ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
National Consciousness and Identity in Tanzania: Factors Influencing Its Development and Sustainability
Author: Komba, Willy L. M.
Date: 2013-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Nationalism,Religious Factors,Group Unity,Sustainability,Christianity,Islam

We intend to debunk the myth that religion is a key factor in the weakening of national consciousness and cohesion in Tanzania by investigating the evidence behind media coverage that portrayed the phenomenon as being caused by religious conflicts in the country. The conclusion of the survey is that Tanzania citizens, irrespective of religious affiliation, do not differ significantly in their preference for the promotion of national consciousness in the country. The calculated X[superscript 2]= 0.8249 was found to be less than the tabulated X[superscript 2] = 5.02 with [alpha] = 0.025 and df = 1. Therefore, the null hypothesis on religion as a factor was accepted. These findings are contrary to media coverage portraying that national consciousness and national unity are being undermined by greater attachments to the two major religions, namely Islam and Christianity. Historically, national consciousness takes priority when outside forces threaten the nation or during internal challenges and misgivings, regarding faulted government performances and the threat to the stability of the country. When the government fails to deliver social services such as security and economic empowerment, protect citizen uniqueness and encourage sense of belonging not hinged on religion or ethnic grouping, it encourages revolt. The shirking in the national responsibilities and apparent partiality in turn, create avenue for and gear the people to rise against the regime. Such an all-embracing sense of nationalism is different from one that is based on sectarianism (the 19th century East and Central European version of nationalism), which some selfish and myopic politicians in Tanzania are eager to embrace using the religious cloak. In order to sustain and promote social, communal integration and national consolidation, it is necessary that a program is mounted for the youth and general public that will take the country from the usual national consciousness to what Franz Fanon calls 'political and social consciousness'.
Exploring the Academic Experiences of African International Graduate Students in a Midwestern University in United States of America: A Phenomenological Study
Author: Aurah, Catherine M.
Date: 2014-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Students,Graduate Students,Student Experience,Foreign Countries,Expectation,Student Participation,Teacher Student Relationship,Peer Relationship,Student Adjustment,College Faculty,Language Skills,Cultural Differences

This research demonstrates that the experience of international students on U.S. university campuses is replete with cultural, social, relational, work-related and linguistic challenges. This study explored the experiences of two international graduate students from Africa (male = 1, female = 1) as they adjusted to campus life at a Mid-Western public U.S. university where they were pursuing graduate degrees. Phenomenological methodology was utilized to explore African students' live experiences and hear their voices individually through semi-structured in-depth interviews that were digitally recorded. Data were transcribed, coded, and reported thematically. Three main themes emerged; role of instructors as mediators, social interaction, and active classroom participation. In addition, two other relevant findings also emerged; language ability and education systems. These were relevant to the purpose of the study but were not common experiences for both participants. The findings of this study have implications for internationalization of education globally.
Secondary School Administration and Human Capital Development in Rivers State, Nigeria
Author: Meenyinikor, J. N. D.
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Secondary Schools,School Administration,Institutional Characteristics,Secondary School Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Gender Differences,Human Capital

The purpose of this paper was to identify the characteristics of well administered secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria and determine the teachers' evaluation. Significantly, stakeholders' attention would be drawn to vital indices for supports and goals achievement. Four research questions, two hypotheses, related literature review, document analysis and questionnaire were used. From the 245 approved secondary schools, 100 were randomly selected as sample. The study identified 19 characteristics and no significant difference between male and female teachers' evaluation. It concludes that identification and evaluation of the characteristics of well administered secondary schools will enhance school administration, human capital development and educational goals achievement hence recommends their provision and maintenance by all the stakeholders in the Educational Industry.
Experience of Stress among Student-Teachers Enrolled in Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT): The Case of Haramaya University Cluster Centers, Ethiopia
Author: Alemu, Yirgalem
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Stress Variables,Teaching Conditions,Graduate Study,Gender Differences,Student Behavior,Behavior Problems,Family Work Relationship,Work Environment,Teacher Education Programs,Secondary School Teachers,Student Teachers

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and sources of stress among practicing student-teachers in the Eastern region of Ethiopia. A total of 112 participants were selected from the total population of 197 using stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), sources of stress measure and socio demographic characteristics of participants. To supplement the survey results, four groups of focus group discussions were conducted. The result indicated that 96% of female and 90% of male participants scored a stress level of 29 and above (out of the possible 56) indicating that they were fairly often, or very often, stressed. Though female participants showed higher level of stress than their male counterparts, the difference was not significant. Student misbehavior, inability to contact with significant others like families and relatives, and uncomfortable working environment were identified in that order as the greatest stressors. The implications of the results to teacher training institutes and other stakeholders in the teacher-training programs is discussed.
Building a Knowledge Base for QA System by Linking Korean Vocabulary and Wikipedia
Author: Lee, Yongbae
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Editing,Web 2.0 Technologies,Web Sites,Collaborative Writing,Korean,Vocabulary Development,Lexicography,Computer Software,Data Collection,Guidelines,Computational Linguistics

For a QA system it's very important to have a notion of vocabulary used in questions and for building correct answers. Especially, when a word represents a concept, one can use related lexical instances to understand it and further extend the knowledge by using the associated information. In this work, we suggest a process of building a knowledge base for such concepts as people, organizations, and places, and linking their instances to Wikipedia articles. We also develop a workbench for KB building. This workbench should efficiently support all features needed to collect necessary data and build the knowledge base. We have created 150,941 links to Korean Wikipedia for 2,394 instances of Korean vocabulary. This KB can be used in QA systems to extend questions, while the workbench can be used to build the KB itself.
Effects of Formative Test and Attitudinal Types on Students&apos; Achievement in Mathematics in Nigeria
Author: Ojugo, A. A.
Date: 2013-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Student Attitudes,Academic Achievement,Mathematics Instruction,Mathematics Achievement,Foreign Countries,Equations (Mathematics),Test Format,Secondary School Mathematics,Secondary School Students

The study investigates interaction effects of formative testing and attitudinal types as they affect students' achievement in mathematics. A total of 120 students are drawn from the three geopolitical zones of Delta State and participated in the experiment. Three-of-the-four formative test instruments were used namely: self-report rating scale; quadratic achievement test, graphical solution of Quadratic equation achievement test, and graphical solution of quadratic equation ability instrument to aid data collection for the study. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and two-way analysis of variance. Results shows that formative test (with reference to close book formative testing) contributed significantly to students' achievement in mathematics. Close book, followed by open book formative testing type are found to significantly contribute to students' achievement. Implications of the findings will help to boost the quality of teaching and learning of science (with respect to mathematics) education in Nigeria such as yield a useful direction towards the development of mathematics education in relation to learners' achievement as well as give a picture of the importance of formative testing to performance achievement mathematics.
An Evaluation of Secondary School Principals&apos; Perception of Learning Resources in Free Secondary Education Era in Kenya
Author: Makori, Andrew
Date: 2013-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Secondary Schools,Secondary Education,Principals,Educational Resources,Foreign Countries,Administrator Attitudes,Academic Achievement,Educational Attainment

This article reports on the findings from a quantitative research study on learning resources in Kenya's secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to investigate the secondary school principals' perception on the learning resources. The study adopted a quantitative survey design involving 81 secondary principals, selected purposively. Data was collected using a questionnaire (open and closed-ended, rating scale items). Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) resulting in descriptive data. From the study, it was found that some schools do not have laboratories, libraries and workshops. Some of the resources were charged unfavourably by the principals therefore raising concerns regarding their quality in the teaching learning process. In terms of their contributions to the teaching and learning process, textbooks and classrooms were charged higher while furniture was charged lowest. The rest of the resources fall in between. As sources of funding, Secondary Free Education (FSE) and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) were considered favourably than Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Local Authority Transfer funds (LATF). However, FSE was found to be inadequate and unreliable. In conclusion, the implications of the principals' perception on the quality of the teaching and learning resources are that their morale and job satisfaction may be negatively affected thus indirectly affecting the quality of teaching and learning. Poor quality of resources would directly affect the teaching and learning process. In either case, students' attainment may be affected negatively.
The Perceptions and Preferences of the General Foundation Programme Students Regarding Written Corrective Feedback in an Omani EFL Context
Author: Trabelsi, Soufiane
Date: 2019-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Undergraduate Students,Student Attitudes,Preferences,Writing Evaluation,Feedback (Response),Written Language,Accuracy,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Writing Instruction,English (Second Language),Error Correction,Peer Evaluation

Despite the fact that there has been a growing body of research investigating the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) for improving L2 learners' writing accuracy, fewer studies have investigated learners' preferences and perceptions of WCF. This paper, which is based on a doctoral research project, reports on an exploratory study that investigated the preferences and perceptions related to the aspects of WCF in an EFL context. Qualitative data was collected from focus groups administered to a sample of intermediate and pre-intermediate General Foundation Programme (GFP) students. The results showed that the students valued feedback and preferred the comprehensive feedback approach. They wanted it to be indirect and unfocused as well as teacher initiated. The findings also showed that they perceived their teacher feedback as timely, involving a variety of techniques, sufficient, efficient, clear, explicit, familiar to them, comprehensive. Despite all that, they sometimes faced some challenges in understanding their teachers' comments. The paper concludes with some implications for teaching and learning.
Wordsworth and the 18th Poetical Creative Ability
Author: Shahwan, Saed Jamil
Date: 2019-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Poets,Poetry,Philosophy,Environment,Moral Values,Conservation (Environment),Spiritual Development,Natural Resources,Romanticism,Urbanization,Industrialization

Wordsworth stands as a supreme poet in nature. He is a devotee and worshiper of nature. His affection for nature is more evident than any other poet who writes about nature. Wordsworth has an original and full-fledged philosophy about nature. In his poetics works, there are three notable aspects of nature that are identifiable. One of the facts is that Wordsworth believes that nature is a living person. He believes that nature has a divine spirit and it is available in all objects of nature. This divine spirit is known as mystical pantheism and illustrated in The Prelude. Wordsworth also believes that there is joy in the company of nature. Nature has healing attributes and heals hearts struck by sorrow. Wordsworth also emphasizes the influence of nature on morality. He depicts nature as a great teacher because of the great morals taught to man. He believed that there is consciousness between man and nature. In his writings, there is an inclination towards nature. There is no writing that does not have significance to nature. His writings warns the readers about the neglect of nature, but the people do not take her writings seriously. The writings foresee a harsh environment that makes the life of man difficult. Many years after his writing, people face numerous environmental challenges that make life very difficult.
Environmental Degradation and Assessment in Northern Ghana: From Populist and Classic Methods to Methodological Triangulation Approach
Author: Agyemang, Isaac
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Environmental Education,Conservation (Environment),Ecology,Research Methodology,Evaluation Methods,Natural Resources,Land Use,Research Design,Coping,Migration

As given in the Principle 17 of the Agenda 21, there is the need for environmental assessment for human developmental activities that are likely to have significant adverse impacts on the natural environment (UNCED, 1992). This article reviews various assessment methodologies and the reasons why methodological triangulation is a preferred choice to assess environmental degradation. Methodological triangulation is seen as the use of multiple methods in studying social science issues of concern so that to increase the study validity and or credibility. This implies that triangulation is the combination of two or more method approaches to assess social issues. The study reviews the applications of the populist and the classic approach in natural resource assessment, their advantages and disadvantages and methodological triangulation as a combination of both for neutralizing the flaws of the two approaches. Thus, to reap the benefits of the two approaches and minimizing the drawbacks, the combination of these two approaches has been advocated in this article as well. This study then tests the strength of methodological triangulation to assess environmental degradation in northern Ghana.
Is Teaching Practice for Grading or Improvement? Examining Student Teachers&apos; Perception and Experience at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Author: Mahende, Gissa A.
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Experiential Learning,Student Teaching,Student Teacher Attitudes,Student Teachers,Gender Differences,Instructional Program Divisions,Background,Student Teacher Supervisors

Teaching practice is the central activity in testing teaching skills gathered in classroom learning and in preparing professional teachers in any country. The current study investigated student teachers perception and experience on the teaching practice supervisor's treatment, student supervisor pre or post classroom discussion and teaching practice processes in general. The data to inform the study were collected from 112 student teachers: 67 were males and 45 females and the tools used were questionnaires both structured and non-structured. Of these 52 were second years while 60 were third years. Majority of respondents about 95 (84.8%) were pre service and 17 (15.2%) were in-service. The findings revealed that student teachers had positive perception on teaching practice exercise, teaching practice supervisor's treatment, and supervisor-student feedback provision style. It was also discovered that demographic variables such as: sex, year of study and professional background had a slight influence on student teachers perception on teaching practice exercise, supervisors treatment, and supervisor-student feedback styles. In line to that 42 (37.5%) student-teachers acknowledged the concept that teaching practice is for improvement and the remaining percentages were given to factors associated to opposite dimension. It was therefore concluded that, there is a need for strengthening the teaching practice supervision exercise and specifically the collaboration between university teaching practice office and the teaching practice-host institutions should be improved so as to minimize the challenges emanating from miscommunication during the teaching practice exercise.
Outdated Humanism and Literary Authority as Threats to the Popularity of Ahmad Shamlu&apos;s Poetry
Author: Rezvani, Saeid
Date: 2019-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Poetry,Humanism,Indo European Languages,Innovation,Poets,Literature,Sociocultural Patterns,Political Influences,Literary Criticism

Shamlu belongs to the few poets of the modern Persian poetry, who can be called neoclassical, namely, those whose work has a distinctive character and who are influential in the history of modern Persian literature. These special characteristics of Shamlu's poetic features together with his socio-cultural and political vision as manifested in his poems had excessively allowed for his oeuvre to be popularized, forming a large crowd of admirers who even tried to mythologize his character and art. Shamlu's enthusiastic admirers, moreover, insist that his poetry is everlasting and even immortal. This article claims that critics should not function as judges of history, declaring a contemporary work of art as an immortal artefact. To this light, the article will argue that Shamlu's innovation in poetry is not just linguistic, but rather an element that signifies his intellectual superiority. Moreover, the article examines two characteristics of Shamlu's poetry, which could probably endanger the popularity of his poems with future generations. It, therefore, first explores the authoritative position of the poet vis-à-vis his audience; and then examines the special relationship of humans with nature.
Second Language Acquisition: The Case of Filipino Migrant Workers
Author: Meniado, Joel C.
Date: 2019-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Migrant Workers,Adult Learning,Second Language Learning,Language Usage,Motivation,Age Differences,Communication Strategies,Syntax,Native Speakers,Nonverbal Communication,Translation,Foreign Workers,Foreign Countries,Semitic Languages,Korean,Sino Tibetan Languages,Chinese,Turkic Languages,Spanish,Japanese

Many Filipino migrant workers (overseas Filipino workers) in their status as adult learners struggle in learning the local language of their host countries to native-like proficiency level. With the aim of establishing a second language (L2) acquisition pattern that may be useful in designing responsive adult training and welfare programs, this study examines how these workers acquire their L2s and what factors influence their rate and success in L2 learning. Utilizing mixed methods research design with 15 overseas Filipino workers as samples who learned various local languages in 10 different host countries, this study reveals that immersion and actual use of the target language in authentic communicative situations can make language acquisition easier. Findings of this study also confirm that instrumental and integrative motivation coupled with strong target language (TL) community support can make L2 learning faster, while old age and non-necessity of the L2 at work can make the whole process slower. In terms of communication strategies, findings show that syntactic avoidance is the most common communication strategy used, followed by direct appeal to authority (native speakers) and use of gestures, facial expressions, and translation tools. As foreign workers, their motivational orientations in learning their L2 are for employment, cultural understanding, and cultural integration. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to second language teaching among adult language learners and overseas workers.
The Impact of Cognitive (Reflectivity/Impulsivity) on Tertiary EFL Learners&apos; Syntactic Complexity in Descriptive Writing
Author: Yuniasari, Ayu
Date: 2019-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Students,Syntax,Writing (Composition),Descriptive Writing,Cognitive Processes,Personality Traits,Essays,Personality Measures,Neurosis,Extraversion Introversion,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Sentences,Grammar

The purpose of this study was to investigate the probable effects of cognitive in linguistics properties of descriptive writing. The cognitive was studied on reflectivity and impulsivity in which students were categorized in to two groups. The linguistics properties of the learners' descriptive writings were examined through syntactic complexity under syntax studies umbrella. The participants were selected from systematic random sampling technique and by applying the personality test subjected degree of cognitive level from Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (30 from the most reflective learners and 30 from the most impulsive learners). The selected participants were asked to write descriptive essay about person. Syntactic complexity (simple, compound, complex and compound-complex) was calculated from each of learners' writing and the significant difference between two groups were analyzed by employing the independent sample t - test in SPSS version 21. The result shows that there were differences between reflective and impulsive learners in producing syntactic complexity in descriptive writing. Even though, there were differences on syntactic complexity, the assumption of teachers on, impulsive learners are better than reflective students, does not suit to the linguistics properties competencies and performances especially on syntactic complexity of the descriptive writing because both of them had their own superiority in syntactic complexity.