English as a symbol of internationalization in higher education: a case study of Vietnam

Vietnam universities have experienced remarkable changes brought about by their internationalization policies. The switch to English as a medium of instruction (EMI) for some academic programs was one of these critical changes. Literature has reported numerous issues related to EMI, including inadequate language proficiency of teaching staff. This paper looks at a qualitative research study on how a government university from Vietnam employs different strategies to enhance teachers’ English proficiency. The study reveals that the introduction of new supporting systems, assessment bodies, recruitment criteria and institutional strategies on training, monitoring and motivation have created cultural change within the teacher community. This cultural change, which includes elements such as self-directed learning, peer learning, professionalism, and ‘open-to-change’ attitudes, has been perceived by both leaders and teachers to be conducive to teachers’ language learning. The findings presented in this paper seek to contribute to the formulation or adjustment of policies related to educational reforms, such as curriculum reform, teacher recruitment and teacher professional development in non-English-speaking countries.     

Document concept lattice for text understanding and summarization

We argue that the quality of a summary can be evaluated based on how many concepts in the original document(s) that can be preserved after summarization. Here, a concept refers to an abstract or concrete entity or its action often expressed by diverse terms in text. Summary generation can thus be considered as an optimization problem of selecting a set of sentences with minimal answer loss. In this paper, we propose a document concept lattice that indexes the hierarchy of local topics tied to a set of frequent concepts and the corresponding sentences containing these topics. The local topics will specify the promising sub-spaces related to the selected concepts and sentences. Based on this lattice, the summary is an optimized selection of a set of distinct and salient local topics that lead to maximal coverage of concepts with the given number of sentences. Our summarizer based on the concept lattice has demonstrated competitive performance in Document Understanding Conference 2005 and 2006 evaluations as well as follow-on tests.     

The Knowledge,Volition and Action Programme in Singapore: the effects of an experimental intervention programme on high ability achievement

This study hypothesises that non‐achieving behaviour of gifted adolescents in Singapore may be attributed to a lack of knowledge, volition and action on the part of the gifted. As such, an educational intervention programme, Knowledge/Volition/Action, was devised to teach pupils knowledge of the self, volition, consultation, time management and stress management. All subjects were gifted pupils in a secondary one cohort in three premier schools hosting the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). Experimental subjects (n = 57) and control subjects (n = 57) were matched by age, gender, school, class, race, socio‐economic status, academic and non‐academic achievement before being randomly selected and randomly assigned to groups. The effects of the intervention on academic and non‐academic achievement were reported using paired t‐tests. Interestingly, the intervention programme was found to be effective in augmenting the non‐academic rather than the academic achievement of the experimental group.     

A knowledge management perspective on Art Education

This paper applies concepts drawn from KM to Art Education. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the knowledge types, knowledge sources, knowledge processes as well as factors affecting these processes in Art Education. The research was carried out using an interpretative case study methodology in Singapore. Apart from 26 one-to-one interviews conducted with various stakeholders of the Art Education community, on-site observations were made at 19 different Art Education events. Four major findings emerged. One, the knowledge types of Art Education in Singapore were a blend of different knowledge domains. Two, perceptible knowledge sources were those which conveyed an appearance of authority. Three, knowledge processes in Art Education were steeply humanistic. Finally, factors that affected knowledge processes were (i) the highly competitive Singapore education system, (ii) management support and policies, (iii) personal values and interests, (iv) workload and (v) the absorptive capacity of Art teachers. This paper concludes with a number of research and practical implications.     

An algorithm for modeling the sinusoidal input/steady-state response behavior of nonlinear systems over a set of frequencies and amplitudes

An algorithm for constructing a black box model of the sinusoidal input/steady-state response behavior of nonlinear time-invariant systems over a set of frequencies and amplitudes is presented. It is assumed that the steady-state response is periodic of the same fundamental frequency as the excitation, and that the Fourier coefficients are continuous functions of amplitude and square-integrable functions of frequency. The algorithm converges, in a mean-square sense, to an exact representation of the first N harmonics of the steady-state response minus its d.c. component. The model constructed by the algorithm admits a relatively simple physical realization characterized by 2NM+1 linear dynamic elements, and N(2M+1)+1 nonlinear static elements. The underlying mathematical structure of the model is an orthogonal series expansion relative to time whose coefficients are themselves truncated orthogonal expansions relative to frequency. Here M, the number of harmonics used for frequency interpolation, is determined by the algorithm. Of the N(2M+1)+1 memoryless nonlinearities which characterize the model, N of these are specified ahead of time (Tchebysheff polynomials), and 2NM+1 are parameters which mold the representation to the specific system being modeled. Each of these functions of a single variable can be obtained in a pointwise manner directly from steady-state measurements. The algorithm was implemented on a digital computer, and forced versions of the classic equations of van der Pol and Duffing were run as examples. An additional analytic example of a frequency multiplier of prescribed bandwidth was also presented.     

Basketball lay-up – foot loading characteristics and the number of trials necessary to obtain stable plantar pressure variables

This study aimed (1) to profile the plantar loading characteristics when performing the basketball lay-up in a realistic setting and (2) to determine the number of trials necessary to establish a stable mean for plantar loading variables during the lay-up. Thirteen university male basketball players [age: 23.0 (1.4) years, height: 1.75 (0.05) m, mass: 68.4 (8.6) kg] performed ten successful basketball lay-ups from a stationary position. Plantar loading variables were recorded using the Novel Pedar-X in-shoe system. Loading variables including peak force, peak pressure, and pressure–time integral were extracted from eight foot regions. Performance stability of plantar loading variables during the take-off and landing steps were assessed using the sequential averaging technique and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). High plantar loadings were experienced at the heel during the take-off steps, and both the heel and forefoot regions upon landing. The sequential estimation technique revealed a five–eight trial range to achieve a stable mean across all plantar loading variables, whereas ICC analysis was insensitive to inter-trial differences of repeated lay-up performances. Future studies and performance evaluation protocols on plantar loading during basketball lay-ups should include at least eight trials to ensure that the measurements obtained are sufficiently stable.     

An introduction

Abstract

Political and historical thoughts pertaining to “modern Malaya” and Malaysia are phenomena of the emerging modern era characterized by the stirrings and the rise of nationalism in Southeast Asia since the early twentieth century. One of the most compelling ideas in envisioning the nation and fighting for independence then was Melayu Raya, articulated by a group of visionary leaders of socio-political movements who professed to fight for the creation of a political entity, a new independent “nation.” Using the history of ideas approach, this article argues that nations are envisioned, and that we need to contextualize the discussion within what has been termed as “Malay world,” the old kingdoms in the region, and the subsequent struggles against colonial powers and the “nationalist” projects for independence. To help understand this background, the article uses the concept of “culture zone” as used by Fernand Braudel in his study of civilizations. This article examines the debate on the “Malay world” and Melayu Raya, and also the post-Second World War envisioning of the nation and the approaches taken by various groups to fight against British colonialism and for independence. Despite almost six decades of independence, some of these ideas keep returning, resonating with some aspects of the present in today's Malaysia. In the course of this article, a brief reference to the history of ideas and the idea of history is made.