Bhutan Journal of Research and Development

College Students’ Attitudes Towards Reading Dzongkha and Its Implications on Bhutan

Chencho Wangchuk — 2023-06-11

This study examined college students’ attitudes towards reading Dzongkha and the possible implications of the preferential choice of either English or Dzongkha as a language for reading may have on Bhutan. Using mixed-methods triangulation, the study examined college students’ attitudes toward reading Dzongkha. Data obtained from three data sources were merged and triangulated. Although the respondents showed a positive attitude towards reading Dzongkha, the majority of them, however, preferred English as a language for reading, which is deeply concerning for Bhutan. Based on the findings, the researchers have provided three recommendations, with the first being introducing additional but relevant Dzongkha modules for students pursuing higher degrees in English-medium colleges. Others include instituting mandatory DSTS test results for all opportunities and establishing Dzongkha medium preschools for preschoolers.

Assessing the Efficacy of Group Work Using a Group Work Assessment Framework

Karma Utha — 2023-06-11

Group work as a learning activity in education is to enhance students’ content knowledge and develop social skills. The minimal individual and group accountability has often led to only a few students working towards achieving the group goals. Research has suggested taking care of the task design and assessment to achieve the efficacy of group work. Towards this, a Group Work Assessment Framework (GAF) is proposed. The GAF consists of a detailed roadmap of planning, implementation, and assessment taking into account the task design and assessment with specific guidelines for teachers and students. A participatory design to develop and implement the GAF was applied. Six tutors as designers and 11 tutors as implementors were involved. A total of 221 students and 8 tutors participated in the survey and interviews. The findings indicate that GAF enhanced individual and group accountability. The assessment of the group work was found to be fair as each student was marked based on his/her contribution and collaboration using evidence like meeting minutes, meeting attendance, recording, and student consultation. The study findings may provide an empirical base for policy directives to implement GAF in higher education to enhance students’ learning and develop social skills. A study may be carried out after a few cycles of implementation for any revision in the GAF.

Cause and Effect: A Study on the Concept of Karma in the Buddhist Tradition

Dorji Phuntsho — 2023-06-11

The most fundamental aspect of the Buddhist tradition is the concept of Karma. Karma is the basis of Buddhist ethics and principles that maintain that the entire universe is bound to a similar law. Our actions will decide what will happen to us, for we caused it. The current state of our existence is with our past Karma, and the present action will determine our future condition of existence. Karma is a special instance of cause and effect, according to which all our actions of body, speech, and mind are causes and all our experiences are their effects. The Law of Karma explains why each individual has a unique mental disposition, a unique physical appearance, and unique experiences. These are the various effects of the countless actions that each individual has performed in the past. We cannot find any two people who have created the same history of actions throughout their past lives. So we cannot find two people with identical states of mind, identical experiences, and identical physical appearances. Therefore, each person has different individual Karma, and each individual has to face the action of one's own Karma. Thus, the significance of this study is to determine the true concept of karma and its implication beyond our life in the Buddhist tradition.

Portrayal of Gender in the Play: The Merchant of Venice and its Effects on Students’ Perceptions of Gender Roles

Kalpana Sharma — 2023-06-11

The study on 'The portrayal of gender in The Merchant of Venice and its effects on students' perceptions of gender roles' was carried out with the aim to understand how the play influenced students' opinions about gender roles. Although there is numerous research that has investigated gender stereotypes in the play, there is limited research done on the effect of the play on students. Adopting the constructivist paradigm, the data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 12 students and four teachers. According to the study, the play contains a significant amount of gender stereotypes that have both positive and negative effects on students' perceptions of gender roles. While the students learn about the ill effects of gender disparity and the role of women, they shared their discontentment about the portrayal of women as a weaker gender resulting in male students denying to take up the roles of female characters. The study confirms that teachers have a significant role to instill a sense of gender equality among the students, thus recommending that teachers employ a variety of activities in the class while teaching the play to enhance the perception of gender equality.

Understanding the Relationship between Grade X Students’ Metacognitive Skills and Mathematics Performance: A Correlational Study.

Nima Dorji — 2023-06-11

Although it has always been a required core subject in Bhutanese schools, underachievement in mathematics regularly shows that the requirement has very little impact on students. This study aims to examine the relationship between mathematics performance and metacognitive skills in grade X students. This study used 347 grade X students (M = 162, F = 185) from one of the schools in Sarpang Dzongkhag and a correlational survey design. The level of students' metacognitive skills was evaluated using the modified Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), whilst their mathematics performance was evaluated using the Mathematics Performance Test (MPT). Students in grade X were found to have high level of metacognitive skills (M= 3.54, SD=.42). While the correlational analysis showed a weak but significant positive correlation (r =.133, p ≤ .05) between students' metacognitive skills and mathematics performance. The outcome also showed that students' metacognitive skills are a statistically significant predictor of their mathematics performance. The findings of the study indicated that metacognition be taken into account to aid students' learning of mathematics.

Feedback-induced Improvement in the Learning of Anatomy and Physiology-specific Terminology among Tenth Grade High School Students

Pelden Nima — 2023-06-11

Feedback is perceived as one of the influential educational factors and drivers of students learning. Hence, the present study examined the effect of administering feedback on improving the acquisition of anatomy and physiology-specific terminologies among tenth grade high school students. Participants were randomly divided into three groups: a control group (n = 29), instructive feedback (IF) group (n = 29) and written feedback (WF) group (n = 29). A post-test was administered to determine if feedback had significant effect on the two treatment groups. A Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences among all the groups. Therefore, to compare the mean difference between the groups, a post hoc analysis, Dunn’s test, was performed. The result indicated significant difference between control versus (vs) IF, control vs WF and IF vs WF, respectively. Similarly, the results of feedback administration on specific anatomy and physiology-specific chapters showed that groups subjected to feedback intervention was statistically significant compared to control group. While there was no significant effect of feedback on gender in IF group, we found that written feedback had significant effect on gender in WF group. Taken together, the present results suggest that administering feedback significantly enhanced learning of anatomy and physiology-specific terminologies. Accordingly, we recommend teachers to provide written feedback as it allows learners ample time for review and maximize its impact.