Month: April 2021
Photography: A Potential Tool for Self-actualization of International Students during Pandemic
The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 has resulted in drastic changes on the campus life and limiting social activities. At Tokushima University, most of the regular exchange activities for international students have been abolished for the time being. As an alternative, a photography contest had been conducted during November 2020. This contest was open …
Exploring the Intersections of Cultural Performance Practices and Wearable Technology
Humans have gone to great lengths in recent years to augment their bodies with wearable technology using commercial devices such as smart phones, watches, and jewelry. The presence of technology in the area of the performing and fine arts has shaped the future of how technology can be used to enhance existing performance practices including …
University Students’ Perceptions of Social Experiences in Online Learning: A Post-COVID-19 Perspective
Since the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020, online learning has become increasingly important as an alternative to face-to-face higher education (HE) programme delivery globally, including in Malaysia and Singapore. With limited physical and social contact, communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing through digital tools play a large part in enhancing students’ virtual learning experience. Based on the …
Predictors, Sources of Test Anxiety and Coping Strategies: A Comparative Study of Postgraduate Taught Students in the UK and Saudi Arabia
Test anxiety (TA) is pervasive across cultural boundaries and is related to impaired academic performance and psychological wellbeing. This study aimed to investigate predictors, sources of TA and the coping strategies employed by postgraduate taught (PGT) students in UK universities (UKUK), international students in UK universities (IUK), and Saudi students in Saudi universities (SASA). The …
Competencies of Preschool Teachers in Educating Children With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a wave of social distancing, and the activities of many educational institutions became limited. This situation has also affected children, especially the vulnerable ones – those with emotional and behavioral disorders and those who have special educational needs. Even though there is little research on the impact of …
“Blended” in the Online Classroom! Technology Acceptance of EFL Students
In the digital era, blended learning (BL) has become a new normal in language education. Students who fail to learn remotely may have difficulty achieving academic success (Neumeier, 2015). English instructors now attempt to integrate traditional face-to-face class meetings with a technology-enhanced environment that encourages student engagement. Previous studies have shown that BL brings learning …
A Philosophical and Epistemological Foundation for Social Justice Pedagogy via the Work of Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, and Pierre Bourdieu
Social justice pedagogy has become a fixture in higher education. More and more disciplines in the academy are incorporating the ideas and claims of social justice into their pedagogical practices. While social justice discourse has become an assumed and prevalent feature of the modern college classroom, little work has been done to ground the claims …
Evaluation of Face-to-face and Online Learning for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Courses
Having moved predominantly online with the UK national lockdown of 2020, a comparison was made of two entrepreneurship courses at The University of Manchester, taught its first online academic year, with the previous year’s versions which were face to face. It was found that students generally adapted well to online teaching, feedback and attainment were …
From Compassion Fatigue to Compassion Satisfaction: A Research Among Physicians Specialising in Oncology at the University of Padua
Context: The quality of health workers’ professional life includes some expressed or latent metacognition skills related to psycho-emotional stress management, especially in settings where there is constant contact with suffering or dying patients. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the quality and quantity of self-care strategies among oncology residents. Method: A professional educator …
Transformational Leadership in Changing Education Systems: Evolving Management Roles and Responsibilities in Educational Institutions
This paper examines the effectiveness of transformational leadership in changing education systems and the rapidly evolving and expanding roles of educational leaders. Innovation, rather than the mere improvement of existing processes and structures, is one of the most important elements of an organization that a leader can help to promote. Whether it is a factory …
Assessment of Attitude Towards Research
This paper discusses about the attitude of the final year undergraduate students and the post graduate students towards research. The target group is carefully chosen by the author as students are introduced to research through the capstone project which is predominantly a part of the curriculum in the final year undergraduate courses and the post …
The Processes of Educational Communication in Primary Schools Determined by the State of Emergency in the Czech Republic
The paper focuses on the current methods of educational communication in primary schools in the Czech Republic. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the educational conditions have dynamically transformed in our country. It has even been reported that pupils’ absence from full-time attendance is the longest in Europe. Some pupils (including primary school pupils) …
EasyTalk: A Digital Writer’s Workshop for Leichte Sprache (Easy-to-read German)
Leichte Sprache (LS; Easy-to-Read German) is a simplified variety of German characterized by simplified syntactic constructions and a small vocabulary (cf. Easy-to-read English). It provides barrier-free information for a wide spectrum of LS readers including individuals with learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities and/or a low level of literacy in the German language. By and large, text …
Inclusive Foreign Language Assessment in Trying Times: Pre-service Teachers’ Attribution Mechanisms and Their Implications for Inclusive Emergency Remote Teaching
The main goal of foreign language education (FLE) to foster intercultural communicative competence implies the need to include and connect diverse learners (e.g. Council of Europe, 2001) and thereby aligns itself with key principles of inclusive education. Yet, the pursuit of communicative competence (CC) is a task that often divides rather than includes. In the …
Playing through the Pandemic: The Social and Emotional Gratifications of Gaming during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan
While most industries were hit hard during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global game industry was not only resilient—it was thriving. With a dramatic reduction of business activity and opportunities for social interaction due to widespread social distancing and stay-at-home orders, gaming not only served as a pleasant distraction, but it provided …
Transmission of Distress and Urgency Calls – Aeronautical English in Use
With ongoing challenges to the accuracy of aeronautical communications, distress and urgency calls need to be brought into sharper focus. They are the only possible ways pilots can obtain assistance in non-routine emergency situations. Radiotelephony communication is not an after-the-fact activity: “You need to know what you’re going to say before an event occurs” (Tavlin, …
Teenpods: Production of Educational Videos as First Step in a Transmedia Educational Project About Positive Youth Development
Teenpods is the name of a Transmedia-Educational-Project (TEP) performed by the Chair Education and adolescence from University of Lleida. This project aims to promote the Positive-Young-Development (PYD) approach on educational contexts. It has 11 pods about different topics linked with adolescence. Each Teenpod is set to include several transmedia objects addressed to education practitioners. The …
A Study of Students’ Engagement on the Zoom-based Synchronous Online Teaching
The outbreak of the COVID-19 created a chaos of global health crisis and campus health. In the Wollongong College Hong Kong (UOWCHK), almost all classes have adopted using the Zoom-based synchronous online teaching. However, the problems of using this teaching approach are diversified as indicated in many studies. It includes the teaching becomes ‘passive’, ‘isolated’ …
Implications of Trilingual Education on Pre-service Training in Wales
This paper will focus on innovations in the Welsh education system in light of the introduction of a new curriculum in 2022, (Welsh Government, 2020). Language learning is one of the areas facing changes, with international languages, Welsh and English being placed in the Area of Learning and Experience known as Languages, Literacy and Communication. …
Factors Pulling International Students to Japan: A Situation Analysis
Japan has 312,214 international students in May 2019, successfully achieving the 300,000 international students target. This study investigates the factors pulling international students into Japan for higher education. Data for literature review was collected from both English and Japanese sources including research reports, review papers, statistics, and online materials, which addressing the issues of international …
Teaching Practices of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers for Developing the 21st Century Skills and Its Relationship to the Academic Achievement
With the advent of the new century, educators and learners have finally understood and manifested that reasoning is required to promote transfer because it gives access to all domains. Needless to say, the skills opted by the 21st century embark on a question of efficiency and their application to classroom instruction. This study aimed to …
Hong Kong-based Educators’ Views on Existing Hong Kong Education System: Multicultural or Not?
Hong Kong (a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) is promoted as Asia’s international city. However, it is suggested that Hong Kong’s education policy towards the social inclusion of non-Chinese speaking students remains ambiguous. Additionally, Hong Kong’s socially inclusive education policy is reported to be different from multiculturalism with Western characteristics. Therefore, …
Family Language Policy and Immigrant Chinese Children’s Bilingual Development in New Zealand Context
The concept of Family Language Policy (FLP) and the studies on how immigrant families transmit their heritage language to the next generation had already drawn interest from researchers worldwide (Schwartz, 2010). Spolsky (2012) argues that language policy in the family domain should be further studied for a better understanding of the establishment and the sustainability …
Nursing, Health Technician and Midwifery Students’ Perceptions of Their First Fully Online Learning Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study
This paper examines undergraduate nursing, health technician and midwifery students’ perceptions of their first fully online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Online learning was a solution for several countries during the COVID-19 pandemic to pursue studies and protect students. Understanding nursing students perceptions of their experiences related to the online learning is crucial …
“Middle American Miserabilism”: Charting the Feel Bad Genre in Recent HBO Mini-series
Miserabilism was originally a term that was used to describe a pessimistic philosophy or a consistently miserable outlook. This pessimistic worldview has been seen in television depictions of welfare recipients who live in low-income communities in both the UK as well as the United States. Also labeled “poverty porn”, in such wide-ranging shows as “Hillbilly …
The Consequences of Chaos/Complexity Theory in Adults Learning Maltese as a Second Language
Despite extensive research in second language acquisition (SLA), we are still a long way from understanding what exactly happens in the mind of an adult learner when learning a second language (L2). This study explores whether a learning pattern could be established over time in adult learners learning Maltese as a second language (ML2), especially …
The Attitude of Resistance Press Towards Greek Women Who Were Involved With the Enemy
The position of women in Greece as other countries, changed significantly as a result of WW2. The absence of men forced women to leave their homes and seek work and learn how to survive under many hardships. In Greece the situation for women deteriorated even further with the arrival of occupying forces. The first units …
Macro Factors Determining Transition of Vietnamese International Students Mobility
With constant increasing in numbers of students studying abroad, Vietnam is on the way to become one of the largest contributors to the world’s international student mobility. This paper reviews the macro factors that affect the transition of trends and mobility of Vietnamese international students in the modern time. By examining related studies and literature, …
Financial Autonomy of Schools in Kazakhstan: International Comparison and a National Perspective
This paper has relevance for any nation seeking to reform its model of funding through decentralization and a neoliberal agenda that permits marketization of public services such as education. It adopts a case-study approach to locate and discuss where Kazakhstan, a country undergoing considerable educational reform, is currently positioned regarding one specific aspect of school …
Letting Students Explore What It Takes to Become a Good Communicator – A Metacognitive Approach to Promote Language Learning
When it comes to teaching speaking skills in a foreign language classroom, instructing grammatical knowledge, building up vocabulary and formulated expressions, and practicing model conversations can be some of the useful teaching methods. However, we need to ask ourselves if our classroom instructions are designed to help students synthesize that fragmentary knowledge into practical knowledge …
Developing Descriptive Writing Ability by an Online Video Project
Writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) is often regarded as an unpleasant experience by students due to the complicated mental processes, the contrasts of language features and culture between native language and English, etc. (Brown & Lee, 2015; Harklau, 2002). Not only students but also teachers are struggling in finding an effective way …
Change Readiness: Preparing for Change in the Age of Disruption
Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) are in a period of immense disruption due to student demographic changes, economic pressures, and approaches to student learning. These swirling forces are driving IHE to consider and pursue systemic organizational, cultural, and pedagogical changes to fulfill their missions and remain financially viable. To meet these challenges, DP are enacting …
Assessing Pragmatic Abilities in School-Age Children
This study aims at developing a measure for assessing pragmatic language abilities related to Theory of Mind (ToM) in Greek, typically developing, school-age children. We developed stories, based on previous work by Sodian and Frith (1992), Baron-Cohen and colleagues (1999), and Giannakou (2008), to assess the reception of deception, faux pas and irony by school-age …
Fude Master: Japanese Writing Practice M-learning Application Based on Gamification Theory and Its Evaluation With ARCS Model
Foreign students have difficulty in learning Japanese, especially in kanji acquisition. This is caused by the difference in the writing system between the students’ native language and Japanese. It is especially difficult to differentiate similar-looking Japanese characters for these foreign students. Fude Master, an m-learning app for learning Japanese with pattern recognition to judge user’s …
Filipino American Identity Development in Something in Between
Identity development is essential in all human lives. Adolescents who are members of ethnic minority groups are seemingly more confused about their identity. This paper was to explore Filipino American identity development of the main character, Jasmine de Santos, in Melissa de la Cruz’s Something in Between. It is analyzed within the theoretical framework of …
Effects of Capstone Design Achievement on Employment: A Case of Industrial & Management Engineering
This study is to analyze the performance of the Capstone Design course and the impact of multiple factors on the learner’s job hunting activities and initial job satisfaction. Among the factors influencing employment, capstone design achievement, gender, GPA, Capstone design project passing, age, major-related employment, multidisciplinary course, other knowledge, internship experience, language scores, etc. have …
Teachers as a Source of Support: Perceptions of Parents of Children With ADHD During COVID-19 Distance Learning
This qualitative research, conducted during the COVID-19 distance-learning days, was designed to understand the perceptions of parents of primary-school-age children with ADHD of teachers as a source of support. To date, many studies have demonstrated the positive contribution of teacher-parent interaction to children’s school performance, an issue of special relevance to children with ADHD. The …
Research on the Learning Experience and Effectiveness of Digital Action Learning on Design Education
Nowadays, learners use digital mobile devices to learn online resources and content at flexible times to obtain the convenience, expediency and immediacy of mobile learning. Action learning has achieved considerable results in changing the traditional learning model. The mobile devices used by college students are mostly smart phones, which have become the main application devices …
“Fraternal and Sisterly Love”: Observing Disintegration and Resilience in the Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Shirley
The Brontës in 1845 were a tight-knit community in Haworth of three grown-up sisters and a brother – Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell. In chapter 33, “And you”, Jane Eyre passionately claims to St. John, “cannot at all imagine the craving I have for fraternal and sisterly love”. The fictional Jane Eyre, the orphan, is …
Using a Collaborative Modern Board Game to Characterise Problem-solving Experiences in Physiotherapy Students
New paradigms for curriculums designing in health professions defend the inclusion of structured methodologies to train comprehensive skills for problem-solving. This paper aimed to characterize the physiotherapy students’ problem-solving experiences using a collaborative modern board game (MBG). An exploratory study was performed with a purposive sample of 17 physiotherapy students recruited from the School of …