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One of the major aims of STEM education is the development of mathematical thinking. The common misconception is that "doing mathematics" is the same as getting involved in "mathematical thinking". Rallying to such argument, many would agree that mathematics should be taught as a thinking activity. Thus, this study endeavours to review the effects of a problemsolving heuristic application technique on learners' mathematical thinking development. This twophase study analysed the data utilising a descriptive design (N=660) and experimental design (N=54). In the first phase, 660 High School Leavers, with 93% obtaining an A grade in the Math National Examination, ages 18-19, registered with a college to undergo a two-year Diploma engineering program were administered a Mathematical Thinking Test. Then, fifty-four of these students participated in a seven-week Pre-Post experimental design to investigate the impact of heuristics application on their development of mathematical thinking. These student's post-test score was also compared with a batch of one hundred and twenty third-year university students (N=120) majoring in STEM related courses where all these students have taken at least five university level related math courses. Firstly, the results indicate that the high school leavers grades obtained in the national Examination was not translated into their Mathematical Thinking prowess. Secondly, the results depicted a significant increase in the mathematical Thinking posttest score among the students who underwent a seven-week pre-post problem solving heuristic treatment. Thirdly, the students involved in the heuristic application treatment performed better than the third-year students in the Mathematical Thinking test. It is vital that the heuristic method of teaching mathematics be employed to enhance student's development of mathematical thinking, especially for STEM students.

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PurposeThis research is set to assess the achievement of digital economy through digitalization adoption (DA) among Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). For more insightful findings, a comparison between the service-based and non-service-based industries was performed. Besides, it endeavours to identify the important and performing dimension of the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative approach through purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from the SMEs. Variance-based structural equation modeling was adopted to assess the model and multi-group analysis (MGA) was executed to examine the difference between the two classified industries. For the identification of the dimension, Importance-Performance Map Aanalysis (IPMA) was carried out.FindingsTechnology and organization recorded significant positive influence on digitalization adoption but not environment. Digitalization adoption between the two classified industries shows divergent results. IPMA concur the importance and performance of the technology and organization dimension, in which SMEs shall focus on for digitalization adoption.Research limitations/implicationsThis is cross sectional research and data were collected at a single time frame. Hence, the result is a state-or-art finding. Assuming that if there are changes in government policies, the results may differ. Besides, there are other possible groupings that could affect the results in which is not covered in the present research.Practical implicationsThe findings imply that the DA amongst SMEs has yet to achieve its full spectrum, which indicates Malaysia has yet to fully embrace digital economy. Nevertheless, DA is the fundamental for a successful digital economy.Social implicationsThis research provides the general public an overview that SMEs are adopting digitalization with various degree. This specifies that the society is paving towards digitalization with the SMEs actively adopting more digital technologies.Originality/valueThe novelty of this research arises from the utilization of the TOE framework to link to the achievement of the national digital economy. Additionally, current research adopted a rigorous approach to investigate the issue by using MGA, the hierarchical component model (HCM) and IPMA for holistic findings.

The information age witnessed the democratisation of education with an exponential growth in the enrolment of postgraduate students in almost all universities around the world. However, high attrition and low completion rates among students have been an immense threat to the key performance of the university system. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of institutional support, supervisory practices, and students’ self-management and research skills on postgraduate students’ motivation to graduate on time (GOT). The data were collected from 191 postgraduate students from three universities in Malaysia using a survey questionnaire. The quantitative data were analysed using the PLS-SEM approach. The results revealed that research skills, institutional support and self-management skills significantly influenced the postgraduate students’ motivation to GOT. Furthermore, research skills were identified as the strongest predictor of the motivation to GOT. Additionally, research skills mediated the relationships between institutional support, students’ self-management skills and postgraduate students’ motivation to GOT. However, supervisory practices toward GOT were not supported either by direct or indirect effect. The study has far reaching implications for the postgraduate students, supervisors, and institutions of higher learning.  

<p><span lang="EN-US">Given the hypothesis that card games form a strong tool capable of shaping the aforementioned interest, this study has developed a card game called Math Zap as a pedagogical tool for numeracy skills development in the context of mental computation. It is geared towards investigating the efficacy of this Math Zap card game, in facilitating the development of numeracy skills amongst learners, and their attitude towards using it as a pedagogical tool. A mix method approach using an experimental and descriptive design was taken and tested amongst 34 primary school students aged 12 to 13. From the results of the study, it is found that the Math Zap card game is a highly effective learning tool in so far as the enhancement of students’ numeracy computation skills in the areas of fractions, percentages and decimals are concerned. This is evidenced by a statistical significant pre-post test score increment. Furthermore, students were rather positive and receptive towards the game, further substantiating the claim of it being a useful pedagogical tool.</span></p>

The heart of mathematical problem solving is to explore and establish relationships between the different branches of knowledge in mathematics. Heuristics approaches are capable of illustrating how these knowledge branches are united by a few basic, universal principles during the mathematical knowledge transfer in the process of mathematical problem solving. This paper focuses on the application of heuristics approaches in an action research. The objectives of the study were (1) to investigate students' response in applying heuristics approach in solving mathematical tasks, (2) to examine students' abilities in applying the heuristics approach. This study involved a group of 26 prospective mathematics teachers who are studying in a college (aged 22 -24). They had been exposed to the heuristics approaches in solving mathematical problems. Data were collected from classroom observations and the participants' reflective journals. The findings showed that the students were able to engage heuristic approaches in solving mathematical problems. Their reflections in the reflective journals indicated that they had applied the relevant strategies of the approach to solve mathematics problems. The strategies included giving representation, making a calculated guess and going through the process.