The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication - TOJDAC ISSN: 2146-5193, September 2018 Special Edition, p.847-852 PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS IN LEARNING MICROECONOMICS COURSE Nusaila Johari, Dayana Farzeeha Ali*, Tono Hassan, Mahani Mokhtar, Nur Husna Abdul Wahid, Muhammad Khair Noordin, Nor Hasniza Ibrahim Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia *dayanafarzeeha@utm.my ABSTRACT Teaching and Learning (T&L) methods in the present days need to be creative and diverse in order to produce quality graduates. Memorization method will produce students who are unable think critically since they are regimented to memorize facts only. It may cause students easier to forget the contents when there is a disturbance during the memorization process. One of the courses that need attention to encounter this problem is Microeconomics. Based on a preliminary study, it was found that students had problem to master Microeconomics. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify problems faced by students who enrolled in a Microeconomics course at a local Malaysian university. Results of the study found that the course was challenging for students to master since they had low visualization skill. Therefore, it was difficult for the students to visualize complex graphs and interpret data in the graphs. Keywords: TVET, Microeconomics, Visualization Skill, Teaching and Learning INTRODUCTION Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) In line with the sixth challenge of Vision 2020, Malaysia intends to create a scientific and progressive society, a community with high-power of technologies and people who are not only technologists but also contribute to future scientific and technological development. Therefore, Malaysian education system needs to be improved to develop a knowledgeable, critical and creative thinking generation, as well as people who possess leadership skills and able to communicate with the whole world. Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) is one of the educational and curriculum fields which needs to be improved. Visualization skills play important role in TVET because it involves the process of thinking using images (Atan & Tasir, 2008). However, TVET students face difficulties in mastering this skill (Noorasura & Sazilah, 2011). These issues need to be solved since acquisition of visualization skills are often associated with success and achievement, especially in technical and vocational education, engineering, science and other fields (Ali & Mokhtar, 2014). According to Chen (2006), visualization skills are important in increasing students’ cognitive level. However, visualization skills are getting less attention and less emphasized in Teaching and Learning (T&L) (Hegarty, 2014). This is because Malaysian system of education is exam-oriented. Thus, completion of syllabus is detrimental to ensure success in examination. As a result, students have difficulties to acquire this skill (Noorasura & Sazilah, 2011). Microeconomics is one of the courses which requires visualization skills. This is because, this course requires students to be good in mathematical skills and also possess the ability in drawing graphs as well as convert the graphs to data and text and vice versa (Hegarty, 2014). This course is a compulsory course for majority of students who are taking Bachelor in Economics, Business Management and Finance. Microeconomics Microeconomics is a compulsory course taken by most students enrolled in Economic, Business Management and Finance faculty. Microeconomics is a subject that requires student to understand topics such as Demand and Supply Market, Market Structure and Economic theory. It is a vocational course which requires students to use their visualization skills since this course has a lot of graphs where students need to draw, convert data into text and graph and vice versa. Microeconomics can be a difficult course by majority of students (Zulkifli & Azizi, 2017). This course demands combination of Submit Date: 05.07. 2018, Acceptance Date: 29.08.2018, DOI NO: 10.7456/1080SSE/120 Research Article - This article was checked by Turnitin Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication