Search results for: teacher students

Authors: Paul Lam, Kevin Wong, Chi Him Chan

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Constant practicing and accurate, immediate feedback are the keys to improving students’ speaking skills. However, traditional oral examination often fails to provide such opportunities to students. The traditional, face-to-face oral assessment is often time consuming – attending the oral needs of one student often leads to the negligence of others. Hence, teachers can only provide limited opportunities and feedback to students. Moreover, students’ incentive to practice is also reduced by their anxiety and shyness in speaking the new language. A mobile app was developed to use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide immediate feedback to students’ speaking performance as an attempt to solve the above-mentioned problems. Firstly, it was thought that online exercises would greatly increase the learning opportunities of students as they can now practice more without the needs of teachers’ presence. Secondly, the automatic feedback provided by the AI would enhance students’ motivation to practice as there is an instant evaluation of their performance. Lastly, students should feel less anxious and shy compared to directly practicing oral in front of teachers. Technically, the program made use of speech-to-text functions to generate feedback to students. To be specific, the software analyzes students’ oral input through certain speech-to-text AI engine and then cleans up the results further to the point that can be compared with the targeted text. The mobile app has invited English teachers for the pilot use and asked for their feedback. Preliminary trials indicated that the approach has limitations. Many of the users’ pronunciation were automatically corrected by the speech recognition function as wise guessing is already integrated into many of such systems. Nevertheless, teachers have confidence that the app can be further improved for accuracy. It has the potential to significantly improve oral drilling by giving students more chances to practice. Moreover, they believe that the success of this mobile app confirms the potential to extend the AI-assisted assessment to other language skills, such as writing, reading, and listening.

Keywords: artificial Intelligence, mobile learning, oral assessment, oral practice, speech-to-text function

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Authors: Seyed Hossein Alavi, Farshad Ghazalian, Soghra Jamshidi

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Nowadays, athletic aggression discussion is considered as an important issue in sports psychology and sports effects have been noted by researchers from a long time ago. In this research, the amount of aggression among athletic students of different sport courses will be surveyed and compared. Statistics society in this research consists of all of boy athletic students in wrestling, taekwondo, football, and basketball of Mahmoudabad City that are 200 persons and the limitation of their ages are between 12-15 years old. Among all athletic students of different sport courses, 40 persons were chosen randomly for the sample. The method of research is a descriptive-comparative type that has been done according to field study and for measurement of examinations aggression amount, we have used Ayzank exam. In analysis step of foundations, for comparison of aggression of examined group, we have used Varian’s analysis exam. Research results show that among aggression amounts of athletic students of wrestling, taekwondo, football and basketball, there is no fundamental difference (p < 0.05). Stimulation of guest team with the host team fans, referees performance, exhaustion, physical confrontations, team position in the tournament table, and so on. There is no significant difference among aggression amount of selected sport athletic students.

Keywords: aggression, athletic, student, sports

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Authors: Catherine Cheetam, Alan Harper, Melody Elliott, Mika Ito

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This paper describes a pilot study conducted with English as a foreign language (EFL) students at a private university in Japan who used graded readers and the MReader website in class or independently to enhance their English reading skills. Each semester students who read 100,000 words with MReader quizzes passed enter into the ‘MReader Challenge,’ a reading contest that recognizes students for their achievement. The study focused specifically on the attitudes of thirty-six EFL students who successfully completed the Challenge in the 2015 spring semester using graded readers and MReader, and their motivation to continue using English in the future. The attitudes of these students were measured using their responses to statements on a Likert scaled survey. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven students to gain additional insight into their opinions. The results from this study suggest that reading graded readers in general promoted intrinsic motivation among a majority of the participants. This study is preliminary and needs to be expanded and continued to assess the lasting impact of the extensive reading program. Limitations and future directions of the study are also summarized and discussed.

Keywords: attitudes, extensive, intrinsic, methodolgies, motivation, reading

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Authors: Yelda Kağnıcı, Seçil Seymenler, Bahar Baran, Erol Esen, Barışcan Öztürk, Ender Siyez, Diğdem M. Siyez

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Infertility is the inability to reproduce after twelve months or longer unprotected sexual relationship. Although infertility is not a life threatening illness, it is considered as a serious problem for both the individual and the society. At this point, the importance of examining attitudes towards infertility is critical. Negative attitudes towards infertility may postpone individuals’ help seeking behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate university students’ attitudes towards infertility in terms of socio-demographic variables (gender, age, taking sexual health education, existence of an infertile individual in the social network, plans about having child and behaviors about health). The sample of the study was 9693 university students attending to 21 universities in Turkey. Of the 9693 students, % 51.6 (n = 5002) were female, % 48.4 (n = 4691) were male. The data was collected by Attitudes toward Infertility Scale developed by researchers and Personal Information Form. In data analysis first frequencies were calculated, then in order to test whether there were significant differences in attitudes towards infertility scores of university students in terms of socio-demographic variables, one way ANOVA was conducted. According to the results, it was found that female students, students who had sexual health education, who have sexual relationship experience, who have an infertile individual in their social networks, who have child plans, who have high caffeine usage and who use alcohol regularly have more positive attitudes towards infertility. On the other hand, attitudes towards infidelity did not show significant differences in terms of age and cigarette usage. When the results of the study were evaluated in general, it was seen that university students’ attitudes towards infertility were negative. The attitudes of students who have high caffeine and alcohols usage were high. It can be considered that these students are aware that their social habits are risky. Female students’ positive attitudes might be explained by their gender role. The results point out that in order to decrease university students’ negative attitudes towards infertility, there is a necessity to develop preventive programs in universities.

Keywords: infertility, attitudes, sex, university students

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Authors: Badiossadat Hassanpour, Reza Sirjani, Nangkuala Utaberta

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The avant-garde educational systems are striving to find a life long learning methods. Different fields and majors have test variety of proposed models, and found their difficulties and strengths. Architecture as a critical stage of education due to its characteristics which are learning by doing and critique based education and evaluation is out of this study procedure. Learning contracts is a new alternative form of evaluation of students’ achievements, while it acts as agreement about learning goals. Obtained results from studies in different fields which confirm its positive impact on students' learning in those fields and positively affected students' motivation and confidence in meeting their own learning needs, prompted us to implement this model in architecture design studio. In this implemented contract to the studio, students were asked to use the existing possibility of contract to have self assessment and examine their professional development to identify whether they are deficient or they would like to develop more expertise. The evidences of this research as well indicate that students feel positive about the learning contract and see it accommodating their individual learning needs.

Keywords: contract (LC), architecture design studio, education, student-centered learning

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Authors: Mirain Rhys, Kevin Smith

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In 2017, the Welsh Government introduced an ambitious, new strategy to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales to 1 million by 2050. The Welsh education system is a vitally important feature of this strategy. All children attending state schools in Wales learn Welsh as a second language until the age of 16 and are assessed at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level. In 2013, a review of Welsh second language instruction in Key Stages 3 and 4 was completed. The report identified considerable gaps in teachers’ preparation and training for teaching Welsh; poor Welsh language ethos at many schools; and a general lack of resources to support the instruction of Welsh. Recommendations were made across a number of dimensions including curriculum content, pedagogical practice, and teacher assessment, training, and resources. With a new national curriculum currently in development, this study builds on this review and provides unprecedented detail into pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of Welsh language instruction. The current research built on data taken from an existing capacity building research project on Welsh education, the Wales multi-cohort study (WMS). Quantitative data taken from WMS surveys with over 1200 pupils in schools in Wales indicated that Welsh language lessons were the least enjoyable subject among pupils. The current research aimed to unpick pupil experiences in order to add to the policy development context. To achieve this, forty-four pupils and four teachers in three schools from the larger WMS sample participated in focus groups. Participants from years 9, 11 and 13 who had indicated positive, negative and neutral attitudes towards the Welsh language in a previous WMS survey were selected. Questions were based on previous research exploring issues including, but not limited to pedagogy, policy, assessment, engagement and (teacher) training. A thematic analysis of the focus group recordings revealed that the majority of participants held positive views around keeping the language alive but did not want to take on responsibility for its maintenance. These views were almost entirely based on their experiences of learning Welsh at school, especially in relation to their perceived lack of choice and opinions around particular lesson strategies and assessment. Analysis of teacher interviews highlighted a distinct lack of resources (materials and staff alike) compared to modern foreign languages, which had a negative impact on student motivation and attitudes. Both staff and students indicated a need for more practical, oral language instruction which could lead to Welsh being used outside the classroom. The data corroborate many of the review’s previous findings, but what makes this research distinctive is the way in which pupils poignantly address generally misguided aims for Welsh language instruction, poor pedagogical practice and a general disconnect between Welsh instruction and its daily use in their lives. These findings emphasize the complexity of incorporating the educational sector in strategies for Welsh language maintenance and the complications arising from pedagogical training, support, and resources, as well as teacher and pupil perceptions of, and attitudes towards, teaching and learning Welsh.

Keywords: bilingual education, language maintenance, language revitalisation, minority languages, Wales

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Authors: Shima Nikanjam, Badiossadat Hassanpour, Adi Irfan Che Ani

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The design process in architecture education is based upon the Learning-by-Doing method, which leads students to understand how to design by practicing rather than studying. First-year design studios, as starting educational stage, provide integrated knowledge and skills of design for newly jointed architecture students. Within the basic design studio environment, students are guided to transfer their abstract thoughts into visual concrete decisions under the supervision of design educators for the first time. Therefore, introductory design studios have predominant impacts on students’ operational thinking and designing. Architectural design thinking is quite different from students’ educational backgrounds and learning habits. This educational challenge at basic design studios creates a severe need to study the reality of design education at foundation year and define appropriate educational methods with convenient project types with the intention of enhancing architecture education quality. Material for this study has been gathered through long-term direct observation at a first year second semester design studio at the faculty of architecture at EMU (known as FARC 102), fall and spring academic semester 2014-15. Distribution of a questionnaire among case study students and interviews with third and fourth design studio students who passed through the same methods of education in the past 2 years and conducting interviews with instructors are other methodologies used in this research. The results of this study reveal a risk of a mismatch between the implemented teaching method, project type and scale in this particular level and students’ learning styles. Although the existence of such risk due to varieties in students’ profiles could be expected to some extent, recommendations can support educators to reach maximum compatibility.

Keywords: architecture education, basic design studio, educational method, forms creation skill

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Authors: Ibrahim A. Kareem, Sina O. Ayelaagbe

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This study investigated the effects of web-enabled Sculpture package on Colleges of Education students’ psychomotor level in Fine Arts in South-west, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to: (i) determine the effect of web-enabled Sculpture package on Fine Arts Students’ performance; (ii) find out the effect of ability levels on Fine Arts Students’ performance and (iii) ascertain the interaction effect of treatment and ability levels on Fine Arts Students’ performance. The study was quasi-experimental design. A total of 48 Fine Arts Students participated in the study. There were 26 students in experimental and 22 for the control. The respondents were purposively sampled from Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo and Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo. Sculpture Achievement Test, Sculpture Skill Test and Sculpture ‘on the Spot’ Skill Assessment Instrument were validated by experts while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistics was used to analyse the instrument while the remaining two instruments were subjected to Cronbach alpha statistics. Data were analysed using t-test and ANCOVA were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that: (i) Fine Arts Students’ in the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group; (ii) there was a significant difference among high, medium and low ability levels mean scores of Fine Arts Students’ performance in Colleges of Education; (iii) there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and ability levels on the mean scores of Fine Arts Students’ performance in Colleges of Education and. The study concluded that Fine Arts Students exposed to web-enabled Sculpture package performed better than those taught using the conventional method. Based on the study it was recommended that lecturers in Colleges of Education should endeavour to adapt and utilise web-enabled Sculpture package for teaching sculpture.

Keywords: fine art, psychomotor, sculpture, web-enabled

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Authors: Mashaal Hooda

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The rationale for conducting this action research was to increase students' Academic Achievement (AA) contexts of studying/researching by employing the Goal Setting intervention (GS). The purposive sample consisted of 10 female undergraduate students at a university in Dubai. The intervention was introduced through workshop classes conducted online. The pre-intervention consisted of discussions concentrating on participants' research contexts amidst a pandemic. The GS moderators were implemented in the class, followed by scaffolding and mentoring interactions and self-reflective accounts of students' actions and feelings of using the intervention to better plan and structure their dissertation tasks. The research incorporated a Mixed Methods Methodology (MMM). Quantitative data collection took place through surveys, while qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Triangulation of the emergent themes showed a positive increase in students achievable GS, self-regulatory study skills, feedback-seeking behaviours, research organisation and synthesis, self-reflection and Academic Resilient (AR) attitudes amalgamate to enhance students' AA outcomes. Though, students' intrinsic motivational levels to study and research observed minor changes only. Nonetheless, the pebble in the shoe was removed as students AA contexts improved in undertaking better actionable steps for their research. Therefore, the GS intervention enabled students to set, balance, and achieve academic goals while catering to their academic anxieties, mental health concerns, and adaptability to the e-learning platforms amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the wide-scale changes the pandemic brought to the teaching and learning communities, the GS intervention served as a targeted intervention to help students maintain their achievement contexts in a goal-oriented way.

Keywords: academic achievement, acadeic resilience, COVID-19, goal setting

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Authors: Svitov David, Alyamkin Sergey

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The usage of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in conjunction with the margin-based softmax approach demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance for the face recognition problem. Recently, lightweight neural network models trained with the margin-based softmax have been introduced for the face identification task for edge devices. In this paper, we propose a distillation method for lightweight neural network architectures that outperforms other known methods for the face recognition task on LFW, AgeDB-30 and Megaface datasets. The idea of the proposed method is to use class centers from the teacher network for the student network. Then the student network is trained to get the same angles between the class centers and face embeddings predicted by the teacher network.

Keywords: ArcFace, distillation, face recognition, margin-based softmax

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Authors: Indhumathi Gopal

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Undergraduate research is well documented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), neurosciences, and microbiology disciplines, though it is hardly part of a physical fitness & wellness discipline. However, students need experiential learning opportunities, like internships and research assistantships, to get ahead with graduate schools and be gainfully employed. The first step towards this goal is to have students do a simple research project in a semester-long course. The value of research experiences and how to integrate research activity in a physical fitness & wellness course are discussed. The investigator looks into a mini research project, “Awareness of Obesity among College Students” and explains how to guide students through the research process, including journal search, data collection, and basic statistics. Besides, students will be introduced to the statistical package program SPSS 22.0 to assist with data evaluation. The lab component of the combined lecture-physical activity course could include the measurement of student’s weight with respect to their height to obtain body mass index (BMI). Students could categorize themselves in accordance with the World Health Organization’s guidelines. Results obtained after completing the data analysis help students be aware of their own potential health risks associated with overweight and obesity. Overweight and obesity are risk factors for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It is hoped that this experience will get students interested in scientific studies, gain confidence, think critically, and develop problem-solving and good communication skills.

Keywords: physical fitness, undergraduate research experience, obesity, BMI

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Authors: Benjawan Tipprachaban

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This research aims to investigate mistakes in translation, particularly from Thai to English, which cause translation problems for undergraduate students in Thailand. The researcher had the non-English major students of Suratthani Rajabhat University as samples. The data were collected by having 27 non-English major students translate 50 Thai sentences into English. After the translation, lots of mistakes were found and the researcher categorized them into 3 main types which were the grammatical mistake, the usage mistake, and the spelling mistake. However, this research is currently in the process of analyzing the data and shall be completed in August. The researcher, nevertheless, predicts that, of all the mistakes, the grammatical mistake will principally be made, the usage mistake and the spelling one respectively, which will support the researcher’s hypothesizes, i.e. 1) the grammatical mistake, mainly caused by language transfer, essentially leads to considerable translation problems; 2) the usage mistake is another critical problem that causes translation problems; 3) basic knowledge in Thai to English translation of undergraduate students in Thailand is at low level.

Keywords: English, language, Thai, translation

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Ayman Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Background & Aims: Audio-visual aids and computer-aided language instruction (CALI) have been documented to improve receptive skills, namely listening skills, in normal students. The increased listening has been attributed to the understanding of other interlocutors' speech, but recent experiments have suggested that audio-visual aids and CALI should be tested against the listening of students of special needs to see the effects of the former in the latter. This investigation described the effect of audio-visual aids and CALI on the performance of these students. Methods: Pre-and-posttests were administered to 40 students of special needs of both sexes at al-Malādh school for students of special needs aged between 8 and 18 years old. A comparison was held between this group of students and another similar group (control group). Whereas the former group underwent a listening course using audio-visual aids and CALI, the latter studied the same course with the same speech language therapist (SLT) with the classical method. The outcomes of the two tests for the two groups were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Results: Significant improvement in the performance was found in the first group (treatment group) (posttest= 72.45% vs. pre-test= 25.55%) in comparison to the second (control) (posttest= 25.55% vs. pre-test= 23.72%). In comparison to the males’ scores, the scores of females are higher (1487 scores vs. 1411 scores). Suggested results support the necessity of the use of audio-visual aids and CALI in teaching listening at the schools of students of special needs.

Keywords: listening, receptive skills, audio-visual aids, CALI, special needs

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Authors: Supranee Wattanasin

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This research study was a qualitative documentary research by using an in-depth interview with many experts in the field who has both knowledge and experience to provide information to create a strategic plan to enhance the students’ ethics. The findings revealed that there were five areas that require an attention. The five areas included honesty, accurate fact, human right, speed, and responsibility. The development of the strategic plan to enhance the ethics for students who major in communication arts can be concluded as follows. First, the government, private, and religion sectors need to come up together and set up the activities to promote the ethical standard in schools, universities, and organizations. Second, it is important to cultivate the knowledge that ethics is important of the professional jobs, especially in the mass communication and media. Third, the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy should be brought to explain to students in order for them to have some immunity to the negative attitude such as drinking alcohol, gambling, cut classes, and cheating at exams. Fourth, experts in the field of ethics should be found to provide more knowledge to students and allow students to participate in activities that will increase their experience and knowledge of the real world problem.

Keywords: communication arts, ethics, mass communication, media, strategy

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Authors: Phalaunnaphat Siriwongs

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The classroom of the 21st century is an ever-changing forum for new and innovative thoughts and ideas. With increasing technology and opportunity, students have rapid access to information that only decades ago would have taken weeks to obtain. Unfortunately, new techniques and technology are not a cure for the fundamental problems that have plagued the classroom ever since education was established. Class size has been an issue long debated in academia. While it is difficult to pinpoint an exact number, it is clear that in this case, more does not mean better. By looking into the success and pitfalls of classroom size, the true advantages of smaller classes becomes clear. Previously, one class was comprised of 50 students. Since they were seventeen- and eighteen-year-old students, it was sometimes quite difficult for them to stay focused. To help students understand and gain much knowledge, a researcher introduced “The Theory of Multiple Intelligence” and this, in fact, enabled students to learn according to their own learning preferences no matter how they were being taught. In this lesson, the researcher designed a cycle of learning activities involving all intelligences so that everyone had equal opportunities to learn.

Keywords: multiple intelligences, role play, performance assessment, formative assessment

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Authors: Hajar Al Rajaibi, Kawla Al Toubi, Saeed Al Jaadi, Deepali Jaju, Sanjay Jaju

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Background: The available evidence in Oman on lack of physical activity call for immediate intervention. Physical activity counseling by doctors to their patients is influenced by their attitudes and personal physical fitness. To our best knowledge, the physical activity status of Omani medical students has not been addressed before. These future doctors will have a critical role in improving physical activity in patients and thus their overall health. Objective: The aim of the study is to assess the physical activity level, physical fitness level, and attitudes towards physical activity among Sultan Qaboos University senior medical students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study (N=110; males 55), physical activity level was assessed using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ ) short form and attitudes towards physical activity using a fifty-four-items Kenyon questionnaire. The physical fitness level was assessed by estimating maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂max) using Chester step test. Results: Female students reported more sitting time more than 7hr/day (85.5%) compared to male students (40%; p < 0.05). The IPAQ revealed moderate level of physical activity in 58% of students. Students showed a high positive attitude towards physical activity for health and fitness and low attitude for physical activity as tension and risk. Both female and male students had a similar level and attitude towards physical activity. Physical fitness level was excellent (VO₂max > 55ml O₂/kg/min) in 11% of students, good (VO₂max>44-54ml O₂/kg/min) in 49% and average to below-average in 40%. Objectively measured physical fitness level, subjectively reported physical activity level or attitudes towards physical activity were not correlated. Conclusion: Omani medical students have a positive attitude towards physical activity but moderate physical activity level. Longer sitting time in females need further evaluation. Efforts are required to understand reasons for present physical activity level and to promote good physical activity among medical students by creating more awareness and facilities.

Keywords: Chester step test, Kenyon scale, medical students, physical activity, physical fitness

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Authors: Adawati Suhaili, Kamisah Osman, Mohd Effendi, Ewan Mohd Matore

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The global education reform has prompted Malaysia to transform the education system in Malaysia through the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025. This transformation is aimed to achieve the top one-third rank in international assessment. The low achievement of student scientific literacy in TIMMS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study ) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) has caused concern to the Ministry Of Education (MOE) despite various reform efforts. Therefore, an alternative action by enhancing the role of the Head of Science Panels (HoSPs) as a key change agent in catalyzing the improvement of student performance should be considered. Highlights of previous studies have shown that subject leadership is able to enhance teacher teaching quality in order to increase student learning. To lead the Science department and guide Science teachers more effectively, HoSPs need to strengthen their leadership skills. However, the issue of weaknesses in the leadership competencies of HoSPs in Malaysia has caused them to lack confidence and ability in leading the Science Department. The main objective of this study is to explore the factors that contribute to the problems faced by HoSPs at Sarawak in their leadership roles. This study used a qualitative design framework and using a semi-structured interview method for data collection. There were six informants involved in the interview consisting of lecturers, Senior Administrative Assistant Teacher and HoSPs. The findings of the study had been identified four main factors that contribute to problems in the leadership competencies of HoSPs in Sarawak, namely leadership practices, leadership structure, academic subjects and school change. The results are significant to the MOE in strengthening the leadership competencies of HoSPs in a more focus for improving the achievement of scientific literacy of students in Malaysia. This study can help improve the Hosps' leadership competencies in Malaysia.

Keywords: issues, problems, Malaysia education blueprint, leadership competencies, head of science panels

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Authors: Louella Nicole Gamao

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Writing in English is accounted as a complex skill and process for foreign language learners who commit errors in writing are found as an inevitable part of language learners' writing. This study aims to explore and analyze the learners of English-as-a foreign Language (EFL) freewriting in a University in Taiwan by identifying the category of mistakes that often appear in their freewriting activity and analyzing the learners' awareness of each error. Hopefully, this present study will be able to gain further information about students' errors in their English writing that may contribute to further understanding of the benefits of freewriting activity that can be used for future purposes as a powerful tool in English writing courses for EFL classes. The present study adopted the framework of error analysis proposed by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), which consisted of a compilation of data, identification of errors, classification of error types, calculation of frequency of each error, and error interpretation. Survey questionnaires regarding students' awareness of errors were also analyzed and discussed. Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study provides a detailed description of the errors found in the students'freewriting output, explores the similarities and differences of the students' errors in both academic writing and freewriting, and lastly, analyzes the students' perception of their errors.

Keywords: error, EFL, freewriting, taiwan, english

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Authors: Erteki̇n Kotbaş

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is on the front burner of many countries in the world, in particular for English language teaching departments that train EFL teachers. Under the head of motivational theories in foreign language education, there are numerous researches in literature. However; researches comprising English language self-efficacy and teachers’ learning goal orientation which has a positive impact on learning teachings skills are scarce. Examination of these English language self-efficacy beliefs and learning goal orientations of pre-service EFL teachers may broaden the horizons, considering the importance of self-efficacy and goal orientation on learning and teaching activities. At this juncture, present study aims to investigate the strong relationship between English language self efficacy and teachers’ learning goal orientation from Turkish context in addition to teacher students’ grade factor.

Keywords: English language, learning goal orientation, self efficacy, pre-service teachers

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Authors: Samanik

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This writing is correlated with English teaching material development, Contextual Teaching Learning (CTL). CTL is believed to facilitate students with real world challenge. Contextual Teaching and Learning is identified as a promising strategy that actively engages students and promotes skills development. It is based on the notion that learning can only occur when students are able to connect between content and context. It also helps teachers link between the materials taught with real-world situations and encourage students to make connection between the knowledge possessed by its application. Besides, it directs students to be critical and analytical. In accordance, this paper looks for the opportunity to improve EFL learners’ English speaking skill through tour guide presentation. A single case study will be conducted to highlight EFL learners’ experience of doing tour guide presentation in the English class room setting. The writer assumes that CLT will contribute positively to EFL learners’ English speaking skill.

Keywords: English speaking skill, contextual teaching learning, tour guide presentation

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Authors: K. Sindhu, V. Shubha Rao

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The goal of every faculty is to guide students to learn fundamental concepts and also improve thinking skills. Curriculum questionnaires must be framed, which would facilitate students to improve their thinking skills. Improving thinking skill is a difficult task and one of the ways to achieve this is to frame questionnaires using Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy helps the faculty to assess the students in a systematic approach which involves students performing successfully at each level in a systematic manner. In this paper, we have discussed on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and how to frame our questions based on the taxonomy for assessment. We have also presented mapping the questions with the taxonomy table which shows the mapping of the questions in knowledge and cognitive domain.

Keywords: bloom’s taxonomy, assessment, questions, engineering education

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Authors: Yangming Zhu, Mingming Guo, Xiaozan Wang

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Introduction: The purpose of this study is to integrate functional training into physical education to test the effectiveness of functional training in improving the physical fitness (PF) and sport skills (SS) of female college students. Methods: A total of 54 female college students from East China Normal University were selected for this study (27 in the experimental group and 27 in the control group), and 13 weeks of the experimental intervention was conducted during the semester. During the experimental period, the experimental group was functionally trained for 1 hour per week. The control group performed one-hour weekly sports (such as basketball, football, etc.) as usual. Before and after the experiment, the national students' physical fitness test was used to test the PF of the experimental group and the control group, and the SS of the experimental group and the control group were tested before and after the intervention. Then using SPSS and Excel to organize and analyze the data. Results: The independent sample T-test showed that there was no significant difference in the PF and SS between the experimental group and the control group before the experiment (T PF=71.86, p PF> 0.05, Tₛₛ=82.41,pₛₛ > 0.05); After the experiment, the PF of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (T Improve=71.86, p Improve < 0.05); after the experiment, the SS of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (Tₛₛ = 1.31, pₛₛ <0.01) Conclusions: Integrating functional training into physical education can improve the PF of female college students. At the same time, the integration of functional training into physical education can also effectively improve the SS of female college students. Therefore, it is suggested that functional training be integrated into the daily physical education of female college students so as to improve their PF and SS.

Keywords: functional training, physical fitness, sport skills, female college students

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Authors: Ruwandika Perera

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Even though the Sri Lankan government provides a reasonable level of support for students at all levels of the school system, for example, free education, textbooks, school uniforms, subsidized public transportation, and school meals, low participation in learning among secondary students is an issue warranting investigation, particularly in low socio-economic districts. This study attempted to determine the levels of motivation and engagement amongst students in a number of schools in two low socio-economic districts of Sri Lanka. This study employed quantitative research design in an attempt to determine levels of motivation and engagement amongst Sri Lankan secondary school students. Motivation and Engagement Scale-Junior School (MES-JS) was administered among 100 Sinhala-medium and 100 Tamil-medium eighth-grade students (50 students from each gender). The mean age of the students was 12.8 years. Schools were represented by type 2 government schools located in Monaragala and Nuwara Eliya districts in Sri Lanka. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to measure the construct validity of the scale. Since this did not provide a robust solution, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted. Four factors were identified; Failure Avoidance and Anxiety (FAA), Positive Motivation (PM), Uncertain Control (UC), and Positive Engagement (PE). An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare PM, PE, FAA, and UC in gender and ethnic groups. There was no significant difference identified for PE, FAA, and UC scales based upon gender. These results indicate that for the participants in this study, there were no significant differences based on gender in the levels of failure avoidance and anxiety, uncertain control, and positive engagement in the school experience. But, the result for the PM scale was close to significant, indicating there may be differences based on gender for positive motivation. A significant difference exists for all scales based on ethnicity, with the mean result for the Tamil students being significantly higher than that for the Sinhala students. These results indicate those Sinhala-medium students’ levels of positive motivation and positive engagement in learning was lower than Tamil-medium students. Also, these results indicate those Tamil-medium students’ levels of failure avoidance, anxiety, and uncertain control was higher than Sinhala-medium students. It could be concluded that male students levels of PM were significantly lower than female students. Also, Sinhala-medium students’ levels of PM and PE was lower than Tamil-medium students, and Tamil-medium students levels of FAA and UC was significantly higher than Sinhala-medium students. Thus, there might be particular school-related conditions affecting this situation, which are related to early adolescents’ motivation and engagement in learning.

Keywords: early adolescents, engagement, low socio-economic districts, motivation

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Authors: Anne E. Goodenough

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One of the most important roles of higher education professionals is to ensure that graduates have excellent employment prospects. This means providing students with the skills necessary to be immediately effective in the workplace. Increasingly, universities are seeking to achieve this by moving from lecture-based and campus-delivered curricula to more varied delivery, which takes students out of their academic comfort zone and allows them to engage with, and be challenged by, real world issues. One popular approach is integration of problem-based learning (PBL) projects into curricula. However, although the potential benefits of PBL are considerable, it can be difficult to devise projects that are meaningful, such that they can be regarded as mere ‘hoop jumping’ exercises. This study examines three-way partnerships between academics, students, and external link organizations. It studied the experiences of all partners involved in different collaborative projects to identify how benefits can be maximized and challenges overcome. Focal collaborations included: (1) development of real-world modules with novel assessment whereby the organization became the ‘client’ for student consultancy work; (2) frameworks where students collected/analyzed data for link organizations in research methods modules; (3) placement-based internships and dissertations; (4) immersive fieldwork projects in novel locations; and (5) students working as partners on staff-led research with link organizations. Focus groups, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to identify opportunities and barriers, while quantitative analysis of students’ grades was used to determine academic effectiveness. Common challenges identified by academics were finding suitable link organizations and devising projects that simultaneously provided education opportunities and tangible benefits. There was no ‘one size fits all’ formula for success, but careful planning and ensuring clarity of roles/responsibilities were vital. Students were very positive about collaboration projects. They identified benefits to confidence, time-keeping and communication, as well as conveying their enthusiasm when their work was of benefit to the wider community. They frequently highlighted employability opportunities that collaborative projects opened up and analysis of grades demonstrated the potential for such projects to increase attainment. Organizations generally recognized the value of project outputs, but often required considerable assistance to put the right scaffolding in place to ensure projects worked. Benefits were maximized by ensuring projects were well-designed, innovative, and challenging. Co-publication of projects in peer-reviewed journals sometimes gave additional benefits for all involved, being especially beneficial for student curriculum vitae. PBL and student projects are by no means new pedagogic approaches: the novelty here came from creating meaningful three-way partnerships between academics, students, and link organizations at all undergraduate levels. Such collaborations can allow students to make a genuine contribution to knowledge, answer real questions, solve actual problems, all while providing tangible benefits to organizations. Because projects are actually needed, students tend to engage with learning at a deep level. This enhances student experience, increases attainment, encourages development of subject-specific and transferable skills, and promotes networking opportunities. Such projects frequently rely upon students and staff working collaboratively, thereby also acting to break down the traditional teacher/learner division that is typically unhelpful in developing students as advanced learners.

Keywords: higher education, employability, link organizations, innovative teaching and learning methods, interactions between enterprise and education, student experience

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Authors: Mary Fargher

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This paper examines the opportunities of using a more hierarchical approach to geospatial enquiry in using GIS in school geography. A case is made that it is not just the lack of teacher technological knowledge that is stopping some teachers from using GIS in the classroom but that there is a gap in their understanding of how to link GIS use more specifically to the pedagogy of teaching geography with GIS. Using a hierarchical approach to geospatial enquiry as a theoretical framework, the analysis shows clearly how concepts of spatial distribution, interaction, relation, comparison, and temporal relationships can be used by teachers more explicitly to capitalise on the analytical power of GIS and to construct what can be interpreted as powerful geographical knowledge. An exemplar illustrating this approach on the topic of geo-hazards is then presented for critical analysis and discussion. Recommendations are then made for a model of progression for geography teacher education with GIS through hierarchical geospatial enquiry that takes into account beginner, intermediate, and more advanced users.

Keywords: digital geography, GIS, education, hierarchical geospatial enquiry, powerful geographical knowledge

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Authors: Lizmol Mathew, Divya Thomas, Shiney Rajan

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Educational paradigm all over the globe is undergoing significant reform today. Because of this, so-called flipped classroom model is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. Flipped classroom has proved to be more effective than traditional lecture based model as flipped classroom model promotes active learning by encouraging students to work on in collaborative tasks and peer-led learning during the class-time. However, success of flipped classrooms relies on students’ ability and their attitudes towards collaboration and group work. This paper examines: 1) Students’ attitudes towards collaborative learning; 2) Main challenges to successful collaboration from students’ experience and 3) Students’ perception of criteria for successful team work. 4) Recommendations for enhancing collaborative learning. This study’s methodology involves quantitative analysis of surveys collected from students enrolled in undergraduate Architecture program at Qatar University. Analysis indicates that in general students enrolled in the program do not have positive perceptions or experiences associated with group work. Positive and negative factors that influence collaborative learning in higher education have been identified. Recommendations for improving collaborative work experience have been proposed.

Keywords: architecture, collaborative learning, female, group work, higher education, Middle East, Qatar, student experience

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Authors: Marina Wagdy Nageeb Eskander

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A descriptive statistical analysis of the data showed that the most important factor evoking negative attitudes among teachers is student behavior. have been presented as useful models for understanding the risk factors and protective factors associated with the emergence of autistic traits. Although these "syndrome" forms of autism reach clinical thresholds, they appear to be distinctly different from the idiopathic or "non-syndrome" autism phenotype. Most teachers reported that kindergartens did not prepare them for the educational needs of children with autism, particularly in relation to non-verbal skills. The study is important and points the way for improving teacher inclusion education in Thailand. Inclusive education for students with autism is still in its infancy in Thailand. Although the number of autistic children in schools has increased significantly since the Thai government introduced the Education Regulations for Persons with Disabilities Act in 2008, there is a general lack of services for autistic students and their families. This quantitative study used the Teaching Skills and Readiness Scale for Students with Autism (APTSAS) to test the attitudes and readiness of 110 elementary school teachers when teaching students with autism in general education classrooms. To uncover the true nature of these co morbidities, it is necessary to expand the definition of autism to include the cognitive features of the disorder, and then apply this expanded conceptualization to examine patterns of autistic syndromes. This study used various established eye-tracking paradigms to assess the visual and attention performance of children with DS and FXS who meet the autism thresholds defined in the Social Communication Questionnaire. To study whether the autistic profiles of these children are associated with visual orientation difficulties ("sticky attention"), decreased social attention, and increased visual search performance, all of which are hallmarks of the idiopathic autistic child phenotype. Data will be collected from children with DS and FXS, aged 6 to 10 years, and two control groups matched for age and intellectual ability (i.e., children with idiopathic autism).In order to enable a comparison of visual attention profiles, cross-sectional analyzes of developmental trajectories are carried out. Significant differences in the visual-attentive processes underlying the presentation of autism in children with FXS and DS have been suggested, supporting the concept of syndrome specificity. The study provides insights into the complex heterogeneity associated with autism syndrome symptoms and autism itself, with clinical implications for the utility of autism intervention programs in DS and FXS populations.

Keywords: attitude, autism, teachers, sports activities, movement skills, motor skills

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Authors: Chatcai Tangsri, Onjaree Na-Takuatoong

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

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

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Authors: Marzieh Talebzadeh Shoushtari

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The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Metaphor therapy on depression among female students. The sample included 60 female students with depression symptoms selected by simple sampling and randomly divided into two equal groups (experimental and control groups). Beck Depression Inventory was used to measure the variables. This was an experimental study with a pre-test/post-test design with control group. Eight metaphor therapy sessions were held for the experimental group. A post-test was administered to both groups. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results showed that the Metaphor therapy decreased depression in the experimental group compared to the control group.

Keywords: metaphor therapy, depression, female, students

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Authors: Jing Yuan, Hongwei Yang

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This paper aims to understand U.S. middle school students’ mathematics achievements by examining relevant student and school-level predictors. Through a variance component analysis, the study first identifies evidence supporting the use of multilevel modeling. Then, a multilevel analysis is performed under Bayesian statistical inference where prior information is incorporated into the modeling process. During the analysis, independent variables are entered sequentially in the order of theoretical importance to create a hierarchy of models. By evaluating each model using Bayesian fit indices, a best-fit and most parsimonious model is selected where Bayesian statistical inference is performed for the purpose of result interpretation and discussion. The primary dataset for Bayesian modeling is derived from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012 with a secondary PISA dataset from 2003 analyzed under the traditional ordinary least squares method to provide the information needed to specify informative priors for a subset of the model parameters. The dependent variable is a composite measure of mathematics literacy, calculated from an exploratory factor analysis of all five PISA 2012 mathematics achievement plausible values for which multiple evidences are found supporting data unidimensionality. The independent variables include demographics variables and content-specific variables: mathematics efficacy, teacher-student ratio, proportion of girls in the school, etc. Finally, the entire analysis is performed using the MCMCpack and MCMCglmm packages in R.

Keywords: Bayesian multilevel modeling, mathematics education, PISA, multilevel

Procedia PDF Downloads 336