Search results for: educators understanding of EC.

Authors: Steffon Campbell

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This research explores the potential of using artificial intelligence (AI) autoethnographies to study, document, explore, and understand aspects of Caribbean culture. As a digital research methodology, AI autoethnography merges computer science and technology with ethnography, providing a fresh approach to collecting and analyzing data to generate novel insights. This research investigates how AI autoethnography can best be applied to understanding the various complexities and nuances of Caribbean culture, as well as examining how technology can be a valuable tool for enriching study of the region. By applying AI autoethnography to Caribbean studies, the research aims to produce new and innovative ways of discovering, understanding, and appreciating the Caribbean. The study found that AI autoethnographies can offer a valuable method for exploring Caribbean culture. Specifically, AI autoethnographies can facilitate experiences of self-reflection, facilitate reconciliation with the past, and provide a platform to explore and understand the cultural, social, political, and economic concerns of Caribbean people. Findings also reveal that these autoethnographies can create a space for people to reimagine and reframe the conversation around Caribbean culture by enabling them to actively participate in the process of knowledge creation. The study also finds that AI autoethnography offers the potential for cross-cultural dialogue, allowing participants to connect with one another over cultural considerations and engage in meaningful discourse.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, autoethnography, caribbean, culture

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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: Abdul Rahman M. Chamseddine, Mahmoud El-ashiri

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In the field of language teaching, communication skills are essential for the learner to achieve, however, these skills, in general, might not support the comprehension of some texts of literary or artistic nature like poetry. Understanding sentences and expressions is not enough to understand a poem; other skills are needed in order to understand the special structure of a text which literary meaning is inapprehensible even when the lingual meaning is well comprehended. And then there is the need for many other components that surpass one text to other similar texts that can be understood through solid traditions, which do not form an obstacle in the face of change and progress. This is not exclusive to texts that are classified as a literary but it is also the same with some daily short phrases and indicatively charged expressions that can be classified as literary or bear a taste of literary nature.. it can be found in Newpapers’ titles, TV news reports, and maybe football commentaries… the need to understand this special lingual use – described as literary – is highly important to understand this discourse that can be generally classified as very far from literature. This work will try to explore the role of the literary text in the language class and the way it is being covered or dealt with throughout all levels of acquiring proficiency. It will also attempt to survery the position of the literary text in some of the most important books for teaching Arabic around the world. The same way grammar is needed to understand the language, another (literary) grammar is also needed for understanding literature.

Keywords: language teaching, Arabic, literature, pedagogy, language proficiency

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Authors: Oyku Yenen

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The notion of biopolitics, as studied by such intellectuals as Foucault, Agamben, and Negri, is an important guide for comprehending the current understanding of politics. While Foucault evaluates biopolitics as a survival policy, Giorgio Agamben, German legist, identifies the theory with death. Agamben claims the fact we can all considered to be homo sacer who are abandoned by the law, left in the field of exception, and whose killing does not require punishment. Agamben defines the person who is tried by the public for committing a crime but is not allowed to be sacrificed and whose killing is not considered a crime, as 'homo sacer'. This study analyzes how the concept of 'homo sacer' is made visible in TV series such as Çemberimde Gül Oya (Cagan Irmak, 2005-2005), Hatırla Sevgili (Ummu Burhan, 2006-2008), Bu Kalp Seni Unutur Mu? (Aydin Bulut, 2009-1010) all of which portray the period Turkey's 1980 military coup, within the framework of Agamben's thoughts and notions about biopolitics. When the main plots of these abovementioned TV series, which constitute the universe of this study, are scrutinized closely, they lay out the understanding of politics that has existed throughout history and prevails today. Although there is a large number of TV series on the coup of 1980, these three series are the only main productions that specifically focused on the event itself. Our final analysis will reveal that the concepts of homo sacer, bare life, exception, camp have been embodied in different ways in these three series. In these three series, which all deal with similar subjects using differing perspectives, the dominant understanding of politics is clearly conveyed to the audience. In all three series, the reigning power always decides on the exceptions, those who will live, those who will die, and those who will be ignored by law. Such characters as Mehmet, Sinan, Yıldız, Deniz, Defne, all of which we come across in these series, are on trial as a criminals of thought and are subjected to various forms of torture while isolated in an area where they are virtually deprived of law. Their citizenship rights are revoked. All of them are left alone with their bare lives (zoe).

Keywords: bare life, biopolitics, homo sacer, sovereign power, state of exception

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Authors: M. A. Marlow, R. Sørly, H. K. Kaatrakoski

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Social work practice produces and circulates dominant narratives of young women in residential care. These stories are characterised by negative descriptions and hopelessness while dismissing the capabilities of narrative practice. This paper gives an account of how young women with histories in residential care can resist the dominant narratives. The analysis is based on a study of five young women aged 17 to 26 years old with different backgrounds and experiences with Norwegian residential care. The meaning of the context is analysed based on two interviews that were completed and one that was cancelled in the field. The contextual narrative analysis was oriented around the understanding of stories as performances and provided insight into a possible future storytelling practice in social work. The first author’s field notes are included as part of the data material in the analysis and provide a picture of important knowledge development related to stories and the value of being able to tell one’s own experiences. Faced with the dominant narratives that define young women with negative experiences with residential care, we provide a more contextualised understanding of storytelling as a possibility for positive change. To allow young women to create new stories from their lives, we, as both social workers and researchers, must be aware of what kinds of stories we relate to our own practices.

Keywords: context analysis, narrative research, rejection, residential care, social work practice

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Authors: Amy Y. Wang, Eko L. Yi

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Can vicarious experiences of workplace ostracism affect employees’ willingness to voice? Given the increasingly interdependent nature of the modern workplace in which employees rely on social interactions to fulfill organizational goals, workplace ostracism –the extent to which an individual perceives that he or she is ignored or excluded by others in the workplace– has garnered significant interest from scholars and practitioners alike. Extending beyond conventional studies that largely focus on the perspectives and outcomes of ostracized targets, we address the indirect effects of workplace ostracism on third-party employees embedded in the same social context. Using a social information processing approach, we propose that the ostracism of coworkers acts as political information that influences third-party employees in their decisions to engage in risky and discretionary behaviors such as employee voice. To make sense of and to navigate through experiences of workplace ostracism, we posit that both political understanding and political skill allow third party employees to minimize the risks and uncertainty of voicing. This conceptual model was tested by a study involving 154 supervisor-subordinate dyads of a publicly listed bio-technology firm located in Mainland China. Each supervisor and their direct subordinates composed of a work team; each team had a minimum of two subordinates and a maximum of four subordinates. Human resources used the master list to distribute the ID coded questionnaires to the matching names. All studied constructs were measured using existing scales proved effective in previous literature. Hypotheses were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Hierarchal Multiple Regression. All three hypotheses were supported which showed that employees were less likely to engage in voice behaviors when their coworkers reported having experienced ostracism in the workplace. Results also showed a significant three-way interaction between political understanding and political skill on the relationship between coworkers’ ostracism and employee voice, indicating that political savviness is a valuable resource in mitigating ostracism’s negative and indirect effects. Our results illustrated that an employee’s coworkers being ostracized indeed adversely impacted his or her own voice behavior. However, not all individuals reacted passively to the social context; rather, we found that politically savvy individuals – possessing both political understanding and political skill – and their voice behaviors were less impacted by ostracism in their work environment. At the same time, we found that having only political understanding or only political skill was significantly less effective in mitigating ostracism’s negative effects, suggesting a necessary duality of political knowledge and political skill in combatting ostracism. Organizational implications, recommendations, and future research ideas are also discussed.

Keywords: employee voice, organizational politics, social information processing, workplace ostracism

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Authors: Leon Pan

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The first programming course within post-secondary education has long been recognized as a challenging endeavor for both educators and students alike. Historically, these courses have exhibited high failure rates and a notable number of dropouts. Instructors often lament students' lack of effort in their coursework, and students often express frustration that the teaching methods employed are not effective. Drawing inspiration from the successful principles of Extreme Programming, this study introduces an approach—the Extremes-based teaching model — aimed at enhancing the teaching of introductory programming courses. To empirically determine the effectiveness of the model, a comparison was made between a section taught using the extreme-based model and another utilizing traditional teaching methods. Notably, the extreme-based teaching class required students to work collaboratively on projects while also demanding continuous assessment and performance enhancement within groups. This paper details the application of the extreme-based model within the post-secondary online classroom context and presents the compelling results that emphasize its effectiveness in advancing the teaching and learning experiences. The extreme-based model led to a significant increase of 13.46 points in the weighted total average and a commendable 10% reduction in the failure rate.

Keywords: extreme-based teaching model, innovative pedagogical methods, project-based learning, team-based learning

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Authors: Massimo Imparato

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The study aims to identify the background of the contemporary trends in the design of commercial outdoors, and the reasons for the radical change in the traditional relationship between architecture and interior design, where the latter is taking over the construction of the visual narrative framing the users’ experience, which was ruled in the past by the architectural discourse. The design of commercial interiors, in fact, influences the way in which their outdoor spaces are organized and used more than ever before, and reflects the multi-faceted changes in the consumers’ behaviors and their interaction with the built environment. The study starts with the analysis of the evolution of sheltered outdoor spaces to achieve a broader understanding of the shift of meaning of subjects such as private and public domains, and to consider the varied ways of interaction/integration between the building and its exterior space. The study identifies the major social, physical and cultural aspects influencing the design of contemporary commercial outdoor spaces, suggests a new framework for their understanding and draws the methodological guidelines for the development of a structured approach to the design of commercial outdoors. The purpose of the paper is to stress the influence of the design of interiors into the public realm, to indicate new directions in this field of research, and to provide new methodological tools for interior design professionals.

Keywords: interior design, landscape design, visual narrative, outdoor design

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Authors: Rahah Hasan, Faridah Sahari

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This paper describes the development of modern art in Borneo, particularly in Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei, after the Second World War until the 1970s. This was the period when the British Colonial government dictated the education system, which consequentially inculcated visual art through art and craft subjects imposed on all vernacular schools in Borneo. British influence within the state governance, social, and education system designed with Western ideology created not only a westernized society and mindset but at the same time generated artistic opportunities for emerging local painters to be involved in the initiation of Modern Art in Borneo. Through the historical method and analysis of primary and secondary data, it was obvious that the existence of colonial government departments and institutions such as museums and teaching colleges, and other social organizations in Borneo at that time contributed significantly to the artistic movement. The similar structure and motivation of development in other areas of Borneo confirmed that artistic affirmation of modern art advanced homogenously. Their understanding of easel painting as well as a unique interpretation of culture once distanced from traditional art, resulting in a new visual image that transcended their ethnicity and identity through new mediums and tools. These meticulous interventions modestly visualized in each painting, as discussed in this paper, hopefully, will give a deeper understanding and appreciation of the history of modern art in Borneo.

Keywords: art history, Borneo art, fine art, modern art

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Authors: Tamara Matevosyan

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In this globalized world, intercultural communication is becoming essential for understanding communication among people, for developing understanding of cultures, to appreciate the opportunities and challenges that each culture presents to people. Moreover, it plays an important role in developing an ideal personification to understand different behaviors in different cultures. Native speakers assimilate sociolinguistic knowledge in natural conditions, while it is a great problem for language learners, and in this context feature films reveal cultural peculiarities and involve students in real communication. As we know nowadays the key role of language learning is the development of intercultural competence as communicating with someone from a different cultural background can be exciting and scary, frustrating and enlightening. Intercultural competence is important in FL learning classroom and here feature films can perform as essential tools to develop this competence and overcome the intercultural gap that foreign students face. Current proposal attempts to reveal the correlation of the given culture and language through feature films. To ensure qualified, well-organized and practical classes on Intercultural Communication for language learners a number of methods connected with movie watching have been implemented. All the pre-watching, while watching and post-watching methods and techniques are aimed at developing students’ communicative competence. The application of such activities as Climax, Role-play, Interactive Language, Daily Life helps to reveal and overcome mistakes of cultural and pragmatic character. All the above-mentioned activities are directed at the assimilation of the language vocabulary with special reference to the given culture. The study dwells into the essence of culture as one of the core concepts of intercultural communication. Sometimes culture is not a priority in the process of language learning which leads to further misunderstandings in real life communication. The application of various methods and techniques with feature films aims at developing students’ cultural competence, their understanding of norms and values of individual cultures. Thus, feature film activities will enable learners to enlarge their knowledge of the particular culture and develop a fundamental insight into intercultural communication.

Keywords: climax, intercultural competence, interactive language, role-play

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Authors: Alveena Khan

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The objective of this research is to explore students’ understanding about bullying and different bullying types. Nowadays bullying is considered as an important social issue around the world because it has long lasting effects on students’ lives. Sometimes due to bullying students commit suicide, they lose confidence and become isolated. This research used qualitative research approach. In order to generate data, triangulation was considered for the verification and reliability of the generated data. Semi-structured interview, non-participant observation, and case studies were conducted. This research focused on five major private colleges and 20 students (both female and male) participated in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The data generated included approximately 45 hours of total interviews. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis and followed grounded theory to generate themes. The findings of the research highlights that bullying does prevail in studied private colleges, mostly in the form of verbal and physical bullying. No specific gender difference was found in experiencing verbal and physical bullying. Furthermore, from students’ point of view, college administrators are responsible to deal with bullying. The researcher suggests that there must be a proper check and balance system and anti-bullying programs should be held in colleges to create a protective and healthy environment in which students do not face bullying.

Keywords: bullying, college student, physical and verbal bullying, qualitative research

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Authors: Itumeleng Phage

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Students’ comprehension of graphs may be affected by the characteristics of the discipline in which the graph is used, the type of the task as well as the background of the students who are the readers or interpreters of the graph. This research study investigated these aspects of the graph comprehension of 152 first-year undergraduate physics students by comparing their responses to corresponding tasks in the mathematics and physics disciplines. The discipline characteristics were analysed for four task-related constructs namely coordinates, representations, area and slope. Students’ responses to corresponding visual decoding and judgement tasks set in mathematics and kinematics contexts were statistically compared. The effects of the participants’ gender, year of school completion and study course were determined as reader characteristics. The results of the empirical study indicated that participants generally transferred their mathematics knowledge on coordinates and representation of straight line graphs to the physics contexts, but not in the cases of parabolic and hyperbolic functions or area under graphs. Insufficient understanding of the slope concept contributed to weak performances on this construct in both mathematics and physics contexts. Discipline characteristics seem to play a vital role in students’ understanding, while reader characteristics had insignificant to medium effects on their responses.

Keywords: kinematics graph, discipline characteristics, constructs, coordinates, representations, area and slope

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Authors: P. Mbecke

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The role of the government to tangibly alleviate poverty, improve and sustain the quality of people’s lives remains a “work in progress” twenty-two years after the dawn of democracy in South Africa despite a host of socio-economic programs and pro-poor policies and legislations. This paper assesses the development process and the implementation of the White Paper on Families in South Africa as one of the pro-poor policies intended to curb poverty and redress the imbalances of the apartheid regime. The paper is the result of a qualitative implementation research theory facilitated through in-depth interviews with social work managers complemented by literature and policy review techniques. It investigates the level of basic knowledge and understanding as well as the implementation challenges of the White Paper on Families as causes of its failure. The paper emphasizes the importance of the family-centered approach in the implementation of pro-poor policies. To facilitate the understanding of the White Paper on Families by its users, the Department of Social Development needs take stock of the identified challenges of its implementation so as to facilitate its success in fostering positive family well-being that will directly contributes to the overall socio-economic development of South Africa.

Keywords: poverty alleviation, pro-poor policy, social development, social welfare, South Africa

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Authors: Mohd Rashid Bin Hj. Md Idris, Lajiman Bin Janoory, Abdullah Bin Yusof, Mahzir Bin Ibrahim

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The Malay language curriculum at primary school level in Malaysia is instrumental in ensuring the status of the language as the official and national language, the language of instruction as well as the language that unites the various ethnics in Malaysia. A research addressing issues related to the curriculum standard is, therefore, essential to provide value added quality to the existing National Education Philosophy in ongoing efforts to produce an individual who is balanced in intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical developments. The objective of this study is to examine the Philosophy of Language Theory, to review the content of the Malay language subject in relation to the Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR), and to identify aspects of Theory of Philosophy in the Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools. The Malay language Primary School Curriculum is designed to enable students to be competent speakers and communicators of the language in order to gain knowledge, skills, information, values, and ideas and to enhance skills in social relations. Therefore, this study is designed to help educators to achieve all the stated goals. At the same time students at primary school level are expected to be able to apply the principle of language perfection as stated in the Philosophy of Language Theory to enable them to understand, appreciate and to take pride in being a Malaysian who speaks the language well.

Keywords: language, philosophy, theory, curriculum, standard, national education philosophy

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Authors: Oluyinka Ojedokun, S. E. Idemudia

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In Nigeria, statistics is a compulsory course required from all social sciences students as part of their academic training. However, a rising number of social sciences undergraduates usually express statistics anxiety. The prevalence of statistics anxiety among undergraduates in social sciences has created a growing concern for educators and researchers in the higher education institutions, mainly because this statistics anxiety adversely affects their performance in statistics and research methods courses. From a societal perspective it is important to reverse this trend. Although scholars and researchers have highlighted some psychosocial factors that influence statistics anxiety in students but few empirical studies exist on the association between personality traits of NEO five factors and statistics anxiety. It is in the light of this situation that this study was designed to assess the extent to which the personality traits of NEO five factors influence statistics anxiety of students in social sciences courses. The participants were 282 undergraduates in the faculty of social sciences at a state owned public university in Nigeria. The findings demonstrate that the personality traits contributing to statistics anxiety include openness to experience, conscientious, extraversion, and neuroticism. These results imply that statistics anxiety is related to individual differences in personality traits and suggest that certain aspects of statistics anxiety may be relatively stable and resistant to change. An effective and simple method to reduce statistics anxiety among social sciences students is to create awareness of the statistical and methodological requirements of the social sciences courses before commencement of their programmes.

Keywords: personality traits, statistics anxiety, social sciences, students

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Authors: Hamid Yazdani, Fatemeh Abbasi

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Biomimicry, where flora, fauna or entire ecosystems are emulated as a basis for design, is a growing area of research in the fields of architecture and engineering. This is due to both the fact that it is an inspirational source of possible new innovation and because of the potential it offers as a way to create a more sustainable and even regenerative built environment. The widespread and practical application of biomimicry as a design method remains however largely unrealised. A growing body of international research identifies various obstacles to the employment of biomimicry as an architectural design method. One barrier of particular note is the lack of a clear definition of the various approaches to biomimicry that designers can initially employ. Through a comparative literature review, and an examination of existing biomimetic technologies, this paper elaborates on distinct approaches to biomimetic design that have evolved. A framework for understanding the various forms of biomimicry has been developed, and is used to discuss the distinct advantages and disadvantages inherent in each as a design methodology. It is shown that these varied approaches may lead to different outcomes in terms of overall sustainability or regenerative potential. It is posited that a biomimetic approach to architectural design that incorporates an understanding of ecosystems could become a vehicle for creating a built environment that goes beyond simply sustaining current conditions to a restorative practice where the built environment becomes a vital component in the integration with and regeneration of natural ecosystems.

Keywords: biomimicry, bio-inspired design, ecology, ecomimicry, industrial ecology

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Authors: Rochelle Elva

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Faculty in Higher Education today are faced with the challenge of convincing their students of the importance of learning and mastery of skills. This is because most students often have a single motivation -to get high grades. If it appears that this goal will not be met, they lose their motivation, and their academic efforts wane. This is true even for students in the competitive fields of STEM, including Computer Science majors. As educators, we have to understand our students and leverage what motivates them to achieve our learning outcomes. This paper presents a case study that utilizes cognitive psychology’s Expectancy Value Theory and Motivation Theory to investigate the effect of sustained expectancy for success on students’ learning outcomes. In our case study, we explore how students’ motivation and persistence in their academic efforts are impacted by providing them with an unexpected possible path to success that continues to the end of the semester. The approach was tested in an undergraduate computer science course with n = 56. The results of the study indicate that when presented with the real possibility of success, despite existing low grades, both low and high-scoring students persisted in their efforts to improve their performance. Their final grades were, on average, one place higher on the +/-letter grade scale, with some students scoring as high as three places above their predicted grade.

Keywords: expectancy for success and persistence, motivation and performance, computer science education, motivation and performance in computer science

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Authors: M. Nikafrooz, J. Darsareh

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts on education all over the world and the problems arising from the use of traditional methods in education, it was necessary to apply alternative solutions to achieve educational goals. In this regard, electronic content production through screen recording and giving educational services in virtual classes became popular among many teachers. But the production of screen recorded videos involves special technical and educational considerations so that educators could be able to produce valuable and well-made videos by taking those considerations into account. The purpose of this study was to extract and find the technical and educational considerations of producing screen recorded videos to provide a useful and comprehensive guideline for e-content producers to enable them to produce high-quality educational videos. This study is fundamental research and data collection has been done using the Delphi method. In this research, an attempt has been made to provide the necessary criteria and considerations regarding the design and production of screen recorded videos by studying the literatures, identifying and analyzing learners' and teachers' needs and expectations, reviewing the previously produced videos. The results of these studies led to the finding and extracting 129 indicators in the form of 6 criteria. Such considerations are expected to reduce production and editing time, increase the technical and educational quality, and finally facilitating and enhancing the processes of teaching and learning.

Keywords: e-content, screen recorded videos, screen recording software, technical and pedagogical considerations

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Authors: Zahra Alikhani Koopaei

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In the fifth lesson of the third-grade mathematics book, students are introduced to the concept of multiplication. However, some students showed a lack of interest in learning this topic. To address this, a simple electronic multiplication table was designed with the aim of making the concept of multiplication entertaining and engaging for students. It provides them with moments of excitement during the learning process. To achieve this goal, a device was created that produced a bell sound when two wire ends were connected. Each wire end was connected to a specific number in the multiplication table, and the other end was linked to the corresponding answer. Consequently, if the answer is correct, the bell will ring. This study employs interactive and engaging methods to teach mathematics, particularly to students who have previously shown little interest in the subject. By integrating game-based learning and critical thinking, we observed an increase in understanding and interest in learning multiplication compared to before using this method. This further motivated the students. As a result, the intelligent multiplication table was successfully designed. Students, under the instructor's supervision, could easily construct the device during the lesson. Through the implementation of these operations, the concept of multiplication was firmly established in the students' minds. Engaging multiple intelligences in each student enhances a more stable and improved understanding of the concept of multiplication.

Keywords: intelligent multiplication table, design, construction, education, increased interest, students

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Authors: Henry R. Troy

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Corpora are becoming more prevalent in the language classroom, especially in the development of dictionaries and course materials. Nevertheless, corpora are still perceived by many educators as difficult to use directly in the classroom, a process which is also known as “data-driven learning” (DDL). Action research has been identified as a method by which DDL’s efficiency can be increased, but it is also an approach few studies on DDL have employed. Studies into the effectiveness of DDL in language education in Japan are also rare, and investigations focused more on student and teacher reactions rather than pre and post-test scores are rarer still. This study investigates the student and teacher reactions to the use of SkELL, a free online corpus designed to be user-friendly, for vocabulary learning at a university in Japan. Action research is utilized to refine the teaching methodology, with changes to the method based on student and teacher feedback received via surveys submitted after each of the four implementations of DDL. After some training, the students used tablets to study the target vocabulary autonomously in pairs and groups, with the teacher acting as facilitator. The results show that the students enjoyed using SkELL and felt it was effective for vocabulary learning, while the teaching methodology grew in efficiency throughout the course. These findings suggest that action research can be a successful method for increasing the efficacy of DDL in the language classroom, especially with teachers and students who are new to the practice.

Keywords: action research, corpus linguistics, data-driven learning, vocabulary learning

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Authors: Katharine Pollock

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Feminist scholars assert that a defining aspect of feminist confessional literature is that it expresses both an individual and communal identity, one which is predicated on the commonly-shared aspects of female experience. Reading feminist confessional literature in this way accommodates a plurality of readerly experiences and textual interpretations. It affirms the individual whilst acknowledging those experiences which bind women together, and refuses traditional objective criticism. It invites readers to see themselves reflected in the text, and encourages them to share their own stories. Similarly, music which communicates women’s personal experience, fictive or not, expresses a dual identity. There is an inherent risk of imposing a confessional reading upon a musical or literary text. Understanding music as being multivocal in the same way as confessional literature negates this patriarchal tendency, and allows listeners to engage with both the subjective and collective aspects of a text. By hearing their own stories reflected in the music, listeners engage in an ongoing dialogic process in which female stories are prioritised. This refuses patriarchal silencing and ensures a diversity of female voices. To demonstrate the veracity of these claims, literary criticism is applied to Lily Allen’s music, and memoir My Thoughts Exactly.

Keywords: confession, female, feminist, literature, music

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Authors: Clifford Lewis

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This paper aims to advance the conversation of an alternative view of leadership, namely ‘leadership as the management of meaning’. Here, leadership is considered as a social process of the management of meaning within an employment context, as opposed to a psychological trait, set of behaviours or relational consequence as seen in mainstream leadership research. Specifically, this study explores the relationship between intersectional identities and the management of meaning. Design: Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with women and men of colour working in the South African private sector organisations in various leadership positions. Employing an intersectional approach using gender and race, participants were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling concurrently. Thematic and Axial coding was used to identify dominant themes. Findings: Findings suggest that, both gender and race shape how leaders manage meaning. Findings also confirm that intersectionality is an appropriate approach when studying the leadership experiences of those groups who are underrepresented in organisational leadership structures. The findings points to the need for further research into the differential effects of intersecting identities on organisational leadership experiences and that ‘leadership as the management of meaning’ is an appropriate approach for addressing this knowledge gap. Theoretical Contribution: There is a large body of literature on the complex challenges faced by women and people of colour in leadership but there is relatively little empirical work on how identity influences the management of meaning. This study contributes to the leadership literature by providing insight into how intersectional identities influence the management of meaning at work and how this impacts the leadership experiences of largely marginalised groups. Practical Implications: Understanding the leadership experiences of underrepresented groups is important because of both legal mandates and for building diverse talent for organisations and societies. Such an understanding assists practitioners in being sensitive to simplistic notions of challenges individuals might face in accessing and practicing leadership in organisations. Advancing the conversation on leadership as the management of meaning allows for a better understanding of complex challenges faced by women and people of colour and an opportunity for organisations to systematically remove unfair structural obstacles and develop their diverse leadership capacity.

Keywords: intersectionality, diversity, leadership, sensemaking

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Authors: Dalia Elleuch

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Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) manifests as a personality disorder marked by inflated self-importance, heightened sensitivity to criticism, a lack of empathy, a preoccupation with appearance over substance, and features such as arrogance, grandiosity, a constant need for admiration, a tendency to exploit others, and an inclination towards demanding special treatment due to a sense of excessive entitlement (APA, 2013). This interdisciplinary study delves into NPD through the systematic synthesis of psycholinguistic analysis and neuroscientific correlates. The cognitive and emotional dimensions of NPD reveal linguistic patterns, including grandiosity, entitlement, and manipulative communication. Neuroscientific investigations reveal structural brain differences and alterations in functional connectivity, further explaining the neural underpinnings of social cognition deficits observed in individuals with NPD. Genetic predispositions and neurotransmitter imbalances add a layer of complexity to the understanding of NPD. The necessity for linguistic intervention in diagnosing and treating Narcissistic Personality Disorder is underscored by an interdisciplinary study that intricately synthesizes psycholinguistic analysis and neuroscientific correlates, offering a comprehensive understanding of NPD’s cognitive, emotional, and neural dimensions and paving the way for future practical, theoretical, and pedagogical approaches to address the complexities of this personality disorder.

Keywords: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), psycholinguistic analysis, neuroscientific correlates, interpersonal dysfunction, cognitive empathy

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Authors: Ezgi Tozak, H. Pelin Karasu, Umit Girgin

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In this study, difficulties encountered in the process of supporting the reading skills of a student with hearing loss whose inclusion was ongoing and the solutions improved during the practice process were examined. The study design was action research. Participants of this study, which was conducted between the dates of 29 September 2016 and 22 February 2017, consisted of a student with hearing loss, a classroom teacher, a teacher in the rehabilitation center, researcher/teacher and validity committee members. The data were obtained through observations, validity committee meeting, interviews, documents, and the researcher diary. Research findings show that in the process of supporting reading skills of the student with hearing loss, the student's knowledge of concepts was limited, and the student had difficulties in feeling and identification of sounds, reading and understanding words-sentences and retelling what he/she listened to. With the purpose of overcoming these difficulties in the implementation process, activities were prepared towards concepts, sound education, reading and understanding words and sentences, and retelling what you listen to; these activities were supported with visual materials and real objects and repeated with diversities.

Keywords: inclusion, reading process, supportive education, student with hearing loss

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Authors: Chaudhari S. G., Saxena, S.

Abstract:

We systematically and quantitatively investigated the effect of glucose as a model of natural molecular crowding agent on the structure and thermodynamics of Watson-Crick base paired three duplexes (named as D1, D2 and D3) of different base compositions and lengths. Structural analyses demonstrated that duplexes (D1 and D2) folded into B-form with different cations in the absence and presence of glucose while duplex (D3) folded into mixed A and B-form. Moreover, we demonstrated that the duplex was more stable in the absence of glucose, and marginally destabilized in its presence because glucose act as a weak structure breaker on the tetrahedral network of water. In the absence of glucose, the values of ΔG°25 for duplex (D1) were -13.56, -13.76, -12.46, and -12.36 kcal/mol, for duplex (D2) were -13.64, -12.93, -12.86, and -12.30 kcal/mol, for duplex (D3) were -10.05, -11.76, -9.91, -9.70 kcal/mol in the presence of Na+, K+, Na+ + Mg++ and K+ + Mg++ respectively. At high concentration of glucose (1:10000), there was increase in ΔG°25 for duplex (D1) -12.47, -12.37, -11.96, -11.55 kcal/mol, for duplex (D2) -12.37, -11.47, -11.98, -11.01 kcal/mol and for duplex (D3) -8.47, -9.17, -9.16, -8.66 kcal/mol. Our results provide the information that structure and stability of DNA duplex depends on the structure of molecular crowding agent present in its close vicinity. In this study, I have taken the hydration of simple sugar as an essential model for understanding interactions between hydrophilic groups and interfacial water molecules and its effect on hydrogen bonded DNA duplexes. On the basis of these relatively simple building blocks I hope to gain some insights for understanding more generally the properties of sugar–water–salt systems with DNA duplexes.

Keywords: natural molecular crowding, DNA Duplex, structure of DNA, bioengineering and life sciences

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Authors: Sultan Aldaihani, Eiman Al-Fadhli

Abstract:

Internet of Things (IoTs) expected to change the future of academic libraries operations. It enables academic libraries to be smart libraries through, for example, the connection of the physical objects with the Internet. The implementation of IoTs will improve library resources and services. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the applications of Internet of Things (IoTs) for information resources and services. Understanding perceptions of academic librarians toward IoTs before adopting of such applications will assist decision-makers in academic libraries in their strategic planning. An online questionnaire was administered to academic librarians at Kuwait University. The findings of this study showed that academic librarians have awareness for the IoTs. They have strongly believed that the IoTs contributes to the development of information resources, services, and understanding of the user's information behavior. Identifying new applications of the IoTs in libraries was the highest possible reason for future adoption. Academic librarians indicated that lack of privacy and data penetration were the greatest problem in their future adoption of IoTs. Academic libraries need to implement the IoTs for enhancing their information resources and services. One important step in the success of future adoption is to conduct awareness and training programs for academic librarians. They also need to maintain higher security and privacy measurements in their implementation for the IoTs. This study will assist academic libraries in accommodating this technology.

Keywords: academic libraries, internet of things, information resources, information services

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Lindsey Watson

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This research is aimed at facilitating and listening to the voices of younger children, recognising their contributions to research about the things that matter to them. Digital technology increasingly impacts on the lives of young children, therefore this study aimed at increasing children’s agency through recognising and involving their perspectives to help contribute to a wider understanding of younger children’s perceptions of online safety. Using a phenomenological approach, the paper discusses how storytelling as a creative methodological approach enabled an agentic space for children to express their views, knowledge, and perceptions of their engagement with the digital world. Setting and parental informed consent were gained in addition to an adapted approach to child assent through the use of child-friendly language and emoji stickers, which was also recorded verbally. Findings demonstrate that younger children are thinking about many aspects of digital technology and how this impacts on their lives and that storytelling as a research method is a useful tool to facilitate conversations with young children. The paper thus seeks to recognise and evaluate how creative methodologies can provide insights into children’s understanding of online safety and how this can influence practitioners and parents in supporting younger children in a digital world.

Keywords: early childhood, family, online safety, phenomenology, storytelling

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Sibonginkosi Mazibuko

Abstract:

The “adoption” of the Freedom Charter in 1955 at Kliptown south of Johannesburg, South Africa represented a desire to create a society that is based on common citizenship, and democracy. The architects of the Charter had a vision of a society that lived in peace with itself. Today, the Charter is still promoted as the best thing that ever happened to a society ravaged by racism, dispossession, oppression and exploitation – a society divided in all aspects of its life. This paper moves from the understanding that land is fundamental to all life. It interrogates the Charter’s claim on land. At a time when the colonised world sought to free themselves from the chains of colonialism and Africans throughout the continent demanded Africa for the Africans, the Freedom Charter claimed South Africa for all who lived in it. To the extent that this paper problematizes the philosophical underpinnings of the Charter, it uses the methodology of dialectic materialism to understand the theoretical basis of the Freedom Charter. The paper argues that the understanding, desire and the vision of the Freedom Charter were, as they are today, irreconcilable. To that effect and in pursuit of narrow class interests, the Charter justified land dispossession and unsustainable living conditions for the dispossessed majority. The paper then concludes that, by misrepresenting the critically fundamental land question, the Charter tried to reconcile the dispossessed with their dispossession and thus reflected coloniality and whiteness long before colonialism and settler-colonialism came to an end in South Africa.

Keywords: colonialism, contradictions, freedom charter, South Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Mohammed Aladalah

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The emergence of digital citizens is no longer mere speculation; therefore, governments’ use of Web 2.0 tools (hereafter Gov 2.0) should be a part of all current and future e-government plans. The potential of Gov 2.0 to facilitate greater communication, participation, and collaboration with citizens has been highlighted and discussed extensively in recent literature. However, the current levels of citizens’ participation in Gov 2.0 have not lived up to the hype. Therefore, governments need to rethink the way in which they implement Gov 2.0, and take advantage of the digitally-engaged population. We propose a two-dimensional framework to tackle this issue: first, on the supply side, governments tend to use Gov 2.0 mainly for the dissemination of information and for self-promotion without the desire to encourage any interaction with citizens; this is due to many reasons, including the lack of time and the possibility of loss of control. The second dimension of the framework is the demand side; citizens are unwilling to participate in Gov 2.0 activities because they do not perceive its value or trust the government. We attempt to consider the elements of both supply and demand in order to provide a comprehensive solution whereby the potential of Gov 2.0 can be fully utilized. Our framework is based on the theoretical foundation of service science and value co-creation theory. This paper makes two significant contributions: (a) it provides an initial framework intended to increase citizens’ participation in Gov 2.0; and (b) it enhances the understanding of the government’s Gov 2.0 applications, particularly in terms of factors that ensure their attractiveness for citizens. This work is the first step in a comprehensive research undertaking, the purpose of which is to study public’s engagement with the Gov 2.0 concept. It contributes to providing a better understanding of e-government and its future.

Keywords: e-government, Gov 2.0, citizens participation, digital citizen

Procedia PDF Downloads 329

Authors: R. M. Kashim

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The study investigates the conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational number in primary school teachers, specifically, the primary school teachers level of conceptual knowledge about rational number and the primary school teachers level of procedural knowledge about rational numbers. The study was carried out in Bauchi metropolis in Bauchi state of Nigeria. A Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge Test was used as the instrument for data collection, 54 mathematics teachers in Bauchi primary schools were involved in the study. The collections were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that the primary school mathematics teachers in Bauchi metropolis posses a low level of conceptual knowledge of rational number and also possess a high level of Procedural knowledge of rational number. It is therefore recommended that to be effective, teachers teaching mathematics most posses a deep understanding of both conceptual and procedural knowledge. That way the most knowledgeable teachers in mathematics deliver highly effective rational number instructions. Teachers should not ignore the mathematical concept aspect of rational number teaching. This is because only the procedural aspect of Rational number is highlighted during instructions; this often leads to rote - learning of procedures without understanding the meanings. It is necessary for teachers to learn rational numbers teaching method that focus on both conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge teaching.

Keywords: conceptual knowledge, primary school teachers, procedural knowledge, rational numbers

Procedia PDF Downloads 318