Experiential learning programme is an important platform in the process of cultivating student's self-development. The teaching approaches that apply experiential learning are widely implemented in higher education. The Faculty of Education in UTM has organised many of such experiential learning activities for students, however the effect of the programmes towards students' self-development is still under researched. Hence, it is still unable to fully identify their effects on cultivating students' soft skills through the process of organizing the programme and students' participations. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the effects of experiential learning programme namely UNESA Study Visit Programme of the State University of Surabaya (UNESA) organized by the Faculty of Education UTM towards developing participants' soft skills. This case study involved 39 masters students currently majoring in Primary School Education at State University of Surabaya. The data were collected through a questionnaire involving 20 items which consist of 7 soft skills constructs. Item analysis using the Rasch Measurement Model shows that the most dominant effect is from the aspect of critical thinking and problem solving skills (logit = -1.335). Meanwhile, the positive effect is also reflected in the aspects of Professional Ethics and Moral (logit = -0.495), Communication Skills (logit = -0.410), Lifelong Learning and Information Management (logit = -0.058), Leadership Skills (logit = 0.080) and Team working Skills (logit = 0.435). Lastly, the effect on Entrepreneurship Skills is weaker with logit value = 1.440. The findings show that experiential learning programmes do provide positive effect to students and should be conducted more widely in education.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been anticipating a greater need for mental health and psychosocial support with the rise in mental health issues when facing many struggles and uncertainties, testing the limits of our current health care system. In this paper, we aim to present a general view of the psychosocial support implemented in Sarawak during the COVID-19 pandemic from the lens of different socio-ecological systems in Sarawak which include the healthcare system, community organizations, and the policy makers. Firstly, this paper provides an overview of the COVID-19 situation in Sarawak in general for the past year. Worth to mention, Sarawak was the first state in Malaysia recorded fatality case resulted from COVID-19 and this inevitably triggered strong negative emotional response during the initial stage of the pandemic. Secondly, the combined efforts initiated by the local state government, the state health departments, several general hospitals and major health clinics were addressed. The delivery of health care service had to be modified according to the strict preventive and social distancing measures recommended by the public health system, including the shift of conventional service to the provision of tele-counselling and psychological first aid. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health has brought the politicians’ attention. Lastly, the challenges faced in dealing with the mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential paths of the mental health movement were discussed.
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