Pedagogical blogging : promoting tertiary level students` critical thinking by using socratic questions.

This study seeks to investigate the effects of pedagogical blogging on tertiary students’ critical thinking. The authors initially discuss the role of Socratic questions in promoting students’ critical thinking through Web 2.0 tools. They further explain how blogging was incorporated into the curriculum of a course for tertiary level students enrolled in a Malaysian university. Finally, they show how qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate the efficiency of Socratic questions in students’ blogging and its effects on students’ critical thinking. Findings suggest that implementing Socratic questions in students’ blogging would help promote students’ critical thinking

Investigating the factor structure of the blog attitude scale

Due to the wide application of advanced technology in education, many attitude scales have been developed to evaluate learners’ attitudes toward educational tools. However, with the rapid development of emerging technologies, using blogs as one of the Web 2.0 tools is still in its infancy and few blog attitude scales have been developed yet. In view of this need, a lot of researchers like to design a new scale based on their conceptual and theoretical framework of their own study rather than using available scales. The present study reports the design and development of a blog attitude scale (BAS). The researchers developed a pool of items to capture the complexity of the blog attitude trait, selected 29 items in the content analysis, and assigned the scale comprising 29 items to 216 undergraduate students to explore the underlying structure of the BAS. In exploratory factor analysis, three factors were discovered: blog anxiety, blog desirability, and blog self-efficacy; 14 items were excluded. The extracted items were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis which lent further support to the BAS underpinning structure

Promoting tertiary level students' critical thinking through the use of Socratic questioning on the blog

Over the past decade, much has been done to improve students' critical thinking in education. This study investigates if applying Socratic questioning on the blog can promote students' critical thinking. It applies a generic model, which associates with three fundamental components. Participants were an intact class of tertiary level students enrolled in an obligatory course. Students practiced Socratic questioning during face-to-face and online sessions. To serve this goal, they were asked to be attentive and share their ideas or questions with other students on the blog. Students' critical thinking ability was assessed using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test before and after they were trained in Socratic questioning. The results showed that the Socratic questioning training had a significant positive change on students' critical thinking ability. If students master the art of Socratic questioning, they can bring it into various courses they take. They can also use it in different discussions they engage in, and apply it not only in raising and asking questions about what is taught, but also in making questions concerning the issues in their daily life in a meaningful way

Energy and exergy analysis of using turbulator in a parabolic trough solar collector filled with mesoporous silica modified with copper nanoparticles hybrid nanofluid

Designing the most efficient parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) is still a demanding and challenging research area in solar energy systems. Two effective recommended methods for this purpose that increase the thermal characteristics of PTSCs are adding turbulators and nanofluids. To study the effects of the two approaches on the energy efficiency of PTSCs, a stainless steel turbulator was used and solid nanoparticles of Cu/SBA-15 were added to the water with the volume concentrations of 0.019% to 0.075%. The generated turbulence in the fluid flow was modeled by the SST k–ω turbulent model. The results in daylight demonstrated that energy efficiency increases steadily by 11:30 a.m., and then, starts to drop gradually due to more irradiations at noon. It was observed that applying the turbulator to the studied PTSC has a significant influence on the enhancement of energy efficiency. Adding the nanoparticles augmented the average Nusselt number inside the solar collector in various studied Reynolds numbers. It was also found that the increase in volume concentrations of nanoparticles enhances heat transfer regularly

Validity of the Persian Blog Attitude Questionnaire: An Evidence-Based Approach

Validity evidence is provided for a Persian blog attitude questionnaire (P-BAQ). P-BAQ was administered to 565 Iranians and factor analysis and rating scale model identified affective, behavioral, and perseverance, and confidence dimensions underlying the data. P-BAQ’s validity argument was supported by the theoretical and psychometric evidence, although adding a few items to the instrument would improve its construct representativeness

Investigating the extent of critical thinking in fielddependent and field-ındependent students’ blog posts

Identifying critical thinking and learners’ characteristics is very important in an online learning environment. This study investigated the extent of critical thinking between field-dependent and field-independent students’ critical thinking and blogging. It is a quasi-experimental in which a quantitative method was employed on an intact class of the students to develop their CT skills in their argumentative blog posts. Different aspects of CT skills, such as observation, inference, reasoning, assumption, and credibility were explained to the students. The GEFT developed by Witkin et al. (1971) was applied to evaluate the students' field dependency. Moreover, Newman et al. model (1996) was applied to analyze students’ CT in their blog posts. No significant difference was found in the number of positive and negative CT indicators used by FD and FI students. Therefore, educators who wish to improve the students’ learning may train the students in CT skills by using a pre-planned and systematic procedure without worrying about learners’ cognitive styles, particularly their field dependency

The Effects of IBA and H2O2 on Rooting of 2 Olive Cultivars

Two groups of olive cultivars were characterized as showing low (Tokhmkabki) and high (Roghani) rooting percentage after application of IBA treatment. Semi-hard wood cuttings were dipped in H2O2 (0-3.5% w/v) and IBA (4000 mg.l-1) and also they were investigated in combination. H2O2 alone did not stimulate rooting of olive cuttings and there were no significant differences between this treatment and control in both cultivars. It was obvious that IBA treatments increased the rooting percentage, number of root cuttings, root length and root fresh\dry weight in 2 olive cultivars but the combination of IBA and H2O2in some factors was more effective but there were no significant differences when IBA was used instead of in both cultivar

Effects of gibberellic acid, potassium nitrate and calcium sulfate on pomegranate fruit splitting and fruit characteristics

Pomegranate fruit splitting is one of the major problems of production which leads to economic and quality losses. Cultivars with thin peel such as ‘Kadru’ are more susceptible to this disorder. The present study was carried out in a completely randomized block design to evaluate the influence of foliar application of gibberellic acid (GA3), potassium nitrate (KNO3) and calcium sulfate (CaSO4) on alleviating fruit splitting of ‘Kadru’ cultivar in addition to some physical and quality characteristics in an orchard in Farugh region (Fars Province, Iran). Uniform healthy pomegranate trees were chosen for the experiment. Treatments included the foliar application of GA3 (50, 100 and 200 mg L-1), CaSO4 (2500, 3000 and 3500 mg L-1) and KNO3 (5000, 10,000 and 15,000 mg L-1) in May and early September in two successive years. The results indicated that most of the treatments significantly increased the number of healthy fruits, however, the application of KNO3 at 5000 mg L-1 concentration did not cause a significant response. Foliar application of GA3 (100 mg L-1) was evaluated as the most effective treatment in the reduction of the fruit splitting. Also, KNO3 (10,000 mg L-1) treatment mitigated the percentage of fruit splitting and had a beneficial impact on the weight of 100 arils, percentage of the edible part of the fruits and ascorbic acid concentration. Therefore, foliar application of KNO3 (10,000 mg L-1) is recommendable for the reduction of the pomegranate fruit splitting

Improvement of Seed Germination of Date-plum (Diospyros lotus L.) by Physical and Chemical Treatments

Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is an important subtropical, monoecious, dioeocious and polygamous tree which belongs to Ebenaceae family. Because of low total seed and low viability seed in persimmon, grafting on seedling rootstock is generally used for its propagation. The common rootstock is Diospyros lotus, but its seeds have long dormancy. So, the study was carried out to investigate the effects of stratification (0, 25, 50 and 70 days) at 4-70C, scarification with (97%) sulphuric acid (0, 2.5, 5 and7.5 minute) and GA3 (0, 250, 500 and 750 mgL-1) on seed germination of D. lotus. Results showed that the most germination rate was observed in GA3 at 250 mgL-1. Stratification for 70 days had the most germination percent. The most germination uniformity was observed in GA3 at 500 mgL-1. In scarification plus stratification, the germination percent was lower than control and stratification

Effects of Naphthalene Acetic Acid and Carbaryl on Fruit Thinning in ‘Kinnow’ Mandarin Trees

Several fruit trees including some cultivars of citrus tend to develop irregular bearing. Fruit thinning has been used for hundreds of years to manipulate blooming and crop load to improve the alternate bearing process. Frequently, combination sprays of two or more chemical thinners are used in various fruit trees and the thinning responses were additive and more effective than individual compounds. In this study, we investigated the effects of Naphthalene acetic acid and carbaryl alone and in combination in thinning of ‘Kinnow’ mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) trees. Some characteristics such as fruit weight, diameter and volume, total soluble solid (TSS), titrable acidity (TA), TSS/TA, vitamin C and peel thickness were measured prior to harvest for 2010 and 2011 as a complete randomized block design with 13 treatments and four replications. Results showed that the application of NAA and carbaryl alone in June drop stage of fruit growth increased fruit thinning percentage, TSS of fruit juice, fruit weight, volume, diameter and length. These chemical thinners improved fruit size significantly by increasing the leaf/fruit ratio. Combination sprays could not effectively thin fruits than individual chemicals and thus had no effect on fruit size. Fruit characteristics such as TA, ascorbic acid, TSS/TA ratio and peel thickness were not affected by our treatments