University Research Articles

Linking nursing students' professional identity, clinical learning environment, financial incentives, and career opportunities with migration intent: Structural equation modeling.

To investigate how nursing students' professional identity, clinical learning environment, financial incentives, and career opportunities influence their intention to migrate. There is a preponderance of studies about nurse migration and its impact on the global nursing workforce. However, a critical gap remains about nursing students' intentions to migrate, particularly among developing countries like the Philippines. Using a cross-sectional design, third- and fourth-year nursing students (n=316) from the largest comprehensive university in Manila were conveniently recruited. Data were collected from November to December 2023 using five validated self-report scales. Descriptive (e.g., mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (e.g., Spearman rho, covariance-based structural equation modeling) were used to analyze data. The emerging model demonstrated acceptable model fit indices. Nursing students' professional identity (β=0.18, p=0.043) and financial incentives (β=0.10, p=0.046) significantly and positively influence the intention to migrate. The satisfaction with future career opportunities (β=-0.12, p=0.038) and clinical learning environment perception (β=-0.15, p=0.048) negatively influence the intention to migrate. These four predictors accounted for 4.60% of the total variance of intention to migrate. Nursing students' professional identity and financial incentives directly impact intent to migrate, whereas future career opportunities satisfaction and clinical learning environment inversely affect intent to migrate. This study underscores the imperative for nursing colleges and faculty to promote positive professional identity and provide a conducive clinical learning environment to develop sustainable nurses' migration policies.

A.M.Aminee, J.Taylor. Generative AI Results and Reality

The accuracy of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools is the product of the quality of underlying data used to train models, and the models themselves. This interplay between data and models can lead to differences in the accuracy of outputs provided to common prompts across different GAI tools. This study investigates the disparities in accuracy related to representativeness between the outputs of GAI tools and demographic data from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and large enrollment, regional comprehensive university in the western United States (CSU). Three GAI platforms - ChatGPT, Co-pilot, and Gemini were evaluated using five samples each, with the same instruction across all platforms: “Show a class of graduate students.” The GAI outputs were analyzed based on three demographic variables: gender, race, and age group. These outputs were then compared to national averages from the NCES for gender and race and the CSU for age group. Notably, the variances in the results showed broader distributions across the demographic variables. To assess accuracy, a representation rate metric was calculated, reflecting the average absolute variance from the NCES and CSU benchmarks. The findings highlight the opportunity of higher quality data in model training, as well as the necessity for improved algorithms and methodologies in GAI systems to represent complex demographic information more accurately.

Do teachers colleges prepare more effective teachers? Evidence from a top school district in China

This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the value of teacher education by comparing the effectiveness of traditionally trained teachers from teachers' colleges and non-traditionally trained teachers from comprehensive universities in China. We utilize the unique data of 424 traditionally and 40 non-traditionally trained teachers from a top school district in China and a cross-subject value-added model to address teacher-student sorting bias. Our results indicate that, on average, traditionally trained teachers contribute approximately 0.1 standard deviations higher value to students' high-stakes test scores over a three-year period than non-traditionally trained teachers. Behavioral analyses on the district's teacher survey suggest that while teachers from both routes are similar in time allocation and professional psychological characteristics, traditionally trained teacher report being better in applying multitudinous pedagogies and teaching strategies. We find similar results using two administrative data sources from another province. The findings of this study contribute to the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of alternative routes to teaching and the importance of teacher education.

A CURE Lab in Introductory Biology at a Regional Comprehensive University Negatively Impacts Student Success in the Associated Lecture Course Among Students from Groups Underrepresented in Science.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been proposed as a mechanism to democratize access to the benefits of apprentice-style scientific research to a broader diversity of students, promoting inclusivity and increasing student success and retention. As we evaluate CUREs, it is essential to explore their effectiveness within the environments of regional comprehensive universities and community colleges, because they are important access points for a wide variety of students. It is also important to address the potential influence of volunteer bias, where students can opt to enroll in either the CURE or a traditional lab, on the outcomes of CUREs. We evaluated a CURE at a regional comprehensive university under conditions both with and without volunteer bias. We find that nonvolunteer students report a lower sense of discovery and relevance of the CURE compared with students who volunteered for the course. Importantly, we also find that our replacement of the traditional lab class with a CURE resulted in lower scores on exams in the associated lecture course among students who are both BIPOC and Pell eligible. We call for additional research on the effects of CUREs at nonresearch-intensive institutions and without volunteer bias, to better understand the impact of these classes.

Berpikir positif dan efikasi diri pada mahasiswa yang sedang menyusun skripsi

Abstract. Students, in completing their thesis, brought up certain reactions, and this was related to positive thinking and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between positive thinking and self-efficacy in students who were preparing a thesis. The sampling technique used was a probability sampling technique with a saturated sampling method. The sample in this study amounted to 150 students and female students who were completing their theses at the Faculty of Psychology, Riau Islamic University (UIR). The data collection method used was a positive thinking scale and a self-efficacy scale that was modified from previous research. The reliability coefficient of the positive thinking scale was 0.865, and the self-efficacy scale was 0.854. Statistical analysis using Spearman's Rho correlation was processed through SPSS version 23.0 for Windows. It was found that there was a positive relationship between positive thinking and self-efficacy (r = 0.275, p = 0.001). This meant that the higher the positive thinking, the higher the self-efficacy; otherwise, the lower the positive thinking, the lower the self-efficacy. Positive thinking and self-efficacy had a relationship and were essential in academic situations, including students who compiled a thesis. It was hoped that students would prioritize themselves and always think positively, especially when doing their final project.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AT SEVERAL OF THE BEST UNIVERSITIES IN INDONESIA

The strategic management process of each category of organization will undoubtedly be distinctive. This study aims to ascertain the strategic management process in higher education institutions in Indonesia. This research is a qualitative case study that examines the University of Indonesia (UI), Gajah Mada University (UGM), Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Telkom University (TELU), Indonesian Islamic University (UII), and Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (UMS). The strategic management process at Indonesian HEI is described or concluded by analyzing secondary data in the form of strategic plan documents compiled with analysis of primary data in the form of interviews with experts in the field of higher education. The research findings indicate that the strategic management process in Indonesian higher education institutions is comprised of four stages: (1) environmental analysis, (2) strategy formulation, (3) strategy implementation, and (4) evaluation control. An example of the originality or uniqueness of the strategic management process in Indonesian higher education institutions is internal environmental analysis, which employs its criteria rather than the commonly used value chain analysis or functional analysis approach criteria.

Blue-Green Algal Flora on Archaeological Monuments of India

Forty-six blue-green algal species belonging to fifteen genera, e.g. Gloeocapsopsis, Gloeothece, Myxosarcina, Chroococcidiopsis, Lyngbya, Phromidium, Plectonema, Nostoc, Calothrix, Tolypothrix, Chtorogloeopsis, Fischerella, Hapalosiphon, Westiellopsis and Stigonema occurred on the exposed surfaces of various archaeological monuments from different regions of India. All these blue-green algal species have been isolated and maintained in the culture collection at the Department of Botany, Utkal University.

Medicinal and Aromatic Weed Diversity in Botanic Garden and their Sustainable Utilisation for Conservation

Total 81 weeds belonging to 59 genera and 31 families growing in the University botanic garden at Sagar were found medicinally important. Various parts of all the weeds have been analyzed for their medicinal utility. Out of 81 weeds, leaves of 64 plants are found useful for various disorders. This is followed by root of 25 plants which are medicinally important. Disease wise analysis has also been carried out. Analysis reveals that for cut, wounds, boils and burns about 29 weed plants are used, whereas 21 weed species each are used for asthma and skin diseases.

Looking back to move forward: comparison of instructors’ and undergraduates’ retrospection on the effectiveness of online learning using the nine-outcome influencing factors

This study delves into the retrospections of undergraduate students concerning their online learning experiences after the COVID-19 pandemic, using the nine key influencing factors: behavioral intention, instruction, engagement, interaction, motivation, self-efficacy, performance, satisfaction, and self-regulation. 46 Year 1 students from a comprehensive university in China were asked to maintain reflective diaries throughout an academic semester, providing first-person perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of online learning. Meanwhile, 18 college teachers were interviewed with the same questions as the students. Using thematic analysis, the research identified 9 factors. The research revealed that instruction ranked highest among the 9 factors, followed by engagement, self-regulation, interaction, motivation, and others. Moreover, teachers and students had different attitudes toward instruction. Thirdly, teacher participants were different from student participants given self-efficacy and self-regulation due to their variant roles in online instruction. Lastly, the study reflected students were not independent learners, which explained why instruction ranked highest in their point of view. Findings offer valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policy-makers involved in higher education. Recommendations for future research include incorporating a more diverse sample, exploring relationships between the nine factors, and focusing on equipping students with skills for optimal online learning experiences.

화제 구조 분석을 활용한 보고서 고쳐쓰기 교수-학습 모형의 효과 연구

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a teaching-learning model that focuses on revising report introductions to enhance academic writing skills. Devel oped as an interactive activity grounded in various pedagogical theories, this model was analyzed for its influence on student proficiency in academic writing. The investigation focused on identifying changes in both the control and experimental groups enrolled in a writing course tailored for international students at S Univer sity during the first semester of 2022. Text coherence, topic structure, and genre adaptation were examined by analyzing 21 sets of initial and revised introductions from the control group and 25 sets from the experimental group. The findings revealed noticeable fluctuations in the composition of both groups following the rewriting process, with the experimental group exhibiting a marked enhancement in conveying essential themes. These results suggest the potential utility of this instructional approach in enhancing academic writing skills among foreign college students, offering valuable insights for future educational practices and evaluation methodologies.

The influence of environmental factors on the job burnout of physical education teachers in tertiary education

This study takes environmental factors and individual factors as variables to explore the deep internal mechanism of the impact of a comprehensive environment on higher education physical education (PE) teachers’ job burnout. Little research has been done on how environmental factors affect the internal mechanism of college and university PE teachers’ job burnout through individual factors (e.g., professional pressure and teaching efficacy). In this study, the participants were 231 PE teachers from seven comprehensive universities, and four questionnaires were administered to measure the participants’ job burnout, perceived overall environment, teaching efficacy, and occupational stress. Research has found that environmental factors have a significant negative impact on occupational stress, and occupational stress plays an important mediating role between environment and occupational burnout. Research has shown that differences in external environments lead to varying levels of personal stress among college physical education teachers, which in turn affects their level of occupational burnout. The study concludes that a good social, working, and living environment helps to reduce the work pressure on PE teachers, improves their sense of teaching efficacy, and inhibits the occurrence of teachers’ job burnout.

Incremental Reorganization at a Regional Comprehensive University: A Case Study

This paper will discuss a series of incremental reorganizations, prompted by a variety of simultaneous challenges, which presented opportunities to reconfigure staffing to update or add services and meet new needs. This paper will also discuss how best to approach staffing re-organizations for increased chances of success.

Going Dewey: Reclassifying a Curriculum Materials Collection

Library staff developed a project to reclassify the Curriculum Materials Collection of a specialty library on the campus of a regional comprehensive university from its custom classification system derived from those developed during the 1960s and 1970s to Dewey Decimal Classification. While this system had the advantage of browsability for patrons who were familiar with previous use, its unusual nature made training patrons and staff challenging. The transition to Dewey is expected to ease training and use, enhance resource sharing, and allow student teachers to transfer their library skills to their new schools.

Exploring the stability of the gender gap in faculty perceptions of gender climate at a rural regional university.

Increasing awareness of gender barriers and biases in academic institutions is an essential component of institutional change strategies to promote equity and inclusion. There is an established perception gap in recognizing gender inequities in the workplace, whereby men faculty under acknowledge the stressors, barriers, and biases faced by their women faculty colleagues. This study explored the gender gap in faculty perceptions of institutional diversity climate at a rural comprehensive regional university in the United States. In addition to gender, differences across academic discipline and time were explored using 2 (men and women) x 2 (STEM and other) x 2 (2017 and 2022) between-groups ANOVAs. Results revealed a gender gap that persisted across time and perceptions of stressors, diversity climate, student behavior, leadership, and fairness in promotion/tenure procedures, with marginalized (women) faculty consistently reporting greater barriers/concern for women faculty relative to the perceptions of their men faculty colleagues. These findings are largely consistent with the extant literature and are discussed both with regard to future research directions and recommendations for reducing the perception gap and addressing institutional barriers to gender equity.

How Regulatory Focus Associates With Chinese EFL Learners’ L2 Grit: The Mediating Effects of Achievement Emotions

Despite the rekindled interest in emotions and individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA) under the influence of positive psychology, the interrelationships among regulatory focus, L2 grit and achievement emotions remain under-researched. Drawing on structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, this study aimed to examine the predictive effects of regulatory focus on L2 grit through the mediation of achievement emotions. A total of 1043 non-English major undergraduates from a comprehensive university in central China participated in the study. Data were collected with a questionnaire adapted from three published scales and analyzed using multiple regression and multiple mediation analysis with a 1000-bootstrap method. Results showed that all three psychological constructs under investigation were correlated with each other and regulatory focus had an indirect predictive effect on L2 grit, which was mediated by achievement emotions. As with the mediating effect of achievement emotions, enjoyment and boredom had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between promotion focus and L2 grit, whereas hope and anxiety had a full mediating effect on the relationship between prevention focus and L2 grit. The findings are discussed in relation to the identified mediating mechanism for regulatory focus and L2 grit in boosting L2 learning motivation among Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners.

Serving Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students: Examining How Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander- Serving Institutions Build Students’ Capacities

This study examines how Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) serve Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA&NHPI) students. Through a two-site case study of a community college on the west coast and a regional comprehensive university on the east coast, this study details the processes that are undertaken to serve and enhance the educational experiences of AA&NHPI students by building their capacities. Findings suggests that federally-funded AANAPISIs design and implement their programs in a manner that reflects the lived experiences and realities of AA&NHPI students through academic coursework, co-curricular programming, and research opportunities, in an intentional and strategic multilayered process, which resembles a developmental nested design focused on five thematic domains. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also offered to advance the work of AANAPISIs.

Fostering equitable engagement: A mixed-methods exploration of the engagement of racially diverse students in a comprehensive college transition program.

Fostering equitable engagement: A mixed-methods exploration of the engagement of racially diverse students in a comprehensive college transition program.

The Knowledge Landscape and Local Characteristics of Learning Engagement Research in China:A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CNKI and CSSCI

The study of learning engagement has been fruitful since it entered the vision of Chinese scholars at the end of the 20th century. Taking 2, 389 and 199 valid citing documents from CNKI and CSSCI Database respectively, and the corresponding 4039 cited documents from the latter as the analyzed samples, and comprehensively using bibliometric method and traditional bibliographic method, this paper describes and presents a four-dimensional knowledge picture containing the accumulation history of literature on learning input research in China, main research teams, knowledge base and hot topics of learning engagement research in China, and refines local characteristics based on this. It is found that: (1) Chinese learning engagement research has generated five attributes in its process of development: the process of document accumulation has gone through two stages of “budding period and growth period”; the main research team is composed of scholars from comprehensive universities and normal colleges and universities; the research content has formed the distribution of “multi-action mechanism exploration, less theoretical concept construction”; the research method shows a decreasing law of “more quantitative research, less qualitative research”; research objects presents the characteristics of “focusing on higher education and running through the three stages of primary education, secondary education and higher education”. (2) Chinese learning engagement research has obtained many heterogeneous findings in the comparison: mainly including the development of tools that are closer to Chinese educational practice and the findings that are more in line with the experience of Chinese learners.

Optimization Analysis of Human Resource Management Strategies of Nantong University, a Local Comprehensive University in China

This study analyzes the current situation and challenges of Nantong University amid the rapid development of higher education, addressing aspects such as faculty structure, administrative management efficiency, and promotion mechanisms. Through questionnaire surveys and field research, coupled with SWOT analysis and various theoretical methods, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on Nantong University’s internal and external environment. The study proposes an improved comprehensive development strategy and implementation measures, which include updating management concepts, strengthening professional training, optimizing employment conditions, and improving salary systems. Ultimately, this study provides practical strategies for human resource management and the transformational development of Nantong University and other local comprehensive universities.

The Perceptions of Tourism Students Towards Blended Learning: A Case From a Comprehensive University in South Africa

This paper explores tourism students’ perceptions of blended learning (BL) and examines the correlations between BL statements, student academic performance (AP), and the level of satisfaction with blended courses (BCs). A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 166 randomly selected tourism students in a comprehensive University in South Africa. For data analysis, IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0 (IBM Corporation, 2022) software was used. The results indicate that most tourism students had positive perceptions of BL based on their degrees of AP and satisfaction with the BC. Most tourism students claim that they are not comfortable completing assignments and taking assessments online. The results further reveal that students they are frequently disappointed with the assessment approach of online discussions. The study recommends that the university studied conduct a variety of reform programmes geared at strengthening tourism lecturers’ BL abilities (such as upgrading online assessment methodologies and lecture design). To encourage learning involvement, tourism lecturers could improve students’ perceptions of the BL platform in their instructional design. This will gradually improve tourism students’ low perceptions of BL, as identified in this study.