Search results for: effective classroom

Authors: David Whitehouse

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Some of the strengths of online teaching include flexibility, creativity, and comprehensiveness. A challenge can be motivation. How can an instructor repeating the same lessons over and over, day in and day out, year after year, maintain motivation? Enthusiasm? Does motivating the student and creating enthusiasm in class build the same things inside the instructor? The answers lie in the adoption of what I label EUQ—The Empathy and Understanding Quotient. In the online environment, students who are adults have many demands on their time: civilian careers, families (spouse, children, older parents), and sometimes even military service. Empathetic responses on the part of the instructor will lead to open and honest communication on the part of the student, which will lead to understanding on the part of the instructor and a rise in motivation in both parties. Understanding the demands can inform an instructor’s relationship with the student throughout the temporal parameters of classwork. In practicing EUQ, instructors can build motivation in their students and find internal motivation in an enhanced classroom dynamic. The presentation will look at what motivates a student to accomplish more than the minimum required and how that can lead to excellent results for an instructor’s own motivation. Through direct experience of having students give high marks on post-class surveys and via direct messaging, the presentation will focus on how applying EUQ in granting extra time, searching for intent while grading, communicating with students via Quick Notes, responses in Forums, comments in Assignments, and comments in grading areas - - - how applying these things infuses enthusiasm and energy in the instructor which drive creativity in teaching. Three primary ways of communicating with students will be given as examples. The positive response and negative response each for a Forum, an Assignment, and a Message will be explored. If there is time, participants will be invited to craft their own EUQ responses in a role playing exercise involving two common classroom scenarios—late work and plagiarism.

Keywords: education, instruction, motivation, online, teaching

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Authors: Ann Dashwood

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Using standard Australian English with confidence is a cultural expectation of parents of primary school aged children who want to engage effectively with their children’s teachers and school administration. That confidence in support of their children’s learning at school is seldom experienced by parents whose first language is not English. Sharing language with competence in an intercultural environment is the common denominator for meaningful communication and engagement to occur in a school community. Experience in relevant interactive sessions is known to enhance engagement and participation. The purpose of this paper is to identify interactional settings for which parents who are isolated from the daily use of functional Australian cultural language learned to engage more effectively in their children’s learning at school. The outcomes measured parents’ intercultural engagement with classroom teachers and attention to the school’s administrative procedures. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods. The principles of communicative task-based language learning combined with intercultural communication principles provided the theoretical base for intensive English task-based learning and engagement. The quantitative analysis examined data samples collected by classroom teachers and administrators and parents’ writing samples. Interviews and observations qualitatively informed the study. Currently significant numbers of projects are active in community centres and schools to enhance English language knowledge of parents from Language Backgrounds Other Than English (LBOTE). The study was significant to explore the effects of conducting intensive English with parents of varied English language backgrounds by targeting language use for social interactions in the community, specific engagement in school activities, cultural interaction with teachers and responsiveness to complying with school procedures.

Keywords: engagement, intercultural communication, LBOTE, school community

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Renga Rao Krishnamoorthy, Raihan Tahir

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The quality of classroom learning and teaching delivery has been and will continue to be debated at various levels worldwide. The regional cooperation programme to improve the quality and labour market orientation of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (RECOTVET), ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit’ (GIZ), in line with the sustainable development goals (SDG), has taken the initiative in the development of quality TVET in the ASEAN region by developing the Quality Toolbox for Better TVET Delivery (Quality Toolbox). This initiative aims to provide quick and practical materials to trainers, instructors, and personnel involved in education and training at an institute to shape the quality of classroom learning and teaching. The Quality Toolbox for Better TVET Delivery was developed in three stages: literature review and development, validation, and finalization. Thematic areas in the Quality Toolbox were derived from collective input of concerns and challenges raised from experts’ workshops through moderated sessions involving representatives of TVET institutes from 9 ASEAN Member States (AMS). The sessions were facilitated by professional moderators and international experts. TVET practitioners representing AMS further analysed and discussed the structure of the Quality Toolbox and content of thematic areas and outlined a set of specific requirements and recommendations. The application exercise of the Quality Toolbox was carried out by TVET institutes among ASM. Experience sharing sessions from participating ASEAN countries were conducted virtually. The findings revealed that TVET institutes use two types of approaches in shaping the quality of learning and teaching, which is ascribed to inductive or deductive, shaping of quality in learning and teaching is a non-linear process and finally, Q-tools can be adopted and adapted to shape the quality of learning and teaching at TVET institutes in the following: improvement of the institutional quality, improvement of teaching quality and improvement on the organisation of learning and teaching for students and trainers. The Quality Toolbox has good potential to be used at education and training institutes to shape quality in learning and teaching.

Keywords: AMS, GIZ, RECOTVET, quality tools

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Authors: Tarun Jain, Lovnish Gupta, Soumen Basu

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Organic pollutants like phenols and organic dyes present in industrial waste water are posing a hazardous threat to aquatic ecosystem. Several measures have been adopted for the neutralization and photodecomposition of these harmful organic moieties, among these semiconductor photocatalysis has been provided a major thrust after the discovery of Honda-Fujishema effect. Present study demonstrates the adsorption of TiO2- P25 in nano size (~36 nm) on cement balls for effective photodegradation of Alizarin and penta chlorophenol (PCP) under UV light illumination. Triton-X was used as a stabilizer for effective adsorption of TiO2 on cement balls (TCB) followed by calcination at ~300oC for 4 h. The TCB’s were dispersed randomly in a self designed reactor for phototcatalytic performance as shown in scheme 1. The change in concentration of alizarin and PCP was observed under UV-Vis spectroscopy, PCP was detoxified within 40 min while alizarin photodecomposed within 15 min of UV light irradiation. Taking into consideration the go green slogan and future prospective this technique can be also utilized under visible light and on mass scale because this is an effective tool for environmental remediation and waste water treatment.

Keywords: organic pollutants, TiO2 cement balls, photodegradation, UV light irradiation

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Authors: Noritaka Shigei, Kazuto Matsumoto, Yoshiki Nakashima, Hiromi Miyajima

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Although Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSNs), which consist of mobile sensor nodes (MSNs), can cover a wide range of observation region by using a small number of sensor nodes, they need to construct a network to collect the sensing data on the base station by moving the MSNs. As an effective method, the network construction method based on Virtual Rails (VRs), which is referred to as VR method, has been proposed. In this paper, we propose two types of effective techniques for the VR method. They can prolong the operation time of the network, which is limited by the battery capabilities of MSNs and the energy consumption of MSNs. The first technique, an effective arrangement of VRs, almost equalizes the number of MSNs belonging to each VR. The second technique, an adaptive movement method of MSNs, takes into account the residual energy of battery. In the simulation, we demonstrate that each technique can improve the network lifetime and the combination of both techniques is the most effective.

Keywords: mobile sensor node, relay of sensing data, residual energy, virtual rail, wireless sensor network

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Authors: Roopali Kulkarni, Yuliya Khrypko

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A major problem in educational digital game design is that game developers are often focused on maintaining the fun and playability of an educational game, whereas educators are more concerned with the learning aspect of the game rather than its entertaining characteristics. There is a clear need to understand what key aspects of digital learning games make them an effective learning medium in tertiary education. Through a systematic literature review and content analysis, this paper identifies, evaluates, and summarizes twenty-three key attributes of digital games used in tertiary education and presents a summary digital game-based learning (DGBL) model for designing and evaluating an educational digital game of any genre that promotes effective learning in tertiary education. The proposed solution overcomes limitations of previously designed models for digital game evaluation, such as a small number of game attributes considered or applicability to a specific genre of digital games. The proposed DGBL model can be used to assist game designers and educators with creating effective and engaging educational digital games for the tertiary education curriculum.

Keywords: DGBL model, digital games, educational games, game-based learning, tertiary education

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Authors: John Zanetich

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Due to their positive associations with student learning and retention, certain undergraduate opportunities are designated ‘high-impact.’ High-Impact Practices (HIPs) such as, learning communities, community based projects, research, internships, study abroad and culminating senior experience, share several traits bin common: they demand considerable time and effort, learning occurs outside of the classroom, and they require meaningful interactions between faculty and students, they encourage collaboration with diverse others, and they provide frequent and substantive feedback. As a result of experiential learning in these practices, participation in these practices can be life changing. High impact learning helps individuals locate tacit knowledge, and build mental models that support the accumulation of knowledge. On-going learning from experience and knowledge conversion provides the individual with a way to implicitly organize knowledge and share knowledge over a lifetime. Knowledge conversion is a knowledge management component which focuses on the explication of the tacit knowledge that exists in the minds of students and that knowledge which is embedded in the process and relationships of the classroom educational experience. Knowledge conversion is required when working with tacit knowledge and the demand for a learner to align deeply held beliefs with the cognitive dissonance created by new information. Knowledge conversion and tacit knowledge result from the fact that an individual's way of knowing, that is, their core belief structure, is considered generalized and tacit instead of explicit and specific. As a phenomenon, tacit knowledge is not readily available to the learner for explicit description unless evoked by an external source. The development of knowledge–related capabilities such as Aggressive Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK) can be used in experiential educational programs to enhance knowledge, foster behavioral change, improve decision making, and overall performance. ADTK allows the student in HIPs to use their existing knowledge in a way that allows them to evaluate and make any necessary modifications to their core construct of reality in order to amalgamate new information. Based on the Lewin/Schein Change Theory, the learner will reach for tacit knowledge as a stabilizing mechanism when they are challenged by new information that puts them slightly off balance. As in word association drills, the important concept is the first thought. The reactionary outpouring to an experience is the programmed or tacit memory and knowledge of their core belief structure. ADTK is a way to help teachers design their own methods and activities to unfreeze, create new learning, and then refreeze the core constructs upon which future learning in a subject area is built. This paper will explore the use of ADTK as a technique for knowledge conversion in the classroom in general and in HIP programs specifically. It will focus on knowledge conversion in curriculum development and propose the use of one-time educational experiences, multi-session experiences and sequential program experiences focusing on tacit knowledge in educational programs.

Keywords: tacit knowledge, knowledge management, college programs, experiential learning

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Authors: Shazali Abdulahi

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Project planning is the first phase in project life cycle which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report the project progress within the project environment. Likewise, project execution is the third phase in project lifecycle, is the phase where the work of the project must get done correctly and it’s the longest phase in the project lifecycle therefore, they must be effectively communicated, now today Communication has become the crucial element of every organization. During construction project delivery, information needs to be accurately and timely communicating among project stakeholders in order to realize the project objective. Effective communication among stakeholders during construction project delivery is one of the major factors that impact construction project delivery. Therefore, the aim of the research work is to examine the critical factors influencing effective communication among stakeholders on construction project delivery from the perspective of construction professionals (Architects, Builders, Quantity surveyors, and Civil engineers). A quantitative approach was adopted. This entailed the used of structured questionnaire to one (108) construction professionals in public and private organization within dutse metropolis. Frequency, mean, ranking and multiple linear regression using SPSS vision 25 software were used to analyses the data. The results show that Leadership, Trust, Communication tools, Communication skills, Stakeholders involvement, Cultural differences, and Communication technology were the most critical factors influencing effective communication among stakeholders on construction project delivery. The hypothesis revealed that, effective communication among stakeholders has significant effects on construction project delivery. This research work will profit the construction stakeholders in construction industry, by providing adequate knowledge regarding the factors influencing effective communication among stakeholders, so that necessary steps to be taken to improve project performance. Also, it will provide knowledge about the appropriate strategies to employ in order to improve communication among stakeholders.

Keywords: effetive communication, ineffective communication, stakeholders, project delivery

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Authors: Jennifer Nutton, Gayle Ployer, Ky Scott, Jenny Morgan

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Working in a circle within higher education creates a decolonial space of mutual respect, responsibility, and reciprocity that facilitates collaborative learning and deep connections among learners and instructors. This approach is beyond simply facilitating a group in a circle but opens the door to creating a sacred space connecting each member to the land, to the Indigenous peoples who have taken care of the lands since time immemorial, to one another, and to one’s own positionality. These deep connections not only center human knowledges and relationships but also acknowledges responsibilities to land. Working in a circle as a relational pedagogical praxis also disrupts institutional power dynamics by creating a space of collaborative learning and deep connections in the classroom. Inherent within circle work is to facilitate connections not just academically but emotionally, physically, culturally, and spiritually. Recent literature supports the use of online talking circles, finding that it can offer a more relational and experiential learning environment, which is often absent in the virtual world and has been made more evident and necessary since the pandemic. These deeper experiences of learning and connection, rooted in both knowledge and the land, can then be shared with openness and vulnerability with one another, facilitating growth and change. This process of beginning with the land is critical to ensure we have the grounding to obstruct the ongoing realities of colonialism. The authors, who identify as both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as both educators and learners, reflect on their teaching and learning experiences in circle. They share a relational pedagogical praxis framework that has been successful in educating future social workers, environmental activists, and leaders in social and human services, health, legal and political fields.

Keywords: circle work, relational pedagogies, decolonization, distance education

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Authors: Xin Yuan, Yuji Ryu

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The indoor environment has a significant impact on occupants and a suitable indoor thermal environment can improve the children’s physical health and study efficiency during school hours. In this study, we explored the thermal environment in infant facilities classrooms for infants and children aged 1-5 and evaluated their thermal comfort. An infant facility in Fukuoka, Japan was selected for a case study to capture the infant and children’s thermal comfort characteristics in summer and winter from August 2019 to February 2020. Previous studies have pointed out using PMV indices to evaluate the thermal comfort for children could create errors that may lead to misleading results. Thus, to grasp the actual thermal environment and thermal comfort characteristics of infants and children, we retrieved the operative temperature of each child through the thermal model, based on the sensible heat transfer from the skin to the environment, and the measured classroom indoor temperature, relative humidity, and pocket temperature of children’s shorts. The statistical and comparative analysis of the results shows that (1) the operative temperature showed a large individual difference among children, with the maximum reached 6.25 °C. (2) The children might feel slightly cold in the classrooms in summer, with the frequencies of operative temperature within the interval of 26-28 ºC were only 5.33% and 16.6% for children respectively. (3) The thermal environment around children is more complicated in winter the operative temperature could exceed or fail to reach the thermal comfort temperature zone (20-23 ºC interval). (4) The environmental conditions surrounding the children may account for the reduction of their thermal comfort. The findings contribute to improving the understanding of the infant and children’s thermal comfort and provide valuable information for designers and governments to develop effective strategies for the indoor thermal environment considering the perspective of children.

Keywords: infant and children, thermal environment, thermal model, operative temperature.

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Authors: Wei Zhao

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The pandemic crisis disrupted normal classroom practices so that the constraints of the traditional practice became apparent. This turns out to be new opportunities for technology-based learning and teaching. However, how the technology supports the preschool teachers go through this sudden crisis and how preschool teachers conceived of the use of technology, appropriate and design technological artifacts as a mediator of knowledge construction in order to suit young children’s literacy level are rarely explored. This study addresses these issues by looking at the influence of a web-supported teacher community on changes/shifts in preschool teachers’ epistemological beliefs and practices. This teachers’ professional development community was formulated before the pandemic time and developed virtually throughout the home-based learning caused by Covid-19. It served as a virtual and asynchronous community for those teachers to collaboratively plan for and conduct online lessons using the knowledge-building approach for the purpose of sustaining children’s learning curiosity and opening up new learning opportunities during the lock-down period. The knowledge-building approach helps to increase teachers’ collective responsibility to collaboratively work on shared educational goals in the teacher community and awareness of noticing new ideas or innovations in their classroom. Based on the data collected across five months during and after the lock-down period and the activity theory, results show a dynamic interplay between the evolution of the community culture, the growth of teacher community and teachers’ identity transformation and professional development. Technology is useful in this regard not only because it transforms the geographical distance and new gathering guidelines after the outbreak of pandemic into new ways of communal communication and collaboration. More importantly, while teachers selected, monitored and adapted the technology, it acts as a catalyst for changes in teachers’ old teaching practices and epistemological dispositions.

Keywords: activity theory, changes in epistemology and practice, knowledge building, web-based teachers’ professional development community

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Authors: Okhee Woo

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Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate 2-year cumulative effective radiation dose and cumulative organ dose on regular follow-up computed tomography (CT) scans in patients with breast cancer and to establish personalized low-dose CT protocol. Methods and Materials: A retrospective study was performed on the patients with breast cancer who were diagnosed and managed consistently on the basis of routine breast cancer follow-up protocol between 2012-01 and 2016-06. Based on ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection) 103, the cumulative effective radiation doses of each patient for 2-year follow-up were analyzed using the commercial radiation management software (Radimetrics, Bayer healthcare). The personalized effective doses on each organ were analyzed in detail by the software-providing Monte Carlo simulation. Results: A total of 3822 CT scans on 490 patients was evaluated (age: 52.32±10.69). The mean scan number for each patient was 7.8±4.54. Each patient was exposed 95.54±63.24 mSv of radiation for 2 years. The cumulative CT radiation dose was significantly higher in patients with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.00). The HER-2 positive patients were more exposed to radiation compared to estrogen or progesterone receptor positive patient (p = 0.00). There was no difference in the cumulative effective radiation dose with different age groups. Conclusion: To acknowledge how much radiation exposed to a patient is a starting point of management of radiation exposure for patients with long-term CT follow-up. The precise and personalized protocol, as well as iterative reconstruction, may reduce hazard from unnecessary radiation exposure.

Keywords: computed tomography, breast cancer, effective radiation dose, cumulative organ dose

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Sebastianus Menggo

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The aim of communicative language teaching is to enable learners to communicate in the target language. Each learner is required to perform the micro and macro components in each utterance produced. Utterances produced must be in line with the understanding of competence and performance of each speaker. These are inter-depended. Competence and performance are obliged to be appeared proportionally in creating the utterances. The representative of competence and performance reflects the linguistics identity of a speaker in providing sentences in each certain language community. Each lexicon spoken may lead that interlocutor in comprehending the intentions utterances given. However proportional performance of both components in an utterance needed to be further elaborated. Finding appropriate gap between competence and performance components in a communicative competence must be supported positive response given by the learners.The learners’ inability to keep communicative competence proportionally is caused by inside and outside factors. The inside factors are certain lacks such as lack of self-confidence and lack of motivation which could make students feel ashamed to produce utterances, scared to make mistakes, and have no enough confidence. Knowing learner’s English learning motivation is an urgent variable to be considered in creating conducive atmosphere classroom which will raise the learners to do more toward the achievement of communicative competence. Meanwhile, the outside factor is related with the teacher. The teacher should be able to recognize the students’ problem in creating conducive atmosphere in the classroom that will raise the students’ ability to be an English speaker qualified. Moreover, the aim of this research is to know and describe the English learning motivation affecting students’ communicative competence of 48 students of XI grade of science program at catholic senior of Saint Ignasius Loyola Labuan Bajo, West Flores, Indonesia. Correlation design with purposive procedure applied in this research. Data were collected through questionnaire, interview, and students’ speaking achievement document. Result shows the description of motivation significantly affecting students’ communicative competence.

Keywords: communicative, competence, English, learning, motivation

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Authors: Nurudeen O. Lasisi, Sirajo Abdulrahman, Abdulkareem A. Ibrahim

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Newcastle disease is an infection of domestic poultry and other bird species with the virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV). In this paper, we study the dynamics of the modeling of the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) using a novel quarantine-adjusted incidence. The comparison of Vaccination, linear incident rate and novel quarantine-adjusted incident rate in the models are discussed. The dynamics of the models yield disease-free and endemic equilibrium states.The effective reproduction numbers of the models are computed in order to measure the relative impact of an individual bird or combined intervention for effective disease control. We showed the local and global stability of endemic equilibrium states of the models and we found that the stability of endemic equilibrium states of models are globally asymptotically stable if the effective reproduction numbers of the models equations are greater than a unit.

Keywords: effective reproduction number, Endemic state, Mathematical model, Newcastle disease virus, novel quarantine-adjusted incidence, stability analysis

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Authors: B. El Fadil, R. Najar

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STEM education is promoted by many scholars and curricula around the world, but it is not yet well established in the province of Quebec in Canada. In addition, effective instructional STEM activities and design methods are required to ensure that students and teachers' needs are being met. One potential method is the Engineering Design Process (EDP), a methodology that emphasizes the importance of creativity and collaboration in problem-solving strategies. This article reports on a case study that focused on using the EDP to develop instructional materials by means of making a technological artifact to teach mathematical variables and functions at the secondary level. The five iterative stages of the EDP (design, make, test, infer, and iterate) were integrated into the development of the course materials. Data was collected from different sources: pre- and post-questionnaires, as well as a working document dealing with pupils' understanding based on designing, making, testing, and simulating. Twenty-four grade seven (13 years old) students in Northern Quebec participated in the study. The findings of this study indicate that STEM activities have a positive impact not only on students' engagement in classroom activities but also on learning new mathematical concepts. Furthermore, STEM-focused activities have a significant effect on problem-solving skills development in an interdisciplinary approach. Based on the study's results, we can conclude, inter alia, that teachers should integrate STEM activities into their teaching practices to increase learning outcomes and attach more importance to STEM-focused activities to develop students' reflective thinking and hands-on skills.

Keywords: engineering design process, motivation, stem, integration, variables, functions

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Authors: Yi-Ning Chang

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With the rapid advancement of technology, it has become crucial for educators to adeptly integrate technology into their teaching and develop a robust Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) competency. Addressing this need, the present study adopted a technology-based Lesson Study approach to assess its impact on the CALL competency and professional capabilities of EFL teachers. Additionally, the study delved into teachers' perceptions of the benefits derived from participating in the creation of technologically integrated lesson plans. The iterative process of technology-based Lesson Study facilitated ample peer discussion, enabling teachers to flexibly design and implement lesson plans that incorporate various technological tools. This 15-week study included 10 in- service teachers from a university of science and technology in the central of Taiwan. The collected data included pre- and post- lesson planning scores, pre- and post- TPACK survey scores, classroom observation forms, designed lesson plans, and reflective essays. The pre- and post- lesson planning and TPACK survey scores were analyzed employing a pair-sampled t test; students’ reflective essays were respectively analyzed applying content analysis. The findings revealed that the teachers’ lesson planning ability and CALL competencies were improved. Teachers perceived a better understanding of integrating technology with teaching subjects, more effective teaching skills, and a deeper understanding of technology. Pedagogical implications and future studies are also discussed.

Keywords: CALL, language learning, lesson study, lesson plan

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Authors: Kalliopi Kanaki, Michael Kalogiannakis

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Nowadays, in the digital era, the early acquisition of basic programming skills and knowledge is encouraged, as it facilitates students’ exposure to computational thinking and empowers their creativity, problem-solving skills, and cognitive development. More and more researchers and educators investigate the introduction of computational thinking in K-12 since it is expected to be a fundamental skill for everyone by the middle of the 21st century, just like reading, writing and arithmetic are at the moment. In this paper, a doctoral research in the process is presented, which investigates the infusion of computational thinking into science curriculum in early childhood education. The whole attempt aims to develop young children’s computational thinking by introducing them to the fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming in an enjoyable, yet educational framework. The backbone of the research is the digital environment PhysGramming (an abbreviation of Physical Science Programming), which provides children the opportunity to create their own digital games, turning them from passive consumers to active creators of technology. PhysGramming deploys an innovative hybrid schema of visual and text-based programming techniques, with emphasis on object-orientation. Through PhysGramming, young students are familiarized with basic object-oriented programming concepts, such as classes, objects, and attributes, while, at the same time, get a view of object-oriented programming syntax. Nevertheless, the most noteworthy feature of PhysGramming is that children create their own digital games within the context of physical science courses, in a way that provides familiarization with the basic principles of object-oriented programming and computational thinking, even though no specific reference is made to these principles. Attuned to the ethical guidelines of educational research, interventions were conducted in two classes of second grade. The interventions were designed with respect to the thematic units of the curriculum of physical science courses, as a part of the learning activities of the class. PhysGramming was integrated into the classroom, after short introductory sessions. During the interventions, 6-7 years old children worked in pairs on computers and created their own digital games (group games, matching games, and puzzles). The authors participated in these interventions as observers in order to achieve a realistic evaluation of the proposed educational framework concerning its applicability in the classroom and its educational and pedagogical perspectives. To better examine if the objectives of the research are met, the investigation was focused on six criteria; the educational value of PhysGramming, its engaging and enjoyable characteristics, its child-friendliness, its appropriateness for the purpose that is proposed, its ability to monitor the user’s progress and its individualizing features. In this paper, the functionality of PhysGramming and the philosophy of its integration in the classroom are both described in detail. Information about the implemented interventions and the results obtained is also provided. Finally, several limitations of the research conducted that deserve attention are denoted.

Keywords: computational thinking, early childhood education, object-oriented programming, physical science courses

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Authors: A. Aloga, A. S. Aloga

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The study examined the influence of instructional supervision on teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Otukpo LGA of Benue State. The study was guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. The study employed a descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of 579 teachers in 26 public secondary schools out of which 236 respondents were sampled and used as the studied population. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire, titled ‘Instructional Supervision and Teachers Performance Questionnaire (ISTPQ)’ The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. And Chi-Square Statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that instructional supervision has a significant influence on teachers’ lesson planning, effective teaching, teachers’ class attendance and teachers’ classroom management. The study concluded that instructional supervision influences teachers’ performance. It was recommended that; instructional supervisors should always give useful suggestions as regards the best instructional practices needed by teachers in enhancing lesson planning. The government should recruit more trained and qualified instructional supervisors to be able to meet the intending demands of instructional supervision. This will relieve the existing few qualified instructional supervisors from work overload which may result to ineffectiveness and poor performance of their duties. Conferences and seminars should be organized for instructional supervisors from time to time to cater for the professional assistance needed by teachers. The state government should always provide adequate funding for these conferences and seminars since it provides an avenue for acquiring new knowledge in educational development by teachers among others.

Keywords: influence, instructional supervision, teachers’ performance, secondary schools

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Authors: Jaya Bishnu Pradhan

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Weaving mat is one of the common activities performed in different community generally in the rural part of Nepal. Mat weavers’ practice mathematical ideas and concepts implicitly in order to perform their job. This study is intended to uncover the mathematical ideas embedded in mat weaving that can help teachers and students for the teaching and learning of school geometry. The ethnographic methodology was used to uncover and describe the beliefs, values, understanding, perceptions, and attitudes of the mat weavers towards mathematical ideas and concepts in the process of mat weaving. A total of 4 mat weavers, two mathematics teachers and 12 students from grade level 6-8, who are used to participate in weaving, were selected for the study. The whole process of the mat weaving was observed in a natural setting. The classroom observation and in-depth interview were taken with the participants with the help of interview guidelines and observation checklist. The data obtained from the field were categorized according to the themes regarding mathematical ideas embedded in the weaving activities, and its possibilities in teaching learning of school geometry. In this study, the mathematical activities in different sectors of their lives, their ways of understanding the natural phenomena, and their ethnomathematical knowledge were analyzed with the notions of pluralism. From the field data, it was found that the mat weaver exhibited sophisticated geometrical ideas in the process of construction of frame of mat. They used x-test method for confirming if the mat is rectangular. Mat also provides a good opportunity to understand the space geometry. A rectangular form of mat may be rolled up when it is not in use and can be converted to a cylindrical form, which usually can be used as larder so as to reserve food grains. From the observation of the situations, this cultural experience enables students to calculate volume, curved surface area and total surface area of the cylinder. The possibilities of incorporation of these cultural activities and its pedagogical use were observed in mathematics classroom. It is argued that it is possible to use mat weaving activities in the teaching and learning of school geometry.

Keywords: ethnography, ethnomathematics, geometry, mat weaving, school pedagogy

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Authors: Cajethan U. Ugwuoke

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Agriculture is taught in secondary schools to develop skills in students which will empower them to contribute to national economic development. Unfortunately, our educational system emphasizes the application of conventional teaching methods in delivering instructions, which fails to produce students competent enough to carry out agricultural production. This study was therefore aimed at examining the application of digital technologies as tools for transformative instructional delivery. Four specific purposes, research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design where 80 subjects representing 64 teachers of agriculture and 16 principals in the Udenu local government area of Enugu State, Nigeria, participated in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The assumption of normality was ascertained by subjecting the data collected to a normality test. Data collected were later subjected to mean, Pearson product-moment correlation, ANOVA and t-test to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses at a 5% significant level. The result shows that the application of digital technologies helps to reduce learners’ boredom (3.52.75), improves learners’ performance (3.63.51), and is used as a visual aid for learners (3.56.61), among others. There was a positive, strong and significant relationship between the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (+.895, p=.001<.05, F=17.73), competency of teachers to the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (+998, p=.001<0.5, F=16263.45), and frequency of the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (+.999, p=.001<.05, F=31436.14). There was no evidence of autocorrelation and multicollinearity in the regression models between the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (2.03, Tolerance=1.00, VIF=1.00), competency of teachers in the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (2.38, Tolerance=1.00, VIF=1.00) and frequency of the application of digital technologies and effective instructional delivery (2.00, Tolerance=1.00, VIF=1.00). Digital technologies should be therefore applied in teaching to facilitate effective instructional delivery in agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural science, digital technologies, instructional delivery, learning

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Authors: Mona Hejazi, Ali Motie Nasrabadi

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Epilepsy is a persistent neurological disorder that affects more than 50 million people worldwide. Hence, there is a necessity to introduce an efficient prediction model for making a correct diagnosis of the epileptic seizure and accurate prediction of its type. In this study we consider how the Effective Connectivity (EC) patterns obtained from intracranial Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings reveal information about the dynamics of the epileptic brain and can be used to predict imminent seizures, as this will enable the patients (and caregivers) to take appropriate precautions. We use this definition because we believe that effective connectivity near seizures begin to change, so we can predict seizures according to this feature. Results are reported on the standard Freiburg EEG dataset which contains data from 21 patients suffering from medically intractable focal epilepsy. Six channels of EEG from each patients are considered and effective connectivity using Directed Transfer Function (DTF) and Granger Causality (GC) methods is estimated. We concentrate on effective connectivity standard deviation over time and feature changes in five brain frequency sub-bands (Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, and Gamma) are compared. The performance obtained for the proposed scheme in predicting seizures is: average prediction time is 50 minutes before seizure onset, the maximum sensitivity is approximate ~80% and the false positive rate is 0.33 FP/h. DTF method is more acceptable to predict epileptic seizures and generally we can observe that the greater results are in gamma and beta sub-bands. The research of this paper is significantly helpful for clinical applications, especially for the exploitation of online portable devices.

Keywords: effective connectivity, Granger causality, directed transfer function, epilepsy seizure prediction, EEG

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Authors: Semeh Ben Salem, Sami Naouali, Moetez Sallami

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The increasing amount of collected data has limited the performance of the current analyzing algorithms. Thus, developing new cost-effective algorithms in terms of complexity, scalability, and accuracy raised significant interests. In this paper, a modified effective k-means based algorithm is developed and experimented. The new algorithm aims to reduce the computational load without significantly affecting the quality of the clusterings. The algorithm uses the City Block distance and a new stop criterion to guarantee the convergence. Conducted experiments on a real data set show its high performance when compared with the original k-means version.

Keywords: pattern recognition, global terrorism database, Manhattan distance, k-means clustering, terrorism data analysis

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Authors: Halima Musa Kamilu

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This paper discusses the effective strategies for teaching English language to learners in primary schools in Nigeria. English language development is the systematic use of instructional strategies designed to promote the acquisition of English by pupils in primary schools whose primary language is not English. Learning a second language is through total immersion. These strategies support this learning method, allowing pupils to have the knowledge of English language in a pattern similar to the way they learned their native language through regular interaction with others who already know the language. The focus is on fluency and learning to speak English in a social context with native speakers. The strategies allow for effective acquisition. The paper also looked into the following areas: visuals that reinforce spoken or written words, employ gestures for added emphasis, adjusting of speech, stressing of high-frequency vocabulary words, use of fewer idioms and clarifying the meaning of words or phrases in context, stressing of participatory learning and maintaining a low anxiety level and boosting of enthusiasm. It recommended that the teacher include vocabulary words that will make the content more comprehensible to the learner.

Keywords: effective, strategies, teaching, beginners and primary schools

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Authors: A. Sewell

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The paper reports a research project which investigated the social interactions of nine to ten-year-olds in a mainstream primary school. The project implemented an adaption of a whole class, behavioural intervention known as 'The Good Behaviour Game (TGBG)'. TGBG is an evidence-based intervention traditionally used to reduce low-level disruptive behaviours in a classroom setting. TGBG was adapted to encourage pupil’s engagement in pro-social behaviour during lessons. A mixed methods research design was employed to evaluate intervention effects and pupil’s perceptions of their social interactions and relationships with others. Single-case research design was used to evaluate behaviour change, and Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) repertory grids were used to explore pupil’s perceptions. The findings demonstrated that TGBG could be successfully adapted to positively influence pupil’s engagement in pro-social behaviours. The findings from the PCP repertory grid interviews revealed the complexities of how children construct their social interactions and relationships with others, and how an understanding of these could be used to design better social skills interventions. It is concluded that TGBG is a cost-effective, simple to implement intervention for promoting positive social interactions and relationships at the whole class level. The paper presents the aims, design, findings, and conclusions of the study in further detail and relates limitations and potential future extensions of the research. The outcomes have direct application and relevance for practitioners interested in children’s social development and how to promote positive outcomes in this critical aspect of childhood.

Keywords: social skills, social development, social competency, the good behaviour game

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Authors: Happy Kumar Das, Md. Shahriar Shafiq

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This paper portrays an assumed change in the primary teacher education program in Bangladesh. An initiative has been taken with a vision to ensure an integrated approach to developing trainee teachers’ knowledge and understanding about learning at a deeper level, and with that aim, the Diploma in Primary Education (DPEd) program replaces the Certificate-in-Education (C-in-Ed) program in Bangladeshi context for primary teachers. The stated professional values of the existing program such as ‘learner-centered’, ‘reflective’ approach to pedagogy tend to contradict the practice exemplified through the delivery mechanism. To address the challenges, through the main two components (i) Training Institute-based learning and (ii) School-based learning, the new program tends to cover knowledge and value that underpin the actual practice of teaching. These two components are given approximately equal weighting within the program in terms of both time, content and assessment as the integration seeks to combine theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge and vice versa. The curriculum emphasizes a balance between the taught modules and the components of the practicum. For example, the theories of formative and summative assessment techniques are elaborated through focused reflection on case studies as well as observation and teaching practice in the classroom. The key ideology that is reflected through this newly developed program is teacher’s belief in ‘holistic education’ that can lead to creating opportunities for skills development in all three (Cognitive, Social and Affective) domains simultaneously. The proposed teacher education program aims to address these areas of generic skill development alongside subject-specific learning outcomes. An exploratory study has been designed in this regard where 7 Primary Teachers’ Training Institutes (PTIs) in 7 divisions of Bangladesh was used for experimenting DPEd program. The analysis was done based on document analysis, periodical monitoring report and empirical data gathered from the experimental PTIs. The findings of the study revealed that the intervention brought positive change in teachers’ professional beliefs, attitude and skills along with improvement of school environment. Teachers in training schools work together for collective professional development where they support each other through lesson study, action research, reflective journals, group sharing and so on. Although the DPEd program addresses the above mentioned factors, one of the challenges of the proposed program is the issue of existing capacity and capabilities of the PTIs towards its effective implementation.

Keywords: Bangladesh, effective implementation, primary teacher education, reflective approach

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Authors: Afaf Manzoor, Abdul Hameed

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Children with hearing impairment face several challenges in accessing primary and secondary education in general and higher education in particular in Pakistan. A large number of these children are excluded from formal education system through segregated special institutions. The enrollment rate of these children at school level is very low and it continues decreasing as they move on the ladder of education. Negligible number of students with hearing impairment gets any chance to be enrolled at tertiary or higher education institutes. The segregated system of education at primary and secondary level makes it even more difficult to adjust in an inclusive classroom at a higher level not only for students with hearing impairment but for their teachers and peers as well. A false belief of teachers and parents about low academic profile of students with hearing impairment is one of the major challenges to overcome for their participation at higher education. This case study was conducted to document an innovative step taken by the Department of Special Education Needs, University of Management & Technology, Lahore Pakistan. The prime objective of this study was to assess the satisfaction level of students with hearing impairment in BS 4 Years and MA Special Education programs at Lahore campus. Structured interviews were of 40 students with hearing impairment to assess the satisfaction on service delivery (admission process, classroom pedagogy, content, assessment/results, access to other services centers i.e. library, cafeteria, hostel, co-curricular activities) and campus life. Their peers without disabilities were also interviewed to assess their acceptance level. The findings of the study revealed positive results about their educational as well as social inclusion in the university. The students also shared their fears at the time of admission and how fear eventually faded out with the passage of time due to the proper academic support system. The findings of the study will be shared in detail with the audience during the presentation.

Keywords: students with hearing impairment, higher education, inclusive education, marginalization

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Authors: Marie Alexandre, Jean Bernatchez

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This paper focuses on the complexity of the face-to-face-to-distance learning transition process. Our research action aims to support the process of transition from classroom to distance learning for teachers in higher education with regard to pedagogical practices that can meet the various needs of students using digital learning environments. In Quebec and elsewhere in the world, the advent of digital education is helping to transform teaching, which is significantly changing the role of teachers. While distance education implies a dissociation of teaching and learning to a variable degree in space and time, distance education (DE) is becoming more and increasingly becoming a preferred option for maintaining the delivery of certain programs and providing access to programs and to provide access to quality activities throughout Quebec. Given the impact of teaching practices on educational success, this paper reports on the results of three research objectives: 1) To document teachers' knowledge of teaching in distance education through the design, experimentation and production of a repertoire of the determinants of pedagogical practices in response to students' needs. 2) Explain, according to a gendered logic, the adequacy between the pedagogical practices implemented in distance learning and the response to the profiles and needs expressed by students using digital learning environments; 3) Produce a model of a support approach during the process of transition from classroom to distance learning at the college level. A mixed methodology, i.e., a quantitative component (questionnaire survey) and a qualitative component (explanatory interviews and living lab) was used in cycles that were part of an ongoing validation process. The intervention includes the establishment of a professional collaboration group, webinars training webinars for the participating teachers on the didactic issue of knowledge-teaching in FAD, the didactic use of technologies, and the differentiated socialization models of educational success in college education. All of the tools developed will be used by partners in the target environment as well as by all teacher educators, students in initial teacher training, practicing teachers, and the general public. The results show that access to training leading to qualifications and commitment to educational success reflects the existing links between the people in the educational community. The relational stakes of being present in distance education take on multiple configurations and different dimensions of learning testify to needs and realities that are sometimes distinct depending on the life cycle. This project will be of interest to partners in the targeted field as well as to all teacher trainers, students in initial teacher training, practicing college teachers, and to university professors. The entire educational community will benefit from digital resources in education. The scientific knowledge resulting from this action research will benefit researchers in the fields of pedagogy, didactics, teacher training and pedagogy in higher education in a digital context.

Keywords: action research, didactics, digital learning environment, distance learning, higher education, pedagogy technological, pedagogical content knowledge

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Authors: Olukemi E. Adetuyi-Olu-Francis

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Learning is natural for living. One stops learning when life ends. Hence, there is no negotiating life-long learning. An individual has the innate ability to learn as many languages as he/she desires as long as life exists. French language education to every Nigerian teacher-trainee is a necessity. Nigeria’s geographical location requires that the French language should be upheld for economic and cultural co-operations between Nigeria and the francophone countries sharing borders with her. The French language will enhance the leadership roles of the teacher-trainees and their ability to function across borders. The 21st century learning tools are basically digital, and many apps are complementing the actual classroom interactions. This study examined the communicative competence in the French language to equip Nigerian teacher-trainees in the new-normal society using mobile apps as a lifelong learning tool. Three research questions and hypotheses guided the study, and the researcher adopted a pre-test, a post-test experimental design, using a sample size of 87 teacher-trainees in South-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Results showed that the use of mobile apps is effective for learning the French language. One of the recommendations is that the use of mobile apps should be encouraged for all Nigerian youths to learn the French language for enhancing leadership roles in the world of work and for international interactions for socio-economic co-operations with Nigerian neighboring countries.

Keywords: communicative competence, french language, life long learning, mobile apps, new normal society, teacher trainees

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Authors: Nurudeen Oluwasola Lasisi, Abdulkareem Afolabi Ibrahim

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Newcastle disease is an infection of domestic poultry and other bird species with virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV). In this paper, we study the dynamics of modeling the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) using a novel quarantine-adjusted incidence. We do a comparison of Vaccination, linear incident rate, and novel quarantine adjusted incident rate in the models. The dynamics of the models yield disease free and endemic equilibrium states. The effective reproduction numbers of the models are computed in order to measure the relative impact for the individual bird or combined intervention for effective disease control. We showed the local and global stability of endemic equilibrium states of the models, and we found that stability of endemic equilibrium states of models are globally asymptotically stable if the effective reproduction numbers of the models equations are greater than a unit.

Keywords: effective reproduction number, endemic state, mathematical model, Newcastle disease virus, novel quarantine-adjusted incidence, stability analysis

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Authors: Seyedeh Sepideh Amini, Navideh Aghaei Amirkhizi, Seyedeh Paniz Amini, Seyed Soheil Sayyahi, Mohammad Reza Davar Panah

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CT-Scan is one of the lateral and sectional imaging methods that produce 3D-images with use of rotational x-ray tube around central axis. This study is about evaluation and calculation of effective doses around heart organs such as breast, lung and liver with CT-Scan 128 dual sources with TLD_100 and RANDO Phantom by spiral, flash and conventional protocols. In results, it is showed that in spiral protocol organs have maximum effective dose and minimum in flash protocol. Thus flash protocol advised for children and risk persons.

Keywords: X-ray computed tomography, dosimetry, TLD-100, RANDO, phantom

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