Question Of Meaning Research Articles

Philosophy and Poetic Thinking in Teacher Education

AbstractTeacher education has sought to combine the practice of teaching with the practice of thinking and most popularly through reflective practice. This refers to reflection on and in action that leads to thoughtful practical doing; praxis. In spite of its intention to develop teachers’ practical wisdom, reflective practice has become instrumentalised for the efficient achievement of educational ends without questioning whether the means of achieving them are conducive to living a good, meaningful life. Standardised modes of thinking have all the more estranged teachers from thinking Being and from exploring meanings of who they are as teachers. To address this issue, this paper explores possibilities offered by poetic thinking and metaphorical thinking with reference to the thoughts of Heidegger and Arendt. The analysis of the problem of the abandonment of thinking Being by philosophical traditions as well as Aristotle’s notion of praxis and poesis have been originally addressed by Heidegger. Poesis, the act of making and bringing something forth has also been discussed by Arendt in her thoughts about metaphorical thinking and its potential for becoming something new. I argue that poetic forms of thinking enrich the debate about the relation between philosophy and teaching and are insightful for doing philosophy for teachers. They encourage teachers to make use of language in an original way to bring themselves forth as unique Beings. To practically explore the poetic possibilities in teachers’ quests for meaning, I refer to a student teacher’s writing as an example of how Being teacher can be poetically revealed.

The Odyssey of HOMER: Comparative Effectiveness Research on Medication for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The usual challenges of conducting primary care research, including randomized trials, have been exacerbated, and new ones identified, during the COVID-19 pandemic. HOMER (Home versus Office for Medication Enhanced Recovery; subsequently, Comparing Home, Office, and Telehealth Induction for Medication Enhanced Recovery) is a pragmatic, comparative-effectiveness research trial that aims to answer a key question from patients and clinicians: What is the best setting in which to start treatment with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder for this patient at this time? In this article, we describe the difficult journey to find the answer. The HOMER study began as a randomized trial comparing treatment outcomes in patients starting treatment with buprenorphine via induction at home (unobserved) vs in the office (observed, synchronous). The study aimed to enroll 1,000 participants from 100 diverse primary care practices associated with the State Networks of Colorado Ambulatory Practices and Partners and the American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network. The research team faced unexpected challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and dramatic changes in the opioid epidemic. These challenges required changes to the study design, protocol, recruitment intensity, and funding conversations, as well as patience. As this is a participatory research study, we sought, documented, and responded to practice and patient requests for adaptations. Changes included adding a third study arm using telehealth induction (observed via telephone or video, synchronous) and switching to a comprehensive cohort design to answer meaningful patient-centered research questions. Using a narrative approach based on the Greek myth of Homer, we describe here the challenges and adaptations that have provided the opportunity for HOMER to thrive and find the way home. These clinical trial strategies may apply to other studies faced with similar cultural and extreme circumstances.

Between the Existential Angst and the Absurdist Quest: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and the Search for Meaning

This paper explores the existential themes present in Samuel Beckett's iconic play, Waiting for Godot. The paper aims to unravel the existential intricacies and complexities of meaning and purpose in a world devoid of both through the lens of Albert Camus' absurdist philosophy and Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist philosophy. The play explores into the realm of the absurd, compelling the audience to confront the existential nature of existence and actively pursue significance. The protagonists' persistent inquiry and pursuit of significance mirror the existentialist notion of constructing personal purpose in a world devoid of inherent meaning. Through an analysis of the characters, dialogue, and setting, the paper illuminates the ways in which Beckett's work reflects and challenges existential ideas, ultimately offering a deeper understanding of the human condition and the quest for meaning.

The Crisis of Technology and the Quest for Meaning: A Critical Conception of Media Philosophy

The crisis of modern technology has led to a series of issues such as the pervasive emptiness of meaning and the loss of subjectivity in human society. Under the influence of technological supremacy and instrumental rationality, philosophy, which abstractly refines the fundamental problems faced by humanity such as the meaning of existence, truth, and the dichotomy between rationality and irrationality, also finds itself in a crisis of legitimacy. In this context, the "media turn" in philosophy is an attempt to break free from its shackles. This paper proposes a media philosophy from the essential attributes of human communication and the inseparability of communication and media. By analyzing communication as a fundamental human essence, this paper outlines the basic concept of media philosophy, explores the path of media philosophy, and emphasizes the inherent significance of the collision of life's meanings and communicative exchanges. This paper asserts that in the era of "media as being" ontology, it is especially necessary to understand the essence of human existence and the face of the world constituted by communication from the perspective of media.

Student-generated questions: An exploration of an instructional strategy with young children

Student-generated questions enhance deeper learning and empower active participation and critical thinking. Researchers have extensively explored teacher questions, but a notable gap persists in how to teach young children to ask questions effectively. This mixed-methods pilot study examined the impact of teaching questioning skills using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in an early childhood summer program for children from under-resourced areas. Pre-post oral language assessment scores from 33 children were analyzed to determine the impact of the QFT. Results reveal that using this method, teachers can effectively guide young students to ask more and better questions. Students involved in the research exhibited a substantial increase in the number of questions posed. They demonstrated a qualitative improvement in their approach to questioning, significantly increasing the number of wonderment questions (high-level questions). Conclusions indicate that using the QFT in early childhood classrooms can encourage young children to generate questions. Based on these findings, the authors conclude that teaching learners to ask meaningful questions can enhance their engagement, comprehension, and overall academic performance in diverse populations.

Near-death experience: memory recovery during hypnosis

Increasing numbers of research studies have offered evidence regarding awareness of verified events during near-death experiences (NDEs) occurring during cardiac arrest and severely impaired brain function. The prevalence of patients reporting core NDEs under these conditions is reported as 10–12 %. One question that is often asked is why this percentage is low. Though it may be hypothesized that NDEs are limited to this low percentage of patients, it is also possible that more patients experience an NDE, but that memory is impaired sufficiently such that the NDE is not recalled. In this article I present a detailed and extensively verified case study of a woman, Stephanie Arnold, who experienced an NDE during the birth of her second child when she was 41 years old. The data provide evidence that supports the hypotheses 1) that during cardiac arrest an NDE may occur, but not be remembered until hypnotic regression therapy reveals extensive details of the events that could not have been perceived with the five senses, both in the operating room and elsewhere during resuscitation. 2) that there may also be pre-cognition of the events leading to the cardiac arrest, reported in clear detail, and 3) that NDEs lead to a fundamental transformation in an individual's understanding of the nature of consciousness, their quest for meaning and purpose, their concern for others, and their appreciation of life.

Prioritisation of clinical trial learning needs of musculoskeletal researchers: an inter-disciplinary modified Delphi study by the Australia & New Zealand musculoskeletal clinical trials network

BackgroundThere is a need to increase the capacity and capability of musculoskeletal researchers to design, conduct, and report high-quality clinical trials. The objective of this study was to identify and prioritise clinical trial learning needs of musculoskeletal researchers in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings will be used to inform development of an e-learning musculoskeletal clinical trials course.MethodsA two-round online modified Delphi study was conducted with an inter-disciplinary panel of musculoskeletal researchers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, representing various career stages and roles, including clinician researchers and consumers with lived experience of musculoskeletal conditions. Round 1 involved panellists nominating 3–10 topics about musculoskeletal trial design and conduct that they believe would be important to include in an e-learning course about musculoskeletal clinical trials. Topics were synthesised and refined. Round 2 asked panellists to rate the importance of all topics (very important, important, not important), as well as select and rank their top 10 most important topics. A rank score was calculated whereby higher scores reflect higher rankings by panellists.ResultsRound 1 was completed by 121 panellists and generated 555 individual topics describing their musculoskeletal trial learning needs. These statements were grouped into 37 unique topics for Round 2, which was completed by 104 panellists. The topics ranked as most important were: (1) defining a meaningful research question (rank score 560, 74% of panellists rated topic as very important); (2) choosing the most appropriate trial design (rank score 410, 73% rated as very important); (3) involving consumers in trial design through to dissemination (rank score 302, 62% rated as very important); (4) bias in musculoskeletal trials and how to minimise it (rank score 299, 70% rated as very important); and (5) choosing the most appropriate control/comparator group (rank score 265, 65% rated as very important).ConclusionsThis modified Delphi study generated a ranked list of clinical trial learning needs of musculoskeletal researchers. Findings can inform training courses and professional development to improve researcher capabilities and enhance the quality and conduct of musculoskeletal clinical trials.

APEAch: Automated Pipeline for End-to-End Analysis of Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Data.

With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS), experimental techniques that capture the biological significance of DNA loci or RNA molecules have emerged as fundamental tools for studying the epigenome and transcriptional regulation on a genome-wide scale. The volume of the generated data and the underlying complexity regarding their analysis highlight the need for robust and easy-to-use computational analytic methods that can streamline the process and provide valuable biological insights. Our solution, aPEAch, is an automated pipeline that facilitates the end-to-end analysis of both DNA- and RNA-sequencing assays, including small RNA sequencing, from assessing the quality of the input sample files to answering meaningful biological questions by exploiting the rich information embedded in biological data. Our method is implemented in Python, based on a modular approach that enables users to choose the path and extent of the analysis and the representations of the results. The pipeline can process samples with single or multiple replicates in batches, allowing the ease of use and reproducibility of the analysis across all samples. aPEAch provides a variety of sample metrics such as quality control reports, fragment size distribution plots, and all intermediate output files, enabling the pipeline to be re-executed with different parameters or algorithms, along with the publication-ready visualization of the results. Furthermore, aPEAch seamlessly incorporates advanced unsupervised learning analyses by automating clustering optimization and visualization, thus providing invaluable insight into the underlying biological mechanisms.

From curiosity to wonder in religious education

This study argues that religious education is uniquely positioned to resist and transcend contemporary dialectics of wonder that serve to diminish, commodify, or instrumentalize the place of wonder in society today. Wonder is traditionally characterized by a sense of importance that accompanies our encounters with mystery. In a world less comfortable with interiority and less willing to accept the sense of ignorance true wonder presupposes, the contemplative element of wonder has largely evaporated, to be replaced by a more fleeting (Schinkel in Stud Philos Educ 39(5):479–492, 2019, 481) and less challenging ‘curiosity’. Curiosity favours mastery over mystery; it elides the puzzlement or contemplation inherent in traditional understandings of wonder. In pedagogical settings, curiosity is increasingly advanced at a catalyst that motivates and directs the inquiry of the learner. However, educational literature continues to note a worrying absence of any kind of wonder in classrooms today (Jirout et al. in Front Psychol 13:875161, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.875161). This study will suggest that the advancement of wonder as curiosity in education only reinforces the very sense of apathy it is designed to counteract in its students. If wonder is recast as curiosity—a ‘skill’ that leads reliably to the ‘right answer’—students will inevitably find quicker, more efficient means to arrive at the required information. Religious education is uniquely equipped to supplement inquisitive curiosity with a more contemplative wonder that eschews easy answers. In doing so, it would equip students to grapple with what modern society has become so adept at evading: the “stubborn there-ness” (Arendt in Medina J, Wood D (eds) Truth: engagements across philosophical traditions. Blackwell Publishing, London, 2005, p. 310) of mystery that characterizes the most meaningful questions of our existence.

PREPARATION OF FUTURE TEACHERS FOR TRAINING PHYSICS IN INSTITUTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL PRE-HIGHER EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

The article highlights relevant aspects of training future teachers of physics in institutions of professional pre-higher education, vocational education and modelling of practice-oriented tasks. The authors justified the importance of modernizing the content of relevant programmes of the "Physics" discipline, considering the profession of students at professional colleges and lyceums. It is noted that studying physics contributes to the formation of subject competencies of students, the ability to analyse, systematize, generalize information, overcome difficulties of adaptation to professional activity. Based on the analysis of scientific sources, the target, content, operational-activity, diagnostic-resultative blocks of the structural-functional model of training future teachers for teaching physics in institutions of professional pre-higher education and vocational education were selected. The target block is based on the socio-economic demand of society for qualified specialists. The content block contains pedagogical, psychological, methodical, and technological knowledge. Gnostic (research), design, organizational, and communication skills are highlighted in the structure of the operational-activity block. The diagnostic-resultative block will help the physics teacher to make corrections in the process of professional training of college students and vocational-technical lyceums. The importance of practice-oriented tasks in the process of learning physics for students of professional higher education and professional and technical education is indicated. Differences between practice-oriented tasks and other physical tasks are determined. The structure (name of the task, individually meaningful cognitive question, information, task involving work with information) and the algorithm of preparation for creating tasks of practical content in physics are presented. The methodology of teaching simulation of practice-oriented tasks in the process of studying the educational component "Methodology of teaching physics in a specialized school" is illustrated.

Analogy and Generalization as a Driving Force of Learning Mathematics – the Case of a Matrix Analog of a Zero of a Polynomial

The concepts of polynomials and matrices essentially expand and enhance the elementary arithmetic of numbers. Once introduced, polynomials and matrices open up new interesting mathematical challenges which extend to new fields of mathematical explorations within university mathematics. We present an aspect of a rather elementary exploration of polynomials and matrices, which offers a new perspective and an interesting matrix analog to the concept of a zero of a polynomial. The discussion offers an opportunity for better comprehension of the fundamental concepts of polynomials and matrices. As an application, we are led to the meaningful questions of linear algebra and to an easy proof of the otherwise advanced and abstract Cayley–Hamilton theorem.

The phenomenon of religious conversion in Kazakhstan and its influence on personality formation

This study investigates the phenomenon of religious conversion among non-Muslim nationalities in Kazakhstan following the collapse of the Soviet government and the resurgence of interest in Islam. Through sociologically in-depth interviews, the research reveals that low religious awareness, marriage to a Muslim, social influence, and the presence of a local Muslim community are pivotal factors driving this conversion process. Moreover, the study highlights the broader societal context, including post-Soviet spiritual quests and the quest for meaning, as contributing to the growing interest in religion. As a result of religious conversion, individuals from various backgrounds experience a profound transformation of their personal identity, transitioning from a Christian to a Muslim identity. This transformation fosters closer relations with the Muslim majority in Kazakhstan, promoting social cohesion and unity in a society where Islam has a significant presence.

Harmonizing data on correlates of sleep in children within and across neurodevelopmental disorders: lessons learned from an Ontario Brain Institute cross-program collaboration.

There is an increasing desire to study neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) together to understand commonalities to develop generic health promotion strategies and improve clinical treatment. Common data elements (CDEs) collected across studies involving children with NDDs afford an opportunity to answer clinically meaningful questions. We undertook a retrospective, secondary analysis of data pertaining to sleep in children with different NDDs collected through various research studies. The objective of this paper is to share lessons learned for data management, collation, and harmonization from a sleep study in children within and across NDDs from large, collaborative research networks in the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI). Three collaborative research networks contributed demographic data and data pertaining to sleep, internalizing symptoms, health-related quality of life, and severity of disorder for children with six different NDDs: autism spectrum disorder; attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; obsessive compulsive disorder; intellectual disability; cerebral palsy; and epilepsy. Procedures for data harmonization, derivations, and merging were shared and examples pertaining to severity of disorder and sleep disturbances were described in detail. Important lessons emerged from data harmonizing procedures: prioritizing the collection of CDEs to ensure data completeness; ensuring unprocessed data are uploaded for harmonization in order to facilitate timely analytic procedures; the value of maintaining variable naming that is consistent with data dictionaries at time of project validation; and the value of regular meetings with the research networks to discuss and overcome challenges with data harmonization. Buy-in from all research networks involved at study inception and oversight from a centralized infrastructure (OBI) identified the importance of collaboration to collect CDEs and facilitate data harmonization to improve outcomes for children with NDDs.

Transformer Models for Brazilian Portuguese Question Generation: An Experimental Study

Unlike tasks such as translation or summarization, generating meaningful questions necessitates a profound understanding of context, semantics, and syntax. This complexity arises from the need to not only comprehend the given text comprehensively but also infer information gaps, identify relevant entities, and construct syntactically and semantically correct interrogative sentences. We address this challenge by proposing an experimental fine-tuning approach for encoder-decoder models (T5, FLAN-T5, and BART-PT) tailored explicitly for Brazilian Portuguese question generation. Our study involves fine-tuning these models on the SQUAD-v1.1 dataset and subsequent evaluation, also on SQUAD-v1.1. Through our experimental endeavors, BART returned a higher result in all the ROUGE metrics, as ROUGE-1 0.46, ROUGE-2 0.24, and ROUGE-L 0.43, suggesting a higher lexical similarity in the questions generated, and it is comparable to the results of the question generation task for the English language. We explored how these advancements can significantly enhance the precision and quality of the question generation task in Brazilian Portuguese, bridging the gap between training data and the intricacies of interrogative sentence construction.

Enhancing analytical thinking in grade 8 science education: Integrating 5E inquiry-based and 5W1H techniques

This research investigates how combining the 5E Inquiry-Based Approach with the 5W1H technique can improve analytical thinking skills among eighth-grade students. This action research included two educational sessions following a detailed teaching plan, targeting 36 eighth-grade students who scored below 70% in their placement tests. The teaching plan was adjusted and improved throughout the research. The analysis of the collected data showed that students' analytical thinking skills were significantly enhanced. Furthermore, students reported finding this combined method helpful, especially in building on what they already knew and learning to ask meaningful questions. The study underlines the success of this approach and its contribution to developing new teaching strategies in science education. It suggests areas for future research and practical application in teaching, highlighting the need for student-focused teaching methods and support to fully realize students' abilities. This study points out the value of merging the 5E and 5W1H methods to develop comprehensive skills and improve the learning experience in modern classrooms.

A Concept of Complementarity Between Complexity and Redundancy can Account for Kant's Biological Teleology and Unify Mechanistic and Finalistic Biology.

Over 160years after Darwin and 70years after the discovery of DNA, two fundamental questions of biology remain unanswered: What differentiates the living from the nonliving? How can mechanistic and finalistic or holistic biology be unified? Niels Bohr introduced a concept of complementarity in quantum physics and based on the paradox of light as a simultaneous wave and particle, conjectured that a similar concept might exist in biology that would solve the paradox of life originating from the nonliving. Bohr proposed that two mutually exclusive-independent observations may be necessary to explain a phenomenon and provided support to Immanuel Kant's idea that the "purposive" behaviour of organisms could only be explained in teleological terms and that mechanical and teleological approaches were necessary and complementary to explain biology. We present a concept of complementarity whereby biochemical pathways or cellular channels for the flow of information are simultaneously complex and redundant and complexity and redundancy complement each other. The postulates of biological complementarity are that (1) it was an essential condition in the origin of life; (2) it provided physiological flexibility that allowed organisms to mount self-protection response and complexity to evolve in the face of deleterious mutations before the evolution of bi-parental sex; (3) it laid the foundation for the evolution of a choice of response when confronted with threat; and (4) it applies to all levels of biological organizations and, thus, can serve as a basis for the unification of mechanistic and holistic biology. It is proposed that teleology is simultaneously constitutive and heuristic: constitutive because organisms' "purposive" behaviours are adaptive and are grounded in mechanism (complexity and redundancy), and heuristic because with our finite cognition and our goal-oriented (humans alone are aware of "tomorrow") and anthropomorphic pre-disposition, teleology will remain useful as a guide to our making sense of the world, even how to ask a meaningful question.

Automatic Question Paper Generator Using Artificial Intelligence

This process involves using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, specifically LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) algorithms, to generate questions from text while ensuring semantic accuracy and syntactic coherence. Unlike tasks such as summarization and paraphrasing, generating questions requires not only understanding the text but also being able to frame questions that elicit specific information, thus necessitating answers. To overcome this challenge, the approach involves several steps. First, the text undergoes preprocessing with NLP techniques to remove irrelevant or redundant information, as well as to identify and extract keywords crucial for generating questions. Next, LSTM algorithms are employed to process the text and keywords, enabling the system to understand the context and semantic nuances present in the text. Once the text has been processed, the system begins constructing questions. Instead of directly asking questions based on the extracted keywords, the LSTM algorithm twists or rephrases the questions to ensure they are not merely repetitions of the original text. This twisting process involves rearranging sentence structures, altering word choices, or introducing subtle variations to produce questions that are natural-sounding and coherent while still effectively eliciting the desired information. By leveraging NLP techniques and LSTM algorithms in this manner, the system can generate questions that are not only semantically accurate and syntactically cohesive but also effectively engage with the content of the text, overcoming the challenge of needing answers to frame meaningful questions. This approach represents an innovative use of NLP technology to enhance question generation capabilities, enabling more robust and contextually relevant questioning from textual data.

Beyond Pleasure, Desire for Meaningful Consumption and Peacefulness from Digital Entertainment Platforms; Extending UTAUT2 Model with Eudemonic Motivation and Tranquility

The landscape of entertainment consumption has undergone a profound shift, with the emergence of digital entertainment platforms becoming indispensable in satisfying consumers’ desire for convenience. This study examines the complex interaction between user motivations and the adoption of digital entertainment platforms, focusing on the desire for meaningful consumption and the pursuit of experiencing peacefulness by adopting digital entertainment platforms. We extend the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) by introducing eudemonic motivation (EM) and tranquility (TL) as constructs influencing users’ behavioral intention (BI) and actual use (AU) of digital entertainment platforms. Adopting a non-probability mixed sampling method consisting of convenience and snowball sampling, we collected data from 870 active users across five southern Indian states through online surveys. A quantitative study design was used to test the model by employing partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The result of PLS-SEM analysis indicated that BI is positively influenced by effort expectancy (EE), hedonic motivation (HM), habit (HA), EM, and TL. Social influence (SI) has no significant influence on BI. The findings reveal that consumers seek meaningful eudemonic experiences and a sense of peacefulness from their digital entertainment interactions. This study serves as a foundation for future research, emphasizing the significance on crafting technologies that resonate with users’ quest for meaning and inner peace in digital entertainment consumption.

Learning from the working from home experiment during COVID-19: employees motivation to continue working from home

PurposeThis research investigates the challenges and benefits of working from home and the needs that organisations should understand when adopting working from home practices.Design/methodology/approachSelf-determination theory was used to understand the drivers of motivation when working from home, to provide a deep understanding of how organisations may support employees working from home. A cross-sectional qualitative survey design was used to collect data from 511 office workers during May and June of 2020.FindingsEmployees' needs for competence were thwarted by a lack of direction and focus, unsuitable work environment, work extensification and negative work culture. Employees' experiences and needs for relatedness were more diverse, identifying that they enjoyed spending more time with family and having a greater connection to the outdoors, but felt more isolated and suffered from a lack of interaction. Employees' experiences of autonomy whilst working from home were also mixed, having less autonomy from blurred boundaries between home and work, as well as childcare responsibilities. Conversely, there was more freedom to be able to concentrate on physical health.Practical implicationsEmployee’s needs for competence should be prioritised. Organisations must be conscious of this and provide the support that enables direction and focus when working at home.Originality/valueSwathes of research were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but overwhelmingly focused on quantitative methods. A qualitative survey design enabled participants to answer meaningful open-ended questions, better suited to explain the complexity of their experiences, which allowed for understanding and richness not gained through previous studies.

Ask Meaningful Questions To Determine the Value You Can Provide

Ask Meaningful Questions To Determine the Value You Can Provide