Tertiary Students Research Articles

Optimism bias as a barrier to accessing mental health support amongst tertiary students

ABSTRACT Student wellbeing is a key concern for those delivering tertiary education. Tertiary providers such as universities use a range of techniques to support student wellbeing through times of stress. This article reports on one finding from a mixed methods study at two New Zealand universities that explored how students enrolled in agricultural courses saw and managed their wellbeing. The findings demonstrated that students reflected an optimism bias regarding managing their own stress believing most stressful situations would resolve without the need to involve support services. Their intent was that university support services were only to be used in times of mental health crisis. Consequently, students reported that they would not engage with support and education around managing their wellbeing but did find value in learning about how to support others through times of crisis. These findings contribute to knowledge about tertiary students’ attitudes to stress and support services. They have implications for those delivering wellbeing services at tertiary institutions in terms of how best to tailor and deliver services for students experiencing stress.

A Characteristic Curve Remote Laboratory for School and University

Remote laboratories play a pivotal role in facilitating teaching and learning experiences, offering unique opportunities beyond traditional classroom settings. The project OnLabEdu (Online Laboratories for School Education) aims the development of remote laboratories for both, schools and university-level students, complete with the development of appropriate accompanying educational resources. This paper introduces a characteristic curve remote laboratory with a first-developed learning arrangement on RGB LEDs and the interplay of energy, forward voltage, and wavelength of light. Drawing from the model of educational reconstruction, the learning arrangement is based on a profound clarification of the scientific content and considering students’ perspectives. Against the background of a design-based research approach, the learning arrangement was already evaluated with high school students through probing acceptance interviews. Now we are interested if the learning arrangement also fits to tertiary level students. Therefore, we conducted six probing acceptance interviews with pre-service teacher students, hailing from physics (n=3) and non-physics (n=3) backgrounds. The primary objective of the evaluation was to identify potential barriers to learning and elements that promote a stimulating learning environment along with the operation of the remote laboratory for the tertiary level. The findings revealed similar challenges of tertiary-level students and high school students. We detected students’ challenges with technical terminology as well as explaining the term forward voltage and its connection to the concept of energy. These results give initial ideas for a re-design of the learning arrangement to address the identified issues and make the learning arrangement suitable for tertiary level students.

Experiences of pregnant and parenting students at a university in Gauteng province.

Pregnancy and parenting in tertiary institutions is a worldwide concern. The number of pregnancies among tertiary students is increasing globally. About 16 million young women between the ages of 15 years and 19 years around the world became mothers and two million girls under the age of 15 years are reported to be pregnant every year. South African universities continue to report high rates of student pregnancies, and are looking for solutions to the crisis that female students are facing. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of pregnant and parenting students. At a university in Gauteng province, South Africa. A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design was used in a study that was conducted at a university in Gauteng province, South Africa. Undergraduate pregnant and parenting students were sampled purposively, and the sample size was 15 participants. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study produced four themes, namely emotional experience during pregnancy, academic challenges during parenting, experiences during antenatal care, and students' resilience during pregnancy and parenting. Pregnant and parenting students require emotional, academic and social support from the university and other stakeholders. The university should offer on-campus medical services such as antenatal care and provide academic support for pregnant and parenting students to help them achieve their academic objectives. This study highlights the importance of developing support programmes that focus on pregnant and parenting students in universities.

A scoping review of occupational health education programs for music students and teachers

Embedding musicians’ occupational health training in music education curricula is widely recommended due to the well-documented high prevalence of performance-related health problems (PRHPs) among musicians across their lifespan. A scoping review was conducted to examine the range of evidence from implementations of musicians’ health education programs, regarding the maintenance of hearing, musculoskeletal, psychological, and vocal health, as well as injury prevention strategies to minimize the risk of PRHP. Eligible sources of evidence included published and unpublished studies reporting occupational health education programs (which may have incorporated information on physical or psychological health, exercise, or somatic movement training) implemented with pre-tertiary and tertiary music students and teachers. Studies reporting stand-alone psychological health education were excluded. Key characteristics from included studies were extracted and charted. Data charts outline commonalities across the reported results, including physical, psychological, educational, and behavioral change outcome measures. Out of 46 records included for data extraction, 35 reported programs with tertiary-aged music students, seven reported programs with pre-tertiary-aged music students, two reported programs with music teachers, and two reported systematic reviews. Reported benefits from this research with both pre-tertiary and tertiary music students suggest that musicians’ health education and injury prevention strategies reduce self-reported playing-related pain and music performance anxiety. However, future implementation studies need to address identified challenges such as effective behavior change and the enablers and barriers to the long-term adoption of strategies for optimal music performance and health outcomes. This review highlights the need for further research into designing and embedding musicians’ health education into all music training settings, including more implementations with pre-tertiary music students, as well as training to support the professional development needs of instrumental and vocal teachers.

DIFFERENTIATING E-LEARNING CONTENT IN ESL COURSES TO MEET SPECIAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

Dyslexia is a special need more than a reading difficulty considered along with the notion of language aptitude regarded as a cluster of cognitive factors related to language learning. This paper reports on a study that focused on special learning needs of students with reading and writing difficulties or dyslexia who take English as a compulsory course at the institutions of tertiary education in Russia. The study was guided by understanding that differentiating the content, the process, the product, and the learning environment can be effective for achieving the educational goals of students struggling with foreign language learning. It involved 320 tertiary education students who took an online self-study English language course with differentiated content, to identify their special learning needs and difficulties in English language learning. The Learning Management System analytics was conducted, and the results of engagement and success rates of the students completing the tasks with or without differentiated content were compared. The findings of the study demonstrate students’ higher engagement and success rates when working with differentiated content since it provides options for completion, choosing one’s way to present the results, and to complete the course assignments.

Promoting Strategic Relationship Management Amongst Stakeholders for Organizational Success: A Case of Tertiary (University) Students in Ghana

Strategic management entails planning, organizing, developing, controlling and implementing activities effectively within the organization to achieve corporate strategic goals and objectives. Furthermore, strategic management involves effective resource allocation, reviewing internal processes and monitoring the external factors that might impact the enterprise. It is in this vein that when the relationship management of stakeholders within the entity is not handled / tackled expertly and there are squabbles and nuances, the success of the business would be jeopardized. This would lead to loss of investment from shareholders, which consequently, would cause irreparable damage and possibly, demise of the enterprise. Management should therefore, be circumspect to alleviate all misunderstandings amongst the stakeholders for transparency in all facets of the organization, and allow the conditions of service to work as endorsed and agreed upon by the stakeholders. Moreover, communication should be effective and allowed to flow seamlessly with harmony amongst the stakeholders and effective decision making by management to promote a viable organization for competitive advantage.

Career education and development scale for secondary and tertiary students in Vietnam

AbstractThis article reports on the measurement properties of the Vietnamese versions of the Career Education and Development Scale‐Senior and the Career Education and Development Scale‐Tertiary. The International Labour Organization Vietnam facilitated collection of data from students in high schools (N = 1463) and universities (N = 645) who completed these new measures along with comparator measures of self‐efficacy and career‐related beliefs, and expectations. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed an eight‐factor model equivalent for high school and university students. Correlations with comparator measures provide evidence of concurrent validity. These new measures of career preparedness support Vietnam's national efforts to advance career development, research, and practice. Future research recommendations focus on testing the measures’ properties across different sociocultural factors and gender.

Developing and validating a scale to measure tertiary students’ sustainability competence in extracurricular settings in Asia

Developing and validating a scale to measure tertiary students’ sustainability competence in extracurricular settings in Asia

Understanding Students’ Perception on the use of Facebook for Second Language Learning

The study approaches to explore tertiary level students’ perceptions of Using Facebook for Language Learning. Social networking sites are believed to be good aid for learning language projecting content and language skills and there has been a number of studies on this issue. Like other social networking Sites Facebook can be a platform for learning English. Earlier several studies have discovered that students of tertiary level do not have good command in using English even though, this population spent much time on Facebook interacting with friends, sharing and expressing their ideas, opinion, photos and so on. While using Facebook the tertiary level students, to great extent, use English and thus, this population might have thoughts about what certainty and what problems they face on Facebook using English. The study was conducted with a quantitative approach where data has been collected through a cross sectional survey from purposively selected 100 tertiary level students with a structured questionnaire used as a tool. The findings of the study present that the students are positive to think Facebook as a language learning platform even though they addressed some language and technological challenges. Although the area of the study is small, the result of the t-test shows that the total population might have the same opinion as the sample group. Teacher’s World: Journal of Education and Research, 49 (1), 117-136

“Revenge Travelling” and COVID-19 – Reality or Myth?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector was sometimes completely shut down. However, the strict measures were relaxed in periods characterized by lower infection rates. In this context, “revenge travelling”, an assumption that people would travel excessively to relieve their pandemic fatigue and compensate for missed holiday trips, was discussed amongst the tourism industry and media. This paper aims to unravel whether “revenge travelling” concerning COVID-19 is a reality or myth. It examines six indicators that constitute the phenomenon amongst students at a German university. Four out of the six indicators did not provide any proof of “revenge travelling” behavior. Tertiary students did not travel more frequently in 2021 than in 2020; they did not spend more on vacations, and COVID-19-related considerations did not change their travel planning. Additionally, only a minority of the students who travelled more often linked this to compensating for missed vacations. Nonetheless, the indicators “travel durations” and “travel destinations” revealed some evidence of travel behavior associated with the phenomenon. In sum, this study argues that COVID-19-related “revenge travelling” is a myth rather than reality.

Enhancing Students Anti-Corruption Competence Through Corruption Prevention Campaigns In Social Media

Anti-corruption education courses were given to tertiary level students in Indonesia as an insertion or independent course to meet the challenge in reducing the number of corruptions from educated citizens. Although it does not guarantee that students will not commit acts of corruption in the future, through this anti-corruption education students are expected to be able to realize and understand behavior that leads to corruption and its consequences; so that students have choices and considerations to not commit acts of corruption. One of the learning methods used in anti-corruption courses is anti-corruption campaigns through social media. This method seeks to accommodate students' preferences for digital media, especially social media, and appreciates students' creativity in translating anti-corruption concepts through the perspective of young people. This study uses the Classroom Action Research (CAR) design by Kemmis and Mc. Taggart which was successfully delivered in 1 cycle consisting of planning, implementation/ acting, observing and reflecting stages. The research was carried out in the odd semester of the 2022/2023 academic year from September to November 2022 with the research subjects were the 5th semester students of the Academic Stage of Nursing Education Study Program consisting of 44 students. The results of the study indicated that learning methods that utilized social media in campaigning against corruption were able to increase students' understanding about corruption, corrupt behavior, anti-corruption values and improve students' abilities in making posters or videos. In addition, the methods were also able to improve the students’ motivation in learning during anti-corruption education class

A preliminary analysis of passport to practice: investigating development of core competencies in undergraduate health promotion students.

Equipping tertiary health promotion students with skills and knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the health promotion workforce begins with enhancing their health promotion competence via well-designed curriculum. This includes a focus on work-integrated learning, global citizenship, professional identity and competency mapping in line with the International Union for Health Promotion and Education Core Competencies and Professional Standards for Health Promotion. In this paper we report baseline results for the Passport to Practice project, a mixed-methods prospective cohort study to track undergraduate health promotion student progress across their degree, to evaluate a new approach for assessing student achievement of the Competencies and Standards developed by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. Baseline data were collected from first-year students via document analysis of student reflection papers (n = 40); and an online survey (n = 29) to measure self-reported health promotion competence, development of global citizenship and professional identity, and PebblePad usability. Findings suggest the Passport to Practice initiative positively contributed to professional identity and health promotion competence. Students appreciated work-integrated learning opportunities that enabled them to plan for future activities to address gaps in their competence; and students excelled in the social responsibility dimension of global citizenship but lagged in the political voice category of the global civic engagement dimension. Findings provide insights about strategies and concepts required to equip students with the skills and knowledge required for their role as health promotion practitioners to address complex public health challenges.

Family Demographics, Somatic Symptoms and Problem Gambling Among Students in a Nigerian Institution

Background: Problem gambling is becoming a potential public health epidemic in southwest Nigeria. Individuals with gambling problems are underdiagnosed and relatively under-recognised. Hence, they rarely present with complaints of gambling problems at clinics. The family plays a significant role in identifying and managing persons with gambling addiction. Healthcare professionals need to have a high index of suspicion and understanding of the relationships between family demographics and the presentation of somatic symptoms among high-risk groups. Objective: To assess the relationships between family demographics, somatic symptoms, and gambling problems among Nigerian tertiary educational institution students. Method: This is a cross-sectional study carried out among 183 students of a tertiary education institution in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria. The Southern Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) were the tools used to assess the pattern of gambling and somatic symptoms, respectively. Results: The prevalence of gambling disorder was 23% (42/183). There was a significant relationship between somatic symptoms and problem gambling (p = 0.02). The predictors of probable gambling were a positive family history of gambling (OR = 3.64, p = 0.01, CI = 1.34-9.90), gender (OR = 0.36, p = 0.02, CI = 0.15-0.86) and a decreasing level of the father's education (OR = 2.78, p = 0.02, CI = 1.15-6.71). At the same time, monthly allowances (OR= 1.01, p = 0.07) and somatic symptoms were not predictors of problem gambling (OR = 0.41, p = 0.17). Conclusions: Healthcare professionals need a high index of suspicion when evaluating young persons with somatic symptoms.

Exploring the changing modes of learning and teaching in campus-based curricula during and post- Covid-19

The rise in technology-rich learning environments is reflective of a global trend in higher education (HE), recently accelerated because of necessary digital teaching and assessment practices embraced during the Covid-19 pandemic. This qualitative study facilitated through focus groups and an interview explores the teaching and learning experiences of tertiary level students in the Covid-19 era. Data from 24 students based within a UK Higher Education Institution highlights how an expanded digital environment can optimise conditions for some students to independently practise and apply what they are learning at their own pace. Digitally enhanced opportunities to interact with teaching staff and learning resources also increased the options for these students to experience themselves as competent members of the HE community. This was particularly relevant for first-year students new to the processes and practices of tertiary education. In contrast, third year students with more experience of HE appeared less reliant on the provision of online learning resources. Participants also identified some potential problems associated with the enhanced flexibility of online teaching and learning resources in relation to students’ ability to be self-regulated. This paper rationalises the need for educators and educational and learning developers who teach and undertake scholarship in teaching and learning to consider the sociocultural context of the student and their learning environment when designing teaching activities and curricula. The data presented here highlight the need for a clearly defined framework to underpin the integration of digital technologies with on-campus activities.

Navigating campus life in a pandemic: the social and academic realities of students in Ghana’s public universities during covid-19

The covid-19 pandemic affected the lives of millions of people worldwide including tertiary education students. The study explored the impact of covid-19 on social and academic lives of tertiary education students in Ghana. The research was positioned within the exploratory design in ascertaining in-depth data from purposively selected students. The study used the interview guide as an instrument in gathering data and showed that most students obtained their knowledge on covid-19 from families, friends, media and Ghana Health Service. However, information received about the disease from social media was mostly accompanied with myths which impaired the thoughts of students. Psychologically, students’ preparedness for academic activities were affected especially for those who did not have funds to buy laptops and/or data bundles. Although covid-19 was an opportunity for family members to reunite, it limited religious activities, social events and family gatherings. It was recommended that the university management and Ministry of Education should provide financial and material assistance via the supply of laptops and the make provision for reliable internet connectivity to students. Ghana’s education sector should effectively embrace e-learning as a pro-active measure so as to help cushion the effects of such an event on learning in case of reoccurrence.

Unpacking the mediating role of classroom interaction between student satisfaction and perceived online learning among Chinese EFL tertiary learners in the new normal of post-COVID-19

Online learning has become increasingly prevalent in the era of digitalization, impacted by both internet penetration and the COVID-19 pandemic. Classroom interaction, as a key factor in evaluating students' learning experience in online settings, has been identified to be associated with their academic achievement. While previous research has underscored the significance of classroom interaction in language learning settings, there is relatively limited research on its relationships with student satisfaction and learning. This research intends to explore classroom interaction and its mediating role in the correlation between student satisfaction and perceived online learning in online contexts. Given this, the paper reports a quantitative-method study that examined how Chinese EFL tertiary students perceived three types of classroom interaction (i.e., learner-learner, learner-instructor, and learner-content), their satisfaction, and its influences on their perceived online learning. Data was collected from 319 Chinese university students through convenience sampling and a self-designed questionnaire, and then analyzed with the help of SPSS. The results showed that: 1) the students had moderately positive perceptions of classroom interaction and online learning, but were neutral about their satisfaction; 2) positive correlations were observed between classroom interaction, student satisfaction, and online learning; and 3) student satisfaction predicted perceived online learning, with classroom interaction partially mediating this relationship. The findings of this research have implications for strengthening the effectiveness of online language teaching in the post-COVID-19 era.

Determinants of Financial Literacy and its Effect on Stock Market Participation among University Students in Ghana

The study examined determinants of financial literacy and stock market participation in Ghana. The study also examined the relationship between financial literacy and stock market participation among university students in Ghana. The study involved surveying 400 University of Ghana students to assess their level of financial literacy, stock market participation, and explore potential influencing factors. The study analysed data using ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that students exhibited limited knowledge in various financial literacy areas, including interest compounding, time value of money, inflation, money illusion, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and investment risk diversification. Moreover, the study identified male, older, postgraduate students, and those with more working experience as comparatively more financially literate and active participants in stock market activities. Additionally, a positive relationship between financial literacy and stock market participation in Ghana was established. Other determinants of stock market participation included age, gender, course of study, and income levels. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education implement significant initiatives to enhance financial literacy education among tertiary students. Furthermore, financial institutions should increase advertising efforts to promote awareness about various financial products.

Rethinking accounting education for a sustainable future: charting a course for sustainable development goals 2030

PurposeThis paper aims to seek accounting graduates' perspectives on the demand for accounting in their workplaces, on the gaps in accounting education (AE), and on the future of the accounting profession, inspired by the new definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021, 2022, 2023a), to adopt a strong focus on sustainable development goals (SDGs) in AE to inculcate tertiary students with the skills that lead them to approach and apply accounting as a multidimensional technical, social and moral (TSM) practice.Design/methodology/approachThe online qualitative survey was distributed to 100 randomly selected New Zealand accounting graduates in order to gather insights from their workplaces. All responses from the 30 graduates who completed the questionnaire underwent qualitative analysis using Leximancer software, which automatically identifies high-level concepts and insights and offers interactive visualizations without bias.FindingsThe graduates’ experiences underscore the ongoing significance of technical skills in the New Zealand workplace. They emphasized the lack of non-technical skills training, stressed the necessity of diverse business knowledge and highlighted the importance of automation and digital skills.Practical implicationsThe implications for transforming AE involve adopting an activist approach to integrate a TSM perspective into teaching and learning and being open to an interdisciplinary approach to expose tertiary students to the impact of accounting on sustainable development, including collaboration with professional bodies for real-world experiences.Originality/valueThe importance of engaging with SDG-related narratives is stressed to stimulate further discussion, debate and research aimed at identifying practical solutions for AE as a facilitator for SDGs in realizing accounting as a TSM practice.

Influence of investment knowledge, minimum capital, influencers, technological progress on students interest in investing in the capital market

This research aims to analyze the influence of investment knowledge, minimum capital, influencers, technological advances, and student's interest in investing. The population for this study were all tertiary students in the city of Denpasar totaling 85,595 people and the number of samples calculated using the Slovin formula was 398 people. This study used a data collection technique, namely a questionnaire. The analysis technique in this study is multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this research are that investment knowledge, influencers, and technological advances have a positive effect on investment interest, while the minimum capital has no effect on student's investment interest.

Programming experiment course for innovative and sustainable education: A case study of Java for Millikan Oil-Drop experiment

A teaching approach of programming experiment courses with a new education process is proposed in this study to improve the sustainability of engineering education and extend the accessibility of lab experiments across experiment courses, with the goal of encouraging innovative and scientific thinking among students. The Millikan Oil-Drop experiment combined with Java object-oriented programming is demonstrated as a case study to validate the feasibility and advantages of this teaching approach. The new education process of the experiment course is designed based on Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory, which has high practical potential for popularization among tertiary institutions without additional cost. Additionally, this work discussed the relevance of the general criterion of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology on student outcomes to educational accreditation, further indicating that introducing programming into experiment education can improve students' all-round ability and strengthen the triangular relationship among the three main subjects in tertiary education, namely, students, faculty, and higher educational institutions. This study may serve as an educational guide for teachers and tertiary institutions to pursue innovative and sustainable education.