MODEL PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA ARAB YANG TERFOKUS PADA SISWA (STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING/SCL)

This paper would like to descripte the characteristics of learning that focused on the learners, the benefits, the weaknesses and the steps of its use to achieve the goal of learning Arabic. Learning model is an important part which is understood by every Arabic teacher to be able to present the condition of learning that is always fun for learners. An effective model for learning in Arabic is the learning model that concentrated to student. The use of this learning model is believed to be able to improve the four competencies of Arabic learners, namely the ability to speak, write, read and hear. For this reason, an Arabic teacher must understand the various variants of an effective learning model which centered on the learning potential of students in order to present the materials in an enjoyable. Therefore, it is important for any Arabic teacher to change the teacher-centered paradigm which is conventional teaching towards a modern learning paradigm which centered to the creative ability of students during the Arab learning proccess. The use of learning models which focused to learners in Arabic learning should be supported by teacher innovation that can empower learners to be active during learning. In addition, the teacher seeks to construct the latest Arabic material by utilizing the technology media relevant to the progress of the global education world, especially in learning Arabic as the language of the Islamic world and religious language.

Pakistani Grade Ten Students Conceptions of Nature of Science

In Pakistan, science students memorize scientific facts and laws without going into the depth of how these were developed. They consider science as a body of knowledge characterized by facts, concepts, laws and theories that are absolute and cannot be changed. The lack of understanding of scientific enterprise is rooted in the education and learning process. An understanding of current view of nature of science (NOS) is considered to be an important element of school science for developing student conceptions. So far, very limited research has been done in NOS and this has been a neglected area in our country (Halai, 2004). This study aims to assess grade ten Pakistani students' conceptions of NOS and whether these conceptions were related to selected variables. These variables include participants' gender, system of schools, students' household income, parents' educational level and students' overall grades in grade nine. A questionnaire comprising 14 modified "Views on Science-Technology-Society" (VOSTS) items was adapted for this study to assess students' views on certain aspects of NOS. After establishing its validity in the Pakistani context through a pilot study, participants' were administered the questionnaire. A multi-stage clustered sampling approach was used to recruit a representative sample (n=508) of science students of grade ten from government (n=11) and private (n=7) schools in three towns of Karachi. Participants' responses were categorized as "naive," "have merit" or "informed" conceptions. The result showed that majority of participant students' held naive views of a majority (nine out of fourteen items, 64%) of the target aspects of NOS. Furthermore, the student views of some NOS aspects were significantly related to the target variables. These included students' gender, their parents' education, students' household income, and students' overall grade in grade nine. Results of this study would provide important information about an under researched area - students' conceptions of NOS. The adapted 14-item VOSTS questionnaire would make a valuable contribution in indigenous literature. Those who want to take the same line of inquiry can use this tool to conduct large scale studies.