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Throughout this study technology and especially mobile phones was utilized in EFL classrooms in order to see whether it can influence the process of vocabulary formative assessment and consequently improve vocabulary learning of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners or not. Two groups of pre-intermediate EFL learners participated in this study. Regarding the first group (FMA) the vocabulary learning of learners was assessed formatively during ten sessions using Socrative mobile application. The vocabulary learning of the second group (FPA) was also assessed formatively but paper and pen were the instruments used by instructor and students to take the tests. After applying quasi-experimental research design including pretest, treatment and posttest and after running independent sample t tests to posttest scores, the results showed that those pre-intermediate EFL learners attending in the group where vocabulary gain was assessed formatively using mobile application named Socrative performed significantly better in posttest than group assessed formatively based on paper and pen (Sig=0.03<0.05). The analysis of attitude questionnaire distributed among participants of the group assessed formatively using mobile phone exhibited that they possessed a positive attitude towards mobile based testing.

The salience of education for better life outcomes is well accepted, but people with disabilities continue to be underrepresented in higher education. Building on Weedon's approach to the intersection of impairment with socioeconomic factors, this paper identifies the facilitators and barriers encountered and/or experienced by young people with disabilities along their diverse pathways to and through higher education in Sweden. The data comes from longitudinal ethnographic case studies of persons with ADHD. While the findings show similarities in impairment-specific barriers, such as transition and inadequate support available at university, they make even more visible the existing heterogeneity among people with ADHD and the inadequacy of support structures at higher education institutions. Parents, economic security and individual factors, such as ease of learning and belief in one's own capacity, were found to be strong facilitators. ADHD and socioeconomic disadvantage together magnified vulnerabilities and hurdles faced while aspiring to and accessing higher education. The article concludes by highlighting the urgent need for universities to change entrenched structures that perceive students with disabilities as a homogeneous group and disability as an individual problem, in order to enable participation of all.

Fractions are challenging for both typically achieving children and adults. Although some prior research has focused on fraction difficulties of children with mathematics difficulties (MD), persistent difficulties encountered by adults with MD remain unknown. It is possible that these adults may be able to compensate for some deficits. In this study, we administered an un-timed, paper-based fraction achievement test to French adults with and without MD to compare their knowledge of fractions. Compared with controls, adults with MD performed worse in fraction number lines, fraction concepts, fraction arithmetic, and word problems. However, no difference in performance between the two groups was observed on symbolic representations. This suggests that adults with MD might be able to perform rote procedures such as transcoding from a verbal to a symbolic representation but are severely impaired for fraction number line, fraction concept, and fraction arithmetic. Exploratory error pattern analyses for fraction number line and fraction arithmetic further revealed mistakes similar to those observed in prior studies on children with MD, indicating core deficits in fraction understanding in individuals with MD.

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has been implemented in universities around the world since decades ago. With COVID-19 pandemic, its implementation has been accelerated globally at an unprecedented speed and haste. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate the university students' perspectives on ODL amidst COVID-19. By using the convenient sampling method, a total of 608 diploma and degree students throughout Malaysia have participated and shared their feedback on ODL implementation. The collected data covered their general feedback and what they enjoyed the most about ODL. Moreover, their recommendations on ODL implementation were analyzed by categorising the responses into different themes. The demographic data was summarized using descriptive analysis. A comparison between the diploma and the degree students' perspectives is also discussed in the paper. The findings show that most students have positive perceptions on ODL implementation, where positive feedback and fun factors are highlighted by the respondents. Some students indicated that ODL should not be continued in the future semester, due to problems such as poor internet connection, budget constraints and time management issues. Recommendations on improvements for better ODL implementations in the near future are also provided. This study contributes to more effective ODL management by presenting the learners' perspectives.

Learner autonomy is a developing concept that has been the focal point of number of research papers investigating language learning. It has been under investigation by number of scholars and researchers over the years, the concept of learner autonomy has been supported by number of researchers, others attempted to prove that it does not fit all learners of different backgrounds. In this research paper, the focus is mainly on learners' perspectives of learner autonomy, what do they know? To what extent the students understand the concept of learner autonomy? Developing autonomous learners is an area that needs to be explained. There are limited studies conducted in the Saudi context therefore, this study investigates Preparatory year female EFL students' perspectives of learner autonomy in the Saudi context. Moreover, it examines whether the learners have the knowledge and the competence to develop their learning. The perspectives and views of 150 learners were collected using a questionnaire. The study follows a mixed methods approach. The reviewed literature showed that implications of learner autonomy reflected positively on learners (Burkert & Schwienhorst. 2008; Han, 2015). The main findings of this study revealed that students participated in this study had negative perspective of learner autonomy.

This paper considers research that engaged with a university wide population of students who were employed on campus to better understand why they chose to work alongside their studies; how this impacted upon their attitudes to study and the university, and the benefits for those students. This paper reveals that the primary motivation to work on campus is the development of skills; considers the nature of those skills and behaviours; discovers the changing relationship between student workers and university staff; and discusses how engagement leads to an enhanced sense of student confidence and belonging. The paper concludes by considering the implications for the university and sector and how the outcomes might be best deployed for impact on those students who would most benefit.

International students are at heightened risk of developing psychological distress, yet little research has been conducted on their mental health or support needs. This quantitative study focused on undergraduate students at two mid-sized universities in Manitoba, Canada. Online and paper surveys were completed by 932 participants, of whom 21% identified as international students. This paper, descriptive in nature, outlines the sociodemographic profiles, current mental health status, psychological characteristics, and coping strategies of international students compared to domestic students in each institution. Data show that international students are more likely to report excellent mental health, score higher on the mental health scale, and report higher life satisfaction, higher self-esteem, and more positive body image than domestic respondents. However, they are less likely to talk about their hardships. Providing culturally-adapted supports that take into consideration ethnolinguistic differences, religious practice, and mental health literacy will better meet the needs of international students on campus.

Despite the lasting interest towards the relationship between intelligence and creativity, comparably less attention is paid to its age-related changes. Our paper considers the organization of fluid intelligence and psychometric indicators of creativity and is based on the experimental data obtained for children aged 11 (n = 99) and for young adults (n = 77). We used two figural and verbal tasks with and without time limit. We found that the age-related differences in creativity are dependent on the context and the type of testing. The young adults were different from the children, having higher indicators of verbal and figurative creativity, except for the originality of the drawings created within the Incomplete Figures test, and having considerably higher test results for fluid intelligence. These age-related differences, together with the discovered closer relationship between the creativity indicators in the young adults group compared to the children, might suggest insufficient contribution of the components of the executive control of information selection (inhibition, shifting, and updating), which had not fully formed in eleven-year-olds. The comparison of the various indicators of creativity suggests that the most complex task for the children was the composition of an original sentence by joining nouns from various semantic categories.

The field of L2 phonology did not receive much research compared to the other linguistic domains. To add to the field and expand the current literature, the present paper's goal was to examine the impact of syllable structure differences between Arabic and English in uttering L2 English consonant clusters. The following research question was aimed to be answered: Do the differences between two languages' syllable structure cause production difficulties in the consonant cluster to Saudi Arabian learners of English? The subjects of this investigation were L2 English learners from Saudi with intermediate proficiency levels in English. Applying the descriptive correlational type of research model, the results showed that learners' production is mainly influenced by their native language-specific phonological features. The learners' production of targeted L2 consonant clusters seemed to mirror their underlying phonological system, and syllables structures were modified to match their native Arabic phonological system as a result of language transfer. These findings should be taken into account by L2 speech educators as such speech difficulty is anticipated.

This paper examines the experiences of nine Chinese girls and young women as they explore and negotiate queer subjectivities within the constraints of patriarchal and (hetero)sexual norms surrounding girlhood and young femininity. I focus on filial piety ("xiaoshun") as a normative gendered discourse being reconfigured in changing gender, familial and other power dynamics in China. I argue that the discourse of filial piety continues to naturalise a heteronormative girlhood that will smoothly transition into young womanhood prepared to take on responsibilities of 'getting married and having kids'. This narrative, however, is in tensions with girls and young women's diversified expressions of sexualities. Through the participants' own accounts of queer explorations, I demonstrate how they actively engage and reflect on these tensions with familial and filial discourses while navigating the (im)possibilities of becoming queer girls across varied socioeconomic and family backgrounds. The findings of this study offered new insights into how familism and filial piety are woven into Chinese gender and sexual politics and being constantly (re)negotiated. My conceptualisation of queer girlhoods in China shows how queer girls and young women are marginalised in and around family. In the meantime, it demonstrates the emergent strategies of queer resistance and negotiations of filial piety through delaying marriage and managing familial intimacy.

The teacher plays a key role in fostering sustainability and implementing Education for Sustainable Development at school. This paper presents a study aimed at adapting and validating a shorter version of the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) to measure student future teachers' connectedness to nature. The scale has been translated into Croatian in an abbreviated form and applied to a specific sample of students from the Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka, Croatia (N = 138). One of the tasks was to examine whether there are statistically significant differences among students regarding their membership in eco-associations and previous participation in an Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD) course. A special research objective was to determine the extent to which the current education and membership in an eco-association explain the connectedness to nature. In addition to the indicated research limitations, the results confirmed the significant measured characteristics of the scale. Education has so far proved to be a predictor of connectedness to nature. Additionally, the results showed that membership in an eco-association is a predictor of connectedness to nature. Based on the obtained results, it is possible to conclude that the connectedness to nature must be further explored, especially in the context of the initial education of future teachers, as a possible prerequisite for a successful practice of Education for Sustainable Development in schools.

This paper reports on the effectiveness of Interactive Reading Comprehension Teaching (IRCT) in improving the oral English communication ability of Prince of Songkla University (PSU) undergraduates. It is based on a preand post-test quasi-experimental study employing IRCT, composed of self-study reading assignments and a structured peer-teaching project. The participants who were purposively sampled to partake in the study included 105 second- and third-year undergraduates from various faculties who were enrolled in a functional reading course, of which 46 was assigned to the control group and 49 was treated as the experimental group. One-on-one and group oral assessments were administered to both groups at the end of the course after IRCT implementation. The results showed IRCT had a very positive effect on the oral communication skills of the students in the experimental group, significantly improving their confidence and motivation toward speaking English. The students' opinions from a questionnaire also revealed high speaking improvement, reinforced by evidence from close observations, interviews, and student work samples. IRCT was, therefore recommended as a reading-based approach to improving students' oral English communication.

Although colleges in the United States have become increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, degree attainment remains disproportionately low among students from underrepresented and minoritized racial backgrounds. In this paper, we discuss the interactive influence of both person and environment factors in shaping academic persistence and argue that college administrators, faculty, and student support staff can intervene and take specific steps to improve the academic experience of racially minoritized college students. To this end, we offer specific evidence-based recommendations for campus leaders and stakeholders on how to adapt their campus community to facilitate the requisite person--environment fit to maximize academic persistence.

People with disabilities have been among the most marginalised groups both within society and within post-secondary/higher education. Over the last two decades, an increasing number of inclusive educational programmes have come into existence both nationally and internationally for this group of learners. The Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, offers students with intellectual disabilities a two-year programme entitled Arts, Science and Inclusive Applied Practice (ASIAP). This paper presents a selection of voices from ASIAP students which highlights their experiences of becoming both co-researchers and second language learners. These studies present a variety of ways in which power relationships are negotiated between faculty and students through utilising creative and inclusive approaches to the research process.

The recent outpouring of testimonies about teenage sexual assault has reinvigorated calls for improved education on sexual consent. Better understanding of the approach, content and delivery of these programmes is key to informing best practice. In this paper, we systematically searched for peer-reviewed articles on programmes in education settings for young people aged 15-29 that purport to teach sexual consent, with 18 meeting the inclusion criteria. Nearly all reviewed programmes were implemented in the USA (n = 16) in university settings (n = 15), with short-term duration (1-2-hour sessions), with varied facilitators and interactive teaching strategies. Thematic analysis identified four main approaches to sexual consent education, some of which were interwoven within programmes: risky behaviour, sex-positive, life skills, and socioculturally adapted. In line with existing research into best practice sex and relationship education, we recommend that consent education programmes take a sex-positive and whole-school approach, are interactive and inclusive, and facilitate critical analysis of how experiences of consensual and non-consensual sexual activity are connected to socio-structural forces within socio-cultural contexts. Future research should evaluate a larger number of programmes and ensure consistent measurement of programme outcomes, whilst taking account of complex social systems and their shifting influence on consent.

Purpose: This paper focusses on demonstrating the role of social media engagement and considering emotional intelligence (hereafter EI) as a critical concept to successful employment, mainly when individuals fail to reach the desired employment despite "meeting" the role requirements. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a qualitative approach through semi-structured in-depth interviews of some randomly selected university students in the UK, young adults aged 19-32. The participants were selected based on different demographics to provide a broader and less biased representation of young adults in the UK. Findings: This research suggests that recruitment organisations should introduce the latest requirements and trends of employers to ensure that the expectations of employers and potential candidates are aligned to improve the employment rate in young adults. Originality/value: This research extends the literature regarding EI in social media engagement and successful employment. It also brings new perspectives on successful employment in young adults by demonstrating the role of social media engagement and EI traits leading to a conceptual framework exploring successful employment based on the role of social media engagement and EI.

Scant sociological attention has been given to the role of luck within social mobility/reproduction. This paper helps address this conceptual gap, drawing on insights from over 200 longitudinal interviews conducted with 20 working-class young people and 22 of their parents over an 11-year period, from age 10-21. We explore the potential significance of luck within the trajectories of 13 educationally mobile young people who were the first in family to go to university, six young people who achieved similar educational levels to their parents and one young person whose status was less clear cut. Our analysis suggests that particular forms of luck may be instrumental in creating opportunities for social mobility, although the consequentiality of these are mediated through interplays of agency, structure, habitus and capital. We conclude that paying further attention to luck may help augment sociological understandings of structure/agency and Bourdieusian understandings of social reproduction.

Purpose: The paper aims to explore the anxiety of university students. The authors note that the rhetoric of the snowflake is frequently invoked in lay discourse to characterise a generation of young people as overly sensitive. This misleading conceptualisation is potentially stigmatising. Design/Methodology/Approach: Interviews were conducted with twelve young women (18-25 years) about anxiety during their transition through university and into adulthood. Findings: The authors identified three themes: (1) students in a modern world, (2) gendered demands and (3) anxiety of adulting. Analysis demonstrated numerous, transecting and discourse-informed anxieties about modern life. Practical Implications: University professionals may benefit from understanding the gendered dimensions of anxiety associated with transitions to adulthood, including the increased pressures to succeed and achieve. Originality/Value: The arguably pejorative label of "snowflake" could negatively impact the social progress made in recognising the importance of taking care of mental health and help-seeking. This is especially concerning for females, as they have higher prevalence of anxiety conditions than males.

The paper proposes a counterfactual analysis to estimate the causal effects of college expansion on the changes in income and occupational prestige of young people in Taiwan. The public attributes the rapid expansion of higher education in Taiwan in the mid 1990s as a significant cause of stagnant wage growth and high unemployment rates of college graduates in recent years. The primary concern in evaluating the policy consequences of educational expansion should be on those who would respond to expanded opportunities for education. In this paper, we use the data collected by the Panel Study of Family Dynamics in Taiwan to identify a pre-expansion cohort and a post-expansion cohort. We then use the matching method and the difference-in-difference (DID) model to estimate the impact of expansion on the changes in income and occupational prestige of three counterfactual groups: 'always-takers', 'compliers', and 'never-takers'. The results show that the impact of college expansion decreased the advantage of always-takers and benefited compliers in both income and occupational attainment of their first job. The adverse effects of college expansion suffered by always-takers disappeared after working for either 10 or 15 years, which fits the prediction of the signalling theory.

The focal aim of the current paper is to take an in-depth look at the effect of the English culture on foreign language learners. In this regard, the researchers inquire about how intercultural communication affects English as a foreign language (EFL) students during the process of learning English literary texts carrying aspects of the target culture. This study, thus, endeavours at shedding light on students' attitudes towards some aspects of the English culture when studying literary texts. It also intends at scrutinizing teachers' strategies in teaching culture through literature; referring to their active roles in fostering intercultural awareness and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) among their learners. To do so, the researchers collected data through a questionnaire addressed to forty first-year Master students of Literature and Civilization in the department of English at Tlemcen University supported by an interview with teachers of literature. The findings revealed that most students exhibit negative attitudes towards some aspects of the English culture when studying literature. Their responses demonstrate that they are unaware and ignore the differences between cultures i.e., they are not culturally competent enough to avoid intercultural clash within various lectures of literature. The results also showed that teachers peacefully attempt to provide the appropriate teaching techniques and strategies to integrate teaching culture through literary texts to foster tolerance and empathy with speakers' target language, identity, and culture.

Young adults will be the next generation of leaders, and it is critical for them to be cognizant of major issues that impact society. Unification is a significant issue in South Korea, especially in light of the recent summits between South and North Korea. This study is rooted in principles of peace education to promote peaceful discourse related to unification issues. Unification education plays an important role in K-12 education in South Korea; however, it is not prioritized at the university level. This case study, which included open-ended surveys, interviews, and focus groups, explored South Korean university students' (n=33) views of creating short-term classes on unification and the types of topics that they think should be taught in these classes. Primary results indicate that most participants expressed interest in taking short-term classes on unification issues. The paper also includes practical implications that can be considered when developing short-term classes on unification in South Korean universities.

In this study, we investigate a program designed for young adults with intellectual disability to learn how to calculate the value of a collection of coins and notes with procedural fluency. In the first half of the paper, we establish the importance of financial literacy for people with intellectual disability and the need to address mathematical foundations using approaches that build procedural fluency. In the second half of the paper, we present findings from an analysis of pre-service teachers' weekly reflections after having just tutored a student in the program. Using educational design research, we articulate how students build procedural fluency and what supports this type of learning. This paper will be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike who are looking to apply the latest findings on effective pedagogies to the field of inclusive education.

The current study aims to investigate the relationship among problem solving, hope, and self-efficacy and to test a model for determining the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between problem solving and hope. It adopted convenience sampling and consisted of 494 undergraduate students (369 females; 125 males). The Hope Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Problem Solving Inventory were applied in order to collect the data. Pearson correlation analysis and two-step Structural Equation Modelling were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that while a high level of positive correlation existed among problem solving, self-efficacy and hope, a moderate positive relationship was found between self-efficacy and hope. As a result of Structural Equation Modelling, self-efficacy was found to be significantly predicted by problem solving whereas hope was observed to be significantly predicted by problem-solving and self-efficacy. In addition, mediation analysis demonstrated that the relationship between problem solving and hope emerged through the development of self-efficacy. As a result, this paper exhibited that individuals with developing problem solving ability had also developing self-efficacy, which in turn leads to an increase in hope. Therefore, it may be effective to take into account the components that will improve individuals' problem solving skills and perceptions about themselves while conducting the studies to raise the hope level, which is an important concept of psychological health.

Study abroad destinations for Japanese students, particularly those aiming to improve their English language skills, tend to focus on the "Inner Circle" (Kachru, 1992) of English-speaking countries. However, over the last two decades, Korean and Japanese-owned English language schools in the Philippines started to appear, leading to over 6,700 people from Japan going to study English in the Philippines in 2018. In this paper, I aim to document the effects and self-perceived changes that occurred as a result of studying abroad in the Philippines by drawing on a case study of 103 Japanese university students on a four-week intensive English language program. Data collection was conducted over the course of May to December 2018 by means of interviews, questionnaires, and ethnographic observations. Among the common themes that emerged was a shift in focus from grammatical form and accuracy to communication-oriented goals for learning. Such changes in beliefs toward language learning triggered by a study abroad experience can be accounted for using the concept of language ideologies (Surtees, 2016). While this study only accounts for learner impressions shortly after their return, it illustrates the potential impact of a cross-cultural experience on students' overall belief systems regarding language learning and communication.

This paper outlines how current research could improve learner attitudes and heighten listening strategy awareness when using a three-stage listening process-based framework. This listening study outlines a logical pedagogic lesson for fellow educators to implement academic listening using www.breakingnewsenglish.com (BNE) in the tertiary level classroom. The preliminary study at a Korean university describes a series of five BNE lessons which were developed using a three-stage strategy-based plan for academic listening. Metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective tasks were integrated into pre-/while-/postlistening stages to measure if listening attitudes improved and if strategy awareness and strategy use heightened after task exposure. The data analyzed from pre-course/post-course questionnaires suggest that although individual attitudes toward listening did not improve, listening components used in this pedagogic approach could improve strategy awareness and the employment of listening strategies to help second language learners develop their listening competence.

To have sustainable societies, we need to accelerate the energy transition towards clean energy solutions, however, awareness and understanding of the process as well as intentions to change behaviors are still limited, especially among young people. An optimal balance considering the point of view from all parties involved is out of sight without a focus on social structures and a dialogue among all parties. In this context, universities have a critical role to play: these institutions build capacity through the development of new knowledge, new understanding and new insights, and can therefore provide effective solutions to complex societal challenges. In search of innovative approaches to reach young people, whose communicative paradigm has become more interactive and participatory, the use of serious gaming in formal education is gaining attention among scholars and practitioners: they can foster skills and abilities, contribute to content development of complex issues by integrating insights from different disciplines, and permit learning experiences that are not possible in real life. In this paper, we introduce "We-Energy Game", a serious game that address the urgency and complexities in the provision of affordable energy from renewable sources for an entire town. During the game, players negotiate, from their respective roles, which energy source they want to employ and on which location, with the goal to make a village or city energy neutral. Then, we present findings from a pretest and posttest completed by a hundred university students in The Netherlands to analyze the effects of the game on players awareness, understanding and efficacy beliefs. Results reveal positive outcomes on all variables.

Transitioning from high school to the next phase of life can be especially challenging for youth with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (IDD). Federal mandates are in place to provide individualized transition services to students with disabilities up to age 22; however, there is variability in the location of service delivery. A growing number of school districts have partnered with institutions of higher education (IHE) in an effort to enhance postsecondary education (PSE) opportunities for individuals with IDD who are between the ages of 18-21. While there are some differences in PSE programs, the core foundational component is constant across models: establishing and maintaining collaborative partnerships between school districts and IHE. This paper describes PSE program models and highlights the necessity to continue to build partnerships in an effort to expand PSE opportunities for young adults with IDD.

This paper presents the findings of a large-scale study conducted at an Australian metropolitan university, which seeks to compare attendance in different modes of lecture delivery and student preference and motivation for attendance. The research design collected data for three different teaching methods - on-campus lectures, live streaming utility and lecture recordings via lecture capture. The study addresses the broader question of the value students place on the modes of lecturing, as indicated by their attendance patterns, usage of lecture recordings, and preferences and motivations for the same. Overall, the study confirms the student preference for flexibility when accessing or attending lectures, with those choosing both on-campus and live streaming lecture delivery, also having a strong preference for using recorded lectures. Implications of findings of the study which was conducted pre-COVID-19 extend to a post-coronavirus world as well with implications for infrastructure and resource planning for universities with changing student demographics and flexibility requirements and challenges brought on by a global health and economic crises.

The paper shows the characteristics that influence the ethnic identity of students educated in the Azerbaijani and Russian languages. The thoughts related to the study about ethnic identity within the studies conducted in this way, as well as the psychological features of this process in youthful individuals are analyzed. Analysis of the results demonstrates that learners, studying in Azerbaijani department have indicators of the cognitive element of the ethnic identity higher than those of the learners studying in Russian department. This means that the level of self-awareness of their belonging to this ethnic group, opinions about the features of their own ethnic group are higher among students of the Azerbaijani Department. Analysis of the results also reveals the fact that students, studying in Azerbaijani language have indicators of the affective component of ethnic identity higher than students studying in Russian language. This considers a positive attitude towards their ethnos as a group, as well as the fact that young people have a definite emotional feel of acceptance to their ethnic group, a high sensitivity towards their ethnos.