Quantitative Literacy and Reasoning of Freshman Students with Different Senior High School Academic Background Pursuing STEM-Related Programs

<p style="text-align: justify;">This paper investigates the quantitative literacy and reasoning (QLR) of freshmen students pursuing a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)–related degree but do not necessarily have a Senior High School (SHS) STEM background. QLR is described as a multi-faceted skill focused on the application of Mathematics and Statistics rather than just a mere mastery of the content domains of these fields. This article compares the QLR performance between STEM and non-STEM SHS graduates. Further, this quantitative-correlational study involves 255 freshman students, of which 115 have non-STEM academic background from the SHS. Results reveal that students with a SHS STEM background had significantly higher QLR performance. Nevertheless, this difference does not cloud the fact that their overall QLR performance marks the lowest when compared to results of similar studies. This paper also shows whether achievement in SHS courses such as General Mathematics, and Statistics and Probability are significant predictors of QLR. Multivariate regression analysis discloses that achievement in the latter significantly relates to QLR. However, the low coefficient of determination (10.30%) suggests that achievement in these courses alone does not account to the students’ QLR. As supported by a deeper investigation of the students’ answers, it is concluded that QLR indeed involves complex processes and is more than just being proficient in Mathematics and Statistics.</p>

BIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS OF MUHAMMAD UTHMAN EL-MUHAMMADY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BRONFENBRENNER'S ECOLOGICAL THEORY

Muhammad Uthman el-Muhammady known as a thought figure in Malaysia. His life background is filled with a variety of life hues with an academic background. His thoughts highlighted the teachings of the Sunnah wal Jamaah. He also loudly opposed thoughts that were contrary to the beliefs of Ahli Sunnah wal Jamaah, so that he considered to be an extremist. His personality became a charm in the world of thought in Malaysia through his fluency in English and argument. This study is based on Ecological Theory. Biography of Muhammad Uthman el-Muhammady from the perspective of ecological theory pioneered by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1986) shows that the formation of personality and character of this leading figure began at the microsystem level. The results of the study show how the background of Muhammad Uthman el-Muhammady who was educated by his late father in prioritizing knowledge from an early age has shaped his personality, which made him a revered figure in public because of his knowledge. His life pattern should be emulated by all types of society in shaping and creating an extraordinary personality.

Sociality and the Need for the Epistemology of Social Relatedness: IJSS Editorial Statement

As our inaugural statement, this article conceptualises sociality, which forms the focus of the "Interdisciplinary Journal of Sociality Studies". We reinvigorated its “scope and focus” for the cognisance of our potential authors. We also explicated, step by step, our fundamental editorial process, including the issue of originality, trustworthiness and misconduct, ethical considerations, citation and referencing style, disclosure and conflict of interest, permissions and acknowledgement, as part of our quality production process. The article also presents the academic background of all our inaugural editorial team to display the potential of IJSS towards the production of quality knowledge on sociality studies. Based on this exploration, we conclude that IJSS accommodates any scholarly articles that solve social-related problems with an iota of sociological and emancipatory tendency involving humans and their relationships with but not limited to environment, objects and subjects. Therefore, we recommend that all potential authors ensure that the author guidelines' instructions are strictly adhered to while preparing for submission.

The Effect of Hegel’s Philosophy of History on Goldziher’s Method for Evaluating Hadiths

The West is known to have had interest in Islam since the 18th century through the transformative effect of the methods developed to examine religious sources within the framework of this interest in Islamic studies. Revealing the academic background and historical, ideological, psychological, religious, political and socio-cultural factors that have led orientalists working in the field of Islamic sciences is important for this field. This study will reveal in the context of Goldziher’s method for evaluating hadiths how Orientalists had been influenced by the culture and civilization they emerged from and how these influences directed their studies on Islam. Studies that have drawn attention to how Goldziher adopted his method for evaluating hadiths and took inspiration from Hegel’s philosophy of history prepared the intellectual background for the writing of this article. The study will first point out Goldziher’s postition within the Orientalist tradition and then present his method for dating hadiths alongside his Muhammedanische Studien, which is considered the most important work upon which Goldhizer based his method. Hegel’s philosophy of history will be explained in terms of the subject of the study, followed by a look into how Hegel’s philosophy of history affected Goldziher’s method for evaluating hadiths.

Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes toward Umbilical Cord Blood Biobanking

BACKGROUND: Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) stem cells are a non-invasive, effective alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells for the treatment of a variety of diseases. AIM: The aim of the study was to research knowledge, awareness, and attitudes of the general public and health professionals regarding the UCB storage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with an online survey (n = 408) using the snowball method. RESULTS: A majority of respondents declared that they were not aware of UCB banking; however, people with an academic background in healthcare have a greater awareness of UCB banking. A subjective assessment found that their knowledge of UCB banking is better than that of non-professionals, however, they exhibited better knowledge and understanding of UCB use and banking in only a few aspects. People with an academic background in healthcare have a more polarized attitude toward cord blood banking and a higher percentage are unwilling to pay for UCB banking services. However, their preferences regarding public/private UCB banking do not differ significantly from those of non-professionals. CONCLUSION: Here, we show that there is not much difference between the laic and professional categories in terms of knowledge about the specific purpose and characteristics of UCB storage.

Effect of Academic Background on Social Competence and its Relationship with Academic Motivation and Academic Performance of First Year University Students

Certain differences have been observed in the students belonging to different academic backgrounds hence the purpose of the current research was to explore the effect of academic background (i.e., Cambridge & HSSC) on Social Competence and to see its relationship with Academic motivation and Academic performance among first year university students. The hypothesis states that there is a significant difference between Social Competence and Academic Motivation of Cambridge and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) students. There also exists a significant relationship between Social competence, Academic motivation and Academic performance of first year university students. Research design of the study was comparative co-relational survey design. Whereas sampling technique used was purposive convenient sampling. There were N=166 participants (Males n=53 & Females n=113; Cambridge n=90 & HSSC n=76) with the age range of 18-23 years (M=2.76, SD=1.28) from different private and government universities of Karachi. Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerrand, et al., 1992) and Social Competence Scale (Shujja, Malik, & Khan, 2015) for Adolescence were used for measuring academic motivation and social competence whereas for academic performance previous grades in last given exams were demanded. Statistical analysis including T-test was used for measuring relationship variables of Academic Motivation, Social Competence and Academic Performance among first year university students show no significant relationship. a positive but weak relationship was discovered between social competence and intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, a weak relationship was identified between social competence and gender. This study will help increase insight and improvise the education system and teaching methodologies of both educational systems. Implications for teachers to use innovative methodologies and strategies while teaching to enhance students’ social and academic skills to positively influence their performance.

A liderança como competência essencial na formação do enfermeiro

Relatar sobre a liderança como uma competência importante para os enfermeiros. Trata-se de revisão integrativa de literatura com busca de artigos nas bases de dados SciELO, bibliotecas virtuais e websites. Foram critérios de inclusão artigos publicados na íntegra, em português e publicados a partir de 2010 a 2020. Foram utilizadas 22 referências, sendo 19 artigos científicos e três sites. Considerou-se como tópicos: Autoria; Ano de publicação; Periódico; Título do estudo; Objetivo do estudo. Os principais achados foram categorizados em: Formação acadêmica como influência no processo de liderança, características de liderança essenciais na formação do enfermeiro e a liderança do enfermeiro. A liderança é uma competência essencial para o enfermeiro. Sendo assim, é fundamental a abordagem teórico-prática na trajetória acadêmica do enfermeiro.Descritores: Enfermagem, Liderança, Líder, Acadêmicos de Enfermagem. Leadership like an essential concept in nursing graduatesAbstract: Report on leadership as an important competence for nurses. This is an integrative literature review with the search of articles in SciELO databases, virtual libraries, and websites. Inclusion criteria were articles published in full, in Portuguese, and published from 2010 to 2020. 22 references were used, 19 scientific articles, and 3 sites. The topics considered: Authorship; Year of publication; Journal; Title of the study; Objective of the study. The perspectives of the study were categorized into: Academic background as an influence in the leadership process; essential leadership characteristics in nurse training and the leadership of the nurse; and Leadership is an essential competence for the nurse. Therefore, the theoretical-practical approach is fundamental in the academic trajectory of the nurse.Descriptors: Nursing, Leadership, Leader, Nursing Academics. El liderazgo como una competencia esencial en la formación de enfermeroResumen: Informar sobre el liderazgo como una competencia importante para los enfermeros. Se trata de revisión integral de literatura con búsqueda de artículos en las bases de datos Scielo, bibliotecas virtuales y sitios web. Fueron criterios de inclusión artículos publicados íntegramente, en portugués y publicados a partir de 2010 a 2020. Fueron utilizadas 22 referencias, siendo 19 artículos científicos y três sites. Se consideró como tópicos: Autoría; Año de publicación; Periódico; Título del estudio; Objetivo del estudio. Los principales hallazgos fueron categorizados en: Formación académica como influencia en el proceso de liderazgo, características de liderazgo esenciales en la formación del enfermero y el liderazgo del enfermero. El liderazgo es una competencia esencial para el enfermero. Por lo tanto, es fundamental el enfoque teórico-práctico en la trayectoria académica del enfermero.Descriptores: Enfermería, Liderazgo, Líder, Académicos de Enfermería.

A cultura empreendedora nos cursos de jornalismo da América Latina

O presente trabalho tem objetivo analisar o relatório publicado pela SembraMedia em 2017 chamado de "Ponto de partida: um estudo de cursos de jornalismo empresarial em espanhol" e correlacionar com a formação empreendedora nas graduações em jornalismo das universidades federais do Brasil. A intenção é verificar na grade curricular dos cursos de Jornalismo se existe uma cultura empreendedora na oferta de disciplinas com foco no empreendedorismo. Esta investigação considera que houve grandes transformações culturais e econômicas no mundo e o trabalho dos jornalistas também passaram por constantes atualizações. Entrepreneurial culture in journalism courses in Latin AmericaAbstractThis The present work is part of the ongoing master's research and aims to analyze the report published by SembraMedia in 2017 called "Starting point: a study of business journalism courses in Spanish" and correlate with the survey of the offer of disciplines with the term entrepreneurship in journalism degrees from federal universities in Brazil. The intention is to verify in the curriculum of Journalism courses if there is a fostering of entrepreneurial culture, considering that there have been major cultural and economic transformations in the world and the work of journalists has also undergone constant updates. Keywords: Entrepreneurial culture; academic background; entrepreneurial journalism.

Factors Influencing Success in Advanced Engineering Mathematics Courses: A Case Study

Several studies have been conducted to understand the predictors of academic performance of various levels of high school and undergraduate students as quantified by the grade point average. This study focuses specifically on engineering students as they differ from other undergraduate students in their background and expectations. We focus on quantifying essential predictors of the performance of engineering students in an advanced mathematics course. We collected data from 72 participants recruited from engineering students enrolled in the advanced engineering mathematics (AEM) course in a research university. We chose this course to represent a standard engineering mathematics course covering several essential topics. We consider several factors in our analysis, such as cellphone usage and the academic background, e.g., the academic year, number of minors, and majors, performance in prerequisite courses. We perform several regression analyses to understand the effects of cellphone usage, course schedule, and academic background on performance in the AEM course and its prerequisites. In particular, we use the stepwise regression technique using forward selection and backward elimination procedures. We discovered a few interesting findings in this case study. Firstly, for the participants in this study, we find that the daily average “screen time” on their cellphones is not a statistically significant predictor of student performance. This finding contradicts some prior studies on this participant and may indicate adaption and integration of the technology by the new generation of students in recent years. We also found that the lecturing schedule was not an influential factor for their academic performance. These findings are especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they suggest that advanced engineering students have adapted to the use of technology and are flexible concerning lecture schedules. Another unexpected finding is that this study brings new evidence that the number of minors taken by the participants is a negative predictor of their grade in the AEM course. This observation may indicate that course-work from non-major classes may adversely impact their performance in mathematical engineering courses.