Context-based Approach Research Articles

Engaging with the Problem (and Misframing) of Teacher Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand: Notes for Context-Based Social Justice Approaches

Engaging with the Problem (and Misframing) of Teacher Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand: Notes for Context-Based Social Justice Approaches

Examining the cognitive and affective changes in students through the implementation process of the physics curriculum based on an interdisciplinary context-based learning approach

This case study examines the cognitive and affective changes in students through the implementation process of the physics curriculum based on an interdisciplinary context-based learning approach. The study was conducted during the second semester of the 2017-2018 academic year with 33 students in one of the 10th grade classes of a high school in the Yüreğir district of the Adana province. A criterion sampling method of purposive sampling methods was employed in selecting the school and the class. In the intervention, the researchers used the physics curriculum they developed based on an interdisciplinary context-based learning approach. The plans and activities prepared according to the context-based REACT model were implemented for eight weeks and the data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods. At the end of the intervention, significant changes were observed in the students’ ability to relate their knowledge to daily life, interdisciplinary problem-solving skills, attitudes towards problem-solving in physics, and affective characteristics. During the process, students who encountered challenges in problem-solving, focusing on the lesson, working in groups, and relating information to real-life and different disciplines managed to overcome these challenges by increasing their individual efforts and communicating with their peers and the teacher. Because of students who remained passive, made noise, and frequently changed their seats during group work, the researchers encountered some challenges in instruction and time management. To increase classroom participation, they opted for updating the lesson plan, preparing additional examples, and increasing the number of visual materials. In this respect, teachers and other researchers are recommended to allocate more time to interdisciplinary context-based teaching activities, provide students with more real-life problem situations, diversify group work, and conduct group activities more frequently.

Living With Multiple Sclerosis: The Rainbow of Inspiring Experiences and Resilience in the Face of the Disease.

Multiple sclerosis (MS), a leading cause of disability in young adults worldwide, including in Iran, affects their whole life so common care is no longer effective. In this regard, context-based approaches should be considered for a holistic care delivery that accords with the patients' inputs. We aimed to explore patients' understanding of MS and their personal experiences of living with this disease. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted. The data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 patients. These patients were selected using a purposive sampling method, and the data were analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. Three main categories and nine subcategories were identified: Thunder and Lightning strike in the form of Displeasure, Social wrong beliefs, Experiences of Constraints, Interference with Life Stages and Dark Spots on the Horizon of the Future; Subtle Beam consisting of Extrinsic Light Radiation, Reflection of Individual Effort and Formation of a Rainbow by Resilience and Hope for a Bright Future. By offering multidimensional support, patients reported a shift from fear to a vibrant life. Although research often focuses on the negative aspects of MS, this study recognizes both positive and negative aspects. These findings can contribute to future interventional research. During the explanation of research goals and consent acquisition, participants were reminded that sharing their experiences could provide valuable insights benefiting others coping with or at risk of the same disease. Additionally, during data analysis, codes extracted were reviewed and improved with active participant involvement.

Transition Approaches towards Positive Energy Districts: A Systematic Review

The positive energy district (PED) concept is attracting growing research interest; however, the need for practical approaches to facilitate their implementation remains crucial. This study, framed in the COST Action ‘Positive Energy Districts European Network’, offers a comprehensive review of the roadmaps, pathways, and guidelines—namely ‘PED-Transition Approaches’—currently available to support the implementation of district-scale innovative models, thereby advancing energy transitions and enhancing livability at the city level. The review involved a systematic search and web scraping of documents, including scientific and grey literature, as well as EU-funded projects’ reports. The studies were identified according to multiple filters and eligibility criteria, then categorised in a structured repository using a multidimensional matrix, and finally examined following three-levels of detail (i.e., bibliometric study) overview and in-depth analysis. The findings reflect the main characteristics, gaps, and challenges in PED implementation by underlying the growing need for effective step-by-step, user-centric, and context-based transition approaches. In conclusion, the research, building on an extensive literature of multiple inspirational methodologies and their associated use cases, is a strong basis to develop sequential pathways to facilitate PED implementation among key stakeholders in a short–medium-term perspective towards a climate-neutral city vision.

Secondary School Students’ Engagement with Environmental Issues via Teaching Approaches Inspired by Green Chemistry

Green chemistry refers to the design and application of practices that prevent pollution and promote environmental sustainability. A set of 12 principles make up the core of the green chemistry philosophy, and, since their emergence, they have been implemented in the educational practice of tertiary education. Over the past few years, the green chemistry approach has started expanding among secondary education as well. This review discusses green chemistry teaching experiences in secondary education as reported in 70 scientific publications (from 2002 to the present) that were identified via a literature search. All identified documents were examined and analyzed to map their green chemistry content and relevant environmental issues, the degree of the connection between the chemistry concepts and environmental issues (“environmentalization”), the implemented teaching-learning approaches, and, when applicable, the achieved learning outcomes. Analysis showed that all 12 green chemistry principles were covered within the identified publications, with the ones referring to prevention and the use of renewable feedstocks being the most frequent. The publications touch upon several environmental issues, with the most frequent being those referring to hazardous chemical waste, alternative energy resources, and recycling. Most of the publications correspond to a medium degree of environmentalization. The inquiry-based, hands-on-based, problem-based, context-based, and socio-scientific issues-based teaching approaches were shown to be the most widely used. Regarding the achieved learning goals, those mostly explored were related to the cognitive and affective domains. This comprehensive review may provide a solid foundation for the organization and design of novel curricula that will integrate green chemistry into education for sustainable development programs in secondary education.

Effect of Concept Based Cartoons as art integration on Alternative Concepts in Chemical Bonding

This study is carried out to investigate and analyze the effect of art integration in chemistry curriculum by concept-based cartoons integrated in the context based chemical concepts learning approach on class 9th students’ alternative concepts in chemical bonding. The study was conducted with 45 students of grade 9, within a non-equivalent pretest-posttest group design (NEGD). A chemical bonding concept test conducted to gather the data with 16 multiple choice question (MCQs), and to probe their conceptions, a clinical interview with 5 open ended questions was used. Interview questions and MCQs were based on the same alternative concepts. The study concluded with a positive effect of context-based approach on the remediation of chemical bonding alternative conception. Although concepts-based cartoons found powerful tools and most helpful in resolving alternative concepts in chemical bonding but the study suggest to use more than one intervention for the remediation of alternative conception in chemical education.

MENGKAJI KEUNGGULAN KURIKULUM IPA FINLANDIA UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PENDIDIKAN SAINS DI INDONESIA

<p><em>The issues in education in Indonesia, particularly in the field of Natural Sciences, are very concerning. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey by the OECD, Indonesian students' abilities in science rank low globally, with a ranking of 71 out of 77 countries in 2018 and 68 out of 81 countries in 2023. The science scores also declined from 396 to 383, far below the RPJMN target of 402. Data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) shows that Indonesian 4th and 8th-grade students also rank low internationally. The research methodology uses a qualitative approach through a literature study. Data analysis indicates that the content and competency-based science curriculum in Finland provides a good model by integrating theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Science education in Finland, which is interactive and student-centered, can serve as a reference for improving the curriculum in Indonesia. A comprehensive and context-based science learning approach is needed to enhance the quality of science education in Indonesia. The PISA and TIMSS survey results emphasize the need for improvements in science learning in Indonesia. Science, as systematic knowledge and a scientific process, requires a holistic and integrated learning approach. An integrated science approach that connects science to everyday life is crucial for developing scientific processes in students. Science teachers are expected to have interdisciplinary abilities and knowledge integration. However, often the curriculum and the quality of teachers do not support this goal. This study compares the 2013 Curriculum in Indonesia with the Finnish Curriculum to see the similarities, differences, and obstacles in science learning</em>.</p>

Strategi Efektif Mengubah Generalisasi Menjadi Pemahaman Konkret Untuk Siswa Sekolah Dasar

This article discusses effective strategies for turning generalizations into concrete understanding among elementary school students. By using active learning methods, concrete manipulatives, and context-based approaches, this research aims to improve students' ability to understand abstract concepts. This research was conducted in several elementary schools involving 150 grade 4 and 5 students as subjects. The results showed a significant increase in understanding of math and science concepts after implementing this strategy.

High-resolution spatiotemporal inference of urban road traffic emissions using taxi GPS and multi-source urban features data: a case study in Chengdu, China

The spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability of traffic in urban environments make traffic emissions inference challenging. To address this challenge, this study introduces a novel geographical context-based approach utilizing high-resolution taxi GPS data, incorporating multidimensional contextual factors such as road data, points of interest (POI), weather data, and population density. The proposed method can enhance the precision of traffic emissions inference compared to conventional macroscopic estimation techniques. To overcome the issue of missing data in traffic emissions inference from taxi data, three ensemble machine learning algorithms—Random Forest, Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost)—are employed. These algorithms efficiently handle a substantial volume of taxi GPS data, achieving reduced computational time and model complexity. The proposed framework establishes localized models for each road segment, taking into consideration both geographical and external features that characterize the urban environment. This localized modeling contributes significantly to a more profound understanding of traffic dynamics. A thorough comparative analysis is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed method. Results indicate that incorporating multidimensional urban features is advantageous for traffic speed inference. Among the ensemble learning models, Random Forest outperforms others when dealing with a small missing rate or limited sample size, while XGBoost exhibits superior performance for larger missing rates or substantial sample sizes. Additionally, an analysis of the feature importance in traffic speed highlights that road network features are the most significant factors, followed by temporal characteristics, spatial attributes, POI data, and weather information. Finally, leveraging inferred traffic speed and volume information, emissions from large-scale urban road traffic are inferred based on the COPERT model. In contrast to methods relying on complex, multi-source data for emission estimation, our approach utilizes simple and easily accessible data, enabling precise estimation of emissions on a large-scale spatiotemporal basis.

Place Recognition through Multiple LiDAR Scans Based on the Hidden Markov Model.

Autonomous driving systems for unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) operating in enclosed environments strongly rely on LiDAR localization with a prior map. Precise initial pose estimation is critical during system startup or when tracking is lost, ensuring safe UGV operation. Existing LiDAR-based place recognition methods often suffer from reduced accuracy due to only matching descriptors from individual LiDAR keyframes. This paper proposes a multi-frame descriptor-matching approach based on the hidden Markov model (HMM) to address this issue. This method enhances the place recognition accuracy and robustness by leveraging information from multiple frames. Experimental results from the KITTI dataset demonstrate that the proposed method significantly enhances the place recognition performance compared with the scan context-based single-frame descriptor-matching approach, with an average performance improvement of 5.8% and with a maximum improvement of 15.3%.

Context-based Good Governance Approach: A Sustainable Solution for Water Crisis

Water governance is a complex, multilevel process based on the socio-political and administrative systems. The sustainable use of water resources is the main challenge of the present-day global water governance. The top-down, technocratic approach to governance made the water crisis, the crisis of governance. Literature shows a radical change towards a more humanistic, situation-based strategy that can solve water issues. The article analyses the significant water challenges, which include governance, scarcity, sustainability and adaptability. The article focuses on the importance of considering good governance principles such as accountability, transparency, responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, inclusiveness and equity and citizens’ engagement in water governance, with particular emphasis on the context-based approach. The central argument is that the water governance system differs according to the context of governance, and the application of the good governance principle should follow contextual understanding. A major suggestion is that a context-based, good governance approach can be the sustainable solution to the water crisis.

Enhancing awareness of industrial robots in collaborative manufacturing

The diffusion of Human-Robot Collaborative cells is prevented by several barriers. Classical control approaches seem not yet fully suitable for facing the variability conveyed by the presence of human operators beside robots. The capabilities of representing heterogeneous knowledge representation and performing abstract reasoning are crucial to enhance the flexibility of control solutions. To this aim, the ontology SOHO (Sharework Ontology for Human-Robot Collaboration) has been specifically designed for representing Human-Robot Collaboration scenarios, following a context-based approach. This work brings several contributions. This paper proposes an extension of SOHO to better characterize behavioral constraints of collaborative tasks. Furthermore, this work shows a knowledge extraction procedure designed to automatize the synthesis of Artificial Intelligence plan-based controllers for realizing flexible coordination of human and robot behaviors in collaborative tasks. The generality of the ontological model and the developed representation capabilities as well as the validity of the synthesized planning domains are evaluated on a number of realistic industrial scenarios where collaborative robots are actually deployed.

What and why in teaching about sustainability

Education has responded to global Sustainable Development (SD) goals by drawing on a range of issue-related, context-based, and cross-curricular approaches to teaching SD. This paper aims to examine how teachers describe the content in SD and how they justify this content concerning their teaching practice. The Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework, with its reflective tool Content Representation (CoRe), was used in combination with semi-structured interviews to capture 18 Swedish upper-secondary science teachers’ reflections. The results indicate four themes of content that the teachers emphasise: energy and global warming, ecosystem services and biodiversity, presence of harmful substances and materials in nature, and imbalance of natural substances in nature. The teachers justified these content themes in terms of the importance of students’ gaining different perspectives (local, global, ecological, social, and economic), belief in the future, action competence, and general scientific education. The paper contributes to sustainability education research, as it focuses on teaching sustainability in the light of the PCK framework. Also, it can support and inspire teachers when they decide what content to include when teaching SD.

A Context-based Teaching Concept on Electric Circuits - Development and First Results

Despite the importance of electricity for today’s industrial society, students often perceive the abstract topic of electric circuits as uninteresting. In order to foster students’ interest, we developed a context-based teaching concept on simple circuits. Building on research findings on students’ interests, the concept covers the topic at the example of contexts like bumper cars, the electric eel, or the electric fence. While previous studies suggest that such a context-based approach can improve affective factors such as student interest, the evidence on the impact on students’ conceptual understanding is inconclusive. Therefore, we empirically evaluated the teaching concept in a field study with 7th and 8th graders to investigate the effects of context-based teaching on students’ conceptual understanding, while also assessing their interest and self-concept. By comparing our concept with conventional teaching in a pre-post-follow-up design, we aim to improve the current state of research regarding the effects of context-based teaching in authentic teaching environments. First analyses did not reveal significant differences between the context-based concept and conventional approaches, neither regarding the affective factors interest and self-concept nor conceptual understanding.

Enhancing secondary school students’ engagement in chemistry through 7E context-based instructional strategy supported with simulation

Now days, the level of students’ engagement in secondary school chemistry is low. The aim of this study was then to enhance student chemistry engagement through simulation-integrated 7E context-based instructional strategy and compared its efficacy with 7E context-based instructional strategy, simulation-integrated conventional teaching approach, and conventional teaching approach. For the quantitative part, 15-item chemistry engagement scale was utilized to collect data from 229 grade 10 students as part of a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test non-equivalent control group design. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The study’s findings revealed that, when compared to the other instructional strategies, the simulation-integrated 7E context-based instructional strategy was the most successful at raising students’ overall engagement and its dimensions. This study implies that implementing a simulation-integrated 7E context-based instructional strategy can boost students’ overall and individual levels of engagement in chemistry. Thus, to enhance chemistry learning, teachers may progressively move from the conventional approach to the use of simulation-integrated 7E context-based approach over the other strategies.

Unsupervised Training Sequence Design: Efficient and Generalizable Agent Training

To train generalizable Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents, researchers recently proposed the Unsupervised Environment Design (UED) framework, in which a teacher agent creates a very large number of training environments and a student agent trains on the experiences in these environments to be robust against unseen testing scenarios. For example, to train a student to master the “stepping over stumps” task, the teacher will create numerous training environments with varying stump heights and shapes. In this paper, we argue that UED neglects training efficiency and its need for very large number of environments (henceforth referred to as infinite horizon training) makes it less suitable to training robots and non-expert humans. In real-world applications where either creating new training scenarios is expensive or training efficiency is of critical importance, we want to maximize both the learning efficiency and learning outcome of the student. To achieve efficient finite horizon training, we propose a novel Markov Decision Process (MDP) formulation for the teacher agent, referred to as Unsupervised Training Sequence Design (UTSD). Specifically, we encode salient information from the student policy (e.g., behaviors and learning progress) into the teacher's state space, enabling the teacher to closely track the student's learning progress and consequently discover the optimal training sequences with finite lengths. Additionally, we explore the teacher's efficient adaptation to unseen students at test time by employing the context-based meta-learning approach, which leverages the teacher's past experiences with various students. Finally, we empirically demonstrate our teacher's capability to design efficient and effective training sequences for students with varying capabilities.

Translating Peace Idiomatic Expressions from English into Arabic: A Context-based Approach

The present study examines the translation of peace idiomatic expressions in various fields focusing on the effect of context in understanding the meaning of these idioms within context usage. The problem with this study is that comprehensive research is scarce on the influence of context on translating peace idioms and specific expressions used in certain situations. Studying peace idiomatic expressions is critical for releasing how these idioms convey meaning. The study investigates whether the translators attach the real meaning of these idioms with or without context, also, examines the impact of the context in translating the peace idioms. The study aims to deal with peace idioms and find out the translator’s success in achieving the appropriateness of these idioms. The study hypothesizes the difficulties in analyzing and translating such expressions used out or within the context. In evaluating the fitting of renditions, an eclectic model developed by the researcher will be employed in discussing the chosen texts depending implicitly on Halliday and Hasans’ one of the ranks related to the context (1989)which is context of culture, also one of Du beaugrand and Dressler’s regulative principles(1981), specifically appropriateness, as well as Fernando’s classification of idioms(1996) to clarify the sense of the chosen peace idioms. The study has concluded that there are some differences in translations depending on the different comprehension of the translators about the spirit and meaning of the texts and the context of each language. According to the results of investigating the influence of context, the study recommends that the translators should extend their conceive of how the context can affects in presenting the intended sense of the source text

Impact of Problem-Based Learning Models with a Contextual Approach on the Learning Competence of Students in Junior High School

The education of the natural sciences is closely linked to environmental issues. One of the most accurate models used is the problem-learning model. This study aims to look at the impact of a problem-based learning model. With a contextual approach to the competence of high school students, this research is an experimental study using a non-equivalent group design. Based on statistical analysis of the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective aspects of the students, it is known that the data is distributed normally but homogeneously. Then the hypothesis was tested using an independent t test, with the result of the H0 hypotheses rejected. It is understandable that a problem-based learning model with a contextual approach has a significant influence on the competence of high school students. Based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that to enhance student competence, the teacher plays an important role in implementing problem-based learning as it can improve learning outcomes in various aspects, including cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Then one of the recommended models is problem-based learning (PBL) with a context-based approach.

A triple whammy: how urban heat, housing unaffordability and disadvantage affect urban spatial resilience

Climate change generates multiple negative impacts for cities, such as the urban heat island effect. Social stresses, including social disadvantage and housing unaffordability, compound the poor living conditions of urban residents and make our cities less resilient. This paper considers a climate event (urban heat) and social stresses (housing affordability and urban disadvantage) to explore urban resilience in Sydney. We draw on a framework for building urban climate resilience, incorporating facets of urban resilience, social stresses that amplify crises, and solutions that strengthen individuals and communities with coping abilities to withstand climate events. The study diverges from aggregate city-level analyses that hide small-area differences in climate impacts and vulnerability. The findings reveal the spatiality of these natural and social impacts, identifying 11 critical areas in Sydney impacted by the highest levels of urban heat and urban disadvantage, and two critical areas impacted by the highest levels of urban heat and housing unaffordability. We highlight the importance of context-based approaches and place-based policies to address climate risks and social vulnerabilities on the path toward creating more resilient cities.

Prestação de cuidados em terapia ocupacional durante a COVID-19 via telessaúde para crianças de famílias que vivem em condições de vulnerabilidade e confinamento

Abstract Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on health and education, parents and children living in non-urban areas were severely affected. Objective To design and implement a telehealth based occupational therapy intervention aimed at improving the well-being of children under nine years of age living in vulnerability and confinement conditions, the latter due to the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, through the provision of context-based occupational counseling to their parent/caregivers. Methods Before-and-after study conducted in families from rural and peri-urban areas living in conditions of vulnerability and in which children were attending online school. Descriptive and a bivariate analysis of the baseline conditions of the sample were performed, as well as before-after comparisons of the objectives achieved and their differences. Results 13 families completed the assessment and intervention processes (12 sessions, 94% attendance); the average age of children was 7.3 years, and in 92.3% of the families the head of the household was a woman. The before-after goals evaluation showed there were gains in all proposed goals, with the highest gains observed in the family social participation category. Conclusions Occupational therapy, telehealth and a context-based approach provide a broad array of benefits to families and children living in vulnerability and confinement conditions.