Search results for: students attitudes

Authors: Erin V. Kelly, Nicola C. Newton, Lexine A. Stapinski, Maree Teesson

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Introduction: There is a lack of targeted prevention programs for reducing bullying and distress among adolescents involved in bullying. The current study aimed to examine the impact of a personality-targeted intervention (Preventure) on bullying (victimization and perpetration) and distress among adolescent victims/bullies with high-risk personality types. Method: A cluster randomized trial (RCT) was conducted in 26 secondary schools (2190 students) in NSW and Victoria, Australia, as part of the Climate Schools and Preventure trial. The schools were randomly allocated to Preventure (13 schools received Preventure, 13 did not). Students were followed up at 4 time points (6, 12, 24 and 36 months post-baseline). Preventure involves two group sessions, based on cognitive behavioral therapy, and tailored to four personality types shown to increase risk of substance misuse and other emotional and behavioural problems, including impulsivity, sensation-seeking, anxiety sensitivity and hopelessness. Students were allocated to the personality-targeted groups based on their scores on the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale. Bullying was measured using an amended version of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Scale. Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Results: Among high-risk students classified as victims at baseline, those in Preventure schools reported significantly less victimization and distress over time than those in control schools. Among high-risk students classified as bullies at baseline, those in Preventure schools reported significantly less distress over time than those in control schools (no difference for perpetration). Conclusion: Preventure is a promising intervention for reducing bullying victimization and psychological distress among adolescents involved in bullying.

Keywords: adolescents, bullying, personality, prevention

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Authors: Costas Christodoulides

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Excessive use of social networking sites (SNS) and the Internet by high school pupils and university students, can cause consequences similar to those observed in substance or gambling related addictions, negatively influence individual well-being notwithstanding self-assessments that people make about their life and experiences. The present study examined, for the first time in Cyprus, the levels of problematic use of the Social Media and the Internet among Cypriot pupils and students aiming at contributing to the discussion about the need for a more conclusive policy framework in the island. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS-2) were adapted to a Cypriot version and along with a sociodemographic questionnaire were introduced to a sample of 1059 young persons in order to respectively assess the addiction risk for Social Media Use and the risk of Problematic Internet Use. The sample consisted of 59% females, aged 15 to 35 (M=18.9 years, SD=3.20), 465 of them were high school students and 594 university students. Of 1059 respondents from 4 high-schools and 5 Universities (HEI) in Cyprus, 8.3% of the sample had BSMAS scores suggestive of addiction. Approximately a quarter of the sample (24%), demonstrated GPIUS-2 scores suggestive of high risk for problematic internet use. It is notable that differences seem to exist across gender with the score of the female population (11.1%) reaching levels of addiction to social media more than twice the level of addiction of the male population (4.3%). Also, the female population of high school students seems to be at the most vulnerable position for problematic internet use (28%). The 26% of the sample often or very often used some SNSs to forget of personal problems. The results of this study show that half of those surveyed used the Internet to feel better when they were upset or to escape the isolation they felt. Among the sample population, the study reports that 60% of the pupils and female university students are in agreement with the relevant statements. Conclusively, this study suggests that SNSs addiction levels among pupils and students in Cyprus ought to be an important public health concern. The same if not more alarming is the identified by the study prevalence of problematic Internet use among the same population. These results confirm international trends reported by scholarly research while also suggest that particular categories such as high school pupils and young females may be more exposed to problem SNSs and Internet use. Preventive strategies need first to acknowledge the problem in order to then formulate an effective strategy for prevention and intervention. For relevant authorities it is of primary importance to “exploit” the fact that high schools and universities can be seen as small communities and units potentially available for forging alliances for healthy Social Media and Internet use.

Keywords: problematic internet use, social media addiction, social networking sites, well-being

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Authors: M. Weller Jones, J. Moffat, J. Taylor, J. Hartland, M. Natarajan

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Background: Uganda’s teenage pregnancy rate remains a significant problem for female and maternal health in the country. Teenage pregnancy is linked to higher rates of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, including preterm labour, obstructed labour, vesicovaginal fistulae, infections, and maternal mental health morbidity. In 2015, the National Strategy to End Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy was launched in Uganda. Research is needed so that the interventions in this Strategy can be effectively applied at a local level. This study at Kitovu and Villa Maria Hospitals, two local community hospitals near Masaka, Uganda, aimed to measure change in the local teenage pregnancy rate over the past 5 years; and to explore the awareness and attitudes of teenagers and healthcare professionals towards 1) teenage pregnancy and, 2) the challenges female adolescents still currently face. Method: Teenage delivery rate, type of delivery, incidence of complications in labour and neonatal and maternal outcomes were collected from the labour ward admission books, at both hospitals, for a six month time period in 2011 and 2016. At Kitovu Hospital, qualitative data regarding the experience of, and attitudes towards teenage pregnancy was collected from interviews conducted with 12 maternity staff members and with eight female teenagers, aged 16-19, who were pregnant or post-partum. Results: The proportion of total births to teenage mothers fell from 14% in 2011 to 7% in 2016 (Kitovu), but it remains higher in rural locations (19%, Villa Maria). Beliefs about exacerbating factors included: poor access to contraception; misconceptions that contraception is damaging to women’s health; failing sex education in schools; and poor awareness of national campaigns to reduce teenage pregnancy. Staff felt that the best way to tackle teenage pregnancy was to improve sex education in schools and to sensitise families to these issues. Six of the eight teenagers wanted more frequent sex education and easier, cheap access to contraception. Only one teenager saw positive consequences stating that teenage pregnancy would ‘avoid operations later in life.’ Discussion: Teenage pregnancy is a recognised problem and strategies in the Masaka region should focus on improving sex education in schools and initiating an organisation that educates and supplies free contraception to teenagers.

Keywords: adolescents, attitudes, teenage pregnancy, Uganda

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Authors: M. Mortas, H. Asar, P. Dursun Cebi

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The visionary works of architectural representation in the 21st century's present situation, are practiced through the methodologies which try to expose the intellectual and theoretical essences of futurologist positions that are revealed with this era's interactions. Expansions of conceptual and contextual inputs related to one architectural design representation, depend on its deepness of critical attitudes, its interactions with the concepts such as experience, meaning, affection, psychology, perception and aura, as well as its communication with spatial, cultural and environmental factors. The purpose of this research study is to be able to offer methodological application areas for the design dimensions of experiential practices into architectural design studios, by focusing on the architectural representative narrations of 'transformation,' 'metamorphosis,' 'morphogenesis,' 'in-betweenness', 'superposition' and 'intertwine’ in which they affect and are affected by the today’s spatiotemporal hybridizations of architecture. The narrative representations and the visual theory paradigms of the designers are chosen under the main title of 'transformation' for the investigation of these visionary and critical representations' dismantlings and decodings. Case studies of this research area are chosen from Neil Spiller, Bryan Cantley, Perry Kulper and Dan Slavinsky’s transformative, morphogenetic representations. The theoretical dismantlings and decodings which are obtained from these artists’ contemporary architectural representations are tried to utilize and practice in the structural design studios as alternative methodologies when to approach architectural design processes, for enriching, differentiating, diversifying and 'transforming' the applications of so far used design process precedents. The research aims to indicate architectural students about how they can reproduce, rethink and reimagine their own representative lexicons and so languages of their architectural imaginations, regarding the newly perceived tectonics of prosthetic, biotechnology, synchronicity, nanotechnology or machinery into various experiential design workshops. The methodology of this work can be thought as revealing the technical and theoretical tools, lexicons and meanings of contemporary-visionary architectural representations of our decade, with the essential contents and components of hermeneutics, etymology, existentialism, post-humanism, phenomenology and avant-gardism disciplines to re-give meanings the architectural visual theorists’ transformative representations of our decade. The value of this study may be to emerge the superposed and overlapped atmospheres of futurologist architectural representations for the students who need to rethink on the transcultural, deterritorialized and post-humanist critical theories to create and use the representative visual lexicons of themselves for their architectural soft machines and beings by criticizing the now, to be imaginative for the future of architecture.

Keywords: architectural design studio, visionary lexicon, narrative architecture, transformative representation

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Authors: Qinglu Wu, Anna Wai-Man Choi, Peilian Chi

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Gratitude is one individual strength that not only facilitates the mental health, but also fosters the relationship satisfaction in the romantic relationship. In terms of moral effect theory and stress-and-coping theory of forgiveness, present study not only investigated the association between grateful disposition and relationship satisfaction, but also explored the mechanism by comprehensively examining the potential mediating roles of three profiles of forgiveness (trait forgivingness, decisional forgiveness, emotional forgiveness), another character strength that highly related to the gratitude and relationship satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to conduct the multiple mediator model with a sample of 103 Chinese college students in dating relationship (39 male students and 64 female students, Mage = 19.41, SD = 1.34). Findings displayed that both gratitude and relationship satisfaction positively correlated with decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. Emotional forgiveness was the only mediator, and it completely mediated the relationship between gratitude and relationship satisfaction. Gratitude was helpful in enhancing individuals’ perception of satisfaction in romantic relationship through replacing negative emotions toward partners with positive ones after transgression in daily life. It highlighted the function of emotional forgiveness in personal healing and peaceful state, which is important to the perception of satisfaction in relationship. Findings not only suggested gratitude could provide a stability for forgiveness, but also the mechanism of prosocial responses or positive psychological processes on relationship satisfaction. The significant roles of gratitude and emotional forgiveness could be emphasized in the intervention working on the romantic relationship development or reconciliation.

Keywords: decisional forgiveness, emotional forgiveness, gratitude, relationship satisfaction, trait forgivingness

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Authors: Ekaterina Lukianchenko

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This article sums up a six-year experience of teaching English as a foreign language to over 900 university students at MGIMO (Moscow University of International Relations, Russia), all of them native speakers of Russian aged 16 to 23. By combining modern communicative approach to teaching with cognitive linguistics theories, one can deal more effectively with deeply rooted mistakes which particular students have of which conventional methods have failed to eliminate. If language items are understood as concepts and frames, and classroom activities as meaningful parts of language competence development, this might help to solve such problems as incorrect use of words, unsuitable register, and confused tenses - as well as logical or structural mistakes, and even certain psychological issues concerning essay writing. Along with classic teaching methods, such classroom practice includes plenty of interaction between students - playing special classroom games aimed at eliminating particular mistakes, working in pairs and groups, integrating all skills in one class. The main conclusions that the author of the experiment makes consist in an assumption that academic essay writing classes demand a balanced plan. This should not only include writing as such, but additionally feature elements of listening, reading, speaking activities specifically chosen according to the skills and language students will need to write the particular type of essay.

Keywords: academic essay writing, creative teaching, cognitive linguistics, competency-based approach, communicative language teaching, frame, concept

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Authors: Zehor Ktitni

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In pragmatics, politeness is regarded as a feature of paramount importance to successful interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, emails have recently become one of the indispensable means of communication in educational settings. This research puts email communication at the core of the study and analyses it from a politeness perspective. More specifically, it endeavours to look closely at how the concept of (im)politeness is reflected through students’ emails. To this end, a corpus of Algerian supervisees’ email threads, exchanged with their Irish supervisors, was compiled. Leech’s model of politeness (2014) was selected as the main theoretical framework of this study, in addition to making reference to Brown and Levinson’s model (1987) as it is one of the most influential models in the area of pragmatic politeness. Further, some follow-up interviews are to be conducted with Algerian students to reinforce the results derived from the corpus. Initial findings suggest that Algerian Ph.D. students’ emails tend to include more politeness markers than impoliteness ones, they heavily make use of academic titles when addressing their supervisors (Dr. or Prof.), and they rely on hedging devices in order to sound polite.

Keywords: politeness, email communication, corpus pragmatics, Algerian PhD supervisees, Irish supervisors

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Authors: Soukaina Boutaky, Abdelhak Sahibeddine

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A study was carried out among students who have especially a scientific and technical educational background and who had opportunities to benefit from a program entrepreneurship course of 50 hours; at Higher School of Technology Khenifra, Morocco. This article has as a goal to explain the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention. The authors chose Bandura’s theory of social cognition as a theoretical framework. The modeling methods equation is adopted to analyze the hypotheses by SMART PLS for 188 students. The results show a strong positive relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial passion. They also reveal that entrepreneurship education affects entrepreneurial intention through the effect of entrepreneurial passion, particularly among women than men. In addition, this study contributes in a theoretical way to the level of the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial passion, and these results provide educators and public decision-makers with advice on the importance of entrepreneurship training based on emotional traits such as passion; which constitutes a key and essential element to encourage young graduates to choose an entrepreneurial career as an alternative option or to develop entrepreneurial passion among the business leaders of tomorrow.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial intention, equation modeling methods

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Authors: A. Noll, J. Roth, M. Scholz

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The importance of written language in a democratic society is non-controversial. Students with physical, learning, cognitive or developmental disabilities often have difficulties in understanding information which is presented in written language only. These students suffer from obstacles in diverse domains. In order to reduce such barriers in educational as well as in out-of-school areas, access to written information must be facilitated. Readability can be enhanced by linguistic simplifications like the application of easy-to-read language. Easy-to-read language shall help people with disabilities to participate socially and politically in society. The authors state, for example, that only short simple words should be used, whereas the occurrence of complex sentences should be avoided. So far, these guidelines were not empirically proved. Another way to reduce reading barriers is the use of visual support, for example, symbols. A symbol conveys, in contrast to a photo, a single idea or concept. Little empirical data about the use of symbols to foster the readability of texts exist. Nevertheless, a positive influence can be assumed, e.g., because of the multimedia principle. It indicates that people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. A qualitative Interview and Eye-Tracking-Study, which was conducted by the authors, gives cause for the assumption that besides the illustration of single words, the visualization of complete sentences may be helpful. Thus, the effect of photos, which illustrate the content of complete sentences, is also investigated in this study. This leads us to the main research question which was focused on: Does the use of easy-to-read language and/or enriching text with symbols or photos facilitate pupils’ comprehension of learning tasks? The sample consisted of students with learning difficulties (N = 144) and students without SEN (N = 159). The students worked on the tasks, which dealt with introducing fractions, individually. While experimental group 1 received a linguistically simplified version of the tasks, experimental group 2 worked with a variation which was linguistically simplified and furthermore, the keywords of the tasks were visualized by symbols. Experimental group 3 worked on exercises which were simplified by easy-to-read-language and the content of the whole sentences was illustrated by photos. Experimental group 4 received a not simplified version. The participants’ reading ability and their IQ was elevated beforehand to build four comparable groups. There is a significant effect of the different setting on the students’ results F(3,140) = 2,932; p = 0,036*. A post-hoc-analyses with multiple comparisons shows that this significance results from the difference between experimental group 3 and 4. The students in the group easy-to-read language plus photos worked on the exercises significantly more successfully than the students who worked in the group with no simplifications. Further results which refer, among others, to the influence of the students reading ability will be presented at the ICERI 2018.

Keywords: inclusive education, mathematics education, easy-to-read language, photos, symbols, special educational needs

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Authors: Mari Murakami, Hiromi Kawasaki, Saori Fujimoto, Yoko Ueno

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Background: In Japan, one of the goals of midwifery education is the development of one’s ability to comprehensively support the child-rearing generation in collaboration with professionals from other disciplines. However, in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it has become extremely difficult to provide face-to-face support for mothers and children. Early on in the pandemic, we sought help from three parenting midwives as an alternative and attempted an online visit. Since midwives who are raising children respond to the training as both mothers who are care recipients and midwives as care providers. Therefore, we attempted to verify the usefulness of midwives experiencing training as mothers by clarifying the effects on those midwives who are raising children and who have experienced online visit training by students. Methods: The online visitations were conducted in June 2020. The collaborators were three midwives who were devoted to childcare. During the online visit training, we used the feedback records of their questions given by the collaborators (with their permission) to the students. The verbatim record was created from the records. Qualitative descriptive analysis was used, and subcategories and categories were extracted. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee for Epidemiology of Hiroshima University. Results: The average age of the three midwives was 36.3 years, with an average of 12.3 years of experience after graduation. They were each raising multiple children (ranging between a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 children). Their youngest infants were 6.7 months old on average for all. Five categories that emerged were: contributing to the development of midwifery students as a senior; the joy of accepting the efforts of a mother while raising children; recalling the humility of beginners through the integrity of midwifery students; learning opportunities about the benefits of online visits; and suggesting further challenges for online visits. Conclusion: The online visit training was an opportunity for midwives who are raising their own children to reinforce an honest and humble approach based on the attitude of the students, for self-improvement, and to reflect on the practice of midwifery from another person’s viewpoint. It was also noted that the midwives contributed to the education of midwifery students. Furthermore, they also agreed with the use of online visitations and considered the advantages and disadvantages of its use from the perspective of mothers and midwives. Online visits were seen to empower midwives on childcare leave, as their child-rearing was accepted and admired. Online visits by students were considered to be an opportunity to not only provide a sense of fulfillment as a recipient of care but also to think concretely about career advancement, during childcare leave, regarding the ideal way for midwifery training and teaching.

Keywords: child-rearing midwife, COVID-19 pandemic, online visit practice, qualitive descriptive study

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Authors: Geeta Goyal

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Teaching-learning of English as a second language is a challenge for the learner as well as the teacher. Whereas a student may find it hard and get demotivated while communicating in a language other than mother tongue, a teacher, too, finds it difficult to integrate necessary teaching material in lesson plans to maximize the outcome. Studies reveal that task-based teaching can be useful in diverse contexts in a second language classroom as it helps in creating opportunities for language exposure as per learners' interest and capability levels, which boosts their confidence and learning efficiency. The present study has analysed the impact of various activities carried out in a heterogenous group of second language learners at tertiary level in a semi-urban area in Haryana state of India. Language tasks were specifically planned with a focus on engaging groups of twenty-five students for a period of three weeks. These included language games such as spell-well, cross-naught besides other communicative and interactive tasks like mock-interviews, role plays, sharing experiences, storytelling, simulations, scene-enact, video-clipping, etc. Tools in form of handouts and cue cards were also used as per requirement. This experiment was conducted for ten groups of students taking bachelor’s courses in different streams of humanities, commerce, and sciences. Participants were continuously supervised, monitored, and guided by the respective teacher. Feedback was collected from the students through classroom observations, interviews, and questionnaires. Students' responses revealed that they felt comfortable and got plenty of opportunities to communicate freely without being afraid of making mistakes. It was observed that even slow/timid/shy learners got involved by getting an experience of English language usage in friendly environment. Moreover, it helped the teacher in establishing a trusting relationship with students and encouraged them to do the same with their classmates. The analysis of the data revealed that majority of students demonstrated improvement in their interest and enthusiasm in the class. The study revealed that task-based teaching was an effective method to improve the teaching-learning process under the given conditions.

Keywords: communication skills, English, second language, task-based teaching

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Authors: James G. Matthew, Seonmin Huh, Frank X. Bennett

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English for Specific Purposes, ESP, aims to equip learners with necessary English language skills. Many ESP programs address language skills for job performance, including reading job related documents and oral proficiency. Within ESP is English for occupational purposes, EOP, which centers around developing communicative competence for the globalized workplace. Many ESP and EOP courses lack the content needed to assist students to progress at work, resulting in the need to create lexical compilation for different professions. It is important to teach communicative competence and soft skills for real job-related problem situations and address the complexities of the real world to help students to be successful in their professions. ESP and EOP research is therefore trying to balance both profession-specific educational contents as well as international multi-disciplinary language skills for the globalized workforce. The current study will build upon the existing discussion by developing pedagogy to assist students in their career through developing a strong practical command of relevant English vocabulary. Our research question focuses on the pedagogy two professors incorporated in their English for employment courses. The current study is a qualitative case study on the modes of teaching delivery for EOP in South Korea. Two foreign professors teaching at two different universities in South Korea volunteered for the study to explore their teaching practices. Both professors’ curriculums included the components of employment-related concept vocabulary, business presentations, CV/resume and cover letter preparation, and job interview preparation. All the pre-made recorded video lectures, live online class sessions with students, teachers’ lesson plans, teachers’ class materials, students’ assignments, and midterm and finals video conferences were collected for data analysis. The study then focused on unpacking representative patterns in their teaching methods. The professors used their strengths as native speakers to extend the class discussion from narrow and restricted conversations to giving students broader opportunities to practice authentic English conversation. The methods of teaching utilized three main steps to extend the conversation. Firstly, students were taught concept vocabulary. Secondly, the vocabulary was then combined in speaking activities where students had to solve scenarios, and the students were required to expand on the given forms of words and language expressions. Lastly, the students had conversations in English, using the language learnt. The conversations observed in both classes were those of authentic, expanded English communication and this way of expanding concept vocabulary lessons into extended conversation is one representative pedagogical approach that both professors took. Extended English conversation, therefore, is crucial for EOP education.

Keywords: concept vocabulary, english as a foreign language, english for employment, extended conversation

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Authors: Faucal Marie Providence Idufashe, Rafał Katamay

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Background: Cases of foreign students who do not return to their home countries after their graduation have been reported. Over the past years, More and more young Rwandans choose to study in Poland, appreciating the high level of education in Polish universities. However, the majority of them tend to stay there after their studies or move to other nearby countries. Therefore, this study aims at identifying factors contributing to a career choice abroad among Rwandan students in Poland. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational, survey-based study and targeted the Rwandan community living in Poland. All the analyses were done in SPSS. A total of 219 respondents completed the online survey within two months from July to September 2022. Results: The prevalence of migration intention among Rwandan student in Poland was estimated at 79.91%. Only religion was statistically significant, whereas other social demographic factors such as age, residence, education, and marital status did not contribute to the decision of a career choice in Poland among respondents, Rwandans in Poland. Furthermore, perceived connection to co-workers, employment company's culture and respect were the significant socio-economic factors contributed to the decision of a career choice in Poland among those studied. The level of income did not contribute. Conclusion: A high proportion expressed migration intention in our study. These intentions were attracted by opportunities in Poland in addition to the welcoming culture. Going forward, we recommend exploring those factors using in-depth interviews for more insights.

Keywords: career, choice, abroad, Poland, students, Rwandan

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Authors: Apityan Tume, Sefater Gbashi, Stephanie Dillon

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The present study was aimed at investigating the weaning knowledge, attitudes and practices among mothers with infants in Benue and Zamfara States, Nigeria. A questionnaire consisting of both open and close-ended questions was adopted for this study. Socio-demographic information was captured with this questionnaire. This is in addition to capturing data linked to respondents' knowledge and attitude to weaning and the weaning practice itself. 400 questionnaires were distributed, and 329 was filled and returned. Results obtained from the study revealed that the mother's location; mother's level of education, her occupation, her age; and her level of education would have an effect on her practice of and attitude to weaning. Essentially, mothers based in Zamfara who were full-time housewives, tailor or trader were more likely to start weaning at a later age than mothers who have the same occupation but based in Benue. Furthermore, the results revealed mothers who were uneducated and based in Zamfara were more likely to wean their babies later than the uneducated mothers, mothers educated to primary, secondary or tertiary level based in Benue. It was also evident that mothers who were low-income earners and based in Zamfara were more likely to start weaning later than the low, average or high-income earning mothers in Benue. Moreover, younger mothers in Zamfara age 20-25 years were more likely to start weaning later than mothers of other age groups. In overall, mothers had a good understanding of best practices with regards to weaning. Notwithstanding, mothers could be further encouraged and educated about the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices as well as the benefits therein to enhance the healthy growth of the children.

Keywords: breastfeeding, complementary feeding, socio-demographic, weaning

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Authors: Martín Pratto Burgos

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The Engineering School of the University of the Republic in Uruguay offers an Introductory Mathematical Course from the second semester of 2019. This course has been designed to assist students in preparing themselves for math courses that are essential for Engineering Degrees, namely Math1, Math2, and Math3 in this research. The research proposes to build a model that can accurately predict the student's activity and academic progress based on their performance in the three essential Mathematical courses. Additionally, there is a need for a model that can forecast the incidence of the Introductory Mathematical Course in the three essential courses approval during the first academic year. The techniques used are Principal Component Analysis and predictive modelling using the Generalised Linear Model. The dataset includes information from 5135 engineering students and 12 different characteristics based on activity and course performance. Two models are created for a type of data that follows a binomial distribution using the R programming language. Model 1 is based on a variable's p-value being less than 0.05, and Model 2 uses the stepAIC function to remove variables and get the lowest AIC score. After using Principal Component Analysis, the main components represented in the y-axis are the approval of the Introductory Mathematical Course, and the x-axis is the approval of Math1 and Math2 courses as well as student activity three years after taking the Introductory Mathematical Course. Model 2, which considered student’s activity, performed the best with an AUC of 0.81 and an accuracy of 84%. According to Model 2, the student's engagement in school activities will continue for three years after the approval of the Introductory Mathematical Course. This is because they have successfully completed the Math1 and Math2 courses. Passing the Math3 course does not have any effect on the student’s activity. Concerning academic progress, the best fit is Model 1. It has an AUC of 0.56 and an accuracy rate of 91%. The model says that if the student passes the three first-year courses, they will progress according to the timeline set by the curriculum. Both models show that the Introductory Mathematical Course does not directly affect the student’s activity and academic progress. The best model to explain the impact of the Introductory Mathematical Course on the three first-year courses was Model 1. It has an AUC of 0.76 and 98% accuracy. The model shows that if students pass the Introductory Mathematical Course, it will help them to pass Math1 and Math2 courses without affecting their performance on the Math3 course. Matching the three predictive models, if students pass Math1 and Math2 courses, they will stay active for three years after taking the Introductory Mathematical Course, and also, they will continue following the recommended engineering curriculum. Additionally, the Introductory Mathematical Course helps students to pass Math1 and Math2 when they start Engineering School. Models obtained in the research don't consider the time students took to pass the three Math courses, but they can successfully assess courses in the university curriculum.

Keywords: machine-learning, engineering, university, education, computational models

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Authors: Lihyo Sung

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Background: Children and teens in Korea experience extreme levels of academic stress. To perform better on the college entrance exam and gain admission to Korea’s most prestigious universities, they devote a significant portion of their early lives to studying. Because of their excessive preparation for entrance exams, students have become accustomed to passive and involuntary engagement. Any student starting university, however, faces new challenges that require more active involvement and self-regulated practice. As a way to tackle this issue, the study focuses on investigating the mediating effects of positive psychological capital on the relationship between self-leadership and career maturity among Korean university students. Objectives and Hypotheses: The long term goal of this study is to offer insights that promote the use of positive psychological interventions in the development and adaptation of career maturity. The current objective is to assess the role of positive psychological capital as a mediator between self-leadership and career maturity among Korean university students. Based on previous research, the hypotheses are: (a) self-leadership will be positively associated with indices of career maturity, and (b) positive psychological capital will partially or fully mediate the relationship between self-leadership and career maturity. Sample Characteristics and Sample Size: Participants in the current study consisted of undergraduate students enrolled in various courses at 5 large universities in Korea. A total of 181 students participated in the study. Methodology: A quantitative research design was adopted to test the hypotheses proposed in the current study. By using a cross-sectional approach to research, a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on indices of positive psychological capital, self-leadership, and career maturity. The data were analyzed by means of Cronbach's alpha, Pierson correlation test, multiple regression, path analysis, and SPSS for Windows version 22.0 using descriptive statistics. Results: Findings showed that positive psychological capital fully mediated the relationship between self-leadership and career maturity. Self-leadership significantly impacted positive psychological capital and career maturity, respectively. Scientific Contribution: The results of the current study provided useful insights into the role of psychological strengths such as positive psychological capital in improving self-leadership and career maturity. Institutions can assist in increasing positive psychological capital through the creation of positive experiences for undergraduate students, such as opportunities for coaching and mentoring.

Keywords: career maturity, mediating role, positive psychological capital, self-leadership

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Authors: Alexander Huang

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Online learning sessions have become an indispensable complement to in-classroom-learning sessions in the past two years due to the emergence of Covid-19. Due to social distance requirements, many courses and interaction-intensive sessions, ranging from music classes to debate camps, are online. However, online learning imposes a significant challenge for engaging students effectively during the learning sessions. To resolve this problem, Project PWR, a non-profit organization formed by high school students, developed an online kid-teach-kid learning environment to boost students' learning interests and further improve students’ engagement during online learning. Fundamentally, the kid-teach-kid learning model creates an affinity space to form learning groups, where like-minded peers can learn and teach their interests. The role of the teacher can also help a kid identify the instructional task and set the rules and procedures for the activities. The approach also structures initial discussions to reveal a range of ideas, similar experiences, thinking processes, language use, and lower student-to-teacher ratio, which become enriched online learning experiences for upcoming lessons. In such a manner, a kid can practice both the teacher role and the student role to accumulate experiences on how to convey ideas and questions over the online session more efficiently and effectively. In this research work, we conducted two case studies involving a 3D-Design course and a Speech and Debate course taught by high-school kids. Through Project PWR, a kid first needs to design the course syllabus based on a provided template to become a student-teacher. Then, the Project PWR academic committee evaluates the syllabus and offers comments and suggestions for changes. Upon the approval of a syllabus, an experienced and voluntarily adult mentor is assigned to interview the student-teacher and monitor the lectures' progress. Student-teachers construct a comprehensive final evaluation for their students, which they grade at the end of the course. Moreover, each course requires conducting midterm and final evaluations through a set of surveyed replies provided by students to assess the student-teacher’s performance. The uniqueness of Project PWR lies in its established kid-teach-kids affinity space. Our research results showed that Project PWR could create a closed-loop system where a student can help a teacher improve and vice versa, thus improving the overall students’ engagement. As a result, Project PWR’s approach can train teachers and students to become better online learners and give them a solid understanding of what to prepare for and what to expect from future online classes. The kid-teach-kid learning model can significantly improve students' engagement in the online courses through the Project PWR to effectively supplement the traditional teacher-centric model that the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted substantially. Project PWR enables kids to share their interests and bond with one another, making the online learning environment effective and promoting positive and effective personal online one-on-one interactions.

Keywords: kid-teach-kid, affinity space, online learning, engagement, student-teacher

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Authors: Carmela Perta

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Following the example of both International and European legislation, on 15 December 1999 the national law 482/99 Regulations regarding the protection of historic language minorities was approved, providing a national framework for the preservation and renaissance of minority languages «The Italian Republic sustains the language and culture of people speaking Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Francoprovençal, Friulan, Ladin, Occitan and Sard». The legislation made it possible to use these languages in education, in public offices, in local government, in the judicial system, in mass media, and allowed for the reinstatement of place and personal names. However, several practical problems have emerged, particularly those concerning the variety that should be used in education, in official documents and in other formal domains, i.e. the local variety, the standard of reference (if there is any), or an over regional koinè. In minority settings, it might seem eminently sensible to use the ready made standard of reference, accepting the Ausbausprache, rather than the language as practice, that is the local variety. However, this process seems to be pointless, as is demonstrated by the results of a fieldwork that was carried out in a small town in the South of Italy where members speak Faetar, the local variety of Francoprovençal. Here the language is largely used by the community members in all domains, moreover a deep sense of loyalty towards the variety they use and a manifested minority identity can be observed analysing the speakers’ attitudes. However, these positive attitudes are towards the vehicle for their distinctive history and culture, and not for an “external” standard, a system which local authorities and planners are trying to introduce in the community. In other words, according to the speakers' reactions, there is little point in struggling to maintain a language, if what is conserved is not the group’s language but another.

Keywords: maintenance, minority languages, endangered languages, francoprovençal

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Authors: Zilungile Sosibo

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Constructivism in teacher education is growing tremendously in both the developed and developing world. Proponents of constructivism emphasize active engagement of students in the teaching and learning process. In an effort to keep students engaged while they learn to learn, teachers use a variety of methods to incorporate constructivism in the teaching-learning situations. One area that has a potential for realizing constructivism in the classroom is self-assessment. Sadly, students are rarely involved in the assessment of their work. Instead, the most knowing teacher dominates this process. Student involvement in self-assessments has a potential to teach student teachers to become objective assessors of their students’ work by the time they become credentialed. This is important, as objectivity in assessments is a much-needed skill in the classroom contexts within which teachers deal with students from diverse backgrounds and in which biased assessments should be avoided at all cost. The purpose of the study presented in this paper was to investigate whether student teachers acquired the skills of administering self-assessments objectively after they had been immersed in a formal training program and participated in four sets of self-assessments. The objectives were to determine the extent to which they had mastered the skills of objective self-assessments, their growth and development in this area, and the challenges they encountered in administering self-assessments objectively. The research question was: To what extent did student teachers acquire objectivity in self-assessments after their theoretical and practical engagement in this activity? Data were collected from student teachers through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The design was a qualitative case study. The sample consisted of 39 final-year student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Education teacher education program at a university in South Africa. Results revealed that the formal training program and participation in self-assessments had a minimal effect on students’ acquisition of objectivity in self-assessments, due to the factors associated with self-aggrandizement and hegemony, the latter resulting from gender, religious and racial differences. These results have serious implications for the need to incorporate self-assessments in the teacher-education curriculum, as well as for extended formal training programs for student teachers on assessment in general.

Keywords: objectivity, self-assessment, student teachers, teacher education curriculum

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Authors: Sana El Adlani, Yassir Ait Ben Kaddour, Abdelhafid Benksim, Abderraouf Soummani, Mohamed Cherkaoui

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Background: Infertility in all countries of the word is on an increase, it’s why the World Health Organization included an investigation into young people's fertility. In this sense, it’s important to increase efforts to improve the knowledge about fertility for the young population. The aim of this study is to describe the difference between knowledge and attitude of medical and non-medical Moroccan young people. Materials and Methods: 100 medical Moroccan students (group 1) participated in the study, between 18 and 30 years, by a simple random sampling method, during 2020 and using a previously validated questionnaire. The answers were confronted to the result of our same study among 355 non-medical Moroccan young people (group 2) in 2019. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 10). Result: Medical students had a significantly higher level of knowledge about infertility than non-medical young people. However, both groups were aware of the impact of lifestyle on infertility. The knowledge state of the first group about infertility management was higher than the second group. Moreover, all non-medical Moroccan young people believed that it is easier to conceive if the couples had already their first baby, whereas, among medical students, only 53% had confirmed this belief. The results showed that 65% of medical students had proposed to try fertility treatments more than one time if treatment fails. Besides, the first advice of the second group was polygamy and adoption. Conclusion: Following the result of our study, the investigation of young people is the measure to optimize reproductive health. So, it’s crucial that the government increase efforts to improve the knowledge about infertility not only for medical universities but for all scholar programs.

Keywords: attitude, infertility, knowledge, medical, non-medical, young people

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Authors: Areej Alosimi, Heather Wharrad, Katharine Whittingham

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Palliative care is a crucial element in nursing, especially with the steep increase in non-communicable diseases. Providing education in palliative care can help elevate the standards of care and address the growing need for it. However, palliative care has not been introduced into nursing curricula, specifically in Saudi Arabia, evidenced by students' inadequate understanding of the subject. Digital learning has been identified as a persuasive and effective method to improve education. The study aims to assess the feasibility and accessibility of implementing digital learning in palliative care education in Saudi Arabia by investigating the potential of delivering palliative care nurse education via distance learning. The study will utilize a sequential exploratory mixed-method approach. Phase one will entail identifying needs, developing a web-based program in phase two, and intervention implementation with a pre-post-test in phase three. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted to explore participant perceptions and thoughts regarding the intervention. Data collection will incorporate questionnaires and interviews with nursing students. Data analysis will use SPSS to analyze quantitative measurements and NVivo to analyze qualitative aspects. The study aims to provide insights into the feasibility of implementing digital learning in palliative care education. The results will serve as a foundation to investigate the effectiveness of e-learning interventions in palliative care education among nursing students. This study addresses a crucial gap in palliative care education, especially in nursing curricula, and explores the potential of digital learning to improve education. The results have broad implications for nursing education and the growing need for palliative care globally. The study assesses the feasibility and accessibility of implementing digital learning in palliative care education in Saudi Arabia. The research investigates whether palliative care nurse education can be effectively delivered through distance learning to improve students' understanding of the subject. The study's findings will lay the groundwork for a larger investigation on the efficacy of e-learning interventions in improving palliative care education among nursing students. The study can potentially contribute to the overall advancement of nursing education and the growing need for palliative care.

Keywords: undergraduate nursing students, E-Learning, Palliative care education, Knowledge

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Authors: Hestika D. Waraningrum, Indriani N. Khairunnisa, Nabila Isnandini, Nadine Yasminah, Sekar A. Winesa

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Each individual’s ability to recall, whether they are male or female, is allegedly influenced by the environmental circumstances during the recalling process. The presence of a distraction is one of the environmental variables that affect recall ability in its capacity in the Short Term Memory. This study was made to see the difference in number of words that was successfully recalled by male participants and female participants with the presence of music as a distraction and also without music as a distraction. Data was taken using an experimental procedure from 75 female and male undergraduate students of Universitas Indonesia. The study design used was a 2x2 Factorial ANOVA, which aimed to see the difference between two variables, which were gender (male vs female) and the presence of a distraction (music serving as a distraction vs absence of music). The results indicated that there were no significant mean differences in the ability to recall between male and female participants. There are no significant mean differences between the presence and the absence of music as a distraction, but a significant interaction was found between gender and distraction with the ability to recall.

Keywords: college, gender, music, recall

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Yuan Liu, Hongyun Liu

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Teacher-student relationship plays an important role on facilitating students’ learning behavior, school engagement, and academic outcomes. It is believed that good relationship will enhance the human agency—the intrinsic motivation—mainly through the strengthening of autonomic support, feeling of relatedness, and the individual’s competence to increase the academic outcomes. This is in line with self-determination theory (SDT), which generally views that the intrinsic motivation imbedded with human basic needs is one of the most important factors that would lead to better school engagement, academic outcomes, and well-being. Based on SDT, the present study explored the relation of among teacher-student relationship (teacher’s encouragement, respect), students’ motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic), and achievement outcomes. The study was based on a large scale academic assessment and questionnaire survey conducted by the Center for Assessment and Improvement of Basic Education Quality in Mainland China (2013) on Grade 8 students. The results indicated that intrinsic motivation mediated the relation between teacher-student relationship and academic achievement outcomes.

Keywords: teacher-student relationship, intrinsic motivation, academic achievement, mediation

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Authors: Ajay Wadhwa

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A Laboratory course on computational physics is different from the conventional lab course on other topics of physics like Mechanics, Heat, Optics, etc. because it involves active participation of the teacher as well as one-to-one interaction between teacher and the student. The course content requires the teacher to teach programming language as well as numerical methods along with their applications in physics. The task becomes more daunting when about 90% of the students in the class have no previous experience of any programming language. In the presented work, we have described a methodology for conducting the computational physics course by using the Google Drive and Dropitto.me cloud storage services. We have evaluated the performance in a class of sixty students by dividing them equally into four groups. One of the groups was made the peer group on whom the presented methodology was tested. The other groups were taught by using conventional method of classroom lectures. In order to assess our methodology, we analyzed the performance of students in four class tests. A study of certain statistical parameters like the mean, standard deviation, and Z-test hypothesis revealed that the cyber methodology based on cloud storage is more efficient than the conventional method of teaching.

Keywords: computational Physics, Z-test hypothesis, cloud storage, Google drive

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Khalil Aryanfar, Shahrzad Sanjari, Pariya Gholipor, Elmira Hafez

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The present study aimed to investigate and compare the characteristics of entrepreneurship among students in senior secondary schools in the academic year 2008-2009 in Tabriz city. Research employed survey method respectively. The study population consisted of all students in the senior branch of theoretical, technical, professional and vocational (1033 patients) were included. Sample size of 493 was calculated according to Morgan table. Sampling method was random cluster and stratified sampling. Data collected by researcher made questionnaire based on the theory of MC clleland (1963) and Brvkhavs (1980). These tools would indicators be for achievement, Independence, disposition, creativity, risk-taking, self-control, tolerance for ambiguity, team work approach in the future. To determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, content validity of the survey was approved by relevant experts. In addition, to estimate the internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for 84% of total inventory. Collected data Using mean, standard deviation and were analyzed by ANOVA. The results showed that there is a significant difference between students' entrepreneurial potential fields of theoretical, technical, professional and vocational level (0/01).

Keywords: entrepreneurship, achievement motivation, risk taking, creativity, self-control, independence, tolerance of ambiguity, foresight

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Authors: Abiola A. Sokoya

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Handheld devices are now in use as educational tools for learning in most of the higher institutions, because of the features and functions which can be used in an academic environment. This study examined the usage and the benefits of handheld devices as learning tools. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, while the data collected was analyzed using simple percentage. It was, however, observed that handheld devices offer numerous functions and application for learning, which could improve academic performance of students. Students are now highly interested in using handheld devices for mobile learning apart from making and receiving calls. The researchers recommended that seminars be organized for students on functions of some common handheld devices that can aid learning for academic purposes. It is also recommended that management of each higher institution should make appropriate policies in-line with the usage of handheld technologies to enhance mobile learning. Government should ensure that appropriate policies and regulations are put in place for the importation of high quality handheld devices into the country, Nigeria being a market place for the technologies. By this, using handheld devices for mobile learning will be enhanced.

Keywords: handheld devices, educational tools, mobile e- learning, usage, benefits

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Nigmet Koklu, Dundar Yener

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Recently, distance education that make use of web technology is used widely all around the world to overcome geographical and time based problems in education. Graphics, animation and other auxiliary visual sources help student to understand the subjects easily. Especially some theoretical courses that are quite difficult to understand such as physics and chemistry require visual material for students to understand topics clearly. In this study, physics applications for laboratory of physics course were developed. All facilities of web-based educational technology were used for students in laboratory studies to avoid making mistakes and to learn better physics subjects.

Keywords: physics education, laboratory, web-based education, distance education

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Authors: Özden Kuşcu, Yağmur Kuşcu, Zeynep Çetintaş, S. Sunay Yildirim Doğru

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The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effect of the subjects “personal safety” and “protection from dangers” included in primary school curriculum on the students’ levels of knowledge about safety and protection from social dangers. The study group included 469 students between 5–11 years old with 231 preschoolers and 238 primary school students and their parents and teachers. Instruments used to collect data were “Personal Safety Interview Form” for children, “Parent Interview Form” and “Teacher Interview Form”. Forms included 15 open-ended questions about personal safety. The researchers collected the research data through one-on-one interviews with children. Results of the study revealed that preschoolers and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders did not know their home addresses and telephone numbers and their families were not aware of that. The study also showed that those who had this information were unsure as to who to share this information with. Accordingly, more should be done to increase the levels of knowledge of preschoolers and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders about personal safety and protection from dangers.

Keywords: security, social danger, elementary school, preschool

Procedia PDF Downloads 445

Authors: Hira, Nisar Bhatti, Ezza

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Contemporary studies support the strong co-relation between psychology and design. This study elaborates how different psychological personality test can help a fashion designer to judge the needs of their clients with respect to the customized clothing. This study will also help the designer to improve the lacking in the personality and will enable him to put his effort in required areas for grooming the customer. The use of psychology test to support the choice of certain design strategies that how the right clothing can make client a better intellectual with enhanced self-esteem and confidence. Different projective personality test are being used to suggest to evaluate personality traits. The Rorschach Inkblot Test is projective mental comprising of 10 ink-blots synonymous with the clinical brain research. Lüsher Color Diagnostics measures a person’s psycho physical state, his or her ability to withstand stress to perform and communicate. HTP is a projective responsibility test measuring self-perception, attitudes. The TAT test intend to evaluate a person’s patterns of thoughts, attitudes, observation, capacity and emotional response to this ambiguous test materials. No doubt designers are already crucially redesigning the individuals by their attires, but to expose the behavioral mechanism of the customer, designers should be able to recognize the hidden complexity behind his client by using the above mentioned methods. The study positively finds the design and psychology need to become substantially contacted in order to create a new regime of norms to groom a personality under the concentration and services of a fashion designer in terms of clothing.

Keywords: projective personality tests, customized clothing, Rorschach Inkblot Test, TAT, HTP, Lüsher Color Diagnostics

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Authors: Nuno Da Camara, Victor Dulewicz, Malcolm Higgs

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Factors on employee engagement: In particular, although theorists have described the critical role of emotional cognition of the workplace environment as antecedents to employee engagement, empirical research on the impact of emotional cognition on employee engagement is limited. However, previous researchers have typically provided evidence of the link between emotional cognition of the workplace environment and workplace attitudes such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment. This study therefore aims to investigate the impact of emotional cognition of job, role, leader and organisation domains of the work environment – as represented by measures of psychological climate and organizational emotional intelligence (OEI) - on employee engagement. The research is based on a quantitative cross-sectional survey of employees in a UK charity organization (n=174). The research instruments applied include the psychological climate scale, the organisational emotional intelligence questionnaire (OEIQ) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). The data were analysed using hierarchical regression and partial least squares (PLS) analytical techniques. The results of the study show that both psychological climate and OEI, which represent emotional cognition of job, role, leader and organisation domains in the workplace are significant drivers of employee engagement. In particular, the study found that a sense of contribution and challenge at work are the strongest drivers of vigour, dedication and absorption and highlights the importance of emotionally relevant approaches in furthering our understanding of workplace engagement.

Keywords: employee engagement, organisational emotional intelligence, psychological climate, workplace attitudes

Procedia PDF Downloads 484