Facilitating flexible learning by replacing classroom time with an online learning environment: A systematic review of blended learning in higher education

Higher education institutions are trying to provide more flexibility and individualization, which is mainly realized through the use of new technologies and implemented in online or blended learning designs. This systematic review aims to investigate the impact of replacing classroom time with an online learning environment. The meta-analysis (k = 21 effect sizes) applied strict inclusion criteria concerning research design, measurement of learning outcomes and implementation of blended learning. The estimated effect size (Hedge's g) was positive, although not significantly different from zero and the confidence interval [-0.13, 0.25], suggesting that overall differences between blended and conventional classroom learning are small, and, at best, very small negative or moderate positive effects are plausible. This means that despite a reduction in classroom time between 30 and 79 per cent, equivalent learning outcomes were found. Consequently, blended learning with reduced classroom time is not systematically more or less effective than conventional classroom learning.     

‘Teaching’ the path towards university: understanding student access through storied-futures and meritocratic grand narratives

The notion that the stories of our lives shape dispositions towards imagined futures is another lens through which university underrepresentation should be viewed. A storied lens attends to how futures, like university attendance, are storied during childhood to the extent that some youth imagine, and therefore plan, these futures as natural progression. Such was the case for study participants, indicating that childhood stories contain answers for mitigating social reproduction connected to parental education and cultural forces within the home. Examining social mobility through the underexplored storied-futures grand narrative presents unique solutions that lay hidden within the dominant meritocratic grand narrative.     

Evaluating the international dimension in an undergraduate curriculum by assessing students’ intercultural sensitivity

This formative, outcome-oriented, theory-based evaluation research study assessed the effectiveness of requiring an international (‘I’) course by measuring students’ intercultural sensitivity (IS) at the start and end of a semester. Findings revealed that students’ IS scores did not change regardless of the type of class in which the student was enrolled and were not significantly different based on gender, age, ethnicity, undergraduate classification, or number of ‘I’ courses taken. There were significant differences in IS based on religion, traveling outside the US, participating in a study abroad course, and the number of cultural events in which the student had participated. Regression analysis confirmed that religious affiliation and number of times traveled outside the US were significant predictors of IS. This study is an example of the use of theory-based evaluation in an educational system and provides important insights into what experiences affect college students’ IS.     

提升高职足球教学训练水平的路径研究

作为一项历史悠久的运动,足球运动深受全民喜爱,有着广泛的扩展范围和巨大的影响力。近些年来,高职院校的足球教学取得一定的进步和发展,对于学生身体素质的锻炼起到积极的促进作用。然而,进步并不等同于完美,高职院校的足球教学仍然存在诸多问题,要想提升足球训练水平,必须要解决这些问题,创新教学思想,改善训练方式,保证足球教学的规范性、科学性、系统性,使足球训练具备的提升学生身体协调性的作用充分发挥出来。基于此,本文就如何提升高职足球教学训练水平进行论述。     

高职医学院校排球课程的现状研究--以福建省四所高职医学院校为例

通过文献资料法、问卷调查法、数理统计法、访谈法等研究方法,对福建省4所高职医学院校的排球课程的现状进行调查分析。研究表明:福建省高职医学院校的排球课程要进一步完善课程设置,加强医体融合的建设,教师要优化教学方法和手段,提高排球课程的吸引力。同时,各高职医学院校应正确认识排球课程改革和发展的影响因素,进一步提升排球课程在人才培养和专业建设中的作用。     

Professional knowledge or motivation? Investigating the role of teachers’ expertise on the quality of technology-enhanced lesson plans

In an expertise study with 94 mathematics teachers varying in their relative teacher expertise (i.e., student teachers, trainee teachers, in-service teachers), we examined effects of teachers' professional knowledge and motivational beliefs on their ability to integrate technology within a lesson plan scenario. Therefore, we assessed teachers' professional knowledge (i.e., content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, technological knowledge), and their motivational beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, utility-value). Furthermore, teachers were asked to develop a lesson plan for introducing the Pythagorean theorem to secondary students. Lesson plans by advanced teachers (i.e., trainee teachers, in-service teachers) comprised higher levels of instructional quality and technology exploitation than the ones of novice teachers (i.e., pre-service teachers). The effect of expertise was mediated by teachers' perceived utility-value of educational technology, but not by their professional knowledge. These findings suggest that teachers’ motivational beliefs play a crucial role for effectively applying technology in mathematics instruction.     

高校数字图书馆现状及思考

对我国高等院校数字图书馆建设的现状进行了总结，对存在的问题做了比较分析、研究，提出了优化高等院校数字图书馆建设的几点建议。     

我校机制专业实践教学浅析

为培养适应现代化企业的高级技术应用人才，针对机制专业特点，从改革实践环节、加强技能训练、拓宽实践教学三方面着手，使学生的动手能力、适应能力、创新能力、综合能力等方面得到明显提高，为高等职业教育摸索一些经验。     

高校体育教师人文素养的现状与对策思考

本文通过调查分析体育教师人文素养的现状，提出了加强高校体育教师人文素养培养的重要性，并对加强高校体育教师人文素养提出了可行性建议。     

中国高等教育应对WTO的机遇与挑战--江苏省"WTO与高等教育改革发展"学术研讨会会议综述

2002年8月11日至13日，江苏省高等教育学会主办的“WTO与高等教育改革发展”学术研讨会在中国矿业大学召开，章是会议内容的综述。