Teaching Socio-Cultural Anthropology In Albania: Bringing Together Professional Training And Active Citizenship

Anthropology in Albania has been addressed mainly during the last two decades or so. Previously, the most common research agendas focused on the explorations of folklore and ethnography and indeed the venue that carried out research was the Institute of Folk Culture. As a consequence, teaching has been narrowly treated through the perspective of the folkloric and ethnographic studies, mostly the exotic and narrative terms. Currently, various tenets of anthropology are taught in the departments of Humanities and Social Sciences such as in History, Archaeology and Culture Heritage, and Sociology. In this paper, I discuss the benefits of anthropology as a core subject in the curricula of the Bachelor program of Archaeology and Culture Heritage. Three main aspects are considered: first, the extent to which social and cultural anthropology contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of human behaviour in a timeless perspective. Due to the state of preservation, and the nature of the archaeological data, scientific analysis and investigations are often extremely limited. The theoretical and methodological tenets, as well as particular case studies treated from cultural anthropology play an indispensable role in this endeavour. Second, I deal with the impact of social anthropology in the student background and how its concepts and methodological tools can contribute to a better understanding of a society in action and transition. To what extent can we employ anthropology to help understand and analyse how tradition and modernity combine? Third, by drawing a survey completed by a selected group of students, I discuss how studying anthropology facilitated the student involvement in the professional context as well as strengthened their critical thinking skills and fostered active citizenship

Explaining Gold-Mining and Non-Gold Mining Areas' Inequalities in Learning Achievements in Burkina Faso's Primary Education: A Decomposition Analysis

Research shows that learning achievements inequalities exist between students from gold mining areas and those from non-gold mining ones. However, there is no evidence on factors that explain this "new" geographic educational inequality. Exploiting the gold mining boom in Burkina Faso, this study employed re-centered influence function decomposition to explore students' background and school factors which explain these learning achievements inequalities and also estimate the proportion of inequalities explained by unmeasured factors. Findings suggest that, relative to student background factors, most of the learning achievements inequalities between the two types of areas are explained by school factors. Moreover, unmeasured educational factors explain a non-negligible proportion of the inequalities, higher for students on the lower and upper tails of the learning achievements distribution. Suggestions for policymakers are discussed based on the findings of the present study.

An Investigation of Student Satisfaction in an Online Language Learning Course

Online learning's application in the language learning process has become an important topic as the COVID-19 crisis has restricted in-person classes. This study investigates student satisfaction in an online language learning course at a higher educational institution in Vietnam. The study tested the influence of learner-learner, learner-content, and learner-instructor interactions; internet self-efficacy; and self-regulation on student course satisfaction. The effects of student background variables were also explored. Linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the contribution of predictor variables to student satisfaction. The findings showed that student interaction with peers, content, and instructors and self-regulation were good predictors of student satisfaction; however, internet self-efficacy was not a good predictor. Additionally, there were no differences in effects of gender and prior online language learning experience on student course satisfaction.

Both sides of the story: comparing student-level data on reading performance from administrative registers to application generated data from a reading app

The use of various learning apps in school settings is growing and thus producing an increasing amount of usage generated data. However, this usage generated data has only to a very little extend been used for monitoring and promoting learning progress. We test if application usage generated data from a reading app holds potential for measuring reading ability, reading speed progress and for pointing out features in a school setting that promotes learning. We analyze new data from three different sources: (1) Usage generated data from a widely used reading app, (2) Data from a national reading ability test, and (3) Register data on student background and family characteristics. First, we find that reading app generated data to some degree tells the same story about reading ability as does the formal national reading ability test. Second, we find that the reading app data has the potential to monitor reading speed progress. Finally, we tested several models including machine learning models. Two of these were able to identify variables associated with reading speed progress with some degree of success and to point at certain conditions that promotes reading speed progress. We discuss the results and avenues for further research are presented.

A comparison study of human examples vs. non-human examples in an evolution lesson leads to differential impacts on student learning experiences in an introductory biology course

Background Instructors can teach evolution using any number of species contexts. However, not all species contexts are equal, and taxa choice can alter both cognitive and affective elements of learning. This is particularly true when teaching evolution using human examples, a promising method for evolution instruction that nevertheless comes with unique challenges. In this study, we tested how an evolution lesson focused on a human example may impact students’ engagement, perceived content relevance, learning gains, and level of discomfort, when compared to the same lesson using a non-human mammal example. We use this isomorphic lesson and a pre-post study design administered in a split-section introductory biology classroom to isolate the importance of the species context. Results For two of the four measurements of interest, the effect of using human examples could not be understood without accounting for student background. For learning gains, students with greater pre-class content knowledge benefited more from the human examples, while those with low levels of knowledge benefited from the non-human example. For perceived relevance, students who were more accepting of human evolution indicated greater content relevance from the human example. Regardless of condition, students with lower evolution acceptance reported greater levels of discomfort with the lesson. Conclusions Our results illustrate the complexities of using human examples to teach evolution. While these examples were beneficial for many students, they resulted in worse outcomes for students that were less accepting of evolution and those who entered the course with less content knowledge. These findings demonstrate the need to consider diverse student backgrounds when establishing best practices for using human examples to teach evolution.

ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE PANDEMIC: ASSESSING DISPARITIES IN STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Student engagement is consequential for learning outcomes and is a key factor in student achievement. While its impact on educational outcomes in a face-to-face setting has made the focus of extensive research, less is known about its effects in the context of online learning, especially in Eastern Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all higher education institutions in Romania to switch to emergency online learning, with little or no previous experience in this form of instruction. This makes it a highly relevant and interesting case for the study of online learning effects on student outcomes. This article therefore investigates disparities in student engagement in the context of emergency online learning in a sample of undergraduate Romanian students. The article focuses on active learning as a key element of student educational engagement, exploring differences in student background characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, employment status and time spent caring for dependents, as well as studying conditions. Results indicate that the sudden change to emergency online learning has created new disparities in perceived levels of student engagement based on the lack of private, interruption-free spaces and a reliable internet connection, as well as time spent doing housework.

Collaborate and Engage with Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Transforming Teaching for the 21st Century Learners

During the COVID-19 pandemic, attempts to nurture learners by educators to become more active and motivated learning experiences are getting more challenging. Since the past three months of the remote learning implementation, lecturers and students used various platforms to meet and teach the students virtually during the quarantine period and giving teaching materials. This study attempts to explain how online collaboration is integral in keeping learners engage and empower them which is becoming an important trend in the 21st century. A survey was conducted using questionnaire collected from 450 students studying in Universiti Utara Malaysia which looked on their knowledge of using Moodle and Microsoft Teams during the remote learning session and also explored the differences of the survey result from different student background based of gender, age and prior computer knowledge, on their behaviour and their perception on relationship building between their peers and lecturers in remote learning.This study found that by using remote learning platforms such as Moodle and Microsoft Teams effectively with focusing on collaborative elements, students gained better perception by studying them as a group rather than individual context which this study would show that online collaborative learning indeed plays an important elements for students achievement and their understanding of the knowledge they acquire. It is imperative for learners and educators to be mindful of these disruptive drivers and in becoming skillful talents to meet the changes spearheaded in the Industry Revolution 4.0 and the 21st Century Learning Design.

The Impact of Augmented Reality on E-learning Systems in Saudi Arabia Universities

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of Augmented Reality on e-learning systems at colleges in Saudi Arabia. In this research, Augmented Reality could reenact real environment by computerized overlays that learners can interact with and without much of a stretch access. What is more, Augmented Reality helps consumers to explore alternative learning avenues around learning content. Setting that aside, there has not been sufficiently thorough research on the evaluation of Augmented Reality in the context of teaching. The primary objective of this research is to examine possible standard factors identified with the successful use of unparalleled scale. This prototype highlights the essential factors that affect the implementation of AR via the quantitative approach to Augmented Reality knowledge assortment and evaluation. The research finds the principal coefficients for the attainment of Augmented Reality: IT infrastructure, IT agility, interaction stability, self-learning ability, curriculum, student background, ease of use and Usefulness. The after-effects of this analysis includes useful debates to create up a perfect fate of Augmented Reality and help handle the enhancement of instruction and e-learning with competitive societies and frameworks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as other countries.

Employer Support as a Predictor of Online Master’s Student Retention

Enrollment in master level programs, particularly online, have been increasing nationwide. Students enrolled in online master’s programs tend to be older and more ethnically diverse, and are likely to be balancing work, finances, and family responsibilities with their educational pursuits. These challenges have resulted in higher attrition rates and lower completion rates. This study examined the extent that 1st year retention is predicted by employer support when controlling for demographics, student background, external factors, integration/socialization, and intent to graduate. Development of an online master’s student retention model using logistic regression analysis identified four variables that significantly predict 1st year retention including, employer support, household income, overall satisfaction, and importance of graduating from the institution. Master’s students who received employer support were almost two times more likely to be retained at 1-year. Having students seek these employer benefits may lead to increased graduation rates, higher pay, and job satisfaction.