Project Work in Moroccan EFL Classroom: between the Official Guidelines’ Recommendation and the Challenges of Implementation

Project work is used in several educational settings, including foreign and second language teaching contexts. In the Moroccan English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, the Moroccan Ministry of Education recommended implementing project work, and it is a common component of the Moroccan textbooks of English. Yet, there is a scarcity of studies conducted on the use of project work in Moroccan EFL classrooms. The main aim of the study is to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards project work. The study addresses the question about students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards project work and the factors behind those attitudes. It was conducted with sixty students and eight teachers belonging to two different high schools (Moulay Rachid and Abbas Sebti high schools) in Tangier. To collect data, the researcher made use of two data collection methods, namely the questionnaire and the interview. The results of the study showed that both students and teachers had positive attitudes towards project work. The results also revealed that not all teachers follow the steps of using project work. Based on the results, it was clear that the lack of technology is one of the most severe challenges that hamper the use of project work. The findings of this study could form the basis for further research and contribute to improving the learning and teaching situation in Moroccan high schools.

Introduction

This publication is one of the outcomes of over a decade of work, under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, to explore how to monitor and evaluate States Parties’ compliance with the obligations they undertook when they ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention). A full account of the project work to date has been provided in Vaghri, Krappmann, and Doek’s article ‘From the Indicators of General Comment No. 7 to GlobalChild’ (2019). Grounded in that foundational work, this book relies on that project work to provide a conceptual framing of the Convention, through the identification of the attributes of each right that provides the basis for the development of indicators against which to measure progress.

MMT

This paper presents the Metrics Monitoring Tool (MMT) that was developed in university graduate and undergraduate courses on software project work in 2014-2016. The tool aims to support project members, project managers and upper management in reporting and monitoring software and project metrics for their easier and more effective utilization. The paper covers the development process of the tool, evaluation assessment, its current composition and features. The paradigm applied in this study is Design Science Research and the methods for evaluation include prototype, expert evaluation, case study and technical experiment. Data was collected from the tool users by two questionnaires. As a result, MMT was evaluated to ease the metrics handling, while several aspects related to the richness of functionalities and usability still require further development.

Prediction of Water Level Using Time Series, Wavelet and Neural Network Approaches

To control water resources in many domains such as agriculture, flood forecasting, and hydro-electrical dams, forecasting water level needs to predict. In this article, a new computational approach using a data driven model and time series is proposed to calculate the forecast water level in short time. Concretely, wavelet-artificial neural network (WAANN) and time series (TS) are combined together called WAANN-TS that encourages the advantage of each model. For this real time project work, Yen Bai station, Northwest Vietnam was chosen as an experimental case study to apply the proposed model. Input variables into the Wavelet-ANN structure is water level data. Time series and ANN models are built, and their performances are compared. The results indicate the greater accuracy of the proposed models at Hanoi station. The final proposal WAANN−TS for water level forecasting shows good performance with root mean square error (RMSE) from 10−10 to 10−11.

“Generous” and “Stingy” Advice Sharing Among Peer Freelancers in Professional and Creative Project Work Considering Competitive Advantage

To make ends meet as a freelancer, people have to build a serious and credible skillset (through formal education, credentialing, deep practice) and offer sufficient public information to draw the attention of potential clients. Depending on their particular expertise, they have to have social contacts in the field, and they have to be active on various platforms to bid for work. Freelancers have a variety of social media platforms that they may socialize on for mutual support and advice sharing. Sometimes, to build their credibility, freelancers will create and share peer-to-peer teaching and learning resources. These individuals and teams have to share relevant information without giving away any competitive advantage, given the sparsity of paid jobs and projects. To consider generosity and stinginess of social advice sharing, this work explores some peer-shared teaching and learning resources on the Social Web surrounding freelance work, including a set of 126 slideshows on a popular social slide-sharing site and 16 video transcripts from a popular video-sharing site.

Using Ethnographic Approaches to Co-Construct Strategies for Success With Students With Dyslexia

This chapter takes a dual focus/lens to applying and performing research methods in inclusive and special education in a tertiary/post-secondary setting with a group of students with dyslexia. It links the core ideas of United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities Article 24, Inclusive Education to describing the development and implementation of a co-constructed, collaborative project to identify success strategies for students with dyslexia, utilizing both student and teacher perspectives and experiences, and examines the fit of utilizing ethnographic approaches in this. As practitioner –researchers, authors provide a narrative case study of a project which was developed/co-constructed to respond to a set of identified needs for a group of students presenting with dyslexia. Authors then examine how the project practices link to research methodology, particularly ethnography, and produce both a set of strategies to work inclusively in the future with students with dyslexia and also construct a methodological approach within the lens of new ethnography. This serves to theories both the project work and guidelines for future use of ethnographic approaches for research in the field of inclusive and special education.

Developing Collegial Relationships to Address Hurdles in Ex Situ Turtle Conservation on an Indonesian University Campus

Building collegial international relationships is an important aspect of conservation and conservation education. The relationship relies on researchers understanding the local context of the conservation project and the sociocultural perspectives of all partners. Therefore, we situated our case study within sociocultural theory. Our case study focuses on the relationships and project work which developed between a biologist/science educator at the University of Bengkulu in Bengkulu, Sumatra, Indonesia, and a science education professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA, who shared longtime interests in herpetology. Employing the sociocultural perspective, we describe the background of each University group leader and how their previous experiences led to the development of a partnership focused on turtle conservation. In this case study, we seek to understand the social and cultural development of the researchers’ relationship as they teamed to address the ex situ conservation challenges of working with terrestrial and semiaquatic turtles. An examination of the researchers’ partnership provides a framework for the analysis of the work accomplished and remaining and offers insights to others interested in collaborative international conservation projects.

Sensorless Speed Contorl of Doubly-Fed Induction Machine Using Reactive Power Based MRAS

A sensorless speed control method for doubly-fed induction machine (DFIM) operating with constant frequency but in variable speed mode is presented in this project work. The control method is based on rotor speed estimation technique by a reactive power model reference adaptive system (MRAS) observer. The presented technique does not depend on any kind of flux evaluation and also independent to the resistance variation of either stator or rotor. The MRAS observer has a capacity for speed catching operation. PI controller is designed and also optimized using algorithm for better dynamic behaviour of the machine. MATLAB Simulink model and the simulation results are shown to check the effectiveness of the observer and also of the controller.

Strategi Pemasaran Pada PT. Prima Megah Irsa

ABSTRAK Tujuan dalam penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengetahui strategi apakah yang diterapkan oleh PT. Prima Megah Irsa dalam meningkatkan penjualan jasa kontruksi. Penelitian ini dilakukan di PT. Prima Megah Irsa yang beralamatkan di Jalan Krikilan No 146 Ds. Krikilan RT. 013 RW. 005 Kec. Driyorejo Kab. Gresik. Jenis penelitian ini yaitu kualitatif deskriptif. Sumber data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu sumber data primer. Sedangkan pengumpulan data yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Adapun hasil penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa 1) PT. Prima Megah Irsa memiliki strategi pemasaran yang sangat penting dalam meningkatkan volume penjualan produk jasa yang disediakan, 2) Strategi produk yang dijalankan oleh PT. Prima Megah Irsa mengfokuskan pada kualitas produk jasa dan proses pengerjaan proyek yang selesai sesuai dengan waktu yang ditetapkan, 3) Strategi harga yang ditawarkan oleh PT. Prima Megah Irsa merupakan harga yang ditawarkan sesuai dengan harga di pasar, 4) Strategi distribusi yang dilakukan oleh PT. Prima Megah Irsa merupakan sistem strategi distribusi langsung. Strategi langsung merupakan strategi yang bertujuan untuk melakukan pendekatan secara langsung kepada para calon pengguna jasa (klaen) baik secara formal maupun informal guna produk jasa yang ditawarkan perusahaan dapat berkembang dan dikenal lebih luas oleh perusahaan, 5) Strategi promosi dan komunikasi yang dilakukan oleh PT. Prima Megah Irsa yaitu dengan cara melakukan promosi secara langsung kepada para pengusaha kontraktor. Perusahaan juga menjalin komunikasi dengan para pengusaha kontraktor lainnya. Yang tujuannya produk jasa yang ditawarkan lebih dikenal oleh pasar dengan cara word of mouth.ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to find out what strategy is applied by PT. Prima Megah Irsa in increasing sales of construction services. This research was conducted at PT. Prima Megah Irsa whose address is at Jalan Krikilan No. 146 Ds. Krikilan RT. 013 RW. 005 District. Driyorejo Kab. Gresik. This type of research is descriptive qualitative. The data sources used in this study are primary data sources. While the data collection was carried out in this study using the methods of observation, interviews, and documentation. The results of this study can be concluded that 1) PT. Prima Megah Irsa has a very important marketing strategy in increasing the sales volume of the services provided, 2) the product strategy implemented by PT. Prima Megah Irsa focuses on the quality of service products and project work processes that are completed in accordance with the specified time, 3) the price strategy offered by PT. Prima Megah Irsa is the price offered in accordance with the price in the market, 4) distribution strategy carried out by PT. Prima Megah Irsa is a direct distribution strategy system. The direct strategy is a strategy that aims to make a direct approach to prospective service users (clients) both formally and informally so that the products and services offered by the company can develop and be known more widely by the company, 5) promotion and communication strategies carried out by PT. Prima Megah Irsa, namely by making promotions In addition, the company also establishes communication with other contractor entrepreneurs. The goal is that the products and services offered are better known by the market by word of mouth.