Search results for: classroom friendly approach

Authors: Maheshwari Payal, Shapurkar Mayaan

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The present research aimed at studying the awareness and attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education. The sample consisted of 60 teachers, teaching in the primary section (1st – 4th) of regular schools affiliated to the SSC board in Mumbai. The sample was selected by Multi-stage cluster sampling technique. A semi-structured self-constructed interview schedule and a self-constructed attitude scale were used to study the awareness of teachers about disability and Inclusive education, and their attitudes towards inclusive education respectively. Themes were extracted from the interview data and quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS package. Results revealed that teachers had some amount of awareness but an inadequate amount of information on disabilities and inclusive education. Disability to most (37) teachers meant “an inability to do something”. The difference between disability and handicap was stated by most as former being cognitive while handicap being physical in nature. With regard to Inclusive education, a large number (46) stated that they were unaware of the term and did not know what it meant. The majority (52) of them perceived maximum challenges for themselves in an inclusive set up, and emphasized on the role of teacher training courses in the area of providing knowledge (49) and training in teaching methodology (53). Although, 83.3% of teachers held a moderately positive attitude towards inclusive education, a large percentage (61.6%) of participants felt that being in inclusive set up would be very challenging for both children with special needs and without special needs. Though, most (49) of the teachers stated that children with special needs should be educated in a regular classroom, but they further clarified that only those should be in a regular classroom who have physical impairments of mild or moderate degree.

Keywords: attitude, awareness, inclusive education, teachers

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Authors: Paulo Sérgio Ribeiro de Araújo Bogas

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Although several studies have assumed (at least implicitly) that learners' approaches to learning develop into deeper approaches to higher education, there appears to be no clear theoretical basis for this assumption and no empirical evidence. As a scientific contribution to this discussion, a pedagogical intervention of a quasi-experimental nature was developed, with a mixed methodology, evaluating the intervention within a single curricular unit of Marketing, using cases based on real challenges of brands, business simulation, and customer projects. Primary and secondary experiences were incorporated in the intervention: the primary experiences are the experiential activities themselves; the secondary experiences result from the primary experience, such as reflection and discussion in work teams. A diversified learning relationship was encouraged through the various connections between the different members of the learning community. The present study concludes that in the same context, the student's responses can be described as students who reinforce the initial deep approach, students who maintain the initial deep approach level, and others who change from an emphasis on the deep approach to one closer to superficial. This typology did not always confirm studies reported in the literature, namely, whether the initial level of deep processing would influence the superficial and the opposite. The result of this investigation points to the inclusion of pedagogical and didactic activities that integrate different motivations and initial strategies, leading to the possible adoption of deep approaches to learning since it revealed statistically significant differences in the difference in the scores of the deep/superficial approach and the experiential level. In the case of real challenges, the categories of “attribution of meaning and meaning of studied” and the possibility of “contact with an aspirational context” for their future professional stand out. In this category, the dimensions of autonomy that will be required of them were also revealed when comparing the classroom context of real cases and the future professional context and the impact they may have on the world. Regarding the simulated practice, two categories of response stand out: on the one hand, the motivation associated with the possibility of measuring the results of the decisions taken, an awareness of oneself, and, on the other hand, the additional effort that this practice required for some of the students.

Keywords: experiential learning, higher education, mixed methods, reflective learning, marketing

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Authors: Dian Hartiningsih, Miranda Diponegoro, Evita Eddie Singgih

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In facing the 21st century, children need to be prepared in reaching their optimum development level which encompasses all aspect of growth and to achieve the learning goals which include not only knowledge and skill, but also disposition and feeling. Teachers as the forefront of education need to be equipped with the understanding and skill of a learning method which can prepare the children to face this 21st century challenge. Project approach is an approach which utilizes active learning which is beneficial for the children. Subject to this research are kindergarten teachers at Dwi Matra Kindergarten and Kirana Preschool. This research is a quantitative research using before and after study design. The result suggest that through preliminary training program on learning with project approach, the kindergarten teachers ability to explain project approach including understanding, benefit and stages of project approach have increased significantly, the teachers ability to design learning with project approach have also improved significantly. The result of learning design that the teachers had made shows a remarkable result for the first stage of the project approach; however the second and third design result was not as optimal. Challenges faced in the research will be elaborated further in the research discussion.

Keywords: project approach, teacher training, learning method, kindergarten

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Authors: Damanhur Munardi, Muhammad Hafiz, Dina Nurmalita Sari, Syarifah Ridani Alifa

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Purpose: This research aims to analyze the Benefits, Opportunity, Cost, and Risk aspects of applying the Green Finance concept and to obtain the right Green Finance financing strategy to be implemented within a long-term and short-term strategic framework.Methodology: This research method uses a qualitative-descriptive analysis approach. The analysis technique uses Analytical Network Process (ANP) with a BOCR network structure approach.Findings: The research results show that the most priority long-term strategic alternative based on the long-term BOCR analysis is increasing awareness among the public and industry by 52% and the importance of coordination between related institutions by 50%. Meanwhile, the most priority short-term strategic alternatives are the importance of coordination between related institutions 29%, increasing awareness among the public and industry 28%, the banking industry proactively funding environmentally friendly companies and technology 23%, the existence of Green Finance POS (Standard Operating Procedures) 20%.Implications: This research can be used as a reference for regulators and policymakers in making strategic decisions that can increase green finance financing. The novelty of this research is identifying problems that occur in green finance financing in Aceh province by analyzing opinions from experts in related fields and financial regulators in Aceh to create a strategy that can be implemented to increase green finance financing in Aceh province through BPD in Aceh, namely Bank Aceh.

Keywords: green financing, banking, sharia, islamic

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Authors: Barzan Hadi Hama Karim

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The topic of formative assessment and its implementation in Iraqi Kurdistan have not attracted the attention of researchers and educators. Teachers’ beliefs about formative assessment as well as their assessment roles have remained unexplored. This paper reports on the research results of our survey which is conducted in 20014 to examine issues relating to formative assessment in the university ESL classroom settings. The paper portrays the findings of a qualitative study on the formative assessment role and beliefs of a group of teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the departments of English Languages in Iraqi Kurdistan universities. Participants of the study are 25 Kurdish EFL teachers from different departments of English languages. Close-ended and open-ended questionnaire is used to collect teacher’s beliefs and perceptions about the importance of formative assessment to improve the process of teaching and learning English language. The result of the study shows that teachers do not play a significant role in the assessment process because of top-down managerial approaches and educational system. The results prove that the teachers’ assessment beliefs and their key role in assessment should not be neglected. Our research papers pursued the following questions: What is the nature of formative assessment in a second language classroom setting? Do the teacher’s assessment practices reflect what she thinks about formative assessment? What are the teachers’ perceptions regarding the benefits of formative assessment for teaching and learning English language at the university level?

Keywords: formative assessment, teachers’ beliefs and perceptions, assessment, education reform, ESL

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Authors: Elke Meex, Elke Knapen, Griet Verbeeck

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The focus of sustainable building is gradually shifting from energy efficiency towards the more global environmental impact of building design during all life-cycle stages. In this context, many tools have been developed that use a LCA-approach to assess the environmental impact on a whole building level. Since the building design strongly influences the final environmental performance and the architect plays a key role in the design process, it is important that these tools are adapted to his work method and support the decision making from the early design phase on. Therefore, a comparative evaluation of the degree of architect-friendliness of some LCA tools on building level is made, based on an evaluation framework specifically developed for the architect’s viewpoint. In order to allow comparison of the results, a reference building has been designed, documented for different design phases and entered in all software tools. The evaluation according to the framework shows that the existing tools are not very architect-friendly. Suggestions for improvement are formulated.

Keywords: architect-friendliness, design supportive value, evaluation framework, tool comparison

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Authors: Bruna Azzari Puga, Richard Roe, Andre Pagani de Souza

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abstract outlines a proposed study to examine how and to what extent interactive, experiential, learner centered methodology develops learning of basic civic and democratic competencies among young children. It stems from the Literacy and Law course taught at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, since 1998. Law students, trained in best literacy practices and legal cases affecting literacy development, read “law related” children’s books and engage in interactive and extension activities with emerging readers. The law students write a monthly journal describing their experiences and a final paper: a conventional paper or a children’s book illuminating some aspect of literacy and law. This proposal is based on the recent adaptation of Literacy and Law to Brazil at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo in three forms: first, a course similar to the US model, often conducted jointly online with Brazilian and US law students; second, a similar course that combines readings of children’s literature with activity based learning, with law students from a satellite Mackenzie campus, for young children from a vulnerable community near the city; and third, a course taught by law students at the main Mackenzie campus for 4th grade students at the Mackenzie elementary school, that is wholly activity and discourse based. The workings and outcomes of these courses are well documented by photographs, reports, lesson plans, and law student journals. The authors, faculty who teach the above courses at Mackenzie and Georgetown, observe that literacy, broadly defined as cognitive and expressive development through reading and discourse-based activities, can be influential in developing democratic civic skills, identifiable by explicit civic competencies. For example, children experience justice in the classroom through cooperation, creativity, diversity, fairness, systemic thinking, and appreciation for rules and their purposes. Moreover, the learning of civic skills as well as the literacy skills is enhanced through interactive, learner centered practices in which the learners experience literacy and civic development. This study will develop rubrics for individual and classroom teaching and supervision by examining 1) the children’s books and students diaries of participating law students and 2) the collection of photos and videos of classroom activities, and 3) faculty and supervisor observations and reports. These rubrics, and the lesson plans and activities which are employed to advance the higher levels of performance outcomes, will be useful in training and supervision and in further replication and promotion of this form of teaching and learning. Examples of outcomes include helping, cooperating and participating; appreciation of viewpoint diversity; knowledge and utilization of democratic processes, including due process, advocacy, individual and shared decision making, consensus building, and voting; establishing and valuing appropriate rules and a reasoned approach to conflict resolution. In conclusion, further development and replication of the learner centered literacy and law practices outlined here can lead to improved qualities of democratic teaching and learning supporting mutual respect, positivity, deep learning, and the common good – foundation qualities of a sustainable world.

Keywords: democracy, law, learner-centered, literacy

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Authors: Yash Goyal, Manish Korde, Juned Siddiqui

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Today online education has gained more popularity so that people can easily complete their curriculum on their own time. Virtual learning has been widely used by many educators, especially in higher education institutions due to its benefits to students and faculty. A good knowledge of teaching theory and instructional design systems is required to experience meaningful learning. However, most educational websites are not designed to adapt to all screen sizes. Making the website accessible on all screen sizes is our main objective, so we have created a website that is readily accessible across all screen sizes and accepts all types of payment methods. And we see generally educational websites interface is simple and unexciting. So, we have made a user interface attractive and user friendly. It is not enough for a website to be user-friendly, but also to be familiar to admins and to reduce the workload of the admin as well. We visited so many popular websites under development that they all had issues like responsiveness, simple interface, security measures, payment methods, etc. To overcome this limitation, we have created a website which has taken care of security issues that is why we have created only one admin id and it can be control from that only. And if the user has successfully done the payment, then the admin can send him a username and password through mail individually so there will no fraud in the payment of the course.

Keywords: responsive, accessible, attractive, interface, objective, security.

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Authors: Saima Haq

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This paper presents the contribution of the Sunflowers Vocational Center, Karachi, Pakistan, by providing a platform for the students of special needs to work with recycled materials and express themselves in a more extravagant form. The concept was to create products that would generate enough income to sustain the program while keeping the students cognitively engaged through arts and crafts and tactile instructions due to their severe intellectual disabilities. Papier-mâché is an art form that is hands-on, repetitive, economical as well as beneficial for the environment. The process of tearing paper into long strips then covering them with paste and laying the strips atop the mold provides constant sensory input for our autistic students as well as the rest of our student population. Given the marginalized stance the society has on special needs, we have marketed the paper-mâché products on social media platforms and have set up booths in carnivals, festivities, open markets that are aimed towards a cause to sell. Our students in the vocational center have also made bins, baskets, and trays that are used in all classrooms. This has cut our costs on classroom materials considerably and has added a sense of accomplishment and furthered the teamwork skills in our sunflowers. The other achievement is our long clientele; orders have been placed from several persons for birthdays, parties, events, and the like. This exposure has raised awareness of the capabilities of persons of special needs and has started a conversation on the topic. And additional achievement is that we have made our teachers, their families, our students, and their families conscientious of the environment and incorporated reusing newspapers into classrooms. Situations where plastic would be bought, for example, bin, dustbins, containers, basket, trays, the paper-mâché products made by our students have been used instead. Due to the low cost of materials, this project is easily replicable and very easy to start. Piñatas are a very popular item for children’s parties everywhere and are gaining popularity through social media. This is also easily replicable in any environment and can have a great impact on the use of plastic in any work or home environment.

Keywords: vocational training, special needs, cognitive skills, teamwork

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Authors: John Bankier

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Development of academic English occurs not only in communities of practice but also within wider social networks, referred to by Zappa-Hollman and Duff as individual networks of practice. Such networks may exist whether students are developing academic English in English-dominant contexts or in contexts in which English is not a majority language. As yet, little research has examined how newcomers to universities interact with a variety of social ties in such networks to receive academic and emotional support as they develop the academic English necessary to succeed in local and global academia. The one-year ethnographic study described in this presentation followed five Japanese university students enrolled on an academic English program in their home country. We graphically represent participants’ individual networks of practice related to academic English and display the role of interaction in these networks to socialization. Specific examples of academic practices will be linked to specific instances of social interaction. Interaction supportive of the development of academic practices often occurred during unplanned interactions outside the classroom and among small groups of close friends who were connected to each other in more than one way, such as those taking multiple classes together. These interactions occurred in study spaces, in hallways between class periods, at lunchtimes, and online. However, constraints such as differing accommodation arrangements, class scheduling and the hierarchical levelling of English classes by test scores discouraged some participants both from forming strong ties related to English and from interacting with existing ties. The presentation will briefly describe ways in which teachers in all contexts can maximise interaction outside the classroom.

Keywords: academic, english, practice, network

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Authors: Howard Prosser

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This paper examines how critical thinking is framed, especially for primary-school students, in the recently established Australian Curriculum: History. Critical thinking is one of the curriculum’s 'general capabilities.' History provides numerous opportunities for critical thinking’s application in everyday life. The so-called 'history wars' that took place just prior to the curriculum’s introduction in 2014 sought to bring to light the limits of a singular historical narrative and reveal that which had been repressed. Consequently, the Australian history curriculum reflects this shifting mindset. Teachers are presented with opportunities to treat history in the classroom as a repository of social possibility, especially related to democratic potential, beyond hackneyed and jingoistic tales of Australian nationhood. Yet such opportunities are not explicit within the document and are up against pre-existing pedagogic practices. Drawing on political thinker Cornelius Castoriadis’s rendering of the 'social-historical' and 'paidea,' as well as his mobilisation of psychoanalysis, the study outlines how the curriculum’s critical-thinking component opens up possibilities for students and teachers to revise assumptions about how history is understood. This ontological shift is ultimately creative: the teachers’ imaginations connect the students’ imaginations, and vice versa, to the analysis that is at the heart of historical thinking. The implications of this social imagination add to the current discussions about historical consciousness among scholars like Peter Seixas. But, importantly, it has practical application in the primary-school classroom where history becomes creative acts, like play, that is indeterminate and social rather than fixed and individual.

Keywords: Australia, Castoriadis, critical thinking, history, imagination

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Authors: Terungwa Simon Yange, Agana Moses A.

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This paper studied steganography and designed a simplistic approach to a steganographic tool for hiding information in image files with the view of addressing the security challenges with data by hiding data from unauthorized users to improve its security. The Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) was used in this work. The system was developed using Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.7.0_10 and MySQL Server as its backend. The system was tested with some hypothetical health records which proved the possibility of protecting data from unauthorized users by making it secret so that its existence cannot be easily recognized by fraudulent users. It further strengthens the confidentiality of patient records kept by medical practitioners in the health setting. In conclusion, this work was able to produce a user friendly steganography software that is very fast to install and easy to operate to ensure privacy and secrecy of sensitive data. It also produced an exact copy of the original image and the one carrying the secret message when compared with each.

Keywords: steganography, cryptography, encryption, decryption, secrecy

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Authors: Chatcai Tangsri, Onjaree Na-Takuatoong

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This paper aims to present the key factors that support the decision to use the technology and to present the knowledge transformation flow of visually impaired students after the use of virtual knowledge system as proposed as a new service innovation to universities in Thailand. Correspondents of 27 visually impaired students are involved in this research. Total of 25 students are selected from the University that mainly conducts non-classroom teaching environment; while another 2 visually impaired students are selected from classroom teaching environment. All of them are fully involved in the study along 8 weeks duration. All correspondents are classified into 5 small groups in various conditions. The research results revealed that the involvement from knowledge facilitator can push out for the behavioral actual use of the virtual knowledge system although there is no any developed intention to use behaviors. Secondly, the situations that the visually impaired students inadequate of the knowledge sources that usually provided by assistants i.e. peers, audio files etc. In this case, they will use the virtual knowledge system for both knowledge access and knowledge transfer request. With this evidence, the need of knowledge would play a stronger role than all technology acceptance factors. Finally, this paper revealed that the knowledge transfer in the normal method that students have a chance to physically meet up is still confirmed as their preference method. In term of other aspects of technology acceptance, it will be discussed together with challenges and recommendations at the end of this paper.

Keywords: knowledge system, visually impaired students, higher education, knowledge management enable technology, synchronous/asynchronous knowledge access, synchronous/asynchronous knowledge transfer

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Authors: Barkaoui Asma

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In our article, we use the economic approach of measuring advertising effectiveness to show the margin of advertising spread gained through digital communication. For economists, profit maximization depends on determining the optimal advertising budget. For this, they use the theories of the marginalist current to determine when the maximum level of benefits is reached. Using the economic approach we show the significant return on investment for advertisers. We then discuss the risks of perception of advertising pressure by consumers.

Keywords: digital advertising, economic approach, effectiveness, pressure

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Authors: Chiedza Lebogang Gutu, Nester Rufaro Manuwa, Jean-Marie Mbuya

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In Johannesburg, Metropolitan customer expectations in the hospitality industry have rapidly been increasing which has lead to the need of improving service quality to help satisfy customer expectations. Businesses need to make sure that customer expectations are met, or find ways to control customer expectations. Therefore the purpose of the study is to investigate how customer expectations of services in bed and breakfast establishments affect the perceived quality of service. A quantitative approach was used through random sampling to collect descriptive and correlation study between customer expectations and perceived quality. Findings of the study indicated that customers at bed and breakfast generally expect a clean, friendly and safe environment that has a homely feel, while they are away from home. In addition, findings of the study also emphasised that the age-groups between 20 and 35 are more likely to travel, for business and vacation purposes, staying for more or less 3, have high expectations towards modern facilities and extras in the room such as coffee machines, and are more concerned about the service being provided quickly and right, and taking extra care to deal with problems promptly.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, Service quality, Bed and breakfast, Customer retention

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Authors: Mei-Ying Liao

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The main purpose of this study was to examine the requirements of a successful concert for young children in preschool in Taiwan. This study reports a case study of a preschool’s experience which undertook ten concerts for young children. The main audiences were young children who were two to six years of age. The performers, including children’s family, amateurs and professional performers, were invited to perform music instruments or singing twice a week. The performers participated in these concerts separately, as a solo or ensemble performance. There were totally ten concerts. The structure of concert included the performance, musical activities, questions and answers, song requests, and exploration of instruments. Data collection included interviews with children, teachers and performers, concert observations, and footnotes. Results showed that the requirements of a successful and meaningful concert for young children were suggested to include concert preparation, concert, and post activities. The concert organizer, host and classroom teachers played vital roles for a successful concert. The organizer had to organize the programs and prepared for the concerts based on the needs and interests of their audience of young children, engage their attention and offer the potential to expand their musical worlds. The hosts had to build a bridge between performers and young children who had to know how they could delight and educate children. Concerts combined games, storytelling, instrument exploration and great music had great effects. Finally, the classroom teachers had to do the extension activities after the concerts so that the children will involve more and get more enthusiasm in concerts.

Keywords: case study, concert, music education, performance

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Authors: Eric Enongene Ekembe

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Recent calls on EFL teaching posit the centrality of context factors and argue for a correlation between effectiveness in teaching with the learners’ culture in the EFL classroom. Context is not everything; it is defined with indicators of learners’ cultural artifacts and stereotypes in meaningful interactions in the language classroom. In keeping with this, it is difficult to universalise pedagogic procedures given that appropriate procedures are context-sensitive- and contexts differ. It is necessary to investigate what counts as cultural specificities or stereotypes of specific learners to reflect on how different language learning contexts affect or are affected by English language teaching procedures, most especially in under-represented cultures, which have appropriated the English language. This paper investigates cultural stereotypes of EFL learners in the culturally diverse Cameroon to examine how they mediate teaching and learning. Data collected on mixed-method basis from 83 EFL teachers and 1321 learners in Cameroon reveal a strong presence of typical cultural artifacts and stereotypes. Statistical analysis and thematic coding demonstrate that teaching procedures in place were insensitive to the cultural artifacts and stereotypes, resulting in trending tension between teachers and learners. The data equally reveal a serious contradiction between the communicative goals of language teaching and learning: what teachers held as effective teaching was diametrically opposed to success in learning. In keeping with this, the paper argues for a ‘decentred’ teacher preparation in Cameroon that is informed by systemic learners’ feedback. On this basis, applied linguistics has the urgent task of exploring dimensions of what actually counts as contextualized practice in ELT.

Keywords: cultural stereotypes, EFL, implications, procedures

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Authors: Tedros Asefaw Gebremeskel, Xaoyi Yang

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The potential of solar energy in Eritrea is relatively high, based on this truth, there are a number of isolated and remote villages situated far away from the electrical national grid which don’t get access to electricity. The core objective of this work is to design a most favorable and cost-effective power by means of standalone PV system for the electrification of a single housing in the inaccessible area of Eritrea. The sizing of the recommended PV system is achieved, such as radiation data and electrical load for the typical household of the selected site is also well thought-out in the design steps. Finally, the life cycle cost (LCC) analysis is conducted to evaluate the economic viability of the system. The outcome of the study promote the use of PV system for a residential building and show that PV system is a reasonable option to provide electricity for household applications in the rural area of Eritrea.

Keywords: electrification, inaccessible area, life cycle cost, residential building, stand-alone PV system

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Authors: Nezha Badi

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It has been shown in the literature that Algerian university students suffer from low levels of reading comprehension proficiency, which hinder their overall proficiency in English. This low level is mainly related to the methodology of teaching reading which is employed by the teacher in the classroom (a teacher-centered environment), as well as students’ poor sense of self-efficacy to undertake reading comprehension activities. Arguably, what is needed is an approach necessary for enhancing students’ self-beliefs about their abilities to deal with different reading comprehension activities. This can be done by providing them with opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning (learners’ autonomy). As a result of learning autonomy, learners’ beliefs about their abilities to deal with certain language tasks may increase, and hence, their language learning ability. Therefore, this experimental research study attempts to assess the extent to which an integrated approach combining one particular reading approach known as ‘collaborative strategic reading’ (CSR), and teacher’s attributional feedback (on students’ reading performance and strategy use) can improve the reading comprehension skill and the sense of self-efficacy of EFL Algerian university students. It also seeks to examine students’ main reasons for their successful or unsuccessful achievements in reading comprehension activities, and whether students’ attributions for their reading comprehension outcomes can be modified after exposure to the instruction. To obtain the data, different tools including a reading comprehension test, questionnaires, an observation, an interview, and learning logs were used with 105 second year Algerian EFL university students. The sample of the study was divided into three groups; one control group (with no treatment), one experimental group (CSR group) who received a CSR instruction, and a second intervention group (CSR Plus group) who received teacher’s attribution feedback in addition to the CSR intervention. Students in the CSR Plus group received the same experiment as the CSR group using the same tools, except that they were asked to keep learning logs, for which teacher’s feedback on reading performance and strategy use was provided. The results of this study indicate that the CSR and the attributional feedback intervention was effective in improving students’ reading comprehension proficiency and sense of self-efficacy. However, there was not a significant change in students’ adaptive and maladaptive attributions for their success and failure d from the pre-test to the post-test phase. Analysis of the perception questionnaire, the interview, and the learning logs shows that students have positive perceptions about the CSR and the attributional feedback instruction. Based on the findings, this study, therefore, seeks to provide EFL teachers in general and Algerian EFL university teachers in particular with pedagogical implications on how to teach reading comprehension to their students to help them achieve well and feel more self-efficacious in reading comprehension activities, and in English language learning more generally.

Keywords: attributions, attributional feedback, collaborative strategic reading, self-efficacy

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Authors: Seyedtaghi Mirmohammadi, J. Yazdani, S. M. Asadi, M. Rokni, A. Toosi

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There are many indoor air quality studies with an emphasis on indoor particulate matters (PM2.5) monitoring. Whereas, there is a lake of data about indoor PM2.5 concentrations in rural area schools (especially in classrooms), since preliminary children are assumed to be more defenseless to health hazards and spend a large part of their time in classrooms. The objective of this study was indoor PM2.5 concentration quality assessment. Fifteen preliminary schools by time-series sampling were selected to evaluate the indoor air quality in the rural district of Sari city, Iran. Data on indoor air climate parameters (temperature, relative humidity and wind speed) were measured by a hygrometer and thermometer. Particulate matters (PM2.5) were collected and assessed by Real Time Dust Monitor, (MicroDust Pro, Casella, UK). The mean indoor PM2.5 concentration in the studied classrooms was 135µg/m3 in average. The multiple linear regression revealed that a correlation between PM2.5 concentration and relative humidity, distance from city center and classroom size. Classroom size yields reasonable negative relationship, the PM2.5 concentration was ranged from 65 to 540μg/m3 and statistically significant at 0.05 level and the relative humidity was ranged from 70 to 85% and dry bulb temperature ranged from 28 to 29°C were statistically significant at 0.035 and 0.05 level, respectively. A statistical predictive model was obtained from multiple regressions modeling for PM2.5 and indoor psychrometric parameters.

Keywords: particulate matters, classrooms, regression, concentration, humidity

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Authors: Imen Elleuch, Wael Ouarda, Gargouri Bilel

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We proposes in this paper a Deep Learning based approach to classify text in order to enrich an Arabic ontology based on the objects classes of Gaston Gross. Those object classes are defined by taking into account the syntactic and semantic features of the treated language. Thus, our proposed approach is a hybrid one. In fact, it is based on the one hand on the object classes that represents a knowledge based-approach on classification of text and in the other hand it uses the deep learning approach that use the word embedding-based-approach to classify text. We have applied our proposed approach on a corpus constructed from an Arabic dictionary. The obtained semantic classification of text will enrich the Arabic objects classes ontology. In fact, new classes can be added to the ontology or an expansion of the features that characterizes each object class can be updated. The obtained results are compared to a similar work that treats the same object with a classical linguistic approach for the semantic classification of text. This comparison highlight our hybrid proposed approach that can be ameliorated by broaden the dataset used in the deep learning process.

Keywords: deep-learning approach, object-classes, semantic classification, Arabic

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Authors: Rendani Mercy Makhwathana

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This paper intends to explore teachers' encounters when teaching English First Additional Language in rural public schools. Teachers are pillars of any education system around the globe. Educational transformations hinge on them as critical role players in the education system. Thus, teachers' encounters are worth consideration, for they impact learners' learning and the well-being of education in general. An exploratory qualitative approach was used in this paper. The population for this paper comprised all Foundation Phase teachers in the district. A purposive sample of 15 Foundation Phase teachers from five rural-based schools was used. Data were collected through classroom observation and individual face-to-face interviews. Data were categorized, analyzed, and interpreted. Amongst the revealed teachers' encounters are learners' inability to read and write and learners' lack of English language background and learners' lack of the vocabulary to express themselves. This paper recommends the provision of relevant resources and support to effectively teach English First Additional Language to enable learners' engagement and effective use of the English language.

Keywords: first additional language, english second language, medium of instruction, teacher professional development

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Authors: Ryan C. Zlomek

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The value of using comics in the literacy classroom has been explored since the 1930s. At that point in time researchers had begun to implement comics into daily lesson plans and, in some instances, had started the development process for comics-supported curriculum. In the mid-1950s, this type of research was cut short due to the work of psychiatrist Frederic Wertham whose research seemingly discovered a correlation between comic readership and juvenile delinquency. Since Wertham’s allegations the comics medium has had a hard time finding its way back to education. Now, over fifty years later, the definition of literacy is in mid-transition as the world has become more visually-oriented and students require the ability to interpret images as often as words. Through this transition, comics has found a place in the field of literacy education research as the shift focuses from traditional print to multimodal and media literacies. Comics are now believed to be an effective resource in bridging the gap between these different types of literacies. This paper seeks to better understand what students learn from the process of reading comics and how those skills line up with the core principles of media literacy education in the United States. In the first section, comics are defined to determine the exact medium that is being examined. The different conventions that the medium utilizes are also discussed. In the second section, the comics reading process is explored through a dissection of the ways a reader interacts with the page, panel, gutter, and different comic conventions found within a traditional graphic narrative. The concepts of intersubjective acts and visualization are attributed to the comics reading process as readers draw in real world knowledge to decode meaning. In the next section, the learning processes that comics encourage are explored parallel to the core principles of media literacy education. Each principle is explained and the extent to which comics can act as an intermediary for this type of education is theorized. In the final section, the author examines comics use in his computer science and technology classroom. He lays out different theories he utilizes from Scott McCloud’s text Understanding Comics and how he uses them to break down media literacy strategies with his students. The article concludes with examples of how comics has positively impacted classrooms around the United States. It is stated that integrating comics into the classroom will not solve all issues related to literacy education but, rather, that comics can be a powerful multimodal resource for educators looking for new mediums to explore with their students.

Keywords: comics, graphics novels, mass communication, media literacy, metacognition

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Authors: Yen-Hui Lu

Abstract:

In the past two decades, in order to increase university visibility and internationalization, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has become one of the main language policies in higher education institutions where English is not a dominant language. However, given the complex, discipline-embedded nature of academic communication, academic literacy does not come with students’ everyday language experience, and it is a challenge for all students. Particularly, to engage students in the effective learning process of discipline concepts in the EMI classrooms, teachers need to provide explicit academic language instruction to assist students in deep understanding of discipline concepts. To bridge the gap between academic language development and discipline learning in the EMI classrooms, the researcher incorporates academic language strategies and key elements of project-based learning (PBL) into an Academic Language Strategy driven PBL (ALS-PBL) model. With clear steps and strategies, the model helps EMI teachers to scaffold students’ academic language development in the EMI classrooms. ALS-PBL model includes three major stages: preparation, implementation, and assessment. First, in the preparation stage, ALS-PBL teachers need to identify learning goals for both content and language learning and to design PBL topics for investigation. Second, during the implementation stage, ALS-PBL teachers use the model as a guideline to create a lesson structure and class routine. There are five important elements in the implementation stage: (1) academic language preparation, (2) connecting background knowledge, (3) comprehensible input, (4) academic language reinforcement, and (5) sustained inquiry and project presentation. Finally, ALS-PBL teachers use formative assessments such as student learning logs, teachers’ feedback, and peer evaluation to collect detailed information that demonstrates students’ academic language development in the learning process. In this study, ALS-PBL model was implemented in an interdisciplinary course entitled “Science is Everywhere”, which was co-taught by five professors from different discipline backgrounds, English education, civil engineering, business administration, international business, and chemical engineering. The purpose of the course was to cultivate students’ interdisciplinary knowledge as well as English competency in disciplinary areas. This study used a case-study design to systematically investigate students’ learning experiences in the class using ALS-PBL model. The participants of the study were 22 college students with different majors. This course was one of the elective EMI courses in this focal university. The students enrolled in this EMI course to fulfill the school language policy, which requires the students to complete two EMI courses before their graduation. For the credibility, this study used multiple methods to collect data, including classroom observation, teachers’ feedback, peer assessment, student learning log, and student focus-group interviews. Research findings show four major successful aspects of implementing ALS-PBL model in the EMI classroom: (1) clear focus on both content and language learning, (2) meaningful practice in authentic communication, (3) reflective learning in academic language strategies, and (4) collaborative support in content knowledge.This study will be of value to teachers involved in delivering English as well as content lessons to language learners by providing a theoretically-sound practical model for application in the classroom.

Keywords: academic language development, content and language integrated learning, english as a medium of instruction, project-based learning

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Authors: Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj

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Having moved into the 21^st century, it is way past being arguable that innovative technology needs to be incorporated into conventional classroom teaching. Though the Western world has found presumable success in achieving this, it is still a concept under battle in developing countries such as Sri Lanka. Reaching the acme of implementing interactive virtual learning within classrooms is a struggling idealistic fascination within the island. In order to overcome this problem, this study is set to reveal facts that limit the implementation of virtual, interactive learning within the school classrooms and provide hacks that could prove the augmented use of the Virtual World to enhance teaching and learning experiences. As each classroom moves along with the usage of technology to fulfill its functionalities, a few intense hacks provided will build the administrative onuses on a virtual system. These hacks may divulge barriers based on social conventions, financial boundaries, digital literacy, intellectual capacity of the staff, and highlight the impediments in introducing students to an interactive virtual learning environment and thereby provide the necessary actions or changes to be made to succeed and march along in creating an intellectual society built on virtual learning and lifestyle. This digital learning environment will be composed of multimedia presentations, trivia and pop quizzes conducted on a GUI, assessments conducted via a virtual system, records maintained on a database, etc. The ultimate objective of this study could enhance every child's basic learning environment; hence, diminishing the digital divide that exists in certain communities.

Keywords: digital divide, digital learning, digitization, Sri Lanka, teaching methodologies

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Authors: Glemarie C. Hermosa, Sheng-Jie You, Chien Chih Hu

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Efficient separation technologies are required for the removal of carbon dioxide from natural gas streams. Membrane-based natural gas separation has emerged as one of the fastest growing technologies, due to the compactness, higher energy efficiency and economic advantages which can be reaped. The removal of Carbon dioxide from gas streams using membrane technology will also give the advantage like environmental friendly process compared to the other technologies used in gas separation. In this study, Polyimide membranes, which are mostly used in the separation of gases, are blended with a new kind of solvent: Deep Eutectic Solvents or simply DES. The three types of DES are used are choline chloride based mixed with three different hydrogen bond donors: Lactic acid, N-methylurea and Urea. The blending of the DESs to Polyimide gave out high permeability performance. The Gas Separation performance for all the membranes involving CO2/CH4 showed low performance while for CO2/N2 surpassed the performance of some studies. Among the three types of DES used the solvent Choline Chloride/Lactic acid exhibited the highest performance for both Gas Separation applications. The values are 10.5 for CO2/CH4 selectivity and 60.5 for CO2/N2. The separation results for CO2/CH4 may be due to the viscosity of the DESs affecting the morphology of the fabricated membrane thus also impacts the performance. DES/blended Polyimide membranes fabricated are novel and have the potential of a low-cost and environmental friendly application for gas separation.

Keywords: deep eutectic solvents, gas separation, polyimide blends, polyimide membranes

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Authors: Ana Campina, Maria Manuela Magalhaes, Eusebio André Machado, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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Inclusive school advocates respect for differences, for equal opportunities and for a quality education for all, including for students with special educational needs. In the pursuit of educational equity, guaranteeing equality in access and results, it becomes the responsibility of the school to recognize students' needs, adapting to the various styles and rhythms of learning, ensuring the adequacy of curricula, strategies and resources, materials and humans. This paper presents a set of theoretical reflections in the disciplinary interface between legal and education sciences, school administration and management, with the aim of understand the real inclusion characteristics in a balance with the inclusion policies and the need(s) of an education for Human Rights, especially for diversity. Considering the actual social complexity but the important education instruments and strategies, mostly patented in the policies, this paper aims expose the existing contexts opposed to the laws, policies and inclusion educational needs. More than a single study, this research aims to develop a map of the reality and the guidelines to implement the action. The results point to the usefulness and pertinence of a school in which educational managers, teachers, parents, and students, are involved in the creation, implementation and monitoring of flexible curricula and adapted to the educational needs of students, promoting a collaborative work among teachers. We are then faced with a scenario that points to the need to reflect on the legislation and curricular management of inclusive classes and to operationalize the processes of elaboration of curricular adaptations and differentiation in the classroom. The transdisciplinary is a pedagogic and social education perfect approach using the Human Rights binomio – teaching and learning – supported by the inclusion laws according to the realistic needs for an effective successful society construction.

Keywords: rights, transdisciplinary, inclusion policies, education for diversity

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Authors: Nadia Ben Youssef, Aicha Bouzid

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Gradient estimation is one of the most fundamental tasks in the field of image processing in general, and more particularly for color images since that the research in color image gradient remains limited. The widely used gradient method is Di Zenzo’s gradient operator, which is based on the measure of squared local contrast of color images. The proposed gradient mechanism, presented in this paper, is based on the principle of the Di Zenzo’s approach using quaternion representation. This edge detector is compared to a marginal approach based on multiscale product of wavelet transform and another vector approach based on quaternion convolution and vector gradient approach. The experimental results indicate that the proposed color gradient operator outperforms marginal approach, however, it is less efficient then the second vector approach.

Keywords: gradient, edge detection, color image, quaternion

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Authors: Niphattha Hannapha

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This paper examines how the classroom environment influences slow learners’ learning achievement; it focuses on how seating patterns affect students’ behaviours and which patterns best contribute to students’ learning performance. The researcher studied how slow learners’ characteristics and seating patterns influenced their behaviours and performance at Ban Hin Lad School. As a nonparticipant observation, the target groups included 15 slow learners from Prathomsueksa (Grades) 4 and 5. Students’ behaviours were recorded during their learning activities in order to minimize their reading and written expression disorder in Thai language tutorials. The result showed four seating patterns and two behaviors which obstructed students’ learning. The average of both behaviours mostly occurred when students were seated with patterns 1 (the seat facing the door, with the corridor alongside) and 3 (the seat alongside the door, facing the aisle) respectively. Seating patterns 1 and 3 demonstrated visibility (the front and side) of a walking path with two-way movement. However, seating patterns 2 (seating with the door alongside and the aisle at the back) and 4 (sitting with the door at the back and the aisle alongside) demonstrated visibility (the side) of a walking path with one-way movement. In Summary, environmental design is important to enhance concentration in slow learners who have reading and writing disabilities. This study suggests that students should be seated where they can have the least visibility of movement to help them increase continuous learning. That means they can have a better chance of developing reading and writing abilities in comparison with other patterns of seating.

Keywords: slow learning, interior design, interior environment, classroom

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Authors: Narupot Putwattana

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Changes in global situation such as environmental and economic crisis brought the new perspective for science education called integrative biology. STEM has been increasingly mentioned for several educational researches as the approach which combines the concept in Science (S), Technology (T), Engineering (E) and Mathematics (M) to apply in teaching and learning process so as to strengthen the 21st-century skills such as creativity and critical thinking. Recent studies demonstrated STEM as the pedagogy which described the engineering process along with the science classroom activities. So far, pedagogical contents for STEM explaining the content in biology have been scarce. A qualitative literature review was conducted so as to gather the articles based on electronic databases (google scholar). STEM education, engineering design, teaching and learning of biology were used as main keywords to find out researches involving with the application of STEM in biology teaching and learning process. All articles were analyzed to obtain appropriate teaching and learning model that unify the core concept of biology. The synthesized model comprised of engineering design, inquiry-based learning, biological prototype and biologically-inspired design (BID). STEM content and context integration were used as the theoretical framework to create the integrative biology instructional model for STEM education. Several disciplines contents such as biology, engineering, and technology were regarded for inquiry-based learning to build biological prototype. Direct and indirect integrations were used to provide the knowledge into the biology related STEM strategy. Meanwhile, engineering design and BID showed the occupational context for engineer and biologist. Technological and mathematical aspects were required to be inspected in terms of co-teaching method. Lastly, other variables such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills should be more considered in the further researches.

Keywords: biomimicry, engineering approach, STEM education, teaching and learning model

Procedia PDF Downloads 247