Encouraging Student Participation Research Articles

Predictive Characteristics of Adequate Employment in Baccalaureate-Prepared Graduates

Underemployment, which occurs when baccalaureate degree holders are employed in occupations that do not require or fully use a college-level degree (Lederman, 2018), challenges the notion that a college degree alone adequately prepares a student for a satisfactory level of employment based on education level. During 2018 and 2019, the higher-ed capstone team conducted this study to identify predictive characteristics of underemployment among undergraduate alumni from a large, public, urban, Tier-1 research university. Although identifying underemployment characteristics was the primary impetus for the research, the team instead discovered three primary predictors of adequate employment from the analysis. Higher education institutions and policy leaders may be able to better ensure students gain employment, particularly during challenging economic times, by encouraging student participation in internships, extracurricular activities, and the selection of STEM majors.

Using vignettes to investigate mathematics teachers’ beliefs for promoting cognitive engagement in secondary mathematics classroom practice

Promoting engagement is crucial for encouraging student participation, interest, and learning in mathematics. Student engagement has been conceptualized as interrelated types comprising behavioural, emotional, and cognitive characteristics. Cognitive engagement, our focus in this paper, relates to students’ psychological investment in learning and practices used to enhance learning, such as self-regulatory strategies and metacognitive processes. Although crucial for students’ learning, research suggests that teachers’ practices for promoting students’ cognitive engagement are not well understood. In this qualitative study, we investigated the beliefs of 40 secondary mathematics teachers across eight English schools concerning promoting cognitive engagement in mathematics classrooms, and whether teachers with different cognitive engagement beliefs differ in the features of classroom practice they attend to in relation to promoting student self-regulation and metacognition. We developed a Cognitive Engagement Framework (CEF) for the following purposes: (1) to develop vignettes that described the practices of two contrasting teachers (Teacher A and Teacher B), who differed in their use of specific self-regulation and metacognitive processes; and (2) to use as a tool for analysis. 17 participants identified with Teacher A who favoured a controlling style towards student strategy use such as activating knowledge, planning, and enacting and regulating strategies, and a passive approach towards students’ use of self-reflection. 14 participants identified with Teacher B who favoured promoting student autonomy for planning and enacting and regulating strategies, self-reflection, and acknowledged affective elements. In addition to its findings, the paper makes a methodological contribution by using ‘vignettes’ as a new way of investigating teachers’ beliefs, and a theoretical contribution through the development of the CEF.

Analysis of English Education Classroom Student Interaction and Performance Based on Virtual Reality

In order to improve the interaction of students in English teaching and improve the effect of English teaching, this paper combines virtual reality algorithms to construct an interactive virtual space for English teaching. Furthermore, this article advances the virtual reality method from a physics standpoint and uses the Fourier transform to superimpose the cross-correlation function in the frequency domain. At the same time, this study uses the Fourier transform to convert the overlaid result into a cross-correlation function in the time domain, eliminating the noise of virtual reality algorithms, improving immersion in the virtual environment of English instruction, and encouraging student participation. In addition, on the basis of virtual reality analysis, this paper constructs an English virtual reality education platform. Finally, after the platform is built, the effect is verified through experimental teaching methods. The experimental teaching shows that the English education classroom student interaction and performance analysis system based on virtual reality proposed in this paper has certain advantages over traditional algorithms.

Exclusionary discipline practices and their relation to Chilean students' perception of school climate practices.

One of the challenges of school climate policies has been to promote dialogical conflict resolution by reducing punitive practices and encouraging student participation. However, exclusionary punitive practices are still being used, and in Chile, they are considered acceptable forms of conflict resolution. In this study, we analyzed the association between students' reports of punitive and democratic school climate in a sample of 2459 eighth graders (mean age = 13.56, SD = 0.84) from 128 Chilean schools. Multilevel analyses showed that a higher perception of punitive practices and higher academic performance were associated with a higher perception of an inclusive, democratic, and peaceful school climate. The perception of a higher school-level frequency of punishment was associated with a higher perception of an inclusive and democratic school climate. We discuss the implications of these findings for an authoritarian school culture.

Secondary school teachers’ learning: environments, specificities and considerations for educational practice

This article is based on the research project APREN-DO aimed at exploring how secondary school teachers learn. Using an inclusive research approach and visual and narrative methods, we conducted the study with teachers rather than focusing on teachers. Twenty-eight secondary school teachers in the province of Barcelona (Spain) created their learning cartographies, showing what, how, where, with whom, and with what they learn. They then narrated their cartographies and discussed the notions of learning and educational practice in the 21st century. This paper summarizes the results and conclusions about teachers’ learning environments, specificities and considerations regarding their learning, and their thoughts about educational practices. Finally, we present and discuss teachers’ reflections and proposals for redesigning educational practice taking into account the need to contemplate the different literacies and competences that exist in today’s society, encouraging student participation based on their interests and particularities, providing a space for affections and emotions, and prioritizing the personalization of students’ learning and the skill of learning to learn.

Teaching Human-Computer Interaction Modules—And Then Came COVID-19

In teaching Human-Computer Interaction at university level, it has always been beneficial to explain the related theory and engage students in a practical way, whether individually or in groups. And then came COVID-19. Face-to-face classes were replaced by emergency remote teaching methods. Students became student numbers in cyber space. The danger became real to convert back to the traditional way of presenting lectures, namely a lecturer doing all the talking and the students being the passive audience. This paper describes how the author had to adapt and innovate in terms of teaching Human-Computer Interaction modules to university students in a practical way during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frequent online quizzes, audio messages, online group discussion, smaller topic-dedicated practical activities, and webinars encouraging student participation, were employed. Instead of having access to eye-tracking technology in a usability laboratory, students had to innovate for usability evaluation assignments by employing observation, think-aloud protocols, and performance and self-reported metrics as data gathering methods. The laboratory had to be replaced by COVID-compliant places of residence. The outcomes of adapting previously-used teaching methods and inventing new ways to encourage student participation, were surprisingly positive. An additional advantage was that many of these methods turned out to be so successful that their application could be continued and extended to post-pandemic times for a blended learning approach to further enrich Human-Computer Interaction teaching.

The Interplay between Career Decision Making Efficacy, Career Exposure and Career Choice of Undergraduates: Does Gender Matters?

Lack of career exposure and rightful decision-making among university students has led to failure and inability to make a satisfying career choice. This lack of exposure emanates as a result poor supervision of programs which includes career education initiatives, workshops, seminars and internship programs which develops career self-efficacy among both of the genders. The aim of this study was to examine whether gender moderated the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy, career exposure and career choice of Malaysian undergraduates. This study has employed a cross-sectional survey which involves a sample of 131 final-year students from eight faculties in a selected Malaysian public research university. The outcome of this study has demonstrated that there was a positive and moderate relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career choice (r=0.452; p<0.001). The findings further indicate a positive and strong relationship between career exposure and career choice (r=0.745; p<0.001). But gender did not moderate the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career choice; neither did it moderate the relationship between career exposure and career choice. The implications of this study are that, both the colleges and faculties should offer a helping hand in encouraging student participation in activities such as organizing competition and designing programs that suit students’ needs and challenges. It is recommended for universities in Malaysia to initiate a career counseling unit in all the universities and regenerate the existing ones, as that will facilitate lingering issues relating to career choice, career exposure and career decision making efficacy.

Evaluation of Student Learning Outcomes in Problem-Based Learning: Study of Its Implementation and Reflection of Successful Factors

Behind the successful of teaching using the problem-based learning (PBL) model, -in our best knowledge- it seems that the factors that make its implementation successful in the classroom have not been mentioned, this is related to the purpose of improving student learning outcomes. For this reason, the study of the implementation of the PBL model needs to be explored further. Specifically, the aim of our current study is to evaluate student learning outcomes in implementing the PBL model and reflecting on the learning process using this model. This study is a Classroom Action Research (CAR), which is an examination of activities or actions that are intentionally conducted in a teaching. In the context of this study, the observation is carried out by evaluating student learning outcomes, while the activity or action that is carried out is Problem-Based Learning (PBL) which is carried out in two learning cycles. The subjects for implementing the PBL model were 21 students in an Islamic school (MTs NW - equivalent to Junior High School) in Central Lombok, Indonesia. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyze student learning outcomes and the learning process using the PBL model. The results of the study showed that there was an increase in student learning outcomes from the first cycle to the second cycle. Individual and classical completeness has been achieved in accordance with predetermined criteria. Finally, we recommend the use of the PBL model for the purpose of improving student learning outcomes. In the PBL model, the role of motivation, cues, encouraging active student participation, and the use of scaffolding are important aspects in the successful implementation of the PBL model

Science of Climate Change in Agricultural Courses

Climate change adaptation is required knowledge for students and graduates from colleges of agriculture since recent crop production and food security are influenced by climate change. Thus, understanding the dynamics of climate change is important to support farmers to adapt to future conditions. However, not all students and graduates understand the concept and application of climate change with regard to the dynamics of food production and future food security. While agriculture faces the challenge of climate change adaptation, agricultural courses have not kept pace by incorporating climate change science into the curricula. To address this issue, eleven syllabi in selected agricultural courses from 100 to 700 levels were reviewed in the year of 2018 and 2019 to observe the integration of climate change science into the syllabi. The results suggest that educators, instructors or course designers should consider the following before creating the courses: (1) the specific interests and needs of students; (2) linking global climate change to local problem in agriculture, (3) applying lessons across disciplines, and (4) encouraging active student participation. In addition, the syllabi should meet the needs of a specific course level, such as the topical interests and learning needs with lesson updates on a regular basis. By applying these components to future syllabi, the integration of climate change science into agricultural courses will better facilitate climate change adaptation concepts, curricula and applications for all students, graduates and crop producers.

Encouraging student participation in mathematical activities in synchronous online tuition

ABSTRACT Active learning in mathematics can lead to deeper understanding than passively listening to a lecture, yet recent studies indicate that didactic teaching dominates online tutorials. This study investigated student participation in three types of activity: solving mathematical problems via polling, on-screen activities on a shared whiteboard and text-chat, during online undergraduate mathematics tutorials. Data were collected from tutorial observations, student and tutor surveys, semi-structured student interviews and a tutor focus group. Results showed high student participation in all types of activity. Students also perceived them as enjoyable and aiding their learning, though with some differences between the types of activity such as those done by text-chat being slightly less well received. Perceived benefits to students’ learning included the ability to attempt similar activities, with suggested benefits such as correcting misconceptions receiving a more mixed response. By demonstrating the successful use of mathematical activities in synchronous online tuition, these results provide motivation for tutors to facilitate essential active learning online.

It’s time to (climate) change the way we teach

This article outlines pedagogical practices and methodologies for increasing student engagement in the classroom and in the broader community on the topic of climate change. The emphases are placed on (1) preliminary assessments of student understanding and emotional responses to the topic of climate change, (2) assignments that enable student groups to assess and increase campus-wide awareness of various aspects of climate change, and (3) public engagement and service-learning opportunities that allow students to expand their impact beyond the local campus and into their broader community. These practices have proven effective, for large format lecture courses as well as smaller seminar-style courses, in encouraging student participation, overcoming apathy and motivating student effort and action far beyond what can be stimulated by traditional classroom assignments and assessments.

1125. Innovative Virtual Learning in the Midst of a Pandemic - Patients, Populations, and Pandemics: Responding to COVID-19

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has posed a unique challenge to undergraduate medical education. Medical schools postponed student participation in direct patient care in mid-March 2020, creating the need for rapidly-designed, virtual, and innovative learning experiences.MethodsUtilizing Kern’s six-step approach to curriculum development, faculty and medical student liaisons rapidly designed a six-week online and interactive course for clerkship-year students and above, launched on March 30th, 2020. “Patients, Populations, and Pandemics: Responding to COVID-19” emphasized honing higher level skills of Bloom’s taxonomy, namely evaluating, synthesizing, and creating. Following weekly faculty-led lectures, student groups identified research questions, analyzed literature, presented data, critiqued peer presentations, and created infographics for the public.FigureGraphic Representation of Course Design: Lecture, Small Group Meetings, Student Presentations, and Infographic Creation.ResultsWe aimed to maintain quality and interactiveness despite challenges posed by our timeframe, the evolving COVID-19 literature, and the virtual setting. We recruited frontline faculty and designed the course to facilitate discussion, thereby promoting real-time exploration of public health and clinical challenges. Encouraging student participation, we incorporated group synthesis sessions and instructed use of video, hand-raising, and chat features. In a survey administered at the end of the first week, 85.7% (18/21) of students strongly agreed or agreed that small group presentations successfully enabled synthesis of new and emerging data. Among the 29 enrolled students, 82.8% (24/29) of students completed final course evaluations, with 87.5% (21/24) agreeing that the learning activities “usually” or “always” helped meet the learning objectives identified at the beginning of the course. The course was rated as “excellent” or “very good” by 83.3% (20/24) of students.ConclusionLessons learned include providing students with increased direction on critically reviewing peer presentations and imparting guidance on best practices for data synthesis. This course model will be disseminated throughout our institution and beyond to address challenges in remote learning and to serve as a paradigm during future health crises.Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

Lessons learnt from the field: a qualitative evaluation of adolescent experiences of a universal mental health education program.

teen Mental Health First Aid (teenMHFA) is a school-based mental health program that trains adolescents to support peers who are experiencing mental health problems or crises. The program has been evaluated for adolescents aged 15-18 years as part of a randomized controlled trial, however qualitative feedback from students on their perceptions of the program is yet to be explored. The current study describes the perspectives of students who took part in the trial. Feedback on the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the program was provided by 979 Year 10 students (M = 15.82 years, female = 43.94%, English as a first language = 72.77%) at four government funded public schools in Melbourne, Australia via online surveys. A content and thematic analysis was performed on the data using a six-step process. Students generally found the program relevant and they connected with the visual material, personal stories and interactive activities. Suggestions for improvements included encouraging active student participation in classroom discussion and providing opportunities to practice skills. School-based mental health education can benefit from input from stakeholder perspectives, particularly when designing mental health content for delivery by external trainers.

Mathematical resilience and mathematical problem-solving ability in Junior High School

In the process of mathematics learning, every student has different characteristics and attitudes to face adversity that called mathematical resilience. Mathematical resilience is one of the factors that have a role in supporting student achievement. This study investigated the relationship between mathematical resilience with mathematics problem-solving ability among junior high school students. Participants included 100 students at Sragen Region, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The method was used in this research is the survey method with the correlation and regression technique. Data sources included the questionnaire of mathematical resilience and written test. Findings revealed a significant, positive correlation between mathematical resilience and student’s mathematical problem-solving ability, with a contribution of 16.30% obtained by the regression model Y = 14.355 + 0.302 X .The result indicated that positiveness response to learning mathematics, emotion regulation, curiosity and optimism in mathematical resilience beliefs were associated with mathematical problem-solving ability. Evidence presented to support and contribute to the value of students’ mathematical problem-solving abilities and provides a new approach for encouraging greater student participation and persistence in mathematics.

The Role of District Wellness Policies in Encouraging Student Participation in the School Breakfast Program, United States.

Eating breakfast is associated with better academic performance and nutrition and lower risk of obesity, but skipping breakfast is common among children and adolescents, and participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s School Breakfast Program (SBP) is low. This study assessed the association between school district wellness policy provisions coded as part of the National Wellness Policy Study and student SBP participation and acceptance of the breakfasts provided using cross-sectional survey data from the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study. Separate survey-adjusted multivariable logistic regressions were computed, linking students eating (N = 1575) and liking (N = 726) the school breakfast to corresponding district policy measures, controlling for school and student characteristics. Strong district policy, as opposed to no policy, was associated with significantly higher odds of students eating the school breakfast (odds ratio (OR): 1.86; 95% CI: 1.09, 3.16; p = 0.022), corresponding to an adjusted prevalence of 28.4% versus 19.2%, and liking the school breakfast (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.26, 3.63; p = 0.005), corresponding to an adjusted prevalence of 69.0% versus 53.9%. District policy has the potential to play an important role in encouraging higher levels of SBP participation.

Quality of Feedback in Higher Education: A Review of Literature

In raising the standards for professional educators, higher educators must be prepared to provide the highest quality feedback on student performance and work products toward improved outcomes. This review of the literature examined the major findings of 70 quantitative, mixed methods, or qualitative studies found in higher education journals across a range of disciplines. Multiple recommendations and results for feedback emerged which fall into the categories described by Susan Brookhart. This review found research for each of Brookhart’s categories, with results indicating differences between the perceptions of adherence to sound feedback practices versus the reality of implementation, the potential for innovative tool use, and a disagreement about the effectiveness of peers for providing effective feedback. Indicators for quality within the research confirmed the importance of commonly accepted standards such as positivity, specificity, timeliness, and encouraging active student participation. Additionally, trends and themes indicated a need for the consistent implementation of the feedback exchange process and flexibility to account for student input/preferences. Greater consistency toward the application of these quality indicators should be undertaken when determining the quality of higher education feedback for preservice teachers prior to undertaking summative licensure assessments.

Preface

The 2019 Joint Cryogenic Engineering and International Cryogenic Materials Conferences were held from July 21 through July 25 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. As at past conferences, the international scope of these meetings was strongly maintained with 24 countries being represented by 613 attendees who gathered to enjoy the joint technical programs, industrial exhibits, and special events.The program for the joint conferences included a total of 410 presentations in the plenary, oral, and poster sessions. Four plenary talks gave interesting in-depth overviews and discussions on the topics of the growing field of commercial application of hydrogen fuel-cells for specialized applications and large-scale semi-truck transportation, and recent 5x increase of liquid hydrogen production in the U.S.; Siemens’ perspectives on evolving hybrid-electric propulsion technologies for large commercial aircraft; the world-leading research opportunities with rare isotopes in nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, and the application of rare isotopes for society that the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FIRB) at Michigan State University will soon provide; and the impressive progress designing the next-gen SPARC fusion reactor 1st-ever utilizing 2nd-generation high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) wire. The attendees also convened for two Special Joint CEC-ICMC Symposia on i) Transportation, and ii) Quantum Computing, and seven Special-or-Focus Sessions were included in the programming emphasizing high-quality invited talks. Contributed papers covered a wide range of topics including many aspects in advances in cryogenics and superconductors, along with their applications. Both CEC and ICMC boards are encouraging student participation and career growth and provided registration support for 36 student applicants. In total, 207 papers were submitted for publication of which 190 are published in these conference proceedings.Full Preface information is available in the pdf.

Preface

The 2019 Joint Cryogenic Engineering and International Cryogenic Materials Conferences were held from July 21 through July 25 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. As at past conferences, the international scope of these meetings was strongly maintained with 24 countries being represented by 613 attendees who gathered to enjoy the joint technical programs, industrial exhibits, and special events.The program for the joint conferences included a total of 410 presentations in the plenary, oral, and poster sessions. Four plenary talks gave interesting in-depth overviews and discussions on the topics of the growing field of commercial application of hydrogen fuel-cells for specialized applications and large-scale semi-truck transportation, and recent 5x increase of liquid hydrogen production in the U.S.; Siemens’ perspectives on evolving hybrid-electric propulsion technologies for large commercial aircraft; the world-leading research opportunities with rare isotopes in nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, and the application of rare isotopes for society that the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FIRB) at Michigan State University will soon provide; and the impressive progress designing the nextgen SPARC fusion reactor 1st-ever utilizing 2nd-generation high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) wire. The attendees also convened for two Special Joint CEC-ICMC Symposia on i) Transportation, and ii) Quantum Computing, and seven Special-or-Focus Sessions were included in the programming emphasizing high-quality invited talks. Contributed papers covered a wide range of topics including many aspects in advances in cryogenics and superconductors, along with their applications. Both CEC and ICMC boards are encouraging student participation and career growth and provided registration support for 36 student applicants. In total, 207 papers were submitted for publication of which 190 are published in these conference proceedings.Full Preface information is available in the pdf.

Os Mapas Conceituais e a promoção da participação ativa em sala de aula

Atualmente, no ensino superior, o professor se depara com o desafio de incentivar a participação ativa dos alunos, de modo a promover o aprendizado significativo. Considerando esse contexto, este artigo busca analisar o uso de mapas conceituais como recurso didático para promover a participação ativa dos alunos em aulas expositivas. Para atender este objetivo, analisa-se o uso de mapas conceituais em uma disciplina do curso de Ciência da Computação da Universidade Federal do Pampa. Observando-se a ementa e os objetivos da disciplina chamada “Introdução à ciência e tecnologia”, são apresentadas possibilidades de uso de mapas conceituais em aulas expositivas e em palestras. Com isso, busca-se proporcionar a participação ativa dos alunos, os quais precisam superar a atuação de simples espectadores. Neste estudo, também se pretende verificar se os mapas conceituais podem ser uma ferramenta útil para o professor planejar e apresentar os conteúdos programáticos e objetivos da disciplina. Como resultados, são apresentados alguns mapas conceituais elaborados com base na ementa, objetivos e conteúdo previsto para a disciplina objeto de estudo.

Teacher’s Role in Encouraging Student Participation in Reading Skills

It is a significant truth that acquiring a new language requires mastering in different skills for students in any levels. Comprehension in reading is one of the most important parts for both students and teachers in English Language Teaching. Making them aware of the skills in reading such as skimming, scanning, etc. helps both teachers and students to achieve their goals. What’s more, learners not only comprehend the texts but also they broaden and improve various language skills and cultural aspects. This study aims to illustrate why teacher’s role is important in encouraging student participation for reading skills in any levels. It is an undeniable fact that language teachers have great impact on motivating students especially in reading because most of the students hesitate to read most of the texts in course books even if they are short and simple. Therefore, being involved in such studies gives students opportunities to read in a more effective way by focusing on several reading strategies. Another reason why motivation is vital for students is to develop themselves in terms of gaining creative thinking skills and flourish their self-confidence by expressing their ideas freely in the language they are learning. In this study, it has been clearly indicated that how teachers can encourage students to participate in reading activities in a detailed way.