First-year Bachelor Students Research Articles

Urban mobility and learning: analyzing the influence of commuting time on students' GPA at Politecnico di Milano

ABSTRACT Despite its crucial role in students' daily lives, commuting time remains an underexplored dimension in higher education research. To address this gap, this study focuses on challenges that students face in urban environments and investigates the impact of commuting time on the Grade Point Average (GPA) of first-year bachelor students of Politecnico di Milano, Italy. This research employs an innovative two-step methodology. In the initial phase, machine learning algorithms trained on privacy-preserving GPS data from anonymous users are used to construct accessibility maps to the university and to obtain an estimate of students' commuting times. In the subsequent phase, authors utilize polynomial linear mixed-effects models and investigate the factors influencing students' GPA, with a particular emphasis on commuting time. Notably, this investigation incorporates causal inference analyses from the observational studies domain, which enable to establish the effect of commuting time on academic outcome. The findings underscore the significant impact of travel time on students' performance and may support policies and implications aiming at improving students' educational experience in metropolitan areas. The study's innovation lies both in its exploration of a relatively uncharted factor and the novel methodologies applied in both phases.

Enhancing self-learning skills and quality through formative actions and feedback within chemistry classes in the laboratory – A useful model

In here a novel method is described to improve student success rates in a first-year basic chemistry theoretical/practical hybrid course (n = 31 students) by implementing simple ways of formative assessment. This to reduce student dropout rates following the philosophy of encouraging students’ self-control. Essential is to train first-year bachelor students in their self-learning skills and to enhance their evaluative judgment. As a result, students are able to provide better quality of the assessment products at the end of the course. In practice the course is redesigned and intervention tools are integrated at multiple levels throughout the course. The lecturers’ role was adapted to a coaching role, thereby introducing low-effort personalized micro-interventions to meet the personalized needs of students. To clarify these learning needs for students, awareness of the quality desired for the final assessment products is important. Awareness was improved by providing examples of varying quality and introducing multiple peer- and self-assessment moments during the course. The final evaluation of the course examination products showed that the quality of the laboratory notebook was substantially higher after following this approach. Additionally students learned other important skills such as self-learning skills, collaborating in practical work and giving and receiving feedback. Unexpectedly, the high perceived lecturers’ workload decreased. The work presented here provides a novel approach in the form of a model and a practical blueprint with tools for a practical chemistry course design which develops students’ self-learning skills thereby substantially improving student success rates. In our example course, the ultimate student success rate increased form 83 % to 95 % after using this novel approach.

PRACTICAL APPROACH IN DELIVERING THEME "AUTONOMIC REFLEXES AND THEIR CLINICAL APPLICATION" AT THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY, POLTEVE STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

In the system of higher medical education, physiology is a fundamental discipline and occupies an important place in the system of training highly qualified medical specialists. In the system of higher medical education, physiology stands as a cornerstone discipline, holding a pivotal role in shaping the competencies of future medical professionals. The scientific and pedagogical staff at the Department of Physiology, Poltava State Medical University, is dedicated to nurturing students' capacity to analyze and synthesize both theoretical and practical knowledge, laying the groundwork for clinical acumen in future specialists. This article presents a hands-on approach to teaching the topic "Autonomic Reflexes and Their Clinical Applications" within the contemporary educational landscape, targeting second-year master's and first-year bachelor's students. Highlighting the practical significance of this topic in the future medical practice, it underscores how mastering autonomic reflexes equips students with the skills to influence internal organ activity and administer emergency medical care. Such an approach not only fosters student engagement with the subject matter but also cultivates a deeper appreciation for physiology as a whole. The article outlines the instructional principles, spanning from theoretical discourse to practical exercises, emphasizing the integral role of physiology in higher medical education. By advocating for the study of physiology as a foundational science, the article underscores its role in fostering interdisciplinary integration and shaping clinical reasoning—an essential aspect of quality medical training in today's educational landscape.

THE INTERDISCIPLINARITY OF SENTIMENT ANALYSIS AND ITS USE IN TEACHING

Sentiment analysis is no longer considered an emerging field in the context of today's language analysis tools. Widely used in the business area, it is a very useful tool in analyzing reviews and feedback provided by customers for different types of products and services. Beyond its wide use in marketing and tourism, for instance, sentiment analysis has proven its interdisciplinary character, going far beyond its original purpose. One innovative and creative way is its use in education. There are already quite a few studies in this direction, highlighting the importance and usefulness of sentiment analysis in teaching. This article adds to this research, focusing on its use use in an English as a second language class, in the setting of an Economics faculty, with first-year Bachelor students. The general context of this teaching approach, its details, results, and limitations will be described in detail.

Accelerating a car from rest: friction, power and forces

The directions of frictional forces for bodies in motion are conceptually challenging. Students may be able to provide a correct solution using only calculus without drawing free-body diagrams. This can make their misconceptions go unnoticed and put them at risk to become further reinforced. Here, we discuss first-year bachelor students’ responses to multiple-choice questions and an open-ended question regarding friction when they come fresh out of high school. We further look into student solutions submitted to a national competition in physics for high-school students involving a problem concerning the acceleration of an electric rear-wheel drive car. Finding that most students had avoided drawing figures, we discuss to what extent teachers’ grading practices contribute to students’ development of problem-solving habits.

Изменение форм учебной математической информации в цифровой образовательной среде

The creation of a digital educational environment at universities, the transition to blended learning have revealed a problem associated with the discrepancy between traditional textbooks, automatically translated into electronic format, the needs of modern students, the peculiarities of their perception. The article proposes forms of educational content that use the possibilities of the digital environment available to students and activate their cognitive activity. Among the distinguishing features of modern students are focus on success, the desire to use knowledge “here and now”, multitasking, but at the same time, superficial attention, unwillingness to study long texts. As new interactive digital resources, the authors consider structural logic diagrams, interactive electronic textbooks, and training tests. The article describes the experience of creating such resources in the process of teaching mathematics to first-year bachelor students of the Financial University.

Medical students’ perception of general practice: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundAn increase in the demand for general practitioners is expected in many countries, but only a minority of medical students consider a career in general practice. More detailed and up-to-date knowledge about medical student’s perception of general practice would be helpful for efforts to encourage medical students to consider a career in general practice.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional single center survey among Dutch medical students to evaluate their perception of general practice at three different stages in their study: Ba1: first-year bachelor students; Ba3: third-year bachelor students; Ma3: third-year master students. The impact of different factors on their attitudes and perceptions was quantified. A multivariate logistic regression was performed with ‘interest in general practice’ as the outcome variable.ResultsThe median age for Ba1 was 18 (IQR: 18–19) and 71.5% were female, for Ba3 the median age was 20 (IQR: 20–21) and 70.6% were female and for Ma3 the median age was 25 years (IQR: 24–26) and 73.3% were female. On average, 31.2% of the respondents had a migration background. The mean response rate for this study was 77.1%. Of the participating Ba1 students (n = 340) only 22.4% considered working as a GP after medical school; for Ba3 students (n = 231) this percentage was 33.8%, and for Ma3 students (n = 210) it was significantly higher at 70.5%; in the final multivariate model this corresponded to an odds ratio (OR) of 4.3 (95%-CI:2.6–6.9) compared to Ba1 students. The strongest predictor in the final model was the opinion that general practice provides a pleasant working environment (OR 9.5; 95%-CI: 6.2–14.5).ConclusionThis study showed that multiple factors are significantly related to medical students’ interest in general practice. Although students believed that general practice does not have a high status within the medical profession, they acknowledged the social importance and the pleasant working environment of general practice. Knowledge obtained in this study can be used when designing a medical curriculum or a general practice course.

State of health of first-year bachelor students at the higher educational institution

The article is devoted to one of the topical issues of modern medicine — the health of students at a higher educational institution. The relevance of the work is due to the significant prevalence of various disorders in the adaptive reactions of the body, especially in the first year of study at a higher educational institution. This study included 2 groups of students: 1st group — 12 male students, 2nd group — 18 female students. An anonymous survey was conducted in two groups, and in each of the groups, students had certain complaints that indicated the disruption of adaptation processes in the body in the first year of study.

Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds

Osmosis and diffusion are fundamental topics in science education because many processes in nature largely depend on these phenomena. However, many students usually hold misconceptions and have a lack of knowledge about these topics. This study explores pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their prior formal education. The main reason for the study was the need to support pre-service teachers so that they can effectively teach these topics. A total of 243 first-year students in bachelor’s programs at the University of Ljubljana participated in the study. The results showed that students that graduated from vocational and technical secondary schools had a weaker understanding of these topics compared to students from general secondary schools. Furthermore, only students that had passed the leaving exam in biology showed a better understanding of osmosis and diffusion.

Depression and Anxiety in Times of COVID-19: How Coping Strategies and Loneliness Relate to Mental Health Outcomes and Academic Performance.

The link between depression, anxiety, and loneliness has been well established in the literature. Yet, the performance consequences of these negative mental health outcomes and the role of coping behaviors, as well as behavioral consequences such as procrastination as mediators have received far less research attention. Due to the COVID-19 social isolation restrictions, people are at risk of falling into a negative mental health spiral that can also affect their performance over time. The purpose of this longitudinal study among 881 first-year bachelor students is to explore the mechanisms by which loneliness, coping strategies in the context of COVID-19, mental health outcomes and procrastination sequentially mediate the relationship depression and anxiety on the one hand, and academic performance on the other hand. We measured mental health variables several times during the COVID-19 crisis and assessed how this translates into academic performance at the end of the academic year. By performing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, three high-order factors for the coping strategies in the context of the COVID-19 crisis were identified, namely maladaptive coping, adaptive coping, and supportive coping. Structural equation modeling was used to test the sequential mediational model. The results showed that maladaptive coping strategies employed at T2 during the lockdown, but not adaptive or supportive coping partially mediate the trajectories of depression (T1) and anxiety (T1). Loneliness (T2) partially mediated the trajectory of depression and anxiety (T1), and procrastination fully mediated the impact of depression (T3) on academic performance (T4). These results help understand the mechanisms that influence mental health and academic performance outcomes in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Based on the study outcomes, educational researchers can test strategies to reduce the adverse effects of stressful situations in learning environments by targeting maladaptive coping behaviors and procrastination.

“English as a Foreign Languages” syllabus for first-year Bachelor students in law

Abstract. The course is aimed at the first-year-of-study Bachelor students in law. The goal of the course is to formEnglish communicative competence of law students to ensure their effective interaction in a professionalenvironment at the international level. The course syllabus pays special attention to the specific features oflegal English, particularly the use of legal terms, Latin borrowings, grammatical structures, as well as somecommunicative aspects of oral and written speech of legal professionals. The course syllabus also outlinesthe methods of teaching, gives the overview of the assessment procedure of learning outcomes and objectivesand provides the reading list with references.

A Matchmaking Exercise for Teaching Homogamy Theory to First-Year Sociology Students

This note discusses a class activity that was developed for first-year bachelor students in sociology to understand homogamy theory. Taught in a “classical” deductive way, this theory proved to be difficult to remember and describe on the examination. Starting from inductive learning, and more specifically, (structured) inquiry-guided learning, the aim of the exercise was to transcend passive learning, making students gradually discover the different components of the theory themselves, practicing their sociological imagination. Overall, students evaluated the exercise positively, and they performed much better on the examination.

THE IMPACT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION ON THE LEVEL OF FINANCIAL LITERACY: THE CASE OF SLOVAKIA

Financial literacy, specifically its measurement and education in this field, is a very current topic. The main aim of this research was to find out whether secondary school education had a positive impact on the level of student’s financial literacy and to identify other important factors that affected its level. All 363 first-year bachelor's students of the Faculty of Operations and Economic of Transport and Communications (FPEDAS), University of Zilina, Slovakia, took part in the research. The research consisted of two parts – a questionnaire and a test. The questionnaire focused on demographic, educational, and socio-economic factors influencing students' financial literacy. The test included items aimed at finding out whether students could correctly define selected concepts of the financial area, whether they understood these concepts, and were able to analyze them. The most important finding of the research was that the number of lessons dedicated to mathematics and financial literacy in secondary school did not have a statistically significant impact on the level of student’s financial literacy. On the contrary, the level of financial literacy was correlated with the overall performance of the student at the secondary school and the type of secondary school the student attended. The research also aimed to verify the hypothesis that the student's study program affected the level of his or her financial literacy. It turns out that increasing the number of mathematics or financial literacy lessons is not sufficient to improve financial literacy levels, but more important is teacher education, the content and form of the education and the effectiveness of the teaching process. Keywords: financial literacy, secondary education, bachelor study program, tobit regression model

The consequences of academic dismissal for academic success

ABSTRACT Academic dismissal policies are increasingly implemented to promote academic success, with existing empirical evidence mostly restricted to short-run outcomes. This study examines long-term academic outcomes of academic dismissal for two cohorts of first-year bachelor students in Economics and Business at a Dutch university. Using administrative records, regression discontinuity design estimates suggest that academic dismissal does not relate to a difference in the propensity of graduation, nor to a change in study delay, when comparing students around the academic dismissal threshold. Not meeting this credit-threshold forces students to leave, and most decide to re-enroll in the same (43.4%) program elsewhere or at least within the academic domain (41.9%). Thus, while academic dismissal forces students to switch, its intended purpose of redirecting students to a different field of study is not observed. Implications for why academic dismissal might not deliver on the intended efficiency or effectiveness gains are discussed.

The Relationship of Perceived Severity of Premenstrual Syndrome with Knowledge, Attitude and Recorded Severity of Syndrom by a Daily Calendar among University Students in Iran

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to a set of psychological and physical symptoms, which interfere with one’s daily life. The aim of this study was to determine whether the perceived severity of PMS symptoms is correlated with knowledge, attitude, and severity of this condition according to the daily registration calendar among students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. Methods:This descriptive, analytical study was performed on 55 first-year bachelor students, who were residents of Ferdowsi University dormitories from February 2013 to June 2013. Data collection tools included the selection form, general health questionnaire, PMS diagnosis form (derived from DSM-IV), questionnaire of menstrual information, demographic characteristics, and perceived severity of PMS symptoms, questionnaires on knowledge and attitude towards PMS, and the daily registration calendar. For data analysis, descriptive and analytical tests were performed, using SPSS version 16.0. Results: The results showed thatknowledge about PMS was significantly correlated with the perceived severity of PMS (P=0.009, rSp =-0.35). However, there was no significant correlation between students’ attitude towards PMS and perceived severity of this condition (P=0.54, rSp =0.08). Also, no significant difference was found between the perceived severity of PMS symptoms and the severity of symptoms, according to the daily registration calendar (P=0.86, rSp =0.02). Conclusion: Based on the findings, the perceived severity of PMS symptoms was not significantly correlated with students’ attitude towards PMS or PMS severity, based on the daily registration calendar. However, there was a significant correlation between knowledge about PMS and perceived severity of this condition; therefore, planning is essential for improving students’ knowledge on this issue.

Effects of the Bologna Reform on Educational Outcomes: Micro Evidence from Germany

The Bologna Process aimed at harmonizing European higher education systems and at increasing their efficiency. This paper analyzes impacts of the Bologna Reform for Germany by using unique micro data from Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin (HU). We estimate treatment effects on the probability to graduate within instructional time, on standardized study duration, and on final overall grades. Variation in treatment introduction over time and across departments generates exogenous assignment of students into a treatment (Bachelor) and control group (Diploma). We account for potentially remaining selection bias by estimating a 2SLS model using the share of first-year Bachelor students among all students as an instrument. Our empirical results are robust across specifications and sample stratifications and indicate the following: the Bologna reform led to a significant and sizeable increase in the probability of graduating within planned instructional time; it also significantly decreased standardized study duration. At the same time, overall final grades are significantly worse in the treatment group.

An exploratory factor analysis of the cognitive functioning of first-year bachelor students with dyslexia

An increasing number of students with dyslexia register in higher education. As a consequence, information on their pattern of strengths and weaknesses is essential to construct adequate assessment and diagnostic protocols. In a sample of 100 first-year bachelor students with dyslexia and 100 control students, a large pool of cognitive skills were tested using a variety of tests. When we applied an exploratory factor analysis to scores, a model with ten factors fitted the data best. Effect sizes were used to express the processing costs of students with dyslexia. The factors related to reading, spelling, flashed orthography, phonology, naming, math, and reading fluency resulted in large effect sizes. A factor combining all measures for crystallized IQ had a medium effect size. The subtests for fluid intelligence were divided in two separate constructs. Relationships between all subtest scores are visualized and interpreted in a general theoretical and practical framework.

Reading and knowledge transfer in Ghana: the behaviour, attitudes and self-concepts of first-year students in Bachelor of Education programmes

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it is an attempt to fill in the blanks on the unexplored map of reading behaviours, attitudes, and self-concept of teacher education students in Ghana. Secondly, it investigates whether the negative perceptions of lecturers from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Education Winneba (UEW) about their students’ reading attitudes and behaviour correspond to the students’ self-perceptions. We investigated the reading attitudes, behaviour, and self-concept of 316 students from UCC and UEW. Outcomes showed that spending time on reading for enjoyment is not popular amongst students. A surprisingly positive attitude towards reading for school, for enjoyment and self-concept of reading amongst students was found. This is contradictory to the negative perceptions of lecturers at UCC and UEW. The correlations we found between reading behaviour, attitude and self-concept are in line with recent reading research findings.

Multivariate zero-inflated modeling with latent predictors: Modeling feedback behavior

In educational studies, the use of computer-based assessments leads to the collection of multiple outcomes to assess student performance. The student-specific outcomes are correlated and often measured in different scales, such as continuous and count outcomes. A multivariate zero-inflated model with random effects is proposed and adapted for the challenging situation where the multiple outcomes are zero-inflated and possibly right truncated. The joint model consists of a Bernoulli component to deal with the problem of extra zeros, and a multivariate truncated component to model correlated mixed response outcomes from the same subject. In a Bayesian modeling approach, MCMC methods are used for parameter estimation. Using a simulation study, it is shown that the within-individual correlation between counts can be accurately estimated together with the other model parameters. The multivariate zero-inflated model is applied to a computer-based feedback study about computer literacy, where first-year bachelor students were given the opportunity to receive additional feedback. The total number of feedback pages visited and the total feedback processing time are modeled using a Poisson and a Gamma distribution, respectively. The joint modeling framework is extended to incorporate explanatory latent variables (student performance and speed of working), to explore individual heterogeneity in feedback behavior in a computer-based assessment.

Meta-cognitive skill training programme for first-year bachelor students using thinking process externalisation environment

We think that to acquire a skill for co-creating knowledge with others cooperatively, it is important to develop meta-cognitive skill, but to do so is not straightforward. In this paper, we attempt to design a thinking skill particularly meta-cognitive skill development curriculum for first-year bachelor-degree students on the basis of the results obtained in two preceding studies that we have performed for postgraduate education and those engaged in medical services. To deal effectively with new learning for first-year bachelor students - 'thinking about thinking' - we designed a curriculum that gives students a knowledge co-creation programme and thinking externalisation tool to devote attention to the thinking process and to have the bodily sensation of its meaning, and we put it into practice. This paper describes a learning model for thinking skill, which is fundamental to appropriate curriculum design, and discusses the design intention of a curriculum conforming to it and the usefulness of the learning programme through examples of using the thinking externalisation tool in practice. Results show that the learning programme developed in this study is useful for cultivating the meta-cognitive skill of bachelor students.