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1.
We have conducted action research involving an instructional intervention over a 20-year period. This has demonstrated that spatial ability influences academic performance in engineering, and can be increased through instruction focused on using perception and mental imagery in three-dimensional representation. Prior to our intervention, the first-year engineering graphics course at our university had a failure rate of 36% for all engineering students and failure rates of 80% for African students studying at our university. Similar high failure rates were reported in engineering drawing and design courses at other Southern African universities, and similar association between low scores on tests of spatial ability and academic performance, suggesting that the problem was one encountered by many engineering students, not just by students at our university. Over the initial 2 years of the intervention, pass rates for the first-year engineering graphics course increased from 64 to 76%. With further changes in teaching, and the training of senior students as tutors to support the lecturing and practical activities provided in the course, the pass rates have risen to 88% annually, over a period in which the composition of the first-year student has become increasingly diverse, with greater numbers of students entering the university from disadvantaged educational backgrounds. The instructional model we have used is based on Piagetian principles, and confirms Piaget's theories with respect to the trainability of spatial ability in adulthood. Our findings suggest the importance of early identification of students with difficulty, as well as the potential value of an intervention aimed at training the processes involved in visualization through three-dimensional modelling and representation of objects. While spatial ability appears to be trainable through the methods we have developed, our research also indicates that level of spatial ability at time of intake to university is an important influence on academic performance, suggesting the value of instruction in visualization and three-dimensional representation at school level. Social factors are also important influences on academic performance, suggesting the value of tutorial-based interventions aimed at improving spatial ability in those university and technikon courses for which visualization and three-dimensional representation are a requirement.  相似文献   

2.
In this paper the importance of the first-year students’ design projects will be explained. In the first year, selection is made and we have to be sure that students will be able to pass the design projects in the following years. Especially within the first year's staff, a good consensus must exist, concerning the requirements which the students have to meet, to pass this selection process. Although we have laid down these requirements, still one difficult, but important question had to be answered

What is the level of performance you can realistically expect from first-year students?

To find an answer to this question we carried out some experiments in which we forced a group of students to follow a time scheme which we could control. We compared their results with those of another group. The differences in quality of the students' work between the two groups were astonishing. With the norms we were used to dealing with, almost all students of the controlled group would not pass our demands; it just was not possible in the time they were supposed to spend.  相似文献   


3.
In 1992 international fee‐paying and local students currently enrolled at the three tertiary institutions in South Australia were surveyed by a common questionnaire on students’ study‐related and personal experiences, and issues related to students’ choice and subsequent evaluation of their institution. The breadth of the student sample and the comparative data the questionnaire generated present an overarching view of the experiences and evaluations of a diverse range of university students.

The results of the survey show that while international students experience more problems, and experience them to a more serious degree than their Australian counterparts, the nature of the issues which are of most concern are generally shared. These are concerns about financial issues such as access to Austudy for local students, and the level of fees for international students and the ability to find part‐time work for both groups. The other broad group of issues of concern was study related: workload, fear of failure, loss of motivation, doubts about academic ability, nervousness and tension. Notably, in spite of the differences ‐between the three institutions – the University of Adelaide representing a ‘traditional’ university, Flinders University of South Australia, a ‘1960s’ university and the University of South Australia a ‘post‐1987’ university – the student responses across the three institutions were remarkably similar.

In terms of student evaluations of the quality of the education and services provided, Australian students were consistently more likely to rate aspects of teaching more positively than their international counterparts, but for both groups it was evident, particularly in their comments, that aspects of teaching such as the quality of lectures, accessibility of staff, availability of resources and staff: student ratios were of major concern.

The findings lead to the recommendations that universities could improve both local and international student experience by providing clear information about courses and course expectations, by the provision of effective feedback on assignments, by embedding the teaching of academic skills within courses, by increasing course flexibility to enable students to balance study and earning demands, and by ensuring that student support services are adequately resourced.  相似文献   


4.
This paper reports some data of an ARC funded study of academic staff in a number of disciplines in colleges of advanced education and universities. Generally, more university than college academics scored high on academic motivation, on teaching‐research synergy and promotion of student independence, with college academics scoring higher on good teaching practice. There are disciplinary differences, too.

Slightly more than an average proportion of staff in the Social Sciences report good teaching practices. They are highly committed to promoting student independence, experience a fairly high level of teaching‐research synergy and have high intrinsic academic motivation. There is large‐scale consensus among Arts staff with university Arts academics scoring highest on promoting student independence, academic motivation, and teaching‐research synergy, and academics in CAE Arts departments scoring highest of all on good teaching practices.

Science staff seem to have different academic values and practices. Their academic motivation is about “average”, and fewer science academics report good teaching practices or practices that promote student independence. In their own work they also experience less teaching‐research synergy. Engineering staff show the lowest academic motivation, least commitment to student independence, experience least teaching‐research synergy, and report below average good teaching practices.

Health Science staff are akin to staff in Arts and Social Sciences in areas concerned with students, e.g. good teaching practices and promotion of student independence. In the areas which tap into their values as academics, e.g. academic motivation and teaching‐research synergy, they seem to be more like science and engineering staff.

Commerce/Law staff were on all aspects somewhere in the middle.  相似文献   


5.
The results of a survey made in 1986 of French students and former students who had received their baccalauréat's at the end of 1982‐1983 academic year are presented below. They give a breakdown of which students enrolled in which post‐secondary course programmes and which type of baccalauréat augured best for success in university studies.

  相似文献   


6.
Background: People’s perceptions of scientists have repeatedly been investigated using the Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST). The test is used to identify people’s (stereotypical) images of scientists, which might affect attitudes towards science and science-related career choices.

Purpose: The current study has two goals. (1) Applying the DAST at a university in South Africa, the study will add to the existing research literature through its Southern African context. (2) The study will also look more closely at the link between (stereotypical) images of scientists and science-related career choices.

Sample: The DAST was applied to first-year students (n = 445) across different faculties at a South African university. If the assumption that young people’s perceptions of scientists influence their career choice is correct, one would expect differences in the drawings made by students who have opted for different fields of study.

Design and methods: The DAST was administered during orientation week of the first-year students in January 2017. Students were provided with a prepared blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a scientist and to fill in further information on the back of the paper. A content analysis applying the DAST checklist was used to analyse the images.

Results: The findings show that South African students use about four stereotypical indicators when drawing a scientist, and social science students drew stereotypical attributes more frequently when compared to students from other faculties. A typical scientist – as depicted in this study – is a man of uncertain age, who wears eyeglasses and a lab coat, and is surrounded by laboratory equipment.

Conclusions: Findings are largely in line with the international research literature. To challenge gender stereotypes, more contact between students and female role models might be essential. If (stereotypical) images really affect science-related career choices deserves further attention in future research studies.  相似文献   


7.
University teachers often see first‐year as a training ground for students, acculturating them to university expectations and requirements following their secondary school experience. By later years, students are typically expected to know what is required of a ‘university student’. However, the assumption behind this is that different academic staff hold similar views of university teaching and learning and that those teaching first and later years would be in agreement on what is expected of a student at different levels — an assumption which was implicit in the university department described in this article.

The aim of this article is to present the range of views shown by academic staff within one department about the relative roles and responsibilities of staff as teachers and of students as learners at first‐year level. This is of interest because, at least in this department, the degree of variation which was found was unexpected, generating unrealistic expectations and assumptions about students. This led‐to‐the generation of departmental strategies for improving communication about such issues amongst staff, with the intention of making differing views explicit. The lesson which may be of general value is the importance of ensuring structured opportunities for staff within departments to share their views and expectations about teaching and learning.  相似文献   


8.
Background Data commentary, in-text comments on the visual presentation of data, is acknowledged as a central aspect of academic writing in many engineering disciplines. At the same time, it is a feature that has been shown to be challenging for students. One of the genres in which data commentary plays a significant role in many engineering disciplines is the master’s thesis. Comparatively little research has been done on the process of master thesis supervision, and combining the study of data commentary and master’s thesis supervision is therefore particularly interesting.

Purpose This study explores the challenges of data commentary writing through interviews with master’s students and thesis supervisors of chemical engineering.

Sample and method Master’s students at a Swedish university were invited to participate in a workshop about the writing of data commentary. Nine master’s students and five supervisors were interviewed about what is difficult and important about writing data commentaries in their discipline as well as about decisions made in data commentaries written by the students. The interviews were divided into a semi-structured and a discourse-based part.

Results Our results indicate that data commentary comes with a variety of challenges. Among the most difficult and important aspects are selection of content and clarity. The study also indicates a close connection between data commentary and disciplinary learning in chemical engineering, suggesting that highlighting data commentary in the teaching of master’s thesis writing will be time well spent.

Conclusions In order to make the teaching and learning of data commentary effective in the context investigated, we propose that important measures are: the development of a shared metalanguage among students and supervisors, a genre approach, and collaboration between engineering and communication faculty.  相似文献   


9.
This article describes the results of a workshop that was held in Valencia during the annual conference of SEFI in 2004. The authors give remarks on the results supported by relevant and recent research. In the workshop, where about 35 participants were present, the following questions were discussed and answered:

Which factors indicate that an institute of higher engineering education is woman friendly? How can we rank these factors and what is the weight of the factors? What initiatives did your institute or other institutions of your country make to increase the percentage of female academic staff and to attract and retain more female students?  相似文献   


10.
The results of an extensive survey of distance education students are used in a discussion of whether external students desire academic support. The conclusion is that the overwhelming body of students consider academic support valuable in remediating problems with the study package. Meetings are more likely to be attended if they are lecturer/tutor initiated and focus on learning difficulties or problems encountered in interpreting the learning package.

Provision of academic support through study centres is compared to provision through residential schools. The facilities needed to offer academic support through study centres are discussed. Changes in the mode of offering academic support are considered in the light of developments in computer and communication technology.  相似文献   


11.
The delivery of postgraduate courses to registered nurses is faced with the challenge of providing learning opportunities which accommodate a wide range of backgrounds and which draw upon the students' clinical experiences as well as upon conventional academic sources. Courses not providing such opportunities may be devalued by the students and perceived by them as removed from, and irrelevant to, clinical practice.

This paper describes a course which appears to have been successful both in providing for background diversity and in securing the integration of academic content and the clinical experiences of postgraduate nursing students. The course uses a problem based learning approach to cover concepts and principles relating to patient education and aspects of clinical teaching. The rationale of the approach and an outline of its features are provided.

The procedures used to evaluate the course are also described. The qualitative and quantitative data realised by these procedures indicate that the course was perceived by the students to be stimulating, interesting and consonant with their clinical needs and aspirations. The data also show that the main cognitive objective of the course was achieved by a substantial proportion of the students but that students would benefit from receiving more assistance with their learning skills.

It is concluded that the form of problem based learning used in the course can provide for the postgraduate educational needs of nurses from diverse professional and academic backgrounds.  相似文献   


12.
This paper presents the preliminary work for developing guidelines to ensure that industry-sponsored projects in first-year courses aid, not hamper, retention of students. Specifically, the overall research plan includes the following steps: (1) investigating the appropriateness of industry projects in a required introduction to engineering design course (approximately 1000 students per year), (2) assessing the impact of industry-sponsored projects on first-year students' learning and retention, and (3) promoting an awareness of issues involved in successfully introducing industry projects in the first year. It is expected that the outcomes of this work will result in guidelines widely applicable by other institutions looking into or currently using industry projects in the first year, thereby addressing the recognized national need of increasing retention rates, especially amongst women and minorities.

This paper covers a review of potential factors affecting industry-sponsored projects' appropriateness at the first year, and related preliminary data.  相似文献   


13.
This article is based on a series of studies of students at the University of Jyväskylä conducted by the author in 1981, 1984, and 1986. The series focussed on the life‐stages of students, asking such questions as what the basic life‐world structures of students are, how the ability of students to think scientifically develops, and what characterizes the period of university studies as a stage of life. The data were collected by interviewing a total of 204 students who had reached different stages in their studies and represented different disciplines. The method used was that of the semi‐structured thematic interview; the data were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The life‐styles of students and their problems change during the courses of their individual academic experiences. A freshman's problems centre around the loosening of home ties and the learning of independent responsibility. During the next two years, the studies themselves and student‐life assume a central position, while questions relating to the founding of a family, entering work‐life, and the risk of experiencing financial difficulties come to the fore at the end of the undergraduate period. The development of the scientific thinking of students lines up with the life‐stages sketched above. The initial emphasis on the learning of facts gives way to a relativistic and critical way of appraising science and research. This more sophisticated approach to knowledge can lead to a personal theoretical point of view and to individual commitments at the end of the academic experience.  相似文献   


14.
Primary objective. To examine perceptions of academic quality and approaches to studying in students taking six technology courses by distance education.

Research design. Students taking four courses received an end-of-course questionnaire. The following year, students taking all six courses received a mid-course questionnaire.

Method. The Course Experience Questionnaire and the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory were administered in a postal survey to 3539 students of the UK Open University.

Outcomes and results. Across successive levels of study, students were progressively less likely to adopt a deep approach, were more likely to adopt a surface approach and rated their courses less favourably, especially with regard to the workload and materials. Between the middle and end of a course, students were more likely to adopt a deep approach and gave more positive ratings with regard to the materials and amount of choice.

Conclusions. The survey instruments can be recommended as useful tools for monitoring the experiences of engineering and technology students.  相似文献   


15.
The author draws upon his experience as Director of one of the ‘new’ Dutch teacher training institutions, for lower‐secondary pupils, created after the Mammoth Act of 1968. Although outside the university system, they have been subject to university supervision, which led to some problems. The relationship, for example, is hierarchaic, and many universities and professors are interested only in the academic subject. There has been a progressive move away from university dominance.

Considerable effort has gone into the creation of an institutional strategy. While each of the ‘new’ colleges was free to choose its own approach, that adopted at the SOL Utrecht was radical. On the basis of the identification of the needs of future teachers, teams of specialists from different areas—for example, pedagogues as well as subject specialists —were brought together to plan, as a team, for the courses offered. This approach makes heavy demands on staff attitudes, which must be allowed for.

The school practice experience is important, and carefully planned for. Also, much use is made of audio‐visual media, including videotaping of lectures, once course content has been fixed.

The institution is committed to an integrated approach to the training of teachers.  相似文献   


16.
Background: In recent research, affective learning environments and affective support have been receiving increasing attention for their roles in stimulating students’ learning outcomes. Despite its raising importance, little is known about affective support in educational contexts in developing countries. Moreover, international student assessment programmes (e.g. PISA and TIMSS) reveal poor science proficiency of students in most of those countries, which provokes the question of how to make positive changes in students’ perspectives and attitudes in science.

Purpose: In the current study, the purpose was to investigate the relations among perceived teacher affective support (PTAS), academic emotions (academic enjoyment, academic anxiety, and academic hopelessness), academic self-efficacy and behavioural engagement in elementary school science classrooms in Turkey.

Sample: A total of 633 fourth- and fifth-grade students in eight elementary schools in Istanbul, Turkey were participated in the study.

Design and methods: A self-report questionnaire was administered to participating students. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Results: Findings showed that PTAS was both directly and indirectly related to the given variables. PTAS was found to be significantly positively associated with students’ academic enjoyment, academic self-efficacy and behavioural engagement and significantly negatively related to their academic anxiety and academic hopelessness in science classrooms. An important finding is that the total effect of PTAS on behavioural engagement, a factor strongly associated with academic success in all disciplines, was as strong as the effect of students’ perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs in science.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that PTAS may help promoting positive emotions and motivation among students in science classrooms, eventually leading to more desirable attitudes and achievement outcomes in science. Teacher affective support deserves greater recognition from researchers, educational policy-makers, administrators and teachers to build better learning conditions for all students.  相似文献   


17.
Background: The high rates of attrition in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes causes concern over a future shortage of graduates entering STEM careers. Students’ first year experiences critically affect their motivation and are therefore also critical components of students’ academic success in terms of retention, learning and subsequent performance.

Purpose: This study explores STEM students’ encounters with an interdisciplinary first year. Specifically, motivational patterns towards learning in two introductory courses followed by students from multiple study programmes are investigated.

Sample: 173 Danish undergraduate students enrolled in three science programmes: biomedicine; biochemistry and molecular biology; and physics.

Design and methods: Within the framework of Self-Determination Theory, a measure of autonomous and controlled motivation forms the basis for quantitative analyses (n = 173). A qualitative thematic analysis of students’ open responses further supplements and gives nuance to the findings.

Results: The motivational pattern of physics students is found to differ significantly from that of biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) students and biomedicine students. The comments reveal that some students struggle to realise the relevance of the course content for their chosen study programme to an extent that makes them reconsider their study choice.

Conclusions: The study offers input to the discussion of how to present inter- and/or multidisciplinarity to students and points to implications on two levels: curriculum design and course content. The findings are of importance to educational planners, decision-makers and teachers dealing with the motivational range that exists within their courses.  相似文献   


18.
In order to keep on developing the European dimension of engineering education, the European Commission decided to launch the thematic network Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe (E4) to continue the work done in the previous thematic network, Higher European Engineering Education (H3E). As in H3E, the input of students was considered to be important and valuable, and thus needed also in this new thematic network. As contacts had already been made with the Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) that had participated in H3E, and the cooperation had proved to be fruitful and reliable, BEST was chosen as the channel to get student presence inside the Thematic Network.

It is an understatement to say that students as a whole are an important stakeholder in education, since it is in fact the students that are the actual recipients of education. After all, what would be the point of education without students? The question seems absurd, yet it is very often the case that students are not even consulted when changes are considered and implemented. That students should take part in the shaping of education needs to be recognized as something as self-evident as students taking part in education itself.

The views of the students can indeed in several cases be more original and innovative than those of professors or other academics, and of course take better into account the students' own needs. Professors and academics have, or at least should have, more knowledge and experience than students, but at the same time we must all realize that the environment around us changes, sometimes very fast, and what was good at one time sometimes does not work anymore. Students are young and still fresh with ideas, without yet having been fixed into a particular way of thinking, thus being able to come up with new ideas for improvement, in this case for engineering education. Thus it is not only natural that students should be involved in educational changes because of their position as its recipients, but also because they constitute a source of innovation and freshness in its own right, something that should not be overlooked.

The participation of students in the thematic network E4, via BEST, has allowed engineering students from around Europe to participate in the development of engineering education and their views to be made public to those who decide on how they are educated.  相似文献   


19.
Background: The sophistication of students’ conceptions of science learning has been found to be positively related to their approaches to and outcomes for science learning. Little research has been conducted to particularly investigate students’ conceptions of science learning by laboratory.

Purpose: The purpose of this research, consisting of two studies, was to explore Taiwanese university science-major students’ conceptions of learning science by laboratory (CLSL).

Sample: In Study I, interview data were gathered from 47 university science-major students. In Study II, 287 university science-major students’ responses to a CLSL survey were collected.

Design and methods: In Study I, the interview data were analyzed using the phenomenographic method. Based on the findings derived from Study I, Study II developed an instrument for assessing students’ CLSL by exploratory factor analysis.

Results: Study I revealed six categories of CLSL, including memorizing, verifying, acquiring manipulative skills, obtaining authentic experience, reviewing prior learning profiles, and achieving in-depth understanding. The factor analysis in Study II revealed that the ‘verifying’ category was eliminated, but found another new category of ‘examining prior knowledge.’

Conclusions: This study finally proposes a framework to describe the variations of CLSL, consisting of three features: cognitive orientation, metacognitive orientation, and epistemic orientation. Possible factors influencing students’ CLSL are also discussed.  相似文献   


20.
Background: As one part of scientific meta-knowledge, students’ meta-modelling knowledge should be promoted on different educational levels such as primary school, secondary school and university. This study focuses on the assessment of university students’ meta-modelling knowledge using a paper–pencil questionnaire.

Purpose: The general purpose of this study was to assess and to describe university students’ meta-modelling knowledge. More specifically, it was analysed to what extent the meta-modelling knowledge, as expressed in a questionnaire, depends on the scientific discipline to which university students relate their answer and the concrete model to which they refer while answering.

Sample: N = 184 students from one German university voluntarily participated in this study.

Design and methods: The questionnaire was developed based on a theoretical framework for model competence and includes constructed response items asking about the purpose of models, ways for testing models and reasons for changing models. Students written answers were first analysed qualitatively based on the theoretical framework to decide whether they expressed advanced understandings or not. Further analyses then were conducted quantitatively.

Results: Findings suggest that only few university students possess an advanced meta-modelling knowledge. However, significant more students who relate their answers to the STEM-disciplines expressed advanced understandings than those who referred to social sciences or linguistics/philology. Furthermore, university students who expressed an advanced meta-modelling knowledge referred to rather abstract kinds of models in order to explain their view.

Conclusions: The present study supports the assumption that meta-modelling knowledge may be situated and contextualised. Both the scientific discipline and the concrete model to which university students refer seem to be relevant item features influencing university students’ expressed meta-modelling knowledge. Implications for assessment and teaching are discussed in the article.  相似文献   


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