Hybrid journal * Containing 12 Open Access article(s) in this issue * ISSN (Print) 1573-2770 - ISSN (Online) 0091-0562 Published by Springer-Verlag[2468 journals]
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Authors:Anatolii Melnychenko, Tetiana Zheliaskova Pages: 4 - 10 Abstract: The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has led to the global COVID-19 pandemic and a lockdown was introduced in Ukraine in March 2020. This forced universities to urgently transform the traditional system of organisation of the educational process and transfer to distance learning. This study aims to evaluate the distance learning system organised by a technical university in COVID-19 lockdowns from the perspective of the students as the main stakeholders of education. The method of the survey as the most widely used research method of sociological research was used to collect and analyse the data obtained. In this context, a number of surveys involving from 2,721 to 9,000 students of technical and humanitarian specialities were conducted to evaluate the level of their satisfaction with the distance learning system. The results of the study showed that the transformations introduced in the organisation and realisation of the learning process were on the whole positively estimated by students, which means that the elements of distance learning should remain after the end of the lockdown restrictions. However, more research is needed to evaluate the diagnostic tools for preventing academic dishonesty. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.237575
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Authors:Nataliia Maiier, Tamara Koval Pages: 11 - 18 Abstract: The study aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ readiness to use digital resources for foreign language teaching; to find out the pre-service teachers’ attitudes to the development of their digital competence; to outline the ways of the development of the digital competence. A mixed research design was employed which involved 56 pre-service teachers of Kyiv National Linguistic University in 2019-2020. The quantitative research method was employed to assess the level of digital competence in the pre-service foreign language (FL) teachers using the Fisher Criterion. The qualitative research method allowed analysing and interpreting data of the experimental learning. The results showed that the pre-service FL teachers who were consulted by in-service teachers and used checklists for systematical assessment of their digital skills in progress had higher results than those who were only consulted by in-service teachers. Also, the qualitative method aimed to gain data about the pre-service teachers’ attitudes to using digital resources for teaching foreign languages. For that purpose, a closed-ended questionnaire for the pre-service teachers was suggested as a data collection tool. It was determined that the digital competence is a necessary component of the teacher’s professional competence which affects the success of the learning process. The digital competence can be developed in two areas: the Digital Resources Managing Area and Methodological Managing of Digital Resources Area. The criteria for critical selection, analysis and assessment of digital resources were singled out. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.227639
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Authors:Natalia Dmitrenko, Liudmyla Melnyk Pages: 19 - 29 Abstract: The purpose of the article is to prove theoretically and check experimentally the effectiveness of explicit models for language learning strategies based on the instructions in the process of professionally oriented English communication. The hypothesis of the research implies that the level of professional English communicative competence will increase in the case of combining such models as “top-down” and “bottom-up” while professionally oriented English communication. The study employed the mixed research design method as quantitative (Likert’s scale, Bespalko’s learning coefficient, Fisher’s criterion) and qualitative (interpretation of questionnaire results) methods. The levels of explicit models using for language learning strategies are defined by the results of the conducted survey of 116 pre-service teachers of Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University. One of the conditions of experimental learning is a sequence of stages in the process of applying two explicit models for language strategy learning instruction “top-down” and “bottom-up” in the process of pre-service teachers’ professionally oriented English communication. Findings. The results of the control test at the final step of the experiment have confirmed the effectiveness of two variants of explicit models for language strategy learning instruction in the process of professionally oriented English communication. The analysis of experimental training results has shown the formation of professionally oriented English communicative competence at the level B2, as well as a significant increase in the participants’ knowledge, skills and abilities of foreign language learning strategies. Implications for research and practice. Combining “top-down” and “bottom-up” explicit models for language learning strategy instruction contributes to more effective assimilation and expansion of the repertoire of learning and communicative strategies and improves professionally oriented English communicative competence of pre-school teachers at university level. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.228502
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Authors:Sofiya Nikolaeva, Tetiana Korol Pages: 30 - 41 Abstract: Purpose. The article strives for the enhancement of the efficiency of translation competence assessment in philologists’ university training with the help of the triangulation method. It is deemed in the concurrent involvement of different assessment agents (teacher, peer and self) into integrated and collaborative translation performance evaluation from two perspectives, i.e. translation product quality and process workflow, with the use of diversified methods based on different theoretical approaches. This research aims at the study of students’ video screen recording contribution combined with think-aloud protocols (TAPs) to increase the assessment objectivity and reliability of the received translation product. Method. A mixed research design was developed and implemented. It involved 40 third-year university students majoring in Philology, who were asked to perform a written translation of the excerpt of English popular science article in Marketing (c. 250 words) into Ukrainian in MS Word using any reference sources at hand, video record the process of their translation and accompany it with their comments. The research was completed with the questionnaire on students’ attitude to the screen recording and TAP involvement into translation task performance and assessment. Findings. The findings of this study reported on the positive impact of screen recording on the assessment accuracy, informative value of the collected data and formative effect of triangulated assessment method on students’ translation competence acquisition. Implications for research and practice. The received results can serve for the optimisation of the procedures of translation task difficulty measurement and competence assessment in the translation classroom. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.228550
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Authors:Kateryna Shykhnenko , Alina Sbruieva Pages: 42 - 52 Abstract: The purpose of the study was to identify and synthesise the interventions used to build the strategies for organising and managing research at universities that can be feasible in Ukraine. To achieve this purpose we provided a descriptive profile of the interventions and strategies used at universities to organise and manage research, rather than the detailed examination of substantive research results. The method of descriptive content analysis was applied to analyse empirical, experimental, review, conceptual, and commentary sources revealing strategies of organising and managing research at universities. The growth and corporate type strategies are dominant at universities, particularly in the USA and EU. The universities mainly seek cost-effective research opportunities that can help the institutions build a strong international brand. The policy of institutional strategic research management aimed at cooperation in research with other sectors seems to be the most feasible and appropriate for the Ukrainian research management context. Creating project management communities was found to be the second most feasible and appropriate strategy of organising and managing the university research in Ukraine. Financial criterion dominates in assessing the interventions for building a strategy of organising and managing research at universities. The university research can be stimulated at the state level through a demand-oriented reform that is aimed at reshaping the management of personnel, talent selection system, and personnel assessment. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.227831
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Authors:Tetiana Andrienko, Vlad Genin, Iryna Kozubska Pages: 53 - 69 Abstract: To become successfully competitive in the globalised post-COVID 19 virtual business world, the engineering students, besides learning the English language for Specific Purposes as stipulated by the existing Syllabi, require purposed efforts for the formation of intercultural business communication competencies. This research, conducted successively in the USA and Ukraine combining observational and experimental methodology, aimed at studying the influence of team learning on the development of intercultural business competencies and skills highly desired and valued by employers, such as team building and teamwork, critical thinking, decision making, conflict prevention, and resolution, etc. The results were processed by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Spanning in time from 2013 to 2020, the study proved the effectiveness of project work in learning teams for the development of intercultural competence and business communication skills. Team learning in virtual teams based on andragogical principles and methodology adapted by the authors to the needs of Ukrainian engineering students resulted in developing team building, teamwork, leadership, goal setting, planning, decision making, time management, creative and critical thinking, problem solving, conflict prevention and resolution, interpersonal and group communication and collaboration skills and competences, necessary for successful integration into the global workforce marketplace. Besides significant enhancement of intercultural business communication competencies, team learning resulted in raising Ukrainian undergraduate engineering students’ motivation towards learning ESP, engagement in group and classwork, persistence towards successful graduation and gainful employment, and overall positive learning experiences. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.214627
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Authors:Hani Mawardi, Waad Alharbi, Waleed Alamoudi, Osama Felemban, Soulafa Almazrooa, Emad Alhadlag Pages: 70 - 78 Abstract: Purpose: The necessity to attend classroom lectures is a disputable topic among dental schools globally. Since there is an ongoing debate on different aspects of this problem in literature, the purpose of this study was to compare students’ attitudes toward classroom attendance and investigate if stricter attendance tracking methods could lead to better classroom attendance at two dental schools utilising different modes of tracking students’ attendance. Method: This was an observational, cross-sectional survey distributed among dental students enrolled at King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU) and King Saud University (KSU) in Saudi Arabia. The survey included questions on demographics, average travel time, student's attitudes toward classroom lectures and common reasons for absenteeism. Collected data were analysed and summarised as frequencies and percentages and then compared using the Chi-square test for statistical significance. Findings: The study involved 678 participants from KAU and 475 participants from KSU. In general, there was a significant difference in students’ attendance between both schools in which 26.8% of KAU dental students skipped 5 or more lectures/month compared to 11.5% of students at KSU. Among the factors affecting classroom lecture attendance, commuting time was a major one reported by students (44.8% of students at KSU and 51.4% at KAU needed 30-60 min to reach their schools). The availability of lectures through online resources and the necessity to study for exams were additional factors reported by students of both schools. Implications for research and practices: Based on the current data, the school’s method to track students’ attendance may have a role in the pattern of classroom absenteeism. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.217893
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Authors:Natalia Shumeiko, Alla Nypadymka Pages: 79 - 91 Abstract: The article aims at conducting empirical research of university students’ readiness to handle independent work while studying the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, subject to the availability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In order to accomplish the objective of the article, a mixed methods research was applied. According to the research methodology, the questionnaires were conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2019/20 and then in the first semester of the academic year 2020/21 at the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. The investigation covered the period before the outset of the pandemic when a blended learning approach included instructor-led classroom training and e-learning elements; and then during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine when webucation was in line with the priorities of the training process. The participants of the study were first-year and second-year students of non-linguistic specialities. The scientific research reflected that teaching ESP was focused on enhancing foreign language learning in the particular field of study such as IT, law, trade, marketing, management or economics, to equip students with the oral and written comprehension and speaking skills that they would need to leverage partnerships with international interlocutors in the business community. The obtained results confirmed the high value of the resources available online for studying ESP as an academic discipline in university-level curricula. The analysis of data showed that during the pandemic almost equal percentages of the respondents faced the challenges that accompanied the process of learning English online. Students noted all four proposed options that characterised the disadvantages of completing the assignments independently, namely the communication vacuum, difficulties in choosing supplemental instructional materials, as well as a lack of self-discipline and control. The outcome confirmed the need to assist students’ independent work. To meet that demand, the authors carried out a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) Analysis related to the use of ICTs within the organising framework of students’ independent work while teaching ESP during a pandemic. It has been concluded that the opportunities and threats, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, identified through the SWOT analysis, characterise the advantages, drawbacks and peculiarities that emerge in the process of providing guidance for students’ independent work in the study of ESP, integrating them into a coherent whole. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.223286
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Authors:Iryna Sverdlova Pages: 92 - 101 Abstract: The purpose of the research was to find out how the procedures for measuring students’ cognitive skills could be incorporated into the university course Language Teaching Methodology. The study was organised within a framework of Anderson’s theory of cognitive skills development and Glaser’s taxonomy of dimensions for assessing achievement. We developed the instrument, which encompassed two empirical questionnaires for treatment groups. Both questionnaires comprised an equal number of tasks but differed in the content of procedures for measuring knowledge acquisition and structure as one of the dimensions of cognitive assessment. Empirical Questionnaire 1, based on a traditional approach to assessment, included multiple-choice questions related to the lecture material. Empirical Questionnaire 2 comprised both traditional and unconventional measures, such as a SVT test; constructed and conversation-based responses; simple and high order rule tasks. Thirty-four third-year students of the Department of Foreign Languages, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University participated in three-stage research-oriented teaching, which lasted ten weeks. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were employed for the evaluation of learning outcomes. After final testing, we compared the results obtained from the students. The group mean difference (EG vs. CG) was 0.12 points, 95% confidence interval (0.07 - 0.17), two-sample t-test p < 0.0001. Findings suggest that cognitive skills assessment considerably affects and improves student learning. The implications relate to final grades assessment and curriculum design and contribute to expanded uses for cognitive skills testing. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.231421
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Authors:Nourhan F. Wasfy, Rabab Abdel Raoof Abed , Enas Mohamed Gouda, Mona Sayed Ghaly, Yasser Mohamed El-Wazir Pages: 102 - 108 Abstract: Purpose: Cognitive load theory (CLT) is receiving increased recognition in medical education and it was cited as an important theoretical framework for simulation-based medical education. Simulated learning environments can place a high demand on the cognitive resources of the learners, hence, we aimed to design an instructional framework to optimise the total cognitive load imposed on the medical students during their clinical skills training in the clinical skills laboratory. Method: This study is a quasi-experimental post-test design. The sampling technique was purposive sampling, which included year 2 students at the Faculty of Medicine-Suez Canal University population. The study was conducted in the clinical skills and simulation laboratory. The intervention group received a developed instructional design framework based on CLT. The control group learned with the ordinary teaching method without any intervention. The cognitive load was measured using the Cognitive Load Inventory (CLI) immediately after the training session for both groups. Furthermore, students’ achievement in the clinical skill laboratory was compared in both groups. Findings: The total cognitive load is lower in the group that received the developed instructional design than that of the control group, and this result was statistically significant. Also, the performance of the intervention group is higher than in the control group. Implications for research and practice: The developed instructional design framework is a potentially useful guide for managing students' cognitive load in the clinical skills training session. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.225686
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Authors:Nadya Avramova, Ivanka Mihaylova , Krassimira Yaneva-Ribagina, Boyko Bonev , Stanislav Nenov Pages: 109 - 118 Abstract: Purpose. As dental education was significantly influenced by the novel coronavirus pandemic, this study aims to investigate pre-clinical dental students’ perspectives on the implementation of remote education and school closure due to COVID-19 pandemic, self-reported effectiveness of on-line learning as well as their educational and personal experiences. Method. A self-administered questionnaire was posted online to a total of 258 out of 516 second and third-year preclinical dental students in Dec 2020/Jan 2021 at Faculty of Dental Medicine, Medical University-Sofia, Bulgaria. Survey items focused on 3 general domains: student attitude, assessment, and concerns regarding online learning; student current knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic and student opinion of pandemic psychological impact on public health, personal experiences and intention for vaccination. Findings. One-hundred and sixty-nine students responded to the survey (response rate 65.5%). Most of them (70.4%) approved suspension of face-to-face classes due to the COVID-19 crisis. Eighty percent expressed dissatisfaction toward online teaching sessions and agreed that this will have negative effects on their education. Fifty-eight percent did not find remote education more stressful than in-person training. More concerns were expressed about financial issues than mental health problems. Intention for getting vaccinated was expressed by 53.3% and 40.8% thought that the vaccine would cause many side health effects. Implications for research and practice. Within the limitations of the study, identified gaps in online education could help increase effectiveness of learning environment and create opportunity to enhance education for the future. Dental student thoughts about COVID-19 vaccinations provide valuable information to administrators, public health professionals and policy makers to improve efforts towards preserving, protecting, and promoting public health. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.231011
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Authors:Mohammed AlGerafi, Wenlan Zhang Pages: 119 - 129 Abstract: Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the perception of international medical students of e-learning in China, since medical teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic had to adapt to challenges, and students had to cope with the new teaching modality, more so international students. Therefore, the opinion of students with their first contact to a fully virtual education will be helpful to modify e-teaching to better suit the students’ needs. Method: Four hundred seven medical students, in China, were recruited via social media and were asked to complete structured questionnaires, regarding technical and content aspects of their e-courses. Findings: Most issues reported were of technical nature, especially for students attending the school distantly and network instability/unavailability was frequently (52.48%). Moreover, the audio was less helpful than texts/images and the senior students were less satisfied with the technical (0.005) and content (p=0.001) aspects. They also were more critical of their teachers’ performance (p=0.042). Clinical cases and scenarios also received the lowest score. Implications for research and practice: Overall students did not feel confident with the e-learning, comfortable implementing it to patients and were reluctant to embrace it. Both technical difficulties and understanding issues impeded international students from embracing e-learning medical teaching, in China and efforts need to be made to acclimatise them to this new reality. PubDate: 2021-07-31 DOI: 10.20535/2410-8286.229325
Hybrid journal * Containing 12 
Open Access article(s) in this issue *
