Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge of History of Mathematics and Their Attitudes and Beliefs Towards Using History of Mathematics in Mathematics Education

This study examined pre-service mathematics teachers’ knowledge of history of mathematics and their attitudes and beliefs towards using history of mathematics in mathematics education based on year level in teacher education program and gender. The sample included 1,593 freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior pre-service middle school (grades 4–8) mathematics teachers from nine universities in Turkey. Data were collected through Knowledge of History of Mathematics Test and Attitudes and Beliefs towards the Use of History of Mathematics in Mathematics Education Questionnaire. Results indicate that pre-service teachers have moderate knowledge of history of mathematics and positive attitudes and beliefs towards using history of mathematics. Their knowledge scores increase as the year level in teacher education program advanced. Males’ knowledge scores are significantly higher than females’ scores in the first 2 years. This situation reverses in the last 2 years, but it is not statistically significant. Pre-service teachers have more positive attitudes and availing beliefs towards using history of mathematics as they progress in their teacher education program. Females have greater attitudes and beliefs mean scores than males in each of the years. The results indicate that the teacher education program may have enhanced the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of history of mathematics by related courses. However, the moderate knowledge scores indicate that there is a need for revision of these courses. The pre-service teachers’ positive attitudes and beliefs towards using history of mathematics stress the importance of teacher education program in order to prepare them for implementing this alternative strategy in the future.     

Performance monitoring of university research: A perspective from Australia

The purpose of this paper is to report on who creates branding within institutions of higher learning, and what impact branding has on core institutional activities such as student recruitment and fundraising, as well as on socio‐psychological factors such as community respect and national prestige. Eighty‐nine tertiary education experts covering three world regions were surveyed in order to gather information to fulfil the paper’s objectives. The nature and extent of involvement of enrolled students, alumni, higher management, external consultants, civic leaders and the business community were investigated to identify the part each plays, if any, in the development of an institutional brand. Findings indicate that institutions have a tendency to brand from the top down rather than from the bottom up.     

Impact of learning culture and information technology use on knowledge sharing of Saudi students

Knowledge is regarded as a strategic resource in organizations; thus the leverage of knowledge is a key managerial issue. Knowledge creation, sharing and dissemination are the main activities in knowledge management. This study examines the influence that social and technological factors, such as learning culture and IT use, could have on knowledge sharing among students of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional survey was used as a research method for data collection and 302 valid responses were collected from all the three categories of students that include graduates, undergraduates and preparatory students. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between both student learning culture and IT use and students’ knowledge sharing. The limitations of this study and practical implications, along with directions for further research are discussed.     

The question of dissection in medical training: Not just “if,” but “when”? A student perspective

While debate about the use of—and alternatives to—human cadaveric dissection in medical training is robust, little attention has been paid to questions about timing. This study explores the perspectives of medical students and recent graduates with regard to two key questions: when in the degree program do students prefer dissection opportunities and what are the students getting out of participating in dissection? Self-report survey data from students in preclinical years (n = 105), clinical years (n = 57), and graduates (n = 13) were analyzed. Most (89%) preferred dissection during the preclinical years, with no effect by training year (χ² = 1.98, p = 0.16), previous anatomy (χ² = 3.64, p = 0.31), or dissection (χ² = 3.84, p = 0.26) experience. Three key findings emerged. First, the majority of students prefer to dissect in the preclinical years because they view dissection as important for developing foundation knowledge and delivering an opportunity for consolidation prior to transitioning to primarily clinical studies. In addition, students recognize that it is a time-consuming activity requiring specialized facilities. Second, three main understandings of the purpose of dissection were reported: depth of learning, learning experience, and real-world equivalence. Third, these student perspectives of the purpose of dissection are associated with timing preferences for dissection opportunities. The results identify the preclinical phase as the optimal time to strategically integrate dissection into medical training in order to maximize the benefits of this unique learning opportunity for students and minimize its impact upon curricular time.     

Social anxiety in E-Learning: Scale validation and socio-demographic correlation study

Education and Information Technologies - During the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, over 1.5 billion students worldwide have been deprived of access to traditional learning....     

Use of on-line databases by faculty members and research scholars of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi (India): A survey

The study is focused on finding out the level of use of on-line databases by faculty members and research scholars of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi (India). Both are Central Universities and are funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). A well-structured questionnaire was administered to faculty members and research scholars of the JNU and JMI to collect data regarding the use of on-line database. The survey reveals that all of the faculty members and research scholars are aware of the availability of on-line databases and largely use them for reference purposes in their research work and studies. The degree of usefulness and utilization of on-line databases is high among the universities' faculty members and research scholars. The survey further reveals that the respondents from both universities are aware of the search options for accessing on-line databases. It is also found that a large number of respondents of JNU and JMI are using field searching and Boolean operators to access information from on-line databases.     

Relationship between serum interleukin-1beta levels and acute phase response proteins in patients with familial Mediterranean fever

Introduction:

The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum levels of interleukin-1β (IL–1β) has any possible correlation on inflammatory parameters such as C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and fibrinogen concentration in patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients during attack-free period.

Materials and methods:

The serum levels of IL-1β, as an indicator of cytokines status, and the acute phase response proteins, CRP, ESR and fibrinogen levels were evaluated in 35 attack-free patients with FMF and 25 healthy volunteers.

Results:

Serum IL-1β levels were significantly higher in patients with FMF than control subjects (P = 0.018). There was no statistically significant difference in the serum levels of ESR, CRP and fibrinogen between two groups (P = 0.181, P = 0.816, P = 0.686, respectively). There was a significant correlation between IL-1β and CRP (r = 0.513, P = 0.002) values of FMF group.

Conclusions:

In conclusion, our results confirm the presence of increased IL-1β levels in FMF patients during attack-free period. Serum IL-1β values seems to correlate with CRP levels. The elevation of IL-1β levels may be important in monitoring subclinical inflammation of attack free period in FMF patients.     

Modern standard Arabic speech corpus for implementing and evaluating automatic continuous speech recognition systems

This paper presents our work towards developing a new speech corpus for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which can be used for implementing and evaluating Arabic speaker-independent, large vocabulary, automatic, and continuous speech recognition systems. The speech corpus was recorded by 40 (20 male and 20 female) Arabic native speakers from 11 countries representing three major regions (Levant, Gulf, and Africa). Three development phases were conducted based on the size of training data, Gaussian mixture distributions, and tied states (senones). Based on our third development phase using 11 hours of training speech data, the acoustic model is composed of 16 Gaussian mixture distributions and the state distributions tied to 300 senones. Using three different data sets, the third development phase obtained 94.32% and 8.10% average word recognition correctness rate and average Word Error Rate (WER), respectively, for same speakers with different sentences (testing sentences). For different speakers with same sentences (training sentences), this work obtained 98.10% and 2.67% average word recognition correctness rate and average WER, respectively, whereas for different speakers with different sentences (testing sentences) this work obtained 93.73% and 8.75% average word recognition correctness rate and average WER, respectively.