Abstract

This study aimed to describe the ethical problems, valuable experience, and ethical decision-making abilities about the environment by students through the application of OIDDE models on integrated field studies abroad. Descriptive data analysis techniques were used on existing data. Environmental ethical problems that arose are the use and exploitation of natural resources, pollution, lack of public facilities’ cleanliness, poaching, and environment arrangement problems. Valuable experiences gained by students were: 1) Malaysia Highway Rest Area: plants flourish and the birdlife is undisturbed; 2) Malacca River: transformed into a clean and beautiful area; 3) Putrajaya: concerns raised about environmental balance and sustainability; 4) Sentosa Island: various modern amusement rides prepared for enjoyment in line with environmental principles. Ethical decisions taken were: 1) environmental functions and sustainability should be referenced in development; 2) amusement rides developed in line with environmental consideration; 3) pattern of consumption and human activities to avoid resultant pollutants as much as possible; 4) use of environmentally friendly facilities should become a lifestyle choice; and 5) consistently implement environment regulations.

Keywords: bioethics, ethical decision, environment, Malaysia, OIDDE model

Abstract

This paper explored what factors Gen-Y undergraduates deem important, and how they are ranked in selecting a research supervisor. Focus group was used at the first stage to elicit factors that were important to the respondents. The second step included ranking those factors through qualitative survey. The 12 identified factors ranked in descending order of importance are: Educational qualification, experience in the field, previous encounter with the supervisor, previous projects supervised by the supervisor, word-of-mouth related to the supervisor, referral by other faculty members, research methodology used by the supervisor, age, gender, nationality/ethnicity, religion, and profile picture of the supervisor. Being an exploratory study, the data is collected from a small sample from one university only, hence raising generalization issues. For future research, these dimensions can be validated via a large sample study. This research sheds light on what attracts millennials when selecting their research supervisor; from which academics and higher education institutions can identify potential areas of weaknesses and introduce subsequent improvements. The existing literature focusses on postgraduate researchers, after they have chosen a supervisor; whereas this research explores how undergraduates choose a research supervisor. The model formulated in this study could also be applied to postgraduate students as to what attracts them when selecting their supervisor.

Keywords: research supervision, millennials/Gen-Y, services marketing, consumer decision making process, qualitative research

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to investigate Turkish EFL learners’ linguistic and lexical errors and their causes. The participants were 30 second year English Language and Literature level students at Karabuk University, Turkey. The students were asked to write an essay about “The Qualities of a Good Language Teacher” as an ordinary English language exercise in the class. As a next step, the essays were collected and analyzed based on the taxonomy of Wakkad (1980) and Tan (2007). Error analysis indicated that the five most common errors were articles, word choice, prepositions, word order and subject-verb agreement. The major causes of these errors were attributable to limited vocabulary, poor grammar knowledge and interference from first language. The analysis also revealed the most common cause of the errors as being L1 interference. 

Keywords: error analysis, lexical errors, contrastive analysis

Abstract

Special education was introduced in Tanzania Mainland in 1950 by the Church Missionary Society. Despite its long history in the country, not many policies have clearly stipulated the need for special and inclusive education. This paper succinctly and systematically evaluates various educational reforms and policies in Tanzania, and points out some successes and embedded challenges in the development of special needs and inclusive education in Tanzania. To analyze clearly the current situation of special and inclusive education in the country, the Peter’s model and cases of some identified schools for exceptional students are used. The analysis has indicated an evolution from special to integrated and later on to inclusive education, which has led to an apparent increase in the number of schools and subsequent relatively higher enrollment figures for children with special needs. Despite this evolution, Tanzania has a long way to go, when compared to other countries in effectively achieving the provision of education to exceptional individuals. Finally, towards a new era of special and inclusive education in Tanzania, various recommendations are offered.

Keywords: history, special and inclusive education, policies, reforms

Abstract

Sustainability is an approach that should not merely be limited to the design of buildings, but be a lifestyle adopted by posterity. Individuals ought to have the consciousness to protect and preserve the natural resources of future generations. After all, this is what will probably make studies on sustainability reach their targets. School buildings are critically important in achieving this goal in that they can enable future generations to be raised with an awareness of sustainability. This explains the reason why, in this study, the following leading green school certification systems and their criteria have been compared and examined: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; Collaborative for High Performance Schools; and, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method. Five schools with these certificates were taken as examples, evaluated and compared. This study, in which descriptive survey model was employed, made it clear that the standards set for green schools serve similar purposes no matter when a green school certification system originated or which countries have adopted it. However, the following variables play an important role in the success of the green school approach: attitudes of administrators; training pattern; location of the school; materials selection; and the responsibilities of educators and learners. School buildings in Turkey should further be discussed in detail with these points in mind.

Keywords: sustainability, green schools, green school certification systems

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing errors committed by the Iranian elementary EFL learners. The investigation not only considers the types of errors committed, but also tries to shed light on the sources of these errors. To this end, a worksheet of ten Persian sentences translated from the original English content of the learners’ course book were provided to a class of 20 elementary level English students. The learners were tasked with translating each sentence back into English. The researcher then had to analyze each translated sentence with regard to three aspects of grammar, choice of words, and spelling. The next step was categorizing any errors and finding the frequency of each of them. The results indicated that errors in the use of articles were the most frequent (20% of the total number of errors), followed by the wrong uses of verbs (18.66%), and the wrong use of tense (10.66%). According to the findings, correct use of articles should more often be the focus for EFL context, and the use of correct verbs and tenses should also be absolutely clarified and emphasized. 

Keywords: error analysis, contrastive analysis, EFL, ESL, translation