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The issue of grade inflation has been studied in many countries across the globe, yet it remains under-researched in Pakistan. This study aims to understand grade inflation in Pakistani universities by examining the contributing factors and its consequences. The data for this study was collected through in-depth interviews of 20 professors from four (two public and two private sector) universities in the federal capital of Islamabad, Pakistan. The data reveals that the major cause for grade inflation in the selected universities was the competition between public and private universities to recruit students without giving due consideration to merit. Additionally, the culture of hiring untrained candidates as visiting faculty who aspire to be hired in permanent positions was a key contributing factor that led to grade inflation. Other factors include the limitations of the semester system and individualised directed studies. This study recommends the need to monitor and revisit the examination and grading system in Pakistani universities to enhance imparting quality education and to compete at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many instructors use a syllabus quiz to ensure that students learn and understand the content of the syllabus. In this project, I move beyond this exercise's primary function and examine students' syllabus quiz scores to see if they can predict how well students perform in the course overall. Using data from 495 students enrolled in 18 sections of an Introduction to Sociology course, I find that students who do not earn a maximum score on the syllabus quiz are more likely to receive a lower final course grade and are less likely to pass the course than their top-scoring counterparts. These findings allow instructors to identify struggling students as early as the first week of the semester and design interventions that will match up with students' particular needs and strengths. Furthermore, this project demonstrates the pedagogical usefulness of the syllabus quiz beyond its initial purpose of testing students' knowledge of course policies and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on students' experiences of reading challenges during their first three semesters at university and how they cope with these difficulties. Topics include specific reading-related challenges encountered by students, the strategies and approaches they develop to address these challenges, and the implications for higher education teaching and learning.

The impact of the semester system on students' academic performance in higher education has garnered significant interest due to its potential implications for student outcomes. This study aims to develop and validate the Semester System Academic Performance Survey (SSAPS) to measure various dimensions influencing academic performance under the semester system. The SSAPS initially comprised 50 items categorized into four factors: Student Engagement, Academic Performance, Stress Levels, and Time Management Skills. Expert opinions were solicited from 14 experts, resulting in the removal of 17 items due to poor content validity (CVR < 0.45). Data were collected via a Google Form distributed through WhatsApp groups to university students. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation validated the scale. The KMO measure was 0.748, and Bartlett's test was significant (p < 0.001). The Cronbach’s alpha for the instrument was 0.902, indicating high reliability. These results demonstrate that the SSAPS is a robust tool for assessing the impacts of the semester system, paving the way for more targeted academic interventions. Future studies could utilize this validated survey to explore the longitudinal effects on student performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to review the course syllabus for mathematics teaching methods with a lens to identify topics related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and develop strategies to promote their understanding among the students. This study involved two phases. Phase 1 used the capacity building model to train teacher educators to review the syllabus, map the curriculum, and identify topics nearest to SDGs. In Phase II, teacher educators developed three teaching mathematics modules on infusing SDGs in the course using the DeCoRe + methodology. The developed modules were implemented in the Teaching Mathematics Methods II course with 39 preservice mathematics teachers over a semester (14 weeks). The students' concept maps were analyzed by using rubrics which have five categories (excellent, very good, good, fair, and failing) and to relate to SDG understanding as: knowledge representation, interconnectivity, the meaningfulness of links, complexity, contextuality, and transformation. The result from the students' concept maps showed that students' understanding for SDGs are good for knowledge representation, interconnectivity, and meaningfulness of links. However, students showed "fair" for complexity, contextuality, and transformation whereby linkage of the different SDGs are given. In conclusion, our exploration of integrating SDGs into a mathematics teaching methods course using DeCoRe+ has demonstrated promising outcomes. Our findings indicate that students not only acquire knowledge but also internalize key concepts, empowering them to contextualize and integrate SDGs within the mathematics curriculum. This preparation equips them with the necessary skills to become future educators capable of seamlessly incorporating sustainability principles into their teaching of mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates student perceptions of the semester system's deployment in Pakistani higher education institutions in the context of worldwide transformative shifts. The study examines the transition from the conventional annual system, focusing on key issues such as students' first perceptions, the semester system's impact on academic workload, time management, learning, assessment procedures, engagement, and involvement. It investigates feedback mechanisms and communication channels to get insights into the effectiveness of student-instructor interactions. The study evaluates overall student happiness and the semester system's possible impact on well-being, recognizing both positive characteristics that contribute to a positive academic experience and potential issues that harm mental health. Five selective universities conducted a survey using a questionnaire. The four-point Likert scale questionnaire "strongly disagree to strongly agree" was used to collect the ordinal data. Using simple random sampling, four hundred student samples were collected from five selective universities. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the frequency, percentage, and median as the average for ordinal data. Furthermore, the Kruskal Wallis H Test assessed variations in more than two groups' opinions based on five university levels, and the Mann- Whitney U test investigated inequalities in the views of two groups of male and female students. The results offer valuable insights to educational policymakers, administrators, and educators. These insights will provide a student-focused understanding of the consequences of implementing the semester system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to investigate the measures required for the effective implementation of a semester system for undergraduate education in graduate and post-graduate colleges affiliated with the University of Malakand. The study mainly focused on physical requirements (lecture rooms, laboratories, library), human resource requirements (faculty members, staff), issues in the curriculum, and major issues in the assessment system from the perspectives of teachers of public sector colleges affiliated with the University of Malakand. A mixed-method research design was used for data collection. First, qualitative data was collected, and analyzed through thematic analysis, and then a questionnaire was developed for quantitative data analysis. The findings of the study showed that there were several issues in the implementation of the semester system in the affiliated colleges. These included lengthy courses, outdated content, irrelevant content, lack of space such as classrooms, science labs, etc, need for curriculum improvement, poor assessment system, lack of training for teachers, and lack of regular monitoring from management and the university side. Based on the results it is suggested that the implementation of the semester system in the colleges needs to be reviewed and improved for the affiliated colleges and to ensure quality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how students experienced the MOOC-based flipped learning and how should different scaffolding be emphasized in different stages in such educational contexts through the lens of the revised community of inquiry (CoI) framework. In total, 22 first-year undergraduate students were invited for one-on-one in-depth interviews. The results indicated that MOOC-based flipped learning allowed students to experience all four types of presences outlined in the revised CoI framework. In terms of each presence, students highlighted that the MOOC-based flipped course provided more learning presence in the form of monitoring and strategy, greater cognitive presence through integration, more social presence through affective expression and open communication, and increased teaching presence through enhancement of direct instruction and assessment during both online and in-class sessions. And the challenges of implementing MOOC-based flipped learning in university courses were also mentioned ranging from the need for group cohesion in in-class learning designs, the necessity of helping students improve planning, triggering events, to the enhancement of design, and organization between MOOCs and the existing formal curricula. The findings have implications for practitioners who hope to build an integrated learning experience around MOOCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the pandemic, students have been regularly engaged in what I call real time learning through chat and polling exercises. This is an exciting development, but one that also carries the risk of being poorly implemented and not achieving its intended learning outcomes. Four real time teaching methods are presented in this article for consideration by instructors. These methods activate the early stages of the learning process as students encounter and reflect on concepts, puzzles and cases. The resulting level of student engagement acts as a stepping-stone towards higher-level thinking. The four methods are: reproducing questions from polling organizations; asking prediction-oriented questions; repeating polls several weeks later; and, placing more attention on text-based entry. Teaching innovation here represents small changes in the classroom that can be adopted by a wide number of instructors, carrying discernible impacts on student learning. The data from this study suggest that well-designed use of the chat box is the most effective of the four teaching methods examined. The lessons derived from real time learning in social science courses, especially how students recognize the learning opportunities afforded by short writing activities, can be applied in other disciplines. Statement on Human Ethics This study was deemed by the university's human ethics committee as not requiring human ethics approval. While preparing this manuscript, the instructor took the following steps: the instructor set out to reflect and report on the students' work after the course was completed. the questionnaire was administered at the end of semester. The students' participation in the survey did not count towards their grade in the class and there were no repercussions for those who did not participate. Knowing who participated in the questionnaire would be impossible in any event. the focus group was entirely optional for students and it was conducted after grades had been submitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information system is a technology application that provides information using the web. The Faculty of Engineering, Manado State University is an educational institution that has implemented an Information System as one of the conveniences in the student administration process starting from information on course grades received in each semester, grade point average, to filling out the Semester Plan. The use of this information system also requires both positive and negative responses. TAM is a model that is often used to measure user acceptance. With the TAM theory, it can be seen the response from users of the information system. The results of the analysis show that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and Intention are the main variables that influence User Acceptance of the information system. So, based on the analysis using TAM it can be concluded that the TAM variables are able to be a determining factor in the level of user acceptance of information systems at the Faculty of Engineering, Manado State University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) has entered its fourth year in 2023. During its implementation, there was dynamic resistance from departments or students regarding changes in learning patterns and mobility policies for a maximum of 3 semesters. This research used a survey method on 357 active students of the MBKM program, Universitas Negeri Malang Indonesia. The survey covers two main parameters: program suitability with graduate learning outcomes and partner alignment with program objectives. The survey results show that MBKM has provided positive changes at the institutional level. Empirical studies and survey results show that studentcentered learning through various learning activities provides a more meaningful understanding of content. Referring to increasingly complex programs, it is recommended to form a special team to accompany the MBKM in managing and developing the program so that the existing unit can focus on academic administration services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of using Virtual programming Lab software as a practicum tool in inquiry learning, collaboration, and increasing the ability of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) students who take programming courses. Pseudo-experimental studies are designed with experimental and control groups. This research was attended by 35 first-semester students from the Pelita Indonesia Informatics Engineering Study Program. Quantitative methods are used to determine students' HOTS levels and their acceptance of the use of virtual programming labs as computer practicum tools. The data analysis technique used is the Kolmogrof Smirnov technique. For inquiry-based collaborative learning using 7 stages of learning. The effectiveness of virtual programming with collaborative inquiry learning through HOTS questions is tested with the N-gain test. Based on the findings, it is stated that virtual programming applications with collaborative inquiry learning in programming courses are quite effective in improving students' higher-order thinking skills with an average N Gain of 60%. The ability of students to do HOTS questions in C4, C5, and C6 has increased after post-tests in experimental classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiential learning is recognized as a high-impact educational practice. Fieldwork is an important component of the geographic tradition. When implemented using an inquiry-based approach, fieldwork can be a highly effective form of experiential education. However, many geography instructors are dissuaded from implementing inquiry-based fieldwork because of logistical challenges. Here, a modular, semester-long fieldwork design is presented, involving inquiry-based research on local streams. This framework has been successfully implemented twice in undergraduate classes. A total of 37 undergraduate students did physical habitat assessments and water-quality monitoring on urban streams in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Quantitative and qualitative anonymous student evaluations and student work products provide preliminary support for the approach's effectiveness in enhancing student learning. The practical advantages of the presented fieldwork design are that it is less costly in time and money than fully field-based courses, it breaks up a large class into more manageable group sizes, and it alleviates some of the common concerns about accessibility, equity, and risk management. While still needing to be systematically assessed, the pedagogical benefits potentially include development of critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and affective skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts between young immigrants and older native populations are widely recognized as a challenge in different parts of the world. In the European context, the following paper focuses on presenting the research results of a community-based project entitled "ICT Guides" conducted in Gothenburg (Sweden), Sheffield (the United Kingdom), Madrid (Spain), and Berlin (Germany), in which we investigated the features and functions of the intergenerational learning of immigrant youth and unrelated seniors using ICT tools. We claim that both groups perceive intergenerational learning with the use of ICT as a chance to get to know the other group despite the age and cultural differences. Through the use of ICT tools in intergenerational learning, digital tools can help those who lack a good command of language when communication problems occur. ICT facilitates mutual understanding and contributes to breaking down the polarization that can occur between immigrant youths and unrelated seniors, to the mutual benefit of both parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much is known about teacher learning of nature of science (NOS) concepts, less is known about how teachers develop an understanding of how to effectively teach NOS or how instructional views might differ across levels of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) wheel. Therefore, this study investigated the NOS instructional views related to different levels of the FRA wheel of preservice secondary science teachers as they completed a semester-long NOS course. At four times during the semester, data was collected through written documents and interviews about NOS instructional views. Participant NOS instructional views were evaluated in terms of three aspects of NOS teaching: explicit, reflective, and role of context (McComas et al., 2020). In terms of the explicit and reflective components of NOS instruction, participants generally progressed from utilizing inaccurate representations of NOS to inclusion of accurate implicit messages, and finally to explicit reflective instruction often mimicking course activities. As the semester progressed, their questioning also moved toward targeting more specific NOS aspects. As far as the role of context, participants moved from treating NOS as its own topic to a more embedded approach. Other findings include that preservice teachers tended to use more abstract and contextualized activities for social institutional aspects of NOS as opposed to concrete and moderately contextualized activities for cognitive-epistemic NOS. Features of the NOS course may account for some aspects of the learning progressions observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was a correlational research design. It was designed for investigating the relationship between students’ satisfaction and academic performance among level 200 students of Mount. Mary College of Education in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 200 students. Satisfaction of Colleges of Education students were measured using adapted Student Satisfaction Survey developed by Strachota (2006) on a 4 point Likert scale (from Not Satisfied (1), Somehow Satisfied (2), Satisfied (3) and Highly Satisfied (4)) which has 8 items. Examination scores of four core subjects (Assessment in Basic Schools, Curriculum Studies, English Language Studies II, Forms and Functions of English Clause) in the first and second semesters of the 2020/2021 academic year were used to measure students’ academic performance. Data collected were analysed using correlation statistics. The findings of the study revealed that students’ satisfaction has a significant relationship with academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to compare the achievements of the students who attended the Environmental Design Project course at Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) in various years with the face-to-face (FE) and distance (OE) education methods. The study was conducted with 130 students. In the initial stage, ANOVA was conducted to determine whether there was a difference between student attitudes towards FE and OE methods in the Environmental Design Project studio. In the second stage, the research problem, namely "Does the implementation of landscape architecture environmental design project instruction with FE and OE methods affect the academic achievements of the students? was investigated and a quasi-experimental study with a control group was conducted on the achievement test (50 questions) results. The achievement test was applied to the students who took environmental design lessons for one semester (14 weeks) with both methods before the 14-week semester (pre-test) and after the semester (post-test). There was no statistical difference between the pre-test scores of both groups (p > 0.05), while there was a difference (p < 0.05) between the post-test scores. This finding demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the effects of these two methods on the academic success of the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines community college students (N = 292) enrolled in introductory criminal justice courses, comparing access, use and perceptions of open education resource (OER) textbooks with traditional textbooks. Data were collected over three semesters from students in a large metropolitan city using an online survey. The sample pool is largely non-white and eligible for low income tuition assistance. The analysis uses survey data to explore the following: access (how, when, how much); use (when, where, how); and student perceptions of learning with digital resources (for OER courses). Findings are largely consistent with comparable research conducted on four year and community college specific samples. Compared with textbook courses, OER students are more likely to access the material within the first week of class, on phones or school computers, and find the material easier to obtain. They are also more likely to say they review more of the material, and are more likely to study on campus. These findings indicate that transition to OER course materials has no harmful impact and may serve community college students by removing a variety of impediments related to achieving academic success for the types of students served by community colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive processing issues online may be reduced through e-learning personalisation, which allows learners to address individual learning needs by controlling how they process information. While some research shows that e-learning personalisation may actually complicate information processing under specific circumstances, this study examines whether it can be successful over the course of an entire semester. Survey responses from a group of university students taking massive online learning classes in South Korea (n = 2,160) were analysed to investigate relationships involving e-learning personalisation and various elements of cognitive load. Results showed that as e-learning personalisation levels increased, negative aspects of cognitive load decreased. These results support cognitive load reduction strategies in ways that traditional lectures replicated in online environments cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the practice of mathematics teaching and learning in the semester system in Nepal. Three teachers and six students of Master of Education from the Faculty of Education, Tribhuvan University (TU) were selected purposively for the interview. In addition, 21 students were also selected for focused group discussion (FGD), and classroom observation and FGD were used to collect information from the participants in the study. Thematic analysis is used in the study. It is concluded that the semester system at TU, Central Department of Education, particularly in mathematics, has a radical shift in pedagogical practices. There is the provision of supportive internal and external evaluation systems to promote multiple skills and knowledge in mathematics or the holistic development of learners. The assessments were to encourage and motivate the students in learning. The study supported to enhance the weakness of teaching-learning activities in the semester system. It is the supportive document for effective teaching-learning in the semester system for Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Technical Education / Revista de Educación Técnica is the property of ECORFAN-Mexico S.C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is the first segment of a two-part article detailing the transition process of Northeastern State University Library's migration from OCLC's interlibrary loan automation system, ILLiad to its first cloud-based ILL management system, Tipasa. The transition planning process began in the fall of 2018 with the transition period beginning in early 2019. This article provides a framework for the successful implementation process of shift to a new interlibrary system in one semester. The authors explore the challenges and lessons learned while providing a structure that may be beneficial for other libraries preparing for a similar transition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hispanic college students typically report a lower sense of belonging than their White peers, citing challenges related to first generation student status, low-income family backgrounds, and academic underpreparedness. The present study asked whether Hispanic students would have a lower sense of belonging than non-Hispanic White students and whether academic self-efficacy would be able to provide a greater buffer against belonging loss for Hispanic students compared to their non-Hispanic White peers. The participants of this study were Hispanic (n = 68) and non-Hispanic White (n = 420) first year students at a predominantly White small liberal arts college. Academic self-efficacy was a significant predictor of change in belonging for Hispanic students but not for non-Hispanic White students. These results suggest academic self-efficacy is a worthwhile target of belonging interventions for Hispanic students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student drop-outs continue to be one of the perineal problems of educational institutions. Accordingly, institution managers are trying to find ways and means to curb impending issues on drop-outs to satisfy quality education. In this paper, the researcher delved into the different time series modeling methods in order to forecast the rate of college dropouts at King's College of the Philippines-Benguet. The method considered was the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model. The data used in this paper was the number of school dropouts from 2005 to 2018 obtained from the school registrar which shows more dropout during the first semester than the second semester. Initial result obtained from using ARIMA reveals that the best model used is the model ARIMA which is the auto regression (AR 1), then the moving average (MA 1), with first differencing on the second semester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the argumentation-based inquiry (ABI) approach on the analytical thinking skills and academic achievement of seventh-grade students using a mixed method. It was conducted in a secondary school in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey with seventh-grade students from two classes during the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. Unit-based achievement tests, analytical thinking scenarios, and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools. The findings show that the application of the ABI approach in science classes is effective in improving the academic achievement of students. According to the analytical thinking test findings, a significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group in the post-test. The evaluation of the quantitative and qualitative findings revealed that the ABI approach used in science lessons had improved the analytical thinking skills of the experimental group students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Design (LD) research accounts for several design support tools, or LD tools, employing representations for learning designs to facilitate the "teachers as designers" thinking while preparing learning experiences. In contrast to existing studies having followed mainly a specialist/researcher (as opposed to a teacher) perspective, our quest to develop an LD tool follows a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach involving practitioners. Specifically, in this paper, we attempt to give voice to teachers as designers and investigate how they prefer having their learning designs represented by LD tools. Aiming to create a principled account of how to represent learning designs in an LD tool, we first conducted an integrative literature review to formulate a representational framework that drove our research. Subsequently, we addressed the following LD representational dimensions: (i) format, (ii) organisation, (iii) guidance and support, and (iv) contextualisation. We are reporting on a case study conducted with 16 participants in a teacher education context. Although previous research typically reported findings based on a single LD tool's evaluation over a short period, we have opted for eliciting feedback based on a rich LD experience. To this end, we acquainted participants in LD projects with two LD tools (Learning Designer and WebCollage) during an academic semester. Furthermore, we followed a mixed-method explanatory sequential design applied through a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to achieve a more profound consideration of the teachers' preferences for LD representations. Our findings indicate that the teachers strongly endorse an LD tool supporting a visual format and a global organisation in the form of a table that provides a global overview of a learning design while focusing on its specific elements. Teachers seem to prefer an LD tool that balances providing guidance and flexibility, as they opt for (i) a non-restrictive taxonomy for articulating learning objectives, (ii) some form of standardisation for formatting learning units, along with allowing free formation, (iii) a flexible pedagogical framework for modelling the learning activities' pedagogy so that it can be adjusted to particular designers' needs, and (iv) a typology of technologies that can be utilised or not. In addition, they seemed to favour an LD tool supporting high contextualisation, as they prefer to describe contextual details for a learning design's units and activities. These findings constitute design principles for our ongoing DBR and may stimulate momentum for researchers developing LD tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved multiple-choice questions (MCQs) item analysis is fundamental to be used for further tests. Besides increasing item analysis can also be used to removes items that are trapped in a test. This journal focuses on the quality of the questions on the test. It explores the relationship between the difficulty index (p-value) and the discrimination index (DI) and the efficiency of the distractor (DE). The research will be conducted by 49 6th semester students currently studying Diploma, especially in air navigation engineering in education at Aviation Polytechnic of Surabaya. Fifty multiple-choice questions will be given while a final exam for the transmission media and antenna courses. The value of validity using the Pearson correlation with a significance level of 5% and reliability using Cronbach's Alpha. We find that the difficulty index (p) is 59% with an SD value of 10%, while the DI value is 30 % with an SD value 10% and DE with a value of 25% (SD 22%) has item items with average difficulty and discriminatory power related to functional impairments that must be integrated into the test later to improve the quality evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accelerating depiction of natural resources has brought environmental sustainability to the forefront of engineering and therefore, design educators must integrate sustainability into the engineering design curriculum. Several researchers have proposed educational interventions and design tools for sustainable design education. The timing of introducing such interventions, particularly in project-based courses, could influence the effectiveness of these interventions, and these effects remain largely unexplored. Our aim in this research is to investigate this research gap through a mixed-methods experiment conducted with first-year engineering design students. Specifically, we introduced a two-day module on sustainable design either in the first or sixth week of an 8-week long design project. The effects of this variation were compared by analyzing (1) changes in students' trait empathy, (2) changes iii their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions towards sustainabilith and (3) their responses to a reflection assignment collected at the end of the semester/design project. From the results, we see that the timing of the sustainable design intervention did not relate to changes in students' trait empathy or their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions towards sustainability. However, students from both timing conditions reported significant increases in their attitudes and intentions towards sustainable action. Fitially~ students who received the intervention later more frequently mentioned the use of sustainable design heuristics in their reflection responses. Taken together, these findings suggest the need for educators to consider the timing of sustainable design interventions, especially when integrating them into longer project-based courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how I design and teach an Interculturality in Language and Literary Studies (ILLS) Course. In doing this, I am very much influenced by the post-structural and post-colonial and interdisciplinary nature of my PhD study. The course itself is for sixth semester undergraduate students, after they have passed Skilled Courses, Introduction to Literature and Introduction to Linguistics, etc. In these reflections, I utilise a post-structural approach, in which I consider such a practice to never be final. It is always in process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the problems faced by refugee students during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer semester 2020) as calouros, i.e. freshmen during their first year, in a public university in Brazil. Through a content analysis of their personal accounts, collected electronically by their teacher of Portuguese for academic purposes (the first author), we describe how five students (a Syrian, two Haitians, a Venezuelan and a Togolese refugees) (re)visit their experiences, in which several dynamics intersect: being 'calouro', being refugee students, learning the shelter language in loco, and experiencing social distancing due to the closing of universities. Because learning the language of the host country is not the only factor affected by the pandemic, we also observe how language learning (settings) intersect with other aspects characterising the refugee status: housing conditions, availability of learning materials, and the uncertainty attached to the present and future of their own lives and of other family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are opportunities to enrich procurement and supply management classes to be more international and to engage with industry more deeply. Methods: Using a design science method this paper develops a course design for teaching procurement that enriches existing approaches to company engagement in courses. Results: Beyond the use of stand-alone guest lectures, case studies, or in-company projects, the design involved semester-long collaboration around core topics for the course, involving company lectures and multiple student projects aligned with the course topics, engaging multiple levels of managers from around the globe. Based upon an evaluation of the first-year collaboration, improvements were identified that were implemented in year two of the collaboration. Conclsuions: The design brings course learning into a real-world context and supports student skill development through project work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is pivotal for a prospective teacher to have higher levels of enthusiasm and attitudes towards the teaching profession. Exploring prospective teachers' attitudes towards the teaching profession of semester-based teacher education programs was the basic aim of this study. It was a survey study and a Likert scale was developed and administered to collect data from prospective teachers enrolled in the semester system of teacher education programs of the University of Sargodha i.e. M. A (Education), BS (Education), B.Ed. (Honors) and B. Ed 1.5, enrolled in Sargodha University. Data was collected from 512 prospective teachers i-e 385 female and 127 males. The major finding of the study showed that the majority of the prospective teachers have a high attitude toward the teaching profession and male prospective teachers have lower attitudes than female prospective teachers towards the teaching profession. A major recommendation was that the Education Department conduct motivational seminars especially for male prospective teacher to improve their attitude towards the teaching profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher-scholars have called upon fellow language educators to redevelop curricula at all proficiency levels to portray the lived experiences of target language (TL) speakers. This article presents a semester-long project that contributes to developing diverse teaching materials for college-level learners at the novice level. Via an ePortfolio with 10 tasks (virtual and in-person), 20 learners of a second-semester German course explored connections with the TL locally and broadened their understanding of language-community membership beyond stereotypical notions of native speakers. Participants' feedback demonstrated how this project positively impacted students' learning experiences and reflected learners' strong desire for similar assignments in future courses. The findings speak to strategies of how educators can help beginning learners find connections to the TL in local contexts and investigate the diverse lived experiences of TL speakers abroad. The project's approaches, flexible format, and outcomes are easily implemented across various proficiency levels, world languages, and institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional approaches to organizational improvisation treat it as a merely functional response to environmental constrains and unforeseen disruptions, neglecting its moral dimension, especially the valued ends improvisers aim to achieve. We attempt to address this gap by drawing on virtue ethics. In particular, we explore how phronetic improvisation is accomplished by drawing on the diary of an emergency-room physician, in which she describes her (and colleagues') experience of dealing with Covid-19 in a New York Hospital, during the first spike in March–April 2020. We argue that improvisation is phronetic insofar as practitioners actively care for the valued ends of their practice. In particular, practitioners seek to phronetically fulfil the internal goods of their practice, while complying with institutional demands, in the context of coping with situational exigencies. Phronetic improvisation involves paying attention to what is salient in the situation at hand, while informed by an open-ended commitment to valued ends and constrained by scarce resources, and driven by a willingness to meet what is at stake through adapting general knowledge to situational demands. Such an inventive process may involve reshaping the original internal goods of the practice, in light of important institutional constrains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global COVID-19 pandemic made salient various paradoxical tensions, such as the trade-offs between individual freedom and collective safety, between short term and long-term consequences of adaptation to the new conditions, the power implications of sameness (COVID-19 was non-discriminatory in that all were affected in one way or another) and difference (yet not all were affected equally due to social differences), whereas most businesses became poorer under lockdown, others flourished; while significant numbers of workers were confined to home, some could not return home; some thrived while working from home as others were challenged by the erosion of barriers between their private and working lives. Rapid improvisational responding and learning at all levels of society presented itself as a naturally occurring research opportunity for improvisation scholars. This improvisation saw the arrival of a 'New Normal', eventually defined as 'learning to live with COVID-19'. The five articles in this special issue capture critical aspects of improvisation, paradoxes and power made salient by the COVID-19 pandemic in contexts ranging from higher-education, to leadership, to medical care and virtue ethics. In their own ways, each breaks new ground by contributing novel insights into improvisation scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified and exacerbated organizational paradoxes felt by individuals largely because of the nostalgia individuals feel for the "old" normal while facing the need to let go in order to create a "new" normal. We position improvisation as a synthesis-type approach to working through the paradoxes of the pandemic. Furthermore, we look at individual differences that underpin the ability to improvise, and identify that it is the strength of character and character-based judgment of the individual that enables the enactment of a focal context, the choice to improvise, and the act of effectively improvising to work through paradoxes. Linking character to improvisation, and, vice versa, improvisation to the development of character, reveals the importance of dimensions such as courage, humility, temperance, transcendence, humanity, and collaboration in the practice of improvisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caught most organizations off guard. They have had to adapt their operations rapidly, and with the pandemic persisting, continuously improvise. While such an external jolt to organizations might unsettle operations, it does not remove the fact that organizations are sites of power relations and political activity. In this article, we examine the influence of power and politics on learning from improvisation, through a qualitative longitudinal case study of an Australian university during COVID-19. We trace improvisations with the use of the social media platform WeChat, which was eventually adopted, after several changes in forms of improvisation, as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study contributes to the literature on learning from improvisation, and explains how different forms of improvisation morph into one another under the simultaneous influence of power relations and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether a harbinger of a new era or an anomaly, the year 2020 confronted students and teachers alike with the necessity of reassessing and reformulating teaching and learning possibilities and practicalities. In this very subjective text, we examine some of our own experiences of higher education under lockdown and physical distancing conditions. In an apparent paradox, the changed conditions simultaneously added more stress and uncertainty to the students' learning process while also providing the learners with more confidence to question the established norms. Against the background of ongoing systemic collapse, we explore our own and our students' stories and poems chronicling learning in a time of crisis and constraint. Drawing on critiques of modern consumer capitalism underpinning management education, we use the experience of a ruptured semester to propose a reinterpretation of management learning as rooted in the paradoxes of desire and longing: for success, career, but also for enlightenment, revelation, social change and togetherness. We ask the reader to embrace the poetic and libidinal aspects of desire and longing as central to the transformative potential of the learning encounter and propose to reconstitute the basis for education as rooted in desire and longing: for contact, for learning, for revelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The necessity of the space to respond correctly to the user's wishes and needs is an unchanging phenomenon. Today, especially with the pandemic, differences in housing meaning are sought. With this current problem, minimal living spaces have been determined as the design studio subject of Ostim Technical University 2022-2023 Fall Semester. In this study, in the context of the suggestions developed by the students, the main motivation is to examine the meaning of the project designs and the residence; at the same time, it is aimed to discuss this studio experience. Within the scope of this study, the method, process, and end products of the studio are discussed. In this study, the changing meaning of the house and minimal living spaces were questioned by using the “document review” method, one of the qualitative research methods. The information obtained was analyzed by evaluating the results of the studio course. With this study, in which studio products with different user types and different functions are examined, it is concluded that the design of living spaces in small houses is very important for healthier solutions in comfort conditions, and it has been a very developing experience for the studio participants and executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to provide a discussion ground that can answer the question, “as a contemporary theme in transformation of space perception, what is the meaning of architecture in the art of the 2000s”. As the scope, works of leading figures of 2000s art were examined through literature review and it was aimed to obtain an original concept set by evaluating them in the context of art-space relationship. The methodology is divided into three sections. The first section is literature research which is based on the determination of the theory about the artworks. The second section is based on the demonstrations of the relationships between the spatial themes through “knowledge discovery in databases”. In the third section, the groups are emphasized through “relative frequencies of the spatial themes”. Accordingly, when the artworks are evaluated in terms of spatial features, it is seen that narratives are related with war, peace, anarchy, individuality, imprisonment, separation, loneliness, uncanny, anxiety, curiosity, desire, lethargy, memory, boredom, consumer culture, ambiguity, habit, conflict and revel. As a result, the image of space occurs while being positioned together with interior and exterior, official and informal, ordinary and extraordinary, dramatic and analytical where dualities formed by contrasts are dissolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of students’ critical and creative thinking skills is at the core of the firstsemester basic design studio. Students’ perceptual experiences of their environment form the key references of abstraction in this beginning phase. This paper inquires studio approach based on abstraction and mapping as tools for intertwining visual reasoning and bodily experiences in the design process. Focusing on the case study of a basic design studio assignment, the authors analyze the structure, application, and products of the “Urban Abstraction and Mapping” project. The study adopted the case-study method as part of qualitative research approach and dwelled on researchers’ first-hand interaction with a phenomenon within its real-life context, ARCH/MIM101 studios. The findings showed that abstraction and mapping strategies based on students’ bodily experiences in urban contexts raised awareness of design as a generative and iterative research process. Students who were able to reveal and reconstruct the relationship between different forms of knowledge through experiential and conceptual levels of the design process managed to develop heuristic 2D and 3D design strategies. The findings of this study provide a ground for discussions on the effectiveness of teaching/learning methods applied in the introductory level of design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant transformations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) is the implementation of the Bologna process. This alteration of the traditional system to the Bologna process system has also impacted the assessment schemes. More weight has been given to formative assessment that can help improve students' grades and ease success in the courses. Nonetheless, the final exam still carries most of the grades. Therefore, setting appropriate questions that can meet all the cognition levels represented in Bloom's taxonomy assists in raising students' cognition to higher levels rather than only assessing bookish knowledge that is located on the baseline of Bloom's taxonomy. To this intent, the present study endeavored to identify if instructors at colleges of Nursing and Science adhere to the various dimensions of Bloom's taxonomy that are central to the Bologna process. More importantly, the association of each of the demographic variables to the level of the final examination questions was also examined. The study employed a quantitative method to tackle the topic. Totally, a sample of 75 final examination papers was collected from instructors, including 524 individual questions. The findings revealed that most of the examination papers revolved around low-order thinking questions and the association of the rate of success to the level of the questions was highly statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forming university exam schedules in Southern Africa has always been difficult. It is a scheduling problem with strict rules (hard constraints) and flexible ones (soft constraints). Students must take a final exam for most courses they are enrolled in each semester, held in a supervised setting. Therefore, finding a suitable time and location for each student is a common challenge. This paper proposes a solution to this scheduling problem based on the behaviour of bees, using a model called BSet, which uses simulated robotic devices to find and schedule courses. The results show that this approach is efficient and effective in creating exam schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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