Measuring the Frequency of Critical Thinking in a Second Language Academic Discussion Course

As technology and globalization increase the chances of exposure to information, learners’ Critical Thinking (CT) and researchers’ ability to measure it will play an important role in developing modern educational experiences. This is particularly the case for English language learners who wish to enter tertiary education in English-speaking countries (Liaw, 2007; Wagner, 2010). Emphasis on such skills is increasingly a facet of language education in Japanese contexts. This can be seen in changes implemented by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology which have encouraged a focus on CT in English language courses during recent years (MEXT, 2011). However, it can be difficult for second language (L2) learners to exhibit CT in an L2 (Bali, 2015; Luk & Lin, 2015). Measuring CT in learner output has also proven difficult, which can be an obstacle to further integrating CT in L2 pedagogy. Studies exploring ways of measuring CT in an L2 have largely focused on written work (e.g., Davidson & Dunham, 1997; Floyd, 2011; Stapleton, 2001), while analysis of CT in spoken L2 discourse has seen little attention. As a result, little advice can be found on practical steps for teachers to help learners display CT when speaking in an L2. This chapter describes a study of arguments made during group discussions in an L2 English Discussion course at a Japanese university. A corpus of spontaneous spoken discourse recorded during class was analyzed to measure the frequency of CT displayed in an academic setting where CT was not an explicit focus of the course. Arguments in the corpus were identified using Ramage et al.’s (2016) model of argument criteria, and a categorization system was developed in which discourse was classified as displaying either objective reasoning or subjective reasoning. Participants were found to have used approximately 72% objective and 28% subjective reasoning. However, further analysis revealed an important qualitative difference in arguments identified as incorporating objective reasoning. The results of the study suggest two areas that may help teachers promote an increase in student usage of CT: the importance of question prompts in orienting learners towards CT in their answers, and a specific focus on the role of pronoun usage in taking a subjective or objective stance.

Education and the achievement of national development through girl child empowerment in Nigeria

Education plays a very pertinent role in promoting development, as it is concerned with imparting knowledge, skills, attitudes, belief systems and values. This paper focuses on the utilization of the girl child education as an effective tool to foster national development. It conceptualized education, girl child education, empowerment and National Development. The theory of functionalism was adopted to offer credence to the paper. This paper vividly explicates how various negative attitudes and negligence towards the girl child education in African continent in general and Nigeria to be specific has exacerbated poverty, illiteracy and untold hardship on the citizenry. It further unraveled the strategies for using girl child education as an instrument for national development thereby eradicating poverty in Nigeria. Based on the issues raised in the paper, as education remains a formidable weapon of socio- economic development of any nation, the paper recommends the need for change in the Nigerian policy towards education, especially the girl child education by improving public budget in education, improve education for self-reliance, to enhance educational efficiency by improving on skills learning via entrepreneurship education and building of critical and objective reasoning, and girl child empowerment.

An Investigation on COVID-19 in Nigeria and Relationship with Age Groups

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan China in December 2019 and has immediately spread to essentially almost every area of the world. The infection is caused by a serious kind of acute respiratory condition known as coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2).Aim: The investigation was carried out to determine the knowledge, awareness, and relationship between Coronavirus and different age groups among Nigerians.Materials and Methods: The study recruited nine hundred and ninetyeight (998) participants who were of Nigerian origin and, aged 20 years or more who understood the substance of the banner who looked at its evaluation. A two-page enlistment flag was posted/reposted to groups in Whatsapp, Twitter and, Facebook. This banner contained a short presentation on the establishment, objective, reasoning, purposeful nature of help, attestations of mystery, and security similarly as the association of the practical reaction code of the online survey.Result and Discussion: The outcomes indicated that the majority of the respondents had sound information on COVID-19, 911(91.3%), in this manner knowing it to be a viral contamination. It was additionally observed that a large portion of the respondents, 850 (85.2%) concurred coming up next are manners by which one could get tainted with COVID-19; these among others include; shaking of hands with infected people, contacting objects contacted by infected people and sneezing or coughing by infected people. The outcome further portrays a huge relationship that existed between the members’ age and questions raised on COVID-19 (p<0.001).Conclusion: It is along these lines that it is suggested that all partners ought to heighten their exertion in sharpening the overall population just as network base refinement program be done in other for the residents to comprehend and follow every single prudent step to curb COVID-19 in Nigeria.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 05 No. 03 July’21 Page: 292-296

Melatihkan Life Skills Melalui Pembelajaran Ipa Dengan Pendekatan Scientific Untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Siswa

Life skills are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with demands and challenges of everyday life. Life skills are problem solving behavior used appropriately and responsibly in management of personal affairs. Life skills may be learn by teaching or simply by personal experience. Actually no life skills is used alone, there’s always a combination of more than more. Scientific approach is empirical knowledge. This approach can be considered as a way to think critically and systematically. The scientific method is rooted in the knowledge gained by finding problems through observation, experimentation, and through a process of objective reasoning and logic. Scientific approach strongly supports the active role of students in learning so that students can be learn life skills such as finding out, gather information, ask questions, and the establishment of confidence students through class discussions.Keywords: Life Skills, Pendekatan Scientific

DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND RESEARCH WORK OF STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY IN ENGLISH CLASSES

The present article is dedicated to the problems of the organization and planning of scientific and research work of students of the University in English classes, gives grounds for the purposes and tasks of such competence-forming activity as part of the “Oriental studies” speciality program, the Russian State University for the Humanities. The article analyzes these competences, as well as forms and methods of their formation and development. The author presents demarcation of scientific knowledge and gives its characteristics: using most general qualities of a subject, objective reasoning, argumentativeness, results verifiability and reproducibility, consistency, practicality, capability to change, anticipating the future, making forecasts, methodological reflection. The author tried to analyze the reflexive component of scientific and research work of students in more detail. The article presents possible reflexive positions in the interaction between the teacher and the student and shows the dynamics of this interaction, i.e. gives a hierarchy of positions which the student can occupy in the educational process depending on how independent they are in their activity. The article also highlights the content of scientific and research work of students of the University in English classes on the basis of work with foreign texts in the macro-discourse for the “Oriental studies” speciality. The given foundations of the organization and content of scientific and research work of students have been regularly used in English language classes, as well as in optional forms of scientific activity. The students have shown good results and passion for this kind of work, which confirms the correctness of this approach.

The role of subjectivity in teacher expertise development: Mindfully embracing the “black sheep” of educational research

In Western cultures, subjectivity has often been seen as the “black sheep” of educational research because of its heavy emphasis on objectivity. Consequently many research initiatives in education share the assumption that objective reasoning should play a central role. However, mentoring teachers’ practice improvement research often requires us to go beyond the objective dimension and encompass the subjective dimension of the research process such as teachers’ intuition, tacit knowledge and personal meaning-making. The challenge that lies in front of us is how to mindfully make sense of the role of subjectivity in teacher expertise development. This paper examines this issue in terms of three case studies of in-service teachers’ action research projects and points to what it takes for us to mindfully embrace subjectivity in mentoring teachers’ practice improvement research.

To which extent do projects explore the opportunity space?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore a selection of projects to understand how conceptual appraisals and choice of concepts are handled, and to which extent the conceptual opportunity space is exploited. Design/methodology/approach – The study is essentially case based, and rooted in a number of in-depth studies of single-project cases. Its study combines information from document studies with interview data, and culminates in normative recommendations. Findings – The study found that the projects do indeed not exploit the opportunity space to a very large extent. The lessons from the present study is that the final choice is determined more by decision makers than the analysts, and will often be the result of policy and preferences more than objective reasoning. Which again suggests that the efforts as analysts will often be in vain. Research limitations/implications – These findings could influence theoretical models outlining project establishment and decision processes. Practical implications – The study has identified many shortcomings in public sector processes that could be utilized to alter such processes. Originality/value – The study is original in that it focusses on the concept development phase of projects, rather than the traditional execution phase, and has studied decision processes.