Harriz Zaini | Universiti Teknologi Mara (original) (raw)
Papers by Harriz Zaini
Critical thinking plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of students and education all over ... more Critical thinking plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of students and education all over the world. Thus, educators need to be able to provide a critical thinking and learning environment in the classroom. This research centres on the critical thinking application in the classroom for the English Language programme in the Academy of Language Studies (ALS) UiTM Shah Alam – English for Professional Communication (LG240). This study aims to investigate how English lecturers and students in the ALS perceive their critical thinking application in class. Additionally, the study investigates if there is a significant difference between the perception of these two groups regarding critical thinking application in the classroom. The study adapts a framework that focusses on seven dimensions of critical thinking: analysing, applying standards, discriminating, information seeking, logical reasoning, predicting and transforming knowledge. The findings reveal that there was only one dime...
Critical thinking plays an important role in improving the quality of students and education all ... more Critical thinking plays an important role in improving the quality of students and education all over the world. However, educators are criticized for not preparing students effectively for future employment since the students lacked critical thinking skills. Thus, educators need to be able to provide critical thinking learning environment in the classroom. This study focuses on the critical thinking application in the classroom for the English language programme in APB UiTM Shah Alam. This study aims to investigate how the English lecturers in APB perceive their critical thinking application in class as well as how their students perceive their critical thinking application in class. Additionally, the study investigates whether there is a significant difference between their perceptions regarding the critical thinking application in class. The study adapts a framework which introduced seven dimensions of critical thinking. A quantitative approach is employed in this study while que...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021
The linguistic landscape of a territory may disclose information on the power and vitality of cer... more The linguistic landscape of a territory may disclose information on the power and vitality of certain languages within the community in that particular territory. This study analyses the language use in shop signs along two main streets in the multilingual city of Kuantan, Malaysia. 179 still images of shop signs in the area are captured and procured for the data. A textual analysis on the shop sign images based on the language patterns of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual framework is carried out. The frequencies of the language patterns are used and categorized based on the framework to determine the proprietors' language preferences for their shop signs. The analysis indicates that the number of bilingual and multilingual signs combined far exceeded the number of monolingual signs. The analysis further shows that bilingual signs of Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and English are the most preferred choices for the shop signs despite the enactment of the National Language Policy, soliciting that BM must be used for the public signs. Such preference implies the proprietors' keenness in embracing the image of modernity and sophistication for their shops, indicating that language use in business in business cannot be simply regulated by any policy. Rather, it is moving towards personal freedom, signifying the business community solidarity of which language(s) is deemed appropriate for their businesses despite the mandatory policy.
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper focuses on the training of selected soft skills among higher education students. The c... more This paper focuses on the training of selected soft skills among higher education students. The call for such focus was guided by the growing Graduate Employability (GE) demands from the 21 st century industries and the trending competencies as documented in 'The Future of Jobs Report 2018' by World Economic Forum. In the investigation, the students' perspective became central in interpreting the current instructional practices in the higher education institutes. The training of a selected set of soft skills based on the Critical Thinking Theory namely; analyzing, information seeking, logical reasoning and transforming knowledge, was the scope of the investigation. Central to the scope of the investigation is the respondents' perceptions of their instructors' instructional practices. Hence, a quantitative research design was chosen resulting in the administration of a set of questionnaire to 110 students in a selected faculty in one of the public universities in Malaysia. A descriptive statistical analysis was done in analyzing the data. The salient findings include a medium range of mean scores across the instructional practices of the instructors across the training of most of the soft skills as perceived by the respondents. Specifically, the instructors were seen to be average at training logical reasoning (M= 3.48) and transforming knowledge (M= 3.49). The instructors were perceived to be slightly better at training the respondents analyzing (M= 3.66) and information seeking (M= 3.74). Several recommendations were highlighted including the need for the instructors to be more comfortable with scientific data and language in promoting the training of transforming knowledge skill and to encourage research-based activities in promoting the training of logical reasoning. Based on the recommendations, it is expected that the instructors themselves could consider relevant innovations in their instructional practices as an effort to produce graduates with the identified soft skills. Additionally, policy makers and curriculum developers could also benefit from the findings of the present study.
International Journal of Business and Globalisation
English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies, 2020
The 21st Century learning deems various transformative skills learners in order to equip the fres... more The 21st Century learning deems various transformative skills learners in order to equip the fresh graduates for the demand of the fast changing industry. One of the ways to ensure an effective learning environment is by establishing strong student engagement in the classrooms. Student engagement can be observed in several dimensions; behavioral, affective and cognitive. The present study uncovered the levels of student engagement in these three dimensions and their relationship with each other in an ESL course in a public university in Malaysia. The population was 180 undergraduates of the second semester and 120 undergraduates were randomly selected by cluster sampling. The researchers adopted a mixed-method approach that focused more on the quantitative approach. A questionnaire with 5-Likert scale items and open-ended questions were utilized. The analysis revealed a moderate level of engagement during instruction and affective engagement as the highest form of engagement among t...
Critical thinking plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of students and education all over ... more Critical thinking plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of students and education all over the world. Thus, educators need to be able to provide a critical thinking and learning environment in the classroom. This research centres on the critical thinking application in the classroom for the English Language programme in the Academy of Language Studies (ALS) UiTM Shah Alam – English for Professional Communication (LG240). This study aims to investigate how English lecturers and students in the ALS perceive their critical thinking application in class. Additionally, the study investigates if there is a significant difference between the perception of these two groups regarding critical thinking application in the classroom. The study adapts a framework that focusses on seven dimensions of critical thinking: analysing, applying standards, discriminating, information seeking, logical reasoning, predicting and transforming knowledge. The findings reveal that there was only one dime...
Critical thinking plays an important role in improving the quality of students and education all ... more Critical thinking plays an important role in improving the quality of students and education all over the world. However, educators are criticized for not preparing students effectively for future employment since the students lacked critical thinking skills. Thus, educators need to be able to provide critical thinking learning environment in the classroom. This study focuses on the critical thinking application in the classroom for the English language programme in APB UiTM Shah Alam. This study aims to investigate how the English lecturers in APB perceive their critical thinking application in class as well as how their students perceive their critical thinking application in class. Additionally, the study investigates whether there is a significant difference between their perceptions regarding the critical thinking application in class. The study adapts a framework which introduced seven dimensions of critical thinking. A quantitative approach is employed in this study while que...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021
The linguistic landscape of a territory may disclose information on the power and vitality of cer... more The linguistic landscape of a territory may disclose information on the power and vitality of certain languages within the community in that particular territory. This study analyses the language use in shop signs along two main streets in the multilingual city of Kuantan, Malaysia. 179 still images of shop signs in the area are captured and procured for the data. A textual analysis on the shop sign images based on the language patterns of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual framework is carried out. The frequencies of the language patterns are used and categorized based on the framework to determine the proprietors' language preferences for their shop signs. The analysis indicates that the number of bilingual and multilingual signs combined far exceeded the number of monolingual signs. The analysis further shows that bilingual signs of Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and English are the most preferred choices for the shop signs despite the enactment of the National Language Policy, soliciting that BM must be used for the public signs. Such preference implies the proprietors' keenness in embracing the image of modernity and sophistication for their shops, indicating that language use in business in business cannot be simply regulated by any policy. Rather, it is moving towards personal freedom, signifying the business community solidarity of which language(s) is deemed appropriate for their businesses despite the mandatory policy.
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper focuses on the training of selected soft skills among higher education students. The c... more This paper focuses on the training of selected soft skills among higher education students. The call for such focus was guided by the growing Graduate Employability (GE) demands from the 21 st century industries and the trending competencies as documented in 'The Future of Jobs Report 2018' by World Economic Forum. In the investigation, the students' perspective became central in interpreting the current instructional practices in the higher education institutes. The training of a selected set of soft skills based on the Critical Thinking Theory namely; analyzing, information seeking, logical reasoning and transforming knowledge, was the scope of the investigation. Central to the scope of the investigation is the respondents' perceptions of their instructors' instructional practices. Hence, a quantitative research design was chosen resulting in the administration of a set of questionnaire to 110 students in a selected faculty in one of the public universities in Malaysia. A descriptive statistical analysis was done in analyzing the data. The salient findings include a medium range of mean scores across the instructional practices of the instructors across the training of most of the soft skills as perceived by the respondents. Specifically, the instructors were seen to be average at training logical reasoning (M= 3.48) and transforming knowledge (M= 3.49). The instructors were perceived to be slightly better at training the respondents analyzing (M= 3.66) and information seeking (M= 3.74). Several recommendations were highlighted including the need for the instructors to be more comfortable with scientific data and language in promoting the training of transforming knowledge skill and to encourage research-based activities in promoting the training of logical reasoning. Based on the recommendations, it is expected that the instructors themselves could consider relevant innovations in their instructional practices as an effort to produce graduates with the identified soft skills. Additionally, policy makers and curriculum developers could also benefit from the findings of the present study.
International Journal of Business and Globalisation
English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies, 2020
The 21st Century learning deems various transformative skills learners in order to equip the fres... more The 21st Century learning deems various transformative skills learners in order to equip the fresh graduates for the demand of the fast changing industry. One of the ways to ensure an effective learning environment is by establishing strong student engagement in the classrooms. Student engagement can be observed in several dimensions; behavioral, affective and cognitive. The present study uncovered the levels of student engagement in these three dimensions and their relationship with each other in an ESL course in a public university in Malaysia. The population was 180 undergraduates of the second semester and 120 undergraduates were randomly selected by cluster sampling. The researchers adopted a mixed-method approach that focused more on the quantitative approach. A questionnaire with 5-Likert scale items and open-ended questions were utilized. The analysis revealed a moderate level of engagement during instruction and affective engagement as the highest form of engagement among t...