Our Open Access research platform features thousands of articles from across the world. Every month, the editors of our journals select a few to share with you. Whether you want some light reading for your coffee break or inspiration for a new research path, we hope the below articles will enlighten and entertain you.
Editorial – A Brief Guide to Author Self-Promotion
As researchers, we also want our work to be read and quoted, to know that our own studies are helping others develop their work – not languishing on a dusty shelf or unused website. In our digital era, with the increasing prominence of electronic education resources and the huge popularity of social media platforms, there are now a wealth of opportunities and avenues for authors to promote their research and enhance their impact. This article outlines some of the key steps authors can take to promote themselves and their research to a global audience and increase their impact.
If you want to learn how to promote your work to global audiences, read more here.
Soft Skills Enhance Employee Performance: The Case of the Maritime Industry
Soft skills have always been important employee attributes; skills and characteristics relating to personality, attitude, and behavior have a huge impact on role performance, regardless of industry. However, in our modern, digital age, the phrase ‘soft skills’ has evolved to encompass a diverse array of additional abilities from communications and problem-solving to stakeholder management and team-building, all of which can improve employee performance. This article considers the role and impact of key soft skills on employee productivity in the maritime industry.
Do you know how important adaptability, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork are in the modern workplace and how they can enhance operational efficiencies in global trade networks? Continue reading here.
Gold Allocation Forms in Sulfide Ore and Products of their Processing Enrichment
Medieval philosophers and alchemists speculated about the possibility of transforming lead into gold, and countless men and women have joined this quest over the centuries, hoping to find the answer. Now scientists have found a possible solution to this age-old problem: we might not be able to transform lead into gold, but we now have the capabilities needed to extract gold from sulfide ores and technogenic formations. Using copper pyrite ore as an example, this article investigates how to develop a technology for the extraction of microdispersed gold from sulfide materials.
How were scientists able to extract gold from these more common minerals? Click here to read the full article.
Applying Global Models of Teacher Development to Improve Student Outcomes: Insights from a Teacher Development & Leadership Program in Qatar
Studies have shown that student achievement in the Arabian Gulf has continued to be significantly below international averages, as evidenced by results from international assessments such as PISA, PIRLS, and TIMMS. In Qatar, the persistent challenges around teacher quality and relatively low student learning outcomes, have led to the formation of an independent non-profit organisation which seeks to use progressive teaching practices to improve student academic and non-academic outcomes. These approaches are not new, however this case is unique and interesting in that the organisation is taking a non-traditional model of teacher recruitment, placement, and training. The programme is built around 6 key pedagogical practises: (1) orientation to student vision; (2) ongoing reflection to improve practice; (3) setting high expectations for students; (4) ensuring content rigor and mastery in students; (5) fostering positive culture and learning environment; and (6) building positive relationships with students.
Discover how successful the initiative has been in its initial months, and identify strategies that could work for your organisation, read more here.
Barriers in Teaching Science to Students with Special Needs: Exploration From Teachers' Perspectives
It has long been known that teaching sciences can support the post-school independence of children with special needs. For students with sensory and physical impairments it can enable them to develop compensatory abilities, for example: observing, manipulating, and classifying phenomena. Students with intellectual disabilities benefit from increased knowledge of the world in general, as well as the development of scientific process skills (e.g. observing, classifying, predicting, inferring) and applying these skills to their own experiences. Despite this, the volume and level of science teaching has remained comparatively low for children in this demographic. This article looks at some of the reasons why this is the case, and considers what teaching materials and professional development opportunities are needed to help teachers overcome the barriers they currently face.
How can curricula be adjusted for science learning support for special needs? How can schools and governments be more inclusive and cater to special educational needs? Read this article here to discover more.