Investigating the perceptions of preservice teachers on collaborative in-situ microteaching

Micro-teaching has been criticized for its artificial nature, limited practice period, and inadequate feedback. Giving preservice teachers in-situ opportunities that they can collaborate on lesson planning, teach, and receive peer feedback can assist in addressing these drawbacks. To that end, an intervention study was devised to provide in-situ microteaching for preservice English teachers (PT). Following the intervention, we solicited PTs' feedback on the impact of the collaborative in-situ microteaching experience on their pedagogical knowledge development. A total of 41 PTs participated in the 14-week intervention program offered as part of the Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) course. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected during this intervention study. A survey created by the researchers was used to gather quantitative data, and the reflection papers submitted by the participating PTs served as a source of qualitative data. The results revealed that participants rated the experience as having a moderate overall contribution to their pedagogical knowledge development. Collaborative in-situ microteaching (CiM) had a slightly higher influence on student teachers’ lesson delivery skills than on their lesson planning skills. As per the qualitative data, the most frequently mentioned benefits were acquiring expertise in classroom management, material development and lesson planning, and getting to know young learners

Messung und Steuerung der Kundenbindung bei Internet-Portalen : eine kausalanalytische Studie

Der Gründungsboom von Online-Portalen wird primär durch das Ziel getrieben, die Kundenbindung im Internet zu erhöhen. Die Studie untersucht, welche Portaleigenschaften geeignet sind, eine Abwanderung der Portalnutzer zu verhindern. Auf Basis einer Online-Befragung von 480 Nutzern regionaler Portale ergeben sich zunächst sechs grundlegende Leistungsdimensionen, welche die Nutzer für die Performancebewertung von Online-Portalen heranziehen (6C-Modell): -Content (Inhalte) -Communication (Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten) -Commerce (Transaktionsabwicklung) -Challenge (Herausforderung und Unterhaltung) -Configuration (Konfiguration und Gestaltung der Seite) -Customer Care (Unterstützung und Betreuung der Nutzer) Anschließend werden die Wirkungseffekte der 6 Cs auf die Kundenbindung untersucht. Dabei zeigt sich, dass nur vier der sechs Qualitätsdimensionen zu einer Erhöhung der Kundenbindung beitragen (Content, Challenge, Customer Care, Configuration), wobei sich Content als der bedeutsamste Erfolgsfaktor erweist. Die übrigen beiden Dimensionen haben keinen positiven Effekt auf den Kundenbindungserfolg: Während die Performance der Transaktionsfunktionen (Commerce) nicht zur Erhöhung der Loyalität beiträgt, ist die Dimension Communication dem Ziel der Kundenbindung sogar abträglich. Mit zunehmender Verbesserung der Kommunikations- möglichkeiten und -instrumente, die einen intensiven Meinungs- und Informationsaustausch zwischen den Nutzern ermöglichen, verringern sich wahrgenommen Wechselrisiken der Nutzer und damit deren Loyalität erheblich. Im Ergebnis legt die Arbeit mit dem "6C-Modell der Portalqualität" ein für die Praxis leicht handhabbares Instrument zur Bewertung und Gestaltung von Online-Portalen vor. Die Ergebnisse liefern weiterhin die effektiven Stellhebel für ein Kundenbindungs -management, indem sie die Treiber der Kundenloyalität offen legen. Auf diese Weise kann eine Fehlsteuerung der Ressourcen in die falschen Portalbereiche vermieden werden

A computed tomography-based morphometric study of the styloid process

Background: The styloid process (SP) refers to a cylindrical piece projecting from the inferior of the temporal bone, situated anterior to the stylomastoid foramen. It is an anatomic formation close to major vessels and nerves, and its excessive elongation results in pathologies leading to anatomical disorders, such as Eagle’s syndrome. Several studies have been conducted on SP in relation to its close proximity to vessels and nerves, but there is no study that reveals its distance to important anatomical formations, such as the internal auditory meatus (IAM), carotid canal (CC), cochlea, tegmen tympani (TT) and tragus. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the incidence of Eagle’s syndrome based on morphometric measurements of SP. Materials and methods: The patient files archived in the Radiology Department of Adiyaman University Training and Research Hospital were retrospectively examined. The study was carried out on the data of patients for whom specialist radiologists found no pathology findings on the computed tomography images. A total of 77 individuals (36 females and 41 males) aged 22 to 54 years were included in the study. The length of SP and its distances to IAM, cochlea, CC, TT and tragus were obtained using computed tomography radiological measurements. Results: When the individual measurements performed on computed tomography images were evaluated in men and women, no significant difference was found concerning the distance between SP and various anatomic structures in close proximity to SP (p > 0.05). However, there was a statistically significant difference between the genders in length of the right SP (p = 0.003) and left SP (p = 0.006). Conclusions: This anthropometric study revealed the standard morphometric measurements of SP. We believe that the data obtained will help clinicians to identify and diagnose pathologies more easily

A modified choice function hyper-heuristic controlling unary and binary operators

Hyper-heuristics are a class of high-level search methodologies which operate on a search space of low-level heuristics or components, rather than on solutions directly. Traditional iterative selection hyper-heuristics rely on two key components, a heuristic selection method and a move acceptance criterion. Choice Function heuristic selection scores heuristics based on a combination of three measures, selecting the heuristic with the highest score. Modified Choice Function heuristic selection is a variant of the Choice Function which emphasises intensification over diversification within the heuristic search process. Previous work has shown that improved results are possible in some problem domains when using Modified Choice Function heuristic selection over the classic Choice Function, however in most of these cases crossover low-level heuristics (operators) are omitted. In this paper, we introduce crossover low-level heuristics into a Modified Choice Function selection hyper-heuristic and present results over six problem domains. It is observed that although on average there is an increase in performance when using crossover low-level heuristics, the benefit of using crossover can vary on a per-domain or per-instance basis

A comparison of crossover control mechanisms within single-point selection hyper-heuristics using HyFlex

Hyper-heuristics are search methodologies which operate at a higher level of abstraction than traditional search and optimisation techniques. Rather than operating on a search space of solutions directly, a hyper-heuristic searches a space of low-level heuristics or heuristic components. An iterative selection hyper-heuristic operates on a single solution, selecting and applying a low-level heuristic at each step before deciding whether to accept the resulting solution. Crossover low-level heuristics are often included in modern selection hyper-heuristic frameworks, however as they require multiple solutions to operate, a strategy is required to manage potential solutions to use as input. In this paper we investigate the use of crossover control schemes within two existing selection hyper-heuristics and observe the difference in performance when the method for managing potential solutions for crossover is modified. Firstly, we use the crossover control scheme of AdapHH, the winner of an international competition in heuristic search, in a Modified Choice Function - All Moves selection hyper-heuristic. Secondly, we replace the crossover control scheme within AdapHH with another method taken from the literature. We observe that the performance of selection hyper-heuristics using crossover low level heuristics is not independent of the choice of strategy for managing input solutions to these operators

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY IS PREDICTED BY SELF-EFFICACY AND ACHIEVEMENT

In this research, the prediction cognitive flexibility obtained by general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, emotional self-efficacy and achievement is examined. This study is executed in 2014- 2015 academic year on 760 high school students who are between ages 15 and 18. Cognitive flexibility Scale is developed by Bilgin (2009b) is used for defining cognitive flexibility, Self-Efficacy Scale is developed by Çelikkaleli, Gündoğdu ve Kıran-Esen (2006) is used for defining self-efficacy. Achievement information are determined from TEOG’s input points of students. Data are tested by regression analysis. The results of research shows the facts that cognitive flexibility is predicted meaningfully in positive direction by five of the variables “achievement, general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy and  emotional self-efficacy”. In the multiple regression analysis, it is found that five variables all together explain 34% of cognitive flexibility. Also, it is found in stepwise regression analysis that cognitive flexibility is predicted meaningfully by their two variables.  Article visualizations

Scalar Casimir effect between two concentric D-dimensional spheres

The Casimir energy for a massless scalar field between the closely spaced two concentric D-dimensional (for D>3) spheres is calculated by using the mode summation with contour integration in the complex plane of eigenfrequencies and the generalized Abel-Plana formula for evenly spaced eigenfrequency at large argument. The sign of the Casimir energy between closely spaced two concentric D-dimensional spheres for a massless scalar field satisfying the Dirichlet boundary conditions is strictly negative. The Casimir energy between D-1 dimensional surfaces close to each other is regarded as interesting both by itself and as the key to describing of stability of the attractive Casimir force. PACS number(s): 03.70.+k, 11.10.Kk, 11.10.Gh, 03.65.GeComment: 14 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.418

Automatically designing more general mutation operators of evolutionary programming for groups of function classes using a hyper-heuristic

In this study we use Genetic Programming (GP) as an offline hyper-heuristic to evolve a mutation operator for Evolutionary Programming. This is done using the Gaussian and uniform distributions as the terminal set, and arithmetic operators as the function set. The mutation operators are automatically designed for a specific function class. The contribution of this paper is to show that a GP can not only automatically design a mutation operator for Evolutionary Programming (EP) on functions generated from a specific function class, but also can design more general mutation operators on functions generated from groups of function classes. In addition, the automatically designed mutation operators also show good performance on new functions generated from a specific function class or a group of function classes

Path analyses of yield and some agronomic and quality traits of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under different environments

This research was conducted to determine characters effecting grain yield in fifty bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars and advanced lines by using simple correlation coefficient and path analysis under 2 locations (high rainfall and low rainfall; 745 and 506 mm, respectively). A total of 50 genotypes, 25 for each independent experiment, were tested for grain yield, test weight, 1000-kernel weight, Zeleny sedimentation, protein content and plant height. Grain yield was significantly correlated with plant height in high rainfall condition. It was significantly correlated with all components except Zeleny sedimentation and protein content in low rainfall condition. Results suggest  that plant height and test weight are primary selection criteria for improving grain yield in bread wheat in high and low rainfall conditions.Key words: Bread wheat, grain yield and components, correlation coefficient, path analyses

A self-adaptive multimeme memetic algorithm co-evolving utility scores to control genetic operators and their parameter settings

Memetic algorithms are a class of well-studied metaheuristics which combine evolutionary algorithms and local search techniques. A meme represents contagious piece of information in an adaptive information sharing system. The canonical memetic algorithm uses a fixed meme, denoting a hill climbing operator, to improve each solution in a population during the evolutionary search process. Given global parameters and multiple parametrised operators, adaptation often becomes a crucial constituent in the design of MAs. In this study, a self-adaptive self-configuring steady-state multimeme memetic algorithm (SSMMA) variant is proposed. Along with the individuals (solutions), SSMMA co-evolves memes, encoding the utility score for each algorithmic component choice and relevant parameter setting option. An individual uses tournament selection to decide which operator and parameter setting to employ at a given step. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on six combinatorial optimisation problems from a cross-domain heuristic search benchmark. The results indicate the success of SSMMA when compared to the static Mas as well as widely used self-adaptive Multimeme Memetic Algorithm from the scientific literature