Heterogeneous Student Population Research Articles

A Phenomenological Study of Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments Courses

Educational technology programs from across the United States are offering graduate courses in games, simulations, and virtual environments (GSVE) to their students. However, these courses, until now, have not been systematically studied. This research uses a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to answer the research question: “How do instructors describe their experience teaching GSVE courses?” Five professors of educational technology that have taught GSVE courses were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol based on the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework. These data were analyzed both analytically and thematically. The results of the study showed a wide variety of topics, tools, and pedagogies are used within GSVE courses. The results had five themes emerge: Focus on Application and Theory, Experiential Learning and Constructivism, Instructor's Prior Experience with Games, Heterogeneous Student Populations, and Range of Technology Tools. These themes as well as these courses are highlighted within this paper. A discussion is provided.

Five heads are better than one: preliminary results of team-based learning in a communication disorders graduate course.

Clinical problem-solving is fundamental to the role of the speech-language pathologist in both the diagnostic and treatment processes. The problem-solving often involves collaboration with clients and their families, supervisors, and other professionals. Considering the importance of cooperative problem-solving in the profession, graduate education in speech-language pathology should provide experiences to foster the development of these skills. One evidence-based pedagogical approach that directly targets these abilities is team-based learning (TBL). TBL is a small-group instructional method that focuses on students' in-class application of conceptual knowledge in solving complex problems that they will likely encounter in their future clinical careers. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the educational outcomes and students' perceptions of TBL in a communication disorders graduate course on speech and language-based learning disabilities. Nineteen graduate students (mean age = 26 years, SD = 4.93), divided into three groups of five students and one group of four students, who were enrolled in a required graduate course, participated by fulfilling the key components of TBL: individual student preparation; individual and team readiness assurance tests (iRATs and tRATs) that assessed preparedness to apply course content; and application activities that challenged teams to solve complex and authentic clinical problems using course material. Performance on the tRATs was significantly higher than the individual students' scores on the iRATs (p < .001, Cohen's d = 4.08). Students generally reported favourable perceptions of TBL on an end-of-semester questionnaire. Qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions organized thematically indicated students' high satisfaction with application activities, discontent with the RATs, and recommendations for increased lecture in the TBL process. The outcomes of this pilot study suggest the effectiveness of TBL as an instructional method that provides student teams with opportunities to apply course content in problem-solving activities followed by immediate feedback. This research also addresses the dearth of empirical information on how graduate programmes in speech-language pathology bridge students' didactic learning and clinical practice. Future studies should examine the utility of this approach in other courses within the field and with more heterogeneous student populations.

Teachers’ Reactions to Pre-Differentiated and Enriched Mathematics Curricula

Modern classrooms are often comprised of a heterogeneous student population with varying abilities. To address this variance, third-grade teachers implemented researcher-designed, pre-differentiated, and enriched math curricula in algebra, geometry and measurement, and graphing and data analysis. The goal of the curricula was to provide academic rigor for all students, including students with high abilities. These units prompted educators to recognize learning differences in their classrooms and provide appropriate lessons for each group. Qualitative analyses revealed the treatment teachers’ successful use of preassessments and grouping practices to accommodate students in their academically diverse classrooms. This study demonstrated the value of pre-differentiated and enriched curricula and professional development. Treatment teachers discussed how important it was that the curricula provided preassessments for each unit, and most lessons provided tiered activities directly connected to students’ preassessment performance. Providing teachers with more meaningful and cohesive tiered activities will support teachers’ efforts in academically challenging students of all levels.

A Stackelberg Game Approach for Incentivizing Participation in Online Educational Forums with Heterogeneous Student Population

Increased interest in web-based education has spurred the proliferation of online learning environments. However, these platforms suffer from high dropout rates due to lack of sustained motivation among the students taking the course. In an effort to address this problem, we propose an incentive-based, instructor-driven approach to orchestrate the interactions in online educational forums (OEFs). Our approach takes into account the heterogeneity in skills among the students as well as the limited budget available to the instructor. We first analytically model OEFs in a non-strategic setting using ideas from lumpable continuous time Markov chains and compute expected aggregate transient net-rewards for the instructor and the students. We next consider a strategic setting where we use the rewards computed above to set up a mixed-integer linear program which views an OEF as a single-leader-multiple-followers Stackelberg game and recommends an optimal plan to the instructor for maximizing student participation. Our experimental results reveal several interesting phenomena including a striking non-monotonicity in the level of participation of students vis-a-vis the instructor's arrival rate.

Exploring Habitus and Writer Identities: An ethnographic study of writer identity construction in the FET Phase at two schools in the Western Cape

Globalisation processes have resulted in increasingly pluralistic societies, a phenomenon with ripple effects in contexts such as universities, which now provide access to heterogeneous student populations with diverse rituals, beliefs, cultures and languages. For this reason, deficit discourses that frame students as underprepared for the demands of tertiary studies are a global phenomenon (Boughey, 2003; Lillis, 2003; Lea &amp; Street, 1998). Furthermore, the different identities, histories and dispositions (Bourdieu, 1990) of students result in hybrid linguistic repertoires, with some repertoires being more powerful than others (Blommaert, 2001; Blommaert, Collins &amp;Slembrouck, 2005; Rampton, 2003). Therefore, having access to the preferred linguistic repertoire - in most cases standard English - is an asset, because this repertoire is more closely aligned than others to tertiary education practices and discourses. As a result, the scholarly community can be daunting for many first-year students whose linguistic identities are not always aligned to institutional values, practices and discourses; students can easily be indexed as under-achieving or incompetent.

”Being Bilingual Means Being a Foreigner”. Categorizing Linguistic Diversity among Students in Danish Higher Education

&lt;p align="LEFT"&gt;One of the effects of the internationalization of Danish higher education is a more mobile and linguistically heterogeneous student population aiming at both the national and international labor market. At the same time efforts to increase participation in higher education among domestic students have resulted in a more diverse student body in terms of social and ethnic background. To some extent the two groups of students overlap, but they are treated very differently by the university administration. Whereas students with international experience are counted and categorized as such, and are offered language courses before going abroad or when arriving in Denmark, minority students are either part of the mainstream or identifi ed as in need of remedial courses. The latter does not correspond very well with the general shift towards more learner-centered approaches in higher education, which potentially opens up to a resource perspective on multilingual students’ language background. The present paper is a literature review focusing on the various labels used when categorizing students according to their linguistic background. The purpose of this is to raise awareness about labelling as a sensitive issue and to propose a multilingual pedagogical framework for students to benefit from their full language potential during their academic studies.&lt;/p&gt;

The effect of medical students' gender, ethnicity and attitude towards poetry-reading on the evaluation of a required, clinically-integrated poetry-based educational intervention.

BackgroundArt -based interventions are widely used in medical education. However, data on the potential effects of art-based interventions on medical students have been limited to small qualitative studies on students’ evaluation of elective programs, and thus their findings may be difficult to generalize. The goal of this study is to examine, in an unselected students’ population, the effect of students’ gender, ethnicity and attitude towards poetry on their evaluation of a clinically-integrated poetry-based educational intervention.MethodsA required Clinically- Oriented Poetry-reading Experience (COPE) is integrated into the 4th year internal medicine clerkship. We constructed a questionnaire regarding the program’s effects on students. Students completed the questionnaire at the end of the clerkship. We performed a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and examined the relationship between students’ evaluation of the program and students’ ethnicity, gender, attitude towards poetry-reading, and the timing of the program (early/late) during the fourth year.Results144 students participated in the program, of which 112 completed the questionnaires. We identified two effect factors: “student-patient” and “self and colleagues”. The average score for “student-patient” factor was significantly higher as compared to the “self and colleagues” factor.Evaluation the “student- patient” effect factor was higher among Arab and Druze as compared to Jewish students. Students’ attitude towards poetry-reading did not correlate with the “student-patient” effect, but correlated with the “self and colleagues” effect. The evaluation of the “self and colleagues” effect was higher among students who participated in the program during their second as compared with the first clerkship. Students’ gender was not associated with any of the effects identified. Students favored obligatory participation in COPE as compared with elective course format.ConclusionsAccording to students’ evaluation, a format of integrated, obligatory poetry-based intervention may be suitable for enhancing “student-patient” aims in heterogeneous student populations. The higher evaluation of the “patient-student” effect among Arab and Druze as compared to Jewish students may be related to cultural differences in the perception of this component of medical professionalism. Further research can provide insight into the effect of cultural and ethnic differences on actual empathy of medical students in patient encounters.

Testing elementary and secondary school students’ ability to perform historical perspective taking: the constructing of valid and reliable measure instruments

Historical reasoning competencies play an important role in history education. However, valid and reliable large-scale measurement instruments to assess these competencies are scarce. This study considers two instruments for measuring students' ability to perform historical perspective taking (HPT) as a historical reasoning competency. The instruments have been tested for validity and reliability among 1,270 Dutch upper elementary and secondary school students, ranging in age from 10 to 17 years. One instrument offers effective validity and reliability and can map HPT performance among a large and heterogeneous student population. The results show that even upper elementary school students are capable of performing HPT. However, as students age, their ability to perform HPT increases. Differences regarding the ability to perform HPT were also found between educational levels. Pre-university students performed HPT more successfully compared to students at lower educational levels. The results of this study can be used to gain insight into the construct of HPT and into how historical reasoning competencies such as HPT can be measured. Furthermore, the results provide insight into how differences between students, such as age and educational levels, influence the performance of HPT.

Coming to terms with ‘double knowing’: an inclusive approach to international education

International education brings together students from a range of institutional, educational and academic traditions. In the classroom, such differences manifest themselves in the form of unfamiliar and, at times, unacceptable behaviours, which have motivated some researchers to focus on the problems that diversity presents to teaching and learning. In this paper, we would like to turn the tables, arguing that a truly international curriculum will have to acknowledge and build on the resources represented by students from different knowledge systems. In order to achieve this, we shall start with a theoretical section, which highlights the contrast between an exclusive interpretation (i.e. the conventional understanding of international students as the net receivers of Euro-American wisdom), and an inclusive approach, which focuses on the indigenous knowledge possessed by a heterogeneous student population. The analysis elaborates on this idea of ‘double knowing’ (Singh and Shrestha 2008), using qualitative data from five Danish faculties to demonstrate how lecturers turn students' alternative knowledge systems into sources of intercultural learning and awareness-raising. This leads to a discussion of the implications that such an inclusive approach has for university teachers, outlining strategies that they may adopt in order to facilitate a process of double knowing.

International Perspectives: Developmental Education in South Africa

Eric J. Paulson interviewsMariaan Klopper from North-West University,Potchefstroom,South AfricaMariaan Klopper is in the Institutional Academic Support Services department of North- West University in South Africa. She is the third person in South Africa- and one of only 14 people worldwide- to be designated as a certified trainer for Supplemental Instruction. Mariaan started her career in higher in 1989 as a reading expert appointed to support students with learning difficulties, focusing on interventions to enhance strategic reading in higher education. Her university was the first in South Africa to implement a compulsory, credit-bearing learning and reading course in 2001 . She served as the head of the Division for Learner Support for 11 years before her appointment in the newly merged institution as a manager of Teaching and Learning, and she currently heads the regional office for Supplemental Instruction.Eric J. Paulson (EJP): Talk about the system of higher in South Africa and where fits in. Who goes to college and for what purposes?Mariaan Klopper (MK): In South Africa, the system is divided into three broad bands within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The first is the General Education and Training (GET) band, which includes grade 9 as well as Adult Basic Education and Training. The second band is the Further Education and Training (FET) band, which focuses on grades 10-12 and career-oriented technical and postsecondary and training. The third band is the Higher Education and Training (HET) band. University qualifications are presented in this band, including master's degrees and doctorates. Students generally try to get into universities after they have completed the National Senior Certificate- the equivalent of a highschool diploma- and while completion of grade 10 is mandatory for all South Africans, students must complete grade 12 before going into higher education. Students can enroll into either a university or a further training and college, which awards them with national certificates and occupational awards.Developmental has been part of higher in South Africa since the early nineties in the form of programs and foundation provisional programs, also called extendedcurriculum programs. This was generally found in previously advantaged universities to enable admission of previously disadvantaged students who, while complying with the minimum statutory entry requirements, did not meet the necessary criteria for a particular program. This was inline with the Minister of Education's goal to address the inequalities in education, largely due to apartheid policies of the past. In this way, South African universities worked to broaden access to previously disadvantaged students, and in 2004, the government began funding foundation provisional programs in universities.EJP: What is the discourse of in South Africa?MK: With regard to terminology, we don't use the term developmental education per se- instead, we use terms like academic development or provision. These are programs with support, so we'll call it extended as well. We augment students' normal courses with foundational work, work with communication, reading, writing, information technology, and numeracy support. The discourse in South Africa is on addressing the challenges of widening participation and key skills agendas while ensuring success. This becomes more complex within the socioeconomic realities of a developing country and the poor economic climate worldwide. The pressure in the South African contexts is to develop curriculum (termed program in our university) models that can accommodate a more heterogeneous student population. Discourses interrogate provision in terms of target group, intended outcomes, assumptions, and curriculum contexts. …

Effects of the heterogeneity of game complexity and user population in learning performance of business simulation games

Previous studies on business simulation games (BSGs) have concluded that improved performance may not be the primary benefit of using BSGs, due to mixed results between student performance and perceptions. Two relevant and insightful issues attract our attention, namely, the impacts of the heterogeneous student population and the different complexity levels of BSG software. To address these issues, the present study aims to understand the relationship between student profile/characteristics and performance in the classroom with BSG-facilitated learning. An in-depth case study is conducted on a general college course designed to teach three different complexities of BSGs to students enrolled in different majors. Four student profile factors are individually tested for differences in performance scores as evaluated by the teacher. Additionally, the influences of 11 student characteristics are assessed with regard their self-reported perceived learning performances. Regression analysis and ANOVA are used to investigate the impacts of heterogeneous users and game complexity on student performance. Based on the regression analyses of the data collected from 43 respondents who participated in the general course, the study concludes that knowledge and skill may influence the heterogeneous student population; moreover, student participation and tacit learning preference improve performance, and students with an auditory learning preference or high learning motivation may not perform well in classroom BSG learning. However, the low value of adjusted R square implies that more dimensions or variables are needed to increase the explaining power of the performance scores in the regression analyses. In contrast, heterogeneous BSG software with different complexity levels present different results. The current research contributes practical and incremental knowledge on the complexity of heterogeneous BSG software on performance scores and the perceived learning performance of heterogeneous student populations. With the research limitations acknowledged, a series of suggestions for teachers pertaining to appropriate applications of BSGs in classes is offered as well as recommendations to BSG providers. Nevertheless, in-depth analyses are required, preferably with larger student population samples, to further explore the insignificant relationship between student perceptions and attitude under nonlinear extended complexity.

Parents studying medicine - the dichotomy of studying with a family.

Introduction: In this article the personal study and life situation of parents who are also medical students at the Medical School of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main is discussed. There is a special focus on the topics “studying with children” and “family-friendly university”, which have been present in discussions about university development and in the daily life of academics, especially during the last decade. The workgroup “Individual Student Services” at the medical faculty at the Goethe University tries to meet the necessities of the individual study courses and to support the study success with a new counselling and student service concept.Methods: The experience of parents studying medicine was recorded in semi-structured interviews (Date: April 2010), which were held as part of the sponsored pilot project on part-time medical studies (“Pilot Project Part-time Medical Studies”). Additionally, study results from the Medical School of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main were integrated as well as a literature analysis.Results: It was found that the teaching demands and support services, which have been suggested and needed for years now, have been partially implemented and are without sufficient support at the faculty level to date. Thus the current situation of medical students with children is still difficult and seems a big challenge for everyone involved.Solution: As part of the “Individual Student Services” a new pilot project on part-time medical studies was established in November 2009. Only the use of new, unconventional and innovative ideas allows universities to adequately support the changing and heterogeneous student population and support them to successfully completing their medical studies.

The Crossing Borders Program: Increasing Intercultural Competency via Structured Social Interactions

Increasing diversity in American college classrooms and recent trends toward globalization require professors to teach more creatively in order to encourage students' face-to-face intercultural interactions and resulting competencies. At a commuter campus with a heterogeneous student population, a series of large-group activities and small-group dialogues between American and international students resulted in satisfaction and growth for a majority of American participants. Areas of self-reported growth primarily involved intercultural competencies, including knowledge of, attitudes toward, and skills when interacting with others from different cultures.

Understanding the Interaction Between High-Stakes Graduation Tests and English Learners

Background/Context The prevailing theory of action underlying No Child Left Behind's high-stakes testing and accountability ratings is that schools and students held accountable to these measures will automatically increase educational output as educators try harder, schools will adopt more effective methods, and students will learn more. In Texas, the centerpiece of high school accountability is the pressure to improve exit test scores, a battery of minimum competency exams that students have to pass to graduate from high school. Despite the theory underlying accountability, it is unknown whether policies that reward and sanction schools and students based on high-stakes tests improve English learner (EL) student outcomes over the long term. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of the research is to better understand the interaction between high-stakes testing, accountability, and ELs. This study asks the following questions: Have student outcomes for ELs improved since the inception of accountability in Texas? To what extent does social capital theory inform our understanding of the impact of high-stakes exit testing on EL exit test performance in Texas high schools? What are the perceptions of teachers, principals, and students regarding the effects of high-stakes testing and accountability on ELs? Research Design This article reviews longitudinal student outcomes (test scores, dropout, grade retention, and graduation rates) for Texas ELs from the inception of accountability in 1993. To understand the interaction between ELs and high-stakes exams, the researcher undertook qualitative field work in high schools in four Texas districts with large numbers of ELs to understand how the life contexts of ELs interact with Texas-style high-stakes testing and accountability policies. Via administrator, teacher, and student perceptions of exit testing, the article attempts to shed light on the academic challenges faced by ELs in the current accountability context. Conclusions/Recommendations This article underscores the legitimacy of the concern that ELs experience unintended consequences associated with high-stakes exit testing and accountability policy and suggests that social justice and equity are ratiocinative critiques of high-stakes testing and accountability policies. The next round of federal and state educational policy must be a mandate that provides support for ELs to meet performance standards by providing evidence-based solutions: appropriate curriculum, pedagogy, and well-trained teachers. Furthermore, policy makers, practitioners, and researchers should be cognizant of the less intrusive approach that many ELs and their families have toward schools by reconsidering whether “one size fits all” high-stakes exit testing policies are plausible for increasingly heterogeneous student populations. The use of multiple measures of EL student success in content areas, such as portfolios, is an accountability mechanism that makes sense, not just for ELs, but for all students.

Are digital natives a world-wide phenomenon? An investigation into South African first year students’ use and experience with technology

In 2001 Marc Prensky coined the phrase ‘digital natives’ to refer to the new generation of students who have grown up surrounded by technology. His companion papers spurred large amounts of research, debating changes that are required to curricula and pedagogical models to cater for the changes in the student population. This article reports on a study conducted in 2009 of more than 290 first year students at two South African universities. In this study, students were asked about their access to and use of technology. The results portrayed a heterogeneous student population, with varying levels of access to and use of most technologies. One of Prensky’s key features of a digital native is their excitement with Web 2.0 based technologies. Participants in this study however, appear not to use such technologies, and to not be interested in using them in their studies. One tool that students had high levels of access to (98.1%), and use of is the mobile phone. Out of all uses of technology surveyed, tasks involving the mobile phone were ranked in the top two positions. Also when asked to rank different uses of technology particularly for their studies, three of the top five uses relied on a mobile phone.

Science Education and Student Diversity: Synthesis and Research Agenda – By Okhee Lee and Aurolyn Luykx

Science Education and Student Diversity: Synthesis and Research Agenda – By Okhee Lee and Aurolyn Luykx

The Principal's Role in Creating Inclusive Schools for Diverse Students: A Review of Normative, Empirical, and Critical Literature on the Practice of Educational Administration

Public schools in the United States are serving a more heterogeneous student population now than ever before. Drawing on normative, empirical, and critical literatures, this review explores the role of school administrators in responding to the needs of diverse students. Three administrative tasks highlighted: fostering new meanings about diversity, promoting inclusive school cultures and instructional programs, and building relationships between schools and communities. Administrative work that accomplishes these tasks can be thought of as a form of practice, with moral, epistemological, constitutive, and discursive dimensions. Inclusive administrative practice is rooted in values of equity and social justice; it requires administrators to bring their full subjectivities to bear on their practice, and it implicates language as a key mechanism for both oppression and transformation.

Insect Myths: An Interdisciplinary Approach Fostering Active Learning

American Entomologist • Winter 2009 Undergraduate curricula of many institutions of higher education include General Education Requirements (GERs). Most GER courses provide an overview of a given subject area to students who may have little experience and/or interest in the subject matter, which can present obstacles to achieving standards of proficiency. Generating and sustaining interest is critical, and teaching methods that emphasize interdisciplinary approaches may help students effectively weave course content into their current knowledge base. At Washington State University, Insects, Science, and World Cultures (Entom 150) is a lower-division, GER science course designed for non-science majors and elementary education majors. Students enrolled in the course represent diverse backgrounds, interests, and academic majors. The content and pedagogy of Entom 150 are intended to address the needs and challenges of a heterogeneous student population. Insects, Science, and World Cultures offers an interdisciplinary view of the global impact of insects on the arts, myths & legends, cuisine, medicine, scientific research, and agriculture. It emphasizes the role of insects and their products in various cultures around the world (historical and contemporary) and uses insects as a tool to examine topics of broad interest (e.g., nutrition and undernourishment in developing nations, biological control, pesticides, environmental issues, energy flow, insects as “recyclers,” forensics, water quality, and insects as key Insect Myths: An Interdisciplinary Approach Fostering Active Learning

Teaching Epidemiologic Methods

Advances in causal inference, study designs, and quantitative methods have led to new challenges for structuring a cohesive epidemiology methods course. This is particularly true for courses aimed at students who are training for a research career. Such students are expected to have a strong understanding of epidemiologic inference and modeling. They should grasp the principles of study design and analysis, and be able to interpret and report results effectively. This commentary discusses ways in which courses on epidemiologic methods can be made more effective, including: (1) a definition of the scope of epidemiologic methods; (2) a framework for defining a curriculum for heterogeneous student populations; (3) the need for computing and practical exercises; and (4) a call for increased attention to epidemiology education.

Engaging our Students in the Learning Process: Some Points for Consideration

Over the past few years there has been considerable emphasis on the concept of ‘student engagement’. This at first sight is somewhat peculiar given that the mission of universities is surely to engage students in learning through providing the conditions and the environment in which learning will flourish! However, there are many tensions inherent in the world of academia today. The core business of universities is, or should be, creating the best learning environment for our students. In a context of mass higher education, increasing diversity of the student population, globalization and the new marketing of education, and increased competition between universities exacerbated by ‘league tables’, it is problematic to define ‘the best learning environment’ for engaging students in the learning process. In recent years the demographics of the student population have shifted considerably. There is a higher percentage of international students, there are more mature students both in undergraduate and postgraduate student populations, there are students with non-traditional qualifications and higher numbers of students who are the first in a family to enter into higher education. This is a heady mix to satisfy with vague conceptualizations of the ‘best learning environment’ and ‘student engagement’. At its simplest ‘engagement’ in an educational context refers to the time, energy and resources students devote to activities designed to enhance their learning at University. Krause (2006) expands on this definition and posits that: The well adjusted and engaged student is one who assesses and re-assesses their thinking as transitions and opportunities to engage in different ways continue through and beyond the first year of university. This definition offered by Krause (2006), while eloquent and succinct, may embody some implicit assumptions. Given the heterogeneity of any student body, it is quite likely that ‘engagement’ will mean different things to different students. It has to be unlikely that within an increasingly heterogeneous student population, there is one measure or one definition of ‘engagement’ that encapsulates the level of motivation or the learning goals of each individual student. Tamsin Haggis (2006) in her research on pedagogies for diversity, takes issue with the assumptions we make in higher education that “all students know that higher education study is about questioning, challenging, debating and creating knowledge as well as being about exploring and coming to know what is already known”.