Attitudes Towards Internationalism Through the Lens of Cognitive Effort, Global Mindset, and Cultural Intelligence

In the current study we examine attitudes towards internationalism through the lens of a specific set of constructs necessary in defining an effective global leader. One hundred fifty-nine undergraduates responded to items measuring need for cognition, cultural intelligence,and a set of items measuring the correlates of global mindset. In addition, they provided their attitudes on items measuring internationalism. A series of linear regression analyses revealed cultural intelligence,need for cognition and traveling abroad predicted students’ preference for working full-time in a foreign country. In addition, underclassmen were more likely to endorse the notion that the US culture is superior to other cultures compared to upperclassmen. Results support the importance of exposure to a diverse curriculum in shaping undergraduate students’ global mindset

Humanoid Theory Grounding

In this paper we consider the importance of using a humanoid physical form for a certain proposed kind of robotics, that of theory grounding. Theory grounding involves grounding the theory skills and knowledge of an embodied artificially intelligent (AI) system by developing theory skills and knowledge from the bottom up. Theory grounding can potentially occur in a variety of domains, and the particular domain considered here is that of language. Language is taken to be another “problem space” in which a system can explore and discover solutions. We argue that because theory grounding necessitates robots experiencing domain information, certain behavioral-form aspects, such as abilities to socially smile, point, follow gaze, and generate manual gestures, are necessary for robots grounding a humanoid theory of language

'Great Expectations': The motivational profile of Hungarian English language students.

In this article we investigate what characterizes the language learning motivation of Hungarian English language students in terms of Dörnyei and Ottó's process model of motivation (Motivation in Action, 1998). We used a mixed-method research design, in which qualitative interviews conducted with 20 students were supplemented with questionnaire data gained from 100 participants in order to have a better understanding of the apparent discrepancy between students' and society's expectations of teaching English Language at tertiary level and the present educational system in Hungary. The ambivalent nature of English language students' motivational profile was found to reflect this situation. The interview data revealed that the respondents had very favourable motivational characteristics but they did not invest sufficient energy in maintaining and improving their language competence. This is explained with reference to a low level of learner autonomy primarily caused by teacher-centered instruction

Autonomy in Video Games and Gamification

In the past decade, gamification (using game elements in non-gaming tasks to enhance motivation and engagement) has become a popular concept in many industries, but few studies have explored the principles under which it works. Self-determination theory suggests three psychological needs that gamification fulfills: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Autonomy, a person\u27s perception that they have the ability to act however they choose, has emerged as an important, yet less-studied aspect in gamification. Inclusion of autonomy in gamification should foster engagement, enjoyment, and better performance. An experiment inspired by the above was carried out in which a sample of college students (N = 57) played a video game called Super Mario Bros. Crossover with either the choice to customize the aesthetics of their character and background (autonomy-supportive) or no choice of aesthetics (non-supportive). It was hypothesized that conditions involving more choice would lead to higher perceived autonomy and performance, and that perceived autonomy would be positively correlated with engagement, enjoyment, and performance. The manipulation resulted in no significant difference in perceived autonomy or performance, and perceived autonomy was only significantly positively correlated with enjoyment. Prior Super Mario Bros. experience was also found to positively correlate with perceived autonomy in the autonomy-supportive condition. The choice of aesthetics does not appear to have been sufficiently strong enough to increase perceived autonomy in this context

Experienced tutors' deployment of thinking skills and what might be entailed in enhancing such skills

In the context of research that reports weaknesses in adults' critical thinking skills, the primary aim was to examine adults' use of critical thinking skills that are described in taxonomies and to identify areas for development. Position papers written by an opportunity sample of 32 experienced adult educators formed the data for a descriptive sample survey design intended to reveal participants' use of critical thinking skills. Each 6000-word paper was written during a development programme that supported such skills. A content analysis of the papers revealed that when participants drew on personal and published ideas about learning to derive their proposals for change, they accepted the ideas uncritically, thereby implying that they might find it difficult to help learners to examine ideas critically. The evidence supports research that implies that critical thinking skills are unlikely to develop unless overall course design privileges the development of epistemological understanding (King and Kitchener 1994, Kuhn 1999). A fundamental assumption underlying the study is that this understanding influences effective citizenship and personal development, as well as employability. A proposition that merits attention in future research is that the development of epistemological understanding is largely neglected in current curricula in formal post-16 education

Root Cause Analysis in Business Processes

Conceptual modeling is an important tool for understanding and revealing weaknesses of business processes. Yet, the current practice in reengineering projects often considers simply the as-is control flow and uses the respective model barely as a reference for brain-storming about improvement opportunities. This approach heavily relies on the intuition of the participants and misses a clear description of steps to identify root causes of problems. In contrast to that, this paper introduces a systematic methodology to detect and document the quality dimension of a business process. It builds on the definition of softgoals for each process activity, of correlations between softgoals, and metrics to measure the occurrence of quality issues. In this regard our contribution is a foundation of root-cause analysis in business process modeling, and a conceptual integration of goal-based and activity-based approaches to capturing processes

Integrating Mindfulness into the Training of Helping Professionals

Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences in the present moment. Extensive research in the fields of psychology, medicine, and counseling has explored the use and benefits of mindfulness-based practice in general. Such research has determined that mindfulness enhances skill development and counselor preparation within the human service professions. Therapeutic and educational settings have thus increasingly embraced mindfulness practices. This exploratory paper posits that the study and practice of mindfulness can be beneficial for both faculty and graduate students in the fields of Mental Health, School Counseling, and School Psychology. The aims of this paper are three-fold: 1. Review the literature on mindfulness-based practices across these disciplines; 2. Assess the benefits of mindfulness and how it aligns with the professional missions; and 3. Outline the contours of a curriculum designed and implemented by the co-authors to educate and train future counselors and school psychologists in mindfulness practices

Implications of the Course of Study Reforms on English Language Teaching in Japanese Secondary Schools: Toward Teaching English as an International Language

Many universities in Japan have been offering the teaching certificate programs to train highly qualified teachers. Even though graduate schools have set up programs for more disciplinary courses for English language teaching (ELT), few have been developed at the undergraduate school level. Thus, pre-service English teachers can only learn about ELT pedagogical issues in English Teaching Methodology courses. Moreover, ELT in Japan still adheres to a principle of English speakers’ norms and aims for native speakers of English for communication partners. Since English has become an international language or a lingua franca in the globalized society, prospective English teachers must recognize the growing importance of English language variations to teach English as an international language. This paper focuses primarily on pedagogical issues to teach in English methodology classes in accordance with the future reforms of the teaching-training program. To do this, discussions include revision of the Communicative Language Teaching approaches and application of World Englishes into ELT at the secondary school level

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)

Software Sustainability: The Modern Tower of Babel

<p>The aim of this paper is to explore the emerging definitions of software sustainability from the field of software engineering in order to contribute to the question, what is software sustainability?</p