A “research” into international student-related research: (Re)Visualising our stand?

This paper uses Tight (High Educ Res Dev 23(4):395–411, 2004; High Educ Res Dev 31(5):723–740, 2012; High Educ Res Dev 32(1):136–151, 2013)’s journal analysis and review framework to review a sample of 497 journal articles on researches concerning international students over the past 30 years. It was found that a majority of the articles focus on the students’ in-campus, academic and social experience. Even with different conceptualisation of the terms “international student” and “international student mobility”, international students undergo similar challenges throughout their sojourn duration, and much of the responsibilities in managing international students fall on universities and respective faculty members within the institutions. It might seem as if we are going in circles in terms of the issues and concerns in managing international students, but the silver lining out of this observation is the increased ethnical awareness among countries and higher education institutions in hosting and safeguarding the students throughout their international higher education experience, albeit rather slowly. The analysis brings to attention how much have we achieved in internationalisation of higher education in general and international student-related research in particular, and the potential for greater expansion and focus on managing the student population within a comprehensive “life cycle” approach.     

Control of switch-sharing-based multilevel inverter suitable for photovoltaic applications

Owing to the higher amount and the better quality of power transferred, three-phase multilevel inverters have strengthened their presence in low-power photovoltaic (PV) applications. However, the existing topologies investigated for low-power PV systems are basically meant for medium- and high-power applications, thus making them underutilized for low-power range. In order to address this shortcoming, this paper proposes a three-phase multilevel inverter with a switch-sharing capability and its control solution. It combines the characteristics of the two-level full-bridge topology and the diode-clamped multilevel structure. As a result, the inverter can be used with full capacity and without being underutilized, and significantly improves the output quality. A control strategy that is able to maximize the full potential of the inverter is developed. A digital proportional-integral (PI) controller with a new tuning algorithm is designed to effectively deal with the load changes. The result reveals that the load current is always retained at the intended quality level despite the variations in load. The performance of the inverter is validated from the experimental work conducted on a laboratory prototype under closed-loop conditions.     

Islamic pedagogy and embodiment: an anthropological study of a British Madrasah

This anthropological study of a higher education British Madrasah was undertaken to increase our awareness of the spectrum of sensory experiences that shape Islamic pedagogy. We started our anthropological study from an Islamic premise of the inseparable nature of knowledge and the sacred. Pedagogy is defined as not a matter of simple methods and technique but as a holistic approach that deals with the capacity to form the human person. Islamic pedagogy is represented by the heartfelt interactions between the teacher and learner through orality, facilitating memorization, and the didactic approach towards sacred texts. This research has explored the sensoria of a British Madrasah from a spiritual approach and this provides the foundation for shaping our understanding of the madrasah concept of Islamic pedagogy. An Al-Ghazali’s mystical-theoretical approach toward learning is evident in this research in defining the madrasah as a spiritual rather than social construct, and is optimized by the embodiment of learning.     

Learning orientations of IT higher education students in UAE University

This research examines the learning preferences of students in UAE University (UAEU). The uniqueness of this research emanates from the fact that no prior research examined this area from the UAE’s perspective. Thus, this research embarks on the fact that student learning strategies vary from one country to another due to many factors. This research utilizes six learning strategies extended from the literature and attempts to examine their importance on UAEU students using survey research. The selected learning strategies were students” motivation, time-poorness, mastery effort, assessment focus, competitiveness, and listening. This research provided interesting insights and contrasts pertaining to the learning strategies of UAEU students. Implications are discussed highlighting different theoretical as well as professional contributions and contentions and portrayed a path where pending issues could be addressed by future research.     

The influence of history of science courses on students' views of nature of science

This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students' and preservice science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the investigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with contemporary NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings, and (c) explored the aspects of the participant HOS courses that rendered them more “effective” in influencing students' views. Participants were 166 undergraduate and graduate students and 15 preservice secondary science teachers. An open‐ended questionnaire in conjunction with individual interviews, was used to assess participants' pre‐ and postinstruction NOS views. Almost all participants held inadequate views of several NOS aspects at the outset of the study. Very few and limited changes in participants' views were evident at the conclusion of the courses. Change was evident in the views of relatively more participants, especially preservice science teachers, who entered the HOS courses with frameworks that were somewhat consistent with current NOS views. Moreover, explicitly addressing certain NOS aspects rendered the HOS courses relatively more effective in enhancing participants' NOS views. The results of this study do not lend empirical support to the intuitively appealing assumption held by many science educators that coursework in HOS will necessarily enhance students' and preservice science teachers' NOS views. However, explicitly addressing specific NOS aspects might enhance the effectiveness of HOS courses in this regard. Moreover, the study suggests that exposing preservice science teachers to explicit NOS instruction in science methods courses prior to their enrollment in HOS courses might increase the likelihood that their NOS views will be changed or enriched as a result of their experiences with HOS. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1057–1095, 2000     

Development of lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite composite cathodes for intermediate- to low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

Solid oxide fuel cells(SOFCs) offer high energy conversion,low noise,low pollutant emission,and low processing cost.Despite many advantages,SOFCs face a major challenge in competing with other types of fuel cells because of their high operating temperature.The necessity to reduce the operational temperature of SOFCs has led to the development of research into the materials and fabrication technology of fuel cells.The use of composite cathodes significantly reduces the cathode polarization resistance and expands the triple phase boundary area available for oxygen reduction.Powder preparation and composite cathode fabrication also affect the overall performance of composite cathodes and fuel cells.Among many types of cathode materials,lanthanum-based materials such as lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite(La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3- have recently been discovered to offer great compatibility with ceria-based electrolytes in performing as composite cathode materials for intermediate-to low-temperature SOFCs(IT-LTSOFCs).This paper reviews various ceria-based composite cathodes for IT-LTSOFCs and focuses on the aspects of progress and challenges in materials technology.     

Factors influencing Malaysian public attitudes to agro-biotechnology

Despite considerable research in advanced countries on public perceptions of and attitudes to modern biotechnology, limited effort has been geared towards developing a structural model of public attitudes to modern biotechnology. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevant factors influencing public attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) soybean, and to analyze the relationship between all the attitudinal factors. A survey was carried out on 1,017 respondents from various stakeholder groups in the Klang Valley region. Results of the survey have confirmed that attitudes towards complex issues such as biotechnology should be seen as a multifaceted process. The most important factors predicting support for GM soybean are the specific application-linked perceptions about the benefits, acceptance of risk and moral concern while risk and familiarity are significant predictors of benefit and risk acceptance. Attitudes towards GM soybean are also predicted by several general classes of attitude.     

Analysing the types of TV programmes viewed by children from different socio‐economic strata based on their self‐report in the Turkish context

This research investigated the amount of time that children from different socio‐economic strata spend watching television per week and whether there was a difference among children from low, middle and upper socio‐economic strata with regard to viewing programme types, including action adventure, news and information, competitions, sports, paparazzi shows, cartoons, child informative and musical and comedy. Preparing and conducting this investigation involved a survey including TV programme types and the amount of time the participants spent watching television per week. Four hundred and ninety‐two primary school children participated. They came from low, middle and upper socio‐economic strata from three different primary schools in Turkey. The results indicate that significant differences exist among children from low, middle and upper socio‐economic strata with respect to viewing different programme types like action adventure, competitions, paparazzi shows, child informative and musical and comedy, while there was a non‐significant difference among the participants from different socio‐economic strata in viewing news and information, sports and cartoons. Some implications for further research have been made for prospective researchers.

L'analyse des types de Television programmes pour les enfants de differentes classes socio‐economiques basées sur leur proper rapport dans le contexte turc

Cette recherche a exposé la quantité de temps que les enfants de differentes classes socio‐economiques ont depensé pour regarder la TV par semaine; s'il y avait une différence parmi les enfants de hautes, moyennes et basses classes socio‐economiques du point de vue des types de programme tels ques l'aventure d'action, les nouvelles la compétition d'information, les sports, le paparazzi shows, les bandes dessinées, celle d'information pour les enfants et la comédie. Préparer et conduire cette recherche a developpé une enquete comprenant les types de programme et la quantité de temps que les participants depensent pour regarder la TV par semaine. Les 492 éleves d'école primaire ont participés à cette investigation. Ils sont venus des hautes, moyennes et basses classes socio‐economiques parmi trois differents écoles primaries en Turquie. Les resultats indiquent que les differences significatives existent parmi les enfants de hautes, moyennes et basses classes socio‐economiques du point de vue des types de programme tels ques l'aventure d'action, les nouvelles la compétition d'information, les sports, le paparazzi shows, les bandes dessinées celle d'information pour les enfants et la comédie et la musique tandis qu'il n'y a pas de difference importante parmi les participants de differents de classes socio‐economiques mentionnés en regardant respectivement les nouvelles et information, les sports, les bandes dessinées. Certaines déductions pour une recherché ont été executé pour les recherches prospective.

Analyse der von Kindern verschiedener sozio‐ökonomischer Schichten ausgewähltenTypen von Fernsehprogrammen, basierend auf Eigenberichten in türkischem Kontext

In diesem Artikel werden die Zeit, die Kinder, die aus unterschiedlichen sozio‐ökonomischen Schichten kommen, in einer Woche beim Fernsehen verbringen haben, und ob es einen zeitlichen Unterschied zwischen den Kindern, die beim Fernsehen von den Programmen wie Musik‐komödie, Kinderprogramme, Zeichentrickfilme, Paparazzi‐show, Sports, Wettbewerben, Nachrichten, Abenteuerfilme gibt, untersucht. Der Zweck der Vorbereitung und Durchführung dieser Unterschung ist die Feststellung der Zeit, die die Teilnehmer in einer Woche zu den Fernsehprogrammen angewendet haben. 492 Grundschulschüler haben daran teilgenommen. Die Teilnehmer sind Grundschulschüler, die zu den unteren, mittleren und oberen sozio‐ökonomischen Klassen in der Türkei gehören. Das Ergebnis der Forschung zeigte, dass unter den Teilnehmern von unterschiedlichen sozio‐ökonomischen schichten beim Fernsehen von programmen wie nacheinander, Zeichentrickfilme, Sports und Nachrichten keinen zeitlichen Unterschied, demgegenüber beim Fernsehen von Programmen wie Musik‐komödie, Kinderprogramme, Paparazzi‐shows, Wettbewerbs und Abenteuerfilme einen wesentlichen Unterschied gibt. Zum Schluss wurde für hoffnungsvolle Forschungen manche Vorschlaege gemacht.