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Idioms are highly conventionalized expressions that allow users to express beyond literal meanings. Despite the language difference, counterparts of idioms may overlap cross-culturally due to similar origin, social habits, and experiences. It is therefore interesting to probe whether L2 learners may benefit from deliberate instructions built on shared counterparts existing in both L1 and L2, known as cross-language overlaps. Although the phenomenon of cross-language overlap has been reported by lexical and collocation processing research (e.g., Carrol & Conklin, 2017; Hubers et al., 2020), it is yet uncertain whether its impact is influential for L2 idiom learning with the absence of semantic or syntactical similarity. To address this gap, the current study attempted to investigate whether raising English as a foreign language learners' awareness of cross-language overlap may facilitate L2 idiom teaching and how such overlap-enhancement instruction may change over different congruence conditions (congruence-available and incongruence conditions) and time. The study collected L2 idiom learning data from forty-five Chinese English learners, following a pretest-posttest design. While the experimental group (n=26) learned twenty-eight target L2 idioms with an enhancement instruction emphasizing the overlaps, the control group (n=28) learned these idioms with a conventional instruction method. Findings of this study revealed that participants were able to benefit from cross-language overlaps from both conditions, and the enhancement instruction on the semantic overlaps would result in significant learning improvement. It is therefore pedagogically advisable for language teachers to marry up L1-L2 idiom phrases containing similar counterparts and deliberately focus on the semantic congruency.

This article is dedicated to examining a bilateral project established between South Korea and Türkiye with the overarching objective of elevating awareness and endowing preschool teachers with the capacity to embed education for sustainability within their classroom practices seamlessly. For this purpose, a professional development (PD) program was developed regarding the three pillars of sustainability and the 7R themes. Fourteen preschool teachers attended the PD program. Three teachers participated in this case study to reveal teachers' transformations regarding sustainability and early childhood education for sustainability. The data were collected through pre- and post-follow-up interviews and classroom observations. Thematic content analyses were conducted. According to the results, the PD program enhanced and deepened teachers' sustainability knowledge. In addition, teachers could transfer the knowledge from the PD program on education for sustainability into their practice not entirely but acceptably, and they have a chance to reconsider their lifestyle habits regarding sustainability in many areas.

Language learning strategies may have a key role in foreign language learning because they may foster learner autonomy and motivation. Keeping the learner-centred nature of language learning strategies in mind, this study set out to understand the impact of overt listening and reading strategy instruction on learners' listening and reading achievement. The study employed an explanatory mixed-method research design. Research instruments were reading and listening achievement tests and semi-structured interviews. The treatment involved overt listening and reading strategy instruction that lasted for four weeks. The findings revealed that overt listening and reading strategy instruction fostered learners' reading and listening achievement. Similarly, semi-structured interviews revealed that learners were willing to transfer the strategies they learned to new learning situations and keep using these strategies in future learning situations.

Autonomous learning in EFL refers to learner involvement, reflection and target language use. Teachers play a vital role of mediators and facilitators in self-regulated method. Thus, their perception of self-regulated practices dictates their implementation of this approach. While research has predominantly focused on inadequate management of autonomous learning in school mostly due to lack of appropriate teacher training, this study examined whether novice teachers who were exposed to extensive autonomous practices were likely to implement this method in their teaching. Twelve novice teachers were interviewed to examine their perception of learner autonomy and their management of this method. It was found that three-thirds of the respondents experienced a gap between familiarity with autonomous learning and a favorable attitude to this approach and their deficient integration of self-regulated learning. Although learner-related and institution-oriented factors played a role in this gap, it was mostly caused by the respondents' not being genuinely autonomous. This may be due to indirect exposure rather than explicit introduction of the learner autonomy approach. The insights of this research may assist curriculum designers and heads of teacher training programs to rethink course composition to guarantee the transfer of methodologies into EFL classes.

Work integrated learning (WIL), particularly placement-based WIL (P-WIL), has gained momentum in Higher Education over the last decade as an educational strategy for enhancing student employability. However, there is very limited guidance on effective ways to embed and scaffold WIL assessments across courses (degree programs). We present the findings from an action-research study, purposed with building academic confidence to review and re-design existing assessments to have intentional and explicit employability foci. Key to the study was the sharing of existing WIL frameworks to build practitioner expertise. What arose was a notable intersection of similar, but unplanned assessments focused on career development learning, authentic assessment, and/or demonstrations of theory-to-practice performance during WIL activities. What was lacking was a means for designing an intentional holistic schema that tagged a suite of assessments dedicated to the development and demonstration of student employability across the course. An outcome was the creation of a novel meta-assessment WIL framework (WAM-F) that supported and purposefully integrated previously independent items: 1) career development learning; 2) transferable skills development; 3) reflections from professional practice theory-to-practice WIL experiences; and explicitly tethered these to the discipline orientation of the course. The overt tethering of discipline-specific learning outcomes to a range of WIL activities, via a course-wide approach, not only assures the regulatory requirement for all WIL experiences to contribute to, scaffold and develop the learning outcomes of a course, but also makes sense of emerging educational approaches for STEM teaching teams not always familiar or confident with how to embed fit-for-purpose employability learning.

The increasing demand for skilled employees in contemporary economies underscores the importance of effective upskilling of the low-skilled. This study addresses the significant challenge of enhancing the professional development of low-skilled workers, focusing on the factors that either facilitate or hinder their engagement in learning activities. The primary aim was to identify the key characteristics that contribute to the effective professional development of low-skilled employees and the practical application of the skills they acquire. A systematic review was conducted, examining empirical studies published between 2004 and 2024. The search encompassed six databases, resulting in 352 identified articles. After rigorous screening and quality assessment, 22 high and good-quality studies (published in 2011-2023) were included in the final selection. The studies spanned various countries and methodologies, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method designs. Key findings highlight that both personal and contextual factors influence the effectiveness of professional upskilling for low-skilled employees. Personal factors include motivation, self-direction, and reflexivity, while contextual factors encompass the quality of the work environment, learning opportunities, and institutional support. The review emphasises the importance of tailored training programmes, practical and interactive learning methods, continuous support and mentorship, and robust evaluation mechanisms. Effective transfer of training is facilitated by the relevance and applicability of training content, learner engagement and organisational support. The results highlight the need for holistic approaches that address both personal and contextual factors to enhance the professional development and skill utilisation of low-skilled workers; ultimately contributing to their career trajectories and job satisfaction.

Concurrency is a complex to learn topic that is becoming more and more relevant, such that many undergraduate Computer Science curricula are introducing it in introductory programming courses. This paper investigates the combined use of Sonic Pi and Team-Based Learning to mitigate the difficulties in early exposure to concurrency. Sonic Pi, a domain-specific music language, provides great support for "playing" with concurrency, and "hearing" common problems such as data races and lack of synchronization among different concurrent threads. More specifically, the paper focuses on students' misconceptions regarding concurrency in Sonic Pi and compares them to those arising in traditional concurrent programming languages. In addition, it preliminarily explores knowledge transfer from Sonic Pi to C/C++. The approach has been applied in two teaching experiments with undergraduate students in our University involving 184 participants. Our investigations bring out the need to address misconceptions through targeted interventions for a clear understanding of concurrent programming concepts. Sonic Pi's simplified abstraction and domain-specific flavor has demonstrated to be effective, especially for first-year students.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has undergone considerable advancement in the contemporary period and represents an emerging technology in higher education. Cultural contexts significantly shape individuals' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, particularly in the realm of technology acceptance. By adopting a cross-cultural lens, this research explores the potential variations across Chinese and international students from diverse countries in terms of attitudes and their behavioral intentions toward AI use. With a technology acceptance model (TAM) framework, the research used a survey approach, employing questionnaires as the primary means of data collection. The data were then analyzed through structural equation modeling and descriptive statistics. A substantial discrepancy was found in the prevalence, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward AI use between Chinese and international students. Findings further revealed a stronger effect of perceived ease of use on both attitudes and behavioral intentions among international students compared with their Chinese counterparts. Findings suggest that cultural backgrounds and prior technological exposure play intricate roles in shaping perceptions of AI technology. The study emphasizes the need for tailored educational strategies to regulate diverse cultural perspectives, provide language-specific support, and ensure user-friendly interfaces. These insights contribute to the evolving discourse on technology acceptance in higher education and offer practical implications for educators and institutions toward optimizing AI integration in pedagogical practices.

Previous studies have revealed some ambiguity regarding the role of research in teacher education and teachers 'use of research in their profession. In view of this, a research project was started in 2019 with the aim of developing a connection between research and practice through a popular scientific approach. Student teachers create video pitches and didactic materials based on their master's theses to transfer knowledge to the school community. The current study investigates how teachers perceived student teachers 'scientific master's theses when they are communicated in a popular scientific way. Ten Finnish primary school teachers were interviewed in 2022 and 2023, and the data was analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings show that the teachers found the student teachers ' popular scientific materials to be beneficial to the teachers 'own learning, the development of students 'digital competence and the recruitment of new teachers. The teachers also noted that the student teachers 'materials were more accessible than traditional theses, but they identified the need for further developments in the platform, material quality and practical application. Based on these results, we suggest that educational research should develop formats for dissemination and knowledge transfer that are more applicable to teachers in their daily practice.

The current study aimed to gain insight into the nuanced challenges that Vietnamese learners encountered due to the interference of their native linguistic structures and norms. This qualitative study explored the experiences of Vietnamese learners in acquiring English, focusing on the influence of negative L1 transfer. This study focused on the influence of negative transfer from their first language (L1) by drawing upon in-depth interviews and observational data from a group of Vietnamese university students. The results showed that despite exhibiting high levels of motivation and enthusiasm for learning English, Vietnamese learners struggled with the shadows of L1 interference in areas such as pronunciation, syntax, and idiomatic expressions. The tonal nature of the Vietnamese language led to intonation patterns in English that deviated from native norms. Direct translations also contributed to unidiomatic English, indicating a deep influence of L1 thought patterns. Additionally, cultural contexts embedded within the Vietnamese language presented challenges, as some concepts and expressions lacked direct English equivalents. Although students faced various obstacles, they utilized a variety of adaptive techniques to lessen the impact of negative transfer. These techniques included code-switching, peer correction, and self-reflection. The study emphasized the significance of recognizing and comprehending the significant role of L1 when creating English language educational programs and teaching techniques for Vietnamese students. By illuminating the specific challenges and adaptive strategies of these learners, educators could personalize their approaches, leading to a more comprehensive and efficacious language-learning atmosphere.

Previous research has shown that L1-L2 congruency is a facilitative factor in collocation processing. The present study explores the congruency effect between learners' L2 and L3. Thirty-three proficient Norwegian learners with Lithuanian as their L1 and English as their L2 completed a phase acceptability task consisting of three groups of Norwegian collocations: congruent with L2, congruent with both L1 and L2, and incongruent with both. The results revealed that collocation L2-L3 congruency facilitates collocation processing.

Higher education plays a vital role in developing lifelong core competencies that empower graduates to thrive amidst technological and economic disruptions. This article proposes that higher cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, and digital literacy are key competencies that promote transferable skills applicable across diverse industries and markets. It provides recommendations for how the higher education community can strategically cultivate these timeless yet critical competencies while also leveraging innovations like artificial intelligence (AI). The University of Louisiana System's core competencies initiative demonstrates a framework outlining essential skills for lifelong success. As jobs rapidly evolve with advancing AI, adaptability becomes key, and core competencies ready graduates for new challenges by developing transportable human strengths. By upholding core competencies while innovating, higher education can fulfill its vital purpose of empowering students to define their own success despite disruption.

The relationship between tutoring and teaching has been a recurrent topic of interest among writing center directors and writing program administrators. While scholarship agrees tutoring experience aids composition teachers with implementing process pedagogy and fostering a collaborative classroom, the relationship between tutoring and assessment of student writing is less clear. This qualitative study uses interviews with eight graduate teaching assistants with tutoring experience to examine how they transfer and juxtapose knowledge, practices, and values for response between the writing center and the classroom. Like previous scholarship, this research finds writing center tutoring contributes to teachers' enactment of constructivist, student-centered pedagogy and enhances their understanding of students' relationship to writing and feedback, standard language ideology, and systemic inequities in education. However, evaluation led these instructors to experience tension between their values and preferred respondent roles, with many reporting anxious grading processes and some experimenting with alternatives to traditional grading. The article concludes with suggestions to build bridges between tutoring and teaching contexts, particularly through explicit attention to antiracist pedagogy and alternative assessment practices.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of short virtual reality (VR) exercises on knowledge retention for adult learners at a contractor safety training organisation supporting the energy industry who took computer-based training (CBT) courses. The intent was to simulate a delay period similar to that experienced by contractors who support work in the energy industry to determine if traditional CBT can be made more effective for stimulating greater transfer of learning with the addition of VR exercises. The experimental group was exposed to CBTs augmented by VR exercises that reinforced the CBT course learning objectives. The control group for this research took the same CBT course without short VR exercises. A quantitative analysis was performed on data collected from a course exam provided immediately after the course delivery and from a separate follow-up quiz delivered 3 days after the course(s) completion. Data from these testing instruments were analysed to determine the participant's likelihood of remembering content from the CBT courses and if there was greater knowledge retention of the course learning objectives and procedures within the experimental group than within the control group. The results found a non-statistically significant relationship between the two groups; however, trends between the groups show that there are benefits for transfer of learning when using short VR exercises compared to those groups without short VR exercises.

Student-generated videos (SGVs) are gaining popularity and have been increasingly incorporated into undergraduate curricula in many disciplines. Through the creation of their own educational digital videos, students learn course content and transferrable skills. However, the use of SGVs in anatomy and physiology (A&P) is virtually undocumented. In this mixed-methods study, students in online and face-to-face A&P courses independently created short videos about relevant physiological phenomena. The results indicate that perceived and actual learning, as well as enjoyment, were positively impacted by the creation of the SGVs. Though it was not required, students watched their peers' videos over 12,000 times in the online course and over 1,100 times in the face-to-face course. These findings demonstrate the value of SGVs in the A&P lecture classroom for the first time.

Although the issue of learning transfer has been given much attention in English-for-academic-purposes (EAP) research, the factor of transfer climate could be investigated further. The current study examines what the instructors of EAP perceive can be done to prepare students for the transfer climate. The transfer climate refers to the nature of the target context of instruction and the support for learning transfer perceived by a learner in that target context (Burke & Baldwin, 1999). The target context in EAP education is the discipline courses that students take alongside or after EAP courses. The transfer climate may be supportive or unsupportive depending on whether such discipline courses accommodate for students' transfer of EAP skills. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 22 EAP instructors and, subsequently, three of them were observed to see what actually happens in their EAP courses (Borg, 2015). The findings outline eight steps that can be taken to prepare students for the transfer climate, seven within EAP courses, and one within discipline courses. From what was observed, few of the steps that participants mentioned in the interviews were actually implemented in the classes. Both practical implications and implications for future research are outlined.

While acquiring a second language, learners may encounter challenges and difficulties in effectively carrying out verbal communication in the second language. Mastering the apology speech act is a challenge for L2 learners. The objective of this study is to identify the apology strategies utilized by individuals learning the Japanese language, as well as the specific types and underlying causes of errors produced during the execution of apologetic speech acts. The results of this study were gathered via the Discourse Completion Test (DCT), which encompassed a sample of 150 Japanese language learners. The gathered data were further classified using eight semantic formulas based on the research conducted by Haristiani and Sopiyanti (2019), while the various types and sources of error categorization were conducted based on the theories proposed by Corder (1981) and Richards (1975). The results of this study suggest that Japanese learners utilize the same primary strategies in apology speech acts. Furthermore, the study findings indicated that learners at the intermediate level displayed a higher frequency of errors in their speech compared to learners at the beginner levels and pre-intermediate levels, particularly in the strategy of taking responsibility. The main reason for this was primarily a lack of familiarity with the conventions of sentence structures, the proper use of language, and the appropriate use of expressions. The other sources of errors in language learning are likely to be ignoring language rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, the learner's false hypothesis, overgeneralization, and language transfer. This study is anticipated to function as a point of reference for research in interlanguage pragmatics, second-language acquisition, and error analysis. Gaining comprehension of the various problems and difficulties encountered when performing the speech act of apology in Japanese can assist both learners and educators in reducing these errors.

The objectives of this research were to study (1) the development of knowledge on the aesthetics of Lam in Ubon Style, and (2) the process of transferring knowledge to inherit the performing arts of Molam Morlam-Ruang-Tor-Klon in Ubon style. Data from documents and fieldwork were analyzed and presented using descriptive analysis. The results showed that there are developments and changes according to the eras, divided into the old era before 1937, a few numbers of performers; the changing era into theatrical performance; the modern Morlam era brought popular musical instruments to play; and the current Morlam era, in which light and sound technology is used to help in the performance of three aspects of aesthetics: melody, poetry, and aesthetics of singing techniques. Regarding the process of transferring knowledge, the results indicated that two national artists have provided knowledge by practicing the performing arts in singing, dancing, and poetic gestures. Improvements are made in each area to enhance learners' skills development. The study provides significant insight and implications for developing learners' skills in performing arts at home.

Service-Learning (SL) is a powerful methodology to acquire competences and values in Higher Education. However, there is still no widespread use in Information and Computer Science (ICS) degrees where most of the subjects are focused on the development of theoretical and practical contents purely related to technical competences. In this paper, we show the structure of a SL methodology to develop Bachelor's Thesis: 1) definition of proposals considering all the competencies of the Bachelor's Thesis subject and the needs of entities; 2) development of applications using agile methodologies, and 3) assessment of the SL experience from students, entities and professors. We present an experience developed in the 2019/2020 academic year with two entities devoted to disfavoured people. The results show both the high technical and professional quality of the projects and the high satisfaction of entities and students. We hope that the development of applications with the collaboration of non-profit entities allows the acquisition of both specific and transversal competencies on ICS degrees at the same time enhancing the development of useful professional ones.

This study connects to an ongoing discussion about the limits and affordances of simulators as realistic and relevant contexts for professional learning, in this case in the development of visual expertise. Earlier studies of simulator-based maritime pilot training conclude that there are risks associated with so-called negative skills transfer due to a lack of photorealism in simulator environments. The aim of this study is to carefully examine how visual expertise develops in and through training in a simulated environment. Through a practice-based approach to the development of visual expertise, and by using qualitative interaction analysis of video recorded training sessions, the analytical focus is directed towards maritime pilot trainees' talk about imperfections and inconsistencies in the virtual environment during exercises in a high-fidelity bridge simulator. Considering the multi-layered nature of the maritime pilot's visual expertise, findings show that the maritime pilots in training noticed and adapted to the specific methodological and technological challenges when manoeuvring a simulated vessel. During such reflection-in-action, they also commented on and explored the differences between, navigating in a simulator, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, navigating on board a ship. Instead of concluding that there is a risk for negative skills transfer that follows from the differences between the two contexts of navigating, we argue that the challenges introduced by representations encountered when training in a virtual environment may add to the expertise of the trainees and lead to enriched conceptual, methodological, and technical knowledge regarding the specificities of visually demanding and ambiguous navigation situations. In this way, this study contributes to advance our understanding of learning in virtual environments to the frontline of learning research.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the reciprocal teaching strategy on the academic performance of student-teachers enrolled in the Higher Professional Diploma (HDE) program at Ajman University, United Arab Emirates. The study adopts a quasi-experimental design, employing pre- and post-tests and a control-experimental group configuration. The sample comprises 80 student-teachers selected from Ajman University during the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023. An academic achievement test in a multiple-choice format serves as the research instrument. The study's outcomes reveal noteworthy differences, indicating significant mean variations in the post-test scores between the experimental and control groups, favoring the control group in the context of the Reciprocal Teaching strategy. These results hold implications for international students, prompting considerations about the transferability and generalizability of teaching strategies across diverse cultural and educational settings. The findings suggest the broad effectiveness of the reciprocal teaching method, emphasizing the necessity of aligning teaching strategies with international students' specific needs and preferences. The research underscores the importance of tailoring teaching approaches to meet the unique requirements of a diverse cohort of global learners. It suggests that reciprocal teaching demonstrates efficacy across varied groups of international students, emphasizing the importance for instructors to select instructional methods that cater to the distinct needs of their diverse international student body.

Current theories about learning a second language might not fully explain why people want to learn languages other than English (LOTE) in the context of globalization and multilingualism. This study adopted and adjusted Huang's (2021) motivational dimensions for LOTE learners, specifically focusing on those who learn LOTE as a third language (L3), as is common in Thailand. It aimed to explore the motivations of 167 Thai students in higher education when choosing to study Japanese, using a questionnaire and a focus group. The findings indicate that Culture/Community Interest and Instrumentality-Promotion significantly influence motivation. On the other hand, Instrumentality-Prevention and Intended Learning Effort are closely related and exhibit the least influence. The findings also showed that students' motivations change depending on their year of study. Third- and fourth-year students valued practical benefits the most, while second-year students were more interested in the culture and community of the target language. In addition, the research also examined students' perceptions of multilingual learning. This research helps educators, linguists, and policymakers understand why students want to study Japanese and to create effective teaching strategies tailored to students' interests.

The cybersecurity threat landscape evolves quickly, continually, and consequentially. This means that the "transfer" of cybersecurity learning is crucial. We compared how different recognized "cognitive" transfer theories might help explain and synergize three aspects of cybersecurity education. These include "teaching and training" in diverse settings, "assessing learning" formatively & summatively, and "testing & measuring" achievement, proficiency, & readiness. We excluded newer sociocultural theories and their implications for inclusion as we explore those theories elsewhere. We first summarized the history of cybersecurity education and proficiency standards considering transfer theories. We then explored each theory and reviewed the most relevant cybersecurity education research; in some cases, we broadened our search to computing education. We concluded that (a) archaic "differential" transfer theories are still influential but have negative implications to be avoided, (b) "constructionist" theories are popular in K-12 settings but raise issues for assessment and transfer, (c) many embrace a "general cognitive science perspective" that can resolve tensions between modern "cognitive-associationist" and "cognitive-constructivist" theories that are popular with innovators, and (d) new "perceptual" and "coordinative" theories have potential worth exploring. These insights should support "generative" cybersecurity learning that transfers readily and widely to future classes, tests, and workplaces. These insights should be beneficial when designing and using cyber "ranges" and other hyper-realistic simulations, where transfer assumptions inform costly design decisions and undergird the validity of performance as evidence of proficiency.

Transformer-based models for transfer learning have the potential to achieve high prediction accuracies on text-based supervised learning tasks with relatively few training data instances. These models are thus likely to benefit social scientists that seek to have as accurate as possible text-based measures, but only have limited resources for annotating training data. To enable social scientists to leverage these potential benefits for their research, this article explains how these methods work, why they might be advantageous, and what their limitations are. Additionally, three Transformer-based models for transfer learning, BERT, RoBERTa, and the Longformer, are compared to conventional machine learning algorithms on three applications. Across all evaluated tasks, textual styles, and training data set sizes, the conventional models are consistently outperformed by transfer learning with Transformers, thereby demonstrating the benefits these models can bring to text-based social science research.

Supporting nontraditional students within the student lifecycle is one of the major challenges faced by urban universities. This study presents a pedagogical intervention in which a group of Hispanic students participated in an engaged learning project with a bilingual newspaper. Findings indicate that this project motivated students to complete their degree, helped them develop transferrable skills, led to higher academic engagement, and increased their sense of belonging to the local Hispanic community. These results highlight the importance of engaged learning as one of the tangible tools teachers can use to support nontraditional and minority students in urban tertiary institutions.

This research aims to expand our understanding of how to facilitate student feedback engagement processes in a computer-based formative assessment environment. In the present research, we designed a new type of elaborated feedback in terms of combining the correct solution and the erroneous solution, and the erroneous solution matched the student's initial answer. Furthermore, we analyzed whether this feedback had a stronger positive effect than the other three types of feedback containing different complexities of correct information (i.e., "Knowledge of Correct Response", "Problem-Solving Cues", or "Complete Correct Solutions"). As predicted, students who received correct and erroneous solutions experienced more positive feedback perceptions, perceived lower extraneous cognitive load and higher germane cognitive load, and achieved higher transfer performance. This research is one of the first that provides empirical evidence for the positive impact of incorporating students' errors into the feedback design, and this novel insight can extend current theories on how to optimize feedback design to promote students' active processing and use of feedback.

Comparison is an important mechanism for learning in general, and comparing two worked examples has garnered support over the last 15 years as an effective tool for learning algebra in mainstream classrooms. This study was aimed at improving our understanding of how Modified for Language Support-Worked Example Pairs (MLS-WEPs) contribute to effective mathematics learning in an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) context. It investigated a novel instructional approach to help English Learners (ELs) develop better understanding in mathematical reasoning, problem solving, and literacy skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking). Findings suggest that MLS-WEPs not only enhanced ELs' ability to solve algebra problems, but it also improved their written explanation skills and enabled them to transfer such skills to different mathematical concepts. Moreover, when controlling for ELs' prior knowledge, the effectiveness of the MLS-WEPs intervention for performing and explaining calculations did not vary by their English proficiency.

The study examines a corpus of 306 request emails written by 32 English-speaking (ES) teachers and 121 L2 learners from distinctive L1 backgrounds (i.e., Chinese, French, Spanish) and with different levels of L2 proficiency. Pragmatic competence is analyzed through the coding of direct and indirect request strategies used in formal and informal email writing. Findings reveal the influences of communicative situation, L1 background, and L2 proficiency on pragmatic competence in email writing. First, L2 learners show a significantly lower degree of situational variability compared with ES teachers. Second, L1 backgrounds have a significant impact on L2 writing performance. Third, L2 learners with higher English proficiency tend to use more indirect request strategies, but they have not developed pragmatic competence to adjust their usage across written contexts. Findings are discussed in relation to pedagogical implications for developing writing competence of L2 learners, which should be attuned to diverse rhetorical expectations and individual needs.

This study addresses the issue of preference for natural versus synthetic products in different contexts, specifically food, medicines, and cosmetics. Participants were 52 students aged 14-15 years from two schools. We analysed the choices and justifications offered by 28 students from one of the schools before and after receiving an instructional module (nine 60-minute lessons over three weeks) focused on decision-making about natural and processed foods. The goal of instruction was not to guide them towards a particular preference (natural or processed foods) but rather to enable them to make well-reasoned and more scientifically-informed decisions. Transfer of learning to the contexts of medicines and cosmetics was also examined. The responses of students in this experimental group were compared with those of 24 comparison students from the other school who did not receive the instruction. Results suggested that the teaching received by the comparison group (based solely on the standard science curriculum in Spain) does not encourage students to abandon assumptions regarding the inherent superiority of natural products, or to justify their preferences in ways that may be considered "on-target" with respect to the secondary-level science curriculum. By contrast, a shift towards more scientifically informed choices and reasoning was observed following participation in the instructional module. However, there was limited evidence of transfer of learning from the food context to the other two contexts considered. Only in the medicines context did the experimental group show minor improvements at post-test, suggesting that students perceive greater similarity between food and medicines than between food and cosmetics.

Graduates require employability competences, such as flexibility and team working skills, to gain and maintain employment. Online learning platforms (OLPs) can provide students with resources for reflection, which is a key competence for employability. However, little is known about the design of OLPs meant to provide reflective practices that foster students' employability competences. This research study aims to identify design principles of OLPs providing reflective practices that foster the development of employability competences. Five design principles were derived from thematic analysis following two focus group interviews with students and educational experts in this qualitative study: (1) Embed the OLP in curricular and institutional activities that foster competence development; (2) Facilitate the analysis of students' current state regarding employability competences; (3) Provide recommendations and a repository with learning activities that help students to formulate goals and plan activities; (4) Facilitate the undertaking and recording of learning activities, supported by a blend of three forms of interaction (instructor-student; student-student or student-content); and (5) Foster reflection in and on action via opportunities for applying newly learned knowledge in different settings and reviewing activities via reflective journaling and knowledge sharing. This study is the first to conceptualise design principles for an OLP that is organised to provide reflective practices for the development of employability competences. The design principles were based on students' and teachers' experiences and are grounded in theory. They can inform future research as well as practitioners developing OLPs.

International universities often promote inclusive learning environments to aid their sojourners' social integration and improve their well-being. However, little is known about how social experiences with inclusion and integration (SEII) unfold for international PhD candidates in Dutch research universities (DRUs). This study uses the narratives of twenty IPCs to understand the factors that play a role in their SEII in a DRU. Findings suggest that nine factors may define SEII among the participants. Two factors--prior experiences in an ILE and identity in PhD role--played a role in participants' early SEII, while seven factors played a role in participants' early and later SEII. These included IPCs' social participation level, intercultural interaction dynamics, shared language adaptation, cultural events, university's international campus climate, social support, and perceived prejudice and stereotypes. IPCs and their international universities should align expectations to promote an inclusive social climate to foster social integration of IPCs.

We investigated the role of cue weighting, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 daily exposure in L2 learning of suprasegmentals different from the first language (L1), using eye-tracking. Spanish monolinguals, English-Spanish learners, and Mandarin--Spanish learners saw a paroxytone and an oxytone verb (e.g., "FIRma-firMÓ" "s/he signs-signed"), listened to a sentence containing one of the verbs, and chose the one that they heard. The three languages have contrastive lexical stress, but suprasegmentals have a greater functional load in Mandarin than in English. Monolinguals predicted suffixes accurately with both stress conditions and favored oxytones, but learners predicted suffixes accurately only with oxytones, the condition activating fewer lexical competitors. Monolinguals predicted suffixes accurately sooner but at a slower rate than did learners. L2 proficiency, but not L1 or L2 exposure, facilitated L2 predictions. In conclusion, learners of a contrastive-stress L1 rely on L2 suprasegmentals to the same extent as monolinguals, regardless of their L1. Lower L2 proficiency and higher cognitive load (more lexical competitors) reduce learners' reliance on suprasegmentals.

Despite the widely recognized importance of metacognition in language learning, relatively few empirical studies have investigated the role of metacognitive strategies with a cross-linguistic perspective. Drawing on the mixed-method design combining questionnaire and interview data, this study systematically investigated the effects, the transfer potential, and the cross-language facilitation of metacognitive strategies between L1 and L2 contexts. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and multigroup analysis results revealed that metacognitive strategies afforded a more prominent predictive role in English (L2) writing than in Chinese (L1) writing; such strategy use transferred between the two writing contexts, which kept invariant between lower- and higher- L2 proficiency groups and between English and non-English major groups; and there was a cross-language facilitation effect of L1 writing metacognitive strategies on L2 writing performance via the mediation of L2 writing metacognitive strategies. Complementary to the quantitative results, the qualitative interview data was analyzed to provide deep insights into the participating students' metacognitive strategy use in the two task-situated writing. Findings are extensively discussed to offer theoretical and pedagogical implications in this domain.

Mixed-reality simulation (MRS) is a new and advanced technology implemented in Educator Preparation Programs (EPP) across the United States. However, more research is needed on the effectiveness of MRS in EPPs and its impact on beginning teacher candidates. This study sought to determine the effect of teacher candidates after utilizing MRS and its impact on acquiring teaching pedagogical skills. Forty-five surveys collected from teacher candidates revealed two themes: the beneficial experience of MRS in an EPP and technology concerns.

Transfer of learning is an important goal of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) education where multilingual students learn knowledge and skills of academic literacy to use in other contexts of writing. Despite the importance of learning transfer in EAP, it does not often take place without mindful teaching for transfer. EAP teachers should make active efforts to help students shape the habit of transfer thinking and experience successful transfer while taking EAP courses. This action research aims at promoting learning transfer by designing and implementing pedagogical tools guided by the notion of "high road transfer": (a) transfer guideline, (b) transfer feedback, (c) transfer journals, and (d) transfer imagination activity. The teaching for transfer innovation lasted over the 16-week semester in the target course where multilingual students, who use English as a second/foreign language, learned skills (e.g., how to design PowerPoint slides using different modes of communication, critical reading, source-use skills, synthesizing, finding sources, revising, editing, and reference style) and knowledge of writing (e.g., multimodality and rhetorical situation). Each pedagogical tool was implemented in the classroom so that students maintain their awareness of the importance of learning transfer while taking the target course. Overall, the teaching for the transfer project had positive impacts on articulating what students learn from the target course, leading to actual transfer of learning to other contexts of writing. Future pedagogical directions for promoting learning transfer in EAP are discussed.

Purpose: There is limited research on the writing of young Spanish-English bilinguals and their writing in both languages. In the current study, we addressed whether written syntax features differed by language (English and Spanish) and varied as a function of grade level, English learner status, and instructional program (dual or English immersion). We also examined whether Spanish and English syntax features were related cross-linguistically and related to writing quality within languages and whether these relations to writing quality were moderated by grade level, English learner status, and instructional program. Method: We examined written syntax features of Spanish and English essays by simultaneous and emergent bilinguals in Grades 1, 2, and 3 in either Spanish-English dual immersion or English immersion instruction in the United States (N = 278). Essays were scored for quality and evaluated for mean length of T-units, number of verbs, number of noun agreement words, and number of subject agreement words accurately conjugated. Results: Written syntax features significantly differed by language and varied as a function of grade level, English learner status, and instructional program. Grades 2 and 3 wrote longer utterances, more verbs, and greater noun agreement accuracy than Grade 1. Syntax features were related to writing quality within languages, but Spanish relations were weaker for English learners than non-English learners and for dual immersion students than English immersion students. Conclusion: Our findings suggest written syntax features may be useful for evaluation of English-Spanish simultaneous and emergent bilinguals' writing.

A major focus of innovation in higher education today is to improve faculty teaching, especially their focus on students' career readiness and acquisition of workplace-relevant communication and teamwork competencies (i.e., transferable skills). Some contend that such instruction is best achieved through hiring faculty with prior work experience in industry, where the "culture" is preferable to academia where practical skills and career guidance are undervalued. However, little research exists on the topic and in this study we draw on person-centered views of culture to conceptualize industry experience as a form of cultural knowledge (i.e., cultural scripts) that can travel with a person (or not) over time and space. Using a mixed methods design where we gathered survey (n = 1,140) and interview (n = 89) data from STEMM faculty, we used thematic and HLM techniques to explore the relationships among industry experience, various situational factors, and transferable skills instruction. Results show that while most had industry experience (76.2%), transferable skills are rarely emphasized, a variety of individual (e.g., race) and institutional (e.g., discipline) factors are associated with transferable skills instruction, and that industry experience provides both generalized and specific cultural scripts for career- and skills-oriented teaching. We conclude that instead of promoting skills-focused instructional innovations via hiring policies that assume the value of one institutional culture over another, it is more useful and respectful (to faculty) to teach industry-based cultural knowledge via faculty development programming in a way similar to work-integrated learning (WIL) and communication in the disciplines (CID) initiatives.

The last decade witnessed a spectacular rise in the volume of available textual data. With this new abundance came the question of how to analyze it. In the social sciences, scholars mostly resorted to two well-established approaches, human annotation on sampled data on the one hand (either performed by the researcher, or outsourced to microworkers), and quantitative methods on the other. Each approach has its own merits -- a potentially very fine-grained analysis for the former, a very scalable one for the latter -- but the combination of these two properties has not yielded highly accurate results so far. Leveraging recent advances in sequential transfer learning, we demonstrate via an experiment that an expert can train a precise, efficient automatic classifier in a very limited amount of time. We also show that, under certain conditions, expert-trained models produce better annotations than humans themselves. We demonstrate these points using a classic research question in the sociology of journalism, the rise of a "horse race" coverage of politics. We conclude that recent advances in transfer learning help us augment ourselves when analyzing unstructured data.

This interdisciplinary paper brings together scholarship from the fields of education, psychology, sociology and performance to shed light on three pedagogy and learning strategies to support learners recontextualise knowledge between higher education and work contexts. These strategies include offering multiple different types of performance activities and modes of engagement with different types of people (learners/experts, different cultures, ages, etc.). Secondly, it provides spaces to fail and enables testing of personal strategies with limited risk. Finally, it supports students in connecting ideas and experiences from the past, across educational experiences of different performance practices and into wider contexts such as professional work. The research, which is a pilot, recognises the ways in which these strategies align with and operationalise Guile's (2010) concept of recontextualisation, offering pedagogues tools to support learning in a similar way in which the concept of scaffolding might be seen to operationalise Vygotsky's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This pilot study uses semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis approach with five graduates from an undergraduate drama degree programme in London. We recognise drama as a practical degree subject and as such consider our findings as generalisable to wider practical fields and disciplines, such as engineering and nursing education, and as having international relevance. The work offers a novel approach to conceptualising and evaluating the ways in which students deploy taught knowledge beyond the classroom, in work. It offers and augments arguments around the ways in which students bridge practice and learning from within the HEI and beyond it.

Background: Research on cognitive effects of educational games in general shows promising results. However, there are large variations in learning outcomes between individual educational games. Research on the design process and different design elements of educational games has led to some interesting directions, but some design aspects remain unclear. Objectives: We examined how an educational game designed on the basis of intrinsic integration theory, based on a strong alignment between game and learning goals, supports the learning of Newtonian mechanics. Methods: This study applied a mixed-methods approach (N = 223). A pre- and post-test design was used to examine possible learning and transfer effects fostered by playing the educational game, Newton's Race. To examine how players played the game, log data for each player were digitally recorded during gameplay. Results and Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated a significant positive learning effect of Newton's Race (p = 0.003, d = 0.201). This can be explained through the acquired log data. Log data show that players' gameplay mostly matched expected learning during the game, with physically correct game settings occurring more and more as gameplay progressed. The ability to transfer learned knowledge to other situations was shown to be limited to situations closely resembling the game environment. Implications: Similarly, designed intrinsically integrated games on different (physics) subjects could also foster learning in a relative short time. To foster transfer to other situations we propose embedding the game within other instructional activities.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) offers significant potential for hands-on learning environments by providing immersive and visually stimulating experiences. Interacting with such environments can bring numerous benefits to learning, including enhanced engagement, knowledge construction, and higher-order thinking. However, many current VR studies in hands-on learning tend to utilise one-way learning materials, limiting participants' ability to interact with and reflect on their actions and learning experiences. Moreover, these studies often neglect to assess learners' capacity to transfer their skills from VR learning to real-world scenarios. Therefore, this study aims to investigate participants' engagement, learning outcomes, higher-order thinking, and their ability to apply acquired skills in real-world contexts. Method and Objective: Participants were immersed in a hands-on learning environment in VR, where they received feedback and engaged in reflection during the learning process. This study recruited 68 university students to participate in the experiment, employing a quasi-experimental design. Participants experienced learning units both with and without reflection on the feedback. The theme of these learning units was related to embedded systems, encompassing topics such as the assembly of embedded components and Python programming. The investigation aimed to assess whether reflection in VR could enhance cognitive levels, engagement, real-world hands-on tasks abilities, and higher-order thinking. Results: The research results indicate that in the VR hands-on learning environment, participants engage in reflection through the provided feedback, effectively enhancing their engagement, cognitive levels, and hands-on task abilities. Simultaneously, it also successfully assists participants in developing problem-solving skills and critical thinking in higher-order thinking. Conclusions: Participants actively engaged in reflection on their own learning tasks and actions within the hands-on learning environment, enabling them to develop a deeper understanding of the learning material and enhance their real-world hands-on tasks abilities, we encourage the integration of reflection strategies in VR learning environments for hands-on learning, as they can yield positive benefits for learners.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of Storytelling Narrated Videos (SNV) on students' knowledge retention and transferability. A total of 56 students from a university in Indonesia were randomly assigned to a quasi-experimental research design exposed to SNV and to Lecture Narrated Videos (LNV). Two videos were created to deliver content on Bloom's Taxonomy, one using a lecture-style format and the other adopting a storytelling approach. Data were collected through tests, questionnaires, and essays. The findings revealed that participants exposed to SNV had higher retention memory scores, indicating a positive impact on knowledge retention compared to those who watched LNV. Moreover, the storytelling videos facilitated cognitive skill progression, enhanced understanding through engaging visuals, and fostered a strong connection with a familiar narrator, resulting in a more dynamic and memorable learning experience. The study also examined knowledge transfer and found that participants who watched the storytelling videos performed better in applying Bloom's Taxonomy concepts to planning teaching objectives in the essay test. This suggests that the incorporation of storytelling narration and promoting transfer knowledge activities can enhance students' understanding, retention, and practical application of the learned material. Overall, the findings highlight the potential of incorporating storytelling in narrated videos to improve students' knowledge retention, transferability, and engagement in educational settings.

Internationalization policy in higher education facilitates a nation's economic growth and demonstrates generosity to other nations. This study investigates the impact of the International Higher Education Scholarship Program of the International Cooperation and Development Fund on recipients' perceptions of and experiences in Taiwan. Based on the management, education, medical science, and engineering programs of four case study universities, it finds attitudinal changes, increased intercultural competence, and signs of institution transfer and knowledge network formation. Socialization has fostered scholarship holders' cultural affinity and shared identity with Taiwan. As higher education institutions promote knowledge sharing and cultural diffusion, international students are also a nexus of cultural diplomacy, the attractions of which are more conspicuous than knowledge diplomacy's benefits. The empirical evidence of this study helps delineate theoretical frameworks of diplomacy in international higher education. Its longitudinal observation of alumni career trajectories can enrich cross-sectional evaluation.

As one type of the most extensively used sentences, English questions are must-learn grammatical structures for learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). However, it is commonly seen that English learners across proficiency levels produce ungrammatical English questions. To determine the source of learners' erroneous production, we conducted a written test to collect hands-on data of four types of English questions produced by 81 Chinese EFL preliminary learners. Learners' achievement scores showed that learners from both higher and lower proficiency groups had similar difficulty producing questions. The statistics also showed morphosyntactic inconsistencies in learners' production were congregating on auxiliaries' choice and tense variation. Cross-linguistic transfer from first language (L1) in English question acquisition for Chinese EFL learners was measured against the three dimensions of Jarvis' (2000) methodological model. Influence from learners' L1 was found to be related to preliminary learners' morphosyntactic inconsistencies. The findings suggest that practitioners in an EFL context should raise learners' grammatical consciousness, and design production-oriented tasks, to improve learners' morphosyntactic accuracy in English question formation.