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This study reports an investigative study with 55 English-major participants in a Chinese university about using simulation in business English correspondence teaching. The study found that participants had strong needs in practical skills development and learning business English correspondence writing. The simulation approach was perceived to be effective and had positive learning outcomes in business communication skills development, motivation, confidence and vocabulary growth, business and language knowledge improvement, and more understanding about the business practice. The constraint factors in simulation included lack of business knowledge and vocabulary, ineffective group cooperation, and lack of understanding about the real-world business background.

With the popularity of business simulation in universities, there is a crucial question of what abilities the students can get from the business simulation. In this study, using qualitative research methods, we studied 71 students who had engaged in a business simulation called Global Challenge. Through three-level coding analysis of students' course reports, we induced and refined five abilities that students would get from business simulation, which are strategic decision-making, competition and cooperation, analysis and judgment, communication and team spirit, and learning by doing. Further, we in detail explained these abilities based on behaviors and performances of the students in simulating. The main contributions are the following: First, it provides insight into the abilities and matching behaviors and enriches research on the learning effectiveness of business simulation from the perspective of ability. Second, the study combines the advantages of qualitative research methods and quasi-experimental design. The results not only extend and deepen our understanding of abilities trained by business simulation but also have value in guiding the practice of business simulation.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the effects of four types of cyber entrepreneurship courses on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and intention. It is based on Social Cognitive Theory and Regulatory Focus Theory, which takes Chinese college students as the research objects. Design/methodology/approach: Approximately 101 senior business school students who had participated in all cyber entrepreneurship courses were selected to complete the horizontal analysis. Approximately 317 students from different grades who had participated in different cyber entrepreneurship courses were selected for the multi-group analysis (MGA) for the longitudinal comparison. Findings: The results show that different cyber entrepreneurship courses may trigger Chinese students' positive or defensive mechanisms for cyber entrepreneurship and affect their ESE and intentions. The impact of cyber entrepreneurship theoretical courses on Chinese students' entrepreneurial intentions is not significant, and self-efficacy has no mediating effect between cyber entrepreneurial theory courses and intentions. Originality/value: This study helps teachers and policymakers to better understand the impacts of cyber entrepreneurship courses and to adopt proper teaching contents and methods for diversity goals. It also has reference value in theoretical and practical perspectives.

Situational simulation teaching method (SST mentioned below) is a mature teaching method that has been applied. It has been widely used in foreign language, law, management, clinical and other fields, and has been proved to have good teaching effect. The quality of teachers is the key to improve the international competitiveness of China's education system. With the growth of China's population and the reform and development of education, the training of pre-service teachers has become a public concern. According to the existing research, most of the pre-service teachers have good academic and moral qualities, but there are still deficiencies in teaching ability, management ability and communication ability. In view of this phenomenon, this paper puts forward a scheme of training chemistry pre-service teachers by using SST method through the way of organic chemistry teaching reform. The results show that SST method can improve students' learning quality and cultivate students' comprehensive abilities (including pre-service teachers' professional skills).

Objective: To analyze the research hotspots and trends of nursing scenario simulation teaching at home and abroad, and to provide reference for future nursing talent education. Methods: CNKI and Web of Science databases were searched. From the establishment of the database to April 2022, relevant literature on nursing scenario simulation teaching research at home and abroad was retrieved, and Cite Space software was used for visual analysis. Results: The research focus on China was the application and application effect of nursing scenario simulation teaching. The research hotspots abroad are the quality evaluation, reliability and influence of nursing scenario simulation teaching. Conclusion: The research and development of nursing scenario simulation teaching gradually tend to be systematic.

Research objectives: specify the framework of using cutting-edge approaches and innovations in the training of rehabilitation physicians; investigate existing innovative technologies; get an insight into the motivation of students majoring in rehabilitation when working with the Gross simulator in sports rehabilitation of patients. The research was conducted at a mixed-type rehabilitation center for disabled adults and children at Soochow University in China. The study was conducted among 200 students majoring in rehabilitation at Soochow University and 100 children from a rehabilitation center with motor disorders: 50 boys and 50 girls. The patients were aged 4-6 years, and the average age of the participating students was 21 years. The students were offered a 6-month training course in rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal disorders, by using innovative technology--the Gross simulator. Student motivation analysis yielded the following outcomes: 90% of the students said that training to operate simulators is useful for the rehabilitation specialist, because this affects the proficiency of such specialist; 15% of students reported they did not like innovative technology in teaching because they faced difficulties in understanding it; 80% of students believed such technology facilitated the learning, and 5% of students were neutral. Further studies, conducted on clinical research sites, might address the effectiveness of training rehabilitation specialists, the use of cutting-edge simulators and robotic systems, as well as development of rehabilitation protocols for patients with injuries and musculoskeletal disorders.

Extant research has identified the significance of technological affordances in computer-supported learning environments. However, until recently, there is scarcely empirical research on affordances for organizing collaboration in these learning environments. To address this gap, this study empirically examines affordances for organizing collaboration in a simulation-based learning environment. We focus, in particular on understanding how the organizing affordances of the learning environment are perceived and employed by the learners during a simulation-based learning task. The study was executed among 177 undergraduate higher education (HE) business students from 10 universities in Belgium, China, Estonia, New Zealand, the USA, Austria, and Finland. The data were obtained from the students' reflective essays, and analyzed with a qualitative content analytical approach. The results of our analyses yield in four types of organizing affordances: (1) organizing the division of work, (2) managing information and resources, (3) managing tasks, and (4) strategizing. Each type of organizing affordance was required in the joint learning task. The study offers an advanced understanding of affordances for organizing and of their use/nonuse in simulation-based learning environments. The findings of this study have theoretical and empirical implications and can contribute to both the development of pedagogic and educational practices as well as the design of learning tasks and environments.

This study reports on an investigate study about using simulation in business English teaching with 66 English-major advanced learners, using two-stage surveys. This study addresses the three research questions focusing on the needs and challenges, effectiveness and learning outcomes and suggestions for improvement of simulation in business English teaching. The study found that participants most favored employment related simulation and workplace scenarios. They preferred both Chinese and global corporate simulation cases, as well as unique industrial and familiar cases. The lack of language skills, knowledge, thinking skills, practice skills, and mentality could be the challenges for simulation. The majority of the participants agreed that simulation activities were effective and had positive impact. Through simulation, participants could acquire writing skills, corporate and business knowledge, and business vocabulary knowledge. Participants were concerned about the simulation process and the roles to play. Lack of adequate language, knowledge, experience, and social skills, inappropriate grouping and timing could be unproductive factors for simulation. On the other hand, more interactions, presentation, expanded language and knowledge, and linking with practice could be facilitating factors for simulation. For improvement, participants suggested adding more case content and context, having longer preparation time and better grouping, as well as clearer simulation instructions. This study provides empirical evidences for refining the simulation approach in business English courses from China's English majors' perspectives. The study has important implications for business English simulation teaching design and implementations in both Chinese and international contexts.

Studies on predicative metaphors like "The rumor flew through the office" have not received due attention until recently. Through a behavioural experiment, this study investigates the cognitive mechanisms as well as the effects of familiarity on Chinese EFL learners' comprehension of English predicative metaphors, adopting a two factors within-subject design: 2 (degree of familiarity: high-familiarity, low-familiarity) x 3 (priming condition: matching priming condition (MP), mismatching priming condition (MMP) and, no priming condition (NP)). Forty-five third-year Chinese undergraduate students participated in the experiment by completing a metaphor semantic comprehension test. Their reaction times (RTs) and accuracy rate of comprehension were recorded and a two-way ANOVA analysis of the results reveals that: Embodied simulation mechanism plays an important role in English predicative metaphor processing, especially when the metaphors being processed are unfamiliar. Yet its role diminishes when the metaphors being processed are highly familiar, which encourages the use of the language processing mechanism. To conclude, Chinese EFL learners make use of either the embodied simulation mechanism or the language processing mechanism in comprehending predicative metaphors, depending on their varying degrees of familiarity. These findings shed light on predicative metaphor instruction in L2 English teaching.

Critical thinking is one of the important higher-order skills very much treasured in education, but hard to be measured using paper-pencil tests. In line with recent recommendation to measure high-order thinking skills with interactive tasks (vs. static one set of questions), in this study we developed an interactive and automated game-based assessment of critical thinking, using the Toulmin Model. In two real-life simulation stories, through interactive tasks in progressing scenes in the stories, students chose and rated evidence and conflicting reasons as supportive or non-supportive arguments in making the eventual decision. Critical thinking scores were awarded on choosing the appropriate evidence and reasons. The psychometric quality of the game was evaluated with 185 Chinese senior secondary students. Results showed that (i) reliabilities as measured by Cronbach's a of the whole scale and subdomains were reasonable; (ii) parallel form reliability was high; (iii) its correlation and convergent validity with the popular Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment were comparable to those in other studies; (iv) it was generally not related to academic performance; and (v) the game was interesting and engaging. We also noted that students hesitated to query others and they were weak in applying critical thinking to problem-solving, which were in congruent with previous research showing students rarely used critical thinking to solve complex, real-world problems. In sum, we demonstrated successfully the use of interactive simulation tasks in measuring critical thinking. With the advancement of technology, our study suggested the possibility of assessing hard-to-measure important complex higher-order competence with dynamic games.

Purpose: To develop a novel method for closely and effectively integrating simulation scenarios and clinical practices to improve clinical skills training in the concepts of translational medicine. Methods: Forty-two and 38 third-year medical students in the classes of 2010 and 2009 at Jinan University were selected as an observation group and a control group, respectively. The former group was taught according to a new, integrated mode, while the latter received traditional methods. Students' scores on practical tests in physical examination, internal punctures, and case analysis; theory-based exams on diagnostics and internal medicine; and questionnaire surveys were compared and analyzed. In addition, system-oriented curricula were explored and implemented. Results: A novel mode that closely and effectively integrates theory and practice in the observation group had been established although there were no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between Grade 2010 and Grade 2009 in clinical basic skills training scores. However, there were statistically significant differences (P<0.05) in scores on practical tests of physical examination and internal punctures among the diagnostic, internal medicine and internship periods in the class of 2010 but no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) in case analysis scores. Therefore, system-oriented curricula were initially designed and explored in excellent students from Grade 2010 to reinforce clinical thinking. Conclusion: The novel program integrating simulation scenarios and clinical situations for training students in diagnostics and internal medicine skills can improve medical students' clinical comprehensive abilities and achieve effects that are similar to those of the traditional method. This program is more popular with students and ensures patient safety as well. In addition, different characteristics of clinical skills training have been compared for the further exploration of system-oriented curriculum were explored and implemented.

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic continued to spread and became a global pandemic. Affected by the epidemic, online teaching has become the new normal. As the main form of online education, multimedia learning has attracted more and more attention. The study of traditional patterns has always been a particularly important element of art study in China due to cultural heritage and precious resources. Chinese traditional patterns are an important object of learning because of the heritage. This study examines students' understanding of the composition and evolution of traditional Chinese patterns in bronze mirrors by using different multimedia learning materials. A two by two factorial design is employed. The dependent variables includes (1) subjects' post-test scores and (2) the data of subjects' eye-movement behaviour. Data shows that students who use the animation with narration allocate a greater amount of visual attention than students who use animation with on-screen text. The students who use simulation with on-screen text demonstrated a greater amount of visual attention than students who use received simulation with narration. Furthermore, this empirical study confirmed a direct, positive correlation between the length of the subjects' eye fixation behaviour and the depth of learning. This result also provides evidence to prove that the use of multimedia learning materials is helpful in art education, especially in the study of the various elements of traditional Chinese art.

International relations is often confusing for students. IR theories are introduced as parsimonious and elegant and then systematically challenged as students learn more about detailed events. There are rules, there are norms, and states follow them until they don't. East Asia increases these challenges because it often undermines IR theory. Simulations can provide a key means of grounding students studying international relations because they apply IR theory to real-world examples--something especially important in a large lecture course. While simulations are effective tools, they often rely on strong institutional arrangements around which the rules of simulations are based. This presents a challenge for studying foreign relations in regions like East Asia, which have weaker multilateral institutions and thus no obvious template for a simulation. To overcome the challenges of weak institutionalization and subject-matter difficulty, we present two alternative models of simulations tested in a large lecture course on transpacific relations. The consensus model simulates what an international summit looks like in a weakly institutionalized environment maximizing the realism of the experience for students. The cooperation model captures the motivations of states to seek international cooperation despite the complications faced in international relations, maximizing the spirit of urgency that animates weakly institutionalized environments. We provide detailed instructions and materials to adapt these models to similar courses.

In light of pedagogical innovation, this study reports a two-stage survey with 172 participants from English-major and non-English-major programs on their needs of production-oriented approach and perceptions of effective implementation strategies in business English courses at a Chinese university. The results of the study suggest that while the two student groups used different learning methods, both valued communication with native speakers. While the two groups had different needs in business English reading, writing, and speaking activities, they also preferred listening to business news broadcasts. The two groups liked learning in case studies and case-based methodology. Based on the needs, a production-oriented teaching procedure is designed. For teaching activities, the students preferred simulation and role-play. As to their favorite teaching and learning materials, English-majors mentioned English news reading and videos, whereas non-English-majors liked theme-based reading materials. For curriculum adaptation and post-course practice, they suggested using communicative activities and more recent cases. The majority of the groups considered the teaching activities, materials, and activities as effective. Based on the different needs and perceptions, effective and tailored implementation strategies for a production-oriented approach in business English courses for the two student groups at this Chinese university context are suggested. Informed by production-oriented pedagogical theories, the results of the study may have significant implications for business English teaching reform and theoretical development in Chinese universities as well as other cultural and education settings in further innovating and refining the teaching and learning process.

Cultivating EFL learners' critical thinking ability is an urgent task for English teachers. To integrate the training of language skills and cultivation of critical thinking ability into one language course, the author designed an activity called simplified Modal United Nations conference, which is based on the revised Bloom's Taxonomy that classifies thinking as containing six cognitive levels of complexity. This activity would help learners to develop higher-level cognitive abilities such as abilities of analyzing, evaluating and creating, while enhancing their language competence by directing their attention to language forms.

This study reports an investigative study of using case study approach in business English teaching in the Chinese university context. The research instruments used were survey questionnaires containing both ratings and open-ended questions, which were administered to 127 English major undergraduates at the beginning and end of the "Business English" course. The study results showed that the case study approach was challenging, due to the participants' perceived difficulty in putting theory into practice, insufficient vocabulary, difficulty in understanding and analyzing cases and limited communication skills in presentation and writing. The preferred business English cases ranged from business communication cases such as negotiation, writing, conference to cases relevant to business functions such as marketing, import and export. It is suggested that the case study approach should integrate communicative methodologies. Workplace simulations, case introduction and analysis, role plays in the classrooms and workplace placements with external support should also be used to make connections to the workplace. Audiovisual materials and memorizing dialogues and conversations were the preferred learning methods. Moreover, case introductions, company information and video clips should be provided in the classroom. Internships, field trips and data collection and other learning practices are suggested for post-course practice. Participants' familiar company cases are the most impressive and they have improved business communicative competence comprehensively. The results of the study may inform business English teaching and the theory and practice of curriculum development in both Chinese and international settings.

Purpose: In recent times, many universities have been pressured to become heavily involved in university branding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' perceptions of different international universities (brands) in terms of important university attributes, including the country in which the university's main campus is located and educational programs are designed (COD) and the method by which the educational services are distributed internationally (DM). Design/methodology/approach: Using a conjoint simulation procedure, this paper predicts the impact that university attributes have on Malaysian and Chinese students' preferences for international universities. Findings: The results suggest that, although COD and DM are important factors, the extent to which these factors dominate student preference differs significantly across students according to nationality. Research limitations/implications: The simulation suggests how international universities can improve their branding strategies, and highlights the need to understand students' preferences when developing marketing strategies. Originality/value: Past research has compared the importance of university attributes across countries from the perspective of students, but failed to assess this issue in the light of existing university brands (at an institutional or country level). Such knowledge can provide an indication of student preferences and competitive performance, which are of great interest to education marketers. The present study predicts the impact of various university attributes on Malaysian and Chinese students' preferences for specific international universities (brands) in four different countries, and changes in preference that occur when the style of delivery or course suitability is altered.

An assumption underlying speaking tests is that scores reflect the ability to produce online, non-rehearsed speech. Speech produced in testing situations may, however, be less spontaneous if extensive test preparation takes place, resulting in memorized or rehearsed responses. If raters detect these patterns, they may conceptualize speech as inauthentic. As of yet, no studies have investigated raters' perceptions or viewpoints on authenticity. In this exploratory study, 58 raters rated eight speech samples, one set of four recorded by test takers who had been exposed to a test prompt one week beforehand and a second set of four who had not been exposed. The 58 raters rated the samples on 5 continuous speech-production authenticity indicators and 4 continuous proficiency indicators. Seven raters additionally participated in a stimulated verbal recall. The raters were able to differentiate authenticity across the exposure sets. Raters with experience working in China (n = 42), an educational context prone to cram-test preparation practices, were even better able to do so. The stimulated recall revealed a range of criteria raters used in their judgements of authenticity. In this study I discuss these findings and how this hidden facet may play a role in spoken-performance-test rating.

Although research on entrepreneurial attitude and intention has received so much attention from scholars, only few studies have investigated the effect of value, usefulness, and pleasure associated with business simulation games, and how these values affect students' attitude and intention toward entrepreneurial activities. In this study, Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior have been used in combination to explore how these technological teaching methods influence the attitude and intentions of the students toward entrepreneurial activities. The results show that all hypotheses have been proven by stating significant and positive students' attitude and intention toward entrepreneurial activities using business simulation games. But subjective norms did not contribute toward student intentions in this regard. It is concluded that people with high uncertainty avoidance are reluctant to take the risk; therefore, there is a need to change their attitude by implementing entrepreneurial ecosystem in society.

From a psycholinguistic perspective of view, there are many cognitive differences that matter to individuals' second-language acquisition (SLA). Although many computer-assisted tools have been developed to capture and narrow the differences among learners, the use of these strategies may be highly risky because changing the environments or the participants may lead to failure. In this paper, we propose an artificial neural network (ANN)-based computational model to simulate the environment to which students are exposed. The ANN computational model equips English teachers with the ability to quickly find the predicting factors to learners' overall English competences and also provides teachers with the ability to find abnormal students, based on reviewing their individualized ANN trajectories. Finally, by observing the compound effects of cognitive factors using the same evaluation scale, new hypotheses about the mutual relationships among the phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory, and long-term memory abilities of their students can be generated. Our experimental ANNs suggested three detailed corresponding conclusions for the participants' English teachers. These results provide teachers with guidance in designing and applying cognitive ability-related intervention strategies in their L2 pedagogical activities.

As the tourism industry has gradually become the strategic mainstay industry of the national economy, the scope of the tourism discipline has developed rigorously. This paper makes a predictive study on the development of the scope of Guangdong provincial tourism discipline based on the artificial neural network BP model in order to find out how the branch of tourism studies can better adapt to the development of the tourism industry. The research findings indicate that the BP model can be applied to the predictions of the scope of the tourism discipline and provide a quantitative basis for decision making with regard to the spatial layout and optimal allocation of the tourism discipline.

Purpose: To create a high-stress shooting among the crowd (SAC) program and to examine its effectiveness in reducing SWAT trainees' stress level and their shooting performance in a simulated hostage-rescue situation. Method: After the SAC program was created, it was evaluated using a pretest and posttest experimental design: 98 young male SWAT trainees were randomly divided into experiment and control groups, with the former group trained in hostage rescue, shooting with real persons (high stress), and the latter group trained with "dummy" men (low stress); training for both lasted three days. Their shooting performance was assessed by a tactical shooting test in both high- and low-stress tests in a counterbalanced order, before and after the training, and monitored during the training, as were their stress levels by a set of physical (heart rate [HR] and heart rate recovery time [HRRt]), psychological (salivary cortisol and a-amylase), and self-reported anxiety measures. Results: The SAC program created needed high-stress for hostage rescue situations as reflected in increased physical, psychological, and anxiety scores and reduced shooting performance. Even with short SAC training, SWAT trainees' capacity in handling high stress and tactical shooting performance were significantly improved. HR, HRRt, and anxiety tests have been found to be effective in monitoring stress and should be a part of future SWAT training. Conclusion: A SAC program involving real people was created, and its effectiveness was confirmed using a pretest and posttest experimental design.

Practical teaching plays an important role in developing students' practical and innovative abilities. Starting from the idea of "emphasis on practice and ability", this article proposes to take a series of measures to improve students' practical ability in undergraduate teaching. In addition, a platform should be built to develop students' innovative abilities. Our practice has shown that these measures have taken favorable effects.

In m-learning environments, context-awareness is for wide use where learners' situations are varied, dynamic and unpredictable. We are facing the challenge of requirements of both generality and depth in generating and processing high-level context. In this paper, we present a social approach which exploits social dynamics and social computing for generating high-level context. It is a novel and generic paradigm where the crowds of learners in m-learning environments directly engage in creating contents about high-level context and interactions by social tagging, and these contents and interactions are further explored to discover more implicit and complex high-level contextual information. We present the concept model, the context representation, the context matrix, and the context retrieval method. We evaluate our approach by a social simulation-based experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the context retrieval performance is improved in both the accuracy and the diversity, and validate that the proposed social approach is effective for generating high-level context.

This article reports on a study that investigated the role of metapragmatic awareness of L2 learners in Hong Kong, and the impact it has on language choices when addressing requests in English. Simulated open role-plays and retrospective interviews were used to explore the ways in which mainland Chinese undergraduates assess, plan and produce their utterances. The results show that participants' self-monitoring of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge may contribute to metapragmatic awareness; their oral performance in target language pragmatics depends on these two types of knowledge, as well as on self-evaluation of mediating factors such as cognitive task demand and learner subjectivity. By bridging the gap between what learners say and why they say it, this article demonstrates how metapragmatic awareness mediates the process of real-time L2 pragmatic performance and how it emerges from such a mediated process.

This study explores the effect of a history-based course on pre-service teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). Data were collected from 10 pre-service teachers at a normal university in China. At the beginning of the course, participants were asked to submit their teaching plans followed by a teaching simulation on selected topics. They then received a history-based course particularly stressing the value of the history of mathematics in education. After being educated on the historical background of these topics, the participants were asked to think back while watching their simulation videos and then redesign their instructional plans on the same topics. We investigated these pre-service teachers' MKT through the simulated teaching videos, conducting semi-structured interviews, and analyzing their teaching plans and learning journals. Results suggest that these pre-service teachers' MKT had improved. Their changes in PCK were more significant than those in SMK. Nevertheless, the history-based course seemed to have had less influence on the participants' CCK and KCC. Possible reasons for the positive and negative effects are addressed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine which method, individual information-centered (IIC) or group information-centered (GIC), is more efficient in recovering missing physical activity (PA) data. Method: A total of 2,758 Chinese children and youth aged 9 to 17 years old (1,438 boys and 1,320 girls) wore ActiGraph GT3X/GT3X+ accelerometers for 7 consecutive days. Those with no missing data ("n" = 900) were used to form a nonmissing sample, which, based on a semisimulation approach, was used to create a missing data set to evaluate a set of recovery methods, including 2 IIC and 22 GIC methods. Root mean square difference (RMSD), mean signed difference, and paired "t" test were used to determine the effectiveness of the recovery methods. Results: The smallest RMSD values, which represent the most accurate recovery, were found with: (a) GIC-Expectation--maximization (GIC-EM) regardless of gender and by age (113,957.64); (b) GIC-EM regardless of gender and age (114,367.88); (c) GIC-EM regardless of age and by gender (114,697.06); (d) GIC-EM by gender and age (116,178.34); and (e) IIC averaging of remaining days (125,851.23). Conclusion: To recover 7-day PA accelerometer-determined activity missing data, we recommend using the GIC-EM and IIC approaches.

Estimation problems associated with the correlated-trait correlated-method (CTCM) parameterization of a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix are widely documented: the model often fails to converge; even when convergence is achieved, one or more of the parameter estimates are outside the admissible parameter space. In this study, the authors explore the potential contributions of two factors to the occurrence of nonconvergence and inadmissible solutions: (a) the minimum number of indicators per factor and (b) the deviation of the MTMM matrix from the CTCM model beyond sampling variability. Analyses of two published occupational preference data sets involving six traits and five methods and a simulation study show that the probability of obtaining problematic solutions diminishes as the minimum number of indicators per factor increases. Also, isolating factors contributing to model misfit beyond sampling variability reduces the probability of obtaining problematic solutions by one half. The implications of these findings for choosing a measurement design that improves the probability of achieving a proper solution in the analysis of an MTMM matrix using the CTCM parameterization are discussed. (Contains 1 figure.)

In some tests, examinees are required to choose a fixed number of items from a set of given items to answer. This practice creates a challenge to standard item response models, because more capable examinees may have an advantage by making wiser choices. In this study, we developed a new class of item response models to account for the choice effect of examinee-selected items. The results of a series of simulation studies showed: (1) that the parameters of the new models were recovered well, (2) the parameter estimates were almost unbiased when the new models were fit to data that were simulated from standard item response models, (3) failing to consider the choice effect yielded shrunken parameter estimates for examinee-selected items, and (4) even when the missingness mechanism in examinee-selected items did not follow the item response functions specified in the new models, the new models still yielded a better fit than did standard item response models. An empirical example of a college entrance examination supported the use of the new models: in general, the higher the examinee's ability, the better his or her choice of items. (Contains 4 figures and 7 tables.)

An interactive computer-based learning tool with multiple sessions is proposed in this paper, which teaches students to think and helps them recognize the merits and limitations of simulation tools so as to improve their practical abilities in electrical circuit simulation based on the case of a power converter with progressive problems. The common problem of fast simulation and differential equation solver convergence are discussed in detail for the simulation of nonlinear power electronic circuits. Another special ratio for ripple restriction is proposed, taking practical work into consideration. Some design and simulation tradeoffs for corresponding problems are also presented. Such a learning tool can improve students' programming skills and inspire their interest in practical work as well. The practical tests--carried out at the Aichi Institute of Technology, Toyota, Japan, and Southeast University, Nanjing, China--validate the effectiveness of the learning tool. (Contains 2 tables and 12 figures.)

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models can be applied to longitudinal educational surveys where a group of individuals are administered different tests over time with some common items. However, computational problems typically arise as the dimension of the latent variables increases. This is especially true when the latent variable distribution cannot be integrated out analytically, as with MIRT models for binary data. In this article, based on the pseudolikelihood theory, we propose a pairwise modeling strategy to estimate item and population parameters in longitudinal studies. Our pairwise method effectively reduces the dimensionality of the problem and hence is applicable to longitudinal IRT data with high-dimensional latent variables, which are challenging for classical methods. And in the low-dimensional case, our simulation study shows that it performs comparably with the classical methods. We further illustrate the implementation of the pairwise method using a development study of mathematics levels of junior high school students in which the response data are collected from 65 classes of 8 schools from 4 different school districts in China. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

This article reports on a pedagogical tool developed to facilitate effective inter-cultural communication in the workplace. We created pre- and post-instruction videos of a native speaker (NS) and non-native speakers (NNSs) in simulated job interviews. Initial interviews were examined for pragmatic difficulties, and one of the researchers also conducted pre- and post-interviews with the recruiters and the NNSs to obtain reactions to the interviews. Their initial videos and post-interview reactions were used to instruct the NNSs in the pragmatics of a job interview. A panel of three expert instructors also watched the pre- and post-instruction videos and rated all interviews on an inventory of specific pragmatic skills. Their ratings were analyzed to determine the candidates' progress and patterns of pragmatic difficulties. Candidates showed marked improvement in their second interviews, demonstrating that the pedagogical intervention used promoted the development of pragmatic competence. Implications for ESL programs, instructors, TESL, and EWP are discussed. (Contains 3 notes and 2 figures.)

Chinese brush calligraphy is a valuable civilization legacy and a high art of scholarship. It is still popular in Chinese banners, newspaper mastheads, university names, and celebration gifts. There are Web sites that try to help people enjoy and learn Chinese calligraphy. However, there lacks advanced services such as content-based retrieval or vivid writing process simulation for calligraphy learning. This article proposes a novel Chinese calligraphy learning approach: First, the scanned calligraphy pages were segmented into individual calligraphy characters using minimum-bounding box. Second, the individual character's feature information was extracted and kept. Then, a corresponding database was built to serve as a map between the feature data and the original raw data. Finally, a retrieval engine was constructed and a dynamic writing process was simulated to help learners get the calligraphy character they were interested in and watch how it was generated step by step.

This article explores the simulation of four television quiz shows for students in China studying English as a foreign language (EFL). It discusses the adaptation and implementation of television quiz shows and how the students reacted to them.