ACEID2018
Official Conference Proceedings
ISSN: 2189-101X

SURVIVING&THRIVINGEDUCATION
IN TIMES OF CHANGEArt Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan | March 26–28, 2018

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The Executive Council of the International Advisory Board

Mr Mitsumasa Aoyama
Director, The Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Professor June Henton
Dean, College of Human Sciences, Auburn University,
USA

Lord Charles Bruce
Lord Lieutenant of Fife
Chairman of the Patrons of the National Galleries of
Scotland
Trustee of the Historic Scotland Foundation, UK

Professor Michael Hudson
President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term
Economic Trends (ISLET)Distinguished Research Professor of Economics, The
University of Missouri, Kansas City

Professor Donald E. Hall
Herbert J. and Ann L. Siegel Dean
Lehigh University, USA
Former Jackson Distinguished Professor of English
and Chair of the Department of English

Professor Koichi Iwabuchi
Professor of Media and Cultural Studies & Director of
the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Australia

Professor Arthur Stockwin
Founding Director of the Nissan Institute forJapanese Studies & Emeritus Professor
The University of Oxford UK
Professor Chung-Ying Cheng
Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawai’i atManoa, USA
Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Chinese Philosophy
Professor Steve Cornwell
Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies,
Osaka Jogakuin University, Osaka, Japan
Osaka Local Conference Chair
Professor A. Robert Lee
Former Professor of English at Nihon University,
Tokyo from 1997 to 2011, previously long taught
at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Professor Dexter Da Silva
Professor of Educational Psychology, Keisen University,
Tokyo, Japan
Professor Georges Depeyrot
Professor and Director of Research & Member of theBoard of Trustees
French National Center for Scientific Research(CNRS) & L’Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France
Professor Johannes Moenius
William R. and S. Sue Johnson Endowed Chair of
Spatial Economic Analysis and Regional Planning
The University of Redlands School of Business, USA

Professor Sue Jackson
Professor of Lifelong Learning and Gender & Pro-Vice
Master of Teaching and Learning, Birkbeck, Universityof London, UK
Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd
Senior Scholar in Residence, The Needham ResearchInstitute, Cambridge, UK
Fellow and Former Master, Darwin College, Universityof Cambridge
Fellow of the British Academy
Professor Keith Miller
Orthwein Endowed Professor for Lifelong Learning in
the Science, University of Missouri-St.Louis, USA
Professor Kuniko Miyanaga
Director, Human Potential Institute, Japan
Fellow, Reischauer Institute, Harvard University, USA
Professor Dennis McInerney
Chair Professor of Educational Psychology and CoDirector of the Assessment Research Centre
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong
SAR
Professor Brian Daizen Victoria
Professor of English
Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
Professor Michiko Nakano
Professor of English & Director of the Distance
Learning Center, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Professor Thomas Brian MooneyProfessor of Philosophy
Head of School of Creative Arts and Humanities
Professor of Philosophy and Head of School of
Creative Arts and Humanities, Charles Darwin
University, Australia

Professor Baden Offord
Professor of Cultural Studies and Human Rights & CoDirector of the Centre for Peace and Social JusticeSouthern Cross University, Australia
Professor Frank S. Ravitch
Professor of Law & Walter H. Stowers Chair in Law
and Religion, Michigan State University College of Law
Professor Richard RothSenior Associate Dean, Medill School of Journalism,
Northwestern University, Qatar
Professor Monty P. Satiadarma
Clinical Psychologist and Lecturer in Psychology &Former Dean of the Department of Psychology and
Rector of the University, Tarumanugara University,
Indonesia
Mr Mohamed Salaheen
Director, The United Nations World Food Programme,Japan & Korea
Mr Lowell Sheppard
Asia Pacific Director, HOPE International
Development Agency, Canada/Japan
His Excellency Dr Drago Stambuk
Croatian Ambassador to Brazil, Brazil
Professor Mary Stuart
Vice-Chancellor, The University of Lincoln, UK
Professor Gary Swanson
Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence & Mildred S.
Hansen Endowed Chair, The University of Northern
Colorado, USA
Professor Jiro Takai
Secretary General of the Asian Association for Social
Psychology & Professor of Social Psychology
Graduate School of Education and Human
Development, Nagoya University, Japan
Professor Svetlana Ter Minasova
President of the Faculty of Foreign Languages andArea Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Professor Yozo Yokota
Director of the Center for Human Rights Affairs, Japan
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
Professor Kensaku Yoshida
Professor of English & Director of the Center for the
Teaching of Foreign Languages in General Education,
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2189-101X© The International Academic Forum 2018
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)
Sakae 1-16-26-201
Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi
Japan 460-0008
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Table of Contents
The Impact of Interactive E-Learning Pedagogy in the Core Content of Cultural
Dimensions Across Curriculum
pp. 1 - 16
Adelfa C. Silor
Using Web 2.0 and Corpus Technology to Enhance Vocabulary Acquisition
Kirk Dowswell
Jenny Eppard

pp. 17 - 29

Using an Informatics Course to Support an Herbal Medicine Course forLearning Herbs with Volatile Oil
Bunyapa Wangwattana
Verayuth Lertnattee

pp. 31 - 38

Integration of Teaching and Learning ICT Literacy and Herbal Information in
the 21st Century
Verayuth Lertnattee
Bunyapa Wangwattana

pp. 39 - 47

Differences among Generational Groups of Teachers in a Public School
District in Their Practice of 21st Century Teaching-Learning Skills
May Anne Joy D. Romanes
Sofia E. Veniegas

pp. 49 - 65

Utilizing Life Orientations Method in Education to Develop Soft Skills andOrganizational Development among Graduating Students for Career Readinessand Job Preparedness
Jonathan Chiong
Ana Belen Cuyugan

pp. 67 - 70

Examining the Academic Writing Practices of Higher Education in Papua New
Guinea: The Need for Using Appropriate Educational Resources
Lawrence Kaiapo Gerrypp. 71 - 84

A Study on the Influence of Technology Hands-on Curriculum on theTechnology Attitude and Programming Attitude in Senior High School
Yu-Te Wang
Yuan-Tai Chen
Pei-Chuan Lu

pp. 85 - 99

Cushioning Teacher Bullying: An Exploratory Study Towards Establishing
Support Mechanism
Eric A. Bordios

pp. 101 - 117

Black Students in China Identity, Environment and Institutions in the
Individual’s Perception of Racial Encounters
Nia Hamilton

pp. 119 - 133

Computer-Based Test and Paper-Based Test as English Language Assessment
in Indonesian Junior High Schools
Heny Solekhah

pp. 135 - 144

Vocational Curriculum for Learners with Special Educational Needs
Von Erick Laylo Dumagtoy
Camilla Cassandra Arellano
Candice Robyn Trilles

pp. 145 - 152

ASEAN Community: Development, Challenge and Change for Thai Higher
Education Sector
Anupap Thupa-ang

pp. 153 - 164Nobel Authors in the Literature Classroom: 2017 Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and
the Case for Conscious Empathy
Cynthia F. Wong

pp. 165 - 172

A Study on the Mutual Similarity between Japanese and Chinese forSimultaneous Learning
Yuji Obataya

pp. 173 - 189

The Implementation of Peer Instruction in Mathematics and Physics Lectures
Tomoshige Kudo
Hidetaka Yamaoka
Tetsuya Taniguchi
Makoto Nishi
Akiomi Mishima

pp. 191 - 197

A Symbolic Interactionist Study on Blended Learning in Hong Kong
Shui Kau Chiu

pp. 199 - 207

Implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Program: Reactions, Attitudes and Perceptions of Teachers
Eileen C. Bernardo
Nilda T. Aggabao
Jaine Z. Tarun

pp. 209 - 218

Development of Mathematical Connection Skills of Grade II Students by Using
Problem-based Learning with GeoGebra Program
Sornchai Prapngoolueam
Montri Thongmoon

pp. 219 - 227

A Survey of Scientific Concepts of Grade 11th Students in Thailand
Chanapong Khumtha
Kanyarat Sonsupap

pp. 229 - 234

Internal Audit in the Philippine Provincial Government Office (PGO)
Ruth P. Carlos
Sylvia Alcala Sarmiento
Lilian Dela Merced-Litonjua

pp. 235 - 242

A Survey of the Mathematics Problem Solving Ability of Grade 10th Students in
Thailand
Apisit Thngkingdang
Montri Thongmoon

pp. 243 - 248

An Introduction to Intercultural Communication Using Scenes from the Film,
Zootopia
Mikako Nobuhara
Satomi Yoshimuta

pp. 249 - 256

The Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) Program:
Teachers Competencies and Pedagogical Practices in Teaching Mother Tongue
Eileen Bernardo
Nilda Aggabao
Jaine Tarun

pp. 257 - 272

Development of Mathematics Problem Solving Ability by Using the Problem
Solving Model of Metacognitive Process of Grade 11th Students
Wilawan Chantowat
Montri Thongmoon

pp. 273 - 278

The Importance of Student-centered Learning (SCL) in Indonesian Higher
Education
Hidayatullah Yunus

pp. 279 - 287

Assessment Practices and Students’ Approaches to Learning: A Systematic
Review
Jihan Rabah
Robert Cassidy
Manasvini Narayana

pp. 289 - 298

A Basic Study on the Conformity of Japanese University Students in Language
Communication Activities
Harumi Kashiwagi
Min Kang
Kazuhiro Ohtsuki

pp. 299 - 309“Tell Us Your Story”: Documenting the Nalik Culture Through an Educational
Project in Papua New Guinea
Cláudio da Silva

pp. 311 - 327

Explicit and Implicit Grammar Instruction in English Writing
Shih-Chieh Chien

pp. 329 - 343

Team Based Learning of the Mercato Project to Nurture Criticism, Creativity
and Problem Solving during Orientation Camp of ESC-KMUTT
Nion Vinarukwong
Jintana Wongta
Jutharat Sunprasert
Chanakan Chomngam
Sukanyapat Dokkhularb

pp. 345 - 356

The Multidisciplinary Project to Promote Story-Based Learning and Soft Skills:
Integrating Biology, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics study
Jintana Wongta
Nion Vinarukwong
Ekapong Hirunsirisawat
Kitsada Doungjitjaroen
Sukanyapat Dokkhularb

pp. 357 - 370

Fostering “Glocal” Awareness Through a Short-Term Study-Abroad Programon Poverty and Sustainable Societies in the Philippines
Hanayo Hirai
Natsumi Onaka

pp. 371 - 380

From Information to Empowerment Tertiary Students’ Experiences with theUse of Social Media in Learning
Michelle Meiling Yeo

pp. 381 - 389

Factors Influencing Teens to be Involved in Social Problems in a Protection
Center, Selangor
Absha Atiah Abu Bakar
Nurfitrianti Misheila

pp. 391 - 403

Care as a Key Contributor to Student Learning and Teacher Effectiveness
Isma Fadhil

pp. 405 - 414

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program: A Response to Emergency of
Pedophiles for Preschool In Indonesia
Dhian Gowinda Luh Safitri

pp. 415 - 425

A Descriptive Analysis on Mathematics Learning Environment andMetacognitive Awareness Among Secondary School
Nor Suhaila Abdul
Siti Mistima Maat

pp. 427 - 434

Role of Teachers in Teaching Piano for Children
Sirima Panapinun

pp. 435 - 439

How to Play Drum Set for Teacher in Private Schools
Rungkiat Siriwongsuwan

pp. 441 - 452

Musicianship for Professional Trombonist in Symphony Orchestra
Thassanai Phensit

pp. 453 - 460

Teaching Empathy Through Self-experience and Diary Reflections
Chalalai Taesilapasathit

pp. 461 - 467

Stabilizing Mechanisms in Formula-based Funding of Universities: The Case of
PolandAda Cierkowska
Tomasz Szapiro
pp. 469 - 477
Key Performance Indicators for Higher Education: Lessons from Poland
Katarzyna BłockaTomasz Szapiro

pp. 479 - 498

Roles of Administrators in Supporting to Science Study for Basic Education ofSecondary Educational Office Bangkok
Sansanee Jasuwan
Nonlanee Chernviriyakul

pp. 499 - 505

Trend to Development Learning and Teaching for Music Student to Become
Music Business Owners
Yutakorn Sarikkaganon

pp. 507 - 511

Pipat Ensemble Management for Music Teacher in Secondary School
Prasan Briboonnanggoul

pp. 513 - 517

Technique of Thai Singing for Thai MusiciansPansak Vandee

pp. 519 - 525

Research into Metaphor-type Art Teaching
Yuan-Lung Yu
Ming-Chang Wu

pp. 527 - 535

Developing Statistical Reasoning and Thinking Assessment for Engineering
Students: Challenges and New Direction
Aishah Mohd Noor
Maz Jamilah Masnan
Khatijahhusna Abd Rani
Safwati Ibrahim

pp. 537 - 552

Education Attainment As a Determinant of Economic Growth in African
Countries
Katarzyna Błocka

pp. 553 - 569

The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018

Official Conference Proceedings

The Impact of Interactive E-Learning Pedagogy in the Core Content of Cultural
Dimensions Across Curriculum
Adelfa C. Silor, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology,
Philippines
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
This study aims to analyze the impact of interactive e-learning pedagogy inunderstanding the relevance of cultural dimensions across curriculum in the Higher
Education Institutions. This interactive e-learning pedagogy refers to the different
cultural dimension videos, images, and other interactive elements included in the corecontent of the lessons particularly in the professional education subjects. The researchmethod used in this study is theoretical and grounded theory design. Then content andthematic analysis was used in analyzing the data gathered. The participants were thefifty pre-service students from the College of Education, Mindanao State UniversityIligan Institute of Technology, Philippines during the school year 2015-2016. Basedfrom the findings of the study, learners are fully engaged and motivated to learn once
it has high quality and meaningful content, integrate visual components. Anotherfindings emphasize the boost knowledge retention rates which offer learners theopportunity to gauge their progress and summarize the content they have learned.
Emotional responses also help to acquire and retain new information skills. Including
videos that may elicit an emotional response or images that may allow them topersonally relate to the subject are keys to interactive experiences. Encourage groupcollaboration which develops learners to communicate with one another enteredaround asynchronous learning. Finally, an interactive eLearning pedagogy includes avariety of different multimedia elements and is aesthetically appealing to be moreinteractive than one that relies upon solely text content. In conclusion, interactive
eLearning pedagogy has great impact in the core content of cultural dimensions acrosscurriculum.
Keywords: Cultural, Interactive, E-Learning Pedagogy

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Introduction
This study aimed to analyze the impact of interactive e-learning pedagogy inunderstanding the relevance of cultural dimensions across curriculum in the Higher
Education Institutions. This interactive e-learning pedagogy refers to the different
cultural dimension videos, images, and other interactive elements included in the corecontent of the lessons particularly in the professional education subjects. Specifically,
this qualitative research study also aimed to analyze and contextualize various
phenomenological experiences and perspectives of diverse culture in social
dimensions as a tool in getting into globalization and internationalization of Higher
Education Institutions in the ASEAN Framework scenario because culture has somany meanings and uses in higher education research that this variety may seem
frustrating to a reader who is not familiar with the traditions of cultural studies(Valimaa, 2008).
Statement of Objective
The aim of this study was to generate a theory on the impact of interactive eLearningpedagogy in the core content of cultural dimensions across curriculum.
Literature Review
Valimaa (2008) argues that “Culture has so many meanings and uses in higher
education research that this variety may seem frustrating to a reader who is notfamiliar with the traditions of cultural studies”. This implies that pre-service education
students who will be the future teachers, need to familiarize the content of cultural
studies in higher education curriculum. It is very important to know the concept ofcultural dimensions across curriculum because this will be the basis of what pedagogy
fits to the types of learners.
Furthermore, Marginson & Van der Wende (2007) strongly emphasize that “in global
knowledge economies, higher education institutions are more important than ever as
mediums for a wide range of cross-border relationships and continuous global flowsof people, information, knowledge, technologies, products and financial capital. Evenas they share in the reinvention of the world around them, higher education
institutions, and the policies that produce and support them, are also being
reinvented”. This means that higher education institutions have a great role inglobalization through the use of technology in the teaching and learning process.
Meaning, through the use of e-learning pedagogy in higher education curriculum canhelp in learning the cultural context of the different cultures in the global arena.
Indeed, Serradell-López, Lara-Navarra & Casado-Lumbreras (2012) explain that“Higher education institutions are crucial in the present. Universities play a role thatvaries with time and evolves with society. Globalization is changing the world andaffecting higher education institutions in all their intrinsic characteristics: personnel,
programs, infrastructures and students”. Thus, there should be interactive e-learningpedagogy to be used across curriculum.
In addition, Otten (2010) “provides an orientation for setting up diversity activities
and diversity plans aimed at intercultural learning and presents the theoretical and

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conceptual framework of an understanding of intercultural learning”. Hence, there
must an integration of cultural dimensions content through interactive e-learningpedagogy.
According to Waldner, Nemetz, & Steinberger (2008) “the trend towards moredidactics in eLearning and the increased usage of new media makes the design anddevelopment of courses increasingly complex”. The ideas of Wladner et al. haveemphasized that e-learning instructional design with the core content of culturaldimensions helps the learners in their thorough understanding about cultural diversity.
It is supported by Stojanovic, Staab & Rudi (2001) “eLearning is fast, relevant andjust-in-time learning grown from the learning requirements of the new, dynamicallychanging, distributed business world”. Santos (2008) “Dynamic support in adaptive
inclusive educational systems depends on properly managing the adaptation in theeLearning life cycle by combining design and runtime adaptations and making apervasive usage of standards along the eLearning life cycle”. Ahdell & Andresen(2001) “Interactivity, flexibility, competition, reality, usability and drama elements
are all features that will create engagement for the user of games and simulations ineLearning”.
In addition, Loy (2014) stipulates that “eLearning has matured from the basics oflecture capture into sophisticated, interactive learning activities for students”. So, thetheory of constructivism, progressivism and pragmatism should be used as guide incontent and pedagogy of teaching the learners particularly in the higher education
institutions. Sanders & Udoka (2010) explain that “effectiveness and efficiency ofeLearning, therefore, has to address a variety of issues, including the role ofeLearning in knowledge and learning, its contribution to competent performance, its
relationship to organizational transformation, and strategies for embedding it into
other forms of electronic interaction”. Hence, the curriculum needs interdisciplinary
content knowledge with culturally responsive pedagogy.
Moreover, Monahan, McArdle & Bertolotto (2008) emphasize that “with the adventof the Internet however, e-learning has evolved and the term is now most commonlyused to refer to online courses. A multitude of systems are now available to manage
and deliver learning content online. While these have proved popular, they are often
single-user learning environments which provide little in the way of interaction or
stimulation for the student”. This implies that interactive e-learning pedagogy isneeded in diverse classrooms.
Similarly, Singh & Hardaker (2014) argue that “levels of eLearning adoption would
be higher if strategic managers recognized the social dimensions of eLearning
innovation and diffusion, such as: academic and professional goals, interests andneeds; technology interests; patterns of work; sources of support; and social
networks”. This means that the 21st century skills such as creative, innovative,
collaborative, communicative and digital, critical literacy are needed in the designinginteractive e-learning pedagogy by integrating the core content of cultural dimensions
across curriculum.
In fact, Garcia-Robles, Blat, Sayago, Griffiths, Casado & Martinez (2004) “have beendeveloped to support the creation of reusable and pedagogically neutral assessment
scenarios and content, as stated by the IMS Global Learning Consortium”. Punnoose

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Official Conference Proceedings(2012) “eLearning is not just a technology acceptance decision but also involves
cognition, this study extended its search beyond the normal technology acceptancevariables into variables that could affect the cognition of an individual due to his or
her unique characteristics”.
IAttwell (2007) “believes that we are coming to realize that we cannot simply
reproduce previous forms of learning, the classroom or the university, embodied insoftware. Instead, we have to look at the new opportunities for learning afforded byemerging technologies. Social software offers the opportunity to narrow the divide
between producers and consumers”.
Ellis, Jarkey, Mahony, Peat, & Sheely (2007) “case-study reveals the complexity ofquality improvement strategies, which (mainly due to the fact that eLearningcomplements the face-to-face learning experience) require a relational and embedded
approach. Key principles for managing eLearning development and evaluation for
campus-based universities are abstracted from the case-study and offered as a guide to
universities who face similar challenges Research limitations/implications – Although
not all aspects of the case-study can be applied to other contexts, the key principles ofthe proposed management model are likely to apply to other campus-based
universities which share the same focus on integrating eLearning in sustainable ways
but also wish to foreground quality assurance issues”.
Edwards & Finger (2007) “Following an introduction to ICT and sport management,
and discussion of eLearning and sport management, new eLearning roles are exploredthrough presenting hyperpedagogy which extends concepts of poststructural theory
into digital pedagogies. Research on hypertext and poststructuralism and therelationship between cultural studies, technology and popular culture has led to theassembly of theories of hyperpedagogy that seek a more informed and criticalengagement with technology”.
Conlan & Wade (2004)“usability and effectiveness of using the multi-model,
metadata-driven approach for producing rich adaptive eLearning solutions that remaincontent and domain independent. Through this independence, the eLearning services
developed can utilize many pedagogical approaches and a variety of models to
produce a wide range of highly flexible solutions”.
Docherty, Hoy, Topp & Trinder (2005) “Using eLearning supports students' learning
within a simulated environment. Learning was facilitated through network
communications and reflection on video performances of self and others”.
Nagunwa & Lwoga (2012) “A successful implementation of eLearning requires a
strategic approach which should be embedded by the university management,
academic staff and students. The approach should at least take into account significant
issues including pedagogy, ICT infrastructure, appropriate technologies, humanresources, eLearning policy, training of faculty and students, integration of eLearningand information literacy into university's curricula and partnerships”.
Stanisavljevic, Nikolic, Tartalja & Milutinovic (2015) “classification that should help
understanding key aspects of multimedia application in eLearning tools. The
classification tries to cover important aspects of multimedia application in eLearning

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tools: communication channels and exchange of different types of contents throughout
the channels, understanding in communication, and the ways of object manipulationin the user-tool interaction”
Lantz & Brage (2006)“by reflecting on the theoretical and practical implications ofapplying the extended Kuhlthau’s model, as practice has shown that this approach isuseful for pedagogical developmental work, including curriculum development ingeneral, and specifically for information literacy programmes”.
Lam, McNaught, Lee, Jack & Chan, (2014) “revealed that while students of different
disciplines did not vary a great deal in their daily usage of technology, there weredifferences in their level of confidence in using technology. The use of technology forteaching and learning also differed across disciplines”.
Catarci, De Giovanni, Gabrielli, Kimani, Stephen & Mirabella (2008)“describe how
a user-centered design process was applied to develop a method and set of guidelines
for didactical experts to scaffold their creation of accessible eLearning content, basedon a more sound approach to accessibility”.
Irvine (2010) “culturally relevant pedagogy means simply acknowledging ethnic
holidays, including popular culture in the curriculum or adopting colloquial speech. In
this article, the author emphasizes that using knowledge of students' cultural
backgrounds in instruction helps to bridge the cultural gap”.
Attwell (2007) “starts by looking at the changing face of education and goes on toconsider the different ways in which the so-called net generation is using technology
for learning. It goes on to consider some of the pressures for change in the present
education systems”.
Steen (2008)“designing successful eLearning is part art and part science, involving
the use of learning and training theory and an understanding of the knowledge and/or
skills to be taught”
Method Used
The research method used in this study is theoretical and empirical design because
theories from literature reviews and the students’ reaction as well as reflection has
been analyzed as the basis of the findings and results of this study. Then content andthematic analysis is being used in analyzing the data gathered. The participants of thisstudy are the fifty pre-service students from the College of Education, Mindanao State
University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines during the school year 20152016.
Research Design
The design of the study was carried out according to the tenets of grounded theory.
The design of a grounded theory is flexible and determined by the phenomenon understudy. Qualitative data was utilized to develop a grounded theory that described theimpact of interactive eLearning pedagogy in the core content of cultural dimensions
across curriculum. The dearth of literature in the Impact of Interactive eLearning

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Pedagogy in the Core Content of Cultural Dimensions Across Curriculum led to theselection of an inductive methodology. This approach is a type of factor-searching
study in which concepts emerge to describe a social process. Data collecting, coding
and analyzing occurred jointly.
Research Environment
The study was conducted at the College of Education, Mindanao State UniversityIligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, Northern Mindanao, Philippines.
Research Informants
The respondents of the study were fifty (50)pre-service education students withdiverse cultures from the College of Education, MSU-IIT. They were students who
have already taken all professional education subjects. They were interviewed
regarding their knowledge, feelings and beliefs about the impact of Interactive
eLearning Pedagogy in the Core Content of Cultural Dimensions Across Curriculum.
Data Gathering
In-depth interview averaging 60 minutes in length was conducted. Interviews were
held in the classroom. Written informed consent was secured from the chairpersons of
the four departments namely: Department of Science and Mathematics, Department of
Physical Education, Department of Technology Teacher Education and Department ofProfessional Education. Written consent to audiotape interviewers was obtained. Theinterviews were documented through extensive field notes. An interview guideconsisting of open-ended questions and associated probes was used to facilitate theinterview process with each subject. The guide is not used as a structured
questionnaire, rather it served as a reminder to the researcher to explore various issues
if they were not spontaneously addressed. Reflective field notes documenting the
researcher’s own responses to the interviews and the overall research process wererecorded in a field journal.
Data Analysis Plan
Interview transcripts were coded using the “open substantive” coding in which thedata were examined to identify the substance of what the data actually represent. Data
were continually coded, compared and recorded until patterns or categories begin to
emerge. The initial level concept that emerged from the substantive coding weretransferred to a computer-based word processing program with sort capabilities.
Similar initial level concepts from multiple transcripts were grouped together and/or
combined with other concepts. Patterns and categories emerged as the coded data.
Emerging theoretical idea was preserved through written memos. These theoreticalmemos are critical in refining conceptual relationships and in eventually developing
integrated theoretical framework.
Theory Generation Process
Grounded theory is a general research method (and thus is not owned by any one
school or discipline); which guides one on matters of data collection and details

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rigorous procedures for data analysis. Quantitative data or qualitative data of any typee.g. video, images, text, observations; spoken word etc. can be utilized. This is a
research tool which helps the researcher discover and make patterns and structures in
the area of interest through the process of constant comparison (http://goo.gl/l3vw3T).
Grounded Theory is presented here as a method of choice as it is detailed, rigorous,and systematic, yet it also permits flexibility and freedom. Grounded Theory offers
many benefits to research in Information Systems as it is suitable for the investigationof complex multifaceted phenomena. It is also well equipped to explore sociallyrelated issues. Despite existing criticism, it is a rigorous and methodical research
approach capable of broadening the perceptions of those in the research community(Jones & Alony,2011).
Results and Discussion of Preliminary Study for Theory Development
The results of the study for the development of theory are depicted in the
demographic profile of participants and the responses of the informants about impact
of interactive e-learning pedagogy in understanding the relevance of culturaldimensions across curriculum in the Higher Education Institutions.
Demographic Information. Table 1 showed the profile of fifty (50) pre-service collegeof education students as respondents of the study. Age range for the students are from
15-19 years old, race & ethnicity, gender, and language use at home. All pre-service
college education students twenty pre-service CED students are female and five
students are male. All of them have already taken their professional education
subjects.
Participant
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
P9
P10
P11
P12
P13
P14
P15
P16
P17
P18
P19
P20
P21
P22

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Race & Ethnic
GroupsCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuano
Butuanon
Subanon
IranunZamboangueño
Surigaonon
Boholano
Maguindanao
Maranao
Maranao
Tagalog
CebuanoCebuanoTagalog
Maranao
Maranao
CebuanoBoholano
CebuanoGender
F
F
F
F
F
M
M
F
M
F
F
F
F
M
F
F
F
F
F
M
F
F

Age
Range
17
17
17
17
17
17
18
16
17
17
17
18
18
17
17
18
18
18
18
18
18
18

7

Language
Used at Home
BisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaButuanon
SubanonMaranao
Chavacano
Surigaonon
BisayaMaguindanaon
Maranao
Maranao
Tagalog
BisayaBisayaTagalog
Maranao
Maranao
BisayaBisayaBisaya

CEDDepartment
DTTE
DTTE
DTTE
DTTE
DTTE
DSME
DSME
DSME
DSME
DPE
DPE
DPE
DPE
DTTE
DSME
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE

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P23
P24
P25
P26
P27
P28
P29
P30
P31
P32
P33
P34
P35
P36
P37
P38
P39
P40
P41
P42
P43
P44
P45
P46
P47
P48
P49
P50

CebuanoCebuanoCebuanoBoholano
CebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoMaranao
Maranao
CebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoMaranao
Maranao
CebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuanoCebuano

M
M
F
F
F
F
M
M
F
F
F
M
M
F
F
F
F
F
M
F
M
F
F
F
M
M
F
F

18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
19
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
18

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BisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaMaranao
Maranao
BisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaMaranao
Maranao
BisayaBisayaBisayaBisayaBisaya

DPRE
DSME
DSME
DPE
DPE
DTTE
DSME
DTTE
DPE
DPE
DPRE
DSME
DSME
DPE
DPRE
DPE
DSME
DSME
DPE
DPE
DTTE
DTTE
DSME
DSME
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE
DPRE

Pre-service CED Students(Participants) – Views, Feelings, knowledge of interactive
e-learning pedagogy and the relevance of cultural dimensions across curriculum in theHigher Education Institutions.
The informants shared their views, feelings, knowledge of interactive e-learningpedagogy and the relevance of cultural dimensions across curriculum in the Higher
Education Institutions. The different statements were compared, coded andcategorized. Patterns were made from their responses. Learners are fully engaged andmotivated to learn once it has high quality and meaningful content, integrate visualcomponents it means the topic is more eye-catching that encourages learners, realitybased eLearning scenarios it means Integrating real life examples and problems into
their eLearning activities which give them chance to draw how knowledge
acquired can be applied outside of the learning environment.
P1 “Pre-service students have a need for effective training. Thus, the curriculum
should have good training for effective eLearning to meet those needs”.
P2 “As one of the pre-service students, I feel that the teacher education curriculum
should emphasize the use of instructional designers as pedagogical experts for
eLearning activities within institutions of higher education.”

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P3 “ For me, it is very important to learn as much designing and developing effective
instructional design across the disciplines”
P4” Effective instruction would be enhanced through the combination of content andpedagogy with the emphasis of cultural dimensions in education
P5 “There is a need for pre-service education students to fully understand the conceptof culturally relevant pedagogy.”
P6 “ Culturally relevant pedagogy with the integration of e-learning is very useful inattaining effective teaching in culturally diverse classrooms”
P7 “Students tend to appreciate culturally relevant pedagogy once there is e-learning
using video of the different cultures. Through this type of teaching, learners withdifferent cultures are engaged and motivated”.
P8 “Culturally relevant pedagogy means simply acknowledging ethnic holidays,
including popular culture in the curriculum or adopting colloquial speech.“
P9 “Being a future teacher, it is very important to know the learners' cultural
backgrounds as the basis of using content and pedagogy in the teaching and learning
process”.
P10 “In the content and pedagogy, e-learning is the best metacognitive strategy indiscussing the importance of cultural dimension across curriculum particularly for themulticulturalism aspect”.
P11” e-learning helps the teachers and students in facilitating the core content of
cultural dimensions across curriculum”
P12” The use of e-learning is relevant in honing the minds or cognitive aspect ofevery student particularly the learners with disabilities”.
P13” In learning the core content of cultural dimensions across curriculum, elearning strategy with scaffolding approach can help the indigenous people”.
P14” e-Learning pedagogy with core content of cultural dimensions is very useful forthe learners with different cultures”.
P15 “e-learning Web 2.0 technology emphasizing content of cultural dimensions fits
to the learner-centered learning environment”.
P16”e-learning strategy approach by discussing about cultures of the different people
is inspires and motivates the learners to learn the core content of cultural dimensions
across the curriculum”.
P17” e-learning Web 2.0 encourages people to interact and to share information”.

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P18 “ e-Learning Web 2.0 explains and translates
teaching.”

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into interactive strategy of

P19 “e-learning using a video of the core content of cultural dimensions is the best
method of teaching.”
P20 ”Using (YouTube) in interactive e-learning pedagogy leads to critical literacy.”
P21 ”Interactive e-learning pedagogy in core content of cultural dimensions ofeducation helps learners in analyzing the concepts and essence of multicultural
education”.
P21 ”Using videos about cultures of different people in interactive e-learning
activity serves as motivational collaborative activity which relates to constructivism
theory."P22” e-learning pedagogy is very useful on interdisciplinary differences of thelearners in higher education institutions”.
P23” Interactive e-learning pedagogy using video of indigenous people helps students
of different disciplines and learning styles.”P24” Interactive e-learning video on cultural dimensions across disciplines forteaching and learning also differed across disciplines have more experiential
facilitating activities.”
P25” e-learning pedagogy is very useful strategy in teaching learners with different
cultures.”
P26 “Adoption of e-learning pedagogy gives positive impact in teaching and learning
process.”
P27” Using interactive e-learning video can help other stakeholders like parents,
teachers and other members in the community”.
P28” In educational technology subject, creating video about cultural dimensions
generates creative, innovative, collaborative and critical thinking skills for the 21st
century learners.”
P29 “In designing and creating interactive e-learning pedagogy using video featuring
cultural dimensions in education will help in drawing concepts and implications.
P30” Multimedia application in eLearning tools can improve the comprehension
skills of the learners.”
P31” Interactive eLearning video can help improve communication skills .”P32” Interactive e-learning pedagogy using video inside the classroom can inspire thelearners.”

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P33 “ Interactive e-learning video about multiculturalism is a great strategy inanalyzing the global trends in getting into internationalization.”
P34” In developing and designing an interactive eLearning pedagogy is a new tool to
implement competency-based curricula for higher education institutions of learning.”
P35” Using interactive e-learning pedagogy video about the cultural dimensions
supports the higher education curriculum in getting into globalization”.
P35” Interactive e-learning pedagogy is very relevant in the core content of culturaldimensions across curriculum.”
P36” Interactive eLearning can enhance ubiquity, equity and quality in higher
education of learning in the development of appropriate skills for the 21st century
learners.”
P37”Interactive e-learning pedagogy is also use as innovative and emerging
technology which is relevant to learning environments.
P38”A successful implementation of eLearning requires a strategic approach whichshould be embedded by the university management, academic staff and students.
P39” Integration of eLearning pedagogy can help in improving information literacy
into university's curricula and partnerships”.
P40” Using eLearning pedagogy video in the core content of cultural dimensions
support students' learning within a simulated environment”.
P41” Interactive e-learning pedagogy with school’s philosophy and core content of
cultural dimensions across curriculum is also useful in project based learning(PBL).
P42” Interactive e-learning pedagogy in the core content of cultural dimensions is asolution to a student-centered problem based approach to the acquisition 21st century
skills that used high quality learning objects embedded within the objectives of thelessons.”
P43” Interactive e-learning pedagogy using video can encourage pre-service
education students to explore, analyze the best facilitating network communications
and reflection while watching on video performances of different contents in culturaldimensions of education”.
P44” eLearning techniques can help pre-service education students acquire 21st
century skills in the safety of a simulated environment within the core content of
cultural dimensions across curriculum.”
P45” Interactive e-learning video about multicultural education in the core content of
cultural dimensions, is also very useful for critical thinking analysis.”

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P46” Using video in interactive e-learning pedagogy with core content in culturaldimensions can encourage group collaboration which develops learners tocommunicate with one another entered around asynchronous learning”.
P47 ”Interactive e-learning pedagogy can help learners to fully engage and understandthe core content of cultural dimensions of education.”
P48 ”Interactive e-learning pedagogy using video can help learners in their emotional
responses to acquire and retain new information or skills. ”
P49” Interactive eLearning can utilize many pedagogical approaches and a variety ofmodels to produce a wide range of highly flexible solutions.
P50” Interactive e-learning pedagogy gives benefits to learners to boost knowledge
retention rates.”
Categorizing, Coding and Themes
Four themes which emerged from the responses of the participants are:
Theme 1: Learners are fully engaged and motivated to learn once it has high quality
and meaningful content.
Theme 2: Integration of visual components in discussing the topic is more eyecatching that encourages learners, reality-based eLearning scenarios.
Theme 3: Interactive e-learning pedagogy can boost knowledge retention rates which
offer learners the opportunity to gauge their progress and summarize the content they
have learned.
Theme 4: e-learning videos may elicit an emotional response or images that may
allow learners to personally relate to the subject are keys to interactive experiences.
Hypotheses Derived from the Results:
After looking into the patterns and categorizing items, I was able to formulate thefollowing hypotheses on the impact of interactive eLearning pedagogy in the corecontent of cultural dimensions across curriculum. Analyzing the responses of the preservice education students in the guide questions through the face to face interviews,
hypotheses were derived.
Hypothesis 1: If learners are fully engaged and motivated to learn, it is because of thehigh quality and meaningful content of the cultural dimensions across curriculum.
Proposition 1: The core content of cultural dimensions can motivate learners inanalyzing the different cultures.
Hypothesis 2: If the Integration of visual components in discussing the topic is more
eye-catching that encourages learners, reality-based eLearning scenarios are effective
pedagogy in the higher education institutions.

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Proposition 2: Integration of e-learning pedagogy in the core content of culturaldimensions is very important in the teaching and learning across curriculum.
Hypothesis 3: If Interactive e-learning pedagogy can boost knowledge retention rates,
it offers learners the opportunity to gauge their progress and summarize the content
they have learned.
Proposition 3: Interactive e-learning pedagogy can boost knowledge retention rates.
Hypothesis 4: If e-learning videos may elicit an emotional response or images it may
also allow learners to personally relate to the subjects which are keys to interactive
experiences.
Proposition 4: e-learning videos about the core content of cultural dimensions may
elicit an emotional response or images through interactive experiences.
Generated Grounded Theory:
Interactive e-learning pedagogy is an effective interdisciplinary instructional designfor the higher education institutions across the globalized world curriculum.
Findings and discussions
Based from the findings of the study learners are fully engaged and motivated tolearn once it has high quality and meaningful content, integrate visual components itmeans the topic is more eye-catching that encourages learners, reality-based
eLearning scenarios it means Integrating real life examples and problems into theireLearning activities which give them chance to draw how knowledge acquired canbe applied outside of the learning environment. Another findings emphasize the boost
knowledge retention rates which offer learners the opportunity to gauge their progressand summarize the content they have learned, emotional responses can also help
learners to better acquire and retain new information or skills. Including videos that
may elicit an emotional response or images that may allow them to personally relate
to the subject are keys to interactive experiences. Encourage group collaboration
which develops learners to communicate with one another entered aroundasynchronous learning. Finally, an interactive eLearning pedagogy includes a variety
of different multimedia elements and is aesthetically appealing to be more interactive
than one that relies upon solely text content.
Conclusion
In conclusion, interactive eLearning pedagogy has great impact in the core content of
cultural dimensions across curriculum. Culturally relevant pedagogy throughinteractive e-learning instructional design is an effective teaching method in
culturally diverse classrooms.

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Using Web 2.0 and Corpus Technology to Enhance Vocabulary Acquisition
Kirk Dowswell, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Jenny Eppard, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
Undergraduate students are exposed to discipline-specific lexis and concepts,
particularly when studying in a second language. Current research suggests that most
students find it difficult to fully comprehend academic reading material because theylack the requisite vocabulary, i.e., 5,000 to 8,000 word families are required forachieving 95% to 98% comprehension, respectively. Thus, in order to enhance
vocabulary acquisition and, ultimately, improve knowledge of complex discipline
specific vocabulary, this study evaluated the use of the Memrise application as a selfdirected learning tool. The study was conducted in an Arab higher education
institution where undergraduate students studied IT in English. By using the Memrise
application in conjunction with a discipline-specific key word corpus, it was
anticipated that this intervention would improve vocabulary acquisition with minimaluse of classroom teaching time. Results indicated that when students engaged with thelearning tool there was a noticeable improvement in vocabulary knowledge for those
who used the application on a regular basis. Overall, the study has implications forteachers, as well as learners, as the Memrise application is an adaptable and freely
available mobile learning tool for developing vocabulary knowledge.
Keywords: data-driven learning; vocabulary self-collection strategy; vocabulary
learning; teaching with mobile learning applications

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
The ability to read academic texts in English is one of the most challenging issues
facing second language learners and, when coupled with subject–specific vocabulary,studying at English-medium institutions (EMI) can be challenging for many of the
Emirati students who have previously only studied in Arabic-medium schools.
Therefore, many federal EMI’s in the UAE require students who have not achieved an
International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 5.0 to attend a prebaccalaureate program that focuses on English academic literacy and language skills.
Reading proficiency is assessed throughout these academic English courses andstudents are expected to have achieved a satisfactory level of academic literacy skills
that will allow them to cope with the English language textbooks and the disciplinespecific material encountered in their baccalaureate studies. At first glance, most
students do cope and have the literacy skills to meet subject requirements. However,informal feedback from many of the content faculty suggests that students do struggle
with the complex texts and subject-specific vocabulary they encounter in class. Thissituation stimulated several discussions within the college and prompted further
investigation.
A short survey was conducted with the content faculty, asking them to identify thelanguage difficulties their students faced in class and what strategies they used to copewith these problems. Most responses indicated that many students did, indeed, facelanguage difficulties, particularly with the complex vocabulary they were required tolearn and the ability comprehend course textbooks. Furthermore, several faculty feltthat it was not their place to cater for these difficulties and that additional language
support should be provided. (Internal College of Technological Innovation’s
Language Task Force Survey, January 2014). This initial lack of language support forcontent courses led to the development of a variety of research projects to look at
strategies for enhancing students’ academic literacy skills.
The focus of this research project was to improve vocabulary acquisition. It was
hypothesized that by using contemporary text mining techniques to extract key
vocabulary and by improving vocabulary acquisition through MALL (Mobile
Assisted Language Learning) strategies, we will be able to reduce the difficulties
faced by ESL students when studying difficult concepts and lexis in their content
courses and help them develop what Vollmer calls:“…. ‘conceptual literacy’ and ‘discourse competence’. The first ofthese terms can be defined as the ability to think clearly with thehelp of language, whereas the second means to apply linguistic
abilities acquired for the purpose of communicating clearly about
relevant
topics and thematic structures.” (Vollmer ,2006, p.7)
In section 2 of this paper, the literature review will address the issue of developing
vocabulary knowledge. Section 3 will discuss the methodology used to develop the
vocabulary and, finally, Section 4 of the paper will conclude with a discussion of theresults and future implications for this pilot project.

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Background
Current research has demonstrated that there is a clear link between word knowledge
and the ability to comprehend texts. This relationship was examined by (Nation,2006) and more recently by (Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010) who not only
suggested that increased vocabulary knowledge could lead to an improvement inreading comprehension, but also proposed two thresholds for text coverage andcomprehension. This showed that for a student to understand 98% of a text,
knowledge of 8,000 word families is required and a knowledge of 4,000 to 5,000
word families for 95% coverage.
Studies cited by (Cobb,2015) suggest that the first 2,000 most frequent words,
coupled with the 570 word families in the Academic Word List (AWL), can bring thecoverage of an academic text up to approximately 90%. The students in this pilot
course were tested using the (Meara and Milton, 2003) X Lex vocabulary levels test
and had an average vocabulary level of 3,500 to 4,000 words. To increase
comprehension to the minimum coverage of 95% recommended above, anintervention that will increase the students’ word knowledge of 4,000 to 5,000 wordfamilies will be required.
This awareness of the importance of academic vocabulary is thus deemed necessary
for students to study successfully in university. Consequently, it is paramount that thecontent faculty be made aware of interventions that could enhance their students’comprehension of academic texts. However, as the faculty survey above revealed,
many content teachers do not have the time or inclination to engage in strategies toimprove their students’ text comprehension. Instead, many rely on basic glossaries
available in the course textbooks and assume that the students will make use of these.
To rectify this situation, an intervention framework based on the Vocabulary SelfCollection Strategy (VSS+), (Haggard, 1982; and 1986, p. 204; Wolsey, Smetana andGrisham, 2015), was created. A pilot study was implemented (Dowswell, 2016), andthe results were positive for those students who completed the project, however, after
much reflection, it was decided to revise the framework as the VSS+ wiki activities
were very labour intensive. It was at this point that the Memrise application waschosen as a replacement for the course vocabulary wiki.
What is Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) and why was the Memrise
application selected?
As previously mentioned, a computer-based intervention using a class wiki was
implemented. The wiki could be easily accessed by the students on many different
devices, thus, allowing them to collaborate and update the course glossary by meansof the class wiki if they had Internet access. The construct behind the VSS+ wiki
strategy; the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) (Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001), also
ensured that the students who participated retained the vocabulary they processed for
longer. As they hypothesized; words processed with greater learner involvement are
retained longer than those processed with a lower involvement load. The construct,labeled ‘task-induced involvement’, incorporated the cognitive components of‘Search’ and ‘Evaluation’ and the motivational component of ‘Need’, so as long as
there is a high level of engagement for each of the components, learning will takeplace.

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There was now, however, a need to employ a more user-friendly framework that stillretained the advantages of the VSS wiki framework and the ILH. As a result, theMemrise application (https://www.Memrise.com/about/)
was selected. Thisapplication is basically an electronic flash card with many additional features such as;algorithms that make a note of lexis with which the students have difficulty. It can beeasily personalized, with audio and pictorial additions, and even translations can be
added.
Although it does not completely follow the process of task-induced involvement,
when students are researching the word for uploading to Memrise, they are using the“Need” “Search” and “Evaluation” components. The students also have theopportunity to work online, or offline, and individually, or collaboratively, to create
electronic course glossaries. The other rationale for choosing Memrise, was that theUAE has one of the highest adoption rates in the world for “smart devices” (GfK
Consumer Index, 2016). All the students in this study had access to a smart mobile
device and the Memrise application.
What are the criteria for vocabulary selection and how were the key words
selected?
The current debate on the benefits of rich vocabulary instruction (Nagy andTownsend, 2012) as opposed to “genuine academic reading for the readers’ own
purposes” (Krashen, 2012, p. 233) has prompted educators to explore what
intervention would be more successful with ESL students. However, evidence
provided by (Smith, 2001) showed that Arab learners find vocabulary acquisition
extremely challenging, primarily because a limited number of words in English areborrowed from Arabic. Furthermore, the Arab teaching pedagogy is traditionallybased on rote learning and, in most situations, there is minimal engagement inextensive reading activities. Based on this evidence, the present study employed ‘rich’vocabulary instruction strategies in the style of the Memrise application, as thesewould be deemed more useful for Arab ESL students.
Having decided on a new method of intervention, a corpus of academic words specificto the pilot Information Technology course, IT in Global and Local Cultures, wasused again. The use of corpora in language teaching and learning, sometimes referred
to as ‘data-driven learning’, a model created by (Johns, 1990) (as cited in O'Keeffe, &McCarthy, 2010), has greatly simplified the process of analyzing language andenabled the creation of frequency lists based on the course textbook. The corpus was
easily created using the SketchEngine application (Kilgarriff, Rychly, Smrz, &Tugwell, 2004). Once the lists were created and analyzed, the keywords were chosen
based on the following criteria: the relevance to subject, (discipline specific words),
the academic word list, (general academic words), and, finally, the frequency level as
per the Vocab Profiler (Cobb, 2015). The rationale for this is based on the (Hiebertand Lubliner, 2008) study on academic vocabulary instruction. This suggests that
academic words can be categorized into two distinctive areas: general and disciplinespecific. General words are used across disciplines, whereas discipline-specific words
tend to be used only in particular subject areas. It was decided to include both types,
as learning discipline-specific words does not always guarantee full comprehension of
discipline-specific texts.

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Methodology
Research design
The aim of this research was to develop and apply a framework for the teaching andlearning of content-specific vocabulary. It employed a quasi-experimental research
design to test the impact of the Memrise application and compare the results against acontrol group who received normal instruction. The participants were randomly
selected based on their classroom placement. The study explored the following
research questions:1.   Is there a significant difference between the MALL (Mobil Assisted Language
Learning) intervention group and the control group that received traditional
vocabulary instruction strategies?
2.   What are the IT students’ perceptions of learning academic vocabulary with
the Memrise application?
The Intervention
Participants
A total of 11 male and 42 female university students majoring in Information
Technology at an EMI university in the UAE were asked to participate in the study.
The students, all ESL learners with Arabic as their first language, ranged in age from
20-30 years old. A control group of 20 female students followed the traditional courseof instruction. The intervention group consisted of two intact groups: one female classof 22 students and one male class of 11 students who had the option of using theMemrise application to reinforce vocabulary encountered in class. Of the students
participating in the intervention group, 24 of the 33 students completed a pre- andpost-vocabulary knowledge (VKS) test and 33 completed the questionnaire. From thecontrol group, only 8 students completed the pre- and post-VKS test.
The intervention took place over a period of twelve weeks or six teaching units. The
students in the intervention group were instructed on the use of the Memrise
application as an autonomous learning tool. After reading the text and discussing the
major concepts in class, the students who had access to the Memrise application could
access the specific Memrise course (CIT 305) that contained the lexis for each new
topic covered in the course. The intervention students also had the opportunity to add
to the Memrise entries as they saw fit. As an incentive, a small percentage of the final
course grade was awarded for participation based on the score on the leaderboard.

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Picture 1. Screenshot of Memrise Course Leaderboard and Vocabulary Item

Picture 2. Screenshot of Memrise Vocabulary Item

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Data Collection Instruments & Procedures
All students taking the course were asked to complete a vocabulary knowledge test.
The aim of the test was to establish which of the 130 corpus keywords were known byboth groups of students. Additionally, at the end of the study, a questionnaire wasused with the intervention group to assess the students’ perceptions on the use of the
Memrise application as an autonomous learning tool.
The vocabulary test used was an adapted version of the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale(Paribakht and Wesche,1997) which is a test of students’ knowledge of discipline
specific and academic vocabulary and was based on 130 prominent key words,
extracted from the discipline specific corpus. The students in this study indicated theirlevel of recognition of the words by selecting one of the following four options:a) I have never seen this word before;b) I have seen or heard of this word before;c) I think I can define this word;d) I am confident I can define this word.
The test was completed by 24 students from the intervention group and 8 students
from the control group.
The questionnaire was comprised of a total of 7 statements. Participants in theintervention group were asked to rate each statement on a 5-point Likert scale (Agree,
Strongly Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). The
questionnaire was administered at the end of the 12-week intervention and it wascompleted by 33 students.
Results & Discussion
Pre- and Post-Test Comparisons
The first research question sought to investigate the effect of vocabulary instruction
using the Memrise application with the intervention group and to compare the resultswith a control group who had received traditional vocabulary instruction.
To investigate the effect of the Memrise application on vocabulary comprehension, a
repeated measure ANOVA was used to compare between the mean scores of a pretest and those of a post-test given to each group. The vocabulary used in the pre-tests
and post-tests was specific to the vocabulary clusters.
For the vocabulary set, a pre-test and a post-test were given. An ANOVA test
analyzed in SPSS showed a significant difference between the two tests. The meansof the two tests are shown in the table below:

Post 1 Categories
Pre 1 Categories

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics
Mean
Std. Deviation.7917.588232.8333
1.00722

N
24
24

The statistical test revealed a main effect between the two tests F (1, 23) = 79.458.
We applied the Greeenhouse-Geisser correction as the Greeenhouse-Geisser estimate

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Table 2. Tests of Within- Subjects Effects
Measure: Measure 1
SourceTest1

Sphercity
AssumedGreenhouseGeisser
HuynhFeldt
LowerboundError(test1)

Type
III Sum
od
Squares50.021df

Mean
SquareF

Sig.

PartialNoncent
Eta
Parameter
SquaredObserved
Power a1

50.02179.458.000.77679.4581.000

50.0211.000

50.02179.458.000.77679.4581.000

50.0211.000

50.02179.458.000.77679.4581.000

50.0211.000

50.02179.458.000.77679.458

1.000

23

.630

23.000.630

23.000.630

23.000.630

Sphercity
14.479AssumedGreenhouse- 14.479
Geisser
Huynh14.479
Feldt
Lower14.479
bounda.   Computed using alpha = .05

Pairwise comparisons were conducted to parse out the discrepancies between pre-test
and post-tests. These comparisons showed that the participants performed
significantly better when tested after the end of the first vocabulary intervention.
Each subsequent set of vocabulary words followed the same pattern (a pretest, anintervention – Memrise – followed by a post-test) and a similar method for data
analysis. The second set of vocabulary words showed a significance difference.
However, the results of these indicated an opposite effect. The students performed
better in the pre-test than they did in the post-test. When tested, the third set of
vocabulary did not show a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test
with a p value of .83. The fourth and final test showed a significant difference
between the pre-test and post-test with a p value of .002.
There are several reasons why this data was inconsistent. For one, the VKS is a selfreporting test and students may not fully understand the importance of answering
accurately. They also may not have encountered this type of test before as selfreporting tests are not frequently used in this context. Therefore, students may haveneeded more time to become accustomed to the value of self-reporting for bothteachers and learners.

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Questionnaire
The second research question sought to discover what the intervention group thought
about the Memrise application as a means of learning vocabulary. A questionnaire
was used asking the participants in the intervention group to rate a total of 7
statements on a 5-point Likert scale. The results of the questionnaire are shown in
Table 3.
Table 3. Questionnaire results (n=33).
Statement
SD D N A SA
1. Memrise has been useful for vocabulary learning.
7
1 8 10 7
Memrise is a useful tool to practice new course 7
3 3 11 9
2.
vocabulary.
3. Memrise has given me more exposure to new vocabulary
6
1 7 10 9
4. I think my motivation to the subject has now increased.
6
2 5 16 4The Memrise Application has improved the sense of 5
5 9 12 2
5.
community in the class.
6. Memrise is easy to launch and navigate.
6
2 3 13 7
7. Memrise motivates me to study vocabulary more often.
5
3 6 14 5
Note: SD= Strongly Disagree; D=Disagree; N=Neutral; A=Agree; SA=Strongly
Agree
The feedback gathered from the questionnaire suggested that:•   Just over 50% of the students in the intervention group found that the Memrise
application was useful for vocabulary learning.
•   While 60.6% felt that Memrise was a useful tool for practicing new
vocabulary.
•   A further 19 out of 33 students felt that Memrise provided them with more
exposure to new vocabulary.
•   Just over 60% of the students felt that their motivation increased, however,
only 42% felt that it improved their sense of community in class.
•   In terms of ease of use, just over 60% of the students found the applicationeasy to launch and navigate.
•   Finally, approximately 57% of students stated that Memrise motivated them tostudy vocabulary more often.
The above data would suggest that the Memrise application was quite useful as a
vocabulary learning tool in that it provided students with the opportunity to learn
vocabulary anywhere and at any time. It also provided the opportunity for them tocollaborate and compete. However, as the data revealed, only 37% of the students
used the application on a regular basis which was far less than expected consideringthat the application was interactive and not just a memorization device. Possible
reasons for such a low take-up of the application could be; the very small grade
incentive awarded for usage, the use of more conventional methods for learning
vocabulary and, finally, the limited amount of time spent training students on the useof the application. In the future, it would be advisable to employ the application as acourse glossary, created with the vocabulary discussed in class. The bulk loading

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utility could be easily utilized after students added difficult vocabulary to a common
Google spreadsheet.
Conclusion
The main purpose of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of themobile learning application Memrise, as a means of enhancing the acquisition ofcontent-specific vocabulary by undergraduate Arab students studying at an EMI in the
UAE. Each of the research questions sought to determine the level of effectiveness of
this intervention. Although the results from the first research question were notconclusive, in that students performed significantly better with respect to specificvocabulary sets than they did with others, this could be for various reasons. For
example, the students self-reported their knowledge of the vocabulary words so it
could be possible that they had actually seen or had not seen words and had falsely
reported their responses.
The questionnaire results indicated that students who used the application found thetool to be a useful method by which to learn new vocabulary. Not all students,
however, found the application engaging even though it streamlines the process of
vocabulary acquisition. In a future study, it might be worth investigating the reasonsfor this lack of engagement in greater depth. It would also be interesting to recruit
more students to do a direct comparison between paper-based and computer-based
vocabulary learning strategies and the long term retention of content-specificvocabulary.
The present study has implications for both teachers and learners as the Memrise
application could be easily adapted by content-specific teachers as a method fordeveloping their students’ vocabulary knowledge and concepts in their specialized
courses. With the help of this free and readily available tool, the framework describedin this paper, could be adapted to enable learners to apply many of the 21st Century
learning skills such as collaborative and autonomous learning. Social networking
devises such as mobile phones are now so prominent that students have theopportunity to interact with applications such as Memrise anywhere and at any time.
These devises can also prove to be highly motivating as it takes vocabularly
acquisition to a different level, many features of the application foster collobarationand interaction on a regular basis, thus improving linguistic skills. The Memrise
website is a repository for hundreds of topics and it is relatively easy to create
vocabulary lists for specific topics.
At this point, it is useful to identify some of the factors that could have a bearing on
future studies. These are an analysis of the reading text, the development of the corpus
and the selection of the key words in context. This can be achieved with theassistance of the free online analytical tools provided by www.usingenglish.com. This
website hosts a variety of tools that is freely available for all to use. Samples of corematerials (care should be taken that there is no copyright violation) can be easily
uploaded and analyzed for everything from readability levels to key words in context,
thus making the creation of your specific Memrise course straightforward for nonlanguage specialists. For future research, it would be beneficial to triangulate theresults with additional reliable vocabulary comprehension instruments that support the

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self-reporting. This could lead to a validation of self-reporting vocabulary tools in thiscontext.

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References
Cobb, T. (2015). Range for texts v.3 [Vocab Research Resources]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.lextutor.ca/cgi-bin/range/texts/index.pl
Cobb, T. (2015). VocabProfile Home [Vocab Research Resources]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.lextutor.ca/vp/
Cummins, J. (1979). Cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic
interdependence, the optimum age question and some other matters. Working Papers
on Bilingualism, No. 19, 121-129.
GfK Consumer Index (2016). (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttp://www.gfk.com/insights/press-release/hong-kong-north-america-and-uae-areworlds-most-connected-populations/Haggard, M. R. (1982). The vocabulary self-selection strategy: An active approach toword learning. Journal of Reading, 26, 203–207.
Hu, M., & Nation, I.S.P. (2000). Vocabulary density and reading comprehension.
Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403–430.
Hulstijn, J.H. and Laufer, B. (2001). Some empirical evidence for the involvement
load hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning, 51(3), 539-558.
doi:10.1111/0023-8333.00164
Hiebert, E. & Lubliner, S. The Nature, Learning, and Instruction of General Academic
Vocabulary. In A. Farstrup & J. Samuels (Eds.) What research has to say about
vocabulary instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
IELTS. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/about-the-test/how-ielts-isscored
Kilgarriff, A., Rychly, P., Smrz, P., & Tugwell, D. (2004). The sketch engine. Proc
EURALEX 2004, Lorient, France; pp. 105–116,. http://www.sketchengine.co.uk
Range for texts v.3 [Vocab Research Resources]. Accessed 3 Nov 2015 at
http://www.lextutor.ca/cgi-bin/range/texts/index.pl.
Krashen, S., Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Letters to the editors. Read Research
Quarterly, 47(3), 233–234. doi:10.1002/rrq.018
Krashen, S. (2012). Response to Nagy. Retrieved fromhttp://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/response_to_nagy_2012_rrq.pdf
Laufer, B., and Ravenhorst-Kalovski, G. C. (2010). Lexical threshold revisited:
Lexical text coverage, learners; vocabulary size and reading comprehension. Reading
in a Foreign Language, 22(1), 15-30.

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Laufer, B., Rozovski-Roitblat, B. (2015). Retention of new words: Quantity ofencounters, quality of task, and degree of knowledge. Language Teaching Research
19(6), 687–711.
Marzano, R. J. (2010). Teaching basic and advanced vocabulary: A framework fordirect instruction. Boston: Heinle.
Meara, P.M., & Milton, J. L. (2003). X_Lex. The Swansea vocabulary levels test.
Newbury: Express.
Nagy, William, Townsend, Dianna. (2012). Words as Tools: Learning Academic
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O'Keeffe, A., & McCarthy, M. (2010). The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics.
London: Routledge.
Paribakht, T.S. & Wesche, M. (1996). Enhancing Vocabulary Acquisition ThroughReading: A Hierarchy of Text-Related Exercise Types. The Canadian Modern
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Wesche, M. & Paribakht, T.S. (1996). Assessing L2 Vocabulary Knowledge: Depth
versus Breadth. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 53(1), 13-40.
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Contact emails: kirk.dowswell@zu.ac.ae, jenny.eppard@zu.ac.ae

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Using an Informatics Course to Support an Herbal Medicine Course for Learning
Herbs with Volatile Oil
Bunyapa Wangwattana, Silpakorn University, Thailand
Verayuth Lertnattee, Silpakorn University, Thailand
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Abstract
Phytochemistry is the one of subjects for pharmacy students. The subject is linking
about herbs and its chemical compounds which contain pharmacological activities.
The contents of phytochemistry are describing the structures of the large number of
secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human,plant biology and environment, and the biosynthesis of these compounds. In theacademic year 2016, the third year pharmacy students, who planned to learn
phytochemistry on the topic of volatile oil, were assigned to search and gather herbal
information about 29 herbs containing volatile oil. This assignment was a part of an
informatics course, namely, Health Informatics. The objectives of the assignment wereto prepare the students’ informatics skills and review their basic knowledge about
aromatic herbs for the phytochemistry lesson. To accomplish the goals, theKnowledge Unifying Initiator for Herbal Information (a version for pharmacy
students, KUIHerbRx) was used as a tool for collecting the students’ opinions.
Furthermore, we analyzed the input opinions given by the students. The results ofanalysis showed the students’ interests, responsibility and ability in collecting reliableherbal information. The completed students’ assignments exceeded the teachers’
expectation in term of the number of contributed opinions. The most interesting herb
was Dill (Anethum graveolens L.). The highest number of opinions given by one
student was 33 opinions. The most interested topic was medicinal indication. This
work offers the method of using an informatics course for improving informatics skills
and preparing for phytochemistry lessons in the future.
Keywords: Informatics, Phytochemistry, pharmacy school, medicinal herbs, volatile
oil

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Informatics is one the most important skills in the 21st century for everyone, including
healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals use information technology
increasingly (Garde, Harrison, Huque, & Hovenga, 2006). Informatics competencies
for healthcare professionals have become crucial due to the increasing presence oftechnologies in the workforce environment. Incompetent informatics skills affect thehealthcare professionals’ ability to perform optimum responsibilities. For this reason,
the informatics education for healthcare professionals should be managed to thecurriculum sufficiently. Pharmacists are one of healthcare professionals who contact
with the patients. The knowledge about patients, medications, disease states, and the
medication-use process are necessary to pharmacists. Pharmacists are expected to
update their knowledge and provide the trusted information to patients. For finding theup to date and reliable information, informatics and information technology play apivotal role to support the pharmacists’ work. The pharmacy informatics were definedas "the scientific field that utilizes a systems approach to medication-related data andinformation including its acquisition, storage, analysis, and dissemination --in thedelivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes." (Fox,
Karcher, Flynn, & Mitchell, 2008). The knowledge and skills about information
technology and informatics are needed to incorporate into the pharmacy students’curriculum.
Herbal medicine is increasing in popularity worldwide (Verma & Singh, 2008).
Pharmacists directly responsible to serve knowledge about herbal medicine to patients,
such as proper uses of herbal medicines and interaction with other pharmaceuticalproducts. Pharmacy students need basic knowledge of herbal medicine,phytochemistry and pharmaceutical uses of herbs. The knowledge involved herbal
medicine has been provided to the pharmacy students. The schools of pharmacy have a
responsibility to offer the related knowledge in herbal medicines to pharmacy students.
The Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University’s curriculum was designed the courses
involving in both informatics and herbal medicine, the detail of each course wereexplained below. To prepare the students’ informatics skills and review their basic
knowledge about aromatic herbs for the phytochemistry lesson in near future. The
results from the assignment given in Health Informatics course were analyzed. This
work offers the method of using an informatics course for improving informatics skills
and preparing for phytochemistry lessons in the future.
Informatics Course for Pharmacy Students
Due to the information technology play dramatically role in health professional.
Pharmacists are expected to have informatics abilities. The informatics courses forpharmacy students in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University’s curriculum
were designed, one for the third-year students called “Health Informatics”. The
contents of Health Informatics course are involved in basic principles of healthinformatics; informatics skills; comparing and contrasting health information fromdifferent disciplines; concepts of how health information is stored, organized, retrieved
and used; applications of basic health information in hospitals, clinics, public healthsettings, pharmaceutical industries and government units. The basic informatics skills
for pharmacy students are to search and gather the reliable information using

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information technology, to evaluate the obtained information, to share data andcollaborate with other members in the same class and to create the report orpresentation. The pharmacy students learned and practiced the informatics skills fromthe course.
Herbal Medicine Courses for Pharmacy Students
In Thailand, the herbal usage has increased sharply since the government policy. The
pharmacists also should have knowledge of herbs and herbal products. The Botany
and Phytochemistry courses were included in the undergraduate pharmacy’s
curriculum from Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University. The Botany course wasdesigned for the second-year pharmacy students. About the Phytochemistry courses
were divided into 2 subjects, named Pharmacognosy I and Pharmacognosy II.
Pharmacognosy I was set for the third-year pharmacy students and Pharmacognosy II
for the fourth-year students. The laboratory courses of these 2 subjects were paralleledwith the lecture courses. The contents in Pharmacognosy I consisted of
Phytochemistry, the chemical groups of natural compounds such as Alkaloids,
Terpenoids, Flavonoids, Anthraquinone glycosides, Volatile oils and related
substances and so on. In each topic, the pharmacy students have to learn about natural
sources, chemical constituents, physico-chemical properties, biosynthesis pathways,
extraction methods, pharmacological activities, methods for quality assurance,
important products on the market. While the contents of Pharmacognosy II contain theknowledge for quality control and quality assurance for herbal raw materials andherbal products.
Experimental Designs and Tools
We designed the assignment in the Health Informatics course to practice the students’
informatics skills and to prepare the knowledge for further phytochemistry class to thethird-year pharmacy students. The volatile oils and related substances topic in
Pharmacognosy I course was used as an experiment. The 158 third-year pharmacy
students who enrolled in the Health Informatics course and planned to learn
phytochemistry on the topic of volatile oil, were assigned to search and gather herbal
information about 29 herbs containing volatile oil. Each student was responsibility atleast one herb for finding reliable information about each herb in Thai language. To
accomplish the goals, the Knowledge Unifying Initiator for Herbal Information or
KUIHerb (a version for pharmacy students, KUIHerbRx) was used as a tool forcollecting the students’ opinions (Lertnattee, & Chomya, 2014). KUIHerb is a webbased tool using for Knowledge Management (KM) to exchange herbal information
between the users who have experience in herbal medicine. The web-based technology
is a potential tool to support collaborative learning (Liaw, Chen, & Huang, 2008). The
topics provided to the students is indications, precautions, extra-information and herbnames in local or other languages. All information should be had the references.
Additionally, the photos of the herbs and the products containing the herb should betaken by the students themselves. In case of they could not find the real herbs or
products, the link of websites containing the herbs photos or product photos wereadded. The students could participate the other students’ opinions by voting to support
the contributed opinions. The completed assignments had to finish in 2 weeks later andthe reports were sent to the teachers via electronic mail. Furthermore, we analyzed the
input opinions given by the students. The results were shown in next topic.

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Results and Discussion
The input opinions given by the students were analyzed. The results showed the total
number of contributed opinions including votes given by the students was 1058. The
most interesting topic for the students was herb medicinal indications, 247 opinions
and then the herb names, 218 opinions, respectively. While the minimum number of
input opinion was the herb images topic, 9 opinions and then the product images, 11
opinions were contributed. The low number of contributed opinions on these two
topics showed the students could not take the herbal and product photos bythemselves. One problem was the students could not find the real herbs or real
products to take photos. The number of votes was 106, showed the students shared theobtained information and would like to participate in other members’ opinions. The
number of contributed opinions on each topic was shown in Table 1.
Table 1: The number of contributed opinions given by the students in each topic.
Topic

Number of opinions
247
61
94
218
190
9
11
122
106
1058

Indications
Precautions
Extra-information
Herb names
References
Herb images
Herbal product images
Links
Votes
Total

To evaluate the students’ responsibilities, each student had to log in using the given
password to add the opinions or vote into the KUIHerbRx2017. The number ofcontributed opinions of each student were analyzed. The result showed the highest
number of opinions given by one student was 33 opinions. To observe the students’interesting along the 29 aromatic herbs given, the input opinions in all topics of eachherb were examined. The most interesting herb for students was Dill (Anethum
graveolens L.) due to 92 contributed opinions were given. The aromatic herb which
lowest input opinions was Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum L.), with 13 input
opinions. Figure 1 showed the photos of Dill from external links fromKUIHerbRx2017.

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Figure 1: The Links of Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) from KUIHerbRx2017.
We evaluated the students’ abilities, the contents of input opinions were checked. The
results showed the students had abilities to search reliable information and thenevaluate the obtained information and gather the data. The reliability of the contributed
opinions was evaluated by the related input opinions in the reference topic. The input
opinions in the reference topic were 190 opinions, while each reference opinion could
be referring to many contributed opinions on other topics. Figure 2 showed the input
opinions in the medicinal indications topic of Dill from KUIHerbRx2017. The number
in parentheses at the end of each opinion refer to the reference opinions in thereference topic as shown in Figure 3.

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Figure 2: The contributed indications of Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) fromKUIHerbRx2017.

Figure 3: The contributed references of Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) fromKUIHerbRx2017.
The results showed the assignment given in the Health Informatics course could fulfill
the purpose of the work to practice the pharmacy students’ informatics skills and toreview the basic knowledge of medicinal herb for the near future phytochemistrycourse. The completed students’ assignments exceeded the teachers’ expectation interm of the number of contributed opinions.

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Conclusion
From the results, the assignment given in the Health Informatics course could prepare
the students’ informatics skills. The students’ ability in searching and gathering thereliable herbal information was shown in the results. Moreover, the students’
responsibility could be evaluated. The assignment also showed the students’ interest
involved in aromatic herbs. Furthermore, the assignment also supported herbal
medicine course for learning herbs with volatile oil. The students, who learned Botanycourse in the second-year, could review their knowledge about herbal medicines andready for future learning in phytochemistry lesson. The data given by students werechecked for finding the students’ weak points and misleading to correct them in thephytochemistry course. The assignment was given to the students in the Health
Informatics course also supported self-learning to the students. This work offers themethod of using an informatics course for improving informatics skills and preparing
for phytochemistry lessons in the future.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by Instructional Innovation Development Project,
Silpakorn University (2017).

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References
Fox, B. I., Karcher, R. B., Flynn, A., & Mitchell, S. (2008). Pharmacy informatics
syllabi in doctor of pharmacy programs in the US. American journal of pharmaceuticaleducation, 72(4), 89.
Garde, S., Harrison, D., Huque, M., & Hovenga, E. J. (2006). Building healthinformatics skills for health professionals: results from the Australian Health
Informatics Skill Needs Survey. Australian Health Review, 30(1), 34-45.
Lertnattee, V., & Chomya, S. (2014). Using a Learning Tool for Improving Resultsfrom a Multi-Lingual and Multi-Cultural Herbal Search Engine. In Advanced
Materials Research (Vol. 1030, pp. 1859-1863). Trans Tech Publications.
Liaw, S. S., Chen, G. D., & Huang, H. M. (2008). Users’ attitudes toward Web-based
collaborative learning systems for knowledge management. Computers &Education, 50(3), 950-961.
Verma, S., & Singh, S. P. (2008). Current and future status of herbal
medicines. Veterinary world, 1(11), 347-350.
Contact email: wangwattana_b@silpakorn.edu

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Integration of Teaching and Learning ICT Literacy and Herbal Informationin the 21st Century
Verayuth Lertnattee, Silpakorn University, Thailand
Bunyapa Wangwattana, Silpakorn University, Thailand
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Abstract
In the 21st century, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) acts as animportant role to support learning of the core content. In Doctor of Pharmacy
curriculum at Silpakorn University, ICT literacy and core content about herbal
information were integrated to support learning herbal medicine. Several tools wereintroduced to collect and applied herbal information. To design and implement an
herb database, the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) was taught.
Microsoft Office Access was used as a tool to create an herb database. The concept of
normalization, tables, relationship, queries, forms and reports were educated. In
Knowledge Management (KM), the process of transfer tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge and the reverse process were introduced. Students could find herbal
information from reliable sources and put it into the Knowledge Unifying Initiator for
Herbal Information (a version for pharmacy students, KUIHerbRx). The concept of anelectronic book (e-book) was introduced to students. A set of tools were suggested touse for creating an e-book and publishing it to the e-book library. Herbal information
was used as a sample to construct an e-book. The concept of Infographic could beapplied for disseminating of herbal information. The graphic representation was
successful to make audience easy to understand herbal monographs. These tools wereused in practice classes in both informatics and herbal medicine courses. Students
gained twofold from the integration, i.e., the knowledge including skills in ICT
literacy and herbal information.
Keywords: Information and Communication Technology, Herbal Information,
Pharmacy, Integration, Informatics.

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Introduction
In the 21st century, only competency in professional courses in a curriculum is not
sufficient for providing excellent services. Several competencies have to be included
in a curriculum. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT), changes theglobal. There is a significant economic relevance of using ICT for the quality healthcare (Saranummi, 2005). Health professionals, including a pharmacist are needed who
are well-educated in health informatics. To improve skills in informatics for pharmacy
students, a set of health informatics courses are prepared (Steckler, Brownlee, Urick,& Farley, 2017). This set of informatics courses involves the study, design, andimplementation of information as well as information systems in pharmacy. In thepharmacy curriculum of Silpakorn University, core competencies of informatics for
all pharmacy students are implemented in two courses, i.e., Basic Computer
Applications in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Health Informatics. These two courses
are both lecture and laboratory classes and set for the second, and third year students,
respectively. Several informatics skills are introduced to students, e.g., managing,searching, evaluating, and disseminating of health information. Health data,
information, and knowledge can be originated from several sources such as patients,
medicines, laboratory tests. For medicines, these may be both modern and traditional
medicines. Herbal data, information, and knowledge are commonly applied in
traditional medicines. In this paper, several topics in ICT are designed to integratewith herbal data, information, and knowledge. Students should gain twofold, i.e., ICT
literacies and ways to apply these knowledge and skills for finding, managing anddisseminating herbal data, information, and knowledge. This paper is organized asfollows. In section 2, topics for supporting herbal medicine are given. In section 3,
ICT tools for integrating with knowledge in herbal medicine are presented. Section 4
provides the results from using tools for teaching and learning. Finally, conclusionand future work of this paper are described in the last section.
Topics for Supporting Herbal Medicine
Several topics are taught in informatics courses, i.e., basic foundation of information
technology, computer hardware and software, using Internet browsers to finding
reliable pharmaceutical and health data, applying office software to solve pharmacyrelated problems. Statistical knowledge and skills are introduced to students. The
concept of disseminating and using software for publishing health information areprovided. In addition, professional software is also set to teach pharmacy students.
Various problems in health can be used as examples. In this paper, three topics wereselected to integrate with knowledge of herbal medicine, i.e., data and information
management, knowledge management, and information dissemination. Details ofthese topics are described as follows.
Data and Information Management.
This topic introduces concept of data and information to students. This is an important
topic for modernized pharmacy education (Breeden & Clauson, 2016). Relationalmodel of the database is usually used as a common model for teaching. In practiceclass, data of herbs are used for teaching and learning. The concept of normalizationof database tables is given. Skills of implementing data into a database and processing
data to information are also advised in practice class. Pharmacists are usually assigned

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to manage and/or analyze data in a database. For example, in a hospital, data about
medicinal usage are usually analyze to improve clinical and economical outcome.
Knowledge Management (KM).
The KM is the cycle of transfer tacit knowledge from experienced persons to explicit
knowledge and reload this knowledge into other persons to make them ready to work
efficiently. This topic is usually concerned in pharmacy education, especially inhigher education (Watcharadamrongkun, 2012). In the practice class, students transfer
their knowledge of some medicinal plants and exchange with other students.
Information Dissemination.
Pharmacists should prepare information about medicines (including herbal medicines)
as well as provide reliable information to other healthcare professionals, patients, andrelated persons (McClung, & Archer, 2014). Information may formal documents inworking places or online documents on the Internet.
ICT Tools for Integrating with Knowledge in Herbal Medicine
To train pharmacy students have informatics skills on the three topics, some ICT tools
are used. We will describe a set of tools for each topic in informatics courses.
Tools for Data and Information Management.
A desktop Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) which is important fordata gathering, management and analysis (Pardo, Miller, & Chiulli, 2017), is selected
to teach students. The concept of normalization of database tables is introduced in thelecture class and will be implemented in the laboratory class. Students have basic
knowledge in herbal medicine, e.g., plant anatomy and physiology, taxonomy, andclinical application of herbal medicine. In this topic of learning, students should be
able to transform their knowledge in herbal medicine into a relational database model.
Common attributes about herbs should be assigned into attributes in tables. Students
are able to input data of medicinal plants into a database. Moreover, basic analyzing
and finding information they would like to know, will be given.
Tools for knowledge management.
A specific Web-based tool namely, KUIHerbRx, is used for learning and teachingknowledge management for herbal medicine (Lertnattee, Chomya, Rodtook,
Methasate, & Lueviphan, 2017). With this tool, each student can contribute his/her
knowledge about medicinal plants. Students can fulfill information of herbs.
Evidence-based information should be contributed into the KUIHerbRx. Images ofherbs and their products can be uploaded to the system. Students should takephotographs by themselves and use a set of software to prepare images for uploading.
Information about herbs will be shared among students.

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Tools for information dissemination.
In this topic, two sets of tools are used. The first set is for creating an e-book. The
other set is applied for constructing an infographic page. For a simple e-book, theconcepts of select topics, create text about herbal information, prepare a set of images,
are introduced. Using a word processor to create contents of a book. To make it easy
to access, the table of content should be included in a book. The ways to export the
document to the pdf format are also suggested. The concept of infographic, which
presents information and knowledge in the form of visual graphic representation, isvaluable in health care (Turck, Silva, Tremblay, & Sachse, 2014). This topic is
included in informatics courses. Herbal monograph of each medicinal plant ispresented in one page. Various tools are used for creating infographic page, e.g.,
piktochart, maps, and time series. Methods to upload and/or publish these documents
into a website are also taken into account.
Results from Using Tools for Teaching and Learning
Examples of results from using tools for teaching and learning are described here. We
used results from the 3rd pharmacy students in the academic year of 2017.
Tools for Data and Information Management.
The Microsoft Office Access was used as a main tool for data and information
management. The concept of normalization was introduced in the lecture class. Two
examples were explained in the lecture class, i.e., databases of a commercial company
and an herb database. The herb database was also used in a practice class. Students
were trained to create tables, relationship among tables, create forms for inputting
herb data, and create report for a set of data we would like to print out. Moreover,building queries for analyzing herb data was also emphasized. Examples of using
Microsoft Office Access to create an herb database were shown in Figure 1 andFigure 2.

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Figure 1: Design and implementing an herbal database.

Figure 2: Analyzing data in an herbal database.
Tools for Knowledge Management.
The KUIHerbRx2017 was used for collecting and sharing herbal information andknowledge. Students should finding reliable herbal information. Several topics ofherbal information were assigned to students, e.g., herb images (Figure 3), herb names(Figure 4), herb indications, precautions, toxicity, and additional information.
Moreover, information and knowledge which students contribute to the system shouldbe evidence-based information. Note that students were able to provide multi-lingual
herb names. References used for each opinion should be provided.

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Figure 3: Links to images in KUIHerbRx2017.

Figure 4: Links to images in KUIHerbRx2017.

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Tools for Information Dissemination.
We taught students to use Microsoft Office Word to prepare contents of herbs. The
tables of contents and hyperlink were included in a book. The example of content in
the book is shown in Figure 5. When the book was finished, ways to publish the bookto the e-book library were also advised. For infographic, several tools were used tocreate a page that described an herbal monograph. Students were suggested to used
images and beautiful background to create an attractive page. The example of an
herbal monograph was shown in Figure 6.

Figure 5: An example of pages in an e-book.

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Figure 6: An infographic page for an herbal monograph.
Conclusion and Future WorkIn this paper, integration of ICT and herbal information were proposed to support
pharmacy students, Silpakorn University. Several tools were introduced to create,
manage, analyze, and publish herbal data, information including knowledge. For dataand information management, the desktop RDBMS, was used as a tool to implement
an herb database. The concept of normalization and skills in using this tool wereeducated. For knowledge management, the cycle of transferring knowledge between
tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge was introduced. Students could transfer andexchange their reliable herbal information and knowledge in the KUIHerbRx. The
concept of information dissemination was also taken into account. A set of tools forcreating a simple e-book and infographic pages were introduced to students. Herbal
data and information were used as examples. Methods for publishing a book or Web
pages were given. Students gained twofold from the integration. Knowledge including
skills in ICT literacy which could be applied to health data and information. In
addition, student would be familiar with herbal data and information. Therefore,
students could finding and managing herbal data and information which may beconsidered as supporting learning herbal medicine. In this work, only medicinal herbs
were focused. Products from medicinal herbs will be concerned in our future work.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by Instructional Innovation Development Project,
Silpakorn University (2017).

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References
Breeden, E. A., & Clauson, K. A. (2016). Development and implementation of amultitiered health informatics curriculum in a college of pharmacy. Journal of theAmerican Medical Informatics Association, 23(4), 844-847.
Lertnattee, V., Chomya, S., Rodtook, A., Methasate, I., & Lueviphan, C. (2017).
Herbal Information System for Learning and Tourism: Quick Response Code andSearching. Advanced Science Letters, 23(1), 49-53.
McClung, A., & Archer, N. P. (2014). Health information dissemination from hospital
to community care: current state and next steps in Ontario.
Pardo, D., Miller, L., & Chiulli, D. (2017). Implementation of a pharmacy consult to
reduce co-prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines in a Veteran
population. Substance abuse, 38(2), 157-160.
Saranummi, N. (Ed.). (2005). Regional health economies and ICT services: the picnic
experience (Vol. 115). IOS Press.
Steckler, T. J., Brownlee, M. J., Urick, B. Y., & Farley, M. J. (2017). Pharmacy
informatics: A call to action for educators, administrators, and residency
directors. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 9(5), 746-749.
Turck, C. J., Silva, M. A., Tremblay, S. R., & Sachse, S. L. (2014). A preliminary
study of health care professionals’ preferences for infographics versus conventional
abstracts for communicating the results of clinical research. Journal of Continuing
Education in the Health Professions, 34, S36-S38.
Watcharadamrongkun, S. (2012). Predictors and Effects of Knowledge Management
in US Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy. ProQuest LLC.
Contact email: lertnattee_v@su.ac.th

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Differences among Generational Groups of Teachers in a Public School District inTheir Practice of 21st Century Teaching-Learning Skills
May Anne Joy D. Romanes, University of the Philippines – Diliman, Philippines
Sofia E. Veniegas, University of the Philippines – Diliman, Philippines
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Abstract
This study explores the differences in the 21st century teaching and learning skills
practices among generational groups of teachers in a public school district in thePhilippines. It was conducted to find if there is any significant difference in theperceptions between and among generational groups of teachers in terms of theiroverall application of 21st century teaching and learning skills. Included in this study
are eight key components commonly referred to by experts and practitioners in thefield, namely: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity andinnovation, self-direction, global connections, local connections, and the use oftechnology.
Results revealed significant differences between the boomers (1946-1964) and thegeneration Y (1981-1995) teacher-respondents in terms of their overall 21st century
teaching and learning skills, particularly in their 1) critical thinking skills, 2) creativity
and innovation skills, and in 3) establishing global connections. Based on the results,boomers used the 21st century teaching and learning skills more profoundly than theyounger teachers. Findings also showed that boomers perceived their practice of 21st
century teaching skills to a very great extent. No significant differences among thegenerational groups of teachers were found among the rest of the skills under study,
namely: 1) collaboration, 2) communication, 3) self-direction, 4) local connections,and 5) the use of technology.
Keywords: 21st century skills, generational groups of teachers, Department of
Education Philippines, teaching and learning skills, K to 12 classroom

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Introduction
The teaching and learning process in the field of education continues to take huge
leaps of changes throughout the years. Few decades ago, students learned without thehelp of technology that is present today. In the past, students have had to rely mostly
on their teachers, their books and their social circles in learning their lessons; today,
students indulge themselves in the vast world of internet, the ease of online
communication, and the highly technological gadgets that make a lot of tasks easier.
With these circumstances in mind, the challenge is to make the current education
system adaptable, relevant, innovative, and precise to meet the needs of tomorrow’snation builders. There is a great demand for 21st century shift, yet there is a gap
where educators are hanging on to the traditional viewpoint of schools, and others
who are looking at 21st century education and preparing kids for the digital world(Yarrington as cited by Henebery, 2015). This statement echoes the concern of thisstudy. Generational groups of teachers might have varied interpretations of the valueof 21st century education.
In response to this challenge, the Department of Education (DepEd) implemented in
gradual stages the Republic Act 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act, more
popularly known as K-12 Law which supported the kind of education that uses theappropriate and timely pedagogical approaches for 21st century learners. A new K-12
curriculum was formulated which revolved around 21st century demands andexpectations. Six years after the law was passed, it might be safe to say that all
Philippine schools, especially the public sector, strictly adhered to the focus on 21st
century skills in teaching and learning. However, as reported in newspapers anddenounced in street rallies, problems in the implementation of this law continue tohound many schools all over the country despite the frequent monitoring activities of
the DepEd management. One way of responding to this call of transforming the
education system is through a research that helps provide useful information forvaried aspects of implementation.
This study explored into how 21st century skills in teaching and learning areoperationalized in the classroom. Educators are concerned about reinventing teaching
and learning in view of 21st century expectations. This brings to the fore, a question
as to how teachers of varied age groups view such skills and how they practice it in
the classroom. A list of 21st century skills is usually mentioned in education andfuturistic articles. For this reason, key components of 21st century skills have been
narrowed down, 8 of which are also the focus of the study by Hixson, Ravitz &Whisman (2012) entitled, “Survey for Measuring 21st Century Teaching and
Learning: West Virginia 21st Century Teaching and Learning Survey.” The eight key
components under study include: 1) critical thinking, 2) collaboration, 3)
communication, 4) creativity and innovation, 5) self-direction, 6) global connections,7) local connections, and 8) the use of technology.
This study aimed to determine: (1) any significant difference among the generationalgroups of teachers in terms of their overall 21st century teaching and learning skills;(2) any significant difference between and among the generational groups of teachers
in terms of their perceptions and practice of the eight selected key components of 21st
century teaching and learning skills (Hixson, Ravitz & Whisman, 2012), namely: a)critical thinking, b) collaboration, c) communication, d) creativity and innovation, e)

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self-direction, f) global connections, g) local connections, and h) the use oftechnology; and (3) the extent of how each generational group perceive their practiceof the 21st century teaching and learning skills under study.
This study is limited to a randomly selected stratified sample of one hundred (100)public elementary school teachers in the District of Indang, Cavite who responded
online to the preliminary selection process. The study focused on how they perceived
their teaching practices demonstrating specific 21st century teaching and learning
skills, limited to eight (8) identified key components, namely: 1) critical thinking, 2)
collaboration, 3) communication, 4) creativity and innovation, 5) self-direction, 6)
global connections, 7) local connections, and 8) the use of technology. This study was
conducted from February to May 2017. Responses were gathered through online
survey. The results and findings cannot be used to generalize the 21st century
teaching and learning skills among the generational groups of teachers from otherschool districts, nor from the private sector, as these are specific to a particular school
district in the public sector.
Review of Related Literature
Various authors have defined generational groups of people throughout history.
Lancaster and Stillman (as cited by Reeves & Oh, 2007) categorized 4 generations ofpeople, namely: traditionalists (1900-1945), baby boomers (1946-1964), generation
Xers (1965-1980), and millennials (1981-1999). Oblinger and Oblinger (as cited byReeves & Oh, 2007) created another classification, namely: matures (< 1946), baby
boomers (1947-1964), gen-Xers (1965-1980), and gen-Yers (1981-1995). Tapscott (ascited by Reeves & Oh, 2007) named 3 cohorts of generation, namely: baby boom
generation (1946-1964), generation X (1965-1975), and digital generation (19762000). It is evident that there is a lack of consistency among the labels of age groups,
although most experts have argued that they are shaped by history rather than bychronological dates (Reeves & Oh, 2007). The common thread though is that groups
are divided according to common characteristics.
Sladek and Grabinger (2014) created the most detailed description of the generationalgroups according to 7 distinct generational characteristics. Table 1 shows thesedifferent generational groups and their characteristics.

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Table 1The different generational groups and their characteristics(Sladek & Grabinger, 2014)
Boomers

Gen X

Gen Y

Gen Z

Birth Years

1946-1964

1965-1981

1982-1995

1996-2009

Other names

Me Generation
Love
Generation
The GrayCeiling
Hardworking,Loyal,
Confident,
Cynical,Competitive

Slackers
MTV Generation

Millenials
Echo Boomers
TrophyGeneration

The iGeneration
Generation C(Connected)
Digital Natives

Anti-authority,
Highlyindividualistic,
Self- reliant,
Family focused

Confident,
Digital thinkers,
Sense ofentitlement,
Needy

Realistic,
Creative,
Hyperconnected

Why they
are the way
they are

The wealthiest,
healthiest,
largestgeneration of
their time.
Raised to
pursue their
dreamsChildren of
workaholics anddivorce; thearrival of cable
television andcomputers.
Raised to be self
sufficient

Micro-managed
by their parents,
technology,
always rewarded
for participation.
Raised to behigh achievers

Raised in a
culture of fear,
mobiletechnology,
helicopter
parents, social
media

CommunicationstylesPrefer detailed
dialogue inperson or via
phone.
Appreciatemeetings,
Believe nonews is goodnews.

Prefer close,
concisecommunication not overexplaining
clichés’ or
corporate jargon.
Prefer email

Prefer frequent
feedback andproblem solving
via technology
instead of phone
calls or meetings

Prefer visualcommunication
via technology
instead of inperson meetings.

Problems they
are facing now

Dwindlingretirement
funds job
dislocation,rising healthcare, cost of
inadequate
health carecoverageDebt, caring foryoung children
and agingparents,balancing lifeand career stuckin middle
management

Debt,
unemployment
difficultytransitioning
from college
career negative
stereotypes,
being taken
seriously

Finding an
identity, lack ofjob
opportunities,
being taken
seriously

Flaws

Have been
there, done that
attitude notalways “open”
to new ideas

Have difficultycommitting, tend
to have a “waitand see”
approach

Have shortattention spansand high
demands andasks, “what’s in
it for me”

Need forstructure, overconfident intheir knowledge,
lackinterpersonal
skillsCharacteristics

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To be able to fully implement the needed shift to the 21st century teaching andlearning competencies, educators must first look into the underlying issues that would
become a stumbling stone in implementing the educational reforms. One of theimportant issues that need to be addressed immediately is the generation gap between
teachers and their students. Van Damme (2014) emphasized the importance of theconnection of teachers and their students in terms of understanding the behavior,issues, culture, and values of the latter to effectively engage them in high-quality
teaching and interactive learning.However, he also pointed out the difficulty ofconnecting both parties in the case that the age gap between the teacher and thestudents is more than 35 years. This gap could be linked to attitudes and expectations
that come along with the people born within a certain generation as defined by the
confluence of macro forces that drives change at an extraordinary magnitude and pace
(Tulgan, 2017).
The trend of the increasing gap between the generations of teachers and students
could lead to more serious issues in education. Unfortunately, this gap continues toincrease as the percentage of younger teachers (< 50 years old) has not yet surpassed
the percentage of the older ones (>50 years old) (Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2014). According to their report, the averageage of the male primary school teacher arose from 42.9 years old in 2000 to 43.2
years old in 2011. For the female primary school teachers, their average age rose from
42.3 to 43.3 years old in the years 2000 and 2011 respectively (OECD, 2014).
Although this report is limited to OECD countries, this pattern of increase in the mean
age of primary school teachers was also evident in other international studies
conducted in the past years. In 2009, the average age of primary school teachers went
up to 46.59 years old (UNESCO as cited by Albert, 2013) from 45.8 years old in 1999
(Siniscalco, 2002).
As expected, this huge chasm of generations between the teachers and students
created some issues. In the United States, it was reported that boomers, whocomprised 33% of the population of US teachers, felt that they are forced towards theuncomfortable technology environment that further resulted to dissatisfaction in boththe teachers and the students (Carroll as cited by Blackboard, 2008).
Aside from the generation gap between and among the teachers, the pervasive
presence of technology also causes a generation gap between the students andteachers. Results of a recent study encouraged teachers to engage students in the useof technology, explore, and participate in collaborative groups, interact with others
and make connections to real world experiences. They are also encouraged to use
technology as instructional method in teaching (Lisenbee, 2016).
Another study concluded that understanding the intergenerational diversity andstructuring educational experiences to meet the needs and predilections of this new
generation will result in working together toward the common goal of the institution(Moreno-Walton, Brunett, Akhtar & DeBlieux, 2009). It is mentioned in this study theobserved differences of generation X and generation Y such as:“Comparisons between generation X and generation Y yield importantdifferences in attitudes toward authority, lifestyle preferences, and social

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values. Members of generation Y demonstrate high expectations for their own
performance but also place high demands on their work environment,
requiring a more individualized approach to their professional growth andmentorship. Although members of gen Y are described as optimistic, they
insist on prompt solutions to problems, making them more challenging tomotivate and manage in the work place.” (Moreno-Walton et al., 2009, p. 20)
The urgent need to respond to the timely challenges of the 21st century (e.g.
globalization, technology, migration, international competition, changing markets,and transnational environmental and political challenges) makes it very crucial todevelop a set of teaching and learning skills that will help the students to survive intheir life, work, and citizenry (Research and Development [RAND] Corporation,2012). Unfortunately, aside from the challenges that are now being experienced insociety, experts are predicting more revolutionary changes and challenges to rise in
the future (Ontario Principals Council, 2014). Given these issues, education needs toplay the most significant role to prepare the students for the future. Hence, schools
should start rethinking the knowledge and skills that students need for their success aswell as the educational strategies and systems required for the students to achieve
them (RAND Corporation, 2012).
Mastery of the key subjects and 21st century themes is vital for all students in the 21st
century (Partnership for 21st Century Skills [P21], 2011). The 21st century
interdisciplinary themes, such as global awareness, financial, economic, business andentrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy, arealso needed to promote a higher level of understanding of the academic content
among the students (P21, 2011). In addition to the content knowledge in key subject
areas, it is also important that the students learn the 21st century skills. The key 21st
century skills according to the P21 Framework (2009) are learning and innovation,
critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, information,
media and technology, life and career skills, and productivity and accountability).
Methodology
Respondents
Two-hundred thirty-six (N=236) public elementary school teachers in the District ofIndang, Division of Cavite, Department of Education were asked to provide their birthdates online to identify the generations to which they belonged. From this list, 46
Boomers, 137 generation X, and 53 generation Y teachers were identified. No teacher
was identified under generation Z. Originally, 146 respondents (28 Boomers, 85
generation X, and 33 generation Y) were selected through stratified random sampling;
however, only 100 out of 146 target respondents (21 Boomers, 55 generation X, and24 generation Y) participated. Table 2 shows the population and sample size of the
public elementary school teachers in the District of Indang as of April 2017.

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Table 2
Population and sample size of the public elementary school teachers in the District ofIndang (as of April 2017)
Generation of Teachers
Population
Sample Size
Boomers (1946-1964)
46
21
Generation X (1965-1981)
137
55
Generation Y (1982-1995)
53
24
Total
236
100
Note: The sample characteristics are not far from the population characteristics. (Confidence
level = 95 %, confidence interval = 7.8)

Data Gathering Instrument
The level of practice of the 21st century teaching and learning skills were measured
using the Survey for Measuring 21st Century Teaching and Learning (Hixson, Ravitz& Whisman, 2012). Permission to use the survey for this study was obtained from Dr.
Ravitz. Hixson and colleagues (2012) reported excellent reliability (std. alpha > .90,
inter-item correlations > .58); support for content validity based on the review ofexisting frameworks and measures (Shear, Novais, Means, Gallagher, & Langworthy,
2010; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2010 as cited in Hixson, Ravitz &Whisman, 2012); and the support for concurrent validity.
The survey instrument intended to measure 8 selected components of the 21st century
teaching and learning skills, namely: 1) critical thinking, 2) collaboration, 3)
communication, 4) creativity and innovation, 5) self-direction, 6) global connections,7) local connections, and 8) use of technology as a tool for learning. Each component
covered a section of the online survey. For each component, a definition wasprovided, followed by a set of practices related to each component, and a set ofmeasures on the perceptions of the respondent relative to their application of theabove-mentioned key components.
This instrument used the Likert scale, in which 5 was the highest, and 1 was thelowest. The response choices for the set of 21st century teaching and learning
practices and their corresponding scores in the Likert scale were as follows: “almost
never” = 1 point; “a few times a semester” = 2 points; “1-3 times per month” = 3
points; “1-3 times per week” = 4 points; and “almost daily” = 5 points. In theperceptions on the teaching of each component, the response choices and theircorresponding choices in the Likert scale were: “not really” = 1 point; “to a minor
extent” = 2 points; “to a moderate extent” = 3 points; to a great extent” = 4 points; and“to a very great extent” = 5 points.
Data Gathering Procedures
Permission to conduct the survey was secured from the District Office of Indang(Appendix B). The link for the online survey form was sent to all principals throughthe District Office. Two weeks were given to the respondents to complete the survey.
Data Analysis Procedure
The scores obtained in each component were tabulated for each generational group.
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mean scores were computed and tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) andLeast Significant Difference (LSD). To describe the mean scores for the over-all
perception on the practice of 21st century teaching and learning skills, the following
range of means was used (Table 3).
Table 3Range of means and description
Range of Means
Extent of Practice4.20 - 5.00
very great extent
3.40 - 4.19
great extent
2.60–3.39
moderate extent
1.80–2.59
some extent
1.00–1.79
no extent
Results
The mean scores on the practice and perceptions of the different generational groupsof teachers on the 21st century teaching and learning skills are presented in Tables 4 to
11. The overall statistics is presented in Table 12.
Critical Thinking Skills
The mean scores on the practice and perceptions among the generational groups ofteachers in terms of the critical thinking skills component are shown in Table 4.
Table 4
Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in critical thinking skills among thegenerational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.51a
Generation X (1965-1981)
4.07b
Generation Y (1981-1995)
3.94b
Note: Mean scores having different superscripts are significantly different (P>0.05).

Findings revealed that boomers have taught critical thinking skills to a greater extent
than the rest. This could be attributed to the great deal of knowledge, and wisdom
gained by Boomers from more experience in their use of critical thinking processes,
which they naturally bring further to the classroom (Koloc, n.d.; Speakeasy
Communications Consulting, 2015). The younger generations of teachers probably
had less experience in their use of these skills.
Generations X and Y were not significantly different from each other in terms of
critical thinking skills. This can be attributed to the similar attitudes of generations X
and Y (Crofts, Cuervo, Wyn, Woodman, Reade, Cahill & Furlong, 2016), in which
their perceptions on their teaching practices and teaching perspectives largely depend
on. Further, Hopkins (2012) cited that both of these generations lack critical skills
despite their immense talent.
Collaboration Skills
The mean scores on the practice and perceptions among the generational groups ofteachers in terms of their collaboration skills are shown in Table 5.

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Table 5
Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in collaboration skills among thegenerational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.60
Generation X (1965-1981)
4.37
Generation Y (1981-1995)
4.24
Note: Mean scores obtained are not significantly different from each other at 5 % significancelevel.

Findings showed that in terms of teaching collaboration skills in the classroom, thegenerational groups did not have any significant differences among each other.
Tolbize (2008) found that boomers and generation Xers have similar characteristics interms of collaborative attitudes. This finding contradicts the results of the study ofGiang (2013), who concluded that boomers rank lowest among the generation groups
when it comes to collaboration, while generation X ranks the highest.
Communication Skills
The mean scores of the practice and perceptions among the generational groups ofteachers in terms of the communication skills are shown in Table 6.
Table 6
Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in communication skills among thegenerational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.33
Generation X (1965-1981)
4.10
Generation Y (1981-1995)
4.00
Note: Mean scores obtained are not significantly different from each other at 5 % significancelevel.

In terms of communication skills, boomers, generation X, and generation Y teachers
showed to have similar mean scores. This result contradicts the findings of Zhou
(2011), who asserted that generation Y are more communication-oriented than thegenerations before because the previous generations are less creative andentrepreneurial. Another study that counters the finding is conducted by Harber(2011) who has posited that boomers and generation Xers have better communication
skills than those of generation Y.
Creativity and Innovation Skills
The mean scores of the practice and perceptions among the generational groups ofteachers in terms of the creativity and innovation skills are shown in Table 7.
Table 7
Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in creativity and innovation skills among
the generational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.48a
Generation X (1965-1981)
4.16abGeneration Y (1981-1995)
3.86b
Note: Mean scores having different superscripts are significantly different (P>0.05).

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Results showed that boomers have higher creativity and innovation skills than
generation Y. Generation X showed similarities with both the boomers and generation
Y in terms of the above-mentioned skills. Contrastingly, Zhou (2011) concluded thatboomers and generation X are less creative than generation Y. Moreover, anotherstudy by Workfront (2015), found that generation Y is perceived as most creative
among the generation cohorts.
Self-direction Skills
The mean scores on the perceptions among the generational groups of teachers interms of the self-direction skills are shown in Table 8.
Table 8Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in the self-direction skills among thegenerational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Means
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.09
Generation X (1965-1981)
3.88
Generation Y (1981-1995)
4.07
Note: Mean scores obtained are not significantly different from each other at 5 % significancelevel.

Findings revealed that boomers, generation X, and generation Y teachers have similar
self-direction skills. However, results of the study by Salesforce (as cited by
Investopedia, n.d.) have indicated that generation X are more self-directed than theBaby Boomers. Another study countered the findings that generation X has higher
self-direction skills than generation Y as found in Ivanova & Smrikarov (2009).
Global Connections
The mean scores of the perceptions among the generational groups of teachers interms of the global connection are shown in Table 9.
Table 9Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in the global connections among thegenerational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
3.76a
Generation X (1965-1981)
3.35abGeneration Y (1981-1995)
2.96b
Note: Mean scores having different superscripts are significantly different (P>0.05).

Boomers showed higher global connection skills than generation Y. This could be
because of vast knowledge of boomers gained from longer years of teaching andreading more books, which they have brought to the classroom as compared to those
who belonged in the younger generation (Koloc, n.d.). This finding, however
contradicts the American Management Association (2017) and Gutfreud (as cited by
Asghar, 2014), who wrote that generation Y is the first global-centric generation andhence, more global than its predecessors, having come of age during the rapid growthof the internet.

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Local Connections
The mean scores of the perceptions among the generational groups of teachers interms of local connections are shown in Table 10.
Table 10
Mean scores of the perceptions in the local connections among the generationalgroups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Means
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.14
Generation X (1965-1981)
3.87
Generation Y (1981-1995)
3.67
Note: Mean scores obtained are not significantly different from each other at 5 % significancelevel.

No significant difference was found among the generational groups in terms of local
connections. This finding does not support previous researches in this area. The
Corporation for National and Community Service (2015) reported differences in thelevel of local connections in the form of civic engagement among generationalgroups. This organization asserted that generation X have the highest level of local
connections among the group, while generation Y have the lowest.
Using Technology as Tool for Learning
The mean scores on the practice and perceptions in using technology as a tool forlearning are shown in Table 11.
Table 11
Mean scores on the practice and perceptions among the generational groups ofteachers in terms of their use of technology
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
3.94
Generation X (1965-1981)
3.74
Generation Y (1981-1995)
3.59
Note: Mean scores obtained are not significantly different from each other at 5 % significancelevel.

The analysis did not reveal any significant difference among the generational groups
in terms of the use of technology in the classroom as tool for learning. This
contradicts the findings of the International Education Advisory Board (n.d.). They
found that boomers generally hold to tradition, generation X adapts to technologies
easily, and generation Y accepts and adapts to the new technology.
Overall Results on 21st Century Teaching and Learning Skills
The mean scores on the practice and perceptions of the different generational groupsof teachers on the 21st century teaching and learning skills are presented on Table
12.

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Table 12Mean scores on the practice and perceptions in the overall 21st century teaching
and learning skills among the generational groups of teachers
Generational Groups of Teachers
Mean scores
Boomers (1946-1964)
4.23a
Generation X (1965-1981)
3.94abGeneration Y (1981-1995)
3.79b
Note: Mean Scores having different superscripts are significantly different (P>0.05).

Results showed that boomers have higher perception and practice of the 21st century
teaching and learning skills as compared with generation Y. This can be attributed to
the rich experience, expertise, and knowledge gained by the boomers from decades ofteaching students (Koloc, n.d.; Capital Ideas, 2016; Auvin, 2017). Furthermore,boomers have more stable resources to support the 21st century skills development in
the classroom (Value Options, n.d.). Generations X and Y yielded similar results,
which coincide with the study of Crofts et al. (2016). According to them, bothgenerations have more similarities than differences in a way that they have almost thesame attitudes, goals, and priorities.
Extent of Practice of the 21st Century Skills
The mean scores and level of perceptions of the generational groups are presented inTable 13. The level of perceptions was gauged using Table 3 as guide.
Table 13
Extent of practice and perceptions among the generational groups of teachers interms of their extent of practiceGenerational Groups of Teachers
Boomers (1946-1964)
Generation X (1965-1981)
Generation Y (1981-1995)

Mean scores
4.23
3.94
3.79

Extent of practice
Very great extent
Great extent
Great extent

It was evident that boomers had practiced the 21st century teaching and learning skills
to a greater extent than did generations X and Y. This shows that despite themisconceptions that boomers are resistant to change, a component vital to thedevelopment of the 21st century skills (Dukes, 2016), they still extend more effort inteaching these skills to their students. The great deal of knowledge, and wisdom
gained from more experience have contributed to the results (Koloc, n.d.; Speakeasy
Communications Consulting, 2015), although their younger counterparts, generations
X and Y, were also commendable in terms of practicing the 21st century teaching andlearning skills to a great extent.
Conclusion
Based on the findings in the study, boomers have greater skills in extending the 21st
century skills to their classroom than generations X and Y. Older groups of teachers(boomers), both in age and in length of service, are presumed to lack 21st century
skills and the capacity to practice the same in their classrooms, yet results of thisstudy belie this presumption. Boomers are veteran teachers who have the experienceand ability to cope with new changes in 21st century demands and as required by the
K-12 Law. Further, veteran teachers may not have the expertise to use technology inthe classroom, but they have the expertise to utilize certain 21st century skills earned

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from years of experience. Hence, generational differences in chronological age are nota hindrance to the implementation of educational innovations and the teaching andlearning skills that support 21st century expectations.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to extend their deepest gratitude and sincerest thanks to thefollowing persons, who extended support during the course of the study:
Mr. Arnelito N. Romanes, Mrs. Josephine Romanes and Ms. Gracen Glory D.
Romanes, who served as inspirations for one of the authors in writing this study;
Mr. Robert P. Veniegas, for prayers, moral support, and encouragement;
Dr. Ophelia P. Veniegas, for technical assistance in editing the final paper;
Dr. Divina A. Rosarda, Dr. Gloria R. Mojica and Dr. Ana Marie R. Panaligan, fortheir moral support;
Mrs. Florinda I. Mojica, for financial assistance to this study;
Mr. Randolf S. Sasota, for his guidance and technical assistance provided all
throughout the study; andAbove all, to Almighty God, for all the blessings, strength, wisdom and knowledge
He gave to the authors.
To all of them, this piece of work is humbly dedicated.

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Utilizing Life Orientations Method in Education to Develop Soft Skills andOrganizational Development among Graduating Students for Career Readiness and
Job Preparedness
Jonathan Chiong, Jose Rizal University, The Philippines
Ana Belen Cuyugan, Jose Rizal University, The Philippines
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Abstract
Values are the foundation of all our thinking and behavior. We grow up in a home thatis characterized by values (“bad” values are also values). No matter in what kind of
traditional or modern form of family we grow up, we are shaped by it. In addition,peer groups “determine” what we consider important and what we are to think and do,
and play an important role in shaping our values. With these values came Life
Orientations Method (LIFO) where the leadership style of an individual is being
applied in the workplace learning experience and environment. The LIFO Styles also
describe behavioral preferences, not competencies. Participants are not labeled,judged, or limited by their survey results. Labeling someone with a personality typecan become an excuse for substandard performance. ("I'm no good at that. I'm just notthat type of person.") In LIFO Training, differences in behavior are described
quantitatively, not qualitatively. There is no reference to good or bad, right or wrong,strong or weak. Qualitative or categorical judgments often lead to oppositional
thinking— "my way" vs. "your way"— which can promote conflict, impede
teamwork, and make people less willing to change their behavior. The leadershipstyles are Supporting Giving, Controlling Taking, Adapting Dealing and Conserving
Holding. Students who are graduating are encouraged to undergo LIFO training. The
study revealed that before LIFO training, the students’ leadership styles are neutral
and all of which revealed are Controlling Taking after LIFO training. Soft skills arealso included in the study and to become ready to venture into the real world, therelationship between leadership styles and soft skills are interrelated. Ten soft skills
were identified variables in the study. These are team building, interpersonalcommunication, leadership development, problem solving, change management,
strategic planning, performance appraisal, time management, diversity training, andexecutive coaching.
Keywords: Life Orientation, Training and Professional Development, Soft Skills
Training

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Life Orientations (LIFO) Method is a method that helps individuals, teams, andorganizations improve communication skills, productivity, and results by working
more effectively together. The method supports people to value and manage theirstrengths and those of others in order to achieve greater satisfaction and better
outcomes. It takes advantage of people’s strengths to create high performing
organizations that deliver results and creates an exchange between people where theycelebrate their differences so that they all feel comfortable and do well together.
In a study conducted by the Student Development Office of Jose Rizal University, it
has shown that the students need to improve their soft skills. Data for this study weregathered with the use of LIFO Orientation Test and Soft Skills Questionnaire.
Collected data were statistically analyzed with the use of percentage, weighted mean,
and t-test.
A proposed program was designed for the graduating students. LIFO evolved to Life
Dynamics Systems Thinking where the 9As are used. These are ascribe, analyze andaccept, acquire and assess, activate and apply, aspire and associate. This approachleads to the understanding on how people work, how they receive information, andhow they deliver information. The goal is to get the community of learners talking,providing feedback to each other, and working together to understand their differencesin order to make the most of not only their behavior, but also around them. This helps
in identifying the individual’s personal strengths, values and goals. In this scenario,
education leads to a holistic approach encompassing psychological, social, intellectualand emotional aspects of knowledge, learning, application and sustainability towards
organizational and quality solutions in education, training and development.
In LIFO workshops, participants practice new skills that enhance productivity,communication, and teamwork, and they work together to develop practical actionplans to use these skills to attack immediate, real-world problems.
Mixed methods are being used. A proposed program was designed for the graduating
students. LIFO evolved to Life Dynamics Systems Thinking where the 9As are used.
These are ascribe, analyze and accept, acquire and assess, activate and apply, aspire
and associate. This approach leads to the understanding on how people work, how
they receive information, and how they deliver information. The goal is to get thecommunity of learners talking, providing feedback to each other, and working
together to understand their differences in order to make the most of not only their
behavior, but also around them. This helps in identifying the individual’s personal
strengths, values and goals. In this scenario, adult education leads to a holistic
approach encompassing psychological, social, intellectual and emotional aspects ofknowledge, learning, application and sustainability towards organizational and quality
solutions in education, training and development. Data for this study were gatheredwith the use of LIFO Orientation Test and Soft Skills Questionnaire. Collected data
were statistically analyzed with the use of percentage, weighted mean, and T test.
The primary method of inquiry that was used in this study is a questionnaire that isbeing outlined as the Life Orientation Leadership Style Survey. It is a questionnairethat contains seventy two (72) items about leadership traits. It entails 4 point-Likert

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type scale ranging from 4 to 1. These points indicate the degree of severity according
to which ending is most like you (4) and the least like you (1).
Another questionnaire as outlined contains thirty (30) items covering soft skills e.g.
team building, interpersonal communication, leadership development, problem
solving, change management, strategic planning, performance appraisal, time
management, diversity training, and executive coaching. The respondents also needed
to identify demographic elements such as age, gender, year-level and course. It entails
a 5 point- Likert scale ranging from 0 to 4. From 0 (low) to 4 (very high)Conclusion
Based on the findings of the study, it has been discovered that after the Life
Orientations Training, the graduating students belong to the leadership orientation ofControlling Taking. Most students are in favor of excellence in the workplace. Most
students are controlling taking because they believe that there is a need to manage
their subordinates to be able to demand courtesy and respect. In addition, as training
progresses, the true behavior of a Filipino student greatly manifests in his/her attitudes,
behavior and personality profile that is having a controlling taking leadership style ispositive and not negative. LIFO training respects individual differences and thatstrengths are given importance in all aspects. All of an individual’s characteristics arestrengths. The graduating students learn to behave towards each other in ways which
seem best to satisfy different psychological and physiological needs for self –fulfillment. This behaviour pattern becomes our natural or ‘preferred’ orientation
toward other people. This preferred orientation represents the source of strengths
which, when we are able to understand and develop them, can be even moreproductive in satisfying our needs. The combination of behavioural orientations whichmake up our behavioural style is not however, infallible is satisfying our needs. When
our strengths are carried to excess they can be counterproductive. They become in fact,
our weaknesses. There are costs to excessive use of our strengths, but we usually startby refusing to recognize them. This tendency for our strengths to be used in excess
becomes most counterproductive as our environment is affected by conditions ofstress and of conflict. Through the LIFO model, we can unlock ourselves from stylesof behaviour which frustrate our basic goal of self-fulfillment. With the goal of
improving individual and team performance, LIFO - program does not stop with
explanations or diagnostics, or promote dead-end labelling of people. Instead,participants practice proven techniques that change behaviour and they develop
practical action plans for applying these new techniques on the job. LIFO is theofficial language in training and development among the students of Jose Rizal
University. With LIFO and LSDT, graduating students have created uniformity interms of translating behaviors into words and actions as these are manifested in theirtraining abilities and capabilities where there is consistency, relevance, regularity, andconstancy.

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References
Atkins, S, & Katcher, A. (2012) The LIFO general applications workbook. Beverly
Hills, Atkins-Katcher Associates.
Atkins, S, & Katcher, A. (2013) The LIFO general applications workbook. Beverly
Hills, Atkins-Katcher Associates, BCON Lifo International.
Drucker, P. (2007) Managing in a time of great change New York, NY: Truman Talley
Books/Dutton.
Katcher, A.

(2014). Managing your strengths: Xlibris: Los Angeles

Katcher, A., Metzler, B. (2012) The learning dynamics of life orientations. Los
Angeles: UCLA
Katcher, A., Gerrit Knodt, Betty Forbis.(2015). Effective consultation with the LIFO
Method. South Carolina: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Katcher, A. & Newmark, I. (2011). If we knew then what we know now. the power ofpossibilities. California: CEDEFA
Senge, P. M., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A.
(2000). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, andeveryone who cares about education. New York: Doubleday.
Contact email: Jonathan.chiong@jru.edu, Anabelen.cuyugan@jru.edu

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Examining the Academic Writing Practices of Higher Education in Papua New
Guinea: The Need for Using Appropriate Educational Resources
Lawrence Kaiapo Gerry, University of New South, Australia
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The current global trend in education paves way for new and improved means ofacademic writing practices in higher education, with which most of the higher
education institutions in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are struggling to measure up. This
comparative case study of a public and a private (mission) university in PNG
examines the concerns and challenges that they encounter to support their academic
writing practices. Multiple sources of data were obtained through semi-structured
interviews, non-participatory observations and documentation searches. In the study, a
total of twelve students, four tutors, four lecturers, and five academic administrators
were interviewed after they were identified and recruited through a process ofstratified sampling. Four tutorial groups of which, two from each participating
university were observed. Data were also collected from policy documents which
relate to the academic writing practices of the two universities. The data wereanalysed using a combination of data analyses methods which include interactivemodel of data analysis, activity system of data analysis, thematic analysis and NVivo
research tool as informed by an activity theory, which anticipates that for a system toproduce a desired outcome, it needs inputs from all the actors in the system. The
findings suggest that the public university seems to struggle more to meet its
academic needs compared to the private university. Academic writing practices of thetwo universities vary depending on the availability and provision of their online
educational resources like ‘Moodle,’ multimedia, databases, Wi-Fi and other supports
such as expertise and educational facilities.
Keywords: Academic writing, activity system, educational resources

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the Melanesian countries in the Pacific region. It
has an estimated population of 8 million with different ethnic groups. The country has
three official languages (Tok Pisin1, Hiri Motu2 & English), and 840 living indigenous
languages (Simons & Fennig, 2018), which is twelve percent (12%) of the world’s
languages, more than any other single country (Lewis, 2009 & Volker, 2015). Thus,
students and educators3 are either bilinguals, trilinguals or multilinguals. That is, inevery classroom, there are individuals who know or speak more than one language.
Because of this complex discourse environment that PNG offers (Pickford, 2014), it
makes academic writing practices in higher education more challenging when
students apply the English language. This calls for mediation from all key actors
within individual institution’s activity system4 to contribute meaningfully in terms ofeducational resources and other tools to achieve desired outcome of their academic
writing practices.
This report presents part of the findings from a comparative case study done at two
universities in PNG. To protect the identities of the participating universities, they arelabelled as University A and University B. The data are from one of the four themesof this study which is educational resources. The educational resources include
infrastructure development, curriculum and other educational materials, educational
equipment, online educational resources, and teaching staff. The report begins with abrief literature review, followed by research methodology, findings and discussions
with a conclusion.
Literature review
This study is underpinned by activity theory. The activity theory or system “is a crossdisciplinary theoretical framework that stems from the works of 18th century classicalGerman philosophers Kant and Hegel, dialectical materialism of Marx, andpsychological works of Vygotsky” (Bertelsen & Bodker, 2003; Roth & Lee, 2007,
cited in Sam, 2012, p.84). It is based on the idea that human activities take place in
cultural contexts. They are mediated by language and other symbol systems and canbe best understood when investigated in their historical development (John-Steiner &Mahn, 1996). In support of the activity theory, the notion of activity system model
was introduced. Engestrom (1987) came up with the concept of activity system model
which uses a triangular framework to illustrate how the activity system works in amore applicable and meaningful context. Mwanza (2001) further articulates that theactivity system model incorporates subjects, objects, and community components. It
also includes mediators of human activity, namely: tools, rules and division of labour.
All the components in the activity system framework are meant to support each other1

Tok Pisin is a lingua franca spoken by Papua New Guineans. It is also referred to as Melanesian
Pidgin (Gerry, 2010). It can also be labelled as Melanesian Pidgin English, New Guinea Pidgin or NeoMelanesian. Tok Pisin is the official name of the language since 1981(Schulte-Schmale & Naujoks,
2008).
2
Hiri Motu is an official language mostly spoken by the Papuans (people of Papua) within the Southern
region of PNG.
3
Educators refer to lecturers, tutors, academic administrators, or teaching (academic) staff in this study.
4
Activity system or theory describes how effectively and successfully language learners in a joint
activity interact to learn and use English in academic writing tasks (Mwanza, 2001 & Doecke &Kostogriz, 2003).

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in a collaborative manner to produce the desired outcome, as shown in the following
diagram.

The activity system model presents the relationships that exist amongst the different
players (tools, subject, rules, community, division of labour and object). The subject
in the model is the individual or groups of individuals involved in the activity(Yamagata-Lynch, 2010). It is further stated that “the object is the goal or motive of
the activity” (Yamagata-Lynch (p.2). Tool or instrument, as Engestrom (2000) stated,is the other component of the activity system model. It refers to “social others and theartefacts that can act as resources for the subject in the activity” (Yamagata-Lynch,
2010, p.2). Furthermore, rules or regulations refer to norms that circumscribe theactivity (Zurita & Nussbaum, 2007). Additionally, the community in the activity
framework is the environment, other activity systems and people that share the same
object (Sam, 2012). Further, division of labour denotes the “separation of duties
allowed for specialization of roles and tasks, increasing the quality of the outcome”(Baran & Cagiltay, 2010, p.159). The connections and interactions of all these actors
affect the outcome which is the result of the activity (Yamagata-Lynch, 2010). Hence,
all the actors are required to interact meaningfully within a system to produce adesired outcome.
Consistent with the theoretical framework of activity system, this study identifies how
PNG tertiary students can participate effectively in academic writing practices. Thiscan be done through well-defined sociocultural activity5 and language and literacy
activity 6 (Duff, 2002 & 2007), and disciplinary-based7 academic writing activity(Starfield, 2007) with support from other elements like educators, peers, teaching andlearning pedagogies, curriculum materials, educational resources and so on as
illustrated in an extended version of the activity system model in the next diagram.

5

Sociocultural activity refers to an activity that involves human interaction with their culture andenvironment (Duff, 2002).
6
Language and literacy activity refers to an activity that involves reading and writing using the target
language or medium of instruction (Duff, 2007).
7
Disciplinary-based involves writing using specialized vocabulary and concepts within specificdisciplines (Starfield, 2007).

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The diagram shows how different actors within the activity systems of University A
and B supposed to interact to produce expected outcome in their academic writing
practices. The subjects and members of the community are expected to execute theirrespective roles based on appropriate rules. They also need the necessary tools to
mediate students’ academic writing practices so that the objective of academic writingis achieved. These key actors would then, determine the outcome that is to meet
students’ academic writing demands, ensure students write at expected level, andproduce quality output. However, there is no guarantee that there will always beagreements between the actors. That is, there are possibilities of disagreements andcontradictions to exist in the activity system. Some of the examples are highlighted in
the findings and discussion section.
Research methodology
Case study research design is employed as a naturalistic inquiry and qualitative
method in this study. It focuses on “understanding the dynamics present within single
settings” (Huberman & Miles, 2002, p.8). The study incorporated comparative casestudy to investigate and address the issues underpinning academic writing activity by
studying and comparing two cases. That is, its goal is to discover contrasts,
similarities, or patterns across the cases being studied (Campbell, 2010). The cases ofthese study are University A and University B. University A is a public institution
with an estimated student population of 4700 and about 300 teaching staff. For
University B, it is a private (mission) institution with an estimated student populationof 1600 and more than 100 teaching staff at their main campus. “The cases arenormally studied in depth in order to provide an understanding of individuals’
experiences, issues, insights, developmental pathways, or performance within aparticular linguistic, social, or educational context” (Duff, 2014, p.233). The units ofanalyses for this case study include multiple cases. That is, it is a multisite study that

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involved multiple sources of information obtained from interviews, observations anddocumentations (Creswell, 2013). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six
B. Arts year one and six B. Arts year two students, four tutors and four lecturers, andfive academic administrators8. Non-participatory observations were also conductedwith two B. Arts year one and two B. Arts year two tutorials. Additionally,
documentation searches were also conducted whereby students’ essays and curriculum
materials were obtained. More so, some paper-based and online policy documents
were accessed.
The analyses of data are informed by Miles and Huberman’s interactive model of data
analysis; activity theory and thematic analysis. To obtain a more accurate and clear
data analyses and displaying of the findings, NVivo research tool was also used
together with the other data analyses tools. This computer assisted qualitative data
analysis software (CAQDAS) is aiding the researcher in his search for an accurate andtransparent picture of the data whilst also providing an audit of the data analysis
process as a whole (Welsh, 2002). All the analyzed data are kept in the NVivo files
that are only accessed by the researcher and are used for the purpose of this study.
Findings & discussions
This report presents data for the theme educational resources. The data are discussed
under five subsections which include: infrastructure development, curriculum andother educational materials, educational equipment, online educational resources, andteaching staff. The data revealed that there are similarities, contradictions anddifferences that exist within each participating university’s activity system andbetween the universities which are highlighted and discussed here.
Infrastructures
In tertiary education institutions, infrastructures like classrooms, computerlaboratories, libraries and other facilities are very important tools as part of theactivity system that facilitate academic writing practices. According to the student
interviewees at University A, there are many students enrolled in 2016 with influx offirst year students. One of them reiterates, “The spaces in the computer laboratories,
library and lecture rooms are full so when some of us see that we don’t have spaces,
we pull back, so we miss opportunities” (Year 1 Student 3, 25/10/2016: 1pm). The
data imply that there is shortage of educational facilities at University A which areimportant tools in the University’s activity framework. Therefore, with the increased
students’ intake, it affects their learning opportunities. Moreover, the participatingtutors and lecturers expressed that infrastructures of University A have to be
expanded. In agreement with the tutors and lecturers, an academic administrator
mentioned that University A is growing and therefore it is expanding in terms ofprograms and courses. As new programs are developed and offered, they also expect
increase in student admissions. The interviewee further elaborates, “Those changes
have implications for resources including staffing and, teaching and learning facilities
like the classrooms, multi-media, and other equipment and materials that aid teaching
and learning” (Academic Administrator 1, 01/11/2016: 10am). These data imply that
8

Academic administrators in this study refer to those administrators who perform their administrative
duties and teach courses at tertiary education institutions.

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the more the University increases its admissions, it has implications on its existingeducational resources.
In comparison with University B, a student states, “All our teaching and learningfacilities are up to the standard expected” (Year 2 Student 5, 17/03/2017: 10am). Thisdata informs that there is appreciation from the students on the accessibility of various
educational resources at University B. Also, the educators expressed that there are notmany concerns on the provisions of infrastructures which include classroom andboarding facilities because they have appropriate student numbers to manage, which
are somewhat different to what is experienced in University A. Nevertheless, one of
the Academic Administrators indicates, “We are constructing new buildings so in the
future, we will try to increase the number of students” (Academic Administrator 1,
15/03/2017: 9am). These data suggest that University B is enrolling students based on
the availability of its facilities. Further, the University is currently managing its
existing facilities and has the potential to upgrade and expand its infrastructures andincrease its students’ enrolments.
Curriculum and other educational materials
Tertiary education institutions need adequate curriculum and other educational
materials to run their programs and courses which are important elements in theactivity system. The student interviewees from University A indicated that theirlibrary has insufficient books and other reading materials, and most of the ones thatare available are outdated. One student mentioned that when lecturers give themassignments to write, they expect them to cite recently published literatures. The
student further states, “But, how can we find latest literatures when we have mostly
outdated materials in the library? So, that affects our work and study” (Year 2 Student
2, 26/10/2016: 11am). Evidently, academic libraries are required to offer up-to-dateand reliable information in a useful form for the needs of studies, learning, teaching,research, and education of people (Seppänen & Laitinen, 2017). Additionally, theparticipating educators also agreed that they need updated resource materials andreference books. These data are consistent with Dumbrigue, Moxley and NajorDurack (2013) who stated that meeting the needs of students and educators andhelping them to overcome the issues or challenges they face, require the creation of
support systems that integrate the resources students and educators need to move onin their education successfully. However, this is not passably happening at University
A Therefore, it is a huge impediment for a growing University that strives foracademic excellence as stipulated in its vision statement.
Whereas for University B, a student stated that the library facility is great where hecan easily access latest readings and reference materials. However, according to theparticipating educators, the University has introduced a paperless policy in which they
are minimizing the use of paper and maximizing the use of computers and otherequipment to facilitate their academic activities. Despite the paperless policy, alecturer highlights that, “in the last couple of years, we have gone paperless, but I
think we still need to buy important books” (Lecturer 2, 15/03/2017: 1pm). These data
show that there is contradiction between the key actors in University B’s activity
system, whether to strictly observe the paperless policy or to also allow the use of
paper-based literatures. However, based on the need analysis, it is appropriate for the
University to provide important paper-based literatures for students and staff to use

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although most of the educational materials are online.
Educational equipment
It is an ongoing challenge for University A to provide the necessary educational
equipment that are needed. The student interviewees stated that computers are scarce,and they are not fully utilizing what is available. A student affirmed that computers in
the computer laboratories are limited because there are many students to use, andstudents are rushing for computers on a first-come, first-serve basis. Another student
suggested that the University has to minimize students’ intake so that students who
are already there can fully utilize whatever resources that are available. One of themreiterates, “The University Administration must have some restrictions in taking newstudents into the University. They must take in students according to the budget givenby the government and the resources that are available at the University” (Year 1
Student 3, 25/10/2016: 1pm). These data indicate that influx of students has
detrimental effects on existing educational equipment and facilities, which seems to
be a policy issue. Additionally, such failure within the University’s activity systemdoes affect the outcomes of its academic writing practices.
The participating tutors and lecturers also agreed with the students. They indicatedthat up-to-date educational equipment and materials are needed at University A. Oneof them said that whiteboards in the classrooms are old and they need replacements.
This is in support of the findings from the tutorial observations. It was noted that the
tutors wrote some brief notes on whiteboards, but the notes were unclear because of
the poor quality of the whiteboards. Furthermore, the participating academic
administrators highlighted that there is lack of multimedia in the classrooms. Theysuggested that it will be helpful if most or all classrooms are equipped with projectors,
laptops and new whiteboards. As noticed in the University’s Corporate Plan 2013 –2017 and the University’s Strategic Plan 2013 – 2017, part of the focus area looks atequipping certain classrooms with latest high tech fit out to provide robust teaching
and learning effectiveness. This is not fully achieved as shown in this study.
The experiences of University A are somewhat different to University B. The students
from University B indicated that due to their paperless policy, they use desktop
computers and laptops. Further, as noticed in the tutorial observations, multimedia in
the form of projectors, laptops and whiteboards was used to facilitate the educational
activities. This practice is consistent with Gunawardhana and Palaniappan (2016),
who elaborate that multimedia is a form of technology which is used as a teachingtool these days. Thus, all tertiary education institutions in PNG are encouraged toembrace this change as part of the tools in their activity systems to facilitate theiracademic writing practices.
Online educational resources
One of the vital educational resources at higher education institutions is online
educational resources. The students at University A emphasized that they search for
information in the Internet, but the Internet service provided is poor and there is noactive Wi-Fi on campus to access information for their assignments on their personal
devices like smart phones and laptops. A student states, “The Internet is slow, and
Wi-Fi is not working” (Year 2 Student 2, 26/10/2016: 11am). According to another

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student, sometimes they use their own money to pay for data to access the Interneton their smart phones or to pay to access information for their assignments atinternet cafés. The PNG University Review Report (May 2010) challenges these
data. The Report explains that high quality telecommunications and modern systems
of communication are essential for high university performance, and for keeping up
with international thought and teaching. The Review Report data is consistent with
Rena (2011, p.361) who mentioned that “higher education has been significantly
impacted by globalization but institutions in PNG need to go further in making
structural changes in response to it.” This indicates that higher education institutions
in PNG must adapt to the rapid growth of modernization and technology in the 21st
century in order to provide the necessary supports to students in their academic
endeavours.
Additionally, the tutors and lecturers agreed with their students that the Internet
service is poor and most of the rooms do not have multimedia, which are theirgreatest needs. There were also other concerns raised in the interviews. One tutor
elaborates, “Students accessing information on the students’ server is another areathat the administration has to look into to improve it because we don’t have theresources to photocopy lecture notes and handouts for students” (Tutor 2,
24/10/2016: 11am). In addition, the participating academic administrators elaborated
that the Internet and Wi-Fi service at the University should be readily made available
to staff members and students. Smale and Regalado (2017) support that students
need reliable Wi-Fi on campus, continued access to computer laboratories, increased
access to charging and printing, robust training, timely support, and mobile-friendly
academic software. These are relevant tools which are part of the University’s
activity system that aid students’ academic practices which University A does nothave any excuses to circumvent them.
Another major concern for University A is, accessing online databases. For higher
learning institutions, their libraries act as repository or a storehouse of data where
online information like electronic journals and other resources are kept (Gouhar,2017). However, for University A, online database is a worrying factor. As one of theacademic administrators confirms, “Database is really a need here. Our library does
not have reliable links to databases, so we are unable to access online journals andother literatures” (Academic Administrator 2, 01/11/2016: 2pm). The participating
academic administrators indicated that it is the responsibility of the current University
Management to upgrade and increase the educational resources to contribute tostudents’ academic writing success.
The concerns of online educational resources at University A are different from what
is noticed at University B. According to the students at University B, they havesufficient information to write their assignments, and able to use online services likesearch engines, databases and Moodle, and discuss via online forums. A student
states, “We have students’ issued laptops with free Internet access 24/7 on campus so
we can do our work” (Year 2 Student 4, 17/03/2017: 9am). Another student
emphasized that most of the time, they do group discussions when forums are openedin the Moodle. This e-learning platform, which belongs to an e-learning category
called LMS (Learning Management System) or CMS (Course Management System)
makes learning more effective and efficient (Jackson, 2017; & Hosokawa &Watanabe, 2018). Another participating student states that through submitting

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assignments using ‘turn it in,’ (in the Moodle) it also checks for plagiarism. These
data suggest that Moodle and other online educational applications are readily
available at University B in which they play crucial roles in students’ academic
practices and success.
In addition, the library at University B provides a conducive online learning
environment. This is in line with one of the online graduate attribute policies of the
University which states that graduates should have experienced the use of archives
and libraries, and the application of a range of computer software, particularly
software appropriate to their disciplinary area, and established receptiveness to the
expanding opportunities for electronic technology. Additionally, the participating
educators elaborated that they use Moodle to facilitate their educational activities. An
educator states, “Moodle makes it different because you have this virtual cyberlearning environment where you have to share all these PDF documents and sharevideo and all these” (Tutor 1, 13/03/2017: 12pm). These data suggest that the use of
Moodle and other technologies as tools in the University’s activity system support
both students and educators to effectively engage in their educational practices. This
also supports Kuteeva (2017), who states that the development of modern or digitaltechnologies like the Internet contributes to various innovative practices. So, with theavailability of reliable and effective Internet service at University B, students and staff
have the advantage to advance in their academic writing practices.
Teaching staff
There is also demand for engaging additional educators at University A. Two students
indicated that there is need to employ more Associate Professors and Professors invarious disciplines. As one explained, “I want highly trained and qualified people like
Professors to teach me so that I want to learn the best” (Year 2 Student 1, 26/10/2016:9am). Another student supports, “We also need Professors who are very wellgrounded in their field to teach us. We don't want tutors to lecture us” (Year 2 Student
3, 26/10/2016: 1pm). These responses imply that there are tutors lecturing when infact, they supposed to be running tutorials. However, tutors are lecturing because
there are inadequate specialized lecturers, Associate Professors and Professors at
University A. Apparently, if the tutors are not lecturing then, who else is going to do
the job? Hence, this is a huge challenge for the University Management. According to
the University’s Corporate Plan 2013 – 2017 and the University’s Strategic Plan 2013
– 2017, part of its key focus area looks at constant appraisal of staff to ensure highcalibre academics are available to provide quality teaching and learning.
Unfortunately, the data suggest that the University Management has not been
seriously responding to that policy which is a major concern.
The tutors and lecturers also mentioned that more specialized and highly qualified
educators are needed at University A. As one of them states, “We also need highly
qualified and skilled staff like Professors in all the disciplines to assist us in ourcourses and programs” (Lecturer 2, 24/10/2016: 3pm). Additionally, the tutors andlecturers expressed that the University Management should review all the changes
that are taking place by creating more positions, bringing in more specialized andqualified educators. These are genuine concerns because universities are about writing

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and that specialist forms of academic literacy9 are central to everything they do(Hyland, 2013). Therefore, for successful ‘disciplinary-based’ (Starfield, 2007)
academic writing to occur and to meet the expected outcome of this writing, it
requires expert input from disciplinary-based teaching staff. That is, specialized
educators who can teach the specialized contents of their courses or units and guidetheir students to learn and master the specialized vocabulary and concepts in theirdisciplines and use them correctly in their academic writing activity.
The academic administrators also admitted that staffing is a big issue. Theyemphasized that there is a huge increase in student numbers recently which has
implications on resources. They highlighted that there is more workload for staff, andlack of quality teaching and marking done. The academic administrators agreed that
there is demand for more Associate Professors and Professors to be employed todevelop and run courses and programs at University A. One of them expressed that
the University Management has to find money and fund more positions because if
they want quality students to graduate from the University, then they need quality
staff. These data suggest that the consequence of employing Associate Professors andProfessors is to maximize the quality of education, courses and programs at
University A. The findings correspond with the policies in the University’s Corporate
Plan 2013 – 2017 and the University’s Strategic Plan 2013 – 2017. Part of the mission
statement declares that the University aims to transform lives through its highly
skilled and experienced staff and inspirational graduates. Additionally, one of the
University’s core values is to promote excellence in teaching. Therefore, it is crucial
for the University Management to respond to these policies with support from allactors within the University’s activity system.
Comparing the data from University A with University B, there are some mixed views
from participants from University B concerning teaching staff. According to two
students, their Departments have enough teaching staff to teach each unit whereas twoother students indicated that they still need some additional teaching staff to share theworkload of the current lecturers. Furthermore, three students emphasized that theyalso need specialized lecturers to teach them academic writing because the specialists
will spot their weaknesses and strengths in academic writing more accurately and ingreater detail and will know exactly how to address their specific academic writingneeds. Another states, “I think if some additional staff can come and assist in theunits, it will be ok because of the increased number of students. They will then, haveenough time to attend to us individually” (Year 1 Student 2, 21/03/2017: 10am).
However, five students anticipated that student number is manageable, and theirlecturers do find time to communicate with each of them. As noticed here, there areinconsistencies exist in the data. With these mixed responses from students, it isproper to reassess the level of supports that they receive from their current educators.
If the educators are not meeting their individual academic needs, then it will require
the University Management to engage additional educators to share workloads.
The educators also felt that they need additional personnel to assist them. One of themsaid that last semester she taught four units and now she is teaching three. She
explains, “But three units is still quite a lot. Four units is huge. So, in addition to all
our tasks, a lot of people are overloaded” (Tutor 2, 14/03/2017: 11am). Another9

Academic literacy involves reading and writing with theoretical mindset (Hyland, 2013).

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interviewee adds, “If we want to set up a centre or offer some services, the University
needs to adequately provide specialized staff to run or teach the curriculum” (Tutor 1,
13/03/2017: 12pm). The academic administrators also shared the similar sentiments.
They emphasized that they have specialists at University B who are over-committed
or overworked therefore they still require additional qualified educators to assist them.
One of them elaborates, “We have recommended to the University Management toemploy new specialized staff to assist us develop our programs. But it is taking slow
progress and we don’t know when we will have additional staff to help us” (Academic
Administrator 1, 15/03/2017: 9am). However, he says, “One of the issues to get morequalified staff is that more pay package, that is beyond our capacity. It is an issue offinancial resources, which is a problem” (Academic Administrator 1, 15/03/2017:9am). These data suggest that University B does not have the financial capacity which
is one of the vital tools that is affecting its activity system to employ additional
educators, though there is current demand.
Conclusion
The findings revealed that educational resources like infrastructure development,
curriculum and other educational materials, educational equipment, online educational
resources, and teaching staff are important players in the activity systems of higher
education institutions. However, for this study, the findings suggest that University A
seems to struggle more to meet its academic writing needs in terms of the provision
and availability of its educational resources compared to University B. Drawing fromthese findings, the higher education institutions in PNG are encouraged to upgrade
their existing educational resources and include new ones to improve the quality of
their academic writing practices and to produce expected outcomes. Further, actors in
the activity systems of higher education institutions in PNG can elicit from thefindings to address the challenges students and educators encounter by supportingthem to successfully engage in their academic writing practices.

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Contact email: lawkage@gmail.com

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A Study on the Influence of Technology Hands-on Curriculum on the Technology
Attitude and Programming Attitude in Senior High School
Yu-Te Wang, Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' Senior High School, Taiwan
Yuan-Tai Chen, Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' Senior High School, Taiwan
Pei-Chuan Lu, Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' Senior High School, Taiwan
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Abstract
The study was aimed to explore the influence of technology hands-on curriculum on
the technology attitude and programming attitude. The study sample consisted of forty
two 16-year-old students from one K10 class in Taiwan. A 12-week (24h in total) preand post-test quasi-experimental study was designed. In the class we used the Arduino
microcontroller, let students learn how to control the Arduino and design their final
homework. All the course materials were placed in the school eclass network teaching
platform (http://eclass.tcgs.tc.edu.tw). Students could log on to the network teaching
platform at any time to view the materials and discuss with their partners. During theexperimental period, we randomly selected students did the semi-structured interview
to record their learning experience. The main statistic procedures employed foranalyzing experimental data and testing the research hypotheses were Paired t-test.
The result of this study: (1)The technology hands-on curriculum has a positive effecton students’ technology attitude and programming attitude. (2)In the technology
hands-on curriculum, students’ technology attitude has a positive effect on students’programming attitude.(3) Data of semi-structured interview by qualitative analysis
indicate that Hands-on Curriculum can generate students’ motivation and interest tolearn technology.
Keywords: Technology Hands-On Curriculum, Technology Attitude, Programming
Attitudeiafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Taiwan believes that the content of technology education curriculum lies in thecultivation of concepts of technology. By operating the technology process, it ispossible to deduce and understand the development of technology and hope that it canactually operate technology products and cultivate practical experience in the course.
The topics of Taiwan’s technology education curriculum mostly fall on the aspects oflife technology (Yu-Sban Chang, Kuang-Chao Yu, Pei-Ru Hsiao, 2010). The
technology curriculum is based on two subjects: Information Technology and Life
Technology to implement curriculum concepts and goals. The basic concept of life
technology curriculum is based on "Doing, Using, Thinking ". Develop students'
ability to do practical work, the ability to use technology products, and the ability todesign and critique technology. Teaching technology should be conducted in the formof problem solving or thematic production. Encourage students to conduct
autonomous and exploratory learning so as to implement the curriculum concepts of"Design and Implementation" and " Computational Thinking ". Students apply
various creative thinking methods in the formation of concepts, selection of materials,
and processing techniques, and actually solve the tasks and problems delivered byteachers. This learning process is very difficult to do with other courses, and this isexactly the specialties of life technology courses (Yih-Hsien Chu, 2006). If we canmake good use of practical courses in life technology and guide student withwell-designed teaching materials, we will effectively develop students' abilities. So
this study will effectively use Arduino online courses, and combined with eClass
network teaching platform features, conducted a 12-week (24 lessons) technology
Hands-on Curriculum. To understand the impact of technology hands-on curriculumon the technology attitude and programming attitude.
A.

Technology Hands-on Curriculum

Technology education is a diversified curriculum, as an indispensable curriculum forpeople. Technology can lead people to a more advanced and convenient society.
Therefore, the implementation of the technology education curriculum should not be
neglected (Yu-Sban Chang et al., 2010). The technology curriculum is based on two
subjects: Information Technology and Life Technology to implement curriculum
concepts and goals. To help students understand the connection between science andengineering by strengthening the link between knowledge in different disciplines.
Therefore, through the establishment of technology, the connotation of technology
and engineering into the field of technology curriculum. To strengthen students'
hands-on and interdisciplinary skills, such as science, technology, engineering,mathematics(STEM). Cultivate students’ computational thinking, technologicaldesign and creative capabilities, and establish attitudes towards the technologicalsociety. Students apply various creative thinking methods in the formation of concepts,
selection of materials, and processing techniques, and actually solve the tasks andproblems delivered by teachers. This learning process is very difficult to do with othercurriculums, and this is exactly the specialties of life technology
curriculum(Yih-Hsien Chu, 2006).
Life technology belong to the hands-on curriculum in basic national compulsory
education. Through the implementation of activities in the curriculum, teachers candevelop students in metalworking, carpentry, circuit design skills. Instruct students to

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understand the structure and planning of design and production. There are many
similarities with the maker movement in such curricula. The basic concept of life
technology curriculum is based on "Doing, Using, Thinking". Develop students'
ability to do practical work, the ability to use technology products, and the ability todesign and critique technology. Teaching technology should be conducted in the formof problem solving or thematic production. Encourage students to conduct
autonomous and exploratory learning so as to implement the curriculum concepts of"Design and Implementation" and " Computational Thinking ".
Yi-Hsin Chang (2016) studied through problem-based learning on a given website（Web-PBL）, so that the impact on their learning attitude, problem-solving ability,
and learning effectiveness on the science and technology fields is observed. Research
result with implementation of the web-PBL program, the students' learning attitude on
the science and technology is promoted with significance, particularly in the categoryof learning motivation, indicating that the students are holding a positive and active
attitude on the web-PBL when they are engaged in the program. Mei-Hui Lu, Hsi-Yu
Ching (2011) was discussing feasibility that applies Computer Aided Drawing (CAD)
technique to elementary technology education course. The findings are the study has
achieved better learning effects of CAD instruction in technology education course.
Besides, the effects have inspired better learning motives.
Tai, Yu-Te, Ray, and Jia-Ling (2016) explored the influence of flipped teaching on
students’ learning achievement in living technology hands-on curriculum. Significant
differences were found between the experimental groups and the control group interms of students’ learning achievement in living technology hands-on curriculum,
technology attitude, cooperative learning attitude and course satisfaction.
Therefore, the technology hands-on curriculum of this study aims to cultivate
students’ hands-on capabilities. User Arduino microcontroller and C programming
language design a series of hands-on curriculum. Expect to enhance students'
technology attitude and programming attitude by this curriculum.
B.

Technology Attitude

The attitude generally refers to the coordinated, organized, and habitual internal
psychological response that an individual holds for anything. This complex
psychological process is a collection of thoughts, emotions, and actions that are
triggered by the things (Chun-Hsing Chang, Kuo-Shu Yang,1998). Chang-Wen Chen
(2004) , Eagly & Chailen (1993) Attitude is a tendency for a person to make apositive or negative response to something, a person, a situation, or an event.
Min-Tung,Lin (2006) Attitude refers to an abstract internal reaction of individuals to
people, things, and objects. It manifests itself in external attitudes. Its connotation
includes three parts: cognition, affection, and behavior. Gibson, Ivancevich, andDonnelly (2000) Stimuli can affect attitudes, and attitudes can be expressed
specifically through the expression of personal preferences, the expression of beliefs,
or the expression of actions. A positive attitude can be obtained through learning, and
it is a persistent mental paradox. Developing a positive attitude is a part of school
education that cannot be ignored.

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The goals of technology education curriculum in various countries have been
gradually changed from the manual exegesis emphasized in traditional craft courses tothe development of students’ technological literacy. It is also the three aspects ofknowledge, skills, and attitudes of technology. In other words, besides attachingimportance to scientific and technological know-how technology skills, how to guidestudents to have a correct technology attitude and to strengthen the training of
relevant scientific and technological attitudes is an important aspect of the technology
education curriculum. "Technology Attitude" refers to a person's tendency to cognize,
affect, and act on information on technology. The cognitive part is the individual's
belief in technology and technology issues. The emotional part is the inner feeling of
the individual on the topics of technology. In the part of the behavior is the actual
action shown by the individual on the issues of science, technology and technology(Min-Tung,Lin, 2006).
Jenkins (2006) pointed out that students like to work with new technologies. Students
mention that it is interesting to work with new technologies, and technology isbeneficial and important to society, medical training and life. Hsu, I-Ying (2012)
aimed to discuss how the Living Technology Curriculum, containing the history oftechnology and science/ technology/ society (STS) materials, influenced students’technological literacy and attitude toward technology. The conclusions were as
follows: (1) parents’ occupations, the gender issue and academic performance
affected students’ performance in technological literacy and attitude toward
technology; (2) content in the history of technology can enhance students’technological literacy and attitude toward technology; (3) students’ attitude toward
technology and academic achievement have positive influence on their performancein technological literacy. Tseng, Chang, Lou, and Chen (2013) pointed out students
recognized the importance of STEM in the science and engineering disciplines; theymentioned in interview that the possession of professional science knowledge isuseful to their future career and that technology may improve our lives and society,making the world a more convenient and efficient place. In conclusion, combining
PjBL with STEM can increase effectiveness, generate meaningful learning andinfluence student attitudes in future career pursuit. Students are positive towards
combining PjBL with STEM. Wendell and Rogers (2013) pointed out suggest thatengineering design-based science curriculum units may support elementary students’science content knowledge, while helping students learn to design, construct, and test
solutions to engineering problems. Because students using either curriculum had
similarly positive attitudes toward science, our research suggests that the benefit ofengineering design for science learning cannot be attributed simply to the positive
science attitudes that may result from the use of novel materials or methods.
From the above research on technology attitude, we can see that students have agreater interest in technology (Jenkins, 2006). Hands-on activities such as PjBL
through Life technology curriculum or STEM can improve students’ technology
attitudes (Tseng et al., 2013; Wendell & Rogers, 2013; Hsu, I-Ying, 2012). The
attitude of technology has a positive effect on technological literacy(Hsu, I-Ying,2012).

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C.

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Programming Attitude

Computer programming is perceived as an important competence aiding in thedevelopment of higher-order thinking skills such as problem solving, creative
thinking, logical reasoning, systematic experimentation and the like (Akcaoglu, 2014;
Baytak & Land, 2011; Korkmaz, 2012; Lau & Yuen, 2009).Programming is an
important lesson, but students often face learning obstacles due to abstract
programming concepts. Computer programming is mostly perceived as a difficult
course by the students (Askar & Davenport, 2009; Baser, 2013). Programming is acognitive activity that requires plausible reasoning skills. It can cultivate students'
ability to think high and make inferences in the process of learning. Cooper pointed
out that it is difficult for beginners to understand the logical concepts (such as
selection structures, loops, etc.) and data types (such as arrays) of program abstraction,
because there are few real life examples to promote students' understanding in the
introductory courses of programming (Cooper, Dann, & Pausch, 2003). Beaubouefand MasonAfter (2005) pointed out most students have studied a semester program,they still stay on grammar learning. It is difficult to apply the acquired program
knowledge to plan the program. Although teachers explain the abstract idea of the
program in the classroom, the programming teaching is often based on static teaching
methods. It is difficult for learners to understand the operation and structure of the
program (Hooper et al., 2007). The fact that computer programming is perceived as adifficult course results in the fact that they develop mostly negative attitudes
regarding programming (Baser, 2013).Negative attitude regarding programming has anegative effect on the success of students. Hence, the studies finding out that suchfactors as negative perception, motivation and especially low level of attitude canmake negative effect on learning computer programming take theattention(Anastasiadou & Karakos, 2011; Hawi, 2010; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013). The
studies show that there is a significant relation between the accomplishment of tasks
in the computer environment and the attitudes of students towards computer
technology (Baser, 2013; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013).
Yu-Te Wang, Yuan-Tai Chen, Ling-Huei Tseng (2012) studied was to understand theeffectiveness of robot programming courses in programming language course forfemale high school students. The main findings of this study were that there were no
significant differences in students’ programming achievement between experimentalgroup and control group. Students’ programming attitude of the experimental groupwas significantly different to the experimental group. Data of semi-structured
interview by qualitative analysis indicate that robot programming courses cangenerate students’ motivation and interest. Yu-Tzu, Liao (2011) developed two kindsof game-oriented teaching material with Greenfoot for programming concepts
learning, and examined the effects of two kinds of game-oriented teaching material onhigh school sophomores’ performance in programming learning, students’ attitudes
toward programming learning, and students’ self-efficacy. Both groups of student
attitude survey indicated that the majority of student had positive attitudes toward
using the game-oriented teaching material to learn programming concepts.
HSU, TING-YU (2016) pointed out programming is an important lesson, but students
often face learning obstacles due to abstract programming concepts. It is revealed in
the research that the effects are better on senior high students’ learning performances,self-confidence and abstract thinking ability in teaching programming for

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experimental group than control group; besides, in interviews after class, students
generally looked Scratch as an easy way to learn and it did arouse their interests,
whereas fChart was more complicated to use but easier for them to observe theoperation of the programming. Gençtürk and Korucu (2017) concluded that students
receiving education within the experimental group are more successful. When
analysing their attitudes towards programming languages, it is concluded that
attitudes of students in experimental group are more positive than that of those incontrol group.
From the above research on programming attitudes, we can see that programming is
an important course, but due to abstract programming concepts, students often facelearning disabilities. The fact that computer programming is perceived as a difficult
course results in the fact that they develop mostly negative attitudes regarding
programming (Baser, 2013). Negative attitude regarding programming has a negative
effect on the success of students. Hence, the studies finding out that such factors as
negative perception, motivation and especially low level of attitude can make negative
effect on learning computer programming take the attention(Anastasiadou & Karakos,
2011; Hawi, 2010; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013). The studies show that there is asignificant relation between the accomplishment of tasks in the computer environment
and the attitudes of students towards computer technology (Baser, 2013; Korkmaz &Altun, 2013). Learning programming through robots, games, etc. is more able tounderstand the role of programs and is more conducive to student motivation andinteresting ( Yu-Te Wang et al., 2012; Yu-Tzu, Liao, 2011).
Research methods
A. Samples
Unit
1
2

Subject
Introduction
Arduino andArduino IDE
Arduino IDE
programing

Description
Arduino basic control
instructions、Arduino IDE’soperation interface
Arduino IDE programing
Use Arduino control 5 LEDs
and produce different
flickering effects
Use Arduino’s PWM pin anduse variable resistance toadjust led’s brightness

Electronic parts

LED, resistance3

LED Marquee

4

Adjustable LED’s
brightness

5

MessagingComputer and Arduinotransfer data each other6

Photoresistor night
light (Homework
1)

Use photoresistor and LED
design a night light

LED, photoresistor

7Motor application

Use Arduino to control DC
motor and Servo motor

DC motor, Servo
motor

8

Bluetooth remotecontrolcar(Homework 2)

Use Arduino and Bluetoothmodule to design a Bluetooth
remote control car

DC motor,
Bluetooth module,
L293 expansion
board

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LED, resistance
LED、variable
resistance

Programing
Arduino IDE
C basic
grammarvariable,function, loop
variable,
flow control,
function, loop
variable,
flow control,
function, loop
variable,
flow control,
function, loop
variable,
flow control,
function, loop
variable,
flow control,
function, loop
variable,function, loop

Time
100
minutes
100
minutes
100
minutes
100
minutes
100
minutes200
minutes
100
minutes
400
minutes

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The study sample consisted of forty two 16-year-old students from one K10 class inTaichung city of Taiwan. Two students form one group and the whole class is divided
into 20 groups.
B.

Technology hands-on curriculum

The technology hands-on curriculum of this research is mainly based on the ability tocultivate students' hands-on skills. The current popular Arduino microcontroller is themain feature, and the C program language is used to design a series of hands-on
applications for life (Table 1). The curriculum was placed in the school’s eclassnetwork platform (http://eclass.tcgs.tc.edu.tw).
Table 1 Technology Hands-on curriculumC.

Research tools

1.

Technology scale

The technology attitude scale was compiled by Tai et al. (2016). The technology
attitude scale of this study is divided into following five sub-scales: Technology
career, Technology interest, Technology problem, The importance of technology andTechnological difficulties. The Cronbach α of whole scale and each sub-scale areshown as follows: the Cronbach α of Technology career is 0.91; Technology interestis 0.76; Technology problem is 0.91; The importance of technology is 0.76;
Technological difficulties is 0.86; and the Cronbach α of whole scale is 0.91.
2.

Programming scale

The programming attitude scale was compiled by Tai, D. W. S., Liang-Chu Lai(2016). The programming attitude scale is divided into following five sub-scales:
usefulness, confidence, preference, anxiety, and course requirements. The Cronbach αof whole scale and each sub-scale are shown as follows: the Cronbach α of preferenceis 0.80; usefulness is 0.71; confidence is 0.75; anxiety is 0.83; course requirement is
0.82; and the Cronbach α of whole scale is 0.90.
3.

Qualitative data collection and analysis

This study use qualitative data research procedure reference from Ya-Chu Yang,
Hsiao-Lin Tuan (2015) and Sung-Pei Chien, Hsin-Kai Wu(2008). Qualitative data
analysis to analyze the open questionnaire after the completion of two Hands-on
homework. Qualitative data is coded according to the purpose of research. The
contents of the code list (Table 2) cover the course satisfaction and technology
attitude. The number of open questionnaires for the hands-on units in this study,
homework1 has 40 questionnaires, and homework has 40 questionnaires. Firstly, theresearcher analyzes the open questionnaire, then to co-analysts. Analytical results are
discussed and confirmed multiple times.

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Table 2 Qualitative data encoding table
Code
Item
Definition
numberStudents feel diverse in thecontent of the course. The
1-1
textbooks can assist in thecompletion of homework.
Satisfied teacher content,
1-2
feedback quality and timely
courseassistancesatisfaction
Students feel that the course
1-3
makes them self-growth
1-4Students look forward to thenext hands-on curriculum

2-1

Have
confidence
technology

2-2

Like
programmingortechnology implementations

technology
attitude
2-3
2-4

in

Ability to apply technology
to everyday life or generateinterest in technology
Demonstratetechnology-related
careerplanning

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Description
The student mentioned that the course is rich incontent, and that watching the teaching video or
the teacher’s textbooks can help the teamcomplete the homework
Students feel that teachers can provide advice
and guidance at the right time and respond to
the problems encountered
Due to the relationship of this course, students
feel that they have increased their confidence intheir scientific knowledge and hands-on skills.
Students find the course very interesting andare looking forward to the next hands-on
curriculum
Students mentioned that through this course,
they feel more confident in technology andhands-onStudents like programming and hands-on
implementations, and they mention thattechnology is very interesting
Students can apply what they have learned indaily life to daily life, or actively observe
technology-related products in daily life.
Students would like to study in related scienceand technology departments or would like towork in the field of technology.

Research results
A. The Impact of Technological Hands-on Curriculums on Technology Attitude andProgramming Attitude
This study want to understand the impact of technological hands-on curriculum ontechnology attitudes and programming attitudes. Use paired t-test to examine thedifference between on technology attitudes and programming attitudes after the
12-week technology hands-on curriculum. The paired t-test results of the pretest andposttest of the technology attitudes scale and programming attitudes scale are shownin Table 2 and Table 3 below. According to the results on Table3, there were havesignificant differences between the pretest and posttest results of total scale,technology career and technology interest on the technology attitude scale. According
to the results on Table4, there were have significant differences between the pretestand posttest results of all sub-scales and total scale.

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Table 3 The Paired t-test on the technology attitude scale
PretestPosttest
sub-scale
Mean
Std
Mean
Std
Technology career
28.21
5.63
30.08
4.63
Technology interest
15.00
2.67
16.05
2.45
Technology problem
32.44
5.83
33.00
5.20
The importance of technology
17.67
2.40
18.13
2.08
Technological difficulties
14.85
3.38
15.44
2.70
Total scale
108.15
14.86
112.6911.99
N=39;*p<.05,**p<.01,***p<.001
Table 4 The Paired t-test on the programming attitude scale
PretestPosttest
sub-scale
Mean
Std
Mean
Std
preference
20.64
4.93
22.87
4.61
usefulness
23.87
3.09
28.03
4.65
confidence
15.82
4.56
17.33
3.95
anxiety
13.46
3.02
15.64
3.41
course requirements
18.87
3.50
20.79
3.90
Total scale
92.67
16.41
104.6717.92
N=39;*p<.05,**p<.01,***p<.001t
2.79**
2.78**
.89
1.42
1.47
3.53**

t
3.25**
6.36***
2.58*
4.12***
3.16**
5.24***

B. The influence of technology attitude on programming attitude in technology
hands-on curriculumThis study to understand the influence of technological attitude on programming
attitude in the technology hands-on curriculum. Use independent t-test to examine thedifference on the programming attitude between the technology attitude scale pretest
high group and low group. According to the results on Table 5, the technology
attitude scale high group’s average score is 113.00 on the programming attitude scale.
T low group’s average score is 94.94. T independent t-test is 3.597**. The results
show the student’s programming attitude score in the technology attitude scale highgroup is better than the low group. From the above results, the technology attitude in
the technology hands-on curriculum does affect the programming attitude.
Table 5 independent t-test
Group People
Technology
HIGH
21
Attitude Pretest
LOW
18
N=39;*p<.05,**p<.01,***p<.001
C.

M
113.00
94.94

SD
11.62
19.31

t
3.597**

p<.01

Qualitative data analysis

This study was based on an open questionnaire qualitative data analysis. According to
the results on Table 6, 96.25% of students mentioned that they are satisfied with thetechnology hands-on curriculum. In the course satisfaction item, 25% students feel
diverse in the content of the course. The textbooks can assist in the completion of
homework. 15% students satisfied teacher content, feedback quality and timely
assistance. 40% students feel that the course makes them self-growth. 16.25%

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students look forward to the next hands-on curriculum. This curriculum leads student
to understand the function of Arduino. And the content of the technology hands-on
curriculum is very close to life. Students can successfully make interesting andpractical devices through the guidance of this curriculum. Student think the
curriculum is very challenging and interesting.
Table 6 Hands-on qualitative data times table
Code
Item
DefinitionTime
numberStudents feel diverse in the content of
1-1
the course. The textbooks can assist in20
the completion of homework.
Satisfied teacher content, feedback
1-2
12
coursequality and timely assistancesatisfaction
Students feel that the course makes
1-3
32
them self-growthStudents look forward to the next
1-4
13
hands-on curriculum
2-1
Have confidence in technology
43
Like programming or technology
2-2
25
implementations
technology
Ability to apply technology toattitude2-3
everyday life or generate interest in
7
technology
Demonstrate technology-related
2-44career planning＊ 40 students, everyone write two open questionnaires%(Time/80)

Total%(Total /80)

7796.25%

79

98.75%

25%
15%
40%
16.25%
53.75%
31.25%
8.75%
5%

In addition to technology attitude, 98.75% of students mentioned their views ontechnology. 53.75% student have confidence in technology. 31.25% student like
programming or technology implementations. 8.75% student ability to apply
technology to everyday life or generate interest in technology. 5% student
demonstrate technology-related career planning. After participated in technology
hands-on curriculum, student feel very satisfied after completing the homework. And
then find out about their interest in programming. This shows that this course canstimulate students' interest in technology, and then improve students' technology
attitude.
Conclusion and suggestionA.

Conclusion

1. The technology hands-on curriculum has a positive effect on students’technology attitude and programming attitude.
This Study used paired t-test to examine the difference between on technology
attitudes and programming attitudes after the 12-week technology hands-on
curriculum. According to the results, there were have significant differences between
technology attitude and programming attitude after technology hands-on curriculum.
And from the student's qualitative information can also be found after participated in

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technology hands-on curriculum, student feel very satisfied after completing thehomework. And then find out about their interest in programming. This shows that
this course can stimulate students' interest in technology, and then improve students'
technology attitude. The results of this study are the same as many studies. Students
like to participate in technology work, students mentioned that it is interesting to workwith new technology. And technology are beneficial and important to society, medical
training and life. Students’ attitudes in engineering and technology increase slightly
after participating in technology activities (Jenkins, 2006; Tseng et al., 2013).
Through technology hands-on curriculums, students can not only practically use
STEM knowledge, but also can actively engage in STEM integration concepts in the
topic of technology implementation.
2. In the technology hands-on curriculum, students’ technology attitude has apositive effect on students’ programming attitude.
This study used independent t-test to examine the difference on the programming
attitude between the technology attitude scale pretest high group and low group. The
results show the student’s programming attitude score in the technology attitude scalehigh group is better than the low group. From the above results, the technology
attitude in the technology hands-on curriculum does affect the programming attitude.
The results of this study are the same as many studies. Students feel unfamiliar with
programming. However, after hands-on curriculum, they can understand the use of
programming. Learning the programming through hands-on curriculums such as
robotics and Arduino can better understand the role of the program and can be more
conducive to student motivation and interest. It can influencing students'
programming (Gençtürk & Korucu, 2017; Yu-Te Wang et al., 2012).
3. Data of semi-structured interview by qualitative analysis indicate that Hands-on
Curriculum can generate students’ motivation and interest to learn technology.
According to the qualitative data of students shows that technology hands-on
curriculums can really enhance students’ motivation and interest in learningtechnology. This course leads student to understand the function of Arduino. And thecontent of the technology hands-on curriculum is very close to life. Students can
successfully make interesting and practical devices through the guidance of thiscourse. Student think the course is very challenging and interesting. The results of thisstudy are the same as many studies. Completion of the tasks in the programmingcourse has a significant relationship with the student's programming attitude (Baser,
2013; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013). Through technology hands-on courses, students’technology attitudes have improved significantly. Especially in the part of learning
motivation, the promotion is most obvious, which can motivate the students’motivation and interest in learning technology (Tai et al., 2016; Mei-Hui Lu et al.,2011; Yi-Hsin Chang, 2016). Learning programming through robots, games, etc. ismore able to understand the role of programs and is more conducive to student
motivation and interesting ( Yu-Te Wang et al., 2012; Yu-Tzu, Liao, 2011).
B.

Suggestion

This study was only experimental teaching in senior high schools in Taiwan, but also
experimental teaching in only one class due to school scheduling factors. The study

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found that technology hands-on curriculum significantly improved students' attitudein science and technology and programming attitude. Suggest that can increase theexperiment class and control group in future. In addition, the experimental teachingmaterials placed in advance online teaching platform, it is suggested that different
teaching strategies (such as flip teaching, cooperative learning) to explore different
teaching strategies in technology hands-on curriculum for technology attitude andprogramming attitude.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Ministry of Science andTechnology and the assistance from the Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' SeniorHigh School (MOST 105-2514-S-582-001).

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Teaching Materials Apply on 8th Grade Science Students' Learning Engagement andAchievement. Chinese Journal of Science Education, 23(2), 129-153.
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Contact email: te@ms.tcgs.tc.edu.tw

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Cushioning Teacher Bullying: An Exploratory Study Towards Establishing
Support Mechanism
Eric A. Bordios, University of Southeastern Philippines, The Philippines
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods was used in carrying out this research work
since Teacher Bullying (TB) is not yet explored in the Philippines. In the first phase, anarrative inquiry was administered to extract significant experiences of teachers interms of “bullying forms” and its “effects” on their teaching performance and wellbeing, as well as their perceived “interventions” that can address the issue. The data
gathered were utilized in building an instrument for the second phase. Consequently,
Exploratory Factor Analysis was employed to uncover “factors of TB”, and Multiple
Response Analysis to determine “common effects of TB” and “needed interventions
on TB”. Twenty forms of teacher bullying were identified and were grouped into four
factors, namely, Work Performance – Related Bullying, Interpersonal Dimension –Related Bullying, Psychosocial Dimension – Related Bullying and Classroom
Management – Related Bullying. The common effects of teacher bullying on
performance are “lost focus”, “demotivated” and “unachieved targets” while common
effects of teacher bullying on well-being include “low morale”, “loss of confidence”
and “sleeping disorder”. Results further showed that interventions needed are“increase awareness”, “engage stakeholders” and “develop personal habits".
Ultimately, the “support mechanism” developed to address teacher bullying have thefollowing components: prevention, intervention, and monitoring and evaluation(PRIME) wherein each component represents set of actions. This study confirmed that
there are dimensions of teacher bullying which are unique in each school, thus, thesupport mechanisms to be implemented must be school-based and managed by acreated committee in school which would be responsible to perform relevant tasks.
Keywords: Exploratory sequential mixed methods, Support mechanism, Teacher
bullying

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
In the past few years, bullying has been one of the most talked-about issues in schools
not only in the Philippines but more so in other countries, thus, it has received
increased attention even up to this date. In addressing the issue, schools haveinstituted interventions like placing harder and clearer rules against bullying, forming
clubs and organizations in schools to address bullying, and taking legal actions
against students who have bullied other students (The Bullied Teacher, 2013). But
these school initiatives are directly focused on just one kind of bullying: Student
Bullying.
In schools, especially in the Philippines, there is another kind of bullying that is often
neglected and goes unreported; a problem that silently proliferates and occurs mostoften than most people realize. It is called Teacher Bullying.
Bullying toward teachers has been a recognized problem already in other countries.
But sad to say, very little research has been done on this subject (De Wet, 2010). And
most of these researches are concentrated not on arriving at prevention andintervention programs that can address the problem but rather on finding thesignificant relationship of teacher bullying to other teaching variables such as selfefficacy beliefs (Ozkilic, 2014) and classroom management (Allen, 2010); identifying
forms of bullying experienced by teachers (Kauppi and Porhola, 2012); anddetermining the effects of bullying to teachers’ well-being (Benefield, 2004; De Wet
and Jacobs, 2006; De Wet, 2010); to name a few.
In the Philippines, it is very safe to note that teacher bullying is an under-recognizedproblem since no research has been conducted on this subject. Teachers themselves
do not even bother to care if certain acts toward them from people in school canalready be considered bullying. Based on informal and initial talks of the researcherof this study to teachers in the field, in the Island Garden City of Samal, almost all ofthem have limited conceptual understanding and awareness of teacher bullying.
Among the problems encountered by teachers in relation to teacher bullying are:Unreported cases of TB, Reported TBs are neglected by authority, Reported TBs are
not addressed or little is done, Teachers remain powerless in the face of TB, Teachers
have nowhere to turn to, TB is under-recognised, Limited understanding andawareness of TB, and Teachers silently suffer the torment of their students (The
Bullied Teacher, 2013).
It must be emphasized that the well-being of teachers has a central role in any schoolcommunity (Kauppi and Porhola, 2012). It can be assumed that teachers who feel
comfortable in their position and are content with their working conditions have abetter chance to succeed in supporting the work of their students.
Considerably, the experience of being bullied at work is known to have a detrimental
effect on victim’s health and well-being (Mattiesen and Eirnarsen, 2004). It has been
discovered that bullying and violence have negative effects on the quality of teachers’
work performance (De Wet, 2010).

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If Teacher Bullying (TB) is empirically found to be detrimental in the delivery of
quality performance from the teachers, then it must be taken seriously and appropriate
actions must be done. Thus, this study was thought out by the researcher to explore
the subject initially (here in the Philippines) in order to determine if there could besubstantial results and evidences that would warrant the problem to be acknowledged
and regarded in the workplace. If so, then addressing the problem should beprioritized, and there could be no better way to do it than laying down mechanismsthat could fill in the gaps between the existence of teacher bullying and the protectionthat teachers deserve.
The researcher’s main objective was to come up with a support mechanism on teacher
bullying that teachers can resort into should there be any concern regarding them
being bullied. This mechanism would serve as protection for teachers that would givethem relief on incidents and circumstances connected to teacher bullying. But before
arriving at a mechanism, the study identified first the forms, factors and effects ofteacher bullying prevalent in the Philippines, as well as the interventions which aremostly needed, timely and relevant in the country’s setting. All these information
would provide a good background on teacher bullying in the Philippine context.
Generally, Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods of research was used in this study.
In this method, the researcher began with a qualitative research phase and exploredthe views of participants (Creswell, 2013). The data gathered were then analyzed andthe information were used to build into a second, quantitative phase. Because theresearcher wanted to build an instrument that best fits the sample under study, identify
appropriate instruments to use in the follow-up quantitative phase, and to specify
variables for a follow-up quantitative study (Creswell, 2013), the exploratory
sequential mixed methods is the most appropriate approach in carrying out thisresearch work.
In the qualitative phase, the method employed was phenomenology. The researcher’s
assumption was that there exist a true essence of the experiences (Vanderstoep andJohnston, 2009) of teachers relative to bullying in the workplace. How the teachers
experience bullying and how they construct meaning of these experiences are what
this research is focused on. Hence, phenomenology was eyed by the researcher as thebest method in carrying out the qualitative phase of this study.
Further, Narrative Inquiry was the tool used in the data collection in the qualitative
phase. This is the tool used because the researcher wanted to collect stories fromselect respondents on their experiences on teacher bullying and consequently use
them in identifying common themes that could be used in the next steps of theresearch. The researcher’s idea is consistent to what McAdams (1996) stressed thatnarrative inquiry is a particular way of collecting data, that is, asking people to tellstories and applying to the data obtained; and to the definition of Polkinghorne (1988)
that narrative inquiry is the process of making story, the cognitive structure of thestory or the result of the process.
On the other hand, in the quantitative phase of the study, survey was administeredsince it is the best way to collect a large amount of data from a large number of people
in a short amount of time (Vanderstoep and Johnston, 2009). At this point of theresearch, the researcher did a face-to-face interview with 200 respondents using a

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survey questionnaire as the guide in carrying out the data collection. Face-to-faceinterview, and not any other survey method, was chosen because the researcher
understands the vagueness of the topic. It was much expected that identified
respondents would experience difficulty in understanding some items in thequestionnaire or even the concept itself of teacher bullying. Thus, the presence of theresearcher while doing the survey was much needed to address these concerns.
As shown in the analytical framework of the study (Figure 1), the variable SMTB
(Support Mechanism on Teacher Bullying) is the main output of this research. Thiswas realized after synthesizing results generated from (a) quantitative inquiries on thevariables FATB (Factors of Teacher Bullying), CETB (Common Effects of Teacher
Bullying) and NITB (Needed Interventions on Teacher Bullying); (b) textual analysisof the literatures on the factors, effects and interventions of teacher bullying; with (c)existing policies and programs of the government particularly of the Department of
Education.

Figure 1. Analytical Framework of the Study
FATB, CETB and NITB were generated out of qualitative inquiries on the variables
TBEX (Teacher Bullying Experiences), TBEF (Teacher Bullying Effects) and TBIN
(Teacher Bullying Interventions), respectively. Select respondents of the study were
subjected to Narrative Inquiry to identify TBEX, TBEF and TBIN, and the themesthat emerged were the basis in coming up with a measurement tool that was used in
the survey phase, thereafter, identifying the variable FATB using Exploratory Factor
Analysis, and the variables CETB and NITB using Multiple Response Analysis.

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As to sampling technique, purposive sampling was used. Presented in table 1 is thesummary of the samples for both qualitative and quantitative phases. Eight (8)teachers (4 from elementary and 4 from secondary) were chosen purposively who met
these criteria: 5 years and above teaching experience, identified by co-workers to beknowledgeable of the history and experiences of the school, and identified by coworkers as persons who possess honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. On the other
hand, the ratio 10:1 for EFA as suggested by Ho (2014) was the basis in determining
the number of respondents in the quantitative phase of the study. Thus in the survey,
200 samples of public school teachers in IGaCoS Division were the subjects.
Table 1. Profile Summary of the Research Respondents
Research
Phase
Qualitative
Quantitative

Number of
Respondents
8200

GenderMale Female
4
4
43
157

PositionHigh Low
4
4
72
128

Level Taught
Elem
Sec
4
4
100
100

To reiterate, the study had three phases: qualitative, quantitative and synthesis (Figure2). Narrative inquiry was employed in order to extract from select respondents theforms of bullying experienced by teachers in the workplace. Also in the samenarrative inquiry, effects of teacher bullying as perceived by the respondents, andinterventions on teacher bullying that they deemed appropriate in their school setting
were also extracted from them. Thereafter, coding, identifying themes and extracting
meaning were done which constitute the thematic analysis of the qualitative phase.

Figure 2. Flow of the Study

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The quantitative phase started with a survey which made use of the questionnairemade by the researcher using the themes extracted from the qualitative phase. Afterthe survey, the responses of the respondents on the area Factors of Teacher Bullying
was subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis to extract the factors that would
determine teacher bullying. Consequently, the responses of the respondents on thearea Effects of Teacher Bullying and Interventions on Teacher Bullying wereanalyzed through Multiple Response Analysis in order to identify the common effects
and the interventions mostly needed on the basis of the entire group of responses.
Finally, connecting existing policies and programs of the Department of Education onteacher protection with the emerging factors or themes generated through EFA andMULT RESPONSE, constituted the synthesis phase of this study. The researcher, tothe best of his knowledge and ability, synthesized these factors to arrive at aneffective, timely and relevant system of support that could address teacher bullying.
Thus, the main output, Support Mechanism on Teacher Bullying, was developed.
Conclusions
From the narratives of the eight participants in the qualitative phase, the researcher
exhausted 20 forms of teacher bullying, some can be found on the results of related
studies abroad and some are new. Mostly, those new forms of TB are non-aggressive
behaviors but rather uncontrollable events in the workplace that were classified by the
respondents as forms of TB since it stressed, upset and hurt them in the workplace.
These “are unruly students”, “rude and disrespectful behaviors”, “delayed reports”,“misunderstanding”, “humiliating and embarrassing moments”, “unfair treatment”,“unnecessary work”, “indifferent parents”, “mimicking”, “inattentive students”,“rejected in the workplace”, “communication gaps”, “overlapping of tasks”, “thrownwith fabricated issues”, “doubted of capability”, “threatened through harsh words”,“teased or laughed at”, “name calling”, “denied of the support needed”, and “bashedin social media”. Consequently, these 20 forms were used in the survey and EFA wasemployed to determine their grouping. Four groups or factors emerged. These areWork Performance – Related Bullying, Interpersonal Dimension – Related Bullying,
Psychosocial Dimension – Related Bullying and Classroom Management – Related
Bullying (Figure 3). Results obtained were true and relevant, and were confirmed
through employing the survey phase and subjecting data gathered to EFA and
Reliability Test (Cronbach’s Alpha). A cronbach’s alpha of .903 in all 20 items/forms
of TB used in the survey was more than enough to say that reliability of the results
was achieved.

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Figure 3. Dimensions of Teacher Bullying
Further, 10 effects of teacher bullying was eyed by the researcher through thematic
analysis as they were commonly mentioned by the respondents in their narratives.
Five of these are effects on their teaching performance, namely, “absenteeism”, “lostfocus”, “demotivated”, “unachieved targets”, and “reduction in job effort”; and theother five on their well-being, namely, “sick”, “sleeping disorder”, “low morale”,“loss of confidence” and “triggered existing health problems”. These effects wereprelisted in the survey form and respondents were asked to nominate 3 out of 5 inboth categories. Accordingly, the data gathered were subjected to Multiple Response
Analysis and the top 3 effects in each category came out. For their teaching
performance, the top 3 effects are “lost focus”, “demotivated” and “unachieved
targets”. On the other hand, the top 3 effects on their well-being are “low morale”,“loss of confidence” and “sleeping disorder”.
Furthermore, there were 7 interventions perceived by the respondents in the Narrative
Inquiry as timely, relevant and effective in addressing teacher bullying. These are“develop personal habits that can counter stress”, “integrate teacher bullying in the
curriculum”, “increase awareness on teacher bullying”, “create a committee orsupport group”, “engage learners, teachers, administrator and stakeholders in making
rules, policies and plans”, “have the pupils, parents and stakeholders know their rights
and responsibilities” and “provide team-building and other related activities toteachers”. These 7 interventions were also prelisted in the survey questionnaire andrespondents were asked to nominate 3 out of 7. Data gathered were subjected toMultiple Response Analysis and the top 3 that emerged are the following: “increaseawareness on teacher bullying”, “engage learners, teachers, administrator andstakeholders in making rules, policies and plans” and “develop personal habits thatcan counter stress”.
As to the effects (TBEF and CETB) and interventions (TBIN and NITB), results
found were substantial and are almost found in related studies. It somehow gave theresearcher the idea that bullying forms can be unique in every locale of the study but

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effects and interventions can be universal and can only vary on the extent, breadth anddepth.
Finally, having all the significant results at hand, careful synthesis was done in order
to arrive at an effective, timely and relevant support mechanism. There are 3 variables
that were used in the synthesis: Factors of Teacher Bullying (FATB), Common
Effects of Teacher Bullying (CETB) and Needed Interventions on Teacher Bullying(NITB). These variables were generated after employing Exploratory Factor Analysis
and Multiple Response Analysis. It was found out that results of these statisticalanalyses have a good connection to one another and they can be also linked to theexisting programs and policies of the government especially of the Department of
Education, which made it easy for the researcher to conceptualize the support
mechanism. Table 2 presents these links.
Ultimately, PRIME (Figure 4) was achieved. It is an acronym that stands forPrevention (Mechanism 1), Intervention (Mechanism 2), and Monitoring and
Evaluation (Mechanism 3). These 3 mechanisms constitute the final output of thisstudy, the Support Mechanism on Teacher Bullying (SMTB). Each of thesemechanisms has a system of actions that are achieved after careful synthesis of thefindings of the study.
Table 2. Established Links on the Results of the Study
EFA Resultson Factors of
TB
Work
Performance –Related
Bullying

Psychosocial
Dimension –Related
Bullying

Interpersonal
Dimension –Related
Bullying

Classroom
Management –ISSN: 2189-101X

MULTRESPONSE
Results on Common
Effects of TB•   Low morale•   Loss ofconfidence•   Demotivated•   Unachieved
targets

MULTRESPONSE
Results on NeededInterventions on TB•   Develop
personal habitsthat can counterstress

•  
•  

•  

•  
•  

•  
•  

Low morale
Loss ofconfidence
Sleeping disorders
DemotivatedGov’t Programs
and Policies
•  
•  
•  

•  

•  

•  
•  

Low morale
Loss ofconfidence
Sleeping disorders
Demotivated

•  
•  

Lost focus
Demotivated

•  

•  

•  

DepEd
In-Service
Trainings
Teacher
Induction
ProgramHouse Bill
5735

Area ofConnections/
Links
Developing one’s
personality andattitudes to improvethe delivery of
performance in theworkplace

DepEd
In-Service
Trainings
Republic Act
10627
House Bill
5735
Magna Carta
for Teachers

Establishing social
awareness among
stakeholders onteacher bullying tounderstand thephenomenon and to
take part indeveloping abullying-freeenvironment inschoolDevelop•  DepEd In-Service
personal habits
Trainings
that can counter •  House Bill 5735
stress•  Republic Act
Provide team4670
building andother related
activities

Developing good
relationships in theworkplace to createa healthyorganizational
cultureIncreaseawareness onteacher bullying
Engagestakeholders inmakingprograms,
policies andplans

Engagestakeholders in

108

•  
•  
•  

•  Republic Act
10627

Creating acommittee in school

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•  Related
Bullying•  •  Unachieved
targets
Low morale
Loss ofconfidence•  makingprograms,
policies and
plans
Have
stakeholders
know theirrights andresponsibilities

Official Conference Proceedings•  House Bill 5735

that looks closely
on issues on teacher
bullying and is
responsible inmaking teacher
bullying policies,
programs and plans
towards a bullyingfree classroom andschoolThe acronym PRIME was thought of by the researcher to represent the mechanisms inorder to have an easy recall. PRIME would serve as fillers for the gap that blocks theway to provide the protection that teachers need against teacher bullying.
Each of the three mechanisms has its system of actions that can help in cushioning or
probably suppressing teacher bullying. Figures 5 to 7 show the frameworks of eachmechanism and present the system of actions that schools can implement.

Figure 4. Framework of the Support Mechanism on Teacher Bullying
Mechanism 1 (Figure 5) is all about preventive measures that are intended to avoid
the occurrence of teacher bullying in the workplace. Professor Dan Olweus’Comprehensive program on bullying (as cited in California Department of Education,2003) suggests that programs on bullying must not only focus on intervention
methods but must incorporate the concept of prevention strategies.
One of the prevention strategies is to increase awareness on teacher bullying in theworkplace. In the quantitative phase of this study this strategy was chosen by the
respondents as the most needed strategy that can address teacher bullying. It came

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Official Conference Proceedingsout to be the mostly needed because it cannot be denied that teacher bullying is anunder-recognized problem in the workplace. To increase the level of awareness,schools can provide symposia, assemblies and other relevant activities to all
stakeholders of the school.
Developing a safe school environment can also be a good prevention strategy.
Olweus (as cited in California Department of Education, 2003) likens a safe school
environment to a home which is characterized by warmth and positive interest.
Another preventive measure is to develop a school-based bullying prevention
program. There are prevention strategies that might not be applicable to other schools.
So, each school must develop their own. This can be done by constantly assessing andreferring to reports made in the Monitoring and Evaluation (SMTB Mechanism 3). In
addition, in developing own prevention programs, school administrator, teachers,
students and parents must play as partners (California Department of Education,2003) together with other representatives from different sectors in the community.

Figure 5. Framework of SMTB Mechanism 1
Lastly, schools must promote a healthy organizational culture in order to prevent
teacher bullying. Bradshaw and Figiel (2012) in their report made for the National
Education Association (NEA) in the US, stressed that creating a strong team would

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lead to have a healthy organizational culture. This is characterized by being respectfuland encouraging to fellow staff.
The second mechanism (Figure 6) highlights interventions that can address teacher
bullying. One of these is to engage internal and external stakeholders in making clear
classroom and school rules, policies, programs and plans in line with teacher bullying.
This strategy has actually come out to be one of the most relevant interventions in thesurvey. Doing this would also address another concern from the respondents thateverybody in school especially the students and the parents should know their rights
and responsibilities. So if they are engaged in making the rules and policies in theschool, especially on teacher bullying, their rights will be brought out and their
responsibilities will be emphasized.
Teachers need to have relevant trainings/seminars in order to easily counter theprevalence of teacher bullying in the workplace. Seminars on personality
development and countering stress could be of great help in maintaining composureand confidence in trying times. Moreover, classroom management and student
discipline are also areas that teachers must be trained on. Representative Antonio L.
Tinio, in his bill, Student Discipline and Teacher Protection Act, suggested that the
government must institutionalize measures governing student discipline andmechanisms for classroom management. The bill is actually concerned with heavy
burden of teachers aggravated by the lack of institutional support in the form ofstandards in classroom management, training on these standards and effective
methods of instilling student discipline.
Another very important intervention is to create a committee in school that will lookclosely on the issues of teacher bullying. This committee can be called Anti-Teacher
Bullying Committee which is responsible for creating prevention programs, providing
activities that can increase awareness on teacher bullying, administering monitoringand evaluation and other relevant tasks.

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Figure 6. Framework of SMTB Mechanism 2
Schools must also provide immediate, careful and sensitive intervention to every
reported bullying incident. Sense of urgency must be developed and observed so thatthe problem will not get worse.
There are growing pressures on organizations or schools to be more responsive to thedemands of internal and external stakeholders for greater development effectivenessincluding strategic ways on addressing current issues like teacher bullying. As thesedemands have increased there is a great need for enhanced results-based monitoringand evaluation (M & E) of policies, programs and projects (Kuzek and Rist, 2004),
averring that M & E is a powerful management tool to improve the way organizations
achieve results and create a good performance feedback systems, hence, this third
mechanism (Figure 7). This plays a very important role to ensure sustainability and tomaintain relevance and appropriateness of actions to undertake. This would be a very
important undertaking since it is one of the significant findings in this study thatpolicies, programs, plans and activities relative to teacher bullying must be schoolbased. This is because there could be unique features of bullying in every school.

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Figure 7. Framework of SMTB Mechanism 3
Among the relevant strategies are conducting periodic surveys on the prevalence ofteacher bullying, conducting follow-ups to addressed incidents of teacher bullying andassessing the school on matters about teacher bullying in order to provide timely andreliable reports which will be the basis for future actions.
In summary, teachers of today undoubtedly deal with so much challenges in theirwork. And the presence of bullying in the workplace adds up to the growing problems
that teachers encounter. Though it appears to be nothing, as most people see it,teacher bullying is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. The results of thisstudy affirmed that yes, teacher bullying is there in the workplace and that it reallyposes ill effects on the teaching performance and well-being of teachers. However, as
this research is concerned, there can be doable ways in order to cushion or possibly
suppress teacher bullying. It is just a matter of how serious we would be and thegovernment most especially, in putting into actions the recommendations that thisstudy wants to suggest.
What is more compelling and satisfying throughout this entire research work is therealization of the main output, the Support Mechanism on Teacher Bullying. The
researcher, with so much conviction, is very confident that having this blueprint of
mechanisms (PRIME) that can address teacher bullying, awakens the education sectorof the prevalence of teacher bullying in the workplace and guides them as to how it
can be cushioned or suppressed.

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It is about time to engage in paradigm shift (Kuhn, 1962) as regards to teacher
bullying. From being silenced and ignored to being exposed and regarded, teacher
bullying in the Philippines is now on its way to be acknowledged in the workplace,something that anybody should never be happy about but something that everybody
should accept and realize that yes, teacher bullying is there.
The Philippine government has provided laws and policies that intend to provide
protection for teachers. For one, as early as 1966, the Magna Carta for Teachers or theRepublic Act 4670 was implemented in order to protect the rights of the teachers.
While some of the provisions in this act are still applicable in the modern times, there
is really a need to revisit, assess and evaluate, and/or may be improve them, and/or
add provisions that could somehow address also the new emerging problems thatteachers of today face.
Similarly, Republic Act 10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, needs also to bemodified. This act requires all schools, elementary and secondary, to adopt policies toprevent and address the acts of bullying in their institutions. However, these are only
directed to student bullying. If it could be possible to amend this and include teacher
bullying in the provisions of this act, it could really be beneficial to teachers.
Recently, a house bill was proposed by ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers)
Representative, Antonio L. Tinio, called Student Discipline and Teacher Protection
Act. This is an act institutionalizing measures governing student discipline andmechanisms for classroom management, establishing support for public school
teachers and school personnel and providing for their protection. This can really be agood act to be implemented by the government since it caters timely needs of teachers
as well as students. Thus, it is strongly recommended that this bill be put into law assoon as possible.
In the school-level, it is also very important to craft and implement policies on teacher
bullying. These policies must be school-based addressing unique features anddimensions of teacher bullying as experienced by the teachers in that particularschool.
PRIME is strongly recommended to be implemented in every school. One of theimportant features of PRIME is being school-based. It acknowledges the fact that
there can be features of teacher bullying that are unique in every school. That is why
it strongly emphasizes the creation of a committee in school which can be called AntiBullying Committee which consists of representatives from all sectors, internal andexternal, that are associated with the school and its operation. This committee is
responsible to look closely on issues relative to teacher bullying. It is tasked toperform actions stipulated in PRIME with strong emphasis on the assessment or
evaluation of matters on teacher bullying in the school, preferably at the end of every
school year, which will be the basis in creating school-based policies, programs andplans in the following school year.
In addition, since teaching is a profession that requires the ability to be responsive to
new demands and changing needs, teachers must be provided with timely and relevant
trainings. This is important in increasing their confidence and competence which inturn help them identify and respond properly to the demands and challenges in the

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workplace. For DepEd programs like the Teacher Induction Program provided for
newly hired teachers and other in-service trainings, these must be sustained but should
include in the topics of discussion bullying and other contemporary issues which are
undoubtedly affecting the delivery of quality performance from the teachers.
This study is the first empirical report, in the Philippines, of the actual experiences ofteachers on teacher bullying and its effects on their teaching performance and wellbeing. Although the researcher has begun to illuminate the problem, there is a greatneed still to explore more the basic features and dimensions of teacher bullying toprovide robust baseline information on teacher bullying in the country. The need to
explore more on the coping skills of victimized teachers, in-depth descriptions onbullying forms, thorough exploration on the effects of teacher bullying, andinvestigation on the relationship between classroom management practices andteacher bullying, are much recommended. It would also be of great significance if theintersection of variables, say gender and position, be explored in future studies onteacher bullying because there could somehow be substantial information that can begenerated from doing such action. Additionally, a pure qualitative study which would
really focus on individual interesting stories would be a smart thing to do to address
circumstances and context of teacher bullying. This can be best explained by The
Chaos Theory of Bullying by Sullivan et al., (2003) which states that while statisticalresults may give us trends of events, they can never predict who will bully and how,
and cannot identify who will be a victim and why.
Should this research study be replicated, the researcher strongly suggests that
Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods still be used in carrying out the study sinceteacher bullying needs to be explored more especially in the Philippines where it isless-recognized. The country needs more exploratory studies like this to widen andenrich the knowledge of the Filipinos on matters and features of teacher bullying. As
to the methods in both qualitative and quantitative phases, it would be better if othermethods be employed depending on the discretion of the researcher. However, it
would be better if replicate studies will be more specific as to the source of bullying
experiences of teachers. There should be separate studies on bullying towards teachers
by students, bullying towards teachers by co-workers and so on. In this way, morereliable and more reflective results could be generated.

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References
Allen, K.P. (2010). Classroom Management, Bullying and Teacher Practices. The
Professional Educator, 34, No.1.
Bradshaw, C. and Figiel K. (2012). Prevention and intervention of workplace bullying
in schools: A report prepared for the National Education Association. Johns Hopkins
University.
California Department of Education (2003). Bullying at school. Counseling andStudent Support Office, Sacramento, California: CDE Press.
Creswell, J.W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
approaches. California: SAGE.
DepEd Order No. 55, s. 2016
De Wet, C. (2010). Victims of educator-targeted bullying: a qualitative study. South
African Journal of Education, 30, 189-201.
De Wet, N.C. and Jacobs, L. (2006). Educator-targeted bullying: Fact or fallacy?
Acta Criminological, 19, 53-73.
“HB 5735, Student Discipline and Teacher Protection Act”: www.at-teachers.com
Ho, R. (2014). Handbook of univariate and multivariate analysis with IBM SPSS.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Kauppi, T. and Porhola, M. (2012). Teachers bullied by students: Forms of bullying
and perpetrator characteristics. Violence and Victims, Vol. 27, 3.
Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolution. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Matthiesen, S.B. and Einarsen, S. (2004). Psychiatric distress and symptoms of
PTSD among victims of bullying at work. British Journal of Guidance andCounselling, 32, 335-356.
McAdams, D.P. (1996). Narrating the self in adulthood. In: Birren JE, et al. (Eds)
Aging and biography: explorations in adult development. New York, NY: Springer,
131-148.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do.
Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Ozkilic, R. (2014). Students bullying toward teachers and teacher self-efficacy beliefs.
Education and Science, Vol. 39, 175, 256-266.
Polkinghorne, D.E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. New York,
NY: State University of New York Press.

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Official Conference Proceedings“Republic Act 4670, Magna Carta for Public School Teachers”: www.chanrobles.com
Sullivan, K., Cleary, M. and Sullivan, G. (2003). Bullying in secondary schools: Whatit looks like and how to manage it. SAGE Publication.
“Teachers – the new targets of schoolyard bullies” by J. Benefield (2004):
http://www.ppta.org.nz/cms/imaginelibrary/100894.pdf“Ten steps to a results-based monitoring and evaluation” by J. Kuzek and R. Rist
(2004). The World Bank: books.google.com.ph“The Bullied Teacher” (2013): theeducatorsroom.com/2013/05/the-bullied-Teacher
Vanderstoep, S. and Johnston D. (2009). Research methods for everyday life. San
Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.
Contact email: ericbordios@yahoo.com

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Black Students in China Identity, Environment and Institutions in the Individual’s
Perception of Racial Encounters
Nia Hamilton, Tufts University, United States
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Abstract
In recent years, American study abroad and scholarship programs have profoundly
targeted the Black demographic, a group largely underrepresented amongst the study
abroad community. Researchers have contributed a wealth of understanding about thepersonal and professional benefits of study abroad, and how to make these benefits
more accessible to Black students. However, a general lack of understanding of theperceptions of racial encounters amongst the Black study abroad population, and thespecific variables that shape these perceptions, pose a problem both for administratorsand recruitment efforts for study abroad. This study, focused on Black American
students who have studied in China, identifies three lenses, identity, institution, andenvironment, that allow us to better describe the student’s process of interpreting
racial encounters while abroad. Results found that of these three factors, identity andenvironment were equally significant to the student’s understanding of racial
encounters in China, while institution held little to no significance. Students’ lack ofconfidence in and connection to their study abroad institutions cause them to placelarger weight on their identity and the study abroad environment, while the institution
remains a passive entity. This information raises a host of questions about the role ofthe study abroad institution in the minority student’s unique experiences abroad, andto what extent they can adapt to better serve an increasingly diverse study abroad
population. Further research is suggested to measure the effectiveness of study abroad
programs in creating an optimal environment for diverse cohorts of students.
Keywords: study abroad, race, racial discrimination, racial perception, Black
American students, China, identity, institution

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction: The Realities of Study Abroad
Study abroad is becoming an increasingly vital topic in higher education. In exploring thetangible benefits of studying abroad, conversations concerning making these benefits accessible
to underrepresented groups have also emerged in recent decades. Research in both theinternational relations and education communities has begun to challenge traditional sentiments
and “universal agreements that study abroad experiences are valuable and enriching” (Hembroffand Rusz, 1993, p. 1). Two current goals among study abroad researchers are 1) to understandthe nature of benefits produced in the home and host country during the study abroad experience,and 2) to measure, discuss, and improve the participation of minorities (Penn and Tanner, 2009).
This study refers to the term study abroad using the same definition as the term “International
Educational Exchange," defined by the Forum on Education Abroad:
The migration of students (secondary, undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate) andscholars between educational institutions in different countries. A narrower usage of theterm “exchange” refers to reciprocal agreements that allow students, faculty, or staff tospend a specified period of time at institutional partners of their home institutions.
(McCauslin, 2015)
This definition incorporates any study abroad program which takes a student out of the context
of their home institution and places them in an institution away from their home country, withthe purpose of introducing them to the culture and customs of the country in which they are
studying. In this study, I explore particular study abroad programs individually and their specificfunctions in students’ learning experiences. These functions differ based on each institution’s
pedagogical approach, which I discuss in the following section.
The Constructivist Framework and International Education
International education, like any form of education, necessitates a conversation about goals for,and approaches to, learning. A unique element of study abroad is that it incorporates the processof encountering and interpreting different perspectives than one’s own into the learning
experience (McLaughlin, 2006). This serves to bridge a noticeable gap between traditional
education practices and pedagogies that prioritize cognitive development and critical thinking(Duffy and Jonassen, 1992). Constructivism is a particularly useful social science theory that can
explain the cognitive growth students experience during study abroad, for reasons I explore inthis section.
In scholarly discussion of international relations, rationalism and interpretivism are two social
science paradigms that have traditionally occupied opposite poles. Rationalism, which
encompasses theories such as realism, neorealism, liberalism, and neoliberalism, is mostly“empowered by positivist and exclusively materialist philosophies of science” (Adler, 1997, p.
321). In particular, realists and neorealists take a methodical approach to international relations,and suppose that states’ actions are predictable, rational, and reliant on external forces (Adler,1997). These “external forces” are critical to an understanding of realism and neorealism.
According to these ideologies, pressures such as the pursuit of power, security, and access to

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natural resources drive states to behave in a manner that supports their best interests (Adler,1997). Conversely, interpretivist frameworks, including postmodernists, poststructuralists andthe many branches of critical theory, contest the nature of these external forces and challenge theobjectivity of their effects on states’ behavior (Adler, 1997). These frameworks give credence tothe many differing realities that individuals experience, which have a tangible effect on the
motivations of individuals, and by extension the motivations of states (Adler, 1997).
Constructivism is a paradigm of international relations that assumes that “the manner in which
the material world shapes and is shaped by human action and interaction depends on dynamic
normative and epistemic interpretations of the material world” (Adler, 1997, p. 322). The
constructivist can answer the question of the existence of external forces in the international
realm; these forces do indeed exist as a result of collective understandings between groups ofindividuals, which become solidified and reinforced over time (Adler, 1997). However, theconstructivist places emphasis on the argument that these forces are simply ideas to which
individuals attach significance, and these ideas can vary according to an individual’s social
context, values, beliefs, norms, and so on (Adler, 1997).
Another important contribution that constructivism has provided to our collective understandingof international relations is the idea that not only do individuals’ interpretations of external forces
vary, but that these interpretations can potentially change over time (Adler, 1997). Whileconstructivism acknowledges the idea that individuals can be influenced by external forces, theparadigm also assumes that individuals are capable of changing the amount of significance they
attach to these ideas, in essence reconstructing their understanding of the world (Adler, 1997).
As such, individuals can mutually influence and change these external forces themselves (Adler,1997). Linking ideas of socio-cognitive development with empirical social science theory,
constructivism interprets the rigid elements of rationalist theories as more fluid (Adler, 1997).

Figure 1- “Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.” (Bennett, 1986)
One can make a strong connection between the topic of cognitive development in constructivist
theory and in study abroad literature. Milton J. Bennett, a scholar on intercultural communicationand sociology at the Intercultural Development Research Institute, is responsible for creating the

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Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). It provides a language and framework
for understanding how individuals undergo the process of acculturation (Bennett, 1986). The
DMIS and many subsequent studies hypothesize that, through the appropriate amount of timeand exposure to different cultures, an individual can create, restructure, or completely destroy theschema that organize our understanding of the world (Bennett, 1986). This statement reflects thelanguage of constructivist theory, and demonstrates the constructivist notion that schema can infact be changed over time. The DMIS attempts to clearly delineate the particular stages of anindividual’s cognitive adaptation to unfamiliar concepts, which may support the constructivist
argument by providing specific, identifiable phases in the restructuring process of one’s
understanding of the world.
Another element that constructivism and study abroad share is the often optimistic, progressiveinterpretation of an individual’s cognitive transformations. Both concepts suggest that theinteraction of conflicting norms can be a positive, even synergistic experience. Fosnot and Perry(1996) describe constructivism as a “psychological theory of learning.” In their article, they
compare constructivism to a wide variety of theories such as behaviorism and maturationism,
which contribute to an overall understanding of the process of learning (Fosnot and Perry, 1996).
To them, the cognitive restructuring that occurs in constructivist theory resembles the basic
course of human evolution, and the ability for humans to adapt to constantly changing
interpretations of the world is, in and of itself, development (Fosnot and Perry, 1996). One cansee a similar sentiment from the DMIS, which incorporates “Adaptation” as one of its moreadvanced stages of acculturation, and organizes the process of acculturation along a spectrum
defined as “Development of Intercultural Sensitivity” (Bennett, 1986).
This optimistic sentiment also lies at the core of study abroad, and brings clarity to why it may
be an attractive investment for both home and host country. Study abroad, using education as aconduit, can introduce students to the experience of acculturation in a manner that nonimmersive cultural study cannot. It also tests the assumptions of constructivism by bringing
students into an environment that causes them to drastically reassess their internal understandingof the world. Of course, these benefits are disproportionate to people of different races, genders,religions, sexualities, etc. The uneven terrain of study abroad is becoming an increasingly salient
topic, one that is central to this study. In this study, I apply constructivist theory to explain the
racial normative conflicts that occur in the study abroad context.
Main Topic
Racial minorities in the US experience tangible differences when compared to their White
counterparts not only in their educational experiences at higher institutions at home (Hurtado,
1992; Cabrera et al., 1999; Smith, Allen, & Danley, 2007), but they also have a radicallydifferent experience than their White counterparts while studying abroad (Talburt & Stewart,
1999; Evans, 2009; Brux & Fry, 2010). Though many believe that diversity would undeniably
improve study abroad institutions by introducing more perspectives, therefore increasing thepotential for intercultural understanding, I argue that the belief that diversity leads to linear
growth is a dangerous one. Racial norms, defined in this study as “understandings of thestratification of race," differ from person to person and from culture to culture. The interaction ofthese racial norms in study abroad have not been adequately discussed in literature, and I intend

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to highlight the nuances and difficulties that arise in study abroad institutions when conflicts ofracial norms are introduced.
The central question of this study is as follows: how do Black students perceive racial encounterswhile studying abroad in China? In this study, I define racial encounter as “any situation which
directly causes one to become aware of one’s race, and its relationship to other individuals or
one’s surroundings.” Racial encounters have particular importance in the study abroad
experience. As mentioned earlier, study abroad literature and constructivist theory alike often
depict the interaction of norms and restructuring of cognitive schema as positive. One can see thenuances that complicate this viewpoint when one considers the interplay of racial norms. In thecontext of this study, I utilize racial encounters as identifiable instances in which racial norms
present themselves in the student’s consciousness. This study seeks to critically evaluate the socalled benefits of diversity in study abroad by exploring the reality of the interaction of racial
norms, and how race exposes the disparities and inequalities of international education.
I examine racial encounters using a model I have created called “The Three Levels of Normative
Analysis.” The three levels are identity, institution, and environment. Each level has a specificdefinition for the purposes of this study. Identity refers to “anything that defines one’s
individuality, e.g. your race, sexuality, gender, personality, etc..” It represents the different
interpretations of racial norms amongst different individuals. Institution means “the study abroad
program itself, its administrators/staff, housing arrangements and any accommodations provided
by the program.” It incorporates the reach of the study abroad program within a foreign country,
and the racial norms it establishes within this reach. The institution level in particular must meeta specific set of criteria in this study: each study abroad program must have a relationship to a
US-based university or organization, a focus on academic and linguistic goals, and a housing
arrangement provided directly via the program’s resources. Finally, environment means “one’s
study abroad location”— in the context of this study, it refers to China at large and the racial
norms it encompasses. The environment is the larger cultural background that the study abroad
student experiences, which takes on particular importance when its racial norms and those of thestudy abroad student are incongruent.
This model is loosely based on the concept of the three “images of analysis,” introduced by
Kenneth Waltz in his 1959 novel, Man, the State, and War (Waltz, 1959). The first image ofanalysis can be described as either individuals or human nature; this lens focuses on the elementsof human beings that may or may not make war an inevitability (Waltz, 1959). The second imageof analysis is the state, which refers to governing bodies that dictate the legislative and societal
boundaries upon which groups of people agree (Waltz, 1959). The third image is theinternational system, or the unordered interaction of all of the states in their individual pursuits
for power, resources, and security (Waltz, 1959).
While Waltz uses these images to speculate on the causes of war, this study’s focus on theindividual, institution, and environment seeks to determine which of these elements are the mostprominent in the student’s understanding of their study abroad experience. The definition ofthese three levels parallel Waltz’ three images. The individual, like the first image, accounts forthe variability in each person and their specific ways of understanding and interpreting the world.
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agendas of which are often, but not always, determined by the best interest of its constituents.
Finally, the third image is similar to the environment level as it reflects the larger context underwhich the second and first images function, and the unpredictable nature of this context. In thefollowing section, I will discuss each of these levels of norms in depth, and how students relate
to them during their time abroad. In order to do so thoroughly, I have chosen to analyze a casestudy for a specific group of study abroad students: Black/African-American students studying in
China.
Conclusion
The Three Levels of Normative Analysis used in this study, identity, institution, andenvironment, provide a clearer picture for how Black students in study abroad interpret racial
encounters. From the data, identity and environment are often associated with racial encounters,
while institution is rarely associated with them at all. The racial encounters themselves widely
vary, but there are evident trends in how students interpret the different encounters similarly. In
this section, I will discuss each of the Levels in depth, consider their implications, and makespecific policy suggestions for institutions, which will result in more positive and productive
study abroad experiences for Black students.
The process of collecting information in this study took the form of structured interviews andonline surveys. The total number of interviews and surveys administered was 16, and the total
number of racial encounters was 66. The questionnaire portion of the interview or survey asks
students to recount 6-10 racial encounters, rating them overall on a 0-100 scale (0 being
extremely negative, and 100 being extremely positive). Then, the student is asked to consider
how much they associate each of the Three Levels of Normative Analysis with each experience,and rate the association on a 0-100 scale (0 being no association, 100 being a great deal of
association). After collecting this information, I clean the raw data using Excel, and import thecleaned data to Stata. Then, turning questionnaire information into numerical or categorical data,
I perform a series of analyses such as correlations, regressions, and plot graphs with lines of best
fit.
Identity
Many of the racial encounters provided were strongly associated with the identity level. Out of
the 66 encounters, 58 of them were rated 50 and higher for its association with identity, and 22 of
the encounters were given a rating of 100. In 41 of the 66 racial encounters, identity had thelargest relative rating of all three levels. Given that the mean rating for identity for all 66
encounters was 76.7, one can assume that identity played a large role in how Black students
interpreted their racial encounters in China.

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Figure 2- A scatterplot of encounters; x axis= identity association, y axis= positive/negative
rating.
The scatter plot in Fig. 7 measures each encounter's identity rating in the x axis, and theencounter's positive/negative rating in the y axis. The higher the encounter's identity rating, thefurther along the x axis it is located; similarly, the more positive the encounter, the higher on they axis it is plotted. By running a correlation between the two variables however, I discovered that
there was in fact a weak, but negative relationship between the two variables (r= -0.13). A
regression analysis between these two variables showed a similar coefficient of -0.15, but with ap-value of 0.3. From both these analyses we can see that there might be a slight relationshipbetween how much students associate an encounter with identity and how negatively they
perceive the encounter, but the statistical evidence for this claim is not strong.
Deconstructing Identity Abroad
It is necessary to analyze, as the study abroad institution, how identity will be dealt with in the
study abroad context. In China, it may initially seem as if foregoing one’s individuality may be
the best way to ease into an immersive experience. In many ways, this approach is notnecessarily wrong. It assumes that the ultimate objective of the student’s experience is to achievea level of acculturation, and to step outside of oneself and one’s understanding of the world outof respect for and better understanding of a foreign culture. In these examples, however, we cansee that not only can shedding one’s identity be impossible for some students, but it can also
stifle the opportunity for realistic and meaningful exchange.
Of course, different students will have different relationships to their own identities, and students
interpret their individuality in their home country differently than they might in an abroad
context. It is largely up to the student to determine how much they are willing to engage with theconstruction and deconstruction of their own identity while abroad, and in their home country as
well. Study abroad is an opportunity for students to learn more about themselves in anenvironment that challenges their essential understanding of who they are. In the case of this

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study, the students’ Blackness, their personalities, habits, levels of comfort and discomfort, andeven their sexuality were in a constant state of formation. In this sense, one half of answering thequestion of “how important is identity in study abroad” comes from the student themselves.
However, another half of this legwork comes from the study abroad institution.
The power of the institution is illuminated by Harper (2009) in the following quotation, andechoed by Sweeney (2014):...Questions concerning effort must be shifted from the individual student to her or his
institution. Effective educators avoid asking, what’s wrong with these students, why aren’t
they getting engaged? Instead, they aggressively explore the institution’s shortcomings andponder how faculty members and administrators could alter their practices to distribute thebenefits of engagement more equitably. Accepting institutional responsibility for minority
student engagement and success is the first step to race-conscious educational practice. (p.
41)
As was evident in the racial encounters where students took the opportunity to teach Chinese
people about their Blackness and what it meant to them, intercultural exchange is most beneficial
when both parties are engaging and sharing bits of their identity. It is the task of the study abroad
institution to provide both opportunities to do so, and an encouraging environment to frame theseexchanges in positive ways.
Environment
Environment is a level that is, similarly to identity, commonly associated with racial encounters.
Of the 66 racial encounters provided, 57 of them were given an environment rating of above 50,
13 were given a rating of 100, and only two were given a rating of 0. Clearly, environment islikely to factor into a student’s perception of a racial encounter, and it also may dictate how a
student chooses to interpret that racial encounter.

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Figure 3- A scatterplot of encounters; x axis= environment association, y axis= positive/negative
rating.
Most of the encounters on this graph aggregate closer to 100 on the x axis, and the relationshipbetween the two variables seem to be a slightly negative trend. A correlation analysis produces a
coefficient of -0.15, and a regression analysis gives a similar coefficient of -0.18; however the Pvalue is not statistically significant (0.22). One could argue that the more an encounter isassociated with environment, the more negatively the student perceives that event, but there is
not much statistical evidence to support this claim.
Contexts and Conflicts
While it may seem obvious why the environment of China has a huge impact on perceptions ofracial encounters, it should not take the place of deliberate and thoughtful understanding of racial
relations within the country. The fact that China has had limited contact with the Westthroughout its history does not fully and completely explain why a certain racial encountermight’ve happened. Encounters vary based on generation, city, educational and socioeconomic
level, and other factors of the opposite party in a racial encounter. Simply attributing anexperience to being in China precludes the student from understanding the depth of theencounter, and doing so runs the risk of creating rigid schema for the entirety of Chinese society.
In order to prevent this from happening, institutions should again take a more active role instudents’ experiences and their understanding of the environment. In the case of taking pictures,
institutions could make students aware of why Chinese locals may want a picture, why they may
ask in certain cases and not ask in others, and what having a picture of a Black person may mean
to them. In another example, when Black students were asked if (or told that) they were fromAfrica, it is not sufficient to leave this encounter uninterpreted by the institution. The institution
could discuss China’s history with Africa, the existence of African students in China (even

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before formal US-China education exchanges), their treatment, the construction of African
expatriate districts in cities such as Guangzhou, and so on. This way, students may make more
sense of the encounters, and attribute them to more nuanced historical narratives within China.
Institution
Students did not often associate racial encounters with their study abroad institution. Of the 66
racial encounters provided, 30 of them were given an institution rating of 0, and only 19 of themwere given a rating above 50. Nine of these 19 encounters were positive, and 10 were negative.
The fact that institution had a noticeably low average rating of 26.7, and that the 75th percentile
of institution ratings was only a rating of 50, one can see a clear absence of the institution in
students' perception of racial encounters.

Figure 4- A scatterplot of encounters; x axis= institution association, y axis= positive/negative
rating.
This plot shows an aggregation of racial encounters closer to 0 on the x axis. There is a positive
correlation between the institution variable and the positive/negative rating (r= 0.27). A
regression between these two variables produces a similar coefficient of 0.24, with a statisticallysignificant p-value of 0.03. The line of best fit also reflects this positive trend between these twovariables. These analyses suggest that the more the student associated encounters with their
institution, the more positively students perceive the encounter. Considering the number ofencounters given an institution rating of zero, however, this information does not necessarily
point to a reliable trend.

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Playing Its Hand
Study abroad institutions have a wide variety of tools at their disposal that can enrich theintercultural experience of both study abroad students and individuals in the study abroad
environment. In the case of racial encounters, they can apply the same model they use to promoteacculturation in order to facilitate the interaction of differing racial norms. Institutions have thechoice of doing so more actively, through their curriculum and the activities they promote inexchange with Chinese natives, or more subtly through the values it promotes. For instance, if a
student experiences a difficult negative racial encounter, the study abroad institution can make it
known that it supports the student and is willing to hear them as with any other difficulty inadjusting.
Though it is significantly more difficult to extend this rhetoric to the surrounding environment,
the study abroad institution can maintain, within the reaches of its power, a setting of intolerance
for racial discrimination. In this way, the study abroad institution can facilitate or mitigate racial
encounters for Black students, regardless of the source. The active engagement with andacknowledgement of racial norms would be ideal not only for the Black students participating inthese study abroad programs, but for the institutions as well. Harper (2009) offers further insighton this symbiotic effect:
Critical race theorists posit that Whites who endeavor to improve the status and conditionsof racial minorities rarely do so without first identifying the personal costs and gains
associated with such efforts (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Thus, it is important to makeclear how majority persons will benefit from their work with and on behalf of minorities.
Not well documented in the higher education literature are the educational profits conferred
to individual faculty and predominantly White institutions when racial minority students
are engaged in an assortment of high-impact activities. (p. 44)
By facing topics of race head-on, study abroad institutions would ultimately benefit, as theywould discover the needs and sentiments of the minority students they seek to serve. Doing sowould uncover discussions and interactions that would encourage the constructive exchange ofracial norms, which should be an imperative of study abroad programs that recognize theimportance of cognitive growth and transformation.
Proposed Solutions
To discuss solutions concerning study abroad institutions and their involvement in racial
encounters, I refer to the “field course experiential learning model," which has three steps: “1)pre-trip preparation, 2) trip experience, and 3) post-trip synthesis” (McLaughlin, 2006, p. 66).
These three steps in the student’s study abroad experience “facilitates critical thinking andillustrates the scientific process—inquiry—in action” (McLaughlin 2006, p. 66). By establishinga pre-trip relationship with students that involves a discussion of race, monitoring the racial
experiences and comfort or discomfort of students during their time abroad, and following up
with students to play an active role in their effort to process the racial encounters they’ve
experienced, study abroad institutions can provide genuine and lasting support to students forwhom race is an inextricable factor of their participation in study abroad. The following

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initiatives are targeted towards the study abroad institution, and they seek to initiate thisconsistent interaction between the institution and either the individual students or the larger
context of the study abroad environment.
Determine racial/normative positioning.
Just as the study abroad institution should make an effort to increase participation rates amongminority students, it should also make efforts to engage deliberately with its own racial andnormative positioning. This should happen in the interim period between study abroad cohorts,
in most cases in the summer between school years. This initiative should also precede the “pretrip preparation” step of the field course experiential learning model, as the institution’s processof determining its positioning should occur independently of the institution’s interaction withindividual students. This level of preemptive engagement with racial norms would demonstratethat the study abroad institution is competent in managing racial encounters when they might
happen.
Set realistic advancement goals for students.
Practices such as “shedding one’s identity” and “becoming Chinese” is not a possibility for
individuals whose identities are central to their study abroad experience. As such, study abroad
institutions should abandon rubrics for individual growth and advancement that hold complete
acculturation as an objective. Instead, institutions should adapt measures of cognitive
advancement to each individual student. In similar ways, study abroad programs withparticipants from many different home institutions adapt to fit students’ disparate linguistic,academic, and social capabilities. Study abroad institutions should regard racial norms and theextent to which one can acculturate to them as a variable of the individual student. Ideally,
institutions would only push students to acculturate to slightly past their levels of comfort, while
not putting in jeopardy the significance they attach to their own identities.
Incorporate discussions of race.
Study abroad institutions suffer by ignoring or bypassing discussions of racial norms. As wasevident in this study, racial norms differ not only between cultures, but also between individualsof the same culture. In the same way that the prevalence of racial discussions indicates theoverall tolerance and heterogeneity of higher institutions of learning at home, study abroad
institutions should also take advantage of opportunities to highlight the diversity within andoutside of the institution itself. The normalization of these discussions will give validity to theexperience of minority students, and engage majority students in necessary conversations as
well.
Address the Identity-Environment exchange.
It should no longer be the case that cognitive development with the interaction of norms only
happens to the student. In a majority of a student’s set of racial encounters abroad, the opposite
party is a member of the society in which the student is studying abroad. Institutions should not
shy away from these interactions simply because they are more difficult to monitor under the

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auspices of the program. When students are left to interpret racial encounters without the
involvement of the study abroad institution, not only is the burden of processing the event on thestudent alone, but their ability to process the event may itself be misguided. Institutions can play
an active role in acknowledging and managing these exchanges of racial norms between thestudent and the surrounding community in three ways: 1) incorporating a discussions of the
racial norms of the environment in the institution’s curriculum, allowing students to better
understand and process their interactions, 2) providing students with a comfortable setting inwhich they can discuss these racial encounters with administration or faculty, and 3) deliberately
creating situations in which students are engaging with the surrounding community, including
race in the process of cultural exchange. These three strategies will help to shift the onus of racial
encounters off of the student and produce more meaningful exchanges, benefitting theenvironment and institution as well.
Facilitate further interactions.
Expanding on the third strategy listed in the previous paragraph, institutions benefit by creating
intentional spaces for the exchange of norms. These spaces may manifest in the form of “cultural
exchange organizations," or groups of students from both the study abroad institution and thesurrounding community that discuss the differences and similarities between the two cultures.
These organizations may arrange specific events such as food exchange parties, movie
screenings, speech contests and roundtables, and other activities that promote direct ideologicalengagement between students of the home and host societies. In order to improve experiences forminority students, these interactions would hold racial norms as an essential element.
Provide post-trip support for students.
After students have completed their sojourn, the institution can continue to utilize interactions
with students to continue to improve the program. By encouraging minority students to share
their experiences, their disappointments and hopes for the institution regarding racial norms,
institutions involve students in the continual improvement of the institution itself and its ability
to manage racial encounters. Furthermore, the students’ experiences will serve as trial-and-error
to better inform the decisions of the institution in the future, and cohorts that follow.
Acknowledgements
This thesis comes at a difficult time in America’s fight for Black lives and human rights ingeneral. I cannot show enough gratitude to those who helped me. Professor Elizabeth Remick,
my primary thesis advisor, was the foremost influence on my decision to see this thesis tocompletion. I would also like to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Professor Erin
Seaton and Professor Xueping Zhong, as well as those who guided me throughout my research,
including Professor Richard Eichenberg, Jessica Pfeffer, and Professor Jill Weinberg, all ofwhom gave my initially obscure ideas direction and force. My interviews and discussions withmy research participants revitalized my efforts toward this research, and I thank you sincerely forsharing your experiences with me. Finally, to my parents, family members, and others who havegiven me constant support in accomplishing my most difficult undertaking yet: thank you somuch.

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2017, from https://forumea.org/glossary-term/international-educational-exchange/
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Penn, E. B., & Tanner, J. (2009). Black Students and International Education: An Assessment.
Journal of Black Studies, 40(2), 266–282.
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https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742
Sweeney, K. L. (2014). Race matters: An examination of the study abroad experiences ofAfrican American undergraduates. University of Denver.
Talburt, S., & Stewart, M. A. (1999). What’s the Subject of Study Abroad?: Race, Gender, and“Living Culture.” The Modern Language Journal, 83(2), 163–175.
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Contact email: ncham02@gmail.com

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Computer-Based Test and Paper-Based Test as English Language Assessment
in Indonesian Junior High Schools
Heny Solekhah, Flinders University, Australia
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
This paper explains and critiques the implementation of CBT (Computer-Based Test)
and PBT (Paper-Based Test) as English language assessment in Indonesian JuniorHigh Schools. The policy analysis was done by scrutinising two regulations of Badan
Nasional Standar Pendidikan (Indonesian Bureau of Standardised Education): BSNP:
0075/SDAR/BSNP/XII/2016 about the contents of National Examination, and BSNP:
0043/P/BSNP/2017 about the national examination procedures. The comparison to thevalidity and reliability of English language assessment was also done based on theimplementation in 2017. There are some findings: 1) The regulation reduced the highstakes of national examination; 2) 4,2 million examinees did two different
administration procedures in the examination: 11,096 schools (1,349,744 students)
used CBT, while 2,855,633 students in 45,092 schools used PBT ; 3) Sixty percent of
11,096 schools could do CBT independently whereas the others should take test on
other schools, 4) The content and construct validity of the English testing waschallenged by the fact that the listening and speaking skills were not assessed in both
CBT and PBT, the use of multiple choice could not accommodate students’ higherorder thinking, and the educational gaps among Indonesian regions; 5) The reliabilityof this assessment was also reduced due to the different forms of administration,technological barriers, and test schedules causing different psychological impact on
the test takers; 6) Although there were limitations of these policies implementation,
the Indonesian government was optimistic to increase the quality and quantity of CBT
use in the national examination to improve the accountability of Indonesian education.
Keywords: Computer-Based Test, Paper-Based Test, Indonesian English
Examination, English Language Assessment

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
English is a foreign language mandatory taught in Indonesia. To ensure that theeducational quality in Indonesia is improved, the government conducts the national
examination annually (Idrus, 2012), in which students’ English competency is also
assessed. The type of examination is considered summative assessment because isdone at the end of the course to know how good or how bad the students’ achievement
is compared to the expected learning outcomes (Brady & Kennedy, 2012). Although
the common response to test is mostly negative (Lamprianou & Athanasou, 2009); theimportance of knowing the students’ learning, the needs of society and economy, as
well as the public funding to education enforce the necessity of education’accountability (Brookhart, 2011).This article will explain about the implementation ofEnglish examination in junior high schools based on the demography of test takers,
the issue related to the validity and reliability of Computer-Based Test and PaperBased test used as the media of examination, and the recommendation for better
implementation in the future.
Demography of Test Takers
In implementing the national examination, the ministry of education and culture inIndonesia has a department called Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (Indonesian
Bureau of Standardised Education), that focuses on the standardised education. The
implementation of national examination is based on two regulations
0075/SDAR/BSNP/XII/2016 about the contents of National Examination, and BSNP:
0043/P/BSNP/2017 about the national examination procedures. These regulations
have some impacts on the implementation: compared to the previous national
examination, the current examination is less high-stakes; and there are two types of
media used in test administration (Computer-Based Test and Paper-Based test). Highstakes mean that the result determines the students’ future, such as ‘fail’ or ‘pass’(Plake, 2011), less high stake meaning that the current examination is not the only
factor to make the students graduate because the other factors such as schools’
achievement and portfolios are considered (Nugroho, (2017). Demographically, in2017 there are 20% of schools with 1,349,744 students used Computer-Based Test
(CBT), and 68% of school with 2,855,633 students did the exam in Paper-Based Test
(Pengembangan, 2017).

Figure 1. The percentage of test takers in junior high schools

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Figure 2. The percentage of schools using the CBT and PBTThe figure 3 below illustrates the spread of CBT in some areas in Indonesia. It could
be seen that most the area covered with blue ink are Java island, Sumatera island hassome blue spots, while the other island have significantly fewer spots. It indicates thatthe is significant difference in the administration of national examination.

Figure 3. The spread of CBT for junior high school (source: Pengembangan, 2017)
Validity“Educational achievement can be defined as the extent to which specified objectives
are accomplished by individual students” (Payne, 1974, p. 29). In assessing students’achievement, it is very important to have valid and reliable measurement. Validity
refers to how accurate the assessment reflects learning objectives being assessed(Brady & Kennedy, 2009). Among different types of validity, the construct validity
and content validity will be discussed in this article.

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Construct Validity
Construct validity is related to the fairness, relevance, and meaning of the assessment
to provide accurate information (Brady & Kennedy, 2009). It relates to “Who, what,
and how are we testing? What system will we use to score it?” (O'Sullivan & Weir,
2011, p. 23). Since construct validity brings the meaning of assessment
psychologically (Lyman, 1978), the assessment should not favour one group of people
over the others. Assessment should be fair meaning that it gives equal opportunity to
the candidate to demonstrate their abilities (Isaacs, Zara, Herbert, Coombs, & Smith,2013). However, the standardized test does not measure creativity and unfairly treat agroup over another (Lyman, 1978; Gordon, & Rajagopalan, 2016).
Hadi (2014) states that national examination is not suitable to evaluate education inIndonesian. Although the passing grade of English is low (score 55 or 28 correct
answers of 50 questions), the different conditions between metropolitan cities andremote area challenge the construct validity. It is undeniable that there is a big
educational gap among areas in Indonesia, such as the availability of teachers, theschool facilities, and the access to have information (Vito, Krisnani, & Resnawaty,2015). These gaps, consequently raises the protests not only from students andteachers in rural areas, but also from educational experts. The government should be
more thoughtful in the policy of national examination (Muntholi’ah, 2013).
Content Validity
Content validity relates to how well the measurement links to the curriculum (Brady& Kennedy, 2009). The items of English examination are 50 multiple choices
assessing reading and writing. This type of test is considered the most efficientcompared to other forms although there are some limitations. Multiple choice has
many advantages such as broader content, quick and objective marking, but restricted
in written form and ineffective for problem solving (Brady & Kennedy, 2009).
“Multiple choice items are efficient and reliably scored, measure many cognitive
characteristics validly, but difficult to measure higher order thinking and easier tocheat “(Geisinger, 2011, p. 241).
To comprehend reading, vocabulary and background knowledge are essential (Kane,
2011; Unruh, 2017). It enables children to associate words and context of topics(Blachowisz & Fisher, 2010; Vacca et al., 2012; Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl,& Holliday, 2014). Therefore, word comprehension influences language
comprehension (Gustafson, Samuelsson, Johansson, & Wallmann, 2013). Thus,
vocabulary significantly influences comprehension; the more words students know,
the easier for them to comprehend (Bayetto, 2013, 2014).
The figure 4. below is the example of English question in 2016, it is testing students’vocabulary in biology, specifically about the description of adult butterflies. By doing
this question, it expected that the students can connect their prior knowledge tochoose correct vocabularies and complete the paragraph. In question number 41, thestudents should choose a word that closely related to nectar. The clue that can help
them is the next sentence that adult butterflies cannot chew solids. The correct answer
would be (d) “liquids”. However, the question number 42 is more difficult to knowwhat “proboscis” is. In writing the test, the items should meet the leaning outcomes

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and be free from irrelevant materials (Brady & Kennedy, 2009). It should be notedthat English has many kinds of genres, but the items made should consider that thefocus should be more about assessing the skill in English, not about natural science.

Figure 4. Completing the paragraph (Pendidikan, 2016)
Another example of testing vocabulary is by choosing correct synonym based on the
text. In the figure 5, it is expected that the students know the best word that have theclosed meaning. The students that are familiar with this expression can answer thistype of question.

Figure 5. Completing the paragraph (Pendidikan, 2016)
Another skill tested is the students should make an inference from the statement
given. In the figure 6, the students should connect the phrase such as high goals,
ideas, inspires, the year ahead, with the options provided. The possible ‘correct’answer would be keep on success in the future.

Figure 6. Making inference Completing the paragraph (Balitbang, 2017)

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Academic language contexts are typically assessed through “measures of reading andwriting ability” (Romhild & Bovaird, 2011, p. 61). It could be seen that the test items
are academic but not socially contextual because there is no speaking and listening.
Further, Darling-Hammond, Ancess and Falk (1995, as cited in Brady & Kennedy,2009) state that the standardized testing requires single correct answer, emphasizes
teacher focus more on teaching to do the test, and narrowly promote the view ofcurriculum. In multiple choice, the students have limitation to choose only one‘correct’ answer, while there would be possibility that they may have different ideas
in interpreting the text.
Another aspect in content validity is the cognitive domains. The test items are basedon cognitive domain although it does not guarantee that all test takers do the test by
thinking critically. Knowledge emphasises the remembering (recall, ideas, material, or
phenomena); application requires comprehension to apply the knowledge; analysis
emphasises the breakdown of conveying the meaning and making the conclusion(Bloom, 1994). Nevertheless, the national examination influences English teachingpractices in Indonesia are more about passing the standard or examination rather than
supporting the higher order thinking (Saukah & Cahyono, 2015). Hawanti (2011, as
cited in Zein, 2017, p. 57) also states that test-oriented learning limits the English
teaching to focus on doing the test rather than communicative competence. Therefore,
the content of English examination should be more emphasized to assess bothacademic and communication and should be motivate positively in the teaching andlearning process.
Reliability
While validity refers to the extent the test to measure the intended objective.
Reliability refers to the extent of consistently measure performance (Brady &Kennedy, 2012). However, “a test may be highly reliable without being able to do any
specific task well” (Lyman, 1978, p. 7), because high reliability is important but may
not be sufficient for good validity. The assessment is considered reliable if there are
repetition of the same test, the equivalent forms of a test, comparable parts of a test,
and item data (Payne, 1974).
There are “intrinsic problems in converting a paper-and-pencil test to a CBT” becauseof the production and administration (Stout, 2002, p. 103). Before the implementationof Computer-Based Test, there is only one type of test administration (paper-basedtest), meaning that all students do the same method. The introduction of new media(CBT) influences the reliability because testing conditions can make a great deal ofdifferences in test results (Lyman, 1978). The paper-based is less secure in the
distribution and scoring, less efficient, but has less problem in technology. Computerbased test can prevent cheating, disadvantages are the slow network, the electricity
problem, and the login problem (Harmiyuni & Sailan, 2016). While paper-based isconducted once a day, computer-based is done three times because there are more
students than the number of computers. In doing CBT, students should wait for hours
to do the test and it causes their psychological aspects. Another problem is someproblem electricity, internet connectivity. The different types of administration also
bring more gap among schools and areas. For example, among 54 schools in Kendari,
only 10 that can use CBT. There are 3.285 students do paper test (Putsanra, 2017).

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Related to this problem, the government has commitment to increase the number of
CBT in the future.
Recommendation
The national examination has improved to use more advanced technology in test
administration. To improve the construct validity, the content validity, and reliability,
the educational gaps should be minimized. The government should improve thequality of English language education especially in rural areas by increasing thenumber of teachers, provide more accessible access to information, and develop
educational infrastructure. Not only that, the government should also emphasize more
on developing listening and speaking skills in the examination because the purposesof learning language are both academic and communication. Since the computerbased test needs more technical support, the government should ensure thatelectricity, internet connection, and the availability of computers are sufficient for all
test takers.
Conclusion
The English national examination has the problem with construct validity due to thewide educational gap among areas, while the content validity shows that the test items
only assess the reading and writing. Two kinds of administration also have impact in
the reliability that makes the gap between metropolitan areas and rural areas become
more obvious. The improvement in the future is highly needed, not only to support thelearning outcomes, but also to bring fairness and equity in education.

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Contact email: heny.solekhah@gmail.com, sole0014@flinders.edu.au

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Vocational Curriculum for Learners with Special Educational Needs
Von Erick Laylo Dumagtoy, Montessori De San Juan, Philippines
Camilla Cassandra Arellano, Montessori De San Juan, Philippines
Candice Robyn Trilles, Montessori De San Juan, Philippines
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Abstract
This study primarily aimed to find the difference in the level of functioning in Pizza
Making Program of the High School Learners with special needs in terms of
Cognitive Skills, Functional Skills, Behavioral Skills and Daily Life Skills. Majorityof the high school students with special educational needs in the pre-evaluation rarely
observed and practiced level of functioning in terms of Cognitive, Functional,
Behavioral, and Daily Life Skills.Majority of the high school learners with special
educational needs in the post evaluation sometimes observed and practiced level offunctioning in terms of Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills; Behavioral Skills; andAcquisition of Daily Life Skills. This shows that after exposure to a certain program,learners have high potentials of improving.There was a significant difference in the
pre-test and post-test in the four skills Cognitive, Functional, Behavioral, and Daily
Life Skills. This indicates that utilizing the program and giving more constant
exposure to it would help the learner with special educational needs the highest levelof functioning which is always observing and practicing the skills needed in pizza
making.The teachers or facilitators also need to use up to date, practical and relevant
strategies that would make the pizza making program easier and enjoyable. With theutilization of state of the art facilities and strategies, learners would be moreencouraged, motivated and trainable.Results of the pre and post evaluation should be
carefully analyzed by the pizza making program teachers to address the strengths andweaknesses of the learners.

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Pizza Making Skills. This refers to the ability of the learners with special needs toperform activities related to pizza making.
Transitional Activity. This refers to the activity/program given to children withspecial needs which intention is to prepare them for employment. In this study, thetransitional activity is pizza making.
Vocational Preparedness. This refers to the readiness of the learners with special
needs to vocational program such as pizza making.
Introduction
In the past three decades, children with special needs are considered invincible
persons of the society (Burtner, 2017). Often times, they are overlooked, cast withpity and considered embarrassment to their family because their physical or mental
incapability. They are also often regarded to be persons with less social significancedue their incapability and unnoticed contribution to the economy (Burtner, 2017).
But things have changed. Given applicable learning interventions, conducive
environment to learn and applicable learning procedure, children with special needs
can be trained to perform task they need in their everyday lives. They can be trained
to take care of themselves, do simple household chores and do vocational skills suchas cooking and weaving.
When their interest is tapped, they can even showcase talents in arts such as painting
and photography. These abilities cannot be underscored unless activities related tothe discovery and development of skills of interest is implemented. On adocumentary featured by Real Time aired by GMA 7 on January 25, 2015, theimportance of conducting activities such as photography workshop for children with
autism is stressed by Bellete Vizcocho, parent and member of the Autism society of
the Philippines in Baguio City. She mentioned that without identifying what special
children can do, such as those with autism, parents of these children would not also
know the children’s ability.
This explains that exposure of children with special needs to activities that will
showcase their abilities to be a more productive citizen, especially those that will
provide economic productivity like vocational programs is one of the ways to improvetheir quality of life.
One of the fears of parents of children with special needs is to leave their children
behind helpless and dependent in all their needs. The thought of leaving behind achild who cannot take care of himself and cannot provide for himself financially arepart of these fears. That is why schools that provide curriculum for children withspecial needs include transitional programs for these children. These transitional
programs include vocational programs such as weaving, food tending which include
pizza making.
Transitional program or programs and activities given to children with special needs
after high school like vocational programs is mandated by the Philippine government
to schools that offer educational curriculum to children with special needs. This is inline with the implementation of K to 12 Curriculum (RA 10533).

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In the implementation of K to 12 Curriculum, children with special needs are notexempted to be trained after they finish junior high school or grade 10. They should
also be given grade 11 a program that will equip them to be ready to work or be
productive economically. This is also termed as transitional program in the
curriculum given to children with special needs.
Children with special needs have limitations when it comes to performing tasks unlike
persons without special conditions. Although they have limitations, they can betrained to do tasks and be skilled to perform these tasks through positive
interventions. There are even companies that support children with special needs
through trainings and employment. Children with special needs’ ability to organize
items, perform motor skills and work with patterns makes pizza making vocational
skills a good choice of transitional activity for these kinds of learners.
This prompted the researcher to determine the progress of children exposed to pizza
making as a vocational program for learners with special needs.
Conclusions
The study revealed the following significant findings:
1. Pre-evaluation levels of functioning of respondent high school learners
with special needs in terms of: Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills; andAcquisition of Daily Life Skills.
1.1 The mean score and the standard deviation of the respondents in the preevaluation in terms of Cognitive Skills imply that rarely observed andpracticed. It means that if learners are not yet exposed to a certain
program or situation, their cognitive skills are not obviously being
practiced and observed yet.
1.2 The mean score and standard deviation in the functional skills before thelearners where exposed in the pizza making program imply thatfunctional skills are not rarely observed and practiced. It is an indicationthat learners with special needs would only observe and practice theseskills if already exposed or experienced.
1.3 The mean score and the standard deviation of the respondents in the preevaluation in terms of Behavioral skills indicates that learners rarely
observed and practiced it. Hence, it means, unless they are exposed to theprogram, their behavioral skills would be observed and practiced as well.
1.4 The mean score and the standard deviation of the respondents in the preevaluation in terms of Acquisition of daily life skills indicates to be rarely
observed and practice. It implies that if they are not exposed to theprogram yet, students with special needs would rarely observe or practiceacquiring daily life skills.
1.5 The findings in the pre - evaluation support the study of Inciong (2011)
where it was stated that learners with special needs require repetition andhand-on training for the skills to be developed. In the same manner,

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students with special needs from Montessori De San Juan need to be
exposed first to activities so the cognitive, functional, behavioral andacquisition of daily life will be observed and practiced often.
2. Post-evaluation levels of functioning of respondent high school learners
with special needs in terms of: Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills; andAcquisition of Daily Life Skills.
2.1 The mean score and standard deviation of the respondents in the post
evaluation in terms of Cognitive Skills is sometimes observed andpracticed. It means that they performed better individually after being
exposed to the pizza making program. The learners’ cognitive skills
would be further improved if constant activities will be provided to thelearners.
2.2 The mean scores and standard deviation of the respondents in the post
evaluation in terms of Functional skills is sometimes observed andpracticed. Hence, after being exposed to the program, learners withspecial needs have had better improvement in terms of the functional
skills.
2.3 The mean score and standard deviation of the respondents in the post
evaluation in terms of Behavioral skills indicates that students sometimes
observed and practiced the skills. The noticeable improvement could bebased to the fact that they were already exposed to the program. So
constant exposure would be enriched their behavioral skills.
2.4 The mean score and standard deviation of the respondents in the post
evaluation in terms of Acquisition of daily life skills is sometimes
observed and practiced. This is an indication of better performance or
improvement after the program was introduced and implemented. Thus, it
could be improved if more exposure and time would be provided to thelearners. Other supplemental activities could also be helpful.
2.5 The findings in the post evaluation support the study of Quijano (2011)
where in the program provided to the learner with special needs
encourage them to be more productive in in their daily living. Cognitive,functional, behavioral and acquisition of daily life skills of the learners
with special needs would definitely improve as long as learners areconstantly exposed to the program and other related activities.
3. Significance Difference in the Pre-test and Post Test of the respondent
high school learners with special educational needs when exposed in Pizza
Making Program in terms of: Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills;
Behavioral Skills; and Acquisition of Daily Life Skills.
3.1 There is a significant difference observed in the pre-evaluation and post
evaluation levels of functioning under Cognitive Skills. This finding
implies that cognitive skills of the learners with special needs could be

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improved as they are more exposed to the program and supplemental
activities.
3.2 There is a significant difference inferred in the pre-evaluation and post
evaluation levels of functioning under Functional Skills. This finding
implies that functional skills of the learners with special needs could beenhanced if they are constantly exposed and be given more time andexposure to the program and other supplemental activities.
3.3 There is a significant difference noted in the pre-evaluation and post
evaluation levels of functioning under Behavioral Skills. This finding
indicates that behavioral skills of the learners with special needs could befurther improved by constant exposure to the program and other3.4 related activities accompanied by close monitoring and well-equippedteachers.
3.5 There is a significant difference noted in the pre-evaluation and post
evaluation levels of functioning under Acquisition of Daily Life Skills.
This finding indicates that student with special needs would improve interms of acquiring daily life skills. They only need to be exposed to theprogram constantly or be given additional activities related to theprogram.
Based on the significant findings of the study, the following conclusions were made:
1. Majority of the high school students with special educational needs in the
pre-evaluation rarely observed and practiced level of functioning in terms
of: Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills; Behavioral Skills; and Acquisitionof Daily Life Skills.
2. Majority of the high school learners with special educational needs in thepost evaluation sometimes observed and practiced level of functioning interms of Cognitive Skills; Functional Skills; Behavioral Skills; andAcquisition of Daily Life Skills. This shows that after exposure to a certain
program, learners have high potentials of getting improved or enhanced.
3. There was a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test in the four
skills: Cognitive; Functional; Behavioral; and Acquisition of daily life.
This indicates that utilizing the program and giving more constant
exposure to it would help the learner with special educational needs thehighest level of functioning which is always observing and practicing theskills needed in pizza making program.
4. These were the problems that high school learners with special needs
encountered while engaged in pizza making program:
4.1.
4.2.

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4.3.
4.4.
4.5.
4.6.
4.7.
4.8.
4.9.
4.10.
4.11.

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Time-consuming
Oven cannot be used by students without assistance of a teacher
Pizza got easily burnt because of over using the oven
Lots of ingredients got wasted during the training for pizza making
Students always wait for instructions
Students tend to lose focus from the task
Some students have the tendency to munch on the topping even
before the pizza is prepared
Some students don’t like to try pizza that they madeDuring the announcement of the selling of pizza, not all students
were able to speak in the different classrooms confidently.

Acknowledgements
The researcher expresses his wholehearted gratitude to the following individuals whohelped him in making this research study possible:
Above all, to God Almighty, for his blessings, everlasting love and guidance;
Dr. Susan Cobarrubias, his adviser, for guiding him patiently, for her valuablesuggestions from the start to the completion of this research;
Mr. Oscar G. Arellano, and Mrs. Marilou C. Arellano, Montessori de San Juan
Administrators for the approval in the conduct of this research study in the institution;
Alicia C. Laylo, his loving mother, for giving him an unconditional love and unending
support;Angelita C. Laylo, his aunt, for being his second parent;
The Students under the Transition Education Program, the respondents who actively
participated in this study;
The Montessori de San Juan Special Education Teachers, for assisting the
respondents and helping the researcher in implementing the pizza making program;
The researcher’s colleagues and friends.

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References
Reference to a journal publication:
Baranauskiene and Jankute (2014). Vocational counseling of students with special
educational needs from the viewpoint of principals of mainstream schools. Social
welfare interdisciplinary approach 2(2); 72-83
Cherryholmes,C.H., (2010). A social project for curriculum: Post-structural
perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies. 1(7), 297.
Ofoegbu, N., & Azarmsa, R. (2010). Impact of the special education vocational
education program (VEP) on student career success. International Journal of Special
Education, 25(2). 34-46.
Peter, M. & Nderitu, M.N. Journal of Educational and Social Research, Vol 4, No 1
(2014) Perceptions of Teachers and Head Teachers on the Effectiveness of Inclusive
Education in Public Primary Schools in Yatta Division Machakos County. (4)1. 22-32
Sue, S. (2015). Secondary Transition Planning: The Basics Achieve Successful
Outcomes and Meet Mandates. California Transition Alliance 20, 49-54.
Reference to a book:Fosnot, Catherine T. (2015). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice.
New, York, USA: Teachers College Press.
Bloom, B.S., (2010). Human Characteristics and School Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Block, J.H.,Efthim, H.E., & Bums, R.B., (2013). Building Effective Mastery Learning
Schools. New York: Longman.
Brigance,A.H.,( 2013). Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Essential Skills.
Massachusetts: Curriculum Associates.
Frymier, A.B., and Schulman, G.M., (2013). “What’s in it for me?’ Increasing
content relevance to enhance learners’ motivation. Communication Education.
Harvard University Press.
Fullan, M., (2012). The Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Hunter, M., (2012). Mastery Teaching. Indiana: Corwin Press.
Kulik, J.A., (2011). Individualized systems of instruction. In H.E. Mitzel (Ed.). The
Encyclopedia of Educational Research. (5th ed)

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Electronic Sources:
Burtner, P. (2017). Society’s Attitude towards people with disabilities. Retrieved:
October 16, 2017 http://paul-burtner.dental.ufl.edu/oral-health-care-for-persons-withdisabilities/societys-attitude-toward-people-with-disabilities/
Contact email: vonlaylo@gmail.com

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ASEAN Community: Development, Challenge and Change for Thai Higher
Education Sector
Anupap Thupa-ang, Suan Dusit University, Thailand
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Abstract
The emergence of ASEAN has changed and inspired ideas and expectations forSoutheast Asian countries in many ways. As small or developing countries, themembers of ASEAN need to be together for stronger in the global context. The
collaboration and coordination between member countries are frequently mentioned
in several aspects, including higher education (HE), in order for developing theregion. An important concept announced by ASEAN concerns more attempts topromote higher degree of collaboration among HE sectors within the region. In
Thailand, the HE sector was officially founded with the establishment of the first
university in 1917. It could be considered as one of the very first HE sectors in theregion. At present, there are approximately 160 higher education institutions (HEIs)
across the country. Although the number of HEIs in Thailand has increased, thequality of them seems relatively questionable, especially at international level. In
comparison to HEIs of other countries in the region such as Singapore, Thai HEIs
always receive lower ranks in world rankings more and more. This difference could
probably be a crucial challenge for Thai HE sector in order to successfully collaborate
or coordinate many tasks with other HEIs from those member countries. Therefore, in
my perspective, it is necessary to increasingly pay more attention to Thai HE sector insome aspects, particularly international language aspect, in order to adapt to the rapidchanges within the region these days.
Keywords: ASEAN, Higher education, Thailand

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Introduction
According to the development of modern technologies such as information andcommunication technology (ICT) and transportation technology, the world seems to
be reduced and smaller. People can communicate and transport rapidly andconveniently and also they can trade goods and other things better than before.
However, people also have to compete to each other in several ways at global scale
unprecedentedly. The small countries to some extent have unavoidable disadvantages
in terms of international competitions; thus, the ideas of union have occurred in someregions, particularly Europe and Southeast Asia.
Particularly, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has
approximately 630 million population (Aseanstats, 2017), is the third biggest
population in the world and a crucial choice to reckon for any potential kinds ofcollaboration worldwide. Additionally, the GDP per capita of ASEAN is about 4,030
USD (Aseanstats, 2017). The above information might imply that this region has apivotal role to play at global scale and might be one of the most important players in
the near future.
The Emergence of ASEAN
According to the geographic location that is located in between India and China, theSoutheast Asian region has been being a crucial gateway for traders and pilgrims
travelling between these two civilizations since the ancient days. Therefore, thisregion has another name, called Indo-China. Nowadays, the ASEAN community,
comprised of ten countries, covers the area about 4.5 millions square kilometers(Aseanstats, 2017) including both in the mainland and islands. Due to the increasing
political and economic competition worldwide, the Southeast Asian nations seemed torealize several challenges as an individual small country and commenced the notionof establishing a regional integration.
At Saranrom Palace in Bangkok, the formal establishment of ASEAN, called
Bangkok Declaration, was signed on 8th August 1967 by five representatives ofcountry members, including Adam Malik of Indonesia, Tun Abdul Razak of
Malaysia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore andThanat Khoman of Thailand (ASEAN, 2018b; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2018).
Earlier in 1967, Thanat Khoman, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand at thattime, invited his counterparts from other four countries to an informal meeting at
Bang Saen district in Chonburi, which probably led to an agreement of ASEAN’s
inception in Bangkok thereafter (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2018). The declaration
aims and purposes to promote collaboration and assistance of common interest in
economic, social, cultural, agricultural and industrial, scientific and transport aspects,
as well as standard of living of the people in ASEAN (Ministry of Foreign Affairs,2018). After that, five more countries joined ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam in 1984,
Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in the same year 1997, and Cambodia in 1999
(Office of the Education Council, 2013).
The ASEAN member countries, in 1992, established the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA) to increase trade, investment and reduce tax among the members (Office of
the Education Council, 2013). Later, the leaders of ASEAN member countries signed

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the Bali Concord II, in 2003, for creating the ASEAN Community by 2020 (Office of
the Education Council, 2013). The ASEAN Community has 3 main pillars including:(1) ASEAN Political Security Community (APSC); (2) ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC); (3) ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) (Office of the
Education Council, 2013).
However, it is believed that the establishment of ASEAN was probably influenced by
the European Union, which had been launched earlier. Since early 1950s, many
countries in Europe attempted to set up regional integration (Cameron, 2010).
Constantly, the European Union has been developed and become the best model forother regional integrations worldwide such as African Union (AU), Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) and also ASEAN (Cameron, 2010). Having said that, there is somedifference between EU and ASEAN, which is, for example, an attempt to use thesame currency. In ASEAN, the member countries remain using their own currencies
and it is still unclear about merging them together at this moment. This probably
implies that the EU and ASEAN might have different purposes from theirintegrations. In my perspective, to some extent, the EU might aim to merge theEuropean countries into one large country as similar as the US, whereas the ASEAN
might just prefer to stick together slightly closer than before, in order to have more
benefits from economic, political and socio-cultural aspects. Although the objectivesof these two regional integrations might be slightly different, the ASEAN frequently
sends delegations to EU in order to observe important experience as a model(Cameron, 2010). Particularly, in this article, the education issues which is in thesocio-cultural pillar will be discussed in the following sections.
Education Cooperation and Development of ASEAN Community
Since the beginning of establishment, ASEAN has paid attention to education via
social and cultural aspects. It started from Bangkok Declaration in 1967 that theeducation cooperation was mentioned in the item four which is “to provide assistanceto each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational,
professional, technical and administrative spheres” (ASEAN, 2016). Moreover,
ASEAN has one of the three main pillars named, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community(ASCC), which relates to promote educational cooperation among ASEAN member
countries (Office of the Education Council, 2013).
Later in 1992, the 4th ASEAN Summit required the member states to help
“hasten the solidarity and development of a regional identity
through the promotion of human resource development so as tofurther strengthen the existing network of leading universities andinstitutions of higher learning in the region (ASEAN University
Network, 2018b)”.
	
  Thereafter, this notion brought the establishment of the ASEAN University Network(AUN) in 1995 (AUN, 2018b). The AUN arranges activities and programmes to boost
and support higher education cooperation and development to increase regional
collaboration in accomplishing world standards. The present activities can be divided
into five categories: (1) Youth Mobility, (2) Academic Collaboration, (3) Standards,
Mechanisms, Systems and Policies of Higher Education Collaboration, (4) Courses
and Programmes Development and (5) Regional and Global Policy Platforms (AUN,

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2018b). Furthermore, The main focuses of AUN are based on those mentioned by
ASEAN to support regional cooperation including: (1) to improve the current networkof cooperation between universities in ASEAN and further; (2) to encourage
collaborative research, study and educational programmes in the crucial areas
mentioned by ASEAN; (3) to encourage cooperation and unity between academics
and researchers in ASEAN member countries; and (4) to work as the policy-orientedorganization in higher education in the ASEAN region (AUN, 2018b).
In 2009, the Cha-am Hua Hin declaration, which emphasizes on strengthening
cooperation on education for developing human resources, indicates the roles of
education into three main pillars, including: (1) political and security, (2) economic,and (3) socio-cultural (ASEAN, 2018a). In terms of the political and security aspect,
the declaration aims: to promote understanding and appreciation of the ASEAN
Charter; to emphasize on the principles of democracy and respect for human right; torealize the different cultures; and to create a school leader’s network (ASEAN,
2018a).
For the economic pillar, the declaration aims: to create national skills framework that
corresponds and support an ASEAN skills recognition framework; to facilitate better
mobility of students and skill workers within the region; to create an ASEAN
competency-based occupational standard focused on supporting the development of
ASEAN human resources for the needs of industries; and to support the creation of acommon standard of competencies for vocational and secondary education forbenchmarking based on mutual recognition (ASEAN, 2018a).
Thirdly, in terms of the socio-cultural aspect, the declaration aims: to create acommon content on ASEAN for schools including in teacher training and teaching; toprovide courses on ASEAN arts and cultures at university level; to provide ASEAN
languages as choices for foreign language subjects at school level; to support regional
outreach programs emphasized on raising ASEAN awareness amongst the youth; tofacilitate broader access of rural communities to quality education; to support lifelong learning in ASEAN member nations according to the Education for All (EFA);
to create an ASEAN educational research convention to facilitate collaborative
research and development within ASEAN; and to approve that ASEAN member
nations should share their resources and establish a regional education development
fund (ASEAN, 2018a).
Higher Education Sectors of ASEAN Country Members
This part explains general information and details about higher education of eachmember state of ASEAN by using data from UniRank, an international higher
education directory and search engine (UniRank, 2018a). The UniRank includes only
the higher education institutions (HEIs) that are recognized by local governments andoffered four year undergraduate programs or higher degrees (UniRank, 2018a). Eachcountry is alphabetically presented as follow.

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Brunei Darussalam
The first member country is Brunei Darussalam, located at the north-west coast of theisland of Borneo. The ASEAN approved Brunei to be a member in 1984. The country
size is 5,765 square kilometers, which accommodates about 417,000 population(Aseanstats, 2017). In 2016, the GDP of Brunei was 11,206 million USD. Although
the country is not the largest, the adult literacy rate of Brunei is the highest in ASEAN
at 97.6% in 2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
At present, there are overall five HEIs in Brunei (UniRank, 2018b). The only
university in Brunei that is a member of AUN, is Universiti Brunei Darussalam(ASEAN University Network, 2018a). According to the QS world ranking 2018, thehighest ranking university of Brunei is also the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, which
is at 349th of the world ranking (QS Top University, 2018).
Cambodia
The second country of this list is Cambodia, which is situated in the Indochinese
peninsula, and bordered by neighbor countries such as Lao PDR, Thailand andVietnam. One of the countries with long history, since Khmer Empire, became thenewest member of ASEAN in 1999. In terms of size and population, the country
covers 181,035 square kilometers and about 15 million population in 2016
(Aseanstats, 2017). Moreover, the Cambodia’s GDP was 19,194 million USD at thesame year (Aseanstats, 2017). And, the adult literacy of Cambodia was at 78.1% in2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
In Cambodia, there are now fifty two HEIs in total (UniRank, 2018b). And, twomember universities of AUN from Cambodia are (1) Royal University of Phnom
Penh and (2) Royal University of Law and Economics (ASEAN University Network,
2018a). None of universities in Cambodia has been ranked in the QS world ranking
2018, but there is one university in the QS data that is Zaman University (QS Top
University, 2018).
Indonesia
One of the first five member countries of ASEAN is Indonesia. As the largest countryof ASEAN, the size of Indonesia is about 1.9 million square kilometers and the
population is around 260 million (Aseanstats, 2017), which makes this country thelargest Muslim population in the world (BBC, 2018). Furthermore, the country also
has the largest economy in ASEAN according to the GDP at approximately 931,000
million USD in 2016 (Aseanstats, 2017). The rate of adult literacy of Indonesia was at
95.9% in 2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
There are 581 HEIs in Indonesia, which is the largest amount of HEIs in ASEAN
member countries (UniRank, 2018b). The AUN has four member HEIs fromIndonesia including: (1) Institut Teknologi Bandung, (2) Universitas Airlangga, (3)Universitas Gadjah Mada, (4) Universitas Indonesia (ASEAN University Network,
2018a). The highest ranking university of Indonesia in QS world ranking 2018 is the
Universitas Indonesia, which is at 277th in the world ranking (QS Top University,
2018).

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Lao PDR
The next country is Lao PDR, which is a landlocked country in Indochinese
peninsula, among by Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and China. Although
the GDP of Lao is only 15,903 million USD (Aseanstats, 2017), this country has
become one of the fastest growing countries in economy as well as a crucial energy
exporter. The area of Lao PDR covers around 236,800 square kilometers, whichaccommodates about 6.6 million population (Aseanstats, 2017). In terms of the adultliteracy rate, Lao has 79% in 2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
According to UniRank, there is only one university in Lao PDR that is National
University of Laos, established in 1995 (UniRank, 2018b). Thus, this only Laotian
university is a member of the AUN (ASEAN University Network, 2018a).
Malaysia
Another country of the first five ASEAN members is Malaysia, which has tworegions separated by the South China Sea. In terms of the size and population, thiscountry covers 331,388 square kilometers and the population is about 31 million(Aseanstats, 2017). As one of the most advanced countries in ASEAN, Malaysia has
GDP about 299,632 million USD (Aseanstats, 2017). However, the adult literacy rateof Malaysia was excluded from the source of data used in this article.
In total, Malaysia has forty five HEIs according to the UniRank (UniRank, 2018b).
However, there are five HEIs of Malaysia that are members of the AUN including: (1)Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, (2) Universiti Malaya, (3) Universiti Putra Malasia,(4) Universiti Sains Malaysia, and (5) Universiti Utara Malaysia (ASEAN University
Network, 2018a). According to the QS world ranking 2018, the highest ranking
university of Malaysia is the Universiti Malaya at 114th in the world ranking (QS Top
University, 2018).
Myanmar
The next country is Myanmar, also known as Burma, which is the largest country inthe mainland Southeast Asia and the second largest country in ASEAN. The country
is bordered by Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR and Thailand. Myanmar covers
676,576 square kilometer area and the population is about 53 million people(Aseanstats, 2017). In terms of the GDP and literacy, this country has 68,636 million
USD in 2016 (Aseanstats, 2017) and the adult literacy rate was at 95.1% in 2014
(Aseanstats, 2018).
There are all 82 HEIs in Myanmar (UniRank, 2018b). Three of them are members of
the AUN including: (1) University of Mandalay, (2) University of Yangon, and (3)Yangon University of Economics (ASEAN University Network, 2018a).
Philippines
Another first five members of ASEAN is the Philippines, which consists of more than
7,000 islands, located between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The size of
the Philippines is about 300,000 square kilometers, which accommodates about 103

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million population (Aseanstats, 2017). In terms of economy and literacy, the country
has GDP at 311,453 million USD in 2016 (Aseanstats, 2017) and the adult literacy
rate was at 90.2% in 2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
Overall, the Philippines has 230 HEIs according to the UniRank (UniRank, 2018b).
Moreover, three of them are members of the AUN: (1) Ateneo de Manila University,(2) De La Salle University, (3) University of the Philippines (ASEAN University
Network, 2018a). The highest ranking university of the Philippines is the Universityof Philippines at 367th of the world ranking (QS Top University, 2018).
Singapore
One of the first five country members of ASEAN is Singapore. As a mighty small
country, Singapore is an island country, which is situated next to the furthest South ofIndochinese peninsula, covering 719 square kilometers and the country has about 5.6
million population (Aseanstats, 2017). In total, Singapore has GDP at 296,977 million
USD; however, this country has the highest rate of GDP per capita in ASEAN at
52,963 USD (Aseanstats, 2017). And, the adult literacy of Singapore was at 96.7% in2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
In Singapore, there are five HEIs in total (UniRank, 2018b) and three of them aremembers of the AUN, which are (1) Nanyang Technological University, (2) National
University of Singapore, and (3) Singapore Management University (ASEAN
University Network, 2018a). Recently, the Singapore HEIs have been very successful
in world university rankings. According to the QS world ranking 2018, the highest
ranking university of Singapore is the Nanyang Technological University at 11th in
the world ranking (QS Top University, 2018). Moreover, the second highest
university of Singapore is the National University of Singapore, which is almost highas the highest university, at 15th in the world ranking (QS Top University, 2018).
Thailand
Next, another first five country member is Thailand, which is located in the middle ofIndochinese peninsula and bordered by Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia and Myanmar.
Thailand’s territory covers 513,120 square kilometers and the population is about 67
million people (Aseanstats, 2017). In terms of economy and literacy, the country has
GDP at 407,048 million USD in 2016 (Aseanstats, 2017) and the adult literacy rate
was at 96.1% in 2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
Thailand has 125 HEIs in total (UniRank, 2018b). There are five member universitiesof the AUN from Thailand, including: (1) Burapha University, (2) Chiang Mai
University, (3) Chulalongkorn University, (4) Mahidol University, and (5) Prince ofSongkla Universtiy (ASEAN University Network, 2018a). In the QS world ranking
2018, Chulalongkorn University is the highest ranking university at 245th of the world
ranking (QS Top University, 2018).
Vietnam
The last country of this list is alphabetically Vietnam, which is situated at therightmost of Indochinese peninsula and next to three countries: Cambodia, China and

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Lao PDR. The territory of Vietnam covers 331,231 square kilometers whichaccommodates approximately 92 million population (Aseanstats, 2017). Vietnam is
one of the most rapid grown countries in economy and has GDP at 198,196 million
USD in 2016 (Aseanstats, 2017). And, the adult literacy rate of Vietnam is 94.7% in2014 (Aseanstats, 2018).
In total, Vietnam has 65 HEIs according to the UniRank (UniRank, 2018b).
Furthermore, the AUN has three member universities from Vietnam, including: (1)
Can Tho University; (2) Vietnam National University, Hanoi; and (3) Vietnam
National University, Ho Chi Minh City (ASEAN University Network, 2018a).
Although Vietnam HEIs are excluded from the QS world ranking 2018, but there are
twelve HEIs of Vietnam in the QS database (QS Top University, 2018).
Development, Challenge and change of Thai Higher education
According to those agreements from the declarations, particularly the Cha-am Hua
Hin in 2009, the Ministry of Education in Thailand developed five new policies
including (Chanbanchong, Thongthew, Boonsombuti, & Sangnapabowo, 2015):(1)  improvement of appreciation and understanding of the ASEAN community,with more focus on the principles of democracy, respect for human right, andpeace-oriented value in the school curriculum;(2)  human resource development with the essential skills to meet the requirements
of industries, free trade, and skilled labour mobility;(3)  setting up ASEAN competency-based occupational standards to promote themobility of ASEAN school leaders, teachers, and students;(4)  preparing free flowing education to facilitate the AEC and promoting regional
programmes to support ASEAN awareness between the youth;(5)  and encouraging young volunteers to promote the learning centers incountryside and between indigenous people.
As can be seen, these policies aim to develop several aspects of education sectors in
Thailand from school level to university level. In my opinion, for the first two
policies, Thai education sector is capable of applying them immediately; however, thethird and fourth policies are relatively problematic due to the language barrier. Having
said that, the occupational standards and the free flow education will improve themobility of workforce and academics across the region and develop the regional
economy and education rapidly.
Moreover, as mentioned earlier, AUN aims to encourage higher educationcooperation and development, which can enhance the regional prosperity byexchanging students, university staff and information from research. Particularly, theacademic collaboration and higher education institution collaboration have highpossibility to rapidly develop the higher education sectors within the region.
However, it might be challenging for Thai context due to the language obstacle once
again. It could be argued that many Thai academic staff can communicate in English,
but it is not the case for the rest staff in general. Furthermore, it would be even more
problematic for Thai higher education if AUN in the near future decided to follow the
Bologna process of the EU. The Bologna process creates compatible academic degree
standards and quality assurance standards across Europe, for example: a European

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Credit Transfer System, in order to provide more mobility for students and academic
staff throughout Europe (European University Association, 2018).
In addition, another challenge aspect for Thai higher education is the university
league tables, which have increasing impact on Thai higher education institutions.
The league tables continuously show that the performance of Thai higher education
institutions needs to be adjusted if the institutions would like to climb up the ranks. It
could be argued that the university league tables are unable to totally represent thegenuine quality of the universities, nonetheless they have more impact on the students
and the people in general. For Thai higher education institutions, in my experience,
they often have less points in terms of research and internationalization. Once again,
the obstacle probably relates to language barrier of Thai people in order to cooperate
to international context.
Therefore, in my perspective, the language issue in Thai context really needs to beseriously consider as soon as possible. For example, in terms of English language
skills, Thailand is ranked fifty-third by the English Proficiency Index, which iscategorized as a low proficiency level (English Proficiency Index, 2018). However,the discussion about improving and using English in the Thai context usually ends up
with sentences such as: “It is not our mother language why we have to worry”.
However, at this moment, it might be unable to say that anymore because the ASEAN
officially indicated that English is the medium language for communicate in ASEAN.
Thus, Thai people have to consider studying English more practical and effective thanever before. Moreover, some studies have found that using international language is
one of the most important issues for Thai higher education to improve in order todevelop the quality of the sector (Thupa-ang, 2015).
Notwithstanding, the Ministry of Education (MOE) seems to realize about thisinternational language issue and attempts to find the ways to improve English in all
educational levels. For instance, in basic education level, the MOE launched a policythat the schools should add more teaching and learning time for English language.
Meanwhile, in higher education level, the MOE suggested that the universities should
try to find their own ways or systems in order to improve international language
ability for the students. Therefore, some Thai higher education institutions havealready responded to this language issue. For example, Suan Dusit University (SDU)
has announced that the new students in 2017 must have TOEIC 500 marks in order tograduate from the university. In my view, this is a reasonable example for a quick
response to resolve the language problem. As a mid-table university of Thailand,
SDU inevitably needs more well-known organization to prove the language ability ofthe students rather than creates an own new system. Although it remains unclear forthe result of this resolution and costs more budget to do so, the university has tried todeal with a long term problem of Thai people, the international language barrier.
Having said that, there might be some countries that can use better English thanThailand, but they are still lacks of development. In those cases, they might havedistinct factors that need to be study further individually. Nevertheless, in Thaicontext, the more practical solutions and changes for resolving the language issue
remain unclear and need more careful consideration and collaboration from all
stakeholders.

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Conclusion
ASEAN community has brought many advantages in several ways for the Southeast
Asian region and its people including: political, economic and socio-cultural aspects.
However, in order to well participate and collaborate to each other, people in thisregion need an international language, which is English for ASEAN, to communicate
properly. Especially, in Thai higher education, English becomes increasingly crucial.
For instance, the English speaking students can search information for doing theiressays via large amount of websites written in English on the internet, but most Thai
students can only search relevant information via limited websites written in Thai.
Furthermore, there are also many Thai academics, who have limited international
language skills and are unable to properly communicate and collaborate withacademics from other countries. These examples imply how different quality ofeducation could be among these two kind of people.
In conclusion, therefore, a crucial challenge for Thai higher education is English
language ability. And, in my perspective, if Thai people can improve their English
skills, the competitiveness of the country and the region will be raised. Moreover, thecollaboration among the ASEAN member countries will be more effective and bringmore benefit for people worldwide to some extent.

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References
ASEAN. (2016). The Asean Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) Bangkok, 8 August
1967, from http://asean.org/the-asean-declaration-bangkok-declaration-bangkok-8august-1967/
ASEAN. (2018a). Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on
Education to Achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community, fromhttp://www.asean.org/storage/images/archive/15thsummit/Declaration-Education.pdf
ASEAN. (2018b). History, from http://asean.org/asean/about-asean/history/
ASEAN University Network. (2018a). ASEAN UNet Member Universities, fromhttp://www.aunsec.org/membership.php
ASEAN University Network. (2018b). History and background, fromhttp://www.aunsec.org/ourhistory.php
Aseanstats. (2017). ASEAN Member States: Selected Basic Indicators 2016, fromhttps://data.aseanstats.org/
Aseanstats. (2018). Infographics, from https://www.aseanstats.org/infographics/
BBC. (2018). Indonesia Country Profile, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asiapacific-14921238
Cameron, F. (2010). The European Union as a Model for Regional Integration, fromhttps://www.cfr.org/report/european-union-model-regional-integration
Chanbanchong, C., Thongthew, S., Boonsombuti, S., & Sangnapabowo, W. (2015).
Citizenship education and education for ASEANness in Thailand: A case study. In K.
J. Kennedy & A. Brunold (Eds.), Regional Contexts and Citizenship Education in
Asia and Europe (pp. 148-166). London: Routledge.
English Proficiency Index. (2018). EF English proficiency index, fromhttp://www.ef.co.uk/epi
European University Association. (2018). The European Higher Education Area andthe Bologna Process, from http://www.eua.be/policy-representation/higher-educationpolicies/the-european-higher-education-area-and-the-bologna-process
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2018). The Birth of ASEAN, fromhttp://www.mfa.go.th/asean/en/organize/62206-The-Birth-of-ASEAN.html
Office of the Education Council. (2013). Driving the National Qualifications
Framework: Towards ASEAN Community. Bangkok: OEC.
QS Top University. (2018). QS World University Ranking 2018, fromhttps://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-universityrankings/2018

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Thupa-ang, A. (2015). The Quality of Teaching and Quality Assurance in Higher
Education in Thailand: an exploration of academic perceptions and experiences.
Doctoral degree Dissertation, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
UniRank. (2018a). About us, from https://www.4icu.org/about/
UniRank. (2018b). World Universities Search Engine, from https://www.4icu.org/
Contact email: anupap5@yahoo.com

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Nobel Authors in the Literature Classroom: 2017 Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and
the Case for Conscious Empathy
Cynthia F. Wong, University of Colorado Denver, United States
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
Many years before the Swedish Academy honored Japanese-born, British-educatedwriter Kazuo Ishiguro with the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature for his resilient works
about the human spirit, the author highlighted in his work the necessity for exploringand improving the human condition. I have published on Ishiguro and his works forover 20 years, and I interviewed Ishiguro twice (2000 & 2006). I can attest to
Ishiguro’s ability to motivate empathy in his fiction, in order to broaden intercultural
understanding and communication. We may discover in literary fiction ways to
explore our human condition, recognize suffering, and find ways to be allies to one
another in times of change and instability. I advocate for the teaching of Nobel
authors in the literature classroom—particularly focusing on Japanese-origin laureatessuch as Ishiguro, Oe Kenzaburo, and Kawabata Yasunari for this paper. I will discuss
how their books create wider communities of kinship and induct readers to bear
witness to human experiences through literature. Indeed, these laureates fulfill Alfred
Nobel’s legacy that literature can bestow the greatest benefit to mankind.
Keywords: Nobel in Literature, Japanese Laureates, Empathy, Kawabata, Oe,
Ishiguroiafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction: The Terms of the Nobel Prize in Literature
In his will, Alfred Nobel bequeathed money for five annual prizes, including one forliterature. The 1895 document stipulated that the laureate in literature would behonored for “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction” and that thisexceptional lifetime’s work should bestow “the greatest benefit to mankind”(Nobelprize.org). Critic Kjell Espmark (2001) explains that regarding the literature
prize for the century to follow, the Swedish Academy grappled with exactly what
Nobel meant by “an ideal direction” and what would constitute the “greatest benefit
on mankind” (Nobelprize.org). I hope to indicate what some of these benefits mightentail by focusing on the lifetime achievement of 2017 laureate Ishiguro.
Espmark identifies several distinct phases in the history of the literature prize,
including “A Lofty and Sound Idealism” (1901 to approximately 1914) and “A
Policy of Neutrality” (The Great War period) in the first couple of decades. This wasfollowed by authors contributing to “The Great Style” in the 1920s, those of“Universal Interest” in the 1930s, and “The Pioneers” spanning the next four decades
to 1977. “Attention to Unknown Masters” covered less than a decade (1977-1985),
and it appears that since 1985, Nobel laureates have shared in presenting “TheLiterature of the Whole World.”
Japanese-origin Laureates: Kawabata, Oe, and Ishiguro
My paper highlights Japanese-origin authors. Kawabata Yasunari won the prize in1968 and was the first Eastern-world author to do so, prompting the Academy toacknowledge the challenges of selecting non-Western authors for their long and shortlists. In 1968, Kawabata was honored “for his narrative mastery, which with great
sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind” (Nobelprize.org). Indeed,
Kawabata answered the Academy’s praise of his national contributions to world
literature with his Nobel lecture that was translated as “Japan, the Beautiful andMyself.” Kawabata’s award fits under Espmark’s category of “The Pioneers” andcertainly marks the Academy’s incipient interest in literatures beyond the Eurocentric
scope.
In 1994, another Japanese origin author, Oe Kenzaburo, was honored as an author“who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense toform a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today” (Nobelprize.org). Like
the Academy’s praise for Kawabata’s formal literary achievements, the focus here ison Oe’s poetical imagination and its impact upon world events. However, we noticethat the praise for Kawabata may have been Orientalist in tone, while that for Oe isboldly in favor of the “disconcerting picture” of human experiences.
Not surprisingly, Oe’s Nobel lecture is an inversion of Kawabata’s as well. Titled“Japan, The Ambiguous, and Myself,” Oe’s lecture highlighted the radicaltransformation of Japan in the post Second World War period and the profound
impact of personal events that “condense to form” his highly wrought literature.
Michiko Niikuni Wilson (2007) indicates that Oe “is one of the most impassioned
voices of conscience countering the country’s minimalist cultural tradition that puts
imagery and aesthetics of silence above social and political concerns”(Nobelprize.org).

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If Kawabata and Oe are paired as contrasts in terms of their literary aesthetics forhistorical or national representations, then Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2017 prize may be seen
as a synthesis of concerns shared by all of the Japanese-origin authors. Wilson’s
assessment of Oe—as an “impassioned voice of conscience”—reflects a legacy
equally embraced by Ishiguro.
Many years before the Swedish Academy honored this Japanese-born, Britisheducated writer for his resilient works about the human spirit, Ishiguro (2008) said, “Ifeel I am part of that generation for whom making something good out of your life,
morally good, was a very conscious thing” (Bigsby, p. 21). The Academy (2017)presented the award to Ishiguro “who, in novels of great emotional force, has
uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”(Nobelprize.org).
The Case for Conscious Empathy Cultivated by the Laureates
In Kawabata’s lecture, the focus is on what Oe (1994) later called “extremely esotericpoems in Japanese,” including one that Kawabata identified as “a poem of warm,
deep, delicate compassion, a poem that has in it the deep quiet of the Japanese spirit.”(Nobelprize.org). Indeed, Oe’s own delicate denunciation of Kawabata’s choice ishighlighted in the 1994 laureate’s sense that many worthy literary works are those inwhich the “whole world was then engulfed by waves of horror” (ibid). Oe
unabashedly remarks on “the inhuman atrocities committed by Japanese militaryforces in Asian countries” (ibid) in a determination to confront Japan’s imperial pastwith its national ambitions and destructions.
Despite these tonal differences in their Nobel speeches, Kawabata and Oe bringattention to how literature can—in Nobel’s criteria—bestow the greatest benefit on
mankind. To make the case, I would like to focus on the critical achievement of
Ishiguro’s work. In particular, I have spent over 20 years writing about Ishiguro’s life
and work, and I can attest to Ishiguro’s ability to create in his fiction characters andsituations that teach readers how to broaden intercultural understanding andcommunication.
We may discover in literary fiction ways to explore our human condition, recognize
suffering, and find ways to be allies to one another in times of change and instability.
I advocate for the teaching of Nobel authors in the literature classroom. I will thendiscuss how Ishiguro’s books create wider communities of kinship and induct readers
to bear witness to human experiences through literature.
First, recent research in cognitive and literary studies indicates that reading literature
is beneficial for intellectual growth and cultivation of compassion. In his article on
empathy and literature, Jonathan Gottschall (2012) states: “Fiction enhances ourability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts acrossreligious and political creeds.” Gottschall also refers to research by psychologist Dan
Johnson who finds that “[r]eading narrative fiction allows one to learn about oursocial world and as a result fosters [empathetic] growth and prosocial behavior” (qtd.
in Gottschall).

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David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano (2013) are scientists who explored how
reading literary fiction can increase our emotional capability and cognition: “Just as
in real life, the worlds of literary fiction are replete with complicated individuals
whose inner lives are rarely easily discerned but warrant exploration” (p. 379).
Julianne Chiaet (2013) notes that reading literary fiction teaches readers how to focus
on characterization, the story, and the situation. These literary skills aid inunderstanding “the psychology of characters and their relationships . . . [thereby
prompting] readers to imagine the characters’ introspective dialogues.”
Characterization gives us authentic portrayals of people in familiar or alienating
situations, while the story and situation provide the historical and geographicalcontexts for characters to inhabit and relate to self and others.
In teaching literary fiction for more than two decades at an urban university in the
United States, I have witnessed the profound effects of literature upon my students.
Readers of literary fiction examine the world in the book and contrast it with theirown; they judge the efficacy of choices under the conditions found in the stories; they
become engaged and responsible for their interpretations; and importantly, they
consciously become custodians of the knowledge gained from literature by sharing
the ideas in the book with others in discussions and in their written interpretations.
The literature by Nobel authors is especially valuable for introducing students to what
literary critic Matthew Arnold (1869) identified as a purpose of literary instruction:
we should seek to provide our students with “the best, which has been thought andsaid in the world.” Nobel laureates, by virtue of their lifetime achievements, certainly
meet these criteria.
I therefore advocate for literature teachers who conscientiously guide students
towards empathy in their reading of great works of literature. Readers want to frame
and understand current events; they are driven by a desire for knowledge of history,
and for ways of addressing a fearsome future. Studying literature—and particularly,
literary works by Nobel laureates---is inherently rewarding and can help readers
identify with and explore the ideas and experiences of other people from all over theworld. Ultimately, empathy is tied to a reader’s emotional response to issues most
relevant to their own lives.
As Ishiguro (2017) said in his Nobel lecture, “Stories can entertain, sometimes teachor argue a point. But for me the essential thing is that they communicate feelings.
That they appeal to what we share as human beings across our borders and divides”(Nobelprize.org). I would like to discuss how Ishiguro’s lifetime work is the kind ofliterature we should teach in our classes.
Kazuo Ishiguro, 2017 Laureate in Literature
Contemporary author Murakami Haruki is Japan’s most popular author, and he notes(2009): “Ishiguro is like a painter working on an immense painting. The massive,
sprawling sort of painting that might cover the ceiling or walls of a cathedral. It islonely work, which involves huge amounts of time, and vast stores of energy. A
lifetime job. Every few years, he completes a section of this painting and shows it tous” (p. viii).

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The first novel, A Pale View of Hills (1982) has widowed Etsuko now living in
England as she narrates a time right after the bombing of Nagasaki. Mourning thesuicide of her first daughter, Japanese-born Keiko, Etsuko finds a way to tell her
anguished story through the lives of another woman and her mysterious daughter
from the post-war period.
The second novel, An Artist of the Floating World (1987) has an elderly widower
Masuji Ono reflecting on his career as an artist, as a painter in fact. He unwittingly
reveals how his pre-war, pro-nationalistic paintings may now jeopardize hisdaughter’s marriage prospects a few years after the defeat of Japan in the Second
World War.
The third, The Remains of the Day (1989) is Ishiguro’s best-known and beloved
novel. Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize, it tells the story of an ageing butler
named Stevens who simultaneously regrets and feels ashamed of his life’s
commitment to a fascist loyalist named Lord Darlington between the world wars.
Ishiguro (2008) said of these works written in his 20s and 30s: “In the first threenovels, I was rewriting the same thing. I was on the same piece of territory, and eachtime I was refining what I wanted to say. [These novels were] about how somebody
wasted his life in terms of his career. It’s about well-meaning but misguided efforts
to lead a good life” (Wong & Crummett, p. 208).
The Unconsoled (1995) represents Ishiguro’s most radical departure to date fromwhat many had regarded as the understated, eloquent, and even tranquil earlynarratives. The musician Ryder is found in disarray and defies the laws of physics inmany of his meanderings around the unnamed European city. Called “Kafkaesque”
by critics, this novel’s explorations tested the limits of Ishiguro’s artistic
development. Ishiguro (2008) said, “I was really interested in figuring out this kindof dream writing and a ‘dream grammar’ ” (Wong and Crummett, p. 209).
When We Were Orphans (2000) is about a renowned London detective named
Christopher who tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of his parents from when
he was a child. Ishiguro returned to some of his realist modes, but the novel’s manynightmarish episodes also cast it as one of the saddest of all his novels. Ishiguro said
(2001), “Perhaps there is something about Christopher discovering that here’s a man
who thought he was fighting evil, and then he comes to discover that he benefitted
from this evil” (Wong and Crummett, p. 185).
Never Let Me Go (2005) ushered in a new generation of Ishiguro readers who
followed the dystopic world of Kathy H. and her friends growing up in their beloved
and fabled school called Hailsham. Musician Stacey Kent said, “This book broke myheart and left me raw for weeks” (Jacques). Ishiguro (2008) said, “Although it’s astory about mortality, I wanted it to be a quite positive story” (Wong and Crummett,p. 220).
Ishiguro on his only short story collection to date, Nocturnes: “I feel I made a natural
evolution from writing songs to novels [and here] you get five of what seem liketotally separate pieces of music but they go together” (Aitkenhead, 2009). More thandesiring to be a writer, Ishiguro’s first artistic endeavor was playing music.

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Ishiguro returned to my home city of Denver in 2015 (his prior visit was in 1995) toread from The Buried Giant at our university campus. The story is set in pre-Medieval
times and has an elderly couple leave their village in search of their son. There areknights, pixies, a dragon, and some combative monks in a monastery. Ishiguro(2015) wondered about his latest: “Will readers follow me into this? Will they
understand what I’m trying to do, or will they be prejudiced against the surface
elements?” (Alter).
Now, I would like to summarize a critical review of Ishiguro’s work to show that itsupports the Nobel prize assessment for how his books bestow the greatest benefit to
mankind.
Sebastian Groes and Barry Lewis (2011) identify an important element they call
Ishiguro’s “ethics of empathy” as his ability to “make us care about the world, aboutother people, about ourselves” (p. 2). And they comment, “What is also distinctive
about reading Ishiguro’s work is that it creates the sense that we are absorbed into awider community that crosses geographical and linguistics barriers to stretch acrossthe globe and through time” (p. 2).
Ishiguro’s contemporary, Murakami Haruki remarked (2009): “In all my years ofreading Ishiguro, he has never disappointed me or left me doubting him. All I feel isdeep admiration for the infallible skill with which he has piled all these different
worlds on top of one another” (p. viii).
Conclusion
After the Swedish Academy announced the 2017 Literature Prize to Ishiguro, theUnited States newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, asked me to comment and I
observed: “Ishiguro’s lifetime work is significant for its mastery of narrative voice
and deeply emotional subjects such as healing from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki,
remorse for serving fascist loyalists, and futile fights against industrialists that control
human lives. Ishiguro’s ability to evoke empathy is unparalleled in contemporary
fiction” (Gamerman and Gross, 2017).
The online news source, The Conversation, asked me to write an article, “The‘inevitable sadness’ of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fiction” and I highlighted Ishiguro’s
conscious empathy in all of his fiction: “Ishiguro is a gracious guardian of humanity.
He is a fine curator of emotions and a skilled storyteller. We don’t know how many
more books Ishiguro will publish. But we can be certain that in his literary
explorations he will remain undaunted” (Wong, 2017).
We can look forward to new literature laureates from all over the world who willbring their insights and urge readers towards more empathetic connections with one
another.

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References
Aitkenhead, Decca (2009). Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘I was quite ready for something thatwould be quite difficult for me to write.’ The Guardian. Retrieved fromhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/27/kazuo-ishiguro-interview-books
Alter, Alexandra (2015). For Kazuo Ishiguro, ‘The Buried Giant’ is a Departure. The
New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/books/forkazuo-ishiguro-the-buried-giant-is-a-departure.html?_r=0
Arnold, Matthew (1869). Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social
Criticism. Oxford, Project Gutenberg, pdf file.
Bigsby, Christopher (2008). In Conversation with Kazuo Ishiguro. In B. S. Shaffer &C. F. Wong (Eds.), Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro (pp. 15-26). Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi.
Chiaet, Julianne (2013). Novel Finding: Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy.
Scientific American, 4 October. Retrieved fromhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fictionimproves-empathy/
Espmark, Kjell (2001). Nobel’s Will and the Literature Prize. In A.Wallin Levinovitz& N. Rngertz. London: Imperial College Press. Retrieved from Nobelprize.org.
Gamerman, Ellen and Jenny Gross (2017). Author Kazuo Ishiguro’s Quiet Power
Claims the Nobel. The Wall Street Journal, 5 October. Retrieved fromhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/author-kazuo-ishiguros-quiet-power-claims-the-nobel1507239753
Gottschall, Jonathan (2012). Why Fiction is Good for You.” Dallas News, 25 May.
Retrieved fromhttps://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2012/05/25/jonathan-gottschallwhy-fiction-is-good-for-you
Groes, Sebastian and Barry Lewis (2011). Introduction: ‘It’s Good Manners, Really’:
Kazuo Ishiguro and the Ethics of Empathy. In S. Groes & B. Lewis (Eds.), Kazuo
Ishiguro: New Critical Visions of the Novels. London: Palgrave Macmillian, 1-10.
Ishiguro, Kazuo (1982). A Pale View of Hills. New York: Vintage International.
---. (1987). An Artist of the Floating World. London: Faber and Faber.
---. (2017). My Twentieth Century Evening—and Other Small Breakthroughs. Nobel
lecture. Retrieved from Nobelprize.org.
---. (2005). Never Let Me Go. London: Faber and Faber.
---. (2009). Nocturnes. London: Faber & Faber.
---. (2015). The Buried Giant. London: Faber & Faber.
---. (1993). The Remains of the Day. London: Faber and Faber.
---. (1995). The Unconsoled. London: Faber and Faber.
---. (2000). When We Were Orphans. London: Faber and Faber.

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Jacques, Adam (2013). How We Met: Stacey Kent and Kazuo Ishiguro.” The
Independent, 21 September. Retrieved fromhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/how-we-met-stacey-kent-kazuoishiguro-8826373.html
Kawabata, Yasunari (1968). Japan, the Beautiful and Myself. Nobel Lecture,
Retrieved from Nobelprize.org.
Kidd, David Comer & Emanuele Castano (2013). Reading Literary Fiction Improves
Theory of Mind.” Science, 6156, 377-380.
Murakami, Haruki (2009). On Having a Contemporary Like Kazuo Ishiguro. T.
Goossen (Trans.) In S. Matthews & S. Groes (Eds.), Kazuo Ishiguro: Contemporary
Critical Perspectives. London: Continuum, 2009, vii-viii.
Oe, Kenzaburo (1994). Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself. Nobel Lecture. Retrieved
from Nobelprize.org.
Wilson, Michiko Niikuni (2007). Kenzaburo Oe: Laughing Prophet and Soulful
Healer. Retrieved from Nobelprize.org.
Wong, Cynthia F. (2017). The ‘inevitable sadness’ of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fiction. The
Conversation, 6 October. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-inevitablesadness-of-kazuo-ishiguros-fiction-85299---. (2001) ‘Like Idealism is to the Intellect’: An Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro.
Clio, 3, 309-325. Also in B. S. Shaffer & C. F. Wong (2008, Eds.), Conversations
with Kazuo Ishiguro (pp. 174-188). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Wong, Cynthia F. and Grace Crummett. (2008). A Conversation about Life and Art
with Kazuo Ishiguro. In B. S. Shaffer & C. F. Wong (Eds.), Conversations with
Kazuo Ishiguro (pp. 204-220). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

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A Study on the Mutual Similarity between Japanese and Chinese for Simultaneous
Learning
Yuji Obataya, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
This study investigated the graphic resemblance of Chinese ideograms between
Japanese and Chinese by creating a database of 1078 kanji (Chinese ideograms inJapanese) extracted from the two volumes of the Japanese grammar textbook, Minnano Nihongo (Second Edition, French version, 2013[I], 2015[II]) used in our faculty. It
also applied the levels of language proficiency tests: Japanese-Language Proficiency
Test (henceforth JLPT) and Chinese Proficiency Test (henceforth HSK). The aim ofestablishing the database was (1) to encourage students who study Japanese andChinese simultaneously to learn kanji and Chinese characters by realizing thecommonality and resemblance in shape and, (2) to provide with an elaborated list of
Chinese ideograms that are most used in Japanese and Chinese. Firstly, the database
showed that the textbook comprehensively covered the number of kanji, which
included 100% of the kanji in Levels 4 and 5 of JLPT as well as 70% in Levels 1 and
2 and 60% in Level 3 of HSK. Secondly, it was found that 71% of the ideograms are
identical, albeit with slight variations, between the two languages. This high rate ofgraphic resemblance will clearly help them reduce the fear of interference of learningthese two East Asian languages simultaneously. For the further study, however, ananalysis of phonetic and semantic resemblance, particularly false friends, should be
required.
Keywords: Asian languages, Japanese, Chinese, logographic, simultaneous learning

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Japanese and Chinese study programs were initially part of the Department of
Mediterranean, Slavonic and Oriental Languages and Literatures at the University ofGeneva. In 2011, they became independent after the creation of the Department of
East Asian Studies with full programs in Japanese and Chinese studies and a partial
program in Korean studies. They are now recognized as some of the mostcomprehensive East Asian study programs in the French-speaking world.
The Department follows the Bologna system, meaning that the BA curriculum can becompleted in three years and the MA curriculum in two additional years. The faculty
also accepts Ph.D. students. Although most courses are taught in French, students are
expected to have a good command of Japanese and Chinese at the BA advanced level
and, more particularly, at the MA level when they start the program. The department
provides a full-fledged polyvalent program that enables graduates to explore manifold
fields in Japanology and Sinology, from ancient classics to Internet literature1.
Another characteristic of the programs is that students choose two majors for thebachelor’s degree. Many of them take two Asian languages as their primary subjects
because of their interest toward East Asian languages. According to a survey of 92
students on the programs conducted in 20122, students experienced difficulties insimultaneously learning Japanese and Chinese without any prior knowledge of them,although this has not precluded a number of students from choosing Japanese andChinese as their main subjects even today (on average, about 20 % of the students
choose Japanese and Chinese from 2010 to 2016).
One of the difficulties, for students, in learning these two languages at the same timeis the complexity of Chinese ideograms used both in Japanese and Chinese. For
example, Chinese ideograms used in Japanese are called kanji and some of them are
different in shape, meaning and pronunciation from the simplified Chinese characters.
This is because the Japanese method of simplification is different from the one inChina (Yoshida, 2014, p.19). This may cause great confusion for the simultaneous
learners, particularly complete beginners, and disturbs their learning of ideograms.
Therefore, this study aims to support such students’ effective learning by building a
database which identifies the commonalities and differences between kanji andChinese characters. The database consists of all 1078 kanji appearing in the twovolumes of the Japanese grammar textbook, which the faculty adopts for instruction.
Furthermore, the database also applies the levels of Japanese-Language Proficiency
Tests (JLPT in Japanese Nihongo Nôryoku Shiken)3 and Chinese Proficiency Test
(HSK in Chinese Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi)4 in order to meet the current needs of thestudents who wish to acquire the certificates of these exams. Along with the increaseof the candidates, it is considered as necessary to apply the the levels of these tests
into our database.

1

Berger C., & Obataya Y. (2014), p.150 (partially modified).
Berger C., & Obataya Y. (2014).
3
The JLPT consists of five levels from JLPT N5, the easiest, to JLPT N1, the most difficult.
4
The HSK consists of six levels from HSK1, the easiest, to HSK6, the most difficult.
2

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It is hoped that this study may be useful not only for our students, but also for
simultaneous Japanese and Chinese learners in non-kanji areas. For instance, it can beeffective for beginner Chinese learners who have prior knowledge of Japanese5.
Previous studies
There are a few existing studies on the similarities between Japanese and Chinese
words and characters. Although the overview of the preceding studies is well
explained in Yamada (2015) and Yoshida (2015), the latest research is Matsushita etal. (2017). They created an open-access database consisting of more than 10,000
parallel words found in these two languages, available online for anyone to download.
The main characteristic of this study is that this database is considered to be the latest
and largest in the field of comparative research on Japanese and Chinese languages.
Due to the characteristic of the gigantic database, the data utilized in Matsushita at al.
(2017) covers broad types of sources: the data does not focus on the pedagogicalsources such as textbooks and language proficiency tests. In this study, I attempted toestablish a database by using one of the most popular Japanese language textbooks,
Minna no Nihongo 1 and 2, for data references. It is widely used by various schools
and universities all over the world and has already been translated into 15 languages.
Several European universities use Volume 1 for the first-year and Volume 2 for thesecond-year college curricula. The latest editions were recently published: the first
volume of the French version was printed in 2013 and the second volume in 2015.
Furthermore, the new evaluation criteria of Japanese and Chinese language
proficiency tests, JLPT (renewed in 2010) and HSK (renewed in 2009) are also
applied in the database.
Another difference between Matsushita et al. (2017) and this research is the target ofdata. Whereas the former focuses on “parallel words” in terms of semantic
correspondence, the latter highlights “parallel characters” in terms of visual
resemblance6.
Another previous research related to this study is Berger & Obataya (2012; 2014)
concerning the survey analysis of 92 students on Japanese and Chinese studies
programs including the simultaneous language learning. According to the results, only
eleven student participants were complete beginners who had no knowledge of either
one of the languages they chose for major subjects. 47% of the participants preferred
to focus on only one foreign language. This shows the students’ struggle of learning
two unfamiliar languages at the same time, although it is almost impossible to solve it
due to the pedagogical system of the university in having to select two majors.
Considering the results from the previous research, this study aims to create aneffective learning material for students who must study Japanese and Chinese
simultaneously.

5

For this study, the author took the HSK exams and passed HSK 6 – the highest level in China as of2014.
6
My database also includes semantic comparison between Japanese and Chinese although it is out offocus in this study.

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Points of data analysis
Two points need to be clarified for this study. Firstly, it analyzes only the similarities
between kanji (Chinese ideograms in Japanese) and Simplified Chinese charactersand does not include Traditional Chinese characters. Although the latter type is stillused in Taiwan, the former type of characters has been the official type in themainland China since 1964. While some Traditional Chinese characters are identicalwith kanji, they are not included in our database this time because; (1) Simplified
Chinese characters are considered as “official” in China and, (2) it is too hard forstudents in the introductory level to learn Traditional Chinese characters7.
Secondly, the Japanese textbooks on which the database is based are written in the
Kyôkasho-tai (literally “textbook style”) font. This font is very similar to the kanjitaught in the classroom in Japan: kanji in the handwritten form. Handwritten kanji is
not always the same as typographical fonts used on the Internet, such as the Gothic-tai
or Minchô-tai.
Creating a Database
The number of kanji from Minna no Nihongo, a total of 1078, includes not only theones in the main sections but also in the section called “Information” at the end ofeach chapter. This can be compared to the total number of kanji required to acquire
for Japanese primary school students (1006) before entering junior high school8.

7

It would be possible to improve the usability of database by adding only the correspondence between
Traditional Chinese characters and kanji by categorizing in color for further study.
8
Cf. the site of JYL (Japanese for Young Learners) Project (http://www.kodomokotoba.info/booklet/basicsearch_booklet_04_05.html).

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Figure 1: Example of the database
The database consists of 20 components, [a] to [t] (see Figure 1), as follows;[a]: serial numbers (1-1078)[b]: chapters of Minna no Nihongo I (CH.1-25) and II (CH.26-50)[c]: serial numbers in [b].
[d]: kanji on Kyôkasho-tai font.
[e]: on’yomi (Chinese reading)9[f]: kun’yomi (Japanese reading)10[g]: basic meanings of kanji in English11[h]: JLPT levels12[i]: categories of visual resemblance between kanji and Chinese characters[j]: sub-categories[k]: additional information of the sub-categories[l]: the number of strokes of kanji[m]: the number of strokes of Chinese character[n]: kanji from the list in the guideline of Japanese teaching in the public junior highschool in China (marked with [○]) and kanji with visual difference (marked with[○*])[o]: Chinese characters on Simsun font[p]: Hanyu Pinyin (Official romanization system) of the Chinese characters
9These Chinese sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji are described by ‘h’, ‘w’, and ‘t’. ‘h’indicates Kan-on (‘Han sound’) ; ‘w’, Go-on (‘sound from the Wu region’) ; ‘t’, Tô-on (‘Tang sound’).
10
The column [e] and [f] contain only Jô-on and Jô-kun (on- and kun-reading in common use). These
reading are determined by reference to a dictionary, Shin Kango rin (Second Edition, Taishûkanshoten, 2011-2012).
11
For this information, I reference the Jisho.org.website.
12
For this level, I reference the Jisho.org website.

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Official Conference Proceedings[q]: HSK levels[r]: notes on (1) the reason of classification and (2) the representative example[s]: categories of semantic resemblance between kanji and Chinese characters13[t]: basic meanings of a Chinese character in English14
The basic information of kanji and their JLPT levels15 are included from columns [a]to [h], and [l] in the database whereas the one of Chinese characters is in the columns[m], [o], [p] and [t]. The HSK levels are specified in the column [q] according to thefirst four levels: HSK 1 to 4. A list established by my colleague, Professor Berger,
based on the official Chinese character list of HSK (2013 version) has been used forthis study.
Column [n] shows the visual difference between Japanese and Chinese cited fromanother list, published in the guideline of Japanese teaching in the public junior highschool in China16. This guideline contains a list of 511 Japanese kanji in common use(pp.63-78). The kanji in this list corresponding to the ones in our database aredescribed by [○] in column [n]. Additionally, this list draws a reader’s attention to thecases where the shape of the Japanese kanji and the Chinese character are different. If
a kanji is visually different from the Chinese character in the list, it is marked with[○*] in our database.

The columns [r] and [s] indicate a provisional analysis of the semantic similarity between two
languages13for further study.
14
For this information, I reference several sites like http://zidian.aies.cn/ (Xinhua cidian),
http://www.ichacha.net/ and https://cjjc.weblio.jp/ (Weblio Japanese-Chinese, Chinese - Japanesedictionary).
15
JLPT has two different lists; a word and a kanji list. For this study, the kanji list was used.
16
Basic education department of Ministry of Education in China (Eds.). (2002).

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Categorization of Kanji According to the Visual Resemblance
The breakdown of the database indicates that the textbooks contain 100% of the kanji
in Levels 4 and 5 of JLPT. Looking at HSK levels, it is found that 70% of them inLevel 1, 73% in Level 2 and 60% in Level 3 are also included in these textbooks (seeTable 1). This clearly proves the effectiveness of the Japanese textbooks for
simultaneous learners of Japanese and Chinese who wish to challenge JLPT and HSK
exams if they realize the similarities between kanji and Chinese characters.
Table 1: The Number of kanji covered in the textbooks (I and II)

The whole 1078 kanji in the database have been divided into four categories, that is,
A, B, C, and NS (abbreviation of “Not Similar”) (see Table 2). Category A signifies
that a kanji is completely identical to a Chinese character whereas Category B
represents the identification with slight variations. In Category C, a kanji and aChinese character are significantly different in shape, although there are somepatterns to recognizing the commonality between them. The last category, NS, has noresemblance.
Table 2: Four categories of kanji in the database

Category A (657 kanji: 61% of the total number of kanji in the database)
In Category A, consisting of four sub-categories, there are 657 kanji that sharedresemblance with Chinese characters, corresponding to 61% of this database. Amongthem, 17 Chinese characters had the same shape, although the number of strokes ineach differed. The representative parts of characters are the radical “kozatohen (阝)”(a “small village” radical on the left) (A2) and the radical “ôzato (阝)” (a “large
village” radical on the right) (A3). These radicals are written by three strokes in Japanbut two strokes in China. The sub-category A4 groups some other cases such as “庭”(niwa, meaning ‘a garden’), “姉” (ane, meaning ‘an older sister’) and “臣” (shin,meaning ‘a servant’).

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Category B (113 kanji: 10% of the total number of kanji in the database)
113 kanji classified into Category B are mostly the same in shape with slightvariations. This category has five sub-categories (B1-5). B1 includes eight kanji
whose parts are different between Japanese and Chinese. For example, Figure 2
shows the different direction of one stroke in a radical called “takekanmuri”, a“bamboo” radical.

Figure 2: B1 (8 kanji)
Figure 3 shows B2 containing 44 kanji. Here, even if the number of strokes is thesame, the shape is slightly different. For instance, the central vertical line of theeleventh kanji exceeds downward in Chinese.

Figure 3: B2 (extract of 44 kanji)
In B3, including five kanji, the beginning of a stroke order is different (see Figure 4).
The first stroke of the first kanji starts from left to right whereas the stroke order ofthe same character in Chinese is right to left.

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Figure 4: B3 (5 kanji)
The rest of the kanji in Category B were classified into the sub-categories of B4 and 5
according to the number of strokes. B4 groups the kanji whose number of strokes ismore than the one in Chinese characters. For instance, in the Figure 5, one dot is lessin the Chinese counterpart.

Figure 5: B4 (extract of 31 kanji)
The sub-category B5, on the contrary, includes the kanji whose number of strokes isless than in Chinese characters. For instance, in the third pair of counterparts in Figure
6, one more dot on the upper right is added in the Chinese character.

Figure 6 : B5 (extract of 17 kanji)

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Category B accounts for 10% of the database. This means that the total number ofkanji in Categories A and B occupy 71% of the whole. The similarity observed inthese two categories would be easy for beginners from non-kanji using countries torecognize, even if they have no previous experience of learning Chinese ideograms.
Such dominance of visual resemblance between kanji and Chinese characters surely
helps them study Chinese ideograms without confusion when learning two languages
simultaneously.
Category C (224 kanji: 21% of the total number of kanji in the database)Category C contains mainly 15 classifications of Simplified Chinese characters thathave significant differences from Japanese kanji. Even if they are quite different inshape, when one understands certain patterns of simplification in Chinese characters,
it is immediately visible that the pairs of characters are in the relation of a variant.
Since this category occupies 21% of the database, it would be important to thoroughly
teach the frequently occurring patterns of simplification; that is, 12 patterns from subcategories C1 to C12.
C1 (see Figure 7) and C2 (see Figure 8) feature Simplified Chinese characters that are
made by omitting a part (or parts) of an original character. C2 is a special case of C1
where one Chinese character includes the meaning of plural Japanese kanji bysimplification17.

Figure 7: C1 (extract of 28 kanji)

17

I added in this fig. two kanji (6th and 8th) classified in other categories to highlight the ambiguity ofChinese characters in this sub-category.

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Figure 8: C2 (7 kanji)
From C3 to C12 (see Figures 9 and 10), there are cases where only a radical or afragment of a character is simplified and categorized by the same type, like “itohen(糸) (a ‘thread’ radical on the left in C3)”, “kai or kaihen (貝) (a ‘shell’ radical in
C4) ”, “ôgai (頁) (a ‘big shell’ radical in C5) ” or “gonben (言) (a ‘speak’ radical on
the left in C6) ”.

Figure 9: C3-C12 (extract of 118 kanji; C3 = 26, C4 = 25, C5 = 7, C6 = 22, C7 = 9,C8 = 8, C9 = 7, C10 = 5, C11 = 5, C12 = 4 kanji)
C13 includes other patterns that cannot be organized into any of the other subcategories (see Figure 10). I extracted cases with the same number of strokes for both
Japanese and Chinese characters for C14, and for C15, instances where the number ofstrokes in Japanese are less than Chinese (see Figure 11). Due to simplification,
Chinese characters usually use fewer strokes than most Japanese kanji. However, inthe six characters in C15, Chinese characters feature more strokes than their Japanesecounterparts.

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Figure 10: C13 (extract of 58 kanji)

Figure 11: C14 (5 kanji) and C15 (6 kanji)
Category NS (80 kanji: 7% of the total number of kanji in the database)Category NS, consisting of seven sub-categories, contains two Japanese original
characters (NS1, see Figure 12). In this category, there are numerous cases ofdifferences between Japanese kanji and Chinese characters, like in the sub-category
NS2 (Figure 12), making it difficult for beginners to detect variant relation at a
glance. Some characters could be paired (NS4, see Figure 13 at the right column) but
it was difficult to find other effective types of pairs. Therefore, they were classified by
the difference in the number of strokes (NS3, see Figure 13 at the left column).

Figure 12: NS 1 and 2

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Figure 13: NS3 and 4 (extract of 29 kanji)
Pedagogical effectiveness of the database by using the levels of JLPT and HSKThis study also applied the levels of two language proficiency tests, JLPT and HSK.
The purpose of this application was to identify the order of priority of each characterfor supporting students’ effective learning of Chinese ideograms that frequently
appear in both Japanese and Chinese as well as for the preparation of these exams. In
Figure 14, characters are organized in order of priority by using (1) HSK levels, (2)
JLPT levels, and (3) a kanji list established in the guidelines for Japanese teaching in
Chinese public junior high schools 18. When choosing representative examples, I
omitted Chinese ideograms whose levels of difficulty are higher than Level 4 of HSK
for pedagogical reason. This means that the characters at a higher position in thisfigure are more frequent thus, more important for students in learning these two
languages. This makes it more efficient for them to learn two types of Chinese
ideograms (kanji and Chinese characters) from the list in a top-to-bottom order. It also
encourages them to effectively and practically learn Chinese ideograms for the exams
due to the fact that the list is ordered according to the JLPT and HSK levels.

18

Cf. previous note 11.

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Figure 14 : A list of kanji in order of priority for learning
Conclusion
To conclude, this study established a database by applying JLPT and HSK levels to
successfully create a compact study material that students can use for efficient andeffective learning of Chinese and Japanese simultaneously. A series of patterns
extracted from the database would be easy to remember, one page at a time. It also
makes learners less afraid of confusing kanji and Chinese characters by providingthem with a detailed list of Chinese ideograms that are common to both languages.
This study should be supported by further analysis of semantic and phonetic
resemblance (especially, analysis of false friends). Although I have already conducteda provisional analysis in this aspect with this database, it is found that the semantic
domain is more complex than the formal domain. It is, therefore, necessary to further
enhance the accuracy of the classification method that is based on similarity.
Apart from the initial goal of supporting our students, the database may be beneficial
for other types of language learners, such as students who are complete beginners in
Chinese with some knowledge of Japanese language. It could also pave the way to thecreation of a handbook about the Chinese ideograms that are most frequently used inboth Japanese and Chinese.
Although it has been proven that the database in this study could be the usefulmaterial for students who learn two different East Asian languages simultaneously, it
is still necessary to reconsider the role of language teachers in this Internet era ofaccelerated change. In cyberspace, we have access to comprehensive information,such as the database of kanji and Chinese characters introduced in this paper. Facing
information overload, however; it may be difficult to identify the useful and importantdata in relation to the purposes of learning these languages. The role of teachers,

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therefore, should be to help students obtain the useful data extracted from gigantic
data and to instruct them on how to practically and effectively use it in their learning.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special gratitude to Pierre François Souyri, Professor
Emeritus at University of Geneva, for allowing me to be in charge of all the modulesof kanji. Without his help, it was impossible to collect the data for this study. I am
also immensely grateful to David-Anthony Gordon and Ayako Shibata for theircomments on an earlier version of the manuscript for improvement.

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References
Berger, C., & Obataya, Y. (2012). Simultaneously Learning Chinese and Japanese as
Third Languages: Synergy or Futility? The Teaching of Asian Languages in the 21stCentury, II. Paper Presentation at the International Symposium on Asian Languages
and Literatures, Kayseri, Turkey.
Berger, C., & Obataya, Y. (2014), Simultaneously Learning Chinese and Japanese as
Third Languages: Synergy or Futility?, In Ali Küçükler and Hüseyin İçen (Eds.), The
Studies on the Teaching of Asian Languages in the 21st Century (pp. 149-168).
Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Kawaguchi, S. (2010). Yôroppa ni okeru kanji no kyôiku to gakushû: jiritsu gakushû
no kanôsei (Teaching and Learning of Chinese character in Europe – Possibility of
autonomous learning). Journal of Japanese as a Second Language Kanji ResearchGroup, 2, 52-58.
Matsushita, T., Chen, M.X., Wang, X.Z., & Chen, L.K. (2017), “Database of Japanese
Kanji Vocabulary in Contrast to Chinese (JKVC)”, (Version 1.00, published： 24th
November 2017), http://www17408ui.sakura.ne.jp/tatsum/database.html#cvd(accessed 22, 04, 2018)
Matsushita, T., Chen, M.X., Wang, X.Z., & Chen, L.K. (2017). Development andApplication of the Database of Japanese Kanji Vocabulary in Contrast to Chinese(Nicchû taishô kanjigo dêtabêsu no kaihatsu to ôyô). The Proceedings of The Society
for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (autumn session, 2017).
http://www17408ui.sakura.ne.jp/tatsum/%E6%9D%BE%E4%B8%8B%E3%83%BB%E9%99%B3%E3%83%BB%E7%8E%8B%E3%83%BB%E9%99%B3_2017.pdf
Yamada K. (2015). An overview of the history of kanji education research inJapanese education (Nihongo kyôiku ni okeru kanji kyôiku kenkyû no rekishi o gaikan
shite). In Contrastive studies of Japanese and Chinese and Studies on kanji inJapanese language education editorial committee (Ed.), Contrastive studies ofJapanese and Chinese and Studies on kanji education resarch in Japanese language
education (Nihongo kyôiku niokeru nicchû taishô kenkyû, kanji kyôiku kenkyû) (pp.
455-495). Tokyo : Surugadai shuppansha,
Yoshida M. (2015). Teaching Japanese kanji to Chinese Learners of Japanese(Chûgokujin nihongo gakushûsha e no nihon kanji no shidô). In Contrastive studies ofJapanese and Chinese and Studies on kanji in Japanese language education editorialcommittee (Ed.), Contrastive studies of Japanese and Chinese and Studies on kanji
education resarch in Japanese language education (Nihongo kyôiku niokeru nicchû
taishô kenkyû, kanji kyôiku kenkyû) (pp. 497-515). Tokyo : Surugadai shuppansha.
Yoshida, M. (2014). Comparison of Chinese character teaching between Japan and
China – notes in Chinese character teaching (Nicchû kanji kyôiku hikaku: kanji shidôni okeru chûiten). Journal of Japanese as a Second Language Kanji Research Group,6, 18-24.

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References for data
3A Network (Eds.), (2013). Minna no Nihongo, Book 1 Translation & Grammatical
Notes, French version. (2nd ed.). Tokyo: 3A Network.
3A Network (Eds.), (2015). Minna no Nihongo, Book 2 Translation & Grammatical
Notes, French version. (2nd ed.). Tokyo: 3A Network.
Basic education department of Ministry of Education in China (Eds.). (2002), “全日制义务教育日语课程标准解读实验稿” (Full-time compulsory education standards
for Japanese language course (draft)), Beijing Normal University Publishing Group.
The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute (Eds.), (2002). The translation of“Full-time compulsory education standards for Japanese language course (draft) “(全日制义务教育日语课程标准解读实验稿 ／全日制義務教育日語課程標準（実験稿）Zennichisei gimukyôiku nichigo katei hyôjun (jikken kô)” Site fordownload:(https://www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&u
act=8&ved=0ahUKEwjBqfPyps3aAhVO46QKHWuTAy0QFgg8MAM&url=https%3
A%2F%2Fwww.jpf.go.jp%2Fj%2Fproject%2Fjapanese%2Fsurvey%2Farea%2Fcoun
try%2Fsyllabus%2Fpdf%2Fsy_honyaku_4china.pdf&usg=AOvVaw05ko_fKDtgoCerq3p-xmB) (accessed 22 April 2018)
Contact email: Yuji.Obataya@unige.ch

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The Implementation of Peer Instruction in Mathematics and Physics Lectures
Tomoshige Kudo, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Hidetaka Yamaoka, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Tetsuya Taniguchi, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Makoto Nishi, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Akiomi Mishima, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
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Abstract
Peer Instruction (PI) is getting much more attention as one of the interactive teachinglearning methods. There are many practical reports of PI in physics, but inmathematics, there are few. Multiple-choice conceptual question, ``concept test'' is a
key part of PI. As a trial, we made over one hundred concept tests in mathematics,
and delivered PI lectures in mathematics as well as in physics at the university. The
subjects were calculus I, calculus II, linear algebra I, linear algebra II, probability
statistics, and introductory physics. From first semester in the 2016 academic year to
first semester in the 2017 academic year, total number of PI lectures in mathematics
was 29 and that in physics was 4. Also, we conducted the quantitative survey for the
students before and after PI lectures. As a result, the favorable rating for physics ofthe students increased from 49 % to 69 %, and the rating for mathematics increased
from 49 % to 61 % in physics. Unfavorable rating for physics of the students
decreased to 12 %, and the rating for mathematics decreased to 8 %. We collected thedata of clickers before and after peer discussion as we consider the histogram ofclickers’ responses for the concept test helps the teacher to check the level ofstudents’ understanding. It is important for us to analyze which unit or concept thestudents are good at or not, because such data give us a great hint to improve ourlectures and the concept tests.
Keywords: Peer Instruction, Concept Test, Mathematics, Physics, Interactive
Teaching-Learning Methods, Clicker

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Introduction
In Peer Instruction (PI) lecture (Mazur E. 1997), a teacher gives a multiple-choice
conceptual question, ''concept test'' to the students, and the students immediately
respond the concept test by using audience response system, ''clicker''. After responses,
all the students discuss the reasons why they chose their answers with each other for a
few minutes. By repetition of such as “peer discussions”, students not only absorb
knowledge but also learn to think about their concepts more deeply, and thus theabilities of logical thinking will be nourished inside them. Moreover, PI lecture helps
teacher to check whole students’ understanding level with a histogram of their
responses provided by clickers, and it helps the teacher to deliver a lecture adjusting
to the students’ understanding level efficiently. Also PI lecture has an advantage that
one teacher suffices to deliver a lecture even if the students’ number is beyond 100.
Although there are many cases of delivering PI lectures in physics (Kudo T. 2017),
there are not many examples in mathematics. Therefore, we had to make the concept
tests for delivering a PI lecture in mathematics. As a trial, we made over one hundred
tests, and delivered PI lectures in mathematics as well as in physics at the university.
In the paper, we show the examples of concept tests in mathematics and the variationin the accuracy rate before and after peer discussions in PI lectures in mathematics
and physics.
Implementation of Peer Instruction
We delivered PI lectures in mathematics and physics at our university from firstsemester in the 2016 academic year to first semester in the 2017 academic year. Total
number of PI lectures was 29 in mathematics, and it was 4 in physics. The subjects
were calculus I (Yamaoka H. 2018), calculus II, linear algebra I, linear algebra II,probability statistics (Taniguchi T. 2017; Taniguchi T. 2018), and introductory
physics (Kudo T.).
The procedures for delivering a PI lecture are follows:(1) Teacher gives concept test to students in the lecture.
(2) Students response the concept test by using clickers.
(3) Histogram of students’ responses provided by clickers is displayed on the screen.
(4) All the students discuss their responses with each other for a few minutes.
(5) Students response the concept test by using clickers, again.
(6) Teacher provides correct answer to the concept test and adds the explanation.
The key part of PI is the concept test for a peer discussion. We tried making theconcept tests so as to lead accuracy rate of the students to achieve from 50% to 70%
before having the peer discussion to make efficient and effective discussion. Thus, wemade the concept tests intentionally to lead the students to choose wrong answers. If
the accuracy rate on the tests before peer discussion is too low, the accuracy rate after
discussion is hardly increased. In that case, the peer discussion becomes not effective.
If the accuracy rate before the discussion is too high, peer discussion becomes almost
unnecessary. When the students could not conduct an active discussion, a randomly
selected student acted as facilitator for each group discussion. The facilitator has arole to ask the other students the numbers for the responses they chose and the reasons
why they chose them, and to lead the other students to communicate with each other

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smoothly in the group. By rotating the facilitator role each time, even the student who
is not accustomed to having a group discussion became less hesitant to speak
gradually.
It is noted that after delivering a lecture using black board and PowerPoint, theteacher walks around the class to check how the students are practicing problems. All
that time, the teacher answers questions from the students, and the students
themselves teach each other the solutions.
Concept Tests in Mathematics
We show the examples of concept tests in mathematics and the variations in accuracy
rates provided by the students using clickers before and after peer discussion.

Number1
2
3
4

BeforeAfter
discussion discussion
32%
5%
14%
0%
45%
95%
9%
0%

Figure 1: Concept test in calculus lecture and the students’ response rates
Figures 1 and 2 show the examples of concept tests in calculus lecture. In figs 1-4, theright- hand tables show the students’ response rates of using clickers before and after
peer discussion where the accuracy rates are shown in bold. Figure 1 shows theconcept test in indefinite integral. The number of the solutions for indefinite integral
is infinite, and thus the correct answer is number 3. To get the correct answer, it isneeded for the students to understand the distinction between indefinite integral anddefinite integral, and to image these graphs of solutions. The accuracy rates before
and after peer discussion were 45 % and 95 %, respectively. The rate of the students
chose wrong answer (answer choice 1) was 32 % before discussion, and it decreased
to 5 % after the discussion. Here the teacher did not interrupt in peer discussion.

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Number1
2
3
4
5

BeforeAfter
discussion discussion
19%
4%
11%
2%
57%
91%
11%
2%
2%
0%

Figure 2: Concept test in calculus lecture and the students’ response rates
Figure 2 shows the concept test in definite integral. The accuracy rates (correct
answer is number 3) were 57 % and 91 % before and after peer discussion,respectively. It is needed for the students to image the shapes of cosine functions, ‘‘2
cos x ’’ and ‘‘ cos 2 x ’’ in answer choices, and to consider the ranges of integration .
There is no need to calculate definite integrals, directly.

Number1
2
3
4
5

BeforeAfter
discussion discussion
9%
2%
26%
15%
6%
2%
11%
2%
49%
79%

Figure 3: Concept test in linear algebra lecture and the students’ response rates
Figures 3 and 4 show the examples of concept tests in linear algebra lecture. Figure 3
is used in the concept test to check whether the students deeply understand adefinition of an equation of a line or not. Even if the students cannot remember thedefinition of equation of a line, they can get a correct answer by considering the ratiosof the given equations. The accuracy rates (correct answer is number 5) were 49 %and 79 % before and after peer discussion, respectively.

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Number1
2
3
4
56

BeforeAfter
discussion discussion
4%
0%
51%
36%
4%
0%
2%
2%
32%
60%
6%
2%

Figure 4: Concept test in linear algebra lecture and the students’ response rates
Figure 4 shows a concept test describes flipping figure with respect to the straight line.
The accuracy rates (correct answer is number 5) were 32 % and 60 % before and after
peer discussion, respectively. It might be difficult for the students to image themovement of the figure with the shape. The rates of the students chose wrong answer(answer choice 2) were 51 % and 36 % before and after peer discussion, respectively.
Here, answer choice 2 describes figure’s rotation through 180 degrees. In the lecture,
we covered the movements of a point, but the movements of a figure with the shapewere not covered. In order to get the correct answer, the students need to image themovement of a total face as the eyes move in conjunction with mouse movements. In
PI lecture, teacher can give additional explanations to the students by checking theirlevel of understanding.
Accuracy Rates Before and After Peer Discussion
The accuracy rates before and after peer discussion is very useful for teachers not
only to check the students’ level of understanding but also to analyze the factors inmathematics and physics. Figure 5 shows the examples of the accuracy rates before
and after peer discussion in PI lectures in linear algebra I, calculus II, and physics. In
fig. 5 circles are drawn around the data of the concept tests in figs. 1-4.

Figure 5: Examples of accuracy rates before and after peer discussion

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If the accuracy rate before peer discussion is too low, the students cannot conduct aneffective discussion. If the accuracy rate before peer discussion is too high, there is noneed to have a discussion. It seems like the students had effective discussions for theconcept tests in figs. 1-3. After PI lecture of physics in first semester in the 2017
academic year, the favorable rating for physics of the students increased from 49 % to69 %, and the rating for mathematics increased from 49 % to 61 %. The unfavorable
rating for physics of the students decreased to 12 %, and the rating for mathematics
decreased to 8 %. In PI lectures, the students seemed to discuss each other with fun.
Conclusion
We made over one hundred concept tests in mathematics, and delivered PI lectures at
the university. We showed the examples of concept tests in mathematics (e.g. calculus
and linear algebra) and the students’ response rates by clickers in PI lectures. Those
rates help teacher to check all the students’ level of understanding and to deliverlectures more effectively. The students seemed to have peer discussions with fun in PI
lectures. After delivering PI lecture in physics, the favorable ratings for mathematicsof the students as well as for physics are increased.
As a future assignment, we will reveal the factors of students’ weak and strong points
by analyzing the factors for mathematics and physics in fig. 5. Furthermore, we will
modify the concept tests and deliver effective PI lectures.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K01096.

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References
Mazur E. (1997). Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual. Englewood Cliffs NJ: PrenticeHall.
Kudo T., Nishi M., & Mishima A. (2017). Implementation of Peer-instruction in
Physics Lecture - Deep learning based on Peer Discussion -. KIT Progress, 25, 119126.
Taniguchi T., Nishi M., Kudo T., & Yamaoka H. (2017). Practice and teaching effectof peer instruction in mathematics. KIT Progress, 25, 127-133.
Yamaoka H., Taniguchi S., Nishi M., Kudo T., & Taniguchi T. (2018). Effect of deeplearning utilizing mathematical concept questions –Practice of calculus introducing
the peer instruction-, KIT Progress, 26, 119-128.
Taniguchi T., Taniguchi S., Nishi M., Yamaoka H., & Kudo T. (2018). Utilization ofmathematical concept questions and analysis of deep learning in introduction tostatistics lecture, KIT Progress, 26, 329-337.
Contact email: kudo@neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp

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A Symbolic Interactionist Study on Blended Learning in Hong Kong
Shui Kau Chiu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
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Abstract
Information and communication technology, such as computer, has been widelyadopted in teaching and learning activities as a way of supplementing withconventional one-way pedagogy. The mixture of lecturing and activities mediatedwith information and communication technology is usually referred as blended
learning. However, there are considerations on rationale behind its adoption inenhancing students’ learning desires. Some support using blended learning to meet
students’ learning needs. On the contrary, under competitive nature of knowledge
society, others may cast doubt on its effectiveness when students put emphasis on
acquiring qualifications and ignoring essence of education. In a sense, the discussion
is about how and why students perceive blended learning in that manner. By
understanding how the perception is mediated, educationalists can incorporate themechanism when designing teaching and learning activities. As symbolic
interactionism is one of the theories in understanding how one perceive surroundings,
this paper borrows the theory and probes into how university students perceive
blended learning and the way in shaping their perceptions. Through semi-structured
interview as a case study on undergraduate student in Hong Kong, this paper argues
that student may not perceive ICT as a medium to experience learning. Perception
towards blended learning can be mediated by the social desirable behaviours amongpeople with whom he is interacting with. This paper calls forth educationists to takestudents’ surrounding social environment into consideration before rationalizing andeffectively enhancing an adoption of blended learning.
Keywords: Symbolic interactionism, blended learning,communication technology, higher education, Hong Kong.

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Introduction
Information and communication technology has widely shaped our society in many
areas, including education. With an adoption of information and communication
technology, blended learning has aroused aimed at enhancing students’ learning
experiences. Many previous studies link blended learning with students’ learning
outcome but fail in addressing how students perceive it as pedagogy. Besides,
symbolic interactionism is rarely applied on this research area. This case study thus
looks into the areas and fill in the gaps. By adopting symbolic interactionism, thispaper probes into how university student in Hong Kong perceive blended learning. In
the following sections, past literature will be reviewed first. Significance of this casestudy and methodology will then be explained. Analysis and discussions of this casestudy will be presented then. Before drawing a conclusion, contribution of this casestudy will be stated.
Literature reviews
This session is going to briefly review over previous literature on blended learningand introduce symbolic interactionism.
Blended learning can be defined as “combine face-to-face instruction withcomputer-mediated instruction” (Graham, 2006, p. 5). Güzer and Caner (2014)provided one of the simple and organized overviews on the flooding literatures of
blended learning. There are at least three different phrases of researching blended
learning, namely “first attempt”, “definition period” and “popularity period” (Güzer &Caner, 2014, pp. 4597-4601).
“First attempt” was roughly around 1999 to 2002. This period marks an emerging of
blended learning. According to Güzer and Caner (2014), Cooney et al. (2000) was oneof the pioneers in researching BL by looking at the effect of designed activities onchildren in child care center by mixing two different factors, play and work, together.
Their study laid a foundation for thereafter researches on BL (Güzer & Caner, 2014,
pp. 4597-4598).
“Definition period” was roughly around 2003 to 2006. A large proportion of studies
conducted in this period were on clarification and definition of blended learning.
Besides,	
   Garrison and Kanuka (2004) outlined the potency and contribution ofblended learning in the spectrum of teaching and learning, especially related touniversity level (Güzer & Caner, 2014, p. 4598).
“Popularity period” has started roughly since 2007. Researches on blending learningin this period bloomed but mainly focused on two areas, “effectiveness” and“perception” (pp. 4598-4600). About “effectiveness”, one of its focus areas is on
educational outcomes. For instance, Ginns and Ellis (2007) discovered that, whencomparing with traditional face-to-face lecture, blended learning could help toimprove educational outcomes among students. Melton et al. (2009) conductedsimilar study but failed to reach same finding. About “perception”, many studies
stressed on perceptions on blended learning from the perspectives of teachers andstudents. For instance, Jarrahi (2010) and Calderon et al. (2012) showed that one of
the motivations for teachers to keep adopting blended learning in their teachings is

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constructive encouragements and responses from students and institutions. Gerbic(2010) found that students supported blended learning and believed that it helped theirstudying. Woods et al. (2007) and Dahlstrom and Bichsel (2014) were in line with theargument. Nonetheless, Vaughan and Garrison (2005) indicated that blended learning
failed to help students in improving their cognitive performances. Fortune et al. (2006)
and Olapiriyakul and Scher (2006) also illustrated that even university students
preferred blended learning, their educational outcomes were no different whencomparing with those students attending traditional face-to-face lecture. These
research findings may cast doubt on whether blended learning can effectively help toinstill and promote positive learning attitude and learning to learn environment among
students.
Students may have formed various views towards blended learning as they havedeveloped different attitudes towards surroundings. Interactionism seems to offer
appropriate theoretical approach to this case study as it focuses at micro level ofsociety by looking into how people interact. However, there are more than one theory
under interactionism, such as phenomenology and symbolic interactionism. Basically,
phenomenology looks into how experience shape one’ perception toward hissurroundings. Symbolic interactionism focuses on how individual is shaped throughinteraction with other without concerning the role played by experience. As this casestudy focuses on how undergraduate perceive blended learning rather than tracing theimpacts from their past experiences, symbolic interactionism seems to be more
appropriate.
Symbolic interactionism suggests that we assigned meaning to the world with threebasic assumptions. First, our response is based on how we assign certain meaning toour surrounding. Second, the assigned meaning can be mediated through ourinteraction with others. Third, the assigned meaning is tentative and subject to further
mediation (Blumer, 1969, p. 2). Meaning is thus socially constructed through theinteraction among individuals’ symbols.
Symbolic interactionism may question on an effectiveness in adopting blended
learning as a mean to enhance students’ learning outcome. Students’ learning attitudes
and learning outcomes can be mediated by how they perceive the blended learning.
Since students are at the core of learning, their perceptions on blended learning andthe ways of forming the perception deserve further considerations. As students may
interact people with different values, such interactions may shape them different
views on the purpose of studying and that in return affect the way of formulating theirperceptions toward blended learning.
Significance of this case study
This case study links symbolic interactionism with researches on blended learning at
higher education in Hong Kong. Although there were a lot of researches on students’
perceptions towards blended learning, most of them focus on either measuring
students’ taste on blended learning or comparing students’ preference between
blended learning and traditional lecture (Drysdale et al., 2013, pp. 95-96). Few studies
are about how students perceive pedagogy or practice of blended learning itself.
Particularly, few attentions have been drawn on appreciating the rationale behind theformulation of the perception among students towards blended learning. Researches

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on educational technology in understanding the reason why and the way of how it isadopted in a particular manner are inadequate (Selwyn, 2010, p. 66). Besides,
researches on blended learning driven by theory of symbolic interactionism are rare
(Graham, 2013, p. 325). To bridge these gaps and contribute a new shore in
researching educational technology, this case study tries to unveil the reason and theway of formulation of perception towards blended learning among university students
in Hong Kong.
Methodology
This case study focuses on an elective course supplemented with blended learning
offered by one of the universities in Hong Kong. Enrolled students were all
non-majored students ranging from year one Higher Diploma to year four
undergraduate. Most of them were local Hong Kong students but some come frommainland China or overseas. After lessons, the lecturer uploaded a question to theBlackboard every week and students were required to attempt the question by writinga reflective journal on what they learned from previous lesson and uploaded to theBlackboard in around five days.
One local male undergraduate student signed the consent forms and participate into
this case study. To encourage the informant to freely express themselves, theinterview was conducted in Cantonese and lasted around one hour.
Analyses and discussions
The followings are analyses of the excerptions from conversations between a
researcher (R) and the local student (LS) under perspective of symbolic interactionism.
As we will see, interacting people does shape student in assigning meaning on his
study which in return affect his formulation of perception towards blended learning.
When asked about assessment, LS proposed a linkage between academic performancewith time allocation in courses.
R: You have to read articles before lesson. You need to havediscussion in class. You also need to do journal after lesson.
What do you think about this arrangement?
LS: If I only take this course in the whole semester, that is ok.
That may make me read more. But I, in this semester, I alreadytake less courses in this semester, may be five. But sometimes I
take seven courses. Other courses (workloads) can be quite
heavy.
LS: But if you engage in the discussion and reading in thismanner, you may need to spend seven-hour investment per week.
Comparably speaking, you spend less in other courses. Other
courses may be your majored subjects, maybe course codes startwith three or four. Practically, weighting of GPA (Grade Point
Average) for these courses must be heavier.
LS: Time allocation will naturally spend much time on majoredsubjects.
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LS clearly valued majored subjects over non-majored subjects, especially when
considering the weighting distribution of GPA. To him, the amount of effort spend ina course seems almost nothing to do with the pedagogy but with its weighting of GPA.
In other words, LS concerned about grades.
It appears that earning marks is important to the student. Researcher is interested infinding out the rationale behind it. When asked about the value of marks, LS
responded in this way:
R: If your result or GPA is affected, why is that important to you
and how it affects you?
LS: I think before talking affecting your GPA, in term of yourmajored department, you may have interest in this subject before
you are admitted to your majored department. You have interestand you want to involve more into it and study it.
LS: (But) you choose this (non-majored) course only because
you may have other reasons such as time conflict or need tofulfill certain requirements. Naturally, you will not spend asmuch time as your majored subjects. Also, if you are talking
GPA, thought it does not affect my futures a lot in my subject
area, at least GPA comes first when you find a job, internship orplacement, especially for your first job, after all.
LS explained why they were so concern about earning marks. As symbolic
interactionism suggests, certain pattern of behaviour may be regarded as a path tofuture success. That pattern of behaviour then becomes kind of social norms and rolemodel to follow. Graduating with a flying result is one of the patterns of social
desirable behaviour in our society. Even though there was no much revealing from theinterview on who interact with and affect LS, LS is likely to be influenced by thesocial desirable behaviour. Most likely, part of the influence may come from his
parents, teachers and friends. Through interacting with them, it is possible that LS isshaped by the pattern of behaviour and that becomes his model to follow. To him,
graduation with undergraduate qualification from university is not good enough. Inorder to meet with social desirable behaviour and to gain a competitive edge over theother university graduates, graduation with outstanding academic performance isdesirable. This is especially important for a fresh graduate like him when looking for
his first job. One of the indicators for outstanding academic performance is GPA,
especially those of majored subjects. That already explains the reason why he has
associated academic performance with time allocation of a course. To the student, thecourse is his non-majored subject and thus he assigned meaning of “finishing a task”
on writing reflective journal so that this non-majored subject will not greatly affect his
GPA.
The assigned meaning of “finishing a task” on writing reflective journal is further
crystalized when the student described it as homework.
LS: When you write the reflective journal, it just reflects your

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viewpoint. I think it is a little bit narrow. Reading can more
effectively in enhancing your vision than journal.
LS: I think the activity of reflective journal is meaningless.
LS: It seems that I achieve nothing after completing thereflective journal.
LS: Nothing particular helpful to my learning in this course, if
just refer to the reflective journal.
From above, LS seemed offered a negative viewpoint on reflective journal bysuggesting that it was meaningless and not helpful to enhance his learning experience.
The afore-analysis outlines that formulation of students’ perceptions towards blended
learning comply with the social desirable behaviour and form his perceptions towards
blended learning after interacting with others.
As discussed, being influenced from interacting with people, student’s perception
towards blended learning is shaped. This case study discovers that as the student
interacted with those who stressed on pattern of social desirable behaviour, he has
been shaped, and his perception of blended learning was thus affected. One of theimplications from this case study is, we can learn a lesson from symbolic
interactionism that if we want to implement something with its intended outcome, wehave to consider the interaction among different individuals in the society first.
Contribution
This case study contributes to policy makers and educationists.
This case study may disclose negative social influence on students and its future
implications to policy makers. Owning to influence of social desirable behaviour after
interacting with others, university students will have certain attitudes with blended
learning. Such attitudes may increase negative burden, unnecessary stress among
students and lead the society towards utilitarianism. To reduce students’ stress andshape a brighter society, something must be done on the social influence first. Policy
makers may review and implement appropriate educational reforms in primary andsecondary school curriculums and overall educational objectives for next generationsin Hong Kong to create a favourable environment and instil students with reflexivity
on certain social desirable behaviours like qualification, success and life. Besides, forthe sake of students’ development, policy makers may adjust allocation of resourceson blended learning so that educationists can acquire reasonable spaces in achieving
educational targets.
As this case study discloses how students perceive blended learning is related to theirinteraction with others, educationists may make use of the finding and design certain
teaching and learning activities within the system to promote positive students’learning experiences and self-developments, say, through peer learnings andcompetitions. This case study may thus further contribute to educationists byunveiling a possible way of employing symbolic interactionism to motivate students’learning desires in blended or online learning.

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Conclusion
To sum up, an integration of educational technology and employment of blended
learning in teaching and learning activities do not automatically lead to an
enhancement of students’ learning outcomes. Successful implementation of blended
learning depends not only on how it is used but also on how it is perceived. As above
illustrated, how students perceive blended learning in return is shaped by social
desirable behaviour and their interaction with others. For the sake of successful
adoption of blended learning, we have to take students’ surrounding cultural andsocial backgrounds into considerations. As social desirable behaviour can shape one
in formulating his perception towards surrounding through interaction, further studies
on the ways of how to mediate social desirable behaviour are necessary. Such
researches not only can enrich our understanding on social desirable behaviour but
also play an important contribution to different fields such as education and policy
makers.

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References
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Calderon, O., Ginsberg, A. P., & Ciabocchi, L. (2012). Multidimensional assessmentof blended learning: Maximizing program effectiveness based on student and faculty
feedback. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(3), 23-37.
Cooney, M. H., Gupton, P., & O'Laughlin, M. (2000). Blurring the lines of play andwork to create blended classroom learning experiences. Early Childhood Education
Journal, 27(3), 165-171.
Dahlstrom, E., & Bichsel, J. (2014). ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students andInformation Technology, 2014. Research report. Retrieved fromhttps://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2014/10/ers1406.pdf
Drysdale, J. S., Graham, C. R., Spring, K. J., & Halverson, L. R. (2013). An analysisof research trends in dissertations and theses studying blended learning. The Internetand Higher Education, 17, 90-100.
Fortune, M. F., Shifflett, B., & Sibley, R. E. (2006). A comparison of online (hightech) and traditional (high touch) learning in business communication courses in
Silicon Valley. Journal of Education for Business, 81(4), 210-214.
Güzer, B., & Caner, H. (2014). The past, present and future of blended learning: An in
depth analysis of literature. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116,4596-4603.
Garrison, D. R., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its
transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2),95-105.
Gerbic, P. (2010). Getting the blend right in new learning environments: A
complementary approach to online discussions. Education and Information
Technologies, 15(2), 125–137.
Ginns, P., & Ellis, R. (2007). Quality in blended learning: Exploring the relationships
between on-line and face-to-face teaching and learning. The Internet and Higher
Education, 10(1), 53-64.
Graham, C. R. (2006). Blended learning systems: Definition, current trends and future
directions. In C. J. Bonk & C. R. Graham (Eds.), Handbook of Blended Learning:
Global Perspectives, Local Designs (pp. 3-21). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Graham, C. R. (2013). Emerging practice and research in blended learning. In M. G.
Moore (Ed.), Handbook of Distance Education (Third ed., pp. 319-335). New York:
Routledge.

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Jarrahi, M. H. (2010). A structurational analysis of how course management systems
are used in practice. Behaviour & Information Technology, 29(3), 257-275.
Melton, B. F., Bland, H. W., & Chopak-Foss, J. (2009). Achievement and satisfactionin blended learning versus traditional general health course designs. International
journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, 3(1), 1-13.
Olapiriyakul, K., & Scher, J. M. (2006). A guide to establishing hybrid learning
courses: Employing information technology to create a new learning experience, anda case study. The Internet and Higher Education, 9(4), 287–301.
Selwyn, N. (2010). Looking beyond learning: Notes towards the critical study ofeducational technology. Journal of computer assisted learning, 26(1), 65-73.
Vaughan, N., & Garrison, D. R. (2005). Creating cognitive presence in a blended
faculty development community. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 1-12.
Woods, R., Badzinski, D. M., & Baker, J. D. (2007). Student perceptions of blended
learning in a traditional undergraduate environment. In A. G. Picciano & C. D.
Dziuban (Eds.), Blended Learning: Research Perspectives (pp. 203-229). Needham,
Massachusetts: The Sloan Consortium.
Contact email: ssivan.chiu@connect.polyu.hk

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Implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Program: Reactions, Attitudes and Perceptions of Teachers
Eileen C. Bernardo, Isabela State University, The Philippines
Nilda T. Aggabao, Isabela State University, The Philippines
Jaine Z. Tarun, Isabela State University, The Philippines
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings	  Abstract
In June 2012, the K to 12 Curriculum was implemented in the Philippines. Basiceducation is now thirteen years instead of the usual ten years. In the K to 12
Curriculum, the elementary grades will focus on the core learning areas namely:
languages, mathematics, science and social studies. One of the highlights of the K to
12 Curriculum is the use of the eight major Philippine languages to teach
Kindergarten to Grade 3 students. The Department of Education adopted the “MotherTongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)” after pilot tests showed thatstudents learn better when the language used at home is also used in the classroom.
This study aimed to determine the reactions and attitudes of the teachers and the
problems they encountered on the implementation of the Multilingual Education andthe Teaching of Mother Tongue in the Philippines. The study utilized quantitative andqualitative research methods through document analysis, survey and interview. This
paper focused in selected public elementary schools in four municipalities in Northern
Isabela in the Cagayan Valley Region namely Cabagan, San Pablo, Santa Maria andSanto Tomas. Survey questionnaire, interview guide and observation checklist wereused to document the problems, attitudes and perceptions of K to 3 teachers in theimplementation of MTB-MLE for the K to 12 program. Results showed that thereactions, attitudes and perceptions of the teachers on the implementation of the
MTB-MLE are generally favorable. However, the teachers encountered problems on
availability of instructional materials and facilities.
	
  
	
  

Keywords: K to 12 Curriculum; Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education(MTB-MLE) Program; Reactions, attitudes and perceptions

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Basic education in the Philippines underwent a radical change in June 2012 when the
K to 12 Curriculum was implemented. Basic education is now thirteen years insteadof the usual ten years, that is, kindergarten, elementary level which is still six years
and high school which is now six years - four years junior high school and two years
senior high school, rather than the usual four. This two-year addition in High School
is supposed to bring our students at par with global standards and synchronize our
educational system to world standards. It will also stream students into the morerational vocational college bound tracks that fill employment demands (Hall, 2012).
With the curricular changes for these two additional years, higher educational
institutions (HEIs) worry about the impact these changes will have.
In the K to 12 Curriculum, the elementary grades will focus on the core learning areas
namely: languages, mathematics, science and social studies. One of the features of the
K to 12 Curriculum is the use of the eight major Philippine languages to teach
Kindergarten to Grade 3 (K to 3) students. The Department of Education (DepEd) of
the Philippines adopted the “Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE)” program when results of pilot tests showed that students learn better when thelanguage used at home is also used in the classroom. The establishment ofMultilingual Education (MLE) support system is necessary to ensure the effectivenessof the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction.
The Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) is the government’sbanner program for education as a salient part of the implementation of the K to 12
Basic Education Program. It was embodied in the Department Order Number 74,
series of 2009, an order “Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education (MTB-MLE). Its significance is articulated in Republic Act 10532,
otherwise known as the “Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.”
MTB-MLE is a formal or non-formal medium of communication, in which thelearner’s mother tongue and additional languages are used in the classroom. The
MTB-MLE is a program where the medium of instruction is the mother tongue or the
first language (L1) of the learners. In the teaching-learning process, both the teacher
and the learners use the mother tongue in explaining the lesson. Other languages arealso used during the discussion, provided these languages will help the teacher and thelearners understand each other in the discussion.
Learners begin their education in the language they understand best, their mothertongue, and develop a strong foundation in this language before other languages.
Mother Tongue instruction allows teachers and students to interact naturally andnegotiate meanings together, creating participatory learning environments that are
conducive to cognitive as well as linguistic development. Children with a solid
foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school.
Their knowledge and skills will be developed through languages. The implementationof MTB-MLE enables the learners to use different languages for success in school
and for lifelong learning.
In rural areas, most of the Filipinos use the native language in their respective
localities as their mother tongue. This is especially true before the 20th century.

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Later when children go to school, they learn and adopt the Filipino language, thenational language of the Philippines, which is very similar to Tagalog. They also
learn the English language along with the Filipino language in the school. Learning
Filipino and English languages became mandatory because of the bilingual policy.
However, in the 20th century many parents trained their children to speak in Tagalog,
no longer the native language in their localities because of its advantage in the school.
Hence, the mother tongue of many children is not the native language in theirlocalities. Many students find it difficult to relate with their teacher when the local
language is used as the mother tongue in the delivery of the lesson.
The Ibanag speaking communities have variety and variation of Ibanag as theirlanguage. This is a reality in various places in Region 02 which include somecommunities in the province of Isabela, although, there are commonalities in the
Ibanag language of the different Ibanag speaking communities. In the implementationof K to 12 Basic Education Program, the mother tongue is taught as a subject in the K
to 3 levels and is used to emphasize the lessons in Grade 4 to Grade 12. Thus, mothertongue is very significant in the implementation of K to 12 Basic Education Program.
Some of the implications of the K to 12 Program include the following: graduates will
be better prepared for higher education; graduates will have a better mastery of basics,
and remedial courses will no longer be necessary, graduates of the K to 12 Program
will be better prepared for work, thus they can go directly to work. In view of theimplementation of the K to 12 Program, a development of a National Qualifications
Framework is deemed necessary (Licuanan, 2012).
This study is primarily aimed at determining the perceptions, reactions and attitudesof the teachers on the implementation of the MTB-MLE program. Secondly, thisresearch determined the problems and difficulties encountered by the teachers in theimplementation of the MTB-MLE Program in terms of the following: Preparation anddelivery of learning tasks, course content, textbooks, school’s MTB-MLE facilities,
students’ mother tongue and school location.
Methodology
The study utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods through survey andinterview. This paper focused in selected elementary schools in four municipalities inNorthern Isabela in the Cagayan Valley Region (Region 2) namely: Cabagan, Santa
Maria, San Pablo and Santo Tomas. Stratified random sampling of schools was done.
The respondents were teachers of the Department of Education teaching in theelementary level. There were 65 respondents from Cabagan, 51 respondents fromSanta Maria and 18 respondents from San Pablo and 36 respondents from Santo
Tomas, a total of 170 teachers.
In this study, a survey questionnaire was developed where the teacher respondents
were asked to respond to statements describing their reactions, attitudes andperceptions, of the teachers on the implementation of the MTB-MLE program and the
problems and difficulties encountered by the teachers in the implementation of the
MTB-MLE Program in terms of the following: preparation and delivery of learning
tasks, course content, textbooks, school’s MTB-MLE facilities, students’ mother

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tongue and school location. An interview guide was also developed to supplement thesurvey.
Results and Discussion
Teachers under the Department of Education are currently required to implement the
MTB-MLB Program. In this study, the teacher respondents were asked to respond tostatements describing their perceptions, reactions and attitudes on the implementationof the MTB-MLE program. In addition, the teachers responded to statements
describing their problems and difficulties they encountered in the implementation of
the MTB-MLE Program in terms of the following: preparation and delivery oflearning tasks, course content, textbooks, school’s MTB-MLE facilities, students’
mother tongue and school location.
The summary of the results is shown in Table 1.
1. Teachers Reactions, Attitudes and Perceptions on the Implementation of the
MTB-MLE
There were fifteen (15) statements and the respondents indicated their reactions,attitudes and perceptions, using a Rating Scale: 4 for very favorable, 3 for favorable, 2
for unfavorable and 1 for very unfavorable.
Based on the results of the survey, the teacher respondents’ feelings, reactions andattitude on the implementation of the MTB-MLE are very favorable in terms of thefollowing statements: the pupils will learn better their lessons; the teachers very muchappreciate the effort of school administrators in implementing the program; thevitality of the mother tongue will be preserved; and the teachers would rather
recommend pupils to learn their native language before a foreign language.

	
  
	
  

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Table 1. Reactions, Attitudes and Perceptions of Teachers on the
Implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Program in the Philippines
Areas

Weighted
Mean

Description

1. Teachers’ Feelings, Reactions and Attitudes on
the Implementation of the MTB-MLE
2. Difficulties/Problems Encountered by the
Teachers in the Implementation of the MTBMLE Program
2.1 On Preparation and Delivery of LearningTasks
2.2 On Curriculum Guide

2.88

Favorable

2.50

Moderately
DifficultModerately
Difficult2.3 School’s MTB-MLE facilities
3.3.1 On MTB-MLE Textbooks and Other
Printed Materials
3.3.2 On Availability of MTB-MLE
Facilities
3.3.3 On Adaptation of Available MTB
Facilities
3.3.4 On School’s Location

2.39
2.65
2.78
2.57
2.12

Moderately
DifficultModerately
DifficultModerately
Difficult
Not Difficult

The teachers have favorable feelings, reactions and attitude on the implementation of
the MTB-MLE in terms of the following statements: the pupils will be fully preparedfor college; the pupils with learning gaps could cope with their lessons even if otherlanguages are used; pupils’ poor learning will be corrected; they recommended for thesustainability because it enhances pupils’ learning; and they believe that the quality ofeducation for the past years could have not been deteriorated.
On the other hand, the teacher respondents have unfavorable feelings, reactions andattitude on the implementation of the MTB-MLE in terms of the following statements:
the pupils are not interested to learn because of too many languages used in teaching;
the MTB-MLE is an additional expense to the government; the program is a waste oftime; and pupils cannot cope with difficulties in learning even if the lessons wereusing this program. In other words, the teachers feel that the pupils are still interested
to learn the mother tongue even if there are many languages used in teaching such as
English, Filipino and/or Tagalog, and Ilocano. Also, the teacher respondents do notagree that the MTB-MLE is an additional expense to the government. The teachers
do not think that the program is a waste of time. In addition, the teacher respondents
do not agree that pupils cannot cope with difficulties in learning even if the lessons
were using this program, meaning, pupils can cope with their difficulties in learning
even if the lessons were taught using the mother tongue.
Go (2012) said that the native language or mother tongue is a starting point for
beginning reading in the grades while speaking knowledge of English has yet to beacquired by grade school pupils.

	
  
	
  

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In fact, Caguioa (2013) reported that she observed an improved participation among
her pupils where they could readily relate the lesson to their own experiences, priorknowledge and other socio-cultural background. Children learned faster and better
since they are adept in their mother tongue. The students   learned to read faster andfluently because of the songs, poems and rhymes were taught in Ibanag, the mothertongue of most of her pupils. In addition, they were able to think and understand theirlessons well and were able to ask questions critically. The children enjoyed playing,singing with indigenous instruments such as coconut shells and improvised
tambourines, dancing, dramatizing, writing paragraphs and simple essays. MotherTongue is very much helpful and effective in the lower grade pupils for instruction.
Based on Table 1, the weighted mean is 2.88 which is described as favorable. Thisimplies that the teacher respondents have a favorable reactions, attitudes andperceptions on the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education (MTB-MLE) Program.
The shift to the native language as medium of instruction started with the Lingua
Franca Education Project through DECS (Department of Education, Culture andSports now Department of Education) Memo 144, s. 1999. The current MotherTongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) policy is the continuation of thisproject. This MTB-MLE approach is based on the premise that to be academicallycompetent, a student must have a strong grasp of his native tongue/first language(L1). This means that education should start from “where the learners are and what
they already know” (Nolasco, 2009). Building a strong L1 foundation, the student isthen bridged to his/her second language/s (L2) by providing a strong training in
his/her L2 listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Lastly, the teacher respondents have very unfavorable feelings, reactions and attitude
on the implementation of the MTB-MLE in terms of the statement, “this program
might not prosper because the mother-tongue among pupils are different”. This result
implies that the teachers think that the MTB-MLE program may prosper even if thepupils have different mother tongue.
The culture of students in central areas and in remote barangays are different. It is
assumed that the local language spoken by the people is regarded as the mothertongue in a certain municipality or community. However, with the introduction ofbilingual policy, many parents trained their children in speaking using English or
Filipino language particularly in the central area of a town or barangay (village). The
Ibanag speaking communities have variety and variation of Ibanag as their language.
Thus, teachers are cautious in the teaching of mother tongue.
2. Common Problems and Difficulties Encountered by Teachers in the
Implementation of the MTB-MLE Program
2.1 On Preparation of Learning Tasks
The teachers had difficulty or encountered serious problems in the following:choosing appropriate activities for motivating the class; availability of resources for
pupils’ activities; sufficiency of training acquired for the implementation of MTB-

	
  
	
  

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MLE; sufficiency of MTB-MLE materials; coping with the different mother tongue of
pupils.
Based on the interview conducted by the authors, there are pupils who are notoriginally from the town and have different mother tongue. There is a need to guidethese pupils and help them adjust to the mother tongue used in the locality.
The teachers had moderate difficulty or moderately encountered serious problems in
the following: choosing appropriate teaching strategy; identifying the appropriate
language to be used; planning how the learner can cope with the MTB-MLE for those
pupils whose mother tongue is not the native language of the locality; adapting theavailable instructional materials due to the variety (version) of language used which isdifferent from the locality; pupils’ engagement in classroom activities due tounfamiliarity of one of the languages used; coping with the different mother tongue of
pupils; orientation of the available materials is not patterned from the mother tongueof the locality; due to unfamiliarity of the mother tongue of pupils/locality;
fluency/proficiency in the different mother tongue of pupils; and pupils’ refusal tolearn other languages specially the common mother tongue of the class.
Overall, the teachers have moderate difficulty or encountered moderately serious
problems in the preparation and delivery of learning tasks in the implementation of
MTB-MLE. The weighted mean is 2.5.
2.2 On Curriculum Guide
The teachers had moderate difficulty or moderately encountered serious problem inthe following: vagueness of topics and lessons to be covered; achievement of theobjectives of the lesson; proper sequence of topics; familiarity of terms used due tovariety and variation of language used which is different from one locality to another;coverage of the lesson is too many or congested.
Overall, the teachers had moderate difficulty and/or encountered moderately serious
problems in the preparation and delivery of learning tasks in the implementation of
MTB-MLE. As seen in Table 1, the weighted mean is 2.39.
2.3 School’s MTB-MLE Facilities
2.3.1 On MTB-MLE Textbooks and Other Printed Materials
The teachers encountered serious problem in attracting pupils’ interests due to lack of
appeal of textbooks in terms of figures and pictures; attracting pupils’ interests due tolack of appeal of textbooks in terms of color; limitation of examples; limitation ofquestions and exercises making pupils just to understand the lesson rather than todevelop the thinking process and reasoning ability of pupils; complicated terms usedin writing the book; proper sequencing of the topics
The teachers had moderate difficulty or encountered moderately serious problems invagueness of instruction; appropriateness to the ability of pupils.

	
  
	
  

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Based on Table 1, the weighted mean is 2.65 which means that the teachers
encountered moderate difficulty or moderately serious problems in the MTB-MLE
textbooks and other printed materials in teaching.
Based on the interview made by the authors, there is a lack of instructional materials
written in the Ibanag language. There are more Ilocano materials, however, most of
the students do not speak Ilocano as most of the people in the community speak
Ibanag. Ilocano is the language spoken by majority of the people in Isabela, however,in Northern Isabela, Ibanag is widely spoken.
2.3 2 On Availability of MTB-MLE Facilities
The teachers encountered serious problem in the availability of mother curriculum
guide; audio-visual materials to support the hearing and sighting skills of pupils in
mother tongue; modules, manuals and textbooks for further discussion of mothertongue; latest version of Ibanag dictionary; latest version of Ilocano dictionary; latest
version of Ibanag Orthography; latest version of Ilocano Orthography; dictionary ofmathematical/science/arts & humanities terms and concepts in mother tongue;
supplies and materials for reproduction; equipment such as computer, photocopier,printer, and other facilities used for reproduction.
Overall, the teachers encountered serious problems in the availability of MTB-MLE
facilities. The weighted mean is 2.78.
2.3.3 On Adaptation of Available MTB-MLE Facilities
The teachers encountered difficulty or serious problem in adapting (1) mother tongue
curriculum guide because it is not patterned in the mother tongue of the locality; (2)modules, manuals and textbooks because it is not patterned in the mother tongue ofthe locality; (3) Ibanag dictionary since it is very rare and different from the variety
and variation of the Ibanag language in the locality; (4) Ibanag Orthography since it isdifferent from the variety and variation of the Ibanag language in the locality.
The teachers encountered moderate difficulty or moderately serious problem in
adapting available MTB-MLE facilities due to varied mother tongue of pupils.
Based on the weighted mean of 2.57, the teachers encountered difficulty or serious
problems in adapting the available MTB-MLE facilities.
2.3.4 On School’s Location
The teachers encountered no difficulty or no serious problem on the following: native
language of the locality is dominated by the pupil’s mother tongue; some parent’s
mother tongue is not the native language; too many migrants; some teachers assignedin the locality are not native speakers; unavailability of an expert in the mother tongue
to provide further knowledge and information in the locality; promptness to
information on MTB-MLE.
The weighted mean is 2.12 which implies that there is no difficulty in terms of theschool’s location.

	
  
	
  

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The materials used by the teachers to teach and materials that students use to learn are
designed to reflect the goals of the curriculum of the Department of Education(DepEd) (Talisayon, et. al, 2000). They also believe that methods that teachers use toteach students and methods that teacher use to train teachers are means of
implementing the curriculum. The success of the curriculum depends on the teaching
and learning materials and the teaching and training methods. Changes in curriculum
do not only focus on content but also on the mode of delivery. Thus, designing,developing and adaptation of appropriate instructional materials needed are importantin the implementation of K to 12 Basic Education Program most especially the MTBMLE program.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The current K to 12 curriculum implements the MTB-MLE program. One of the key
features of the K to 12 Curriculum is the use of Mother Tongue as primary medium of
instruction from K to 3. The formation of MLE support system is necessary to makesure the efficiency of the use of mother tongue in teaching K to 3 pupils.
In this study, the teacher respondents generally have favorable feelings, reactions andattitudes on the implementation of the MTB-MLE. The teacher respondents
encountered moderate difficulty on preparation of learning tasks, curriculum guideand school’s MTB-MLE facilities such as textbooks and other printed materials,
availability of MTB-MLE facilities and adaptation of available MTB facilities.
However, the teacher respondents did not encounter any difficulty on the schools’
location.
The implementation of MTB-MLE in teaching K to 3 pupils helps the teacher in
explaining the lessons well. This is also true for the pupils where they can understandand express their thoughts in the language where they are most comfortable with. Oneof the main concerns of the teacher respondents is the lack of textbooks, curriculum
guides and other instructional materials written in Ibanag, the mother tongue of thecommunities involved in the study.
MTB-MLE is very important in the implementation of K to 12 Basic Education
Program. While it is true that the teacher respondents generally have favorable
feelings, reactions and attitudes on the implementation of the MTB-MLE, there is aneed of more trainings specifically on the preparation of appropriate activities for thepupils.
In addition, more seminars and workshops regarding the implementation of MTBMLE should be conducted. In-service trainings regarding MTB-MLE be conducted in
DepEd Schools in Northern Isabela. Materials written in Ibanag currently available
must be revised. The teachers’ guide and the learners’ material must be written using
the mother tongue of the pupils.

	
  
	
  

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References
Caguioa, S. B. (2013). Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education. A Narrative
Report. Unpublished material.
Go, A. S. (2012). A Bid to Tap the Native Tongue as Reading Bridge to English in theGrades”. The Modern Teacher. Vol. LXI, No. 06.
Hall, R. A. (2012). What will K-12 mean for universities in the Philippines?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/m1y/09/k12education-universities-philippines.
Licuanan, P. (2012). Implications of the Philippine K to 12 Education Program forHigher Education. K to 12 Pre-Summit Conference. (Posted by Ia Adam-Lim on
March 15, 2012 in Special Education Philippines Blog Site).
Talisayon, V. M., Ulep, S. A. and Mendoza, A. B. (2000). Materials and Methods inScience and Mathematics Education in the Philippines. National Institute for Scienceand Mathematics Education Development, University of the Philippines, Diliman,
Quezon City, Philippines.
Contact email: eileen_elup@yahoo.com

	
  
	
  

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Development of Mathematical Connection Skills of Grade II Students by Using
Problem-based Learning with GeoGebra Program
Sornchai Prapngoolueam, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Montri Thongmoon, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
The proposes of this study were 1) to develop the students’ mathematical connection
skills in order to pass the criteria of 50 percent of full score, 2) to study the
relationship between the students’ learning achievement and mathematical connection
skills, and 3) to study the students’ satisfaction toward the problem-based learningwith GeoGebra program learning activities. The target group was 45 students of grade
II student in academic year 2017 from Sarakhampittayakhom School, Muang,
Mahasarakham. The research methodology is classroom action research which
consists of three cycles. The research instruments were: 1) 12 lesson plans of the
problem-based learning with GeoGebra program, 2) the mathematical connection
skills test, 3) the learning achievement test, 4) the observation form, 5) the interview
form, and 6) the satisfaction toward learning activity test. The data was analyzed byusing mean, percentage, standard deviation and Pearson Correlation Coefficient.
The results were as follows
1. The students’ mathematical connection skills mean scores in the first, the second,
and the third cycle were 45.45, 57.47 and 62.76 percent respectively.
It obviously be seen that the students’ mean score passed the criteria of 50 percent offull score in the second cycle.
2. The relationship between students’ learning achievement and mathematicalconnection skills in the first, the second and the third were 0.85, 0.87 and 0.81
respectively. It could be seen that there were highly positive relation in each circle.
3. The level of students’ satisfaction toward problem-based learning with GeoGebra
program learning activities was in high level.
Keywords: Mathematical Connection skills, GeoGebra program, Problem-based
Learning, Thailand

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Mathematics are very important in developing thinking ability, creative thinking andthinking logically. Moreover, mathematics can be integrated with science, technology
and another fields (Ministry of Education, 2008, pp. 56.) In Thailand, mathematics
consist of 5 skills which are 1) Problem solving skills 2) Reasoning skills 3)
Mathematical expression skills 4) Mathematical connection skills and 5) creative
thinking skills. Especially mathematical connection skills, it is very essential forstudents because these skills will make them understand and to be able to combine
many mathematical knowledges together in everyday life problems logically(Ministry of Education, 2008, pp. 47). It is according to the concept of program forinternational assessment (PISA). PISA test is designed to assess the ability tounderstand the problems, the ability of integrating knowledges to solve problems andfinding the solution properly (OEDC, 2017).
In 2015, the average score of PISA test for Thai student was 415 points out of 1,000
points, which was categorized to be under the average group by the score fromstudents around the world at 490 points. It can be seen obviously that Thai students
lacked of mathematical abilities when compared to another countries. Therefore, inorder to confirm this problem, the researchers assessed the mathematical connection
skills for grade II students in Sarakham Pittayakhom school, the number of all
students were 45. The score for this test has been set to 5 levels which are very good,
good, fair, pass and under criteria level. The results showed that no student in very
good and good level but there were 4 students in fair level, 4 students in pass leveland 37 students in under criteria level. Therefore the researchers want to findsolutions which can improve mathematical skills especially mathematical connection
skills of these students.
The researchers have studied many concepts and theories about learning activities thatenhance the mathematical connection skills. We found that the way to develop themathematical skills are 1) Giving students to solve the problems by themselves with alittle guide from teacher 2) Using group activity to create interaction, discussion andhelp each other to solve the problems (IPST., 2003, pp. 172-173). It is according to
the problem-based learning activity (PBL), PBL lets student to engage the problemsby themselves and interaction among group which can lead to the clearly
understanding and be able create several ways to solve the problems (Kammanee,
2016, pp. 137-138). Moreover, learning mathematics is sometime hard to understandbecause mathematics consist of many abstract knowledges. In order to makemathematics more concrete, we used technologies in modern day like mathematicalprograms which can be seen widely such as The Geometer’s sketchpad program(GSP), MatLab program, Maple program and GeoGebra program. From the programs
that mentioned, GeoGebra is the program we were interested because this program is
widely used by teacher all over the world and GeoGebra program is also a freeprogram or freeware which means no need to pay money for using it (International
GeoGebra Institute, 2017). In GeoGebra program, there are many tools that provide
teacher to construct the introduction media very easily for example 3D tools, conic
section tools, and calculus tools.
As mentioned before, the researchers want to develop the mathematical connection
skills of students in Sarakhampittayakhom School to be in pass level (More than 50

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percent of full score) or above by using problem-based learning activity with
GeoGebra program.
Research Purposes
1. To develop the students’ mathematical connection skills in order to pass the criteriaof 50 percent of full score.
2. To study the relationship between the students’ learning achievement andmathematical connection skills.
3. To study the students’ satisfaction toward the problem-based learning with
GeoGebra program learning activities.
Target group
The target group was 45 students of Grade II student (Room 6) in academic year 2017from Sarakhampittayakhom School, Muang Mahasarakham, Thailand.
Research Instruments
1. 12 lesson plans of the problem-based learning with GeoGebra program.
2. The mathematical connection skills test.
3. The learning achievement test.
4. The observation form.
5. The interview form.
6. The satisfaction toward learning activity test.
Methodology
This research is classroom action research, there are 4 steps in each cycle which are 1)
Planning, 2) Action, 3) Observation and 4) Reflection. Which was detailed as thefollowing.
1. Planning
1. Observing students who have problems with mathematical connection skills byusing mathematical connection skills test that were adopted from Atchanee
Chuchuaisuwan’s mathematical connection skills test (2009, pp. 94-112). We only
observed in the first cycle, for the next cycle we analyzed results from the reflection
step form previous cycle in order to improve the next cycle.
2. Constructed the research instruments including 1) 12 lesson plans of the problembased learning with GeoGebra program, 2) The mathematical connection skills test, 3)
The learning achievement test, 4) The observation form, 5) The interview form and 6)
The satisfaction toward learning activity test. After finished constructing, all research
instrument were examined by experts to ensure the instruments were capable for usingwith the target group.

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2. Action
1. We applied the problem-based learning with GeoGebra program lesson plans to thetarget group. The lesson was vector in 3 dimensions as showed in table 1.
Table 1 Problem-based learning with GeoGebra program lesson plans in each cycle.
Cycle
Lesson Title
Time
1
3 Dimensional scene coordinates
1
2
Length between two points in 3 dimensional scene 1
coordinates
1
3
Vector1
4Adding and subtracting vector
15Vector multiplication by scalar16Vector in 2 dimensional scene coordinates
17
Vector in 3 dimensional scene coordinates
12
8
Length of vector in 2 dimensions
1
9
Length of vector in 3 dimensions
1
10
Unit vector in 2 dimensions
1
3
11
Unit vector in 3 dimensions
1
12
Directional cosine
1
Total
12
3. Observation
1. We used the observation form to observe students during learning activities in eachlesson plan.
2. We used the interview form to interview students for those who passed the 50
percent criteria and under 50 percent criteria. In order to compare the differences andcauses for improving the next cycle.
3. We used the mathematical connection skills test and the learning achievement test
to assess the mathematical connection skills and find the relationship between
mathematical connection skills and learning achievement. After finishing all cycles,
we used the satisfaction forward learning activity test to assess the satisfaction of
students about problem-based learning with GeoGebra program learning activities.
4. Reflection
We analyzed the results from the mathematical connection skills score compared to
the 50 percent criteria, the observation form and the interview form. From all results,
we improve the learning activity to be effective enough to make the target group pass
the criteria. Lastly, after all student passed the criteria, we analyzed the relationshipbetween mathematical connection skills and the learning achievement.
Conclusion
The mathematical connection skills score after using problem-based learning with
GeoGebra program compared to the criteria was showed in table 2.

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Student
No.

Table 2 The mathematical connection skills score after using problem-based learningwith GeoGebra program compared to the criteria.
Mathematical connection score
Cycle 1
Cycle 2
Cycle 3
Percent Assessment

Percent Assessment

Percent Assessment

X

40.91
50.00
45.45
50.00
45.45
40.91
45.45
54.55
40.91
40.91
40.91
54.55
45.45
50.00
45.45
59.09
50.00
40.91
36.36
50.00
40.91
40.91
27.27
40.91
31.82
45.45
36.36
31.82
40.91
45.45
50.00
45.45
45.45
54.55
50.00
59.09
68.18
45.45

54.55
63.64
54.55
63.64
54.55
54.55
63.64
54.55
54.55
40.91
54.55
63.64
40.91
59.09
68.18
63.64
68.18
40.91
54.55
63.64
63.64
59.09
54.55
50.00
45.45
45.45
59.09
63.64
63.64
63.64
59.09
68.18
63.64
54.55
54.55
68.18
54.55
57.47

Pass
Fair
Pass
Fair
Pass
Pass
Fair
Pass
Pass
Under criteria
Pass
Fair
Under criteria
Pass
Fair
Fair
Fair
Under criteria
Pass
Fair
Fair
Pass
Pass
Pass
Under criteria
Under criteria
Pass
Fair
Fair
Fair
Pass
Fair
Fair
Pass
Pass
Fair
Pass
Pass

63.64
63.64
54.55
59.09
59.09
54.55
59.09
63.64
68.18
68.18
63.64
72.73
68.18
59.09
68.18
54.55
59.09
59.09
63.64
77.27
54.55
63.64
72.73
68.18
63.64
72.73
63.64
63.64
54.55
68.18
54.55
54.55
63.64
63.64
59.09
54.55
68.18
62.76

Fair
Fair
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Good
Fair
Pass
Fair
Pass
Pass
Pass
Fair
Good
Pass
Fair
Good
Fair
Fair
Good
Fair
Fair
Pass
Fair
Pass
Pass
Fair
Fair
Pass
Pass
Fair
Fair

S.D.

7.98

7.64

-

6.06

-

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
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Under
criteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Pass
Pass
Under
criteria
Undercriteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Undercriteria
Pass
Under
criteria
Undercriteria
Pass
Pass
Pass
Fair
Under
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From table 2, the mathematical connection skills score in the first cycle was 45.45
percent when compared to the criteria in was in the under criteria level, the score in
the second cycle was 57.49 percent when compared to the criteria it was in the passlevel and the score in the third cycle was 62.78 percent when compared to the criteria
in was in the fair level. In conclusion, the mathematical connection skills was higher
in every cycle after we applied problem-based learning with GeoGebra program
lesson plans and all students obtained the pass level in the second cycle but the
researchers want to ensure that the learning activities are compatible to escalate
mathematical connection skills so we continue applying the third cycle.
The relationship between mathematical connection skills score and the learningachievement score of vector in 3 dimensions learning content was analyzed by using
Pearson correlation coefficient. The results were categorized in to cycles as showed intable 3.
Table 3: The relationship between mathematical connection skills score after
applying problem-based learning lesson plans and the learning achievement scoreabout vector in 3 dimensions.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

50.25
65.43
56.72
43.26
41.43
32.76
45.78
56.32
50.00
43.45
32.16
41.28
48.82
54.83
55.34
56.49
51.28
40.32
37.45
36.78
41.93
52.67

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52.13
63.28
51.26
45.11
47.23
37.84
55.32
51.34
65.46
47.65
40.12
45.38
50.67
56.82
57.82
60.49
53.48
45.39
40.94
41.45
47.63
55.39

55.82
63.56
59.74
51.25
52.00
45.68
47.41
65.13
56.74
56.71
52.13
56.72
57.87
67.88
65.76
65.33
65.33
58.18
58.59
55.61
56.72
65.78

61.12
66.67
63.34
56.89
46.15
55.35
50.27
69.13
58.44
61.82
55.26
59.95
60.86
66.12
68.23
68.83
63.34
61.12
61.12
58.44
55.35
68.55

224

65.27
67.83
65.87
58.13
57.65
57.38
55.43
68.84
68.92
64.18
65.74
64.56
67.58
70.12
54.23
62.34
65.54
63.15
62.83
58.94
64.51
66.72

Learning
achievement
percentage

Mathematicalconnection skills
percentage

Cycle 3
Learning
achievement
percentage

Mathematicalconnection skills
percentage

Cycle 2
Learning
achievement
percentage

Student No.

Mathematicalconnection skills
percentage

Cycle 1

66.17
73.35
62.34
63.94
61.45
60.42
59.82
73.25
73.25
65.28
64.13
67.94
70.35
70.72
57.85
67.56
61.12
67.56
62.42
62.42
67.85
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23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37

45.89
43.37
29.21
45.78
41.12
45.32
32.11
56.73
43.56
46.57
41.19
42.13
34.47
45.89
52.82

rXY

0.85

47.73
45.24
35.65
59.26
42.13
47.68
40.68
61.23
39.45
47.82
45.86
43.32
37.19
50.82
48.16

57.89
58.19
48.34
55.76
58.92
56.33
53.12
67.89
58.79
57.28
56.82
54.72
45.67
56.72
60.12

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56.21
56.89
55.12
55.26
61.12
59.9
56.35
66.84
61.12
61.12
58.44
56.82
47.67
56.35
63.89

0.87

65.27
63.47
58.75
61.23
65.67
58.82
56.79
65.27
63.46
62.92
65.35
57.30
58.79
57.84
65.43

67.94
64.13
62.34
64.13
67.94
62.12
60.72
64.13
64.13
67.94
66.82
61.65
61.65
60.19
64.45

0.81

From table 3 the correlation between mathematical connection skills score after
applying problem-based learning lesson plans and the learning achievement scoreabout vector in 3 dimensions in cycle 1, 2 and 3 were 0.85, 0.87 and 0.81 respectively,
when compare the Pearson correlation coefficient with the criteria (Bartz, 1999, pp.
184 as cited in Srisa-ard et al, 2012, pp. 92) we found that the correlation was in highlevel.
The satisfaction toward learning activity of students after we applied the problembased learning with GeoGebra program lesson plans were separated into 3 fields
which are
1. The nature of work: how satisfaction student have with the learning activities forexample the difficulty, contents, challenging and timing.
2. Workmate: How satisfaction student have with teamwork for example interacting,cooperation and good relation among group.
3. Reward: how satisfaction student have with the returns from the learning activities
for example prolong memorizing, deeply understanding and mathematical connection
skills.
The results were showed in table 4
Table 4: The satisfaction score toward problem-based learning with GeoGebra
program learning activity of grade II students.
Satisfaction
Item Question
S.D.
X
level
Field 1: The nature of work
Student satisfies with the difficulty of the1
4.20 0.62 Highlearning activities and it is suitable for student.
Student feels that the learning activities are not2*
1.91 0.73 Low
suitable with the contents.

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Student satisfies that the amount of activities
are suitable with time.
Student thinks the learning activities are
4*
difficult and bored.
Student likes the challenging of the learning
5
activities that allow student to learn and solve
the problem by yourself.
Field 1 average
Field 2: Workmate
Student likes that the members work together
6very well.
Student likes that the members honor each7other and listen to other’s opinions.
Student dose not satisfy that the members
8*
recommend each other to do improper things.
9
Student likes that all members are friendly.
10*
Student dose like group working.
Field 2 average
Field 3: Reward
Student satisfies that the learning activities canenhance the abilities to connect the11mathematical knowledges together to solve theproblems.
Student likes that the learning activities help
12
student to understand the contents easier.
Student satisfies that the learning activities
make student understand the contents deeply
13
and longer.
Student likes that the learning activities can
14
make student constructs the knowledge by
yourself.
Student satisfies with the score that student
15
obtain after the leaning activities have applied.
Field 1 average
Overall average* Negative question
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4.26 0.60 High1.97 0.74 Low
4.34 0.58 High4.18 0.66 High4.29 0.61 High4.26 0.65 High1.37 0.54 Lowest
4.49 0.55 High2.17 0.70 Low
4.30 0.61 High

4.40 0.60 High4.60 0.49 Highest
4.54 0.55 Highest
4.49 0.60 High4.43 0.60 High4.49 0.57 High4.32 0.61 High

From table 4 Students satisfaction toward learning activities overall score was 4.32
(S.D. = 0.61) which was in high level, when analyzed in the individual field we foundthat the satisfaction of students toward reward field had the highest score, average
4.49 (S.D. = 0.57) which was in high level. Next, the satisfaction toward workmate,average 4.30 (S.D. = 0.61) which was in high level and the satisfaction toward thenature of work, average 4.18 (S.D. = 0.66) which was in high level as well.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science andTechnology for providing funding to support this research.

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References
Chuchuaisuwan, A. (2009). Development of a mathematical ability test for grade II
students (Master’s thesis). Bangkok, Srinakharinwirot University.
Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST). (2003).
Mathematics Assessment and Evaluation Handbook. Retrieved March 12, 2017, fromhttp://sa.ipst.ac.th/?ddownload=470
International GeoGebra Institute. (2017). About GeoGebra. Retrieved February 23,
2017, from https://www.geogebra.org/about
Kammanee, T. (2016). Teaching Knowledge to Effective Learning Process (20th ed).
Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University.
Ministry of Education. (2008). Mathematical Assessment and Assessment Handbook.
Bangkok: Office of the Basic Education Commission.
OECD. (2017). OECD Better Policies for Better Lives. Retrieved February 23, 2017,from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
Srisa-ard et al. (2017). Statistical methods for research (6th ed). Kalasin: Prasan Inc.
Contact email: max_1156@hotmail.com

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A Survey of Scientific Concepts of Grade 11th Students in Thailand
Chanapong Khumtha, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Kanyarat Sonsupap, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to survey scientific concepts understanding of grade
11th students. The sample was 116 students of academic year 2017 from school in
Thailand selected by purposive sampling. The instrument was conceptual
understanding test consisting of 15 questions. Scientific concept understanding are
divided in to 5 levels 1) Complete Understanding: CU, 2) Partial Understanding: PU,
3) Partial understanding with Specific alternative conception: PS, 4) Alternative
Conception: AC, 5) No Understanding: NU. The results showed that percentage ofstudents considered in CU and PU levels were only 4.36 and 4.20 while percentage ofstudents recognized as PU PS and NU levels were 7.87, 12.47 and 71.10 respectively.
The results indicated that most scientific concept understanding of grade 11th students
was in a low level.
Keywords: Scientific Concepts Understanding, Survey, Thailand

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Introduction
Science is the basis for learning to understand nature and the environment and thiswill result in the learner being able to link many knowledge into holistic knowledge.
It will lead to create things, develop the quality of life, and develop the world
sustainability. Science is important for developing countries. Science course is asystem of activities which seek to describe, understand, and predict natural
phenomena is term of cumulative body of experimentally verifiable laws, principles,
and theories (Josef T yap, 1989). The core of science is scientific concept
understanding. It is the ability to interpret, translate, explain about a particular topic
from the stimulus experience observation or learning. Scientific concept
understanding must requires fact and principles and then brought together into aconclusion. Then come to think of it as a conceptual. Physics is quite difficult to makestudents understand due to the fact that it compose of many abtract idea. Especially,
The concept of electricity is abstract and hard to grasp. Electricity is invisible yetomnipresent in our lives. Many models of and analogies for electricity have been
used, but none of them fully explains all of its aspects (Frederiksen, White, & Gutwill,
1999; Hart, 2008). Electricity is intangible nature causes many students, even those
who have completed a physics course, to have incorrect ideas about it and about the
behavior of electrical. If students did not understand basic concepts, it would be
difficult for them to understand new physics concepts effectively. Therefore, teachers
must know how their students perceive the concepts of electricity prior to designingappropriate learning activities to make the students understand the concepts correctly.
As above, the researcher want to survey the scientific concepts understading of grade
11th students. in Sarakhampittayakhom School, Mahasarakham Province, Thailand.
The information will be useful and can be applied in the learning activities fordeveloping students’ scientific concepts understading.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study was to survey about scientific concepts understanding of
grade 11th students.
SampleThe samples was 116 grade 11th students from 3 classrooms which have same levelsof the learning achievement of academic year 2017 from Sarakhampittayakhom
school in Thailand.
Research Instruments
The instrument in this research was the writing test consisting of 15 questions about
electricity. The findings on the scientific concepts understanding were analyzed andcategorized using the criteria of Westbrook and Marek (1992), criteria of students’scientific concepts understanding into five levels as follows:
1. Complete Understanding (CU): Responses that include all components of thevalidated response.

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2. Partial Understanding (PU): responses that include at least one of the components
of validated response, but not all the components.
3. Partial understanding with Specific alternative conception (PS): responses thatshow understanding of the concept, but also make a statement, which demonstrates a
misunderstanding.
4. Alternative Conception (AC): responses that include illogical or incorrect
information.
5. No Understanding (NU): responses that repeat the question or contain irrelevant
information or an unclear response or leave the response blank.
ProcedureIn this research, the data of the scientific concepts understanding of grade 11th
students was collected by using the scientific concepts test. The process of collecting
data as following:
1. The researcher selected the sample from 3 classrooms of grade 11th student inacademic year 2017 from Northeast of thailand by using purposive sampling.
2. The students were asked to do the test to identify scientific concepts understanding.
3. The data were analyzed and categorized using the criteria of Westbrook and Marek(1992).
Results
The levels of scientific concepts understanding of 11th grade students in Thailand
shown in 5 levels 1) Complete Understanding (CU) was 4.36% 2) Partial
Understanding (PU) was 4.20% 3) Partial understanding with Specific alternative
conception (PS) was 7.87% 4) Alternative Conception (AC) was 12.47% and 5) No
Understanding (NU) was 71.10%. The data were showed in Table 1.

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Table 1: The levels of students’ scientific concepts understanding of electricity
Concept
Electric current
Ohm's law and resistanceElectrical resistivity andelectrical conductivity
Electromotive force andelectrical potential
differenceElectrical energy andelectric power
Resistor
Electric meterlevels of scientific concepts (number ofNo. participants)
CU
PU
PS
AC
1
4
5
19
38
2
1
8
18
31
3
0
1
17
14
9
3
7
17
25
7
5
6
11
17
8
5
9
10
21
4
3
6
11
24
1
3
12
6
10

NU
50
58
84
64
77
71
72
94

14

5

1

1

10

99

11
5
6
15
12

6
0
10
27
4
2

1
0
5
19
1
1

0
8
3
4
0
6

0
14
4
0
0
13

109
94
94
66
111
94

Calculate the electricalenergy of electronics andcircuits and safe use
13electric
Included
76
73
137
217
1237
Percentage
4.36% 4.20%
7.87%
12.47% 71.10%
Note: CU = Complete Understanding, PU = Partial Understanding, PS = Partial
Understanding with Specific alternative conception, AC = Alternative Conception and
NU = No Understanding. (Westbrook, S.L., & Marek, E.A, 1992)
From the study, it was found that most students did not have scientific concept
understanding of electricity especially concepts of resistor in question no.11 andcalculate the electrical energy of electronics and circuits and safe use electric inquestion no.12 which were 109 and 111 students respectively.
Conclusion and discussion
According to the study, it was found that the answers of students were not correct
because a lot of students could not describe the reason of their answer or do thecalculations. From student informal interview, we found a lot of students did notunderstand concepts of electricity because it was difficult to understand and they had
to calculate too many equations. Therefore, this might be the reasons why 116
students were classified to No Understanding (NU) and Alternative Conception (AC).
These might be because teachers often taught electricity by merely explanation or
having some illustrations, and as a result, the teachers could not explain the steps ofcalculate clearly, and the students hardly imagined and then misunderstood. In thelearning process that encourages students to analyze information and to have concrete
visualization by themselves, the teacher might use new learning activities orexperimental that can help the students apply their experience. According to theconstructivist teaching approach, information is constructed socially (Duit, 2002) and

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internal motivation gained through group work has an important role in structuring theknowledge (Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993).
Recommendation
This research describes about the level of the scientific concepts understanding of
only grade 11th students in Sarakhampittayakhom school, Thailand.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science andTechnology for providing funding to support this research.

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References
Duit, R. (2002). Conceptual change – still a powerful frame for improving scienceteaching and learning? Paper presented in the third European Symposium on
Conceptual Change, June 26-28. 2002, Turku, Finland.
Frederiksen, J. R., White, B. Y., & Gutwill, J. (1999). Dynamic mental models in
learning science: The importance of constructing derivational linkages among models.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36, 806-836
Hart, C. (2008). Models in physics, models for physics learning, and why thedistinction may matter in the case of electric circuits. Research in Science Education,
38, 529-544.
Josef T. yap. (1989). Concept paper on science and technology. Journal of Philippine
Development. No 20-9, Vol 16, No 2.
Pintrich, P. R., Marx, R. W., & Boyle, R. A. (1993). Beyond cold conceptual change:
The role of motivational beliefs and classroom contextual factors in the process ofconceptual change. Review of Educational Research, 6, 167-199.
Westbrook, S.L., & Marek, E.A. (1992). A cross-age study of student understandingof the concept of diffusion. Journal of Research in Science Teaching: 649-660.
Contact email: chanapong.kh.55@ubu.ac.th

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Official Conference ProceedingsInternal Audit in the Philippine Provincial Government Office (PGO)
Ruth P. Carlos, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines
Sylvia Alcala Sarmiento, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, The Philippines
Lilian Dela Merced-Litonjua, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, The
Philippines
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The study evaluates the internal audit of Provincial Government Office (PGO) interms of the organizational attributes and functions to identify the demographic
profile of respondents, its organizational perspective and the internal audit activities
performed by the office. Results show that most of the respondents have taken
Accountancy course with professional licensure of Certified Public Accountants withthe designation positions as Internal Auditor on a hold over capacity of theirpermanent plantilla position such as Accountant IV, Management and Audit Analyst
and Provincial Government Division Head. On the position level in the organization,
majority are internal audit supervisors. On the aspects of organizational perspective,
most of the units are created by an Executive Order and established within one tothree years or newly created with one to three personnel complement. For the internal
audit activities performed by the unit, the highest frequency is “Audit of compliancewith regulatory requirements.” The significant difference in demographic profile if
the respondents are the college course taken which reveals that there are Nursing and
Biology graduates were assigned and on organizational perspective, their creation was
thru office order with insufficient staff. Thus, the researcher then recommends for theoversight bodies of the PGO to necessitate the institutionalization of the Internal
Audit Unit in compliance with existing provisions and for the academic institution toinfuse more topics on government accountability and public financial management in
the general education system.
Keywords: (Internal Audit, Organizational Perspective, Compliance)

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Introduction
Internal audit in the Philippines have been developed throughout the years. The seriesof laws and executive issuances have been made the internal audit in the government.
As early as 1962, the law that creates for internal audit was issued – the Republic Act
3456 or the Internal Auditing Act of 1962. This serves as the general reference,
policies and other legal instrumentalities that pertain to government internal audit.
The act provided for the creation, organization and operation of internal audit services
as an independent staff unit in all departments bureaus, and offices of the national
government. Then the broadening of the coverage by amending the RA 3456 to RA
4177 on March 26, 1965 of the internal auditing to include the local government andgovernment owned and controlled corporations.
Several forces in recent times have also led to an intense evolution in internal
auditing. These forces include the need for an improved accountability in utilizing
public money and the increasing expectations of the public for the most economical,
efficient and effective manner of delivering public services. These require
government agencies to be transparent, that is to provide the public the adequate
information about government and services. There have been establishedadministrative safeguards and system of controls in the government agencies toensure efficient and effective operations yet there is still the need to evaluate thesecontrols. Conditions may change and new technology emerge thus systems of controls
must also constantly updated so as the internal audit process and activities.
Internal auditing is an independent appraisal activity design to add value and improvethe effectiveness of risk management, control and governance.(ISPPIA 2013)
Government agencies realized the importance of internal auditing and recognized
their need for it but others are reluctant in giving full support. This perspective
probably stems from lack of understanding of the true nature, objective and functionof internal auditing (Dizon, 1990).
At present, internal auditing is not limited to review of accounting and financial
activities but an appraisal, verification and analysis of financial, operations andcompliance on procedures, regulations, policies and programs, and achievement of
performance, targets and contractual obligations.
One of the economic agenda of the current administration highlights the importanceof a reliable road network that brings people to work and back to their families
affordably and ease. The goal is also to strengthen LGUs as able partners in national
development which will be fulfilled not by giving additional funds out of political willor favor but to condition such resources in the implementation of higher governance,
standards, improvement of their capacity to generate resources and strengthening of
their ability to deliver basic services. (DILG- DBM joint Circular Memorandum
no.2017 – 2 dated April 26, 2017)
To improve the competency of the provinces in public financial management which
defines—a system of rules, procedures, and practices for government to manage
public finances. It encompasses budgeting, accounting, auditing, cash management,
management of public debt, revenue generation and public reporting on public sector
financial operations.

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While Internal Control is the plan of organization and its coordinate methods andmeasures to safeguard its asset, check the accuracy and reliability of accounting
records an encourage adherence to prescribed managerial policies. This essential
element of the internal control is control environment. It consists of the organizational
structure, as well as the management and personnel set-up of an agency. The creationof an agency is always for a specific purpose and the structure of an agency should bebased on its particular mandate, mission and functions. Coordinated Methods andMeasures are the control processes that are implemented and which form part of thenormal recurring operations of an organization. They comprise the policies, rules andregulations in every agency management system that support and it became integral tothe operations. Under the view of the private entity Internal control - as the process
designed and effected by those charged with governance, management, and otherpersonnel to provide reasonable assurance about the achievement of the entity’s
objective. (System and procedures plus human resources working to achieve thecommon goal)
Internal Audit in Provincial Local Governments.
The Local Government Code of 1991 provides that local accountant shall also
perform internal audit services. This is entirely questionable and unacceptable. Thus,
the provisions of AO No. 70 and DBM Budget Circular No. 20014-4 mandating
LGU’s to create a separate IAU equivalent to a department level are both honored andhailed. However, there are sectors whose legal conviction is that the Code should be
followed. (Internal Auditing in Philippine Government: Initiatives, Issues andProspects by Rufo Mendoza, PhD, CPA)
The issue of disparity is not only seen in the international-local dichotomy. This isequally apparent in the practices across and within levels of government. The
discrepancy happens not only in organizational structure and staffing but also in thescope and nature of services rendered.
A survey commissioned by The PAGC and conducted by a private auditing firm,
SGV & Co. showed that a relatively large number of government agencies do nothave IAU’s: 44% in NGAs48% in SUCs, 27% in GOCCs 65% in provincial and city
government and 100% in municipal government. The survey reflects the apparent lackof compliance to government issuances, it also shows that the government is keeping
track of the state progress of IAS in various agencies. The project is expected toresult in IAUs established in more agencies and LGUs as well as provide adequate
internal control in the government and high standards of IA operations.
This research used descriptive method specifically the survey questionnaire as themain tool in gathering the needed data. The questionnaire was designed to answer
the problems raised in this study and focus on gathering the status, problem andprospects of IAU among the PGO in the Philippines. The respondents of this researchwere the Head of Internal Audit ( HoIA) unit or by the representatives of PGO that arepresent during the Training-Workshop on the Implementation of Internal Audit Unit
and Internal Control System for Provincial LGU’s.

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The following is the profile of the PGO as to place represented:
No. of Province

No. of Person Represented

Luzon

24

50

Visayas6

6

Mindanao

8

16

Total

38

72

The PGO represented on the said conference have a total of seventy four ,and thenumber of provinces are thirty eight which is 46.9 % of the PGO in the Philippines.
Interview was also used to gather pertinent data of the research.
Under the CMGP Program on criteria( B) entitled Public Financial Management,Internal Audit Unit must be established and functional in accordance with applicableguidelines issued by DBM and CSC and the projects of the provincial offices are
regularly subjected to internal audit process based on the approved Internal Audit
Plan. Internal Audit Positions. Legislations and executive issuances on the creation of
IA in the government among others are RA No. 3456 issued June 16, 1962 with thegeneral provisions in providing for the creation, organization and operation of internal
audit services in all departments, bureaus, and offices of the national government andRA 4177 issued March 26, 1965 amendments to RA 3456 to include Local
Government Units and Government Owned and Controlled Corporations, PD 1445
issued June 11, 1978 Government Auditing Code of the Philippines, RA 7160 issued
on Oct 10, 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines, providing for the local
accountant to take charge of internal audit services and AO No. 70 Strengthening of
the internal control systems of government offices, agencies government owned anc
control corporations including government financial institutions and local government
units (LGUs) in their operations. Internal Audit positions in the PGO with
Designations have frequency of 19 with a percentage of 50%, while those with
Plantilla positions are 9 PGO with percentage of 23.68%, while other positions arebeing carried to the office without designations nor plantilla item positions. These
series of laws for the creation of IA in the government has not enable various units toestablish the IA in their respective offices. The DBM Circular 2004-4 was issued
March 22, 2004 the Guidelines on the Organization and staffing of Internal Audit
Units (IAUs) with CSC MC No. 12 issued June 22, 2006 provides the qualification
standards for internal auditor positions. Despite of these, the IA positions in theProvincial Government have low turnout in the creations of IAUs.
The PGO with Internal Audit Units are performing “Audit of compliance withregulatory requirements” got the highest frequency of 18 and followed by “Evaluating
effectiveness of control system” which has a frequency of 17. For the governancereform targets for the PGO in connection with the Internal Audit activities, there must
be a Baseline Assessment of Internal Control Systems (BAICS) .
Furthermore, on the aspect of the “Service and Role of IA” a study on IA in the public
sector conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Research Foundations,they use the Internal Audit Capability Model Matrix to determine what level is theorganization with identified matrix on the capability of internal audit. The matrix for

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Services and Role Of IA for level 1 have indicate of an Ad Hoc and unstructured;
isolated single audits or reviews of documents and transactions for accuracy andcompliance; outputs dependent upon the skills of specific individuals holding theposition, no specific professional practices established other thatn those provided byprofessional associations; funding approved by management\, as needed; absence ofinfrastructure; auditors; likely part of a larger organizational unit; no establishedcapabilities; therefore no specific key process areas. For Level 2 Compliance auditing
and Level 3 Advisory services : Performance/ Value for Money Audit. This study
shows sixty two have no response.
As per Administrative Order No. 278, the internal audit activities include ascertaining
the reliability and integrity of financial and operational information, ascertaining theextent of compliance and reviewing the system established, ascertaining the extent towhich the assets and other resources are accounted for and safeguarded from losses ofall kinds among others. With these guidelines the IA have the awareness of their roleand responsibilities of IAU in the government.
On the CMGP Program again on the criteria( B) entitled Public Financial
Management, Internal Audit Unit must be established and functional in accordancewith applicable guidelines issued Furthermore, the recommendations in the Internal
Audit Report must be promptly implemented by the Local Chief Executives and theconcerned provincial offices.
Conclusions
The Provincial Government Office represented in the study consists of fifty provincesfrom Luzon, six provinces in Visayas and sixteen provinces in Mindanao with a totalof 72 respondents. The current state of Internal Audit Unit in the PGO is characterized
by the following: Internal Audit Units consists of the college course taken with
Bachelor in Accountancy have a percentage of 37.52 with CPA licensed percentage of
23.6, with designation percentage of 50 as Internal Auditor. The respondents withcollege course taken of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy have the highest
frequency of 27 which is evident that the internal audit in the government is theprimary course to consider in the post. The other course taken are part of businesscourses such as Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Bachelor in Businessadministration major in Marketing Management and Engineering courses that isnecessary for the performance of some IA functions.
Table 1: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Organizational Attributes as toCreation of Internal Audit
Organizational Attributes ofInternal Audit in PGO
Created by Executive Order
Institutionalized
Without Internal Audit Unit

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16
14
8
38

239

Percentage
42.10%
36.85%
21.05%
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For the organizational attributes of the Provincial Government Office with Internal
Audit Unit / Service that are created by Executive Orders are 16 provinces with small
number of personnel under the bracket of 1-3 of employees with 1-3 years establishedin the province and have several names of office such as Internal Audit Service
Division, PGO Internal Audit Section, Provincial Internal Audit Service andProvincial Internal Audit Office. For the position title for IA, most of the positions
are by designations specifically on provincial local government units (LGUs) for
which the Provincial Accountants are designated as IA and at the same time
performing both functions in their operations.
Internal Audit positions in the PGO with Designations have frequency of elevenrespondents while those with Plantilla positions are nine provinces while otherpositions are being carried to the office without designations nor plantilla item
positions.
The series of laws and guidelines for the creation of IA in the government has notenable various units in the government to establish the IA in their respective offices.
The DBM Circular 2004-4 was issued March 22, 2004 as the guidelines on theorganization and staffing of Internal Audit Units (IAUs) with CSC MC No. 12 issued
June 22, 2006 provides the qualification standards for internal auditor positions. With
these guidelines, the IA positions in the Provincial Government have not yet still
institutional in their respective provinces or agencies units thus creations of IAUs
needs more compliance. For the total number of employees in provinces with IA mostof the personnel complement is 1-3 employees only, for which include the HoIA,
Supervisor or staff IA. Provinces with IA have 1 – 3 years established indicating thatsome are only created for the compliance on the CMGP program for them to qualify
in the grant for financial subsidy to provincial LGUs.
Table 2: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of IA Positions
PGO with Internal
Positions
Designations
With Plantilla Positions
Others
Total

Audit

Title
Frequency
19
9
10
38

Percentage
50.00%
23.68%
26.32%
100.00%On the “Service and Role of IA” This study shows sixty two have no response whichshows that most of the provincial IA are not aware of the structured role and services
of internal auditing. They have limited knowledge on the “Services and Role of IA“which resulted to their functions are based on the instructions from the provincial
local chief executives. For the activities performed by Internal Audit Units in the
PGO most activities are “Audit of compliance with regulatory requirements,
evaluating effectiveness of control system, Auditing financial report Investigation of
fraud and irregularities, and other duties that are found necessary with conduct ofaudit. This means the IA activities are isolated single audits or reviews of documents
and transactions for accuracy and compliance; outputs dependent upon the skills of
specific individuals holding the position, no specific professional practices establishedother that those provided by professional associations; funding approved bymanagement\, as needed; absence of infrastructure; auditors; likely part of a larger

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Table 3: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of IA Activities ConductedInternal Audit Activities ConductedAudit of compliance with regulatory requirements
Evaluating effectiveness of control system
Auditing financial reports
Investigation of fraud and irregularities
OthersFrequency
18
17
11
8
10

The researcher recommends for the oversight bodies in the creation and establishmentof IAUs in the government to necessitate the implementation of the enabling laws in
IA by giving allocation of budget by DBM and continue making incentive programs
and rewards to its creation and maintenance and functional IAUs.
For the higher educations and academic institutions the researcher suggests for the
inclusion of subjects or topics on government accountability and public financial
management in the general education system for readiness in working in thegovernment and also to be able practice public accountability.
For the Government Internal Auditors either by designations or permanent plantilla
positions to aim and pursue graduate and post graduate studies to enhance theircompetencies and to make them more qualified in the IA positions. To continue
establishing linkages and joining organizations of internal auditors as this will help
them in the practice of the IA profession.

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References
Mendoza, R. R. (2008). State of Compliance and Implementation of National Internal
Audit Mandates by Local Government Units in the Philippines. Asian Institue ofManagement. Social Science Electronic Publishing: Retrieved from:http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2392900
Sabio, C. J (2013) The State of Internal Audit in Selected Philippine Government
Agencies: Basis for Policy Advocacy. International Journal of Information
Technology and Business Management 18(1). Philippines: University of the City of
Manila. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED458340.pdf
Santiago, M. M. (2013). Status, Problems, and Prospects on Internal Audit Servicesof State Universities and Colleges in Philippines Towards Strenghtening
Internal Control Systems. Review of Integrative Business and Economics
Research 2(1). Philippines: Tarlac State University. Retrieved fromhttp://sibresearch.org/uploads/2/7/9/9/2799227/riber_k13-014_38-50.pdf
Xian, S., McDonald, R.N. Parkinson, M.(2010).Corporate Governance and the Roleof Internal Audit in Asia. Asian Development Bank.
Bibliography
Department of Budget and Management. (2008). National Guidelines on Internal
Control System (NGICS. Philippines.
Dizon, C. L. (1973). Internal Auditing: Principles and Practices. Philippines: Instituteof Internal Auditors, Inc.
Fess, P. E. & Warren, C. S. (2011). Accounting Principles 15th ed USA: SouthWestern Educational Publishing
Liz, Ma. D., Ruado, E. and Domingo, E. (2013). Accounting for Governmental, Not
for Profit Organizations and Specialized Industries.
Macintosh, N. & Quattrone, P. (2010). Management Accounting and Control System:
An Organizational and Sociological Approach. West Susses: John Wiley & Sons. P.
Magadia, G., Sarmiento, S. & Valdres, A. (2014). Applied Auditing.
Philippine Generic Internal Audit Manual (PGIAM) 2008
Ricchiute, D. Accompany Auditing
The Institute of Internal Auditors. (2012). International Standards for theProfessional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards). USA
Zulueta, F. M. & Perez, J. R. (2010). Methods of Research Thesis Writing andApplied Statistics. Mandaluyong City: National Book StoreISSN: 2189-101X

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A Survey of the Mathematics Problem Solving Ability of Grade 10th Students in
Thailand
Apisit Thngkingdang, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Montri Thongmoon, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to survey the Mathematics Problem Solving ability ofgrade 10th students. The participants were 51, grade 10th students at
Sarakhampittayakhom school in Mahasarakham province, Thailand, 2nd semester of2017 that selected by purposive sampling. The instrument was Mathematics Problem
Solving ability test that was multiple choice, 30 articles. The data was analyzed byusing mean, percentage and standard deviation. It was found that the mean score of
Mathematics Problem Solving test was 15.57 of 30. In addition, the percentage ofMathematics Problem Solving score can show qualitative score as follows more than
80 percent is excellent, 60-79 percent is good, 50-59 percent is medium, less than 50
percent is weak. The results show that the number of students who were excellent
level were 4, good level were 8, medium level were 17 and weak level were 22.
Keywords: Mathematics Problem Solving Ability

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Introduction
Mathematics problems are really difficult. These statements are quite familiarly heard
when students are inquired about their homework. They seem to be struggling with
their homework especially on mathematics problem-solving. Mathematics problem
solving is not a topic but a process underlie the whole mathematics programmes
which contextually helped concepts and skills to be learned (Ibrahim 1997). Manymathematics skills were involved in problem-solving. However, large numbers ofstudents have not acquired the basic skills they need in mathematics (Mohd Nizam &Rosaznisham 2004; Berch & Mazzocco 2007).
According to the results of The National Institute of Educational Testing Service(Public Organization) (O-NET) in Thailand indicate the grade 12th Students in
Thailand, academic year 2559 had a mean score 24.88 points out of 100 points, which
lower than the benchmark of 50 percent. (National Institute for Educational Testing2017). Problem solving is a core of mathematics because the students have to use
thinking skill, principles, rules and formulas in mathematic for solving problems
successfully. In addition mathematics problem solving ability is important skill forlearning mathematics so teachers should thoroughly teach the process of problems
solving skill to students and teacher have to explain each process of problem solving
until all students understanding. Although there are some students who can solve theproblems by themselves but many students do not know how to start the solving
problem, how to solve the problem. As the result shows that some students lack basic
knowledge and they do not understand the correct problem solving process.
(IPST.209).
Problem-solving is categorized into two aspects; i) how the problems are deliveredlinguistic (using words) or non- linguistic (using graphic or problem based); and ii)
the illumination of the problem structure – information, objective and action-plan(Zhining et al. 1995). According to Ibrahim (1997), there are two main procedural
steps in problem- solving: i) transforming the problem into mathematical sentences;and ii) computation of the operational involved in the mathematical sentences.
Difficulties faced among students were more noticeable during the first procedural
step in solving problem compared to the other. Polya (1981) problem-solving have 4hierarchy phase; i) understanding problem; ii) planning; iii) performing the plan; iv)
confirmation of the answer. It’s obviously show that the process starting from theminute students is faced with the problem until the end when the problem is solved.
As above, the researcher want to survey the mathematics problem solving ability ofgrade 1oth students. in Sarakhampittayakhom School, Mahasarakham Province,
Thailand. The information will be useful and can be applied in the learning activities
to enhance students’ mathematics problem solving ability.
Research Purposes
The purpose of this study was to survey the Mathematics Problem Solving ability ofgrade 10th students.

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Target group
The target group was 51 students of Grade 10th student (Room 7) in academic year2017 from Sarakhampittayakhom School, Muang Mahasarakham, Thailand.
Research Instruments
The research instrument of this study was Mathematics Problem Solving ability test
that was multiple choice, 30 articles.
Methodology
In this research, the data of mathematics problem solving ability was collected byusing the multiple choice, 30 articles. The process of collecting data as following:
1. The researcher selected the sample from 3 classrooms of grade 10th student inacademic year 2016 from Northeast of Thailand by using purposive sampling.
2. The students were asked to do the test to identify mathematics problem solving
ability.
3. The data were analyzed and categorized using the criteria of The institute for the
Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST).
Result
The levels of mathematics problem solving ability of 10th grade students in Thailand
shown in 4 levels 1) excellent were 4 2) good were 8 3) medium were 17 and 4) weak
were 22. The data were shows in Table 1.

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Table 1: The levels of mathematics problem solving ability of each students.
No. Score Percentage level
No. Score Percentage level
1

18

60.00

good

27

12

40.00

weak

2

7

23.33

weak

28

16

53.33

medium

3

15

50.00

medium

29

12

40.00

weak

4

17

56.67

medium

30

17

56.67

medium

5

20

66.67

good

31

16

53.33

medium

6

12

20.00

weak

32

21

70.00

good

7

16

53.33

medium

33

11

36.67

weak

8

15

50.00

medium

34

16

53.33

medium

9

14

46.67

weak

35

10

33.33

weak

10

16

53.33

medium

36

19

63.33

weak

11

14

46.67

weak

37

12

40.00

weak

12

15

50.00

medium

38

10

33.33

weak

13

8

26.67

weak

39

24

80.00

excellent

14

23

76.67

good

40

14

46.67

weak

15

17

56.67

medium

41

17

56.67

medium

16

12

40.00

weak

42

8

26.67

weak

17

21

70.00

good

43

11

36.67

weak

18

14

46.67

weak

44

16

53.33

medium

19

16

53.33

medium

45

16

53.33

medium

20

20

66.67

good

46

11

36.67

weak

21

14

46.67

weak

47

17

56.67

medium

22

14

46,67

weak

48

25

83.33

excellent

23

24

80.00

excellent

49

13

43.33

weak

24

13

43.33

weak

50

16

53.33

medium

25

23

76.67

good

51

12

40.00

weak

26

24

80.00

excellent

The results show that the percentage of mathematics problem solving ability levels ofstudents, excellent level was 7.84%, good level was 15.69%, medium level was
33.33% and weak level was 43.14%. The data were shows in Table 2.

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Table 2: The number of students and percentage.
LevelsNumber of students
Percentage
Excellent (more than 80%) 4
7.84
Good (60-79%)
8
15.69
Medium (50-59%)
17
33.33
Weak (less than 50%)22
43.14
Conclusion and discussion
According to the study, it was found that the answers of students were not correct
because they cannot solve the mathematics problems and a lot of student lack ofknowledge basic, calculating skill. In addition, the researcher have interviewed thestudents about how to solve mathematic problems. From student inquiries, we foundthat many students did not understand questions and they do not know how to begin
for solving mathematic problems. Therefore, this might be the reasons why 22
students were classified to weak level. As a result, the teachers should teach the stepsof solving problem and explain the process of solving clearly. The teacher might use
new learning activities to enhance mathematics problem solving ability of students.
This statement was supported by (Bender, 2012). Students who experienced
difficulties reading a problem were unable to provide correct answers. In addition,correct of the problem may not be enough for finding the correct answers to a
problem, because the mathematical problems involved in the problem must also be
understood. There is also a need for students to develop problem solving skill besides
understanding the process of the problem solving and the basic knowledge involved in
the problem. In addition to the development of problem solving skill, how to apply
these strategies to new situations must be understood correctly. Strengthening teacherstudent and student-student relationships is very importance for the understanding ofmathematics problems (Mercer & Sams, 2008). Therefore, basic knowledge and the
problem solving skills of students should be handled together and instructional
activities should focus on the process of mathematics problem solving and anothermathematics skills.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science andTechnology for providing funding to support this research.

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References
Bender, W., N. (2012). Öğrenme güçlüğü olan bireyler ve eğitimleri. (Tr.Ed.: Hakan
Sarı). Ankara: Nobel.
Berch, D.B. & Mazzocco M.M.M. (2007). Why is math so hard for some children?
The Nature and Origins of Mathematical Learning Difficulties and Disabilities.
Maryland:Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Ibrahim Ismail (1997). Di Mana Susahnya Matematik? Jurnal Pengurusan
Pendidikan 7: 17– 21
Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology. (2009). The resultsof international science assessment: PISA and TIMSS. Bangkok: a-roon printing.
Mercer N., & Sams, C. (2006). Teaching children how to use language to solve maths
problems,Language and Education, 20(6), 507-528.
Mohd Nizam Ali & Rosaznisham Desa (2004). Meningkatkan Kemahiran Mengingat
Sifir 3,6 dan 9 di Kalangan Murid Pemulihan Tahap 2. Jurnal Kajian Tindakan
Pelajar PSPK. Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysi, 102 – 112.
OECD. (2017). OECD Better Policies for Better Lives. Retrieved February 23, 2017,from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
Polya, G. (1981). Mathematical Discovery on Understanding Learning and Teaching
Problem Solving. NewYork: John Wiley and sonsZhining Qi., Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R.T. (1995). Cooperative versus Competitive
Effort and Problem Solving. Review of Educational Research 1: 129– 143.
Contact email: apisit93bank@gmail.com

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An Introduction to Intercultural Communication Using Scenes from the Film,
Zootopia
Mikako Nobuhara, Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Japan
Satomi Yoshimuta, International Christian University, Japan
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Abstract
This study reports on the use of the Disney film, Zootopia, as an educational tool in acollege-level English course. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT) prioritizes the advancement of international education. We
argue that, to this end, it is important to develop activities to enhance students’intercultural understanding. Using interesting clips from popular films is an effective
way of motivating students and nurturing their understanding. This study aims toenhance participants’ intercultural understanding through a practice-based EFL (EFL:
English as a Foreign Language) course. To this end, students were divided into pairs
and group and were required to discuss and note their ideas on worksheets. The
practical EFL course was designed especially for students from Kosen College, Japan.
The results of questionnaires administered before and after the classes revealed thatthe course enabled the students to enhance their intercultural competence. In
particular, screening certain scenes from Zootopia enabled the students to enhancetheir intercultural competence and capacity for intercultural communication. This
study can also be used a framework for designing practice-based EFL classes toenhance students’ intercultural understanding.
Keywords: communication, EFL, film, intercultural competence, intercultural
understanding, material development, stereotype

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Introduction
As the number of countries dealing with the phenomenon of immigration has
increased recently, the question of multiculturalism has become more salient among
the international community. Notably, the United States of America (USA) alone hasreceived approximately 60 million immigrants from all over the world since the midnineteenth century. As a result, it is currently the most multiracial and multiculturalstate in the world (Nakano, 2010). Immigration does not only engender diversity andmulticulturalism; it also complicates intercultural communication, and this sometimes
results in communication problems.
Zootopia (2016), a recent Disney film, calls attention to the challenges posed byintercultural communication. Interestingly, the animated film does so by presenting adiverse world populated by various species of anthropomorphic mammals. Unlike
previous Disney films, Zootopia focuses on real-life interracial or interculturalproblems. In addition, the film is also a significant departure from Disney’s
preference for formulaic happy-ending stories. For the purpose of this study, we
designed an intercultural workshop based on the theoretical work of Kim andGudykunst (2003). Feedback received from the participants showed that the workshop
enabled them to become more aware of the challenges engendered by increased
intercultural interaction. The workshop facilitated in-depth discussions in theparticipants’ mother tongues to improve their awareness and understanding of thenuances of intercultural communication.
Literature Review
Although the Ministry of Education, Technology and Science (hereinafter referred toas MEXT) has prioritized the cultivation of intercultural competence in its drive todevelop global human resources, Japanese higher education, however, does notprovide many opportunities for students to develop their intercultural competence.
Nonetheless, to address the challenges posed by increasing globalization, the ministry
aims to develop global human resources with good English proficiency and a soundunderstanding of the demands and nuances of intercultural communication. To thisend, the Japanese government also seeks to enhance intercultural competence at thetertiary levels of Japanese educational settings (Central Council for Education, 1996
and 2010).
Japanese teachers, therefore, focus on facilitating intercultural communication toenhance students’ intercultural competence, which is fast becoming a critical skill in
the context of global human resources. Aoki’s Intercultural Communication (2016),
one of the most popular books in this field, argues that intercultural understanding is
mainly impeded by the wide circulation of one-sided stereotypes, which, the author
argues, is mostly politically motivated.
It is especially important to tackle stereotypes to enhance intercultural competence
through formal education. Moreover, it is not possible to acquire unbiased
perspectives without challenging and eliminating the assumptions we produce
naturally and unconsciously in our daily life. Hanamitsu et. al (2013) suggest thatstereotype is a form of patterned thinking, which mostly affects people’s perceptionsof social categories, such as sex, occupation, and race. Human beings also tend to rely

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on stereotypes to process information, which in turn has a negative impact on theircapacity for intercultural competence.
The DIE theory, developed Gudykunst and Kim (2003), focuses on the cognitive
processes involved in social interactions, including the application of stereotypes. In
particular, the theory focuses on three cognitive processes people typically employ
when they meet strangers: description, interpretation, and evaluation. Description
pertains to the ways in which we cognitively register objective details of our meeting.
Our interpretations, the theory suggests, are shaped by on our experience andperceptions. Our evaluation of the person and the meeting are based on our points ofview, which in turn are shaped by our cultural background. As per Gudykunst andKim, although we typically go through these process without much cognitive
mediation, a person of high intercultural competence, they argue, is capable ofcontrolling not only these processes but also their assumptions or stereotypes.
Therefore, one way to enhance students’ intercultural competence is by teaching themto control these cognitive processes.
Research Questions
Given the above, this study mainly examines the following two questions:
Q1) How do films help students to improve their intercultural competence
and communication?
Q2) Can the DIE Theory enable students to understand the nuances ofintercultural communication?
Methods
Research Site: Kosen college in Japan
Unlike most Japanese universities, Kosen College offers a five-year, practical andprofessional education program for junior high school graduates. In some cases, thecollege offers seven-year education programs for students, especially engineers,
enrolled in advanced courses. These courses cater especially to students who alreadythe possess the capacity to work in mid-level roles in industrial production sites. In
the earlier stages of the regular five-year program, students are offered both generaland specialized education, but the focus lies on providing quality general education.
In the later stages, however, students are offered more specialized education. Students
enrolled in the regular course become members of the Monozukuri Engineering
Department and recieve associate degrees, whereas students in the advanced course
receive a bachelor’s degree in Creative Engineering.
Main Educational Goals:
Both courses focus on developing the following skills: practical skills, basic skills,
humanity and social skills, communication skills, and creative skills. By developing
students’ communication skills, the college aims to produce engineers who cancommunicate clearly in a globalized world and workspace.

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The college mainly prepares students for TOEIC (Test of English as International
Communication). However, the college does not offer courses to help students
understand the nuances of intercultural communication. Therefore, this study aims tointroduce students to the basic principles of intercultural communication, thereby
creating awareness about this type of communication.
Participant Profile:
In total, 164 third grade students from Kosen College participated in the study. The
participants were divided into 4 groups and were required to enroll in English 3
during the course of this study. The average TOEIC score was approximately 327,
which is a typical beginner level EFL score. Although most participants had not
traveled abroad, all of them regarded English as an essential language.
Typically, one of us—the researchers—taught the students, whereas the otherobserved the class. We chose a scene involving Judy and Nick at the US Departmentof Motor Vehicles (DMV) as the communication setting. In this scene, Judy and Nickfind it difficult to obtain information from a clerk at the DMV.
In the film, all clerks at the DMV, a notoriously crowded place, are sloths, a slowmoving arboreal mammal. Judy and Nick find it extremely difficult to communicate
with these sloths. This scene was chosen because it involved simple English dialog. In
addition, the participants were able to empathize with Judy. Participants found it
easier to relate to and understand Judy’s body movements, facial expressions, and hertone of speaking.
This study is based on the content analysis method developed by Ishii, S. et al (2013).
Content analysis is especially useful in the context of intercultural communication
research, and it requires the researcher to register free descriptions in an Excel
worksheet. We used this method to identify the keywords students tended to use ineach task. According to AXSIS Corporations, a Japanese consulting firm, keywords
can be identified using three main steps: extracting, arranging, and identifying. By
doing so, researchers can identify frequently used key words or phrases.
Results
Participants were informed beforehand that they would mainly be required to answer
subjective questions during the workshop; they were only required to substantiate
their answers. Participants were also required to prepare for in-depth discussions.
Participants were required to watch the film the CALL classroom. However, they
watched the film on their own PCs. After watching the film, the students were
instructed to assess Judy’s situation using the DIE theory. They were also required toregister comments in a worksheet. Following this, students discussed the scene inpairs and groups. Students then presented their thoughts and ideas using a
microphone.
We observed that the students were curious and excited about the workshop. In fact,
the workshop was the students’ first experience of a practical class about intercultural
understanding. Overall, the atmosphere was conducive for learning and the students

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were very willing to participate in the proceedings. Students were also required tocomplete a questionnaire at the end of the workshop.
Through the workshop, students realized that, as future engineers, it was important forthem to develop intercultural understanding. They also realized the importance ofaddressing and overcoming stereotypes.
Discussion
Students were required to recall the basic points about the DIE theory before viewing
the clip. We explained the task, including how to fill the worksheet, in Japanese.
However, we did not inform the students beforehand that they were only required tofocus on Judy’s point of view. As a result, some students were confused and found it
difficult to complete the task. For instance, some students assumed that they wererequired to focus on Flash’s point of view. We realized that it was very important toprovide clear instructions beforehand.
After watching the clip, the students discussed the significance of the scene. The
discussion was also intended as an exercise in listening. In addition, the students also
engaged in what Yashiro (2016) calls assertive communication. Overall, we
encountered no problems during the workshop, and students were more forthcoming
than anticipated. Almost all students answered the questionnaire positively. Some of
their comments are as follows: “I enjoyed the class and sharing ideas is meaningful.”“We should accept the difference in a global society.” “In Japan, Flash is a
representation for elderly people or people who work very quickly.” “From now on, I
would like to communicate with people without any discrimination.” “I want to takethis kind of lessons more in the future.”
In addition, one of the comments read, “We should hire people for a suitable job. Thatis more effective.” Through the workshop, the students also learned how to create
efficient products. Approximately 67% of the participants answered the freedescription question.
Future studies should aim to encourage students to think about the stereotypes
circulated within Japan society, as well as the common stereotypes about Japanesepeople.
Conclusion
In sum, by screening certain scenes from the film, Zootopia, we were able to enhance
students’ understanding of intercultural communication. In addition, this study can beused a guide for designing introductory lectures and educational programs about
intercultural understanding. The short duration of the workshop and the number of theparticipants limit the generalizability of the findings. We also aim to conduct
experimental lessons for other students of the college as well.
Acknowledgment
Funding from Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology is gratefully
acknowledged. (Annual Funding for Education Improvement)

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References
Analysis on the date of questionnaire online (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2018, fromAXSIS Corporations’ Website: https://www.axis-corp.com/analysis/3518.html 「Webアンケートの種類・特性とエクセ ルを使った効率的な集計方法」
Aoki, T. (2016). Intercultural communication. (24th ed.). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Available in Japanese.
Central Council for Education. (1997). The model for Japanese education in theperspective of the 21st century: 2nd report by the central council for education.
Retrieved from: http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA36764598
Central Council for Education. (2010). The Concept of Global Human Resource
Development Focusing on the East Asian Region. (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttp://www.mext.go.jp/en/policy/education/highered/title02/detail02/sdetail02/
1373900.htm
Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (2003). Communicating with strangers: An
approach to intercultural communication. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Hanamitsu, R., Otsuki, A., & Shimizu, J. (2013). Fostering interculturalcommunication and literacy of stereotype: Dichotomy in movies [ステレオタイプに学
ぶ異文化理解と読み取る力の育成:映画に見る二項対立]. ATEM Journal, 18, 109121. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24499/atem.18.0_109 Available in Japanese.
Harasawa, I. (2016). Introduction to intercultural understanding. (5th ed.). Tokyo:
Kenkyusha.
Ishii, S et al. (2013). Introduction to intercultural understanding. Tokyo: Yuhikaku(p.254).
Yashiro, K et al. (2001). Workbook for Intercultural Communication. (八代他. 異文化コミュニケーションワークブック) Tokyo: Sanshusha.
Contact email: nobuharamikako@metro-cit.ac.jp

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Appendix: Worksheet
ZOOTOPIA Handout
Class

No

Name

Practice ： 映画を観て、次の内容について考えてみよう。
Scene: Meeting Flash （哺乳類自動車局 DMV での場面）登場人物 Judy ウサギ、Nick キツネ、Flash ナマケモノ
Description (状況判断):客観的に状況を説明してください。誰がどこで何をしていますか？
Interpretation (解釈):Judy は、この状況から何が分かった？
Evaluation (価値判断):
Judy にとって、解釈した状況は好ましいですか？嫌いですか？ その理由は？

1. ビデオクリップを再度みて、()に英単語一語を入れなさい。
Nick: Flash, Flash, Hundred Yard Dash! Buddy, it's nice to see you.
Flash: Nice to ... (1.
) you ... too.
Nick: Hey, Flash, I'd love you to meet my friend. Ah… Darling, I've forgotten yourname.
Judy: Hmm. Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD. How are you?
Flash: I am... doing... just..
Judy: (2.
)?
Flash: as well.. as.. I can.. be...
Flash:- What...
Nick: Hang in there.
Flash: - (3.
) I... do...
Judy: Well, I was hoping you could run a plate...
Flash: - for you...
Judy: - Well, I was hoping you could...
Flash:..today?
Judy: Well, I was hoping you could run a plate for us. We are in a
(4.
) big
(5.
).
Flash: - Sure... (6.
) the... plate...
Judy: - 2-9-T...
Flash: - (7.
)?
Judy:- 2-9-T-H-D-0-3.

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Meeting Flash の シ ー ン で あ な た が 考 え た こ と 、 学 ん だ こ と は 何 で す か 。 (inJapanese)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

振り返り： 今日の授業を全体的に振り返って、感想、自由意見を書いてください。
(in Japanese)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) Program: Teachers
Competencies and Pedagogical Practices in Teaching Mother Tongue
Eileen Bernardo, Isabela State University, The Philippines
Nilda Aggabao, Isabela State University, The Philippines
Jaine Tarun, Isabela State University, The Philippines
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
The study primarily seeks to assess the background, knowledge, competencies andpedagogical practices of the K to 12 teachers teaching mother tongue and using MTBMLE as medium of instruction (MIO). Also, it aims to determine effectiveness of theteaching mother tongue/using mother as medium of instruction in the classroom in termsof learning tasks/activities and delivery mode. The quantitative and qualitative research
designs through document/trend analysis, survey and interview were utilized. Results
show that the teachers are academically qualified and capable of implementing the MTBMLE. The Department of Basic Education (DepEd) conducted varied and relevant
trainings and seminar workshops in different levels for the implementation of the MTBMLE, however, utmost participation of the direct implementers is not well consideredparticularly on the aspect of contextualization of teaching-learning process of MTB-MLE
and teacher’s skills in developing instructional materials. The teachers promote thepractice of multilingual approach in teaching. They are satisfactory in their competencies
in the teaching of mother tongue/using MTB-MLE as medium of instruction and inapplying varied pedagogical practices in teaching mother tongue and using multilingual
education as medium of instruction. Teachers’ learning tasks/activities of teachers
stimulate pupils’ interests, develop critical thinking, varied and adequate, source ofenjoyment, have clear procedures and instructions, toward real-life situation, bring level ofaccuracy in skills to pupils and develop opportunity of learners on what they are capableof doing. They provide a learning environment and great opportunities for students tolearn effectively their mother tongue as manifested by their use of various instructional
methodologies and strategies.
Keywords: MTB-MLE Program; Teachers’ Competencies; Pedagogical Practices; andMedium of Instruction

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Introduction
In the Philippines, the shift to the native language as medium of instruction started with
the Lingua Franca Education Project through DECS Memo 144, s. 1999. The MotherTongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) policy is the continuation of thisproject. This MTB-MLE approach is based on the premise that in order to be academicallycompetent, a student must have a strong grasp of his native tongue or first language (L1).
This means that instruction should start from where the learners are and what they alreadyknow. Building a strong L1 foundation of younger generations will scaffold a solid bridge
for them to learn their second language (L2). Consequently, Section 4 of Republic Act
10533, otherwise known as “An Act of enhancing the Philippine Basic Education System
by strengthening its curriculum and increasing the number of years for Basic Education,
appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes”, provides that:“Basic education shall be delivered in languages understood by the learners as thelanguage plays a strategic role in shaping the formative years of learners.”(DepEd
Order No. 31 s. 2013).”
The learners gradually learn how to communicate globally through the different stages of
becoming multi-lingual. First, the learner acquires his/her mother tongue and this isclassified as L1 or first language. Second, the learner adopts his/her national language or
second language and this is classified as L2. Third, he/she learns the languages of theother places within his/her country and languages of other countries such as English inorder to become globally competitive and this is classified as L3.
Benchmark studies conduct in the international setting show that learners are more likely
to achieve better in school when offered opportunities to learn in their mother tongue,
particularly in Japan, China, Indonesia, Thailand, etc. Go (2012) believes that the native
language is a preliminary medium for beginning reading in the grades while speaking
English has yet to be acquired by grade school pupils.
A remarkable level of participation among pupils could be seen in classroom if they could
readily relate the lesson to their own experiences, prior knowledge and other socio-cultural
background. Children learned faster and better since they are adept in their mother tongue.
Ibanag is one of the native languages used in the northern most part of the Philippines.
Caguioa (2013) reported that children in school learned to read quickly and fluently
because of the songs, poems and rhymes were taught in Ibanag (mother tongue of most ofher pupils). She also said that children enjoyed playing, singing with local instruments likecoconut shell and improvised tambourines, dancing, dramatizing, writing paragraphs andsimple essays. Thus, children are able to understand the lesson; think well, argue well andask questions properly and critically.
One of the influences of Americans to Filipinos is the use of English as medium of
instruction in the school which have been maintained to the present in the Philippine
educational system. Towards this goal, Filipinos were bound to learn English language
when the Americans took over the government of the Philippine Republic. The spirit of

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using the mother tongue of Filipinos in the classroom became insignificant. To cope withthe standard of learning with the use of English as medium of instruction, pupils aretrained to speak English in the classroom.
With birth of Bilingual Policy in the country, the spirit of L1 or national language in theclassroom was emphasized. Thus, learner adopts his/her national language or second
language in classroom.
Majority of Filipinos particularly in the rural areas use the native language in theirrespective localities as their mother tongue before the 20th century. Later when they go toschool, they learn and adopt the national language, the Filipino language. They also learn
English language along with Filipino language in the school. Learning Filipino andEnglish languages became mandatory because of the bilingual policy. However, in the20th century many parents trained their children to speak in Tagalog and some in English
no longer the native language in their localities because of its advantage in the school.
Hence, the mother tongue of the many children is not the native language in theirlocalities.
With the end goal of making Filipino children lifelong learners, they must be equipped intheir L1 (Mother Tongue), L2 (Filipino, the national language) and L3 (English, the global
language) so that learning of new concepts is spontaneous until they grew up. Theseshould be taught systematically so that learners will be more prepared to develop theircompetencies in the different learning areas. The L1 is used to support learning whenlearners find difficulty in the use of L2 and L3.
In terms of cognitive development, the school activities will engage learners to move wellbeyond the remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creatinglevels to cover the higher order thinking skills in L1 which they can move to otherlanguages effectively.
The adequate and sufficient background of learners in L1, L2, and L3 should be provided
to them to become multilingual, multi-literate, and multi-cultural citizens of the country.
Teachers have great responsibility in the implementation of MTB-MLE in the classroom
as well as the administrators. Thus, the researchers deem necessary to evaluate the initial
implementation of MTB-MLE in order to gather feedback for the improvement of thisprogram.
The study primarily seeks to assess the background, knowledge and competencies of the K
to 12 teachers in terms of educational qualification, teaching experience, teaching mothertongue or using of MTB-MLE as Medium of Instruction and pedagogical practices in theteaching of MTB-MLE. Also, it aims to determine effectiveness of the teaching mothertongue/using mother as medium of instruction in the classroom terms of learning
tasks/activities and delivery mode.
Methodology
This study utilized a quantitative and qualitative research design through document/trend
analysis, survey and interview.

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The study focuses in one province in the Cagayan Valley region (R 02) which is Isabela.
The northern most part of the Philippines. The subjects of the study consisted of 170
which were taken from the four (4) Ibanag speaking communities in Isabela and broken
down as follows: Cabagan–65, Santa Maria-51, San Pablo-18 and Santo Tomas-36. The
respondents were pupils, teachers, head teachers and principals.
Survey questionnaire was developed to determine background, knowledge andcompetencies of K to 13 teachers in terms of educational, teaching experience, teachingmother tongue or using MTB-MLE as Medium of Instruction, pedagogical practices in theteaching of MTB-MLE, also for the effectiveness of learning tasks/activities, delivery
mode and assessment procedures. Interview guide was used to validate the data gatheredfrom questionnaire.
The survey questionnaires and interview guides were subjected to content validation andreliability. Document analysis pertaining to profile of teachers was undertaken.
The educational background, teaching experience and trainings and seminar workshops on
MTB-MLE attended by teachers and medium instruction were analyzed to determine theircompetencies and pedagogical practices in the implementation of the K to 12 MTB-MLE
Program. Also, the effectiveness of teaching MTB and using MTB as medium of
instruction in learning tasks and delivery mode, the instructional methods and strategies
used.
Frequency, percentages and arithmetic mean were utilized to analyze the quantitative data.
The data generated from document analysis, interview and observation of classes on thecapability of teachers teaching mother and using MTB-MLE in teaching in theimplementation of K to 12 program were analyzed and categorized to generate interrelated
themes/thoughts that emerged from the data.
Results and Discussion
A. On Teachers’ Teaching Competencies in Teaching Mother Tongue/Using MTBMLE as Medium of Instruction
Educational Qualification.
The K to 3 teachers are mostly BEEd graduates (25 or 38.46%), 8 or 12.31% are BSEd
and very few for the following degree courses: BSIEd, BSIEd, BSHT, BSBA and AB.
About half (12 or 48%) of them took general education or obtained all content
courses/areas instead of an area of specialization. Some also had Filipino (7 or 28%) andEnglish (5 or 20%) as their area of specialization.
About 30% (19) of the K to 3 teachers are master’s degree holder with major field ofspecializations as follows: English, Filipino, mathematics, science, social studies,
educational management, administration and supervision.

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Some K to 3 teachers earned units (from 12 to 48) in master’s degree (22 or 33.85%).
Likewise, these teachers majored in of field of specializations which include English,
Filipino, mathematics, science, social studies, educational management, administrationand supervision and general education.
On overall, most of the teachers who obtained master’s degree or with units in master’s
degree specialized in educational management.
Based on sample surveyed only is a doctorate degree holder.
The aforesaid results imply that elementary teachers are academically qualified not only
on the content and teaching rudiments but also toward higher level of skills that is, onleadership and management of the school environment as whole. Seemingly, teachers are
expected to cope with the demands of the changes in the educational setting, particularly
on curriculum. Thus, teachers are apparently capable of implementing the MTBMLE.
Teaching Experience.
Most of K to 3 teachers had teaching experience within 5 years or less, 6 to 10 and 16 to
20 years while very few are from 20 to 30 and 31 and above.
Trainings and seminar workshops on MTB-MLE attended by teachers.
The training and seminar workshops attended by K to 3 teachers are presented in Table 1.
Based on the sample surveyed data, majority (18) of the K to 3 teachers attended theseminar on K to 12 Mother Tongue-based (MTB). Also, most (14) of the teachers attended
the Orientation on the Use of Mother Tongue Ibanag Materials. Very few the following:
Division Bench Marking Conference & Enhanced Seminar Workshop, Division
Enhancement Training Workshop on MTB-MLE, Regional Workshop on theDevelopment of MTB Teaching Learning Materials for G1, Ibanag MTB-MLE Project
Orientation Conference Workshop, Seminar Workshop on K to 12 MTB-MLE, Training
Workshop on Contextualized of MTB-MLE, MTB-MLE Regional Training for G3
Teachers, Regional Training on MTB, Joint Cabagan-Santa Maria MTB-MLE
Benchmarking Conference & Enhancement workshop, Training of Trainers on Oral
Language and MTB-MLE, Harmonizing of Indigenous Peoples Education (IPED) Lessons
Emphasis in Ibanag.
The number of hours allotted for the different trainings and seminar workshops range from
8 to 80 hours (1 to 10 days) of which majority was carried on from 8 to 24 hours (1 to 3days).
It can be inferred from the above finding that the Department of Basic Education (DepEd)
conducted varied and relevant trainings and seminar workshops in different levels for the
implementation of the MTB-MLE. However, utmost participation of the direct
implementers is not well considered particularly on the aspect of contextualization ofteaching-learning process of MTB-MLE considering that this is one of the features the K
to 12 Basic Education program. Also, on teachers’ skills in developing instructional

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materials which is one of the essential facets to be contextualized in the teaching-learning
process.
Generally, the time allotment for the majority of the trainings and seminar workshops is
not adequate and capacitation of skills learning among teachers may be not warranted.
However, based on the interview with k to 3 teachers echoing of trainings and seminarworkshops has been conducted with the goal to capacitate them on the necessary
knowledge and to effectively implement the MTB-MLE
Seemingly, the goal of DepEd to provide adequate and efficient skills in implementing
MTB-MLE as a result of echoing might affect the implementation of this program. In
particular, the teachers will be hard up in tailoring their lesson to real-life situation, larger
setting or wider sociological text in order to achieve greater understanding among
students.
Likewise, teachers will have a dilemma in the development and adaption of instructional
materials.
Table 1. Trainings and Seminar Workshops on MTB-MLE Attended by Teachers
Title of Trainings & Seminar
Number of
Number ofLevel
Workshops
Teachers
Hours
1. Orientation on the use of Mother Tongue
Ibanag Materials
14
24
Regional
2. K to 12 MTB
18
40
Provincial
3. Division Bench Marking Conference on
MTB-MLE
2
16
Division
4. Division Enhancement Training Workshop
on MTB-MLE
48-do5. Regional Workshop on the Development of
MTB Teaching Learning Materials for G11
16
Regional
6. Ibanag MTB-MLE Project Orientation
Conference Workshop
3
7. Seminar Workshop on K to 12 MTB-MLE1
8. Training Workshop on Contextualization of
MTB-MLE2
9. MTB-MLE Regional Training for G3
Teachers
1
10. Regional Training on MTB
1
11. Joint Cabagan-Santa Maria MTB-MLE
Benchmarking Conference &2
Enhancement workshop
12. Training of Trainers on Oral Language 1
and MTB-MLE

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-do16
40

Division

24

Provincial

8036

Regional
Regional

16

District24

Division

The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 201813. Harmonizing of Indigenous Peoples
Education (IPED) Lessons Emphasis in 1
Ibanag14. Contextualized IPED Lesson Exemplars
1
15. Capability Building on the Dev’t of IPED
Learning materials
1

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24

Division

24

Division

24

Division

Medium of instruction used in teaching.
The Ibanag language as the predominant mother tongue of pupils in the locality iscommonly (36) used as the medium of instruction in the K to 3 subjects, followed by
Filipino (35) and English (32). Only 4 used Filipino.
Most of the teachers (31) use Ibanag from 1 to 5 years while 9 for English, 8 Filipino andthey have been using it within 1 to 5 years. Very few use Filipino and English for thevarying range of the number of years. There 65 teachers under survey.
The mother tongue of the majority of the pupils in the locality is used as the medium of
instruction in the K to 3 program.
Ibanag language is predominantly used as medium of instruction in the K to 3 program inat most five (5) years since the K to 12 was only implemented in 2012 and bilingual policy
was still used prior to this date.
The above findings indicate that teachers are practicing multilingual approach in teaching
K to 3 subjects. It seems that K to teachers promote one of the features of the K to 12
program.
Table 2 shows that the Ibanag language is mainly used as the medium of instruction inteaching Edukasyong sa Pagkatao (ESP), Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan (AP), MAPEH
and Science. Some K to 3 teachers also use Ilocano, Filipino and English as medium of
instruction in all subjects.
Table 5. Medium of Instruction Used in Teaching the Different Subjects
Language
Subjects
Ibanag
IlocanoFilipino
EnglishEdukasyon sa Pagpapakatao
(ESP)
25
4
4
1
Mathematics
27
1
42
Araling Panlipunan (AP)
18
2
MAPEH
16
4
1
Science852The above analysis indicates that generally, the K to 3 teachers adhere to the DepEd orderNo. 31 s. 2012 which states that Mother Tongue is used as a Medium of Instruction (MOI)
for Grades 1 and 2 for teaching Mathematics, AralingPanlipunan (AP), Music, Arts,
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Physical Education and Health (MAPEH) and EdukasyonsaPagpapakatao (EsP). With
this trend of implementation of one of the main features of the K to 12 program, pupils are
expected to understand their lessons better.
Teacher’s Competencies in MTB-MLE.
The teaching competencies of teachers in teaching mother tongue/using MTB-MLE as
medium of instruction is presented in Table 3. The teachers are very satisfactory in using
first language (L1) to support pupils learning the language.
Teachers are satisfactory in the following: using L1 as a medium of instruction in theclass, engaging pupils in applying mother tongue in group activities, engaging pupils inparticipating actively in the lesson through motivational words expressed in L1, translating
assignments, activities, exercises, songs, poems, etc. that are written in other languages topupils mother tongue, applying knowledge and skills learned from the seminar-workshop
on MTB-MLE, adapting the variety and variation of language in the teaching and learning
process, adapting the MTB-MLE materials in teaching despite the variety and variation of
the language used and implementing the prescribed curriculum.
Based on overall, the teachers are satisfactory in their competencies in the teaching of
mother tongue/using MTB-MLE as medium of instruction.
Apparently, the teachers are generally equipped towards teaching mother tongue and using
multilingual as medium of instruction.
B. On Pedagogical Practices
The pedagogical practices of teachers in teaching mother tongue/using MTB-MLE as
medium of instruction is presented in Table 3. It shows in the table that teachers are verysatisfactory in the following: using common mother of tongue of pupils or the majority
language in the class, translating difficult/unfamiliar words in L1 of pupils andencouraging pupils’ class participation with the use of their mother tongue.
On the other hand, the teachers are satisfactory in the following: using the different mothertongue of pupils as medium of instruction, discussing with co-teachers how to implement
the program, making alternative solutions in explaining the lesson to pupils whose mothertongue is different from the mother tongue of majority, introducing songs written in
pupils’ mother tongue to arouse their interests in the lesson, introducing poems written in
pupils’ mother tongue to emphasize the lesson, introducing sayings and quotations written
in pupils’ mother tongue to emphasize the lesson, introducing games written in pupils’
mother tongue to arouse their interests in the lesson, allowing the pupils to do role playing
using their mother tongue as medium of communication, introducing prayers written inmother tongue, consulting experts in mother tongue other colleagues in case of vague
lessons on MTB-MLE, using mother tongue to emphasize the lesson and involving pupils
in group activities using their L1.

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Based on overall the teachers are satisfactory in their competencies in pedagogicalpractices in teaching mother tongue and using multilingual education as medium of
instruction.
The aforementioned results imply that seemingly, teachers are set to use varied
pedagogical practices in teaching mother tongue and using multilingual education as
medium of instruction.
Table 3. Mean Rating and Descriptions of Teaching Competencies and Pedagogical
Practices of Teachers in Teaching Mother Tongue/Using MTB-MLE as Medium of
Instruction
Mean
Aspects
Rating Description
1. Teaching Competencies
4.34
Satisfactory
2. Pedagogical Practices
4.12
Satisfactory
C. Effectiveness of Teaching MTB/Using MTB as Medium of Instruction
On Learning Tasks/Activities.
The K to 3 teachers provide learning tasks in form of the following: group activity, roleplaying, individual activity, introducing oneself, dialogue, differentiated activities, activity
sheet, singing activity, chart, short story, presenting Ibanag poems, introducing Ibanag
songs and introducing rhymes songs.
Effectiveness of Learning Tasks Used.
The effectiveness of the learning tasks/activities provided by teachers in teaching motherand using MTB-MLE as medium of instruction based on their perceptions is presented inTable 4. The data on the table shows that teachers’ learning tasks/activities are always
relevant to the objective of the lesson and appropriate to the ability of the students.
Also, teachers’ learning tasks/activities are very effective source of motivation forlearning, for enhancement and facilitation of learning, and encouragement of pupil’s
participation. The teachers are always toward preparing learning tasks/activities which areappropriate application of their lesson.

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Table 9. Mean Rating and Description of Effectiveness of Learning Tasks of Teachers in
Teaching Mother Tongue/Using MTB-MLE as Medium of Instruction
Mean
Rating Description
1. Relevance of learning activities/tasks to the objective of the
Verylesson.
4.7
Effective
2. Appropriateness of activities/tasks to the ability of pupils
4.56
Very
Effective
3. Learning activities/tasks in stimulating pupils’ interests.
4.47
Effective
4. Learning activities/tasks in motivating learning.
4.58
Very
Effective
5. Learning activities in developing critical thinking.
4.3
Effective
6. Learning activities/tasks in enhancing learning.
4.5
Very
Effective
7. Learning activities/tasks facilitating learning.
4.61
Very
Effective
8. Learning activities/tasks as varied and adequacy.
4.44
Effective
9. Learning activities/tasks in encouraging more pupil
4.5
Very
participation.
Effective
10. Learning activities/tasks as appropriate application of the 4.5
Verylesson.
Effective
11. Learning activities/tasks as source of enjoyment.
4.42
Effective
12. Learning activities/tasks as clear procedures & instructions. 4.45
Effective
13. Learning activities/tasks were towards real-life situation.
4.38
Effective
14. Learning activities/tasks in bringing the learner to a level of 4.35
Effective
accuracy in the skills.
15. Learning activities/tasks provide the pupils opportunity to 4.45
Effective
develop what they are capable of doing.
Overall Mean Rating
4.48
Effective
The learning tasks/activities of teachers re effective in stimulating pupils’ interests,
developing critical thinking, varied and adequate, source of enjoyment, have clear
procedures and instructions, toward real-life situation, bring level of accuracy in skills topupils and develop opportunity of learners on what they are capable of doing.
D. On Delivery Mode
Instructional Methods and Strategies Used.
The K to 3 teachers commonly employed the following instructional methods andstrategies: games, lecture method, differentiated instruction, peer teaching,contextualization, interactive, group discussion, Socratic method, sharing ideas,
flashcards, oral recitation and participative learning in teaching mother tongue. Other
methods and strategies used were simulation, pair-share, inquiry approach and explicit
teaching.

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The aforesaid findings indicate that apparently, the K to 3 teachers provide a learning
environment and great opportunities for students to learn effectively their mother tongue
as manifested by their use of various instructional methodologies and strategies.
Effectiveness of Instructional Methods and Strategies Used.
The effectiveness of teachers’ instructional methods and strategies used in teaching mothertongue and using MTB-MLE as medium of instruction based on their perceptions arepresented in Table 5. Analysis of the data shows that the instructional methods andstrategies used by the teachers are always appropriate to the objective of the lesson,
appropriate to the ability of pupils and of source of stimulating pupils’ interests andmotivating learning.
Also, teachers always use varied and adequate instructional methods and strategies todevelop critical thinking, encourage more pupils’ participation, and to enhance andfacilitate learning. Also, Teachers’ instructional methods and strategies always promote
outcomes-based learning.
Table 5. Mean Rating and Description of Effectiveness of Teachers’ Instructional Methods
and Strategies in Teaching Mother Tongue/Using MTB-MLE as Medium of
Instruction
Mean Description
Rating
1. Appropriate to the objective of the lesson.
4.65
Effective
2. Appropriate to the ability of pupils.
4.65
Effective
3. Stimulate pupils’ interests.
4.55
Effective
4. Motivate learning.
4.7
Effective
5. Develop critical thinking.
4.56
Effective
6. Encourage more pupil participation.
4.67
Effective
7. Enhance learning.
4.7
Effective
8. Facilitate learning.
4.7
Effective
9. Varied and adequate.
4.5
Effective
10. Promote outcomes-based learning.
4.6
Effective
Overall Mean Rating
4.61
Effective
The teachers are likely toward using varied instructional methods and strategies tofacilitate effective delivery of instruction in order to achieve the expectations in theclassroom based on their perceptions.
Summary of Findings
The K to 3 teachers are mostly BEEd graduates and about half took general education or
obtained all content courses/areas instead of an area of specialization. Few had Filipino
and English as their area of specialization.
About one third of the K to 3 teachers are master’s degree holder and also about one-third
earned units in Master’s program with major field of specializations as follows: English,
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Filipino, mathematics, science, social studies, educational management, administrationand supervision and general education. Only one is a doctorate degree holder. Most of theteachers who obtained master degree or with units in master’s degree specialized in
educational management.
Most of K to 3 teachers had teaching experience within 5 years or less, 6 to 10 and 16 to
20 years while very few are from 20 to 30 and 31 and above.
About one-third of the K to 3 teachers attended the seminar on K to 12 Mother Tonguebased (MTB) and about one-fourth attended the Orientation on the Use of Mother Tongue
Ibanag Materials. Very few attended the following: Division Bench Marking Conference& Enhanced Seminar Workshop, Division Enhancement Training Workshop on MTBMLE, Regional Workshop on the Development of MTB Teaching Learning Materials for
G1, Ibanag MTB-MLE Project Orientation Conference Workshop, Seminar Workshop on
K to 12 MTB-MLE, Training Workshop on Contextualized of MTB-MLE, MTB-MLE
Regional Training for G3 Teachers, Regional Training on MTB, Joint Cabagan-Santa
Maria MTB-MLE Benchmarking Conference & Enhancement workshop, Training ofTrainers on Oral Language and MTB-MLE, Harmonizing of Indigenous Peoples
Education (IPED) Lessons Emphasis in Ibanag.
The number of hours allotted for the different trainings and seminar workshops range from
8 to 80 hours (1 to 10 days) of which majority was carried on from 8 to 24 hours (1 to 3days).
The Ibanag, Filipino and English languages are predominant used as the medium of
instruction in the K to 3 subjects and very few used Ilokano.
Most of the teachers have been using Ibanag for at most 5 years.
The Ibanag language is mainly used as the medium of instruction in teaching Edukasyong
sa Pagkatao (ESP), Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan (AP), MAPEH and Science. Some
K to 3 teachers also use Ilocano, Filipino and English as medium of instruction in thesesubjects.
The teachers are very satisfactory in using first language (L1) to support pupils learning
the language.
Teachers are satisfactory in following: using L1 as a medium of instruction in the class,engaging pupils in applying mother tongue in group activities, engaging pupils inparticipating actively in the lesson through motivational words expressed in L1, translating
assignments, activities, exercises, songs, poems, etc. that are written in other languages topupils mother tongue, applying knowledge and skills learned from the seminar-workshop
on MTB-MLE, adapting the variety and variation of language in the teaching and learning
process, adapting the MTB-MLE materials in teaching despite the variety and variation of
the language used and implementing the prescribed curriculum.

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Based on overall, the teachers are satisfactory in their competencies in the teaching of
mother tongue/using MTB-MLE as medium of instruction.
Teachers are very satisfactory in the following: using common mother of tongue of pupils
or the majority language in the class, translating difficult/unfamiliar words in L1 of pupils
and encouraging pupils’ class participation with the use of their mother tongue.
On the other hand, the teachers are satisfactory in the following: using the different mothertongue of pupils as medium of instruction, discussing with co-teachers how to implement
the program, making alternative solutions in explaining the lesson to pupils whose mothertongue is different from the mother tongue of majority, introducing songs written in
pupils’ mother tongue to arouse their interests in the lesson, introducing poems written in
pupils’ mother tongue to emphasize the lesson, introducing sayings and quotations written
in pupils’ mother tongue to emphasize the lesson, introducing games written in pupils’
mother tongue to arouse their interests in the lesson, allowing the pupils to do role playing
using their mother tongue as medium of communication, introducing prayers written inmother tongue, consulting experts in mother tongue other colleagues in case of vague
lessons on MTB-MLE, using mother tongue to emphasize the lesson and involving pupils
in group activities using their L1.
Based on overall the teachers are satisfactory in their competencies in pedagogicalpractices in teaching mother tongue and using multilingual education as medium of
instruction.
The K to 3 teachers provide varied and adequate learning tasks in form of group activity,role playing, individual activity, introducing oneself, dialogue, differentiated activities,
activity sheet, singing activity, chart, short story and presenting ibanag poems, songs andrhymes to contextualize learning in order to create a fruitful and meaningful learning
environment among students.
Teachers’ learning tasks/activities are always relevant to the object of the lesson andappropriate to the ability of the students.
Also, teachers’ learning tasks/activities are very effective source of motivation forlearning, for enhancement and facilitation of learning, and encouragement of pupil’s
participation. The teachers are always toward preparing learning tasks/activities which areappropriate application of their lesson.
The learning tasks/activities of teachers effective in stimulating pupils’ interests,
developing critical thinking, varied and adequate, source of enjoyment, have clear
procedures and instructions, toward real-life situation, bring level of accuracy in skills topupils and in developing opportunity of learners on what they are capable of doing.
The K to 3 teachers commonly employed the following instructional methods andstrategies: games, lecture method, differentiated instruction, peer teaching,Contextualization, Interactive, Group Discussion, Socratic Method, sharing ideas,
flashcards, oral recitation and participative learning in teaching mother tongue.

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Other methods and strategies used were simulation, pair-share, inquiry approach andexplicit teaching.
The instructional methods and strategies used by the teachers are very effective in terms ofappropriateness to the objective of the lesson, appropriateness to the ability of pupils andof source of stimulating pupils’ interests and motivating learning.
Teachers are effective in using instructional methods and strategies to develop criticalthinking, encouraging more pupils’ participation, and enhancing and facilitating learning.
Likewise, they are effective in using varied and adequate. Teachers’ instructional methods
and strategies are effective in promoting outcomes-based learning.
Conclusions and Implications
The aforesaid results imply that elementary teachers are academically qualified not only
on the content and teaching rudiments but also toward higher level of skills that is, onleadership and management of the school environment as whole. Seemingly, teachers are
expected to cope with the demands of the changes in the educational setting, particularly
on curriculum. Thus, teachers are apparently capable of implementing the MTBMLE.
The Department of Education (DepEd) conducted varied and relevant trainings andseminar workshops in different levels for the implementation of the MTB-MLE.
However, utmost participation of the direct implementers is not well consideredparticularly on the aspect of contextualization of teaching-learning process of MTB-MLE
considering that this is one of the features the K to 12 Basic Education program. Also, onteachers’ skills in developing instructional materials which is one of the essential facets tobe contextualized in the teaching-learning process.
Generally, the time allotment for the majority of the trainings and seminar workshops isshort where capacitation of skills learning among teachers is not warranted.
However, based on the interview with k to 3 teachers echoing of trainings and seminarworkshops has been conducted with the goal to capacitate them of the necessary
knowledge and to effectively implement the MTB-MLE
Seemingly, the goal of DepEd to provide adequate and efficient skills in implementing
MTB-MLE as a result of echoing might affect the implementation of this program. In
particular, the teachers will be hard up in tailoring their lesson to real-life situation, larger
setting or wider sociological text in order to achieve greater understanding among
students. Likewise, teachers will have a dilemma in the development and adaption of
instructional materials.
Thus, massive training of teachers on all the necessary skills on MTB-MLE should be
programmed prior to the implementation of this program.
The teachers are practicing multilingual approach in teaching K to 3 subjects. It seems
that K to 3 teachers promote one of the features of the K to 12 program.

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The above analysis indicates that generally, the K to 3 teachers adhere to the DepEd orderNo. 31 s. 2012 which states that Mother Tongue is used as a Medium of Instruction (MOI)
for Grades 1 and 2 for teaching Mathematics, AralingPanlipunan (AP), Music, Arts,
Physical Education and Health (MAPEH) and EdukasyonsaPagpapakatao (EsP). With
this trend of implementation of one of the main features of the K to 12 program, pupils are
expected to understand their lessons better.
Apparently, the teachers are generally equipped towards teaching mother tongue and using
multilingual as medium of instruction.
Seemingly, teachers are set to use varied pedagogical practices in teaching mother tongue
and using multilingual education as medium of instruction.
The K to 3 teachers provide a learning environment and great opportunities for students tolearn effectively their mother tongue as manifested by their use of various instructional
methodologies and strategies.
The teachers are likely toward using varied instructional methods and strategies tofacilitate effective delivery of instruction in order to achieve the expectations in theclassroom based on their perceptions.
Recommendations
1. Monitoring and evaluation of the MTB-MLE program may be considered not only on
conduct of the assessment cognitive achievement of pupils but also other means such as
field visitation of stakeholders on classroom environment.
2. The Department of Basic Education (DepEd) may allocate adequate funds for the
conduct of massive trainings on various skills particularly addressing the features of the
K to 12 program to capacitate teachers in the implementation of MTB-MLE.

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References
Caguioa, S. B. (2013) Narrative Report on Mother Tongue Based – Multilingual
Education.
Go, A. S., “A Bid to Tap the Native Tongue as Reading Bridge to English in the Grades”,
The Modern Teacher, Vol. LXI, No. 06, (November, 2012. pp. 203-204)
Sarmiento, G. B., “Managing K + 12 Program- Induced Organizational Changes”, The
Modern Teacher Vol. LXI, No. 07, (December, 2012., pp. 245-247)
Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) Memorandum 144, series of 1999
Department of Education (DepEd) order No. 31 series of 2012.
Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 31 series of 2013.

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Development of Mathematics Problem Solving Ability by Using the Problem
Solving Model of Metacognitive Process of Grade 11th Students
Wilawan Chantowat, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
Montri Thongmoon, Mahasarakham University, Thailand
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Abstract
The proposes of this study were 1) to develop the students’ mathematics problem
solving ability in order to pass the criteria of 70 percent of full score. The target groupwas 21 students of grade 11th students in academic year 2017 fromSarakhampittayakhom School, Muang, Mahasarakham. The research methodology isclassroom action research which consists of four cycles. The research instruments
were: 1) 11 lesson plans of the problem solving model of metacognitive process, 2)Mathematics problem solving ability test, and 3) the interview form. The data wasanalysed by using mean, percentage, and standard deviation. The results were as
follows: The students’ mathematics problem solving ability mean scores in the first,
the second, the third and the fourth cycle were 55.23, 60.47, 71.76 and 78.89 percent
respectively. It obviously be seen that the students’ mean score passed the criteria in
the third cycle.
Keywords: Mathematics Problem Solving, Metacognitive Process, Thailand

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Introduction
Mathematics is a methodical application of matter. It is so said because the subject
makes a man methodical or systematic. Mathematics makes our life orderly andprevents chaos. Certain qualities that are nurtured by mathematics are power ofreasoning, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving
ability and even effective communication skills. Although mathematics is an
important and essential part of humanity. However, the current state of teaching andlearning has not been as successful. Obviously, the results of the Ordinary National
Educational Test (ONET) in Mathematics of grade 12th student in 2016. The national
average score was 24.88 from 100. It’s lower than the benchmark 50 percent(National Institute of Educational Testing Service, 2017). In addition, From Trends inInternational Mathematics and Science Study 2015 (TIMSS 2015) show that the
average score of ability in mathematics of Thai’s students was 431, it was 26th of 39
country. It indicated that Thai’s student has low level of mathematical ability ascompared with international students. This may be due to several reasons. One of thereasons is: Students fail to read and understand problems. Cannot calculate accurately.
And students lack understanding, process or solution. Therefore problem solving is
the primary purpose of mathematics and problem solving is a process skill that is at
the heart of mathematics instruction.
From interviews with students studying mathematics of grade 11th in academic year2017 from Sarakhampittayakhom School, Thailand. It was found that most students
could not solve problems. In addition, the results of the survey were used to measure
the ability to solve math problems found that the mean score of Mathematics
reasoning ability test was 58.51 percent.The results indicated that the number ofstudents who under criteria score were 21.
The Problem Solving Model of Metacognitive Process developed from from polya's
problem solving process. There are 5 step 1) Engagement: Initial confrontation andmaking sense of the problem. 2) Transformation-Formulation: Transformation of
initial engagements to exploratory and formal. 3) Implementation: A monitored acting
on plans and explorations. 4) Evaluation: Passing judgments on the appropriateness ofplans, actions, and solutions to the problem. 5) Internalization: Reflecting on the
degree of intimacy and other qualities of the solution process plans. (Yimer andEllerton). Each step will focus on Metacognition. Self-control Recognize the processof thinking. This will allow students to develop better mathematics problem solving
abilities.
As above, the researcher used the problem solving model of metacognitive process inthe class of mathematics learning activities develop the students’ mathematics
problem solving ability in order to pass the criteria of 70 percent of full score.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study was to develop the students’ mathematics problem solving
ability in order to pass the criteria of 70 percent of full score.

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SampleThe samples was 21 students of grade 11th students in academic year 2017 fromSarakhampittayakhom School in Thailand.
Research Instruments
The instrument in this research was the 1) 11 lesson plans of the problem solving
model of metacognitive process, 2) Mathematics problem solving ability test, and 3)
the interview form.
ProcedureIn this research is the Action Research, Researcher have conducted research using the
problem solving model of metacognitive process in the lesson plan with learning
activities with grade 11th students. To development Mathematics problem solving
ability. There are 4 cycle in the research. Each cycle is as follows:
Step 1 Plan: 1) The researcher had studied the level of mathematics problem solving
ability of grade 11th students. 2) The researcher created a lesson plan by using the
problem solving model of metacognitive process 11 lesson plan and Mathematics
problem solving test 4 collection. Step 2 Action: The researcher using lesson plan byusing the problem solving model of metacognitive in learning activities. Each cycle
consists of different content. Step 3 observe: The researcher collected the data byallowing the students to do a Mathematics problem solving test after completing thelearning activities in each cycle and interviewed students with a score lower than
70%. Step 4 Reflect: The Researcher evaluated the test, compared to 70%. Analyst
interviews after each cycle, created and improve lesson plans to use in the next cycle.
After that the data were analyzed and conclusion.
Results
The results of the analysis of the mathematics problem solving ability of grade 11th
students By using the problem solving model of metacognitive in learning activities
for development Mathematics problem solving ability in order to pass the criteria of
70 percent of full score. The students’ mathematics problem solving ability meanscores in the first, the second, the third and the fourth cycle were 55.23, 60.47, 71.76
and 78.89 percent respectively. The data were shows in Table 1.

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Table 1: Average score ( x ), Standard deviation (S.D.) of total score Mathematics
problem solving ability of 21 students from the Mathematics problem solving ability
test.

Percentage.
(100)

Evaluation.

Percentage.
(100)

Evaluation.

Percentage.
(100)

Evaluation.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
x
S.D

4th cycle

Evaluation.

No.

Percentage.
(100)

Total score for Mathematics problem solving.
1st cycle
2nd cycle
3rd cycle

88.89
55.56
52.78
63
52
33.34
36.11
52.78
80.56
61.11
61.11
38.89
30.56
38.89
69.44
55.56
47.22
69.44
69.44
58.33
47.22
55.23
15.26

PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
-

88.89
61.11
44.44
61.11
52.78
55.56
47.22
52.78
83.33
55.56
61.11
41.66
58.33
47.22
75
72.22
52.77
75
72.22
61.11
52.78
60.47
12.80

PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
PassedPassedNot pass
PassedPassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
-

91.77
80.56
55.56
72.22
55.56
61.11
55.56
58.33
88.89
61.11
69.44
47.22
91.67
58.33
86.11
86.11
58.33
86.11
88.89
83.33
61.11
71.76
14.97

PassedPassedNot pass
PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
Not pass
PassedNot pass
Not pass
Not pass
PassedNot pass
PassedPassedNot pass
PassedPassedPassedNot pass
Passed
-

94.44
83.33
72.22
83.33
80.56
75
72.22
75
75
100
88.89
75
72.22
58.33
75
86.11
58.33
91.67
88.89
75
75
78.89
10.56

PassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedPassedNot pass
PassedPassedNot pass
PassedPassedPassedPassedPassed-The results of the analysis percentage of mean score each step of the mathematics
problem solving ability of grade 11th students By Polya's four-step approach (G.
Polya, 1957) to problem solving included Understand the Problem, Devise a plan,
Carry out the plan and Look Back. The data were shows in Chart 1.

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Chart 1: Percentage mean score of total score Mathematics problem solving ability 4
steps of 21 students from the Mathematics problem solving ability test.
Conclusion
According to the study of the students' Mathematics problem solving ability, It was
found that the table 1 shows that The average student pass score was 70% in the third
cycle. Notice that in the third cycle and the fourth cycle shows students haveconsistently increased Mathematics problem solving scores. In addition, it was foundthat there are two students who have not passed the Criteria included student No.14
and student No. 17. The study found that they could not solve the problem. The
process of finding the answer includes the basis for the calculation. This is a weakness
so students cannot solve the problem. From chart 1, although the ability of students ineach circle. It will increase continuously. However, it is clear that the score at the
Look Back step is the lowest in every cycle.
Therefor the Mathematics problem solving must be done step by step when students
are unable to complete the first step, so students will not be able to complete the next
step. Students cannot find answers or incorrect answers. So student learning by using
the Problem Solving Model of Metacognitive Process (Yimmer and Ellerton) can
develop the Mathematics problem solving ability of Grade 11th Students.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science andTechnology for providing funding to support this research.
Recommendation
This research describes about the level of the scientific concepts understanding of
only grade 11th students in Sarakhampittayakhom School, Thailand.

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References
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; TIMSS. (2015)
http://timssthailand.ipst.ac.th/timss/reports/2015
National Institute of Educational Testing Service ; NIETS . (2560). The basic
statistics of the O- NET exam grade 6, 9 and 12 of the academic year 2016 (100points).retrieved 4 september 2017
http://www.newonetresult.niets.or.th/AnnouncementWeb/School/ReportSchoolBySch
ool.aspx?mi=2.
Polya, G. (1957). How to solve It : A New Aspect of Mathematic Method. New York:
Doubleday and company.
Yimer, A., and Ellerton, N. F. (2006). Cognitive and Metacognitive aspects ofMathematical Problem Solving: An Emerging Model. Identities, cultures, and learningspace, 575-582.
Contact email: wilawan.beer@gmail.com

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The Importance of Student-centered Learning (SCL) in Indonesian Higher
Education
Hidayatullah Yunus, Monash University, Australia
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Abstract
The issue investigated in this paper is about the importance of Student-centered
Learning (SCL) in Indonesian higher educations. In some Indonesian universities, thepolicy to implement SCL has been instructed, but some lecturers seem to teachpassively and simply leave the class after finishing their lecture. There are also somearguments from education experts opposing the existence of SCL. Hence, this paper
aims to elaborate the benefits of SCL in Indonesian Higher Educations by considering
its challenges. As what Angele Attard upholds that Student-centered Learning is
generally defined as an approach to concentrate more on students than teachers and to
substitute traditional teaching method with active learning, comprehensive self-paced
learning activities and/or teamwork development, fundamentally let the students takeresponsibility for their own learning. The methodology used in this article is theliterature review. Selecting a review topic assisted by some kinds of literature frompeer-reviewed journal articles through Monash University database, Google Scholar
and some websites containing Indonesian higher education data and evidence. As thefindings, there are three main benefits of SCL; it provides an opportunity for students
to have Independent learning, encourages students to collaboratively work in a group
and actively involves them in critical thinking activities. In summary, this paper
shows that the implementation of SCL in Indonesian higher education will play
important role and help provide opportunities for students to actively study and thinkout of the box.
Keywords: Student-centered Learning, Higher Education, Teaching Practice,Indonesian Education.

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Introduction
The importance of active learning is mainly discussed to promote the activeness ofstudent in learning activities. As part of it, in this essay, I will critically evaluate theimportance of Student-centred Learning (SCL) to be implemented in Indonesianhigher educations. In particular, this paper will examine how SCL gives moreadvantages, consider the challenges, and evaluate SCL for students in their learning
activity.
Student-centered Learning is generally defined as an approach where all activities are
more concentrated on students than teachers. SCL as a wide pedagogical approachthat aims to substitute traditional teaching method with active learning,
comprehensive self-paced learning activities and/or teamwork development,
fundamentally let the students take responsibility for their own learning in education
sector (Attard, Di Iorio, Geven, & Santa, 2010). In some universities in developing
countries, the lecturers seem to talk a lot without considering the student collaboration(Harsono, 2008; Saragih & Napitupulu, 2015).
As stated in the beginning of this essay, the importance of SCL is the main focus to be
discussed. There are three main benefits of SCL found in relation to Indonesia higher
education context. SCL provides an opportunity for students to have Independent
learning, actively involves students in critical thinking activity, and encourage them tocollaboratively work in a group which enhances their teamwork skill.
I. Higher Education in Indonesia
One-way traffic method occurs within the paradigm of Teacher-centered Learning(TCL). In this paradigm the students tend to be receivers, less instrumental astransformers and / or explorers. In addition, the students get into the situation rotelearning, not meaningful learning. Such a situation is reinforced by the conceptual
lecture material (Harsono, 2008). Universities in Indonesia considered as the top
institutions also face the same problems. The lecturers merely teach their subjects
and simply left the class after finishing the lecture. The students only sit along the day
and listen to what the lecturers are explaining.
In the context of TCL, the concept of “spoon feeding” for students is no longer
appropriate because it makes the learning process slow, and the students do not havethe opportunity to choose the appropriate "menu" (Harsono, 2008). The delay in thelearning process that occurs in the TCL paradigm will cause learners to always be left
behind, unable to immediately adjust to the progress of the times. Hence, to overcome
the slowness and backwardness, the learning process needs to be changed, from oneway traffic to two-way traffic and interactive.
To emphasise that SCL should really be implemented, The Law of the Republic ofIndonesia number 20 in 2003 on the National Education System also implies theexistence of SCL characteristics and "Forecasting of Tri Loka." In Chapter III, Point 4
Paragraph 3 there is provision on the development of education, as follows:"Education is organized as a process of cultivating and analysing the learner that goeson for the rest of the life". Furthermore, in Point 4 paragraph 4 there is a provision as

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follows:" Education is conducted by giving exemplary, building willingness, anddeveloping the creativity of learners in the learning process " (Indonesia, 2003).
II. Impact Of SCL Implementation
A.   Independent Learning
Independent learning is the first advantage that the students get through learning by
SCL. During the activity, the students will work independently without direct
guidance from lecturer to the subject. The lecturer will only facilitate and lead them toprimary concentration, which is on the demand of the learners rather than on theinformation to merely be transmitted (Attard et al., 2010). A lot of students seem tonot have a strong willingness to study because they do not feel the freedom oflearning. Some top universities in Indonesia, for instance, still involve the lecturers
who teach almost all subjects by their own rules and regulations without providing theopportunity for students to do the task with their own way (Harsono, 2008). As theresult, the students were reluctant and just do the activities and forget them after thesemester is completed. Hence, during the independent learning process, the learners
will be encouraged to be more responsible for their own learning and interest, and toeducate others.
The idea of giving an opportunity for students to understand how to be in charge for
their own learning and let them show their own interests is the main goals of
independent learning. Each student will also enhance the capacity to analyze andelaborate their issues which they investigate in order to build strategies for theirimprovement and know how to solve their problems. If the learners go with their own
choices within the lesson given, they will encourage themselves to move and work
effectively. In addition, what a facilitator does during the learning activity is tosupervise the environment so that each learner can learn their own way and timing(McCabe & O'Connor, 2014). Nowadays, the unrealised mistake is that teachers tend
to find themselves helping as soon as the students have a problem. That intemperateassistances make students passive to think for themselves and let them keep relying
on someone else. Students who have an active facilitator rather than a passive
facilitator will result self-improvement for a great work (Attard et al., 2010). Whenthe lecturers give opportunity for students to work with their own interest, it can also
make the students recognize their capability and more realize their own strengths andweaknesses (McCabe & O'Connor, 2014). Hence, by applying independent learning,
the students will work more freely and enjoy the learning activity with their own way
and interest.
B.   Teamwork
In addition to shaping independent learning, collaborative work among students is
also encouraged in SCL. The classroom is set up to let the students work in a group,
and activity will involve interaction and sharing among other students to demonstrateeffective collaboration in a classroom. Teamwork generally urges learners to have theprimary skills related to learning as a collective unit to achieve the goal (a Brush,1997). It is stated that the learners will have the capability to work together effectively
and work in cooperation to enhance their social skills.

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As the group work, doing the tasks together is fundamentally necessary. They can all
purpose opinion and come up with conclusions together. The students do not only
learn by working through the group assignment, but they also learn by giving
explanation of their reasoning and thinking processes to other friends in group (aBrush, 1997). Moreover, group work activity also helps encourage groupbrainstorming, reasoning and problem-solving ability and let the learners understandhow to use evaluation skills and critical thinking as a team. A collaborative group
work will even distribute the responsibilities, blast through the material and cover
more ground than if they do the individual task or homework.
C.   Critical Thinking
Besides collaborative work, Student-centered Learning also gives an opportunity tostudents to think critically. The facilitator will propose some complex problems to beinvestigated, and the learners are encouraged to actively participate by questioning,arguing and debating. They will enhance students’ knowledge to understand the given
subject more deeply. Critical thinking also involves the core of Problem-based
Learning (PBL), which is necessary for students to understand how to learn criticallyand analytically (Hannafin, Hill, & Land, 1997). Hence, there are two main important
points that students can get during the learning activity which involves criticalthinking.
Firstly, the students learn how to take action in assessing complex issues. They will
be urged to improve their own ways to find out solutions to problems that theyencounter in a collaborative strategy. Developing precise thinking, deep analysis, andreasoned deliberation is the goal of implementing PBL in Student-centred Learning
activity (Attard et al., 2010). Attard thinks that the basis of the capacity for criticalassessment and analysis emerges as fundamental for enjoying a good quality of theeducational environment (Attard et al., 2010). Therefore, having critical thinking andimplementing their study in education contexts, students are able to think broader anddeeper, find out solutions of the given problem context, use their reasoning skills toanalyse and evaluate the assignment, and have strategic thought and not just takesomething for granted.
The second point is the student will use a wide variety of resources during assessing
the complex issues. Critical thinking encourages learners to evaluate their own habit
and thinking and on problems in variety of sectors in order to produce reasonabledecisions, counter and take action whether it is individually or collectively (Saragih &Napitupulu, 2015). Besides, Saragih and Napitupulu also uphold that by using variedreferences the students will be able to enhance their knowledge, so they will findmore issues to be investigated and analyzed critically. Hence, learners will be morewell informed and figure out the notions that are needed, functional and powerful(Saragih & Napitupulu, 2015) .
III. Challenges of Implementation
Some critiques point drawbacks of SCL. Many students seem to be failed in the classbecause they keep going on with their own mistakes and have no boundaries to limit
their action (Bailey, 2008). Consequently, the students do not acquire any effective
lesson from the class. In addition, one of the requirements of independent learning is

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the skill to work on their own, with a minimum guide and with confidence. Thiscondition will disadvantage the student with low thinking ability, therefore, they
could experience all of the steps psychologists associate with trauma. Moreover, thestudents with high thinking ability would feel more grief to play a major role when
they are instructed to take duty for their own study, especially when they have been
studying in a traditional classroom for a long time in their formal education. Hence,
there will be inequality during the learning activities.
To challenge those assumptions, SCL does not mean that the tutors do nothing. The
teacher obligation is to facilitate the student’s goals. They investigate and provide
needed resources, create, select, and expand problem contexts, while demonstrating ahuman resource (Hannafin et al., 1997). SCL is classified by a continuous cooperationteachers and students where all participants are actively get enrolled in discussion in
the process of learning. It is also better to include digital resources like computerized
databases, data collection and analysis tools, or internet-based resources (UGM,
Maret 2007). Resources may also be useful to help the teachers with building acontext for the student-centered class activity, or for developing an essential structure
or marking rubric for performance assessment on the activity.
Student-centred Learning makes students learn more effectively. Even though thiswill need more patience and confidence, encouraging the students to concentrate fullyon the activity would make them understand the lesson by implementing their own
interest but guided by the lecturers. More importantly, the students cannot acquire theindependent learning if their teachers still play more major role during the learning
activity by including formative feedback that aims to give students a clarity of what
they should do to have better improvement (Nanney, 2004). This feedback urges thelearners to be more independent since it lets them manage their own learning. To
enhance their working activity, one of the ways which are crucial to be included is
critical thinking activity which is considered as the second advantage of SCL and will
be elaborated on the next point.
On the collaboration point of view, much research focusing on cooperative study
group suggests that students cannot be put into a group together without detailed
structures in certain place. The structures include positive interdependence, individual
accountability, group goals and rewards, and most importantly in the case of Studentcentered learning, methods for providing students with opportunities to learn andpractice group management and decision-making skills (Schaefer & Zygmont, 2003)(Bailey, 2008). Besides, the students who have high order thinking ability will play
more major role in group and show their individualism. With collaborative work ingroup, some learners will respond inappropriately, reject the improvement and theindividual responsibility involved, keep complaining the other without considering
their mistakes and wasting time explaining to the slower learners in the group(Schaefer & Zygmont, 2003). The students with passive thinking will not get a chance
to participate, and they will not get significant improvement in the learning activity.
On the other side, providing proper training for students will be much helpful to resultin effective cooperation and experience in cooperative and collaborative skills which
are needed to enhance the teamwork skill. The role of the instructor in SCL is tofacilitates every single student or in a cooperative team by providing problem-based
context, controlling the time limits, demonstrate various amounts of guidance, asking

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leading inquiries, selecting response of students, or giving positive feedbacks (UI,
January 2016). The teacher also determines when the focus of discussion changed or
the discussion ended. Cooperative groups totally explore open-ended problems
needing critical and often creative thinking, and teamwork activity also gives the
chance for group work and social interaction. Directed circumstances concentrate on
the fundamental aspect as analyzed by the instructor and which are explained
externally through practice and explicit teaching activities. In workplace, it is also
required to have teamwork skill in order to make the work effectively with otherpeople, have string leadership, and know when should be a follower.
From those explanations, it can be stated that teamwork is a great change and gets thestudents out of their seats. The assignment is more rewarding and enjoyable when thestudents are incorporated in teamwork exercises. Just to ensure that teachers definesome teamwork limitations before starting the group work. The students should
understand what they need to achieve, knowing when they should finish their task andhow much time they need for doing the task (Harsono, 2008). The teamwork
introduces varied skills that will be useful for students later in the workplace, such ascommunication, collective effort, and negotiation.
On the lecturer side, in critical thinking activity, it is more challenging for the lecturer
to manage the class because the learners are really diverse in their skills, weaknesses,
and learning styles, but lecturers are just as diverse in their abilities and areas ofexpertise (Bailey, 2008). The teachers are occasionally confused because they do notreally know how to handle the varied skills of students. As a result, they would not
enjoy their teaching activity since they have complex materials to provide to students.
There would also be an imbalance among the students in the class since the students’abilities are different to each other, so only the smartest one who will more participate
in the learning activity.
What is important in SCL is that the role of lecturers is not only to tell them but also
guide them to understand the lesson. The instructor who teach patiently andconfidently will gain the rewards such as having students who study harder and havebetter manners towards their lessons, friends and themselves. In addition, providing
SCL training will help the teachers to understand the concept and to have better
preparation before getting involved in SCL class. In Indonesian University, forinstance, the lecturers of chemical engineering faculty in 2008 conducted the seminarof SCL for lecturers because the academic staffs of the university were aware of
students need of active learning (UI, January 2016). The seminar also encouraged thelecturers to be more active in teaching by providing problem-based context. In
addition to assumption rebuttals, Saragih and Napitupulu in their investigation depict
that improving the critical thinking analysis especially in finding mathematicalproblem solving, mathematical communication and mathematical concept will bringpositive improvement of students’ thinking ability (Saragih & Napitupulu, 2015). By
critical analysis, the student will acquire more ways to develop their ability of highorder thinking by not just work individually but also work collaboratively with theirfriends in group.

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IV. Conclusion
In summary, Student-centered Learning truly plays important role in education
especially at higher education level in the Indonesian context. Having investigatedthis issue, this essay shows that the implementation of SCL will help provide an
opportunity for students to have Independent learning, boost them to actively engage
in critical thinking activity and encourage them to collaboratively work in groupwhich enhances their teamwork skill. Further, Student-centered Learning
implementation also leads to some suggestions and recommendations for the student
learning improvement. More concern for the supplementary assistances needed byinstructors as they demonstrate more efforts to apply these kinds of activities in theirown teaching method. Moreover, the most considerable aspect is that helping thestudents to activate their intellectual development by engaging them in each activity
to work and enjoy their learning process. Therefore, as Kincheloe said, in the future,
the teachers will not always be considered as the experts who have all of the answers
and the students will not be the empty vessel who only passively absorb informationand experiences given by the teachers (Kincheloe, 2008).
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my thankful greeting to my scholarship, IndonesianEndowment Fund for Education, for giving support to my paper especially funding
and peer support. I also thank my tutors from, Katrina Tour and Brad Wilke, whoprovided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the paper, although they may notagree with all of the interpretations/conclusions of this paper. I would also like toshow my gratitude to my peers during the conference (Fajar, Isma and Rosyid fromMonash University) for sharing their pearls of wisdom with me during the course ofthis research. I am immensely grateful to them for their comments on an earlier
version of the manuscript, although any errors are my own and should not tarnish the
reputations of these esteemed people.

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References
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Attard, A., Di Iorio, E., Geven, K., & Santa, R. (2010). Student-Centred Learning:
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Dede, R. (Januray 2015). Student centered learning. Retrieved fromhttp://www.uinjkt.ac.id/id/student-centered-learning-2/
Dunn, K. E., & Rakes, G. C. (2011). Teaching teachers: An investigation of beliefs inteacher education students. Learning Environments Research, 14(1), 39-58.
Hannafin, M. J., Hill, J. R., & Land, S. M. (1997). Student Centered Learning andInteractive Muiltimedia: Status, Issues, and Implications. Contemporary Education,
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student-centred learning implementation. International Journal of Education, 4(4),176.
Saragih, S., & Napitupulu, E. (2015). Developing Student-Centered Learning Modelto Improve High Order Mathematical Thinking Ability. International Education
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Schaefer, K. M., & Zygmont, D. (2003). Analyzing the teaching style of nursing
faculty: Does it promote a student-centered or teacher-centered learning environment?
Nursing education perspectives, 24(5), 238-245.

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UGM, H. (Maret 2007). Jurusan elektro UGM launching pemanfaatan TI berbasis
SCL. Retrieved from [1]https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/1566jurusan.elektro.ft.ugm.launching.pemanfaatan.ti.berbasis.scl
UI, D. (January 2016). Penerapan student-centered learning (SCL) di perguruan tinggi
melalui metode problem-based learning (PBL). Retrieved fromhttp://www.che.ui.ac.id/en/news/penerapan-student-centered-learning-scl-diperguruan-tinggi-melalui-metode-problem-based-learning-pbl
Yap, W.-L., Neo, M., & Neo, T.-K. (2016). Learner-Centred Teaching Contributes in
Promising Results in Improving Learner Understanding and Motivation: A Case
Study at Malaysia Tertiary Education. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 14(4), 266281.

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Assessment Practices and Students’ Approaches to Learning: A Systematic Review
Jihan Rabah, Concordia University, Canada
Robert Cassidy, Concordia University, Canada
Manasvini Narayana, Concordia University, Canada
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Abstract
Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) differentiates between student learning
objectives/behaviours that are focused on the memorization of course content (surface
approach) or the construction of meaning and comprehension (deep approach). For nearlyfive decades, researchers have explored Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) as animportant framework for understanding, evaluating and guiding learning and instruction.
An evidently robust and generally relevant construct, SAL has spawned numerous
instruments to capture its Deep and Surface approaches, most notably the Study Process
Questionnaire (SPQ) and its successor the Revised Two-Factor SPQ (R-SPQ-2F).
Despite its history, there are few comprehensive reviews of its utility. Here we present
the results of a systematic review of the literature describing how deep and surface
approaches to learning are associated with different assessment practices. This paper uses
vote counting to investigate the relationship between assessment practices and students’approaches to learning. After a systematic search of the literature over 1,482 abstracts
were reviewed, from which 21 articles were selected and 53 voting scores were extracted.
Several assessment types were grouped and analyzed to help explain the voting results.
Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

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Student approaches to learning (SAL) is one of the most enduring and robust constructsof the education research literature. Its surface and deep approaches differentiate between
learning objectives and behaviors that focus on the memorization of course content or theconstruction of meaning and comprehension, respectively. Assessment practices, apowerful component of course design, influence learning expectations and theapproaches students adopt in a course. Summative assessments are typically high stakes;
post hoc assessments of learning, and formative assessments offer scope for feedback andlearning within the course. Both types of assessments could nudge students towards deepor surface approaches, based on their design. A systematic review of four decades (1976– 2017) of research literature on SAL was performed, and the peer-reviewed articles thatexamined the association between assessment practices and student approaches werecompiled and examined carefully for design quality and results. We present the results ofthis review describing how different student approaches to learning are associated withdifferent assessment practices. The role of assessment in setting expectations for learning
will be discussed.
Objectives or purposes
The systematic review is an exploratory study that aims at answering the following
research questions:
RQ1: What is the relationship between Deep Approach to Learning (as measured by the
SPQ or revised version of the SPQ) and assessment practices?
RQ2: What is the relationship between Surface Approach to Learning (as measured by
the SPQ or revised version of the SPQ) and assessment practices?
Perspective(s) or theoretical Framework
Anchoring the systematic review in students’ approaches to learning (SAL) as measured
by Biggs’ Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) and/or subsequent versions of it.
Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials
When we started exploring the relationship of SAL as measured by SPQ or subsequentversions of it, we wanted our data sources to be comprehensive. In light of that, we
explored various peer-reviewed databases. These included ERIC database, CanadianBusiness & Current Affairs, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, Proquest
Dissertation, EdITLib, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and Medline. Our
search strategies also included unpublished materials such as theses and research reports
to avoid publication bias. We conducted web searches using several search engines such
as Google and Bing to complement the data search process utilizing branching techniques
to find as many articles as possible. All searches included combination of SPQ key terms
that varied according to database or source researched. These included the following
terms “two-factor study process questionnaire”, “ two factor study processquestionnaire”, “study process questionnaire”, SPQ, RSPQ, R-SPQ, “R SPQ”, R-SPQ2F. The search was aimed at the abstract field of each database. Different databases

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required search key terms or search locations to be changed slightly to fit the appropriate
Boolean search. Adaptations were made to the above keywords as needed.
Overall, 1,482 abstracts were reviewed. This initial number went down to 259 by the endof the first filtering phase1. The count went down further to 228 after removing duplicatesand applying the following inclusion-exclusion criteria:• The population being tested had to be university learners.
• Adoption of the SPQ or any subsequent version of it as a measure of student
approach to learning.
• English version of the tool
• English as language of publication of article•
Next, we categorized the 228 articles according to Biggs’ three-P model: articles that
related Students’ Approaches to Learning (SAL) to Presage, Process or Product oflearning. We then decided to narrow in on studies that involved Presage characteristics.
Presage was chosen specifically since it has repercussions on Product and Process oflearning and can typically be manipulated to possibly improve the quality of teachinglearning.
This finally left us with 166 articles. The Presage category itself allows for more granular
categorization. While clearly each of the presage components affects the other, weconsidered it prudent to categorize our articles in the hope of a more nuanced
understanding. For example, while course design and assessment are more a continuum,
we chose to analyze them separately, starting first with assessment practices. In the end,
we had 21 studies in the assessment category hence 21 studies were included in thissystematic review, and our research question were: What is the relationship between
Deep Approach to Learning (as measured by the SPQ or revised version of the SPQ) andassessment practices? What is the relationship between Surface Approach to Learning (asmeasured by the SPQ or revised version of the SPQ) and assessment practices?
Methods, Techniques, or Modes of Inquiry
Like with any systematic review, we followed a predefined sequence of steps in order toensure transparency and replicability, following Cooper’s (2016) approaches tosystematic review reporting. The steps consist of the following:
1. Determine and develop the terms of reference of the research question.
2. Establish criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies.
3. Develop a search strategy for identification of relevant studies.
4. Select studies based on abstract review.
5. Select studies based on full-text review.
6. Code study features and moderator variables
7. Conduct analysis and interpretation

1

This sharp drop can be explained by the fact that SPQ is used as an acronym for a couple of other
instruments in business, psychology, and psychiatry fields.

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two coders worked independently and rated 10% of each article batches at each pointscreening- eligibility- inclusion and coding for study features. At all times percent
agreement was 88% or higher. When disagreements between coders occurred,mismatches in rating were discussed and a final agreement reached, to tighten proceduresof acceptance and rejections. Each study was combed for instances of associations
between the variables identified in the two research questions. Individual voting results
and relationships between variables of interest were recorded onto Excel spreadsheets.
Vote Counting Procedures
Our data set included 21 studies dated between 1976 and 2016. Research countries
included Australia, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. Research methodologies
varied and incorporated highly statistical studies as well as descriptive and mixed
methods studies. For a comprehensive observation of relations between assessment
practices and learning approaches, qualitative as well as quantitative results wereextracted from the different studies. To maximize the includes of the qualitative as wellas quantitative studies, we had to be agile in choosing our methodology and hence votecounting methodology was used. A voting mechanism for each type of finding wascharted. Instead of effect sizes, a categorization system was created to code the strengthof each association. For coding purposes, these associations were categorized according
to data type. Labelled A to F, they included the following: test of difference, correlation,
regression, proportion of sample, point on a Likert scale, and/or qualitative statement of
the relationship. As an example, consider a study exploring the research question: what is
the relationship between the form of assessment and learning approaches? If the reported
r value was significantly positive, it received a score of +2. If it was positive but notsignificant, it got a score of +1. 0 was marked for no relationship, -1 for a negative but
not significant relation, and -2 for significant negative relationship.
Results
For this analysis, and after we proceeded to answer the aforementioned researchquestions, findings were as follows:
RQ1: Relationship between Assessment practices and DA. Our data set gave 26 votes
counted, indicating an overall average vote of +0.58
RQ2: Relationship between Assessment practices and SA. The data set gave 27 votes
counted, indicating an overall average vote of -0.19
Weighing Voting Results by Quality and Sample Size
We noticed that the quality of studies varied, and because it is recommended insystematic reviews to appraise the quality of studies (Huff, 2009; Petticrew & Roberts,
2006; Ramey & Rao, 2011), we coded for the quality of studies. Studies were coded for‘low’ quality, ‘medium’ quality, and/or ‘high’ quality.

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However, we realized that our studies varied substantially by sample size as well since
we included qualitative as well as quantitative results. In light of that we recalculated
weighted voting for quality and for sample size so that we get a more gauging figure of
the voting results the qualitative and quantitative differences.
With regards to quality, the highest quality was coded 0.8. The latter was considered 1
and all the other quality values were divided by it to make sure they were related to ‘thehighest scoring quality value’.
With regards to weighted sample size, 2 calculations are proposed:
We considered the median of the sample size and worked with the assumption that themedian sample size is a full score and anything above the media is also is a full score.
For studies with sample sizes smaller than the median (N=107), we used two methods tocalculate the impact of the sample size on the vote size:
First is linear – we simply divided the smaller sample size by the median sample size.
The second is logarithmic, taking into effect the decreasing effect of the increase insample size from 0 to the median value, which is 107.
The resultant weighted voting for quality and sample size was calculated by multiplying
the raw voting score by the resultant quality factor and the resultant sample factor. The
final results were as follows:
RQ1: Relationship between Assessment practices and DA. Our data set gave 26 votes
counted, indicating an overall average vote of +0.44
RQ2: Relationship between Assessment practices and SA. The data set gave 27 votes
counted, indicating an overall average vote of -0.28
Theme-based Analyses by Assessment Types
To add detail and access additional insights to the results of the vote counting, we took aqualitative approach to analyzing the themes. For a thematic analysis, we first clustered
the articles based on the type of assessment involved in the study. The purpose was to see
patterns in reported discussions if any, between SAL and specific assessment types. The
21 studies in our pool clustered as follows: Multiple Choice: 6, Portfolio: 4, Essay (Longform writing): 2
All the others studied individual approaches that did not cluster into any themes or groups(For example: there were single studies dealing with Multimedia assessments, Progress
Testing, Viva, Case Study and so on).
In this process, we first listed all the key claims and observations made by the authors in
the results, discussion and conclusion sections of the papers. The authors were seeking to
explain better, add nuance, or justify their findings. Having listed these author
observations, we then extracted themes from them. Some of the recurring themes arereported below, organized by assessment type.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) as assessment. It appears that students are flexible
in the learning approaches they employ to succeed in MCQs. In some cases, students

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moved from a surface approach at one point to a deep approach at a later point, as in thecase of Dickie’s (1994) freshman physics students. In Leung’s et al. (2008) study,
however, students began with a deep approach, and later moved to a surface approach.
From student interviews, Leung et al. (2008) conclude this shift happens on account of a
big workload - or more accurately, because the students perceive their workload to bebig. But in spite of this shift to surface approach, these students still did better than those
who started out and stayed with surface approaches.
Yonker’s (2011) study of psychology students found that students’ surface approachharms their MCQ performance more than deep approach helps them. This is contrary tocommon practitioner belief that MCQs encourage and reward a surface approach. The
impact of student perception played a role again, in this case: when students perceived
MCQs as something that tested lower cognitive ability, they tended to take a surface
approach, which in turn lead them to a poorer performance on the MCQs.
Rajaratnam et al (2013) find that students with deep approach did very well on an MCQ
Exam, in the physiology context of their study. The authors also use the findings tojustify the use of didactic teacher-driven instructional methods, since the students were
exposed to such a method before they attempted the MCQ exam.
To summarize the three themes in the MCQ studies: Relying purely on surface approach
does not help students perform well on MCQ exams. Taking a deep approach might help,
or not, but is less likely to harm performance. Workload is seen a factor driving students
to surface approaches.
Portfolio assignments as assessments. Studies that investigated learning approacheswith Portfolio as an assessment type, found that students’ deep approach increases withhigher order thinking tasks, and surface approach reduces. Gijbels et al. (2006) found thatstudents with higher deep approach prefer portfolio assessments especially if they
allowed the students to demonstrate their more complex learning. However, after
exposure to several portfolio formative assessments, students tended to prefer the
portfolio lesser. The authors speculate that the workload may have been a factor leading
to this shift from deep to surface approach.
Segers et al. (2008) and Fong and Wai (2012) also find that portfolio increases the deep
approach and decreases surface approach. Segers et al. (2008) add that however,approach to learning also relates to the students perceptions of the portfolio task. The
quality of feedback was seen as an important aspect in stimulating learning. Segers et al(2008) identify several characteristics of feedback, which they believe is more amenable
to nurturing deep approaches.
Baeten et al. (2008) found that even though students seemed to prefer deep approach
when it came to portfolio tasks, it did not predict better performance. In his study,
students shifted to surface approach on portfolio tasks, but that did not improve
performance either. This author too speculates that the reasons for the shift are workload,
and the students not being adequately motivated. He also emphasizes that students
strategically shift between approaches based on their context. In summary, these studies

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seem to suggest that Portfolio assessments are quite likely to trigger deep approaches, but
the deep approach in itself does not seem to be a predictor of success on portfolio tasks.
Essay /Long form writing. In the case of essay type answers too, perception seems tomatter. Gerzina at al (2003) found that students who perceived the essay answers as not
being representative of the course content adopted a surface approach. If they did
perceive the essays to be representative of the course, they adopted a deep approach.
As with MCQ, in the essay assessments, students seemed to use the two approaches
strategically. Verkade and Lim (2016) found that the writing assessments did not require“deep writing” – a form of writing comparable to “deep reading”. Even though students
in his study took a deep approach to reading, they did not mimic the style of their readingin their writing. Verkade and Lim (2016) conclude that perhaps the test in question had
an issue – it assumed that a deep approach for reading would translate into a deep
approach for writing, though he does not get into too much detail about what “deepwriting may specifically engender. In his study, the majority of the subject did notleverage comprehensiveness of reading, even though students were required to undertake
comprehensive “deep” reading. Students in that study preferred a deep approach but werewilling to apply a surface approach strategically.
From among MCQ, Portfolio and Essay assignments, if we were to further distill themes,
it would be as follows: Strategic use of SAL, Student perception of assessment tasks
affecting performance, the design of assessments affecting SAL and performance, andstudent workload (or perception of workload), and the role of feedback.
Scientific or Scholarly Significance of the Study or Work
While we recognize that this is a relatively exploratory systematic review, it does provide
evidence that assessments do have a relation to students’ approaches to learning. In
conjunction with a review of studies involving course design and SAL, it might bepossible to arrive at a deeper understanding of the relationships between Presage
components and students’ approaches to learning.

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Reference List
Studies included in the systematic review are marked by an asterisk.
*Biggs, J. B. (1979). Individual and group differences in study processes. British Journalof Educational Psychology, 48(3), 266-279.
Biggs, J. B. (1987). Study Process Questionnaire manual. Student approaches to learningand studying. Hawthorn, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd.
Biggs, J., Kember, D., & Leung, D. Y. (2001). The revised two‐factor study processquestionnaire: R‐SPQ‐2F. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 133-149.
*Baeten, M., Dochy, F., & Struyven, K. (2008). Students’ approaches to learning andassessment preferences in a portfolio-based learning environment. Instructional Science,
36(5), 359-374.
*Barndt, R. J. (2011). Effect of Learning Contracts and Examination Problem Types on
Students' Mastery of Managerial Accounting Principles. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation. Widener University, New York, USA.
*Chen, Y., Henning, M., Yielder, J., Jones, R., Wearn, A., & Weller, J. (2015). Progress
testing in the medical curriculum: students’ approaches to learning and perceived stress.
BMC Medical Education, 15(1), 147.
*Cobb, K. A., Brown, G., Jaarsma, D. A., & Hammond, R. A. (2013). The educational
impact of assessment: a comparison of DOPS and MCQs. Medical Teacher, 35(11),e1598-e1607.
Cooper, H. (2016). Research synthesis and meta-analysis: A step-by-step approach(Volume 2). Sage publications.
*Dickie, L. (1994). Approach to Learning and Assessment in Physics. John Abbott
College, CP 2000, Ste Anne de Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3L9, Canada.
*Fong, C., & Wai, R. (2012). Student perceptions and learning approaches of using
blogs in IT education for reflection and knowledge construction. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation. Durham University, Australia.
*Gerzina, T. M., Worthington, R., Byrne, S., & McMahon, C. (2003). Student use andperceptions of different learning aids in a problem-based learning (PBL) dentistry course.
Journal of Dental Education, 67(6), 641-653.

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Official Conference Proceedings*Gijbels, D., & Dochy, F. (2006). Students’ assessment preferences and approaches tolearning: can formative assessment make a difference? Educational Studies, 32(4), 399409.
Haggis, T. (2003). Constructing images of ourselves? A critical investigation into
‘approaches to learning’ research in higher education. British Educational Research
Journal, 29(1):89-104.
*Hamm, S., & Robertson, I. (2010). Preferences for deep-surface learning: A vocational
education case study using a multimedia assessment activity. Australasian Journal of
Educational Technology, 26(7).
*Hillard, R. (1995). The Effects of Examinations and the Assessment Process on the
Learning Activities of Undergraduate Medical Students. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Huff, A. S. (2009). Designing for Research for Publication. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
*Kiguwa, P., & Silva, A. (2007). Teaching and learning: addressing the gap throughlearning styles: short reports: teaching and learning in psychology. South African Journalof Psychology, 37(2), 354-360* Leung, S.F., Mok, E., & Wong, D. (2008). The impact of assessment methods on thelearningof nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 28, 711-719.
*Mathiopoulos, K. & Paraskeva, F. (2009). Authentic Assessment in Computer
Supported Collaborative Learning Environments in Higher Education. In T. Bastiaens, J.
Dron & C. Xin (Eds.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in
Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2009 (pp. 2912-2916).
Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
*Nkhoma, M., Sriratanaviriyakul, N., Pham Cong, H., & Khai Lam, T. (2014).
Examining the mediating role of learning engagement, learning process and learning
experience on the learning outcomes through localized real case studies. Education &Training, 56(4), 287-302.
Petticrew, M., & Roberts, H. (2006). Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A
Practical Guide. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
*Rajaratnam, N., Cruz, S. M., & Chandresakar, M. (2013). Correlation Between The
Learning Approaches Of First Year Medical Students And Their Performance In Multiple
Choice Questions In Physiology. NJIRM, 4(5), 43-48.
Ramey, J., & Rao, P. G. (2011, October). The systematic literature review as a researchgenre. Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2011 IEEE International (pp. 1–
7, 17–19). Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

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*Segers, M., Gijbels, D., & Thurlings, M. (2008). The relationship between students’
perceptions of portfolio assessment practice and their approaches to learning.
Educational Studies, 34(1), 35-44.
*Verkade, H., & Lim, S. H. (2016). Undergraduate Science Students' Attitudes Toward
and Approaches to Scientific Reading and Writing. Journal of College Science Teaching,45(4), 83.
Watkins, D. (1983). Depth of processing and the quality of learning outcomes.
Instructional Science, 12:49-58.
*Weller, J. M., Henning, M., Civil, N., Lavery, L., Boyd, M. J., & Jolly, B. (2013).
Approaches to learning for the ANZCA Final Examination and validation of the revised
Study Process Questionnaire in specialist medical training. Anaesthesia and Intensive
Care, 41(5), 631.
*Yonker, J. E. (2011). The relationship of deep and surface study approaches on factualand applied test‐bank multiple‐choice question performance. Assessment & Evaluation inHigher Education, 36(6), 673-686.

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A Basic Study on the Conformity of Japanese University Students in Language
Communication Activities
Harumi Kashiwagi, Kobe University, JapanMin Kang, Kobe University, Japan
Kazuhiro Ohtsuki, Kobe University, Japan
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Abstract
As a basic study of the communication activities with the system we have beendeveloping, we investigated the affective factors related to student conformity byconducting a questionnaire with 81 Japanese university students in two classes. The
results showed that: (1) there was no significant relationship between student
conformity with another’s opinion and nervousness during English communication ineither of two classes, while there was a weak relationship between student conformity
and negative attitudes toward listening/speaking in English only in the Business
Administration class; (2) in both classes, there was a moderate relationship between
student conformity and indirect ways of self-expression, as well as feelings ofapprehension regarding the possible rejection of their opinions. These results suggestthat there exists no significant relationship between student conformity andnervousness during English communication. However, from the detailed analyses, it
is assumed that some factors exist between them. Further investigation is required bytargeting more students. The results and analyses also suggest that indirect ways ofself-expression may be one of the factors which slightly influences student
conformity. Meanwhile, student conformity is related to feelings of apprehension
regarding the possible rejection of their opinions. However, it is not clear which is themain factor of this relationship. Therefore, these results and discussion indicate that
we should focus on reducing students' feelings of apprehension regarding the possible
rejection of their opinions and on familiarizing them with expressing their true
intentions, when we design and implement communication activities.
Keywords: communication activities, nervousness, conformity, affective factors

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Introduction
According to the general policies of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology-Japan (MEXT) (2014a, 2014b), it is important to establish
an educational environment that corresponds to globalization and to foster younger
generations with wide global perspectives and strong communication skills. However,many students feel inhibited or nervous during face-to-face communication in foreign
languages (Horwitz, 1995; Suleimenova, 2013). Some of them may feel a similar way
even when speaking Japanese.
We have been developing a prototype system for communication activities using CG
characters in order to help reduce student nervousness and shyness while facilitating
their familiarity with real conversation (Kashiwagi et al., 2016; Shibuya et al., 2016).
As a basic study for supporting and encouraging students in their communication
activities through the above system, we investigated potential affective factors related
to student nervousness in language communication activities by conducting acorrelational study. The results of our prior study (Kashiwagi et al., 2017) showed
weak positive relationships between the item “I tend to conform with another’s
opinion” and student nervousness during face-to-face English communication, as well
as negative attitudes toward reading/writing in English. The item of student
conformity with another’s opinion belongs to a different category than other items inthis study, such as taciturnity and shyness.
The term conformity is often used to indicate an agreement made in order to "fit in" or"go along" with surrounding people. Depending on the situation, conformity can havepositive or negative effects. When it works positively, communication runs smoothly
and constructively. It may help people feel that they are accepted and encourage themto develop harmonious relationships.
However, some studies have claimed that there are negative aspects of conformity.
Igarashi et al. (2014) pointed out that recent Japanese university students tend to
conform with the opinions of others and refrain from stating their own opinions inorder to maintain social relationships. Sakamoto (1999) reported that conformity can
produce conflicts between an individual’s opinion and those of others, which may
cause emotional stress. Tajima et al. (2014) examined the interpersonal motivations
and conforming behaviors of Japanese university students. Their study found that
overtly conforming with the opinions of others has resulted in difficulties with and the
dilution of reliable relationships. If conformity works negatively, a lack of diversity
will result. The person engaging in conformity may be scared of rejection, and may
become reluctant to express his/her own opinion. In some cases, conforming with theopinions of others can cause individuals to agree with other members of their groups
publicly while inwardly dissenting.
Therefore, understanding the importance of behavior leading to conformity may help
Japanese students to develop healthier communication habits and good interpersonal
relationships. To focus on student conformity in this study, we conducted acorrelational study based on the results of a questionnaire administered to Japanese
university students in two classes (i.e., 40 in Engineering class and 41 in Business
Administration class).

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In the following chapter, we describe our prior study. Then we provide the methods ofthe present study, the results, and discussion. Finally, we present our conclusions andrecommendations for further study.
A Prior Study
In our prior study (Kashiwagi et al., 2017), we investigated the affective factors
related to student nervousness during language communication activities byconducting a questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to 84 Japanese
university students in two classes to gather responses regarding nervousness duringface-to-face Japanese and English communication, taciturnity and shyness, negative
attitudes toward English, and conformity with another’s opinion.
The results provided significant evidence that: (1) student nervousness during face-toface Japanese communication is to some extent influenced by their taciturnity andshyness; (2) student nervousness during face-to-face Japanese communication, theirtaciturnity and shyness, and negative attitudes toward English influence their
nervousness during face-to-face English communication. The affective factors related
to student nervousness during face-to-face English communication differ according to
the classroom settings.
The results also showed weak positive relationships between student conformity withanother’s opinion and nervousness during English communication, as well as negative
attitudes toward reading/writing in English.
To investigate further in this study, we added question items to our originalquestionnaire (Kashiwagi et al., 2017) focusing on student conformity. We conducteda correlational study using the revised questionnaire, which is discussed in thefollowing chapter.
Research Questions and Methodology
Research Questions
This study’s intent was to address the following research questions:(1)  Is student conformity with another’s opinion related to either nervousness
during English communication or negative attitudes toward English?
(2)  Is student conformity with another’s opinion related to indirect ways of selfexpression or feelings of apprehension regarding the possible rejection of theiropinions?
ParticipantsThis study’s participants consisted of 81 first-year students in two English language
classes at a university in Japan (i.e., 40 in Engineering class and 41 in Business
Administration class). The number of students and their respective majors are shownin Table 1. These students completed a questionnaire, the questions of which being
displayed in Table 2.

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Table 1: Number and Major Field of Participants
Class
A
B

Grade
1st year
1st year

Major Field
Engineering
Business Administration

Number of Students
40
41

Data Collection and Analysis
A questionnaire was administered to gather responses from students about their
nervousness during face-to-face communication in both Japanese and English,
conformity with another’s opinion, negative attitudes toward English, and taciturnity
and shyness. The questionnaire items are shown in Table 2. Responses were scored ona five-point Likert Scale (i.e., 1 point for Strongly Agree, 2 points for Agree, 3 points
for Neutral, 4 points for Disagree, and 5 points for Strongly Disagree). As thestatements were posited in negative terms in this questionnaire, we scored 1 point forStrongly Agree and 5 points for Strongly Disagree. Through a correlational analysis,
we attempted to investigate how the variables were related to one another.
Table 2: Questionnaire Items
Regarding Face-to-face Communication in Japanese and Student Conformity
Q1. I feel nervous when I use Japanese during face-to-face communication.
Q2. Usually I don’t say a lot in Japanese.
Q3. I feel shy when I’m communicating in Japanese and have to look the otherperson in the eye.
Q4. I tend to conform with another’s opinion.
Q5. I express myself in an indirect way.
Q6. I’m afraid that my opinion might be rejected.
Regarding Face-to-face Communication in English and Negative Attitudes Toward
EnglishQ7. I feel nervous when I use English during face-to-face communication.
Q8. I’m not good at reading/writing in English.
Q9. I’m not good at listening/speaking in English.
Results and Discussion
We investigated research questions related to student conformity. The results of thequestionnaire responses are listed in Table 3. To analyze the relationships between thevariables, we calculated Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficients on the datafrom the questionnaire, as shown in Table 4. *Correlation represents statisticalsignificance at the 0.05 level.
Relationships Between Student Conformity and Nervousness During English
Communication, and Negative Attitudes Toward English
We investigated how student conformity with the opinions of others was related to
nervousness during English communication and negative attitudes toward English. Q4
in Table 3 and Table 4 concerns student conformity, Q7 concerns nervousness during

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face-to-face English communication, and Q8 and Q9 concern negative attitudes
toward English.
The results of the correlation coefficients between Q4 and Q7 in the two classes
indicated in Table 4 (class A: rQ4Q7=0.31, class B: rQ4Q7=0.18) show that no significant
relationship exists between student conformity and nervousness during face-to-faceEnglish communication. The results of the correlation coefficients between Q4 andQ8 in the two classes (class A: rQ4Q8=0.26, class B: rQ4Q8=0.22) also show no
significant relationship between student conformity and negative attitudes towardreading/writing in English.
Meanwhile, the results of the correlation coefficient between Q4 and Q9 in class B in
Table 4 (rQ4Q9=0.33) show that a significantly weak positive relationship exists
between student conformity and negative attitudes toward listening/speaking in
English. However, the correlation coefficient between Q4 and Q9 in class A is notstatistically significant.
These results suggest that student conformity with the opinions of others is not related
to nervousness during English communication, nor is it related to negative attitudes
toward reading/writing in English in either of two classes. Conformity with another's
opinion is slightly related to negative attitudes toward listening/speaking in English
only in the Business Administration class.
Table 3: Questionnaire Results
Items

Class

Q1

A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B

Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9

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StronglyAgree
5 (12.5%)
6 (14.6%)
1 (2.5%)7 (17.1%)
2 (5%)
4 (9.8%)5 (12.5%)
5 (12.2%)
3 (7.5%)2 (4.9%)1 (2.5%)3 (7.3%)
12 (30%)16 (39%)6 (15%)
7 (17%)
18 (45%)22 (54%)Agree

NeutralDisagree9 (22.5%)
9 (22%)
11(27.5%)
7 (17.1%)
12 (30%)9 (22%)
14 (35%)12(29.3%)
10 (25%)9 (22%)
15(37.5%)
16 (39%)18 (45%)19(46.3%)
15(37.5%)
13 (32%)14 (35%)10 (24%)6 (15%)
5 (12.2%)
14 (35%)8 (19.5%)
10 (25%)4 (9.8%)14 (35%)14(34.1%)
12 (30%)12(29.3%)
14 (35%)12(29.3%)
6 (15%)
4 (9.8%)11(27.5%)
10 (24%)7 (17.5%)
3 (7%)

14 (35%)11(26.8%)
9 (22.5%)
15(36.6%)
9 (22.5%)
14 (34%)5 (12.5%)
8 (19.5%)
13(32.5%)
17(41.4%)
7 (17.5%)
6 (14.6%)
3 (7.5%)2 (4.9%)7 (17.5%)
11 (27%)0 (0%)
6 (15%)

303

Strongly
Disagree6 (15%)
10(24.4%)
5 (12.5%)
4 (9.7%)7 (17.5%)
10(24.4%)
2 (5%)
2 (4.9%)2 (5%)
1 (2.4%)3 (7.5%)4 (9.8%)1 (2.5%)0 (0%)
1 (2.5%)0 (0%)
1 (2.5%)0 (0%)

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Table 4: Correlations Among Questionnaire Items

To deepen our analysis, we will further analyze the following results: (1) the
relationship between student conformity with another’s opinion (Q4) and nervousness
during face-to-face English communication (Q7); (2) the relationships between
student conformity with another’s opinion (Q4) and negative attitudes toward English(Q8 & Q9).
First, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with Q4 responded
to Q7. Meanwhile, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with
Q7 responded to Q4. According to the results of Q4 in Table 3, a total of 19
participants in class A (47.5%) showed agreement with Q4 (i.e., “I tend to conformwith another’s opinion”). In class B, a total of 17 participants (41.5%) agreed with Q4.
In both classes, a little more than 40% showed agreement with Q4. Regarding Q7,
among 19 participants who agreed with Q4 in class A, 16 (84.2%) showed agreementwith Q7 (i.e., “I feel nervous when I use English during face-to-face communication”).
In class B, among 17 participants who agreed with Q4, 13 participants (68.4%)
showed agreement with Q7. Approximately 70 to 80% of the respective participants
who tended to conform with the opinions of others felt nervous when they used
English during face-to-face communication.
Conversely, the results of Q7 in Table 3 showed that a total of 30 participants in classA (75%) showed agreement with Q7. In class B, a total of 35 participants (85.3%)
agreed with Q7. In both classes, more than 75% felt nervous when they used English

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during face-to-face communication. Regarding Q4, among the participants who
agreed with Q7, 16 (53.3%) in class A and 13 (37.1%) in class B showed agreementwith Q4. Approximately 40 to 50% of the respective participants who felt nervous
during face-to-face English communication tended to conform with the opinions ofothers.
The results of the correlation coefficients in this study showed no significant
relationship between student conformity with another’s opinion (Q4) and nervousness
during face-to-face English communication (Q7). However, from the above detailed
analyses, it is assumed that some factors exist between them. We need to investigate
further by targeting more students.
Next, we will look at how participants who showed agreement with Q4 responded to
Q8 or Q9. Meanwhile, we will look at how participants who showed agreement with
Q8 or Q9 responded to Q4.
Regarding Q4 and Q8, among 19 participants who agreed with Q4 in class A, 12(63.2%) showed agreement with Q8. In class B, among 17 participants who agreed
with Q4, 8 (42.1%) showed agreement with Q8. A total of 63.2% (class A) and 42.1%(class B) of the respective participants who tended to conform with the opinions ofothers felt that they were not good at reading/writing in English.
Conversely, from the results of Q8 in Table 3, a total of 21 participants in class A(52.5%) showed agreement with Q8. In class B, a total of 20 participants (49%)
agreed with Q8. In both classes, approximately 50% of the participants felt that they
were not good at reading/writing in English. Regarding Q4, among the participants
who agreed with Q8, 12 in class A and 8 in class B showed agreement with Q4. A
total of 57.1% (class A) and 40% (class B) of participants who were not good atreading/writing in English tended to conform with the opinions of others.
These analyses support the above suggestion that student conformity with another’s
opinion is not related to negative attitudes toward reading/writing in English.
Meanwhile, regarding Q4 and Q9, among 19 participants who agreed with Q4 in classA, 16 (84.2%) showed agreement with Q9. In class B, among 17 participants who
agreed with Q4, 14 (73.7%) showed agreement with Q9. More than 70 to 80% of therespective participants who tended to conform with the opinions of others felt thatthey were not good at listening/speaking in English.
Conversely, from the results of Q9 in Table 3, a total of 32 participants in both classes(class A: 80%, class B: 78%) showed agreement with Q9. Approximately 80% of theparticipants in both classes felt that they were not good at listening/speaking in
English. Regarding Q4, among the participants who agreed with Q9, 16 (50%) inclass A and 14 (43.8%) in class B showed agreement with Q4. In both classes,
approximately 40 to 50% of the participants who were not good at listening/speaking
in English tended to conform with the opinions of others.
The results of the correlation coefficients in this study showed a weak positive
relationship between student conformity and negative attitudes toward
listening/speaking in English only in the Business Administration class. However,

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from the above detailed analyses, it is also assumed that some factors exist between
them. We need to investigate further regarding this relationship.
Relationships Between Student Conformity and Indirect Ways of SelfExpression, as well as Feelings of Apprehension Regarding the Possible
Rejection of Their Opinions
We investigated how student conformity with another’s opinion was related toindirect ways of self-expression, as well as feelings of apprehension regarding thepossible rejection of their opinions. Q5 in Table 3 and Table 4 concerns students’
indirect ways of self-expression, and Q6 concerns feelings of apprehension regarding
the possible rejection of their opinions.
From the results of the correlation coefficients between Q4 and Q5 in the two classes
in Table 4 (class A: rQ4Q5=0.59, class B: rQ4Q5=0.53), a moderate positive relationshipexists between student conformity with another’s opinion and indirect ways of selfexpression. The results of the correlation coefficients between Q4 and Q6 in the twoclasses (class A: rQ4Q6=0.55, class B: rQ4Q6=0.53) also show a moderate positive
relationship between student conformity with another’s opinion and feelings ofapprehension regarding the possible rejection of their opinions.
These results suggest that student conformity with another’s opinion is related toindirect ways of self-expression, and feelings of apprehension regarding the possible
rejection of their opinions.
To deepen our analysis, we will look at the following relationships further: (1) the
relationship between student conformity with another’s opinion (Q4) and indirectways of self-expression (Q5); (2) the relationship between student conformity withanother’s opinion (Q4) and feelings of apprehension regarding the possible rejectionof their opinions (Q6).
First, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with Q5 responded
to Q4. Meanwhile, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with
Q4 responded to Q5. According to the results of Q5 in Table 3, a total of 13
participants (32.5%) in class A showed agreement with Q5. In class B, a total of 11
participants (26.9%) agreed with Q5. In both classes, approximately 30% showed
agreement with Q5. Regarding Q4, among 13 participants who agreed with Q5 inclass A, 11 (84.6%) showed agreement with Q4. In class B, among 11 participants
who agreed with Q5, 8 (72.7%) showed agreement with Q4. In both classes, morethan 70 to 80% of the participants who expressed themselves in indirect ways tended
to conform with the opinions of others.
Conversely, among 19 participants who agreed with Q4 in class A, 11 (57.9%)
showed agreement with Q5. In class B, among 17 participants who agreed with Q4, 8(47.1%) showed agreement with Q5. Approximately 50% of the respective
participants who tended to conform with the opinions of others expressed themselves
in indirect ways.
From the above detailed analyses, it is implicated that indirect ways of self-expression
may be one of the factors which slightly influences conformity with another’s opinion.

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Next, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with Q6 responded
to Q4. Meanwhile, we will look at how the participants who showed agreement with
Q4 responded to Q6. From the results of Q6 in Table 3, a total of 16 participants(40%) in class A showed agreement with Q6. In class B, a total of 19 participants(46.3%) agreed with Q6. In both classes, approximately 40% showed agreement with
Q6. Regarding Q4, among 16 participants who agreed with Q6 in class A, 11 (68.8%)
showed agreement with Q4. In class B, among 19 participants who agreed with Q6,
12 (63.2%) showed agreement with Q4. In both classes, approximately 65% of theparticipants who were afraid that their opinions would be rejected tended to conformwith the opinions of others.
Conversely, among 19 participants who agreed with Q4 in class A, 11 (57.9%)
showed agreement with Q6. In class B, among 17 participants who agreed with Q4,
12 (70.6%) showed agreement with Q6. Approximately 60 to 70% of the respective
participants who tended to conform with the opinions of others were afraid that theiropinions would be rejected.
These analyses support the above suggestion that student conformity with another’s
opinion is related to feelings of apprehension regarding the possible rejection of theiropinions. However, it is not clear which is the main factor of this relationship.
Therefore, the above results and discussion indicate that we should focus on reducing
students' feelings of apprehension regarding the possible rejection of their opinions
and on familiarizing them with expressing their true intentions, when we design andimplement communication activities.
However, a limitation of the current study should be mentioned. This study was
conducted among only two classes, resulting in a small group of students. As acontinuous study, we need to target more students with the same major andinvestigate further.
Conclusion
As a basic study of the communication activities with the system we have beendeveloping, we investigated the affective factors related to student conformity byconducting a questionnaire with 81 Japanese university students in two classes (i.e.,
40 in Engineering class and 41 in Business Administration class).
The results showed that: (1) there was no significant relationship between student
conformity with another’s opinion and nervousness during face-to-face English
communication in either of two classes, while there was a weak relationship between
student conformity and negative attitudes toward listening/speaking in English only in
the Business Administration class; (2) in both classes, moderate relationships existed
between student conformity and indirect ways of self-expression, as well as feelingsof apprehension regarding the possible rejection of their opinions.
These results suggest that there exists no significant relationship between student
conformity with another’s opinion and nervousness during face-to-face English
communication. However, from the detailed analyses, it is assumed that some factors

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exist between them. We need to investigate further by targeting more students. The
results and analyses also suggest that indirect ways of self-expression may be one of
the factors which slightly influences student conformity with the opinions of others.
Meanwhile, student conformity with another’s opinion is related to feelings ofapprehension regarding the possible rejection of their opinions. However, it is notclear which is the main factor of this relationship.
Therefore, the above results and discussion indicate that we should consider the wayof reducing students’ feelings of apprehension regarding the possible rejection of theiropinions and of familiarizing them with expressing their true intentions, when we
design and implement communication activities.
Given the limitations of the data, we will continue to investigate further.

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References
Horwitz, E. K. (1995). Student affective reactions and the teaching and learning of
foreign languages. International Journal of Educational Research, 23, 573–579.
Igarashi, T., Nomura, T., & Iwasaki, M. (2014). Relationships of college students'
conformity behavior with cultural views of self and subjective university adjustment.
Bulletin of Joetsu University of Education, 33, 105–114. (In Japanese)
Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. (2014a).
English Education Reform Plan corresponding to Globalization
http://www.mext.go.jp/en/news/topics/detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2014/01/23/134359
1_1.pdf (accessed March 20, 2018)
Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. (2014b)
Report on the Future Improvement and Enhancement of English Education (Outline):
Five Recommendations on the English Education Reform Plan Responding to the
Rapid Globalization
http://www.mext.go.jp/en/news/topics/detail/1372625.htm (accessed March 20, 2018)
Kashiwagi, H., Shibuya, E., Kang, M., & Ohtsuki, K. (2016). A study on the use of awireless module for a language conversation training system using TVML characters.
Japan Society for Educational Technology, Research Report of JSET Conferences,16(1), 219–226. (In Japanese)
Kashiwagi, H., Kang, M., & Ohtsuki, K. (2017). A Preliminary study on anenvironment for language communication activities using CG characters -based on aquestionnaire on the psychological factors of learners -. Proceedings of the 33rd
annual conference of JSET, Matsue, Japan, (281–282). (In Japanese)
Sakamoto, G., (1999). A Study of the relationship between conformity behavior andadjustment on junior high school students. Bulletin of the School of Education,
Nagoya University (Educational Psychology), 46, 205–216. (In Japanese)
Shibuya, E., Kang, M., Ohtsuki, K., & Kashiwagi, H. (2016). A basic study on a taskbased style foreign language learning environment using RFID and a 3DCG character.
Official Conference Proceedings of the Asian Conference on Society, Education &Technology 2016, Kobe, Japan, (123–136).
Suleimenova, Z. (2013). Speaking anxiety in a foreign language classroom in
Kazakhstan. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93(2013), 1860–1868.
Tajima, Y., Yamazaki, H., & Iwataki, D. (2015). A study of interpersonal motivations
and conformity behavior in adolescence. GAKUEN, 892, 105–111. (In Japanese)
Contact email: kasiwagi@kobe-u.ac.jp

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Official Conference Proceedings“Tell Us Your Story”: Documenting the Nalik Culture Through an Educational
Project in Papua New Guinea
Cláudio da Silva, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, about 840 accountingfor 12% of all languages spoken in the world. This work aimed to record anddocument the lifestyle, stories and folk tales about birds present in the cultural
imagination of one of the numerous Papua New Guinean ethnic groups, the Nalik
people. This research was conducted at Madina and Luaupul villages in New Ireland
Province during the months between September to November 2016. Among theintended objectives were enhancing an awareness of cultural biodiversity andcontributing to the empowerment of the community through renewed interest in its
cultural heritage. The participants were six and seventh grade students and membersof the local community. Research was conducted through three steps: (1) recordingsof oral narratives in the community, and subsequent interpretation of their symbols in
the local context; (2) exploration of these recordings through interdisciplinary
activities with the students and developing the transposition of oral narratives intodrawings and written forms; (3) validation and correction of the students’ text by thecommunity. The material resulting from this process was subsequently edited and thefinal output was the short jointly authored book, A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture,created through the eyes and experiences of the participants of the project.
Keywords: action research, traditional knowledge,
educational project, Papua New Guinea, Nalik

indigenous

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, about 840 (Simons &Fenning, 2017), accounting for 12% of all languages spoken in the world (Volker,
2014). It also has 5% of all biodiversity in the world (WWF, 2017). These datasuggest a great biocultural diversity and a subsequent wealth of traditional knowledgeof numerous ethnic groups. Much of this is related to plants and animals and isknowledge that has evolved over generations in a long process of human interaction
and relationship with nature (Maffi, 2007).
Through a participatory and interdisciplinary approach, this research aims to recordand document the lifestyle, stories and folk tales about birds present in the cultural
imagination of one of the numerous Papua New Guinean ethnic groups, the Nalik
people. This research was conducted through an education project lasting over eightweeks in 2016 with Grade 6 and Grade 7 students at Madina Primary School (MPS)
and members of the Nalik community in New Ireland Province (NIP), Papua New
Guinea (PNG).
This research also represents the conclusion of another project that began in 2010
when I was living in Japan and working as a teacher at an international school for
Brazilian immigrants there. At that time, my first contact with MPS was at a distanceas part of a Pen Pal Project (da Silva, 2013) between students there and students at myschool in Japan, the Escola Brasileira Professor Kawase - Hiro Gakuen. I began thisproject so that my students would have an opportunity to practise and improve theirEnglish writing as well as to learn a little about another culture and country. As theletters went back and forth, the students on both sides shared information about their
daily lives, and learned a lot about each other’s environment and way of life. My
students’ curiosity was infectious so that just like them, their other teachers and I were
eager to receive the next package with letters from MPS with stories and explanations
about life in PNG.
This is the magic of educational projects. We might begin by planning the steps andgoals of the project, but it ends up taking on a life of its own, taking us on physicaland mental journeys that we had never thought of.
In my case I had an opportunity to visit PNG in 2014, when I went to NIP and spent amonth in Madina Village. During this time, I had the pleasure of meeting and getting
to know some of the students whose letters we had been reading in Japan over four
years. I also experienced the warm hospitality and rich culture of the Nalik people.
While I was in Madina, I began to think of a new educational project that could give
students at MPS the possibility to document for themselves some of their people’s
oral literature and folklore about animals in New Ireland. They could do this so muchbetter than an outsider because they could describe their own experiences, speak fromtheir own perspectives, and explore the ideas that would matter to them.
It took some time before I could begin to turn these thoughts into reality. But in 2016
I was able to return to Madina Village to put this project into practice as part of mymasters’ studies in social education at the University of Coimbra in Portugal (daSilva, 2017a). The final product of this process was the construction of collective

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book entitled A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture (da Silva & Volker, 2018), createdthrough the eyes and experiences of the participants of the project.
Research territory and the participants
NIP is formed by a group of islands, located in the northeast region of PNG. The mainisland, New Ireland (NI), has about 194,000 inhabitants and two districts: Kavieng,
the administrative headquarters, located in the north of NI and Namatanai, located
260km to the south (Australian Doctors International, n.d.).
According to the Ethnologue (2016), NIP has 22 ethnic groups. The practices
described in this work were developed in the domain region of the Nalik group, which
is distributed in 15 villages in NI. The census conducted in 2000 listed 4000 people as
belonging to this group, where the largest village is Madina, with about 600
inhabitants (Volker, 2014).
The participants involved in the pedagogical practices were 57 students, 23 of thegrade six and 34 of the grade seven of the MPS, located in the village of Madina.
These students live in Madina and in another village, about 2km away, called
Luaupul.
The ethnic groups of NIP have a close interaction with animals, where they are
represented in ceremonies, religious gatherings and social structuring. They also havevery similar cultures sharing, for example, matrilineal societies that contrast directlywith most other PNG indigenous groups that are patrilineal. The indigenous
communities of the north of NIP, which includes the Nalik group, are organised into aclan system (Were, 2003), which are an important social feature, as they define familyarrangements (kinship and descent), influencing marriages, land ownership, social
positions, and the construction of personal identity. The clans are managed and led bymaimais1.
The Nalik group has eight clans, represented by wild animals from the NI region,seven species of birds and one snake (Table 1). The animals have great importance intraditional ceremonies representing clans, among which the most important are
malagan (or malanggan), which feature sculptures carved of wood in honour of theirancestors (Volker, 1993, p.111). They are also protagonists in several stories, where
they represent a complex relation with the ancestors.

1

The title maimai means "leader of a clan", having permission to administer it and speak in public meetings, according to the
traditional laws of its groups (C. A. Volker, personal communication, June 23, 2016).

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Table 1: Nalik clans' name and their totemic animals.
symbolic
animals’scientificclan names
animals’ English names
animalnames
Moxomaaraba a regaaum
Eastern osprey
Pandion cristatus
Moxokalaa rok
Red-bellied pitta
Pitta erythrogaster
Trichoglossus
Moxomaafa mangaaf
Coconut lorikeet
haematodus
Moxokaamade a babanga
Blyth’s hornbill
Aceros plicatus
Moxotirin
a dauGreat frigate bird
Fregata ariel
Red-knobbed
imperial
Moxonuaas
a baalus
Ducula rubricera
pigeonMoxomunaa a manungulaai White-bellied sea eagle
Haliaeetus leucogaster*Saramangges a xalawizi
Sea krait
Laticauda sp.
All the animals are birds, excepted the sea krait that is a snake (da Silva, 2017b)
Working with educational projects
Working with educational projects can bring much satisfaction both to the teachers
who are involved and to their students. It brings a dynamism into the classroom, as it
gives the participants the opportunity to construct knowledge from their own
experiences. In order to allow the students to have positive educational outcomesfrom this educational project, all the activities were planned carefully following thefollowing steps:- The project does not work if the teachers use an authoritarian teaching style. It needs
to be part of a democratic process that lets the students participate with their own
ideas and suggestions, which can often take the project in a different direction fromwhat the teachers had originally planned (Abrantes,1995).
- The activities in the project need to give space for the students to learn by doing.
They should be engaged in dialogues, debates, and discussions at all stages of the
project. This gives a dynamic tension to the work and makes the activities moreinteresting to all the participants at the same time that it uses the students’ own
curiosity to push them towards wanting to learn more (Prado, 2003).
- Projects tend to work best when discussions are closely related to the social andcultural reality of the students so that they are encouraged to propose interventions.
This makes activities practical and functional, not just theoretical (Abrantes,1995).
- It is especially important for the project to produce a final product, something
concrete. This needs to be something that the students themselves have produced andthat recognises their authorship (Valente, 1999).
- The whole school community should be involved, parents as well as other membersof the community so that the experience of learning goes beyond the school. This will
help to validate the students’ learning, to encourage others to learn, and to make theproject more interesting for the students.

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Official Conference Proceedings- It is important to remember that in an educational project, teachers are not justgivers of information to the students. In this kind of learning, teachers need to bepeople who guide the students through different learning experiences and who
participate in both the planning and the execution of the project along with thestudents. Even more important, they need to be aware that they, too, will be learning
many things during the project (Moura & Barbosa, 2006).
These steps were some of the elements that shaped the design of this research,
conducted by action research as a working methodology. In action-research theresearcher does not act isolated from the participants, but together, submitting theresults emerged during the practices to the whole group, providing a dynamic learning
process (Graciani, 2014). It also emphasises aspects of horizontal methodologies,
aiming to make possible the construction of knowledge through the intersection ofknowledge and a more open dialogue with the participants (Daniel, 2012).
A step-by-step description of how the project was conducted
The central theme of this project was the birds of NIP. This topic was the focus ofseveral practical workshops that used different techniques to explore stories, drawing
and painting techniques, scientific reading, and English writing. Discussions looked at
the diversity of birdlife in New Ireland and its importance to and influence on Nalik
culture. Because the school is in a Nalik area that is organised into clans usually
represented by birds, there are many traditional stories about these animals. These
form an important part of the cultural heritage of this ethnic group and are valuable
both to the students and the other members of the community.
In order to construct knowledge based on the students’ own experiences, the activities
in this educational project were planned in such a way as to arouse their curiosity andencourage questions that could be answered through the activities that they carriedout. To do this, I had to plan activities that made use of the students’ creativity andthat were not necessarily the same as the way they were normally taught in class.
In this way, the students were free to suggest and create their own materials (texts anddrawings) that were reactions to discussions that arose during the workshops. This
process involved hands-on activities that went beyond just participating in group
discussions, leading to better interaction and cooperation during group work. This
contributed to the social and intellectual development of the students.
The main purpose of this project was to document the legends and myths Nalik
people have about birds and to present these in a Nalik cultural context. This meantthat I first had to collect these narratives. To do this I decided to ask the people who
would know these best: members of the Nalik community itself, in order words, local
residents and their leaders. For three weeks I interviewed ten people from thecommunity, including teachers, maimais (clan chiefs), and elders, and met with larger
groups of people at weekly village meetings in Madina and Luaupul. I asked them toexplain certain aspects of the local culture, to share traditional local narratives related
to the history of the region, and to identify birds that symbolise clans in thecommunity. They were told that this information would be shared with children attheir local primary school.

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This first step was essential in developing the workshops and running activities. It
gave me as an outsider some knowledge of the local culture and helped me to interact
with the theme in an appropriate way. At the same time the community could becomeacquainted with the project that was going to take place with students at their school. I
was rewarded with strong backing for the project by many leaders in the community.
The investigative process considered, in its various stages, a circular system where
information about Nalik culture emerged from participatory and reflexive dialogue
with village community leaders during interviews conducted between September 12
and October 8, 2016, and was used in interdisciplinary educational practices at the
MPS school, throughout a workshop, Storytelling - Our Book Project, developed
between October 5 and November 22, 2016. Through the workshop, narratives werebuilt that documented information about the local culture. Then, between November
20 and 24, 2016, the narratives produced by the students were analysed by membersof the community to validate these records. The diagram represented by Figure 1
shows in schematic form the main steps developed in this investigation.
During the phases developed in this research, the action research methodology,
applied in the whole process, was understood to be both critical and transformative,
enabling the establishment of a dialogue between participants and researcher within asystem that allowed the exchange of knowledge, the intersection of knowledge, as
well as intervention in and reflection on the proposed practices and actions developed.
Thus, during the research, I considered some assumptions that would guarantee thecollaboration of the participants so that they could make decisions, as well asinterventions in the research process itself, and participate actively in the elaborationof instruments in the intervention actions and / or suggest modifications and evaluate
the adequacy of previously planned activities.

Figure 1: Diagram of the steps applied during this research (da Silva, 2017a)
As this research involves the documentation of cultural aspects of a particularindigenous group, I considered that the methodology proposed should enable
documentation based on the voices of the participants, as well as prioritising the

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subjects which they considered most important within their culture. Invisible groups,
such as traditional and indigenous communities have knowledge that is not valued,
and are excluded from the knowledge historically accumulated by mainstream
society, so that there is a need to build knowledge belonging to the people with thepeople that allows for a more critical understanding that goes beyond the boundaries
of letters and is constituted in social and historical relationships (Maciel, 2011, 328).
In this sense, the investigative process was represented by an open and flexible plan
where, during the progression of its stages, the hypotheses, problems and theories
could be constantly reconstructed and complemented with the participants.
The Process of Interdisciplinarity
When we think of an educational project, it is important to think about the kind ofactivities that can access content knowledge in an interdisciplinary way. By this wemean content from different subjects that can touch on and explore different aspectsof one theme. During the project that led to the production of A Maani: Birds andNalik Culture, the theme involved more than just writing and producing texts in
English. Students worked with a number of different subjects, including:- Geography: important aspects of the local geography and of New Ireland as a whole,including its natural features and ethnic groups,- Science: problems in the local natural environment, animals and plants found in thearea, and the international scientific way of identifying and naming the birds
representing Nalik clans,- History: actions in the past that have influenced the present-day make-up of the
Nalik community and how it is organised today, and- Expressive Arts: drawing techniques that enable students to represent animals more
vividly and naturally.
Besides these school subjects, the students also investigated various aspects of Nalik
culture, collecting traditional oral stories, describing cultural events and symbols, andlearning how to put these into a narrative. A suggestion by students as they consulted
on how to present their texts was to use the correct Nalik terms for the names ofanimals and concepts from Nalik culture, followed by a translation and/or explanation
in English, a technique that can be seen in the pages of the book. This helped students
to become more familiar with classical Nalik terms that were unfamiliar to some ofthem who had a weak grasp of their ancestral language.
The workshop Storytelling - Our Book Project
The various exercises carried out over the course of this project were organised into
four practical activities incorporated in a workshop called Storytelling - Our Book
Project. In the classroom, I was able to count on the help of a linguist, Dr Craig Alan
Volker2, and a Maimai of the Moxokala Clan, Neil Gaalis, as facilitators during my2Adjunct Professor of the Cairns Institute, James Cook University in Australia; He was responsible forthe, documentation and elaboration of a writing system for the Nalik language (Volker, 1998).

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communication with the students, assisting with the elucidation of issues referring to
Nalik terminology, Nalik culture, as well as the orientation and organisation of thegroups during the several practices. During conversations with students, doubts often
arose about the meaning and the etymology of some Nalik terms, or even thegrammatically correct form of several words. One example was the form of Nalik
writing of clan names. Students from the Luaupul Village wrote differently fromthose living at Madina, which was subsequently elucidated as being a problem related
to the dialects used in these two regions. Thus, both forms were correct and were later
included in the final production of the book.
The presence of both facilitators was also important during the correction of the texts
produced by the students, making it possible to optimise the time spent in theclassroom and the dynamics in the construction of the narratives, in which it wasessential to attend to the students’ questions, allowing special treatment for those withsome difficulties with writing (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Composition of photos showing students receiving orientations during thecorrection of their texts. (all photos: da Silva, 2016 - except the image to the left, atthe bottom, captured by Volker, 2016).
The following is a brief description of each of the activities and how they weredeveloped.
1. Storytelling
In this activity students could learn about the different styles of narratives used inlegends and fairy tales, which were read to the students in English, accompanied withcolourful figures illustrating the different parts of these stories. After first listening to
the stories and then reading them in groups, students talked about their social
importance as well as the messages and symbols in these narratives. After this,students drew pictures to illustrate a Nalik legend about the origin of their clans,
which was included in the final book.

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2. Technical aspects of books
In this stage, many books representing different literary genres were brought into theclassroom. Students were asked to identify the different parts of the books and tocomment on their similarities and differences.
The main elements that make up a book, such as the cover, authors’ names, andtechnical requirements were also presented to the students. It was important for themto understand that there are rules governing the preparation and inclusion of theseelements in a final publication. I also observed that the construction of the group bookwould be guided by these rules. Thus, the students were directed to think not only of
the texts they would write, but also how to create all the elements necessary to makeup a book.
3. Hand-made books
In this stage students had an opportunity to put into practice all the concepts andinformation they had been learning about.
Working in groups of no more than four people, the students were asked to write a
simple story describing an event, telling a personal story, or re-telling a local legend.
The topic was up to the group, but it had to deal in one way or another with “birds”.
As they wrote, the students were helped to correct their English style and grammar,
and relevant rules about English usage were explained. After the texts were produced,
the students were shown how to put these stories into small individual books, withcovers, title pages, introductory material, and illustrations. After the individual pages
were finished, they were stapled together and bound with colourful tape (Figure 3).
Some of the stories and illustrations from these individual books can be found in the
final book.

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Figure 3: Some of the handmade books developed by the students during theworkshop (photo: da Silva, 2016).
4 Working with texts and illustrations
As explained earlier, material such as narratives and traditional information had beencollected earlier from members of the Nalik community. Working with this material,
students discussed what they did and did not know about clans in general and theirown clans in particular, as well as about the birds that represent them. They also
identified these birds scientifically and learned about how the birds live, both frombooks and from what their elders told them.
After exploring the information that had been collected, we worked with students todecide which other texts should be written for the collective book. After muchdiscussion, the group decided they needed texts describing the importantcharacteristics of the Nalik people, the villages where the students live, their habits
and customs. Then they described the Nalik clans and the birds that represent them.
The students again worked in groups. Each group had responsibility for producing
one group text for the collective book. These texts were improved and re-written
many times. The three teachers were available to make suggestions about English
usage and the content of the texts. The texts were re-read many times until everyone
was satisfied with the final results. The groups also produced drawings of the clan
birds that illustrate this book (Figure 4). After they were finished, the texts werejoined together and edited. The final text was shown to students for their approval andfor any final corrections or additions.

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Figure 4: Some of the pictures drew by the students during the workshop (photo: da
Silva, 2016).
The book A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture
During the first two weeks of the workshop, at MPS, I proposed to the students tocontribute themes that could be used in the development of texts to compose thecollective book (see Table 2). This resulted in a first compilation of possible chaptersand topics that, through the reflections that emerged during the practices developed in
the classroom, would end up undergoing several modifications, until the final
production.
In the final book, the topics chosen by the students were organised in sequential
chapters in order to increase their coherence and structure, a strategy that allowed the
expansion of the range of information about socio-cultural, historical andenvironmental aspects used in describing the Nalik group.

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Table 2: Chapters and themes suggested by the students for the collective book (daSilva, 2017a)
Chapters chosen by theMain theme to be explored in each chapter
students• Location in Papua New Guinea
New Ireland• Beauty: the forest and the sea• How many tok ples (local languages)• Who are the Nalik people?
Nalik people• Main villages• How do Nalik people live?
• How many Nalik clans are there?
Nalik Clans• The name of clans’ animals in tok ples
• One of them isn’t a bird but a snake• Description of the name of the animals in a Westernway• Their colour, size, feeding habits and where they live.
• Stories about birds
Birds• New Ireland birds
Next, I will present each chapter of the final book as it was organised after reviewing
the suggestions provided by the students.
New Ireland ProvinceThis chapter describes NIP, its location, wealth, and natural beauty. Here also thestudents highlight the cultural richness of this region represented by its 23 native
languages, the Nalik language being one of them.
The Nalik area and our villages
The Madina and Luaupul villages are presented in this chapter through theirbiodiversity and places considered important by students. The animals, cited in
English, also had their names translated into the Nalik language, a decision made by
the students themselves and adopted for all the natural and socio-cultural elements
present in this work. Here, too, some historical aspects, are inserted to describe theGerman colonial period between 1884 and 1914 and the Japanese invasion andoccupation during World War II.
Nalik society and Nalik culture
Here the students specifically address the matrilineal social organisation of the Nalikgroup, their leaders and clans, and describe cultural elements present in the traditional
memorial ceremonies known as malagan.

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The Origin of the Clans
This chapter contains a traditional Nalik tale that explains the origin of the clans. The
narrative was structured and complemented with seven illustrations made by thestudents;
Birds of New Ireland - Their importance for the environment and Nalik culture
The ornithological diversity of the NIP is addressed in this chapter, as well as its
importance for the local environment and culture.
Description of the birds that represent the Nalik clans
Here each of the seven species of birds used as totem of the Nalik clans is depicted.
Each animal is presented by its name in the Nalik language, accompanied by thevernacular name in English, and its scientific classification. In the description,
information was searched in Birds of New Guinea (Pratt & Beehler, 2014), Birds ofMelanesia: the Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia (Dutson, 2011)
and Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide (Allen & Steene, 1998). During theworkshop, this information would be complemented with traditional knowledge
shared by community members and illustrations drawn by the students;
Other important birds in Nalik culture
In this chapter, five narratives are compiled that were shared during the Tell Us Your
Story activity in the Hand-made Books workshop. These were selected by the students
from among the various productions developed. Also included are four traditional
songs, recorded during an interview with community members, with their respective
translations and / or information on the subject addressed. All this material deals withthemes related to several species of birds that live in the NIP region, showing theimportance of these animals to the local culture.
About this book
This chapter describes the whole process involved in conducting the Workshop: Our
Book Project. It also contains some guidelines for teachers and community members
who wish to develop similar educational projects in their schools that consider the
local reality, conducted in an interdisciplinary way and with community involvement.
Showing the project to the community and asking for validation
During the activities, the students and I made a timeline of the steps we weredeveloping. At the end of every meeting with them, the students were asked to discussand write together some paragraphs about the activities they had taken part in, what
they had learnt that day, and what topics or questions they found especiallyinteresting. This timeline was made with colourful paper and acted as a visual guideof the project, documenting and illustrating everything we had been doing. At the endof the workshop I brought the individual books the students had made together withthe timeline and showed them to the weekly Monday community meetings in Madinaand Luaupul villages (Figure 5). Parents and other community members showed great

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interest in what the students had been doing and could see how the stories andinformation they had shared earlier contributed to the project.

Figure 5: Community members at Luaupul Village observing the material developedby the students during the workshop (photo: da Silva, 2016).
Because the topic of this book and of this project contained elements referring to theculture of an entire ethnic group, we thought it was also important to give the final
text to several members of the community so that they could validate the vocabulary
and content. Eight members of the Nalik community, including maimais and teachers,
were asked to read and correct the texts. Based on their recommendations, some Nalik
words were changed and some additional explanations were included.
Conclusions
The process depicted in this paper is the result of a dynamic collaboration between
young students, community leaders, and a researcher from outside the community. It
is an example of how educational projects can enrich students’ learning and be a way
for small communities to produce literature to share their culture and local
knowledge.
The use of action research, which enables several moments of dialogue andcollaboration with the community, was fundamental in establishing a climate of trustand interest on the part of the members of the Nalik group. Among other potentialities
mentioned by the participants, it prevented the production of decontextualised
descriptions about local culture, a criticism mentioned by many community members
in relation to anthropological research developed in the region that, according tothem, end up portraying their customs and way of life in a superficial and misguided
way.
The book A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture (Figure 6), built through experiences andvoices of these participants, compiles various aspects of Nalik culture as well as
traditional songs and narratives, documented and described through the eyes of the

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community. It also represents a set of information about this ethnic group,
documented for the first time using their own oral narratives.

Figure 6: Cover of the book A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture and an example of one
its pages (photos: da Silva, 2018)
It exemplifies a practical-constructive model, for education contextualised within
aspects of the local culture in the search for a possible dialogue that leads to therevaluation and acknowledgement of traditional knowledge and practices that are partof the identity of its members.
This research identifies a methodological process that could be replicated in othercultural contexts, such as with other groups in northern NIP with which the Nalikgroup has similarities in relation to social organisation in clans and the observance ofmalagan ceremonies. It would also be interesting to conduct a similar contextualised
investigation in other indigenous and / or traditional communities. The reflexive andparticipatory process developed throughout this research can contribute to theempowerment of the community in the maintenance of its cultural identity, since it
provides a space for a deep discussion of these elements, by the community itself.

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References
Abrantes, P. (1995). Trabalho de projetos e aprendizagem matemática. In P. Abrantes(ed.), Avaliação e Educação matemática (pp. 60-88). Rio de Janeiro: MEM/USU GEPEM.
Australian Doctors International. (n.d.). Working for a healthier PNG, PNG health.
[Australian Doctors International]. Retrieved on September 24, 2017, fromhttp://www.adi.org.au/png-health/
Allen, G. R. & Steene, R. (1998). Indo-Pacific coral reef field guide. Brisbane: Coral
Sea Imagery.
da Silva, C. (2013, June 25). Projeto Pen Pal - intercâmbio com a Papua Nova Guiné.
Projetos Educativos: Meio Ambiente e Cidadania. [Blog]. Retrieved on September 22,
2017, from http://www.claudio-da-silva.com/projetos-educativos/projeto-pen-palintercmbio-com-a-papua-nova-guinda Silva, C. (2017a). Aves na Cultura Nalik: re(conhecendo) a voz da comunidade
por meio da investigação-ação. Unpublished master dissertation, University of
Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
da Silva, C. (2017b). As aves na cultura Nalik: um projeto educativo na Papua Nova
Guiné. In
D. Alves, H. G. Pinto, I. S. Dias, M. O. Abreu & R. G. Muñoz (eds.), VI Conferência
Internacional - Investigação, Práticas e Contextos em Educação (pp. 234-243).
Leiria: Escola Superior de Educação e Ciências Sociais Instituto Politécnico de Leiria.
da Silva, C. & Volker, C. A. (2018). A maani: birds and Nalik culture. Sheridan:
Education Projects International.
Daniel, M. R. P. (2012). Las metodologias horizontales. In M. R. P. Daniel & S
Sartorello (eds.), Horizontalidad, diálogo y reciprocidad en los métodos deinvestigación social y cultural (pp. 11-14). Chiapas: Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología
del Estado de Chiapas.
Dutson, G. (2011). Birds of Melanesia: the Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu and New
Caledonia. London: Christopher Helm.
Ethnologue. (2016). Papua New Guinea, map 2. Ethnologue, Languages of the World.
Retrieved on January 19, 2017, from https://www.ethnologue.com/map/PG_02
Graciani, M. S. S. (2014). Pedagogia social. São Paulo: Cortez Editora.
Maciel, K. F. (2011). O pensamento de Paulo Freire na trajetória da educação
popular. Educação em Perspectiva, 2(2): 326-344.
Maffi, L. (2007). Biocultural diversity and sustainability. In J. Pretty, A. S. Ball, J. S.
Guivant, D. R. Lee, D. Orr, M. J. Pfeffer & H. Ward (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of

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Environment and Society. SAGE Publications (pp. 267-278). doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781848607873.n18
Moura, D. G. & Barbosa, E. F. (2006). Trabalhando com projetos: planejamento egestão de projetos educacionais. Petrópolis: Vozes.
Prado, M. E. B. B. (2003). Pedagogia de projetos: fundamentos e implicações. In M.
E. B. Almeida & M. E. B. B. Prado (eds) (pp. 5-12) Série “Pedagogia de Projetos e
Integração de Mídias” - TV Escola, Programa Salto para o Futuro.
Pratt, T. K. & Beehler, B. M.. (2014). Birds of New Guinea (2nd. ed.). Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Simons, G. F. & Fenning, C. D. (2017). Papua New Guinea. In Simons, Gary F. &Charles D. Fennig (eds.) Ethnologue: Languages of the World (13a. ed.). Dallas: SIL
International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
Valente, J. A. (1999). Formação de professores: diferentes abordagens pedagógicas.
In J. A. Valente (ed.) O computador na sociedade do conhecimento. Campinas:
UNICAMP-NIED.
Volker, C. A. (1993). Changing language patterns in a Papua New Guinean society,
Annals of the Gifu University for Education and Languages, No. 25. Retrieved on
May 26, 2017, from http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110000187582
Volker, C. A. (1998). The Nalik language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. New
York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Volker, C. A. (2014). Vernacular education in Papua New Guinea: reform or deform?
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College London, London, UK.
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Contact email: clau.smith@gmail.com

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Explicit and Implicit Grammar Instruction in English Writing
Shih-Chieh Chien, National Taipei University of Business, Taiwan
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The present study aims to explore the experimental assessment of different
instructional approaches (i.e. explicit and implicit grammar instruction) in English
writing. Specifically, it seeks to investigate whether grammar should be taught
explicitly or implicitly in English composition classes in Taiwan, and which option
can help students enhance their grammatical accuracy more effectively after a periodof teaching. A quasi-experimental research design was carried out in comparing twotreatment groups who were 7th graders in two English classes in a junior high school.
Results showed that students in the explicit teaching group improved more andreceived higher scores in a posttest and delayed posttest, as they made fewer
grammatical errors in comparison with the group in which grammar was implicitly
taught. Metalinguistic awareness tended to play an important role in grammar learning.
In addition, there was a discrepancy between students’ and teacher’s perceptions of
explicit and implicit grammar instruction. Implications for writing pedagogy andawareness-raising are discussed.
Keywords: explicit grammar instruction; implicit grammar instruction; English
writing; quasi-experimental research; awareness-raising

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Over the past few decades, there have been several arguments about the different
possible approaches to teaching grammar in EFL contexts. Grammar instruction is acontroversial issue among teachers, curriculum designers, and language practitioners.
Some teach grammar explicitly; others teach it implicitly; and still others probably do
not want to teach or talk about it in class at all. Until now, English teachers still face
the issue of deciding the best approach to improve their students’ grammaticalaccuracy. If grammar has been viewed as a taboo by some people, it has also been
appreciated and supported by some others. Insights into the issues of how best toteach grammar in second language (L2) writing classrooms or, indeed, whether toteach grammar at all in composition classes, continue to be of great interest andconcern to teachers and researchers alike.
There has been a continuing argument in the current curricula regarding how to meetschools’ language requirements (Chang, 2011). In Taiwan, it is generally assumed thatwith years of learning English language in classrooms, students should have somebasic knowledge of grammar. However, it is evident that many students still struggle
with their grammar and are weak in using it accurately, especially in their writing
compositions. In view of the problem in learning grammar mentioned above,
therefore it is important to explore how to best teach students to use grammar
accurately.
This paper attempted to contribute to the body of research, with the aims of exploring
which one (explicit or implicit grammar instruction) is better to help students learn touse grammar accurately for academic purposes, and discovering the effect of two
instructional treatments in the school context. As grammar is an area that affects all
writing teachers and their students, it is important that the literature should be
augmented by research studies conducted in different parts of the world. In the past,
the large majority of published grammar research has been conducted in L1 and ESL
college contexts, and in English-dominant countries, particularly the US and UK.
Empirical research carried out in other contexts, especially under-represented contexts
such as elementary level and EFL contexts, will be a welcome addition to the field. In
other words, research that explores explicit and implicit grammar instruction inwriting in different contexts and ages is very much needed in order to add new
knowledge to the current research base on the effectiveness of grammar teaching andlearning.
Literature Review
Explicit grammar instruction
The debate between the effectiveness of implicit and explicit grammar instruction
persists in the past literature. In particular, whether grammar should be taught
explicitly or implicitly is still controversial (Ellis, 2008, 2012, 2015).
Referring to Implicit and Explicit Knowledge in Second Language Learning, Testing
and Teaching, Nazari (2013) pointed out that explicit grammar instruction “involves
teaching a certain rule during the learning process and encouraging the learners todevelop metalinguistic awareness of that rule” (p. 157). Explicit grammar instruction

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comprises drawing student attention to a particular learning objective in a highly
structured situation without referring to context. More specifically, grammar is taught
in a logical order guided by the teacher through demonstration, explanation andpractice. Grammar rules are presented before any examples are given. The aim of
explicit instruction is to introduce a new grammatical concept, offer guidance forunderstanding rules, and provide students with specific instruction through modeling,which gives them opportunities to develop an understanding through practice (Ellis,2008). Ellis (2008) stated that explicit instruction is conscious, declarative and only
accessible through controlled processing in planned language use. Grammar ispotentially learnable at any age and consequently, and language rules could be
performed automatically if the sequences are sufficiently practiced. Explicit
instruction makes students recognize ungrammaticality, since it not only activates
their prior knowledge of the target structures, but also raises their awareness of thetarget grammar form (e.g., Ellis, 2012, 2015; Larsen-Freeman, 2003).
Major affordances and constraints of explicit grammar instruction are summarized inTable 1 (Ellis, 2008, 2012, 2015).
Table 1: Affordances and constraints of explicit grammar instruction
Affordances of explicit grammar
Constraints of explicit grammar
instruction
instruction• non-communicative learning• conscious learning• rule memorization• in a more structured way• generally without enabling• straightforward rules
individualized understanding• practice through grammar drills• generally without providing
and exercises
authentic, contextualized
learning
Implicit grammar instruction
As opposed to explicit instruction that involves teaching grammar rules during thelearning process and facilitating students to develop metalinguistic awareness of therules, implicit instruction aims to give students opportunities to infer the rules without
being consciously aware of them and most importantly, internalize the rules naturally
without having attention focused on them (Ellis, 2009). The idea that grammar can belearnt implicitly comes from Krashen (1985, 2013). He rebutted any statements that
attempt to advocate the effectiveness of explicit grammar instruction. As suggested by
Krashen, explicit grammar instruction as contributing to SLA is controversial.
Spontaneous use of grammar rules is the outcome of a series of an independent
process of acquisition, which occurs subconsciously through exposure to input.
An important issue of explicit grammar instruction is whether it results in successfulinternalization in learning grammar rules. Krashen’s input hypothesis (1985)
maintained that students learn a language by understanding messages, not throughunderstanding form, and that comprehensible input plays a crucial role for language
acquisition. Specifically, he argued that given comprehensive input and wide-ranging
opportunities for meaningful communication in class, grammar could be learnt
naturally and automatically through different exposure. The aim of implicit grammar
instruction is to introduce grammar in a student-centered manner, to give students

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instruction with various examples and exposure without teaching students grammar
rules, and to let students build their own schemas for understanding and applying
rules by themselves.
Major affordances and constraints of implicit grammar instruction are summarized inTable 2 (Ellis, 2008, 2012, 2015).
Table 2: Affordances and constraints of implicit grammar instruction
Affordances of implicit grammar
Constraints of implicit grammar
instruction
instruction•   subconscious learning•   difficult for some students to•   more contextualized anddeduce rules
authentic•   problems of misinterpreting rules•   more communicative•   tending to be unstructured•   in a more natural situation
It should be recapped here that there are distinctions between explicit and implicit
grammar instruction. The focus of explicit grammar instruction is on the forms, rather
than on the meaning. On the other hand, implicit grammar instruction gives noattention to the forms and explanation of grammatical rules, and the primary concernof teaching activity is on communication of meaning.
To conclude, so far, in the practice of English language teaching, teachers still face theissue of how to best improve their students’ grammatical competence. Nonetheless, as
people from different contexts may have a different learning preference, it is therefore
necessary for teachers to vary their method to optimally teach students. For instance,
in Mainland China and Taiwan, although there is an increasing trend toward implicit
grammar instruction such as designing more communication-oriented teachingactivities, its effect, especially on grammar learning, is still uncertain concerningwhether it is effective in developing learner’s grammatical accuracy. Thus, teachers
may need to consider reverting to explicit grammar instruction. Therefore, in light ofdifferent approaches to teaching grammar (explicit and implicit grammar instruction),
it would be useful to examine the effect of these approaches on students’ performancein writing narrative compositions. It would also be interesting to explore whichapproach would lead to better improvement of students’ grammatical accuracy.
Research Method
Research aims and questions
The present study aims to explore approaches to teaching grammar so as to find ways
to improve students’ grammatical accuracy, which is generally tested in school andinternationally-recognized standardized exams, such as the TOEFL, IELTS and SAT.
In this study, the simple past tense and the past continuous tense in the student
textbook were selected as target grammar rules because the students had to learn thesein junior high school, as stipulated by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. They play animportant role in narrative writing, especially in describing past events. The researchquestions in the present study are as follows.

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1. Do explicit grammar instruction and implicit grammar instruction have different
effects on students’ performance in grammatical accuracy in narrative writing?
2. If there is an effect, which teaching approach can lead to better improvement on
students’ performance in grammatical accuracy in writing?
3. Does the improvement sustain over a period of time?
4. What are grammatical errors that students make in narrative writing?
5. What are students’ and teacher’s perceptions of explicit grammar instruction andimplicit grammar instruction?
Research design
The design of the study was a quasi-experiment (i.e. treatment group 1 and treatmentgroup 2). Data were collected in 2016 from students’ pretest, posttest and delayed
posttest scores, and also from follow-up semi-structured interviews with students andteacher. The study was conducted over a 4-month period (from pretest to posttest: 3
months; from posttest to delayed posttest: 1 month). Since it was conducted in ajunior high school setting, students were already grouped into different classrooms. It
was at this stage that students were required to learn past tense in the curriculum
guidelines set by the Taiwan Ministry of Education (Taiwan Ministry of Education,2005). All of the research subjects were 7th graders between 12 and 13 years old(Mean: 12.4 years; SD: 0.8 year). Before entering junior high school, they had studied
English as a compulsory subject in elementary school for 4 years. They had started tolearn English in third grade in elementary school (Taiwan Ministry of Education,2005). Their previous study in elementary school mainly focused on learning basic
vocabulary, rather than sentences.
As this study was quasi-experimental in nature, the researcher formed the classroomgroups to be studied, treatment group 1 (explicit grammar instruction) and treatmentgroup 2 (implicit grammar instruction). Two classes were selected at random by adraw to be assigned to use one of these two approaches to teaching grammar. The
number of students in each class was between 40 and 42 and their English language
proficiency varied. It is noted that for the purpose of this study, only 35 students wereselected from each class. In order to avoid any bias in the study, for each class, theresearcher chose the students from the class register list after excluding those who did
not meet the requirements of the study as follows. First, students fromEnglish-speaking countries or who had studied there over six months or a semester
were excluded from the study. They were also identified through interviews about thelanguage(s) used at home and at school. Second, the students who were absent during
pretest, posttest and delayed posttest were also excluded from the study. In otherwords, the students who did not participate in pretest, posttest and delayed posttest
were eliminated from this study. The final number of students was 70 (explicit
grammar instruction group: 35; implicit grammar instruction group: 35).
Instructional activities
For a full understanding of the theoretical framework for the treatments (explicit andimplicit grammar instruction) adopted in this study, a comprehensive review of Ellis’
studies (2008, 2012) is essential. In brief, for explicit grammar instruction, learning
the form is the major concern, and the instructional focus is on the grammaticalstructure. Selected forms are taught by the presentation and direct explanation of

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grammar rules, followed by the giving of examples. Students usually practice theform in output tasks. Thus, in the present study, regarding the teaching of grammar, intreatment group 1, the students were directly explained the use of rules of the simple
past tense and the past continuous, and learned how grammar rules worked, withsome reference to linguistic terminology. They were also provided with examples of
the rules in a linguistic and functional manner (Ellis, 2012) so as to be able to confirm
their conclusions when they had questions about whether or not their answers werecorrect. In addition, the students were provided with direct feedback. In other words,
the teacher underlined errors and made corrections, referring to the rules.
With regard to implicit grammar instruction, according to Ellis (2008, 2012), themajor focus is on understanding the meaning of the text, rather than the rules. A lot ofpractical usage examples from authentic materials in real life situations containing thegrammatical structure are given as input. The meaning of the text is the major concern.
Students may deduce rules by themselves from the examples. Grammar discovery ispart of the task-based activity and no grammatical rule is discussed. Thus, in thetreatment group 2, the students learned through less conscious or subconscious
processes (Celce-Murcia, 2002; Krashen, 1985, 2013). The activities of teachinggrammar were communicative and meaning-focused in order to let the students
produce the target grammar and get feedback on the productions, but the feedback
was given indirectly. The teacher wrote the number of errors that the students had
made using the target grammatical structure, but did not provide corrections, thereby
leaving it up to the students to find and fix them on their own.
The students were taught according to the guidelines (Housen & Pierrard, 2006) inTable 3 and lesson plans in Table 4. Having done related activities in either explicit or
implicit grammar instruction, the students needed to write on a narrative topic
requiring them to use the target grammatical structure (i.e. past tense forms) and to
make an individual decision on the tense feature in each sentence. It should be notedthat to avoid the possibility of teacher effects on the results, the same regular teacher
taught these two groups.

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Table 3: Grammar instruction guidelines: treatment group 1 (explicit) and treatmentgroup 2 (implicit)
Explicit grammar instruction
Implicit grammar instruction
directs attention to target forms andattracts attention to target forms andcaters to intentional learning of thecaters to the incidental acquisition of theforms, as students are mainly focused on forms, as students are mainly focused on
forms
meaning
is predetermined and planned (e.g., as
is delivered spontaneously (e.g., in a
the main focus and goal of a teachingcommunication-oriented activity)
activity)
is obtrusive (interruption ofis unobtrusive (minimal interruption ofcommunication of meaning)communication of meaning)presents target forms in isolation
presents target forms in context
uses metalinguistic terminology (e.g.,
makes no use of metalanguage
rule explanation)
involves controlled practice of target
encourages free use of target forms
forms (only focusing on teaching andeliciting production of target forms)
gives explicit feedback
gives implicit feedback (e.g., “Please try
again.”)
Table 4: Grammar instruction lesson plans: treatment group 1 (explicit) and treatmentgroup 2 (implicit)
Pretest (20 mins)
Explicit grammar instruction
Implicit grammar instruction(3 months; 12 sessions)(3 months; 12 sessions)(Meeting for this experiment once a (Meeting for this experiment once aweek, lasting 45 mins)
week, lasting 45 mins)
I. Introduction and sentences illustrating I. Introduction and sentences without
the rules and patterns (form-focused) (15 illustrating the rules and patterns
mins)(meaning-focused) (15 mins)
II. Practice session:
Pair work: explicit feedback given (e.g.,grammar errors corrected directly and
immediately) (20 mins)
III. More drills:
Rules and patterns repetition (10 mins)

II. Practice session:
Pair work: implicit feedback given (e.g.,grammar embedded in the feedback
naturally and frequently) (20 mins)
III. More exposure:
Communication-oriented activities (10mins)

Posttest (20 mins)
1 monthDelayed Posttest (20 mins)
Data sources and data analysis
The narrative compositions written by the students in pretest, posttest and delayed
posttest were major data sources. In order to avoid repletion effect, the students wereassigned to write narrative compositions to describe what had just happened yesterdayin these three tests.

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The writing prompt was: Please describe what happened to you yesterday. You have
20 minutes to write. The rationale for selecting the prompt for this grammatical focus
was that on the one hand, learning how to write well about something happening in
the past is important. On the other hand, the prompt asked them to write somethingfamiliar to them, so that high engagement could be expected. The simple past tense
and the past continuous tense in students’ compositions were analyzed by gauging
their grammatical accuracy. Specifically, the improvement in performance on thewriting was evaluated based on verb form (including spelling) accuracy. Grammaticalaccuracy was chosen for measure of writing effectiveness as it is commonly tested by
English or high school entrance exams in Taiwan.
To measure the students’ performance, an obligatory count procedure was adopted toanalyze the data. The method used for the obligatory count procedure was that the
number of correct use of the simple past tense and the past continuous tense wasdivided by the number of obligatory occurrence (when the students referred to thepast event). In other words, the number of correct use from each test for each student
in each treatment group was calculated respectively from the three tests. The data
were documented on spreadsheets according to explicit and implicit instruction
treatment groups. The scores were calculated and tabulated as follows.
(Number of correct use/Number of obligatory occurrence) x100%= Score (%)
As for Target-Like-Use (TLU) analysis, inter-rater agreement between the researcher
and the research assistant in pretest, posttest, delayed posttest, improvement between
pretest and posttest, and improvement between pretest and delayed posttest was 100%.
The measure of intra-rater reliability was reached as the researcher coded the samedata subset in pretest, posttest, delayed posttest, improvement between pretest andposttest, and improvement between pretest and delayed posttest again about fourweeks after each inter-rater reliability measure was reached. Intra-rater agreement was
all 100%. These results show that inter-rater agreement and intra-rater agreement
were high.
Raw scores were submitted to independent samples t-test to explore if there were any
differences between the two groups in pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. The
results of treatment group 1 (explicit grammar instruction) were then compared withthose of treatment group 2 (implicit grammar instruction).
After the end of the last teaching session (the 12th session), follow-up semi-structured
interviews with students and teacher were conducted in their first language (Mandarin
Chinese) in order to obtain more specific information about what they perceive
regarding explicit and implicit grammar instruction. Each interview (focus groupstudent interview and individual teacher interview) lasted about 30 minutes. As for the
analysis of interview data, attention was particularly paid to the question how they
could be systematically analyzed. For instance, student responses were rendered in amore objective fashion rather than that of impressionistic. It was ensured thatstudents’ responses were analyzed unselectively instead of picking out some salient
examples.

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Findings
To answer the first research question, based on the findings of the students’ writtendata, both teaching approaches showed positive effects, with different degrees ofimprovement. There was a reduction in the students’ written production errors.
However, compared with the implicit teaching group, the explicit teaching group
showed a greater reduction in their written production errors. For each group,
grammar mean scores are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Grammar mean scores for the three tests in each group
The second and third research questions can be answered from the improvement ineach group. Analysis of the improvement for each group is shown in Tables 6, 7 and 8
as follows.
Table 6: Pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest (independent samples t-test)
Group
N
Mean
SD
t
DF
p
PretestExplicit teaching group 35

22.34

2.35

Implicit teaching group 35

22.57

2.06

Explicit teaching group 35

70.46

2.38

Implicit teaching group 35

59.71

2.33

66.43

2.57

-0.43

68

0.67

19.07

68

0.00*

14.52
68
57.86
2.37
Note: *An alpha level of .05 was chosen as the significance level.

0.00*

Posttest

Delayed posttest
Explicit teaching group 35
Implicit teaching group 35

In order to test homogeneity of the two groups, as Table 6 shows, in the independent
samples t-test, there were no significant differences in the pretest between explicit andimplicit teaching groups at the very beginning of the study (p=0.67). Nevertheless,after different forms of grammar instruction, the two teaching groups differed

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significantly in the posttest (p<.05) and delayed posttest (p<.05). Compared with thestudents in the implicit teaching group, the students in the explicit teaching group
received higher scores not only in the posttest, but also in the delayed posttest.
In addition, based on the findings in posttest and delayed posttest, the students’improvement sustained over a period of time. The explicit teaching groupoutperformed the implicit teaching group in both immediate and delayed posttests. In
comparison with the group that grammar was implicitly taught, the students in the
explicit teaching group tended to be more aware of the importance of correct grammar
usage during writing.
Finally, both explicit and implicit teaching groups showed a moderate decrease in
their delayed posttest, a month after the treatment. It is noted that the explicit teachinggroup showed a higher percentage of decrease, 4.03%, while the implicit teachinggroup showed a lower percentage of decrease in performance that is only 1.85%.
Nonetheless, the grammar mean score in the explicit teaching group (66.43%) was
still higher than that in the implicit teaching group (57.86%).
Table 7: Improvement between pretest and posttest (independent samples t-test)
Group
N
Mean
SD
t
DF
p
Explicit teaching group 35

48.12

3.58

13.97
68
37.14
2.96
Note: **An alpha level of .05 was chosen as the significance level.
Implicit teaching group 35

0.00**

Table 8: Improvement between pretest and delayed posttest (independent samples
t-test)
Group
N
Mean
SD
t
DF
p
Explicit teaching group 35

44.09

3.89

10.40
68
35.29
3.15
Note: **An alpha level of .05 was chosen as the significance level.
Implicit teaching group 35

0.00**As shown in Tables 7 and 8, the two teaching groups differed significantly in
improvement between pretest and posttest (p<.05) and improvement between pretestand delayed posttest (p<.05). In other words, when compared with the implicit
teaching group, the explicit teaching group showed the most improved performance ingrammatical accuracy in narrative writing. In addition, the students in the explicit
teaching group also improved more in both posttest and delayed posttest.
Students’ perceptions of grammar instruction
Since the debate of explicit-implicit grammar instruction is an important one in SLA,
students’ perceptions of this issue can provide a good indication of their orientation.
As shown in student interviews, no matter whether students were in the implicit or
explicit grammar instruction group, they tended to expect the teacher to present
grammar points explicitly. One representative example is given as follows:
I would like to learn grammar from one-sentence examples. Learning grammarfrom authentic texts without explicit grammar instruction is difficult for me as

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there are a variety of grammars appearing in texts that I did not encounter before.
A lack of explicit grammar instruction makes me feel insecure. Also, I find the
explanation of specific grammar rules useful. I think that the major grammar
instruction in Taiwan, in case of English grammar in particular, is explicit. My
expectation is that the teacher could provide direct explanation of rules. (Student
5)
The finding revealed that explicit grammar instruction is favored by students due totheir feelings of security. They saw the explanation of grammar rules as useful. It
might also be linked to students’ prior language learning experience in Taiwan andthey were accustomed to it. If grammar was taught implicitly, students might not feelat home, particularly without giving the explanation and having practice of grammar
rules.
Teacher’s perceptions of grammar instruction
In addition to student interviews, the teacher was asked to comment on the role ofgrammar instruction and the kind of instruction which might be more beneficial forstudents. As pointed out by the teacher, students could learn grammar more
effectively in implicit grammar instruction, which is to some extent different fromstudents’ perceptions. She understood the value of learning language as realcommunication and tended to support this approach for pedagogical reasons of her
own. For instance, the following comment from the teacher indicates her favor for an
implicit approach to grammar teaching:
I think that students can increase their communication competence at theuniversity. Their grammar can improve when they have had implicit grammar
instruction and their sub-consciousness is awakened. In other words, I think
when compared with explicit grammar instruction, in implicit grammar
instruction students can pick up grammar and learn grammar more extensively
from meaningful exposure to the language.
Based on the interview data, it may be reasonable to conclude that the teacher feelsthat implicit grammar instruction may increase communication competence and isfavored by her. However, it should be noted that as shown previously in student
interview data, there are some concern for students about lack of enough explanationof rules for the development of grammar, something which could be linked tocommunicative tasks.
Discussion and Conclusion
Explicit versus implicit grammar instruction
The study demonstrates the existing controversy among researchers about the roles of
explicit and implicit grammar instruction in helping students to overcome
grammatical errors. The finding indicated that when compared with the implicit
teaching group, the explicit teaching group showed the most improved performance innarrative writing. This parallels Spada and Tomita’s (2010) findings, revealing that
explicit instruction positively contributes to students’ grammar knowledge. Although
in the present study, implicit grammar instruction did have a positive effect on

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enhancing students’ grammar accuracy in writing, students in the explicit teachinggroup tended to learn rules of the simple past tense and past continuous tense more
firmly and did better in posttest and delayed posttest, as it is important to havegrammatical knowledge in order to express one’s intended meaning precisely in
writing.
Despite the fact that in this study modest progress was made by the implicit teachinggroup, implicit grammar instruction still has its place. However, it may be regarded as
an alternative method in Taiwan. For Chinese learners, one possible reason is because
students may not be able to translate effectively without explicit detailed andsystematic grammatical knowledge. If students know why and how rules work, they
may avoid the violation of incorrect grammar rules.
Students’ and teacher’s perceptions of grammar instruction
Interestingly, the study shows that there is a disparity between students’ and teacher’s
perceptions of explicit and implicit grammar instruction. Such a mismatch is thatstudents are more in favor of systematic, explicit grammar instruction, while theteacher prefers communicative activities. This incongruence between students’ andteacher’s perceptions suggests that when teachers make decisions in grammar
instruction, they may need to take students’ needs and concerns about lack of explicit
grammar learning into consideration. Students’ preference for grammar instruction
may not accord with implicit instruction, but teachers may be able to utilize students’
perceptions to make adjustments in their courses and to be open in talking to students
about their teaching activities.
Based on the interview data, it is also possible to make some claims concerning
students’ and teacher’s beliefs about grammar teaching and learning. The teacher
tended to have positive comments on the explicit grammar instruction. This result is
contrary to Nan’s (2015) study. Being a spokesman for grammar teaching instructors,
Nan argued the positive aspect of explicit grammar instruction which “will empower
the English learners with the potential and enthusiasm for inquiry learning and active
learning” (p. 82). Nonetheless, in the present study, the teacher’s preference for
implicit grammar instruction may indicate that she is inclined to use authentic texts
and real-life tasks for practice within communicative or skills-based work to facilitate
students’ learning (Başöz, 2014; Yoo, 2016).
However, comments from students suggest that the authentic materials were difficult
for them to learn. The level of the readings could have made it harder for them tolearn language forms implicitly because of the content’s difficulty. In addition,although students seem to favor more explicit grammar instruction, there does notappear to be a bias against decontextualized presentations of grammar. On the student
side, they tend to perceive that it is relatively easy for them to learn if grammar istaught explicitly. They indicated that their grammar errors need to be explicitly
pointed out and corrected; or they cannot ‘learn’ from their errors. This might be dueto their need and expectation of detailed explanations of specific grammar rules andsense of feeling security (Weger, 2013). The result is to some extent in line with
Nazari (2013) study, stating that generally speaking, learners who “are informed of
the grammatical rules...feel more comfortable, self-confident and motivated in theclassroom” (p. 161).

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Implications of the study
There are several areas in grammar instruction that can be considered for future
research. First, further studies can be conducted to explore which specificgrammatical features benefit more through explicit grammar instruction than othersdo, so as to get to know which aspects to focus on. In other words, in writing
pedagogy, it could be helpful for teachers to be aware of which aspects of explicit
grammar instruction are more successful and less successful. Most importantly, theyalso need to consider what explicit grammar instruction is relevant to the target text
and context of communication. For example, in terms of teaching simple past tenseand past continuous tense, as there is no tense system in Mandarin Chinese, it may not
be easy to teach simple past tense and past continuous tense implicitly since there isno counterpart of the tense present in students’ native language.
In addition, as different students may have different ways to learn grammatical rules,
it is important to ensure that teaching activities are appropriate, so that students’awareness can be raised. Students’ needs for grammar learning may not coincide withthe methods employed in implicit grammar instruction, but teachers may include more
integrated, skills-based grammar activities in their courses to make learning moremeaningful. Nevertheless, it is noted that teachers may also need to be explicit ininforming students the grammar-orientation of these activities in order that they areappreciated as fulfilling students’ wishes.

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ReferencesBaşöz, T. (2014). Through the eyes of prospective teachers of English: Explicit or
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Chang, S. C. (2011). A contrastive study of grammar translation method andcommunicative approach in teaching English grammar. English Language Teaching,
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Harmer, J. (2003). Popular culture, methods, and context. ELT Journal, 57, 288-294.
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In A. Housen & M. Pierrard (Eds.), Investigations in instructed second language
acquisition (pp. 1-27). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis. London, UK: Longman.
Krashen, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: Theory, applications, and someconjectures. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring.
Boston, MA: Newbury House Teacher Development.
Nan, C.Y. (2015). Grammar and grammaring: Toward modes for English grammar
teaching in China. English Language Teaching, 8(12), 79-85.
Nazari, N. (2013). The effect of implicit and explicit grammar instruction on learners’
achievements in receptive and productive modes. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70,
156-162.
Nichols, J. (2016). Do high-stakes English proficiency tests motivate Taiwanese
university students to learn English? American Journal of Educational Research.
4(13), 927-930.
Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (2010). Interactions between type of instruction and type of
language feature: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 60, 263-308.

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Taiwan Ministry of Education. (2005). General guidelines of grade 1-9 curriculumof elementary and junior high school education. Retrieved fromwww.fhjh.tp.edu.tw/eng_www/G1-9%20curriculum.doc
Weger, H. (2013). International students’ attitudes toward L2-English classroom
activities and language skills in the USA. Innovation in Language Learning andTeaching, 7(2), 139-157.
Yoo, J. (2016). A comparative review of audio-lingual methodology andcommunicative language teaching in second language instruction. Electronic
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Team Based Learning of the Mercato Project to Nurture Criticism, Creativity andProblem Solving during Orientation Camp of ESC-KMUTT
Nion Vinarukwong, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Jintana Wongta, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Jutharat Sunprasert, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Chanakan Chomngam, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
Thailand
Sukanyapat Dokkhularb, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
ThailandThe Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Team-based learning (TBL) is a learning practice supporting small group for powerful
instructional effect. There are four essential elements of TBL including groups,
accountability, feedback and assignment design. The objectives of this study were to
use team based learning for instructing “The Mercato Project” and nurture soft skills
such as criticism, creativity and problem solving to freshman students during
orientation camp. The project was organized to nurture 70 new students ofEngineering Science Classroom, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi(ESC-KMUTT). They were divided into 2 rooms of different feedback teacher’s teamreceiving the same team assignment. Data were collected form 34 questionnaires, 6
open-ended questions and model evaluation. The result showed the most of students
agreed that Mercato activity made them learning substantially (4.41±0.58), working
as a part of Mercato team to be a valuable experience (4.41±0.69) and working inteam helped to learn better than working alone (4.41±0.81). Quantitative analyses
confirmed that although the construction of Mercato model was built differently, there
was no significantly difference of overall student TBL self-evaluation by using
independent sample t-test (p<0.05). In addition, we also found that they usedcriticism, creativity and problem solving much more during working in Mercato team.
In conclusion, the Mercato project was accomplished using TBL to expose students
and help them improve their soft skills for applying course content during orientation
camp.
Keywords: Creativity, Criticism, Problem solving, Team based learning (TBL)

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
ESC-KMUTT’s students batch number 10 were recruited to attend an orientation
camp before enrolled the academic year of 2017. Many soft skills were nurtured toour students during the camp including critical thinking, creative thinking, visual
thinking, problem solving and teamwork skill. The main hands-on project during thiscamp was called “The Mercato” which aim to create a model of innovative market
center. The last 3 days of orientation camp, students need to apply their contents andsoft skills to construct the mercato model. Therefore, the objectives of this study wereto use team based learning for instructing “The Mercato Project” and nurture soft
skills such as criticism, creativity and problem solving to freshman students during
orientation camp.
Team-based learning (TBL) is a learning practice supporting small group (5-7
members) for powerful instructional effect. There are four essential elements of TBL
including groups, accountability, feedback and assignment design. Group require time
to cultivate into high-performance team because enough time helps developing
cohesive to grow into self-managed and actually effective learning teams (Michaelsen& Sweet, 2008). The task of members to teams is essential for this use of TBL.
Students’ capability in some characteristics should be spread throughout the small
groups. The instructor should plan the composition of the teams with this in mind
instead of letting students to basically self-assign themselves to groups (McMahon,2010). The constructing of good problems is one of the keys to achieve in team-basedlearning. Problem solving skills were developed by increasing difficulty into
problems or inputting serial problems which could not solve individually. TBL makes
chances to develop these skills supported by the frequent feedback from theircoworkers and the teacher (Sibley & Parmelee, 2007). A first time of TBL was
implemented to medical education since late 1990s (McMahon, 2010). Later on, TBL
was applied in many fields. For Science, TBL with challenging projects enhanced theundergraduate students’ comprehension and long term retention, critical thinking,creativity and attitudes about the Microbial Physiology course and concentrated
student-instructor collaborations on learning rather than grades (McInerney & Fink,
2003). For Engineering, First-Year Engineering Projects (FYEP) course at the
University of Colorado at Boulder was introduced to freshman which is thedesign/build hands-on process in a team-based setting, supported by experimental
testing. It was indicated that the engineering students were significantly more likely tobe retained at the third, fifth, and seventh semesters than their peers who did notjoin the FYEP (Knight, Carlson, & Sullivan, 2003, 2007).
Methods
1. Participants
The project was organized to nurture 70 new students of Engineering Science
Classroom, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (ESC-KMUTT).
The students were divided into 2 rooms which the activities were run parallel bydifferent feedback teacher’s teams.

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2. Learning process
Each room had 2 groups of students received different assignments, A and B. One
group composed of 3 small teams containing 5-6 members. Team coding used “1A1,
1A2, 1A3” that 1A1 stands for room1, assignment A and team 1. The main
assignments were given to group 1A, 1B and 2A, 2B and assignments were defined tothe concept of “The Mercato”. During the orientation camp, there were also anotheractivities including “Ask is Free”, “Teamwork Concept Learning” and “Da’Vinci
Bridge” provided with knowledge of critical thinking, teamwork skill and creative
thinking. Then, field trip activity was designed to let them exploring the real market
atmosphere at Amphawa floating market, seeing the architecture of Buddhist temple
at Wat Bang Kung, in Samut Songkhram province, Thailand. After came back fromthe field trip, the students in each group had to the design and sketching under theirmain assignments. When the sketching was done, the students had to present it to theteacher team. Until the draft was approved by the teacher, then the model could be
made. At this step, 3 small teams working separately to build the city in their parts.
Finally, 3 parts of the model were assembled and the prototype was completed.
Assignment A:
One day morning, a small boat arrived at the port of the city of world trade center,
Mercato, the city where various cultures have met. A young artist sailed along all thenight because he wish to see how beautiful Mercato is. In Mercato, there is a famous
fountain where is the meeting point of the teenager from everywhere. There is sacredplace nearby where many people come to worship and pray. Although time has
passed, Mercato has changed little at a time, this sacred place is still the same. Afterthe young artist go ashore from his boat, he walked around, bought some local sweet,
found a small lovely bouquet used as a brooch and pined on the shirt, and wrote thepoetry in his mind. Among the crowd, he met his friend who was a merchant comingfrom the northern city. He friend was unloading the precious cargo of which camefrom the deep sea and the North Pole, including the fresh food which was due to themodern train, which allowed for a shorter transportation time, as if the northern city
was close to this market. The village in the northern city was composed of theMediterranean architecture and design, while the cathedral's castles were built in
Ottoman style. It was such a cold and colorful territory. While he was talking to themerchant, he saw a beautiful young woman walking in a beautiful cotton dress. She
would have come from a famous and largest cotton-cloth production village where
was surrounded by cotton plantations and wheat fields. In the center of northern
territorial, there was an ancient 800-year-old castle, the current owner of this castle
descended directly to the Lord who was famous in the battle with the giant dragon in
the Middle Ages. People were still using the carriage for most of their transportation,even if there were cars. On a journey by carriage from the village to Mercato had toenter the tunnels of several high mountain. There were many famous waterfalls where
the young artist used to paint the landscape but he had never been visited to thevillage of Spinning. Just like he had never seen this beautiful girl before. It attracted
him to want to go there once. He imagined that if he had known and intimately
acquainted with this beautiful girl. He wanted to take her by cruise to a nearby city of
Mercato in the eastern. The eastern city was surrounded by the sea but there was alarge road connecting Mercato to this city. This city was amazing because many
canals were cut through. It seemed to be complicated but it was well organized. The

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bridge across of each canal had a legendary love inscribed. If he go cruising andsinging to her, it would be great. The city landmark was a very steep tower. If you
went up that tower in the evening, you would see the sun shining through Mercato on
the horizon. The hot color of water surface in the canal gave the canal network a more
beautiful appearance. There were many wealthy men in this city so the city was filledwith luxurious mansions and modern architects. We could say that Mercato wasflourishing by the purchasing power of people in this eastern city. Before thatbeautiful woman would walk away, the young artist thought that he should follow her
and introduce himself to her.
Assignment B:
In the early Sunday morning, “May” a little girl who travelled from the far away cityride on the overnight train to the port city named Mercato. Along the way going tothis city, May could see the scenery through the train’s window such as the fishermanon the boat seeking for fish, squid, and shrimp. Then she saw the mountain and thegreen forest, the field covered with the yellow of the ear of paddy, many villages
located along the railway. Finally, she had arrived at the terminal station which was
the center of this city’s transportation. After May got off from the train with many
travelers, she saw many merchants selling various foods and goods at the platform.
Then she walked around and found the local market aside the old railway which wasbuilt across the main river. On the other bank of the river, there was a large temple
where the large status of Buddha located. The Buddha status was created in the
Sukhothai period and the pose is the attitude of persuading the relatives not to quarrel.
We could see this Buddha status from everywhere in Mercato. May was fascinatedwith this city because the market was opened since 5 am till midnight and had various
goods came from far and wide for supplying of million residents of this city. In
addition, the market also sold the local products for the travelers. While May was
shopping at the market, a group of travelers had approached to her asking the way tothe palace, museum, temple and ancient remains. So May suggested them buying oneday trip package for travelling around the city guide by the local people and going byboat and tricycle. After that, May planned to visit her relatives by getting on a ferryboat to a large-sized village located along the river. This main river was the heart of
Mercato. The agriculture was the way of life of citizen in Mercato, we could foundthe cultivated areas wherever, including low land, highland, and on the mountain.
May walked through the folk arts and crafts center, met the villager were making thehandicraft from local materials. May felt curious about what was the product that they
were making, so she asked the villager. The villager smiled happily and answered her“It was the unique good which you could only buy here, in Mercato”.

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The Mercato Project

Enhanced Activity
Give the Assignment
Ask is Free
Teamwork Concept
Learning
Da’Vinci Bridge

Field Trip

Design and Sketching for Main
Assignment

Teacher’s Feedback

Scale and Proportion
Sketching

Scale and Proportion
Sketching

Scale and Proportion
Sketching

Teacher’s Feedback

Making the Model

Making the Model

Making the Model

Assemble the Model

Figure 1: Schematic shows the learning process diagram of the Mercato Project.

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3. Data collection procedures
Data were collected form 34 questionnaires using 5 point Likert scale of TBL selfevaluation ( Gibbs, 1994; Griffith University, 2011; Gallegos & Peeters, 2011), 6
open-ended questions (Gibbs, 1994; Griffith University, 2011) and model evaluation.
4. Data analysis
Data from the students were collected from the 70 ESC students in Mercato activity.
The study want to compare mean between two groups of 34 items. The statisticalanalysis using by independent sample t-test (p<0.05).
Results and discussion
1. Model evaluation
The models of group 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B were created in three-day duration but wefound that the models of the students in room1 were changed a lot when compared to
the first-day design. The students in room 1 faced the problems about changing theiridea at the last minute during the second day while the students in room 2 followed
their initiate idea. Therefore, room 2 models were complete and more details thanroom1. Model 2B was the most beautiful and high creativity.
Room 1

Assignment A

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Room 2

Assignment A

Assignment B

Figure 2: Mercato Models from the two assignments.
2. TBL self-evaluation questionnaire
The result showed the most of students agreed that Mercato activity made themlearning substantially (4.41±0.58), working as a part of Mercato team to be a valuable
experience (4.41±0.69) and working in team helped to learn better than working alone(4.41±0.81). In addition, we also found that they used criticism, creativity andproblem solving much more during working in Mercato team. The mean score ofgroup A and group B students’ TBL self-evaluation were compared using
independent sample t-test. Data was shown in table 2.
Table 2: The results of TBL self-evaluation in term of total mean score, standard
deviation and p-value of independent sample t-test between group A and group B.
Items
1. After finished with the Mercato workpiece, I havefound that I have learnt more about how to plan manytasks well.
2. I have found that this activity made me learning
substantially.
3. I have found that the activity did not too difficult tomanage but I have learnt a lot from itself.
4. I have realized the links in all of the Mercato's
activities which have run from the assignment, thefield observing, the 3 people group's task, the 6people group's task, the 18 people group's task, thedrawing and the modeling.
5. I have found that being part of a team improves myproblem solving skill.
6. Being part of a team discussion has improved myability to think through a problem.
7. In most of the teams I have been on, the team has
made good decisions and worked well together.

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T-testp-valueGroup A Group B
mean±SD mean±SD0.088

4.26±0.61 3.97±0.76

0.457

4.46±0.51 4.35±0.65

0.659

4.03±0.86 3.94±0.78

0.868

3.80±0.96 3.76±0.78

0.665

4.26±0.89 4.18±0.63

0.9

4.23±0.77 4.21±0.73

0.973

4.23±0.84 4.24±0.82

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8. The team experiments with different ways of doing
things and is creative in its approach.
9. I feel that team-based learning has improved mycritical thinking skill.
10. I have found that working as teams always makegood decisions.
11. I have found that teacher's comments was
valuable for every step of working process.
10. I think the duration for doing Mercato was
suitable.
12. I have found that I loved working with a team.
13. I have found that I had a foundness for Mercato
workpiece.
14. have found that working with a team has helped
me develop leadership skills.

Items
15. The leadership roles were shared by all of theteam members.
16. If there is an activity that working in a team like
this, I will be happy to participate in.
17. I felt very impressive in the team members.
18. I have found that I have a high degree of trust in
the team members.
19. The controversy has happened in my team.
20. Disagreements did not arouse defensive reactions
such as projection, repression and rationalization.
21. Member resources are fully recognised andutilised
22. Communications between members were opened
and the team members participated in team.
23. The team members have actively listened to theother's opinions.
24.The team has well-established and agreed on
approaches to problem solving and decision making
25. I have found working as part of a team in myclasses to be a valuable experience.
26. I have found that the other team members
respected me.
27. I could show my ability in a team to achieve thesuccess.
28. I have found that the team has worked welltogether.
29. I have found that team-based learning has more
efficience than learning alone.
30. I have found that the team members could
motivate me to work harder.

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0.87

4.18±0.58 4.15±0.67

0.127

4.37±0.65 4.09±0.87

0.529

3.86±0.77 3.74±0.83

0.153

4.17±1.01 4.47±0.66

0.684

3.20±1.13 3.09±1.14

0.783

3.97±0.98 3.91±0.79

0.994

3.94±1.06 3.94±0.81

0.076

3.43±0.74 3.09±0.83

T-testp-valueGroup A Group B
Mean
Mean

0.384

2.91±0.92 3.12±1.01

0.365

3.94±0.87 3.76±0.74

0.424

3.89±0.99 4.06±0.78

0.63

3.94±0.68 4.03±0.80

0.848

3.49±1.01 3.53±0.86

0.595

3.43±1.46 3.62±1.48

0.58

3.74±0.95 3.62±0.92

0.673

3.66±0.97 3.56±0.96

0.491

3.60±1.01 3.44±0.89

0.264

3.57±0.78 3.32±1.04

0.269

4.31±0.68 4.50±0.71

0.212

3.86±0.81 3.59±0.96

0.387

3.86±0.81 3.68±0.91

0.074

4.06±0.64 3.76±0.70

0.517

4.34±0.84 4.47±0.79

0.319

4.09±0.92 4.29±0.80

The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 201831. I feel that the task's distribution in a team has
0.602
been fair.
32. I have found that working with a team helps me
0.848
develop skills in working with others.
33. I have found that working with a team has helped
0.591
me develop more respect for the opinion of others.

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3.62±0.99 3.74±0.86
4.38±0.60 4.41±0.66
4.26±0.74 4.35±0.73

Quantitative analyses confirmed that although the construction of Mercato models
between 2 groups were built differently, there was no significantly difference ofoverall student TBL self-evaluation by using independent sample t-test (p<0.05).
Statistical analysis indicated that we could control the standard of learning process
and feedback process between 2 rooms which did not make the students feel different
significantly.
3. Open-ended questions
From 6 open-ended questions, the results showed that in teams they tended toparticipate in team and shared new opinion (40%) but they tended to avoid conflictand stress (41%). They liked teams where all members participated in team (48%) but
they didn’t like teams where had the disagreement and conflict (48%). They would
like to be in the united team (36%) and funny or happy team (29%). They would liketheir team to be a perfect team (43%) and good friend (25%). Finally, 67% of ourstudents thought that they could be a good leader or supporter in their team while 30%of them thought that they could not be a good leader and supporter (N/A 3%).

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Figure 3: Percentage of the answers from 6 open-ended questions.

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Conclusions
The Mercato project was accomplished using TBL to expose students and help them
improve their soft skills such as criticism, creativity and problem solving for applying
course content during the orientation camp. Most of the students had the good
attitudes toward the Mercato project which will help us easily to encourage more TBL
projects with them during the 3 years long in our school. In contrast, some students
still had poor attitudes toward team project such as felt boring and unhappy that weneed to improve more instruction techniques to develop their attitudes. Further study
need to follow up and measure TBL performance of the 10th batch of ESC-KMUTT
students.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Research Council of Thailand. Authors thank to
the teachers, staffs and students at Engineering Science Classroom, King Mongkut’s
University of Technology Thonburi for the generous support and assistance in thisstudy.

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References
Gallegos, P. J., & Peeters, J. M. (2011). A measure of teamwork perceptions for teambased learning. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 30–35.
Gibbs, G. (1994). Learning in Teams: A student Manual. Oxford: The Oxford Centre
for
Staff Development.
Griffith, U. (2011). Griffith Graduate Attributes Teamwork Skills Toolkit Table ofcontents. http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/290870/Teamworkskills.pdf.
Knight, D. W., Carlson, L. E., & Sullivan, J. F. (2003). Staying in Engineering:
Impact of a Hands-On , Team-Based , First-Year Projects Course on Student
Retention. In 2003 American Society fo Engineering Education Annual Conference &Exposition (pp. 1–11).
Knight, D. W., Carlson, L. E., & Sullivan, J. F. (2007). Improving Engineering
Student Retention through Hands-On , Team Based , First-Year Design Projects.
31st.International Conference on Research in Engineering Education, 1–13.
McInerney, M. J., & Fink, L. D. (2003). Team-Based Learning Enhances Long-Term
Retention and Critical Thinking in an Undergraduate Microbial Physiology Course.
Microbiology Education, 4(1), 3–12.
McMahon, K. K. (2010). An Introduction to Medical Teaching. (W. B. Jeffries & K.
N. Huggett, Eds.). Newyork: Springer Science+Business Media.
Michaelsen, L. K., & Sweet, M. (2008). The essential elements of team-basedlearning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (116), 7–27.
Sibley, J., & Parmelee, D. X. (2007). Knowledge Is No Longer Enough: Enhancing
Professional Education with Team-Based Learning. In New Directions for Teachingand Learning (pp. 41–53).
Contact e-mail: Nion.vin@kmutt.ac.th

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The Multidisciplinary Project to Promote Story-Based Learning and Soft Skills:
Integrating Biology, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics study
Jintana Wongta, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Nion Vinarukwong, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Ekapong Hirunsirisawat, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
Thailand
Kitsada Doungjitjaroen, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
Thailand
Sukanyapat Dokkhularb, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi,
ThailandThe Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Story-based learning is the Engineering Science Classroom of King Mongkut’s
University of Technology Thonburi (ESC-KMUTT) curriculum promoting highschool students to learn through “stories” by which all learning topics are interwoven
and integrated. For applying knowledge, the multidisciplinary project called“Ecobox” was created by integrating ecosystem, computer programming, engineeringdrawing and mathematical modeling topics. Our previous research indicated that thisproject could enhance the student’s soft skills. Therefore, the aim of this study is tofind out how and why ecobox project could promote students’ soft skills such as
teamwork skills, problem solving skills, criticism and creativity. Data were collected
form 45 questionnaires, 12 open-ended questions and model evaluation. The
participants were 10th grade students form 3 classrooms (n=70). The result found that
12 groups of student in 3 classrooms accomplished to create ecobox models during
one month. In term of teamwork skills, the most of students had found that working inecobox team made them more respect and listen to friend’s opinion (4.43±0.65) while
mean value of team conflict was low (2.70±1.14). For problem solving, work as partof a team helped students to solve problem better (4.25±0.77). For criticism, working
in team could increase the use of critical thinking (4.29±0.84). For creativity, ecobox
project helped students to know how to use creativity when constructed ecobox modeland increase the creative problem solving (4.06±0.80). The finding of this study
could bring more understanding on nurturing students’ soft skills using
multidisciplinary project.
Keywords: multidisciplinary, story-based Learning, soft skills, ecobox

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
Ecobox project was created using concept of Project-based learning (PBL). PBL is a
student-driven, teacher-facilitated approach to learning which students motivate theirlearning through inquiry. In addition, they learn through collaboration to research andcreate projects and employ 21st Century skills as they participate in projects (Bell,2010). The 21st Century skills included creativity/innovation, critical thinking,problem solving, communication, and collaboration, etc. (Finegold & Notabartolo,
2010). The Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia recently announced that the 7 soft
skills are to be introduced to undergraduates of Institutes of Higher Learning in
Malaysia. Those soft skills are communication skills, critical thinking and problem
solving skills, team work, lifelong learning and information management skills,
entrepreneurship skills, ethics, and professional moral and leadership skills (Shakir,2009). For making more complex project, a multidisciplinary concept was also
applied to ecobox. Many research found that a multidisciplinary project could
enhance students’ understanding and soft competencies. A multidisciplinary projectcalled “Computer Integrated Manufacturing” was given to a required course in
Mechanical Engineering at Temple University. The project integrated the design ofelectrical and mechanical component. The results indicated that 83% of the students
discovered the project being a good implement to learn the knowledge and 96% of thestudents had the satisfaction of gaining hands-on experience when they was doing
activities on the project (Jahanian & Matthews, 1999).
Story-based learning is the Engineering Science Classroom of King Mongkut’s
University of Technology Thonburi (ESC-KMUTT) curriculum promoting highschool students to learn through “stories” by which all learning topics are interwoven
and integrated. In the first semester, ESC-KMUTT students need to apply theirknowledge to create the multidisciplinary project called “Ecobox” in subject ESC 415
The Relation. This project was designed by integrating ecosystem, computer
programming, engineering drawing and mathematical modeling topics. Our previous
research indicated that ecobox project could enhance the student’s soft skills (Wongta
et. al, 2015; Chomngam, et. al, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this study is to find out
how and why ecobox project could promote students’ soft skills such as teamwork
skills, problem solving skills, criticism and creativity.
Methods
1. Participants
The participants were 10th grade students form 3 classrooms (n=70) of ESCKMUTT. Each classroom consisted of 4 groups (5-6 students) therefore there were 12groups in total. They were our new coming students who enrolled during 2017
academic year.The sample consisted of 38 male and 32 female students, at the age
between 14-16 years old.

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2. Multidisciplinary study
2.1 Ecosystem contents (Biology)
1) Lecture about ecosystem
A lecture about ecosystem’s concept, structure and function was taught to ourstudents for 3 hours. Topics are, for example, ecosystem definition, ecosystem types,
food chain, food web, pyramid of energy and 10% laws which are basic knowledges
for math modelling.
2) Laboratory of Mangrove forest
According to the Mangrove forest surrounded KMUTT Bangkhuntien campus,
laboratory activity was design to promote the understanding of plant anatomy, animal
and water inside Mangrove forest ecosystem for 3 hours.
3) Mangrove forest field trip
One day trip at Klongpittayalongkorn school was planned in order to introduce
Mangrove forest ecosystem where students could learn through real experience.
2.2 Basic engineering drawing and design (Engineering)Students learned how to use basic tools for engineering drawing, front-view, sideview, top-view, 3D isometric and oblique, and perspective drawing from subject
called “ESC 417 Fundamentals of Engineering I”. Many drafts were sent to teacher
until the final draft of ecobox drawing was proved by teacher. Then, basic knowledge
about drawing was applied to design terrarium inside 12×18×12 inches aquarium tankunder different ecology conditions. Each group was randomly assigned for creating
ecobox of an ecology type. There were 4 groups of land ecosystem, water and land
ecosystem, water ecosystem and desert ecosystem.

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Scale 1 cm. : 10 m.

Fig: 1 The example of Food web and drawing of Lower Falls in Yellow Stone
National Park USA.
2.3 Mathematical models of population dynamics (Mathematics)
For this part of activities, we would like the students to learn the predictability ofscience in study about population dynamics. The students were experienced about
how ecologists use mathematics, modeling, and computer simulations in theirresearch works for investigating the relation between species in the ecosystem. The
class for learning population dynamics was given in two hours. The first hour of
instruction focuses on the definition of population growth and various parameterssuch as birth rate, death rate and others through the ecosystem models of exponential
growth and logistic growth. The second hour was designed to practice students insimulating the model through the Excel program. For some students, this is a goodtime to start working on it seriously because they had not used it so much in the past.
Hopefully, the skill of using Excel in data analysis and data visualization would be
helpful for them in their future workings in school life. The activity in the class will
be elaborated in the following.
Firstly, the students were persuaded to discuss what the population and population
growth are. Then, we discussed about the parameters in the model of exponential
growth through story telling approach. It is the story of Fibonacci’s rabbit puzzle.
This states that starting with the birth of one pair of rabbits in the first month andgrowing of that pair in the second month. Then this pair grows enough to give birth ofanother pair in the third month. The new pair needs to grow for one month and then

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give birth of another pair of rabbits, while the old pair do not need another month at
all to give birth. So, the ecosystem has one pair of rabbits in the first and second
months, then two pairs in the third month, and so on. With the given conditions of the
puzzle, the instructor asked the students to think or calculate to find out how many
rabbits exist in the ecosystem when the time passes for twelve months. Let students
work on it for ten minutes. Then, the solution of the puzzle was shown with thediscussion. In this step, many students could recognize the pattern of the Fibonaccisequence and its relation to the golden ratio. For students, it is the good moment toappreciate the magic of mathematics.
This set of number from the Fibonacci sequence was plotted in a graph on theblackboard. Students were made to realize the J-shape of the plot. After that, we
related this with the growing of money savings due to the interest rate, which isanalogous to the growth rate in the population. It was defined as the difference
between the birth rate and death rate. It was time to introduce the model of
exponential growth (J-shape) and logistic growth (S-shape). Next, let the students
practice simulating these models using Euler methods and Excel. For example, theequation of the exponential growth could be written in the form
N (t + Δt ) = N (t ) + r N (t )Δt ,where N (t ) was the size of population at time t , r the growth rate, and Δt the size oftime step. According to Euler method, this could be iterated to simulate for next stepof time. This could be done by dragging down a line of the typed formula in table of
the Excel program, and then the data was plotted to express the characteristics of thegrowth.
Similarly, students were taught in the second hour to learn how the model could
represent the predator-prey relation between species. By designing the lessons, thismodel was used to link with what students had learned before about the pyramid ofenergy, food chain, and different kinds of the relations in ecosystem, etc. This should
be one of reasons that the subject name of these activity is “The Relation.” One of thebest governing equation of the predator-prey relation could be the Lotka-Voltera
equation. The set of equations describing population dynamics of two species, withX (t ) and Y (t ) are the sizes of population of species X and Y respectively, in the formof discrete mapping as
X (t + Δt ) = X (t ) + rX X (t )Δt − hXY X (t )Y (t )Δt,

Y (t + Δt ) = Y (t ) + e ( hXY X (t )Y (t )Δt ) − dY Y (t )Δt,
where rX is the growth rate of the species X, hXY the death rate of X per eachpredator of species Y, e the efficiency of producing Y from turning each unit of
species X killed from hunting, and dY the death rate of Y in the condition of nohunting from other species. After learning this model and discussing each parameter,
students practiced again to simulate the model using the Excel program and visualize
the data. It took time for some students to practice this model in class. To ensure thatall students able to simulate it, it was repeated in the task of simulating population
dynamics of three species with this model. This was given as a homework. Apartfrom simulation, students had to give rational explanation of choosing the valid valueof each parameters. With difficulties, some students had to be coached in using the

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program and adopting the concept of modeling. Interestingly, students could enjoy
working on it when they could change the parameters and then the plotted graphschanged. In some ways, it looked like the animations.
As mentioned above, this activity would link to the main task of designing their own
ecosystem. Therefore, students needed to choose the valid parameters for theirdesigned Ecobox. It was the intersection between being an artist and a science
researcher. The graphs were plotted using Excel to express the prediction of
population growth of each species in time. Furthermore, integrating this with coding
skills learned in another subject, the Python codes were launched to students. In our
opinion, this exposition of using programming to data visualization was significant
for them to realize about how to adapt many learned skills in their research works.
However, what students needed to do was not to write the codes from nothing, butthey just had to write the flow chart expressing their understandings of logicalsequence of the codes. Furthermore, students used them with chosen values ofparameters to data visualization. Finally, the plotted graphs were shown in thepresentation and the discussions about the difference between using Excel and Python
was given in the wrap-up by instructors.

Fig: 2 The mathematical modelling of Lower Falls in Yellow Stone National Park
USA showed the relationship between X= Hierochloe, Y= Elk, and Z= Coyote using
excel program.
2.4 The implementation of read sensor value in Arduino (Technology)
This technology part was developed to create sensor for ecobox and apply theknowledge of basic programming. The user communicated with the PC and Arduino
Board. Python programs were developed to create Lotka-Volterra equation for
creating predator-prey graph.
A. Monitoring sensor reading
Sensor reading from Arduino: Arduino enables users to monitor various kinds ofsensors such as thermometers, humidity, moisture, light and LCD display. The analog
and digital pins on the Arduino board can all serve as general purpose input andoutput pins (GPIO).The ATmega328microcontroller embedded on the Arduino board
contains the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), analog input signal to a number
between 0 and 1023.The integer number is proportional to the amount of the voltage
being applied to the analog input. Any sensor operating on 5 volts can be directly
connected to the Arduino board. As a prototype for monitoring sensor readings with

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Arduino, we had implemented a simple setup to connect the analog sensor to theArduino board, and received the sensor readings from the PC.

Fig: 3 Monitoring sensor reading of Lower Falls in Yellow Stone National Park USA.

Start

Start

Hardware
Initialization

Parameter
Initialization
For use Lotka-Volterra
equation

User Interface
Sensor reading from
ArduinoCalculate LotkaVolterra equation

Display data
to LCD

Plot Graph

Write data for a Pc
PC Plot
GraphA

B

Fig: 4 The flow chart of read sensor value on the Arduino (A) and the flow chart of
Lotka-Volterra equation on the Python programs (B).
B. The calculation of Lotka-Volterra equation using Python programs
Mathematical model in Microsoft Excel faced the problem when we used the plentyof time or compare many value of the step size for simulating the relationshipbetween predator and prey. For over the limitation of excel program, Python
programs were developed to create Lotka-Volterra equation to create predator-preygraph.

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Fig: 5 The mathematical modelling of Lower Falls in Yellow Stone National Park
USA showed the relationship between X= Hierochloe, Y= Elk, and Z= Coyote using
Python programs with different step size.
The flow charts of sensor reading from Arduino and the calculation of Lotka-Volterra
equation were shown in Fig.1A and 1B, respectively.
3. Learning process

Teacher feedback
Teacher feedback

Fig: 6 Schematic diagram showing learning process of the Ecobox project.
4. Data collection and analysis
Data were collected form 45 questionnaires ( Gibbs, 1994; Griffith University, 2011;
Gallegos & Peeters, 2011), 12 open-ended questions ( Gibbs, 1994; Griffith
University, 2011; Gallegos & Peeters, 2011) and model evaluation.

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Results and discussion
Model evaluations were divided into 2 parts. First, the teacher evaluation showed that
Yellowstone National Park, Red sea and Fly geyser at Black Rock Desert had got 28,
27 and 24.5 point, respectively (Table: 1). Second, peer assessment form their friend
showed that Yellowstone National Park, Red sea and Huai Kha Khaeng had got 34%,
16% and 10%, respectively (Table: 2). It seems like teacher and students evaluation
quite agreed with each other.
Table: 1 Ecosystem location and teacher evaluation.
Group

Ecosystem
type

Location
15° 19' 59.988'' N
98° 55' 0.012'' E
7° 45’ -8° 15’ N
98° 15’ - 98° 40’ E

Ecosystem name

Teacherevaluation(Total 30)

Huai Kha Khaeng

22

Andaman Phuket

21

1E

Land

2E

Water

3E

Land andwater

44° 43’ 05”N
110° 29’ 46”W

Lower Falls in
Yellow Stone
National Park USA

24

4E

Desert32° 39' 55.404'' N
113° 6' 31.7736'' E

Sonoran desert

20.5

Group

Ecosystem
type

Location
16° 52' 12'' N
101° 47' 60'' E
27°44’06.55” N
33°59’10.17” E
16°11′59″N
99°12′07″E
35°03’13.57”N115°22’35.56”W
44° 25' 25.2876'' N
110° 35' 18.6576'' W
35°16'14.0"N
120°53'52.5"W

1S

Land

2S

Water

3S

Land andwater

4S

Desert

1C

Land

2C

Water

3C

Land andwater

14°22′55″N
101°25′54″E

4C

Desert40° 51′34″N
119° 19′55″W

Ecosystem namePhu Kradueng
National Park20

Red sea

27

Klong Lan National
Park

24

Mojave desert

22.5

Yellowstone
National Park
Kelp Forest at Bluff
Trail
Heo Prathun
Waterfall at Khao
Yai
Fly geyser at Black
Rock Desert

Table: 2 Peer assessment by voting from their friends.
Ranking
Room
Group
Percent of vote (%)
Yellow stone
1
C
34
National Park
2
S
Red sea16

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28
21
23
24.5

Room
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10

E

The results of self-evaluation questionnaire that related to students’ soft skills showed
the interesting information (Table 3). In term of teamwork skills, the most of students
had found that working in ecobox team made them more respect and listen to friend’s
opinion (4.43±0.65) while mean value of team conflict was low (2.70±1.14). For
problem solving, work as part of a team helped students to solve problem better(4.25±0.77). For criticism, working in team could increase the use of critical thinking(4.29±0.84). For creativity, ecobox project helped students to know how to use
creativity when constructed ecobox model and increase the creative problem solving(4.06±0.80).
Table: 3 The results of self-evaluation questionnaire that related to students’ soft
skills.
Soft skills
Mean
SD
Item
value
I had found that working in ecobox team
4.43
0.65 made them more respect and listen toTeamwork
friend’s opinion.
2.70
1.14 There was team conflict.
Work as part of a team helped students to
Problem solving
4.25
0.77
solve problem better.
Working in team could increase the use of
Critical thinking
4.29
0.84
critical thinking.
Ecobox project helped students to know
how to use creativity when constructed
Creative thinking
4.06
0.80
ecobox model and increase the creative
problem solving.
Conclusion
All ecobox teams could complete their work on time and some model showed highcreativity and innovative such as Yellow Stone National Park which had lighting for
expressing the volcano. The implementation of this project evaluated that ecoboxlearning process could help promote students to apply soft skills and knowledge forcreating completely model. However, teacher feedback was a very important catalyst
to encourage students’ using their capabilities. The finding of this study could bringmore understanding on nurturing students’ soft skills using multidisciplinary projectcalled “Ecobox”.
Acknowledgement
Authors thank teachers, staffs and students at Engineering Science Classroom, King
Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi for the generous support andassistance in this study. Special thanks to Miss Rhonda Tsai for grammar correction.

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References
Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future.
The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 83(2),39–43.
Chomngam, C., Wongta, J., Vinarukwong, N., Hirunsirisawat, E., & Dokkhularb, S.
(2017). Ecobox: STEM Project to Enhance Soft Skills For 10th Students in
Engineering Science Classroom Students. Proceedings of the 3rd AsTEN Conference:
Teaching Competency Development; Issues, Innovation and Initiatives.
Finegold, D., & Notabartolo, A. (2010). 21St-Century Competencies and Their
Impact: an Interdisciplinary Literature Review. Research on 21st Century
Competencies, National Research Council, 1–50.
Gallegos, P. J., & Peeters, J. M. (2011). A measure of teamwork perceptions for teambased learning. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 30–35.
Gibbs, G. (1994). Learning in Teams: A student Manual. Oxford: The Oxford Centre
for
Staff Development.
8Jahanian, S., & Matthews, J. M. (1999). Multidisciplinary project: A tool for learning
the subject. Journal of Engineering Education, 88(2), 153–245.
Shakir, R. (2009). Soft skills at the Malaysian institutes of higher learning. Asia
Pacific Education Review, 10(3), 309–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9038Wongta, J., Vinarukwong, N., Hirunsirisawat, E., Intaravicha, T., & Chanlen, N.
(2015). The Organizing of Multidisciplinary Project to Enhance Students’ Perceptions
and Attitudes toward Science. The Global Engineering & Applied Science Conference
2015.
Contact email: jintana.won@kmutt.ac.th

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AppendixGroupEcosystem typeEcosystem
name

1E

Land

Huai Kha
Khaeng2E

Water

Andaman
Phuket3E

Land andwater

Lower Falls
in Yellow
Stone
National
Park USA

4E

DesertSonorandesert

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Group

Ecosystem typeEcosystem
name

1S

Land

Phu
Kradueng
National
Park

2S

Water

Red sea3SLand andwater

Klong Lan
National
Park

4S

DesertMojavedesert

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Photo

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Group

Ecosystem typeEcosystem
name

1C

Land

Yellowston
e National
Park

Water

Kelp Forest
at Bluff
TrailLand andwater

Heo
PrathunWaterfall at
Khao Yai

DesertFly geyser
at Black
Rock
Desert

2C

3C

4C

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Fostering “Glocal” Awareness Through a Short-Term Study-Abroad Program on
Poverty and Sustainable Societies in the Philippines
Hanayo Hirai, Iwate University, Japan
Natsumi Onaka, Iwate University, Japan
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Study abroad programs have become increasingly popular in Japanese tertiary
education in response to the nationwide campaigns and movements for fostering“global human resources” (Yonezawa 2014). In the current discourse of developmentof human resources with a global perspective, students’ acquirement of global
awareness and intercultural skills is often emphasized. Given that Japan’s regional
communities are in an urgent need of revitalization, considering various local issues
such as declining birth rate, depopulation, and declining provincial industries, weadvocate a new perspective about study abroad programs that cultivate understanding
and awareness of both global and local issues (“glocal”) as well as theirinterconnectedness. This paper aims (1) to foster glocal awareness among students
through short-term, content-based study abroad programs related to poverty andsustainable society issues in the Philippines and (2) to examine whether participantsacquire glocal awareness and a sense of ownership by thinking through both global
and local issues. Glocal awareness is examined under the following three categories;(a) awareness of the interconnectedness of global and local issues, (b) personal
growth and development, and (c) motivation to take an action to positively influence
global and local issues. Such programs are found to have a significant self-perceived
impact on participants’ glocal awareness with respect to poverty and becoming
motivated to take actions on global, local, and personal levels.
Key word: short-term study abroad program, Philippines, poverty, glocal

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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Introduction
1. Global human resources
Nurturing global human resources has recently become a prioritized agenda in tertiary
education in Japan. The Global Human Resource Development Committee of theIndustry–Academia Partnership for Human Resource Development (2010) reported
that Japan’s economic stagnation for more than two decades has had graveconsequences for the competitiveness of the Japanese economy and society in theinternational market. Japan is facing challenge from the rapidly aging society.
According to a national survey conducted by the Ministry of International Affairs andCommunication, 25.2% of the total population was 65 years or older in 2013;
furthermore, the youth and working age population is decreasing continuously, mainly
because of the low birth rate. The Japanese enterprises are of the opinion that torevitalize the Japanese economy, it is necessary to employ foreign labor and expand
their businesses in the global market. Because of these circumstances, the industry
had expressed a demand for new university graduates, ready to conduct business in
the international environment. However, the committee (2010) pointed out that the
number of Japanese students going abroad to study has been decreasing since 2004.
Furthermore, students increasingly appear to have inwardly looking attitudes,
preferring to stay in Japan. A discussion to globalize universities in Japan and foster
globally competitive human resources through the universities has started to result inchanges. In addition, financial support has been provided to enable programs topromote international education. In response to the nationwide campaigns andmovements to foster global human resources, a study-abroad program has become
extremely popular in tertiary education in Japan (Yonezawa, 2014). In the current
discourse of the development of human resources with a global perspective, emphasis
is often placed on the participants’ acquisition of global awareness and intercultural
skills.
2. Glocal leaders
Glocal is a coined word; it was created from two words, namely, “global” and “local.”Iwate Prefecture faces various local problems such as a declining birth rate,
depopulation, out-migration of youth to urban cities, and declining industries andsocial infrastructure. Consequently, Iwate University has advocated a new way ofviewing a study-abroad program that will foster glocal leaders by cultivating an
understanding of both global and local issues; in other words, glocal awareness and its
interconnectedness. The Short-term Content-based International Program (SCIP) was
created to foster glocal leaders.
Short-term Content-based International Program (SCIP)
1. Concept of SCIP
SCIP started as a pilot program in 2010 with a focus on sustainable energy. In 2012,
SCIP Sustainable Energy was launched; it had 12 students who were divided into two
teams: the Iceland team and the Sweden team. Subsequently, new programs withdifferent topics have been developed. As shown in Figure 1, there are five topics with
their relevant destinations. Each topic was selected because of its importance in the

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local society, especially in relation to the glocal perspective and the availability of aknowledgeable faculty. The duration of study-abroad program is up to two weeks. To
maximize their study-abroad experiences, the programs are carefully planned so thatthe students are able to not only understand commonality but also develop a sense ofownership of the issues discussed.

Sustainable Energy
Iceland & Sweden

Poverty

World Heritage
Indonesia

The Philippines

SCIP

Craft Design forInternational Market

International BusinessTaiwanItaly

Figure 1: Program Map of SCIP
2. Structure of a program and function of each component in the program
The program consists of three parts: a pre-departure session, study-abroad, and asession after the students have returned home. Before the students go abroad, theyread reference books in Japanese and English to deepen their understanding of theissue and learn equivalent technical terms in English. In addition, they attend lectures
on campus and visit relevant facilities that will enlighten them about the topic such asenergy power plants, NPOs, and local government offices. These learning
opportunities are expected to bridge the gap between theory and reality. There are also
several sessions devoted to discussions. Based on information that they collect during
the pre-departure sessions, they compile a list of questions and issues for the
study-abroad period.
Once they visit the particular country, they go on field visits to relevant sites and meet
people through whom they are able to develop an in-depth understanding of the issues.
The visits and interactions are carefully programmed so that the students meet therelevant stakeholders; these include service providers, beneficiaries, government
officers, policy makers, and local residents. Students are continually asked relevant
provocative questions so as to ensure that they pay attention and further deepen theirunderstanding of the themes.
Once they have returned home, they collate the information that they collected,
conduct further discussions on the topic, write a report, and deliver oral presentations
about their learning through the SCIP.

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SCIP Philippines
In this study, the SCIP conducted in the Philippines is examined. The theme thereof
was poverty and sustainable society. Accordingly, the aim of the study is, first, tofoster glocal awareness among students through short-term, content-based
study-abroad programs that are related to poverty and sustainable society issues in thePhilippines and, second, to examine whether participants acquired glocal awarenessand a sense of ownership by examining both global and local issues. While poverty
was measured using the absolute poverty index in the Philippines and the relative
poverty index in Japan, it is a pressing issue that is similar in both countries. The
Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) of the Philippines
defines slums as buildings or areas that have deteriorated, and are hazardous andunsanitary or lack standard conveniences. Slums have also been defined as the squalid,
crowded, or unsanitary conditions under which people live, irrespective of thephysical state of the building or area (UN-Habitat, 2003). According to thesedefinitions, slum dwellers are identified as the urban poor: individuals or families
residing in urban areas whose income or combined household income is below thepoverty threshold. In 2009, approximately 1.4 million children in the Philippines were
living in such informal settlements (Reyes, Tabuga, Asis, & Mondez, 2014).
On the contrary, it is often believed that Japan, as a developed country, does not haveto deal with issues related to poverty. However, the relative poverty rate, which is thepercentage of people of all generations who live in households with an income below
50% of the national median level, is 15.6%. Furthermore, 13.9% of children under 18
live in households that exist on less than the relative poverty rate (Health, Labor andWelfare Ministry, 2017).
The aim of SCIP Philippines, which was developed on an understanding that poverty
is a common issue in the Philippines and Japan, was to raise students’ awareness ofthe structural commonalities and differences and to further engender a sense ofownership of the issue at a global and local level by means of both a theoretical
approach and an interaction between the stakeholders of the two countries.
The pre-departure session
The pre-departure session was conducted by employing an active learning style thatinvolved discussions after lectures, students’ presentations, role-play games, photolanguage sessions, and visits to local stakeholders that assist marginalized families.
The topics included theories of development, poverty and social exclusion,international aid and assistance, poverty in Japan and the Philippines, field work, andinterviewing methodology. The students were required to read related literature to
improve their basic knowledge and listening and comprehension English skills
through the ICT platform so as to become familiar with English terminology that theywould encounter during the fieldwork in the Philippines. The students also practiced
their presentations on poverty in Japan, which were subsequently delivered before
local university students and urban poor children in the Philippines. During the
pre-departure training, a visit to local government and non-governmentalorganizations that assist marginalized families and children in Iwate Prefecture wasorganized. Accordingly, the students learned that poverty is also a problem in thecommunity and consequently, developed a sense of ownership toward the issue.

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Program in Cebu province, the Philippines
The program in the Philippines consisted of two parts. During the first week, thestudents attended English language classes at the language academy of the Universityof San Carlos, Cebu City. The purpose of the English language course was to enhancetheir oral communication skills by conducting interviews with local students andresidents, attending classes facilitated by language instructors, and interacting withlocal student partners. The purpose was to integrate communication skills withfieldwork during the following week. This is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Cycle of English language program
During the second week, a series of fieldwork was conducted in urban informal
settlements or slums in Cebu City and Mandaue City through partnership with local
NGOs. Bidlisiw Foundation and JPIC have a history of assisting marginalized urban
poor children and families. The visits and interactions conducted with children andfamilies in need of special protection during the fieldwork involved the following.
•
•
•
•
•

Visit slums/informal settlements in Cebu City and Mandaue City including acommunity on a dump site and a relocation project facilitated by JPIC.
Interact with and interview children that are involved in prostitution, andchildren in conflict with the law as well as their families who have been
assisted by the Bidlisiw Foundation.
Participate in a feeding program at Balay Salamaritano, which is a day carecenter for street children and elderly people.
Participate in programs on health and nutrition, education, vocational training,
and livelihood that are conducted by Bidlisiw Foundation under “Child andfamily: healing, recovery, and re-integration framework.”
Presentation before the children of the students’ own lives including their
daily lives, dreams, families, and financial struggles.

Post-arrival reinforcement
During the post study-abroad reinforcement, the students reflected on what they hadlearned in the field and provided analytical feedback through active learning sessions.
They analyzed the interconnectedness, structural commonalities, and possible actions
to be taken so as to improve the conditions related to the poverty of the two countries.

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A pre-departure and a post-arrival questionnaire were administered to examine theimpact of the program on their glocal awareness.
Method to evaluate students’ learning
From 2015 until 2017, three programs were conducted. In total, 13 students from all
the faculties participated; namely, the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Humanities
and Social Science, Faculty of Engineering, and Faculty of Agriculture. Furthermore,
the students received four credits. This is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Profile of the participating students
Number of
programs
conducted
3

Academic
year
2015
2016
2017

Number of
students
participated13

Female:Male

Faculties

Credits
given

10:3

Engineering
Humanities
and Social
Science
Education
Agriculture

4

The students’ learning outcomes on glocal awareness and sense of commitment andunderstanding of the commonality of the issue were evaluated through discussions
and observations, reports written by the students, and a pre-departure and post-arrival
questionnaire. The pre-departure and post-arrival questionnaires employed a 5-point
Likert scale to assess the degree to which the respondents agreed or disagreed witheach statement in the questionnaires.
Results
1. Understanding structural commonalities
The structural commonalities of poverty between the Philippines and Japan that werediscussed are thus explained. First, a cycle of poverty exists wherein poor families
become trapped in poverty for generations as a result of limited or no access to criticalresources such as education and financial services. Second, the poor tend to be
excluded from the mainstream society; furthermore, it is not easy to extricate acommunity from the trap of poverty. However, government support is insufficient andfamilies have a tendency of relying on social welfare in both counties. Third, underthese circumstances, NGOs play an important role in uplifting the well-being of thepoor. Finally, the students also play a part in providing opportunities to urban poor
children to have a new perspective by interacting with them.
2. Results of questionnaires
The pre-departure and post-arrival questionnaires revealed that the students raised
their awareness on the commonality of the issues between the Philippines and Japanthrough the study-abroad program. In the question that assessed the extent to which
the respondents agreed with the statement: “I feel that poverty is an immediate

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problem for myself and my own community,” three of five students rated it higher inthe post-arrival questionnaires in comparison to their rate in their pre-departurequestionnaire and all rated it either “I agree.” or “I strongly agree.” during thepost-arrival period. Similarly, with respect to the statement, “I feel that developing
countries including the Philippines are close/related to me.”, 8 of the 9 students rated
it as higher in the post-arrival questionnaire and five rated it as the highest “I strongly
agree”, after they had returned from Cebu. The responses to these particular questions
are presented in Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3. From questionnaire 1“I feel that poverty is an immediate problem for myself and my own community.” (n= 5)Figure 4. From questionnaire 2“I feel that developing countries including the Philippines are close/related to me.” (n= 9)All the students responded in affirmative to the following statements: “Do you want
to be engaged in activities to improve situations of the poor in Japan?” and “Do you
want to be engaged in activities to improve situations of the poor in developing
countries including the Philippines?”

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3. Actions taken by students
After spending two weeks in the Philippines, immersed in intensive interaction withstakeholders and critical global issues, the students wanted to remain involved insocial change when they returned home. The actions taken by the students after the
program are as follows. In protecting the privacy, their names have been modified.
Social actions on campus
Haru, a second-year Education major student, and Sei, a second year Humanities andSocial Science major student, organized a photo language session with other students
so as to share their experiences in the Philippines with other students on campus in2017. Similarly, Sao, a second year Humanities and Social Sciences major student,
organized a workshop to ask for donations to assist poor urban children in Cebu in2017. Furthermore, Kaz, a third year Humanities and Social Sciences major student,
presented at a global symposium on student loans and financial struggles of current
Japanese university students. While he was preparing his presentation, he realized thatthe issue of the student loan was not merely a personal issue that he was facing, butrather a current social issue faced by thousands of Japanese youth. The participants’
actions were based on feeling empowered and knowledgeable because of the study
program; they felt a sense of obligation to become involved. Consequently, they
became a solution-based gathering that brought together a diverse audience in order tobring about positive changes in their communities.
Return to the country
To explore possibilities for further involvement to make a difference, Haru returned to
Cebu in the spring holiday and became engaged in volunteer work recommended by alocal student of the University of San Carlos with whom she had connected during thestudy program.
Connecting study-abroad and career development
The program impacted the students’ academic motivation and career choices. Masa,
an Engineering student studying for a master’s degree explored new career options in
the education sector after he had arrived home; he had come to the realization that
education plays a vital role in alleviating poverty. Sei was motivated to study anddecided to enroll for an advanced degree in Psychology.
Integrate study abroad experience into daily lives
It has been observed that the students used the study-abroad experiences in a variety
of ways in their daily lives. Shin, a third year Agriculture major student, participatedin an international joint class conducted in English because he wanted to bechallenged to use English. Several students noted that they tried to communicate with
their families and talk about themselves more after they had been inspired by thechildren and families that they met in the Philippines.

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Positive feedbacks from stakeholders in the Philippines
In addition to the students’ learning outcomes, positive feedback was given by the
stakeholders in the Philippines. JT, a 15-year-old boy who joined the students in aninteractive session, stated that it was a great opportunity to learn about the Japaneseculture. The staff of Bidlisiw Foundation noted that they were not aware of thefinancial struggles that Japanese students experienced as well as the fact that they
worked in order to study at the university; the staff believed that this would inspireand encourage the children. Furthermore, a discussion has started between concerned
faculty member of University of San Carlos and Iwate University to have a joint
session where Japanese student would present their experience and observation about
poverty both in Japan and Cebu before the Filipino students for mutual understanding
and discussion. It is notable that the interaction of the university students may create
opportunities to broaden views and perspectives not only of Japanese students but alsoof Filipino students; for instance, the Filipino students were surprised when theylearned that Japanese students often had to undertake part-time jobs to pay for theirtuition fees and participate in university activities.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to foster glocal awareness among students through
SCIP Philippines with a focus on poverty and sustainable society. Whether theparticipating students developed a sense of ownership toward global and local issues
or glocal awareness was examined. Positive impacts of their understanding of thecommonality of the issue, sense of connection/commitment to the issue, the people
and the country, and becoming motivated to take tangible actions on global, local, andpersonal levels were observed.

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References
Abe, A. (2016). Child poverty, the grim legacy of denial. Retrieved fromhttps://www.nippon.com/en/column/g00341/
Masuda, H. (2014). Tihousyoumetsu-Toukyou Ikkyokusyuchu ga maneku Jinko
gensyo. [Extinction of local cities: Depopulation caused by out-migration from local
cities to Tokyo]. Tokyo: Chuo Shisyo Publishing.
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. (2010). Summary of a Report by Global
Human Resource Development Committee of the Industry–Academia Partnership for
Human Resource Development. Retrieved fromhttp://www.meti.go.jp/policy/economy/jinzai/san_gaku_ps/2010globalhoukokusho_su
mmar.pdf
Ministry of Finance Japan. (2002). Understanding the Japanese Budget 2002. Retrieved
from httm://www.mof.go.jp/english/budget/budget/fy2002/brief/2002-08.htm
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2017). Hinkon no Jyoukyou. [Situation of
Poverty]. Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/list/dl/seigo_g_171005.pdf
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2017). Chosano Gaiyo. [Overview of theresearch]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/k-tyosa/k-tyosa15/index.html
Reyes, C., Tabuga, A., Asis, R., & Mondez, M. B. (2014). Child poverty in thePhilippines. Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Discussion Paper
Series, 2014(33), 132.
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. (2005). Gaikokujin
jinkou no suii, [Trend of foreign population in Japan]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2005/gaikoku/00/01.htm
The Council on Promotion of Human Resource for Globalization Development (2011).
An Interim Report of The Council on Promotion of Human Resource for
Globalization Development. June 22 2011. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/global/1206011interim_report.pdf
UN-Habitat. (2003). Slums of the World. UN-Habitat. Retrieved fromhttp://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1124
Yonezawa, A. (2014). Japan’s challenge of fostering “global human resources”:
Policy debates and practices. Japan Labor Review, 11(2), 37–52. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jil.go.jp/english/JLR/documents/2014/JLR42_yonezawa.pdf
Contact email: hhirai@iwate-u.ac.jp

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From Information to Empowerment Tertiary Students’ Experiences with the Use ofSocial Media in Learning
Michelle Meiling Yeo, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine tertiary students’ learning outcomes, experiences
and perceptions of using social media; YouTube to enable a collaborative andparticipatory learning process. From a survey of literature on tertiary students’ use ofsocial media for experiential and participatory learning, there seems to be very little
evidence of detailed examination to gather students’ perceptions and experiences andto determine learning outcomes. Thus, this present study of participatory andcollaborative learning supported by scaffolding provides an attractive glimpse of theuse of social media, such as YouTube videos created by groups of tertiary students inclass. Two groups of tertiary students, adult learners from the University of Social
Sciences in Singapore, were the participants as case study of this study. This paper,with a discussion of social-constructivist learning theory, is to determine if theleveraging of social media is able to provide adult learners with a tool to implement a
collaborative and participatory process in which students move from being informed
to an active learner and self-directed learner of their own, hence an empowerment oflearning from information.
Keywords: Social Media Technologies, YouTube, Digital Technology andCommunications, Tertiary Students’ Learning Experiences

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Introduction
In this present study of participatory and collaborative learning supported byscaffolding provides an attractive glimpse of social constructivist learning theory withthe use of social media, such as YouTube videos created by groups of two groups oftertiary students, adult learners from the University of Social Sciences in Singapore
who were the participants as case study of this study. Students were provided online
learning lessons and materials for a Communication module via Canvas learning
management system and they were tasked to leverage on YouTube video for a classpresentation for teaching and learning. After which, a survey and interview wereconducted for data gathering after all the groups have participated in their learning
process. Qualitative text analysis of the interview script analysis clarified the different
merits of leveraging of social media as experienced and perceived by students fromthe group activity and the presentation. The leveraging of social media, YouTube
video as a learning tool for collaborative and participatory learning served well inmeeting challenges set in the learning outcomes and from the survey and interviews
conducted, students found this way of learning to be both enjoyable and useful andbenefitted them both in empowerment in learning and in learning collaboratively.
Methodology
This study is based on a qualitative research method based on grounded theory thatuses a systematic set of procedure to develop an inductively grounded theory (Strauss& Corbin, 1998) to better understand students’ learning and students’ perceptions ofusing social media for learning. The study uses a data collection approach that is byconducting an email-based questionnaire survey targeted at SUSS undergraduate adultstudents. The questionnaire primarily serves as a purpose to retrieve data regarding
three aspects. The first aspect will be to identify what students’ needs are in seeking
learning information from social media which consist of students’ reasons for learningin which learning could be either formal or casual, the information sources used andinformation type or category. The second aspect will be to understand how students
explore learning resources. The third aspect will be to analyse students’ perceptions inusing social media for learning which consist of usability issues and problems
encountered.
The questionnaire will consist of two sections. In the first section, the focus will be on
identification of students’ needs in social media learning and understanding behaviourof students’ who use social media learning based on students’ responses. The second
section focus will be identification of usability issues and problems encountered by
students when they use social media as a tool for learning. Analysis of data wascarried out manually using grounded theory of open coding, constant comparison,
memos, axial coding and then theory generation.
Theoretical Discussion
This paper is written to provide an in-depth understanding of students’ learning
experiences and perceptions of using social media for learning via the social
constructivist learning theory. Social constructivist learning theory is derived from
Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory in 1978 that students’ learning is of acollaborative nature. Learning collaboratively and from one another is more effective

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activity but an information creation and sharing society where learners learn throughmultiple resources via the social media platform (Chen & Bryan, 2012).
What is Social Media?
Social media refers to a broad range of applications that enables users to create, share,comment, and discuss a multitude of digital content(s). It is regarded as ‘dynamic’,‘interactive’, ‘democratic’, ‘people centric’, ‘volatile’, ‘social’, and ‘adaptive’ (Manca& Ranieri, 2016b). Another aspect of social media that is often overlooked is its
ability to transform teaching/learning into a more social, open, and collaborationoriented endeavour and the use of social media and its potential as a learning tool
(Osgerby & Rush, 2015) are indeed worth researching in the 21st century of social
mediated society. Blogs, Wikis, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are some of themore common forms of social media (Gao, Luo, & Zhang, 2012). YouTube grants thestudents satisfaction due to the use of videos in a traditional classroom setting(Torres-Ramírez García-Domingo, Aguilera, & Casa, 2014).
YouTube is an example of social media that allows for the formation of social
relationships that revolves around uploaded videos. YouTube is the third most visited
website in the world, behind Google and Facebook (Alexa, 2015). Videos pertaining
to education, entertainment, marketing, and science are constantly being uploaded toYouTube since 2005. It was conﬁrmed that many students used YouTube to learn andseek information, however, studies show that the use of YouTube for academic
learning and its eﬀectiveness as a teaching tool lag far behind other social media, suchas Facebook. Its usage in a higher education classroom setting is fast becoming aniche endeavour(Torres-Ramírez et al., 2014). It is reported that the use of YouTube
to teach nursing procedures improved the students’ attention and retention, due to thefact that it is much easier to remember visual cues than auditory ones (Johnson &Mayer, 2009). Students reported higher satisfaction and increased retention whensocial media is integrated into their courses (Alon & Herath, 2014).
What is Blended Learning?
Driscoll (2002) defines blended learning as mixing of any instructional forms toachieve an educational goal, while Garrison and Kanuka (2004) note that to blend
simply means integrating classroom teaching with online experiences. Singh (2003)
explains blended learning as combining different delivery media to promotemeaningful and motivating learning. Live chats, self-paced learning, instantmessaging, social networking, blog and forums, applications, and webinars areexamples of tools that educators are able to incorporate online opportunities into theirlessons.
As with all pedagogies for learning, there are positive aspects and the challenges andin terms of the feasibility and applicability of implementing hybrid learning in higher
education context, a body of research supports the idea of combining face-to-face
instruction with an online delivery mode. Such a combination provides better learning
outcomes (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). The trend of merging asynchronous Internet

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technology with face-to-face interaction is associated with improved pedagogy andeasier access to information (Bonk & Graham, 2004). Similarly, Garrison and Kanuka(2004) suggest that blended teaching can facilitate independent and collaborative
learning experiences.
Blended learning, according to Fleck, Beckman, Sterns, & Hussey (2014), was used
to examine the usage of YouTube in a classroom setting. He noted that students are
receptive towards using familiar online learning tools, which ultimately enhance theirlearning experience. Blended learning also allows the students to be ﬂexible and to
freely provide feedbacks vis-à-vis the course (Alebaikan & Troudi, 2010).
In fact, millennials in Singapore spend almost 3.4 hours a day on their mobile phones
and thus there is a huge amount of time that young adults are immersed in some formof information seeking(New Straits Times, 2015). Furthermore, with about 67% of
the population being Internet users, of which more than 50% are users of social media(Statista, 2016), Social media-linked technologies are expected to play a pivotal role
in realising learning in the case of higher education. Universities in Singapore, like
SUSS implements blended learning, while instructors are utilising YouTube andFacebook to complement their traditional teaching approaches. Students responded tothis shift by also increasing the use of YouTube to learn, however, there is little in
way of formal research elucidating the eﬀectiveness of YouTube for learning/teaching
purposes.
Results
The data was transcribed manually and analyzed thematically, guided by keywords
used in the grounded theory approach. New codes were formed based on the analysis.
After the initial coding, the transcripts, thematically-coded remarks, and results werereviewed by a fellow colleague who is also teaching the same module at the
University. The main themes were the advantages of blended learning, purpose ofsocial media use, and its positive and negative eﬀects on academic performance, theeﬀectiveness and the problems of using YouTube for learning.
The students identified that with blended learning, there is flexibility of being able tocomplete assignments at any place/ any time, convenience of not having to come tocampus as often, and the benefits of the online component. There is learning at one’s
own pace and the study units online allow for theoretical understanding when job
responsibilities and other commitments make it difficult to attend all the face-to-facein-classes except when possible. The problems and issues with blended learning isthat learning makes lectures redundant as all information is online, there is lessinteractive/lack of direct communications with lecturers online; time lapse incommunication. There is also the lack of in-depth knowledge, only superficial
learning just from the study online materials and they lacking the “human’ element
and relation to real life scenarios unlike some situated examples shared by lecturer inclass. Finally, the technical issues of technical glitches and that of connectivity
problem.
The data also revealed that all the students use YouTube for entertainment andrelaxation. At least ten of them pointed out that they use YouTube to relieve stress.
One of them said that “It is …for me to relieve stress after studying”, while anotherindicated “It helps me a lot in my studies...”. They regarded YouTube as an

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entertainment tool: “It releases tension and help me pass time” “When I have freetime, I tend to visit YouTube”.
Almost all of the respondents watched the videos for information and educational
purposes and for social purposes of keeping with trends, knowing what is around theworld and be updated with latest development and technology. Interestingly, theywould use social media, such as YouTube every day.
Students are not just using YouTube for learning, but to solve non-academic problems
such as “I use YouTube for tutorials with step-by-step instructions to perform certain
tasks and how to troubleshoot problems”. And to “...learn cooking from YouTubetoo”. Many of them mentioned that YouTube helps them solve academic problems
and increase their knowledge “I watch many academic-oriented videos on YouTube.
It helps me learn and understand and inspire me to come up with creative and usefulideas”. “I use YouTube for a lot of work-related problems, as it provides tutorials
with step-by-step instructions on how to perform certain tasks and how totroubleshoot problems”. “I learn tutorials on management and communication
modules” and “I watched a video on YouTube to understand accountancy topics that I
could not understand from the textbook and lecture notes. These videos helped melearn eﬀectively, and I am now more knowledgeable than my classmates”.
They are convinced that learning from YouTube is easier and fun, and its heavily
visual content makes it easier to understand the message(s) it is trying to convey,“YouTube is attractive to me because videos are more interesting than words”.
One of them pointed out that “It is beneﬁcial to understand a theory that can be
explained by a video; it has a positive eﬀect on learning because the course requires
more in-depth explanation”. They believed that using video help them understanddiﬃcult topics, “I use YouTube to help me with my studies, and before every exam, I
use YouTube for revision because I do not understand some of my instructors inclass”.
The last theme is that of the difficulties and issues such as fake or false informationand news online, distractions with games and other social events and postings and thatof superficial social learning only with the use of YouTube. However, theyemphasized that social media, particularly YouTube can complement and supplement
formal learning provided the teachers and lecturers were to incorporate it during
lesson time.
Discussion
These results conﬁrm that using videos to teach have a proliﬁc positive eﬀect on
students' learning for higher education students that YouTube grants the students
satisfaction due to the use of videos in a traditional classroom setting (Torres-Ramírez
et al., 2014). Students reported higher satisfaction and increased retention when social
media is integrated into their courses (Alon & Herath, 2014).
According to Clifton and Mann (2011), the use of YouTube videos almost guarantees
increased student engagement, critical consciousness, and accelerated in-depth
learning. These ﬁndings are consistent with those reported that YouTube videos will

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simplify the understanding of a topic to improve the students’ attention and retention
due to the fact that it is much easier to remember visual cues than auditory ones
(Johnson & Mayer, 2009). Alon and Herath (2014) reported similar ﬁndings andargued that students believe that they learn more and are more satisﬁed with a course
integrated with social media. The results of this study are beneﬁcial for academia andacademic institutions, since it creates knowledge pertaining to students' usage ofYouTube for learning and students’ perception towards the eﬀectiveness of video forlearning purposes. The results highlighted the importance of blended learning andusing complementary tools to improve traditional learning approaches. Many
universities are invested in traditional methods of teaching using books and lecturenotes. Increasing the use of social media amongst students and facilities that thesetechnologies provide for learning creates the opportunity for educators anduniversities to redesign the teaching method and facilitate the usage of thesetechnologies for teaching and learning within a blended learning context.
From the results, hence, there is need to design participatory & collaborative activities
with the school curriculum and to engage students with creating and participating in
activities using YouTube videos for learning and assessments. YouTube Resources
for both teaching and learning and to promote active learners with educator’sinteractions and feedback too.
The results also conﬁrmed the eﬀectiveness of YouTube video on students’ learningand highlighted the fact that traditional teaching methods need to be improved. Thus,
there can be good incorporation of social media, YouTube as tools of learning withina blended learning context. The following diagram explains the details between Faceto Face interactions with educators/tutors in class followed by online spaces with theuse of social media, such as YouTube.

Figure 1: Strategies for Blended Learning with Social Media
Conclusion

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This study elucidated that the uses of social media, like YouTube is well liked,
effectively used for collaborative learning amongst university students and theirperception on its eﬀectiveness for teaching and learning. The results conﬁrmed thatmany students rely on YouTube to solve academic problems and answer any
questions that are beyond the boundaries of the textbook book and formal learning inclass. Almost all of the students use YouTube to seek information and learn. The
extensive use of social amongst students, their familiarity with it, and theeﬀectiveness of videos for learning makes it necessary that suitable technologies be
adopted for teaching and educational methods be redesigned and also within ablended learning context. Thus, there can be better leveraging of these tools forlearning. New technologies/channel can be used as a complementary tool for theeducation system, which will eliminate the weaknesses of traditional pedagogies andenhance teaching and learning. Using visual objects, especially YouTube videos toexplain something will make it easier for students to visualize and understand the
topic much better and in- depth learning. Thus, with the use of social media, likeYouTube as a tool, students move from being informed to an active learner and selfdirected learner of their own, hence an empowerment of learning from information.

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References
Alexa (2015). Statistic report: Top sites in Spain. Retrieved fromhttp://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/ES.
Alon, I., & Herath, R. K. (2014). Teaching international business via social media
projects. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 25, 44 –59.
Bonk, C. J. & Graham, C. R. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of blended learning: Global
Perspectives, local designs. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Publishing
Chen., B, Bryer., T. (2012). Investigating instructional strategies for using social
media in formal and informal learning. Int. Rev. Res. Open Distance Learn 13 (1)Clifton, A., & Mann, C. (2011). Can YouTube enhance student nurse learning? Nurse
Education Today, 31, 311–313.
Driscoll, M. (2002) Blended Learning: let’s get beyond the hype, E-learning, 1March. Available at: http://www-07.ibm.com/services/pdf/blended_learning.pdf
Fleck, B. K., Beckman, L. M., Sterns, J. L., & Hussey, H. D. (2014). YouTube in theclassroom: Helpful tips and student perceptions. Journal of Eﬀective Teaching, 14,
21–37.
Gao, F., Luo, T., & Zhang, K. (2012). Tweeting for learning: A critical analysis ofresearch on microblogging in education published in 2008–2011. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 43, 783–801.
Garrison, D. R., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its
transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education,7,
95−105
Johnson, C. I., & Mayer, R. E. (2009). A testing eﬀect with multimedia learning.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 621.
Manca, S., & Ranieri, M. (2016b). Yes for sharing, no for teaching!”: Social media inacademic practices. The Internet and Higher Education, 29, 63 –74.
New Straits Times (2015) Available at:https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/smartphones/millennials-in-singapore-spendalmost-34-hours-a-day-on-their-mobile-phones-study
Osgerby, J., & Rush, D. (2015). An exploratory case study examining undergraduate
accounting students' perceptions of using Twitter as a learning support tool. The
International Journal of Management Education, 13, 337–348.
Singh, H. (2003). Building effective blended learning programs. Educational
Technology, 43, 51−54

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Statista (2016). Youtube. Available at:https://www.statista.com/topics/2019/youtube/.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques andprocedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Torres-Ramírez, M., García-Domingo, B., Aguilera, J., & Casa, d.l (2014). Videosharing educational tool applied to the teaching in renewable energy subjects.
Computers & Education, 73, 160–177.
Contact email: m.yeo@newcastle.edu.au, michelleyeo003@suss.edu.sg

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Factors Influencing Teens to be Involved in Social Problems in a Protection
Center, Selangor
Absha Atiah Abu Bakar, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Nurfitrianti Misheila, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
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Abstract
This study was conducted to identify factors that influence behavioral depravities
among teens. Respondents in this study consist of trainees aged 13 to 19 years old andabove. The methodology of this study is a survey using questionnaires as instrument.
Respondents were selected using a purposive sampling technique involving 70
teenage girls in a state protection center of Selangor. The findings of the pilot study
on 30 teenage girls involved with social problems at the protection centre in Selangor
showed that items had high reliability with alpha cronbach values above 0.8. The data
analysis of this study uses SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version
23.0 to analyze descriptive statistical data, mean and standard deviation. The results
showed that the influence of self factor, parent factor, mass media factor and peer
factor was moderate. Hence, this study can be used as a guide to finding solutions forrelevant authorities by taking into account the factors that influence teen involvement
in social issues. In conclusion, all parties should work hand in hand to address thisincreasingly worrisome social problem.
Keywords: Factors, behavourial depravities, moral problems, teens, protection centre

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1.0 Introduction
The need for noble moral development at this moment is increasingly pressing upon
the social problems that arises in line with the economic development and the rapid
development of the world. In this case, the issue of producing cildrens with the noble
and good religious values is also increasingly difficult. A study on 200 students to
identify the level of religious knowledge among them found that the level of majorityof the students was moderate (Nurzatil Ismah et al 2015). The findings of this study
illustrate that the higher the religious knowledge, the lower the tendency of thestudent to engage in immoral activities (Fauziah et al al 2012). However, in reality
today shows the task of applying the moral education to students as the goals set by
the government are very challenging (Mohd Musnizam et al 2012). This is based onnews and reports reported in the printed and electronic media on these issues isincreasingly worrying.
According to Shuhada Mansor’s (2015) report, the statistics of the number of criminalcases recorded by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) recorded a big rise in moral
crisis among students. The rise is staggering in numbers and is looked upon as very
serious and worrisome. The Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) recorded 13, 359
primary and secondary students across Malaysia engaged in serious disciplinary
misconduct (Utusan Malaysia 2016). As a response, The Ministry of Education
Malaysia has listed 402 school hotspots associated with disciplinary cases as well as
drugs throughout the country as a guideline and one of the early prevention measuressince the Student Discipline System (SSDM) of MOE had recorded the incidence of
misconduct and student discipline problems is on the high side ( Berita Harian 2017).
The reported statistics illustrate a major challenge in terms of student morality(Noornajihan et al al 2012).
These issues of moral depravities should have relation with influences such as selffactor, family, peers, western influences, surrounding communities, mass media, etc.
(Nor 2009; Fauziah et al 2011; Zainudin & Norazmah 2011; Wan 2013). The problem
is also the impact of the modernization and cultural shock that hit children of this age
which not only affects individuals, but also involve family, community and national
institutions (Zainudin & Norazmah 2011; Tengku Elmi Azlina et al 2015). The issueof student’s moral failure is a major threat to achieving country development.
Noornajihan and Ab. Halim Tamuri (2013) emphasizes that the failure of an
institution, organization, race, nation or civilization is due to the inherent moral
character of the individual. This is also acknowledged and proven through the theoryof birth and fall of civilization posed by Ibn Khaldun (1993).
This situation shows that the rate of teen involvement in social issues is increasingly
serious. However, teens are the natural assets of the nation and will play a very big
and important role in shaping the political, economic and social future in Malaysia.
Hence, recognizing the importance of the weight of responsibility to shape today’s
generation of student’s ethics, there is a need for researchers to examine the factorsthat influence teens involved in social problems. Recent studies have found thatstudies on the factors of teen involvement in social problems are still underperformed, especially studies involving teen girls (Nurul Husna et al., 2017).
Although there are studies that look into influencing factors (Zainudin & Norazmah
2011; Husin 2011; Noradilah 2014), but there are still a small number of studies

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focusing on these four factors alone, namely self-factor, parents, peers and media
mass. However, in the context of the study, there is still a lack of research on factors
affecting teens involved in social problems being carried out at the protection center(Azlina 2012) and focusing on the age group of teen girls aged 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 18
years old and 19 years old. Hence, this quantitative study is aimed at exploring theinfluence of self-factor, parent, mass media and peer to social problems of teens.
2.0 Literature Review
Teenage years are full of various problems and conflicts that arise because of several
factors. Azlina (2013) explains that these factors are said to not onlydisturbing themind, emotion, and body but also shake the faith of these teen until they finally getcaught up with social problems. Hence, the term of these factors is generally definedas the element that contributes to a particular or more specific result of the cause
which causes the occurrence of such social problems (Hashim et al al., Husin 2011).
In this case, the findings of previous studies find that self-factor, parents, mass media
and peers are the four most dominant factors that motivate teenagers to engage insocial problems (Badlihisham et al., Zainudin & Norazmah, 2011; Wan Norina et al2013).
Self factor is one of the factors that encourage teenagers to do something negative or
positive. Hence, to understand the problems arising from the teenagers themselves,the definitions of the term ‘teenage’ should be understood first. Teenage are a periodof transition, stage of development from childhood to adulthood, in terms ofphysiology, emotion and social (Badlihisham et al., 2000; Azizah 2013; Sahlawati etal 2015), where their age is in 10 to 20 years old and have reached puberty (Fariza
2005; Badlihisham et al 2000; Rogers 1962 in Zainudin & Norazmah, 2011). At thisstage of their life, they have high curiosity. So every thing that happens in thisteenager environment will invite the curiosity that ultimately encourages them to try
to do it according to their own needs without regard to the pros and cons of the matter(Muhammed Sharif & Suria 2012).
The act of making observations that later transform to curiosity to do something is toin line with behavioral theory. This theory emphasizes behavioral learning based on
observations from surroundings (Mok Soon Sang 2010; Novi Irwan 2016). Mok Soon
Sang (2010) further explains that the attempt to do something is a trial and error
process, which is coherent as it happens to teenagers who constantly observe and try
to do things until eventually they can be involved in social problems. In addition tocuriosity, the desire to express dissatisfaction, wanting to take revenge, self-factor thatlacks behavioral appreciation are among the factors that come from the teenagers
themselves that encourage them to be involved in social problems (Zainudin &Norazmah 2011).
Apart from self-factor, there is a parental influence that also contributes to social
problems. If the education given by the parents is lacking, then the teenager has thepotential to fall into social problems (Zakaria et al 2012). This is evidenced byprevious studies showing that the cause of social problems among teens is due to thelack of religious education adopted by parents to children (Sabitha 1995; Sharifah et
al al., 2010; Fauziah et al. 2012). Not only in terms of educating and exemplary
behavior, the issue of unrest and the collapse of households between the parents can

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also ultimately affects teens (Nik Haslinda 2007; Tam Chai 2009; Yusuf & Najihudin,t.th) . The results of Fauziah et al. al (2012) found that parent’s fights are one of thefactors that contribute to social problems among teenagers in the protection centre.
Peers also have a strong influence on the formation of teenage behavior and morals.
Peers are the ones that gives a different environment, where the familiarity is beyond
the family environment and can be a place of letting out all unspoken problems andact as a substitute for parents (Azizi Yahaya t.th; Zakaria et al 2012). This intimate
relationship can be a good thing and but can also can happen the other way around.
This is because good friends can guide you to goodness, but if you mistakenly choosea friend, then your teen will get stuck with bad things. This was agreed upon by Husin
Junoh (2011) who found that peers were the dominant influence on issues of moral
formation. This is because of the teenager's willingness to do something bad becauseof wanting to get approval by their friend (Dian & Faradilla 2000).
The results of the study by Azlina (t.th), Azizi Yahaya et. al (t.th), Zainudin andNorazmah (2011) as well as Azizah (2013) found that peer’s influence affects social
problems among teens. This is because in the current age of teens they are more likely
to imitate the behavior shown by peers (Maizatul Akmam 2007) as described in thetheory of social learning introduced by Albert Bandura (1977), where learning takes
place through observation of people's behavior in the surroundings. The observational
learning that is also named as this modeling is a result when teens observe theirsignificant peer’s behavior. Peer-to-peer monitoring is an impersonation process thatwill shape a person's deviant behavior (Azizi Yahaya & Mohd Sofie, t.th; Qumruin
Nurul Laila 2015) which ultimately causes teenagers to fall into social problems.
The mass media factor also contributes to social problems among teens. Although themass media serves a variety of information and information, at the same time, themass media have a negative influence especially on teens as well as affecting theirmorals such as free association, dressing that does not cover aurat, western lifestyleand so forth (Mohd Dahlan & Ida Shafinaz , t.th; Syed Muhammad & Mohd Lufti
2009; Tengku Elmi Azlina et al 2015). This proves that mass media is a medium of
behavioral impersonation for teens who ultimately plunge them into social problems.
The situation is coherent as it is said in the theory of social learning, where teens arelearning by imitating what is in their environment and environment including
exposure through mass media (Ab. Halim & Zarin t.th; Nailul Falah 2004; Qumruin
Nurul Laila 2015) .
Teenage behaviors that are heavily influenced by the four factors mentioned here
show the ever growing of social problems today. This problem not only affects youngmen, but also social issues involving teenage girls are increasingly being talked about.
This situation illustrates that teenage girls are now more aggressive, courageous andwild. The existence of protection center devoted to teenage girls also proves that thesegroups are increasingly in need of assistance to be rehabilitated (Azlina t.th; Zanariah
et al al 2016). The protection center involved in this study is devoted to teenage girls
who are involved with social issues alone. In this study, the respondent’s backgroundalso involves social problems, namely violence, sexual misconduct and drug abuse.

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3.0 Methodology
The methodology of this study is a survey. Population in this study is the number ofteens in a state protection center of Selangor, a total of 100 people. While the total
sample used in this study is 70 respondents. This study used the selection method
sample to select the appropriate sample in this study. This survey study uses
descriptive method through the use of 5 Likert scale questionnaires as a research
instrument. The questionnaire consisted of 32 items which involved four main
constructs, namely 7 items for demography, self-factor (6 items), parent factor (7items), mass media factor (6 items) and peer factor (6 items) . This questionnaire wasadapted from some previous studies. The findings of the pilot study on 30 teenage
girls showed that items had high reliability with a score above 0.8. Data analysis in
this study uses the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 23.0
which refers to descriptive analysis, mean and standard deviation.
For the purposes of descriptive data analysis, the mean score interpretation used inthis study is referring to the following table:
Table 1 Mean Score Interpretation
Range Scale Mean Score Interpretation
1.00 - 2.00
Low
2.01 - 3.00
Moderately Low
3.01 - 4.00
Moderately High4.01 - 5.00
High
Source : Nunally (1978); Norasmah (2002); Norasmah & Sabariah(2005)
4.0 Results
This study involve respondents among teen girls who is involved in social problems
in a protection center, Selangor. In detail, the respondents' demographic profile isshown in the following table.
Table 2 Respondents Demography Profile
Total
13-15 Years Old
916-18 Years Old
22
19 Years Old & 39
Above
Type of offence
Violence
19
Sexual Misconduct
34
Drug Abuse
5
Others12
Parents Occupation
Government
30
Private20
Self-own
16
Others4
Parents Earnings
RM 100-500
5RM 501-1000
20
RM 1001-2000
17
Respondents
Age

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Percentage
12.9
31.4
55.7
27.1
48.6
7.1
17.1
42.9
28.6
22.9
5.7
7.1
28.6
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RM 2001 above28
40.0
Based on table 2 above, respondent profile analysis showed that the whole sample
was 70 people. Of these, 9 were 13-15, 22 were 16-18 and 39 were over 19 years old.
When viewed from the type of offense, 27.1% are involved with violence, 48.6% areengaged in sexual misconduct, 7.1% are involved with drug abuse and 17.1% are
involved with other social problems. Next to the demographic status of parents there
are 52 people who have married parents, 11 people who have divorced parents and 7
people have no parents.
In addition, the demographic of this study was also seen in terms of parents' educationand found that 22.9% had PMR graduates, 54.3% had SPM parents, 8.6% had STPM
parents, 1.4% had PHD parents and 12.9% have parents of other approvals. Of these,
there are 30 people with parents working in the government sector, 20 have parents
working in the private sector and 16 have self-employed parents and 4 have parents
working in other sectors. In terms of income, 7.1% have parents who earn RM100500, 28.6% have parents earning RM501-1000 and 24.3% have parents earning
RM1001-2000 and 40.0% have parents earning more than RM 2001.
Next, table 3 below shows the overall score table of factors affecting teens involved insocial problems.
Table 3 Mean Score Factors Affecting Teens Involved In Social Problems
Factors
Mean
Level
Self
3.63
Moderately High
Peer
3.12
Moderately High
Mass Media
2.97
Moderately Low
Parents
2.43
Moderately Low
Based on the table above, the results showed that the mean score of all factors
affecting teens involved in social problems, ie self (min = 3.63) and peers (min =3.12) were at moderately high level. Meanwhile, mass media factor (min = 2.97) andparents (min = 2.43) are at moderately low level
Table 4 below shows the overall data analysis of items for self-factor in detail.
Table 4 Self-Factor
Questionnaire
I often deny parent's instructions and family
members
I do not practice religious teachings likeprayers
I like to mingle with a group that practices anunhealthy lifestyle
I always want freedom in life
I have no goal of life
I always like to try something new
Overal mean

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Mean

Std
Deviation

Interpretation

3.48

1.53

Moderately High

3.77

1.39

Moderately High

3.47

1.46

Moderately High

3.88
2.87
4.31
3.63

1.44
1.50
0.87
1.03

Moderately High
Moderately Low
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Table 4 above shows that the overall self-factor factor is at moderate high (mean =3.63 and standard deviation = 1.03). Items with the highest mean are "I always like totry something new" (mean = 4.31 and standard deviation = 0.87) and are at high level.
Whereas the item with the lowest mean is "I do not have the goal of life" (mean =2.87 and standard deviation = 1.50) and is at moderately low level.
Table 5 below shows the overall data analysis of items for peer factors in detail.
Table 5 Peer Factor
Questionnaire
I was easily influenced by my friend's
insistence
I did wrong because of my friend's insistence
I would rather express my problems tofriends than my family
I would rather spend time with my friends
I'm easy to accept if I'm skipping with myfriends
I can easily accept a friend if I follow thelatest fashion
Overall mean

Mean

Std
Deviation

Interpretation

3.24

1.31

Moderately High

2.84

1.15

Moderately Low

3.67

1.41

Moderately High

3.62

1.43

Moderately High

2.42

1.43

Moderately Low

2.91

1.54

Moderately Low

3.12

1.06

Moderately High

Based on the above table shows that overall peer factors are at moderately high (mean= 3.12 and standard deviation = 1.06). Items with the highest mean are "I would rather
express my problem to my friend than my family" (mean = 3.67 and standard
deviation = 1.41) and are at moderate high. Whereas the item with the lowest mean is"I'm easy to accept if I'm skipping with my partner" (mean = 2.42 and standard
deviation = 1.43) and are at moderately low level.
Subsequently, table 6 below shows the overall data analysis of items for mass media
factors in detail.
Table 6 Mass Media Factor
Std
Questionnaire
MeanInterpretation
Deviation
I prefer to watch sex TV shows
1.91
1.13
Low
I prefer to surf the web with sex contents
2.00
1.32
Low
Sex scenes between men and women should
4.10
1.39
High
be blocked in this age
TVs broadcast a lot of negative things
3.41
1.61
Moderately HighThe web site (internet) broadcasts a lot of
3.41
1.61
Moderately Highnegative things
I like to watch the plan of violence
3.00
1.55
Moderately Low
Overall mean
2.97
0.90
Moderately Low
Based on the table above shows that the mass media factor is at moderately low level(mean = 2.97 and standard deviation = 0.90). Items with the highest mean were "sexscenes between men and women should be blocked in this age" (mean = 4.10 andstandard deviation = 1.39) and at high levels. While items with the lowest mean are "I

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prefer to watch sex TV shows" (mean = 1.91 and standard deviation = 1.13) at low
level.
Table 7 below shows the overall data analysis of items for parent factors in detail.
Table 7 Parents Factor
Questionnaire

Mean

My parents have a bad habit of home
My parents are less concerned about mylessons
My parents rarely stay home because of theirbusy work
My parents are less communicating with me
about the needs and problems I'm facing
My parents rarely motivated me
My parents rarely support me
My parents rarely praise me
Min Keseluruhan

1.74

Std
Deviation
1.28

2.25

1.34

Moderately Low

2.61

1.52

Moderately Low

2.82

1.53

Moderately Low

2.65
2.40
2.55
2.43

1.35
1.33
1.48
0.98

Moderately Low
Moderately Low
Moderately Low
Moderately Low

Interpretation
Low

Based on the above table shows the overall factor of the parent is at moderately low
level (mean = 2.43 and standard deviation = 0.98). Items with the highest mean are"My parents are less communicating with me about the needs and problems I'm
facing" (mean = 2.82 and standard deviation = 1.53) and are at moderately low level.
Whereas the item with the lowest mean is "My parents have a bad habit of home"(mean = 1.74 and standard deviation = 1.28) is at low level.
5.0 Discussion
Overall, the results of this study show that self-factor and peer factors are at
moderately high level. Meanwhile, mass media and parent factors are at moderately
low level. This finding shows that two more dominant factors affecting teens toengage in social problems stems from self and peers. It can be concluded that there
are two main aspects, namely internal factors that emanate from themselves as well as
external factors that come from peers who play a major role in influencing teens to dosocial problems. This finding is in line with the study conducted by Tengku Elmi
Azlina (2015) which found that the involvement of teens in various social phenomena
is due to the personal factors of the teen themselves covering aspects of personality
development which will lead to tension and emotional stress in teens if they are notgetting full guidance in facing the challenge of youth. This causes teenagers to be
inclined towards moral collapse and do things that they should not do and are
unlawful.
The results of this study also coincide with the study of Zainudin and Norazmah(2011) who also find that self-factor is the the dominant factor that influences
teenagers to be involved in social problems at Tunas Bakti School, Lereh River,
Melaka compared to peer influence and school environment problems. Fauziah et. al(2012) states that teenage morals can be formed through themselves, namely from theperspective of education and the appreciation religion from inner-self. If their identity
is intact, then they will be motivated to do positive things. On the other hand, if their

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personality traits are poor, then moral deprivation and negative actions that violate
norms in society include social problems (Azlina 2013; Zanariah et al 2016).
Furthermore, the results of this study also show that many teenagers always love totry something new and this item is at the highest level. This is in line with the study
conducted by Zainudin and Norazmah (2011), Azlina (2012) and Zanariah et al. al(2016) which finds that students who are involved with social problems are students
who have a high desire to try something new that they never did. A study conductedby Azizi et. al (2010) also shows that student attitude towards the aggressive behavior
that causes discipline among students is the desire to try something new. In general,
this is one of the dominant attitudes that occur naturally in teens, the internal instinctsof themselves internally who always want to try something new to find fun that
ultimately encourages them to deliberately do it.
However, this study also found that overall teenagers do have a living goal. The
findings are in line with the study of Zainudin and Norazmah (2011) who also findthat students involved with social problems have a living purpose. It also shows thatthey are also concerned about the future. However, their goals of life are easily
observed and concentrations are focused only on individuals rather than the general
population as teens are more self-centered and the concept of human rights has notbeen fully mastered (Anuar 2001). This is an internal element that stands out in ateenager and the maturity level of their thinking will grow as the age rises, and thengoes to the adulthood.
In addition to self-factor, this study also found that peer factors were the second
highest factor with moderately high level affecting teens to engage in social problems.
This is in line with the findings of the study of Azizi Yahaya and Muhamad Friday(t.th), Maizatul (2007) and Zainudin and Norazmah (2011) who found that peers were
external factors influencing the formation of teenage morals. The results of this study
found that peers were the main choice of teenagers as a place to express problems
over their own families. This finding is consistent with Tengku Elmi Azlina et al. al(2015) which states that teens love to find peers as a place to express their concerns
and attention. However, this study also found that teens did not regard the act oftruancy with their peers as an act to be accepted by their friends. This finding iscontrary to the study conducted by Norhasilah et. al (2012), where peer influencing
factors are at a high level in influencing students to perform truancy.
In addition, this study also found that overall social problems from mass media factors
were at moderately low levels. This is in line with Abdullah and Mawaddah (t.th)
study findings, Ab. Halim and Zarin (t.th), Badlihisham (2005), Nurul Huda (2011),
Zaharah (2013) which found that the mass media factor influenced the formation of
teenage morals today. The results of this study found that the mass media featured
many social scenes between men and women. Scenes that do not preserve theboundary of aurat between this type of sex contribute to the problem of freeassociation, free sex, out-of-marriage pregnancies and the like. In this regard, theresearcher is of the opinion that teenager’s parents should be more attentive and careabout each of the programs that their children watch to fit their age and not damage
their morals. However, this study also found that teenagers do not like watching TV
shows. This is contrary to the study conducted by Ab. Halim Tamuri and Zarin (2009)

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who find that teens prefer to watch TV shows and VCDs with sexual contents, wherethese symptoms lead moral depravities among teens.
Finally, the finding of this study also found that overall social problems from parent
factors were at the lowest mean position and were at moderately low level. This is inline with the findings of Anuar (2001), Maizatul (2007), Azlina (2011) and Nurzatil
et. al (2015) which states that parents also influence in the formation of teenage
morals. The results of this study found that most parents lacked communication with
their children about the needs and problems they faced. This is in line with thefindings of Tengku Elmi Azlina et. al (2015) which proves that the lack ofcommunication between parents and children causes teenagers to be trapped by social
problems. Researchers are of the view that bilateral communication is an importantpart of the eradication of teen misconduct. However, the findings of this study arecontrary to the study of Zainudin and Norazmah (2011) that students disagree that the
aspect of a parent's lack of communication with students about the needs andproblems faced by their children leads them to social problems
6.0 Conclusion
Teenage social problems are an issue that is often discussed today. The impetus of thesocial environment creates and affects the behavior of teens. Among the factors
identified in this study were self-factor, parents, mass media and peers. The study
found that these factors were one of the causes of social problems among teens. This
study is important to find solutions that are really effective in combating teen
involvement in social issues. Hence, the implication of this study is that relevant
authorities can know and take into account the factors that influence the involvementof teens in social issues to be guided in preserving the national heirs from being
trapped in social problems that threaten the well-being of the nation. Among the
proposed research proposals that can be done with the social problems of the teen is
by involving more respondents and using theories related to teen environment. This isbecause teenagers at this age are more easily affected by their social environment.

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Care as a Key Contributor to Student Learning and Teacher Effectiveness
Isma Fadhil, Monash University, Australia
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
This study examines how care is a pivotal factor in contributing to student learning aswell as teacher effectiveness. In this context, care can be defined as actions thatencourage students to learn and succeed. The act of caring requires both teachers andstudents to interact. This relationship acts as foundation that holds both parties
together, producing meaningful pedagogical experience. However, care does notstand alone. It is supported by presence and emotions that prompts the caring act.
Presence is an influential feature in caring as it maintains the intensity of therelationship. Emotions is important to control how the caring act will be executed.
These aspects, care, emotions, and presence are interrelated, moreover, vital for the
existence of the relationship. There are several constructive outcomes of caring onteachers and students. The act of caring allows teachers to be supportive and aware of
their pupils as an individual and a learner. Therefore, teachers can create and offer
authentic pedagogical approaches to meet and increase students’ learning needs. In
relation to that, care increases teacher efficacy. As teachers know and understand theirpupils more closely, they have more confidence in constructing relevant instructional
plans to implement for the students’ learning development. Moreover, it will improveteachers to enhance their teaching skills. Thus, teacher effectiveness as well asclassroom management is achievable. Developing a teaching relationship throughcare will impact pupils as individuals, bringing valuable connections into their lives.
Keywords: care, student learning, teacher effectiveness, teacher efficacy, classroom
management

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Introduction
According to Osterman (2000), the relationship that students have with teachers is oneof the fundamental predictors in student learning (as cited in Stipek, 2006). Learning
is a process that requires effort, engagement, and motivation so students can achieve
high levels of achievement. In order for them from reach this goal they also need asupport system from their teachers, which is crucial to this progress. Based on
Noddings (1992), academic goals cannot be met unless teachers provide students witha caring and supportive classroom environment (Noblit, 1993, as cited in Wentzel,
1997). In relation to that, a research study conducted by Woolfolk-Hoy and Weinstein(2006) revealed that students perceive that class interaction and cooperation is shapedby their relationship between their teachers and how supportive and caring they are(as cited in Wolff, Bogert, Jarodzka, & Boshuizen, 2015). Loughran (2010) alsosuggested that teaching is not only an act of delivering knowledge to students inclassrooms but is also a process of building a relationship between teachers andstudents; students and students; theory and practice; and students and content to createa meaningful pedagogical experience. Thus, this requires both teachers and students’
involvement to make a difference in the students’ learning experience and achieve a
successful pedagogical practice.
Reflecting on these theories, it is clear that teacher’s care play a significant role instudents’ learning outcome. Through care, students know they are respected, valued,
and acknowledged as individual learners. Demonstrating care in such a way places
them in the center of the learning process, and thus indicates that teachers believe inthe student’s abilities (Lumpkin, 2007). Thus, teachers would engage students in thelearning process as well as encourage them to achieve higher goals. Furthermore,teacher will also be determined to develop teaching approaches that are appropriate sothat it will meet with the students’ learning needs. As teachers reflect on theirinstructional methods, they improve their teaching capacity. Understanding what
teaching strategies are suitable for students can increase teacher efficacy (Collier,2005). Collier (2005) also explains that enhancing teacher efficacy can have extensive
impact in teacher effectiveness. By improving teacher efficacy, teachers are morefamiliar with what type of pedagogical approach is best used for what type of student.
This results in effective teaching.
As stated previously, student learning is highly determined by the relationship they
have with their teachers. John Macmurray (1964) stated that ‘teaching is one of theforemost of personal relations’ (p. 17, as cited in Noddings, 2012). To build relation
with others one of the foundations of building a relationship is through care
(Noddings, 2012). This paper will explore care in the education context. Firstly, thedefinition of care will be explained. Secondly, other aspects that support the act ofcaring will be elaborated. Thirdly, this paper will investigate the role of care in
student learning and teacher effectiveness.
Definition of care
As a human being we are able to care, have an emotion or feeling for one another.
Caring is defined as a value on how a person think they should view and relate toothers (Noblit, Rogers, & McCadden, 1995, as cited in Collier, 2005). When a person
asks their friends or family how they are doing or when a teacher comforts a student

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with a problem, these illustrate the act of caring. It applies to all relationships,
whether it is between parent and child, teacher and pupil, or coach and player. The
subjects in the relationships consist of carer and cared-for. Based on combination of
Tronto (2010) and Noddings (2012) work, there are four stages of care which include;(1) attentiveness, where the carer becomes attentive to the cared-for’s situation andrecognizes the need for care, (2) responsibility, in which the carer attends to thecared-for and determines how the carer will respond, and (3) competence, the carerfulfills the need, and (4) responsiveness, the phase where the carer actively responds
to the cared-for’s needs. Every phase it crucial to maintain because it will affect thecaring act.
In this process of caring relation, listening and trust plays an important role. Noddings
has extensively written on care and how care is successfully executed. She describes a
carer as one that is attentive, watches, and listens (2012). Micheal Fielding and Peter
Moss believe that listening is the heart of teaching (Noddings, 2012). Throughlistening we are able to understand one’s situation or concern in which allows arelationship to develop. As the relationship grows, trust is built between one anotherwhich is central to connected teaching (Belenky et al, 1986, as cited in Rodgers &Raider-Roth, 2006). Caring is deeply rooted in forming a relationship which would
also apply in a relationship between teachers and students. Noddings also noted thatcare encourages competence because when we care about someone or something wetry to give them the best (1995). Thus, having or developing care is essential because
it can influence the teaching and learning practice.
Importance of presence in care
In the process of caring, there are also other features that contribute to determine how
successful the act will be executed. Noddings (2003) suggested that presence plays
crucial role in care (as cited in Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006). When a teacher cares
about their pupils, they will try to present themselves wholly by being alert and readyto respond. Presence is defined as an act of being mindfulness, awareness andinvestment in the present moment (Tremmel, 1993), wide-awakeness (Grene, 1973),
and openness for compassionate interaction (Waks, 1995, as cited in Rodgers &Raider-Roth, 2006). Presence is not a qualification that teachers are trained to masterand it is also not a factor that educators consider when recruited as a teacher (Garrison& Rud; Liston, 1995, as cited in Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006). Yet, it is a featurethat is significant to care which also applies in teaching. Having presence allows
teachers to be connected with their student, being attentive and listening intently. By
doing so, students will feel that extra attention given to them which can make adifference in how students view the lesson and learning process. For example, duringa group work, a student is suddenly praised for sharing their opinion, in that instance,
it can change the way the pupil engages in the classroom. Giving positive feedback
will justify their belonging and acceptance as students and individuals. This iscongruent with Waks’s theory of presence as openness by accepting others throughclose interaction (as cited in Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006).
As teachers present themselves with their whole-hearted intention to understand thepupils’ concern or situation it shows an emotional feeling of being seen. This refers towhat Janet Surrey describes as empathy or mutual empathy (1991, as cited in Rodgers& Raider-Roth, 2006). Mutual empathy refers to the connection with one another and

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to recognize and understand them through vision, as being seen (as cited in Rodgers& Raider-Roth, 2006). As simple an act as making eye contact can indicate that theother person sees them and is aware of their presence. Morse (1992) suggests that
there are four components of empathy: emotive, moral, cognitive, and behavioral (ascited in Mercer & Reynolds, 2002). The capacity of identifying, understanding, andresponding to what other people are genuinely feeling can produce a strong
connection with each other. For example, when a student struggles with writing theiressay and a teacher meets him, takes the time to be there, and assures him that theteacher is there to help, this is a huge sense of relief for the student. For teachers toplace themselves in the students’ position or their perspectives enables them toconnect with their students and have a meaningful relationship.
Importance of emotion in care
According to Palmer (1997), emotions are one of the determining factors of goodteaching. It influences the way teachers teach and pupils learn. Emotions are also asignificant part of care. Without emotion, care cannot be generated. Emotions havethe power to control our actions although we are not aware of this. They are present in
all activities in our daily lives including teaching and learning. Emotions are strongly
linked to affecting the relationship between teachers and students (Nias, 1989, as cited
in Oplatka, 2011). In such state, emotion can change what relationship the teacher
and student has based on the emotion they convey, it will either bring them closer
together or create distance between them. For example, if a teacher cares about theirpupils but the pupil shows disrespect, this can trigger the teacher to lose control of
their emotion and display an act of frustration. This type of stance can significantly
impact the relationship of teacher and student. Furthermore, emotion management
becomes part of the teacher’s teaching practice because it is used a natural aspect ofteaching and learning (Zembylas, 2005, as cited in Oplatka, 2009). Although thismight be the case, it is not compulsory for teachers to display emotions as part of theirtask in teaching, thus, if they fail to show emotions they will not receive any sanctions(Oplatka, 1997a, as cited in Oplatka, 2007). Emotion and caring are two intertwinedfeatures that impacts teaching practice. It is important to note that care becomes
central in emotional labor (Oplatka, 2009). Oplatka’s extensive work on emotion
suggested that care can also be regulated and managed similar to emotions inclassroom context (2009). Therefore, care can be adjusted through emotion
management in shaping how we want to express care.
When developing a curriculum, or recruiting applicants for a teaching position,
administrators, educational policy makers, and educators do not take emotions into
consideration (Hargreaves, 2000). Based on relevant studies on emotion in the
education context, it was found that teachers’ emotion was linked to a number of
aspects such as teacher and student relations, teaching quality, emotion management,
identity, and teacher and student attitude (Day & Lee, 2011; Meyer, 2009, as cited in
Oplatka, 2011). When teachers express a certain type of emotion, pupils can sensewhat the teacher is feeling. For instance, when a teacher takes a deep sigh while
explaining a lesson or their voice tone is flat or they start raising their voice when astudent is having trouble, it demonstrates that the teacher is apathetic, tired, or angry.
These emotions are clearly felt by pupils and this can impact their learning
environment. One finding from Sutton’s (2002) study revealed that avoiding negative
emotions such as frustration can result in effective classroom (as cited in Oplatka,

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Official Conference Proceedings2009). This is due to the effort of not distracting students’ learning and not causing a
potentially toxic learning atmosphere. Classroom environment can be determined by
the teachers’ emotions, whether it be a dull, innovative, or interactive classroom.
Care in the education context
Nowadays, teachers are expected to fulfill the teaching and learning goals based onsome standardized curriculum. This causes teachers to focus their teaching on thesubject material to achieve high scores rather than to shape caring and competent
individuals (Noddings, 1995). The implications of this has affected teachers to neglect
factors that contribute to good teaching. It is believed that a good teacher is one who
has a clear purpose, able to manage their class wisely, and encourage good behavior(Economist, 2016). Typically, pupils are not approached through meaningful teachingstyles. This negatively impacts their learning as well as self-development. Thus, it
should be acknowledged that one of the effective ways of developing expertise inteaching is through care. It is through care that a relationship will be built that will
enhance pedagogical development.
Care enhances student learning and teacher effectiveness through teacher efficacy
As stated previously, teacher effectiveness can be achieved through enhancing teacher
efficacy. To successfully reach this goal, care plays an essential role. The act of caringof teachers is key in developing relationship with between student and teacher. Whenteachers demonstrate care towards students it will generate a sense of presence, value,
and respect to the students. Lumpkin (2007) suggested that a student feels cared-forwhen a teacher acknowledges and respects their individual abilities and interests.
Moreover, according to Berliner in his concept of nature of expertise in teaching, he
one of the factors that distinct experts to novices is that expert teachers have selfefficacy and positive expectation on their students. (Berliner, 1992)
Teacher efficacy is the ability to make an impact in student learning, including theunmotivated students (Berman, McLaughlin, Bass, Pauly, & Zellman, 1977; Guskey& Passaro, 1994, as cited in Tschannen-Moran, A. Hoy, & W. Hoy, 1998). Being ateacher that is committed in influencing student learning has a greater chance of
creating an effective classroom because teachers are familiar of what strategies are
best applicable for their students. According to a number of education experts, it isfound that when teacher efficacy is highly exhibited they perform more effectively inclassrooms (Ashton and Webb, 1986; Sparks, 1988; Fritz, Miller-Heyl, and MacPhee,
1995, as cited in Collier, 2005). In relation to this, care contributes in influencing theteachers’ behavior of efficacy because it generates a sense of lovingness, compassion,and motivation towards students. Motivated teachers will encourage students tomotivate themselves because of the relationship they share with their teachers. As aresult, when students feel they have support from teacher and they are valued they
become more active in class prompting their learning aptitude in a positive way(Wentzel, 1997).
There are several assumptions that is drawn from what caring teachers can influence,
particularly on student learning (Noblit et al., 1995, as cited in Collier, 2005). First,
when teachers care about their students they tend to have a stronger commitment andresponsibility for their learning performance. They want to be able to provide the

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necessary support for students to help them in their learning. For example, if a student
is having difficulties with their task, a committed teacher would offer her or his help
in assisting the student outside of school period. This also illustrates how teachers feel
responsible for their students’ learning progress. Expert teachers compared to novice
teachers take responsibility of their students’ success or failure in student learning(Ashton, 1984; Berliner, 1992). Second, being a caring teacher motivates them togive the best for their students including improving their teaching skills so that they
will be able to effectively fulfill the students’ learning needs. This notion is alignedwith Noddings’s (1995) idea on how caring can boost competence, that is to give thebest towards something we care about. An example of this situation is when a teacher
continues to create innovative ideas that are suitable for certain activities so that it
will be easier and become meaningful for students to understand. Thus, teachers’
support through motivation will not only improve teaching skills but also increase
student achievement. Studies have revealed that teachers’ support have positive
impact on students’ engagement as well as their academic performance (Klem &Connell, 2004). As discussed earlier, the relationship between teachers and students is
crucial. Caring teachers are able to share their emotions and thoughts in order toconnect with the student and to understand them. This type of act can be demonstrated
in cases where a teacher consoles a student having difficulties with a subject. The
teachers’ attention will be felt by the student and a sense of comfort will develop.
Through that, trust will also grow. By building this connection, it will stimulate
respect, trust, and motivation that influences the students’ engagement in classroomtasks (Collier, 2005).
Caring brings the teaching and learning to a deeper level. As teachers increase theiryears of teaching they gain familiarity with the instructional strategies, how tomanage a classroom, and deal with students with different needs. To successfully
meet these aspects of care is the heart that guides teachers to these aspects of expertisein teaching, in which some educators or teachers ignore or are not aware of. The link
between care and relationship is intertwined. Based on a study conducted by Mary
Poplin and Joseph Weeres (1993) in California schools, the most prevailing andimportant issues in schools is the human relations, including teacher and student
relationship and moral values such as respect, care, and understanding (as cited in
Coleman, 1993). This illustrates what parents, staff, and students evaluate and expectfrom schools. They do not prioritize the school rank in the region or the percentage of
graduates who enroll in top schools or universities. Rather, it is the human connectionthat is the foundation. Thus, caring teachers do not merely affect the student learning
but also the students as a whole.
As teachers know better of their students’ potential and progress in learning they areable to conduct lessons according to their capacities. Knowing what is best for themcan become a routine. This is one approach that can put caring into practice.
According to Berliner (1992), expert teachers were able to achieve this throughautomaticity or routinization. Automaticity and routinization demonstrates thecapability of teachers’ efficacy because teachers know what and how things should bedone in classrooms, able to manage and implement consistent instructional plans, andhow to efficiently complete tasks. For example, when caring teachers know what
instructional approach best supports their students’ learning needs the students will
feel more comfortable and create less stress and concerns about the lesson. Thus, thiswill be easier for students to follow and be more active in class (Wentzel, 1997).

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Berliner also noted that students’ involvement in learning can increase students’curiosity and learning performance (1992). Furthermore, understanding what
instructional methods works best can also improve classroom management. Emmerand Stough (2001) suggested that based on research studies effective classroom
management is reflected through the time they have invested in, as well as care ininitiating and teaching classroom routines to students. Thus, showing care in teaching
can lead to teacher efficacy, which in turn increases teachers’ effectiveness as well as
improved classroom management. These outcomes are considered factors that
contribute to expertise in teaching (Berliner, 1992; Emmer & Stough, 2001; Wolff etal., 2015).
Conclusion
The act of care in teaching plays an influential role in education. The relationshipbetween teachers and students acts as foundation that holds both ends to produce ameaningful pedagogical experience. Here, care plays a central aspect of relationship.
Care is supported by presence and emotions that prompts the act of caring. These
aspects are interrelated and vital for the existence of the relationship. Care facilitates
student learning through teachers understanding their students’ learning need bydeveloping and enhancing teaching skills. It is important that teachers are authentic inthis state so that they are able to build strong learning connections with students.
Thus, student learning is achievable. Implementing an appropriate instructional
approach will also enhance teacher effectiveness. Developing a teaching a
relationship through care will not only touch the surface of learning but more
importantly impacts the pupils as an individual, bringing valuable interpersonalconnections in to their lives.

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Official Conference ProceedingsChild Sexual Abuse Prevention Program: A Response to Emergency of Pedophiles
for Preschool In Indonesia
Dhian Gowinda Luh Safitri, Monash University, Australia
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Child sexual abuse is a worldwide global issue which currently is threatening
Indonesian children. The massive number of Child sexual abuse and thevarious models of the cases such as intra-familial sexual abuse, childprostitution, online sexual exploitation of children, and much more put
Indonesia in the emergency of Child sexual abuse condition. In this essay, I
will propose child sexual abuse prevention in Preschool as a viable solution toaddress Child sexual abuse in Indonesia and suggest the strategies of
implementation which might suit in Indonesia context. This investigation isconducted by reviewing a range of literature which mainly discusses threecore concepts; (1) The need for Child sexual abuse prevention in Indonesianpreschool, (2) The implementation of Child sexual assault prevention in a
global context, (3) The strategies to implement child sexual abuse prevention
which might suit in Indonesia. The key finding of my investigation indicatesthat the taboo perception and lack of sexual education exposure share an
essential premise that there is a reciprocal relationship between them.
Furthermore, it also suggested from evaluated studies that Child sexual abuse
prevention Intervention program effective to enhance self-protection of young
children. Two elements should be considered to implement Child sexual abuse
prevention intervention program in Indonesia are the prevention program
should be in multi-systemic intervention focused, and the sexual education
content should be culturally/religiously relevant.
Keywords : Child sexual abuse, Prevention, Intervention program

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BackgroundThe number of violence cases against children in Indonesia had increased
significantly. UNICEF estimated that 30% of sex workers in Indonesia was under
the age of 18, with some as young as ten years old. It was also expected that there
were 40,000 to 70,000 children who were victims of sexual exploitation. Furthermore,
about 100,000 children are trafficked for sexual purposes every year. According todata from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) from 2011 to 2014;
they found 932 cases of cybercrime and pornography, 197 cases of child trafficking,
2,882 cases of child sexual abuse, 193 commercial sexual exploitation of children and
186 cases of child prostitution online. (ECPAT, 2016).
Child sexual abuse is a worldwide global issue which currently is threatening
Indonesian children. The massive number of Child sexual abuse and the various
models of the cases such as intra-familial sexual abuse, child prostitution, online
sexual exploitation of children, and much more put Indonesia in the emergency ofChild sexual abuse condition. In this essay, I will propose child sexual abuse
prevention in Preschool as a viable solution to address Child sexual abuse inIndonesia and suggest the strategies of implementation which might suit in Indonesia
context. First, I will investigate why Child sexual abuse prevention for preschool isneeded in Indonesia. Second, I will discuss the implementation of Child sexual assault
prevention in global context. Lastly, I will examine the strategies to implement childsexual abuse prevention which might suit in Indonesia context.
The need for Child sexual abuse prevention in Indonesian preschool
Why should a child sexual abuse prevention intervention program be implemented inearly years? The increasing number of sexual abuse which occurs in young children
reported from several cases in Indonesia. The case of sodomizing which happened in
Jakarta International school, the rape by the preschool principal in Sleman, and thecase of Official candy's group, an online sexual exploitation case with thousand
young child victims estimated, are several cases in Indonesia which involving young
children (BBC Indonesia, 2014; Wisnuwardani, 2016; Nailufar 2017). The study
draws on research conducted by Finkelhor &Baron (1986) also suggested that sexualassault often begins during the preschool years. Despite the enormous number of childsexual abuse, most young children have a little knowledge about self-protection of
their body, lack of awareness about the possibilities of the close relative’s offenders
and rarely encouraged that they don't have to keep secrecy promise made by an adult(Koblinsky & Behana, 1984). Further, with the vast development of technology
children often seek the answer from the internet which has various contents, includes
the inappropriate information. The child sexual abuse prevention program will reduce
the likelihood of children getting inappropriate information.
Finkelhor (1984) argues that one precondition must be met for sexual abuse to occur
is child must be unable to resist abuser’s action. It means that the prevention program
should be conducted to enhance the children’s ability to protect themselves fromabuser. Child sexual abuse prevention program believes as one of the viable solutions
which can address the increasing number of young child sexual abuse. The purpose of
the Child sexual abuse prevention program mostly includes these three elements: (1)children have an information about body ownership and self-protection, such as good

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touch and bad touch, also encourage them to share frightening secret to people thatthey’ve believed most; (2) children develop their intuition to prevent sexual abusesuch as saying no, run and scream if there is someone doing unwanted touching tothem (3) Children gain a knowledge about support systems, if they experience actualor potential abuse (MacIntyre & Carr, 2000). The aim of Child sexual abuse
prevention program seems to accomplish the need of Indonesian young children for
the appropriate of sexual education, however, how it relates to the taboos perception
between parents?
Talking about sexuality has never been easy in Indonesia culture. Earlier in this year,
Indonesian parents had ordered to withdraw sexual education book for children
named "I Dare to Sleep Alone, and I Learn to Control Myself" from the bookstore forbeing too vulgar (Suroyo Gayatri & Cindy Silviana, 2017). Even though the aim of
this book is to educate the parents about sexual education, many communities assume
that the content of the book is too vulgar, and does not suit in Indonesian culture andreligious beliefs. Some people also argued that the society is not ready yet for sexual
education exposure. As the result, the data gathered by Lentera sintas Indonesia
through online polled indicates that more than 90% rape cases in Indonesia go
unreported. Majority people (around 63%) said that they felt guilty and embarrassed if
their family and community know they were sexually abused (Yi, 2016). Sincetalking about sexuality still is seen as a sin, child sexual abuse remains as a hidden
crime among community. The taboo perception of sexuality likely contributed to thelack of sexual education exposure for young children in Indonesia. Even though many
countries had conducted school-based sex education, Indonesian government seems
reluctant to allow sexual education to become a part of the school curriculum(Schonhard, 2013). Instead of conducting sexual education, government legalised
chemical castration as a punishment for child sexual abusers. This policy has been
widely debated because it deals between human rights and child protection (Fransiska
Asmin & Nugroho Adipradana, 2016). Correspondingly from the lack of sexual
education exposure, several people from online polled conducted by Lentera Sintas
Indonesia claimed that they did not know they were sexually abused at that time. The
taboo perception and lack of sexual education exposure in Indonesia share an
essential premise that there is a reciprocal relationship between them. To conquer thecomplex situations, Indonesia needs not only law enforcement for precipitator but
also an intervention program which provides appropriate information of sex education
to give young children protection of sexual offenders as well as deliver a better
understanding of sexual education for the parents.
The avoidance to talk about sex education between parent and child might happen due
to several reasons including the uneasiness to speak sex-related topic, the lack ofadequate knowledge about sexuality and the misleading interpretation of children's
sexual behaviour from adult’s viewpoint (Lu, 1994). In addition, the religion andcultural beliefs also contributed on parent’s perspectives and attitudes toward
sexuality (Landeryou, 1994). The majority of Indonesian people which is Muslim
believe that premarital relationship ("zina") is sinful. However, there seems to be a
misconception that speaking about sexuality will lead children to do zina sincesexuality often related to pornography. Implementing child sexual abuse prevention inpreschool providing the opportunities of sexual education exposure to parents sinceteacher will socialize the core elements of sexual education and report thedevelopment of their children during the class to parents. To promote an efficient

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sexual education, both educators and parents should be cooperative in preparations.
(Alexandros, 1998). Further, he argued that early childhood sex education should be
supported by all who provide education during preschool years, includes educators,
parents, and relatives. Along the similar lines MacIntyre & Carr (2000) argued that in
multisystem of child sexual abuse prevention program which focus are on children,
parents and teacher shows that parents gain the significant knowledge of childprotection issues from intervention training. To conduct school-based sexual
education programs, the first steps that should be done is preparing the homeenvironment. School should ensure that parents are also comfortable and familiar withthe core contents of sexual education as well as delivery approaches and support
system (Wurtele, 2009). The involvement of parents during sexual education inpreschool will shaped their perspectives of sexuality and the need of child sexual
abuse prevention for young children.
The hesitation to implement child sexual abuse prevention has been discussed byseveral researchers (Alan et al., 1994). Preschool aged children usually have difficulty
to addressing the abstract concept such as sexual assault prevention; moreover, they
have a less verbal skill, lack of attention and awareness also less developed onplanning settings compared to older children. Several studies evaluated primaryprevention curricula for preschool showed that preschool only gained a small
knowledge from the prevention program. For these reasons, Alan et Al. (1994) argued
that the prevention program between pre-school and primary school should not be thesame and there must be appropriate material instructions for Preschool aged children.
They then conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of Children' primarytraining program using story books as the media deliver. The result showed that Preschool aged children gain benefits from the intervention program. The scripted bookclaimed as one of the useful resources that contributed to the success story of Childsexual abuse prevention for preschool. Moreover, several studies analyzed by Barron& Topping (2008) indicates the effectiveness of Child sexual abuse prevention inpreschool to improve child's awareness and their self-protection skills.
Corespondingly, MacIntyre & Carr (2000) which also investigated several programsof child sexual abuse prevention claimed that the intervention can increase children's
knowledge of safety-related concepts and enrich teachers and parents information
about child protection procedures. The foregoing discussion implies that the abstract
concept of sexual abuse prevention can be learned by preschool through appropriate
approach which suit to their development stage.
The implementation of Child sexual assault prevention in a global context
The child-focused prevention has been implemented in many countries and integrated
in school-based sexual education curricula. The majority of child-focused preventiondelivered based on social learning principles through instruction, modeling, rehearsal,
and feedback, also behavioral skills training model (Zeuthen & Hagelskjær, 2013).
Several programs provided by each country such as the Canadian Red Cross
Violence, the American Child Assault Prevention Program which also adapted by
Netherland, One in Five Campaign of European and the globally used Good Touch
Bad Touch continuum share the same purpose of addressing Child sexual abuse. The
core elements of school-based sexual education include body ownership, bad touch good touch, saying no, escaping, sharing secrecy, building intuition, providing the
support system, reducing self-blame and bullying (MacIntyre & Carr, 2000). In the

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Asian context, several countries also adapted the school-based sexual education
curricula as their mandatory subject, such as Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. Studies
conducted in China examined the implementation of child sexual abuse prevention
program designed for Western children to Chinese pre-schoolers (Zhang et.al, 2013).
The kindergarten conducts The Body Safe Training program which delivered use
behavioral skills training model. The cores elements of The Body Safe Training
program included the following main points: (1) The body ownership (2) introducing
the reproductive organs (3) Recognizing several models of sexual abuse. (4)Addressing self-blame among pre-schoolers. The study suggests that Chinesepreschool-aged children gain benefits from Body Safe Training program regarding theknowledge of child sexual abuse and protection skill comparing with the control
group.
In Middle East context such as Turkey, the study claimed that there is not thestructured system of child sexual abuse prevention programs in school settings(Cecen-Erogul & Hasirci, 2013). The pilot study conducted to prevent child sexual
abuse in the school context in Turkey showed that child sexual prevention program
was effective in the primary stage. Despite the result of the program, the study also
indicates that there was a rising enthusiasm to expand and implement school-basedChild Sexual Abuse Prevention as well as to train educators to deliver thecomprehensive curriculum of prevention sexual assault in Turkey. While in Iran,which is a country with 97% Muslims population still struggling on implementing
school-based sexual education prevention as it seems contradictory from Islamic law(Alireza, 2015). Along with Turkey, the majority of school in Iran schools do not yet
have a well-developed educational strategy to address sexual issues. In postrevolutionary, Iran government enforced the communities to preserve their modesty
through wearing a veil for women and conducting sex segregation as well as
maintains the control of sexually explicit media content to reduce the risks of sexual
abuse and premarital sexual activities. The young Iranians will receive sexual
education, once they reach puberty about the signs of puberty and the Islamic rituals
they should pay attention. However, the study indicated that it is not impossible toconduct school-based sexual education and there may be ways to develop andimplement school-based sex education while taking religion and sociocultural
sensitivities into consideration.
The parents-focused prevention believed as another way to prevent child sexual abusefrom home. In addition, there is overwhelming evidence for the notion that parent’s
involvement plays a prominent role in conducting Child sexual abuse prevention
education (Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1995). Several studies evaluated by Hunt
& Walsh (2011) to examine the parent's view about Child sexual abuse prevention
education program and the effectiveness of the program. The result from theevaluated studies reported that research with parents of preschool or primary schoolaged children had been implemented in United States, Canada, Australia, China, andHongkong. The result suggested that even though majority parents from several
countries evaluated agreed that child sexual abuse prevention is essential for their
young children, very few parents had participated in child sexual assault prevention
program; a mere 6.8 percent of 447 parents in China reported experienced Childsexual abuse prevention program in school (Chen and Chen’s, 2005, cited in Hunt &Walsh, 2011). The data appears to suggest that 25–79 per cent of parents discussed
child sexual abuse prevention with their children. In the countries that had been

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conducted child sexual abuse prevention longitudinally, such as the United States andCanada showed greater detail and prevalence of discussions between parent–child.
Majority parents in the United States and Canada also agreed their children participate
in School-based child sexual education even before the program began. In theAustralian context, the study suggested that only 25 percent of Australian parents had
ever discussed Child sexual prevention with their children; less than 1 percent had
talked about unwanted touch and the need to report abuse action to adult (Briggs,
1988 cited in Hunt & Walsh, 2011). While in two Chinese studies, the data indicatedthat 50 percent of approximately 1000 sample of parents in these studies had
discussed unwanted touch and telling secrecy to the trusted adult (Chen & Chen,
2005; Chen et al., 2007). In addition, the result also suggested that parent's attitude
about Child sexual abuse prevention affects their practices towards their children
regarding delivering sexual education context. In terms of the effectiveness ofintervention program, the evaluated studies from the United States and Canada
presented the data that parents who participated in child sexual abuse prevention
program increased their willingness to speak about sexual education and selfprotection. The parent's attitude which did not provide sexual education before alsochanged after the intervention. As expected children also gain benefits from theparents focused prevention, studies from Hébert, Lavoie, Piché & Poitras (2001)
reported that children showing greater self-confidence, better at conveying likes anddislikes, better on addressing conflict and showing fewer negative impact after
conducting the sexual education conversation. (Hunt & Walsh, 2011).
The professional-focused prevention is targeting the intervention to teachers, trainers,
day care providers and all of the institution's element which works with young
children. This program is essential to implement, in terms of complementing teacher's
knowledge with sexual education before delivering it to young children or parent,
especially in Indonesia. The data generated by General of Early Childhood Educationof Indonesia, Non-Formal Education and Informal indicated that approximately 80
percent of kindergarten teachers (TK) have not qualified in bachelor yet (Zubaidah,2014). Further, Maureen’s (2004) conducted an investigation in United Statesconcerning teacher's knowledge of child sexual abuse symptoms as well asprocedures for reporting child abuse; the result indicated the lack of teacher’sawareness in this issues. Recent research conducted in Denmark support the viewthat many teachers claimed that they do not have enough knowledge to teach sexual
education and how to avoid being abused (Helweg-Larsen, Andersen, & Plauborg,2010 cited from Zeuthen & Hagelskjær, 2013 ). However, Earlier evaluated studies
suggested that professional-focused prevention is useful to increase teachers’
knowledge of child protection issues and procedural skills (Hazzard, 1984; McGrathet al., 1987; Allsopp and Prosen, 1988; Kleemeier et al., 1988; cited from MacIntyre& Carr, 2000). Clearly, the intervention for professional is essential to makepreventive programs successful.
The effects of child sexual abuse prevention intervention are often discussed by the
researchers. Several meta-analyses conducted to investigate the possible negative
effect on young children after the intervention. The researchers raise the questions
whether child sexual abuse prevention program actually can reduce the number ofchild sexual abuse cases due to the difficulty of measurement. The growing
knowledge of self-protection doesn't merely decrease the occurrence of Child sexual
abuse. The general evaluation which used to measure children's knowledge of self-

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protection is only the questionnaire, such as Personal Safety Survey. The simulation
conducted to evaluate children's ability is reliable and more authentic, but it mightcause enormous consequences and doesn't fit with ethical research. However, despite
the evidentiary chaos, the child sexual abuse cases in the United States had declined
significantly since the early 1990s (Finkelhor, 2009). Even though the decrease
doesn't instantly indicate the contribution of child sexual abuse prevention program,but Finkelhor (2009) suggested that something is helping. The broader scope ofevaluation research is needed to address this complex issue. On the other hand,several evaluated meta-analyses also reported that Child Sexual Abuse Prevention
Program caused minimal anxiety issue (Zeuthen & Hagelskjær, 2013). The author
indicated that it might happen because theoretical frameworks concerning the child(cognitive development, emotional development, rational and the inclusion oflearning theories) are not articulated properly. Theoretical coherent model when
conducting the child sexual abuse prevention intervention program is needed toaddressing this issue. Further, MacIntyre & Carr (2000) claimed that the anxiety
caused a good self-protective skill for majority children. Also, they suggested that theminimum anxiety was not adequately serious to prevent parents and teachers fromconducting prevention training.
The Possible Strategies to Implement Child Sexual Abuse Prevention In
Indonesia
There are a plenty strategies to implement sexual education prevention for young
children in Pre-School. However, the approach of implementing programs that areculturally appropriate should be considered. Two elements should be reckoned to
conduct Child sexual abuse prevention intervention program in Indonesia. Firstly, theprevention program should be in multi-systemic intervention model. Multi-systemicintervention is prevention programs that targeted children and either parents orteachers or both (MacIntyre & Carr, 2000). Based on the background, Indonesia has
three issues that should be addressed: (1) The taboo perceptions among parents, (2)Preschool teacher apparent lack of competence, (3) Children less of sexual education
exposure. Multi-systemic is very likely the most effective programs which involve all
the elements. Along similar lines, Jordan (1993) also suggested to conduct acomprehensive program which involving parent and community to gain parental
support and to success the intervention programs.
Secondly, it's important to keep the sexual education content culturally/religiously
relevant. Indonesia is a country with a majority Muslim population. It becomes one of
the reasons why the influence of Islam is very strong in Indonesian culture. The
evidence supporting the idea of considering socio-culture and religion before
conducting child sexual prevention program may lie in the findings of Bennet (2007)
who investigated the notion of “zina” related to sex education implementation forIndonesian Muslim youth. She argued that the mutual understanding about sexual
education goals and Islamic approach should be accomplished in terms of decisionmaking. The sexual education purposes along lines with Islamic regulations whichassist young Muslims to obey Islam rule of avoiding premarital activities, rather than
encouraging them to have premarital sex should be understood. Along the similarlines, the purpose of conducting child sexual abuse prevention in Preschool is toprotect the young child from sexual assault and not to promote sexuality to young
children nor to encourage young children to do something that is forbidden by

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religion or cultural belief. The study conducted by Zahrulianingdyah (2015) which
use "Damarwulan" Film as a media to educate young children about reproductive
health education succeed to enhance children's knowledge as well as gain parental
support. The intervention not only culturally relevant but also overwhelmingly
accepted by parents as the parents understand the importance of reproductive healtheducation. The result from Focus Group Discussion also suggested that thecooperation between parents and teacher is beneficial as they can discuss the content
of reproductive health education. Parents claimed that they hardly discuss
reproductive health education with young children because they couldn't choose what
content is acceptable to children and convey the information scientifically.
Conclusion
The background of the sexual education presence and child sexual abuse cases inIndonesia shows that the taboo perception and lack of sexual education exposure
share an essential premise that there is a reciprocal relationship between them. To
address the increasing number of child sexual abuse in Indonesia, I argued the needfor intervention program which provides appropriate information of sex education to
give young children protection of sexual offenders as well as deliver a better
understanding of sexual education for the parents. Child sexual abuse is a global issue
which occurs in worldwide. Several countries had been conducted a prevention
intervention program which targeting children, parents, professional or multisystematic to address this issue. There is a rapidly growing literature on theeffectiveness of prevention program also meta-analysis which indicates the challenges
on the implementation effect. However, many research has provided ample support
for the assertion the prevention program succeed to enhance self-protection for young
children. Two elements should be considered to implement Child sexual abuse
prevention intervention program in Indonesia are the prevention program should be inmulti-systemic intervention model and keep the sexual education content
culturally/religiously relevant.

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A Descriptive Analysis on Mathematics Learning Environment and Metacognitive
Awareness Among Secondary School
Nor Suhaila Abdul, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Siti Mistima Maat, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Students spend a lot of time interacting between friends and teachers in the classroom
environment of learning. The learning environment is an essential element in shaping
a conducive learning environment and promoting creative and critical thinking. A
conducive learning environment can also help to create the comfort of teaching andlearning while maintaining the focus and interest of students in mathematics. The
classroom environment and psychosocial interactions of students can bring aboutchanges towards achieving teaching and problem solving goals. The aim of this study
is to identify the level of learning environment and metacognitive awareness among
secondary school. A total of 420 form four students in Masjid Tanah Melaka wererandomly selected as respondents for the study. This study is a survey study using
instruments consisting of two parts. Part A is a student demographic, part B is aquestionnaire related to the learning environment (WIHIC) and metacognitiveawareness. The data were analyzed descriptively using frequency, percentage andmin. The findings showed that mathematical learning environment and metacognitiveawareness were at moderate level. This study provides an important indicator as it
demonstrates that the importance of the learning environment is noted by the teacher
as it is capable of raising metacognitive awareness and improving students'
mathematical problem solving skills.
Keywords: Learning Environment, Metacognitive Awareness, Problem Solving Skills

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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1.0  Introduction
Mathematics is an important subject in schools all over the world. Mathematics can
produce competent people with knowledge in their everyday life and enhancing theirproblem solving skill and critical thinking. Metacognitive is a process in which anindividual thinks about his / her own thinking during cognitive activity. It is a highlevel thinking that involves the process of managing and controlling his own mind
(Flavell, 1979). The learning environment has a very strong relationship in building
critical thinking as compared to the skills (Cheng & Wan, 2017) and supports student
creativity as well as enhance the student metacognitive level (Liu et al, 2012). The
study by Mazlini et al (2014) also shows the relationship between learning
environment and achievement as well as learning environments with metacognitiveawareness (Nurulhuda 2016). Effective learning can be achieved with metacognitive
skills, while metacognitive awareness is needed to develop metacognitive skills. With
metacognitive awareness students can build a more in-depth understanding ofconcepts (Nik Nur Fadillah, 2012).
2.0 Problem Statement
The comparison of Malaysia's position in the PISA test compared to other countries
places Malaysia in the third group below among 74 countries. Nearly 60% of 15-yearolds participating in the PISA 2009 failed to achieve a minimum level of math skills(Ministry of Education, 2015). Issues of TIMMS and PISA put Malaysia among
medium achievers. This decision also illustrates that students in Malaysia cannot
perform well in terms of cognitive skills, apply knowledge in problem solving andability to solve problems. Less attention to the needs of pupils mastering various
cognitive skills such as problem solving, reasoning and creative thinking andinnovative causes students to be less incapable of applying knowledge and thinking
creatively beyond the academic context. Conventional teaching methods such as"chalk and talk" alone are also less relevant to current developments. Additionally,teachers emphasize the practice of drilling and formulas without understanding theconcepts (Abdul Razak Idris & Noor Asmah Saleh, 2010; Kheong 2011).
Marzita et al (2014) conducted a study on the climate learning environment inschools. This study finds that thermal comforts are important as the basis for
improving the quality of education and the effectiveness of classroom teaching andlearning. Mazlini et al (2014) found that student achievement was influenced by thelearning environment. This is supported by the findings of Ernest et al (2013) whose
interesting learning environment can be the key to success of students. The study by(Cheng & Wan, 2017) found that the learning environment had a very strong
relationship with students' curricular thinking. High metacognitive awareness factors
are influenced by the level of intelligence in which gifted students have a higher levelof metacognitive awareness than non-gifted students (Sarıcam & Ogurlu, 2015)The
study conducted by Idris et al. (2015) to identify the relationship between
metacognition awareness and concept understanding in solving problems. The
findings showed that students 'metacognition awareness was moderate and students'
understanding of the concept was low.While Suzana (2015) study found that the
metacognitive behavior exhibited by excellent, moderate and weak students varies.

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3.0 Research design
The objectives of this research were to examine the level of mathematics classroom
environments and metacognitive awareness among secondary schools students.
3.1 Population and sampling method
This study involved a total of 420 form four students in Masjid Tanah Melaka area.
The student’s are from eight secondary schools of 420 respondents. This study
involved 155 male students and 264 female students. This study was quantitative
using survey method by using questionnaire. Rivera and Ganaden (2001) stated that
there are advantages to conducting research through questionnaire as the learning
environment information is based on the vast experience of the students as long as
they attend school while the findings from observations are for a certain period oftime.
3.2 Reasearch Instrument
According to Cresswell (2008), some alternatives need to be considered taking into
account existing instruments that can be used to measure the study variables or makejudgments to modify existing ones. In this study, instruments are drawn from existingsources of learning environment and metacognitive awareness.
A mathematics classroom environment questionnaire was constructed based on
existing instruments What is Happening in This Classroom (WIHIC) (Chionh &Fraser, 1998; Fraser et al., 1996). There are 39 items for the components of thelearning environment. The metacognitive awareness questionnaire was adapted from
Affandi (2003) modified from the State Metacognitive Inventory (Oniel & Abedi,
1996) and the Trait Thinking Questionnaire (O'Neil & Schacter, 1997) metacognitive
component. Distribution of items to measure 3 aspects of metacognitive awarenesswith 24 items.
The Cronbach Alpha reliability index for the three instruments is between 0.70-0.96.
According to Mohd Majid (2005) and Hair et al (2010), the value of Cronbach Alphais good and acceptable. This study involves descriptive statistics. Descriptive analysis
uses mean, percentage, and standard deviation. The level of mean score shown in thetable 1.
Mean score
1.0 – 2.33
2.34 –3.66
3.67 – 5.00

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Level of students perception
Low
Moderate
High

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4.0 Finding
4.1 Learning environment levels for student cohesiveness, teacher support,
involvement,cooperation and equity
Table 2 shows the level of learning environment for student cohesiveness, teacher
support, involvement, cooperation and equity.
Table 2: Level of learning environment for student cohesiveness, teacher
support, involvement and cooperation and equity
Subscales
MeanStandard
Level
Deviation
Students Cohesiveness
3.95
0.62
High
Teacher support
3.56
0.79
Moderate
Involvement
3.18
0.61
Moderate
Cooperation
3.54
0.74
Moderate
Equity3.50
0.68
Moderate
Overall
3.55
0.69
Moderate
Descriptive analysis in table 2 shows that the learning environment for student
cohesiveness is at a high level with mean score of 3.95 and sd = 0.62. Teacher support
aspect was moderate with mean = 3.56 and sd = 0.79. For the aspect of student
cohesivenss was at a moderate level of mean 3.18 and sd = 0.61. Cooperation are also
in moderation with mean = 3.54 and sd = 0.74. Next to the equity aspect, the mean is
at a moderate level of min = 3.50 and sd = 0.68
Student	
  cohesivenss
4

3.95

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5

Ekuity

3.5

1

0.68

3.56

0.79

0

0.74

Teacher	  support

0.62

0.5

0.61

3.54

3.18

Cooperate

Involvement

Mean

Standard	
  deviation

Figure 1: Mean and standard deviation of learning environment
4.2 Metacognitive awareness level for planning, self checking and cognitive
strategies
Descriptive analysis involving mean and standard deviation is carried out todetermine the level of student metacognitive awareness. The results of the descriptive
analysis are as follows.

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Table 8: Metacognitive Awareness Level
Scale
Mean
Standard deviation
Planning
3.81
0.74
Self checking
3.65
0.63
Cognitive strategies
3.77
0.69
Total Mean
3.81
0.74

Level
High
MediumHigh
High

Descriptive analysis of metacognitive awareness on planning, self-assessment andcognitive strategies as a whole showed mean = 3.81 and sd = 0.74. The scale of thehighest mean is planning with mean = 3.81 and sd= 0.74 and the lowest mean = 3.65
and sd= 0.63 is self checking. Cognitive strategies also shows high level with mean=
3.77 and sd= 0.69
Figure 2: Analysis of Metacognitive Awareness
Planning
3.85
3.8
3.75
3.7

3.81

3.65
3.6
3.55
3.65

3.77

Cognititive	  strategies

Self	
  checking

Mean

5.0 Discussion
5.1 Learning Environment Level
The matehematics learning environment of the secondary school in this study is at amoderate level. The findings of this study show that the learning environment for
student cohesiveness is at high level. This finding is consistent with the study ofMazlini et al (2014) and Brok et al (2008). However, this finding is contrary to
Murugan's (2013) findings where the level of student integrity is moderate. Thisfinding also shows students feel their classroom atmosphere has a conducive
environment and allows them to be close friends and work together.
While the student environment for teacher support, student involvement, cooperationand equity is only at moderate level. This is in line with the study of Arba'at Hassan,
Sabri Ahmad, Bacho Abdul Karim and Jumat Sulaiman (1997) which found that58.77% of the students sample considered mathematical teaching and learning wasboring and 51.97% of students thought the physical environment of the school wasless encouraging their mathematical learning. Generally, students can learn better
when their classroom environment provides satisfying, challenging, positive
interaction with other students and teachers as well as given the opportunity to make a

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decision, as well as provided with clear borders and organizations (Walberg &Greenberg, 1997).
This means that there are ongoing efforts to improve the aspects studied such asteacher support, student engagement, collaboration and equity to provide a goodlearning environment and to enable students to learn better. In general, many studies
have found that higher learning outcomes if a classroom is considered by students
with a sense of belonging, satisfaction and direction and disagreement and conflict(Fraser, 1991).
5.2 Metacognitive Awareness Level
Descriptive analysis of metacognitive awareness on the aspects of planning andcognitive strategies are at high levels. The findings of this study are contrary to thefindings of the previous study which indicate that students with the knowledge needed
to solve problems but fail to apply them correctly because they fail to implement
metacognitive processes or lack of metacognitive skills (Idris et al., 2015). However,this finding is consistent with the findings of the study by Effandi, Zainah and Sabri(2009); Hafizah (2012) found that the level of metacognitive awareness of students
was high. Some important aspects such as planning and strategy have been applied to
students in mathematical learning. This shows that metacognitive awareness has
attracted attention amongst students and is important in improving students' skills andperformance in problem solving (Desoete, 2003).
While metacognitive awareness for self-help aspects is only at moderate level.
According to Noor Erma and Leong Kwan Eu (2014), one of the factors of decline inmathematical examination results is from the student's own attitude. There are many
students who do not really answer questions and are too confident with their answers
until they do not check the answers back. This is because many students who consider
this assessment are not important. Students are also aware of the steps taken but are
weak in re-evaluating the work. It will cause repeated errors to affect their
metacognitive awareness.
Learning environment is an essential element in shaping a conducive learning
environment and promoting creative and critical thinking. As the study shows thatstudents' perception of the learning environment is moderate, further studies have to
be carried out to determine the causes of this phenomenon. Teachers play animportant role in contributing to a conducive learning environment and contributing
to excellence.

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References
Adnan, M., Faizal, M., Lee, N., Puteh, M., Che, C. N. & Maat, S. M.( 2014). theLearning Environment and Mathematics Achievement of Students of High
Performance Schools ( Hps ) 2(1), 1–15.
Arba’at Hassan, Sabri Ahmad, Bacho Abdul Karim, & Jumat Sulaiman. (1997).
Mathematics learning in secondary schools in Sabah, Malaysia. In L. C. Aranador, I.
N. Valencia & T. Vui (Eds.), Proceeding 1997 International Conference on
Cooperative Learning and Constructivism in Science and Mathematics Education.
Pulang Pinang: SEMEO RECSAM
Brown, A.L. 1987. Metacognition, Executive Control, Celf-Regulation, And Other
More Mysterious Mechanism. In. Weinert, F.E. & Kluwe, R.H. Eds. Metacognition,
Motivation And Understanding, 65-116. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates
Cheng, M. H. M. & Wan, Z. H. 2017. Exploring the effects of classroom learning
environment on critical thinking skills and disposition: A study of Hong Kong 12th
graders in Liberal Studies. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 24, 152–163.
doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2017.03.001
Dan, A. & Di, P. 2015. Pembelajaran Abad Ke-21  : Amalan Dan Pelaksanaan Di
Sekolah Cabaran Pembelajaran Abad Ke-21 Contoh Susun Atur Kelas Abad Ke-21
Pembelajaran Abad Ke-21  : Ciri-ciri pembelajaran abad ke-21 Elemen-elemen yangterkandung dalam ke 2013–2016.
Demirel, M., Derman, I. & Karagedik, E. 2015. A Study on the Relationship between
Reflective Thinking Skills towards Problem Solving and Attitudes towards
Mathematics. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197(February), 2086–2096.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.326
Garafalo, J., & Lester, F. (eds.). 1982. Mathematical Problem-Solving: Issues in
Research. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press.
Idris, N., Abdullah, N., Sembak, S., Pendidikan, U. & Idris, S. 2015. Kesedaran
Metakognisi dan Pemahaman Konsep Dalam Penyelesaian Masalah Matematik.
Jurnal Pendidikan Sains & Matematik Malysia, 5(2), 23–40.
Karatas, I. & Baki, A. 2013. The effect of learning environments based on problem
solving on students’ achievements of problem solving. International Electronic
Journal of Elementary Education, 5(3), 249–267.
Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. 2015. Laporan TIMSS 2015 11. Retrieved fromhttp://www.moe.gov.my/images/Terbitan/RujukanAkademik/pubfile_file_002124.pdf

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Kilpatrick, J. 1985. A Retrospective Account of the Past 25 Years of Research on
Teaching Mathematical Problem-solving. In E.A. Silver (ed.), Teaching and Learning
Mathematical Problem-Solving: Multiple Research Perspectives. Hillsdale, New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Malaysia Education Blueprint, M. 2013. Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025.
Education, 27(1), 1–268. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.007
Nik Nur Fadhlillah, A. R., Azurah, M. J., Desi, A. & Yee, Y. C. 2014. Keupayaan
penyelesaian masalah Matematik dalam kalangan pelajar tingkatan 2. Jurnal
Pendidikan Matematik, 2(2), 1–13.
Rajoo, M. A. (2013). Students’ Perceptions of Mathematics Classroom Environment
and Mathematics Achievement: a Study in Sipitang, Sabah, Malaysia. International
Conference on Social Science Research, 2013(June), 851–869.
Saemah Rahman John Arul Philips. 2006. Hubungan antara Kesedaran Metakognisi ,Motivasi dan Pencapaian Akademik Pelajar Universiti. Jurnal Pendidikan, 31, 21–39.
Sarıcam, H. & Ogurlu, Ü. 2015. Metacognitive awareness and math anxiety in gifted
students. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 10(4), 338.
doi:10.18844/cjes.v10i4.151
Suzana Anwar. 2015. Perlakuan Metakognitif Murid Tahun Lima Dakam
Penyelesaian Masalah Matematik. Universiti Pendidikan Idris,
Wismath, S., Orr, D. & Zhong, M. 2014. Student Perception of Problem Solving
Skills. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 7(3), 1–18.
Contact email: suhailaabdul02@gmail.com,	
  sitimistima@ukm.edu.com.my	
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Role of Teachers in Teaching Piano for Children
Sirima Panapinun, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
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Abstract
The research is a qualitative research. The objective of this research was to study
piano teaching skill for children. The research tool was an in-depth interview. The
samples used in this research was 17 piano teachers. The main issue in the interview
emphasize about the skill and knowledge for piano teacher. The results of the study
found that the skill which necessary for piano teacher must to have and must tounderstand can summarize in 4 skills consists of 1. Piano skill: piano teacher must to
pass the piano examination from Trinity or ABRSM at least Grade 6. 2. Knowing
about the music theory: such as Music Notation, Scale and interval etc.
3.Understanding about teaching technique and pedagogy, for example: understandhow to use instructional media or understand how to explain the knowledge for piano
student etc. 4. Understanding about psychology of learning in each age and music
learning behaviors in each age for maximum benefit that happen for the piano student.
Key words: Roles of teachers, Teaching piano, Piano skill

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Introduction
Current study of music Very popular. Parents will send their children to learn musicas more knowledge. In addition to education in the school system. It can be noted that
there are institutions of music education. Or private music schools have opened a lotof teaching and the most popular instrument is a piano.
Children can benefit greatly from taking piano lessons. This is especially true as
young children are developing their senses and piano playing can help to improve
hand and eye coordination, focus and concentration. Piano lessons for children cancreate a sense of accomplishment, as they learn and gain more skill the will feel thatthey are able to be successful if they put in the effort.
Beginning music lessons can start at a young age. It may be said that the child in 3
years old to start learning the instrument. Because the body begins to have a stronger
muscle. But the teaching is focused on the nature of the call. And dance to the beat.
The aim to teaching music for children is focus on teaching the learner and musicalskill. In addition, student will gain knowledge of the theory of music and the generalknowledge. To experience the music the music whether it is singing or playing the
instrument it will also give student aesthetics in music as well. This is helping to calm
the mind of the student and help the development more better.
The art of piano pedagogy is ultimately about working our way out of a job then there
are surely many ways to go about this, and much that needs to be done before a
student reaches the level of maturity.
From the importance of piano lessons as mentioned above. Preparing to be a teacher
for the piano. Need to have knowledge ability in many aspects to be ready to transfer
knowledge to learners effectively.
In addition to the knowledge of music. The piano instructor needs to have a goodunderstanding of the students as well. Both physically and behavioral Because of themusic. Both skills need to be taught. If the instructor does not really understand thestudent, then teaching will not be fully effective.
The importance of music education. And the importance of the piano teacher as
mentioned above. This research was conducted as a guideline for preparing to be a
piano teacher who an effective.
Methodology
The research is a qualitative research. The objective of this research was to study
piano teaching skill for children. The research tool was an in-depth interview. The
samples used in this research was 17 piano teachers. The main issue in the interview
emphasize about the skill and knowledge for piano teacher.

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Conclusion
The results of the study found that the skill which necessary for piano teacher must to
have and must to understand can summarize in 4 skills
1.   Piano skill
Piano teacher must to pass the piano examination from Trinity or
ABRSM at least Grade 6
2.   Knowing about the music theory
Piano Teacher must to understand about the music theory include
1.   Notation
2.   Tempo
3.   Scale
4.   Interval
5.   Chord
3.   Understanding about teaching technique and pedagogy
Piano teacher must to understand about the technique for teaching
include1.   Use the music instructional media
2.   Use of word that appropriate with the age of the children.
3.   Know the way to explain about the skill for the children.
4.   Psychology in each age and Music learning behaviors in each age
1.   0-2 years old
In this period, intellectual development is based on sensorimotor stage. Experience orlearning happens as a child uses his or her own senses as a medium then learning islimited. Initially, the behavior is reversed. Later, children began to have more control
over their senses.
2 years old, the child has improved awareness. The perception in this age is. Children
will be interested in things in the foreground only. If it disappears, then there is nointerest in it.
The musical development of children at this age is in the free movement of the body.
Like singing but it is not very melodious. The children in this age began to understandmelody and rhythm. In the part of music skill, Children in this age like to listen tomusic than playing music. And like singing by imitation music.
2.   2-7 years oldChildren in this age begin to learn about the symbolic system in their minds. To use
instead or experience. Children in this age have the idea that they have experience, but
it cannot be realized that other people are experiencing not the same as themselves.
Children in this age have more language ability. Can remember things when using
media as a medium. However, it is difficult to understand the difficult concept. So
complex solutions are no longer available. Children in this age do not like inaction.
Will reduce the time. The relationship between the hands and eyes has not yet
developed. This kid likes to dream. And girls will develop faster than boys.

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The musical development of children at this age is like the past. But can do better. But
not always and cannot respond to do the musical development of children at this age
is like the past. But can do better. But not always and cannot respond to complex
rhythm. The children can sing better but sing not true sound because the idea about
the pitch isn’t fully development and the limited range. Children of this age begin tounderstand the subject of speed and the lightness of the sound.
3.  

7-12 years

Children in this age can understand things in a rational way. I cannot understandabstraction very much. Children of this age understand the quantity and the capacity
can hold the items. Children have more concentration. Can adapt to friends at school.
Like rewarding when doing something.
The musical development of children in this age is progressing. Can respond to more
complex rhythms. And there is a constant rhythm. Begin to understand the sound.
And concentrate on listening more. Understand more about volume. And sing more
directly.
4.  
12-15 years
The development of the child's mind at this age has been developed to the point ofcompletion. Children in this age can think hypothetically. Because there is more about
things more abstract. The basic idea of this child is to take the child to adulthood. The
children in this age can think about the results that will happen.
The musical development of children in this age began to deepen the idea. And
musical skills Can express the feeling of the song more.
Conclusion
The results of the study found that the skill which necessary for piano teacher must to
have and must to understand can summarize in 4 skills consists of 1. Piano skill: pianoteacher must to pass the piano examination from Trinity or ABRSM at least Grade 6
2. Knowing about the music theory: such as Music Notation, Scale and interval etc. 3.
Understanding about teaching technique and pedagogy, for example: understand how
to use instructional media or understand how to explain the knowledge for piano
student etc. 4. Understanding about psychology of learning in each age and music
learning behaviors in each age for maximum benefit that happen for the piano student.

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References
Narut Suttajot (1998). Psychology of Music Teaching.Bangkok: Chulalongkorn
University Press
Greeberg Marvin (1979). Your Children Need Music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall
Levin, Melinda F. (1978). Psychology:A Biographical Approach. New York:
McGraw-Hill
Mussen, Paul H.et al. (1984). Child Development and Personality. (6th Ed.) New
York: Harper and Row
Erikson, Erik. (1950). Childhood and Society. New York: Norton
Levinson, Daniel J. et al. (1978). The Seasons of a Man’s life. New York : Knopf.

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How to Play Drum Set for Teacher in Private Schools
Rungkiat Siriwongsuwan, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education and International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
The objective of this research is to study the how to play drum set for teacher inprivate Schools. According to the result, this is a quality research that collects dataand informative in-depth interview with private music school teachers (3 years
experiences) in Bangkok. The study concluded the purpose of this research project.
The necessary skills in teaching drum sets in private music schools are that teachers
must have teaching techniques, motivation, and basic musical skills. Reading thebasic drum kit as to advance the levels such as wood catching techniques, snarling
technique. The technique for pedaling, beating the drum set style. The student musthave a good drum technique. They must have good knowledge of teaching techniques
as well as motivation to teach. These are the guiding principles for students in higher
education. This is to prepare for further education after graduation, as well as to be aguideline for teaching in the future.
Keywords: How to play drum set, Teacher, Private schools.

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Introduction
Education is important for human developments to survive happily in the society. The
education system must be developed to be the lifetime education. There are data andstandard improvements of various knowledge data including modern knowledge
framework development in every fields of studies corresponding to the present
progress. The Thailand National Education Act 1999 and its Amendment (2nd copy)
affected educational reforms in every levels, focused on curriculum improvements
and adjusted teaching methods to develop students to be able to think, solve problems
and appreciate to Thai culture together with provision of more freedom to private
higher educational institutes. These changes cause more varieties of the higher
education institutes together with the following problem of how to make the society
trust to the degrees granted to those graduates of all institutes as equally both inquality and standard.
At present, in Thailand, music is one of many fields that is provided in all educational
levels. Music is accepted as both of Science and Art. Veha Lataiwitthaya (online,2011) stated that the music was both of Science and Art, it was Science since it could
be proved and it was a fact.
The Suan Sunandha Rajaphat University has admitted the students majoring in Music
since 1980, starting from students for teacher vocation, higher certificate of educationand two years continuous studies in 1986, then the 4 years courses majoring in Music
at 1987, which was later adjusted to be Liberal Arts, program of Music in 2003 andthen Fine Arts majoring in Music at 2006. At present the program of Music has beenadjusted its course according to the standard of the Higher Education Institutes which
was improved in 2011. The study on program of Music, apart from theoretical studies,it also provides study on musical skills, one of those is western musical skills on adrum kit. To success in study on program of Music, it strongly requires knowledge
and sound understanding on playing skills of musical instruments and musicaltheories which can create musical works or pass on music correctly and initiate
standard skills. This research focused on guidelines of good behavior during study athigher education for preparing to be the professional after graduation due to, atpresent, music study at higher education levels is very popular with high number ofadmitting interests for further studies, then the students should know the way toprepare themselves after graduation and use it as their careers.
The researcher made up a research work in guidelines on skills development oflearning and teaching a drum kit in private musical schools, in order to standardize theoperation of music program of Suan Sunandha Rajaphat University according to thestandard criteria of the Higher Education and corresponding to the University’s goals.
Objectives
To develop the process of learning and teaching on music study for the students to use
it as their careers after graduation.

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The Research Scope
This research studied on three private musical schools in Bangkok and three drum kit
teachers who have teaching experience not lesser than 3 years.
Basic Agreements
This research project, the guidelines on skills development in learning and teaching adrum kit for being to be a drum kit teacher in private musical schools, collected
research data during approximate years 2017-2018.
The Expected benefits of the research
1. The research readers should know guidelines of development and skills on teachingand practice about necessary knowledge elements.
2. To be used as knowledge elements for further researches.
The related literatures and researches
This research, the study of the guidelines on skills development in learning andteaching a drum kit for being to be a drum kit teacher in private musical schools, theresearcher studied the related documents and researches which would be presented
respectively as follows:
1. Ideas about learning and teaching
2.Basic knowledge of a drum kit
3. Teaching method of musical practice of a drum kit
4. The related researches
Summary, Discussions and Suggestions
The research, the guidelines on skills development in learning and teaching a drum kit
for being to be a drum kit teacher in private musical schools, has studied according to
the research objective which aimed to develop music learning and teaching processes
for the students to be used as their careers after graduation.
This research studied on three private musical schools in Bangkok and three drum kit
teachers who have teaching experience not lesser than 3 years. The research project,of the guidelines on skills development in learning and teaching a drum kit for being
to be a drum kit teacher in private musical schools, collected research data during
approximate years 2017-2018.
The data providers in this study were 3 drum kit teachers who taught a course of basic
drum kit, their names were listed as follows: ………………
The researcher had collected various data which could be summarized according to
the research objectives as follows: ………….

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Conclusion
The research could be concluded according to its main issues as follows:
1. How to teach technics and motivation
The drum kit teaching method of the teachers could be concluded as teaching one
student by one teacher and the schools gave free opportunity to the teachers to teachwith their own styles. This teaching form could be adjudged or improved according toeach students’ skills, needs and conditions. However the objectives and details of theteaching topics must be in the same direction which composed of 2 main issues, these
could be summed up as follows:
1.  Basic note theories of drum kit, the teachers would describe the subject
matters along the assigned topics and let the students to remember the main
issues.
2.  The learning issues on drum kit in practice composed of many levels
depended on students e.g. drumsticks grabbing technics, snaring technics,
drum pedal stepping technics and drum kit drumming styles.
For various songs playing styles, high level of Latin songs playing, playing songtechnic in jazz style and song performing, the teachers would describe the subject
matters according to the assigned topics and let the students to remember the main
issues, then they demonstrated to the students as an example in several formats
according to the assignments. Mostly the issues could be added to each student that
depending on the students’ abilities and goals, as a main point.

Fig. 1 Note exercise used in learning and teaching

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Fig. 2 Note exercise used in learning and teaching
Technic and Teaching Motivation
Technic and Teaching Motivation could be concluded as follows:
Discussion aspect, technic and motivation: from interviews, at the beginning of theclass, most teachers stated about an important of learning each other between student
and teacher, an importance and necessary of theory learning and practice, what thestudents could get from the learning. These all were important to the students’interests and then they might give more precedence to the music. Another motivation,
which the teachers used in learning and teaching, were encouragement and praising
the students who well performed the teacher’s assignments.
Practice teaching aspect, technic and motivation: most teachers demonstrated practiceto the students as an example in such topics and then played songs or videos related tothose learning topics. The songs used for learning and teaching were well-known to
the students or their favorites. In a part of video, this focused on showing drummingof the drummer in that song. This type of media was an important part for building
motivation in learning and encouraged the students to play more attention to thelesson and then practice more.
In each lesson period, all teachers had planned teaching week by week and took noteof teaching to keep up with the development and problems of each student and thenwere used for teaching improvement to fit for the students and more effective learningand teaching achievement.
2. Media and teaching instruments which were mostly available for learning andteaching.
From the study, media and teaching instruments could be categorized into 2 mainparts as follows:
2.1. Media and teaching instruments which were provided by schools such as:- Drum kits
- Amplifiers- VCD players- Rhythm controllers (Metronome)- Broads- Textbooks

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All of media and instruments above were very important, any should not be absent.
However some media and instruments were not available for all classrooms whichmust be taken to schools by the teachers, themselves, to correct these problems.
2.2. Mostly personal media and teaching instruments which were taken to the schools
by the teachers themselves such as:
2.2.1. Examples of song notes

Fig. 3 Example of song note used for learning and teaching
2.2.2. Main textbooks were Alfred’s Drum set Beginning, Intermediate and Masteringetc.
2.2.3. Complement textbooks were Yamaha Book 1 and 2, Rhythm Section
Drumming, Drum Note magazines etc.

Fig.4 Examples of Drum kit used for learning and teaching

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2.2.4. Metronome Amplifiers
Teaching media and instruments of each teacher might be similar which depended on
the appropriate lessons.
3. Evaluation and Appraisal
From interviews with the drum kit teachers in this research of the guidelines on skills
development in learning and teaching a drum kit for being to be a drum kit teacher inprivate musical schools, the evaluation and appraisal could be summarized according
to the following topics:
3.1. The evaluation and appraisal by the teachers
The evaluation and appraisal should be made before and after learning, from the firsttime of learning and testing by performing during the class as the teacher’s
assignments, then noticed the student’s performance and recorded the student’s
development, fault and suggestion in every class of study. For the suggestion;
exercises or songs should be assigned as the student’s homework. Sometimes videos
should be recorded during learning and teaching for the students to observe theirdevelopments and problems clearly.
3.2. The evaluation and appraisal by knowledge examinations.
The students were sent to do an examination. In the schools, examinations werearranged 2 times per year with several regulations. At a beginning level of drum kit
learning, an examination was arranged within the school which was evaluated andappraised by other teachers. The student must pass the school’s criteria which could
reflect the student’s own faults. This evaluation and appraisal was a standard method.
3.3. The evaluation and appraisal by concert performing.
The evaluation and appraisal by concert performing was arranged by school yearly.
Each concert performing, there would be other teachers staying for suggestions which
could add more beneficial knowledge and varieties to the students from theseteachers’ opinions. This also promoted the student to show bravely.
However, the above evaluations and appraisals should be beneficial or not, depended
on many factors such as:
3.3.1. The completeness of learning instruments, both at home and school, for the
student could practice regularly.
3.3.2. Attention of the student’s parent and teachers on the student’s learning.
4. Problematic Situations of Learning and Teaching
Problematic situations of learning and teaching, from this study and interviews withthe teachers, the found problems and obstacles could be summarized as follows:

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4.1. The learning and teaching problems caused from students e.g.
1.1. Absence from a class of students
1.2. Students arrived to schools late or not on time.
1.3. Students did not pay attention to the lessons and did not practice the teacher’s
assignments.
1.4. Students were forced to study by their parent.
1.5. Students did not concentrated on the lesson.
4.2. The learning and teaching problems caused by media and teaching instruments.
4.2.1. Incomplete numbers of complementary learning and teaching instruments orthese were lacked as the teacher or student need e.g. pairs of drum pedals, stereo,
amplifier, computer, glass etc.
4.2.2. A classroom was not completely soundproofed that created noise.
4.2.3. No cabinet for keeping documents in a classroom, then learning and teaching
documents were easily to loss.
4.2.4. No suitable rhythm controller (Metronome) and some models were notappropriate for complementary learning and teaching a drum kit.
4.2.5. Incomplete numbers of textbooks and song notes as need.
Discussion of the research’s results
The study of the research about the guidelines on skills development in learning andteaching a drum kit for being to be a drum kit teacher in private musical schools
would be discussed in the following aspects:
How to teach technic and motivation, media and teaching instruments, evaluation andappraisal.
1. How to teach technic and motivation
How to teach technic and motivation were regarded as importance in learning andteaching process in classroom activities for effectiveness of learning andunderstanding according to the teacher’s objectives.
Discussion about the main issues could be summarized as follows and conformed tovarious theories as follows:
1. Teaching method by demonstrations and then let the students practice by imitating
the teachers. This method conformed to Sugree Charoensuk (2014: 59) who statedthat learning by imitating the teachers was the instinct method which was natural andthe most primitive, also conformed to Thisana Khammani (2011: 330) who explained
the meaning of teaching by demonstrating that was the process which the teacher used
to assist the leaner to learn according to the specified objectives by showing or
making thing needed to be learned to the learner.
2. How to teach technic and motivation by teaching practice together with theory
learning at every time of learning and teaching conformed to Naruth Suthajitt (2002:
8) who stated that the music matter composed of two main components i.e. music
matter and music skills. For learning basic music theories, all teachers would give
more precedence to this concept. All students must be able to read musical notes

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which conformed to Naruth Suthajitt (1988: 12) who stated that reading skill ofmusical symbols was regarded as one important basic skill in music studying.
3. In each teaching, the teacher had planned to teach every time, mostly had planned
within a short period- week by week, sometimes the plan might be longer dependingon each student as precedence. In the first teaching period, most teachers gave thisperiod as the most precedence to understand each other by asking for a student’s
private data such as age, school and interviewed with the students for their aims ofstudying a drum kit, why they liked a drum kit, their favorite music styles, whose
were their favorite drummers. These all things were regarded as teaching technic andmotivation to make familiar between teachers and students for more effectiveness oflearning and teaching which conformed to Thisana Khammani (2011: 415) who statedthat teaching technic was a tactic to complete any process, step or manner with morequality and effectiveness. Teaching technic was necessary to complete more effective
teaching.
4. In each learning and teaching, most teachers assigned exercises for students topractice which conformed to Boonchom Srisa-ard and Nipa Sripairoj (1988: p.20)
who stated that exercising was an activity to assist the learners to reconsider theirknowledge and understanding, then they could practice to use knowledge in any
situation, together with increasing their experiences with deeper and more skills.
Exercising might be assigned in the class after the learners understood what theylearned or after school as a homework or both. In addition, teachers should suggest
students to practice when it was possible since music was skillful and needed practicefor being professional which conformed to Sugree Charoensuk (2011: p.116) who
stated that music was a skill matter relating to practice.
5. At the beginning of each class, the teacher would motivate a class study by using
psychology and described how that subject matter was important?, and why it would
affect to the students?, or motivated that class by playing songs, teaching by usingmusic notes those were familiar to the students, playing video concerts andperformances of the popular artists who were satisfied by the students which would
create interesting learning and teaching that conformed to Thisana Khammani (2011:474) who stated that knowledge and an ability to apply several knowledge such as
psychology, methods and technics in each teaching situation would create interesting,enjoyable and jolly teaching, then encouraged the students easily, comfortably,
rapidly and happily to learn together. This motivation conformed to Daldy Max F(1993: pp.60-63) who concluded that interests caused motive for selecting suitable,favorable and imaginable songs and favorite musicians which was regarded as a good
method to create motivation. Another motivation that the teachers used in learningand teaching was encouraging and praising the students who well performed theteachers’ assignments which conformed to Walberg (1984: p22) who stated thatreinforcement was very important for learning. Walberg had collected the researches
from 1970 to 1983, approximately 3,000 items, he found that reinforcement was themost effective factor for learning. There were 2 types of reinforcements i.e. positive
and negative ones. Positive reinforcement focused on making the leaners to know that
their performances were accepted and praised e.g. verbal praising (good, well, great
etc.)

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2. Media and Learning Instruments
Media and complementary instruments for learning and teaching could divided into 2
main components:
1. Media and teaching instruments which were provided by schools such as drum kits,stereos, musical notes tripods and some textbooks. Mostly the students should buy
their own textbooks.
2. Personal media and teaching instruments which were taken to the schools by theteachers themselves, when they were not available at schools but needed to be added
for more understanding to the lessons which conformed to Srimongkol Thep-re-noo(2002: p0192) who stated that learning and teaching media meant the media that using
in learning and teaching process for effective mutual understanding for passing
knowledge between teachers and students, together with goal achievement of learningand teaching.
3. Evaluation and Appraisal
From the study of the researches on evaluations and appraisals by the teachers, there
were three main parts should be discussed i.e. evaluation and appraisal by the teacher,evaluation and appraisal by examination and evaluation and appraisal by concert
performing these conformed to Orrawan Bunjongsilpa (khanthasiri) (n.d.) who statedthat evaluation on the children’s progression should be done both in their imaginationand skills, being continuously to know their achievements step by step which could
help plan for the next lessons.
Suggestions
1. Give a chance to teaching staffs or teachers for consulting with parent about the
subject matters often to know the students’ progressions and emerging problems.
2. Let teaching staffs to communicate with parent to know the problems when
students were often absent from a class or going to school late.
3. Schools should improve instruments with modern items regularly, such as allclassrooms should have computers etc.
4. Add teaching media especially textbooks, VCDs, videos and other instruments toall classrooms completely.
Other Suggestions
1. School should provide training on teaching technics for continual developments ofteachers.
2. School should award to good performing teachers annually for willingness andmotivations of all teachers.
3. School should annually evaluate teaching achievements of teachers to create
enthusiasm for the works.
4. School should add a subject on band organizing for increasing skills to students.

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Suggestions for Further Research
The researcher suggested further studies on the following topics:
1. Study on guidelines in teaching a drum kit of teachers in Thailand higher
educational institutes.
2. Study on guidelines in teaching a drum kit of teachers in Thailand international
schools.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Research and Development
Institute, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand for financial
support. And also would like to thank Asst Dr. Sansanee Jasuwan for advice andsuggestion, and the support and all respondent.

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References
Naruth Suthajitt (1988), Musical activities for teachers. Bangkok, Chulalongkorn
University Press.
………………………… (2002), Musical matters. Bangkok, Chulalongkorn
University Press.
Thisana Khammani (2011), Teaching Science. (14th edition). Bangkok,
Chulalongkorn University Press.
Boonchom Srisa-ard and Nipa Sripairoj (1988), Teaching pattern of statisticalmethods for effective research. Maha Sarakham. Preeda Press.
Veha Lataiwitthaya (2011), Music is both of Science and Art. (Cited on Mar.25,2012). (From http://www.thaiblogonline.com/wehaltw.blog?PostID=35857)
Srimongkol Thep-re-noo (2002), Teaching document, subject: Skills and teaching
technics. Bangkok, Faculty of Education, Somdej Chaophya Rajaphat Institute.
Sugree Charoensuk, Gift education. Bangkok, Jongcharoen Printing.
……………………………(2014), Music teacher’s handbook. Bangkok,Yin-Yang
Printing.
Orrawan Bunjongsilpa (khanthasiri) (n.d.), Music teaching at primary school: theory
and practice. The Music Teacher Association (Thailand).
Daldy Max F. (1993), Band Rehearsal Techniques. Illinois, The Instrumentalist
Publishing Company.
Walberg, Herbert J. (1984). Improving the Productivity of American’s School.
Educational Leadership. Vol. 41(8):19-26, May.
Rungkiat Siriwongsuwan (2016), Learning outcome in western music of music skill
for Thai qualification framework, for higher education in Rajaphat universities in
Bangkok.
Rungkiat Siriwongsuwan (2017), The construction of a jazz drumming instructional
package for Thai Undergraduates.
Contact email: rungkiat.si@ssru.ac.th

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Musicianship for Professional Trombonist in Symphony Orchestra
Thassanai Phensit, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
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Abstract
The purpose of the study “Musicianship for Professional Trombonist in SymphonyOrchestra” is to study skills and techniques of musicianship for Trombonist in
Symphony Orchestra. This research is a qualitative research by collecting data
through interviews from the musicians in Symphony Orchestra and music teachers inuniversities, totally 17 persons and is analyzed by content analysis.The research resultshows that 1) skills for a trombone musician are to play the songs from trombone
method books from basic to advanced stages and to read notes from new song sheets
accurately and quickly. The special techniques of a trombonist are slur and glissandowith a trombone manner. The Trombone musicians must be responsible for bothpracticing and time-managing. These are very important for a professional trombonist.
Keyword: Trombone, Professional Musician, Symphony Orchestra

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Introduction
At present music study in universities in Thailand is widely available for those who
would like to study music comprehensively and who would like to enter the music
profession and further their careers. According to music study in undergraduate
degree, there are two types of study programs: Western Music and Thai Music. Mostof the universities provide these two programs equivalently. However, each of the
program can be sub-categorized based on learning activities and course management;
for example, Western Music course can be sub-programmed as Music Performance,
Music Composers, Popular Music and Jazz etc.
The universities whose music study is available are 1) National Universities 2)
Autonomous Universities 3) Private Universities which are universities, Rajabhat
universities, institutes, and colleges under the Higher Education Commission.
To have the same directions and practices, Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher
Education; TQF: HEd is established so that National Education Act concerning
education standards can be concretely practiced by focusing on Learning Outcome
Management for graduates in each expected qualification through specifying
directions to control and develop the standards of education as well as for evaluation
standards of the 6 areas of music study which are Virtue and Ethics, Knowledge,
Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skills and Responsibility, Numerical Analysis,
Communication, and Information Technology Skills, Psychomotor Domain.
After conducting the research, most of the music study programs focus on theimportance of graduates to possess international music abilities, to value music
creation, and to realize aesthetics, morality, and ethics in the profession. However,some of the programs are consistently-designed so as for graduates to live their lives
in the society. Moreover, with the international cooperation, some of the programs arecompetitively-designed towards globalization, advanced science and technology, andunlimitedly wireless communication system. Based on these changes, music
harmoniously plays an important role in the society although types of music has beenvaried greatly; furthermore, music can be found in organizations, both government
and private, or in businesses such as advertisement, public relation, soundtrack, sales
promotion, etc. This is why most musicians prefer to apply music to fit activities intheir professions.
Professions in music are more diverse according to changes in the digital age. One of
the music professions that many music performers think it is well-established are amusician in the orchestra which is gained more attention from musicians in Thailand;
nevertheless, being a musician in the orchestra is not that easy because the audition isvery competitive: to compete with both Thai and foreign music performers, andmusical talents and the performance techniques need demonstrating vividly. Anotherreason why the audition is so difficult is that the vacancy (for trumpeter, trombonist,and violinist, etc.) is limited. Why so many musicians go for the orchestra audition isthat the remuneration is somewhat high and experiences they shall get from local andinternational performances are priceless. Not only a talent does play an important role

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for being a musician but morality and ethics are also necessary for being in the musicindustry.
In this study, the researcher is interested in the importance of teaching activities formusic study in higher education in Thailand towards standardization, improvement,
constructionism, and theoretical and practical music abilities under the supervision ofThai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education; TQF: HEd via bringing
National Education Act concerning education standards into concrete use by focusing
on Learning Outcome Management for graduates in each expected qualification
through specifying directions to control and develop the standards of education.
Objective
This research is to study skills and techniques for musicianship for professional
trombonist in Symphony Orchestra
Research Methodology
The universities providing 79 music study courses from 49 universities in Thailand
are as follows
University
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Chulalongkorn University
Mahidol University
Silpakorn University
Kasetsart University
Khon Kaen University
Naresuan University
Mahasarakham University
Rungsit University

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Burapha University
Thaksin University
University of Phayao
Ramkhamhaeng University
Payap University
Rattana Bundit University
Siam University
Assumption University

Rajabhat University
1
2
3
4
5

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat
University
Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat
University
Chandrakasem Rajabhat University
Phranakhon Rajabhat University
Kampaeng Phet Rajabhat
University

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16 Roi Et Rajabhat University
17 Rajabhat Rajanagarindra
University
18 Rambhai Barni Rajabhat
University
19 Lampang Rajabhat University
20 Loei Rajabhat University

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Chiang Rai Rajabhat University

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Chiang Mai Rajabhat University
Chiang Mai Rajabhat University

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21 Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat
University under the Royal
Patronage
22 Sisaket Rajabhat University
23 Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat
University
24 Songkhla Rajabhat University

Nakhonratchasima Rajabhat
University
10 Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat
25 Suratthani Rajabhat University
University
11 Nakhon Sawan Rajabhat University 26 Surindra Rajabhat University
12 Buriram Rajabhat University
27 Muban Chombueng Rajabhat
University
13 Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University 28 Muban Chombueng Rajabhat
University
14 Phetchaburi Rajabhat University
15 Phuket Rajabhat University
16 Roi Et Rajabhat University
17 Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University

Institute of Technology and University of Technology
1

Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi

2King Mongkut's Institute of Technology

According to the objective above, the research is a qualitative research and isconducted by
1. The researcher has chosen to research music study courses from 5 out of 49
famous universities in Thailand are as follow:
1.1 Chulalongkorn University
1.3 Silpakorn University
1.5 Rangsit University

1.2 Mahidol University
1.4 Kasetsart University

2. Selecting a topic and an objective
Because the researcher teach music in higher education whose subject relates totrombone practice, the interest in studying techniques and methods for teachingtrombone shall be developed so as to find out international standards for theguidelines and the practices of trombone practice with the reference to Thai
Qualifications Framework for Higher Education; TQF:Hed by focusing on Learning

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Outcome Management towards the specified goals to be developed for improving
desired effective teaching in accordance with international standards and to assure
education quality to graduates to further their careers consistently with the supervisionof Office of the Higher Education Commission.
3. Sampling
The target samples and the population of the research are the specialists in teachingand practicing trombone, trombone instructors, and trombonists in orchestras in the
country.
4. Collecting data
1. Data is collected from in-depth interviews with target samples and the population
which are the experts in trombone, trombone instructors, and trombonists in orchestra
totally 17 persons.
2. Questionnaires are filled by trombone instructors.
3. Music study programs in higher education in Thailand are researched.
4. Results of higher education in accordance with Thai Qualifications Framework forHigher Education; TQF:Hed are studied.
5. Analyzing Data
According to the analysis,
1. The data from the in-depth interviews are analyzed and synthesized the results ofhigher education in accordance with Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher
Education; TQF:Hed that have impacts on the course of music study for universities
whose Thai music study courses are available so as to find out how to practicetrombone properly with quality and efficiency according to international standards aswell as exercises for trombone practice.
2. Questionnaires which are filled by trombone instructors are analyzed to find theresults of higher education in accordance with Thai Qualifications Framework forHigher Education; TQF:Hed that have impacts on the course of music study foruniversities in Thailand.
3. The data from the observations and the note-taking are summarized for the resultsof higher education in accordance with Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher
Education; TQF:Hed that have impacts on the course of music study for universitiesin Thailand.

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Result
The results of the study skills and techniques of musicianship for Trombonist in
Symphony Orchestra are as follows:
From trombone teaching’s point of view, learners shall have knowledge of westernmusic, together with the practice of trombone:- Rudiments and Specify Staff, Major-Minor and other Scales, Note Values, Time
Signature, Interval, and Articulations and Accidental Note and relating drills.
- Trombonists shall have a clear understanding of musical structures or compositions
in order to properly interpret and get the mood of the songs.
- Trombonists need to know and understand their roles in the performance and be
responsible for their duties by rehearsing or reviewing a song thoroughly.
- Trombonists shall have knowledge and understanding of related Western Music
histories as well as famous composers in each era in order for trombonists tounderstand more a song.
- Trombonists shall have the knowledge and understanding of different forms.
The exercises for trombone practice used to enhance skills and prepare trombonists
for orchestras are slightly different according to the interviews of trombone
instructors and trombone experts. Practically speaking, basic and advanced techniques
are available in exercises which can be brought into practice. Importantly, regular
practice is advised for a good musician because practice with different forms of music
can help understand quickly. Moreover, the more the rehearsal is done, the more
techniques, tones, mood, etc. can be easily conceptualized. The mostly-used song forpractice is Trombone Orchestra Excerpt.
In addition to specific practice, trombonists or musicians shall have morality andethics in the music profession so that working or living, responsibility for themselves
and others, discipline, punctuality and generosity can be made.
Samples of Trombone Exercises

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Conclusion
How to be a professional musician is when practice is done correctly, systematically,and ethically as usual.
According to the analysis of teaching activities to be trombonists in orchestra ofuniversities in Thailand whose music study courses are available, they are consistent
with Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education; TQF:HEd by focusing on
Learning Outcome in order to assure students of quality. The directions for control
and development to standardize the learning evaluation of desired characteristics are
Virtue and Ethics, Knowledge, Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skills andResponsibility, Numerical Analysis, Communication, and Information Technology
Skills, Psychomotor Domain.

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References
TQF:HEd B.E. (2009). Office of the Higher Education Commission. Thai
Qualifications Framework for Higher.Education; Source:http://mua.go.th/users/tqfhed/.
Phensit, T. (2017). Teaching and Learning Trombone Activities in Rajabhat
Universities. Bangkok, Thailand: SuanSunandha Rajabhat University.
Yatakongs, S. (2017). Teaching and Learning Violin in Rajabhat University: Bangkok
Thailand: SuanSunandha Rajabhat University.
Phensit, T. (2016). The Effected of Learning Outcome in Term of Thai Qualifications
Framework for Higher Education to Music Teacher in Rajabhat Universities in
Bangkok. Bangkok, Thailand: SuanSunandha Rajabhat University.
Klinpaga, T. (2016). The Manafement of Symphony Orchestras in Thailand in
Singapore, Mahasarakham University: Institute of Culture and Arts.
Janyaratyachon, S. (2014). Factors Affecting The Developmental Processes of Music
Instruction of Youth Orchestras in Thailand: Chulalongkong University.
Panapongpaisaisarn, A. (2013). Efficiency of Legato for Trombone Exercise: Rangsit
University
Trinity College London. (2016-2019) Curriculum: Curriculum Trinity College
London.
SuansunandhaRajabhat University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand:
Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
Chulalongkong University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand:
Chulalongkong University.
Mahadol University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand: Mahadol
University.
Silpakorn University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand: Silpakorn
University.
Kasetsart University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand: Kasetsart
University.
Rungsit University. (2011). Music Curriculum. Bangkok, Thailand: Kasetsart
University.
Contact email: Thassanai.ph@ssru.ac.th

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Teaching Empathy Through Self-experience and Diary Reflections
Chalalai Taesilapasathit, Thammasat University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
To prevent any repeated human wrongdoings such as war, in the future, many people
say that humans need to learn from their own past mistakes. However, classroombased education about history of wars may not be adequate in order to create sense of
empathy among students toward others. Empathy is important not only in the field of
psychology, but also peacebuilding process; yet it is challenging for teachers of how
to effectively encourage empathy within students. This study aims to explore if
students can develop empathy from participating in an extracurricular project andwhether students’ self-experience or classroom-lecture styles of learning could better
encourage empathy among students toward war trauma and war victims. The author
created a three-day academic field trip to the WWII historical sites and Sangkhla Buri
District Office at Kanchanaburi, Thailand, which there were eighteen students in
psychology major who volunteered to participate in this project. All of the students
were assigned to take parts in self-experience and class-lecture styles of learning, andthat dairy writing as a tool for self-reflection was required at the end of each day.
Using discourse analysis methodology, the results suggested that 94% (n = 18) of thestudents could develop empathy toward war trauma and war victims. Moreover, theresults implied that self-experience style of learning was more efficient in teaching
empathy when compared to classroom-lecture learning style.
Keywords: Empathy, Empathic learning, Self-experience, Self-reflections

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Introduction
Empathy is an emotional phenomenon when you imagine putting yourself into otherpeople’s shoes. This allows you to understand others’ emotion and feeling as if you
were experiencing the situation by yourself. When empathy occurs, it results toemotional connection between two, or more, parties. People start to think and concern
about, not only for themselves but, others’ wellbeing (Hoffman, 2000). With
empathy, positive and genuine relationship can be promoted (McAllister & Irvine,
2002), and that moral development can stem from (Joliffe & Farrington, 2006).
Smith (2006) suggested that the concept of empathy can be divided into two broad
categories, which are emotional empathy and cognitive empathy or mental
perspective taking. While emotional empathy discusses about compassionate feelingbetween two or more parties that could possibly lead toward helping behavior,cognitive empathy focuses on the accurate perception and understanding of emotion
between each other (Hodgers & Myers, 2007). In 2014, Decety and Cowell expanded
the idea of empathy as the notion that involves three separated processes: emotional
sharing, emotional concern, and perspective-taking, where emotional sharing has
similar connotation with emotional contagion, the automatic emotion that happens
when you learn about others’ experience; emotional concern is associated with care;and lastly, perspective-taking is another term for cognitive emotion. Despite different
attempts to clarify empathy, the idea gathers around two dissimilar but closely relatedacts, concern and positive intention to help others.
Today, empathy is a key term that is popularly mentioned in many fields ofknowledge. According to the field of psychology, empathy is a useful technique thathelps therapists understand what clients emotionally carry with them, which could
lead to positive therapeutic outcome (Lambert & Bergin, 1994). In the same direction
with psychology, empathy is addressed as an important skill that enables social
workers to perform more productively with their client works (Gerdes & Segal,2011). Additionally, empathy also plays a crucial role in the field of politics andpeacebuilding due to its characteristic of being a powerful soft skill for problem
solving (Pedwell, 2012), and a chief supporter for social contact (Gerdes, Segal,
Jackson, & Mullins, 2011). Empathy is not only benefit professional works in any
particular fields, because of its ability to strengthen human relationship; it can also
benefit mankind as a whole. Like Gerdes et al. (2011) once mentioned that, “Lack of
empathy underlies the worst things human beings can do to one another; highempathy underlies the best.” (p. 109).
Although empathy seems to be crucially important, there is still misperception about
it. People usually think of empathy as an innate capacity or a personality trait;
however, this is not true. In fact, empathy is a skill that can be trained and promoted(Everhart et al., 2016). Notwithstanding the fact that empathy is teachable, thechallenges facing today are how to instruct and assess whether the lesson is learned(Blasco & Moreto, 2012). Several scholars suggest that empathy can be delivered
inside classroom (Aronson, 2002; Everhart et al., 2016; Gerdes et al., 2011; Salmon,
2003). Nevertheless, with the nature of empathy that deals with self-experience,
Pepler, a psychologist and professor from York University, argued that classroom
lecture is inadequate for teaching this topic (as cite in Hammer, 2017). Lastly, people
seem to be aware of empathic teaching only when the conflict has already occurred,

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which is not appropriate. Empathy needs to be encouraged in everyone as potential
ways for nourishment of human relationship and prevention toward any social harms
in the future.
Purpose and Methodology of the Study
This study aims to study if students can develop empathy from participating in theacademic field trip and explore whether students’ self-experience or classroom-lecture
styles of learning could better encourage empathy toward war trauma and war victims
among students. The author conducted a three-day academic field trip for senior year
undergraduate students in psychology major at Thammasat University, Thailand.
Using the WWII historical sites and Sangkhla Buri District Office at Kanchanaburi,
the author planned the program of the trip so that every student had opportunities toself-educate through self-experience about the WWII events that happened in
Kanchanaburi, and listen to the lectures provided by a descendant of a wartime hero,
Khun Boonpong Sirivejaphan; and the Deputy District Chief of Sangkhla Buri
District office who provides assistance for Karen refugees at Ban Ton Yang refugee
camp.
Students were given information of this project prior to the field trip. They wererequired to participate in every activity of the trip and reflected their thoughts,
emotions and feelings in their own diaries at the end of each day. After the trip wascompleted, students were asked to hand in their diaries, which the author employeddiscourse analysis as a methodology to analyze the extent of empathy that projected
through vocabularies used in students’ diaries.
Conclusion
There were eighteen students (n = 18), between the ages of 20 – 23, voluntary
participated in this academic field trip, which comprised of sixteen females and two
males. Among this number, there was only one student who originally came from
Kanchanaburi, another one student was from the Southern part of Thailand; and othersixteen students were from the Central region of Thailand. Eight students out of thetotal eighteen reported having visit Kanchanaburi before, and three students out of thetotal number of participants addressed having no historical knowledge about WWII at
Kanchanaburi at all.
Diary was analyzed as a written discourse type, which the author viewed diary as atool for communication that students narrated their emotional reactions toward the trip
to the author. Using Kanchanaburi where is home to many WWII historical sites as alocation for this project, students reflected themselves by connecting the past with
their present emotional states.
One diary was excluded from the analysis due to the lack of content. Student decided
to draw pictures instead of writing, therefore it could not be examined by discourse
analysis. This resulted to the total number of seventeen, out of eighteen, diaries left
for analysis. All of the vocabularies reflected in students’ diaries can be categorized
into two groups, intellectual and emotional contents. According to the purpose of thisstudy, the emotional content is the type of content that the author focused upon. Aftertranslating the Thai words into English, it was found that words closely related to the

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concept of empathy that students often echoed in their diaries are sympathetic,
compassion, deeply moved/reflected, depress and downcast, respectively.
Table 1: Activities of the Academic Field Trip Separated by Days and Percentage ofStudents Reported Empathy
Day
Activities
Percentage ofStudents Expressing
Empathy
1River Kwai Bridge
47.06
WWII Museum
Boon Pong’s
Residence
Khao Pun Cave
2
Hellfire Pass
82.35
Memorial Museum
and Walking Trail
3
Sangkhla Buri
5.88
District Office
After the completion of the trip, sixteen out of seventeen students (94%) expressed
vocabularies that reflected empathy towards war trauma and war victims.
Examination of empathy that occurred each day (Table 1) showed that the visit toHellfire Pass Memorial Museum and Walk Trial encouraged the highest percentage of
empathy (82.35%), and that visiting Sangkhla Buri District Office yielded the least
empathy (5.88%) when compared to other activities.
Table 2: Students’ Diary Reflections Reported by Each Type of Activities
Self-experience
LectureSelf-experience
Lecture(Observation)(Experiencing)(Professional(Historical
Event)Work)
Activities
River Kwai
Boon Pong’s
Hellfire Pass
Sangkhla Buri
BridgeMemorial
District Office
Residence
WWII Museum
Museum andBoon Pong’s
Walking Trail
Residence
Khao Pun Cave
Students’ -   Emotional-   Emotional-   Emotional-   Emotional
Reflections
vocabularies
vocabularies
vocabularies
vocabularies-   Empathy-   Empathy-   Empathy-   Empathy-   Intellectual -   Intellectual-   Intellectual
vocabularies
vocabularies
vocabularies
In addition, the author studied students’ diary reflections followed by each type oflearning activities (Table 2). The results revealed that self-experience in the form ofobservation could activate emotional reactions and empathy within students toward
war trauma and war victims. Nevertheless, it was less effective when compared to theself-experience style of learning that allowed student to physically participate in theactivity. Interestingly, although classroom-lecture style of learning may develop lessempathy when compared to self-experience learning type, it could promote

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intellectually concerns among students toward war victims and well-being of Karen
refugees that currently lived in Ban Ton Yang refugee camp.
This study contained several limitations. Short timeframe due to limited funding andsmall number of participants were among them. Plus, the results from this study was
concluded with no follow up plan; therefore, it cannot be determined at this point
whether empathy that emerged from this project could last long. Future studies should
focus on these limitations.
Acknowledgements
This project was fully funded by Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University. I
sincerely thank Khun Lumyai Sirivejaphan for providing knowledge and resource
information about the life of Khun Boonpong Sirivejaphan. I am also thankful to the
Deputy District Chief of Sangkhla Buri District Office for the support and a warm
welcome.

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References
Aronson, E. (2002). Building empathy, compassion, and achievement in the jigsaw
classroom. In J. Aronson (Eds.), Improving academic achievement: impact of
psychological factors on education (pp. 209-225). New York: Elsevier Inc.
Blasco, P. G., & Moreto, G. (2012). Teaching empathy through movies: reachinglearners’ affective domain in medical education. Journal of Education and Learning,
1(1), 22-34.
Decety, J. & Cowell, J. M. (2014). Friends or foes: Is empathy necessary for moral
behavior? Perspect Psychol Sci, 9(5), 525-537.
Everhart, R. S., Elliott, K., Pelco, L. E., Westin, D., Briones, R., Peron, E., &associates. (2016, March). Empathy activators: teaching tools for enhancing empathy
development in service-learning classes. Retrieved fromhttp://scholarcompass.vuc.edu/community_resources/
Gerdes, K. E., & Segal, E. A. (2011). Importance of empathy for social work practice:integrating new science. Social Work Journal, 56(2), 141-148.
Gerdes, K. E., Segal, E. A., Jackson, K. F., Mullins, J. L. (2011). Teaching empathy: aframework rooted in social cognitive neuroscience and social justice. Journal ofSocial Work Education, 47(1), 109-131.
Hammer, K. (2017, March 26). The challenge of teaching empathy to stop bullying.
Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/ thechallenge-of-teaching-empathy-to-stop-bullying/article5328473/
Hodgers, S. D., & Mayers, M. W. (2007). Empathy. In R. F. Baumeister, & K. D.
Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology (pp. 296-298). California: SAGE
Publications, Inc.
Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: implications for caring andjustice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Joliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Development and validity of basic empathy
scale. Journal of Adolescence, 29(4), 589-611.
Lambert, M. J., & Bergin, A. F. (1994). The effectiveness of psychotherapy. In A. E.
Bergin, & S. L. Garfield (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change(pp. 143-189). Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.
McAllister, G., & Irvine, J. J. (2002). The role of empathy in teaching culturally
diverse students: a qualitative study of teachers’ beliefs. Journal of Teacher
Education, 53(5), 433-443.
Pedwell, C. (2012). Economies of empathy: Obama, neoliberalism, and social justice.
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(2), 280-297.

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Salmon, S. (2003). Teaching empathy: the PEACE curriculum. Reclaiming Children
and Youth, 12(3), 167-173.
Smith, A. (2006). Cognitive empathy and emotional empathy in human behavior andevolution. The Psychological Record, 56, 3-21.
Contact email: tchalalai@tu.ac.th

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Stabilizing Mechanisms in Formula-based Funding of Universities: The Case of
PolandAda Cierkowska, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Tomasz Szapiro, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
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Abstract
The research is inspired by the decades-long debate on the effectiveness of educationand steering of educational systems in Europe and in particular - in Poland.
Government funding serves to stabilize the functioning of public universities and to
influence them to get compatibility with the educational raison d’etat. In the paper an
attempt to measure the effect that government funding has on the educational systemand public universities is presented. The focus is set on stabilizing mechanism
introduced in formula-based funding, especially the case of Poland. The data from
Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland are used to perform simulations
which aim at evaluation of influence on stability and universities motivation to movetowards strategic goals set by the government.
Keywords: higher education, formula-based, stabilizing mechanism, influence

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Introduction
There is a visible trend of shifting from centralized to decentralized systems also inhigher education, where universities get more financial autonomy (Jongbloed, B.,
2010; Estermann, 2008, 2012, 2017). E.g. in Poland, in a simplified way, it can bestated that funds reach public universities in two streams - the first is financing
research, education and the processes that support them. They create together anannual budget. Decisions on its spending are made by the university authorities inaccordance with the regulations that are formula-based. The second stream reaches
the universities in the form of grants, which ensure financing of research projects
selected through a competition. The latter stream is managed by the collegiate bodyequivalent to the national council for research in other countries. As a result of thetransformation of the 90s, the body previously subordinate to the executive authority
was depoliticized and replaced by two agencies independent of the government - theNational Science Center (agency for basic science) and the National Center for
Research and Development to finance research.
According to data from Central Statistical Office in Poland (GUS, 2017), higher
education institutions had an income from research activities of 2 794.603 million
PLN in year 2016 (out of which 1 076.651mln PLN was from the budget of two
agencies mentioned above).
Educational expenditures were growing during last years in all OECD countries(OECD, 2017). The split between spending on core educational services and R&D
activities differs significantly among OECD countries. It ranges from Switzerland
where 20% more money is spend on R&D than core educational services to Chile
where R&D expenditures comprise only 5.2% of tertiary educational spending.
There is a tendency to change the method of funding allocation to formula-based
budget allocation that is becoming to be the most popular mechanism. (“…Countries
are increasingly reliant on using formula funding to determine overall institutional
levels of block grants...” – de Boer et al., 2010). “Education systems simultaneously
pursue many (often conflicting) goals, with the many system actors continuallyinteracting in complex ways” (World Bank, 2018). The aim of the formula is tocombine those goals in set of the rules that will shape how resources will be allocatedto universities. Researchers mention few advantages of formula-based allocation thatmake it more widely used (McKeown-­‐‑Moak, M. P., 1999): “reduced politicalcompetition and lobbying by the institutions, simple and understandable basis formeasuring expenditures and revenue needs of campuses and determining theadequacy of support, provide a reasonable compromise between public accountability
and institutional autonomy, easy comparisons between institutions, promotion ofefficiency in institutional operation”. These circumstances in fact enable
implementation of effective educational policy.
Changes in financing are implemented through a change of the algorithm of funding
allocation to universities. It is assumed that economically rational agents (universities)
will take actions which outcomes will be rewarded with higher payoffs defined by thealgorithm. If the algorithm is constructed in accordance with educational policy thisleads to achievement of this policy goals.

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Changes of algorithm may also lead to unexpected results. The most obvious reasonsfor that are uncertainty in environment and delayed appearance of effects of thepolicy, but also lack of stability of the system. In Poland, government has a stabilizing
mechanism called “transmitted factor” that makes the previous year subsidy influence
the level of this year’s subsidy1.
Let us focus on the stability perspective now.
Governance is a “processes aimed at coordination, stability and structure in a world ofactors of different sizes, power and resources.” (Strehl et al., 2007). It has a broader
meaning than allocating funds. In the environment that is changing rapidly, stability
becomes more important for governments to provide.
Countries are using different mechanisms to achieve stability in the funding level. In
Ireland it is provided by limiting the changes in core grant to plus or minus 2% of
average sectoral change in any one year (Higher Education Authority, 2016). Englandhas a similar system for teaching mainstream grant, but the range is plus or minus 5%.
Czech Republic introduced a stabilizing mechanism only for the time of shifts in thecalculation of budget allocations. The changes were limited to 10% compared tobudgets from previous year (Koucký, J., 2013). In Denmark there is a fixed amount
per university which is representing 25% of the total teaching budget (Maassen, P.,
2000).
The aim of this paper is to define stability mechanisms in such system and investigate
conditions influencing this stability. More precisely the objective of the study is to
examine the principles of how the stabilizing mechanism in Poland works and assess
its influence on stability and universities motivation to move towards strategic goals
set by the government.
Research Methodology
Parts of equations in formula-based budget allocation that aim to decrease changes infunding level from year to year are considered to be stabilizing mechanisms. To
examine the principles of stabilizing mechanism in Poland – transmitted factor – weanalyzed the funding formula in detail.
It is assumed that educational system is stable when its’ agents are financially stable.
Universities stability is considered in terms of allocated resources from one year to
the next one. The less volatile are the funding levels of universities the more stable thesystem is. The influence of transmitted factor on stability was assessed throughsimulations based on data from Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Data included information on funding levels of all public universities covered by theformula-based allocation from three consecutive years (2015, 2016 and 2017). We
calculated changes of funding levels and checked the 5. and 10. percentiles. Thechange in the funding level of university that had the 5. percentile result was

1

Transmitted factor in Poland is equal to 0.5. This means that each year half of previous year’s subsidy
is guaranteed and decision made by university have half of the influence power they would have had if
there was no transmitted factor.

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considered to be 5% Value at Risk2 for the certain year (10. percentile as 10% VaR).
To further explore financial stability, we checked how many universities will fall outof boundaries set by governments in Ireland or England depending on different
transmitted factor value.
Simulation based on a probable change in one of the universities dimension (numberof students and the pay-off related to that change) was used to measure the influenceof transmitted factor on motivation. The pay-off was calculated in the first 3 years andfollowing years pay-offs were discounted with 5% rate.
Case of Poland 2015-2017
In Poland universities are rewarded for students taught ( ), professors and academic
staff hired ( ), research that is conducted ( ) and internationalization ( ). The
level of funding is determined by a certain part of previous years funding (transmitted
factor - ) and the remaining part is influence by the dimensions of universities thatwere mentioned (equation 1). Each of the dimensions has a different weight thatreflects the emphasis that government is putting on a certain task.

(1)
If we assume that the weights near the dimensions (components) are constant we canrewrite the equation that I presented as:

(2)
where

is the k-th component with distributed lag in time t given by the formula:(3)
When the equation (1) is re-written in the form of equation (2) and (3) it becomesapparent that the funding calculated for a certain year takes into account all thedecisions affecting components that were made by the university authorities when thealgorithm was in place. Apart from the decisions made by the university starting levelof funding ( ) and the transmitted factor ( ) impact the value of components andthus the level of funding.

2

Value at Risk is interpreted as a maximum possible loss with certain probability in a given time.

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Due to transmitted factor in the formula, each universities decision, good or bad,affects the level of funding not only in the year it was made. Depending on the valueof transmitted factor the effect can be seen in shorter time (for smaller transmitted
factors) and in a longer one (for bigger transmitted factors). To illustrate that (seeFigure 1) we performed a simulation where the components’ values dropped by 30%
in one year. University had seen the negative influence and came back to the previous
state of components’ values. It is visible that eventually the level of funding drifts towhat would be the status quo if no changes were made. The lower the transmitted
factor is the deeper is the downturn, because this year’s decisions has a bigger impact
on the funding level. To make up for the losses there has to be a positive influence to
net out the negative one.

Figure 1. Influence of one-year drop in components values on the level of funding
depending on different transmitted factor. (source: own elaboration)
Transmitted factor as a stability influencer
The higher the transmitted factor is the longer is the time that university has toprepare itself for the changes that are to come. Figure 1. shows also that strength of
the impact on level of funding in certain years after decision was made is dependent
on the value of transmitted factor. Without transmitted factor it would be hard foruniversity to accommodate the decrease in funding level of 30%.
Possible losses are much bigger when the transmitted factor is lower. Table 1. shows
5. and 10. percentile values of year-on-year changes: between 2015 and 2016,
between 2016 and 2017. The 10. percentile change between 2015 and 2016 is 14 113.49 for 0.1 transmitted factor versus positive change of 3 511.06 for 0.9
transmitted factor. This means that in worst 5% cases the universities would be losing
14.1 million PLN or more if the transmitted factor was 0.1. If transmitted factor was
0.9 the chance of losing money would be very low, because the 5. percentile worst
case is still positive. The changes between 2016 and 2017 were even bigger. The
reason for that was the change in the funding formula itself that added the uncertainty
and risk in the environment, so the stability of results was harder to maintain.

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Table 1. Percentiles of changes between years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 depending
on different transmitted factors.
Change between 2016 and 2017
Change between 2015 and(thousands PLN)
2016 (thousands PLN)
Transmitted
10.
factor
5. percentile
percentile
5. percentile
10. percentile
0.1- 22 660.20- 14 576.33- 14 113.49- 10 808.78
0.2- 16 564.39- 10 054.92- 11 343.43- 7 733.67
0.3- 12 543.27- 5 487.07- 8 573.37- 5 569.82
0.4- 8 522.15- 3 727.81- 5 576.47- 3 698.52
0.5- 4 908.39- 1 735.26- 2 352.97- 1 964.07
0.6- 1 353.26- 266.40- 575.17- 251.32
0.7
355.96
1 241.86
168.48705.610.8
1 166.58
2 708.05
259.68
1 433.70
0.9
1 368.14
3 511.06
350.88
1 676.12
Negative changes are limited with high transmitted factors so there is less risk of
universities going bankrupt, but at the same time, positive changes are limited so themotivation to change is influenced as well (see details in the next chapter).
Stabilizing mechanisms used in Ireland and England limit the changes in the funding
level more rigorously than the transmitted factor introduced in Poland. To prove that
we compared the influence that transmitted factor has with the ranges that are
imposed in Ireland and England (Table 2). For 2% range there are many universities
that are below lower band of the range (from 25 with transmitted factor 0.1 to 1 withtransmitted factor 0.9). For the transmitted factor used by Polish government currently(0.5) there are still 18 universities below the band, which is above 25% of public
universities in Poland. For the 5% range the number of universities below the lower
band is significantly smaller (only 5 universities when transmitted factor is 0.5).
Table 2. Number of schools below lower boundary of ranges (2% and 5% from theaverage sector change)transmitted
factor
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
2% range
25
23
23
21
18
15
12
5
1
5% range
13
12
8
5
5
2
1
1
0
Transmitted factor is influencing stability in a different way than the regimes
introduced in Ireland and England. Transmitted factor has an impact on stability ofeach university based on its performance from previous years (stability of single agent
throughout the years) and the regimes are focused on the stability of the systemgenerally. Compared to regimes described, transmitted factor is not forcing
universities that are doing extremely well or have very bad performance to movealong the sector average. Universities are rewarded and penalized for their own
decisions with a specific lag of the effects, but there is no external influence on thefunding level. Transmitted factor seems not to decrease the motivation of theuniversities as strongly, but the exact influence will be further examined.

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Influence of transmitted factor on motivation
The higher is the transmitted factor the lower is the motivation of the universities tomove towards strategic goals set by the government. Figure 2. shows the effects a 1%
increase in number of students has on the funding level in first 3 years and thefollowing years (with use of 5% discount rate). It is visible that for small transmitted
factors pay-off is accumulated in first few years (3 years). We see that the pay-off
received within the first three years is decreasing when the transmitted factor isincreasing. Total pay-off is also diminishing due to discount rate.

Figure 2. Pay-off of 1% increase in student number depending on different
transmitted factor values (source: own elaboration)
Conclusions
The transmitted factor is a very simple, but at the same time efficient, stabilizing
mechanism. The government can change the system quite easily by changing only one
parameter. It is worth noting that the subsidy of each university is performance-based,because even the stable part is based on performance in the past years.
There are limits of the approach that we have taken. The probability of loss wascalculated in a simplistic manner by calculating the 5. or 10. percentile as a reflectionof VaR. Probability of loss could have been estimated by prognosing the trend using
econometrics models that could be more and more sophisticated. Another issue is that
we look at public sector, where the rules that were set and the final result – funding
level - can be changed by the government. It has specific provisions and other toolsthat it can use to change the subsidy for universities (especially those in need).
The above argument motivates new research opportunities regarding stabilizing
mechanisms. Further research should focus on comparing different stabilizing
mechanisms or parameters in other countries to find the most efficient one.

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Referencesde Boer, H. F., Jongbloed, B. W. A., Enders, J., & File, J. M. (2010). Progress inhigher education reform across Europe, Funding reform, Volume 1: Executive
Summary and main report. Enschede: Center for Higher Education Policy Studies(CHEPS).
Estermann, T., Nokkala, T., & Steinel, M. (2011). University autonomy in Europe
II. The Scorecard. Brussels: European University Association.
Estermann, T., Kupriyanova, V., & Pruvot, E. B. (2017). Public Funding Observatory.
Report. Brussels: European University Association.
European University Association. (2008). Financially sustainable universities:
Towards full costing in European universities.
GUS (2017). Higher education institutions and their finances in 2016, Warsaw.
Higher Education Authority (2016). Review of the Allocation Model for Funding
Higher Education Institutions. Working Paper 3: Current HEA Funding Allocation
Model.
Jongbloed, B. (2010). Funding higher education: A view across Europe. Brussels,
ESMU.
Koucký, J. (2013). 1.2. Reforms of Higher Education Funding in the Czech Republic.
Financing and Deregulation in Higher Education, 27.
Maassen, P. (2000). Models of financing higher education in Europe. Center forHigher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS).
McKeown-­‐‑Moak, M. P. (1999). Higher education funding formulas. New directions
for higher education, 1999(107), 99-107.
OECD (2017). Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing,Paris.
Strehl, F., Reisinger, S., & Kalatschan M. (2007). Funding Systems and their Effects
on Higher Education Systems, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 6, OECD
Publishing.
World Bank. (2018). World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize
Education's Promise. Washington, DC: World Bank.

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Polish decrees
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa z dnia 27 marca 2015 r. w sprawie
sposobu podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni publicznych i niepublicznych.
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 7 grudnia 2016 r.
zmieniającym rozporządzenie w sprawie sposobu podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa
dla uczelni publicznych i niepublicznych.
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 11 kwietnia 2017 r. w
sprawie sposobu podziału i trybu przekazywania dotacji podmiotowej na
dofinansowanie zadań projakościowych.
Contact email: ada.cierkowska@gmail.com

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Key Performance Indicators for Higher Education: Lessons from Poland
Katarzyna Błocka, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Tomasz Szapiro, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
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Abstract
It has been argued that quantitative KPIs for academics can create perverse incentives.
By narrowing the attention of academia to measurable outcomes rather than its
broader mission, they can be a distraction from maximizing universities' positive
impact on society. Quantitative assessments are nonetheless required, among others
by governments which finance or co-finance the higher education institutions in many
countries. This work presents an analysis of past regulations concerning theevaluation of universities and their impact on the Polish higher education sector.
Quantitative as well as qualitative aspects are discussed. The results illustrate theGoodhart's law stating :“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a goodmeasure.” However in some aspects the case study of Poland also shows how theabsence of quantitative assessments is likely to result in undesired outcomes.
Keywords: higher education, evaluation, key performance indicators, Goodhart's law

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1. Introduction
Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be defined as (quantitative) performancemeasurements used to evaluate the success of a particular activity (project, program,product) or of an organization, a team, or an individual in fulfilling a task oradvancing in a certain area. Suitable KPIs have the following characteristics: they
cover key strategic goals or areas, and the formulas used to calculate their values havedesired mathematical properties.
Quantitative measurements are used for decision-making processes related to fundingin higher education both by governments as well as students and their families. KPIs
are used in the process of granting government funding to Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) because they are transparent and resistant to bias of the evaluator.
Students and their parents also consult quantitative measures (e.g. rankings) because it
allows them to reduce the complex reality of nearly unlimited educational choices toan understandable figure. The position of a HEI in rankings is also a signaling tool tofuture employers. The interdependence of funding, effects, and evaluation in higher
education is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Funding, evaluation, and effects in higher education. Source: own
elaboration.
Constructing a mathematical model of reality requires simplifications. When these
simplifications are significant and decision-making is based mainly on the model (e.g.
a set of KPIs), the incentives to game the system (or even cheat) are strong. This canbe summarized by the Goodhart’s Law, stating: “When a measure becomes a target, itceases to be a good measure” (Goodhart, 1975). Multiple illustrations of perverse
incentives as well as reports of cheating in the environment of hypercompetition for
funding in academia are provided by Edwards and Roy (2016).

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While Edwards and Roy (2016) argue for regulators to support science by deemphasizing output and instead promoting “altruistic and ethical outcomes”1, we aim
at drafting a framework for assessments of sets of KPIs used for funding, in particularfor government formula-based funding. We apply the preliminary framework toanalyze a case study of Poland, precisely an algorithm used by the Polish government
since 2007 for determining the level of subsidies for didactic and maintenancepurposes2 for public HEIs. Special focus is given to pro-quality KPIs dependent on
the student-staff ratio.
2. Preliminary assessment framework
The problem of assessment of sets of KPIs used for government funding amounts toverifying the two following umbrella hypotheses:
A/ The KPIs are a significant driving force behind the evolution of the higher
education sector (in other words: the higher education sector develops in the
direction set out by the set of KPIs);
B/ The areas not covered by the KPIs used by governments suffer stagnation or
deterioration if government funding is a significant part of HEIs’ revenues.
The framework we propose consists of three stages:
1/ Defining the scope of analysis, 2/ Mathematical ex ante analysis, 3/ Empirical expost analysis.
3. Research methodology
First step of stage 1/ (Defining the scope of analysis) is specifying the subject, i.e.
providing enough criteria that an exact list of HEIs under examination can be
deduced. The group of HEIs should be regulated with the same set of KPIs. The
timeframe of the analysis has to be specified as a second step. It should be a period
when the regulations (set of KPIs) were relatively steady and it should be long enoughfor the HEIs to have enough time to develop adjustment strategies. Next, strategic
goals within the sector need to be identified. They can be sourced from strategic
documents published by the government or the sector’s regulating body. In absence orinsufficiency of such official documents, strategic areas can be indicated by the
researcher through literature review or review of official documents by othercountries. Finally, the KPIs need to be listed. It is crucial to state for which stream ofrevenues the specific set of KPIs is used. The share of the stream in total sector’s
revenues should be indicated or estimated.
The goal of the mathematical ex ante analysis, to be performed as stage 2, is todetermine the direction and strength of incentives implied by KPIs. In most cases, thiscan be performed by analyzing derivative functions of the KPIs’ formulas withrespect to key inputs which are within the HEIs’ control. The structures of incentives
can be divided into four categories:
1

Edwards, M. A., & Roy, S. (2017). Academic research in the 21st century: Maintaining scientific integrity in a climate ofperverse incentives and hypercompetition. Environmental Engineering Science, 34(1), p. 51.
2
The Regulations adopted by the Minister of Science and Higher Education mention that the subsidy is for didactic andmaintenance purposes, however the money is not “tracked”, i.e. the HEIs’ authorities have discretionary powers in allocating thefunds in the best interests of the HEIs.

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Official Conference Proceedings§   Rewarding the progression of a certain area (e.g. the more students participate
in a student exchange abroad, the better),§   Rewarding the elimination of certain actions or events (e.g. the smaller
dropout rate, the better),§   Rewarding reaching a reference level / punishing moving away from areference level (e.g. a reference level of student-to-staff ratio),§   Others: there are endless possibilities of the structure of KPIs’ incentives (e.g.
non-linear, multi-modal functions).
It is important to note that in some cases, assumptions will need to be made becauseof lacking or insufficient data. It is crucial to comment on what these assumptions are
and to what extent they can sensitize the findings.
The last stage (Empirical ex post analysis) aims at tracking the evolution that HEIs
made during the period of time specified by the analysis’ timeframe. Determining towhat extent HEIs did eventually progress in the direction set out by the regulator via
the set the KPIs used for funding allows to verify hypothesis A. Verification of
hypothesis B is more challenging and potentially less conclusive, since it requires
assessment of areas which were in most instances not monitored by national statistical
offices or are simply difficult to measure. Although the findings might be lessconclusive, available information and expert judgment from the sector’s stakeholders
should be taken in consideration.
4. The case study of Poland 2007-2017
Since 2007, Poland has had an algorithmic formula for dividing funds for didactic andmaintenance purposes between public universities. The share of the fund for didactic
and maintenance purposes in all government funding for public universities has been
oscillating between 81% and 86% and its share in total revenues between 55% and63%. The KPIs and their weights used in the funding formula during the period of
2007-2017 are presented in Table 1 and Figure 2, respectively. In an absence of an
official document outlining the strategic objectives of the Polish higher education
system as of 20073, we assume that the KPIs reflected the government’s objectives.
Table 1. KPIs used in the funding algorithm in years 2007 – 2017. Source: own
elaboration.
2007 - 20122013-20142015-20162017 - now
KPIStudents and PhD candidates
1°
KPI
Student exchangeInternationalization
2°
KPI
Academic staff
3°
3

Fulton, O., Santiago, P., Edquist, C., El-Khawas, E., & Hackl, E. (2007). OECD reviews of tertiary education. Danvers, MA:
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Publishing.

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KPI
4°
KPI
5°
KPI
6°

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Research
Certifications to issue diplomas
Sustainable
development

Availability ofacademic staff

Proportional
development ofteachingn/an/aFigure 2. Weights attributed to KPIs (2007-2017). Source: own elaboration.
Since the subsidy has been the dominant source of revenue for Polish public HEIs forover a decade, it is natural to state the hypothesis of the formula’s KPIs having astrong impact on the decision-making of HEIs. This hypothesis can be broke down
into two research questions. First, the KPIs used in the formula are going to beanalyzed critically to verify whether the KPIs effectively incentivize the desired
effects. Second, the choice of key areas and strategic goals will be investigated –whether the pursuit of key areas will satisfy public and private demand.
All KPIs are represented as a fraction:

where
stands for the value of the KPI for i-th HEI, stands for the value of the
KPI-specific nominator of the i-th HEI, and n stands for the total number of HEIs.
Therefore, by definition, the value of any KPI for any HEI has to be within the rangeof [0%;100%], and the value for all HEIs altogether is always 100%.
The KPIs can be categorized into additive and non-additive. The additive KPIs havethe following property:
whereis the value of the KPI-specific nominator of the i-th HEI, andis thevalue of the KPI-specific nominator of the i-th and j-th HEIs, treated as one HEI (as if
the HEIs had been merged). Some KPI-specific nominators will be analyzed in detailbelow.4
We make a simplifying assumption when interpreting the incentive structure of the
KPIs. Instead of taking the derivatives of the KPIs, we only take the derivatives of
4

For more details, please consult the Regulations issued by the Minister of Science and Higher Education (see Literature).

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their nominators. This largely simplifies interpretation as well as calculation, while
the error resulting from the simplification is negligible when dealing with smallchanges. For example, if an i-th HEI increases the value of its nominator by 1% of thedenominator, ceteris paribus, we assume that the KPI of the i-th HEI will also
increase by 1,0%. However, in reality, the KPI of the i-th HEI will increase by 0,99%.
Therefore the error amounts to 0,01%. The smaller the change, the smaller the error.
Since we mostly analyze changes much smaller than 1% of the denominator (e.g.
increasing the number of students by 1% of the denominator would mean increasing
the number of students by more than 60% for an average academic public HEI, whichis unrealistic on a year-to-year basis), the error can be omitted. However, if a casestudy of a specific, especially bigger, HEI was to be analyzed, it should be taken into
account.
4.1. Additive KPIs used in the funding formulas
Additivity of a KPI’s nominator has profound consequences for the structure ofincentives implied by the KPI, as well as the easiness of its interpretation. Values ofadditive KPIs can be calculated not only for individual HEIs but also for subgroups of
HEIs, e.g. polytechnics or schools of economics. This also implies that the absolutechange in the denominator can be interpreted as progress (or regress) of the entire
system.
KPI 1° Students and PhD candidates (2007-2016)
Before 2017, the nominator of the KPI 1° was a weighted sum of stationary5 students
and PhD candidates. HEIs receive pre-defined number of “points” for each: student,
PhD candidate, and foreigner taking preliminary courses to later undertake studies in
Polish. A HEI received between 1 and 3 points for each student, depending on his/herstudy area. Within study areas, PhD candidates are „worth” up to 5 times more points
than bachelor/master students.6 For illustration purposes, the distribution of KPI 1°
values in 2015 are presented in Figure 3.

5

Stationary studies in public HEIs in Poland are free of tuition fee. Public HEIs in Poland are also allowed to offer nonstationary studies; in such a case participants need to pay tuition fees.
6
Some conditions for receiving points were omitted for simplicity. For more details, please consult the Decrees issued by the
Minister of Science and Higher Education (see Literature).

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Figure 3. Distribution of KPI 1° values in 2015 (KPI values of all 67 public academic
HEIs in Poland which were awarded subsidy from the fund for didactic andmaintenance purposes).
Source: own elaboration. Data: Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The derivative function of the nominator with respect to each type of student / PhD
candidate took the following form7:

Therefore, increasing the number of any type of students was beneficial to all HEIs.
This was true both in the case of stationary students and non-stationary students. The
enrollment of non-stationary students are subsidized indirectly: the real costs ofenrolling a non-stationary student in a public HEI are lower than for a private HEI
because the former can utilize to this end the resources (i.e. academic staff,
infrastructure, administration) which are already paid for through public money(including the fund for didactic and maintenance purposes).
Indicating exactly how much money is rewarded for one point in every KPI is notstraightforward. Moreover, it is also only possible to calculate it backwards. Firstly
because the total amount of the fund is different every year, but most importantly
because of the uncertainty surrounding the developments at other HEIs.8
As part of the empirical ex post analysis, we inspect the growth of number of students
and PhD candidates (see Figure 4). The number of (stationary) students increased 9%
during the analyzed decade. This growth occurred while the population of 19-yearolds9 in Poland fell by 33% from 2006 to 2017. Increasing the number of students
when the population of high school graduates is falling is a challenge. In terms of KPI
1°, the same growth can be achieved with either growing the number of students or
PhD candidates and it seems HEIs were much more successful with growing thenumber of PhD candidates (73% increase from 2006 to 2016).

7

Where
stands for the number of students of type i enrolled at a HEI, andstands for the number of points awarded forevery students of type i.
8
In the case of KPI 1° however, the uncertainty stemming from the unpredictability of management decisions by other HEIs was
somewhat reduced in 2013, with the introduction of penalties for increasing the number of stationary students by more than 2%.
In such circumstances, reasonable assumptions can be made about the evolution of the denominator from one year to another.
9
Most Poles are 19-year-old when graduating from high school.

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Figure 4. Estimation of KPI 1° is based on the assumption that PhD candidates areequivalent to 5 students. Source: own elaboration. Data: Central Statistical Office(GUS).
In 2017, a HEI-specific multiplier was added to address the issue of indirect costs
incurred by the enrollment of non-stationary students. Thus the KPI became nonadditive and will be further discussed in the section on non-additive KPIs. However as
the multiplier is applied only after the weighted sum has been calculated, the above
description of the procedure of awarding points still holds.
KPI 2° Student exchange / Internationalization (2007-2017)
In years 2017-2016, HEIs received points for every (own) student or PhD candidate
who participated in a student exchange abroad (1 point), and for every foreign student
or PhD candidate who participated in a student exchange at the HEI (3 points). In
2017, the indicator was renamed to Internationalization. One new category wasadded: 3 points are now awarded for every foreign student or PhD candidate
completing full-cycle studies at the HEI.
Polish public HEIs experienced very rapid internationalization (at least in terms of thestudent body) during the last decade. However, the fact that the growth in number offoreign students was higher at non-public HEIs suggests that the main driving force
behind the internationalization might be the general increasing attractiveness of
Poland as a study destination, not necessarily the incentives implied by KPI 2°.

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Figure 5. The number of international students at public HEIs increased by more than
300% from 2006 to 2016. When non-public HEIs are included, the increase is 460%.
Source: own elaboration. Data: Central Statistical Office (GUS).
KPI 3° Academic staff (2007-2016)
In years 2007- 2016, HEIs received a pre-set number of points for each: full professor,
lecturer with a PhD and a habilitation, lecturer with PhD title only, assistant professor,
foreign visiting professor. As shown on Figure 6, the number of academic staff wasrising until 2011, after which HEIs struggled to increase employment. Full-time
professors were the main driver of growth in KPI 3°.
In 2015, to account for the fact that many academics were being employed by morethan one HEI, points were cut by 50% for all staff for which the HEI was not the
primary employer. In 2017, a HEI-specific multiplier was added. Thus the KPI
became non-additive and will be further discussed in the section on non-additive
KPIs.

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Figure 6. The number of full-time professors at public HEIs increased by 17% from2006 to 2016. Weighted sum of academic staff increased by 3% in the same period.
Source: own elaboration. Data: Central Statistical Office (GUS).
KPI 4° Research (2007-2017)
In years 2017-2012, HEIs received 1 point for each research project carried out by the
HEI and financed (or co-financed) by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
In 2013, the number of points was raised to 2 for international projects. In 2015, theindicator was made much more sophisticated: differentiating between national
projects, international projects, and project financed from Horizon 202010, as well as
between HEIs being leaders or participants of a project. ½ point was awarded for
merely participating in a national project, while 4 points were awarded for HEIs being
leaders of a Horizon 2020 project. Since 2017, the differentiation between leaders andparticipants was abandoned, which might turn beneficial by reducing rivalry for theleader’s role between HEIs.
As the fund is not the sole source of funding for research, the KPI could be also
considered as a proxy for quality of the didactic process at the HEIs since it could beargued that academic staff who is more successful in the dimension of research is alsoable of creating more value in terms of teaching.
KPI 5° Certifications to issue diplomas (2007-2016)
In years 2007-2016, HEIs received: 1 point for each study area in which they werecertified to issue PhD titles, and 2 point for each study area in which they werecertified to issue habilitation tittles. The KPI was dropped in 2017.

10

See: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020 (accessed on March 24th 2018).

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4.2. Non-additive KPIs used in the funding formula
Throughout the analyzed period, one indicator was consistently non-additive: KPI 6°,
which was modified the most times, to be eventually incorporated into KPI 1°(Students and PhD candidates) in 2017, thus making it also non-additive.
The changing names of the KPI have a common denominator: they suggest that theaim of the KPI is to avoid uncontrollable growth of HEIs (Sustainable development,
Proportional development of teaching) by the means of emphasizing healthy
proportions between the number of academic teachers and the number of theirstudents (Availability of academic staff). All variants of the KPI are non-linear
functions of the number of students and PhD candidates, and the number of academic
staff. Therefore for comparability and interpretation purposes, in the analysis of theseformulas we present their derivatives as functions of the SSR. As SSR can beconsidered a proxy for quality of teaching, it is highly likely that the KPI was
intended as a pro-quality measure.
KPI 6° Sustainable development (2007-2012)
The first version of the KPI was calculated according to the following formula:wherestands for the number of professors employed by the i-th HEI,
stands for the number of lecturers employed by the i-th HEI (these two groups aremutually exclusive), andstands for the number of (stationary) students and
PhD candidates enrolled at the HEI.
When taking the derivative of the KPIs nominator, we assume that only professors are
employed11. The KPI-specific nominator can be then represented with the following
formula.

It can be noted that the value of the nominator increases with increasing numbers ofstudents, PhD candidates and professors. The strength of this increase differs
depending on the starting levels of these aggregates, which can be illustrated throughderivative functions.

11

For reasons of simplicity. The simplification does not undermine the findings, since professors are interchangeable withlecturers (a lecturer is worth 3/4 of a professor and a professor is worth 4/3 of a lecturer).

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In the above formulas,i-th HEI.

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stands for student-to-staff ratio at the

The resulting derivative functions are illustrated in Figure 7. The higher the SSR, thehigher the reward for employing a new professor or lecturer. In other words, this KPI
incentivized increasing the body of academic staff more at HEIs which performed
worse in terms of SSR. However it also provided an additional incentive for enrolling
new students, even when the values of SSR was very high. While the non-linear shapeof incentives related to the number of professors is justified, it seems superfluous toprovide additional (even if low) incentives for growing the student body when the
SSR is already very high.

Figure 7. Derivative functions of KPI 6° (Sustainable development, 2007-2012), withrespect to numbers of professors, number of students and PhD candidate, number oflecturers.
KPI 6° Availability of academic staff (2013-2014)
In 2013, the KPI was changed to the following formula, where
stands for thereference student-to-staff ratio which was indicated by the Regulation to be 13.

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To inspect the properties of this rather complex formula, derivatives were taken withregards to the numbers of students and professors.

Then, the positivity/negativity of the derivative function was further inspected inorder to determine which actions of HEIs were rewarded and which were punished bythis version of KPI 6°.

Figure 8. Derivative function of KPI 6° (Availability of academic staff, 2013-2014),
with respect to numbers of professors. Assumed values of students
(
) and
= 13.
Source: own elaboration.

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The name of the KPI (Availability of academic staff) turned out to be somewhat
contradictory to the properties of the function. First of all, increasing the number ofstudents was always rewarded – although in reality it decreases the availability ofacademic staff. At the same time, increasing the number of academic staff is only
rewarded when the HEI’s SSR exceeds the reference level. When a HEI has highavailability of academic staff (less than 13 students per professor), there is apunishment for increasing availability (as illustrated in Figure 8).
The contradictory name of the KPI and properties of this version of the KPI suggeststhat either the Ministry was in fact targeting a specific student-staff ratio (instead ofjust lower SSRs), or it was simply a mistake on behalf of the author of the KPI’s
formula.
KPI 6° Proportional development of teaching (2015-2016)
In year 2015-2016, the KPI was again changed to a formula strongly resembling the
one from 2007-2012. The new nominator took the following form.

The most important differences between Sustainable development and Proportional
development of teaching is that the latter takes into account all academic staff (notonly the senior staff, i.e. professors and lecturers), differentiating only between fulltime staff employed at the i-th HEI () and part-time staff ().
These changes were introduced to address the growing problem of double
employment. This issue was also simultaneously addresses in KPI 3° Academic staff.
Some issues were still unresolved however. Most importantly, as HEIs use publicresources for both stationary and non-stationary programs, non-stationary programs
are being subsidized indirectly. While this is not necessarily a negative thing, notaccounting for non-stationary students in the KPIs distorts the result. These issues
were finally addressed in 2017, when KPI 6° was incorporated into KPI 1°.
KPI 1° Students and PhD candidates (2017)
In 2017, a new multiplier called ‘indicator of didactic availability’ ( ) was
introduced to KPI 1°. The nominator for each HEI is now calculated according to thefollowing formula.

The indicator is a function of SSR, where m is the HEI-specific SSR and takes into
account both stationary and non-stationary students. M is the reference SSR, set to be
13 for academic public HEIs. The indicator does not differentiate the HEIs whichhave better SSR than 13 but strongly affects the HEIs which exceed the reference
level (see formula below and Figure 9).

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Figure 9. Indicator of didactic availability. Source: own elaboration.
KPI 3° Academic staff (2017)
In 2017, a multiplier called ‘indicator of academic potential’ was introduced to KPI
3°. Its calculation bases on academic categories which are assigned by the Committee
for the Evaluation of Scientific Units. As such, it is a purely pro-quality indicator. The
new HEI-specific nominator is calculated according to the following formula (stands for indicator of academic potential).
4.3. Pro-quality measures introduced in 2017
In 2017, a pro-quality stream was introduced in the funding-formula. The funds fromthis stream are awarded for two types of achievements. The first one is for
departments with a stationary program which received a merit grade from the State
Accreditation Committee. A non-intuitive feature of this reward is that the level of theaward depends on the number of all students enrolled in the department.12 The
second is awarded for newly-enrolled students who scored a maximum of points at
the maturity exams. If a Student A scores a maximum of points in three elective
subjects and Student B in one elective subject, the HEI will receive three times moremoney for enrolling Student A.13
4.4. Discussion
From the beginning, the funding formula stressed the quantitative dimension of higher
education. In all linear KPIs, increasing the scale of activity was always rewarded,even if weights were in place in order to differentiate between e.g. international andnational research projects. After a decade, the empirical analysis confirms that HEIs
were doing their best to increase the scale of their activity even in an environment of a
12

Therefore if Department A has one program with a merit grade and 100 enrolled in it, it will receive the same amount as
Department B which has two programs in total, with 10 student enrolled in the program with a merit grade and 90 students
enrolled in the other program.
13
HEIs typically require one or two elective subjects to be passed at the maturity exams.

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demographic decline. Unfortunately, this approach proved to be rather unproductive.
While the denominator of KPI 1° increased during the period (mainly due to thedrastic increase of PhD students), the enrollment rate in tertiary education did notincrease over the period (net enrolment rate was 38% in the academic year 2005/2006
and 37% in 2016/2017)14.
In the meantime, the significance of Polish higher education sector on theinternational arena does not seem to have risen significantly. Only two Polish HEIs
are included in the Top 500 list of the Shanghai Ranking (University of Warsaw andJagiellonian University) and both have been oscillating between the 300th and 450th
placements.15
5. Conclusions
KPI-based funding is a practical way of distributing funding for HEIs. It allows theregulator to make funding-allocation decisions without the need to discuss andnegotiate with each of the 69 HEIs individually16. However it comes with challenges,
and the case study of Poland illustrates many of them.
The most important lesson which can be derived from the Polish experience is that asmaller set of more sophisticated KPIs is more effective than a bigger set of simpler
KPIs. Dropping KPI 5° (which did not serve any strategic objective) andincorporating the student-to-staff ratio into KPI 1° (Student and PhD candidate) werepositive steps towards making the set of KPIs clearer and strengthening its impact on
the shape of the sector of academic public HEIs in Poland. The proposed assessment
framework has led us successfully in analyzing the case study of Poland, but of course
it has some limitations, most importantly the costs associated with the incentivized
actions have not been taken into account.
The challenge that the Polish regulator is facing is to effectively incentivize theincrease in quality and importance of the Polish higher education sector. In that sense,
the demographic decline can be seen as an opportunity for the HEIs, not a threat.
However, the presented case study illustrates how strong of an inspiration the KPIs
used in the funding formula are for HEIs. Therefore true quality measures are needed
to incentivize HEIs to grow in that dimension. SSR is itself a proxy and so is thesecond pro-quality measure introduced in 2007 (see Section 4.3.)
Further research should focus on what would be suitable measurements of quality. In
the context of the Polish higher education sector, developing more KPIs assessing
output instead of input would be desirable. That presents a challenge, as output ofhigher education is more difficult to measure in comparison to input. In 2016, thePolish government launched Polish Graduate Tracking System, which aims atmonitoring careers of graduates by merging employment and enrollment data. This

14

Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2017). Higher Education Institutions and their Finances in 2016. Statistical information andelaborations. Warszawa: Central Statistical Office.
15
http://www.shanghairanking.com, accessed on March 24th 2018.
16
69 public academic HEIs received the subsidy from the fund for didactic and maintenance purposes in 2017, 67 HEIs in 2015
and 2016.

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data provides significant research opportunities, however it will probably take time
before the results can be incorporated to funding formulas.

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Regulations adopted by the Minister of Science and Higher Education
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 2 kwietnia 2007 r. w
sprawie zasad podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni publicznych i
niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 9 maja 2008 r. w
sprawie zasad podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni publicznych i
niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 9 kwietnia 2010 r.
zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie zasad podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla
uczelni publicznych i niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 25 maja 2011 r.
zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni
publicznych i niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 8 lutego 2012 r. w
sprawie sposobu podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni publicznych i
niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 20 lutego 2013 r.
zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni
publicznych i niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa z dnia 27 marca 2015 r. w sprawie
sposobu podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa dla uczelni publicznych i niepublicznych
Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dnia 7 grudnia 2016 r.
zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie sposobu podziału dotacji z budżetu państwa
dla uczelni publicznych i niepublicznych
Central Statistical Office (GUS), Statistical information and elaborations
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Finances in 2007. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2009). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2008. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.

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Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2010). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2009. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2011). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2010. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2012). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2011. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2013). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2012. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2014). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2013. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2015). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2014. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2016). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2015. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2017). Higher Education Institutions and their
Finances in 2016. Statistical information and elaborations. Warszawa: Central
Statistical Office.
Contact email: kjblocka@gmail.com, tszapiro@gmail.com

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Roles of Administrators in Supporting to Science Study for Basic Education ofSecondary Educational Office Bangkok
Sansanee Jasuwan, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
Nonlanee Chernviriyakul, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
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Abstract
The purposes of this research were to study factors that affects the development ofscience study and the roles of administrators in supporting science study in basic
education of Secondary Educational Office Bangkok. The sampling groups are theschool directors and head of science departments or science teacher of secondary
educational office Bangkok total 400 questionnaires and 15 person for interview. The
research tools were interview form and 5-level questionnaires. Statistic tools used inanalysis are frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, factor analysis andcontent analysis. The results of the study were as follows: 1) Factors that influence
the development of science study were the education institute, scientific skills, course
management, and student factors. 2) Role of administrators in supporting sciencestudy are 2.1 manage course to efficiently improve scientific learning skills by
focusing on learning activities and teaching innovation in accordance to scientificlearning skills, problem solving skills, and analytical skills of students. 2.2 develop
students' competencies along with science course management in relevance tomeasurement and evaluation. 2.3 design course by focusing on knowledge application
skills so that students have scientific attitude and scientific learning skills to apply indaily life and 2.4 to give importance and encourage science study course
continuously.
Keywords: Roles of administrators, Science Study, Basic Education

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Introduction
Science is important roles in our lives and work, because nowadays science is relevant
to everyone in everyday, as well as the technology, tools, appliances and productivity.
These are the result of scientific knowledge to combine with creativity and otherscience. Science has helped mankind develop the ideas, thinking, creative, criticalthinking, skills of research, problem solving systematically with a variety of
information. (Ministry of Education, 2008, Online)
At present, scientific and technological progress is widespread and rapid. It is also atool to raise the standard of living of the people. Knowledge of science also enhances
economic development and competition in the world. One of the important elements
is the education that prepares people for society, science and technology, both for the
producer and the consumer. It is reliable (Ministry of Education, 2008, p. 92). The
future development of the country depends on knowledgeable people. Scientific andtechnological capabilities must be considered that cultivate interest in science is themost important.
Basic science learning learn to understand, appreciate and see the importance of
nature and environment. The study of Thai children is worrisome. The averageknowledge of Thai children is weakened, especially in the education of science. The
quality of the output is not required by the labor market and the global community.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) data, a total of 144 countries haveindicated the quality of basic education in Thailand. leading to the 31st rank in theworld and third in ASEAN, behind Singapore.
In terms of quality of basic education in Thailand, 2014 was 7th ranked in ASEAN(6th ranked in 2013) and the quality of the higher education system 8th ranked,
although mathematical capabilities - science is quite good at 5th ranked. When
analyzing that, Thailand is the third richest country in ASEAN (GDP per capita). But
poorer countries can better manage their education.
The reason and support mentioned above. It's time for Thai children to improve theirskills and develop their learning process, to step up to be the leading alternative to thelabor market in the future. Assessments have raised the standard of quality ofeducation. The learning process will necessarily involve the involvement of bothpublic and private sectors in the skills needed to develop. Thai children, by way ofarrangement, learning and teaching, the environment, attitude change, skills andprocesses will be change and develop of full potential learning that is essential to thelearning process of students who are the future of the nation in preparation forrecognition in the regional and global labor market.
Objectives
1) to study factors that affects the development of science study in basic education ofSecondary Educational Office Bangkok.
2) to study the roles of administrators in supporting science study in basic educationof Secondary Educational Office Bangkok.

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Methodology
The population used in this study was the school directors and head of science
departments or science teacher of secondary educational office Bangkok. The sample
size of this study were 400 for questionnaires and 15 person for interview. The
instruments used in this research were 1) questionnaire consisting of 4 topics, namely,
the teaching and learning management of science teachers. The questionnaire isdivided into 3 episodes, part 1: on the general status of the respondents, part 2:
discusses the factors influencing science teaching, it is a 5-level rating scale 80 items,
part 3: attitudes towards the learning process in science education in basic education,
under the Office of the Secondary Education Service Area Bangkok. 2) interview
form about the roles of administrators in supporting science study.
Data collection, for the convenience of collecting data, 410 questionnaires were sent
to sampling and the 400 questionnaires were returned, accounting for 97.56%.
Statistic tools used in analysis are frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation,
Pearson's Product Correlation Coefficient, Content Analysis, And Confirmation
Analysis. Confirmation factor analysis by using LISREL program.
Research results
The current status of science teaching practice management was found to be inaccordance with the four science-based teaching principles consists of course
management factor, student factor, education institute factor and scientific skills
factor. In each factor, there were 2 sub factors in each, course management factor
consist of science learning management, learning activity arrangement, andmeasurement and assessment criteria. Student factor consist of learner competency,
science attitude and skill from science learning. Education institute factor consist ofrole of school principle, learning center and curriculum. Scientific skills factor consistof skill of problem solving, synthesis analysis skill and knowledge skills applied
consecutively.
The state of teaching science in basic education in secondary education, Bangkok The
results are shown in the following table.
Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of factors affecting the development of teachingskills in science. In the management of basic secondary education. In the whole of
Bangkok.
Factors affecting skill development.
S.D.
Meaning
Instructional Science
Course management factor
4.11
.481
high
Student factor
4.01
.565
high
Education institute factor
4.13
.496
high
4.23
Scientific skills factor
.361
high
Total
4.12
.424
high
From the table 1, it was found that the factors affecting the development of teachingskills in science in the management of basic secondary education in Bangkok, theoverall was high ( =4.12,S.D.=.424).Scientific skills factor was at the high level( =4.23,S.D.=.361). Education institute factor was at the high level

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Official Conference Proceedings=4.13,S.D.=.496). Course management factor was at the high level = 4.11, S.D. =.481) and student factors was at the high level ( = 4.01, S.D. = .565) respectively.
Table 2 : Results of the relationship analysis of factors affecting the development ofteaching skills in science, in the management of basic secondary education, in
Bangkok.
Factors affecting skill
CourseStudent Education
Scientificdevelopment.
management
factorinstituteskills factor
Instructional Science
factorfactorCourse management factor
1.000
.809
.814
.646
Student factor
Education institute factor
Scientific skills factor** statistically significant at 0.01.

1.000

.721
1.000

.578
.737
1.000

From the table, it was found that Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (r)of factors influencing the development of teaching skills in science, in the
management of basic secondary education, in the metropolitan area, course
management factor have a positive relationship at a high level with the education
institute factor, the correlation coefficient is .814. There is a high level of positive
relationship with student factors, the correlation coefficient is .809 and the Education
institute factor have a positive relationship at a high level with scientific skills factors,
the correlation coefficient was .737. Student factor have a positive relationship at ahigh level with the Education institute factor, the correlation coefficient is .721.
Course management factor have a positive relationship at a high level with scientificskills factor, the correlation coefficient is .646 and the student factor have a positive
relationship at a high level with scientific skills factor, the correlation coefficient was.578, respectively, at the 0.01 level of significance.

Figure 2 The results of hypothesis analysis.

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The causal models of direct correlation coefficients are (1) the education institutefactor and the observation variable in three variables, namely, the curriculum(SCHOOL1), the learning center (SCHOOL2) and The role of school principle(SCHOOL3) (2) Scientific skills factor (SKILL) the internal observation variables of
the three variables: namely skill of problem solving, synthesis analysis skill andknowledge skills applied consecutively SKILL1, SKILL2 and SKILL3. (3) the course
management factor with 3 observation variables, namely, science learning
management, learning activity arrangement, and measurement and assessment criteria
TEACH1, TEACH2, TEACH3.
From the picture, the causal models of direct correlation coefficients are (1)SCHOOL1, SCHOOL2 and SCHOOL3. (2) SKILL and TEACH3 direct to SKILL1,
SKILL2 SKILL3 (3) TEACH direct to TEACH1, TEACH2, TEACH3 and TEACH3
are also directly related to SKILL1 and (4) STUDENT factors direct to STUDENT1,
STUDENT2 and SKILL. In addition, there is a direct correlation between TEACH1
and TEACH3 and have a direct correlation with SKILL3.
Role of administrators in supporting science study in basic education of Secondary
Educational Office Bangkok for the development of science learning skills in basic
education management at the secondary level in Bangkok are as follows.
1) Learning management can increase students' ability to learn science effectively
organized by the focus on activities and design learning. Related to the skill oflearning science. Problem solving skills (1) to focus on the practical experience oflearning by doing and self-learning; (2) to undertake the inquiry-based learning (3)collaborative learning for greater knowledge sharing. (4) Project-based learning. (5)Problem-based learning (PBL). (6) Brain-based learning. (7) Learning managementand (8) educational management focusing on the integration of science, technology,
engineering And mathematics (STEM), focusing on the use of knowledge to solve
real life problems.
2) Develop students' competencies along with teaching and learning science wererelated to measurement and evaluation.
3) Teaching and learning management focuses on the application of knowledge give
students a scientific attitude and the skills of learning science can be used in daily life.
Guidelines for the management of science teaching students are effective. This isbecause of different learners. (1) Teachers focus on the importance of the learner orindividually. (2) Focus on the students to get the most out of the practical experience.
(3) Group the students to practice together. They are divided into different groups forstudents with different aptitudes. (4) Flexible learning management. (5) Provide avariety of modern issues related to the daily life of the students. (6) Focus on practicalexamination rather than theoretical. (7) Use modern teaching materials. (8) Ask
questions and engage students in teaching and learning activities. (9) Reduce learning
time, learn time in activities that are appropriate for students.
Guidelines for developing science skills. (1) To encourage the production of teaching
and learning materials that are more modern and diverse. (2) Promote thedevelopment and examination of scientific experimentation equipment and (3)develop research resources access to the media or teaching resources is easy.

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Conclusion and Discussions
1) Factors that influence the development of science study were the education
institute, scientific skills, course management, and student factors. 2) Role ofadministrators in supporting science study are 2.1 manage course to efficiently
improve scientific learning skills by focusing on learning activities and teachinginnovation in accordance to scientific learning skills, problem solving skills, andanalytical skills of students. 2.2 develop students' competencies along with science
course management in relevance to measurement and evaluation. 2.3 design course by
focusing on knowledge application skills so that students have scientific attitude andscientific learning skills to apply in daily life and 2.4 to give importance andencourage science study course continuously.
Acknowledgements
The research was conducted under the policy of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
The researcher would like to thanks to thanks Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University,
the Music Department, the Educational Administration Department and more
importantly, Assoc. Prof. Dr.Saieewan Dubpavasu and all of faculty members of thedepartments.

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References
Ministry of Education. (2008). Basic Education Core Curriculum, Bangkok : Ministryof Education.
Boonlar, Tapana. (2002). The quality of education for excellent performance. 2002
"Vision for the World Building” Journal of King Mongkut's University of Technology
North Bangkok, 40, 3 (19-22)
Sirichankaew, Pramoul, translated and adapted from Bronoski (1978), Diederich(1967), and Whaley & Surratt (1967). “Scientific attitude” The Kansas School
Naturalist Journal, Vol. 35, No.4, April 1989.
Pramahaboonseamtummatinno, (2011), Factors and effectiveness of academic
administration. Naratiwat School, Suntanont School, Samutprakarn Educational
Service Area Office, District 1, Master of Buddhist Studies Educational
Administration, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University.
Thechakulp, Pimpan, (2006). Student-centered instruction. Bangkok: The Master
Group Management.
Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology, Ministry of
Education (1995). Annual Report 1995 Institute for the Promotion of Teaching
Science and Technology (IPST). Bangkok: Institute for the Promotion of Teaching
Science and Technology Ministry of Education.
Contact email: sansanee.ja@ssru.ac.th, Kitty7-11@outlook.co.th

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Trend to Development Learning and Teaching for Music Student to Become Music
Business Owners
Yutakorn Sarikkaganon, Suansunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
This research is qualitative research collecting data by in-depth interview with four
entrepreneurs from music store in Bangkok to study instrument type, musicalequipment, as well as the individuality qualities or personality for a good music
entrepreneur, and guidelines for developing curriculum in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat
University for this to be a career focus for bachelor degree students.
The research results trend to development learning and teaching materials forbachelor degree students at SSRU. To be music entrepreneur, it was found thatstudent should play various basic musical instruments and should be able todemonstrate sound knowledge to customers , able to define in each musicalinstrument and each equipment such as wind , brass , string , percussion andKeyboard instrument include music equipment such as mouthpiece , reed , string ,peg. In depth knowledge of each instrument is required, along with IT ability, and theskill to communicate effectively in English, honest and punctual.
Keywords: Music entrepreneur, Music student, Bachelor, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat
University

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1.Introduction
The present there are many universities in Thailand had to focus on musical subject
and opened to the bachelor’s degree majors in many universities, the popular musicalsubject in Thailand today are four major branches is a music composition, music
performance, music education and musicology. (by this detail) Music composition
can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the processof creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called
composer. Music performance in the performing art generally comprises an event inwhich a performer or group of performers present one or more work of art to an
audience. Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching andlearning of music. It touches on all learning domains, including the psychomotor
domain (the development of skills), the cognitive domain (the acquisition ofknowledge), and, in particular and significant ways, the affective domain (thelearner's willingness to receive, internalize, and share what is learned),
including music appreciation and sensitivity. Music training from preschool throughpost-secondary education is common in most nations because involvement with music
is considered a fundamental component of human culture and behavior. Music, likelanguage, is an accomplishment that distinguishes humans as a species.
Musicology is the scholarly analysis of, and research on, music, a part of humanities.
A person who studies music is a musicologist and musicology study about classicalmusic or western music. The department of music of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat
University under the faculty of fine and applied art had the curriculum for bachelor ismusic performance in the performing art generally comprises an event in which a
performer or group of performers present one or more work of art to an audience. It
shown the students study them major instrument but music establishments must know
many kinds of music and how to teach student have ability in various of music. For
developing curriculum in the future.

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2. Objectives- Study the good characteristics for music student to be music establishments.
- To propose the way for curriculum development from learning to working.
3. Methodology
This research is qualitative research, collecting data by in-depth interview with four
entrepreneurs from music company in Bangkok include:
PMS Music Academy ( Central Plaza Pinklao Bkk.)

The Band Music School company ( Karnjana-Pisek Rd. Bkk.)

YAMAHA Music Company ( Pratumwan District Bkk.)

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Melody Plus School of Dance and Music ( Central Plaza Bkk.)

Data analysis is based on analyzing qualitative data by synthesizing four places
entrepreneur by the topic how to prepare students to become music establishments orentrepreneur in the future. For developing curriculums to standard specification at our
department of music by summarizing the interview.
4. Results
The research results found that individuality ,qualities and personality match with acareer about music establishments was:
-   Should play a various basic musical instrument particular popular instrument suchas Guitar, Piano and Percussion at least able demonstration to customer.
-   Able define identity in each musical instrument and each equipment.
-   Able communicate effectively in English with foreign customer at least the priceand instruction in each instrument or equipment.
-   IT ability such as grouping product or searching big data by website.
Realize honest and punctual to customer.
5. Conclusion
This research is qualitative research, collecting data by in-depth interview in fourestablishments in Bangkok from the entrepreneur of them, for studying the goodcharacteristics to be music worker or music entrepreneur to be adjusting curriculum inthe future.

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References
Suan sunandha rajabhat university. 2011 Curriculum. suan sunandha rajabhat
university
Office of the Higher Education Commission. Thai Qualifications Framework forHigher Education; TQF: HEd B.E. 2552 Source:http://www.mua.go.th/users/tqfhed/Bansomdejchaopraya rajabhat university. 2011 Curriculum. bansomdejchaopraya
rajabhat university - Chankasem rajabhat university. 2011 Curriculum. chankasem
rajabhat university
Contact email: Yutakorn.sa@ssru.ac.th

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Pipat Ensemble Management for Music Teacher in Secondary School
Prasan Briboonnanggoul, Suansunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
The objective of this qualitative research was to study about Pipat ensemble for musicteacher in secondary school in skill and knowladge. The research tool was an in-depth
interview of music teacher in secondary school. The samples in this research include
17 persons who were a music teacher in secondary school in Bangkok. The results ofthe study revealed that skill and knowledge which important in Pipat ensemble formusic teacher in secondary school management consist of 1. Basic knowledge foreach music instrument in Pipat ensemble such as Ra-Nad Ake, Ra-Nad Tum, KongWong Yai, Pee Nai, Ta Poon etc. 2. Understand in the piece that used in various
festivals, for example: wedding ceremony, ordination ceremony, and house warming
ceremony 3. Understand how to control the Pipat ensemble, especially main melody
and rhythm.
Keywords: Pipat ensemble, Music teacher, Secondary schooliafor
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Introduction
Thailand is a prosperous nation for a long time. To accumulate and transfer value ofThai wisdom to the present. Many values represent the national identity, especially,
the arts, culture, performances and music. Thai music is a cultural expression thatreflects one's way of life. Most of Thai people societies are fun, calm, and polite inpractice. Music has been developing for a long time and help to society in many
ways worldwide.
Now, the society, economy, politic, and entertainment aredeveloping and getting bigger. Thai music qualified for all four categories. There arethree kind of Thai music ensemble;
1)  Pipat Ensemble

2) Krueng Sai Ensemble

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Mahori Ensemble

One of the most important is Pipat ensemble. Pipat ensemble takes the important rolein Thai society many different ways, such as, the birth ceremony or the death ritual.
In Education, the importance of development and conservation is recognized in both
inside or outside the education system. There are Thai music classes in the Pipat
Band from elementary school to higher education. Therefore, the teaching anddevelopment of Thai music ability in the Pi Pat band are the things the be in concern
and paying attention.
Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to improve skills and the Pipat ensemble
management. For the instructor, who in are in class need to be qualitative andconsistent with particular knowledge of the high school levels. They need to alsopreserves and develops the national culture of music.
Objective
The objective of this qualitative research was to study about the skill and knowledge
in Pipat ensemble management for music teacher in secondary school.
Methodology
The research tool was an in-depth interview of music teacher in secondary school.
The samples in this research are including 17 persons that were a music teacher insecondary school in Bangkok.
Scope Question for Interview
1) Skill and knowledge in Pipat ensemble for music teachers2) Pipat ensemble management for music teacher in secondary school

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Conclusion and Discussion
The results of the study revealed that skills and knowledge, which important in Pipat
ensemble management for music teacher in secondary school that consist of :1. Basic knowledge for each music instrument in Pipat ensemble such as- Ra-Nad Ake- Ra-Nad Tum- Kong-Wong Yai- Pee Nai
- Ta Poon etc.
2. Understand the song that used in various festivals, for example: wedding ceremony,ordination ceremony and house warming ceremony
3. Understand how to control the Pipat ensemble, especially the main melody and therhythm, which are part of Pipat ensemble management for music teacher in secondary
school, such as topic as followed;
1)Teaching musical instruments in Pipat ensemble
2)Teaching music rhythm3)Teaching Thai music theory4)To manage Pipat ensemble5)To perform in other opportunity
Acknowledgements
Prasarn Boriboonnanggoul thanks Suansunandha Rajabhat University for financial
support for the research project

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References
Sangat, P. (1989). Thai classical music and the leading way to Thai classical music
Ruenkeawkanphim publishing, Bangkok.
Thai identity promotion project. Ministry of Education, Bangkok.
Montri, T. (1984). Shining moon: Thai classical music life of Montri Tramoth.
Ruenkeaw kanphim Publishing, Bangkok.
Suraphol, Wirunrak. (1979). Likay. Suwankanphim publishing.
Office of the Higher Education Commission. Thai Qualifications Framework forHigher Education; TQF: HEd B.E. 2552 Source:http://www.mua.go.th/users/tqf-hed/
Briboonnanggoul, P. (2016). Thai Music Activities Supported Learning Outcome I
dfklajaSuan sunandha rajabhat university. 2011
Curriculum. suan sunandha rajabhat university.
Contact email: Prasan.br@ssru.ac.th

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Technique of Thai Singing for Thai MusiciansPansak Vandee, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to conduct a study of Thai Singing technique formusician. The research tool was an interview by question which was created by the
researcher. The question in the interview sought information on their viewpoints
concerning the importance of Thai Singing technique for musician. The samples ofthis research used were 15 Thai musicians.
The results of the research revealed that the important technique were comprised of
1.Knowing piece in the various type of music such as: Plang Tab, Plang Taoi, Plang
Pasa, Plang for literature play etc. 2.Understand in Thai music rhythm, For example:
Ching and Na Tub, Plang Sarm Chan, Plang Song Chan and Plang Chan Deaw
3.Knowing about skill for singing “Auan” style (Auan style is voicing in melody
switch with lyrics 4.Understanding in Thai singing skill, such as singing punctuation,breathing and falsetto etc.
Keywords: Thai singing, Thai musicians, Thai songiafor
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Introduction
Thai music is the one of culture in Thailand. There are many kinds of Thai music,
include instruments, bands, and songs. There are 4 groups of instruments and a lot of
instruments in each group, for example, Jakae, Pin, Krajubpi are string instrumentsthat play by picking, Saw Dueng, Saw-U, Saw Sam Sai are string instruments thatplay by using bow, Ranad, Kong are percussion instruments that play by hit it, Klui
play by blowing, etc.
There are 3 ensembles in Thai bands : Pipat, Krung Sai and Mahori. Pipat include
percussion instruments, Krung Sai Pipat include string instruments and Mahoriibclude all kinf of instruments.
There are a lot of Thai Music Song form such as Plang Tub, Plang Taow, Plang
Phasa, and Plang for literature play. In each songs, if the songs are melody and poem,the musician must expert in playing and singing that songs. Thai singing musician
must know many technique in perform that is important to study Technique of Thaisinging for Thai musicians.
Objectives
1) to conduct a study of Thai Singing style in Thai songs form2) to study technique and methods of singing for musician
Methodology
This research is Qualitative Research. This study collected data by in-depth interview
from Thai music teachers and Thai singing musicians totally 15 persons to be selectedby specific persons who has experience in Thai singing more than 10 years.
Scope of questions include : Thai songs form, Thai music rhythm, Technique of Thaisinging and how to sing well.
Research results
Thai songs form consist of Plang Tub, Plang Taow, Plang Phasa, Plang for literatureplay etc. Plang Tub is the set of songs that combine many songs together by playing
each song continuous. In each Plang Tub was selected the songs from goal of Plang
Tub that can be 2 or 3 songs to more than 10 songs. Plang Taow are the song of manyrhythm by starting from slow rhythm to fast rhythm. Plang Phasa are many style ofnature, for example : Lao, China, etc. Plang for literature play are the song for playing
performance.
There are 2 kinds of musical instruments : Ching and Klong (drum). The pattern ofThai music rhythm (basic rhythm) are 3 chan, 2 chan and Chan deaw. 3 chan is slow
rhythm, 2 chan is faster than 3 chan and chan deaw is faster than 2 chan. Drum have 2
rhythmic pattern that call Na Tub consist of Prob Kai and Song Mai.

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Figure 1 Ching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5ADF6EIHG4

Figure 2 Klong (Ton Rummana)
https://www.pantipmarket.com/mall/sapaya/?node=products&id=288291
There are a lot of special Technique of Thai Singing Style, for example “Auen”. The
sound for “Auen” are au, aui, aung,etc. that is a technique of pronunciation in Thaimusic. The melody of Thai song are difference in song form, so singing musiciansmust know the melody and understand in each song for singing style. More than that,the poem for singing are very difficult language, singing musicians must have clear
punctuation so that it can be melodious and combination between Auan and melody.
For singing clear and correct, Thai musician used note for learning and practice. Note
for singing are very specific more than the other note of instruments.

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   Figure 3 Note of singing melody
   http://58.181.147.16/bitstream/ssruir/348/1/068-53.pdt.pdf

Conclusion
The results of the research revealed that the important technique were comprised of
1.Knowing piece in the various type of music such as: Plang Tab, Plang Taoi, Plang
Pasa, Plang for literature play etc. 2.Understand in Thai music rhythm, For example:
Ching and Na Tub, Plang Sarm Chan, Plang Song Chan and Plang Chan Deaw
3.Knowing about skill for singing “Auan” style (Auan style is voicing in melody
switch with lyrics 4.Understanding in Thai singing skill, such as singing punctuation,breathing and falsetto etc.
Language are important in singing, Thai singing musician must know Thai music very
well, must have skill about pronunciation, singing melody, and understanding insinging punctuation, breathing, emotion and falsetto etc.

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Discussion
Thai musicians must know about Thai songs, all of Plang Tab, Plang Taoi, Plang
Pasa, Plang for literature play, Thai Music Rhythm and technique of Thai singing.
Thai singing musicians must know about identity of Thai music, more than that, theystudied about Thai words, intonation mark, pitch in Thai language and Thai singing
musicians must must know the emotion of the songs, must sing “Auen” in many
pattern and practice a lot in everyday.
Acknowledgement
The research was conducted under the policy of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
The researcher would like to thanks Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, the Music
Department, and more importantly, Asst. Prof. Dr.Sansanee Jasuwan and all of faculty
members of the music departments.

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References
Ching. (2018). Figure 1 Ching. Onlinr avialable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5ADF6EIHG4
Klong, (2018) Figure 2 Klong (Ton Rummana). Onlinr available
https://www.pantipmarket.com /mall/sapaya/?node=products&id=288291
Royal Academy. (2006). Thai Encyclopedia of Thai Music. Music History Singe.
Bangkok: T Film Company Limited.
Vandee, Pansak. (2014). The analysis of Krue Luen SunTharawatin ’s tableau vivant
singing style. Bangkok : Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
Vandee, Pansak. (2015). Thai vocal musicians in Ratanakosin Period. Bangkok :Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
Tramod, Montre and Kulatun, Wichien, (1980). Listen and Understand Thai Music.
Bangkok: Thai Kham Printing House.

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Research into Metaphor-type Art Teaching
Yuan-Lung Yu, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Ming-Chang Wu, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
In the description of metaphor, the western Metaphor Theory is applied to the word“the wicker swaying in the wind is the lithe and graceful dance” and its allusion istransformed into linguistic phenomenon in the idiom, but it implies the moremeaningful mental phenomena (Wang, 2011). The means of metaphor is used as theart teaching mode and it is expected that the art has the function of conveying
thematic meaning and artistic conception by virtue of “metaphor” in rhetoric.
This research adopted literature exploration method to discuss Metaphor Theory andrhetoric and applied questionnaire survey to analyze the effect of students in Art
Department on metaphor-type creative teaching. The research objectives are shown as
below: possibility to apply Conceptual Metaphor Theory to art teaching.
1. To research Conceptual Metaphor Theory and analyze the possibility to apply
Conceptual Metaphor theory to art teaching.
2. To set up the teaching method where visual elements are converted into creation
contents.
3. To apply the figures of speech of metaphor to develop art teaching mode having themetaphor effect.
The method where visual elements are converted into creation contents is sought fromthe metaphor and combination skills and the combination contains the creation
methods of concept formation, material expression and symbolic implication to
construct the metaphor art form constituted by tenor, vehicle and comparative word.
This innovative teaching method integrating metaphor and combination should havethe innovative significance to art teaching and creation.
Keywords: Metaphor, Art teaching, ceramic, creation, rhetoriciafor
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Introduction
Due to the rapid development of science and technology and the development of theInternet and mobile technology, student’s learning is no longer limited to classroom
teaching. According to the investigation by PEW research center, during the period
from September 12 to September 18, 2014, into 1,066 users who are over 18 years old
and have access to the Internet and smartphone, 87% online interviewees in the U.S.
indicated that the Internet and mobile phone can improve their ability to learn new
knowledge and skills (STPI Technology Industry Information Room, 2014). Thus, it
is important issue for flipped classroom to teach students applying the new tools andmethods to face the new interdisciplinary knowledge in the diverse learning.
In various fields, intelligent learning is a new wave since the starting of the newknowledge based economy on the Internet. Hands-on practices in classrooms or mere
description of the outdoor landscape can no longer meet the evolution of modern
society. In particular, the depiction methods of cultural contents are deficient.
In modern times when the culture creativity is demanded, how to extract the cultural
core value and improve the learning effectiveness have become the new challenge ofthe art teaching. In this research, the method of metaphor is used to seek for thecultural contents. For instance, as described by the book Metaphors We Live By
George Lakoff & Mark Johnson (1980), those metaphors generated through cultural
inheritance and have shaped our thinking contents and thinking methods. In otherwords, our understanding of culture is mostly defined by metaphors, which has also
opened the new era for metaphorical language cognition (Ou, 2012).
In order to achieve the new cultural and interdisciplinary learning method, thisresearch attempted to use the metaphor effect of rhetoric and Conceptual Metaphor
Theory (CMT) to discuss the semantic transformation. Through the alternative
approaches of metaphor, the abstract cultural meaning can become the real description.
As for the students in drawing course, the metaphor method can be realized in thecultural creation and description through this teaching procedure and the thematicinterpretation for culture can be formed.
Literature Review
This research applied metaphor effect of rhetoric and CMT to the drawing teaching,which has the innovation effect on the scene of art education and can be helpful to theapplications in other fields of disciplines. In face of the cultural analysis and course
teaching of creativity performance, the drawing culture and traditional knowledge canbe reused to make the research more significant.
CMT was proposed by cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980.
Compared with the traditional metaphor theory, the main contribution of CMT is its
explanatory ability in the systematization of general non-literary language. Moreover,
one of its key points is the use of metaphor is unconscious and its operation is tounderstand the indirect and abstract world based on the body direct experience (Shie,
2006).
CMT means that human’s use of action and thinking concepts is systematically the

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metaphorical performance. In the understanding, CMT can rely on some concrete andpractical shapes or characteristics to understand the abstract and incomprehensible
concepts. The metaphor is pervasive in people’s daily life. Not by choice, people tend
to use the conceptual system having the metaphor characteristics to construct theworld perceived (Yang, 2002). The cultural connotation is constructed according tothis theoretical basis and the cultural phenomenon is explained according to thesemantic expression.
In this research, “metaphor” of rhetoric was used as the cultural analysis skill.
Metaphor is composed of 3 parts: tenor, comparative word, and vehicle. Tenor refers
to something or somebody to be described; vehicle refers to something or somebody
in other areas having the common similar characteristics with the tenor, and it is used
to draw an analogy or describe the tenor. Comparative word refers to the words
connecting tenor and vehicle (Guan, 1993).
Metaphor refers to a figure of speech of “understanding one object by using anotherobject” in the philology. Since ancient times, the metaphor of “expressing themeaning by relying on objects” has been widely applied and developed (Yen, 2011).
The words that are commonly used in Chinese language are metaphors. When the two
objects are originally irrelevant, people attempt to make them equal to each other due
to their similarities, it is called the metaphor (Chao, 2009).
Research Content
In order to achieve the cultural discussion and interdisciplinary teaching framework,
this research took the historical site as the subject. The teaching method contains 4
steps. The symbolic elements of culture and historical sites were extracted, so as tofurther train the students in art and design to use smartphones and drawing system todepict the cultural value of historical sites.
In terms of research framework, the materials of historical sites were collected and thephotos of historical sites were sorted out and integrated to look for the representative
objects and reflect the hidden cultural characteristics, so as to further “rely on theobject to express the meaning” to choose the drawing contents and draw them into thevisual composite image. Thus, this picture can be used to replace the original
impression of this historical site.
As for the historical sites, this research selected the historical site officiallyrecognized by Taiwan – Yunxu Building. Yunxu Building is the junior high school
house built in 1968 and its building style is based on the uniform schoolhouse design
drawing provided by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. In 1989, this junior highschool handed over the campus of Yunxu Building, and it became one of the newly
established university campuses.
Nowadays, Yunxu Building has not been used effectively, so it is expected that thishistorical site can be used for cultural analysis and drawing to further become the dataof reuse of historical site in the future. It is one of the objectives of this research how
to look for the value of Yunxu Building from the appearance, internal decoration or
equipment.

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The research framework and contents are shown as below:
Table1. Research Structure
Introduction

Teaching method of innovative art

Interdisciplinary learning method

Literature Review

Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Means of metaphor of rhetoric(metaphorical presentation)

Research Content

Material collection

Theme analysis

Metaphor method

Constructional drawing

Questionnaire Analysis

Conclusion

1. Data collection
In the research, 41 freshmen in Design Department of the university were chosen togo through the 4-week learning procedure. In the first week, students experienced thearchitecture of Yunxu Building, and used smartphones to take pictures and madesketches. The drawings were transferred into files, and uploaded to the Facebook
group, so as to share the feelings toward historical site and discuss the contents of thepictures.

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2. Theme analysis
During the visit, students were required to establish the data in the form of characters,
symbols, pictures and sketch for the historical site. They then analyzed the key words
related to the theme from the data contrast, and chose the building objects or contents
to describe this historical sit. The pattern must be related to the theme and canrepresent the cultural significance and sense of beauty of this historical site.
3. Metaphor method
Students quoted the above-mentioned materials to choose the pictures corresponding
to the theme and applied the means of metaphor so that the collected picture data canbe used to present the imagination and vision for this historical site. For instance, thecharacteristics of the building stairs are described as below: “The stair is the road tothe history”. In this metaphor, stair is the tenor, “is” is the comparative word and “theroad to the history” is the vehicle. In the image, the stair composition is stressed and it
links the entire picture, so that the historical site can present the cultural information
by means of metaphor.
4. Constructional drawing
The collected data were used to find the image which is the best for the theme
drawing according to the group discussion. The metaphors and images were classified
into main visual map, minor visual map and the additional visual map. The theme
description was combined in the picture to form the creative drawing having theaesthetic culture and imagination.
Questionnaire analysis on teaching achievements
In order to verify students’ change before and after the learning, questionnaire survey
was adopted to test the teaching achievements. There are mainly 3 scopes in thequestionnaire items: (1) background; (2) drawing learning effectiveness; (3) degree ofpreference. This questionnaire adopted the closed selective questionnaire(fixed-alternative questions), namely multiple answers were listed and theinterviewees were required to freely choose 1 correct answer from the 5 answers. The
scores for each answer are shown as below: 5 scores for “Strong”, 4 scores for“Moderate”, 3 scores for “Basic”, 2 scores for “None” and 1 score for “Absolutelynone”. After the scoring and average analysis, the degree of answers or effectivenessanalysis could be determined.
There were totally 41 investigated samples. In terms of gender, males account for
35% and females account for 65%. In terms of education background, senior highschool accounts for 54% and higher vocational school accounts for 46%. 41
questionnaires were collected and the response rate was 100%. Under the anonymousquestioning, there were 37 valid questionnaires and 4 invalid questionnaires and theeffective rate was 90.24%. The scoring for the questionnaire on integrated learning
effectiveness is shown as below:

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Table 2. Scoring for the questionnaire on learning effectiveness
Question

AnswerStrongModerate
1. Previous drawing Basiccreation concepts
None
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
2. Current drawing
Basiccreation concepts
None
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
3. Previous drawing BasictechniqueNone
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
4. Current drawing
BasictechniqueNone
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
5. Previous theme
Basic
constitution ability
None
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
6. Current theme
Basic
constitution ability
None
Absolutely
none
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Total
Average Percentage
score
10
5.40
16
10.81
42
37.84
2.59
22
29.73

Score

Vote

5
4
3
2

2
4
14
11

1

6

6

16.22

5
4
3
2

2
7
19
7

10
28
57
14

5.40
18.92
51.35
18.92

1

2

2

5.40

5
4
3
2

3
2
12
17

15
8
36
34

8.108
5.40
32.43
45.95

1

2

2

5.40

5
4
3
2

3
3
23
8

15
12
69
16

8.11
8.11
62.16
21.62

1

0

0

0

5
4
3
2

1
4
13
18

5
16
39
36

2.70
10.81
35.14
48.65

1

1

1

2.70

5
4
3
2

1
4
19
13

5
16
57
26

2.70
10.81
51.35
35.14

1

0

0

0

5
4
3

0
2
10

0
8
30

0
5.40
27.03

532

3

2.57

3.03

2.62

2.81

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None
Absolutely
none
StrongModerate
8. Current ability totransfer the cultural Basicelements into design None
Absolutely
none
HighlyhelpfulVeryhelpful
9. Helpful to yourHelpfulcreation concepts
Not helpful
Absolutely
not helpful
Highly like
Quite like
10. Like themetaphorical or
Likecombined teaching Dislike
type
Highlydislike

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2

21

42

56.76

1

4

4

10.81

5
4
3
2

0
5
19
12

0
20
57
24

0
13.51
51.35
32.43

1

1

1

2.70

5

3

15

8.11

4

12

48

32.43

3
2

17
4

51
8

1

0

0

0

5
4
3
2

4
3
25
5

20
12
75
10

10.81
8.11
67.57
13.51

1

0

0

2.76

3.3

3.16

45.95
10.81

0

According to the analysis results of the questionnaire in Table 2, the highest score isfor “current drawing technique”, which is 3.03, meaning that 37 respondents have
improved their drawing ability after the teaching. Compared with “Current drawing
technique”, which has the highest score, the score of “Previous ability to transfer thecultural elements into design” is 2.27, which is lower than the average of 3. In otherwords, students should first improve their understanding and application of culturalelements.
As a whole, the average of drawing ability after the learning (questions 2, 4, 6, 8) is
2.90, which has been increased compared with the average (2.51) of previous drawing
ability (questions 1, 3, 5, 7). It shows that the learning module in the research cansignificantly improve students’ drawing ability.
As for questions 9 and 10, the average score of the degree of preference for thedrawing teaching is 3.24, which is obviously higher than the average score of 3.
Therefore, generally speaking, the metaphor used as the drawing teaching method isrecognized by students.
Conclusion
Drawing in art has been taught by sketching for students to learn technique andcultivate creation. Under the advancement of digital technology and the demand forinterdisciplinary culture, the traditional teaching approach cannot cope with the

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diverse and changing manifestation of drawing. Under the design demand, thedrawing system with themes and cultural values needs creative teaching contents.
In this research, metaphor and CMT were used to transfer the depicted objects into
constructional image with expressive imagination and sense of beauty. According to
the research results, 65% of the respondents could improve their ability in drawing
and constructional image through this method. Students saw the depicted scene, anddiscussed the planning to introduce the historical value of site to the public. Historicalsites cannot express themselves, but the cultural context can be presented in thehistory and the cultural sweetness can be appreciated through the analysis andtransformation of cultural elements.
Interdisciplinary cultural content is a dilemma faced by the modern education because
its scope is broad, covering fields of history, politics, society and market. The
complicated factors cannot be expressed by mere depiction. The methods of metaphor
and constructional type such as the exploration of metaphorism in psychology,
thought and experience are used as the constructional and situational artistic creation
forms (Metaphor Art Net, 2017). When this form is combined with the idea of flippedclassroom, it is helpful to the analysis of future culture and art contents to further
deduce the creative art teaching type. This is the development expected by thisresearch.

Figure 1: The upper left picture is the students’ record of historical site and the rest
are the students’ drawing achievements

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References
1. Wang, Y.Y., (2011), The Art of Metaphor in Chinese Idiom, Taipei: Showwe
Information Publishing
2. KYLE (2014), Network and Smartphone can Improve People’s Life Quality, Taipei:
Information Room of Taiwan’s Sci-tech Industry
4. Ou, H.H. (2006), Cognize the relation between God and man from the bodily
metaphor in HolyBible, Bible, International Seminar on Science and General
Education. 121-134.
5. Chen, A.T. (2007), Application of CMT (CMT) in novel – centering on thepolitical novels of Chen Yingzhen, Song Zelai and Huangfan, Taichung: Tunghai
University
6. Shie, J.S. (2006), Conceptual mode and language structure of emotional metaphorof Chinese idiom, Changhua: Dayeh University
7. Yang, C.H. (2002), Philosophical connotation of two-domain model, Taipei City:
master's thesis of law group of post-bachelor of law department in National Chengchi
University
8. Guan, S.J. (1993), Practical Rhetoric, Taipei: Yuan-Liou Publishing.
9. Yen, H. (2011), Innovation and promotion plan on Chinese reading and writing
cours>, Source: http://chinese.nchu.edu.tw/blog/?PID=2&Sn=37, Taipei City:
National Chung Hsing University
10. Chao, W.M. (2009), Literature creation and appreciation ~image and figure ofspeech (second volume), Issue 299, Newsletter of National Open University, Taipei:
National Open University
11. Metaphor Art Net, Source: Retrieved
http://www.metaphorism.org/page/index.htm, Yunlin
Contact email: vinceyu@yuntech.edu.twwumc@yuntech.edu.tw

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Developing Statistical Reasoning and Thinking Assessment for Engineering
Students: Challenges and New Direction
Aishah Mohd Noor, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia
Maz Jamilah Masnan, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia
Khatijahhusna Abd Rani, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia
Safwati Ibrahim, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018
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Abstract
In this paper, an assessment for students’ ability in critical thinking within statistics
content is discussed. Despite instructors’ awareness on critical thinking as one ofessentials 21st century skills, it remains unclear about how to develop the instructionalframework for teaching, learning and assessing critical thinking in statistics domain.
Moreover, there is an urgency to reform statistics classroom include; the way
instructor teach statistics, the way students learn statistics and how to assess statistics
learning outcomes to support critical thinking. In order to identify and design thecritical thinking framework, the objectives of this study are; 1. To highlights issues
related to assessing statistical reasoning and thinking for educators instructional
strategies. 2. To provide a framework for assessing statistical reasoning and thinking.
3. To develop instructional design for teaching thinking in statistics classroom. The
implications for classroom teaching will be explored through final examination
results. The challenges are identified and new directions for promoting criticalthinking in statistics classroom are identified.
Keywords: critical thinking, higher order thinking, statistics education, thinking
routines

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Introduction
Improving teaching and learning statistics has been extensively discussed in several
literatures (e.g., Ben-Zvi & Garfield, 2005; Chance, 2002; English & Watson, 2015;
Garfield & Chance, 2000; Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2007; Jones et al., 2001; Pfannkuch &Wild, 2004; Sedlmeier, 2000; Tishkovskaya & Lancaster, 2012) and the research instatistics educations is continuously demanding especially in the current technology
advancement and new challenge such as in the area of data science and big data.
Teaching statistics with emphasize on statistical thinking, use more data and concepts,
and fostering active learning were proposed by Cobb (1992). Such areas appear
particularly important with the exponential increase demand for data analytics due todata collection capabilities in the era of big data. For such reason, the traditional
teaching and learning practices are unpromising in helping student’s to think with data
(McNamara, 2015). For example, Finzer (2013) suggested integration of data science
into content area can be important consideration to inculcate learners with data as the
habits of mind. The role of data is also discussed by Neuman et al. (2013) in which
real-life data is important for illustrating statistical concepts, practice calculations, andapplication of statistics.
Statistical investigation is known as the process of conducting investigations fromdata collection, to exploring data, to statistical inference, to drawing appropriate
conclusions (Chance et al., 2015). Moore (1990) pointed out that data should beviewed as numbers with context. The interpretation of statistical result should bedelivered into its context or else students are not learning the process of statisticalinvestigations. Moreover, integrating context of a problem with its statistical results
increase the opportunities of students to interact, interpret and draw conclusions aboutdata (Pfannkuch & Wild, 2003).
Learning statistics means learning to communicate using the statistical language,
solving statistical problems, drawing conclusions, and supporting conclusions by
explaining the reasoning behind them (Garfield, 1995). One reform has focused oncontent and pedagogy, shifting the focus from computation and procedures to anemphasis on statistical reasoning and thinking (Moore, 1997).
Clarifying statistical learning outcomes can help statistics instructors better to design
and use appropriate assessment to align with the learning goals highlighted and value
by current research in statistics education. These outcomes refer to statistical literacy,
statistical reasoning and statistical thinking. In this paper, an assessment of students’ability in statistical reasoning and thinking skills are presented and discussed. For thispurpose a selected topic for final examination evaluation is constructed according toframework developed by DelMas (2002b).
Problem Statement
The need to reform statistics classroom includes; the way instructor teach statistics,
the way students learn statistics and how to assess statistical learning outcomes
specifically statistical reasoning and thinking. In addition to using lecture-and-listen
format predominantly, many such courses heavily rely on having students do
assignments in textbooks or in computer labs, and take multiple choice or traditional

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tests emphasizing formulae, rote memorization skills and procedural knowledge, as
opposed to conceptual knowledge of statistics (Garfield, 1995).
This is why students often see the content as a sequential set of tools and procedures
and do not see how the concepts are interrelated (Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2009). Ben-Zvi& Garfield (2015) highlighted that the main argument about statistics education is the
traditional approaches of teaching statistics focus on procedures and computations
skills which do not expose students to reason and think statistically. For example, aspresented by Friel, et al. (2006) many students are taught mean, median, mode, andgraphs with an emphasis on how to construct them rather than how to use them tothink with data. An emphasis on students’ development of conceptual understanding
rather than a focus on procedural knowledge are highlighted by Garfield & Chance(2002).
On the other hand, higher order thinking skill requires learner to embrace critical,reflective, metacognitive and creative thinking. Specifically in statistics education,reflecting about data, interpreting it and making decision are one of essential
processes in statistical investigations. Therefore, using data to extract meaning andinsight about real context and real situation should be an important outcome instatistics classroom. However, it can only achievable if the instructors are motivatedto go beyond procedures and computations.
Hence, we believed that the ability to develop statistical investigations process
through reasoning and thinking are more crucial rather than ability to grasp merely on
the statistical procedures. Currently, such skills are not reflected as the learning
outcomes in a statistics classroom. We would expect greater learning outcomes assuggested in Friedrich et al. (2000) to teach statistics that highlight reasoning,understanding and interpretation of data rather than merely computation of statisticalformulas.
Assessment alone may not sufficient to inform instructor about students’ dispositionin statistical reasoning. Those with poor statistical reasoning disposition can still dowell in final examination (Chance & Garfield, 2001). Therefore, an on-going researchstudy is conducted in order to discover ways for developing effective culture ofthinking in statistics classroom in transferring and strengthening statistical literacy
skills, ability to think and reason statistically among engineering students at Universiti
Malaysia Perlis. Therefore, to achieve the educational goal, the objectives of thisstudy are; 1. To highlights issues related to assessing statistical reasoning and thinking
for educators instructional strategies. 2. To provide a framework for assessing
statistical reasoning and thinking. 3. To develop instructional design for teaching
thinking in statistics classroom
Statistical Literacy, Reasoning and Thinking
The definition of statistical reasoning and thinking is not defined in common. There
are a lot of definitions given in the literatures. Among the definition is; it may be
defined as the way people reason with statistical ideas and make sense of statisticalinformation (Garfield, et al. 2003). To understand how statistical literacy, reasoning,
thinking have been described in the literatures, we presented the definitions in thefollowing sub-section.

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Statistical Literacy“Statistical literacy is defined as the ability to interpret, critically evaluate, and if
needed communicate about statistical information, arguments, and messages” (Gal,
2002, p.1). In Garfield et al. (2003) it includes “understanding words and symbols,
being able to read and interpret graphs and terms” (p.3). Meanwhile, Wallman (1993)“argued that statistical literacy is the ability to understand and critically evaluate
statistical results that permeate daily life, coupled with the ability to appreciate thecontributions that statistical thinking can make in public and private, professional andpersonal decisions” (as cited in Gal, 2002, p.2).
Statistical Reasoning“Statistical reasoning may be defined as the way people reason with statistical ideas
and make sense of statistical information” (Garfield & Gal, 1999, p.2). It can beinterpreted as ability to use sets of data for making interpretations, how to represent
data, or summarizing data with statistical measures (Garfield et al., 2003). Garfied etal. (2003) added that connecting statistical concept such as measure of central
tendency with spread would help to deepen understanding and increase ability to
explain statistical process and interpret statistical results.
Statistical Thinking“Statistical thinking involves an understanding of why and how statisticalinvestigations are conducted and the “big ideas” that underlie statisticalinvestigations” (Garfield et al., 2003, p.8). Moreover, statistical thinkers should be
able to solve a given problem or statistical study through analyzing, synthesizing andevaluating the results and critique (Garfield et al., 2003). Chance (2002) defined thatstatistical thinking is beyond the literacy and ability to reason such that the statisticalprocess can be seen as a whole which include the capability of answering ‘why’, tounderstand the relationship and meaning of variation in a process.
Apart from the definition of statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking, an appropriate
assessment of those skills are extremely important. The assessment methods are often
focus on the application of correct formulas, correct statistical computations and the
choice of graphical presentations as well as lack of evaluating statistics content with
context (Garfield & Gal, 1999). Students’ should be able to interpret statisticalinformation or arguments. However, is not adequate if the questions constructed focus
on “right or wrong”, and therefore limited reflection on students’ reasoning andthinking processes abilities (Gal & Garfield, 1997). Therefore, an appropriate
assessment method are required for evaluating statistical reasoning, that reveal
students’ thinking as they choose and apply statistical tools, when they make sense ofdata, interpret results, and draw conclusions (Garfield & Gal, 1999).
Although statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking may best be assessed throughclassroom activities, communication with students (e.g., interviews or observations)or by examining students work from a statistics project, a well- prepared and designed
paper-and-pencil instruments can be used to gather some limited indicators ofstudents’ nature of thinking process.

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Relationship between Statistical Literacy, Reasoning and Thinking
The concepts of statistical literacy, reasoning, thinking can be interpreted as three
instructional domains and can be overlap DelMas (2002b). DelMas (2002b) focusedon what students can do with the content rather than the content itself. Figure 1 shows
the three domains illustrated in DelMas (2002b). Statistical literacy plays an important
foundation to statistical reasoning and thinking.

Literacy

Reasoning

Thinking

Figure 1: Outcomes of statistics education: Reasoning and thinking within literacy.
DelMas (2002b) proposed words used to distinguish the goals of statistical literacy(SL), reasoning (SR) and thinking (ST). The list of words is given by Table 1.
Table 1: List of words use to distinguish three instructional domains
Basic
Literacy
Identify
Describe
Rephrase
TranslateInterpret
Read

Reasoning

Thinking

Why?
How?
Explain theprocess

Apply
Critique
Evaluate
Generalized

In the following section, we presented the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. This taxonomy
was used as the basis for developing assessments instruments. Our objective is toestablish appropriate assessment instruments through combination of revised Bloom’s
taxonomy and SL, SR and ST skills.

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Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
The revised Bloom’s taxonomy by Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) as in (Forehand,2010) used verbs instead of noun for the cognitive domain. The cognitive levels are as
follows:
Table 2: Revised Bloom’s taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing
Remember

Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge.

Understand Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages
through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing,
inferring, comparing, and explaining.
Apply
Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or
implementing.
Analyze
Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how theparts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose
through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
Evaluate
Making judgments based on criteria and standards throughchecking and critiquing.
CreatePutting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole;reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure throughgenerating, planning, or producing.
Comparative Thinking
Higher possibility of learning is expected when students are able to makecomparisons Silver (2010). According to Silver (2010) comparison technique helps
students to strengthen their ability to recall and remember main idea throughanalyzing pairs of idea and capturing the similarities and differences. This method canbe helpful in classroom situations such as introducing concepts or recall priorknowledge that is related to new content. There are four phases of compare andcontrast strategy introduced by Silver (2010) for a classroom phase; there aredescription, comparison, conclusion, application.
The advantage of comparative thinking through capturing similarities and differences
provides a deeper thinking about concepts and can be used to trigger questions which
required students to reason and think critically. Therefore, question such as “What is(are) evidence does (do) you have to support your conclusion?” could develop
thinking as a habit of mind and deepen their learning. Moreover, questioning
technique improves engagement and the opportunities to reflect develop students’
metacognitive skills.
In the following section, the assessment of SL, SR and ST within revised Bloom’s
taxonomy using similarities and differences method are discussed. The implications
for improving classroom practices will be explored.

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Methodology
In this study, a quantitative method was applied. Students’ final examination scoresserved as indicators to evaluate their thinking process with respect to SL, SR, ST.
Participants
The participants were 1022 engineering students from eighteen engineering programs.
The Engineering Statistics (EQT271) course is the only required statistics course. This
course was scheduled during their second year of study.
Instrumentation
There were five topics in the subject; Basic to Engineering Statistics, Probability
Distributions, Statistical Inference (Single and Two Populations), Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) (One-Way ANOVA, Randomized Complete Block Design, Two
Factor Factorial Design) and the last chapter is Simple Linear Regression. The
examination paper consists of five questions (Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,Q5) and the compositionof the examination component is 50%.
Table 3: Course outcomes (CO) and cognitive level based on revised Bloom’s
Taxonomy
CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4

Remember,
Understand, Apply
Remember,
Understand, Apply,
Analyze
Remember,
Understand, Apply,
Analyze
Remember,
Understand, Apply

Ability to understand, apply and explain thebasic concepts of statistics.
Ability to solve problems using suitablestatistical inference.
Ability to construct the model and analyze
the result from ANOVA table and simple
linear regression.
Ability to apply the basic methodology of
nonparametric statistics to solve engineering
problems.

Table 4: Topics evaluated in EQT271 final examination paper
Question
Question 1 (Q1)
Question 2 (Q2)
Question 3 (Q3)
Question 4 (Q4)
Question 5 (Q5)

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Simple Linear Regression
Two-Way Analysis of Variance With Replication
Randomized Complete Block Design
Statistical Inference for Two Populations
Non-Parametric Test

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To assess SL, SR, ST outcomes, we choose the topic of simple linear regression asshown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Questions designed to assess SL, SR, and ST were constructed using simple
linear regression learning outcomes
Seven sub-questions or items were constructed based on given statistical problem(Question 1) as in Figure 2. Two different outputs from two types machines (Machine
A and B) were given. From the given linear regression outputs, questions assessed
students’ SL, SR and ST skills are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Statistical literacy, reasoning and assessment
Therefore, we mapped each question based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy given
by Table 3.

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Question Revised Bloom’s The expected outcomes: Students should be
Taxonomyable to:a
Understandrecognize that the statement is wrong based on
the keywords “minimize the number of points it
touches”.

b
c

Apply
AnalyzeApplydEvaluateeAnalyzefg

rewrite the correct statements by using theconcept of least squares method.
compute of coefficient of determination.
connect and extend statistical information
using Question b, Output 1 and 2.
interpret coefficient of determination.
perform hypothesis test and evaluate the result
to make conclusion.
recognize, relate and compare statistical results
provided by Output 1 and 2.

Evaluateevaluate appropriate statistical results and makeconclusion about model adequacy.

Understandidentify and write the regression equation.

Apply

use the regression equation for the given
problem.

Analyze
Evaluate

relate and judge statistical information from
Question e and f.
give reasoning according to decision made.

Meanwhile, Table 4 shows the example of applications of the three instructional
domains based on DelMas (2002b). We applied the domains to assess statistical
literacy, reasoning and thinking.
Table 5: Mapping the three instructional domains based on DelMas (2002b)
Question
DomainaSLbSLcSL,SR, STde

SL,SR, ST
SL,SR, ST

f
g

SL
SL,SR

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Keywords
identify and rephrase to correct statement.
carry out simple computations.
Using statistical information, students should reflect
their understanding about relationship between
variables and how to construct scatter plot.
evaluate result from the hypothesis procedures
evaluate model adequacy based on given statisticalinformation and results from hypothesis test.
carry out simple computations.
use suitable information to make decision and justify
reasoning.

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Data Analysis
The students’ score for each of the questions were compared. Their SL, SR and ST
abilities were compared throughout engineering background. In addition, Question 5tested focused on procedures and computations and used to identify the gap between
computational abilities and SL, SR and ST abilities.
Results
Table 6 shows the descriptive statistics. Question 1 gives the lowest average scores.
On the other hand, Question 5 is the highest average score.
Table 6: Descriptive statistics for each question
Descriptive
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Statistics
Average
3.518
5.358
5.213
4.874
Standard
0.758
0.717
0.647
0.682
Deviation

Q5
6.394
0.576

Table 7 shows the heat map for all eighteen engineering program (RK). The results
showed that students’ were not able to apply simple linear regression concepts tested
in Question 1. On the other hand, they performed well in Question 5. This is clearly
due to computation based assessment items. In contrast, Question 1 requires
understanding about the concepts before students were able to determine the solution.
In addition, there are sub-questions in Question 1 which require them to analyze
statistical information before they would able to make justification. Therefore, basedon the scores, it shows the inability of students to use statistical knowledge (SL, SR
and ST) and apply to new situation.
Table 7: Heat map for each final examination questions
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Engineering
CO3 C03 CO3 CO2 CO4Programme
10% 10% 10% 10% 10%
RK01
RK05
RK07
RK08
RK12
RK13
RK23
RK24
RK28
RK32
RK45
RK56
RK84
RK85
RK86
RK89

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RK90
RK96
Minimum

Maximum

Table 8: Heat map to compare between engineering programs
Engineering
Programme

Q1
CO3
10%

Q2
C03
10%

RK01
RK05
RK07
RK08
RK12
RK13
RK23
RK24
RK28
RK32
RK45
RK56
RK84
RK85
RK86
RK89
RK90
RK96
Minimum

Q3
CO3
10%

Q4
CO2
10%

Q5
CO4
10%

Maximum

We use the heat map to compare performance between the engineering programs.
Based on Table 8, RK28 (Bioprocess Engineering) was the top performer. Meanwhile
RK45 (Electrical Industries Engineering) and RK84 (Product Design Engineering)were the bottom two. The performance based on engineering programs could be
affected by their academic background and qualifications.
Discussion: Challenges and New Direction
The primary goal in statistics education is to enable students to produce reasoned
descriptions, judgments, inferences and opinions about data (Garfield, 1998).
(Garfield & Ben-zvi, 2005) suggest that several assessing reasoning using variability.
Therefore, it can be applied through identifying patterns of variability in a regression
model. For this purpose, we use comparative thinking to observe the patterns ofvariability from two different data sets (regression outputs). This allows students to
identify; compare, explain, evaluate and make connections between the outputs. Suchprocess of thinking requires them to think and reason statistically.

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However, based on the examination scores, the low achievement from higher order
thinking questions and inability to linking concept to context were identified.
Therefore, an action research should be conducted by the instructors to designclassroom practices with appropriate instructional strategies to support SR and ST. It
is clear that students need to be supported with thinking routine activities andappropriate thinking tools while in the statistics classroom. In addition, students’process of reasoning and thinking skillful should be visible. It allows instructors toplan and create culture of thinking classroom environment and innovative approaches
for achieving the course learning outcomes to guide students’ metacognitive process.
The thinking routine activities and making thinking visible technique were
implemented throughout SEMESTER II 2017/2018. This was our first step toinculcate culture of thinking classroom. With the initiatives and continuous
monitoring, we hope that the new learning approach helps to enrich students
experience in learning statistics, developing statistical competency, SL, SR, and ST
skills. However, there are few limitations identified. The following are the newchallenges need to be further explored:
1. Students’ and instructors’ should aware of the crucial needs to innovate fromtraditional classroom to culture of thinking classroom environment
2. The traditional teaching (teacher-centered) approach need to be replaced to
student-centered and active learning to support development of SL, SR, andST.
3. Encouragement from the management. The management and instructor should
show that their value thinking and SL, SR, and ST as the learning outcomes ofstatistics course over computation or procedures focus in classroom
environment and assessment.
4. A well-structured teaching plan, approach, technique and tools are necessary
for the instructor to bring appropriate statistics content to the thinking routine
activities that support development of SL, SR, and ST.
5. The examination oriented system shape students attitude towards learning.
Thinking routine activities were not successful due to the long-term
educational training which focused on memorization and computation. Someof the group activities were not actively involved by the group members andfailed to reflect their understanding of content, reasoning and thinking skills.
6. To assess SR and ST, the questions constructed minimize computations andfocused more on students’ ability to use statistical information provided. This
type of questions was found with lowest average marks.
Therefore, we believed more action research projects need to be carefully designed todetermine the best model of instructional practices in developing SL, SR and ST. Few
directions of the research study were identified:
1. Game-based learning to support understanding of statistical concepts.
2. Blended-learning approach can be implemented so that the more time in theclassroom can be allocated to the process of skillful thinking within statistics
learning outcomes-making students’ thinking visible should be encourage andvalued, allow thinking time and peer to peer learning, use questioning strategy
to deepen understanding, major focus is students’ the learning process not forlearning for examination purpose.

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3. Statistics instructors should work together to plan and reflect upon theoutcomes or feedbacks obtain from the action research projects. It is part of
instructor professional development.
Conclusion
Statistics course has been and will be continuously benefited to engineering students.
While many of statistics education literatures are increasingly put into efforts todefined and suggest ways to develop SL, SR and ST, implementing the three domains
in our higher education institution is a challenging task. In this paper, we presented
our experience in the implementation of SL, SR and ST in statistics classroom. Apartfrom students’ readiness and awareness to move from traditional setting of teachercentered classroom and learning statistics as they learnt mathematics, these obstacles
may need extra focus and work from the instructors to innovate statistics classroom.
University management must promote innovation and acknowledge instructors who
are willing to give effort, time and energy to enrich students’ learning experience.
It is an important remark that promoting culture of thinking within statistics classroom
is impossible when instructors act as the source of information. The role of instructor
has changed from that of "source of information" to "facilitator of learning" (Garfield1993). In addition, instructor motivation and understanding the ‘why’ behind SL, SR
and ST skills is essential before any thinking routines activities are implemented.
Other theory of learning for example constructivist learning approach can be adopted
for developing SL, SR and ST skills.
We adopt the revised Bloom’s taxonomy as the foundation to statistics assessment
and the taxonomy is also in accordance to Outcome Based Education implemented
here in our institution, UniMAP. However, putting revised Bloom’s in the context ofstatistics content and outcomes would not be directly implemented. This is ourchallenge and currently continuous projects are being monitored to integrate thetaxonomy within statistics content and pedagogy. By using revised Bloom’s
taxonomy and three instructional statistical cognitive domains (literacy, reasoning andthinking), we hope that it could be used as basic framework to guide instructional
designs. In addition, the current educational technology advancement throughlearning management system such as Moodle or UniMAP e-learning will be anadvantage for instructors to determine other factors that may affect students’ cognitiveand behaviorism towards statistical reasoning and thinking. This is our next research
direction, to explore the most effective instructional techniques and to develop models
of how students shape their statistical understanding.
Acknowledgement
This research is funded by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) throughFundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS). The grant number is
FRGS/1/2015/SSI09/UNIMAP/03/1. The authors would like to thank MOHE andUniversiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) for supporting the research work.

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Education Attainment As a Determinant of Economic Growth in African Countries
Katarzyna Błocka, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
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Abstract
In the light of educational policies in developing countries being strongly influenced by
the Millennium Development Goals and foreign aid programmes, the role of educationand human capital accumulation in the economic development of African countries is
examined. The Solow model and the augmented Solow model including human capitalwere estimated using the most recent data on African countries (from the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank). The shares of the working population with threedifferent levels of education attainment were used as alternative proxy variables forhuman capital. The results confirm the validity of the two models for African countries,
however they also reveal some interesting discrepancies with the purely theoreticalmodels. Out of three education levels, tertiary education attainment in the working
population is the best predictor of income per capita, and the sum of secondary andtertiary education attainment is the proxy variable leading to the most credible results.
Potential educational policy implications of the results are discussed.
Keywords: Millennium Development Goals, educational policy, education attainment,
human capital, augmented Solow model

iafor
The International Academic Forumwww.iafor.org

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1. Introduction
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 2, calling for 100% primary education
enrolment globally1, has been criticized in literature in the context of African countries.
Easterly (2009) argues that MDG, including Target 2, were unfair to Africa2. First of all,because it was an absolute instead of a relative measure, which put many Africancountries at a disadvantage in comparison to other developing regions. Easterly (2009)
argues that no other region progressed so fast when they were developing their primaryschool systems.3 The pressure to catch up might have led to some undesiredconsequences, namely deterioration of quality, e.g. due to rapid increases of class.
In parallel, Bloom et al. (2006) demonstrate how the “international development
community has encouraged African governments’ relative neglect of higher education.”4
The shift of focus to primary education can be tracked down to before the MDG’s
announcement in 2000. As Bloom et al. (2006) calculated, “from 1985 to 1989, 17 percent of the World Bank’s worldwide education-sector spending was on higher education.
But from 1995 to 1999, the proportion allotted to higher education declined to just 7 percent.”5This paper looks at the appropriateness of the target to the situation of African countries
from the perspective of economic growth theory. Many studies have looked at how
education statistics can help understand differences in economic development ofcountries. The specifications provided by Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) are a starting
point for many authors,6 just as they are in the current study.
Mankiw, Romer, Weil (1992) introduced an augmented version of the neo-classicalSolow model (Solow, 1956) in which they incorporated human capital to production
function. The two others determinants (physical capital, and the labour force size) can bedirectly measured, as opposed to human capital. The unobservability of human capitalrequires proxy variables for the models to be empirically tested.
Although many studies were aimed at comparing which variables serve as best proxies ofhuman capital, there are important limitations. As the level of accumulated human capitalincreases, the variance of once suitable measures (e.g. literacy rates) decreases and they
gradually become useless in differentiating affluent and middle-income countries. As
education systems progress globally and education attainment reaches nearly 100% indeveloped countries, other measures (secondary education attainment, average years of

1

Un.org. (2015). United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2015.
Easterly, W. (2009). How the millennium development goals are unfair to Africa. World development,
37(1), 26-35.
3
Ibidem, p. 26.
4
Bloom, D. E., Canning, D., & Chan, K. (2006). Higher education and economic development in Africa(Vol. 102). Washington, DC: World Bank, p.iii.
5
Ibidem.
6
Baum, M. A., & Lake, D. A. (2003). The political economy of growth: democracy and humancapital. American Journal of Political Science, 47(2), p. 334.
2

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schooling, etc.) have to be used. Glewwe, Maiga and Zheng (2014) summarize the mostimportant studies that estimated the influence of education on economic growth.7
Within a highly diverse group of countries, one measure of human capital might be moresuitable for those with high levels of high income per capita and another one for the ones
lagging behind. There are two important implications. First of all, it is justified to analyse
sub-groups of countries, as performed in this study. Second of all, there can never be auniversal proxy for human capital.
The paper follows the following structure. First, results of estimating the original Solowmodel and the augmented Solow model are described, followed by choosing the bestproxy for the stock of human capital. Second, the potential of primary education
attainment in explaining cross-country differences in terms of income per capita isinspected. Finally potential policy implications, limitations of the adopted approach, andareas for further research are discussed.
2. Econometric modelling
The most important source for the data on education attainment is the Barro-Lee
Education Attainment Dataset. The dataset was constructed with the objective to provide
a measure of the aggregate stock of human capital, and therefore to complement the dataon school enrolment ratios or literacy rates, which can serve as proxies for human capital
accumulation rate. It is important to note that the measure of education attainment of acertain level encompasses people who have completed this stage of education and did notcomplete a higher one (e.g., university graduates are not included in secondary attainmentrate). The newest version of the dataset contains estimates for 146 countries, including 37
African countries, for the period 1950-2010. The information on country-level data
availability is provided in the Appendix. The International Monetary Fund’s World
Economic Outlook Database April 2018 is the source of economic data used in this study.
Basing on the available data, the variables are constructed analogically to Mankiw et al.
(1992). Some simplifications were performed due to lack or inconsistency of data. Firstof all, the total population size is used instead of the working population size. As in many
African countries people start to work at a very young age, and as the working populationis hard to distinguish from the non-working because of the informality of the labour
market, the assumption should not excessively sensitize the results.

7

Glewwe, P., Maiga, E., & Zheng, H. (2014). The contribution of education to economic growth: A reviewof the evidence, with special attention and an application to Sub-Saharan Africa. World Development, 59,
Table 1.

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The Original Solow Model
The first estimated model is the original Solow model.8 The empirical specification is thesame as the one of Mankiw et al. (1992). In the formula below: Y stands for output, L for
labour force (approximated by total population), A for a constant related to technology,
resource endowments, climate, institutions, etc., for the capital’s share in income, s forsavings rate (gross national savings as percent of the GDP), n for natural growth, g forknowledge advancement, for capital depreciation, and for a country-specific shock
relative to A.

After Mankiw et al. (1992), I assume
to equal 0,05. I also assume that s and n
are independent of , which allows for estimating the parameters of the model withOLS9.
The original Solow model was estimated for 2 different samples. The first one included
42 (out of 54) African countries, for which data on GDP per capita, savings rate, andpopulation growth was available. The second one included only those countries for which
education attainment data was also available (32 countries), in order to allow forcomparability between the original Solow model and the augmented Solow model (which
required the education attainment data).10 Both models were estimated with and without
imposing a restriction that the coefficients on savings rate and population growth areequal in absolute value. The results are reported in Table 1.

8

Solow, R. M. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. The quarterly journal of
economics, 70(1), 65-94.
9
Ordinary Least Squares.
10
The list of countries belonging to each sample is provided in the Appendix.

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Table 1. Results of estimating the original Solow model for two sub-groups of Africancountries (2010).
The original Solow model

Observations
Constant(p-value)ln(s)(p-value)ln(n+p+d)(p-value)R2 / Adjusted R2
Constant(p-value)ln(s) – ln(n+g+d)(p-value)R2 / Adjusted R2
Test of restriction (F)(p-value)
Implied α

Bigger sample

Smaller sample

4232Model without restrictions
9,69
0,002***
1,16<0,001***–2,30
0,095*
51,3% / 48,9%

12,77<0,001***
0,99<0,001***–3,63
0,014**
61,5% / 58,9%Model with restriction
7,36<0,001***
1,23<0,001***
50,5% / 49,2%
0,65
0,42
0,55

7,34
<0,001***
1,14<0,001***
57,1% /55,7%
2,28
0,08*
0,53

The results of estimations (gathered in Table 1) allow to examine “whether real income ishigher in countries with higher savings rate and lower in countries with higher values of(”11 in the case of African countries, and therefore to verify the validity of the
Solow model for this group of countries.
As the coefficients on savings rate and population growth are both dependent on thevalue of α, it is crucial that their estimates are equal in absolute value. However, thisrestriction is rejected in the smaller sample, indicating that the data does not confirm that
the Solow model accurately explains differences in income per capita within this group ofcountries. The restriction holds in the bigger sample, therefore allowing for interpretationof α (also, the implied values of α are almost the same in both samples). The value of α
represents both capital’s share in income and its marginal product (as it is assumed that
capital and labor are being paid their marginal products12). The estimated coefficients
imply that capital’s share in income is 55%.
11

Mankiw, N. G., Romer, D., & Weil, D. N. (1992). A contribution to the empirics of economic growth.
The quarterly journal of economics, 107(2), p. 410.
12
Ibidem.

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The Augmented Solow Model
Mankiw et al. (1992) proposed two alternative specifications of the augmented Solowmodel. Due to the characteristics the education attainment data, the model with the levelof human capital is estimated rather than the rate of human capital accumulation. It isrepresented by the following formula (where h* is the steady-state level of human capital,
β is the return on human capital and the meanings of other symbols remain unchanged).

The aim of these estimations was to inspect whether education attainment is anappropriate proxy variable for the stock of human capital, and if yes, which educationlevels are the most useful in explaining the inter-country differences in income per capita.
The modelling scenarios therefore assumed different proxy variables for the stock ofhuman capital accumulated in the country. The model was estimated in six variants:-

Model 1. Primary, secondary and tertiary attainment,
Model 2. Only primary attainment,
Model 3. Only secondary attainment,
Model 4. Only tertiary attainment,
Model 5. Primary and secondary attainment,
Model 6. Secondary and tertiary attainment.

The estimation results are provided in Table 2.

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Table 2. Results of estimating the augmented Solow model with the level of humancapital accumulation for 32 African countries (2010).
The augmented Solow model
Model 1Model 2Model 3Model 4Model 5Model 6

12,07
<0,001***
0,79<0,001***–3,07
0,015**
0,37
0,001***
73,4% /
70,6%

7,69
<0,009***0,74<0,001***–2,87
0,018**
1,10<0,001***
75,8% /
73,2%

8,89
0,005***
0,78<0,001***
–2,06
0,127
0,49
0,004***
71,7% /
68,6%

Model without restrictions
Constant(p-value)ln(s)(p-value)ln(n+p+d)(p-value)ln(h*)(p-value)R2 / Adjusted R2

7,28
0,010**
0,70<0,001***–2,76
0,018**
1,16<0,001***
77,4% /
73,0%

11,7
<0,001***
0,89<0,001***–4,21
0,003***
0,72
0,023**
68,1% /
64,7%

9,55
0,004***
0,82<0,001***
–2,31
0,101
0,41
0,014**
69,1% /
65,7%

Model with restriction
2,86
0,008***
0,80<0,001***
1,21<0,001***
74,8% /
73,1%
3,23
0,083*

5,42<0,001***
1,08<0,001***0,57
0,082*
61,4% /
58,8%
5,79
0,023**

6,48<0,001***
0,87<0,001***0,46
0,004***
67,8% /
65,6%
1,13
0,297

7,39
<0,001***
0,91<0,001***0,39
0,001***
70,2% /
68,2%
3,38
0,077*

3,13
0,005***
0,84<0,001***
1,15<0,001***73,0% /
71,1%
3,23
0,083*

6,15<0,001***
0,82<0,001***0,54<0,001***
70,7% /
68,7%
0,91
0,348

Implied α

0,45

0,52

0,47

0,48

0,48

0,45

Implied β

0,67

0,27

0,25

0,20

0,62

0,30

Implied (α + β)

1,12

0,79

0,71

0,68

1,08

0,75

Constant(p-value)ln(s) – ln(n+g+d)(p-value)ln(h*)(p-value)R2 / Adjusted R2
Test of restriction (F)(p-value)

There are two alternative assumptions which can be made about the relationship between
the level of human capital and the level of education attainment, and the choice between
them determines the type of conclusions which can be drawn from the results. If
education attainment is assumed to be proportional to the stock of human capital (further
referred to as linearity assumption), then the proportionality factor positively biases only
the estimate of the constant. In this case, the estimated coefficient on human capitalvariable is not biased, which means that it is interpretable and β can be derived from thecoefficient if the remaining coefficients produce a consistent estimate of α.
However, if it is assumed that the natural logarithm of the stock of human capital is
proportional to the natural logarithm of education attainment (further referred to as loglinearity assumption), then the estimated coefficient is a product of multiplyingby

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the unknown proportionality factor ( ). In that case, to find , one would need to solve
the following equation:, wherestands for the estimated coefficient on
the level of human capital. The equation, however, has two unknowns ( and ), whichmakes it impossible to identify . Adopting the log-linearity assumption prohibitsinterpreting the respective estimated coefficient and therefore does not lead to finding theestimate for the return on human capital. However, it does not invalidate the use of theproxy. Therefore measures such as the goodness-of-fit and p-values (of the coefficient on
human capital) can still be interpreted and used in order to discriminate between stronger
and weaker proxies.
Finding the best proxy variable for the stock of accumulated human capital
The models which succeed13 in producing consistent14 values of α are Model 3 andModel 6. The restriction on the coefficients on savings rate and population growth isrejected in the four other cases (significance level of 10%). The α implied by the two
successful models is around 10 percentage points lower compared to the original Solowmodel. The differential suggests that not accounting for human capital in the production
function leads to overestimating the marginal product of capital. The bias is even greaterin the case of the implied marginal product of labor, which is equal to (1 – α) in theoriginal Solow model, and to (1 – α – β) in the augmented model15. While it is estimatedto be 0,45 in original Solow model, it is only 0,29 (Model 3) or 0,25 (Model 6) in theaugmented version, which is a difference of up to 20 percentage points.
As the restriction is crucial (its rejection invalidates the production function and therefore
any interpretation of the marginal products of production factors), only Model 3 andModel 6 will be considered in this section. While both models comply with therestriction, Model 6 produces a slightly higher goodness-of-fit, and the estimatedcoefficient on the level of human capital is significant at a more rigid significance level(the p-value is 0,4% in case of Model 6 and 1,4% in case of Model 3). Therefore theproxy variable for the stock of human capital used to estimate Model 6, i.e. thepercentage of population of at least 15 years of age with secondary or tertiary education,is the best proxy for the level of human capital in African countries. The results of Model
6 (with restriction) will be discussed and interpreted in more detail below. The model isfurther referred to as the best augmented model.
The best augmented model explains 13,6 percentage points more of the variance inincome per capita across the sample of 32 African countries in comparison to the original
Solow model (with restriction). The model implies that the elasticity of income per capita
with respect to the saving rate is 0,8 and –0,8 with respect to natural growth. That meansthat a 1% increase in the savings rate increases the expected income per capita by 0,8% in
13The p-values of the F-test for restriction on the coefficients on savings rate and population growth arehigher than 10%.
14
I.e. the restriction that the coefficients on savings rate and population growth are equal in absolute value
is not rejected.
15
The marginal product of labor for the augmented Solow model can only be calculated under the linearity
assumption.

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the long term. Analogically, a 1% increase in the population growth rate decreases the
expected income per capita by 0,8% in the long term. The ‘long-term’ refers to the steadystate. The speed of convergence to the steady state is a function of α, β, the natural
growth rate.16 Plugging in the estimated values of α and β from the best augmented
model, followed by the lowest and highest population growth rate observed in the sample(0,86% for Mauritius and 3,72% for the Gambia), allows to arrive at a number of years
the economy takes to move halfway towards the steady state, which is between 5,2 and5,5 years.17
When it comes to the coefficient on the level of human capital, it equals 0,54 in the best
augmented model. That means that a 1% increase in the stock of human capital increases
the steady state income per capita by 0,54%. Under a strong assumption thatmanipulating the proxy is equivalent to influencing the stock of human capital (withproportionality factor equal to 1), that means that increasing the percentage of adult
population with completed at least secondary education by 1% increases the steady state
income per capita by 0,54%. In the case of Tanzania, which has the lowest secondary andtertiary education attainment in the sample, this would be equivalent to increasing thefigure from 2,89% to 2,92%, i.e. by around 12 thousand people. At the same time, forSouth Africa, which has the highest secondary and tertiary attainment in the sample, thiswould mean that almost 300 thousand people (0,6% of the population) would have to
migrate from the ‘no education’ or ‘primary education only’ category to a higher
education attainment level, by completing at least secondary education. These
discrepancies clearly illustrate the decreasing returns to human capital.
The explanatory power of primary education attainment as a proxy of humancapitalThe model which used primary education attainment as the proxy variable (Model 2)
returned the lowest R-squared out of the six models. As the coefficient on population
growth in the non-restricted model equaled –4,21, while it was only –1,08 according to
the restricted model, the restriction on the coefficients on savings rate and natural growth
was rejected (p-value = 2%). One could argue however that this measure isfundamentally flawed, as it excludes those who completed not only primary, but also
secondary or secondary and tertiary education.
The models which take into account all adults who completed primary education (Model
1) or all adults who completed primary or secondary education but not tertiary education(Model 5) in fact produce a goodness-of-fit which is higher than for the best augmented
model. However, these models can only be considered under the log-linearity assumption(which entails non-interpretability of β), as the sums of the implied values of α and β
exceed 1.18 More importantly, the test of restriction in the case of these two models
16, see: Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992), p. 422
Again, this estimation is only valid under the linearity assumption.
18
This violates one of the assumptions of the augmented Solow model, which states that there aredecreasing returns to all capital. When this assumption is violated, there is no steady state in the model. At
the same time, empirical estimation of the parameters of the production function is only possible if it is17

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returns p-values of 8%, which suggests that the coefficients of these models do not imply
equal values of α and therefore are inconsistent with the production function (α can nolonger be interpreted as the capital’s share in income or marginal product of capital).
When adults with only primary education attainment are excluded from the data, Model 1
becomes Model 6, and Model 5 becomes Model 3. In both cases, the restriction starts
holding and the coefficients on human capital start implying acceptable levels of β.
In conclusion, including the adults who only completed primary education in the proxy ofhuman capital accumulation deteriorates estimation results.
Conclusions“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure,” states theGoodhart’s Law. Although the Millennium Development Goals have been a driver of
positive change in many ways, the framework’s story is one of measures becoming
targets. The purpose of this study was to empirically verify whether achieving universal
primary education in 15 years was an appropriate development target for Africancountries from the perspective of economic growth theory.
The econometric analysis indicates that primary education attainment is not the bestproxy variable for the level of human capital. In fact, excluding primary education
attainment from the measurements of human capital allows for obtaining results which
are consistent with economic theory (which do not violate the assumption of decreasing
returns to all capital). Out of the three education attainment statistics, tertiary education
holds the most explanatory power in terms of cross-country differences in income percapita, and the sum of secondary and tertiary education attainment produces the mosttrustworthy results.19
There are several reasons for which investment in higher education can have a more
lasting effect on income per capita than investment in primary education. While all levelsof education produce private returns to education (such as higher productivity, translating
to higher salaries and higher GDP per capita), higher education particularly increases thecountry’s capacity to further invest in human capital. Human capital mostly consists ofeducation and health (both of which allow individuals to produce more output) and thecost of investing in education and health depends on the size and quality of the country’s
talent pool, especially teachers and doctors.
Moreover, a more comprehensive approach to education systems in developing countries
seems to bring more sustainable results. Using the Qualitative Comparative Analysis
method to examine the effectiveness of aid for primary education in developing
countries, Birchler and Michaelowa (2016) find that one of the conditions for improving
assumed that countries are in their steady states, or that their distance from the steady states is random. See:
Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992), p. 416.
19
Model 4 (tertiary education) with restriction is characterized by the R-squared of 70,2%, while Model 3(secondary education) and Model 2 (primary education) reach 67,% and 61,4% respectively (see Table 2
for more details).

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quality in primary education also requires investments in other areas, such as secondary
and tertiary education, or vocational training.20 Potential access to higher levels of
education likely motivates primary school students to put more effort into their learning
process, therefore reducing drop-out rates and improving overall outcomes.21
Limitations of the results can be categorized by their origin: the specifics of Africa as aregion, and the method of analysis. First of all, extensive brain drain was not taken into
account. A 2013 joint UN and OECD report stated that over 10% of university graduatesborn in African countries resided in OECD countries. For some countries the figure wasconsiderably higher, e.g. 43% for Zimbabwe, or 36% for the Republic of Congo.22 Thisphenomenon potentially further undermines the applicability of the results. If 50% of
university graduates leave their home country to work abroad, then the approximate
numbers of graduates needed to increase the stock of human capital by 1%, provided in
the previous section, are largely underestimated. In the previously mentioned example of
Tanzania, the estimated number of 12 thousand doubles to 24 thousand under theassumption that half of graduates leave.
Another issue which is not accounted for in the econometric analysis is the variation in
the quality of education. This is especially pertinent to the analyzed case, as the MDG
framework stimulated the exceptional 20 percentage point increase in primary education
net enrolment rate in only 15 years.23 Taking into account the natural growth that took
place in this period, the number of children enrolled in primary school increased by
140%, from 62 million in 2000 to 149 million pupils in 2015.24 Although consistent data
allowing to track education quality in African countries is scarce, it is unlikely that suchrapid increase in quantity did not have any detrimental effect on quality of education.
Indeed, several studies demonstrate that the learning outcomes are very poor in many
African countries, e.g. one study found that in most Sub-Saharan countries the ability toread a short written text is below 50% even for those who completed as much as 5 years
of primary education.25
The main limitation of the method applied in this study is that education attainment isonly a proxy of human capital. While the proxy is assumed to be highly correlated with
20

Birchler, K., & Michaelowa, K. (2016). Making aid work for education in developing countries: An
analysis of aid effectiveness for primary education coverage and quality. International Journal of
Educational Development, 48,
p. 47.
21
Birchler, K., & Michaelowa, K. (2016). Making aid work for education in developing countries: An
analysis of aid effectiveness for primary education coverage and quality. International Journal of
Educational Development, 48,
p. 48.
22
UN-DESA, O. E. C. D. (2013). World migration in figures. A Joint Contribution by UN-DESA and theOECD to the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development, p. 4.
23
Un.org. (2015). United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, p. 4.
24
Un.org. (2015). United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, p. 25.
25
Birchler, K., & Michaelowa, K. (2016). Making aid work for education in developing countries: An
analysis of aid effectiveness for primary education coverage and quality. International Journal of
Educational Development, 48,
p. 38.

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the analyzed variable, it should not be expected that manipulating the proxy is equivalent
to manipulating the latent variable itself. In other words, increasing education attainment
will surely increase the stock of human capital, but an unknown proportionality factor
likely applies.
The results of this study strongly suggest that the Millennium Development Goal
concerning primary education was ill-designed. The authors of the framework
unwillingly created misguided incentives (neglect of secondary and tertiary education),
which likely influenced the evolution of the African education system. Further researchshould concentrate on the challenge that these results poses to policymakers: how toeffectively incorporate quality measures into development frameworks, in a way thatsatisfies both the theoretical (evidence of causality on economic growth) and practical(simplicity, understandability) considerations.

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References
Barro, R., & Jong-Wha Lee. (2013). A New Data Set of Educational Attainment in theWorld, 1950-2010.” Journal of Economics, vol 104, pp. 184-198.
Baum, M. A., & Lake, D. A. (2003). The political economy of growth: democracy andhuman capital. American Journal of Political Science, 47(2), 333-347.
Birchler, K., & Michaelowa, K. (2016). Making aid work for education in developing
countries: An analysis of aid effectiveness for primary education coverage and quality.
International Journal of Educational Development, 48, 37-52.
Bloom, D. E., Canning, D., & Chan, K. (2006). Higher education and economic
development in Africa (Vol. 102). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Easterly, W. (2009). How the millennium development goals are unfair to Africa. Worlddevelopment, 37(1), 26-35.
Glewwe, P., Maiga, E., & Zheng, H. (2014). The contribution of education to economic
growth: A review of the evidence, with special attention and an application to SubSaharan Africa. World Development, 59, 379-393.
Goldin, C. (2016). Human capital. Handbook of cliometrics, 55-86.
Hanushek, E. A. (2013). Economic growth in developing countries: The role of humancapital. Economics of Education Review, 37, 204-212.
International Monetary Fund. (2018). World Economic Outlook Database April 2018.
Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund.
Mankiw, N. G., Romer, D., & Weil, D. N. (1992). A contribution to the empirics of
economic growth. The quarterly journal of economics, 107(2), 407-437.
Saint-Paul, G., & Verdier, T. (1993). Education, democracy and growth. Journal ofdevelopment Economics, 42(2), 399-407.
Smith, A. (1950). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,(1776).
Methuen.
Solow, R. M. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. The quarterly
journal of economics, 70(1), 65-94.
UN-DESA, O. E. C. D. (2013). World migration in figures. A Joint Contribution by UNDESA and the OECD to the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Migration andDevelopment.

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Un.org. (2015). United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. [online]
Available at: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
Contact email: kjblocka@gmail.com

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Appendix. Data
Countries included in both samples
Countries included in the bigger sample but not in the smaller sample
Countries included neither in the bigger sample nor in the smaller sample
Naturallogarithm
of:Algeria
AngolaBenin
Botswana
Burkina
Faso
BurundiCabo
Verde
Cameroon
CentralAfricanRepublic
Chad
Comoros
Congo;
Dem. Rep.
Congo;
Rep.
Cote

A26

B27

C28

129

230

331

432

533

634

9,45
8,68
7,49
9,46

3,53
3,04
2,56
3,62

1,98
2,11
2,10
2,00

4,11
NA
3,68
4,49

3,47
NA
2,89
4,02

3,10
NA
2,97
3,43

1,90
NA
0,70
0,70

3,99
NA
3,63
4,46

3,36
NA
3,07
3,49

7,24

2,48

2,03

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

6,57

1,70

2,03

3,59

3,41

1,70

-0,62

3,57

1,79

8,70

2,94

1,91

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

7,94

2,88

2,06

4,14

3,79

2,82

0,49

4,11

2,91

6,78

1,63

1,97

3,65

3,31

2,33

-0,19

3,63

2,41

7,69
7,28

2,02
2,44

2,06
1,98

NA
NA

NA
NA

NA
NA

NA
NA

NA
NA

NA
NA

6,33

2,17

2,08

3,45

2,89

2,56

-0,78

3,43

2,60

8,74

3,21

2,06

3,98

3,81

2,01

-0,45

3,96

2,09

7,86

2,26

2,11

3,86

3,57

2,30

0,76

3,81

2,49

26

Gross domestic product per capita in 2010, current prices, U.S. dollars (source: IMF).
The ratio of gross national savings in current local currency and GDP in current local currency in 2010(source: IMF).
28
Average population growth is calculated basing on population in million persons between the years 1980
– 2010 (source: IMF). Then 0,05 is added (knowledge advancement and capital appreciation, which areassumed to be constant across countries).
29
Percentage of population age 15+ with primary, secondary or tertiary schooling, Completed Primary,Secondary or Tertiary in 2010 (source: Barro-Lee).
30
Percentage of population age 15+ with primary schooling, Completed Primary in 2010 (source: BarroLee).
31
Percentage of population age 15+ with secondary schooling, Completed Secondary in 2010 (source:
Barro-Lee).
32
Percentage of population age 15+ with tertiary schooling, Completed Tertiary in 2010 (source: BarroLee).
33
Percentage of population age 15+ with primary or secondary schooling, Completed Primary or
Secondary in 2010 (source: Barro-Lee).
34
Percentage of population age 15+ with secondary tertiary schooling, Completed Secondary or Tertiary in2010 (source: Barro-Lee).
27

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d’Ivoire
Djibouti
7,84
Egypt
9,29
Equatorial
10,72
GuineaEritrea
7,09
Ethiopia
7,01
Gabon
9,64
Gambia;
7,38
The
Ghana
8,04
Guinea7,33
Guinea7,29
BissauKenya
7,87Lesotho
7,85
Liberia
7,02
Libya
10,34
Madagasc
7,22
ar
Malawi
6,88
Mali
7,51
Mauritania 8,18
Mauritius 9,64
Morocco
8,77
Mozambiq
6,80ue
Namibia
9,06
Niger
6,76
Nigeria
8,54
Rwanda7,21
Sao Tome
and7,84
Principe
Senegal
7,67
Seychelles 9,88
Sierra7,10
Leone
Somalia
NA
South
9,38
Africa
South
NA
Sudan
Sudan
8,33
Swaziland 9,02

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NA
2,97

NA
1,98

NA
4,18

NA
3,31

NA
3,45

NA
1,89

NA
4,08

NA
3,64

3,01

2,19

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA
2,47
3,54

NA
2,08
2,03

NA
NA
4,31

NA
NA
3,69

NA
NA
3,33

NA
NA
1,84

NA
NA
4,22

NA
NA
3,53

2,24

2,17

3,62

3,44

1,68

-0,09

3,60

1,84

2,22
2,07

2,07
NA

4,18
NA

3,79
NA

2,98
NA

0,36
NA

4,16
NA

3,05
NA

1,88

1,96

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2,70
3,43
NA
NA

2,08
1,85
NA
2,00

3,93
3,80
3,76
4,29

3,93
3,80
3,76
3,52

3,44
3,41
3,29
3,31

2,79
2,62
2,67
2,48

1,22
-0,27
0,64
4,11

3,86
3,79
3,72
3,67

2,02

2,08

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2,08
3,00
NA
3,99
3,17

2,07
2,02
NA
1,77
1,90

3,51
2,96
3,91
4,24
3,97

3,23
2,63
3,86
3,01
3,45

2,08
1,52
2,20
3,86
2,78

-1,90
-0,25
-0,03
0,63
1,68

3,51
2,92
3,89
4,21
3,87

2,10
1,68
2,30
3,90
3,07

2,66

1,99

3,18

3,01

1,28

-1,35

3,17

1,35

NA
2,22
NA
1,84

NA
2,14
2,05
2,04

4,05
3,02
NA
3,88

3,69
2,77
NA
3,70

2,82
1,35
NA
1,99

-0,27
-0,67
NA
-0,63

4,04
2,99
NA
3,87

2,87
1,47
NA
2,06

NA

1,99

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2,23
2,72

2,05
1,82

3,32
NA

3,15
NA

1,19
NA

0,22
NA

3,28
NA

1,51
NA

0,84

1,95

3,56

3,24

2,15

0,20

3,53

2,28

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2,99

1,93

4,42

3,20

4,06

-1,14

4,42

4,07

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2,07
2,75

2,03
1,98

3,78
3,78

3,63
3,59

1,44
1,83

0,63
0,49

3,74
3,75

1,81
2,07

568

The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2018

Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
UgandaZambiaZimbabwe

ISSN: 2189-101X

7,67
7,09
9,24
7,56
8,07
7,40

2,86
1,94
3,04
2,82
2,62
NA

2,06
2,13
1,90
2,13
2,07
1,93

4,15
4,06
4,22
3,75
4,32
4,41

569

Official Conference Proceedings

4,10
3,83
3,66
3,53
4,05
4,31

0,93
2,35
3,08
1,95
2,83
1,97

-1,02
0,41
2,00
0,21
-0,71
-0,97

4,14
4,03
4,12
3,72
4,31
4,41

1,06
2,49
3,37
2,12
2,86
2,03

© The International Academic Forum 2018
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)
Sakae 1-16-26-201
Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi
Japan 460-0008
ww.iafor.org