bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EXPLORATION OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE STUDENTS’ TECHNOLOGICAL READINESS TO TEACH DURING TEACHING PRACTICE
Authors: Chisango Grasia , Marongwe Newlin
Published: July 2022

"The outbreak of pandemics, such as Covid 19 and the need to learn “21st century skills” has resulted in universities intensifying the adoption and use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the training of pre-service teachers. Each teaching subject that pre-service teachers specialise in requires ICT skills relevant to the content of that subject. This paper focuses on English First Additional Language (ENGFAL) pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach using ICT. This group of students specialise in a Bachelor of Education Degree at Further Education and Training level. A qualitative approach was used to gather data from final year ENGFAL students who will be on teaching practice (TP) in the middle of the year. Two focus group interviews comprising of five students each, were used to collect data from the ENGFAL pre-service teachers at a developing university in South Africa. This study was informed by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework (TPACK). Data were analysed using a thematic approach. Key themes that emanated from this study were that most students were confident that they could teach ENGFAL using the traditional methods of teaching. The students revealed that ENGFAL has many aspects derived from the Language and Literature components of the subject and that sometimes confused them. However, only a few were confident that they could select appropriate ICT with the most affordances to achieve lesson objectives. Therefore, the majority of the ENGFAL pre-service teachers had limited TPACK. Another important issue that also emanated from this study was that the participants felt that they would have learnt better on how to use ICT to teach if they had done that in a physical classroom. They did not get adequate time to practice teaching using ICT in the physical classroom due to the Covid19 lockdown. Researchers of this study concluded that more practice, teacher, and peer support is needed for pre-service teachers to master ICT use in teaching ENGFAL."
ASSESSING CHILDREN AT RISK IN UAE: PILOT USE OF THE MBC ARABIC VERSION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL SETTINGS
Authors: Efstratopoulou Maria , AlQahtani Omniah , Eldib Abeer Arafa
Published: July 2022

"Children’s emotional, behavioral and developmental problems can be properly identified and assessed based on observations from their teachers and parents. The Motor Behavior Checklist (MBC; Efstratopoulou, Janssen, Simons, 2012a) was designed to assist classroom teachers and Physical Education (PE) teachers in assessing their students’ motor-related behaviors. The instrument has already been successfully translated and culturally adapted into six languages and used in a number of research studies internationally. The present study aimed to apply the newly developed Arabic version of the MBC checklist at mainstream Schools in UAE and assess the motor behavioral problems in typical school-aged children. A sample of 294 children aged 2- 18 years were assessed by their teachers in school settings using the 59 items checklist for children analyzing data on the 7 clusters (rules breaking, attention, hyperactivity, low energy, stereotyped behavior, social interaction, self-regulation). Findings indicated that boys were scoring higher on the Attention, Hyperactivity, and social problems scales. Gender differences and the possible effects of behavioral challenges are also explored and discussed in the study. Early assessment and Behavioral management strategies are recommended by the authors."
FACILITATION TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR ONLINE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
Authors: Goagoses Naska , Rötkönen Erkki , Winschiers-Theophilus Heike , Zaman Tariq , Itenge Helvi , Yong Wen Tan Daniel
Published: July 2022

"Current trends indicate that more schooling will take place online, including project-based learning (PBL). This shift opens new possibilities for interactions and collaborations among students, allowing for glocalization of learning and connectivism across international classrooms. The last two years have shown that many well-established techniques/tools for facilitating PBL in physical classrooms are not simply transferable to the online space. Thus, techniques/tools for online facilitation need to be explored, adapted, and newly developed, whilst considering existing pedagogical principles. We conducted three case studies lasting approximately 3 months each, in which primary school students (Grade 5-7) from Namibia, Malaysia, and Finland collaborated in online sessions. Throughout these studies we focused extensively on the facilitation process, exploring different techniques/tools with a trial-and-error approach. We were guided by our own experiences in facilitating and teaching within physical classrooms, and continuously reflected on the adaptation to online settings, whilst consulting theoretically-proposed and empirically-supported suggestions from various fields. For each case study, we video recorded the planning of the sessions, the sessions themselves, and the reflection afterwards. In addition to analyzing these videos, we also drew upon focus group interviews that were conducted with students at the end of the studies. Based on this data, we present facilitation techniques/tools, including the structuring of sessions (e.g., the importance of icebreakers, variety in activities, and navigation of digital tools), as well as aspects relevant to the climate (e.g., student-student interactions, facilitator-student interactions, autonomy, role distributions, and language). With the presentation we offer researchers and educators practical techniques/tools, as well as important aspects to consider when facilitating primary school students in online project-based endeavors."
THE LEGAL BACKGROUND AND ACCEPTANCE OF LEARNING COMMUNITIES BASED ON INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
Authors: Langer-Buchwald Judit , Langer Zsolt
Published: July 2022

"Current trends indicate that more schooling will take place online, including project-based learning (PBL). This shift opens new possibilities for interactions and collaborations among students, allowing for glocalization of learning and connectivism across international classrooms. The last two years have shown that many well-established techniques/tools for facilitating PBL in physical classrooms are not simply transferable to the online space. Thus, techniques/tools for online facilitation need to be explored, adapted, and newly developed, whilst considering existing pedagogical principles. We conducted three case studies lasting approximately 3 months each, in which primary school students (Grade 5-7) from Namibia, Malaysia, and Finland collaborated in online sessions. Throughout these studies we focused extensively on the facilitation process, exploring different techniques/tools with a trial-and-error approach. We were guided by our own experiences in facilitating and teaching within physical classrooms, and continuously reflected on the adaptation to online settings, whilst consulting theoretically-proposed and empirically-supported suggestions from various fields. For each case study, we video recorded the planning of the sessions, the sessions themselves, and the reflection afterwards. In addition to analyzing these videos, we also drew upon focus group interviews that were conducted with students at the end of the studies. Based on this data, we present facilitation techniques/tools, including the structuring of sessions (e.g., the importance of icebreakers, variety in activities, and navigation of digital tools), as well as aspects relevant to the climate (e.g., student-student interactions, "After 2011 a new alternative educational form appeared on the palette of Hungarian public education: learning communities that provide alternative education for schoolchildren who take part in alternative or mainstream education as private pupils. The learning communities are not schools in the traditional way, but we can simplify it as home-schooling in a more organized way. The conditions of learning communities and regulations in connection with the fulfilment of compulsory education vary in different countries and there is a difference in private pupils’ legal relationship in regard to how permissive or restrictive the status of being a private pupil is. The learning community as an alternative way of education has appeared in more European countries and even beyond Europe, this research discusses three European countries – Austria, Hungary and Romania – the way they regulate the fulfilment of compulsory education and their regulations in how they permit being a private pupil, as well as the attitude of educational governance towards this new form of alternative education."
IDENTIFYING THE PH.D. STUDENTS’ NEEDS FOR CAREER ENHANCEMENT SKILLS
Authors: Kosvyra Alexandra , Filos Dimitrios , Cusack Tara , Chouvarda Ioanna
Published: July 2022

"In the past few years, it has been seen that an increasing number of Ph.D. graduates are following a career outside academia. CHAMELEONS1 project has undertaken the role of identifying and fulfilling the needs of Ph.D. students for following a career in the industry in digital health. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 873105. The overall aim of CHAMELEONS is to firstly identify a range of modules and secondly co-design and deliver three interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, and international modules which will broaden the skills of 15 Ph.D. students/Post-Doctoral Fellows to improve their employability in both academic and non-academic environments. CHAMELEONS’ consortium offered the opportunity to the Ph.D. students participating in the project to attend some modules in fellow universities and outside their Ph.D. program. This work presents the choices of the students. Students were called to identify one to three modules based on their needs and interests. To that end, and towards identifying the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the selected courses, a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was implemented as part of an online google classroom resource where information about the available courses for selection was made available. The questionnaire answers were completely anonymous. The questionnaire attempts to attain information regarding these courses at two levels: (i) background and skills that the students recognized as underdeveloped and the tools they used to identify them, (ii) preferences of students in terms of interest, reasons, and motivation of selection and the skills (provided by the European classification of Skills, Competences, and Occupations - ESCO2) they aim to acquire through these courses. 13 students replied to this questionnaire, all coming from diverse backgrounds (health-related or health technology-related) and the majority used a self-awareness/ self-assessment tool to identify the skills that they need to improve and make their decision. Moreover, students selected courses that do not actually improve a hard skill needed for their research, but soft skills in the business and career management direction, focusing mostly on creativity, innovation, and communication. Finally, students are willing to attain what can be considered necessary for building a successful career in every sector. To conclude, our study suggests that Ph.D. students have a need to develop skills beyond their basic scientific education. These skills are related to the perspective of developing a successful career plan and being competitive in the occupational arena."
CREPS AND THE STREBER-APP AN INTERACTIVE METHOD FOR COMPETENCE-ORIENTED ASSESSMENT AND ITS DIGITAL IMPLEMENTATION
Authors: Schmiedl Grischa , Schmiedl Birgit
Published: July 2022

"Competence orientation and individualization are paradigms that are becoming increasingly important in modern education. However, especially in courses with many participants the implementation of competence-oriented teaching and assessing quickly exceeds the limits of the lecturer’s time resources. Peer evaluation is generally suitable for giving students individual and comprehensive feedback, at least if the quality of the feedback is high enough. Unfortunately, sometimes it's hard to motivate students to give high-quality feedback. The CREPS (Create, Review, Enhance, Practice and Score) method was created by the authors in early 2020. It offers an organizational framework that can be used regardless of the size of the student group without significantly increasing the effort for the lecturers. The focus is placed on the skills of self-evaluation and peer assessment, which are both important for competence orientation. The basic idea includes an iterating process in which students generate and enhance test questions based on the given learning content that are assessed and evaluated by their colleagues for quality, correctness, and complexity level. In addition, the best questions are selected for further practicing. Students are rewarded with points for each step in this process; highly appreciated work (good questions and valued feedback) will result in higher scores. This method and the Streber-App, a mobile application supporting the method, were originally developed for a media technology related university course and since then have been used in six courses in 2020, 2021 and 2022. To evaluate the method CREPS and the supporting app as well as to find out the students' views on and experiences with both method and application, more than 500 students were invited to participate in a quantitative survey. This paper presents the method CREPS, its underlying didactic considerations, the implementation with the mobile app and the most interesting results from the survey. The participants reflected these concepts and their acceptance in the learning setting. The students’ feedback on the use of the method, the support by the lecturers and the concrete implementation using our app, allows us to draw conclusions about the functioning of the previous application and possible improvement for further use. The self-assessment of the students on their individual learning success gives an indication of the benefits of the method in the university environment."
INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO EMBEDDING WELLBEING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Authors: Duignan Ciara , Byrne Deirdre , Surdey Jessica , McGrath Denise
Published: July 2022

"Supporting student mental health and wellbeing continues to be a foremost concern in Higher Education (HE), as rates of students presenting with mental health conditions, distress and poor wellbeing increase and as demand for counselling and support services exceeds supply. The age range of students in third level education often coincides with the challenging transitional period of emerging adulthood, where instabilities are further compounded by academic, financial, and social pressures. As HE institutes are distinct settings where academic work, hobbies, social life, as well as health and other services are often integrated, HE presents a unique opportunity to address this wider societal concern through a systems-based lens. Despite calls for holistic, whole of institution approaches, a transformation of student wellbeing has yet to be realised. During a national initiative for valuing teaching and learning in HE in Ireland, the authors hosted an engaged online event to mobilise learning and action in the student wellbeing community. The event included case study presentations from existing examples of wellbeing in the curriculum, a panel discussion on the national landscape, and an open discussion on the future of wellbeing in HE. Attendees included academic faculty, HE management, researchers, staff from health and counselling services and health promotion, student representatives, careers and support services, and others. Data were collected via the recorded oral contributions, Zoom chat, and an anonymous survey. A deductive thematic analysis was completed with the guiding concept of an institution as a system that supports wellbeing. Findings proposed shared values as the compass for organisational culture, leaders and decision makers as key enablers of change, academic structures as both a vehicle to promote positive wellbeing and mitigate negative impacts, academic staff as the embodiment of the institution and its values, and the student voice as a guide for informed decision making. Recognising an institution as part of a wider system of HE which is influenced by political and economic climates, there is a requirement for HE to set out its stall with respect to its purpose and responsibility to wellbeing. This affirmation could enable a shared understanding of and commitment to wellbeing across the sector, through which collaborative and system-based efforts to support wellbeing can be actioned."
SUPPORTING STUDENT SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: WHAT DO STUDENTS NEED?
Authors: Bannigan Gráinne , Bryan Lucy , Burgess Alexandra , Gillespie Lara , Wylde Sinead , Duignan Ciara , McGrath Denise
Published: July 2022

"The number of university students encountering issues with their well-being is increasing every year, with many struggling to seek appropriate support or lacking the necessary skills to identify themselves as struggling. One of the biggest factors affecting this is academic pressure due to being ill-prepared for the independent learning skills required at university, such as self-management and self-regulation, for which many still need support. To understand what these support needs are, four focus groups were carried out with university students across multiple programmes and stages. These were recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis. Four key themes are presented: (1) supports at university are often impersonal and unapproachable in nature, (2) importance of holistic well-being and personal development literacy to enable students to thrive at university, (3) need for better awareness and sign-posting of available supports, and (4) peer influences can have a substantial positive and/or negative effect on students. The implications of these are discussed in relation to improving supports, the importance of involving varied student voices throughout this process is highlighted, and further research steps are discussed."
SUSTAINABLE COMPUTER ARCHITECTURES: USE OF GRID, VIRTUALIZED, AND CLOUD COMPUTING IN ADDRESSING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Authors: Sztandera Les Mark
Published: July 2022

"Combating electronic waste, energy consumption, as well as carbon emissions requires an enterprise to focus on creating sustainable computer architectures. A sustainable computer architecture identifies ways for an organization to stay competitive while becoming less dependent on computing resources and energy consumption. Sustainable computer architecture is a critical part of Corporate Social Responsibility. This paper highlights the components of a sustainable computer architecture: Grid, Cloud, and Virtualized Computing, and addresses their current applications in tackling COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic sent virtually all office employees as well as school and University students home worldwide. Working and studying from home has been the only option for them, with in person settings implemented during Fall 21 semester. Under these unprecedented circumstances, sustainable computer architecture providers have become the cornerstone of virtual collaboration and learning platforms on a scale never experienced before. While the Internet has been part of our lives for quite some time now, without scalable Grid, Cloud, and Virtualized Computing platforms addressing the COVID-19 pandemic would have been disastrous. Under the pandemic crisis, sustainable computer architectures have become indispensable for Universities, schools, enterprises, governments, and all virtual students and business professionals."
STUDENT-CENTERED PROJECTS: RURAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LEADING PROJECTS IN TECHNOLOGY, IDENTITY, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Authors: De Los Santos Rodríguez Sabrina , Carbonell Anya , Cassidy Michael , Ong Maria
Published: July 2022

"CompuPower is a student-centered program integrating computer technology, identity exploration activities, and community outreach projects. The program was implemented in six rural high schools in Arizona, USA between 2019 and 2021. Students worked in groups in project-based learning environments to create technology-based products (for example, websites, social media campaigns, and public service announcement videos) and to explore their individual identities and skills as they set education and career goals. To understand the CompuPower program from the students’ perspective, our research team conducted a qualitative, retrospective interview study using photo elicitation (Harper, 2002). This paper reports on the experiences of 13 rural high school student participants from diverse backgrounds. It explores students’ CompuPower experiences, including the technical and non-technical skills they gained throughout the program as they worked on community outreach efforts."
THE GAME OF LEARNING! APPROACHING ECOSYSTEMS THROUGH BOARD GAME DESIGN
Authors: Silveri Luana
Published: July 2022

"Game-based learning is proven to be a motivational and effective approach, especially in STEM education. However, the process of developing a game is rarely used as an educational tool. Ecology is part of the science curriculum in Italian high schools, but for students results not easy to understand the ecosystem structures and functions from a systemic perspective. Furthermore, addressing ecological issues in a changing world will request them not a reductionist approach but a systems perspective. In this work our main objective is to consider further possibilities offered by board games, exploiting not only the game experience but also the use of the game design process as an immersive motivational learning tool for science, with a learning by doing approach. Ten students have been engaged (16-18) in two activities: events to test and analyse cooperative board games and a laboratory for the development of a new board game on ecosystems (""YouTopia – La Valle ecosistemica""). Two focus groups were conducted, before and at the end of the laboratory, to test students' engagement and to collect feedback about the efficacy of the method to boost interest and specific knowledge in ecology. The research reveals that game development can foster system thinking skills among students, and act as a powerful learning tool for complex subjects such as ecology. Results are encouraging and the proposed approach has the potential to be applied and replicated in high school and middle school, to foster students’ engagement in tackling and understanding topics such as evolution, genetics other topics characterized by complexity and systemic approach. Preliminary results show as the YouTopia game could be a valid tool for citizenship education. By playing the game, students investigate and practice democracy, the mechanisms of land planning and natural resources protection, and the principle of coresponsibility in making choices for the future."
LEARNING BY DRAWING. A CONVERSATION ON HAND DRAWING WHEN EDUCATION IS GOING DIGITAL
Authors: Gaetani Flora , Vezzani Valentina
Published: July 2022

"The paper displays a conversation between the two authors. They reunite after ten years since the international summer school Around the Wall, which they co-organised and run in Lucca (Italy) in 2012, to reflect on hand-drawing education, mainly through their experience in teaching in different design environments. The conversation tells about how that summer programme represented for the authors the first steps to test some learning strategies that later on fed their teaching approaches, one at the BA in Design at Universidade da Madeira (PT) and the other at the BSc in Product Design at Politecnico di Milano (IT). In particular, Around the Wall summer school focused on hand drawing as a tool of personal discovery, reflection and visual communication, serving each phase of a design process. Also, the summer programme provided the participants with a multicultural and multidisciplinary environment to encourage a sense of collaboration and stimulate creative thinking. Over the ten years of teaching drawing within different design curricula, the authors encountered various teaching challenges and requirements to respond. Hand drawing education at the Design BA at Universidade da Madeira follows a horizontal approach. The learner is provided with many hours to experiment with different exercises and techniques to identify and develop a personal style for visual communication. At the Design BSc of Politecnico di Milano, the approach is vertical. Here the teaching aims at optimising the few hours dedicated to drawing so that learners can effectively develop their skills and methods for drawing by hand within a product design process. In the context of a design education moving faster toward digital learning environments - especially forced during the lock-downs in 2020 and 2021 - the authors reflect on their personal teaching experiences to identify educational guidelines for using hand drawing as a creative tool to learn to communicate, in any field. Finally, the authors conclude their conversation by imagining some future teaching/learning scenarios as a cross-pollination result between their personal experiences and considerations."
EXPANDING THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES TO PROMOTE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE TERRITORY: A NEW MANAGEMENT PARADIGM AT RIO DE JANEIRO STATE UNIVERSITY
Authors: Baptista Tatiane Alves , Lima Claudia Gonçalves
Published: July 2022

"The present work deals with the management experience at Rio de Janeiro State University– UERJ, where a new management and governance model was adopted in order to strengthen university autonomy. This new model has given rise to the expansion of universities’ responsibility and has reorganized management sectors in a process that involves the renewal of internal legislation with the view to regulate and guide the university's action in the process of knowledge transfer to society through services. The result of this new regulatory framework is the improvement and increase in the spectrum of partnerships between universities and governments, the strengthening of pre-existing partnerships, and, finally, the attribution of new responsibilities to the so-called supervisory units or “supervisory bodies of the central administration of the university”. Great part of the efforts aimed at rearticulating UERJ’s internal system points to the need to overcome the historical internal fragmentation, redirecting management to an articulated system which is able to reflect the political will of the authorities involved, in the sense of an autonomous and radical evolution of the institution's internal governance. It can be stated that the transformations seen at UERJ are part of a broader process inscribed in the scope of the current management strategies to bring universities closer to the demands of society. Its main characteristics are, as follow: the integration of disciplines and thematic areas that enhance knowledge in the face of regional development; the prioritization of partnerships with the public sector, the valuing of innovation and projects with the potential for technology transfer, the expansion of the role of universities to promote social and economic development of the territory; the strengthening of the role of universities for the planet sustainability; the financing associated with academic results (publications and students’ involvement), the sophistication of monitoring, management systems and their indicators; the encouragement of regional action and the implementation of correlated management and governance models. This work, therefore, presents a brief balance of this experience based on systematized data between 2020 and 2021."
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL CLIMATE AND SOUTH AFRICAN GRADE 9 LEARNER ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
Authors: Graham Marien Alet
Published: July 2022

"School climate has become a staple of organisational-educational research and is considered here in relation to learner academic achievement. In South Africa, poor learner achievement in mathematics and science has occupied the centre stage with the release of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) 2019 results. At Grade 9 level, 39 countries participated, and South Africa was very last and second from the last in science and mathematics achievement, respectively. We used a quantitative design with a positivist philosophical stance. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was used as theoretical framework, as learners attending a school with a negative climate cannot devote their full attention to learning. We analysed cross-sectional TIMSS 2019 South African data by considering two models: one with the dependent variable being mathematics achievement and the other with it being science achievement. For both models, gender and socio-economic status were included as control variables, the sense of belonging scale was included as a predictor at learner-level, and nine predictors relating to school climate were considered at school-level. The multi-level analysis using HLM software showed that learners with a high sense of belonging, schools with sufficient instructional materials, and technologically competent staff are significant predictors of both mathematics and science achievement. We recommend that South African schools with insufficient instructional materials be prioritised for receiving the necessary material and that all South African teachers be trained in the use of technologies, as these are significant predictors of learner achievement. This will, in turn, enhance learners’ sense of belonging, which is also a significant predictor. Another recommendation is that stakeholders invest in school climate surveys and other interventions supporting a healthy school environment, as many researchers, including this study, have shown that a healthy school climate is a significant predictor of learner achievement. Additional research is encouraged to establish the nature of the impact that a healthy school climate has on learner achievement through longitudinal studies where causation can be proven."
THE POSTPANDEMIC REVITALIZATION OF A MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTION THROUGH STRUCTURAL AND OPERATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES
Authors: Garcia Ana Gil , Talley Jennifer , Yturriago Judith , Torres Rafael
Published: July 2022

"St. Augustine College, a small, bilingual higher education institution, survived the pandemic by implementing structural and operational changes. The primary objective was two-fold: to create organizational changes that addressed the consequences of an unprecedented pandemic and to create the tools and mechanisms needed to sustain those organizational changes. Despite the circumstance, the institution’s commitment to its nontraditional student population, primarily female (78%) and Hispanic students (85%), motivated the necessary changes. The theoretical framework that supports this research study is the work of Kurt Lewin (1942)’s 3-Stage Model of Change. A mixed methods study determined the framework for data collection and analysis. The newly created Office of Academic Effectiveness (OAE) was the unit of analysis. The OAE is responsible for the quality assurance of the institution. Through qualitative data including interviews and observations, the Latino Educational Model, the new foundational teaching and learning philosophy of the institution, was developed. The quantitative data that served as the model’s creation was generated from four satisfaction surveys as well as students’ evaluations of course and instructors. This study provides a close examination of the office’s accomplishments and failures, institutional obstructions and passageways, and the balancing of existing traditions with new best practices. As a result of an arduous reframing process intended to revitalize the traditional culture, the college community united to create new units, revamp enrollment and admission procedures, update technology for different instructional delivery modalities, hire system disruptors, design and implement new policies, enforce assessment measures, craft onboarding regulations, establish faculty evaluation guidelines, build new academic programs, restructure and reevaluate the curricula, set up academic internships, conceive new certificates, and rebrand the institution, among other initiatives. The institutionalization of these changes seems to be the catalyst that will lead the institution to reclaim its position in the higher learning community."
FINNISH EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE LEADERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ROLE IN SUPPORTING STAFF’S WELL-BEING
Authors: Kuutti Tiina , Sajaniemi Nina , Björn Piia Maria
Published: July 2022

"It is widely recognized that in early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments, work-related well-being is one of the key elements of job satisfaction and coping at work. The well-being of ECEC professionals strengthens the quality of early childhood education and care and supports children’s well-being, development, and learning. ECEC leaders have an important role in boosting their staff’s well-being, especially when working in groups with children with special educational needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate Finnish ECEC leaders’ perceptions of their role in supporting their staff’s well-being. The study involved five ECEC leaders, and data was collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that ECEC leaders brought up different kinds of dimensions concerning their role in supporting staff’s well-being: conversation partner, administrative actor, negotiator, pedagogical mentor, supporter of social cohesion, and supporter of expertise. By working according to these roles, ECEC leaders affected to their staff’s work-related well-being by decreasing job demands and increasing job resources. This research provides valuable information concerning the ways to support the well-being of ECEC professionals and leaders’ role in this crucial element of high-quality early childhood education and care."
METHODS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF DESIGN CAD TEACHING FOR TECHNICAL SPECIALIST
Authors: Ovtšarenko Olga , Eensaar Agu
Published: July 2022

"Digital literacy is a necessary skill for a modern specialist and an important factor influencing the development of the economy in all industries. Automation of technological processes requires an appropriate level of training of specialists, among the necessary skills of which should be knowledge of a CAD program. In order to improve the level of education and competitiveness of specialists (including those who have temporarily lost their jobs), Tallinn University of Applied Sciences (TTK UAS, Estonia), in cooperation with the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund, has been organizing and conducting training on the use of CAD programs since 2012, including CAD design with AutoCAD, both 2D and 3D, as the most universal CAD program. To ensure more effective training, teachers of advanced training courses, who are the authors of the article, constantly monitor the labour market to determine the requirements for technical specialists. In accordance with changes not only in the requirements for the level of training of specialists but also taking into account constantly developing technologies, the training program is also changing. Recently, in connection with the pandemic, it has become necessary to conduct not only face-to-face training but also online, hybrid, which required not only updating the educational material but also a new approach - the use of interactive tools in training. Since 2021, TTK UAS conducts in-service training for adults including CAD design with AutoCAD within the framework of the Ministry of Education and Research's state training order for in-service training “Promotion of adult education and broadening of learning opportunities”, for learners is free of charge. This article analyzes the statistics and demonstrates the use of this analysis to assess the necessary changes in the curriculum to improve the effectiveness of the study of the CAD program."
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORAL READING FLUENCY MEASURES AND VISUAL ATTENTION SPAN IN BRAZILIAN'S SCHOOLCHILDREN IN PANDEMIC CONTEXT
Authors: Moreira Lavínia Micaela , Deolindo Ana Karolina Silva , Germano Giseli Donadon , Capellini Simone Aparecida
Published: July 2022

"The aim of this study was to relate the measures of oral reading fluency and visual attention span in Brazilian students from the 4th grade of elementary school. Eleven students were submitted to three measures of oral reading fluency and the global visual attention span (VAS) for five characters. The reading correct word per minute measure was used with three texts that differed in complexity. The study was carried out after the adoption of remote teaching in the Pandemic. Spearman analysis was performed between fluency and VAS variables, with no significance. The results revealed a greater number of correct words per minute in the third reading time compared to the first two times, revealing that the real reading performance of 4th grade students is the average of 39 to 40 words per minute and average of fixation of 50% of the characters. These findings indicate academic losses due to low reading fluency rate, fewer characters per fixation and lack of relationship between the variables. These results pointed out to the decrease in reading practices during the Pandemic. As conclusion, there is a need for further studies about this theme."
EMPLOYING WHITENESS AS PROPERTY: LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE SIGNALING DIVERSITY WHEN YOU ARE WHITE
Authors: Chávez Minerva S.
Published: July 2022

"Academic leaders in the United States are tasked with establishing university strategic plans that facilitate a holistic educational experience in order to meet the needs of our diverse student populations. A holistic education includes the academic, social, emotional, and spiritual (meaning of life, finding purpose) necessities of our students. To this end, let us consider the leaders accountable for upholding this ethical imperative. This autoethnography examines the concept of Whiteness as Property (WaP) (Harris, 1993) to identify how the distribution of power amongst educational leaders maintains whites in a space of racialized privilege while using people of color to signal their commitment to establishing a diverse university culture. Using the WaP lens, allows for the analyses of the practices, behaviors, and other social performances administrators engage in to construct their leadership identities in relation to the current sociopolitical milieu concerning inclusion and diversity. Autoethnography illuminates these leadership practices in unique ways—the narratives are from the perspective of the non-traditional leader. We serve to collectively lead our universities in the right direction to meet our strategic goals and provide equable education for all students. As a working-class Latina occupying educational leadership roles, autoethnography permits the theorization of my liminal perspective to underscore the interconnected role of universities as apparatuses assisting in capital accumulation, legitimation, and production. The narratives provide an analytical and profoundly humanistic understanding of the experiences that shape our conscious behaviors, actions, and thoughts in our workplace."
"EDUCATING FOR MODERN CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES IN A PLATFORM-AGNOSTIC FASHION "
Authors: Cutting David , McDowell Andrew , Barlaskar Esha , Anderson Neil , Watson Moira , Collins Matthew
Published: July 2022

"It is essential to provide computing students with hands-on exposure to modern techniques and technologies such as cloud computing. To this end we engaged with industry to co-design a curriculum for modern cloud computing to meet the industry needs for graduates. Vendors do provide access to cloud computing but their academic programs often leave much to be desired, with limited credits and features or a requirement to buy-in to their platform entirely. In the resource-constrained university sector simply buying vendor credits for students would be expensive but also wasteful as there is no capital investment. Having engaged with industrial partners to identify core theoretical skills and a subset of topics in which specific platform experience would be desirable we co-designed learning outcomes and assessments. To provide financially efficient platform-agnostic experience a private cloud was built using open-source tools which allowed a new large final year module. Having run this module for two full years and had excellent student feedback we reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and how industrial engagement cannot be a one-off, in a changing field it must be continuously performed to allow the curriculum to be refreshed and support emerging topics."
KNOWLEDGE NUGGETS INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN V2.0 AND TESTING STRATEGY
Authors: Ploder Christian , Hazy Christoph , Gamper Laura , Ehrhardt Lisa
Published: July 2022

"Currently, the education sector is undergoing profound changes and, in parallel, making digital teaching formats essential. One of these upcoming formats is the so-called ""Knowledge Nugget"". Knowledge Nuggets are digital learning materials that are designed for self-directed learning. They are organized within small, defined topics and vary depending on their scopes and sizes. Differentiation goes along with the way learning material is prepared and conveyed but does not provide information about the amount of content or the shared knowledge's difficulty. Based on a paper at END2021, the next step sheds light on general design aspects to reduce the extrinsic cognitive load during learning. Hence, it is necessary to which kind of Knowledge Nuggets has been prepared and how the different nuggets are structured. How the information is prepared must be taken into account not to harm the students in their learning process. This paper aims to further develop the previous form of instructional design, adding general design factors and providing a well-planned testing strategy to verify the explained model."
THE SENSORY PROCESSING AND INTEGRATION IN ASD: IMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
Authors: Trifu Raluca , Hațegan Carolina Bodea , Talaș Dorina , Tușe Tania
Published: July 2022

"Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) depict a large class of conditions that manifest in a variety of displays and particularities. The number and type of symptoms can differ drastically from one person to another and array from mild to severe. Symptoms fall into a range of categories; dysfunctions in perceptual and sensory processing are present with impact in communication, in neurological functioning outcomes and in various functional behavior limitations (Pfeiffer et al., 2005). In school settings and in everyday life the sensory processing and integration of the stimuli may impact the acquisition of new information and sometime, in particular situation the educational process itself. Sensory information and atypical behavioral responses are common to people with this diagnostic, with over 96% of children with ASD having hyper or hyposensitivity in several areas. Particular processing of sensory stimuli can cause aggressive and self-harming behavior, especially for those who are non-verbal and cannot communicate their difficulties in an adequate and functional manner. Among the most affected senses are the proximal senses, such as taste, smell, and touch, but new studies report that disruption of auditory and visual processing pathways is becoming more common (Marco, E J et al, 2011). Due to these particular hypersensitivities daily activities are disturbed. This is a factor that limits the participation of these individuals in certain events and activities, and in school itself. Most preschoolers had difficulty with sensory processing, which was associated with behavioral changes such as irritability, lethargy, or hyperactivity. In thisresearch we evaluated the sensory processing difficultieslayered by age and interaction plans: tactile, vestibular, proprioception, auditory, olfactive, taste and visual. The participants (N= 43) report data for themself (N=9), for babies(N=5), for kindergarten age (N=15) and for school age (N=14). Preliminary data indicate for tactile sensory processing the M= 1.9, for auditory sensory processing the M= 2.49, for vestibular sensory processing the M= 2.1, for proprioception sensory processing the M= 1.72, for visual sensory processing the M= 2.07, for taste sensory processing the M= 1.74, for olfactive sensory processing the M= 1.97. The most reported disturbance on sensory processing was on the auditory, vestibular and visual part. The affected sensory processing area interferes with the educational process that is based mainly on auditory, visual and vestibular. These preliminary results are in concordance with others reports from literature and could explain the hypersensitivity for auditory and visual stimulus and the odd behaviors displayed by ASD persons, like tiptoes walking. Further research and analysis will be developed in order to tailor these aspects of sensory processing in ADS, with impact on education and everyday living."
THE IMPACTS OF MENTORSHIP ON DUAL ENROLLMENT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Authors: Young Dave , Young Bill , Young Lisa , Wei Bing
Published: July 2022

"Dual enrollment programs enable high school students to take community college courses and earn high school and college credits, saving two years of college expenses. However, many dual enrollment students lack a robust support system for success in college-level coursework and environment. The authors created an interdisciplinary mentorship program that pairs a volunteer dual enrollment senior student with a dual enrollment junior student in a longitudinal mentoring relationship to address this. This study examined mentors’ and mentees’ long-term evaluation of the program and its impacts. Thirty-nine mentors and mentees were randomly matched with a waitlist control group, and mentoring relationships lasted for a full academic quarter. Participants later completed an anonymous online feedback survey (based on the Likert Scale), with a response rate of 67% (n = 26). Mentees reported an average 1.37 Likert scale increase in their comfort in dual enrollment; mentors reported an average 2.43 Likert scale increase in confidence in teaching others. Mentees’ comfort in the college environment increased with the frequency of meetings (p<0.05); the number of meetings did not correlate to their grade point average (GPA) (p>0.05). Change in dual enrollment comfort was more significant among matched students than waitlisted (p<0.05). Notably, many dual enrollment programs have a ~10% student academic probation rate (GPA<2.0) each quarter; none of the mentees experienced academic probation, but this was not significant. Among mentees, 79% reported interest in being a mentor the following year. These results indicate that peer mentorship is crucial for dual enrollment student success and presents a self-sustaining model for the future."