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1 – 10 of over 98000Summer F. Odom, Sarah P. Ho and Lori L. Moore
To meet the demands for effective leadership, leadership educators should integrate high-impact practices for students to develop, practice, and evaluate their leadership…
Abstract
To meet the demands for effective leadership, leadership educators should integrate high-impact practices for students to develop, practice, and evaluate their leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities. The purpose of this application brief is to describe how undergraduate leadership teaching assistant (ULTA) experiences can be a high- impact practice for undergraduates studying leadership. The ULTA experience at Texas A&M University in the Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) department was examined using the six characteristics purported by Kuh (2008) to describe effective high- impact practices: considerable time and effort to purposeful tasks, interaction with faculty and peers on substantive matters, increased likelihood of experiencing diversity, frequent feedback on performance, application of learning to different settings, and better understanding of self in relation to others. The ULTA experience can be a high-impact practice that provides leadership students with the opportunities to apply their leadership learning to their teaching roles and reflect on their experience to gain new leadership perspectives. Recommendations for implementing this practice include: purposeful interactions with ULTAs, feedback and assessment of experience, training, and a rigorous recruitment process.
This article is based on the premise that owing to the substantial attention given to quality assurance and related initiatives in higher education in recent years, the…
Abstract
This article is based on the premise that owing to the substantial attention given to quality assurance and related initiatives in higher education in recent years, the management, and related practices involved, of student work experience will have improved. To investigate this hypothesis a comparative analysis of the findings of two major research projects, involving similar methods, into student work experience is undertaken. The two studies are discussed, criteria for comparative analysis are identified and key findings presented. This leads to the conclusion, that while there is evidence of substantial improvement in the probability of students gaining experience in the preparation of curricula vitae and of interview situations, little progress has been made in enhancing the realisation of the many other benefits attributable to student work experience. Recommendations to address the identified weaknesses in the system are proposed.
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Nedal Sawan, Krayyem Al-Hajaya, Mohammad Alshhadat and Rami Ibrahim A. Salem
Focusing on the quality of teaching and learning, this study aims to explore the perceptions of accountancy students in two emerging UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Focusing on the quality of teaching and learning, this study aims to explore the perceptions of accountancy students in two emerging UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the quality of their learning experiences and the impact of these experiences on generic skills development.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data. OLS regression was used to test the hypothesis regarding the impact of student learning experiences (lecturer ability, assessment and curriculum) on generic skills development.
Findings
Students value the lecturer as the most important determinant of the quality of their experience. They rated their assessment programme very positively, and the curriculum suggests that students tend to experience a deep blended approach to learning. They also felt that they acquired a wide range of soft competency skills such as those associated with research, critical thinking and time management. Multivariate findings indicate that lecturer ability and curriculum contribute significantly and positively to generic skills development.
Practical implications
The study provides a benchmark for international accounting and business educators in any efforts to assess the efficacy of HE delivery since the pandemic. By implication, it enables the identification of enhancements to the previous character of delivery and hence offers the means to direct improvements to the student experience. Such improvements can then be seen in the National Student Survey (NSS) scores, thereby positively contributing to the next Teaching Excellence Framework. Additionally, such tangible enhancements in NSS scores may be advantageous to HEIs, in the UK and other Western countries, in their efforts to recruit international students on whom they place great reliance for increased revenue, to their international business education programmes.
Originality/value
This study addresses the research gap surrounding the link between teaching and learning approaches in accounting and the development of generic skills. Furthermore, acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic with its imposed structural change in the HE teaching and learning environment ushered in a new model of curriculum delivery, this study reflects on the pre-COVID-19 scenario and gathers student perceptions of their teaching and learning experiences before the changes necessitated by lockdowns. It therefore brings the opportunity to anchor future research exploring the post-COVID-19 environment and secure comparative analyses.
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Jarett D. Haley, Amber N. Williams, Rosemary J. Perez and Claire K. Robbins
The purpose of this study is to explore how US graduate students described their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and engagement experiences outside their academic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how US graduate students described their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and engagement experiences outside their academic departments.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a critical constructivist qualitative approach and methods (i.e. interviews) to explore how 44 graduate students across various disciplines and fields at two public research institutions in the USA described their DEI education and engagement experiences outside their departments.
Findings
Students identified expanded DEI and professional knowledge as key learning outcomes, while also highlighting the benefits and negative effects of the identity-centered (dis)connection, community and personal fulfillment that came from these experiences.
Research limitations/implications
Given that DEI education and engagement opportunities addressed some students’ needs and were unsatisfactory for others, more scholarship on the nature of these experiences is needed to better understand factors that contribute to students’ desirable and undesirable outcomes. There are also practical implications for faculty who advise graduate students and administrators who are responsible for funding the campus spaces in which these experiences occurred (e.g. graduate colleges, identity-based student organizations).
Originality/value
Few studies have explored graduate students’ participation in DEI education and engagement opportunities outside of their academic departments. Consequently, the efficacy of these initiatives, and the extent to which students benefit from them, warrant investigation. This study, thus, adds to researchers’ and practitioners’ understanding of this topic by highlighting the benefits and limitations of these experiences for graduate students.
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Xan Y. Goodman and Samantha Ann Godbey
The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a deeper theoretical understanding of liminality, its utility in understanding the experiences of graduate student researchers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a deeper theoretical understanding of liminality, its utility in understanding the experiences of graduate student researchers and how being explicit about the liminal nature of the graduate student experience can be especially impactful for students from marginalized communities.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper examines liminality as an essential component of researcher identity development and how an awareness of this liminality relates to effective and inclusive librarian support of graduate student researchers. The authors explore the affective and academic implications of operating in this liminal state and how direct acknowledgment of this inbetweenness, especially within the spaces of classroom instruction and research consultations, can be leveraged as an inclusive practice. The authors ground this exploration in critical pedagogy.
Findings
Graduate student researchers often operate in an unacknowledged liminal state, which causes students to question the importance of their previous knowledge and life experiences and feel discouraged and uncertain about their potential place in academia. This is particularly damaging to students from communities that have been traditionally marginalized and excluded from higher education.
Originality/value
The authors are liaison librarians to education and health sciences at a large, minority-serving, urban research institution in the western USA and draw on their experience supporting students in disciplines that include many students returning to graduate studies after substantial professional experience. This work makes a contribution to library and information studies by focusing on the concept of liminality. The authors offer a conceptual perspective on liminality relative to librarians and their support role in the graduate student experience.
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Yui-Yip Lau, Jing (Bill) Xu and Tsz Ching Mang
This study aims to explore university students' push and pull motivational factors towards their study tour destination choices and to investigate the differences between…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore university students' push and pull motivational factors towards their study tour destination choices and to investigate the differences between experienced and non-experienced students concerning their push and pull motivational factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected surveys from Hong Kong university students. In total, 248 usable responses were gathered. Among the 248 respondents, 148 university students from various universities did not have experience on a study tour in their university lives while 100 students did. The study also conducted interviews and collected qualitative data to supplement the survey findings.
Findings
Top push and pull motivational factors were highlighted in the study tour context. This study also indicated that non-experienced students relatively have more concerns about geographic location, political stability and financial budget as pull factors and education as the push factor than experienced students. Education, as a high-level human need and push motivational factor, becomes less important for experienced students.
Originality/value
A large number of Asian university students participated in study tour programmes each year. Nevertheless, there are few research papers relevant to exploring university students’ motivation to choose study tour destinations. This study provides useful insight for the universities to design and implement appropriate study tours according to students’ motivation.
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Rindi Ardika Melsalasa Sahputri, Mukhammad Kholid Mawardi, Tri Yumarni and Sujarwoto
This study aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and students’ intentions and tests for moderating effects of students’ perceived experience and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and students’ intentions and tests for moderating effects of students’ perceived experience and family entrepreneurial orientation, which may strengthen or weaken the effect of entrepreneurship education on intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a questionnaire from 584 students in the vocational program at an Indonesian public university. Entrepreneurship education was measured using instruments by Walter and Block (2016) that evaluated the entrepreneurship education provided by faculty. Entrepreneurial intention used a measurement by Vamvaka (2020), which measured students’ choice of intention, entrepreneurial career commitment and nascent entrepreneurship.
Findings
Entrepreneurship education has a positive association with students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The results also evidence higher entrepreneurial intention levels in students from families oriented toward and experienced in entrepreneurship. The results also reveal that student experience and having friends who become entrepreneurs reduce entrepreneurial intention, but the difference is not statistically significant.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this survey is that it was drawn from a single university in Indonesia with only domestic students, whilst the study was also designed cross-sectional. Therefore, the generalisability of the results is still limited. This study uses a single item for measuring friends and own influences, which only measure personal experiences. A more multidimensional measure of family, friends and own influence can be further developed to gain more robust results supporting these findings.
Practical implications
The study contributes to understanding the role of family-related variables, particularly family entrepreneurial orientation and experiences, on the development of entrepreneurship education and intention in emerging global market forces. Through family engagement in entrepreneurship education, a family can boost students’ entrepreneurial intention by delivering various capitals (e.g. business value, financial and social capital) and providing practical learning. The results imply the necessity to conduct new subjects, courses or university programmes that can include family-related business in entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
Despite the expansion of research related to entrepreneurship education and intention, the relationships between perceived experience, family entrepreneurial orientation and students’ entrepreneurial intentions have not been adequately studied, particularly in Indonesia. This work contributes to the existing knowledge of entrepreneurship education by providing two moderator variables that may boost entrepreneurial intention: perceived experience and family entrepreneurial orientation. This work demonstrated how perceived experience and family orientation interact with entrepreneurship education and intention.
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Sohail Ahmad, Aisha Naz Ansari, Saman Khawaja and Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta
This paper aims to explore contribution of informal learning space - Research Cafe - to enrich research learning experiences of graduate students. Developing strong research…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore contribution of informal learning space - Research Cafe - to enrich research learning experiences of graduate students. Developing strong research skills among graduate students is a prime focus of higher education around the world. Thereby, universities are striving to maximise opportunities that can foster and enrich students’ learning experiences of research; however, the focus is mostly confined to formal opportunities such as research method courses and thesis writing. The provision of informal learning spaces has been recognised as a useful tool for fostering research learning experiences of graduates. This reflective paper is among a few focusing on a model of student-led informal learning space for enriching research experiences in higher education in the context of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a reflective approach to generate a metalogue. The research experiences shared by the participants were further reflected by the authors after each research café session. The authors then shared their collective metacognitive reflections with each other, generating a metalogue, which was used as the data set. The metalogue was analysed thematically to generate themes.
Findings
Findings reveal that the research café is an informal space to promote academic socialisation by providing a conducive environment, peer support and informal supervision opportunities to foster the research learning experiences of graduate students. Importantly, the model presented in this paper provides a complimentary pathway for boosting learning experiences.
Research limitations/implications
This paper would be useful for graduate students, faculty and university manager to acknowledge the potential of informal learning spaces in promoting research learning experiences. This paper highlights opportunities for replication, and further empirical research are needed to establish the efficacy of research café.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the global debate about graduate research learning experiences through informal learning space, which is yet to be explored, particularly in developing contexts like Pakistan. The idea of the research café is original, as it was conceived keeping in consideration the contextual and cultural aspects. The methodology used in this paper was specifically derived which can be replicated by other researchers.
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Jennifer C. Stone, Jathan Day, Brianna Dym, Katie O'Regan Kahlenbeck, Zebadiah R. Kraft, September V. Reynaga, LaVon Shearer-Ihrig, Elizabeth Waetjen and Shanna Allen
This paper aims to describe the World of Warcraft (WoW) experience, where students in a graduate English seminar played WoW to ground their learning about digital literacies…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the World of Warcraft (WoW) experience, where students in a graduate English seminar played WoW to ground their learning about digital literacies. Through the experience, students developed their own digital literacies and learned to enter academic discourse about games and digital literacies.
Design/methodology/approach
In the paper, the instructor and eight students describe the purpose, design and outcomes of the experience. Over the course of a month, the group coordinated logistics and roles, each person created a character, each character reached the threshold level for low-level dungeons, the whole class played several dungeons together and the class engaged in metaconversation about the experience.
Findings
The instructor reflects on the problem of practice that the WoW experience addressed and the instructional organization of the experience. The students, who came into the WoW experience with a range of prior knowledge about games and Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, reflect on what challenges they faced while learning to play and develop their own digital literacies, how they assembled resources to overcome challenges, how their views of digital literacies and games shifted from the experience and how the experience helped them rethink teaching first-year composition.
Originality/value
As the WoW experience illustrates, finding ways to connect games to advanced graduate courses can create fun, frustration and powerful learning experiences for students as they maneuver complex content.
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Laura-Maija Hero and Eila Lindfors
Collaboration between universities and industry is increasingly perceived as a vehicle to enhance innovation. Educational institutions are encouraged to build partnerships and…
Abstract
Purpose
Collaboration between universities and industry is increasingly perceived as a vehicle to enhance innovation. Educational institutions are encouraged to build partnerships and multidisciplinary projects based around real-world open problems. Projects need to benefit student learning, not only the organisations looking for innovations. The context of this study is a multidisciplinary innovation project, as experienced by the students of an University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The purpose of this paper is to unfold students’ conceptions of the learning experience, to help teachers and curriculum designers to organise optimal conditions and processes, and support competence development. The research question was: How do students in higher professional education experience their learning in a multidisciplinary innovation project?
Design/methodology/approach
The study took a phenomenographic approach. The data were collected in the form of weekly diaries, maintained by the cultural management and social services students (n=74) in a mandatory multidisciplinary innovation project in professional higher education in Finland. The diary data were analysed using thematic inductive analysis.
Findings
The results of the study revealed that students’ understood the learning experience in relation to solvable conflicts and unusual situations they experienced during the project, while becoming aware of and claiming their collaborative agency and internalising phases of an innovation process. The competences as learning outcomes that students could name as developed related to content knowledge, different personal characteristics, social skills, emerging leadership skills, creativity, future orientation, social skills, technical, crafting and testing skills and innovation implementation-related skills, such as marketing, sales and entrepreneurship planning skills. However, future orientation and implementation planning skills showed more weakly than other variables in the data.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that curriculum design should enable networked, student-led and teacher supported pedagogical innovation processes that involve a whole path from future thinking and idea development through prototyping to implementation planning of the novel solution. Teachers promote deep comprehension of the innovation process, monitor and ease the pain of conflict if it threatens motivation, offer assessment tools and help in recognising gaps in individual competences and development needs, promote more future-oriented, concrete and implementable outcomes, and facilitate in bridging from innovation towards entrepreneurship planning.
Originality/value
The multidisciplinary innovation project described in this study provides a pedagogical way to connect higher education to the practises of society. These results provide encouraging findings for organising multidisciplinary project activities between education and working life. The paper, therefore, has significant value for teachers and entrepreneurship educators in designing curriculum and facilitating projects. The study promotes the dissemination of innovation development programmes in between education and work organisations also in other than technical and commercial fields.
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