Teledentistry in a Dental Students’ Examination – Assessing the Acceptance and Feasibility of a Virtual Dental Examination

Due to the coronavirus pandemia, dental schools are facing a change onto virtual solutions. Teledentistry has proven to be an opportunity to bridge this gap. This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptance of a virtual dental examination. It took place during the final maxillofacial examination. Study participants were dental students and real inpatients. A video-call-software was used to carry out the examination. To assess the acceptance participants filled out a questionnaire afterwards. 22 patients answered the questionnaire. They didn’t ‘feel inhibited’ and had no ‘difficulties developing a relationship with the student’. 28 students answered the questionnaire. They found the conversation at eye level but expressed more inhibitions than the patients in a virtual setting, still finding themselves able to have an adequate doctor-patient conversation. Telemedicine seems well accepted on patients’ and students’ side, offering a safe alternative to enable students to maintain dental teaching in a pandemic situation.

Exemplary Educators Who Embrace a Teaching Philosophy Guided by a Pedagogy of Kindness

The purpose of this literature review was to explore scholarly and grey literature on teaching approaches to pedagogy in higher education, with a focus on the pedagogy of kindness. For the analysis, we reviewed six research reports from peer-reviewed journals on the pedagogy of kindness, three books written by acclaimed theorists on critical pedagogy and the pedagogy of hope, and seven articles from grey literature. The questions addressed were, what does the literature reveal are the effects of a pedagogy of kindness on the learning environment, and what are the outcomes for learners when educators embrace this teaching philosophy? Does the employ of kindness in teaching influence learners’ attitudes about issues surrounding social justice? Further, are there links between being an exemplary educator, teaching success, and the enactment of a pedagogy of kindness? In this paper, we examine emerging themes related to how this teaching philosophy impacts learners and the learning environment and the connection between a pedagogy of kindness and traits of exemplary educators. Finally, these themes guided a discussion on the implications for practice. In sum, the literature revealed that a teaching model based on a pedagogy of kindness enhances the performance of outstanding educators and increases their success in teaching. Moreover, this philosophy positively influences students, their learning environments, their educational achievements, and heightens their social consciousness.

The Important Role of the Associative and the Deductive Approaches in the Study of Bioactive Glasses

The associative and the deductive approaches play an important role in learning activities, which is an indispensable section in the whole process of cognition. This paper discusses the associative and deductive approaches in the study of the bioactive glasses, and analyzes the contingency and inevitability in the research of bioactive glasses. Thus, the philosophy and science as the whole cannot be separated, these two are auxiliary to each other for achieving current success.

Drawing Methods for Lowest Energy Boat and Pentane Conformations

Pentane and boat conformations help predict and understand the stereochemical outcome of several chemical reactions. This report presents two methods that teach the processes of drawing the lowest energy boat conformations and pentane conformations. Both techniques use cyclohexane drawings that students learn in undergraduate organic chemistry courses. We provide step-by-step instructions for both techniques and show that implementing these methods results in improved student performance in questions related to boat and pentane conformations.

Education in Fictional Dystopian Societies: The Case of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent”

Dystopian fiction is evolving in one of the most interesting literary genres for youth. Education in “Divergent” constitutes a domain of the society which affects directly the citizens and turns to be a catalyst for the establishment of the regime. This article focuses on the role and aspects of education and portrays some representations of the educational system in force in “Divergent”, making possible associations with our social and educational worlds. Using the method of quantitative content analysis, we found that “ranking” and “training” have the most powerful presence in the novel. In this dystopian society, the concept and institution of education has a very different role of the one we would imagine in another more friendly and warless society. Based on our findings, we propose ways in which students can actually learn from dystopian fiction and make steps towards the change of their own educational system and society.

Effect of School Facilities Utilization on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Wukari Metropolis, Taraba State, Nigeria

This paper investigated the utilization of school facilities as they affect students’ academic performance in Wuakari metropolis of Taraba State. An ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The population of students comprise those who completed JSS3 between 2014-2017. Data for the study were collected using a School Facility Utilization Questionnaire (SFUQ) and School Facility Provision Checklist (SFPC). The results of the student were obtained from the State Ministry of Education. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive analysis while t-test was used to test the hypothesis. The findings revealed that 17 out of the 25 schools are inadequately equipped. The finding also revealed that there is sufficient utilization of facilities by teachers and students. It recommended that government and relevant stakeholders should ensure adequate provision of school facilities and put in place supervisory measures for their utilization.

The Role of Learning Analytic in Education Reform

In year 2009, the nascent research community of Educational Data Mining (EDM) has been found to continually and increasingly grow. Now the education data mining has become popular and deeply studied in all universities. Specially, in United Kingdom, United State, Canada, they held several conferences annually on learning analytic discussion, which is related with Educational Data Mining. Learning analytics refers to the collection of large volume of data about students in an educational setting and to analyze the data to predict the students' future performance, identify risk and provide recommendations for improvement. LA is an increasingly emerging field, it is necessary for higher education stakeholders to become more familiar with the issues related to LA's use in education. Such a paper provides a brief introduction, methods and benefits, and challenges of LA.

Research on Advantaged Discipline Group of Green Steel Intelligent Equipment and System

The main focus of intelligent manufacturing and the full implementation of green manufacturing are the strategic focus with development of manufacturing industry. Relying on development action plan of iron and steel industry and advantaged discipline group construction for building double-class, double-service and double-promotion, the advantaged discipline group of green steel intelligent equipment and systems is constructed. According to the eight research directions, the research field, the advantage characteristic and the construction system of the discipline group, the construction contents and the main measures of the advantaged discipline group are analyzed deeply.

ESL Teachers’ Perceptions on the Implementation of CEFR in Malaysian Primary Schools: Issues and Challenges

This study aims to investigate the English teachers’ views on the CEFR-aligned curriculum adoption in Malaysian primary ESL classroom. This paper intends to investigate the challenges surrounding teachers’ pedagogical practices on CEFR-based incorporated lesson. The study employs a quantitative approach where data were collected via survey questionnaires which is adapted and distributed to ESL primary school teachers in Malaysia via random purposive sampling. A descriptive statistic was used to analyse the quantitative data. The findings revealed that most of the teachers admitted having limited knowledge and minimum exposure on the CEFR implementation. Yet, they perceived positive perceptions on the revised CEFR-aligned curriculum adoption despite facing some difficulties and challenges. Teachers’ perceptions are vital for the authorities and policy makers to review and provide measures to ensure that stakeholders are fully prepared and capable to incorporate CEFR successfully and effectively in English language education.