Instrumental Case Research Articles

Enabling and exploiting student expertise: the case of a Norwegian centre for excellence in education

ABSTRACT Student involvement has been advocated for and studied by educational scholars in recent years. Simultaneously, measures to increase student involvement have surfaced, such as the Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education (CEE) initiative. This study explores how students, staff and leaders have experienced student involvement through a CEE in the Norwegian context by turning to sociological institutional theory, in which governance structures and change processes are interlinked. The Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) was run from 2014 to 2023, situated at a music academy characterised by privatised teaching culture and a master/apprentice teaching model. In this instrumental case study, primary data were collected from 18 semi-structured interviews with students and staff who had occupied management roles at CEMPE/the Academy. Interview transcripts were triangulated with secondary data in the form of strategic documents such as annual reports, action plans, minutes from steering group meetings, applications and publication lists. The data were coded with thematic narrative analysis, and four distinct narratives on student involvement were identified: (1) students as participants; (2) students as creators; (3) students as facilitators; and (4) students as consultants. The findings indicate that the involved students were both empowered and burdened through their work in the centre. The paid student positions, in particular, enabled students to develop qualifications that staff members and the Academy benefitted from and where students took the roles as facilitators and consultants. However, student expertise can be exploited if not properly supported and fostered, which makes co-creation practices crucial in higher education.

Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE): an inquiry into institutional change processes in higher music education

ABSTRACT This study explores change processes in higher music education by following the development of the Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) over the period 2014–2023. The following research question is addressed: How has institutional change been enabled in a higher music education context through the activities of a Centre for Excellence in Education? The theoretical framework for the inquiry is drawn from institutional theory. Applying an instrumental case study design, data were collected from twelve semi-structured interviews with staff in management roles at CEMPE/NMH and from strategic documents, such as applications, action plans, annual reports, minutes from steering group meetings, and publication lists. The findings show that change was enabled through various leadership visions for change and the friction created through centre activities. The most significant area of change is reported to be increased student agency and involvement.

Understanding College Students’ Satisfaction With ChatGPT: An Exploratory And Predictive Machine Learning Approach Using Feature Engineering

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are continually improving and becoming more pervasive in many facets of our lives. ChatGPT is one such cutting-edge artificial intelligence application, and it has received a lot of worldwide media attention, specifically from educationists, technologists, and learners. It is imperative to understand and evaluate the impact of ChatGPT on computer science students as it directly and holistically influences them. A quantitative instrumental case study explores ChatGPT’s impact on early adopters in education. A survey of undergraduate computer science students at a state university of Delhi was conducted to get insight into their opinion on adopting this revolutionising technology for their education, career, and overall satisfaction. An end-to-end data science approach is applied to encompass exploratory and predictive modelling with feature engineering solutions. Results reveal the most influential features contributing to students’ satisfaction in adopting ChatGPT for their day-to-day chores concerning their social life, education, and career. The Linear Support Vector classifier, a machine learning algorithm for predicting the satisfaction or dissatisfaction in students’ shows an accuracy score of 72.73% and 97.72%, respectively. The AUC for this multiclass prediction model is convincing and is 0.74, 0.71, and 0.96 for satisfied, neutral, and dissatisfied classes, respectively.

Averaging Estimation for Instrumental Variables Quantile Regression

AbstractThis paper proposes two averaging estimation methods to improve the finite‐sample efficiency of the instrumental variables quantile regression (IVQR) estimator. I propose using the usual quantile regression for averaging to take advantage of cases when endogeneity is not too strong. I also propose using two‐stage least squares to take advantage of cases when heterogeneity is not too strong. The first averaging method is to apply a recent proposal for GMM averaging to the IVQR model based on this proposed intuition. My implementation involves many computational considerations and builds on recent developments in the quantile literature. The second averaging method is a new bootstrap model averaging method that directly averages among IVQR, quantile regression, and two‐stage least squares estimators. More specifically, I find the optimal weights from bootstrapped samples and then apply the bootstrap‐optimal weights to the original sample. The bootstrap method is simpler to compute and generally performs better in simulations, but uniform dominance results have not been formally proved. Simulation results demonstrate that in the multiple‐regressors/instruments case, both the GMM averaging and bootstrap estimators have uniformly smaller risk than the IVQR estimator across data‐generating processes with a variety of combinations of different endogeneity levels and heterogeneity levels.

The syntactic function of comparative units: to get to the truth

Determining the syntactic status of comparative constructions is one of the most controversial issues in the Ukrainian linguistics. Distinguishing between comparative phrases and incomplete subordinate comparative sentences is actively debated. Various linguists offer opposing points of view to the same issue. The aim of the work is to clarify the syntactic functions of comparative constructions (both conjunctive and non-conjunctive) within simple and complex sentences. The material of the study embraced about 200 comparative units, selected from the novel “Nekhvoroshch (verbena)” by Liubov Ponomarenko. Descriptive and comparative methods, elements of functional and component analysis, as well as the method of quantitative calculations were used to perform the research. The article analyses domestic linguists’ points of view to the syntactic functions of comparative constructions. Having analysed the comparative units in Liubov Ponomarenko’s texts, the author presented the list of numerous syntactic functions of conjunctive and non-conjunctive comparatives within a simple sentence (comparative subjects and predicates, attributes, objects and circumstances denoting action mode, measure, degree, and reason, etc.), as well as the structure of subordinate comparatives in complex subordinate sentences (complete or incomplete clauses, the possibility of supplementing the missing member by “borrowing” it from the main part). The article focuses on the most controversial issues of distinguishing comparative constructions and offers the author’s vision of the problem. When determining the status of a comparative unit, the author analyses its structure, semantics, degree of prevalence, the possibility of replacing it with instrumental case, and if there is one of the main parts in a comparative construction, the imaginary substitution of the eliminated subject or predicate is used. The article supports the consideration that phraseological comparisons with the sentence structure perform the common function that is determined by the meaning of this phraseological unit.

Conformación de las trayectorias escolares de los estudiantes de un programa de maestría: un estudio de caso

This research article analyzes the trajectories of the graduates of a master's program, whose practices are oriented towards the training of researchers in Psychology applied to education. We used a qualitative methodology, in which we approached the instrumental type case study with the purpose of contrasting the particularities of these. I was complemented with the design of a questionnaire to access the information of our collaborators. The results reveal that the students' school trajectories are integrated by different elements that influence their academic, scientific and labor future. We identified that some cases maintain a correspondence with the subjects and tasks with which they were trained in the postgraduate program, while others do not maintain the same synchrony. We recognize some aspects that influence the performance of the program and the academic, scientific and even labor future of the students.

Have they arrived at Galilee? The insights of emerging leaders in a long-term spiritual and faith formation programme

This study explored the perceptions of ongoing participants in the Galilee Spiritual and Faith Formation programme on the development of their personal and faith formation. The study used a constructivist paradigm, specifically that of interpretivism and employed a symbolic interactionist perspective to explore participant perceptions. The methodology for the study was an instrumental case study. Data were collected through a focus group interview with six participants and written responses from other two participants unable to attend the focus group. The results firstly indicated that continued involvement with the Galilee Spiritual and Faith Formation programme had made a positive impact on participants’ personal efficacy and confidence in their own spirituality and faith. Secondly, continued involvement in the Galilee programme had enhanced participants’ professional efficacy or confidence to lead others in deepening their spirituality and faith.

Collaborative Troubleshooting in STEM: A Case Study of High School Students Finding and Fixing Code, Circuit and Craft Challenges in Electronic Textiles

Debugging (or troubleshooting) provides a rich context to foster problem-solving. Yet, while we know much about some problems and strategies that novices face in programming on-screen, we know far less about debugging and troubleshooting in the context of physical computing, where coding issues may overlap with materially embedded problems. In this paper, we study the thought processes novice students employed and the challenges they faced in debugging an electronic textile project with multiple overlapping problems that crossed physical, electronic, and computational domains. We employed a think-aloud protocol to develop an instrumental case study by video-recording 45 minutes of one pair of 9th-grade students debugging and fixing a buggy e-textile project. The problem space included the computational system’s programmatic, electronic, and physical spatial aspects, which are more generally reflective of physical computing systems. We found that (1) students’ troubleshooting was more recursive and less linear than traditional approaches that usually propose linear, procedural, step-wise activities, and (2) students coordinated their approach across multiple modalities, taking advantage of a distributed set of tools and people in order to tackle a complex set of problems. In the discussion, we address various pedagogical implications for improving teaching about troubleshooting.

Educators in Transition: A Case Study on the Challenges and Adaptations during Rationalisation and Redeployment

Rationalisation and redeployment of educators is a problem in South African schools and internationally. The purpose of this article is to explore the challenges and adaptations of educators during rationalisation and redeployment in public schools in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The argument is that the criteria used to declare educators redundant are not consistent. A qualitative instrumental case study was applied using social constructivism as a theoretical base. Interviews with six redeployed educators were conducted. Purposive snowball sampling was used to identify and recruit participants. Permission to conduct this study was granted by the Limpopo Department of Education. Data were coded and analysed by qualitative content analysis. Empirical data revealed that educators do not like redeployment. Educators who are declared redundant choose to resign rather than face redeployment. It can be concluded that educators face a dilemma related to rationalisation and redeployment which makes them fearful and resistant to the process. Education authorities should, thus, ensure that decision-making processes are transparent and inclusive, and should provide professional development and support to educators undergoing redeployment and rationalisation to ensure equitable and successful transitions.

Experience with the utilization of new-generation shared-control robotic system for spinal instrumentation.

Robotic assistance in spine surgery is emerging as an accurate, effective and enabling technology utilized in the treatment of patients with surgical spinal pathology. The safety and reproducibility of robotic assistance in the placement of pedicle screw instrumentation is still being investigated. The objective of this study was to present our experience of instrumented spinal fusion utilizing an intraoperative robotic guidance system. We retrospectively reviewed all cases of spinal instrumentation of the thoracic and lumbo-sacral spine using the Mazor X robotic system (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN, USA), performed at our institution by one surgeon between July 2017 and June 2020. Wilcoxon Rank test was used to compare time taken to place each screw during the first 20 cases and the cases thereafter. A total of 28 patients were included. A total of 159 screws were placed using the Mazor X robotic system. The overall mean time for screw placement was 7.8±2.3 minutes and there was a significant reduction in the mean time for screw placement after the 20th case or 120 screws (8.70 vs. 5.42 min, P=0.008). No postoperative neurologic deficit or new radiculopathy was noted to occur secondary to hardware placement. No revision surgery was required for replacement or removal of a mispositioned screw. From this single-center, single-surgeon series we conclude that robot-assisted spine surgery can be safely and efficiently integrated into the operating room workflow, which improves after a learning curve of approximately 20 operative interventions. We found robot-assisted spinal instrumentation to be reliable, safe, effective and highly precise.

“No One Works in Isolation Here”: The Socialization of Physical Education Teachers Into a Professional Learning Community

Purpose: Drawing from occupational socialization theory and social capital theory, the purpose of this study was to investigate the socialization of physical education teachers in a professional learning community during induction. Method: Because this investigation consisted of a single school, a single instrumental case study design was utilized. The school was purposely chosen given its status as a “model professional learning community.” Two physical education teachers, three school administrators, and the founding principal participated in this study. Data collection consisted of a combination of dyadic interviews, focus groups, observations, and documents. Results: Data analysis revealed three overlapping themes with supportive categorical subthemes: (a) Dispersed and Inclusive Leadership, (b) Teacher Empowerment, and (c) Culture of Belonging. Discussion: Implications for physical education teachers include the necessity of ongoing collaboration with administrators, cross-curricular colleagues, and physical education teaching peers. Physical educators should seek to develop strong social capital within the school professional learning community.

“It trickles into the community”: A case study of the transfer of health promoting practices from school to community in Canada

The school is an ideal setting to promote children's health and is an equitable way to reach children in early developmental years. Healthy children are stronger learners and wholistic health approaches taken in schools can help children thrive. Interventions in the school are strengthened when school, home, and community work together, yet many interventions have not reported the school and community connection and influence. The purpose of this study was to determine if and how the intervention, APPLE Schools, has impacted the community environment. One community in Alberta, Canada was chosen as a case study. An instrumental case study approach was taken, and data generation was guided by focused ethnography. Data were generated through community partner interviews (n = 17) and document analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze data. Results were represented by three main themes and demonstrated APPLE Schools created impact beyond the school setting through a stepped approach: 1) Foundation: establishes a healthy school culture; 2) Action: tying the work of schools and communities together; and 3) Impact: changes in school practices ripple out to promote health in the community. This research provides compelling evidence that comprehensive school health approaches can impact community environments outside the school and result in stronger health promoting practices both within and outside the school.

Syntactic Analysis of Urdu Case Clitics as Postpositions in Comparison with English Prepositions

The differences between Urdu and English pose many challenges for learners in Pakistan. One of them is the functioning of ‘Urdu case clitics as postpositions in comparison with English prepositions’. ‘Case Theory’ by Chomsky and Lasnik in 1977 has been implemented to qualitatively analyze whether Urdu accusative, dative and instrumental case clitics can function as Urdu postpositions in comparison with English prepositions. The study's major findings demonstrate that Urdu accusative case clitic ‘KO’ as well as Urdu dative case clitic ‘KO’ do not have structural compatibility with the English preposition ‘to’, hence, cannot be determined as Urdu postpositions. However, instrumental ‘se’ case clitics are harmonious to English prepositions to be called Urdu postpositions, for their placement in a sentence in relation to the noun they are modifying. The study also concludes the recommendation of further research to analyze the semantic properties of Urdu case clitics in comparison with English prepositions.

Academic Motherhood: Considerations of STEM Postdoctoral Scholar Women

This instrumental case study explores the messages STEM postdoctoral scholar women received and understood from faculty about having children and an academic career. Of concern, women with children are less likely than men with children or individuals without children to be offered tenure-track positions or to be promoted. This reality suggests academic motherhood is in opposition to professional legitimacy in higher education. Furthermore, postdoctoral scholars who are mothers are more likely than their peers to cite children as their primary reason for not entering the faculty job market. Through inductive and deductive methods, interview transcripts of 22 demographically diverse STEM postdoctoral scholar women were analyzed using the ideal worker conceptual framework. Two themes were identified: (1) messages interpreted as disparaging suggest to STEM postdoctoral women they must sacrifice the choice to have children for an academic career and (2) messages interpreted as supportive promote the belief that academic motherhood is achievable. These findings illustrate a systemic conflict for STEM postdoctoral scholar women who have children or are considering becoming mothers in the future. Due to disparaging messages from faculty, most interviewees felt the constraints of ideal worker norms; however, through supportive messages from faculty, particularly positive modeling, these women saw the feasibility of having children and a successful academic career without the necessity of conforming to these norms. Inclusive, family friendly higher education policies and practices must be instituted to ensure more women enter and thrive in the STEM professoriate, and women who have or desire to have children are not marginalized.

Filling the fiscal basket: Quantifying tax revenues from customer loyalty programmes

The South African government is experiencing a significant shortfall in tax revenue, and recent research has identified customer loyalty programmes (CLPs) as a potential revenue stream. Despite the popularity of these programmes, which are used by 73% of economically active South Africans, no tax is currently imposed on the rewards received by customers, resulting in the loss of much-needed tax revenue. This paper quantifies the tax revenue that could have been generated by South Africa’s three most-used CLPs over a five-year period (2018–2022) to determine if a tax on CLP rewards is a viable revenue stream for the fiscus. The longitudinal instrumental case study employed demonstrates that the fiscus could have conservatively collected R1 140 753 042 in total tax revenue from the three CLPs if a tax had been imposed on CLP rewards, as proposed in this paper. This paper highlights the significant revenue potential of taxing CLP rewards, and it provides valuable insights for policymakers who seek to address the country’s revenue challenges. The findings reveal the magnitude of potential contributions to tax revenue in the form of CLPs. Given the impetus behind CLPs, their exponential growth rate and their increasing importance as a marketing strategy, this paper proposes a re-evaluation by policymakers of the taxation of CLP rewards.

New Media in Environmental Communication: A Study on CIFOR (The Center for International Forestry Research)

Nowadays new media is widely used not only for entertainment purposes, but also to raise public awareness about major environmental issues which is critical for presenting topics like climate change, global warming, and deforestation, as well as encouraging public debate and information exchange. This research aims to seek the utilization of new media in environmental communication. Environmental communication extends beyond campaign-related activities which also affects how people see themselves and the natural world around them. This research uses CIFOR (The Center for International Forestry Research) as a study case because it is recognized as an internationally non-profit scientific organization that carries out research on the most important issues in global forest and landscape management. This research benefits from Ecological Model of the Communication Process which employs qualitative research method with single instrumental case study approach. Data is gathered through direct observation, semi-structured interviews, and extensive literary study. The result demonstrates that CIFOR has been developing multiple digital channels including podcasts, videos, datasets, presentations, and datasets. This is in accordance with the Ecological Model of the Communication Process to communicate their findings. Additionally, it has been found that new media in CIFOR combines and blurs the lines between interpersonal communication and mass media communication.

ChatGPT as an AI L2 teaching support: A case study of an EFL teacher

The present study investigates the potential of ChatGPT as an L2 teaching support and aims to explore the extent to which this Generative AI-powered tool is helpful for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. Therefore, this exploratory single instrumental case study followed an EFL teacher using ChatGPT for seven months, from January to June 2023, as an aid for her English classes in a private language school in Spain. Data were collected from her ChatGPT history in relation to her prompting tasks and outputs received, from her lesson plans when she implemented ChatGPT in class, and from a post semi-structured interview. The analysis followed a qualitative approach using thematic analysis of the data to identify the type of support received by ChatGPT and to determine the level of reliability and helpfulness of the outputs. The results indicate that ChatGPT offers significant support to EFL teachers in planning and designing lessons, in implementing ChatGPT in lessons and in assessing learners’ writing. Our data highlights the potential of ChatGPT as a support for EFL teachers as long as they possess specific AI competencies, such as prompt crafting to obtain useful and meaningful outputs, and critical thinking, together with EFL teaching knowledge, to be able to recognize inaccuracies and identify relevant outcomes.

Exploring a practitioner-athlete relationship and facilitated learning throughout a psychological skills training program.

Psychological skills training (PST) programs have been consistently reported as an important part of preparation for optimal performance in high performance sport. However, there is much less research about the quality and characteristics of the working relationship between a sport psychology practitioner (SPP) and an athlete and, importantly, how that relationship facilitates learning. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper was to explore the working relationship between a SPP and a volleyball player and how that working relationship facilitated the learning processes utilized by this player, as she prepared for the demands of her sport and life. An instrumental case study methodology with a qualitative description approach was employed to illustrate different aspects of the evolving relationship and the athlete's experiences. The results of this case reflect an approach that combined features of both a directive approach in teaching specific psychological skills and a less directive and more collaborative approach, which, in turn, allowed an athlete to begin to learn how to guide their own learning.

Grammatical Type of Stepwise Transposition of Nominal Word Form ‘ryadom’ [near] into Subclass of Manner Adverbs

The relevance of the study is determined by the necessity of a systematic analysis of the linguistic mechanism of transposition, which produces a vast range of peripheral and hybrid formations in speech. The investigation of degrees of adverbial transposition of nouns has revealed certain regularities in the interaction of semantic and grammatical aspects within the structure of adverbialized word forms. Using the example of the word form ‘ryadom’ [near], different stages of adverbialization of instrumental case forms have been demonstrated, indicating the degree of deviation from nouns and convergence with adverbs. By employing the methodology of oppositional analysis (with a scale of transitivity) and indexing, it has been established that within the periphery of the adverbial class, there are proper grammatical (functional) adverbs that do not disrupt the semantic identity of the original lexemes and represent a distinct (adverbial) type of usage. The analysis of the syncretic structure of the peripheral adverb ‘ryadom’ [near] has shown that it exhibits 4% correspondence to the differential features of the core noun ‘ryadom’ (‘row’ in the instrumental case) and 64% correspondence to the differential features of the core adverb ‘ryadom’ [near]. These findings can be utilized in further exploration of intercategorical transposition and syncretism of linguistic units, as well as in the development of a transpositional grammar for the Russian.

“No, This Is Not My Boyfriend’s Computer”: Elevating the Voices of Youth in STEM Education Research Leveraging Photo-Elicitation

AbstractWe aim to elevate the stories and voices of youth in integrated STEM education, particularly those who have been historically marginalized and excluded from STEM spaces. Our research uses photo-elicitation to decenter the power of researchers and educators and elevate the experiences and expertise of youth in STEM. Findings are presented from three instrumental case studies, examining the perspectives of youth on what it means to do STEM, who belongs in STEM, and why STEM is important. The findings reveal that youth often perceive STEM as a siloed approach but also emphasize the need for greater integration of mathematics in STEM. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of STEM identity development, showing that belonging in STEM is not just about future careers but also about fostering a sense of belonging in the present. Additionally, the study uncovers that youth invoke empathy and social consciousness when explaining the importance of integrated STEM, emphasizing the need to address racial, gender, and professional biases in STEM educational spaces. This prompts a reconsideration of the motivations behind integrated STEM education, emphasizing the value of developing STEM literacy for the well-being of all youth, not just as future workforce preparation.