Quality Of Undergraduate Education Research Articles

Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of teaching quality and the effects on approaches to studying and course satisfaction

The quality of undergraduate teaching is an issue under heated dispute in China. This study examined Chinese undergraduate students’ perceptions of teaching quality and the effects on their approaches to studying and course satisfaction. A sample of 2,043 students from two full-time universities in mainland China responded to a questionnaire comprising three scales adopted from widely used instruments. The results showed that the Course Experience Questionnaire is a valid instrument for assessing the teaching quality in Chinese universities. The study also revealed the desirable effects of clear goals and standards, an emphasis on independence, generic skills, and an appropriate workload on students’ approaches to studying (measured by the Study Process Questionnaire) and course satisfaction (measured by the Overall Satisfaction Scale). However, good teaching and appropriate assessment were found to have an unexpected effect. Specifically, good teaching was found to only have a positive impact on surface motive, while appropriate assessment was found to negatively influence students’ deep as well as surface approaches. These findings highlighted the need to re-examine the role of teacher-centered pedagogy and the nature of student assessment in university teaching. The results’ implications for improving undergraduate teaching in China are suggested.

The Quest for Quality in China's Higher Education

China began to enter the mass higher education era in 2002. In 2003 the Ministry of Education launched the Quality and Reform of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Project. This project has focused on enhancing the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning by means of reforms and resource sharing. There are challenges in unaddressed conflicts of interest, unfair advantages for some applicants, and the gap between rhetoric and reality

Interdisciplinary in Promoting Improvements in the Quality of Undergraduate Education in Clinical Nursing

The university monitoring is an auxiliary activity of educational support offered to students interested in deepening content and solving questions about the topics learned in the classroom, as well as an opportunity for the development in the student-monitor relationship next to the teaching practice. This study aimed to report the experience lived by the student-monitors linked to monitoring project entitled “Interdisciplinary for improving the quality of education: Physiology, Anatomy and Pathology for Clinical Nursing teaching”. It is an experience report experienced by student-monitors linked to the project developed for curriculum component Comprehensive Health Care I, taught in the fifth period of the Undergraduate Nursing course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. This project has four stages: preparation of laboratories and fellows training, construction and application of clinical cases, development of simulations in the laboratory with the students and the final evaluation of the changing process in curriculum practice. The monitoring project has provided contact with a simulation environment for students, for the development of skills and attitudes in solving clinical nursing problems through an innovative approach to integrating disciplinary learning in the classroom and development initiation skills in student-monitors teaching. The approximate relationship with the teacher allows the exchange of knowledge, which makes proactive student-monitor in the very process of teaching and learning, as well as the teacher provides the formation of a more qualified and secure professional for the exercise of appropriate assistance.

Edited by Reiko YAMADA. <i>Measuring Quality of Undergraduate Education in Japan: Comparative Perspective in a Knowledge-Based Society</i>

Edited by Reiko YAMADA. <i>Measuring Quality of Undergraduate Education in Japan: Comparative Perspective in a Knowledge-Based Society</i>

English

Book ReviewMeasuring Quality of Undergraduate Education in Japan By Reiko Yamada (Ed.) (2014), 214pp. ISBN: 978-981-4585-80-4 (print), Singapore: Springer.

Habilidades comunicativas en la persona del terapeuta: una nueva línea educativa en la formación de fonoaudiólogas y fonoaudiólogos de la Universidad de Chile

Faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Chile constantly seeks to improve the quality of undergraduate education. In this regard, as part of a curriculum innovation process, a new educational curriculum was designed that includes an academic path aimed at developing personal and professional verbal and nonCverbal communication skills both in spoken and written modes of communication. This paper presents the rationale behind the design and implementation of this new academic path. Furthermore, an analysis of the current status of the implementation, which includes an evaluation of this process, is presented.

Yamada, Reiko (ed): measuring quality of undergraduate education in Japan: comparative perspective in a knowledge based society

Yamada, Reiko (ed): measuring quality of undergraduate education in Japan: comparative perspective in a knowledge based society

Assessing and improving the quality of undergraduate teaching in China: the Course Experience Questionnaire

Assessing and improving the quality of undergraduate teaching is an important issue in China. Using the Course Experience Questionnaire, this study examined the quality of undergraduate teaching by investigating the relationships between students’ course experience, the learning outcomes demonstrated by the students and the learning environment. Two thousand and forty-three second-year students participated in a questionnaire survey. The results indicated that different aspects of the students’ course experience variously affected learning outcomes, such as overall satisfaction with the course, academic efficacy and the development of generic skills. These results reflected the characteristics of undergraduate teaching in China, and highlighted the need to enhance student autonomy and self-study. In addition, the appropriateness of learning resources and the level of academic freedom in the institutions were found to more powerfully influence students’ course experience than the provision of supportive facilities and services. These findings have implications for improving undergraduate teaching and its quality assurance in China.

Analysis of influencing factors of undergraduate teaching quality and countermeasures

An overall improvement of teaching quality is the core task of the reform and the development of higher education. Based on the analysis of the main factors of affecting the teaching quality in universities and combined with the implementation of ＂views on improving the overall quality of higher education＂ by the Education Ministry, countermeasures for improving the teaching quality of undergraduates have been proposed such as increasing higher education funds investment to improve the condition of running a school, paying attention to the construction of teaching management staff to improve the level of teaching management, establishing Teacher Development Research Center to consolidate the fundamental position of undergraduate teaching, utilizing the high-quality social resources to implement the collaborative education innovation, and improving the personnel training system to strengthen the teaching quality standard. Key words: Institutions of higher learning; Teaching quality; Influencing factors; Countermeasure research

An Evaluation Index System of Physical Education Quality Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process Model (AHP)

In today’s competitive educational environment, the quality of physical education is ever more recognized as a fundamental factor in gaining competitive advantage. The evaluation and improvement of the quality of physical education in higher education is an important issue of on-going concern. The aim of this article is to focus on an automated management and evaluation system to efficiently control the administration of physical education. Reported in this article is an evaluation index of the quality of undergraduate education, and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model that is both practical and has proven to be successful. The results of the presented case study demonstrate the practicability and effectiveness of this model in physical education quality evaluation.

Comparative Study on Undergraduate in-class Teaching Quality Assessment at Universities in China and USA

This paper compares and characterizes various aspects of the undergraduate in-class teaching quality assessment systems at three universities in China and USA, including assessment objectives, recording methods, implementation, measures, result feedback and impact on instructors. The assessment systems have been evaluated for their characteristics, roles and problems. Recommendations and suggestions have been proposed to improve the assessment systems, including incorporating discipline-specific teaching quality measures, strengthening its role in teaching quality improvements, fixed value rating, and gradual addition of ability assessments. These recommendations and suggestions will provide useful guidance and implementable methods to effectively improve the teaching quality assessment systems for better teaching quality and outcomes.

Applying ISO15189 related factors into clinical biochemistry teaching of undergraduate students

In-depth application of the combination of theory and practice is one of the keys to improve the clinical undergraduate teaching quality of clinical laboratory diagnosis.Xuanwu Hospital used ISO15189 standards as a guide to make students fully participate in establishing performance verification and recording registration form,partly participate in the gage calibration,external quality assessment and inter-laboratory comparison etc.It also used the combined form of practice with teaching to make students learn the file writing and the equipment calibration.An orderly teaching model composed of knowledge reserve,file learning,calibration and verification was established,which was a closed-loop system that enabled students to become more deeply and extensively involved in the system and more deeply understand the connotation of clinical laboratory quality. Key words: Clinical biochemistry; Teaching; ISO15189

Book review of "Higher education in America"

Bok, Derek. (2013). Higher Education in America. Baltimore, MD: Princeton University Press. Pages: 496. Price: USD$35.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0- 691-15914-0 (printed); 978-1-400-84830-0 (ebook)Former Harvard President Derek Bok's latest book is an ambitious exercise in which he acknowledges the strengths of the American higher education system, while drawing attention to areas for improvement. The book puts forwards an agenda for that he indicates has to come from within HE institutions; academic leaders and faculty members, aided by accreditation bodies, need to take steps to collaboratively address the vulnerabilities that Bok identifies in institutions. Bok contests the general view that HE institutions are slow to change, noting institutions have risen to various challenges over the years such as adapting to demographic and technological changes, including the demands of society after World II and the advent of mass higher education. Bok cites vast array of U.S. research to support his arguments, presenting the reader with balanced view of each change item. According to Bok, the two key issues facing American PSE institutions are stagnated graduation rates over the past 30 years, resulting in other countries surpassing the US in HE attainment rates, and the need to improve the quality of undergraduate education. Both issues have implications for America's international competitiveness. The challenge in achieving these goals, notes Bok, is funding higher education for universal participation in the context of declining government revenues and household incomes and increasing tuition rates and student debt.First, meeting the federal government's goal of increasing graduation rates is challenging and sometimes impeded by state funding policies that cut funding by the amount of federal increases in student aid, thereby defeating the goal of decreasing costs to students, especially lower-income, in-state groups. He suggests online learning as possible way to decrease instructional costs. Bok contends that remedial instruction is mechanism for improving access and retention of students to comprehensive universities, community colleges, and private colleges, where many moderate and lower-income students already attend, noting that the increase in the HE attainment rate will have to come from this pool of students. Bok is not supportive of fundraising through so-called internationalization efforts via branch campuses abroad; instead, he optimistically suggests that funds generated abroad could be used to provide HE access for local students who cannot afford higher education in the branch campus countries. He also sounds warning note that opening branch campuses in countries that do not respect equality and human rights or where academic values are not respected will compromise the reputation of the universities back in America.Second, improving the quality of undergraduate education requires new vision and diverse solutions. Bok suggests the longstanding tripartite structure of the undergraduate curriculum (major, electives, and general education) needs to be revisited because it is built on a series of unexamined premises, implausible assertions, and unrealistic hopes (p. 175). Improving the quality of undergraduate education requires focus on increasing how much students learn by improving their critical thinking and analytical skills through curricula reform, revising instructional methods, and conducting continuous assessment of learning at the course, program, and faculty level. Bok cites research indicating that American professors seem to care more about their teaching responsibility than their counterparts in other advanced nations in Europe and Asia (p. 202) in order to argue that, presented with evidence of academic inadequacy, faculty members would indeed reform curricula. Additionally, he notes that the declining hours of study and grade inflation of undergraduate students is serious problem that needs to be addressed, but one that cannot be addressed by dropping standards. …

Improvements in Undergraduate Oncology Education Introduced at Polish Medical Universities Between 2004 and 2010 Under Poland’s “National Program for Combating Neoplastic Diseases”

Cancer patient treatment in Poland remains unsatisfactory when compared to that in other countries. In 2005, this alarming situation prompted the Polish government to launch the “National Program for Combating Neoplastic Diseases” (NPCND). One part of this project was to improve the quality of oncology instruction at the undergraduate level over the years 2006 and 2007 (subsequently extended until 2010 thanks to promising results and the relatively small financial outlay). The program’s main aims were to improve existing oncology therapy and to ameliorate the quality of undergraduate oncology education. To evaluate the changes in the quality of undergraduate education as a result of the NPCND program, medical universities were asked to fill out a questionnaire. Responses indicate that the program had a major positive impact on the quality of cancer education mainly as a result of the introduction of a uniform program of training and an increase in the number of classes devoted to oncology. The main unresolved problem is that university hospitals seldom have integrated units catering in-house for surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc., and most such “hands-on” teaching still has to be done externally.

Neurophobia in Medical Students and Junior Doctors—Blame the GIK

We aimed to create a definition of neurophobia, and determine its prevalence and educational risk factors amongst medical students and junior doctors in Singapore. We surveyed medical students and junior doctors in a general hospital using electronic and paper questionnaires. We asked about knowledge, interest, perceived difficulty in neurology, and confidence in managing neurology patients compared to 7 other internal medicine specialties; quality and quantity of undergraduate and postgraduate neuroscience teaching, clinical neurology exposure, and postgraduate qualifications. Neurophobia was defined as ≤4 composite score of difficulty and confidence with neurology. One hundred and fifty-eight medical students (63.5%) and 131 junior doctors (73.2%) responded to the questionnaire. Neurophobia prevalence was 47.5% in medical students, highest amongst all medical subspecialties, and 36.6% in junior doctors. Multivariate analysis revealed that for medical students, female gender (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 6.7), low interest (OR 2.5, 95% CI, 1.0 to 6.2), low knowledge (OR 10.1, 95% CI, 4.5 to 22.8), and lack of clinical teaching by a neurologist (OR 2.8, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.6) independently increased the risk of neurophobia. For doctors, low interest (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 7.0) and low knowledge (OR 2.7, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.2) independently increased the risk of neurophobia, and female gender was of borderline significance (OR 2.0, 95% CI, 0.9 to 4.6). Neurophobia is highly prevalent amongst Singapore medical students and junior doctors. Low interest and knowledge are independent risk factors shared by both groups; female gender may also be a shared risk factor. The mnemonic GIK (Gender, Interest, Knowledge) identifies the risk factors to mitigate when planning teaching strategies to reduce neurophobia.

Study on the Competency of Bilingual Art Teachers Based on the Psychology Capital Intervention Model

In this globalization era, it is an important strategy focus on the core status of bilingual art teachers in the internationalization of higher education. And it is necessary prepare a thorough, detailed, well-designed assessment criterion for teachers, especially for teachers specialized in art, as their competency relates directly whether the fine art culture can be inherited and whether the cultural communication can be achieved. Based on the positive psychological capital of students majoring in art, this research investigates art teachers' bilingual teaching attitude, and how construct the competency of art teachers via bilingual teaching. Educational modernization and internationalization are two megatrends of education development in the world. The internationalization of higher education presages of a possibility that the open-ended, innovative, quality-oriented education will become the basic trend of higher education, which requires teachers evolve in their roles, from the tutor of students acquiring knowledge into their designer of the future life. As the implementation of the National Medium-term or Long-term Program of Development for Education goes further and further, the deterioration of the problems arising from the process of education internationalization also speeds up day by day on both dimensions of depth and breadth. On the micro level, the study of education internationalization mostly focuses on bilingual education. Ever since the Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China issued A Number of Opinions on Strengthening Undergraduate Teaching of Higher Education and Enhancing Education Quality, documents like Opinions on the Implementation of Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Reform Project in Higher Education have been published in succession encourage colleges and universities to proactively hire foreign scholars and experts engage in the teaching of professional courses in bilingual manner, and encourage or support overseas graduates return and teach professional courses in English, eventually enhance undergraduate students' English competency for special academic purposes. The nation has also approved of 403 courses as Bilingual Teaching Demonstration Courses. It vigorously pursues bilingual education not only enhance students' English skills, but also hope that college or university students can master the most updated knowledge in their majors and reach the cutting-edge of the specialized science and technology. Speaking of further objectives, one, among others, is enhance the self-confidence of students via bilingual learning and help them obtain inner peace and ability hold hopes and positive expectations for the future. As a result, they will be able deal with the complicated international competition and improve the international competitiveness of our country's higher education. And the core personnel in charge of cultivating the positive psychological capital of students is the teachers working in the forefront of colleges and universities. Their sense of identity with the bilingual teaching and their competency in the teaching methods take the pivotal role here. This article attempts study the attitudes and methods employed by art teachers based on the model of the students' positive psychological capital. As for students of art majors, the talented ones in this field feel the pressing urge of internationalization. Art teachers' attitudes towards or ideas of internationalization and their international knowledge, experience and methods will directly influence the planning and implementing of the art courses' international strategy. Their competency is in direct relation the inheritance of the fine art culture as well as the realization of the cultural communication. Not only should art talents acquire adequate

A Constructivist Approach Towards Quality Development in Universities: An Issue of Quality in Sri Lankan Universities

The quality of university education in Sri Lanka has been an issue persistently raised by stakeholders. Among the initiatives to address this issue were the Improving Quality of Undergraduate Education, strengthening staff development activities, introduction of more stringent schemes of marking for promotions,establishment of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency, and initiation of the Distance Education Modernization Project to introduce on-line and blended learning. The analysis of categories of academic staff clearly indicates disparities among more established Universities and newer Universities and among Science-oriented disciplines and others such as Law,Visual & Performing Arts and Management/ Business-related Studies. The paper argues that system-wide approaches need to be paralleled by multi-faceted Faculty and Departmental action. Staff development should lead to perceptible improvements in teaching, research and dissemination of knowledge. Senior faculty should function as role models and mentors. Definition of role functions of academic staff at different grades can positively contribute to the development of faculty cultures. Sri Lanka Journal of Advanced Social Studies, Vol 2:No. 2, July – December 2012; Page 5-21 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljass.v2i2.6204

A New Evaluation Approach of Undergraduate Teaching Quality Based on Logistic Regression Analysis

A New Evaluation Approach of Undergraduate Teaching Quality Based on Logistic Regression Analysis

雷达图分析法在教学质量评价体系中的应用研究<br> Research of the Application of Radar Analysis in Teaching Quality Evaluation System

高校教学质量的高低，直接关系到高校培养出来的人才素质的优劣。本文引入雷达图分析法，建立一种对教学质量进行评价的模型。该模型从五个角度分析评价教学质量的高低，并分别赋予其权重使其量化，从而使评价的指标更加直观、具体。该模型具有多元化的特点。实践表明，其对本科教学质量的提高有一定的推动作用。 The level of teaching quality is directly related to the quality of the pros and cons of college- trained personnel. This paper introduces a radar chart analysis, establishing a model to evaluate the quality of teaching. From five angles, the model to analyze the level of the evaluation of the quality of teaching, and, respectively, to give it the weight it quantified, so that the evaluation index is more intuitive, more specific. The model has a wide range of features. The practice shows that its role in the improvement of the quality of undergraduate teaching.

Building of Quality Evaluation Index System of Practical Teaching in Colleges and Universities

Practical teaching is an important part of college undergraduate course teaching, which is an important way to implement the applied talents training objectives. Strengthening the quality management of practical teaching process, which has a very important significance of improving the quality of undergraduate teaching. This paper on the basis of analyzing the practical teaching quality impact factors, applies analytic hierarchy process to build a set of practice teaching quality evaluation index system in colleges and universities, in order to make an objective evaluation on the implementation of practical teaching process. Therefore, it can improve the practical teaching quality in colleges and universities. Key words: Practical teaching; Quality evaluation; Index system