Preservice and K–12 Inservice Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Appropriateness of Teacher Self-Disclosure and Its Teaching Effectiveness

Situating teacher self-disclosure within a curriculum and instruction context, this research explored preservice and K-12 inservice teachers\u27 perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure and its teaching effectiveness as a component of the informal curriculum as well as an instructional tool. The following research questions were explored: (1) Is there any difference among preservice teachers and K-12 inservice teachers in their perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure? (2) Is there any difference between preservice teachers and K-12 inservice teachers in their perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure? (3) Is there any difference among K-12 inservice teachers in their application of teacher self-disclosure? (4) Is there any difference among preservice teachers and K-12 inservice teachers in their perceptions of effects of teacher self-disclosure on teaching effectiveness? (5) Is there any difference between preservice teachers and K-12 inservice teachers in their perceptions of effects of teacher self-disclosure on teaching effectiveness? Data from 180 preservice and 135 K-12 inservice teachers were analyzed. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used to examine the dimensions and items in each survey. One-way MANOVAs were conducted to investigate the differences across different levels of K-12 inservice teachers\u27 gender, ethnic group, grade level of teaching (elementary, junior, and high school), type of teaching (general and special education), years of teaching, and award status in the perceptions and application of teacher self-disclosure. Results of this study indicated: (a) differences in K-12 inservice teachers\u27 perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure topics across grade levels of teaching; (b) differences in K-12 inservice teachers\u27 consideration of students while using teacher self-disclosure across gender and years of teaching, and differences in K-12 inservice teachers\u27 using inappropriate topics and inappropriate purposes across grade levels of teaching; (c) no difference in inservice teachers\u27 perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure across gender, ethnic group, type of education, years of teaching, and award status; (d) no difference in inservice teachers\u27 or preservice teachers\u27 perceptions of teaching effectiveness across selected demographic variables. Independent-samples t tests were conducted to examine the differences between preservice and K-12 inservice teachers in their perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure and its teaching effectiveness. Significant differences were identified in perceptions of inappropriate topics, inappropriate purposes of teacher self-disclosure and consideration of students. No significant differences were identified in perceptions of appropriate topics and purposes of teacher self-disclosure. Significant differences were identified in two groups of perceptions of effects of teacher self-disclosure on students\u27 learning effects and classroom participation and classroom behavior, and descriptive analyses were provided to reveal the differences in each item. No significant difference was identified in the two groups\u27 perceptions of effects of teacher self-disclosure on teacher-student relationships and classroom communication environment. Explanations and implications of the results were discussed based on perspectives of practice and theories of teaching and learning and those of educational policies. Suggestions to improve teacher education programs as well as the limitations of the study also were provided. It is recommended that future studies of teacher self-disclosure reexamine and discuss teacher self-disclosure as a component of informal curriculum

A Comparative study of Chinese and American address terms

In cross-cultural situations, choices of address terms often reflect cultural differences. Although a good number of studies have discussed address terms in mono-linguistic settings, literature directly related to cross-cultural address terms is scarce. The current study intends to investigate common forms of address terms in Chinese and American cultures. Two hypotheses are examined: 1) Differences between Americans and Chinese in their choices of address terms are governed by cultural norms such as politeness, as well as by contexts or styles, and 2) The Chinese students in the U.S., who are undergoing the process of assimilation and acculturation, tend to accommodate the American culture and be more like the Americans in their choices of address terms. Twenty-seven American and 24 Chinese subjects completed a 12-item survey. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and visual presentations and through the Kolmogorov-Smimov tests of population difference. The results indicate that while most American respondents tend to use either first name or no name in most informal settings or status conscious settings, Chinese respondents under the context in China would use more diversified choices. In addition, acculturation plays a role in Chinese respondents’ language change in terms of the choices of address terms. The relationship between age and the choice of address terms is also discussed

Effect of Cooperation on Economic Growth of Both China and Japan

This paper tries to measure the effect of cooperation on economic growth of both China and Japan by setting up an econometric model. This measuring is based on the basic framework of cooperation economics (Huang shao-an,2000) . The structure of the paper is as follows: The first part introduces the basic idea and analytical methods of cooperation economics; the second part establishes an econometric model for measuring the effect of cooperation on economic growth of both China and Japan; The third part measures degree of cooperation between China and Japan from two dimensions which are political factor and bilateral trade between China and Japan, and lists all the macroeconomic data that the econometric model needs; The fourth part employs the econometric model and the macroeconomic data to calculate the effect of cooperation on economic growth of both China and Japan; the final part is a brief conclusion

SmartBrush: Text and Shape Guided Object Inpainting with Diffusion Model

Generic image inpainting aims to complete a corrupted image by borrowing surrounding information, which barely generates novel content. By contrast, multi-modal inpainting provides more flexible and useful controls on the inpainted content, \eg, a text prompt can be used to describe an object with richer attributes, and a mask can be used to constrain the shape of the inpainted object rather than being only considered as a missing area. We propose a new diffusion-based model named SmartBrush for completing a missing region with an object using both text and shape-guidance. While previous work such as DALLE-2 and Stable Diffusion can do text-guided inapinting they do not support shape guidance and tend to modify background texture surrounding the generated object. Our model incorporates both text and shape guidance with precision control. To preserve the background better, we propose a novel training and sampling strategy by augmenting the diffusion U-net with object-mask prediction. Lastly, we introduce a multi-task training strategy by jointly training inpainting with text-to-image generation to leverage more training data. We conduct extensive experiments showing that our model outperforms all baselines in terms of visual quality, mask controllability, and background preservation

Data of the Constructivist Practices in the Learning Environment Survey From Engineering Undergraduates: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

This paper presents the dataset of a questionnaire on first-year engineering undergraduates’ perceptions of constructivist practices in the learning environment. The questionnaire with a 5-Likert scale was adapted from previous research. The sample consisted of 293 first-year engineering undergraduates in the southwest region of the United States. The online questionnaire was sent to participants who completed it voluntarily at the end of Fall 2019. A total of 274 of 293 participants completed the questionnaire with a response rate of 93.515%. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to test the underlying factor structure of the questionnaire, which serves as a good reference for future research

Advancing Counterfactual Inference through Quantile Regression

The capacity to address counterfactual "what if" inquiries is crucial for understanding and making use of causal influences. Traditional counterfactual inference usually assumes a structural causal model is available. However, in practice, such a causal model is often unknown and may not be identifiable. This paper aims to perform reliable counterfactual inference based on the (learned) qualitative causal structure and observational data, without a given causal model or even directly estimating conditional distributions. We re-cast counterfactual reasoning as an extended quantile regression problem using neural networks. The approach is statistically more efficient than existing ones, and further makes it possible to develop the generalization ability of the estimated counterfactual outcome to unseen data and provide an upper bound on the generalization error. Experiment results on multiple datasets strongly support our theoretical claims

Crochet: Engaging Secondary School Girls in Art for STEAM’s Sake

Recent STEAM programs have made accomplishments in recruiting K-12 girl students to participate in STEAM activities. Educational researchers have called for studies of how STEM programs engage girls. However, little research has embedded STEM education with girl education such as their emotional needs, identity, and self-expression. This study examined how crochet that was embedded in a STEM summer camp impacted their sense of belonging, creativity, well-being, and STEAM learning. For this qualitative study, surveys were conducted with 37 student participants and Discord was used as part of the data sources. Findings indicated that crocheting enhanced students’ sense of belonging, creativity, well-being, as well as STEM learning. This study contributes to the STEM learning program design for girls in secondary schools with two closely related theories: constructivist learning environment theory and sense of belonging theory. This study added new knowledge to the research of crochet in girl education and STEM program design

Doctoral Program Design Based on Technology-Based Situated Learning and Mentoring: A Comparison of Part-Time and Full-Time Doctoral Students

Aim/Purpose Most programs are designed with full-time doctoral students\u27 characteristics and needs in mind; few programs consider the unique needs of part-time doctoral students, including time restrictions, experiences during the program, identity development, and different professional aspirations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential differences between part-time and full-time doctoral students in their scholarly development, and how technology may serve as a communication and organization tool for individual and program support. Background Built on the application of communities of practice, information and communication technology, and situated learning theory, this study sought to evaluate the potential differences among full-time and part-time doctoral students associated with their scholarly development in a traditional doctoral program at a large research-intensive university. Methodology This study used independent samples t-test to evaluate the potential differences between part-time and full-time doctoral students in their scholarly development. Data were collected from 98 doctoral students via a survey. This study also employed two hypothetical cases that described the issues and solutions related to the program pursuant to scholarly development, which further illustrated the quantitative results and provided more meaningful discussions and suggestions. Contribution This study provided insights into part-time doctoral students\u27 scholarly development and provided suggestions for designing doctoral programs and differentiated mentoring for both full-time and part-time doctoral students. Further, additional multifaceted mentoring approaches including peer mentoring and e-mentoring were evaluated. Findings Significant differences were found in four aspects of doctoral students\u27 scholarly development: the opportunities to do research related to grants with faculty, support for scholarly work in addition to advisor\u27s support, involvement in the teaching/supervision activities, and goals for scholarly development. Recommendations Program designers, faculty, and especially mentors should appreciate the diffor Practitioners ferences between part-time and full-time doctoral students. Potential program redesigns should include judicious applications of technology as essential components to address limited accessibility and opportunities for part-time students. An Individual Development Plan (IDP) should be used to mentor doctoral students to enhance the effectiveness of mentoring regarding academic goals, actions, and related roles and responsibilities. Recommendations Future research can further evaluate and develop the instrument to better for Researchers measure more domains of doctoral students\u27 scholarly development. Additionally, qualitative methods may be used to further provide the emic description of the process of part-time students\u27 engagement with the program, mentors, and peers. Impact on Society With consideration of the unique needs of part-time students and the application of technology-based learning community, opportunities are provided for mentors and doctoral students to engage in scholarship and develop a sense of belonging to their doctoral program. Future Research Future research can examine the differences between male and female doctoral students, different race groups, and disciplines