Strengthening internal quality assurance as a lever for enhancing student learning experiences and academic success: lessons from Namibia

Higher education plays an important role in the social, economic and political development of any given nation. In the Namibian context, quality assurance systems have been put in place at both national and institutional levels through the establishment of national quality assurance agencies and units responsible for quality in institutions. A critical literature analysis of quality assurance systems in higher education shows that although they claim to strike a balance between improvement and accountability, external quality assurance mechanisms tend to have an accountability and compliance focus and to promote managerialisation and bureaucratisation of academia. This article argues that internal quality assurance systems, built on a strong quality culture, tend to be more effective in enhancing the quality of student learning experience and academic success than externally driven quality assurance. Thus, to promote genuine quality, more energy must be invested in external quality assurance capacitating and strengthening internal quality assurance systems.     

Integration of the practice of mindfulness within action learning as an added component within a post graduate leadership programme: an account of practice

This account of practice provides a practical example of the use of mindfulness practice within action learning which was a component of a bespoke UK Business School post-graduate leadership development programme commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust aimed at improving the leadership capacity of mid-level managers through work-based learning. The article discusses background and context of the programme followed by how application of mindfulness exercises was integrated within the action learning process to encourage participants to be ‘in the moment’ as an added component of their leadership development. The aim of the paper is to share examples of practice applied within action learning. Finally, the paper asserts that the application of mindfulness exercises helped to enhance the action learning process by creating a calm, focused space for individual and collective reflections, enhancing the quality of engagement and enabling action learning members to take a more pragmatic approach to addressing the work issues raised within the action learning sets.     

不可忘却的“黑色”记忆——重读托妮·莫里森的《宠儿》

小说《宠儿》通过对黑人历史记忆的重组和演绎,谱写了一部触目惊心的黑人血泪史,对黑人的前途和命运做出了全方位的思考,意在启发黑人牢记过去、直面现实、放眼未来,具有厚重的历史意识和重大的现实意义。     

如何指导高职学生学习商务英语视听说

商务英语视听说课融视、听、说于一体,注重英语听说技能在常见商务活动中的实际应用,提供真实的商务环境,通过英语获取商务知识,提高技能。本文分析了商务英语视听说课程以及高职学生在学习目的、兴趣、词汇、听力和口语等方面的学习现状,重点探讨了指导高职学生学习商务英语视听说,掌握商务英语知识,提高商务英语交际能力的有效方法。     

A focus on time-lapse ethnography: learning to teach

This article makes the claim that developing ethnographic work through follow-up interviews can add to our understanding of researched phenomena and explores how using concepts from Bourdieu and theories on the social construction of time strengthen the research design and add a stronger longitudinal diachronic element to data analysis. Extending an ethnographic study of learning to teach by interviewing respondents nine years after the study and after the completion of their teacher education course is shown to develop insights around the initial research findings by focusing on the temporal aspects of data. Adopting this methodological approach can develop small-scale qualitative work and contribute to an accumulation of research findings to avoid simply revisiting familiar research ground.     

Ethnographical mapping of thick places – teaching and learning practices in teacher training schools

The aim of this study is to use an ethnographic method in order to map where understandings of teaching and learning practices (TaLP) are being discussed in three schools. The questions posed are: what are the relations between thick places, meaning, affect, and TaLP? This study uses an ethnographic method outside the classroom and in between different activities as a starting point for understanding TaLP and where many students at the same school produce thick places of affect and meaning. The main conclusion from this study is that matters of where, what, and who are shaping TaLP. Another important conclusion from this study is that training schools offer new conditions for teacher students, but also offer new opportunities for ethnographic studies that aim at understanding these school environments with a range of new questions.     

Self-regulated learning partially mediates the effect of self-regulated learning interventions on achievement in higher education: A meta-analysis

It is often assumed that interventions aimed at supporting students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) are effective for improving achievement because these interventions support SRL activity. In this study, meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) was used to test whether SRL activity indeed mediates the effect of SRL interventions on achievement in higher education. Contrary to popular belief, the results only provide evidence for partial mediation. Furthermore, three separate meta-analyses were performed to investigate the role of possible moderators of the relations between: (1) SRL interventions and achievement, (2) SRL interventions and SRL activity, and (3) SRL activity and achievement. Although SRL interventions were effective in improving SRL activity and achievement, most of the study, measurement, and intervention moderators did not explain significant variance of the investigated effect sizes. Other factors, such as task motivation and time on task, potentially influence the effectiveness of SRL interventions. Practical, theoretical and methodological implications are provided.     

Revisiting the effects of project-based learning on students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis investigating moderators

Project-based learning is generally considered an alternative to traditional, teacher-led instruction. However, there is a noticeable lack of meta-analyses with regard to determining its overall effects on students' academic achievement, and what study features may moderate the impacts of project-based learning. This study thus performed a meta-analysis to synthesize existing research that compared the effects of project-based learning and those of traditional instruction on student academic achievement. Forty-six effect sizes (comparisons) extracted from 30 eligible journal articles published from 1998 to 2017 were analyzed, representing 12,585 students from 189 schools in nine countries. The results showed that the overall mean weighted effect size (d₊) was 0.71, indicating that project-based learning has a medium to large positive effect on students' academic achievement compared with traditional instruction. In addition, the mean effect size was affected by subject area, school location, hours of instruction, and information technology support, but not by educational stage and small group size.     

记忆与印象:史铁生的写作之源

我是我的印象的一部分,而我的全部印象才是我,记忆与印象作为史铁生的写作之源,经历了极限体验、反思生存、通过写作寻找生存的意义以及把记忆与印象作为写作之源的几个阶段。     

论基于德育目标视域的课外合作学习小组构建

基于学校德育任务,借助德育内容,构建起一种以培养学生德育观、合作观、高能力目标的课外合作学习小组模式,遵循教师引导与学生主体相结合、社会目标与个人目标相结合、目标多元与德育优先相结合等原则,体现模式的导向性和互动性特点,充分利用学校特别是学生资源,提高学校学生德育工作的实效。