One of the occupations that suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) is the teaching profession. Although teachers are known to have a variety of health and safety issues, few studies have actually been published that relate to somatic health problems of teachers, especially studies conducted in Malaysia. From this viewpoint, it is clearly important to investigate psychosocial factors, and MSD with depression as mediator among school teachers. The study aimed to determine the incidence of MSD for school teachers in 15 primary schools in Kuala Lumpur during a 6-month period. Secondly, the study also sought to examine the relationships between psychosocial factors, depression and MSD among teachers. Thirdly, the study aimed to explore depression as mediator. The hypothesis addressed by this cross-sectional study was that depression would prove to be a mediator for the psychosocial factors affecting MSD. The incidence of MSD during the previous 6 months was 80.1% (95% CI: 75.8–84.2%), with 80.5% of female and 77.5% of male teachers reporting symptomatic pain during that period. There were significant relationships between psychosocial factors, depression, and MSD. The results indicated that in relation to psychosocial factors, depression (r = − 0.25, p < .01) and musculoskeletal disorder (r = −.17, p < .01) were both negative. In addition, depression was positively related to musculoskeletal disorder (r = .30, p < .01). Furthermore, depression appeared to have a partially mediating effect on the relationship between psychosocial factors and MSD. The findings in this study demonstrate that psychosocial factors and depression are significant predictors of MSD among teachers. Recognizing the relationship between these variables will help in arranging, planning or actualizing preventive intervention programs for teachers with the hope of lessening the incidence of MSD. This study also provides awareness for teachers and the Malaysian Ministry of Education regarding the issues of MSD in the workplace.
This study is a qualitative study to understand perception regarding the use of ChatGPT in their argumentative writing. Argumentative writing equips students with the opportunity to emulate scientists, allowing them to collect data, analyse, and justify their findings while addressing research questions. This method has been proven to enhance both their learning and critical thinking abilities. However, with the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, which are becoming increasingly popular among university students, concerns have emerged about their potential impact on students' capacity to craft argumentative papers. This study delves into these concerns, focusing on students' perceptions of ChatGPT's role in their argumentative writing endeavours. Employing qualitative research methods, seventeen students were selected as respondents using purposive sampling. The respondents were tasked with reflecting on this issue. The results from the analysis of documents indicated that although students acknowledge the extensive capabilities of ChatGPT, including its ability to provide information and guidance and decrease both research expenses and time consumption, they also voice apprehensions. These include doubts about ChatGPT's accuracy, potential over-reliance which could diminish their learning and critical thinking, and the looming risk of plagiarism. The study suggests that while embracing these tools can help produce meaningful argumentative writing more efficiently, caution must be taken to avoid unchecked use of ChatGPT in writing. Keywords: Student perception, ChatGPT, argumentative writing, qualitative inquiry, artificial intelligence.
Objectives: Workplace sexual harassment is a prominent issue in Malaysia. Although the subject of sexual harassment has been researched for over two decades, information on how organizations could effectively prevent workplace sexual harassment is limited. The researchers investigated the importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety of workplace sexual harassment prevention. Methods: Purposive random sampling was utilized to recruit participants in the study. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with Malaysian employees (N = 20) from various organizations. The study applied the Grounded Theory Approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1976) to identify the participants’ coping strategies in dealing with sexual harassment that occurred at their workplace. Results: The interviews revealed that both genders were potential victims or witnesses of workplace sexual harassment. Since many Malaysian organizations do not implement any workplace sexual harassment prevention, most of the victims and witnesses tend to use passive self-coping approaches. Typically, policy and guidelines implementation would encourage employees to voice their concerns; however, we discovered that participants’ motivation to use active coping strategies depended on organizational role rather than the policy and guidelines implementation. Surprisingly, we also found out that participants from zero policy organizations used active coping strategies when the sexual harassment reached intolerable levels. Conclusion: Organizations play a critical role in helping and supporting both victims and witnesses deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. Organizational climate for psychosocial safety is therefore crucial in the primary and secondary prevention of sexual harassment at work.