salah faham mengenai disleksia

1. Apa yang anda tahu mengenai disleksia?

Saya pernah bertanya soalan di atas kepada beberapa orang. Belum pernah mendapat respon yang tepat. Rata-rata menganggap disleksia adalah 'penyakit lembap/lembam'. Oh jawapan ini sangat-sangat salah ;(

2. Kenapa bagi saya disleksia adalah amat penting diambil perhatian?

Bagi saya, guru dan ibu bapa adalah golongan yang terpenting dan perlu mengetahui apakah disleksia tersebut. Ini kerana disleksia adalah masalah pembelajaran yang paling biasa/ tertinggi dilaporkan di negara-negara membangun (e.g. UK, US). Ia melibatkan kanak-kanak dan statistik menganggarkan dalam 10 kanak-kanak, terdapat 2 orang yang mempunyai disleksia.

3. Definisi disleksia (http://www.dys-add.com/define.html#revised)

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.

It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

4. Disleksia berbeza dengan learning difficulties yang lain kerana penghidap disleksia mempunyai kesukaran dalam mengeja dan kebolehan dalam 'decode' perkataan (i.e. apabila mereka melihat perkataan, mereka sedikit lambat untuk menyebut perkataaan tersebut) seterusnya menyebabkan mereka mengalami kesusahan untuk membaca. Penghidap disleksia mempunyai IQ yang normal, malah kebanyakan mereka mempunyai IQ yang lebih tinggi.

4. Kesan buruk disleksia jika tidak dirawat sejak kecil?

Terlalu banyak untuk dinyatakan. Bayangkan pada usia anda 7 tahun, di kala semua kawan-kawan anda sudah pandai membaca, anda masih tidak pandai membaca dan menulis. Anda ingin membaca, tapi apabila anda melihat buku yang mempunyai banyak tulisan, anda nampak tulisan-tulisan tersebut bagaikan bergerak-gerak berserakan (ini adalah datu teori yang mencadangkan kenapa kanak-kanak yang mempunyai disleksia mempunyai 'self-esteem' yang rendah untuk membaca').

Kebolehan membaca juga adalah kebolehan yang asas dalam kehidupan kita. Sekiranya seseorang kanak-kanak lambat menguasai kebolehan ini, kanak-kanak tersebut pasti ketinggalan dalam pelajaran.

Penghidap disleksia mempunyai IQ yang normal dan ini bermakna mereka boleh belajar, berfikir dan menjalani hidup seperti mereka yang normal. Mereka mempunyai kesusahan dalam 'literacy abilities' dan memerlukan latihan/kelas yang lebih intensif untuk membolehkan mereka menjalani hidup yang normal.

Allahua'lam.

Nota: saya cuba untuk menerangkan mengenai disleksia dalam bahasa yang mudah dan boleh difahami oleh semua peringkat umur. Sungguh susah untuk menyusun kata-kata bahasa melayu apabila penulisan dan terminologi semuanya dalam bahasa inggeris :(

uniknya berbeza!

سَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُl

Jangan kata anda tidak pernah berbeza pandangan dengan orang lain. Kadang-kala, perbezaan pandangan menyebabkan orang lain bermasam muka dengan anda. Malah yang lebih teruk, perbezaan pandangan berlaku dengan orang yang paling rapat dengan kita!

Bagaimana perbezaan pandangan/ pendapat boleh berlaku?

Dan kenapa ia perlu berlaku?

Manusia dan binatang berbeza kerana manusia dianugerahkan otak. Otak membolehkan manusia berfikir dan memahami. Dalam Qur'an, terlalu banyak Allah mengingatkan kita supaya berfikir dan menjadi orang yang memahami.

Dan tidak (dinamakan) kehidupan dunia melainkan permainan yang sia-sia dan hiburan yang melalaikan dan demi sesungguhnya negeri akhirat itu lebih baik bagi orang-orang yang bertakwa. Oleh itu, tidakkah kamu mahu berfikir? (Qur'an 6: 32)

Kebolehan otak kita membolehkan kita membuat keputusan dan membuat justifikasi. Justifikasi kita pula biasanya akan terbentuk berdasarkan pengalaman, pengaruh rakan sebaya dan persekitaran. Contoh, saya suka mendaki kerana terbiasa berjalan mendaki bukit untuk ke kelas hampir setiap hari untuk tiga tahun dan saya juga selalu terlibat dengan aktiviti lasak semenjak sekolah menengah. Kawan saya yang terbiasa ke kelas menaiki bas dan tidak biasa dengan aktiviti lasak pasti tidak menggemari aktiviti mendaki.

Begitu juga dalam situasi yang lain. Contoh, anda berbeza pandangan dengan rakan-rakan anda dalam membuat keputusan menganjurkan aktiviti dalam suatu program. Anda mencadangkan aktiviti A, manakala kawan-kawan anda tidak bersetuju dan mencadangkan aktiviti B. Anda mungkin mencadangkan aktiviti A kerana anda pernah melalui aktiviti tersebut dan anda 'enjoy' semasa melakukan aktiviti tersebut. Kawan anda yang tidak bersetuju dengan aktiviti A pula mungkin pernah terlibat dalam aktiviti A, tetapi kurang' enjoy' dengan aktiviti tersebut dan merasakan aktiviti B lebih menyeronokkan. Atau mungkin anda tidak pernah terlibat dalam aktiviti B dan kawan anda pula tidak pernah terlibat dengan aktiviti A!

Hebat bukan otak kita? mampu mengolah dan membuat keputusan berdasarkan pengalaman!

Teringat post kawan saya di facebook; kita baca buku yang sama, tapi kenapa berlaku juga berbeza fahaman?

Kerana otak kita bukan hanya mengolah dari pemahaman pembacaan, tapi juga pengalaman, pengaruh rakan sebaya/ senioriti dan juga mungkin personaliti kita sendiri! (terdapat kajian british yang menunjukkan undi boleh dijangka berdasarkan personaliti (e.g. http://web.deu.edu.tr/isletme/ifddergi/web_files/52129147.pdf)

Hebat bukan Allah kita?

Bila berbeza pandangan/ pendapat, pasti ada perasaan yang tidak enak akan datang bukan? Contohnya, bila idea kita ditolak dan dikritik (walhal kita rasa idea kitalah yang paling bagus dari semua orang), mungkin akan terdetik dalam hati kita rasa terguris hati/ tidak suka dengan kawan yang membangkang idea kita. Seperti biasa, syaitan hebat dalam menyebarkan virus-virus merosakkan ukuwah. Imam Hasan Al-Banna pernah berkata:

“Yang saya maksudkan dengan ukhuwah adalah : mengikatnya hati-hati dan jiwa-jiwa ini dengan ikatan aqidah, dan aqidah merupakan ikatan yang paling kukuh dan paling mahal harganya, dan ukhuwah adalah saudara keimanan, sementara perpecahan adalah teman dari kekufuran, kekuatan yang utama adalah persatuan dan tidak ada persatuan tanpa cinta, dan cinta yang paling rendah adalah lapang dada, sementara yang paling tinggi adalah itsar(mengutamakan saudaranya).

Sebab itu Rasulullah menganjurkan kita agar bersyura dalam membuat sesuatu keputusan. Jika kita selusuri sirah anbiya, idea Rasulullah ada juga dibangkang oleh sahabat seperti dalam peperangan Badar.

Penutup.

Berbeza menujukkan Allah maha hebat bukan? Allah boleh sahaja menjadikan kita sama 'wavelength' sahaja dalam berfikir dan membuat justifikasi tapi Allah menjadikan kita ber'diversiti'. Bukankah hidup ini satu ujian kepada kita untuk tapisan ke syurga?

Patutkah manusia menyangka bahawa mereka akan dibiarkan dengan hanya berkata: Kami beriman, sedang mereka tidak diuji (dengan sesuatu cubaan)? (Qur'an 29:2)

Moga Allah mengurniakan kita ilham/ idea yang terbaik dalam membuat keputusan, ameen.

Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Allahuakhbar :)

bersedih hati? cuba ini :)

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Tiga langkah untuk mengurangkan kesedihan:

1. MENERIMA (Acceptance)

Kesedihan biasanya sesuatu yang sukar untuk kita terima ia telah berlaku. Ketidaksediaan kita menerima ketentuan tersebut menyebabkan kita tidak dapat/susah menghilangkan (defuse) kata-kata yang tergiang-giang mengenai peristiwa yang menyedihkan; yakni membuatkan kita terfikir-fikir perkara tersebut. Ia juga menyebabkan kita trauma dan tidak mahu berusaha menghilangkan kesedihan tersebut, dan menyebabkan kita takut untuk menghadapi peristiwa seumpamanya lagi.

Bagaimana untuk menerima?

Kesedihan, satu perasaan yang akan dialami oleh semua manusia yang normal. Apabila kita bersedih, seringkali kita melupakan kegembiraan yang banyak yang telah dialami, tetapi menumpukan kepada kesedihan yang sebenarnya hanya datang sekali-sekala. Kita terbiasa dengan kesenangan yang menyebabkan kita kecundang dan merasakan kesedihan yang satu menghapuskan dan membuatkan kita melupakan nikmat-nikmat Allah yang sangat banyak yang diberikan kepada kita.

Menerima kenyataan bermakna anda perlu menghilangkan perasaan kesal/sedih tentang apa yang menimpa anda. Ya ia susah. Tapi memikirkan kesedihan tidak mampu mengembalikan apa-apa kepada kita bukan? Ia hanya menyebabkan kita terus memikirkan/ bersedih tanpa melakukan apa-apa.

Setelah anda mampu menerima kenyataan perkara yang telah berlaku dan bersedih menghilangkan kata-kata yang tergiang-tergiang/ ingatan / memori buruk tersebut, maka anda bersedia untuk melakukan langkah ke dua: BERTINDAK!

2. BERTINDAK/ take action

Sekiranya anda bersedih dengan keputusan peperiksaan anda, ia bermakna anda perlu berusaha lebih gigih.

Ya, ada kesedihan yang tidak mampu kita ubah, seperti kematian insan tersayang. Namun ini di luar kawalan kita kerana kita hanyalah hambaNya.

Bertindaklah ke atas perubahan yang mampu anda kawal dan ubah dan terima kenyataan yang anda tidak ada hak padaNya.

3. Komitmen

Perubahan yang dibuat perlu komited. Jika tidak, kegagalan akan berlaku lagi. Maka kesedihan akan berulang lagi.

Penutup

Anda yang mampu membaca tulisan ini, saya yakin mempunyai penglihatan, pendengaran dan kurniaan akal dari Allah dengan ciptaaan sebaik-baiknya. Maka kita juga akan diuji dengan nikmat fizikal ini. Banyak benda yang berlaku hasil dari kegagalan kita menghargai nikmat-nikmat kurniaan Allah ini, dan kita bersedih bila Allah menimpakan kita sedikit kesusahan / kesedihan padahal kita kadang kala mengambil enteng dan jarang bersyukur dengan nikmat-nikmat Allah. Bila kita bersedih, kita merayu, berdoa mohon Allah memudahkan ujian dan menghilangkan kesedihan kita padahal kita pada masa senang senang sekali melupakan Allah. Mari kita jadi insan yang bersyukur, tidak kira di kala senang atau susah :)

Allahualam

Eight Skills Every Teacher Should Have (Latham, 1997)

Disclaimer: This article was written by Glenn Latham, who is a Professor emeritus of Special Education at Utah State University. These tips were based on his experiences and observations in more than 200 schools in US. This article was summarised from his book entitled Behind the Schoolhouse Door: A Look at Education from Within.

#1: The ability to teach expectations

In classrooms where teachers' expectations are reasonable and clearly understood, the behavior of students tends to be appropriate. From my observations, I have concluded that children must know exactly what is expected of them, and what the consequences are of meeting or failing to meet, those expectations. For expectations to serve the roles for which they are intended, I have observed six conditions that must be met, as follows:

Expectations should be taught "situationally." This means that children should be taught what is expected of them in the variety of situations and settings in which they find themselves. For example, John Reed (1993) of the Oregon Social Learning Center found that when students are taught exactly what is expected of them relative to their behavior while entering school and before class instruction begins, when going to the cafeteria and during lunch, and when exiting school, referral problems for inappropriate behavior were reduced by 40%. This means, simply, that not only are students taught what is expected of them, they are taught what is expected of them in the variety of situations and settings encompassed within the school day.

1. Expectations should be taught in a very formal manner using role-playing, modeling, and practice. Certainly, such instruction must be presented in an age-appropriate way. But no matter what their age, students need to be taught in a direct and formal way exactly what is expected of them, and in a manner that makes it possible for the teacher to know, by what the students say and do, that they understand those expectations perfectly.

2. Expectations should be kept to a maximum of 4 or 5. It is important that expectations be kept to a small enough number so that everyone, including the students and staff, can remember them. Long lists of expectations are counterproductive.

3. Expectations should be stated in instructive rather than prohibitive language. For example, rather than "Don't shout," the expectation would be "Speak quietly." When stating expectations, it is important for teachers to tell students what they are expected to do rather what they are expected not to do.

4. Expectations should be emphasized over rules. Though this is a subtle matter, it nevertheless reinforces an important point about classroom management; that is, the emphasis should be on positive things rather than negative, prohibitive things (Foxx, 1996, p. 226-227). Expectations should be respected by the teachers. It is not at all unusual for teachers to violate their own expectations. For example, an expectation might be that students are to raise their hands to be called on to speak. However, during a class discussion, a student blurts out an answer without raising his/her hand, and the teacher attends to that student by saying something like, "Right. That's a good answer. Thanks." True, the child might have given the right answer, but if in giving the answer, the child has violated the teacher's classroom expectation and has been rewarded for it by teacher attention, the probability is high that the teacher's expectations will not be respected by the students.

Skill #2: The ability to get and keep students on task

I have observed that a key to on-task behavior is to quickly engage students in the learning activity. I have found that the sooner teachers get students on task, the easier it is to keep them on task and the easier it is to get them back on task should they get off task. In classrooms where more than even a minute elapses from the time instruction is to begin and instruction actually does begin - during which time students get involved in a lot of distracting behaviors -it becomes increasingly difficult for the teacher to bring order to the classroom environment and to get instruction started. It is important, therefore, to begin instruction immediately. Secondly, to assure a high rate of on-task behavior, the teacher should engage in what Geoff Colvin (May 27, 1996) calls "active supervision." "Active supervision" finds teachers (1) moving around the class and being close to students, (2) looking around, and (3) interacting with students. This is absolutely consistent with what I have observed in classrooms all across the globe. In classrooms where teachers are up and around and physically close to students and interacting with them, students tend to be on task and productive. It worries me when I'm in classrooms where teachers give students assignments, then take their seats at their desks, not to stand up until the class period is over.

Managing by walking around is a powerful antidote to inappropriate student behavior. Regarding proximity, I have found that there is a direct relationship between how close a teacher is to students and how well students behave: the closer the proximity the better the behavior.

I was recently in a classroom for behaviorally disordered students. There were 12 students in the class. During the hour I observed, there was not one incident of inappropriate student behavior. After the period was over, I asked the teacher how she accounted for the fact that though she had 12 of the school's worst behaving students in her class, I didn't observe one single behavior problem, nor were the students off task during the entire class period. She answered, "I never sit down. I am constantly walking among the students and interacting with them. As you will notice, I don't even have a desk in my classroom." I was startled when I looked around to note that, indeed, she didn't even have a desk and a chair for herself.

Skill #3: The ability to maintain a high rate of positive teacher-to-pupil interactions.

A basic principle of human behavior teaches us that behavior responds better to positive than to negative consequences. Most people understand this, but despite it, there is a strong tendency on the part of classroom teachers to attempt to manage the classroom environment coercively. There remains a strong inclination among teachers, particularly - though certainly not exclusively - above the third grade, to espouse the philosophy that you must never smile 'til Christmas - at the earliest.

I recently gave a talk to a large group of school teachers and administrators on the topic of non-coercive, positive methods of classroom management. Afterward, I received an anonymous note from a high school teacher. It read in part as follows: "Dr. Latham is a fine, funny, intelligent little gentleman (I liked that part) whose policies would work if tempered with severe punishment to stop the inappropriate behavior, with behavior modification techniques used afterward. There are no rewards for not running a stoplight - there's only punishment if you do run the light. That's reality" (emphasis not added). This mentality is destroying the quality of learning environments all across America, creating coercive environments from which students want to escape. As noted by Dr. Murray Sidman in his marvelous book Coercion and It's Fallout (1989) "Many students would leave school immediately if they had the choice." The fact of the matter is, about a million students a year do leave school, whether given the choice or not. They are called dropouts. And why do they leave? They leave because, in large measure, school environments, particularly at the upper grades, are becoming more and more coercive, a circumstance that encourages students to escape and avoid.

This sad situation exists not only in the secondary grades. Recently, a distraught woman in our community who volunteers a few days a week in a nearby first-grade class, called about her concern over all the "shouting and scolding and criticizing by teachers that goes on continually, even in kindergarten classes." The distraught parent of a second grade student called me wondering what she should do: "My son tells me every day he wants to die because his teacher is so mean to the students." A similarly distressing call came to me from the mother of a 15 year-old girl.

My data reveal that teachers allow over 90% of all of the appropriate things their students do to go unrecognized; yet, when student misbehave, teachers are 2 to 5 times more likely to pay attention to that behavior than they are to pay attention to appropriate behavior. Since teacher attention is one of the major variables that accounts for how students behave, the attention given by teachers to inappropriate behavior is typically of such a nature as to increase the probability that the inappropriate behavior will be strengthened; i.e. it will occur again and again and again predictably.

Conditions are even worse for students who are "different." A group of researchers reported that 82% of students who are developmentally delayed never receive positive feedback from teachers even when they comply with teacher requests, and that teacher disapproval statements directed at such students outnumber approval statements by a ratio of 15 to 1 (Shores, Gunter, and Jack, 1993).

Speaking to a gathering of special educators, called by the United States Office of Special Education Programs, Katherine Larson (1994) of the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, reported that "many LD and SED students are afforded greater dignity when they are incarcerated in youth prisons than when enrolled in schools." Her experience in both schools and in youth detention facilities revealed that "staff in youth detention facilities are more courteous, more respectful, more compassionate, upbeat, and more friendly than educators in schools;" a circumstance she felt was "the result of a negative or adversarial relationship between students and adults in schools" (p. 8). (See Foxx, 1996, for a profound explanation of how such a thing can be.)

Dr. Sidney Bijou (1988) instructs us that "research has shown that the most effective way to reduce problem behavior in children is to strengthen desirable behavior through positive reinforcement rather than trying to weaken undesirable behavior using aversive and negative processes," (p. 444-451). This is what research has taught us, and this is what educators must learn to do. There is simply no alternative. So long as the notion prevails that "severe punishment" is the way to manage behavior, schools will continue to be coercive environments, and students will be anxious to get away from them, to perform badly within them, to strike out against them (countercoercion) and to be disinclined as adults to support them.

We know exactly how to create a positive learning environment where students behave well to enjoy the positive consequences of behaving well rather than to simply avoid the negative consequences of behaving badly (Johnson and Layng, 1991). Once teachers learn to create an environment that is free of coercion, where appropriate behavior is properly recognized, student behavior will improve, student performance will improve, and students will remain in school.

I have observed that in classrooms where the ratio of negative to positive interactions is never greater than one negative interaction to eight positive interactions, the learning environment tends to be noncoercive and student behavior tends to be appropriate. This is quite consistent with the recently reported data of Dr. Betty Hart and Dr. Todd Risley (1995) regarding their research on verbal behavior in families. Low risk homes were characterized by environments in which parents said five times more positive things to their children than they did negative things. High risk homes were homes where parents said twice as many negative things as positive things. The research is clear on this matter! Teachers have simply got to learn to be much more positive and encouraging than negative and discouraging.

The literature on positive reinforcement in classroom settings is abundantly clear on this matter (Eisenberger and Cameron, November, 1996). Our college of education teacher training programs have simply got to access that literature and teach it to students who are preparing to become teachers. Contemporary student behaviors are simply too complex to be dealt with on a trial-and-error, conventional-wisdom, back-to basics basis. It is irresponsible for our college of education teacher training programs to graduate students who have not been thoroughly taught how to manage behavior in the classroom using scientifically sound, positive rather than coercive and aversive, methods. Ignorance is the parent of coercion. Only those who do not know a better way persist in using coercive methods to maintain - or attempt to maintain -order in the classroom.

When teachers skillfully acknowledge appropriate behavior using positive verbal and nonverbal interactions, dramatic things can happen. I observed such an effect while doing some work for a school district in a nearby state experiencing difficulties in retaining high-risk students in the regular education classroom. The district served a large population of high risk students, and was concerned that a disproportionate number of those students (80%, in fact) were classified early in the school year as mentally retarded, behaviorally disturbed, socially maladjusted, attention deficit hyperactivity disordered, and so on. I was asked by the school district to see what could be done to reverse this problem. After observing in classrooms for a few days, the problem became evident to me. I found that teachers and their aides were averaging 34 negative interactions during each class period, while having only 9 positive interactions. I simply taught the teachers and their aides to reverse their approach to interacting with students by properly paying attention to the things students did well, while ignoring the inconsequential, annoying things students did (98% of which could be ignored without problems arising). After training, teachers and their aides were averaging 167 positive interactions per class period and only 4 negative interactions. The result was that during the next school year, placement of students in special education dropped dramatically from 80% to 11% (Latham, 1992). The ability to do this is a skill that is remarkably characteristic of teachers whose classrooms are generally devoid of outlandish and inappropriate student behavior, and where student achievement is high.

Skill #4: The ability to respond noncoercively to inappropriate behavior that is consequential.

Occasionally students will do things in class that are so disruptive and potentially dangerous

to person and/or property, that they can't be ignored; something has to be done, now. It has been my experience that such behaviors are rare, spontaneous, and when responded to properly, are quickly over and instruction continues with only a slight interruption. The following event exemplifies such a response. It occurred in an alternative high school classroom while the students were engaged in individual seatwork. The room was quiet as the teacher circulated among the students.

Without any warning whatsoever, a student leaped to her feet and began wildly cursing another student she was accusing of "tormenting" her. As I typically do, when assessing the effects of treating such behaviors, I quickly set my stopwatch to record how long the disruptive behavior continued, given the teacher's response to it.

To my delight, the teacher retained his professional dignity beautifully. His face registered not the slightest annoyance. In complete control he approached the enraged girl and quietly said, calling her by name, "It seems that you are upset about something. Would you care to tell me about it?" All eyes were glued on these two disparate figures standing before them, one with

face flushed, trembling, loud, profane, and out of control. The other serene, composed, calm, and quiet. In the presence of such a teacher, the girl, though trembling and very angry, grew slightly calmer.

--

To be continued, Insyaallah. Another four skills :)

kenapa Johnny tidak pandai membaca?

Johnny berusia 10 tahun tetapi dia masih tidak mampu membaca buku. Kenapa dia tidak pandai membaca? Mungkinkah dia

1. malas.

2. disleksia (masalah pembelajaran)

3. dilahirkan dalam persekitaran yang tidak mementingkan kebolehan membaca.

4. gagal menguasai teknik membaca yang betul.

Setuju atau tidak, jika saya katakan Johnny mampu membaca pada usia 6 tahun sekiranya dia menguasai dan diajar cara membaca daripada asas yang betul? Saya yakin Johnny juga pasti akan pandai membaca walaupun dia dibesarkan dalam suasana yang buta huruf, mengalami disleksia atau apa sahaja masalah. Johnny juga pasti akan lambat pandai membaca walaupun dibesarkan dalam suasana yang mengamalkan budaya membaca atau besekolah di sekolah swasta sekiranya dia tidak menguasai tdan tidak diajar teknik membaca dari ASAS yang betul. Dalam erti kata yang lain, faktor yang paling stabil kegagalan Jonny membaca pada usia 10 tahun adalah kerana Johnny gagal menguasai ASAS membaca (atau guru gagal mengajar asas membaca yang betul kepada Jonny).

Johnny yang pandai membaca akan menguasai subjek-subjek lain di sekolah. Johnny yang tidak pandai membaca akan berada di kelas corot dan akan gagal menguasai subjek-subjek lain kerana subjek-subjek lain memerlukan Johnny untuk pandai membaca. Johnny akan mempunyai motivasi yang rendah untuk belajar dan mungkin akan tidak meneruskan persekolahan sehingga tamat sekolah menengah.

Apabila dewasa, Johnny yang tidak tamat sekolah akan mengalami masalah untuk mendapatkan kerja kerana dia tidak mempunyai kelulusan. Akibatnya, Johhny yang tidak pandai membaca mungkin terlibat dalam rempit dan masalah-masalah sosial yang lain. Tidak percaya? Ramai di dalam penjara yang tidak pandai membaca.

Secara ringkasnya, kemahiran membaca adalah kemahiran asas yang perlu dikuasai untuk membolehkan kita belajar dan menguasai bidang-bidang lain. Kegagalan Johnny untuk membaca pada usia yang sepatutnya menyebabkan dia terus tercicir dan terlibat dengan pelbagai masalah. Sebab yang mungkin cukup kecil tapi bisa menggagalkan Johhny dalam kehidupan.

Johnny dan dilema masyarakat muslim.

Sekarang, kita berbalik kepada realiti umat islam.

Kata muslim tapi buang anak, zina, arak, bakar orang, bunuh orang, judi, rasuah, pornografi.

Kata muslim tapi solat tak cukup, tak pandai baca qur'an.

Kata muslimah tapi menutup aurat, tak ikut kata syariat yang betul.

Kata pelajar agama, tapi amal agama tak jugak.Kata islam, tapi gaduh-gaduh sesama islam sendiri.

Terlalu banyak untuk disenaraikan, bukan?

Mencari punca.

Berdasarkan pemahaman anda kepada kisah Johhny yang tidak pandai membaca, bolehkan saya katakan pelbagai masalah yang timbul dalam masyarakat muslim sekarang adalah kerana asas yang tidak kukuh dalam diri seseorang muslim? Yakni asas islam, iman dan ehsan.

Asas islam, iman dan ehsan. Asas yang sangat penting untuk membentuk diri kita menjadi seorang muslim yang sebenar. Asas yang akan membantu kita mencapai dan menyelesaikan pelbagai masalah kebejatan masyarakat dan ummah islam. Asas yang akan menyelamatkan kita daripada terlibat, terpedaya dengan kejahatan duniawi dan benteng kepada sahutan syaitan.

Seruan pertama dari nabi Muhamad adalah seruan syahadah. Lafaz ini perlu kita faham dengan mendalam. Bukan lafaz yang dilafaz tanpa faham dan hadam erti di sebaliknya. Lafaz yang membaca kepada penyucian jiwa kita dan mengakui islam sebagai cara hidup kita. Bagaimana hebatnya para sahabat-sahabat; hasil didikan dan tarbiyah Rasulallah yang hanya bermula dengan asas mengesakan Allah; dan bagaimana mantapnya pemahaman para sahabat kepada lafaz syahadah itu membangkitkan mereaka untuk memperjuangkan islam; sehingga kita juga terpilih untuk menjadi seorang muslim.

what's next?

Kadangkala, kita tidak perlu pergi terlalu jauh untuk mencari penyelesaian kepada sesuatu masalah. Memikirkan pelbagai masalah tanpa bertindak melakukan perubahan juga hanya membuang masa. Mulakan dari kita sendiri. Jika rasa diri sudah cukup 'islam' tingkatkan kefahaman lagi dan sebarkan betapa nikmatnya berada di naungan islam sepenuhnya. Jika rasa diri jauh dari islam, jangan takut untuk mendekatinya. Jika sudah berkeluarga, didiklah anak untuk faham islam seawal mungkin.

Yakinlah hanya kefahaman dan asas islam yang mampu menyelesaikan pelbagai masalah dalam diri kita, masyarakat dan negara islam.

Jom kuatkan asas islam kita!

Allahua'lam

how reliable is memory?

Pernah bermain permainan yang memerlukan kita menyampaikan pesanan kepada orang di belakang kitadan seterusnya orang yang berada di belakang kita perlu menyampaikan pesanan tersebut kepada orang yang seterusnya sehingga kepada orang yang terakhir? Saya rasa permainan ini adalah permainan tipikal dan pernah dilalui oleh hampir semua orang. Permainan ini berakhir dengan orang yang terakhir perlu melaporkan pesanan yang diterimanya dan pesanan terseebut akan dibandingkan dengan yang asal. Keputusan permainan ini biasanya adalah: pesanan yang terakhir akan berkurangan dan tidak tepat dengan yang asal dengan pertambahan fakta asing. Kenapa pesanan yang dilaporkan oleh orang yang terakhir kebiasaannya tidak tepat seperti yang asal?

Saban hari,anda melihat dan menggunakan wang ringgit. Tapi, boleh anda lukis dengan tepat sekeping wang RM1?

Pernah berlaku, seorang Australian eyewitness expert yang bernama Donald Thomson telah ditangkap kerana disyaki merogol seorang wanita. Mangsa tersebut mendakwa Donald adalah perogol tersebut,namun Donald mempunyai alibi yang kukuh kerana pada masa kejadian berlaku, Donald sedang muncul di siaran TV. Pada awalnya, pihak polis tidak mahu menerima alibi tersebut. Setelah disiasat dengan lebih lanjut, penyiasat mendapati pada masa kejadian mangsa dirogol, mangsa sedang menonton rancangan TV yang menyiarkan Donald Thomson. Ini menyebabkan mangsa tersilap ingat muka perogol tersebut.

Fenomena di atas dinamakan false memory. Ia kebiasaannya akan berlaku apabila:

-pemerhati atau pendengar mengalami stress semasa kejadian. (it always happens because we have been pressured to remember it!)

-pemerhati atau pendengar mempunyai expectation sendiri mengenai hal tersebut.

-pemerhati atau pendengar disoal atau ditanya dengan leading question.

-lokasi dan konteks kejadian asal tidak sama.

Memori manusia bukan seperti fotograf. Kita akan cuba 'membina' dan 'membaiki' memori yang kita lihat atau dengar berdasarkan informasi yang pernah kita dapat agar memori tersebut lebih sempurna yang seterusnya, akan membawa kepada 'false memory'

Harus diingatkan juga, short term memory manusia berkapasiti 30 saat sahaja. Namun, dalam sesetengah keadaan, kita mungkin mengalami flashbulb memori, iaitu memori yang mampu kita ingat dengan sangat tepat walaupun ia berlaku dengan jangka masa yang pendek. Flashbulb memory biasanya berlaku apabila peristiwa tersebut mempunyai impak yang sangat besar dalam hidup kita.

Kembali kepada konteks permainan pesanan tadi, perubahan maklumat berlaku boleh disebabkan sedikit stress yang terjadi disebabkan keterpaksaan untuk mengingat, expectation dan mungkin juga disebabkan kekangan short term memory.

Refleksi

1. Dalam kehidupan seharian kita, perpindahan maklumat dari mulut ke mulut biasa berlaku. Semakin panjang rantaian maklumat tersebut, semakin banyak tokok tambah dan salah fakta berlaku kerana memori manusia adalah bukan seperti fotograf dan manusia akan menokok tambah cerita berdasarkan expectation dan pengalaman mereka. Hasilnya, ia menjadi semacam cerita bohong.

(Ingatlah) di waktu kamu menerima berita bohong itu dari mulut ke mulut dan kamu katakan dengan mulutmu apa yang tidak kamu ketahui sedikit juga, dan kamu menganggapnya suatu yang ringan saja. Padahal dia pada sisi Allah adalah besar. (24:15)

2. Apabila anda mendapat sesuatu maklumat dari pihak kedua, apa kata selidiki dahulu maklumat tersebut sebelum mempercayainya, lebih-lebih lagi maklumat yang melibatkan perihal orang lain.

3. Biasa berlaku dalam masyarakat kita salah faham kepada pihak tertentu disebabkan pembawaan mulut ini Akibatnya, kita mempunyai persepsi yang buruk kepada pihak tersebut disebabkan cerita-cerita mulut yang belum terbukti kesahihannya. Disebabkan persepsi buruk ini, hubungan kita dengan pihak tersebut menjadi renggang dan mungkin membawa kepada perselisihan.

4. Bersangka baiklah sesama insan dalam apa-apa hal kerana kita bukan penghukum. Yang lebih baik, kita betulkan yang salah jika kita mampu.

Manusia dahulunya hanyalah satu umat, kemudian mereka berselisih. Kalau tidaklah karena suatu ketetapan yang telah ada dari Tuhanmu dahulu, pastilah telah diberi keputusan di antara mereka, tentang apa yang mereka perselisihkan itu. (10:19)

Allahua'lam

top ten revision tips

Assalamualaikum wbt,

I've got a goood grade (which is A*, alhamdulillah) for this assignment and think that I should share with others how to improve memory retention based on western research.

Tip 1: Give full attention (or as much as you can) when lecturer presenting materials.

People can selectively attend to particular sound while ignoring other sounds. When we actively attend the information we hear, we will able to retain the information more longer. In shadowing one of two simultaneous messages presented dichotically, participants are unable to report any of the content of the rejected message although the rejected message only consists of a short list of simple words repeated many times (Moray, 1959). Based on attenuator theory, unwanted stimuli will be turned down, thus allows us to selectively attend to high priority stimuli and recall more information in high stimuli. In addition, whether students will be able to maintain their attention during lectures depends on their working memory capacity as well as their motivation and arousal (Pashler,1998).

Tip 2: Revise your lecture notes frequently although just little because it is better than mass revision but rarely.

Bloom and Shuell (1981) tested high school students enrolled in a French course learned vocabulary words under conditions of either massed ( three units being completed during a 30 minute period on a single day) or distributed practice ( three 10-minute units on each of three successive days). Students who had learned in distributed practice performed better than students who had learned in massed practice. Thus it is better to revise little but frequent than lots but seldom because distribution of practice effect helps us to remember more. Spacing effect also provides explanation for this phenomena. It suggests memory is better for repeated

information if the repetitions occur spaced over time than if they occur massed, one after the other because spacing varies encoding and context effects which led to better recall (Medin, Ross & Markman, 2005).

Tip 3: Use visual imagery mnemonics.

When you want to remember a list of words, imagine vivid visual image that represent the words because imaginable words are more easily to memorise than those are not. Delin (1969) found that students that had instructed to make vivid mental images tended to remember the list of words better than students that only told to make mental images. Visual imagery establishes a more complex code of multiple connections between the two items, for example horse and chair, a preposition such as the horse sat in the chair will be encoded in memory which likely to increase memory recall (Medin, Ross & Markman, 2005).

Tip 4: Encode the meaning of your notes.

Humans will remember something better when it is meaningfulness to them. Meyers and Bodrick (1975) presented stories to students either in intact form or in a form that randomly rearranged. The findings showed that story intactness improved memory recall because participants able to understand the story meaning, thereby reducing the likelihood of new elements intruding in recall (Meyers & Bodrick, 1975).

Tip 5: Rehearse things you want to remember frequently.

Repeated rehearsing will pass information from short term memory to long term memory (Atkinson & Shiffin, 1983) thus information will be stored more longer and can be retrieved when needed. Based on forgetting curve (Ebbinghaus, 1885) information loss is very rapid at first and then will slow down unless rehearsing is done. In addition, elaborative rehearsal affects remembering better than maintenance rehearsal (Gardlner, Gawlick & Richardson-Klavehn, 1994).

Tip 6: Build positive mindset that your lecture notes are interesting.

Shirey and Reynolds (1988) found that adult readers allocate fewer cognitive resources to information that they rate as interesting, but recall the information much better. This finding can be explained by selective attention hypothesis, which suggest that extra attention will allocate to interesting information while less interesting information will be attenuated.

Tip 7: Know type of your test and prepare cues.

Once your understand type of test you will getting, you can prepare cues to aid memory recall, such as write down main points or ideas on cards to use as prompt. Hagen, Hargrave and Ross (1977) tested subjects in a short term recall test in two conditions: half of them were required to remember list of words and were prompted using card when needed while other half were rehearsed without prompting. Subjects who received prompt aid recalled better that subjects who do not receive prompt during rehearsing the words. Prompt acts as fragment of information that aid access to memory trace. Prompt also acts as retrieval cues, allow one to identify information that can not be accessible by providing extra information, thus help to trace inaccessible information and then allows information to be recalled (Baddeley. 1999).

Tip 8: Practice to elaborate your notes relevantly, not just simply remember them.

Stein, Morris and Bransford (1978) found that people are more likely to guess correct responses for the elaborative contexts provided in precise elaboration (e.g., the old man bought the paint to colour his cane) than the contexts provided in imprecise elaboration group (e.g., the old man bought the paint that was on the top shelf). Good elaboration provides relation between the target word to other information, thus helps memory retention.

Tip 9: Organise your notes hierarchically.

This tip really useful when you need to remember points with lot of subdivisions. This can be done using block diagram or mind map. Bower, Clark, Lesgold, and Winzenz (1969) presented category lists to subjects either randomly or in a hierarchically organised matter. The subjects recalled 2-3 times better using organized presentation, suggesting organization of the information greatly increase memory encoding. This is because block hierarchy diagram helps us to see complete presentation of topic and gives idea to us to retrieve information from memory.

Tip 10: Have a good and enough sleep.

Polzella (1975) tested subject in a probe-recognition short-term memory paradigm and found that recognition performance was generally impaired for each participant after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. This is because sleep deprivation increases the occurrence of lapses and periods of lowered reactive capacity which prevent the encoding of items in short term memory (Polzella, 1975). While Gais, Lucas and Born (2006) found that sleep following learning has a beneficial effect on declarative memory in human and that this effect is present when retrieval is postponed until after recovery sleep in the sleep deprivation condition.

Allahua'lam