Vol 10, No 1 (2024)

Introduction: Research culture is the core of many processes in science. It is a broad concept presumably entailing practices, traditions, norms, etc. that prevail among researchers and other stakeholders in the field. Its definition, architecture, and taxonomy are essential in generating and pursuing scientific policies at universities and countries. As there is a lack of comprehensive reviews on research culture, the present publication aspires to fill the existing gap in the knowledge. This review aims to define research culture and build an architecture of research culture based on the relevant literature indexed in the Scopus database.

Method: The problem, concept, and context (PCC) framework was applied to establish an effective search strategy and word the research questions corresponding to the aim. Based on Arksey and O'Malley's methodology (2005) and PRISMA checklist (2020) for systematic reviews, the authors sorted out 56 relevant publications for systematic scoping review. In addition, a bibliometric analysis was applied to examine the field.

Results: Using a bibliometric analysis, the 56 publications were distributed by year, country, most prolific authors, sources, research fields, affiliation, and type of publication. With the help of VOSviewer, the authors singled out four thematic clusters (research culture; medical and biomedical research, methodology and research ethics, and clinical studies and human experiments). After synthesizing the data extracted from the documents under review, research culture was defined; components of research culture were singled out and summed up; and a framework of research culture was made up. The authors analysed the review findings in contrast with other research, offering their own comprehensive definition of research culture, its taxonomy, and an architecture of research culture. 

Conclusion: The current review adds to the understanding of research culture, its gist, component classification. The limitation related to the period of review (2019-2024) may be overcome by further reviews of relevant publications from a historic perspective that would broaden perceptions of the origin of modern research culture and its negative aspects.

Background: The acquisition of English idiomatic expressions is a critical aspect of language proficiency that unquestionably contributes to the improvement of effective communication skills. A number of studies have been conducted in the field of English idioms; however, there are still unanswered questions in this area. Since learning English idioms is a complex process, further investigation is needed, especially among students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the specific educational milieu of a university setting.

Purpose: This study investigated the attitudes of Thai university students towards the importance of learning English idioms. In addition, it examined the challenges faced by these students in learning and comprehending English idioms, along with the effective strategies employed to overcome the difficulties.

Methods: This study adopted a descriptive research design involving 50 fourth-year English major students (12% male, 88% female) from a university in southern Thailand. A survey questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale adapted from Orfan (2020) was used to collect the data from the participants.

Results: The findings demonstrated that Thai university students had a positive attitude towards the importance of learning idioms and recognized the critical role they play in successful communication in English. Nevertheless, they faced various challenges when learning English idioms. They reported that idioms were challenging to grasp when taken out of context, and they faced difficulties due to their limited knowledge and cultural background. The participants in the study also reported utilizing different strategies to learn and comprehend idioms, such as guessing the meaning of idioms, using descriptive definitions in English, and memorization.

Conclusion: This study offers valuable insights for both educators and researchers, serving as a foundation for the development of more efficient language teaching methodologies and promoting cross-cultural understanding in language acquisition.

Background: Despite the advancement achieved in previous research into online learning, few studies have used both quantitative and qualitative data to examine how students’ readiness to learn online is affected by three different external factors, comprising (i) the degrees to which technology is available to students, (ii) the support provided by the institutions of learning, and (iii) the social influence affecting the students engaged in forced online learning in a pandemic situation.

Purpose: To fill this research gap, this study explored university students’ forced online learning readiness in relation to technological accessibility, institutional support and social influence during a pandemic, in an attempt to furnish insights into how educators can maximize the benefits of adopting online learning methods.

Method: A mixed methods research design was employed in this study. Quantitative data, elicited via self-administered questionnaires completed by 211 participants, was analyzed using the frequencies, means, standard deviations and Pearson correlation analysis involving the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 27. Qualitative data, elicited via 11 open-ended questions posed to 41 students through in-depth interviews, was then studied using a thematic analysis of the participants’ feedback concerning the three constructs in online learning.

Results: Our quantitative analysis showed that institutional support had the strongest positive correlation with online learning readiness, and this was followed by technology accessibility and social influence in relation to students’ readiness to learn online. Qualitative findings further indicated that students were largely concerned about Internet accessibility and the setting where their roles were restricted to being mere listeners in online sessions. Apart from being apprehensive about excessive online assignments, students also acknowledged that their online interactions were influenced by their friends and family members, and they would prefer practical work that could inspire them to reflect and engage actively with the course material given during the pandemic.

Conclusion: While lecturers can make online classes more interactive and discussion-generative, university administrators need to aptly facilitate their institution’s transition to the forced online learning mode, moderate social influence, improve the learning management system, and provide training to teachers and students on the use of emerging technology.

Background: Self-efficacy and the use of learning activities in online learning platforms have been extensively researched recently and are considered factors of online learning success. However, little research empirically seeks the correlation between those variables, including in English as a foreign language (EFL) online classes.

Purpose: To investigate whether there is a significant correlation between the use of online learning platforms and EFL students' self-efficacy in online learning in English classes.

Method: This quantitative research used two questionnaires, i.e., the Online Learning Platform Questionnaire (OLPQ) and the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Online Learning (SeQoL). The use of online learning platforms measured in this study includes independent learning, virtual meetings, forum discussion, collaborative learning, and assessment; meanwhile, self-efficacy includes course completion, social interaction, academic interaction, interaction with lecturers, and the use of LMS. The sample of this research was 133 EFL students from three universities in Indonesia. The data was analyzed using Spearman's correlation at the significance level of 0.05.

Results: The results show that independent learning, collaborative learning, and forum discussion correlate with most constructs of self-efficacy. Meanwhile, the results indicate no correlation between two constructs of online learning platforms, namely virtual meetings and assessments, and three constructs of self-efficacy, i.e., students’ social interaction, academic interaction, and students’ interaction with lecturers.

Conclusion: This research shows that more frequent use of online learning platforms, especially those covering independent learning, collaborative learning, and forum discussion, results in higher confidence among EFL students to succeed in online learning.

Suggestion: Therefore, this research suggests that lecturers consider using significant features of online learning platforms to enhance students’ self-efficacy in online EFL classes.

Background: Writing articles is inevitable for Teacher Educator Authors (TEAs) at the university level, and many studies reported writing articles for publication. However, self-efficacy (SE) and motivation in writing scientific articles by higher education teachers remained unexplored compared to the Bloom Digital Taxonomy (BDT).

Purpose: This study explored self-efficacy (SE) as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (IM & EM) in writing articles for publication by Teacher Educator Authors (TEAs) in the light of the Bloom Digital Taxonomy (BDT). Furthermore, it measured how prior empirical evidence and current findings are presented in the Bloom Digital Taxonomy (BDT).

Method: The design used qualitative descriptive content data from an ethnographic study, and 21 Teacher Educator Authors (TEAs) of English in Indonesia with specific characteristics were purposively selected. The participants constituted state and private universities in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. Data were collected through questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and electronic observation. The participants were then requested to complete a Google Form, and directly interviewed electronically and physically. The questionnaire data were subsequently addressed in the in-depth interview. This study utilised the Criteria Content Analysis (CCA) method and exploratory-provisional coding to analyse the transcription data.   

Results: The results showed that self-efficacy (SE) features were mainly related to profession, self-development, and attributes of Teacher Educator Authors (TEAs). Furthermore, self-esteem, expertise markers, and a way to learn dominated intrinsic motivation (IM), while appreciation, shaping expertise, and seeking dignity dominated the extrinsic. The findings were in the high order of affective skills (HOAs) with valuing (A3) and internalising (A5). The study had practical implications that writing for scholarly publications should inevitably be part of the curriculum in higher education, and grants should increase to maintain the internalisation of Teacher Educator Authors (TEAs) in producing articles. In addition, the results contributed to the theoretical implication that HOAs, valuing, and internalising dominated roles in creating quality articles at any level.

Background: Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an emerging approach in the global educational landscape, and as such, there is a lack of a systematic review of this field.

Purpose: To explore CLIL-related scientific publications in school settings around the world.

Method: A systematic review was performed following the PRISMA guidelines in WoS and Scopus databases. A total of 142 articles published in the period 2018-2022 were analysed according to three types of variables: extrinsic to the scientific process, methodological, and content based. The results of the methodological and content-based variables were contrasted with the portfolio of CLIL evaluation measures and analysed through the lens of the 4Cs framework.

Results: The findings revealed that CLIL studies were performed in a wide range of countries across continents. It was the secondary school which drew most scientific interest. Apropos of the methodological variable, there was a balance between qualitative and quantitative studies, and a questionмnaire as a tool was favoured by the researchers. The major scientific interest lay in the communication principle, while cognition was understudied.

Conclusions: There was a growing scientific interest in CLIL. Although the major interest laid in linguistic gains, other fields of research transpired. The conclusions provide further agenda for CLIL research.