Search results for: academic freedom

Authors: Abdullah Mukhtar, Shehroz Mukhtar, Amina Mukhtar, Choudhry Shahid, Hafiz Raza Razzaq, Saif Ur Rahman

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The aim of this study is to find out the negative and positive impacts of social media platforms on the attitude toward learning and the educational environment of the student community. Social Media platforms have become a source of collaboration with one another throughout the globe, making it a small world. This study performs a focalized investigation of the adverse and constructive factors that have a strong impact not only on psychological adjustments but also on the academic performance of peers. This study is quantitative research adopting a random sampling method in which the participants were the students at the university. The researcher distributed 1000 questionnaires among the university students from different departments and asked them to fill in the data on the Lickert Scale. The participants are from the age group of 18-24 years. The study applies user and gratification theory in order to examine the behavior of students practicing social media in their academic and personal lives. The findings of the study reveal that the use of social media platforms in the Pakistani context has less positive impact as compared to negative impacts on the behavior of students towards learning. The research suggests that usage of online social media platforms should be taught to students; awareness must the created among the users of social media by means of seminars, workshops and by media itself to overcome the negative impacts of social media, leading towards sustainable education in Pakistan.

Keywords: social media, positive impacts, negative impacts, sustainable education, learning behaviour

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Authors: Zachary Smith, Riette Bloomfield, Taylor Dukate, Joshua Halterman, Noah Phillips

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College students have stressful lives, classes, work, and home life; it all adds up to anxiety and stress. Most students can manage the stress, but some can’t and need help. Mental health issues are on the rise among college-age students, which could lead to other health issues, depression, or even suicidal thoughts. There needs to be an outlet for these students, and one suggestion is participating in sports or exercise/recreation activities. “Strong body, strong mind” is a concept that has been researched for many decades now. While that has been preached, depression and anxiety have still been at an all-time high in college students within the last five years. College students are expected to stay on top of their academic coursework, obtain and keep relationships, adjust to living independently, and economic strain. As p oor mental health becomes inherent, struggles academically, dropping out of school, becoming involved in immoral situations, or as far as committing suicide, can be seen shortly after. This research proposal examines the positive impact of sports on students' mental health in post-secondary education programs. The study aims to investigate how participation in college sports can alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression, improve mood and focus, and contribute to better academic performance. With the increasing prevalence of mental health issues among college students and the growing emphasis on mental health awareness, this research is significant for understanding and managing collegiate sports programs. Overall, sports help with mental and physical health for all ages.

Keywords: mental health, sports, college students, recreation programs

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Authors: Salim Belouettar, Kodjo Attipou

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The thermal wrinkling behavior of thin membranes is investigated. The Fourier double scale series are used to deduce the macroscopic membrane wrinkling equations. The obtained equations account for the global and local wrinkling modes. Numerical examples are conducted to assess the validity of the approach developed. Compared to the finite element full model, the present model needs only few degrees of freedom to recover accurately the bifurcation curves and wrinkling paths. Different parameters such as membrane’s aspect ratio, wave number, pre-stressed membranes are discussed from a numerical point of view and the properties of the wrinkles (critical load, wavelength, size and location) are presented.

Keywords: wrinkling, thermal stresses, Fourier series, thin membranes

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Authors: Chrysanthi Nega, Fotini-Sonia Apergi

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Child sexual abuse (CSA) in Greece is a highly prevalent phenomenon and yet remains largely underreported. CSA can negatively impact cognitive, emotional and psychosocial development, as well as personality formation and capacity for initiation and maintenance of healthy interpersonal relationships. It is particularly important for school-based prevention programs to be implemented early in elementary school, as they are reportedly effective in lowering abuse incidences and providing knowledge for coping in threatening environments. The purpose of the current study was to test the effectiveness of a school-based CSA prevention program (Safe-Touches) on Greek elementary school students (grades 1-3, N=272) and explore the effect of age and time of testing (academic term). There was a significant effect of age in the knowledge of Inappropriate Touch, when comparing pre and post-intervention assessments, with third graders showing greatest gains in knowledge, followed by second and first graders. Time of testing during the academic year also had a significant effect, as first graders tested later in the school year, scored higher on knowledge of Inappropriate Touch. The findings of the current study provide insight into the optimal timing to implement CSA prevention programs. Exposure to such programs and incorporation in the school curricula could largely benefit children of the Greek community in terms of safety and awareness.

Keywords: child sexual abuse, Safe-Touches, school-based prevention, schooling

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Authors: Sibel Özkan

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This study aims to set forth the perception of young people in Turkey about “Gezi Parkı Actions” which has been represented by different views on social and traditional media. In-depth interview method was carried out with all of the participants who consisted of high school students. All interviews has been conducted in areas where the actions take place and the numbers of participants who are using and not using social media were equal. There are minor differences between young people who are using and not using social media. Participants who are not using social media had an opinion only about saving nature aspect of Gezi Parkı Actions. On the other hand, people who are using social media had another reasons such as freedom of expression, respect to the lifestyles etc. to join Gezi Parkı Actions. It was found that young people do not completely trust traditional media anymore.

Keywords: Gezi Parkı, resistance, social media, hegemony

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Authors: Ozge Yalciner

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Intercultural communication is crucial in the education of multilingual learners in primary grades, significantly influencing their academic and social development. This study explores how intercultural communication intersects with multilingual education, highlighting the importance of culturally responsive teaching practices. It addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by diverse linguistic backgrounds and proposes strategies for creating inclusive and supportive learning environments. The research emphasizes the need for teacher training programs that equip educators with the skills to recognize and address cultural differences, thereby enhancing student engagement and participation. This study was completed in an elementary school in a city in the Midwest, USA. The data was collected through observations and interviews with students and teachers. It discusses the integration of multicultural perspectives in curricula and the promotion of language diversity as an asset. Peer interactions and collaborative learning are highlighted as crucial for developing intercultural competence among young learners. The findings suggest that meaningful intercultural communication fosters a sense of belonging and mutual respect, leading to improved educational outcomes for multilingual students. Prioritizing intercultural communication in primary education is essential for supporting the linguistic and cultural identities of multilingual learners. By adopting inclusive pedagogical approaches and fostering an environment of cultural appreciation, educators can better support their students' academic success and personal growth.

Keywords: diversity, intercultural communication, multilingual learners, primary grades

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Authors: Susan K. Steele-Moses, Aimee Badeaux

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Background Literature: Nurse anesthesia education placed high demands on students both personally and professionally. High levels of anxiety affect student’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being, which impacts their student success. Whereas more research has focused on the health and well-being of graduate students, far less has focused specifically on nurse anesthesia students (SNRAs), who may experience higher levels of anxiety due to the rigor of their academic program. Current literature describes stressors experienced by SRNAs that cause anxiety and affect their performance, including personal, academic, clinical, interpersonal, emotional, and financial. Sample: DNP-NA 2025 and DNP-NA 2024 cohorts (N = 36). Eighteen (66.7%) students participated in the study. Instrumentation: The DASS-21 was used to measure stress (7 items; α = .87) and anxiety (7 items; α = .74) from the participants. Intervention: The mind-shift meditation app, based on cognitive behavioral therapy, is being used daily before clinical and exams to decrease nurse anesthesia students’ stress and anxiety over time. Results: At baseline, the students exhibited a moderate level of stress, but their anxiety levels were low. The range of scores was 4-21 (out of 28) for stress (M = 12.88; SD = 5.40) and 0-16 (out of 28) for anxiety (M = 6.81; SD = 5.04). Both stress and anxiety were normally distributed [SW = .242 (stress); SW = .210 (anxiety)] without any outliers. There was a significant difference between their stress and anxiety levels (t = 5.55; p < .001) at baseline. Stress and anxiety will be measured over time, with the change analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Implications for Practice: The use of purposeful mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease stress and anxiety in nursing students.

Keywords: mindfulness, meditation, graduate nursing education, nursing education

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Authors: Konesh Navsaria, Itumeleng Ramodumo

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The study explored university students’ perceptions of cannabis use on academic life at a higher education institution (HEI) in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. Cannabis is described as the most commonly-used drug by youth, especially those who are in tertiary institutions. The use of cannabis has both negative and positive effects; this is evident in different areas of human functioning. Cannabis usage has been debated upon in courts regarding its legalization and decriminalization, and on the 18th of September 2018, the South African High Court decriminalized cannabis for personal use. Cannabis use has increased in academic settings, and this has raised concerns about how it affects the mental health of students. A qualitative approach was used for the study with an explorative, descriptive design. Purposive sampling was used to select 15 participants for the study. Data were collected using focused-group interviews, following ethical clearance from the HEI. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis, and cognitive behavioural theory was used as the theoretical framework. The research findings indicated both positive and negative influences of cannabis use on mental health. Most participants who expressed positive effects have used cannabis before, whereas most participants with negative perspectives of cannabis use on mental health are non-cannabis users. The findings revealed that participants perceived that the quantity of cannabis smoked determined whether there was a positive or negative effect on mental health; that is, large doses of cannabis were perceived as having negative effects. The research findings also revealed that the legalization of cannabis is very likely to increase its use and also highlighted precautionary measures users take to avoid the substance’s negative effects on mental health.

Keywords: cannabis use, mental health, university students, legalization

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Authors: Raphael Zanella

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This works deals with the finite element approximation of axisymmetric problems. The weak formulation of the heat equation under the axisymmetry assumption is established for continuous finite elements. The weak formulation is implemented in a C++ solver with implicit march-in-time. The code is verified by space and time convergence tests using a manufactured solution. The solving of an example problem with an axisymmetric formulation is compared to that with a full-3D formulation. Both formulations lead to the same result, but the code based on the axisymmetric formulation is much faster due to the lower number of degrees of freedom. This confirms the correctness of our approach and the interest in using an axisymmetric formulation when it is possible.

Keywords: axisymmetric problem, continuous finite elements, heat equation, weak formulation

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Authors: Muhammad Wasif, Asif Ahmed Shaikh, Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, Muhammad Aslam Bhutto, Riazuddin

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Risk Management System is quite popular in profit- based organizations, health and safety and project management fields since the last few decades. But due to rapidly changing environment and requirement of ISO 9001:2015 standards, public-sector institution, especially higher education institutes are also performing risk assessment to monitor the performance of the institution and aligning it with the latest benchmark. In this context, NED University of Engineering and Technology performed research and developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the risk assessment, its monitoring and control. In this research, risks are broken into the four sources, namely; Internal Academics Risks, External Academics Risks, Internal Non-academic Risks, External Non-academic Risks. Risks are identified by the management at all levels. Severity and likelihood of the risks are assigned based on the previous audit results and the customer complains. Risk Ratings are calculated to orderly arrange the risk according to the Risk Rating, and controls for the risks are designed, which are assigned to the responsible person. At the end of the article, result and analysis on the different sources of risk are discussed in details and the conclusion is drawn. Discussion on few sample risks are presented in this article. Hence it is presented in the research that the Risk Management System can be applied in a Higher Education Institute to effectively control the risks which might affect the scope and Quality Management System of an organization.

Keywords: higher education, quality management system, risk assessment, risk management

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Authors: Line Massé, Claire Baudry, Claudia Verret, Marie-France Nadeau, Anne Brault-Labbé

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Little research has been conducted on educational services adapted for twice exceptional students. Within an action research, a cluster grouping was set up in an elementary school in Quebec, bringing together gifted or doubly exceptional (2E) students (n = 11) and students not identified as gifted (n = 8) within a multilevel class (3ᵣ𝒹 and 4ₜₕ years). 2E students had either attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 8, including 3 with specific learning disability) or autism spectrum disorder (n = 2). Differentiated instructions strategies were implemented, including the possibility of progressing at their own pace of learning, independent study or research projects, flexible accommodation, tutoring with older students and the development of socio-emotional learning. A specialized educator also supported the teacher in the class for behavioural and socio-affective aspects. Objectives: The study aimed to assess the impacts of the grouping on all students, their academic motivation, and their socio-emotional adaptation. Method: A mixed method was used, combining a qualitative approach with a quantitative approach. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with students (N = 18, 4 girls and 14 boys aged 8 to 9) and one of their parents (N = 18) at the end of the school year. Parents and students completed two questionnaires at the beginning and end of the school year: the Behavior Assessment System for Children-3, children or parents versions (BASC-3, Reynolds and Kampus, 2015) and the Academic Motivation in Education (Vallerand et al., 1993). Parents also completed the Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994, adapted by Fenouillet et al., 2014) comprising three domains (school, friendships, and motivation). Mixed thematic analyzes were carried out on the data from the interviews using the N'Vivo software. Related-samples Wilcoxon rank-sums tests were conducted for the data from the questionnaires. Results: Different themes emerge from the students' comments, including a positive impact on school motivation or attitude toward school, improved school results, reduction of their behavioural difficulties and improvement of their social relations. These remarks were more frequent among 2E students. Most 2E students also noted an improvement in their academic performance. Most parents reported improvements in attitudes toward school and reductions in disruptive behaviours in the classroom. Some parents also observed changes in behaviours at home or in the socio-emotional well-being of their children, here again, particularly parents of 2E children. Analysis of questionnaires revealed significant differences at the end of the school year, more specifically pertaining to extrinsic motivation identified, problems of conduct, attention, emotional self-control, executive functioning, negative emotions, functional deficiencies, and satisfaction regarding friendships. These results indicate that this approach could benefit not only gifted and doubly exceptional students but also students not identified as gifted.

Keywords: Cluster grouping, elementary school, giftedness, mixed methods, twice exceptional students

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Authors: Qi En Han, Si En Wai, Eugene Quek

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As one of the two Academic Medical Centres (AMCs) in Singapore, SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC strives to improve patients’ lives through excellent clinical care, research and education. These efforts are enhanced with the establishment of Academic Clinical Programmes (ACPs). Each ACP brings together specialists in a particular discipline from different institutions to maximize the power of shared knowledge and resources. Initiated by Surgery ACP, the student research mentorship programme is a programme designed to facilitate engagement between medical students and the surgical faculty. The programme offers mentors not only the opportunity to supervise research but also to nurture future clinician scientists. In turn, medical students acquire valuable research experience which may be useful in their future careers. The programme typically lasts one year, depending on the students’ commitment. Surgery ACP matches students’ research interests with the mentor's area of expertise whenever possible. Surgery ACP organizes informal tea sessions to bring students and prospective mentors together. Once a match is made, the pair is required to submit a project proposal which includes the title, proposed start and end dates, ethical and biosafety considerations and project details. The mentees either think of their own research question with guidance from the mentors or join an existing project. The mentees may participate in data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing and conference presentation. The progress of each research project is monitored through half-yearly progress report. The mentees report problems encountered or changes made to existing proposal on top of the progress made. A total of 18 mentors were successfully paired with 36 mentees since 2013. Currently, there are 23 on-going and 13 completed projects. The mentees are encouraged to present their projects at conferences and to publish in peer-reviewed journals. Six mentees have presented their completed projects at local or international conferences and one mentee has her work published. To further support student research, Surgery ACP organized a Research Day in 2015 to recognize their research efforts and to showcase their wide-range of research. Surgery ACP recognizes that early exposure of medical students to research is important in developing them into clinician scientists. As interest in research take time to develop and are usually realized during various research attachments, it is crucial that programmes such as the student research mentorship programme exist. Surgery ACP will continue to build on this programme.

Keywords: academic clinical programme, clinician scientist, medical student, mentoring

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Authors: Gloria Toledo, Andrea Lizasoain, Leonardo Mena

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Immigration has largely increased in Chile in the last 20 years. About 6.6% of our population is foreign, from which 14.3% is Haitian. Haitians are between 15 and 29 years old and have come to Chile escaping from a social crisis. They believe that education and work will help them do better in life. Therefore, rates of Haitian students in the Chilean school system have also increased: there were 3,121 Haitian students enrolled in 2017. This is a challenge for the public school, which takes in young people who must face schooling, social immersion and learning of a second language simultaneously. The linguistic barrier affects both students’ and teachers’ adaptation process, which has an impact on the students’ academic performance and consequent acquisition of Spanish. In order to explore students’ academic performance and interlanguage development, we examined how L1 teachers assess Haitian high school students’ written production in Spanish. With this purpose, teachers were asked to use a specially designed grid to assess correction, accommodation, lexical and analytical complexity, organization and fluency of both Haitian and Chilean students. Parallelly, texts were approached from an error analysis perspective. Results from grids and error analysis were then compared. On the one hand, it has been found that teachers give very little feedback to students apart from scores and grades, which does not contribute to the development of the second language. On the other hand, error analysis has yielded that Haitian students are in a dynamic process of the acquisition of Spanish, which could be enhanced if L1 teacher were aware of the process of interlanguage developmen.

Keywords: assessment, error analysis, grid, immigration, Spanish aquisition, writing

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Authors: Tiwi Kamidin

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After years of effort trying to integrate environmental education, studies keep revealing that Malaysian still not reached the certain level of desired commitment toward the environment. Some researchers mentioned that our planet healthy is depending on our mentally health especially our psychological and spiritual is split from the natural. Therefore, this study discussed on ecopcyhological approach in order to enhance space consciousness toward the environment. Space consciousness represents not only freedom from ego but also from dependency on the things of this world, from materialism and materiality. It is the spiritual dimension which alone can give transcendent and true meaning to this world. If pupils can balance this internal awareness will put an individual to respect the environment as part of yourself and your family against only as contributors to the continuance of human’s life. Qualitative findings showed that the informants considered their consciousness toward environment has been changed.

Keywords: ecopsychological approach, space consciousness, environmental education, environment

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Authors: Rajaa Filali, Mohamed Bouhdadi

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This paper presents an incremental development of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) in Event-B. DHCP is widely used communication protocol, which provides a standard mechanism to obtain configuration parameters. The specification is performed in a stepwise manner and verified through a series of refinements. The Event-B formal method uses the Rodin platform to modeling and verifying some properties of the protocol such as safety, liveness and deadlock freedom. To model and verify the protocol, we use the formal technique Event-B which provides an accessible and rigorous development method. This interaction between modelling and proving reduces the complexity and helps to eliminate misunderstandings, inconsistencies, and specification gaps.

Keywords: DHCP protocol, Event-B, refinement, proof obligation, Rodin

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Authors: Carmen Rocio Fernandez Diaz

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This paper focuses on the relevance of information and communication technologies (hereinafter referred as ‘ICTs’) as an essential part of the day-to-day life of all societies nowadays, as they offer the scenario where an immense number of behaviors are performed that previously took place in the physical world. In this context, areas of reality that have remained outside the so-called ‘information society’ are hardly imaginable. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify a means that continue to be behind this reality, and it is the penitentiary area regarding inmates rights, as security aspects in prison have already be improved by new technologies. Introducing ICTs in prisons is still a matter subject to great rejections. The study of comparative penitentiary systems worldwide shows that most of them use ICTs only regarding educational aspects of life in prison and that communications with the outside world are generally based on traditional ways. These are only two examples of the huge range of activities where ICTs can carry positive results within the prison. Those positive results have to do with the social reintegration of persons serving a prison sentence. Deprivation of liberty entails contact with the prison subculture and the harmful effects of it, causing in cases of long-term sentences the so-called phenomenon of ‘prisonization’. This negative effect of imprisonment could be reduced if ICTs were used inside prisons in the different areas where they can have an impact, and which are treated in this research, as (1) access to information and culture, (2) basic and advanced training, (3) employment, (4) communication with the outside world, (5) treatment or (6) leisure and entertainment. The content of all of these areas could be improved if ICTs were introduced in prison, as it is shown by the experience of some prisons of Belgium, United Kingdom or The United States. However, rejections to introducing ICTs in prisons obey to the fact that it could carry also risks concerning security and the commission of new offences. Considering these risks, the scope of this paper is to offer a real proposal to introduce ICTs in prison, trying to avoid those risks. This enterprise would be done to take advantage of the possibilities that ICTs offer to all inmates in order to start to build a life outside which is far from delinquency, but mainly to those inmates who are close to release. Reforming prisons in this sense is considered by the author of this paper an opportunity to offer inmates a progressive resettlement to live in freedom with a higher possibility to obey the law and to escape from recidivism. The value that new technologies would add to education, employment, communications or treatment to a person deprived of liberty constitutes a way of humanization of prisons in the 21st century.

Keywords: deprivation of freedom, information and communication technologies, imprisonment, social reintegration

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Authors: Nadir Ali Mugheri, Shaukat Ali Lohar

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In a multilingual society like Pakistan, code switching is commonly observed in different contexts. Mostly people use L1 (Native Languages) and L2 for common communications and L3 (i.e. English, Urdu, Sindhi) in formal contexts and for academic writings. Such a frequent code switching does affect EFL learners' acquisition of grammar and lexis of the target language which in the long run result in different types of errors in their writings. The current study is to investigate and identify common elements of L1 and L2 (spoken by students of the Universities in Pakistan) which create hindrances for EFL learners. Case study method was used for this research. Formal writings of 400 EFL learners (as participants from various Universities of the country) were observed. Among 400 participants, 200 were female and 200 were male EFL learners having different academic backgrounds. Errors found were categorized into different types according to grammatical items, the difference in meanings, structure of sentences and identifiers of tenses of L1 or L2 in comparison with those of the target language. The findings showed that EFL learners in Pakistani varsities have serious problems in their writings and they committed serious errors related to the grammar and meanings of the target language. After analysis of the committed errors, the results were found in the affirmation of the hypothesis that L1 or L2 does affect EFL learners. The research suggests in the end to adopt natural ways in pedagogy like task-based learning or communicative methods using contextualized material so as to avoid impediments of L1 or L2 in acquisition the target language.

Keywords: multilingualism, L2 acquisition, code switching, language acquisition, communicative language teaching

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Authors: Kayode Julius Oni

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Without mincing words, democracy is by far the most popular form of government in the world today. No matter how we look at it, and regardless of the variant, most leaders in the world today wish to be seen or labeled as Democrats. Perhaps, its attractions in terms of freedom of allocation, accountability, smooth successions of leadership and a lot more, account for its appeal to the ordinary people. The governance style in Nigeria since 1999 cannot be said to be different from the military. Elections are manipulated, judicial processes abused, and the ordinary people do not have access to the dividends of democracy. The paper seeks to address the existing failures experienced under democratic rule in Nigeria which have to transcend into violation of human rights in the conduct of government business. The paper employs the primary and secondary sources of data collection, and it is highly descriptive and critical.

Keywords: democracy, human rights, Nigeria, politics, republic

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Authors: E. Neidhardt

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Mobility is not only an aspect of personal freedom, but for many people mobility is also a requirement to be able to satisfy the needs of daily life. They must buy food, get to work, or go to the doctor. Many people are dependent on public transport to satisfy their needs. Especially in rural areas with a low population density this is difficult. In these areas it is often not cost-effective to provide public transport with sufficient coverage and frequency. Therefore, the available public transport is unattractive. As a result, people use their own car, which is not desirable from a sustainable point of view. Children and some elderly people also do not have this option. Sometimes people organize themselves and volunteer transport services are created, which function similarly to the demand-oriented taxis. With a platform for demand-oriented transport, we want to make the available public transport more usable and attractive by linking scheduled transport with voluntary transport services.

Keywords: demand-oriented, HubChain, living lab, public transport

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Authors: Lin Qing

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[Objective/Significance] The cultivation of high-value patents is the focus and difficulty of patent work, which is of great significance to the construction of a powerful country with intellectual property rights. This work should not only pay attention to the existing patent applications, but also start from the pre-application to explore the high-value technical solutions as the core of high-value patents. [Methods/processes] Comply with the principle of scientific and technological knowledge diffusion, this study studies the top academic conference papers and their cited patent applications, taking the power semiconductor field as an example, using facts date show the feasibility and rationality of mining technology solutions from high quality research results to foster high value patents, stating the actual benefits of these achievements to the industry, giving patent protection suggestions for Chinese applicants comparative with field situation. [Results/Conclusion] The research shows that the quality of citation applications of ISPSD papers is significantly higher than the field average level, and the ability of Chinese applicants to use patent protection related achievements needs to be improved. This study provides a practical and highly targeted reference idea for patent administrators and researchers, and also makes a positive exploration for the practice of the spirit of breaking the five rules.

Keywords: high-value patents cultivation, technical solutions, knowledge diffusion, top academic conference papers, intellectual property information analysis

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Authors: Khalil Aryanfar, Shahrzad Sanjari, Pariya Gholipor, Elmira Hafez

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The present study aimed to investigate and compare the characteristics of entrepreneurship among students in senior secondary schools in the academic year 2008-2009 in Tabriz city. Research employed survey method respectively. The study population consisted of all students in the senior branch of theoretical, technical, professional and vocational (1033 patients) were included. Sample size of 493 was calculated according to Morgan table. Sampling method was random cluster and stratified sampling. Data collected by researcher made questionnaire based on the theory of MC clleland (1963) and Brvkhavs (1980). These tools would indicators be for achievement, Independence, disposition, creativity, risk-taking, self-control, tolerance for ambiguity, team work approach in the future. To determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, content validity of the survey was approved by relevant experts. In addition, to estimate the internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for 84% of total inventory. Collected data Using mean, standard deviation and were analyzed by ANOVA. The results showed that there is a significant difference between students' entrepreneurial potential fields of theoretical, technical, professional and vocational level (0/01).

Keywords: entrepreneurship, achievement motivation, risk taking, creativity, self-control, independence, tolerance of ambiguity, foresight

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Authors: Simon Winberg

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The landscape of professional postgraduate education is changing: the focus of these programmes is moving from preparing candidates for a life in academia towards a focus of training in expert knowledge and skills to support industry. This is especially pronounced in engineering disciplines where increasingly more complex products are drawing on a depth of knowledge from multiple fields. This connects strongly with the broader notion of Industry 4.0 – where technology and society are being brought together to achieve more powerful and desirable products, but products whose inner workings also are more complex than before. The changes in what we do, and how we do it, has a profound impact on what industry would like universities to provide. One such change is the increased demand for taught doctoral and Masters programmes. These programmes aim to provide skills and training for professionals, to expand their knowledge of state-of-the-art tools and technologies. This paper investigates one such course, namely a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Master’s degree course. The teaching support for this course had to be drawn from an existing pool of academics, none of who were specialists in this field. The paper focuses on the kind of educator, a ‘hybrid academic’, assembled from available academic staff and bolstered by research. The conceptual framework for this paper combines Activity Theory and Genre Ecology. Activity Theory is used to reason about learning and interactions during the course, and Genre Ecology is used to model building and sharing of technical knowledge related to using tools and artifacts. Data were obtained from meetings with students and lecturers, logs, project reports, and course evaluations. The findings show how the course, which was initially academically-oriented, metamorphosed into a tool-dominant peer-learning structure, largely supported by the sharing of technical tool-based knowledge. While the academic staff could address gaps in the participants’ fundamental knowledge of radio systems, the participants brought with them extensive specialized knowledge and tool experience which they shared with the class. This created a complicated dynamic in the class, which centered largely on engagements with technology artifacts, such as simulators, from which knowledge was built. The course was characterized by a richness of ‘epistemic objects’, which is to say objects that had knowledge-generating qualities. A significant portion of the course curriculum had to be adapted, and the learning methods changed to accommodate the dynamic interactions that occurred during classes. This paper explains the SDR Masters course in terms of conflicts and innovations in its activity system, as well as the continually hybridizing genre ecology to show how the structuring and resource-dependence of the course transformed from its initial ‘traditional’ academic structure to a more entangled arrangement over time. It is hoped that insights from this paper would benefit other educators involved in the design and teaching of similar types of specialized professional postgraduate taught programmes.

Keywords: professional postgraduate education, taught masters, engineering education, software defined radio

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Authors: Zheng Lulin, Xiong Guoping

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In recent years, agriculture, rural development, and peasants are among the top concerns and priorities of the Chinese Government. Several related issues have been paid many attentions by academic communities, including the impacts of corresponding policies on the rural villages, the mechanisms of these impacts, and the future development of rural society. However, most of the researchers focus on single rural policy instead of integral rural policy system. Hence, this dissertation focused on the mechanisms of policies’ influence on rural changes through a case study from Changfu Village in central Guangxi Province, China, to propose the optimized suggestions for rural development. Forty-three relevant pivotal policies of significant influence on rural development are summarized from literature and documents, covering five aspects of agricultural production, rural living security, open rural markets, rural household registration systems, and farmland transferring. Besides, having been live in this area for more than 20 years, researchers obtain the basic information about changing the social connection between citizens and villagers, the habitat of villagers by years of informal interviews. Furthermore, more than 200 questionnaires are given to villagers to analyze the changing of their personal and family information. The summary of rural policies revealed that the development trend of public rural policies followed the U-shape curve and these policies are characterized by economic intentions and operative economy. Report of questionnaires and interviews show that the development of rural economy was promoted greatly by public policies. Firstly, Social communication and rural culture were affected to a certain extent. Secondly, the educational level of rural individuals was significantly enhanced, whereas the quality of population had limited progress. Finally, the freedom of occupational choice for rural individuals into cities was greater than before, but still restricted by the class solidification of social background, resulting in more obstacles for rural individuals to settle down in cities. From what we discuss about, we may reach the conclusion on several perspectives: Firstly, the impact of the rural policies has a significant role in promoting the economy development of the rural area. However, separations between rural and urban area are still a major problem since rural policy contributed little to improve the rural population quality. Therefore, in the future, providing high quality educational facilities including teachers, libraries, and opportunities of broadening their knowledge base are key issues of future rural policy. Secondly, the development of rural economy would be a lack of driving force for further improvement owning to the fact that working hard couldn’t get more improvement. In the future, public policies should support the rural development of culture, technology, and personal qualities to create favorable social environment for the free increase of rural population.

Keywords: changing of rural area, rural development of China, rural policy, social environment

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Authors: Sudipta Garai

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Films as a cultural, social practice remains a dominant space for creation and destruction of ideologies and practices which make the sociological viewing, analysis, and interpretation of the same a complex affair. It remains the doorway between the interpretations and understanding of the writer/director and the reader/viewer. India, being a multi-linguistic culture, the media plays a much intriguing role than that of newspaper, books, stories, novels or any other medium of expression. Known to be the largest democracy, the State seem to guarantee and safeguard people’s choices and life of dignity through its Fundamental Rights and Directives. However, the laws contradict themselves when it comes to IPC 377 criminalizing anything except penovaginal sexual intercourse restricting alternative sexual preferences and practices questioning its sense of ‘democracy.' In this context, the issue of homosexuality came up in bits and pieces through various representations in ‘popular’ cinema mostly with sudden references of mockery and laughter where the explicit narratives of ‘queer’ seemed missing. Rituparno Ghosh, an eminent film maker of Bengal, came up as the ‘queer’ face in Kolkata specifically through his ‘queer’ trilogy (Memories in March, 2010; Arekti Premer Golpo, 2010; Chitrangada: A Crowning Wish, 2012) coming out of his own closet and speaking about his own sexual choices not only through the explicit narratives in films but also in person which made these films an important point of departure in Bengali film history. A sociological reading of these films through a discourse analysis is being done with the critical questions of ‘choice,' ’freedom,' ‘love and marriage’ and most importantly the ‘change.' This study not only focuses on the films and its analysis of content but also to engage with its audience, queer and not in order to extend beyond the art form into the actual vulnerabilities of life and experiences through informal interviews, focused group discussions and engaging with the real life narratives. A research of this kind is always looked upon as a medium of change hoping for a better world wiping away the discrimination and ‘shame’ the ‘queer’ faces in their everyday life, but a social science research is limited but its ‘time’ and academic boundary where the hope of change might be initiated but not fulfilled. The experiences and reflections of the ‘queer’ not only redefined the narratives of the films but also me as a researcher. The perspectives of the ‘hetero-normative’ informants gave a broader picture of the study and the socio-cultural complications that are intrigued with the ideas of resistance and change. The issues on subjectivity, power, and position couldn’t be wiped out in a study of this kind as both politics and aesthetics become integrated with each other in the creation of any art form be it films or a study of research.

Keywords: cinema, alternative sexualities, narratives, sexual choices, state and society

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Authors: Nashwa Moheyeldine

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Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to preserve the rights of the present and future generations as well as preserving the globe, both humans and nature. ESD should aim not only to bring about consciousness of the current and future issues, but also to foster student agency to bring about change at schools, communities and nations. According to the Freirian concept of conscientização, (conscientization) — “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality”, education aims to liberate people to understand and act upon their worlds. Social justice is greatly intertwined with a nation’s social, political and economic rights, and thus, should be targeted through ESD. “Literacy researchers have found that K-12 students who engage in social justice inquiries develop vital academic knowledge and skills, critical understandings about oppression in the world, and strong dispositions to continue working toward social justice beyond the initial inquiries they conduct”. Education for social justice greatly equips students with the critical thinking skills and sense of agency, that are required for responsible decision making that would ensure a sustainable world. In fact teaching for social justice is intersecting with many of the pedagogies such as multicultural education, cultural relevant pedagogy, education for sustainable development, critical theory pedagogy, (local and global) citizenship education, all of which aim to prepare students for awareness, responsibility and agency. Social justice pedagogy has three specific goals, including helping students develop 1) a sociopolitical consciousness - an awareness of the symbiotic relationship between the social and political factors that affect society, 2) a sense of agency, the freedom to act on one’s behalf and to feel empowered as a change agent, and 3) positive social and cultural identities. The keyword to social justice education is to expose the realities to the students, and challenge the students not only to question , but also to change. Social justice has been usually discussed through the subjects of history and social sciences, however, an interdisciplinary approach is essential to enhance the students’ understanding of their world. Teaching social justice through various subjects is also important, as it make students’ learning relevant to their lives. The main question that this paper seeks to answer is ‘How could social justice be taught through different subjects and tools, such as mathematics, literature through story-telling, geography, and service learning will be shown in this paper. Also challenges to education for social justice will be described. Education is not a neutral endeavor, but is either oriented toward the cause of liberation or in support of domination. In fact , classrooms can be “a microcosm of the emancipatory societies we seek to encourage”, education for the 21st century should be relevant to students' lives where it exposes life's realities to them. Education should also provide students with the basics of school subjects with the bigger goal of helping them make the world a better, more just place to live in.

Keywords: teaching for social justice, student agency, citizenship education, education

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Authors: Ncamisile T. Zulu, Nicholas Munro

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Black women academics in higher education institutions are predominantly portrayed by literature as individuals who usually lack a sense of belonging, progression, and workload management. The oversaturation of this literature can (overtime) perpetuate a stereotypical idea that Black women academics are incapable of coping and succeeding in higher education institutions. The current article explores the agency, motivated by critical consciousness that Black women professors have and utilise in higher education institutions. In order to provide an understanding of how Black women academics can progress, manage their workloads and succeed in higher education institutions, the article considers how these women can take responsibility for their self-development, adaptation, and self-renewal in academic endeavours. As a result, the article presents a line of thought which could help in challenging the stereotype about Black women academics. The study was conducted at two higher education institutions involving Black women professors from different disciplines. A combination of purposive and snowballing sampling was used to recruit nine women participants, while data were collected through interviews. A critical consciousness perspective was adopted to formulate an understanding of the agency of Black women professors in higher education institutions, while thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results challenge the widely disseminated view that portrays Black women academics as incapable of coping and succeeding in higher education institutions. The findings highlight Black women professors as proactive, flexible, and self-regulating in their academic endeavours. These findings contribute to the literature by adding a more constructive narrative of Black women academics in higher education.

Keywords: agency, Black women academics, critical consciousness, higher education institutions

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Authors: Svetlana Petrikova, Alexander Yu Kostinskiy

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Management of research evaluation in the Higher School of Economics (HSE) originates from the HSE Academic Fund created in 2004 to facilitate and support academic research and presents its results to international academic community. As the means to inspire the applicants, science projects went through competitive selection process evaluated by the group of experts. Drastic development of HSE, quantity of applied projects for each Academic Fund competition and the need to coordinate the conduct of expert evaluation resulted in founding of the Office for Research Evaluation in 2013. The Office’s primary objective is management of research evaluation of science projects. The standards to conduct the evaluation are defined as follows: - The exercise of the process approach, the unification of the functioning of department. - The uniformity of regulatory, organizational and methodological framework. - The development of proper on-line evaluation system. - The broad involvement of external Russian and international experts, the renouncement of the usage of own employees. - The development of an algorithm to make a correspondence between experts and science projects. - The methodical usage of opened/closed international and Russian databases to extend the expert database. - The transparency of evaluation results – free access to assessment while keeping experts confidentiality. The management of research evaluation of projects is based on the sole standard, organization and financing. The standard way of conducting research evaluation at HSE is based upon Regulations on basic principles for research evaluation at HSE. These Regulations have been developed from the moment of establishment of the Office for Research Evaluation and are based on conventional corporate standards for regulatory document management. The management system of research evaluation is implemented on the process approach basis. Process approach means deployment of work as a process, which is the aggregation of interrelated and interacting activities processing inputs into outputs. Inputs are firstly client asking for the assessment to be conducted, defining the conditions for organizing and carrying of the assessment and secondly the applicant with proper for the competition application; output is assessment given to the client. While exercising process approach to clarify interrelation and interacting main parties or subjects of the assessment are determined and the way for interaction between them forms up. Parties to expert assessment are: - Ordering Party – The department of the university taking the decision to subject a project to expert assessment; - Providing Party – The department of the university authorized to provide such assessment by the Ordering Party; - Performing Party – The legal and natural entities that have expertise in the area of research evaluation. Experts assess projects in accordance with criteria and states of expert opinions approved by the Ordering Party. Objects of assessment generally are applications or HSE competition project reports. Mainly assessments are deployed for internal needs, i.e. the most ordering parties are HSE branches and departments, but assessment can also be conducted for external clients. The financing of research evaluation at HSE is based on the established corporate culture and traditions of HSE.

Keywords: expert assessment, management of research evaluation, process approach, research evaluation

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Authors: Gideon Yaniv, Erez Siniver, Yossef Tobol

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The extensive body of economic and psychological research correlating between students' cheating and their grade point average (GPA) consistently finds a significant negative relationship between cheating and the GPA. However, this literature is entirely based on students' responses to direct question surveys that inquire whether they have ever cheated on their academic assignments. The present paper reports the results of a two-round experiment designed to expose student cheating at the individual level and correlate it with their GPAs. The experiment involved two classes of third-year economics students incentivized by a competitive reward to answer a multiple-choice trivia quiz without consulting their electronic devices. While this forbiddance was deliberately overlooked in the first round, providing an opportunity to cheat, it was strictly enforced in the second, conducted two months later in the same classes with the same quiz. A comparison of subjects' performance in the two rounds, self-revealed a considerable extent of cheating in the first one. Regressing the individual cheating levels on subjects' gender and GPA exhibited no significant differences in cheating between males and females. However, cheating of both genders was found to significantly increase with their GPA, implying, in sharp contrast with the direct question surveys, that higher achievers are bigger cheaters. A second experiment, which allowed subjects to answer the quiz in the privacy of their own cars, reveals that when really feeling safe to cheat, many subjects would cheat maximally, challenging the literature's claim that people generally cheat modestly.

Keywords: academic achievement, cheating behavior, experimental data, grade-point average

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Authors: Tjipta Lesmana

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Terrorist attacks quickly penetrated Indonesia following the downfall of Soeharto regime in May 1998. Reform era was officially proclaimed. Indonesia turned to 'heaven state' from 'authoritarian state'. For the first time since 1966, the country experienced a full-scale freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, and heavy acknowledgement of human rights practice. Some religious extremists previously run away to neighbor countries to escape from security apparatus secretly backed home. Quickly they consolidated the power to continue their long aspiration and dream to establish 'Shariah Indonesia', Indonesia based on Khilafah ideology. Bali bombings I which shocked world community occurred on 12 October 2002 in the famous tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, and people from more than 20 other nationalities). In the capital, Jakarta, successive bombings were blasted in Marriott hotel, Australian Embassy, residence of the Philippine Ambassador and stock exchange office. A 'drunken Indonesia' is far from ready to combat nationwide sudden and massive terrorist attacks. Police Detachment 88 (Densus 88) Indonesian counter-terrorism squad, was quickly formed following 2002 Bali Bombing. Anti-terrorism Provisional Act was immediately erected, as well, due to urgent need to fight terrorism. Some Bali bombings criminals were deadly executed after sentenced by the court. But a series of terrorist suicide attacks and another Bali bombings (the second one) in Bali, again, shocked world community. Terrorism network is undoubtedly spreading nationwide. Suspicion is high that they had close connection with Al Qaeda’s groups. Even 'Afghanistan alumni' and 'Syria alumni' returned to Indonesia to back up the local mujahidins in their fights to topple Indonesia constitutional government and set up Islamic state (Khilafah). Supported by massive aids from friendly nations, especially Australia and United States, Indonesia launched large scale operations to crush terrorism consisted of various radical groups such as JAD, JAS, and JAADI. Huge energy, money, and souls were dedicated. Terrorism is, however, persistently entrenched. High ranking officials from Detachment 88 squad and military intelligence believe that terrorism is still one the most deadly enemy of Indonesia.

Keywords: counter-radicalization, de-radicalization, Khalifah, Union State, Al Qaedah, ISIS

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Authors: Robson da Cunha Santos, Caio Cezar R. Bonifacio, Diego Mureb Quesada, Gerson Gomes Cunha

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The paper is related to the safety of oil wells and environmental preservation on the planet, because they require great attention and commitment from oil companies and people who work with these equipments. This must occur from drilling the well until it is abandoned in order to safeguard the environment and prevent possible damage. The project had as main objective the constitution resulting from comparatives made among books, articles and publications with information gathered in technical visits to operational bases of Petrobras. After the visits, the information from methods of utilization and present managements, which were not available before, became available to the general audience. As a result, it is observed a huge flux of incorrect and out-of-date information that comprehends not only bibliographic archives, but also academic resources and materials. During the gathering of more in-depth information on the manufacturing, assembling, and use aspects of DHSVs, several issues that were previously known as correct, customary issues were discovered to be uncertain and outdated. Information of great importance resulted in affirmations about subjects as the depth of the valve installation that was before installed to 30 meters from the seabed (mud line). Despite this, the installation should vary in conformity to the ideal depth to escape from area with the biggest tendency to hydrates formation according to the temperature and pressure. Regarding to valves with nitrogen chamber, in accordance with books, they have their utilization linked to water line ≥ 700 meters, but in Brazilian exploratory fields, their use occurs from 600 meters of water line. The valves used in Brazilian fields are able to be inserted to the production column and self-equalizing, but the use of screwed valve in the column of production and equalizing is predominant. Although these valves are more expensive to acquire, they are more reliable, efficient, with a bigger shelf life and they do not cause restriction to the fluid flux. It follows that based on researches and theoretical information confronted to usual forms used in fields, the present project is important and relevant. This project will be used as source of actualization and information equalization that connects academic environment and real situations in exploratory situations and also taking into consideration the enrichment of precise and easy to understand information to future researches and academic upgrading.

Keywords: down hole safety valve, security devices, installation, oil-wells

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