Student Experience Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Educational Research

Group works have become an integral component of modern education system. The focus of this study is to explore the students' perception of group works. Based on a pilot study with 64 students and subsequent study with 274 participants, this research provides a holistic reading on group works from students' perspectives. The study analyses relative preference of students between individual and group assignments, advantages and disadvantages of group works and the strategies followed by the students in the process. The study also explores students' perception of free riding, peer evaluation and practical issues that teachers need to consider in designing group works. Analyses are conducted to capture the differences in perception based on the gender, academic performance and year of study of the participants.

2025, 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

A three-week 'Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics' course was taught to a diverse group of 12 rising high school seniors during the summer. The class was scheduled for three hours per day, and consisted of a mixture of lecture, hands-on experiments, and activities focused on the societal implications of fluid mechanics. All of the students had only basic physics knowledge, and the majority of the course material was completely new to them. Therefore, each topic was covered from a concepts perspective, with only simple mathematical analyses. In addition to the technical material, the course utilized discussions, presentations, and a field trip to university research facilities to raise awareness of careers in science and engineering and the impact of these fields on quality of life. Course outcomes were assessed through course evaluations, interest surveys, and a concept inventory. The concept inventory was designed to assess the students' fundamental understanding of fluid mechanics principles, and was administered both before and after the course. The interest evaluations inquired about the students' interest in science and engineering, knowledge of careers and college majors, and familiarity with fluid mechanics and its role in society. Student responses generally indicated that the course was effective at increasing their awareness of science, engineering, and fluid mechanics, and their consideration of those subjects as career options. Anonymous post-course student evaluations were consistently high. Because the students voluntarily enrolled in the class, it is believed that a high level of interest in science and engineering already existed for these particular students. The concept inventory and course and interest evaluations clearly showed that the students' knowledge of fluid mechanics and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) was strengthened even further by their participation.

2025

This study explores the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in luxury Greek and Cypriot hotels. The objectives of this study were to identify the impact of the pandemic on the primary functions of operations management, people management, sales & revenue management, and customer expectations in luxury hotels through a comparative perspective. It also seeks to explore any differences among general managers in the two countries in mitigating the effects of the pandemic.

2025

2025, Perceptual and Motor Skills

There is a need for a questionnaire that quantifies what students actually experience during martial arts (MA) training. Although no such measure exists, having one would allow researchers to identify the specific components of the MA training experience that may benefit participants’ health outcomes, and permit MA training organizations to implement control and consistency measures. In this article we report the development and psychometric properties of the Martial Arts Inventory (MAI). This study comprised three phases: (a) question development, (b) exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and (c) a correlational validity demonstration. We developed a 106 item questionnaire and then used exploratory factor analysis ( n = 252) to extract eight distinct factors (meditative training, respectful discipline, positive training environment, streaming, training behaviour, heavy training, goal orientation, and physical challenge) that were represented by 48 items. We demonstrated convergent val...

2025, The Physics Teacher

The impressions we make as instructors of physics can affect student learning and public perception of physics teachers, physics as an academic subject, and physics as a profession. There are many sources from which we can collect evidence of these impressions. Among these sources are online public forums such as those at the Internet site known as YouTube. Whether we are proud of these impressions we make or not, we should consider how constructive these impressions are for our students' physics learning and their impact on the public perception of physics and the community of physicists.

2025, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

Ce document s'inscrit dans une série de contributions publiées par le Conseil national d'évaluation du système scolaire (Cnesco) sur la thématique : Éducation à l'orientation Les opinions et arguments exprimés n'engagent que les auteurs... more

2025

The characteristics and c:xperience of mature students at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth were examined in a study in which data were collected from the following: detailed questionnaire mailed to all 298 mature students registered at NUI Maynooth and returned by 164 (55%) of them; semistructured interviews with a sample of 20 individuals selected from the 164 respondents based on certain demographic characteristics; and 4 focus groups. Policy regarding national and international changes in higher education (HE) was reviewed along with the literature on financial issues affecting mature students in HE, mature students' relationships and external commitments, and the learning process. The typical mature student was young, single, and childless. Although finance was not the most crucial issue for the respondents, it always lay close to the surface. The main motivations cited for entering the university were to obtain a qualification that would jump-start their careers and to prove to themselves that they could get a degree. Those who entered the university with vocational ambitions were most likely to be successful. Twenty-two policy proposals were formulated. (Twenty-four tables/figures are included. Appended are a description of the study methodology and the study questionnaire. The bibliography contains 60 references.) (MN)

2025, Metropolitan universities

2025, International review of business research papers

This study investigates the impact of class size on student engagement and student performance. It is based on an analysis of student university enter scores, student grades and student evaluations in metropolitan, regional and rural campuses of an Australian universityduring trimester 1 of years 2008, 9 & 10. Past literature appears to support the predominant influence of the class size effect on learning, though some findings are mixed and inconclusive. Contrary to the accepted view that higher entry level scores result in higher grades and, conversely, lower entry level scores result in lower grades, the findings suggest that factorsother than entry level scores, contribute to student outcomes and student engagement. The study reveals that student satisfaction of teaching quality is higher in the rural and regional campuses where the cohorts are smaller than at the metropolitan campus. This may be an indication that class size seems to have a predominant influence on student engagement and learning outcomes.

2025

This is the published version: Arambewela, Rodney and Hall, John 2006, Responding to the learner diversity: an inquiry into the delivery of a second year marketing unit, in ANZMAC 2006: advancing theory,

2025

Progresse rapidement dans le monde le modèle de financement des études supérieures qui combine le " partage des coûts " et l'endettement des étudiants. Ce texte montre que : (i) adoptés à l'exclusion l'un de l'autre, la hausse des droits d'inscription et le financement des études par l'emprunt sont - sous certaines conditions - compatibles avec le maintien des systèmes d'enseignement supérieur publics; (ii) ensemble, ils constituent un moyen de décomposer ces systèmes et - combinés avec les principes du New Public Management - de construire les marchés des services de l'enseignement supérieur; (iii) là où ils ont été conjointement mis en œuvre, l'observation des logiques des acteurs sur les marchés de l'enseignement, des services financiers et du travail laisse à penser que les résultats s'avèrent contraires aux objectifs affichés d'efficacité et d'équité.

2025, Academic Medicine

To identify aspects that influence students' evaluation of the overall quality of clerkships and learning in clinical settings. The authors analyzed 2,450 questionnaires dated 1997 through 2005 that evaluated clerkships of seven medical specialties (internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry, community medicine, emergency medicine, and obstetrics-gynecology). Students rated 22 questionnaire items addressing clerkships' global evaluation and domains related to structure, supervision, and clinical and problemsolving learning (PSL) activities using a five-point Likert scale. The authors performed statistical analysis using principal component analysis and regression analysis of items associated with students' global evaluation of clerkships. Correlation between clerkships' global ratings and ratings derived from the evaluation questionnaire was 0.871 (P Ͻ .0001). Clerkships' quality was mainly related to their organization, students' integration into clerkship, improvement of clinical skills, supervision, and residents' availability (r 2 ϭ 0.405; P Ͻ .0001). Among learning activities, opportunities for clinical practice predominated as the contributing factor to the overall perceived quality of most clerkships, but less than PSL activities in psychiatry (r 2 ϭ 0.070 versus 0.261, respectively; P Ͻ .001) and community medicine (r 2 ϭ 0.126 versus 0.298, respectively; P Ͻ .001); in surgery, both clinical practice and PSL activities contributed minimally to the clerkships' perceived quality (r 2 ϭ 0.150 and 0.148, respectively; P Ͼ .05).

2025, System

The Context of the research. This project was funded by Greater Manchester Aimhigher as one aspect of its remit in relation to raising aspirations and attainment. Foundation degrees, as a new work related qualification, were provided nationally from 2001. In general, however, they were developed by individual departments in HEIs or by two or three colleges and a HEI and although there was collaboration in the bidding process for extra foundation degree numbers the knowledge of the state of play in the sub-region was contained in HESA press releases. HESA collects data from HEIs in November but publication of these takes some time. This research project was an attempt to detail what was going on out there in institutions and what exactly were the experiences of practitioners, employers and students of foundation degrees in the sub-region. Foundation degrees in Greater Manchester are strongest in the Public Sector as they have become the vehicle for modernisation in education, health and local government. All three areas have workforce development needs related to Public Sector Agreements and the development of new roles and functions such as the Higher Level Teaching Assistant, Trainee Assistant Practitioner and the changing functions of a responsive local government. Two types of data provide the basis of analysis in the mapping exercise. One is HESA data for 2001-04 and the second type of data is drawn from contact with HEIs and FECs through e-mail and interviews. This descriptive data provides the basis for some generalisations about Greater Manchester and the trend in foundation degree development in the sub-region. The Public Sector accounts for 90% of foundation degrees in Greater Manchester. Over 80% of those on foundation degrees in Greater Manchester are female. HESA (2004, PR 73) data indicate that 72% of enrolments nationally in 2002 were female. On some full-time foundation degrees in Greater Manchester, such as Computing, over 90% of the students are male although the numbers are much smaller than in the work-based Public Sector foundation degrees.

2025, Research in Mathematics Education

We seek to illuminate reasons why undertaking mathematics coursework assessment as part of an alternative post-compulsory, pre-university scheme led to higher rates of retention and completion than the traditional route. We focus on the students' experience of mathematical activity during coursework tasks, which we observed to be qualitatively different to most of the other learning activities observed in lessons. Our analysis of interviews found that these activities offered: (i) a perceived greater depth of understanding; (ii) motivation and learning through modelling and use of technology; (iii) changes in pedagogies and learning activities that supported student-centred learning; and (iv) assessment that better suited some students. Teachers' interviews reinforced these categories and highlighted some motivational aspects of learning that activity during coursework tasks appears to provide. Thus, we suggest that this experience offered some students different learning opportunities, and that this is a plausible factor in the relative success of these students.

2025

The purpose of this study was to explore pre-service science teachers' use of an interactive system, consisting of a computer, LCD projector, interactive white board, and Internet connection, to support science teaching and learning. Each participant had an access to the interactive system for the duration of the investigation. The research questions guiding the investigation included: 1. Whether teachers would use the interactive system for instructional purposes? 2. What form would this instruction take?and 3. Whether the instruction would reflect the recommendations of current science education reform documents? The results indicated that the teachers use the interactive system in substantial ways to facilitate the teaching reforms based on the science. Furthermore, the results support the use of explicit approaches to prepare the pre-service teachers to use educational technology for inquiry instruction, modelling of effective uses of digital images and video clips, and specific instruction on whole class inquiry methods.

2025

The project of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia “A computer for each child “is in a process of realization. Meanwhile, TEMPUS, the project whose beholder is The Faculty of Pedagogy of The University of “Goce Delcev“ in Stip, in which a few elementary and high schools from Eastern Macedonia are also included , is in a process of realization as well. One of the achievements of the project itself is introducing the active board in the educational process. Various educational contents can be displayed and be presented in a way that makes learning challenging, fun and active. The active board is a window towards the world, a world in which the new technology is about to arrive! The goal of this project is to realize the advantages and disadvantages of using the active board in the traditional and contemporary education, for learning the contents of the subject “Introducing the environment” for third grade in the nine-grade primary education.

2025, The Internet and Higher Education

In this study the intent was to determine if the problems with technology that graduate students experience in online classes is related to their evaluations of their instructors. Participants included 131 graduate students in a College of Education. They were from 19 sections of five different online courses. In these courses, students took tests, found information, and participated in chat rooms, discussions, or emails with instructors. A university teaching evaluation scale was used in this study to measure students' perceptions of teaching effectiveness. A second instrument called Survey of Student Experiences in Online Courses measured technological problems students experienced in the online course and the detrimental effect these problems might have had on students' learning. A new variable was created and called impact score. This was the product of the frequency and detrimental effect for each activity. Results showed a positive relationship (r of .26, p = .003) which indicated that the more frequently students experienced technology problems or the more severely their problems impeded learning, the higher they evaluated the instructor and the course.

2025

This research study investigated student involvement/engagement based on educational origin. The 190 students in the sample graduated with bachelors ’ degrees from a public university in the southeastern United States in either 2006 or 2007. Results of the data analysis showed that students were involved/engaged at their university on statistically different levels based on their educational origin. Indigenous students were different from the transfer students but the transfer students were the same regardless from where they originated. The indigenous students were the most involved, followed by transfers from junior/community colleges. Transfer students from four-year colleges and universities were the least involved/engaged.

2025, Global Pathways: Insights on Studying, Working, and Thriving Abroad

This book presents a diverse collection of narratives that explore the experiences of studying and working abroad, highlighting resilience, mentorship, and cross-cultural understanding in today’s interconnected world.

2025

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION KNOWLEDGE REVIEW Teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education

2025

This is a group work about The importance of assessment and evaluating Exam

2025

HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2025

BACKGROUND From 2019, science students at the University of Sydney will be required to have high school mathematics. Our research has highlighted biology students lack confidence in mathematics (e.g. Quinnell & Wong, 2007; Quinnell, Thompson & LeBard, 2013; LeBard, Thompson & Quinnell, 2014) and this lack of confidence can be associated with anxiety. We are interested in whether the new HSC maths requirement will impact biology students’ attitudes to, and conceptions of, mathematics, particularly mathematics confidence. Here we offer an early assessment using current data. APPROACHES We surveyed first year biology students in 2015 and 2018 using the Attitudes to Mathematics survey instrument (modified from Fennema and Sherman, Doepken et al; confidence n=12, usefulness n=12), would recommend maths to others (Wismath & Worrall, 2015; n=2), conceptions of Biology (Quinnell, May, Peat & Taylor, 2005; fragmented n=10 and cohesive n=10), and conceptions of mathematics (Crawford, Gordon, ...

2025, THE REFLECTION ON THE NECESSITY OF LEARNING THEORIES IN TEACHING

The article discusses the necessity of learning theories in teaching. It refers to three learning theories such as constructivism, behaviorism and cognitivism. It describes the role of learning theories in teaching. The article gives a comprehensive and clear idea of necessity of using learning theories. This article will be useful for teachers who are in constant search of effective methods of teaching that motivate students, reveal their potential, independent thinking and other skills.

2025

Biomedical science students represent an essential resource for the future scientific workforce. As research scientists are more than their content specialities they must embody core values that govern the development and certification of knowledge. However, the ethos of science is often overlooked in University education in favour of increasing levels of content delivery. This results in graduates with rich content knowledge but limited ability in the generic skills and ethos of a research scientist. To address these concerns, authentic scientific research and communication experiences based on an apprenticeship model were developed to provide realistic insight into scientific ethos and to foster critical thinking, analytical and communication skills. By adapting transitional pedagogy commonly associated with First Year Experience and the Research Skills Development framework, our research-led teaching initiatives allowed students who were considering a career in science true insight into what such a career entails. Students take on the role of 'scientists in training', stepping out of their academic comfort zone within a safe environment where 'perfect' data is no longer generated and adapting to setbacks forms part of the learning process. Success is reflected by positive feedback from students and peers, increased assessment performance, and graduates continuing in science careers.

2025

Five qualitatively different conceptions of PBL in virtual space were discovered, and each reveals variation in how students attend to learning by PBL in virtual space. Results indicate that PBL in virtual space when appropriately designed with respect to students' online learning experience can: 1) be responsible for making students aware of deeper ways of experiencing PBL in virtual space, and 2), engender graduate attributes and capabilities of problem solving, ability to transfer basic knowledge to reallife scenarios, ability to adapt to changes and apply knowledge in unusual situations, ability to think critically and creatively, and a commitment to continuous life-long learning and self-improvement.

2025

Assessment is resource intensive and assessment practices that help learners to become more self-reliant over time promote both efficiency and sustained learning. However, taking the necessary longitudinal approach to assessment is difficult when programmes are modularised and fragmented. This paper proposes that formative assessment could be used to link modules through providing learners with an assessment career. In an assessment career, learners are enabled to transfer learning from feedback from one module to the next and appreciate their longer-term progress. A variety of assessment career interventions were piloted in 5 programmes and the impact on learner identities was explored. Some early results will be presented as part of a vision of post-modularisation.

2025, The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

This study explores the narratives of eight students who served as journal reviewers on a non-courserelated service activity. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of their experiences. The review board was multi-disciplinary in composition; the majority of its student and faculty members were from communities historically excluded from, and marginalized within, structures of U.S. higher education. Student engagement in learning how to manage an online journal fostered academic socialization through collaboration and collective learning. Students' perceptions of the benefits of working on the journal were categorized across five themes: Academic Career Enhancement, Practicing Faculty Work, Illuminating Faculty Roles, Demystifying Writing for Publication, and Grappling with Prioritization. The benefits and challenges of promoting academic socialization through service learning and mentorship, as well as showing how service engagement can be integrated in academic ...

2025

Universities are increasingly looking Learning Gains as a means for the effective measurement of student progress and the contribution they make to their students’ learning and development. However, there remains much to understand about the validity and reliability of these measures used. This paper seeks to probe the relationship between how students understand and interpret the learning gains they experience and the proxy measures of learning gain such as assessment marks universities use. The findings are based on an analysis of nineteen semi-structured interviews of UK distance learners. The paper will present key findings and discuss their significance in respect to how to reconcile students own experience of gain and proxy measures of gain and the assumptions on which learning gain measures are predicated.

2025, The Australian Educational Researcher

Situated within the many post-pandemic questions around patterns of student engagement and student choice, this paper explores the topic of why university students choose to attend campus on a day-today basis. This work builds on recent inquiry into the purpose of campus within broader narratives of university life, including notions of being a student and belonging to one's institution. It is also positioned within student experience scholarship, which broadly engages with the complexities of delivering high-quality tertiary education to diverse student cohorts. Using student engagement as a conceptual lens, this paper reports on a study of twenty students within an Australia-based faculty of design. Semistructured interviews explored how students engage with their studies and the faculty, including the factors influencing their ongoing decisions around when and why to come to campus, stay and leave. Findings underscore the importance of environmental quality and atmosphere, as well as meaningful social connections, for driving on-campus engagement. The study also suggests that, whilst the push towards flexibility has granted students the ability to manage how, where and when they engage, this may also come with risks like feelings of disconnection. In addition to making an empirical contribution to student experience and student engagement scholarship, the focus on a single, multidisciplinary faculty is meant to prompt reflection on the relative benefits for approaching student experience at this particular scale.

2025, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

Latinx students are a growing population in postsecondary education but attain degrees at a pace behind their non-Latinx peers. This research examines a partnership between a research university (RU) and career and technical education (CTE) high school, Hillside Technical High School (HTHS). Through a two-year ethnographic case study, we found that different logistics and cultural values were primary contributors to the bifurcated pathway between high school and college. These pathways were most successfully connected through strategies such as flexibility, personal relationships, and incorporation of community resources as well as viewing the students as resources. Our study suggests a need to reframe partnerships in recognition of the assets that students bring to these efforts, while also creating opportunities for additional faculty support and community involvement.

2025

Leaders are constantly faced with problems or situations which force them to make decisions and act without having any learned, practiced, or habitual solutions. In circumstances like these, it is imperative to assert one's creative thinking powers and "leap beyond" convention wisdom. In leadership education, we discuss that creativity is important but we barely scratch the surface of how we can teach and empower creativity and the creative process to our learners. If leaders are continually challenged to use creativity, then it is imperative that we, as leadership educators, provide our learners with the tools to be effective creative thinkers. This presentation will address that need and convey some strategies to enhance the creativity of our students. At the conclusion of this session the participant (learner) will be able to: 1. Identify the relationship between leadership and creativity 2. Analyze current leadership education programs and practice for the application of creativity 3. Develop enhanced leadership curriculum with regards to creativity and the creative process

2025, Proceedings of the 2004 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Careers, culture, and ethics in a networked environment

This research-in-progress paper reports on a National Science Foundation funded project aimed at examining ways to engage women and girls in courses of study that will qualify and motivate them for information technology (IT)-related careers. This Information Technology Work Force (ITWF) award provides support to investigate 15 tertiary education programs in information systems, information science, instructional systems technology, and informatics, with computer science programs as a baseline comparison, in five major IT degree-granting institutions. The purpose of the study is to systematically investigate the contribution of organizational culture to student experiences and outcomes, determining factors that favor female success over time. The programs are hypothesized to be differentially responsive to female students due to differences in academic culture, operationalized in terms of the availability of mentorship, role models, peer support networks, grant programs, and other resources at the departmental, university, and disciplinary levels. These measures of organizational culture will be correlated with measures of student outcomes and self-reports of student experiences. Data about students' experiences will be collected through a web-based survey of a sample of 5,000 students, followed by three face-to-face interviews with an estimated 155 students, over-sampling for females, over a two-year period. In addition, faculty, administrators and staff in the study programs will be interviewed by telephone and in person. We will have collected and analyzed the broad-based survey data by March 2004 and will be able to report these findings at the SIGCPR conference. The project will identify encouraging and discouraging factors, and produce comparative statistics, that can be used as a baseline in future research on IT education and gender. Findings can be used to inform programmatic recommendations aimed at moving more women into the IT pipeline through a diverse range of educational programs. To the extent that new IT paradigms such as are taught in schools of information, informatics, education, and business help to create those cultural associations, they can contribute to reducing the persistent gender segregation in academic IT-related programs and thus IT employment.

2025, The Journal For Undergraduate Ethnography

COVID-19 marks a time of social isolation and social change in the lives of many people. While previous literature has focused on the mental health consequences of isolation on young people, our qualitative research aims to explore the lived experiences of adolescents during the pandemic. Based on 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior year students at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin, this study seeks to determine whether both the government and school-imposed COVID-measures have impacted the social lives of our participants and to understand how they experience these potential changes. Our research found that students report a significant change in social life, but, in contrast with the existing literature, their experience of this social change is perceived as positive. These positive changes included a reported improvement in social connections, a more conscious use of social media, and the potential for more alone time. By exploring these three themes, our participants' unexpected positivity can be placed into a larger context in which the pandemic is an opportunity to forge more meaningful connections while learning to be more conscious in spending time alone in an "always-on" culture.

2025, The Qualitative Report

This paper reports on the first stage of a meta-study conducted by the authors on primary research published during the last thirty years that focused on discovering the experiences of students learning qualitative research. The authors carried out a meta-analysis of the findings of students’ experiences learning qualitative research included in twenty-five published articles. Using constructivist grounded theory to analyze the experience of those seeking to learn qualitative research, including factors that appear to support or interfere with their learning experiences, the authors identified three key dimensions of qualitative research students’ learning experiences—affective, cognitive, and experiential. Based on this analysis, the authors developed a grounded theory of qualitative research education. This theory suggests that students’ learning experiences will be enhanced through the implementation of an inductive approach to qualitative research education that incorporates exp...

2025

A student on a programming module needs to know how to solve problems, design and test programs, learn the syntax of a programming language and possess good communication skills. We had previously identified that the reason why students experience problems with programming is due to their poor problem solving ability. To attempt to alleviate these problems we integrated an alternative PBL approach into the programming module . In this paper we provide an analysis of the impact of our changes based upon qualitative and quantitative data gathered from interviewing and surveying all parties involved in the PBL process, notably lecturers in their capacity as module coordinator and problem creator, tutors in their capacity as facilitators of PBL workshops and students, including mature students, foreign students and repeat students. In addition, qualitative data gathered from the problem refinement process is presented. We believe that this research will be of particular interest to any Institution considering integrating PBL into an existing module.

2025

This paper examines the current and potential affects of the new EC2000 engineeringaccreditation criteria on the roles of faculty and administrators in engineering education. Typically, Criterion 5 (Faculty) rates the quality of an academic program's faculty by assessing the qualifications of individuals and their achievements. Criterion 7 (Institutional Support and Financial Resources) rates the adequacy of resources to help the faculty carry out their obligations. From this perspective, both criteria assume that the sum of individual faculty achievements meets the course and curricular obligations of the academic unit. This assumption is consistent with the belief that individual autonomy, a hallmark of academic work life, and its variant, academic freedom, are essential to productive scholarship, effective teaching, and many forms of professional service. The formal assessment of faculty work-whether in promotion and tenure decisions or salary allocations-reinforces this belief by focusing on the accomplishments and productivity of each individual faculty member. Our research, however, indicates that the academic unit and institution have responsibilities that transcend the sum of individual faculty achievements. We call these collective responsibilities. Further, our research indicates that leadership is as important as the adequacy of resources in ensuring that academic units meet all of their collective course and curricular obligations. This paper offers an alternative view of Criterion 5 and Criterion 7, one consistent with meeting collective obligations and with continuous improvement.

2025, Inaugural International Forum on World Universities, Davos, Switzerland (and Virtual), 31 January -2 February 2008.

Leadership can be defined as caring about people and working toward completing a mission. Consequently, there is a strong relationship between leadership and community service (or engagement with the community). Part of the mission of the university or college should be to develop the students’ leadership skills and their feeling of commitment toward their community (at a small and local level) and society (at a large level). We present some programs that were established for this purpose, and discuss the reaction of the students to them and how these programs were successful in achieving their goals and how they helped the students define and understand leadership and participate actively in service projects for the welfare of the community.

2025

Twenty-one fourth-year college students of Mexican-American ancestry attending the University of Arizona were intExviewed to determine the unique qualities contributing to the students' persistence. The study used empowerment as its organizing model and identified institutional factors contributing to student success and persistence. Institutional factors reviewed include academic preparation, use of available student services, student/instructor interaction, and academic experiences. Among the findings were the following: financial aid and its bureaucrati processes represented a threat to students; a communal approach to family finances was typical; students reported confusion about their career options after graduation; and, minority programs were important to women students, while male students used services available to all students. Includes 47 references. (JDD)

2025

Information is presented on a study designed to learn how successful Mexican American students surmount the factors contributing to Mexican American student attrition at the University of Arizona. The subjects were from the 1985 entering freshman class. Intensive interviews were conducted with each student, and content analysis of the interviews was the method used to analyze the data. Emerging from the anecdotal, self-reported data were the common experiences relating to the persistence of Mexican American students at the university. Data divide naturally into the areas of personal behaviors and problems and institutional behaviors and problems. Only summary findings from the personal area are reviewed. Several categories relating to personal behaviors were determined (human support, financial adversity commitment, and gender differences). Findings include the following: (1) in the area of familial support, a method is needed to involve the parents in the students' education so they can develop an understanding of the challenge their child faces and (2) in the area of financial adversity there is a need for education on the meaning of financial aid and its availability. Many of the experiences noted are particular to minority groups; (for example, most have parents who are blue collar workers, and many college females have the double burden of schoolwork and pressure to marry or work while attending school while their brothers have all expenses paid). Contains 38 references. (SM)

2025

I am writing this essay with the intention to share my research experience with novice researchers in translation studies. Specifically, I would like to take on the issues of solitude and breakthroughs. In the humanities, doing research can be a lonely process. Unlike experimental scientific research, humanities disciplines often require us to read, think, and write on our own. It is exactly the individual creative or reflective experience and the researcher's receptivity and sensitivity that contribute to the uniqueness of humanistic literature. I started feeling this sense of academic loneliness in my doctoral study in England. Although there was a research group in my department, each of us in that group, coming from different countries, did very specialized research. We could give each other support, but we were very much on our own in dealing with occasional depression when none of our peers quite knew what we were working on. As a research student, I saw fellow students dropping out or being terminated for lack of progress. Some of the reasons for these incomplete

2025, International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE)

Ethnoscience learning is an activity that connects local wisdom or cultural with science concepts. A mixed method study with an embedded design was used to describe how do teachers apply ethnoscience learning to increase scientific literacy. A total of 90 students grade 8th in District Muaro Jambi were involved in this study consisted of three classes. In-depth interviews and observations were conducted to collect qualitative data. The observation was used to determine the suitability of learning with the lesson plan. Deep interviews were used to explore teacher and student experiences in implementing ethnoscience learning. A teacher and three students were randomly selected as key informants. The quantitative data were collected by scientific literacy test that consisted of ten multiple choices. It has been tested for validity and reliability. The result of the reliability test is 0.85 with a very high category. Increase in scientific literacy is measured by normalized gain (N-gain). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was applied to determine scientific literacy differences between groups. Ethnoscience learning had been implemented by teacher in three different class on topic simple machines. It was designed by integrating local wisdom as a context for finding scientific concepts. The learning was designed by following a discovery model. The implementation of ethnoscience learning can increase scientific literacy with medium category. There was no significant difference between three classes.