Actual Skills Research Articles

An Exploratory Study on the Possibility of Metaverse-based Korean Language Subject Design

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of developing a metaverse-based Korean language subject reflecting the changing teaching/learning environment of university and the diversified characteristics and needs of foreign learners. Even though the utilization of the so-called metaverse in the field of Korean language education is still in its early stages, target language learning based on concrete and direct experience is very effective, just as emphasized in ‘The Cone of Experience’, Thus, if students can learn the Korean language through the metaverse based on such programs as Virtual Worlds and Mirror Worlds, it would help them increase their actual communication skills to a great extent. In order to design a metaverse-based Korean language subject, this study first examined the technical types of the metaverse, and then analyzed the functions of Gather.town and ifland, both of which are currently being developed. As a result, this study revealed the possibility of conducting a Korean language subject through the metaverse platform. After arguing for the necessity of establishing a ‘contextual scenario’ based on communication tasks, this study also presented a four-step instructional model according to each scenario. In the future, there should be follow-up research that proves the effectiveness of this instructional model by applying it to the actual education field.

Exploration of Data Scientist’s Current Expertise and Qualification Gap in Indonesia (Case Study: Jakarta Metropolitan Area)

Data is a crucial asset for an organization to compete in the 21st Century, and Indonesia is no exception. Data scientists are relatively a new profession that is one of the most needed today. As far as we are concerned, no research shows the skills and capabilities needed as a data scientist in Indonesia. This research aims to determine the skill and capability factors of data scientists, identify the actual skills and capabilities of data scientists in Indonesia, and identify gap skills and capabilities from data scientists in Indonesia. This research was conducted using a mixed-method approach, where interview results were used to design a questionnaire and determine the question indicators. This study has shown four skill and capability factors for data scientists; primary capabilities, data management, personal skills, and sources. The gap analysis results show that all indicators have a negative value, where data analysis-related training is most needed for a data scientist.

INTERNATIONALIZATION AS A KEY FACTOR FOR MODERNIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The article is devoted to the analysis of relationship between internationalization of higher education and its positive impact on the development of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in Uzbekistan on the example of the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek. The contribution of the European partners within the framework of international projects, like Erasmus+, to the development of curricula or restructuring of administrative units resulted in the improvement of educational process and made emphasis on the development of actual knowledge and skills required on the global labour market.

Labor Organizer Nannie Helen Burroughs and Her National Training School for Women and Girls

Labor Organizer Nannie Helen Burroughs and Her National Training School for Women and Girls

Entrustable professional activities versus competencies and skills: Exploring why different concepts are often conflated

Despite explanations in the literature, a returning question in the use of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) is how to distinguish them from competencies and skills. In this article, we attempt to analyze the causes of the frequent confusion and conflation of EPAs with competencies and skills, and argue why the distinction is important for education, qualification and patient safety. ‘Tracheotomy’, ‘lumbar puncture’, ‘interprofessional collaboration’ for example are colloquially called ‘skills’, but its is a person’s ability to perform these activities that is the actual skill; the EPA is simply the activity itself. We identify two possible causes for the confusion. One is a tendency to frame all educational objectives as EPAs. Many objectives of medical training can be conceptualized as EPAs, if ‘the ability to do X’ is the corresponding competency; but that does not work for all. We offer ways to deal with objectives of training that are not usefully conceptualized as EPAs. A more fundamental cause relates to entrustment decisions. The permission to contribute to health care reflects entrustment. Entrustment decisions are the links or pivots between a person’s readiness for the task and the actual task execution. However, if entrustment decisions do not lead to increased autonomy in the practice of health care, but only serve to decide upon the advancement to a next stage of training, EPAs can become the tick boxes learners feel they need to collect to ‘pass’. Gradually, then, EPAs can loose their original meaning of units of practice for which one becomes qualified.

Predictability of Indian Ocean Dipole Over 138 Years Using a CESM Ensemble‐Prediction System

AbstractIn this study, we performed a long‐term ensemble hindcast from 1880 to 2017 (138 years) using the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and conducted a comprehensive investigation of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) predictability. We found that the CESM can produce the IOD prediction skill comparable to that produced by some of the best state‐of‐the‐art coupled general circulation models, achieving a correlation skill of 0.5 for a lead time of one season over the 138 years. The Brier skill score shows one season of the effective probability prediction skill for the below‐ and above‐normal events and no probability prediction skill for the near‐normal events. The potential predictability of the IOD is much higher than the actual prediction skill; for example, the information‐based potential correlation is as high as 0.8 at a 6‐month lead time, suggesting a large scope for improvement in current IOD predictions. Compared with the dispersion component, the signal component dominates the variation in the relative entropy and the relationship between the potential predictability and deterministic prediction skill. An analysis of the IOD prediction skills suggests that the strength of IOD events plays an important role in the IOD prediction skills, regardless of the measurement metrics used to evaluate the prediction skills. Our study also suggested that the remote forcing from the tropical Pacific and the local sea‐air interaction in the tropical Indian Ocean would be two major sources of IOD predictability.

A New Decision Process for Choosing the Wind Resource Assessment Workflow with the Best Compromise between Accuracy and Costs for a Given Project in Complex Terrain

In wind energy, the accuracy of the estimation of the wind resource has an enormous effect on the expected rate of return of a project. For a given project, the wind resource assessor is faced with a difficult choice of a wide range of simulation tools and workflows with varying accuracies (or “skill”) and costs. There is currently no guideline or process available in the industry for helping with the decision of the most “optimal” choice—and this is particularly challenging in mountainous (or “complex”) terrain. In this work, a new decision process for selecting the Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) workflow that would expect to deliver the best compromise between skill and costs for a given wind energy project is developed, with a focus on complex terrain. This involves estimating the expected skill and cost scores using a set of pre-defined weighted parameters. The new process is designed and tested by applying seven different WRA workflows to five different complex terrain sites. The quality of the decision process is then assessed for all the sites by comparing the decision made (i.e., choice of optimal workflow) using the expected skill and cost scores with the decision made using the actual skill and cost scores (obtained by comparing measurements and simulations at a validation location). The results show that the decision process works well, but the accuracy decreases as the site complexity increases. It is therefore concluded that some of the parameter weightings should be dependent on site complexity. On-going work involves collecting more data from a large range of sites, implementing measures to reduce the subjectivity of the process and developing a reliable and robust automated decision tool for the industry.

High school basic life support training: Is the trainer's experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the actual setting important? A randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND:Although basic life support (BLS) has been taught in school by a variety of professionals, it is still unclear that, whether the instructor's previous cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) experience is an important factor. This study aimed to compare the effect of BLS training, based on trainer experience in actual situations, on knowledge and skills of secondary high school students.MATERIALS AND METHODS:In this randomized controlled trial, 150 high school students were selected based on the inclusion criteria and then assigned into two groups, (76 in Group A), and (74 in Group B) randomly. Both groups were trained according to adult BLS: 2020 American Heart Association guidelines on mannequins in three 60 min in-person training sessions. The knowledge and skill scores were measured for both groups before, immediately, and 1 month after intervention by a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 22, using Chi-square, Mann–Whitney U, repeated-measure ANOVA tests, and statistically modeling at a significance level of 0.05.RESULTS:There were no significant differences between groups regarding demographic characteristics. The knowledge and skill scores in both groups increased significantly compared to baseline immediately and 1 month after the intervention (P = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in knowledge scores between groups (P = 0.076(. However, at the immediacy and 1 month after the intervention, the skill score in “Group A” was significantly higher than the “Group B” (P = 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:The trainer's experience of CPR in the actual setting in the transfer of BLS knowledge is not important, but it improved Student's BSL skill acquisition score.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical education

Background: Medicine is one of the few academic disciplines that cannot be taught in the distance education mode. Hands-on practice for clinical skills and competency is critical in medical education. Although this pandemic has offered new learning modes such as teleconsultation, videoconferencing, virtual simulations, and digital podcasts, how much actual knowledge transfer and skill gain will be achieved, is unanswered. Aims and Objectives: The present study has been planned to understand the impact of COVID on medical education and to identify the factors which promoted or hindered learning during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 261 willing MBBS students from various colleges of Tamil Nadu after obtaining Institutional Ethical committee clearance using a pre-validated structured online questionnaire through Google form link in online social platforms through “Voluntary opt in” method of sampling. Results: About 22.6% of the study participants were affected by COVID-19. About 46% of the participants family members suffered from COVID and all of them accepted that it significantly affected their academics. About 71.6% experienced anxiety/depression. About 93.5% were addicted to social media during class hours. About 88.1% welcomed “flipped/blended learning”. More than 90.8% reported that they missed skill-based learning/Primary health care training. About 80.8% positively felt that they got more duration for preparing exams. About 89.3% found that practical exams were challenging. Conclusion: Not only have we witnessed the importance of having a robust health-care system, but the pandemic has created a critical need to transform various aspects of medical education especially to a model of blended learning of online and offline methods to enable a better academic environment so as to reflect the changing medical landscape.

Analysis on Characteristics and Innovation of Physical Education Teaching Reform in Higher Vocational Colleges

With the promotion and development of quality education, the new curriculum reform has carried out new interpretation and Reform on the content and concept of education. Higher vocational schools are different from other ordinary schools. The teaching goal of higher vocational schools is to train practical talents. In the process of teaching, we should be student-oriented and focus on students' actual employment and skills practice as the main objective, so as to lay a foundation for students to better adapt to society in the future and cultivate more professional and technical talents for the society. Under such a background, higher vocational schools pay more and more attention to physical education teaching, which is not only conducive to the development of physical education teaching quality in China, but also provides more sports skilled talents for the society. Therefore, in the teaching process of higher vocational schools, consciously reforming and innovating physical education teaching is not only the actual requirement for improving students' physical quality, but also the necessary condition and important foundation for students to complete their studies and participate in work in the future.

Perceptions of Teacher Education Students in Kerala about Information Literacy Skills: An assessment

Information literacy skills are essential for individuals to be life-long learners and to be the catalysts of information societies. The review of literature shows that there is a dearth of studies on assessment of information literacy (IL) skills of teacher education students, particularly in India. Assessments of both perceptions of teacher educations students about their IL competencies and their actual level of IL skills were made in many western countries either using standardised tools or locally developed tools. The present study is intended to address the gap in literature in the area of perceptions of student-teachers in Kerala about their IL competencies. A survey was conducted among the students of teacher education institutions (TEIs) in government, government aided and unaided sectors. Sample was selected from students specialising in Languages, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences across Kerala. The questionnaire for the purpose was adapted from previously tested ones following ACRL Standards, and adapted to make it appropriate for the Indian context. Analysis of 772 responses revealed that teacher education students in Kerala have high level of perceptions about their IL competencies. Previous investigations reported that when assessments are made, usually students over-estimate or under-estimate their IL self-efficacies. Therefore, it is recommended that another study to be conducted to assess the actual IL skills of these students.

The Inter-Rater and Intra-Rater Reliability of the Actual Aquatic Skills Test (AAST) for Assessing Young Children's Motor Competence in the Water.

As children’s actual aquatic skills are important for the prevention of drowning as well as their engagement in lifelong aquatic physical activity, researchers and practitioners should be able to assess this vital concept accurately and reliably. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Actual Aquatic Skills Test (AAST), consisting of 17 different test items for the assessment of young children’s motor competence in the water. Six raters received a training and evaluation session on scoring the AAST, after which five of them assessed four test videos (of various children (n = 38) performing the test items) twice, with one to two weeks in between (i.e., test and re-test). Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were determined per test video and for the different AAST test items across videos using Gwet’s Agreement Coefficient 2 (Gwet’s AC2). The Gwet’s AC2 for inter-rater reliability at the test varied from 0.414 to 1.000, indicating a moderate to perfect agreement between raters. For intra-rater reliability, it ranged from 0.628 to 1.000, demonstrating a good to perfect agreement between test and re-test scoring. In conclusion, the AAST is a promising tool to reliably assess young children’s actual aquatic skills in an indoor swimming pool.

Critical thinking in education: a systematic review

The purpose of the study was to identify and analyze the contributions made to the development of critical thinking in the educational field. Therefore, the examination corresponds to a systematic review design of basic research. The information was collected using the bibliographic and systematic search of documents in different reliable databases. Twenty articles were selected. From the documentary review, it has been determined that the most prevalent investigations have been quantitative, descriptive, qualitative, and mixed. It was found that the development of critical thinking is essential to becoming a whole person. This implies that the subject can define or fully understand a situation or problem that guides him towards its solution. In this context, as a critical thinker, a student must develop specific capacities that are constantly stimulated so that they can be sufficiently enhanced to become an actual skill.

Some Remarks on Musical Symbolism of Philo’s Hermeneutics in “De Posteritate Caini”

Philo of Alexandria can hardly be called a philosopher, especially given a certain speculative or systematic philosophy. But also, contrary to the prevailing opinion in contemporary research, it could hardly be defined as an exegete, especially given the modern content of the term. At the same time, the impression remains that the most often associated concept with his name – allegory (allegorical interpretation) is usually perceived too narrowly, and not enough attention is paid to the actual literary and hermeneutical skills of the author. Modern translations of his works often do not reflect the symbolism used by Philo at all, as is the case with music imagery in the opening paragraph of De Posteritate Caini. The musical theme and symbolism in Philo's work undoubtedly deserve a special and thorough study, which would go far beyond the scope of this article.

“You Throw Like a Girl!”: Young Children’s Gender Stereotypes About Object Control Skills

ABSTRACT Purpose: Understanding if children hold stereotypes about motor skills, may partially explain differences in object control performance between young boys and girls. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether young boys and girls held stereotypes related to object control skills. Methods: Children (N = 84) ages three years four months to five years seven months (Mage = 4.6 years, SD = .58) completed the Test of Gross Motor Development—Second Edition and a modified version of the Children’s Occupations, Activities and Traits Measure. Spearman Rho correlations examined associations between children’s stereotypes and actual object control skills performance. We then examined differences between boys’ and girls’ gender stereotypes (three for each category) and object control skills via independent samples t-tests. Results: Results showed significant associations between gender stereotypes toward object control skills and actual object control skills for girls (ρ = −.31—−.53, p < .05) but not for boys (ρ = .10—.14, p > .05). Concurrently, girls showed significantly lower object control skills than boys (t[82] = 2.01; p = .042, d = .44) as well as significantly higher gender stereotypes across all three categories (p < .05, d = .54–1.77). Conclusion: These data indicated that girls, not boys, held gender stereotypes about object control skills in concert with lower object control skill performances. Future research should evaluate the impacts of an integrated gross motor intervention which seeks to change gender stereotypes and concurrently improve object control skill performance.

Students’ competencies discovery and assessment using learning analytics and semantic web

Traditional content-based assessment systems, which depend on the score as a key criterion for students’ evaluation, have proven to have many drawbacks, especially with the development of learning methods in recent years. Based on these developments, there is a need to adopt new assessment methods to assess the actual skills of students in the digital age. Therefore, the competency-based assessment approach is adopted in this paper to address the subject of students’ competency modelling and discovery in technology-enhanced learning systems. This method of assessment is perfectly suited to modern teaching trends. The authors proposed an approach of assessment semantic analytics to be used for discovering and assessing students’ competencies. This study notes that, all knowledge about students and their competencies has been modelled by semantic representations. Student’s models have been subjected to a set of learning analytics approaches to analyse data generated by students’ activities in order to discover their explicit and latent competencies hidden behind their activities. This experimental study indicates that the competency-based assessment approach is efficient and expected to show significant advantages in evaluating students’ competencies. Implications for practice or policy: Students become able to organise their gains, then integrate and employ them in solving life's problems. Educators get to know more about the extent to which the objectives of their educational process are achieved by evaluating the intellectual, cultural, knowledge, and skilful assets that the learners obtain. Educational policymakers can have a pedagogical and technical vision to move from the culture of content-based evaluations to a competency-based assessment.

Motor Competence–Related Age and Living Environment in Girls: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study aims to investigate the effect of age and urban and rural living environments on children’s actual and perceived motor competence. To that end, 320 female students aged 8–12 years were selected through random cluster sampling. The perceived motor competence of the participants was assessed using Marsh’s Physical Self-Description Questionnaire, and their actual motor competence was measured by the Test of Gross Motor Development-3. The results showed significant differences between urban and rural girls in perceived and actual motor competence (p &lt; .05). However, age did not make any significant difference in motor competence (p &gt; .05). The most significant differences in actual and perceived motor competence between urban and rural girls were observed in girls aged 8 and 10 (p &lt; .05). The findings also indicated that rural children performed better in actual motor skills, especially ball skills. Therefore, based on the findings, it was concluded that the rural environment could have a greater impact on actual motor competence.

Decadal climate predictions with the Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5)

Abstract. The Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5) developed at Environment and Climate Change Canada's Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) is participating in phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). A 40-member ensemble of CanESM5 retrospective decadal forecasts (or hindcasts) is integrated for 10 years from realistic initial states once a year during 1961 to the present using prescribed external forcing. The results are part of CCCma's contribution to the Decadal Climate Prediction Project (DCPP) component of CMIP6. This paper evaluates CanESM5 large ensemble decadal hindcasts against observational benchmarks and against historical climate simulations initialized from pre-industrial control run states. The focus is on the evaluation of the potential predictability and actual skill of annual and multi-year averages of key oceanic and atmospheric fields at regional and global scales. The impact of initialization on prediction skill is quantified from the hindcasts decomposition into uninitialized and initialized components. The dependence of potential and actual skill on ensemble size is examined. CanESM5 decadal hindcasts skillfully predict upper-ocean states and surface climate with a significant impact from initialization that depend on climate variable, forecast range, and geographic location. Deficiencies in the skill of North Atlantic surface climate are identified and potential causes discussed. The inclusion of biogeochemical modules in CanESM5 enables the prediction of carbon cycle variables which are shown to be potentially skillful on decadal timescales, with a strong long-lasting impact from initialization on skill in the ocean and a moderate short-lived impact on land.

Analyzing the relationship between information technology jobs advertised on-line and skills requirements using association rules

Online job vacancy sites have become an important source of information about the characteristics of labor market demand. It has become an avenue for job matching by both employers and employees and to study and analyze the labor market. This study proposed a methodology for identifying and analyzing skill-job relationships using frequency word occurrences of skills as a requirement of the job. It employed association rule mining which aims to discover frequent patterns, relationships among a set of items in the database. It collected published job vacancy data to IT job and skills requirements from various job portal websites. The proposed job skill requirements for specific I.T. jobs published online analyzing using the FP-growth algorithm of association rule provide a new dimension in labor market research. The study revealed that skill words are highly related to a certain job requirement. The results of the study could provide insights on the gap between the school acquired skills and actual IT industry skill needs and as the basis for curriculum enhancement and policy-making interventions by the Philippine government in its educational system.

Thyroidectomy for Cancer: The Surgeon and the Parathyroid Glands Sparing.

Background: The diagnosis of thyroid cancer is continuously increasing and consequently the amount of thyroidectomy. Notwithstanding the actual surgical skill, postoperative hypoparathyroidism still represents its most frequent complication. The aims of the present study are to analyze the rate of postoperative hypoparathyroidism after thyroidectomy, performed for cancer by a single first operator, without any technological aid, and to compare the data to those obtained adopting the most recent technological adjuncts developed to reduce the postoperative hypoparathyroidism. Methods: During the period 1997–2020 at the Endocrine Surgery Unit of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the University of Florence, 1648 consecutive extracapsular thyroidectomies for cancer (401 with central compartment node dissection) were performed. The percentage of hypoparathyroidism, temporary or permanent, was recorded both in the first period (Group A) and in the second, most recent period (Group B). Total thyroidectomies were compared either with those with central compartment dissection and lobectomies. Minimally invasive procedures (MIT, MIVAT, some transoral) were also compared with conventional. Fisher’s exact and Chi-square tests were used for comparison of categorical variables. p < 0.01 was considered statistically significant. Furthermore, a literature research from PubMed® has been performed, considering the most available tools to better identify parathyroid glands during thyroidectomy, in order to reduce the postoperative hypoparathyroidism. We grouped and analyzed them by technological affinity. Results: On the 1648 thyroidectomies enrolled for the study, the histotype was differentiated in 93.93 % of cases, medullary in 4% and poorly differentiated in the remaining 2.06%. Total extracapsular thyroidectomy and lobectomy were performed respectively in 95.45% and 4.55%. We recorded a total of 318 (19.29%) cases of hypocalcemia, with permanent hypoparathyroidism in 11 (0.66%). In regard to the literature, four categories of tools to facilitate the identification of the parathyroids were identified: (a) vital dye; (b) optical devices; (c) autofluorescence of parathyroids; and (d) autofluorescence enhanced by contrast media. Postoperative hypoparathyroidism had a variable range in the different groups. Conclusions: Our data confirm that the incidence of post-surgical hypoparathyroidism is extremely low in the high volume centers. Its potential reduction adopting technological adjuncts is difficult to estimate, and their cost, together with complexity of application, do not allow immediate routine use. The trend towards increasingly unilateral surgery in thyroid carcinoma, as confirmed by our results in case of lobectomy, is expected to really contribute to a further reduction of postsurgical hypoparathyroidism.