Value for learning during this time of transformation: the first-year students’ perspective

ABSTRACT

Formal education was used by the apartheid government to prepare black South Africans for manual labour, thus there was little curricular focus on the development of higher-order cognitive skills. With the abolition of apartheid in 1994, the education system was re-valued and re-evaluated to provide wider access to quality education; the focus of education policies moved towards the development of self-regulation and higher-order cognitive skills for all learners. There is now a generation of learners who have experienced their schooling in the transformed education system, and it would be useful to understand, from their perspective, what they value in their development of learning within the higher education space. This study answers the question ‘Post-apartheid, what learning methods and resources do first-years perceive to be valuable to their learning when they enter university?’ Participants included 344 students taking a Biology course provided to medical science students at a South African university in 2018. Two questionnaires were administered towards the end of a six-week lecture period, responses were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. The first survey, comprised of Likert-style questions, was conducted to determine the students’ views on the mechanisms which they used to support their learning. The second questionnaire comprised open-ended questions and focused on the students’ perception of their learning experience in the course. The findings show that there was a significant (p?<?.001) percentage of first-years who thought that rote-learning would suffice for examination preparation at university, and preferred to engage with their peers and the textbook before they engaged with their lecturers when navigating challenging concepts. Schwartz's model of social values is used to show that more needs to be done for the development of higher-order thinking and self-regulation when students enter university, and to mitigate alienation between students and staff.     

Associations between individual and collective efficacy beliefs and students' bystander behavior

This study examined whether defending and passive bystanding during peer victimization episodes were associated with individual- and classroom-level efficacy to stop peer victimization. Self-report survey data were analyzed from 1,467 Swedish fourth-grade students (mean age = 10.55) from 100 classrooms in 63 schools. Multilevel analyses revealed that, when witnessing peer victimization, students more often defended victims if they were high in defender self-efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms high in collective efficacy. In contrast, students were more likely to remain passive if they were low in defender self-efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms low in collective efficacy. Taken together, our findings suggest that efficacy beliefs both at the individual and at the classroom level contribute to explaining variability in students' bystander behaviors, which has potential implications for prevention and intervention work.     

How to detect indications of potential sources of bias in peer review: A generalized latent variable modeling approach exemplified by a gender study

The universalism norm of the ethos of science requires that contributions to science are not excluded because of the contributors’ gender, nationality, social status, or other irrelevant criteria. Here, a generalized latent variable modeling approach is presented that grant program managers at a funding organization can use in order to obtain indications of potential sources of bias in their peer review process (such as the applicants’ gender). To implement the method, the data required are the number of approved and number of rejected applicants for grants among different groups (for example, women and men or natural and social scientists). Using the generalized latent variable modeling approach indications of potential sources of bias can be examined not only for grant peer review but also for journal peer review.     

He Asked Me What!?—Using Shared Online Accounts as Training Tools for Distance Learning Librarians

ABSTRACT

This study explores the idea of creating a knowledge base from shared online accounts to use in training librarians who perform distance reference services. Through a survey, follow-up interviews and a case study, the investigators explored current and potential use of shared online accounts as training tools. This study revealed that the participants viewed the concept positively, but many encountered barriers to effectively employing a local knowledge base as a training tool.     

国外开放获取期刊的同行评议方式研究

通过网络调研和文献梳理的方式,结合具体案例,如Elsevier、Nature、PLoS、F1000 Research等,对国外开放获取期刊的同行评议方式进行研究.认为结构化同行评议、发表后开放式同行评议以及第三方独立同行评议,各有利弊,应该取长补短,优化评议方式,更好地发挥科技期刊作为学术质量把关者和过滤器的作用.     

儿童期自我概念的发展及影响因素研究综述

描述了儿童自我概念在从小学到中学这一年龄段的发展轨迹及性别差异,并对父母教养、同伴关系及个体行为模式在儿童自我概念发展中所起的作用进行了论述,最后对学业自我概念形成中的BFSPEs现象进行了简要介绍。     

高职学生党支部朋辈帮扶的路径与对策

高职院校中学生的年龄大体相当,而对于部分学生来说教师的说教式教导很容引起学生的反感,实践证明在高职院校中进行学生党支部朋辈帮扶活动相较于教师的指导在一程度上更有效果.但是部分高职院校由于缺乏经验,在制度和方法上的缺陷导致高职学生党支部朋辈帮扶活动开展的不尽如人意.为了解决这个问题,本文在对高职学生党支部朋辈帮扶活动实施现状进行分析的基础上,探讨了高职学生党支部朋辈帮扶活动开展的意义,重点研究了高职学生党支部朋辈帮扶的策略.     

朋辈心理辅导员在心理危机干预中的作用

目前,高校心理危机干预工作中存在机构不健全、咨询教师数量不足和未专职化、学生主动咨询意识薄弱、危机发现欠及时等问题。而朋辈心理辅导员可以利用其信息获取直接性、沟通交流简便性、危机干预灵活性等优势参与到心理危机干预的各阶段中,成为高校心理危机干预中的重要力量。     

以评促学:基于三元交互决定论的同伴互评研究

同伴互评是一种成本效益高、功能强大的评估方法,不仅减轻了教师的工作量,也给学生的学习带来了许多潜在的好处,但同伴互评仍面临着如何提高其有效性的挑战。本文以现有的研究为基础,基于班杜拉的三元交互决定论,构建了同伴互评体系,进而从互评个体、互评环境和互评行为的角度设计了同伴互评体系的有效组织程序,并通过实验的方式检验了同伴互评体系的有效性。     

Peer and self-assessment applied to oral presentations from a multidisciplinary perspective

This article analyses the use of peer and self-assessment in oral presentations as complementary tools to assessment by the professor. The analysis is based on a study conducted at the University of Girona (Spain) in seven different degree subjects and fields of knowledge. We designed and implemented two instruments to measure students’ peer and self-assessment, and a rubric to guide the assessment process. Results were compared with the marks awarded by the professor. In contrast with studies by other authors, which show a high correlation between these different assessment systems, our study revealed significant deviations. Applying peer and self-assessment to oral presentation activities also demonstrates their formative value above and beyond their summative usefulness.