Case Report | Volume: 4; Issue: 9, September, 2014

Educational Environment in a Multicultural Society to Meet the Challenges of Diversity

Abdus Salam,  Ashfaq Akram,  Siti Mariam Bujang,  Mohamad Nurman Yaman,  Mohammad Arif Kamarudin,  Harlina Halizah Siraj,  Nabishah Mohamad   
Abdus Salam1, Ashfaq Akram2, Siti Mariam Bujang1, Mohamad Nurman Yaman1, Mohammad Arif Kamarudin1, Harlina Halizah Siraj1, Nabishah Mohamad3

1Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre, Malaysia.

2Medical Education Unit, Management and Science University, Malaysia.

3Deputy Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Alumni, Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Centre, Malaysia.

Open Access   

Published:  Sep 27, 2014

DOI: 10.7324/JAPS.2014.40919
PDF [ 0.0 MB]
Request Permission
Share
Download Citation
Print
Download PDF
Abstract

Educators in a multicultural-environment face complex-tasks in teaching for diversity. The objective of this study was to determine the educational environment in a Malaysian medical school, aimed to face the diversity. This cross-sectional study was conducted utilising “Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure”, a validated instrument that contained 50 items rated 0-4 with a maximum 200 score under five sub-scales. Sub-scales were perceptions of: learning, teacher, academic-self, atmosphere and social-self. Respondents were 193 year-5 medical students of session 2011-2012, comprised of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Other ethnic-group. The overall mean score perceived by all ethnicity was 130/200 (65%). All sub-scales perceived >60% scores except social-self and atmosphere. The social-self sub-scale perceived the lowest score (53.57%) by the Other ethnic group while interestingly social-self also perceived highest (75%) by the Indians. Atmosphere sub-scale perceived a score of 58.33% by Other ethnic-group. Positive perceptions of educational enviornment among the students of diverse ethnicity reflects that educational environment at the medical school is well equiped to meet the challenges of diversity. However, there is opportunity to increase further positivity in general and social-self and atmosphere sub-scales in particular. Educators in a multicultural-environment must work to avoid monocultural instructional methodoligies to promote a multicultrul society.


Keyword:     Educational environment multicultural society diversity challenges development.

Citation:

Abdus Salam, Ashfaq Akram, Siti Mariam Bujang, Mohamad Nurman Yaman, Mohammad Arif Kamarudin, Harlina Halizah Siraj, Nabishah Mohamad. Educational Environment in a Multicultural Society to Meet the Challenges of Diversity. J App Pharm Sci, 2014; 4 (09): 110-113.

Copyright:The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
HTML Full Text

Reference

Article Metrics
381 Views 20 Downloads 401 Total

Year

Month

Related Search

By author names