Page 19 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2018

it to forward quiz questions for them to answer and so on. He was even planning to use WhatsApp
to teach during the next semester. “Pengajaran juga akan digunakan dengan WhatsApp. Saya
akan hantar soalan melalui WhatsApp dan pelajar akan siapkan melalui rujukan library
atau perbincangan kumpulan.” He would forward certain questions to the students for them to
answer by referring to the books in the library or via group discussions. The students would then
forward their answers after a certain time. It thus provided a means for the construction of high
level knowledge.
The English lecturer even used it to send pdf files. This researcher also used it to remind or
prepare the students for group or pair work activities for tutorial presentations, to remind them to
do their independent self-learning (ISL) activities and so on so that more effective learning would
occur. An example of a tutorial activity in Language Description is: “In groups, analyze different
types of adverbs in a given text (each group receives a different text). Present the analysis for peer
feedback”. An example of an ISL activity under the same subject is “to create transformation
tables showing nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs”. In this way, the whole group was informed
about what they had to do prior to their next lesson. This also provided the students a means to
prepare for the construction of high level knowledge structures before their actual lesson.
When the lecturers were asked by the interviewer “Would you like to continue using this
method for another subject or the same subject in the coming semester?” the Head of
Department responded “Yes, it’s proven to be effective…” “The male English lecturer answered
“I think yes, I am going to use this one because it is the simplest way of getting to my
students.” Even the History lecturer replied “Tentu sekali. Ia amat berguna.”
The female student also commented that “This way of teaching using WhatsApp is very
useful …I really need this method to be continued next semester so that we can keep using
this, …further more enhancing our understanding in various subjects that the lecturers have
taught us.” The student found WhatsApp to be useful even in learning how to go about doing
their assignments. She went on to add that “For the coming semester, we will be having more
assignments, more challenging exercises. So this WhatsApp group need to be made for every
subject so that we can ask the lecturer or even our friends about the assignment and I think
it is useful for us.” She was actually requesting for this WhatsApp group method to be sustained
so that she could continue to enjoy the benefits.
Furthermore, the male student monitor also concurred with her “…I really need this
method to be continued next semester so that we can keep using this, and further more
enhancing our understanding in various subjects that the lecturers have taught us. For the
coming semester, we will be having more assignments, more challenging exercises. So this
WhatsApp group need to be made for every subject so that we can ask the lecturer or even
our friends about the assignment and I think it is useful for us.” Therefore the five respondents
found this to be such a viable option that they would like to continue using it for the coming
semesters. The researcher had tried out this change initiative with other subjects and other groups
of students last semester and hence used it with the subject Language Description and also found
it to be viable.
Therefore this researcher as the participatory observer, will continue using this innovation
for the coming semesters. From the five respondents interviewed, everyone of them including this
researcher fully supported and highly favoured the continual usage of this WhatsApp messaging
service. The students even said they need this initiative to help them in their learning. This further
strengthens the fact that the change initiative is highly sustainable.
From the discussion, it can be surmised that there are four strong critical factors supporting
the sustainability of the WhatsApp group use between the lecturers and the students. The service

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