Students' Perceptions of Study Modes

This paper reports on a survey of how Australian undergraduate students perceive the benefits of broad study modes: face‐to‐face classes, web‐based study, and print‐based study. Two benefit types were identified through factor analysis: engagement and functionality. Respondents rated face‐to‐face classes highest on engagement and print‐based study highest on functionality. However, they distinguished only marginally between the engagement and functionality benefits of print‐based and web‐based study. Two variables associated with differences in students’ perceptions of study modes were attendance mode and student tenure. The findings raise questions about the learning and marketing rationales for offering web‐based delivery of educational programmes at the expense of both the traditional face‐to‐face experience and the traditional “distance” experience in Australia using print materials.     

A commentary on the Special Issue “Innovations in measuring and fostering mathematical modelling competencies”

Educational Studies in Mathematics - This is a commentary on the ESM 2021 Special Issue on Innovations in Measuring and Fostering Mathematical Modelling Competencies. We have grouped the ten...     

Socio-emotional connections: identity,belonging and learning in online interactions. A literature review

This review focuses on three interconnected socio-emotional aspects of online learning: interaction, sense of community and identity formation. In the intangible social space of the virtual classroom, students come together to learn through dialogic, often asynchronous, exchanges. This creates distinctive learning environments where learning goals, interpersonal relationships and emotions are no less important because of their ‘virtualness’, and for which traditional face-to-face pedagogies are not neatly transferrable. The literature reveals consistent connections between interaction and sense of community. Yet identity, which plausibly and naturally emerges from any social interaction, is much less explored in online learning. While it is widely acknowledged that interaction increases the potential for knowledge-building, the literature indicates that this will be enhanced when opportunities encouraging students’ emergent identities are embedded into the curriculum. To encourage informed teaching strategies this review seeks to raise awareness and stimulate further exploration into a currently under-researched facet of online learning.     

Understanding higher education access: Inequalities and early learning in low and lower-middle-income countries

Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio-economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle-income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio-economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio-economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio-economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children’s lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.