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The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

The purpose of the research was to, first, investigate if the use of maps as instructional resources will boost scholarly performance and, second, examine if gender can moderate the effect of map usage on scholarly performance.

The study was a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test. A sample of 260 JSS II Students from 8 schools were selected through the purposive sampling technique. A Social Studies Scholarly Performance Test (SSSPT) with a reliability index of 0.79 was the instrument for data collection. The students were assigned into two groups: control and experimental. Both groups were pre-tested taught for a timeline of six weeks and thereafter post-tested.

The study reported a significant increase in the scholarly performance of students taught with maps; a significant difference occurred in the scholarly performance of both groups and gender did not moderate the effect of maps.

The social studies teachers used for the study did not have previous knowledge or map skills; this could have affected the outcome. Secondly, the treatment took place for just six weeks, and the time allotted for social studies in the school timetable was used. This may not have given the students enough time to master map interpretation.

A major implication of the study is that results will show that maps can promote the scholarly performance of students in social studies. Secondly, the fact that gender did not moderate the effect of maps suggests that maps are gender-friendly.

The results of the study, if implemented, would make social studies teachers to become inventive and resourceful in the use of maps as instructional resources for junior secondary students' scholarly performance in social studies without taking gender into consideration.

This study is a product of the researcher’s doctoral thesis; therefore, it is original and has value. The results are the product of a painstaking study carried out by the author for a period of three years on the effect of instructional resources on social studies students’ scholarly performance. Maps were one of the instructional resources studied for the award of a Ph.D. degree.

The aim of this paper is to determine the scope and content for a holistic conservation and development strategies in the case of Gaziantep Rumkale. This approach seeks an answer to the question of “How can Rumkale archaeological heritage be preserved with their original values and passed on to future generations?”

The materials of the paper are based on field research and written and visual resource. The paper has been handled with a four-step method setup. The first stage is to examine the spatial and functional background of Rumkale and its immediate surroundings based on the historical development process. The second stage is to evaluate the upper- and lower-scale planning experiences of the heritage site. The third stage of the research methodology is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. The fourth stage is the creation of cultural heritage conservation-development strategies that define strategies for the protection and development of archaeological heritage in the context of sustainability.

The paper emphasizes the development of a holistic perspective that theoretically deals with the archaeological heritage sites of Rumkale together with the surrounding rural areas. In this context, the paper suggests ecological, spatial, socio-cultural, economic and institutional protection development strategies for the Rumkale archaeological site together with the surrounding rural areas for their delivery to future generations.

Although the area has an important cultural heritage value for different religions and cultures, it has not been subject to sufficient scientific research. The paper develops a holistic approach by considering Rumkale and its surroundings together.

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the industry practice to guide the formation of support tools with a rigorous theoretical backing. Cross-functional teams are an essential component in new product development (NPD) of complex products to promote comprehensive coverage of product design, marketing, sales, support as well as many other activities of business. Efficient use of teams can allow for greater technical competency coverage, increased creativity, reduced development times and greater consideration of ideas from a variety of stakeholders. While academics continually aspire to propose methods for improved team composition, there exists a gap between research directions and applications found within industry practice.

Through interviewing product development managers working across a variety of industries, this paper investigates the common practices of team utilization in an organizational setting. Following these interviews, this paper proposes a conceptual two-dimensional management support model aggregating the primary drivers of team success and providing direction to systematically address features of team management and composition.

Based on this work, product managers are recommended to continually address the positioning of members throughout the entire NPD process. In the early stages, individuals are to be placed to work on project components with explicit consideration toward the perceived complexity of tasks and individual competency. Throughout the development process, individuals’ positions vary based on new information while continued emphasis is placed on maintaining a shared understanding.

Bridging the gap between theory and application within product development teams is a necessary step toward improved product develop. Industrial settings require practical solutions that can be applied economically and efficiently within their organization. Theoretical reflections postulated by academia support improved team design; however, to achieve true success, they must be applicable when considering product development.

Lean construction (LC) is an innovative approach in the construction industry that has shown significant success in developed countries. Although LC has potential in the construction sector of Pakistan, it has not been extensively explored. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by identifying and predicting current lean practices and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of LC implementation in Pakistan.

Using robust statistical methods to analyze 92 valid responses, the study reveals that approximately 54% of lean practices are currently in use in the construction industry of Pakistan, with a population mean ranging from 52.7% to 55.6%.

Surprisingly, the research identifies instances where some construction firms in Pakistan are implementing LC practices, even though they have only a limited understanding of its underlying principles. Notably, certain subprinciples, such as visual management, top management commitment to change, employee training, process cycle time reduction and production optimization, are less integrated within the construction industry. Exploring the possibility of implementing LC, recommendations for strategies to implement LC in Pakistan are suggested, aligning with the conceptual model proposed by the researchers.

The novelty of this work offers insights that can serve as a comprehensive guide for developing nations. It provides a structured approach to assess and benchmark LC practices, which, in turn, can contribute to a more efficient and effective construction industry. Moreover, the strategies proposed in this research can aid developing countries in the efficient implementation of LC. This will have a positive implication for both economic and developmental outcomes.

The goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema. Moreover, the study introduces the architectural components that qualify the cinematic spaces to be influential cinematic experience. This is in addition to investigating the impact of these components on the viewers' cognitive and emotional experience of films.

In the reported study, an empirical experiment examined scenes from three different movies as experienced by a selected group of audience of movies fans (architects and laypersons). The audience was asked to report feelings the audience had about each scene using a questionnaire that was designed for this purpose, and the audience was asked to write down the aspects that affected the audience's emotions. The experiment evaluated selected emotional states and could specify the architectural features and/or objects that significantly contributed in inducing these emotions.

This study's findings concluded that emotions, which exist in the positive margin of the emotions “circumplex model,” were influenced by architectural components that were different from those that influenced emotions which lie in the negative margin of the model.

As for filmmakers, the study contributes in developing filmmakers' knowledge about the role of architecture in scenic creation and thus how that knowledge enhances filmmakers' film narrative and the narrative's spatial imagery. As for academia, this study contributes in developing the knowledge about film cognition as related to architectural semiotics. In the context of behavioral approach to architectural design, a behavior setting which is the basic element in environmental design can be dramatized by applying a cinematic narrative to a human activity system within a milieu of architectural design elements.

This study is important for architects, as the study provides architects with an alternative tool for fictional experience and for testing architectural ideas through cinematic architecture. This study also helps in developing new venues for the practice of architecture into the world of fiction. This study also contributes in developing the trend that architectural design thinking can learn from cinematic thinking and practice.

This study introduces an empirical approach to evaluate architectural entities as part of cinematic experience. This study also comes as a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema.

The interpretation of any emerging form or period in art history was never a trivial task. However, in the case of digital art, technology, becoming an integral part, multiplied the complexity of describing, systematizing and evaluating it. This article investigates the most common metadata standards for the documentation of art as a broad category and suggests possible next steps toward an extended metadata standard for digital art.

Describing several techno-cultural phenomena formed in the last decade, manifesting the extendibility of digital art (its ability to be easily extended across multiple modalities), the article, at first, points to the long overdue need to re-evaluate the standards around it. Then it suggests a deeper analysis through a comparative study. In the scope of the study three artworks, The Arnolfini Portrait (Jan van Eyck), an iconic example of the early Renaissance, The World's First Collaborative Sentence (Douglas Davis), a classic example of early Internet art and Fake It Till You Make It (Maya Man), a prominent example of the blockchain art, are examined following the structure of the VRA Core 4.0 standard.

The comparative study demonstrates that digital art is more multi-semantic than traditional physical art, and requires new taxonomies as well as approaches for data acquisition.

Acknowledging that digital art simply has not yet evolved to the stage of being systematically collected by cultural institutions for documentation, curation and preservation, but otherwise, in the past few years, it has been at the front-center of social, economic and technological trends, the article suggests looking for hints on the future-proof extended metadata standard in some of those trends.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale to assess the influence of Higher Educational Facilities for the growth of education in higher education institutions.

The first step in the process of scale development is to generate an item pool containing as many items as possible which captures the construct of interest. A total of 111 items were constructed for the initial try-out of the scale measuring the construct of higher educational facilities. This rating scale was based on the Likert-type was designed, where each item had to be rated on a five-point scale. The scale consisted of a few items involving the dimensions of infrastructure, quality assessment and quality assurance regard to the vision actualization.

Higher Educational Facilities Scale (HEFS) was developed by the investigator and designed in the format of a 5-point rating scale of the Likert type. There are different phases identified for the scale construction. In the first phase, items are created and the content’s validity is determined. The scale is constructed in the second phase. Pre-testing the questions, administering the survey, reducing the number of items and determining how many factors the scale captures are all steps in the scale construction process. The number of dimensions, reliability and validity are all verified in the third phase, scale evaluation. In developing the scale, the content and face validity was ascertained. The reliability of the scale and its three subscales were established. This scale has potential value for policymakers to assess the perception held by the religious faculty members working in higher education institutions.

The research is part of the doctoral thesis by Dr Deepa Thomas under the supervision of Dr Fr. Joseph C. C. and the co-supervision of Dr Kennedy Andrew Thomas. The purpose of the scale is to assess the higher educational facilities of in institutions of higher Education. Quality, excellence and service are the vision and purpose of higher education institutions to provide ample opportunities and good facilities for their beneficiaries, thus creating tremendous changes in the Indian education scenario.

This paper investigated the possibilities of implementing inclusive education in the tertiary-level language classrooms and suggests new teaching methodologies adhering to the guidelines of multicultural education (MCE) framework. It explored how Indian teachers fostered social inclusivity in ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classrooms and documented the methods used by the language teachers to sustain a socially inclusive environment in the classroom.

This qualitative study undertaken with 17 faculty members using online interviews and surveys as tools revealed the challenges faced by the teachers.

The results have implications towards teacher training as there is a clear dearth of teacher strategies to foster an equitable and inclusive learning environment inside the classroom.

Classrooms are the sources of values and perspectives, and teachers are responsible for providing equal opportunities to students who are otherwise marginalised in society.

Inclusive education aims at providing equal opportunities to people despite the differences in terms of race, class, caste, region, religion, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and disabilities. India being a multilingual and multicultural country, inculcating values in students to enable them to reflect beyond these differences becomes important.

The purpose of this paper is to review ontologies and data models currently in use for augmented reality (AR) applications, in the cultural heritage (CH) domain, specifically in an urban environment. The aim is to see the current trends in ontologies and data models used and investigate their applications in real world scenarios. Some special cases of applications or ontologies are also discussed, as being interesting enough to merit special consideration.

A search using Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect and IEEE Xplore was done in order to find articles that describe ontologies and data models in AR CH applications. The authors identified the articles that analyze the use of ontologies and/or data models, as well as articles that were deemed to be of special interest.

This review found that CIDOC-CRM is the most popular ontology closely followed by Historical Context Ontology (HiCO). Also, a combination of current ontologies seems to be the most complete way to fully describe a CH object or site. A layered ontology model is suggested, which can be expanded according to the specific project.

This study provides an overview of ontologies and data models for AR CH applications in urban environments. There are several ontologies currently in use in the CH domain, with none having been universally adopted, while new ontologies or extensions to existing ones are being created, in the attempt to fully describe a CH object or site. Also, this study suggests a combination of popular ontologies in a multi-layer model.