Thinklog Wargafikir

Introduction Universities were meant to be sanctuaries for thought — fragile spaces where inquiry could flourish, truth could be pursued, and wisdom could be cultivated. But walk into many campuses today, and you will not hear the hum of intellectual ferment. Instead, you will hear the dull buzz of bureaucracy: audits, forms, KPIs, and PowerPoint presentations. The modern university is increasingly ruled not by scholars but by bureaucrats. And these administrators are not neutral caretakers. They are active contributors to what can only be called an intellectual pathology . Intellectual Pathology: The Disease of the Mind Intellectual pathology is not simply inefficiency or the occasional misstep of management. It is the decay of the university’s soul. When scholarship is hollowed into metrics, when students are reduced to customer-satisfaction surveys, when research is valued only if it attracts funding, we are not merely witnessing decline. We are witnessing a perversion of the int...

Zaky Jafaar Reductionism has long been a source of concern for thinkers and scholars, as it has been linked to the degradation of several key institutions in modern society, including the economy, science, politics and education. This paper investigates the presence of reductionism in its more extreme form, or ‘wild reductionism’, within the Malaysian education system. Two key concepts have been identified as vessels for reductionism: Bloom’s taxonomy and Outcome-Based Education as interpreted by the Malaysian Engineering Education Council and adopted by many institutions.   Reductionism is evident in the paradigmatic framework of these two concepts. This paper explores the issues and criticisms arising from their adoptions are presented. The criticisms against both have been ignored by educators and policymakers in shaping the education ecosystem.   Bloom’s Taxonomy and Outcome-based Education is currently adopted as the basis of the Malaysian education framework. Amidst the ...

Today I tested ChatGPT with a proposition the answer to which  i already know, but has not been clearly stipulated in thermal comfort study (which means you cannot simply google it to arrive at the conclusions). ChatGPT gives the correct answer within 3 seconds. I am impressed! If scholars today focus only on gathering data and forming obvious conclusion, then they are dispensable...😀 We should allow students to use AI apps in exam. Then we have to reform our teaching and assessments to develop new skills and assess them beyond what these tools can do. If we cannot do this, it means our program or even the whole university is dispensable. Looking at the way our curricula and assessments are being developed now, be ready for an unmanned universities, universities without professors and lecturers. Without expensive pay for glorified scholars, They are much cheaper to run, giving the same kind of results We dont expect our graduates NOT to use these tools when...

Sebuah satira diambang merdeka. =============== Alkisah seorang professor disebuah universiti bertaraf antaraplanet. Dia merasakan sesuatu yang tak kena dengan senario kesarjanaan universitinya. Terlalu sibuk menjaga status antaraplanet sehingga lupa masalah planetnya sendiri. Ini kerana proses pendokumentasian untuk jaga status itu terlalu banyak.  Dia amat risau akan hal ini sehingga dia demam. Lalu dia berjumpalah dengan seorang yang berpangkat bos2 di universitinya, iaitu seorang profesor juga. Professor demam: saya rasa kita terlalu sibuk dengan karenah pendokumentasian, sampai tak sempat fikir soal kesarjanaan. Boleh kita ubah? Profesor bos: Boleh, tapi kenalah tunjuk secara saintifik masalah ni wujud atau tidak. Macamni lah, awak dapatkan data. Minta dana, minta geran. Buat proper researchlah. Professor demam pun buat research, dapat geran 100,000. Kumpul data satu planet. Selepas setahun, profesor demam bertambah demam, tapi kajiannya siap. Prof Demam: ini data dalam artike...

 This is a repost from Soul of Univesity FB group on 17/8/2021: Sometimes earlier our leaders made the grave mistake of treating universities as income generation machines. Last year a minister proudly announced that Malaysia received RM13 billion (directly and indirectly) from enrolment of international students. I say, if RM13 billion is what you want, our rubber glove industry alone brings in that much in a year. Why nobody ask the ministry of defence or the ministry of health how much money they make? Everybody knows that their values are not measurable in RM. Suddenly everybody forgets the real values of universities and started putting RM in the equation. Now every academics, every Vice chancellor has to think about income generation. This mistake further justifies the ranking game, as it is a marketing strategy to attract international enrolment, that is, to bring in more money. They argue, on top of paying fees, these international students also rent houses, buy car, buy ...

Gambar hiasan. (Sumber:archdaily.com) Dalam usaha menghijaukan atau melestarikan pembangunan kampus, hampir semua universiti mempunyai inisiatif dan strategi pembangunan hijau masing2. Banyak program yang diusahakan dan inisiatif di ambil dalam mencapai objektif ini. Namun dari segi keberkesanan dan kemapanan inisiatif ini, usaha2 ini belum mencapai tahap yang diingini.  Artikel ini menekankan tentang keperluan sistemik yang boleh membantu ataupun sekiranya tak diendahkan, akan membantutkan inisiatif kampus hijau atau lestari. Antara perkara yang sering menjadi masalah adalah antaranya ketidakseimbangan penekanan aspek kelestarian kampus dan inisiatif kelestarian yang tidak berkesinambungan mahupun berkesan. Seterusnya artikel ini akan menekankan kepentingan pendekatan sistemik dalam mengatasi ke dua dua masalah ini. 1.        Usaha yang tidak seimbang di antara kriteria kelestarian. Usaha melestarikan kampus merangkumi bidang yang sang...