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This study attempts to explore the teachers' beliefs on the causes of learners' misbehavior in language classrooms. To do so, 23 language teachers completed a narrative frame in which they discussed a misbehavior experience they had in the class and why they thought it happened; they, then, attended semi-structured interviews where they discussed their experiences regarding learners' misbehavior. A thematic analysis was employed and the data was analyzed with an eye on the study's theoretical underpinning, i.e., Activity Theory (AT). The results indicated that there are different sources of misbehavior on different interconnected components of AT. In the "tool" component, the emergent themes were materials constraints, technological challenges, and hobbies interventions. In the "rules", some themes such as teaching methodology, socio-cultural norms, and political, and ideological intolerance or disobedience emerged. It was in the "community" component of AT that the data revealed social phenomena, colleagues and authorities, and learners heterogeneity. Finally, in the "division of labor" the emerged themes were overwhelming responsibilities, family issues, and executives' dereliction. The findings suggest a new look at language learners' misbehavior and inform teacher education programs in which teachers are trained on this issue to manage learning in their classrooms effectively.

The present study is an attempt to apply Galperin spiral model to implement and analyze a peer coaching program. To do so, six teachers (three coaches and three protégés), who attended a 3-month peer coaching program in which protégés received help from their more experienced peers (coaches), completed narrative frames about the program and participated in individual semistructured interviews. After the transcription of the interviews, the thematic analysis was conducted on the gathered data. The results of the study revealed that although there are evidential obstacles to doing the program including inter alia, cultural schema, teacher financial well-being and discontinuity of it, the employed model could provide additional aid and critical look for implementing peer coaching programs in educational contexts. Teachers and teacher educators can benefit from the findings by applying the proposed model in peer coaching programs.

The current study aims to examine the association between digital literacy (DL), Internet addiction (IA) and cyberloafing (CL) levels of higher education students in Turkey. In addition, the study examined the correlation between "daily Internet use," "initial Internet usage," and "purpose of Internet use" with the variables of DL, IA, and CL. The study groups consisted of 1220 higher education students including all faculties and all grades of a state university. The "Digital Literacy Scale," "Internet Addiction Scale," and "Cyberloafing Scale" were used as data collection instruments. The study's findings revealed initial Internet usage to be a predictor of DL, IA, and CL. Similarly, participants who spent more than 6 h using the Internet during a day have a higher level of DL, CL, and IA. Results from structural equation modeling reported a positive association between DL and IA, a negative association between DL and CL, and a positive relationship between IA and CL. Moreover, an indirect effect was revealed from DL to CL through IA. The study suggests improving students' DL skills, as they form the basis of avoiding CL behavior, and using the Internet mostly for educational purposes.

With the incremental integration of technology in writing assessment, technology-generated feedback has found its way to take further steps toward replacing human corrective feedback and rating. Yet, further investigation is deemed necessary regarding its potential use either as a supplement to or replacement for human feedback. This study aims to investigate the effect of blending teacher and automated writing evaluation, as formative assessment feedback, on enhancing the writing performance among Iranian IELTS candidates. In this explanatory mixed-methods research, three groups of Iranian intermediate learners (N=31) completed six IELTS writing tasks during six consecutive weeks and received automated, teacher, and blended (automated + teacher) feedback modes respectively on different components of writing (task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy). A structured written interview was also conducted to explore learners' perception (attitude, clarity, preference) of the mode of feedback they received. Findings revealed that students who received teacher-only and blended feedback performed better in writing. Also, the blended feedback group outperformed the others regarding "task response," the teacher feedback group in "cohesion and coherence," and the automated feedback group in "lexical resource." The analysis of the interviews revealed that the majority of the learners confirmed the clarity of all feedback modes and learners' attitude about feedback modes was positive although they highly preferred the blended one. The findings suggest new ideas to facilitate learning and assessing writing and support the evidence that teachers can provide comprehensive, accurate, and continuous feedback as a means of formative assessment.

Interactional competence has recently gained considerable attention in language education. As an aspect of this competence, classroom interactional competence has been in the limelight since Walsh's (2006) delineation of this concept. However, there is no survey tool to measure teachers' classroom interactional competence. To bridge this gap, the present study describes the development and validation of a teachers' classroom interactional competence (TCIC) scale. An outline of the relevant literature related to classroom interactional competence is provided, along with the process of scale development and validation. An exploratory factor analysis of the data from a large sample of language teachers (N = 564) resulted in a 46-item scale that constituted nine factors, namely visual organizers, sociocultural interaction, questioning, interactional patterns, repair, language modification, turn taking, managerial interaction, and rhetorical script. The implications of the scale for the measurement and, in turn, the enhancement of teachers' classroom interactional competence are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of self-esteem among pre-service teachers in Turkey and Iran who were studying in the Physical Education and Sports Teaching Departments at their respective countries. The study's participant group consisted of 80 Turkish and 111 Iranian students. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was used for this cross-cultural comparative research approach. A two-way analysis of variance was used to examine the data. When the self-esteem scores of pre-service teachers were examined, it was shown that pre-service teachers in both Turkey and Iran scored higher than the national average. Although the mean self-esteem ratings of pre-service teachers in Turkey were found to be higher than those of pre-service teachers in Iran, it could be claimed that the self-esteem levels of pre-service teachers did not differ according to the culture they lived in, in other words, they were at a similar level. Similarly, it was discovered that self-esteem levels did not differ significantly by gender, grade level, perceived level of academic accomplishment, or cultural characteristics. One of the key elements of human personality is the sense of self-esteem which influences both the level of self-acceptance and self-awareness. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to develop these skills and the psychophysical characteristics in the process of upbringing and education.

This study explores university educators' perspectives on their alignment with artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, considering activity theory (AT), which forms the theoretical underpinning of this study. To do so, 37 educators from a higher education institution were selected to write their metaphors about AI ethics alignment, out of which 11 attended semi-structured interviews, in which they answered some questions about their AI ethics alignment and narrated some experiences. The study reveals diverse and often contradictory perspectives on AI ethics, highlighting a general lack of awareness and inconsistent application of ethical principles. Some educators metaphorised AI ethics as fundamental but difficult to understand, while others pointed to the difficulties of regulating ethical violations. The findings highlight the need for targeted professional development on AI ethics, collaborative policy making and a multidisciplinary approach to promote ethical use of AI in higher education. This study also calls for stronger alignment between educators' personal ethical standards and institutional norms to reduce AI-related risks in educational settings.

Assessing student knowledge based on their writing using traditional qualitative methods is time-consuming. To improve speed and consistency of text analysis, we present our mixed methods development of a machine learning predictive model to analyze student writing. Our approach involves two stages: first an exploratory sequential design, and second an iterative complex design. We first trained our predictive model using qualitative coding of categories (ideas) in student writing. We next revised our model based on feedback from instructor-users. The model itself highlighted categories in need of revision. The contribution to mixed methods research lies in our innovative use of the machine learning tool as a rapid, consistent additional coder, and a resource that can predict codes for new student writing.

Purpose: Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to investigate the motivational antecedents of faculty members' continuance intention of using online teaching platforms. For this purpose, we introduced a model incorporating basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS) and different motivational mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach: Using a survey study of 312 faculty members, we examined the model by structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings: The SEM results revealed a positive correlation between BPNS and continuance intention. Additionally, we illustrate the importance of different types of extrinsic motivation. By presenting an alternative model, we demonstrate that the initial-use-identified regulation (one type of extrinsic motivation) has an association with continuance intention (CI). However, this association loses significance if BPNS is present within the model. Moreover, we determined that there is no significant relationship between initial-use external regulation (another type of extrinsic motivation) and faculty members' CI for online teaching. Lastly, the results revealed that pre-use amotivation and intrinsic motivation impact CI through initial-use BPNS. Research limitations/implications: The results suggest that decision-makers at educational institutions should consider that extrinsic motivation has different types with different impacts and that BPNS has a vital role in faculty members' intention to continue using online teaching platforms. Originality/value: This study is novel because it reveals some details of extrinsic motivation effects by offering a model that combines BPNS and different types of motivation in two stages. It is important and rare that we concentrate on the almost neglected issue of faculty members' motivational perspectives in online teaching, while the literature mainly focuses on students' perspectives.

Genetic variation is historically challenging for undergraduate students to master, potentially due to its grounding in both evolution and genetics. Traditionally, student expertise in genetic variation has been evaluated using Key Concepts. However, Cognitive Construals may add to a more nuanced picture of students' developing expertise. Here, we analyze the occurrence of Key Concepts and Cognitive Construals among three types of student representations: interviews, drawn models, and constructed responses (CRs). Our mixed-methods analysis indicates that differential survival and differential reproduction occur more often in interviews than in CRs. In our interviews, presence of Cognitive Construals indicate varying levels of understanding of genetic variation, but we were not able to detect Cognitive Construals in students' models or CRs. Finally, our analyses of both Key Concepts and Cognitive Construals in student representations indicate that Cognitive Construals can co-occur with any number of Key Concepts, and that the presence of Construal-based language alone does not seem to correlate to the expert nature of a response. Taken together, our results highlight the need for instructors to avoid treating Construal-based language as implicit disconnects in student understanding, and to use multiple methods to gain a holistic picture of student expertise.

This collaborative project-based learning (CPBL) study concerns the design and development of educational material set by preservice teachers. During the study, Web 2.0 technologies were used as tools to support collaborative knowledge construction in terms of school health and safety. Based on the purpose of the study, mixed method was employed. Qualitative results indicated that CPBL was an appropriate choice for studies aiming to increase awareness and knowledge in a special context. Preparing an educational material set with a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools based on predetermined criteria through CPBL strategy can enable participants to enhance their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Moreover, CPBL was effective in increasing the participants' motivation and self-regulation towards technology learning.

Classroom observation has been long considered a powerful tool for evaluating and monitoring teachers' performance and progress. Teachers can benefit from the feedback during the postobservation conference but giving feedback is not a simple skill and needs knowledge and training. Research on tackling postobservation problems remains emerging and the aim of this study is to explore the role that a teacher's personality type--based on DiSC personality test- might play in postobservation conferences and reaction to receiving feedback from the supervisor. To gather data, 20 nonnative EFL teachers were asked to take the DiSC personality test to have their personality types identified, then they were observed three times, and each time they received feedback on their classroom management techniques. Results indicate that teachers with different personality types act differently during the postobservation conferences. While D and i styles are active and tend to employ feedback moderately and strongly in their classes, S and C styles are mostly passive with the tendency of employing feedback moderately and weakly. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of personality types in teachers' tolerance of criticism and their tendency to apply the received feedback in their future classes.

Socially shared metacognition is important for effective collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratory settings, A holistic account of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings is needed to advance our understanding, but previous studies have only focused on the isolated effect of each dimension on problem solving. This study thus applied learning analytics techniques to develop a comprehensive understanding of socially shared metacognition during collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratories. We manually coded 126 collaborative problem-solving scenarios in a virtual physics laboratory and then employed K-Means clustering analysis to identify patterns of socially shared metacognition. Four clusters were discovered. Statistical analysis was performed to investigate how the clusters were associated with the outcome of collaborative problem solving and also how they related to the difficulty level of problems. The findings of this study provided theoretical implications to advance the understanding of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings and also practical implications to foster effective collaborative problem solving in those settings.

Introduction: This article discusses a mentoring project that was aimed at improving the inclusive education practices of teachers. Methods: There were 10 mentors who were faculty members in science education and special education. Mentees were 59 teachers who have an inclusive student in their class or school. A qualitative approach was chosen. Results: Reported learning outcomes referred to changes in knowledge related to "Basic Concepts", "Educational Support and Legislation", "Assistive Technology", and "Educational Accommodations". Discussion: The results of this study points to the needs for more interdisciplinary collaboration studies in order to support teachers' dealing with diverse students. Limitations: The results of the study are bound to the project duration and the place of the study. Conclusions: The current collaborative mentoring study has several contributions for teachers in terms of their knowledge and skills in implementing an effective inclusive education.

The advent of postmethod encouraged much debate over the concept amongst researchers from different approaches. One approach was the concept of "teacher metamorphosis," which posits that teachers should perform different roles and hence, "teacher metamorphosis" is considered a possible remedy for certain criticisms of postmethod. Although this metamorphosis is a solution that seems tenable, there remain many questions regarding its practicality. Considering that those who are most directly connected with the concept are teachers, the present study investigates the practicalities of "teacher metamorphosis" from teachers' perspectives. To this end, ten teachers were selected and interviewed about their beliefs on "teacher metamorphosis." Data analysis reveals that almost all the interviewed teachers agreed that there is a need for "teacher metamorphosis," although they also agree that there are barriers including financial barriers, respect barriers, time-constraint barriers, and incentive barriers that encourage teachers to resist metamorphosis and that, therefore, needs further consideration.

The purpose of the current study was to understand the digital parentship practices of faculty members with an Instructional Technology (IT) major within a qualitative approach. The participants of the study comprised of 13 faculty members from the IT field of any university in Turkey and who has one or more children aged 0-6 years old. The IT academician, in their role as mother or father, participated in the interview process. As digital literates, the participants of the study possess knowledge and expertise in the potential opportunities that technology offer, and also the possible risks that they pose to children. The findings showed that the majority of the participants do not hesitate to allow their children to use screen technology from an early age (from as young as 6 months old) in order to free up time for themselves or to attend to their work. This implies that the participants utilize technology in order to facilitate the role of parenting, even though they may appreciate it is seen as inappropriate. However, the academician parents who took part in this study applied more restrictive mediation so as to limit their children's exposure to technology due to their very young age and owing to the children's inability at that age to understand the potential risks. The findings of the study provided information so as to help understand the digital parentship practices of parents from the technology field, and to make suggestions about parenting strategies for younger children.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how special education knowledge and practice can be expanded through mentoring activities. In this respect, an interdisciplinary one-to-many mentorship study with Collaborative Project-based Learning (CPBL) was conducted. The mentors were Special Education faculty members who guided preservice teachers from the Instructional Technology department. During this guiding process, the preservice teachers developed animations for teaching daily life skills to students with intellectual disability (ID). The study followed a mixed-methods design. This current study showed that mentoring with CPBL can be effective in equipping both mentors and mentees with a variety of skills. Specifically, mentoring can be an effective process for preservice teachers to construct context-specific knowledge in educating students with special needs. The study's quantitative findings showed that the mentors were successful during the mentoring process.

The Accessible Science for Students with Visual Impairment (ASVI) mentoring program aimed at developing innovative teaching methods for teaching science effectively to third-grade and fourth-grade students with visual impairment (VI). In order to achieve this, the program aimed to guide classroom or science teachers to develop or adapt instructional materials based on the objectives of the science class and also the needs of students with VI. The study was conducted during 2019-2020 at Aksaray University, in Turkey, with the participation of 10 faculty members (as the mentors) and 23 inservice teachers (as the mentees). The main purpose of the study was to investigate the inservice teachers' perceptions (as mentees) about the faculty members' mentoring roles, and to understand the mentors' self-perceptions. This research was designed as a qualitative case study. The study's findings revealed that mentors as the focus of the current study, they had the opportunity to implement procedures based on effective mentoring, and were thereby able to help the inservice teachers develop professionally in their preparations. Mentoring was highlighted as a means of overcoming some of the problems that the inservice teachers' faced in their educating of students with special needs.

The present study aimed to provide a conceptual model of cultural policy-making in Payame Noor universities in District 8 based on piety and virtue. In this study, the components of cultural policy based on piety were first identified through exploratory studies and surveys of knowledge-aware experts using the Delphi technique, and then these factors were tested in the form of a model designed in the statistical population. The statistical population of the study was 30 experts to test the model and to measure the research variables according to the managers of District 8 Payame Noor University; the head of cultural affairs of the university and clerics and professors of Islamic education department of Payame Noor Universities District 8 were used, which were 110 individuals. Due to the limited statistical population, the census method was used. The present study is a descriptive-correlational research that has been done by survey method. Furthermore, this research is development-applied in terms of purpose. The data collection method in this study is a combination of library and field studies and the tools of data collection are review of documents, interviews and questionnaires, which confirmed the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. In order to analyze the data, descriptive statistics (types of indicators, statistical tables and graphs) and inferential statistics (structural equation modeling) have been used. The research findings, while confirming the proposed model of research, showed that piety and its components: God-centeredness and monotheism, promoting the need to obey divine sovereignty, expediency in Islamic culture and meritocracy (Imam Ali's biography) have a positive and significant effect on cultural planning. At the end, research suggestions were presented.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of an animation-based teaching package on the acquisition of three daily living skills based on the performance of three middle school students with mild or moderate intellectual disability. An animation-based teaching package was designed to include explicit instructional procedures and was developed and tested by the researchers within the scope of the study in order to meet the specific needs of the target group. A multiple probe across behaviors design was applied for this single-subject research in order to investigate the effect of an animation-based daily life skills teaching package on the learning of culinary skills by three middle school students with ID. The culinary skills were sandwich preparation, brewing tea, and pouring tea. The participants in the study showed overall improvement in their task performance following the intervention. The results revealed animation-based video modeling to be an effective method in improving the acquisition of daily living skills. Animation-based teaching may be used as a means to teach effective daily living skills to students with ID.

Collaboration between industry and universities is a driving force for scientific and technological advancements. Due to the role of AstraZeneca (AZ), a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, an analysis of the collaboration between the company and universities in the UK is of importance. Here, the collaboration of AZ with top UK universities, namely the University of Cambridge (UoC), the University of Oxford (UoO), Imperial College London (ICL) and University College London (UCL), is investigated. The investigation is based on two different measures: the well-developed Salton's measure and the scientific impact of collaboration (SIC). The former considers the scientific articles published by each party as well as the joint articles published in the period 2010-2021. The SIC, which is introduced for the first time in this article, involves the number of joint articles and citations to them in the same period. An unprecedented increase in the value of the Salton's measure for the collaboration between AZ and UoO is observed in 2021, and this is discussed with regard to the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The findings support the argument that strategic alliances are more important than co-location in drug discovery and development.

This study explored the association between flipped learning readiness (FLR), engagement, social anxiety, and achievement in online flipped classrooms among 200 freshman university students enrolled to an information technology course. The relational screening model was applied in order to reveal associations between variables. The study was conducted in two Turkish state universities. The students were sampled using the convenience sampling method. The data collection tools employed were a demographic data form, the Online Student Engagement Scale, the Online Learners' Interactions and Social Anxiety Scale, the FLR scale, and also achievement tests. Structural equational modeling was employed in the testing of the hypothesized model. Results from the structural equation modeling revealed that engagement and FLR were positively associated with student achievement, whilst there was a negative association revealed between social anxiety and achievement in the online flipped classroom. The study also revealed engagement as the most significant predictor of achievement in the online flipped classroom.

The purpose of this study was to establish a community of practice (CoP) called an academic research and writing group (ARWG), to improve the research and writing skills of graduate students, and to increase their levels of interaction while conducting their academic research. In the current study, formative research was implemented to improve the quality of academic output from the ARWG group. The study's findings showed that specific features added through the ARWG provided both a positive impression toward the ARWG and encouraged novice researchers to work collaboratively.

Both for new higher education students and especially for individuals with visual impairment (VI), becoming digitally literate is a necessity in order to be able to fully participate in society and to overcome certain educational barriers. This study explores the digital literacy (DL) skills of university students in Turkey with VI, along with the factors that can affect DL levels. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 60 participants during the first phase of the study through an online survey consisting of demographic questions and the DL Scale. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews held with eight participants as the second phase. The study found quite high levels for several self-reported technical and cognitive sub-factors of DL skills, and lower levels for the social sub-factor. Comparative analysis revealed no significant difference between gender, level of VI, and type of school. The results showed that daily use of the Internet had a significant positive effect on DL scores, and that there was a negative correlation between DL and age of starting to use technology. The qualitative findings suggested that the participants already possessed basic DL skills such as accessing information and creating files; however, they lacked skills in information management, effective collaboration, communication, and in digital content creation. The study sheds light on factors affecting DL of VI students and discusses implications for both researchers and practitioners.

The main purpose of this study was to examine a case in the context of a Faculty Technology Mentoring (FTM) program that provided customised technology integration support to faculty members in different disciplines. The FTM was implemented as a university-wide professional development model to enhance faculty members' adoption of technology into their teaching practices. Following the embedded-case design method, this study investigated a one-to-one mentoring process within the program using TPACK as a framework for the analysis. The analysis of faculty experience revealed that the mentoring project had a positive influence not only on the teaching strategies of the instructor whilst delivering the content, but on the attitudes towards technology utilisation in general within the higher education context.

This article provides computational and rule-based approaches for detecting confusion that is expressed in students' comments in couse forums. To obtain reliable, ground truth data about which posts exhibit student confusion, we designed a decision tree that facilitates the manual labeling of forum posts by experts. However, manual labeling is costly in time and resources, which limits the amount of data that can be generated using this process. Our strategy for overcoming these limitations was to generate rules for detecting confusion based on student input via hashtags, which reflect the student's affective states. We show that the resulting rules closely align with the ground truth judgement of experts. We next applied these rules to datasets of students' forum posts in a large-scale biology course, thereby automatically generating thousands of labeled instances of "confused posts." Finally, the resulting dataset was used to train a machine learning model for detecting whether students' posts exhibit confusion in the absence of hashtags. In this task, the pretrained language model based on bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT) was able to outperform traditional machine learning models for classifying confusion in posts. This model was also able to generalize and detect student confusion across different offerings of the same course. Ultimately, the use of pretrained language models of this type will provide teachers with better technologies for detecting and alleviating confusion in online discussion forums by leveraging the combined input of teachers and students.

The focus of biology education has shifted from memorization to conceptual understanding of core biological concepts such as matter and energy relationships. To examine undergraduate learning about matter and energy, we incorporated constructed-response (CR) questions into an interactive computer-based tutorial. The objective of this tutorial is to teach students about matter and energy and help dispel common misconceptions through the context of cellular respiration. We used a constructed-response classifier (CRC) tool to categorize ideas in responses to three CR questions and measure changes in student thinking about cellular respiration. Our data set includes 841 undergraduates from 19 geographically diverse institutions including two-year colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, and research-intensive colleges and universities. We found students from all institution types included more scientific ideas in CRs post-tutorial. Students used an average of 2.1 ideas in CRs and frequently used both scientific and developing ideas. We found this mixed thinking persisted after the tutorial regardless of institution type. Students' multiple-choice (MC) selections were correlated with their CRs, but CRs revealed more mixed thinking than would be inferred from MC responses. Our study shows a CRC tool can measure student learning after a computer-based tutorial and provides more complete information than MC responses.

This study investigated the effect of dynamic Assessment (DA) on the acquisition of L2 grammar by EFL learners. The focus was on teaching Conditional Type II, or Unreal Conditional, which is a difficult structure for language learners to acquire. To this end, two intact classes of intermediate EFL learners, each consisting of 23 male students were assigned to control and experimental groups. They were pre-tested and post-tested (immediately and delayed post-test) using a written grammaticality judgment task. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was run to analyze the data. The results revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group (p<0.05) on both immediate and delayed post-tests. The findings point to the advantage of implementation of DA in L2 grammar instruction in classroom contexts.

The main aim of this study was to design, develop and test the instructional effectiveness of a web-based English vocabulary drill program developed for visually impaired middle school students. In this respect, the study focused on the educational affordances of the program and its contribution on VI students' spelling and semantics knowledge in English vocabulary. Depending on the purpose and the nature of the study, exploratory case study and single-subject research were implemented. Face-to-face intervention sessions were applied from October 2015 through to February 2016. There were two groups of participants in the study, which were students and experts. The data were collected through interviews, vocabulary and retention tests. Collected data were analyzed with both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. Based on the qualitative data analysis, educational affordances of the web-based drill program were identified as instantaneous access to content, individualized instruction and tracking progress. Quantitative findings revealed that students showed substantial progress on the vocabulary tests and maintained their achievements after the study.

The core concept of genetic information flow was identified in recent calls to improve undergraduate biology education. Previous work shows that students have difficulty differentiating between the three processes of the Central Dogma (CD; replication, transcription, and translation). We built upon this work by developing and applying an analytic coding rubric to 1050 student written responses to a three-question item about the CD. Each response was previously coded only for correctness using a holistic rubric. Our rubric captures subtleties of student conceptual understanding of each process that previous work has not yet captured at a large scale. Regardless of holistic correctness scores, student responses included five or six distinct ideas. By analyzing common co-occurring rubric categories in student responses, we found a common pair representing two normative ideas about the molecules produced by each CD process. By applying analytic coding to student responses preinstruction and postinstruction, we found student thinking about the processes involved was most prone to change. The combined strengths of analytic and holistic rubrics allow us to reveal mixed ideas about the CD processes and provide a detailed picture of which conceptual ideas students draw upon when explaining each CD process.

This project aims to expose information educators to various aspects of cyberbullying for the purpose of policy development in an environment of higher education. The preponderance of nation-wide research on cyberbullying is concentrated on adolescents; such efforts in college campuses are limited to individual endeavors. Cyberbullying research on college campuses lacks a unified definition of the concept. Although the states mandated most school districts to develop and enact some sort of policy, the law is silent on the college level cyberbullying. According to the literature, "cyberbullying" is reserved for adolescents; however, "cyber-harassment" or "cyberstalking" are related to adults. While cyberbullying shares with conventional bullying intimidation, aggression, and harm, it is unique because (1) the encounter is not face-to-face; (2) the perpetrator can employ varied means (e.g., cellphones, texts, blogs, Internet, social media, etc.); and (3) the act can be undisclosed. The data was collected from a random sample of 511 students (out of a student population of approximately 6,000) in a Midwestern town by employing self-administered questionnaire. It was found that engagement with different social network groups and online communications with those with questionable identity are good predictor of increased vulnerability to the risks of being victimized. The data suggests being victimized leads to victimization. Although males differ from females in terms of the type and the extent of cyberbullying, no significant difference was found among the categories of student status or their class ranks.

The current study investigated the influence of oral reproduction and summary writing vocabulary tasks on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' learning and retention of new foreign language (L2) words. To this end, 66 advanced EFL learners were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and one control conditions. The participants in all three groups were required to read eight texts which included a total of 40 target words during eight weeks of treatment and to perform designated tasks which were: reading and writing a summary incorporating the target words, and reading and reproducing the content of the passage orally using the target words. The results of immediate and delayed recognition and recall vocabulary post-tests indicated that while both tasks resulted in significant vocabulary learning, the "oral reproduction" condition was more effective than "summary writing" in terms of long-term retention of target words. The findings are explained and justified in light of the predictions of Technique Feature Analysis.

Recent calls for college biology education reform have identified "pathways and transformations of matter and energy" as a big idea in biology crucial for students to learn. Previous work has been conducted on how college students think about such matter-transforming processes; however, little research has investigated how students connect these ideas. Here, we probe student thinking about matter transformations in the familiar context of human weight loss. Our analysis of 1192 student constructed responses revealed three scientific (which we label "Normative") and five less scientific (which we label "Developing") ideas that students use to explain weight loss. Additionally, students combine these ideas in their responses, with an average number of 2.19 [plus or minus] 1.07 ideas per response, and 74.4% of responses containing two or more ideas. These results highlight the extent to which students hold multiple (both correct and incorrect) ideas about complex biological processes. We described student responses as conforming to either Scientific, Mixed, or Developing descriptive models, which had an average of 1.9 [plus or minus] 0.6, 3.1 [plus or minus] 0.9, and 1.7 [plus or minus] 0.8 ideas per response, respectively. Such heterogeneous student thinking is characteristic of difficulties in both conceptual change and early expertise development and will require careful instructional intervention for lasting learning gains.

This study investigates factors that predict the successful adoption and implementation of e-learning technologies in college level courses. The study employed "availability sample," to collect data via face-to-face interviews with academic professionals in a small liberal arts and sciences college in the Midwest. Two hundred and twelve members of the faculty were targeted, of whom 129 (60%) completed the interviews. Several layers of analysis were performed to test the effects of academic backgrounds and other demographic variables on the perceptions about and the tendencies to adopt e-learning. It was found that the academic background variables did not yield significant correlations with perception about, and the decision to adopt, e-learning. The data showed that the primary interest in the correlates of the decisions to adopt e-learning is the faculty's self confidence in using the technology and online resources.

The integration of electronic technologies in teaching and learning has been a top priority in higher education. However, there is a great deal of controversy in the literature regarding its effectiveness. This bears the question, to what extent are the outcomes (e.g., the student success) in an e-learning environment comparable with that of a face-to-face course? Hence, this study assessed the environmental conditions that lead to positive expectations of e-learning by collecting data on a random sample of 742 students--approximately 13% of the theoretical population--in a small Midwestern Liberal Arts and Science university (about 6000 student body) in the United States. The data reflected the preference that the respondents have shown for aspects of e-learning constructs (i.e. course structure and instructional clarity, course content quality, technical constraints, personal skills and comfort level, and e-learning acceptance). Although the general sentiment toward e-learning is positive, the female students in this study, particularly the non-traditional female students, showed more favorable attitude toward e-learning.

This article presents faculty perceptions of the first month of iPad deployment in a national college system and a case study describing the integration of mobile learning devices in one college, interpreted within the framework of a SWOT analysis. We include a brief history of the implementation; description of the three-tier structure of infrastructure, pedagogy, and content; faculty perceptions; and pedagogy interview findings. We collected data using 1) case study interviews, 2) a faculty dispositional survey, and 3) iPad lead faculty. Overall, the large-scale deployment of iPad mobile learning devices was associated with high faculty engagement in formal and informal professional development activities and adoption of an active student-centered pedagogy. In addition, the program stimulated innovative approaches to technical challenges; and it spurred development and evaluation of new digital content.

The present study investigates environmental education (EE) before and after Iran's Islamic Revolution. The research method is case study, and among the case study methods, historical analysis has been used in this research. A wide array of sources were employed, from government performance reports to documents, records, books, and articles published by Iranians. Environmental education in Iran was initiated with the establishment of a specific office for EE in the Department of Environment in 1972. During the years 1997-2005, the Islamic Republic of Iran enjoyed an era of unprecedented economic, social, and political advancement and growth. This fundamentally renovated EE in Iran. Today, observing EE's evolution in the Islamic Republic of Iran is quite informative. The paper examines the overall situation, major projects, and policies.

This article describes a group narrative intervention for improving the behavior of 8- to 11-year-old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder at home and school. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

This study applies a comprehensive set of measures to document teaching practice and instructor responses when integrating new mobile technology devices in the classroom. The triangulated measures include a rubric for observing teaching with mobile learning devices in higher education, an interview protocol for capturing faculty levels of mobile learning knowledge, and a survey of faculty understanding and implementation of the adopted four pillars of mobile learning. The pillars were chosen as foundations to guide why, what, where, and how mobile learning technology supports student learning. The authors offer suggestions for collecting data regarding large-scale mobile learning implementation over time with input from a range of stakeholders to capture how they characterize and disseminate pedagogies that are developed in the new learning environment.

This paper describes the process used by the Computer Information Technology Department at PUC (Purdue University Calumet) during a major curriculum review and revision to implement the curriculum model developed by the SIGITE Curriculum Committee (Curriculum, 2005). The process was based on the learning outcomes set forth by the SIGITE curriculum model and the result is a structure that could be used to build IT majors around the recommended IT core courses with the individual majors, which could be highly customizable and flexible. The curriculum allows for a primary track and a complementary secondary track built during the third and the fourth years of the student's study. This is a flexible and easy to maintain curriculum, which allows changes without major curriculum overhaul. (Contains 3 figures.)

The last twenty years has seen the development of demand for a new type of computing professional, which has resulted in the emergence of the academic discipline of Information Technology (IT). Numerous colleges and universities across the country and abroad have responded by developing programs without the advantage of an existing model for guidance. Efforts to define a model curriculum for IT began at the first Conference on Information Technology curriculum (CITC-1) in December 2001, which included representatives from 15 IT programs at four-year universities across the United States. Membership in SIGITE (Special Interest Group Information Technology Education) has grown to over 400 representing many of the four-year IT programs in the United States and abroad and some of the two-year IT programs in the United States. Continued development of the curriculum and subsequent funding by the Education Board of ACM enabled the completion of a first draft of the model curriculum for IT establishing program outcomes and a body of knowledge defining the discipline. This paper presents an overview of the process followed and the results achieved. (Contains 4 tables.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of many factors on student evaluation of teaching. Design/methodology/approach: The study analyzed 3,185 student evaluations of faculty from a newly accredited business program at the United Arab Emirates University using univariate and multi-analysis of variance (ANOVA and MANOVA). Findings: The findings support previous research regarding the existence of potential biasing factors. The results indicate that expected grade, actual grade, course level, class size, course timing, student gender and course subject significantly affect student evaluation of teaching. Originality/value: Comparing individual faculty ratings regardless of other factors might not be fair. Our findings support the call of other researchers that ignoring these other factors may bias or make questionable the validity of student evaluation of teaching as a means of performance appraisal of faculty. Because of the possible existence of biasing factors in SET, there is a need to supplement it with other measures of teaching effectiveness. (Contains 16 tables.)

Provides advice for constructing an activity log directing students in writing a sociology term paper. Includes topic selection, outline, critical thinking, information gathering, analysis of findings, and completing a semifinal draft. Recommends that each step have a firm due date to reduce procrastination. Suggests that sequencing activities reduces students' fear of writing. (DK)