Search results for: skills training

Authors: Seyede Soraya Alavinezhad, Gholam Ali Afrooz, Seyedsaeid Sajjadianari

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The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a family-centered sensory and motor interactive activities program in enhancing the motor and developmental abilities of infants between the ages of 12 and 24 months who have a medical history of low birth weight. The design of the study was a combined method (qualitative and quantitative). The statistical population comprised infants between the ages of 12 and 24 months who had a documented history of low birth weight in Tehran in 2022. The study sample comprised twenty-eight infants, ranging in age from twelve to twenty-four months, whose mothers were selected using a readily available sampling method. The participants were allocated into two groups—experimental and control—at random. The Children's Developmental Screening Scale, the third edition of Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ3TM), was utilized in both cohorts. Two sessions of the family-centered program for mothers and sixteen sessions for children in the experimental group were taken into account. The statistical analysis software SPSS version 26 was utilized to analyze the data. Initially, the descriptive analysis of the variables, the normality of the assumptions, and the equality of the variance of the variables in the groups were examined. Subsequently, univariate analysis of covariance was employed to examine research hypotheses. The results of the covariance analysis demonstrated that the family-centered interactive activities program for sensory and motor development was effective. A significant difference has been observed between the experimental and control groups with regard to developmental skills between the pre-test and post-test (P<0.005). Motor and developmental skills among children aged 12 to 24 months with a history of low birth weight can be enhanced through entertainment programs that incorporate suitable structure, according to the findings of this study. It is recommended that future research investigate the efficacy of this program on children of average weight and conduct longitudinal studies.

Keywords: children, developmental skills, low birth weight, sensory and motor interactive games program

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Authors: Klára Gajdošíková

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The aim of this study was to examine the quiet eye method and its components using the mobile eye tracking device. Quiet eye training was proven to be beneficial for different sports, including golf. The main idea of this method is to prolong your fixations on a specific place in order to improve your performance. The shot examined in this study is called putt. Its importance is based on its role on a golf course because, many times, it is the last putt that decides whether you win or lose. Quiet eye training helps players be more focused under pressure, control their attention and overall improve their putting success. Six highly skilled golfers with a handicap ranging from - 4 to + 4, aged 23 to 26, participated in a pilot study with the usage of an eye-tracking device. The study took place in an indoor training area at the golf club Hostivař. Crosstabs showed significant differences between individuals' laterality and their gaze into AOI - areas of interest (middle part of the ball, top of the ball, bottom of the ball, back side of the ball). Statistically significant differences were also discovered between the mean fixation duration of participants with AOI on the middle part of the ball and all other AOIs. The results of this study helped us understand the examined phenomena and showed us the next aim in future quiet eye research. Future research should focus on examining a quiet eye on the golf course. Applying a quiet eye and therefore changing the way we concentrate might be beneficial for coaches and players themselves.

Keywords: eye tracking, golf, laterality, quiet eye

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Authors: Arzu Akar Gençer, Mübeccel Gönen

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The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the projects based on Reggio Emilia Approach, on the creative thinking skills of preschool children. The study is carried out with eighteen 6 years old children in a class of a preschool, and entailed the development of projects based on Reggio Emilia approach with the children, for a period of 3 months. The study employs qualitative model. The children were analyzed with reference to the creative thinking aspects (rationality, originality, flexibility, and applicability) of the projects applied. As the projects based on Reggio Emilia approach arose out of the interests and curiosity of the children, and had their roots in the existing class culture, it is possible to conclude that they have an impact on the creativity of the children with reference to the aspects of creative thinking.

Keywords: Reggio Emilia approach, project, creativity, preschool children

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Authors: Maslin Masrom, Nik Hasnaa Nik Mahmood, Wan Normeza Wan Zakaria, Azizul Azizan, Norshaliza Kamaruddin

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Traditionally, in science education, the teacher provides facts and the students learn them. It is outmoded for today’s students to equip them with real-life situations, mainly because knowledge and life skills are acquired passively from the instructors. Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) is an approach that allows students to experiment, ask questions, and develop responses based on reasoning. It has provided students and teachers with opportunities to actively engage in collaborative learning via inquiry. This approach inspires the students to become active thinkers, research for solutions, and gain life-long experience and self-confidence. Therefore, the research aims to investigate how the primary-school teacher supports students or pupils through an inquiry-based science education approach for computer science, specifically coding skills. The results are presented and described.

Keywords: inquiry-based science education, student-centered learning, computer science, primary school

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Authors: Thomas Bryan, Veton Kepuska, Ivica Kostanic

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Speaker recognition is performed in high Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) environments using principals of Computational Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA). CASA methods often classify sounds from images in the time-frequency (T-F) plane using spectrograms or cochleargrams as the image. In this paper atomic decomposition implemented by matching pursuit performs a transform from time series speech signals to the T-F plane. The atomic decomposition creates a sparsely populated T-F vector in “weight space” where each populated T-F position contains an amplitude weight. The weight space vector along with the atomic dictionary represents a denoised, compressed version of the original signal. The arraignment or of the atomic indices in the T-F vector are used for classification. Unsupervised feature learning implemented by a sparse autoencoder learns a single dictionary of basis features from a collection of envelope samples from all speakers. The approach is demonstrated using pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. Pairs of speakers are selected randomly from a single district. Each speak has 10 sentences. Two are used for training and 8 for testing. Atomic index probabilities are created for each training sentence and also for each test sentence. Classification is performed by finding the lowest Euclidean distance between then probabilities from the training sentences and the test sentences. Training is done at a 30dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Testing is performed at SNR’s of 0 dB, 5 dB, 10 dB and 30dB. The algorithm has a baseline classification accuracy of ~93% averaged over 10 pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. The baseline accuracy is attributable to short sequences of training and test data as well as the overall simplicity of the classification algorithm. The accuracy is not affected by AWGN and produces ~93% accuracy at 0dB SNR.

Keywords: time-frequency plane, atomic decomposition, envelope sampling, Gabor atoms, matching pursuit, sparse dictionary learning, sparse autoencoder

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Authors: Lin Xie, Yang Wang

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An extensive body of research studies suggest that students, teachers, and supervisors can enhance the likelihood of reaching their goals by improving their communication skills. It is highly important to learn how and when to provide different kinds of feedback, e.g. anticipatory, corrective and positive) will gain better result and higher morale. The purpose of this mixed methods research is twofold: 1) To find out what factors affect effective communication among different stakeholders and how these factors affect student learning 2) What are the good practices for improving communication among different stakeholders and improve student achievement. This presentation first begins with an introduction to the recent research on Marshall’s Nonviolent Communication Techniques (NVC), including four important components: observations, feelings, needs, requests. These techniques can be effectively applied at all levels of communication. To develop an in-depth understanding of the relationship among different techniques within, this research collected, compared, and combined qualitative and quantitative data to better improve communication and support student learning.

Keywords: communication, education, language learning, goal achievement, academic success

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Authors: Ashley Hobson, Ashley Efaw

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Professionalism is an essential skill for clinicians, particularly for Occupational Therapy Providers (OTPs). The World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) Guiding Principles for Ethical Occupational Therapy and American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Code of Ethics establishes expectations for professionalism among OTPs, emphasizing its importance in the field. However, the teaching and assessment of professionalism vary across OTP programs. The flexibility provided by the country standards allows programs to determine their own approaches to meeting these standards, resulting in inconsistency. Educators in both academic and fieldwork settings face challenges in objectively assessing and providing feedback on student professionalism. Although they observe instances of unprofessional behavior, there is no standardized assessment measure to evaluate professionalism in OTP students. While most students are committed to learning and applying professionalism skills, they enter OTP programs with varying levels of proficiency in this area. Consequently, they lack a uniform understanding of professionalism and lack an objective means to self-assess their current skills and identify areas for growth. It is crucial to explicitly teach professionalism, have students to self-assess their professionalism skills, and have OTP educators assess student professionalism. This approach is necessary for fostering students' professionalism journeys. Traditionally, there has been no objective way for students to self-assess their professionalism or for educators to provide objective assessments and feedback. To establish a uniform approach to professionalism, the authors incorporated professionalism content into our curriculum. Utilizing an operational definition of professionalism, the authors integrated professionalism into didactic, fieldwork, and capstone courses. The complexity of the content and the professionalism skills expected of students increase each year to ensure students graduate with the skills to practice in accordance with the WFOT Guiding Principles for Ethical Occupational Therapy Practice and AOTA Code of Ethics. Two professionalism assessments were developed based on the expectations outlined in the both documents. The Professionalism Self-Assessment allows students to evaluate their professionalism, reflect on their performance, and set goals. The Professionalism Assessment for Educators is a modified version of the same tool designed for educators. The purpose of this workshop is to provide educators with a framework and tools for assessing student professionalism. The authors discuss how to integrate professionalism content into OTP curriculum and utilize professionalism assessments to provide constructive feedback and equitable learning opportunities for OTP students in academic, fieldwork, and capstone settings. By adopting these strategies, educators can enhance the development of professionalism among OTP students, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the demands of the profession.

Keywords: professionalism, assessments, student learning, student preparedness, ethical practice

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Authors: Christine Hough, Eddie Abbott-Halpin, Tariq Mahmood, Jessica Giles

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This paper draws together the findings from two research studies, each undertaken with cohorts of South Asian Muslim respondents located in the North of England between 2017 and 2019. The first study, entitled Faith Family and Crime (FFC), investigated the extent to which a Muslim family’s social and health well-being is affected by a family member’s involvement in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). This study captured a range of data through a detailed questionnaire and structured interviews. The data from the interview transcripts were analysed using open coding and an application of aspects of the grounded theory approach. The findings provide clear evidence that the respondents were neither well-informed nor supported throughout the processes of the CJS, from arrest to post-sentencing. These experiences gave rise to mental and physical stress, potentially unfair sentencing, and a significant breakdown in communication within the respondents’ families. They serve to highlight a particular aspect of complexity in the current needs of those South Asian Muslim families who find themselves involved in the CJS and is closely connected to family structure, culture, and faith. The second study, referred to throughout this paper as #ImamsBritain (that provides the majority of content for this paper), explores how Imams, in their role as community faith leaders, can best address the complex – and changing - needs of South Asian Muslims families, such as those that emerged in the findings from FFC. The changing socio-economic and political climates of the last thirty or so years have brought about significant changes to the lives of Muslim families, and these have created more complex levels of social, cultural, and faith-based needs for families and individuals. As a consequence, Imams now have much greater demands made of them, and so their role has undergone far-reaching changes in response to this. The #ImamsBritain respondents identified a pressing need to develop a wider range of pastoral and counseling skills, which they saw as extending far beyond the traditional role of the Imam as a religious teacher and spiritual guide. The #ImamsBritain project was conducted with a cohort of British Imams in the North of England. Data was collected firstly through a questionnaire that related to the respondents’ training and development needs and then analysed in depth using the Delphi approach. Through Delphi, the data were scrutinized in depth using interpretative content analysis. The findings from this project reflect the respondents’ individual perceptions of the kind of training and development they need to fulfill their role in 21st Century Britain. They also provide a unique framework for constructing a professional guide for Imams in Great Britain. The discussions and critical analyses in this paper draw on the discourses of professionalization and pastoral care and relevant reports and reviews on Imam training in Europe and Canada.

Keywords: criminal justice system, faith and culture, Imams, Muslim community leadership, professionalization, South Asian family structure

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Authors: Mohammed Fakehy, Mohammed Haggag

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The problem of test anxiety considered as one of the most important and most complex psychological problems faced by students of King Saud University, where university students in a need to bring their reassurance and psychological comfort, relieves feeling pain and difficulties of the study. Recently, there are programs and science that help human to change, including the science Linguistic Programming this neural science stems from not just the tips of the need to make the effort or continue to work, but provides the keys in which one can be controlled in the internal environment. Even human potential energy is extracted seeking to achieve success and happiness and excellence. Through the work of the researchers as members of the teaching staff at King Saud University and specialists in the field of psychology noticed the suffering of some students of King Saud University, test anxiety. In an attempt by the researchers to mitigate as much as possible of the unity of this concern, students will have a training program in Neuro Linguistic Programming. The main Question of this study is What is the effectiveness of the impact of a training program using NLP to reduce test anxiety by using a biological feedback. Therefore, the results of this study might serve as a good announcement about the usefulness of NLP programs which influence future research to significant effect of NLP on test anxiety.

Keywords: neuro linguistic programming, test anxiety, biological feedback, king saud

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Authors: Manar Al-Ateeq

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The building construction industry plays a major role in the economy of the word and the state of Kuwait. This paper evaluates existing new civil site engineers, describes a new system for improvement and insures the importance of prequalifying and developing for new engineers. In order to have a strong base in engineering, educational institutes and workplaces should be responsible to continuously train engineers and update them with new methods and techniques in engineering. As to achieve that, school of engineering should constantly update computational resources to be used in the professions. A survey was prepared for graduated Engineers based on stated objectives to understand the status of graduate engineers in both the public and private sector. Interviews were made with different sectors in Kuwait, and several visits were made to different training centers within different workplaces in Kuwait to evaluate training process and try to improve it. Virtual Reality (VR) technology could be applied as a complement to three-dimensional (3D) modeling, leading to better communication whether in job training, in education or in professional practice. Techniques of 3D modeling and VR can be applied to develop the models related to the construction process. The 3D models can support rehabilitation design as it can be considered as a great tool for monitoring failure and defaults in structures; also it can support decisions based on the visual analyses of alternative solutions. Therefore, teaching computer-aided design (CAD) and VR techniques in school will help engineering students in order to prepare them to site work and also will assist them to consider these technologies as important supports in their later professional practice. This teaching technique will show how the construction works developed, allow the visual simulation of progression of each type of work and help them to know more about the necessary equipment needed for tasks and how it works on site.

Keywords: three dimensional modeling (3DM), civil engineers (CE), professional practice (PP), virtual reality (VR)

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Authors: Ebenezer Joseph, Veena Easvaradoss, S. Sundar Manoharan, David Chandran, Sumathi Chandrasekaran, T. R. Uma

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Perceptual reasoning is the ability that incorporates fluid reasoning, spatial processing, and visual motor integration. Several theories of cognitive functioning emphasize the importance of fluid reasoning. The ability to manipulate abstractions and rules and to generalize is required for reasoning tasks. This study, funded by the Cognitive Science Research Initiative, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, analyzed the effect of 1-year chess training on the perceptual reasoning of children. A pretest–posttest with control group design was used, with 43 (28 boys, 15 girls) children in the experimental group and 42 (26 boys, 16 girls) children in the control group. The sample was selected from children studying in two private schools from South India (grades 3 to 9), which included both the genders. The experimental group underwent weekly 1-hour chess training for 1 year. Perceptual reasoning was measured by three subtests of WISC-IV INDIA. Pre-equivalence of means was established. Further statistical analyses revealed that the experimental group had shown statistically significant improvement in perceptual reasoning compared to the control group. The present study clearly establishes a correlation between chess learning and perceptual reasoning. If perceptual reasoning can be enhanced in children, it could possibly result in the improvement of executive functions as well as the scholastic performance of the child.

Keywords: chess, cognition, intelligence, perceptual reasoning

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Authors: P. Junpeng, A. Tungkasamit

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Research-based learning is the key for the national research universities of Thailand. The indicator reflects the success of the study in assessing the learning outcomes of students. The development of the lecturers is the most important mechanism in driving. Nowadays the lecturers lack the knowledge and skills of assessment for learning. Therefore, this study aims to develop the knowledge and skills for lecturer’s assessment through research-based learning in higher education. The target group were lecturers who teach in higher education from Khon Kaen University of Thailand. This study was a research and development involved the concept of continuing professional development. Research was conducted in 3 phases: 1) to inspire one’s thought, to accomplish both knowledge and skill, 2) to focus on changes, and 3) to reflect the changes as well as suggest the guidelines for development. The results showed that the lecturers enhanced their knowledge and skill in assessment and emphasized on assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning.

Keywords: research-based nexus, professional development, assessment for learning, higher education

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Authors: Oloniyo Kemisola Eunice, Odere Oladunni Oluwafeyikemi

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Technological change and globalization have created a new global economy with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) occupying a complex position in relation to globalization. The emergence of this new global economy has serious implications on the nature and purpose of educational institutions. The paper is basically a theoretical discourse. Data for analysis were obtained from secondary sources. The paper found that significant challenges confront the integration of ICTs in education in the areas of educational policy and planning, infrastructure, language and content, capacity building and financing in Nigeria. The paper concluded that business education needs to be well equipped to anticipate and respond to opportunities created by ICTs in order to participate productively and equitably in an increasingly technology-rich and knowledge-driven world. The paper recommended, among others, that the investments in ICTs should be used to promote the development of basic skills, problem-solving and communication skills and the professional development of teachers.

Keywords: information, communication, technology, business, education

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Authors: Sotiria Tzivinikou, Dimitra Kagkara

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Teacher’s sense of self-efficacy can affect significantly both teacher’s and student’s performance. More specific, self-efficacy is associated with the learning outcomes as well as student’s motivation and self-efficacy. For example, teachers with high sense of self-efficacy are more open to innovations and invest more effort in teaching. In addition to this, effective inclusive education is associated with higher levels of teacher’s self-efficacy. Pre-service teachers with high levels of self-efficacy could handle student’s behavior better and more effectively assist students with special educational needs. Teacher preparation programs are also important, because teacher’s efficacy beliefs are shaped early in learning, as a result the quality of teacher’s education programs can affect the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service teachers. Usually, a number of pre-service teachers do not consider themselves well prepared to work with students with special educational needs and do not have the appropriate sense of self-efficacy. This study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to the improvement of the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service special educators by using an academic practicum training program. The sample of this study is 159 pre-service special educators, who also participated in the academic practicum training program. For the purpose of this study were used quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. Teacher’s self-efficacy was assessed by the teachers themselves with the completion of a questionnaire which was based on the scale of Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale. Pre and post measurements of teacher’s self-efficacy were taken. The results of the survey are consistent with those of the international literature. The results indicate that a significant number of pre-service special educators do not hold the appropriate sense of self-efficacy regarding teaching students with special educational needs. Moreover, a quality academic training program constitutes a crucial factor for the improvement of the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service special educators, as additional for the provision of high quality inclusive education.

Keywords: inclusive education, pre-service, self-efficacy, training program

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Authors: Jessica Terese Mueller, Christoph Breitsprecher, Mike Oliver Mosko

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Due to an unusually high number of asylum seekers entering Germany over the course of the past few years, the need for community interpreters has increased dramatically, in order to make the communication between asylum seekers and various actors in social and governmental agencies possible. In the field of social work in particular, there are community interpreters who possess a wide spectrum of qualifications spanning from state-certified professional interpreters with graduate degrees to lay or ad-hoc interpreters with little to no formal training. To the best of our knowledge, Germany has no official national quality standards for the training of community interpreters at present, which would serve to professionalise this field as well as to assure a certain degree of quality in the training programmes offered. Given the current demand for trained community interpreters, there is a growing number of training programmes geared toward qualifying community interpreters who work with asylum seekers in Germany. These training programmes range from short one-day workshops to graduate programmes with specialisations in Community Interpreting. As part of a larger project to develop quality standards for the qualification of community interpreters working with asylum seekers in the field of social work, a needs assessment was performed in the city-state of Hamburg and the state of North Rhine Westphalia in the form of focus groups and individual interviews with relevant actors in the field in order to determine the content and practical knowledge needed for community interpreters from the perspectives of those who work in and rely on this field. More specifically, social workers, volunteers, certified language and cultural mediators, paid and volunteer community interpreters and asylum seekers were invited to take part in focus groups in both locations, and asylum seekers, training providers, researchers, linguists and other national and international experts were individually interviewed. The responses collected in these focus groups and interviews have been analysed using Mayring’s concept of content analysis. In general, the responses indicate a high degree of overlap related to certain categories as well as some categories which seemed to be of particular importance to certain groups individually, while showing little to no relevance for other groups. For example, the topics of accuracy and transparency of the interpretations, as well as professionalism and ethical concerns were touched on in some form in most groups. Some group-specific topics which are the focus of experts were topics related to interpreting techniques and more concretely described theoretical and practical knowledge which should be covered in training programmes. Social workers and volunteers generally concentrated on issues regarding the role of the community interpreters and the importance of setting and clarifying professional boundaries. From the perspective of service receivers, asylum seekers tended to focus on the importance of having access to interpreters who are from their home region or country and who speak the same regiolect, dialect or variety as they do in order to prevent misunderstandings or misinterpretations which might negatively affect their asylum status. These results indicate a certain degree of consensus with trainings offered internationally for community interpreters.

Keywords: asylum seekers, community interpreting, needs assessment, quality standards, training

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Authors: Yan Cheng, Yijun Shao, James Rudolph, Charlene R. Weir, Beth Sahlmann, Qing Zeng-Treitler

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Supervised predictive models require labeled data for training purposes. Complete and accurate labeled data, i.e., a ‘gold standard’, is not always available, and imperfectly labeled data may need to serve as an alternative. An important question is if the accuracy of the labeled data creates a performance ceiling for the trained model. In this study, we trained several models to recognize the presence of delirium in clinical documents using data with annotations that are not completely accurate (i.e., weakly-supervised learning). In the external evaluation, the support vector machine model with a linear kernel performed best, achieving an area under the curve of 89.3% and accuracy of 88%, surpassing the 80% accuracy of the training sample. We then generated a set of simulated data and carried out a series of experiments which demonstrated that models trained on imperfect data can (but do not always) outperform the accuracy of the training data, e.g., the area under the curve for some models is higher than 80% when trained on the data with an error rate of 40%. Our experiments also showed that the error resistance of linear modeling is associated with larger sample size, error type, and linearity of the data (all p-values < 0.001). In conclusion, this study sheds light on the usefulness of imperfect data in clinical research via weakly-supervised learning.

Keywords: weakly-supervised learning, support vector machine, prediction, delirium, simulation

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Authors: Fatemeh Jannesarvatan, Ghazaal Parastooei, Jimmy frerejan, Saedeh Mokhtari, Peter Van Rosmalen

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Medical and dental education increasingly emphasizes the acquisition, integration, and coordination of complex knowledge, skills, and attitudes that can be applied in practical situations. Instructional design approaches have focused on using real-life tasks in order to facilitate complex learning in both real and simulated environments. The Four component instructional design (4C/ID) model has become a useful guideline for designing instructional materials that improve learning transfer, especially in health profession education. The objective of this study was to apply the 4C/ID model in the creation of virtual patients (VPs) that dental students can use to practice their clinical management and clinical reasoning skills. The study first explored the context and concept of complication factors and common errors for novices and how they can affect the design of a virtual patient program. The study then selected key dental information and considered the content needs of dental students. The design of virtual patients was based on the 4C/ID model's fundamental principles, which included: Designing learning tasks that reflect real patient scenarios and applying different levels of task complexity to challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills in different contexts. Creating varied learning materials that support students during the VP program and are closely integrated with the learning tasks and students' curricula. Cognitive feedback was provided at different levels of the program. Providing procedural information where students followed a step-by-step process from history taking to writing a comprehensive treatment plan. Four virtual patients were designed using the 4C/ID model's principles, and an experimental design was used to test the effectiveness of the principles in achieving the intended educational outcomes. The 4C/ID model provides an effective framework for designing engaging and successful virtual patients that support the transfer of knowledge and skills for dental students. However, there are some challenges and pitfalls that instructional designers should take into account when developing these educational tools.

Keywords: 4C/ID model, virtual patients, education, dental, instructional design

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Authors: Asma Dill

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The aim of this study is to explore the role of HRM practices in SMEs success. The role of HRM practices in large enterprises is relatively known, on the other hand, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) companies have not been greatly studied in relation to the HRM practices in the past. Although, there is a lack of literature and empirical research in this area, several studies in the recent years emphasized on the importance of the HRM practices for the success of the SMEs. This study finds out relationship of HRM practices and SMESs performances. The objective is to analyze significant impacts of HRM practices (training, performance appraisal, compensation and employee development) on SMEs success, to determine whether SMEs recognize the importance of HRM practices in their businesses. To carry out this research a survey research strategy was followed. The sample frame for this study consisted of firms that belong to the services and commerce sector, employing at least 50 employees. The final research sample consisted of questionnaires. Descriptive statistical methods have been used during quantitative analysis to explore the relations. The findings of the study revealed that HRM practices have a significant influence on the performance of SMEs, and the better the HRM practice, the higher the performance of the SMEs. HRM practices, including, training, compensation, performance appraisal and employee development, have been found to be significantly and positively related to business success. Outcome of the study will provide useful guidelines to the business organizations. This study contributes to knowledge by providing insights on the impact of HRM practices on SMEs performance.

Keywords: compensation, employee performance, HRM practices, training

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Authors: Susan Diamond

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Machine Learning workloads have traditionally been run in high-performance computing (HPC) environments, where users log in to dedicated machines and utilize the attached GPUs to run training jobs on huge datasets. Training of large neural network models is very resource intensive, and even after exploiting parallelism and accelerators such as GPUs, a single training job can still take days. Consequently, the cost of hardware is a barrier to entry. Even when upfront cost is not a concern, the lead time to set up such an HPC environment takes months from acquiring hardware to set up the hardware with the right set of firmware, software installed and configured. Furthermore, scalability is hard to achieve in a rigid traditional lab environment. Therefore, it is slow to react to the dynamic change in the artificial intelligent industry. Watson Deep Learning as a service, a cloud-based deep learning platform that mitigates the long lead time and high upfront investment in hardware. It enables robust and scalable sharing of resources among the teams in an organization. It is designed for on-demand cloud environments. Providing a similar user experience in a multi-tenant cloud environment comes with its own unique challenges regarding fault tolerance, performance, and security. Watson Deep Learning as a service tackles these challenges and present a deep learning stack for the cloud environments in a secure, scalable and fault-tolerant manner. It supports a wide range of deep-learning frameworks such as Tensorflow, PyTorch, Caffe, Torch, Theano, and MXNet etc. These frameworks reduce the effort and skillset required to design, train, and use deep learning models. Deep Learning as a service is used at IBM by AI researchers in areas including machine translation, computer vision, and healthcare. 

Keywords: deep learning, machine learning, cognitive computing, model training

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Authors: Davoud Maleki

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Today, education and investment in human capital is a long-term investment without which the economy will be stagnant Stayed. Higher education represents a type of investment in human resources by providing and improving knowledge, skills and Attitudes help economic development. Providing efficient human resources by increasing the efficiency and productivity of people and on the other hand with Expanding the boundaries of knowledge and technology and promoting technology such as the responsibility of training human resources and increasing productivity and efficiency in High specialized levels are the responsibility of universities. Therefore, the university plays an infrastructural role in economic development and growth because education by creating skills and expertise in people and improving their ability.In recent decades, Iran's higher education system has been faced with many problems, therefore, scholars have looked for it is to identify and validate the causal factors affecting the responsiveness and productivity of non-governmental universities. The data in the qualitative part is the result of semi-structured interviews with 25 senior and middle managers working in the units It was Islamic Azad University of Tehran province, which was selected by theoretical sampling method. In data analysis, stepwise method and Analytical techniques of Strauss and Corbin (1992) were used. After determining the central category (answering for the sake of the beneficiaries) and using it in order to bring the categories, expressions and ideas that express the relationships between the main categories and In the end, six main categories were identified as causal factors affecting the university's responsiveness and productivity.They are: 1- Scientism 2- Human resources 3- Creating motivation in the university 4- Development based on needs assessment 5- Teaching process and Learning 6- University quality evaluation. In order to validate the response model obtained from the qualitative stage, a questionnaire The questionnaire was prepared and the answers of 146 students of Master's degree and Doctorate of Islamic Azad University located in Tehran province were received. Quantitative data in the form of descriptive data analysis, first and second stage factor analysis using SPSS and Amos23 software were analyzed. The findings of the research indicated the relationship between the central category and the causal factors affecting the response The results of the model test in the quantitative stage confirmed the generality of the conceptual model.

Keywords: accountability, productivity, non-governmental, universities, foundation data theory

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Authors: Wai Ha Leung

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Mother tongue language (MTL) curriculum is core to school education in most countries/regions' school curriculum. Through mother tongue language learning, students are expected to enhance their understanding of the nation's culture and foster the sense of cultural and ethnic identity. However, MTL education in Hong Kong is complicated by the colonial history. This study examines Hong Kong Chinese language teachers' perceptions of MTL education, and the implication on MTL curriculum development. The questionnaire was administrated to 97 teachers, and interviews were carried out on 17 teachers. Usually, MTL is both the tool with which knowledge and skills are taught and learned and the vehicle for students to learn about the traditions of the countries' literature and culture. In Hong Kong, 95% of the population is of Chinese descent. Traditionally, education in China was a mixture of philosophy, history, politics and literacy. Chinese as an MTL subject in pre-colonial Hong Kong has always been assigned the mission of developing students' cultural identity in addition to the development of linguistic proficiency. During the colonial period, the Chinese Language curriculum shifted to be more language skills based with less emphasis on Chinese culture and moral education. After the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, although a new curriculum was implemented in 2002, teaching and learning in school as well as public examinations seem to be remaining language skills oriented instead of culturally based. This deviation from the trend of both Chinese traditional education and global mother tongue language education makes some Chinese language teachers feel confused. In addition, there is comment that in general Hong Kong students' Chinese language proficiency is becoming weaker and weaker in recent years. Thus, effectiveness of the skills oriented language curriculum has come under question. How a language teacher views the aims and objectives of the language subject he or she is teaching has a direct effect on the curriculum delivery and pedagogies used. It is, therefore, important to investigate what is the language teachers' perception of MTL education, and whether the current school curriculum can meet the teachers' expectation as well as achieve the aims of MTL education. Given this context, this study explored the views of Hong Kong Chinese language teachers on MTL education. The data indicate that teachers showed a strong resentment towards the current curriculum. Results may have implications on mother tongue language curriculum development.

Keywords: Chinese language education, curriculum development, mother tongue language education, teachers' perception

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Authors: Wanqing He

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The current study explores aspects of exploratory behaviors and social capacities in urban Chinese infants to examine whether these factors mediate the link between infant walking and receptive and productive vocabularies. The linkage between the onset of walking and language attainment proves solid, but little is known about the factors that drive such link. This study examined whether joint attention, gesture use, and object activities mediate the association between locomotion and language development. Results showed that both the frequency (p = .05) and duration (p = .03) of carrying an object are strong mediators that afford opportunities for word comprehension. Also, accessing distal objects may be beneficial to infants’ language expression. Further studies on why object carrying may account for word comprehension and why infants with autism could not benefit from walking onset in terms of language development may yield valuable clinical implications.

Keywords: exploratory behaviors, infancy, language acquisition, motor development, social communicative skills

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Authors: Mara Aparecida De Castilho Lopes. Maria Eliza Mattosinho Bernardes

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The education of deaf individuals in Brazil is grounded in the bilingual approach, which presupposes Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as the first language for these students. In this perspective, Portuguese should be taught as a second language in its written form, ensuring that deaf students also have access to various academic subjects in sign language. Brazilian legislation (Federal Decree No. 5626 of 2005) mandates the teaching of Brazilian Sign Language in university teacher training programs, but there is no pre-established minimum workload. As a result, there is a significant disparity in the teaching and quality of teacher education across the Brazilian territory. Added to this fact is the general lack of awareness within society regarding the linguistic status of Libras, leading to a shortage of competent teachers for its use and instruction, particularly in higher education. Recently, Federal Law No. 14191 of 2021 established bilingual education for the deaf as a mode of instruction, indicating the need for adjustments in teacher training within higher education teacher preparation programs. Given this context, the objective of the present study was to analyze the teaching proposals for Brazilian Sign Language for students in teacher training programs at public universities in Brazil, presenting alternatives to overcome the current models and academic pathways of teaching and learning. In addition to analyzing Brazilian teaching models, an analysis of a continuing education model for teachers in a French institution was also conducted - considering the historical Franco-Brazilian path of deaf education in Brazil. The analysis of the current teacher training model for deaf education in Brazil revealed that initial exposure to sign language and its linguistic structure is not sufficient to provide future teachers with opportunities to reflect on bilingual teaching methods and practices, as seen in other definitions of bilingualism - bilingual education for proficient listeners in two oral languages. As a result, a training proposal was developed for an experimental interdisciplinary course, integrating the curriculum of an initial and continuing teacher training program alongside the Alfredo Bossi Chair at the University of São Paulo. This proposal is structured into three disciplines, which constitute consecutive moments in teacher education: Fundamental Aspects of Brazilian Sign Language, Bilingual Teaching Methodology, and Teaching Investigation Project - interdisciplinary engagement in the field of deafness. The last offered discipline represents an interdisciplinary supervised internship proposal, considering the multi-professional context that constitutes deaf education within a bilingual approach. In interdisciplinary work within the field of deafness, dialogue between teachers and other professionals who work with deaf students from different perspectives - teachers, speech therapists, and sign language interpreters - is frequently necessary. Through alternative avenues, these actions aim to direct the linguistic development of deaf students within their learning processes. Based on the innovative curriculum proposal described here, the intention is to contribute to the enhancement of teacher education in Brazil, with the goal of ensuring bilingual education for deaf students.

Keywords: bilingual education, teacher training, historical-cultural approach, interdisciplinary education, inclusive education

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Authors: Daphne Dean C. Arenos, Glorificacion L. Quinopez

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This study has been conducted to describe the digitized stories authored by a Grade 1 pupil struggling in reading. The main goal was to find out the effect of authoring digital stories on the reading skill of a grade 1 pupil in terms of vocabulary and sequencing skills. To be able to explicate the data collected, a case study approach has been chosen. This case study focused on a 6 years old Filipino child born and raised in Spain and has just transferred to a private school a year ago. The pupil’s struggles in reading, as well as her experiences with digitized stories, were further described. The findings revealed that authoring digital stories facilitate the reading progress of a struggling pupil. The presence of literary elements in the pupil’s stories built her vocabulary and sequencing skills. Hence, authoring digital stories serve as an appropriate and effective scaffold for struggling readers.

Keywords: literary elements, reading skill, scaffold, sequencing skill, vocabulary

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Authors: A. Gonzalez Aguna, J. M. Santamaria Garcia, J. L. Gomez Gonzalez, R. Barchino Plata, M. Fernandez Batalla, S. Herrero Jaen

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Background: Computer Science is a field that transcends other disciplines of knowledge because it allows to support all kinds of physical and mental tasks. Health centres have a greater number and complexity of technological devices and the population consume and demand services derived from technology. Also, nursing education plans have included competencies related to and, even, courses about new technologies are offered to health professionals. However, nurses still limit their performance to the use and evaluation of products previously built. Objective: Develop a teaching-learning methodology for acquiring skills on designing applications for care. Methodology: Blended learning teaching with a group of graduate nurses through official training within a Master's Degree. The study sample was selected by intentional sampling without exclusion criteria. The study covers from 2015 to 2017. The teaching sessions included a four-hour face-to-face class and between one and three tutorials. The assessment was carried out by written test consisting of the preparation of an IEEE 830 Standard Specification document where the subject chosen by the student had to be a problem in the area of care. Results: The sample is made up of 30 students: 10 men and 20 women. Nine students had a degree in nursing, 20 diploma in nursing and one had a degree in Computer Engineering. Two students had a degree in nursing specialty through residence and two in equivalent recognition by exceptional way. Except for the engineer, no subject had previously received training in this regard. All the sample enrolled in the course received the classroom teaching session, had access to the teaching material through a virtual area and maintained at least one tutoring. The maximum of tutorials were three with an hour in total. Among the material available for consultation was an example of a document drawn up based on the IEEE Standard with an issue not related to care. The test to measure competence was completed by the whole group and evaluated by a multidisciplinary teaching team of two computer engineers and two nurses. Engineers evaluated the correctness of the characteristics of the document and the degree of comprehension in the elaboration of the problem and solution elaborated nurses assessed the relevance of the chosen problem statement, the foundation, originality and correctness of the proposed solution and the validity of the application for clinical practice in care. The results were of an average grade of 8.1 over 10 points, a range between 6 and 10. The selected topic barely coincided among the students. Examples of care areas selected are care plans, family and community health, delivery care, administration and even robotics for care. Conclusion: The applied methodology of learning-teaching for the design of technologies demonstrates the success in the training of nursing professionals. The role of expert is essential to create applications that satisfy the needs of end users. Nursing has the possibility, the competence and the duty to participate in the process of construction of technological tools that are going to impact in care of people, family and community.

Keywords: care, learning, nursing, technology

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Authors: Mikko Salminen, Niklas Ravaja

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Emotional intelligence (EI) consists of skills for monitoring own emotions and emotions of others, skills for discriminating different emotions, and skills for using this information in thinking and actions. EI enhances, for example, work outcomes and organizational climate. We suggest that the role and manifestations of EI should also be studied in real leadership situations, especially during the emotional, social interaction. Leadership is essentially a process to influence others for reaching a certain goal. This influencing happens by managerial processes and computer-mediated communication (e.g. e-mail) but also by face-to-face, where facial expressions have a significant role in conveying emotional information. Persons with high EI are typically perceived more positively, and they have better social skills. We hypothesize, that during social interaction high EI enhances the ability to detect other’s emotional state and controlling own emotional expressions. We suggest, that emotionally intelligent leader’s experience less stress during social leadership situations, since they have better skills in dealing with the related emotional work. Thus the high-EI leaders would be more able to enjoy these situations, but also be more efficient in choosing appropriate expressions for building constructive dialogue. We suggest, that emotionally intelligent leaders show more positive emotional expressions than low-EI leaders. To study these hypotheses we observed performance review discussions of 40 leaders (24 female) with 78 (45 female) of their followers. Each leader held a discussion with two followers. Psychophysiological methods were chosen because they provide objective and continuous data from the whole duration of the discussions. We recorded sweating of the hands (electrodermal activation) by electrodes placed to the fingers of the non-dominant hand to assess the stress-related physiological arousal of the leaders. In addition, facial electromyography was recorded from cheek (zygomaticus major, activated during e.g. smiling) and periocular (orbicularis oculi, activated during smiling) muscles using electrode pairs placed on the left side of the face. Leader’s trait EI was measured with a 360 questionnaire, filled by each leader’s followers, peers, managers and by themselves. High-EI leaders had less sweating of the hands (p = .007) than the low-EI leaders. It is thus suggested that the high-EI leaders experienced less physiological stress during the discussions. Also, high scores in the factor “Using of emotions” were related to more facial muscle activation indicating positive emotional expressions (cheek muscle: p = .048; periocular muscle: p = .076, almost statistically significant). The results imply that emotionally intelligent managers are positively relaxed during s social leadership situations such as a performance review discussion. The current study also highlights the importance of EI in face-to-face social interaction, given the central role facial expressions have in interaction situations. The study also offers new insight to the biological basis of trait EI. It is suggested that the identification, forming, and intelligently using of facial expressions are skills that could be trained during leadership development courses.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, leadership, performance review discussion, psychophysiology, social interaction

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Authors: Winai Rungrittidetch

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This paper investigated the operational system, procedures, outcomes, and obstacles during the application of the Corporate Social Responsibility by the small enterprises and other involved groups in the anchor production business of the core firm, Jatura Charoen Chai Company Limited. The paper also aimed to discover ways to improve the stakeholders who participated in the CSR training and advisory programme. The paper utilized the qualitative methodology which included documentary review and semi- structured interview. The interviews were made with 8 respondents as the representative of different groups of the company’s stakeholder. The findings drew out the lessons learned from the participation of the selected small manufacturing enterprises in the CSR training and advisory programme. Some suggestions were also made, addressing the significance of the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.

Keywords: corporate, social, responsibility, enterprises

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Authors: Guanghua Zhang, Fubao Wang, Weijun Duan

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Convolution neural network (CNN) has attracted more and more attention on recent years. Especially in the field of computer vision and image classification. However, unsupervised learning with CNN has received less attention than supervised learning. In this work, we use a new powerful tool which is deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (DCGANs) to generate images from Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Training by various star and galaxy images, it shows that both the generator and the discriminator are good for unsupervised learning. In this paper, we also took several experiments to choose the best value for hyper-parameters and which could help to stabilize the training process and promise a good quality of the output.

Keywords: convolution neural network, discriminator, generator, unsupervised learning

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Authors: Dina Ahmed Alkhodary

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Human Resources are the individual skills, knowledge, attitude, capabilities and experience collected to produce wealth to the company. Human Resource disclosure is the process of involving, reporting, and sharing the Investments made in the Human Resources of an Organization that such as organizations short goals and objectives, employees creation value, training and development plan are presently not accounted for in the conventional accounting practices which is importance nowadays to reduce the employee`s turnover. For the purpose of the study 3 telecommunications companies in Jordan have been selected. Telecommunication industry has been chosen for this study since it is a successful sector in Jordan and Human resource disclosure practices were adopted in all the selected companies and companies was aware to the HR practices. The objective of the study is to find out the HR disclosures practices of the telecommunication Companies in Jordan and to find the relationship between the HR Disclosures practices and employees’ turnover which has been measured by leaver proficiencies, remaining member proficiencies and the new comers proficiencies. The researcher has used the questioner to collect data for the research purpose. Results reveal that There are human resource disclosure practices in telecommunication companies in Jordan but in some areas only and has found There that there is a significant relationship between the human resource disclosure practices of the telecommunication companies in Jordan and Employees turnover. It is important to the companies to disclose more information and it’s important to the researchers to study the HR disclosure in the other industries in Jordan to increase the awareness about it.

Keywords: HR, disclosure, employee, turnover

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Authors: Jan Stodt, Christoph Reich

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The usage of machine learning models for prediction is growing rapidly and proof that the intended requirements are met is essential. Audits are a proven method to determine whether requirements or guidelines are met. However, machine learning models have intrinsic characteristics, such as the quality of training data, that make it difficult to demonstrate the required behavior and make audits more challenging. This paper describes an ML audit framework that evaluates and reviews the risks of machine learning applications, the quality of the training data, and the machine learning model. We evaluate and demonstrate the functionality of the proposed framework by auditing an steel plate fault prediction model.

Keywords: audit, machine learning, assessment, metrics

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