Many U.S. universities are preparing their students to attain international awareness through various approaches. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at Oklahoma State University offers three international dimension undergraduate courses intended to provide students a formal educational opportunity to learn about international issues in agricultural and natural resources contexts. The investigation was a non–experimental, pretest–posttest descriptive and comparative design study. The target population (N = 147) consisted of all undergraduate students enrolled in three international dimension courses during the Fall semester of 2010. The study’s findings revealed that students’ attitudes regarding CASNR’s role in developing their international awareness as well as general awareness of the impact of international issues and globalization on the agriculture sector changed favorably from pre course to post course. These results showed statistically significant differences (p < .05) in students’ attitudes. Comparing students’ attitudes, from pre course to post course, revealed that the international dimension courses studied did impact students’ views related to aspects of enhanced international awareness, including the agriculture sector and their college’s role therein. The attitudes of students who participate in international dimension courses can change positively if U.S. universities internationalize their curricula adequately.
Many U.S. colleges and universities are concerned with how best to prepare students to become globally competent citizens. Therefore, the need existed to examine the general global competence of students enrolling in international dimension (ID) courses at Oklahoma State University. This investigation was a census study; the target population included all undergraduate students (N = 147) enrolled in three ID courses offered in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) during the fall semester of the 2010–2011 academic year. General knowledge instruments were used to gather pretest and posttest data to measure differences. Although students’ post-course scores were higher than pre-course scores, their overall performance was below 60%. This difference in knowledge gain connoting general global competence was statistically significant (p < .05), but the corresponding effect size was small, which signaled little practical significance. Whether ID courses are an efficacious way of achieving substantial change in students’ general global competence remains an open question. A more appropriate method to assess change in general global competence may be writing assignments. Faculty are encouraged to improve their ID courses by infusing learning experiences that stand to enhance students’ general global competence while complementing content-specific objectives.
Many online courses have been developed in an effort to meet the needs of students who are either unable or less inclined to attend face-to-face classes. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at Oklahoma State University has been preparing its students to attain international awareness and become globally competent citizens through online and face-to-face international dimension (ID) undergraduate courses. However, little was known about whether significant differences existed in students' learning outcomes depending on the mode of instruction delivery. This investigation was a census study and the target population consisted of all undergraduate students (N = 147) enrolled in three ID undergraduate courses offered by CASNR during the Fall semester of 2010. No statistically significant differences existed in the attitude and knowledge scores of students for traditional, face-toface instruction delivery and online instruction delivery. Regardless of the ongoing controversy surrounding which of the two modes of learning is more effective, the findings of this study supported the use of either for the purpose of improving students' international awareness and general global knowledge. Keywords: global knowledge; instruction delivery; international awareness; undergraduate curriculum where the instructor and the learner are separated by time and physical distance. It relies
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The study investigates the rate of reading poverty after the COVID-19 pandemic school shutdown and specific intervention strategies for lower primary school pupils in the southern province and western area of Sierra Leone. Randomised experiments of mixed-methods reading interventions for 100 struggling readers in class 5 and 20 English teachers selected from 10 primary schools (5 in the south and 5 in the Western Area) were carried out. The rate of reading poverty and proficiency was first determined in the selected classes using the Access Center method of reading assessment. Two intervention strategies were administered, and the scores for each intervention strategy were measured and compared. The findings reveal that over 70% of the pupils tested in reading in the south mispronounced or skipped five or more words when reading. The overall scores for pupils in the Western Area were relatively lower (a majority scoring less than 30%). The READ 180 reading intervention strategy is recommended to be introduced as the preferred teaching method at the pre-primary and primary school levels in Sierra Leone because of its proven potentiality to increase reading proficiency more than the popular Direct-teaching Model.
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