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on Education |
| By: | Carla Hamida (Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, USA); Amanda Landi (Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, USA); Ziyi Liu (Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, USA) |
| Abstract: | Recently, governmental institutions and private industries in power have been pushed to be more transparent so that more people can have ownership of their data. Another type of institution with a large amount of power over data are educational institutions. Colleges and Universities around the globe store a significant amount of data on millions of students, such as financial aid, grades, dropout or graduation, successes after graduation. Each institution is rated with respect to these items and more, and potential students are making decisions to go to the school based on these ratings. Therefore, it is imperative for students, who invest their time and their money into the school of their choice, to know the truth. In 2017, the College Transparency Act and the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act were passed, which were created to push transparency for data in higher education. The openness of data in higher education will be beneficial to prospective students. The push for these two bills coincided with the bitcoin bubble. In the past three years, experts in economics, medicine, and supply chain management have been researching methods on how to implement blockchains to create optimal and decentralized data systems. In this paper, we propose a model for open data in higher education inspired by the Bitcoin, which uses blockchain. When used together with InterPlanetary File System, a peer-to-peer distributed file system, we can create a decentralized platform that increases accessibility of data and autonomy of prospective students. |
| Keywords: | open data, higher education, blockchain, IPFS, transparency |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:012hc&r=all |
| By: | Charlene Du Toit-Brits (North- West University) |
| Abstract: | Self-directed learning (SDL) is indispensible in education and teachers (all subjects included) have an important role to play in supporting students to obtain the appropriate skills for SDL. To see to this, teachers need to know what SDL entails; they need to be prepared for it, and they need to be willing to apply SDL in their teaching and classrooms. The author argued further in this theoretical paper that teachers need to established the groundwork of SDL, provide on-going support, provide students with tools for self-managed learning, construct a co-operative learning environment where the teacher assist to encourage the learners? SDL experience, facilitate learners? initiatives for learning and to assist as an mentor rather than an instructor. Consequently, teachers need to create the longing in students to take the initiative for their own learning, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies and evaluating learning outcomes (Knowles, 1975). SDL has thus many benefits, also for teachers. However, acquiring the necessary skills is dependent on teacher?s preparedness and willingness for SDL. |
| Keywords: | control, learning, teacher, self-directed learning, self-directedness, students, continuous ? lifelong learning. |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8710784&r=all |
| By: | CHIA WEI TANG (National Sun Yat-Sen University) |
| Abstract: | In Asia, in order to keep up with internationalisation, the English-Medium Instruction (EMI) course has become a phenomenon in higher education. In turn, EMI literature has increasingly focused on the role of instructor?s pedagogy in reducing students? negative response to EMI courses. Additionally, we further explore, from the students? perspective, whether students can reduce their anxiety about learning in English by adopting varied learning strategies while reducing their avoidance of EMI courses. A questionnaire survey was conducted in spring 2018; 208 postgraduate students from 15 different EMI courses in the School of Business Administration of Sun Yat-sen University participated in this study. We used partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore the relationship between learning strategies, English anxiety, and EMI avoidance, while regarding English proficiency as a controlled variable. The results indicate that English anxiety has a positive relationship to EMI avoidance; critical thinking has a negative relation to English anxiety; effort regulation has a negative relation to EMI avoidance, and English anxiety mediates the relationship between critical thinking and EMI avoidance. General principles are drawn from these findings and are discussed as they apply to the teaching of EMI classes. |
| Keywords: | English for specific purposes; English-medium instruction; English anxiety; learning strategy; Taiwan |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8711519&r=all |
| By: | Mindia Ugrekhelidze (International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia); Ekaterine Bakaradze (International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia) |
| Abstract: | The present paper aims at analyzing the development of academic freedom in the USA as a part of Constitutional principles. The main objective of this research is to identify legal approaches regarding academic freedom, reveal positive and negative sides of its development. It is essential to study the professional and legal definition of the term to determine its international context, what the notion of academic freedom means for the modern society. The research indicates that modern legal constitutional analysis of academic freedom is incomplete for the protection of the interests of academic society. Constitutionally guaranteed academic freedom is limited by state action doctrine, restriction of the principles of freedom of expression of the public servant and judicial decisions, which gives freedom only to the universities and leaves professors’ interests without protection when their interests are contrary to the university’s interests. Academic freedom guaranteed by the constitution, may be incompatible with the concept that implies freely exchanging the ideas in the marketplace of ideas, which are likely to be limited by universities. In order to completely understand and evaluate the importance and purpose of academic freedom, it is necessary to study those cases which led to the establishment of American Association of University Professors - AAUP and the protection of academic freedom in American universities. |
| Keywords: | Academic Freedom, Freedom of Speech, US Constitution, Higher Education, HEI, First Amendment, Supreme Court |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:011be&r=all |