Tensions and dilemmas of cross-cultural transfer of knowledge: post-structural/postcolonial reflections on an innovative teacher education in Pakistan

Globalization in higher education and the replacement of state funding of universities with “revenue substitution” strategies in western countries have resulted in an increasing number of universities in these countries participating in what has come to be known as transnational knowledge transfer without being better informed about the cultural contexts in which this knowledge is applied, resulting in many program failures and resistance in the recipient countries. One reason for this neglect is the difficulty involved in identifying which aspects of culture to select for study before implementing educational innovations in a recipient country. The study reported in this paper was undertaken as a curriculum inquiry to identify those aspects of culture, which affect, influence or mediate curriculum, pedagogy and teacher learning in South Asia, where an increasing number of western expatriates are engaged in international curriculum work. Three aspects of culture—namely, concepts of self, discursive practices and indigenous approaches to learning—which emerged as having significant influence on curriculum and teacher learning, and may help expatriate educators to provide educational experiences that are grounded in the cultural realities of South Asia are discussed. The paper draws briefly on post-structural, postcolonial theories, and enunciations of critical pedagogy to reflect on culture, education and resistance in international academic relations.     

高校“道路工程”教学浅析与改进

针对现有普通高校工科教学,尤其是土木工程类教学中理论知识烦琐、枯燥、专业基础课向专业课过渡期间学生实际体验性不强等问题进行了简要分析并提出三点改进措施:课前课后观看工程类电视纪录片;结合“项目学习”教学方法,在课堂内以企业优秀工程汇报片为线进行串讲;积极推进校企合作,鼓励学生在专业课学习之前进行专业见习并重视实习的考核与评价。     

IS THE ACADEMY READY FOR ADULT STUDENTS?

The intention of this article is to assesss developments which have occurred in the universities of western Europe and North America in the twenty‐year period since UNESCO began work on a long‐term programme to promote the concept of universities as centres of lifelong learning. After describing ways in which universities and other higher education institutions have pursued the goal in question, citing cases drawn from Europe and North America, the author presents a number of conclusions with regard to how well traditional universities have wholly or partially adopted this new role. He concludes that much remains to be done before universities have fully accepted their roles as centres of lifelong learning but that they will be greatly stimulated and aided by the increased availability and use of the new information technologies.     

大学新生外语学习能力的培养

高校扩招致使大学新生入学外语水平普遍有所降低，因此教师必须转变学生的学习观念，提高学生的学习技能，并根据学生不同水平层次的“语言学能”，因材施教，运用多样化的教学方法，整体提高学生的外语学习水平。     

Across the divide: teaching a transnational MBA in a second language

China is a growing market for the provision of transnational programs. However, there are many challenges associated with providing good—quality learning opportunities while ensuring cost‐effectiveness, particularly in bilingual programs. This paper describes the experience of business academics teaching a postgraduate MBA program in Mandarin to students located in China. The academics found that their attempts to provide an effective teaching/learning environment while teaching through translators led to many additional challenges, including increased rigidity of teaching processes and difficulties in monitoring learning outcomes. The paper identifies some ways in which staff teaching transnationally might be supported, while also suggesting that teaching across a language divide needs to be carefully considered before universities venture into this complex educational setting.     

Online or face-to-face? Students' experiences and preferences in e-learning

Which aspects of e-learning courses do students experience as being favorable for learning? When do students prefer online or face-to-face learning components? These questions were the subject of a research study in a sample of 2196 students from 29 Austrian universities. The students completed a questionnaire on their experiences attending an e-learning course, on their perceived achievements, and on their preferences for online or face-to-face learning components. Students appreciated online learning for its potential in providing a clear and coherent structure of the learning material, in supporting self-regulated learning, and in distributing information. They preferred face-to-face learning for communication purposes in which a shared understanding has to be derived or in which interpersonal relations are to be established. An especially important result concerns students' perceptions of their learning achievements: When conceptual knowledge in the subject matter or skills in the application of one's knowledge are to be acquired, students prefer face-to-face learning. However, when skills in self-regulated learning are to be acquired, students advocate online learning.     

WebIntera-classroom: an interaction-aware virtual learning environment for augmenting learning interactions

Interaction is critical for successful teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment (VLE). This paper presents a web-based interaction-aware VLE – WebIntera-classroom – which aims to augment learning interactions by increasing the learner-to-content and learner-to-instructor interactions. We design a ubiquitous interactive interface that integrates a pen-and-paper interface with a web-based whiteboard to promote effective learner-to-content interactions. We develop a learning analytics tool that instantly shows learners’ learning interactions, with which instructors can supervise learner-to-instructor interactions. We implement a high-granularity Learning Analytics Engine (hgLAE) to broadcast, record and play a lecture recording. The hgLAE identifies hotspots in a lecture recording and raises students’ awareness of the hotspots when they watch the recording. WebIntera-classroom has been deployed in 11 universities in China. The system obtained high satisfaction in the questionnaires (N?=?464) and face-to-face interviews (N?=?60) conducted with the users from China Jiliang University. We compared the students’ performance, respectively, achieved in traditional classroom and in WebIntera-classroom at China Jiliang University during 2012–2013. The result demonstrates that the students could gain performance improvement by using WebIntera-classroom.     

Understanding the real barriers to technology-enhanced innovation in higher education

Background: Academic staff have a key role to play in the innovation efforts of universities aiming to exploit the potential of web-based learning technologies. Although learning technologies are an important building block of educational innovation, the eLearning adoption rate of European academic staff appears disappointing. The majority of curricula in European universities are stalled in the traditional pedagogical model of knowledge transmission, which continues to dominate teaching and learning.

Purpose: This conceptual paper explores underlying structural and cultural barriers to technology-enhanced innovation in higher education.

Sources of evidence: Starting from the underdeveloped state of eLearning in European universities, the paper challenges arguments that visible barriers such as technical issues, budget constraints or lack of interest in technology amongst academic staff represent the actual reasons for the slow advancement of learning technologies in university curricula.

Main argument: The paper argues that the lack of faculty interest and engagement for eLearning are visible symptoms for deeply rooted causes, which hinder current innovation efforts of universities. It explores theoretical viewpoints for structural peculiarities of universities, motivational and habitual traits of academic staff, and long-standing cultural values in the academic community in an attempt to understand their impact on technology-enhanced innovation in higher education.

Conclusions: The real dilemma for eLearning innovation is caused by macro-level influence factors that even committed universities can hardly overcome at institutional level. University leaders have to take the underlying innovation barriers into account when they try to engage academic staff for the use of learning technologies. With a realistic view on existing limitations, institutional eLearning adoption efforts have to be tailored to serve real learning needs and motivations of academic staff; and they have to consider specific goals and contexts within different universities.     

Science learning in virtual environments: a descriptive study

Usually, students learn more if the method of instruction matches their learning style. Since Physics and Chemistry deal with three–dimensional (3–D) objects, the ability to visualize and mentally manipulate shapes is very helpful in their learning. In fact, much of what Physics and Chemistry students know takes the form of images. However, little attention has been given to the pedagogical effectiveness of visual stimuli in those disciplines. Computers are being increasingly used as teaching tools. The new approaches include simulations, multimedia presentations and, more recently, virtual environments. Computer–based worlds are useful to visualize physical and chemical processes allowing for better conceptual understanding. Since 3–D virtual environments need to be explored and evaluated in science education, we have created a virtual environment ( Virtual Water ) for studying phases of matter, phase transitions and atomic orbitals at the final year of high school and first year of university levels. Based on that work, we discuss the implications of visual learning in designing strategies to cater for differences in learning modes. Our study indicates that 3–D virtual environments may help students with high spatial aptitude to acquire better conceptual understandings. However, only some parameters (interactivity, navigation and 3–D perception) have shown to be relevant and only for some topics. On the other hand, stereoscopic visualizations do not seem to be relevant, with the exception of crystalline structures.     

Learning in academia is more than academic learning: action research in academic practice for and with medical academics

Academic learning traditionally involves research, and the production of journal papers, books, etc. ‘Learning in academia’ refers to academics becoming more skilful in what they do. It is what legal or medical clinicians would refer to as continuing professional education (or development) (CPE/D) which, by analogy, invokes the notion of CPE in academic practice. Action research and reflective practice through action learning processes in a graduate programme in higher education are used to promote such learning. Participants are mid‐career medics.

Five themes stand out: mapping the terrain to be addressed; creating the required ‘space for learning’; keeping projects confined in scope; assessment and the shift in emphasis from ‘content’ to ‘process’; and, achieving a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Many attributes of threshold concepts are evident, but conceiving of learning as progress along a continuum rather than crossing a singular threshold is favoured. Issues to do with promulgating CPE/D in academia, identity construction, rethinking learning, and universities are briefly addressed.     

The design of evaluation for learning

The last decade has seen a major increase in the use of course evaluation in universities. Some writers, such as Goldschmid, have suggested that the encouragement of staff to evaluate their courses should be a major objective of Higher Education Units if they are to have an impact on the improvement of teaching in the universities; Unfortunately, the failure of course evaluation to affect the quality of educational courses and the continuing resistance to its use is now well documented in the literature. This paper discusses some of the possible reasons for this continuing resistance to the use of evaluation and suggests an approach that attempts to reduce the effects of these constraints. It describes a procedure which views evaluation as a learning situation in which staff and students learn how to handle and improve the contingencies of a course. The intentional evaluation paradigm stresses the need for a formative programme - one which recognises the importance of the interactions between teacher, student and course content. Of particular importance is the learning function of such evaluation studies in improving the professional competency of teachers.     

The state of play of Associate Deans,learning and teaching,in Australian universities, 30 years on

ABSTRACT

Learning and teaching leadership by Associate Deans has struggled for effective acceptance in universities for decades. Various Government reviews, policy changes, and reward and recognition systems have been implemented to encourage universities to focus on learning and teaching leadership, and to assure quality outcomes in a changing global landscape. The role of the Associate Dean was created to lead learning and teaching strategically in local university contexts. Despite many recommendations to support the role, it has been reported for almost three decades that Associate Deans struggle to bring about change in the enhancement of learning and teaching. So, have things changed for the Associate Deans, are they more equipped to lead learning and teaching in university contexts now? In this article, through interviews with 25 Associate Deans, and through a Bourdieusian lens, we explore the Capital they possess in their leadership roles. Such Capital is considered against 35 Hallmarks identified in the literature as key to fully equipping Associate Deans as learning and teaching leaders. Both individual Capital and Capital deriving from how the Field is enabling or inhibiting Associate Deans are explored. It is revealed that many Associate Deans may not have the Capital necessary to fully equip them for their leadership of learning and teaching role, and that the traditional university culture, or Field in which they operate, either purposefully or unconsciously may be contributing to inhibiting their leadership. This article provides a timely opportunity to pause and contemplate the Capital that is required for Associate Deans in their role. It highlights for university administrators and leaders what is required for Associate Deans to be fully equipped to fulfil the role and to lead the learning and teaching change that is necessary for universities to thrive.     

University reputation and undergraduates’ self-perceived employability: mediating influence of experiential learning activities

ABSTRACT

Stratification, in the form of silent exclusion that is experienced by some groups of students because of the perceived low reputation of the university attended, and which the students have no control over, has been observed as a social menace that works against the concept of equity in education. To address this problem, a need exists for universities with lower reputations to go the extra mile to develop the employability skills of their students, which, in turn, will enhance their self-perception of employability. The major objective of this study was to investigate the influence of experiential learning activities on the relationship between university reputation and self-perceived employability among undergraduates in South African universities. Data were collected by means of an adapted questionnaire from 402 respondents drawn from two universities in the same province in South Africa. To achieve our objective, four hypotheses were formulated and tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 25. The findings show that both direct and indirect effects of university reputation on undergraduates’ perceived employability through experiential learning activities are positively significant. To minimise the negative effects that universities with low reputations are likely to have on undergraduates’ acquisition of experiential learning, on their self-perceived employability, and subsequently on their employment prospects, the government, the Department of Higher Education and universities (particularly, the low-rated ones in South Africa) need to put in place some timely interventions, some of which are suggested in the study.     

Universities: in,of, and beyond their cities

ABSTRACT

Universities are necessarily implicated in processes of globalisation and neoliberalisation. But this also finds an expression in the ways that they operate in the cities in which they are located. They are always located in place, but the question remains whether they can be understood to be of the places in which they find themselves, capable of contributing to their development as learning cities. That is the question explored in this paper, with the help of evidence drawn from a research project in the United Kingdom which examined the regional role of four contrasting universities in four different urban locations. The paper highlights the importance of understanding the complexity of the relationships between universities and their cities—universities negotiate their roles within particular urban settings, and they do so in instrumental ways, reflecting their own distinctive institutional priorities.     

The Role of Student-Advisor Interactions in Apprenticing Undergraduate Researchers into a Scientific Community of Practice

Among science educators, current interest in undergraduate research (UR) is influenced both by the traditional role of the research apprenticeship in scientists’ preparation and by concerns about replacing the current scientific workforce. Recent research has begun to demonstrate the range of personal, professional, and intellectual benefits for STEM students from participating in UR, yet the processes by which student-advisor interactions contribute to these benefits are little understood. We employ situated learning theory (Lave and Wenger, Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge in 1991) to examine the role of student-advisor interactions in apprenticing undergraduate researchers, particularly in terms of acculturating students to the norms, values, and professional practice of science. This qualitative study examines interviews with a diverse sample of 73 undergraduate research students from two research-extensive institutions. From these interviews, we articulate a continuum of practices that research mentors employed in three domains to support undergraduate scientists-in-training: professional socialization, intellectual support, and personal/emotional support. The needs of novice students differed from those of experienced students in each of these areas. Novice students needed clear expectations, guidelines, and orientation to their specific research project, while experienced students needed broader socialization in adopting the traits, habits, and temperament of scientific researchers. Underrepresented minority students, and to a lesser extent, women, gained confidence from their interactions with their research mentors and broadened their future career and educational possibilities. Undergraduate research at research-extensive universities exemplifies a cycle of scientific learning and practice where undergraduate researchers are mentored by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, who are themselves apprentices to faculty members. As such, research mentors of undergraduate students should be aware of the dual scientific and educational aspects of their advising role and its significance in shaping students’ identities and career trajectories.     

To what extent is capital expenditure in UK higher education meeting the pedagogical needs of staff and students?

Capital expenditure at United Kingdom (UK) universities is rapidly rising, with new buildings erected on the premise that national and international competitiveness must be maintained. We examine students’ engagement with and conceptualisation of university estate, and explore broader questions about the extent to which building design can support, and indeed change, students’ approaches to learning. Drawing on data collected from 10 staff members and over 200 students at a major UK institution, including detailed one-to-one interviews, we capture users’ often complex interactions with their university environment. Our findings confirm that when asked what would most improve their learning experience, students do not rank building design highly; interactional factors, such as contact time with staff, are considered more valuable. Our conclusion is that returns on capital investment would be boosted if pedagogical needs were prioritised more highly in the design of university buildings, and pedagogical opportunities communicated more clearly to users upon completion.     

Rural Undergraduates at Elite Universities: Learning Experience and Identity

Abstract

The decline in the proportion of rural students at major universities has caused widespread social concern. Special enrollment programs in recent years have increased the proportion somewhat. However, the situation at elite universities in China’s transition period is different than before. There are few studies addressing the learning experiences of rural students in the new period. This study uses qualitative methods to research 32 case studies of rural undergraduates at four elite universities in Shanghai. Based on Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, field, and habitus, this study finds a mismatch between the habitus of respondents and that of elite universities, which leads to an awkward initial school experience. In accordance with the operating logic of the academic field, they are able to achieve an increase in cultural capital by virtue of their own efforts. This complex class experience also has a far-reaching impact on identity through the individual’s response to their own emotions. This conflicted identity is expressed as feeling like either a “country bumpkin” in the big city or a “city person” from the country.     

实用主义视阈中的中国高校信息化学习环境

大学提供给学生的是什么？简而言之,就是学习环境。杜威的实用主义教育思想注重效用原则,强调实用主义方法是引导人们积极地改造环境。从实用主义角度认识高校信息化教学环境建设,就是为了适应社会变革对创新型人才的需求。信息化教学环境是以ICT技术为支撑的教与学活动开展过程中赖以持续的情况和条件。目前高校信息化学习环境建设存在硬件建设整体设计融合度较低、软件设计考虑师生需求不够、教学评价机制单一、教学服务缺乏个性化支持和一站式服务、总体投入依旧不足等问题。高校信息化学习环境建设需要通过加强顶层设计和部门协同,倡导使用者设计及相关者参与,提供有效学习服务等方式来改变建设模式,从而促进创造性学习的发生。信息化学习环境建设正在成为高校破解的命题,“云大学”的概念已经出现在可能的解决方案中。     

The effectiveness of peer tutoring in further and higher education: A typology and review of the literature

Quality, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of methods of teaching and learning in colleges and universities are being scrutinised more closely. The increasing use of peer tutoring in this context necessitates a clear definition and typology, which are outlined. The theoretical advantages of peer tutoring are discussed and the research on peer tutoring in schools briefly considered. The substantial existing research on the effectiveness of the many different types and formats of peer tutoring within colleges and universities is then reviewed. Much is already known about the effectiveness of some types of peer tutoring and this merits wider dissemination to practitioners. Directions for future research are indicated.