Search results for: students’ characteristics

Authors: Bushra Mussawar, Saleha Younus

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Students often view their academic life demanding and stressful. However, apart from academics, stress springs from various other sources namely, finance, family, health, friends etc. The present study aims to assess the level of perceived stress in medical and fine arts students, and to determine the coping strategies used by the students to mitigate stress. The sample of the study consisted of 178 medical and fine arts students. The sample was selected through purposive sampling. Pearson correlation coefficient and T-test were used to analyze data. Results of the study revealed that there exists a positive relationship between perceived stress and coping strategies. Additionally, the two groups showed marked differences in terms of stress perception and coping styles. The level of perceived stress was found to be high in medical students nonetheless, they employed more positive coping strategies than fine arts students who scored high on negative coping strategies which are deleterious to the overall wellbeing.

Keywords: perceived stress, coping strategies, medical, fine arts students

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Authors: Nazeema Ahmed

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Mental health in higher education has received increasing attention over the past few decades. The high academic demands of the engineering degree, coupled with students’ mental health challenges, have led to higher education institutions offering psychotherapeutic services to students. This paper discusses an evaluation of the psychotherapy service at the University of Cape Town. The aim was to determine (i) the efficacy of the service; and (ii) the impact of race, gender, and language of the therapist on the students’ therapeutic process. An online survey was sent to 109 students who attended psychotherapy. The majority expressed favorable experiences of psychotherapy, with reports of increased capacity to engage with their academic work. Most students did not experience the gender, race, or language of the psychologists to be barriers to their therapy. The findings point to a need for ongoing psychological support for students.

Keywords: psychotherapy, efficacy, engineering, education

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Authors: Niracha Chompurach, Dararat Khampusaen

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EFL students have to be able to synthesize the texts they are reading critically to compose and connect the information. This study focuses on the effects of the application of Infographics as a supplementary tool to improve Thai EFL students’ Academic reading skills. Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, and knowledge offering students to work on gathering multiple types of information, such as pictures, texts, graphs, mapping, and charts. The study aims to investigate if the Infographics as a supplementary tool in academic reading lessons can make a difference in students’ reading skills, and the students’ opinions toward the application of infographics as a reading tool. The participants of this study were 3rd year Thai EFL Khon Kaen University students who took English Academic Reading course. This study employed Infographics assignments, Infographics rubric, and Gucus group interview. This study would advantage for both EFL teachers and students as a means to engage the students to handle the larger load of and represents the complex information in visible and comprehensible way.

Keywords: EFL, e-learning, infographics, language education

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Authors: T. Dubayova

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Slovak, as well as foreign authors, believe that the influence of non-cognitive factors on a student's academic success or failure is unquestionable. The aim of this paper is to establish a link between the mental vulnerability and coping strategies used by 4^th grade elementary school students in dealing with stressful situations and their academic performance, which was used as a simple quantitative indicator of academic success. The research sample consists of 320 students representing the standard population and 60 students with special education needs (SEN), who were assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by their teachers and the Children’s Coping Strategies Checklist (CCSC-R1) filled in by themselves. Students with SEN recorded an extraordinarily high frequency of mental vulnerability (34.5 %) than students representing the standard population (7 %). The poorest academic performance of students with SEN was associated with the avoidance behavior displayed during stressful situations. Students of the standard population did not demonstrate this association. Students with SEN are more likely to display mental health problems than students of the standard population. This may be caused by the accumulation of and frequent exposure to situations that they perceive as stressful.

Keywords: coping, mental vulnerability, pupil with special education needs, school performance, school success

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Authors: Rana AlHajri, Salah Al-Sharhan, Ahmed Al-Hunaiyyan

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Mobile learning is a new learning landscape that offers opportunity for collaborative, personal, informal, and students’ centered learning environment. In implementing any learning system such as a mobile learning environment, learners’ expectations should be taken into consideration. However, there is a lack of studies on this aspect, particularly in the context of Kuwait higher education (HE) institutions. This study focused on how students perceive the use of mobile devices in learning. Although m-learning is considered as an effective educational tool in developed countries, it is not yet fully utilized in Kuwait. The study reports on the results of a survey conducted on 623 HE students in Kuwait to a better understand students' perceptions and opinions about the effectiveness of using mobile learning systems. An analysis of quantitative survey data is presented. The findings indicated that Kuwait HE students are very familiar with mobile devices and its applications. The results also reveal that students have positive perceptions of m-learning, and believe that video-based social media applications enhance the teaching and learning process.

Keywords: higher education, mobile learning, social media, students’ perceptions

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Authors: Malgorzata Bartoszewicz, Grzegorz Krzysko

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Chemistry students plan a career path based on their interests, predispositions, and preferences. This study aims to determine what percentage of all chemistry students selected teaching as a career. There is a lack of science teachers (especially physics and chemistry) in Poland, and there is limited research on students' choices and professional preferences. At the Faculty of Chemistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University in the academic year 2019/2020, changes were introduced to the study program resulting from legal regulations and as part of the funds raised from the project "Teacher - competent practitioner, supervisor, expert", No. POWR.03.01.00-00-KN40/18. The aim of the study was to determine how many first-cycle and second-cycle studies students declare the teaching profession as a career. In the case of first-cycle studies students, 9.5% of respondents choose the teaching profession and 9.2% of second-cycle studies students. It was found that the number of students who chose the teacher preparation programme at Faculty of Chemistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University has decreased since 5 years.

Keywords: faculty of chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, professional ambitions, students, teacher

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Authors: Tomoko Yaginuma, Rosa Cabecinhas

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Recently, the studies of the images about Japan and/or the Japanese people have been done in a Japanese language education context since the number of the students of Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) has been increasing worldwide, including in Portugal. It has been claimed that one of the reasons for this increase is the current popularity of Japanese pop-culture, namely anime (Japanese animations) and manga (Japanese visual novels), among young students. In the present study, the images about Japan and the Japanese held by JFL students in Portugal were examined by a questionnaire survey. The JFL students in higher education in Portugal (N=296) were asked to answer, among the other questions, their degree of agreement (using a Likert scale) with 24 pre-defined descriptions about the Japanese, which appear as relevant in a qualitative pilot study conducted before. The results show that the image of Japanese people by Portuguese JFL students is stressed around four dimensions: 1) diligence, 2) kindness, 3) conservativeness and 4) innovativeness. The students considered anime was the main source of information about the Japanese people and culture and anime was also strongly associated with the students’ interests in learning Japanese language.

Keywords: anime, cultural studies, images about Japan and Japanese people, Portugal

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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: Jessica Gladden

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Anxiety remains one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States. Many university students report having a high level of anxiety, with additional life stressors that might include being away from home for the first time, being around unfamiliar people, having new expectations placed on them, and often have financial struggles. Universities have the ability and opportunity to form programs that can involve students with activities that reduce stress and teach coping skills. This research includes one example of using a somatic based group format of yoga to teach these skills and assist students in applying these strategies to their daily lives. This study compared a group of 17 students participating in weekly yoga classes to 34 students who did not attend the program. The students who attended the program reported a larger reduction of anxiety on both the BAI and GAD-7 than the control group, and verbally reported additional benefits in relaxation and coping skills. This presentation will review the results of the program as well as detailing the steps taken in creating a yoga program for university students with stress and anxiety. This will include a discussion on the components of trauma-sensitive yoga and the concerns and strategies to consider when developing a program for students.

Keywords: yoga, trauma-sensitive yoga, anxiety, students

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Authors: B. Wattanakul, G. Ngamwongwan, S. Ngamkham

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Exposure to different learning experiences contributes to changing in learning style. Addressing students’ learning preference could help teachers provide different learning activities that encourage the student to learn effectively. Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive study was to describe learning styles of nursing students at Boromarajonani College of Nursing Chon Buri. Sample: The purposive sample was 463 nursing students who were enrolled in a nursing program at different academic levels. The 16-item VARK questionnaire with 4 multiple choices was administered at one time data collection. Choices have consisted with modalities of Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic measured by VARK. Results: Majority of learning preference of students at different levels was visual and read/write learning preference. Almost 67% of students have a multimodal preference, which is visual learning preference associated with read/write or kinesthetic preference. At different academic levels, multimodalities are greater than single preference. Over 30% of students have one dominant learning preference, including visual preference, read/write preference and kinesthetic preference. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni adjustment revealed a significant difference between students based on their academic level (p < 0.001). Learning style of the first-grade nursing students differed from the second-grade nursing students (p < 0.001). While learning style of nursing students in the second-grade has significantly varied from the 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade (p < 0.001), learning preference of the 3rd grade has significantly differed from the 4th grade of nursing students (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Nursing students have varied learning styles based on their different academic levels. Learning preference is not fixed attributes. This should help nursing teachers assess the types of changes in students’ learning preferences while developing teaching plans to optimize students’ learning environment and achieve the needs of the courses and help students develop learning preference to meet the need of the course.

Keywords: learning preference, VARK, learning style, nursing

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Authors: Thachamon Sinsoongsud, Noppawan Piaseu

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This predictive study was aimed to 1) describe self efficacy for risk reduction and preventive behavior for osteoporosis, and 2) examine factors predicting preventive behavior for osteoporosis in nursing students. Through purposive sampling, the sample included 746 nursing students in a public university in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected by a self-reported questionnaire on self efficacy and preventive behavior for osteoporosis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis with stepwise method. Results revealed that majority of the students were female (98.3%) with mean age of 19.86 + 1.26 years. The students had self efficacy and preventive behavior for osteoporosis at moderate level. Self efficacy and level of education could together predicted 35.2% variance of preventive behavior for osteoporosis (p< .001). Results suggest approaches for promoting preventive behavior for osteoporosis through enhancing self efficacy among nursing students in a public university in Bangkok, Thailand.

Keywords: osteoporosis, self-efficacy, preventive behavior, nursing students

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Authors: Mohammed Mohsen Ahmed Al Azab

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Co-education at universities is one of the options that may have an economic as well as social benefit, as it may have a positive impact on improving relationships between students and increasing competitiveness among them, which may have positive effects on educational achievement and alleviate some social problems such as divorce. There is, to the best knowledge of the researcher, no studies tested the subject matter of the current study in Saudi society. The Saudi society is undergoing radical changes at all levels. The current study aims to identify the attitudes of university students toward co-education, the differences between male and female students from various specialties in their attitudes towards co-education, and the relationship of this to the educational level of the parent (educated-uneducated) using the descriptive, comparative, correlational approach. The study sample (n = 200) was chosen randomly among male and female students at King Saud University. The researcher prepared and used an attitude scale. Results showed positive attitudes towards co-education among university students (mean = 3.7, Std. = 0.45). It was also shown that there are significant differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to their field of study, with students in scientific majors scoring higher than humanities counterparts. Findings also show differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to the educational level of the parent, where the attitudes of those whose parents received some education were more positive. The results did not indicate any differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to their gender.

Keywords: attitude, co-education, university students, level of parental education

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Authors: Natalia Ivanova, Konstantin Adamov

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The importance of acoustics in music classes made us analyse three music rooms in a Bulgarian school. The same music piece was performed in every one of the classrooms. The recording was played to 2 groups of students. A survey was then taken among those students in order to determine their personal preferences and impressions of the acoustic. The results show differences in the preferences of older students compared to younger ones. Results of the survey show a correlation between older students’ preferences and the standard requirements. However, we discover that younger students’ classrooms should be further analysed and adapted to their needs and preferences.

Keywords: acousic, building acoustic, sound quality, scool acoustic

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Authors: Mona Masood, Norshazlina Shaik Othman

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The purpose of this study was to investigate graduate students’ visual attention and perceptions of a Prezi presentation. Ten post-graduate master students were presented with a Prezi presentation at the Centre for Instructional Technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The eye movement indicators such as dwell time, average fixation on the areas of interests, heat maps and focus maps were abstracted to indicate the students’ visual attention. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the students’ perception of the Prezi presentation in terms of text, slide design, images, layout and overall presentation. The result revealed that the students paid more attention to the text followed by the images and sub heading presented through the Prezi presentation.

Keywords: eye tracking, Prezi, visual attention, visual perception

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Authors: Winnie Wing Mui So, Yu Chen

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This study investigated primary school teachers’ and students’ perceptions of science learning in an e-learning environment. This study used a multiple case study design and involved eight science teachers and their students from four Hong Kong primary schools. The science topics taught included ‘season and weather’ ‘force and movement’, ‘solar and lunar eclipse’ and ‘living things and habitats’. Data were collected through lesson observations, interviews with teachers, and interviews with students. Results revealed some differences between the teachers’ and the students’ perceptions regarding the usefulness of e-learning resources, the organization of student-centred activities, and the impact on engagement and interactions in lessons. The findings have implications for the more effective creation of e-learning environments for science teaching and learning in primary schools.

Keywords: e-learning, science education, teacher' and students' perceptions, primary schools

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Authors: Wong Ka Fai

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Introduction: Many students are worried before an examination; that is a common picture worldwide. Health problems from stress before examination were insomnia, tiredness, isolation, stomach upset, and anxiety. Nursing students experienced high stress from the examination. Guided imagery is a healing process of applying imagination to help the body heal, survive, or live well. It can bring about significant physiological and biochemical changes, which can trigger the recovery process. A study of nursing students improving their anxiety before examination with guided imagery was proposed. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the outcome of guided imagery on nursing students’ anxiety before examination in Hong Kong. Method: The qualitative study method was used. 16 first-year students studying nursing programme were invited to practice guided imagery to improve their anxiety before the examination period. One week before the examination, the semi-structured interviews with these students were carried out by the researcher. Result: From the content analysis of interview data, these nursing students showed considerable similarities in their anxiety perception. Nursing students’ perceived improved anxiety was evidenced by a reduction of stressful feelings, improved physical health, satisfaction with daily activities, and enhanced skills for solving problems and upcoming situations. Conclusion: This study indicated that guided imagery can be used as an alternative measure to improve students’ anxiety and psychological problems.

Keywords: nursing students, perception, anxiety, guided imagery

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Authors: M. Hadavi, Z. Hashemi

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Learning strategies play an important role in the development of language skills. Vocabulary learning strategies as the backbone of these strategies have become a major part of English language teaching. This study is a comparative analysis of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) use and preference among freshmen and senior EFL medical sciences students with different fields of study. 449 students (236 freshman and 213 seniors) participated in the study. 64.6% were female and 35.4% were male. The instrument utilized in this research was a questionnaire consisting of 41 items related to the students’ approach to vocabulary learning. The items were classified under eight sections as dictionary strategies, guessing strategies, study preferences, memory strategies, autonomy, note- taking strategies, selective attention, and social strategies. The participants were asked to answer each item with a 5-point Likert-style frequency scale as follows:1) I never or almost never do this, 2) I don’t usually do this, 3) I sometimes do this, 4) I usually do this, and 5)I always or almost always do this. The results indicated that freshmen students and particularly surgical technology students used more strategies compared to the seniors. Overall guessing and dictionary strategies were the most frequently used strategies among all the learners (p=0/000). The mean and standard deviation of using VLS in the students who had no previous history of participating in the private English language classes was less than the students who had attended these type of classes (p=0/000). Female students tended to use social and study preference strategies whereas male students used mostly guessing and dictionary strategies. It can be concluded that the senior students under instruction from the university have learned to rely on themselves and choose the autonomous strategies more, while freshmen students use more strategies that are related to the study preferences.

Keywords: vocabulary leaning strategies, medical sciences, students, linguistics

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Authors: Preeti Nakhat, Neeta Sinha

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Career plays an indispensable role in shaping one’s outlook on life. Choosing right career adds 'feathers to the life' whereas wrong career decision 'takes a toll 'in one’s life. It is pivotal for the students to know the career opportunities related to their field where they can escalate and excel. With the aim to comprehend certainty and indecisiveness in career decision among college students, a study will be conducted. The study focuses to gain insight on decisiveness and indecisiveness of career among the students. The hypotheses for the study are (1) There is no relation between the medium of education (vernacular/English medium) and career decisiveness among the college students. (2) There is no relation between the faculty(science, commerce, arts)chosen and career decisiveness. (3)There is no relation between father’s qualification and career decisiveness. To test the aforementioned hypotheses, a survey questionnaire will be used. The questionnaire is 'Career decision scale' by Samuel H. Osipow. This study will include 200 college going students. The data will be collected from first, second, third, and fourth year students. Statistical analysis of the data collected with be done through SPSS/Excel calculation and then the hypotheses will be tested.

Keywords: career decisiveness, career indecisiveness, college students, career

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Authors: Ilana Lavy, Rami Rashkovits

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In this study, we describe Information Systems students' learning model which was applied by students in order to cope with professional knowledge gaps in the context of their final project. The students needed to implement a software system according to specifications and design they have made beforehand. They had to select certain technologies and use them. Most of them decided to use programming environments that were learned during their academic studies. The students had to cope with various levels of knowledge gaps. For that matter they used learning strategies that were organized by us as a learning model which includes two phases each suitable for different learning tasks. We analyze the learning model, describing advantages and shortcomings as perceived by the students, and provide excerpts to support our findings.

Keywords: knowledge gaps, independent learner skills, self-regulated learning, final project

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Authors: Fredrick Olatunji Ajegbomogun, Clement Ola Adekoya

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Mathematics has, for ages, been an essential subject in the education curriculum across the globe. The word mathematics scares the majority of undergraduate students and even more library and information science (LIS) students who have not seen the pertinence of the subject to their academic pursuits. This study investigated mathematics anxiety and attitudes among LIS undergraduate students in Nigerian universities. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Multi-stage and convenient sampling techniques were used for the study. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. It was found that mathematics is important in LIS education. The students displayed a high level of anxiety toward mathematics. The students have a negative attitude toward mathematics. However, the hypotheses tested revealed that while the LIS female undergraduate students displayed low levels of anxiety and a positive attitude toward mathematics, the level of anxiety of the male undergraduate students was high, and their attitude toward mathematics was negative. It was recommended that LIS undergraduate students develop a positive attitude towards mathematics and appreciate that the paradigm shift in the practice of librarianship is towards mathematics as a way of developing technological tools (hardware and software) to facilitate the effective delivery of library services.

Keywords: anxiety, attitude, library and information science, mathematics anxiety, undergraduate students, Nigerian universities

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Authors: Eny Syatriana

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English proficiency of Indonesian secondary school students is below standard. The low proficiency may come from poor teaching materials that do not meet the students’ need. The main objective for English teachers is to improve the English proficiency of the students. The purpose of this study is to explore the application Mapping, Practicing, Using (MPU) strategy with Instructional Materials Based on the School Curriculum toward the English achievement of Indonesian EFL Students. This paper is part my dissertation entitles 'Designing instructional materials for secondary school students based on the school curriculum' consisting of need analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation; this paper discusses need analysis and creates a model of creating instructional materials through deep discussion among teachers of secondary schools. The subject consisted of six English teachers and students of three classes at three different secondary schools in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Pretest and posttest design were administered to see the effectiveness of the MPU strategy. Questionnaires were administered to see the teachers and students’ perception toward the instructional materials. The result indicates that the MPU strategy is effective in improving the English achievement; instructional materials with different strategies improve the English achievement of the students. Both teachers and students argue that the presented instructional materials are effective to be used in the teaching and learning process to increase the English proficiency of the students.

Keywords: proficiency, development, English for secondary school students, instructional materials

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Authors: S. J. Yune, K. H. Park

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The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the research process for enhancing the humanities competence of the medical students. The research process was developed to be operated as a core subject course of 3 semesters. Among them, the research process for enhancing humanities capacity consisted of humanities and societies (6 teams) and education-psychology (2teams). The subjects of this study were 88-second grade students and 22 professors who participated in the research process. Among them, 13 professors participated in the study of humanities and 37 students. In the validity test, the professors were more likely to have more validity in the research process than the students in all areas of logic (p = .001), influence (p = .037), process (p = .001). The validity of the professor was higher than that of the students. The professors highly evaluated the students' learning outcomes and showed the most frequency to the prize group. As a result of analyzing the agreement between the students and the professors through the Kappa coefficient, the agreement degree of communication and cooperation competence was moderate to .430. Problem-solving ability was .340, which showed a fair degree of agreement. However, other factors showed only a slight degree of agreement of less than .20.

Keywords: research process, medical school, humanities competence, validity verification

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Authors: Adebimpe Olubunmi Adebanjo

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This study observed students’ attitudes towards reading as a determinant of performance in O’ Level English in Oyo state secondary schools. Random sampling technique was used to select two schools from each of the five geo-political zones of the state while stratified sampling technique was used to select twenty students from each of the ten schools. A researcher designed questionnaire was used to gather information on students’ attitudes while a prepared test based on O’ Level syllabus was stapled to each of the questionnaire to ascertain their level of achievement in O’ Level English. The Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation, Chi-square and Pearson Contingency Coefficient were used to answer and test the research questions and hypotheses raised. The findings showed that the general attitude of students towards reading was ambivalent; the general level of achievement was also low. The findings also revealed that there was a significant difference in the attitudes of students to reading on the basis of gender and home background. Students from educated homes also had better attitudes towards reading than their counterparts from illiterate homes. The findings also showed that there was a significant relationship between students’ attitudes to reading and their performance in O’ Level English. Students with positive attitude to reading had better grades in O’ Level English than students with ambivalent and negative attitudes. Based on the findings, it was recommended that students should change their attitudes to reading; the school and the home were also advised to always encourage students to read.

Keywords: positive, ambivalent, negative attitudes, o' level English

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Authors: Wanwadee Neamsakul

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VARK learning style is an effective method of learning that could enhance all skills of the students like visual (V), auditory (A), read/write (R), and kinesthetic (K). This learning style benefits the students in terms of professional competencies, critical thinking and lifelong learning which are the desirable characteristics of the nursing students. This study aimed to develop a model of teaching and learning clinical practicum at postpartum ward for nursing students by using VARK learning styles, and evaluate the nursing students’ opinions about the developmental model. A methodology used for this study was research and development (R&D). The model was developed by focus group discussion with five obstetric nursing instructors who have experiences teaching Maternal Newborn and Midwifery I subject. The activities related to practices in the postpartum (PP) ward including all skills of VARK were assigned into the matrix table. The researcher asked the experts to supervise the model and adjusted the model following the supervision. Subsequently, it was brought to be tried out with the nursing students who practiced on the PP ward. Thirty third year nursing students from one of the northern Nursing Colleges, Academic year 2015 were purposive sampling. The opinions about the satisfaction of the model were collected using a questionnaire which was tested for its validity and reliability. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The developed model composed of 27 activities. Seven activities were developed as enhancement of visual skills for the nursing students (25.93%), five activities as auditory skills (18.52%), six activities as read and write skills (22.22%), and nine activities as kinesthetic skills (33.33%). Overall opinions about the model were reported at the highest level of average satisfaction (mean=4.63, S.D=0.45). In the aspects of visual skill (mean=4.80, S.D=0.45) was reported at the highest level of average satisfaction followed by auditory skill (mean=4.62, S.D=0.43), read and write skill (mean=4.57, S.D=0.46), and kinesthetic skill (mean=4.53, S.D=0.45) which were reported at the highest level of average satisfaction, respectively. The nursing students reported that the model could help them employ all of their skills during practicing and taking care of the postpartum women and newborn babies. They could establish self-confidence while providing care and felt proud of themselves by the benefits of the model. It can be said that using VARK learning style to develop the model could enhance both nursing students’ competencies and positive attitude towards the nursing profession. Consequently, they could provide quality care for postpartum women and newborn babies effectively in the long run.

Keywords: model, nursing students, postpartum ward, teaching and learning clinical practicum

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Authors: Ahmed T. Alahmar

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There is an increasing trend toward student-centred interactive e-learning methods and students’ feedback is a valuable tool for improving learning methods. The aim of this study was to explore the attitude of second year pharmacy students at the University of Babylon, Iraq, towards lectures, exams and e-learning. Materials and methods: Ninety pharmacy students were surveyed by paper questionnaire about their preference for lecture format, use of e-files, theoretical lectures versus practical experiments, lecture and lab time. Students were also asked about their predilection for Moodle-based online exams, different types of exam questions, exam time and other extra academic activities. Results: Students prefer to read lectures on paper (73.3%), use of PowerPoint file (76.7%), short lectures of less than 10 pages (94.5%), practical experiments (66.7%), lectures and lab time of less than two hours (89.9% and 96.6 respectively) and intra-lecture discussions (68.9%). Students also like to have paper-based exam (73.3%), short essay (40%) or MCQ (34.4%) questions and also prefer to do extra activities like reports (22.2%), seminars (18.6%) and posters (10.8%). Conclusion: Second year pharmacy students have different attitudes toward traditional and electronic leaning and assessment methods. Using multimedia, e-learning and Moodle are increasingly preferred methods among some students.

Keywords: pharmacy, students, lecture, exam, e-learning, Moodle

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Authors: Jansirani Natarajan, Mickael Antoinne Joseph

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The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted face-to-face education and forced universities into an emergency remote teaching curriculum over a short duration. This abrupt transition in the Spring 2020 semester left both faculty and students without proper preparation for continuing higher education in an online environment. Online learning took place in different formats, including fully synchronous, fully asynchronous, and blended in our university through the e-learning platform MOODLE. Studies have shown that students’ engagement, is a critical factor for optimal online teaching. Very few studies have assessed online engagement with ERT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose: Therefore, this study, sought to understand how the sudden transition to emergency remote teaching impacted nursing students’ engagement with online courses in a Middle Eastern public university. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive research design was adopted in this study. Data were collected through a self-reported online survey using Dixon’s online students’ engagement questionnaire from a sample of 177 nursing students after the ERT learning semester. Results The maximum possible engagement score was 95, and the maximum scores in the domains of skills engagement, emotional engagement, participation engagement, and performance engagement were 30, 25, 30, and 10 respectively. Dixson (2010) noted that a mean item score of ≥3.5 (total score of ≥66.5) represents a highly engaged student. The majority of the participants were females (71.8%) and 84.2% were regular BSN students. Most of them (32.2%) were second-year students and 52% had a CGPA between 2 and 3. Most participants (56.5%) had low engagement scores with ERT learning during the COVID lockdown. Among the four engagement domains, 78% had low engagement scores for the participation domain. There was no significant association found between the engagement and the demographic characteristics of the participants. Conclusion The findings supported the importance of engaging students in all four categories skill, emotional, performance, and participation. Based on the results, training sessions were organized for faculty on various strategies for engaging nursing students in all domains by using the facilities available in the MOODLE (online e-learning platform). It added value as a dashboard of information regarding ERT for the administrators and nurse educators to introduce numerous active learning strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning of nursing students in the University.

Keywords: engagement, perception, emergency remote learning, COVID-19

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Authors: Kholoud H. Al-Zedjali, Abir S. Al-Harrasi, Ali H. Al-Badi

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Recently there has been a dramatic proliferation in the number of social networking sites (SNSs) users; however, little is published about what motivates college students to use SNSs in education. The main goal of this research is to explore the college students’ motives for using SNSs in education. A conceptual framework has therefore been developed to identify the main factors that influence/motivate students to use social networking sites for learning purposes. To achieve the research objectives a quantitative method was used to collect data. A questionnaire has been distributed amongst college students. The results reveal that social influence, perceived enjoyment, institute regulation, perceived usefulness, ranking up-lift, attractiveness, communication tools, free of charge, sharing material and course nature all play an important role in the motivation of college students to use SNSs for learning purposes.

Keywords: Social Networking Sites (SNSs), education, college students, motivations

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Authors: Maryam M. Bashir, Luai A. Ahmed, Meera R. Alshamsi, Sara Almahrooqi, Taif Alyammahi, Shooq A. Alshehhi, Waad I. Alhammadi, Fatima H. Alhammadi, Hind A. Alhosani, Rami H. Al-Rifai, Fatma Al-Maskari

Abstract:

Obesity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has exponentially increased over the past five decades due to rapid urbanization and unhealthy lifestyle changes. It has been well established that overweight and obesity increase the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and are the leading cause of mortality and economic burden locally, and globally. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there is a growing epidemic of obesity and other chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in UAE range up to 70% depending on the group being studied. Hence, there is a need to explore their patterns in the country for more targeted and responsive interventions. Our study aimed to explore the patterns of overweight and obesity and some self-reported chronic diseases among university students in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE. A validated online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from UAE University (UAEU) students, 18years and above, from August to September 2021. Students’ characteristics were summarized using appropriate descriptive statistics. Overweight, obesity and self-reported chronic diseases were described and compared between male and female students using chi-square and t tests. Other associated factors were also explored in relation to overweight and obesity. All analyses were conducted using STATA statistical software version 16.1 (StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA). 902 students participated in the study. 79.8% were females and mean age was 21.90 ± 5.19 years. Majority of the respondents were undergraduate students (80.71%). The prevalence of self-reported chronic diseases was 22.95%. Obesity (BMI≥30kg/m2), Diabetes Mellitus, and Asthma/Allergies were the commonest diseases (12.48%, 4.21% & 3.22%, respectively). Approximately 5% of the students reported more than one chronic disease. Out of the 833 participating students who had complete weight and height data, prevalence of overweight and obesity was 34.81% (22.33% and 12.48%, respectively). More than half of the male students (54.36%) were overweight or obese. This is significantly higher than in female students (30.56%, p=0.001). Overweight/obesity when compared to normal weight is associated with increasing mean age [23.40 vs 21.01, respectively (p=0.001)]. In addition to gender and age, being married [57.63% vs 31.05% (p=0.001)], being a postgraduate student [51.59% vs 30.92% (p=0.001)] and having two or more chronic diseases [65.85% vs 33.21% (p=0.001)] were also significantly associated with overweight/obesity. Our study showed that almost a quarter of the participating university students reported at least one chronic disease. Obesity was the commonest and more than 1 in 3 students were either overweight or obese. This shows the need for intensive health promotion and screening programs on obesity and other chronic diseases to meet the health needs of these students. This study is also a basis for further research, especially qualitative, to explore the relevant risk factors and risk groups for more targeted interventions.

Keywords: chronic disease, obesity, overweight, students, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Rula Al Azawi, Abobaker Shafi

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to use gamification technology in the mobile computing course to increase students motivation and engagement. The game applied to be designed by students focusing also to design educational game for children with age six years. This game will teach the students how to learn in a fun way. Our case study is implemented at Gulf College which is affiliated with Staffordshire University-UK. Our game design was applied to teach students Android Studio software by designing an educational game. Our goal with gamification is to improve student attendance, increase student engagement, problem solving and user stratification. Finally, we describe the findings and results of our case study. The data analysis and evaluation are based on students feedback, staff feedback and the final marking grades for the students.

Keywords: gamification, educational game, android studio software, students motivation and engagement

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Authors: Mehrnoush Tajnia, Simin Sadeghi-Saeb

Abstract:

Students and teachers have different perceptions of effectiveness of instruction. Comparing students’ and teachers’ beliefs and finding the mismatches between them can increase L2 students’ satisfaction. Few studies have taken into account the beliefs of both students and teachers on different aspects of pedagogy and the effect of learners’ level of education and contexts on effective foreign language teacher practices. Therefore, the present study was conducted to compare students’ and teachers’ perceptions on effective foreign language teaching. A sample of 303 learners and 54 instructors from different private language institutes and universities participated in the study. A questionnaire was developed to elicit participants’ beliefs on effective foreign language teaching and learning. The analysis of the results revealed that: a) there is significant difference between the students’ beliefs about effective teacher practices and teachers’ belief, b) Class level influences students’ perception of effective foreign language teacher, d) There is a significant difference of opinion between those learners who study foreign languages at university and those who study foreign language in private institutes with respect to effective teacher practices. The present paper concludes that finding the gap between students’ and teachers’ beliefs would help both of the groups to enhance their learning and teaching.

Keywords: effective teacher, effective teaching, students’ beliefs, teachers’ beliefs

Procedia PDF Downloads 287