Higher Levels Of Achievement Research Articles

Proposing a new mathematical model and a meta-heuristic algorithm for scheduling and allocating automated guided vehicle

One of the substantial things, which has been perceived more than ever by captains of industry in recent years, is the necessity of earning competitive value. As a result, mechanisation and enhancing the level of automation of the process has become one of the most fascinating issues to researchers. In this regard one of the most appealing systems to industries is flexible manufacturing systems which contribute to achievement of higher levels of automation in business environments. Since transportation plays an essential role in flexible production systems, automated guided vehicles (AVGs) have been utilised to carry material in these systems in order to maintain the flexibility, and increase the efficiency of production and distribution throughout the system. In this paper, a mathematical model for scheduling and allocating AVGs in the manufacturing process of a specific project is proposed and in the end, a heuristic algorithm is proposed and used to solve the model problem.

The Impact of Hydrocarbon Pollution on Soil Degradation Using GIS Techniques and Soil Characterization in Burgan Oil field, South Kuwait

Understanding the complex spatio-temporal relationships between environmental pollution and disease and identifying exposures to environmental hazards in high-risk populations are essential elements of an effective environmental and public health management program. Modern computer technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), provide cost-effective tools for evaluating interventions and policies potentially affecting health outcomes. Military activities during the occupation and subsequent liberation war at 1991 caused direct and indirect damage to Kuwait’s environment and ecosystems. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide a powerful tool in managing and analyzing spatial data. It has been applied successfully to large variety of fields, one field of particular interest is the field of disaster identification and mitigation represent in the impact of hydrocarbon pollution on soil degradation in Burgan oil field, South Kuwait. It is well understood that hazard identification and land management play a major part in the reducing the impact of natural disasters. This is a role GIS is well suited to especially when combined with field investigation work .This study highlights the high level achievements of the environmental assessment for the oil contaminated status in GC32 pipe line dry oil lake and wet oil lake, Burgan oil field, state of Kuwait by using GIS application and field investigation including soil sampling, logging in order to determine the magnitude of damage, mapping present day contamination boundaries, extent of contamination and volume of contaminated soil in the area of study. In fact, the study clearly indicates that the problems persist even after 25 years although the lakes and lagoons that contained oil have been drained and many of them have dried out, their hazard potential has actually increased.

Library Anxiety Impedes College Students’ Library Use, but May Be Alleviated Through Improved Bibliographic Instruction

A Review of:
 Jiao, Q. G., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Lichtenstein, A. A. (1996). Library anxiety: Characteristics of ‘at-risk’ college students. Library & Information Science Research, 18(2), 151-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0740-8188(96)90017-1
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To identify the characteristics of college students that are related to their experiences of library anxiety.
 
 Design – Survey, analyzed with multiple regression.
 
 Setting – Two universities, one in the mid-south and one in the northeastern United States.
 
 Subjects – 493 students from those two universities.
 
 Methods – The students responded to two questionnaires: the Library Anxiety Scale developed by Bostick (1992), and a Demographic Information Form that included questions about students’ gender, age, native language, academic standing and study habits, library instruction received, and library use. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to identify those demographic characteristics that were correlated with library anxiety. Multiple regression analysis was used to develop a model for predicting library anxiety.
 
 Main Results – The study found that age, sex, native language, grade point average, employment status, frequency of library visits, and reasons for using the library contributed significantly to predicting library anxiety. Library anxiety was highest among young male students who did not speak English as their native language, had high levels of academic achievement, were employed while in school, and infrequently visited the library. While the overall regression model was statistically significant and explained 21% of the variability in library anxiety, the individual correlations with library anxiety were generally weak (the strongest was a -0.21 correlation with frequency of library visits).
 
 Conclusion – The authors conclude that many students experience library anxiety, and recommend that libraries make every effort to be welcoming. In addition, they recommend that library instruction should be introduced at the high school level and, in college, incorporated into the classes that require library research. In this setting, library anxiety should be addressed during the instruction, and classroom teachers should plan to assist students in the early stages of their research.

Emergent achievement segregation in freshmen learning community networks

A common assumption about Freshmen Learning Communities (FLCs) is that academic relationships contribute to students’ success. This study investigates how students in learning communities connect with fellow students for friendship and academic support. Longitudinal social network data across the first year, collected from 95 Dutch students in eight FLCs, measure both social and academic relational choices within and beyond the FLCs. Using stochastic actor-based models, the study tests two competing hypotheses. The alignment hypothesis states that students connect with their similar-achieving friends for both academic and social support, leading to an alignment of both types of networks over time. In contrast, the duality hypothesis states dissimilarity between academic support networks and friendship networks: students should connect with better-achieving fellow students for academic support and to more similar peers for friendship. The data support the alignment hypothesis but not the duality hypothesis; in addition, they show evidence of achievement segregation in FLCs: the higher the students’ achievement level, the more they connect with other students for both academic support and friendship, relating in particular to peers with a similarly high achievement level. The results suggest that lower-achieving students are excluded from the support provided by higher-achieving students and instead ask similar lower achievers for support. They thus cannot benefit optimally from the academic integration FLC offer. The article concludes with recommendations of how to support students in an FLC so that they can reach optimal achievement potential.

“Further education, future prosperity? The Implications of Marketisation on Further Education Working Practices”

This paper examines how the marketised funding system of vocational further education is affecting lecturers’ working practices and professional integrity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a number of lecturing staff and managers within two vocational areas at an English FE college to examine the implications of working under the current funding regime. The conclusions drawn reflect the complexity of working within FE showing how lecturers are frequently placed in a professional dilemma between securing future funding (by ensuring high levels of retention and achievement) and compromising their professional integrity and working practices in order to do so. A key finding here was the inherent tension between professional integrity and funding requirements apparently directly opposing ‘good’ practice. This means FE professionals experience what Whitehead called ‘a living contradiction’ in their working lives, increasing stress levels and diminishing their sense of professionalism.

Wpływ statusu socjoekonomicznego na zachowania prozdrowotne dotyczące jamy ustnej wśród dorosłych mieszkańców Korei

Background. Few studies have tried to investigate the influence of socioeconomic inequalities on dental behaviors by considering the income and education levels as different dimensions of the independent variables in the adult Korean population.Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate the association between income level and education level in relation to dental behaviors, such as self-cares and dental visits in the adult Korean population.Material and Methods. Six levels of socioeconomic status were classified according to a combination of monthly household income and educational achievement levels. The regression models were built to assess the association between different levels of socioeconomic status and the frequency of tooth brushing and the most recent dental visits.Results. This study confirmed that high levels of monthly household income and educational achievement were independently related to frequent tooth brushing and frequent dental visits. Low levels of socioeconomic status were inversely related to the frequency of tooth brushing and socioeconomic status groups except for the lowest one were also adversely related to frequent dental visits after adjusting for confounders.Conclusion. Korean adults with lower incomes but with higher education showed better dental behavior, including tooth brushing and dental visits than those with higher incomes but with lower education. The findings of this study could help in acknowledging the different characteristics of income and education as contributing factors leading to oral health behaviors in the adult Korean population.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL LIMITATIONS OF THE LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM AND PERFORMANCE IN JUDO

Abstract Introduction. The high demands imposed by judo with regard to physical fitness can predispose athletes practising this sport to injury. The aim of the current study was to determine the relationship between the degree of functional limitations and performance outcomes in judo athletes. Material and methods. The study involved 23 judo athletes aged 17-27 years. For the purpose of carrying out comparative analyses, the judokas were divided into two groups according to their level of achievement. The first group consisted of medallists in international tournaments and Polish championships, and the second group was composed of non-medallists. The research tool used was the Functional Movement Screen test battery, which included seven exercise tests whose performance was rated on a scale from 0 to 3. Relationships between variables were assessed using Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients. Inter-group differences were determined by means of the Mann-Whitney U test, and differences between the left and right side of the body in bilateral tests were examined using the Wilcoxon test (statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05). Results. The total score for the FMS test was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in judo athletes who had a higher level of achievement. Scores below 14 points, which were indicative of high susceptibility to injury, were received by two athletes from the group of medallists and 8 non-medallists. Major asymmetries were not found in the subjects; significant differences were observed only in the shoulder mobility test in senior judokas (p < 0.05) and non-medallists (p < 0.01). Conclusions. Judo athletes who had better performance outcomes in competitions had higher scores in the FMS test. Functional limitations can have an impact on the outcomes of performance in judo; their degree is indicative of the quality of the movement as well as of susceptibility to injury.

Sharing practices, but what is the story? Exploring award-winning teachers’ conceptions of teaching

ABSTRACTThis paper critically considers the attempt by a research-intensive university in Asia to draw on and make public the practices of teaching award winners in different disciplines through the use of narrative vignettes. More specifically, this paper examines what the vignettes suggest about the connection between award-winning teachers’ conceptions of teaching (CT) on the one hand, and scholarly investigations of practice on the other, and to what extent the vignettes meet the aim of using the scholarship of teaching and learning as an instrument of effective academic development. Content analysis of the vignettes revealed that award-winning teachers’ CT tend to focus predominantly on enhancing learning, followed by encouraging collective knowledge creation and transmission of knowledge. A two-dimensional framework was also used to analyse the vignettes along a tacit-integrated continuum and within an intuitive-reflective frame of inquiry. The findings are discussed in relation to teachers’ perception of their impact on students’ learning and ways to enhance their own practice, with implications for teaching awards, documentation, and dissemination of high-level teaching achievement.

Implementation of Financial Inclusion Strategy in Nigeria

While global effort towards effective financial inclusion strategy has heightened over the past decade because of its positive correlation with improved income, employment generation, poverty reduction, and a stable financial system, research to date has not given adequate attention to the efficacy of national financial inclusion policy implementation in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. This paper applies the theory of change to critically evaluate how Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy launched in 2012 is working towards achieving its set goal of reducing financial exclusion from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 20.0 percent by 2020. Annual data spanning 2008 to 2016 sourced from the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion database, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) biennial surveys, were analyzed using descriptive statistics, tables and graphs to show the trend of key variables and regional differences. Progress made on nine key performance indicators (KPIs) of financial inclusion were investigated nationally and geopolitically. While Nigeria’s financial exclusion rate has reduced from 52.5 percent in 2008 to 41.6 percent in 2016, more than half (55.4%) of the female adult population still remained excluded. The South-West geopolitical zone has surpassed the 20 percent exclusion rate target, but the remaining zones, particularly in the Northern part of the country, remain largely financially excluded. Out of the nine major KPIs, expansion of banks’ branches and penetration of the agency banking system are the only two indicators that have recorded high level achievement towards meeting the 2020 targets. Evidently, concerted implementation is needed to achieve financial inclusion in Nigeria. To this end, the paper recommends a four-pillar implementation framework anchored on enhanced businessfriendly environment, financial innovation, mobile capacity, and robust financial education.

Collaborative Work Competency in Online Postgraduate Students and Its Prevalence on Academic Achievement

The purpose of this research was aimed to establish a relationship between the level of collaborative work competency and the academic performance of students in an online master’s degree program. An Ex-post-facto investigation was conducted through a quantitative methodology and descriptive analysis. A collaborative competency checklist was designed to evaluate 46 teams in order to estimate their collaborative work competency level. This competency was assessed through interactions and performance, registered in discussion forums. Results confirmed a positive correlation between high level of collaborative work competency and academic achievement. Didactic recommendations of this study included collaborative learning activities as one way to promote useful academic and personal skills development. For future research, experimental approaches could be applied to get higher level of certainty about collaborative competency benefits.

TURGUT UYAR IN DÜNYANIN EN GÜZEL ARABİSTANI NI ÇEVRE EĞİTİMİ BAĞLAMINDA OKUMAK

Turgut Uyar has some peculiar characteristics among “Ikinci Yeniciler”. Being in a perpetual change and development during his poetry history, Uyar produces different works in terms of poetic, thematic and technique along with holding some symmetries among themselves. Being a soldier need a nown and at the same time spending a large portion of his life in different regions of Anatolia add richness of rural life, Anatolian realism and traditional folk poetry to his poems. On the other hand, urbanite and middle-class people’s bohemian lives and depressions in terms of accumulation of modern poetry after quitting public service and coming to Istanbul become a second medium of Uyar’s poetry. Also, considering that the poet who doesn’t ignore the classical poetry tradition has a Divan, it can be said that he fuels with all the sources composing the poetry accumulation in Turkey and benefits from both folk and Divan poetry and modern western poetry. However especially in terms of pedagogics, Turgut Uyar’s poetry is hardly used in education reasoning that his poetry is modern, confined, experimental, abstract and even meaningless like all Ikinci Yeni poetry. Yet, this kind of poetry can be significantly helpful for students to gain high level achievements. Thusly; Turgut Uyar being in the first place Ikinci Yeni poet can be taken advantage of in philosophical discussions to develop students’ conceptual skills and interpretation power, colourise their imaginations and enrich their vocabulary. In addition to all these, Dunyanin En Guzel Arabistani composed of poems that Turgut Uyar ground out in the first period of his arrival to the city is an important work embodying a thematic integrity in its entirety. Here, focusing on the existential problems of urbanites, the poet makes way to his new poetry with his work composed of thirty six poems. Narrating the tragedy a highbrow of petit bourgeois on the basis of his individual story, Uyar produces a work which includes both clues about social, economic, political and cultural changes that Turkey suffered in 1950s and constitutes an important milestone in his poetic adventure. For sure, he also gives utterance to environmental awareness through city-rural or artificiality- spontaneity contrast - artificiality, alienation and environmental pollution being in the first place- and writes poems including important data in terms of environmental education. It makes good sense to evaluate the poetry book named Dunyanin En Guzel Arabistani within the scope of environmental education

Academic Achievement in Physics-Chemistry: The Predictive Effect of Attitudes and Reasoning Abilities.

Science education plays a critical role as political priority due to its fundamental importance in engaging students to pursue technological careers considered essential in modern societies, in order to face scientific development challenges. High-level achievement on science education and positive attitudes toward science constitutes a crucial challenge for formal education. Several studies indicate close relationships between students’ attitudes, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of student’s attitudes toward the school discipline of Physics and Chemistry and their reasoning abilities on academic achievement on that school subject, among Portuguese 9th grade students using the data collected during the Project Academic Performance and Development: a longitudinal study on the effects of school transitions in Portuguese students (PTDC/CPE-CED/104884/2008). The participants were 470 students (267 girls – 56.8% and 203 boys – 43.2%), aged 14–16 years old (μ = 14.3 ± 0.58). The attitude data were collected using the Attitude toward Physics-Chemistry Questionnaire (ATPCQ) and, the Reasoning Test Battery (RTB) was used to assess the students reasoning abilities. Achievement was measured using the students’ quarterly (9-week) grades in the physics and chemistry subject. The relationships between the attitude dimensions toward Physics-chemistry and the reasoning dimensions and achievement in each of the three school terms were assessed by multiple regression stepwise analyses and standardized regression coefficients (β), calculated with IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software. Both variables studied proved to be significant predictor variables of school achievement. The models obtained from the use of both variables were always stronger accounting for higher proportions of student’s grade variations. The results show that ATPCQ and RTB had a significantly positive relationship with student’s achievement in Physics-chemistry, indicating that both attitudinal and cognitive variables should be taken into account on science education as well as in educative intervention.

Overview of ASDEX Upgrade results

The ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) programme is directed towards physics input to critical elements of the ITER design and the preparation of ITER operation, as well as addressing physics issues for a future DEMO design. Since 2015, AUG is equipped with a new pair of 3-strap ICRF antennas, which were designed for a reduction of tungsten release during ICRF operation. As predicted, a factor two reduction on the ICRF-induced W plasma content could be achieved by the reduction of the sheath voltage at the antenna limiters via the compensation of the image currents of the central and side straps in the antenna frame. There are two main operational scenario lines in AUG. Experiments with low collisionality, which comprise current drive, ELM mitigation/suppression and fast ion physics, are mainly done with freshly boronized walls to reduce the tungsten influx at these high edge temperature conditions. Full ELM suppression and non-inductive operation up to a plasma current of MA could be obtained at low plasma density. Plasma exhaust is studied under conditions of high neutral divertor pressure and separatrix electron density, where a fresh boronization is not required. Substantial progress could be achieved for the understanding of the confinement degradation by strong D puffing and the improvement with nitrogen or carbon seeding. Inward/outward shifts of the electron density profile relative to the temperature profile effect the edge stability via the pressure profile changes and lead to improved/decreased pedestal performance. Seeding and D gas puffing are found to effect the core fueling via changes in a region of high density on the high field side (HFSHD).The integration of all above mentioned operational scenarios will be feasible and naturally obtained in a large device where the edge is more opaque for neutrals and higher plasma temperatures provide a lower collisionality. The combination of exhaust control with pellet fueling has been successfully demonstrated. High divertor enrichment values of nitrogen have been obtained during pellet injection, which is a prerequisite for the simultaneous achievement of good core plasma purity and high divertor radiation levels. Impurity accumulation observed in the all-metal AUG device caused by the strong neoclassical inward transport of tungsten in the pedestal is expected to be relieved by the higher neoclassical temperature screening in larger devices.

Talent development programmes: a retrospective analysis of the age and support services for talented athletes in 15 nations

ABSTRACTResearch question: Due to increasing competition, national governing bodies (NGBs) are put under pressure to deliver collective success and develop talent programmes for their athletes at an increasingly young age. This paper seeks to make a contribution to the talent development literature from an organisational perspective. It addresses the following research question: How and at what age have athletes received support services as upcoming talent from their sport clubs and NGBs?Research methods: A total of 2041 elite athletes from 15 nations and 37 different sports were surveyed. Analysis of variance (ANCOVA and MANCOVA) was used to examine the data and identify differences between sports, countries and athletes’ sporting achievement levels.Results and findings: The data revealed that athletes received club or NGB support at a relatively late age. This differed by gender, by sport and between sports in which athletes specialise at younger or older ages. Athletes with higher achievement levels (e.g. in the world’s top eight) were slightly younger when they received support services compared with lower level athletes (e.g. national level); however, effect sizes are small. Most elite athletes received a variety of support services and only slight differences were found according to athletes’ achievement levels.Implications: The relevance of these findings relates to the role that sports clubs (can) play in the total development of an athletic career. This paper has practical implications for the management of talent development by NGBs and clubs, national sport associations and for coach education.

SELF ESTEEM IN RELATION TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY STUDENTS

Self - esteem is how we value ourselves; it is how we perceive our value to the world and how valuable we think we are to others. Self - esteem affects our trust in others, our relationship, our work – nearly every part of our lives. Positive self – esteem gives us the strength and flexibility to take charge of our lives and grow from our mistakes without the fear of rejection. The paper is an attempt to find to identify self-esteem in relation to academic achievement among higher secondary students. The investigator adopted the survey method to study self-esteem of higher secondary students. The study is based on primary data which is collected from 300 higher secondary students in and around Coimbatore district using simple random sampling technique. The findings reveal that totally 25.66% of the selected higher secondary students belong to low level of self-esteem, 42.33% of the selected higher secondary students belong to moderate level of self-esteem, 32% of the selected higher secondary students belong to high level of self-esteem. Totally 24.3% of the selected higher secondary students belong to low level of Academic Achievement, 28.4% of the selected higher secondary students belong to moderate level of Academic Achievement, and 47.3% of the selected higher secondary students belong to high level of Academic Achievement. Also it is found that there is no significant difference in self-esteem in relation to academic achievement among the selected higher secondary school students.

The use of cooperative procedures in teacher education and professional development

Two aspects of teacher education for cooperative learning are the content taught and the processes used to teach the content. Of the two, the processes used may have the most powerful influences on the desired outcomes. One important theory related to the processes of learning is social interdependence theory. It posits that there are three ways to structure the learning processes in educational situations: cooperatively, competitively and individualistically. To structure cooperation among participants, five basic elements are needed: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills and group processing. The large body of research on social interdependence indicates that cooperative, compared to competitive and individualistic learning, tends to promote (a) higher levels of achievement, retention and transfer of what is taught; (b) long-term implementation; (c) the internalisation of the required attitudes values and behaviour patterns; (d) the integration of the new procedures into teachers’ professional identity; and (e) membership in the community of practice. Each of these processes will be examined in this article.

MATHEMATICAL CREATIVITY AMONG EXCELLENT 8TH GRADE PUPILS

Creativity is finding a new way within a given frame and it is the ability to connect between segments of information, materials and experience, which exists in their own right, or were previously connected with different patterns. The current research engaged in solving problems that can be resolved in various ways or that they have several solutions, by excelling students and this in order to measure the level of mathematical creativity related to solving mathematical problems, by measuring the three elements of mathematical creativity: flexibility (multiple solutions), fluency (time needed to solve the problem), innovation (originality of ideas). It is important to emphasize that the way of solving tasks by using as many ways as possible, considered to be as one of the most efficient ways to the discovering and development of mathematical creativity. In the current research, 24 8 th grade pupils from several schools have participated, every student received three diverse mathematical problems and was requested to suggest and raise as many solutions or ways to solve as possible for each problem without teacher intervention, while measuring the required time to solve every problem separately for every student by a stopwatch. Additionally, a semi-structured interview was held with each student separately regarding his or her approach to each problem, the interview focused on identifying the mathematical language, in the process of resolving and in the exposure of the pupil’s mathematical thinking process until he or she reached the solution. The research findings indicate that there are differences between the pupils regarding flexibility, as multiple solutions were suggested by the pupils for each problem individually. Differences were also found in the level of innovation among the pupils, hence original solutions and new ideas to solve problems have been received. Moreover, a difference in fluency has been found so that pupils solved in a different time rates, this is despite the fact that all pupils have a very high level of achievement. Article visualizations:

MATHEMATICAL CREATIVITY AMONG EXCELLENT 8TH GRADE PUPILS

Creativity is finding a new way within a given frame and it is the ability to connect between segments of information, materials and experience, which exists in their own right, or were previously connected with different patterns. The current research engaged in solving problems that can be resolved in various ways or that they have several solutions, by excelling students and this in order to measure the level of mathematical creativity related to solving mathematical problems, by measuring the three elements of mathematical creativity: flexibility (multiple solutions), fluency (time needed to solve the problem), innovation (originality of ideas). It is important to emphasize that the way of solving tasks by using as many ways as possible, considered to be as one of the most efficient ways to the discovering and development of mathematical creativity. In the current research, 24 8 th grade pupils from several schools have participated, every student received three diverse mathematical problems and was requested to suggest and raise as many solutions or ways to solve as possible for each problem without teacher intervention, while measuring the required time to solve every problem separately for every student by a stopwatch. Additionally, a semi-structured interview was held with each student separately regarding his or her approach to each problem, the interview focused on identifying the mathematical language, in the process of resolving and in the exposure of the pupil’s mathematical thinking process until he or she reached the solution. The research findings indicate that there are differences between the pupils regarding flexibility, as multiple solutions were suggested by the pupils for each problem individually. Differences were also found in the level of innovation among the pupils, hence original solutions and new ideas to solve problems have been received. Moreover, a difference in fluency has been found so that pupils solved in a different time rates, this is despite the fact that all pupils have a very high level of achievement. Article visualizations:

APPLICABILITY OF COMPOSITE CUTTERS FOR MASHINING SURFACES FORMED BY A COMBINATION OF STRUCTURAL MATERIALS

The paper states the difficulty of turning of structural elements of items with a combined surface, namely, a metal base surface with inclusions of polymer materials; impossibility to provide the required performance quality using traditional tool materials, especially in the areas of metal and polymer contact is shown. Major technological challenges that should be addressed as a whole while designing turning tools are presented. They are: providing shock-free conditions for digging of the cutting element in a discontinuous surface; achievement of high levels of quality and accuracy of the surface formed by the combination of dissimilar structural materials; damping of oscillations caused by the discontinuous nature of the cutting process. Several designs of turning tools with damping elements suitable for oscillation and vibration damping were reviewed. The nature and extent of the influence of intermittent cutting conditions when damping vibrations and loads on the machining quality levels and tool life were investigated. The main characteristics and features of the considered designs of cutting tools were studied; design and engineering solutions for the implementation of tools with damping properties into the production process were proposed; ways for abatement of vibrations arising in the process of turning of combined surfaces were recommended. Performance testing of new designs of cutters under conditions of intermittent cutting of structurally complex surfaces of machine parts operating under alternating loads showed high performance of super-hard tool materials based on cubic boron nitride. Under damping while turning parts made of HH 40KHN, 12KHN3A steel, the quality of the machining of the seventh quality grade with the index of roughness of the processed surface Ra ≤ 0.63 µm, including surface cutting, which is a combination of several structural materials, was achieved.

The Effects of Using Jigsaw Method Based on Cooperative Learning Model in the Undergraduate Science Laboratory Practices

The main aim of the present study is to determine the influence of a Jigsaw method based on cooperative learning and a confirmatory laboratory method on prospective science teachers' achievements of physics in science teaching laboratory practice courses. The sample of this study consisted of 33 female and 15 male third-grade prospective science teachers (6th term) who attended science teaching laboratory practices course in the 2014-2015 academic year. In the research, science teaching laboratory practices course was carried out in accordance with a Jigsaw method based on cooperative learning in an experimental group and a confirmatory laboratory method in a control group. Following the treatment, Science Laboratory Physic Achievement Test (SLPAT) was administered as the post-test. The data obtained with the instruments were evaluated using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and ANCOVA. The results indicated that the student teachers had higher levels of achievement in physics topics which were taught through the Jigsaw method based on cooperative learning than through a confirmatory laboratory method. In addition, according to the SLPAT results, students' high levels of misunderstanding revealed that there were problems in the teaching process of physics concepts. It was determined that the student teachers in the research groups had conceptual misunderstandings about sound, electricity, magnetism, light and optics issues. Based on the applications performed in this study, the original Jigsaw was adapted to science laboratory applications as an alternative to the existing Jigsaw techniques in the literature. With similar efforts, the experiences of prospective science teachers can be enhanced for implementing modern teaching methods in their respective areas in the pre-service period. Thus, the provision of professional development of the pre-service science teachers can be supported.