International Education Studies

One of the most important factors for improving the personalization aspects of learning systems is to enable adaptive properties to them. The aim of the adaptive personalized learning system is to offer the most appropriate learning path and learning materials to learners by taking into account their profiles. In this paper, a new approach to adaptive personalized e-learning systems is proposed. This approach provides navigation on course materials, as well as navigations on course topics and domain concepts. In this approach, in addition to the difficulty of learning materials and course topics, students’ levels of knowledge and students’ understanding degrees on the course topics have also been taken into account. The Item Response Theory and Law of Total Probability have been used for estimating understanding degrees. The performance evaluation of the proposed approach has been tested by using the exam and project results, as well as grade point averages of the students from the Computer and Instructional Technology Department. The test results show the accuracy of the proposed method. It is believed that this study can improve the effectiveness of the adaptive e-learning system.

Diversity-based designing, or the goal of ensuring that web-based information is accessible to as many diverse users as possible, has received growing international acceptance in recent years, with many countries introducing legislation to enforce it. This paper analyses web content accessibility levels in Spanish education portals according to the international guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Additionally, it suggests the calculation of an inaccessibility rate as a tool for measuring the degree of non-compliance with WAI Guidelines 2.0 as well as illustrating the significant gap that separates people with disabilities from digital education environments (with a 7.77% average). A total of twenty-one educational web portals with two different web depth levels (42 sampling units) were assessed for this purpose using the automated analysis tool Web Accessibility Test 2.0 (TAW, for its initials in Spanish). The present study reveals a general trend towards non-compliance with the technical accessibility recommendations issued by the W3C-WAI group (97.62% of the websites examined present mistakes in Level A conformance). Furthermore, despite the increasingly high number of legal and regulatory measures about accessibility, their practical application still remains unsatisfactory. A greater level of involvement must be assumed in order to raise awareness and enhance training efforts towards accessibility in the context of collective Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), since this represents not only a necessity but also an ethical, social, political and legal commitment to be assumed by society.

The impact of science teachers’ motivation on science students’ academic performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Ondo and Ekiti States of Nigeria was investigated in this study. This was a descriptive survey research which was questionnaire based and past WAEC O/L ((May/June 2008 and 2009) student results on the science subjects. The population of the study was all public Secondary Schools (science teachers and students) in Ekiti and Ondo States, Nigeria. A stratified random sampling was used to select a total of five hundred and ten (510) science teachers (male and female) from Ekiti and Ondo States from the selected schools for the study. And a total six thousand eight hundred (6,800) Science Students (male and female) from the selected schools was also considered in the study. In each of the school selected for the study, only teachers of Biology, Chemistry and Physics were involved in the sample and the students that registered and wrote Biology, Chemistry and Physics WAEC examination of May/June 2008 and 2009 in Ekiti and Ondo states of Nigeria. The data collected for the study were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Multiple Regression analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. All the hypotheses were tested at 5 % level of significance. Among others, the study revealed that; there was significant relationship between regular payment of science teachers’ allowance and academic performance of science students; there was significant relationship between regular teachers’ participation in seminars/ workshops and academic performance of science students. Also, there exist statistical significant relationship between granting of study leave with pay to science teachers and academic performance of science students. As a result of the findings, it was recommended that the adequate science allowance should be regularly paid to the science teachers to enhance their excellent performance.

Measurement and evaluation of students’ achievement are an important aspect to make sure that student really understand the course content and monitor students' achievement level. Performance is not only reflected from the numbers of high achievers of the students, but also on quality of the grade obtained; does the grade 'A' truly reflective of a high achiever student. As part of quality improvement, standard setting for students’ examination scoring should be set up for courses offered in the institutions. Setting the cut scores of the performance standard is important in making sure the performance is of expected standard. Commonly standard settings done through experts' judgement based on their knowledge and experience on the subject's matter and estimation made often too difficult and confusing for many. This paper discusses implementation of Objective Standard Setting (OSS) using Rasch measurement model in a Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning. This method gives an advantage for academic administrators to scientifically establish the standards or cut scores focusing on validity of the test being used and the Rasch measurement properties of the resultant scale.

This study determined the factors affecting motivation and job satisfaction of non-management academic staff of universities in South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It employed an expost-facto research design. Three research questions and two hypotheses were raised for the study. A sample of four hundred and fifty non-management academic staff was administered the instrument for data collection. The instrument was vetted by three experts in the field of education, and face and content validity was established. The reliability coefficient of 0.82 was computed using Cronbach Alpha formula to measure the internal consistency of the questionnaire items. The three research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the two hypotheses were tested using the z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female non-management academic staff motivation and job satisfaction. It was also found that highly motivated non-management academic staffs perform their job better than poorly motivated staff. It was recommended that university authorities and the government should pay increasing attention to the motivation of non-management academic staff in order to boost their job performance and satisfaction thereby enhancing high productivity.

This study explores how informal inquiry among teachers occurs in pursuit of their professional development within a learning community that has been voluntarily constructed by South Korean teachers. To this end, the study investigates what leads teachers to participate in a self-organized learning community, how informal inquiry occurs in the community, and what this informal inquiry means for teachers in the community. The findings show that learning communities self-organized by teachers have the force to maintain and develop themselves without any external rewards or support because of the similar status and work experience of the teachers and the resulting parity in their relationships. The findings also demonstrate that through informal inquiry, some teachers have not only increased their knowledge of instructional practice but also transformed their attitudes toward the teaching profession. The study indicates that by providing opportunities for teachers to keep developing their professional identity and sense of autonomy, a self-organized learning community can become a place that contributes to helping teachers become “reform agents” capable of continually improving their teaching practice.

This investigation was carried out in an attempt to respond to the issue of identification of codes for constructing meaning that yield to innovation. Based on the discourse of rural primary school teachers of la Araucania Region, Chile, we sought to expose key elements and codes that allow teachers to construct and/or re-elaborate meaning that may lead to change and innovation in educational contexts. The investigation was conducted through a qualitative approach, and based on the teachers’ discourse. The obtained data analysed focused on intersubjective shared meanings, which may be visualised through the teachers’ representation of change and innovation. Specific attention was drawn upon the meaning construction for transformation in schools of la Araucania Region in rural contexts. The obtained results reveal little relation between innovative discourses and the cultural context of reference. In addition, there is strong evidence of reduction of the innovative process on defined guidelines on behalf of the public school system.

This study was conducted to examine language learning strategies employed by the high ability students in a rural secondary school. Memory and cognitive strategies employed by the high ability students were the main focus in this study. A survey design was used and data was collected using Oxford’s questionnaires. Findings reveal that the high ability students use cognitive strategies more frequently than the memory strategies. One memory strategy is shown to have been employed most frequently by the high ability students. Teachers are therefore recommended to teach them how to use the less frequently chosen strategies and the strategies used by successful language learners.

The work is based on Pisa 2009 International Assessment Study. Two counties were selected: a developed country, Estonia and a developing country, Azerbaijan. The following Datum was used for statistical analysis: students average scores in reading (162 schools, 4 600 students from Azerbaijan; 17 schools, 4 923 students from Estonia). The work is based on mixed type research. The main goal is to determine the effect of different independent variables related to school, student, and household, on students’ achievements in reading in developed and developing countries. Three research questions were developed:1) To what extent are student background variables associated with reading scores in each country?2) To what extent are family-related variables associated with reading scores in each country?3) To what extent are school-related variables associated with reading scores in each country (variables were analyzed separately: organizational; instructional; and teacher-related)?As with other research studies this research may have some limitations regarding research model, data analyses, and interpretations. For data analyses ttest and General Linear Model – Univariate statistics were applied. General Findings:Estonia: Most of the teachers apply modern teaching methods; students’ attitude towards reading activities, teacher, and school are positive. Parental involvement has a positive effect on students’ achievements in reading. Azerbaijan: The majority of the teachers do not apply modern teaching methods; students’ attitudes towards reading activities are not deemed positive; students have negative attitudes towards school and teachers.The research showed that different factors work differently in developed and developing countries cases.

This mixed methods study reports on the outcomes of a professional development model (PDM) developed by a K-12 private school in Beirut, Lebanon, after 3 years of its employment. Specifically, an evaluation of this PDM is provided with special emphasis on its potential of developing teacher leaders at school. The PDM embraces a constructivist approach whereby teachers train colleague teachers and some high school students provide ushering services during professional development events. Data was collected using focus group interviews with teacher trainers, surveying teacher trainees and asking student ushers to describe their most important gain from this model using a single statement. Findings of the study highlight resonant school gains from this PDM and underscore its potential in developing not only teacher leadership but also student leadership. The study provides important implications for professional development program designers.

The current study explored first-year student experience in receiving social support and its relation to their ability to adapt with university ethos. It also explored how social support on academic adjustment, social adjustment and emotional adjustment among students were significantly associated with student well-being. This qualitative research utilized individual semi-structured interview protocols to gather narrative data from 16 university students. All students were interviewed twice in order to see changes and developments in receiving social support from university community, peers and family members. Data were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed by using thematic approach. It was then coded by independent coders. It has been found in this study that academic adjustments, social adjustment and emotional among new students are dependent on their abilities in receiving socio-educational support from friends (supportive friendship) and families. Results also revealed the powerful influence of parents and the importance of socio-relationship for student wellbeing. This study suggests that the concept of social support should go further than simply identifying it within the context of a university. Findings of this study also indicate the importance of student community, senior students and family-networks in adapting to a new learning environment. There are cumulative evidences from this research to suggest different types of networks in a multicultural university. Students’ self-management skills are found to be vital for smoothness of transition to universities.

The Case Method (CM) has long been used effectively in Social Science education. Its potential use in Applied Science such as Software Engineering (SE) however has yet to be further explored. SE is an engineering discipline that concerns the principles, methods and tools used throughout the software development lifecycle. In CM, subjects are presented to students by means of real cases whereby students themselves either individually or in group discussions work through the problems and issues presented in the cases. The CM approach is deemed necessary for SE education in order to expose students to real scenarios that challenge them to develop the appropriate skills to deal with practical problems. As a largely theoretical subject, SE students could understand more about the practical application of SE concepts and ideas via such active learning activities. This paper presents a survey conducted on two sets of students who were exposed to CM in learning SE. Besides confirming the acceptance of CM among SE students, the surveys aimed to discover the contributing factors and elements that influence the efficacy of the method. The participants consisted of 64 undergraduates that comprised local full-time and executive students. The survey was performed in two semesters through group interviews. Data from the survey were analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The results showed that there are four factors that are important to teaching SE using CM, namely Environment, Case, Instructor, and Student. Each of these factors has certain criteria and characteristics that suggest how CM can be successfully used in teaching and learning SE. These findings can be used by SE educators to more effectively plan the use of CM as one possible teaching method in SE.

Australia holds some of the most unique, diverse and vulnerable ecosystems in the world, ranging from marine, coral reefs, to the arid and semi-arid outback, to tropical rainforests. Young children’s perceptions of, and attitudes to their environment carry with them into adulthood, determining their capacity to learn about and interact with their world. To sustain Australia’s unique landscapes it is essential that these future adults have an informed knowledge of the role, value and function of the country’s environment. To ensure that we are helping the youth of today understand the natural environment we must first determine their current perceptions of it.This research describes an Arts/Science nexus; while traditional data collection methods, such as surveys, interviews and focus groups are often used to determine children’s understandings, these methods are limited by their reliance on words. Children, particularly young children, do not always have the words to describe what they see, think or feel. The Arts, however, can be used as tools to help children express their ideas and feelings. So our research question was: how can we use an arts-based methodology to determine children’s perceptions of their environment?To answer this question, five arts-based strategies were trialled, tested and refined. This article elucidates these different strategies, including the methods used and the impact of these methods on children’s expression of their environmental understandings. It concludes with a description of the researchers’ key learnings relating to arts-based data collection methods to determine children’s environmental perceptions.

Students are the nation’s asset or natural resources who need to be educated to achieve their optimal level of development. They need to be properly nurtured to allow holistic development in all domains namely; physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual. This is crucial for the building of a strong and respectful nation and its civilization. Teachers are entrusted to educate students. Educating is more than just mere teaching. It is necessary for teachers to possess good characters to be supportive and accommodative of their students’ learning needs, and to nurture students’ intra and interpersonal skills the crucial elements in developing gifts into talent as proposed by the Differentiated Model of Talent Development (DMGT). This paper discusses teachers’ characteristics and the underlying character strengths. Character strengths are positive psychological ingredients, which influence thinking, feeling, and behaving. A qualitative survey was carried out via face book social network, to capture respondents’ reflections on their teachers’ characters that have affected them positively. The respondents were university students and graduates from many different fields of studies. They were from prestigious schools where only academically talented students were selected to enroll. They were invited to response to this posting; “Dear friends, please feed me with some data from your own reflection. What teachers’ characters have affected you positively? Thank you for sharing”. Thirty one people had responded to the posting. Their responses were analyzed to identify themes that described their teachers’ characters, which had affected them positively. Three most frequent character strengths identified by the respondents were; wisdom and knowledge, humanity, and transcendence.

The study investigated female EFL primary school teachers’ attitudes as well as teachers’ knowledge and skills in alternative assessment. Data was collected via a questionnaire from 335 EFL primary school teachers randomly selected from six educational zones. An interview with principals and head teachers and a focus group interview with EFL primary school teachers were conducted along with document analysis of ongoing assessment obtained from the ELT General Supervision at the Ministry of Education (MOE). Descriptive statistics were employed including a t-test and a one-way ANOVA Test. Results showed that teachers perceived themselves knowledgeable and skillful in alternative assessment. Nonetheless, some reported the need for workshops and training courses on alternative assessment. Teachers further expressed their preference for traditional written tests over alternative assessment. Teachers’ attitudes, however, were found to be at a medium level. They reported that alternative assessment is time-consuming and ignores pupil writing skills. Significant differences were found in teachers’ knowledge and skills in relation to their age, undergraduate major, and experience. Significant differences were further found in teachers’ attitudes in relation to their educational zone and experience. Limitations of the study as well as recommendations were further discussed.

This paper discusses the roles of professional engineers (PEs) who are attached to the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) and how their contributions are as important as their counterparts in the industry. This paper highlights the roles for PEs at IHLs based on a survey conducted at selected IHLs in Malaysia. Academician-professional engineers have crucial responsibilities to develop graduates who later promote safer and cutting-edge engineering solutions. These new technologies will make Malaysia an environmentally healthier place and further prepare Malaysia towards a developed nation at the end of the decade. From the survey, we conclude that PEs at IHLs make use of their professional qualifications to enhance their knowledge therefore provide better work quality. We also found that lecturers with these qualifications have higher confidence in their own ability to success in their careers and to face and help the public.

This study aims to examine the level of multimedia usage among Islamic education lecturers at higher education institutions in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The participants were chosen from three types of higher institutions by using stratified random sampling. The data was collected from 250 students using questionnaires. The findings showed that the use of multimedia was moderate and there were significant differences in the use of multimedia based on gender, academic qualification, location of teaching and number of workloads. The finding also showed that there was no significant difference in the use of multimedia based on training experience. This study also found that there were significant differences in the use of multimedia based on age, type of institution and teaching experience.

Metacognitive strategies play an important role in many cognitive activities related to language use in oral communication. This study explored metacognitve listening strategies awareness and its relationship with listening comprehension on a convient sample of 386 tenth-grade EFL learners using two instruments: (a) Metacognition Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) (Vandergrift, Goh, Mareschal, & Tafaghodtari, 2006) and (b) a Listening Comprehension Test (LCT) developed by the researchers for the purpose of this study. The results indicate that students' possess a moderate level of metacognitive listening strategies awareness. Additionally, whereas directed attention and personal knowledge fail to explain the variance in students' listening comprehension performance, problem solving, planning and evaluation, and directed attention are capable of explaining 56% of the variance in students’ performance on the LCT. It is recommended that metacognitive strategies awreness be emphasized in listening comprehension instruction.

Although many scholars assert that students’ job involvement is beneficial, there is no consensus on the effect of part-time employment taken by term-time undergraduates. Since more and more indigenous students are participating in part-time employment, and most of them are involved in disadvantaged jobs-longer hours, heavier workload, and smaller salaries, it is getting more important than ever to investigate the effects of their part-time job experiences. This study is thus endeavored to identify the major benefits of part-time jobs performed by indigenous college students, to determine the relative weights of each benefit, and to decide the most beneficial type of part-time job for indigenous college students. A self-developed questionnaire was constructed specifically for this research, and AHP was adopted as the major tool to calculate the relative weights of each benefit. Based on the research results, we highly suggest universities should improve their career counseling platforms, building cooperative relationships with term-time job employers, and offer career related classes to help indigenous students gain most from their off-campus working experiences.

The research has chosen some migrant workers of new generation from different fields in F City to investigate their current situation of vocational education. The research reveals that their education is helpful, mainly in employment, work and the methods of mentorship and further study organized by employers. The research also reveals its problems: short in training time, high in out-of-pocket payments for training, theoretical in training and no support from leaders, etc. We find vocational development is influenced by the factors of the government, employers, training institutions and workers themselves. Based on the analysis, suggestions are put forward: making laws and regulations, establishing specialized management institutions, running school in alliance with enterprises, carrying out the general training, combining lecture with practice, perfecting training system.

This study employs the survey method to investigate the factors that cause academic differences between female and male students at the largest university in Botswana. The population of this research was the students of the last three years of the 4 year Bachelor of Accountancy degree programme at the University of Botswana. Anchored on the prior studies’ indications that female students outperform their male counterparts in accounting examinations, the current study sought the views of the respondents on factors responsible for this phenomenon and their suggestions on how the gap may be bridged. This study revealed that the key factor explaining academic performance is individual’s commitment and right attitude towards accounting studies. Respondents believe that female students perform better because they work harder and have better study ethics. Females attend more classes and tutorials, seek guidance on their studies from lecturers and participate more in class discussions than their male counterparts. Male students perform poorly because they lack enthusiasm towards studies and fail to balance social life and academic work while at school. The implications of this study are that male students need to re-examine their attitude towards education, class attendance and participation in academic activities in order to improve their grades. The society and the educational institutions need to become more vigilant in ensuring that males remain focused on positive learning while in school.

This paper aims to compare various Performance Management Systems for business school in order to find the strengths of each standard as inputs to design new model of PMS. There are many critical aspects and gaps notified for new model to improve performance and even recognized that self evaluation performance management is not well developed in school toward a competitive education market. The exploratory study and comparative study methodology were used to develop a conceptual model based upon literature review. An exploratory study approach was used to investigate the way in which PMS actually evolve within business school institution, while comparative study was done to determine relationship among PMS based on literature review and secondary data. Based on information gathered about several standards applied for business school, hopefully, there will be a valuable opportunity to create new PMS model that could cover every weaknesses and strengths that each standard had, and the new model will manage business school performance more comprehensively as well.

Adult and juvenile offenders exhibit a number of cognitive distortions related to sexually offending behaviors. The latter may be attributed to their developmental deficiencies, the result of operant conditioning, psychological self-defense mechanisms and biases, influence of negative environmental factors or criminal subculture. A group of juvenile sex offenders and non-offenders were administered the Causal Attribution of Sexual Deviance Questionnaire (CASDQ). It was found that both populations interpret sexual deviance as a multi-causal phenomenon; however juvenile sex offenders are more likely to externalize its causes as compared to their pro-social peers. The paper discusses the construct of sexual deviance, different etiological theories of sexually aberrant behaviors and explores the relationship between causal attributions and thinking errors as they relate to sexually offending behaviors. It is hypothesized that misinterpretation of the causality of sexual deviance may be the source of cognitive distortions and serve as an internal reinforcer of sexual violence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using computer games on the lower basic stage student's achievement in learning English at Al-SALT Schools.The population of this study consisted of all lower basic stage students in AL-SALT schools during the scholastic year 2011-2012. However, the sample of this study consisted of 88 male and female third grade students divided into tow groups, the experimental group whichunderwentateaching.Experiment using computer games, and control group using the traditional method.The instrument of the study was an achievement test that aimed at measuring students' performance. The independent variables were the teaching method, technique and the computer games. The dependent variable was the student's achievement in English.The findings of the study revealed significant differences in the mean scores between the control and the experimental groups, students' performance of experimental group was better than that of the control group.

The underlying problem facing the teaching of Islamic education across Indonesia is the inadequacy and ineffective teaching and learning methods. The teaching of Islam in the institutions of higher education is still limited to conceptualization and memorization. However, the biggest challenge the country faces is the limited research about teaching and learning of Islamic education. Though the Qur’an and hadith are the main sources of Islamic education, there is no method which has been developed in regard to these two sources. In an effort to develop a method based on the Qur’an, this paper seeks to answer the question: (1) what and how is the method of Tadabbur Qur’an in the teaching of Islamic education? (2) what are the students’ views about the method of Tadabbur Qur’an?” Tadabbur Qur’an is regarded as an innovative teaching and learning method whose aim is to improve the condition of the teaching of Islamic education across Indonesia.