Instructional Input Research Articles

My ideal teacher: the Gen Z’s choice

This study explored the Gen Z’s ideal teacher. The research employed an explanatory sequential mixed method. The intent of the transformative mixed methods design, to seek reality from their preferred teaching styles, on how do they perceived an ideal teacher, and on how can teachers meet their expectations. The findings revealed that the most preferred teaching styles and most effective way in teaching these students is experiential learning. In addition, as perceived by the Gen Z students, an ideal teacher should have positive values and they must be emotionally supportive and technologically literate. Furthermore, it was unveiled that a teacher must imposes skill enhancement, be conscious of today’s trend, adapt to the digital revolution and have an awareness of individual differences and needs to meet the Gen Z expectations. This also provides information and serves as a guide on how teachers meet the Gen Z expectations based on the overall data gathered from the respondents. Through this, an instructional input was crafted containing the different teaching styles that the student prefers and the different activities that can help teachers accommodate the said teaching styles.

A CUC1/auxin genetic module links cell polarity to patterned tissue growth and leaf shape diversity in crucifer plants

How tissue-level information encoded by fields of regulatory gene activity is translated into the patterns of cell polarity and growth that generate the diverse shapes of different species remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate this problem in the case of leaf shape differences between Arabidopsis thaliana, which has simple leaves, and its relative Cardamine hirsuta that has complex leaves divided into leaflets. We show that patterned expression of the transcription factor CUP-SHAPED COTYLEDON1 in C. hirsuta (ChCUC1) is a key determinant of leaf shape differences between the two species. Through inducible genetic perturbations, time-lapse imaging of growth, and computational modeling, we find that ChCUC1 provides instructive input into auxin-based leaf margin patterning. This input arises via transcriptional regulation of multiple auxin homeostasis components, including direct activation of WAG kinases that are known to regulate the polarity of PIN-FORMED auxin transporters. Thus, we have uncovered a mechanism that bridges biological scales by linking spatially distributed and species-specific transcription factor expression to cell-level polarity and growth, to shape diverse leaf forms.

Using Game Theory to Analyze the Interaction between Teachers and Students in the Teaching of Civics in College Courses

Abstract In this paper, firstly, on the basis of Marx’s theory of intersubjectivity, we use the concept of teachers and students as the main body of each other to construct the interactive teaching mode and mechanism of teachers and students in Civics courses and actively explore the path and prospect of interactive teaching of Civics in courses in the new era. Then we use the pure strategy game in game theory to determine the performance production function, and then we use Nash equilibrium to obtain the teacher utility function and student utility function on the basis of the performance production function so as to further construct the game model of teacher-student behavior in the teaching process of Civics courses, and analyze the teacher-student interaction in the Civics of higher education courses by using the game model. The results show that in the pure strategy game analysis of teacher-student behavior, 0.3872 teachers will choose to reduce teaching inputs, while the other 0.6128 teachers will choose to reduce teaching inputs to “almost no” or “very little”, i.e., the optimal choice strategy is “no” or “very little”, i.e., the optimal choice strategy is “no” or “very little”. The optimal choice strategy is “no reduction in instructional inputs”. In the Nash equilibrium analysis of teacher-student behavior, the equilibrium value of the teacher-student behavior game is (42.22% and 64.59%), and teachers and students need to continuously improve their behavioral strategy choices in order to achieve the maximum utility value of each other. This study improves the quality of teaching and ultimately achieves the objective of Civic Education.

Differential Effects of Input Quantity and Input Quality on Bilingual Development: A Study with Kurdish–English Adolescents

Previous research has shown that both input quantity and quality play a role in dual language learning. However, it is unclear whether input quantity factors (e.g., school input) and input quality factors (e.g., home media input) work similarly in the language development of bilinguals while other potential internal and external factors are controlled for. This paper addressed this issue through investigating the influence of input quantity and input quality factors, both at the individual and group levels, on morphosyntax, vocabulary size, and lexical access ability in the Kurdish-L1 and English-L2 of Kurdish–English bilingual adolescents. Data were collected via a battery of standardized and researcher-developed measures and a detailed questionnaire. The results from backward regressions revealed that higher parental Kurdish proficiency and more exposure to Kurdish input through siblings and reading activities were associated with better Kurdish morphosyntactic skill, while a larger Kurdish vocabulary size was predicted by more exposure to native-speaker input in Kurdish. Both more Kurdish input received in preschool/school and through Kurdish media were related to better lexical access ability in Kurdish. Further, more exposure to English input in preschool/school predicted better English morphosyntactic skill and a larger vocabulary size, whereas higher paternal English proficiency was associated with better lexical access ability in English. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that input quality was more important in explaining Kurdish morphosyntactic and vocabulary size skills and lexical access ability in both languages, while input quantity explained more variance in English morphosyntactic and vocabulary size skills. Out-of-class Kurdish input outweighed instructional input to a certain extent in relation to Kurdish skills and lexical access ability in English, while instructional English input was more important for English morphosyntax and vocabulary size.

CBMC: A Biomimetic Approach for Control of a 7-Degree of Freedom Robotic Arm.

Many approaches inspired by brain science have been proposed for robotic control, specifically targeting situations where knowledge of the dynamic model is unavailable. This is crucial because dynamic model inaccuracies and variations can occur during the robot's operation. In this paper, inspired by the central nervous system (CNS), we present a CNS-based Biomimetic Motor Control (CBMC) approach consisting of four modules. The first module consists of a cerebellum-like spiking neural network that employs spiking timing-dependent plasticity to learn the dynamics mechanisms and adjust the synapses connecting the spiking neurons. The second module constructed using an artificial neural network, mimicking the regulation ability of the cerebral cortex to the cerebellum in the CNS, learns by reinforcement learning to supervise the cerebellum module with instructive input. The third and last modules are the cerebral sensory module and the spinal cord module, which deal with sensory input and provide modulation to torque commands, respectively. To validate our method, CBMC was applied to the trajectory tracking control of a 7-DoF robotic arm in simulation. Finally, experiments are conducted on the robotic arm using various payloads, and the results of these experiments clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Strategic Training for Quality Higher Education Graduates: Achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)

Poor quality graduates and poor work adjustment among the work force are some contemporary challenges of higher education training in many societies. Affected graduates usually lack the technical skills, attitudes and competencies required to perform effectively when employed. Often times, difficulties to cope with the demands and expectations of the work environment put some at risk of job loss and redundancy; hence, undermining the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG:4). Poor quality graduate outputs have been blamed on diverse factors which include: personal, institutional and socio-cultural. However, this study is focused on the institutional factors. The position of this paper is that institutional inputs which cover training have to be more strategic and progressive for the production of high skilled workforce that are competitive both locally and globally. This will enhance the achievement of UN SDG: 4, which is targeted at enhancing learning for the acquisition of vocational and technical skills for decent work as well as for global citizenship in a global world. Based on the aim of addressing learning gaps among graduates, this paper stresses the need for instructional inputs to be in tandem with global best practices, while adapting indigenous resources (value system) to impart learners, cognitively and affectively. The paper recommends that higher education institutions should leverage the training strategies pointed out in this paper to enhance quality of graduates and future labour force that can contribute to sustainable national development.

T helper cell subsets: diversification of the field.

Polarized T helper cell (Th cell) responses are important determinants of host protection. Th cell subsets tailor their functional repertoire of cytokines to their cognate antigens to efficiently contribute to their clearance. In contrast, in settings of immune abrogation, these polarized cytokine patterns of Th cells can mediate tissue damage and pathology resulting in allergy or autoimmunity. Recent technological developments in single-cell genomics and proteomics as well as advances in the high-dimensional bioinformatic analysis of complex datasets have challenged the prevailing Th cell subset classification into Th1, Th2, Th17, and other subsets. Additionally, systems immunology approaches have revealed that instructive input from the peripheral tissue microenvironment can have differential effects on the overall phenotype and molecular wiring of Th cells depending on their spatial distribution. Th cells from the blood or secondary lymphoid organs are therefore expected to follow distinct rules of regulation. In this review, the functional heterogeneity of Th cell subsets will be reviewed in the context of new technological developments and T-cell compartmentalization in tissue niches. This work will especially focus on challenges to the traditional boundaries of Th cell subsets and will discuss the underlying regulatory checkpoints, which could reveal new therapeutic strategies for various immune-mediated diseases.

Do learners need semantics to spell syntactic markers? Plural spellings in real vs. pseudowords in a French L2 setting

Inaudible syntactic markers are especially difficult to spell. This paper examines how 455 fourth graders spell silent French plural markers in a dictation with real and pseudowords after one year of formal French instruction (L2). The Generalized Linear Mixed Model analysis shows first that noun plural spelling (real and pseudo) is a strong predictor for verb and adjective plural spelling. Second, the performance on real verb plural is higher than the performance on real adjective plural. In contrast, the performance on pseudoadjective plural is higher than on pseudoverb plural. Our findings indicate the strong influence of semantics and frequency in instruction input on plural spelling: noun plural is semantically grounded, and nouns are most frequent in the curriculum. Verbs and verb plural are also frequent, and inflection is mostly taught by means of memorizing the verb inflection paradigm. Adjectives are taught least frequently. The findings are discussed in the context of French L2 instruction, as the extremely low results on adjectives and pseudoverbs seem to be a consequence of instruction methods.

Changes in workload of Chinese university undergraduate teaching from the perspective of education quality management: A case study of a teaching-research university

The teaching workload of university teachers is an objective reflection of their instructional input and directly affects the quality of education and teaching. The ultimate goal of studying university teachers' workload is to enhance the quality of higher education. Based on the analysis of data from twelve years' teaching workload of a teaching-research university in China, the results show that the changes of overall teaching workload are in stages. Classroom teaching workload is the majority of the whole teaching workload. The teaching workload is mainly undertaken by university teachers with intermediate and deputy senior professional titles, and changes in teaching workload undertaken by university teachers with junior professional title and intermediate professional title is greater than those with vice senior professional title and senior professional title. Male teachers' workload is slightly more than female teachers, but gender differences have been shrinking over the years. The proportion of classroom teaching workload in teaching-oriented colleges is high, which is about 7:3 and has decreased in the past twelve years. Developing logic, administrative logic and difference logic are generative logic of changes in undergraduate teaching workload. Due to the relevance of the ISO 9000 family of standards in the management of higher education teaching, it is recommended to follow its seven quality management principles and adopt a teaching quality management approach based on the PDCA cycle in a broader context of quality management. This approach aims to manage higher education systematically, establish an organizational environment, and promote teachers' active engagement in teaching, including teaching workload. It also facilitates to improve teacher classification management and evaluation mechanisms.

Processing and acquisition of temporality in L2 Mandarin Chinese: Effects of grammatical and lexical aspects.

This study investigated the second language (L2) processing and acquisition of Chinese temporality, specifically the interaction of grammatical and lexical aspects. An experimental group of 31 English-speaking learners of Chinese and a control group of 29 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese completed an online sentence-picture matching task and an offline translation task. Results from these experiments demonstrated the prototype effect: In aspectual development, perfective aspect started with telic verbs and progressive aspect started with activity verbs, in accordance with the Aspect Hypothesis, both for online processing and offline comprehension. The prototype effect of the grammatical aspect was evident for activity verbs but less so for accomplishment verbs in the L2 group across tasks, and this was explained through language-specific properties and L2 learners’ instructional input. In addition, L2 proficiency and working memory capacity were found to modulate these processes.

Clustering perceived learning environment as antecedents of willingness to communicate in a second language

This study was designed to explore patterns of student perceptions of second language (L2) classroom environments and the relationships between such perceptions and L2 willingness to communicate (WTC). A sample of 845 first-year undergraduate students of English as a foreign language (EFL) participated in the study and reported their perceptions of the L2 classroom environment and their WTC. Using cluster analysis, this study aggregated students’ perceptions of the classroom environment into four clusters: High support, Rapport, Input, and Low support classes. These four clusters of classes differed significantly in the student perceived support of interpersonal relationships and instructional input. A one-way ANOVA further showed that L2 WTC was positively related to student perceptions of interpersonal relationships and instructional input. More specifically, students’ positive perceptions of interpersonal relationships tended to facilitate WTC in meaning-focused activities, while students’ positive perceptions of instructional input tended to facilitate WTC in form-focused activities. This study finally proposed a model to depict perceived situation cues as antecedents (interpersonal relationship and instructional input) of L2 WTC. Implications for L2 instruction and learning were also discussed.

The Efficacy of Computer-Mediated Feedback in Improving L2 Speaking: A Systematic Review

Recent trends in computer-mediated communication (CMC) have led to a proliferation of studies investigating the effect of computer-mediated feedback (CMF). The present systematic review aimed to explore the role of linguistic, contextual, and individual factors in mediating the impact of CMF on second language (L2) speaking performance. A literature search located 16 relevant empirical studies for the final analysis. Each study was coded for linguistic, contextual, and individual characteristics. First, CMF was theoretically conceptualized as an instructional input, a dialogic process, and an internal process based on theoretical underpinnings. Correspondingly, CMF was analyzed under the influence of 1) linguistic factors including feedback type, the linguistic focus of CMF, and the timing of CMF, 2) contextual factors including the feedback source and the task type, and 3) individual factors including individual differences and learners’ proficiency levels. The implication of the study was twofold. Theoretically, this study not only provided a multi-dimension view towards the effect of CMF in developing L2 oral proficiency but also shed new light on the interrelations between these identified factors. Pedagogically, teachers were encouraged to take advantage of CMC technologies to enhance the effectiveness of CMF as well as considering learners’ uniqueness. Suggestions for future research were also provided.

The Mechanics of Creative Cognition: Orchestrating the Productive Interplay of Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge in STEM Education

As a reaction to the growing economical, ecological and societal demands on education innumerous efforts and programs have been initiated throughout the educational chain to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the STEM field. On that background we sketch a framework to foster creative engagement in learning to promote scientific inquiry and modeling processes. In the theoretical part the article presents a dualistic perspective on the grounding of creative cognition in concrete experience, highlighting the productive and reflexive interplay of procedural and conceptual knowing. Their entanglement is pivotal to successful knowledge construction and application in science and technology. The ‘mechanics’ of creativity is elaborated exemplarily in a project based learning sequence that starts from investigating and modeling elastic forces as a basic paradigm of creative model construction. The creative part refers to conceptual expansions of the elastic spring model that assist in modeling emergent mechanical properties in hard and soft condensed matter. With additional moderate instructional input this knowledge is productive in creating basic models of the self-organized dynamics of biomolecular systems that orchestrate life at the cellular level. The sequence demonstrates how the interplay of hands-on experience and conceptual modeling can promote near and far transfer.

UTILISATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA FOR REMEDIAL TEACHING IN SCIENCE AMONG COLLEGE TEACHERS

Instructional media are device or materials which present a body of instructional input and are largely self-supporting rather than supplementary in teaching-learning process. Remedial instruction involves using individualized teaching of students who are experiencing difculties in specic subject areas. In this study, the investigator measured teachers' utilisation of instructional media in remedial teaching. To nd out the utilisation of instructional media for remedial teaching in science among college teachers. The investigator has adopted the survey method for the study. In the study, the following demographic variables were considered as an independent variable: Gender (Male / Female), Designation (Associate Professor /Assistant Professor) and Type of institutions (Government / Aided / Private). The population considered for the study consists of college teachers working in the science departments (Physical Science, Bioscience, Mathematics and Computer Science) of arts and science colleges which are afliated to Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. The sample of the study 591 college teachers were selected as a sample for this study from 48 arts and science colleges located in the Periyar University jurisdiction. The simple random sampling technique was adopted for data collection. In this present study, the investigator developed and standardized the tool combine personal proforma and questionnaire on utilisation of instructional media for remedial teaching in science (UIMRTS). The reliability value was found to remedial teaching in science was 0.80. The data collected from the sample were analyzed by using appropriate statistical technique. The investigator used test of signicance viz., independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVAto analyze the data and summarize the results. The ndings of the study were concluded that the variables like gender and designation are there is no signicant difference in utilisation of instructional media for remedial teaching in science. Whereas the variable type of institution was there is a signicant difference in utilisation of instructional media for remedial teaching in science among college teachers.

Technology adoption in architectural design studios for educational activities

ABSTRACT Technology in architectural education is usually discussed as a ‘method’, optimising course systems and determining instructional materials, while as a ‘tool’ it is discussed as a medium within students’ design decision-making processes. This article explores the development of technology use in a teaching context, encompassing relationships between technology as method and tool. The teaching focus concerns the effects of technological-instructional tactics for addressing commonly reported issues for architecture students: being reflexive to instructional inputs, avoiding mental shortcuts and prioritising forecasting when making design decisions. The article reports a multi-phase action research project, exploring how a supplementary digital toolkit can address genuine, contextually driven problems in disciplinary teaching. Findings highlight how developing technological-instructional tactics in design studios can assist students to comprehend instructors’ intentions, support dialogue between students and instructors (especially in longitudinal activities), and transform how teachers perform roles as advisors and coaches.

Embedding parental input in instruction of SWPBS behavioral expectations for African American students

Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support, a framework for remediating and preventing student problem behaviors and supporting schools, has demonstrated a reduction in office disciplinary referrals (ODRs) among student groups. However, African American students are still overrepresented in ODRs. This study extended a prior study that explored parents’ perceptions of schoolwide expectations. The previous study resulted in the development of a social skill curriculum to embed parental input within the meaning of the expectations as one way to build cultural responsiveness. Specifically, authors aimed to examine the effects of the social skill curriculum on the nonadherence to classroom expectations of K-1 African American students’ using multiple-probes across participants design. Results indicated improved adherence to behavioral expectations across participants. Implications for research and practice are provided.

Fostering prospective teachers\u2019 explaining skills during university education\u2014Evaluation of a training module

Providing instructional explanations is a core component of effective instruction and an important teaching skill. Teaching skills are generally regarded as learnable, and teacher education programs aim to improve teachers’ professional competences. In this study, we analyze to what extent explaining skills can be fostered during teacher education at university by means of a specific training module. We designed a training (university module) for prospective economics teachers at vocational schools (candidates in a Master’s teaching program). By means of videotaped simulated interactions at two measurement points, we analyzed the development of teacher candidates’ explaining skills. Teacher candidates were asked to explain the neoclassical supply and demand model (treatment group: n = 48; control group: n = 30) to an actor playing the role of a school student. The quality of the explanations was operationalized in respect of five aspects of successful explanations, which were derived from a literature review: (1) Content, (2) Student-teacher interaction, (3) Process structure, (4) Representation, and (5) Language. The results show that there was a treatment effect on the development of the Process structure aspect, while Student-teacher interaction appeared to develop “naturally” through experience, regardless of participation in the training. The quality aspects Content, Representation, and Language appeared stable over time. Hence, the findings show that some aspects of explaining skills are learnable even in a short training module. Learning effects are attributable partly to the instructional input received and partly to repeated practice. Both imply the importance of further opportunities to practice instructional explanation in teacher education.

Literacy and Child Development in a Contemporary African Society

AbstractIn this article, I propose a theoretical framework for understanding relations between literacy and child development: The literacy practices of a community map the cognitive affordances of script onto particular speech varieties in a sociocultural system. This leads to developmental goals and optimizing technologies situated in enabling institutional contexts. In many parts of Africa, institutionalized public basic schooling historically was imposed by Christian missionaries and sustained by colonial administration. Contemporary systems remain deeply infused with Western cultural hegemony. Most research on children’s literacy in Zambia has focused on individual literacy as a set of measurable competencies that can be assessed independently of context, construing language variety or instructional input as extraneous variables. A more integrated focus on literacy as a socially distributed practice in the context of a multilingual African society highlights cooperative learning and flexible communication across language boundaries. I suggest implications for bilingual education policy and planning for progressive social change.

Didactic Principles in Teaching Additional Foreign Language in Uzbekistan Context

Uzbekistanis a multilingual country, therefore the problems of multididactics in higher education has been arisen for the last period. This paper offers the current ideas in multilingualism, multilingual assumptions for teaching an additional foreign language and implications of the changes of instructional input in the context of multididactics. In particular, the article aims to look into the issues of teaching additional foreign language for occupational purpose in theUzbekistancontext. This study emphasizes the specificity of the cognitive process in teaching and learning two foreign languages for vocational aims and presents the principles of multilingual didactics. More specifically, the article brings an overview of didactic principles in the context of positive and negative transfer of the previous language experiences in learning Italian as additional foreign language atTashkent-TurinPolytechnicUniversity. The successful methods and techniques for application the didactic principles into practice of teaching the Italian language are also described within this article.

Compositional Persistence in a Multicyclic Network of Synthetic Replicators.

The emergence of collections of simple chemical entities that create self-sustaining reaction networks, embedding replication and catalysis, is cited as a potential mechanism for the appearance on the early Earth of systems that satisfy minimal definitions of life. In this work, a functional reaction network that creates and maintains a set of privileged replicator structures through auto- and cross-catalyzed reaction cycles is created from the pairwise combinations of four reagents. We show that the addition of individual preformed templates to this network, representing instructions to synthesize a specific replicator, induces changes in the output composition of the system that represent a network-level response. Further, we establish through sets of serial transfer experiments that the catalytic connections that exist between the four replicators in this network and the system-level behavior thereby encoded impose limits on the compositional variability that can be induced by repeated exposure to instructional inputs, in the form of preformed templates, to the system. The origin of this persistence is traced through kinetic simulations to the properties and inter-relationships between the critical ternary complexes formed by the auto- and crosscatalytic templates. These results demonstrate that in an environment where there is no continuous selection pressure the network connectivity, described by the catalytic relationships and system-level interactions between the replicators, is persistent, thereby limiting the ability of this network to adapt and evolve.