5.1.6 Career Interests in Science Among Malaysian Gifted and Talented Students
This research was conducted to identify the interest in science careers among gifted and talented students (GTs) in Malaysia. 213 GTs ages 12 to 16 from Kolej PERMATApintar Negara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, were randomly selected to respond to the Self-Directed Search-Form Easy (SDS) Career Interest Test (Amla, Zuria & Ramlee 2008) with a reliability value of 0.85 to 0.97. The results show that GTs demonstrate an inclination to an investigative personality (22.15), social personality (19.88), and artistic personality (15.94). Based on the Holland Three Letter Code analysis, GTs showed a higher inclination towards science careers (73.24) as compared to non-science careers (26.76). Generally, this study shows that GTs have highly inquisitive minds that allow them to think scientifically, be creative in finding solutions, and be interested in sharing information with others.
Author(s):
Rorlinda Yusof
rorlinda@ukm.edu.my
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia
Rorlinda Yusof. Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Malaysia Gifted Center, University Kebangsaan Malaysia. She has a collective of almost 30 years working experiences in education, started as a school teacher before becoming an academia at a Teacher Training Institute under Ministry of Education. She is currently a Senior Lecturer, holding administration position as the Deputy Director at Pusat PERMATApintar™ Negara, UKM. Her research interests include Psychological Issues, Emotional Intelligence, Character Building, and Leadership Competency among gifted and talented students. Rorlinda leads numerous research projects, publishes in various academic journals, and makes presentations regularly at national and international conference.
Noriah Mohd Ishak*
norwmu@hotmail.com
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia
Prof Dr Noriah has a collective of more than 30-years working experience as a consultant,lecturer, researcher, and administrator. She is currently the Director of Pusat PERMATApintar™ Negara, UKM, the Malaysia National Center for Gifted Education. She works very closely with Johns Hopkins University – Centre for Talented Youth in gifted education program, and play the role of a consultant to various gifted centre for the middle east countries. Prof Dr Noriah is a renowned educationist and social scientist. She had been awarded with various recognition and leads numerous research projects, publishes journals articles, and presents numbers of conference papers.
Siti Noor Diana Mohd Kamaruddin*
dianakamaruddin@ukm.edu.my
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia
Siti Noor Diana Mohd Kamaruddin has 7 years teaching experience where she started off her teaching career in a High Performance School in Terengganu for 3 years and joined the National Gifted Centre in 2014 until now. She was a graduate from Macquarie University, Australia and later pursued her Master's degree in the same field (TESL) from UiTM Shah Alam. She has been involved in several projects and has published a few research articles on gifted and talented education in Malaysia. She aspires to become an expert in gifted education specializing in students' literacy development.
