scholarly journals “We Participate, Silently”: Explicating Thai University Students’ Perceptions of Their Classroom Participation and Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Ji Hye Jaime Chung

This study explores Thai university students’ perceptions of their reluctance in verbal classroom participation especially in situations where English is used as the medium for instruction. It is generally perceived that non-native learners particularly from high context cultures such as Thailand have the tendency to remain silent during discussion sessions or when they are asked to participate in activities related to expressing their opinions. By investigating this phenomenon through focus group meetings with Thai university students, this study reveals reasons that cause students to be hesitant speakers in class through the eyes of students themselves. The results confirm that though students agree to the common perception of Asian students being quiet learners, they did not agree that they were passive learners; they emphasized the fact that they used ‘silence’ as a tool to quietly yet attentively participate. The study also highlights that students’ silence can be seen as a way to harmonize with the environment and situation which is the cultural norm in the Thai context.

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-147
Author(s):  
Pinn Siraprapasiri ◽  
Chanintira na Thalang

This article assesses the knowledge of, attitudes towards, and aspirations for ASEAN among Thai university students, who are set to enter the ASEAN Community labour market and are among those most in touch with ASEAN issues. It uses data obtained from a countrywide survey and focus group discussions to identify variables that affect knowledge, attitudes, and aspirations and to explore the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and aspirations. The quantitative analysis conducted here uses students’ fields of study, academic performance, and exposure to both ASEAN-related courses and also information and discussions about ASEAN in the mass media and public forums as predictors of their level of knowledge about ASEAN. The paper's results confirm that positive attitudes towards ASEAN lead to positive aspirations for ASEAN. They also reveal that significant knowledge about ASEAN cannot, in isolation, adequately explain students’ attitudes towards ASEAN and does not always lead to positive attitudes. These findings and those obtained from the focus group discussions suggest that a high level of knowledge and understanding of fellow ASEAN member countries and their people – whether attained through formal or informal education or social interaction – is needed for students to develop positive attitudes and become aspiring members of the ASEAN Community.


Author(s):  
Johanna Havia

As a part of this research, a survey and four student interviews were done on the motivation of chemistry students of University of Oulu. The aim was to find out the formation of motivation, and seek factors that affect the students’ motivation to study chemistry. The survey measured the inner motivation, outer motivation and lack of motivation based on self-determination theory. The most common aspect of motivation among the students was the inner motivation to learn more about chemistry. Among the common aspects were also the aspects of outer motivation: outside regulation and benefit. By interviewing four of the students, a deeper understanding of the factors behind motivation was sought. Among the positive factors were the parallel lectures and laboratory practices, and including recent research results into teaching. The significance of laboratory practice was the most evident factor. Among the factors reducing motivation were problems with group formation, unclear issues and lectures where everything was readily given. By paying attention to group formation, motivation to study could be increased relatively easily.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-221
Author(s):  
Wardah Nuroniyah

Hijab (veil) for female Muslims has been subject to a debate regarding its meanings. On the one hand, it represents the virtue of religious obedience and piety. Still, on the other hand, it is associated with the form of women oppressions in the public domain. At this point, the hijab has been an arena of contesting interpretations. Meanwhile, contemporary Indonesia is witnessing the increase in the use of veil among urban female Muslims that leads to the birth of various hijab wearer communities. One of them is Tuneeca Lover Community (TLC). This community has become a new sphere where female Muslims articulate their ideas about Islam through various activities such as religious gathering, hijab tutorial class, fashion show, and charity activities. This study seeks to answer several questions: Why do these women decide to wear a hijab? Why do they join the TLC? How do they perceive the veil? Is it related to religious doctrines or other factors such as lifestyle? This research employs a qualitative method using documentation and interview to gather the data among 150 members of the TLC.  This research shows that their understanding of the hijab results from the common perception that places the veil as a religious obligation. Nevertheless, each of the members has one's orientation over the hijab. This paper also suggests that they try to transform this understanding into modern settings. As a consequence, they are not only committed to the traditionally spiritual meaning of the hijab but are also nuanced with modern ideas such as lifestyle and particular social class. Their participation in the TLC enables them to reach both goals simultaneously.


2005 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-374
Author(s):  
William E. Kelly ◽  
Don Daughtry

This study explored the relationship between magical ideation and “noctcaelador” (strong interest in, and psychological attachment to, the night sky). 210 university students completed Eckblad and Chapman's 1983 Magical Ideation Scale and Kelly's 2004 Noctcaelador Inventory. Scores on the two scales were significantly positively related and accounted for 14% of the common variance. Based on this operational definition of magical ideation, a strong interest in the night-sky might be associated with uncommon beliefs and reports of unusual perceptual experience. Researchers must clarify and define these concepts to study possible relations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 405-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letian Kuai ◽  
Thomas O’Keeffe ◽  
Christopher Arico-Muendel

DNA Encoded Libraries (DELs) use unique DNA sequences to tag each chemical warhead within a library mixture to enable deconvolution following affinity selection against a target protein. With next-generation sequencing, millions to billions of sequences can be read and counted to report binding events. This unprecedented capability has enabled researchers to synthesize and analyze numerically large chemical libraries. Despite the common perception that each library member undergoes a miniaturized affinity assay, selections with higher complexity libraries often produce results that are difficult to rank order. In this study, we aimed to understand the robustness of DEL selection by examining the sequencing readouts of warheads and chemotype families among a large number of experimentally repeated selections. The results revealed that (1) the output of DEL selection is intrinsically noisy but can be reliably modeled by the Poisson distribution, and (2) Poisson noise is the dominating noise at low copy counts and can be estimated even from a single experiment. We also discuss the shortcomings of data analyses based on directly using copy counts and their linear transformations, and propose a framework that incorporates proper normalization and confidence interval calculation to help researchers better understand DEL data.


Author(s):  
Lindy Brady

Chapter three argues that a group of Old English riddles located in the borderlands between Anglo-Saxon England and Wales reflect a common regional culture by depicting shared values of a warrior elite across the ostensible Anglo-Welsh divide. These riddles, which link the ‘dark Welsh’ to agricultural labour, have long been understood to depict the Welsh as slaves and thus reflect Anglo-Saxon awareness of both ethnic and social division. Drawing upon understudied Welsh legal material, this chapter argues that these riddles have a multilayered solution in which the Welsh are both slaves and slave traders, complicating readings of negative Anglo/Welsh relations. This polysemic solution reveals that the Welsh, like the Anglo-Saxons, were stratified by class into the enslaved and a warrior elite with less distance from the Anglo-Saxons than has been understood. The location of these riddles on the mearc further characterises the Welsh borderlands in the early period as a distinctive region which was notorious for cattle raiding. These riddles counter the common perception that the Welsh borderlands were defined by Offa’s Dyke, suggesting that this region is better understood as a space which both Anglo-Saxons and Welsh permeated on raids.


2021 ◽  
pp. 25-71
Author(s):  
David Todd

This chapter investigates the political economy of French informal imperialism, revealing a little-known facet of the intellectual origins of globalization, and confirming that the pursuit of empire and the emergence of global consciousness were inextricably linked. It highlights lesser known thinkers, which helps recover what the prevailing attitudes of the informed liberal-leaning public towards empire actually were. After 1815, once the word “liberal” entered the political lexicon, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the Abbé Dominique de Pradt, and Michel Chevalier described themselves as liberals — with some justification, since they admired Britain's balanced constitution and were stalwart advocates of free trade. Recovering their views on empire therefore helps to suggest that French liberals did not become imperialistic in the mid-nineteenth century, but instead consistently harboured imperial ambitions, even if, for pragmatic reasons, they tended to shun territorial expansion after 1815. Focusing on these neglected but influential figures also helps correct the common perception of France as having withdrawn from the international stage after the fall of Napoleon.


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