The goal of Prime Minister Abe administration’s university reform, under its growth strategy, is to enhance diversity within Japanese universities. The aim is to create innovative research and to nurture global human resources. However, the administration lost sight of a different aspect of diversity in Japanese universities: decreasing academic quality of the students. This negative aspect is said to have stemmed from the decreasing of Japan’s young adult population and increases in private universities and Japan’s current economic slump. English education in Japanese universities faces the following contextual duality. On the one hand, students learning both English and content simultaneously can proceed into global job market; on the other hand, false beginners are in need of remedial education. The authors would like to discuss students’ differences in their cognitive development. Some false beginners cannot endure English grammar learning because their cognitive load seem.....

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Anne Hart Gilbert (1768-1834) is the first known published African Caribbean woman writer. Her earliest extant piece of writing is an 1804 letter to the Methodist missionary Richard Pattison. This essay analyses Gilbert’s representation of the meanings of African diasporic culture and of Methodist conversion in the letter, a text marked by encounters between and across African and Methodist spiritual cosmologies. Gilbert’s collecting and mediation of local knowledges of religion points to the complexity and nuances of cultural crossing and creolization. Using a literary critical and historiographical approach, the essay demonstrates the need to contextualize ‘religion as a social framework, as a rhetorical construction, as part and parcel with ideology, and as a category of experience’ (Stein and Murison, 2010, pp. 3-4)...

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Connecting piano teachers who work in isolated situations with recent research and training is difficult, especially when accreditation, registration with professional bodies, training or ongoing professional development is not mandatory. In previous Australian and international studies, many piano teachers have reported that they do not feel comfortable teaching adults who have reported difficulty finding suitable teachers. Historically, piano performance qualifications have excluded pedagogical training particularly for adults. Current trends defer pedagogical studies to the postgraduate level whilst piano teachers have requested it at earlier stages of their training. To solve these issues within the piano teaching industry, this study set out to examine the teaching skills and needs of both piano teachers and their adult students in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Qualitative data was collected using face-to-face meetings, email, questionnaires, student journals, teacher reflections,.....

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This study is to track the subject matter knowledge of and misconception about Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) of fourth year undergraduate pre-service teachers‟ physical education majors at an Australian university. The test of reliability on misconception scale are subjected to a Rasch analysis (KR-20 = .52) which consists of 20 dichotomous questions with true/false answers. Analyses of the data reveal that students achieve a credit on subject matter knowledge and attain four misconceptions about TGfU. There is a significant (p < 0.05) difference in the scores for subject matter knowledge and concepts of TGfU through paired samples t test. These results imply that subject matter knowledge does have an effect on students‟ concepts of TGfU but with very low relationship (r(53 = .19, p < 0.05). The implication of content knowledge to teaching is to resist the pre-concept or misconception of the subject matter. If pre-service teachers are to improve the quality of teaching an.....

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The Jahai are one among 18 indigenous Orang Asli groups in peninsular Malaysia. They perform the traditional pinloin, a song and dance genre, during the pano ceremony (séances) and tree and fertility rituals. The song text and music of pinloin is taught to the Jahai halaq (shaman) by their chenoi (spirit guide) through dreams. Pinloin song text manifests the flora and fauna of the rainforest of Malaysia as depicted by the chenoi. Today (2016), the function of pinloin as a ritual enactment has shifted to a form of entertainment or cultural experience for tourists, visitors and visiting dignitaries. This change has resulted in a disruption in the transmission of the traditional pinloin song text. In this article, I argue that there is an increase in the use of the pastiche approach such as random sharing of fragments of song text, sporadic unfolding of narratives and little connection between the title and song text in pinloin song text compositions due to the influence of the ‘touris.....

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Owing to the limitations associated with traditional methods of measuring rates of soil erosion, the fallout radionuclide Caesium-137 (137Cs) technique has been increasingly used in recent years as an alternative approach to estimate rates of soil erosion and soil redistribution in both cultivated and non-cultivated areas. A preliminary study has been conducted using the environmental isotope 137Cs to assess the feasibility of applying this method on Malaysian soils in order to provide a retrospective estimate of medium-term soil erosion rates within the catchment area over the past years. The study plot is situated in Kalumpang Agriculture Station, 90 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. The site is being used for light agricultural activities and the study area is covered by local fruit trees, shrubs and light bushes. Soil samples for 137Cs analysis were collected at the study and reference sites using a steel core and sampling frame. A local reference inventory for 137Cs is 551 ± 27.6 Bq .....

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Music education plays a very important role in children’s lives. Music can be used to assist children in learning other subjects such as language, mathematics, science and physical movements. Although teachers may be aware of the benefits and significance of music for children, they are not necessarily able to conduct lessons effectively. Many studies have revealed that preschool and primary school teachers lack skills in teaching music. This study sought to investigate three main components of music teaching readiness—content knowledge, professional development and instructional strategies among non-specialised music teachers in government preschools in the state of Perak. A questionnaire was used to collect data in this cross-sectional survey. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. The results of this study indicated the music teaching readiness of the non-specialised music preschool teachers (N=48) in Perak is average in terms of content knowledge (M=3.35 on a 5-point s.....

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Rapid changes are taking place in industry, the labor market, work to work organization. The changes of taking places in industry have an important implication for Vocational Education and Training (VET). These widespread changes have significant implications for the learning requirement of workers and for the pedagogical methods to facilitate that learning. This paper focuses in the learning of instructor, learners in the perspective of their readiness with teaching and learning challenge in VET. Some theoretical consideration in behavioral and cognitive psychology will be discussed derived from the concept of learning content vocational institutions; pedagogical strategies such as demonstration, practice and feedback implemented by the instructors for learning occur. The learners’ preferences based on their characteristics to cater their ability to learn in VET. Learners’ learning styles were investigated to identify their preferences in learning and match with the curriculum and.....

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A doctoral music degree is a new degree in Thailand. Although the first PhD programme in music was established in 2005, there are only four universities that provide doctoral programmes in music in 2016. However, there are a couple of universities that plan to launch doctoral music programmes in the near future. If the number of doctoral programmes in music and the number of graduates has started to grow, it is important to consider the barriers to doctoral music student socialisation because they relate to the completion of the degree. This paper aims to investigate barriers that Thai doctoral music students encounter in doctoral socialisation. This leads to the main question: What are the barriers that Thai doctoral music students encounter in doctoral socialisation? The key instrument used for this research was in-depth interviews with 12 doctoral students and graduates during four different stages of doctoral education across four Thai universities that have launched PhD programmes.....

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Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti amalan penerapan nilai pendidikan umum oleh guru matematik dalam pengajaran penyelesaian masalah. Kaedah kualitatif digunakan dalam kajian ini yang melibatkan kajian kes. Sampel kajian melibatkan tiga orang guru matematik terlatih yang mengajar Tahun Lima dari sebuah sekolah rendah Tamil di daerah Hulu Selangor. Pemerhatian pengajaran terhadap peserta kajian telah dilakukan sebanyak tiga kali dan sesi temu bual telah diadakan sebelum dan selepas sesi pengajaran. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa guru mempunyai kefahaman yang setara mengenai nilai. Kesemua guru menganggap nilai yang diterapkan sebagai nilai pendidikan umum. Walaupun perancangan nilai tidak dinyatakan secara bertulis dalam rekod pengajaran harian guru tetapi ianya dinyatakan secara lisan ketika ditemu bual dalam sesi pra pengajaran. Penerapan nilai terlaksana secara tersirat melalui amalan pengajaran dan pembelajaran bilik darjah. Kesemua nilai yang diterapkan adalah berkaitan de.....

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