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Following Swales' (1990) influential study on research article (RA) introductions, some attention has increasingly been paid to other rhetorical units of both expert and learners' writing, including titles. A key and effective discursive means through which titles are constructed and presented is the syntactic configuration. The present study, thus, investigates the syntactic structures employed by authors of conference paper titles (CPTs) in Applied Linguistics. A qualitative content analysis was employed to study a corpus of 592 CPTs from a popular conference for researchers, scholars, and practitioners of Applied Linguistics worldwide, supported by some descriptive statistics. The analysis of the data of the study identified three main title styles: Single Unit Title, Compound Unit Title, and Complex Unit Title. The analysis showed that, out of these three title styles, Compound Unit Titles were preferred by researchers. Further, the colon was the dominantly used punctuation mark in separating the components of Compound Unit titles. The final point was that authors preferred prepositional phrases in the post modification of the noun phrase structure of CPTs. The findings of this study have implications for the scholarship on titlelogy, academic writing pedagogy as well as further research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the meanings assigned by pre-service teachers to the wastepaper basket and waste (crumpled) papers in their drawings of a scientist. The study was carried out with 220 pre-service teachers during the 2015-2016 academic years. A phenomenological research method was used. First, the pre-service teachers were administered the 'Draw-A-Scientist Test' in order to identify their images of a scientist and then they were asked to describe and explain the scientist they drew. And a semi-structured interview was performed with the 34 pre-service teachers who included a wastepaper basket and waste paper in their drawings in order to identify the meanings assigned to the wastepaper and wastepaper basket by these teachers. The data were analysed by using content analysis. The results of the analysis showed that with these figures the pre-service teachers revealed their belief that when scientists conduct research, they follow a confirmatory experimental process in a similar manner to the way school science experiments. Based on these results, it can be suggested in the analysis of the drawings that waste paper and wastepaper baskets can be regarded as indicators of the stereotypical image of scientists and of the scientific method they use.

This article focuses on the dilemmas science educators face when having to introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to science student teachers in a predominantly paper-based distance learning environment. It draws on the premise that science education is bound by the Nature of Science (NOS), and by the Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI). Furthermore, science educators' own PCK, and the limitations of a predominantly paper-based distance education (DE) model of delivery are challenges that they have to face when introducing PCK and authentic inquiry-based learning experiences. It deprives them and their students from optimal engagement in a science-oriented community of practice, and leaves little opportunity to establish flourishing communities of inquiry. This study carried out a contextual analysis of the tutorial material to assess the PCK that the student teachers had been exposed to. This comprised the ideas of a community of inquiry, a community of science, the conceptualization of PCK, scientific inquiry, and the 5E Instructional Model of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. The analysis confirmed that the lecturers had a good understanding of NOS, NOSI and science process skills, but found it difficult to design interventions to optimize the PCK development of students through communities of inquiry. Paper-based tutorials are ideal to share theory, policies and practices, but fail to monitor the engagement of learners in communities of inquiry. The article concludes with a number of suggestions to address the apparent lack of impact power of the paper-based mode of delivery, specifically in relation to inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL).

In the study, the data for the field of visual arts in BILSEM have been revealed by studying postgraduate theses and articles related to the field of Visual Arts given in Science and Art Centers in between 2007-2017. In the research, the document was examined with the scanning model. In the scope of the research, it has been scanned from Google Scholar with keywords such as "BILSEM", "Art Education", "Visual Arts Education" and "Linear Development" in the YÖK database thesis and related theses and articles between the years 2007-2017 examined in terms of type, subject, sample, university and institute, national/ international, thesis method, data collection tools. In laser scanning, Visual Arts given in BILSEM in 2007-2017 years in Turkey related to Education "Science and Art Centers", "BILSEM", "Arts Education", "Visual Arts Education" and "Linear Development" screening using keywords according to the results of 6 theses (4 Master, 2 PhD) and 8 articles have been found. According to the results of the study, it is seen that there are no postgraduate thesis and articles about Visual Arts Education given in BILSEMs in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and studies have been intensified in between 2012-2017.

Mission statements have become increasingly important for the accreditation of business universities and colleges. Thus, understanding similarities and differences in the content of business school mission statements is especially timely. The mission statement is also the first component of the strategic management process. It provides the framework or context within which strategies are formulated. This descriptive/informative study aims to present a background that describes and explains institutional mission statements and removes the so-called uncertainty encompassing the foci while preserving exceptional quality--a necessary quality for a compelling mission statement. We question whether all California State University (CSU) and The State University of New York (SUNY) business colleges/schools have developed enduring and inspiring mission statements for their employees and students? While no specific rule regarding length exists, we examined the word count length of these two school system mission statements. Institutions must not make their mission statements too long or too short, or they will risk losing focus and missing essential elements to guide their organization. The mission statement must be long enough to achieve its purpose. Based on our findings, we recommend that all CSU and SUNY campuses embrace a more straightforward, easy-to-understand, hard-hitting, lasting, and inspirational mission statement for their business colleges/schools, one directly relevant to faculty, staff, students, and their families.

The purposes of this study were to examine the extent to which literature was used to discuss findings in selected papers from Zimbabwe Journal, and to compare the quality of reviews in this journal with other international journals. The study was largely qualitative in nature and used convenient sampling. In the study, the Zimbabwe Journal was chosen because of easy access. Three papers were conveniently selected based on personal interest and areas previously studied. Content analysis was used to compare the quality of discussion of literature in the sampled papers. Findings suggest that authors cite relevant literature extensively in the background to the study but use the same literature sparingly in the discussion of their results. Further, in the discussion of findings, the use of literature was limited to confirming what was already known, and does not show how the new studies reported contribute to knowledge. The study concluded that the journal studied was failing to attract authors who write high quality papers. Perhaps the journal should broaden its brief and target an international audience, because at present as evident in the three cases cited, the journal can only reach out to practitioners within (Southern) Africa.

The present review attempted to address the direction of plagiarism literature in Turkish context. 15 studies conducted in Turkey on plagiarism were analyzed through content analysis. The context, purposes, methodological issues and results of researching plagiarism were categorized. The findings of this review indicated that although plagiarism's raising legal and ethical concerns is acknowledged by Turkish researchers, there are limited numbers of studies exploring the plagiarism perceptions, views, situations and reasons of Turkish graduate students and professors.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework is increasingly drawing the attention of researchers and educators as an effective solution for filling the gap between learner ability and individual differences. This study aims to analyse the content of twelve papers, where the UDL was adopted. The articles were chosen from several databases and journals based on four criteria: 1) peer-reviewed papers, 2) provision of empirical results, 3) focused on UDL as a framework, and 4) published from 2012 to 2015. Then, these studies were analysed according to seven themes: type of results, study beneficiary (learners, teachers, both), sample features, geographical region, data collection techniques, data analysis techniques, and learning modes. Most of the selected studies applied the UDL in a traditional or a blended learning mode, whereas only two studies evaluated its effectiveness in online learning environments. It is noteworthy that the majority of the experiments were carried out in the USA. Additionally, positive results of UDL implementation were yielded in eleven papers. These outcomes suggest that UDL is an efficient approach for designing flexible learning environments and accessible content. Such designs can match a wide mix of learner needs, abilities, background knowledge, educational experience, and cultural differences. However, further research is required in order to confirm the positive impacts of UDL in different educational settings and cultural backgrounds.

It was aimed in this study to reveal the general tendency of studies in the field of education by examining the papers in the high-impact A-class SSCI journals, to which qualified papers are accepted from all around the world, in terms of their dependent-independent variables, sample or study groups, research designs, data collection instruments, and data analysis techniques. The descriptive survey model was used in the research. The population of the research was all the journals surveyed in the field of educational sciences by SSCI. The journals and papers examined were selected with the purposive sampling method. 169 papers from six journals were subjected to examination within the scope of the research. Descriptive analysis and content analysis methods were used for analyzing the data. It was consequently seen that the papers used dependent variable of "student" the most which was followed by "teacher." The most studied variable along with "student" was "academic performance." It was found that a quite large number of dependent variables were used in the papers examined. It can be understood that studies on students among all study groups occupied the largest place, which was followed by teachers. It was seen that quantitative data analyses and experimental research studies was addressed more in the papers. Several documents and tests were mostly preferred as data collection instruments. It was noticed that the most used data analysis method was the regression analysis. Finally, some recommendations were developed in accordance with the research results.

Introduction: This paper deals with what academic texts and datasets are referred to and discussed on Twitter. We used document object identifiers as references to these items. Method: We streamed tweets from the Twitter application programming interface including the strings "dx" and "doi" while simultaneously streaming tweets posted by and to the authors of the tweets captured. By doing so we were able to capture tweets referring to a digital object as well as the replies to these tweets. Analysis: The captured tweets were analysed in different ways, both quantitatively and qualitatively: 1) Bibliometric analyses were made on the digital object identifiers, 2) the thirty of these most mentioned and retweeted were analysed and 3) the conversations with at least ten tweets were analysed using content analysis. Results: Research from the natural sciences was most prominent, as was research published in open access journals. Different types of conversations relating to the digital objects were found, both when looking at them qualitative and their visual structure in terms of nodes and arcs. The conversations involved academics but were not always academic in nature. Conclusions: Digital object identifiers were mainly referred to for self-promotion, as conversation starters or as arguments in discussions.

In this study, we carry out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of abbreviations in 300 randomly collected research paper titles published in the most prestigious European and US-based Astrophysics journals written in English. Our main results show that the process of shortening words and groups of words is one of the most characteristic and recurrent features in Astrophysics research paper titling construction. In spite of the convenience of abbreviations as a mechanism for word-formation, some of them may pose certain difficulties of understanding and/or misinterpretation because of their specificity, ambiguity, or overlapping. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a series of options which with no doubt would lead to a better interaction among the different branches of Astrophysics in particular and of science in general and would definitely improve how research is currently performed and communicated.

University education has been massified in South Africa and this has disrupted conventions and practices of assessment. Universities are perceived as promoting complex achievements and complex skills through rigorous curriculum specifications and assessment instruments. Due to experiences in high school and the novelty of university education, students have begun to enquire about the "scope of the paper." This enquiry has tended to destabilise the reliability of assessments and judgments in universities in South Africa. Grades and symbols certified by some universities have become both indeterminate and ambiguous. A qualitative, quantitative design was adopted to identify and interrogate university research participants' views on experiences about examinations at university level. In the process, the meanings that first-year degree-level test-takers ascribed to the concept of "the scope of the paper" were unpacked. It was determined which aspects of the test scope students had studied in order to prepare for tests. Inferences were made about the concepts that the students marginalised because they were perceived to be "out of the scope" of the examination. A holistic and broad educational experience for university students is recommended in spite of the daunting numbers enrolled in certain university courses.

Introduction: Theory papers have been the most commonly employed method to assess learning outcomes in medical education. In these papers, both recall abilities and higher-order cognitive functions need to be assessed giving proper weightage as per relevance. Hence it becomes necessary that valid assessment methods are employed to evaluate the required objectives/competencies. The objective of the study was to develop a method for analyzing postgraduate question papers of various specialties. Methodology: A rubric matrix was created with three broad objective criteria to assess framing and layout of the questions in each paper, analysis of different sets for same examination, and finally an overall assessment of all the papers for each subject. Results: A total of 28 specialty papers were available. A total number of papers analysed = 340. The overall mean score out of total 60 marks was 38.64 ± 4.5. It was seen that the majority (60%) of the departments have been graded as fair on analysis of the theory papers. None of the departments were graded as very good, while 7% of them were graded as good. Although a very minuscule percentage of the papers had grammatical errors and duplication of questions in the sets, only 57% of the departments had done a proper moderation and 21% had used higher domains of learning for assessment. Conclusion: Analysis of postgraduate question papers showed that the questions asked for postgraduates are more recall-based instead of higher taxonomy of cognitive domain.

The author conducted a content analysis of papers submitted to the journal, "Communications in Information Literacy," from the years 2007-2013. The purpose was to investigate and report on the overall quality characteristics of a statistically significant sample of papers submitted to a single-topic, open access, library and information science (LIS) journal. Characteristics of manuscript submissions, authorship, reviewer evaluations, and editorial decisions were illuminated to provide context; particular emphasis was given to the analysis of major criticisms found in reviewer evaluations of rejected papers. Overall results were compared to previously published research. The findings suggest a trend in favor of collaborative authorship, and a possible trend toward a more practice-based literature. The findings also suggest a possible deterioration in some of the skills that are required of LIS authors relative to the preparation of scholarly papers. The author discusses potential implications for authors and the disciplinary literature, recommends directions for future research, and where possible, provides recommendations for the benefit of the greater community of LIS scholars.

This qualitative study investigated how pre-service teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) experienced and learned from their completion of a reflective project, including a reflection paper and digital storytelling. The participants were 20 graduate students in a program for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at a university in the United States. This study aimed to identify participants' experiences when completing the project and its influences on their learning. The findings demonstrated their diverse performance and perspectives during the tasks, as well as their learning in language, culture, education, and technology. Based on these findings, dialogic hybrid learning and the pedagogical implications are discussed.

Adoption of digital technology by older adults has become an important topic in academia and the public sphere within the debate on digital inclusion. Likewise, this topic has gained traction in the print media also. This paper assesses the representation of older adults in print media in the past 20 years in The Netherlands and Flanders. A total of 281 articles in the Dutch language were analysed to determine the representation of older adults and their level of agency. We found that they were represented in three manners: a) ambassadors of digital skill acquisition; b) naturally lacking in digital skills; or c) not alone in being helpless. These representations clearly increased during the COVIS-19 crisis. Some representations can be problematic, as the relationship between older adults and digital inclusion is not envisioned positively. Furthermore, they receive no agency to participate actively in the discussion surrounding their own digital inclusion and are too often used as the automatic example of the digitally illiterate – which is not particularly encouraging older adults towards digital skills acquisition.

This study focused on the depth of reflection in the writing of preservice teachers who completed end-of-the-semester reflective papers or reflective blogs for undergraduate education courses associated with clinical experiences. Coders rated the depth of reflection as one of four categories: non-reflection, understanding, reflection, or critical reflection. Our analyses revealed that preservice teachers who completed blogs showed higher levels of reflection in their writing compared to those who completed papers. Additionally, the blogs had the added advantage of being shorter by 1,000 words on average. We did not observe any relationship between peer or instructor feedback and overall depth of reflection. We then discuss the importance of teaching reflection and provide suggestions for implementing blog reflections in teacher education courses. (Contains 1 table.)

Introduction: Theory papers have been the most commonly employed method to assess learning outcomes in medical education. In these papers, both recall abilities and higher‑order cognitive functions need to be assessed giving proper weightage as per relevance. Hence it becomes necessary that valid assessment methods are employed to evaluate the required objectives/competencies. The objective of the study was to develop a method for analyzing postgraduate question papers of various specialties. Methodology: A rubric matrix was created with three broad objective criteria to assess framing and layout of the questions in each paper, analysis of different sets for same examination, and finally an overall assessment of all the papers for each subject. Results: A total of 28 specialty papers were available. A total number of papers analysed = 340. The overall mean score out of total 60 marks was 38.64 ± 4.5. It was seen that the majority (60%) of the departments have been graded as fair on analysis of the theory papers. None of the departments were graded as very good, while 7% of them were graded as good. Although a very minuscule percentage of the papers had grammatical errors and duplication of questions in the sets, only 57% of the departments had done a proper moderation and 21% had used higher domains of learning for assessment. Conclusion: Analysis of postgraduate question papers showed that the questions asked for postgraduates are more recall‑based instead of higher taxonomy of cognitive domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The news in the national papers has an important role to inform the people about the content of new primary school curriculum. This study investigated the way of function with the comparison of the studies in the literature. The news concerning the renewed curriculum appearing in the national media in the period between 2004 and 2007 was obtained through document analysis and were compared to scientific studies in terms of consistency. For our purposes, 484 news articles and columns from 14 newspapers which were grouped into 3 categories were examined through document analysis. Consequently, it was found that the highest rate was in the year 2004 and that the rate of concepts decreased as the years passed by. The information on the novel curriculum was brief statements made by officials and was in the form of headings in the early years; yet in the following years such knowledge as the philosophy of the curriculum, its being student-centred as well as details of measurement and evaluation was presented. In the literature, findings related with inadequacy and content/ design categories were seen taking place heavily.

This study seeks to determine whether item features are related to observed differences in item difficulty (DIF) between computer- and paper-based test delivery media. Examinees responded to 60 quantitative items similar to those found on the GRE general test in either a computer-based or paper-based medium. Thirty-eight percent of the items were flagged for cross-medium DIF, and "post hoc" content analyses were performed focusing on page formatting, mathematical notation, and mathematical content of the items. Although findings suggest that differences in page formatting and response processes across the delivery media contribute little to the observed cross-medium DIF, differences in the mathematical notation contained in the item text as well as differences in the mathematical content of the items provided the strongest apparent relationships with cross-medium DIF. (Contains 2 endnotes, 7 tables, and 2 figures.)

The number of ELT doctoral dissertations is growing every year, and these are great sources to spot the leading research trends and the research gaps in the field. Previous studies have been conducted to explore research trends in Turkey, accordingly journal articles and conference proceedings were examined. However, little research has aimed to investigate doctoral dissertations. As the number of graduates increases every year, a current study exploring the research trends of ELT in Turkey is needed. Therefore, the present research aims to fill this gap by examining 252 doctoral dissertations published between 2010 and 2020. Content analysis was conducted on the titles and abstract parts of the dissertations and then, coding was applied with the help of a priori codes suggested by the relevant literature. Findings have suggested that Teacher Professional Development is the leading research topic while Culture, Social, and Gender Issues are found to be under-researched. The results imply that these areas need improvements on both local and global scales. In light of the findings, further research in certain areas is suggested for local researchers.

Schools develop mission statements in part to communicate their purposes of schooling to internal and external audiences. The goal of this study is to employ text analytic techniques to analyze school mission statements. Focusing on Arizona and New Jersey's schools, we seek to understand: 1) what themes (topics) emerge from their mission statements, 2) whether local context (politics) and institutional factors (being a charter) mediate topic prevalence, and 3) how similar school mission statements are to one another overall and across select factors. Using structural topic modeling we find that five topics emerge as particularly prevalent, and they address key purposes within the US context related to social, academic, and civic development with an emphasis on a safe environment and a sense of community. Local political leanings have a minor impact on the prevalence of topics but being a charter has a distinct influence. Compared to regular schools, charters are more likely to include themes related to preparing for college, academic approaches, and character and family ties, but they place lower emphasis on community and citizenship themes. School missions display moderate levels of similarity, indicating that a common set vocabulary has permeated schools' missions, though differences remain, including between states. Overall, this study deepens our understanding of the varieties of schools' missions and reveals text analytic techniques are well suited for uncovering them.

The deep penetration and global impact of mobile devices has led the scientific community to undertake a thorough analysis of the implications of this phenomenon. Researchers need to determine their true real effect and how they can best be used to manage information and build knowledge. This study has examined recent investigations on the subject of mobile learning and carried out a descriptive analysis of a sample of registers indexed on the Web of Science research platform in 2015-16. An exhaustive content analysis has revealed new areas where M-Learning is being implemented, especially in the teaching of foreign languages, the emergence of social interaction methodologies in Secondary Education, evolving forms of collaborative relationships, work with clearly defined student profiles and the use of virtual immersive and innovative spaces in Higher Education. This paper also emphasizes the presence of previously unknown, transcendent problems associated with M-learning, such as the collateral addiction effect, and its interference in the classroom. Finally, our study suggests that teachers could embrace these technological proposals and include them in their strategies. Indeed, it might be necessary to flip the process, so this research could be the start of the generation and design of innovative guidelines to manage these forms and content.