Evidence,argument and social responsibility: first‐year students’ experiences of information literacy when researching an essay

This paper describes a phenomenographic study of undergraduates’ experiences of information literacy when researching an essay in a first‐year environmental studies course. Three hierarchical categories were identified that represented students’ experiences: (i) seeking evidence; (ii) developing an argument; and (iii) learning as a social responsibility. The critical variation that delimited the categories included students’ focus on learning, focus on the essay task, use of information in the course, use of information in the essay, use of contrasting perspectives and development of argument. Strategies for designing curricula are suggested based on the educationally critical aspects that the study reveals, and the nature of information literacy as a ‘generic’ skill is questioned. The study has significance for students, teachers, librarians, academic skills advisers and academic developers in higher education.     

Vectors of identity development during the first year: black first-generation students’ reflections

In this study, black South African first-generation students’ experiences related to identity development during their first year at a higher education institution were explored. Chickering and Reisser’s [1993. Education and Identity. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] seven-vector identity development theory served as overarching framework. The focus group discussions and individual interviews of ten black first-generation students were analysed thematically. Participants experienced their first year as a time of instability, mostly due to inadequate preparation for the psychological, social, and especially academic challenges of higher education. Black first-generation students’ ability to remain connected to their family while forming new social connections on campus enabled them to feel safe in their exploration of new worldviews, relationships, and occupational considerations. Black first-generation students’ unique progression in vector attainment confirms the importance of research on the application of Chickering’s theory in a more diverse higher education environment.     

An analysis of first year engineering students’ satisfaction with a support distance learning program in mathematics

An online support distance-learning program in Mathematics was developed to aid first year engineering students for their transition from the secondary to the tertiary education in order to reinforce deficiencies they may have in mathematical knowledge. The aim of the present study is to examine, firstly, to what extent the attendance of such a program helped students to familiarize themselves with distance learning programs. In addition, the students’ satisfaction with the material of the program was examined as well as their attitudes towards a conventional support learning program in Mathematics. The structure and part of the material developed is presented in detail. The basic methodological tool was an appropriately structured questionnaire. The results indicate that students responded positively to the program, which was a basic way of acquainting themselves with distance learning, and were satisfied with the material. The students’ attitudes towards a conventional program was found to be related to their prior experience in distance learning programs. Statistical analysis of the research data yielded 4 basic factors related to the students’ beliefs regarding the support online learning program in Mathematics. These factors were student’s development and progress, satisfaction with the parts of the online support program, their attitudes towards a conventional program while being in the online support program and their familiarization with online distance education. These factors as well as the targeted identification of the students’ needs should be taken under consideration while designing and implementing support online distance learning programs in Mathematics.     

Diversity courses and students’ moral reasoning: a model of predispositions and change

The purpose of this study was to examine how moral reasoning develops for 236 students enrolled in either a diversity course or a management course. These courses were compared based on the level of diversity inclusion and type of pedagogy employed in the classroom. We used causal modelling to compare the two types of courses, controlling for the effects of demographic (i.e., race, gender), curricular (i.e., previous course-related diversity learning) and pedagogical (i.e., active learning) covariates. Results showed that students enrolled in the diversity course demonstrated higher levels of moral reasoning than students enrolled in the management course. In addition, results show that previous diversity courses as well as current enrolment in a diversity course contributed to moral reasoning gains. Implications are discussed.     

Analyzing the effects of mathematical discourse-based instruction on eleventh-grade students’ procedural and conceptual understanding of probability and statistics

This study utilized discourse-based instruction as an alternative method of instruction that emphasizes the teaching of mathematics by actively engaging students in mathematical discourse practices. A quasi-experimental study was employed to determine the effectiveness of mathematical discourse-based instruction in enhancing eleventh-grade students’ conceptual and procedural understanding of probability and statistics. A researcher-constructed test instrument was used for data collection from the experimental and control groups. The data analysis performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the experimental group outperformed the control groups in terms of conceptual and procedural knowledge. Furthermore, the results suggest that discourse-based instruction when appropriately designed and implemented can increase students’ understanding of mathematical topics.     

Seeking support: researching first‐year students’ experiences of coping with academic life

Students’ transition to academia comes with a number of challenges which, if inadequately addressed, may negatively affect their academic performance and psychological well‐being. Hence, the question of support becomes critical and has been reflected in the variety of practical measures to provide support with learning and facilitate newcomers’ integration into higher education. However, while forms of institutional aid have increased and diversified in recent years, the kind of support the students actually need and prefer to use – from the pool of available resources – remains insufficiently understood in current research. To address this gap, this paper advocates a social network approach to first‐year students’ experiences of coping with academic life and suggests an agenda for further investigation, which would contrast support ‘from above’ and support ‘from below.’     

The effects of computer programming on high school students’ reasoning skills and mathematical self-efficacy and problem solving

In this paper we investigate whether computer programming has an impact on high school student’s reasoning skills, problem solving and self-efficacy in Mathematics. The quasi-experimental design was adopted to implement the study. The sample of the research comprised 66 high school students separated into two groups, the experimental and the control group according to their educational orientation. The research findings indicate that there is a significant difference in the reasoning skills of students that participated in the “programming course” compared to students that did not. Moreover, the self-efficacy indicator of students that participated in the experimental group showed a significant difference from students in the control group. The results however, failed to support the hypothesis that computer programming significantly enhances student’s problem solving skills.     

Leadership and students’ academic success: mediating effects of self-efficacy and self-determination

When exploring the effects of leadership on students, most studies have focused on either how leadership affects the students’ academic outcomes or how it contributes to their personal development. This study merged both approaches and aimed to measure the mediating effects of self-efficacy and self-determination among leadership, students’ intentions to persist and GPA. A Structural Equation Analysis was applied to a data-set of 1009 students from 39 countries to examine these relationships. The results showed a full mediating effect of academic self-efficacy between leadership and students’ intentions to persist and between leadership and GPA, and revealed a full mediating effect of self-determination through autonomy and relatedness constructs between leadership and intention to persist. This result implies that even though leadership does not directly affect students’ academic outcomes, it enhances their confidence and motivation, which provides them with the inner drive to aim high, persevere and achieve their goals. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.     

A longitudinal examination of students’ health behaviours during their first year at university

During the transition from school to higher education, young adults experience a substantial amount of change where they progress from the highly controlled setting of school to the autonomous and self-motivated environment of university. Time spent at university is considered a critical period during which young adults establish a clear sense of identity, which can include forming positive health behaviours such as regular physical activity. The transition from school to university also involves a number of changes that can impact on the mental well-being of students including financial concerns, academic pressures and a lack of social support. Our aim was to longitudinally examine the physical activity levels and mental well-being of Scottish students during their first year at university. Participants were 48 first-year students (males, n = 24; females, n = 24) aged 18–19 years enrolled at two Scottish universities in the UK. At entry to university (semester 1) participants completed a validated self-report measure of physical activity and measures of anxiety and depression. Participants’ physical activity levels were assessed for seven days via accelerometry. Participants completed the same measures six months later (semester 2). Daily moderate physical activity levels decreased across the semesters yet perceptions of mental well-being remained stable. There was a significant increase in hip and waist circumferences across the semesters. The first year of university is a critical period for establishing positive health behaviours and there is a need for universities to actively encourage physical activity as an integral part of university life.     

University students’ strategies and criteria during self-assessment: instructor’s feedback,rubrics, and year level effects

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study explores the effects of feedback type, feedback occasion, and year level on student self-assessments in higher education. In total, 126...     

Academic Adjustment and Learning Processes: a comparison of international and local students in first‐year university

This article examines the academic adjustment and learning processes of international and local first‐year students. Twenty first‐year local and international students participated in a semi‐structured interview study upon the completion of their first year in a Faculty of Commerce and Management. Students reported positive and negative critical incidents which helped or hindered their learning during the first year. In addition, students described their feelings, thoughts and behaviours in relation to these incidents. Critical incidents were coded, themes identified, and comparisons made across local and international student groups. The impact of particular teaching processes are considered, and implications for teaching and learning in the first year are discussed.     

Peer mentoring for first‐year teacher education students: the mentors’ experience

Universities worldwide are developing peer mentoring programmes to assist first‐year students’ transition into university life. Awareness of the mentees’ experiences in the mentoring programme – the successes and challenges – contributes to ongoing planning for successful transition for first‐year students. Also, understanding the mentors’ experiences can contribute to the success of the programme and, more importantly, can lead to strong self efficacy for the mentors. This qualitative study appraises a mentoring programme for first‐year undergraduate students from the mentors’ perspective. The mentors’ experiences, both positive and negative, are discussed and a relational model of mentoring is presented. The results of this inquiry have implications for the development of future mentoring programmes, particularly in terms of mentor recruitment and preparation, if first‐year students are to be effectively oriented and supported in their transition to university study.     

Finnish pre-service teachers’ and upper secondary students’ understanding of division and reasoning strategies used

In this paper, we focus on Finnish pre-service elementary teachers’ (N?=?269) and upper secondary students’ (N?=?1,434) understanding of division. In the questionnaire, we used the following non-standard division problem: “We know that 498:6?=?83. How could you conclude from this relationship (without using long-division algorithm) what 491:6?=?? is?” This problem especially measures conceptual understanding, adaptive reasoning, and procedural fluency. Based on the results, we can conclude that division seems not to be fully understood: 45% of the pre-service teachers and 37% of upper secondary students were able to produce complete or mainly correct solutions. The reasoning strategies used by these two groups did not differ very much. We identified four main reasons for problems in understanding this task: (1) staying on the integer level, (2) an inability to handle the remainder, (3) difficulties in understanding the relationships between different operations, and (4) insufficient reasoning strategies. It seems that learners’ reasoning strategies in particular play a central role when teachers try to improve learners’ proficiency.     

The role of interactive dialogue in students’ learning of mathematical reasoning: A quantitative multi-method analysis of feedback episodes

Interactive dialogue within feedback episodes is essential for developing primary school students' mathematical reasoning competence. Our goal was to better understand the nature of the associations between observed dialogue, teachers' formative feedback, and students' mathematical reasoning. We applied a two-step approach, first constructing a video-analysis instrument for assessing the quality of interactive dialogues and then combining the interaction data with student and teacher questionnaire data from 804 students in 44 fifth and sixth grade primary school classes. The quality of the observed dialogues predicted class differences in students’ self-efficacy for explaining but not in their reasoning competence, which was predicted by perceived formative feedback.     

The directional links between students’ academic motivation and social integration during the first year of higher education

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Previous theoretical research proposed a link between students’ academic motivation and students’ experiences of social integration, but...     

Conceptions of first‐year university students of the constituents of matter and the notions of acids and bases

Preconceptions of first‐year university students of the constituents of matter and the notions of acids and bases were investigated on a total of 400 students. The procedure used consisted of free interviews, semi‐structured interviews and questionnaires.

It was found that the constituents of matter were well known to students, but that interactions between these constituents were either totally unknown or were the subject of severe misconceptions. The students’ knowledge tended to be qualitative and formal, with a worrying lack of connection with everyday life.     

School grades and students’ emotions: Longitudinal models of within-person reciprocal effects

Based on control-value theory, we expected reciprocal associations between school grades and students' achievement emotions. Existing research has employed between-person designs to examine links between grades and emotions, but has failed to analyze their within-person relations. Reanalyzing data used by Pekrun et al. (2017) for between-person analysis, we investigated within-person relations of students’ grades and emotions in mathematics over 5 school years (N = 3,425 German students from the PALMA longitudinal study; 50.0% female). The findings from random-intercept cross-lagged modeling show that grades positively predicted positive emotions within persons over time. These emotions, in turn, positively predicted grades. Grades were negative predictors of negative emotions, and these emotions, in turn, were negative predictors of grades. The within-person effects were largely equivalent to between-person relations of grades and emotions. Implications for theory, future research, and educational practice are discussed.     

Climate change and costs: investigating students’ reasoning on nature and economic development

The tensions between environmental protection and economic growth are critical to future well-being, and it is therefore important to understand how young people conceptualize these tensions. The aim of the present study is to explore students’ solutions to the dilemma of economic development and mitigating climate change, with regard to societal responses to the challenge of climate change. The study was conducted in China’s Green Schools. Green School is an international long-term programme with the aim of increasing students’ knowledge of environmental issues, and transferring this knowledge into positive actions to affect the wider community. The data were obtained through semi-structured pre- and post-interviews with 15–16-year-old students in three groups (12 students) from Green Schools in the Beijing area. The results show that students’ discussions focused exclusively on economic growth and social welfare. Students seem to believe that environmental problems are inevitable, nature is a ‘box’ of resources, and economic development is necessary in order to sustain and even improve nature. Therefore, there is no dilemma between economic development and environmental protection. The paper ends with a discussion on research and implications for teaching climate change.