Instructors' and Students' Perspectives of Student Nagging: Frequency,Appropriateness, and Effectiveness

Nagging is a persistent tactic students use to persuade instructors. The purpose of this study was to compare student (n = 280) and instructor (n = 97) perceptions of student nagging in the classroom, and to examine the relationship between student nagging and instructor satisfaction. Results show that instructors perceive students as using four nagging strategies with significantly greater frequency than students do. In addition, students perceive all seven nagging strategies to be significantly more effective and appropriate than instructors. Finally, there is a significant relationship between particular nagging strategies and instructor satisfaction.     

The Relationships Between Cognitive Flexibility with Dogmatism,Intellectual Flexibility,Preference for Consistency,and Self-Compassion

This report is a validity study involving the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (Martin & Rubin, 1995 Martin , M. M. , & Rubin , R. B. ( 1995 ). A new measure of cognitive flexibility . Psychological Reports , 76 , 623 – 626 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Participants completed an online questionnaire. As predicted, cognitive flexibility was positively related to measures of intellectual flexibility and self-compassion, and negatively related to a measure of dogmatism. The prediction that cognitive flexibility would be negatively related to preference for consistency was not supported.     

The relationship between perceived understanding and self‐disclosure in the sibling relationship

This study investigated the relationship between self‐disclosure and perceived understanding in the sibling relationship. Participants (N = 227.) completed a questionnaire based on their communication with their siblings. Participants reported on their self‐disclosure(intentionality, amount, positiveness, depth, and honesty) and their feelings of being understood by their siblings. The results showed that self‐disclosure was positively related to perceived understanding. This was especially true for the relationship between honesty of self‐disclosure and perceived understanding. Analyses involving sex of the individuals in the sibling dyad showed several differences. For men, besides honesty, the only other significant results were intentionality of self‐disclosure for brothers communicating with their sisters and positiveness of self‐disclosure for brothers communicating with their brothers. In contrast, intentionality, amount, positiveness, and honesty of self‐disclosure were all significantly related for women communicating with their brothers and their sisters.     

Players' perceptions of their coaches' immediacy,assertiveness, and responsiveness

This study involved players’ perceptions of their coaches’ nonverbal immediacy, assertiveness, and responsiveness. Previously in the classroom setting, Thomas, Richmond, and McCroskey (1994) found that in the classroom setting nonverbal immediacy was positively, moderately correlated to both assertiveness and responsiveness. College students (N = 192) were asked to fill out a questionnaire based on a coach that they had in high school. Players who perceived their coaches as being nonverbally immediate, also perceived their coaches as being responsive, and to a lesser extent, assertive. Future research directions include considering the relationships between a coach's nonverbal immediacy with player motivation and satisfaction.     

Attribution Theory in the College Classroom: Examining the Relationship of Student Attributions and Instructional Dissent

This study sought to expand knowledge on instructional dissent by establishing the relationship between student attributions of instructor behavior (attribution theory) and their own communicative behavior following a difference of opinion with an instructor. Student participants (N = 244) completed survey questionnaires regarding their perceptions of instructor's internality for a perceived disagreement and their own communicative behavior following the incident (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, or vengeful dissent). Results indicate that students’ attributions of internality are positively related to all three forms of dissent.     

Building professionalism and employability skills: embedding employer engagement within first-year computing modules

This paper outlines a means of improving the employability skills of first-year university students through a closely integrated model of employer engagement within computer science modules. The outlined approach illustrates how employability skills, including communication, teamwork and time management skills, can be contextualised in a manner that directly relates to student learning but can still be linked forward into employment. The paper tests the premise that developing employability skills early within the curriculum will result in improved student engagement and learning within later modules. The paper concludes that embedding employer participation within first-year models can help relate a distant notion of employability into something of more immediate relevance in terms of how students can best approach learning. Further, by enhancing employability skills early within the curriculum, it becomes possible to improve academic attainment within later modules.     

Identification of Learning Processes by Means of Computer Graphics

Using the example of an undergraduate unit of study that is taught both on-campus and externally, but uses Internet-based learning in both cases, we explore how social media might be used effectively in higher education. We place into question the assumption that such technologies necessarily engage students in constructivist learning; we argue that the affordances of social media must be complemented by social affordances, designed into the learning experience, which thereby generate the necessary connection between students’ motivations to study and their motivations to exploit social media. We demonstrate, via the example given, how assessment structures and strategies are the most effective focus when attempting to create the pedagogical affordances that might lead to collaborative learning.     

Assessing pupils at the age of 16 in England – approaches for effective examinations

In England, pupils aged 16 take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations for a range of subjects. The current assessment models for GCSE include a two-tier structure for some subjects and a non-tier model for the others. The tiered subjects have a higher tier designed for high achieving pupils and a lower tier for low achieving pupils. The higher tier paper is targeted at grades A*–D (with A* the highest grade available), while the lower tier paper at grades C–G (with G the lowest grade). The UK government has proposed a comprehensive reform of GCSEs. It suggested that, with tiered papers, pupils are forced to choose between higher and lower tier papers, which will place a cap on the ambition of those entering for the lower tier. The government therefore suggests avoiding tiering in the reformed GCSEs when possible. This paper discusses the technical and equity issues with the use of tiered examinations in current GCSEs and reviews potential alternative assessment approaches for effective differentiation between pupils for the reformed GCSEs.     

Threshold concepts and the troublesome transition from GCSE to A-level: exploring students’ experiences in secondary school biology

Abstract

This paper draws on doctoral research exploring the lived experiences of secondary school students during their first year of A-level study, through the theoretical lens of the Threshold Concept Framework. A longitudinal design frame based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is employed, thus providing an original use of this methodology in education research to address the paucity of inquiry exploring the difficulties experienced by students as they transition from the General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) to A-level. In this context, I argue that students’ encounters with threshold concepts (TCs) are significant for them, posing a degree of cognitive and affective challenge which serves to exacerbate the difficulty of transition already caused by increased workload and pressure. The findings offer insights into students’ struggles adjusting to shifting identity and membership of communities further intensified by the integrative, discursive and transformative nature of TC acquisition. The longitudinal research design also surfaces positive aspects of growing awareness of the integrative power of TCs. Recommendations are made for further research involving students, teachers and academics to explore TCs in a range of other subjects and settings in secondary schools in the context of recent and significant changes to GCSE and A-level curricula.