A comparative study on student perceptions of their learning outcomes in undergraduate science degree programmes with differing curriculum models

ABSTRACT

This study investigated students’ perceptions of their graduate learning outcomes including content knowledge, communication, writing, teamwork, quantitative skills, and ethical thinking in two Australian universities. One university has a traditional discipline-orientated curriculum and the other, an interdisciplinary curriculum in the entry semester of first year. The Science Students Skills Inventory asked students (n?=?613) in first and final years to rate their perceptions of the importance of developing graduate learning outcomes within the programme; how much they improved their graduate learning outcomes throughout their undergraduate science programme; how much they saw learning outcomes included in the programme; and how confident they were about their learning outcomes. A framework of progressive curriculum development was adopted to interpret results. Students in the discipline-oriented degree programme reported higher perceptions of scientific content knowledge and ethical thinking while students from the interdisciplinary curriculum indicated higher perceptions of oral communication and teamwork. Implications for curriculum development include ensuring progressive development from first to third years, a need for enhanced focus on scientific ethics, and career opportunities from first year onwards.     

Analysis of macroethics teaching practices and perceptions in engineering: a cultural comparison

ABSTRACT

Students must be taught to understand the ethical issues associated with engineering and technology, which includes microethics and macroethics. This research examined the influence of cultural environment by comparing ethics-related education outcomes between educators in (1) the United States, (2) non-US Anglo, and (3) Western European countries who teach engineering students. In an increasingly globalised world where companies and projects draw from talent across countries, it is important to understand how different cultures educate future engineers about their ethical responsibilities. Survey results revealed that a majority of educators in all three groups viewed undergraduate and postgraduate education on ethics as insufficient. A higher percentage of non-US Anglo and Western European educators taught sustainability and environmental issues in their courses compared to US respondents. US educators taught codes of ethics, ethics in design, and safety more than those in Western Europe. Open-ended responses illuminated challenges and opportunities to improve ethics education.     

美国高校国际学生的分布结构与启示——以国际学生录取情况为例简

国际学生已经成为美国高校学生群体的重要组成部分。国际学生在生源地、学历层次、科类及就读院校的分布上呈现出诸多显著特征,如主要来自亚洲及拉美的发展中国家,学历结构主要集中于研究生层次,科类分布集中于经济管理及工程领域,主要就读于研究型大学。总体来看,国际学生的分布不仅表征了美国高等教育国际化的发展水平与层次,而且对我国高校进行国际学生管理具有重要启示意义。     

Graduate students’ perspectives on using e-books for academic learning

The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore (a) how graduate students interpret their experiences with the use of e-books for learning, (b) which reasons influence their preference for e-books or printed books when they learn, (c) how they perceive the impact e-books have on their learning, and (d) how they compare learning experiences between the use of a given printed book and an e-book containing similar content but also offering additional multimedia options. Participants consisted of 20 graduate students from one midsize university in the United States. The major findings of this research were that graduate students generally prefer using e-books to printed texts. When studying and preparing for an exam, however, graduate students will only supersede their familiarity with printed text if a given e-book offers similar content as the printed text and provides additional resources. Research implications and recommendations for future research were also provided.     

Widening Our Global View: The Development of Career Counseling Services for International Students

The increased number of international students in United States universities and colleges have created the need for the development of services that appropriately reflect their needs and characteristics. The Career Center at the University of Missouri, Columbia reacted to this phenomenon by developing career services exclusively for international students. Career services are provided as individual services and online services, and consist of information on graduate schools and entrance examination practices, information on available employment opportunities and work permit policies, career assessments, and information about specific skills for obtaining a job in the United States. Several marketing strategies were used to ensure international students' use of services. Important points in developing career services for international students are presented.     

MSW Students’ Motivations for Taking an International Social Work Elective Course

This article presents motivating factors for taking an international social work course for a sample of graduate students in the United States. Literature on international education, including courses and international field placements, provides a framework for the study. Qualitative themes showed that students were motivated primarily as a result of prior international experience, or the desire for such, as well as a wish to understand the phenomena of globalization. Findings point to the need for offering more courses in international social work and globalization.     

Practice-focused ethics in Australian engineering education

The paper focuses on educational changes we see as necessary for future graduates to take up the emerging social and ethical challenges of their profession. This paper summarizes some Australian initiatives, presents some of our approaches to teaching ethics and suggests some ways to encourage both the study of ethics and actual ethical practice. The practice of engineering in Australia is guided by a Code of Ethics developed by the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust). There is an expectation that Australian educators will guide students to develop the abilities to make ethical decisions and an appreciation of ethical conduct. The authors endorse the view that ethics issues should be included as an intrinsic part of engineering curricula. Wego further, and suggest that the social impact and the international and global nature of engineering practice call for an extension of traditional ethical frameworks to incorporate treatment of questions of social responsibility, including the issue of sustainability. We outline changes in engineering education in Australia over the past two decades, indicating some of the effects of these changes on the culture of engineering and the ways in which ethics issues are being conceptualized and taught. Experience at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) is our main focus because UTS is widely recognized as a leader in engineering education in Australia. Wedescribe the restructuring of our undergraduate programme so as to focus on engineering practice issues and discuss its implications for practice-focused ethics in engineering education.     

Response to Intervention: Following Three Reading Recovery Children on Their Individual Paths to Becoming Literate

Research Findings: In the United States a shift has occurred in how children are identified for long-term special education services. Since 2004, U.S. funding for special education services has included a provision for early intervention services, focusing on the importance of providing supplemental instructional opportunities to students who are not successful in learning from the core classroom instruction. Commonly referred to as response to intervention, this model involves educators monitoring how well students respond to intervention instruction, with referral for special education services for those who make little progress. Practice or Policy: In this article, we propose that intervention instruction should be responsive to the learner as well as focus on how well the learner responds to the intervention. Given that contextual circumstances, including instructional experiences, impact the child's literacy achievement, providing intervention instruction that is contingent upon each child's literacy strengths and needs is the best way to ensure each child's successful response to intervention instruction. As an example of an intervention using responsive instruction, this article describes different instructional approaches provided by Reading Recovery teachers with 3 children who were initially the lowest readers and writers in their classes. All 3 children were able to progress to on-grade-level reading and writing proficiency as a result of the intervention.     

基于5C目标下大学英语课堂教学的思考

在经济全球化的今天,综合性外语能力对于日益频繁的国际交流与竞争的重要性是显而易见的.我国应把握大学英语课堂教学这一关键环节,适应国际环境,切实提高英语教学的实效性.美国在20世纪末提出的关于学习外语的基本理论<21世纪外语学习标准>被评价为体现了当代最新的语言习得理论,其主要内涵--"5C"标准,对我国的大学英语课堂教...     

美国研究生教育发展中的若干关键问题

美国虽然不是世界上最先发展研究生教育的国家,但却是20世纪以来研究生教育最为发达的国家。从19世纪中期现代研究生教育在国内落地生根开始,美国就在业内讨论发展研究生教育的目的,并很快得到各大学的认同及长期落实;在确定目标的基础上,美国大学成为研究生教育发展的主体,它们从理想和现实层面落实研究生教育的目标;与研究生教育相关的其他利益群体,也从维护自身利益出发,积极参与大学关于研究生教育发展方向的讨论。有目标、有行动、有监督的美国研究生教育体系很快就得到了社会各界的认可,并成为世界研究生教育发展的典范。     

Group work experiences: Domestic MBA student experiences and outcomes when working with international students

This article forms part of an exploration into the results of a single-case, embedded study that was conducted to explore how domestic part-time graduate business students in the United States experience group work for summative assessment. Multiple information collection methods were utilised, including open-ended and semi-structured interviews, case study documents and student journals. The aim of this larger study was to understand the unique experiential factors that contribute to a student's perceptions of positive group work outcomes within a graduate-level context. However, this article will detail only one of the more unexpected findings of this study, which involves how international students affect the perception of positive group work for domestic part-time students. Since key informants of this study included only domestic part-time MBA students, the limitations and ethical implications surrounding this finding will also be addressed. This article suggests noteworthy implications in the area of professional and organisational development for faculty and administrators in higher education with regard to the use of group work in the graduate classroom. This includes the importance of utilising existing institutional resources and structures to prepare and develop administrators, faculty and staff to make more informed decisions regarding group work within a graduate context.     

Graduate credit for prematriculation experiences

Although undergraduates often earn academic credit for prior learning acquired through experience, graduate students are rarely afforded that opportunity. Central Michigan University and The University of Northern Colorado are examples of the very few institutions that do accept prior experiential learning toward graduate degrees. The Council of Graduate Schools in the United States adamantly opposes graduate credit for prematriculation experiences; however, the American Council on Education favors the assessment of extrainstitutional learning which has occurred prior to a student's enrollment. Further, the Council for the Advancement of Experiential Learning recently formed a task force to promote experiential learning in the graduate sector. The future for the assessment of experiential learning for graduate credit is indeed favorable.     

An empirical study of graduate student mobility underpinning research universities

The issue of international student mobility has had a profound effect on policy decision-making in the higher education system of essentially every country; however, the statistical data on this subject are insufficient, especially for graduate students. The purposes of this study are to substantiate the state of international mobility among talented graduate students in the sciences and engineering who will publish scholarly research in their future career and to present the mechanism of their moves between institutions. This paper quantitatively analyzes the trajectories of more than 7,000 scientists and engineers beginning at graduate school, obtained from the biographical notes attached to journal articles for authors in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and electron devices. The results suggest that mobility in various engineering fields at world-class research universities is subject to varied pull and push factors. In the fields of computer vision and robotics, a high world university ranking is a significant pull factor in the global mobility of graduate students, which may promote a US-dominated stratification between institutions of higher education, since the institutions at the top end of these rankings are generally in the United States. In contrast, in the field of electron devices, employment for highly skilled workers in domestic industries seems to act as an alternative pull factor for talented graduate students. This article also sheds light on the status of the universities that underpin first-tier research universities by providing undergraduate students to them, an important role that tends to be concealed in the world university rankings. Furthermore, this article suggests the existence of complementary relationships between the globally top-ranked research universities and the exporting top national research universities in various countries, a relationship that is key to the shape of the current global higher education system.     

Global cultural capital and global positional competition: international graduate students’ transnational occupational trajectories

International graduate students’ occupational trajectories have rarely been studied, although many studies exist on their learning experiences in foreign universities. Based on 80 qualitative interviews, this article aims to understand how, where, and why these students obtain jobs in academe and corporations. I focus particularly on Korean professionals who received graduate degrees from US universities and who later obtained jobs in Korea or the United States. The theoretical component of this work is based on two important concepts – global cultural capital and global positional competition – both of which are seen to be based on a global hierarchy of academic degrees and professional knowledge. This study empirically tests and elaborates Phillip Brown’s three rules of inclusion and exclusion in global positional competition. By looking at international students’ transnational occupational trajectories, this study aims to understand how global education, transnational job opportunities, and social inclusion and exclusion interact in diverse ways.     

Connecting assessment practices with curricula and pedagogy via implementation fidelity data

Globally, higher education institutions aim to assess and improve students’ learning. However, assessment practices often do not culminate in improved learning. For instance, in the United States, empirical examples of learning improvement in higher education are exceptionally rare. A disconnect between assessment practices and instruction at the classroom level likely contributes to scarce evidence of improvement. In the current study, we provide a didactic example of how outcomes assessment data can be integrated with data concerning the educational intervention students received. This type of information – referred to as implementation fidelity data – allows faculty to more accurately interpret outcomes assessment results, make informed modifications to educational interventions, and link learning improvements back to specific interventions. As more faculty purposefully integrate outcomes assessment data and implementation fidelity data, higher education will better demonstrate its worth.     

从博弈论角度看研究生学术道德问题

学术道德问题是困扰我国研究生学术研究的瓶颈。研究生与学校、用人单位以及学术期刊之间的博弈是导致学术道德问题的三个主要原因。其中,改革学校的评价机制、改善就业单位的选才标准、规范学术期刊的道德行为、提高学生自身的道德修养、建立学术监督机构是解决当前研究生学术道德问题的有效选择。     

Peer‐Mediated Instruction in Inclusive Secondary Social Studies Learning: Direct and Indirect Learning Effects

Ten inclusive middle school social studies classes, including 133 general education students, and 24 students with mild disabilities (21 with learning disabilities and 3 with emotional disabilities), were assigned at random to a traditional instruction condition, or an experimental condition involving classwide peer tutoring with specialized materials and parent training. After 18 weeks of instruction, posttest data revealed that students in the experimental condition gained significantly more than students in the traditional instruction condition. These effects were observed on content included in the tutoring intervention, as well as on related content that was taught but not included in the tutoring intervention. Results are discussed within the context of recent research on inclusive secondary content area instruction.     

The impact of professional learning on in-service teachers’ pedagogical delivery of literacy-infused science with middle school English learners: a randomised controlled trial study in the U.S

ABSTRACT

Research in the United States show that professional learning (PL) can improve classroom instruction. However, teachers, especially educators in the content areas, receive insufficient training specific to meeting the language and academic needs of English learners (ELs). The purpose of the current randomized controlled trial (RCT) study was to introduce a high-quality PL program for supporting middle school teachers in teaching science to ELs through classroom observations, so as to evaluate whether in-service science teachers’ instructional delivery can be shaped by intensive, structured, and ongoing PL. Results indicated that after receiving PL, treatment teachers allocated a significantly higher portion of their instructional time in teaching content language, developing students’ expressive language skills, small group and pair activities, implementing strategies evidenced to effective with ELs, and providing more opportunities for students to participate in hands-on activities that were content-related and grade-appropriate. Practical implications for PL were discussed for an international audience.     

Writing Instruction for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: Programs of Intervention Research

Writing performance for a large number of adolescents, with and without learning disabilities (LD), in the United States is below the level required for success in college and in the world of work. Despite the importance of writing and students' with LD documented difficulties in this academic domain, writing intervention research for adolescents with LD is not as well established as research in other domains, such as reading. Programs of research in writing interventions for adolescents with LD, nevertheless, have provided frameworks for effective instruction for these students. Adapting criteria from Graham and Perin's (2007c) Writing Next report, 40 studies across six programs of research were located for our literature review in writing instruction for adolescents with LD. Based on the findings of these studies, instruction within two levels of support for adolescents with LD are recommended.