Tertiary-level Courses Research Articles

Reflective Writing in Course Design for Active Learning in Social Work Education

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores student learning progression through reflective writing on a tertiary-level course in social work. The study is based on the content analysis of three sets of data: student reflective writing, instructor formative feedback on this writing, and student end-of-course reflections. Our findings demonstrate that structured, scaffolded reflection and continuous formative feedback stimulated learning progression, increased awareness of one’s own learning strategies, and supported the adoption of an explorative, reflective stance in students. Therefore, the experimental course design with several reflective tasks created the sought-after intersection of the academic and professional literacies. This design stimulated student engagement and resulted in high attendance. This design is particularly suitable in heterogeneous classrooms and promotes student inclusion and active learning.

The impact of online presentations on reducing the introverted EFL learners' stress and anxiety

PurposeThis study aims to focus on how online presentations have a positive effect on the anxiety of the students, especially students who are introverted by nature and always suffer from anxiety and stress while performing face-to-face presentations in the classrooms, which negatively affect students’ performance and, thereby grade.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a quantitative research design to obtain a broader perspective. An online questionnaire, developed using Google Forms, was accessed by 239 female undergraduate students from Level 1 to 8 of the English Department at the College of Languages and Translation in King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire consisted of 15 closed Likert-type questions. The Arabic translation of the questions was included in the questionnaire to make the participants more comfortable answering the questions as all the participants' L1 is Arabic.FindingsWith the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, COVID-19 became a global health issue and significantly impacted education worldwide. With this, a digital transformation took place, resulting in a total e-learning distance education system. This type of technology enhanced distance learning approach had to be adopted as social and physical contacts were limited globally to mitigate the transmissions of the virus. Accordingly, all lectures, learning activities, tests and other forms of evaluation were conducted via distance e-learning. When oral presentations were conducted online, a new reality emerged in this changed situation. This study sought to prove that online oral presentations positively reduce introvert EFL learners' anxiety and stress.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted using a small number of samples; thus, to gain substantial insight, future research could be conducted with a greater number of samples from diverse demographic backgrounds. Teachers' perceptions of online oral presentations could also be considered in future studies since education consolidates between learners and teachers. In addition, as this research explored English language major students only, further comparative studies can be conducted including students from other disciplines, which may lead to new insights and issues related to online presentations. This study used a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. It is recommended to use qualitative tools such as interviews, focus group meetings, journals and student diaries in future studies so that more information about in-person presentation anxiety can be discovered.Originality/valueParticipants' opinions, procured through the questionnaire of this study, can bring new insights for educators and policymakers to incorporate online presentations as one of the mainstream assessment methods for tertiary-level courses.

Pedagogical strategies for developing interpretive language about images

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on pedagogical strategies which support the teaching of critical analysis of visual and multimodal texts in a tertiary-level course for Arts students.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes strategies which focus on developing students’ abilities to express interpretive critique, as opposed to mere description. These strategies give students strong scaffolding towards success in their interpretive writing. The course in question is a tertiary-level Arts course which teaches Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) approach to “reading images” in relation to contemporary media texts. The basic structure of the course is described, along with the macro steps which underpin the pedagogy. Examples of highly successful and less successful student writing are compared to reveal the key components of effective interpretive answers.FindingsIn addition to the normal expectations regarding essay structure and style, and in addition to mastery of the technicality of the course, successful and less successful student writing depends on their mastery of a specific set of moves within the essay. These moves integrate textual observations with clear explanations and a strong relation to interpretation.Practical implicationsWhile the course and strategies discussed are for tertiary-level students, the strategies described are adaptable to primary and secondary levels also. Multimodal texts are an integral part of the English curriculum, and all teachers need to explore strategies for enabling their students’ critical engagement with such texts.Originality/valueVisual and multimodal texts are an exciting and also challenging part of English curricula, and new analytical frameworks and pedagogical strategies are needed to tackle these texts. In particular, the gap between simply describing visual resources (applying the tools) and critical analysis (using the tools) is vast, and specific pedagogical strategies are needed to help students develop the necessary interpretive language.

Making a Case for Epistemological Access in Biotechnology Education in Southern Africa

In southern Africa, biotechnology is increasingly important with regard to food security and the development of the pharmaceutical industry. Universities are tasked with providing the relevant capacity development through tertiary-level courses to meet these development needs. However, the knowledge and practices of biotechnology may be contentious as in issues related to genetically modified foods and cloning. It is also well known that in culturally diverse educational situations, students may experience epistemological challenges derived from their ontological standpoints, and that these can impact on the learning process. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate student views of biotechnology, a field of science where student ethical, religious and/or cultural beliefs may be at odds with the science that is taught in the classroom. Data was collected over a four-year period (2009–2012), from 115 students from two universities who volunteered to complete a questionnaire. Data was also collected from 70 students who volunteered to be part of focus groups during this time. Phenomenography was used as the research approach in this case study, resulting in an outcome space that produced two broad categories describing students’ responses to biotechnology. These were a theoretical and practical perspective, and a worldview perspective. The study found that students need and want to be as globally competitive as their international peers. This requires that the curriculum reflects the standard and practice of the Global North. However, in southern Africa, where the student demography in universities is typically very diverse, the findings also highlight the need for a pedagogical approach that facilitates learning through providing space for students to freely discuss and reflect on their views and concerns related to indigenous knowledge and beliefs.

Curation on Campus: An Exhibition Curatorial Experiment for Creative Industries Students

Curation on Campus: An Exhibition Curatorial Experiment for Creative Industries Students

Course evaluation: reconfigurations for learning with learning management systems

The introduction of online delivery platforms such as learning management systems (LMS) in tertiary education has changed the methods and modes of curriculum delivery and communication. While course evaluation methods have also changed from paper-based in-class-administered methods to largely online-administered methods, the data collection instruments have remained unchanged. This paper reports on a small exploratory study of two tertiary-level courses. The study investigated why design of the instruments and methods to administer surveys in the courses are ineffective measures against the intrinsic characteristics of online learning. It reviewed the students' response rates of the conventional evaluations for the courses over an eight-year period. It then compared a newly developed online evaluation and the conventional methods over a two-year period. The results showed the response rates with the new evaluation method increased by more than 80% from the average of the conventional evaluations (below 30%), and the students' written feedback was more detailed and comprehensive than in the conventional evaluations. The study demonstrated the possibility that the LMS-based learning evaluation can be effective and efficient in terms of the quality of students' participation and engagement in their learning, and for an integrated pedagogical approach in an online learning environment.

Assessing participation skills: online discussions with peers

Many tertiary-level courses assess students’ participation in tutorial or online discussions. However, in educational and pedagogical research literature, criteria for assessing students’ skills in engaging with peers remain unclear. This article describes an online assignment with a set of participation criteria and a method for assessing the quality of students’ interactions with peers. The assignment focuses on students’ ability to utilise their critical thinking skills while engaging with peers on a particular topic. This includes abilities such as responding to criticism, justifying one’s view and contributing to discussion. While the assignment is designed for a critical thinking course in a philosophy curriculum, the method and participation criteria may be adapted for assessment in other discipline areas.

The determinants of students' return intentions: A partial proportional odds model

This paper examines the determinants of foreign students' nonreturn intention to their home countries following completion of their study abroad. Such students' nonreturn is a type of brain drain. Survey data on the return intention of foreign students studying in tertiary-level courses in New Zealand universities are analyzed using a partial proportional odds model. This model takes into account the ordinal nature of the return intention as the dependent variable while at the same time allowing for possible violation of the parallel lines assumption from the explanatory variables. Perceptions of different aspects of one's home country, particularly the aspect of skill use opportunities, are generally found to have larger impacts on return intention than demographic, education-related, and sociocultural-related factors. Based on the results, the paper discusses some relevant policy implications.

The effects of problem-based learning on the classroom community perceptions and achievement of web-based education students

Web-based education as an alternative to face-to-face teaching is now being extended as an application to higher education. Much effort is undertaken to provide multimedia rich, attractive content to learners. While the use of multimedia technologies has a noticeable effect on students’ learning, so does the selected teaching methodology. Underpinned by the Constructivist approach, problem-based learning is one of the methods that could be applied in web-based learning environments. The current study investigates the effects of problem-based learning on students’ classroom community perceptions and their achievement. It focuses on the tertiary level course “Introduction to Computers” offered by the Department of Business Administration of the Distance Education Program at a higher education institution in Turkey. The results indicated that students who worked on problem-based projects felt much more ‘connected’ to other class members when compared to the control group. They achieved higher scores in the post-tests although their online midterm and final examination scores did not indicate any difference between the groups.

The Impact of Class Size on Quality Education:

The small classes1 at tertiary level enhance student-teachers’ interaction and provide a richer learning environment. Teamwork, interaction with classmates, projects and analysis of case studies are the key learning tools in many tertiary level courses. The small and diverged classes allow personalized attention as students learn different theories as well as their applications on pragmatic decision making. Our study therefore, reveals the reality on the basis of existing literature and questionnaire survey that small class size has a significant impact on the quality of education by enriching the performance of the students.

New Zealand's inclusive science-based system for setting animal welfare standards

Inclusiveness and science were, and are, essential contributors to the development and operation of New Zealand's current system for managing animal welfare at a national level. The involvement of individuals and groups with diverse interests, having aligned, complementary or opposing views, is considered to be a most important part of this process. Participants include animal behaviour, production, welfare and wildlife scientists, animal welfare advocates, educators, ethicists, veterinarians, primary industry stakeholders, regulators, lay people and others. The outcome, after 25 years of activity, has been an integrated and comprehensive animal welfare management infrastructure. Legislative and regulatory initiatives established a national advisory committee and related animal ethics committee system for managing the scientific use of animals, as well as a similar national advisory committee for dealing with welfare matters relevant to all other animal uses in New Zealand. The responsible use of animals in science is critically evaluated by a cooperative Australian and New Zealand council, and, within New Zealand, two animal welfare consultative and liaison groups with diverse membership, one including politicians, have enhanced communication about wider animal-related matters. Building on substantial prior experience in animal-based sciences, marked increases in research, scholarly and educational activities in animal behaviour, health and welfare sciences were fostered through the establishment of dedicated research groups and centres, leadership positions and tertiary-level courses, supported by institutional, governmental, industry-related and other funding. The quality, depth and breadth of the research and scholarship so generated, and extensive mutually beneficial interactions internationally have provided, and provide a secure foundation for formulating animal welfare policies and framing credible animal welfare standards that are applied nationally.

What should make up a final mark for a course? An investigation into the academic performance of first year Bioscience students

Performance of individual students in a tertiary level course is usually reflected in a final mark that determines their progress and transfer to higher courses. The contributions of different types of assessment to this final mark vary greatly within and between subjects in and between institutions. Performance of students in a first year course, Bioscience at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal, Pietermaritzburg (UKZN) was assessed to determine if there were any patterns emerging in the broad components that contributed to the final mark, namely the coursework, theory and practical examinations. Performance of students was compared in Bioscience 110 for the years 1995–2000 using Repeated Measures ANOVA. Students performed best in coursework. All students performed poorly in the theory examinations. In addition differential performance between students, particularly the performance of sub‐groups within the class was investigated. Of particular interest were English second language (ESL) students, and previous Science Foundation Programme (SFP) students. The latter are mainly previously disadvantaged Black students. All sub‐groups of students showed similar trends in performance in Bioscience assessment tasks and final marks. However, the SFP students' final marks were lower than the other sub‐groups, and showed a decreased performance for the same period. Most students, excluding SFP students, fell in the 50–59% category for the final Bioscience 110 marks obtained for the period 1995–2000. Theory examinations were investigated further, and were analysed in their component parts, namely multiple choice (MCQ), short questions and essay. Students performed best and consistently in MCQ. In contrast, students performed poorly in the short question and essay sections. Although the different ethnic sub‐groupings showed similar trends in performance, the SFP students showed the poorest performance. In particular, they scored lowest in the theory examinations where they performed more poorly than the other sub‐groupings in short questions and essays that require higher order cognitive skills. These patterns suggest that changes are required at the teaching, student and assessment interfaces.

Thinking About 'Sex' in Education

The aim of this paper is to reflect upon the ways in which 'sex', as an unchanging biological given, is often implicitly taken for granted in tertiary sex education. The paper details my own attempt to move beyond what I have come to experience as the predictable order of teaching students about sex and sexuality: the exploration of sexuality and gender anchored by the unquestioned assumption of biological sexual difference. I provide a practical example of introducing new material ism in science, and social science critiques of sex, into a tertiary level course. Consideration is given to the importance of fostering critical thinking in education: principally in being open-minded to evidence that challenges one's own belief system.

On-line Learning at Universities in Developing Countries: From Leap-frogging to Antelope-jumping—Specific Needs and Solutions

Virtual universities, or at least the on-line delivery of tertiary-level courses, offer tremendous possibilities to the developing countries of the South to raise their educational levels. Countries that lack a sound higher education infrastructure can thereby tap the resources of the more developed countries. They can also use the resources of the information and communication technologies to transmit educational offerings to isolated areas and/or areas in which local higher education possibilities are not available. But there are problems. The telecommunications networks, which are almost always owned and headquartered in the developed countries of the North, charge exorbitant rates for their services. Courses and courseware designed in developed countries are frequently not suitable, from a cultural point of view, for use in the developing countries in the South. These should be designed locally, and local teachers need to be retrained to work in a virtual teaching environment. Despite problems, virtua...

Validation of a questionnaire to measure mathematics confidence, computer confidence, and attitudes towards the use of technology for learning mathematics

This study reports on the validation of a questionnaire designed to measure general mathematics confidence, general confidence with using technology, and attitudes towards the use of technology for mathematics learning. A questionnaire was administered to 289 students commencing a tertiary level course on linear algebra and calculus. Scales formed on the basis of factor analysis demonstrated high internal consistency reliability and divergent validity. A repeat administration confirmed the earlier psychometric findings as well as establishing good test-retest reliability. The resulting instrument can be used to measure attitudinal factors that mediate the effective use of technology in mathematics learning.

An on-line information resource on the use of animals in science

Tuition in animal welfare and related ethical issues is included in an increasing number of secondary and tertiary level courses and there is a growing demand among students for information on the use of animals in science. UFAW receives many requests from students undertaking projects on this subject and seeking guidance on sources of information. This new website, which provides clear and balanced summaries of the issues, is a valuable addition to the literature to which students can be directed and has the advantage that it can accessed in seconds and for free (apart from communication line costs). The topics covered include: why study animals? minimizing the harm done to animals in science; benefits of animal-based science; balancing harm and benefit; ethics and use of animals; and control of animal use in science. The site presents well-written and succinct introductions to these topics: ideal for secondary-level - and for introduction to tertiary-level - debate on the subject. In addition, the site also provides a list of further reading and relevant videos and the web addresses of other relevant sites.

Principles for Tertiary-Level Astronomy Courses

AbstractAny worthwhile tertiary-level course of study should, as its highest priority, reflect the discipline it represents as it is contemporaneously practiced. Were it not to do so, students would be intellectually underprovided. This paper sets out general principles which a first degree-level course in astronomy should aim to provide for its students. No specific syllabi will be attempted but, rather, the paper will outline ranges of topics and their level of treatment. While all students taking such courses should have as professional experience as possible, it must be recognised that most students taking tertiary-level astronomy courses may not become professional astronomers and that such courses will necessarily have to have flexibility to meet local circumstances.

Occupational health and safety curricula: the factors that decide -an Australian experience.

Societal, economic and other changes in recent years have resulted in both an increased level and diversity of education and training in occupational health and safety in Australia. Consideration has been given to the key skills and knowledge required by those who take tertiary level courses and who practise as specialists and generalists in the field of occupational health and safety. The curricula and mode of implementation of these courses are determined by the needs of employers, increased emphasis on quality management systems, the prevailing work climate including information technology, communication and legislative requirements all in the context of a rapidly changing tertiary education system.

Purpose in school algebra

Algebra is commonly regarded as a problem area for many students, which has led teachers in schools to question its necessity, whereas lectures of tertiary-level courses continue to complain of incoming students' lack of algebraic skill. In considering how this situation should be addressed, I need first to clarify the aims and objectives of the school algebra course. I then review the research evidence on student's performance and proceed to some suggestions for curriculum modifications that might be helpful.

How Does the Study of a Course in “The Psychology of Human Sexuality” Affect One’s Values?

SynopsisThe study reports the attitudes of a cohort of Australian tertiary students who completed one semester tertiary level course in ’The Psychology of Human Sexuality’ at the University of South Australia. Attitudes towards a variety of sexual issues changed in a more liberal’ direction. Student sexual ego-strength ratings were enhanced following the course. The most dramatic changes occurred in attitudes towards homosexuality. It seems likely that these changes were due to the emotional impact of hearing the personal life stories of visiting guest speakers. The implications of these findings for teaching practices are discussed.