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Variance Analysis of Democracy Index | Chapter 10 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

This article deals with the variance analysis of democracy index data, obtained from the yearly report prepared by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU calculated democracy index since 2006 for 167 countries covering almost the entire population of the world. Democracy index data vary over time and hence variance and time series analysis has been applied to available democracy index data for the period 2006-2018 to investigate the progress of democracy and to find the reason of democratic change. It is observed that some of the highly democratic countries including the USA gradually converted to moderate democratic countries. It is also observed that there exists a strong negative relation between democracy index and nonreligious population fractions for most of these countries. That is an increase of non-religious population fraction of a country may decrease the democracy index of that country.
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M. Shafiqur Rahman Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Om…
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Targeting Infrastructure Projects, Innovative Technologies and Financing Options to Achieve Sustainable Economic Growth in Resource-Based Economies | Chapter 09 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

This chapter evaluates different approaches and potential solutions for the seemingly intractable stagnation or decline of a country or region. It focuses on economic development in a resource-based economy that may have structural problems due to a lack of diversification. Infrastructure, strategic debt, and innovation are evaluated, with a goal of developing a balanced approach that strategically leverages existing infrastructure for a diversified economy and sustainable growth for resource-based economies. It includes expanding financing opportunities in these countries with a combination of infrastructure policies and energy technologies and capturing the opportunities using supply chain technologies. The goals are to avoid both “debt traps” and “Dutch Disease” by leveraging existing infrastructure within a plan that incorporates supply chain management the prudent use of available financing and strategic partnership, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia’s Vis…
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Students’ Motivation to Learn Biology | Chapter 08 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

Aims: The purpose of the study was to investigate gender and school type differences in motivational orientations among grade 10 students in co-educational schools of Siaya County, Kenya.
Study Design: The study adopted a concurrent mixed methods design. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Siaya County, Kenya during the second term of the year 2018 in June.
Methodology: The sample consisted of 680 students (380 boys, 300 girls) from a population of 6800 students (3800 boys, 3000 girls) using multi-stage cluster sampling and simple random sampling. The study used Biology Motivation Questionnaire (BMQ) adopted and modified to suit the study from Tuan, Chin and Shieh (2005) and Biology Interview Guide (BIG). To test gender and school type differences in motivation, independent sample t-tests were used. The hypotheses were accepted at a significance level of α=0.05.
Results: The findings indicated statistically significant gender differences in Self-efficacy (SE), Act…
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Challenges of Curriculum Development for Health Sciences | Chapter 07 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

There are many different theories for curriculum design and many affecting factors and challenges when setting or updating a curriculum. It is especially more challenging in health sciences when trying to link the usually knowledge based undergraduate teaching with the postgraduate competency based training. This paper is a literature review on challenges of curriculum development/ design in medical education in the period 1980 to 2012.
Literature review was conducted both manually and electronically with the objective to list challenges of curriculum design in health sciences as identified in relevant literature. It specifically looks into curriculum definition, standards, available models and resources among other things.
A curriculum has at least four important elements: content; teaching and learning strategies; assessment processes; and evaluation processes.
A curriculum should set expectations for learners, advise the teacher what to do and help the institution monitor student lea…
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Difference in Student Attitudes to School Teacher and Peers – Comparison of Majority Minority and Mixed Ethnicity Networks | Chapter 06 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

How to integrate children from minority groups with majority population in school is of great interest and the focus in this chapter. Immigrant students are known to have better attitudes towards school compared to native students, but feel a weaker sense of belonging at school. The aim of this Swedish study was to evaluate further how students adapt to their school class with respect to ethnicity and gender. Data from the self-reporting of attitudes by 12-year old students in 77 classes were sampled and used in confirmatory factor analysis. Three school factors and four relational factors were identified. Social networks were made up of students who voluntarily and reciprocally chose each other to be with during breaks. The analysis of the choices was carried out using a Matlab program identifying reciprocal (bilateral) choices. Three categories of network were identified using the names of their members. Mixed ethnicity networks were compared to majority (Scandinavian), and minority…
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Factors Contributing to Truancy among Students: A Correlation between Predictors | Chapter 05 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

Truancy has been a universal unresolved educational problem in countries that made schooling a compulsory routine for children age seven years and older. The objective of this study is to identify the contributory factors of truancy and the correlation between the factors among secondary school students. The sample comprised 472 truants from Malaysia who have been routinely absent from school for 10 days to more than 40 days per year. Results demonstrated that teacher’s personality, students’ attitudes toward school, environment in school, school administration, teachers’ teaching, and environment outside school, peers and family are significant contributory factors of truancy. Significant positive correlations between all the factors causing truancy were found. Correlation between teachers’ teaching and teachers’ personality was the highest whereas the lowest correlation was revealed between school administration and family.
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Zahari Ishak (PhD) Department of Educational…
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A Cross-cultural Pragmatic Study on Openings and Closings in Upward Academic Request Emails | Chapter 04 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 3

This study reports on a study of the use and forms of openings and closings, as rapport-management strategies in academic request emails to university instructors by graduates, who formed three discourse communities, i.e. Chinese, British and Chinese English speakers. Using discourse analytic techniques, a total of 187 emails from 155 postgraduates were analyzed and a number of similarities and differences or divergences were identified. The findings suggest that the discursive practices were subject to intricate and dynamic relations between a number of macro- and micro-contextual factors, and some technical features of emails against different socio-cultures. It is hoped that the results will contribute to enhancing knowledge in the field of rapport management and electronic communication across cultures.
Author(s) Details
Wuhan Zhu The Post-Doctoral Station, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China and School of English Studies, Zhejiang International Studies…
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