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21 – 30 of over 7000This study examined the effectiveness of a 4.5-day service leadership program for students from Chinese universities using objective outcome evaluation. The participants were…
Abstract
This study examined the effectiveness of a 4.5-day service leadership program for students from Chinese universities using objective outcome evaluation. The participants were assessed before and after the program, with two post-test measurements (immediate assessment and assessment 12 days after the completion of class learning). At pretest and two posttest time points, the participants completed a questionnaire measuring positive youth development, service leadership qualities and beliefs, and life satisfaction. Results showed that students’ performance in both the immediate posttest and follow-up test was better than that in the pretest. Despite the limitations of the one-group pretest-posttest design, results suggest that the curricular-based service leadership program was effective to promote students’ positive youth development, service leadership qualities and beliefs, as well as life satisfaction, and the effectiveness maintained a short period after the class had ended. While the existing findings are promising, these findings should be replicated in the future.
William B. Hansen and Linda Dusenbury
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use…
Abstract
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use: viewing drug use as uncommon and unacceptable to the peer group (norms); viewing drug use as interfering with future goals; commitment to avoid drug use; positive attention from parents; and feeling accepted at school. All Star Plus was recently developed with the goal of expanding the Core program to include the development of three competencies: goal setting, decision making, and skills to resist peer pressure resistance. Students either received All Stars Core, All Stars Plus, or were assigned to the non‐treated control group. Both programs outperformed the control group; however, All Stars Plus was more effective in preventing drug use than All Stars Core. All Stars Plus was found to reduce alcohol use, drunkenness, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and inhalant use. The Plus program appeared to have achieved these outcomes by improving norms, increasing persistence in pursuing goals, and by increasing attention from parents.
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Laya Heidari Darani and Nafiseh Hosseinpour
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the effects of group-to-whole student-led oral discussion and small-group collaborative drafting as pre-writing tasks on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the effects of group-to-whole student-led oral discussion and small-group collaborative drafting as pre-writing tasks on Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance. Additionally, the difference between the writing components was examined.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve these objectives, a group of 120 intermediate EFL learners participated in a pretest–posttest study in which they were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The students in all three groups were tasked with writing a textbook evaluation report for the pretest and posttest. The pre-writing process in the first experimental group consisted of a group-to-whole student-led oral discussion, while the second experimental group engaged in small-group collaborative drafting.
Findings
The results indicate that both pre-tasks were effective in improving the participants’ writing skill, while collaborative drafting was even more efficient. Furthermore, it was observed that more writing components improved through collaborative drafting. It is concluded, therefore, that the social atmosphere created through oral discussion and the scaffolding resulting from collaborative drafting can help in writing improvement.
Research limitations/implications
The findings herein can have implications for first language (L1) composition instruction and second language (L2) writing teaching and, thus, underscoring the utility of the social constructivist approach to writing instruction.
Originality/value
As there has been no study conducted to explore the effects of group-to-whole student-led oral discussion on EFL learners’ writing skill and to compare its impacts to those of small-group collaborative drafting, the results of this study fill this gap in the literature.
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Stefan Kleinke and David Cross
The purpose of this two-part research was to investigate the effect of remote learning on student progress in elementary education. Part 2, presented in this paper, is a follow-up…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this two-part research was to investigate the effect of remote learning on student progress in elementary education. Part 2, presented in this paper, is a follow-up study to examine how student progression in the two pandemic-induced environments compared to the pre-pandemic conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors expanded the quantitative, quasi-experimental factorial design of the authors' initial study with additional ex-post-facto standardized test score data from before the pandemic to enhance the group comparison with a control: the conventional pre-pandemic classroom environment. Thus, the authors were able to examine in which ways the two pandemic-induced learning environments (remote and hybrid) may have affected learner progress in the two subject areas: English Language (ELA) and Math. Additionally, the authors provided a grade-by-grade breakdown of analysis results.
Findings
Findings revealed significant group differences in grade levels at or below 6th grade. In the majority of analyzed comparisons, learner achievement in the hybrid group was significantly lower than those in either the remote or the classroom group, or both.
Research limitations/implications
The additional findings further supported the authors' initial hypotheses: Differences in the consistency and continuity of educational approaches, as well as potential differences in learner predispositions and the availability of home support systems may have influenced observed results. Thus, this research also contributes to the general knowledge about learner needs in elementary education.
Originality/value
During the pandemic, remote learning became ubiquitous. However, in contrast to e-learning in postsecondary education, for which an abundance of research has been conducted, relatively little is known about the efficacy of such approaches in elementary education.
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Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani and Zeinab Amiri
In an effort to bridge the gap between applying translation corpora, specialized terminology teaching and translation performance of undergraduate students, the purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
In an effort to bridge the gap between applying translation corpora, specialized terminology teaching and translation performance of undergraduate students, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible impacts of teaching specialized terminology of law as a specific area of inquiry on translation performance of Iranian undergraduate translation student (English–Persian language pairs). The null hypothesis of this study is that using specialized terminology does not have statistically significant impacts on the translation performance of the translation students.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of this research was experimental in that there was pretest, treatment, posttest and random sampling. In other words, this research was pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design. This design was used in this research as the number of subjects who participated in the research was limited. Apart from being experimental, this research enjoyed a corpus-based perspective. As Mcenery and Hardie (2012) claim, corpus-based research uses the “corpus data in order to explore a theory or hypothesis, typically one established in the current literature, in order to validate it, refute it or refine it” (p. 6). Table I shows the design of this research.
Findings
The results of this research indicated that on the whole, the posttest results had statistically significant differences with that of the pretest. In this regard, the quality of students’ translation enhanced after using the specialized terminology in the form of three types of corpora. Indeed, there was a general trend in the improved quality of the novice translators in translating specialized and subject-field terminologies in an English–Persian context.
Originality/value
This paper is original in that it probes into one of the less researched areas of Translation Studies Research and employs corpora methodology.
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Amrita Kaur, Rosna Awang Hashim and Mohammad Noman
The benefits of teacher autonomy support for optimal school functioning is evident in literature. However, studies are meager about teachers applying the concept of autonomy…
Abstract
Purpose
The benefits of teacher autonomy support for optimal school functioning is evident in literature. However, studies are meager about teachers applying the concept of autonomy support in real settings (regular classroom).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on empirical data within self-determination theory, a longitudinal intervention program was designed to facilitate autonomy support instruction in a natural classroom setting and to assess its effectiveness on Thai students’ learning motivation. In a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design, with an appended withdrawal design, 103 students from Grade 6 of a Thai public school underwent the intervention for seven weeks in natural classroom settings. The students in both the groups self-reported their class-related experience before intervention (pretest), after intervention (posttest1) and after the withdrawal of intervention (posttest2).
Findings
MANOVA results revealed a significant mean difference for all dependent measures on posttest1 between the experimental group and control group. Also, after the withdrawal of treatment, the experimental group showed a significant omnibus effect on combination of dependent measures, while scores of control group were stable.
Originality/value
The findings have implications for elementary school teachers in Thailand to adapt and adopt autonomy supportive instruction as a classroom practice.
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Habsah Muda, Zaharah Salwati Baba, Zainudin Awang, Natasha Shazleen Badrul, Nanthakumar Loganathan and Mass Hareeza Ali
The rationale for the postgraduate supervision measures for higher education by the call for universities to adopt a systematic practice in postgraduate supervision through new…
Abstract
Purpose
The rationale for the postgraduate supervision measures for higher education by the call for universities to adopt a systematic practice in postgraduate supervision through new supervisors' exposure to creative ways of monitoring. This paper aims at understanding, improving and validating the content of behavioral supervision measures using the expert review and pretesting analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed, modified and operationalized the items based on the developmental supervision theoretical concept by Glickman (1980) to measure the behavioral supervision of postgraduate in higher education. The authors obtain comments and verification from experts for content validity and criterion validity. Later, the authors do pretesting of face validity.
Findings
The result of the expert review and pretesting, analysis, provides measures (items) for the following seven stages (components) of postgraduate behavioral supervision: listening/clarifying; encouraging; presenting/demonstrating; negotiating/problem-solving; directing; standardizing and reinforcing.
Practical implications
The findings contribute to the rational development of supervision measures and functional transformation in the postgraduate supervision process in higher education at national and international contexts.
Social implications
These supervision measures, if practiced by the supervisors and postgraduates' students, will accelerate and achieve the aspiration initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education. In general, based on the needs identified, the positive impact of this study can improve national and international postgraduate program educational outcomes.
Originality/value
There is limited number of empirical research which resulted in postgraduate behavioral supervision measures in the context of higher education.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instruction in information problem solving within the world wide web (the web) environment. The participants were 20…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instruction in information problem solving within the world wide web (the web) environment. The participants were 20 seventh and eighth grade students with a learning disability (LD) in reading. An experimental pretest‐posttest control group method was used to investigate the effects of intervention in which the treatment group was instructed in information problem solving with the Big6 Skills model. Both groups utilized an essay map organizer. The students researched science and social studies topics on the internet and the web and wrote reports over a three‐month period.
Design/methodology/approach
Experimental pretest‐posttest control group study, with a repeated measures design, and a repeated measures ANOVA analysis.
Findings
Both groups significantly improved in the quality of writing, text length, and navigation. The treatment group significantly outperformed the control group on the measure of text length and text organization. There were no significant differences between the two groups in prior knowledge, motivation, or gender.
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted predominantly with the researcher as the instructor in a number of individualized sessions, which limits the generalizability of the study.
Practical implications
This study reveals that students with a reading disability in reading could be taught information problem‐solving skills within the web environment. As technology reshapes our notion of what constitutes “basic skills”, learning with the web calls for instruction in which reading, writing, and information skills should be viewed as interconnected. This interconnection might be especially important for students with LD who are often engaged in practicing various skills in isolation.
Originality/value
This study experimentally examined information problem solving on the web with students with an LD in reading. Much research has been focused on basic reading skills for this group of students, but few studies have examined their learning within electronic environments.
Yifan Tang, Yiting Kuang, Han Li, Binbin Cao and Ping Qing
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of food retailer's Approaching the Expiration Date (AED) labelling on consumers' retailer-related response. Specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of food retailer's Approaching the Expiration Date (AED) labelling on consumers' retailer-related response. Specifically, the main effect of food retailer's AED labelling on consumers' patronage intention, the mediation effect of food retailer's concern for consumers and the boundary condition of this effect are explored. The selected context of research is that food retailers are reluctant to stick an AED label on nearly expired food due to negative effect on selling them.
Design/methodology/approach
Two separate pretests and two separate experiments have been conducted to investigate the influence of food retailer's AED labelling on patronage intention. Pretest 1 develops the stimulus material of food retailer's AED labelling. Study 1 investigates the influence of AED labelling on patronage intention and mediation effect of consumers' perception of retailer's concern for consumers. Pretest 2 develops the stimulus material of government regulation on food retailer's AED labelling. Study 2 explores the boundary condition of the positive effect, namely the moderation effect of whether retailer's AED labelling is voluntary or mandatory.
Findings
The main findings of this research highlight the positive influence of food retailer's AED labelling on consumers' patronage intention. In addition, the current research reveals the underlying mechanism food retailer's concern for consumers and the boundary condition whether the AED labelling is voluntary or mandatory.
Originality/value
Although previous researches has explored the effect of food retailer's AED labelling on consumers' response, most of them focus on consumer purchase intention of the nearly expired food and neglect its effect on consumers' food retailer-related response. It is a need for food retailer to explore the potential positive influence of food retailer's AED labelling on consumers' patronage intention.
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This article reviews research findings related to the “art” of constructing survey questionnaires. It discusses some of the important issues that should be considered in gathering…
Abstract
This article reviews research findings related to the “art” of constructing survey questionnaires. It discusses some of the important issues that should be considered in gathering quality data via questionnaires, provides general suggestions for their construction, includes a comprehensive list of important reference sources, and examines some of the survey‐based studies published in Integrated Manufacturing Systems. Constructing a good questionnaire requires a thorough grasp of the intricacies of the topical area and detailed knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the different survey administration modes. In addition, questionnaire construction entails close attention to details about the wording of questions, their instructions, their response choices, and their sequence. Most importantly, the research instrument should be refined based on guidance from repeated pretests. Well‐constructed questionnaires can ensure the consistent meaning of the questions across respondents and can contribute to data quality by decreasing both item and unit nonresponse.
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