Challenging Concepts Research Articles

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE IMPACT OF USING FIRST LANGUAGE TOWARDS ENGLISH CLASSROOM

The investigation of teachers' viewpoints on non-native English-speaking students is the main topic of this study. Nevertheless, there is still uncertainty regarding the efficacy of implementing first language instruction in English classrooms. The purpose of this study is to better understand the viewpoints of instructors on the usage of native tongues in English classrooms. The research methodology included qualitative data collection, with the objective of acquiring a broad spectrum of information. The English teachers at Santi Witya Serong School in South Thailand are the study's participants. The findings shows that teacher was sometimes using Thai language as an instruction in English classroom but most of the instruction is on English as their targeted language. The results demonstrate that teachers noted that first language implementation increased students' desire to learn English, gave them a chance to better understand challenging concepts in the language, and inspired them to ask bold questions that clarify linguistic elements. In an English-speaking classroom, student interaction and communication can become quite difficult, particularly when there is a tendency for the students to have poor English language skills. Using the first language in the target language classroom can increase students' enthusiasm and eagerness to study regardless of their background level and can be seen as a sign of respect for those who still require help learning English. It is noteworthy that although having a classroom where all of the language used is English is good for the students, it is also vital to pay attention to the state of the students.

Students’ Conceptions of Challenges in Writing Thesis: A Case of Postgraduate Context

The ability to apply correct and appropriate academic writing becomes a crucial requirement in composing scientific papers. Many researchers suggested that the intensity of reading and writing habits have a significant impact and determines students’ ability to put ideas in writing. This study aimed to identify the main challenges faced by postgraduate students of Universitas Terbuka in writing and finalizing their thesis, including difficulties in creating good and correct written Indonesian language. This research employed mixed method research (MMR) with three research instruments for data collection, namely questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. There were 165 students participated in answering the questionnaire, and 24 students and 16 lecturers from 7 study programs were involved in the interviews. Thirty proposals for master’s thesis were analyzed by using a document analysis method. The research participants were purposefully selected using purposive sampling. The research findings showed that the aspects that were considered the easiest in writing the thesis are the literature review section and the conclusions and suggestions section. While the most difficult parts of the thesis were the introduction and discussion sections. The research also found that students were still very constrained in terms of good and correct written Indonesian language skills.

Challenging Dietary Research Measures, Concepts, and Definitions to Promote Greater Inclusivity of Immigrant Experiences: Considerations and Practical Recommendations.

Challenging Dietary Research Measures, Concepts, and Definitions to Promote Greater Inclusivity of Immigrant Experiences: Considerations and Practical Recommendations.

Enhancing Understanding of Challenging Chemistry and Physics Concepts in Secondary Schools of Kayonza District through Computer Simulation-Based Learning

The study addressed misconceptions in physics and chemistry among 142 chemistry students, 134 physics students, and 12 teachers." Researchers used a mixed research design, including interviews, questionnaires, and achievement tests, to collect data. Before the intervention, focus group interviews with teachers identified challenging topics, and students took pre-tests to assess their prior understanding. Quantitative data from questionnaires were analyzed descriptively, and achievement test data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Qualitative data from interviews and open-ended questionnaires were interpreted and analyzed descriptively. The results indicated that simulation-based learning effectively reduced the abstract nature of physics and chemistry concepts. Significant improvements were observed in both subjects' mean scores between pre-and post-tests, with post-test results showing a clear advantage. Gender analysis revealed a significant difference in favor of male chemistry students, while no significant difference was found in physics. Qualitative findings showed that teachers positively viewed simulation-based learning for teaching physics and chemistry. In conclusion, the study recommends integrating simulation-based learning in secondary school chemistry and physics teaching to enhance students' conceptual understanding. This research contributes valuable insights into the effective use of simulations to address misconceptions and improve learning outcomes in physics and chemistry. Keywords: Simulation-based learning, Chemistry, Physics, Positive impression, Challenging topics, Conceptual understanding.

A85Jake’s story: Teaching interprofessional working through the delivery of a live patient multi-disciplinary team meeting

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (2010), states ‘Interprofessional education occurs when two or more professionals learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes’ [1]. When healthcare students enter the practice workplace, they are required to work in an interprofessional team and make collaborative decisions to provide safe and effective patient care. With the increasing complexity of patient presentation, increase in life expectancy and disability years coupled with the challenges of resource and delivery within the healthcare system it is vital that practitioners have solid foundational skills in interprofessional working. To facilitate this healthcare educators are being required to think of innovative, authentic and contemptuous pedagogical tools to demonstrate interprofessional working, collaboration and interdisciplinary role awareness. To provide healthcare students with meaningful exposure to interpersonal working educators at Birmingham City University embarked on the design and delivery of a live simulated patient case conference. To promote authenticity the case conference was designed (with consent) around a living patient (Jake) with complex medical and social needs. A team of healthcare educators each took the roles of clinicians from both health, social and tertiary care service. A round table discussion was held related to Jakes’s inpatient care and decisions regarding hospital discharge. Jake has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and substantial medical, social and occupational needs. Jake’s mum is also present, demonstrating the need to have patient and carer collaboration. The session was observed live by students but also filmed and edited into an ongoing simulation learning resource with both clinical and non-clinical learning objectives. A facilitated debrief was held after the session. Feedback and anecdotal analysis of the session showed greater student engagement and understanding of the needs for interprofessional collaboration when discussing patient care and decision-making. The use of a real and living patient meant students could immerse themselves in Jake’s story and feel true empathy with his clinical case. For some students’ knowledge of interprofessional working and the roles of other disciplines proves a challenging concept to master. It is feasible and effective to utilize simulation (live and virtual) as a method of teaching hard to grasp but vital concepts of healthcare practice including interprofessional working and interdisciplinary role awareness. Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.

Qualitative assessment of the suitability of the Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire to monitor dysphagia in children aged 7–10 years with eosinophilic esophagitis

BackgroundThe Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire (DSQ) is a patient-reported outcome measure that assesses the frequency and severity of dysphagia in patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE); however, it has only been validated for use in patients with EoE aged 11–40 years. This study examined the content validity of the DSQ and its usability on an electronic handheld device in children aged 7–10 years with EoE.MethodsIn this qualitative, observational cohort study, participants were recruited to partake in two rounds of interviews. During visit 1, a cognitive interview examined EoE-associated concepts and the appropriateness of the DSQ for assessing dysphagia. Participants completed the DSQ daily for 2 weeks, and DSQ scores were calculated. After 2 weeks, a second interview assessed the usability of the DSQ on the electronic device and the burden associated with completing it daily.ResultsOverall, 16 participants were included (aged 7–8 years: n = 8; aged 9–10 years: n = 8); most were male (75%) and white (81%), and the mean (standard deviation [SD]) age was 8.4 (1.3) years. The most commonly reported EoE-associated concept was ‘trouble with swallowing’ (63% [10/16]). Most participants reported that the questions were ‘easy to complete’ and ‘relevant to someone with EoE and dysphagia’. Overall, participants reported understanding the questions and associated responses; however, further probing demonstrated inconsistent comprehension. Key challenging concepts included ‘solid food’, ‘trouble swallowing’, ‘vomit’, and ‘relief’; some participants also reported difficulty differentiating between pain levels (31% [4/13]). Most caregivers reported that their child had experienced dysphagia (94% [15/16]); however, mean (SD) DSQ scores over the study period were low (7.3 [7.4]), suggesting infrequent and mild dysphagia, or a lack of comprehension of the questions. Most participants reported that completing the DSQ on the electronic device was easy (93% [14/15]) and they would be willing to complete it for longer than 2 weeks (73% [11/15]).ConclusionsDifficulties with comprehension and comprehensiveness suggest that the DSQ may not be sufficiently comprehensive for use in all patients in this population, and wording/phrasing changes are required before use in a clinical trial setting.

Toughest of Loves

Some Christian theologians and philosophers maintain that God’s punishments are always (at least partly) motivated by redemptive love for those punished, even when these punishments are considerably severe (e.g., killings or damnations). However, advocates of such a conception of divine punishment face significant challenges. Perhaps most fundamentally, it is not entirely apparent how severe and loving features of divine punishment might be understood to fit together within a viable theological model. In this article this foundational issue is addressed. By culling resources from St. Gregory of Nyssa, the present aim is to proffer a contemporary model of divine punishment that naturally combines redemptive love for those punished with apparently harsh treatment.

Changing colors and understanding: the use of mutant chromogenic protein and informational suppressor strains of Escherichia coli to explore the central dogma of molecular biology.

The central dogma of molecular biology is a key concept for undergraduate students in the life sciences as it describes the flow of information in living systems from gene-to-gene product. However, despite often being covered in many introductory life science courses, students may still have misconceptions surrounding the central dogma even as they move on to advanced courses. Active learning strategies such as laboratory activities can be useful in addressing such misconceptions. In the laboratory exercise presented here, senior undergraduate students explore the intricacies of nonsense suppressor mutations to challenge their understanding of the central dogma. The students introduce a plasmid carrying a nonfunctional chromogenic protein gene due to a nonsense mutation in a codon encoding the chromophore to various nonsense suppressor strains of Escherichia coli. Students then observe distinct chromogenic phenotypes, depending on the suppressor strain. Students showed a moderate increase in understanding of the central dogma. While the central dogma remains a challenging concept, active learning strategies like the one presented here can help reduce conceptual errors.

Listening to or looking at models: Learning about dynamic complex systems in science among learners who are blind and learners who are sighted

AbstractBackgroundStudents who are blind are integrated into public schools in many countries, yet are often excluded from full participation in science since most learning materials are visual. To create a compensatory route, an existing model‐based inquiry‐learning environment was adapted by means of sonification (addition of non‐speech sounds that represent dynamic information). The learning environment uses agent‐based models and a complex systems approach to teach the Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT) and Gas Laws. The models are accompanied by a workbook consisting of text (printed or auditory) and images (printed or tactile).ObjectivesThe current research examined whether such perceptual compensation creates a comparable learning environment for learners who are blind compared with learners who are sighted using the original learning environment. The aim of the study is to expand knowledge about how the auditory channel may compensate the visual channel among individuals who are blind.MethodsConceptual learning in science and reasoning about complex systems were assessed using pre‐ and post‐questionnaires. To explore learners' learning progression throughout the unit, four progression analysis ‘windows’ were selected. These were groups of adjacent or nearly adjacent items in the workbook that permitted a glimpse of learners' progression.ResultsThe sonified environment not only supported the learning of learners who are blind compared with the learning of learners who are sighted using visual material, but even furthered their learning with respect to diffusion, one of the more challenging concepts in KMT. It seems the types of sonified representations used in this study increased listeners' sensitivity to the micro‐level interactions in a way less accessible in visual representations.TakeawaysSonified environments can be provide learners who are blind with equitable participation by compensating and complementing the visual channel. Sonification can have implications for students who are blind as well as students who are sighted.

Food-Dependent Exercise-Induced Anaphylaxis: A Distinct Form of Food Allergy-An Updated Review of Diagnostic Approaches and Treatments.

Food-dependent exercise-induced allergic reactions (FDEIA) represent a distinct clinical phenomenon where symptoms arise during exercise following the consumption of specific trigger foods, with the most severe manifestation being anaphylaxis-a condition distinct from typical exercise-induced or food-induced anaphylaxis. In FDEIA, patients can either exercise or tolerate specific foods separately without experiencing any allergic reactions. Diagnosis relies on patient history and provocation testing, requiring rigorous implementation within a supervised hospital environment. Positive symptoms and clinical signs during testing confirm FDEIA, while negative outcomes do not preclude its presence. Exercise stands as the primary trigger, followed by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and alcohol. The utilization of various protocols for food cofactor challenges to confirm FDEIA yields differing diagnostic outcomes. We highlight the updated concept of food cofactor challenges, incorporating protocols reported in the literature, and summarize current recommendations and comprehensive management approaches for FDEIA patients.

Translation as a Learning Method in English Language Teaching

"The Translation Method" in teaching English represents a historically significant approach, rooted in the early methodologies of language instruction. Here we explore the evolution, principles, and controversies surrounding this method within the context of teaching English as a second or foreign language. Historically, translation was extensively used as a primary tool for language learning, aiming to help students understand English texts by comparing them with their native languages. While this method fell out of Favor in communicative language teaching paradigms, it continues to be debated and revisited in modern educational contexts. In this article we delves into the strengths of the translation method, emphasizing its role in developing students' analytical and critical thinking skills. By engaging with complex linguistic structures and cultural nuances, students can deepen their understanding of both languages. Additionally, the method can provide a bridge for learners to grasp challenging concepts in English through the familiarity of their native language. However, the abstract also addresses the criticisms and challenges associated with the translation method. Detractors argue that an overemphasis on translation can hinder natural language acquisition and oral communication skills. Furthermore, it might not align with the communicative and immersive approaches favoured in contemporary language pedagogy, Evolution, Principles, Teaching, etc. The translation method can be integrated into modern language classrooms, emphasizing its judicious use as a supplementary tool. It explores how technology, such as translation software and interactive exercises, can enhance the method's effectiveness. Additionally, the abstract touches on the importance of balancing traditional methods with communicative and immersive techniques, ensuring a comprehensive and adaptable language learning experience.

Teaching and learning floating and sinking: A meta‐analysis

AbstractFloating and sinking (FS) is a key topic in science education, both at primary and secondary levels. The interpretation of FS phenomena, however, is challenging due to the difficulty of the scientific concepts and explanatory models involved (e.g., density, buoyancy), along with students' everyday experiences, which conflict with scientific explanations. Consequently, many studies over the last few decades have investigated how FS could be taught effectively to students of different ages while utilizing multiple teaching approaches. This meta‐analysis summarizes findings from 69 intervention studies on teaching FS conducted between 1977 and 2021. Over all studies, we estimated a mean effect size of g = 0.85 (95% CI = 0.71, 0.99). This large effect size demonstrates that, although FS is a challenging concept, teaching FS is effective even in elementary school. Moreover, in a moderator analysis, we investigate the effect of intervention characteristics, students' age, as well as study design, and assessment features on the mean study effect size. To analyze the effect of these moderator variables, we use a three‐level hierarchical meta‐regression model for dealing with multiple effect sizes from single studies. We found two intervention characteristics that explain variance in study effect sizes: longer lasting interventions result in larger effect sizes and interventions where hands‐on experiments are applied are more effective than those utilizing virtual experiments. Furthermore, studies with a treatment‐control group comparison have significantly smaller effect sizes than studies with a pre‐post design. We discuss the implications of our findings regarding the moderator variables for effective teaching of FS and further research on FS.

The Sound of Wind Farming: Rethinking Clean Energy with Wayuu Cultural Practices

Abstract: This article combines environmental humanities, legal studies, sound studies, and cultural studies to analyze how Wayuu poetry and film challenge conceptions of wind within the context of Colombia's energy transition. Based on an analysis of the poem " Tejiendo sueños " by Livio Suárez Urariyuu and the short film Somos hombres cascabel by Jorge Mario Suárez Iguarán, we discuss wind as a source of electric power in La Guajira. An aural perspective on Wayuu cultural products is adopted to trace links among sound, dreams, wind, and conceptions of cleanliness, renewability, and sustainability in contemporary climate-change discourse. Thinking with the poem and short film by Wayuu cultural producers, we interrogate wind energy's relationship to a neoextractivist logic; harnessed as part of Colombia's energy future, wind-based energy disrupts and pollutes La Guajira's soundscape and the Wayuu people's ability to dream. In so doing, wind turbines pose an existential threat and reinforce the relevance of the soundscape as the site of anticolonial struggles.

Legal Aid with regard to Right to Fair Trial in Pakistani and International Law: A Comparative Approach

The key objective of this article is to analyze the concept of legal aid, its significance, challenges, and potential solutions. This article by using the doctrinal research methodology, presents a comparative analysis of legal aid “in the context of international law” and Pakistani law, highlighting “the” similarities and dissimilarities between the two systems. Access to justice and legal representation are fundamental principles in international and national legal frameworks, ensuring that individuals have adequate assistance in navigating the legal system's complexities. This article examines the relevant provisions in international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which underscore the importance of legal aid. Additionally, this article explores the role of international organizations, such as the European Court of Human Rights, in providing legal aid to individuals involved in international criminal proceedings. On the other hand, Pakistani law recognizes the importance of legal aid as well, albeit with its own unique features and challenges. This article examines the constitutional provisions and statutory laws in Pakistan that guarantee the right to legal representation for individuals, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged. By understanding the similarities and dissimilarities between these systems, policymakers, legal practitioners, and scholars can identify potential areas for improvement and enhance access to justice for individuals, irrespective of their economic or social status. This article concludes that international law recognizes legal aid as a universal right and various international treaties make it mandatory for states (i.e., Pakistan) to ensure access to legal aid for those who cannot afford it.

A risk science perspective on vaccines.

Vaccines can be seen as one of the greatest successes in modern medicine. Good examples are the vaccines against smallpox, polio, and measles. Unfortunately, vaccines can have side effects, but the risks are considered by the health authorities and experts to be small compared to their benefits. Nevertheless, there are many who are skeptical of vaccination, something which has been very clearly demonstrated in relation to the COVID-19 disease. Risk is the key concept when evaluating a vaccine, in relation to both its ability to protect against the disease and its side effects. However, risk is a challenging concept to measure, which makes communication about vaccines' performance and side effects difficult. The present article aims at providing new insights into vaccine risks-the understanding, perception, communication, and handling of them-by adopting what is here referred to as a contemporary risk science perspective. This perspective clarifies the relationships between the risk concept and terms like uncertainty, knowledge, and probability. The skepticism toward vaccines is multifaceted, and influenced by concerns that extend beyond the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines. However, by clarifying the relationships between key concepts of risk, particularly how uncertainty affects risk and its characterization, we can improve our understanding of this issue.

Embracing team heterogeneity: a case study of the collaborative teaching practice in an international kindergarten in Hong Kong

International kindergartens, which offer an immersive dual-language (English and Chinese) environment, are popular among middle-class families in Hong Kong. The international learning and teaching environment is cultivated primarily by developing a diverse workforce, in which Chinese-speaking (Putonghua and/or Cantonese) teachers with local training or from mainland China generally work with their English-speaking counterparts from overseas in the same classroom. Such heterogeneity has complicated the already challenging concept of collaborative teaching. This article presents a case study of the collaborative teaching practice in a trilingual international kindergarten which had been established for over 50 years. Through in-depth interviews, questionnaires, text messaging, document analysis, site visits, and observations, the study examined the collaborative teaching practices among international colleagues in the kindergarten. The findings revealed that collaboration among international colleagues was made successful by (1) senior management and teachers sharing a common goal; (2) a dynamic whole-school supportive structure that embraced heterogeneity; and (3) the development of a shared culture of professional learning. The implications of these findings for management, practice, and research are discussed, including the need to foster a culture of collaboration, the importance of professional development, and the need for further research on collaborative teaching practices in diverse educational settings.

Human-nonhuman boundaries and inter-creatural empathy in Klara and the Sun, Fifteen Dogs, the Wonder that Was Ours and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

ABSTRACT Engaging with issues of categorisation, human supremacy, and (the lack of) empathy, in this article I read Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021), André Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs (2015), and Alice Hatcher’s The Wonder That Was Ours (2018); novels that I argue are connected by their interrogation of biopolitically produced and policed boundaries between human and nonhuman beings, and by their focus on inter-creatural empathy and care. Through the lens of critical posthumanism, Agambenian biopolitics, and care ethics, I explore how these texts interrogate boundaries between animals, humans and techno-creatures, and I contend that they provide nonhuman and marginalised human characters with a (narrative) voice in order to challenge and undermine anthropocentric conceptions of subjectivity, agency and community. Mapping the novels’ portrayal of inter-creatural care relationships, I argue that affirming vulnerability potentially leads to the recognition of a “strange kinship” between human and nonhuman characters; and it is my ultimate claim that these texts turn proximity and porosity into productive and often transgressive inter-creatural entanglements, thereby disrupting processes of exclusionary differentiation, and opening the way to an imaginative exploration of new ways of being.

How Augmented Reality (AR) Can Help and Hinder Collaborative Learning: A Study of AR in Electromagnetism Education.

Learning physics is often difficult for students because concepts such as electricity, magnetism and sound, cannot be seen with the naked eye. Emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) can transform education by making challenging concepts visible and accessible to novices. We present a Hololens-based augmented reality system where collaborators learn about the invisible electromagnetism phenomena involved in audio speakers, and we measure the benefits of AR technology through quantitative and qualitative methods. Specifically, we measure learning (knowledge gains and transfer) and collaborative knowledge exchange behaviors. Our results indicate that, while AR generally provides a novelty effect, specific educational AR visualizations can be both beneficial and detrimental to learning they helped students to learn spatial content and structural relationships, but hindered their understanding of kinesthetic content. Furthermore, AR facilitated learning in collaborations by providing representational common ground, which improved communication and peer teaching. We discuss these effects, as well as identify factors that have positive impact (e.g., co-located representations, easier access to resources, better grounding) or negative impact (e.g., tunnel vision, overlooking kinesthetic feedback) on student collaborative learning with augmented reality applications.

Habit, Artificial Intelligence and the Ontological Performance of Trust

The rapid growth of AI technologies has led to increased concerns around their perceived trustworthiness. In response, many authors have turned to the predictable rituals and routines of habit as a crucial resource for enhancing trust in these new technologies. This paper revisits the relationship between habit and trust, but from the perspective of the more ontological and dynamic understanding developed on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. We argue that Deleuze's concept of habit challenges the cognitivist emphases of writings on trust and AI, providing a means instead of accounting for trust in terms of an ontological performance that no longer assumes a pre-existing subject. We unpack the implications of such an approach in three main ways. First, we highlight how the originality of Deleuze's approach to habit lies in its insistence that the material contractions of habit enjoy an ontological primacy in relation to the human subject, thus entailing a radically materialist gesture that refuses conventional metaphysical distinctions between the human and the differential forces of matter. Second, we explore how the material contractions of habit, for Deleuze, engender a simultaneous contemplation of an ecology of affects that sit beneath the level of conscious thought. This offers a sense of trust in human–technology relations as being as much an affective capacity as it is a cognitive attitude, being shaped by the performance of unconscious forces and intensities. And finally, we argue that Deleuze's understanding of habit as a fundamentally dynamic process spotlights how trust is itself a creative achievement predicated on an openness to an unknown future. This is important ethically because it pushes understanding of trust in AI beyond a moral didacticism of whether such systems are 'Good' or 'Bad', towards more immanent modes of evaluation sensitive to their capacities to incite new possibilities of thinking and relating.

Analysis of an Anti-Islanding Prevention Technique in a Grid-Connected PV System

In the present power system with distributed generators (DGs), there are some issues that are not resolved yet. One of these issues involves a fast and very accurate detection of islanding. The number of DGs introduced into electricity distribution systems is increasing day by day, and it is the most challenging concept in modern power system scenarios, since DG islanding can cause degraded proficiency, excellence, reliability and quality of supply. Hence, anti-islanding with fast response time is essential for a DG connected grid system. To overcome the challenges from islanding DGs, researchers proposed a numerous model that deals with the consequences of intentional islanding, and clears it as fast as possible.