Graduate’s Generic Attributes Through UTM Physics Education

Abstract

This study is to investigate the perception of physics undergraduates, physics lecturers and employers regarding the development of UTM graduate’s generic attributes through physics studies. This study helps to understand the differential perceptions among the parties in order to minimize the gap between needs, taught and learned of the generic attributes. A total of 104 physics undergraduates and 27 physics lecturers had participated in the questionnaire section while 3 employers were participated in the interview section. Data collected from questionnaire were interpreted and evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics. Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test with significant level p=0.05 were used to evaluate the ordinal data collected from questionnaire. Interview data were recorded and summarized to identify key categories and features. As the result, participants from three categories had respective perception regarding the development of UTM graduate’s generic attributes through physics studies. By understanding the employers’ needs on the generic attributes possessed on graduates, lecturers can play an important role in embedding the desired attributes into curriculum. Hence, it helps undergraduates to improve their learning of generic attributes based on the employers’ needs through physics studies. Keywords: Generic, Physics & Education