ARTICLE REVIEW 1

Hao, T. J., Mustakim, S. S., Thilagavathy, Minghat, A. D., Suhid, A., Manaf, A U. K.,

& Yet, T. (2020). An Evaluation of Moral Education's Capabilities In Enriching

Student's Moral Behaviour. International Journal Of Advance Science and

Technology, pp 357-365.

Introduction

This article entitled ‘An Evaluation of Moral Education's Capabilities in Enriching

Student's Moral Behaviour’ is written by Hao, T. J., Mustakim, S. S., Thilagavathy,

Minghat, A. D., Suhid, A., Manaf, A. U. K., & Yet, T. (2020). The purpose of this

article is to discuss the capability of the Moral Education in enriching the secondary

student’s behavior in Melaka. The article shows the effectiveness of Moral Education

in enhancing the secondary student’s moral behavior. Apart from that the article also

stresses on the curriculum and syllabus of Moral Education where it clearly shows

that it is suitable and should be continued with some improvement. Moral Education

is a compulsory subject for all Non-Muslim student whereas the Islamic Education is

for Muslim student. The aim of Moral Education is to develop an individual who are

trustworthy and able to benefit the country and community. In this paper, article

summary, critical reflections as well as comments about selected aspects and

suggestions to the issue. being raised are precisely presented.

Article Summary

In the article, we can see the importance of Moral Education as a core subject in

Malaysian School. It shows how the program is developed to cultivate the moral and

ethical thinking of the student by focusing on the development of the moral thinking,

moral feeling and moral behavior. Moral Education is very essential in providing

better education for the student. The Moral Education Curriculum is compacted with

the moral values, skills and knowledge aligned with the National Philosophy of

Education. It is programmed to produce a better Malaysian citizen that is competent

and capable of attaining high level of personal well-being. The Moral education also

helps to reduce crime especially involving teenagers. This is because the syllabus

and the essence of the Moral Education help the students to understand the moral

values and demonstrate them in their daily life by reducing the tendency of student to

committing crime. According to the former Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong

Sin Woon, from 2012 until 2017, the crime statistics involving students nationwide is

declining. He said that the statistic is based on the Student's Self-Help System,

where only 0.04% was reported among primary school pupils, while 0.028% was

recorded in secondary schools. (Minghat, Mustakim, Ana.A, Kassimova G.K., &

Suparman, 2020) (Minghat, Mustakim, Ana.A, Kassimova G.K., & Suparman, 2020).

This clearly shows the positive effect of the Moral Education as a core subject in

Malaysian school. Moreover, this article also shows Moral Education as a program or

module that specifically designed to helps school to nurture the student’s spiritual

strength and purity through appreciation of the values of the Malaysian community in

various religions, customs, and traditions of the nation. It will help student to become

more responsible towards themselves, family, community, and environment.

Critical reflection

The article discusses on the importance and the effect of the implementation and

adaptation of the Moral Education for all non-Muslim student in Malaysia. The topic

selected is education and I think it is very interesting and has many areas to explore

and more opportunity for future research. The title of the article is clear, and simple

as it is easy to understand and direct. The research design and methodology is well

presented. The researcher has managed to include a few references from previous

study to support the article. The research design applied in this article is qualitative

where the researcher has clearly explained the inclusion of two moral teachers and

five upper secondary students. Apart from that, the data collection method and the

instrument chosen by the researcher is appropriate and suitable for this research.

The researcher stated the data collection techniques apply in this research included

content, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The data collected is

more reliable as the researcher manually collected the data and analyzed it. In the

discussion and results, the researcher has organized the findings according to the

problem statements. I think, when the findings are sorted out according to the

question, the reader are able refers and look at the question derived in the beginning

of the article. Furthermore, results analyzed is well presented, clear and easy to

understand. The sampling method also explained well by the researcher. In addition,

the researcher selected a national-type secondary school as the population of the

study. The school chosen has implemented the same syllabus of curriculum and co-

curriculum and sit for standard examinations announced by the Ministry of

Education. The national-type secondary school has high number of non-Muslim

students who learn Moral Education in the school. The study will increase the

reliability of the research as it reaches the maximum exposure for the researchers to
contact the right and suitable participants according to the problems statement and

the aim of this study. Among 62 national-type secondary schools in Peninsular

Malaysia, there are 11 national-type secondary schools in the rural area and 51 in

the urban area. A national-type secondary school was selected purposely as the

school to investigate the research objective. This national-type secondary school

selected by the researcher is located at the border between Malacca and Negeri

Sembilan with estimation of 1000 students. According to the researcher, it is the only

rural National-type secondary school in Malacca. The school selected by the

researcher also has a good academics record. Based on the SPM performance in

2018, this secondary school was the top school among secondary schools in Alor

Gajah. I really impressed on the consistency of the article. Moreover, the researcher

stated the four-research objective of the study. Firstly, to understand the policy, aims

and objectives of Moral Education implemented in secondary schools, secondly is to

understand the scope and quality of support, resources and training in the

implementation of Moral Education, thirdly is to explore the curriculum performance

and monitoring, and instructional practices employed in the implementation of Moral

Education, and the fourth objective is to explore the actual outcomes of Moral

Education been achieved in secondary schools to enhance students moral behavior.

The objectives are mention a few times in this article, it indicates the topics or issues

the researcher plans to investigate and it provide direction to the researcher and the

reader throughout the research. Furthermore, the recommendations and suggestions

listed by the researcher are very good and clearly explain. The researcher provides a

simple elaboration below each suggestion made. The conclusion is well written as

the researcher manages to sum the discussion by relating it with findings. Overall,

the whole article is clear, consistent, and well-planned.

Conclusion/ Recommendation

This article is a simple, direct and it clearly highlighted the significance of Moral

Education as a compulsory subject for all non-Muslim student in Malaysia. Apart

from that, the article also shows how the Moral education is taught at the school.

From discussion and findings of the article, I am suggesting some improvement can

be made to increase the effectiveness of the program. The Ministry of Education

needs to provide an absolute and competent course for the teachers to ensure the

effectiveness of the lesson. The teacher needs to be ready and fully equipped with

the know-how of the lesson. Next, is by making sure that the textbook is up-to-date

and relevant for the student’s level and the current trend. The textbook is the main

reference especially in formal learning, the Ministry of Education needs to update

and improve the content of the textbook at least once in five years to ensure the

content is up to date, and relevant with the students. Moreover, the teacher can

utilize the usage of technology and media in classroom to make the lesson more

interesting. Lastly, Moral Education can help to boost the student’s moral values and

integrity via proper conduct and continuous improvement. Lastly, this article is well

written, appropriately design according to it needs and objectives. I believe that this

article will help to open more room especially in education related area to improve

the quality of education in Malaysia.

Reference

(5 April, 2018). Retrieved from www.thesundaily.my:

https://www.thesundaily.my/archive/moral-education-still-relevant-

ministry-DUARCH537980
Hao, T. J., Mustakim, S. S., Thilagavathy, Minghat, A. D., Suhid, A.,

Abd.Manaf, U. K., & Yet, T. S. (2020). An Evaluation of Moral

Education's Capailities In Enrichimg Student's Moral Behaviour.

International Journal Of Advance Science and Technology, 357-365.