Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate education incorporating active learning and vicarious experience through education outreach presents a critical opportunity to influence future engineering teaching and practice capabilities. Engineering education outreach activities have been shown to have multiple benefits; increasing interest and engagement with science and engineering for school children, providing teachers with expert contributions to engineering subject knowledge, and developing professional generic skills for engineers such as communication and teamwork. This pilot intervention paired 10 pre-service teachers and 11 student engineers to enact engineering outreach in primary schools, reaching 269 children. A longitudinal mixed methods design was employed to measure change in attitudes and Education Outreach Self-Efficacy in student engineers; alongside attitudes, Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy and Engineering Subject Knowledge Confidence in pre-service teachers. Highly significant improvements were noted in the pre-service teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy, while both the teachers and engineers qualitatively described benefits arising from the paired peer mentor model.     

Predicting transition and adjustment to college: biomedical and behavioral science aspirants’ and minority students’ first year of college

The purpose of this study is to explore key factors that impact the college transition of aspiring underrepresented minority students in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, in comparison with White, Asian students and non-science minority students. We examined successful management of the academic environment and sense of belonging during the first college year. Longitudinal data were derived from the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) 2004 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey and the 2005 Your First College Year (YFCY) Survey. Using a reformulation of the integration model (Nora, Barlow, and Crisp, 2005), we find concerns about college financing, negotiating family support and responsibility, and campus racial dynamics (perceived and behavioral) affect student adjustment and sense of integration in the first year. This study was made possible by the support of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH Grant Number 1 RO1 GMO71968-01. This independent research and the views expressed here do not indicate endorsement by the sponsor.     

The effects of college students’ positive thinking,learning motivation and self-regulation through a self-reflection intervention in Taiwan

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a self-reflection intervention on college (college in this article refers to university-level education) students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation in Taiwan. One hundred and two college students were selected to participate in an 18-week intervention forming the experimental group (EG) which emphasized providing main lecture, role-play, self-reflection activity, group discussion and group work. Another 179 college students from two other courses were selected as a comparison group. This study showed that supportive, resourced discussion with peers and instructor, self-reflection activities and assignment as a facilitative agent improved the EG students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation. In addition, three structural equation models revealed that positive thinking had a strong and direct relation to Taiwanese college students’ pretest learning motivation (β?=?.85) and self-regulation (β?=?.77); learning motivation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.86) and self-regulation (β?=?.81); and self-regulation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.83) and learning motivation (β?=?.86). Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed.     

Why some teachers easily learn to use a new virtual learning environment: a technology acceptance perspective

After a decade of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher education, many teachers still use only a minimum of its affordances. This study looked at how academic staff interacted with a new and unknown VLE in order to understand how technology acceptance and support materials influence (perceived and actual) task performance. In an experimental design, 36 participants were split into a control (online help) and experimental (instructor video) condition and completed five common teaching tasks in a new VLE. In contrast to most technology acceptance model research, this study found that perceived usefulness of the VLE was not related to (perceived) task performance. Perceived ease of use was related to intentions and actual behaviour in the VLE. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the two conditions, although the experimental condition led to a (marginal) increase in time to complete the tasks.     

机遇与挑战:我国高等教育信息化的探讨

信息化浪潮对我国高等教育产生了革命性的影响。本文从高等教育信息化的内涵入手，阐述了信息化给我国高等教育所带来的机遇与挑战，并提出了实施我国高等教育信息化的对策。     

高职教育存在的问题、成因及对策浅谈

本探讨了我国高等职业技术教育中存在的问题，分析了导致问题的原因，并在此基础上提出了改进高职教育的措施，以期为我国高职教育事业改革提供参考。     

特殊教育的全人教育观

特殊儿童全人教育观强调共性与个性,完整与动态,障碍与潜能,阶段性与系统性全生涯发展的整合.全人教育观将引发我们对特殊儿童身心健康,正常化生活,成功和挫折适度的教育以及自我选择和自我决定能力的培养,超越障碍等问题的进一步思考和实践.     

群育：集体主义教育不可或缺的因素

群育是培养人的合群性的教育,它既强调个性又防止极端个人主义,既注重群体又避免整齐划一,是极端个人主义和过分强调整齐划一的狭隘集体主义的调和。群育并非新鲜概念,它在我国传统教育理念中已经存在,目前港澳台地区及新加坡教育中仍明确提出群育目标。现阶段重新认识和引入群育,有利于厘清个人与群体的关系,以人们易于接受的理念和方式培养学生的合群能力及合作精神,丰富和发展集体主义教育。     

社会转型时期中西封建土地制度状况及影响比较

中国封建土地制度的形成是新兴地主阶级的自觉行为，它一开始就是一种较完善的两极制的地主土地私有制形式；西欧封建土地制度则一种自发形成的比较原始的等级土地所有制。两者间的特征差异决定了16世纪前后它们能否随社会转型而顺利完成自身的转型。占有权看似不稳定的中国封建土地所有制在社会转型时期没有完成自身的转变，倒是占有权长期处于凝固状态的西欧封建庄园土地制度顺应了社会的转型，完成了封建农业向近代资本主义农业的过渡。     

EWB软件在电专业基础课程教学中的应用

通过以EWB软件的功能特点分析及基本操作方法的介绍，探讨EWB软件在高职电专业基础课程教学中的应用。