The impact of peer competition and collaboration on gamified learning performance in educational settings: a Meta-analytical study

Education and Information Technologies - This study is a meta-analytical study that examines the effectiveness of gamification in learning performance in educational settings (n = 29;...     

Graduate employability as a professional proto-jurisdiction in higher education

Higher Education - Much research into how universities seek to support their students’ graduate employability has focused on academic strategies such as graduate attributes and...     

Microfluidic fabrication of water-in-water (w/w) jets and emulsions

We demonstrate the generation of water-in-water (w/w) jets and emulsions by combining droplet microfluidics and aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS). The application of ATPS in microfluidics has been hampered by the low interfacial tension between typical aqueous phases. The low tension makes it difficult to form w/w droplets with conventional droplet microfluidic approaches. We show that by mechanically perturbing a stable w/w jet, w/w emulsions can be prepared in a controlled and reproducible fashion. We also characterize the encapsulation ability of w/w emulsions and demonstrate that their encapsulation efficiency can be significantly enhanced by inducing formation of precipitates and gels at the w/w interfaces. Our work suggests a biologically and environmentally friendly platform for droplet microfluidics and establishes the potential of w/w droplet microfluidics for encapsulation-related applications.     

Transfer of reading-related cognitive skills in learning to read Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among Chinese elementary school children

This study investigated transfer of reading-related cognitive skills between learning to read Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among Chinese children in Hong Kong. Fifty-three Grade 2 students were tested on word reading, phonological, orthographic and rapid naming skills in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). The major findings were: (a) significant correlations between Chinese and English measures in phonological awareness and rapid naming, but not in orthographic skills; (b) significant unique contribution of Chinese and English rapid naming skills and English rhyme awareness for predicting Chinese word reading after controlling for all the Chinese and English cognitive measures; (c) significant unique contribution of English phonological skills and Chinese orthographic skills (a negative one) for predicting English word reading after controlling for all the English and Chinese cognitive measures; and (d) significant unique contribution of Chinese rhyme awareness for predicting English phonemic awareness. These findings provide initial evidence that developing reading-related cognitive skills in English may have facilitative effects on Chinese word reading development. They also suggest that Chinese orthographic skills or tactics may not be helpful for learning to read English words among ESL learners; and that Chinese rhyme awareness facilitates the development of English phonemic awareness which is an essential skill predicting ESL learning.     

Gender differences in instrumental learning among secondary school students in Hong Kong

This paper examines the extent of gender differences, and discusses the role of gender in musical instrument learning. It focuses on the collective instrumental experiences of 1493 Chinese students (774 boys and 719 girls attending grades 7–13) within Western and non‐Western musical traditions in Hong Kong. The discussion draws attention to gender differences in the learning of Chinese and Western musical instruments, in musical interest and instrumental learning, and in the reasons why students learn or do not learn musical instruments. The paper argues that, while female and male students exhibit different attitudes towards the types of instruments learnt, significant correlations exist between their interest in music and parental support for their instrumental learning. Gender is brought to the fore by the pedagogical actions of the teacher, the mass media and by parental efforts to reduce gender bias and stereotypes through school, public and family education.     

An improved design strategy for approximation-based adaptive event-triggered tracking of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems

This paper presents an improved adaptive design strategy for neural-network-based event-triggered tracking of uncertain strict-feedback nonlinear systems. An adaptive tracking scheme based on state variables transmitted from the sensor-to-controller channel is designed via only single neural network function approximator, regardless of unknown nonlinearities unmatched in the control input. Contrary to the existing multiple-function-approximators-based event-triggered backstepping control results with multiple triggering conditions dependent on all error surfaces, the proposed scheme only requires one triggering condition using a tracking error and thus can overcome the problem of the existing results that all virtual controllers with multiple function approximators should be computed in the sensor part. This leads to achieve the structural simplicity of the proposed event-triggered tracker in the presence of unmatched and unknown nonlinearities. Using the impulsive system approach and the error transformation technique, it is shown that all the signals of the closed-loop system are bounded and the tracking error is bounded within pre-designable time-varying bounds in the Lyapunov sense.     

Myth of the Inferior Status of Vocational Education: The Case of Hong Kong

Abstract

In this article, factors contributing to the poor perceptions and inferior status of vocational education in Hong Kong are discussed. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed as the methodology in examining the discursive construction of vocational education in the policy context. A total of five policy documents published between 1970 and 2015 are included. Our findings show that the socioeconomic transformation of Hong Kong in recent decades, massification of higher education, and cultural factors such as parental expectations are pertinent to the stigmatization observed in vocational education. This article discusses the implications from the findings and concludes with possible solutions for the future development of vocational education in Hong Kong under the novel vocational and professional education and training (VPET) initiative launched by the government.     

English as a second language nurses in the United States: culture,communication, and needs for continuing education

The purpose of the study was to understand the role of culture in English as a Second Language (ESL) nurses’ clinical communication experiences in the United States, and how these experiences demonstrate the need for continuing education for ESL nurses. Five Taiwanese nurses who worked in U.S. health care contexts were recruited in the study. Data were collected through focus group and individual interviews, and data were analyzed using narrative and thematic analyses. Findings indicate that cultural differences in clinical settings complicated ESL nurses’ communication experiences, including linguistic and cultural diversity, the independent role of nurses, patient-centered care, and choice of speech registers. Findings further show that comprehensive on-the-job, vocational training in English for Nursing Purposes (ENP) is essential in order to assist ESL nurses’ transit between home and host country cultures. In other words, familiarising nurses with patient-centered care and different discourse patterns, developing critical thinking skills, and enhancing cultural competence should be emphasised in ESL nurses’ continuing education.     

Robust event-driven tracking control with preassigned performance for uncertain input-quantized nonlinear pure-feedback systems

This paper presents a simplified design methodology for robust event-driven tracking control of uncertain nonlinear pure-feedback systems with input quantization. All nonlinearities and quantization parameters are assumed to be completely unknown. Different from the existing event-driven control approaches for systems with completely unknown nonlinearities, the main contribution of this paper is to design a simple event-based tracking scheme with preassigned performance, without the use of adaptive function approximators and adaptive mirror models. It is shown in the Lyapunov sense that the proposed event-driven low-complexity tracker consisting of nonlinearly transformed error surfaces and a triggering condition can achieve the preselected transient and steady-state performance of control errors in the presence of the input quantization.