Perspectives on interdisciplinary undergraduate research

Undergraduate Research (UR) provides deeper experiential learning opportunities for students while increasing their self-efficacy, academic success and motivation to pursue graduate studies. Many real-world problems require an integrated solution and collaboration across different disciplines; therefore, it is important that students develop skills to work across disciplines on challenging research problems. As types and complexity of UR increase, Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (IDUR) has become more prevalent, but little is known about it. We define IDUR as “student-faculty collaboration to examine, increase, and share new knowledge or works relevant to research questions the investigation of which necessitates an interdisciplinary approach”. From the faculty perspective, and based on the results of a national sample of higher learning institutions in the U.S., we outline the enablers of and barriers to IDUR and provide quantitative and qualitative insights. Survey results show that, irrespective of the size of the institution at which they work, faculty members value mentoring students conducting IDUR although it brings with it some challenges. Our findings may help institutions better facilitate IDUR projects and inform faculty development opportunities that deepen student learning and retention via enhanced curricula in which IDUR is embedded.     

A model for conducting and assessing interdisciplinary undergraduate dissertations

This paper presents an effort to create a unified model for conducting and assessing undergraduate dissertations, shared by all disciplines involved in computer game development at a Swedish university. Computer game development includes technology-oriented disciplines as well as disciplines with aesthetical traditions. The challenge has been to create a unified process and assessment procedure while maintaining the individual disciplines’ academic standards. The unification has been achieved through the development of the Interdisciplinary Dissertation Model – a shared model where the assessment is focused on fundamental academic principles, and there is a clear separation between summative and formative assessment and well-defined interaction loops between examiners, supervisors and students. Examiners from all involved disciplines have regular meetings focusing on creating an interdisciplinary view on the summative assessment of undergraduate dissertations. The model developed has been successful in that it allows for a unified process for disciplines from fundamentally different academic traditions. The quality of the examined dissertations has been evaluated in a national evaluation. The result shows that all participating disciplines meet the requirements from their respective communities. This shows that the proposed model successfully unifies disciplines without sacrificing the quality in any discipline.     

Mentoring african american educational media and technology students

Summary Mentoring appears to help African-American students taking educational media and technology classes to have more confidence in their abilities to integrate technology. It has also provided them with an opportunity to express their concern about their lack of technology skills and anxiety about teaching. Furthermore, they were able to speak to someone who cares about them and who has also had similar concerns and anxieties. The fact that we were all African American facilitated communication and trust between each of my students and me. However, since there is typically a scarcity of African-American faculties to mentor them it is problematic to have same-race mentoring relationships for most African-American students at predominately White academic institutions. Research suggests however, that African-American students feel that having an African-American mentor is less important to them than having a mentor in their career field. With appropriate attitudes and the belief that cultural diversity is an asset and not a deficit, faculty of other races can effectively mentor African-American students. With this in mind coupled with the fact that research indicates that mentoring supports retention particularly for African-American students, all faculties should consider mentoring African-American and other minority students. Mentoring enables faculty to MEET their minority students where they are and move them forward. Remember to Model use of technology in the classroom, Engage students in dialogue in and out of class, Embrace their anxiety and point our their successes, and Team students with partners. Her research interest focuses on factors that support or inhibit preservice and professional teachers from integrating technology.     

Mentoring as a learning tool: enhancing the effectiveness of an undergraduate business mentoring program

Mentoring can be used as a pedagogical alternative both to extend and augment the educational experience of business students. This article addresses a gap in the literature regarding the use and effectiveness of mentoring in undergraduate business education by examining improvements to an existing mentoring program. After reviewing the mentoring literature and identifying four critical elements for program success (matching, preparation, interaction and outcome assessment), the researchers used a cohort design and developed a survey to assess baseline participant satisfaction with these elements. Interventions were developed to enhance the mentoring program, and a second cohort allowed the authors to assess the benefits of these interventions. With statistically significant improvements in two out of four program elements (and a third showing marginally significant differences), the results demonstrate that the authors’ approach to evaluating and enhancing mentoring program effectiveness is useful in business education.     

Engaging undergraduate students in a co-curricular digital badging platform

Digital badging continues to garner attention in the educational community. What remains to be seen is how badging will interact with traditional curricular elements. While concerns have been raised about using badges as extrinsic motivators in coursework, there are alternate areas of application for digital badging. Badges may actually serve to motivate and empower student learning and engagement outside of the formal curriculum. This action research was conducted to guide the implementation of a badging system at Maranatha Baptist University. It explores the concept of using digital badges as a platform for recognizing learning experiences in co-curricular education. More specifically, it seeks to determine how to best optimize a co-curricular digital badging system for maximum student engagement through a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Student focus groups were used with a mixed-methods methodology of collecting data on potential student interest and involvement in a digital badging environment. The quantitative portion compares intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations for participating, while the qualitative section consists of a coded analysis of student discussion of co-curricular digital badging.     

学长制:应用型本科院校学生管理的模式探索

应用型本科院校学生管理工作基于其高职高专转型的特征而表现出更多的不同特征.本文通过对高职高专升格为应用型本科院校后学生管理工作面临问题的分析,指出应用型本科院校应采用学长制作为学生管理模式的必要性.同时通过对应用型本科院校实行学长制的具体办法的分析,对应用型本科院校学长制模式构建提出路径参考.     

Mentoring at-risk middle school students to reduce communication apprehension

Research has demonstrated the efficacy of mentoring at-risk students in a number of fields from physical education to math and science. While separate research has found that many at-risk students lack effective communication skills, little research has explored the potential of communication mentoring in improving at-risk students’ communication efficacy. In our study, we examined the effectiveness of communication majors in a senior capstone course mentoring at-risk middle school students. Mentors were assigned a protégé and were required to design a curriculum targeting specific communication apprehension concerns identified in each student and implement the curriculum over a 10-week period. Analysis of self-reported communication apprehension scores showed at-risk students prior to mentoring reported higher than average levels of communication apprehension. After mentoring, they reported statistically significantly lower levels of communication apprehension. The implications for mentoring, at-risk students, and improved middle school communication education are considered.     

Examining student immobility: a study of Irish undergraduate students

This paper explores student mobility among Irish higher education students. It specifically focuses on the profile of ‘stayers’, that is, students who have no plans to study abroad, thus addressing an underexplored topic in existing literature on student mobility. The article aims to identify factors that impact on students’ decisions not to pursue study abroad. Drawing on a national survey of students, Eurostudent V, the findings demonstrate that immobility is predicted by mother’s level of education and family income, showing the salience of socio-economic factors. Age and language proficiency are also visible factors, with the main obstacles to mobility being finances, language barriers and not wanting to separate from family and friends. Trends are also visible in the education institution a student is enrolled in, with those in institutes of technology more likely to be immobile than those in universities.     

Mentoring doctoral students online: mentor strategies and challenges

The purpose of our research was to explore faculty members’ experiences with online mentoring during the dissertation stage of an online doctoral program. During semi-structured interviews, four mentors reflected on their online mentoring of students, specifically the strategies that worked well, challenges faced while mentoring online, and other factors that contributed to their mentoring practices. The data revealed the importance of structure, small group mentoring, and peer support in overcoming challenges faced during online communication and the mentoring of dissertations at a distance. Implications for the online mentoring of dissertations are discussed.     

Academic achievement among first semester undergraduate psychology students: the role of course experience, effort, motives and learning strategies

This study investigated the relationship between multiple predictors of academic achievement, including course experience, students’ approaches to learning (SAL), effort (amount of time spent on studying) and prior academic performance (high school grade point average—HSGPA) among 442 first semester undergraduate psychology students. Correlation analysis showed that all of these factors were related to first semester examination grade in psychology. Profile analyses showed significant mean level differences between subgroups of students. A structural equation model showed that surface and strategic approaches to learning were mediators between course experience and exam performance. This model also showed that SAL, effort and HSGPA were independent predictors of exam performance, also when controlling for the effect of the other predictors. Hence, academic performance is both indirectly affected by the learning context as experienced by the students and directly affected by the students’ effort, prior performance and approaches to learning.     

Motivating first-year university students by interdisciplinary study projects

ABSTRACT

In order to increase student commitment from the beginning of students’ university careers, the Technische Universität Darmstadt has introduced interdisciplinary study projects involving first-year students from the engineering, natural, social and history, economics and/or human sciences departments. The didactic concept includes sophisticated task design, individual responsibility and a differentiated support system. Using a self-determination theory framework, this study examined the effects of the projects based on survey findings from two projects with more than 1000 students. The results showed that the projects were successful in fulfilling students’ basic psychological needs and in promoting students’ academic engagement. Basic psychological needs were found to be significant predictors of academic engagement. These findings suggest that interdisciplinary study projects can potentially contribute to improving higher education as they fulfil students’ basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy and enhance students’ academic engagement.     

探析高校跨学科实验室人才队伍建设

随着当前科学发展高度综合化、多学科交叉研究日益增多、跨学科研究组织在我国不断兴起,使跨学科实验室人才队伍建设成为跨学科组织建设的根本。通过介绍目前国内外著名高校跨学科实验室人才队伍的现状,并从人才队伍的管理体制、管理机制、人员结构和重视程度问题上,分析我国跨学科实验室人才队伍建设中存在的问题,提出加强跨学科实验室队伍建设的对策和思路,以推动我国跨学科实验室的建设。     

Lawyer and counselor as an interdisciplinary team serving the terminally ill

Mental health professionals consult with the terminally ill and provide therapy to the client, spouse, and family. Some clients have been forewarned and have a carefully drafted estate plan that incorporates all the nuances of property and personal planning. In addition, the client may have an interest in donating his or her body or its parts as an anatomical gift or may inquire concerning the right to die a natural death. He or she may further be concerned with the appropriateness of a power of attorney or a living trust. Whatever the inquiry, the mental health professional should be ready, willing, and able to offer informed data regarding questions in these areas and then to serve with the attorney as an interdisciplinary team to respond quickly and effectively to these legitimate personal concerns.     

Role theory,cognitive dissonance theory,and the interdisciplinary team

In recent years there have been increasing efforts to combine the resources and special abilities of individuals from different disciplines in interdisciplinary approaches to mutual problem-solving. A special case of this is the interdisciplinary approach to diagnosis and evaluation of learning problems in children. In practice this approach has often been less effective than was hoped for because of lack of agreement among its members on the role expectations and enactment of each. The constructs of role theory are here used to elucidate the potential sources of role strain and role conflict in the interdisciplinary team. Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance is presented as an additional construct for viewing the interaction of the interdisciplinary team.

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Résumé Depuis quelques années, on multiplie les efforts en vue de combiner les ressources et les talents particuliers des spécialistes de disciplines différentes dans l'ap;lication des méthodes interdisciplinaires à la solution des problèmes communs. Un cas particulier de méthode interdisciplinaire est celui du diagnostic et de l'évaluation des difficultés qu'éprouvent certains enfants à acquérir des connaissances. En pratique, cette méthode a souvent été moins efficace qu'on l'espérait, en raison du désaccord entre spécialistes sur le rôle attendu de chacun d'entre eux et sur la façon dont ce rôle devait être joué. L'auteur se sert des constructions imaginaires de la théorie des rôles pour mettre en lumière les sources possibles de tension et de friction à propos des rôles au sein d'une équipe interdisciplinaire. Il présente la théorie de Festinger sur le désaccord cognitif comme une autre construction imaginaire permettant d'étudier l'interaction au sein de l'équipe interdisciplinaire.

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The author wishes to acknowledge the most helpful comments and insight of Mr. Paul Paschke and Dr. Laurie Brage throughout the development of this paper.     

新建本科院校师资队伍建设浅论

新建本科院校在转型时期实现"内涵升本"面临着许多艰巨的任务,其中师资队伍建设是重中之重。本文就目前新建本科院校师资队伍现状及存在的问题进行了分析,并提出了师资队伍建设的机制与对策。     

浅谈大学生就业应具备的三种能力

如何适应当前异常严峻的就业形势,确保在激烈的就业市场竞争中拥有一席之地是摆在大学生面前最实际也是毕业后所面对的一切问题中的关键。当前大学生最需要的是自主学习能力、创新能力以及团队合作的精神,这三种能力是提高自身素质的根本,是成功就业的法宝。