New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences

EDITORIAL

2019-05-05T20:27:04+01:00

It is the great honor for us to edit proceedings of “9th World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership (WCLTA-2018)” held on 26-28 October 2018, at the Quality Hotel Rouge et Noir Congress Center, Roma, Italy. This privileged scientific event has contributed to the field of educational sciences and research for nine years.

As the guest editors of this issue, we are glad to see variety of articles focusing on the Active Learning, Administration of Education, Adult Education, Affective Learning, Arts Teaching, Asynchronous Learning, Behaviorist Learning, Biology Education, Blended Learning, Chemistry Education, Classroom Assessment, Classroom Management, Classroom Teacher Education, Collaborative Learning, College and Higher Education, Constructivist Learning, Content Development, Counseling Underperformers, Course and Programme Evaluation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Development, Curriculum and Instruction, Democracy Education, Desktop Sharing, Developmental Psychology, Digital Content, Creation, Preservation and Delivery, Distance Learning, E-administration, E-assessment, Education and Culture, Educational Administration, Educational Technology, E-learning, E-Learning Strategies, E-Library and Learning Resources, Embedding Soft Skills in Curriculum Development, Enhancing and Integrating Employability, Environmental Education, ESL Education, E-teaching, Evaluation of e- Learning Technologies, Evaluation of Student Satisfaction, Faculty Development and Support, Future Learning Trends and Globalization, Gaming, Simulation and, Virtual Worlds, Guiding and Counseling, Healthy Education, High School Teacher Education, History Education, Human Resources in Education, Human Resources Management, Human Rights Education, Humanistic Learning, Information Literacy Support for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, Innovation and Changing in Education, Innovations in e-Assessment, Innovative Teaching Strategies, Institutional Audit and Quality Assurance, Institutional Performance, Instructional Design, Instructional Design,, Knowledge Management in Education, Language Learning and Teaching, Language Teacher Education, Learner Centered Strategies, Learners Diversity, Inclusiveness and Inequality, Learning and Teaching Research Methods, Learning Assessment and Evaluation, Learning Disabilities, Learning Psychology, Learning Skills, Learning Theories, Lifelong Learning Strategies, Mathematics Learning and Teaching, Measurement and Evaluation in Education, Middle School Teacher Education, Mobile Learning, Multi-cultural Education, Multiple Intelligences, Music Learning and Teaching, New Learning Environments, New Learning Web Technologies, Nursery Education, Outcome-based Education, Performance Assessment, Physics Education, Portfolio Assessment, Pre-school Education, Primary School Education, Professional Development, School Administration, Science Education, Science Teaching, Social Networking and Interactive, Participatory Applications and Services, Social Sciences Teaching, Special Education, Sport and Physical Education, Strategic Alliances, Collaborations and Partnerships, Student Diversity, Student Motivation, Supporting Students Experience, Table of Specifications, Teacher skills, Teacher Training, Technology and the Learning Environment, Virtual Classroom Management, Vocational Education, Web Conferencing and etc.

Furthermore, the conference is getting more international each year, which is an indicator that it is getting worldwide known and recognized. Scholars from all over the world contributed to the conference. Special thanks are to all the reviewers, the members of the international editorial board, the publisher, and those involved in technical processes. We would like to thank all who contributed to in every process to make this issue actualized. A total of 82 full papers or abstracts were submitted for this conference and each paper has been peer reviewed by the reviewers specialized in the related field. At the end of the review process, a total of 22 high quality research papers were selected and accepted for publication.

I hope that you will enjoy reading the papers.

Guest Editors

Prof. Dr. Jesús Garcia Laborda, University of Alcala, Spain

Editorial Assistant

Zeynep Genc, Msc. Near East University, North Cyprus

Caring principal leadership for the support of teachers leading committees for promotion of healthy school environments

2019-05-05T20:27:25+01:00

Caring lies at the heart of effective enhancement of healthy school environments and good school leadership. This is evidenced by health policies wherein principals are indirectly obliged to act ethically and morally. By doing so, they assume their caring role that will enable the development of human capital. This study was conducted in schools in two provinces in South Africa with principals, school management team members and leaders of health committees as participants. This is a qualitative research study which included two rural and two township schools. As this was an exploratory, phenomenological study, data were collected using multiple data collection tools: narratives, interviews and shadowing. The findings of this research indicate signs of caring leadership in the actions and interactions of the principals and teachers; principals and community members; and principals and other external stakeholders. More caring leadership was, however, experienced for the programmes than for the leaders of committees per se.

Keywords: Health promotion, caring for, caring about, communal orientation, school leadership.

Reconciling ADDIE and Agile instructional design models—case study

2019-05-05T20:27:24+01:00

Using the model of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (ADDIE) with regards to instructional design has become a prevalent practise among e-learning designers and developers. This model assumes assigning specific roles to project team members and their linear cooperation. However, in case of working in a dynamic and complex environment, the ADDIE model may evolve into more adaptive and people-oriented Agile instructional models. This article analyses a hybrid approach to the process of creating the e-learning course introduction to cultural awareness in specific situational context, which involves a small size of a project team and geographically dispersed project contributors. The case study reveals that a successful accomplishment of multinational projects, conducted in specific environments may require a hybrid approach; moreover, in such atypical projects good communication skills and personal qualities are crucial for goals’ achievement. The results of qualitative analysis may open further discussions on this topic.

Keywords: ADDIE model, Agile model, e-learning course, instructional design.

Based tasks in CLIL settings

2019-05-05T20:27:23+01:00

The article is devoted to advanced learners’ motivation within content and language integrated learning (CLIL) settings. The author analyses students’ motivation and anxiety for a task from the point of the dopamine and the opioid systems, the input–output aspect, heuristic and algorithmic procedures. Considering scientific publications reviewed, the author demonstrates a novel idea for CLIL settings—professionally-oriented incident-based tasks. An example of an incident-based task for Master’s students majoring in management is given. Being based on the same principles, the novel tasks proposed are relevant to CLIL. The author concludes that the incident-based tasks not only stimulate experienced students’ motivation, but also contribute to their personal qualities and professional skills development.

Keywords: CLIL, professionally-oriented, professional discourse, internet-based, foreign language competence.

Ethical issues in the teacher and the student relationship

2019-05-05T20:27:22+01:00

The mutual interaction of teacher and student and observance of ethical principles in their communication are currently actual problem in the teaching process, including university study. In order to map the current situation in the application of ethical principles and pedagogical tact in the teaching, we realised long-term pedagogical survey in acad. years 2009/2010 and 2017/2018 (65/105 respondents, respectively). Respondents—students of the first year of Faculty of Medicine Comenius University in Bratislava evaluated the level of ethical principles observance and pedagogical tact during teaching and the quality of mutual communication teacher–student and student–teacher. The results of this survey are analysed in this paper.

Keywords: Ethics, ethical principles in education, pedagogical tact, communication teacher—student.

Stressors and coping mechanisms of older adults teaching in higher education institutions in Manila

2019-05-05T20:27:21+01:00

This study explored the stressors and coping mechanisms of older adults, 60 years old and over, who teach in three state higher education institutions in Manila, Philippines. Descriptive correlation method of research was employed. One hundred eighty-eight were randomly selected from the roster of 356 target participants. The Older Adults Life Stress Inventory was used to identify the severity of stressors as experienced by the respondent senior professionals for the past 3 years along the areas of physical, health, social, family, occupational and financial domains. The Coping Strategy Inventory Short Form 32 was used to determine typical coping strategies that involve problem-solving, cognitive restructuring, express emotions and social contact. Tests of correlation, however, revealed that all the six stressors areas have a significant positive correlation with problem avoidance, wishful thinking, self-criticism and social withdrawal (p < 0.01). Multiple regression analyses disclosed that older adult men have a greater preponderance to experience stressors than older adult women

Keywords: Older adult professionals, stressors, coping mechanisms, physical-related stressors, health-related stressors, social-related stressors, family-related stressors, occupational stressors, financial stressors.

Leadership development of 21st century engineering millennial students in Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates; problem-based learning in action

2019-05-05T20:27:20+01:00

Leadership development has become an import aspect of the UAE’s educational system. In recent years, UAE leaders have focused on the reform of higher education assessment, curriculum and administration with a view to encouraging Emirati students to contribute to the nation’s growth as national human capital, through leadership roles where they will be guided and educated driving the needs of the knowledge economy. In many courses, students are more knowledge recipients than producers; they are considered cognitively active whilst physically inactive where learning is considered a passive process. BUSS301, a third-year undergraduate course taught to engineering students has undergone major revisions influenced by student evaluations on application, relevance and assessment. The earlier syllabus entitled Corporate Leadership and Human Resource Management (more theoretical and examination driven) has evolved to a more recent Enquiry Based approach: Teaching and Learning Leadership by Simulation and Theory where students are driving their own learning through inquiry using a project-based learning (PBL) approach.

Keywords: Project-based learning, engineering education, leadership, student-centred learning, constructivism, teambuilding, collaboration

Type students’ versus academic staff’ attitudes towards e-learning: A comparative study

2019-05-05T20:27:19+01:00

In developed countries, universities have started e-learning. This phenomenon is a new issue in Iran. This research aimed to investigate students’ and faculty members’ attitude towards electronic learning in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. This is a descriptive-surveying study. Research population includes students and faculty members of Birjand University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected from 313 students and 86 faculty member through a researcher-made questionnaire. Reliability of this questionnaire was obtained 0.91 using alpha Cronbach coefficient. Field study was used to collect the data and the collected data were analysed by SPSS software. Both students and faculty members showed positive attitude towards e-learning. However, faculty members showed more positive view about e-learning (p < 0.000). Our findings showed that there is a significant difference among students’ attitudes in different schools about e-learning (p < 0.000). Academic managers should provide requirements to develop e-learning in Iranian universities.

Keywords: E-learning, student, faculty members, attitude.

Reasons for non-critical thinking: The multilevel model approach

2019-05-05T20:27:18+01:00

In current literature, one is offered a number of ways of discussing critical thinking, and furthermore, authors follow different tracks grounded in a variety of disciplines (philosophical, psychological and educational) to approach the concept. The only consensus within this topic seems to be the claim that there is no consensus concerning the definition and the construct of critical thinking. I propose that the critical thinking is a complex concept, which simultaneously involves components at three levels, at the level of the culture, the individual and the language. I call the resulting framework a multilevel model (MLM) of the critical thinking concept. The paper argues that the study of critical thinking and non-critical thinking instances within the framework of the MLM allows us a better understanding of the phenomena internationally, and in addition, that no one level can be singled out as the only appropriate level of analysis of critical thinking instances.

Keywords: Critical thinking, language, emotion, context, social environment, culture.

Indonesian high school students’ attitudes towards bilingual classroom instructions

2019-05-05T20:27:17+01:00

This study investigates Indonesian high school students’ attitude towards the benefits of bilingual classroom instructions. The researchers also share the view that bilingual program which is advocates the use of two languages in teaching and learning processes strengthens the concept of the two languages and constructs an automatic good translating system in learners’ brain which is fruitful to establish meta-cognitive and cognitive strands. For this study, the data were obtained from the distribution of a questionnaire adapted from synthesising some benefit of learning other languages that learners could experience in bilingual education: 1) the language benefit for communication, 2) a better understanding of ideas and concepts, 3) access to more opportunities in life and 4) social and inter-cultural. The finding suggests that most students of the eleventh 11th grade of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri Cendekia Jambi had a positive attitude towards the benefits of bilingual instruction.

Keywords: Bilingualism, bilingual instruction, attitude.

Student questions as significant potential for student learning

2019-05-05T20:27:16+01:00

The purpose of this study is to discuss the student question as significant potential for supporting student learning. Student questions were investigated using the direct observation method during mathematics lessons. The research sample consisted of six mathematics lessons. The results demonstrate that if a student asks questions about the information he requires to resolve a learning assignment actively in the context of tuition, he also comes up with ideas on how to proceed in the context of resolving the learning assignment. We created a student question typology which points out how students might involve in their learning process by asking questions and thereby better understanding what they know and what is new to them from the lesson content. We consider creation of this typology to be the pilot part of actual research of student questions at the beginning of school attendance.

Keywords: Student questions, students learning, typology.

Legal clinics, a challenge for the teaching of law

2019-05-05T20:27:15+01:00

The teaching of law has experienced new challenges, especially with globalisation and the changes introduced by the Bologna process. However, it has been difficult to implement them before the insistence of the traditional methodology of expository lessons, deeply rooted in the cycles of law. One of the current challenging methodologies is the legal clinics, as a dynamic and providing tool for active learning and facilitating the acquisition of practical competences. The legal clinics offer the possibility of a teaching based on life cases, allowing students to observe the effective or simulated representation of legal cases, developing skills, also appealing to the values and ethics that are imposed on a future jurist, be a lawyer or a magistrate. The purpose of our study is to raise awareness of the paradigm shift in the teaching of law, especially in Portuguese schools. The legal clinics will raise awareness of civil society, instilling reliability in the legal services.

Keywords: Globalisation, law, legal clinics,teaching, methodologies.

School principals as leaders: Pre-service and in-service teachers’ perspective

2019-05-05T20:27:14+01:00

Scholars have highlighted that the existing school leadership models are incomplete and the relevant research is dominated by the principals’ perspectives. This study explores the pre-service and in-service teachers’ views about what they want and expect of the school principals as leaders to willingly follow them. The sample consisted of 36 teachers purposefully recruited. Written texts, where the participants were asked to spontaneously write down their thoughts, were used as a research tool; and content analysis was used as a research method. The findings overall indicated that the ideal school leader from the teachers’ perspectives has mostly particular leadership skills, in a much lesser extent has both specific personality traits and enduring goals to pursue, while specific necessary qualifications are considered as the least desirable. These findings are discussed in the context of the broad literature on leadership and in relation to the proposed leadership models.

Keywords: School leaders, principals, teachers’ perspectives, qualitative research;

Managerial roles of Ontario college presidents

2019-05-05T20:27:13+01:00

This study examined the managerial roles of college presidents at the tertiary level within the province of Ontario, Canada in an effort to understand the importance of their position at the apex of their educational institutions, as well as, reveal and substantiate the challenges faced by them within the context of the twenty-first century. In particular, the study aimed to identify the extent to which the new public management ideologies, that impacted over the past decade the area of higher education, influenced their managerial roles. Moreover, there are reasons to believe that the findings of this study will help the Board of Governors in making hiring decisions in the future, as well as, determine if training is required for the candidates chosen for such position. The research model used was based on Mintzberg’s taxonomy of managerial roles. The study used a mixed research methodology for providing answers to the proposed research questions.

Keywords: Higher education, managerial role, college presidents, role theory.

What’s happening with women leaders in higher education: Understanding careers for women in the higher education sector of Pakistan

2019-05-05T20:27:12+01:00

Despite funding opportunities to PhDs and Post-Docs, as well as various faculty recruitment programmes, there are still a number of issues facing academics in Pakistan, especially in building a successful and productive academic career. According to HEC Medium-Term Development Framework II, the HEC is still facing ‘low quality and lack of employability of college and private graduates; lack of appropriately qualified high quality research faculty for universities and lack of capacity for continuous faculty and staff development’. This study aims to provide evidence to support the development of informed strategies for career development for academics in Pakistani Higher Education Institutions, in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC). This paper delineates key findings and suggests strategies to promote academic careers and scholarship among faculty of HEIs with a specific focus on promoting women.

Keywords: Academic careers, higher education, women leadership, mentoring, gender issues.

The significance of developing reading skills in translator and language teacher training

2019-05-05T20:27:11+01:00

In certain domains, such as translatingand language teaching, appropriate reading comprehension and interpretation of written texts is essential; therefore, in the training process for these professions, the development of reading skills and reading strategy awareness should not be neglected. The purpose of this study is to examine the reading habits and strategies of a group of Hungarian first year translation and interpretation students, most of whom are also language teacher trainees when working with texts written in English. Their reading strategy awareness is measured with an instrument; their reading comprehension performance is assessed with the help of the reading comprehension part of a standardised test; correlation is measured between their reading comprehension level and their ability to translate an English text into their native language. The results show that students’ reading comprehension skills are not always on the required level and their reading level significantly influences the ability to translate texts into Hungarian.

Keywords: Reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading for translation.

Metatraits of the successful university-level students

2019-05-05T20:27:10+01:00

As higher education acquisition is expected in all the civilised countries of the world not only to innovate the students’ knowledge base but also to produce a humanising effect on their personalities, the aim of this study was to identify the key dispositional and dynamic metatraits of the successful university-level students potentially predictive of the humanising effect of education. Those metatraits were singled out with reference to the assumptions that they should denote how the individual thinks, feels and acts in the course of pursuing major life tasks suggested by the prominent personality psychology specialist J. B. Campbell. Using the quasi-experiment method, we have confirmed on a representative sample comprising big Ukrainian University students the existence of statistically significant differences in the above-mentioned metatraits of the more and less successful students. The findings allow to recommend accounting for the metatraits in the system of the personality selection and the assessment of the quality of education.

Keywords: Metatrait, metacognitive competence, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy beliefs, coping adequacy, positive values.

Language as a social phenomenon in a global context: Implications for teaching practice

2019-05-05T20:27:08+01:00

It is of great importance to study languages within the framework of social sciences. The language not only connects but also separates people, which depends on (the lack of) knowledge of the elements of language and the social context in which language is spoken. Today’s communication is largely intercultural, implying the need for a competent interaction with members of other (sub) cultures, within or outside the society in which we live. Within the present pilot study, we have analysed assessments given by Croatian university professors of languages in terms of their competence to discuss globalisation, the development of intercultural competence within language teaching, the interest of students for learning languages as well as the position of language and communication group of subjects in the educational system and in society. The results obtained point to the importance of transferring intercultural competence and a favourable self-assessment of teacher engagement on this issue.

Keywords: Education, globalisation, intercultural competence, language, sociology.

Conditions for changes in the programme and teaching methodology of accounting in terms of integrated reporting challenges— The prospect of the academic teacher

2019-05-05T20:27:07+01:00

The main aim of this paper is to present the conditions and extent of the changes in the program and teaching methodology of accounting in higher education on the example of Cracow University of Economics in the aspect of the integrated reporting challenges. Non-financial reporting is an obligation imposed on individuals, focused on the internationalization of information presented in reporting. Authors previous studies indicate that published integrated reports, meet the requirements recommended by the IIRC in a small way, in terms of presentation of each of its components. There are difficulties in assessing the reliability of the presented issues, due to the complex or, in some cases, impossible process of measuring. The challenge may serve as both an efficient process of development recommended, and relevant information in a way that is understandable, as well as in the long term, effective measurement and evaluation by the external auditors. This implies new challenges and requirements for change in the area of teaching accounting and search new methods of education which increase the efficiency of existing models of education and will be a response to new needs. The basic research methods used to achieve this goal is a critical review of domestic and foreign literature, analysis of study plans of Cracow University of Economics and own researches carried out among university teachers by means of a questionnaire survey in order to obtain their opinions about the current situation and desired direction changes. In formulating the proposals was used the method of deduction and synthesis. The article was presented the idea of an integrated reporting, then, based on our own research, an attempt was made to diagnose the current preparation of students for the making of integrated reports based on the applicable study plans and to determine the desired directions of changes. The results are not subject to generalization outside the scope of the institution where the research was carried out but provide guidance for other organizations considering taking action in the area of preparing students for integrated reports. The results of the conducted research indicate the need for changes in the structure and scope of study plans and increased pressure on the evolution and development of "soft" competencies students in higher education.

Keywords: programme, teaching methodology, Cracow University

One of the dimensions of human rights and sensitivity to its acceptance

2019-05-05T20:27:06+01:00

This paper addresses the perceptions of the law students on human rights education, with regard to the purpose of the sentences, discussing whether they had learned the values passed on to them in class and if they were sensitive to this dimension of the human rights. As there is a popular tendency that, contradicting the Portuguese constitutional principles, defends more severe punishments, the article explored the reasons why the students’ perception and acceptance of these issues were aligned with this opinion. To achieve these objectives, data were collected through surveys with 13 questions answered by the Portucalense University students. The results showed that the students were not sensitised to the human rights dimension with regard to the purposes of sentencing. It was concluded that the majority of them were more receptive to the public opinion, published in the media channels, than to the knowledge that was provided to them in the Academy about the legitimation of the criminal punishment.

Keywords: Purposes of sentencing, punishment, severe criminal sanctions, education for human rights, educational research.

Typical questions of pupils at primary school level

2019-05-05T20:27:05+01:00

This work deals with the questions of pupils at the first level of elementary school. The aim of this text is to theoretically analyse some questions of pupils observed during the lessons and to categorise them according to their frequency of occurrence and to assign them to a specific typology defined by the theoretical pedagogy. Some previous research on pupils' questions showed that most students ask merely general questions of organisational character, which is what we aim to explore in this paper. These general questions also play a role during the class but they do not reflect the current scenario of learning activities with pupils. In the last part of this paper, we provide a basis for new proposals that could help intensifying pupils’ questions during the courses and to contribute to their better use and work with them in class.

Keywords: Pupil questions, types of pupil questions, frequency of occurrence, relationship of pupils’ questions to learning goals and learning tasks.

The satisfaction degree of the consumers in regards to the product ‘physical therapy’ in rehabilitation centres

2019-05-05T20:27:03+01:00

The aim of this study is to identify the rehabilitation centre customer’s satisfaction degree taking into consideration the characteristics for this type of services. The research was conducted in the year 2018, on a group of 43 patients, with ages between 18 and 65 years. The questionnaire aimed to assess the satisfaction degree of the kinetics consumers and to spot the elements in the specialised centres that would win the loyalty of a customer. It was structured in four sections, considering the complexity of the decisional process in managing a centre, and the complex behaviour of the consumer throughout the whole session. The interpretation of the results on the basis of satisfaction scores for all the determining attributes/factors which the consumers said they were ‘very happy’ about, will ease the creation of loyalty strategies, price, product and personnel strategies, and also actions with an immediate result, to diminish the clients’ migration.

Keywords: The satisfaction degree, loyal consumer, physical therapy, rehabilitation centre.