Sex differences in the environments of graduate students and faculty

This paper considers some important psychological aspects of the academic experience for male and female graduate faculty members and students. Drawing on data collected in a recent national study of doctoral program quality, information pertaining to the graduate department's environment for learning, the extent of faculty members' concern for students, graduate student assistantship experiences, and faculty members' satisfactions and views about various departmental practices and policies are examined. Gender differences in both student and faculty member perceptions of their environments were found to be generally slight and to vary by discipline.     

Including the kids across the hall: collaborative instruction of hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing students

This study follows graduate interns and their cooperating teachers through a collaborative student teaching experience in D/HH and hearing classrooms at the same grade level. Teacher teams, enrolled in a graduate course on collaboration, designed and conducted collaborative instruction (K-junior high school level), which focused on cooperative learning activities. Measures included student evaluations and separate intern and teacher evaluations of student performance, the integrated instructional units, and professional collaboration. Student evaluations included positive responses to integrated instruction by both groups, though there was more trepidation expressed by some D/HH students. Teachers reported very positive outcomes for all students including increased motivation to learn about and to interact with the other group and, for D/HH students, an increase in socially and academically appropriate behaviors. Specific student needs for training prior to integrated experiences were noted. Teachers stressed the importance of topic selections that would involve the expertise of all participants equally, needs for teacher in-service training and, administrative support for collaborative planning.     

Intercultural learning in graduate studies at an Israeli college of education: Attitudes toward multiculturalism among Jewish and Arab students

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the factors which affect attitudes towards multiculturalism among Jewish and Arab graduate students who experience intercultural learning in an Israeli-Jewish academic college of education. In Israeli society, it is in higher education institutions where young people from different ethnic groups first encounter the ‘others’. This is due to the structure of the Israeli elementary and secondary education system, which is divided into Jewish and Arab segregated sub-systems. In contrast, the country’s higher education institutions are open to everyone. The research population was composed of first and second year graduate students, all of whom were practicing teachers or involved in other educational work. Participants completed questionnaires and a smaller sample was also interviewed. All of the students are practicing teachers or involved in other educational work. Everyone perceived the college’s socio-cultural climate as an open and multicultural one in both years of study. However, these positive feelings characterized Jewish students to a larger extent than Arab students, while the socio-cultural aspect as well as the quality of the academic experience had a positive impact on multicultural attitudes primarily among Arab students. Thus, a multicultural climate is not enough to effect a positive change in entrenched attitudes toward multiculturalism. Multicultural education policy should also be reinforced through a formal academic curriculum, so as to set an example for ongoing social change which will further encourage graduate students—majority and minority alike—to implement their multicultural positive experiences in their own schools in the future.     

对研究生阶段地学教育的几点思考

研究生教育在大学人才培养体系中具有不可忽视的承上启下、优化人才层次结构的重要作用。但是,当今研究生培养质量总体下滑已成为一个普遍关注的问题,其原因在于招生规模的扩大所导致的教育资源的不足,以及导师与研究生功利思想的加重。从我院多年地学研究生培养的经验看,研究梯队建设、实验能力的培养、学术交流能力的培养以及编写各种申请书能力的培养等是保障研究生培养质量的得力措施。     

基于社会媒体的群体知识建构方式的研究——以班级微群为例

随着基于web2．0技术的社会媒体的迅猛发展,尤其是在大学生中的广泛应用,如何能够更好利用其帮助学习者学习是很值得研究的课题。利用内容分析方法,通过分析学生在微博中的发表物,探讨了学生利用微博开展讨论的方式和知识建构的类型。研究表明学生在讨论过程中,主要还是采用分享、填加、协商等较为初级的建构方式,不过学生能够积极利用微博针对课上内容进行积极的讨论,并能发展他们对该问题的看法。本案例为使用社会媒体开展学习提供依据。     

An investigation of student teachers' knowledge about their own learning

Twenty-nine student teachers from a large metropolitan university in Queensland, Australia were interviewed at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a year-long graduate diploma in education to investigate the nature of their knowledge about learning and changes in such knowledge over the year. At Time 1 and Time 2 most students thought learning should be meaningful and preferred to use transformative learning approaches. However, students indicated a willingness to engage in reproductive approaches to learning if the content to be learned was uninteresting, workloads were high, or assessment was examination-focussed. The results also indicated that while many students did not experience significant changes in their knowledge about learning over the year, they believed that transformative learning had become more of a focus for them. Investigating student teachers' knowledge about learning has implications for effective learning in teacher education programs.     

The Research Mentoring Program: Serving the Needs of Graduate and Undergraduate Researchers

Many institutions of higher education confront seemingly unrelated needs of graduate students, who need not only to complete their dissertations but also to learn how to become proficient mentors for undergraduates as they move on to faculty roles. The graduate students are increasingly searching out high-impact learning experiences such as involvement with undergraduate research. The program we describe in this article offers a solution to these issues by pairing undergraduates with graduate students to work on their dissertation research. Undergraduates undertake hands-on research while learning about graduate school, and the graduate students learn about the mentoring process while receiving assistance that allows them to keep their dissertations moving toward completion.     

Exploring an experiential learning project through Kolb's Learning Theory using a qualitative research method

Experiential learning pedagogy is taking a lead in the development of graduate attributes and educational aims as these are of prime importance for society. This paper shows a community service experiential project conducted in China. The project enabled students to serve the affected community in a post-earthquake area by applying their knowledge and skills. This paper documented the students’ learning process from their project goals, pre-trip preparations, work progress, obstacles encountered to the final results and reflections. Using the data gathered from a focus group interview approach, the four components of Kolb's learning cycle, the concrete experience, reflection observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, have been shown to transform and internalise student's learning experience, achieving a variety of learning outcomes. The author will also explore how this community service type of experiential learning in the engineering discipline allowed students to experience deep learning and develop their graduate attributes.     

Entrepreneurial learning as experienced by agricultural graduate entrepreneurs

Developing entrepreneurial graduates is essential to the future of higher education and supply of quality human resources in developing countries. To address this issue in the agriculture sector, which is dominant in economic terms in most developing countries, an exploratory combined qualitative and quantitative research was conducted to understand entrepreneurial learning of agricultural graduate entrepreneurs. For the phenomenological study, 14 agricultural graduate entrepreneurs were purposely selected, and for the quantitative study, 92 entrepreneurs were selected through simple random sampling method. The phenomenological study revealed 12 themes on how graduates experienced entrepreneurial learning. Our study finds support for “experiential learning,” “learning by doing,” and “social learning” theories. Nine themes including previous business experience, risk-taking propensity, entrepreneurial persistence, use of various information sources, tendency to be self-employed, concerns about job or career, interest in practical courses and activities, passion for agriculture, and thinking outside the box are internal to the entrepreneur and could be seen as learner identity. The theme of “support from family and friends” could be seen as a significant external influence. The survey showed that entrepreneurial learning themes were generalizable to the studied population. Although different students can take different learning paths to become the best they can be, our findings suggest that the overall student learning experience can be designed to ensure that graduates are more likely to become entrepreneurs.     

Graduate Capabilities: a Framework for Assessing Course Quality 1

Three propositions about quality learning when linked to the concept of graduate capability provide a framework for examining the extent to which learning outcomes are embedded within the provision of authentic learning environments, a focus on global issues, and the development of skills to support life‐long learning. A case study in nursing at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is used to illustrate a student learning experience that addresses graduate capabilities, develops an authentic learning environment, addresses global issues, and fosters the development of skills to support life‐long learning.

     

Graduate Experience in Science Education: the development of a science education course for biomedical science graduate students

The University of Rochester's Graduate Experience in Science Education (GESE) course familiarizes biomedical science graduate students interested in pursuing academic career tracks with a fundamental understanding of some of the theory, principles, and concepts of science education. This one-semester elective course provides graduate students with practical teaching and communication skills to help them better relate science content to, and increase their confidence in, their own teaching abilities. The 2-h weekly sessions include an introduction to cognitive hierarchies, learning styles, and multiple intelligences; modeling and coaching some practical aspects of science education pedagogy; lesson-planning skills; an introduction to instructional methods such as case studies and problem-based learning; and use of computer-based instructional technologies. It is hoped that the early development of knowledge and skills about teaching and learning will encourage graduate students to continue their growth as educators throughout their careers. This article summarizes the GESE course and presents evidence on the effectiveness of this course in providing graduate students with information about teaching and learning that they will use throughout their careers.     

Finding out more about teacher candidates' prior knowledge: implications for teacher educators

While it is recognised that prior knowledge is a key factor in determining future learning, its influence on learning to teach is less well known. This study investigates two cohorts of teacher candidates studying for a one-year, graduate qualification for primary teaching, who completed two tasks at entry to their initial teacher education programme: a task in writing and a task in mathematics. The tasks focused on teacher candidates' ability to recognise the key features of a piece of student work. The teacher candidates' responses to the tasks highlighted the diverse nature of the prior knowledge that underpinned their responses. The study raises questions about the pedagogy of initial teacher education, particularly in relation to the assumptions teachers educators make about the candidates they teach. The findings suggest that the prior knowledge that students bring to initial teacher education is both a resource and a challenge for teacher educators.     

The first year of teaching: It's not what they expected

This paper considers the relationship between teachers' espoused belief and beliefs in action. It focuses on the first year experiences of two beginning teachers — one a graduate of a baccalaureate program; the other a graduate of a master's program — who have been participants in a longitudinal study of evolving beliefs about teaching among preservice and beginning teachers. It contrasts their belief in action with the beliefs about teaching that they articulated over the past 3 years in beliefs questionnaires that they completed at the beginning of each school year. Findings suggest that beginning teachers develop a set of beliefs about teaching and learning in their teacher education programs that is not necessarily related to the set of beliefs about teaching and learning that they developed over the course of their elementary and secondary education. The latter set of beliefs is brought to the fore by the exigencies of the first year of teaching. New teachers, the study shows, are strongly affected by the conditions of the workplace and most particularly by the climate of acceptance established by the school principal. The paper ends with suggestions for preservice faculty and for school personnel receiving beginning teachers.     

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.     

Visualising the future: surfacing student perspectives on post-graduation prospects using rich pictures

The gradual commodification of higher education in the context of an increased focus on graduate employability attributes together with evolving labour markets is creating challenges for universities and students alike. For universities, there has been significant investment in careers services and, through institution-wide initiatives, employability or graduate attribute development established to support graduate transitions into work. Meanwhile, for students, experience of part-time work together with pessimistic post-recession employment discourses are challenging the notion that a good degree guarantees their future career prospects. Simultaneously, decreasing financial support from the state has resulted in worrying levels of debt for new graduates. This pilot study was designed to gain a fresh perspective of how students imagine themselves following graduation. The study used rich pictures (RP) as a methodology to explore student views of life beyond university in the UK and Canada. Content analysis of the RPs provided insights into their thoughts and anxieties about potential challenges for the future. Students presented both positive and negative visions of their future, with success in achieving a respectable performance in their final degree as the key differentiator. The insights gained are discussed in the context of related research into students’ concerns and university initiatives to support students throughout higher education and then into graduate employment. The findings revealed student motivations, hopes and fears which can inform the development of impactful university interventions.     

Applying blended learning with web-mediated self-regulated learning to enhance vocational students' computing skills and attention to learn

Students in the vocational schools in Taiwan largely care little about their grades and do not get involved adequately in their schoolwork. To respond effectively to this challenge of teaching, two cases were studied and compared; one is a class using a traditional method of teaching and the other a class deploying innovative teaching methods of blended learning (BL) with web-mediated self-regulated learning (SRL). The effects of combining BL with SRL on developing students' computing skills in applying database management system (DBMS) to solve authentic problems are encouraging. The students in the case of BL with SRL paid positive attention to this newer teaching method and had a statistically higher rate of passing a certification test than those in the traditional class.     

Networked Learning in Higher Education: Students’ Expectations and Experiences

This paper reports findings from a study of undergraduates’ expectations about, and experiences of, networked learning using computer-mediated conferencing (CMC). The data come from questionnaires administered at the start and end of four different courses, and their interpretation is informed by a set of interviews with students and teachers involved in these and other networked learning courses. Students’ views were generally positive at the start and at the end of each course, though they became more moderate over time. The structure of students’ reported feelings remained relatively stable over time. There was no evidence to suggest that male or younger students had more positive feelings about networked learning. The thoroughness with which CMC is integrated into a networked learning course appears as a significant factor in explaining differences in students’ feelings about the worth and value of their experience. As might be expected, a well-integrated course was associated with more positive experiences.     

The Cohort Leadership Development Model: Student Perspectives

This study examined how graduate students enrolled in a university-based cohort community college leadership doctoral program perceived their leadership development experiences. A total of 50 doctoral students enrolled in the Morgan State University (MSU) doctoral program were surveyed. A separate group of students (20) participated in a focus group. Results indicated that although doctoral students generally reported positive experiences, some students reported that certain factors or characteristics and behaviors of cohort members were not beneficial to the cohort experience. The positive results (structure, instructors, networking, and curriculum) of the cohort experience seem to support the findings of a number of works in the previous research relating to cohort learning environments. The findings further indicated that such factors such as dominant group members, lack of commitment to the cohort, failure to meet group expectations, traditional instructional modalities, and inadequate facilities negatively impacted perceptions of the cohort experience.     

云计算平台下研究生学习效率研究——基于一项实验研究

随着云计算技术的不断发展完善,将云计算平台运用到研究生教学中已成为一种必然趋势。本文借助实验研究,探讨将云计算应用到实际教学中对研究生学习效率的影响。通过对比分析两组研究生在有无云计算平台的学习环境下的自主学习情况,可以发现：云计算平台的引入明显提高了研究生自主学习的积极性,拓展了学生的知识面;大多数使用云计算平台的同学对其报以积极的态度,认为它便捷实用,可提高学习效率。     

Unspoken social dynamics in an online discussion group: the disconnect between attitudes and overt behavior of English language teaching graduate students

Course instructors across a wide range of disciplines have implemented computer-based learning resources such as online discussion boards. While the benefits of implementing an online discussion board in teaching have been well-documented, investigation into the social aspects of online learning environments is still needed in order to develop a deeper understanding of how group dynamics affect the overall learning experience. Accordingly, this action research project was designed to explore the perceptions of graduate students concerning the use of an online discussion board, focusing on whether the character of the interactions evidenced in the content of the discussion was reflected in the participants’ views of their experiences. The messages posted to the discussion forum were examined via discourse analysis, while the perceptions of the participants were interrogated through self-administered interviews. The results revealed that while positive group dynamics appeared to be prevalent in the discussion, the perceptions of the individual class members did not always agree with this view. In light of the findings, the researcher outlines some possible solutions for creating an online environment that is conducive to learning for members of a discussion forum with disparate levels of experience, as well as some suggestions for further research.