Search results for: international students in Australia

Authors: Medha Talpade, Salil Talpade

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The intent of this quantitative project was to compare the values and perceptions of students from a predominantly white college (PWI) to those from a historically black college (HBCU) about culturally relevant teaching and learning practices in the academic realm. The reason for interrelating student culture with teaching practices is to enable a pedagogical response to the low retention rates of African American students and first generation Caucasian students in high schools, colleges, and their low rates of social mobility and educational achievement. Culturally relevant pedagogy, according to related research, is deemed rewarding to students, teachers, the local and national community. Critical race theory (CRT) is the main framework used in this project to explain the ubiquity of a culturally relevant pedagogy. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test the critical race theory that relates the presence of the factors associated with culturally relevant teaching strategies with perceived relevance. The culturally relevant teaching strategies were identified based on the recommendations and findings of past research. Participants in this study included approximately 145 students from a HBCU and 55 students from the PWI. A survey consisting of 37 items related to culturally relevant pedagogy was administered. The themes used to construct the items were: Use of culturally-specific examples in class whenever possible; use of culturally-specific presentational models, use of relational reinforcers, and active engagement. All the items had a likert-type response scale. Participants reported their degree of agreement (5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and importance (3-point scale ranging from not at all important to very important) with each survey item. A new variable, Relevance was formed based on the multiplicative function of importance and presence of a teaching and learning strategy. A set of six demographic questions were included in the survey. A consent form based on NIH and APA ethical standards was distributed prior to survey administration to the volunteers. Results of a Factor Analyses on the data from the PWI and the HBCU, and a ANOVA indicated significant differences on ‘Relevance’ related to specific themes. Results of this study are expected to inform educational practices and improve teaching and learning outcomes.

Keywords: culturally relevant pedagogy, college students, cross-cultural, applied psychology

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Authors: Madhukar Kasarla, Sumit Fogla, Kiran Panuganti, Gaurav Jain, Abhijit Ramanujam, Astha Jain, Shashank Kraleti, Sharat Musham, Arun Chaudhury

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Patients have often chosen to travel for care — making pilgrimages to academic meccas and state-of-the-art hospitals for sophisticated surgery. This culture is still persistent in the landscape of US healthcare, with hundred thousand of visitors coming to the shores of United States to seek the high quality of medical care. One of the major challenges in this form of medical tourism has been the language barrier. Thus, an Iraqi patient, with immediate needs of communicating the healthcare needs to the treating team in the hospital, may face huge barrier in effective patient-doctor communication, delaying care and even at times reducing the quality. To circumvent these challenges, we are proposing the use of a state-of-the-art tool, Talk2All, which can translate nearly one hundred international languages (and even sign language) in real time. The tool is an easy to download app and highly user friendly. It builds on machine learning principles to decode different languages in real time. We suggest that the use of Talk2All will tremendously enhance communication in the hospital setting, effectively breaking the language barrier. We propose that vigorous incorporation of Talk2All shall overcome practical challenges in international medical and surgical tourism.

Keywords: language translation, communication, machine learning, medical tourism

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Authors: Luke Power, Paul O'Leary

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Research has long described the enhancement of student engagement as a fundamental aim of delivering a consistent, lifelong benefit to student success across the multitude of dimensions a quality HE (higher education) experience offers. Engagement may take many forms, with Universities and Institutes across the world attempting to define the parameters which constitutes a successful student engagement framework and implementation strategy. These efforts broadly include empowering students, encouraging involvement, and the transfer of decision-making power through a variety of methods with the goal of obtaining a meaningful partnership between students and staff. As the Republic of Ireland continues to observe an increasing population transferring directly from secondary education to HE institutions, it falls on these institutions to research and develop effective strategies which insures the growing student population have every opportunity to engage with their education, research community, and staff. This research systematically reviews SPAs (student partnership agreements) which are currently in the process of being defined, and/or have been adopted at HE institutions, worldwide. Despite the demonstrated importance of a student-staff partnership to the overall student engagement experience, there is no obvious framework or model by which to begin this process. This work will therefore provide a novel analysis of student-staff agreements which will focus on examining the factors of success common to each and builds towards a workable and applicable framework using critical review, analysis of the key words, phraseology, student involvement, and the broadly applicable HE traits and values. Following the analysis, this work proposes SPA ‘toolkit’ with input from key stakeholders such as students, staff, faculty, and alumni. The resulting implications for future research and the lessons learned from the development and implementation of the SPA will aid the systematic implementation of student-staff agreements in Ireland and beyond.

Keywords: student engagement, student partnership agreements, student-staff partnerships, higher education, systematic review, democratising students, empowering students, student unions

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Authors: Abigail Qian Zhou

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Since China has entered an era of mass tourism, there has been a fundamental change in the way Chinese people approach and perceive the image of other countries. With the advent of the new media era, social networking sites such as Sina Weibo have become a tool for many foreign governmental organizations to spread and promote their national image. Among them, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) was one of the first foreign official tourism agencies to register with Sina Weibo and actively implement communication activities. Due to historical and political reasons, cognition of Japan's national image by the Chinese has always been complicated and contradictory. However, since 2015, China has become the largest source of tourists visiting Japan. This clearly indicates that the broadening of Japan's national image in China has been effective and has value worthy of reference in promoting a positive Chinese perception of Japan and encouraging Japanese tourism. Within this context and using the method of content analysis in media studies through content mining software, this study analyzed how JNTO’s Sina Weibo accounts have constructed and spread Japan's national image. This study also summarized the characteristics of its content and form, and finally revealed the strategy of JNTO in building its international image. The findings of this study not only add a tourism-based perspective to traditional national image communications research, but also provide some reference for the effective international dissemination of national image in the future.

Keywords: national image, international communication, tourism, Japan, China

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Authors: Mojtaba Eshraghi Arani

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According to the international conventions for the carriage of goods by sea, the consignee is the person who is entitled to take delivery of the cargo from the carrier. Such a person is usually named in the relevant box of the bill of lading unless the latter is issued “To Order” or “To Bearer”. However, there are some cases in which the apparent consignee, as above, was not intended to take delivery of cargo, like the L/C issuing bank or the freight forwarder who are named as consignee only for the purpose of security or acceleration of transit process. In such cases as well as the BL which is issued “To Order”, the so-called “real consignee” can be found out in the “Notify Party” box. The dispute revolves around the choice between apparent consignee and real consignee for being entitled not only to take delivery of the cargo but also to sue the carrier for any damages or loss. While it is a generally accepted rule that only the apparent consignee shall be vested with such rights, some courts like France’s Cour de Cassation have declared that the “Notify Party”, as the real consignee, was entitled to sue the carrier and in some cases, the same court went far beyond and permitted the real consignee to take suit even where he was not mentioned on the BL as a “Notify Party”. The main argument behind such reasoning is that the real consignee is the person who suffered the loss and thus had a legitimate interest in bringing action; of course, the real consignee must prove that he incurred a loss. It is undeniable that the above-mentioned approach is contrary to the position of the international conventions on the express definition of consignee. However, international practice has permitted the use of BL in a different way to meet the business requirements of banks, freight forwarders, etc. Thus, the issue is one of striking a balance between the international conventions on the one hand and existing practices on the other hand. While the latest convention applicable for sea transportation, i.e., the Rotterdam Rules, dealt with the comparable issue of “shipper” and “documentary shipper”, it failed to cope with the matter being discussed. So a new study is required to propose the best solution for amending the current conventions for carriage of goods by sea. A qualitative method with the concept of interpretation of data collection has been used in this article. The source of the data is the analysis of domestic and international regulations and cases. It is argued in this manuscript that the judge is not allowed to recognize any one as real consignee, other than the person who is mentioned in the “Consingee” box unless the BL is issued “To Order” or “To Bearer”. Moreover, the contract of carriage is independent of the sale contract and thus, the consignee must be determined solely based on the facts of the BL itself, like “Notify Party” and not any other contract or document.

Keywords: real consignee, cargo, delivery, to order, notify the party

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Authors: L. J. de Bessa Neto, M. R. B. Guerra Vale, F. K. O. M. Varella Guerra

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In recent years, solar energy has established itself as one of the main sources of renewable energy, gaining a large space in electricity generation around the world. However, due to the low performance of photovoltaic panels, technologies need to be sought to maximize the production of electricity. In this regard, the present study aims to develop a prototype of solar tracker for didactics applications, controlled with the Arduino® platform, that enables the movement of photovoltaic plates in relation to the sun positions throughout the day through an electromechanical system, optimizing, thus, the efficiency of solar photovoltaic generation and improvements for the photovoltaic effect. The solar tracking technology developed in this work was presented of the shape oral and practical in two middle schools in the municipality of Mossoró/RN, being one of the public network and other of the private network, always keeping the average age of the students, in the case, around 16 years, contemplating an average of 60 students in each of the visits. Thus, it is concluded that the present study contributed substantially to the dissemination of knowledge concerning the photovoltaic solar generation, as well as the study of solar trackers, thus arousing the interest and curiosity of the students regarding the thematic approached.

Keywords: alternative energy, solar tracker, energy efficiency, photovoltaic panels

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Authors: Maria Thaemar Tana

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The paper examines the policy and practice of Japan’s human security. Specifically, it asks the question: How does Japan’s shift towards a more proactive defence posture affect the place of human security in its foreign policy agenda? Corollary to this, how is Japan sustaining its human security policy? The objective of this research is to understand how Japan, chiefly through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), sustains the concept of human security as a policy framework. In addition, the paper also aims to show how and why Japan continues to include the concept in its overall foreign policy agenda. In light of the recent developments in Japan’s security policy, which essentially result from the changing security environment, human security appears to be gradually losing relevance. The paper, however, argues that despite the strategic challenges Japan faced and is facing, as well as the apparent decline of its economic diplomacy, human security remains to be an area of critical importance for Japanese foreign policy. In fact, as Japan becomes more proactive in its international affairs, the strategic value of human security also increases. Human security was initially envisioned to help Japan compensate for its weaknesses in the areas of traditional security, but as Japan moves closer to a more activist foreign policy, the soft policy of human security complements its hard security policies. Using the framework of neoclassical realism (NCR), the paper recognizes that policy-making is essentially a convergence of incentives and constraints at the international and domestic levels. The theory posits that there is no perfect 'transmission belt' linking material power on the one hand, and actual foreign policy on the other. State behavior is influenced by both international- and domestic-level variables, but while systemic pressures and incentives determine the general direction of foreign policy, they are not strong enough to affect the exact details of state conduct. Internal factors such as leaders’ perceptions, domestic institutions, and domestic norms, serve as intervening variables between the international system and foreign policy. Thus, applied to this study, Japan’s sustained utilization of human security as a foreign policy instrument (dependent variable) is essentially a result of systemic pressures (indirectly) (independent variables) and domestic processes (directly) (intervening variables). Two cases of Japan’s human security practice in two regions are examined in two time periods: Iraq in the Middle East (2001-2010) and South Sudan in Africa (2011-2017). The cases show that despite the different motives behind Japan’s decision to participate in these international peacekeepings ad peace-building operations, human security continues to be incorporated in both rhetoric and practice, thus demonstrating that it was and remains to be an important diplomatic tool. Different variables at the international and domestic levels will be examined to understand how the interaction among them results in changes and continuities in Japan’s human security policy.

Keywords: human security, foreign policy, neoclassical realism, peace-building

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Authors: M. Chavleishvili

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The paper presents the trends of Georgian hazelnut market development and analyses the competitive advantages which will help Georgia to enter international hazelnut market using modern technologies. The history of hazelnut crop development and hazelnut species in Georgia are discussed. For hazelnut supply analysis trends in hazelnut production are considered, trends in export and import development is evaluated, domestic hazelnut market is studied and analysed based on expert interviews and initial accounting materials. In order to achieve and strengthen its position in international market, potential advantages and disadvantages of Georgian hazelnut are revealed, analysis of export and import possibilities of hazelnut is presented. Recommendations are developed based on the conclusions, which are made through identifying the key factors that hinder development of Georgian hazelnut market.

Keywords: hazelnut market, hazelnut export and import, competitiveness of hazelnut

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Authors: Jacqueline Mary Jepson

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This article provides a case study centred on the development of 13 video episodes which have been created to enhance student engagement with a post graduate online course in Project Management. The student group was unique as their online course needed to provide for asynchronistic learning and an adult learning pedagogy. In addition, students had come from a wide range professional backgrounds, with some having no Project Management experience, while others had 20 years or more. Students had to gain an understanding of an advanced body of knowledge and the course needed to achieve the academic requirements to qualify individuals to apply their learning in a range of contexts for professional practice and scholarship. To achieve this, a 13 episode case study was developed along with supportive learning materials based on the relocation of a zoo. This unique project provided a learning environment where the project could evolve over each video episode demonstrating the application of Project Management methodology which was then tied into the learning outcomes for the course and the assessment tasks. Discussion forums provided a way for students to converse and demonstrate their own understanding of content and how Project Management methodology can be applied.

Keywords: project management, adult learning, video case study, asynchronistic education

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Authors: W. S. Barber, S. L. King

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This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a collaborative partnership between a community college in rural northern Ontario, Canada, and an urban university in the greater Toronto area in Oshawa, Canada. Partner institutions will collaborate to address learning needs of university applicants whose goals are to attain an undergraduate university BA in Educational Studies and Digital Technology degree, but who may not live in a geographical location that would facilitate this pathways process. The UOIT BA degree is attained through a 2+2 program, where students with a 2 year college diploma or equivalent can attain a four year undergraduate degree. The goals reported on the project are as: 1. Our aim is to expand the BA program to include an additional stream which includes serious educational games, simulations and virtual environments, 2. Develop fully (using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies) online learning modules for use by university applicants who otherwise are not geographically located close to a physical university site, 3. Assess the digital competencies of all students, including members of local, distance and Indigenous communities using a validated tool developed and tested by UOIT across numerous populations. This tool, the General Technical Competency Use and Scale (GTCU) will provide the collaborating institutions with data that will allow for analyzing how well students are prepared to succeed in fully online learning communities. Philosophically, the UOIT BA program is based on a fully online learning communities model (FOLC) that can be accessed from anywhere in the world through digital learning environments via audio video conferencing tools such as Adobe Connect. It also follows models of adult learning and mobile learning, and makes a university degree accessible to the increasing demographic of adult learners who may use mobile devices to learn anywhere anytime. The program is based on key principles of Problem Based Learning, allowing students to build their own understandings through the co-design of the learning environment in collaboration with the instructors and their peers. In this way, this degree allows students to personalize and individualize the learning based on their own culture, background and professional/personal experiences. Using modified flipped classroom strategies, students are able to interrogate video modules on their own time in preparation for one hour discussions occurring in video conferencing sessions. As a consequence of the program flexibility, students may continue to work full or part time. All of the partner institutions will co-develop four new modules, administer the GTCU and share data, while creating a new stream of the UOIT BA degree. This will increase accessibility for students to bridge from community colleges to university through a fully digital environment. We aim to work collaboratively with Indigenous elders, community members and distance education instructors to increase opportunities for more students to attain a university education.

Keywords: aboriginal, college, competencies, digital, universities

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Authors: Saori Fujimoto, Hiromi Kawasaki, Mari Murakami, Yoko Ueno

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Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been spreading throughout the world. In Japan, many nursing universities have conducted online clinical practices to secure students’ learning opportunities. In the field of women’s health nursing, even after the pandemic ended, it will be worthwhile to utilize online practice in declining birthrate and reducing the burden of mothers. This study examined the learning effects of conducting online visits for mothers with infants during the COVID-19 pandemic by nursing students to enhance the students’ ability to carry out the online practice even in ordinary times effectively. Methods: Students were divided into groups of three, and information on the mothers was assessed, and the visits were planned. After role-play was conducted by the students and teachers, an online visit was conducted. The analysis target was the self-evaluation score of nine students who conducted online visits in June 2020 and had consented to participate. The evaluation contents included three items for assessment, two items for planning, one item for ethical consideration, five items for nursing practice, and two items for evaluation. The self-evaluation score ranged from 4 (‘Can do with a little advice’) to 1 (‘Can’t do with a little advice’). A univariate statistical analysis was performed. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee for Epidemiology of Hiroshima University. Results: The items with the highest mean (standard deviation) scores were ‘advocates for the dignity and the rights of mothers’ (3.89 (0.31)) and ‘communication behavior needed to create a trusting relationship’ (3.89 (0.31)).’ Next were the ‘individual nursing practice tailored to mothers (3.78 (0.42))’ and ‘review own practice and work on own task (3.78 (0.42)).’ The mean (standard deviation) of the items by type were as follows: three assessment items, 3.26 (0.70), two planning items, 3.11 (0.49), one ethical consideration item, 3.89 (0.31), five nursing practice items, 3.56 (0.54), and two evaluation items, 3.67 (0.47). Conclusion: The highest self-evaluations were for ‘advocates for the dignity and the rights of mothers’ and ‘communication behavior needed to create a trusting relationship.’ These findings suggest that the students were able to form good relationships with the mothers by improving their ability to effectively communicate and by presenting a positive attitude, even when conducting health visits online. However, the self-evaluation scores for assessment and planning were lower than those of ethical consideration, nursing practice, and evaluation. This was most likely due to a lack of opportunities and time to gather information and the need to modify and add plans in a short amount of time during one online visit. It is necessary to further consider the methods used in conducting online visits from the following viewpoints: methods of gathering information and the ability to make changes through multiple visits.

Keywords: infants, learning effects, mothers, online visit practice

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Authors: Tien-Hui Chiang

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The code theory, proposed by Basil Bernstein, indicates that framing can be viewed as the core element in constituting the phenomenon of cultural reproduction because it is able to regulate the transmission of pedagogical information. Strong framing increases the social relation boundary between a teacher and pupils, which obstructs information transmission, so that in order to improve underachieving students’ academic performances, teachers need to reduce to strength of framing. Weak framing enables them to transform academic knowledge into commonsense knowledge in daily life language. This study posits that most teachers would deliver strong framing due to their belief mainly confined within the aspect of instrumental rationality that deprives their critical minds. This situation could make them view the normal distribution bell curve of students’ academic performances as a natural outcome. In order to examine the interplay between framing, instrumental rationality and pedagogical action, questionnaires were completed by over 5,000 primary school teachers in Henan province, China, who were stratified sample. The statistical results show that most teachers employed psychological concepts to measure students’ academic performances and, in turn, educational inequity was legitimatized as a natural outcome in the efficiency-led approach. Such efficiency-led minds made them perform as the agent practicing the mechanism of social control and in turn sustaining the phenomenon of cultural reproduction.

Keywords: code, cultural reproduction, framing, instrumental rationality, social relation and interaction

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Authors: Louise Bunce, Jill Childs, Adam J. Lonsdale, Naomi King

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A major concern for the Social Work profession concerns the frequency of burn-out and high turnover of staff. The characteristic of resilience has been identified as playing a crucial role in social workers’ ability to have a satisfying and successful career. Thus a critical role for social work education is to develop resilience in social work students. We currently need to know more about how to train resilient social workers who will also increase the academic standing of the profession. The specific aim of this research was to quantify characteristics that may contribute towards resilience and academic success among student social workers in order to mitigate against the problems of burn-out and low academic standing. These three characteristics were competence (effectiveness at mastering the environment), autonomy (sense of control and free will), and relatedness (interacting and connecting with others), as specified in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). When these three needs are satisfied, we experience higher degrees of motivation to succeed and wellbeing. Thus when these three needs are met in social work students, they have the potential to raise academic standards and promote wellbeing characteristics that contribute to the development of resilience. The current study tested the hypothesis that higher levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as defined by SDT, will predict levels of academic success and resilience in social work students. Two hundred and ten social work students studying at a number of universities completed well-established questionnaires to assess autonomy, competence, and relatedness, level of academic performance and resilience (The Brief Resilience Scale). In this scale, students rated their agreement with items e.g., ‘I bounce back quickly after hard times’ and ‘I usually come through difficult times with little struggle’. After controlling for various factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, and course (undergraduate or postgraduate) preliminary analysis revealed that the components of SDT provided useful predictive value for academic success and resilience. In particular, autonomy and competence provided a useful predictor of academic success while relatedness was a particularly useful predictor of resilience. This study demonstrated that SDT provides a valuable framework for helping to understand what predicts academic success and resilience among social work students. This is relevant because the psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness can be affected by external social and cultural pressures, thus they can be improved by the right type of supportive teaching practices and educational environments. These findings contribute to the growing evidence-base to help build an academic and resilient social worker student body and workforce.

Keywords: education, resilience, self-determination theory, student social workers

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Authors: Ruwan Gunawardane

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Second language teaching and learning is a complex process in which various factors are identified as having a negative impact on the competency in English among undergraduates of Sri Lanka. One such issue is the lack of intrinsic motivation among them to learn English despite the fact that they all know the importance of English. This study attempted to ascertain how the intrinsic motivation of undergraduates to learn English can be improved through reading out of curiosity. Humans are curious by nature, and cognitive psychology says that curiosity facilitates learning, memory, and motivation. The researcher carried out this study during the closure of universities due to the outbreak of the coronavirus through ‘Online Reading Café’, an online reading programme introduced by himself. He invited 1166 students of the Faculty of Science, University of Ruhuna, to read 50 articles taken from CNN and the BBC and posted at least two to three articles on the LMS of the faculty almost every day over a period of 23 days. The themes of the articles were based on the universe, exploration of planets, scientific experiments, evolution, etc., and the students were encouraged to collect as many words, phrases, and sentence structures as possible while reading and to form meaningful sentences using them. The data obtained through the students’ feedback was qualitatively analyzed. It was found that these undergraduates were interested in reading something out of curiosity, due to which intrinsic motivation is enhanced, and it facilitates competence in L2.

Keywords: English, competence, reading, curiosity

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Authors: Jessevel Montes

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This study explored on the culture of journal writing among the Senior High School Manobo students. The purpose of this qualitative morpho-semantic and syntactic study was to discover the morphological, semantic, and syntactic features of the written output through morphological, semantic, and syntactic categories present in their journal writings. Also, beliefs and practices embedded in the norms, values, and ideologies were identified. The study was conducted among the Manobo students in the Senior High Schools of Central Mindanao, particularly in the Division of North Cotabato. Findings revealed that morphologically, the features that flourished are the following: subject-verb concordance, tenses, pronouns, prepositions, articles, and the use of adjectives. Semantically, the features are the following: word choice, idiomatic expression, borrowing, and vernacular. Syntactically, the features are the types of sentences according to structure and function; and the dominance of code switching and run-on sentences. Lastly, as to the beliefs and practices embedded in the norms, values, and ideologies of their journal writing, the major themes are: valuing education, family, and friends as treasure, preservation of culture, and emancipation from the bondage of poverty. This study has shed light on the writing capabilities and weaknesses of the Manobo students when it comes to English language. Further, such an insight into language learning problems is useful to teachers because it provides information on common trouble-spots in language learning, which can be used in the preparation of effective teaching materials.

Keywords: applied linguistics, culture, morpho-semantic and syntactic analysis, Manobo Senior High School, Philippines

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Authors: Tiffany Hollis

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Childhood trauma is well documented in mental health research, yet has received little attention in urban schools. Child trauma affects brain development and impacts cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning. When educators understand that some of the behaviors that appear to be aggressive in nature might be the result of a hidden diagnosis of trauma, learning can take place, and the child can thrive in the classroom setting. Traumatized children, however, do not fit neatly into any single ‘box.’ Although many children enter school each day carrying with them the experience of exposure to violence in the home, the symptoms of their trauma can be multifaceted and complex, requiring individualized therapeutic attention. The purpose of this study was to examine how prepared educators are to address the unique challenges facing children who experience trauma. Given the vast number of traumatized children in our society, it is evident that our education system must investigate ways to create an optimal learning environment that accounts for trauma, addresses its impact on cognitive and behavioral development, and facilitates mental and emotional health and well-being. The researcher describes the knowledge, attitudes, dispositions, and skills relating to trauma-informed knowledge of induction level teachers in a diverse middle school. The data for this study were collected through interviews with teachers, who are in the induction phase (the first three years of their teaching career). The study findings paint a clear picture of how ill-prepared educators are to address the needs of students who have experienced trauma and the implications for the development of a professional development workshop or series of workshops that train teachers how to recognize and address and respond to the needs of students. The study shows how teachers often lack skills to meet the needs of students who have experienced trauma. Traumatized children regularly carry a heavy weight on their shoulders. Children who have experienced trauma may feel that the world is filled with unresponsive, threatening adults, and peers. Despite this, supportive interventions can provide traumatized children with places to go that are safe, stimulating, and even fun. Schools offer an environment that potentially meets these requirements by creating safe spaces where students can feel at ease and have fun while also learning via stimulating educational activities. This study highlights the lack of preparedness of educators to address the academic, behavioral, and cognitive needs of students who have experienced trauma. These findings provide implications for the creation of a professional development workshop that addresses how to recognize and address the needs of students who have experienced some type of trauma. They also provide implications for future research with a focus on specific interventions that enable the creation of optimal learning environments where students who have experienced trauma and all students can succeed, regardless of their life experiences.

Keywords: educator preparation, induction educators, professional development, trauma-informed

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Authors: Maria João Mimoso, Bárbara Magalhães Bravo

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This study aims to analyse the phenomenon of arbitration as a paradigm in solving emerging controversies of foreign investment. We will present their benefits and demonstrate their contribution to greater legal certainty in economic relations. This article explores the legal relevant concepts under a strictly conceptual methodology, preparing future research to be developed under more developed comparative law methodologies. The review of national and international literature and jurisprudence will reveal the importance of arbitration in the field of international economic relations, presenting it as an alternative dispute resolution. Globalization imposes new forms of investment protection and appeals to other forms of dispute settlement, primarily to prevent, among other problems, the possible bias of the recipient country's investment tribunals. Characterization of foreign investment, its regulatory sources, their characteristics and the need for intervention of an entity capable of resolving disputes between the parties involved: State investor reception; Investor (of a nationality other than the latter); State of the investor's nationality, and sometimes a ‘subsidiary’ local foreign investor. The ICSID (International Settlement of Investment Disputes) arbitration as a means of resolving investment litigations covered by bilateral treaties (BIT) and investment contracts calls for a delimitation of these two figures in order to clarify the scope of the arbitration under the aegis of the World Bank and to make it more secure in the view of the sovereign power of the States.

Keywords: arbitration, contract, foreign, investment, disputes

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Authors: Abdulkadir Mustapha Gana, Musa Baba Adamu, Edimeh Augustine Jr

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There are growing concerns over the astronomical decline inquality of teaching and learning amongst youths especially in developing countries, and handful research have been conducted in this regard. However, results from many of these studies revealed similar findings which all pointed to the steady decline in quality of teaching and learning across the globe. One common factor attributed for this drawback was the new media due to the evolution and advancement of technology as studies have revealed. In the beginning, what was then the new media (broadcast media of radio and television) was singled out as being responsible for diverting people’s attention from reading; particularly television. At present times, it was revealed that the social media and internet connectivity were responsible for diverting the attention of many, thus distracting attentions from reading. However, it is pertinent to note that the devastating effects, social media platforms have a couple of tools that could improve reading by extension teaching and learning amongst students. Therefore, this study reviewed the literature on the advantageous aspect of social media to reading and learning; whilst laying emphasis on how youths can utilize social media to improve their reading habits.

Keywords: ebook, reading, learning, students

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Authors: Brian Fleischli, Shani Robins

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In recent years, the implementation of wisdom skills, including emotional intelligence, mindfulness, empathy, compassion, gratitude, realism (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), and humility, within K-12 educational settings has demonstrated significant benefits in reducing stress, anxiety, anger, and conflict among students. This study summarizes the findings of research conducted over several years, showcasing the positive outcomes associated with teaching these skills to elementary and high school students. Additionally, this overview includes an updated synthesis of current literature concerning the application and effectiveness of training these skill sets in K-12 schools. The research outcomes highlight substantial improvements in student well-being and behavior. Demonstrated with treatment group students exhibiting notable reductions in anger, anxiety, depression, and disruptive behaviors compared to control groups. For instance, fourth-grade students showed enhanced empathy, responsibility, and attention, particularly benefiting those with lower initial scores on these measures. Specific interaction effects suggest that older students and males particularly benefit from these interventions, showcasing the nuanced impact of wisdom skill training across different demographics. Furthermore, this presentation emphasizes the critical role of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by children and adolescents, including mental health issues, academic performance, and social behaviors. The integration of wisdom skills into school curricula not only fosters individual growth and emotional regulation but also enhances overall school climate and academic achievement. In conclusion, the findings contribute to the growing body of empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of teaching wisdom skills in educational settings. The success of these interventions underscores the potential for widespread implementation of evidence-based programs to promote emotional well-being and academic success among students nationwide.

Keywords: wisdom skills, CBT, cognitive behavioral training, mindfulness, empathy, anxiety

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Authors: Yaxin Bi, Peter Nicholl

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The rapid advancement of Information and communication technologies (ICT) is extremely influencing every aspect of Higher Education. It has transformed traditional teaching, learning, assessment and feedback into a new era of Digital Education. This also introduces many challenges in capturing and understanding student engagement with their studies in Higher Education. The School of Computing at Ulster University has developed a Feedback And Notification (FAN) Online tool that has been used to send students links to personalized feedback on their submitted assessments and record students’ frequency of review of the shared feedback as well as the speed of collection. The feedback that the students initially receive is via a personal email directing them through to the feedback via a URL link that maps to the feedback created by the academic marker. This feedback is typically a Word or PDF report including comments and the final mark for the work submitted approximately three weeks before. When the student clicks on the link, the student’s personal feedback is viewable in the browser and they can view the contents. The FAN tool provides the academic marker with a report that includes when and how often a student viewed the feedback via the link. This paper presents an investigation into student engagement through analyzing the interaction timestamps and frequency of review by the student. We have proposed an approach to modeling interaction timestamps and use sentiment classification techniques to analyze the data collected over the last five years for a set of modules. The data studied is across a number of final years and second-year modules in the School of Computing. The paper presents the details of quantitative analysis methods and describes further their interactions with the feedback overtime on each module studied. We have projected the students into different groups of engagement based on sentiment analysis results and then provide a suggestion of early targeted intervention for the set of students seen to be under-performing via our proposed model.

Keywords: feedback, engagement, interaction modelling, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Olga Guseynova

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Being an individual activity, the memorizing process is affected to a greater degree by the individual variables; therefore, one of the decisive factors influencing the memorization is students’ individual characteristics. Based on an extensive literature study in the domains of piano education, psychology, and neuroscience, this comprehensive research was designed in order to develop three memorizing strategies that are reflective of individual students’ learning modalities (visual, kinesthetic and auditory) applied to the piano education. The design of the study required an interdisciplinary approach which incorporated the outcome of neuropsychological and pedagogic experiments. The objectives were to determine the interaction between the process of perception and the process of memorizing music; to systematize the methods of memorizing piano sheet music in accordance with the specifics of perception types; to develop Piano Memorization Inventory (PMI) and the Three Memorizing Strategies (TMS). The following research methods were applied: a method of interdisciplinary analysis and synthesis, a method of non-participant observation. As a result of literature analysis, the following conclusions were made: the majority of piano teachers and piano students participated in the surveys, had not used and usually had not known any memorizing strategy regarding learning styles. As a result, they had used drilling as the main strategy of memorizing. The Piano Memorization Inventory and Three Memorizing Strategies developed by the author of the research were based on the observation and findings of the previous researches and considered the experience of pedagogical and neuropsychological studies.

Keywords: interdisciplinary approach, memorizing strategies, perceptual learning styles, piano memorization inventory

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Authors: Mahmoud M. AbuAlSamen, Tamam El-Elimat

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Amid the economic crisis in Jordan, the Jordanian government has opted for a knowledge economy where education is promoted as a mean for economic development. University education usually comes at the expense of study-related stress that may adversely impact the health of students. Since stress is a latent variable that is difficult to measure, a valid tool should be used in doing so. The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is a model used as a measurement tool for occupational stress. The model was built on the notion of reciprocity, which relates ‘effort’ to ‘reward’ through the mediating ‘over-commitment’. Reciprocity assumes equilibrium between both effort and reward, where ‘high’ effort is adequately compensated with ‘high’ reward. When this equilibrium is violated (i.e., high effort with low reward), this may elicit negative emotions and stress, which have been correlated to adverse health conditions. The theory of ERI was established in many different parts of the world, and associations with chronic diseases and the health of workers were explored at length. While much of the effort-reward imbalance was investigated in work conditions, there has been a growing interest in understanding the validity of the ERI model when applied to other social settings such as schools and universities. The ERI questionnaire was developed in Arabic recently to measure ERI among high school teachers. However, little information is available on the validity of the ERI questionnaire in university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 833 students in Jordan to measure the validity and reliability of the ERI questionnaire in Arabic among university students. Reliability, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha of the effort, reward, and overcommitment scales, was 0.73, 0.76, and 0.69, respectively, suggesting satisfactory reliability. The factorial structure was explored using principal axis factoring. The results fitted a five-solution model where both the effort and overcommitment were uni-dimensional while the reward scale was three-dimensional with its factors, namely being ‘support’, ‘esteem’, and ‘security’. The solution explained 56% of the variance in the data. The established ERI theory was replicated with excellent validity in this study. The effort-reward ratio in university students was 1.19, which suggests a slight degree of failed reciprocity. The study also investigated the association of effort, reward, overcommitment, and ERI with participants’ demographic factors and self-reported health. ERI was found to be significantly associated with absenteeism (p < 0.0001), past history of failed courses (p=0.03), and poor academic performance (p < 0.001). Moreover, ERI was found to be associated with poor self-reported health among university students (p=0.01). In conclusion, the Arabic ERI questionnaire is reliable and valid for use in measuring effort-reward imbalance in university students in Jordan. The results of this research are important in informing higher education policy in Jordan.

Keywords: effort-reward imbalance, factor analysis, validity, self-reported health

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Authors: J. D. Temperman

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Introduction: In particular, in relation to religion, the meaning and scope of freedom of expression have been tested in recent times. This paper investigates the legal justifications for restrictions that have been suggested in this area and asks whether they are sustainable from an international human rights perspective. The universal human rights instruments, particularly the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), are increasingly geared towards eradicating ‘incitement’ to contingent harms like violence or discrimination, whilst forms of extreme speech that fall short of such incitement are to be protected rather than countered by states. Human Rights Committee’s draft-General Comment on freedom of expression, adopted in 2011, provides another strong indication that this is the envisaged way forward: repealing anti-blasphemy and anti-religious defamation laws, whilst simultaneously increasing efforts to combat ‘incitement’. Within regional human rights frameworks, notably the European Convention system, judgments have in fact supported legal restrictions on both hate speech, holocaust denial, and blasphemy or religious defamation. Major contributions to scholarship: This paper proposes an actus reus for the offense of ‘advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination or violence’, as enshrined in Article 20(2) of the UN ICCPR. In underscoring the high threshold of ‘incitement’, the author distinguishes this offense from such notions as ‘blasphemy’ or ‘defamation of religions’. In addition to treating the said provision as a sui generis prohibition, the question is addresses whether a ‘right to be protected against incitement’ may be distilled from the ICCPR. Furthermore, the author will discuss the question of how to judge incitement; notably, is mens rea required to convict someone of incitement, and if so, what degree of mens rea? This analysis also includes the question how to balance content and context factors when addressing alleged instances of incitement, notably what factors make provide for a likelihood that imminent acts of violence or discrimination will ensue from an inciteful speech act? Methodology: This paper takes a double comparative approach: (i) it endeavours to compare and contrast monitoring bodies’ approach to incitement (notably, the UN Human Rights Committee, but also the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which monitors states’ compliance with Article 4 of ICERD on incitement); and (ii) it endeavours to chart and compare and analyse from an international human rights perspective recent forms of state practice in the field of dealing with incitement (i.e. a comparative legal analysis and vertical human rights analysis of newly emerging incitement legislation in the light of the said international standards). Conclusion: This paper conceptualizes a legal notion – ‘incitement’ – encapsulated in international human rights law that may have a profound bearing on contemporary challenges of radicalization and religious strife.

Keywords: incitement, international human rights law, religious hatred, violence

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Authors: Engku Haliza Engku Ibrahim, Isarji Sarudin, Ainon Jariah Muhamad

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It is generally agreed that many factors contribute to one’s reading comprehension and there is consensus that vocabulary size one of the main factors. This study explores the relationship between second language learners’ vocabulary size and their reading comprehension scores. 130 Malay pre-university students of a public university participated in this study. They were students of an intensive English language programme doing preparatory English courses to pursue bachelors degree in English. A quantitative research method was employed based on the Vocabulary Levels Test by Nation (1990) and the reading comprehension score of the in-house English Proficiency Test. A review of the literature indicates that a somewhat positive correlation is to be expected though findings of this study can only be explicated once the final analysis has been carried out. This is an ongoing study and it is anticipated that results of this research will be finalized in the near future. The findings will help provide beneficial implications for the prediction of reading comprehension performance. It also has implications for the teaching of vocabulary in the ESL context. A better understanding of the relationship between vocabulary size and reading comprehension scores will enhance teachers’ and students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary acquisition in the L2 classroom.

Keywords: vocabulary size, vocabulary learning, reading comprehension, ESL

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Authors: Bahar Ayberk

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The study was conducted to determine the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance among university students. A far-famed saying ‘Sound mind in a sound body’ referring to the potential quality of increased physical fitness in the intellectual development of individuals seems to be endorsed. There is a growing body of literature the impact of physical fitness on academic achievement, especially in elementary and middle-school aged children. Even though there are numerous positive effects related to being physically active and physical fitness, their effect on academic achievement is not very much clear for university students. The subjects for this study included 25 students (20 female and 5 male) enrolled in Yeditepe University, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department of Health Science Faculty. All participants filled in a questionnaire about their socio-demographic status, general health status, and physical activity status. Health-related physical fitness testing, included several core components: 1) body composition evaluation (body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio), 2) cardiovascular endurance evaluation (queen’s college step test), 3) muscle strength and endurance evaluation (sit-up test, push-up test), 4) flexibility evaluation (sit and reach test). Academic performance evaluation was based on student’s Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The prevalence of the subjects participating physical activity was found to be 40% (n = 10). CGPA scores were significantly higher among students having regular physical activity when we compared the students having regular physical activities or not (respectively 2,71 ± 0.46, 3.02 ± 0.28 scores, p = 0.076). The result of the study also revealed that there is positive correlation relationship between sit-up, push up and academic performance points (CGPA) (r = 0.43, p ≤ 0.05 ) and negative correlation relationship between cardiovascular endurance parameter (Queen's College Step Test) and academic performance points (CGPA) (r = -0.47, p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, the findings confirmed that physical fitness level was generally associated with academic performance in the study group. Cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength and endurance were associated with student’s CGPA, whereas body composition and flexibility were unrelated to CGPA.

Keywords: academic performance, health-related physical fitness, physical activity, physical fitness testing

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Authors: Mahjabeen Akbar

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Dental aesthetics and its associated psychosocial influence have a significant impact on individuals. Correcting malocclusions is a key motivating factor for majority patients; however, psychosocial factors have been rarely incorporated in evaluating malocclusions. Therefore, it is necessary to study the psychosocial influence of malocclusion in patients. The study aimed to determine the psychosocial influence of dental aesthetics in dental students by the ‘Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire’ and self-rated Aesthetic Component of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). This was a quantitative study using a cross-sectional study design. One hundred twenty dental students (71 females and 49 males; mean age 24.5) were selected via purposive sampling from July to August 2019. Dental students with no former orthodontic treatment were requested to fill out the ‘Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire.’ Variables including; self-confidence/insecurity, social influence, psychological influence and self-perception of the need of an orthodontic treatment were evaluated by a sequence of statements, while dental aesthetics were evaluated by using the IOTN Aesthetic Component. To determine the significance, the Kruskal-Wallis test was utilized. The results show that all four variables measuring psychosocial impact indicated significant correlations with the perceived malocclusions with a p-value of less than 0.01. The results conclude there is a strong psychological and social influence of altered dental aesthetics on an individual. Moreover, the relationship between the IOTN-AC grading with the psychosocial wellbeing of an individual stands proven, indicating that the perception of altered dental aesthetics is as important as a factor in treatment need as the amount of malocclusion.

Keywords: dental aesthetics, malocclusion, psychosocial influence, dental students

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Authors: Valerie Yocco Rossi

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Objective: The author will share why differentiation is necessary for all classrooms as well as strategies for differentiating content, process, and product. Through learning how to differentiate, teachers will be able to create activities and assessments to meet the abilities, readiness levels, and interests of all learners. Content and Purpose: This work will focus on how to create a learning experience for students that recognizes their different interests, abilities, and readiness levels by differentiating content, process, and product. Likewise, the best learning environments allow for choice. Choice boards allow students to select tasks based on interests. There can be challenging and basic tasks to meet the needs of various abilities. Equally, rubrics allow for personalized and differentiated assessments based on readiness levels and cognitive abilities. The principals of DI help to create a classroom where all students are learning to the best of their abilities. Outcomes: After reviewing the work, readers will be able to (1) identify the benefits of differentiated instruction; (2) convert traditional learning activities to differentiated ones; (3) differentiate, writing-based assessments.

Keywords: differentiation, personalized learning, design, instructional strategies

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Authors: Alvaro Figueira, Bruno Cabral

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Nowadays, students are used to be assessed through an online platform. Educators have stepped up from a period in which they endured the transition from paper to digital. The use of a diversified set of question types that range from quizzes to open questions is currently common in most university courses. In many courses, today, the evaluation methodology also fosters the students’ online participation in forums, the download, and upload of modified files, or even the participation in group activities. At the same time, new pedagogy theories that promote the active participation of students in the learning process, and the systematic use of problem-based learning, are being adopted using an eLearning system for that purpose. However, although there can be a lot of feedback from these activities to student’s, usually it is restricted to the assessments of online well-defined tasks. In this article, we propose an automatic system that informs students of abnormal deviations of a 'correct' learning path in the course. Our approach is based on the fact that by obtaining this information earlier in the semester, may provide students and educators an opportunity to resolve an eventual problem regarding the student’s current online actions towards the course. Our goal is to prevent situations that have a significant probability to lead to a poor grade and, eventually, to failing. In the major learning management systems (LMS) currently available, the interaction between the students and the system itself is registered in log files in the form of registers that mark beginning of actions performed by the user. Our proposed system uses that logged information to derive new one: the time each student spends on each activity, the time and order of the resources used by the student and, finally, the online resource usage pattern. Then, using the grades assigned to the students in previous years, we built a learning dataset that is used to feed a machine learning meta classifier. The produced classification model is then used to predict the grades a learning path is heading to, in the current year. Not only this approach serves the teacher, but also the student to receive automatic feedback on her current situation, having past years as a perspective. Our system can be applied to online courses that integrate the use of an online platform that stores user actions in a log file, and that has access to other student’s evaluations. The system is based on a data mining process on the log files and on a self-feedback machine learning algorithm that works paired with the Moodle LMS.

Keywords: data mining, e-learning, grade prediction, machine learning, student learning path

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Authors: Sharmin Nasrin

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Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. In Dhaka among other trips, significant percentages of trips comprise education trips. This paper explores significant factors for private university students’ education trip to the University. A paper pencil based survey has been conducted on Asia Pacific University student in Dhaka from May 2016 to July 2016. Participants were chosen randomly for the survey. Exploratory analysis showed that about 50% chose bus, 33% chose Rickshaw, 2% chose car and 15% chose to walk for travel to their University. Results from Multinomial Logit model revealed that travel cost, travel time and comfort are the significant factors for private university students to choose different modes. However, magnitude of coefficient of attribute comfort is significantly higher compared to travel cost and travel time. Result from this paper can be used by policymakers and Government agencies to provide more cost effective, comfortable journey to their University.

Keywords: private university student's education trip, mode choice mode, Dhaka, developing country

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Authors: Iván García-Magariño, Javier Bravo-Agapito, Marta López-Fernández

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Online judges have proven their utility in partial auto-evaluation of programming short exercises in the last decades. UnitJudge online judge has the advantage of facilitating the evaluation of separate units to provide more segregate and meaningful feedback to students in complex exercises and practices. This paper discusses the use of UnitUdge in advanced Java object-oriented programming exercises and web development practices. This later usage has been proposed by means of the Selenium Java library and classes to provide the web address. Consequently, UnitJudge is an online judge system that can be applied in several subjects, and therefore, many other students would take advantage of self-testing their exercises. This paper presents the experiments with a Java programming exercise for learning Java object-oriented classes with a generic type. Considering 10 students who voluntarily used UnitJudge, 80% successfully learned this concept, passing the judge exercise with correct results.

Keywords: online judges, programming skills, computer science education, auto-evaluation

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