Journal writing

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The study was conducted to determine the effect of utilizing synectics and journal creative writing techniques on the creativity of the students who study English as a foreign language (EFL). In order to carry out the study, a quasi-experimental design was used. The population of the study
consisted of all English language students of two language institutes (i.e.,Tehran Technical Complex and Arsam Institute in the city of Noor). The sample consisted of 80 participants at intermediate level chosen and assigned to two experimental groups through applying convenience sampling. There was no control group in the study. In each experimental group, one of the aforementioned techniques was used. The instruments were Oxford Place Test (OPT), and Abedi Creativity Test. The results of the study indicated that both synectics and journal techniques have significant positive effects on the development of students' creativity. However, the students who were in the group where the synectics technique was used outperformed the other group, that is, journal group. Moreover, participants had generally positive attitudes toward the notion of synectics technique and showed their willingness to continue synectics technique in future. On the other hand, the participants who experienced the journal technique
were satisfied with the result and stated that it had affected their writing skill positively.

This study assessed the benefits of keeping reflective journal writing on improving English writing skills, increasing motivation, enhancing creativity, and critical thinking among university students. It also explored differences in students’ performance and attitudes due to gender, and some writing practices. The sample consisted of 120 male and female students from four sections of an undergraduate writing course. A 19-item questionnaire was distributed and the items were structured according to three dimensions: improving learning, motivation and self confidence, and value and convenience. The results of the study indicated the positive effects of the use of reflective journal writing in enhancing motivation and self-confidence and improving learning in general and the writing skills in particular. The results also indicated that female students favored reflective journal writing more than male students. Furthermore, students who voluntarily wrote their own paragraphs were more motivated to write than others and had a much better perception. In sum, reflective journal writing makes the writing course enjoyable, motivating, relevant and exciting.


Arabic Abstract:



قيمت هذه الدراسة فوائد استعمال كتابة اليوميات التأملية في تحسين مهارات الكتابة باللغة الإنجليزية وزيادة الدافعية وتعزيز الإبداع والتفكير النقدي لدى طلبة الجامعة، وقد تقصّت هذه الدراسة الفروق في أداء وتوجهات الطلبة التي تعزى إلى الجنس وبعض الممارسات في الكتابة. وتكونت عينة الدراسة من (120) طالباً وطالبة من أربع شعب لمساق "الكتابة" لطلبة البكالوريوس. ووزعت استبانة مكونة من (19) بندا" بحيث تمحورت هذه البنود حول ثلاثة أبعاد: تحسين التعلم، والدافعية والثقة بالنفس، والقيمة والموائمة. وخلصت الدراسة الى بيان الآثار الايجابية لاستعمال كتابة اليوميات التأملية في تعزيز الدافعية والثقة بالنفس وتحسين التعلم بشكل عام ومهارات الكتابة على وجه الخصوص، وبيّنت النتائج أيضاً أن الطالبات فضلن استعمال كتابة اليوميات التأملية أكثر من الطلاب وبالإضافة إلى ذلك، فقد كان الطلبة الذين كتبوا فقراتهم بشكل طوعي، أكثر دافعية للكتابة من الطلبة الآخرين وكان لهم تقبل أفضل بكثير لفكرة كتابة اليوميات التأملية. وبإيجاز فإن كتابة اليوميات التأملية تجعل مساق الكتابة أكثر امتاعاً ودافعية وإثارة للاهتمام.

As digital technology has become a norm, and as social media has become a primary form of acquiring information (A study by the American Press Institute in 2015 found that 88% of Millennials get news from Facebook), people are increasingly shifting from the tactile experience of reading a physical book or writing by hand. In this paper, I investigate how the amalgamation of digital tools and technology can indeed aid, enhance, and even encourage the tactile experience of writing by hand, and impact the art and practice of journaling for personal development.

Joseph Furttenbach the Elder (1591-1667) was a Swabian architect, scenographer and engineer as well as a collector and prolific writer. During his youth he spent twelve years in Italy, absolving a mercantile apprenticeship in Milan and Genoa. His interests in arts and techniques lead him to undertake extensive travels across the peninsula: in Florence he even met Galileo Galilei. Back in Swabia, he settled down as a magistrate and merchant in the imperial city of Ulm. Thanks to his cabinet of curiosities and his numerous treatises, during decades he played an important role in the transfer of Italian Renaissance and Baroque culture to the Holy Roman Empire. Kaspar von Greyerz, Kim Siebenhüner and Roberto Zaugg have published a critical edition of Joseph Furttenbach's diary (Lebenslauff, 1652-1664): an autobiographical text which provides fascinating insights into the daily life of a pious Lutheran, a member of the urban elite and a renowned scholar of seventeenth-century Germany.

Knowledge of pre-service teachers' problems during the practicum is supremely important to the design and implementation of an effective field experience. Based on this, the current study aimed to explore the most frequent problems of a cohort of English as foreign language (EFL) beginning teachers (n = 60) enrolled in a training program. Results of an in-depth content analysis of post-lesson written reflections (n = 1511), mentor feedback (n = 1624) and end-of-each-practicum reports (n = 337) reveal 23 frequent problems with teaching methodology, class control and time management as the top concerns. Results also indicate that trainees' development seems to go through five distinct stages. These findings offer for the first time an insight into the most pressing needs of Moroccan EFL pre-service teachers. Interpretations of the results and recommendations are discussed in relation to the context of the study.

This paper describes the author’s experience in implementing a writing journal program as a regular feature in an EFL course at a foreign-languages university in Japan. It describes the pedagogical rationale; the guidelines followed by students; and various tips in running such a program. Following this is a brief examination of the literature on the effects of freewriting on EFL students’ writing fluency. It concludes with a discussion of several perceived benefits and concerns of such a program.

Acacia melanoxylon and Acacia dealbata are two Australian species well acclimated in Chile, both wood species with an interesting industrial potential. In this work, has been studied kiln drying runs and the wood drying quality of the sawn wood of Acacia melanoxylon and Acacia dealbata during kiln drying at conventional temperatures. Eight tests of kiln drying to conventional temperatures are made, using a convective drying of 0,3 m 3 of capacity. The experimental design includes as variable the species (A. melanoxylon an A. dealbata), the wood thickness (25 and 50 mm) and the cut-type (fl atsawn-wood and quartersawn-wood). The wood drying quality on the basis of European and Chilean standards is evaluated.

Metacognition---thinking about thinking---is an abstract concept which makes it difficult to teach and assess. This study sought to address this problem by using students' reflective journal writing to describe student metacognition within the context of their normal classroom interactions. The study began by giving the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory to a class of twelfth grade English Language Arts students (N=16). After administering the inventory, the selected classroom was observed on eleven occasions over the course of eight weeks. During this observation period, the journal entries of the sample were collected and analyzed for their metacognitive properties. The participating teacher and a sub-set of students from the sample (n=6) were interviewed at the conclusion of the observation period. ^ On the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, a self-reported measure of students' metacognitive abilities, more students' (75%) MAI scaled scores fell into the low range than the high, suggesting a generally low self-concept of their metacognitive ability. ^ The coding of students' journal entries revealed a matrix of different levels (i.e., no, low, medium, and high) and types of metacognition (i.e. content, strategy, learnings). Analysis of student responses in relationship to the journal prompt also showed that most journal entries were direct responses to the prompt (69.92%). Direct responses to the prompt also resulted in the most instances of 'high' metacognition (22.96%). Chi square tests (χ 2=52.705) (8, N=675, p=.000) also established a statistical difference in the type of responses to the prompt and the level of metacognition of the responses. ^ The participating teacher's interview revealed that she had metacognitive goals, but viewed students' journals as an assignment worth the exercise and not necessarily one in which she was monitoring their thoughts. Interviews with the students (n=6) exposed their propensity to be externally motivated to do what the teacher asked of them. Their interviews also showed how students see some benefits from journaling, but generally feel that journaling is not necessary for them to think and reflect.

This article gets into my "Music Technique" (as described in previous Academia papers) and adds many sample student writings. At the time, I asked students to write "short," like a line or two for their "contemplation." As brief as the writings were, they said a lot in regard to self-expression and the students' lives/experiences. Also included in the piece are the following: (1) Basic discussion questions to analyze the contemplation writings, (2) Self-evaluation of their experiences via "The Student Contemplation Questionnaire" (series of 12 questions), (3) Sample themes for creative writing/poetry/prose culled from their contemplations, (4) Conclusion that "music has healing powers," and (5) Music puts kids in the present moment, grounds them, allows venting of feelings and thoughts, (6) Music creates positive changes in EI/SEL, and (7) Music leads to poetry writing and reading. In addition, there are added resources at the end of the article.

The  paper  focuses  on  writing  as  cultural  practice  relying  on  the  study  of  the  diaries  of  the  Hungarian  Baroness  Jozefa  Wesselényi.  By  examining  her  journals,  it  attempts  to  clarify  the  process  by  which  manuscript  culture  shaped  and  influenced the Baroness’s writing habits. For despite the fact that print lost most of  its  “stigma”  and  women  entered  the  literary  marketplace,  manuscript  cultures  continued  to  thrive  in  the  form  of  diary  and  letter  writing  during  the  nineteenth  century.  Baroness  Jozefa  Wesselényi  wrote  extensively  throughout  her  life.  She  commenced  her  diary  in  1848,  and  continued  to  write  it  until  the  end  of  her  life  in  1899.  In  addition  to  the  journal  begun  in  1848,  she  started  another  diary  in  December 1881. The latter became a more personal account of family events and domestic matters, while the former remained a rather objective narrative of social and  political  affairs  of  the  time.  In  addition  to  her  diaries,  Jozefa  Wesselényi  also  wrote  her  memoirs  of  the  Revolution  and  War  of  Independence  of  1848–1849  in  1857.  Her  manuscripts,  mostly  unpublished  items,  were  preserved  by  her  family,  and  later  donated  to  public  archives.  By  examining  her  diaries  in  the  context  of  a  thriving  manuscript  culture,  the  paper  reveals  that  they  were  intended  for  circulation  inside  the  immediate  family  circle,  and  designed  specifically  for  entertainment  and  instruction  of  family  members.  Baroness  Jozefa  Wesselényi’s  diaries appear to have been her legacy to her children and grandchildren, and also attest  that  women’s  writing  played  a  crucial  role  in  shaping  the  family  history  of  the nobility during the nineteenth century.

Reseña del tercer volumen de los 'Diarios' de Iñaki Uriarte para el segundo tomo de 2015 de la revista literaria española 'Voz y Letra'.

Review of the third volume of Iñaki Uriarte's 'Diaries' for the second tome of 2015 of Spanish literary journal 'Voz y Letra' [Voice and Letter].

Aprila 2005. godine, Semir Osmanagić objavio je svetu da brdo Visočica na teritoriji Federacije BiH, kod gradića Visoko blizu Sarajeva, nije brdo nego je paleolitska piramida koju su napravili ljudi. Naime, kako je tada objasnio, dolina ispod Visočice je arheološki predeo bogat megalitskim piramidama, drevnim kamenolomima, misterioznim kamenim kuglama i lavirintima podzemnih tunela, a što je najbitnije, u toj dolini se nalazi najveća i najstarija piramida na svetu stvorena ljudskom rukom, stara je oko 30.000 godina.

Peau d’Âme has often been regarded as an enigmatic and mysterious text. This prevented it receiving extensive attention and interpretation since its posthumous publication in 1935. By putting the focus on Pozzi’s Journal, particularly during the years 1920 and 1921, we are able to discover a significant intertextuality between the two. Catherine Pozzi’s perception of space in her every-day writing does not differ from her philosophical work, since for her the concepts of center and periphery do not form a strict dichotomy. It becomes superfluous in a world without limits. The perception and philosophy of Catherine Pozzi tends to go beyond the boundaries of space which allows us, as readers of these two forms of writing, to comprehend her vision of a spatial and temporal eternity.

Klimatske promene utiču i uticaće na nestajanje kulturnog nasleđa u celom svetu. U traganje za rešenjem uključila se i arheologija.
Naučnici predviđaju da će budući arheolozi i geolozi istražujući antropocen, prvo naići na plastiku pa tek onda na ostale tragove današnjeg čoveka. Jer, bez obzira da li je antropocen počeo pre 250 godina sa industrijskom revolucijom ili tek početkom pedesetih prošlog veka sa testiranjem nuklearnog oružja, klimu na planeti Zemlji od tad kreira čovek. Da li je tako samo od antropocena, od "čovekovog doba"?

AIMS: The aim of the study is to understand what patients of breast cancer wish and demand by analyzing autobiographical books (Tobyo-ki).  METHODS: The data was retrieved from 61 books on experience of the disease.  The texts in 646 chapters in the books published in or after 2000 were analyzed. The data analysis was conducted using text mining method. The procedure was as follows: (1) The frequency  of content words in the text was counted. (2) Verbal expressions associated with wish and demand in each book  were extracted. (3) Then the extracted phrased were searched and closely examined.  RESULTS: The results of the data showed that, among 1177818  words in 646 chapters, the most frequent words were “think (9672 times)”, “talk (9641)”, “person (6368)”, “cancer (5261)”, and “good (5033)”.  The most frequent expressions of wish were “to get treatment (17)” ,  “to listen (17)” , “to go to toilet (15)”,  “to give birth (14)” , “to go back home (13)”, and “to make people no worry (13).”  The expressions of demand appeared frequently mostly were “to get medical examination  (9)”, “to be listened (9)” , “to have somebody near me (8)”,  “to go to another hospital  (8)” , “to read a book  (7)”, and “to be listened by somebody (6).” CONCLUSIONS: The main topics of the narratives related to wish were good medical treatment including attentive listening,  female life events, and human relationship,  which reflect the patients’ physical, psychological, social and spiritual well being.  Their demands include professional and nonprofessional attention and caring for their own unique wellbeing. The study suggests that medical professionals must listen to the narrative of patients and their family members for the better treatment not only from physical and medical perspective (inochi),  but also from comfortable daily life (kurashi), and lifelong wellness (jinsei).

The epistemology and phenomenology of contemporary society tend to be deepened, and the philosophical
challenges never are minimal that we may be called to face with the kind of post-modern chaos from the rapidly changing
phenomena of the global community. The ballast held on the identity of faculty members as a teacher and researcher now turns due so as to be recast with our intrinsic of routine performance. I considered their quality as bent on the intellectual strife on the method and the kind of attitude, say, evaluation and consultation. In this paper, the authors have presented some thought and implications that triangulated the triad, i.e., research methodology, program evaluation and consulting illustration on the college research program rankings. The author is hoped that the discourse can help the academicians to share the attribute of different methods as well as the dimension of evaluation and consulting, perhaps essentially related with their work role in terms of teaching and researching.

This chapter addresses the literacy practices, the sociolinguistic skills and the perceptions of the temporary migration of trainee teachers in an Erasmus+ exchange programme. The aim of this study is threefold. First, it intends to analyse how L2 written language is self-reported before and after students’ practicum abroad. Second, it investigates what importance students give to their L2 literacy development and professional learning experience in their practicum portfolio. Third, it explores whether the participants’ personality traits are reflected in their journal writing, seen as literacy events during their stay abroad. The method adopted is a convergent parallel mixed one, which collects and merges qualitative data—the practicum portfolios—and quantitative data—the participants’ scores in grammar and vocabulary tests, self-reported writing tests and personality and emotional intelligence questionnaires.

Comprehension plays a big role in understanding math and by using reflective journals, students can put their thoughts into writing and think critically. This study aimed to identify the student's perception of the use of dialogue Mathematics journal concerning their critical thinking skills. The study used descriptive and correlational methods in conducting the study which allowed the researcher to relate the students' perception of the use and utilization of the dialogue Mathematics journal to their critical thinking skills. A total of 250 students who took the modular distance learning modality this school year 2020-2021, were exposed to the process of using dialogue journal, after which were trimmed down by randomly selecting 30 participants to answer the survey and the critical thinking assessment. The use of descriptive analysis on the students' perception of the level of satisfaction in using the journal resulted from a satisfactory level under the phases of refle...

This article appeared in a local Queens newspaper, THE BAYSIDE TIMES. It describes how and why I used popular music, contemplation, writing, and discussion to change my students' lives and the whole classroom atmosphere.

With the accumulation of positive, cerebral changes in the children, where their listening, thinking, and visualizing skills improve, the class's overall ability to learn as a group will change for the better.

When teachers focus on concentration, contemplation, reflection, thinking, metacognitive, and visualization skills--as a subject--it works to improve the child as a student and a person. Contemplation Music Writing is about the whole person and that helps the child and class grow much faster than teaching the "subjects" and looking for these skills within each one.

Skills learning, in my opinion and experience, is a separate subject just like reading and math. As children become more self-aware and self-motivated, the basic subjects can be taught and learned at optimal levels.

This paper presents an engaging alternative for journal writing in the ESL classroom where students are reluctant to simply respond to prompts.  Daily electronic servings of stories provide multiple opportunities to read and respond to texts students can connect to and later discuss in the classroom where their own stories come to life allowing for more discussions.