Learning Context Research Articles

The influence of crisis on policy formulation: the case of alcohol regulation in South Africa during COVID-19 (2020-21).

This study contributes to a neglected aspect of health policy analysis: policy formulation processes. Context is central to the policy cycle, yet the influence of crises on policy formulation is underrepresented in the health policy literature in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper analyses a detailed case study of how the COVID-19 crisis influenced policy formulation processes for the regulation of alcohol in South Africa, as part of COVID-19 control measures, in 2020 and 2021. It provides a picture of the policy context, specifically considering the extent to which the crisis influenced the position and power of actors, and policy content. Qualitative data were collected from nine key informant interviews and 127 documents. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A policy formulation conceptual framework was applied as a lens to describe complex policy formulation processes. The study revealed that the perceived urgency of the pandemic prompted a heightened sense of awareness of alcohol-related trauma as a known, preventable threat to public health system capacity. This enabled a high degree of innovation among decision-makers in the generation of alternative alcohol policy content. Within the context of uncertainty, epistemic and experiential policy learning drove rapid, adaptive cycles of policy formulation, demonstrating the importance of historical and emerging public health evidence in crisis-driven decision-making. Within the context of centralization and limited opportunities for stakeholder participation, non-state actors mobilized to influence policy through the public arena. The paper concludes that crisis-driven policy formulation processes are shaped by abrupt redistributions of power among policy actors and the dynamic interplay of evolving economic, political and public health priorities. Understanding the complexity of the local policy context may allow actors to navigate opportunities for public health-oriented alcohol policy reforms in South Africa and other LMICs.

Students’ self-regulatory processes in content and language integrated learning: a vignette-based microanalytic study

ABSTRACT Despite the global adoption of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and extensive research on the effectiveness (product-oriented) and classroom interactions (process-oriented) of CLIL, existing studies have overlooked the motivational beliefs and metacognitive strategies of CLIL students. Hence, there is a need for a participant-oriented approach to better understand students’ perspectives and enhance CLIL’s success. Drawing on the social cognitive model of self-regulated learning (SRL), this study aimed to explore how students plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning in CLIL contexts by employing a novel vignette-based microanalytic assessment approach to empirically capture students’ SRL processes. Participants were 108 junior secondary school students from three schools in Hong Kong. Data were analysed using structuring qualitative content analysis. Findings revealed that students employed diverse strategies to manage the demands of language and content learning, with variations in self-efficacy beliefs influencing their approaches. Furthermore, some learners faced challenges in maintaining effective self-regulation. This study argues that improving self-regulatory processes and enhancing CLIL’s success requires prioritising assessment, considering the state of ‘others’, and fostering deeper learning beyond CLIL. This study contributes to the empirical, methodological, and pedagogical understanding of students’ SRL in CLIL settings and informs future research on student-focused aspects in CLIL.

The Use of Short Stories to Improve Vocabulary: Understanding the Perceptions of EFL Students

The integration of technologies, such as virtual learning environments, web-based collaborative setups, and gamified applications, tend to promote the positive effects of short stories on vocabulary learning in a foreign language. This study investigates the effectiveness of using short stories as a pedagogical tool for enhancing vocabulary acquisition in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. Two cohorts of participants took part simultaneously in a course to improve vocabulary through short stories graded according to their level of proficiency. The highly validated tool MSLQ was applied to gather perceptions of motivation and learning strategies throughout the course. Correlational analyses suggest that short stories, combined with appropriate technological and pedagogical strategies, offer a powerful approach to vocabulary learning in diverse educational contexts. The study also emphasizes the importance of self-regulated learning mechanisms, which promote learner autonomy and self-efficacy, leading to better vocabulary outcomes. This research contributes to the understanding of effective vocabulary learning and provides practical insights for educators seeking to enhance EFL students' language mastery.

Empowering vocational students: Exploring mobile learning for sustainable high-level cognition in authentic contexts

Early studies show that learning with mobile devices, also known as mobile learning, improves students’ learning in authentic contextual learning–i.e., learning connected to the real world. However, no empirical evidence has yet to firmly prove the effects of mobile technology on specific student skillsets such as learning scalability which means learning can be applied in various scenarios and learning sustainability which means learning can be sustained in real-world environments. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effect of learning using a mobile app called mobile Smart-Physics on learning cognitive levels, learning scalability (e.g., number of learning locations and number of experimental data), and learning sustainability (e.g., number of completed assignments). Eleventh-grade vocational high school students volunteered for this quasi-experiment and were divided into an experimental group (EG), which used Smart-Physics, and a control group (CG), which used a mobile Ubiquitous-Physics (U-Physics) app. The findings show that the EG significantly outperformed the CG concerning learning cognitive levels, learning scalability and learning sustainability. Smart-Physics features enabled the students to tackle technical and pedagogical difficulties during physical investigations in real-world environments and, in some cases, improved their task accomplishment and sustained their motivation to learn. Location awareness promoted the students’ authentic experiential learning, which sharpened their ability to apply learning in real-world environments and upload more experimental data. Feedback helped the students consolidate their physics theories and practical experiences, thereby generating more learning records with meaningful multimedia content like experimental graphs, tables, and notes in various learning locations. Therefore, we encourage practitioners to use smart learning environment features in their learning tools and activity designs.

Enhancement of Motivation to Learn Hinduism in Students of SMKN 1 Sukawati Gianyar

Education of religion has contributed to the achievement of national education goals. In this case, there are four components of educational goals whose achievement become the burden of religious education which means they also become the burden of religion teachers, namely having religious spiritual strength, self-control, personality, and noble character. Thus, how great the contribution of religious education and religion teachers in the effort to realize the expected educational goals is. Religious education functions to prepare students to become members of society who understand and practice the values of religious teachings and become experts in religious knowledge as well as increase student learning motivation in studying Hinduism as an effort to contribute to realizing national education goals in Indonesia. Educators can find out the factors that influence student motivation to study Hinduism subjects in school and outside of school because in essence religious people are expected to understand and know the religious teachings adhered to by the humans themselves. The study on the enhancement of motivation among Hindu students in participating in the Hinduism learning process in school was carried out by using observations, interviews, and document studies to obtain qualitative and quantitative data in the form of opinions related to learning problems to increase student’s motivation at SMKN 1 Sukawati Gianyar vocational school. Thus, educators use and improve the curriculum, the competence of Hinduism teachers, student’s motivation, teaching materials, learning models, learning media, facilities and infrastructure, learning environment and school culture towards efforts in implementing the curriculum, applying contextual learning models, increasing the competence of Hinduism teachers, preparing contextual teaching materials, providing learning infrastructure and media, conditioning the learning environment and school culture which is educative as well as praying on full moon and new moon continuously.

Effects of experiential learning on intention to become a CPA

ABSTRACT The declining number of individuals taking and passing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam worldwide, necessitates investigating the intention to become a CPA. Becoming a CPA is a career choice that student make as an undergraduate accounting major but not all students who make this choice pursue the certification. Prior research investigates experiential learning’s effects on career awareness and choice, yet no research to date has explored its role in student choices to become a CPA. Using a survey of 188 graduate and undergraduate students at two public universities, this research incorporates experiential learning in the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) model. Results show that as accounting students engage in more experiential learning activities, they build self-efficacy to become CPAs. This effect is greater for those with a lower grade point average (GPA). In addition, increased self-efficacy increases positive outcome expectations of becoming a CPA and decreases negative outcome expectations. Theoretical implications include expanding SCCT in an accounting context and finding positive effects of experiential learning on the intention to become a CPA and moderating effects of GPA. Practically, the results highlight institutional support for students engaging in multiple types of experiential learning including student organizations, internships, and community-based projects.

An early sepsis prediction model utilizing machine learning and unbalanced data processing in a clinical context

BackgroundEarly and accurate diagnoses of sepsis patients are essential to reduce the mortality. However, the sepsis is still diagnosed in a traditional way in China despite the increasing number of related studies, which may to some extent lead to delays in the treatment. MethodsThe study included 2,385 patients, including 364 with sepsis, collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and partner hospitals from April to July 2022. External validation was conducted using the MIMIC-III database (over 60,000 patients from 2001 to 2012) and the eICU Collaborative Research Database (139,000 patients from 2014 to 2015). Multiple algorithm models, along with the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis, are applied to explore the main risk factors for the accurate prediction of the sepsis. Multiple Imputations for filling missing data and the Synthetic Minority Oversampling (SMOTE) balancing method for balancing data are used for the data processing. ResultEighteen diagnostic features are used in the predictive model for early sepsis. The Random Forest model has the best performance among all the models, with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 87% and an F1-score (F1) of 77%. Moreover, the interpretation from the SHAP analysis is generally consistent with the current clinical situation. ConclusionThe study revealed the relationship between these 18 clinical features and diagnostic outcomes. The results indicate that patients with laboratory values of Systolic Blood Pressure, Albumin, and Heart Rate exceeding certain thresholds are at a high likelihood of developing sepsis.

The visual statistical learning overcomes scene dissimilarity through an independent clustering process.

Contextual cueing is a phenomenon of visual statistical learning observed in visual search tasks. Previous research has found that the degree of deviation of items from its centroid, known as variability, determines the extent of generalization for that repeated scene. Introducing variability increases dissimilarity between multiple occurrences of the same repeated layout significantly. However, current theories do not explain the mechanisms that help to overcome this dissimilarity during contextual cue learning. We propose that the cognitive system initially abstracts specific scenes into scene layouts through an automatic clustering unrelated to specific repeated scenes, and subsequently uses these abstracted scene layouts for contextual cue learning. Experiment 1 indicates that introducing greater variability in search scenes leads to a hindering in the contextual cue learning. Experiment 2 further establishes that conducting extensive visual searches involving spatial variability in entirely novel scenes facilitates subsequent contextual cue learning involving corresponding scene variability, confirming that learning clustering knowledge precedes the contextual cue learning and is independent of specific repeated scenes. Overall, this study demonstrates the existence of multiple levels of learning in visual statistical learning, where item-level learning can serve as material for layout-level learning, and the generalization reflects the constraining role of item-level knowledge on layout-level knowledge.

The evolutionary consequences of learning under competition.

Learning is a taxonomically widespread process by which animals change their behavioural responses to stimuli as a result of experience. In this way, it plays a crucial role in the development of individual behaviour and underpins substantial phenotypic variation within populations. Nevertheless, the impact of learning in social contexts on evolutionary change is not well understood. Here, we develop game theoretical models of competition for resources in small groups (e.g. producer-scrounger and hawk-dove games) in which actions are controlled by reinforcement learning and show that biases in the subjective valuation of different actions readily evolve. Moreover, in many cases, the convergence stable levels of bias exist at fitness minima and therefore lead to disruptive selection on learning rules and, potentially, to the evolution of genetic polymorphisms. Thus, we show how reinforcement learning in social contexts can be a driver of evolutionary diversification. In addition, we consider the evolution of ability in our games, showing that learning can also drive disruptive selection on the ability to perform a task.

Antecedents of Perceived Learning: Role of Contextual Support, Learning Self-Efficacy and Race

Antecedents of Perceived Learning: Role of Contextual Support, Learning Self-Efficacy and Race

Exploring the Intellectual Structure of Islamic Education in Distance Learning with Bibliometric Analysis

This study explores the intellectual structure of Islamic education within the context of distance learning through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. By mapping key themes, influential authors, and research trends, this research provides a detailed overview of the scholarly discourse and identifies emerging patterns and challenges. The thematic clusters identified include strategic approaches to digital pedagogy, the integration of multimedia resources, and the adaptation of traditional Islamic educational institutions to modern technologies. The analysis highlights significant research trends towards digital transformation and modernization while emphasizing the need to balance these with traditional educational values. Additionally, the study identifies opportunities for future research in developing culturally appropriate digital content and overcoming barriers such as the digital divide. The network of author collaborations reveals a segmented landscape with potential for increased inter-group cooperation. Overall, this research offers valuable insights into the evolving field of Islamic education and distance learning, guiding future studies and practical applications.n.

A Research Review on the Impact of English Language Transfer on the Spanish Learning of Chinese Students

In the diverse context of multilingual learning, language transfer has garnered significant attention. Spanish, the third most widely spoken language globally, after Chinese and English, is being increasingly explored by learners from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The stark differences between Chinese and Spanish create an inevitable influence on the learning process of Chinese students. Their existing knowledge of English as a second language plays a crucial role in shaping their learning of Spanish. As a result, English language transfer has become a crucial topic in the study of Chinese students' learning of Spanish. The purpose of this paper is to analyze previous studies and explore the effects of English language transfer on Spanish grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation Exploring the impact of English language transfer on Chinese students' learning of Spanish can offer valuable insights into the complexities of the language learning process. Moreover, it can provide essential theoretical guidance and practical recommendations for students' Spanish learning. Ultimately, the exploration results can drive the development and advancement of Spanish teaching practices, benefiting both students and educators alike.

Spontaneous instrumental approach-avoidance learning in social contexts in autism

BackgroundIndividuals with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) are characterized by atypicalities in social interactions, compared to Typically Developing individuals (TD). The social motivation theory posits that these difficulties stem from diminished anticipation, reception, and/or learning from social rewards. Although learning from socioemotional outcomes is core to the theory, studies to date have been sparse and inconsistent. This possibly arises from a combination of theoretical, methodological and sample-related issues. Here, we assessed participants’ ability to develop a spontaneous preference for actions that lead to desirable socioemotional outcomes (approaching/avoiding of happy/angry individuals, respectively), in an ecologically valid social scenario. We expected that learning abilities would be impaired in ASC individuals, particularly in response to affiliative social feedback.MethodWe ran an online social reinforcement learning task, on two large online cohorts with (n = 274) and without (n = 290) ASC, matched for gender, age and education. Participants had to indicate where they would sit in a waiting room. Each seat was associated with different probabilities of approaching/avoiding emotional individuals. Importantly, the task was implicit, as participants were not instructed to learn, and emotional expressions were never mentioned. We applied both categorical analyses contrasting the ASC and TD groups and dimensional factor analysis on affective questionnaires.ResultsContrary to our hypothesis, participants showed spontaneous learning from socioemotional outcomes, regardless of their diagnostic group. Yet, when accounting for dimensional variations in autistic traits, as well as depression and anxiety, two main findings emerged among females who failed to develop explicit learning strategies: (1) autism severity in ASC correlated with reduced learning to approach happy individuals; (2) anxiety-depression severity across both ASC and TD participants correlated with reduced learning to approach/avoid happy/angry individuals, respectively.ConclusionsImplicit spontaneous learning from socioemotional outcomes is not generally impaired in autism but may be specifically associated with autism severity in females with ASC, when they do not have an explicit strategy for adapting to their social environment. Clinical diagnosis and intervention ought to take into account individual differences in their full complexity, including the presence of co-morbid anxiety and depression, when dealing with social atypicalities in autism.

대중문화로서 영화텍스트의 평생교육적 가능성 고찰

Purpose: This study examined popular culture, which is closely related to our daily lives, from the perspective of public pedagogy, and explored the educational possibilities of movies, especially among the various genres that make up popular culture. Based on this, the educational implications of film texts were identified and this study proposes their role in the field of lifelong education, as well as suggests implications for 'film education' currently practiced in schools. Methods: For this purpose, the relationship between our lives and popular culture and its influence were examined and a description of the audience's reactions to the movie was revealed in media articles and critical texts with three films, as well as the social repercussions of the films. Results: As a result, popular culture, especially films, reveals the public's unconscious by representing reality and also constructs discourse through the audience's critique. The study also found that films as texts enable audiences to critically reflect on “represented reality” and that their educational meaning can be interpreted in a variety of ways depending on their own experiences and life contexts. Conclusion: The meaning of film education is reconstructed according to the learner's life context and experiences, and it is in this sense that education occurs.The meaning-making of education that occurs for an individual throughout their life is holistic, including schooling. The existing film education centered on narrative analysis in public education and lifelong education should be transformed into a method that emphasizes the characteristics of the film medium.

Hierarchical Gradients of Encoded Spatial and Sensory Information in the Neocortex Are Attenuated by Dorsal Hippocampal Lesions.

During navigation, the neocortex actively integrates learned spatial context with current sensory experience to guide behaviors. However, the relative encoding of spatial and sensorimotor information among cortical cells, and whether hippocampal feedback continues to modify these properties after learning, remains poorly understood. Thus, two-photon microscopy of male and female Thy1-GCaMP6s mice was used to longitudinally image neurons spanning superficial retrosplenial cortex and layers II-Va of primary and secondary motor cortices before and after bilateral dorsal hippocampal lesions. During behavior on a familiar cued treadmill, the locations of two obstacles were interchanged to decouple place-tuning from cue-tuning among position-correlated cells with fields at those locations. Subpopulations of place and cue cells each formed interareal gradients such that higher-level cortical regions exhibited higher fractions of place cells, whereas lower-level regions exhibited higher fractions of cue cells. Position-correlated cells in the motor cortex also formed translaminar gradients; more superficial cells were more likely to exhibit fields and were more sparsely and precisely tuned than deeper cells. After dorsal hippocampal lesions, a neural representation of the learned environment persisted, but retrosplenial cortex exhibited significantly increased cue-tuning, and, in motor cortices, both position-correlated cell recruitment and population activity at the unstable obstacle locations became more homogeneously elevated across laminae. Altogether, these results support that the hippocampus continues to modulate cortical responses in familiar environments, and the relative impact of descending feedback obeys hierarchical interareal and interlaminar gradients opposite to the flow of ascending sensory inputs.

Design and Research of an Intelligent Learning System for University Physics

In order to break through the limitations of traditional teaching, realize the integration of online and offline teaching, and optimize the intelligent learning experience of university physics, this paper proposes the design of an intelligent learning system for university physics based on cloud computing platforms, and applies this system to teaching environment of university physics. It successfully integrates emerging technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, and situational awareness, integrates learning context awareness, intelligent recording and broadcasting, resource sharing, learning performance prediction, and content planning and recommendation, and comprehensively improves the quality of university physics teaching. It can optimize the teaching process and deepen intelligent teaching reform, aiming at providing references for the teaching practice of university physics.

Ruang Lingkup PAI Kontemporer bagi Pembelajaran Mahasiswa PPG

Contemporary Islamic Education (PAI) plays a pivotal role in shaping the character, morality, and spirituality of individuals, particularly within the learning context for students of the Professional Teacher Education Program (PPG). In the contemporary era marked by globalization dynamics, technological advancements, and cultural pluralism, it is crucial for PPG students to comprehend and apply Islamic concepts within the evolving zeitgeist. The scope of contemporary PAI for PPG students encompasses various aspects, ranging from understanding the Quran and Hadith in modern life contexts to the utilization of technology in religious education. Additionally, topics such as Islamic ethics, character education, and Islamic-based classroom management are pivotal focuses in nurturing quality teaching professionalism. This abstract aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the contemporary PAI scope for PPG students and the significance of integrating Islamic values with the challenges and opportunities posed in modern education. Through a holistic and innovative approach, it is envisaged that PPG students can become agents of change, capable of inspiring future generations with relevant and inclusive Islamic values.

The Differences in Effectiveness of Learning Using Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) and The Missouri Mathematics Project (MMP) in Terms of Mathematics Learning Outcomes

This study aims to compare the effectiveness of learning using Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the Missouri Mathematics Project (MMP) in terms of students' mathematics learning outcomes. The research method employed was an experiment with a pretest-posttest non-equivalent comparison-group design. The research population consisted of seventh-grade students, with the sample being students from class VII A using the CTL learning model and class VII B using the MMP learning model. The independent variable in this study is the learning model, while the dependent variable is the mathematics learning outcomes. The instruments used were a learning outcome test and an observation sheet for the implementation of learning. The results of the study indicate that both learning models, CTL and MMP, are effective in improving students' mathematics learning outcomes. The Wilcoxon test analysis showed that the significance values for both models were less than 0.05, indicating their effectiveness. However, the Mann-Whitney test revealed no significant difference in effectiveness between the two learning models. These findings suggest that both CTL and MMP can be used as effective alternative teaching methods to enhance students' mathematics learning outcomes. This study contributes to the selection of appropriate teaching methods to improve understanding and learning outcomes in mathematics. It is recommended for future researchers to investigate other aspects such as cognitive, psychomotor, or affective domains, and for teachers to consider using CTL and MMP in their teaching activities.

Interactive Media with Video Quiz Model to Enhance Student Engagement in the E-Service-Learning Program for the Civic Education Course

From the research on e-Service-Learning in higher education, it is found that there are still few studies related to e-service-learning design development and its impact on student engagement. Video as a learning media has been proven to increase student participation in the learning context. To help address the problem of student engagement at the partner location and students' needs related to media that can help their e-service-learning success, the researcher wants to develop an interactive video with e-service-learning as its pedagogy to increase student engagement at the partner location. The approach of this study is research and development, with ADDIE model. After the video has been developed, the next stage is implementation using e-Service-Learning as the pedagogy. From the implementation, data was taken from the observation form of student engagement report in learning with e-Service-Learning. The observation form was adapted from The Online Student Engagement (OSE) scale. The result shows there are significant engagement rate from class that use interactive video with N-gain = 0.42 and from the T-test result it showed statistically different. Students are more engaging and showed good participation during the e-Service-Learning program with an interactive video as the media. Based on the expert judge, the developed video is valid and ready to use as interactive learning media in Higher education e-Service-Learning program.

Sociocultural Environment and Agency in Identity Construction of English Language Teachers

Identity is an emerging field in educational research focusing on how teacher education programs, training, reflective practices, and short-term interventions impact the identity negotiation of teachers (Gautam, 2018). However, this study reports how different levels of sociocultural environments influence teachers and what initiatives they take for professional development and identity construction. Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) notion of communities of practice and Norton’s (2013) investing, this study sought to uncover the interchange of the development of learning communities and teachers by investigating the life history of four secondary-level English language teachers derived through informal conversations and in-depth interviews. Teachers’ life stories revealed that the environment's micro, meso, and macro levels influenced their professional development and identity construction. Teachers also influenced these contexts, with the most negligible macro-level influence. Despite the massive positive and negative impact of contexts, teachers have also taken initiatives for their professional development, quality enhancement of education, and students’ learning outcomes. Although agency influences the different learning contexts, a minor intervention at the macro level is apparent, implying the need for acknowledging teachers’ opinions in policy formulation.