools...

Academic self-efficacy is an essential element for effective and engaging learning. In order to improve academic self-efficacy, students need to engage in regular and effective self-reflection to form realistic beliefs about their own academic capabilities. However, students may not be motivated to sustain effective self-reflection. Suitable tools...

Heutagogy was first introduced by Steward Hase and Chris Kenyon in year 2000. It is a novel teaching and learning approach being implemented at Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs), as a transformation initiative to improve the quality of education and to produce graduates who could meet the demands of the 21 st century workforce. However...

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social and emotional learning approach on student social-emotional competence. A quasi-experimental pre-test post-test non-equivalent design conducted with 207 Junior Secondary School students enrolled in form 3. The students divided into two groups: an experimental and a control group. The expe...

The barriers that indigenous students face in pursuing higher education are substantial and far-reaching. This study seeks to understand the impact of institutional support on engagement of Orang Asli students and its effects on their learning outcomes and academic achievement. Quantitative data were collected from 160 Orang Asli students from thre...

Purpose – This quantitative study explored willingness to communicate (WTC) across two settings, ESL in Malaysia, and EFL in Indonesia and Thailand. Participants’ WTC levels were measured and communicative situations in which participants were almost always willing and almost never willing to communicate in English were identified. Method – Conven...

As a move towards educational transformation, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has established a policy on the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and its practices are being emphasized throughout Malaysian education system. However, due to a lack of meta-analysis, the types of pedagogical practices used by teachers in enhancing students...

This study provides an insight into using personalized weekly e-Learning Journals to improve self-regulated learning (SRL) of university students. Quasi-experimental method with time series data analysis was used. Pre and post-tests together with time series data over an intervention period on SRL were collected. 54 students in an undergraduate cou...

In the 21st century, the advancement of technology has moved teaching and learning into learner-centred design, shifting the focus to fostering student-centred learning as a way of empowering learners in all forms of education. This chapter looks at self-regulated learning (SRL) in higher education and reviews the various theories of SRL and the wa...

A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a web-based platform that allows students to learn at a personally defined place, time and pace. However, most students are lacking in the self-regulation skills and metacognitive abilities to take advantage of the flexibility and high learners’ control available in VLEs. The purpose of the study was to inves...

Past studies showed that indigenous students are underrepresented in higher education and they tend to have lower academic performance and are more at-risk of dropping out compared to non-indigenous students. Because of the scarcity of local studies, the specific challenges faced by indigenous students during postsecondary education in the Malaysia...

Purpose – This study aimed to examine the interaction effects of gender and motivational beliefs on students’ self-regulated learning. Specifically, three types of motivational beliefs under the Expectancy-Value Model were examined, namely self-efficacy, control beliefs and anxiety. Methodology – A quantitative correlational research design...

Tujuan – Kajian ini dijalankan bertujuan untuk mengkaji pengaruh faktor keluarga dari segi gaya asuhan ibu bapa, suasana pembelajaran keluarga dan penglibatan keluarga dalam pembentukan kemahiran pembelajaran regulasi kendiri. Metodologi – Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah tinjauan terhadap 639 orang murid Tahun 4 dan Tahun 5 dari 10 buah sekolah...

Multicultural early childhood education is necessary in a culturally diverse country like Malaysia. Preschool teachers play an important role in implementing multicultural education in the classroom. This paper reports the findings of a self-report questionnaire involving 854 preschool teachers in Malaysia. The preschool teachers disclosed their cu...

Multicultural education is important in multicultural societies. Multicultural education should be introduced in the early years as the preschool years are a critical time when young children develop the moral values and ethical standards of their society. Therefore, it is crucial for preschool teachers to be equipped with the appropriate knowledge...

Transition services are required by law for students with disabilities in many developed countries. In Malaysia, however, there is still no specific legislation mandating that school-to-work transition planning and services be provided to students with disabilities. This study investigated the state of the transition services provided by educationa...

The objective of the study was to profile and compare the perceived communication skills of persons with sensory impairment according to employment status. A total of 456 persons with sensory impairment (272 hearing impaired; 184 visual impaired) have participated in this study. The sample was made up of both employed and unemployed respondents. Re...

This study explored the research experiences of postgraduates and determines their relationships with the supervisors’ training backgrounds and the student's psychosocial attributes. A total of 134 higher degree research students from an Australian university were sampled. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) was administered online t...

Despite having education and vocational training, the unemployment rate of persons with disabilities in Malaysia is persistently high. This phenomenon suggests that there is a school-to-work transitional gap among persons with disabilities, whereby many of them have failed to move into employment after leaving schools. Due to a lack of policy on sc...

The literacy practices of many communities today show new ways of meaning making in the contemporary, technological and digital culture. A number of Malaysian adolescents belong to this culture. This pilot study reports the preliminary findings of a larger study aimed at describing the online activities of Malaysian adolescents. Fifty-four particip...

Kajian ini menghasilkan sebuah instrumen untuk mengukur pengetahuan tentang strategi pembelajaran aturan kendiri. Ia juga mengkaji hubungan antara pengetahuan tersebut dengan pembelajaran aturan kendiri. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 322 pelajar dari dua buah sekolah menengah. Pengetahuan pelajar tentang strategi pembelajaran diukur dengan Self–Re...

This article reviews two instruments which have been used to measure postgraduates’ research experiences in an Australian university; (1) the UK Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES); and (2) the Australian Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire (PREQ). A comparative study of PRES and PREQ at an Australian university was carried ou...

This study attempts to identify the drivers and inhibitors of employment for people with disabilities in Malaysia. It explores the skills and psychological traits needed by people with disabilities in order to get jobs and the barriers to their employment. Data include interviews detailing the viewpoints of 24 teachers with visual impairments. Thes...

Among a number of urban adolescents in Malaysia, going online is a much valued practice. They are regularly drawn to the Internet to engage in activities across school, nonschool, mainstream and alternative domains. The aim of this study is to know more about what these adolescents do online. Data on the online activities were collected from 535 ad...

The number of unemployed people with disabilities in Malaysia is still persistently high despite measures taken by the government to increase the job opportunities for these special needs population. In fact, their employment rate is far from reaching the stipulated 1% quota. Securing jobs in Malaysia is still an up-hill task for people with disabi...

This study sought to uncover the predictors of self-regulated learning in Malaysian smart schools. The sample consisted of 409 students, from six randomly chosen smart schools. A quantitative correlational research design was employed and the data were collected through survey method. Six factors were examined in relation to the predictors of self-...

Many Malaysian adolescents are immersed in the global contemporary, technological and digital culture. Their everyday literacy practices involve participation in a range of activities on the Internet. This study surveyed the online activities in English of 535 adolescents from five urban secondary schools in Penang, Malaysia. The participants compr...