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The European College Teaching & Learning (ETLC) Conference Proceedings -
ISSN 1539-8757
June 7-10, 2010 in Dublin, Ireland

Table of Contents
1 The Potential To Learn: Preservice Teachers Proposed Use Of Instructional Strategies
For Students With A Learning Disability by Stuart Woodcock
2 Canadian Preservice Teachers Classroom Behaviour Management Practices by Stuart
Woodcock
3 The Influence Of Motives, Attitude And Teacher Training Programmes On Teachers
Professionalism Of Students Teacher At Institute Of Education Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. by
Zelzy Shahar Al-Johary
4 Size And Performance In Academia: Unit Size And Faculty Assessment By Students In
One Israeli Campus by Dan Soen, Nitza Davidovitch
5 Academic-Social Climate In Support Of E-Learning A Key To Students' Perceptions Of
Academic Success by Nitza Davidovitch, Dan Soen
6 The Course Management Systems and the College Classroom by Barton D. Thurber, Jack
W. Pope
12 Arabic Speaking Skill Learning Strategies Of Selected Malay Learners At The IIUM
(International Islamic University Malaysia) by Sueraya Che Haron, Ismail Sheikh Ahmad
22 Thai Pre-Engineering Students' Mathematical Background and Attitudes Towards
Instruction by Sivilai Thanormsuay
31 Effects Of Teams-Games-Tournaments On Achievement, Retention, And Attitudes Of
Economics Education Students by Micheal M. Van Wyk
40 Mentoring Reflective Practice In Pre-Service Teachers: The Voice Of Australian Science
Teachers Reconstructing The Mentoring Provided By Pre-Service Lecturers, Especially In The
Development Of Professional Reflective Practice by Paul de Ville
57 Resistance Postures to Radical Ideologies by Juliet Perumal
58 Student Perceptions of Faculty Credibility Based on Email Addresses by Jeffrey A.
Livermore, Marla G. Scafe, Linda S. Wiechowski
59 A Black Lecturers Identity-Shaping Self-Reflections Following His White Students
Perceptions Of Social Justice Issues: Explorations Towards Sustainable Empowering Learning
Environments by Willy Nel
60 Leadership? In Public Education by Jack Crews, Kylee Crews
64 Preparing Culturally Diverse Special Education Faculty: Challenges and Solutions by
Patricia Peterson, Stephen Showalter
70 The Role of the Academic Portfolio in Documenting Faculty Development by Genevieve
Pinto Zipp, Susan Simpkins
71 Enhancing Cultural Diversity In Integrated School Settings Of The Northern Cape
Province: Cooperative Learning As Teaching Tool by Michael van Wyk
72 Breaking Through the Barrier: Evaluation of a Life Coaching Seminar by Barbara
Fralinger, Joseph White, Michele DiCorcia
87 The Man In The Mirror: Exploring The Impact Of Critical Reflection Through The Use
Of Service Learning And Digital Storytelling by Kisha N. Daniels
89 HIV/AIDS, The Health Of Men And Women In Their Reproductive Ages In Ekiti State,
Nigeria by Eunice O. Osakinle
93 Assessing Effective Attributes of Followers in a Leadership Process by Absael Antelo,
Margaret Sheridan-Pereira
104 Use of Clinical Visitations as a Medium to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Health
Science Students by Genevieve Pinto Zipp, Cathy Maher
105 Use of Diverse Group Projects for the Promotion of Content Knowledge, Communication
Skills, and Teamwork in Health Science Students by Genevieve Pinto Zipp, Cathy Maher
106 Use of Research Forums as a Medium to Further Promote Critical Thinking Skills and a
Sense of Purpose in Doctoral Students by Genevieve Pinto Zipp, Valerie Dong Olson
107 A New Twist On An Old Tool: Joint Learning With An Innovative Cognitive Writing
Tool by Jane Ekstram Mattisson, Teri Schamp-Bjerede
108 Meeting The Twenty First Century Challenges Of University Teaching Through In-
Service Education And Training Of Academics by Lenka E. Mofokeng, L. E. Letsie
117 Critical Thinking Concept Reconstructed by Mary Kennedy Minter
126 Leadership Competencies: The Contribution Of The Bachelor In Management And
Leadership (BML) To The Development Of Leaders At First National Bank, South Africa by
Sylvie Botha, Madaleen Claassens
138 A Graduate Health Care Strategic Planning Course: Learner-Centered Teaching Integrated
with International Service Learning in the Developmental Phase of an Entry-Level Nursing
Program in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka by Valerie Dong Olson
140 College Radio: Information +Entertainment =Learning by Deborah J. Smith
141 Informed Student-driven Participatory Learning: Approaches to Capstone Work by
Dolores Bertoti
142 Student Editorial Board Members: In The Zone Of Proximal Development Of Language
Learning by John W. Schwieter
143 Developing a Culturally Responsive Classroom Collaborative of Faculty, Students, and
Institution by Paul Colbert
153 Analysis Of Variables Involved In The Process Of Integrating ICT In Higher Education
by Ana Garcia-Valcarcel Munoz-Repiso, Francisco Javier Tejedor Tejedor
162 Project work using ICTs in a University Setting by Azucena Hernandez Martin,
Anunciacion Quintero Gallego
167 Integration of ICTs in University Education and Training Needs by Anunciacion Quintero
Gallego, Azucena Hernandez Martin
173 Web 2.0: The Social Web. Using Social Software in the Education in a Collaborative Way
by Jorge Martin de Arriba
181 Informational Literacy and ICTs Use by Secondary Education Students in Spain: A
Descriptive Study by Maria Jose Rodriguez Conde, Susana Olmos Miguelanez, Maria Pinto
Molina, Fernando Martinez Abad, Blanca Garcia Riaza
193 Working Together Within The University: An Interdisciplinary Project In Education by
Isabel-Maria Ferrandiz-Vindel, Ana-Maria Bordallo-Jaen, Jose-Luis Gonzalez-Geraldo
194 Games As Teaching Resources In The European Higher Education Area by Ana-Maria
Bordallo-Jaen, Jose-Luis Gonzalez-Geraldo, Isabel-Maria Ferrandiz-Vindel
195 New Times, New Ways Of Teaching And Learning: Perception Of The European Higher
Education Area And Pedagogical Discussion by Jose-Luis Gonzalez-Geraldo, Isabel-Maria
Ferrandiz-Vindel, Ana-Maria Bordallo-Jaen
196 Measurement Of Students Attitude Towards Statistics: A Mokken Scales Analysis Of Its
Dimensions by Manuel Vargas-Vargas, Jose Mondejar-J imenez, Maria-Leticia Meseguer-
Santamaria
197 Cooperative Learning In Virtual Environments: The J igsaw Method In Statistical Courses
by Maria-Leticia Meseguer-Santamaria, Jose Mondejar-J imenez, Manuel Vargas-Vargas
198 Coordination Of Teachers In The New Degrees Adapted To The European Higher
Education Area: Experience In The Faculty Of Social Sciences Of Cuenca by Juan-Antonio
Mondejar-J imenez, Maria-Angeles Zurilla-Carinana, M. Dioni Elche-Hortelano, Yolanda Doig-
Diaz, Santiago Catala-Rubio
199 Virtual Campus And New Degrees: The Experience Of New Technologies In Marketing
Courses by Juan-Antonio Mondejar-J imenez, Agueda Esteban-Talaya, Maria Cordente-
Rodriguez
200 Tourism Studies Under The European Higher Education Area: The Case Of The
University Of Extremadura (Spain) by Fco. Javier Ortega-Rossell, Patricia Milanes-Montero,
Esteban Perez Calderon
201 Teaching Innovation And Use Of The ICT In The Teaching-Learning Process Within The
New Framework Of The EHEA By Means Of Moodle Platform by Adelaida Ciudad-Gomez
202 The Relationship Between Faculty Satisfaction and Online Quality Enhancement
Initiatives by Anita Satterlee
208 How to Implement a Peer Mediation Program by J ames W. Gilhooley, Nanette Scheuch
209 Beliefs about Homework Assignments among College Students of Japanese by Yukie
Aida
212 On Line Instruction: An Opportunity To Re-Examine And Re-Invent Pedagogy by Irene
Rosenthal
218 Customising Teacher Education Programs For Delivery In Remote Australian
Communities by Alison Elliott
219 The Relationship Among Gender, Age, Study Mode, Learning Approaches and Academic
Achievement: the Case of Hong Kong Sub-degree Students by Yiu Kong Ringo Chan
220 An Overview of the Curriculum of Religious Seminaries of Pakistan with Its Historical
Back Ground by Rashid Ahmad
229 Teachers Burnout Levels And Their Attitudes Towards Teaching Profession by Oylum
Akkus spir
234 Impact of Bar Review Course on Bar Passage Rates for a U.S. Law School by J. Vincent
Eagan
235 The Culture of University Teacher Preparation and Resistance from Schools: Towards a
Taxonomy of Pre-Service Teacher Preparation, Veteran Teacher Development and School
Improvement by Seth Agbo
236 Assessing Methods to Improve Class Participation by Catherine Sutton-Brady, Nicole
Stegemann
245 Can Schools Effectively Address Health-Related Issues Of Obesity Without Oppressing
The Intended Group: Can We Ensure That Both Process And Product Are Favorable? by James
L. DeBoy
246 An Exploration of Differences of Leadership Perceptions Related to a Students Gender
Within the College of Business at a Small Liberal Arts Institution by Karen K. Yarrish, Kenneth
Zula, Erin Davis
253 Organizational Culture at the University Level: A Follow-Up Study Using the OCAI
Instrument by Barbara Fralinger, Valerie Dong Olson, Genevieve Pinto Zipp, Michele DiCorcia
266 Enhancing Research Capacity through Social Work Research-Based Field Education by
Christine A. Walsh, Jennifer Hewson, Cathryn Bradshaw
269 The Relation Between The Autonomy Level And The Learning Styles Of English
Language Learners by Z. Canan Karababa, Inci Gultekin
270 Real Learning in a Virtual World: Incorporating Second Life in a Professional
Communications Course by Susan Oaks
271 The Research Roadmap: A Primer to the Approach and Process by Phillip E. Burian,
Lynda Rogerson, Francis R. "Skip" Maffei III
287 Academic Performance, School Desertion And Emotional Paradigm In University
Students by Emma Rosa Cruz Sosa, Laura Gatica Barrientos, Patricia Eugenia Garcia Castro,
Jesus Hernandez Garcia
297 Im A Poet? : International Doctoral Students At An American University Participate In A
Creative Writing Workshop by J ill Ostrow, Lynn/Chih Ning Chang
299 An Overview of College Developmental Education in the US and Development of a
College Reading Course at a Four Year State University by Joan E. Dillon
300 Linking Theory and Practice: Students and Professors as Co-constructors of Knowledge
by John M. Peters, Patti Long
303 Promotion and Tenure In A Collective Bargaining Environment by Jeffrey Halpern
304 Guilt, Failure, and the Learning Curve: How my numerous pedagogical shortcomings
have molded me into a better teacher by Paul Cesarini
306 Using Literature as a Foundation for Teaching Research Writing by Jane Rosenbaum
307 English Language Learners, Composing, and Healing by Roy F. Fox
308 An English Language Learners Perspective on Using Language, Literature, & Media as
Healing. by Lynn/Chih Ning Chang
309 How Do L1 and L2 Students Respond to Multi-Modal Composition Assignments for
Purposes of Healing? by J ayme Pingrey
310 Tentative Observations of an Experimental Course, Teaching Therapeutic Language,
Literature, & Media by Rebecca Dierking
311 Knowledge Construction Process In Online Discussion by Saemah Rahman, Mohd Yasin
Ruhizan, Mohd Nordin Norazah, Mohd Yunus Melor
318 A Multicenter Study of Students Sensitivity to Screen Update Delay by H. Francis Bush,
James Squire, Gerald Sullivan, Vonda Walsh
326 Brick By Brick - The Transition From Secondary School To University: Laying
Foundations For Higher Learning by Patty Kamvounias, Elizabeth Carnegie
327 Professional Development for In-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers by Juli D'Ann
Ratheal
328 Including All Students Via Differential Learning Strategies by Noella Piquette-Tomei
330 Physical Education in College: Predicting Physical Activity and Influencing College
Students to Be Physically Active by Jean Lemoyne
331 An Accounting Program Merit Pay Survey by David H. Lindsay, Annhenrie Campbell,
Kim B. Tan, Andrew "Drew" Wagner
332 Experiential Learning and Management Education: Empirical Research and Implications
for Practice in Higher Education in Slovenia by Sandra Penger, Jana Znidarsic, Vlado Dimovski
345 The Innovative Nature of Scientific Research in the Knowledge Management Process at
Medical College by Juris Firsts
354 Bank Regulatory Reform in the United States: The Case of Goldman and the Volker Rule
by Elizabeth Holowecky, Ashley Murry, Violeta Staneva, Mary Jayne Fuglister
265 YouTube for Two: Online Video Resources in a Student-centered, Task-based ESL/EFL
Environment by Robert Hamilton,
369 Accounting Education of Students on Faculties of Management by Milena Persic,
Dubravka Vlasic, Katarina Poldrugovac, Anastazia Ivancic
370 The Impact of Cued Articulation on Chinese Learners English Pronunciation by Jane
Brennan
371 Culture Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Teaching General English by Fatemeh
Haji Seyed Abolghasem
377 Interdisciplinary Integration Through Problem-Based Learning with ICT in Pre-Service
Teacher Education by Siti Fatimah Mohd. Yassin, Saemah Rahman, Hamidah Yamat
386 The Mobile Learning Readiness of the Post-Graduate Students by Mohd Nordin Norazah,
Mohamed Amin Embi, Mohd Yasin Ruhizan, Saemah Rahman, Mohd Yunus Melor
387 Blended Learning University Students Perception of Digital Competence by Maria Cruz
Sanchez Gomez, Ana Maria Pinto Llorente, Francisco Jose Garcia Penalvo
398 Profile Of Private Universities: An Examination Of Career Aspiration Of Student Nigeria
by Rukevwe Juliet Ogedegbe
399 The Professional Education Opportunities And Their Impact On The Labour Market by
Emma Rosa Cruz Sosa, Patricia Eugenia Garcia Castro, Laura Gatica Barrientos
419 Experiential Learning for Upper-class Business Students by Joan H. Coll-Reilly
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2010 The Clute Institute for Academic Research. All Rights Reserved.

2010 EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings Dublin, I reland
377
Interdisciplinary Integration Through
Problem-Based Learning with ICT in Pre-
Service Teacher Education
Siti Fatimah Mohd Yassin, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Saemah Rahman, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Hamidah Yamat, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia


Abstract

In pre-service teacher education curriculum, there are various disciplines of knowledge that are
taught separately. Many student teachers faced difficulties to construct, apply and integrate the
knowledge learned in the traditional discipline-based curriculum when they are undertaking their
teaching practice in school and educational research project. In addition, they were brought up in
teaching and learning for examination purpose for many years during their school days.
Therefore, an action research has been conducted to explore how interdisciplinary integration
through problem-based learning with ICT (PBL_ICT) strategy in pre-service teacher education
can be carried out. The research participants were the authors as teacher educators and the
pre-service student teachers from postgraduate diploma in education program. The finding
showed that the student teachers needed to be facilitated in construction, application and
integration of knowledge. The interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT strategy can be
successfully carried out in traditional discipline-based curriculum for pre-service teacher
education. Using this strategy, students learned about action research in education and other
courses in a meaningful way. However, the self, peer and metacognitive reflections need further
attention.

Keyword: Pre-service teacher education, interdisciplinary integration, problem-based learning, Information and
communication technology (ICT), action research.


INTRODUCTION

At the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Faculty of Education, there is a ten-month postgraduate
diploma in education (DipEd) for pre-service teacher education program. The courses for educational foundation
component of the program are Educational psychology; Learning Assessment; Educational Philosophy and
Development, School and Society; Co-curriculum Management and Monitoring; and Action Research (AR) in
Education. The student teachers already hold a bachelor degree in specialized content knowledge (CK) from
different universities. Some of them had working experiences as temporary teachers, accountant, clerk and research
assistant before enrolling the program. The pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as formulated by Shulman
(1987) is the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching that blending content and pedagogy into an understanding
of how particular topics, problems or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and
abilities of learners, and presented for instruction. In this component, student teachers learned on how to teach the
CK that is blended with pedagogy. The PCK courses are Teaching Method, Macro Teaching and Teaching Practice
in School. The program also has minor component or Second Focus courses that become the PCK for specialized
CK such as Special Education, Physical Education and English for Special Purpose. In addition, Mishra and Koehler
(2006) had created a new framework that extension of Shulmans PCK called Technological Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (TPCK). In this program, Technology and Innovation in Education course is the TPCK component.

The first author specialized in Computer Education and Educational Technology fields, was the program
coordinator for this program, the lecturer for AR in Education course and the coordinator for Teaching Practice in
2010 EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings Dublin, I reland
378
School. With these positions, it become easy for her to review from micro and macro level of the weaknesses and
strengths of the program as a whole and suggested several solutions. The second author taught Educational
Psychology and Teaching Methods courses. The third author took part as supervisor in Teaching Practice in School.

Based on the authors experiences, observations, reflections, analyzing of students answers for
examination paper and assignment; discussions with teacher educators and student teachers, they faced difficulties
to construct, apply and integrate the various disciplines of knowledge they have learned within a course and
among courses. This can be obviously seen when they were undertaking the Teaching Practice in School and Action
Research Projects. Some of the courses emphasized more on the theories rather than hands-on learning activities.
They tended to memorize some of the concepts with little understanding. For those who had teaching experiences,
they can relate their experiences with new knowledge. However, some of them failed to see the significance of
learning the theories and concepts that can be applied and integrated in their future career as teachers.

In addition, the students used to study for the examination purpose for many years during their school days.
After examination, they forgot what they have learned. Their family hoped they can excel in the central
examination and got good grade to enter the higher education institutions, not so much emphasized the knowledge
construction, application and integration. This is the way of learning at higher education for most students. It is a
great challenge for the teacher educators and other CK lecturers to change their way of learning from learning for
the examination purpose to learning in a meaningful way and at the same time excel in their studies.

Due to the problems mentioned above, an action research (AR) has been conducted to explore how
interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT strategy in pre-service teacher education program can be carried out.
This research had been explored since 2008 that involved three cycles. This paper reported on how this
intervention can be implemented in a traditional discipline-based curriculum.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW

There are three strategies adopted in this studies namely, interdisciplinary integration, problem-based
learning and learning with ICT as shown in Figure 1. These strategies were integrated and implemented in the
discipline-based curriculum in pre-service teacher education program, when the student teachers were going
through the Teaching Practice in School and doing collaborative AR Projects. They were facilitated to become
expert learners as well as integrative and reflective thinkers. This section reviews the related literature in these
strategies.


2010 EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings Dublin, I reland
379

Figure 1: Conceptual framework for the studies


Interdisciplinary integration

According to Barth (1991), interdisciplinary can be defined as how various disciplines in social studies and
humanities are interconnected. Integration can be referred as how the facts, concepts and generalizations in the
various disciplines are held in common. Therefore, interdisciplinary integration give the meaning of the integration
of facts, concepts and generalizations of interconnected various disciplines of knowledge in social studies and
humanities. However, many educators use the terms for integration and interdisciplinary interchangeably. In science
education, Lederman and Niess (1997) define integration as a blending of science and mathematics to the point that
the separate parts are indiscernible. They also define the interdisciplinary as a blending of science and mathematics
where connection are made between the two subjects but remain identifiable. According to Harden (2000),
interdisciplinary integration emphasizes the themes as a focus of learning and relates them with the
commonalities across the disciplines. The unclear definition of these terms has made little agreement among science
educators regarding the use of these terms (Czerniak, 2007). Therefore, it has made a few empirical research
studies to support the evidence that integrated approach is more effective than the traditional approach of science
curriculum delivery. However, according to Czerniak, the integrated approach has become a new phenomenon in
teacher education program at the university level and the findings from the research for the effectiveness of this
approach are mixed.

The similar interdisciplinary integration concept in teacher education has been coined by Shulman (1987)
who formulated PCK. Later, Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed the new framework of TPCK as an extension of
Shulmans PCK. TPCK gives a clear framework for the research in field of educational technology on how the
teachers integrate technology in pedagogy. For the student teachers, the knowledge they learn in teacher education
program can be considered new to them. The interdisciplinary integration helps much teacher educators in
facilitating student teachers to construct, apply and integrate knowledge.

In this research, the interdisciplinary integration can be defined as the integration of declarative,
procedural and conditional knowledge within a course and among courses in educational foundation, content
knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and technological pedagogical content knowledge and that are taught in
pre-service teacher education curriculum. The students have learned about the types and construction of knowledge
in Educational Psychology course and they should be able to apply and integrate the knowledge in other courses
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such as PBL in pedagogy course; ICT in education and educational technology in Technology and Innovation in
Education. Student teachers have gained experiences on how to employ interdisciplinary integration approach when
they become novice or beginning teachers in school.

Problem-Based Learning

The interdisciplinary integration and PBL strategies have been employed in designing new curriculum at
the medical and health science faculty. A new curricular concept that adopted the interdisciplinary integration with
the support of PBL approach had been implemented at the medical faculty of the Rheinisch-Westfalische
Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany (Beckers et al.,2005). Based on the course evaluation, these
strategies were accepted as the new approach. In Australian, the University of New South Wales also used the
interdisciplinary integration and PBL as an innovative medical curriculum (McNeil et al., 2006). Therefore, based
on these two cases, this research employed problem-based learning strategy to support the interdisciplinary
integration.

Several models of PBL in literature that suitable for this research have been reviewed. Amador and
Gorres (2004) describe the PBL cycle as: (1) understanding the question, (2) identifying what they know and do not
know, (3) finding the information they need, (4) sharing new information and (5) identifying new questions. PBL
has been illustrated by DiCarlo (2006) has five repeating steps that should be taken by a small group of students
when solving a problem based case. Student learning begins with a problem to be solved rather than facts to be
mastered. In this context, students are motivated and they address the situation by applying their knowledge. By
doing this, concepts are learned along the way. Second, students gather information and consult resources to fill
conceptual holes and address misconceptions. Third, students and their peers co-operate by asking and answering
questions and processing new information to solve the problem. Fourth, students define new areas of required
learning and learn effective communication skills. Lastly, students integrate new knowledge and skills in context of
the problem and enhance collaborative skills of acquiring, analyzing and communicating information.

Grow and Plucker (2003) suggested several elements in designing problems. First, the learning activities
should be anchored to a larger task or problem. The problem should be authentic in order to capitalize on students
intrinsic motivation to identify useful solutions to real problems. Second, the problems are assigned before any
relevant information is formally presented in class. Third, the problems do not necessarily have correct answer, nor
does a single process to solve them. Fourth, the problem should evoke interest and connect to the students world.
According to Dirckinck-Holmfeld (2009), the PBL approach supports the development of competencies and skills
of interdisciplinary thinking and problem solving, and the competencies to identify and formulate serious problems
and see problem areas in new ways. Therefore, this research has integrated the PBL models and guideline described
above with some adjustment that suitable for student teachers of postgraduate diploma in education and the nature of
AR in Education course and Teaching Practice in School.

Learning With ICT

The integration of computer or ICT in education has promised many benefits. How computer can develop
students thinking skills and knowledge construction while they are learning with the online materials and using
computer as productive and mind tool for information searching, organizing information for reporting and
presentation are the potential research to be explored. The strategy of learning with computer as defined by
Jonassen (2000) is the use computer applications software to engage learners in constructive, higher-order thinking
about specific areas of study. For student teachers, they have to gain experience of this integration while they are in
the teacher education program before implementing the integration of ICT in schools. When they immerse with the
integration by themselves, then they will have an intrinsic motivation to develop ICT culture in school.

The integration of PBL and ICT had been discussed in 2006 at an international research seminar on
Innovating Problem Based Learning through ICT at Aalborg University in Denmark (Dirckinck-Holmfeld, 2009).
According to Dirckinck-Holmfeld, PBL has to be adjusted to the local conditions, as well as the educational and
cultural traditions. It is important to look beyond technological constraints and to use the human resources for the
successful of the integration PBL-ICT. So and Kim (2009) studied on how student teachers learned about PBL
when they were designing lesson plan that integrated technology, pedagogy and content knowledge in the TPCK
2010 EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings Dublin, I reland
381
framework. The findings revealed that student teachers had theoretical understandings about PBL, but their lesson
plan showed they had problems to integrate technology, pedagogy and subject matter knowledge.

In this research, the strategy of PBL-ICT was used to support interdisciplinary integration when the
students teachers engaging with the AR projects and Teaching Practice in School. PBL-ICT approach was employed
in this course for the students to learn and gain experience from the process of implementing AR. According to
Smith and Sela (2005), AR can serve as a bridge between pre-service teacher education and in-service professional
development for students and teacher educators. Ax et al. (2008) explored how students' and teacher educators'
practical experiences with AR to put research into practice in concrete terms in the courses. Choy et al. (2009)
studied the intentions and actions of student teachers in integrating technology into their teaching. Therefore, in this
research, the student teachers were facilitated to be teacher as researcher and gain experience of using this
integration strategy. The authors as teacher educators also gain experiences for improving the course and
establishing the innovative integration approach as a contribution to knowledge and professional growth.

METHODS

This study evolved as an AR project. It has been conducted since 2008 at the Faculty of Education, UKM. The
authors as teacher educators were the major instruments to put the integration of theories and strategies into practice
as part of professional development. The study involved three groups of student teachers. 452 student teachers
from three cohorts of postgraduate DipEd program participated in the study. Data were collected through
researchers reflections, observation, interview, students answers for examination paper, assignments and AR
projects. Data were triangulated for the in-depth analysis to improve the proposed intervention strategy. This
research only involved three cycles, there was no new intake for following academic year. Table 1 shows the
number of student teachers took part as research participants in the three cycles of AR project.


Table 1: Number of Research Participants
Program
Number of research participants in group for each cycle
Year 2008 Year 2009 Year 2010 Total
Post graduate diploma
in Education (DipEd)
n=63
(specialized in
Islamic Education,
Special Education)
n=112
(specialized in
Islamic Education,
Special Education,
Biology Education)
n=102
(specialized in
business and
entrepreneurial
education, Special
Education)
N=452


FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This article only addresses the process of how the interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT strategy
can be implemented in the traditional discipline-based curriculum of pre-service teacher education program. The
class for the AR in Education used a student-centered approach with many activities to ensure the deep learning
process occurred in knowledge construction of AR as well as knowledge application and integration in AR Projects
and Teaching Practice in School. The findings based on triangulation of data from various sources and techniques.
In this section, the findings for three cycles of AR will be described and discussed in details.

Cycle 1

This cycle involved 63 student teachers. They learned about basic principle of AR in the AR in Education
course. The course assessment was 30% of final examination and 70% of coursework (15% - book review related to
AR, 15% - review of three articles related to AR and 40% AR Project). This course required the students to use
Web 2.0 technology such as blog, e-group (Yahoo! Groups) and email. Some of them were having problems for
engaging with these applications, but they had skills of using word processor and presentation software. The
coursework was done in a group of three to four students. The students divided the task among them based on their
competencies. This might give disadvantages for the students who were lacking of ICT skills. They had depended
2010 EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings Dublin, I reland
382
much on their peers who were ICT literates. Working in group for learning purposes were the challenge for the
students. They were not used working in group before, but they can overcome by the end of the course and working
together for collaborative AR projects in teaching practice in schools.

Each group had to create their own web blog to submit the assignment of books and articles review. The
journal articles were from online research database that were subscribed by UKM. Electronic discussion group (e-
group) was created using Yahoo! Groups platform and the student submitted the original articles in their own folder
in the e-groups to be shared among them. In this e-group, the students also put their group blog URL addresses. The
teacher educators monitored the students process of learning via blog and e-group. Based on these group
assignments, creating the blogs were not the issues for them, but knowledge construction seemed to be the problems
for most of these postgraduate student teachers. Based on content of their blogs, they just cut and pasted the
sentence from the articles or books and translated them to the Malay language which was the medium of
instruction for this course. The English language was the barrier for accomplishing these assignments. Besides that,
they students did not have self-confident to choose the suitable books and articles for the assignments. The students
were also lacked of higher order thinking skills that were required for reviewing and answering the examination
questions.

The finding from the groups assignment for books and articles review showed that there were passenger
students in a group. They felt uncomfortable to work in group. The course tutor told them to apply the cooperative
and collaborative learning that had learned in other courses before. They just divided the task to read the article
individually with no discussion what they had learned about AR process from the articles. Consequently, they faced
difficulties to do their collaborative AR projects.

There were two AR projects. For the AR Project 1, the main purpose was to give experience in
implementing collaborative AR research process for one cycle. Students had to find the problem they faced about
learning certain topics of subject during their school days. They prepared research proposals with suggested
solution by applying and integrating the knowledge they had learned in teaching method, educational psychology,
learning assessment, educational technology and innovation. They had collected the data when they did macro
teaching classes. The students worked in group, but they were from different macro teaching classes. They can
triangulate the data by comparing and contrasting from different settings. Later, they wrote reports and presented
their research in a class seminar to share their findings and get feedback from other students and course lecturer. The
students seemed not convenience of doing AR research in mock-up setting of macro teaching classes because the
student teachers played the role as school students. It was more meaningful if they have collected the data from the
real school students.

After reflecting the problem faced by the student teachers for data collection and analysis of AR Project 1,
there was a need for AR Project 2. It was not part of formal evaluation of the AR course. They had to do a
collaborative AR in school when they were undergoing teaching practice for three months. The main purpose for
this project was to give experiences to the students of doing collaborative AR in the real setting in school and
collecting the data for more than one cycle. After finishing the Teaching Practice in School, they had to come back
to the campus for presenting their AR Project 2. They had to write reports and present their findings for getting
feedback from lecturers and other student teachers as well as for knowledge and experiences sharing.

The self-reflection was part of teaching and AR process. For both AR projects, they had left the
documentation of self-reflection as part of the teaching and learning as well as AR processes. However, they could
explain in details with enthusiastic when they were asked to explain how they did their AR project in classroom
during a question and answer session. For the integration of knowledge, by doing the AR project, the students
learned how the various knowledge they had learned from discipline-based curriculum could be practiced in the
classroom. Therefore, they can see and construct the interconnection of concepts from different disciplines of
knowledge. The interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT can be considered successful, but there were several
weaknesses needed to be improved for the Cycle 2.




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Cycle 2

In this cycle, it involved 112 student teachers. The actions taken were based on all the weaknesses
encountered from Cycle 1, but the strengths remained. The course assessment was adjusted to 30% of final
examination and 70% of coursework (10% - book review related to AR, 10% - review of three articles related to
AR, 5% - attending and reporting the seminar, 15% AR Project 1 and 30% AR Project 2). The students attended
the Regional Seminar on Southeast Asia Educational Research organized by Faculty of Education, UKM. The
students took part as reporter for each presenter. They also learned how to organize the seminar. The committee was
formed for organizing the colloquiums for presenting AR Project 1 at the end of the course and AR Project 2 after
finishing the teaching practice in school.

The ICT tools were the same as in Cycle 1. However, the assignment for books and article reviews were
done individually to give them more responsible on their own learning before working together for AR Project 1. In
the articles review assignment, they had to compare and contrast the AR process from three AR articles retrieved
from online database subscribed by UKM. The findings showed that the postgraduate student teachers lacked of
confidence to choose the suitable articles and books for the assignments. By doing these assignments, it inculcated
reading habits of heavy materials and developed their higher order thinking skills. They also exposed to the AR done
by teachers outside Malaysia. Based on the content of individual blogs, there were still for some students to cut and
paste the points written in English and translated them into Malay language. However, by doing translation, at least
they learned about variety approaches of AR that can be adopted in their collaborative AR projects.

For the collaborative AR Project 1 done in group of three to four students, it was the same procedure as in
the Cycle 1. Based on their presentation of AR Project 1 at the end of the course, it showed that students
understanding of doing AR in the macro teaching classes were better. The individual assignment of article and
book reviews had helped them for construction, application and integration of knowledge. However, they were
uncomfortable to collect data from student teachers who playing the role as school students in mock-up setting of
macro teaching classes. The students also learned on how to organize mini seminar on AR.

After completing the teaching practice in school and doing collaborative AR Project 2, the students came
back to the UKM campus for presenting their AR research in a formal colloquium. The audiences of the colloquium
not only among themselves, but also their juniors involved in Cycle 3. This colloquium was successful for the first
timers of doing collaborative AR project the real problems and settings. Working together in a big group for
organizing the colloquium and in small group for doing collaborative AR Project 2 had improved their weaknesses
of working in a team and learning from each other for knowledge construction. The interdisciplinary integration
through PBL-ICT strategy can be considered successful. However, most of the students were not documenting the
self-reflection properly due to the time constraint during teaching practice in school. Self-reflection was part of the
documentation for in teaching practice record book, but they were writing their reflection in details. They claimed
that all in the minds and they can recall it anytime for taking planning and taking action for improvement.
Documenting the reflection for them was a time-consuming.

Cycle 3

In this cycle, it involved 102 students teacher. The course assessment and the ICT tools remained the same
as previous one. However, the improvement had been made in several ways that will be described later in this
section. All coursework were done in group of three students. As mentioned in Cycle 2, the students were attending
the colloquium organized by their seniors as part of learning assessment. They also took part as reporter for each
presentation. They had learned only the introduction of AR when attended the colloquium. The students made a
report as part of course assessment and presented it in the class. Based on their presentations and reflections in the
next class, many questions they asked to the presenters were made them confused. The senior student teachers
explained to them how to go about the AR in classroom. However, they were exposed and got better understanding
on AR.

In this cycle, the blog and e-group were intensively used as compared to the previous group. This was
because the committee for this class was very proactive and dynamic in developing the ICT culture. During the
class, they brought their laptops. The students also applied the cooperative and collaborative learning strategies
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after class. They form a big group that consists of three small groups to discuss on how to go about the coursework
and for knowledge construction and sharing.

For the books and articles review assignments, the groups had to present in the class. Even though, these
assignments were done in group, individual students had to read three different AR articles and book on their own
and later discussed and share with other students in small group and big group. This was the improvement made
after reflecting how to avoid the cut and paste activities that being done by the students. During the presentation,
the course tutor made evaluation whether the students really understood the concept of AR they had read in the
articles and books. Other students had to ask questions to the presenters. The course tutor made comments and
elaborated some points if the students were getting confused in the knowledge construction of the AR. The students
used blog to report the articles and book reviews. The students used the blogs as presentation tool. During the
presentation, other students accessed the blogs and created questions to be asked to the presenters.

The students also had to present the proposal for AR Project 1 before they implemented in the macro
teaching class. The theme for AR project 1 was clearly stated - The Integration of Technology in Teaching and
Learning. This was a new added value for AR Project 1 to ensure the students applied the knowledge and skills
learned from the course of Technology and Innovation in Education and integrated with knowledge from other
courses. It was also to develop student teacher creative thinking to integrate the technology in innovative ways in the
classroom (the setting was in a macro teaching class). In this cycle, the students designed the rubric for AR Project 1
and 2 for self and peer assessment during the colloquiums. This was also a value added to ensure the students have
a skill to develop rubric for formative assessment and used the rubric for peer-assessment for AR Project 1 and 2.
Again, the same as the previous cycle, the students were not documenting the self-reflections as part of data
collection in AR Project. They emphasized more on other methods of data collection such as questionnaire, pretest
and posttest, observation and interview as evidence for their AR Project 1. The course tutor always reminded them
about the reflection as part of AR process and data collection. The documentation of self-reflection was part of
documentation in teaching record book (logbook), but they just wrote in a simple manner because they had to spend
more time on writing lesson plan in details. However, the reflections were in their mind, and they can recall it when
doing triangulation with other data and writing the next lesson plan.

In Cycle 3, the interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT was successfully implemented. However,
the reflection must be emphasized in implementing this strategy. The effective and practical ways of documenting
the reflection have to be formulated.

IMPLICATION AND CONCLUSION

After experiencing the implementation of the interdisciplinary integration through PBL-ICT strategy in
three cycles, it is implied that the teacher educators have to update themselves with the new knowledge, strategy
and technique that can be transferred to the student teachers in a practical way. Teacher educators and student
teachers should follow the rapid growth of technology that can be integrated in teaching and learning from time to
time. Even though, the new technology might not reach the school yet, but by gaining experiences of integration of
knowledge and implementation through Action Research Project in the teacher education program give them many
advantages as beginning teachers in the near future.

The program coordinator plays an important role for the success of the interdisciplinary integration through
PBL-ICT. The cooperation of teacher educators who teach the courses in this program made this strategy possible
to be carried out. The student teachers need to be facilitated by the teacher educators in knowledge construction,
application and integration in a structured manner. This is because the student teachers used to study individually in
a structured discipline-based curriculum with the emphasizing on learning for examination for each subject. In
implementing PBL, the student teachers need to be guided at the beginning on how to structure the ill-structured
problem when doing AR Project 1. The integration of AR and PBL processes can be the structured framework for
implementing this strategy in teacher education program. The student teachers also gain experiences on how to
implement the AR and PBL in their own classroom later in the future when they become beginning teacher as
researcher.

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In this research, the self, peer and metacognitive reflections need further attention. These involve other
knowledge such as reflective teaching and learning; reflective thinking and metacognitive reflection to be included
in the framework as a basis for the inquiry process. The use of learning journals might be stressed in the future
research so that the student teachers can monitor themselves to be expert learner; integrative and reflective thinker.

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