Search results for: young engineers education

Authors: Kwizera Mireille, Kharesh Ahmed Al-Khadher

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This paper explores the critical issue of girls' and women's right to education, exploring the challenges they face in accessing and benefiting from quality education. Gender disparities in education have persisted globally, hindering social progress and sustainable development. The fundamental importance of education in empowering individuals and promoting gender equality is acknowledged, making it imperative to address the disparities that hinder girls' and women's educational opportunities. The paper discusses various factors contributing to these disparities, including cultural norms(common in third-world countries), socio-economic constraints, and systemic biases. Drawing on a wide range of scholarly sources, empirical studies, and reports from international organizations, this paper highlights the broader societal benefits of educating girls and women, ranging from improved health outcomes to enhanced economic development and greater social and political participation. The paper further outlines strategies and initiatives aimed at overcoming these challenges. These include policy interventions, community-based programs, and international collaborations that work towards eliminating gender-based discrimination in educational settings. The paper emphasizes the significance of not only ensuring access but also fostering an inclusive and safe learning environment that encourages girls and women to thrive academically and personally. By analyzing successful case studies and best practices from around the world, the paper offers insights into effective approaches that can be adopted to enhance girls' and women's right to education globally. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of girl's and women's education. In conclusion, this paper underscores the urgency of prioritizing and protecting the educational rights of girls and women's right to education as a fundamental human right and catalyst for gender equality. It calls for a concerted effort from governments, NGOs, educational institutions, and society as a whole to create an equitable and empowering educational landscape that contributes to gender equality and sustainable development.

Keywords: empowerment, gender equality, inclusive education, right to education

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Authors: Tae-Hoon Kim, Kwon-Ha Yoon, Hong Young Jun, Ki-Jong Kim, Young Hwan Lee, Myeung Su Lee, Keum Ha Choi, Ki Jung Yun, Eun Young Cho, Yong-Yeon Jeong, Chung-Hwan Jun

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Purpose: To assess the changes of hepatic metabolite for differentiation between non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and simple steatosis on proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in both humans and animal model. Methods: The local institutional review board approved this study and subjects gave written informed consent. 1H-MRS measurements were performed on a localized voxel of the liver using a point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) sequence and hepatic metabolites of alanine (Ala), lactate/triglyceride (Lac/TG), and TG were analyzed in NASH, simple steatosis and control groups. The group difference was tested with the ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc tests, and diagnostic accuracy was tested by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. The associations between metabolic concentration and pathologic grades or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) activity scores were assessed by the Pearson’s correlation. Results: Patient with NASH showed the elevated Ala(p<0.001), Lac/TG(p < 0.001), TG(p < 0.05) concentration when compared with patients who had simple steatosis and healthy controls. The NASH patients were higher levels in Ala(mean±SEM, 52.5±8.3 vs 2.0±0.9; p < 0.001), Lac/TG(824.0±168.2 vs 394.1±89.8; p < 0.05) than simple steatosis. The area under the ROC curve to distinguish NASH from simple steatosis was 1.00 (95% confidence interval; 1.00, 1.00) with Ala and 0.782 (95% confidence interval; 0.61, 0.96) with Lac/TG. The Ala and Lac/TG levels were well correlated with steatosis grade, lobular inflammation, and NAFLD activity scores. The metabolic changes in human were reproducible to a mice model induced by streptozotocin injection and a high-fat diet. Conclusion: 1H-MRS would be useful for differentiation of patients with NASH and simple hepatic steatosis.

Keywords: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, 1H MR spectroscopy, hepatic metabolites

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Authors: Rachel Gugu Mkhasibe

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Incorporation of technology as a pedagogy has many benefits. For instance, improvement of pedagogy, increased information access, increased cooperation, and collaboration. However, as good as it may be, this integration of technology as a pedagogy has not been widely adopted in most historically Black higher education institutions especially those in developing countries. For example, the socioeconomic background of students in historically black universities, the weak financial support available from these universities, as well as a large population of students struggle to access the recommended modern physical resources such as iPads, laptops, mobile phones, to name a few. This contributes to an increase in the increase of educational inequalities. The qualitative research approach was utilized in this work to gather detailed data about the obstacles created by the integration of technology as a pedagogy. Interviews were conducted to generate data from 20 academics from 10 Leve two students from one of the historically disadvantaged higher education Institutions in South Africa. The findings revealed that although both students and academics had overwhelming support of the integration of technology as a pedagogy in their institution, the environment which they found themselves in compromise the incorporation of technology as a pedagogy. Therefore, this paper recommends that Department of Higher Education and University Management should intervene and budget for technology to be provided in all the institutions of higher education regardless of where the institutions are situated.

Keywords: collaboration, integration, pedagogy, technology

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Authors: Lauren Kathryn Stretch

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A study was conducted in the underprivileged setting of Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa in order to monitor the progress of learners whose teachers receive training through the Early Inspiration Training Programme. Through tracking children’s growth & development, the effectiveness of the practitioner-training programme, which focuses on empowering women from underprivileged communities in South Africa, was analyzed. The aim was to identify impact & reach and to assess the effectiveness of this intervention programme through identifying impact on children’s growth and development. A Pre- and Post-Test was administered on about 850 young children in Pre-Grade R and Grade R classes in order to understand children’s ability level & the growth that would be evident as a result of effective teacher training. A pre-test evaluated the level of each child’s abilities, including physical-motor development, language, and speech development, cognitive development including visual perceptual skills, social-emotional development & play development. This was followed by a random selection of the classes of children into experimental and control groups. The experimental group’s teachers (practitioners) received 8-months of training & intervention, as well as mentorship & support. After the 8-month training programme, children from the experimental & control groups underwent post-assessment. The results indicate that the impact of effective practitioner training and enhancing a deep understanding of stimulation on young children, that this understanding is implemented in the classroom, highlighting the areas of growth & development in the children whose teachers received additional training & support, as compared to those who did not receive additional training. Monitoring & Evaluation systems not only track children’s ability levels, but also have a core focus on reporting systems, mentorship and providing ongoing support. As a result of the study, an Online Application (for Apple or Android Devices) was developed which is used to track children’s growth via age-appropriate assessments. The data is then statistically analysed to provide direction for relevant & impactful intervention. The App also focuses on effective reporting strategies, structures, and implementation to support organizations working with young children & maximize on outcomes.

Keywords: early childhood development, developmental child assessments, online application, monitoring and evaluating online

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Authors: Prakash Singh

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Schools throughout the world are facing increasing challenges in dealing with school violence and drug abuse by pupils. Therefore, the question of the fear of failure to meet the aims and objectives of education inevitably surfaces as it places increasing and challenging demands on educators and all other stakeholders to address this malaise. Multiple studies on the construct tobephobia (TBP) simply define TBP as the fear of failure in education. This study is a continuation of the exploratory studies on the manifestation of fear in education. The primary purpose of this study was to establish how TBP, caused by school violence and drug abuse affects teaching and learning in our schools. The qualitative research method was used for this study. Teachers admitted that they fear for their safety at school. Working in a fearful situation places a high rate of stress and anxiety on them. Tobephobic educators spend most of their time worrying about their fear of violence and drug abuse by pupils and are too frightened to carry out their normal duties. They prefer to stay in familiar surroundings for fear of being attacked by inebriated learners. This study, therefore, contributes to our understanding of the effects of TBP in our schools caused by school violence and drug abuse. Also, this study supplements the evidence accumulated over the past fifteen years that TBP is not a figment of someone’s imagination; it is a gruesome reality affecting the very foundation of our educational system globally to provide quality and equal education to all our learners in a harmonious, collegial school environment.

Keywords: tobephobia, tobephobic educators, fear of failure in education, school violence, drug abuse

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Authors: Ali Dehghan Manshadi, David H. StJohn, Matthew S. Dargusch, M. Qian

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Biocompatible, highly porous titanium scaffolds were manufactured by metal injection moulding of spherical titanium powder (powder size: -45 µm) with potassium chloride (powder size: -250 µm) as a space holder. Property evaluation of scaffolds confirmed a high level of compatibility between their mechanical properties and those of human cortical bone. The optimum sintering temperature was found to be 1250°C producing scaffolds with more than 90% interconnected pores in the size range of 200-250 µm, yield stress of 220 MPa and Young’s modulus of 7.80 GPa, all of which are suitable for bone tissue engineering. Increasing the sintering temperature to 1300°C increased the Young’s modulus to 22.0 GPa while reducing the temperature to 1150°C reduced the yield stress to 120 MPa due to incomplete sintering. The residual potassium chloride was determined vs. sintering temperature. A comparison was also made between the porous titanium scaffolds fabricated in this study and the additively manufactured titanium lattices of similar porosity reported in the literature.

Keywords: titanium, metal injection moulding, mechanical properties, scaffolds

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Authors: Chako G. Chako

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This study reports on an ongoing research that explores pre-school mathematics. Participants in the study includes three pre-school teachers and their pre-school learners from one school in Gaborone. The school was purposefully selected based on its performance in Botswana’s 2019 national examinations. Specifically, the study is interested on teachers’ explanations of mathematics concepts embedded in pre-school mathematics tasks. The interest on explanations was informed by the view that suggests that, the mathematics learners get to learn, resides in teachers’ explanations. Recently, Botswana’s basic education has integrated pre-school education into the mainstream public primary school education. This move is part of the government’s drive to elevate Botswana to a knowledge-based-economy. It is believed that provision of pre-school education to all Batswana children will contribute immensely towards a knowledge-based-economy. Since pre-school is now a new phenomenon in our education, there is limited research at this level of education in Botswana. In particular, there is limited knowledge about what and how the teaching is conducted in Pre-Schools in Botswana. Hence, the study seeks to gain insight into what constitutes mathematics in tasks that learners are given, and how concepts are made accessible to Pre-school learners. The research question of interest for this study is stated as: What is the nature Pre-school teachers’ explanations of mathematics concepts embedded in tasks given to learners. Casting some light into what and how pre-school mathematics tasks are enacted is critical for policy and Pre-school teacher professional development. The sociocultural perspective framed the research. Adler and Rhonda’s (2014) notion of exemplification and explanatory communication are used to analyze tasks given to learners and teachers’ explanations respectively.

Keywords: classroom, explanation, mathematics, pre-school, tasks

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Authors: Fu-Chi Chuang, Yu-Liang, Chang, Wen-Der Wang

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Our environment has been contaminated by many artificial chemicals, such as plastics, pesticides. Many of them have hormone-like activity and are classified as 'environmental hormone (also named endocrine disruptors)'. These chemicals interfere with or mimic hormones have adverse effects that persist into adulthood. Environmental education is an important way to teach students to become engaged in real-world issues that transcend classroom walls. Elementary education is the first stage to perform environmental education and it is an important component to help students develop adequate environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. However, elementary teachers' knowledge plays a critical role in this mission. Therefore, we use a questionnaire to survey the knowledge of environmental hormone of elementary school teachers and their learning motivation of the environmental hormone-regarding knowledge. We collected 218 questionnaires from Taiwanese elementary teachers and the results indicate around 73% of elementary teachers do not have enough knowledge about environmental hormones. Our results also reveal the in-service elementary teachers’ learning motivation of environmental hormones knowledge is positively enhanced once they realized their insufficient cognitive ability of environmental hormones. We believe our study will provide the powerful reference for Ministry of Education to set up the policy of environmental education to enrich all citizens sufficient knowledge of the effects of the environmental hormone on organisms, and further to enhance our correct environmental behaviors.

Keywords: elementary teacher, environmental hormones, learning motivation, questionnaire

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Authors: Ifeanyi Adigwe, Thomas Van der Walt

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Digital media has been integrated into the social and entertainment life of young children, and as such, the impact of digital media appears to affect young people of all ages and it is believed that this will continue to shape the world of young children. Since, technological advancement of digital media presents adolescents with diverse contexts, platforms and avenues to engage with digital media outside the home environment and from parents' supervision, a wide range of new challenges has further complicated the already difficult tasks for parents and altered the landscape of parenting. Despite the fact that adolescents now have access to a wide range of digital media technologies both at home and in the learning environment, parenting practices such as active, restrictive, co-use, participatory and technical mediations are important in mitigating of online risks adolescents may encounter as a result of digital media use. However, these mediation practices only focus on the home environment including digital media present in the home and may not necessarily transcend outside the home and other learning environments where adolescents use digital media for school work and other activities. This poses the question of who mediates adolescent's digital media use outside the home environment. The learning environment could be a ''loose platform'' where an adolescent can maximise digital media use considering the fact that there is no restriction in terms of content and time allotted to using digital media during school hours. That is to say that an adolescent can play the ''bad boy'' online in school because there is little or no restriction of digital media use and be exposed to online risks and play the ''good boy'' at home because of ''heavy'' parental mediation. This is the reason why parent mediation practices have been ineffective because a parent may not be able to track adolescents digital media use considering the diversity of contexts, platforms and avenues adolescents use digital media. This study argues that due to the diverse nature of digital media technology, parents may not be able to monitor the 'whereabouts' of their children in the digital space. This is because adolescent digital media usage may not only be confined to the home environment but other learning environments like schools. This calls for urgent attention on the part of teachers to understand the intricacies of how digital media continue to shape the world in which young children are developing and learning. It is, therefore, imperative for parents to liaise with the schools of their children to mediate digital media use during school hours. The implication of parents- teachers mediation practices are discussed. The article concludes by suggesting that third party mediation by teachers in schools and other learning environments should be encouraged and future research needs to consider the emergent strategy of teacher-children mediation approach and the implication for policy for both the home and learning environments.

Keywords: digital media, digital age, parent mediation, third party mediation

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Authors: Tuba Bagatarhan, Digdem Muge Siyez

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The aim of this research is to examine the effects of the psycho-education program on problem-solving skills of parents of high school students in the risk group for Internet addiction. A quasi-experimental design based on the pre-test, post-test and follow up test including experimental and control groups was used in the research. The independent variable of the study was the parent psycho-education program on problem-solving skills; the dependent variable was the problem-solving skills of parents. The research was conducted with the parents of 52 tenth-grade students in the risk group for Internet addiction from two high schools and volunteer to participate research on evaluation of the effectiveness of internet addiction prevention psycho-education program within the scope of another study. In this study, as 26 students were in the experimental groups in the first-high school, the parents of these 26 students were asked if they would like to participate in the parent psycho-education program on parental problem-solving skills. The parents were volunteer to participate in parent psycho-education program assigned experimental group (n=13), the other parents assigned control group 1 (n=13) in the first high school. The parents of the 26 students were randomly assigned to the control group 2 (n=13) and control group 3 (n=13) in the second high school. The data of the research was obtained via the problem behavior scale - coping - parents form and demographic questionnaire. Four-session parent psycho-education program to cope with Internet addiction and other problem behaviors in their children was applied to the experimental group. No program was applied to the control group 1, control group 2 and control group 3. In addition, an internet addiction prevention psycho-education program was applied to the children of the parents in experimental group and control group 1 within the scope of another study. In the analysis of the obtained data, two-factor variance analysis for repeated measures on one factor was used. Bonferroni post-hoc test was used to find the source of intergroup difference. According to the findings, the psycho-education program significantly increases parents’ problem-solving abilities, and the increase has continued throughout the follow-up test.

Keywords: internet addiction, parents, prevention, psyho-education

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Authors: Nitzan Winograd, Nada Kakabadse

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This study examines whether the hospitality-based social enterprise Ringelblum Café is achieving its stated social goals of developing a sense of self-efficacy among at-risk youth who work in this enterprise and raising levels of recruitment to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and National Service (NS) among these young adults. Ringelblum Café was founded in 2009 in Be'er-Sheva in order to provide employment solutions for at-risk youth in the southern district of Israel. Each year, 10 at-risk young adults aged 16–18 are referred to the programme by various welfare agencies. The training programme is approximately a year in duration and includes professional training in the art of cooking. Each young adult is also supported by a social worker. This study is based on the participation of 31 youths who graduated from the Ringelblum Café’s training programme. A convenience sampling model was used with the assistance of the programme's social worker. This study is quantitative in its approach. Data was collected by means of three separate self-reported questionnaires: a personal information questionnaire collected general demographics data; a self-efficacy questionnaire consisted of two parts: general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy; and an IDS/NS recruitment questionnaire. The study uses the theory of change in order to find out whether at-risk youth in the Ringelblum Café programme are taught a profession with future prospects, as well as whether they develop a sense of self-efficacy and raise their chances of recruitment into the IDF/NS. The study found that the sense of self-efficacy of the graduates is relatively high. In addition, there was a significant difference between the importance of recruitment to the IDF/NS among these youth prior to the beginning of the programme and after its completion, indicating that the training programme had a positive effect on motivation for recruitment to the IDF/NS. The study also found that the percentage of recruits to the IDF/NS among youth who graduated from the training programme were not significantly higher than the general recruitment figures in Israel. In conclusion, Ringelblum Café is making sound progress towards achieving its social goals regarding recruitment to the IDF/NS. Moreover, the sense of self-efficacy among the graduates is relatively high, and it can be assumed that the training programme has a positive effect on these young adults, although there is no clear connection between the two. This study is among a few that have been conducted in the field of hospitality-based social enterprises in Israel and can serve as a basis for further research. Moreover, the study results may help improve the perception of at-risk youth and their contribution to society and could increase awareness of the growing trend of social enterprises promoting social goals.

Keywords: at-risk youth, Israel Defence Forces (IDF), national service, recruitment, self-efficacy, social enterprise

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Authors: Mari A. Virtanen, Elina Haavisto, Eeva Liikanen, Maria Kääriäinen

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Ubiquitous learning and the use of ubiquitous learning environments herald a new era in higher education. Ubiquitous environments fuse together authentic learning situations and digital learning spaces where students can seamlessly immerse themselves into the learning process. Definitions of ubiquitous learning are wide and vary in the previous literature and learning environments are not systemically described. The aim of this scoping review was to identify the criteria and the use of ubiquitous learning environments in higher education contexts. The objective was to provide a clear scope and a wide view for this research area. The original studies were collected from nine electronic databases. Seven publications in total were defined as eligible and included in the final review. An inductive content analysis was used for the data analysis. The reviewed publications described the use of ubiquitous learning environments (ULE) in higher education. Components, contents and outcomes varied between studies, but there were also many similarities. In these studies, the concept of ubiquitousness was defined as context-awareness, embeddedness, content-personalization, location-based, interactivity and flexibility and these were supported by using smart devices, wireless networks and sensing technologies. Contents varied between studies and were customized to specific uses. Measured outcomes in these studies were focused on multiple aspects as learning effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, satisfaction, and usefulness. This study provides a clear scope for ULE used in higher education. It also raises the need for transparent development and publication processes, and for practical implications of ubiquitous learning environments.

Keywords: higher education, learning environment, scoping review, ubiquitous learning, u-learning

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Authors: Sania K. Rao, Feza T. Azmi

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The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between time management behaviour and job satisfaction of academicians of higher education institutes in India. The analyses of this study were carried out with AMOS (version 20.0); and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were conducted. The factor analysis and findings show that perceived control of time serves as the partial mediating factor to have a significant and positive influence on job satisfaction. Further, at the end, a number of suggestions to improve one’s time management behaviour were provided.

Keywords: time management behaviour, job satisfaction, higher education, India, mediation analysis

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Authors: Krystyna Golkowska

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Recent years have witnessed rapid growth of Transnational Education (TNE), especially in Asia and the Middle East. Exporting North American curricula into different socio-cultural contexts brings with it numerous advantages as well as challenges that have yet to be fully explored. This article focuses on Foundation programs, bridge programs between local high schools and tertiary level education on North-American branch campuses in the Persian Gulf. Based on a case study of Foundation students in Qatar, it explores ways of preparing TNE students for academic success by helping them to develop not only their skills and subject knowledge but also their academic identity.

Keywords: academic identity, foundation program, gulf, transnational education

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Authors: Balamuralithara Balakrishnan

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This paper reports the findings of the perception and attitude towards Sustainable Development among Malaysian undergraduates. The study was carried out involving 86 engineering undergraduates from three universities in Malaysia. This research was conducted based on a survey whereby the respondents were given a questionnaire to gauge their attitude towards sustainable development. The output of the analyses showed that the respondents have an appropriate attitude towards the sustainability issues expect for economic and social equality aspects. These findings suggest that the engineering educators involved in sustainable development education need to educate undergraduate students on this important issue. This investigation serves as a cornerstone to which the current paradigm of sustainable development education can be examined for further improvement by related stakeholders.

Keywords: sustainable development, engineering education, Malaysia, attitude

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Authors: Adisorn Bansong, Walai Isarankura Na Ayudhaya, Aumporn Makanong

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A Development of an Instructional Model for Health Education was the aim to develop and study the effectiveness of an instructional model for health education to enhance self-regulation and learning achievement of lower secondary school students. It was the Quasi-Experimental Designs, used a Single-group Interrupted Time-series Designs, conducted by 2 phases: 1. To develop an instructional model based on Social Cognitive Theory and Strategic Life Planning. 2. To trial and evaluate effectiveness of an instructional model. The results as the following: i. An Instructional Model for Health Education consists of five main components: a) Attention b) Forethought c) Tactic Planning d) Execution and e) Reflection. ii. After an Instructional Model for Health Education has used for a semester trial, found the 4.07 percent of sample’s Self-Regulation higher and learning achievement on post-test were significantly higher than pre-test at .05 levels (p = .033, .000).

Keywords: social cognitive theory, strategic life planning, self-regulation, learning achievement

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Authors: Farzad Jalilian, Mehdi Mirzaei Alavijeh, Fazel Zinat Motlagh

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Social support is an important benchmark of health for people in avoidance conditions. The main goal of this study was to determine the three kinds of social support (family, friend and other significant) to drug cessation among male addicts, in Kermanshah, the west of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 132 addicts, randomly selected to participate voluntarily in the study. Data were collected from conduct interviews based on standard questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS-18 at 95% significance level. The majority of addicts were young (Mean: 30.4 years), and with little education. Opium (36.4%), Crack (21.2%), and Methamphetamine (12.9%) were the predominant drugs. Inabilities to reject the offer and having addict friends are the most often reasons for drug usage. Almost, 18.9% reported history of drug injection. 43.2% of the participants already did drug cessation at least once. Logistic regression showed the family support (OR = 1.110), age (OR = 1.106) and drug use initiation age (OR = 0.918) was predicting drug cessation. Our result showed; family support is a more important effect among types of social support in drug cessation. It seems that providing educational program to addict’s families for more support of patients at drug cessation can be beneficial.

Keywords: drug cessation, family support, drug use, initiation age

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Authors: Helga Mayr

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In our ongoing effort to address urgent global challenges related to sustainability, higher education institutions play a central role in raising a generation of informed and empowered citizens committed to sustainable development. This paper presents the preliminary results of the so far realized evaluation of a compulsory module on education for sustainable development (ESD) offered to students in the bachelor's program in elementary education at the University College of Teacher Education Tyrol (PH Tirol), Austria. The module includes a lecture on sustainability and education as well as a project-based seminar that aims to foster a deep understanding of ESD and its application in pedagogical practice. The study examines various dimensions related to the module's impact on participating students, focusing on prevalent sustainability concepts, intentions, actions, general and sustainability-related self-efficacy, perceived competence related to ESD, and ESD-related self-efficacy. In addition, the research addresses assessment of the learning process. To obtain a comprehensive overview of the effectiveness of the module, a mixed methods approach was/is used in the evaluation. Quantitative data was/is collected through surveys and self-assessment instruments, while qualitative findings were/will be obtained through focus group interviews and reflective analysis. The PH Tirol is collaborating with another University College of Teacher Education (Styria) and a university of applied sciences in Switzerland (UAS of the Grisons) to broaden the scope of the analysis and allow for comparative findings. Preliminary results indicate that students have a relatively rudimentary understanding of sustainability. The extent to which completion of the module influences understanding of sustainability, awareness, intentions, and actions, as well as self-efficacy, is currently under investigation. The results will be available at the time of the conference and will be presented there. In terms of learning, the project-based seminar, which promotes hands-on engagement with ESD, was evaluated for its effectiveness in fostering key sustainability competencies as well as sustainability-related and ESD-related self-efficacy. The research not only provides insights into the effectiveness of the compulsory module ESD at the PH Tirol but also contributes to the broader discourse on integrating ESD into teacher education.

Keywords: education for sustainable development, teacher education, project-based learning, effectiveness measurements

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Authors: Young-Hyun Seo, Hyunwoo Park, Dong-Kyu Kim, Seung-Young Kho

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The purpose of this study is providing an improved mode choice model considering parameters including age grouping of prime-aged and old age. In this study, 2010 Household Travel Survey data were used and improper samples were removed through the analysis. Chosen alternative, date of birth, mode, origin code, destination code, departure time, and arrival time are considered from Household Travel Survey. By preprocessing data, travel time, travel cost, mode, and ratio of people aged 45 to 55 years, 55 to 65 years and over 65 years were calculated. After the manipulation, the mode choice model was constructed using LIMDEP by maximum likelihood estimation. A significance test was conducted for nine parameters, three age groups for three modes. Then the test was conducted again for the mode choice model with significant parameters, travel cost variable and travel time variable. As a result of the model estimation, as the age increases, the preference for the car decreases and the preference for the bus increases. This study is meaningful in that the individual and households characteristics are applied to the aggregate model.

Keywords: age grouping, aging, mode choice model, multinomial logit model

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Authors: Vassilis Argyropoulos, Magda Nikolaraizi, Maria Papazafiri

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A growing number of students with disabilities attend institutions of higher education, and according to evidenced-based data, it seems that they face many obstacles regarding their academic access and inclusion. The fact that more and more students decide to actively participate in higher education, on the one hand, empowers and strengthens inclusiveness in tertiary education, but on the other hand, it brings new challenges to their access to scientific content as well as to their interactions with other students and faculty members. For this, accessibility centres have come to the fore in many higher education institutions, in order to respond to the needs of students with disabilities. In this paper, we present a study regarding the peer tutoring program, which is a service delivered by the Accessibility Centre at the University of Thessaly in Greece. Specifically, the current paper aims to describe the experiences of tutees and tutors regarding their relationships developed throughout the peer tutoring program. Twelve tutors and eight tutees with disabilities participated in the study, whose experiences were explored through interviews and were analyzed in a qualitative way. In our study, all tutees and most of the tutors described their relationship as friendly, while a few tutors preferred a more formal relationship. Also, both tutors and tutees described some of the challenges, such as setting limits or arranging an appointment. Finally, peer tutoring programs seem very promising, but in order to be effective, there is a need for training and supporting students regarding their role as well as monitoring the progress of the peer tutoring program, ensuring its smooth operation and success for both tutors and tutees.

Keywords: disability, higher education institutions, interviews, peer tutoring, inclusiveness

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Authors: Tomasz Zarebski

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A very important element of the education system is its evaluation procedure. Each education system should be systematically evaluated and improved. Among the criteria subject to evaluation, attention should be paid to the following: structure of the study programme, implementation of the study programme, admission to studies, verification of learning outcomes achievement by students, giving credit for individual semesters and years, and awarding diplomas, competence, experience, qualifications and the number of staff providing education, staff development, and in-service training, education infrastructure, cooperation with social and economic stakeholders on the development, conditions for and methods of improving the internationalisation of education provided as part of the degree programme, supporting learning, social, academic or professional development of students and their entry on the labour market, public access to information about the study programme and quality assurance policy. Concerning the assessment process and the individual assessment indicators, the participation of students in these processes is essential. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the rules of student participation in accreditation processes on the example of individual countries in Europe. The rules of students' participation in the work of accreditation committees and their influence on the final grade of the committee were analysed. Most of the higher education institutions follow similar rules for accreditation. The general model gives the individual institution freedom to organize its own quality assurance, as long as the system lives up to the criteria for quality and relevance laid down in the particular provisions. This point also applies to students. The regulations of the following countries were examined in the legal-comparative aspect: Poland (Polish Accreditation Committee), Denmark (The Danish Accreditation Institution), France (High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education), Germany (Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programmes) and Italy (National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes).

Keywords: accreditation, student, study programme, quality assurance in higher education

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Authors: Estevan B. Costa, Armando M. Toda, Marcell A. A. Mesquita, Jacques D. Brancher

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The advances in technology in the last five years allowed an improvement in the educational area, as the increasing in the development of educational software. One of the techniques that emerged in this lapse is called Gamification, which is the utilization of video game mechanics outside its bounds. Recent studies involving this technique provided positive results in the application of these concepts in many areas as marketing, health and education. In the last area there are studies that cover from elementary to higher education, with many variations to adequate to the educators methodologies. Among higher education, focusing on IT courses, data structures are an important subject taught in many of these courses, as they are base for many systems. Based on the exposed this paper exposes the development of an interactive web learning environment, called DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform), to aid students in higher education IT courses. The system includes basic concepts seen on this subject such as stacks, queues, lists, arrays, trees and was implemented to ease the insertion of new structures. It was also implemented with gamification concepts, such as points, levels, and leader boards, to engage students in the search for knowledge and stimulate self-learning.

Keywords: gamification, Interactive learning environment, data structures, e-learning

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Authors: Victorine Mbong Shu

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Very little research exists on family sex and sexuality communication and identity formation and how communication is helping adolescents in forming their sexual identities in South Africa. This study is designed to explore the impact of sexual communication in African families and the dynamics that influence the openness or closedness of adolescent sexual identities. The primary objectives of this study are threefold; to understand how sexuality communication in African families impacts the closedness and/or openness of adolescent African identities; to explore the nature of African children's sexuality given the status of their families’ communications on sex; to describe how parental or adult sexual knowledge, attitudes, values of sex, etc. are translated to children in African families, if at all. This study seeks answers to challenges faced by African parents and caregivers of adolescent children in South Africa regarding sex-sexuality communication and their shifting identities in different spaces. Its outcome seeks to empower these families on how to continue to effectively communicate sex and sexuality at different stages and circumstances. Two sets of people are interviewed separately in order to explore issues of familial communication and how to understand how together with religion and culture, adolescents are socialised to form the social and gender identities that they take to adulthood. They were parents of adolescents and young adult children who spoke in retrospect on when they were adolescents. The results of this study will fill knowledge gaps considering the chosen theory of communication that gives clarity to the topic of sex and sexuality communication in African families in South Africa and the dynamics of privacy that influence identity formation. A subset of the 40 conversations, 5 female parents, 5 male parents, 5 young female adults, and 5 male young adults, was used for this analysis. The preliminary results revealed five emergent themes informed by research questions and the theoretical framework of this study: Open communication, Discomfort discussing sex and sexuality, The importance of sex communication to African parents, Factors influencing African families’ communication about sex and sexuality and Privacy and boundaries.

Keywords: sex, sexuality, communication, African families, adolescents

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Authors: Heikki Ruohomaa, Vesa Salminen

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Regions are facing huge competition to attract companies, businesses, inhabitants, students, etc. This way to improve living and business environment, which is rapidly changing due to digitalization. On the other hand, from the industry's point of view, the availability of a skilled labor force and an innovative environment are crucial factors. In this context, qualified staff has been seen to utilize the opportunities of digitalization and respond to the needs of future skills. World Manufacturing Forum has stated in the year 2019- report that in next five years, 40% of workers have to change their core competencies. Through digital transformation, new technologies like cloud, mobile, big data, 5G- infrastructure, platform- technology, data- analysis, and social networks with increasing intelligence and automation, enterprises can capitalize on new opportunities and optimize existing operations to achieve significant business improvement. Digitalization will be an important part of the everyday life of citizens and present in the working day of the average citizen and employee in the future. For that reason, the education system and education programs on all levels of education from diaper age to doctorate have been directed to fulfill this ecosystem strategy. Goal: The Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring unprecedented change to societies, education organizations and business environments. This article aims to identify how education, education content, the way education has proceeded, and overall whole the education business is changing. Most important is how we should respond to this inevitable co- evolution. Methodology: The study aims to verify how the learning process is boosted by new digital content, new learning software and tools, and customer-oriented learning environments. The change of education programs and individual education modules can be supported by applied research projects. You can use them in making proof- of- the concept of new technology, new ways to teach and train, and through the experiences gathered change education content, way to educate and finally education business as a whole. Major findings: Applied research projects can prove the concept- phases on real environment field labs to test technology opportunities and new tools for training purposes. Customer-oriented applied research projects are also excellent for students to make assignments and use new knowledge and content and teachers to test new tools and create new ways to educate. New content and problem-based learning are used in future education modules. This article introduces some case study experiences on customer-oriented digital transformation projects and how gathered knowledge on new digital content and a new way to educate has influenced education. The case study is related to experiences of research projects, customer-oriented field labs/learning environments and education programs of Häme University of Applied Sciences.

Keywords: education process, digitalization content, digital tools for education, learning environments, transdisciplinary co-operation

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Authors: Aya M. Aboudesouky

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Covid-19 has changed and affected the whole world dramatically in a new way that the entire world, even scientists, have not imagined before. The educational institutions around the world have been fighting since Covid-19 hit the world last December to keep the educational process unchanged for all students. E-learning was a must for almost all US universities during the pandemic. It was specifically more challenging to use online case-based learning instead of regular classes among nursing students who take practical education. This study aims to examine the difference in performance and satisfaction between nursing students taking traditional education and those who take virtual case-based education during their practical study. This study enrolls 40 last-year nursing undergraduates from a mid-sized university in Western Pennsylvania. The study uses a convenient sample. Students will be divided into two groups; a control group that is exposed to traditional teaching strategy and a treatment group that is exposed to a case-based teaching strategy. The module designed for this study is a total parenteral nutrition (TPN) module that will be taught for one month. The treatment group (n=20) utilizes the virtual simulation of the CBL method, while the control group (n=20) uses the traditional lecture-based teaching method. Student evaluations are collected after a month by using the survey to attain the students’ learning satisfaction and self-evaluation of the course. The post-test is used to assess the end of the course performance.

Keywords: virtual case-based learning, traditional education, nursing education, Covid-19 crisis, online practical education

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Authors: Ada Adoga James

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This paper discussed the concept of community participation and identified tertiary education problems; strategies and methods communities could be involved to reduce conflict witnessed in our tertiary institutions of learning due to government inability to fund education. The paper pointed out that community participation through the use of Parent Teachers Association (PTA), age grade, traditional leaders, village based associations, religious and political organs could be sensitized to raise financial resources. The paper identified different sources of conflicts, the outcome of which causes prolonged academic activities, destruction of lives and properties and in some cased render school environment completely insecure for serious academic activities. It recommends involvement of community participation in assisting government, proper handling of tertiary institutions in management, and more democratic procedure in conflict resolution like cordial relationship between staff, students and trade unions in decision making process.

Keywords: community, conflict resolution, tertiary education, psychology, psychiatry

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Authors: Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad

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Back in history, muscular and strong male body has always been used to promulgate masculinity; for physically representing supreme manliness there were not many other options. This idealized male figure was proliferated mainly for spreading the notion of male superiority in relation to power and to give a strong base to the social construction of masculinity. This study targets to disclose the perception about the attributes masculinities among the male students of Dhaka city regarding male beautification. It is an attempt to unveil young men’s perspectives regarding their masculinities and beauty. Till the very recent past, beauty was always seen as sole feminine trait in Bangladeshi society. From history we can see men have always been assumed as the ambassador of roughness but in recent time the emergence of fashion-conscious men can be seen, who are slowly occupying a handsome position in the society. Concerning study attempts to bring out the way in which such changing trend of male beauty is perceived among the male students of Dhaka city. What could be the ideologies of these young men who are being involved with it? What is influencing them to be part of such arena which, to a great extent, is still considered as female domain? Is their perception about construction of masculinity is shifting from the so called idealized masculinity? The study tries to find out the answers.

Keywords: masculinity, male beauty, Bangladesh, identity, body

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Authors: Evelyn Kropfreiter, Roland Bernhard

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There has been an increased interest in school-based whole-child development in the Austrian education system in the last few years. Although there is a consensus among academics that teachers' beliefs are an essential component of their professional competence, there are hardly any studies in the German-speaking world examining teachers' beliefs about school-based character education. To close this gap, we are conducting a mixed methods study combining qualitative interviews and a questionnaire in Austria (doctoral thesis at the University of Salzburg). In this paper, we present preliminary insights into the quantitative strand of the project. In contrast to German-speaking countries, the Anglo-Saxon world has a long tradition of explicit character education in schools. There has been a rising interest in approaches focusing on a neo-Aristotelian form of character education in England. The Jubilee Centre strongly influences the "renaissance" of papers on neo-Aristotelian character education for Character and Virtues, founded in 2012. The quantitative questionnaire study (n = 264) is an online survey of teachers and school principals conducted in four different federal states in spring 2023. Most respondents (n = 264) from lower secondary schools (AHS-Unterstufe and Mittelschule) believe that character education in schools for 10-14-year-olds is more important for society than good exam results. Many teachers state that they consider themselves prepared to promote their students' personal development and life skills through their education and to attend further training courses. However, there are many obstacles in the education system to ensure that a comprehensive education reaches the students. Many teachers state that they consider themselves prepared to promote their students' character strengths and life skills through their education and to attend further training courses. However, there are many obstacles in the education system to ensure that a comprehensive education reaches the students. Among the most cited difficulties, teachers mention the time factor associated with an overcrowded curriculum and a strong focus on performance, which often leaves them needing more time to keep an eye on nurturing the whole person. The fact that character education is not a separate subject, and its implementation needs to be monitored also makes it challenging to implement it in everyday school life. Austrian teachers prioritize moral virtues such as compassion and honesty as character strengths in everyday school life and resilience and commitment in the next place. Our results are like those reported in other studies on teacher's beliefs about character education. They indicate that Austrian teachers want to teach character in their schools but see systemic constraints such as the curriculum, in which personality roles play a subordinate role, and the focus on performance testing in the school system and the associated lack of time as obstacles to fostering more character development in students.

Keywords: character education, life skills, teachers' beliefs, virtues

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Authors: F. Özlem Saka

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There should be connections between universities and state schools in order to improve the quality of instruction. ELT department of Akdeniz University carries out a project named ‘Easy English’ with a state primary school in Antalya for 2 years. According to the Project requirements, junior students at university teach English to 3rd grade primary school students during the term. They are supposed to teach the topics planned before, preparing different activities for the students. This study reflects the ideas of both students at university and at state school related to the language programme carried out. Their ideas have been collected with a questionnaire consisting of similar structured questions. The result shows that both groups like the programme and evaluate it from their own perspectives. It is believed the efficient results of this project will lead to planning similar programmes for different levels. From this study, curriculum planners and teachers can get ideas to improve language teaching at primary level as both university students, being the teachers in the project and students at state primary school have positive feelings and thoughts about it.

Keywords: foreign language teacher training, games in English teaching, songs in English teaching, teaching English to young learners

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Authors: Chelali Mohammed

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In the context of the application of the competency-based approach in the system educational Algeria, the price of physical education and sport must privilege the acquisition of learning approaches and especially the approach science, which from problem situations, research and develops him information processing and application of knowledge and know-how in new situations in the words of ‘JOHN DEWEY’ ‘learning by practice’. And to achieve these goals and make teaching more EPS motivating, consistent and concrete, it is appropriate to perform a pedagogical approach freed from the constraints and open to creativity and student-centered in the light of the competency approach adopted in the formal curriculum. This approach is not unusual, but we think it is a highly professional nature requires the competence of the teacher.

Keywords: approach competencies, physical, education, teachers

Procedia PDF Downloads 599