Zamalia Mahmud | Universiti Teknologi Mara (original) (raw)
Papers by Zamalia Mahmud
WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications archive, Aug 1, 2009
This study had identified the profiles of statistics learners' attitude toward statistics through... more This study had identified the profiles of statistics learners' attitude toward statistics through the classification process of discriminant function. This multivariate technique method is used to profile the subjects' attitude into either positive or negative attitude towards statistics. The study had characterized each profile of learners by relating to his/her perceived attitudes toward statistics, types of learners, mode of study, programme structure, age, gender and learners' evaluation towards the statistics course. Learners' attitudes toward statistics were measured using the Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) instrument which comprised four sub-scales or dimensions, namely, Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value and Difficulty. These variables are examined as predictors that discriminate learners with positive and negative attitudes toward statistics. The results indicate that learners with positive attitudes can be reliably distinguished from learners with negative attitudes toward statistics across the four ATS sub-scales, types of learners, mode of study and learner's evaluation towards the course. The results would assist instructors to fine-tune their teaching methodologies to optimize the teaching and learning of statistics in the classroom.
patterns of interview conversations regarding students’
Current Diabetes Reviews, 2021
Background:: It is important to assess how well patients respond to their medical treatments by o... more Background:: It is important to assess how well patients respond to their medical treatments by observing the results that appear during the clinical treatments. As such, the clinical treatments and results must obtain information on how effective recommended treatments were for patients with diabetes. Objective:: This study examines how patients with diabetes mellitus responded towards their clinical treatments, where the probability distribution of patients and the types of treatment received were derived from the Rasch probabilistic model. Methods: This is a retrospective study wherein data were collected from patients’ medical records at a local public hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Clinical and demographic information such as fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), family history, type of diabetes (type 1 or type 2), types of medication (oral or insulin), compliance with treatments, gender, race and age were chosen as the agents of measurement. Methods:: This is a retro...
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2019
This paper focuses on the methods used for estimating the parameters in Rasch Measurement Model (... more This paper focuses on the methods used for estimating the parameters in Rasch Measurement Model (RMM). These include the MLE and Bayesian Estimation (BE) techniques. The accuracy and precision of the parameter estimates based on these two MLE and BE were discussed and compared. A questionnaire is a well-known measurement instrument used by most of the researchers. It is a powerful tool for collecting data in survey research. It should be noted that the quality of a measurement instrument used plays a key role in ensuring the quality of data obtained in the survey. Therefore, it has become essential for the researchers to carefully design their questionnaire so that the quality of the data obtained can be preserved. Then, it is also vital for the researchers to assess the quality of the data obtained before it can be successfully used for further analysis. Review of the literature shows that RMM is a psychometric approach widely used as an assessment tool of many measurement instrume...
Journal of ASIAN Behavioural Studies, 2018
Subjective well-being is focusing on happiness and life satisfaction of the people. This review i... more Subjective well-being is focusing on happiness and life satisfaction of the people. This review is carried out to examine the contributing factors of people's happiness and life satisfaction and also to determine the measurement instrument used in conducting a survey. A total of 60 articles obtained from academic search engines and online databases which are Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and Scopus have been chosen to be reviewed within a period from September 2017 until January 2018. Only 33 articles indexed in Scopus and ISI are eligible for final review. Keywords: Subjective well-being; happiness; life satisfaction eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Res...
IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education, 2016
Students very often perceive statistics as a difficult subject to learn and have generally shown ... more Students very often perceive statistics as a difficult subject to learn and have generally shown very little interest in it much to the dismay of educationists and instructors alike. This study investigates the problems students face when learning certain statistical topics by firstly relating these learning difficulties with the effort put in when understanding the topics. This is followed by categorizing students' learning styles and preferences based on Kolb's Learning Model. Phase 1 explores these levels of learning difficulty, while Phase 2, the case study of 22 students, further investigates the students' learning styles. The analysis is based on a content matrix of students' learning of statistical topics using Kolb's Learning Model, Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) and Multidimensional Scaling. The study results indicate that learning difficulties can be overcome by employing different learning styles. The majority of the students fall into the 'Converging' category as they prefer to do practice exercises and study on their own. A small number of students fall into the 'Accommodating' and 'Diverging' group, as they prefer to study in small groups and consult lecturers when the need arises. Finally, an even smaller number comes under the 'Assimilating' group as they prefer to read textbooks and look up for notes from other sources from the internet. Other factors such as prior knowledge in statistics, ability to work with statistics and personal effort are also found to support students' interest in learning statistics.
Cognitive Approaches to Obsessions and Compulsions, 2002
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development and validation of instruments for measur... more Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development and validation of instruments for measuring intrusions and beliefs in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Cognitive factors may be central to this disorder. These factors include: (1) cognitive processing (attention, memory, and information processing), and (2) cognitive appraisals or interpretations of internal and external events. The studies to examine the effects of cognitive treatments on OCD patients used Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) to alter irrational beliefs about obsessions. Perfectionism, guilt, and superstitious beliefs are considered closely associated to OCD but by no means specific to this disorder. Perfectionism is related to OCD and OCD symptoms. Guilt is the emotion most closely related to beliefs about responsibility and may be especially relevant for OCD. Although superstitious beliefs are not necessarily characteristic of individuals with OCD, they may be relevant for some individuals. The challenge of testing the measures for psychometric properties also benefited from the size and range of skill among group members. Collaborative instrument development and testing have distinct advantages over individual investigations.
2012 International Conference on Statistics in Science, Business and Engineering (ICSSBE), 2012
The development of Rasch measurement model has rapidly expanded from social science, educational ... more The development of Rasch measurement model has rapidly expanded from social science, educational fields, engineering and recently in the area of health science research. This revisited study has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to investigate the response behavioural patterns of local urban community regarding the risk of Pandemic Flu, Influenza A (H1N1). These variables include subjects' response behaviour towards HINI treatment effectiveness, knowledge, perceived risk, attitude and preventive practices towards HINI. This study aims to validate the items in the instrument, and then investigate the response patterns using the Rasch measurement tools. The study had used secondary survey data provided by the Department of Population Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM), Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Shah Alam which were collected from communities residing at two different locations in Selangor, Malaysia. A Rasch probabilistic measurement model is used to examine whether respondents were providing appropriate responses towards the instrument items in the H1N1 study. Results of the analysis show that respondents with different characteristics or background have provided true response which resulted in the communities displaying moderate degree of knowledge and awareness towards the risk of H1N1.
Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 2013
This has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to ... more This has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to validate the response behavioural patterns of local urban community regarding the risk of Pandemic Flu, Influenza A (H1N1). The treatment effectiveness, knowledge, perceived risk, attitude and preventive practices towards HINI. Following this is the investigation of the nature of associations between the binary response patterns (knowledge) and the selected explanatory variables in the study (age, education status, effectiveness, perceived risk and preventive practices towards H1N1). The study used secondary survey data provided by the Department of Population Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM), Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Shah Alam which were collected from communities residing at two different locations in Selangor, Malaysia. Results from the study show that community with different characteristics or background to some extent have provided true responses displaying moderate degree of knowledge and awareness towards the risk of H1N1. Significant association between knowledge and education status has also been detected.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
In an effort to change the assessment paradigm from the traditional method of assessment, this pa... more In an effort to change the assessment paradigm from the traditional method of assessment, this paper will suggest a different assessment approach focusing on learning of statistics at the postgraduate level. As a case study, a course taught to Universiti Teknologi MARA postgraduate students in Applied Statistics, namely Categorical Data Analysis was chosen as the agent of assessment where students perceived ability based on an entrance-exit survey are assessed using Rasch analysis. This analysis is able to classify students' perceived learning ability and identify learning difficulty more precisely. The study had shown that through Rasch measurement tools, students' learning in a statistical course can be accurately measure based on the logit scale measurement derived from the Rasch model. This model has provided an excellent alternative tool for measuring postgraduate students' actual ability in learning statistical concepts.
2012 International Conference on Statistics in Science, Business and Engineering (ICSSBE), 2012
Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Information, Business and Education Technology (ICIBET-2013), 2013
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the perceived readiness of managers... more The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the perceived readiness of managers towards public sector transformational change. Data was collected using digital questionnaire from 40 managers in various public sector organisations. Data was analysed using Rasch measurement and Winsteps @ 3.72.3. The study shows that the public sector managers highly recognize the role and commitment of the senior management as an important driver towards successful implementation of change.
Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 2015
In enhancing performance of civil services, the Government of Malaysia has taken extensive change... more In enhancing performance of civil services, the Government of Malaysia has taken extensive change initiatives to continuously reform the administration of public sector in Malaysia. The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) has been introduced in 2009 with the aim of improving overall performance of civil personnel and to improve delivery of services towards public at large. Among other change initiatives taken is the implementation of KPI to measure performance of civil personnel. The purpose of this study is to provide extensive review of past literatures regarding to financial management reforms in Malaysian public sector organization which bring to establishment of KPI. This study also aims to investigate the attitude of public sector managers towards KPIs in response to GTP. A total of 40 useable responses were collected from June to August 2012 using a web-based survey. Data was analyzed using Rasch measurement and Winsteps @ 3.72.3. The study indicates that the public sector managers highly recognize the positive attitude towards KPIs as an important driver towards successful implementation of change.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2014
The students learning outcomes clarify what students should know and be able to demonstrate after... more The students learning outcomes clarify what students should know and be able to demonstrate after completing their course. So, one of the issues on the process of teaching and learning is how to assess students' learning. This paper describes an application of the dichotomous Rasch measurement model in measuring the cognitive process of engineering students' learning of mathematics. This study provides insights into the perspective of 54 engineering students' cognitive ability in learning Calculus III based on Bloom's Taxonomy on 31 items. The results denote that some of the examination questions are either too difficult or too easy for the majority of the students. This analysis yields FIT statistics which are able to identify if there is data departure from the Rasch theoretical model. The study has identified some potential misfit items based on the measurement of ZSTD where the removal misfit item was accomplished based on the MNSQ outfit of above 1.3 or less than 0.7 logit. Therefore, it is recommended that these items be reviewed or revised to better match the range of students' ability in the respective course.
Obtaining and maintaining quality data in a survey investigation has becoming a continuing concer... more Obtaining and maintaining quality data in a survey investigation has becoming a continuing concern among the statistical education researchers. Rasch probabilistic measurement model had been used to identify inappropriate survey items in many other instruments but it has not been extensively used in many survey investigations involving statistics education research. This study had employed Rasch dichotomous and rating models to examine the quality of survey response data, namely on the students' attitude towards and their competency in learning elementary statistics. Students' attitude was measured by the 24 items of 5-point Likert scale while statistical competency was measured by their ability to answer correctly or incorrectly based on three statistical elementary topics. This study used secondary data which was formerly gathered from 139 secondary school students over several occasions, at two different points of time (prior to statistics class teaching and end of class teaching). The outcome was investigated based on both item and person misfit response strings and PIDM map. Rasch analysis had shown that quality of items and persons can be enhanced with proper validation techniques namely, through identification of fit statistics on the items and misfit response strings. Generally, Rasch probabilistic model is able to diagnose the unusual response patterns which otherwise could not be detected using the general deterministic model.
Rasch Measurement Model is a probabilistic model used to examine and validate psychometric propor... more Rasch Measurement Model is a probabilistic model used to examine and validate psychometric proportion of measurement instrument and test forms. This study had used Rasch Measurement Model to examine, validate and analyze person and instrument items relating to students' attitude and competency in learning elementary statistics. Attitude was measured by the 24 items of five-point Likert scale while statistical competency was measured by their ability to answer the items correctly or incorrectly based on three statistical elementary topics. The purpose of this study is to examine and validate item difficulty and persons' ability in response to their attitude towards learning and competency in elementary statistics and to determine the quality of raw data based on item and person misfit response strings. Secondary data was used, formerly gathered over several occassions, at two different points of time (prior to and end of statistics class teaching). About 139 secondary school students participated in the survey. Using Rasch analysis, reliability and validity of items and persons can be enhanced with proper validation techniques namely, through identification of MNSQ fit statistics and misfit response strings. PIDM revealed that majority of the students have greater positive attitude towards learning statistics after the class than before attending the class. Specifically, female students from the science class had shown to be more positive towards learning statistics and demonstrate a higher competency level compared to male students from the non-science class. The study is also able to show the hierarchy of items which are difficult and easy to attempt by students based on the line of inquiry of the logit model and item characteristic curves. Generally, Rasch analysis is able to diagnose the unusual response patterns which otherwise could not be detected using the general deterministic model.
This paper will discuss the methodological aspect and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted u... more This paper will discuss the methodological aspect and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted upon lecturers of statistics with regards to the teaching of statistics. The main aim of the interviews was to elicit information from the subjects on matters which are related to difficulties in teaching some statistical concepts and factors that contribute towards students' difficulties in understanding the concepts. The other aim was to identify the existence of any distinct patterns which may arise from the interview conversations using the elements of qualitative data analysis (QDA) via transcription, content analysis and identifying conversation themes and codes. The approach taken to link the conversation themes and codes was also meant to illustrate the application and investigation of the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling within the qualitative data approach.
Many attempts were made by researchers and practitioners to analyze interview conversations. Due ... more Many attempts were made by researchers and practitioners to analyze interview conversations. Due to different variations in the interview analysis techniques, it can lead to inconsistencies in the interpretation of the interview conversations. Through QMDScaling techniques, not only that interview conversations can be interpreted precisely and accurately, patterns of the interview conversations can also be visualized and interpreted via a joint-dimensional space. One area which is gaining popularity in research involving the use of both qualitative and quantitative data is in the research of statistical education. On that note, the purpose of this paper is to describe the methodological techniques used in visualizing patterns of the interview conversations regarding students' learning difficulties in basic statistical concepts as perceived by the statistics educators. The process involves reducing and categorizing the interview conversations into themes. This leads to the transformation of the themes into codes and finally transforming the themes into a binary matrix and into a joint-dimensional space. These techniques had shown that inconsistencies in the interpretation of the interview conversations can be avoided and it has helped to understand issues and reveal findings which could not be elicited and interpreted precisely through the conventional technique.
Nowadays, there are a lot of communication media available for sharing information. The use of on... more Nowadays, there are a lot of communication media available for sharing information. The use of online media is among the common activities within the society of digital era especially for young adults. The Internet allows information to be shared freely, easily and fast through social media. Several studies show that information can be a weapon to influence people. The misuse of communication media may lead to threat. It is therefore important to understand the factors that affect people in selecting media and trusting their sources. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to investigate the patterns of media preferences and beliefs based on the young adults' lifestyles focusing on parents' education level, standard of living and their access to the internet. Participants comprise of ninety eight local young adults who use communication media regularly. Data were analyzed using multidimensional proximity scaling and multiple response techniques. The results show that media preferences are affected by their lifestyles while belief towards the communication media are not related to their lifestyles.
WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications archive, Aug 1, 2009
This study had identified the profiles of statistics learners' attitude toward statistics through... more This study had identified the profiles of statistics learners' attitude toward statistics through the classification process of discriminant function. This multivariate technique method is used to profile the subjects' attitude into either positive or negative attitude towards statistics. The study had characterized each profile of learners by relating to his/her perceived attitudes toward statistics, types of learners, mode of study, programme structure, age, gender and learners' evaluation towards the statistics course. Learners' attitudes toward statistics were measured using the Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) instrument which comprised four sub-scales or dimensions, namely, Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value and Difficulty. These variables are examined as predictors that discriminate learners with positive and negative attitudes toward statistics. The results indicate that learners with positive attitudes can be reliably distinguished from learners with negative attitudes toward statistics across the four ATS sub-scales, types of learners, mode of study and learner's evaluation towards the course. The results would assist instructors to fine-tune their teaching methodologies to optimize the teaching and learning of statistics in the classroom.
patterns of interview conversations regarding students’
Current Diabetes Reviews, 2021
Background:: It is important to assess how well patients respond to their medical treatments by o... more Background:: It is important to assess how well patients respond to their medical treatments by observing the results that appear during the clinical treatments. As such, the clinical treatments and results must obtain information on how effective recommended treatments were for patients with diabetes. Objective:: This study examines how patients with diabetes mellitus responded towards their clinical treatments, where the probability distribution of patients and the types of treatment received were derived from the Rasch probabilistic model. Methods: This is a retrospective study wherein data were collected from patients’ medical records at a local public hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Clinical and demographic information such as fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), family history, type of diabetes (type 1 or type 2), types of medication (oral or insulin), compliance with treatments, gender, race and age were chosen as the agents of measurement. Methods:: This is a retro...
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2019
This paper focuses on the methods used for estimating the parameters in Rasch Measurement Model (... more This paper focuses on the methods used for estimating the parameters in Rasch Measurement Model (RMM). These include the MLE and Bayesian Estimation (BE) techniques. The accuracy and precision of the parameter estimates based on these two MLE and BE were discussed and compared. A questionnaire is a well-known measurement instrument used by most of the researchers. It is a powerful tool for collecting data in survey research. It should be noted that the quality of a measurement instrument used plays a key role in ensuring the quality of data obtained in the survey. Therefore, it has become essential for the researchers to carefully design their questionnaire so that the quality of the data obtained can be preserved. Then, it is also vital for the researchers to assess the quality of the data obtained before it can be successfully used for further analysis. Review of the literature shows that RMM is a psychometric approach widely used as an assessment tool of many measurement instrume...
Journal of ASIAN Behavioural Studies, 2018
Subjective well-being is focusing on happiness and life satisfaction of the people. This review i... more Subjective well-being is focusing on happiness and life satisfaction of the people. This review is carried out to examine the contributing factors of people's happiness and life satisfaction and also to determine the measurement instrument used in conducting a survey. A total of 60 articles obtained from academic search engines and online databases which are Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and Scopus have been chosen to be reviewed within a period from September 2017 until January 2018. Only 33 articles indexed in Scopus and ISI are eligible for final review. Keywords: Subjective well-being; happiness; life satisfaction eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Res...
IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education, 2016
Students very often perceive statistics as a difficult subject to learn and have generally shown ... more Students very often perceive statistics as a difficult subject to learn and have generally shown very little interest in it much to the dismay of educationists and instructors alike. This study investigates the problems students face when learning certain statistical topics by firstly relating these learning difficulties with the effort put in when understanding the topics. This is followed by categorizing students' learning styles and preferences based on Kolb's Learning Model. Phase 1 explores these levels of learning difficulty, while Phase 2, the case study of 22 students, further investigates the students' learning styles. The analysis is based on a content matrix of students' learning of statistical topics using Kolb's Learning Model, Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) and Multidimensional Scaling. The study results indicate that learning difficulties can be overcome by employing different learning styles. The majority of the students fall into the 'Converging' category as they prefer to do practice exercises and study on their own. A small number of students fall into the 'Accommodating' and 'Diverging' group, as they prefer to study in small groups and consult lecturers when the need arises. Finally, an even smaller number comes under the 'Assimilating' group as they prefer to read textbooks and look up for notes from other sources from the internet. Other factors such as prior knowledge in statistics, ability to work with statistics and personal effort are also found to support students' interest in learning statistics.
Cognitive Approaches to Obsessions and Compulsions, 2002
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development and validation of instruments for measur... more Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development and validation of instruments for measuring intrusions and beliefs in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Cognitive factors may be central to this disorder. These factors include: (1) cognitive processing (attention, memory, and information processing), and (2) cognitive appraisals or interpretations of internal and external events. The studies to examine the effects of cognitive treatments on OCD patients used Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) to alter irrational beliefs about obsessions. Perfectionism, guilt, and superstitious beliefs are considered closely associated to OCD but by no means specific to this disorder. Perfectionism is related to OCD and OCD symptoms. Guilt is the emotion most closely related to beliefs about responsibility and may be especially relevant for OCD. Although superstitious beliefs are not necessarily characteristic of individuals with OCD, they may be relevant for some individuals. The challenge of testing the measures for psychometric properties also benefited from the size and range of skill among group members. Collaborative instrument development and testing have distinct advantages over individual investigations.
2012 International Conference on Statistics in Science, Business and Engineering (ICSSBE), 2012
The development of Rasch measurement model has rapidly expanded from social science, educational ... more The development of Rasch measurement model has rapidly expanded from social science, educational fields, engineering and recently in the area of health science research. This revisited study has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to investigate the response behavioural patterns of local urban community regarding the risk of Pandemic Flu, Influenza A (H1N1). These variables include subjects' response behaviour towards HINI treatment effectiveness, knowledge, perceived risk, attitude and preventive practices towards HINI. This study aims to validate the items in the instrument, and then investigate the response patterns using the Rasch measurement tools. The study had used secondary survey data provided by the Department of Population Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM), Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Shah Alam which were collected from communities residing at two different locations in Selangor, Malaysia. A Rasch probabilistic measurement model is used to examine whether respondents were providing appropriate responses towards the instrument items in the H1N1 study. Results of the analysis show that respondents with different characteristics or background have provided true response which resulted in the communities displaying moderate degree of knowledge and awareness towards the risk of H1N1.
Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 2013
This has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to ... more This has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to validate the response behavioural patterns of local urban community regarding the risk of Pandemic Flu, Influenza A (H1N1). The treatment effectiveness, knowledge, perceived risk, attitude and preventive practices towards HINI. Following this is the investigation of the nature of associations between the binary response patterns (knowledge) and the selected explanatory variables in the study (age, education status, effectiveness, perceived risk and preventive practices towards H1N1). The study used secondary survey data provided by the Department of Population Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM), Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Shah Alam which were collected from communities residing at two different locations in Selangor, Malaysia. Results from the study show that community with different characteristics or background to some extent have provided true responses displaying moderate degree of knowledge and awareness towards the risk of H1N1. Significant association between knowledge and education status has also been detected.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
In an effort to change the assessment paradigm from the traditional method of assessment, this pa... more In an effort to change the assessment paradigm from the traditional method of assessment, this paper will suggest a different assessment approach focusing on learning of statistics at the postgraduate level. As a case study, a course taught to Universiti Teknologi MARA postgraduate students in Applied Statistics, namely Categorical Data Analysis was chosen as the agent of assessment where students perceived ability based on an entrance-exit survey are assessed using Rasch analysis. This analysis is able to classify students' perceived learning ability and identify learning difficulty more precisely. The study had shown that through Rasch measurement tools, students' learning in a statistical course can be accurately measure based on the logit scale measurement derived from the Rasch model. This model has provided an excellent alternative tool for measuring postgraduate students' actual ability in learning statistical concepts.
2012 International Conference on Statistics in Science, Business and Engineering (ICSSBE), 2012
Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Information, Business and Education Technology (ICIBET-2013), 2013
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the perceived readiness of managers... more The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the perceived readiness of managers towards public sector transformational change. Data was collected using digital questionnaire from 40 managers in various public sector organisations. Data was analysed using Rasch measurement and Winsteps @ 3.72.3. The study shows that the public sector managers highly recognize the role and commitment of the senior management as an important driver towards successful implementation of change.
Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 2015
In enhancing performance of civil services, the Government of Malaysia has taken extensive change... more In enhancing performance of civil services, the Government of Malaysia has taken extensive change initiatives to continuously reform the administration of public sector in Malaysia. The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) has been introduced in 2009 with the aim of improving overall performance of civil personnel and to improve delivery of services towards public at large. Among other change initiatives taken is the implementation of KPI to measure performance of civil personnel. The purpose of this study is to provide extensive review of past literatures regarding to financial management reforms in Malaysian public sector organization which bring to establishment of KPI. This study also aims to investigate the attitude of public sector managers towards KPIs in response to GTP. A total of 40 useable responses were collected from June to August 2012 using a web-based survey. Data was analyzed using Rasch measurement and Winsteps @ 3.72.3. The study indicates that the public sector managers highly recognize the positive attitude towards KPIs as an important driver towards successful implementation of change.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2014
The students learning outcomes clarify what students should know and be able to demonstrate after... more The students learning outcomes clarify what students should know and be able to demonstrate after completing their course. So, one of the issues on the process of teaching and learning is how to assess students' learning. This paper describes an application of the dichotomous Rasch measurement model in measuring the cognitive process of engineering students' learning of mathematics. This study provides insights into the perspective of 54 engineering students' cognitive ability in learning Calculus III based on Bloom's Taxonomy on 31 items. The results denote that some of the examination questions are either too difficult or too easy for the majority of the students. This analysis yields FIT statistics which are able to identify if there is data departure from the Rasch theoretical model. The study has identified some potential misfit items based on the measurement of ZSTD where the removal misfit item was accomplished based on the MNSQ outfit of above 1.3 or less than 0.7 logit. Therefore, it is recommended that these items be reviewed or revised to better match the range of students' ability in the respective course.
Obtaining and maintaining quality data in a survey investigation has becoming a continuing concer... more Obtaining and maintaining quality data in a survey investigation has becoming a continuing concern among the statistical education researchers. Rasch probabilistic measurement model had been used to identify inappropriate survey items in many other instruments but it has not been extensively used in many survey investigations involving statistics education research. This study had employed Rasch dichotomous and rating models to examine the quality of survey response data, namely on the students' attitude towards and their competency in learning elementary statistics. Students' attitude was measured by the 24 items of 5-point Likert scale while statistical competency was measured by their ability to answer correctly or incorrectly based on three statistical elementary topics. This study used secondary data which was formerly gathered from 139 secondary school students over several occasions, at two different points of time (prior to statistics class teaching and end of class teaching). The outcome was investigated based on both item and person misfit response strings and PIDM map. Rasch analysis had shown that quality of items and persons can be enhanced with proper validation techniques namely, through identification of fit statistics on the items and misfit response strings. Generally, Rasch probabilistic model is able to diagnose the unusual response patterns which otherwise could not be detected using the general deterministic model.
Rasch Measurement Model is a probabilistic model used to examine and validate psychometric propor... more Rasch Measurement Model is a probabilistic model used to examine and validate psychometric proportion of measurement instrument and test forms. This study had used Rasch Measurement Model to examine, validate and analyze person and instrument items relating to students' attitude and competency in learning elementary statistics. Attitude was measured by the 24 items of five-point Likert scale while statistical competency was measured by their ability to answer the items correctly or incorrectly based on three statistical elementary topics. The purpose of this study is to examine and validate item difficulty and persons' ability in response to their attitude towards learning and competency in elementary statistics and to determine the quality of raw data based on item and person misfit response strings. Secondary data was used, formerly gathered over several occassions, at two different points of time (prior to and end of statistics class teaching). About 139 secondary school students participated in the survey. Using Rasch analysis, reliability and validity of items and persons can be enhanced with proper validation techniques namely, through identification of MNSQ fit statistics and misfit response strings. PIDM revealed that majority of the students have greater positive attitude towards learning statistics after the class than before attending the class. Specifically, female students from the science class had shown to be more positive towards learning statistics and demonstrate a higher competency level compared to male students from the non-science class. The study is also able to show the hierarchy of items which are difficult and easy to attempt by students based on the line of inquiry of the logit model and item characteristic curves. Generally, Rasch analysis is able to diagnose the unusual response patterns which otherwise could not be detected using the general deterministic model.
This paper will discuss the methodological aspect and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted u... more This paper will discuss the methodological aspect and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted upon lecturers of statistics with regards to the teaching of statistics. The main aim of the interviews was to elicit information from the subjects on matters which are related to difficulties in teaching some statistical concepts and factors that contribute towards students' difficulties in understanding the concepts. The other aim was to identify the existence of any distinct patterns which may arise from the interview conversations using the elements of qualitative data analysis (QDA) via transcription, content analysis and identifying conversation themes and codes. The approach taken to link the conversation themes and codes was also meant to illustrate the application and investigation of the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling within the qualitative data approach.
Many attempts were made by researchers and practitioners to analyze interview conversations. Due ... more Many attempts were made by researchers and practitioners to analyze interview conversations. Due to different variations in the interview analysis techniques, it can lead to inconsistencies in the interpretation of the interview conversations. Through QMDScaling techniques, not only that interview conversations can be interpreted precisely and accurately, patterns of the interview conversations can also be visualized and interpreted via a joint-dimensional space. One area which is gaining popularity in research involving the use of both qualitative and quantitative data is in the research of statistical education. On that note, the purpose of this paper is to describe the methodological techniques used in visualizing patterns of the interview conversations regarding students' learning difficulties in basic statistical concepts as perceived by the statistics educators. The process involves reducing and categorizing the interview conversations into themes. This leads to the transformation of the themes into codes and finally transforming the themes into a binary matrix and into a joint-dimensional space. These techniques had shown that inconsistencies in the interpretation of the interview conversations can be avoided and it has helped to understand issues and reveal findings which could not be elicited and interpreted precisely through the conventional technique.
Nowadays, there are a lot of communication media available for sharing information. The use of on... more Nowadays, there are a lot of communication media available for sharing information. The use of online media is among the common activities within the society of digital era especially for young adults. The Internet allows information to be shared freely, easily and fast through social media. Several studies show that information can be a weapon to influence people. The misuse of communication media may lead to threat. It is therefore important to understand the factors that affect people in selecting media and trusting their sources. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to investigate the patterns of media preferences and beliefs based on the young adults' lifestyles focusing on parents' education level, standard of living and their access to the internet. Participants comprise of ninety eight local young adults who use communication media regularly. Data were analyzed using multidimensional proximity scaling and multiple response techniques. The results show that media preferences are affected by their lifestyles while belief towards the communication media are not related to their lifestyles.