Higher Professional Education Research Articles

Cultural Partner Program: Enhancing Intercultural Interactions and Transition Outcomes for International Graduate Level Students

International students, especially graduate-level students, experience unique challenges as they make a transition to a new social and cultural environment. This study examines the impacts of the Cultural Partner Program on transition outcomes for incoming graduate-level international students. Of the 171 participants recruited from a public research university in the southeast U.S., 39 participated in the control group and the rest in the experimental group. Although the regression analysis did not reveal significant results, supplemental standardized mean difference analyses was conducted considering the wide 95% confidence intervals and the relatively small sample size in the regression analysis. The standardized mean difference analyses revealed that in comparison with the control group, the experimental group performed better on specific transition outcomes (i.e., intercultural interaction enjoyment, self-esteem, stress, perceived social support, social and academic integration, and attitudes toward seeking professional help) but performed worse on other intercultural sensitivity subscales and cultural identity. Higher education professionals need to foster inclusive and creative environments for international students to enhance their transition experiences and outcomes.

Teacher strategies that foster students’ boundary-crossing expertise when addressing problems with wicked tendencies

ABSTRACT Professionals are increasingly involved in attempts to understand and address problems with wicked tendencies, which require crossing boundaries between disciplines, organisations and stakeholder perspectives. This multiple-case study investigated six higher professional education courses in order to develop better understanding of how teachers foster the development of students’ boundary-crossing expertise through enhancing relevant learning processes in courses focussing on wicked-problem-solving in interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder contexts. We viewed students’ relevant learning processes as learning mechanisms that foster boundary awareness (identification and reflection) and boundary work (coordination and transformation) and considered teachers to be enablers of such learning processes. Data came from semi-structured interviews with teachers, students and stakeholders, observations and document study. We identified nine interrelated enabling strategies teachers used. To foster students’ observation of wickedness through boundary awareness, they encouraged mutual acquaintance, open exploration, opportunities for learning, and multi-perspectivity. To foster students’ action through boundary work, they encouraged initial contact, joint action and multifaceted perspectives on value creation. To foster the interplay between boundary awareness and work, they encouraged successive refinement and structure while embracing wickedness. Balancing the tension that students experience at boundaries when navigating complexity, uncertainty and value divergence was identified as an important element of these enabling strategies.

Competitive Higher Education Teacher for the Digital World

The world we live in today holds some uncertainties. The processes of automation, big data, the digital environment, global crises, and the interconnectedness of international society are changing common technological patterns and the educational system. Among the essential features of competitiveness of teachers in higher education are mobility, digital competencies, adaptability, participation in scientific networks and projects, and continuous acquisition of new technological skills. For this reason, teachers must continuously develop their professional skills to remain competitive and create professionals in higher education. Current conditions are fostering global demand for teachers who produce pedagogical and scientific developments.<br /> This article aims to solve the problem of defining the structure, content, and requirements of scientific and methodological support for higher education teachers’ competitiveness in a digital world in the context of global challenges and risks. Theoretically, the problem is defined by the need for new approaches to explaining the concept of teacher competitiveness and the need to develop a psychological and teaching methodology for training and developing teacher competitiveness. In practice, we conclude that researchers must develop personal, professional, procedural, and technological enhancements to support higher education faculty competitiveness in a digital world.

Статистический анализ безработицы в южнороссийских регионах

Introduction. Development of any contemporary region is determined by a variety of factors underlying socioeconomic processes. Goals. The study aims at analyzing the unemployment rate in regions of Southern Russia under study, as well as official documents, scientific literature, expert opinions relating to problems of unemployment, employment of the population — to further examine the actual current conditions of the Republic’s economy. Results. Problem of unemployment is topical for Southern Russian regions’ economics. It becomes more common in subsidised regions with agricultural specialization predominated. Only one of the regions — Rostov Oblast — is characterized by average unemployment rate (4–5 %), in others three (Volgograd Oblast, Astrakhan Oblast, Republic of Kalmykia) the rate is high. For last few years the unemployment rate in the Republic of Kalmykia exceeds 7 %, with the highest percentage of young people ageing 20–29 and 30–39. Residents of the Republic who have higher professional education should also be considered to be in insufficient demand on the labour market.

Exploring Mindful Self-Care as a Potential Mediator between Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue among Student Services Professionals

Higher education professionals are subject to high levels of stress as they support student populations at risk of trauma. Compassion fatigue, which represents dimensions of secondary traumatic stress and burnout, is associated with a poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among those providing student services. Prior studies on helping professionals have found that mindful self-care mediates the relationship between compassion satisfaction, the positive aspects of helping others in one’s role, and compassion fatigue, but this has not been sufficiently explored in this population. A total of 559 respondents (faculty, students, and staff) who provide non-instructional support across 23 student service areas at 22 comprehensive regional universities completed a cross-sectional survey assessing mindful self-care, professional quality of life and HRQOL. Path analyses were conducted using EQS 6.4 software to test one model controlled for age, progressing from compassion satisfaction to mindful self-care, to compassion fatigue, to HRQOL. Mindful self-care, particularly supportive structure, mediated the relationship between compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Compassion satisfaction was positively associated with HRQOL through mindful self-care and compassion fatigue. Institutions seeking to address compassion fatigue and promote well-being should implement policies to facilitate self-care by ensuring manageable workloads and balancing internal and external demands.

Collaborator, applied linguist, academic, expense? Exploring the professional identities of academic language and learning professionals

ABSTRACT The complex role of academic language and learning (ALL) professionals in higher education is poorly understood, even though it contributes to key outcomes such as improved study skills, academic language enhancement, curriculum development and student retention. In this paper, we explore the multiple professional identities of people working in this field. Ten ALL practitioners employed in Australian universities took part in semi-structured interviews exploring their roles and the contextual constraints and affordances of their work. We elaborate on eight discrete subject positions that emerged from the participants’ data: the collaborator, the relationship manager, the applied linguist, the teacher, the content (non) expert, the academic, the strategist, and the expense. We draw on a critical realist frame to articulate the interplay between structure and individual agency within these identities, highlighting the range of expertise that ALL practitioners bring to the role.

Predicting Retention in Higher Education from high-stakes Exams or School GPA

ABSTRACT The transition from secondary to tertiary education varies from country to country. In many countries, secondary school is concluded with high-stakes, national exams, or high-stakes entry tests are used for admissions to tertiary education. In other countries, secondary-school grade point average (GPA) is the determining factor. In the Netherlands, both play a role. With administrative data of close to 180,000 students, we investigated whether national exam scores or secondary school GPA was a better predictor of tertiary first-year retention. For both university education and higher professional education, secondary school GPA was the better prediction of retention, to the extent that national exams did not explain any additional variance. Moreover, for students who failed their exam, being held back by the secondary school for an additional year and entering tertiary education one year later, GPA in the year of failure remained as predictive as for students who had passed their exams and started tertiary education immediately. National exam scores, on the other hand, had no predictive value at all for these students. It is concluded that secondary school GPA measures aspects of student performance that is not included in high-stakes national exams, but that are predictive of subsequent success in tertiary education.

Integration concepts in Integrated High School: a literature review

This article aims to investigate, even in a preliminary way, the concepts of integration related to Integrated High School in Brazilian research addressed to this theme. The search parameters used in the integrative literature review from the first 6 pages of Google Scholar were: the search terms “concepção de integração” and “ensino médio integrado”/ “concepções de integração” and “ensino médio integrado” combined; the publication time interval - from 2011 to 2020; and academic textual genres - articles, monographs, dissertations, theses, and full papers published in event proceedings. The studies found were classified according to the integration perspective they exhibit, with the specification of objectives, methodological aspects, and main findings reported in the studies. Among the 31 publications identified, all of them address the three meanings discussed by Ramos (2008): conception of human training; way of linking high school and professional education; and the relationship between part and totality in the curricular proposal.

Scientific work organization of the technical profile students

This article deals with the issue of the technical profile students scientific work (SSW) organization in the P.S. Nakhimov BSHNS. The implementation of the ESW at the P.S. Nakhimov BSHNS is given in the form of reports to the conference CMSS and SMSS and the reports preparation that are published in the the CMSS and SMSS Cadets and Students Reports Collection at the Conference of the P.S. Nakhimov BSHNS. Preparation for this conference is carried out for 6 months and aims to increase the scientific training level of the specialists with higher professional education and identify talented young people for the subsequent replenishment of the university scientific and pedagogical staff. The reports are carried out in accordance with the curricula and programs. These reports contain elements of scientific research. Participation in research work helps students to comprehend the basics of their specialty, apply knowledge in solving practical problems, develops skills in working in research and production teams. In the process of carrying out educational research, students learn to work independently with scientific literature and systematize it, apply their knowledge in solving specific research tasks. The conference result was "Recommendations to the Student Heads Educational and Research Works of the BSHNS. Therefore, the main ESW goal is the self-realization of the student's personality based on the acquired research skills. Under the guidance of the supervisor (teacher), the student's personality develops in three directions: self-improvement, self-knowledge, and self-education. In the course of research activities, the following student qualities are acquired and developed: the skill of independent research activity; the skill of working with scientific and cognitive literature; initiative and creativity; use, expansion and deepening of subject knowledge; the skill of working together with the participants of the study; self-affirmation of students in this subject area, etc.

Compliance with Preventive Measures and COVID-19 Vaccination Intention among Medical and Other Healthcare Students.

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to evaluate compliance with preventive measures and COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among Slovenian students of healthcare and medicine, identify the predictive socio-demographic factors, establish the possible causes, and propose vaccination strategies and programs in response to the findings. Methods: Data were collected using an online survey as part of a large cross-sectional study of full-time students engaged in higher-level study. The survey took place between 9 February and 8 March 2021. Results: A total of 56.3% of medical and other healthcare students surveyed expressed their intention to receive the vaccine at the earliest opportunity, 22.4% said that they would do so at a later date and 21.3% said that they did not intend to get vaccinated. The medical students surveyed showed a greater readiness to get vaccinated at the earliest opportunity than those studying other healthcare disciplines, men more than women, and single persons more than those in a relationship. Students attending a vocational college, professional higher education or university study program (Bologna first cycle) showed less readiness than other students to get vaccinated as soon as they were able. Conclusion: Our research found that 56.3% of those studying health-related subjects intended to get vaccinated at the earliest opportunity. There were significant differences between medical and other healthcare students, as well as differences resulting from the level of higher education study being undertaken. In addition, the conclusions show that there needs to be a strengthening of communication with students regarding COVID-19 and the importance of vaccination. Lessons that we learned in this pandemic should prepare us for the future. Clearer and more effective communication and education in the future regarding the importance of vaccination is the most effective way of preventing communicable diseases.

Exploring the impact of diversity training on the development and application of cultural competence skills in higher education professionals

This study explores how higher education professionals develop and demonstrate cultural competence in their professional roles. Through a mixed methods case-study approach, the study investigates how perceived levels of cultural competence in higher education professionals is shaped by participation in an extended diversity training program. Additionally, this study explores implications for individual career trajectories as a result of program completion and implementation of new learning. Study findings indicate that participants anticipate lasting effects from the training experience. The training introduced and ignited a reconfiguration of what it means to engage and work in spaces where institutional and organizational commitments are aligned with personal commitments. Following training, all participants expressed deep commitment to intentionally and actively cultivating a sense of belonging and inclusion in the workplace through shared language, shifts in policy, and more thoughtful interpersonal interactions with colleagues and peers.

Educational Characteristics of Learner Autonomy

According to many scholars, learner autonomy is a direction in higher professional education, which contributes to the formation of students’ independence as the primary personality trait that helps build their educational process without outside interference. The research goal was to identify the characteristics of the concepts of “independence,” “learner autonomy,” and “autonomous educational activity,” and their relationship to each other. We obtained the following results: independence is a personality trait, which is formed in the process of carrying out activities with a gradual transition from external management to self￾management. Learner autonomy is the highest level of a person’s independence, manifested in the readiness to create their educational product. From our point of view, autonomous educational activity is a technology of formation of readiness for further continuous professional education based on the obtained skills of independent goal setting and ways of achieving it. The study allowed us to more accurately define these concepts, which contributes to the scholarly literature and the possibility of further research on learner autonomy.

Towards Professionalism in Higher Education: An Exploratory Case Study of Struggles and Needs of Online Adjunct Professors

The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of the unique professional development needs related to the struggles of online adjunct professors. Twenty-one participants from within a purposefully selected group of online adjunct professors in the United States participated in this qualitative investigation. Data were gathered in two phases: the first phase consisted of a six open-ended-question Qualtrics questionnaire completed by the 21 respondents, and the second phase was follow-up interviews with six of the 21 participants along with the collection of pertinent documents related to professional development. Results indicate that online adjunct professors receive varied and limited professional development, and therefore need more training in the following major categories: course preparation and technology awareness, access to course materials and online resources, and improved communication interaction and engagement. The participating online adjunct professors confirmed that training within these professional development areas would be most beneficial for all stakeholders and should be provided by their employing institution or attained through self-initiated methods.

Student reflections on an interdisciplinary pandemics course utilising systems thinking.

The complexity and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to change training of public health professionals in higher education by shifting from siloed specialisations to interdisciplinary collaboration. At the end of 2020 and 2021, public health professionals collaboratively designed and delivered, a week-long intensive course-Public Health in Pandemics. The aim of this research study was to understand whether the use of systems thinking in the design and delivery of the course enabled students to grasp the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary health promotion and public health practice. Two focus group interviews (n=5 and 3/47) and a course opinion survey (n=11/47) were utilised to gather information from students regarding experiences and perceptions of course design and delivery, and to determine if students felt better able to understand the complex nature of pandemics and pandemic responses. Students provided positive feedback on the course and believed that the course design and delivery assisted in understanding the complex nature of health problems and the ways in which health promotion and public health practitioners need to work across sectors with diverse disciplines for pandemic responses. The use of an integrated interdisciplinary approach to course design and delivery enabled students used systems thinking to understand the complexity in preparing for and responding to a pandemic. This approach may have utility in preparing an agile, iterative and adaptive health promotion and public health workforce more capable of facing the challenges and complexity in public health.

Innovative development of the system of additional professional education for specialists of the construction industry

Introduction. If higher professional education can be attributed to the strategic development of specialists in the construction industry, since during the training period they lay the initial base of professional knowledge, skills, skills, then additional professional education is a tactical solution to the issues of obtaining specialized knowledge, skills and abilities that a specialist needs at a given time to solve professional tasks. The modern trend within the information society is the concept of lifelong learning, taking into account the capabilities and needs of a specialist in the construction industry. Continuing education is aimed at ensuring human rights: on their development, changing the type of activity, profession. The development of the system of continuous education of specialists in the construction industry acts as the most important direction of innovative development of educational activities. This requires a flexible system of tools, forms, methods, models that take into account organizational, economic, digital and innovative changes that contribute to improving the quality of education. The results of the conducted research have shown that the development of the system of additional professional education has faced a number of problems of an objective and subjective nature due to the lack of separate organizational transformations that take into account the modern needs of the market.
 Materials and methods. A systematic approach, general theoretical methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, analogy, generalization, comparison, comparison, and others), as well as graphical modeling.
 Results. An approach is presented that complements the Russian economic theory with a methodology for determining the effectiveness of implementing management decisions on the process of innovative development of the system of additional vocational education, and allows assessing the ability of this educational system to adapt to the conditions of a dynamically changing labor market.
 Conclusions. The analysis proves that the effective development of organizational management relations is of particular importance and can be implemented on the basis of a scientifically based algorithm that will ultimately improve the economic efficiency and manageability of the system of additional vocational education.

RESEARCH OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE C# PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE FOR CREATING CYBERSECURITY ANALYSIS SOFTWARE IN COMPUTER NETWORKS AND COMPUTER-INTEGRATED SYSTEMS

The object of research in the article are the tools and capabilities of the C# programming language for the implementation of cybersecurity analysis software in local computer networks and computer-integrated systems. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of information security of computer and computer-integrated systems in government, military-industrial complex, private business etc., and due to the importance of training cybersecurity professionals in higher education to consider teaching examples in popular programming languages. The goal of the work is to research the possibilities of the C# programming language for the development of software that analyzes cybersecurity in local computer networks and computer-integrated systems. The tasks to be solved are: to develop software for scanning network device ports in computer networks and computer-integrated systems for information security audit, using tools and libraries of the C# programming language, to research the benefits and possibilities of using this programming language for this task. Research methods: theory of computer networks, object-oriented programming, theory of algorithms and data structures, theory of software testing. Conclusions. In this paper the possibilities and advantages of the C# programming language for developing cybersecurity analysis software for computer and computer-integrated systems were explored. In the course of work software that analyzes information security in local computer networks and computer-integrated systems was developed. This software can be used for educational purposes in learning the C# programming language and cybersecurity of computer systems. The developed software has the potential to be further improved and applied in various fields to test the cybersecurity of local computer networks and computer-integrated technologies.

Psychological Service of the University: Main Objectives and Directions of Functioning

The relevance of research. Many universities in Russia have not yet formed in their structure interdisciplinary academic systems to support the educational process, do not pose and do not solve the problem of building and developing interprofessional communications between service units in situations of macro-social crises and emergencies that fill the modern life of educational subjects, and pose new challenges and the tasks of psychological and other types of assistance from academic services. Research problem. The psychological service of the university often takes on all the problems existing for subjects and stakeholders of education (including medical, social, legal, educational, etc.): such a strategy of activity is of a protective nature of “half measures” that interferes with the search and implementation of effective approaches to solving problems... Therefore, it is extremely important to determine what academic psychological support services for the educational process should and should not do. Understanding the limitations of the current capabilities of the service, its specialists need to be aware of the prospects and those options for assistance that the service could perform, helping to make the educational environment of the university as harmonious and appropriate to the needs of educational entities as possible, not only to prevent and resolve problems and violations of their development, but to set goals self-improvement, develop both in stable and crisis periods. The aim of the research is to study the main tasks and directions of work of modern psychological services of institutions of higher professional education. Procedure and Methods. Research methods – theoretical analysis and synthesis of the problems of leading tasks and areas of work of modern psychological services of institutions of higher professional education. Results. Modern academic support services for the educational process include in their work a whole range of tasks, however, in practice, in many cases, some of the tasks remain unsolved, the available methodological and theoretical resources are unclaimed. Conclusion. Prospects for researching the problem are related to the possibilities, limitations, directions and technologies of anti-crisis assistance: assistance in situations of intrapersonal and microsocial and macrosocial crises. Recommendations for improving the work of modern academic services for psychological support of education include, as the leading concepts, “anti-crisis”, “interdisciplinary”, “aimed at improving” the subjects of education.

INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE, EDUCATION AND PRODUCTION IN THE CONDITIONS OF INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF KAZAKHSTAN

In modern conditions of human existence, it is necessary to generate a new type of human for whom the need for creativity, self-development and self-changing will become significant. People of postindustrial society will have to demonstrate the ability to design, to a greater extent than copy, constantly engage in self-education, because information environment requires a great deal of intellectual mobility. In the period of modernization of Kazakhstani economy improving the system of training personnel with higher professional education became actual issue. Innovative development of the country requires rebuilding of education system, and it is possible in terms of integration of science, education and production.

Development of artistic music perception and the ability to convey the content of the performed musical work to the audience

The modern system of professional higher education in the field of academic vocal has rich experience and time-tested traditions. The multi-level complex of vocal education includes not only the development of hearing, musical memory, singing skills, etc. One of the most important tasks for the teacher is the problem of developing the correct artistic perception of music and the ability to convey to the audience the content of the performed musical work, conceived by the author. A modern pedagogue should reveal the potential of future vocalists in the conditions of their professional training in higher educational institutions of our country. Educational standards require a more complete, optimal approach to the learning process, the achievement of unity in the perception and understanding of music, and the assessment of musical works by students.

LEARNING PROBLEMS DURING QUARANTINE MEASURES IN THE COURSE "SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY"

The use of problem-based learning in higher education institutions during quarantine restrictions involves the creation and development of problem situations with their subsequent solution by students in group cooperation. This approach involves working out a high level of self-organization in students, and from the teacher – work to improve methodological skills in the new educational environment. This determined the relevance of the presented research. The conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic required from all participants in the educational process significant changes in the organization, technical and methodological support of quality educational process, where priority was given to work with generalized knowledge and basic principles of problem solving. The subject of the research is problembased learning as an interactive pedagogical technology that is able to provide quality higher professional education in conditions of quarantine restrictions during the teaching of the course "Research Methodology". The research methodology is based on an integrated approach. Descriptive method, as well as analysis and synthesis are used for the analysis of theoretical and methodological investigations. The paper also uses comparative-historical, comparative methods. In addition, the consideration of research issues is based on an interdisciplinary approach. The result of the study is the establishment of evolutionary changes in the problembased approach used in the course "Methodology of Scientific Research" under quarantine restrictions. Using a problem-based approach in this course is a comprehensive approach to online learning. This will allow students to effectively use research methods, support research activity, independence of thinking and activities in conditions of quarantine restrictions.