Finding a Silver Lining in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented shift towards educational technology around the world. Teachers began exploring digital tools, which contributed to their professional development. This ethnographic research studied a teacher online Facebook community in Georgia from a participant-observer perspective to understand its social interactions and discussions, using both qualitative insights collected through observation, and quantitative data using various digital tools. The chapter attempts to find a silver lining in the middle of the pandemic: it argues that the adaptation to educational technology during the pandemic gave teachers new opportunities to explore teaching online. Peer-led teaching and learning, sharing experiences, and best practices appeared to be productive. This chapter contributes to understanding the Georgian context during the early waves of the pandemic, and can serve as a unit of comparison with similar online communities elsewhere.

Virtual Reality-Based Fuzzy Spatial Relation Knowledge Extraction Method for Observer-Centered Vague Location Descriptions

Many documents contain vague location descriptions of observed objects. To represent location information in geographic information systems (GISs), these vague location descriptions need to be transformed into representable fuzzy spatial regions, and knowledge about the location descriptions of observer-to-object spatial relations must serve as the basis for this transformation process. However, a location description from the observer perspective is not a specific fuzzy function, but comes from a subjective viewpoint, which will be different for different individuals, making the corresponding knowledge difficult to represent or obtain. To extract spatial knowledge from such subjective descriptions, this research proposes a virtual reality (VR)-based fuzzy spatial relation knowledge extraction method for observer-centered vague location descriptions (VR-FSRKE). In VR-FSRKE, a VR scene is constructed, and users can interactively determine the fuzzy region corresponding to a location description under the simulated VR observer perspective. Then, a spatial region clustering mechanism is established to summarize the fuzzy regions identified by various individuals into fuzzy spatial relation knowledge. Experiments show that, on the basis of interactive scenes provided through VR, VR-FSRKE can efficiently extract spatial relation knowledge from many individuals and is not restricted by requirements of a certain place or time; furthermore, the knowledge obtained by VR-FSRKE is close to the knowledge obtained from a real scene.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT: IS WHAT WE LOOK AT OR THE PERSPECTIVE WE LOOK FROM MORE IMPORTANT?

This study examined organizational conflict using two alternative research methods. In Study I qualitative data was raised via interviews on workplace conflicts from 40 faculty members and research assistants employed in a public university. In Study II vignettes of conflict scenarios were presented to participants and data were raised from 170 graduate and doctorate students. Vignettes differed in terms of the perspective it assumed; consisting of the subordinate, manager, and the neutral observer perspective. Participants were asked to report their affective reactions (negative and positive), conflict management style (collaborating, compromising, accomodating, avoiding and competing) and ethical evaluations (employee and manager) with regards to the vignettes. Content analysis of interviews revealed that injustice, differences of opinions and miscommunication were among the most frequently reported themes of conflict. Variance analyses were carried out for the vignette study on the above mentioned dependent variables. Main effect of perspective was found for most of the variables, such that subordinate perspective participants experienced higher levels of negative affect in reponse to the conflict; neutral perspective reported higher levels of the use of compromising strategy while subordinate perspective had significantly higher levels of avoiding, accomodating, and competing. In terms of the ethical evaluations of the subordinate and manager characters of the scenarios, each perspective perceived itself as more ethical than the other party. These findings point out the importance of perspective taking and empathy in organizational conflict. Practical implications for conflict resolution are discussed in light of the study findings. Keywords Organizational conflict, qualitative research, business ethics, affect, perspective taking

Individual Differences in the Contents and Form of Present-Moment Awareness: The Multidimensional Awareness Scale

Decentering, a detached, observer perspective on one’s mental activity, is an important concept for understanding mental health. Meta-awareness, people’s awareness of their own current mental activity, is thought to facilitate decentering. However, trait measures of these concepts are not available or have validity concerns. We sought to create a theoretically derived measure of meta-awareness and decentering that allowed an exploration of questions in the literature regarding whether there are multiple forms of decentered awareness and whether meta-awareness and external awareness are distinct. Across six samples and 2,480 participants, we developed the 25-item Multidimensional Awareness Scale, with subscales assessing meta-awareness (present moment awareness of mental activity), decentered awareness (meta-awareness from a psychologically distant perspective), and external awareness (present moment awareness of the world outside of oneself). The scales demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. Results are discussed in terms of the conceptual implications of the scale structure and its potential uses.

A Fuzzy Spatial Region Extraction Model for Object’s Vague Location Description from Observer Perspective

Descriptions of the spatial locations of disappeared objects are often recorded in eyewitness records, travel notes, and historical documents. However, in geographic information system (GIS), the observer-centered and vague nature of the descriptions causes difficulties in representing the spatial characters of these objects. To address this problem, this paper proposes a Fuzzy Spatial Region Extraction Model for Object’s Vague Location Description from Observer Perspective (FSREM-OP). In this model, the spatial relationship between the observer and the object are represented in spatial knowledge. It is composed of “phrase” and “region”. Based on the spatial knowledge, three components of spatial inference are constructed: Spatial Entities (SEs), Fuzzy Spatial Regions (FSRs), and Spatial Actions (SAs). Through spatial knowledge and the components of FSREM-OP, an object’s location can be inferred from an observer’s describing text, transforming the vagueness and subjectivity of location description into fuzzy spatial regions in the GIS. The FSREM-OP was tested by constructing a group of observers, object position relationships and vague descriptions. The results show that it is capable of extracting the spatial information and presenting location descriptions in the GIS, despite the vagueness and subjective spatial relation expressions in the descriptions.

Promoting Professional Vision of Classroom Management Through Different Analytic Perspectives in Video-Based Learning Environments

This study investigated how taking different perspectives in teacher training courses influences the learning of professional vision, multiperspectivity, and strategic knowledge of classroom management. A total of 134 student teachers analyzed classroom management from one of three different perspectives: 36, from an observer perspective by viewing videos of unknown teachers (TG-V); 46, from only a protagonist perspective by remembering own teaching (TG-T); and 52, from both a protagonist and an observer perspective through videos of their own, their peers, and unknown teaching (TG-VT). An untreated control group (CG) received no classroom management training. Learning gains were investigated in a quasi-experimental pre–post–follow-up design using a mixed-methods approach. Results showed that all interventions fostered strategic knowledge of classroom management. Analyzing videos from own and unknown teachers (TG-VT) had the strongest positive effect on professional vision, but analyzing own teaching from memory also had higher effects on professional vision and multiperspectivity than analyzing stock videos.

Perspective determines the production and interpretation of pointing gestures

Pointing is a ubiquitous means of communication. Nevertheless, observers systematically misinterpret the location indicated by pointers. We examined whether these misunderstandings result from the typically different viewpoints of pointers and observers. Participants either pointed themselves or interpreted points while assuming the pointer’s or a typical observer perspective in a virtual reality environment. The perspective had a strong effect on the relationship between pointing gestures and referents, whereas the task had only a minor influence. This suggests that misunderstandings between pointers and observers primarily result from their typically different viewpoints.