Education Research International

A study was conducted to identify the components of competency in general that are considered important in improving the work efficiency of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities in Vietnam. Data have been collected through a management questionnaire to team of specialists under the organization and personnel department (n = 106) managerial staff (n = 50), and lecturers and other specialists (n = 245). Analysis of deductive content and statistics of technical description are used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, respectively. The results show that there are five important components of competency of specialists under the organization and personnel department that need to be formed, including professional quality, professional competence, consulting competence, competence of planning and implementation organization, competence of self-improvement, and professional development. In addition, there are three groups of complementary competencies, including communication competence, foreign language competence, and information technology competence. The main objective of the article is to identify the components of competency in general that are considered important in improving the work efficiency of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities in Vietnam. The findings can be used by administrators at public universities as a basis for them to have specific strategies and solutions in the university’s team development to meet the requirements of higher educational renovation today.

This study investigated the effects of a process-genre approach on EFL students’ use of writing strategies when writing paragraphs. To ensure the reliability of the writing strategy inventory questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated. A quasi-experimental research design was used, and strategy questionnaires were used to collect data. The experimental and control groups were assigned using the lottery method. Independent and paired-sample t-tests were used to determine if there was a statistically significant difference due to treatment between the students’ before and after treatments. Before treatment, the students completed the writing strategy questionnaires, and after 12 weeks of treatment, they were given after-treatment questionnaires. The results revealed that students in the experiment group outperformed the control group in terms of using different writing strategies based on the process-genre approach. The study concluded that the process-genre approach could significantly improve students’ paragraph writing. Therefore, university-level English language teachers are strongly recommended to be aware of the role of the process-genre approach and to follow the process-genre model in improving their students’ use of writing strategies in writing paragraphs.

Introduction. Communication skills (CS) play a paramount role in medical students’ (MS) interaction with patients. They are essential when approaching a patient holistically to provide comprehensive care with the aim of both treating an illness and improving patient satisfaction. However, there seems to be a deficiency in communication skills training (CST) for students in Sri Lanka. Enhancing CS at an early stage will give rise to patient-centered doctors in the future, thus augmenting patient care. This study aimed to evaluate the level and patterns of attitude toward (CST) and the weight of patient-centeredness on such attitudes. Materials and Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires among MS in the final 2 years. The Communication Skills Attitude Scale and Patient–Practitioner Orientation Scale were used to determine attitudes toward CST and patient-centeredness, respectively. Independent sample t-tests and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to evaluate intervariable relationships. A statistical significance of was used. Results. Students had high positive attitudes (mean 3.80) and lesser negative attitudes (mean 2.16) toward CST, in general. A greater positive attitude was associated with prior attendance to a CST session, female gender, and patient-centeredness. Female students and final-year students showed higher levels of patient-centeredness and also scored more on the caring subscale. There was a significant association between the sharing subscore and a positive attitude toward CST. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that improving patient-centeredness among MS via a CST program would enhance the essential CS required of them. Integration of such a program as a formal subject into the medical curriculum of Sri Lanka, both at the beginning and latter part of the undergraduate course, would lead to better patient-centeredness, thus leading to improved patient care.

This research measured the links between R&D and economic growth in Ethiopia employing multiple regression models. Citable journal articles, patents, technology exports, and research expenditures are the four predictor variables that are the focus of the study. GDP per capita growth is the outcome variable of the study, which serves as a proxy indicator for economic growth. The study used a panel dataset with data from a sample of 21 years between 2001 and 2021. The results show a significant link between growth of GDP per capita and citable journal articles, patents, and technology exports, demonstrating that these factors are essential for fostering economic growth. However, government expenditure on research and development has no discernible impact on economic growth, which accordingly, raises the possibility that raising research spending by itself may not be sufficient to boost the economy. These findings have tremendous policy implications because they emphasize the importance of concentrating on particular R&D initiatives that have a direct impact on economic growth. The study adds to the existing frontiers of knowledge inline with the connection between R&D and economic growth by demonstrating the value of citation-worthy journals, patents, and technology exports in fostering economic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused higher education institutions to switch to online learning. This unique endeavor is being investigated to protect high-quality education. Due to its hasty and emergency implementation, students may have different opinions about this new education system. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between constructs such as students’ perceived effectiveness, institutional facility, teaching material, and overall satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak. Adopting a quantitative research approach, this study was conducted between November 8, 2020, and February 12, 2021, in private universities in Bangladesh. Data were utilized in structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings revealed that perceived effectiveness (0.68, p-value = 0.01), institutional facility (0.23, p-value = 0.01), and teaching material (0.14, p-value = 0.01) are all positively and significantly associated with satisfaction with an online class module. In addition, trajectory analysis establishes a link between satisfaction and effectiveness in e-learning through the SEM. The results of the study also indicate a strong and positive correlation between satisfaction with an online class module and perceived effectiveness, institutional setting, and teaching material. This study will serve as a catalyst for understanding students’ satisfaction in an online environment, as well as a benchmark for various stakeholders, particularly policymakers, practitioners, academicians, and institution owners, to take the necessary steps to ensure a sustainable online learning platform.

The current research aimed to know the effect of phonological and phonetic interventions in enhancing proficiency in English pronunciation and oral reading among teacher trainees. This study was of single-group pretest and posttest intervention designs. The sample size was selected through a stratified random sampling technique from teacher training colleges in Bengaluru. Two hundred and seven teacher trainees with L1 proficiency were chosen proportionately from Bangalore strata and orientated. Participants (N = 32) enrolled voluntarily in the intervention program for 20 hr. Intervention modules on phonology and phonetics were developed by the researcher and a segmental approach was adopted to teach modules in 20 sessions. After every session, the participants were allowed to record the modules in Audacity, a multiaudio recorder application. The recorded modules were interpreted, and scores were determined on number of intelligible words pronounced by the participants. Further, it was validated by the experts to authenticate the determined scores. The researcher applied oscillographic and observation methods to analyze the participants’ progress in pronunciation and oral reading proficiency levels during the experiment. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test the impact of intervention between the pretest and posttest (before and after intervention). The hypotheses testing revealed the difference between preintervention and postintervention scores in phonological and phonetic awareness and oral reading among teacher trainees, and the sig. value is less than 0.05 across all the attributes. This study insists that English phonology and phonetics must be a crucial part of the English language teaching (ELT) curriculum and highlights that teachers must be able to spot the most appropriate pronunciation teaching and train the students of English as a foreign language (EFL) with intricates of intelligible pronunciation. This study navigates the need for language proficiency among teacher trainees, especially in English pronunciation and oral reading, and substantiates the evidence that effective intervention and teachers’ knowledge of pronunciation enhance proficiency levels in pronunciation and oral reading among teacher trainees. Finally, it hopes that B.Ed colleges and teacher educators will be beckoned to use technology-integrated intervention to teach phonology and phonetics.