Student Learning In Higher Education Research Articles

Pedagogical Implications of Using Discussion Board to Improve Student Learning in Higher Education

This study reports on the pedagogical implications of using the Blackboard feature Discussion Board (DB) to improve students’ learning in higher education. The study sample included three sections of female students – a total of 155 students – in an undergraduate course at an international university in Saudi Arabia. The impact of using DB on first-year female students’ achievement was assessed through quantitative analyses of pre- and post-tests. The effect of DB on students’ attitudes was ascertained by means of qualitative analyses of students’ responses to a post-treatment questionnaire. The results indicated that students in the experimental group showed a greater degree of improvement in test scores than those in the control group, and that posting to Blackboard was positively related to improvement among those in the control group but not among those in the experimental group.

Effects of teachers' instructional development on students' study approaches in higher education

Evidence regarding the impact of teachers' instructional development on student learning in higher education is scarce. In this study the authors investigate the impact of an instructional development programme for beginning university teachers on students' approach to studying. They also explore whether this impact is dependent on class size and student level (first years versus non-first years). Quantitative data were gathered from more than 1000 students at pre-tests and post-tests, using a quasi-experimental design. A multilevel analysis was then conducted in which five models were estimated. The results show limited effects of teachers' instructional development. Several interpretations and perspectives for research into instructional development are discussed.

Improving Higher Education Student Learning through a Table of Learning

Web-based or “online” learning commonly known as e-Learning which makes use of internet technologies has been widely used by many education institutions around the globe. Higher education institutions have been using Learning Management system (LMS) as a part of their campus-based and distance teaching. To date, very little research has been carried out to investigate whether the uses of LMS actually contribute to student learning. In this paper, we present a higher education blended teaching method for improving student learning. By blended teaching, we mean the combination of face-to-face teaching and the uses of a LMS for learning, teaching and assessment activities. Student’s learning progress is guided and gauged by Shulman’s (2002) table of learning. The LMS that we use at La Trobe University is Moodle. To demonstrate the usefulness of our method, we also present in this paper the results of applying it to teaching a third year software engineering subject, CSE3MQR (Metrics, Quality and Reliability).

Research issues in evaluating learning pattern development in higher education

This article concludes the special issue of Studies in Educational Evaluation concerned with “Evaluating learning pattern development in higher education” by discussing research issues that have emerged from the previous contributions. The article considers in turn: stability versus variability in learning patterns; old versus new analytic techniques; handling missing observations; measures of effect size; predispositions versus processes; and why it should be so hard to improve the quality of student learning in higher education.

Integrating Research-informed Teaching into Sustainable Construction Education

AbstractResearch-informed teaching is increasingly regarded as an effective approach to improving the quality of teaching and student learning in higher education. However, the relationship between research and teaching is controversial, with profound differences existing between different disciplines. This paper aims to enhance the student learning experience by examining the drivers, barriers and practices in relation to research-informed teaching. The research used a broad case study research design, focusing on the sustainable construction discipline taught at a new (post-1992) university in the UK. The results reveal that despite sector, institutional and disciplinary drivers in favour of research-informed teaching, significant barriers existed to the implementation of such an approach among both lecturers and students. A key barrier was found to be the complicated and confusing debate on the research-teaching nexus, which hampered communication between institution, lecturers and students. Further, t...

Use of ICT and Student Learning in Higher Education

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Higher Education (HE) and the capabilities of the internet have added value to university teaching and learning. It has also tested the resolve of universities to maximise the benefits of technology integration amidst increasing class sizes, student expectations, cultural diversity and mobility of students. Understanding how students learn and devising appropriate student centred instruction and learning are considered essential to the successful implementation of ICT and allied technologies in teaching and learning. Supported by the findings of an empirical study conducted in an Australian university on student learning orientations and perceptions of course delivery, this article discusses the challenges faced by universities in the integration of technology in teaching for better learning outcomes. The study indicates that technology and learning contexts have a profound influence on student learning orientations of deep or surface learning and students seem to have mixed feelings about the impact of technology in teaching and learning.

Measuring student learning using initial and final concept test in an STEM course

Effective assessment is a cornerstone in measuring student learning in higher education. For a course in Numerical Methods, a concept test was used as an assessment tool to measure student learning and its improvement during the course. The concept test comprised 16 multiple choice questions and was given in the beginning and end of the class for three semesters. Hake's gain index, a measure of learning gains from pre- to post-tests, of 0.36 to 0.41 were recorded. The validity and reliability of the concept test was checked via standard measures such as Cronbach's alpha, content and criterion-related validity, item characteristic curves and difficulty and discrimination indices. The performance of various subgroups such as pre-requisite grades, transfer students, gender and age were also studied.

Instructional development for teachers in higher education: effects on students' learning outcomes

Evidence regarding the impact of teachers' instructional development on student learning in higher education is scarce. In this study, we investigate the impact of an instructional development program for beginning university teachers on students’ learning outcomes. We also explore whether this impact is dependent on class size and student level. Quantitative data were gathered from more than 1000 students at pre- and post-tests, using a quasi-experimental design. A multi-level analysis was conducted in which five models were estimated. The results show limited effects of teachers’ instructional development. Several interpretations and perspectives for further research are discussed.

Conditions affecting the usefulness of pre- and post-tests for assessment purposes

Interest in measuring and evaluating student learning in higher education is growing. There are many tools available to assess student learning. However, the use of such tools may be more or less appropriate under various conditions. This study provides some evidence related to the appropriate use of pre/post‐tests. The question of whether graded tests elicit a higher level of performance (better representation of actual learning gains) than ungraded post‐tests is examined. We examine whether the difficulty level of the questions asked (knowledge/comprehension vs. analysis/application) affects this difference. We test whether the student’s level in the degree programme affects this difference. Results indicate that post‐tests may not demonstrate the full level of student mastery of learning objectives and that both the difficulty level of the questions asked and the level of students in their degree programme affect the difference between graded and ungraded assessments. Some of these differences may be due to causes other than grades on the assessments. Students may have benefited from the post‐test, as a review of the material, or from additional studying between the post‐test and the final examination. Results also indicate that pre‐tests can be useful in identifying appropriate changes in course materials over time.

Using Sustainability to Inform Renewal of the LLB Foundation Curriculum: Knowledge Skills and Attitudes for the Future

The discipline standards for law have coincided with a renewed focus nationally on student learning in higher education. In addition to threshold learning outcomes, higher education nationally and internationally is seeking to foster sustainability education. In this paper, we chart the evolution of an explicitly designed first year law program as it has used the conceptual approach of sustainability in tandem with the discipline standards to recalibrate the balance of lawyering skills, legal method and analysis, and reflectivity in the first year curriculum. Early uptake of transition pedagogies in the program's original 2005 design gives the authors some six years of experience on which to reflect, concerning student learning and the structure of and approach to curriculum design. This case study of curriculum renewal illustrates the tools and philosophy that underpin a refresh of the first year law curriculum seeking to engage in a bigger conceptual project, with the discipline standards in mind.

A Journey towards Sustainability: Viewing the Information Literacy Network of the Gulf Region through the Lens of P.M. Senge.

This paper explores issues in developing, leading and sustaining a professional development organization in the Gulf region. 
 Launched in December 2005, the Information Literacy Network (ILN) of the Gulf Region is an organization of librarians which supports and encourages student learning in higher education. The ILN aims to provide its members with opportunities to discuss best practices and regional challenges to developing instructional programs in information literacy. 
 The authors outline their experience highlighting the stages of development, accomplishments and recurrent challenges of the ILN. They draw parallels between the ILN and effective ‘learning organizations’ as defined by P.M. Senge in his book “The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization” . The authors in their dual roles as managers and leaders reflect on the application of Senge’s framework to the ILN to identify appropriate strategies and propose a set of recommendations to ensure that the continued development of the ILN as a true learning organization.

Understanding the one-to-one relationship in instrumental/vocal tuition in Higher Education: comparing student and teacher perceptions

The power of one-to-one tuition in Higher Music Education is evidenced by its continuing place at the heart of conservatoire education. The need to examine this student–teacher relationship more closely has been emphasised in the last decades by increasing understanding of processes of student learning in Higher Education as a whole, and in particular the impact which student–teacher relations have on learning. Literature on PhD supervision, for example, has highlighted the depth of applied craft skills made possible in one-to-one interaction, and has also drawn attention to a range of potential difficulties encountered in the supervisory relationship. This paper draws on findings from a study at a conservatoire in the UK, which explored student and teacher perceptions of one-to-one tuition. It analyses student and teacher perspectives on the relationship and considers the match between their perceptions within student–teacher pairs. Findings demonstrate diverse characterisation of the relationship, and varied approaches to extending a social relationship beyond the confines of the lesson. Comparison of student–teacher pairs indicates that the students tended to mirror their teachers' opinions about appropriate social interaction. This was one example of the dynamics of power operating within the one-to-one relationship, although these were rarely discussed explicitly. Such dynamics of power made it difficult in some instances for students to articulate difficulties with learning and to change teacher. There was also evidence of a possible connection between dynamics of power in the relationship and students' reluctance to develop artistic and professional self-direction. The implications of these findings are considered in terms of conceptualising one-to-one tuition, and the need to review the professional framework of its delivery in Higher Music Education.

Formative Assessment: Balancing Educational Effectiveness and Resource Efficiency

This paper summarises the key findings of recent educational research undertaken at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, which was supported by the UK Centre for Education in the Built Environment. The research critically analyses dilemmas between educational effectiveness and resource efficiency when considering formative assessment. Formative assessment is defined as ‘work that a student carries out during a course for which they get feedback to improve their learning, whether marked or not’. The key aim of the research is to identify and share good practice, and show the wide range of feedback options possible. A range of staff within the School of the Built Environment reflected on their own experience through the use of templates and various seminars. The research findings highlight the crucial importance of assessment generally, and formative assessment in particular, on student learning in higher education. Research pressures, larger classes and more distance learning are all challenges that make the balancing act between resource efficiency and educational effectiveness increasingly precarious. This research has not unearthed any magic solutions, but identifies practical principles and examples of how others deal with these dilemmas.

The Validity of Examination Essays in Higher Education: Issues and Responses

AbstractThe use of timed, essay examinations is a well‐established means of evaluating student learning in higher education. The reliability of essay scoring is highly problematic and it appears that essay examination grades are highly dependent on language and organisational components of writing. Computer‐assisted scoring of essays makes use of language features and has demonstrated strong similarity to human ratings. Studies of examiner behaviour show that attention to content and language features contributes to grading decisions. However, given the time constraints on essay examinations, an overemphasis on language aspects may weaken the validity of essay examination grades. This article suggests alternative approaches to the standard essay prompt which should raise the validity of essay tasks and scoring in higher education. Suggested options include redesigning tasks so that organisational and language features are less influential in scoring and the use of content maps.

Blended online learning design: Shaken not stirred

Given the crucial role played by universities in a knowledge-based society, understanding how and under what conditions online learning (OL) can improve access to graduate studies is of the highest importance to today’s growing global economy. Over the past decade, phenomenal advances have been made in the application of communication and information technologies to support student learning in higher education. Yet, in proportion to overall provision of higher education, the use of technology by faculty for graduate-level, online learning (OL) has been minimal, especially among regular faculty. In this session, Norm Vaughan and Michael Power present an adapted form of OL, especially designed for traditional universities, with initial data from studies underway in two Canadian universities. Finally, an emerging network of researchers interested in the role of online learning within mainstream higher education is presented.

The Opinions of the Undergraduate Students and Faculty Members on Factors that Affect Student Learning and Academic Achievement

Teaching in higher education is a very complicated and detailed subject. Good teaching encourages high quality student learning. One of the key principle of effective teaching in higher education is the concern and respect for student learning. Learning style, learning dimensions and academic belief systems as significant factors contributing to academic achievement. The quality of student learning in higher education should be improved and can be improved. How can it best be improved?. The answer is nearer to home :it lies in the connection between students’ learning of particular content and quality of our teaching of that content. Through listening to what students have said about their learning, we have observed how real this connection is. Good teaching and good learning are linked through students ‘experiences of what we do. It follows that we can not teach belter unless we are able to see what we are doing from their point of view’ (Ramsden,1999). Learning dimensions and academic belief systems as significant factors contributing to academic achievement. Anyone can only improve the quality of higher education if he/she study its effects on students and look at the experience through their and their lecturers’ eyes.

Assessing the Impact of the 4MAT Teaching Model Across Multiple Disciplines in Higher Education

Much attention has focused on learning styles and their impact on the teaching and learning process; however, little has been done to systematically incorporate learning style theory into actual teaching, nor to systematically examine its potential impact on student learning in higher education. As part of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project, six faculty members representing the university's Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Professional Studies, and Engineering and Technology implemented the 4MAT model in their respective classes during the fall 2007 semester. 4MAT is a teaching methodology posited by Bernice McCarthy (1987) that is built upon the principles of learning styles and their relationship to the natural learning cycle. Use of the 4MAT Model in K–12 settings has been supported by research (Wilkerson & White 1988; Blair & Judah 1990). This article lends support to using 4MAT in a higher education setting. Faculty engaged in the SoTL project at the completion of the semester asked their students to complete a Likert scale survey comparing their redesigned courses to comparable college courses. A meta-analysis of these data indicated significant findings for six out of the eight comparative statements measured.

Disciplines, discourse and Orientalism: the implications for postgraduate certificates in learning and teaching in higher education

Despite national requirements for accredited teaching qualifications, there is a lack of literature on disciplinary differences in student learning in higher education. Academics at a UK research‐intensive university were asked to report on the existence of literature or knowledge concerned with how students learnt in their subject. No relevant literature or folklore was identified, but responses did demonstrate a discourse in which the academics constructed their discipline as ‘better’ than other disciplines: the finding with which the present article is concerned. The discourse of the distinctiveness and superiority of one’s own discipline can be understood as a form of ‘Orientalism’. A post‐colonial analysis of the discourse of disciplinary relationships offers a partial explanation for challenges made to the validity of cross‐university activities, such as postgraduate certificates in learning and teaching.

Transformation and contextualisation: conceptualising students’ conceptual understandings of threshold concepts in calculus

Research on student learning in higher education suggests that threshold concepts within various disciplines have the capacity to transform students’ understanding. The present study explores students’ understanding in relation to particular threshold concepts in mathematics—integral and limit—and tries to clarify in what sense developing an understanding of those threshold concepts involves a transformation of understanding in relation to ways of thinking in mathematics. Drawing on data collected in interviews with students taking a basic course on calculus the analysis offers an initial characterisation of students’ understandings as algorithmic. It then proceeds to construct a more fine-grained theoretical account for how these understandings develop in the course of the interview, suggesting that the transformative aspects of threshold concepts may be conceptualised in terms of shifts in students’ contextualisations allowing the development of conceptions at different levels of abstraction simultaneously interacting to shape students’ awareness of the ways of thinking and practising in the subject.

What have we been thinking of? A critical overview of 40 years of student learning research in higher education

This article is a response to a request to consider the following three questions in relation to the recent history of research into student learning in higher education: What do we know?, What do we need to know?, and What might we do about it? A survey of article titles reporting on research into student learning was carried out in three key higher education journals, and the results of this were then considered in the context of other, related research perspectives. The article will first report on the results of this review, and then discuss these results in the context of theoretical moves in psychology and sociology over the same period of time. The trends identified in the higher education journals will then be compared to research into student learning in higher education which is published in two other disciplinary areas: adult education and sociolinguistics. After raising some questions that arise from these comparisons, the final section of the article will outline some suggestions about ways in which higher education researchers might begin to ‘think differently’ about learning and research in this field.