Search results for: University students

Authors: Wang Lin, Li Zhiqiang

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cooperative learning behavior pattern based on the data of students' movement. The study firstly reviewed the cooperative learning theory and its research status, and briefly introduced the k-means clustering algorithm. Then, it used clustering algorithm and mathematical statistics theory to analyze the activity rhythm of individual student and groups in different functional areas, according to the movement data provided by 10 first-year graduate students. It also focused on the analysis of students' behavior in the learning area and explored the law of cooperative learning behavior. The research result showed that the cooperative learning behavior analysis method based on movement data proposed in this paper is feasible. From the results of data analysis, the characteristics of behavior of students and their cooperative learning behavior patterns could be found.

Keywords: behavior pattern, cooperative learning, data analyze, k-means clustering algorithm

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Authors: A. Alshabeb

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Vocabulary is one of the elements that links the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and is very critical in learning a foreign language. This study aims to determine how Saudi Arabian EFL students learn English vocabulary via Twitter. The study adopts a mixed sequential research design in collecting and analysing data. The results of the study provide several recommendations for vocabulary learning. Moreover, the study can help teachers to consider the possibilities of using Twitter further, and perhaps to develop new approaches to vocabulary teaching and to support students in their use of social media.

Keywords: social media, twitter, vocabulary, web 2

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Authors: Sibel Yoleri

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In this research it is aimed to determine the adjustment of students who attend the first class at elementary school to school in terms of several variables. The study group of the research consists of 286 students (131 female, 155 male) who continue attending the first class of elementary school in 2013-2014 academic year, in the city center of Uşak. In the research, ‘Personal Information Form’ and ‘Walker-Mcconnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment’ have been used as data collection tools. In the analysis of data, the t-test has been applied in the independent groups to determine whether the sampling group students’ scores of school adjustment differ according to the sex variable or not. For the evaluation of data identified as not showing normal distribution, Mann Whitney U test has been applied for paired comparison, Kruskal Wallis H test has been used for multiple comparisons. In the research, all the statistical processes have been evaluated bidirectional and the level of significance has been accepted as .05. According to the results gathered from the research, a meaningful difference could not been identified in the level of students’ adjustment to school in terms of sex variable. At the end of the research, it is identified that the adjustment level of the students who have started school at the age of seven is higher than the ones who have started school at the age of five and the adjustment level of the students who have preschool education before the elementary school is higher than the ones who have not taken.

Keywords: starting school, preschool education, school adjustment, Walker-Mcconnell Scale

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Authors: Kanae Suzuki

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Handheld video games are popular communication tools among Japanese elementary school students today. This study aims to examine the effects of the use of handheld video games on interpersonal relationships of the students in real and virtual worlds. A two-wave panel survey was conducted for students of ten elementary schools at an interval of approximately six months. The survey questionnaire included questions about the average amount of time spent playing a handheld video game during the past one month, the frequency of communication with players during game play, and the interpersonal relationships, such as the number of real and virtual friends the students have. A multiple regression model was constructed for 324 students to examine causal relationships. The results indicated that the more frequently the students communicated with other players while playing games, the number of the real friends tended to increase. In contrast, no significant effect of the total time spent playing games was found on interpersonal relationships. The findings suggested that communication during game play is an important factor for improving interpersonal relationships of this age group.

Keywords: communication, real friend, social adjustment, virtual friend

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Authors: Yen Yi Huang

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This paper aims to explore the application of strategies in applied drama to the social work education arena in order to enhance students' creativity, curiosity, and aesthetic sensitivity. Also, applied drama is used as a means to facilitate students' reflection-in-action and improve their understanding of issues on creative aging, gender equality, human rights, bullying, and prejudice. This paper mainly uses the perspective of Homi K. Bhabha's third space to explore the impact of applied drama and social work training on students. First, it focuses on how students create new understandings and insights in the third space of multidisciplinary training studies. Second, it analyzes how the hybridity and negotiation of ideas between applied drama and social work were created. Finally, it discusses the follow-up effects of the training and the factors that promote or hinder the hybridity and generation of the third space. This paper uses students' reflection papers for analysis. It is not focused on a discussion of the effectiveness of the teaching but attempts to bring new insights into the applications of applied drama to the social work education arena. The hybridity and generation of the third space require handling power strategically and looking after the emotional space of the students. Taking part in the training allows students in the third space of multidisciplinary training to reexamine the traditional framework of social work knowledge to create new ideas and possibilities.

Keywords: multidisciplinary, applied drama, social work education, third space

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Authors: Alveena Khan

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The objective of this research is to explore students’ understanding about bullying and different bullying types. Nowadays bullying is considered as an important social issue around the world because it has long lasting effects on students’ lives. Sometimes due to bullying students commit suicide, they lose confidence and become isolated. This research used qualitative research approach. In order to generate data, triangulation was considered for the verification and reliability of the generated data. Semi-structured interview, non-participant observation, and case studies were conducted. This research focused on five major private colleges and 20 students (both female and male) participated in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The data generated included approximately 45 hours of total interviews. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis and followed grounded theory to generate themes. The findings of the research highlights that bullying does prevail in studied private colleges, mostly in the form of verbal and physical bullying. No specific gender difference was found in experiencing verbal and physical bullying. Furthermore, from students’ point of view, college administrators are responsible to deal with bullying. The researcher suggests that there must be a proper check and balance system and anti-bullying programs should be held in colleges to create a protective and healthy environment in which students do not face bullying.

Keywords: bullying, college student, physical and verbal bullying, qualitative research

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Authors: Mohd Aderi Che Noh, Tuan Rahayu Tuan Lasan

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Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) is an important skill in the Malaysian education system to produce a knowledgeable generation, able to think critically and creatively in order to face the challenges in the future. Educational challenges of the 21st century require that all students to have the HOTS. Therefore, this study aims to identify the level of knowledge, attitude and readiness of students towards HOTS. The respondents were 127 form four students from schools in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya. This study is quantitative survey using a questionnaire to collect data. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0. The results showed that knowledge, attitudes and readiness of students towards HOTS lam were at a high level. Inferential analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between knowledge with attitude and readiness towards HOTS. This study provides information to the schools and teachers to improve the teaching and learning to increase students HOTS and fulfilling the hope of Ministry of Education to produce human capital who can be globally competitive.

Keywords: high order thinking skills, teaching, education, Malaysia

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Authors: Helen Ngozi Ibe, Chimmuanya Ezere

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The study investigated the effect of Question Answer Relationships (QARs) in science reading on secondary school students’ achievement in Biology in Owerri Education Zone II of Imo State. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design and was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The sample comprised of 67 SS2 Biology students. The sample was drawn using random sampling technique. One researcher made instrument titled: Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used for collecting the data of the study. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kuder Richardson formula (KR-20) which yielded a reliability index of 0.85 and Cronbach alpha for the BSIRS with an index of 0.71. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings are that students exposed to QARs strategy in science reading had higher achievement mean scores in biology than students in the control group; there is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students exposed to QARs. The researchers recommended that science teachers should teach students the Question Answer Relationship reading strategy and that science students should endeavour to use the question - answer relationship reading strategy in classroom and individual science reading in order to enhance high academic achievement in the subjects being read.

Keywords: academic achievement, biology, science reading, question-answer relationship

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Authors: Edward Sarich, Jack Ryan

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In contrast to learning new vocabulary incidentally in one’s first language, foreign language vocabulary is often acquired purposefully, because a lack of natural exposure requires it to be studied in an artificial environment. It follows then that foreign language vocabulary may be more efficiently acquired if it is purpose-driven, or linked to a clear and desirable outcome. The research described in this paper relates to the early stages of what is seen as a long-term effort to measure the effectiveness of a methodology for purpose-driven foreign language vocabulary instruction, specifically by analyzing whether directed studying from high-frequency vocabulary lists leads to an improvement in Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) scores. The research was carried out in two sections of a first-year university English composition class at a small university in Japan. The results seem to indicate that purposeful study from relevant high-frequency vocabulary lists can contribute to raising TOEIC scores and that the test preparation methodology used in this study was thought by students to be beneficial in helping them to prepare to take this high-stakes test.

Keywords: corpus vocabulary, language asssessment, second language vocabulary acquisition, TOEIC test preparation

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Authors: M. A. Barros, M. V. Barros

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The aim of this work is to analyze the discursive dynamics of preservice teachers during the implementation of a didactic sequence on topics of Quantum Mechanics for High School. Our research methodology was qualitative, case study type, in which we selected two prospective teachers on the Physics Teacher Training Course of the Sao Carlos Institute of Physics, at the University of Sao Paulo/Brazil. The set of modes of communication analyzed were the intentions and interventions of the teachers, the established communicative approach, the patterns and the contents of the interactions between teachers and students. Data were collected through video recording, interviews and questionnaires conducted before and after an 8 hour mini-course, which was offered to a group of 20 secondary students. As teaching strategy we used an active learning methodology, called: Peer Instruction. The episodes pointed out that both future teachers used interactive dialogic and authoritative communicative approaches to mediate the discussion between peers. In the interactive dialogic dimension the communication pattern was predominantly I-R-F (initiation-response-feedback), in which the future teachers assisted the students in the discussion by providing feedback to their initiations and contributing to the progress of the discussions between peers. Although the interactive dialogic dimension has been preferential during the use of the Peer Instruction method the authoritative communicative approach was also employed. In the authoritative dimension, future teachers used predominantly the type I-R-E (initiation-response-evaluation) communication pattern by asking the students several questions and leading them to the correct answer. Among the main implications the work contributes to the improvement of the practices of future teachers involved in applying active learning methodologies in classroom by identifying the types of communicative approaches and communication patterns used, as well as researches on curriculum innovation in physics in high school.

Keywords: curricular innovation, high school, physics teaching, discursive dynamics

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Authors: Hashini E. Mohottala

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We report the combine use of Wikispaces (WikiS) and Group Problem Solving (GPS) sessions conducted in the introductory level physics classes. As a part of this new teaching tool, some essay type problems were posted on the WikiS in weekly basis and students were encouraged to participate in problem solving without providing numerical final answers but the steps. Wikispace is used as a platform for students to meet online and create discussions. Each week students were further evaluated on problem solving skills opening up more opportunity for peer interaction through GPS. Each group was given a different problem to solve and the answers were graded. Students developed a set of skills in decision-making, problem solving, communication, negotiation, critical and independent thinking and teamwork through the combination of WikiS and GPS.

Keywords: group problem solving (GPS), wikispace (WikiS), physics education, learning

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Authors: Shakirat Abimbola Adesola, Shuaib Akintunde Asifat, Jelili Olalekan Amoo

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This paper presented the impact of students’ emotions on learning when receiving lectures and when taking tests. It was observed that students experience different types of emotions during the study, and this was found to have a significant effect on their academic performance. A total of one thousand six hundred and seventy-five (1675) students from the department of Computer Science in two Colleges of Education in South-West Nigeria took part in this study. The students were randomly selected for the research. Sample comprises of 968 males representing 58%, and 707 females representing 42%. A structured questionnaire, of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was distributed to the participants to obtain their opinions. Data gathered were analyzed using the IBM SPSS 20 to obtain ANOVA, descriptive analysis, stepwise regression, and reliability tests. The results revealed that emotion moderately shape students’ motivation and engagement in learning; and that self-regulation and self-determination do have significant impact on academic performance. It was further revealed that test anxiety has a significant correlation with academic performance.

Keywords: motivation, self-determination, test anxiety, academic performance, and academic engagement

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Authors: Insaf Sayar, Moôtez Marzougui, Abderraouf Ben Abderrahman

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Background: Physical Education and Sports (PES) plays an important role in the overall education of the student. It has physical, affective, psychological, and social repercussions. In fact, overweight children are sometimes underestimated by their lower physical performance and suffer from discriminatory attitudes by their peers and their physical education (PE) teachers. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of both teacher’s pedagogy and overweight or obesity on the inclusion of obese students in physical education classes in the school setting in the Emirate of Ajman (United Arab Emirates) and to understand how physical education and sports (PES) teachers adapt their pedagogical interventions towards this category. Methods: A sample of 48 overweight or obese students and 20 teachers were approached from different schools in Ajman Emirate. Two standardized questionnaires for obese students and PSE teachers were used. Overweight and obesity were defined using age and sex-specific Body Mass Index (BMI). Results: Our results showed that the average BMI of the surveyed students is 28.58 ± 3.14 kg/m². According to the collected data, 85.42% of obese students report that they do not practice physical activity or rarely practice outside of school, and 73.42% go to school by bus or car. In addition, 66.7% of the surveyed students said that being overweight is a barrier to PES practice, and 100% of obese or overweight students do not prefer some physical activities such as running and jumping. Similarly, 75% of the surveyed teachers said that obese students are not integrated into the PES course, but only 55% of teachers reported that the obese student became an obstacle in PES sessions, while 80% of teachers reported that obese or overweight students were marginalized by their colleagues. In the same way, most of them (75%) said that obese students are exempted from PES courses. Conclusion: Overweight/obesity is prevalent among school children in the Emirate of Ajman, with a high correlation with sedentary behavior. The study confirmed an urgent need and effective teaching strategies/ pedagogies for including overweight or obese students in physical education engagement and learning.

Keywords: adolescent, mainstreaming, obesity, PES education, UAE

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Authors: Mei-Ching Ho

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Graduate-level writing practices have gained increasing scholarly attention in recent years. Due to its discipline-specific conventions and requirements, research writing can cause various levels of anxiety for native English speaking and English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) postgraduate students. Although many studies have investigated how writing anxiety can negatively affect writing performance, self-efficacy, and disciplinary discourse socialization process, relatively few have examined the impact of writing anxiety from the perspectives of postgraduate students in EFL contexts. This study aims to 1) examine the level of and the relationship between research writing anxiety and self-efficacy among Taiwanese EFL students at the master's and doctoral levels and 2) to uncover the causes of students' research writing anxiety. The data was collected from an adapted version of Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) and Research Writing Self-Efficacy Scale with 218 EFL graduate students in engineering-related fields at two research-oriented universities in Taiwan. A pilot study was conducted to ensure the construct and content validity of the instruments. Semi-structured interviews were also undertaken with 30 survey respondents to better understand the causes of their writing anxiety. The results revealed that while both master's and doctoral students had low to moderate research writing anxiety and self-efficacy, the doctoral students with more experiences in writing research papers in English were more anxious but not necessarily more confident than the master's students. A significantly weak negative correlation was found between the two constructs. The contributing factors for these results include different degree of writing exigency, perceived importance and types of writing tasks, writing for publication as graduation thresholds, and mentoring relationship with thesis/dissertation advisers. The study also identified several causes of graduate-level writing anxiety, of which writing under time constraints and concern on linguistic and rhetorical proficiency appeared to be the major concern. Pedagogical implications regarding facilitating graduate students' writing process and reducing anxiety will also be drawn.

Keywords: writing affect, writing anxiety, writing self-efficacy, EFL, postgraduate students

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Authors: Kasi Jockeil-Ojike

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The study of signage and wayfinding design guidelines is to provide consistent, coherent, and comprehensive guidelines for all type of signage design that may be applied to guide persons from the freeway into campus, and to specific building. As the world becomes more complex and the population increases, people increasingly rely on signage and wayfinding systems to navigate their way in built environment such as university campus. This paper will demonstrate and discuss signage and wayfinding, and the importance of visual literacy in university campuses. It discusses the process of wayfinding and signage, how poor signage and wayfinding systems affect people when navigating, and why wayfinding is more than just signage. Hence, this paper tries to examine the design guideline that primarily addresses the signage and wayfinding system that improves visual literacy within University of Port Harcourt multi-campuses. In doing this, the paper explore the environmental graphic design senori-emotional values and communicative information theories that takes the subjectivity of the observer in account. By making these connections, the paper will also determine what University of Port Harcourt need to focus on to be counted in the global trends, using developed visual communication guidelines based on previous studies or concept from professional. In conclusion, information about why physical structures (buildings and waypaths) on University of Port Harcourt multiple campuses need to be branded in self-communicative manner using signage and wayfinding design as integral part of its physical planning policy is recommended.

Keywords: campus-signage, movement, visual-literacy, wayfinding-guidelines

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Authors: Mark Shiu-kee Shum, Dan Shi

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The paper aims to introduce the ‘Reading to Learn, Learning to Write’ (R2L) pedagogy and its application in teaching reading and writing to non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in Hong Kong. Guided by the teaching and learning cycles accentuated in R2L pedagogy, sufficient scaffolding was provided for students with an explicit teaching method in literacy education. To understand the influence of using R2L pedagogy on students’ reading and writing abilities across different genres, quantitative data were collected by pre- and post-test of reading and writing tasks in the two different genres of narration and explanation. The pre-test and post-test were used to assess students’ writing performance based on the three textual components of context, discourse, and graphic features, while the reading abilities were assessed at the literal, inferred and interpretive levels of reading comprehension to measure the effectiveness of R2L pedagogy on their literacy improvement. The findings show the use of R2L pedagogy has been proven more effective in improving NCS students’ writing abilities than developing their reading capacity. It is hoped that the R2L-based pedagogic practices can serve as teaching references and pedagogic rationale for L1 language teachers and raise their metalinguistic awareness in teaching Chinese to non-Chinese speaking students in Hong Kong and beyond.

Keywords: pedagogical inclusiveness, literacy education, ethnic minority, reading and writing

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Abidi, Zahra Nourouz Pour, Mehdi Moudi

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In this research, firstly critical success factors and deterrent factors in implementing projects and also the factors those cause information technology productivity (IT) paradox in Islamic Azad University, Zahedan branch examined. Research method of this paper is descriptive. In fact, the researcher by using survey, proposed useful solutions. In this research, subjects’ responders to questionnaires items were based on Likert scale. In the questionnaire, economic, technical, organizational and cultural factors in the university have been assessed in order to obtain the necessary validity. We used masters and technicians of IT department’s advices to realize reliability and consistency. For the reliability test we used Cronbach’s reliability test and validity has been obtained using SPSS software. Because of the research questions and objectives, t-student test is used for hypothesis testing. Finally we analyze the findings, we offer conclusions and suggestions.

Keywords: IT projects, Islamic Azad University, success factors, deterrent factors

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Authors: Davoud Maleki

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

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

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Authors: Gregory W. Smith, Paul J. Riccomini

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The goal of this empirical inquiry is to explore the effect of noise reducing headphones on the short-term memory recall of college students. Immediately following the presentation (via PowerPoint) of 12 unrelated and randomly selected one- and two-syllable words, students were asked to recall as many words as possible. Using a linear model with conditions marked with binary indicators, we examined the frequency and accuracy of words that were recalled. The findings indicate that for some students, a reduction of noise has a significant positive impact on their ability to recall information. As classrooms become more aurally distracting due to the implementation of cooperative learning activities, these findings highlight the need for a quiet learning environment for some learners.

Keywords: auditory distraction, education, instruction, noise, working memory

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Authors: Rabea Alfahad

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Learning English academic vocabulary poses a challenge on learning English.In this study, we harnessed interactive web-based e-books, and usedgamification and collaborative responsive writingto teach English academic vocabulary. We recruited 50 international students to investigate the impact of gamification on the participants’ learning gains. In so doing, the participants were randomly assigned to two groups: one group learned English academic vocabulary with gamification, and the second group learnedthem with traditional instructional methods. We used a pre/posttest to gauge the students’ cognitive attainment. We then administered independent samples t-test to find out the impact of gamification on learning academic vocabulary. We also employed an IMMS to collect data regarding the motivational level of the students. We administered a MANOVA test to measure the motivational level of the students in both groups. The results of this study suggested that …

Keywords: english language learners, technologhy integration, teaching, gamification

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Authors: Eda Ozkara San

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Nurse educators have been charged by several nursing organizations and accrediting bodies to provide innovative and evidence-based educational experiences, both didactic and clinical, to help students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide culturally competent nursing care to patients. Clinical simulation, which offers the opportunity for students to practice nursing skills in a risk-free, controlled environment and helps develop self-efficacy (confidence) within the nursing role. As one simulation method, the standardized patients (SPs) simulation helps educators to teach nursing students variety of skills in nursing, medicine, and other health professions. It can be a helpful tool for nurse educators to enhance cultural competence of nursing students. An alarming gap exists within the literature concerning the effectiveness of SP strategy to enhance cultural competence development of diverse student groups, who must work with patients from various backgrounds. This grant-supported, longitudinal, one-group, pretest and post-test educational intervention study aimed to examine the effect of the Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation (DSPS) cultural competence education strategy on students’ (n = 53) transcultural self-efficacy (TSE). The researcher-developed multidimensional DSPS strategy involved careful integration of transcultural nursing skills guided by the Cultural Competence and Confidence (CCC) model. As a carefully orchestrated teaching and learning strategy by specifically utilizing the SP pedagogy, the DSPS also followed international guidelines and standards for the design, implementation, evaluation, and SP training; and had content validity review. The DSPS strategy involved two simulation scenarios targeting underrepresented patient populations (Muslim immigrant woman with limited English proficiency and Irish-Italian American gay man with his partner (Puerto Rican) to be utilized in a second-semester, nine-credit, 15-week medical-surgical nursing course at an urban public US university. Five doctorally prepared content experts reviewed the DSPS strategy for content validity. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) score was calculated between .80-1.0 on the evaluation forms. Jeffreys’ Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool (TSET) was administered as a pretest and post-test to assess students’ changes in cognitive, practical, and affective dimensions of TSE. Results gained from this study support that the DSPS cultural competence education strategy assisted students to develop cultural competence and caused statistically significant changes (increase) in students’ TSE perceptions. Results also supported that all students, regardless of their background, benefit (and require) well designed cultural competence education strategies. The multidimensional DSPS strategy is found to be an effective way to foster nursing students’ cultural competence development. Step-by-step description of the DSPS provides an easy adaptation of this strategy with different student populations and settings.

Keywords: cultural competence development, the cultural competence and confidence model, CCC model, educational intervention, transcultural self-efficacy, TSE, transcultural self-efficacy tool, TSET

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Authors: Alvaro Marin

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This paper explores the challenges in Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) conceptual development to accommodate professionals’ perceptions in the language industry into CTS established theoretical apparatus, empirical research projects, and university pedagogical proposals. A comparative conceptual assessment framework is developed from a pluralist epistemological stance that promotes interdisciplinary explorations of the translation process. The framework is used to review key notions such as expertise or feedback, as understood by language industry stakeholders. This review is followed by an analysis of how these notions can enrich research constructs to be applied in empirical investigations of translators’ cognitive processes from an embedded, situated cognition perspective. Thus, it will be proposed to apply the conceptual assessment framework as an effort towards strengthening the interpretative research tools and bridging the gap between industry and academia. The conclusions of this analysis will serve as a basis to further discuss how professional practices, combined with our current knowledge about expertise development in cognitive science and Expertise Studies, can enhance the learning experience of university translation students and help them better understand the processes and requirements of professional cross-linguistic mediation.

Keywords: language industry, cognitive translation studies, translation cognitive theory, translation teaching

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Authors: Joseph Ampratwum, Yaw Nyadu Offei, Afua Ntoaduro, Frank Twum

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The use of computer assistive technology has captured the attention of individuals with visual impairment. Children with visual impairments who are tactual learners have one unique need which is quite different from all other disability groups. They depend on the use of computer assistive technology for reading, writing, receiving information and sending information as well. The objective of the study was to assess students’ competencies in the use of computer assistive technology at Akropong School for the Blind in Ghana. This became necessary because little research has been conducted to document the competencies and challenges in the use of computer among students with visual impairments in Africa. A case study design with a mixed research strategy was adopted for the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to sample 35 students from Akropong School for the Blind in the eastern region of Ghana. The researcher gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to measure students’ competencies in keyboarding skills and Job Access with Speech (JAWS), as well as the other challenges. The findings indicated that comparatively students’ competency in keyboard skills was higher than JAWS application use. Thus students had reached higher stages in the conscious competencies matrix in the former than the latter. It was generally noted that challenges limiting effective use of students’ competencies in computer assistive technology in the School were more personal than external influences. This was because most of the challenges were due to the individual response to the training and familiarity in developing their competencies in using computer assistive technology. Base on this it was recommended that efforts should be made to stock up the laboratory with additional computers. Directly in line with the first recommendation, it was further suggested that more practice time should be created for the students to maximize computer use. Also Licensed JAWS must be acquired by the school to advance students’ competence in using computer assistive technology.

Keywords: computer assistive technology, job access with speech, keyboard, visual impairment

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Authors: Z. Karakus, Z. Ozer

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Nurses are responsible for the care and treatment of individuals, as well as health maintenance and education. Medication administration is an important part of health promotion. The administration of a medicine is a common but important clinical procedure for nurses because of its complex structure. Therefore, medication errors are inevitable for nurses or nursing students. Medication errors can cause ineffective treatment, patient’s prolonged hospital stay, disablement, or death. Additionally, medication errors affect the global economy adversely by increasing health costs. Hence, preventing or decreasing of medication errors is a critical and essential issue in nursing. Nurse educators are in pursuit of new teaching methods to teach students significance of medication application. In the light of technological developments of this age, e-learning has started to be accepted as an important teaching method. E-learning is the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies in education. It has advantages such as flexibility of time and place, lower costs, faster delivery, and lower environmental impact. Students can make their own schedule and decide the learning method. This study is conducted to determine the impact of e-learning on medication administration of nursing students.

Keywords: e-learning, medication administration, nursing, nursing students

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Authors: Daniela Velichová

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Plenty of ideas on how to adopt active learning methods in education are available nowadays. Mathematics is a subject where the active involvement of students is required in particular in order to achieve desirable results regarding sustainable knowledge and deep understanding. The present article is based on the outcomes of an Erasmus+ project DrIVE-MATH, that was aimed at developing a novel and integrated framework to teach maths classes in engineering courses at the university level. It is fundamental for students from the early years of their academic life to have agile minds. They must be prepared to adapt to their future working environments, where enterprises’ views are always evolving, where all collaborate in teams, and relations between peers are thought for the well-being of the whole - workers and company profit. This reality imposes new requirements on higher education in terms of adaptation of different pedagogical methods, such as project-based and active-learning methods used within the course curricula. Active learning methodologies are regarded as an effective way to prepare students to meet the challenges posed by enterprises and to help them in building critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and insight to the solved complex problems from different perspectives. Fostering learning-by-doing activities in the pedagogical process can help students to achieve learning independence, as they could acquire deeper conceptual understanding by experimenting with the abstract concept in a more interesting, useful, and meaningful way. Clear information about learning outcomes and goals might help students to take more responsibility for their learning results. Active learning methods implemented by the project team members in their teaching practice, eduScrum and Jigsaw in particular, proved to provide better scientific and soft skills support to students than classical teaching methods. EduScrum method enables teachers to generate a working environment that stimulates students' working habits and self-initiative as they become aware of their responsibilities within the team, their own acquired knowledge, and their abilities to solve problems independently, though in collaboration with other team members. This method enhances collaborative learning, as students are working in teams towards a common goal - knowledge acquisition, while they are interacting with each other and evaluated individually. Teams consisting of 4-5 students work together on a list of problems - sprint; each member is responsible for solving one of them, while the group leader – a master, is responsible for the whole team. A similar principle is behind the Jigsaw technique, where the classroom activity makes students dependent on each other to succeed. Students are divided into groups, and assignments are split into pieces, which need to be assembled by the whole group to complete the (Jigsaw) puzzle. In this paper, analysis of students’ perceptions concerning the achievement of deeper conceptual understanding in mathematics and the development of soft skills, such as self-motivation, critical thinking, flexibility, leadership, responsibility, teamwork, negotiation, and conflict management, is presented. Some new challenges are discussed as brought by introducing active learning methods in the basic mathematics courses. A few examples of sprints developed and used in teaching basic maths courses at technical universities are presented in addition.

Keywords: active learning methods, collaborative learning, conceptual understanding, eduScrum, Jigsaw, soft skills

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Authors: Ehsan Moradi, Parisa Paikhaste, Amir Alam Beigi, Seyedeh Somayeh Bathaei

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The need for entrepreneurial sustainability is as important as the entrepreneurship category itself. By transferring competencies in a sustainable entrepreneurship framework, entrepreneurship education can make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of businesses, especially for start-up entrepreneurs. This study analyzes the essential competencies of students in the development of sustainable entrepreneurship. It is an applied causal study in terms of nature and field in terms of data collection. The main purpose of this research project is to study and explain the dimensions of sustainability entrepreneurship competencies among agricultural students. The statistical population consists of 730 junior and senior undergraduate students of the Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. The sample size was determined to be 120 using the Cochran's formula, and the convenience sampling method was used. Face validity, structure validity, and diagnostic methods were used to evaluate the validity of the research tool and Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability to evaluate its reliability. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used by the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) method to prepare a measurement model for data processing. The results showed that seven key dimensions play a role in shaping sustainable entrepreneurial development competencies: systems thinking competence (STC), embracing diversity and interdisciplinary (EDI), foresighted thinking (FTC), normative competence (NC), action competence (AC), interpersonal competence (IC), and strategic management competence (SMC). It was found that acquiring skills in SMC by creating the ability to plan to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship in students through the relevant mechanisms can improve entrepreneurship in students by adopting a sustainability attitude. While increasing students' analytical ability in the field of social and environmental needs and challenges and emphasizing curriculum updates, AC should pay more attention to the relationship between the curriculum and its content in the form of entrepreneurship culture promotion programs. In the field of EDI, it was found that the success of entrepreneurs in terms of sustainability and business sustainability of start-up entrepreneurs depends on their interdisciplinary thinking. It was also found that STC plays an important role in explaining the relationship between sustainability and entrepreneurship. Therefore, focusing on these competencies in agricultural education to train start-up entrepreneurs can lead to sustainable entrepreneurship in the agricultural higher education system.

Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, competency, agricultural higher education

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Authors: Yessica A. Aguilera

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English is currently the only foreign language included in the national educational curriculum in Chile. The English curriculum establishes that once completed secondary education, students are expected to reach B1 level according to the Common European Reference Framework (CEFR) scale. However, the objective has not been achieved, and to the author’s best knowledge, there is still a severe lack of English language skills among students who have completed their secondary education studies. In order to deal with the fact that students do not manage English as expected, team-based learning (TBL) was introduced in English language lessons at the Universidad Federico Santa María (USM). TBL is a collaborative teaching-learning method which enhances active learning by combining individual and team work. This approach seeks to help students achieve course objectives while learning how to function in teams. The purpose of the research was to assess the implementation and effectiveness of TBL in English language classes at USM technical training education. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from teachers and students about their experience through TBL. Research findings show that both teachers and students are satisfied with the method and that students’ engagement and participation in class is higher. Additionally, students score higher on examinations improving academic outcomes. The findings of the research have the potential to guide how TBL could be included in future English language courses.

Keywords: collaborative learning, college education, English language learning, team-based learning

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Authors: C. S. Caires, A. Barbosa, W. Hanyou

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In this paper, we present the main results achieved during a five-week international workshop on Interactive Furniture for the Classroom, with 22 Chinese design students, in Jiangmen city (Guangdong province, China), and five teachers from Portugal, France, Iran, Macao SAR, and China. The main goal was to engage design students from China with new skills and practice methodologies towards interactive design research for furniture and product design for the classroom. The final results demonstrate students' concerns on improving Chinese furniture design for the classrooms, including solutions related to collaborative learning and human-interaction design for interactive furniture products. The findings of the research led students to the fabrication of five original prototypes: two for kindergartens ('Candy' and 'Tilt-tilt'), two for primary schools ('Closer' and 'Eks(x)'), and one for art/creative schools ('Wave'). From the findings, it was also clear that collaboration, personalization, and project-based teaching are still neglected when designing furniture products for the classroom in China. Students focused on these issues and came up with creative solutions that could transform this educational field in China.

Keywords: product design, collaborative education, interactive design, design research and prototyping

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Najwa Alsayed Omar

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With the increasing popularity of the Internet, online reading has become an essential source for EFL readers. Using strategies to comprehend information on online reading texts play a crucial role in students’ academic success. Metacognitive reading strategies are effective factors that enhance EFL learners reading comprehension. This study aimed at exploring the use of online metacognitive reading strategies by postgraduate Libyan EFL students. Quantitative data was collected using the Survey of Online Reading Strategies (OSORS). The findings revealed that the participants were moderate users of metacognitive online reading strategies. Problem solving strategies were the most frequently reported used strategies, while support reading strategies were the least. The five most and least frequently reported strategies were identified. Based on the findings, some future research recommendations were presented.

Keywords: metacognitive strategies, online reading, online reading strategies, postgraduate students

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Tran Tran

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Mental health issues are prevalent among Vietnamese undergraduate students, and they are greatly exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic for this population. While there is empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness and efficiency of therapy on mental health issues among college students, the rates of Vietnamese college students seeking professional mental health services were alarmingly low. Multiple factors can prevent those in need from finding support. The Internalized Stigma Model posits that public stigma directly affects intentions to seek psychological help via self-stigma and attitudes toward seeking help. However, little research has focused on what factors can predict public stigma toward seeking professional psychological support, especially among this population. A potential predictor is academic majors since academic majors can influence undergraduate students' perceptions, attitudes, and intentions. A study suggested that students who have completed two or more psychology courses have a more positive attitude toward seeking care for mental health issues and reduced stigma, which might be attributed to increased mental health literacy. In addition, research has shown that women are more likely to utilize mental health services and have lower stigma than men. Finally, studies have also suggested that experience of mental health services can increase endorsement of perceived need and lower stigma. Thus, it is expected that perceived helpfulness from past service uses can reduce stigma. This study aims to address this gap in the literature and investigate which factors can predict public stigma, specifically academic major, gender, and perceived helpfulness, potentially suggesting an avenue of prevention and ultimately improving the well-being of Vietnamese college students. The sample includes 408 undergraduate students (Mage = 20.44; 80.88% female) Hanoi city, Vietnam. Participants completed a pen-and-paper questionnaire. Students completed the Stigma Scale for Receiving Psychological Help, which yielded a mean public stigma score. Participants also completed a measurement assessing their perceived helpfulness of their university’s counseling center, which included eight subscales: future self-development, learning issues, career counseling, medical and health issues, mental health issues, conflicts between teachers and students, conflicts between parents and students, and interpersonal relationships. Items were summed to create a composite perceived helpfulness score. Finally, participants provided demographic information. This included gender, which was dichotomized between female and other. Additionally, it included academic major, which was also similarly dichotomized between psychology and other (e.g., natural science, social science, and pedagogy & social work). Linear relationships between public stigma and gender, academic major, and perceived helpfulness were analyzed individually with a regression model. Findings suggested that academic major, gender, and perceived counseling center's helpfulness predicted stigma against seeking professional psychological help. Specifically, being a psychology major predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.25, p < .001). Additionally, gender female predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.11, p < .05). Lastly, higher levels of perceived helpfulness of the counseling center also predicted lower levels of public stigma (β = -.16, p < .01). The study’s results offer potential intervention avenues to help reduce stigma and increase well-being for Vietnamese college students.

Keywords: stigma, vietnamese college students, counseling services, help-seeking

Procedia PDF Downloads 73