Investigating washback in Japanese EFL classrooms

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 208-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshinori Watanabe

Abstract In Japan it has long been considered that university entrance exams have a negative impact on teaching and learning of English in schools. Recent research, however, suggests that the relationship between testing and teaching is not so simple and requires finegrained ethnographic research in order to fully understand its complexities. This paper argues the case for the necessity of conducting empirical research before any conclusions about the presence or absence of washback can be drawn. An example of this type of research is offered and the processes involved in investigating washback in the Japanese context are described in such a way as to provide a model for future research in this area.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-289
Author(s):  
Áine Mangaoang

Scholarship on prison music-making projects and programmes to date has largely overlooked the perspectives of prison music facilitators, who form an integral part of many prison music activities. The aim of the study, which was exploratory in nature, was to contribute to a better understanding overall of the relationship between music and imprisonment by focusing on the perspectives of prison music practitioners. Drawing from data collected in four Norwegian prisons through ethnographic research, data was analysed thematically with four key themes emerging: interpersonal communication and emotional connection; social responsibility; prison system and environment, and (in)difference and exclusion. The findings highlight the fact that the range of prison music activities offered in many Norwegian prisons affects music facilitators deeply in a number of ways, and support existing studies that find that prison music practices can contribute to creating a community of caring individuals both inside and outside prisons. Notably, the emergence of the (in)difference and exclusion theme demonstrates a more critical and nuanced view of prison music facilitators’ experiences as going beyond simplistic, romantic notions of music’s function in social transformation. Concerns raised for those who appear to be excluded or differentiated from music-making opportunities in prison – in particular foreign nationals and women – suggest that (even) in the Norwegian context, music in prisons remains a “reward” rather than a fundamental “right.” This study marks a step towards a richer and more critical understanding of prison musicking and aims to inform future research, practice, and the processes involved in the possibilities for offering music in prisons.


Kybernetes ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (06) ◽  
pp. 1021-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuang Wei ◽  
Zhao-Ji Yu ◽  
Xiao-Nan Chen

Purpose This paper aims to solve the problem of information overload and reduce search costs. It proposes a social e-commerce online reputation formation model and community state-introduced model. A system dynamics trend simulation has been run to capture the relationship among the sellers, buyers, social e-commerce platforms and external environment to obtain an online reputation. Design/methodology/approach Empirical research relating to social e-commerce reputation has been used to confirm the influencing factors in social e-commerce, and a conceptual framework is developed for social e-commerce reputation formation. Thereafter, a trend simulation is generated to classify the relationship among the factors based on system dynamics. Also, the improved algorithm for community detection and a state-introduced model based on a Markov network are proposed to achieve better network partition for better online reputation management. Findings The empirical model captures the interaction effect of social e-commerce reputation and the state-introduced model to guide community public opinion and improve the efficiency of social e-commerce reputation formation. This helps minimize searching cost thereby improving social e-commerce reputation construction and management. Research limitations/implications There is no appropriate online reputation system to be constructed to test the relationship proposed in the study for a field experiment. Also, deeper investigation for the nodes’ attributes in social networks should be made in future research. Besides, researchers are advised to explore measurement for the reputation of a given seller by using social media data as from Twitter or micro blogs. Originality/value Investigations that study online reputation in the social e-commerce are limited. The empirical research figured out the factors which can influence the formation of online reputation in social e-commerce. An SD model was proposed to explain the factors interaction and trend simulation was run. Also, a state-introduced model was proposed to highlight the effect of nodes’ attributes on communities’ detection to give a deeper investigation for the online reputation management.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Kumar Agrawal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of ethical climate types on trust in management using Victor and Cullen’s framework, which is based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and Gouldner’s sociocultural theory of organizations. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 270 employees from 10 organizations in India was used to investigate the specific relationships between ethical climate types and trust in management. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the different types of ethical climates existing in the organizations. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between ethical climates and trust in management. Findings It was found that ethical climates characterized by caring, laws and codes, and rules and procedures are significant predictors of trust in management. However, no support was obtained for any impact of ethical climates emphasizing company profit, self-interest or independence on trust in management. Research/limitations implications Future research should examine trust in management as a mediating or moderating variable in the relationship between ethical climates and other organizational variables such as commitment, citizenship behaviour or productivity. Additionally, research could also examine different cultural and organizational contexts in testing out these relationships. The role of other constructs such as personality of supervisors and ethical sensitivity in developing trust in management may also been investigated. Practical implications Organizations should try to develop climates based on caring and also emphasize adherence to laws and codes as well as rules and procedures to enhance trust in the management. Originality/value The findings of the study are unique and original because literature examining ethical climates and trust is scarce, and this is the first study to explore how ethical climates can impact trust in management in the Indian context. In particular, the results are unique for. Contrary to expectations, no negative impact of climates of self-interest, company interest and independence on trust in management could be seen in this study. The results throw open new directions to theory building on ethical climates and trust in the Indian context.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch ◽  
German Neubaum

The increasing emergence of algorithms in our daily use of technologies comes with a growing field of empirical research trying to understand how aware and knowledgeable individuals are about algorithms. This field is marked by a certain diversity in terms of how it theorizes and measures people’s literacy when interacting with algorithms. We propose converging on the term algorithmic literacy that covers different dimensions used by previous research. This article summarizes the state of knowledge on algorithmic literacy by systematically presenting initial steps in theory building and measurement development. Drawing on this, we propose an agenda including five different directions that future research could focus on: 1) theory building to understand algorithmic literacy, 2) addressing the algorithmic divide, 3) uncovering the relationship between algorithmic literacy and attitudes, 4) examining algorithmic literacy as predictor for user behavior, and 5) exploring ways to increase algorithmic literacy.


Author(s):  
Yukyeong Kim ◽  
Hyejeen Lee ◽  
HyungIn Park

This study investigated the mechanisms of the relationships between role overload and three dimensions of work engagement. It was hypothesized that psychological detachment would mediate the relationship between role overload and work engagement, and the indirect effect of role overload on work engagement through psychological detachment would be conditional on job crafting and marital status. Consistent with our hypothesis, the moderating effect of job crafting on the relationship between role overload and psychological detachment was significant in a sample of 446 workers. That is, job crafting alleviated the negative impact of role overload on psychological detachment. The interaction between marital status and psychological detachment was also significant for vigor; however, the direction was different from what was expected. For the married, vigor was relatively constant regardless of the level of psychological detachment, but for the unmarried, the more the psychological detachment the lower the vigor. In addition, this difference was observed more for women than men. In case of women, marital status also moderated the relationship between psychological detachment and dedication. Although the direction was unexpected, there was a conditional indirect effect of role overload on vigor and dedication through psychological detachment depending on the level of job crafting and marital status combined with sex differences. There was no conditional indirect effect for absorption. Implications and limitations of this study, and future research directions were discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kamil Husain

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between workplace friendship, perceptions of organizational politics and organizational citizenship behavior in Pakistan’s public sector organizations. Data has been collected through structured questionnaire from 150 employees. The results of the study show a negative impact of perceptions of organizational politics on organizational citizenship behavior, while workplace friendship affects organizational citizenship behavior positively. The workplace friendship significantly moderates the relationship of perceptions of organizational politics and organizational citizenship behavior. The future research needs to test the relationship of perceptions of organizational politics with other organizational outcomes, and should collect the data from various types of organizations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunita Awang ◽  
Azuraidah Taib ◽  
Nazuha Muda

The Industrial Revolution caused major changes in the economy and advancement in technology. Specifically, IR4.0 stimulates the development of Education 4.0, in which the use of information, internet and technology become part of the teaching and learning process allowing students to learn at any time through digital platforms. Promoting for Education 4.0 involved challenges particularly constant changes in the teaching and learning techniques, and the facilities to cater to the technology demands. This study attempts to assess perceived challenges towards Education 4.0 implementation among the academicians at a comprehensive university and to explore the relationship between gender and perceived challenges among them. Based on purposive sampling, online questionnaires were distributed via google form to a population of 352 academicians in the selected comprehensive university. Data gathered from 127 responses were analysed using SPSS. The findings indicate the majority of the respondents perceived IT infrastructure as the main challenge, while the skills of individuals are the least challenges towards Education 4.0 implementation. However, there is no evidence of a significant association between gender and any of the perceived challenges items. Thus, regardless of male or female academicians, they have a similar perception of the challenges towards Education 4.0 implementation. The findings assist the Education 4.0 stakeholders to look into those perceived challenges and take necessary actions such as increasing budget allocation for IT facilities, as a support towards the success of Education 4.0 implementation. Future research may be undertaken to examine more specific infrastructure challenges in implementing education 4.0 at other comprehensive universities as well as at research universities and focused universities. Keywords: IR4.0, Education 4.0, Academicians, Challenges, Gender


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Huiqin Zhang ◽  
Wenyi Cao

Employee silence has been regarded as a significant factor related to many organizational outcomes; thus, breaking the silence has become a need for companies, and has attracted academic interest. We investigated the relationship between a caring ethical organizational climate and three dimensions of employee silence (i.e., acquiescent, defensive, and indifferent), as well as the mediating effect of psychological safety and the moderating effect of Chinese individual traditionality in this relationship. We conducted a survey with 568 employees of 50 Chinese companies. Our findings confirm that a caring ethical climate had a significant negative impact on all three dimensions of silence. Psychological safety mediated the relationship between caring ethical climate and both acquiescent and defensive employee silence, but its effect on the relationship between caring ethical climate and indifferent silence was nonsignificant. Chinese individual traditionality significantly moderated the impact of employees' psychological safety on all three of the silence dimensions. Implications of these results for future research and how managers of companies can break employees' silence are discussed.


2010 ◽  
pp. 592-606
Author(s):  
Daria C. Crawley ◽  
Barbara A. Frey

This research examines the relative impact of students’ in-class behaviors (i.e., attendance and participation) by assessing student perceptions of the value of instructional technologies, such as eCollege course managementsystems and instructors’ PowerPoint presentations. Theresults of the study through exploratory factor analyses revealed that 13 items were divided into three factors (electronic presentations, onlinecourse management, andeffective classroom behavior) with 53 percent explained variance in instructional technologies’ impact on studentlearning. ANOVA results indicated significant differences in online-course management and perceived impact of electronic presentations on students’ classroom behavior among respondents who used the online-coursemanagement system. Respondents who used multiple onlinecourse management features viewed it more favorably and did not believe that it had a negative impact on classroom behaviors, such as attendance or class participation compared to those who used fewer features. Implications for construct refinement and future research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Sharpe ◽  
Nicole Hanson

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and firm-level sales and estimates the potentially mitigating role of advertising.Design/methodology/approachTo test their hypotheses, the authors conduct an empirical investigation using a sample of 381 US firms engaging in socially irresponsible behavior.FindingsThe results of this investigation indicate that while sales are negatively impacted during the year of a CSI event, they generally recover in the year immediately following the event. In addition, advertising is shown to mitigate the negative impact of CSI on sales in both the event year and the year immediately following. The authors also consider whether differences exist between CSI firms with and without advertising. From this comparative analysis, it is observed that CSI firms which advertise tend to experience more severe declines in sales. Also, such firms tend to recover from the negative implications of CSI sooner.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel and empirical approach to assessing the relationship between CSI events and firm-level sales while quantifying the mitigating effects of advertising. Furthermore, the unique contributions and practical findings of this research generate strong support for the significant role advertising can play in helping firms recover from CSI-based brand crisis events and help to establish a promising path for future research.


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