The Influence of Psychosocial Learning Environments on Students’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in English Language Learning

The overarching aim of this study was to investigate whether the psychosocial learning environments of English classes influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs in English language. In order to achieve this purpose, correlational design was adopted. The study involved the gathering of data through What Is Happening In this Class and Self-Efficacy Belief questionnaires from 371 samples. Simple random sampling was used to draw the samples from the population. Simple correlations, multiple regression and standardized regression coefficients were computed to analyze the collected data. The results depict that all of the six psychosocial learning environment aspects were significantly related to students’ self-efficacy beliefs. The set of learning environment scales also significantly influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Among the six aspects, student involvement, task orientation and student cohesiveness contributed to the influence on students’ self-efficacy beliefs. The influence of the task orientation aspect was the strongest; this is followed by student cohesiveness and student involvement. This implies that students tend to have high self-efficacy beliefs in English language when there were more task-oriented and cohesive classroom environment and when students were encouraged to involve themselves well in class activities. Hence, the psychosocial learning environments of English classes need improvement to enhance students’ self-efficacy beliefs towards English language. In particular, the learning environment aspects of task orientation, student cohesiveness and involvement play a pivotal role in enhancing students’ self-efficacy beliefs in English learning

Práticas pedagógicas voltadas para a inclusão de alunos surdos em uma escola de Rio Branco-Acre

Monografia (especialização)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Psicologia, Departamento de Psicologia Escolar e do Desenvolvimento Humano, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Processos de Desenvolvimento Humano e Saúde, 2015.A inclusão é um processo necessário para dar oportunidades a todas as pessoas, com ou sem deficiência, vivenciarem todos os seus direitos na sociedade da qual fazem parte. Permitir a inclusão é sermos capazes de entendermos e reconhecermos no outro a capacidade de fazer, mesmo com todas as suas dificuldades e limitações. Acreditamos que a escola é, sem dúvida nenhuma, a porta principal para proporcionar a estas pessoas conviverem e compartilharem suas diferenças com o outro. E, para que isso ocorra, o papel do formador é de suma importância. Para isso, este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a prática pedagógica dos docentes, frente ao processo de inclusão de alunos surdos. A pesquisa ocorreu em uma escola pública de Rio Branco – AC, que integra a rede estadual de ensino. Participaram da pesquisa 3 professores regentes de salas regulares e 2 professores da sala de recursos multifuncionais, visto que os mesmos, desenvolvem suas atividades profissionais com o público alvo deste estudo. A pesquisa foi empírica e teve cunho qualitativo. Para coleta de dados utilizamos o questionário como instrumento de pesquisa. Para análise de dados, organizamos os dados coletados em categorias, que nos ajudaram a responder os objetivos iniciais. As reflexões e análises foram realizadas por meio do referencial teórico, contemplado pelos autores Bobbio (1992), Guimarães (1993), Lodi (2004), Turreta (2006), Martins (2006), Sassaki (2002) e outros, que nos ajudaram a compreender melhor sobre a história da educação inclusiva, bem como das pessoas surdas, caracterizando também a deficiência auditiva. Abordamos a formação e a prática dos professores que atuam com estes alunos de modo a promoverem de fato o processo de inclusão. Como resultado da pesquisa, foi possível observar a necessidade de ressaltar que o professor é capaz e, tomara superar os obstáculos estabelecidos por sua formação, mobilizando-se por meio da reflexão crítica acerca da mesma. É necessário que os professores se sintam como autores de suas práxis enfrentando o preconceito, discriminação e os estereótipos, enraizados nas práticas educativas. Por fim, este estudo, afirma a importância da formação docente no contexto inclusivo bem como os impactos da mesma no desenvolvimento de práticas pedagógica que garantam a inclusão de pessoas com necessidades educacionais especiais em salas de aulas regulares e sala de recursos

The Psychosocial Aspects of Learning Environment in English as A Foreign Language Classrooms: EFL Students’ Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial aspects of the learning environment in English as a Foreign Language classes. To attain this purpose, descriptive research design was employed. A stratified random sampling was used to ensure the proportion of male and female students while simple random sampling was used to select the participants from each stratum. The study involved the gathering of data through What Is Happening In this Class questionnaire from 371 students. Descriptive (mean and SD) and inferential (MANOVA and ANOVA) statistics were computed to analyze the collected data. The results show that students perceived the psychosocial aspects of the learning environment of their English classes positively though they perceived the aspect of task orientation more positively than the other aspects of the psychosocial environment. This implies that the activities related to the task orientation aspect of the learning environment were often practiced whereas the activities related to aspects of cohesiveness, teacher support, involvement, cooperation, and equity were sometimes practiced in English classes. Female and male students also did not depict significant differences in their perceptions of the English classroom psychosocial environment. The study concludes that the psychosocial environments of the English classes need improvement for students to learn better

Estimation of Suspended Sediment Load Using Artificial Intelligence-Based Ensemble Model

Suspended sediment modeling is an important subject for decision-makers at the catchment level. Accurate and reliable modeling of suspended sediment load (SSL) is important for planning, managing, and designing of water resource structures and river systems. The objective of this study was to develop artificial intelligence- (AI-) based ensemble methods for modeling SSL in Katar catchment, Ethiopia. In this paper, three single AI-based models, that is, support vector machine (SVM), adaptive neurofuzzy inference system (ANFIS), feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and one conventional multilinear regression (MLR) modes, were used for SSL modeling. Besides, four different ensemble methods, neural network ensemble (NNE), ANFIS ensemble (AE), weighted average ensemble (WAE), and simple average ensemble (SAE), were developed by combining the outputs of the four single models to improve their predictive performance. The study used two-year (2016-2017) discharge and SSL data for training and verification of the applied models. Determination coefficient (DC) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the performances of the developed models. Based on the performance measure results, the ANFIS model provides higher efficiency than the other developed single models. Out of all developed ensemble models, the nonlinear ANFIS model combination method was found to be the most accurate method and could increase the efficiency of SVM, MLR, ANFIS, and FFNN models by 19.02%, 37%, 9.73%, and 16.3%, respectively, at the verification stage. Overall, the proposed ensemble models in general and the AI-based ensemble in particular provide excellent performance in SSL estimation

Magnitude of maternal near-misses and associated factors in Arsi Zone public hospitals in Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022

Background: Investigation of maternal near-misses is useful for monitoring and evaluating the quality of obstetrics care services. Despite its importance, data has been limited in Arsi Zone public hospitals. Objective: To assess the magnitude of maternal near-miss and associated factors in Arsi Zone public hospitals, Ethiopia, 2022. Method: Institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted on 327 study participants from December 2021 to June 2022. The study participants were selected through systematic random sampling. Trained data collectors used pre-tested structured questionnaires to collect data from study participants. Pertinent data were also extracted from clients’ logbook. The data were entered to Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression were employed to control for possible confounders where a significance level was set to a P-value of 5 %. Result: A total of 326 study participants responded, resulting in a 99.7 % response rate. The magnitude of maternal near-miss was 34.4 % [95 % CI (29.2–39.8)]. Hypertensive disorders (35 %), hemorrhage (35 %), ruptured uterus (11 %), unsafe abortion (8 %), obstructed labour (7 %), and infection/sepsis (4.5 %) were the direct while anemia (20 %) was one of the indirect causes of maternal near-misses. ANC visit received (AOR = 2.5, 95 % CI: 1.04–5.84), First ANC booked trimester (AOR = 0.26, 95 % CI: 0.1–0.9), delay in seeking care (AOR = 3.1, 95 % CI: 1.2–8.1), delay two (AOR = 2.7, 95 % CI: 1.0–6.8) and mode of delivery (AOR = 2.8, 95 % CI: 1.3–6.1) were factors associated with maternal near-misses. Conclusion: The prevalence of maternal near-miss was high. To improve the identified factors and minimize their consequences, appropriate interventions are required at all levels to improve the quality of obstetrics care services aimed at improving positive pregnancy outcomes