Undergraduate Majors Research Articles

Critical Thinking Instruction Incorporated in Cross-Cultural Communication Course Design: A Needs Analysis Report Based on Voices of Chinese International College Undergraduates

Critical thinking represents one of the most absolutely vital talents for every individual, both in the workplace and in their personal lives. Critical thinking has become a primary concern for all educational institution students in recent decades, particularly Chinese undergraduates. The intention of this study was to investigate the needs analysis of Chinese international college undergraduates’ perceptions of critical thinking skills incorporated into a cross-cultural communication course, as well as their expectations of critical thinking skills instructional coursework throughout the cross-cultural communication context. Throughout this mixed-methods investigation, 78 Chinese international college students volunteered to complete a critical thinking disposition inventory (CTDI) as the primary research instrument, in addition to a semi-structured interview. The research uncovered that Chinese international undergraduates exhibited unclear notions of critical thinking abilities. As a byproduct of China’s education system, the majority of Chinese international college undergraduates were flooded with dismissive attitudes toward critical thinking abilities. In order to control their academic advancement in a more critical and analytical fashion, Chinese students expressed a pressing need for critical thinking skills to be included in their cross-cultural communication course.

Improving Undergraduate Psychology Students’ Understanding of the Graduate School Application Process

Background More students with a bachelor’s degree in psychology are seeking graduate studies, though many lack knowledge about the admission process. Objective We created a brief educational presentation to increase student knowledge of the application process, positive outcome expectations for obtaining a master’s degree in psychology, and intention to apply. Method We recruited N = 55 undergraduate psychology majors at a public university in Texas. We randomly assigned participants to either a 52-min written or video version of the educational presentation. Results Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that participants increased their positive outcome expectations for a master’s degree in psychology and increased their perceived knowledge of the application process. Our qualitative content analysis revealed improvements in participants’ objective knowledge of what to include in a curriculum vitae and personal statement, who to ask for a letter of recommendation, and what resources exist for funding graduate school. Conclusions Professors could consider using evidence-based, brief educational presentations in mentoring undergraduate students on career goals including graduate study in psychology. Teaching Implications Additional training may be required to help educational professionals to incorporate evidence-based career planning during key stages of students’ undergraduate psychology study.

Awareness on resonance frequency analysis in dental implantology among dental practitioners and dental students.

In a partial or entirely independent jaw, oral implantology is a technique in dentistry used to enhance the function of mastication, esthetics, and phonation. An important diagnostic aspect for the effectiveness of implant therapy is the stability of the implants. This study aims to measure dental professionals' and dental students' knowledge of resonance frequency analysis (RFA) in dental implantology. This study aims to measure dental professionals' and dental students' knowledge of RFA in dental implantology. One hundred ninety-nine dentists and dental students participated in an online survey study that was delivered through Google Forms. For statistical analysis, tabulated data from the Excel sheets were transferred into the SPSS program. The Chi-square test is also used to examine clinical relevance. According to the study's findings, 60% of the respondents were male and 46% of those who responded were dental professionals. The respondents were primarily between the ages of 18 and 22 (36%). The majority of dental undergraduates and graduates were found to be knowledgeable about the various techniques used to gauge implant stability (P = 0.04 < 0.05). Within the limitations of this study, it was found that most of the dental students and dental practitioners participating in this study were aware of implant stability. The majority of the respondents were aware that RFA was used to measure primary and secondary stability and osseointegration.

A Corpus-Based Study on the Semantic Use of Reporting Verbs in English Majors’ Undergraduate Thesis Writing

This study aims to add further pedagogical knowledge on students’ academic writing by investigating the semantic patterns of reporting verbs (RVs) in L1 Chinese undergraduate English majors’ theses in a southern Chinese university based on the semantic categories by Hunston et al. (1996) and Charles (2006a). A comparative analysis was conducted across L2 and L1 students’ academic writing in the discipline of applied linguistics. The study yielded two major findings: 1) there was a significantly insufficient employment of RVs in general, particularly among three categories (Argue, Show, Find) by L2 students, who also presented a strong reliance on argumentation by intuition; 2) L2 students illustrated a restricted vocabulary repertoire of colloquial RVs and their usage of RVs was misrepresented in context, diverging from the intended rhetorical functions. These findings indicate that evidence-based argumentative writing practice and targeted lexical and rhetorical instructions on vocabulary knowledge require further promotion in L2 English learners’ academic writing training.

Using Hexbugs™ to model gas pressure and electrical conduction: A pandemic-inspired distance lab

We describe a pandemic-inspired, modern physics distance lab course, focused both on engaging undergraduate physics majors in scientific research from their homes and on building skills in scientific paper reading and writing. To introduce the experimental and analytic tools, students are first asked to complete a traditional lab assignment in which collections of Hexbugs™, randomly moving toy automatons, are used to model gas molecules and to confirm the ideal gas law. Subsequently, after consulting the literature, students propose and implement semester-long experiments using Hexbugs™, smartphones, and materials commonly found at home to model various concepts in statistical mechanics and electrical conduction. A sample project focused on the Drude model, in which Hexbugs™ on a tilted plane are used to model electrical conduction, is described in detail. Alongside the research projects, students write formal, peer-reviewed scientific papers on their work, modeling the professional publication process as closely as possible. Somewhat paradoxically, we found that the pandemic-inspired exigency of reliance on simple, home-built experiments enabled an increased focus on developing experimental research skills and achieving the laboratory learning objectives recommended by the American Association of Physics Teachers.

대학의 계열별 글쓰기 수업에서의 과학 글쓰기 및 토론 활성화 방안

As the role of science in society becomes increasingly prominent, there is a rising recognition of the importance of scientific writing. However, in-class tools to teach scientific writing and effective communication to undergraduate science and engineering majors are still in need. It is not easy to clearly and effectively convey one’s argument on scientific issues based on technical knowledge through writing. It is even more difficult when you are teaching in an undergraduate scientific writing class setting where students of different science and engineering majors come together. To teach effective communication, we need to devise more specific methods to address various difficulties that students may encounter. In this study, we developed the “essay introduction letter” to facilitate scientific wrting and in-class discussions. Modelled on cover letters for academic journals, the essay introduction letter incorporates essential elements for effective science communication. In our study, students were required to write an essay introduction letter to present their argumentative essay assignment and read others’ essays before inclass discussions on each writing. We then analyzed the effects of using the letter by observation of in-class discussions and student surveys. Our findings suggest that students can more readily prepare their presentations and participate in meaningful discussions through writing and reading essay introduction letters. We hope that this study will contribute to devising specific methods to teach scientific writing and effective communication to undergraduate science and engineering majors.

New Curriculum Development Model for Improving Undergraduate Students’ Data Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Online Astronomy Classrooms

There is a critical need for research-based active learning instructional materials for the teaching and learning of STEM in online courses. Every year, hundreds of thousands of undergraduate non-science majors enroll in general education astronomy courses to fulfill their institution’s liberal arts requirements. When designing instructional materials for this population of learners, a central focus must be to help learners become more scientifically and data literate. As such, we developed a new, three-part, curricular model that was used to inform the creation of active-learning instructional materials designed for use in online courses to help introductory astronomy students improve their ability to make evidence-based conclusions when presented with a variety of data representations, while increasing their self-efficacy with respect to engaging meaningfully in science. We conducted a pilot study of these instructional materials at nine different colleges and universities to better understand whether students’ engagement with these materials lead to increases in self-efficacy, and whether faculty who implemented the materials were able to easily incorporate our active learning materials into their existing online astronomy courses. Overall, we found a statistically significant improvement in students' self-efficacy after engaging with our instructional materials in their online courses. The results of the item-by-item analysis indicated that students’ beliefs improved most on the questions that assessed their ability to make meaningful contributions to scientific research, and their confidence using data representations to interpret an array of scientific questions. The instructor feedback emphasized that our curriculum development model could successfully inform the creation of instructional materials that were easy to implement in existing online astronomy classes, and supported course learning objectives, creating the potential for widespread dissemination and use at the undergraduate level.

Measuring Chinese Undergraduate English Majors’ Motivation to Learn Translation in Higher Education Translation Courses

Many studies have suggested that Chinese English majors tend to have a lower level of motivation to learn translation due to the conventional teaching method still prevalent in many a translation classroom. In this regard, from the standpoint of instruction, a translation course design that employed motivation as a central concept of the design may have positive impacts on students’ motivation to learn. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is known for its efficacy in making meaning-oriented choice in language use in context. And since translation is about recontextualized meaning transfer, a teaching method integrated with SFL may be motivating for students to learn translation. Grounded on SFL and guided by Keller’s ARCS Motivational Design, a new genre-based method was proposed. This study aimed to explore effects of an SFL guided genre-based method and the conventional method on Chinese students’ motivation to learn translation. Two intact groups were selected as the Experimental Group and the Control Group, each consisting of 37 students. The Experimental Group was instructed using the genre-based method while the Control Group using the conventional method. A motivation questionnaire adapted from Keller’s Course Interest Survey was administered to both groups’ students before and after the pedagogical intervention. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using ANCOVA test in SPSS (Version 25). The results show that students in the Experimental Group scored significantly higher mean in overall motivation and four constructs of the ARCS Model, namely, Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction after they were taught using the genre-based method in comparison with their counterparts in the Control Group. The findings indicate that in general, the genre-based method is effective in enhancing students’ motivation in learning translation. Therefore, future translation instructors may consider adopting the SFL-informed genre-based method as an alternative pedagogical tool to motivate students to learn translation.

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Proof: Comparing Secondary Teachers, Pre-Service Secondary Teachers, and Undergraduate Majors

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Proof: Comparing Secondary Teachers, Pre-Service Secondary Teachers, and Undergraduate Majors

Introducing Students to Business Analytics: A Case Study

Employer demand for business analytics skills is strong, yet most universities provide an inadequate amount of business analytics education. This paper describes and evaluates an introductory business analytics course required for undergraduate business management majors. It examines not only students' perceptions of teaching effectiveness and learning satisfaction from end-of-semester surveys but also student learning outcomes measured by the instruments for the program assurance of learning. Student evaluations were not generally favourable, which is unsurprising for the courses like this that require statistical analysis and quantitative skills. However, the measures of learning showed positive results as over three-quarters of the students’ demonstrated satisfactory performance in using analytical tools and applying spreadsheet and optimization models. Perceptions were enhanced for students who held more positive impressions of the instructor and of the team-based assignments, who expected higher grades, and who were more interested in the subject of business analytics. The study suggests that measures of learning may provide a more accurate picture of the effectiveness of business analytics coursework than measures of reactions.

The professional values of American undergraduate music majors

The purpose of this survey research was to examine undergraduate music majors’ professional identities and values. Participants ( N = 277) at nine varied postsecondary institutions reported the value they and their peers and professors would place on various musical honors and careers. The instrument was pilot tested and validated through confirmatory factor analysis. The perceived values of participants’ social influences explained 44% of the participants’ value for awards and 65% of their value for careers. Consistent with prior research, students of all majors rated performance awards and careers the highest and careers as general music teachers and music scholars the lowest. Value differences with applied instructors predicted lower enjoyment of music school. Findings also highlighted how gender, race/ethnicity, and year in music school interacted with social influences to affect participants’ attitudes and aspirations.

Specific Features of Teaching Generation Z English in a Non-linguistic University (Based on the example of students majoring in public relations)

This research aims to identify the specifics of teaching generation Z English as a foreign language in Russian non- linguistic universities and covers the principles of the theory of generations including focus group methodology. The survey encompassed eighty-seven undergraduate freshmen majoring in Advertising and Public Relations and included the following key aspects: professor’s qualifications and behavior, overall atmosphere and lesson structure, frequency of utilization of audio and visual materials as well as students’ preferred forms of interaction. Contrary to the belief that generation Z is not sociable and prefers individualism, our survey highlights those students willingly interact in groups of several people maintaining their motivation and realizing creative potential. Employment of digital technologies plays a crucial role for generation Z as it contributes to the widespread implementation of pedagogical and methodological principles, by making a lesson more interesting for nowadays students consequently reducing the generation gap.

Academic, financial, and mental health stressors among undergraduates during pandemic

Since the Covid-19 outbreak began in December 2019, requirement for global curfews on a wide range of issues has emerged, limiting the interactions with one another. A self-administered cross-sectional questionnaire was developed to examine academic stressors, financial stressors, and mental health stressors among undergraduates during the early and later stages of the pandemic. The findings of the study indicated a significant impact of these stressors on the mental health of undergraduates during the pandemic. Majority of undergraduates’ were tested with COVID positive and are more effected with mental health stressors. The academic and financial stressors of the pandemic's later stage has been decreased compared to the early stage of the pandemic.

Varied Musical Experiences and Openness of University Students in Turkey and the United States

The personality trait of openness has been shown to contribute to a person’s ability to function effectively. Additionally, scholars have suggested that openness to experience and foreign language experience were related to music preference. Extending from earlier scholarship, this study examined the relationship between openness to experience and the various types of musical and language experiences reported by undergraduate music majors in Turkey and the United States. Participants ( N = 380) were surveyed using the Openness to Experience domain of the NEO-PI-R and an author-designed survey with questions about participants’ musical backgrounds and interests, foreign language abilities, age, and sex. Results showed that U.S. students rated significantly higher in four of the five dimensions of the Openness domain than their Turkish counterparts (Wilks’λ = .57; F(5, 374) = 55.37, p &lt; .001). Factor analysis results showed that (a) experiences in foreign languages, (b) listening to Turkish traditional, pop, and folk music, and (c) listening to American (pop and folk) and Western classical music cumulatively explained 68.49% of the variance in openness. Correlation analyses suggested that listening to Western classical, American folk, and American pop music was associated with higher openness scores, and listening to Turkish traditional, folk, and pop music was associated with lower openness scores. Additionally, the number of foreign languages participants studied correlated with four of the dimensions. Results suggest that both groups could benefit from increased, broader, and deeper exposure to different musical genres from diverse cultures.

Teaching Reform of Undergraduate Courses in Colleges and Universities Based on Machine Learning and Improved SVM Algorithm

In order to deeply understand the current situation, problems, and satisfaction of undergraduate education courses in Contemporary Colleges and universities, and further improve the teaching level of professional courses, first, this paper makes an in-depth investigation on the teaching status and satisfaction of undergraduate education majors in two colleges and universities. The results show that the teaching and satisfaction of undergraduate education majors are at a medium level (m = 2.27). On this basis, combined with the existing problems, combined with the SVM parameter optimization algorithm of improved machine learning and particle swarm optimization algorithm, this paper puts forward the optimization strategy of undergraduate education curriculum teaching reform.

Discussion on the Ranking of Universities based on the Results of Comprehensive Evaluation of Undergraduate Majors: Taking Jiangxi Province as An Exampl

The first round of comprehensive evaluation of majors in Jiangxi Province has achieved positive results.Scientific summary and analysis of the comprehensive evaluation of majors is conductive to improving the enthusiasm of universities to participate in the next round of comprehensive evaluation of majors, and the reasonable use of comprehensive evaluation results of majors is conducive to promoting the participating universities to improve the level of major construction,so as to promote the overall quality of higher education in Jiangxi Province.After statistical analysis of the first round of comprehensive evaluation results of majors in Jiangxi Province,the only participating majors in the province,were excluded,and the ranking results of comprehensive evaluation of different universities of the same majors are assigned points.Then,the average of the scores of all participating majors of each university was taken as the basis of university ranking to rank each university,and the ranking data were reliable,comparable in connotation and reliable in evaluation.From the ranking results,it can be concluded that more majors do not necessarily bring about better ranking,and some new undergraduate institutions are not sustainable due to the insufficient number of participating majors.The unsustainability of the ranking is affected by the insufficient number of majors participating in the comprehensive evaluation in some new undergraduate institutions.

Construction of Basic Chemistry Courses for the Application Type Undergraduate Majors under the Background of New Engineering

This paper takes the training objective of applied talents under the background of new engineering as the guidance, the concept of OBE as the guidance, the knowledge system and practical ability as the training direction, and the focus of each course of basic chemistry. The investigation was carried out from the five aspects of teaching syllabus, course content, teaching model, application ability and assessment method. It is committed to cultivating a group of high quality composite new engineering talents with strong practical ability, innovation ability and international competitiveness

Quantitative research on online English learning motivational regulation strategies of undergraduate English majors

The abrupt emergence of COVID-19 pandemic forced college students around the world to move courses online. Without timely monitoring or assistance offered by their teachers, some students may easily distract or may not motivate themselves when they are not willing to study. The purpose of this quantitative research is to explore whether there are significant differences between motivational regulation strategies (MRSs) used in the online learning context and different genders and grades of 224 undergraduate English majors in a certain university located in Changchun, China. The general level of MRSs used by those participants was high (M=157.35). The potential differences were proved by the quantitative data analysis. Through independent-sample t test, the research revealed that significant differences exist between MRSs and different genders. Specifically speaking, females used more MRSs than males. Also, significant differences could be seen from the following four factors of MRSs: regulation of mastery goals, regulation of situational interest, environmental structuring, and regulation of value. In addition, the result of analysis of variance showed that there were no significant differences between used MRSs and learners of different grades. It meant that most students still made their efforts to keep in line with what they had learned in the online learning text. Implications of this quantitative research are as follow. First, teachers would have a general view of MRSs used by their students so that they could adjust their teaching plans to make the most of their MRSs. Second, teachers could also turn to similar techniques provided by MRSs to encourage students in the online learning context.

Quantitative research on online English learning motivational regulation strategies of undergraduate English majors

The abrupt emergence of COVID-19 pandemic forced college students around the world to move courses online. Without timely monitoring or assistance offered by their teachers, some students may easily distract or may not motivate themselves when they are not willing to study. The purpose of this quantitative research is to explore whether there are significant differences between motivational regulation strategies (MRSs) used in the online learning context and different genders and grades of 224 undergraduate English majors in a certain university located in Changchun, China. The general level of MRSs used by those participants was high (M=157.35). The potential differences were proved by the quantitative data analysis. Through independent-sample t test, the research revealed that significant differences exist between MRSs and different genders. Specifically speaking, females used more MRSs than males. Also, significant differences could be seen from the following four factors of MRSs: regulation of mastery goals, regulation of situational interest, environmental structuring, and regulation of value. In addition, the result of analysis of variance showed that there were no significant differences between used MRSs and learners of different grades. It meant that most students still made their efforts to keep in line with what they had learned in the online learning text. Implications of this quantitative research are as follow. First, teachers would have a general view of MRSs used by their students so that they could adjust their teaching plans to make the most of their MRSs. Second, teachers could also turn to similar techniques provided by MRSs to encourage students in the online learning context.

An undergraduate research experience in earth science education that benefits pre-service teachers and in-service earth science teachers

Three cohorts of six pre-service Earth Science teachers (undergraduate majors in Earth Science Education) participated in summer research experiences focused on developing dynamic physical models of Earth processes to help middle and high school students understand complex concepts and confront misconceptions. The pre-service teachers used published criteria for evaluating models. Participants deepened their understanding of specific Earth Science concepts and broadened their perceptions of effective, student-centered, constructivist pedagogical practices through the use of models and model-based learning. Our pre-service Earth Science teachers achieved the same benefits that STEM majors report from their undergraduate research experiences, including better understanding of the nature of science, gains in problem-solving and communication skills, increased confidence, collaborative skills and comfort in working independently. Evaluation of the research experience via the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment indicated that pre-service teachers reported higher gains than STEM majors in nearly all categories. The pre-service teachers presented the results of their projects to in-service teachers in professional development workshops at a science teachers’ conference. In-service teachers’ responses to these workshops were uniformly positive (98.2%; n = 57). Unlike most professional development activities in which participants benefit, but presenters may not, these professional development activities benefited participants and presenters alike.