Choosing a major in higher education: Profiles of students’ decision-making process

This study identified decision-making profiles of students who make a choice of a major in higher education. These profiles were examined in a sample of Belgian students at the end of Grade 12, when the educational system expects that these adolescents choose a specific major. Using latent class cluster analysis on adolescents’ scores for coping with career decisional tasks (i.e., orientation, exploration, decisional status, and commitment), four clusters were identified. As expected, these profiles paralleled Marcia’s (1966) identity statuses (i.e., the achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion status). Results provided support for the external validity of the identified clusters through differential associations with several person variables (i.e., career decision-making self-efficacy, career choice anxiety, and decision-making style) and with academic functioning in higher education (i.e., commitment, academic and social adjustment). Implications for current educational research and research on career decision-making are discussed.     

Recruitment Campaigns as a Tool for Social and Cultural Reproduction of Scientific Communities: A case study on how scientists invite young people to science

Young people's interest in pursuing science and science-intense educations has been expressed as a concern in relation to societal, economic and democratic development by various stakeholders (governments, industry and university). From the perspective of the scientific communities, the issues at stake do not necessarily correspond to the overall societal aims. Rather, initiatives to recruit young people to science are also ways for the scientific community to engage in the social and cultural reproduction of itself. For a community to survive and produce a future, it needs to secure regeneration of itself in succeeding generations. The aim of this study is to, from a perspective of social and cultural production/reproduction, shed light on an initiative from the scientific community to recruit young people to science education. This is a case study of one recruitment campaign called the Chemistry Advent calendar. The calendar consists of 25 webcasted films, produced and published by the science/technology faculty at a university. The analysed data consist of the films and additional published material relating to the campaign such as working reports and articles published about the campaign. The analysis focussed on what messages are communicated to potential newcomers. The messages were categorised by means of a framework of subjective values. The results are discussed both from a perspective of how the messages mirror traditions and habits of the scientific community, and in relation to research on students' educational choices.     

Institutional change in a transitional economy: the reform of economics higher education in Mongolia

This paper discusses the problems of implementing a European Union Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (of the former Soviet Union) (EU/TACIS) project to reform Mongolian Economics Higher Education with the ultimate objective of improving the process of economic policy making. It emphasises the importance of historical, economic and administrative context for the design and implementation of project activities. Project activities are reviewed and the problems of implementation discussed in terms of the aid relationship and the particular circumstances of transition economies. The paper concludes that, while the project's immediate objectives in terms of curriculum reform have been achieved, the sustainable change necessary to deliver the central, long-term objective remains elusive.     

Science teacher education for sustainable development: a case study of a residential field course in a Norwegian pre-service teacher education programme

In this paper, we explore how a Norwegian teacher education institution promotes education for sustainable development (ESD) through a residential field course. The residential field course was located in a mountain area and data were collected through participant observation. The data included—together with instructional artefacts—evaluation schemes and assignments written by the student teachers, and the analysis was based on categories for science ESD. Through exemplary teaching experiences in an outdoor environment and pupil-active teaching methods, such as inquiry learning and phenomenon-based teaching, the student teachers gained experience in outdoor education and of stepping into the unknown in a safe learning environment. This was further connected to ESD pedagogy.     

Access and retention in French higher education: student drop-out as a form of regulation

Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory and using Durkheim’s concepts of ‘social fact’ and ‘regulation’, this article examines the place held by public universities within the French higher education (HE) system, breaking with the purely bureaucratic vision prevailing in France today. By setting aside some of the main received ideas about the effects and meanings of student selection and drop-out, the article suggests that public universities play an essential role in regulating the successive flows of first-generation students through French HE. It is precisely because public universities are non-selective that they are able to play this role. Finally, the distribution of HE choices and students’ dropping out are both considered as products of a structural and institutional process of regulation.     

Impact of a pre-college outreach programme on the academic achievements of higher education students: a case study of Chile

ABSTRACT

This research evaluated the impact on students’ academic achievements of a pre-college outreach programme implemented by a Chilean higher education institution. This programme benefits students in their last year of secondary education so they can better adapt to post-secondary education. Specifically, we assessed whether freshmen enrolled in 2017 in the institution that implemented this initiative and who attended this programme during 2016 as secondary school students performed better than students at this same institution but who did not take part in this scheme. A quasi-experimental design was applied using the method propensity score matching. The results showed that students who participated in this outreach programme had better average grades and attendance levels than those who did not take part in this initiative. In addition, it was found that this programme does not have a significant impact on student retention rates.     

Learning to teach STEM disciplines in higher education: a critical review of the literature

ABSTRACT

Enrolments in STEM disciplines at universities are increasing globally, attributed to the greater life opportunities open to students as a result of a STEM education. But while institutional access to STEM programmes is widening, the retention and success of STEM undergraduate students remains a challenge. Pedagogies that support student success are well known; what we know less about is how university teachers acquire pedagogical competence. This is the focus of this critical review of the literature that offers a theorised critique of educational development in STEM contexts. We studied the research literature with a view to uncovering the principles that inform professional development in STEM disciplines and fields. The key finding of this critical review is how little focus there is on the STEM disciplines. The majority of studies reviewed did not address the key issue of what makes the STEM disciplines difficult to learn and challenging to teach.     

Developing a collaborative pilot programme to promote innovation in higher education focusing on the reward and recognition of teaching

This paper provides a commentary on a significant collaborative international project to set up an effective system for promoting innovation in the Australian higher education sector. This project was the pilot Transforming Practice Programme (TPP), which was run in Australia in 2014. A sophisticated knowledge translation methodology, the TPP was influenced by the UK’s Higher Education Academy’s (HEA’s) thematic change programmes and focused on enhancing the reward and recognition of quality teaching in Australian higher education. The paper explains the intentions of the TPP and how it was run in conjunction with the HEA in both Australia and the UK. Thirteen Australian universities took part in the pilot, and nine UK universities took part in the UK version of the programme. Having detailed the content and process of the pilot TPP, this article also presents details of feedback received via surveys and interviews with participants, and closes with some evidence-informed conclusions on what worked in the pilot and why. Alongside these conclusions, recommendations are outlined regarding what people in other higher education sectors might learn from the pilot TPP.     

Fair access to higher education and discourses of development: a policy analysis from Indonesia

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between fair access policies and discourses of development through a policy analysis of higher education reform in post-authoritarian Indonesia (1998–present). The method was document analysis of five laws/regulations, using the criteria of accessibility, availability, and horizontality to identify the extent of fair access for students from (1) lower socioeconomic backgrounds and (2) under-developed regions of the archipelago. The analysis demonstrates how neoliberal, human capital, inclusive development and Pancasila discourses have been called upon in the making and un-making of a higher education market, with ultimately favourable outcomes for the fair access agenda.     

Fostering self-efficacy and self-regulation in higher education: a matter of autonomy support or academic motivation?

ABSTRACT

By implementing student-centred learning environments, higher education institutions aim to foster student self-efficacy and self-regulation. Previous research that focuses on how students perceive these learning environments usually does not take the differential impact of students’ study motivation into account. However, the type of motivation might influence how students perceive their learning environment. To this end, this study investigates the relationship between students’ perceived autonomy support in student-centred learning environments and self-regulation and self-efficacy by taking study motivation into account. The results indicate that autonomy-supportive teacher behaviour enhances self-efficacy for students who are autonomously motivated. Amotivated students might need other than autonomy-supportive teacher behaviour to develop self-efficacy. Self-regulation seems to play a less distinct role. Overall, when examining the effects of autonomy-supportive teaching in higher education, the quality and quantity of students’ motivation has a role to play, an aspect which is important to consider in future research and practice.     

Science, science education and their discontents: a response to commentaries on the paper, Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A case study from India

In this response to commentaries by Ali Sammel, Jhumki Basu and Alberto Rodriguez, I present my perspective on three important issues raised by the commentators. These issues relate to the role of a researcher in her field settings and society, the critique of science and science education as oppressive dominant discourses, and co-opting participants as researchers. I argue that researchers should work actively for progressive change in discursive fields such as educational research, in which they are firmly embedded rather than playing an interventionist role in field settings where their discursive positionality maybe temporary and not that rooted. Regarding the critique of science and science education, my response favors a perspective wherein an understanding of the marginalization and oppression of non-western communities caused by western science and science education is counterbalanced by an appreciation of the ways in which marginalized communities can use science and science education for affecting progressive change. Lastly, I recognize the value of co-opting participants in writing and communication of research.

On Cambodian higher education and skills mismatch: young people choosing university majors in a context of risk and uncertainty

Cambodia has in the past 15 years been catching up with the global and regional trends of rapid expansion of higher education, but its specific socio-historical context has engendered particular life course and societal implications. Engaging with the current policy attention to the cause of skills mismatch in Cambodia, this article aims to provide a sociological perspective for understanding young people’s decision-making about university majors. Framing the entrance into university study as a context of risks and uncertainties for the life course, the article draws on in-depth, biographical interviews with 31 university students in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and analyses their decision-making about university majors by focusing on the person–situation interactions the students negotiate. Their approaches to university major selection involve individual agency and practical resources and constraints. They involve personal and interpersonal trust, intuition and emotion, which have implications for how skills mismatch in Cambodian higher education should be tackled.     

Threshold concepts in higher education: a synthesis of the literature relating to measurement of threshold crossing

In relation to teaching and learning approaches that improve student learning outcomes, threshold concepts have generated substantial interest in higher education. They have been described as ‘portals’ that lead to a transformed way of understanding or thinking, enabling learners to progress, and have been enthusiastically adopted to inform teaching approaches and curriculum design. A growing body of literature has critiqued the relevance and applicability of the threshold concept theory and identified threshold concepts relevant to specific disciplines. More recent research has identified how students cross these thresholds and provided measures of the successful acquisition of threshold concepts. This literature synthesis critiques existing evidence on threshold crossing and acquisition to provide a succinct and informative overview of the outcomes to date. Key questions relevant to educators and researchers investigating whether students acquire the threshold concepts associated with their teaching, arose from the literature synthesis. These were: whether or not threshold crossing can be measured; how variation in student learning can be addressed during measurement; tools that can be used for measuring threshold crossing; whether the way units or concepts are taught should alter prior to measurement, and the challenges and limitations of measuring threshold crossing.     

Thematic review of approaches to design group learning activities in higher education: The development of a comprehensive framework

Group Learning Activities (GLAs) are a key ingredient of course designs in higher education. Various approaches for designing GLAs have been developed, featuring different design components. However, this has not yet resulted in clear guidelines for teachers on how to design GLAs. The purpose of this thematic review is to synthesize insights from various approaches for designing GLAs into one comprehensive framework. This comprehensive framework, the Group Learning Activities Instructional Design (GLAID) framework, includes eight components: (1) interaction, (2) learning objectives and outcomes, (3) assessment, (4) task characteristics, (5) structuring, (6) guidance, (7) group constellation, and (8) facilities. Each component, associated design decisions, and the corresponding design process are described. The GLAID framework aims to guide teachers in higher education in designing, implementing, and evaluating GLAs in their courses.     

Assessing the impact of a program designed to develop sustainability leadership amongst staff members in higher education institutes: a case study from a community of practice perspective

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program’s contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who had attended the program. At the individual level, we found that the SLDP provided participants with opportunities to learn from and with other members of the CoP and to engage them in debate about the various meanings of ‘sustainability’, increasing their environmental awareness and their environmental involvement within the IHE’s community. At the institutional level, the SLDP disseminated the college’s socio-environmental mission statement, increased its administration’s commitment and involvement, served as a platform for addressing local socio-environmental problems and initiated an Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) activists’ network. However, the participants indicated that the SLDP had limited impact on the environmentalism of other staff members and that the on-going mentoring and support from the college administration was insufficient. This study highlights the importance of such EfS professional programs to the development of both staff members and entire institutions as sustainability leaders. It also suggests ways to increase staff involvement in institutional EfS discourse.     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

The role of the Connexions service in supporting the transition from school to post-16 education, employment training and work for young people with a history of specific speech and language difficulties or learning difficulties

The transition from school to the world of post-compulsory education is a major landmark in the lives of young people with special educational needs (SEN). In England the Connexions service set up to support young people during transition was planned to provide both a universal service and one that provided special support to vulnerable young people, particularly those at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET). The present paper reports the findings of a study of 46 Connexions personal advisers (PAs) who were supporting young people with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) or general learning difficulties, as part of a longitudinal study of these young people's development. Interviews were held with the PAs to identify patterns of organisation, the nature of services delivered to these young people and the factors that influenced successful support. The findings highlight the diversity among Connexions services, the limited expertise with young people with SEN and the structural barriers that may limit effectiveness. In addition, the Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Review Framework was not consistently used. The Connexions service has the potential to provide important support to young people with SEN at this key transition point but our study indicates the need for modifications to its operation.