Search results for: language teaching competence

Authors: Pamela-Zoe Topalli, Niina Junttila, Päivi M. Niemi, Klaus Ranta

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Adolescents’ biased perceptions about their social competence (SC), whether negatively or positively, serve to influence their socioemotional adjustment such as early feelings of social phobia (nowadays referred to as Social Anxiety Disorder-SAD). Despite the importance of biased self-perceptions in adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment, the extent to which discrepancies between self- and others’ evaluations of one’s SC are linked to social phobic symptoms remains unclear in the literature. This study examined the perceptual discrepancy profiles between self- and peers’ as well as between self- and teachers’ evaluations of adolescents’ SC and the interrelations of these profiles with self-reported social phobic symptoms. The participants were 390 3^rd graders (15 years old) of Finnish lower secondary school (50.8% boys, 49.2% girls). In contrast with variable-centered approaches that have mainly been used by previous studies when focusing on this subject, this study used latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered approach which can provide information regarding risk profiles by capturing the heterogeneity within a population and classifying individuals into groups. LPA revealed the following five classes of discrepancy profiles: i) extremely negatively biased perceptions of SC, ii) negatively biased perceptions of SC, iii) quite realistic perceptions of SC, iv) positively biased perceptions of SC, and v) extremely positively biased perceptions of SC. Adolescents with extremely negatively biased perceptions and negatively biased perceptions of their own SC reported the highest number of social phobic symptoms. Adolescents with quite realistic, positively biased and extremely positively biased perceptions reported the lowest number of socio-phobic symptoms. The results point out the negatively and the extremely negatively biased perceptions as possible contributors to social phobic symptoms. Moreover, the association of quite realistic perceptions with low number of social phobic symptoms indicates its potential protective power against social phobia. Finally, positively and extremely positively biased perceptions of SC are negatively associated with social phobic symptoms in this study. However, the profile of extremely positively biased perceptions might be linked as well with the existence of externalizing problems such as antisocial behavior (e.g. disruptive impulsivity). The current findings highlight the importance of considering discrepancies between self- and others’ perceptions of one’s SC in clinical and research efforts. Interventions designed to prevent or moderate social phobic symptoms need to take into account individual needs rather than aiming for uniform treatment. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: adolescence, latent profile analysis, perceptual discrepancies, social competence, social phobia

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Authors: Bok Check Meng, Goh Ying Soon

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Giving additional learning materials such as Chinese fantasy novel to non-native learners can be strenuous. Instructors have to understand the underpinning theories about cognitive theory for new word instruction. This paper discusses the underpinning theories. Relevant literature reviews are given. There are basically five major areas of cognitive related theories mentioned in this article. These include motivational learning theory, Affective theory of learning, Cognitive psychology theory, Vocabulary acquisition theory and Bloom’s cognitive levels theory. A theoretical framework has been constructed. Thus, this will give a hand in ensuring non-native learners might gain positive outcomes in the instruction process. Instructors who are interested in teaching new word from Chinese fantasy novel in specific to support additional learning might be able to get insights from this article.

Keywords: Chinese fantasy novel, new word teaching, non-native learners, cognitive theory, bloom

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Authors: Chithra A. V., Somoshree Datta, Sandeep Nithyanandan

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Sign Language Recognition (SLR) is the process of interpreting and translating sign language into spoken or written language using technological systems. It involves recognizing hand gestures, facial expressions, and body movements that makeup sign language communication. The primary goal of SLR is to facilitate communication between hearing- and speech-impaired communities and those who do not understand sign language. Due to the increased awareness and greater recognition of the rights and needs of the hearing- and speech-impaired community, sign language recognition has gained significant importance over the past 10 years. Technological advancements in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have made it more practical and feasible to create accurate SLR systems. This paper presents a distinct approach to SLR by framing it as a video classification problem using Deep Learning (DL), whereby a combination of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) has been used. This research targets the integration of sign language recognition into healthcare settings, aiming to improve communication between medical professionals and patients with hearing impairments. The spatial features from each video frame are extracted using a CNN, which captures essential elements such as hand shapes, movements, and facial expressions. These features are then fed into an RNN network that learns the temporal dependencies and patterns inherent in sign language sequences. The INCLUDE dataset has been enhanced with more videos from the healthcare domain and the model is evaluated on the same. Our model achieves 91% accuracy, representing state-of-the-art performance in this domain. The results highlight the effectiveness of treating SLR as a video classification task with the CNN-RNN architecture. This approach not only improves recognition accuracy but also offers a scalable solution for real-time SLR applications, significantly advancing the field of accessible communication technologies.

Keywords: sign language recognition, deep learning, convolution neural network, recurrent neural network

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Authors: Aabha Chaubey, Bani Bhattacharya

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Evaluation of the quality of teaching in engineering education in India needs to be conducted on a continuous basis to achieve the best teaching quality in technical education. Quality teaching is an influential factor in technical education which impacts largely on learning outcomes of the students. Present study is not exclusively theory-driven, but it draws on various specific concepts and constructs in the domain of technical education. These include teaching and learning in higher education, teacher effectiveness, and teacher evaluation and performance management in higher education. Student Evaluation of Education Quality (SEEQ) was proposed as one of the evaluation instruments of the quality teaching in engineering education. SEEQ is one of the popular and standard instrument widely utilized all over the world and bears the validity and reliability in educational world. The present study was designed to evaluate the teaching quality through SEEQ in the context of technical education in India, including its validity and reliability based on the collected data. The multiple dimensionality of SEEQ that is present in every teaching and learning process made it quite suitable to collect the feedback of students regarding the quality of instructions and instructor. The SEEQ comprises of 9 original constructs i.e.; learning value, teacher enthusiasm, organization, group interaction, and individual rapport, breadth of coverage, assessment, assignments and overall rating of particular course and instructor with total of 33 items. In the present study, a total of 350 samples comprising first year undergraduate students from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT, Kharagpur, India) were included for the evaluation of the importance of SEEQ. They belonged to four different courses of different streams of engineering studies. The above studies depicted the validity and reliability of SEEQ was based upon the collected data. This further needs Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Analysis of Moment structure (AMOS) for various scaled instrument like SEEQ Cronbach’s alpha which are associated with SPSS for the examination of the internal consistency. The evaluation of the effectiveness of SEEQ in CFA is implemented on the basis of fit indices such as CMIN/df, CFI, GFI, AGFI and RMSEA readings. The major findings of this study showed the fitness indices such as ChiSq = 993.664,df = 390,ChiSq/df = 2.548,GFI = 0.782,AGFI = 0.736,CFI = 0.848,RMSEA = 0.062,TLI = 0.945,RMR = 0.029,PCLOSE = 0.006. The final analysis of the fit indices presented positive construct validity and stability, on the other hand a higher reliability was also depicted which indicated towards internal consistency. Thus, the study suggests the effectivity of SEEQ as the indicator of the quality evaluation instrument in teaching-learning process in engineering education in India. Therefore, it is expected that with the continuation of this research in engineering education there remains a possibility towards the betterment of the quality of the technical education in India. It is also expected that this study will provide an empirical and theoretical logic towards locating a construct or factor related to teaching, which has the greatest impact on teaching and learning process in a particular course or stream in engineering education.

Keywords: confirmatory factor analysis, engineering education, SEEQ, teaching and learning process

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Authors: Carrollyne Aasen, Laverne Seales

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With increased Latinx communities within the United States, specifically in California, and more universities receiving designations of Hispanic-Serving institutions, Spanish programs have evolved to include more targeted and applicable practical skills. The Spanish program in the Languages and Cultures Department at California Lutheran University incorporated an interdisciplinary project with the Communication Department to create student-generated Spanish-language news inserts, which serve as a sister publication to the English-language student newspaper, The Echo. California Lutheran University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, meaning it is an accredited undergraduate institution with full-time Hispanic/Latinx students equivalent to at least 25 percent of the total students enrolled. As a Hispanic Serving Institution with growing numbers of bilingual students, faculty, staff, and community members, the need for more information aimed at Hispanic/Latinx communities increased, resulting in the opportunity to reflect topics of interest by community members. This project was developed to fulfill the Spanish program's goals for proficiency by using the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines and the university's need to support students and the community's voices. This article describes the stages from inception to production and the incorporation of journalism principles into the Spanish curriculum.

Keywords: interdisciplinary, media, foreign languages, HSI

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Authors: Bola M. Tunde-Awe

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The study investigated the influence of teacher’s non-verbal communication on secondary school students’ learning outcomes in English language. The study was a survey research. Participants were three hundred Senior Secondary School II students randomly selected from ten schools in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire containing twenty items on a four-point Likert scale which measured teacher’s use of three types of non-verbal communication modes: body movement, eye contact and spatial distance. The data collected was analysed using simple percentage. Findings revealed that teacher’s use of these non-verbal communication modes enhanced learners’ learning outcomes in English language: a total of 271 (90.33%) participants affirmed that teacher’s body language influenced their learning of English; 224 (74.66%) maintained the same stand for eye contact; while 202 (67.33%) affirmed that teacher’s spatial distance had positive influence. Consequent upon these findings, it was recommended that teachers of English language should constantly utilize non-verbal communication in their instructional delivery. Also, non-verbal communication modes should be included in teacher education programme to equip prospective pre-service teachers with the art of non-verbal communication.

Keywords: non-verbal communication, body language, eye contact, spatial distance, learning outcomes

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Authors: Maggie Hui

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Risk management is not a new concept; however, it is an uncharted area as applied to the translation process and translator training. Serving as one of the self-discovery activities in their practicum course, a two-cycle experiment was carried out with a class of 13 MA translation students with an attempt to explore their risk management while translating in a simulated setting that involves translator-client relations. To test the effects of the main variable of translators’ interaction with the simulated clients, the researcher employed control-group translators and two experiment groups (with Group A being the translator in Cycle 1 and the client in Cycle 2, and Group B on the client position in Cycle 1 and the translator position in Cycle 2). Experiment cycle 1 aims to explore if there would be any behavioral difference in risk management between translators with interaction with the simulated clients, i.e. experiment group A, and their counterparts without such interaction, i.e. control group. Design of Cycle 2 concerns the order of playing different roles of the translator and client in the experiment, and provides information to compare behavior of translators of the two experiment groups. Since this is process-oriented research, it is necessary to hypothesize what was happening in the translators’ minds. The researcher made use of a user-friendly screen-voice recording freeware to record subjects’ screen activities, including every word the translator typed and every change they made to the rendition, the websites they browsed and the reference tools they used, in addition to the verbalization of their thoughts throughout the process. The research observes the translation procedures subjects considered and finally adopted, and looks into the justifications for their procedures, in order to interpret their risk management. The qualitative and quantitative results of this study have some implications for translator training: (a) the experience of being a client seems to reinforce the translator’s risk aversion; (b) the use of role-playing simulation can empower students’ learning by enhancing their attitudinal or psycho-physiological competence, interpersonal competence and strategic competence; and (c) the screen-voice recordings serve as a helpful tool for learners to reflect on their rendition processes, i.e. what they performed satisfactorily and unsatisfactorily while translating and what they could do for improvement in future translation tasks.

Keywords: risk management, screen-voice recordings, simulated translator-client relations, translation pedagogy, translation process-oriented research

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Authors: Fang Tan

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This research focuses on the appropriate use of lexical bundles in spoken discourse, particularly in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in Northeast China. While previous studies have mainly examined lexical bundles in written discourse, there is a need to investigate their usage in spoken discourse due to the limited availability of spoken discourse corpora. English teachers’ use of lexical bundles is crucial for effective teaching and communication in the EFL classroom. The aim of this study is to investigate the functions of four-word lexical bundles in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes in Northeast China. Specifically, the research focuses on the usage of stance bundles, which were found to be the most significant type of bundle in the analyzed corpus. By comparing the self-built university spoken English classroom discourse corpus with the other self-built university English for General Purposes (EGP) corpus, the study aims to highlight the difference in bundle usage between native and non-native teachers in EFL classrooms. The research employs a corpus-based study. The observed corpus consists of more than 300,000 tokens, in which the data has been collected in the past five years. The reference corpus is composed of over 800,000 tokens, in which the data has been collected over 12 years. All the primary data collection involved transcribing and annotating spoken English classes taught by native English teachers. The analysis procedures included identifying and categorizing four-word lexical bundles, with specific emphasis on stance bundles. Frequency counts, and comparisons with the Chinese English teachers’ corpus were conducted to identify patterns and differences in bundle usage. The research addresses the following questions: 1) What are the functions of four-word lexical bundles in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes? 2) How do stance bundles differ in usage between native and non-native English teachers’ classes? 3) What implications can be drawn for English teachers’ professional development based on the findings? In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the usage of four-word lexical bundles, particularly stance bundles, in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes in Northeast China. The research highlights the difference in bundle usage between native and non-native English teachers’ classes and provides implications for English teachers’ professional development. The findings contribute to the understanding of lexical bundle usage in EFL classroom discourse and have theoretical importance for language teaching methodologies. The self-built university English classroom discourse corpus used in this research is a valuable resource for future studies in this field.

Keywords: EFL classroom discourse, four-word lexical bundles, stance, implication

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Authors: Charlotte Brenner

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Teachers’ beleifs about inclusion are foundational to their implementation of inclusive teaching practices. Utilizing a longitudinal design and multiple case study methodology, this study investigates how teacher candidates’ instructional and practicum experiences shape their beliefs about inclusion in one teacher education program located in western Canada (N=20). Interview questions were developed through the lens of self-determinaiton theory and theory about teachers’ beleifs and inclusion. Preliminary thematic ananysis indicates that a 36-hour course focused on diversity and inclusion supports teacher candiates to deepen their understandings of: the need for inclusion in classrooms and strategies to promote inclusion. Furthermore, teacher candiates identified course components that fostered their developing understandings of inclusion. Future data will examine the stability of teacher candidates’ beliefs about inclusion and their implementation of inclusive teaching strategies throughout their practicum experiences.

Keywords: teacher candidates, inclusion, teacher education programs, beliefs

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Authors: K. V. F. Fatokun, P. A. Eniayeju

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This study concerns the effects of concept mapping-guided discovery integrated teaching approach on the learning style and achievement of chemistry students. The sample comprised 162 senior secondary school (SS 2) students drawn from two science schools in Nasarawa State which have equivalent mean scores of 9.68 and 9.49 in their pre-test. Five instruments were developed and validated while the sixth was purely adopted by the investigator for the study, Four null hypotheses were tested at α = 0.05 level of significance. Chi square analysis showed that there is a significant shift in students’ learning style from accommodating and diverging to converging and assimilating when exposed to concept mapping- guided discovery approach. Also t-test and ANOVA that those in experimental group achieve and retain content learnt better. Results of the Scheffe’s test for multiple comparisons showed that boys in the experimental group performed better than girls. It is therefore concluded that the concept mapping-guided discovery integrated approach should be used in secondary schools to successfully teach electrochemistry. It is strongly recommended that chemistry teachers should be encouraged to adopt this method for teaching difficult concepts.

Keywords: integrated teaching approach, concept mapping-guided discovery, achievement, retention, learning styles and interest

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Authors: Nelomi Anandagoda, Leanne J. Eveson

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in in-patient admissions across the medical directorate of a district general hospital necessitated the implementation of an incident rota. Conscious of the impact on training and professional development, the idea of developing a virtual teaching programme was conceived. The programme initially aimed to provide junior doctors, specialist nurses, pharmacists, and allied healthcare professionals from medical specialties and those re-deployed from other specialties (e.g., ophthalmology, GP, surgery, psychiatry) the knowledge and skills to manage the deteriorating patient with COVID-19. The programme was later developed to incorporate the general internal medicine curriculum. To facilitate continuing medical education whilst maintaining social distancing during this period, a virtual platform was used to deliver teaching to junior doctors across two large district general hospitals and two community hospitals. Teaching sessions were recorded and uploaded to a common platform, providing a resource for participants to catch up on and re-watch teaching sessions, making strides towards reducing discrimination against the professional development of less than full-time trainees. Thus, creating a learning environment, which is inclusive and accessible to adult learners in a self-directed manner. The negative impact of the pandemic on the well-being of healthcare professionals is well documented. To support the multi-disciplinary team, the virtual teaching programme evolved to included sessions on well-being, resilience, and work-life balance. Providing teaching for learners across the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) has been an eye-opening experience. By challenging the concept that learners should only be taught within their own peer groups, the authors have fostered a greater appreciation of the strengths of the MDT and showcased the immense wealth of expertise available within the trust. The inclusive nature of the teaching and the ease of joining a virtual teaching session has facilitated the dissemination of knowledge across the MDT, thus improving patient care on the frontline. The weekly teaching programme has been running for over eight months, with ongoing engagement, interest, and participation. As described above, the teaching programme has evolved to accommodate the needs of its learners. It has received excellent feedback with an appreciation of its inclusive, multi-disciplinary, and holistic nature. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a catalyst to rapidly develop novel methods of working and training and widened access/exposure to the virtual technologies available to large organisations. By merging pedagogical expertise and technology, the authors have created an effective online learning environment. Although the authors do not propose to replace face-to-face teaching altogether, this model of virtual multidisciplinary team, cross-site teaching has proven to be a great leveler. It has made high-quality teaching accessible to learners of different confidence levels, grades, specialties, and working patterns.

Keywords: cross-site, cross-speciality, inter-disciplinary, multidisciplinary, virtual teaching

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Authors: Abdullah Nurus Salam Khan, Farhana Karim, Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury, S. Masum Billah, Nabila Zaka, Alexander Manu, Shams El Arifeen

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Globally, pre-eclampsia (PE) and ante-partum haemorrhage (APH) are two major causes of maternal mortality. Prompt identification and management of these conditions depend on competency of the birth attendants. Since these conditions are infrequent to be observed, clinical vignette based assessment could identify the extent of health worker’s competence in managing emergency obstetric care (EmOC). During June-August 2016, competence of 39 medical officers (MO) and 95 nurses working in obstetric ward of 15 government health facilities (3 district hospital, 12 sub-district hospital) was measured using clinical vignettes on PE and APH. The vignettes resulted in three outcome measures: total vignette scores, scores for diagnosis component, and scores for management component. T-test was conducted to compare mean vignette scores and linear regression was conducted to measure the strength and association of vignette scores with different cadres of health workers, facility’s readiness for EmOC and average annual utilization of normal deliveries after adjusting for type of health facility, health workers’ work experience, training status on managing maternal complication. For each of the seven component of EmOC items (administration of injectable antibiotics, oxytocic and anticonvulsant; manual removal of retained placenta, retained products of conception; blood transfusion and caesarean delivery), if any was practised in the facility within last 6 months, a point was added and cumulative EmOC readiness score (range: 0-7) was generated for each facility. The yearly utilization of delivery cases were identified by taking the average of all normal deliveries conducted during three years (2013-2015) preceding the survey. About 31% of MO and all nurses were female. Mean ( ± sd) age of the nurses were higher than the MO (40.0 ± 6.9 vs. 32.2 ± 6.1 years) and also longer mean( ± sd) working experience (8.9 ± 7.9 vs. 1.9 ± 3.9 years). About 80% health workers received any training on managing maternal complication, however, only 7% received any refresher’s training within last 12 months. The overall vignette score was 8.8 (range: 0-19), which was significantly higher among MO than nurses (10.7 vs. 8.1, p < 0.001) and the score was not associated with health facility types, training status and years of experience of the providers. Vignette score for management component (range: 0-9) increased with higher annual average number of deliveries in their respective working facility (adjusted β-coefficient 0.16, CI 0.03-0.28, p=0.01) and increased with each unit increase in EmOC readiness score (adjusted β-coefficient 0.44, CI 0.04-0.8, p=0.03). The diagnosis component of vignette score was not associated with any of the factors except it was higher among the MO than the nurses (adjusted β-coefficient 1.2, CI 0.13-2.18, p=0.03). Lack of competence in diagnosing and managing obstetric complication by the nurses than the MO is of concern especially when majority of normal deliveries are conducted by the nurses. Better EmOC preparedness of the facility and higher utilization of normal deliveries resulted in higher vignette score for the management component; implying the impact of experiential learning through higher case management. Focus should be given on improving the facility readiness for EmOC and providing the health workers periodic refresher’s training to make them more competent in managing obstetric cases.

Keywords: Bangladesh, emergency obstetric care, clinical vignette, competence of health workers

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Authors: Rendong Cai, Bei Peng, Yanping Dong

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In risk decision making, individuals are found to be susceptible to 'frames': people tend to be risk averse when the choice is described in terms of potential 'gains' (gain frame), whereas they tend to be risk seeking when the same choice is described in terms of potential 'losses' (loss frame); this effect is termed the framing effect. The framing effect has been well documented and some studies even find a developmental reversal in the framing effect: The more experience an individual has in a certain field, the easier for him to be influenced by the frame relevant to the field, resulting in greater decision inconsistency. Recent studies reported that using a foreign language can reduce the framing effect. However, it is not clear whether foreign language use can overcome the developmental reversal in the framing effect. The present study investigated three potential factors that may influence the developmental reversal in the framing effect: specialized knowledge of the participants, the language in which the problem is presented, and the types of problems. The present study examined the decision making behavior of 188 Chinese-English bilinguals who majored in Finance, with a group of 277 English majors as the control group. They were asked to solve a financial problem (experimental condition) and a life problem (control condition). Each problem was presented in one of the following four versions: native language-gain frame, foreign language-gain frame, native language-loss frame, and foreign language-loss frame. Results revealed that for the life problem, under the native condition, both groups were affected by the frame; but under the foreign condition, this framing effect disappeared for the financial majors. This confirmed that foreign language use modulates framing effects in general decision making, which served as an effective baseline. For the financial problem, under the native condition, only the financial major was observed to be influenced by the frame, which was a developmental reversal; under the foreign condition, however, this framing effect disappeared. The results provide further empirical evidence for the universal of the developmental reversal in risky decision making. More importantly, the results suggest that using a foreign language can overcome such reversal, which has implications for the reduction of decision biases in professionals. The findings also shed new light on the complex interaction between general decision-making and bilingualism.

Keywords: the foreign language effect, developmental reversals, the framing effect, bilingualism

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Authors: Zhengrong Wu, Haibo Yang

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In the context of escalating global climate change and environmental degradation, the complexity and frequency of natural disasters are continually increasing. Confronted with an abundance of information regarding natural disasters, traditional knowledge graph construction methods, which heavily rely on grammatical rules and prior knowledge, demonstrate suboptimal performance in processing complex, multi-source disaster information. This study, drawing upon past natural disaster reports, disaster-related literature in both English and Chinese, and data from various disaster monitoring stations, constructs question-answer templates based on large language models. Utilizing the P-Tune method, the ChatGLM2-6B model is fine-tuned, leading to the development of a disaster knowledge graph based on large language models. This serves as a knowledge database support for disaster emergency response.

Keywords: large language model, knowledge graph, disaster, deep learning

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Authors: Stefan Ninković

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The main purpose of this paper is to examine the different theoretical approaches and relevant empirical evidence and thus, recognize some of the most pressing challenges faced by school leaders. This paper starts from the fact that the new mission of the school is characterized by the need for stronger coordination among students' academic, social and emotional learning. In this sense, school leaders need to focus their commitment, vision and leadership on the issues of students' attitudes, language, cultural and social background, and sexual orientation. More specifically, they should know what a good teaching is for student’s at-risk, students whose first language is not dominant in school, those who’s learning styles are not in accordance with usual teaching styles, or who are stigmatized. There is a rather wide consensus around the fact that the traditionally popular concept of instructional leadership of the school principal is no longer sufficient. However, in a number of "pro-leadership" circles, including certain groups of academic researchers, consultants and practitioners, there is an established tendency of attributing school principal an extraordinary influence towards school achievements. On the other hand, the situation in which all employees in the school are leaders is a utopia par excellence. Although leadership obviously can be efficiently distributed across the school, there are few findings that speak about sources of this distribution and factors making it sustainable. Another idea that is not particularly new, but has only recently gained in importance is related to the fact that the collective capacity of the school is an important resource that often remains under-cultivated. To understand the nature and power of collaborative school cultures, it is necessary to know that these operate in a way that they make their all collective members' tacit knowledge explicit. In this sense, the question is how leaders in schools can shape collaborative culture and create social capital in the school. Pressure exerted on schools to systematically collect and use the data has been accompanied by the need for school leaders to develop new competencies. The role of school leaders is critical in the process of assessing what data are needed and for what purpose. Different types of data are important: test results, data on student’s absenteeism, satisfaction with school, teacher motivation, etc. One of the most important tasks of school leaders are data-driven decision making as well as ensuring transparency of the decision-making process. Finally, the question arises whether the existing models of school leadership are compatible with the current social and economic trends. It is necessary to examine whether and under what conditions schools are in need for forms of leadership that are different from those that currently prevail. Closely related to this issue is also to analyze the adequacy of different approaches to leadership development in the school.

Keywords: educational changes, leaders, leadership, school

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Authors: A. Shannaq

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English is the accepted lingua franca of the academic world, and English medium higher education institutions host many second-language speakers of English (L2) who wish to pursue their studies through the medium of English. Assessment in higher education institutions is largely done in writing, which makes the mastery of academic writing essential. While such mastery can be, and often is, difficult for students who speak English as a first language, it is undoubtedly more so for L2 students attempting to adopt Anglophone academic written norms. There does not appear to be a great deal of research with regard to L2 students’ perceptions of their academic writing practices. This research investigates the writing practices of international L2 students in their first year of undergraduate study at NZ universities. Qualitative longitudinal data in the form of semi-structured interviews and documentation (assignments’ written instructions, students’ written assignments, tutors’ feedback on the students’ assignments) were collected from 4 undergraduate international L2 students at the beginning, middle, and end of the academic year 2017. Findings reveal that motivation, agency, and self-efficacy impact students’ perceptions of their academic writing practices and define the course of actions learners take under the time constraints which are set for their assignments.

Keywords: academic writing, English as a second language, international second language students, undergraduate writing practices

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Authors: Twarakavi Venkata Suresh Kumar, Sailaja Kumar, B. Eswara Reddy

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In a world of tremendous technical developments, effective and efficient higher education has always been a major challenge. The rising number of educational institutions have made it mandatory for healthy competitions among the institutions. To evaluate the qualitative competence of these educations institutions in engineering and technology and related disciplines, an efficient assessment technique in internal and external quality has to be followed. To achieve this, the curriculum is to be developed into courses, and each course has to be presented in the form teaching lesson plan consisting of topics and session outcome known as Course Outcomes (COs), that easily map into different Programme Outcomes (POs). The major objective of these methodologies is to provide quality technical education to its students. Detailed clear weightage in CO-PO mapping helps in proper measurable COs and to devise the POs attainment is an important issue. This ensures in assisting the achievement of the POs with proper weightage to POs, and also improves the successive curriculum development. In this paper, we presented a methodology for mapping CO and PO considering the key elements supported by each PO. This approach is useful in evaluating the attainment of POs which is based on the attainment of COs using the existing data from students' marks taken from various test items. Such direct assessment tools are used to measure the degree to which each student has achieved each course learning outcome by the completion of the course. Hence, these results are also useful in measuring the PO attainment for improving the programme vision and mission.

Keywords: attainment, course outcomes, programme outcomes, educational institutions

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Authors: Mai Ali

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Advancing beyond the junior stage of a paediatrician’s career is a crucial step where they accumulate essential skills and knowledge. This process prepares them for the challenges they'll encounter throughout their profession, particularly in dealing with paediatric emergencies. This can be especially demanding for trainees specializing in fields like endocrinology, particularly in the management of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) in the UK. In different societal contexts, junior doctors, whether specializing in pediatrics or other medical fields, are generally expected to possess a fundamental level of knowledge and skills necessary for managing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) emergencies. These physicians consistently concurred in recognizing prevalent problems in the healthcare facilities they examined. Such issues include the lack of established guidelines for DKA treatment and the inadequate availability of comprehensive training opportunities. The abstract underscores the critical importance of junior paediatricians acquiring expertise in managing paediatric emergencies, with a specific focus on DKA. Commonly, issues like the lack of standardized protocols and training deficiencies are recurring themes across healthcare facilities. This research proposal aims to conduct a thematic analysis of the proficiency of paediatric trainees in the United Kingdom when handling DKA in various clinical contexts. The primary goal is to assess their competency and suggest effective strategies for comprehensive DKA training improvement.

Keywords: junior pediatrician, DKA, standardized protocols, level of competence

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Authors: Yumi Okano

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The low level of English proficiency among Japanese people has been a problem for a long time. Japanese non-native English language teachers, under social or ideological constraints, feel a gap between government policy and their language proficiency and cannot maintain high self-esteem. This paper focuses on current Japanese policies and the social context in which teachers are placed and examines the measures necessary for their positive identity formation from a macro-meso-micro perspective. Some suggestions for achieving this are: 1) Teachers should free themselves from the idea of native speakers and embrace local needs and accents, 2) Teachers should be involved in student discussions as facilitators and individuals so that they can be good role models for their students, and 3) Teachers should invest in their classrooms. 4) Guidelines and training should be provided to help teachers gain confidence. In addition to reducing the workload to make more time available, 5) expanding opportunities for investment outside the classroom into the real world is necessary.

Keywords: language teacher identity, native speakers, government policy, critical pedagogy, investment

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Authors: Siham Boulaknadel

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Every culture has its share of a rich history of storytelling in oral, visual, and textual form. The Amazigh language, as many languages, has its own which has entertained and informed across centuries and cultures, and its instructional potential continues to serve teachers. According to many researchers, listening to stories draws attention to the sounds of language and helps children develop sensitivity to the way language works. Stories including repetitive phrases, unique words, and enticing description encourage students to join in actively to repeat, chant, sing, or even retell the story. This kind of practice is important to language learners’ oral language development, which is believed to correlate completely with student’s academic success. Today, with the advent of multimedia, digital storytelling for instance can be a practical and powerful learning tool. It has the potential in transforming traditional learning into a world of unlimited imaginary environment. This paper reports on a research project on development of multimedia Storytelling Website using traditional Amazigh oral narratives called “tell me a story”. It is a didactic tool created for the learning of good moral values in an interactive multimedia environment combining on-screen text, graphics and audio in an enticing environment and enabling the positive values of stories to be projected. This Website developed in this study is based on various pedagogical approaches and learning theories deemed suitable for children age 8 to 9 year-old. The design and development of Website was based on a well-researched conceptual framework enabling users to: (1) re-play and share the stories in schools or at home, and (2) access the Website anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, the system stores the students work and activities over the system, allowing parents or teachers to monitor students’ works, and provide online feedback. The Website contains following main feature modules: Storytelling incorporates a variety of media such as audio, text and graphics in presenting the stories. It introduces the children to various kinds of traditional Amazigh oral narratives. The focus of this module is to project the positive values and images of stories using digital storytelling technique. Besides development good moral sense in children using projected positive images and moral values, it also allows children to practice their comprehending and listening skills. Reading module is developed based on multimedia material approach which offers the potential for addressing the challenges of reading instruction. This module is able to stimulate children and develop reading practice indirectly due to the tutoring strategies of scaffolding, self-explanation and hyperlinks offered in this module. Word Enhancement assists the children in understanding the story and appreciating the good moral values more efficiently. The difficult words or vocabularies are attached to present the explanation, which makes the children understand the vocabulary better. In conclusion, we believe that the interactive multimedia storytelling reveals an interesting and exciting tool for learning Amazigh. We plan to address some learning issues, in particularly the uses of activities to test and evaluate the children on their overall understanding of story and words presented in the learning modules.

Keywords: Amazigh language, e-learning, storytelling, language teaching

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Authors: Serge Lacroix

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The proposed study looks at the psychoeducational assessment of bilingual students, in English and French in this case. It will be the opportunity to look at language of assessment and specifically how certain tests can be administered in one language and others in another language. It is also a look into the questioning of the validity of the test scores that are obtained as well as the quality and generalizability of the conclusions that can be drawn. Bilingualism and multiculturalism, although in constant expansion, is not considered in norms development and remains a poorly understood factor when it is at play in the context of a psychoeducational assessment. Student placement, diagnoses, accurate measures of intelligence and achievement are all impacted by the quality of the assessment procedure. The same is true for questionnaires administered to parents and self-reports completed by bilingual students who, more often than not, are assessed in a language that is not their primary one or are compared to monolinguals not dealing with the same challenges or the same skills. Results show that students, when offered to work in a bilingual fashion, chooses to do so in a significant proportion. Recommendations will be offered to support educators aiming at expanding their skills when confronted with multilingual students in an assessment context.

Keywords: psychoeducational assessment, bilingualism, multiculturalism, intelligence, achievement

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Authors: Arturo Tobias Calizon Jr.

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The study investigated the practices in critical reflection being employed in teaching and learning mathematics in public and private schools for students to achieve perspective transformation in psychological, convictional and behavioral dimensions. There were 1,969 senior high school and college student-respondents selected at random from 33 schools. Process reflection is most commonly practiced in both public and private schools. Convictional dimension of perspective transformation is most frequently achieved. There is no significant difference in practices of process reflection between senior high school and college students. However, there is a significant difference in perspective transformation in behavioral dimension achieved by students from public and private schools. Also, there are significant differences in psychological, convictional and behavioral dimensions of perspective transformation achieved by senior high school and college students. There is a high and significant relationship between critical reflection practices and perspective transformation of students. The researcher concludes that there are teaching strategies that facilitate critical thinking, and there are learning activities that alter perspective of students about mathematics as an abstract field. The researcher further concludes that consistent use of appropriate teaching and learning activities could bring about perspective transformation in students with success.

Keywords: critical reflection, perspective transformation, process reflection, convictional dimension, teaching and learning mathematics

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Authors: Maggie Hui

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Risk management is not a new concept; however, it is an uncharted area as applied to the translation process and translator training. Risk managers are responsible for managing risk, i.e. adopting strategies with the intention to minimize loss and maximize gains in spite of uncertainty. Which risk strategy to use often depends on the frequency of an event (i.e. probability) and the severity of its outcomes (i.e. impact). This is basically the way translation/localization project managers handle risk management. Although risk management could involve both positive and negative impacts, impact seems to be always negative in professional translators’ management models, e.g. how many days of project time are lost or how many clients are lost. However, for analysis of translation performance, the impact should be possibly positive (e.g. increased readability of the translation) or negative (e.g. loss of source-text information). In other words, the straight business model of risk management is not directly applicable to the study of risk management in the rendition process. This research aims to explore trainee translators’ risk managing while translating in a simulated setting that involves translator-client relations. A two-cycle experiment involving two roles, the translator and the simulated client, was carried out with a class of translation students to test the effects of the main variable of peer-group interaction. The researcher made use of a user-friendly screen-voice recording freeware to record subjects’ screen activities, including every word the translator typed and every change they made to the rendition, the websites they browsed and the reference tools they used, in addition to the verbalization of their thoughts throughout the process. The research observes the translation procedures subjects considered and finally adopted, and looks into the justifications for their procedures, in order to interpret their risk management. The qualitative and quantitative results of this study have some implications for translator training: (a) the experience of being a client seems to reinforce the translator’s risk aversion; (b) there is a wide gap between the translator’s internal risk management and their external presentation of risk; and (c) the use of role-playing simulation can empower students’ learning by enhancing their attitudinal or psycho-physiological competence, interpersonal competence and strategic competence.

Keywords: risk management, role-playing simulation, translation pedagogy, translator-client relations

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Authors: Jay-R. Hosana Leonidas, Jayson A. Lucilo

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The K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines shed light to mathematics education as it recognizes the use of smartphones/mobile phones as appropriate tools necessary in teaching mathematics. However, there were limited pieces of evidence on the use of these devices in teaching and learning process. This descriptive study developed lessons integrating the use of mobile phone applications with basis on low-level competencies of students in Precalculus and determined its effects on students’ conceptual understanding, procedural skills, and attitudes towards Precalculus. Employing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme in the study, lessons developed were conducted among Grade 11 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students at Central Bicol State University of Agriculture for the academic year 2018-2019. This study found that there is a significant difference between the competency levels of students along conceptual understanding and procedural skills prior to and after the conduct of lessons developed. Also, it disclosed that the use of mobile phone applications had positive effects on students’ attitudes towards Precalculus. Thus, the use of mobile phone applications in teaching Precalculus can enrich students’ understanding of concepts and procedural skills (solving and graphing skills) and can increase students’ motivation, self-confidence, and enjoyment in dealing with Precalculus.

Keywords: bring your own device, mathematics education, mobile phone applications, senior high school

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Authors: Rehan Ullah

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The primary purpose of the study is to observe the relationship that exists between the organizational information technology (IT) capabilities and the organizational performance in China and Pakistan. Nations like China and Pakistan utilize modern techno-how to enhance their production endeavors. Therefore, making a wide-ranging comparison of the manufacturing services between China and Pakistan was chosen due to numerous reasons. One reason for carrying out this comparison is to determine how IT of the two countries enhances organizational competency on small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). The study hypothesized that organizational IT capabilities (IT infrastructure, IT competence) have a positive influence on organizational performance and the strategic benefits of IT have a mediating effect on the relationship between IT capability and organizational performance. To investigate the relationship between IT capabilities and organizational performance, surveys were sent to managers of small, medium-sized manufacturing organizations located in the southwestern region, Sichuan province of China, and Pakistani companies, which are located in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. These cities were selected as typical representatives of each country. Organizational performance has been measured in terms of profitability, organizational success, growth, market share, and innovativeness. Out of 400 surveys distributed to different manufacturing organizations, 303 usable and valid responses were received that are analyzed in this research. The data were examined using SPSS and Smart PLS computer software. The results of the study, including the descriptive statistics of each variable, are used. The outer model has been measured with considerations to content validity, discriminant validity, and convergent validity. The path coefficients among the constructs were also computed when analyzing the structural model using the bootstrapping technique. The analysis of data from both China and Pakistan yields an identical but unique result. The results show that IT infrastructure, IT competence, strategic benefits of IT are all correlated to the performance of the organizations. Moreover, strategic benefits of IT have been proved to mediate the relationship between IT capabilities and organization performance. The author, concerning the role of IT on the performance of an organization, highlights the different aspects as well as its benefits in an organization. The overall study concludes several implications for both managers and academicians. It also provides the limitations of the study and offers recommendations for future studies and practice.

Keywords: organizational performance, IT capabilities, IT infrastructure, IT competence, strategic benefits of IT, China, Pakistan

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Authors: Subodh Chandra Shakya, Rajendra Sapkota, Aakash Tamang, Shushant Pudasaini, Sujan Adhikari, Sajjan Adhikari

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Lots of efforts have been made in order to measure the semantic similarity between the text corpora in the documents. Techniques have been evolved to measure the similarity of two documents. One such state-of-art technique in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) is word to vector models, which converts the words into their word-embedding and measures the similarity between the vectors. We found this to be quite useful for the task of resume ranking. So, this research paper is the implementation of the word2vec model along with other Natural Language Processing techniques in order to rank the resumes for the particular job description so as to automate the process of hiring. The research paper proposes the system and the findings that were made during the process of building the system.

Keywords: chunking, document similarity, information extraction, natural language processing, word2vec, word embedding

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Authors: Helene Jacobson Pettersson, Linda Lill

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Demographic changes and globalization in society provide new opportunities for social work and social work education in Sweden. There has been an ambition to include these aspects into the Swedish social work education. However, the Swedish welfare state standard continued to be as affectionate as invisible starting point in discussions about people’s way of life and social problems. The aim of this study is to explore content given to ethnic relations in social work in the social work education in Sweden. Our standpoint is that the subject can be understood both from individual and structural levels, it changes over time, varies in different steering documents and differs from the perspectives of teachers and students. Our question is what content is given to ethnic relations in social work by the teachers in their strategies and teaching material. The study brings together research in the interface between education science, social work and research of international migration and ethnic relations. The presented narratives are from longer interviews with a total of 17 university teachers who teach in social work program at four different universities in Sweden. The universities have in different ways a curriculum that involves the theme of ethnic relations in social work, and the interviewed teachers are teaching and grading social workers on specific courses related to ethnic relations at undergraduate and graduate levels. Overall assesses these 17 teachers a large number of students during a semester. The questions were concerned on how the teachers handle ethnic relations in education in social work. The particular focus during the interviews has been the teacher's understanding of the documented learning objectives and content of literature and how this has implications for their teaching. What emerges is the teachers' own stories about the educational work and how they relate to the content of teaching, as well as the teaching strategies they use to promote the theme of ethnic relations in social work education. The analysis of this kind of pedagogy is that the teaching ends up at an individual level with a particular focus on the professional encounter with individuals. We can see the shortage of a critical analysis of the construction of social problems. The conclusion is that individual circumstance precedes theoretical perspective on social problems related to migration, transnational relations, globalization and social. This result has problematic implications from the perspective of sustainability in terms of ethnic diversity and integration in society. Thus these aspects have most relevance for social workers’ professional acting in social support and empowerment related activities, in supporting the social status and human rights and equality for immigrants.

Keywords: ethnic relations in Swedish social work education, teaching content, teaching strategies, educating for change, human rights and equality

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Authors: Yufen Qin

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Topic-to-Essay generation is a challenging task in Natural language processing, which aims to generate novel, diverse, and topic-related text based on user input. Previous research has overlooked the generation of articles under the constraints of event elements, resulting in issues such as incomplete event elements and logical inconsistencies in the generated results. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an event-constrained approach for a topic-to-essay generation that enforces the completeness of event elements during the generation process. Additionally, a language model is employed to verify the logical consistency of the generated results. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model achieves a better BLEU-2 score and performs better than the baseline in terms of subjective evaluation on a real dataset, indicating its capability to generate higher-quality topic-related text.

Keywords: event element, language model, natural language processing, topic-to-essay generation.

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Authors: Robert Michael, Kayla Tobin, William Foster, Rachel Fairchild

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions in education, particularly in the teaching of health and physical education (HPE). This study examined a cohort of teachers that experienced being a preservice and first-year teacher during various stages of the pandemic. Qualitative data collection was conducted by interviewing six teachers from different schools in the Eastern U.S. over a series of structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data. The pandemic significantly impacted the way HPE was taught as schools shifted to virtual and hybrid models. Findings revealed five major themes: (a) You want me to teach HOW?, (b) PE without equipment and six feet apart, (c) Behind the Scenes, (d) They’re back…I became a behavior management guru, and (e) The Pandemic Crater. Overall, this study highlights the significant challenges faced by preservice and first-year teachers in teaching physical education during the pandemic and underscores the need for ongoing support and resources to help them adapt and succeed in these challenging circumstances.

Keywords: teacher education, preservice teachers, first year teachers, health and physical education

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Authors: Theodorou Kyriaki, Ypsilantis George

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Vocabulary learning has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, contrary to the neglected part of the past. Along with the interest in finding successful vocabulary teaching strategies, many scholars focused on locating learning strategies used by language learners. As a result, more and more studies in the area of language pedagogy have been investigating the use of strategies in vocabulary learning by different types of learners. A common instrument in this field is the questionnaire, a tool of work that was enriched by questions involving current technology, and it was further implemented to a sample of 300 Greek students whose age varied from 9 and 17 years. Strategies located were grouped into the three categories of memory, cognitive, and compensatory type and associations between these dependent variables were investigated. In addition, relations between dependent and independent variables (such as age, sex, type of school, cultural background, and grade in English) were pursued to investigate the impact on strategy selection. Finally, results were compared to findings of other studies in the same field to contribute to a hypothesis of ethnic differences in strategy selection. Results initially discuss preferred strategies of all participants and further indicate that: a) technology affects strategy selection while b) differences between ethnic groups are not statistically significant. A number of successful strategies are presented, resulting from correlations of strategy selection and final school grade in English.

Keywords: acquisition of English, internet technology, research among Greek students, vocabulary learning strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 510