‘The ha’porth of tar to save the ship’: student counselling and vulnerable university students, 1965–1980

Student counselling is a generally accepted service offered by most institutes of higher education. This was not always the case. This paper uses the original reports and documents from the early years of the Counselling Service at the University of Auckland, New Zealand to explore what the educational problems were to which counselling was understood to be the solution, what exactly counselling was meant to achieve and then how the new service went about its mission of supporting vulnerable students. The historic legacy is that once a university accepted responsibility for students’ learning problems it was difficult to draw a line between emotional and academic support. Moreover, once established, counselling expanded from helping individual students who came looking for assistance and branched out into other therapeutic activities across the campus.     

Assessment literacy and student learning: the case for explicitly developing students ‘assessment literacy’

In this paper, we report on a study to quantify the impact on student learning and on student assessment literacy of a brief assessment literacy intervention. We first define ‘assessment literacy’ then report on the development and validation of an assessment literacy measurement instrument. Using a pseudo-experimental design, we quantified the impact of an assessment literacy-building intervention on students’ assessment literacy levels and on their subsequent performance on an assessment task. The intervention involved students in the experimental condition analysing, discussing and applying an assessment rubric to actual examples of student work that exemplified extremes of standards of performance on the task (e.g. poor, excellent). Results showed that such a procedure could be expected to impact positively on assessment literacy levels and on student performance (on a similar or related task). Regression analyses indicated that the greatest predictor of enhanced student marks (on the assessment task that was the subject of the experiment), was the development of their ability to judge standards of performance on student work created in response to a similar task. The intervention took just 50 minutes indicating a good educational return on the pedagogical investment.     

Social interaction learning strategies,motivation, first-year students’ experiences and permanence in university studies*

Applying a structural equations modelling methodology, the study analyses the relationships and effects of self-regulated learning (social interaction learning strategies and motivation) and first-year university experiences on permanence in the sophomore year. The participants are 239 first-year students in different Engineering degrees at a public university in south-eastern Spain. Two alternative structural models are evaluated, showing the superiority of the model where first-year university experiences completely mediate the effects of self-regulated learning on permanence. Motivation and social interaction learning strategies show direct effects on first-year university experiences, and first-year university experiences, in turn, show direct effects on permanence; additionally, both motivation and social interaction learning strategies have indirect effects on permanence via first-year university experiences. The noteworthy theoretical implications of the results are discussed, as well as the teaching methodology and support services provided to first-year university students.     

Where freshmen aspirations meet reality: factors influencing the learning outcomes of a living-and-learning program in an Asian university

ABSTRACT

This study explored the impact of a living-and-learning program (LLP) in a residential college of an Asian university on a freshmen cohort. It utilized a theoretical framework based on Astin’s input-intermediate outcome-environment-outcome model. We examined survey data collected at two time points a year apart to understand how the freshmen’s learning outcomes were influenced by their pre-college intentions and beliefs, their involvement and leadership in the LLP, and the LLP’s environment. We found that pre-college perceived self-confidence had no impact on the learning outcomes. However, pre-college perceived competence in personal and intellectual growth was a significant contributing factor for involvement and post-college self-confidence. The freshmen’s involvement in turn positively predicted their personal and intellectual growth and post-college self-confidence. The academic aspects of the LLP’s environment also contributed to this growth. The findings have ramifications for the design of LLPs, in particular, the definition and measurement of learning outcomes, the criteria for admissions, and the facilitation of student involvement.     

远程开放教育中的小组协作学习模式探究

学习小组是开放教育所提倡的合作学习的主要表现形式之一。学员通过参加学习小组活动,可以消除因个别化学习带来的孤独感,同时为培养组员的团结合作精神和提升组织领导能力提供良好的平台。2009秋开放学习小组在指导教师的带领下,按照不同的学习习惯和工作需求订制学习计划和职业生涯规划,明确奋斗目标,在学习的过程中享受快乐,共同成长。     

研究型大学生师互动对学业成就的影响:是否因学生背景特征而异

利用H大学“研究型大学本科生就读经历调查”数据,考察不同背景特征学生的生师互动水平,探讨生师互动对认知技能、操作及社交技能、满意度、归属感的影响是否因学生背景特征而异。统计结果表明,男生的生师互动水平显著高于女生;学生家庭收入和父母受教育程度越高,生师互动越频繁;非课程的生师互动对女生学业成就的影响显著高于男生,对低收入家庭和高收入家庭学生的影响高于中等收入家庭,对父母双方均上过大学的学生影响高于父母均未上过大学的学生和一方上过大学的学生;辅助教师进行研究对男生学业成就的影响显著高于女生,对低收入家庭和父母均未上过大学的学生的影响高于同辈。大学应依靠制度性手段提升生师互动的总体水平,采取支持性措施改善弱势学生的生师互动,增强互动情境性以提高课堂互动的质量。     

学会学习:当代大学生的成才之道

随着知识型、信息化社会的来临,人们在关心学什么的同时,更关心怎样学。特别是对当代大学生来说,学会学习既是社会发展的客观要求,也是大学生成才的必经之途。因此,为大学生提供丛要的学习方法与策略指导是当代大学教育的必然选择。     

Development of first-year students' conceptions of essay writing

Findings are presented from a small-scalelongitudinal study of first-year psychologystudents' learning. Three developmentalhierarchies were derived in the analysis of theinterview data, which described differentaspects of the variation in students' accountsof their conceptions of essay writing. Althoughthe findings did suggest that the students madesome development in their conceptions, itseemed that by the end of the study many ofthem were still unable to describe what wasexpected for their essays in a way which fullymapped onto their tutors' accounts. Theeffects of advice given to students about theiressay writing were also investigated. Studentswere given help that seemed relevant todeveloping their conceptions, but there waslittle evidence in the interviews that thismade an impact on their learning and studentsoften described minimal engagement with adviceand feedback. Two case studies are presented togive a more holistic perspective on thestudents' accounts of their essay writing.These cases suggest the limitations of simplecategorisations, as they emphasise the complexand idiosyncratic nature of students'development.     

新升格本科院校新生《综合英语教程》教学再探讨——由国家精品课程网上资源说开去

受到国家精品课程网上资源启示后,文章提出<综合英语教程>教学中语言教学与文化教学并重、英语文化教学与汉语文化教学并重、坚持讲授法为主、适合选择写长法四个教学理念.延续和补充了在此之前作者曾从教师、学生和师生教学过程三个因素来探讨的新升格本科院校新生<综合英语教程>的教学探讨.     

Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course

Since the early years of the twenty‐first century there has been an increasing interest in using Web 2.0 technologies to support learning in Higher Education. However, previous research suggests that the integration of blogging into courses can be difficult and cites problems with issues such as student compliance. We adopt a learner‐centred perspective and explore students’ (rather than their educators’) understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in Higher Education. We report on a study of UK Open University (OU) students on an online distance learning Masters course, that has enabled us to determine the issues that are important to these bloggers, and we describe five ways in which they appropriated blogging to suit their individual needs. We discuss the importance of making blogging activities flexible so that students can blog to meet their own needs whilst still attending to the requirements of their course.     

美国研究型大学学生就读经验探析

随着高等教育评估理论和实践的深入发展,学生就读经验成为高校内部教学质量保障中的研究热点。美国加州大学研究型大学学生就读经验项目的内容和形式、管理和发展、效用和特点为对我国开展研究型大学学生就读经验评估具有借鉴意义。     

英语专业综合英语课程中的语法教学

英语语法是我国高等院校英语专业基础阶段一门重要的主干课,同时在英语专业其他专业基础课的教学中也一直占有重要的地位,如综合英语。近年来,随着交际教学法在我国英语教学中的广泛应用,培养学生的交际能力已成为英语教学的主要目标。因此,如何在教学中强调语法的重要性并将语法教学融入课堂的每个环节,如何在潜移默化中使学生掌握语法并产生兴趣,而且自如地运用在日常学习交际中,真正地做到学以致用,是广大英语教师面临的一项艰巨的任务。