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Recent literature underlines the increasing use of online platforms in learning undergraduate mathematics, where students refer to these as supplementary resources to develop their mathematical understanding. Through an intrinsic case study, we focus on a highly viewed YouTube learning resource for learning derivative. The selected case is from 3Blue1Brown, a YouTube channel whose founder has received an award from the American Mathematical Society. The video has garnered more than 3.3 million views in the past couple of years. Reflecting on the relevant literature, a realization tree for derivative is developed and then used as an analytical tool to analyze this resource to explore what realizations have been used in it to facilitate students' understanding of derivative. The findings indicate that the analyzed YouTube resource discusses various realizations of derivative, including all its five main realizations, and effectively utilizes new digital technology for discussing these realizations. Such an exceptional resource for learning mathematics leads us to suggest that mathematics lecturers raise their awareness about such online free resources and incorporate them into their teaching packages when appropriate to facilitate student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher-student interaction (TSI) is essential for learning efficiency and harmonious teacher-student interpersonal relationships. However, studies on TSI support tools often focus on teacher needs while neglecting student needs and autonomy. To enhance both lecturer competence in delivering interpersonal interaction and student autonomy in TSI, we developed NaMemo2, a novel augmented-reality system that allows students to express their willingness to TSI and displays student information to teachers during lectures. The design and evaluation process follows a new framework, STUDIER, which can facilitate the development of theory-based ethnics-aware TSI support tools in general. The quantitative results of our four-week field study with four classes in a university suggested that NaMemo2 can improve (1) TSI in the classroom from both teacher and student perspectives, (2) student attitudes and willingness to TSI, and (3) student attitudes to the deployment of NaMemo2. The qualitative feedback from students and teachers indicated that improving TSI may be responsible for improved attention in students and a better classroom atmosphere during lectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualized learning support is an essential part of formal educational learning processes. However, in typical large-scale educational settings, resource constraints result in limited interaction among students, teaching assistants, and lecturers. Due to this, learning success in those settings may suffer. Inspired by current technological advances, we transfer the concept of chatbots to formal educational settings to support not only a single task but a full lecture period. Grounded on an expert workshop and prior research, we design a natural language-based digital tutor acting as an intermediary among students, teaching assistants, and lecturers. The aim of the digital tutor is to support learners automated during the lecture period in natural language-based chat conversations. We implement a digital tutor in an iterative design process and evaluate it extensively in a large-scale field setting. The results demonstrate the applicability and beneficial support of introducing digital tutors as intermediaries in formal education. Our study proposes the concept of using digital tutors as intermediaries and documents the development and underlying principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study investigated the professional development needs of lecturers who are transiting to a technology-mediated environment following advancements in technology. This research work was conducted to address the increasing use of digital tools and platforms in education, shed light on the challenges that lecturers face when adopting modern technology in their teaching, and provide insights on how to design compelling professional development opportunities that address their needs. A convenience sample of faculty and administrators in the faculty of education at a university in Uganda was selected, and 89 participants were interviewed using an interview guide. The study found that most lecturers view time as a significant barrier to their professional development, and therefore, they require professional development opportunities that are tailored to their needs, relevant to their application of technology, and delivered by trainers who use principles of adult education and constructivism. The study shows a need for those involved in planning and implementing professional development opportunities to consider the needs of administrators and lecturers, and the principles of adult education and constructivism when designing and implementing professional development opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education institutions has become a necessity rather than an option. As higher education institutions enrol students for conventional and distance education programs, lecturers are not only compelled to equip themselves with technological knowledge and skills, but are also supposed to receive support from their institutions to fully integrate technology in their academic endeavours. This study examined lecturers' perceptions of support for integrating ICTs in teaching and learning in higher education institutions in Tanzania. A mixed methods research approach was used to conduct the study. Data were collected through survey and interviews. The analysis was done through SPSS 26.0 and JASP 0.12.2 for quantitative data, and MaxQDA 20.0 for qualitative data. The study sample of 115 lecturers was drawn from five universities in Tanzania. The results of the study revealed that majority of lecturers were dissatisfied with the support for integrating ICTs in teaching and learning offered by their institutions. The findings also indicated that there were no significant differences in lecturers' perceptions of support services for integrating ICTs in teaching and learning by gender and age. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that universities have the obligation to provide adequate support to lecturers in terms of training, technical staff, finance and facilities to effectively integrate technology in teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study explores and documents online students' and their lecturer's debut experiences of utilising VoiceThread (VT), a digital multimodal platform, as an alternative discussion space via Open Universities Australia (OUA). Feedback from the lecturer's teaching log and interview was corroborated with his OUA students' survey responses, and analysed in relation to student online learning experiences with VT and Discussion Board, as well as technological and affective aspects of both platforms. Findings indicate that VT has a stronger potential in boosting stakeholders' online engagement and enjoyment of distance learning, thus fostering online community building. Specifically, VT creates not only a multimodal and dynamic platform in lieu of Discussion Board, but a supportive online learning environment that promotes more inclusive and ongoing interactions. Despite the positive results, VT was viewed by some students as technologically demanding, causing them to only read peer posts without responding. It is suggested that orientation training sessions and trial threads be made available to ease the students into VT. Aspects of tutorial group size and instructor support should also be considered for future online course delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is one of the most important skills in the 21st century student's toolkit and important to vocational education and training (VET). In the context of vocational teacher education, creativity has not yet played a significant role at universities. This is due in part to the fact that it is unclear what creativity means and how it is fostered in the context of higher education. This interview study explores how creativity is conceptualized by lecturers in vocational teacher education and what creativity-promoting measures or teaching/learning scenarios are applied by them in their courses. Generally, the lecturers interviewed associated creativity in their jobs as lecturers with creating something new. From the lecturer's perspective, student creativity is categorized into a 5-category model in which lecturers 'see' student creativity represented by (1) student self-reflection, (2) independent decision-making, (3) curiosity and motivation, (4) producing something and (5) developing original new ideas. Categories identified by the lecturers that promote creativity in courses are openness, individualization, interaction, student activity and generating solutions. In practice, creativity-promoting measures or teaching/learning scenarios are implemented very differently. The type of implementation determines the implementation depth of the individual category. The findings provide an understanding of creativity from the perspective of university lecturers', which could be valuable for designing university courses in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe an automated assessment process for team-coding assignments based on DevOps best practices. This system and methodology includes the definition of Team Performance Metrics measuring properties of the software developed by each team, and their correct use of DevOps techniques. It tracks the progress on each of metric by each group. The methodology also defines Individual Performance Metrics to measure the impact of individual student contributions to increase in Team Performance Metrics. Periodically scheduled reports using these metrics provide students valuable feedback. This process also facilitates the process of assessing the assignments. Although this method is not intended to produce the final grade of each student, it provides very valuable information to the lecturers. We have used it as the main source of information for student and team assessment in one programming course. Additionally, we use other assessment methods to calculate the final grade: written conceptual tests to check their understanding of the development processes, and cross-evaluations. Qualitative evaluation of the students filling relevant questionnaires are very positive and encouraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the mediating influence of lecturers and students' characteristics on the acquisition of research skills among postgraduate students. We adopted a correlational research design involving (n = 628) postgraduate students who participated in the study. Two instruments, titled Postgraduate Lecturers' Characteristics Form (PLCF) and Postgraduate Students' Characteristics and Acquisition of Research Skills Questionnaire (PSCARSQ), were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS and WarpPLS computer-based statistical software. Results showed that the hypothesized causal model that describes the mediating influence of lecturers' and students' characteristics on the acquisition of research skills among postgraduate students in Nigerian universities was not significantly supported by the empirical data. It was also revealed that the magnitude of all the estimated direct effects of lecturers' and students' characteristics on postgraduate students' acquisition of research skills were statistically significant. The lecturer-student relationship contributed significantly to students' attitude towards research, time spent on studying and acquisition of research skills. The implication of this finding is that postgraduate lecturers and students need to establish and maintain a good interpersonal relationship, in order to foster mentorship and adequate acquisition of research skills among the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical objects are the outcomes of human discourse and come to life through the process of objectification. Primary and concrete discursive objects (d-objects) play an important role in this process, forming different realizations through the objectification process. In the present study, we analyze the written discourses about the derivative at a point in fourteen Year 11 and Year 12 Iranian calculus textbooks over 42 years (1979–2020) in terms of primary objects, concrete d-objects, and the realizations used in them, here based on Sfard's commognitive theory. The research method is a qualitative content analysis in which the analysis units were texts, examples, activities, and exercises in the textbooks. The results show that out of the 14 textbooks, only five included primary and concrete d-objects. The other textbooks only used abstract objects in their written discourse about the derivative. The pictures (visual mediators) that were used as primary objects gradually changed from schematic to real colored photos, and locally developed technologies and cultural elements were included in the new textbook editions. Additionally, the number of concrete d-objects increased in the new editions. In terms of the realizations, the number of roots also increased over time; however, none of the textbooks had all five main realizations (i.e., symbolic, graphical, verbal, numerical, and physical) for the derivative at a point. The realization tree developed as part of this study can be used as an analytical framework to analyze calculus textbooks in other contexts and can be used by teachers and lecturers to help students have explorative participation in discourse on the derivative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic that entered our lives suddenly in 2020 compelled higher education systems throughout the world to transfer to online learning, including online evaluation. A severe problem of online evaluation is that it enables various technological possibilities that facilitate students' unethical behaviors. The research aimed to investigate these behaviors, as well as the reasons for their appearance, as practiced in exams held for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to elicit students' and lecturers' perceptions of students' academic dishonesty (AD) during this period. The sample included 81 students and 50 lecturers from several Israeli colleges and universities. The findings expand extant knowledge on academic dishonesty, identifying significant differences between the perceptions of students and lecturers concerning attitudes towards online exams and the reasons for dishonest behaviors. The findings among the students also indicate that younger students and Arab students tended to cheat more in online exams. Moreover, the findings indicated a lack of mutual trust between students and lecturers with regard to academic dishonesty, a deep distrust that will probably continue even after the Covid-19 crisis. This last finding should be a cause of concern for higher education policy-makers, affecting future policies for improving lecturer-student relations, especially during crises. Recommendations are proposed for addressing academic dishonesty in exams in general and during the pandemic in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, and also due to the COVID-19 pandemic, education institutions worldwide have changed their education paradigm from a traditional to an online system. These institutions have rapidly accomplished their educational programs and activities by supporting various web applications, allowing the completion of the education process remotely. This motivated us to investigate the general perceptions of the faculty members who are teaching different courses for undergraduate students using the distance education system. The proposed technique is based on the use of advanced analysis methods to test the hypothesis of instructors' perceptions of online teaching effectiveness, compared with traditional teaching, will not be affected by the following eight factors, including gender, academic major, age, academic degree, country of teaching, teaching experience in traditional classes, teaching experience in virtual classes (VCs), and whether or not the department/faculty provided e-learning courses before the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 187 lecturers from 71 departments in 24 educational institutions located in 11 countries participated in this research. Results indicate that the perceptions of instructors regarding the online teaching system generally do not change based on the studied factors. Furthermore, the quantitative analyses illustrate that no significant differences exist in all dimension scales in terms of gender, major specification, age, country of teaching, and virtual experience. Significant differences are found in the dimension scale of distance education effectiveness in terms of academic degree and the educator status in terms of supporting VCs and traditional experience dimension scales. Additionally, the study provides various recommendations, including that the departments should encourage instructors to positively adapt with online teaching by developing the required skills and knowledge. Moreover, departments and institutions should support the teaching staff with specialized education tools. In addition, instructors should strive to decrease the communication and interaction gap between distance education and traditional in-class teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the years progresses, higher education has move towards implementing Blended Learning (BL) which is a combination of face-to-face and online mode of teaching and learning which have continued to advance in institutions all over the world. Accordingly, it is important to investigate the factors that may influence lecturers' perception towards BL approaches. Likewise, there are fewer studies that explored BL in lecturers' perspective. Therefore, this study proposed a framework based on Model of Personal Computer Utilization (MPCU) theory to examine the factors that influence lecturers' perception of BL to improve teaching quality in higher education. A total of 413 lecturers across universities, colleges, and polytechnics responded to an online survey questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Science and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling was utilized for data analysis. The results suggest that social factors affect towards use, complexity, job fit, long term consequences, facilitating conditions, and Information Technology (IT) experience significantly influences lecturers' perception towards using BL initiatives to improve academic activities in higher education. Findings from this article support institutions in developing an understanding of the factors that can be considered to improve teaching design, as well as in improving IT for teaching and learning purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technology always accelerates change, altering organisations culturally, socially and technically. These modifications are known as "digital transformation" (DT). On a much greater scale than DT, the world was changed in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, which re-organised society in the way of thinking, acting, producing, consuming and creating new business. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were no different, since these institutions had to make changes to the student–lecturer interaction; teaching–learning, where DT had a relevant role, above all in academic entrepreneurship. Therefore, this study aims to propose a framework showing the structural pillars of the link between digital transformation (DT) and academic entrepreneurship (AC) (DT-AC Framework). This framework identifies the new patterns, methods, skills and other discoveries in aspects such as management, information systems and culture sciences. The intention is not to analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic imposed global structural changes, but because of it, lecturers and students found their DT accelerated and intensified, and so it is necessary to investigate the pillars supporting academic entrepreneurship. The results show that DT was already emerging as a basic element of academic entrepreneurship before the pandemic, but the process has speeded up. This bibliometric study indicates the structural pillars that support entrepreneurship following the Covid19 pandemic, as created from DT in universities, providing an extensive systematic review that indicates the cause and effect of the academic entrepreneurship process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research contributes to knowledge in mediating effect of lecturers' behavioural intention towards the acceptance of podcasts technology in universities. A cross-sectional quantitative research design was involved in this study. Also, a total of eight hundred and twenty-nine (829) lecturers participated in this research from three different south-west Nigeria Federal universities. The research instrument was titled lecturer's acceptance questionnaire (LAQ) with a calculated Cronbach's alpha of.919, which confirmed the instrument validity. The gathered data was analysed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The formulated hypothesis was tested at.05 level of significance. The result from descriptive analysis of data suggested that behavioural intention was at a low level among lecturers and the results of hypothesis testing revealed the effect of behavioural intention as partial mediator of podcast acceptance. Based on these findings relevant conclusions and recommendations were suggested in this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive features of the hyper-video environment, such as indexing, bookmarks, links to learning materials, multiple-choice questions, and personal and shared annotations, can enhance learning processes. This paper examines integration of the Annoto hyper-video platform in three large undergraduate courses (A, B & C) at a large university. The study combines learning analytics of video-recordings of synchronous lessons (9–15 sessions per course, approximately two hours each), content analysis of the hyper-video annotations written by students and lecturers, and semi-structured interviews with the lecturers and with actively-participating students. The log-analysis was conducted at the user level (n = 880) and at the video level (n = 37). Content analysis was based on the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison et al. in Internet High Educ 2(2):87–105, 1999, Internet High Educ 13(1):5–9, 2010). The findings revealed that when hyper-video is integrated without academic credit, slightly over 10% of undergraduates chose active participation, beyond watching videos and reading others' annotations. The majority of annotations were shared posts and replies (73–96%), rather than personal notes. Relative to the number of students, the rate of reading annotations was significantly higher in Course C. Accordingly, content analysis revealed significantly more "cognitive presence" and "social presence" codes in Course C, while the amount of "teaching presence" was similar in all courses. However, the three courses used the same interaction pattern of annotations: "student's question—lecturer's answer", without promoting peer feedback. The implications for educational theory and the pedagogical design of hyper-video in academia are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is part of a research about the use of ICT resources by Higher Education teachers to teach, evaluate and research (UICT-TER). The aim, in this case, is the creation and validation of a measuring instrument on the use of ICT resources based on the UICT-TER model. After the preparation and application of the instrument to a sample of 867 Higher Education teachers in the Spanish territory, the reliability, content validity, comprehension and construct validity were analyzed. In the initial creation of the instrument, three dimensions corresponding to a total of 24 items were established, achieving a final version of 16 items. Regarding content validity, the experts (n = 4) positively assessed the construct, dimensions and items of the questionnaire. The reliability analysis through Cronbach's alpha were highly satisfactory and in relation to the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the results found a good fit of the model. In addition, the instrument had external evidence of validity through different descriptive analyses with the variables gender, type of university (public-private), employment relationship (full-part-time), area of knowledge of the teaching staff (Science and Engineering-Architecture, Health Sciences, Art-Humanities and Social-Legal Sciences). Taking into account all the results obtained, the instrument created meets the psychometric properties required to be considered a valid and reliable instrument to measure the use of ICT resources according to the UICT-TER model in the Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to an idea which is widespread among philosophers, linguistic entities derive their intentionality from the intentionality of mental entities by virtue of some relation between them. Typically, it is some kind of intention on the speaker's part – e.g., an intention to produce in the hearer a belief with a certain content – that is supposed to endow words with content. This paper argues that the concept of the derivation of content from one entity to another, if understood realistically, is flawed: derived intentionality, I will argue, is merely ascribed intentionality, not a real property of its possessor (one which is independent of any stance or interpretation). Irrealistic-ascriptivist senses are suggested for the ideas of content derivation, of original intentionality, and of the mind as the source of linguistic (and other forms of non-mental) intentionality. Thus, endorsing the idea that mental intentionality is the source of non-mental intentionality need not tempt one to intentional realism. In an intentional irrealistic framework, what forms of intentionality are original and what are derived is a deeply contingent matter, determined by our practice(s) of content ascription. But while intentional irrealism accommodates all those ideas, this paper defends "content-derivation irrealism" but not thoroughgoing intentional irrealism – the idea that there is real original (that is, un-derived) intentionality is not ruled out. Still, assuming that some entities possess real intentionality, what can make them endow intentionality upon other entities is also our practice of content ascription. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cross-national study with university students from Germany (n = 1135) and Turkey (n = 634) tested whether personal belief in a just world (PBJW) predicts students' life satisfaction and academic cheating. Based on the just-world theory and empirical findings in the school context, we expected university students with a stronger personal BJW to be more satisfied with their lives and cheat less than those with a weaker BJW. Further, we investigated the mediating role of justice experiences with lecturers and fellow students in these relations. Differences in PBJW directly and indirectly predicted undergraduates' life satisfaction. Students' justice experiences with peers mediated the relationship between PBJW and life satisfaction. Differences in PBJW indirectly predicted undergraduates' academic cheating. Students' justice experiences with lecturers mediated the relationship between PBJW and academic cheating. The results did not differ between German and Turkish students and persisted when we controlled for gender, start of studies, socially desirable responding, general BJW, and self-efficacy. We discussed the importance of personal BJW's adaptive functions and their relevance for international university research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the lecturer's research capacity plays an important role in improving their knowledge and determining each lecturer's contribution to the universities. To assess the lecturers' research capacity, many quantitative and qualitative criteria are needed in the evaluation process. Therefore, lecturer's research capacity evaluation can be viewed as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem in vague environment. In 1985, Chen proposed arithmetic operations to deal with the generalized fuzzy numbers. However, there were some shortcomings associated with Chen's arithmetic operations. In 2013, Dat et al. proposed an improved arithmetical operation of generalized fuzzy numbers to overcome the shortcomings of Chen's arithmetic operations. This study aims to propose an extension of generalized fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making to evaluate the lecturer's research capacity. In the proposed approach, the improved arithmetical operation of generalized fuzzy numbers is used to aggregate weights of criteria and ratings of alternatives versus criteria. The membership functions of the weighted fuzzy decision matrix of lecturers are further developed based on linguistic expressions. Then, a simplified centroid-index ranking approach is applied to evaluate and rank the lecturer's research capacity. Finally, a case study is used to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed MCDM approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mandatory phasing in of the Moodle learning environment within South African universities has met with a variety of uptake challenges. Specifically, Moodle was officially introduced without clear exposition of the underpinning theory, training, and implementation framework for its adoption. This study reports on a qualitative case study drawing from a purposive sampling of two South African universities that have adopted Moodle to support the teaching and learning endeavour. 31 lecturers who have used Moodle within their lectures were selected, drawing their responses and data through reflective activity, Moodle group discussion and one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The analysis was guided by inductive and deductive reasoning, and the study was framed by non-formal, formal, and informal e-learning frameworks. The study revealed that the top-down imposition of mandatory Moodle implementation was resisted by lecturers, hindering uptake, and maximum potential was difficult to measure. In the absence of clear policy directives, the study recommends that the lecturers go beyond the limits and develop their own means of formal, informal and non-formal reflections to gauge the merits or limitations of Moodle. The reflections were harnessed to coin the Equilateral Moodle Reflections framework in order to maximise the potential uptake and use of Moodle in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advances of information and communication technology (ICT) have transformed teaching and learning in universities. This study therefore sort to establish antecedents of university lecturers' intention to adopt ICT adoption in Zimbabwean universities. It employed a quantitative approach which used a structured questionnaire on a sample of 600 university lecturers from 6 selected public universities. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results of the study showed that policy support infrastructure (ICT policy, ICT policy implementation strategy and clear ICT vision), technical support infrastructure (competent support team, ICT tools and systems, internet and reliable power supply) and technical skills infrastructure (training and skills level) acted as antecedents to ICT adoption in Zimbabwean universities. A lack of ICT policy implementation plans and obsolete ICT infrastructure acted as major barriers to ICT adoption. These results have managerial and operational implications for universities to consider for effective adoption of ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to investigate neutralisation techniques used by lecturers to justify their resistance behaviours during the implementation of learning management systems (LMS) in higher educational institutions (HEIs). Moreover, we explored why lecturers employed such neutralisation techniques to justify their resistance behaviours. A number of studies identified resistance as a barrier to successful implementation of technology in HEIs. However, there is a dearth of literature on the choice of neutralisation techniques employed by lecturers to justify such resistance behaviours. Understanding the logic behind the choice of neutralisation techniques could ensure effective management strategies towards user resistance, which could further assist to improve technology uptake in HEIs. The study draws from Bourdieu's theory of practice (ToP) as a lens to investigate the logic behind the use of certain neutralisation techniques to justify user resistance. The research used cross-sectional data from semi-structured interviews and participant observations of a single in-depth case setting. The most common neutralisation technique used by lecturers was condemn the condemners followed by denial of responsibility, denial of injury, and appeal to higher loyalties. Findings suggest that the habitus and capital of lecturers significantly influence the choice of techniques to justify resistance. Lecturers tended to neutralise before they resisted, such that they prepared themselves to justify any deviance well in advance in case they got caught. Integration of ToP and Neutralisation theory enriches theorisation of user resistance, enabling development of mechanisms that could effectively manage lecturer resistance behaviours to improve uptake of LMS in HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many philosophers have argued that moral disagreement raises metaphysical and/or epistemological challenges for moral realism. In this paper, I consider whether widespread moral disagreement raises a different sort of challenge by threatening the semantic commitments of moral realism. In particular, I suggest that the character of many moral disagreements gives us reason to suspect that not all competent moral speakers pick out the same properties as one another when they use moral terms. If this is so, both sides of a moral dispute may speak truly, and the standard realist diagnosis of such disputes—that at most one party can be correct—is mistaken. My argumentative strategy is to first isolate some features of linguistic exchanges that provide evidence of a lack of co-reference, and then argue that many moral disputes have these features. I conclude by suggesting that there are plausible accounts of moral disputes that do not require co-reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examined the opinions of academic staff of the University of Ibadan Nigeria regarding the preparedness of stakeholders of e-learning in Nigeria for fruitful e-learning experience and action in Nigerian universities. Data was collected from 240 lecturers using a questionnaire. The lecturers considered e-learning as an add-on, as they expressed inability to integrate e-learning into their present task and do not even have the time to do so. Lecturers' assessment of e-readiness of students indicated that the lecturers were undecided on whether the students actually know what e-learning is, and have sufficient IT and web skills required to drive e-learning. However, lecturers have confidence in the IT capacity of their institutions and their IT staff regarding e-learning. Students' readiness and human resources readiness were not significant factors influencing lecturers' opinions about readiness of Nigerian universities towards the adoption of e-learning. But public/society readiness, financial readiness, training readiness, ICT-equipment readiness, and e-learning material/contents readiness were significant influencers on readiness of Nigerian universities towards the adoption of e-learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, studies focusing on mathematics education pay more attention to the study of the lecturer's knowledge, aiming to understand this knowledge, its development, and how it is reflected in the practice of teaching. Following this line of research, the present study is based in the Mathematics Teacher's Specialized Knowledge (MTSK) model, which includes two domains of knowledge, namely, mathematical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Through an instrumental case study, classroom observation, and a semi-structured interview, we inquire how the knowledge of practices in mathematics, one of the subdomains of mathematical knowledge, is related to the pedagogical content knowledge of a lecturer in a real analysis course. The results show relationships between these subdomains considering their nature of support or conditioning. In this regard, the lecturer's knowledge of practices in mathematics conditions his/her knowledge of mathematics teaching (e.g. techniques, metaphors, and analogies). So, a lecturer's teaching goal is that students, in addition to understanding the mathematical contents, learn how to think mathematically to validate and construct arguments. Additionally, a lecturer's knowledge of students' weaknesses in carrying out proofs and working with quantifiers is supported by his/her knowledge of practice in mathematics (e.g. different methods of proofs and statements with quantifiers, as well as their meaning). In this respect, the nature of relationships between two or three subdomains of the MTSK model contributes to understanding how the lecturer's knowledge is integrated and is a good starting point for investigating the development of lecturers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we reflect on the extent to which 'new speaker' research feeds into recent theoretical discussions in language policy scholarship, especially in connection to the discursive and ethnographically oriented perspectives which of late have become increasingly prominent. We begin with a brief overview of the 'new speaker' concept, its theoretical and empirical origins, and then we situate the discussions on 'new speakers' against the background of traditional language policy research. Thereafter the bulk of the article is dedicated to developing two main arguments: first, we provide an overview of the language policy themes that are already present in 'new speaker' research; and secondly, we elaborate on how 'new speaker' studies can contribute to current discussions in the field of language policy. We conclude with a short overview of future research directions that, in our view, can strengthen the link and the mutual benefits of the connection between 'new speaker' and language policy scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sociolinguistic research on minority languages in Europe, particularly in the Galician context, has chiefly contributed both theoretically and empirically to the growing attention given to 'new speakers', as well as to the emergence of a European research network in 2013 entitled 'New Speakers in a multilingual Europe: Opportunities and challenges' (www.nspk.org.uk). As documented in special issues and edited volumes, the research activities in the network not only aimed at adding the term 'new speaker' to the growing pool of analytical terminology in critically oriented sociolinguistics. Employing 'new speaker' as a lens rather than as a clear-cut notion is what we—as editors—had in mind when giving shape to this volume, drawing on discussions during the final phases of the above-mentioned research network. This seemed especially useful because such a broad take on 'new speakerness' opens up avenues for comparative research under a common label. In sum, it is certainly worth the effort to continue delving deeper into the notion of 'new speakers', and particularly to do that from the perspective of language policy. The articles collected in this thematic issue aim at contributing into that direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'new speaker' has recently emerged as an attempt by sociolinguists not only to understand the different types of speaker profiles that can be found in contemporary societies, but also to grasp the underlying processes of becoming a legitimate speaker in a given society. In this article, we combine the results from two studies situated in two educational institutions in Estonia in order to find out about speakers' language attitudes and experiences in connection to learning and using Estonian. We concentrate on members of the international community who have relatively recently arrived to the country. Our results indicate that these speakers fluctuate between two prototypical discourses, which we broadly dub as 'resistance' and 'adaptation' to newspeakerness. Our study thereby adds to current debates on 'new speaker' and language policy issues by illustrating how tensions around language legitimacy are played out on the ground in a small nation state such as Estonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University course timetabling is a NP-hard problem that be performed for each semester frequently. In this paper, we use a two-step algorithm for timetabling of common lecturers among departments. In the first step, we use a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making comparison and local search algorithms with seven neighborhood structures and random iteration. It means that we use a fuzzy multi-criteria comparison algorithm to eliminate the ambiguities and soft constraints of common lecturers among departments. In addition, we apply the local search algorithm with seven neighboring structures to avoid trapping into local optima and improve the fuzzy multi-criteria comparison over the preferences and soft constraints of lecturers. In the second step, the common lecturers' timetable generated in the first step by the clustering approach (k-means, fuzzy c-means and funnel shape) is clustered based on the preferences and soft constraints of common lecturers among departments. Now, our common lecturers prepared by the clustering algorithms are mapped to the traversed free resources according to the paper's aims: (1) descending satisfaction of preferences and soft constraints of common lecturers among departments and (2) minimizing the loss of extra resources of each faculty, so that an optimal instance of our common lecturers timetabling is generated among departments. The applied datasets are in terms of satisfying the scheduling requirements in the real world for multi-departments of Islamic Azad University of Ahar branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the viewpoints of lecturers and students regarding the roles of smartphones in the classroom: how legitimate is it to use them in class, and in what ways? Does the usage of smartphones impair in-class learning processes, and if it does, can we tie specific uses with specific disruptions to the class? Conversely, could it be that using smartphones in class might benefit learning processes? Our inspection sought to uncover the possible existence and nature of attitudinal gaps between students and lecturers by comparing viewpoints and perceptions from both sides of the lectern. The study was conducted among lectures (n=236) and undergraduate students, most of whom between the ages 20-30 (n=336), from seven academic institutions in Israel. Respondents answered an online questionnaire that included questions about their smartphone usage patterns, perceptions regarding the legitimacy of using smartphones in class, and assessments concerning the smartphone's potential contribution to and disruption of learning processes in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of technology is an integral component in the learning and teaching of languages in the twenty-first Century. Around the globe, studies have been carried out to investigate the integration of technology in language classrooms. However, there is a lack of empirical research on this subject in Afghanistan. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore Afghan EFL lecturers' attitudes toward instructional technology, their actual use of instructional technology, and the challenges they face in successfully using instructional technology in EFL classrooms. This study was also conducted to examine 1) the relationship between teachers' demographic profiles and attitudes toward instructional technology; 2) the relationship between teachers' attitudes of instructional technology and their actual use in the classroom; 3) the relationship between perceived challenges and the actual use of instructional technology in the classroom. This study uses a quantitative research method in which an online survey questionnaire was sent to fifty-three Afghan EFL lecturers teaching at the Afghan public universities. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS v23. The results of the study reveal high positive attitudes but a moderate use of instructional technology by the lecturers in their classrooms. The findings also reveal significant correlation between teachers' attitudes and their use of instructional technology. Demographic factors of age, computer training experience, computer competency, and challenges in using technology were found significantly correlated to teachers' attitudes toward instructional technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, higher education teaching is typically conceptualised as generic or determined by disciplinary characteristics. Academic development literature mirrors this dichotomy when discussing the starting point for development work. However, this focus on universal characteristics overlooks crucial aspects of contextual influence on teaching and of lecturers’ derived willingness to change their teaching. This article contributes to the existing literature by illustrating how understanding of and willingness to change is a part of a disciplinary practice. The analysis demonstrates how disciplinary dispositions create frames of meaning in which the understanding of change is embedded. Further, it is argued that academic development has a greater chance of succeeding if it aims at the working-group level, challenges the discipline values and takes an outsider perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the upsurge in interest in e-learning (or online learning) in Chinese higher education, little is known about the ways in which lecturers design and run their online courses, or about how they perceive e-learning. This paper reports the results of interviews with higher education teachers in China working in conventional, campus-based universities, concerning their conceptions and beliefs of e-learning. The interviews were analysed from a grounded theory perspective that gave rise to seven emerging themes, namely: the ‘centrality of the lecture’, ‘online cooperative learning’, ‘network learning’, ‘student learning’, ‘lecture plus online work’, ‘infrastructure and access’ and ‘professional development’. Discussion of these emerging themes helps us understand the ways in which these teachers think about e-learning and teaching, the beliefs they hold about their ‘e’ practice, the ways in which they implement e-learning, the problems they face in incorporating e-learning into their courses and the ways in which they perceive e-learners. This provides a fascinating and unique insight into e-learning in Chinese higher education. Evidence shows that it is a complex area with many influences, some of which can be attributed to social, cultural and Confucian-heritage factors. It is concluded that, despite enthusiasm by some for innovating e-learning, the dominance of traditional teaching methods in China suggest that the conditions for mainstreaming e-learning in the near future are not strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined domestic educator and Chinese international student (CIS) perspectives on their experience of the commoditisation of international higher education in Australia. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews with academic and student participants. A Trans-disciplinary Framework derived from grounded theory and the Auditable Systematised Qualitative Analysis tool, provided structure and a method to systematise interview data. An interpretation of positioning theory gave insights into the perceived reality of research participants. Findings indicated that a number of academics struggled in their role as teachers of CIS. Concerns varied from disquiet about high fees to a perception that the quality of the teaching and learning program was lower because of the university’s emphasis on international students as a source of income. Conversely, some international students paid a high price for a Western education and considered success a fait accompli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's insights on the application of audience response systems (ARSs) in education. He emphasizes that if ARS is properly applied, it will increase attention and collaboration among students, improve interaction between students and lecturers, and allow monitoring of the progress of learning in various environments.

This research examines the impact of lecturer-student exchange (student-LMX) on engagement, course satisfaction, achievement, and intention to leave university prematurely for 363 students in one Australian university. Survey and grade point average (GPA) data were collected from domestic undergraduate first- and second-year students and analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that student's levels of engagement and course satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between student-LMX and intention to leave university, when demographic and socio-economic factors were controlled for. In an era when low student engagement and attrition is often attributed to individual demographic factors, and lecturers are under increasing threat of being replaced by technology, this research offers compelling evidence regarding the role of lecturer-student relationships in enhancing tertiary student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of international cooperation requires cooperation in the sphere of education. An enhanced sharing of experience in the sphere of practical teaching activities implies the increase of the quality of teaching process and of scientific cooperation. Sharing of experience in educational activities implies understanding among representatives of different nations anywhere in the world. It means that through LSM teaching the principle of social constructivism is realized, when participants together create a narrow culture of common objects and senses. The article presents an example of practical application of electronic media to the process of a real lesson. The article describes the process of teaching students from different countries using the system of LMS Moodle, beginning with preparing study materials, giving lectures by foreign lecturers, practical tasks and ending with passing an examination. The training has included some full-time students from the Slovak Republic, the Republic of Dagestan and the Republic of Kazakhstan, and has been realized by applying the method of distance learning (LMS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of a complex Higher Education (HE) landscape, particularly in a developing country context where the relevance of current HE structures is questioned through student protests, and decolonisation of education practices is called for, traditional thinking is losing ground. This study focuses on lecturers identified as eLearning champions, who display shared dispositions that mirror what the literature terms a 'design thinking mindset', such as collaboration, empathy for the learner and problem orientation. We argue that promoting this mindset in academic staff development interventions around the use of technology in teaching and learning could support more academics to innovate their practices. Recommendations for how findings of this study may inform the design of such learning interventions conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecturers often find themselves unable to appropriately interpret or deal with student feedback, which may consequently be essential to how they feel about teaching and students. Research into lecturers' emotional responses to student feedback is scarce, despite the growing use of student feedback as a means of evaluating teachers' work. This narrative study explores seven lecturers' responses to student feedback. The lecturers had prior to the study participated in pedagogical training aimed at developing a deep understanding of learning and teaching in higher education. Interviews with the lecturers were conducted and the data was analysed using a categorical approach to narrative analysis. Building on positive psychology, particularly broaden-and-build theory, we consider lecturers' emotional responses as spirals, and thus had identified upward and downward emotional spirals regarding student feedback. Our findings suggest that pedagogical training may act as an intervention, as it appeared to be meaningful in providing guidance for coping with student feedback. We finally argue that lecturers need to find ways to cope with student feedback as this is essential for their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The university course timetabling problem is considered one of the NP-problems which should be performed for each semester repeatedly, and it is an exhausting and time consuming task. The main technique of the proposed approach is focused on extension and scalability of common lecturers timetabling process across different departments of a university. In this paper the clustering algorithms, including K-means and Fuzzy c-means, are used to schedule common lecturers between departments considering the constraints and their priorities offered, for the first time. For this purpose, a new clustering algorithm named funnel-shape clustering is proposed to schedule common lecturers between departments based on their constraints proposed. The main goals of this paper are to improve the satisfaction of common lecturers across departments and minimize the loss of resources within departments. In this method, all the departments perform their scheduling process locally; After that the clustering agent is applied to cluster common lecturers across departments by using the proposed funnel clustering algorithm and then the traversing agent is used to find the useless resources across departments. Following the clustering and traversing processes, mapping is performed based on the common lecturers' constraints in the excess resources in order to reach the problem goals. The applied dataset based on the real world requirements is across various departments of Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch and the results' success would be based on uniform distribution and allocation of common lecturers on useless resources across different departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has explored the effects of socio-demographic and technological factors on university lecturers' Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK). Conducted in the context of emergency remote learning during the pandemic, the mixed-methods study reported on this paper examined Indonesian lecturers' TPACK during the emergency online teaching, and how their gender, length of teaching experience, prior platform training, and mostly used platform affected their TPACK. 555 lecturers from different parts of Indonesia participated in the e-survey used in this study. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten of the participants. Results revealed that the lecturers' pedagogical and content knowledge components were higher than their technological knowledge components. Findings also showed that gender and mostly used platform affected TK, whereas teaching experience affected pedagogical (PK) and content knowledge (CK). Prior platform training did not affect TPACK. Further, the absence of Learning Management Systems (LMS) forced some to use social media platforms to conduct remote teaching, impacting their TK, impacting their TK. Given the low TK levels, it is suggested that higher education institutions increase the use of online learning platforms (e.g., LMS) and technologies (e.g., augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, which will be highly useful especially for practice-based courses)., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43545-023-00630-w., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The authors did not receive support from any funding organization for the submitted work., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

The article offers information on association of mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell with the American college Bryn Mawr. Topics discussed include affiliation of several mathematician from the college such as Emmy Noether, Charlotte Angas Scott and Anna Pell Wheeler; history of the college since its foundation in 1885; invitation to Russell as a guest lecture by dean M. Carey Thomas who was also sister of Russell's wife; and his conflicts with physician Albert Barnes.

Epistemic expressivists maintain, to a first approximation, that epistemic assertions express non-cognitive mental states, like endorsements, valuations, or pro-attitudes, rather than cognitive mental states such as beliefs. Proponents of epistemic expressivism include Chrisman (Philos Stud 135: 225-254, ), Gibbard (Wise choices, apt feelings, , Thinking how to live, ), Field (Proc Aristot Soc 96:359-379, , Philos Stud 92:1-24, , Philos Stud 143:249-290, ), Kappel (Acta Anal 25:175-194, ), and Ridge (Proc Aristot Soc 81:83-108, ), among others. In this paper, I argue for an alternative view to epistemic expressivism. The view I seek to advocate is inspired by hybrid expressivist theories about moral judgments (see e.g. Barker (Analysis 60:268-279, ), Copp (Soc Philos Policy 18:1-43, , in: Shafer-Landau (ed.) Oxford studies in metaethics, ), Finlay (J Ethics 8:205-223, , Philos Impr 5:1-20, ), Strandberg (Philos Phenomenol Res 84:87-120, )). According to these hybrid views, moral judgments express semantically cognitive or representational states and pragmatically convey the speaker's non-cognitive mental states via implicatures. I will argue that a particular version of this view can reasonably be extended to epistemic judgments and that it has several advantages over its expressivist and cognitivist competitors. In particular, I will try to show that there exist certain phenomena in the epistemic domain that seem to be best accounted for by expressivist theories of epistemic judgments. However, a version of hybrid expressivism that maintains that epistemic judgments convey the attributor's non-cognitive mental states via generalized conversational implicatures is able to account for these phenomena just as well without running afoul of the main problems that have been identified for different versions of epistemic expressivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of speaker variability on accessing the form and meaning of spoken words was evaluated in two short-term priming experiments. In the repetition priming experiment, participants listened to repeated or unrelated prime-target pairs, in which the prime and target were produced by the same speaker or different speakers. The results showed robust repetition priming, but only partial evidence of reduction of priming by speaker variability. In the semantic/associative priming experiment, participants listened to semantically/associatively related or unrelated prime-target pairs, in which the prime and target were produced by the same speaker or different speakers. The results showed robust semantic/associative priming, but the reduction of priming by speaker variability took place only for targets produced by the female speaker. There is no evidence that the speaker variability effect varied as a function of inter-stimulus interval. These findings suggest that speaker variability could affect access to word form and meaning, but the impact is relatively weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has indicated that misconceptions hamper the process of knowledge construction. Misconceptions are defined as persistent ideas not supported by current scientific views. Few studies have explored how misconceptions develop when first year health students conceptually move between anatomy and physiology to construct coherent knowledge about the human body. This explorative study analysed lecturers' perceptions of first-year health science students' misconceptions in anatomy and physiology to gain a deeper understanding of how and why misconceptions could potentially arise, by attempting to link sources of misconceptions with four schools of thought, namely theories on concept formation, complexity, constructivism and conceptual change. This was a qualitative study where ten lecturers involved in teaching anatomy and physiology in the health science curricula at the University of Cape Town were interviewed to explore perceptions of students' misconceptions. Analytical induction was used to uncover categories within the interview data by using a coding system. A deeper analysis was done to identify emerging themes that begins to explore a theoretical understanding of why and how misconceptions arise. Nine sources of misconceptions were identified, including misconceptions related to language, perception, three dimensional thinking, causal reasoning, curricula design, learning styles and moving between macro and micro levels. The sources of misconceptions were then grouped together to assist educators with finding educational interventions to overcome potential misconceptions. This explorative study is an attempt in theory building to understand what is at the core of biomedical misconceptions. Misconceptions identified in this study hold implications for educators as not all students have the required building blocks and cognitive skills to successfully navigate their way through biomedical courses. Theoretical insight into the sources of misconceptions can assist educators in addressing potential hampering factors in the construction of coherent scientific knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Dan O'Brien has argued that there are situations in which a hearer can gain testimonial knowledge from a speaker who is lying. In order to make his case, O'Brien presents two examples where a speaker lies to a hearer, but supposedly the hearer comes to have testimonial knowledge on the basis of the lying speaker's testimony. O'Brien claims that his examples demonstrate that lies can be used to pass on knowledge in a non-inferential fashion. I argue that O'Brien is mistaken. More specifically, I argue that the hearer's belief in the second example that O'Brien depicts fails to meet two plausible conditions for knowledge. First, the hearer's belief fails to satisfy the requirements of the epistemic basing relation. Second, the hearer's belief is not safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]