Testing a screening procedure in the treatments for communication apprehension

This study tested whether a screening procedure was effective in the treatments for communication apprehension (CA). Accordingly, individuals who were identified as having cognitive, affective, and behavioral source of CA were exposed to Visualization (cognitive). Systematic Desensitization (affective). Skills Training (behavioral), and Multiple treatment (combination of the three). Results indicated that exposing people to the matching intervention was slightly more effective in reducing CA than exposing them to other treatments.     

Resilience strategies for new teachers in high-needs areas

This qualitative study investigates strategies of resilience exhibited by fifteen novice teachers employed in high-needs areas, such as in urban and rural contexts and in special education. Findings indicated that teachers utilised a variety of strategies, including help-seeking, problem-solving, managing difficult relationships, and seeking rejuvenation/renewal. These strategies assisted beginning teachers in building additional resources and support; however, the burden for success and securing resources fell on teachers themselves. Furthermore, the researchers recognised that resilient teachers demonstrated agency in the process of overcoming adversity. Implications for future practice and research are discussed.     

A self-determination approach to understanding students' motivation in project work

The use of project work (PW) or project-based learning has escalated in Singapore since its inception by the Ministry of Education in the year 2000. There is however little information on students' motivation, and their experience of PW over time. This study sought to identify homogeneous groups of students with distinct perceived locus of causality (PLOC) profiles using a cluster analytic approach, and to examine group differences in their perceived psychological needs, emotions, metacognition, and perceived skills learned in PW over time. Four distinct clusters of students were identified. The “high self-determined/low controlled” group was the most adaptive cluster, and the “low self-determined/high controlled” group was the least adaptive cluster. The study affirms that the self-determination theory (SDT) can provide important insights into the motivational processes in PW. It establishes that students' motivational regulations and their perceived needs satisfaction at the start of PW are related to their experience of and learning in PW.     

Developing Design through a Creative Problem‐Solving Process: A Group Community Art Project

For the past few years, creativity has gradually become an important element in the national cultivation of talent in Taiwan. Although traditionally art education is closely linked with creativity, the academic research on general art education is very insufficient. Therefore, the goal of this research is to investigate how creativity could be cultivated in curriculum planning for general art education at technology universities as well as what students’ learning process was when they participated in a course's creative activity. The research applied the theory and steps of creative problem‐solving (CPS) on a general art course to design a group practical activity combining with the local community. This involved converting the steps of creative problem‐solving into different stages of group design activities with the goal of constructing a design process equivalent to the process of problem‐solving. The main research results revealed that students could experience the problem‐solving process through group design activities and develop their divergent and convergent thinking at the same time. Moreover, the cooperative learning model is the most appropriate teaching strategy for students from non‐art‐related departments when cultivating their creativity.     

Discontinuum analyses of openings constructed with side drift and limited rock cover

The design of rock support for a typical horseshoe shaped tunnel with considerations of it being excavated into a twin arch tunnel was studied using the distinct element method (DEM). Two different competent rock covers, i.e. 4 m and 7.5 m above the tunnel crown, were analysed. The results are relevant to the granitic geological unit in Singapore which has a weathering profile with rockhead found at some locations to be only 20–35 m below ground level and undulating, leaving limited rock cover for some sections along tunnels of similar depth. The verification of the adequacy of competent rock cover is important to ensure that the choice of ground support is suitable, particularly when the tunnel is excavated using the drill-and-blast method. In the opening geometry analysed in this study, a side drift is excavated adjacent to the first tunnel to create a twin arch opening. This creates a pillar between the openings during the intermediate construction stage. The influence of excavating the side drift on the support of the first opening was studied. We found that the bolt forces in the pillar approximately doubled during the excavation of the side drift, which may have been due to the rock joint inclinations and adopted strength parameters. This paper shows how DEM analyses may be used to complement conventional empirical rock mass classifications to design rock supports. Limitations of the pressure relaxation approach to model 3D effects in 2D are acknowledged.     

Digital Photography and Journals in a Kindergarten-First-Grade Classroom: Toward Meaningful Technology Integration in Early Childhood Education

To explore meaningful and effective technology integration in early childhood education, we investigated how kindergarten-first-grade students created and employed digital photography journals to support social and cognitive reflection. These students used a digital camera to document their daily school activities and created digital photo journals to represent their experiences. Ethnographic video data, field notes, and student journals were examined using a grounded theory approach. Results reveal that when students took pictures, they successfully negotiated their dual roles of photographer and participant in other activities. In the process, the children meaningfully integrated technology into their classroom activities, as well as transformed the nature of the social space surrounding the computer where children created their journals. Furthermore, the journals illustrated children's complex and varied types of cognitive and social reflections. Based on these results, we discuss implications for meaningful technology integration in early childhood education.     

The Teacher as Researcher: Developing the Skills with Pre-Service Art Specialist Students

This paper details a project which involved a group of art specialist Diploma in Education students, two lecturing staff plus a group of primary school children in a series of planned art activities for two terms. The Saturday Morning Art programme (S.M.ART) was developed to enable the students to systematically focus on art learning in these classes by using largely qualitative research processes within a case study framework. By introducing these pre-service trainee art teachers to research techniques which they can then use, we believe we are preparing them to be self-evaluative and reflective practitioners in the classroom.     

Analysis modeling for plate buckling load of vibration test

In view of the recent technological development, the pursuit of safe high-precision structural designs has been the goal of most structural designers. To bridge the gap between the construction theories and the actual construction techniques, safety factors are adopted for designing the strength loading of structural members. If safety factors are too conservative, the extra building materials necessary will result in high construction cost. Thus, there has been a tendency in the construction field to derive a precise buckling load analysis model of member in order to establish accurate safety factors. A numerical analysis model, using modal analysis to acquire the dynamic function calculated by dynamic parameter to get the buckling load of member, is proposed in this paper. The fixed and simple supports around the circular plate are analyzed by this proposed method. And then, the Monte Carlo method and the normal distribution method are used for random sampling and measuring errors of numerical simulati