Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and the challenges of integrating educational robots into primary/elementary curricula

Twenty-first century education systems should create an environment wherein students encounter critical learning components (such as problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills) and embrace lifelong learning. A review of literature demonstrates that new technologies, in general, and robotics, in particular, are well suited for this aim. This study aims to contribute to the literature by studying teachers' perceptions of the effects of using robotics on students' lifelong learning skills. This study also seeks to better understand teachers' perceptions of the barriers of using robotics and the support they need. Eleven primary/elementary teachers from Newfoundland and Labrador English Schools District participated in this study. The results of this study revealed that robotics is perceived by teachers to have positive effects on students' lifelong learning skills. Furthermore, the participants indicated a number of barriers to integrate robotics into their teaching activities and expressed the support they need.     

Taking Library 2.0 to the Next Level: Using a Course Wiki for Teaching Information Literacy to Honors Students

ABSTRACT

How do educators capitalize on students’ comfort with ubiquitous communications in order to develop information literacy skills required in the 21st century? A curriculum materials librarian and a professor in the School of Education present an approach that uses library instruction, online research scaffolds, and peer evaluation within a class wiki to enhance student research practices and academic achievement. The explosion of information sources and access to networked technologies has provided the opportunity to “ratchet up” the expectations for student research in higher education. The Association of College & Research Libraries's information literacy standards for higher education provide a framework for setting these expectations. The authors describe features of an introductory education course that seeks to enhance honors freshman students’ knowledge of library research resources, efficient research skills, and scholarly writing, as described in these standards.     

Usability design strategies for children： Developing children＇s learning and knowledge in decreasing their dental anxiety

This paper presents an example of how usability design strategies for children can be designed into educational material using CD-ROM based multimedia application for assisting parents and teachers to develop children＇s learning and knowledge in decreasing as well as motivate children aged 7-9 years old to reduce their anxious feelings towards dental treatment. In this paper, the authors provide usability design strategies for children in designing the information interfaces and presentation of a PMLE （persuasive multimedia learning environment）. PMLE is designed based on the six design categories of guidelines for children which have been applied to this study： general interaction, text, multimedia, navigation and search, graphical user interface and content. The results authors were able to on presenting this PMLE to 240 primary school children selected at random show how the decrease children＇s dental anxiety and motivate the children to get ready for dental visit.     

Iraqi,Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Adolescents' Beliefs About Parental Authority Legitimacy and Its Correlates

This study examined intra‐ and interindividual variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee adolescents (M_age = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians in Amman, Jordan. Confirmatory factor analyses showed distinct latent factors for moral–conventional, prudential, and personal legitimacy items. Older adolescents rated legitimacy lower for personal issues, but higher for prudential issues. Beliefs were associated with socioeconomic status (fathers' education, family size), particularly for personal issues, but were more pervasively associated with displacement‐related experiences. Greater war trauma was associated with less prudential legitimacy for all youth and more authority legitimacy over moral–conventional issues for Syrian youth. Greater hopefulness was associated with more authority legitimacy over all but personal issues.     

Children's drawings in different cultures: an analysis of five-year-old Jordanian children's drawings

Research results have shown that what a child draws is influenced by many factors, including the child’s culture and environment. The aim of this study was to analyse the drawings of five-year-old Jordanian children to determine the extent to which culture informs the content of their drawings. A total of 736 children took part in this research project (387 boys and 349 girls). Their sample drawings were categorised according to specific themes. Results revealed that children drew pictures related to nature, people, surroundings, letters, numbers, symbols, animals, and transportation. The most frequent content of the drawings related to nature (38.9%) and the least frequent were drawings depicting violence (0.32%). Drawings also showed English and Arabic numbers and mathematical shapes separately and combined on the paper. Implications and recommendations for further research are presented.     

The socioemotional development of orphans in orphanages and traditional foster care in Iraqi Kurdistan

In order to investigate orphans' situation and development in Iraqi Kurdistan, samples from the two available orphan care systems, the traditional foster care and the modern orphanages, are examined at an index test and at 1-year follow-up regarding competency scores and behavioral problems at both test occasions, and post-traumatic stress reactions at a 1-year follow-up. Achenbach Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) and two instruments regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were used. While competency scores showed an improvement in both samples at the follow-up test, the problem scores increased in the orphanage sample and decreased among the foster care subjects. Moreover, the orphanage sample reported higher frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the foster care children. The results are discussed with regard to the value of the Kurdish society's own traditions in taking care of orphans.     

The relationship between language and reading in bilingual English-Arabic children

The connection between language and reading is well established across many languages studied to date. Little is known, however, about the role of language in reading in Arabic??a Semitic language characterized by diglossia??in which the oral and written varieties differ across language components. This study examined the relationship among multiple components of language, namely, phonology, morphology, and vocabulary and reading outcomes in 83 bilingual English-Arabic children. Results revealed associations between phonological awareness skills across English and Arabic. These associations did not hold for morphological awareness skills. Results also revealed that for Arabic and English, phonological awareness predicted word and pseudoword reading accuracy and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension. These findings are consistent with the tenets of the extended version of the Triangle Model of reading, which underscores the importance of multiple language components in predicting reading outcomes. Implications for future research, early intervention, and instruction with bilingual children are highlighted.     

Generalized filtering of one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems under measurement delays

This paper addresses the filtering problem for the one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems under measurement delays and disturbances using a generalized observer. A generalized architecture for filtering of the one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems with output delays is explored, which exhibits diverging manifolds, namely, the conventional static-gain filter and the dynamical filter, and can be employed to render robust stability of the filtering error dynamics. A matrix inequality based framework is obtained by employing a Lyapunov?Krasovskii (LK) functional, whose derivative is exploited through Jensen's inequality, one-sided Lipschitz condition, quadratic inner-boundedness inequality and range of the measurement delay, resulting into L₂ stability for the filtering error system. Generalized filter design for the Lipschitz nonlinear systems with delayed outputs and specific results for the delay-dependent and delay-rate-independent filtering schemes for the one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems are deduced from the proposed approach. Convex optimization techniques are employed to achieve a solution for the nonlinear constraints through linear matrix inequalities by employing cone complementary linearization approach. Illustrative numerical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method are provided.