College credits for previous learning experiences: Reaching nontraditional students

This paper describes how an undergraduate department in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee grants college credits for previous learning experiences to attract and retain nontraditional students from an urban environment. At first students earned these credits by writing a loose biography, but the process by which these credits are earned has become more structured. These Prior Professional Educational Experience credits (as they are named) are now granted on a course-specific basis, where students respond in writing to questions designed to test their knowledge of competency areas offered by the department. Earning these credits has helped older students get through the university and has given them a sense of accomplishment about learnings acquired in nonuniversity settings.     

高中生英语学习适应性与人格、学业自我效能感、学业成绩的关系

对河南省四所高中782名学生英语学习适应性的问卷调查结果表明:高中生英语学习适应性在具体维度上有显著的性别效应;人格特征中的外向性、宜人性、开放性与英语学习适应性呈显著正相关,学业自我效能中的语言学业自我效能与学习适应性呈显著正相关,数学学业自我效能与英语学习适应性的相关性极低且不显著;人格特征、学业自我效能感对英语学习适应性有显著的预测作用;高中生的学业成绩和学业自我效能感在人格特征与英语学习适应性之间起着中介作用。     

Toward deep learning for adult students in online courses

Adult students have become the new majority in online distance education. Research in online distance education, however, is still predominantly based on the historical perspective of the traditional student profile. This study examines adult students' learning engagement in online courses and explores the impact of online course design models and the type of online discussion on adult students' self-perceived and observable learning performance. The study findings inform that age itself does not predict adult students' learning satisfaction and performance. Instead, an integrated course model promotes learning satisfaction, while a Content + Support course model reinforces knowledge–constructive online interactions. The study findings also indicate disadvantages of close-ended discussion tasks in supporting students' online learning success.     

Relationships between learning approach,procrastination and academic achievement amongst first-year university students

Individual differences in student learning influence academic performance, and two aspects influencing the learning process are the particular learning approach the students use and procrastination behaviour. We examined the relationships between learning approaches, procrastination and academic achievement (measured 1 year later as the grade point average (GPA)) amongst 428 first-year university students. Deep and strategic learning approaches positively predicted GPA, and a mediation analysis showed that the strategic learning approach also partly mediated the effect between deep learning approach and GPA. Less procrastination was associated with a strategic learning approach, but procrastination tendencies did not predict GPA. Recommendations are made for educating new students in cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, helping reduce their procrastination and facilitating the use of deep and strategic learning approaches.     

A report of cognitive, academic, and linguistic profiles for college students with and without learning disabilities

A comparison of cognitive, academic, and linguistic profiles for 74 college students with learning disabilities and 37 college students without learning disabilities resulted in significant differences in achievement for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. No significant differences were found for gender or the presence of a Verbal-Performance split in cognitive ability. Instruments for measuring academic and linguistic skills were similar in their ability to classify students with and without learning disabilities. These findings support the importance of using measures of multidimensional attributes, including language, for making decisions concerning the criteria for learning disabilities.     

How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.     

用成功教育转化学习困难生

“失败是成功之母” ,这是千年古训。但从学生的心理特点这个角度来说 ,我认为“成功”才是成功之母。一次刻骨铭心的失败 ,往往会催毁一个人的自信 ,甚至因此毁了他的一生 ;而一次小小的成功却能够激活一个潜在的巨大的自信 ,使他走向新的成功。所谓成功教育 ,即通过改革教育观念和教育方法 ,不断帮助学生成功 ,提高学生的自信心和学习积极性 ,形成成功心理和积极学习的内部动力机制 ,成为学习的成功者。1　生物学教育中学生学习困难原因分析据有关资料的调查认为 ,学习困难生占学生总数的 6～ 10 %。生物学科同其它众多学科一样 ,也存在着…     

初中生学习自我监控、人格特征与学业成绩关系

在中学阶段,学习是学生的主要任务,而学业成绩高低是衡量其学习任务完成情况的重要标准。个体的学业成绩受到自我监控和人格特征的不同层面的影响,同时,人格特征的内外向可以通过自我监控对学业成绩起到调节作用。     

Connections between learning experience,study behaviour and academic performance: a longitudinal study

Background:?Whilst past studies have established the joint influence of student learning experience and study behaviour on academic achievement, few attempts have been made to determine their causal ordering in a longitudinal framework.

Purpose:?This study explored the reciprocal relationship between learning experience and study behaviour, and examined their relative impact on university students' academic performance.

Sample:?Participants were 396 undergraduate students from a university in Hong Kong (191 men, 205 women).

Design and methods:?Students' learning experience and study behaviour were evaluated using the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI). A two-wave cross-lagged structural model was constructed to examine the reciprocal effects between learning experience and study behaviour measured over a 12-month period.

Results and conclusions:?The findings showed that after controlling for previous academic achievement, student learning experience measured at Time 1 exerted significant influence on study behaviour measured at Time 2, and study behaviour measured at Time 1 also exerted significant impact on learning experience at Time 2. Both constructs were significantly predictive of current academic performance.

Conclusions:?Results from this study outlined linkages between learning experience and study behaviour in influencing academic achievement. As the current study is based on students from a single university, further studies with different student populations are recommended. The implications of fostering motivation and enhancing university learning experience are discussed.     

Transnational academic mobility,knowledge, and identity capital

This article begins with the contemporary context of transnational academic mobility, and sketches a typology of mobile academics according to their self-identification. UK examples are offered as the main case study here. The article will then explore the relations of mobile academics and their embodied and encultured knowledge. It employs a concept of ‘transnational identity capital’ to discuss the position of transnational mobile academic intellectuals as a ‘stranger’ as inspired by Simmel's sociology of space.     

Distance education: relationship between academic performance and technology-adept adult students

Advances in technology assisted education are revolutionizing the educational process as most know it today. What impact, if any, does technology-assisted education have on the future of higher education? In this study, we examine data from an ongoing evaluation of the distance education program for graduate level business students in a private university. The study addresses the impact of technology-assisted learning on academic performance among distance learners and their on-campus counterparts. The study further explores the relationship between academic performance and students' technological adeptability. The findings indicate, when adjusted for gender (females out-performed males), there were no significant differences in academic performance between distance learners and their on-campus counterparts. Analysis also shows no significant differences in overall academic performance between technology-adept students and those without technological skills. These findings may remove at least some perceived barriers in the decision to initiate distance education programs.     

The effects of cooperative learning on peer relations,academic support,and engagement in learning among students of color

Abstract

Despite Brown vs. Board of Education, prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e., discrimination), negatively impacting their mental and physical health and creating disparities in educational outcomes. Rather than seeking to ameliorate these negative experiences, our approach attempts to address the underlying prejudices and, in so doing, reduce these disparities. Using 4 waves of data from a cluster randomized trial (N?=?15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we hypothesized that cooperative learning, which has been shown to reduce prejudice in previous research, would create positive gains in peer relatedness, perceptions of academic support, and engagement in learning, and that gains would be larger for students of color; our results confirmed these hypotheses. Our findings highlight the potential role of cooperative learning in reducing disparities and creating greater equity in education.     

论成人学生心理素质及其培养提高

良好的心理素质是现代人的标志,开放教育学生中逐年低龄化趋势和独生子女群体等特点,在求学过程中不同程度地存在着学习、人际关系、人格、感情等方面的心理障碍,利用实体的校园文化活动和虚拟的网络文化等“隐形课程”对开放教育学生进行有针对性的心理健康教育活动,增强他们的心理承受能力,具有十分重要意义。     

学生教学信息员制度的意义与实践

学生教学信息员制度是高等学校教学质量评估与保障体系的重要补充,是大学生参与学校教学管理的具体体现。实行学生教学信息员制度在稳定学校教育质量,反映课程教学动态、促进讲课水平的提高等方面发挥着重要作用。本文从学生教学信息员制度的建立着手,并结合我院的实际来阐述建立学生教学信息员制度的目的和意义,同时也在实践中探讨如何巩固这一制度的方法和措施。     

Vulnerability,gender and resistance in transnational academic mobility

Focusing on Tanzanian and Mozambican PhD students funded by Swedish development aid, this article investigates how everyday academic work life is gendered in Sweden and in the students’ home academic departments. In particular, it focuses on the role of ‘important others’, such as international donors, universities, colleagues and family, in enhancing or alleviating vulnerability and how this shifts across spatial contexts. Integral to this is exploring how obstacles are managed and negotiated by PhD students, and how they articulate capability and therefore resist a position as a victim. The results indicate the glonacality of vulnerability as something that stretches over institutional and national boundaries, and how vulnerability can be (re)produced at local university level despite the good intentions of donors and universities operating ata global level. In addition,a translocational and intersectional perspective highlights how situations of vulnerability are gendered and radicalised differently in different academic contexts.

     

Testing the three-way interaction effect of academic stress,academic self-efficacy,and task value on persistence in learning among Korean college students

Persistence is an important indicator of academic success in higher education. Academic stress, which influences individuals’ learning motivation and behaviors, is inevitable in college life; however, individuals handle it differently based on their expectancy and value beliefs. In this study, academic stress, academic self-efficacy, and task value were chosen as predictors of persistence in learning, and the joint relationship between them was examined. The sample comprised 483 Korean college students. A multiple regression analysis was performed. The results revealed significant main and interaction effects, including a three-way interaction effect of academic stress, academic self-efficacy, and task value on persistence in learning. Particularly, students with strong motivation were less affected by a stressful and demanding environment. Furthermore, academic stress did not appear to be an exclusively negative factor and could be a catalyst to boost persistence in some conditions. Implications of the findings for promoting persistence in learning are discussed.