Learning Community Research Articles

Parental Illiteracy on Students' Well-Being: A Case Study of Grade 12 Students in Kabul Public School

This study aims to clarify the complex relationship between parental illiteracy and the wellbeing of 12th grade students in the dynamic city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Education, an indicator of hope, is investigated through the lens of parental literacy, demonstrating its pervasive influence on scholastic achievement, emotional stability, and social progress. The study makes use of empirical data to outline the complex effects of parental illiteracy on students' life fulfillment, academic self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Claiming that children of illiterate parents experience poorer levels of wellbeing is supported by a thorough investigation of the complex issues that arise when illiteracy, cultural dynamics, and socioeconomic circumstances come together. The research sheds light on the challenges that students have in the face of parental illiteracy, but it does more than just name issues; it also makes useful suggestions and advocates for radical change. The results highlight the critical role that literate parents have in influencing a child's educational path, cultivating good attitudes, and offering essential support. Suggestions that are customized to the particular circumstances of Kabul encompass community learning centers, integrated literacy programs, and programs that enhance socio-emotional health. The report advocates for systemic reforms through international cooperation, technological innovation, and legislative reform— a move that goes beyond individual remedies. As the study draws to a close, it calls on decision-makers, educators, and activists to work together to break down the obstacles caused by illiteracy, imagining a future in which education becomes a tool that empowers every kid. The appeal to develop hope, enlighten minds, and clear the path for a better, more just future resounds in Kabul's resilient heart. This call transcends national boundaries and fosters a vision of transformative education and societal upliftment.

The influence of dark triad on knowledge hiding behavior with workplace spirituality as a moderator in higher education institutions

PurposeIn the knowledge management (KM) literature, there are umpteen discussions on knowledge sharing; however, the scholarly community still faces a dearth of literature on knowledge hiding behavior (KHB) and its determinants. The current study aims to examine the direct effect of dark triad (DT) personality dimensions (machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) on KHB dimensions (rationalized hiding, evasive hiding and playing dumb). Drawing on social control theory, this study also explores the moderating effect of workplace spirituality (WS) on the direct relationship between DT and KHB.Design/methodology/approachUsing purposive sampling, 281 matched-pair datasets from faculty members working with higher education institutions (HEI) in India have been obtained. The direct relationship has been tested through regression analysis and moderation analysis has been performed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe study has successfully mapped DT dimensions with KHB dimensions, and it is observed that machiavellians mostly use evasive hiding, narcissists believe in rationalized hiding and paying dumb is mostly used by psychopaths. Workplace spirituality (WS) weakens the direct relationship between DT and KHB.Practical implicationsHEIs are advised to foster a climate conducive to WS by getting faculty to realize that their job is something larger than themselves through developing a sense of community among faculty members.Originality/valueThis empirical study extends the KM literature and expands the scope of bridging the gaps on KHB. It is one of the few studies to examine the impact of DT on KHB with WS as a moderator in HEIs.

The Smart Cookie Project

PurposeThis practitioner-focused article highlights a collaborative, school-wide project at a PDS that showcased elementary students’ strengths and talents. Based on the children’s book, The Smart Cookie (John, 2021), teachers and the university professor-in-residence developed professional learning communities, which inspired the creation of a space for all students to demonstrate ways in which they were “smart cookies” that aligned with our comprehensive mission of promoting inclusive practices.Design/methodology/approachRooted in professional learning communities, teachers at our PDS spent the first half of the school year learning about chosen topics of social–emotional learning, stamina and neurodiversity. The Smart Cookie Project was created to demonstrate the connections between these topics. Students at the PDS were given the opportunity to create an original project that showcased their creativity, interests and talents. Projects were then displayed during a schoolwide showcase.FindingsThe impact of the project and the showcase demonstrated the importance of creating opportunities for both teacher and student innovation. The project brought the community together, allowed students to be viewed through strengths-based perspectives, helped teachers see how their own learning can positively impact their practice and emphasized the need for honoring student choice in the classroom.Originality/valueThe project discussed here can lend itself to fellow PDSs looking to adopt innovative instructional approaches, honor inclusive practices and situate students in places of strength.

A Decade of Social Media for Learning: A Systematic Review

Since the emergence of social media in the early 2000’s, innovative educators have sought ways to utilise, adapt, and maximise the opportunities for learning within social networking and collaborative online spaces. The purpose of this systematic review is to analyse the work published on social media for learning in the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) over the 20-year life of the journal to date. We summarise the current evidence on the use of social media for learning and document how the field has evolved and changed since its emergence as a pedagogical theme. We explore themes for the use of social media for learning, key challenges, how the use of social media has changed over time, and we look at specific types of papers that contribute to the original research on social media for learning. We achieved this through a systematic review 3-step process: 1) scoping and understanding the review context and research questions, 2) undertaking methods using an established approach for a systematic and quality assessment of the literature, and 3) undertaking a thorough thematic analysis of the empirical evidence from the systematic review papers to provide meaningful outcomes and recommendations. This robust approach resulted in the analysis of 11 papers and exploration of 4 key themes: Computer mediated communication, digital capabilities, and confidence, learning community, and social media pedagogy. Finally, we make recommendations that aim to benefit both editors and authors of JUTLP, and editors and authors more generally.

A new classification for surgical NEC during exploratory laparotomy: introduction and reproducibility assessment.

Variability in necrosis patterns and operative techniques in surgical necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) necessitates a standardized classification system for consistent assessment and comparison. This study introduces a novel intraoperative reporting system for surgical NEC, focusing on reliability and reproducibility. Analyzing surgical NEC cases from January 2018 to June 2023 at two tertiary neonatal and pediatric surgery units, a new classification system incorporating anatomical details and intestinal involvement extent was developed. Its reproducibility was quantified using kappa coefficients (κ) for interobserver and intraobserver reliability, assessed by four specialists. Furthermore, following surgery, the occurrence of mortality and enteric autonomy were evaluated on the basis of surgical decision-making of the novel intraoperative classification system for surgical NEC. In total, 95 patients with surgical NEC were included in this analysis. The mean κ value of the intra-observer reliability was 0.889 (range, 0.790-0.941) for the new classification, indicating excellent agreement and the inter-observer reliability was 0.806 (range, 0.718-0.883), indicating substantial agreement. The introduced classification system for surgical NEC shows high reliability, deepening the understanding of NEC's intraoperative exploration aspects. It promises to indicate operative strategies, enhance prognosis prediction, and substantially facilitate scholarly communication in pediatric surgery. Importantly, it explores the potential for a standardized report and may represent a step forward in classifying surgical NEC, if pediatric surgeons are open to change.

Enhancing the enactment of assessment for learning principles during school placement: preservice teachers as practitioner researchers within a learning community

ABSTRACT Enacting Assessment for Learning (AfL) is challenging for teachers and even more for Preservice Teachers (PSTs). The support for those attempting to enact it has been considered insufficient and/or inadequate. This study aims to examine how positioning preservice teachers as practitioner researchers while belonging to a learning community can facilitate PSTs’ enactment of AfL during their school placement. It draws on the triangulation of different qualitative data sources, e.g. focus group, researcher’s field notes, testimonial survey, and school placement report, inquiring the practice of eight PSTs and the interaction within a learning community supported by a researcher, university supervisor and cooperating teachers. Despite belonging to the same learning community, PSTs struggle differently in embedding assessment in the learning experiences, including students, and facilitating students’ understanding of feedback and the teaching-learning process. Teacher education programmes are prompted to consider how best to support PSTs enacting AfL practices.

Movement-based experiential learning in dance/movement therapy graduate education: facilitating and hindering factors for competency development

Dance and movement are used as the primary means of learning in graduate education programmes for dance/movement therapy in the United States. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that used thematic analysis to identify factors that facilitate and hinder student learning in movement-based experiential learning. Learning was facilitated when the learning community, the students, and the faculty worked synergistically and enabled the students to enter personal journeys into developing competencies and the self of the therapist. Factors that hindered learning were those that were internal to the learner, such as their mental, emotional, and physical states, as well as factors that were external to the learners. These included lack of clarity about the purposes for experiential learning, unclear boundaries, and lack of structure. Social constructivist embodied pedagogy is proposed as a pedagogical philosophy for movement-based experiential learning.

ORCID identifier adoption in Spanish scholarly communication: A macro and micro level perspective

AbstractPersonal identifiers have become essential for unambiguously identifying authors and their scholarly output. One of the top personal identifiers is ORCID because of its open, cross‐national, cross‐disciplinary nature. This study analyses ORCID adoption at two levels: (a) Spanish scientific articles in Web of Science (WoS), to explore ORCID presence in articles; and (b) European Research Council (ERC) grant recipients who are affiliated with a Spanish host institution, to explore the prevalence of ORCID‐iDs, profile completion, and differences by gender, field, and funding scheme. Nearly 90% of Spanish scientific articles list at least one ORCID‐iD, but only 14% of articles include an ORCID‐iD for all authors. Implementation is therefore still limited, especially in the humanities. Concerning the micro‐level, all ERC grantees have an ORCID‐iD and an associated profile, which is generally public. Profiles include information in an average of four sections. ‘Works’ and ‘Employment’ are the sections most frequently completed. Fifty percent of profiles were updated in the last month, which suggests rapid updating. Factors influencing ORCID adoption and profile completion are discussed. Publisher and journal policies play a significant role by asking authors for ORCID‐iDs and will be crucial in increasing the identifier's adoption.

Interdisciplinary co-teaching as a sustainable model for health humanities pedagogy

Academics and students from marginalised identities encounter challenges and barriers at all levels of participation in the settler colonial university, in both practices of teaching and learning. While this observation...

Foundations & Trends in Multimodal Machine Learning: Principles, Challenges, and Open Questions

Multimodal machine learning is a vibrant multi-disciplinary research field that aims to design computer agents with intelligent capabilities such as understanding, reasoning, and learning through integrating multiple communicative modalities, including linguistic, acoustic, visual, tactile, and physiological messages. With the recent interest in video understanding, embodied autonomous agents, text-to-image generation, and multisensor fusion in application domains such as healthcare and robotics, multimodal machine learning has brought unique computational and theoretical challenges to the machine learning community given the heterogeneity of data sources and the interconnections often found between modalities. However, the breadth of progress in multimodal research has made it difficult to identify the common themes and open questions in the field. By synthesizing a broad range of application domains and theoretical frameworks from both historical and recent perspectives, this paper is designed to provide an overview of the computational and theoretical foundations of multimodal machine learning. We start by defining three key principles of modality heterogeneity , connections , and interactions that have driven subsequent innovations, and propose a taxonomy of six core technical challenges: representation , alignment , reasoning , generation , transference , and quantification covering historical and recent trends. Recent technical achievements will be presented through the lens of this taxonomy, allowing researchers to understand the similarities and differences across new approaches. We end by motivating several open problems for future research as identified by our taxonomy.

Conditions for successful adult learning systems at local level: creating a conducive socio-spatial environment for adults to engage in learning

ABSTRACT Adults must continually learn to navigate the challenges of society and the job market. This lifelong learning is vital, particularly for vulnerable adults, and should be fostered in their living and working environment. In this article, we present a literature review exploring the conditions of conducive learning environments at meso-level, being the socio-spatial learning infrastructure constituted by learning providers, policies and interventions. The review started with an article title search using key words which was further enriched by assessing relevant studies for well-known international organisations. In total, 23 sources explicitly discussed success factors of conducive learning environments, grouped in those reflecting on local learning centres (three); learning communities (including cities) (twelve), and adult learning policies (eight). Looking at these different strands of literature covered the full spectrum of conditions from generic system-related characteristics to nuanced intervention-related characteristics. As a result, 12 conditions were identified, including system-related characteristics (political will, governance, partnership, funding, monitoring) and intervention characteristics (trusting environment, professionalism, guidance, outreach, tailoring to needs, learning leads to progression). Both blocs of conditions impact each other, and they should both be taken into account by policy makers in assessing and developing adult learning policies and interventions at meso-level.

OBMI: oversampling borderline minority instances by a two-stage Tomek link-finding procedure for class imbalance problem

AbstractMitigating the impact of class imbalance datasets on classifiers poses a challenge to the machine learning community. Conventional classifiers do not perform well as they are habitually biased toward the majority class. Among existing solutions, the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) has shown great potential, aiming to improve the dataset rather than the classifier. However, SMOTE still needs improvement because of its equal oversampling to each minority instance. Based on the consensus that instances far from the borderline contribute less to classification, a refined method for oversampling borderline minority instances (OBMI) is proposed in this paper using a two-stage Tomek link-finding procedure. In the oversampling stage, the pairs of between-class instances nearest to each other are first found to form Tomek links. Then, these minority instances in Tomek links are extracted as base instances. Finally, new minority instances are generated, each of which is linearly interpolated between a base instance and one minority neighbor of the base instance. To address the overlap caused by oversampling, in the cleaning stage, Tomek links are employed again to remove the borderline instances from both classes. The OBMI is compared with ten baseline methods on 17 benchmark datasets. The results show that it performs better on most of the selected datasets in terms of the F1-score and G-mean. Statistical analysis also indicates its higher-level Friedman ranking.

Virtual academic conferencing: a scoping review of 1984–2021 literature. Novel modalities vs. long standing challenges in scholarly communication

Objective. This study reviews the literature on virtual academic conferences, which have gained significant attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 Design. We conducted a scoping review, analyzing 147 documents available up to October 5th, 2021. We categorized this literature, identified main themes, examined theoretical approaches, evaluated empirical findings, and synthesized the advantages and disadvantages of virtual academic conferences.
 Results. We find that the existing literature on virtual academic conferences is mainly descriptive and lacks a solid theoretical framework for studying the phenomenon. Despite the rapid growth of the literature documenting and discussing virtual conferencing induced by the pandemic, the understanding of the phenomenon is limited.
 Conclusions. We provide recommendations for future research on academic virtual conferences: their impact on research productivity, quality, and collaboration; relations to social, economic, and geopolitical inequalities in science; and their environmental aspects. We stress the need for further research encompassing the development of a theoretical framework that will guide empirical studies.

Development and trending of deep learning methods for wind power predictions

With the increasing data availability in wind power production processes due to advanced sensing technologies, data-driven models have become prevalent in studying wind power prediction (WPP) methods. Deep learning models have gained popularity in recent years due to their ability of handling high-dimensional input, automating data feature engineering, and providing high flexibility in modeling. However, with a large volume of deep learning based WPP studies developed in recent literature, it is important to survey the existing developments and their contributions in solving the issue of wind power uncertainty. This paper revisits deep learning-based wind power prediction studies from two perspectives, deep learning-enabled WPP formulations and developed deep learning methods. The advancement of WPP formulations is summarized from the following perspectives, the considered input and output designs as well as the performance evaluation metrics. The technical aspect review of deep learning leveraged in WPPs focuses on its advancement in feature processing and prediction model development. To derive a more insightful conclusion on the so-far development, over 140 recent deep learning-based WPP studies have been covered. Meanwhile, we have also conducted a comparative study on a set of deep models widely used in WPP studies and recently developed in the machine learning community. Results show that DLinear obtains more than 2% improvements by benchmarking a set of strong deep learning models. Potential research directions for WPPs, which can bring profound impacts, are also highlighted.

Examining the influence of Economics teachers’ engagement in professional learning communities on teaching self-efficacy: a structural equation modelling approach

Examining the influence of Economics teachers’ engagement in professional learning communities on teaching self-efficacy: a structural equation modelling approach

Use behaviour of academic social networking sites in research communication: a structural equation model

PurposeThe current study seeks to investigate, why and how faculty members of Indian central universities are using academic social networking sites (ASNs) for research communication and information dissemination, as well as validate and update the results of previous scholarship in this area. To achieve this, the paper uses structural equation model (SEM).Design/methodology/approachA simple random sampling method was adopted. Online survey was conducted using a well-designed questionnaire circulated via email id among 3384 faculty members of Indian Central Universities. A SEM was designed and tested with International Business Machines (IBM) Amos. Apart from this, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22 and Microsoft Excel 2010 were also used for data screening and analysis.FindingsThe study explores that most of the respondents are in favour of using the ASNs/tools for their professional activities. The study also found that a large chunk of the respondents used ASNs tools during day time. Apart from it, more number of faculty members used ASNs in research work than general purpose. No significant differences were found among the disciplines in use behaviour of ASNs in scholarly communication. Three hypotheses have been accepted while two were rejected in this study.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was confined to the twelve central universities, and only 312 valid responses were taken into consideration in this study.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates the faculty members’ use behaviour of ASNs in their research communication. The study also contributes new knowledge to methodological discussions as it is the first known study to employ SEM to interpret scholarly use of ASNs by faculty members of Indian central universities.

Enhancement of Secondary Science Teacher’s Professional Knowledge in Learning Pedagogical Content Knowledge through Involving in Professional Learning Community

The qualitative research study explored Bangladeshi secondary science teacher’s experiences working in a professional learning community (PLC) in terms of enhancing professional knowledge in learning pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The research questions that guided this study are: (1) What are the learning experiences of the secondary science teachers regarding their involvement in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) as a means of professional learning for enhancing their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)? (2) How do Secondary Science teachers apply their learning from Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to their teaching plans and practices through the Content Representation (CoRe) framework? (3) How do secondary science teachers use the knowledge gained from participation in a professional learning community (PLC) to design and implement effective teaching strategies in their classrooms? The study is based on a constructivist approach to learning, which views knowledge construction as a socially mediated process. Therefore, teachers’ experiences were collected as qualitative data through analyzing teachers’ lesson plans and self-reflective journals. As a result, the findings showed teacher’s enhanced professional knowledge working in a PLC in sizing up the topic, identifying the importance of the topic, exploring self-content knowledge relevant to the topic, knowing what learners might think, identifying contextual factors choosing the topic and examples, selecting more appropriate teaching-learning and assessment strategies. The findings of this study are expected to provide insights into how PLCs can be utilized to enhance secondary science teacher’s PCK knowledge. This study is significant as it contributes to the literature on professional development for science teachers and offers practical recommendations for improving science teacher’s professional knowledge in learning PCK. Teacher’s World: Journal of Education and Research, 49 (1), 155-174

Developing Classroom Community Agreements to Cultivate a Critically Compassionate Learning Community

A classroom community agreements activity is described to cultivate a critically compassionate learning community. Reflections on co-developing and implementing these agreements in collaboration with college students are described. By facilitating opportunities for critically reflexive dialogues with students, a set of agreements are developed and incorporated into the learning environment. Thus, the agreements can help inform values and practices for critical consciousness learning among students, and can help educators engage inclusive teaching practices. When developed with students, these agreements can support the diverse, equitable, and humanizing learning spaces that are necessary to support student academic thriving.

RheumMadness Over Two Years: Engaging Participants in Active Learning and Connecting Early Trainees to the Rheumatology Community.

RheumMadness is an online learning collaborative that seeks to actively engage the rheumatology community. The objective of this manuscript is to analyze the educational experience of RheumMadness over two years. Direct measures of participant engagement were obtained using web-based analytics. An electronic survey was created after the tournament to capture self-reported engagement and educational experience using the Community of Inquiry framework. Data were analyzed according to the following objectives: (1) compare demographics, engagement, and educational experience of participants between 2021 and 2022; (2) describe the educational experience of those who created scouting reports; (3) explore the impact of RheumMadness on early learners (medical students and residents). Compared with 2021, the 2022 tournament had more participants who submitted a bracket, more early learners, and more scouting report creators. Self-reported engagement and educational experience was high in both years of the tournament among all participants. Over 85% of scouting report creators reported that making a report was a fun and valuable learning experience. Early learners reported significantly higher levels of knowledge integration, sense of belonging in the rheumatology community, social connection, and overall learning experience compared with more advanced participants. Eighty-five percent of early learners reported that RheumMadness increased their interest in rheumatology. RheumMadness expanded from 2021 to 2022, engaging more participants in collaborative learning. Our results demonstrate that RheumMadness is particularly impactful among medical students and residents by helping them explore rheumatology topics and connect with the rheumatology community.

Making manifestos for urban history: creative collaboration in a conference workshop

Abstract This survey reflects on a creative workshop which the authors ran for the ‘The State of Urban History: Past, Present, Future’ conference (July 2023). ‘Making manifestos for urban history’ was an experiment to encourage small group work and co-operative outputs in a conference setting, allowing for an atypical ‘many-to-many’ model of participation. During the session, five groups each produced a manifesto poster addressing issues that they thought were important for the future of urban history. The survey sets out the form the workshop followed, considers those who were involved and comments on how successful the workshop was in fostering conference community and active learning. Feedback recorded at the end of the session indicated that it was indeed successful in both these areas. Overall, the workshop demonstrated that when urban historians work together across generations and continents, they produce work of real value, which is resilient and sustainable.