Pedagogical Content Knowledge among the Teachers of Special Classes of Reading and Memorizing the Qur’an (KKQ) in Kuala Lumpur

This study aims to examine the level of pedagogical content knowledge among the teachers of Special Classes of Reading and Memorizing the Qur’an (KKQ) in teaching the Quranic Tajweed in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The implementation of this study involves two groups of respondents, i. e. the group of teachers and the students of KKQ. Data from both groups of respondents were collected using two sets of questionnaires developed by the researchers. Content validity of the questionnaires was conducted by setting up an expert reference panel. Cronbach’s alpha reliability values for all parts of the questionnaire were high (> 0. 9). Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential using IBM SPSS V20 to obtain the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, differences and correlations. Overall, KKQ teachers found to have high level of pedagogical content knowledge in the Quranic Tajweed lessons. The difference analysis showed that significant difference exist on the level of pedagogical content knowledge of KKQ teachers in demographic aspect based on their university background and teaching experience. Meanwhile, correlation analysis found that there was a significant relationship between teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and the student achievement in the Quranic Tajweed lessons of KKQ. The positive findings on the level of knowledge of the contents should be maintained or increased from time to time, as well as identified differences factors should be handled systematically, whereas those aspects that are found to have a relationship with the educational achievements of recitation of the Qur'an must be improved.


Introduction
Teaching is a process of transmission of knowledge from teacher to student.This process typically involves a variety of activities such as planning, implementation, evaluation and feedback (Shahabuddin, Rohizani & Mohd. Zohir, 2003).It should be planned properly (Mohd Yusuf, 2000) to produce effective teaching thus be able to establish effective learning in the classroom (Al-Shaibani, 1991).
As Muslims, we believe that the Prophet Muhammad PUBH is the greatest teacher and educator of all time (Abdul Fattah, 2011).The process of teachings undertaken by him easily understood by the mind and gives an impact to the heart of every student.He did not have one specific method and technique that can be applied in every teaching rather it depends on the reality of student that has been taught (Mohd Yusuf, 2004).This approach makes it easier for students to accept and understand the knowledge presented by him.Furthermore, a good value or a thing for an individual does not necessarily give a good impression if applied to other individuals (Yusuf Al-Qardhawi, 2003) Among the important factors that are often considered by him in the teaching is the pedagogical content knowledge factor to ensure the teaching session runs smoothly and effectively (Abdul Fattah, 2011).This approach has been demonstrated by his exemplary, mainly because he is a good example in all aspects, including in the methods of teaching (Ibrahim Mamat, 1997).

Research Background
The existence of Quranic Tajweed learning as one of the most important components in KKQ classes was aims to give students the exposure to the various methods of controlling the letters and verses of Qur'an in accordance with the rules of recitation.Students who mastered this skill will be able to read the Qur'an correctly according to the methods and procedures which should be read (JAPIM, 2005).The teaching of the Qur'an recitation should be implemented in the form of instruction, demonstration and student errors fixing (Shahabuddin, Rohizani & Mohd. Zohir, 2003) since this lesson exists in the form of skills (Ministry of Education, 2004).The effectiveness of teaching in this subject depends on the level of pedagogical content knowledge possessed by teachers of KKQ themselves.Therefore, KKQ teachers need to prepare with the content of the subjects taught and are aware of the reality of students, as well as proficient in adapting a form of pedagogy in accordance with the level of content and the condition of the students of KKQ (Shulman, 1987).
The implementation of KKQ had spanned for 27 years and continues to face various weaknesses and shortcomings in terms of knowledge content of Qur'an recitation among teachers of KKQ.The result findings show this weakness is not limited to the Religious Stream Classes (KAA) but also applies to all schools in Malaysia that has KKQ (Aderi, 2011).The role of the Qur'an is important for all Muslims in reality that this should not have happened.The KKQ teaching system of the Quranic Tajweed particularly, needs to be improved to enhance the students' proficiency of the knowledge of Quran.Definitely that one of the methods to achieve this is by increasing the pedagogical content knowledge of KKQ teachers in the Quranic Tajweed learning.

Problem Statement
The understanding of students in the Quranic Tajweed is closely related to the level of pedagogical content knowledge of KKQ teachers for this subject.This is because the effective teaching of a subject depends on some knowledge including the pedagogical knowledge (Gudsmundsdottir, 1990).Proficiency of this knowledge allows the teachers to shape the development of the students' knowledge including the Quranic Tajweed (Magnusson et al. , 1994).The existence of pedagogicalcontent knowledge is one of the most important components of teachings and is generally known by teachers but most were found to have poor possession of this knowledge (Verloop & Vos, 1998).
Usually, KKQ teachers face problems related to pedagogical content knowledge in teaching Qur'an Tajweed as they do not have the training or the exposure to enhance the knowledge (Mohd. Safwan, 2007;Eadil, 2010).As a result, there are some teachers do not skill in the content of Quranic Tajweed (Islamic and Moral Education Department, 2005).This problem can be seen through the presence of a number of teachers who do not perform teaching in line with the objective of KKQ teaching including in the actual Qur'an recitation (Mohd. Safwan, 2007).This negative practice causes the objectives of Qur'an recitation is not reached (Ahmad Sahli, 2008).
Preliminary studies show that teachers who lack in mastering the pedagogical content knowledge affect the way of teaching in the classroom.They are bound to teach briefly (Akmariah & Sofiah, 2010) and more likely to use traditional teaching methods which often leads to the limited usage of educational resources (Dorahim & Ab. Halim, 2011).This negative tendency usually affects the interest of students toward the Quranic Tajweed learning in KKQ.Students will feel bored, less active and passive attitude towards the teaching carried.As a result, the teaching process takes place in a bland and uninteresting surrounding in which it offers a direct negative impact on the effectiveness of teaching and the students' attainment in KKQ subject, including in the lessons of recitation of the Quranic Tajweed (Islamic and Moral Education Department, 2005).

Research Objectives
This study specifically aims to achieve the outlined objectives as follows: i.To determine the level of KKQ teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in teaching recitation of the Quran.ii.To identify the different levels of pedagogical content knowledge of KKQ teachers by the following demographic aspects such as: a) Gender b) The background of the university c) Sanad Certificate (Sanad) d) Location of school e) Teaching experience iii.To identify the correlations between the level of pedagogical content knowledge with the achievement of Quranic Tajweed among the students of KKQ.

Research Design
This research was a quantitative study in the form of descriptive and inferential using the survey method as a method of data collection.The survey method was used as the data collected by using this method are frequently accurate (Kerlinger, 1986) and can be used to collect data from a large group of subjects such as teacher and student (Ary, 2002).
The questionnaires used in this study are selected results as it contains questions or statements that come in together with the proposed stimulus and response answers (Mohd. Majid, 2005).The researchers used a five point Likert scale responses of respondents to every statement contained in the questionnaire to collect data.This scale is suitable to measure the views expressed by respondents in a particular area on an ongoing basis about a perceptions practice and behaviours (Cohen et al. , 2000).To answer the questionnaire is by checking one of the numbers from 1 to 5, based on the evidence in each of these numbers, i. e. ; Strongly Disagree is given a score of 1 to Strongly Agree given a score of 5.

Validity and Reliability
The validity of the questionnaire instruments content was determined by establishing an expert reference panel.They consist of four qualified individuals who have expertise in the field of Islamic education, an expert in the field of research and experience in the field of education of the Qur'an to ensure content validity and face validity.The reliability of the research instrument refers to the internal consistency of the items used in the instrument (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2005).In the context of this study, the internal consistency of each instrument item was obtained by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.Results of the analysis indicate that all the instruments in this study have the high reliability (> 0. 90).Thus, these instruments can be used in the actual study.Source: Brymen & Cramer (1999)

Research Respondents
This study was conducted on teachers and the Form Four students of KKQ in 17 Religious Stream Classes (KAA) schools in Kuala Lumpur.The study population consists of 18 teachers, covering the entire 17 KAA schools in Kuala Lumpur.The population of students is 180 students, applied only on schools with Form Four KKQ students in six KAA schools.The sampling method for teachers are calculated using the entire population (Mohamad Najib, 1999) while for the sample of students; Krejcie and Morgan method ( 1970) is used with a count of each sample were 18 teachers and 123 students.For the sampling of teachers, studies were carried out in Putrajaya and Selangor to meet the criteria of quantitative research which was more than 30 samples (Hishamuddin, 2005).To avoid such errors of incomplete questionnaires or were not returned, the researchers determined the number of samples for teachers and their students amounted to 50 teachers and 150 students.The final numbers of respondents involved in this study were 43 teachers and 134 students.
The quantitative data analysis in this study was performed by descriptive and inferentially using the IBM SPSS V20 software.Descriptive analysis is described by using the tables of effective behavioural mean interpretation by Nunally (1978) as shown in Table 2. Inferential statistical analysis was used to obtain statistical inference from a sample of the entire population.In the context of this study, inferential analysis was conducted based on the procedures of Independent-Samples T Test and One-Way ANOVA to test the significance level for the mean score comparison of the independent variable i. e. teachers demographic.Meanwhile, the correlation analysis was conducted using Bivariate Correlations procedures to measure the strength of correlation between the used dependent variable.In the context of this study, Spearman (r) correlation model was used because the data is not distributed normally.

KKQ Teachers' Profiles
Based on Table 4 below, it was found that a total of 43 teachers were involved in this study.The details number based on gender ratio indicates that respondents of male teachers (26 males = 60.5%) were more than female respondents (17 females = 39.5%).From the aspect of universities background it shows that the teacher respondents' which graduated from the local universities (29 people = 67%) was more than the number of teacher respondents' that graduated from foreign universities (14 people = 32.6%).In the aspect of sanad certificate, the number of respondents who have sanad certificate (11 people = 25.6%) was less than the number of respondents who did not have the sanad certificate (32 = 74.4%).The finding from the teaching experience aspect was found out to be more balanced.The respondents from among the experienced teachers who teach more than 10 years amounted to 14 people (32.6%).While the respondents of teachers who has 5-10 years of teaching experience was 15 people (34.9%).This amount was not that much of a difference from the number of respondents who has teaching experienced in a period of 1-5 years, i. e. 14 people (32.6%).

KKQ Students' Profiles
In this study, KKQ students' profile was limited to only one aspect which was gender as this was the only aspect involved in the implementation of the study.The data for KKQ students' profile can be referred in Table 5 below.The findings showed that the number of respondents among the male students (64 people = 47.8%) was less than the number of female students (70 people = 52.2%).This shows that most respondents involved in this study were the female students.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge Level of KKQ Teacher's in Quranic Tajweed Teaching
Table 6 represents the mean, standard deviation and interpretation for each constructs of KKQ teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in teaching Quranic Tajweed based on the perception of them.The total mean score of constructs was 4: 44, standard deviation was 0: 39 and the interpretations were high.The highest mean earning is the construct of the readiness of teachers (mean = 4. 61, sd = 0. 39), followed by the construct of perception of KKQ (mean = 4. 59, sd = 0. 52).The constructs of knowledge and syllabus content (mean = 4: 52, sd = 0. 47), followed by constructs of other knowledge and related disciplines (mean = 4. 49, sd = 0. 46), syntactic knowledge (mean = 4: 37, sd = 0. 50) and the lowest is the constructs of substantive knowledge (mean = 4. 36, sd = 0. 50).
The total mean score for the pedagogical content knowledge constructs based on student perceptions was 4. 65, the standard deviation was 0. 21 and the interpretation was at high level.Construct with the highest mean score value was the construct of the readiness of teachers (mean = 4. 70, sd = 0. 35), followed by the construct of pedagogical content knowledge and the syllabus (mean = 4. 69, sd = 0. 32).Next is the perception construct of KKQ (mean = 4. 67, sd = 0. 32), substantive knowledge (mean = 4. 67, sd = 0. 34), syntactic knowledge (mean = 4. 65, sd = 0. 35) and the construct with the value of the lowest mean score is the construct of mastery in other relevant discipline (mean = 4. 63, sd = 0. 33).The results of one-way analysis of variance in Table 8 below shows a significant mean difference (P = 0. 050, p <0. 05) on KKQ teachers' pedagogical content knowledge based on the aspects of teaching experience.Further, post-hoc Scheffe test was carried out to identify the differences between the scores of different groups of teaching experience.
The test results are shown in Table 8.The results of post-hoc Scheffe test as in Table 9 below indicates that there is a significant difference in mean scores (P = 0. 050, p <0. 05) in pedagogical content knowledge of the teachers with more than 10 years teaching experienced (mean = 4. 673, sd = 0. 280) with experienced teachers teaching within the period of 1-5 years (mean = 4. 325, sd = 0. 370).

Correlation between Teachers Pedagogical Content Knowledge with Students' Quranic Tajweed Achievement
Table 10 shows the Spearman correlation analysis (r) between teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and Quranic Tajweed achievement of KKQ students.The results show that there is a significant relationship between the four constructs of pedagogical content knowledge with the achievement of Quranic Tajweed of KKQ students.These construct are teachers' readiness (r = 0. 190, p <0. 05), substantive knowledge (r = 0. 290, p <0. 05), syntactic knowledge (r = 0. 236, p <0. 05) and mastery of other relevant discipline (r = 0. 292, p <0. 05).There are two constructs that do not show a significant relationship with the achievement of Quranic Tajweed, i. e. student's perception towards KKQ (r = 0. 253, p> 0. 05) and the acquisition of knowledge and syllabus content (r = 0. 236, p> 0. 05).As a whole, there is a significant relationship between content knowledge on lower levels (r = 0. 221, p <0. 05) and the achievement of the Quranic Tajweed recitation among KKQ students.

KKQ Teachers' Level of Content Knowledge in Teaching Quranic Tajweed
The research findings show that teachers of KKQ have a high level of preparedness of teaching the Quranic Tajweed.It is clear through the acquisition mean scores for both groups of respondents, where; teachers and students was at a high level respectively (mean = 4. 61, sd = 0. 39) and (mean = 4. 67, sd = 0. 36).This show, teachers of KKQ have become proficient in theoretical background and have a deep understanding of education as well as able to identify the behaviour of students in the classroom of Quranic Tajweed (Abdul Halim, 1999).Apart from improving students' understanding of the Quranic Tajweed lessons, this knowledge is also important as a consideration factor in the teachers' planning process of teaching (Fraser, 1990).
Teachers of KKQ also found to have a good perception of the lessons that is included in the subject of the Quranic Tajweed.This finding also indicates that teachers of KKQ are capable in delivering content of Quranic Tajweed lessons effectively and easily understood by students (Davis & Newstrom, 1985).At the same time, they are clear about the outlined objectives of the subject and have high awareness to take the responsibility as a teacher of recitation of the Qur'an.The awareness towards the responsibility is vital as teaching the content of the Qur'an lies within the teachers themselves (al-Qabisi, 1955).
Apart from being highly knowledgeable in both aspects mentioned, the KKQ teachers are also highly knowledgeable in the area of substantive knowledge.This also shows that the KKQ teachers are proficient in theories and concepts of each Quranic Tajweed subject and construct them into a more clear and rich way for the understanding of the students.Knowledge of teachers towards the construct of syntactic knowledge showed that the KKQ teachers implement instructional recitation of the Qur'an in accordance to the requirements of the syllabus provided (Turner-Bisset, 2009).In addition, KKQ teachers are highly skilled in presenting appropriate examples of each topic that is being taught and highly knowledgeable in choosing the teaching aids used to be applied in teaching to enhance students' understanding of the lesson content that are being delivered (Turner-Bisset, 2009;Ahmad Yunus, 2011).
The research findings show that KKQ teachers have depth information in the aspect of content knowledge and syllabus and this gives the impression that they have acquired all of the topics covered in the modules of Quranic Tajweed.The in-depth knowledge that the teachers have acquired makes it easier for them to construct questions on the Quranic Tajweed.Apart from having the expertise in constructing questions, teachers of KKQ also have high knowledge on the relevance of each topic in the Quranic Tajweed subject.Knowledge is important as it help teachers in delivering new information on the lessons of recitation of the Qur'an based on the existing knowledge acquired by students.
In the meantime, the findings of the final constructs showed that teachers of KKQ have high proficiency in the aspects of related knowledge discipline with Quranic Tajweed lessons.They are not only proficient in the Quranic Tajweed lessons but are well versed in the other Quranic lessons such as Qur'an tarannum, qiraat Sab'ie and many others.Being proficient of these skills implies that the teachers of KKQ are also experts in Quranic Tajweed subject as this is the foundation of other skills in the Qur'an.A person could not consider to be well versed in the Qur'an tarannum if they are weak in Quranic Tajweed skills, and so it goes.
The research findings showed that there is no significant difference in the level of KKQ teachers' content knowledge in teaching Quranic Tajweed based on demographic aspects such as gender, sanad certificate and school location.Further results revealed that KKQ teachers have different level of content knowledge in teaching Quranic Tajweed based on the aspect of university background and teaching experience.Details of these findings, found that KKQ teachers from local universities have higher content knowledge of Quranic Tajweed than the ones graduated from foreign universities.In terms of teaching experience, teachers with experienced of more than 10 years were found to have higher level in content knowledge of Quranic Tajweed subjects than the teachers with teaching experienced in a period of 1-5 years.
As a whole, there is a significant correlation at low levels between pedagogical content knowledge with the achievement of the Quranic Tajweed in KKQ students.This finding indicates that this knowledge does not attribute a big impact to the achievement of students in the Quranic Tajweed teachings.This does not apply in the context of the Quranic Tajweed lessons alone, but also occurs in the studies on correlation between pedagogical content knowledge and students' achievement in academic aspect (Nik Mohd Rahimi, 2012).However, this knowledge could not be ignored or taken lightly as it is one of the most important considerations in managing and planning the process of teaching (Ferrell, 1995).
Detailed findings for each construct found that there are only four constructs showed a significant relationship with the achievement in Quranic Tajweed of KKQ's students which are the construct of readiness of teachers, substantive knowledge, syntactic knowledge and mastery of other relevant disciplines.Meanwhile, two other constructs; the perception towards KKQ and the proficiency in pedagogical content knowledge and syllabus had no significant relationship with students' achievement in the Quranic Tajweed.

Research Implication
The overall findings of the study indicated that the KKQ teachers have the high level of pedagogical content knowledge in Quranic Tajweed lessons.The knowledge level should be maintained or enhanced by implementing the appropriate activities from time to time.For example, via organizing educational courses related to Quranic Tajweed lessons by authorities such as the school administration.For the KKQ teachers, they need to give full commitment by attending related courses regarding the subject.This is because the unilateral efforts alone is not effective for the improvement in pedagogical content knowledge of teachers in Quranic Tajweed lessons as this effort needs both parties involved which are the organizers and the teachers themselves.
Analysis of the differences found that the level of KKQ teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in Quranic Tajweed lessons for graduated teacher from the local universities was higher than the ones who graduated from universities abroad.Therefore, it is acceptable to increase the number for the recruitment of teachers that graduated from local universities.Furthermore, they usually acquire the study in the field of Quranic education specifically during their time in universities.The findings also shows that KKQ teachers with more than 10 years teaching experienced were found to have higher pedagogical content knowledge of Quranic Tajweed compared to the teachers who teach within 1-5 years.This implies that the teaching experience influences the level of KKQ teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in Quranic Tajweed lessons.Meaning that the KKQ teachers who has been teaching in a longer period have a higher level of knowledge in pedagogical content knowledge and so it goes.
The implementation of correlation analysis found that there was several constructs of pedagogical content knowledge that needs to be addressed in improving students' achievement in Quranic Tajweed lessons.These constructs are; the readiness of teachers, substantive knowledge, syntactic knowledge, and mastery of other relevant disciplines.Aspects of substantive knowledge and mastery of other relevant disciplines should be given a special emphasis because both constructs have the greatest influence on KKQ students' achievement in Quranic Tajweed lessons.

Conclusion
In general, KKQ teachers have a high level of knowledge in pedagogical content knowledge of the Quranic Tajweed lessons.However, the level of knowledge is viewed differently in the demographic aspect of teachers based on the university background and teaching experience.The findings show that KKQ teachers which graduated from a local university and experienced teaching for more than 10 years have a higher level of pedagogical content knowledge than those who graduated abroad and experienced teaching within 1-5 years period.
Pedagogical Content knowledge is influenced towards the students' achievement in the Quranic Tajweed lessons.Correlation analysis for each construct of pedagogical content knowledge pedagogy showed two constructs that have the

Table 1 .
Reliability Index Classification

Table 6 .
Pedagogical Content Knowledge Level Based on Perception of Teachers and Students

Table 7 .
T-test for Differences Level of PCK Based on Demographic

Table 8 .
One Way ANOVA Level of PCK Based on Teaching Experience

Table 9 .
Scheffe Post Hoc Test Level of PCK Based on Teaching Experience

Table 10 .
The Correlation between Content Knowledge Pedagogical with Students' Quranic Tajweed achievement