Search results for: teacher's training

Authors: Peter Akayuure, Michael Johnson Nabie

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Similar to many colonized nations in the world, one indelible mark left by colonial masters after Ghana’s independence in 1957 has been the fact that many contexts used to teach statistics and probability concepts are often alien and do not resonate with the social domain of our indigenous Ghanaian child. This has seriously limited the understanding, discoveries, and applications of mathematics for national developments. With the recent curriculum demands of making the Ghanaian child mathematically literate, this qualitative study involved video recordings and mathematical analysis of play sessions of an indigenous girl game called Ampe with the aim to demystify the concepts in probability theorem, which is applied in mathematics related fields of study. The mathematical analysis shows that the game of Ampe, which is widely played by school girls in Ghana, is suitable for learning concepts of the probability theorems. It was also revealed that as a girl game, the use of Ampe provides good lessons to educators, textbook writers, and teachers to rethink about the selection of mathematics tasks and learning contexts that are sensitive to gender. As we undertake to transform teacher education and student learning, the use of indigenous games should be critically revisited.

Keywords: Ampe, mathematical analysis, probability theorem, Ghanaian girl game

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Authors: Zeta Dooly, Aidan Duane

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The collaborative European funded research and development landscape provides prime environmental conditions for multi-disciplinary teams to learn and enhance their knowledge beyond the capability of training and learning within their own organisation cocoons. Whilst the emergence of the academic entrepreneur has changed the focus of educational institutions to that of quasi-businesses, the training and professional development of lecturers and academic staff are often not formalised to the same level as industry. This research focuses on industry and academic collaborative research funded by the European Commission. The impact of research is scalable if an optimum research network is created and managed effectively. This paper investigates network embeddedness, the nature of relationships, links, and nodes within a research network, and the enhancement of the network’s knowledge. The contribution of this paper extends our understanding of establishing and maintaining effective collaborative research networks. The effects of network embeddedness are recognized in the literature as pertinent to innovation and the economy. Network theory literature claims that networks are essential to innovative clusters such as Silicon valley and innovation in high tech industries. This research provides evidence to support the impact collaborative research has on the disparate individuals toward their innovative contributions to their organisations and their own professional development. This study adopts a qualitative approach and uncovers some of the challenges of multi-disciplinary research through case study insights. The contribution of this paper recommends the establishment of scaffolding to accommodate cooperation in research networks, role appointment, and addressing contextual complexities early to avoid problem cultivation. Furthermore, it suggests recommendations in relation to network formation, intra-network challenges in relation to open data, competition, friendships, and competency enhancement. The network capability is enhanced by the adoption of the relevant theories; network theory, open innovation, and social exchange, with the understanding that the network structure has an impact on innovation and social exchange in research networks. The research concludes that there is an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the impact of network reuse and network hoping that provides scaffolding for the network members to enhance and build upon their knowledge using a progressive approach.

Keywords: research networks, competency building, network theory, case study

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Authors: Ahmad Alwosheel, Ahmed Alqaraawi

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This work proposes an unsupervised text-independent probabilistic approach to recognize Quran reciter voice. It is an accurate approach that works on real time applications. This approach does not require a prior information about reciter models. It has two phases, where in the training phase the reciters' acoustical features are modeled using Gaussian Mixture Models, while in the testing phase, unlabeled reciter's acoustical features are examined among GMM models. Using this approach, a high accuracy results are achieved with efficient computation time process.

Keywords: Quran, speaker recognition, reciter recognition, Gaussian Mixture Model

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Authors: Jonathan Gong

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Purpose AI-driven solutions are at the forefront of many pathology and medical imaging methods. Using algorithms designed to better the experience of medical professionals within their respective fields, the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis can improve. In particular, X-rays are a fast and relatively inexpensive test that can diagnose diseases. In recent years, X-rays have not been widely used to detect and diagnose COVID-19. The under use of Xrays is mainly due to the low diagnostic accuracy and confounding with pneumonia, another respiratory disease. However, research in this field has expressed a possibility that artificial neural networks can successfully diagnose COVID-19 with high accuracy. Models and Data The dataset used is the COVID-19 Radiography Database. This dataset includes images and masks of chest X-rays under the labels of COVID-19, normal, and pneumonia. The classification model developed uses an autoencoder and a pre-trained convolutional neural network (DenseNet201) to provide transfer learning to the model. The model then uses a deep neural network to finalize the feature extraction and predict the diagnosis for the input image. This model was trained on 4035 images and validated on 807 separate images from the ones used for training. The images used to train the classification model include an important feature: the pictures are cropped beforehand to eliminate distractions when training the model. The image segmentation model uses an improved U-Net architecture. This model is used to extract the lung mask from the chest X-ray image. The model is trained on 8577 images and validated on a validation split of 20%. These models are calculated using the external dataset for validation. The models’ accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, IOU, and loss are calculated. Results The classification model achieved an accuracy of 97.65% and a loss of 0.1234 when differentiating COVID19-infected, pneumonia-infected, and normal lung X-rays. The segmentation model achieved an accuracy of 97.31% and an IOU of 0.928. Conclusion The models proposed can detect COVID-19, pneumonia, and normal lungs with high accuracy and derive the lung mask from a chest X-ray with similarly high accuracy. The hope is for these models to elevate the experience of medical professionals and provide insight into the future of the methods used.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, image processing, machine learning

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Authors: Sara Moridpour

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To meet emerging industry needs, engineering students must learn different software packages and enhance their computational skills. Traditionally, face-to-face is selected as the preferred approach to teaching software packages. Face-to-face tutorials and workshops provide an interactive environment for learning software packages where the students can communicate with the teacher and interact with other students, evaluate their skills, and receive feedback. However, COVID-19 significantly limited face-to-face learning and teaching activities at universities. Worldwide lockdowns and the shift to online and remote learning and teaching provided the opportunity to introduce different strategies to enhance the interaction among students and teachers in online and virtual environments and improve the learning and teaching of software packages in online and blended teaching methods. This paper introduces a blended strategy to teach engineering software packages to undergraduate students. This article evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed blended learning and teaching strategy in students’ learning by comparing the impact of face-to-face, online and the proposed blended environments on students’ software skills. The paper evaluates the students’ software skills and their software learning through an authentic assignment. According to the results, the proposed blended teaching strategy successfully improves the software learning experience among undergraduate engineering students.

Keywords: teaching software packages, undergraduate students, blended learning and teaching, authentic assessment

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Authors: Maxence Queyrel, Edi Prifti, Alexandre Templier, Jean-Daniel Zucker

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Analysis of the human microbiome using metagenomic sequencing data has demonstrated high ability in discriminating various human diseases. Raw metagenomic sequencing data require multiple complex and computationally heavy bioinformatics steps prior to data analysis. Such data contain millions of short sequences read from the fragmented DNA sequences and stored as fastq files. Conventional processing pipelines consist in multiple steps including quality control, filtering, alignment of sequences against genomic catalogs (genes, species, taxonomic levels, functional pathways, etc.). These pipelines are complex to use, time consuming and rely on a large number of parameters that often provide variability and impact the estimation of the microbiome elements. Training Deep Neural Networks directly from raw sequencing data is a promising approach to bypass some of the challenges associated with mainstream bioinformatics pipelines. Most of these methods use the concept of word and sentence embeddings that create a meaningful and numerical representation of DNA sequences, while extracting features and reducing the dimensionality of the data. In this paper we present an end-to-end approach that classifies patients into disease groups directly from raw metagenomic reads: metagenome2vec. This approach is composed of four steps (i) generating a vocabulary of k-mers and learning their numerical embeddings; (ii) learning DNA sequence (read) embeddings; (iii) identifying the genome from which the sequence is most likely to come and (iv) training a multiple instance learning classifier which predicts the phenotype based on the vector representation of the raw data. An attention mechanism is applied in the network so that the model can be interpreted, assigning a weight to the influence of the prediction for each genome. Using two public real-life data-sets as well a simulated one, we demonstrated that this original approach reaches high performance, comparable with the state-of-the-art methods applied directly on processed data though mainstream bioinformatics workflows. These results are encouraging for this proof of concept work. We believe that with further dedication, the DNN models have the potential to surpass mainstream bioinformatics workflows in disease classification tasks.

Keywords: deep learning, disease prediction, end-to-end machine learning, metagenomics, multiple instance learning, precision medicine

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Authors: Ruchika Goyal, Ashwani Kumar, Sandeep Jain

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The experimental data for anticancer potential of curcumin nanoparticles was calculated by means of eclectic data. The optimal descriptors were examined using Monte Carlo method based CORAL SEA software. The statistical quality of the model is following: n = 14, R² = 0.6809, Q² = 0.5943, s = 0.175, MAE = 0.114, F = 26 (sub-training set), n =5, R²= 0.9529, Q² = 0.7982, s = 0.086, MAE = 0.068, F = 61, Av Rm² = 0.7601, ∆R²m = 0.0840, k = 0.9856 and kk = 1.0146 (test set) and n = 5, R² = 0.6075 (validation set). This data can be used to build predictive QSAR models for anticancer activity.

Keywords: anticancer potential, curcumin, model, nanoparticles, optimal descriptors, QSAR

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Authors: Esha Banerjee, Atul Kumar Ojha, Girish Nath Jha

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This study aims to develop an intonation labeled database for Hindi. Although no single standard for prosody labeling exists in Hindi, researchers in the past have employed perceptual and statistical methods in literature to draw inferences about the behavior of prosody patterns in Hindi. Based on such existing research and largely agreed upon intonational theories in Hindi, this study attempts to develop a manually annotated prosodic corpus of Hindi speech data, which can be used for training speech models for natural-sounding speech in the future. 100 sentences ( 500 words) each for declarative and interrogative types have been labeled using Praat.

Keywords: speech dataset, Hindi, intonation, labeled corpus

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Authors: Sophia El Ouazzani, Amer M. Burhan, Mary Wickenden

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Background: Despite improvements in recent years, the Moroccan mental healthcare system still face disparity between available resources and the current population’sneeds. The societal stigma, and limited economic, political, and human resources are all factors in shaping the psychiatric system, exacerbating the discontinuity of services for users after discharged from the hospital. As a result, limited opportunities for social inclusion and meaningful community engagement undermines human rights and recovery potential for people with mental health problems, especially those with psychiatric disabilities from serious mental illness (SMI). Recovery-oriented practice, such as mental health rehabilitation, addresses the complex needs of patients with SMI and support their community inclusion. The cultural acceptability of recovery-oriented practice is an important notion to consider for a successful implementation. Exploring the extent to which recovery-oriented practices are used in Morocco is a necessary first step to assess the cultural relevance of such a practice model. Aims: This study aims to explore understanding and knowledge, perception, and perspective about core concepts in mental health rehabilitation, including psychiatric disability, recovery, and engagement in meaningful occupations for people with SMI in Morocco. Methods: A pilot qualitative study was undertaken. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews and focusgroup discussions with healthcare professional students. Questions were organised around the following themes: 1) students’ perceptions, understanding, and expectations around concepts such as SMI, mental health disability, and recovery, and 2) changes in their views and expectations after starting their professional training. Further analysis of students’ perspectives on the concept of ‘meaningful occupation’ and how is this viewed within the context of the research questions was done. The data was extracted using an inductive thematic analysis approach. This is a pilot stage of a doctoral project, further data will be collected and analysed until saturation is reached. Results: A total of eight students were included in this study which included occupational therapy and mental health nursing students receiving training in Morocco. The following themes emerged as influencing students’ perceptions and views around the main concepts: 1) Stigma and discrimination, 2) Fatalism and low expectations, 3) Gendered perceptions, 4) Religious causation, 5) Family involvement, 6) Professional background, 7) Inaccessibility of services and treatment. Discussion/Contribution: Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that students’ perceptions changed after gaining more clinical experiences and being exposed to people with psychiatric disabilities. Prior to their training, stigma shaped greatly how they viewed people with SMI. The fear, misunderstanding, and shame around SMI and their functional capacities may contribute to people with SMI being stigmatizedand marginalised from their family and their community. Religious causations associated to SMIsare understood as further deepening the social stigma around psychiatric disability. Perceptions are influenced by gender, with women being doubly discriminated against in relation to recovery opportunities. Therapeutic pessimism seems to persist amongst students and within the mental healthcare system in general and regarding the recovery potential and opportunities for people with SMI. The limited resources, fatalism, and stigma all contribute to the low expectations for recovery and community inclusion. Implications and future directions will be discussed.

Keywords: disability, mental health rehabilitation, recovery, serious mental illness, transcultural psychiatry

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Authors: Miho Yamashita

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In recent years, there have been attempts to introduce Machine Translation (MT) into foreign language teaching, especially in writing instructions. This is because the performance of neural machine translation has improved dramatically since 2016, and some university instructors started to introduce MT translations to their students as a "good model" to learn from. However, MT is still not perfect, and there are many incorrect translations. In order to translate the intended text into a foreign language, it is necessary to edit the original manuscript written in the native language (pre-edit) and revise the translated foreign language text (post-edit). The latter is considered especially difficult for users without a high proficiency level of foreign language. Therefore, the author allowed her students to use MT in her writing class in one of the private universities in Japan and investigated 1) how groups of students with different English proficiency levels revised MT translations when translating Japanese manuscripts into English and 2) whether the post-edit process differed when the students revised alone or in pairs. The results showed that in 1), certain non-post-edited grammatical errors were found regardless of their proficiency levels, indicating the need for teacher intervention, and in 2), more appropriate corrections were found in pairs, and their frequent use of a dictionary was also observed. In this presentation, the author will discuss how MT writing instruction can be integrated effectively in an aim to achieve multimodal foreign language education.

Keywords: machine translation, writing instruction, pre-edit, post-edit

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Authors: Vasiliki Stratidou

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Modern simulation mobile games have the potential to enhance students’ interest, motivation and creativity. Research conducted on the effectiveness of digital games for educational purposes has shown that such games are also ideal at providing an appropriate environment for language learning. The paper examines the issue of simulation mobile games in regard to the potential positive impacts on L2 vocabulary learning. Sixteen intermediate level students, aged 10-14, participated in the experimental study for four weeks. The participants were divided into experimental (8 participants) and control group (8 participants). The experimental group was planned to learn some new vocabulary words via digital games while the control group used a reading passage to learn the same vocabulary words. The study investigated the effect of mobile games as well as the traditional learning methods on Greek EFL learners’ vocabulary learning in a pre-test, an immediate post-test, and a two-week delayed retention test. A teacher’s diary and learners’ interviews were also used as tools to estimate the effectiveness of the implementation. The findings indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in acquiring new words through mobile games. Therefore, digital games proved to be an effective tool in learning English vocabulary.

Keywords: control group, digital games, experimental group, second language vocabulary learning, simulation games

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Authors: Sumeyra Karatas, Veysel Karatas, Reyhan Safak, Gamze Bulut-Ozturk, Ozgul Kartal

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Productive struggle entails a student's cognitive exertion to comprehend mathematical concepts and uncover solutions not immediately apparent. The significance of productive struggle in learning mathematics is accentuated by influential educational theorists, emphasizing its necessity for learning mathematics with understanding. Consequently, supporting productive struggle in learning mathematics is recognized as a high-leverage and effective mathematics teaching practice. In this study, the investigation into the role of productive struggle in learning mathematics led to the development of a comprehensive rubric for productive struggle pedagogy through an exhaustive literature review. The rubric consists of eight primary criteria and 37 sub-criteria, providing a detailed description of teacher actions and pedagogical choices that foster students' productive struggles. These criteria encompass various pedagogical aspects, including task design, tool implementation, allowing time for struggle, posing questions, scaffolding, handling mistakes, acknowledging efforts, and facilitating discussion/feedback. Utilizing this rubric, a team of researchers and teachers designed eight 90-minute lesson plans, employing a productive struggle pedagogy, for a two-week unit on solving systems of linear equations. Simultaneously, another set of eight lesson plans on the same topic, featuring identical content and problems but employing a traditional lecture-and-practice model, was designed by the same team. The objective was to assess the impact of supporting productive struggle on students' mathematics learning, defined by the strands of mathematical proficiency. This quasi-experimental study compares the control group, which received traditional lecture- and practice instruction, with the treatment group, which experienced a productive struggle in pedagogy. Sixty-six 10th and 11th-grade students from two algebra classes, taught by the same teacher at a high school, underwent either the productive struggle pedagogy or lecture-and-practice approach over two-week eight 90-minute class sessions. To measure students' learning, an assessment was created and validated by a team of researchers and teachers. It comprised seven open-response problems assessing the strands of mathematical proficiency: procedural and conceptual understanding, strategic competence, and adaptive reasoning on the topic. The test was administered at the beginning and end of the two weeks as pre-and post-test. Students' solutions underwent scoring using an established rubric, subjected to expert validation and an inter-rater reliability process involving multiple criteria for each problem based on their steps and procedures. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to examine the differences between the control group, which received traditional pedagogy, and the treatment group, exposed to the productive struggle pedagogy, on the post-test scores while controlling for the pre-test. The results indicated a significant effect of treatment on post-test scores for procedural understanding (F(2, 63) = 10.47, p < .001), strategic competence (F(2, 63) = 9.92, p < .001), adaptive reasoning (F(2, 63) = 10.69, p < .001), and conceptual understanding (F(2, 63) = 10.06, p < .001), controlling for pre-test scores. This demonstrates the positive impact of supporting productive struggle in learning mathematics. In conclusion, the results revealed the significance of the role of productive struggle in learning mathematics. The study further explored the practical application of productive struggle through the development of a comprehensive rubric describing the pedagogy of supporting productive struggle.

Keywords: effective mathematics teaching practice, high school algebra, learning mathematics, productive struggle

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Authors: Ashraf Ibrahim Awad

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It is important to formulate suitable learning environments ca-pable to be customized according to value perceptions of the university. In this paper, light is shed on the concepts of integration between knowledge management (KM), and e-learning (EL) in the higher education sector of the economy in Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE). A discussion on and how KM and EL can be integrated and leveraged for effective education and training is presented. The results are derived from the literature and interviews with 16 of the academics in eight universities in the Emirate. The conclusion is that KM and EL have much to offer each other, but this is not yet reflected at the implementation level, and their boundaries are not always clear. Interviews have shown that both concepts perceived to be closely related and, responsibilities for these initiatives are practiced by different departments or units.

Keywords: knowledge management, e-learning, learning integration, universities, UAE

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Authors: Ekaterina Donii

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Understanding interpersonal competence, social interaction and peer relationships of gifted children is a concern for specialists in the field of gifted education. To gain more in-depth knowledge concerning the social functioning of gifted children among peers, we decided to study the social abilities of gifted children in a heterogeneous academic environment. Eight gifted children (5 of age 7, 1 of age 8.5, 1 of age 9.5 and 1 of age 10), their classmates (10 of age 7-8, 12 of age 8.5-9, 16 of age 9.5-10) and teachers participated in the study. The sociometric questionnaire analysis was based on the method of Rodríguez and Morera to check the social status of the gifted children among classmates. The Instrument Observational Protocol for Interactions within the Classroom (OPINTEC-v.5) was used to assess the social interactions between the gifted students, their classmates, and the teacher within the educational context. While doing a task together, the gifted children interacted more with popular and neither popular nor gifted classmates than with rejected classmates. While spending time together, the gifted children interacted more with neither popular nor rejected classmates than with popular or rejected classmates. All gifted children chose other gifted and non-gifted classmates for interaction, established close relations and demonstrated good social abilities interacting with their classmates. The aim of this study was to examine the social interactions, social status, and social network of the gifted students in a regular classroom. The majority of the gifted children were popular among their classmates and had good social skills. We should be alert, though, for those gifted children who do have social problems, in order to help them functioning in a regular classroom.

Keywords: gifted, heterogeneous environment, sociometric status, social interactions

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Authors: Iva Košek Bartošová

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There is great attention being paid in the field of development of first reading, thus early literacy skills in the Czech Republic. Yet inconclusive results of PISA and PIRLS force us to think over the teacher´s work, his/her roles in the education process and methods and forms used in lessons. There is also a significant importance to monitor the family environment and the pupil, themselves. The aim of the publishing output is to focus on one side dealing with methods of practicing reading technique and their results in the process of comprehension. In the first part of the contribution there are the goals of development of reading literacy and the methods used in reading practice in some EU countries and a follow-up comparison of research implemented by the help of modern technology of an eye tracker device in the year 2015 and a research conducted at the Institute of Education and Psychological Counselling of the Czech Republic in the year 2011/12. These are the results of a diagnostic test of reading in first classes of primary schools, taught by the genetic method and analytic-synthetic method. The results show that in the first stage of practice there are no statistically significant differences between any researched subjects taught by different methods of reading practice (with the use of several diagnostic texts focused on reading technique and its comprehension). Different results are shown at the end of Grade One and during Grade Two of primary school.

Keywords: elementary literacy, eye tracker device, diagnostic reading tests, reading teaching method

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Authors: Jaejun Jong

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Many teachers in South Korea conduct research to improve the quality of their instruction. Unfortunately, many researchers generalize the results of measurements based on one subgroup to other students or to the entire population, which can cause problems. This study aims to determine examples of possible problems resulting from generalizing measurements based on one subgroup to an entire population or another group. This study is needed, as teachers’ instruction and class quality significantly affect the overall quality of education, but the quality of research conducted by teachers can become questionable due to overgeneralization. Thus, finding potential problems of overgeneralization can improve the overall quality of education. The data in this study were gathered from 145 sixth-grade elementary school students in South Korea. The result showed that students in different classes could differ significantly in various ways; thus, generalizing the results of subgroups to an entire population can engender erroneous student predictions and evaluations, which can lead to inappropriate instruction plans. This result shows that finding the reasons for such overgeneralization can significantly improve the quality of education.

Keywords: generalization, measurement, research methodology, teacher education

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Authors: Mustapha Majid

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Gone were the days when technicians/mechanics will have to spend too much time trying to identify a mechanical fault and rectify the problem. Now the emphasis is on the use of Automobile diagnosing Equipment through the use of computers and special software. An investigation conducted at Tamale Metropolis and Accra in the Northern and Greater Accra regions of Ghana, respectively. Methodology for data gathering were; questionnaires, physical observation, interviews, and newspaper. The study revealed that majority of mechanics lack computer skills which can enable them use diagnosis tools such as Exhaust Gas Analyzer, Scan Tools, Electronic Wheel Balancing machine, etc.

Keywords: diagnosing, local garages and modern garages, lack of knowledge of diagnosing posing an existential threat, training of local mechanics

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Authors: Sri Rejeki Dwi Astuti, Suyanta

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The demanding of the asessment in learning process was impact by policy changes. Nowadays, the assessment not only emphasizes knowledge, but also skills and attitude. However, in reality there are many obstacles in measuring them. This paper aimed to describe how to develop instrument of integrated assessment as alternative assessment to measure critical thinking skills and science process skills in electrolyte solution and to describe instrument’s characteristic such as logic validity and construct validity. This instrument development used test development model by McIntire. Development process data was acquired based on development test step and was analyzed by qualitative analysis. Initial product was observed by three peer reviewer and six expert judgment (two subject matter expert, two evaluation expert and two chemistry teacher) to acquire logic validity test. Logic validity test was analyzed using Aiken’s formula. The estimation of construct validity was analyzed by exploratory factor analysis. Result showed that integrated assessment instrument has 0,90 of Aiken’s Value and all item in integrated assessment asserted valid according to construct validity.

Keywords: construct validity, critical thinking skills, integrated assessment instrument, logic validity, science process skills

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Authors: Abdreheman Seid Abdella

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This study examined instructors willingness, self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes and knowledge about provisions of instructional accommodations for students with disabilities in universities. Major concepts used in this study operationally defined and some models of disability were reviewed. Questionnaires were distributed to a total of 181 instructors from four universities and quantitative data was generated. Then to analyze the data, appropriate methods of data analysis were employed. The result indicated that on average instructors had positive willingness, strong self-efficacy beliefs and positive attitudes towards providing instructional accommodations. In addition, the result showed that the majority of participants had moderate level of knowledge about provision of instructional accommodations. Concerning the relationship between instructors background variables and dependent variables, the result revealed that location of university and awareness raising training about Inclusive Education showed statistically significant relationship with all dependent variables (willingness, self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes and knowledge). On the other hand, gender and college/faculty did not show a statistically significant relationship. In addition, it was found that among the inter-correlation of dependent variables, the correlation between attitudes and willingness to provide accommodations was the strongest. Furthermore, using multiple linear regression analysis, this study also indicated that predictor variables like self-efficacy beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and teaching methodology training made statistically significant contribution to predicting the criterion willingness. Predictor variables like willingness and attitudes made statistically significant contribution to predicting self-efficacy beliefs. Predictor variables like willingness, Special Needs Education course and self-efficacy beliefs made statistically significant contribution to predict attitudes. Predictor variables like Special Needs Education courses, the location of university and willingness made statistically significant contribution to predicting knowledge. Finally, using exploratory factor analysis, this study showed that there were four components or factors each that represent the underlying constructs of willingness and self-efficacy beliefs to provide instructional accommodations items, five components for attitudes towards providing accommodations items and three components represent the underlying constructs for knowledge about provisions of instructional accommodations items. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for improving the situation of instructional accommodations in Ethiopian universities.

Keywords: willingness, self-efficacy belief, attitude, knowledge

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Authors: Abdulfatah A Raji

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This paper started with the definitions of literature, Arabic literature, transformation and went further to highlight the components of educational transformation. The general history of Arabic literature was discussed with focus on how it undergoes some transformations from pre-Islamic period through Quranic era, Abbasid literature to renaissance period in which the modernization of Arabic literature started in Egypt. It also traces the spread of Arabic literature in Nigeria from the pre-colonial era during the Kanuri rulers to Jihad of Usman Dan Fodio and the development of literature which manifested to the Teacher’s Colleges and Bayero University in Northern Nigeria. Also, the establishment of primary and post-primary schools by Muslim organizations in many cities and towns of the Western part of Nigeria. Literary criticism was also discussed in line with Arabic literature. Poetry work of eminent poets were cited to show its importance in line with educational transformation in Nigerian literature and lessons from the cited Arabic poetry works were also highlighted to include: motivation to behave well and to tolerate others, better spirits of interaction, love and co-existence among different sexes, religion etc. All these can help in developing a better educational transformation in Nigeria which can in turn help in how to conduct researches for national development. The paper recommended compulsory Arabic literature at all levels of the nations’ educational system as well as publication of Arabic books and journals to encourage peace in this era of conflicts and further transform Nigeria’s educational system for better.

Keywords: Arabic, literature, peace, development, Nigeria

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Authors: Stella Laletas, Andrea Reupert, Melinda Goodyear, Bradley Morgan

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Background: Many people with a mental illness have young children. Research has shown that early childhood is a particularly vulnerable time for children whose parents have a mental illness. Moreover, repeated research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a multiagency approach to family focused practice for improving parental functioning and preventing adverse outcomes in children whose parents have a mental illness, particularly in the early years of a child’s life. However, there is a paucity of professional development resources for professionals who work with families where a parent has a mental illness and has young children. Significance of the study: This study will make a contribution to addressing knowledge gaps around resource development and workforce needs for early childhood and mental health professionals working with young children where a parent has a mental illness. Objective: This presentation describes a newly developed resource, 'Pathways of Care', specifically designed for early childhood educators and mental health workers, alongside pilot evaluation data regarding its effectiveness. ‘Pathways of Care’ aims to promote collaborative practice and present early identification and referral processes for workers in this sector. The resource was developed by the Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) National Initiative which is funded by the Australian Government. Method: Using a mixed method design, the effectiveness of the training resource is also presented. Fifteen workers completed the Family Focus Mental Health Practice Questionnaire pre and post using the resource, to measure confidence and practice change; semi-structured interviews were also conducted with eight of these same workers to further explore the utility of the resource. Findings: The findings indicated the resource was effective in increasing knowledge and confidence, particularly for new and/or inexperienced staff. Examples of how the resource was used in practice by various professions emerged from the interview data. Conclusions: Collaborative practice, early identification and intervention in early childhood can potentially play a key role in altering the life trajectory of children who are at risk. This information has important implications for workforce development and staff training in both the early childhood and mental health sectors. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Keywords: parents with mental ilnesses, early intervention, evaluation, preschool children

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Authors: Aaron Yan

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Tennis elbow has been a leading injury and problem among amateur and even professional players. Many factors contribute to tennis elbow. In this research, we apply state of the art sensor-less computer vision and AI technology to study the biomechanics of a player’s tennis movements during training and competition as they relate to the causes of tennis elbow. We provide a framework for the analysis of key biomechanical parameters and their correlations with specific tennis stroke and movements that can lead to tennis elbow or elbow injury. We also devise a method for using AI to automatically detect player’s forms that can lead to tennis elbow development for on-court injury prevention.

Keywords: Tennis Elbow, Computer Vision, AI, 3DAT

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Authors: Celeste Labuschagne, Sam Ramaila, Thasmai Dhurumraj

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Although formative assessment is acknowledged as crucial for teachers to gauge students’ understanding of subject content, applying formative assessment in an online context is more challenging than in a traditional Physical Sciences classroom. This study examines challenges experienced by Grade 10 Physical Sciences teachers when enacting online formative assessment. The empirical investigation adopted a generic qualitative design and involved three purposively selected Grade 10 Physical Sciences teachers from three different schools and quintiles within the Tshwane North District in South Africa. Data were collected through individual and focus group interviews. Technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) was utilised as a theoretical framework underpinning the study. The study identified a myriad of challenges experienced by Grade 10 Physical Sciences teachers when enacting online formative assessment. These challenges include the utilisation of Annual Teaching Plans, lack of technological knowledge, and internet connectivity. The Department of Basic Education faces the key imperative to provide continuous teacher professional development and concomitant online learning materials that can facilitate meaningful enactment of online formative assessment in various educational settings.

Keywords: COVID-19, challenges, online formative assessment, physical sciences, TPACK

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Authors: Archit Yajnik

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Part of Speech Tagging has always been a challenging task in the era of Natural Language Processing. This article presents POS tagging for Nepali text using Hidden Markov Model and Viterbi algorithm. From the Nepali text, annotated corpus training and testing data set are randomly separated. Both methods are employed on the data sets. Viterbi algorithm is found to be computationally faster and accurate as compared to HMM. The accuracy of 95.43% is achieved using Viterbi algorithm. Error analysis where the mismatches took place is elaborately discussed.

Keywords: hidden markov model, natural language processing, POS tagging, viterbi algorithm

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Authors: Justine McKay

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Implicit Bias and its impact on the schooling experience of racial minorities with ADHD is significant. ADHD has become a globally diagnosed disorder. The lack of an objective diagnostic tool for ADHD has created controversy over the disease and its validity. ADHD is referred to as a social construct or a suburban problem related to active white boys who disrupt classrooms. The subjectivity of an ADHD diagnosis and the diagnostic process is based on norm-referenced checklists of behaviours completed by the student, caregiver, teachers, clinicians, and other community members. Teachers' perceptions of classroom behaviours are influenced by implicit bias related to race and socioeconomic status. The same behaviours displayed by white and marginalized or low-income students are perceived differently. The white student is perceived to be struggling academically and needing support, while the marginalized or lower-income student's behaviour is seen as disruptive or criminal. The presence of teacher implicit bias results in the inequity of diagnosis, and academic support, which has long-term implications for these students. The subjectivity of the diagnostic process socially reproduces the systemic injustice of opportunity for marginalized youth within the education system.

Keywords: ADHD, education, equity, implicit bias, subjectivity

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Authors: Hoda Rahmani, Gary Weckman

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The body of research examining the integration of drones into various industries is expanding rapidly. Despite progress made in addressing the cybersecurity concerns for commercial drones, knowledge deficits remain in determining potential occupational hazards and risks of drone use to employees’ well-being and health in the workplace. This creates difficulty in identifying key approaches to risk mitigation strategies and thus reflects the need for raising awareness among employers, safety professionals, and policymakers about workplace drone-related accidents. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of and possible risk factors for drone-related mishaps by comparing the application of drones in construction with manufacturing industries. The chief reason for considering these specific sectors is to ascertain whether there exists any significant difference between indoor and outdoor flights since most construction sites use drones outside and vice versa. Therefore, the current research seeks to examine the causes and patterns of workplace drone-related mishaps and suggest possible ergonomic interventions through data collection. Potential ergonomic practices to mitigate hazards associated with flying drones could include providing operators with professional pieces of training, conducting a risk analysis, and promoting the use of personal protective equipment. For the purpose of data analysis, two data mining techniques, the random forest and association rule mining algorithms, will be performed to find meaningful associations and trends in data as well as influential features that have an impact on the occurrence of drone-related accidents in construction and manufacturing sectors. In addition, Spearman’s correlation and chi-square tests will be used to measure the possible correlation between different variables. Indeed, by recognizing risks and hazards, occupational safety stakeholders will be able to pursue data-driven and evidence-based policy change with the aim of reducing drone mishaps, increasing productivity, creating a safer work environment, and extending human performance in safe and fulfilling ways. This research study was supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health through the Pilot Research Project Training Program of the University of Cincinnati Education and Research Center Grant #T42OH008432.

Keywords: commercial drones, ergonomic interventions, occupational safety, pattern recognition

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Authors: Jiang Niu, Yue Jiang

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With the ultimate goal to automatically generate translated texts with high quality, machine translation has made tremendous improvements. However, its translations of literary works are still plagued with problems in coherence, esp. the translation between distant language pairs. One of the causes of the problems is probably the lack of linguistic knowledge to be incorporated into the training of machine translation systems. In order to enable readers to better understand the problems of machine translation in coherence, to seek out the potential knowledge to be incorporated, and thus to improve the quality of machine translation products, this study applies Theme-Rheme structure to examine how a machine-translated literary text is organized and developed in terms of coherence. Theme-Rheme structure in Systemic Functional Linguistics is a useful tool for analysis of textual coherence. Theme is the departure point of a clause and Rheme is the rest of the clause. In a text, as Themes and Rhemes may be connected with each other in meaning, they form thematic and rhematic progressions throughout the text. Based on this structure, we can look into how a text is organized and developed in terms of coherence. Methodologically, we chose Chinese and English as the language pair to be studied. Specifically, we built a comparable corpus with two modes of English translations, viz. machine translation (MT) and human translation (HT) of one Chinese literary source text. The translated texts were annotated with Themes, Rhemes and their progressions throughout the texts. The annotated texts were analyzed from two respects, the different types of Themes functioning differently in achieving coherence, and the different types of thematic and rhematic progressions functioning differently in constructing texts. By analyzing and contrasting the two modes of translations, it is found that compared with the HT, 1) the MT features “pseudo-coherence”, with lots of ill-connected fragments of information using “and”; 2) the MT system produces a static and less interconnected text that reads like a list; these two points, in turn, lead to the less coherent organization and development of the MT than that of the HT; 3) novel to traditional and previous studies, Rhemes do contribute to textual connection and coherence though less than Themes do and thus are worthy of notice in further studies. Hence, the findings suggest that Theme-Rheme structure be applied to measuring and assessing the coherence of machine translation, to being incorporated into the training of the machine translation system, and Rheme be taken into account when studying the textual coherence of both MT and HT.

Keywords: coherence, corpus-based, literary translation, machine translation, Theme-Rheme structure

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Authors: Alan Collins

Abstract:

This study explains how The People’s Tribunal empowered survivors of child abuse. It examines how People’s tribunals can be effective mean of empowerment; the challenges of empowerment – expectation v. reality; the findings and how they reflect other inquiry findings; and the importance of listening and learning from survivors. UKCSAPT “The People’s Tribunal” was established by survivors of child sex abuse and members of civil society to investigate historic cases of institutional sex abuse. The independent inquiry, led by a panel of four judges, listened to evidence spanning four decades from survivors and experts. A common theme throughout these accounts showed that a series of institutional failures prevented abuse from being reported; and that there are clear links between children being rendered vulnerable by these failures and predatory abuse on an organised scale. It made a series of recommendations including the establishment of a permanent and open forum for victims to share experiences and give evidence, better links between mental health services and police investigations, and training for police and judiciary professionals on the effects of undisclosed sexual abuse. The main findings of the UKCSAPT report were:-There are clear links between children rendered vulnerable by institutional failures and predatory abuse on an organised scale, even if these links often remain obscure. -UK governmental institutions have failed to provide survivors with meaningful opportunities for either healing or justice. -The vital mental health needs of survivors are not being met and this undermines both their psychological recovery and access to justice. -Police and other authorities often lack the training to understand the complex reasons for the inability of survivors to immediately disclose a history of abuse. -Without far-reaching changes in institutional culture and practices, the sexual abuse of children will continue to be a significant scourge in the UK. The report also outlined a series of recommendations for improving reporting and mental health provision, and access to justice for victims were made, including: -A permanent, government-funded popular tribunal should be established to enable survivors to come forward and tell their stories. -Survivors giving evidence should be assigned an advocate to assist their access to justice. -Mental health services should be linked to police investigations to help victims disclose abuse. -Victims who fear reprisals should be provided with a channel though which to give evidence anonymously.

Keywords: empowerment, survivors, sexual, abuse

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Authors: Rendani Mercy Makhwathana

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This paper intends to explore the experiences and views of Foundation Phase teachers when teaching English First Additional Language in rural public schools. Teachers all over the world are pillars of any education system. Consequently, any education transformation should start with teachers as critical role players in the education system. As a result, teachers’ experiences and views are worth consideration, for they impact on learners learning and the wellbeing of education in general. An exploratory qualitative approach with the use of phenomenological research design was used in this paper. The population for this paper comprised all Foundation Phase teachers in the district. Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 15 Foundation Phase teachers from five rural-based schools. Data was collected through classroom observation and individual face-to-face interviews. Data were categorised, analysed and interpreted. The findings revealed that from time-to-time teachers experiences one or more challenging situations, learners’ low participation in the classroom to lack of resources. This paper recommends that teachers should be provided with relevant resources and support to effectively teach English First Additional Language.

Keywords: the education system, first additional language, foundation phase, intermediate phase, language of learning and teaching, medium of instruction, teacher professional development

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Authors: Jhoga Parth, T. Nasar, K. V. Anand

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An idealized definition of shoreline is that it is the zone of coincidence of three spheres such as atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. Despite its apparent simplicity, this definition in practice a challenge to apply. In reality, the shoreline location deviates continually through time, because of various dynamic factors such as wave characteristics, currents, coastal orientation and the bathymetry, which makes the shoreline volatile. This necessitates us to monitor the shoreline in a temporal basis. If shoreline’s nature is understood at particular coastal stretch, it need not be the same trend at the other location, though belonging to the same sea front. Shoreline change is hence a local phenomenon and has to be studied with great intensity considering as many factors involved as possible. Erosion and accretion of sediment are such natures of a shoreline, which needs to be quantified by comparing with its predeceasing variations and understood before implementing any coastal projects. In recent years, advent of Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) acts as an emerging tool to quantify the intra and inter annual sediment rate getting accreted or deposited compared to other conventional methods in regards with time was taken and man power. Remote sensing data, on the other hand, paves way to acquire historical sets of data where field data is unavailable with a higher resolution. Short term and long term period shoreline change can be accurately tracked and monitored using a software residing in GIS - Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) developed by United States Geological Survey (USGS). In the present study, using DSAS, End Point Rate (EPR) is calculated analyze the intra-annual changes, and Linear Rate Regression (LRR) is adopted to study inter annual changes of shoreline. The shoreline changes are quantified for the scenario during the construction of breakwater in Ponnani river inlet along Kerala coast, India. Ponnani is a major fishing and landing center located 10°47’12.81”N and 75°54’38.62”E in Malappuram district of Kerala, India. The rate of erosion and accretion is explored using satellite and field data. The full paper contains the rate of change of shoreline, and its analysis would provide us understanding the behavior of the inlet at the study area during the construction of the training walls.

Keywords: DSAS, end point rate, field measurements, geo-informatics, shoreline variation

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