Instructional design using an in-house built teaching assistant robot to enhance elementary school English-as-a-foreign-language learning

This paper presents a design for a cutting-edge English program in which elementary school learners of English as a foreign language in Taiwan had lively interactions with a teaching assistant robot. Three dimensions involved in the design included (1) a pleasant and interactive classroom environment as the learning context, (2) a teaching assistant robot designed and built by the researchers as instructional technology (instructional tool/medium), and (3) the need for improved motivation and learning outcomes and positive learning experiences of the students as the core research problem. This Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) led to better pedagogical effects on learning and teaching by (1) employing a vivid, enjoyable teaching approach; (2) adopting practical, interesting learning materials; and (3) creating a natural, enjoyable learning context. Both quantitative and qualitative findings of this study indicate that the students' English learning experiences were enhanced, as were their motivation and learning outcomes as a result of this HRI. This paper, instead of merely suggesting design criteria for robots, provides a set of instructional design guidelines that other researchers can follow to create an innovative and enjoyable English classroom that employs an interactive robot as an assistant for enhancing English acquisition while simultaneously reducing the pressure and teaching load of the English instructors.     

Ethics courses: Their impact on the values and ethical decisions of criminal justice students

Numerous articles and books advocate the importance of ethics as an essential component of a criminal justice curriculum. While there are several approaches suggested, one of the most popular methods of assuring coverage of this important topic is to add an ethics course to the curriculum either as a required or an elective course. Teaching students ethical theories, principles and providing them with the opportunity to discuss discipline specific ethics problems is thought to help contribute to the establishment of ethical practitioners.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a semester long criminal justice ethics course on the students' value orientations, and their perceptions of both the seriousness of ethical violations and their likelihood of engaging in such behaviors. Our findings are consistent with the results of researchers evaluating ethics courses in other disciplines. Implications for criminal justice ethics education are discussed.     

Factors affecting the motivation to learn among United Arab Emirates middle and high school students

This study was designed to examine the relative contributions of student and parents’ socio‐demographics, students’ beliefs about learning, parental support of children’s learning, peers’ attitudes towards learning, teacher–student interaction and curriculum content to students’ motivation to learn. The sample consisted of 275 school‐age children ranging from 12 to 16 years old. All measures were constructed for the purpose of this study. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to predict student motivation to learn. Results indicated that students’ beliefs about learning, teacher–student interaction and curriculum content contributed to the United Arab Emirates middle and high school students’ motivation to learn. Implications for research are discussed.     

How can gender affect psychopathology in Lebanese school‐age children?

This study investigated the extent to which gender differences in coping, school and family environments could account for variation in psychopathology among school‐age children. Participants were 665 middle school students. Results showed no gender differences for PTSD. Females scored higher on emotional problems and prosocial behavior whereas males scored higher on conduct problems. ADHD was higher among children with LD, whereas emotional and conduct problems were higher in females with LD. Emotional and conduct problems increased more by age in females. Gender differences were found in various patterns of predictor–outcome relations. While emotion‐focused coping was associated with emotional and peer problems in both genders, it was associated with conduct problems in females only. Problem‐focused coping was positively associated with prosocial behaviors in females whereas it was negatively associated with peer problems in males. In addition, family environment was negatively associated with emotional problems and PTSD symptomatology in females, whereas school environment was negatively associated with emotional problems in males. Clinical and research implications were discussed.     

中国兔儿风属(菊科)资料

The genus, Ainsliaea DC. from China is revised in this paper. Three species, A. nana Y. C. Tseng, A. pingbianensis Y. G. Tseng and A. trinervis Y. C.  Tseng, are newly described;   two species, A.  chapaensis Merr.  and A. angustifolia Hook. f. et Thoms. ex C. B. Clarke are new records for China and two  new  combinations,  A.  apteroides (Chang)  Y.  C.  Tseng  and  A. macrocephala (Mattf.) Y. C. Tseng, are made. In addition, one species, A. hypoleuca  Diels  ex  Limpr.  and  four  varieties,  A.  bonatii  Beauverd  var. arachnoidea Beauverd,  A.  pteropoda DC.  var.  leiophylla Franch.,  A.  elegans Hemsl. var. tomentosa Mattf. and A. glabra Hemsl. var.  tenuiculis (Mattf.)Chang, are reduced to synonyms.     

A comparison of student feedback obtained from three methods of formative evaluation of instructional materials

The success of formative evaluation techniques to improve instructional materials is well documented. Researchers have found that materials revised on the basis of one-to-one sessions are equally effective as materials revised on the basis of small group sessions, and that both are superior to the unrevised, original versions. However, there is a paucity of research comparing the types of data obtained from these two recommended approaches to formative evaluation. This study compares the quantitative and qualitative nature of the problems identified by students in three conditions. Specifically, a one-to-one active, a small group active, and a small group passive were the conditions employed. Explanations for the observed differences are attributed to and described in terms of the instructional materials themselves and differences in the procedures or conditions employed. Finally, a number of more practical issues are raised and discussed in terms of their impact on the selection of a particular method or combination of methods for the formative evaluation of instructional materials.     

Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts

The threshold concepts approach to student learning and curriculum design now informs an empirical research base comprising over 170 disciplinary and professional contexts. It draws extensively on the notion of troublesomeness in a ‘liminal’ space of learning. The latter is a transformative state in the process of learning in which there is a reformulation of the learner’s meaning frame and an accompanying shift in the learner’s ontology or subjectivity. Within the extensive literature on threshold concepts, however, the notion of liminal space has remained relatively ill-defined. This paper explores this spatial metaphor to help clarify the difficulties that some teachers observe in the classroom in regard to their students’ understanding. It employs a novel and distinctive approach drawn from semiotic theory to to provide some explanatory insight into learning within the liminal space and render it more open to analysis. The paper develops its argument through four distinct phases. Firstly it explores the spatial metaphor of liminality to gain further purchase on the nature of this transformative space. The second section introduces semiotic theory and indicates how this will be used through a series of graphical and visual devices to render the liminal space more open to analysis. The third section then employs semiotic analysis to nine dimensions of pedagogical content knowledge to gain further insight into what may characterise student conceptual difficulty within the liminal state. The fourth and concluding section emphasises the role of context in conceptual discrimination before advocating a transactional curriculum inquiry approach to future research in this field.     

Development of a Computer-Assisted Instrumentation Curriculum for Physics Students: Using LabVIEW and Arduino Platform

We propose an integrated curriculum to establish essential abilities of computer programming for the freshmen of a physics department. The implementation of the graphical-based interfaces from Scratch to LabVIEW then to LabVIEW for Arduino in the curriculum ‘Computer-Assisted Instrumentation in the Design of Physics Laboratories’ brings rigorous algorithm and syntax protocols together with imagination, communication, scientific applications and experimental innovation. The effectiveness of the curriculum was evaluated via statistical analysis of questionnaires, interview responses, the increase in student numbers majoring in physics, and performance in a competition. The results provide quantitative support that the curriculum remove huge barriers to programming which occur in text-based environments, helped students gain knowledge of programming and instrumentation, and increased the students’ confidence and motivation to learn physics and computer languages.     

The impact of family obligation on the daily activities and psychological well-being of Chinese American adolescents

A daily diary method was employed to examine the extent to which Chinese adolescents in the United States assist and spend time with their families, and the implications of such behaviors for their involvement in other activities and psychological well-being. Adolescents (N = 140) completed checklists in which they reported their activities and psychological well-being every day for a period of 2 weeks. Adolescents showed a greater propensity to balance family obligations with their academic demands than with their social life with peers on a daily basis. Girls experienced slightly more daily conflict between activities than boys. Neither the extent of involvement in family obligations nor the balancing of family obligations with other activities were associated with psychological distress among adolescents. These findings demonstrate the complex manner in which adolescents from immigrant families attempt to combine their cultural traditions with selected aspects of American society on a daily basis. In contrast to the expectations of some observers, the youths in this study appeared to accomplish such an integration with little cost to their psychological well-being.