Understanding and Enhancing Chinese TEFL Teachers’ Motivation for Continuing Professional Development Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory

Teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) is a dynamic process that coordinates teachers’ external behavior and internal states. Most teachers participate in varied forms of CPD activities either voluntarily or contractually. The more motivated teachers are to engage in CPD, the more likely they achieve professional and personal growth. Against this backdrop, the current study, adopting the framework of self-determination theory (SDT), sought to investigate the types and levels of Chinese college TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language, hereafter TEFL) teachers’ motivation toward CPD. The questionnaire survey was administered to 402 academics who taught the English language in diverse universities in China. The quantitative analysis showed that teachers exhibited stronger identified regulation and intrinsic motivation than external regulation. Specifically, the exploratory factor analysis identified five motivational orientations: inner-directed academic improvement and cognitive interest, academic self-fulfillment and obligation, academic and social responsibility, social recognition and promotion, lacking the intention for CPD, which corresponded to the SDT motivation continuum. To triangulate, further interviews were conducted with 12 TEFL teachers. The findings of the qualitative analysis—the thematic analysis through Nvivo (Version 12) on the open-ended question and the interviews, revealed that teachers’ struggles in CPD were mainly concerned with the school-related, CPD-related, and teacher-related problems. Moreover, a big gap between teachers’ needs and contextual support was found to be bridged. Based on the findings, this study proposed that social conditions should support teachers’ basic psychological needs in order to sustain and enhance TEFL teachers’ motivation for CPD.

Entrepreneurial intention of academic students in the time of COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the consequences of the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intentions of academic students. In addition, this research examined whether the pandemic reinforces the tendency to operate new businesses or represents a barrier to the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis study was conducted with a sample of university students. Risk perception and contextual variables were measured. Information was collected from 308 university students enrolled at the University of Sfax (Tunisia) who participated by responding to a structured questionnaire distributed in electronic form by email.FindingsThe results show that university students perceive higher levels of personal entrepreneurial risk than other types of entrepreneurial risks (financial risk and social risk). Perceived financial risk only has a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention for students who view the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity. Regarding perceived contextual support, only perceived educational support has a significant and positive effect on entrepreneurial intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe results have important practical implications for identifying entrepreneurial intentions. They indicate that universities have an essential role in providing educational support for students by implementing awareness and training programs for entrepreneurship. Furthermore, they reveal the differentiated effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the risk perceptions of participants according to their views of the crisis as a threat or as an opportunity.Originality/valueThis is one of few studies that have examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (positive or negative) on the entrepreneurial intention of academic students.

An Introduction to Robotically Assisted Surgical Systems: Current Developments and Focus Areas of Research

Purpose of Review Robotic assistance systems for diagnosis and therapy have become technically mature and widely available. Thus, they play an increasingly important role in patient care. This paper provides an overview of the general concepts of robotically assisted surgical systems, briefly revisiting historical and current developments in the surgical robotics market and discussing current focus areas of research. Comprehensiveness cannot be achieved in this format, but besides the general overview, references to further readings and more comprehensive reviews with regard to particular aspects are given. Therefore, the work at hand is considered as an introductory paper into the topic and especially addresses investigators, researchers, medical device manufacturers, and clinicians, who are new to this field. Recent Findings The current research in Robotically Assisted Surgical Systems (RASS) increasingly uses established robotic platforms. To minimize the patient trauma while optimizing the dexterity of the surgeon, miniaturized instruments and semi-autonomous assistance functions are developed. To provide the surgeon with all necessary information in an adequate manner, novel imaging sensors as well as techniques for multimodal sensory feedback and augmented reality are investigated. The Surgical Data Science applies data management and processing approaches including machine learning on medical data to provide optimal, individualized and contextual support to the surgeon. Summary Robotic systems will significantly influence future patient care. Since they must fulfill manifold medical, technical, regulatory and economic requirements, their development calls for a close, active and interdisciplinary cooperation between stakeholders from hospitals, industry and science.

Combining the social cognitive career theory, contextual factors and entrepreneurship education programs in intention-based model: a tale of two diverse regions

Purpose Drawing on the entrepreneurial event model (EEM), entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) and perceived contextual support (adapted from social cognitive career theory) and perceived contextual barriers, this study aims to unravel the differences in entrepreneurial activity among university students in higher education institutes in two diverse Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional survey-based data collection technique using paper and electronic methods. The study analyzes data using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, reliability analysis and logistic regression analysis via SPSS version 25. Findings The findings show the positive influence of perceived desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions; however, the stronger desirability was found among university students in China and stronger feasibility toward entrepreneurial intentions among Pakistani students. The study reveals the negative significant influence of EEPs on entrepreneurial intentions, and this finding is consistent across both samples. Furthermore, the findings show that university students in both countries show insignificant impact of perceived contextual support in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, the study confirms the negative influence of perceived barriers on entrepreneurial intentions in both contexts. Originality/value This study provides differences in entrepreneurial activity by combing EEM, EEPs, perceived contextual support and barriers in two diverse Asian countries, and to the best of author’s knowledge, no previous study considered these factors in a single framework. Furthermore, the findings of the study enrich existing literature and also provide policy recommendations for practitioners.

The defaultness hypothesis

This paper demonstrates that, when interpretation is at stake, it is only degree of defaultness that matters. Neither degree of Negation, nor degree of Affirmation, nor equal degree of Novelty, nor equal degree of Literalness/Nonliteralness, nor equal strength of Contextual support, whether linguistic or pictorial (see Heruti et al. 2019), makes a difference. Instead, it is only degree of defaultness that counts. Indeed, having established degree of defaultness of negatives and affirmatives (Experiment 1.1) and their processing cost when in isolation (Experiment 1.2), we further attested to the speed superiority of default negative interpretations, which seemed more pronounced in the Left Hemisphere rather than in the Right Hemisphere (Experiment 1.2; see Giora, Cholev et al. 2018).We then further attested to the speed superiority of these negatives, when embedded in equally strong supportive contexts. Here, we also show that default Negative Sarcasm is processed significantly faster than nondefault Affirmative Sarcasm (Experiment 2). And when embedded in equally strong sarcastically biasing contexts, both hemispheres reflect the superiority of default Negative Sarcasm over nondefault Affirmative Sarcasm (Experiments 2.1–2.2). However, given Affirmative Sarcasm’s nondefaultness, it is only nondefault Affirmative Sarcasmthat is expected and shown to rely on cueing for its derivation (Corpus-based Studies 1–2, Section 3). Still, when hedonic effects are considered (see Section 4), it is only utterances’ nondefault interpretations, whether in linguistic (Experiment 3) or pictorial contexts (Experiment 4), that are entertaining, given that they make up Optimal Innovations, while involving default interpretations in the process (see Giora et al. 2004, 2017). It is degree of defaultness, then, that affects both (i) processing speed (whether in or out of context), (ii) reliance on cueing, and (iii) hedonic effects. Finally, in Section 5, our results and conclusions are summarized.

What it took to catalyse uptake of dynamic adaptive pathways planning to address climate change uncertainty

© 2016 The Authors Implementing climate-resilient pathways in conditions of uncertainty and change is a serious challenge. Approaches have been developed for this type of problem, one of which, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways approach (DAPP), has been applied in practice in a limited number of circumstances, mainly for large infrastructure projects and at national scales. To better understand what it takes to catalyse uptake of DAPP to better address uncertainty and change than typical static planning approaches, we examined the role of a simulation game facilitated by a knowledge broker, in a real-life local decision setting on flood risk management in New Zealand. Four intervention phases over four years are described and their influence analysed: 1) creating interest through framing the science, 2) increasing awareness using the Game, 3) experimenting with DAPP, and 4) uptake of DAPP. We found that a knowledge broker introducing new framing of changing risk profiles, facilitating use of the Game and the DAPP approach in a real-life decision making setting, with contextual support from events and (inter)national reports, catalysed the uptake of adaptive pathways planning. We identified enabling requirements necessary for embedding adaptive planning into decision-making practice for addressing uncertainty and change.

What it took to catalyse uptake of dynamic adaptive pathways planning to address climate change uncertainty

© 2016 The Authors Implementing climate-resilient pathways in conditions of uncertainty and change is a serious challenge. Approaches have been developed for this type of problem, one of which, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways approach (DAPP), has been applied in practice in a limited number of circumstances, mainly for large infrastructure projects and at national scales. To better understand what it takes to catalyse uptake of DAPP to better address uncertainty and change than typical static planning approaches, we examined the role of a simulation game facilitated by a knowledge broker, in a real-life local decision setting on flood risk management in New Zealand. Four intervention phases over four years are described and their influence analysed: 1) creating interest through framing the science, 2) increasing awareness using the Game, 3) experimenting with DAPP, and 4) uptake of DAPP. We found that a knowledge broker introducing new framing of changing risk profiles, facilitating use of the Game and the DAPP approach in a real-life decision making setting, with contextual support from events and (inter)national reports, catalysed the uptake of adaptive pathways planning. We identified enabling requirements necessary for embedding adaptive planning into decision-making practice for addressing uncertainty and change.

Evaluating Explainability Methods Intended for Multiple Stakeholders

Explanation mechanisms for intelligent systems are typically designed to respond to specific user needs, yet in practice these systems tend to have a wide variety of users. This can present a challenge to organisations looking to satisfy the explanation needs of different groups using an individual system. In this paper we present an explainability framework formed of a catalogue of explanation methods, and designed to integrate with a range of projects within a telecommunications organisation. Explainability methods are split into low-level explanations and high-level explanations for increasing levels of contextual support in their explanations. We motivate this framework using the specific case-study of explaining the conclusions of field network engineering experts to non-technical planning staff and evaluate our results using feedback from two distinct user groups; domain-expert telecommunication engineers and non-expert desk agent staff. We also present and investigate two metrics designed to model the quality of explanations - Meet-In-The-Middle (MITM) and Trust-Your-Neighbours (TYN). Our analysis of these metrics offers new insights into the use of similarity knowledge for the evaluation of explanations.