Research Institutes, Centres and Units - Universiti Sains Malaysia

Basic Education Research Unit
(BERU)
The Basic Education Research Unit (BERU) had it conception under the patronage
of the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia on the 21 st of February,
1990. This unit has its origins in Project InSPIRE and has since extended and continued
on the research tradition in both scope and function paving the way to establish itself
as a center of excellence in carrying out basic educational research. The main focus
of this unit is basic education. Basic education is defined as the education for values,
knowledge, basic skills as well as the development of cognitive skills, and aspects of
psychology and sociology at the school level.
The main objectives of this unit are to conduct research, evaluation and development
of resource materials to raise the quality of teaching and learning, to offer consultancy
and advisory services in the field of basic education, to assist in the human resource
development of teachers and education personnel, and to disseminate information to
meet the current need of nation.
In response to the changing landscape of education, BERU’s projects are now more
diversified and are steered towards meeting the current needs of the nation. The R&D
projects currently conducted by the Unit are such as development of resources materials
to enhance the quality of teaching and learning under Project InSPIRE II, Psychological
Norms, Literacy and Numeracy in Schools, Diagnostic Testing Projects, The Teaching of
Science and Mathematics in English, Innovation in Flexibly Adaptive e-Learning System as
well as Sustainability Education. There are also strategic partnership and linkages with
other Malaysian public universities, The Malaysian Syndicate, several Non-Governmental
organisations and the Sabah Foundation as well as with international institutions such
as the Faculties of Education of Deakin University, University of Chulalongkorn and
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. These and other collaborations with UNESCO-
Bangkok and Comenius Network of Europe promise to invigorate and enhance our
research activities. Our current endeavours are in line with sustainability education
research emerging as a response to the United Nations “Decade of Education for
sustainable Development (2004-2015)”.
As for today, BERU’s are now managing and coordinating various types of grant such as
Short Term Grants, Research University Grants, Fundamental Research Grants Schemes,
Science Fund and also Special Grants. Total amount of the grants under coordination
of BERU is RM8,192,827.27. Furthermore, under coordination of BERU, there are