The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether learning and ways of understanding subject content and structure differ between successful and less successful students—i.e. in terms of their grade point average—in upper secondary school. A second issue is whether different subjects and disciplines—i.e. science on the one hand and humanities/social sciences on the other—make different demands on students. Data were gathered through interviews with a total of 36 students in two classes at two periods of their schooling. Additional data were gathered from interviews with teachers in the two classes and a sample of the tests given to the classes. Both classes receive instruction in science as well as humanities/social sciences but in one class (N) the emphasis is on science whereas in the other (S) the emphasis is on humanities/social sciences. A common characteristic of successful students is that they adjust to the teacher’s way of structuring the subject by means of a deep approach and a pronounced cue-seeking. They also play a dominant role in classroom communication. Less successful students more frequently use a surface or procedural approach to learning, are less sensitive for cues, do not adjust to the structure of subjects as presented by the teachers and do not participate to the same extent in classroom communication. The characteristics for successful students are very stable over time. As for the less successful students, there is a difference between N- and S-students. A majority of the S-students who use a surface approach in the first year change towards a deep approach later in their schooling, whereas the procedural approach of N-students is stable. It is concluded that the stability shown by the successful students can be explained in that their deep approach reflects their understanding that subject structure may vary and cue-seeking for these students signifies an awareness of and subsequent adjustment to the particular structure presented by the teachers. By understanding the structure according to teachers’ intentions, successful students are able to participate in classroom communication, eventually establishing a joint discourse. The differences between a change of learning for S- and N-students could be interpreted in light of differences in subject structure and instruction between subjects. In humanities/social sciences, classroom communication and the presentation of alternative interpretations of subject matter play a prominent role in instruction, and students who initially use a surface approach might get guidance to alternative ways of understanding the subject matter and subject structure. In the science subjects in the N-programme, the presentation of alternative interpretations is not  as common. These subjects also have a hierarchical structure, and understanding the basic fundamentals is a prerequisite for understanding later topics. For the students who initially use a surface approach in these hierarchically ordered subjects, learning becomes a matter of memorising more and more disconnected facts in what might seem to be disjointed courses.

The roller bearings are widely used in aviation cargo systems, engines, agriculture, heavy equipment and machinery, solar panels, medical equipment, automobile industry, powerhouses, and many others. Bearing faults during the operation process will result in downtime, economic loss, and even human injury. To prevent these from happening, rolling bearing fault diagnosis has become a mature discipline. Deep learning networks have been known as effective methods for bearing fault diagnoses. Deep learning neural networks such as the convolutional neural network (CNN) use the images as inputs. In contrast, the others, such as long-short term memory (LSTM), may apply data sequences as inputs. <br>This thesis research work focuses on performance evaluations of deep learning networks according to the classification accuracy by utilizing various signal transforms to form the network inputs. CNN and LSTM are adopted as our deep learning network structures. Besides raw data, the algorithms for processing input signals include short-time Fourier transform (STFT), Cepstrum, wavelet packet transform (WPT), and empirical mode decomposition (EMD). In addition, this paper also applies three commonly used machine learning algorithms for comparison, namely K nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF). Finally, a one-dimensional CNN structure is designed and implemented.<br>Our simulations validate the effectiveness for each network input formulation based on the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset. <br>

Abstract: Introduction- Human activities has resulted in degradation of quality of environment, social life, and economic gains, bringing to life the challenges of sustainability. In order to reduce degradations, a solution encircling sustainability is required. The solution must bring economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection. One of the many solutions can be creation of sustainable enterprises, also the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship is catching the pace worldwide. But who can attain sustainable entrepreneurship is still a question Engineers can connect technology to the market and can create products which are sustainable (Alexa et al., 2020) seems to be right choice. Hence educating engineers can be effective to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship. Purpose and research question- Sustainable entrepreneurship is a relatively nascent field. Even though, engineers seem to be right choice to train, there is not sufficient information on the literature regarding the skills necessary to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. Besides, the universities are not aware of the methods that helps in developing these skills. Even though many authors focus on sustainable entrepreneurship, it is not quite explained in terms of engineering. This gap needs to be bridged by determining relevant engineering skills that promote sustainable entrepreneurship in future engineering students and discover few teaching methods and learning approaches that facilitate in developing these skills and thus answer the research question “What engineering skills are important to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in master education and what methods facilitate the developing of these skills”   Methodology- In order to answer the research question, a qualitative study was carried out with a deductive approach. Also, the nature of the research is exploratory. In addition to this, interviews were conducted with program directors from four Swedish universities to gain deeper understandings from their perspectives regarding the engineering skills required to promote sustainable entrepreneurship and the methods to facilitate its development.    Findings- From the insights of the participants it is found that many skills are interrelated to each other; meaning, development of one skill results in improvement of another. Also, many teaching and learning methods were found out from the interviews that facilitate in the development of these skills. Besides, it was found that the participants did not consider the development of all the skills identified in the literature in accordance with their program. But majority of these skills were considered to be relevant to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. Conclusions- It is seen that engineering skills from multiple disciplines seems to coincide especially when sustainability is a common goal. It is evident from the literature, primary and the secondary data that these skills are important to be developed in engineering students in the perspective of sustainable entrepreneurship. Also, this study has many implications for program directors, future researches, teaching professionals and master’s students as well.

Assessment is a critical component of the educational experience. The purpose of this study was to examine dental students’ assessment preferences and their relation to students’ approaches to learning. The study also investigates the impact of gender, age, GPA and class level on dental students’ assessment preferences. Two hundred sixteen dental students at University of the Pacific Arthur Dugoni School of Dentistry have completed a self-reported 67-item questionnaire. Open-ended questions requiring long answers were the least preferred assessment method as perceived by the dental students, while multiple-choice questions are the most preferred assessment method. Deep approach to learning was significantly and positively correlated with oral test, alternative test, concept map, open-ended questions and questions that require higher order thinking. Surface approach to learning, however, was not significantly correlated with any assessment type. Age, gender, GPA and class level all have significant impact on dental students’ assessments preferences.

This quantitative research, carried out at the military environment at the Defense Language Institute investigated whether learning approaches could predict learners' language proficiency and learners' attitude towards technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). In addition, it also examined whether learners' demographic factors, such as age, educational backgrounds, prior experience in foreign language learning and in TELL as well as their ability to use PC and the World Wide Web could predict the above mentioned language proficiency and attitude. A cluster sampling method was adopted and data was collected in four Chinese departments at the institute. Both the learning approaches inventory ASSIST and the attitudes towards TELL survey were administered to 158 Chinese language learners. 137 valid responses were obtained. All data were input into SPSS for regression and correlation analyses. Conclusions of the study are as follows: 1. The surface and apathetic approach (p<.01) was a significant predictor for both learners' measured language proficiency and their self-perception of academic performance. 2. The strategic approach was a positive predictor for learners' attitudes towards TELL; whereas, surface and apathetic approach was a negative predictor for learners' attitudes towards TELL. 3. None of the learners' demographic variables could not predict either learners' language proficiency or their attitudes towards TELL. Implications for instructional design, curriculum development, teacher education, as well as relevant research issues were discussed.

This dissertation presents an empirical investigation of learning from online courses. The current dissertation examined student participation, using Arbaugh et al.'s Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument and Biggs et al.'s revised version of the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to determine CoI influences on learning from the students' perspective. This study is in response to Rourke and Kanuka's call to provide further empirical evidence about CoI conceptual framework connections to deep and meaningful learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the elements of CoI, cognitive, social, and teaching presences and students' learning approaches to students' perceived learning. Students enrolled in traditional, online, and, blended courses during the 2016 spring semester at a southwestern university participated in a web-based survey. Structural equation modeling was used to test the indirect effects between the elements of CoI, learning approaches, and perceived learning. Student's deep approach to learning was found to have an indirect effect between cognitive presence and perceived learning. However, this study's findings, when the CoI framework was viewed in its entirety, failed to provide evidence to simulate deep and meaningful learning.

This study investigates the role that African traditional beliefs and practices play in defining psychological problems, determines how these beliefs and practices manifest in a counselling relationship and explores how Western based forms of counselling manage these manifestations in counselling. This investigation is in the context of the on-going debate on the relevance of Western Psychological counselling in South Africa and the rest of Africa, including my experience during my internship to register as a Counsellor. It explores the impact of conducting counselling with clients whose worldviews are different from those of the counsellor and focuses on the impact of the client’s worldviews on psychological well-being, psychological ill health and the resolution of psychological problems. Psychological well-being, ill health and counselling were discussed from a Western perspective. The study found that the client participants defined their psychological problems in terms of their African traditional beliefs and practices. They communicated their presenting psychological problems in ways that created possibility of miscommunication between themselves and their counsellors, for example by using figurative language. There was also a clear distinction between how psychological problems are managed from an African traditional perspective (ritualistic) and a Western perspective (talking therapy). The study recommended the creation of specific departments in Universities to embark on research aimed at establishing foundational structures on which to build an African Indigenous Psychology as an alternative to Western Psychology. More comprehensive research on African people’s attitudes is, suggested, on what traditional Africans think of psychological counselling. Another recommendation accruing from the limitation on sampling in this study is that future studies should be conducted with larger and more diverse samples; moreover, data should be gathered on a wider variety of demographics and cultural belief systems and practices. To counter prejudice and ignorance, the counsellor ‘to be’ should study African culture and customs during their BA Honours studies. On-going training and workshops on cross-cultural issues from various cultures should be part of the counselling profession. More emphasis should be placed on prevention and therefore more mental health clinics in the rural areas need to be opened and general education on psychological issues and cultural integration be initiated. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Mathematics has been singled out as a challenging discipline to teach fully online (FO). Yet both the demand for and development of FO mathematics courses is increasing with little known about the quality of these courses and many calling for research. Whereas most research has investigated the nature of these courses by examining instructional outputs such as student grades this research seeks the same insight but by examining instructional inputs. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the nature of current assessment practice in FO mathematics courses. To conduct this investigation, deep learning (Marton & S??lj??, 1976a, 1976b) is used as the principle theoretical framework. From the growing body of literature associated with deep learning, two studies are selected to investigate current FO mathematics instructors assessment practices. An additional framework based on empirical findings related to the use of different kinds of feedback is also used. In total, six study measures are used to conduct a mixed methods study in two parts. The target demographic and course context are tertiary instructors from Western nations that teach introductory level mathematics (particularly statistics and calculus). The first study explores current FO mathematics assessment practices using an online survey (n=70) where the majority of participants originate from US higher education institutions. In the second study six of the US survey participants are interviewed about how their assessment practices and approaches used in their FO mathematics courses differ from those used in their face-to-face (F2F) mathematics courses. This study represents the first known attempt to investigate the nature of tertiary FO mathematics instructors assessment practices using appropriate theoretical frameworks. In particular, it investigates mathematics instructors experiences of the affordances and constraints of the FO course context when adapting their F2F practice to this new environment. Findings suggest the FO course context is a challenging environment for instructors to orient their teaching and assessment practice in a way that helps develop students understanding of mathematics. Analysis of interview responses suggests the problem lies with the nature of interactivity provided in the FO course context.

This study examined preservice science teachers&rsquo / conceptions about teaching and learning, self-efficacy beliefs, learning approaches and images of themselves as a science teachers. The study was also interested in examining the possible relationships among preservice science teachers&rsquo / conceptions about teaching and learning, learning approaches and self-efficacy beliefs. The study was carried out during 2011-2012 spring semester at three different public universities in Ankara. A total of 208 senior preservice science teachers who were volunteers involved. Data were collected through Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist, Teaching and Learning Conceptions Questionnaire, Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument, and The Learning Approach Questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-test and canonical correlation analysis. Paired-sample t-test analyses results showed that preservice science teachers prefer constructivist conception more than traditional conception / and meaningful learning approaches more than rote learning approaches. Besides, preservice science teachers were also found to have generally high sense of self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching. Moreover, the results of the DASTT-C showed that preservice science teachers&rsquo / perspectives of science teaching conception is 42.7% student-centered, 7.0% teacher-centered and 50.3% neither student-centered nor teacher-centered. Furthermore, the canonical correlation analysis revealed that the first canonical variate demonstrated that preservice science teachers&rsquo / constructivist conception and traditional conception are associated with their self-efficacy beliefs and learning approaches.

The purpose of this study was to investigate scientific epistemological beliefs, perceptions of constructivist learning environment, attitude towards science, prior knowledge and gender as determinants of students&rsquo / approaches to learning. This study was carried out in 2005-2006 Spring Semester. One thousand, one hundred and fifty two eighth grade students from seven public schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, a district of Ankara participated in this study. Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Constructivist Learning Environment Scale, Learning Approaches Questionnaire and Attitude towards Science Scale were administered to students in order to determine their scientific epistemological beliefs, their perceptions of constructivist learning environments, approaches to learning and attitudes towards science respectively. Descriptive statistics were used in order to explore the general characteristics of the sample. Paired samples t-test was used in order to evaluate the mean difference iv between the scales of the actual and preferred learning environments. Pearson Correlation Analyses and Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted to see the relationships among the variables and the variables that contribute to students&rsquo / meaningful and rote learning approaches. Results of the paired samples t-test showed that the actual learning environments of the students did not adapt their preferences. In fact, students preferred more constructivist learning environments where they have more opportunity to relate science with the real world, communicate in the classroom, take role in the decision making process of what will go on in the lesson to be more beneficial for them, question what is going on in the lesson freely and experience the formulation of scientific knowledge. Pearson correlation analyses, however, showed that students who had meaningful learning orientations had tentative views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science, high prior knowledge and perceived their learning environments as constructivist. On the other hand, students who had rote learning approaches had fixed views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science and low prior knowledge. In addition, the rote learners perceived their environments as constructivist in all scales except shared control scale. Multiple Regression Analyses by using actual learning environment showed that attitude towards science is the best predictor of both meaningful and rote learning approaches.