Search results for: student’s academic achievement

Authors: Zahra Alikhani Koopaei

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

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

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Authors: Sohil I. Alqazlan

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Introduction and Objectives: There is limited research focusing on young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their experiences after finishing compulsory education, especially in the Middle Eastern/Arab countries. This paper aims to further understand the lives of young adults with ID in Riyadh [the capital city of Saudi Arabia], particularly as they go on to access Post-Secondary Education [PSE]. As part of this study, it is important to understand the roles of high schools in Riyadh in terms of preparing their students for post-school life. To achieve this, the researcher has asked Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education to provide student transition plans (TPs) for post-school opportunities. However, and unfortunately, high schools in Riyadh do not use transition plans for their students. Therefore, the researcher has requested individual education plans (IEPs) for students with ID in their final year at high school to find the type of support the students had regarding both their long- and short-term goals that might help them access PSE or the labour market. Methods: The researcher analysed 10 IEPs of students in their final year at high school. To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher compared these IEPs with expectations set out in the official IEP framework of the MoE in Saudi Arabia, such as collaboration on the IEP sample and the focus on adult life. By analysing the students’ IEPs in terms of various goals, this study attempts to highlight skills that might offer students more independence after finishing compulsory education and going on to PSE. Results: Unfortunately, communication between IEP team members proved persistently absent in the sample. This was clear from the fact that none of the team members, apart from the SEN teachers, had signed any of the IEPs. Thus, none of the daily or weekly goals outlined were sent to parents to review at home. As a result of this, there were no goals in the IEPs that clearly referred to PSE. However, some long-term goals were set which might help those with ID become more independent in their adult life. For example, in the IEPs, which dealt with computer skills, the student had goals related to using Microsoft Word. Finally, just one goal of these IEPs set an important independent skill for the young adults with ID: “the student will learn how to use public transportation”. Conclusions: From analysing the ten IEPs, it was clear that SEN teachers in Riyadh schools were working without any help from other professionals. The students with ID, as well as their families, were not consulted on their views on important goals. Therefore, more work needs to be done with the students regarding their transition to PSE, perhaps by building partnerships between high schools and potential PSE institutions. Finally, more PSE programmes and a higher level of employer awareness could help create a bridge for students transferring from high school to PSE. Schools could also focus their IEP goals towards specific PSE programmes the student might attend, which could increase their chances of success.

Keywords: high school, post-secondary education, PSE, students with intellectual disabilities

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Authors: Dana Christensen

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Undergraduate students, particularly in the environmental sciences, have difficulty displaying quantitative skills in their laboratory courses. Students spend time sampling in the field, often using new methods, and are expected to make sense of the data they collect. Computational thinking may be used to navigate these new experiences. We developed a curriculum for the marine science department at a small liberal arts college in the Northeastern United States based on previous computational thinking frameworks. This curriculum incorporates marine science data sets with specific objectives and topics selected by the faculty at the College. The curriculum was distributed to all students enrolled in introductory marine science classes as a mandatory module. Two pre-tests and post-tests will be used to quantitatively assess student progress on both content-based and computational principles. Student artifacts are being collected with each lesson to be coded for content-specific and computational-specific items in qualitative assessment. There is an overall gap in marine science education research, especially curricula that focus on computational thinking and associated quantitative assessment. The curricula itself, the assessments, and our results may be modified and applied to other environmental science courses due to the nature of the inquiry-based laboratory components that use quantitative skills to understand nature.

Keywords: marine science, computational thinking, curriculum assessment, quantitative skills

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Authors: C. E. Laburu, M. A. Barros, A. F. Zompero, O. H. M. Silva

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The work presents a teaching strategy that employs syntagmatic and paradigmatic linguistic relations in order to monitor the understanding of physics students’ concepts. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations are theoretical elements of semiotics studies and our research circumstances and justified them within the research program of multi-modal representations. Among the multi-modal representations to learning scientific knowledge, the scope of action of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations belongs to the discursive writing form. The use of such relations has the purpose to seek innovate didactic work with discourse representation in the write form before translate to another different representational form. The research was conducted with a sample of first year high school students. The students were asked to produce syntagmatic and paradigmatic of Newton’ first law statement. This statement was delivered in paper for each student that should individually write the relations. The student’s records were collected for analysis. It was possible observed in one student used here as example that their monemes replaced and rearrangements produced by, respectively, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, kept the original meaning of the law. In paradigmatic production he specified relevant significant units of the linguistic signs, the monemas, which constitute the first articulation and each word substituted kept equivalence to the original meaning of original monema. Also, it was noted a number of diverse and many monemas were chosen, with balanced combination of grammatical (grammatical monema is what changes the meaning of a word, in certain positions of the syntagma, along with a relatively small number of other monemes. It is the smallest linguistic unit that has grammatical meaning) and lexical (lexical monema is what belongs to unlimited inventories; is the monema endowed with lexical meaning) monemas. In syntagmatic production, monemas ordinations were syntactically coherent, being linked with semantic conservation and preserved number. In general, the results showed that the written representation mode based on linguistic relations paradigmatic and syntagmatic qualifies itself to be used in the classroom as a potential identifier and accompanist of meanings acquired from students in the process of scientific inquiry.

Keywords: semiotics, language, high school, physics teaching

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Authors: Mairo H. Ipadeola, Catherine James Atteng

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The term social inclusion refers to a process by which those disadvantaged in society can have access to fully participate in education like others. Student with special needs are expected to learn along with their peers within the some educational institutions which provide adequate access for all. There for, the study sort to understand the typical ways in which students with disabilities (SWD) were denied from fully participating as students in Kaduna Polytechnic. In doing this, two (2) objectives and research questions were raised. Firstly, to explore the attitudes of others towards students with disabilities in the institutions and secondly, to ascertain the extent of social participation and physical accessibility for students with disabilities (SWD) while in the institutions. Based on the objectives the paper postulated the research questions: what are the attitudes of management, teachers, and students towards students with special need in Kaduna Polytechnic and to what extent did the students with disabilities experience social participation and physical accessibility within Kaduna Polytechnic school environment? The study area was Kaduna Polytechnic. The study engaged the interview for the data collected which were transcribed and analyzed by thematic coding. The findings were categorized under themes, sub-themes, and codes. The findings revealed that the perception, behavior, and association experiences of students with disabilities within Kaduna Polytechnic were not encouraging. Their experiences were characterized by negative attitudes, feelings of rejection, neglect, and bullying. Data generated on social participation indicated that 71% of the respondents believed that learning, school activities, recreations, and student politics between SWD and the other student were in the direction of low / very low. All the respondents, particularly students with blindness and physical challenges faced difficulty with environmental and physical access above all within the school environment, classroom, walkways and ramps, Also, directions were none existent in most departments with physical access to classrooms, toilets, cafeterias, and school shops absent or very low (71% and 29% of the respondents). The conclusion was that the physical barriers limited the possibilities of social participation of SWD.The paper made some recommendations such as mass public enlightenment on radio and television to change the perception of society about people with disability. Also, the federal, state, and local governments enact building acts for fresh builders and adopted measures and time frames for existing public buildings to be made accessible for people with disabilities. All stakeholders should ensure that the five (5) percent budget set aside by State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and/or Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for the provision of specialized equipment and facilities for the student with special needs should be used prudently spent and monitored by the board.cm.

Keywords: social inclusion, students with disability, social participation, environmental/physical access

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Authors: M. Saeed, A. Shahidzadeh

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Interaction between teachers and learners requires applying a set of samples (examples) which helps to create coordination between the goals and methods. The main result and achievement and application of samples (examples) are that they can bring the teacher and learner to a shared understanding of the concept. mathematical concepts, and also one of the challenging issues in the discussion of the function is to find the collision points of functions of and, regarding that the example space of teachers is different in this issue, this paper aims to present an example space including several problems of the secondary school with the help of intuition and drawing various graphs of functions of and for more familiarity of teachers.

Keywords: inverse function, educational example, Mathematic example, example space

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Authors: Saad Zagloul Shokri Melika

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The London College of Communication is one of the only universities in the world to offer a lifestyle journalism master’s degree. A hybrid originally constructed largely out of a generic journalism program crossed with numerous cultural studies approaches, the degree has developed into a leading lifestyle journalism education attracting students worldwide. This research project seeks to present a framework for structuring the degree as well as to understand how students in this emerging field of study value the program. While some researchers have addressed questions about journalism and higher education, none have looked specifically at the increasingly important genre of lifestyle journalism, which Folker Hanusch defines as including notions of consumerism and critique among other identifying traits. Lifestyle journalism, itself poorly researched by scholars, can relate to topics including travel, fitness, and entertainment, and as such, arguably a lifestyle journalism degree should prepare students to engage with these topics. This research uses the existing Masters of Arts and Lifestyle Journalism at the London College of Communications as a case study to examine the school’s approach. Furthering Hanusch’s original definition, this master’s program attempts to characterizes lifestyle journalism by a specific voice or approach, as reflected in the diversity of student’s final projects. This framework echoes the ethos and ideas of the university, which focuses on creativity, design, and experimentation. By analyzing the current degree as well as student feedback, this research aims to assist future educators in pursuing the often neglected field of lifestyle journalism. Through a discovery of the unique mix of practical coursework, theoretical lessons, and broad scope of student work presented in this degree program, researchers strive to develop a framework for lifestyle journalism education, referring to Mark Deuze’s ten questions for journalism education development. While Hanusch began the discussion to legitimize the study of lifestyle journalism, this project strives to go one step further and open up a discussion about teaching of lifestyle journalism at the university level.

Keywords: Journalism, accountability, education, television, publicdearth, investigative, journalism, Nigeria, journalismeducation, lifestyle, university

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Authors: Rita Garcia

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Intelligent Programming Tutors, IPTs, are supplemental educational devices that assist in teaching software development. These systems provide customized learning allowing the user to select the presentation pace, pedagogical strategy, and to recall previous and additional teaching materials reinforcing learning objectives. In addition, IPTs automatically records individual’s progress, providing feedback to the instructor and student. These tutoring systems have an advantage over Tutoring Systems because Intelligent Programming Tutors are not limited to one teaching strategy and can adjust when it detects the user struggling with a concept. The Intelligent Programming Tutor is a category of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS. ITS are available for many fields in education, supporting different learning objectives and integrate into other learning tools, improving the student's learning experience. This study provides a comparison of the IPTs currently adopted by the educational community and will focus on the different teaching methodologies and programming languages. The study also includes the ability to integrate the IPT into other educational technologies, such as massive open online courses, MOOCs. The intention of this evaluation is to determine one system that would best serve in a larger ongoing research project and provide findings for other institutions looking to adopt an Intelligent Programming Tutor.

Keywords: computer education tools, integrated software development assistance, intelligent programming tutors, tutoring systems

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Authors: Zelalem B. Gurmessa, Ignatius W. Ferreira, Henry F. Wissink

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The aim of this paper is to critically examine the factors contributing to academic brain drain in the Sub-Saharan Africa with specific reference to the higher education sector. Africa in general and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, in particular, are experiencing an exodus of highly trained, qualified and competent human resources to other developing and developed countries thereby threatening the overall development of the relevant regions and impeding both public and private service delivery systems in the nation states. The region is currently in a dire situation in terms of health care services, education, science, and technology. The contribution of SSA countries to Science, Technology and Innovation is relatively minimal owing to the migration of skilled professionals due to both push and pull factors. The phenomenon calls for both international and trans-boundary, regional, national and institutional interventions to curb the exodus. Based on secondary data and the review of the literature, the article conceptualizes the antecedents and impacts of human capital flight or brain drain in the SSA countries from a higher education perspective. To this end, the article explores the magnitude, causes, and impacts of brain drain in the region. Despite the lack of consistent data on the magnitude of academic brain drain in the region, a critical analysis of the existing sources shows that pay disparity between developing and developed countries, the lack of enabling working conditions at source countries, fear of security due to political turmoil or unrest, the availability of green pastures and opportunity for development in the receiving countries were identified as major factors contributing to academic brain drain in the region. This hampers the socio-economic, technological and political development of the region. The paper also recommends that further research can be undertaken on the magnitude, causes, characteristics and impact of brain drain on the sustainability and competitiveness of SSA higher education institutions in the region.

Keywords: brain drain, higher education, sub-Saharan Africa, sustainable development

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Authors: Dimiter M. Dimitrov, Abdullah Sadaawi

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The National Assessment for Schools (NAFS) in Saudi Arabia consists of standardized tests in Mathematics, Reading, and Science for school grade levels 3, 6, and 9. One main goal is to classify students into four categories of NAFS performance (minimal, basic, proficient, and advanced) by schools and the entire national sample. The NAFS scoring and equating is performed on a bounded scale (D-scale: ranging from 0 to 1) in the framework of the recently developed “D-scoring method of measurement.” The specificity of the NAFS measurement framework and data complexity presented both challenges and opportunities to (a) the estimation of score reliability for schools, (b) setting cut-scores for the classification of students into categories of performance, and (c) generating plausible values for distributions of student performance on the D-scale. The estimation of score reliability at the school level was performed in the framework of generalizability theory (GT), with students “nested” within schools and test items “nested” within test forms. The GT design was executed via a multilevel modeling syntax code in R. Cut-scores (on the D-scale) for the classification of students into performance categories was derived via a recently developed method of standard setting, referred to as “Response Vector for Mastery” (RVM) method. For each school, the classification of students into categories of NAFS performance was based on distributions of plausible values for the students’ scores on NAFS tests by grade level (3, 6, and 9) and subject (Mathematics, Reading, and Science). Plausible values (on the D-scale) for each individual student were generated via random selection from a statistical logit-normal distribution with parameters derived from the student’s D-score and its conditional standard error, SE(D). All procedures related to D-scoring, equating, generating plausible values, and classification of students into performance levels were executed via a computer program in R developed for the purpose of NAFS data analysis.

Keywords: large-scale assessment, reliability, generalizability theory, plausible values

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Authors: Rabia Khalil

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The aim of the study is to find out the perception of early childhood education teacher‘s about the role and implementation of information communication technology in early childhood education. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the role of information and communication technology in early childhood education as perceived by early childhood education teachers. The objectives of the study were to identify the roles of ICT in today’s early years and the impacts of Information communication technology in early childhood education. This study is to find out the role of ICT at ECE level & how it will be useful for teachers to implement this technique for the development of student skills. This is a quantitative research in which a survey study was conducted. The Population of the study was the primary teachers of the public and private primary schools of Lahore. By using random sampling technique the sample consists of 300 teachers but only 260 respond from 52 primary schools of Lahore. In this research, questionnaire was developed for primary school teachers. The questionnaires were based on liker type scale which comprises of section of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis. The data was arranged and then entered in computer, having the software package for social sciences (SPSS) version 15. The importance of this study is to find out the role of ICT at ECE level & how it will be useful for teachers to implement this technique for the development of student skills.

Keywords: ECE, ICT, PC, C AI

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Authors: Hepinda Fajari Nuharini, Sugiarti A. Musabiq

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Background: Various and continuous pressures that exceed individual resources can cause first-year undergraduate college students to experience psychological distress. Psychological distress can occur when individuals use rumination as cognitive coping strategies. Rumination is one of the cognitive coping strategies that can be used by individuals to respond to psychological distress that causes individuals to think about the causes and consequences of events that have occurred. Rumination had two subtypes, such as brooding and reflective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was determining the role of brooding and reflective as subtypes of rumination toward psychological distress in University of Indonesia first-year undergraduate students. Methods: Participants of this study were 403 University of Indonesia first-year undergraduate students aged between 18 and 21 years old. Psychological distress measured using self reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20) and brooding and reflective as subtypes of rumination measured using Ruminative Response Scale - Short Version (RRS - Short Version). Results: Binary logistic regression analyses showed that 22.8% of the variation in psychological distress could be explained by the brooding and reflective as subtypes of rumination, while 77.2% of the variation in psychological distress could be explained by other factors (Nagelkerke R² = 0,228). The results of the binary logistic regression analysis also showed rumination subtype brooding is a significant predictor of psychological distress (b = 0,306; p < 0.05), whereas rumination subtype reflective is not a significant predictor of psychological distress (b = 0,073; p > 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed a positive relationship between brooding and psychological distress indicates that a higher level of brooding will predict higher psychological distress. Meanwhile, a negative relationship between reflective and psychological distress indicates a higher level of reflective will predict lower psychological distress in University of Indonesia first-year undergraduate students. Added Values: The psychological distress among first-year undergraduate students would then have an impact on student academic performance. Therefore, the results of this study can be used as a reference for making preventive action to reduce the percentage and impact of psychological distress among first-year undergraduate students.

Keywords: brooding as subtypes of rumination, first-year undergraduate students, psychological distress, reflective as subtypes of rumination

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Authors: I. Iroka, L. Mgidlana, J. Willoughby, S. Dhlamini, P. Nxumalo, S. Sefadi, A. Mthembu, E. Gerber, E. Brits

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Introduction: Nephroblastoma is a common paediatric tumor with good survival rates when diagnosed and treated early. Method: This retrospective study aimed to describe the patients with nephroblastoma seen at Universitas Academic Hospital Complex between the years 2000 and 2020. Results: In the study period, there were 207 patients identified. The patient profile had slightly more male than female patients; the median age was under four years of age. The study found a median delay of one month between symptom onset and diagnosis; a common cause was a delay in seeking care. Patients diagnosed and treated more than a month after symptoms started had poorer survival rates. There was a higher rate of Stage IV disease compared to similar studies in South Africa. Good preoperative histology and no relapse had good survival rates.. Patients from Lesotho had longer delays and presented with more severe diseases than the South African cohort. Conclusion: Early identification and treatment lead to better outcomes. Health-seeking behaviour, misdiagnosis, and referral delays might contribute to the long delays. A targeted study for patients from Lesotho is recommended.

Keywords: nephroblastoma, South Africa, Lesotho, developing country

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Authors: S. AlBustan, B. AlGhannam

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This oral presentation discusses a proposal for a study that evaluates the usability of an evidence based application named ProxTalker App. The significance of this study will inform administration and faculty staff at the Department of Communication Sciences Disorders (CDS), College of Life Sciences, Kuwait University whether the app is a suitable tool to use for CDS students. A case study will be used involving a sample of CDS students taking practicum and internship courses during the academic year 2018/2019. The study will follow a process used by previous study. The process of calculating SUS is well documented and will be followed. ProxTalker App is an alternative and augmentative tool that speech language pathologist (SLP) can use to customize boards for their clients. SLPs can customize different boards using this app for various activities. A board can be created by the SLP to improve and support receptive and expressive language. Using technology to support therapy can aid SLPs to integrate this ProxTalker App as part of their clients therapy. Supported tools, games and motivation are some advantages of incorporating apps during therapy sessions. A quantitative methodology will be used. It involves the utilization of a standard tool that was the was adapted to the Arabic language to accommodate native Arabic language users. The tool that will be utilized in this research is the Arabic Standard Usability Scale (A-SUS) questionnaire which is an adoption of System Usability Scale (SUS). Standard usability questionnaires are reliable, valid and their process is properly documented. This study builds upon the development of A-SUS, which is a psychometrically evaluated questionnaire that targets Arabic native speakers. Results of the usability will give preliminary indication of whether the ProxTalker App under investigation is appropriate to be integrated within the practicum and internship curriculum of CDS. The results of this study will inform the CDS department of this specific app is an appropriate tool to be used for our specific students within our environment because usability depends on the product, environment, and users.

Keywords: A-SUS, communication disorders practicum, evidence based app, Standard Usability Scale

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Authors: Eva Degraeuwe, Margo Vandenheede, Nicholas Rennie, Jolien Braem, Miryam Serry, Frederik Berrevoet, Piet Pattyn, Wouter Willaert, InciSioN Belgium Consortium

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Background: Worldwide, five billion people lack access to safe and affordable surgical care. An added 1.27 million surgeons, anesthesiologists, and obstetricians (SAO) are needed by 2030 to meet the target of 20 per 100,000 population and to reach the goal of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. A well-informed future generation exposed early on to the current challenges in global surgery (GS) is necessary to ensure a sustainable future. Methods: InciSioN, the International Student Surgical Network, is a non-profit organization by and for students, residents, and fellows in over 80 countries. InciSioN Belgium, one of the prominent national working groups, has made a vast progression and collaborated with other networks to fill the educational gap, stimulate advocacy efforts and increase interactions with the international network. This report describes a roadmap to achieve sustainable development and education within GS, with the example of InciSioN Belgium. Results: Since the establishment of the organization’s branch in 2019, it has hosted an educational workshop for first-year residents in surgery, engaging over 2500 participants, and established a recurring directing board of 15 members. In the year 2020-2021, InciSioN Ghent has organized three workshops combining educational and interactive sessions for future prime advocates and surgical candidates. InciSioN Belgium has set up a strong formal coalition with the Belgian Medical Students’ Association (BeMSA), with its own standing committee, reaching over 3000+ medical students annually. In 2021-2022, InciSioN Belgium broadened to a multidisciplinary approach, including dentistry and nursing students and graduates within workshops and research projects, leading to a member and exposure increase of 450%. This roadmap sets strategic goals and mechanisms for the GS community to achieve nationwide sustained improvements in the research and education of GS focused on future SAOs, in order to achieve the GS sustainable development goals. In the coming year, expansion is directed to a formal integration of GS into the medical curriculum and increased international advocacy whilst inspiring SAOs to integrate into GS in Belgium. Conclusion: The development and implementation of durable change for GS are necessary. The student organization InciSioN Belgium is growing and hopes to close the colossal gap in GS and inspire the growth of other branches while sharing the know-how of a student organization.

Keywords: advocacy, education, global surgery, InciSioN, student network

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Authors: Jill Villarreal, Kristalyn Cooksey, Kai Lloyd, Daniel Ha

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Little research has been conducted to examine college students' reading attitudes, including students' perceptions of reading behaviors and reading abilities. This is problematic, as reading assigned course material is a critical component to an undergraduate student's academic success. For this study, flyers were electronically disseminated to instructors at 24 public and 10 private U.S. institutions in “Reading-Intensive Departments” including Psychology, Sociology, Education, Business, and Communications. We requested the online survey be completed as an in-class activity during the fall 2019 and spring 2020 semesters. All participants voluntarily completed the questionnaire anonymously. Of the participants, 280 self-identified their race as Black and 280 self-identified their race as White. Of the participants, 177 self-identified their gender as Male and 383 self-identified their Gender as Female. Participants ranged in age from 18-24. Factor analysis found four dimensions resulting from the questions regarding reading. The first we interpret as “Reading Proficiency”, accounted for 19% of the variability. The second dimension was “Reading Anxiety” (15%), the third was “Textbook Reading Ability” (9%), and the fourth was “Reading Enjoyment” (8%). Linear models on each of these dimensions revealed no effect of Age, Gender, Race, or Income on “Reading proficiency”. The linear model of “Reading Anxiety” showed a significant effect of race (p = 0.02), with higher anxiety in white students, as well as higher reading anxiety in female students (p < 0.001). The model of “Textbook Reading Ability” found a significant effect of race (p < 0.001), with higher textbook problems in white students. The model of “Reading Enjoyment” showed significant effects of race (p = 0.013) with more enjoyment for white students, gender (p = 0.001) with higher enjoyment for female students, and age (p = 0.033) with older students showing higher enjoyment. These findings suggest that gender, age, and race are important factors in many aspects of college students' reading attitudes. Further research will investigate possible causes for these differences. In addition, the effectiveness of college-level programs to reduce reading anxiety, promote the reading of textbooks, and foster a love of reading will be assessed.

Keywords: age, college, gender, race, reading

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Authors: Todd Enslen

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In order to attract more international students to study for undergraduate degrees in Japan, many universities have been developing English-Medium Instruction degree programs. This means that many faculty members must now teach their courses in English, which raises a number of concerns. A common misconception of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is that teaching in English is simply a matter of translating materials. Since much of the teaching in Japan still relies on a more traditional, teachercentered, approach, continuing with this style in an EMI environment that targets international students can cause a clash between what is happening and what students expect in the classroom, not to mention what the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has shown is effective teaching. A variety of considerations need to be taken into account in EMI classrooms such as varying English abilities of the students, modifying input material, and assuring comprehension through interactional checks. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of the English-Medium Instruction (EMI) undergraduate degree programs in engineering, agriculture, and science at a large research university in Japan by presenting the results from student surveys regarding the areas where perceived improvements need to be made. The students were the most dissatisfied with communication with their teachers in English, communication with Japanese students in English, adherence to only English being used in the classes, and the quality of the education they received. In addition, the results of a needs analysis survey of Japanese teachers having to teach in English showed that they believed they were most in need of English vocabulary and expressions to use in the classroom and teaching methods for teaching in English. The result from the student survey and the faculty survey show similar concerns between the two groups. By helping the teachers to understand student-centered teaching and the benefits for learning that it provides, teachers may begin to incorporate more student-centered approaches that in turn help to alleviate the dissatisfaction students are currently experiencing. Through analyzing the current environment in Japanese higher education against established best practices in teaching and EMI, three areas that need to be addressed in professional development workshops were identified. These were “culture” as it relates to the English language, “classroom management techniques” and ways to incorporate them into classes, and “language” issues. Materials used to help faculty better understand best practices as they relate to these specific areas will be provided to help practitioners begin the process of helping EMI faculty build awareness of better teaching practices. Finally, the results from faculty development workshops participants’ surveys will show the impact that these workshops can have. Almost all of the participants indicated that they learned something new and would like to incorporate the ideas from the workshop into their teaching. In addition, the vast majority of the participants felt the workshop provided them with new information, and they would like more workshops like these.

Keywords: English-medium instruction, materials development, professional development, teaching effectiveness

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Authors: Digby Warren, Jiri Kropac

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This comparative study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of what is meant by “education for social justice” (ESJ) - an aspiration articulated by universities, though often without much definition. The research methodology involved thematic analysis of data from in-depth interviews with academics (voluntary participants) in different disciplines and institutions in the UK, Czech Republic and other EU countries. The interviews explored lecturers’ conceptions of ESJ, their practice of it, and associated challenges and enabling factors. Main findings are that ESJ is construed as provision of equitable and conscientising education opportunities that run across the whole higher education (HE) journey, from widening access to HE to stimulating critical learning and awareness that can empower graduates to transform their lives and societies. Teaching practice featured study of topics related to social justice; collaborative and creative learning activities, and assignments offering choice and connection to students’ realities. Student responses could be mixed, occasionally resistant, but mostly positive in terms of gaining increased confidence and awareness of equality and social responsibility. Influences at the macro, meso and mico level could support or limit scope for ESJ. Overall, the study highlights the strong, values-based commitment of HE teachers to facilitating student learning engagement, wellbeing and development towards building a better world.

Keywords: higher education, social justice, inclusivity, diversity

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Authors: Zhicheng Han

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This study examines the correlation between knowledge of formulaic language, working memory (WM), and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) in Chinese L2 learners of English. This study investigates if WM and PSTM correlate differently to the acquisition of formulaic language, which may be relevant for the discourse around the conceptualization of formulas. Connectionist approaches have lead scholars to argue that formulas are form-meaning connections stored whole, making PSTM significant in the acquisitional process as it pertains to the storage and retrieval of chunk information. Generativist scholars, on the other hand, argued for active participation of interlanguage grammar in the acquisition and use of formulaic language, where formulas are represented in the mind but retain the internal structure built around a lexical core. This would make WM, especially the processing component of WM an important cognitive factor since it plays a role in processing and holding information for further analysis and manipulation. The current study asked L1 Chinese learners of English enrolled in graduate programs in China to complete a preference raking task where they rank their preference for formulas, grammatical non-formulaic expressions, and ungrammatical phrases with and without the lexical core in academic contexts. Participants were asked to rank the options in order of the likeliness of them encountering these phrases in the test sentences within academic contexts. Participants’ syntactic proficiency is controlled with a cloze test and grammar test. Regression analysis found a significant relationship between the processing component of WM and preference of formulaic expressions in the preference ranking task while no significant correlation is found for PSTM or syntactic proficiency. The correlational analysis found that WM, PSTM, and the two proficiency test scores have significant covariates. However, WM and PSTM have different predictor values for participants’ preference for formulaic language. Both storage and processing components of WM are significantly correlated with the preference for formulaic expressions while PSTM is not. These findings are in favor of the role of interlanguage grammar and syntactic knowledge in the acquisition of formulaic expressions. The differing effects of WM and PSTM suggest that selective attention to and processing of the input beyond simple retention play a key role in successfully acquiring formulaic language. Similar correlational patterns were found for preferring the ungrammatical phrase with the lexical core of the formula over the ones without the lexical core, attesting to learners’ awareness of the lexical core around which formulas are constructed. These findings support the view that formulaic phrases retain internal syntactic structures that are recognized and processed by the learners.

Keywords: formulaic language, working memory, phonological short-term memory, academic language

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Authors: Dong Jin Kang

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Application of single board microcontrollers is an important skill even for non-electronic engineering major students. Arduino board is widely utilized in engineering classes of the Yeungnam University of South Korea. In those classes, students are subjected to learn how to use various sensor components related to motion, sound, light, and so on as well as physical quantities. Students are grouped into several teams, and each team consists of 4~5 students. Many students are not motivated enough to learn those skills. An extracurricular program was planned to improve this problem. The extracurricular program was held as an international boot camp where students from three different countries were invited to participate. 10 students groups were formed, and each team was consisted of students having different nationality. The camp was 4 days long and wrapped up with competitions. During the camp, every student was assigned to design and make a two wheel robot. The competition was carried out in two different areas; individual and group performances. As most skills dealt in the class are used to build the robot, students are much motivated to review the whole subjects of the class. All students were surveyed after the program. The survey shows that the skills studied in the class are greatly improved, and practically understood. Staying at the dormitory and teaming with international students are help students improve communication skills. Competition at the camp was found as a key element to inspire and attract students for voluntary participation.

Keywords: extracurricular program, robot, Arduino board, international camp, competition

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Authors: Sabina Mohsin

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The need for grounding of teachers and the trend of using innovative ways to deal with students of various abilities in schools, colleges and universities has always been essential in any part of the world. Teacher edification programs, and qualifications standards, all too repeatedly lack enough rigidity, extensiveness and profundity, resulting in high levels of unskilled teachers and squat student performance. Accordingly, the solution, from this viewpoint, lies in making the entry and training necessities for teaching deeper and more exact. Teachers’ continuous professional development is necessary to reach all kinds of learners in class. The training provided is a direct opportunity for new teachers to interact better and motivate students in a two way discussion class. The intention of the study was to scrutinize whether the teachers’ training played an important role to fabricate lectures and classroom activities and reflected the objectives of the training provided in various schools and universities. It also aims to examine the current practices used in the various teacher training programs and if there is any other method that can be associated to enhance the effectiveness of these programs further. This research uses qualitative data collected from interviews, peer discussions, classroom observations, reviews, feedback of students and teachers to study teacher training and teaching methods used in school and universities in Bangladesh. The study finds teacher training to be effective though it has some limitations. It also includes some suggestions to make teacher training more effective.

Keywords: current practices in teacher training, enhancing effectiveness, limitation, student motivation, teacher training

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Authors: Waleed Afandi

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed various sectors, including education. This paper explores the integration of AI in education, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize learning processes, enhance teaching methodologies, and personalize education. We examine the historical context of AI in education, current applications, and the potential challenges and ethical considerations associated with its implementation. By reviewing a wide range of literature, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how AI can be leveraged to improve educational outcomes and the future directions of AI-driven educational innovations. Additionally, the paper discusses the impact of AI on student engagement, teacher support, and administrative efficiency. Case studies highlighting successful AI applications in diverse educational settings are presented, showcasing the practical benefits and real-world implications. The analysis also addresses potential disparities in access to AI technologies and suggests strategies to ensure equitable implementation. Through a balanced examination of the promises and pitfalls of AI in education, this study seeks to inform educators, policymakers, and technologists about the optimal pathways for integrating AI to foster an inclusive, effective, and innovative educational environment.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, education, personalized learning, teaching methodologies, educational outcomes, AI applications, student engagement, teacher support, administrative efficiency, equity in education

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Authors: Yi-Ju Lee

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This study identified the hypothesized relationships among tourist emotion, creative experience, and behavioral intention of handmade ancient candy in Tainan, Taiwan. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was administered in Anping, Tainan. The result also revealed significant positive relationships between emotion, creative experience and behavioral intention in handmade activities. This paper provides additional suggestions for enhancing behavioral intention and guidance regarding creative tourism.

Keywords: creative tourism, sense of achievement, unique learning, interaction with instructors

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Authors: Izharul Haq

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Every one of us seek to aspire to gain quality education. The biggest stake holders are students who labor through years acquiring knowledge and skill to help them prepare for their career. Parents spend a fortune on their children’s education. Companies spend billions of dollars to enhance standards by developing new education products and services. Quality education is the golden key to a long lasting prosperity for the individual and the nation. But unfortunately, education standards are continuously deteriorating and it has become a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, teaching is often described as a ‘popularity contest’ and those teachers who are usually popular with students are often those who compromise teaching to appease students. Such teachers also ‘teach-to-the-test’ ensuring high test scores. Such teachers, hence, receive good student rating. Teachers who are conscientious, rigorous and thorough are often the victims of good appraisal. Government and private organizations are spending billions of dollars trying to capture the characteristics of a good teacher. But the results are still vague and inconclusive. At present there is no objective way to measure teaching effectiveness. In this paper we present an innovative method to objectively measure teaching effectiveness using a new teaching tool (TSquare). The TSquare tool used in the study is practical, easy to use, cost effective and requires no special equipment to implement. Hence it has a global appeal for poor and the rich countries alike.

Keywords: measuring teaching effectiveness, quality in education, student learning, teaching styles

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Authors: Karim Karmi

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To keep pace with the requirements of globalization, a lot of universities across the globe have started teaching various academic subjects in English. In Tunisia, two higher education institutions have embarked on the experience of teaching in English instead of French. The aim of the present study was threefold. First, it sought to explore the stakeholders’ attitudes toward this shift. By stakeholders, we mean students and teachers. Second, it aimed at probing the challenges that might arise in the classroom. By challenges, we mean the linguistic and pedagogical difficulties that students and teachers might face. Third, the study investigated the reasons that led teachers and students to opt for English as a medium of instruction instead of French. The participants were 335 students and 14 teachers selected from two Tunisian universities teaching in English. Data was collected by means of questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations. The findings showed that there is a positive attitude towards English, in contrast to French. In other words, both students and teachers are enjoying the experience, and they hope that English will officially become the medium of instruction in Tunisia. Students and teachers reported a number of linguistic and pedagogical challenges, and they mainly ascribed them to the abrupt transition from French to English. The vast majority of the respondents, be they students or teachers, opted for English as a medium of instruction to maximise their chances of getting a job abroad. It is also worth noting that most teachers stated that teaching through English helps them when it comes to publishing academic articles.

Keywords: attitudes, challenges, English as a medium of instruction, opportunities

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Authors: Ismail Celik, Pavlo Antonenko, Seyit Ahmet Kiray, Ismail Sahin

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The aim of the present study was to thoroughly investigate the teachers’ interactive whiteboards (IWBs) use within the scope of the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) framework based on the school practice observations of in-service teachers collected by pre-service teachers. In this study, teachers’ use of IWBs in their classes was investigated by using phenomenography, which is a qualitative research method design. The participants of this study consisted of teachers working in a province of Turkey. Within the scope of the study, 337 teachers from 61 different schools were observed by preservice teachers during School Experience classes. The teachers use the IWBs to review the points not understood by the students, to share knowledge, to enhance motivation, to maintain student participation/practice and for in-process, formative assessment. The problems teachers face while using the IWBs can be IWB-based (touchscreen problems/frozen image/lack of software), administration-based, student-based and teacher-based (lack of knowledge of use, need for technical support). It is considered that technological knowledge (TK) is important in solving the problems experienced with IWBs, and technological pedagogy knowledge (TPK) and technological content knowledge (TCK) are important in using the IWBs in an interactive and pedagogically meaningful way that uses IWBs affordances and is relevant to the instructional objectives.

Keywords: TPACK, technology integration, interactive whiteboard, technology in education

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Authors: Sozan H. Omar, Lina L. Al-Rewaili

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The current study aimed to measure the fifth Grade student skills of reading illustrates in physical and chemical chapter included in science textbook, as well as identity the tasks the dispersants related to designing these illustrates which obstruct the students to read them properly. The researcher applied the test instrument of open discuss questions to measure the skill of: recognizing, description, interpretation and assessment for a sample of this research consisted of (269) students who read three illustrates, and conduct an interview with sample of them (27) students to recognize the dispersants related to designing of these illustrates. The study results showed that there are poor levels in illustrated drawing reading skills: description, interpretation, and assessment. The most important dispersants which obstruct the students to read theses illustrates properly representing: Art impacts of these illustrates, there are some elements which don’t serve these illustrates. In the light of the above results, the researcher provided some recommendations such as training the students on using the images and illustrates properly in science textbooks, as well as create simple designs of illustrates and they should be free of crowded elements and impacts which don’t serve the illustrates.

Keywords: reading illustrated drawings skills, fifth grade science, physical and chemical changes

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Authors: Chandra Prayaga, Aaron Wade, Lakshmi Prayaga, Gopi Shankar Mallu

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This paper presents the use of machine learning algorithms to predict the success of students in an introductory physics course. Data having 140 rows pertaining to the performance of two batches of students was used. The lack of sufficient data to train robust machine learning models was compensated for by generating synthetic data similar to the real data. CTGAN and CTGAN with Gaussian Copula (Gaussian) were used to generate synthetic data, with the real data as input. To check the similarity between the real data and each synthetic dataset, pair plots were made. The synthetic data was used to train machine learning models using the PyCaret package. For the CTGAN data, the Ada Boost Classifier (ADA) was found to be the ML model with the best fit, whereas the CTGAN with Gaussian Copula yielded Logistic Regression (LR) as the best model. Both models were then tested for accuracy with the real data. ROC-AUC analysis was performed for all the ten classes of the target variable (Grades A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F). The ADA model with CTGAN data showed a mean AUC score of 0.4377, but the LR model with the Gaussian data showed a mean AUC score of 0.6149. ROC-AUC plots were obtained for each Grade value separately. The LR model with Gaussian data showed consistently better AUC scores compared to the ADA model with CTGAN data, except in two cases of the Grade value, C- and A-.

Keywords: machine learning, student success, physics course, grades, synthetic data, CTGAN, gaussian copula CTGAN

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Authors: Shaleeza Sohail

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Self, and peer evaluations are some of the main components in almost all group assignments and projects in higher education institutes. These evaluations provide students an opportunity to better understand the learning outcomes of the assignment and/or project. A number of online systems have been developed for this purpose that provides automated assessment and feedback of students’ contribution in a group environment based on self and peer evaluations. All these systems lack a progressive aspect of these assessments and feedbacks which is the most crucial factor for ongoing improvement and life-long learning. In addition, a number of assignments and projects are designed in a manner that smaller or initial assessment components lead to a final assignment or project. In such cases, the evaluation and feedback may provide students an insight into their performance as a group member for a particular component after the submission. Ideally, it should also create an opportunity to improve for next assessment component as well. Self and Peer Progressive Assessment and Feedback System encourages students to perform better in the next assessment by providing a comparative analysis of the individual’s contribution score on an ongoing basis. Hence, the student sees the change in their own contribution scores during the complete project based on smaller assessment components. Self-Assessment Factor is calculated as an indicator of how close the self-perception of the student’s own contribution is to the perceived contribution of that student by other members of the group. Peer-Assessment Factor is calculated to compare the perception of one student’s contribution as compared to the average value of the group. Our system also provides a Group Coherence Factor which shows collectively how group members contribute to the final submission. This feedback is provided for students and teachers to visualize the consistency of members’ contribution perceived by its group members. Teachers can use these factors to judge the individual contributions of the group members in the combined tasks and allocate marks/grades accordingly. This factor is shown to students for all groups undertaking same assessment, so the group members can comparatively analyze the efficiency of their group as compared to other groups. Our System provides flexibility to the instructors for generating their own customized criteria for self and peer evaluations based on the requirements of the assignment. Students evaluate their own and other group members’ contributions on the scale from significantly higher to significantly lower. The preliminary testing of the prototype system is done with a set of predefined cases to explicitly show the relation of system feedback factors to the case studies. The results show that such progressive feedback to students can be used to motivate self-improvement and enhanced team skills. The comparative group coherence can promote a better understanding of the group dynamics in order to improve team unity and fair division of team tasks.

Keywords: effective group work, improvement of team skills, progressive feedback, self and peer assessment system

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Authors: Georges Bou Ghantous

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This literature review examines the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on higher education, highlighting both the potential benefits and challenges associated with its adoption. The review reveals that AI significantly enhances personalized learning by tailoring educational experiences to individual student needs, thereby boosting engagement and learning outcomes. Automated grading systems streamline assessment processes, allowing educators to focus on improving instructional quality and student interaction. AI's data-driven insights provide valuable analytics, helping educators identify trends in at-risk students and refine teaching strategies. Moreover, AI promotes enhanced instructional innovation through the adoption of advanced teaching methods and technologies, enriching the educational environment. Administrative efficiency is also improved as AI automates routine tasks, freeing up time for educators to engage in research and curriculum development. However, the review also addresses the challenges that accompany AI integration, such as data privacy concerns, algorithmic bias, dependency on technology, reduced human interaction, and ethical dilemmas. This balanced exploration underscores the need for careful consideration of both the advantages and potential hurdles in the implementation of AI in higher education.

Keywords: administrative efficiency, data-driven insights, data privacy, ethical dilemmas, higher education, personalized learning

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