ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Towards an Analysis of the Discourse of Arabic Song: A Case Study--Umm Kulthoum's Song &quot;AlAtlal&quot;
Author: Hussein, Gameel Abdelmageed
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Singing,Discourse Analysis,Semitic Languages,Case Studies,Arabs,Poetry,Music

Arabic song has always played an important role in the life of Arabs. It reflects cultural attitudes and influences them. However, this major expressive discourse has been almost completely neglected in Arabic literary and critical studies. For this reason, this paper focuses on Arabic song, in the hope that my study will encourage other scholars to address similar issues. This study focuses on a much-loved song of the famous Egyptian singer, Umm Kulthoum, who is considered a legend in Arabic singing. This study applies a literary-cultural analysis. The song in question is a musical setting of a literary poem; thus it crosses the boundary between high art and popular culture. The paper explores this relationship and its implications.
Towards Improved Teaching Effectiveness in Nigerian Public Universities: Instrument Design and Validation
Author: Archibong, Ijeoma Aniedi
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Public Colleges,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Telephone Surveys,Interviews,Test Construction,Program Validation,Course Evaluation,Questionnaires,Evaluation Criteria,Accreditation (Institutions),Teacher Surveys,College Faculty,Likert Scales

This research is conducted to examine what is currently evaluated with respect to teaching in Nigerian public universities and to produce instruments that would be useful for examining the course and teaching effectiveness of course lecturers. Telephone interview of ten (10) professors in ten public Nigerian Universities is used to elicit information on the current state of evaluation of teaching while a document analysis reveals the concerns of National Universities Commission with lecturers during programme accreditation. Finding indicates that teaching effectiveness is grossly ignored in the lecturer appraisal process. An 18 item questionnaire and another 15 item questionnaire measuring teaching and course effectiveness respectively is constructed. After a test retest procedure using four lecturers and four courses, the instruments yielded a reliability coefficient ranging from -0.568 to 0.591 for lecturers and 0.548 to 0.944 for the courses. The correlation coefficient values clearly reveal that the course evaluation and lecturers' evaluation forms were adequate to generate information on the course and lecturer effectiveness. It is therefore recommended, among other things that the National Universities Commission (NUC) as a regulatory body should make the evaluation of teaching a mandatory policy for all universities.
Effects of Psychological Distress on Academic Achievement in Brunei Student Teachers: Identification Challenges and Counseling Implications
Author: Mundia, Lawrence
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Case Studies,Anxiety,Interpersonal Competence,Counseling Services,Mental Health,Health Promotion,Mental Disorders,Mixed Methods Research,At Risk Students,Scores,Psychometrics,Measures (Individuals),Extraversion Introversion,Student Teachers,Academic Achievement,Identification,Personality Measures,Neurosis,Check Lists,Symptoms (Individual Disorders)

Students with psychological and mental health problems are often accorded a low status and priority compared to peers with other disabilities. Recent research indicated that a female Brunei student teacher prematurely left her training program due to unaddressed mental health problems. The present study used a mixed methods approach. The random sample consisted of 85 trainee teachers (59 females) out of whom 6 at-risk and vulnerable students (2 males and 4 females) with extreme scores on the psychometric assessments and depressed scores on the academic evaluations were included in the case study. Anxiety was found operating in combination with either extroversion or introversion. While mild extroversion, introversion, and anxiety were not necessarily harmful, excessive amounts of each of these traits could undermine a student's educational and social functioning. Recommendations included encouraging students to undergo voluntary testing, self-referred counseling, and mounting an active mental health promotion campaign and pastoral care program.
LewiSpace: An Exploratory Study with a Machine Learning Model in an Educational Game
Author: Ghali, Ramla
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,College Students,Educational Games,Chemistry,Science Instruction,Visual Aids,Learner Engagement,Student Motivation,Psychological Patterns,Cognitive Processes,Medicine,Eye Movements,Photography,Personality Measures,Regression (Statistics),Models,Computer Assisted Instruction,College Science

The use of educational games as a tool for providing learners with a playful and educational aspect is widespread. In this paper, we present an educational game that we developed to teach a chemistry lesson, namely drawing a Lewis diagram. Our game is a 3D environment known as LewiSpace and aims at balancing between playful and educational contents in order to increase engagement and motivation while learning. The game contains mainly five different missions aim at constructing Lewis diagram molecules which are organized in an ascending order of difficulty. We also conducted an experiment to gather data about learners' cognitive and emotional states as well as their behaviours through our game by using three types of sensors (electroencephalography, eye tracking, and facial expression recognition with an optical camera) and a self report personality questionnaire (the Big Five). Primary results show that a machine learning model namely logistic regression, can predict with some success whether the learner will success or fail in each mission of our game, and paves the way for an adaptive version of the game. This latter will challenge or assist learners based on some features extracted from our data. Feature extraction integrated into a machine learning model aims mainly at providing learners' with a real-time adaptation according to their performance and skills while progressing in our game.
Historians or History Teachers? A Qualitative Study in Pedagogical Formation Program in Turkey
Author: Ünisen, Ali
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Historians,History,History Instruction,Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Education,Essays,Secondary School Curriculum,Content Analysis,Measures (Individuals),Preservice Teachers,Student Surveys,Student Attitudes

This study aims to determine how the history teaching career is perceived by prospective history teachers who attended the pedagogical formation program in Adiyaman University in 2014-2015 academic year. The study was conducted through content analysis of 5 sets of essays dealing with various aspects of history teaching. The essays topics were chosen being inspired from the History Teacher's Special Field Competencies identified by Ministry of Education published in 2011. The participants of the study were 11 female and 13 male prospective history teachers who did not have teaching experience except for the teaching practice in pedagogical formation program. Each participant submitted 5 essays, each with a different topic. The topics were accepted as the main themes. Analysis did not reveal a consistency between their objectives in teaching history, their teaching and testing methods. In the light of the results, some suggestions were made on history teaching as second career, history teaching practices at universities and testing methods at secondary and high schools.
Re-Founding Childhood Education: Passages in Presence
Author: Wright, Bryan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Children,Role of Education,Educational Philosophy,Elementary Education,Social Justice,Foundations of Education

Childhood represents the passage into and through constrained notions of spatio-temporal identity and normative constructions. The role of education is too frequently understood as the shaping of life and purpose in the service of democratic ideology. I propose another examination embracing historical anthropologies of education troubling normative constructions of childhood and education through deconstruction. Re-reading the philosophical foundations structuring primary education in the 21st Century opens the question of difference and social justice towards equitable purpose honouring the passage of childhood in presence beyond ascription. Drawing on foundational critiques of education in Derridean logos and Deleuzean inscription, I will interrogate our common conceptualisations of the philosophy of childhood education as a &quot;space of transformation&quot; where the self/subject escapes on &quot;lines of flight&quot; facilitating becoming. This is an enfolding of connectivity resisting prescription and chro´nos unfolding on diverse planes of immanence. Childhood then is not the passage to adulthood through pedagogical engagement, but rather the opportunity to explore episteme´ and connectivity in passage, in presence.
Epistemological Beliefs and Academic Achievement
Author: Arslantas, Halis Adnan
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Epistemology,Beliefs,Academic Achievement,Preservice Teachers,Foreign Countries,Preservice Teacher Education,Attitude Measures,Statistical Analysis,Correlation,Majors (Students),Statistical Significance,Talent,Likert Scales,Gender Differences

This study aimed to identify the relationship between teacher candidates' epistemological beliefs and academic achievement. The participants of the study were 353 teacher candidates studying their fourth year at the Education Faculty. The Epistemological Belief Scale was used which adapted to Turkish through reliability and validity work by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk (2005) and consisted of three sub-dimensions (i.e. belief of learning depending on effort, belief of learning depending on talent and belief of the existence of only one truth). In data analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis were employed. The findings showed that the teacher candidates' epistemological beliefs differed based on major. In addition, it was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between only the belief of learning depending on talent, among other sub-dimensions of epistemological beliefs, and academic achievement.
Experiences of Adopting Blended Pedagogies in Health Assessment Course in Post RN Baccalaureate Program of Nursing in Karachi, Pakistan
Author: Cassum, Shanaz Hussein
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Nursing Education,Blended Learning,Program Descriptions,Teaching Methods,Student Motivation,Teacher Effectiveness,Health Education,Undergraduate Students,College Faculty,Focus Groups,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Educational Improvement,Foreign Countries

Purpose: There is little known about whether faculty and students in a resource constricted context experience a change in learning due to the adoption of blended learning (BL) pedagogies in a lab based course. The study aimed to understand the experiences of faculty and students' related to the adoption of BL pedagogies in health assessment course. Design: An action research design was used in this study to integrate planning, action and research in the setting where the change is required. The study sample consisted of year 1 Post RN BScN students enrolled at the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, and the faculty assigned to teach in Health Assessment course. Of the 83 Post RN BScN students and the 6 nursing faculty invited, 53 students and 6 teachers (n= 59) consented to participate in the study. Data was collected using focus group discussions. Results: Findings revealed five major categories; Students' readiness, motivation and self-directedness; Teacher competence, commitment, and comfort; Use of blended strategies; Resources; and Contextual factors &amp; challenges. Conclusion: This study was the first of its kind in Pakistan. The findings of the study indicate towards the ways that can improve the use of BL in a resource constrained context.
An Investigation of the Possible Effects of Favored Contexts in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition
Author: Rezaei, Omid
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Accuracy,Vocabulary Development,Males,Pretests Posttests,Institutes (Training Programs),Control Groups,Foreign Countries,Teaching Methods,Context Effect,Reading Comprehension,Reading Tests,Scores,Sampling,Experimental Groups

It is widely agreed that much second language vocabulary learning occurs while the learner is attentively engaged in the process of reading and interpreting the texts encountered. It is also argued that to understand vocabulary learning linguists cannot limit the investigation of the process of vocabulary learning to word meaning (Gass, 1999). Since many questions remain unsettled in this domain, this study was conducted in the context of TEFL to investigate the effect of teaching vocabulary through its use in contexts in which learners have an interest versus contexts in which they are not that much interested. It, therefore, examines the impact(s) of contextual vocabulary learning and attempts to have a comparison of the effect(s) of the role of favored contexts as opposed to disfavored contexts. The experiment involved two groups of twenty-five male Iranian participants aged from 15 to 25 at the intermediate level in an Iranian English language institute. All things considered, a pretest-posttest control group design was determined to check the accuracy of the researchers' hypothesis in a short-term treatment through the application of reading comprehension tests (RCT). As a result, the overall findings support the initial idea that second language vocabulary acquisition (SLVA) is better achieved through the use of favored-contexts.
ESP Needs Analysis of Iranian MA Students: A Case Study of the University of Isfahan
Author: Moslemi, Fatemeh
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Second Language Instruction,Graduate Students,English (Second Language),Masters Programs,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Interviews,Questionnaires,Documentation,Attitude Measures,Student Attitudes,Program Effectiveness,College Faculty,Language Teachers,Teacher Attitudes

The aim of this study was to investigate the foreign language learning needs of Iranian MA students, in particular those who were majoring in biology, psychology, physical training, accounting and west philosophy. A total of 80 students from five MA majors studying at university of Isfahan participated in the study. Additionally, twenty-five subject-specific instructors as well as seven English instructors took part in the study. The study was designed on qualitative and quantitative survey basis using interviews, questionnaires, and texts. In order to investigate participants' point of views, chi-square test was used to analyze the data. The result obtained revealed that majority of the participants were dissatisfied with the current ESP courses for MA students. Most of the participants asked for an urgent need for revision and reconsideration of English instruction in the Iranian educational system as well as universities, stating that Iranian students do not have enough exposure to English language in a way that help them to fulfill their subjective and objective needs at MA level. Giving more weight to English in the MA entrance exam was suggested as one possible solution. It was thought that this would increase the motivation of the students to improve their language proficiency; furthermore, joint teaching of the ESP courses was suggested as another solution to help students meet their English needs at the MA level.
Reader Engagement in English and Persian Applied Linguistics Articles
Author: Ansarin, Ali Akbar
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Indo European Languages,Interdisciplinary Approach,Contrastive Linguistics,Academic Discourse,Applied Linguistics,Journal Articles,Intellectual Disciplines,Authors,Reading Interests,Native Language,Audience Awareness,Cultural Differences

There is an increasing interest in the way academic writers establish the presence of their readers over the past few years. Establishing the presence of readers or what Kroll (1984, p.181) calls imagining &quot;a second voice&quot; is accomplished when a writer refers &quot;explicitly&quot; to their readers using explicit linguistic resources (reader engagement markers). Although there are some cross-disciplinary studies and only one cross-cultural study (Hinkel, 2002) which has investigated how writers in different disciplines/cultures acknowledge the presence of their readers, no contrastive study has ever been reported to have examined how academic writers from Persian and English writing cultures address their readers in their texts. Drawing on 60 applied linguistics articles (20 English articles written by native English applied linguists, 20 English articles written by native Persian applied linguists and 20 Persian articles written by native Persian applied linguists), this study aimed at seeing how native Persian and English writers engage their readers in their articles. Hyland's (2005a) interactional model of stance and engagement was used as an analytical framework to identify the type and frequency of reader engagement markers in these three groups of articles. The result of the analysis showed significant differences in the way native Persian and English represent their readers. Also, considerable differences were observed in categorical distribution of reader engagement markers.
The Relationship between Demotivation and EFL Learners' English Language Proficiency
Author: Hu, Rou-Jui Sophia
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Student Motivation,Language Proficiency,Influences,Correlation,Anxiety,Learning Problems,Predictor Variables,Memorization,Vocabulary,Foreign Countries,College Freshmen,Questionnaires,Multiple Regression Analysis

To what extent does demotivation affect EFL learners' English language proficiency attainment? The present study addresses this question by investigating the relationship between technological institute EFL students' past demotivating factors and their English language proficiency. Although the role of demotivation in foreign language achievement has been examined, relatively few studies have been implemented to predict English language proficiency attainment from demotivating factors. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that learning difficulties explained the most variance in the prediction of EFL learners' English language proficiency while language-specific anxiety was found to be the second most significant predictor variable. Of learning difficulties, &quot;bad at memorizing vocabulary&quot; entered into both equations, demonstrating the issue of insufficient vocabulary inventory of Taiwanese EFL technological college students. Language-specific anxiety was considered to be interrelated with learners' insufficient word bank in the present study.
Causal Attributions for Failure and the Effect of Gender among Moroccan EFL University Learners
Author: Zohri, Abdelaziz
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Undergraduate Students,Academic Failure,Gender Differences,English (Second Language),Attribution Theory,Questionnaires,Statistical Analysis,Causal Models,Self Efficacy,Independent Study,Self Management

This paper reports a study that sought to investigate Moroccan university learners' perceptions of failure. 333 subjects studying English at university ranked their perceptions of failure in a Causal Attribution Scale of University Failure (CASUF). The results show that Moroccan learners attribute their failure to teachers' attitude, effort, interest and pressure. Factors like social problems, lack of teachers' help and ability were not important. The study also investigated the link between gender and causal attributions of failure. Overall, male and female students reported similar causes. Still, some gender differences were detected.
Cultivating Awareness in Honors: First-Person Noting and Contemplative Practices
Author: Cooke, Kathy J.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,College Students,Honors Curriculum,Metacognition,Perception,Attention Control,Consciousness Raising,Observation,Student Reaction

While traditional practices of critical reading, writing, dialogue, and discussion are no doubt essential inputs and outputs of higher education and a means of achieving critical thinking in college students, recent science and pedagogical innovation can help develop additional, unique methodologies that can have more immediate significance for learners. These tools are especially useful for honors students. One such device is First-Person Noting, a technique that not only furthers general educational goals but also may advance honors distinctiveness and learner-oriented experience that is cross- and multi-disciplinary. Through First-Person Noting, students observe and acknowledge the subjective elements of their academic experience, in particular the thoughts, sensations, and feelings that occur while they read, write, listen, discuss, and reflect. First-Person Noting is described and its use for honors students is explained in this article.
The Activist WPA in Action: A Profile of the Firstyear Writing Program at Eastern Michigan University
Author: Irvin, L. Lennie
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Freshmen,Freshman Composition,Writing Instruction,Profiles,Curriculum Development,Program Improvement,Inquiry,Writing Strategies

This writing program profile examines the work of Dr. Linda Adler-Kassner and the ways in which she has redefined writing and the place of first-year writing at her university. The profile highlights Adler-Kassner's development of an &quot;open systems&quot; curriculum and her use of assessment for program visibility and continuous program improvement.
Accommodating the Consumer-Student
Author: Schweitzer, Leah
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Students,Student Participation,Evaluation Methods,Student Evaluation,Teaching Methods,Student Placement,Consumer Economics,Student Needs,Self Determination

Increasingly, students come to the university with a consumer mentality, which gives students a sense that they are entitled to negotiate their student positions within the university and the classroom. This article, using Directed Self-Placement as a sort of case study, considers the role student-centered assessments and pedagogies play in perpetuating this consumer role and theorizes that we are framing them in a way that makes us complicit. The article addresses questions about what to do as education becomes more consumer driven. What is a WPA--caught between concerns about good pedagogy and pressures from the administration to recruit and retain students--to do when faced with students who want to negotiate their positions in the first-year composition curriculum? And, how do we negotiate ourselves back into a position in which assessment standards and rigor are paramount, even in a consumer world?
Three on a Match: Gary A. Olson on Rigor, Reliability, and Quality Control in Digital Scholarship
Author: Jensen, Kyle
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interviews,Technology Uses in Education,Politics of Education,Higher Education,Electronic Publishing,College Faculty,Writing (Composition),Web Sites,Writing for Publication,Tenure,Electronic Journals

This interview examines the relationship between digital scholarship and the politics of higher education. In doing so, it advances a series of recommendations that aim to help digital scholars and digital scholarship achieve an increased level of stature in the academic community.