The experience of teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities

Undoubtedly, statistics has become one of the most important subjects in the modern world, where its applications are ubiquitous. The importance of statistics is not limited to statisticians, but also impacts upon non-statisticians who have to use statistics within their own disciplines. Several studies have indicated that most of the academic departments around the world have realized the importance of statistics to non-specialist students. Therefore, the number of students enrolled in statistics courses has vastly increased, coming from a variety of disciplines. Consequently, research within the scope of statistics education has been able to develop throughout the last few years. One important issue is how statistics is best taught to, and learned by, non-specialist students. This issue is controlled by several factors that affect the learning and teaching of statistics to non-specialist students, such as the use of technology, the role of the English language (especially for those whose first language is not English), the effectiveness of statistics teachers and their approach towards teaching statistics courses, students’ motivation to learn statistics and the relevance of statistics courses to the main subjects of non-specialist students. Several studies, focused on aspects of learning and teaching statistics, have been conducted in different countries around the world, particularly in Western countries. Conversely, the situation in Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, is different; here, there is very little research in this scope, and what there is does not meet the needs of those countries towards the development of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students. This research was instituted in order to develop the field of statistics education. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to generate new insights into this subject by investigating how statistics courses are currently taught to non-specialist students in Saudi universities. Hence, this study will contribute towards filling the knowledge gap that exists in Saudi Arabia. This study used multiple data collection approaches, including questionnaire surveys from 1053 non-specialist students who had completed at least one statistics course in different colleges of the universities in Saudi Arabia. These surveys were followed up with qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews with 16 teachers of statistics from colleges within all six universities where statistics is taught to non-specialist students in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region. The data from questionnaires included several types, so different techniques were used in analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants. The chi-square test was used to determine associations between variables. Based on the main issues that are raised from literature review, the questions (items scales) were grouped and five key groups of questions were obtained which are: 1) Effectiveness of Teachers; 2) English Language; 3) Relevance of Course; 4) Student Engagement; 5) Using Technology. Exploratory data analysis was used to explore these issues in more detail. Furthermore, with the existence of clustering in the data (students within departments within colleges, within universities), multilevel generalized linear models for dichotomous analysis have been used to clarify the effects of clustering at those levels. Factor analysis was conducted confirming the dimension reduction of variables (items scales). The data from teachers’ interviews were analysed on an individual basis. The responses were assigned to one of the eight themes that emerged from within the data: 1) the lack of students’ motivation to learn statistics; 2) students' participation; 3) students’ assessment; 4) the effective use of technology; 5) the level of previous mathematical and statistical skills of non-specialist students; 6) the English language ability of non-specialist students; 7) the need for extra time for teaching and learning statistics; and 8) the role of administrators. All the data from students and teachers indicated that the situation of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities needs to be improved in order to meet the needs of those students. The findings of this study suggested a weakness in the use of statistical software applications in these courses. This study showed that there is lack of application of technology such as statistical software programs in these courses, which would allow non-specialist students to consolidate their knowledge. The results also indicated that English language is considered one of the main challenges in learning and teaching statistics, particularly in institutions where English is not used as the main language. Moreover, the weakness of mathematical skills of students is considered another major challenge. Additionally, the results indicated that there was a need to tailor statistics courses to the needs of non-specialist students based on their main subjects. The findings indicate that statistics teachers need to choose appropriate methods when teaching statistics courses.

How teachers' perceptions affect the academic and language assessment of immigrant children

Recent research evidences inconsistencies in teachers' practice regarding skills assessment of L2 students. Scientific evidence supports that less experienced teachers have lower orientation toward multiple task-tests for non-native students. Research questions: Whether school teachers as having different teaching training and unequal teaching experience with non-native students perceive differently a four-skills scale. Purpose of the study: This study intends to analyse the importance degree between the four skills/tasks: reading, writing, speaking and listening, in the perspective of school teachers. Method: 77 teachers, aged 32-62, with (and without) experience in teaching and adapting materials for immigrant students, divided into six groups according to their scientific domain. Assessment tools included a scale for judgement of four academic tasks adapted from the original “Inventory of Undergraduate and Graduate Level: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Tasks (Rosenfeld, Leung & Ottman, 2001). Main Findings: 1) different degrees of importance attributed by teachers on tasks that should be included in academic and language test for immigrant students; 2) perceptions of teachers are determined by predictors in this order: scientific domain, experience with multicultural classes and lower prediction from teaching service and age; 3) different results between american and portuguese samples answering the same questionnaire.

The big four skills: Teachers’ assumptions on measurement of non-native students cognition

The four-skills on tests for young native speakers commonly do not generate correlation incongruency concerning the cognitive strategies frequently reported. Considering the non-native speakers there are parse evidence to determine which tasks are important to assess properly the cognitive and academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1980; 2012). Research questions: It is of high probability that young students with origin in immigration significantly differ on their communication strategies and skills in a second language processing context (1); attached to this first assumption, it is supposed that teachers significantly differ depending on their scientific area and previous training (2). Purpose: This study intends to examine whether school teachers (K-12) as having different origin in scientific domain of teaching and training perceive differently an adapted four-skills scale, in European Portuguese. Research methods: 77 teachers of five areas scientific areas, mean of teaching year service = 32 (SD= 2,7), 57 males and 46 females (from basic and high school levels). Main findings: ANOVA (Effect size and Post-hoc Tukey tests) and linear regression analysis (stepwise method) revealed statistically significant differences among teachers of different areas, mainly between language teachers and science teachers. Language teachers perceive more accurately tasks in a multiple manner to the broad skills that require to be measured in non-native students. Conclusion: If teachers perceive differently the importance of the big-four tasks, there would be incongruence on skills measurement that teachers select for immigrant puppils. Non-balanced tasks and the teachers’ perceptions on evaluation and toward competence of students would likely determine limitations for academic and cognitive development of non-native students. Furthermore, results showed sufficient evidence to conclude that tasks are perceived differently by teachers toward importance of specific skills subareas. Reading skills are best considered compared to oral comphreension skills in non-native students.

Heaven's Sense: a novel / At hand-grips with ruin: the psychology of writer's block

There is a significant attitude of scepticism when it comes to belief in the existence of writer's block as a valid psychological phenomenon, alongside what might be described as the "Tortured Artist Personality". It is contended here that both writer's block and the "Tortured Artist Personality" do exist in a minority of professional and aspiring fiction writers, and furthermore that these phenomena are forms of personality behaviour that have already been well-catalogued by the academic fields of psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy: specifically, writer's block is a form of unconscious maladaptive procrastination - expressed through avoidance coping or escape coping behaviour - which in turn arises from the fully-accepted personality trait of perfectionism. Aspects of perfectionism, together with various sub-scale traits and mediators, are also the key components in at least one form of "Tortured Artist Personality". This paper lays out the extensive evidence for these assertions, using existing research in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and neuroscience.

Contributions of Neuroscience to Develop Teaching Strategies and Learning of Mathematics

The goal of the present work is to develop some strategies based on research in neurosciences that contribute to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The interrelationship of education with the brain, as well as the relationship of cerebral structures with mathematical thinking was discussed. Strategies were developed taking into consideration levels that include cognitive, semiotic, language, affect and the overcoming of phobias to the subject. The fundamental conclusion was the imperative educational requirement in the near future of a new teacher, whose pedagogic formation must include the knowledge on the cerebral function, its structures and its implications to education, as well as a change in pedagogy and curricular structure in the teaching of mathematics.

Teaching-learning process and teaching methodology in Portuguese for the deaf under the perspective of inclusive education

For years, the discrepancies faced by deaf students in the teaching of the Portuguese language were due to the lack of hearing. Recently, these failures have been attributed to the use of inadequate teaching methodologies and to the lack of communication through Libras between the deaf and the hearers. This article aims at reporting a research study that analyzed the teaching-learning processes from the point of view of a deaf elementary student in Viçosa/MG. The project was primarily developed by a qualitative approach, by utilizing the bibliographical review, the participant observation and the field diary. Results showed the communicative interactions were restrained, since teachers and hearing students were not fluent in Libras, and there was no interpreter available. The methodology was mostly expositive, with a predominance of oral resources. The findings demonstrated the challenges faced by the deaf students are numerous, since the school does not offer the structure to meet their needs, and the teachers do not have the required education to work in an inclusive school environment. This article reports some methodological proposals for the teaching of Portuguese that were elaborated and applied within an inclusive context, all following PCN orientations. It reinforces the need to invest in teacher training to meet the demands of inclusive education to improve the quality of the classes offered to the deaf in regards to the teaching-learning process for Portuguese.

BELIEFS ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNING AND TEACHING IN A TECHNICAL SCHOOL IN THE CITY OF PONTA PORÃ/MS

Abstract: This study is part of my master research, which aimed to investigate the beliefs about  English learning and teaching of students entering to a High School Course integrated to Computer Technician at a Federal High School in the city Ponta Pora / MS , located at the  border  with Paraguay . In the context , great part of the students coming from public schools in the region  had not studied English as a foreign language in elementary school , once it is located  in a region of the border with Paraguay , it offers only Spanish as a foreign language. The interest for this research came up as of conflicting situations between the teacher way of teaching and students ways of learning, especially of those who had not studied English in elementary school. Thus we tried to study the beliefs of these students, analyzing how they process in that context in order to promote reflection of the teacher  to perform actions of intervention in order to reduce the mismatches between the ways of teaching and the ways that the students believe to be the right to learn. Keywords: Beliefs; English Teaching and Learning; Context

The Practice of Reading, Writing Papers and Linguistic Analysis in Teaching Portuguese: A Proposal for the Organization of Everyday School Life from the Perspective of Multiliteracies

This paper aims to reflect on the teaching of Portuguese language in the context of twenty-first century, taking as its starting point the proposal of multiliteracies. We propose to discuss the applicability of genres in the classroom as a condition to ensure the construction of fundamental knowledge to social practices of language. For this, we rely on recent studies on the possibilities that the genre can bring to practice reading, writing papers, and linguistic analysis. We intend, therefore, to assist the planning of teachers who still find themselves unsure on curricula that suggest what they have to do, but did not say how. Understand the reason why this work is another contribution to the teaching of Portuguese in the final years of elementary school and high school bringing out a space for discussion about what needs to be taught and some teaching procedures that favor the democratization of school and interaction linguistics. Curricular innovations and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning of mother tongue are already part of the reflections of most professionals, but there is still an open field to think of more effective alternatives through multimodality an interactionist conception of language.

PROGRAM MONITORING IN THE PROCESS OF TEACHING/LEARNING SPANISH LANGUAGE FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM

This article is about the lived experience in the Monitoring Programme of the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), during the discipline of Spanish Language Applied to Tourism, of the Tourism Course, in Parnaíba/PI. The study aims at getting to introduce students, teachers and researchers the importance of this academic practice, as well as to characterize the relevance of the teaching/learning of foreign language (FL), more specifically the Spanish as foreign language (ELE), for tourism activity and career of tourism professional. The methodology adopted was a bibliographical, documentary and field research with qualitative and quantitative approach. Thus, it can be state that the monitoring encourages the students to teach, associated with teaching activities, research and extension activities, and it contributes to the development of their intellectual, academic and professional abilities. Furthermore, subjects perceive the relevance of foreign language teaching in the classroom, including the teaching of SFL for the efficient development of their works in relation to tourism.

A proposal for English teaching in the classrooms of IFSC in times of globalization and bilingualism

This article discusses, departing from Critical Applied Linguistics perspectives, English language teaching in the classrooms of the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Santa Catarina – IFSC (Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina) – more specifically about high school courses integrated to technical teaching, a discussion also useful to other institutions and schools. In the article, the role of IFSC is critically discussed regarding English teaching in the present globalization/globalism era with its demands for bilingualism. A reflection about what kind of English teaching is desirable for IFSC is presented, trying to answer the following question: Which approach of English teaching could be applied to IFSC in the current context? The understanding in the article is that nowadays teaching of English should not be performed any more as a mere study of a language, but that that teaching may occur through a libertarian conception, which, besides preparing the students to the world of work, gives them the possibility to grow as critical citizens, engaged in the organization for a more humane and just world. Keywords: globalization; bilingualism; English teaching.

Screening for drugs in oral fluid : illicit drug use and drug driving in a sample of urban and regional Queensland motorists

Police services in a number of Australian states and overseas jurisdictions have begun to implement or consider random road-side drug testing of drivers. This paper outlines research conducted to provide an estimate of the extent of drug driving in a sample of Queensland drivers in regional, rural and metropolitan areas. Oral fluid samples were collected from 2657 Queensland motorists and screened for illicit substances including cannabis (delta 9 tetrahydrocannibinol [THC]), amphetamines, ecstasy, and cocaine. Overall, 3.8% of the sample (n = 101) screened positive for at least one illicit substance, although multiple drugs were identified in a sample of 23 respondents. The most common drugs detected in oral fluid were ecstasy (n = 53), and cannabis (n = 46) followed by amphetamines (n = 23). A key finding was that cannabis was confirmed as the most common self-reported drug combined with driving and that individuals who tested positive to any drug through oral fluid analysis were also more likely to report the highest frequency of drug driving. Furthermore, a comparison between drug vs. drink driving detection rates for one region of the study, revealed a higher detection rate for drug driving (3.8%) vs. drink driving (0.8%). This research provides evidence that drug driving is relatively prevalent on Queensland roads, and may in fact be more common than drink driving. This paper will further outline the study findings’ and present possible directions for future drug driving research.