A Case Study of a 15-Minute City Concept in Singapore’s 2040 Land Transport Master Plan: 20-Minute Towns and a 45-Minute City

The 15-Minute city concept emerged as a response to the hyper-motorized city. First popularized by the Mayor of Paris in 2020, 15-Minute City is an evolving concept that derived from its predecessors such as neighborhood-unit planning and walkable city. This paper explores the implementation of the 15-Minute City concept in city planning by using Singapore as the case study. In 2018, Singapore released its Land Transport Master Plan 2040 and which includes an ambitious concept of 20-Minute Towns and a 45-Minute City (2MT45MC) and has similar ideas to the 15-Minute City concept. Through various journal articles and media coverage, Singapore’s policy and regulation regarding its transport planning were thoroughly reviewed to find Singapore’s strategy and challenges in realizing the objective of its 2MT45MC concept. Normalizing active mobility and enhancing connectivity nationwide are the main strategies to overcome the biggest challenges faced: lack of legal backing in personal mobility devices and the country’s rigid zoning. Even though it is too early to say whether 2MT45MC is achievable or not, projects such as the North-South Corridor show that for a long-term plan, it seems feasible.

Altmetrics and their relationship with citation counts: a case of journal articles in physics

Purpose The first purpose of the present study is to investigate the coverage of journal articles in Physics in various sources of altmetrics. Secondly, the study investigates the relationship between altmetrics and citations. Finally, the study also investigates whether the relationship between citations and altmetrics was stronger or weaker for those articles that had been mentioned at least once in the sources of altmetrics. Design/methodology/approach The journal articles in Physics having at least one author from an Indian Institution and published during 2014–2018 in sources of altmetrics have been investigated. Altmetric.com was used for collecting altmetrics data. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ) has been used as the data found to be skewed. Findings The highest coverage was found on Twitter (22.68%), followed by Facebook (3.62%) and blogs (2.18%). The coverage in the rest of the sources was less than 1%. The average Twitter mentions for journal articles tweeted at least once was found to be 4 (3.99) and for Facebook mentions, it was found to be 1.48. Correlations between Twitter mentions–citations and Facebook mentions–citation were found to be statistically significant but low to weak positive. Research limitations/implications The study concludes that due to the low coverage of journal articles, altmetrics should be used cautiously for research evaluation keeping in mind the disciplinary differences. The study also suggests that altmetrics can function as complementary to citation-based metrics. Originality/value The study is one of the first large scale altmetrics studies dealing with research in Physics. Also, Indian research has not been attended to in the altmetrics literature and the present study shall fill that void.

The Six Characteristics of Andragogy and Future Research Directions in EFL: A Literature Review

The way in which adults learn is distinctive to how children learn, hence Andragogy differs from Pedagogy and so do the implications. Although several studies have attempted to discuss the andragogy and its principles, only few studies investigate its implementation and the practical guidance on how to employ each characteristic in the teaching and learning process. To fill this void, this paper reviews the concept of andragogy and highlights its six characteristics: self-concept, experiences, readiness to learn, motivation, need to know, and problem-centred learning. Employing a narrative review of 18 journal articles from reputable international journals, the study’s findings suggest that the six characteristics/principles of andragogy are applicable in designing teaching and learning materials, teaching activities, and assignments enacted by teachers. Future research is encouraged to delve into the practice of the six characteristics of andragogy in the teaching of English as a foreign language. The differences between adults and children learning and directions for further research in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is also discussed at the end of study.

Research trends of blended language learning: A bibliometric synthesis of SSCI-indexed journal articles during 2000–2019

This study aims to synthesize research trends of blended language learning studies over the past two decades, from 2000 to 2019. Data were collected from the Web of Science, and a total of 60 SSCI-indexed journal articles were retrieved for bibliometric synthesis. Drawing on the revised technology-based learning model, participants, learning strategies, research methods, research foci, adopted technologies, and application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were addressed. The findings demonstrated that publications were increasing rapidly, and that most articles were published in computer-assisted language learning, educational technology, and applied linguistic journals. The most common target language was English as a foreign language, and the most common learners were college students. In most studies, technologies were mainly used for the purposes of practice or exercises. Mixed, quantitative, and qualitative methods were frequently adopted, with a particular eye on the experiment design, questionnaires, and other specific methods in the second decade. Productive language skills, along with autonomy, satisfaction, and motivation, were major research foci. Language management systems and computer and web-based applications were frequently adopted technologies. Findings of application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were summarized.

Scopus 1900–2020: Growth in articles, abstracts, countries, fields, and journals

Scientometric research often relies on large-scale bibliometric databases of academic journal articles. Long term and longitudinal research can be affected if the composition of a database varies over time, and text processing research can be affected if the percentage of articles with abstracts changes. This article therefore assesses changes in the magnitude of the coverage of a major citation index, Scopus, over 121 years from 1900. The results show sustained exponential growth from 1900, except for dips during both world wars, and with increased growth after 2004. Over the same period, the percentage of articles with 500+ character abstracts increased from 1% to 95%. The number of different journals in Scopus also increased exponentially, but slowing down from 2010, with the number of articles per journal being approximately constant until 1980, then tripling due to megajournals and online-only publishing. The breadth of Scopus, in terms of the number of narrow fields with substantial numbers of articles, simultaneously increased from one field having 1000 articles in 1945 to 308 in 2020. Scopus’s international character also radically changed from 68% of first authors from Germany and the USA in 1900 to just 17% in 2020, with China dominating (25%). Peer Review https://publons.com/publon/10.1162/qss_a_00177

Scaffolding Understanding of Scholarly Educational Research Through Teacher/Student Conferencing and Differentiated Instruction

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of the effectiveness of a critical reading instructional intervention based on differentiated instruction (DI) and teacher/student conferencing (TSC) in improving the participants’ understanding and evaluation of published educational research. A cohort of eleven (n = 11) novice graduate students took part in a 15-week course during which they critiqued several self-selected journal articles and reflected on their experience. Results of the thematic analysis of the participants’ reflection logs revealed that their’ initial feelings of apprehension and anxiety transformed into growth in their self-efficacy as consumers and designers of educational research. Likewise, the participants benefitted from scaffolding their challenges and the provision of feedback in becoming more proficient readers and in developing supportive relationships. The study implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Architecture and the Urban Life of Cairo

When it comes to Cairo, there is a plethora of writing taking place amid its streets and alleyways. Trying to make sense of, and structure, such an immense output is quite a difficult task. However, this article aims to highlight some significant writings that would offer those interested in Cairo’s architecture an opportunity to learn more about the city and its built environment. My intent is also to expand the scope of the inquiry. Rather than simply focusing on specific buildings, I seek to include the broader urban context and also look at the socioeconomic conditions that gave rise to important structures. I start with a review of some major texts that have looked at the city from different perspectives and, in doing so, shed light on the city’s urban and architectural development. It is interesting to note that for the most part, authors in this section do not come from an architectural or urban-planning background. Instead they write from a historical, economic, and geographic perspective. Following this, I look at a variety of other sources and writings that have appeared in edited books and book chapters. I have also included journal articles, since they offer an in-depth examination of certain buildings and the city’s overall urban growth. In addition to writings about the city, I also sought to capture its “urban imaginary” (i.e., the extent to which its built environment has been represented by writers, filmmakers, and artists). To that end, a section is dedicated toward a review of key works and the extent to which they have shed valuable insights into Cairo’s past, present, and future. The city’s urban imaginary is also portrayed through the medium of film, which allows for a conveyance of a visual narrative that evokes the sight and sounds of the city. Here I review key articles discussing the representation of the city through cinema, which is then followed by a filmography of major movies released since the late 20th century. Last, I review online resources, offering researchers material about the city’s architecture and urban environment in the form of images, maps, and drawings, in addition to blogs discussing Cairo’s rich history as well as modern problems.

A study of 25 years of publication outputs in the German academic profession

In the weak evaluation state of Germany, full professors are involved in the traditional social governance partnership between the state, and the self-governing higher education institutions (HEI) and disciplinary associations. Literature suggests that formal and informal governance could trigger changes in academics’ publication behavior by valorizing certain publication outputs. In the article, secondary data from three surveys (1992, 2007 and 2018) is used for a multi-level study of the evolution of academics’ publication behavior. We find a trend toward the “model” of natural science publication behavior across all disciplines. On the organizational level, we observe that a strong HEI research performance orientation is positively correlated with journal articles, peer-reviewed publications, and co-publications with international co-authors. HEI performance-based funding is only positively correlated with the share of peer-reviewed publications. At the level of individual disciplines, humanities and social sciences scholars adapt to the peer-reviewed journal publication paradigm of the natural sciences at the expense of book publications. Considering how the academic profession is organized around reputation and status, it seems plausible that the academic profession and its institutional oligarchy are key contexts for the slow but steady change of academics’ publication behavior. The trend of changing academics’ publication behavior is partly related to HEI valorization of performance and (to a lesser extent) to HEI performance based-funding schemes, which are set by the strong academic profession in the weak evaluation state of Germany.

Berbagai Dampak Hukuman (Punishment) dalam Pendidikan Terhadap Peserta Didik

All humans are obliged to be educated. The objective of the subject of education is to improve the quality of oneself in order to become a complete person. In achieving that goal, education has tools to support its smooth running. One of the educational tools punishment which is punishment, has a profound impact on learners. The punishment in education is the punishment given to the learner aimed at edifying the offending learner. After the sentencing, the impact of the learner, the impact of each learner varied, to which in the study, researchers tried to dig up information on the impact of the punishment on the learner by using literature and secondary data, that is, data from previously existing sources such as journal articles, books, and scripts. Then the data was qualitatively analyzed using the miles and hubermans' methods. Analysis has resulted in some effect on learners. The effects are positive and dam impact.