Facon Education Fair

December is a suitable time for education fair in Malaysia. That is why the organizer had mounted the Facon Education Fair. The main objective to to provide the opportunity for Malaysians to gather vital information that will help to shape their choices in education and development.

The Elements in Education Fair. 

1. Meet the Education Institution.

2. Get Scholarship Information

3. Listen to Academic Presentation

4. Career personality Test

5. Career Talk.


A. Fair Schedule
- 8-9 Dec 2012 - Putra Trade Center - Kuala Lumpur
- 11 Dec 2012 - Alor Setar - Holiday Villa Hotel
- 12 Dec 2012 - Penang - Traders Hotel
- 13 Dec 2012 - Ipoh - Syuan Hotel
- 14 Dec 2012 - Melaka - Hotel Equatorial
- 15- 16 Dec    -  Johor Baharu- Persada Convention Centre,

Read More

Force Field Analysis

 Assignment 1

Force Fields Analysis

Lecturer:

Dr Kamal Kishore Jain

Jo           MB2-00027

     

	Date Due : 18 August 2001 Submitted : 22 August 2002

Question:

Assignment 1: BMM 7173

Assume that several students have petitioned your instructor to grade your current course in organization Development on a pass-fail basis. Your instructor has reservations about this, but was willing to ask the dean if there was a possibility of changing the grading in this course from an A through F basis to pass-fail basis. The dean expressed the willingness to consider the question but asked for a more detailed proposal, including the pros and cons and how such a plan might be implemented. Your instructor, in turn, has asked your group to develop a preliminary analysis of how such a change might be made.

·         Develop a stakeholder analysis. Identify all stakeholders and their interests and concerns.

·         Prepare a force-field analysis. Identify the pushing factor and restraining forces and estimate the intensity and importance of each.

·         Prepare a brief recommendation indicating whether you agree or disagree with the proposal.

1.0         Introduction

Force field analysis is a management tool developed by Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in the field of social sciences, to analyze a given situation. It is useful to determine the variables involved when planning and implementing change management program. Lewin assumes that in any situation there are both driving and restraining forces that influence the direction of any change iniative. The driving forces are the forces that are pushing the situation towards a new equilibrium, whereas the restraining forces are acting to restrain or decrease the driving forces. Apathy, hostility, and poor maintenance of equipment may be examples of restraining forces against increased production. Equilibrium is reached when the sum of the driving forces equals the sum of the restraining forces.

2.0         Stake Holders Analysis

A stakeholder analysis is a technique used to identify and assess individuals, groups or  organizations who have significant and legitimate interests in specific issues. In the case the grading system of the Unitar’s MBA program, the stakeholders are those who have interest in the  changes in the grading system

The analysis can also look at stakeholders in terms of their information, expertise and resources applicable to the given issue. However, the stakeholder analysis by itself can only identify the potential stakeholders but it does not ensure that they will become active and meaningful participants. Attempt must be made to generate the interest and to sustain the commitment.

The potential stakeholders relevant to the issue of the change of the grading system are given below: The stakeholders will be interested in the change of the grading system as this change may effect their interest directly or indirectly.

Table 1 : Stakeholders analysis.

	Stakeholders	Interest	Concerns
1	LAN	LAN or Lembaga Akreditasi Negara, is the Board created to manage the private education in Malaysia. It is responsible to monitor the quality of  the MBA program, including the Unitar’s MBA.	1.    The change in the assessment grading may affect the quality of the MBA. 2.    The grading system may not be in line with the majority of the universities supervised by LAN
2	Ministry  of Education	It is the government’s body the control and manage the education system in Malaysia.	The ministry will be concerned on the effect of the decision on the education system and possible impact on the output of the system.
3	Students	The students are interested because the change may: 1. Affect the grading of his study. 2. Affect the value of the qualification.	1.    There is no differentiation between top student and  the average performers.  Both will be awarded the same merit point. This may be demotivating for top performer. 2.    The value job market will not be able to differentiate the performance of the students. 3.    The grade obtained is not true reflection of a persons performance.
4	Lecturers	Lecturer needs to grade the students.	The pass-fail grading system  may lead to mediocrity attitude.
5	Unitar	Unitar is interested in the quality of its product, whether actual or perceived.	1.The pass-fail  grading system may not be widely accepted by the job market. 2. The  pass-fail system may be perceived as odd  and different .
6	Potential Employers	1. The students may be the supply for the future labor market. The employers would like to choose the best staff to meet their organisation’s requirements.	1. With pass- fail system, divide the students into two group only and does not differentiate between the top performers and the average.
7	Present Employers of the students	The employers may be the sponsor of the student.	Sponsored students are expected to perform to a certain standard
8	Political Groups	Political groups are looking for issues that can strengthen their position.	Unitar is a subsidiary of KUB and KUB is associated with a certain political group.
9	Sponsors of the students	The sponsors want value for the investment.	The pass-fail grading make it more difficult to assess the value of the students.
10	Other Universities	Universities offering MBA’s are interested in the happenings in the other universities.	Other universities may have influences on the authority to affect the decision.

3.0         Force Fields Analysis

In planning for the change of the grading system from an A through F basis to pass-fail mark, the sentiments of the various stakeholders are assessed. These sentiments are translated into different direction and intensity of the forces

REMOVED

 Figure 1:  Force field analysis showing all the forces driving or restraining against the proposed change in the grading system.

All the forces acting on the change initiative are shown above. The driving forces are the forces that push toward the new state or grading system of pass-fail. The restraint forces are trying to maintain the present state of grading. The figures next to the forces showing the intensity of the forces.

4.0         Recommendation

The grading system should reflect the capability and the effort put by an individual student. Theoretically, there is a wide range of performance differences between the an ‘A’ and the ‘F’ grade students. These differences can be further subdivided into various grading between A through F. In practice, the differences in the grade may not reflect the student’s capability and ability in the workplace.  As such, it can be argued that the multiple grades do not really reflect that actual grade of the students.

I do not agree with the change of the grading system due to the following reasons:

a. The new grading of pass-fail are not widely practiced in Malaysia, where culturally, the grades of the students are critically observed.

b. The pass-fail grading may lead to a culture of mediocrity, where the students would strive to get the ‘pass’ and not  aiming for excellent.

            c. The pass-fail system will be a demotivating factor to the students.

Read More

Education Blue Print 2013- 2025

The Malaysian is rather good a making blueprint or plans. What is very lacking is its implementation. This is obvious in many areas, such as the road traffic situation and managing the financial operation. Even in education system, we tend to lag behind. This are the examples..

- many were affected by the suspension of the gold investments companies. Some are starting to ask the questions, why the crack down is now, and not when it first started. If the companies had done illegal activities, it must had been illegal earlier.Million of RM had been invested.

- Recent news about the installation of camera to capture the images of those who jump the red light. This was the project 10 years ago, and RM millions was spent, the traces of cameras and the poles still can be seen. Why was it stop and restart.

- The education system is like a yoyo. This morning I read the news about the usage of IT to improve the teaching and teachers. I still remember the 7 flagship of the 1990s, the smart school, it abandoned after consuming billion of RM. Then the issue of Teaching Science and Maths in English. We started with English, then in 1970's change to BM, then we wanted to change to English in the middle of of 2005. Then 2011, we want it in BM. Year 2012, then the new blue print.    

Read More

Malaysian Studying in US

Malaysian who can effort it prefers to have his children to study overseas. The tradition destination is UK, basically due to the historical links and similarity of the education system. However, the number of students opted to pursue their education in US is on the rise.

Currently there are about 7000 Malaysian studying in US. The number is considered rather small when you compare to students from China and India. China is the largest groups consisting of about 160,000. In fact about half of the number of students are from the three countries of China, India and Korea.

Many of the students are attracted to the opportunities in US. The top ranking universities are in US. The internationally renounced universities such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Julliard are becoming the target of these students. Many of the professors are leading authorities in their specific fields. Their researches are the cutting edge of the work and their papers are often get their place in the international journals.

Admission into the top universities are competitive for international students. This is mainly because the seat allotted for overseas students are limited. To be considered, the students must attain a good grade, complete a challenging course works, show sufficient funding and have a good command of English.

Read More

Your Future in Medicine - St George University

My daughter is in form 4 now. I am looking at the option for her study, thus I am capturing and the interested course of study.

I am not very sure whether this courses conducted by St George University is approved by Malaysia Medical Board.

Read More

Choosing What to Study after SPM

Studying seem to be a burden for some people. There seem to be too many things to consider in choosing the course after SPM. For the benefit of foreigners, SPM is the examination set my the Malaysian Education Department. It is like the GCE O level, given to student on his/her 11 year of schooling.

From experience and taking to children, there are 3 persons that determine the students study path. They are:

1. The students himself.
2. The parent/ family
3. Other organisation.

A. The student himself.
The student may be able to identify the area that he likes. However, it is often noticed that his/her preferences is not stable, that means that, one day he want to be example a doctor, the next day, after watching a movie, he may want to be a writer.

This is common, as children are still searching and trying to understand about the environment and himself.

B. The parents.
Some parent can be authoritative. He may have a plan line-up for his sons or daughters. The first is to be this, the second to be that and so forth. It had seen some negative results of this practice and some positive ones. There are cases, as I interviewed the students, I asked him, why he applied for the program. The answer was direct.." My father want me to do it, he is sponsoring for it. If I have a choice I would prefer to do ....... "

C. Other organisation.
There are cases when an organisation select the potential students to pursue a given courses. An oil and gas company may foresee the need to have petroleum engineer in 3 years time, then they will view the potential students and offer them scholarships. At the end, it is the students or parents will make the choice.

I was reading an article in thestar written by Louis Yap. It take home the following points...

a. Keep in touch with your friends and value the time you had have and the time you will have. You will be parting you separate path, the time and distant will take the tolls on the relationship. When you are older, then you will appreciate and value the moments that you had had in school. You can never duplicate that.

b. The study and the qualification is the door to your career. You select and choose in full view of your intended career. This is part of your life plan, most likely you have only one opportunity to do it.

Read More

Job of a Pharmacists

The job of a pharmacists include:
- recording the medical history of a patient.
- identifying the goals of a drug therapy.
- working with a patient on the self-medication.
- counselling patients on medical prescription.
- recommend to the doctors on the drug selection.
- maintaining patients drugs profile.

His or her other activities include, giving drugs information to the doctors and patients, preparing materials to be used for drugs and dispensing the drugs.

The Jobs Opportunities    
With a more liberated medical care in you country, the more opportunities are open for pharmacists:

- many choose to start their own drug store. This is the source of drug prescription for a private patients. Most hospital tend to have a pharmacy department and provide the required medicine and drugs.

- Pharmacist at a government hospital - He will be operating the pharmacy at the hospital. His job include identifying what medicine to keep. He will source and purchase the medicine from a suitable source, store and disperse the drugs.

- Pharmacy Industry - This is the industry that do the research on drugs and medical cures, manufacture the drugs and make money from the sale of the products.

Read More

The Prodigy's Dreams

Jeshaiah is 13 years old. However unlike his other 13 years old colleagues, he had completed his A level. He did his O level in 2010 at UCSI and subsequently pursue the A level under scholarship.

He took 4 A level subjects, Physics, Chemisty, Biology and mathematics. However he is still finding problem to find a university that is willing to accept him due to his young age. He wanted to do mechantronis, mainly due to his fascination with robot.

When asked of his readiness to enroll in a university, Jeshaiah wished that he would be given the chance to prove it himself. Afterall, he had done the O and A level wit flying colors.  

Read More

Free Online Courses

Coursera.Org - Courses from 16 Universities

A group of World's top universities are cooperating to offer online courses for free. The courses are available at coursera,org, The courses are offered from Princeton University, Standford and two other US universities.

In the same note, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched the Khan Academy offerring thousands of video lectures.

In May 2012, another two well known institutions, Harvard and MIT had made the announcement that they will be working together to create edX. The offerings include video lesson segments, embedded quiz, online lab and student paced learning.

The coursera.org had made a tremendous progressed.  The number of registered students are 740,000 from 190 countries. A student that takes a Stanford computer class and business class from Princeton university will be issued with the completion certificates. The certificate will be a proof of skills and motivation and can be used for employee to better their career.

Currently all coursera courses are free. They may start to charge of specific services such as the issues of certificates. Financially, the universities are quite comfortable with supports from many organisation.

Note: Online learning had been practiced by many successful organisations for their corporate development program and staff developments scheme.

Read More

PreUniversity in Malaysia

The traditional qualification required for the students entry into university was the A level. When Malaysia started to introduce the Malay Language as the mean of education, a new equivalent qualification of STPM was created.

In early 70s, many of the Malaysian Universities introduced the "preuniversity" program. Slowly, the program gathered popularity and became one of the main stream of inputs for the university students. With the introduction of private university act in late 90s, open up the opportunities for the introduction second stream of universities. Even before the Act, there were many private institutions operation, and there were representing overseas universities or colleges. One of such institutions is Taylor College.

• The South Australian Matriculation programme is the first in Malaysia, and today the largest South Australian Matriculation centre in the world.
• The biggest independent centre for Cambridge A Levels in the world, the largest in Malaysia and thefirst to be awarded the Cambridge International Fellowship Centre status (only 3 such centres in Malaysia).
• Pioneer of the Canadian Pre-University programme in Malaysia (1983).
• In 2009, Taylor's College introduced the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) and is one of 11 IB World Schools in Malaysia.

Read More