Search results for: teaching through entrepreneurship

Authors: M. Rodionov, N. Sharapova, Z. Dedovets

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The article describes methods of preparation of future teachers that includes the entire diversity of traditional and computer-oriented methodological approaches. The authors reveal how, in the specific educational environment, a teacher can choose the most effective combination of educational technologies based on the nature of the learning task. The key conditions that determine such a choice are that the methodological approach corresponds to the specificity of the problem being solved and that it is also responsive to the individual characteristics of the students. The article refers to the training of students in the proper use of mathematical electronic tools for educational purposes. The preparation of future mathematics teachers should be a step-by-step process, building on specific examples. At the first stage, students optimally solve problems aided by electronic means of teaching. At the second stage, the main emphasis is on modeling lessons. At the third stage, students develop and implement strategies in the study of one of the topics within a school mathematics curriculum. The article also recommended the implementation of this strategy in preparation of future teachers and stated the possible benefits.

Keywords: Computer-oriented approach, traditional approach, future teachers, mathematics, lesson, students, education.

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Authors: F. Havas Beigi, E. Mohammadi, M.Vafaee Yeganeh

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Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.

Keywords: Quality, curriculum, insurance management, higher education.

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Authors: M. Al-Jepoori, D. Bennett

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Teaching Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) as part of a Computing-related university degree is a very difficult task; the road to ensuring that students are actually learning object oriented concepts is unclear, as students often find it difficult to understand the concept of objects and their behavior. This problem is especially obvious in advanced programming modules where Design Pattern and advanced programming features such as Multi-threading and animated GUI are introduced. Looking at the students’ performance at their final year on a university course, it was obvious that the level of students’ understanding of OOP varies to a high degree from one student to another. Students who aim at the production of Games do very well in the advanced programming module. However, the students’ assessment results of the last few years were relatively low; for example, in 2016-2017, the first quartile of marks were as low as 24.5 and the third quartile was 63.5. It is obvious that many students were not confident or competent enough in their programming skills. In this paper, the reasons behind poor performance in Advanced OOP modules are investigated, and a suggested practice for teaching OOP based on a complex case study is described and evaluated.

Keywords: Complex programming case study, design pattern, learning advanced programming, object oriented programming.

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Authors: Erica Lima

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The objective of this paper is to discuss relevant points about teaching translation in Brazilian universities and the possible impacts of blogs and social networks to translator education today. It is intended to analyze the curricula of Brazilian translation courses, contrasting them to information obtained from two social networking groups of great visibility in the area concerning essential characteristics to become a successful profession. Therefore, research has, as its main corpus, a few undergraduate translation programs’ syllabuses, as well as a few postings on social networks groups that specifically share professional opinions regarding the necessity for a translator to obtain a degree in translation to practice the profession. To a certain extent, such comments and their corresponding responses lead to the propagation of discourses which influence the ideas that aspiring translators and recent graduates end up having towards themselves and their undergraduate courses. The postings also show that many professionals do not have a clear position regarding the translator education; while refuting it, they also encourage “free” courses. It is thus observed that cyberspace constitutes, on the one hand, a place of mobilization of people in defense of similar ideas. However, on the other hand, it embodies a place of tension and conflict, in view of the fact that there are many participants and, as in any other situation of interlocution, disagreements may arise. From the postings, aspects related to professionalism were analyzed (including discussions about regulation), as well as questions about the classic dichotomies: theory/practice; art/technique; self-education/academic training. As partial result, the common interest regarding the valorization of the profession could be mentioned, although there is no consensus on the essential characteristics to be a good translator. It was also possible to observe that the set of socially constructed representations in the group reflects characteristics of the world situation of the translation courses (especially in some European countries and in the United States), which, in the first instance, does not accurately reflect the Brazilian idiosyncrasies of the area.

Keywords: Cyberspace, teaching translation, translator education, university.

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Authors: Katharina Buttenberg

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Customer and brand-oriented capabilities have been identified as key influencing capabilities for business performance. Especially in the early years of the firm, it is crucial to develop and consciously manage these capabilities. In this paper, the results of a quantitative analysis, investigating the causal relationship between customer- and brand-oriented (marketing) capabilities and business performance will be presented. The research displays the dependencies between the constructs and will provide practical implications for young firms in the acquisition and management of these capabilities.

Keywords: Brand-oriented capabilities, customer-oriented capabilities, entrepreneurship, resource-based theory, young firms.

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Authors: Z. Karakus, Z. Ozer

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

Keywords: E-Learning, Medication Administration, Nursing, Nursing Students.

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Authors: Gianpaolo Ghiani, Emanuela Guerriero, Emanuele Manni, Alessandro Romano

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In this article, we deal with a variant of the classical course timetabling problem that has a practical application in many areas of education. In particular, in this paper we are interested in high schools remedial courses. The purpose of such courses is to provide under-prepared students with the skills necessary to succeed in their studies. In particular, a student might be under prepared in an entire course, or only in a part of it. The limited availability of funds, as well as the limited amount of time and teachers at disposal, often requires schools to choose which courses and/or which teaching units to activate. Thus, schools need to model the training offer and the related timetabling, with the goal of ensuring the highest possible teaching quality, by meeting the above-mentioned financial, time and resources constraints. Moreover, there are some prerequisites between the teaching units that must be satisfied. We first present a Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) model to solve this problem to optimality. However, the presence of many peculiar constraints contributes inevitably in increasing the complexity of the mathematical model. Thus, solving it through a general-purpose solver may be performed for small instances only, while solving real-life-sized instances of such model requires specific techniques or heuristic approaches. For this purpose, we also propose a heuristic approach, in which we make use of a fast constructive procedure to obtain a feasible solution. To assess our exact and heuristic approaches we perform extensive computational results on both real-life instances (obtained from a high school in Lecce, Italy) and randomly generated instances. Our tests show that the MIP model is never solved to optimality, with an average optimality gap of 57%. On the other hand, the heuristic algorithm is much faster (in about the 50% of the considered instances it converges in approximately half of the time limit) and in many cases allows achieving an improvement on the objective function value obtained by the MIP model. Such an improvement ranges between 18% and 66%.

Keywords: Heuristic, MIP model, Remedial course, School, Timetabling.

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Authors: Kavitha Thamadharan, Nurazean Maarop

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The implementation of e-assessment as tool to support the process of teaching and learning in university has become a popular technological means in universities. E-Assessment provides many advantages to the users especially the flexibility in teaching and learning. The e-assessment system has the capability to improve its quality of delivering education. However, there still exists a drawback in terms of security which limits the user acceptance of the online learning system. Even though there are studies providing solutions for identified security threats in e-learning usage, there is no particular model which addresses the factors that influences the acceptance of e-assessment system by lecturers from security perspective. The aim of this study is to explore security aspects of eassessment in regard to the acceptance of the technology. As a result a conceptual model of secure acceptance of e-assessment is proposed. Both human and security factors are considered in formulation of this conceptual model. In order to increase understanding of critical issues related to the subject of this study, interpretive approach involving convergent mixed method research method is proposed to be used to execute the research. This study will be useful in providing more insightful understanding regarding the factors that influence the user acceptance of e-assessment system from security perspective.

Keywords: Secure Technology Acceptance, E-Assessment Security, E-Assessment, Education Technology.

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Authors: Oktay Emir

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The objective of this study is to determine how entrepreneurs perceive the economic, social and physical impacts of tourism. The study was conducted in the city of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey, which is rich in thermal tourism resources and investments. A survey was used as the data collection method, and the questionnaire was applied to 472 entrepreneurs. A simple random sampling method was used to identify the sample. Independent sampling t-tests and ANOVA tests were used to analyse the data obtained. Additionally, some statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were found based on the participants’ demographic characteristics regarding their opinions about the social, economic and physical impacts of tourism activities.

Keywords: Tourism, perception, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, structural equation modelling.

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Authors: Ali Rashash Alzahrani, Elizabeth Stojanovski

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Data on various aspects of education are collected at the institutional and government level regularly. In Australia, for example, students at various levels of schooling undertake examinations in numeracy and literacy as part of NAPLAN testing, enabling longitudinal assessment of such data as well as comparisons between schools and states within Australia. Another source of educational data collected internationally is via the PISA study which collects data from several countries when students are approximately 15 years of age and enables comparisons in the performance of science, mathematics and English between countries as well as ranking of countries based on performance in these standardised tests. As well as student and school outcomes based on the tests taken as part of the PISA study, there is a wealth of other data collected in the study including parental demographics data and data related to teaching strategies used by educators. Overall, an abundance of educational data is available which has the potential to be used to help improve educational attainment and teaching of content in order to improve learning outcomes. A multivariate assessment of such data enables multiple variables to be considered simultaneously and will be used in the present study to help develop profiles of students based on performance in mathematics using data obtained from the PISA study.

Keywords: Cluster analysis, education, mathematics, profiles.

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Authors: S. Assi, M. Haffar

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Teaching statistics is a critical and challenging issue especially to students from multidisciplinary and diverse postgraduate backgrounds. Postgraduate research students require statistics not only for the design of experiments; but also for data analysis. Students often perceive statistics as a complex and technical subject; thus, they leave data analysis to the last moment. The lecture needs to be simple and inclusive at the same time to make it comprehendible and address the learning needs of each student. Therefore, the aim of this work was to design a simple and comprehendible statistics lecture to postgraduate research students regarding ‘Research plan, design and data collection’. The lecture adopted the constructive alignment learning theory which facilitated the learning environments for the students. The learning environment utilized a student-centered approach and used interactive learning environment with in-class discussion, handouts and electronic voting system handsets. For evaluation of the lecture, formative assessment was made with in-class discussions and poll questions which were introduced during and after the lecture. The whole approach showed to be effective in creating a learning environment to the students who were able to apply the concepts addressed to their individual research projects.

Keywords: Teaching, statistics, lecture, multidisciplinary, postgraduate, learning theory, learning environment, student-centered approach, data analysis.

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Authors: Lisbeth Amhag

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The aim of the study is to describe and analyze design of mobile teaching for students collaborative learning in distance higher education with a focus on mobile technologies as online webinars (web-based seminars or conferencing) by using laptops, smart phones, or tablets. These multimedia tools can provide face-toface interactions, recorded flipped classroom videos and parallel chat communications. The data collection consists of interviews with 22 students and observations of online face-to-face webinars, as well two surveys. Theoretically, the study joins the research tradition of Computer Supported Collaborative learning, CSCL, as well as Computer Self-Efficacy, CSE concerned with individuals’ media and information literacy. Important conclusions from the study demonstrated mobile interactions increased student centered learning. As the students were appreciating the working methods, they became more engaged and motivated. The mobile technology using among student also contributes to increased flexibility between space and place, as well as media and information literacy.

Keywords: Computer self-efficacy, computer supported collaborative learning, distance and open learning, educational design and technologies, media and information literacy, mobile learning.

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Authors: Lucas A. Silva, Carla R. Aguiar

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This work presents a proposal to perform contextual sentiment analysis using a supervised learning algorithm and disregarding the extensive training of annotators. To achieve this goal, a web platform was developed to perform the entire procedure outlined in this paper. The main contribution of the pipeline described in this article is to simplify and automate the annotation process through a system of analysis of congruence between the notes. This ensured satisfactory results even without using specialized annotators in the context of the research, avoiding the generation of biased training data for the classifiers. For this, a case study was conducted in a blog of entrepreneurship. The experimental results were consistent with the literature related annotation using formalized process with experts.

Keywords: Contextualized classifier, naïve Bayes, sentiment analysis, untrained annotators.

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Authors: Rizwan Moeen, Riaz Ahmad, Tanweer Ul Islam, Shahid Ikramullah, Muhammad Umer

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Supplier appraisal fosters energy in Supply Chain Management and helps in best optimization of viable business partners for a company. Many Decision Making techniques have already been proposed by researchers for supplier-s appraisal. However, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is assumed to be the most structured technique to attain near-best solution of the problem. This paper focuses at implementation of AHP in the procurement processes. It also suggests that on what factors a Public Sector Enterprises must focus while dealing with their suppliers and what should the suppliers do to synchronize their activities with the strategic objectives of Organization. It also highlights the weak areas in supplier appraisal process with a view to suggest viable recommendations.

Keywords: AHP, MCDM techniques, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supplier appraisal.

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Authors: Motlhale Judicial Sebatana, Washington Takawira Dudu

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This study investigated how one beginner Physical Sciences teacher implemented Problem-Based Learning (PBL) strategy in the teaching and learning of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) in the Grade 10 classroom. PBL was implemented to explore how it can promote a 21st-century skill of creativity and enhance understanding of PNM. This study was guided by theoretical framework of Social Interdependence Theory (SIT). This exploratory qualitative case study was conveniently conducted in the North West province, South Africa, where one Physical Sciences teacher was purposefully sampled. A self-developed open-ended questionnaire, portfolio and individual semi-structured interview were used as the methods of generating data for this study. The results show that the participant of this study had no prior knowledge of utilising PBL in the teaching and learning of PNM before the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) programme, no knowledge of creativity as a 21st-century skill, and a successful PBL implementation post TPD to promote creativity.

Keywords: Beginner teachers, physical sciences teachers, problem-based learning, 21st-century skills, creativity skill, particulate nature of matter.

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Authors: Fiasal Assiri, Joanna Wincenciak, David Morrison-Love

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With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi government suspended students from going to school to combat the outbreak. As e-learning was not applied at all in schools, online teaching and learning have been revived in Saudi Arabia by providing a new platform called ‘Madrasati’. The Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) is used to examine individuals’ intention behaviour in many fields. Nevertheless, the factors that affect teachers’ continuance intention of the Madrasati platform have not yet been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model in light with DTPB. To enhance the predictability of the model, the study incorporates other variables including learning content quality and interactivity as sub-factors under the perceived usefulness, students and government influences under the subjective norms, and technical support and prior e-learning experience under the perceived behavioural control. The model will be further validated using a mixed methods approach. Such findings would help administrators and stakeholders to understand teachers’ needs and develop new methods that might encourage teachers to continue using Madrasati effectively in their teaching.

Keywords: Madrasati, Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour, continuance intention, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control.

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Authors: Lorena Alemán de la Garza, Marcela Georgina Gómez-Zermeño

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This paper presents the SolarSPELL case study that aims to generate information on the use of indicators that help evaluate the pedagogical quality of a digital library resources. SolarSPELL is a solar-powered digital library with WiFi connectivity. It offers a variety of open educational resources selected for their potential for the digital transformation of educational practices and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States. The case study employed a quantitative methodology and the research instrument was applied to 55 teachers, directors and librarians. The results indicate that it is possible to strengthen the pedagogical quality of open educational resources, through actions focused on improving temporal and technological parameters. They also reveal that users believe that SolarSPELL improves the teaching-learning processes and motivates the teacher to improve his or her development. This study provides valuable information on a tool that supports teaching-learning processes and facilitates connectivity with renewable energies that improves the teacher training in active methodologies for ecosystem learning.

Keywords: Educational innovation, digital library, pedagogical quality, solar energy, teacher training, sustainable development.

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Authors: O. F. Elkommos

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“Humour studies” is an interdisciplinary research area that is relatively recent. It interests researchers from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, medicine, nursing, in the work place, gender studies, among others, and certainly teaching, language learning, linguistics, and literature. Linguistic theories of humour research are numerous; some of which are of interest to the present study. In spite of the fact that humour courses are now taught in universities around the world in the Egyptian context it is not included. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: to review the state of arts and to show how linguistic theories of humour can be possibly used as an art and craft of teaching and of learning in EFL literature classes. In the present study linguistic theories of humour were applied to selected literary texts to interpret humour as an intrinsic artistic communicative competence challenge. Humour in the area of linguistics was seen as a fifth component of communicative competence of the second language leaner. In literature it was studied as satire, irony, wit, or comedy. Linguistic theories of humour now describe its linguistic structure, mechanism, function, and linguistic deviance. Semantic Script Theory of Verbal Humor (SSTH), General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), Audience Based Theory of Humor (ABTH), and their extensions and subcategories as well as the pragmatic perspective were employed in the analyses. This research analysed the linguistic semantic structure of humour, its mechanism, and how the audience reader (teacher or learner) becomes an interactive interpreter of the humour. This promotes humour competence together with the linguistic, social, cultural, and discourse communicative competence. Studying humour as part of the literary texts and the perception of its function in the work also brings its positive association in class for educational purposes. Humour is by default a provoking/laughter-generated device. Incongruity recognition, perception and resolving it, is a cognitive mastery. This cognitive process involves a humour experience that lightens up the classroom and the mind. It establishes connections necessary for the learning process. In this context the study examined selected narratives to exemplify the application of the theories. It is, therefore, recommended that the theories would be taught and applied to literary texts for a better understanding of the language. Students will then develop their language competence. Teachers in EFL/ESL classes will teach the theories, assist students apply them and interpret text and in the process will also use humour. This is thus easing students' acquisition of the second language, making the classroom an enjoyable, cheerful, self-assuring, and self-illuminating experience for both themselves and their students. It is further recommended that courses of humour research studies should become an integral part of higher education curricula in Egypt.

Keywords: ABTH, deviance, disjuncture, episodic, GTVH, humour competence, humour comprehension, humour in the classroom, humour in the literary texts, humour research linguistic theories, incongruity- resolution, isotopy-disjunction, jab line, longer text joke, narrative story line (macro-micro), punch line, six knowledge resource, SSTH, stacks, strands, teaching linguistics, teaching literature, TEFL, TESL.

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Authors: F. Rashno Seydari, M. Nikafrooz

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This paper intends to study needs analysis of hearing-impaired students’ teachers in elementary schools all over Iran. The subjects of this study were 275 teachers who were teaching hearing-impaired students in elementary schools. The participants were selected by a quota sampling method. To collect the data, questionnaires of training needs consisting of 41 knowledge items and 31 performance items were used. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software in the form of descriptive analyses (frequency and mean) and inferential analyses (one sample t-test, paired t-test, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient). The findings of the study indicated that teachers generally have considerable needs in knowledge and performance domains. In 32 items out of the total 41 knowledge domain items and in the 27 items out of the total 31 performance domain items, the teachers had considerable needs. From the quantitative point of view, the needs of the performance domain were more than those of the knowledge domain, so they have to be considered as the first priority in training these teachers. There was no difference between the level of the needs of male and female teachers. There was a significant difference between the knowledge and performance domain needs and the teachers’ teaching experience, 0.354 and 0.322 respectively. The teachers who had been trained in working with hearing-impaired students expressed more training needs (both knowledge and performance).

Keywords: Needs analysis, hearing impaired students, hearing impaired students’ teachers, knowledge domain, performance domain.

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Authors: Sarayu Agarwal

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This paper aims to teach English (secondary language) by bridging the understanding between the Regional language (primary language) and the English Language (secondary language). Here primary language is the one a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, while secondary language would be any other language one learns or speaks. The paper also focuses on evolving old teaching methods to a contemporary participatory model of learning and teaching. Pilot studies were conducted to gauge an understanding of student’s knowledge of the English language. Teachers and students were interviewed and their academic curriculum was assessed as a part of the initial study. Extensive literature study and design thinking principles were used to devise a solution to the problem. The objective is met using a holistic learning kit/card game to teach children word recognition, word pronunciation, word spelling and writing words. Implication of the paper is a noticeable improvement in the understanding and grasping of English language. With increasing usage and applicability of English as a second language (ESL) world over, the paper becomes relevant due to its easy replicability to any other primary or secondary language. Future scope of this paper would be transforming the idea of participatory learning into self-regulated learning methods. With the upcoming govt. learning centres in rural areas and provision of smart devices such as tablets, the development of the card games into digital applications seems very feasible.

Keywords: English as a second language, vocabulary-building, learning through gamification.

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Authors: Saeedeh Shafiee Nahrkhalaji

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Metacognitive knowledge increases EFL students’ ability to be successful learners. Although this relationship has been investigated by a number of scholars, EFL teachers’ explicit awareness of their cognitive knowledge has not been sufficiently explored. The aim of this study was to examine the role of EFL teachers’ metacognitive knowledge in their pedagogical performance. Furthermore, the role played by years of their academic education and teaching experience was also studied. Fifty female EFL teachers were selected. They completed Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) that assessed six components of metacognition including procedural knowledge, declarative knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, evaluating, and management strategies. Near the end of the academic semester, the students of each class filled in ‘the Language Teacher Characteristics Questionnaire’ to evaluate their teachers’ pedagogical performance. Four elements of MAI, declarative knowledge, planning, evaluating, and management strategies were found to be significantly correlated with EFL teachers’ pedagogical success. Significant correlation was also established between metacognitive knowledge and EFL teachers’ years of academic education and teaching experience. The findings obtained from this research have contributing implication for EFL teacher educators. The discussion concludes by setting out directions for future research.

Keywords: Metacognotive Knowledge, Pedagogical Performance, Language Teacher Characteristics Questionnaire, Metacognitive Awareness Inventory.

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Authors: Ena Bhattacharyya, Zullina H. Shaari

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Till date, English as a Second Language (ESL) educators involved in teaching language and communication to engineering students face an uphill task in developing graduate communicative competency. This challenge is accentuated by the apparent lack of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials for engineering students in the engineering curriculum. As such, most ESL educators are forced to play multiple roles. They don tasks such as curriculum designers, material writers and teachers with limited knowledge of the disciplinary content. Previous research indicates that prospective professional engineers should possess some sub-sets of competency: technical, linguistic oral immediacy, meta-cognitive and rhetorical explanatory competence. Another study revealed that engineering students need to be equipped with technical and linguistic oral immediacy competence. However, little is known whether these competency needs are in line with the educators- perceptions of communicative competence. This paper examines the best mix of communicative competence subsets that create the magic for engineering students in technical oral presentations. For the purpose of this study, two groups of educators were interviewed. These educators were language and communication lecturers involved in teaching a speaking course and content experts who assess students- technical oral presentations at tertiary level. The findings indicate that these two groups differ in their perceptions

Keywords: Communicative competence, Content experts, Educators, Technical Oral Presentations

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

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As of 2017, many online learning professionals, institutions, and journals are still wondering how instructors can keep student engaged in the online learning environment to facilitate active learning effectively. The purpose of this qualitative single-case and narrative research is to explore whether online professors understand their role as mentors and facilitators of students’ academic success by keeping students engaged in active learning based on personalized experience in the field. Data collection tools that were used in the study included an NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software, an interview protocol, a digital audiotape, an observation sheet, and a transcription. Seven online professors in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online teaching techniques from previous research were used as the study framework. Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to achieve saturation. About 85.7% of professors agreed on rubric as the preferred online grading technique. About 57.1% agreed on professors logging in daily, students logging in about 2-5 times weekly, knowing students to increase accountability, email as preferred communication tool, and computer access for adequate online learning. About 42.9% agreed on syllabus for clear class expectations, participation to show what has been learned, and energizing students for creativity.

Keywords: Class facilitation, class management, online teaching, online education, pedagogy.

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Authors: Diriba Gemechu, Lamessa Abebe

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The aim of this study was to examine the effect of cooperative learning method on student’s academic achievement and on the achievement level over a usual method in teaching different topics of mathematics. The study also examines the perceptions of students towards cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is the instructional strategy in which pairs or small groups of students with different levels of ability work together to accomplish a shared goal. The aim of this cooperation is for students to maximize their own and each other learning, with members striving for joint benefit. The teacher’s role changes from wise on the wise to guide on the side. Cooperative learning due to its influential aspects is the most prevalent teaching-learning technique in the modern world. Therefore the study was conducted in order to examine the effect of cooperative learning on the academic achievement of grade 9 students in Mathematics in case of Mettu secondary school. Two sample sections are randomly selected by which one section served randomly as an experimental and the other as a comparison group. Data gathering instruments are achievement tests and questionnaires. A treatment of STAD method of cooperative learning was provided to the experimental group while the usual method is used in the comparison group. The experiment lasted for one semester. To determine the effect of cooperative learning on the student’s academic achievement, the significance of difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 levels was tested by applying t test. The effect size was calculated to see the strength of the treatment. The student’s perceptions about the method were tested by percentiles of the questionnaires. During data analysis, each group was divided into high and low achievers on basis of their previous Mathematics result. Data analysis revealed that both the experimental and comparison groups were almost equal in Mathematics at the beginning of the experiment. The experimental group out scored significantly than comparison group on posttest. Additionally, the comparison of mean posttest scores of high achievers indicates significant difference between the two groups. The same is true for low achiever students of both groups on posttest. Hence, the result of the study indicates the effectiveness of the method for Mathematics topics as compared to usual method of teaching.

Keywords: Cooperative learning, academic achievement, experimental group, comparison group.

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Authors: Ellie Abdi, Susana Juniu

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The purpose of this presentation is to describe an interdisciplinary teaching program that integrates physical education concepts using a philosophical approach. The presentation includes a review of: a) the philosophy of American education, b) the philosophy of sports and physical education, c) the interdisciplinary physical education program, d) professional development programs, (e) the Success of this physical education program, f) future of physical education. This unique interdisciplinary program has been implemented in an urban school physical education discipline in East Orange, New Jersey for over 10 years.

During the program the students realize that the bodies go through different experiences. The body becomes a place where a child can recognize in an enjoyable way to express and perceive particular feelings or mental states. Children may distinguish themselves to have high abilities in the social or other domains but low abilities in the field of athletics.

The goal of this program for the individuals is to discover new skills, develop and demonstrate age appropriate mastery level at different tasks, therefore the program consists of 9 to 12 sports, including many game. Each successful experience increases the awareness ability. Engaging in sports and physical activities are social movements involving groups of children in situations such as teams, friends, and recreational settings, which serve as a primary socializing agent for teaching interpersonal skills. As a result of this presentation the audience will reflect and explore how to structure a physical education program to integrate interdisciplinary subjects with philosophical concepts.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary disciplines, philosophical concepts, physical education.

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Authors: Amina Abubakar

Abstract:

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: Natalia Podkhodova, Olga Sheremeteva, Mariia Soldaeva

Abstract:

Creating favourable conditions for students’ comprehension of mathematical content is one of the primary problems in teaching mathematics in secondary school. The fact of comprehension includes the ability to build a working situational model and thus becomes an important means of solving mathematical problems. This paper describes a holistic approach to teaching mathematics designed to address the primary challenges of such teaching; specifically, the challenge of students’ comprehension. Essentially, this approach consists of (1) establishing links between the attributes of the notion: the sense, the meaning, and the term; (2) taking into account the components of student’s subjective experience—value-based emotions, contextual, procedural and communicative—during the educational process; (3) linking together different ways to present mathematical information; (4) identifying and leveraging the relationships between real, perceptual and conceptual (scientific) mathematical spaces by applying real-life situational modelling. The article describes approaches to the practical use of these foundational concepts. Identifying how proposed methods and techniques influence understanding of material used in teaching mathematics was the primary goal. The study included an experiment in which 256 secondary school students took part: 142 in the study group and 114 in the control group. All students in these groups had similar levels of achievement in math and studied math under the same curriculum. In the course of the experiment, comprehension of two topics — “Derivative” and “Trigonometric functions”—was evaluated. Control group participants were taught using traditional methods. Students in the study group were taught using the holistic method: under teacher’s guidance, they carried out assignments designed to establish linkages between notion’s characteristics, to convert information from one mode of presentation to another, as well as assignments that required the ability to operate with all modes of presentation. Identification, accounting for and transformation of subjective experience were associated with methods of stimulating the emotional value component of the studied mathematical content (discussions of lesson titles, assignments aimed to create study dominants, performing theme-related physical exercise ...) The use of techniques that forms inter-subject notions based on linkages between, perceptual real and mathematical conceptual spaces proved to be of special interest to the students. Results of the experiment were analysed by presenting students in each of the groups with a final test in each of the studied topics. The test included assignments that required building real situational models. Statistical analysis was used to aggregate test results. Pierson criterion x2 was used to reveal statistics significance of results (pass-fail the modelling test). Significant difference of results was revealed (p < 0.001), which allowed to conclude that students in the study group showed better comprehension of mathematical information than those in the control group. The total number of completed assignments of each student was analysed as well, with average results calculated for each group. Statistical significance of result differences against the quantitative criterion (number of completed assignments) was determined using Student’s t-test, which showed that students in the study group completed significantly more assignments than those in the control group (p = 0.0001). Authors thus come to the conclusion that suggested increase in the level of comprehension of study material took place as a result of applying implemented methods and techniques.

Keywords: Comprehension of mathematical content, holistic approach to teaching mathematics in secondary school, subjective experience, technology of the formation of inter-subject notions.

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Authors: Lars Silver, Björn Berggren, Andreas Fili

Abstract:

The financial crisis has decreased the opportunities of small businesses to acquire financing through conventional financial actors, such as commercial banks. This credit constraint is partly the reason for the emergence of new alternatives of financing, in addition to the spreading opportunities for communication and secure financial transfer through Internet. One of the most interesting venues for finance is termed “crowdfunding". As the term suggests crowdfunding is an appeal to prospective customers and investors to form a crowd that will finance projects that otherwise would find it hard to generate support through the most common financial actors. Crowdfunding is in this paper divided into different models; the threshold model, the microfinance model, the micro loan model and the equity model. All these models add to the financial possibilities of emerging entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, equity finance, bank finance.

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Authors: Vojtěch Gybas, Libor Klubal, Kateřina Kostolányová

Abstract:

Nowadays, mobile touch technologies, such as tablets, are an integral part of teaching and learning in many special elementary schools. Many special education teachers tend to choose an iPad tablet with iOS. The reason is simple; the iPad has a function for pupils with special educational needs. If we decide to use tablets in teaching, in general, first we should try to stimulate the cognitive abilities of the pupil at the highest level, while holding the pupil’s attention on the task, when working with the device. This paper will describe how student attention can be increased by eliminating the working environment of selected applications, while using iPads with pupils in a special elementary school. Assisted function approach is highly effective at eliminating unwanted touching by a pupil when working on the desktop iPad, thus actively increasing the pupil´s attention while working on specific educational applications. During the various stages of the action, the research was conducted via data collection and interpretation. After a phase of gaining results and ideas for practice and actions, we carried out the check measurement, this time using the tool-assisted approach. In both cases, the pupils worked in the Math Board application and the resulting differences were evident.

Keywords: Special elementary school, mobile touch device, iPad, attention, math board.

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Authors: Alper Akın, İbrahim Aydoğdu

Abstract:

This study presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to obtain optimum designs for steel space buildings. The optimum design problem of three-dimensional steel frames is mathematically formulated according to provisions of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance factor design of American Institute of Steel Construction). Design constraints such as the strength requirements of structural members, the displacement limitations, the inter-story drift and the other structural constraints are derived from LRFD-AISC specification. In this study, a hybrid algorithm by using teachinglearning based optimization (TLBO) and harmony search (HS) algorithms is employed to solve the stated optimum design problem. These algorithms are two of the recent additions to metaheuristic techniques of numerical optimization and have been an efficient tool for solving discrete programming problems. Using these two algorithms in collaboration creates a more powerful tool and mitigates each other’s weaknesses. To demonstrate the powerful performance of presented hybrid algorithm, the optimum design of a large scale steel building is presented and the results are compared to the previously obtained results available in the literature.

Keywords: Optimum structural design, hybrid techniques, teaching-learning based optimization, harmony search algorithm, minimum weight, steel space frame.

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