Tensions In Students Research Articles

Making sense of youth futures narratives: Recognition of emerging tensions in students’ imagination of the future

In this era of great uncertainty, imagining the future may be challenging, especially for young people. In science education, the interest in future-oriented education is now emerging, research needs, however, to keep eyes on youngsters’ future perceptions and on the development of a future literacy. In this article, starting from a sample of individual students’ narratives about their future daily life in 2040, we aim to delineate which ways of grappling with the future can be observed in the essays and which methodological tools are suited to operationalize their identification and characterization. The analysis led to the definition of “polarization” and “complexification” attitudes that represent the ways in which the students’ narratives are positioned with respect to a bunch of dichotomies: personal–societal, functional–aesthetics oriented, good–bad, natural–artificial, and certain–uncertain. Moreover, with this study, we provide a contribution to the methodological reflection that deals with the collection and analysis of data, when students’ future perceptions need to be investigated. Discussing the limits of the current data collection tool, we introduce the design of a SenseMaker® questionnaire which contributed to feeding a collaboration with #OurFutures project, recently launched by the European Commission to collect future narratives all around Europe.

What Students Value Most: A Qualitative Examination of Learner Experiences in a Fully Online Degree Program

Background: Enrollment in online degree programs has grown rapidly in U.S. higher education institutions, but much of the research on online learning draws from student experiences in a singular online course. Student experiences in fully online programs likely differ from the experience of taking a one-off online class, especially as students become more familiar with online learning after multiple courses. Yet, research examining student experiences in fully online programs remains sparse. Objective: In this exploratory and theory-building study, we examine student experiences after they have taken multiple courses in a fully online degree program. Relying on the perspective of students, our goal is to better understand what elements of fully online learning programs are most valued by learners. Setting: We examine a fully online EdD program in leadership and learning at a private university in the United States. The program includes a series of courses that all include both asynchronous (e.g., readings and lecture videos) and synchronous activities. For synchronous sessions, students log in with their computers every week using teleconferencing software that allows them to interact with the instructor and with classmates in real time. Research Design: We qualitatively analyze student interview data. We employ the How People Learn Framework to guide our analysis and extend our understanding of two of its key learning-environment dimensions: the learner-centered and community-centered dimensions. We purposively sampled 31 students for the semistructured interviews. To analyze interview transcripts, we used a grounded theory approach that began with line-by-line codes that we aggregated into categorical tags that were used to support the emergent themes. Results: We find that students value four learner-centered program characteristics (diversity, authenticity, safety, and individuality) and five community-centered program structures (facilitating peer-to-peer interactions, establishing norms and expectations, differentiating for learning preferences, explaining the strengths and limitations of technology, and supporting student-driven initiatives). Conclusion: We discuss cognitive tensions in students’ self-reported perceptions of their experiences and highlight the need for future research to examine how online learning programs can be better structured to support students in diverse and inclusive learning communities.

Скулшутинг в эпоху цифровизации

Introduction. The article offers definitions of "school shooting", a new phenomenon to Russian society, which is a form of armed violence in educational institutions. Methods. Analysis of documents (predominantly, from foreign mass media) was used as a method. Results and its discussion. The authors summarize the set of defining characteristics of "school shooting", as well as its reasons. The role of personal and environmental triggers of destructive formation of school shooters’ behavior is being revealed. The authors identify ways to prevent this phenomenon not only in families, but also in the relevant educational organizations with the help of specialists who offer mechanisms to reduce aggression and tension of students, minimizing the risks and threats of this phenomenon.

Translation as Translingual Writing Practice in English as an Additional Language

AbstractTranslation has recently been revived as an approach to language learning that builds on students’ linguistic repertoires, particularly in linguistically diverse classrooms. However, few studies have examined how students use translation as part of writing in an additional language. This article provides new insights based on the translation practices of 22 newly arrived students in Norway during English writing instruction. Using linguistic ethnographic methods, the study combines multiple data sources (screen recordings, classroom audio recordings, language portraits, student texts, interviews) that provide detailed insights into translation moves and participant perspectives. The findings highlight the linguistic and mediational translation strategies that structured students’ translation practices during English writing, but also reveal tensions in students’ orientations to translation. Despite these tensions, translation served as a key means of aligning students’ communicative resources to write in English as an additional language. A translingual orientation toward writing and translation facilitates the recognition of students’ translation practices as alignment of ecological affordances with an integrated repertoire of semiotic resources across languages, modalities, and media. We conclude that translation can develop students’ performative competence in ways that support their in‐school English writing but also prepare them to encounter text in new contexts.

Health Systems Science: The "Broccoli" of Undergraduate Medical Education.

Health system leaders are calling for reform of medical education programs to meet evolving needs of health systems. U.S. medical schools have initiated innovative curricula related to health systems science (HSS), which includes competencies in value-based care, population health, system improvement, interprofessional collaboration, and systems thinking. Successful implementation of HSS curricula is challenging because of the necessity for new curricular methods, assessments, and educators and for resource allocation. Perhaps most notable of these challenges, however, is students' mixed receptivity. Although many students are fully engaged, others are dissatisfied with curricular time dedicated to competencies not perceived as high yield. HSS learning can be viewed as "broccoli"-students may realize it is good for them in the long term, but it may not be palatable in the moment. Further analysis is necessary for accelerating change both locally and nationally.With over 11 years of experience in global HSS curricular reform in 2 medical schools and informed by the curricular implementation "performance gap," the authors explore student receptivity challenges, including marginalization of HSS coursework, infancy of the HSS field, relative nascence of curricula and educators, heterogeneity of pedagogies, tensions in students' perceptions of their professional role, and culture of HSS integration. The authors call for the reexamination of 5 issues influencing HSS receptivity: student recruitment processes, faculty development, building an HSS academic "home," evaluation metrics, and transparent collaboration between medical schools. To fulfill the social obligation of meeting patients' needs, educators must seek a shared understanding of underlying challenges of HSS innovations.

Taking an escape hatch: Managing tension in group discourse

AbstractProblem solving in groups can be rich with tension for students. This tension may arise from conflicting approaches (conceptual and/or epistemological) and/or from conflict emerging in the social relations among group members. Drawing on video records of undergraduate students working collaboratively, we use three cases to illustrate the multifaceted ways in which conflict arises—combining conceptual, epistemological, and socioemotional dynamics—and a specific way of managing the tension that can emerge from the multifaceted conflict, “taking an escape hatch.” An escape hatch is a set of discourse moves through which participants close the conversational topic, thereby relieving tension, but before a conceptual resolution is achieved. We describe how epistemological twists and turns can be recruited as a means of managing the strong emotions experienced by the students, showing the coupling of emotion and epistemology in students’ conceptual sense making during group work. We help to provide the groundwork necessary for instructors to notice, understand, and respond to one way in which conceptual–epistemological–social–emotional aspects of interaction are coupled in the emergence of tension, rather than narrowly targeting instructional moves based on only conceptual or epistemological considerations. Instead, instructors should often respond to—and help students become aware of—the emotional component of peer interactions and its entanglement with the “cold cognitive” conceptual and epistemological components.

Traveling Without a Destination? A Dialogical Analysis of Professional Identity Construction Among Australian Double Degree Psychology Students

ABSTRACTThis paper presents findings from a study of Australian double degree psychology students’ construction of professional identity. Dialogical self theory was used as a framework to conceptualize professional identity construction and to identify the I-positions, the voices of others, and the relationships between these voices within the self. Results revealed that conflicting voices were heard within the self, creating tensions in students’ professional identification. Moreover, it seems that when trying to navigate their study journeys, students rely on several, sometimes unintentional, value orientations to assist them in moving forward from these struggles. Findings are considered in the context of further developing dialogical self theory and the enhancement of curricula that focus on multiprofessional and interdisciplinary learning and teaching.

Tensions in learning professional identities \u2013 nursing students\u2019 narratives and participation in practical skills during their clinical practice: an ethnographic study

BackgroundClinical practice is a pivotal part of nursing education. It provides students with the opportunity to put the knowledge and skills they have acquired from lectures into practice with real patients, under the guidance of registered nurses. Clinical experience is also essential for shaping the nursing students’ identity as future professional nurses. There is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the ways in which students learn practical skills and apply knowledge within and across different contexts, i.e. how they apply clinical skills, learnt in the laboratory in university settings, in the clinical setting. The aim of this study was therefore to explore how nursing students describe, and use, their prior experiences related to practical skills during their clinical practice.MethodsAn ethnographic case study design was used. Fieldwork included participant observations (82 h), informal conversations, and interviews (n = 7) that were conducted during nursing students’ (n = 17) clinical practice at an emergency department at a university hospital in Sweden.ResultsThe overarching theme identified was “Learning about professional identities with respect to situated power”. This encompasses tensions in students’ learning when they are socialized into practical skills in the nursing profession. This overarching theme consists of three sub-themes: “Embodied knowledge”, “Divergent ways of assessing and evaluating knowledge” and “Balancing approaches”.ConclusionsNursing students do not automatically possess the ability to transfer knowledge from one setting to another; rather, their development is shaped by their experiences and interactions with others when they meet real patients. The study revealed different ways in which students navigated tensions related to power differentials. Reflecting on actions is a prerequisite for developing and learning practical skills and professional identities. This highlights the importance of both educators’ and the preceptors’ roles for socializing students in this process.

Revisualizing Composition: How First-Year Writers Use Composing Technologies

Abstract Reporting on survey data from 1,366 students from seven colleges and universities, this article examines the self-reported writing choices of students as they compose different kinds of texts using a wide range of composing technologies, both traditional (i.e., paper, pencils, pens, etc.), and digital (i.e., cell phones, wikis, blogs, etc.). This analysis and discussion is part of the larger Revisualizing Composition study, which examines the writing lives of first-year students across multiple institution types throughout the United States. We focus especially on what appear to be, at first glance, contradictory or confusing results, because these moments of ambiguity in students’ use of composing technologies point to shifts or tensions in students’ attitudes, beliefs, practices and rhetorical decision-making strategies when writing in the 21 st century. The implications of these ambiguous results suggest paths for continued collaborative research and action. They also, we argue, point to a need to foster students’ reflexive, critical, and rhetorical writing – across composing technologies – and to develop updated writing pedagogies that account for students’ flexible use of these technologies.

Pedagogic Trifecta

This article explores how the experience of being a caregiver and service provider informs teaching disability studies to students who are also frontline workers in service agencies. I discuss my own history as a service provider and stepparent of an adult with disabilities who has a long history as a service recipient. The history of the City University of New York (CUNY) disability studies program and target student population is reviewed, enabling readers to understand that the approach CUNY takes may be different from that of other programs in the country. The article also describes frustrations students encounter as course readings emphasizing the social construction of disability and the importance of self-determination collide with students’ lived experiences of program structures and processes required by regulations and funding sources. Additional sources of tension for students who are frontline workers are the expectations of self-advocates and their parents, and the conflicts in values that may surface when serving a multicultural population in a large urban area. Disability studies courses provide a safe place for students to raise and examine these conflicts in the context of larger disability theory. I utilize my multiple roles and the perspectives they allow to deepen class discussions and offer a more nuanced reflection of disability theory as it is expressed in service praxis.

Contradictions and Tensions in Students’ Motives of Enrolling in a Teacher Education Programme in Zimbabwe

This study explored identities commonly used in teacher education and student teachers’ motives for becoming a teacher. The qualitative case methodology employed interviews and biographical questionnaires data collection methods. Data was gathered through interviewing student teachers and lecturers. Qualitative data analysis began by defining a priori themes and identifying parts of the interview transcripts that were relevant to these a priori themes. The initial coding was then refined by adding additional codes which emerged from the data to create a final coding template to interpret findings. Data analysis methods revealed that student teachers were motivated to join teaching by chance, important other, remuneration, vocation and interest developed through work experience. However prospective candidates did not get places to train as teachers on the basis of their motivation to become teachers. Further the study revealed that motives influenced “what”, “where”, and “how” student teachers were learning. This study recommends using interviews to establish motives as a way to supplement selection of student teachers.

Philosophy Has Consequences!

The importance of enchancing metacognition and encouraging active learning in philosophy teaching has been increasingly recognised in recent years. Yet traditional teaching methods have not always centralised helping students to become reflectively and critically aware of the quality and consistency of their own thinking. This is particularly relevant when teaching moral philosophy, where apparently inconsistent intuitions and responses are common. In this paper I discuss the theoretical basis of the relevance of metacognition and active learning for teaching moral philosophy. Applying recent discussions of metacognition, intuition conflicts and survey-based teaching techniques, I then outline a strategy for encouraging metacognitive awareness of tensions in students’ pretheoretical beliefs, and developing a critical self-awareness of their development as moral thinkers.

‘What about Feelings?’: A Study of Emotion and Tension in Social Work Field Education

Seventy students and field instructors were interviewed in an attempt to identify and understand how upsetting field events were perceived and managed by urban, undergraduate Canadian social work students. The study reports on the emotional impact of the field experience and identifies major sources of tension for students and between field instructors and students.

Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, media, and communications

Semiotics, Media Studies and Communication Studies are three closely interlinked fields. Briefly stated, Semiotics, the science of signs, looks at how humans search for and construct meaning; Communication Studies is concerned with how meaning is conveyed; and Media Studies considers the ways in which messages are transmitted and received. This dictionary is designed to help students and general readers unlock the significance of the terminology and jargon commonly used in these fields. Being interdisciplinary in nature, Semiotics, Media, and Communication Studies are cluttered with notions derived from other disciplines. Hence, this dictionary also encompasses basic concepts from the fields of anthropology, archaeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, computer science, and biology. Collected here are the terms, concepts, personages, schools of thought, and historical movements that appear frequently in the relevant literature. The basis of each entry is a simple definition, which often includes the term's origin. Illustrations are provided where necessary, along with historical sketches of movements or schools of thought. The commentary on personages consists of brief statements about their contribution and relevance. Thus, the dictionary not only defines what a term means, but often goes into its history, applications, and broad implications. Terms are cross-referenced and their etymology is given where possible. This is a compact, practical research manual that will relieve much tension for students in semiotics and related fields. Because of its interdisciplinary approach, it will also provide a range of scholars with a handy reference to disciplines distinct from but related to their own.