Reality In Higher Education Research Articles

Possibilities and Limitations of the Application of Academic Tutoring in Poland

In the face of mass education, the need to seek individualized methods of students’ teaching-learning is increasing. That causes academic tutoring to become more and more popular in higher education all over the world. The article presents the theoretical background of tutoring, the results of research in that regard and the benefits of its practical application. Furthermore, the reality of higher education in Poland is presented here: the context and basic problems constituting the background for possibilities and limitations of application of academic tutoring in Polish conditions. The last part of the article includes examples of application of tutoring at Polish universities. Besides, some areas are indicated in which the use of tutoring may still be considered if the economic, social and cultural conditions in Poland are taken into account.

Factors Influencing Students’ Academic Aspirations in Higher Institution: A Conceptual Analysis

Abstract Higher education is critical success of young adults. Higher education can provide a gateway for social mobility and play a critical role in countering social stratification in Malaysia, particularly for the Bumiputera students in Malaysia society. However, change hurts. The transition from school to university is a change that every school students have to face in their quest for higher education. The current scenario giving some signals that there is a challenging life transition in the development of young adults, and many students are inadequately prepared for the psychological, emotional, and academic realities of higher education. These new university students are confronted with the adaptational challenges of living apart from family and friends, adjusting to the academic regimen, assuming responsibility for the tasks of daily living, and developing a new array of social relationships with peers and faculty. Futhermore, not many research have been conducted on this issue except that focused had been made to the secondary and/or high school students only. Therefore, this paper takes the challenge of filling these gaps by analysing some crucial conceptual undertanding what factors exactly influence the student's life at the higher institution.

Doctrina social de la iglesia e inclusión universitaria

The present article talks about the difficulties of the university inclusion ofwhat is consider part of the problem to the resistance from certain sectorsto accept all types of students, with or without special needs. Faced withthis problem, the author considers that the principles and values of theSocial Doctrine of the Church constitute an ethical and moral reference forthat the university inclusion become in a reality of higher education.

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: important channel of upgrading teachers' development in the college of traditional Chinese medicine

Elaboration on the importance of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in promoting the teachers' professional development was conducted based on the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and from the aspects of the external environment,promotion of teachers' independent development as well as changes in teaching philosophy and the teachers' development value.Corresponding measures were proposed according to the reality of higher education of Chinese medicine. Key words: College of traditional Chinese medicine; Pedagogical content knowledge; Teacher development

El reto y promesa de la pedagogía crítica en la nueva era de la información: una entrevista con Henry Giroux

En esta entrevista Giroux explora las diferentes conceptualizaciones emancipadorasy autoritarias de la educación, destacando el carácter político de la misma porsu posibilidad de conectar conocimiento, autoridad y poder. La educación crítica esentendida como resultado de luchas particulares, conectadas a comunidades específicas,a recursos disponibles y a historias, identidades y experiencias del alumnado. Girouxconceptualiza la educación como un desafío, que intenta llevar a las personas más alládel mundo que conocen. Así se posibilitan formas de conocimiento que hacen posible laextensión de la cultura democrática. Pero Giroux también analiza la realidad de la educaciónsuperior, afectada por una crisis política y de legitimidad, que dificulta el desarrollode principios democráticos e impone términos instrumentales y comerciales. Anteello, el autor reclama un papel activo desde la universidad para solucionar los problemasde nuestras sociedades, proporcionando al alumnado conocimiento crítico para respondera las tendencias anti-democráticas actuales.

Perusing The Headwaters Of Diversity Among University Presidents

Females and minorities are gaining clout in higher education as the numbers of graduates in each of these groups indicate. Diversity among university presidents is a reality. Indications are that the number of women receiving advanced degrees will continue to grow for some time. Low estimates of graduation rates among women and minorities from years ago do not hold. The impacts of this reality in higher education will continue to be felt for some time.

Professoriate in America: The Rhetoric and Reality of Higher Education

Professoriate in America: The Rhetoric and Reality of Higher Education

Whose Degree Is It Anyway? Why, How, and Where Universities Are Failing Our Students (review)

Reviewed by: Whose Degree Is It Anyway? Why, How, and Where Universities Are Failing Our Students Roger Watson Robert Naylor. Whose Degree Is It Anyway? Why, How, and Where Universities Are Failing Our Students. Near Petersfield (Hants), UK: Pencil-Sharp, 2007. 237 pp. Paper: £12.00. ISBN: 978-0-9556987-0-5. This book presents an analysis of the current state of U.K. higher education from the perspective of a long-serving academic who has witnessed radical change in the management of and the values in this sector during the past 20 years. [End Page 152] The changes in U.K. higher education in recent decades are too numerous to list, but the essential fact for anyone outside the United Kingdom to grasp is that, despite much-touted independence at the operational level, U.K. universities, with one exception, are really part of a nationalised industry. In their various guises—ancient, established, and modern—all are directly funded through the Higher Education Funding Council in England or its equivalent in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. While the government does not directly control U.K. universities, it has considerable influence through its ability to set targets and provide related funding. Such targets include that 50% of school leavers (the equivalent of high school graduates) should go to university and that universities should no longer be the preserve of the children of the professional classes. In addition, and more related to the funding streams which either trickle or flow—depending on your perspective—into U.K. universities, is the highly developed “qualitocracy” that probes, inspects, and scores universities on the basis of their teaching and research. The neo-Stalinist metaphor is commonly extended so that the “qualitocracy” is operated by the “qualitburo” and those of us at the receiving end consider ourselves to be the “qualitariat.” All of these factors, plus others, are explored in Naylor’s two-part book: Part 1: “Raising the Curtain on the Realities of Higher Education,” and Part 2: “The Questions That Need Answering.” The book is written with potential students and their parents in mind. Part 1 covers some of the manifestations of the U.K. government’s approach to higher education and to some of the issues that have reached the headlines in recent years. It must be said that the “goings on” of U.K. universities rarely reach the news headlines; but one recent case, of an excellent state school student being denied a place at one of our ancient universities (“Oxbridge,” which is the collective noun for Oxford and Cambridge) and subsequently being offered a place and a scholarship at an Ivy League university in the United States turned the spotlight on the admissions system of U.K. universities. In point of fact, according to Naylor’s interesting analysis, it is very hard to prove systematic bias against state school students as too many variables have to be taken into account. For example, especially where interviews form part of the process, are independent school students just better prepared for interviews than state school students or, due to the selection processes that operate for the entry of children into independent schools, are these students, on average, cleverer? Other issues explored in Part 1 include assessing the quality of teaching and research and the effect such assessments have, through the generation of league tables, on the fortunes of schools and departments. The problem with league tables is that, at the institutional level, they are composite; they are made up of the scores of different departments and a student choosing to go to a top-rated university to study humanities may not realise that the chosen university’s place in the league table is due to its excellence in engineering. Students and their parents are not stupid, of course, and they can inspect league table scores for individual disciplines and schools. However, the score most often used to place departments in a league table relative to departments in other universities is usually its research rating. Naylor worries that excellence in research may not equate to excellence in teaching and even argues that the relationship between teaching quality and research quality may be reciprocal. Naylor is...

Absolute reality in higher education

Absolute reality in higher education

Using enquiry in learning: From vision to reality in higher education

This paper reports on the contribution of six nurse educators to embed enquiry-led learning in a pre-registration nursing programme. Their focus was to evaluate student and facilitator perspectives of a hybrid model of problem-based learning, a form of enquiry-based learning and to focus on facilitators' perceptions of its longer-term utility with large student groups. Problem-based learning is an established learning strategy in healthcare internationally; however, insufficient evidence of its effectiveness with large groups of pre-registration students exists. Fourth Generation Evaluation was used, applying the Nominal Group Technique and Focus Group interviews, for data collection. In total, four groups representing different branches of pre-registration students (n = 121) and 15 facilitators participated. Students identified seven strengths and six areas for development related to problem-based learning. Equally, analysis of facilitators' discussions revealed several themes related to strengths and challenges. The consensus was that using enquiry aided the development of independent learning and encouraged deeper exploration of nursing and allied subject material. However, problems and frustrations were identified in relation to large numbers of groups, group dynamics, room and library resources and personal development. The implications of these findings for longer-term utility with large student groups are discussed.

Enlightenment and minority cultures: Central and East European higher education reform ten years later

The article discusses general trends of the higher education reform in the Central and East Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union over the last decade. Author notices that reflections on the reforms have not reached deeper levels than first diagnostic articles of the early 1990s have. It is explained as a result of the literal lack of the reforms as planned and purposeful changes. While many agencies are interested in continuation of the reform discourse, the actual activities are not coordinated. Discussing the issues of changing relationships between higher education and the State, financing, staffing, quality assurance, content of studies and institutional mission, author finds similarities between current political statements and those made earlier this century under different circumstances. Author concludes that the gap between the official reform discourse and realities of higher education threaten the very existence of public higher education in the region.

What managerialists Forget: Higher education credit frameworks and managerialist ideology

This article uses data from a five-year ethnographic study of a single higher education institution to assess aspects of the 'realism' of managerialist approaches articulated through the credit framework in higher education in the United Kingdom. By 'credit framework' is meant the constellation of more or less compatible features facilitated by the assignment of credit to assessed learning, including modularity, the semester system, franchising, the accreditation of work-based learning and of prior learning. From the perspective of managerialist ideology the framework as a whole and its individual components offer a number of attractions, including greater economy, efficiency, manageability and market responsiveness in higher education institutions. Data from the site of the study and a theoretical framework derived from policy sociology are used to show that managerialist ideology oversimplifies and occludes aspects of social reality in higher education, the effect of which is to undermine many of the benefits claimed for the credit framework by managerialists

Faculty in Professional Programs: The Mix of Experience and Degrees

The release of Betty Medsger's (1996) Winds of Change: Challenges Confronting Journalism Education sounded an alarm for educators in the nation's schools of journalism and mass communication. Among its findings, Medsgers report concluded that hiring practices emphasizing a doctoral degree over experience threatened the future of journalism and mass communication education. Another study, commissioned by NBC's Jane Pauley and dubbed the Pauley Report (Davis and Zeigler, 1996) found that broadcast journalism faculty with significant experience are decreasing in number and are being replaced by Ph.D. holders with little or no media experience. The report's authors concluded that this phenomenon contributes to a belief among the nation's television news directors that graduates are lacking the skills, knowl-- edge, and ability they need to become working journalists. Thus, the familiar green eyeshades versus chi-squares debate has resurfaced. This study offers a new perspective on the old debate through a survey of professional who spent years working in the communication industry before getting an advanced degree and turning to higher education. The difficulty presented by an argument regarding the relative merits of a Ph.D. versus experience is that the two are often cast as mutually exclusive. Many of the Ph.D. respondents in Medsger's study had no media experience and many more worked in the industry for only a few years. However, some could claim a number of years of experience and a terminal degree. This study reports the results of a mail survey of educators with terminal degrees and five or more years of experience, regarding the relative merits of each. Their perspective is important because journalism and mass communication education is in the throes of an identity crisis. At issue are programs' efforts to serve two masters - the profession, which values work experience, and central administration, which often places greater emphasis on academic scholarship. At the same time, professors must also try to meet the needs of students. Survey respondents know all three masters and can speak to each side of the issue. Sumner (1995) wrote that the academic community expects lots of research and the community wants educators to teach practical skills and forget the research. Hart (1989) wrote that disagreements about their relationship to the world have ripped faculties apart. Though the problem has been stated in many different ways over the past several years, it comes down to two central themes: What should be taught in journalism/mass communication programs and who should teach it? Some argue that the academy is producing what Kees (1996) called generic communicators. those able to discuss with great effectiveness uses and gratifications theory but wholly unable to demonstrate the skills needed to produce a newspaper article, television story, press release, or advertising campaign (See also Balk, 1994). Others point out that, under threat of their very existence from cost-conscious university administrators, journalism and mass communication programs must be more than glorified vocational schools in order to survive (Hamilton & Izard, 1996). Program administrators such as South Carolina's Judy VanSlyke Turk have noted that journalism practitioners cannot ignore the political reality in higher education that makes a doctorate a prerequisite for tenure on most campuses. Shirley Staples at Norfolk State said that faculty members with doctorates may or may not help produce better practitioners, but they help journalism and mass communication programs hold their own in the academy (Making Experience Count 1994). Some administrators want their universities to look like great research institutions (Wicklein, 1994) and a high proportion of Ph.D.s on the faculty contributes to such a perception. …

Methodological Challenges for Comparative Research into Higher Education.

In this article, we examine the methodological presuppositions underlying comparative research into higher education. We begin by criticizing the familiar, external approaches to comparing nationally differentiated higher education systems, on the basis of structural-functional or system theory. We then argue in favour of the power-source analysis developed mainly by Michael Mann (1986), and from this basis offer a modified general model of social dynamics, with the aim of achieving a better insight into the methodologically critical areas of comparative educational research. For comparative social research, it is inadequate merely to model educational systems; we also need to locate historically and explicate the key events, the moments of "switching" (to borrow Max Weber's metaphor of the "switchmen of history") when higher education, for instance, took its subsequent direction. What we propose as methods appropriate for a comparative, historically aware sociological analysis of higher education, drawn from the armoury of qualitative research, are research strategies under the "casing" label; but there is no sense in an exclusive polarization with quantitative research. The aim of the research approach outlined here is to generate theoretically articulated, but above all meaningful and useful descriptions of the reality of higher education. What we are particularly interested in is the theory of social power, from a methodological standpoint based on the principle of sufficient reason.

Crisis, what crisis? Rhetoric and reality in higher education

Abstract While the idea of crisis is prevalent in the post‐war Anglo‐American literature an higher education, it can also be argued that our higher education systems have achieved a great deal during this period. We need to ask, therefore, whether the identified crises are real or not. And, if not, we should consider why academics prefer to see crisis in so muck of what they do.

Crisis, What Crisis? Rhetoric and Reality in Higher Education

Abstract While the idea of crisis is prevalent in the post‐war Anglo‐American literature an higher education, it can also be argued that our higher education systems have achieved a great deal during this period. We need to ask, therefore, whether the identified crises are real or not. And, if not, we should consider why academics prefer to see crisis in so muck of what they do.

The Myth of the University: Ideal and Reality in Higher Education

The university, in its laudable effort to be a democratic institution, has lost its original sense of mission and become a credential factory rather than a place where learning for its own sake is valued. This book proposes a practical reform of higher education based on the original ideals of the institution. The remedies involve both pragmatic changes and a radical shift in the basic philosophy of many colleges and universities. Teaching and learning at all levels must be re-emphasized, and the criteria for selecting and retaining faculty should be changed. The book examines the subject from a historical perspective and concludes with a vision of what the university can choose to become if it wishes.

Information literacy: Overcoming barriers to implementation

AbstractFaculty, librarians, and students have yet to embrace the attitudinal change necessary for making information literacy and resource‐based learning together a priority and a reality in higher education.

Student and staff perceptions and “the pursuit of excellence” in british higher education

This article, using a variety of data from the Rowntree Research Project at the University of Lancaster, attempts to reconstruct student and staff perceptions of the teaching/learning reality of higher education, and in particular their perceptions of excellence. Ambiguities and confusions are noted in staff perceptions of excellence and important differences between staff and students in their perception of teaching/learning realities. It concludes by discussing implications for staff/student communication and for the admission of students to higher education.