Poor Lecturer Research Articles

Low Attendance of Lectures among Medical Students

Abstract Background: Absenteeism is defined as the frequent nonattendance from classes with no reasonable cause. Nonattendance affects the teaching–learning practice and affects the well-being of the class. Causes given by students for absenteeism were lack of time, illness boring, or unexciting lecture topics. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to determine the absenteeism behavior among students of the medical college of Al-Mustansiriyah University, Iraq, to find out the causes behind lectures’ nonattendance, and to demonstrate the rate of the most common causes. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study, descriptive study, was conducted at Al-Mustansiriyah University, College of Medicine, with a convenient sample from the third, fourth, and fifth classes, in March 2019 for 3 weeks, using a special questionnaire was made especially for the purpose of the study, and data analysis was performed using Excel trial version software and the use of descriptive statistical techniques. Results: About two-thirds of the students missed approximately 0–5 lectures per week. The qualities of lecturers, their training, and the relationship they have with the students appear to play a role in attending lectures. The results show that about one-third of students consider the difficult subject and their desire to benefit from the lecture influenced their decision to attend. The most common cause chosen for nonattendance was having an examination on the next day, about 66%, and lecturer expression was 63%. The most common cause for missing morning lectures was traffic problems, 53%. Conclusion: The lecture attendance rate was low, and the main reasons for absenteeism from lectures were the presence of the examination, poor lecturer teaching style, and boring lecture topics.

Transformational Leadership, Perceived Organizational Support Sharing, Organizational Commitment and Employee Performance: the Role of Religiosity

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine how transformational leadership, knowledge sharing, and perceived organizational support affect organizational commitment and how their effects on performance are influenced by religiosity at Nahdlatul Ulama University in East Java. This kind of study is known as explanatory research. Method: Purposive sampling is the kind of sample strategy that should be applied. 345 samples were successfully obtained for this study. A Likert scale questionnaire was employed as the data gathering method in this investigation. The Partial Least Square (PLS) method was used to analyze the data, and SmartPLS version 3 PLS software was used. Research Findingsand Discussions: The following factors have been found to have a positive and significant impact on organizational commitment: 1) Transformational Leadership; 2) Perceived Organizational Support; 3) Knowledge Sharing; 4) Organizational Commitment has a positive and significant impact on performance; and 5) Religiosity strengthens the relationship between organizational commitment and employee performance. Research Implications: Research implicates poor lecturer performance with low-quality tertiary institutions. Studies must expand focus to include knowledge sharing, organizational support, and leadership to enhance relationships and improve organizational commitment and performance. Originality/Value: The poor performance of lecturers as members of the teaching staff in higher education is inextricably linked to the low quality of tertiary institutions. Numerous studies that have been done only look at a few variables and ignore the importance of knowledge sharing, perceived organizational support, and transformational leadership in maximizing the potential for relationships that are mediated by organizational commitment and moderated by religiosity to improve company performance.

Current Status about COVID-19 Impacts on Online Education System: A Review in Bangladesh

This paper aims to explore the current status of online education and Covid-19 impacts on the educational system in Bangladesh. This paper is presented systematically by incorporating comprehensive literature on Covid-19 and education in Bangladesh from numerous secondary data sources. During the lockdown, the Bangladesh government has taken initiatives to continue classes through television and other online platforms. However, teachers and students experienced some challenges during the online education system. It was found that teachers were not well trained and had not sufficient knowledge about technology for conducting online classes. Alternatively, many students were unable to participate in online classes for not having digital devices and poor internet connection for living in rural areas. Even though some of the students had participated in online classes, they had a lack of concentration during online classes because of the new class format and poor lecture presentation of teachers. A major portion of the students faced financial crises and unable to bear educational expenses. The university final year students have suffered psychological pressure because they missed their opportunity to apply for several job circulars. The lockdown situation compelled the educational institute to close its academic activities throughout Bangladesh. The government is trying to take policies to solve the issues, but there have not enough published documents to incorporate this issue. This study will contribute to minimizing the research gap by supporting the policymaker by presenting the current education situation.

TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH A CLIL APPROACH IN RUSSIAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES

In recent decades, increasing numbers of EMI (English as Medium of Instructions) courses have been added to university course offerings in countries where English is not the first language, as a way of supporting university internalization and addressing the global status of English. However, some studies argue that EMI courses might affect the overall learning of course content because of students' poor lecture comprehension and passive engagement in class. In order to facilitate student engagement and improve learning experiences in EMI courses, the authors introduce a CLIL approach that would facilitate students' overall learning in entrepreneurship. By focusing rather on the content, students acquire the target language unconsciously. Learning a language through content does not only increase the students’ motivation but it also improves the students’ performances, both in language and content. This article demonstrates the possibility of combining the subject Entrepreneurial Leadership and CIL, and it intends to explore possible benefits and obstructions. During the research it became evident that the students’ interest in Entrepreneurial Leadership which was realized in the frame of Masters’ Programme “Entrepreneurs for Tomorrow” as well as their concentration increased, mainly due to the use of different teaching techniques employed and partly due to use of English as the language of instruction. Further issues raised in the field of CLIL Entrepreneurial Leadership will be discussed in the empirical part and in the curriculum analysis.

Persepsi Mahasiswa Tentang Penyelenggaraan Program Intensif Bahasa pada Pusat Pengembangan Bahasa

Abstract: Language Development Center (PPB) IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon is one of the Technical Implementation Unit of higher education related to intensive English and Arabic development program. All students from semester one to four must follow and graduate on this program. Assessment of the implementation of this program based on student perceptions of 100 samples is an evaluative study conducted by researchers. Using a questionnaire as a research instrument, it contains input, process, output, lecturers and staff indicators in the learning process. From the research results obtained conclusion that the assessment of the implementation of language intensive program on PPB IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon based on students' perceptions goes pretty well. Most of the students considered that the lecturers of PPB had prepared the teaching well, mastered the taught material, and the exam questions were in accordance with the taught material. Some things that need to be improved are intensive course lectures held on Saturday Sunday, late module distribution, team teaching implementation that has not been optimal, and poor lecturer behavior. Keywords: Language intensive program, Perception

MEMIS: A Mobile-Supported English-Medium Instruction System

Education is one of the most important elements in our lives, as it provides a direct gain in knowledge. Thus, in order to provide better academic achievement, more and more instructors are adapting collaborative learning to their classes. However, two major problems lurk behind collaborative learning. First, it is difficult to apply collaborative learning because students tend to engage passively with traditional lectures. As a result, interactive technologies such as clickers have been applied to increase interactive learning and raise the rate of interaction. Nevertheless, these interactive technologies still have some limitations, such as limited mobility, high costs, setup issues, technical difficulties, and little support of higher-order thinking skills. Second, recently there has been an increasing number of EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) courses added to university course offerings in countries where English is not the first language. The goal of these courses is to support university internationalization and address the global status of English. However, it is even harder to achieve in-class interaction in large EMI lecture courses. In addition, some studies argue that EMI courses might affect the overall learning of course content because of students’ poor lecture comprehension and passive engagement in class.In order to address the limitations of interactive technologies, encourage more collaborative learning, facilitate greater in-class interaction in large lecture courses, and resolve students’ poor lecture comprehension in EMI courses, the author introduces MEMIS (Mobile-Supported English-Medium Instruction System), which includes both a T&S (Teachers & Students) mobile app and an EMI pedagogical method. The author first provides detailed implementation and all the features of the T&S mobile app, which improves students’ perceptions of classroom participation and in-class interaction. Then the author explains how she develops her EMI pedagogy such that it utilizes the features of the T&S mobile app to: 1) increase students’ overall learning in her EMI course, 2) develop students’ construction of knowledge and higher-order thinking, and 3) achieve all six cognitive processes from Bloom’s revised taxonomy. The author adapts a quasi-experimental design, statistically analyzes the effectiveness of both exam scores and final grades between a control group and an experimental group, and then asks students to evaluate their experiences and provide feedback about MEMIS. Based on both statistical results and students’ overall feedback, the author confirms that MEMIS is an effective approach that improves lecture comprehension, encourages more class engagement, promotes collaborative learning, and achieves better learning outcomes.

Undergraduate Students’ Failure in Programming Courses in Institutions of Higher Education in Developing Countries: A Nigerian Perspective

AbstractUniversities of developing countries are faced with increased dropout rate from computing degrees due to the high failure rate of introductory programing courses. In this paper, we apply a grounded theory approach to investigate why student's fail introductory programming courses in a Nigeria University. A qualitative method of data collection was adopted to examine the students’ views about the factors that contribute to student's failure in introductory programming courses. The findings identified lack of intrinsic motivation, lack of future expectation, anxiety, peer influences, and poor lecturer skills and behavior as the challenges resulting in a high failure rate in introductory programming courses. The study contributes to the research on computer education in developing countries by proposing a model to understand the factors that affect IS student learning process when undertaking introductory programming courses. We conclude with some recommendations following recommendations that could help students to overcome the challenges in learning computer programming.

J.S. Marais, a great South African historian: a personal re-assessment

ABSTRACTThis article is a personal assessment aimed to establish J.S. Marais’s legacy. It is written in the light of the insights I gained as I interacted with him as an undergraduate and honours student (starting in 1949), as a research student, and finally as a departmental colleague over a period of ten years or so. It begins with my experience of his teaching. He was a poor lecturer, especially to large classes. This improved with smaller classes. He came into his own in the honours year. He was a specialist in South African history as a case study in the colonial era, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Marais was excellent as a supervisor of postgraduate research from honours to doctoral level, empathetic and patient in handling his students’ needs. A further feature of his honours teaching was his development of a course in historical method and philosophy of history. Next, the article covers Marais’s preparation for an academic career, first at UCT and then at Oxford, leading in both cases to BA and honours degrees. Then his studies culminated in his doctoral thesis on the colonisation of New Zealand. This enabled him by 1927 to become a lecturer at UCT, a post he held until he moved to Wits as a senior lecturer in 1937. Marais’s high reputation rested mainly on his books. The article continues with an assessment of each of these, including their reception by his colleagues. The article ends with an appraisal of Marais’s qualities. Poor as an administrator, he was outstanding as a head of department at the intellectual level and also as a leader of the joint campaign of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and UCT against the imposition of apartheid on the universities.

An EMI Pedagogy That Facilitates Students' Learning

<p>In recent decades, increasing numbers of EMI (English as Medium of Instructions) courses have been added to university course offerings in countries where English is not the first language, as a way of supporting university internalization and addressing the global status of English. However, some studies argue that EMI courses might affect the overall learning of course content because of students' poor lecture comprehension and passive engagement in class. In order to facilitate student engagement and improve learning experiences in EMI courses, the author introduces a pedagogical method that would facilitate students' overall learning in her EMI course. Based on students' overall feedback, the author confirms that her pedagogy is an effective method that improves lecture comprehension, encourages more class engagement, and promotes collaborative learning. Finally, the author recommends that other instructors apply this pedagogy to their EMI classes for better learning outcomes.</p>

Weekend School Face- to-Face tutorials Apathy in ODL. A Case of ZOU Midlands Region: Zimbabwe

This study was set to investigate views of students and lecturers on students’ poor attendants to weekend schools. The sample constituted 20 students who participated in in-depth interviews and two student focus groups of eight making a total of 36 participants. Data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and document analysis were thematically analysed. It was revealed through this study that financial problems, social problems, poor student’s perceptions, poor lecturer’s competences and poor communication skills hinder students from attending weekend school tutorials. It was also revealed that ZOU interactive modules were so well written that some students students saw no reason of attending weekend school face-to-face tutorials. The study recommends conducting weekend schools at district centres, providing e-learning face-to-face tutorials, monitoring part-time tutors by programme coordinators and the quality assurance personnel and assist them conduct themselves professionally, making at least one weekend school compulsory, inducting students on the role of tutorial sessions so that they hold clear perceptions, scheduled weekend schools to be part of the students’ registration packages and e-mailing all students on the scheduled weekend schools. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p313

Evaluation of Academic Staff Development Practices Outcomes on Job Performance in Selected Public Universities in Kenya

Academic staff development enhances job performance among PhD degree holders in public universities in Kenya. However, it is noteworthy that at Maseno University and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya’s youngest, most recently established universities, only an average of 38% of academic staff are PhD degree holders indicating a skills, knowledge, and attitudinal gap hence a critical need for invigorated staff development. In addition, there is a high lecturer: student ratio which is above the Commission for Higher Education’s recommendation of 1:18 for social sciences and 1:10 for pure sciences. There have also been incessant public complaints about poor job performance evidenced in poor lecturer etiquette, low lesson attendance levels, relative high failure rates among students and non-return of Continuous Assessment Tests. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of selected academic staff development practices on job performance in selected public universities. The selected staff development practices are categorized as follows; on-the-jobuniversity-sponsored, off-the-job-self-sponsored, off-the-job-university-sponsored, and on-thejob-self-sponsored. The study employed descriptive survey research design whereby questionnaire, document analysis , and interview schedules were used to collect data. Proportional Stratified Random Sampling and Purposive Sampling technique was used to select academic staff, Chahairmen of Departments(CoDs) and Directors of Faculties and Deans of Schools(DFDSs) in the selected universities. Quantitative data was presented in frequencies, percentages, and Mean Rating. Qualitative data was analyzed on an going process as themes and subthemes emerged.

Learning to Estimate Slide Comprehension in Classrooms with Support Vector Machines

Comprehension assessment is an essential tool in classroom learning. However, the judgment often relies on experience of an instructor who makes observation of students' behavior during the lessons. We argue that students should report their own comprehension explicitly in a classroom. With students' comprehension made available at the slide level, we apply a machine learning technique to classify presentation slides according to comprehension levels. Our experimental result suggests that presentation-based features are as predictive as bag-of-words feature vector which is proved successful in text classification tasks. Our analysis on presentation-based features reveals possible causes of poor lecture comprehension.

What Matters In Economics Teaching And Learning? A Case Study Of An Introductory Macroeconomics Course In South Africa

In many universities, economics lecturers now face the challenge of dealing with large, diverse classes, especially at undergraduate level. A common concern is the non-attendance at lectures of unmotivated (conscript) students. Poor lecture quality, as reflected in student evaluations of teaching (SETs), is often blamed for lack of attendance and consequent poor performance. This paper presents the results of a student assessment of a macroeconomics 1 course, coupled with a self-assessment of their own input into the course. The results obtained, using econometric models, suggest that students inputs and attitudes to the course are equally, or more, important than lecture attendance itself.

The lecture from hell.

During the last 10 years of full-time CAM research, I have given about 300 lectures. Thus, I have certainly made every mistake there is, and consider myself qualified to write this personal account on how to deliver a truly poor lecture. I do this in the hope that others might learn from my imperfection. In preparing for the big day, it is best to be cool and leave things to the last minute. You are so gifted and competent that a few scribbles made on the way to the venue will easily suffice for fascinating your audience. Don’t bother enquiring who they are; what you have to say will capture the attention of a lay audience as much as that of a highly specialised one. The kind people who have invited you will certainly have suggested a topic. Don’t get irritated by that; you know best what you can and want to talk about and, after all, it is always best to stick to what you know. If your subject is palliative cancer care, for instance, it should not be too difficult, after a few introductory sentences, to shift the attention to the most revealing survey you conducted on 10 back pain patients 25 years agoFcancer patients suffer from back pain too! From the outset, you need to show the audience that you are better than they are. A good way of achieving this aim is to display your knowledge of as many acronyms as possible. Making abundant use of abbreviations has the added advantage that it could hide a few glitches in your arguments. People might even think you are talking about palliative care after all. Another golden rule is never produce evidence for your statements. Some people use visual aids to produce the evidence, but this is both tiring and confusing (and it would, of course, require much more preparation than you allowed for). If you want to use visual aids, use photographs of your kids (pets if you are childless) or your last holiday destination. This will add the personal touch that people crave. Surely, if they had wanted evidence they would have gone to a library, not to your lecture. It is advisable to spend as much time as possible with lengthy preliminaries, particularly if you are not really covering the subject as printed in the programme. Mention that you first met Cathy (who just introduced you) when you were both in nursery and give a full and colourful account of your relationship since then. If you haven’t actually been to nursery with Cathy, perhaps you could talk about the car accident you saw en route and what it made you think of. Or you could take the holistic approach, ask everyone to stand up, do a few relaxation exercises and feel the flow of energy in the body, room or universe. The obvious aim is to leave as little time as possible for the proper lecture. Thus, you can pretend to know much more about your subject than you had time to disclose and you can end your unfinished lecture with the upbeat exclamation ‘‘y.ah! perhaps another timey’’. Most lecturers find the ensuing discussion period the most challenging part of their task. Not you! First, you have wisely ensured that there is no time left. Thus, the discussion slot will either be completely cancelled or it will be refreshingly brief. When the first difficult question comes your way, remember the important principle: you are so much cleverer than anyone else in this roomFand show it! Arrogance has always been a perfect shield for hiding ARTICLE IN PRESS

A Triptych of Statistics

Statistical Computing, An Introduction to Data Analysis Using S-Plus. Michael J. Crawley. Chichester, UK: Wiley UK, 2002 (reprinted, with corrections, March 2003), 772 pp., $85.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-471-56040-5. The Statistical Evaluation of Medical Tests for Classification and Prediction. Margaret S. Pepe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 320 pp., $115.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-19-850984-7. Introductory Biostatistics. Chap T. Le. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons Publication, 2003, 572 pp., $94.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-471-41816-1. You always need to know ten times as much as you use —Quoted by E.A. Murphy in Biostatistics in Medicine (1982) Teaching data analysis is not easy, and the time, allowed is always far from sufficient —J.W. Tukey (1962) As junior medical students in Glasgow in the 1950s, we learned statistics from a poor lecturer and an excellent book (M.J. Moroney, Facts from Figures , Penguin, 1951). Unfortunately this was before the availability of calculators, and therefore, no effort was made to use these techniques to examine the results we were currently producing in the practical classes of physiology and biochemistry. We therefore benefited little from that early exposure except to remember the t -distribution because of its association with beer. I thought of Moroney’s book when I opened Crawley’s Statistical Computing . Both volumes are written in lively style; are lucid, comprehensive, and rigorous; and are illuminated throughout with flashes of dry humor. Crawley is a distinguished ecologist and a member of the Department of Biological Sciences at Imperial College in London, England, and has been involved in the teaching and research applications of statistical techniques for many years. One difference between Facts from Figures and Statistical Computing is now the ready availability of the computer, which allows a reader of the latter text to examine data and assess their statistical significance while using the …

Nu bli’r der ballade

Nu bli’r der ballade

Rating ability in performance judgments: The joint influence of implicit theories and intelligence

The purpose of this study was to approach the issue of rating ability by examining the influence of rater implicit theories and rater intelligence on rating outcomes. Using the inferential accuracy model ( Jackson, 1972), raters were identified as either possessing a normative or idiosyncratic implicit theory of the occupation of college instructor. In a laboratory setting, 50 normative and 50 idiosyncratic raters judged the videotaped performance of either a good or poor lecturer. Results showed that (a) intelligence was positively related to rating accuracy and to possessing a normative implicit theory, (b) rater type moderated the relationship between intelligence and rating accuracy, and (c) controlling for intelligence, normative raters committed stronger halo effects than idiosyncratic raters. These results were discussed in relation to furthering the understanding of rating ability.

Repeat Examinations in Introductory Statistics Courses

In order to reduce test anxiety and to encourage the learning of course material, students were given the opportunity to offset a poor lecture examination grade by taking a second, equivalent exam. The repeat exam provided immediate reward for using the initial exam as a study guide. Students who took two or three repeat exams had higher final examination grades than those who took fewer repeats. The repeat exam procedure was well received by all students, helped weaker students to keep up with the course, and was convenient for the instructor to implement.

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These tapes cover many topics in an Algebra I course. They could be used for students who missed crucial material by absence, for remedial instruction, or as part of the total instruction in an individualized setting. The series is designed to supplement the popular Dolciani Algebra I text. The voice is a bit nasal and thin, which is sometimes annoying. The pace is rapid, but the tapes are dull. In most cases, using these tapes would substitute a poor lecture for a (possibly) good lecture. Comments on particular tapes sampled (the reviewer did not listen to all 54) follow.