Validating Professional Learning Communities Practice Model in a Malaysian Context

<p style="text-align: justify;">Despite the ubiquity of professional learning communities (PLCs) among researchers, studies on PLCs have widely differed in terms of dimensions used to conceptualise them. Thus, the study aimed to validate the conceptual model consisting of PLCs practices. The study employed a quantitative method using a survey. Firstly, a pilot test was conducted in which 103 school-teachers were involved in completing a questionnaire. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) had determined six dimensions and 20 elements of PLCs practices. Then, the field study was conducted using the new questionnaire. The survey involved 386 school-teachers from 25 High Performing Schools (HPS). The result revealed that: I) Based on the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), multidimensional PLCs practice model is evidence in the Malaysian context. They are operationalised in six dimensions including visions, missions and values, professional leadership, collective and collaborative culture, sharing of best practices, conducive school climate, and strategic alliances among stakeholders and, ii) The level of PLCs implementation in HPS is high for all the dimensions. The practical implications from the study and future research recommendations were also discussed.</p>

Positive health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey among community-dwelling older individuals in the Netherlands

Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) reached the Netherlands in February 2020. To minimize the spread of the virus, the Dutch government announced an “intelligent lockdown”. Older individuals were urged to socially isolate completely, because they are at risk of a severe disease course. Although isolation reduces the medical impact of the virus, the non-medical impact should also be considered. Aim To investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictive measures on the six dimensions of Positive Health in community-dwelling older individuals living in the Netherlands, and to identify differences within subgroups. Methods In May/June 2020, community-dwelling older individuals aged ≥ 65 years completed an online survey based on Huber’s model of Positive Health. Positive Health was measured regarding the appreciation of the six dimensions (categorized as poor/satisfactory/excellent) and a comparison with a year before (categorized as decreased/unchanged/increased) using frequencies (%) and a chi-square test. Results 834 older individuals participated (51% women, 38% aged ≥ 76 years, 35% living alone, 16% self-rated poor health). Most respondents assessed their bodily functions, mental well-being and daily functioning as satisfactory, their meaningfulness and quality of life (QoL) as excellent, and their social participation as poor. 12% of the respondents reported a deterioration of 4–6 dimensions and 73% in 1–3 dimensions, compared to the past year. Deterioration was most frequently experienced in the dimension social participation (73%), the dimension mental well-being was most frequently improved (37%) and quality of life was in 71% rated as unchanged. Women more often observed a deterioration of 4–6 dimensions than men (15% vs. 8%, p = 0.001), and individuals with self-rated poor health more often than individuals with self-rated good health (22% vs. 10%, p < 0.001). Older individuals living alone experienced more frequently a decrease in meaningfulness compared to older individuals living together. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictive measures had a substantial impact on all six dimensions of Positive Health in community-dwelling older individuals, especially in women, respondents living alone and respondents with self-rated poor general health.

Resolving stress of university teacher: exploring role of workplace spirituality and constructive workplace deviance

PurposeThe study explores the relationship between workplace spirituality and work stress among university teachers. It also investigates the mediating effect of constructive deviance amid the association between workplace spirituality and stress among Indian university teachers.Design/methodology/approachThe association between spirituality and stress is studied using correlation and multiple regression. The mediating effect of constructive deviance is examined using the Sobel test and bootstrapping estimates using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The hierarchical regression is used to report direct and indirect effects.FindingsFindings reveal a significant negative association between the six dimensions of workplace spirituality and stress. The results also concluded the mediation effect of constructive deviance, which means workplace spirituality promotes constructive deviance that influences educators' stress levels.Originality/valueThe study is based on primary data collected by the author. It is one of the first explorations of the mediating effect of constructive deviance in the relationship of six dimensions of workplace spirituality and work stress among teachers.

Review of the Study on Rhetoric Translation in China (1997-2021)

Rhetoric and translation help to promote language and cultural exchanges. Therefore, the study of the two fields can be traced far back. Scholars focused on the translation of rhetorical devices long before. In order to learn the trend and problem of the current study of rhetoric translation in China, this paper adopts the method of bibliometrics to analyze the relevant academic articles, theses and dissertations published from1997 to 2021 on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (short for CNKI), a well-known academic website of China. The analysis goes through six dimensions, such as languages involved in the transfer, translation direction, text type, research perspective, rhetoric device and citation frequency.

How to Gamify E-Government Services?

Although gamification has been applied to the e-government domain for the past 20 years, the literature shows that the field still lacks formal definitions to support the design of gamified strategies on these types of platforms and services, and that game element selection is often a subjective matter. This chapter provides a useful taxonomy of game elements to support the design of e-government initiatives, elaborated from the analysis of the literature on gamification frameworks and models applied to this domain. This work was additionally validated by gamification experts from public and private organizations during a series of workshops. A total of 30 commonly used game elements were selected, conceptualized, and classified into six dimensions. Gamification experts agreed that this work contributes to standardizing the game elements employed in e-government services, while the authors also believe this taxonomy can be a useful tool to analyze already existing frameworks.

Regge trajectories for the (2, 0) theories

We investigate the structure of conformal Regge trajectories for the maximally supersymmetric (2, 0) theories in six dimensions. The different conformal multiplets in a single superconformal multiplet must all have similarly-shaped Regge trajectories. We show that these super-descendant trajectories interact in interesting ways, leading to new constraints on their shape. For the four-point function of the stress tensor multiplet supersymmetry also softens the Regge behavior in some channels, and consequently we observe that ‘analyticity in spin’ holds for all spins greater than −3. All the physical operators in this correlator therefore lie on Regge trajectories and we describe an iterative scheme where the Lorentzian inversion formula can be used to bootstrap the four-point function. Some numerical experiments yield promising results, with OPE data approaching the numerical bootstrap results for all theories with rank greater than one.

Anomalies as obstructions: from dimensional lifts to swampland

We revisit the relation between the anomalies in four and six dimensions and the Chern-Simons couplings one dimension below. While the dimensional reduction of chiral theories is well-understood, the question which three and five-dimensional theories can come from a general circle reduction, and are hence liftable, is more subtle. We argue that existence of an anomaly cancellation mechanism is a necessary condition for liftability. In addition, the anomaly cancellation and the CS couplings in six and five dimensions respectively determine the central charges of string-like BPS objects that cannot be consistently decoupled from gravity, a.k.a. supergravity strings. Following the completeness conjecture and requiring that their worldsheet theory is unitary imposes bounds on the admissible theories. We argue that for the anomaly-free six-dimensional theories it is more advantageous to study the unitarity constraints obtained after reduction to five dimensions. In general these are slightly more stringent and can be cast in a more geometric form, highly reminiscent of the Kodaira positivity condition (KPC). Indeed, for the F-theoretic models which have an underlying Calabi-Yau threefold these can be directly compared. The unitarity constraints (UC) are in general weaker than KPC, and maybe useful in understanding the consistent models without F-theoretic realisation. We catalogue the cases when UC is more restrictive than KPC, hinting at more refined hidden structure in elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds with certain singularity structure.

“Is there anybody out there?” Using a telepresence robot to engage in face time at the office

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the impact of mobile robotic telepresence systems on face time – which refers to people “seeing and being seen” – and analyse whether they allow overcoming the challenges associated with telecommuting.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on a qualitative methodology in two French high-tech companies using interviews to better understand how the use of a telepresence robot is experienced by teleworkers, co-workers and their managers.FindingsThe results demonstrate that telepresence robots do offset the absence of teleworkers by allowing them to engage in face time, even remotely. It shows how the telepresence robot's affordances impact the different dimensions of face time and examine the processes through which teleworkers and co-workers anthropomorphize the robot and manage their privacy needs.Originality/valueThis article further elaborates the concept of face time and offers six dimensions to study in a digitally driven environment, including two newly identified dimensions. It also discusses the surveillance and privacy needs issues raised by the use of mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) systems.

Multidimensional public sector organizations' digital maturity model

The aim of this study is twofold. First, this study develops a model of an organization's digital maturity that is adjusted to public sector organization. Second, based on the proposed model, digital maturity of several types of public sector organizations is diagnosed. The proposed model includes six dimensions, namely, digitalization-focused management, openness to stakeholders' (partners') needs, digital competencies of employees, digitalization of processes, digital technologies, and e-innovativeness. This model was tested on a sample of 136 public sector organizations operating in Malopolska Region in Poland. The results indicate that, among the six dimensions of digital maturity, the use of digital technologies and digitalization-focused management scored the highest (equivalent to a high and moderate degree of digital maturity). Employees’ digital competencies also represent a moderate level of digital maturity (but still significantly lower). The remaining dimensions, namely, e-innovativeness, digitalization of processes, and openness to stakeholders’ needs, represent a low level of digital maturity. The results show that the examined types of public sector organizations differ in terms of digital maturity. The observed characteristics regarding digital maturity are sufficient to indicate the direction of future development for each type of organization. The proposed model can be used for the diagnosis of digital maturity on the level of a single organization as well.