Undergraduate Higher Education Research Articles

Pathways and barriers to Human Development and Family Science student engagement in undergraduate research

The value of high-impact practices in undergraduate higher education is well documented. However, very little is known about high-impact practices in Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) programs. The goal of this study was to explore one specific high-impact practice: undergraduate research. Specifically, our study explored the benefits and barriers of undergraduate research for HDFS students as well as the pathways HDFS students use to become involved in undergraduate research. College student identity theory served as a guide for our inquiry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 undergraduate HDFS students, 13 of whom had participated in undergraduate research and 9 who had not. Results revealed three pathways students took to participate in undergraduate research: interest in a specific research topic, connection with the researcher, and preparation for graduate school. Enhanced learning, professional skills, personal growth, and relationships with others were identified as benefits of participation in undergraduate research. Barriers to participation in research included time, lack of awareness, and feelings of fear or intimidation. Specific processes for students and faculty to overcome these barriers are suggested. It is recommended that HDFS faculty and administrators provide multiple pathways and supports for undergraduate students to become involved in research.

FLIPPED CLASSROOM IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF PUBLICATIONS IN MAJOR REFERRED JOURNALS FROM 2014 TO 2020

In recent years, the flipped classroom has aroused an international research upsurge. Although there are many literature reviews on flipped classrooms, applying and exploring flipped classroom models in higher education is not enough. To understand fully applying flipped classrooms in university settings, this study reviewed 23 articles on flipped classrooms in higher education published in five major educational technology research journals from January 2014 to December 2020. Most research has focused on undergraduate higher education, conducting quantitative studies on subjects such as STEM and education. China has contributed the most to flipped classroom-related research in higher education. Most of the articles have corroborated the positive influence of flipped classrooms on students' academic performance, motivation, attitude, perception, and satisfactions, as well as the cultivation of students’ higher-order thinking ability, and few have discussed the challenges faced by flipped classrooms. In addition, the study corroborated several gaps in the literature. More research needs concern associated with the negative views of teachers and students on flipped classrooms in colleges and universities. This study can provide a valuable reference for educators and researchers in flipped classrooms.

Does university attendance affects students’ critical and creative thinking skills? A longitudinal research with pre-service teaching and psychology undergraduates

ABSTRACT While there is a strong consensus on the importance of Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) skills for the rise of participatory citizens and work-ready professionals, the extent to which university attendance by itself supports their development and acquisition remains controversial. This research presents a cohort, longitudinal follow-up study aimed at investigating the impact of university attendance by itself on the CCT skills development of 41 higher education students from two, 3-year Bachelor’s programmes at a northeastern Portuguese university, namely Pre-Service Teaching and Psychology. Using Lopes et al.’s Critical and Creative Thinking Test, an open-access CCT assessment instrument validated for the Portuguese higher education population, data were collected at the beginning of the first and of the third academic years: 2016–2017 and 2018–2019, respectively. Non statistically significant differences were found for both cohorts, suggesting that the domain-specific training of these study programmes per se are not a sufficient condition to enhance students’ domain-general CCT skills. Therefore, further research is still needed to better identify the moderating variables influencing the development of students’ CCT skills during their attendance in undergraduate higher education.

Too little, too late?: Can an integrated empathy-building intervention shift gero-attitudes for undergraduates in an online course?

ABSTRACT By 2050, 22.1% of the United States population will be 65 years or older, increasing the demand for well-trained, enthusiastic professionals to serve them. At the same time, later life is frequently pathologized, and there continues to be a preference for youth by those who are yet to be old as well as older adults themselves. The growing divide between this expanding cohort and gero-focused professionals is exacerbated by the under-emphasis on gerontology in undergraduate higher education and the substantial shift toward online instruction and larger class sizes in the U.S. In this quasi-experimental study, researchers examined whether a gerontology-focused empathy-building intervention (EBI) in 2 semesters of an online undergraduate course on aging changed students’ attitudes toward older adults, aging anxiety, and interest in gero-focused careers, compared with 2 control semesters taught without the EBI. Statistical results showed that neither the EBI nor course completion without the EBI significantly shifted students’ gero-attitudes and interest, suggesting the necessity of earlier and varied interventions to combat negative stereotypes about aging. Qualitative results provided some indication of the possible impact of the EBI. We describe study design, implementation, challenges, and areas for future intervention and study.

The construction of undergraduate higher education quality evaluation system to promote the sustainable development of Higher Education

The effective supply of higher education is important to cultivate innovative talents and improve the quality of higher education. In the new era, China’s colleges and universities put forward to improve the quality of higher education as the goal, reasonable allocation of higher education supply resources and effectively promote the healthy development of higher education. Based on this, this paper takes the supply of higher education as the starting point, and constructs the evaluation index system of higher education supply based on the government, society and universities. It also improved the evaluation criteria for the school running standards, teaching quality, teaching staff and teaching achievements of higher education. So this paper has certain theoretical and practical significance to promote the effective supply of higher education and improve the quality of higher education supply.

What do we mean by “transferable skills”? A literature review of how the concept is conceptualized in undergraduate health sciences education

PurposeDue to rapid changes in the future labor market, transferable skills are recognized as a vital learning outcome for students in undergraduate higher education. However, ambiguities surrounding the concept and content of transferable skills hamper the actual teaching and learning of transferable skills. Consequently, there is a great need for an overview of the literature on transferable skills to qualify and develop the approaches to transferrable skills in higher education. This study aims to outline a typology of how transferable skills are conceptualized in health sciences education, that is, medicine, nursing and related health professionals’ education.Design/methodology/approachThe study was a mixed studies literature review, which included quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies. A seven-stage sequential exploratory synthesis of the included studies was conducted.FindingsThis review showed that transferable skills reflected three main conceptualizations: Program Requirements, Employability and Holistic Development. Overall, the global methodological quality of the empirical studies of interventions to further transferable skills development in health science education was weak.Research limitations/implicationsThis study aids clear conceptualization in future empirical studies.Practical implicationsBy distinguishing between three main conceptualizations of transferable skills, this study's typology supports alignment in transferable skills curricula because conceptually sound learning objectives provide teachers and students in health sciences education with a clear purpose and direct educators' choice of relevant teaching and assessment strategies.Originality/valueThis review – the first of its kind – contributes to conceptualization of transferable skills as the basis for curriculum development and research.

UK university part-time higher education: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of undergraduate prospectuses

ABSTRACT In the UK, higher education (HE) policy discourse over the past 60 years has advocated flexible part-time HE for social mobility, personal development, economic advantage and leisure. However, part-time undergraduate HE in the UK is in steep decline. Against this backdrop, we were interested in how universities promote, or fail to promote, part-time study options today. We built a corpus of 90 UK undergraduate prospectuses for 2018 entry (5,673,799 words). Using a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach, we found significant mismatch between policy discourse and marketing discourse regarding part-time study. In particular, we found that UK university marketing discourse positions full-time study as the dominant mode of study and writes of part-time study as ‘second-best’. This discourse mismatch is particularly marked when it comes to the elite Russell Group of universities. Viewing the absence of strong promotional discourse relating to part-time study alongside other factors such as increased tuition fees and the rise of global online education platforms adds a new perspective to the decline of flexible part-time undergraduate HE at campus-based universities in the UK.

There is no “I” in “a team of lawyers”: an evaluation of student perceptions of group assessment within legal higher education

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the use of group assessments within higher education (HE) as a form of summative assessment, and the experiences of students in relation to this assessment tool. Group assessment is becoming a very common feature of undergraduate HE courses, with an “explosion” of group assessment in more recent years. This paper chooses to focus on the use of group assessment within the discipline of law, specifically the use of summative group assessment within a law discipline at a Russell Group University. Although this paper follows numerous other studies and reviews of group work and group assessment, it has been noted that there remains a lack of qualitative studies on students’ perspectives on group assessment. This paper progresses the literature to date by collecting qualitative insights. In particular, the paper focuses on key aspects of student experience such as building group relationships, and the fear and uncertainty of being assessed as part of a group. Group assessment can be introduced readily by staff without always considering the complexity of group work and its related issues and this can potentially lead to negative student experiences. Therefore, this paper also aims to highlight the benefits to student experience of well-planned group assessment that is appropriately set.

Adult Students: A Confusing World in Undergraduate Higher Education

Who are adult undergraduates? How do we define this specialized clientele for program designs, support services, and research? Given changing profiles of young collegiate adults as part-time, worker, parent, and e-learning students, how do we differentiate these younger adults from our older adult undergraduates for our services and advocacy? These questions are explored through an abbreviated historic background to situate the adult student in undergraduate higher education from colonial America to the present. The second section explores past rhetoric and perspectives used to classify and often segregate adults in undergraduate higher education. Given the complex and sometimes contradictory actions and understandings, three propositions will be offered to aid you in framing your perspective to define, advocate, and lead programs and services for adult undergraduate learners as lifelong learners.

UK Students’ Subjective Experiences and Responses to Higher Education Austerity : Implications and Lessons for the Future

The 2010 UK Coalition government published The Coalition: our programme for government, outlining ‘deficit reduction’ as the main priority for the Coalition’s fixed 5 years of government. The significance of this became apparent through the austerity measures in public expenditure and specifically social policy expenditure. However, it is young people for whom austerity has had the most deleterious effects, with the policy changes in higher education funding in 2011 being emblematic. These changes included a tripling of undergraduate higher education (UHE) tuition fees paid by students from £ 3,000 to £ 9,000 per year, and an increase in means tested repayable maintenance loans of up to £ 5,500 for those living outside London. The government rationalised these changes as a way to pay for the increasing student population. As a consequence of these significant changes, the estimate of debt from the Institute for Fiscal Studies for students leaving UHE following these changes is over £ 44,000, nearly € 20,000 more than before the change (Crawford and Jin 2014). This empirical qualitative study aims to explore the ways in which UHE students in the UK have been affected by these policy measures. The study analyses students’ subjective experiences and responses to the UHE funding policy changes, and highlights in particular that these austerity policy changes to UHE student financing is impacting on younger generation in a way that has the potential to destabilize their personal and professional lives now and in the future. The study also discusses how in other European countries who may be affected by similar austerity measures.

Critical Thinking and Reflection on Community Service for a Medical Biochemistry Course Raise Students’ Empathy, Patient-Centered Orientation, and Examination Scores

Meta-analyses of findings for nonmedical curricula show that course-based community service, such as service learning, improves students’ academic achievement and their personal, social, and citizenship outcomes. Based on this strong evidence for K-12 and undergraduate higher education, we tested the theory that biochemistry course-based community service would improve first-year medical students’ empathy, patient-centered orientation, and examination scores. Students completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy and the patient-practitioner orientation scale at the beginning and end of the first of three biochemistry courses. During the course, biochemistry learning teams of six to seven students selected and performed community service projects and critical thinking and reflection about the projects. They then completed a survey of their opinions about the project. To assess their academic achievement in the course, individual students took biochemistry examinations composed of multiple choice questions. Course-based community service was associated with anticipated improvements in students’ empathy (p = 0.04, effect size = r = 0.44) and patient-practitioner orientation scale (p = 0.004, r = 0.61) scores and, more modestly, with examination (p = 0.02, r = 0.27) scores. Most students agreed that their team community service would help them better to see their biases toward patients (79 %) and to be engaged with them (86 %). Team community service and critical thinking and reflection about the service appear to foster empathy and academic achievement in first-year medical students. As for critical thinking and reflection about other topics, critical thinking and reflection on community service also promote a patient-centered orientation in students.

Expenditures, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in U.S. Undergraduate Higher Education: A National Benchmark Model

Accountability in higher education is a theme that has been sounded for almost two decades at the federal and state legislative levels. Recent negative changes in the U.S. and world economies are exacerbating long-standing needs for improvements in institutional effectiveness and efficiency, and increased accountability for both. Financial pressures on colleges and universities in the U.S. are significant and growing: endowments are dramatically down, as is the resulting income; state and local revenues are insufficient for continuing levels of support; and many students and their parents are seeking lower costs (efficient) and higher quality (effective) schools and programs. All stakeholders are asking for answers as to why the cost of college attendance continues to grow at a rate as much as twice the inflation rate (Commonfund, 2009). Institutions of higher education must be accountable for the resources received and the results achieved. Some institutions have responded and are actively seeking answers and solutions to these cost and quality questions, and other institutions need to do so. Higher education’s most important question related to the accountability issue is, “Why are higher education costs increasing at rates higher than costs of the U.S. economy as a whole?” (Layzell & Ca

Expenditures, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in U.S. Undergraduate Higher Education: A National Benchmark Model

Expenditures, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in U.S. Undergraduate Higher Education: A National Benchmark Model

Evaluation on the intervention effect of the security and emergency knowledge of the parent

Objective To explore intervention measures of effectively preventing unintentional injury of children. Methods On-site surveys and the pre-and post-control study were used. And from Jul 2009 to Oct 2009, there were 136 cases of outpatients or emergency were surveyed at Hunan Children' s Hospital. Among these 136 children, 66 suffered with various accidental injures, and 70 without any accidental injuries. The 1-month health education interventions were issued to all the children' s parents. Interventions included handing out Read of Security and Emergency Education on accidental injury prevention every weekend in hospital.Results Parents who had received undergraduate course or higher education had got the high scores ( F =3. 089, P = 0. 029 ). After education intervention, more parents were familiar with accidental injury-related knowledge including natural disaster, accidental wound, society security, as well as public health. And as a result, these associated knowledge familiar rate had increased (P ＜ 0. 01 ). Conclusions Health education intervention, based on the Read of Security and Emergency Education, can significantly increase the parents' knowledge of the injury. Key words: Parents; Security and emergency knowledge; Evaluate

Teaching and learning in higher education in regard to information literacy and diversity

The paper will source evidence about the skills that contribute to retention and success in undergraduate higher education: and the capacity to assess and remediate skill sets when learners commence HE with reference to the strategies that apply to information literacy. The paper will outline the situated nature of professional capacities and the inter-dependence of adult competencies.

Communication practices in workplaces and higher education

Communication practices in workplace and related higher education sites in the fields of architecture, mechanical engineering, and radiography were studied and compared. A wide variety of communication practices was found in workplaces, each with specific purposes, audiences and contexts; a more limited range of communication practices was found in higher education departments, with less clarity with regard to the intended purpose, audience and context of the communication. The study showed that in their workplaces architects, engineers, and radiographers do not normally write for other architects, engineers or radiographers, but for related professionals; architects would, for example, prepare drawings and documents for structural engineers, mechanical engineers would prepare layout diagrams and instructions for electrical engineers, and radio-therapists would prepare and update patient records for oncologists. The clear sense of purpose, audience, and context that is apparent in workplace writing is related to the inter-professional, inter-disciplinary focus of professional writing. In contrast, the communication practices in career-focused (undergraduate) higher education tend to be intra-professional, and intra-disciplinary; this causes students to experience confusion in terms of the purpose, audience and context of their writing. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (4) 2007: pp. 781-798

Mainstreaming Alternatives in Veterinary Medical Education: Resource Development and Curricular Reform

Veterinary medical educators are charged with preparing students to enter practice in veterinary medicine during a four-year, intensive, professional education program. This requires giving students in laboratory training that involves dead, anesthetized, or conscious animals, so that they become proficient in the expected range of veterinary knowledge, skills, and abilities. Undeniably, experience with animals is essential to prepare students for a profession in which animals comprise the total domain. However, the consumptive use of animals for teaching students, especially in laboratories, is increasingly subject to regulatory requirements, while also being scrutinized by animal protection groups, and has become a common focus of contention among veterinary students. Not surprisingly, the use of animals in teaching has sharply declined over the past few decades, as new teaching resources and methods, involving less consumptive use of animals, have been incorporated. This change in veterinary medical education has occurred on such a wide scale, in almost all veterinary schools and colleges, that the educational approach can serve as a model for further developments within the veterinary educational community and, indeed, for animal-related material in secondary schools and undergraduate higher education. This article highlights examples of the leadership provided by veterinary educators in developing alternative teaching resources and methods, while maintaining the high level of proficiency expected from traditional educational approaches.

Confirming the relational model of information literacy

An operational definition was developed of the relational model of information literacy (Bruce, 1997), within the context of undergraduate higher education. This was achieved by identifying and validating examples of student behaviour that exemplified the seven phases of the relational model. Statistical analysis confirmed that the overall construct, information literacy, is a coherent concept as defined in the relational model, and distinguished each of the seven phases. This work also is an example of how quantitative methods can be used to generalise findings from qualitative research.

Confirming the relational model of information literacy

An operational definition was developed of the relational model of information literacy (Bruce, 1997), within the context of undergraduate higher education. This was achieved by identifying and validating examples of student behaviour that exemplified the seven phases of the relational model. Statistical analysis confirmed that the overall construct, information literacy, is a coherent concept as defined in the relational model, and distinguished each of the seven phases. This work also is an example of how quantitative methods can be used to generalise findings from qualitative research.

A study of consumer expectations and perceptions in undergraduate higher education

There is an increasing trend in higher education for institutions to view themselves as competitors. This has led to mounting pressures for each college and university to provide high quality courses in order to obtain a continuous supply of able students seeking entry. Quality in academic terms is a controversial concept, with different stakeholders each having their own view on what constitutes quality.This study's primary objective was to design and implement a way of measuring the quality of the courses offered by a university department, in order to highlight areas in which additional funds need to be allocated to improve performance.Following a review of literature on the subject, it was apparent that measurement of customer perceptions of quality is important in any service organisation. A questionnaire was therefore designed, based on Zeithaml et al's SERVQUAL instrument, to measure the difference between student expectations and perceptions of quality of service delivery.The results indicate areas where the university is failing to meet student expectations and provide a framework for managers to use and redirect resources. In addition, measurement of customer perceptions of service quality can be used over a period of time to monitor the impact of quality improvement activities initiated through an organisation's strategic planning process.