General or vocational English courses for Taiwanese students in vocational high schools? Students’ perceptions of their English courses and their relevance to their future career

Taiwanese vocational high schools (VHSs) deliver general English courses. This paper explores the extent to which these courses are perceived to be appropriately vocationally orientated. This focus gives rise to two main research questions: what are VHS students’ expectations from their English courses, and to what extent are they being met? The research identifies a mismatch between VHS students’ perceived needs from their English course and the actual course of study they receive, which is set by the Ministry of Education. VHS students have clear expectations that their English course will provide them with vocationally relevant knowledge and skills, but the English course they receive does not necessarily equip them for their future employment. Implications for government and educational institutions are explored, including recommendations that English curricula should be reviewed, and that steps need to be taken to ensure that policy goals are in fact delivered.     

Teachers’ perceptions of their matched students

The purpose of the study was to investigate FD and FI teachers’ perceptions of their ‘matched’ students. The Group Embedded Figures Test was administered as a measure of cognitive style to four middle school teachers and 144 seventh and eighth grade students. The teachers rated their students on a five-point scale in relation to (1) the degree they liked the student, (2) the information they knew about the student, (3) the concern they had for the student, and (4) their rejection of the student. FI teachers were more positive of their matched students (FI) than were FD teachers.     

Interrogating students’ perceptions of their online learning experiences with Brookfield’s critical incident questionnaire

This article discusses whether the very act of accessing online students’ experiences of teaching may itself foster students’ sense of belonging to a learning community. The article reports and reflects on the application of Brookfield’s critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) in postgraduate courses delivered online in 2008–2010 through the University of Newcastle in Australia. The anonymous CIQ is designed in part to access students’ views of teaching practice, and was deployed as part of an ongoing interest in quality teaching. The article makes recommendations for deploying the CIQ in online learning spaces and concludes with some reflections on unexpected opportunities thoughtful CIQ deployment may provide. The practice of sharing students’ anonymous responses may have helped to foster students’ sense of a shared learning community. This may be particularly valuable in an asynchronous online learning context where students are typically geographically isolated from one another.     

Coping with mismatched courses: students’ behaviour and performance in courses mismatched to their learning styles

Although learning styles are considered as an important factor in education, students often have to learn in courses that do not support their learning styles. A challenge for technology facilitated learning is therefore to assist and help students to cope with courses that do not match their learning styles by training and developing their less preferred skills. In this paper, the interactions between students’ learning styles, their behaviour, and their performance in an online course that is mismatched regarding their learning styles were analysed. The results show which learners need more help in mastering mismatched courses, help in getting a better understanding about how students with good performance record and poor performance record learn with respect to their learning styles, and provide information about how to identify learners who might have difficulties in learning based on their behaviour.     

Investigating Malaysian distance learners’ perceptions of their English proficiency courses

The paper describes a study that investigated Malaysian distance learners’ perceptions of their English proficiency courses. The approach used in this study was primarily a quantitative approach based on questionnaires, with a qualitative component based on semi‐structured interviews included to add depth and scope to the study. The questionnaires used were adapted from Entwistle and Ramsden’s Course Perception Questionnaire. ANOVA and factor analysis were used for analysing the questionnaire data. The interview data were analysed qualitatively by identifying main themes and patterns. While the analysis of the questionnaires and the interview data generated roughly comparable results, there were some interesting differences. The main difference was that the interviews demonstrated that the majority of the 13 distance learners interviewed would prefer more support and guidance rather than greater freedom as evident in the questionnaire data. The results of the interviews provide a useful supplement to the quantitative data and give us a better understanding of the factors that influence learners within a distance learning environment.     

Architecture students’ perceptions of their learning environment and their academic performance

Scholars have agreed that the way in which students perceive their learning environments influences their academic performance. Empirical studies that focus on architecture students, however, have been very scarce. This is the gap that an attempt is filled in this study. A questionnaire survey of 273 students in a school of architecture in Nigeria provided data for this pilot study. The perceptions of the students were best defined by the involvement of the students in their studies, the perceived support, and conduciveness of the learning environment. The students’ perceptions of their learning environment varied with their years of study, age and gender. Their perceptions of inflexibility of schedule, positive assessment, and fairness influenced the overall grades of students. The results suggests which aspects of learning environment that can be manipulated by architectural educators to improve the performance of their students. The study of the learning environment of architecture students still appears to be relatively unexplored. The value of this study therefore lies in its exploration of the perceptions of the learning environment from the point of view of students.     

College students’ perceptions of studying abroad and their readiness

This study aims to determine what college students believe is essential on studying abroad and investigates which programs they prefer for outbound study. The trend of globalization and expansion of higher education have resulted in changes for studying abroad programs in numerous Asian countries. In particular, the overprovided undergraduate and graduate education system in Taiwan raises questions on how college students perceive such outbound study. This paper collected survey data from 219 college students at 2 universities in Taiwan to analyze their opinions and levels of readiness on studying abroad programs. This study applied fuzzy methods to transform the data and interpret the results, and the findings showed that gender and college major influence student perceptions on the importance of studying abroad, as well as their readiness to study abroad. Typically, women exhibit more preparedness for studying abroad than their male counterparts. Following the expansion of higher education in Taiwan, more students are considering studying abroad programs for short-term stay in foreign countries. According to the patterns of perception, this study built fuzzy models to explain the consistency of importance and levels of readiness on studying abroad. The results reveal that fuzzy statistics can be used for proper interpretation of the factors influencing students to study abroad and their readiness.     

Teachers’ understanding of racial inequity predicts their perceptions of students’ behaviors

Teachers’ racialized interpretations of students’ behaviors likely lead to the racial disparities found in discipline across all education levels (Skiba et al., 2011). To explore how four types of teachers’ racial inequity beliefs (i.e., post-racial, American Dream, cultural deficit, schooling inequity) may be associated with teachers’ racialized interpretations of Black and White boys’ behaviors (i.e., hostility, emotionality, behavioral stability, and seriousness), a sample of 228 teachers in the United States filled out the Racism and Inequity Beliefs (RIB) Questionnaire and observed videotapes of six boys potentially misbehaving in school. Teachers’ cultural deficit beliefs uniquely predicted teachers’ negative perceptions of Black boys’ behaviors, with little to no impact on their perceptions of White boys’ behaviors. Specifically, teachers holding more cultural deficit beliefs perceived the Black boys’ behaviors as relatively more hostile, more representative of a behavioral pattern, and more serious compared to teachers who held fewer cultural deficit beliefs, and compared to their judgments of White boys’ behaviors. American Dream beliefs were also uniquely associated with assessments of Black boys’ behavior as more serious, without impact on White boys’ behavior. These results suggest the application of inequitable judgments of boys’ behaviors based on teachers’ racial inequity beliefs and boys’ identifiable race.     

A longitudinal study of engineering students’ approaches to their studies

This longitudinal study draws on data from a larger project and examines how students’ perceptions of their opportunities to influence their study environment may be enacted in approaches aimed at influencing their studies, and whether this changes during the course of their studies. Ten students from a 4.5‐year Master’s programme in Engineering were studied throughout their education by means of semi‐structured in‐depth interviews, which were analysed thematically. The results indicate that students’ perceptions of their study environment were enacted in three approaches aimed at influencing their study environment: (i) to adapt to the environment and to study alone; (ii) to try to change the programme, to create an individual curriculum and to interact with teachers; and (iii) to cooperate with their peers. The thematic analysis suggests that students’ perceptions of their study environment were enacted in the different approaches and that these changed along with external demands in the programme.     

A boundary-crossing approach to support students’ integration of statistical and work-related knowledge

Vocational students and beginning professionals typically find it hard to integrate the mathematics and statistics that they have learned at school with work-related knowledge. To explore how such an integration process could be supported, we conducted an intervention in secondary vocational laboratory education. Our boundary-crossing approach was informed by the literature on boundary crossing and accompanying learning mechanisms (e.g., reflection in the form of perspective making and taking, and transformation in the form of hybridization). We hypothesized that reflection, as making and taking perspectives on school-taught and work-related knowledge, could lead to transformation, i.e., help students integrate these types of knowledge into a hybridized whole. Data collection included video and audio recordings of five 1-h meetings with three students, the data from their research projects, and interviews with the teacher and two workplace supervisors. The analysis of the students’ reasoning during the meetings revealed that their level of integrating school-taught statistics and work-related knowledge increased significantly and with a medium effect size. This suggests that a boundary-crossing approach can support students in integrating school-taught and work-related knowledge.     

Mixed emotions: teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students

This paper describes the conceptual framework, methodology, and some results from a project on the Emotions of Teaching and Educational Change. It introduces the concepts of emotional intelligence, emotional labor, emotional understanding and emotional geographies. Drawing on interviews with 53 teachers in 15 schools, the paper then describes key differences in the emotional geographies of elementary and secondary teaching. Elementary teaching is characterized by physical and professional closeness which creates greater emotional intensity; but in ambivalent conditions of classroom power, where intensity is sometimes negative. Secondary teaching is characterized by greater professional and physical distance leading teachers to treat emotions as intrusions in the classroom. This distance, the paper argues, threatens the basic forms of emotional understanding on which high-quality teaching and learning depend.     

The relationship between students’ perceptions of portfolio assessment practice and their approaches to learning

This study focuses on students’ learning approaches in the context of a competency‐based program on Applied Sciences, with portfolio assessment as its core mode of assessment. The study examines students’ perceptions of these assessment practices and the relationships to their learning approaches. Additionally, differences in perceptions and learning approaches between first‐year students and second‐year students, who already have one year of experience with the portfolio assessment practice, are investigated. A total of 110 students completed two questionnaires at the end of the academic year: the Revised SPQ (Study process questionnaire) was used to measure their approaches to learning and the AEQ (Assessment experience questionnaire) was used to measure their perceptions of the assessment practice. The results indicate that, when implementing portfolio assessment, feedback is essential. Moreover, it seems not to be the assessment design, but rather how it is implemented, and how students’ learning is stimulated through the assessment, that influences the quality of learning.     

Assessing students’ perceptions of their learning environment in science classes in the United Arab Emirates

Learning Environments Research - As part of major education reform efforts underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), teachers have been introducing cooperative teaching methods in their science...     

A questionnaire for listening to students’ voices in the assessment of teaching quality in a classical medical school

The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching quality assessment questionnaire and assess its reliability by using it with a sample of first‐year medical students. Principal components analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation resulted in the development of a 12‐item, two‐component tool, adequate for use in lectures and small‐group sessions. The two components were named ‘curriculum’ and ‘relationship’. The Cronbach coefficient alpha values indicated high reliability and internal consistency. According to the results obtained this teaching quality scale is a reliable measure and may be useful in identifying themes in disciplines and among teachers that may benefit from some professional development. Amongst its advantages is that it can be used with an optical reading tool.     

Secondary school students’ perceptions of, and the factors influencing their decision-making in relation to, VET in schools

This paper addresses the issue of Vocational Education and Training in Schools — an issue that has recently attracted significant political attention particularly in light of current national skills shortage in Australia. Specifically, it investigates secondary school students’ perceptions of VET in Schools [VETiS]. It also explores the factors influencing their decision-making in relation to VETiS — that is, why one might choose, or choose not, to enrol in a VETiS course of study. In view of the findings presented, the paper argues that VET, and more particularly VETiS, is experiencing an “image problem” — one underscored by the need for curriculum design and delivery reform — and suggests that there is much work still to be done on the VET agenda.     

Kenyan students’ perceptions of new technologies to improve access to education

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a qualitative study carried out on perceptions of high school students on the use of ICT in learning in a secondary school in Mombasa, Kenya. The study involved 18 students in the 11th grade (form three). The students took part in three focus group discussions and six one-on-one interviews over a period of 2 weeks. Several themes on the learners’ understanding of and reaction to ICT were identified. It was revealed that learners had a sound understanding of the various types of ICT and could even define them while explaining the uses of these ICT tools. Findings showed that the learners were generally motivated about using ICT and that ICT encouraged student-centered learning leading to better understanding and performance in their studies. All in all, the findings from this study indicate that learners are aware of the importance of ICT in their learning and feel that at the moment the use of ICT in school is no longer a luxury but a necessity that has taken too long to materialize.     

Identifying exemplary science teachers through students’ perceptions of their learning environment

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ psychosocial perceptions of their science classroom learning environment in order to identify exemplary teachers. This mixed-method study used the valid and reliable What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire with over 3,000 middle school students in 150 classrooms in Australia. Exemplary teachers were defined as those whose students’ perceptions were more than one standard deviation above the mean for three of the five scales of Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation and Equity. The reliability of the WIHIC scales ranged from 0.75 to 0.87. Eta² showed that the WIHIC was able to distinguish between the perceptions of the students in the classroom. The construct validity of the WIHIC for identifying these exemplary teachers was confirmed through interviews with students and these views are reported in the article.