Evaluating the effectiveness of the Training in Interaction, Communication and Literacy (TICL) program in primary schools: A mixed-method pilot study

Background: The increasing diversity of children in today’s classrooms is posing complex considerations for teachers when designing instructions to support the learning needs of all students with and without disabilities in regular classrooms. Theoretical evidence recognises inter-professional collaboration and coaching as useful approaches to assist teachers in developing inclusive education competencies and integrating therapeutic strategies into classroom routines. However, there are limited empirical studies to support the link between coaching and positive changes in teachers’ practices and students’ outcomes. The Training in Interaction, Communication and Literacy (TICL) is a 10-week coaching program delivered by trained speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and/or occupational therapists (OTs) to support the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of teachers in three skill areas: interaction, communication and literacy; in order to facilitate the children’s learning in these areas. TICL was originally developed for a pre-school setting, but has been adapted and implemented in primary schools. Aims: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of TICL for integrating speech-language strategies into classroom teaching practices at two primary schools in Sydney, Australia, and to explore the experiences of participating teachers to accommodate TICL to primary-school settings. Methods: This study utilised a mixed-method approach. Focus group interviews were the primary data sources conducted to understand the experiences of participants, and analysed using inductive analysis. Nine teachers participated in the focus group interview at school 1, and three teachers participated in the focus group interview at school 2. The Interaction, Communication and Literacy (ICL) Skills Audit was used as a self-assessment tool to measure change in the participants’ confidence across six skill areas and related 18 sub-skills through pre-post data. Descriptive analysis of this pre-post quantitative data was conducted. Findings: Quantitative data analysis showed a statistically significant improvement in the participants’ confidence in nine sub-skills of the ICL Skills Audit (P-value < 0.05). Results showed that the majority of participants across the 18 sub-skills either improved in their confidence or did not change. On very few occasions, the participants’ confidence decreased. Focus group interviews revealed that (a) The relationship between participants and TICL coaches crossed over from feeling judged to reflecting on teaching practices through a collaborative approach, (b) The ICL Skills Audit was a useful reflective tool that raised the participants’ awareness of their existing teaching skills, (c) TICL facilitated the participants’ learning through modelling and coaching in context., (d) the need to further discuss family involvement in TICL, and (e) TICL needs to be more literacy-based to accommodate the nature of primary classes. Conclusion: There is a critical need for improved collaboration between teachers and SLPs/OTs to address diverse literacy needs of all children in classroom. This study showed that TICL coaching could be a promising approach to incorporate therapeutic strategies into teaching practices. Future long-term research is recommended with a larger sample to evaluate the effectiveness of TICL for integrating therapeutic strategies into teaching practices in primary schools

Social Responsibility Commitment and Its Impact on Customer's Satisfaction 'Field Study on the Jordanian Food Industrial Companies'

This study aimed to explore how the Jordanian food industry companies are committed to social responsibility and how this is reflected on the customer satisfaction. The study sample consisted of (612) customers who were selected randomly. The main results of the study were as follows:*The relationship between the social responsibility commitment and the customer satisfaction is statistically significant.* A significant positive relationship between customer safety and business ethics was founded.The study recommends that the Jordanian companies in the food industry should adopt business plans and strategies that reflect corporate ethics and social responsibility through safe food products that satisfy customer needs, and respect the demands of other social and charity institutions that aim to support customers' issues. Keywords: social responsibility, Consumer protection, Consumer satisfaction, Ethics

Do American and Korean Instructors Hold the Same Perceptions of Arguments for and against Online Teaching? An Exploratory Study

This study compared instructors’ perceptions of arguments for and against online teaching in the United States and South Korea and examined the impact of selected demographical variables on these perceptions. Results showed that American and Korean instructors had similar perceptions about online teaching. However, the two groups significantly differed on the extent of agreement or disagreement with the statements included in the study. Several of the demographic variables that were examined in the study had significant impacts on participants’r esponses

A Conceptual Model for Explaining Violations of the Information Security Policy (ISP): A Cross Cultural Perspective

This paper is an attempt to develop a model that explores the factors that affect the frequency of violations of information security policies (ISPs). Additionally, it examines the moderating effect of cultural attributes on the frequency of ISP violations. Does national culture affect the way managers and employees perceive and practice ISPs? If we understand why ISPs are violated, perhaps we can deter future violations before they occur. We look at three groups of factors and the impact they have on the frequency of violations of ISPs. The factors examined are 1) the individual characteristics and capabilities of employees, 2) the information security policy (ISP) itself and 3) management issues. Finally, the study examines the moderating effect of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and power distance) on the proposed model

Improved Residual Dense Network for Large Scale Super-Resolution via Generative Adversarial Network

Recent single image super resolution (SISR) studies were conducted extensively on small upscaling factors such as x2 and x4 on remote sensing images, while less work was conducted on large factors such as the factor x8 and x16. Owing to the high performance of the generative adversarial networks (GANs), in this paper, two GAN’s frameworks are implemented to study the SISR on the residual remote sensing image with large magnification under x8 scale factor, which is still lacking acceptable results. This work proposes a modified version of the residual dense network (RDN) and then it been implemented within GAN framework which named RDGAN. The second GAN framework has been built based on the densely sampled super resolution network (DSSR) and we named DSGAN. The used loss function for the training employs the adversarial, mean squared error (MSE) and the perceptual loss derived from the VGG19 model. We optimize the training by using Adam for number of epochs then switching to the SGD optimizer. We validate the frameworks on the proposed dataset of this work and other three remote sensing datasets: the UC Merced, WHU-RS19 and RSSCN7. To validate the frameworks, we use the following image quality assessment metrics: the PSNR and the SSIM on the RGB and the Y channel and the MSE. The RDGAN evaluation values on the proposed dataset were 26.02, 0.704, and 257.70 for PSNR, SSIM and the MSE, respectively, and the DSGAN evaluation on the same dataset yielded 26.13, 0.708 and 251.89 for the PSNR, the SSIM, and the MSE

Predicting Student-Perceived Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction in ERP Courses: An Empirical Investigation

This article uses the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) as the basis for the research framework to examine factors that influence student-perceived learning outcomes and satisfaction in enterprise resource planning (ERP) courses. Antecedent variables considered are student attitude, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, training (hands-on), course structure, and perceived instructor knowledge. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) using LISREL was employed to test the measurement and structural models using a convenience sample of 102 students enrolled in ERP courses. The results showed that student attitude had the largest significant direct impact on student-perceived learning outcomes and satisfaction. Effort expectancy and performance expectancy had significant direct impacts on attitude. Course structure and training (hands-on) had indirect effects on attitude through effort expectancy and performance expectancy. The findings suggest that, in order to impact student attitude and, thus, impact their perceived learning outcomes and satisfaction, instructors should emphasize the importance of learning about ERP systems and should provide clear directions so that students experience a meaningful interaction with ERP systems. Implications for practitioners and educators are reported

The double-edged sword of social media usage during the COVID-19 pandemic: demographical and cultural analyses

Purpose This exploratory research aims to (1) investigate the bright and dark sides of social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) explore the impact of demographic factors on social media usage; and (3) assess the effects of cultural dimensions on social media usage. Design/methodology/approach The data are collected through an online survey. Factors derived from grounded theories and models such as affordance theory and Hofstede\u27s cultural framework were considered. Spearman correlation and nonparametric analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that social media usage was positively associated with healing and affiliation, and negatively associated with self-control. There are also positive associations between social media usage and sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification, perceived reliability of COVID-19 information on social media and relapse. The impact of demographic and cultural factors indicated significant effects of gender, age, marital status, educational level, power distance and collectivism on social media usage, sharing information, perceived information reliability, healing and affiliation. Originality/value This study contributes to technology affordances by examining social media\u27s positive and negative affordances in a new context (COVID-19 pandemic). From the positive side, this study explores the use of social media for healing and affiliation. As for the negative impact of social media during the pandemic, this study assesses the user\u27s addiction to social media use (relapse) and perception of the social media information reliability and information sharing without verification. It is among few research endeavors conducted in a non-Western country. This study also examines the influence of demographic and cultural factors on social media users. The results provide insights for both researchers and policymakers regarding social media usage

The Determinants of Student Effort at Learning ERP: A Cultural Perspective

This paper develops a research model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explore factors that influence student effort at learning Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) using LISREL was utilized to validate the proposed research model using a convenience sample of students at two universities in the USA. The results showed that while subjective norm and career relevance were positively associated with performance expectancy (PE), course structure and self-efficacy were positively associated with effort expectancy (EE). Performance expectancy and effort expectancy were positively associated with student attitude toward ERP. Student attitude toward ERP was positively associated with student effort at learning ERP. The results also revealed that power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity moderate the relationships between EE and PE on one side and attitude on the other side, between EE and PE, and between attitude and effort at learning ERP, respectively. Implications for educators and researchers are reported

The Effect of Brand Awareness on Brand Loyalty: Mediating Role of Brand Commitment

Academic literature in customer behavior and branding is still debatable, with respect to brand loyalty in particular. This study empirically attempts to discuss this particular issue by examining the relationship between brand awareness and brand loyalty. Also, it seeks to investigate the mediation role of brand commitment in initial relationship to tackle the mixed results in the prior attempts. The data were collected from customers of Islamic bank brand in Mafraq Governorate in Jordan. PLS-SEM techniques were applied to a sample of 90 customers to test hypothesized relationships. The results revealed that brand awareness and brand commitment have a significant and positive relationship with brand loyalty. In addition, brand commitment was found to be a mediator in the relationship between brand awareness and brand loyalty. This paper has discussed the results and an implication compared with prior versions as well as introducing some of recommendations for future research. Keywords: Brand loyalty, Brand awareness, Brand commitment

IS Success Model in E-Learning Context Based on Students\u27 Perceptions

This study utilized the Information Systems Success (ISS) model in examining e-learning systems success. The study was built on the premise that system quality (SQ) and information quality (IQ) influence system use and user satisfaction, which in turn impact system success. A structural equation model (SEM), using LISREL, was used to test the measurement and structural models using a convenience sample of 674 students at a Midwestern university. The results revealed that both system quality and information quality had significant positive impact on user satisfaction and system use. Additionally, the results showed that user satisfaction, compared to system use, had a stronger impact on system success. Implications for educators and researchers are reported