Developing a mathematics curriculum to improve learning behaviors and mathematics competency of children

The authors investigated the effect of a mathematical curriculum (CU) developed based on verbal and practical activities on the mathematical competency (MC) and learning behaviors (LB) of preschool children. In a quasi-experimental design, 60 children (5- to 6-year-old girls) were selected using the accessible sampling method. The children were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, and the relevant concepts were taught to the children in both groups. While the control group received the typical kindergarten education based on the usual textbooks and worksheets, the CU was taught to the experimental group. Structural equation modeling was used to model the data and statistical evaluation. The results demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups in MC and LB. The CU significantly improved MC directly, and indirectly through the improvement of LB (i.e., engagement and learning focus, verbal behaviors, and type of activity).     

The mutual impact of personality traits on seating preference and educational achievement

Several studies have investigated the association between students' seating positions and their classroom performance. However, the role of personality traits on seating preference in the classroom has not been well investigated. The aim of the study was to understand how students choose their seats according to their personality traits in a classroom context and the influence of personality characteristics and seat selection on educational achievement. The seating positions of the medical students were recorded on an architectural plan during each class session, and the means and standard deviations of the students' locations were calculated in X and Y orientations. The locations of the students in the class were analyzed based on three architectural classifications: interactional zone, distance from the board, and access to the aisles. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory was used to evaluate the five main personality characteristics of the students. Midterm and final exam scores were used to measure the students' educational achievement. Analysis of variance showed a statistical significance correlation between the interactional zones and both agreeableness and conscientiousness. Mantel–Haenszel analysis showed a statistical significance association between sex and agreeableness and openness to experiences, which was mainly caused by zone II. Among the tested characteristics, a statistically significant relationship was observed between agreeableness and final exam scores. There was a statistical significance difference in openness and extraversion between the students with a high number of absences and their classmates. A relationship between the student's locations in the class, their educational achievements, and some of their personality characteristics are addressed.     

Simultaneous recovery model for aircraft and passengers

Usually some unforeseen events make airlines to reconstruct their schedules. A mathematical model for airlines schedule recovery which recovers aircrafts and disrupted passengers simultaneously is presented in this study. Aircraft recovery decisions affect on passengers but disrupted passengers and recovering them were not explicitly considered in the most previous aircraft recovery models so recovery of these two resources - aircrafts and passengers - concurrently is one of our contributions.The modeling is based on defining the recovery scope as well as employing aircraft rotations and passengers’ itineraries instead of flights. These are two of our other contributions.Our model examines possible flight re-timing, aircraft swapping, ferrying, utilization of reserve aircrafts, cancellation, and passenger reassignment to generate an efficient schedule recovery plan.Model parameters are user-specific therefore it helps airlines to apply their policies in the model. Defining the recovery scope reduces the problem size and ensures that the schedule returns to normal within a certain time. The objective is in the form of cost minimization which involves three kinds of cost—operational aircraft recovery, flight cancellation, and delay as well as disrupted passengers. A data set with two disruption scenarios is used to test the proposed model. The computational results show that it is capable of handling the simultaneous aircraft and passenger recovery problem successfully.     

Activating Students’ Argumentative Resources on Socioscientific Issues by Indirectly Instructed Reasoning and Negotiation Processes

The present study analyses the impact of negotiation processes on activating argumentative resources for decision-making in a socioscientific issue (SSI) in biology classes. The research focuses on the potential of group-based negotiation processes to activate the use of relevant argumentative resources without any prescribed or explicit instructions on these resources and arguments. In the corresponding intervention with a pre-post-design, students are encouraged to reason and weight their own arguments, which are based on protecting local biodiversity. The students have to reason and weight individually (pre-phase) immediately before they discuss their own reasoning and weighting with others in groups (treatment). The students have to then, once again, reason and weight their arguments individually (post-phase). The students are instructed, during these three steps (pre-phase, treatment, post-phase), using an educational tool, target-mat, which structures the reasoning and weighting visually, but does not prescribe the way of argumentation. By analysing the students’ argumentative resources, normative and fact-based elements can be measured immediately before and after the negotiation process. In terms of the pre-phase, the use of differing and appropriate argumentative resources can be analysed in relation to different arguments. The pre- and post-comparison reveals relevant changes leading to a substantial increase of the quality of reasoning. Therefore, in a student-centred decision-making process with minimal guidance, students are encouraged to become aware of the appropriateness of different argumentative resources.

     

Impact of the E-Journals of Academic Libraries Consortium on Research Productivity: An Iranian Consortium Experience

Abstract

This article reports on a research project undertaken at a university in Iran to study the impact of academic libraries consortium on research productivity. The overall objective of study was to examine to what extent the subscribed resources meet the needs of users and to determine the quality of cited journals by researchers. It also examined the relationship between the access method to a cited journal, its quality and the average citing to it. The results of the present research can help decision makers for selecting and providing suitable resources and databases based on the users' needs.     

The impact of the customer relationship management on the organization performance

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a very important growing business practice in today's environment. It is used for managing the interaction between a company and its future and current customers. CRM approach's task is analyzing data about the history of customers with a company. It focuses on a way to retain customers, therefore it helps the growth of sales. This leads to improvement of company's business relationship with customers. Current study's goal is to determine how technology, organizational capability, customer orientation, and customer knowledge management influence CRM success. We try to see that how the performance of an organization is affected by the achievement of CRM. For testing the hypotheses, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted. Results have indicated that the success of CRM is highly influenced through “information technology use”, also “customer orientation”, “organizational capability”, and “customer knowledge management” are related to CRM success. Finally, along with the future research avenues and limitations, study implications and findings are discussed.