Mature and younger students' reasons for making the transition from further education into higher education

This paper reviews findings from a longitudinal study of students making the transition from FE to an ancient university. This paper compares the younger and older students' reasons for higher education study. Our analysis of the quantitative data suggests that the older students had different reasons for entering university. We use the qualitative data to investigate the meanings participants attributed to higher education study in order to make sense of the patterns in the quantitative data, drawing on Wenger's perspectives on identity development as encompassing participants' trajectories in relation to communities of practice. The findings show a positive picture of the motivations of the whole cohort but the mature students seemed to have a particularly rich understanding of the meaning and relevance of their studies. The study therefore has implications for policy-makers and teachers as they seek to make use of the positive aspects of greater diversity.     

90后高职学生人格特征性别差异分析与教育对策研究

采用16PF人格问卷对河北省部分高职院校14级90后新生进行调查,并进行文理科男女生对比分析,数据结果显示:在全部人格因素得分指标当中理科女生各项得分均在中段水平及以上,呈现出"自high"的外显人格特征。理科男生除成长能力因素低于平均分,其余均处于中段水平及以上,整体呈现出女性化的性格特质。文科男生和文科女生比较各项指标基本均衡,性别角度上的人格特征差异不明显,心理健康因素、专业成就因素和成长能力因素都在平均分一下。针对这种状况,应采取因材施教有侧重的生涯教育课程引导,并加强性别特征教育。整体增加人文精神、人性文化和共情能力的培养。     

Troubling identities: teacher education students' constructions of class and ethnicity

Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers and teacher educators recognizing and valuing difference. Too often, in teacher education programs, when markers of identity such as gender, ethnicity, ‘race’, or social class are examined, the focus is on developing student teachers' understandings of how these discourses shape learner identities and rarely on how these also shape teachers' identities. This article reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnicity and socio‐economic status. In a preliminary stage of the research, we asked eight Year 3 teacher education students who had attended mainly Anglo‐Australian, middle class schools as students and as student teachers, to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they constructed their own identities around ethnicity and social class. In this article we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation, troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.     

School processes and the transition to higher education

Previous research has indicated significant variation between schools in the proportion of their students who go on to higher education. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the specific school characteristics influencing application and entry to tertiary education. This paper sets out to analyse the individual and school factors which influence the transition to higher education in the Irish context. The paper draws on a large‐scale study of 4,400 students within 108 secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Almost three‐quarters of the students in the sample applied for a higher education course. However, schools varied in the application rates of their students. These differences are found to be related to the background characteristics of students (in terms of gender, social class and prior ability) along with the institutional habitus of the school. It is found that school factors associated with increased college application rates do not necessarily appear to yield higher rates of college entry but rather that successful entry to tertiary education is related to general academic effectiveness in the school.     

Informational capital and the transition to university: First‐in‐family students' experiences in Austrian higher education

The agenda for widening participation in higher education has led to increasing numbers of students with a broader range of education and family backgrounds. However, transitioning to the university landscape remains a highly complex negotiation process, especially for first‐in‐family students, who cannot draw on previous experience from higher education in their families. Gaining access to informational capital—a combination of cultural and social capital—plays a crucial role in managing education transitions. We draw on rich empirical data obtained from 26 autobiographical narrative interviews with first‐in‐family university students in Austria to investigate how transitions to university are affected by informational capital. We also explore how access to informational capital was influenced by (1) institutional practices, such as initiatives to support students, especially first‐year students; and (2) cultural fit—the extent to which a student's cultural capital corresponded with the dominant cultural capital in the field of their chosen discipline or higher education establishment. Our findings show that gaining access to informational capital was strongly affected by the institutional practices at universities within the different disciplines, thus highlighting the importance of higher education institutions in supporting their students during transition processes. We conclude with policy implications for how higher education institutions can assist first‐in‐family students to succeed at university.     

The residues of learning: Autobiographical accounts by graduates of the impact of higher education

Earlier work on the enduring effects of education is reviewed and then data are presented from 22 autobiographical accounts written by graduates. Content analysis showed that most importance was attached to the learning of high-level intellectual skills and to attitudes and values of personal and professional significance. The implications of these findings for curricula and teaching methods in higher education are then discussed before considering the strengths and weaknesses of life history material as a research tool. It is concluded that written accounts combined with interviews offer a promising method for investigating the long-term impact of higher education.     

The influence of gender composition in a field of study on students' drop‐out of higher education

Combining Tinto's classical model of student drop‐out with Kanter's assessment of minorities, this article examines the influence of gender composition in a field of study on drop‐out from higher education. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of students who left German higher education in 2014. Our results confirm previous findings that women in gender‐atypical subjects show a higher drop‐out risk than their male fellow students. We assess several mechanisms which could contribute to explain this effect. Contrary to our expectations, social integration, in the sense of contact with lecturers, seems to be a protective factor for women and men in gender‐atypical subjects. For women in gender‐atypical fields of study, contact with peers is an additional protective factor against drop‐out. The most important mechanism to explain higher education drop‐out is women's more negative self‐assessment of their suitability for male‐dominated subjects.     

The gender difference of peer influence in higher education

Investigations of the existence of residential peer effects in higher education has shown mixed results. Using data from a Chinese college, we find no evidence of robust residential peer effects. Using the same data we find evidence that females respond to peer influences, whereas males do not, consistent with social psychology theories that females are more influenced by peers.     

Leadership and gender in higher education: a case study

Literature concerning leadership styles in HE provides no distinct view on whether style relates to gender. Transformational styles are regarded by some as particularly suited to times of change, and likely to be adopted by women; but others argue such styles are unsuited to HE. In a study of leadership within an institute of higher education undergoing change, transformational and transactional leadership behaviours were identified in all senior managers, male and female. However, when official communications were plotted over time, transformational attitudes were superseded by transactional. Women managers apparently identified more with male gender paradigms and displayed male-type leadership behaviours, whilst men showed female paradigm identification and female-type leadership. Additionally, managers indicated that past experience of ‘poor’ management and their subject training had greatly influenced their leadership approaches.     

International e-benchmarking: flexible peer development of authentic learning principles in higher education

More and more, social technologies and virtual work methods are facilitating new ways of crossing boundaries in professional development and international collaborations. This paper examines the peer development of higher education teachers through the experiences of the IVBM project (International Virtual Benchmarking, 2009–2010). The e-benchmarking process in which teachers applied authentic learning criteria is described, as are the e-tools (Ning, ACP) and the methods employed collaboratively to develop e-learning competence. Cases came from Finland, Korea, Canada, Belgium and Great Britain. The project formed an international virtual learning community for teachers. In peer development, elements of authentic learning were assigned meaning, development alternatives were considered and the interpretation of authentic learning in different situations and cultures was made concrete. The results promote and inform the planning of e-benchmarking communities and flexible virtual teamwork in professional development and education contexts.     

Maturity and Interculturality: Chinese students' experiences in UK higher education

Increasing global competition for students has witnessed an ever more rapid internationalisation of higher education. In the case of the UK, there has been a major influx of Chinese students to British universities since the launch of the British Government's long-term worldwide educational campaign in 1999. Drawing upon evidence from an extensive review of the literature on the internationalisation of higher education, this article will explore variations in Chinese students' intercultural adaptation to the British higher education environment. Discussion of their experiences will be based upon a synthesis of findings of three studies, led by the author, investigating the pedagogical, sociocultural and psychological challenges that they have encountered when studying in British universities.
Evidence from these studies suggests that despite various challenges and struggles, most students have managed to survive the demands of the learning and the living environment and to adapt and develop. Analysis of their learning experiences suggests that this learning process spans a developmental continuum involving the students in overcoming emotional tensions arising from changes in their cognition, their sense of identity and sociocultural values. A holistic and developmental perspective is thus required to understand changes in students' perceptions and values as part of their wider adaptation to the academic conventions of their host countries. The findings will make an original contribution to understandings of the impact of the internationalisation of higher education on individuals' learning, change and development.     

浅谈高职高专院校顶岗实习学生的思政教育工作

高职高专院校开展学生顶岗实习对学生、企业和学校都非常有利,而目前在这个阶段暴露出了较突出的问题。笔者通过对问题的探讨分析,提出保障学生顶岗实习顺利进行的思政教育工作的途径和方法,希望为顺利开展顶岗实习学生的思政教育工作提供一定的借鉴和参考。     

Translating strategy,values and identities in higher education: the case of multi-campus systems

Tertiary Education and Management -     

Assessment in higher education in the professions: action research as an authentic assessment task

The argument of this article is that assessment in higher education in the professions can benefit from quality assessment tasks linked to professional practice. Such an assessment task would need to be authentic requiring considerable intellectual skill as well as attending to the realities of professional demands. The idea of authentic assessment is developed by using five of Boud et al.'s propositions in higher educational assessment. This idea is illustrated by the use of action research in a teaching internship, that is, data driven learning in the workplace which also serves as an assessment task in the final year of a professional Bachelor degree. Some difficulties and some illustrative, positive student reactions are presented.     

加强高职学生法律素养教育的探研

随着国家对高职院校发展的不断重视和支持,高等职业教育也在蓬勃地发展起来,越来越多的高职毕业生受到社会的欢迎,他们走向社会各个工作岗位,然而在实践中凸显出一个非常重要的一个问题就是高职学生普遍存在着法律素养底下问题,而在市场经济不断完善的今天,企业越来越需要具备较高法律素养的"复合型"人才。因此,高职院校加强学生的法治教育,提升他们的法律素养是十分必要。本文通过着重分析高职学生法律素养的现状、并分析产生这些问题的原因,提出了加强高职学生法律素养的有效途径。