Less than expected—The minor role of foreign firms in upgrading domestic suppliers—The case of Vietnam

Vietnam is an important case for studying the impact of foreign firms’ backward linkages on local firms’ productivity. As an emerging economy Vietnam became the second most popular FDI destination after China in Pacific Asia since 2014. Our empirical analysis for Vietnam as a whole demonstrates a significant difference in the productivity growth between domestic suppliers who have a direct linkage with foreign firms and non-suppliers. This is also true for the Southeast Region (SE) with Ho-Chi-Minh City as economic center. However, in the Red River Delta (RRD), that difference is not statistically significant. Based on in-depth interviews with domestic suppliers, we reveal that in the RRD, effects of foreign firms on the productivity upgrading of domestic suppliers are indirect and limited while internal factors like absorptive capacity are more important for the productivity growth. These regional differences can be traced back to different regional specializations which still persist from the pre-reform era.     

Location extraction from tweets

Five hundred million tweets are posted daily, making Twitter a major social media platform from which topical information on events can be extracted. These events are represented by three main dimensions: time, location and entity-related information. The focus of this paper is location, which is an essential dimension for geo-spatial applications, either when helping rescue operations during a disaster or when used for contextual recommendations. While the first type of application needs high recall, the second is more precision-oriented. This paper studies the recall/precision trade-off, combining different methods to extract locations. In the context of short posts, applying tools that have been developed for natural language is not sufficient given the nature of tweets which are generally too short to be linguistically correct. Also bearing in mind the high number of posts that need to be handled, we hypothesize that predicting whether a post contains a location or not could make the location extractors more focused and thus more effective. We introduce a model to predict whether a tweet contains a location or not and show that location prediction is a useful pre-processing step for location extraction. We define a number of new tweet features and we conduct an intensive evaluation. Our findings are that (1) combining existing location extraction tools is effective for precision-oriented or recall-oriented results, (2) enriching tweet representation is effective for predicting whether a tweet contains a location or not, (3) words appearing in a geography gazetteer and the occurrence of a preposition just before a proper noun are the two most important features for predicting the occurrence of a location in tweets, and (4) the accuracy of location extraction improves when it is possible to predict that there is a location in a tweet.     

Effects of implementing flipped classroom elements and dynamic in‐class discussion on student performance

In a Food Processing–Unit Operations course, students learn the basic equipment that comprises unit operations and techniques commonly used in the food industry to prepare, process, and preserve a variety of food products. Due to the complexity of these operations, students frequently struggle with applying food processing principles to predict how unit operations influence the physical, biochemical, sensory, and nutritional properties of foods. This study is designed to evaluate how pre‐class readings and in‐class group activities improve the students’ learning in a Food Processing course. The survey after the exams shows that 48 and 60% of students agree that reading assignments and in‐class group activities help them understand the course material better, respectively. The mean value of exam scores shows that the students in the intervention section (Spring 2018) had significantly higher scores (88.4%) than that of the two previous sections without intervention (77.6%, Spring 2016 and 82.8%, Spring 2017) (P < .05). It is concluded that using a flipped class element like providing reading assignments and quizzes before the lecture can be an effective preparation technique for students as well as providing the instructors with critical insight into the students’ level of understanding before the lecture. This allows the instructor to focus time spent in class on areas in which students struggle the most.     

Synergizing geriatric research and education in an allied health profession with an older adult community advisory board: development and process outcomes

ABSTRACT

Community advisory boards (CABs) have been used to improve research outcomes involving specific communities and populations, including older adults. There is potential to synergize the use of CABs to encompass both research activities and the education of healthcare professionals to help meet increasing demands for a geriatric healthcare workforce in aging populations worldwide. We describe the development and process outcomes of a CAB that synergizes geriatric research and education of students in an allied health profession (occupational therapy). Implementation costs from June 2017–June 2019 were recorded. In-depth interviews were conducted with CAB participants, who were community-dwelling older adults living in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Interview data were analyzed using a constant comparison method based on a grounded theory approach. Themes were derived regarding barriers, facilitators, and benefits of CAB participation for older adults. Fourteen older adults (aged 65 and over) were initially recruited. The total direct cost of CAB implementation was 4050 United States Dollars over two years. Barriers to CAB participation for older adults included unexpected schedule conflicts due to illness and lack of understanding of the research process, while facilitators included accessible meeting spaces, staff support, flexible participation options, and financial support (e.g., transportation). Perceived benefits of CAB participation included gains in social capital, more positive views of research, and social connectedness. Key lessons learned are described and can be used to inform a novel approach to developing and implementing CABs to improve outcomes of geriatric research and education.     

Innovations in creative education for tertiary sector in Australia: present and future challenges

Abstract

Recent significant changes in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analysis have a wide impact in many areas of human societies, not least in education. Advances in efficiency of new technologies, with impacts in renewable energy and transport affected by environmental concerns and climate change mitigation, demand a reassessment and adjustment of the industrial structure of the economy. Technological advances enhancing creativity and analytical skills mean people must learn and adapt to a fast-changing economic environment. This paper present some key changes in Australian educational areas in recent years that are important and relevant to the subject of education innovation and philosophy to achieve outcomes in training and sustainable economic development, as anticipated by the community and government. Education courses and curricula in many countries have been transformed by technological advance. It is the swift incorporation of new technologies that best prepares students for the dynamics of economic and social change. Even though technological responsiveness is not a new phenomenon, it is established that the teaching methods found to be most successful include complementary and supplemental courses producing multi-skilled and creative graduates. These courses are delivered with significant emphasis upon self-development skills and are less focused upon traditional content. A move toward horizontal focus and a student-centric balance is the current trend, displacing vertical over-specialisation of learning. Yet, the central role of educator is seen as still appropriate and necessary where the aim is to equip graduates with creative and adaptive skills.     

Inequalities and Agencies in Workplace Learning Experiences: International Student Perspectives

National systems of vocational education and training around the globe are facing reform driven by quality, international mobility, and equity. Evidence suggests that there are qualitatively distinctive challenges in providing and sustaining workplace learning experiences to international students. However, despite growing conceptual and empirical work, there is little evidence of the experiences of these students undertaking workplace learning opportunities as part of vocational education courses. This paper draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involved 105 in depth interviews with international students undertaking work integrated learning placements as part of vocational education courses in Australia. The results indicate that international students can experience different forms of discrimination and deskilling, and that these were legitimised by students in relation to their understanding of themselves as being an ‘international student’ (with fewer rights). However, the results also demonstrated the ways in which international students exercised their agency towards navigating or even disrupting these circumstances, which often included developing their social and cultural capital. This study, therefore, calls for more proactively inclusive induction and support practices that promote reciprocal understandings and navigational capacities for all involved in the provision of work integrated learning. This, it is argued, would not only expand and enrich the learning opportunities for international students, their tutors, employers, and employees involved in the provision of workplace learning opportunities, but it could also be a catalyst to promote greater mutual appreciation of diversity in the workplace.     

Improving the participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business education

Most Australian universities have among their goals to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at their institutions. In the Australian higher education context, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are seriously under-represented, particularly in business education compared to other disciplines. An understanding of why a larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do not choose to study a discipline that provides promising employment opportunities, is fundamental to improving the status quo. This paper reviews the literature to identify key barriers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation and engagement in business education. Apart from multiple general barriers to participation in higher education, factors specific to business as a profession and as an academic discipline are also considered. The paper then discusses a number of strategies Australian educational institutions could pursue when seeking to increase participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business. Drawing on the review, the paper concludes with recommendations for higher education institutional policy to further improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation and engagement in business studies.     

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an academic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students motivation. Studies of students from the elementary school to high school show a beneficial relationship between parental involvement and the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, perceived competence, perceived control, self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read. From the synthesis of the parent involvement and motivation literature, we offer potential explanations for their relationship. Directions for areas of continued research are also presented.     

Impacts of higher education quality accreditation: a case study in Vietnam

Quality accreditation in higher education exists in many countries, including Vietnam. As of May 2018, 80 higher education institutions in Vietnam have officially been evaluated and recognised using the national quality standards. This study examined the impact of institutional accreditation on the evaluated university. The qualitative research evaluates the impact of external quality assurance from the perspective of managers of the university. The self-assessment phase helped the university assemble evidence of activities carried out at the university and the status of being recognised was believed to increase its prestige. The process, on the other hand, was also believed to be burdensome, time and cost consuming, which led to no significant changes at the institution. Lack of institutional autonomy and competence of the review team were barriers to any attempts to improve quality of higher education in Vietnam.