Content Acquisition Research Articles

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Plant Health: A Perspective Study of the Underground Interaction.

Plants are affected by various environmental stresses such as high or low temperatures, drought, and high salt levels, which can disrupt their normal cellular functioning and impact their growth and productivity. These stressors offer a major constraint to the morphological, physiological, and biochemical parameters; thereby attributing serious complications in the growth of crops such as rice, wheat, and corn. Considering the strategic and intricate association of soil microbiota, known as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), with the plant roots, PGPR helps plants to adapt and survive under changing environmental conditions and become more resilient to stress. They aid in nutrient acquisition and regulation of water content in the soil and also play a role in regulating osmotic balance and ion homeostasis. Boosting key physiological processes, they contribute significantly to the alleviation of stress and promoting the growth and development of plants. This review examines the use of PGPR in increasing plant tolerance to different stresses, focusing on their impact on water uptake, nutrient acquisition, ion homeostasis, and osmotic balance, as well as their effects on crop yield and food security.

Happy 25th Anniversary, EurJOC!

Happy 25th Anniversary, EurJOC!

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF CLIL: THE CASE OF ANDALUCÍA

This study aims to make a large-scale evaluation of the student perception of CLIL in Andalucía. To this purpose, 58 CLIL schools (29 primary and 29 secondary schools) were selected by stratified random sampling, controlling for socioeconomic status and geographical distribution in the region of Andalucía. All of them were English CLIL schools. The students in the final year of each school (N= 2104) were surveyed. The survey, which was in Spanish, consisted of close-ended questions addressing CLIL methodology, L2 use, and extracurricular school activities. Questions covered how often students did certain activities in class, which were their favourite ones, how often and for which purpose they used the L2 during content classes, what extracurricular activities were offered in their schools and whether they thought that learning through an L2 was affecting their content acquisition. Results show that, even if CLIL students have an overall positive attitude towards the programme, their preferred activities do not match the ones most frequently used in class. They also manifest that there is an imbalance between written and oral L2 use, oral communication playing a secondary role. Furthermore, differences between primary and secondary students’ perception are observed.

Teaching Chinese Culture in English-a CLIL approach

This paper explores the integration of content and language learning in the context of teaching Chinese culture to English majors. Drawing on literature from Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), the paper proposes three key considerations for effective integration: identifying and justifying integration methods, addressing mismatches between language proficiency and cognitive ability, and adopting an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. The paper argues that successful integration depends on a symbiotic relationship between content, cognition, communication, and language, as well as the development of intercultural awareness. The paper concludes that while integration is a complex process that requires strategic planning and reflective evaluation, it can enhance the effectiveness of language learning and content acquisition, providing learners with a meaningful context for language and culture learning.

ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ МЕХАНИЗМЫ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ЛИЧНОСТИ: ЭКСПЕРИМЕНТАЛЬНОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ

The article is devoted to the analysis of the author’s experimental research aimed at optimizing student’s independent work as a basic element of continuous development of professional language personality. The research included two types of experiments – stating and teaching. The first of them was designed to determine the current level of students’ acquisition of foreignlanguage professional content in the course of prepared and unprepared actualization, as well as to identify the negative trends impeding the full mastery of the language material. The results of the stating experiment predestined the structure of training aimed at optimizing independent work – achievement of high assimilation results while minimizing students’ time and effort. In this regard, the teaching experiment was based on two components. The first one included teaching students the system of mnemic action operations, forming the psychological mechanism of speech comprehension and memorization and creating the optimal effect of reproducibility of cognitive activity. The second component was to stimulate critical rethinking of the speech content and generate its reasonable reconstruction. The analysis of the teaching experiment results and their comparison with stating experiment indicators proved at the level of statistical significance the positive influence of the offered techniques on shaping the culture of students’ independent work.

Kindness as the social bond and the education for the future

Kindness studies have been brought to attention and highlighted in new studies in the field of humanities as the central social bond of humanity and much needed for future generations. Being so, an education that reinforces this skill should be prioritized across disciplines and curriculums. In the Imaginable Futures survey conducted worldwide with 313 responders, kindness was mentioned as one of the three most important abilities for the future. Together with the importance of peace education and mental health, kindness needs to be prioritized in education for the future. As the core aspect of social bonds, this skill acquisition requires a new approach to education, rather than the past content acquisition that led school education for so many years. Kindness is also deeply connected to happiness, well-being, empathy, and sociability, and it can generate physical benefits, like low blood pressure, among other physical and mental health bonds. This research concludes that kindness should be implemented as a key educational figure at this critical time of the Anthropocene. Keywords: Kindness, social bond, skill acquisition, education, future, peace, mental health.

Paideia and Israel Education

Educative processes must account for content, learners, teachers, and contexts in order for it have meaning for learners. Seen through the lens of the reflective practitioner, this paideia considers models of general education, the relationship between vision and praxis, and their implications on Israel education. Contained herein are a set of core principles and ideas, pedagogic practices, and aspirations connected to Israeli and Jewish history, people, and their expansive canon of text allowing for the acquisition of values, content, and skills for all learners – students and teachers alike – to explore what their personal relationship with Israel entails.

Getting ready for primetime: Paths to acquiring substance-free phonology

AbstractSubstance-free phonology (SFP) is based on the hypothesis that phonological computation makes no reference to phonetic substance, and that phonological features are treated as arbitrary symbols for the purposes of computation. However, phonologists within the SFP tradition disagree about whether the content of phonological features is innate or learned (“emergent”), and if learned, whether the acquisition process is based on phonological patterning alone or refers to phonetic substance. In the present article we identify predictive differences between these accounts. We conclude that there is an innate basis to phonological features, but that featural content is not innate. We suggest that a hybrid phonetic-phonological approach to feature content acquisition may ultimately be the most successful.

Using Literacy Strategies to Support a Preservice Teacher Candidate in Becoming an Effective Teacher

This qualitative investigation used a case study approach to collect data to answer this question: Did a preservice teacher candidate enrolled in a content literacy course while seeking initial middle-level teacher certification find literacy strategies useful in the instruction of seventh-grade science students? This study reports findings collected from one preservice teacher candidate, along with course peers, seeking initial certification for middle-level instruction. Data collection included an interview, member checking, and observations. Over the fifteen-week period of instruction in an undergraduate content literacy course, data provided evidence that literacy strategies used by a preservice teacher candidate in the instruction of science for middle-level students provided effective acquisition of instructional content.

Hatred as a moral feeling in war time

The article is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of hatred in philosophic, psychological, and ethical aspects, and of its motivating role during the war. Explicating the philosophical un- derstanding of hatred, the author analyzes the “Treatise of Human Nature” by Hume and ex- plains the structure of hatred as the unity of the elements “cause-object-end” as well as the role of empathy in their genesis. In the article, the author proves that hatred as a passion is not a hu- man instinct or only an emotion, while having an intention towards the understanding of another person and ethical evaluation of his or her motives and actions. The author analyzes the psycho- logical structure of hatred as a durable complex of negative attitudes, motives, emotions, and dispositions of a person formed in individual and social existence. The multilevel way of experience and content of hatred explicated by the range from simple negation of other beings to the ex- pression of moral judgement and demand of the retribution of hurt and struggle against evil. The author analyzes the concept of hatred by R. and K. Sternberg as a negation of intimacy of the other combined with various emotions and commitments of a person to act. Based on that, the article discusses the possibilities of the acquisition of ethical content by hatred and analyzes the typology of hatred by J. Gee (simple hatred, prejudicial hatred, malice and spite, retributive hatred, and moral hatred). The author of the article argues that the higher forms of conscious and controlled hatred possess rational components and moral content. The author concludes that the retributive hatred as a reactive moral attitude towards the blame of the wrongdoer and the de- mand of holding him responsible is an appropriate form of motivation for the resistance during the war and the establishment of peace. This kind of hatred plays a legitimate role in a mature person’s moral life and can be ethically justified.

A paradigm shift in learning strategy research: Illustration and example of a within-person examination.

Although research on learning strategies has contributed to improving learners' performance, most studies only described the characteristics of learners. These approaches have focused on inter-individual differences and their correlations, making it difficult to examine the process of selecting learning strategies in individuals. To examine the correlations within individual learners, such as the variables that influence the use of a strategy by a specific learner, two surveys were conducted in this study. Perceived cost and perceived benefit of using each strategy as the influential variables on choosing a strategy were adopted with reference to decision-making research. Perceived cost consisted of the time perspective for learning outcomes by the learning strategy and the method of learning strategy implementation. In Study 1, cognitive strategies that have a direct impact on the acquisition of learning content were measured, and metacognitive strategies that monitor and regulate one's own learning behavior were examined in Study 2. The variables were treated for each individual to calculate intra-class and within-person correlations, although data were collected using a typical questionnaire survey in learning strategy studies. Hierarchical Bayesian modeling was conducted with use of the learning strategy as the objective variable and the perceived costs and benefits as explanatory variables. The analysis revealed that, in terms of cognitive strategies (Study 1), learners avoided using learning strategies perceived to have a high cost in the short term; however, they used cognitive strategies regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, regarding metacognitive strategies (Study 2), students avoided using learning strategies that they perceived as costly to use in the short term and used them only when they suited the circumstances. On the other hand, in metacognitive strategies (Study 2), students avoided using learning strategies that they perceived as costly to use for the next test and use as appropriate for the situation. Focusing on within-individual variance and correlation made the interpretation of factors that influence the choice of learning strategies more intuitive and provided more suggestions for educational practice.

Exploring Effective Practices of an Elementary STEM Block Program

Creating a STEM-driven culture incorporating engineering habits of mind and 21st century skills at an early age could impact students’ STEM interests and knowledge.  Therefore, early exposure to effective engineering design practices could create a foundation for a STEM program. This exploratory case study examined the integration of a STEM program in an elementary-level school. Survey, interview, focus group, and observational data were analyzed and coded to determine effective practices of the STEM program. This paper focuses on the emergent themes of the (a) critical role of the specialist, (b) instructional design, and (c) integration of the engineering laboratory.  The STEM specialist at Gemini Elementary School provided the teachers with the foundation for the in-depth acquisition of STEM content and pedagogical skills. Teachers were provided with team planning time that focused on the instructional design of the STEM Block lessons. Through collaborative settings, teachers and the specialist were able to design modern real-world problems for students that allowed students to apply engineering design practices to find solutions. The results of this study point to the need to increase the number of STEM programs embrace engineering design in elementary schools.

Latviešu valodas apguve diasporā, izmantojot ClassFlow izglītības platformu: process un rezultāti

The topicality of the research comes from the state policy to help the children and youth’s families belonging to the Latvia State living in the diaspora not to lose their sense of belonging to Latvia, preserve and develop their identity, language, values of Latvian national culture. The Latvian Language Agency has been offering 7–15-year-old diaspora pupils the acquisition of the Latvian language in the digital class for three years, applying the ClassFlow educational platform. Some experience has already been accumulated which enables us to judge the work process, outcomes and problems to be solved. The goal of the article is to analyse the diaspora pupils’ Latvian language acquisition process, applying the ClassFlow educational platform, and outcomes of the learning achievement. The theoretical base of the research consists of the pedagogical and linguodidactics theory. The empirical data has been obtained analysing the results of the diaspora pupils’ diagnostic work and their parents’ surveys. The diagnostics of the distance learning pupils’ Latvian language skills was implemented in autumn 2019 and repeatedly in spring, 2020 for 196 pupils in a group of 31 LLA distance learning classes. Two structurally and evaluatively equivalent diagnostic tests were developed. At the end of the school year the results of the pupils’ learning success were compared and the analysis of the success dynamics was carried out. 107 respondents or 53.5% of the LLA distance learning pupils’ families in 299 countries all over the world took part in the parents’ survey. In distance learning classes diaspora pupils acquire the Latvian language as a foreign language. During the learning process, integrated acquisition of content and language is ensured. The diagnostic tests have been made, taking into account the descriptions of the Latvian language proficiency levels. The tests include thematically related tasks in order to diagnose the acquisition of all principal language skills. Within the framework of the topic, the pupils' knowledge of Latvian cultural traditions and social events is also diagnosed. The results of the research show that 53% of the diagnosed pupils have a positive dynamics of language development, which can be explained by a regular and purposeful language acquisition process under the guidance of professional teachers. Integrated with language learning, diaspora pupils also expand their knowledge of Latvian culture, geography, historical facts and current events in Latvia. 47% of respondents' dynamics of language learning outcomes are influenced by irregular attendance of classes, lack of motivation to learn Latvian while living outside Latvia, insufficient parental support, heavy workload at home country school, pupil’s individual characteristics, insufficient technical support of the learning process by the pupil’s family, lack of the natural language environment, etc. Cooperation with the children’s parents is essential for teachers, since both the quality of classes and work planning, respecting the pupils’ needs, depend on the parental support. The research raises a question for further studies – how to organize a common diagnostics of the acquired experience for those diaspora distance learning pupils who have a high level of the Latvian language skills.

Thinking Thru Making: Mapping Computational Thinking Practices onto Scientific Reasoning

This paper shares findings from a teacher designed physics and computing unit that engaged students in learning physics and computing concurrently thru inquiry. Using scientific inquiry skills and practices, students were tasked with assessing the validity of local rollercoaster g-force ratings as posted to the public. Students used computational electronic textile circuits (e-textiles) to engage in “myth busting” amusement park g-force ratings. In doing so, students engaged computing and computational thinking skills in service to answering their scientific inquiry. Findings from this study indicate that physics classes are ideal spaces for engaging in computing’s Big Ideas as laid out by Grover and Pea (Educational Researcher 42, 38–43, 2013) as well as the pillars of computational thinking (Wing, Communications of the ACM 49, 33–35, 2006). However, essential to this dual engagement is a need for computing content to act in service to the better acquisition of physics content within the physics classroom space. Findings indicate that the teachers’ use of e-textiles to integrate physics and computing broadened and deepened student learning by providing affordances for computational thinking within the structure of physical science inquiry.

Enhancing science performance of middle‐school students with and without developmental and behavioral‐based disabilities using the Content Acquisition Podcast Professional Development approach

AbstractUnderstanding science allows students with and without developmental and behavioral‐based (DB) disabilities to better appreciate the world around them as well as prepare them for the growing science‐related job market. However, students in the United States consistently underperform on science achievement tests compared to students from other nations. This underperformance could be attributed, in part to science having many specialized vocabulary terms that are not often taught explicitly, leaving students with incomplete or inaccurate understandings of word meanings. Improving science vocabulary instructional practices may support students with and without DB disabilities in enhancing their science achievement. To address this need, researchers implemented multicomponent multimedia professional development (PD) to support middle‐school science teachers in delivering high‐quality vocabulary instruction in inclusive settings. In this paper, data collected from a study evaluating the efficacy of the PD were analyzed to determine the influence on student outcomes using ANOVA and multilevel modeling methodologies. Though initial results indicate a promising impact on teacher instructional practices, little is known whether teacher participation in the PD affected student science vocabulary and content knowledge growth. Using multilevel modeling, student science knowledge growth was evaluated following their teachers' exposure to the PD. The findings from this study indicate having indirect exposure to PD had a positive effect on science content knowledge for students with and without DB disabilities (N = 980). In addition, the authors found students with DB disabilities whose teachers had access to PD showed a larger gain in science knowledge than general education students whose teachers did not have access to the PD.

Modern-day hoarding: A model for understanding and measuring digital hoarding

With the cost of data storage approaching near zero, an individual can acquire, share, and store digital content (i.e., emails, images, videos, and documents) more than ever before. This behavior is exacerbated by the availability, affordability, and usability of modern technological devices like smart mobile phones, wearables, the rapid proliferation of social media and communication apps, and the intensification of digitized business and/or personal interactions. As a result, there is an increased propensity to acquire and accumulate substantial amounts of digital content. Employing the theoretical foundations of the attachment theory and the hoarding disorder, this study argues that the characteristics such as difficulty of discarding digital content, digital clutter, and frequent excessive acquisition of digital content demonstrate the signs of digital hoarding. By conducting a survey using 846 respondents and conducting a multigroup analysis, this study provides confirmatory evidence on digital hoarding and its association to anxiety. As such, this study contributes to the dark side of technology use and introduces a new concept called digital hoarding to information systems research.

Panoramic video in education: A systematic literature review from 2011 to 2021

AbstractBackgroundPanoramic video as a novel instructional media with increasing educational application. However, empirical research on panoramic video instruction is mostly episodic with conditional and inconclusive results.ObjectivesThis study reviewed 10 years (2011–2021) of research on panoramic video in education to synthesize, meta‐analyse, and critically evaluate the state‐of‐art research findings, which can inform future educational practice and research directions.MethodsFollowing the protocol of systematic review, this study selected 83 articles from four major research databases and analysed them from five interrelated aspects: instructional context, technological features, instructional design, research design, and instructional effect. A meta‐analysis was also conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of panoramic video on education and the moderating factors.Results and ConclusionsThe results revealed a rapid upward trend in publication since 2018 with unequal distribution among regions and learning domains. Despite the technical advancement in immersion and interaction, panoramic videos were found to mainly support the acquisition of content and factual knowledge through direct instruction, and lack in‐video scaffolding and assessment. Moreover, many interventions were one‐time, short‐term studies that are susceptible of novelty effect. Lastly, an overall medium effect (g = 0.711) of panoramic video was reported and six significant moderating factors were identified based on the meta‐analysis results.Major takeaways and implicationsPanoramic videos are ubiquitously effective across grade levels, learning domains, and pedagogies, but are more suitable for teaching conceptual knowledge. Design features such as interaction, scaffolding, assessment, iteration, and video length deserve our special attention in panoramic video instruction.

Transfer learning using small-sized dataset for concentrate ash content prediction of coal flotation

ABSTRACT Real-time and accurate acquisition of ash content is crucial for coal flotation monitoring but existing modeling approaches have been hindered from a large dataset labeled by the target task. The method proposed in this paper relies on a transfer learning approach that is able to exploit the knowledge of a source domain (ImageNet and S1) to improve the result of a task performed on the target domain (S2). The ResNet 101 is selected as the main Convolutional neural network (CNN) framework of transfer learning among six state-of-the-art CNN modules in this study. Freeze and fine-tune are used to transfer the weights of the CNN layers to the industry ash content classification task. The tuning results of neurons and fully connected layers show that the classification results based on the weights knowledge of S1 obtained through the proposed transfer method outperform the training direct method by achieving an accuracy of 86.26% and F1-score of 85.19% over the small-sized industry dataset. The 3-D discriminant feature score and ROC curves demonstrate satisfactory prediction performance in coal flotation industrial ash content prediction. Generally, this work provides new options for flotation monitoring in tasks of training ash content labels shortage.

Winter wheat and soil total nitrogen integrated monitoring based on canopy hyperspectral feature selection and fusion

Nitrogen, as a key element for crop reproductive and nutritional growth, plays an important role in overall agricultural production. Hyperspectral remote sensing (RS) offers possibility for monitoring farm nitrogen content by its non-destructive and high throughput advantages. However, the integrated high-precision acquisition of nitrogen content in crops and soils is still a technical challenge that needs to be solved urgently. This study proposed a novel approach combining feature selection based on improved grey wolf optimizer (IGWO) and feature fusion with projected gradient nonnegative matrix factorization and matrix cross recombination (PNMF-MCR) to realize the integrated monitoring of total nitrogen (TN) content in winter wheat and soil based on crop canopy hyperspectral data. Therein, the IGWO originated from GWO, additionally considered a comprehensive feature selection criterion which are the relevance with TN, the representative ability of the entire spectra, and the redundancy of the selected wavebands. The selected TN sensitive wavebands are 487, 611, 706, 817, 920 nm for winter wheat and 478, 587, 699, 812, 892 nm for soil, which could effectively represent the TN information of full spectrum from the aspects of nitrogen metabolism enzymes, chlorophyll photosynthesis, and the structure of cellular arrangements within the leaf. To further integrate the TN sensitive spectral information of crop and soil, PNMF-MCR was firstly proposed to generate a feature matrix VF by fusing the winter wheat and soil TN sensitive wavelengths. The TN inversion results based on the fused feature matrix VF achieved a high accuracy for both winter wheat and soil simultaneously. On the ground-based RS platform, the R2 and RMSE of the validation dataset for winter wheat are 0.7920 and 0.1431 g/kg. The validation results for soil are 0.7928 and 0.0037 g/kg. On the Airborne-based RS platform, the R2 and RMSE of the validation dataset for winter wheat are 0.6934 and 0.1490 g/kg. The validation results for soil are 0.6988 and 0.0040 g/kg. To verify the proposed method, predictive performances for TN of winter wheat and soil were validated in different time, at different locations for different winter wheat varieties on different platforms (ground-based platform and airborne-based platform). All above validations demonstrated the good universality and predictive ability of proposed hybrid method, which provide a feasible solution for integrated monitoring of crop and soil.

Federated reinforcement learning with adaptive training times for edge caching

To relieve the backhaul link stress and reduce the content acquisition delay, mobile edge caching has become one of the promising approaches. In this paper, a novel federated reinforcement learning (FRL) method with adaptive training times is proposed for edge caching. Through a new federated learning process with the asynchronous model training process and synchronous global aggregation process, the proposed FRL-based edge caching algorithm mitigates the performance degradation brought by the non-identically and independently distributed (non-i.i.d.) characteristics of content popularity among edge nodes. The theoretical bound of the loss function difference is analyzed in the paper, based on which the training times adaption mechanism is proposed to deal with the tradeoff between local training and global aggregation for each edge node in the federation. Numerical simulations have verified that the proposed FRL-based edge caching method outperforms other baseline methods in terms of the caching benefit, the cache hit ratio and the convergence speed.