Browsing by Author "Calonge, David Santandreu"
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Item Costs and benefits of private tutoring programs: the South Korean case(Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., 2021) Hultberg, Patrik T.; Calonge, David Santandreu; Choi, TyPurpose: The purpose of the study is twofold: to offer a theoretical model that illuminates families' motivation to invest in private tutoring and to consider the implications of such investments in the context of South Korea. Given that parents invest in private tutoring for their child if the perceived expected benefits, at the time of enrollment, are greater than the direct and indirect costs of such tutoring, the study explores how private tutoring may affect educational inequities and possibly lead to inferior social outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: A theoretical model based on the human capital approach was developed. Three questions based on stylized facts were addressed: (1) Why would a household send a child to private tutoring? (2) Why do different households invest in different amounts of private tutoring? (3) Why may a household over-invest in private tutoring? Findings: The findings of this study indicate that the demand for private tutoring services decreases with the costs of private tutoring, while increasing as levels of academic readiness and aptitude, levels of household education, levels of current wealth and expected returns to private tutoring increase. These findings imply that private tutoring may exacerbate social inequities and cause an inferior social outcome, but that a government can influence the demand for tutoring through taxation. Research limitations/implications: This study did not address the non-pecuniary benefits that may be derived from private tutoring. The most important limitation and potential source of weakness of the study is that the model is theoretical. These results therefore need to be interpreted with caution. Practical implications: The study indicates the need for private households, as well as government officials, to carefully consider the costs and benefits of private tutoring in South Korea. Although the study focuses on South Korea, the findings may apply to other countries in which private tutoring offerings are prominent. Social implications: The educational choices that families make for their children have important financial and social implications in all countries, but especially in South Korea. The important implication is that private tutoring will tend to aggravate educational and social inequality. Originality/value: The existing body of research on private tutoring investment in South Korea suggests that the phenomenon is ubiquitous, growing and spreading to other countries. Furthermore, the motivation behind households' decisions to invest in private tutoring for their children is not always addressed in the published literature. Also, far too little attention has been paid to the economic impact private tutoring has on households and children, as well as society in general. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Education policy in South Korea : a contemporary model of human capital accumulation?(Cogent OA, 2017) Hultberg, Patrik; Calonge, David Santandreu; Kim, Seong-HeeWe argue that South Korean families with children are today overinvesting in the level of education due to their high levels of expenditures on private after-school tutoring programs. This situation has evolved due to a combination of factors: a changing labor market, increasing housing and debt payments, as well as an educational “arms race” among Korean families with children. These changes are exacerbating both economic and social issues in Korean society, but are increasingly difficult to address due to issues of complementarity and coordination failures related to educational expenditures. Korea might be inexorably falling into a surprising “education trap.”. © 2017 The Author(s).Item Enough of the chit-chat: A comparative analysis of four AI chatbots for calculus and statistics(Kaplan Singapore, 2023-06-29) Calonge, David Santandreu; Smail, Linda; Kamalov, FiruzThis article presents a comparative analysis of four AI chatbots with potential utilization in the fields of mathematics education and statistics, namely ChatGPT, GPT-4, Bard, and LLaMA. Our objective is to evaluate and compare the features, functionalities, and potential applications of these platforms within the domains of calculus and statistics. By examining their strengths and limitations, this study aims to provide insights into the selection and implementation of AI chatbots in calculus and statistics to enhance student learning. The results of the comparative analysis reveal that, while not perfect, GPT-4 outperforms ChatGPT, Bard, and LLaMA as a learning tool in calculus and statistics. Findings also reveal that chatbots may have a positive transformational impact on higher education. © 2023 David Santandreu Calonge, Linda Smail and Firuz Kamalov..Item Frugal MOOCs: An adaptable contextualized approach to MOOC designs for refugees(Athabasca University, 2019-12) Shah, Mariam Aman; Calonge, David SantandreuThere is a growing body of literature that recognizes the role Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can play in improving access to education globally, and particularly to thousands of people in developing and developed countries. There is increasing concern, however, that the millions of displaced refugee learners throughout Europe, the Middle East, and other regions are still disadvantaged when it comes to engaging in learning through MOOCs. The reasons for this disadvantage range from a lack of appropriate infrastructure or other supporting structures, to a lack of contextualized content. So far, little attention has been paid to contextualized MOOC models, which may both impact policies and be adapted to the specific needs of these learners who often do not have the means to access many education opportunities. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a frugally-engineered MOOC model that addresses the barriers of access and participation for refugees. This paper engages in an exploratory research methodology, using findings from the literature and expert opinions gathered through interviews. These findings lead to the development of what the authors call a Frugal MOOC Model which can be contextualized to meet the needs of refugee learners. The paper goes on to highlight the development of the Frugal MOOC Model as the first phase of an ongoing study. It concludes with recommendations for the next phase of the study: how to implement the newly developed model. © Athabasca University.Item Machine learning based approach to exam cheating detection(Public Library of Science, 2021-08) Kamalov, Firuz; Sulieman, Hana; Calonge, David SantandreuThe COVID-19 pandemic has impelled the majority of schools and universities around the world to switch to remote teaching. One of the greatest challenges in online education is preserving the academic integrity of student assessments. The lack of direct supervision by instructors during final examinations poses a significant risk of academic misconduct. In this paper, we propose a new approach to detecting potential cases of cheating on the final exam using machine learning techniques. We treat the issue of identifying the potential cases of cheating as an outlier detection problem. We use students’ continuous assessment results to identify abnormal scores on the final exam. However, unlike a standard outlier detection task in machine learning, the student assessment data requires us to consider its sequential nature. We address this issue by applying recurrent neural networks together with anomaly detection algorithms. Numerical experiments on a range of datasets show that the proposed method achieves a remarkably high level of accuracy in detecting cases of cheating on the exam. We believe that the proposed method would be an effective tool for academics and administrators interested in preserving the academic integrity of course assessments. Copyright: © 2021 Kamalov et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Item Optimal levels of private tutoring investment in South Korea(Inderscience Publishers, 2021) Hultberg, Patrik T.; Calonge, David Santandreu; Choi, TyDuring the past several decades, South Korea has transformed itself into an international educational powerhouse. The rapid economic and social achievements have largely been attributed to intentional government-regulated education plans and policies. However, since the 1960s, a powerful parallel for-profit private tutoring sector (hagwons) has emerged with significant effect on families. The main aim of this study is twofold: to model how Korean households decide on the level of investment in private tutoring and to explore whether the current amounts of such investment seem optimal across various income levels, an issue which, to date, has received scant attention in the research literature. This exploratory investigation takes the form of a two-period life-cycle model that provides a framework in which to discuss household private tutoring investment decisions. © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Item Public hospitals’ risk communication strategies during COVID-19: The case of Spain(Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2021) Aguerrebere, Pablo Medina; Calonge, David Santandreu; Hultberg, Patrik; Shah, Mariam Aman; Connor, MelissaItem Should I stay or should I go? International students’ challenges and opportunities to secure employment in their host country after graduation. A scoping review using PRISMA(Kaplan Singapore, 2023-06-29) Calonge, David Santandreu; Shah, Mariam Aman; Aguerrebere, Pablo Medina; Abdulla, Nadia; Connor, Melissa; Badr, Mira; Blakemore, EmmaThe opportunity to find employment is often a key push factor for students to study abroad. However, previous research has established that international graduates often face difficulties in securing employment in their host country and have a lower employment rate compared to local graduates. Although some research has been conducted on this topic in the Australian context, to date, the problem has been under-researched elsewhere. The aim of this scoping review of the literature is to address this gap and examine the challenges faced by international students when seeking employment in their host countries after graduation, as well as the potential opportunities offered to them. 18 articles were identified and were included in the review. Content analysis of the data was undertaken using NVivo 12.0. © 2023. David Santandreu Calonge, Mariam Aman Shah, Pablo Medina Aguerrebere, Nadia Abdulla, Melissa Connor, Mira Badr and Emma Blakemore.Item The social effects of higher education policy in South Korea : the rise of the "pig Mum" phenomenon(2019) Lee, Eugene; Calonge, David Santandreu; Hultberg, PatrikThe contemporary educational system in South Korea is built on high-stakes standardised tests, a manifestation of the national project of social reconstruction and reform. One recent outcome is the emergence of an unfamiliar yet ubiquitous phenomenon: the "pig mum"; a Korean parent who is fully involved in organising, scheduling and managing the educational process from primary to secondary school for a group of children in a neighbourhood. Based on a quasimixed method utilizing a survey of a group of students and parents, this pilot study explores the "pig mum" phenomenon and its linkage to education policy. The authors conclude that the current educational policy fails to achieve the ideals it professes to value. This creates deep and negative societal norms that endanger a growing generation of students by creating a parallel private education market environment where "pig mums" thrive. © 2019 World Association for Triple helix and Future strategy studies. All rights reserved.