Open-type Questions Research Articles

Educational Seismology through an Immersive Virtual Reality Game: Design, Development and Pilot Evaluation of User Experience

Virtual Reality (VR), especially in its immersive form, is a promising technology employed to support education and training in various fields. VR offers unique opportunities to experience situations and environments that are otherwise inaccessible or risky. Educational Seismology aims to inform and educate the public on earthquakes; to this end, the use of VR is investigated as an attractive solution. VRQuake is an immersive VR application designed and developed for Educational Seismology purposes. VRQuake is structured in five consecutive scenes and is organized as a game. It allows users to interact with virtual objects in real time and apply learned rules and good practices in reaction to an earthquake, thus providing a dynamic learning environment. A pilot evaluation of VRQuake is performed by volunteer university students who play the game and then answer a questionnaire with closed- and open-type questions referring mostly to the user experience. Analysis of the answers has shown positive results regarding usability, clarity and acceptance of the application. Answers are also encouraging as to the educational potential of VRQuake. Furthermore, qualitative analysis of open-type questions has contributed user suggestions and demands that point to interesting new directions for further improvement of user experience and learning outcomes.

The Science and Technology Courses that Choose the Preservice Teachers during their Studies in Greece

Education has as its fundamental goal the cultivation, socialization, and smooth integration of individuals into the needs of modern society. The goals of education include the understanding of the content of the Physical Sciences (P.E.) course, which is analyzed at all educational levels, as well as the necessity of the modern teacher to know Physical Sciences. The present work has as its object of study the investigation of the preference of the elective courses of Physical Sciences, Technology, Environment, and Mathematics. 140 students of the Undergraduate Study Program of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Ioannina (DPE) participated in the research carried out. The questionnaire, completed by the students, consists of 33 multiple-choice, closed, and open-type questions. A descriptive analysis of the responses for each question and the correlation of student preference with Gender and High School Orientation Group was performed. According to the results, it seems that students generally choose more Physical Sciences and Environment courses than Technology and Mathematics. Regarding the comparison between Gender, for all four years of study, females seem to prefer these electives more than males. Regarding the Orientation Group, the students coming from the Humanities Studies show, with a small difference, a greater preference than those from the Sciences Studies and Economics and Computer Studies. Of particular interest are the results regarding how courses are selected and, in general, with the existing curriculum related to Gender.

The role of parental compliance in the ophthalmological rehabilitation of patients in the active phase of retinopathy of prematurity

Purpose: to assess the degree of parents’ compliance of children with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the active phase of the disease and to identify the factors affecting the formation of the compliance. Material and methods. 73 parents (67 mothers and 6 fathers) of active phase ROP-patients were surveyed using a replenishable database created in Google Forms The respondents’ age ranged from 22 to 46 years (averagely, 32.5 ± 2.0 years). The questionnaire involved socio-demographic characteristics (the parents’ age and gender, place of residence, education; gestational age of the child at the time of birth, the child’ age at the moment of the parental survey) and the data on the communication with medical personnel and adherence to their recommendations. The survey had multiple choice and open-type questions. The criteria for compliance included exact adherence to the recommendations of the attending physician and the approval of their actions concerning the main treatment features (using of medications, resorting to surgery, i.e. laser coagulation of the retina, dynamic multi-stage ophthalmological observation). Results. 90.4 % of the respondents received basic information about the eye disease of their child from an ophthalmologist. 15.1 % of respondents mentioned additional printed sources, and 20.5 %, the Internet resources. High levels of satisfaction concerned the completeness of the information received from the doctor (76.7 %) and the appointment of diagnostic examinations and laser coagulation of the retina (100 %). The highest compliance rates were found in parents over 36 yrs. and in the parents of patients with severe posterior aggressive ROP. The level of education, place of residence, the degree of prematurity of the child had no significant impact on the assessment of the competence of the ophthalmologist. Conclusion. ROP has specific clinical and psychological features that require high professionalism, and communication skills of neonatologists and ophthalmologists. It is expedient that a clinical psychologist participates in the treatment process so as to ensure timely correction of compliance disorders of the parents of a premature infant.

DOBITI DRUŠTVENO KORISNOG UČENJA IZ PERSPEKTIVE BUDUĆIH SOCIJALNIH RADNIKA

THE BENEFITS OF SERVICE LEARNING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FUTURE SOCIAL WORKERS Service learning (DKU) is an innovative method based on experiential learning whose implementation in the educational system can achieve numerous benefits for the academic and social community. The aim of the research presented by this paper was to examine the perceived profits of DKU among social work students (N = 23) due to the pilot implementation of the elective DKU course in the first year of study. Three research questions were asked related to the student’s perception of gains from participation in DKU projects for various actors in the project, self-assessment of satisfaction with certain elements of the DKU and proposals for improving the course. Research questions were elaborated in a survey applied upon completion of the course; answers to open-type questions were processed using the method of qualitative content analysis, and answers to closed-type questions by quantitative analysis of data. According to the results, students primarily recognize the numerous profits of DKU for themselves on a personal and professional level, but they also perceive a range of profits for users, associations and the wider community. Furthermore, students are very satisfied with the different elements of DKU and believe that it has enabled them to get to know the practice of social work better. And, finally, students propose (even) more emphasis on the preparation and design of projects and on working in the association / community, as well as more reflections orally. The results speak in favor of increasing quotas in the DKU course and/or the implementation of DKU on several courses at the beginning of the study. Keywords: service-learning projects; social work students; profit; satisfaction; reflection

Experiences and attitudes of medical professionals on treatment of end-of-life patients in intensive care units in the Republic of Croatia: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundDecisions about limitations of life sustaining treatments (LST) are made for end-of-life patients in intensive care units (ICUs). The aim of this research was to explore the professional and ethical attitudes and experiences of medical professionals on treatment of end-of-life patients in ICUs in the Republic of Croatia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians and nurses working in surgical, medical, neurological, and multidisciplinary ICUs in the total of 9 hospitals throughout Croatia using a questionnaire with closed and open type questions. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to reduce data to a smaller set of summary variables. Mann–Whitney U test was used to analyse the differences between two groups and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to analyse the differences between more than two groups.ResultsLess than third of participants (29.2%) stated they were included in the decision-making process, and physicians are much more included than nurses (p < 0.001). Sixty two percent of participants stated that the decision-making process took place between physicians. Eighteen percent of participants stated that ‘do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitations’ orders were frequently made in their ICUs. A decision to withdraw inotropes and antibiotics was frequently made as stated by 22.4% and 19.9% of participants, respectively. Withholding/withdrawing of LST were ethically acceptable to 64.2% of participants. Thirty seven percent of participants thought there was a significant difference between withholding and withdrawing LST from an ethical standpoint. Seventy-nine percent of participants stated that a verbal or written decision made by a capable patient should be respected. Physicians were more inclined to respect patient’s wishes then nurses with high school education (p = 0.038). Nurses were more included in the decision-making process in neurological than in surgical, medical, or multidisciplinary ICUs (p < 0.001, p = 0.005, p = 0.023 respectively). Male participants in comparison to female (p = 0.002), and physicians in comparison to nurses with high school and college education (p < 0.001) displayed more liberal attitudes about LST limitation.ConclusionsDNACPR orders are not commonly made in Croatian ICUs, even though limitations of LST were found ethically acceptable by most of the participants. Attitudes of paternalistic and conservative nature were expected considering Croatia’s geographical location in Southern Europe.

Experiências educativas em espaços educativos não formais em um grupo de futuros professores de ciências e biologia

Considerando que saber usar estratégias metodológicas adequadas aos objetivos de ensino-aprendizagem pretendidos, saber planejar e executar planos de ensino-aprendizagem contextualizados, e se possível interdisciplinar, representa hoje competências profissionais fundamentais para o exercício da profissão de professor, e ainda, considerando que usar espaços não formais no ensino formal pode ser uma importante possibilidade e estratégia didática para a promoção de um ensino escolar contextualizado e interdisciplinar, conforme apontaram os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais, na segunda metade da década de 1990, e recentemente ratificados pela Base Nacional Comum Curricular, este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa desenvolvida em 2019, com o objetivo de conhecer e analisar experiências educativas em espaços não formais que tiveram um grupo de licenciandos em Ciências Biológicas durante o período em que cursaram a Educação Básica. Como técnica e instrumento de coleta de dados, a pesquisa usou questionário com perguntas do tipo fechadas e do tipo aberta. Os resultados mostraram que esses licenciandos, na sua quase totalidade, não tiveram nenhuma oportunidade de experimentar aulas com uso desses espaços em seu processo formativo escolar no nível da Educação Básica.

Gamification as a Tool for Stimulating the Educational Activity of Students of Higher Educational Institutions of Ukraine and the United States

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;This study has experimentally tested how the introduction of simulations, adapting the experience of higher educational institutions of the United States, including the elements of gamification, in the training course Professional Foreign Language stimulates the educational activity of students at higher educational institutions of Ukraine students’ educational activity through the involvement and creation of activity for constructive competition and cooperation, stimulation of interests and motives, maintaining cognitive attention of students and encouraging feedback. To carry out this research, a script, a methodology for arranging the simulation Coffee Import-Export Procedure was developed. To process the collected statistical information, Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) software, including two-way ANOVA for Mixed Measures, was used, and the Textalyzer software was used to process the answers of the experimental group’s students to the open-type questions. It was found out, that the simulation model Coffee Import-Export Procedure with elements of gamification develops value-motivational, cognitive and activity-reflective components of educational activity of students, develops self-education skills, which are included in the list of key life and career Skills of the 21st Century, moving the formation of competences of self-education from minor to dominant positions, forms the model of future professional activity of students. The scientific and practical results of this research can be used in the practice of corporate training of company’s personnel, professional training of future specialists in management, international business, organizational psychology, law, etc., as well as for the organization of professional training for people with limited access to higher professional education or for those who needs retraining.&lt;/p&gt;

Police Strategies and Suspect Responses in Real-Life Serious Crime Interviews

This research focuses exclusively on real-life taped interviews with serious crime suspects and examines the strategies used and types of questions asked by police, and suspects’ responses to these. The information source was audio-tape-recorded interviews with 56 suspects. These recordings were obtained from 11 police services across England and Wales and were analysed using a specially designed coding frame. It was found that interviewers employed a range of strategies with presentation of evidence and challenge the most frequently observed. Closed questions were by far the most frequently used, and open questions, although less frequent, were found to occur more during the opening phases of the interviews. The frequency of ineffective question types (e.g. negative, repetitive, multiple) was low. A number of significant associations were observed between interviewer strategies and suspect responses. Rapport/empathy and open-type questions were associated with an increased likelihood of suspects admitting the offence whilst describing trauma, and negative questions were associated with a decreased likelihood.

Exploring the learning problems and resource usage of undergraduate industrial design students in design studio courses

Design is a powerful weapon for modern companies so it is important to have excellent designers in the industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the learning problems and the resources that students use to overcome problems in undergraduate industrial design studio courses. A survey with open-type questions was conducted to collect data. Participants in this study were 189 undergraduate industrial design students from three universities, and two coding schema were formulated for analysing the data. The results demonstrated that the most difficult design tasks included concept generation, design presentation, and design research. The learning resources used to solve the learning problems included four categories: people, object, method, and environment. This information will increase the understanding of the learning process of students and provide a reference for teaching and the setting of learning resources in industrial design education.

Assessment of nutritional knowledge of patients with pancreatitis.

IntroductionProper nourishment is one of the basic elements in the treatment of patients with both acute and chronic pancreatitis. Following acute pancreatitis, the essential element of nutritional treatment is dietary education. The dietary approach is used not only for treatment, but also for prevention of reoccurrence of the condition.AimTo evaluate nutritional knowledge of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis.Material and methodsThe selected group consisted of 36 patients, 19 females and 17 males, suffering from acute or chronic pancreatitis. Participation in our survey was anonymous and voluntary. The study population was divided into two groups: 12 patients with acute pancreatitis (5 males and 7 females) and 24 patients with chronic pancreatitis (12 males and 12 females). The median age of patients was 42.4 ±14 years (range: 20–76 years). The duration of illness among the study population was varied. The biggest group of 16 (44.4%) patients suffered from pancreatitis for more than 5 years, 8 (22.2%) patients had pancreatitis diagnosed 1–2 years previously, only 3 (8.3%) subjects suffered from pancreatitis for shorter than half a year. To analyse patients’ nutritional knowledge an authorial questionnaire was used that contained 17 closed questions and open-type questions were used three times.ResultsMost (97%) subjects with acute and chronic pancreatitis adhered to the diet to various degrees, but almost 50% of people up to 35 years of age declared that they didn't respect the diet, or that they followed only a few recommendations. Despite each interviewer admitted to follow dietary recommendations for pancreatitis, 11.1% of patients could not indicate any of them. Most patients knew that their diet should contain a low amount of fat (61% of patients). Awareness of alcohol abstinence was confirmed in 44.4% of subjects. One third (33.3%) of patients knew that fried food should be avoided. Only a few patients were aware that smoking, spicy food, and strong coffee should be excluded from their diet. About 80% of the surveyed patients evaluated their level of nutritional knowledge as good or very good. Only 20% of the study population admitted their dietary knowledge was unsatisfactory, and most of these were woman (86%).ConclusionsThe results of the present study demonstrate that dietary knowledge among patients suffering from acute and chronic pancreatitis is insufficient. Although patients have theoretical knowledge about nutritional management, they have problems implementing the diet on a daily basis. It is necessary to pay more attention to nutritional education for patients suffering from pancreatitis.

Partial or Comprehensive Reform of the Education System in Kosovo: Overcoming Students Difficulties in Learning through New Teaching Strategies

Reform of the education system always has as an aim quality improvement in education. However not always students achieve to learn and gain new knowledge in successful way. Problems which appear among students during the process of teaching and learning different courses are not as a result of their intellectual abilities, but often they are as a result of lacking contemporary and adequate teaching strategies from the teachers. The way how teachers organize the whole teaching process is crucial in successful learning from students and increasing their achievement in learning. In this paper work I will present the results of research which is part of my PhD research paperwork which is done with 661 students of different elementary, middle and high schools in Kosovo. Out coming results of this research give as concrete data for courses which seems to be more difficult for students and in which their achievement is not at satisfactory level. Also this research will present the reasons why students consider those courses difficult and the reason which demotivates them have better learning achievements. Methodology: The part of research we will present is quantitative. The research has been conducted through questionnaire which consisted of variation of different questions; testing articles with optional selection of answers, and open type questions. The measurement scale of questionnaire is nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. The data analyses where conducted with SPSS program. Analysis of this research is done through cross tabulations. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p0509

Prevalence of Pediculosis Capitis among Schoolchildren in Greece and Risk Factors: A Questionnaire Survey

Pediculosis capitis is a common problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of pediculosis capitis in children of preschool or school age in Greece, as well as to investigate the potential risk factors. The study included children of preschool and school age from all over Greece, including urban, semi-urban, and rural areas of Greece. A questionnaire with both closed and open-type questions, which was constructed by the researcher and filled in by the children's parents, was used. A total of 5,084 questionnaires were distributed, of which 2,792 were adequately filled and subsequently evaluated. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used. The median age of the children was 8 years (range: 3-13 yrs) and 54% of them were girls. Pediculosis was found to be prevalent in 12% of the tested population. The prevalence of the disease seems to be increased after the age of 10 years and the risk is higher in girls. The number of family members was correlated positively with the risk of being infected with pediculosis at least once. The children's gender, their age, and family size were correlated with the risk of infection.

Difference between the attitudes towards minority groups among parents and their children

The aim of this research is to establish if there are differences between discrimination attitudes of parents and their children towards various marginal groups (the Chinese, Roma, the rich, the poor, persons of different sex, disabled persons). 849 persons were examined in this research: 310 of children and 539 of parents. The questionnaire of identical form for parents and their children was used to examine these discrimination attitudes. The questionnaire contains the open-type questions and it is the part of questionnaire used in the investigation project of wider range. Independent estimators in the scale from 1 to 6 quantified these qualitative results obtained on the basis of open-type questions, by determine the intensity of these attitudes (in negative direction). So-called Canonical discrimination analysis was used, out of statistical methods. The obtained results show that parents and their children statistically differ significantly in discrimination attitudes towards the Chinese, male persons and disabled persons. Children express discrimination attitudes towards male sex and towards disabled persons, but do not have considerable discrimination attitudes towards the Chinese, but parents express discrimination attitudes towards the Chinese, but do not have considerable discrimination attitudes towards the male sex and towards disabled persons.

A model for curriculum development and student evaluation

The paper outlines theoretical foundations for investigations to be conducted in our education, based on USA (DISCOVERY) and Yugoslav (CREATIVITY) previous projects that dealt with developing, investigating and evaluating (a) abilities of creative problem solving within seven types of intelligence after the Gardner model and (b) curriculum that provides and encourages the development of those abilities. Divergent thinking and creativity in all spheres of intellectual behavior in teaching are encouraged by introducing open-type questions, play, exploring activities and multimedia integrative-interdisciplinary thematic approach to problem solving. Multiple intelligence and a dimensional model of problem solving present theoretical foundations for curriculum development and a new qualitative approach to process evaluation of student's various abilities. Investigations should make provisions for comparing the results obtained in various cultures and for integrating best solutions into a common whole. Comparing the results of cultures and testing theoretical models and instruments for the evaluation of students are the outcomes essential to the science of pedagogy. Curriculum development oriented to problem and divergent thinking in different areas, intellectual functioning, and enrichment of the choice of instruments for multiple process evaluation of students can also significantly contribute to the current reform of Yugoslav school, development of student abilities and teacher education and in-service training.

An Evaluation of Teaching Techniques Used in Transkei, South Africa to Assess Competency in Primary Mathematics

To evaluate the suitability of the senior primary mathematics curriculum in Transkei, South Africa in enabling Standard 3 (Grade 5) and Standard 4 (Grade 6) pupils to achieve competency in mathematics, an overview of teaching techniques was obtained using participant observation and class teaching exercises. Analysis showed that teachers relied largely on closed-type teaching techniques and heavily on textbooks, while direct classroom observation indicated teachers' lack of ability to innovate and make teaching topical and dynamic. The pupils were generally unable to solve open-type questions, a situation attributed here to the teachers' rigid pattern of teaching.