Procedures In Higher Education Research Articles

Promotion of Student Self-Regulation from Transformational Evaluation Processes: Case Applied to the Innovation Program in University Teaching

Objective: To describe from a transformational model based on student empowerment, the implementation of active and collaborative evaluation procedures among students, with the purpose of promoting self-regulation of their learning. Theoretical Framework: The new conception of evaluation has involved the incorporation of new evaluative agents in the process, focused on an evaluation for learning and how learning, integrating students as active participants in their own learning and evaluation, developing self-regulation and metacognitive, promoting student empowerment, and the delegation of evaluative responsibilities from a dialogic and collaborative model. Method: The methodology adopted for this research arises from a qualitative approach and includes an intrinsic case study, for which the ALE–Q Questionnaire - Evaluation Climate as learning and empowerment in Higher Education by Ibarra-Sáiz, María Soledad, was applied. & Rodríguez-Gómez, Gregorio. Results and Discussion: It can be confirmed that greater student participation in learning evaluation processes promotes student autonomy and responsibility, which mobilizes more inclusive, empowered and democratic evaluation processes. The possibility that students can make value judgments and commit to their own learning, which mobilizes learning throughout life. Implications of the Research: The research involved delving into the learning evaluation procedures in higher education and promoting from here a change from the traditional evaluation paradigm towards a transformational evaluative approach based on student empowerment, this paradigmatic break highlights what is legitimized found among higher education teachers to implement traditional, unilateral evaluation models with little student participation. Originality/Value: The study stresses traditional learning evaluation models versus transformational evaluative models, where the active, collaborative and empowered participation of students is promoted, producing a break in the linearity of how the evaluation processes have been conceived.

An effective secondary personalization file system driven by FileForge module

Digital service platforms provided by academic support departments in Macao assist academic staff and students in various areas such as registry, student affairs, academic activities, and research. As the number of undergraduate students increases and new departments are established, academic staff often face the challenge of dealing with paperwork that contains similar content but different formats. This situation results in redundancies and a waste of time. This paper presents our endeavors to simplify administrative procedures in higher education by automating restructured documentation and developing secondary file systems. The paper presents two case studies: Scenario One focuses on streamlining the publication system for academic staff who submit papers in different formats. At the same time, Scenario Two aims to simplify the daily paperwork process for academic staff. Both cases involve transforming the distribution of administrative documents, transitioning from a standardized form with guidelines to a customized form with concise tips. This approach allows academic staff to handle only the necessary information, which may not be available in the database or requires verification. The case studies serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of this administrative simplification.

The intersection of national and international quality assurance procedures in higher education in Jordan: a deduced guide for academic programs and curricula at Yarmouk University

The aim of this article is to explore the quality assurance procedures in higher education in Jordan considering national and international accredited agencies. The researchers conducted a field visit to four major public universities; on-site interviews with key officers; and, utilised revealed materials over quality assurance endeavours to grasp at the standard quality assurance and enhancement. The quality assurance in higher education institution is seen by the Jordanian universities in premises accommodating and duty-bound obliged to fair acknowledge because of external pressure for demonstrating quality assurance and certification. For Jordan to reach quality assurance in higher education, enthusiastic support of the highest management within the university to decide the proposed structure in this article with a clear definition of specifications to the proposed directives. This valuable contribution can work as a guide for the development of an internal quality profile and keep up property quality management and enhancement programs.

The intersection of national and international quality assurance procedures in higher education in Jordan: a deduced guide for academic programs and curricula at Yarmouk University

The intersection of national and international quality assurance procedures in higher education in Jordan: a deduced guide for academic programs and curricula at Yarmouk University

Community Colleges and COVID-19: An Exploration of Challenges and Inequities

COVID-19 drastically changed many aspects of life in the U.S. and most certainly changed standard operating procedures in higher education. Moving all classes completely online created numerous challenges not only for students, but also for faculty. For students, these challenges included issues related to physical and mental health, job loss, and caregiving, as well as access to internet and even access to a home computer. Faculty also faced challenges. For example, many colleges and universities rely on adjunct faculty who are compensated on a course-by-course basis. Although most institutions provided faculty development sessions to make a smooth transition to online teaching, adjunct faculty were not necessarily invited to participate and, when they were, they were not compensated for time spent in these sessions or the additional work incurred to transition and teach in the online environment. This essay explores how community college students and faculty in the basic course responded to the COVID-19 crisis. Specifically, we discuss issues of employment, family responsibilities, and the digital divide as they reveal systemic inequities in the college setting, as well as in society.

Epistemic Network Analyses of Economics Students' Graph Understanding: An Eye-Tracking Study.

Learning to solve graph tasks is one of the key prerequisites of acquiring domain-specific knowledge in most study domains. Analyses of graph understanding often use eye-tracking and focus on analyzing how much time students spend gazing at particular areas of a graph—Areas of Interest (AOIs). To gain a deeper insight into students’ task-solving process, we argue that the gaze shifts between students’ fixations on different AOIs (so-termed transitions) also need to be included in holistic analyses of graph understanding that consider the importance of transitions for the task-solving process. Thus, we introduced Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) as a novel approach to analyze eye-tracking data of 23 university students who solved eight multiple-choice graph tasks in physics and economics. ENA is a method for quantifying, visualizing, and interpreting network data allowing a weighted analysis of the gaze patterns of both correct and incorrect graph task solvers considering the interrelations between fixations and transitions. After an analysis of the differences in the number of fixations and the number of single transitions between correct and incorrect solvers, we conducted an ENA for each task. We demonstrate that an isolated analysis of fixations and transitions provides only a limited insight into graph solving behavior. In contrast, ENA identifies differences between the gaze patterns of students who solved the graph tasks correctly and incorrectly across the multiple graph tasks. For instance, incorrect solvers shifted their gaze from the graph to the x-axis and from the question to the graph comparatively more often than correct solvers. The results indicate that incorrect solvers often have problems transferring textual information into graphical information and rely more on partly irrelevant parts of a graph. Finally, we discuss how the findings can be used to design experimental studies and for innovative instructional procedures in higher education.

Academic freedom and an invitation to promote its advancement

AbstractAcademic freedom is under threat internationally. Several high profile incidents suggest that academic freedom is a principle neither well understood nor appreciated by key decision makers and stakeholders whom one might expect to champion it, be they in government or within the academy itself. Among those incidents are the arbitrary exercise of ministerial discretion to override the Australian Research Council expert peer review recommendations for allocation of funding, recent attacks on the credibility of academic publishing internationally, and the atrocious treatment of scholars by authoritarian regimes across the globe. In light of such developments, the membership of the Institute of Australian Geographers recently adopted a resolution that, inter alia, called on the Council of the Institute of Australian Geographers ‘not to be silent on the issue of attacks on critical scholarship, academic freedom and the integrity of academic procedures in higher education, research and publishing’. Given the complexity of the issues, this paper invites further discussion and debate on how Australian geography and geographers might better appreciate and advance academic freedom including via the promotion of scholarship that gives full effect to the principle.

Assessment of academic stress and coping strategies among built environment undergraduate students in Nigerian higher education

PurposeStress has become an important topic in the academic environment. However, studies on academic stress among built environment students have received little attention. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to assess the causes of academic stress, and its coping strategies among built environment undergraduate students in public higher education institution (HEI) in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive literature review was conducted to identify the causes of academic stress and its coping strategies among the students in HEIs, using quantity surveying students as a case. Primary data were elicited through questionnaire survey administered on 189 quantity surveying students in Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. A total of 169 copies of the questionnaire were returned and suitable for analysis. The data obtained were analyzed using the mean score and t-test.FindingsThe study identified 27 causes of students’ academic stress, and the analysis of the total ranking revealed that 8 out of 27 causes of academic stress were considered important. The results of t-test indicated that except for 5 out of 27 identified causes of student academic stress, there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of male and female students. The study further identified 30 coping strategies employed by students in dealing with academic stress, out of which six identified coping strategies were considered important. In addition, the results of t-test revealed that except for 11 out of 30 identified coping strategies, there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of male and female students surveyed.Practical implicationsThe identification of the important causes of academic stress and its coping strategies among the students in the public higher education will be useful for the university management to formulate policies toward providing a well-balanced academic environment that is conducive to better learning. In addition, policy recommendations are proposed.Originality/valueThe findings will help the academic staff and university management to design and implement policies toward refining the teaching procedures in higher education. Also, this study would be of great value to academic staff and university administrators to develop a framework for incorporating stress coping strategies in the higher education curriculum. This study is important as not many empirical studies relating to academic stress and its coping strategies have been conducted in the built environment disciplines.

Did My M.D. Really Go to University to Learn? Detrimental Effects of Numerus Clausus on Self-Efficacy, Mastery Goals and Learning

Exams with numerus clausus are very common in Medicine, Business Administration and Law. They are intended to select a predefined number of academic candidates on the basis of their rank rather than their absolute performance. Various scholars and politicians believe that numerus clausus policies are a vector of academic excellence. We argue, however, that they could have ironic epistemic effects. In comparison with selective policies based on criterion-based evaluations, selection via numerus clausus creates negative interdependence of competence (i.e., the success of some students comes at the expense of the others). Thus, we expect it to impair students’ sense of self-efficacy and—by extension—the level of mastery goals they adopt, as well as their actual learning. Two field studies respectively reported that presence (versus absence) and awareness (versus ignorance) of numerus clausus policies at University was associated with a decreased endorsement of mastery goals; this effect was mediated by a reduction in self-efficacy beliefs. Moreover, an experimental study revealed that numerus clausus negatively predicted learning; this effect was, again, mediated by a reduction in self-efficacy beliefs. Practical implications for the selection procedures in higher education are discussed.

Evaluación metodológica de la investigación contemporánea sobre respuestas académicas complejas en la instrucción Universitaria: Primera parte

A review was made of a number of research articles Qn Me effects of diverse variables Qn the establishment or maintenance of “complex” academic responses. Each paper was reviewed concerning the methodologi cal quality of its research and the experimental and educational relevan ce of its results. The sources of the initial survey included Me standard indexes on educational publications. The methodological entena included, among others: validity of dependent and independent variables,- subjects’ comparability within group companisons; control of expenimenters and observers biases; observers reliability and control of other “interna!” and “idiosyncratic’ confoundings. Wzthzn thzs fzrst part, Me follo wing responses wene explored and evaluated: originalitC, cneative thinking, comprehension, abs tmction and genenalization. The conclusion of Me present papa is that, in general, Mere seems to be sorne support for the inclusion of som e procedures in higher education in orden to fos ten vanious complex slcills. However, most of the research results should be taken very carefully and ten tatively because of their numerous methodological Jlaws.

Issues in the Evaluation of Teaching Performance in Higher Education

The implementation of evaluative procedures in higher education is widespread with major concerns in the areas of: quality of teaching, curriculum content, subject relevance, coursework assessment, staff helpfulness and accessibility. In the main, the objective of this monitoring and evaluation is to maintain standards, identify weaknesses and to improve, wherever possible, the quality of courses and institutions. Often the methods employed to assess professional performance are contentious (Curling, 1994), particularly so when criteria are sought for the granting of tenure, promotion, the renewal of contracts and the dismissal of staff (College of The Bahamas Evaluation Report, 1985). Among other evaluation procedures, student evaluation of lecturer's teaching performance receives its share of faculty criticism and hostility. This paper is concerned with student evaluation of teaching performance in higher education. Initially the methodology employed in this review is described. Selected issues in student evaluation of teaching performance are presented and examined. Finally the review is summarized and suggestions made.

Widening Access to Higher Education – An Australian Case Study

In this paper the authors trace the development of equity within the Australian higher education context over the latter part of the last century. In particular they focus on the ways different perspectives (liberalist-individualist and social democratic) have shaped what has been a dramatic increase in the number and diversity of students accessing higher education in Australia. The adoption of a specific perspective has influenced the formation of policies concerning equity and consequently the way universities have responded to the pressures to accept more and different students. These responses are captured under two main headings – ‘restructuring the entry into higher education’ and ‘changing the curriculum within higher education’. Several examples of current programs and procedures based upon these are explained. The paper concludes with the identification of three ‘dilemmas' which have emerged as a result of the development and implementation of equity processes and procedures in higher education in Australia. These are: (a) While there has been an increase in the number and range of students accessing higher education, this has been accompanied by a financial cost to the more disadvantaged students, a cost which has the potential to exacerbate equity principles. (b) For one of the first times in the history of higher education, a focus is being placed on its teaching and learning functions, as opposed to its research functions. The problem is that those universities that have been obliged to broaden their base radically have also been obliged to review their teaching and learning practices without any budgetary compensation. (c) A third consequence of these changes relates to the life of a traditional academic. Universities that have been at the forefront of ‘changing their curriculum’ to cope with more diverse student groups (open and distance learning) have seen the loss of ‘lecturer autonomy’ as they work more as members of teams and less as individuals.

A VERSATILE METHOD FOR SELECTION AND MONITORING OF SCIENCE STUDENTS

ABSTRACT This article describes a recent study with undergraduate and post graduate chemistry students and concerns their understanding of the role of models in chemistry. The principal technique used was the semi‐structured workshop Interview Involving models. The study highlighted the value of this technique in Identifying concept difficulties in chemistry and in exploring students’ views on science education issues in general. The article considers the potential of the semi‐structured workshop interview and makes recommendations for its Inclusion into a wide variety of assessment and evaluation procedures in higher education.

Communication assessment instruments and procedures in higher education

This article is a summary report of the SCA Committee on Assessment and Testing. It gives the results of a national survey designed to determine the range and degree of assessment occurring in colleges and universities, and to evaluate the standardized assessment methods employed.