Search results for: middle school students

Authors: Chen Zhang, Wei Yaping

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With the rapid expansion of city scale and the excessive concentration of population, achieving relative equality of extracurricular education resources and improving spatial service performance of relevant facilities become necessary arduous tasks. In urban space, extracurricular education facilities should offer better service to its targeted area and promote the equality and efficiency of education, which is accomplished by the allocation of facilities. Based on questionnaire and survey for local students in Hangzhou City in 2009, this study classifies extracurricular education facilities in meg-city and defines the equalization of these facilities. Then it is suggested to establish extracurricular education facilities system according to the development level of city and demands of local students, and to introduce a spatial analysis method into urban planning through the aspects of spatial distribution, travel cost and spatial service scope. Finally, the practice of nine sub-districts of Hangzhou is studied.

Keywords: extracurricular education facilities, equalization, spatial service performance, meg-city

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Authors: P. Bogas

Abstract:

As a scientific contribution to this discussion, a pedagogical intervention of a quasi-experimental nature was developed, with a mixed methodology, evaluating the intervention within a single curricular unit of Marketing, using cases based on real challenges of brands, business simulation and customer projects. Primary and secondary experiences were incorporated in the intervention: the primary experiences are the experiential activities themselves; the secondary experiences resulted from the primary experience, such as reflection and discussion in work teams. A diversified learning relationship was encouraged through the various connections between the different members of the learning community. The present study concludes that in the same context, the students' response can be described as: students who reinforce the initial deep approach, students who maintain the initial deep approach level and others who change from an emphasis on the deep approach to one closer to superficial. This typology did not always confirm studies reported in the literature, namely, whether the initial level of deep processing would influence the superficial and the opposite. The result of this investigation points to the inclusion of pedagogical and didactic activities that integrate different motivations and initial strategies, leading to a possible adoption of deep approaches to learning, since it revealed statistically significant differences in the difference in the scores of the deep/superficial approach and the experiential level. In the case of real challenges, the categories of “attribution of meaning and meaning of studied” and the possibility of “contact with an aspirational context” for their future professional stand out. In this category, the dimensions of autonomy that will be required of them were also revealed when comparing the classroom context of real cases and the future professional context and the impact they may have on the world. Regarding to the simulated practice, two categories of response stand out: on the one hand, the motivation associated with the possibility of measuring the results of the decisions taken, an awareness of oneself and, on the other hand, the additional effort that this practice required for some of the students.

Keywords: Experiential learning, higher education, marketing, mixed methods, reflective thinking.

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Authors: Tharwat N. Hijjawi

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Learning oral skills in an Arabic speaking environment is challenging. A blended course (material, activities, and individual/ group work tasks …) was implemented in a module of level B1 for undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in order to increase their opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. This research investigates the influence of this modality on enhancing active learning and examines the effectiveness of provided strategies. Moreover, it aims at discovering how it allows teacher to flip the traditional classroom and create a learner-centered framework. Which approaches were integrated to motivate students and urge them to search, analyze, criticize, create and accomplish projects? What was the perception of students? This paper is based on the qualitative findings of a questionnaire and a focus group interview with learners. Despite the doubled time and effort both “teacher” and “student” needed, results revealed that the NTIC allowed a shift into a learning paradigm where learners were the “chiefs” of the process. Tasks and collaborative projects required higher intellectual capacities from them. Learners appreciated this experience and developed new life-long learning competencies at many levels: social, affective, ethical and cognitive. To conclude, they defined themselves as motivated young researchers, motivators and critical thinkers.

Keywords: Active learning, critical thinking, inverted classroom, learning paradigm, problem-based.

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Authors: Analiza Acuña-Villacorte

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The underlying principle behind the harmonization in international education does not solely aim for the comparability but also the compatibility of outputs produced. The international standard in the different professions particularly in engineering defines the required graduate attributes to attain suitable qualifications and recognitions. This study described the language practices of the Electronics Engineering students of Bulacan State University, Philippines who will be deployed for their internship program. The purpose of the study was achieved by determining the language proficiency of the students in terms of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and checking the adherence of the University to the commitment of intensifying community building for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Vision 2020. The analysis of variance of the variables defined the significance between the causal variables and dependent variables. Thus, this study identified the mechanism that would regulate language practices in the Electronics Engineering program.

Keywords: Communicative competence, descriptive design, language practices, mechanisms, outcomes-based education.

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Authors: Yidan Shao

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With the advancement of the economy, technology promotes online teaching, and learning has become one of the common features in the educational field. Meanwhile, the dramatic expansion of the online environment provides opportunities for more learners, including second language learners. A greater command of vocabulary improves students’ learning capacity, and word acquisition and development play a critical role in learning. Furthermore, the Word Wall is an effective tool to improve students’ knowledge of words, which works for a wide range of age groups. Therefore, this study is going to use the Word Wall as an intervention to examine whether it can bring some memorization changes in an online English language class for a second language learner based on the word morphology method. The participant will take ten courses in the experiment as it plans. The findings show that the Word Wall activity plays a slight role in improving word memorizing, but it does affect instant memorization. If longer periods and more comprehensive designs of research can be applied, it is expected to have more value.

Keywords: Second language acquisition, word morphology, word memorization, the Word Wall.

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Authors: S. Hegazy

Abstract:

Culture sustainability, which reflects a deep respect for people and history, is a cause of concern in contemporary architecture. Adopting ultramodern architecture styles was initiated in the 20th century by a plurality of states worldwide. Only a few countries, including Oman, realized that fashionable architectural designs ignore cultural values, identity, the context of its environment, economic perspective, and social performance. Stirring the Sultanate of Oman from being a listless and closed community to a modern country started in the year 1970. Despite unprecedented development in all aspects of Omani people's life, the leadership and the public had the capability to adjust to the changing global challenges without compromising social values and identity. This research provides a close analysis of one of the recent examples of contemporary vernacular architecture in the Sultanate of Oman, as a case study, Oman International Airport. The airport gained an international appreciation for its Omani-themed architecture, distinguished traveler experience, and advanced technology. Accordingly, it was selected by the World Travel Awards as the Best Tourism Development Project in the Middle East only four weeks afterward after starting its operation. This paper aims to transfer this successful design approach of integrating the latest trends in technology, systems, eco-friendly aspects, and materials with the traditional Omani architectural features, which reflects symbiotic harmony of the community, individuals, and environment to other countries, designers, researchers, and students. In addition, the paper aims to encourage architects and teachers to take responsibility for valorizing-built heritage as a source of inspiration for modern architecture, which could be considered as an added value. The work depends on reviewing the relevant literature, a case study, interviews with two architects who were involved in the project’s site work, and one current high-ranking employee in the airport besides data analysis and conclusion.

Keywords: Contemporary vernacular architecture, culture sustainability, Oman international airport, current Omani architecture type.

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Authors: Perumal, V., Sharji, E. A

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This paper reports a case study on how a conceptual and analytical thinking approach was used in Art and Design Department at Multimedia University (Malaysia) in addressing the issues of one nation and its impact in the society through artworks. The art project was designed for students to increase the know-how and develop creative thinking in design and communication. Goals of the design project were: (1) to develop creative thinking in design and communication, (2) to increase student understanding on the process of problem solving for design work, and (3) to use design elements and principles to generate interest, attention and emotional responses. An exhibition entitled "One Nation" was showcased to local and international viewers consisting of the general public, professionals, academics, artists and students. Findings indicate that the project supported several visual art standards, as well as generated awareness in the society. This project may be of interest to current and future art educators and others interested in the potential of utilizing global issues as content for art, community and environment studies for the purpose of educational art.

Keywords: Conceptual and analytical thinking, Visual arts, Communication, Art & design.

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Authors: Doaa El-Shereef

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The Canaanite civilization was one of the early great civilizations of the Near East, they influenced and been influenced from the civilizations of the ancient world especially the Egyptian and Mesopotamia civilizations. The development of the Canaanite trade started from the Chalcolithic Age to the Iron Age through the oldest trade route in the Middle East. This paper will focus on defining the Canaanites and from where did they come from and the meaning of the term Canaan and how the Ancient Manuscripts define the borders of the land of Canaan and this essay will describe the Canaanite trade route and their exported goods such as cedar wood, and pottery.

Keywords: Canaan, cedar, Djahy, pottery, Retjenu, trade.

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Authors: Peng Hao Wang, Garam Kim, Ronald Sterkenburg

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The applications of composite materials within the aviation industry has been increasing at a rapid pace.  However, the growing applications of composite materials have also led to growing demand for more tooling to support its manufacturing processes. Tooling and tooling maintenance represents a large portion of the composite manufacturing process and cost. Therefore, the industry’s adaptability to new techniques for fabricating high quality tools quickly and inexpensively will play a crucial role in composite material’s growing popularity in the aviation industry. One popular tool fabrication technique currently being developed involves additive manufacturing such as 3D printing. Although additive manufacturing and 3D printing are not entirely new concepts, the technique has been gaining popularity due to its ability to quickly fabricate components, maintain low material waste, and low cost. In this study, a team of Purdue University School of Aviation and Transportation Technology (SATT) faculty and students investigated the effectiveness of a 3D printed composite compression mold. A 3D printed composite compression mold was fabricated by 3D scanning a steel valve cover of an aircraft reciprocating engine. The 3D printed composite compression mold was used to fabricate carbon fiber versions of the aircraft reciprocating engine valve cover. The 3D printed composite compression mold was evaluated for its performance, durability, and dimensional stability while the fabricated carbon fiber valve covers were evaluated for its accuracy and quality. The results and data gathered from this study will determine the effectiveness of the 3D printed composite compression mold in a mass production environment and provide valuable information for future understanding, improvements, and design considerations of 3D printed composite molds.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, carbon fiber, composite tooling, molds.

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Authors: J. L. Andrade-Pineda, J.M. León-Blanco, M. Calle, P. L. González-R

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The enrollment in current Master's degree programs usually pursues gaining the expertise required in real-life workplaces. The experience we present here concerns the learning process of "Project Management Methodology (PMM)", around a cooperative/collaborative mechanism aimed at affording students measurable learning goals and providing the teacher with the ability of focusing on the weaknesses detected. We have designed a mixed summative/formative evaluation, which assures curriculum engage while enriches the comprehension of PMM key concepts. In this experience we converted the students into active actors in the evaluation process itself and we endowed ourselves as teachers with a flexible process in which along with qualifications (score), other attitudinal feedback arises. Despite the high level of self-affirmation on their discussion within the interactive assessment sessions, they ultimately have exhibited a great ability to review and correct the wrong reasoning when that was the case.

Keywords: Cooperative-collaborative learning, educational management, formative-summative assessment, leadership training.

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Authors: R. Abdulrahman, A. Eardley, A. Soliman

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The proliferation in the development of mobile learning (m-learning) has played a vital role in the rapidly growing electronic learning market. This relatively new technology can help to encourage the development of in learning and to aid knowledge transfer a number of areas, by familiarizing students with innovative information and communications technologies (ICT). M-learning plays a substantial role in the deployment of learning methods for nursing students by using the Internet and portable devices to access learning resources ‘anytime and anywhere’. However, acceptance of m-learning by students is critical to the successful use of m-learning systems. Thus, there is a need to study the factors that influence student’s intention to use m-learning. This paper addresses this issue. It outlines the outcomes of a study that evaluates the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model as applied to the subject of user acceptance in relation to m-learning activity in nurse education. The model integrates the significant components across eight prominent user acceptance models. Therefore, a standard measure is introduced with core determinants of user behavioural intention. The research model extends the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by modifying and adding individual innovativeness (II) and quality of service (QoS) to the original structure of UTAUT. The paper goes on to add the factors of previous experience (of using mobile devices in similar applications) and the nursing students’ readiness (to use the technology) to influence their behavioural intentions to use m-learning. This study uses a technique called ‘convenience sampling’ which involves student volunteers as participants in order to collect numerical data. A quantitative method of data collection was selected and involves an online survey using a questionnaire form. This form contains 33 questions to measure the six constructs, using a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 42 respondents participated, all from the Nursing Institute at the Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia. The gathered data were then tested using a research model that employs the structural equation modelling (SEM), including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA show that the UTAUT model has the ability to predict student behavioural intention and to adapt m-learning activity to the specific learning activities. It also demonstrates satisfactory, dependable and valid scales of the model constructs. This suggests further analysis to confirm the model as a valuable instrument in order to evaluate the user acceptance of m-learning activity.

Keywords: Mobile learning, nursing institute, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model.

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Authors: Lena Shulyakovskaya

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Every year, schools aim to develop and adopt new technology and pedagogy as a way to equip today's students with the needed 21st Century skills. However, the field of primary and secondary education may not be as open to embracing change in reality. Despite the drive to reform and innovation, the field of education in Canada is still very much steeped in tradition and uses many of the practices that came into effect over 50 years ago. Among those are employment and retention practices. Millennials are the youngest generation of professionals entering the workplace at this time and the ones leaving their jobs within just a few years. Almost half of new teachers leave Canadian schools within their first five years on the job. This paper discusses one of the contributing factors that lead Canadian millennial teachers to either leave or stay in the profession - standardized education system. Using an exploratory case study approach, in-depth interviews with former and current millennial teachers were conducted to learn about their experiences within the K-12 system. Among the findings were the young teachers' concerns about the constant changes to teaching practices and technological implementations that claimed to advance teaching and learning, and yet in reality only disguised and reiterated the same traditional, outdated, and standardized practices that already existed. Furthermore, while many millennial teachers aspired to be innovative with their curriculum and teaching practices, they felt trapped and helpless in the hands of school leaders who were very reluctant to change. While many new program ideas and technological advancements are being made openly available to teachers on a regular basis, it is important to consider the education field as a whole and how it plays into the teachers' ability to realistically implement changes. By the year 2025, millennials will make up approximately 75% of the North American workforce. It is important to examine generational differences among teachers and understand how millennial teachers may be shaping the future of primary and secondary schools, either by staying or leaving the profession.

Keywords: 21st century skills, millennials, teacher attrition, tradition.

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Authors: M. E. Marwan, A. R. Madar, N. Fuad

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Mobile communication provides access to the outside world without borders everywhere and at any time. The learning method that related to mobile communication technology is known as mobile learning (M-learning). It is a method that communicates learning materials with mobile device technology. The purpose of this method is to increase the interest in learning among students and assist them in obtaining learning materials at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) in order to improve the student’s performance in their study and to encourage educators to diversify the teaching practices. This paper discusses the student’s awareness for enhancement of learning style using mobile technologies and their readiness to apply the elements of mobile learning in learning to improve performance and interest in learning among students. An application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) has been developed as a tool to be used as a pilot test in KPTM.

Keywords: Awareness, MEEFLS, mobile learning, readiness.

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Authors: Ora Geiger

Abstract:

This paper discusses the question whether a person diagnosed with dyslexia will necessarily have difficulty in reading musical notes. The author specifies the characteristics of alphabet reading in comparison to musical notation reading, and concludes that there should be no contra-indication for teaching standard music reading to children with dyslexia if an appropriate process is offered. This conclusion is based on a long term case study and relies on two main characteristics of music reading: (1) musical notation system is a systematic, logical, relative set of symbols written on a staff; and (2) music reading learning connected with playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory activity that combines sight, hearing, touch, and movement. The paper describes music reading teaching procedures, using soprano recorders, and provides unique teaching methods that have been found to be effective for students who were diagnosed with dyslexia. It provides theoretical explanations in addition to guidelines for music education practices.

Keywords: Alphabet reading, music reading, multisensory teaching method, dyslexia, recorder playing.

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Authors: S.M. Abdul Khader, Md. Zubair, Raghuvir Pai. B, V.R.K. Rao, S. Ganesh Kamath

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The recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be useful in observing the detailed hemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms for understanding not only their formation and rupture but also for clinical evaluation and treatment. However, important hemodynamic quantities are difficult to measure in vivo. In the present study, an approximate model of normal middle cerebral artery (MCA) along with two cases consisting broad and narrow saccular aneurysms are analyzed. The models are generated in ANSYS WORKBENCH and transient analysis is performed in ANSYS-CFX. The results obtained are compared for three cases and agree well with the available literature.

Keywords: Aneurysms, ANSYS – CFX, CFD, Pulsatile flow.

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Authors: Sen-Chi Yu, Wei-Hsin Hsu, Min-Ning Yu, Hao-Yi Hsu

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The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between Facebook involvement and internet addiction. We sampled 577 university students in Taiwan and administered a survey of Facebook usage, Facebook involvement scale (FIS), and internet addiction scale. The FIS comprises three factors (salience, emotional support, and amusement). Results showed that the Facebook involvement scale had good reliability and validity. The correlation between Facebook involvement and internet addiction was measured at .395. This means that a higher degree of Facebook involvement indicates a greater degree of psychological dependency on the internet, and a greater propensity towards social withdrawal and other negative psychological consequences associated with internet addiction. Besides, the correlations between three factors of FIS (salience, emotional support, and amusement) and internet addiction ranged from .313-372, indicating that these neither of these factors (salience, emotional support, and amusement) is more effective than the others in predicting internet dependency.

Keywords: Social networking sites, Facebook, Facebook Involvement, Internet Addiction

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Authors: Fatima Muhammad Shitu

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In language learning, second language learners as well as Native speakers commit errors in their attempt to achieve competence in the target language. The realm of collocation has to do with meaning relation between lexical items. In all human language, there is a kind of ‘natural order’ in which words are arranged or relate to one another in sentences so much so that when a word occurs in a given context, the related or naturally co-occurring word will automatically come to the mind. It becomes an error, therefore, if students inappropriately pair or arrange such ‘naturally’ co–occurring lexical items in a text. It has been observed that most of the second language learners in this research group commit collocation errors. A study of this kind is very significant as it gives insight into the kinds of errors committed by learners. This will help the language teacher to be able to identify the sources and causes of such errors as well as correct them thereby guiding, helping and leading the learners towards achieving some level of competence in the language. The aim of the study is to understand the nature of these errors as stumbling blocks to effective essay writing. The objective of the study is to identify the errors, analyze their structural compositions so as to determine whether there are similarities between students in this regard and to find out whether there are patterns to these kinds of errors which will enable the researcher to understand their sources and causes. As a descriptive research, the researcher samples some nine hundred essays collected from three hundred undergraduate learners of English as a second language in the Federal College of Education, Kano, North- West Nigeria, i.e. three essays per each student. The essays which were given on three different lecture times were of similar thematic preoccupations (i.e. same topics) and length (i.e. same number of words). The essays were written during the lecture hour at three different lecture occasions. The errors were identified in a systematic manner whereby errors so identified were recorded only once even if they occur severally in students’ essays. The data was collated using percentages in which the identified numbers of occurrences were converted accordingly in percentages. The findings from the study indicate that there are similarities as well as regular and repeated errors which provided a pattern. Based on the pattern identified, the conclusion is that students’ collocation errors are attributable to poor teaching and learning which resulted in wrong generalization of rules.

Keywords: Collocations, errors, collocation errors, second language learning.

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Authors: Yee-May Chan

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In recent decades, it is observed that social work agencies have participated actively, and thus, have gradually been more influential in social work education in Hong Kong. The neo-liberal welfare ideologies and changing funding mode have transformed the landscape in social work practice and have also had a major influence on the fieldwork environment in Hong Kong. The aim of this research is to explore the educational role of social work agencies and examine in particular whether they are able to enhance or hinder critical reflective learning in fieldwork. In-depth interviews with 15 frontline social workers and managers in different social work agencies were conducted to collect their views and experience in helping social work students in fieldwork. The overall findings revealed that under the current social welfare context most social workers consider that the most important role of social work agencies in fieldwork is to help students prepare to fit-in the practice requirements and work within agencies’ boundary. The fit-for-purpose and down-to-earth view of fieldwork practice is seen as prevalent among most social workers. This narrow perception of agency’s role seems to be more favourable to competence-based approaches. In contrast, though critical reflection has been seen as important in addressing the changing needs of service users, the role of enhancing critical reflective learning has not been clearly expected or understood by most agency workers. The notion of critical reflection, if considered, has been narrowly perceived in fieldwork learning. The findings suggest that the importance of critical reflection is found to be subordinate to that of practice competence. The lack of critical reflection in the field is somehow embedded in the competence-based social work practice. In general, social work students’ critical reflection has not been adequately supported or enhanced in fieldwork agencies, nor critical reflective practice has been encouraged in fieldwork process. To address this situation, the role of social work agencies in fieldwork should be re-examined. To maximise critical reflective learning in the field, critical reflection as an avowed objective in fieldwork learning should be clearly stated. Concrete suggestions are made to help fieldwork agencies become more prepared to critical reflective learning. It is expected that the research can help social work communities to reflect upon the current realities of fieldwork context and to identify ways to strengthen agencies’ capacities to enhance critical reflective learning and practice of social work students.

Keywords: Competence-based social work, fieldwork, neo-liberal welfare, critical reflective learning.

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Authors: Etsuo Morishita

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In this paper, we show shallow water in a tin box as an analogous simulation tool for high-speed aerodynamics education and research. It is customary that we use a water tank to create shallow water flow. While a flow in a water tank is not necessarily uniform and is sometimes wavy, we can visualize a clear supercritical flow even when we move a body manually in stationary water in a simple shallow tin box. We can visualize a blunt shock wave around a moving circular cylinder together with a shock pattern around a diamond airfoil. Another interesting analogous experiment is a hydrodynamic shock tube with water and tea. We observe the contact surface clearly due to color difference of the two liquids those are invisible in the real gas dynamics experiment. We first revisit the similarities between high-speed aerodynamics and shallow water hydraulics. Several educational and research experiments are then introduced for engineering students. Shallow water experiments in a tin box simulate properly the high-speed flows.

Keywords: Aerodynamics compressible flow, gas dynamics, hydraulics, shock wave.

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Authors: Wilson Chanhemo, Henry. R. Mgombelo, Omar F Hamad, T. Marwala

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This paper presents a design of source encoding calculator software which applies the two famous algorithms in the field of information theory- the Shannon-Fano and the Huffman schemes. This design helps to easily realize the algorithms without going into a cumbersome, tedious and prone to error manual mechanism of encoding the signals during the transmission. The work describes the design of the software, how it works, comparison with related works, its efficiency, its usefulness in the field of information technology studies and the future prospects of the software to engineers, students, technicians and alike. The designed “Encodia" software has been developed, tested and found to meet the intended requirements. It is expected that this application will help students and teaching staff in their daily doing of information theory related tasks. The process is ongoing to modify this tool so that it can also be more intensely useful in research activities on source coding.

Keywords: Coding techniques, Coding algorithms, Codingefficiency, Encodia, Encoding software.

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Authors: Carol B. Collins, M. H. N Tabrizi

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The purposes of this paper are to (1) promote excellence in computer science by suggesting a cohesive innovative approach to fill well documented deficiencies in current computer science education, (2) justify (using the authors' and others anecdotal evidence from both the classroom and the real world) why this approach holds great potential to successfully eliminate the deficiencies, (3) invite other professionals to join the authors in proof of concept research. The authors' experiences, though anecdotal, strongly suggest that a new approach involving visual modeling technologies should allow computer science programs to retain a greater percentage of prospective and declared majors as students become more engaged learners, more successful problem-solvers, and better prepared as programmers. In addition, the graduates of such computer science programs will make greater contributions to the profession as skilled problem-solvers. Instead of wearily rememorizing code as they move to the next course, students will have the problem-solving skills to think and work in more sophisticated and creative ways.

Keywords: Algorithms, CASE, UML, Problem-solving.

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Authors: Chih Chin Yang

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In this paper, the relationship between learning motivation and learning performance is explored by using exchange theory. The relationship is concluded that external performance can raise learning motivation and then increase learning performance. The internal performance should be not completely neglected and the external performance should be not attached important excessively. The parents need self-study and must be also reeducated. The existing education must be improved in raise of internal performance. The incorrect learning thinking will mislead the students, parents, and educators of next generation, when the students obtain good learning performance in the learning environment with excess stimulants. Over operation of external performance will result abnormal learning thinking and violating learning goal. Learning is not only to obtain performance. Learning quality and learning performance will be limited as without learning motivation. The best learning motivation is, the best learning performance is. The learning for reward is not good for learning performance. Strategies of promoting life-long learning are including the encouraging for learner, establishment of good interaction learning environment, and the advertisement of the merit and the importance of life-long learning, which can let the learner with the correct learning motivation.

Keywords: exchange theory, learning motivation, learning performance, learning quality

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Authors: Emelia Akashah P.A, Sharifah Nadiah S.A

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Knowledge sharing enables the information or knowledge to be transmitted from one source to another. This paper demonstrates the needs of having the online book catalogue which can be used to facilitate disseminating information on textbook used in the university. This project is aimed to give access to the students and lecturers to the list of books in the bookstore and at the same time to allow book reviewing without having to visit the bookstore physically. Research is carried out according to the boundaries which accounts to current process of new book purchasing, current system used by the bookstore and current process the lecturers go through for reviewing textbooks. The questionnaire is used to gather the requirements and it is distributed to 100 students and 40 lecturers. This project has enabled the improvement of a manual process to be carried out automatically, through a web based platform. It is shown based on the user acceptance survey carried out that target groups found that this web service is feasible to be implemented in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), and they have shown positive signs of interest in utilizing it in the future.

Keywords: bookstore, knowledge sharing, online bookcatalogue, textbook

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Authors: Amparo Camacho

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ABET accredited programs must assess the development of student learning outcomes (SOs) in engineering programs. Different institutions implement different strategies for this assessment, and they are usually designed “in house.” This paper presents a proposal for including standardized tests to complement the ABET assessment model in an engineering college made up of six distinct engineering programs. The engineering college formulated a model of quality assurance in education to be implemented throughout the six engineering programs to regularly assess and evaluate the achievement of SOs in each program offered. The model uses diverse techniques and sources of data to assess student performance and to implement actions of improvement based on the results of this assessment. The model is called “Assessment Process Model” and it includes SOs A through K, as defined by ABET. SOs can be divided into two categories: “hard skills” and “professional skills” (soft skills). The first includes abilities, such as: applying knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering and designing and conducting experiments, as well as analyzing and interpreting data. The second category, “professional skills”, includes communicating effectively, and understanding professional and ethnical responsibility. Within the Assessment Process Model, various tools were used to assess SOs, related to both “hard” as well as “soft” skills. The assessment tools designed included: rubrics, surveys, questionnaires, and portfolios. In addition to these instruments, the Engineering College decided to use tools that systematically gather consistent quantitative data. For this reason, an in-house exam was designed and implemented, based on the curriculum of each program. Even though this exam was administered during various academic periods, it is not currently considered standardized. In 2017, the Engineering College included three standardized tests: one to assess mathematical and scientific reasoning and two more to assess reading and writing abilities. With these exams, the college hopes to obtain complementary information that can help better measure the development of both hard and soft skills of students in the different engineering programs. In the first semester of 2017, the three exams were given to three sample groups of students from the six different engineering programs. Students in the sample groups were either from the first, fifth, and tenth semester cohorts. At the time of submission of this paper, the engineering college has descriptive statistical data and is working with various statisticians to have a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the sample group of students’ achievement on the three exams. The overall objective of including standardized exams in the assessment model is to identify more precisely the least developed SOs in order to define and implement educational strategies necessary for students to achieve them in each engineering program.

Keywords: Assessment, hard skills, soft skills, standardized tests.

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Authors: Ammar S. M. Moohialdin, Bambang T. Suhariadi, Mohsin Siddiqui

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This paper addresses the application of physiological status monitoring (PSM) for assessing the impact of harsh weather conditions on sports activities in universities in Saudi Arabia. Real sports measurement was conducted during sports activities such that the physiological status (HR and BR) of five students were continuously monitored by using Zephyr BioHarness^TM 3.0 sensors in order to identify the physiological bonds and zones. These bonds and zones were employed as indicators of the associated physiological risks of the performed sports activities. Furthermore, a short yes/no questionnaire was applied to collect information on participants’ health conditions and opinions of the applied PSM sensors. The results show the absence of a warning system as a protective aid for the hazardous levels of extremely hot and humid weather conditions that may cause dangerous and fatal circumstances. The applied formulas for estimating maximum HR provides accurate estimations for Maximum Heart Rate (HR_max). The physiological results reveal that the performed activities by the participants are considered the highest category (90–100%) in terms of activity intensity. This category is associated with higher HR, BR and physiological risks including losing the ability to control human body behaviors. Therefore, there is a need for immediate intervention actions to reduce the intensity of the performed activities to safer zones. The outcomes of this study assist the safety improvement of sports activities inside universities and athletes performing their sports activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to represent a special case of the application of PSM technology for assessing sports activities in universities considering the impacts of harsh weather conditions on students’ health and safety.

Keywords: PSM, heart rate, HR, breathing rate, BR.

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Authors: Pui-Lai To, E-Ping Sung

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With the flourishing development of online shopping, an increasing number of customers see online shopping as an entertaining experience. Because the online consumer has a double identity as a shopper and an Internet user, online shopping should offer hedonic values of shopping and Internet usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate hedonic online shopping motivations from the perspectives of traditional hedonic value and flow theory. The study adopted a focus group interview method, including two online and two offline interviews. Four focus groups of shoppers consisted of online professionals, online college students, offline professionals and offline college students. The results of the study indicate that traditional hedonic values and dimensions of flow theory exist in the online shopping environment. The study indicated that online shoppers seem to appreciate being able to learn things and grow to become competitive achievers online. Comparisons of online hedonic motivations between groups are conducted. This study serves as a basis for the future growth of Internet marketing.

Keywords: Flow theory, hedonic motivation, internet shopping.

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Authors: Daniele Traversaro

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Problem: Senior citizens have been facing a challenging reality as a result of strict public health measures designed to protect people from the COVID-19 outbreak. These include the risk of social isolation due to the inability of the elderly to integrate with technology. Never before have Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills become essential for their everyday life. Although third-age ICT education and lifelong learning are widely supported by universities and governments, there is a lack of literature on which teaching strategy/methodology to adopt in an entirely online ICT course aimed at third-age learners. This contribution aims to present an application of the Think-Pair-Share (TPS) learning method in an ICT third-age virtual classroom with an intergenerational approach to conducting online group labs and review activities. Research Question: Is collaborative learning suitable and effective, in terms of student engagement and learning outcomes, in an online ICT course for the elderly? Methods: In the TPS strategy a problem is posed by the teacher, students have time to think about it individually, and then they work in pairs (or small groups) to solve the problem and share their ideas with the entire class. We performed four experiments in the ICT course of the University of the Third Age of Genova (University of Genova, Italy) on the Microsoft Teams platform. The study cohort consisted of 26 students over the age of 45. Data were collected through online questionnaires. Two have been proposed, one at the end of the first activity and another at the end of the course. They consisted of five and three close-ended questions, respectively. The answers were on a Likert scale (from 1 to 4) except two questions (which asked the number of correct answers given individually and in groups) and the field for free comments/suggestions. Results: Groups achieve better results than individual students (with scores greater than one order of magnitude) and most students found TPS helpful to work in groups and interact with their peers. Insights: From these early results, it appears that TPS is suitable for an online third-age ICT classroom and useful for promoting discussion and active learning. Despite this, our work has several limitations. First of all, the results highlight the need for more data to be able to perform a statistical analysis in order to determine the effectiveness of this methodology in terms of student engagement and learning outcomes as future direction.

Keywords: Collaborative learning, information technology education, lifelong learning, older adult education, think-pair-share.

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Authors: Amina Abubakar

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English like any other language is rich by means of arbitrary, conventional, symbols which lend it to lot of inconsistencies in spelling, phonology, syntax, and morphology. The research examines the irregularities prevalent in the structure and meaning of some ‘er’ lexical items in English and its implication to vocabulary acquisition. It centers its investigation on the derivational suffix ‘er’, which changes the grammatical category of word. English language poses many challenges to Second Language Learners because of its irregularities, exceptions, and rules. One of the meaning of –er derivational suffix is someone or somebody who does something. This rule often confuses the learners when they meet with the exceptions in normal discourse. The need to investigate instances of such inconsistencies in the formation of –er words and the meanings given to such words by the students motivated this study. For this purpose, some senior secondary two (SS2) students in six randomly selected schools in the metropolis were provided a large number of alphabetically selected ‘er’ suffix ending words, The researcher opts for a test technique, which requires them to provide the meaning of the selected words with- er. The marking of the test was scored on the scale of 1-0, where correct formation of –er word and meaning is scored one while wrong formation and meaning is scored zero. The number of wrong and correct formations of –er words meaning were calculated using percentage. The result of this research shows that a large number of students made wrong generalization of the meaning of the selected -er ending words. This shows how enormous the inconsistencies are in English language and how are affect the learning of English. Findings from the study revealed that though students mastered the basic morphological rules but the errors are generally committed on those vocabulary items that are not frequently in use. The study arrives at this conclusion from the survey of their textbook and their spoken activities. Therefore, the researcher recommends that there should be effective reappraisal of language teaching through implementation of the designed curriculum to reflect on modern strategies of teaching language, identification, and incorporation of the exceptions in rigorous communicative activities in language teaching, language course books and tutorials, training and retraining of teachers on the strategies that conform to the new pedagogy.

Keywords: ESL, derivational morpheme, inflectional morpheme, suffixes.

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Authors: Ana Paula Melchiors Stahlschmidt, Cristina Py de Pinto Gomes Mairesse

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This paper presents observations on the early supervised internships in Psychology, currently called basic internships in Brazil, and its importance in professional training. The work is an experience report and focuses on the Professional training, illustrated by the reality of a Brazilian institution, used as a case study. It was developed from the authors' experience as academic supervisors of this kind of practice throughout this undergraduate course, combined with aspects investigated in the post-doctoral research of one of them. Theoretical references on the subject and related national legislation are analyzed, as well as reports of students who experienced at least one semester of this type of practice, articulated to the observations of the authors. The results demonstrate the importance of the early supervised internships as a way of creating opportunities for the students of a first contact with the professional reality and the practice of psychologists in different fields of insertion, preparing them for further experiments that require more involvement in activities of training and practices in Psychology.

Keywords: Training of psychologists, Internships in Psychology, Supervised internships, Combination of theory and practice.

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Authors: Zehra Sultan

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The study is based on the Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach which is found to be very effective in the EFL/ESL classroom. This approach engages learners to acquire the usage of authentic language skills by interacting with the real world through a sequence of pedagogical tasks. The use of technology enhances the effectiveness of this approach. This study throws light on the historical background of TBLT, and its efficacy in the EFL /ESL classroom. In addition, this study precisely talks about the implementation of this approach in the General Foundation Program (GFP) of Muscat College, Oman. It furnishes the list of the pedagogical tasks embedded in the language curriculum of the GFP which are skillfully allied to the College graduate attributes. Moreover, the study also discusses the challenges pertaining to this approach from the point of view of teachers, students and its classroom application. Additionally, the operational success of this methodology is gauged through formative assessments of the GFP which is apparent in the students’ progress.

Keywords: Task-based language teaching, authentic language, communicative approach, real world activities, ESL/EFL activities.

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