I-Think Mind Mapping: An Approach to Improve Students’ Interest and Motivation in Malaysian Nationhood Course at Universiti Utara Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysian Nationhood course is an introduction to the history of nation building that covers the period from pre-independence until the establishment of post-independence government policies. In addition, the course discusses the fundamental factors that have taken place in the development of Malaysian history and lists the factors that have been the turning point in the country's history. This course is very important in building a new generation of Malaysians using history as the foundation of nation building. But the students' reactions gave the negative perception of the Malaysian Nationhood course by stating that it was a heavy subject, uninteresting, too many facts and boring lectures. As a result, they have reacted negatively when they were in the classroom. These include coming late to the class, skip class, talking during lectures, reading other course notes, looking at cell phones and often falling asleep. To overcome this problem, the I-Think mind mapping method is used in learning activities. Qualitative methods are applied through observation, activities using Mind Map and Focus Group Discussions. The results show that activities carried out through I-Think mind mapping have had a positive impact on increasing students' interest and motivation in this course. However, in this large-scale classroom, lecturers will need to diversify their teaching techniques and other teaching aids to keep students engaged in the lectures.