Search results for: academic self efficiency

Authors: Rose Shayeghi, Pejman Hosseinioun

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During the academic year of 2014-2015, a needs analysis was conducted in four major universities of Iran to assess the present and target situation academic language needs of undergraduate students of geology. Participants included undergraduate students (N = 102), graduate students (N = 47), subject-specific teachers (N = 12), and ESAP teachers (N = 20). Instrumentation included four needs analysis questionnaires, self-assessment and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that, despite some inconsistencies in participants’ perceptions, ‘reading subject specific texts’, ‘knowledge of general vocabulary’, ‘using bilingual technical dictionaries’, and ‘writing e-mails to teachers and field experts’ were perceived as either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to students’ success by all the participants. Moreover, the findings revealed that undergraduate students’ General English Proficiency (GEP) level was generally lower than what is required in the EAP courses. The findings of the study can have implications for improving and renewing EAP courses under study.

Keywords: ESP, EAP, needs analysis, triangulation, geology

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Authors: Maria Belen C. Costa, Liza C. Costa

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Teachers have an important influence on students’ academic achievement. Teachers play a crucial role in educational attainment because they stand in the interface of the transmission of knowledge, values, and skills in the learning process through the instructional strategies they employ in the classroom. The level of achievement of students in school depends on the degree of effectiveness of instructional strategies used by the teacher. Thus, this study was conceptualized and conducted to examine the instructional strategies preferred and used by the Science and Mathematics teachers and the impact of those strategies in their teaching performance and students’ academic achievement in Science and Mathematics. The participants of the study comprised a total enumeration of 61 teachers who were chosen through total enumeration and 610 students who were selected using two-stage random sampling technique. The descriptive correlation design was used in this study with a self-made questionnaire as the main tool in the data gathering procedure. Relationship among variables was tested and analyzed using Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient and Wilcoxon Signed Rank statistics. The teacher participants under study mainly belonged to the age group of ‘young’ (35 years and below) and most were females having ‘very much experienced’ (16 years and above) in teaching. Teaching performance was found to be ‘very satisfactory’ while academic achievement in Science and Mathematics was found to be ‘satisfactory’. Demographic profile and teaching performance of teacher participants were found to be ‘not significant’ to their instructional strategy preferences. Results implied that age, sex, level of education and length of service of the teachers does not affect their preference on a particular instructional strategy. However, the teacher participants’ extent of use of the different instructional strategies was found to be ‘significant’ to their teaching performance. The instructional strategies being used by the teachers were found to have a direct effect on their teaching performance. Academic achievement of student participants was found to be ‘significant’ to the teacher participants’ instructional strategy preferences. The preference of the teachers on instructional strategies had a significant effect on the students’ academic performance. On the other hand, teacher participants’ extent of use of instructional strategies was showed to be ‘not significant’ to the academic achievement of students in Science and Mathematics. The instructional strategy being used by the teachers did not affect the level of performance of students in Science and Mathematics. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant difference between the teacher participants’ preference of instructional strategy and the student participants’ instructional strategy preference as well as between teacher participants’ extent of use and student participants’ perceived level of use of the different instructional strategies. Findings found a discrepancy between the teaching strategy preferences of students and strategies implemented by teachers.

Keywords: academic achievement, extent of use, instructional strategy, preferences

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Authors: Mohammad Aldubyan, Fateh Belaid, Anwar Gasim

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This paper aims at linking to link residential energy efficiency to the rebound effect concept, a well-known behavioral phenomenon in which service consumption increases when consumers notice a reduction in monetary spending on energy due to improvements in energy efficiency. It provides insights on into how and why the rebound effect happens when energy efficiency improves and whether this phenomenon is positive or negative. It also shows one technique to estimate the rebound effect on the national residential level. The paper starts with a bird’s eye view of the rebound effect and then dives in in-depth into measuring the rebound effect and evaluating its impact. Finally, the paper estimates the rebound effect in the Saudi residential sector through by linking pre-estimated price elasticities of demand to the Saudi residential building stock.

Keywords: energy efficiency, rebound effect, energy consumption, residential electricity demand

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Authors: Munir Majdalawieh, Adam Marks

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In today’s very competitive higher education industry (HEI), HEIs are faced with the primary concern of developing, deploying, and sustaining high quality academic programs. Today, the HEI has well-established accreditation systems endorsed by a country’s legislation and institutions. The accreditation system is an educational pathway focused on the criteria and processes for evaluating educational programs. Although many aspects of the accreditation process highlight both the past and the present (prove), the “program review” assessment is "forward-looking assessment" (improve) and thus transforms the process into a continuing assessment activity rather than a periodic event. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual measurement framework for program review to be used by HEIs to undertake a robust and targeted approach to proactively and continuously review their academic programs to evaluate its practicality and effectiveness as well as to improve the education of the students. The proposed framework consists of two main components: program review principles and the program review measurement matrix.

Keywords: academic program, program review principles, curriculum development, accreditation, evaluation, assessment, review measurement matrix, program review process, information technologies supporting learning, learning/teaching methodologies and assessment

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Authors: Mary Okonkwo Ekwy

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The problem of the growing disillusionment of College of Education teachers with academic life vis-à-vis their job satisfaction and commitment was investigated in this study with a view to finding out if both their job satisfaction and commitment have suffered, and to find out if there was a relationship between job satisfaction and commitment among these College of Education teachers. Due consideration was also given in the study to the possible effects of demographic variables on attitudes to their job. To carry out a study of job satisfaction and commitment among the College of Education teachers and to explore the relationship between them, research instruments were used for measuring the levels of job satisfaction and commitment among them. A sample of 200 Colleges of Education teachers, comprising 15 Professors, 9 Principal Lecturers, 70 Senior Lecturer and 106 Lecturers was used for the study. Five major hypothesis were tested with regard to the relationship between job satisfaction and commitment among the teachers. The Pearson correlation, the F-ratio, and regression analysis were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The result of this investigation suggests that, perhaps the best way to secure the commitment of teachers is to ensure their job satisfaction. Future investigations will further enrich our knowledge about these very important themes.

Keywords: job satisfaction, commitment, academic staff, college of education

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Authors: Huda Al-Shuaily, E. M. Lacap

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Higher Education is one of the most essential fundamentals for the advancement and progress of a country. It demands to be as accessible as possible and as comprehensive as it can be reached. In this paper, we succeeded to expand the accessibility and delivery of higher education using an Open Educational Resources (OER), a freely accessible, openly licensed documents, and media for teaching and learning. This study creates a comparative design of student’s academic performance on the course Introduction to Database and student engagement to the virtual learning environment (VLE). The study was done in two successive semesters - one without using the OER and the other is using OER. In the study, we established that there is a significant increase in student’s engagement in VLE in the latter semester compared to the former. By using the latter semester’s data, we manage to show that the student’s engagement has a positive impact on students’ academic performance. Moreso, after clustering their academic performance, the impact is seen higher for students who are low performing. The results show that these engagements can be used to potentially predict the learning styles of the student with a high degree of precision.

Keywords: EDM, learning analytics, moodle, OER, student-engagement

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Authors: Igor Perechuda, Wojciech Cieśliński

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The paper identifies the features of Polish sports clubs in the particular organizational forms: profit and nonprofit. Identification and description of these features is carried out in terms of financial efficiency of the given organizational form. Under the terms of the efficiency the research allows you to specify the advantages of particular organizational sports club form and the following limitations. Paper considers features of sports clubs in range of Polish conditions as legal regulations. The sources of the functioning efficiency of sports clubs may lie in the organizational forms in which they operate. Each of the available forms can be considered either a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise. Depending on this classification there are different capabilities of increasing organizational and financial efficiency of a given sports club. Authors start with general classification and difference between for-profit and non-profit sport clubs. Next identifies specific financial and organizational conditions of both organizational form and then show examples of mixed activity forms and their efficiency effect.

Keywords: financial efficiency, for-profit, non-profit, sports club

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Authors: Tran Tran

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Mental health issues are prevalent among Vietnamese undergraduate students, and they are greatly exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic for this population. While there is empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness and efficiency of therapy on mental health issues among college students, the rates of Vietnamese college students seeking professional mental health services were alarmingly low. Multiple factors can prevent those in need from finding support. The Internalized Stigma Model posits that public stigma directly affects intentions to seek psychological help via self-stigma and attitudes toward seeking help. However, little research has focused on what factors can predict public stigma toward seeking professional psychological support, especially among this population. A potential predictor is academic majors since academic majors can influence undergraduate students' perceptions, attitudes, and intentions. A study suggested that students who have completed two or more psychology courses have a more positive attitude toward seeking care for mental health issues and reduced stigma, which might be attributed to increased mental health literacy. In addition, research has shown that women are more likely to utilize mental health services and have lower stigma than men. Finally, studies have also suggested that experience of mental health services can increase endorsement of perceived need and lower stigma. Thus, it is expected that perceived helpfulness from past service uses can reduce stigma. This study aims to address this gap in the literature and investigate which factors can predict public stigma, specifically academic major, gender, and perceived helpfulness, potentially suggesting an avenue of prevention and ultimately improving the well-being of Vietnamese college students. The sample includes 408 undergraduate students (Mage = 20.44; 80.88% female) Hanoi city, Vietnam. Participants completed a pen-and-paper questionnaire. Students completed the Stigma Scale for Receiving Psychological Help, which yielded a mean public stigma score. Participants also completed a measurement assessing their perceived helpfulness of their university’s counseling center, which included eight subscales: future self-development, learning issues, career counseling, medical and health issues, mental health issues, conflicts between teachers and students, conflicts between parents and students, and interpersonal relationships. Items were summed to create a composite perceived helpfulness score. Finally, participants provided demographic information. This included gender, which was dichotomized between female and other. Additionally, it included academic major, which was also similarly dichotomized between psychology and other (e.g., natural science, social science, and pedagogy & social work). Linear relationships between public stigma and gender, academic major, and perceived helpfulness were analyzed individually with a regression model. Findings suggested that academic major, gender, and perceived counseling center's helpfulness predicted stigma against seeking professional psychological help. Specifically, being a psychology major predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.25, p < .001). Additionally, gender female predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.11, p < .05). Lastly, higher levels of perceived helpfulness of the counseling center also predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.16, p < .01). The study’s results offer potential intervention avenues to help reduce stigma and increase well-being for Vietnamese college students.

Keywords: stigma, vietnamese college students, counseling services, help-seeking

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Authors: Thassanant Unnanantn, Suttipong Boonphadung

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This research study aimed to survey and analyze the attitudes of pre-service teachers’ the analytical thinking development based on Miller’s Model. The informants of this study were 22 third year teacher students majoring in Thai. The course where the instruction was conducted was English for Academic Purposes in Thai Language 2. The instrument of this research was an open-ended questionnaire with two dimensions of questions: academic and satisfaction dimensions. The investigation revealed the positive attitudes. In the academic dimension, the majority of 12 (54.54%), the highest percentage, reflected that the method of teaching analytical thinking and language simultaneously was their new knowledge and the similar percentage also belonged to text cohesion in writing. For the satisfaction, the highest frequency count was from 17 of them (77.27%) and this majority favored the openness or friendliness of the teacher.

Keywords: analytical thinking development, Miller’s Model, attitudes, pre-service teachers

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Authors: Noha Desouky Aly, Maged Makram Habib

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Given the imperative role educational institutions have in the creation of a motivational learning community that develops and engages their students, the influence of evoking the same environment for their teachers needs to be examined. Teachers and their role lie at the core of the efficiency of the learning experience. One exigent aspect in the process of providing professional development to teachers is to involve them in this process, and the best manner would be through creating a learning community in which they are directly engaged and responsible for their own learning. An educational institution that thinks first of its teachers learning and growth would achieve its goals in providing an effective education for its students. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the effect of engaging teachers in a learning community in which they are responsible for their own learning through conducting and providing the material required for the training on their self efficacy, engagement, and perceived autonomy. The sample includes twenty instructors at the German University in Cairo teaching Academic skills at the Department of English and Scientific Methods. The courses taught at the department include Academic skills, writing argumentative essays, critical thinking, communication and presentation skills, and research paper writing. Procedures for the duration of eight weeks will entail pre-post measures to include The Teachers Self Efficacy Scale and an interview. During the weekly departmental meeting, teachers are to share resources and experiences or research and present a topic of their choice that contributes to their professional development. Results are yet to be found.

Keywords: learning community, self- efficacy, teachers, learning experience

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Authors: Adel M. Mahmoud

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This Investigation was conducted to determine the productivity and water use efficiency for new sunflower genotypes. Ten sunflower genotypes were evaluated under drip irrigation using two treatments of. Results indicate that decreasing the amount of irrigation water from 1500 to 1130 mm/hectar significantly reduced all studied traits. Mutation (M1-63) surpassed all the other one genotypes in seed yield and WUE. Lines which gave the highest yield of the seed have water use efficiency under drought conditions higher than water use efficiency under normal irrigation. The lowest depression in seed yield due to drought conditions has been registered for Line 20, Line M1-63 and Sakha 53 genotypes (11 , 18 and 16 %, respectively). Genotypes (Line 20 , Line M1-63 and Sakha 53) are more tolerant to drought than others and we can used its in breeding program to develop sunflower hybrids suitable for cultivation under drought condition.

Keywords: sunflower genotypes, water use efficiency, mutation, inbred lines

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Authors: Dominic Winston Kaku

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The academic performance of students is an area of great concern in education to the various stakeholders of education. This is because the academic performance of students is widely used as a measure of the success of the educational process. There are several factors, such as school-related factors, teachers related factors, pupils or students’ factors, and many others determining their academic performance. It appears that the management role of head teachers as a determining factor of pupils’ academic achievement is not much investigated. The management role of head teachers is an essential element in the educational process that has a huge influence on students’ academic performance. The aim of the research was to examine the management role of head teachers in improving the academic performance of students. The study employed a descriptive survey and was conducted among Junior High Schools in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region of Ghana. The respondents for the study were mainly all the head teachers, teachers, and some selected basic school pupils (JHS) in four-selected public basic schools in the Ellembelle district in the Western part of Ghana. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a sampling size of 252 persons, including 226 JHS pupils, all JHS teachers, and head teachers of all four selected schools. Descriptive statistics, specifically frequencies, percentages, pie charts, bar charts, means, and standard deviation, were used to analyse the data, and that formed the basis of the presentation of findings. The study discovered that planning academic activities, fostering relationships between the school and the community, supervising lessons, staff motivation, and punishing students who go wrong are some of the activities the head teachers participate in to help improve students’ academic performance. The academic performance of students is an area of great concern in education to the various stakeholders of education. This is because the academic performance of students is widely used as a measure of the success of the educational process. There are several factors, such as school-related factors, teachers related factors, pupils or students’ factors, and many others determining their academic performance. It appears that the management role of head teachers as a determining factor of pupils’ academic achievement is not much investigated. The management role of head teachers is an essential element in the educational process that has a huge influence on students’ academic performance. The aim of the research was to examine the management role of head teachers in improving the academic performance of students. The study employed a descriptive survey and was conducted among Junior High Schools in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region of Ghana. The respondents for the study were mainly all the head teachers, teachers, and some selected basic school pupils (JHS) in four-selected public basic schools in the Ellembelle district in the Western part of Ghana. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a sampling size of 252 persons, including 226 JHS pupils, all JHS teachers, and head teachers of all four selected schools. Descriptive statistics, specifically frequencies, percentages, pie charts, bar charts, means, and standard deviation, were used to analyse the data, and that formed the basis of the presentation of findings. The study discovered that planning academic activities, fostering relationships between the school and the community, supervising lessons, staff motivation, and punishing students who go wrong are some of the activities the head teachers participate in to help improve students’ academic performance.

Keywords: supervision, head teacher, academic performance, planning, motivation, relationships

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Authors: Iveta Řepková

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The aim of this paper is to estimate the efficiency of the Slovak commercial banks employing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) window analysis approach during the period 2003-2012. The research is based on unbalanced panel data of the Slovak commercial banks. Undesirable output was included into analysis of banking efficiency. It was found that most efficient banks were Postovabanka, UniCredit Bank and Istrobanka in CCR model and the most efficient banks were Slovenskasporitelna, Istrobanka and UniCredit Bank in BCC model. On contrary, the lowest efficient banks were found Privatbanka and CitiBank. We found that the largest banks in the Slovak banking market were lower efficient than medium-size and small banks. Results of the paper is that during the period 2003-2008 the average efficiency was increasing and then during the period 2010-2011 the average efficiency decreased as a result of financial crisis.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, efficiency, Slovak banking sector, window analysis

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Authors: Bai-Chen Xie, Biao Li

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With the deepening of international exchanges and investment, the international comparison of power grid firms has become the focus of regulatory authorities. Ignoring the differences in the economic environment, resource endowment, technology, and other aspects of different countries or regions may lead to efficiency bias. Based on the Meta-frontier model, this paper divides China and Japan into two groups by using the data of China and Japan from 2006 to 2020. While preserving the differences between the two countries, it analyzes and compares the efficiency of the transmission and distribution industries of the two countries. Combined with the four-component stochastic frontier model, the efficiency is divided into transient and persistent efficiency. We found that there are obvious differences between the transmission and distribution sectors in China and Japan. On the one hand, the inefficiency of the two countries is mostly caused by long-term and structural problems. The key to improve the efficiency of the two countries is to focus more on solving long-term and structural problems. On the other hand, the long-term and structural problems that cause the inefficiency of the two countries are not the same. Quality factors have different effects on the efficiency of the two countries, and this different effect is captured by the common frontier model but is offset in the overall model. Based on these findings, this paper proposes some targeted policy recommendations.

Keywords: transmission and distribution industries, transient efficiency, persistent efficiency, meta-frontier, international comparison

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Authors: Ayalew Tadese Kibret, Belayneh Sisay Alemu, Amare Kassaw Yimer

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Intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) are considered to be a key enabling technology for sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. IRSs are electromagnetic (EM) surfaces that are fabricated and have integrated electronics, electronically controlled processes, and particularly wireless communication features. IRSs operate without the need for complex signal processing and the encoding and decoding steps that improve the signal quality at the receiver. Improving vital performance parameters such as energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) have frequently been the primary goals of research in order to meet the increasing requirements for advanced services in the future 6G communications. In this research, we conduct a comparative analysis on single and multi-IRS wireless communication networks using energy and spectrum efficiency. The energy efficiency versus user distance, energy efficiency versus signal to noise ratio, and spectral efficiency versus user distance are the basis for our result with 1, 2, 4, and 6 IRSs. According to the results of our simulation, in terms of energy and spectral efficiency, six IRS perform better than four, two, and single IRS. Overall, our results suggest that multi-IRS-assisted wireless communication systems outperform single IRS systems in terms of communication performance.

Keywords: sixth-generation (6G), wireless networks, intelligent reflecting surfaces, energy efficiency, spectral efficiency

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Authors: Milind S. Patil, Purushottam S. Desale, Eknath R. Deore

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Thermal analysis of reheat, regenerative, inter-cooled gas turbine cycle is presented. Specific work output, thermal efficiency and SFC is simulated with respect to operating conditions. Analytical formulas were developed taking into account the effect of operational parameters like ambient temperature, compression ratio, compressor efficiency, turbine efficiency, regenerator effectiveness, pressure loss in inter cooling, reheating and regenerator. Calculations were made for wide range of parameters using engineering equation solver and the results were presented here. For pressure ratio of 12, regenerator effectiveness 0.95, and maximum turbine inlet temperature 1200 K, thermal efficiency decreases by 27% with increase in ambient temperature (278 K to 328 K). With decrease in regenerator effectiveness thermal efficiency decreases linearly. With increase in ambient temperature (278 K to 328 K) for the same maximum temperature and regenerator effectiveness SFC decreases up to a pressure ratio of 10 and then increases. Sharp rise in SFC is noted for higher ambient temperature. With increase in isentropic efficiency of compressor and turbine, thermal efficiency increases by about 40% for low ambient temperature (278 K to 298 K) however, for higher ambient temperature (308 K to 328 K) thermal efficiency increases by about 70%.

Keywords: gas turbine, reheating, regeneration, inter-cooled, thermal analysis

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Authors: Boukari Abdou Wakilou

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Benin is one of West Africa's major cotton-producing countries. Cotton is the country's main source of foreign currency and employment. But it is also one of the sources of soil degradation. The search for good agricultural practices is therefore, a constant preoccupation. The aim of this study is to measure the technical efficiency of cotton growers by comparing those who constantly grow cotton on the same land with those who practice crop rotation. The one-step estimation approach of the stochastic production frontier, including determinants of technical inefficiency, was applied to a stratified random sample of 261 cotton producers. Overall, the growers had a high average technical efficiency level of 90%. However, there was no significant difference in the level of technical efficiency between the two groups of growers studied. All the factors linked to compliance with the technical production itinerary had a positive influence on the growers' level of efficiency. It is, therefore, important to continue raising awareness of the importance of respecting the technical production itinerary and of integrated soil fertility management techniques.

Keywords: technical efficiency, soil fertility, cotton, crop rotation, benin

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Authors: Afaf Alhusayni, Elizabeth Sheppard, Asiyya Jaffrani, Peter Mitchell, Lauren Marsh

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Introduction: Previous research has found that people make systematic judgments about others based on small glimpses of their behavior. Furthermore, autistic people are consistently judged more negatively than non-autistic people in terms of favourability and approachability. Objectives: This project focuses on a hitherto unstudied type of judgment that is highly relevant within a university context, judgments about academic performance. This is particularly important as autistic university students are less likely to complete their degrees than neurotypical students. Methods: Twenty-five neurotypical perceivers (21 females - 4 males) viewed a series of 4s video clips featuring an individual ‘target’ displaying natural behavior. Nine of these targets were autistic and nine were neurotypical. Perceivers were asked to rate each target on four aspects related to university life (motivation, success, grades, and happiness). Results: Autistic targets were judged more negatively on all aspects compared to neurotypical targets. Conclusions: This study concludes that neurotypical perceivers negatively judge the academic performance of autistic students. This suggests that autistic university students face unfavorable scrutiny and judgment, which may negatively impact their academic success. Implications: These initial findings provide important evidence that autistic people are negatively stigmatized within education environments. Further work is needed to ascertain the extent to which these negative judgments may feed into attainment gaps for autistic students. This information is useful for the education department, government, and social care organizations, enabling change in the provision of support for autistic students.

Keywords: autistic person perception, academic performance, stigma and judgment, higher education

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Authors: Hilary Joseph Watsilla

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Research work is a vital part of the university system; in Nigeria public universities, research is used in measuring the development of individuals and departments within the academic system. Information technology has impacted the way research is carried out by providing easy access to information and improved collaboration between research and other instruments necessary for research activities. However, access to some of these IT facilities is not readily available in most of the public institutions in Nigeria. Research activities are usually tedious and rigorous and any inadequacy in research resources might affect the quality of research outcome. This study aims to identify the IT capability and knowledge management capabilities necessary for academic researchers in public universities in Nigeria, as it will provide more incite to the knowledge creation processes of research. The research will be conducted using an interpretive lens, which will provide a more qualitative understanding of the subject matter. The outcome of the research will provide an empirical understanding of the IT capabilities, which help in the optimization of the knowledge management capabilities of the university.

Keywords: IT capabilities, KM capabilities, universities, academic research

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Authors: Roman Knizek, Denisa Knizkova, Ludmila Fridrichova

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The academic environment in Central Europe has recently been transforming itself and is trying to link its research and development with the private sector. However, compared to Western countries, there is a lack of history and continuity because of the centrally controlled economy from the end of the Second World War until the early 1990s. There are two basic models of how to carry out technology transfer between the academic and the business world. The first is to develop something new and then find a suitable private sector partner; the second is to find a partner who has the basic idea and then develop something new in collaboration. This study, unlike some other ones, describes two specific cases that took place in cooperation with the Technical University of Liberec, Faculty of Textiles. As was said before, in one case, a product was first developed, and after that, an investor was sought, and in the other case, there was an investor who wanted a specific product and wanted to help with its development. The study describes the various advantages and disadvantages, including a practical example of the creation of a subsequent start-up.

Keywords: start-up, state university, academic environment, licensing agreement

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Authors: L. N. P. Wedikandage, Mohamed Razmi Zahir

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Technology is a global imperative because of its contributions to human existence and because it has improved global socioeconomic relations. As a result, the mobile phone has become the most important mode of communication today. Smartphones, Internet-enabled devices with built-in computer software and applications, are one of the most significant inventions of the twenty-first century. Technology is advantageous to many people, especially those involved in education. It is an important learning tool for today's schoolchildren. It enables students to access online learning platforms and course resources and interact digitally. Senior secondary students, in particular, have some of the most expensive and sophisticated mobile phones, tablets, and iPads capable of connecting to the internet and various social media platforms, other websites, and so on. At present, the use of mobile phones' potential for effective teaching and learning is growing. This is due to the benefits of mobile learning, including the ability to share knowledge without any limits in space or Time and the capacity to facilitate the development of critical thinking, participatory learning, problem-solving, and the development of lifelong communication skills. However, it is yet unclear how mobile devices may affect education and how they may affect opportunities for learning. As a result, the purpose of this research was to ascertain the relationship between mobile phone usage and the academic Performance of secondary-level students at an international school in Sri Lanka. The study's sample consisted of 523 secondary-level students from an international school, ranging from Form 1 to Upper 6. For the study, a survey research design and questionnaires were used. Google Forms was used to create the students' survey. There were three hypotheses tested to find out the relationship between mobile phone usage and academic preference. The findings show that there is a positive relationship between mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students (the number of students obtaining simple passes is significantly higher when mobile phones are being used for more than 7 hours), no relationship between mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students of different parents' occupations, and a relationship between the frequency of mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students.

Keywords: mobile phone, academic performance, secondary level, international schools

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Authors: Elham Shahrjooi Haghighi

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This research explores how lexical bundles are utilized in writing in the field of linguistics by comparing professional Persian writers with native English writers using corpus-based studies and advanced computational techniques to examine the occurrence and characteristics of lexical bundles in academic writings. The review of literature emphasizes how important lexical bundles are, in organizing discussions and conveying opinions in both spoken and written language contexts across genres and proficiency levels in fields of study. Previous research has indicated that native English writers tend to employ an array and diversity of bundles than non-native writers do; these bundles are essential elements in academic writing. In this study’s methodology section, the research utilizes a corpus-based method to analyze a collection of writings such as research papers and advanced theses at the doctoral and masters’ levels. The examination uncovers variances in the utilization of groupings between writers who are native speakers of Persian and those who are native English speakers with the latter group displaying a greater occurrence and variety, in types of groupings. Furthermore, the research delves into how these groupings contribute to aspects classifying them into categories based on their relevance to research text structure and individuals as outlined in Hyland’s framework. The results show that Persian authors employ phrases and demonstrate distinct structural and functional tendencies in comparison to native English writers. This variation is linked to differing language skills, levels, disciplinary norms and cultural factors. The study also highlights the pedagogical implications of these findings, suggesting that targeted instruction on the use of lexical bundles could enhance the academic writing skills of non-native speakers. In conclusion, this research contributes to the understanding of lexical bundles in academic writing by providing a detailed comparative analysis of their use by Persian and native English writers. The insights from this study have important implications for language education and the development of effective writing strategies for non-native English speakers in academic contexts.

Keywords: lexical bundles, academic writing, comparative analysis, computational techniques

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Authors: Matthias Grunke

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In this qualitative study, we interviewed a young man with learning disabilities who played professional baseball for two years. Individuals with severe academic challenges constitute one of the most vulnerable groups of our society. Science has to find ways on how to arm them against life’s challenges and help them to cope with the many risk factors that they are usually confronted with. Team sports like baseball seem to be a suitable means for that purpose. In the interview, our participant talked about his life as a student with severe learning difficulties and related how his career in baseball made his academic challenges appear much less significant. He gave some meaningful insights into what helped him to build a happy and fulfilling life for himself, not only in spite of his challenges but also because of what he's learning disabilities taught him. Support from significant others, a sense of purpose, his fighting spirit ignited by sports, and the success that he experienced on the baseball field were among the most relevant factors. Overall, this study highlights the importance of finding an outlet for young people with learning disabilities where their academic difficulties retreat into the background and their talents are validated.

Keywords: baseball, inclusion, learning disabilities, resilience

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Authors: Andrea Musumeci

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General theory of translation has suffered the lack of a homogeneous academic dialect, a holistic methodology to account for the diversity of factors involved in the discipline. An underlying pattern amongst theories of translation belonging to different periods and schools has been identified. Such pattern, which is linguistics oriented, could play a role towards unified academic and professional environments, both in terms of research and as a professional category. The implementation of such an approach has also led to a critique of the concept of equivalence, as being not the best of ways to account for translating phenomena.

Keywords: optimal, translating, research translation theory, methodology, descriptive analysis

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Authors: Muhammad Irfan

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The UN General Assembly has advocated improving energy efficiency by SDG criteria to promote global economic growth. Pakistan is confronted with financial obstacles when it comes to acquiring energy efficiency because of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic and political instability, budgetary strains, and poor financial circumstances. The study examines how cutting-edge financing approaches like FinTech, financial inclusion, and green financing affect Pakistan's energy consumption. It finds noteworthy outcomes. The study's results have demonstrated the important impact of these funding methods on energy conservation. The best and most helpful finance tool for energy efficiency is green financing; yet, because of differences in characteristics, workings, and financial institutions, FinTech, and financial inclusion play a smaller role in Pakistan. The researchers propose that to achieve energy efficiency, FinTech activities and funding criteria such as green bonds should be reviewed. It also advised authorities to create energy system-friendly regulations for green finance in Pakistan.

Keywords: green finance, FinTech, financial inclusion, energy efficiency, Pakistan

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Authors: Rohana Abdullah, Md Nizam Abd Rahman, Seri Rahayu Kamat

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Operator efficiency aspect is gaining importance in ensuring optimized usage of resources especially in the semi-automated manufacturing environment. This paper addresses a case study done to solve operator efficiency and line balancing issue at a semiconductor assembly and test manufacturing. A Man-to-Machine (M2M) work study technique is used to study operator current utilization and determine the optimum allocation of the operators to the machines. Critical factors such as operator activity, activity frequency and operator competency level are considered to gain insight on the parameters that affects the operator utilization. Equipment standard time and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) information are also gathered and analyzed to achieve a balanced and optimized production.

Keywords: operator efficiency, optimized production, line balancing, industrial and manufacturing engineering

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Authors: Usman Tunde Saadu, Adedayo Adesokan, Raseed Adewale Hamsat

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This study examined the influence of procrastination on the academic achievement of students in tertiary institutions in Kwara State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey was adopted for this study and the total number of 300 respondents participated in the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 3 institutions and 30 departments respectively. Systematic sampling technique was used to select 10 final year students in each department. Two instruments were used to obtain data from the respondents. Procrastination Assessment Scale adapted from Solomon and Rothblum (1984) and a proforma designed by researchers to obtain students CGPA in 2013/2014 academic session. The reliability score of 0.80 was obtained for the instrument using split half method. One research question and one hypothesis were postulated for this study. Percentage was employed to answer research question while research hypothesis was tested with t-test statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significant. The findings of this study revealed that most of final year students in tertiary institutions in Kwara State procrastinated because 82.3% engaged in procrastination while 17.7% did not procrastinate. Also, the study revealed that there was a significant difference between the academic achievement of tertiary institution students who procrastinate and those who did not procrastinate (cal. t-value =2.634 < critical t-value = 1.960). Students who did not engage in act of procrastinate achieved better academically than students who engage in procrastination. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made; procrastination as a concept, should be taught at the various institutions so that students will understand what the concept is all about. Guidance and counsellor and educational psychologists should be employed at various institutions to handle students who procrastinate so that appropriate methods will be recommended so solve the problem.

Keywords: academic, achievement, procrastination, institution

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Authors: Josée Charette

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The academic and educational success of immigrant students is a current issue in education, especially in western societies such in the province of Quebec, in Canada. For people who immigrate with school-age children, the success of the family’s migratory project is often measured by the benefits drawn by children from the educational institutions of their host society. In order to support the academic achievement of their children, immigrant parents try to develop practices that derive from their representations of school and related challenges inspired by the socio-cultural context of their country of origin. These findings lead us to the following question: How does strategies implemented by immigrant parents to manage the representational distance between school of their country of origin and school of the host society support or not the academic and educational success of their child? In the context of a qualitative exploratory approach, we have made interviews in the French-, English- and Spanish-languages with 32 newly immigrated parents and 10 of their children. Parents were invited to complete a network of free associations about «School in Quebec» as a premise for the interview. The objective of this communication is to present strategies implemented by immigrant parents to manage the distance between their representations of schools in their country of origin and in the host society, and to explore the influence of this management on their child’s academic and educational trajectories. Data analysis led us to develop various types of strategies, such as continuity, adaptation, resources mobilization, compensation and "return to basics" strategies. These strategies seem to be part of a continuum from oppositional-conflict scenario, in which parental strategies act as a risk factor, to conciliator-integrator scenario, in which parental strategies act as a protective factor for immigrant students’ academic and educational success. In conclusion, we believe that our research helps in providing a more efficient support to immigrant parents and contributes to develop a wider portrait of immigrant students’ academic achievement. In addition, we think that by improving the experience of immigrant families in Quebec schools, a greater number of migratory projects will be effective.

Keywords: immigrant students, family’s migratory project, school of origin and school of host society, immigrants parental strategies

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Authors: Rania Alshikhe, Vinita Jindal

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Digital innovation has played a crucial role in managing smart transportation. For this, big trajectory data collected from traveling vehicles, such as taxis through installed global positioning system (GPS)-enabled devices can be utilized. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to trace the movements of vehicles in fine spatiotemporal granularity. This paper aims to explore big trajectory data to measure the travel efficiency of road networks using the proposed statistical travel efficiency measure (STEM) across an entire city. Further, it identifies the cause of low travel efficiency by proposed least square approximation network-based causality exploration (LANCE). Finally, the resulting data analysis reveals the causes of low travel efficiency, along with the road segments that need to be optimized to improve the traffic conditions and thus minimize the average travel time from given point A to point B in the road network. Obtained results show that our proposed approach outperforms the baseline algorithms for measuring the travel efficiency of the road network.

Keywords: GPS trajectory, road network, taxi trips, digital map, big data, STEM, LANCE

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Authors: Siddiq Ahmed

Abstract:

The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a Peer-Mediated Intervention (PMI) on writing skills for a student with autism spectrum disorders in inclusive classrooms. The participants in this study were two students, one as a tutor and another as a tutee who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The target participant struggled with writing skills and was paired with a student with high academic outcomes. The Tutor had a readiness to act as a tutor for his peer and was trained on how to assist his peer and how to identify and guide his peer’s writing mistakes. Multiple baseline design across behaviors was implemented to monitor the student’s progress in writing skills. The results of the present study showed that PMI yielded significant improvements in academic achievements for the target student. This study suggests that further studies should replicate the current study with an intensive focus on other academic skills such as reading comprehension, writing social stories, and math.

Keywords: peer tutoring, writing skills, autism, inclusion

Procedia PDF Downloads 107