1,352,053 results on '"Humanities"'
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2. From Classroom to Community: Enhancing Undergraduate Research through an Interdisciplinary Cohort Model
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Renato Fakhoury and Emma Peterson
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While scholars have found that undergraduate involvement in research is beneficial, the lack of such experiences in the social sciences and humanities is glaring. This paper analyzes how an emphasis on community through cohort models impacts undergraduate student experience in research, taking from the Emerging Scholars Program, an interdisciplinary research program where cohorts of undergraduates are matched with faculty and attend meetings, workshops, and presentations together. We find that the cohort model created a robust community that fosters positive relationships that develop professional skills and emotional support, allowing students to collaborate and aim more toward their professional goals. The results from this study offer valuable insights into how universities can ensure that students have meaningful research experience beyond the classroom.
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- 2024
3. Navigating Controversial Topics in Required Diversity Courses
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Ryan A. Miller, Laura Struve, Morgan Murray, and Alex Tompkins
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Required undergraduate diversity courses often expose students to topics and worldviews which may push them out of their comfort zones and prompt dissonance and even resistance. This paper reports on interviews with 68 faculty members across 16 humanities and social science disciplines at five predominantly white institutions in the Southern United States, detailing how they navigated discussion of controversial topics in required diversity courses. Most instructors aimed to expose students to critical social issues yet were concerned that resistance could disturb the learning process. We identified 20 unique strategies for handling controversial topics in class that included proactively establishing community and safety and normalizing conflict, and reactively acknowledging and surfacing multiple perspectives, as well as connecting content to students' lived experiences. Some instructors also reported a lack of controversy or conflict in their classrooms, which they variously attributed to student characteristics or their own disinclination to promote heated discussion - which, we argue, calls into question the breadth and criteria of many institutionally defined diversity course requirements. We conclude the paper with implications for faculty, educational developers, administrators, and institutions.
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- 2024
4. The Identity Construction in Arab-Islamic Education Systems into the Experiences of People from Morocco and Syria Living in Europe
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Sara Mazzei
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In the last decade, Europe has welcomed numerous migrants and refugees from Arab countries. The presence of these migrants and refugees in schools has posed the challenge of unfamiliar realities for teaching staff. The issue has been addressed from the perspectives of sociology to psychology, providing insights into the nature of intercultural education. Few studies have delved into pupils' cultural backgrounds, and the history of one's country of origin is seldom regarded as a decisive factor in the formation of identity. The Arabic-speaking Moroccan and Syrian communities are the most significant and have interesting histories and education systems. Using Nussbaum's (2010) multifactorial analysis, this research aims to better understand the educational background of Arabic-speaking pupils, focusing on humanities and religious education of those from Morocco and Syria. The methodology embodies qualitative empirical research conducted in Europe that addressed the main factor identified by Nussbaum (2010). The results show the education experience of Syrian and Moroccan pupils was affected by their home country education policies, especially where minority and relationship issues with Europe, the West and Israel were concerned.
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- 2024
5. Rethinking the Field in Crisis: The Baltimore Field School and Building Ethical Community and University Partnerships
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Nicole King, Tahira Mahdi, and Sarah Fouts
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This Projects With Promise case study offers insights for addressing tensions between universities and communities in building partnerships and collectively rethinking "the field" of community engagement. We explore moving beyond a solely place-based understanding of "the field" into an ethos based on human interactions and mutual trust. Through an analysis of the Baltimore Field School (BFS) project, we argue that partnerships must be designed to create the time and space for self-reflexive qualitative methods that emerge from a personality-proof and sustainable infrastructure that can respond to crises and needs in both communities and universities. Rethinking and even "undoing" notions of institutional time and space within universities allows community-centered reflection that begins to cross the boundaries imposed by neoliberal institutions focused on profits above people. Exploring the distinct scholarly communities of higher education can inspire academics to rethink how universities can work with and not just for local communities.
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- 2024
6. Correlations between Motivation and Language Proficiency: A Stimulus Appraisal-Based Study on Indian Undergraduate ESL Learners
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Sarat K. Doley
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This article describes the findings of a study on the correlations between English as second language (ESL) motivation, understood as a product of the stimulus appraisal system, and writing proficiency in English among undergraduate Indian ESL learners. The principal objective of the study was to analyze the correlation between the undergraduate Indian ESL learner's motivational sub-checks/constructs, constituted using the stimulus appraisal (SA) theory of affect, and their writing proficiency in English. Additionally, it also attempted to understand the influence of sex and academic disciplines on the correlations. An ESL motivation survey was conducted using a modified version of the Attitude and Motivation Test Battery (Gardner, 1985) on students (N>350) studying in undergraduate programs in the academic disciplines of engineering, humanities, and medical sciences selected using criterion-based sampling, followed by a writing proficiency test in English. It was observed that need/compatibility factors did not significantly correlate with ESL writing proficiency in any of the three subsamples. ESL classroom-related factors within the pleasantness/novelty construct, on the other hand, significantly correlated with ESL writing proficiency. It is hoped that the insights obtained in the study should potentially help design more empirically informed pedagogical methods of ESL teaching.
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- 2024
7. Report on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes. ADE Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes
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Modern Language Association of America
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The Association of Departments of English (ADE) Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes was charged with reporting on career outcomes for English majors and minors; gathering case studies and other forms of evidence of departments' effective strategies and curricular innovations for working with students on career preparation and professional development; offering advice on how to prepare students to explain how their study has readied them for a variety of careers and developed in them skills and values that are needed by hiring institutions in a variety of economic sectors; coaching faculty members to speak knowledgeably about such matters; and helping departments explain, to a variety of constituencies, how their work meets these challenges. The committee's "Report on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes" documents that, despite myths to the contrary, English majors are employed, earn good salaries, and experience satisfaction with their career paths. The report offers six key recommendations for how departments can support students' career preparation and offers case studies from institutions with impressive career-preparation programming. [This report was published with the Association of Departments of English (ADE).]
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- 2024
8. Applying IRT Model to Determine Gender and Discipline-Based DIF and DDF: A Study of the IAU English Proficiency Test
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Sarallah Jafaripour, Omid Tabatabaei, Hadi Salehi, and Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi
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The purpose of this study was to examine gender and discipline-based Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and Differential Distractor Functioning (DDF) on the Islamic Azad University English Proficiency Test (IAUEPT). The study evaluated DIF and DDF across genders and disciplines using the Rasch model. To conduct DIF and DDF analysis, the examinees were divided into two groups: Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) and Non-Humanities and Social Sciences (N-HSS). The results of the DIF analysis showed that four out of 100 items had DIF across gender, and two items had discipline DIF. Additionally, gender DDF analysis identified one item each for Options A, B, and C, and four items for Option D. Similarly, the discipline DDF analysis revealed one item for Option A, three items for Option B, four items for Option C, and three items for Option D. The findings of this study have significant implications for test developers. The identification of potential biases in high-stakes proficiency tests can help ensure fairness and equity for all examinees. Furthermore, identifying gender DIF can shed light on potential gender-based gaps in the curriculum, highlighting areas where male or female learners may be disadvantaged or underrepresented in terms of knowledge or skills.
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- 2024
9. Humanities in Collaboration: Mentored Teaching Experiences among Humanities Graduate Students
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Nathan B. Kruse, Kimberly K. Emmons, Trista L. Powers, Derrick L. Williams, and Christine C. Wolken
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Preparing graduate students for teaching careers in academia can involve myriad approaches. One such approach is facilitating authentic teaching opportunities for graduate students. The purpose of this multiple case study was to chronicle the perspectives of four humanities graduate students as they participated in a mentored teaching experience at a community college. Specific emphases included the evolution of participants' teacher identity and how a mentored teaching experience shaped participants' future career goals. Data sources consisted of semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, journal reflections, and classroom artifacts. Participants identified the fundamental importance of mentor faculty and diverse students as drivers in their own pedagogical development and reflected on the value of interpersonal connections in education. Implications include the need for more pedagogical transparency and discussion in humanities graduate education, as well as the potential of constructing cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations to support graduate students' professional development.
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- 2024
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10. A Foundation and a Fire: Strengthening Humanities Education in Community Colleges
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Columbia University, Community College Research Center (CCRC), Cho, Selena, Bickerstaff, Susan, Sparks, Daniel, and Schanker, Jenny
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Participation in humanities coursework is vital, both for community college students pursuing credentials considered "academic" and for those in career and technical education fields who may not transfer to four-year colleges. Humanities courses help students develop foundational skills; they may also light students' fire for learning as they experience opportunities to think critically and collaborate creatively with peers. In this report, the authors present findings from research on humanities coursetaking at Michigan community colleges conducted as part of the Strengthening Michigan Humanities (MiHumanities) project. The authors analyze quantitative data, including term-over-term enrollment, coursetaking, and credential completion records for students entering Michigan community colleges between academic years 2009-10 and 2017-18, and qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with faculty, administrators, and students at a number of Michigan community colleges. They find that while community college students and faculty identify benefits they associate with participation in humanities coursework, most Michigan community college students take relatively few humanities courses outside of English Composition, and the number of students taking non-composition humanities courses has declined modestly in recent years. The use of streamlined pathways to promote program completion at community colleges makes it challenging for colleges to simply increase the number of humanities courses students are able to take within a program of study. It therefore becomes important for community colleges to make the most of the opportunities that students do have to encounter the humanities. Colleges should implement strategies that position critical thinking, argumentation, and creativity as central to the student experience, regardless of intended course of study. The authors offer ideas on how states, intermediaries, and individual institutions can bolster humanities learning among community college students across all programs of study.
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- 2023
11. Exploring the Desires to Become Academics: Reflections of Academic Women in Chinese Non-Elite Public Universities
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Boya Yuan and Li Tang
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This study explores the dynamic journey of women as they become academics in non-elite Chinese public universities. It focuses on their aspirations and the evolving subjectivity that accompanies this process. Ten participants from the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) fields, aged 28-57, were interviewed; the transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Adopting a Butlerian perspective, our findings identify two distinct subjectivities that shape Chinese women's decision to become academics: autonomous subjectivity driven by intrinsic desire and strategic subjectivity driven by instrumental desire. We argue that becoming an academic is a complex process influenced by regulatory power, including market forces, institutional and societal constraints, and gender norms, which shape the context in which the desire is pursued. It is essential to view this decision not only from the individual's perspective but also from the larger context within which it is made. This study contributes to the literature on gender equality in academia by interrogating the complexities of the decision-making processes for Chinese women pursuing academic careers in non-elite Chinese universities.
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- 2024
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12. Epistemic Injustice and Legitimacy in U.S. Doctoral Education: A Systematic Review of Literature
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Leslie D. Gonzales, Penny A. Pasque, Kyle D. Farris, and Jordan M. Hansen
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Epistemic injustice is a condition where knowers and knowledge claims are unduly dismissed. Philosophers suggest that epistemic injustice manifests in three forms: testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory. Although distinct, all forms of epistemic injustice stem from relations of power, privilege, and positionality -- where some have the opportunity and authority to legitimize the knowledge contributions of others. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of epistemic injustice in U.S. doctoral education through a systematic review of literature. We methodically searched hundreds of peer-reviewed journals for studies focused on teaching, advising, peer interaction, doctoral socialization, and other experiences concerning doctoral education across the humanities, social science, and science disciplines. We retained, reviewed, and analyzed 107 manuscripts. Our analysis revealed epistemic injustice in doctoral education as well as rules that foster the conditions for epistemic injustice. Implications for doctoral education and future research are offered.
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- 2024
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13. Cultivating Criticality in a Neoliberal System: A Case Study of an English Literature Curriculum at a Mega Distance University
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Retha Knoetze
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Neoliberal practices such as managerialism and academic casualisation impact higher education systems globally. While these practices can constrain any curriculum aimed at enabling transformative learning, this paper shows that they place particular limitations on arts and humanities curricula intent on cultivating criticality and a sense of social responsibility. I draw on data from an English literature curriculum study at a mega distance education institution in South Africa and use Legitimation Code Theory to take a close-up look at how two neoliberal practices: managerialism and academic casualisation cause misalignments between the underpinning values of the curriculum and the kinds of pedagogic and formative assessment practices that are employed. I conclude that decisions regarding administration, enrolments and staffing based on neoliberal values can frustrate students' epistemological and ontological access to humanities disciplines and limit the potential of humanities curricula to offer a higher education in service of the social good.
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- 2024
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14. Benchmarking Librarian Support of Systematic Reviews in the Sciences, Humanities, and Social Sciences
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Mê-Linh Lê, Christine J. Neilson, and Janice Winkler
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Systematic reviews, along with other types of knowledge synthesis, are a type of research methodology that attempt to find all available evidence on a topic to help answer specific questions. Librarian involvement in systematic reviews is well established in the health sciences, and in recent years there has been growing awareness of, and literature about, librarians outside of health supporting systematic reviews. This study benchmarks librarian support of systematic reviews in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences (SHSS) by looking at the growth of demand for support, the disciplines requesting this kind of librarian support, and the specific types of support needed. It also examines what SHSS librarians need to be successful in this type of work, including administrative support and workload adjustments.
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- 2024
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15. High School Academic Performance and Earnings by Postsecondary Field of Study. Economic and Social Reports. Catalogue No. 36-28-0001
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Statistics Canada and Frenette, Marc
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Selecting a field of study is an important decision made by thousands of incoming postsecondary students each year. Numerous studies have shown that graduates from engineering, business and mathematics programs earn considerably more than their counterparts from arts and humanities. These earnings disparities may reflect differences in skills that are independent of the programs themselves, rather than supply and demand conditions. Estimating earnings differences between graduates from various programs--net of pre-existing skills differences--is thus a critical first step in understanding the true value associated with the field of study choices. This article informs our understanding of this issue by estimating the earnings differences across various fields of study after adjusting for differences in high school academic performance (course marks), neighbourhood factors (income and educational attainment) and postsecondary institution effects. Using a variety of administrative data sources, British Columbia high school graduates who later completed a postsecondary certificate, diploma or bachelor's degree program in Canada were followed in the labour market for five years after postsecondary graduation. The study found that despite important differences in high school academic performance among individuals who later completed a bachelor's degree, the earnings ranking of the fields of study was not substantially altered after considering the differences in these measures. Interestingly, bachelor's degree graduates of physical and life sciences and technologies programs registered average earnings (for men) or below average earnings (for women) despite being among the top academic performers in high school. By contrast, male and female graduates of business, management and public administration programs were among the highest earners despite registering average academic performance in high school. Among certificate and diploma graduates, earnings differences by field of study were smaller than among their counterparts who graduated with a bachelor's degree, but again, high school academic performance played little to no role in understanding these differences. In general, the remaining earnings differences across postsecondary fields of study may be related to unobserved factors such as noncognitive skills acquired before postsecondary education, or they may signal differences in the supply and demand conditions (i.e., economic returns) associated with these fields. Older survey data show that patterns in selected non-cognitive skills measured in high school are not consistent with the earnings differences by postsecondary field of study estimated in this study, suggesting that supply and demand conditions could explain earnings differences by field of study (as opposed to selection effects).
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- 2023
16. Effects of Graduate Education on Initial Employment: Evidence from New Graduates in the Japanese Labor Market
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Hirao, Tomotaka
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This paper replicates models developed by previous research to study the effects of graduate education on new graduates' initial employment in the Japanese labor market. If education is the best investment for an individual's economic success, then graduate degrees are expected to provide an individual with higher-earning job opportunities. Despite this reasonable economic premise, previous research showed that master's degrees in the humanities or social sciences in Japan have, in fact, a negative impact on obtaining initial employment compared to those with only a bachelor's degree in the humanities or social sciences. This previous research, however, could not overcome omitted variable bias because of data limitations. Omitted variable bias is a key problem for research on education; therefore, this study uses new longitudinal data to overcome omitted variable bias and clearly demonstrate the robustness of these earlier findings. The empirical results of this study corroborate earlier work, showing that master's degrees in the humanities or social sciences do not provide graduate students with an advantage in obtaining initial employment, after controlling for potential bias. At the same time, this study also confirms that natural science majors have a higher probability of obtaining initial employment in comparison with humanities or social science majors. In other words, this paper offers a valid replication of existing research. This shows that the Japanese labor market structure for graduate students has, in essence, remained the same since previous research was completed.
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- 2023
17. Smoothing Pathways to Transfer in the Humanities: A Report on the Strengthening Michigan Humanities Project
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Columbia University, Community College Research Center (CCRC), Bickerstaff, Susan, Cho, Selena, Sparks, Daniel, and Fink, John
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This report describes the rationale, goals, and activities of the Strengthening Michigan Humanities (MiHumanities) project, an effort led by the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) and funded by the Mellon Foundation. The project is designed to strengthen community college transfer pathways in four humanities fields--communication, English, history, and theater--by identifying and using promising strategies to connect community college students to programs of study in these areas and by increasing coordination and curricular alignment between two- and four-year institutions. The authors analyze state administrative data collected by the Michigan Education Data Center to present statistics and trends in community college student course enrollments, transfer, and bachelor's degree completion in a wide array of humanities fields, including the four Strengthening MiHumanities disciplines, and the liberal arts. They also summarize findings from interviews with faculty, staff, and students to highlight promising approaches to strengthening humanities transfer outcomes. An infographic on measures that illustrate the opportunities and challenge of Michigan transfer in the humanities is available inside the report and as a separate document.
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- 2023
18. The Morphology of the SoTL Article: New Possibilities for the Stories That SoTL Scholars Tell about Teaching and Learning
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Halpern, Faye
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The folklorist Vladímir Propp identified a curious phenomenon in his study of 100 Russian fairy tales: despite their tremendous surface variety, they followed a single narrative structure or morphology. This article argues that the same phenomenon applies to SoTL articles: despite the tremendous variety of content and methods that SoTL articles evince, they have come to tell the same kind of story. They tell, over and over, a story of redemption. I identify two problems with the story of redemption, the first having to do with ethos (the character that an author projects to their readers), and the second having to do with plausibility. I propose an array of narrative possibilities to enable SoTL authors to tell other kinds of stories--possibilities based on problematizing rather than easily solving. I argue that these possibilities better realize how some of the foundational thinkers in SoTL wanted the field to evolve. While benefiting all SoTL practitioners, such an expansion of narrative possibilities will make the field a more welcoming place to humanities scholars in particular, many of whom share a skepticism about the possibility of linear progress and perpetual self-improvement.
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- 2023
19. Do SPOC Really Improve Student Learning in Vocational Schools? A Meta-Analysis of Studies in Chinese Contexts
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Wuhue, Jiang
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Published studies on SPOC provided inconsistent findings regarding its effectiveness. Adopting a meta-analysis method, this study combined the results of 32 experimental and quasi-experimental studies published in the past 8 years in China for analyzing the overall effect size of SPOC for improving student learning in vocational schools. Data analysis confirmed that SPOC has a moderate positive effect, with a combined effect size of 0.592 (P<0.05). Further analysis revealed three significant factors that moderate the effect of SPOC, including discipline area, group size, and knowledge type. SPOC has a larger effect size for disciplines of engineering technology and medical education than of natural science, and humanities and social science. Integrating SPOC for a small to medium-sized group with no more than 50 students brings about significant improvement in learning outcomes. Compared to declarative knowledge, SPOC is effective for developing procedural knowledge. The findings support the adoption of SPOC in vocational education. To amplify its impacts, multiple factors need to be carefully considered in the design and implementation.
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- 2023
20. Engaged Alienation: SoTL, Inclusivity, and the Problem of Integrity
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Potter, Michael K. and Raffoul, Jessica
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The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) defines itself as an inclusive field of study, and scholars have long lauded its ability to engage academics from each and every discipline. Yet SoTL's research culture has long been dominated by a narrow conception of social science. As a result, the lived experience of scholars from other disciplines, particularly the humanities, is one of engaged alienation. The borders created by SoTL's research paradigm are invisible to those within and somewhat impenetrable to those who are othered by virtue of their disciplinary identities. This paper interrogates the contradictions between SoTL's espoused values and values-in-use.
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- 2023
21. Learning to Learn: Empowering Students to Articulate the Value of Their HASS Degree
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Rahman, Nira and Lakey, Elizabeth
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In an uncertain labour market, the questions around the employability of graduate students take on a new urgency. Fears about the graduate market in the coming years are acute and are compounded by a sense that there is a large disconnect between a university education and what is expected in the workplace. Australian labour market trends clearly demonstrate that the skills most in demand by Australian graduate employers are precisely the transferrable skills which are honed by doing a HASS degree at the university. However, HASS academics do not usually talk about the skills and attributes students are gaining during their university studies and how this is useful in the workplace. Creating this awareness in both staff and students is immensely important for future graduates to survive and excel beyond university. Based on focus groups, interviews, and student-led projects over the last three years, this paper explores how to balance the need to engage with deep disciplinary knowledge with the understanding that this knowledge is only useful in the real world if accompanied by explicit skills. By using a case study, this paper showcases how to articulate skills and knowledge to HASS students to prepare for workforce. Furthermore, it focusses on how graduate attributes and learning outcomes can be connected from assessment tasks to classroom teaching.
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- 2023
22. Positivism and Post-Positivism as the Basis of Quantitative Research in Pedagogy
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Maksimovic, Jelena and Evtimov, Jelena
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The paradigm on which a methodological approach is developed determines the situations in which its application will be most appropriate. The quantitative approach implies a positivist paradigm, the basis of which is cause-and-effect relationships, as well as the questioning and verifying of existing theories. Positivism aims to prove that phenomena from the field of social sciences and humanities are equally subject to measurement as natural phenomena. That assumption is also the epicenter of criticism directed at positivism, from which, in addition to its strengths, post-positivism developed, characterized by more flexible views on absolute objectivity. The aim of this paper is focused on the analysis of the basis of the quantitative approach, the possibilities and limitations of the positivist paradigm and the post-positivist paradigm that overcomes the limitations of positivism. The tasks are as follows: 1. Define the concept of paradigm and its role in pedagogical research, 2. Determine the connection between the positivist and post-positivist paradigms and the quantitative approach, 3. Analyze the strengths and limitations of positivism and post-positivism and the possibilities of overcoming its weaknesses. The authors applied the theoretical method with content analysis and accepted the facts and ideas of positivism as the primary paradigm for researching educational reality. They state that post-positivism is intuitive and holistic, flexible in research, while positivism is based on solid facts that are objective and do not depend on subjective interpretation.
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- 2023
23. Education as an Open Question: A Hermeneutical Approach to Problem-Based Learning
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Kloeg, Julien
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In this paper, this theme of the open question is offered as a hermeneutical approach to problem-based learning. Most of the scientific literature on problem-based learning is in the realm of the behavioral-sciences. To the extent that the latter becomes the exclusive focus of research on problem-based learning, there is a risk of instrumentalization. The hermeneutical approach of this paper is meant to complement this field of research. The subjects of humanities research are not directly available to a humanities scholar, at least not in the way experimental subjects are to a natural scientist. This is Wilhelm Dilthey's epoch-making understanding of the humanities in a nutshell. Philosophical anthropologist Helmuth Plessner, drawing on Dilthey, extends this insight to the historicity of human existence as such, summarizing the latter as an 'open question' that is always impressing itself upon us as human beings, but which at the same time cannot be answered definitively. It is through this process of asking and answering that we leave behind a history in the first place. I use these arguments to show that the theme of the open question yields a series of interconnected educational insights: notably the importance of subjectification, the social and historical context within which education necessarily takes place, and the construction of new knowledge and experience. These educational insights are rendered explicit and put into practice in problem-based learning. I hope in this way to develop a research perspective on problem-based learning as not only a set of behaviors, but as the scene of meaningful action.
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- 2023
24. The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital between Academic Stress and Well-Being among University Students
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Al Sultan, Adam A., Alharbi, Abdulmajeed A., Mahmoud, Somaya S., and Elsharkasy, Ahmed S.
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In the current study, we investigated the relationships among academic stress, psychological capital (PsyCap), and well-being and the effect of the demographic variables of gender, majors, and academic years on academic stress and PsyCap. We used the structural equation model to investigate the mediating role of PsyCap between academic stress and well-being. The participants (N = 827) included students from a midsized university in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (636 females, 191 males) who comprised 450 science and 377 humanities majors from all academic years. To collect data, we utilized the Academic Stress Inventory, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Questionnaire. The structural equation model analysis results revealed that PsyCap was a full mediator between academic stress and wellbeing. Gender did not affect on PsyCap or academic stress. In addition, the academic majors affected PsyCap: Students in the humanities majors had better PsyCap than those in the science majors. Furthermore, the academic years affected academic stress; specifically, academic stress decreased as students progressed through their academic years. Therefore, science majors in their first academic year were the most in need of a PsyCap-based intervention.
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- 2023
25. A Study on the Perception of South Korean High School Students about the Influence of Learner and Teacher on School Science Learning
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Han, Hwa-Jung and Shim, Kew-Cheol
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This study was conducted on the perception of high school students regarding the influence of learner and teacher on school science learning. The subjects were 867 South Korean high school students at 464 natural science and 404 humanities learning course. The components of the influence of learner and teacher on school science learning consisted of learning motivation, class participation, learning, and achievement. Overall, high school students perceived that learners had a stronger influence than teacher on learning motivation, class participation and achievement except learning. High school students at natural science learning course recognized more than students of humanities learning course that learners had a stronger influence on learning motivation, class participation, and the achievement than teacher. Since high school students at natural science learning course considered their future careers when selecting such learning course, their interests and motivation in science were already higher than students of humanities learning course. Thus, school teachers have to make an effort to develop the professionalism of teaching because the learning effect was not limited to the cognitive skills of science class students, and may vary depending on the explanations of teachers.
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- 2023
26. Chinese Intellectual Traditions as Global Resources
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Yang, Rui
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There has been little real progress in finding feasible approaches to addressing global knowledge asymmetries, especially in the social sciences and humanities. With China's new global role, how Chinese experiences could contribute to global theoretical construction in the human and social sciences becomes the order of the day? As the most valued resources for human, social, and cultural theorization, Chinese thought and experiences also serve as an effective catalytic agent for global intellectual pluralism. The great value of China's intellectual traditions in global theoretical construction fuels Chinese scholarship in the humanities and social sciences to win a reputation on the world stage.
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- 2023
27. Factors, Forms, and Functions of Code Switching on English Achievement among Grade 11 Students
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Villarin, Sydney Jay B. and Emperador, Emmylou A.
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This research determined the implication of code switching to the English achievement of the Grade 11 students enrolled in Humanities and Social Sciences strand. Quantitative research design was used to find out the factors, forms, functions, and frequency of the students' code switching, and to correlate the code switching and the students' English achievement. A survey questionnaire was used to gather the needed data and Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between the students' code switching and their English achievement. The results of the study showed that the dominant factors or reasons which influence the students' English-Cebuano code switching were loss of words, exposure in English and Cebuano languages, comfort, and lack of awareness on equivalent English terms or phrases. The study found out that the most common form of the students' code switching was extra-sentential or tag switching. Furthermore, the findings showed that the prevalent functions or usage of students' code switching were quotation, addressee specification, interjection, message qualification, personalization, clarification, and facility of expression. Generally, the students rarely code switched and they have very satisfactory English achievement. It was found out that the students' code switching has no significant relationship with their English achievement.
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- 2023
28. Exploring Inclusive Design and Digital Humanities: Enabling Bilingual Digital Narratives for Deaf Children
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Cristina Portugal, Marcio Guimarães, Monica Moura, and Jose Carlos Magro Junior
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The collaboration between designers and digital humanists has indeed gained increasing significance in crafting effective projects, with design serving as a centralizing force in the realm of digital humanities by establishing interfaces for individuals to engage with technological resources. Therefore, design's methodological practices, encompassing various research and experiential facets, play a pivotal role in enhancing the usability and accessibility of digital resources within the social sphere. This study aims to expand the discourse on the characteristics and potential of the interplay between inclusive design and digital humanities practices, with a specific focus on the development of bilingual digital narratives (utilizing Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese). The research adopts a collaborative, qualitative approach, encompassing processes of evaluation, validation, and enhancement. Digital visual narratives are presented as a facilitating tool for integrating LIBRAS and Portuguese, thereby aiding in language acquisition for deaf children. The article contributes to the discussion of the humanistic approach to design, emphasizing the values of empathy, ethics, and social responsibility in the creation of inclusive and accessible projects.
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- 2023
29. Undergraduate Students' Perception of Exit Examination at Haramaya University
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Chala Mosisa Hunduma and Yilfashewa Seyoum
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The study aimed to investigate students' perceptions of undergraduate programs in relation to exit examinations, employing a mixed research design. A total of 145 students participated in the study. Deans, Department Heads, and College Quality Assurance Coordinators were selected based on availability and purposive sampling methods. The study focused on three colleges each with four years program durations, including Colleges of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH), Business and Economics (CBE), and Natural and Computational Sciences (CNCS). Two departments were randomly selected from each college, ensuring equal representation. Survey data was analyzed using mean, stepwise regression, and one-way ANOVA, while interview data was directly cited from respondents. Results of the study revealed that students' perceptions of exit exams varied across colleges, with CBE students demonstrating a more positive perception compared to CSSH and CNCS. Stepwise regression analysis identified significant predictor variables, including anxiety, stress, risk of exclusion, and resource scarcity, all of which influenced students' perceptions of exit examinations. Overall, the study found that students generally held negative perceptions of exit exams. It was evident that factors such as anxiety, stress, unknown content of the exam, risk of exclusion, and resource constraints contributed to the undesirable perceptions. A collaborative approach involving various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education (MoE), educational institutions, and departments is necessary to reduce excessive stress and anxiety levels, emphasize the importance of exit examinations, address resource deficiencies, and undertake a nationwide study. MoE needs to formulate a well-defined policy concerning students who do not successfully pass their exit exams.
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- 2023
30. The Bologna in the Field of Social Sciences and Humanities: A Precondition for Successful University Education
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Jelena Osmanovic Zajic and Jelena Maksimovic
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The Bologna Process represents the most significant extensive reform of higher education in Europe. The particular aspects of the Bologna Process still incite critical evaluations as regards the successfulness of its implementation. The theoretical part of the paper analyzes the fundamental principles defined in the Bologna Declaration, requirements and critical views of the Bologna Process, as well as the relevant research conducted on this issue used for the comparative analysis. The introduction of the Bologna Process into the Serbian university education has initiated numerous changes, the increase of the student mobility being the most striking one. The empirical part of the paper focuses on the study of the following problem: the manner in which students of social sciences and humanities perceive the Bologna Process fifteen years after its implementation into the Serbian university education. Consequently, the subject matter of the research is the observation and description of students' attitudes to this phenomenon with the purpose of acquiring relevant information "firsthand." The achievable objective of the presented research reviews the context and condition of the Bologna Process during 2019/2020 academic year and its feasible improvements, which can contribute to comparative study of similar researches in the time of the pandemics. The specific research tasks include the study of the Bologna requirements, attitudes to the Bologna Process, benefits and restrictions of this reform, and particularly the attempt to suggest the improvement of the Bologna Process realization from the perspective of students of social sciences and humanities. The research sample consisted of the Bachelor students of social sciences and humanities from the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš (N=150). The survey technique and the scaling technique with a rating scale questionnaire were used (BOL-JM-JOZ). The questionnaire had five closed-ended questions, while the Likert scale was comprised of 23 items. The test of the instrument consistency proved its reliability. The obtained results were shown by the chi square test, which proved a statistically significant difference in the respondents' answers as regards the year of study, p<0.05. The main factors were extracted from the assessment scale by the application of the factor analysis. These factors examined the students' perceptions of the Bologna Process, comparing the answers provided by the students of the first, second, third and fourth year of study of social sciences and humanities, p<0.05.
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- 2023
31. Evaluating an Interdisciplinary and Multi-Pedagogical Approach to Equipping Students to Create Social Change
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Michael Lynch and Elizabeth Bowen
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Modern social problems are complex, multifaceted, and challenging to solve. Scholars are increasinglyapplying the concept of social innovation as a path to addressing social issues. Social innovation is aninterdisciplinary framework for producing social change that requires creativity, problem-solvingskills, and collaboration across systems. Higher education is progressively understanding the need toprovide interdisciplinary educational opportunities for students; however, little is known about theeffectiveness and impact of providing interdisciplinary learning experiences grounded in a socialinnovation framework. This article describes and analyzes an interdisciplinary summer fellowshipprogram focused on social innovation for graduate students in social work, business, and thehumanities and social sciences. The program employed multiple pedagogical approaches, includingclassroom-based instruction, field learning, and interdisciplinary teamwork. We used qualitative andquantitative pre- and post-evaluation student feedback to examine students' learning and overallexperiences. We found that the fellowship was a dynamic learning experience, through which studentsstrengthened their communication skills and translated academic concepts into practical ideas. The experience also impacted the students' career trajectories, influencing students to pursue careers thatinvolved working toward social progress in a variety of ways.
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- 2023
32. Student Group Work in Widely Interdisciplinary Teams
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Emanuel Istrate and Shawn M. Soobramanie
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Group work is often used in university courses. This article examines group work in a widely interdisciplinary holography course that combines both art and science, for students from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In these interdisciplinary teams, how much specialization of labor (dividing work according to students' pre-existing abilities or personal interests) is acceptable? We present student survey responses regarding their attitudes toward interdisciplinary group work, and their practices in dividing the work, to determine how much specialization of labor is taking place within the interdisciplinary teams. The surveys indicate a mix of approaches among groups concerning the division of labor based on prior skills. In the presence of specialization of labor, students learned from their partners and displayed a positive attitude toward working with someone from a different discipline. We believe that the intriguing nature of the holography projects helped many students avoid dividing the work according to their prior skills, and helped them see the value of working in a widely interdisciplinary team.
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- 2023
33. A Case Study on the Value of Humanities-Based Analysis, Modes of Presentation, and Study Designs for SoTL: Close Reading Students' Pre-Surveys on Gender-Inclusive Language
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Sarah Copland
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Close reading has long been heralded as a humanities-specific methodology with significant potential for SoTL. This essay fills a gap in SoTL literature with a full case study demonstrating what, exactly, close reading shows us about our data that social science-based quantitative and qualitative analyses may not. Close reading-based analysis of first-year writing students' pre-surveys on gender-inclusive language entails attention to the interrelated form and content of students' self-reflections. This analysis reveals nuances and complexities that, if overlooked, would result in inadvertent misrepresentation of the data. This case study responds not only to calls for humanities-specific SoTL methodologies but also to related calls for greater legitimation of diverse forms for SoTL dissemination, some of which originate in the humanities. It is therefore cast as a reflective essay based on its author's scholarly personal narrative (SPN) as a new, humanities-based SoTL researcher. Finally, this case study demonstrates the value of flexible, deliberately unscientific study designs that are responsive to emergent conditions but foreign to SoTL's dominant social science paradigm. As guides to instruction, pre-surveys are necessary complements to pre-quizzes: learning what students think they know about a concept or skill, their attitudes towards it, and their contexts of prior learning about it--not just their knowledge of it, which is all pre-quizzes can tell us--is an important precursor to effective instruction. But maximizing pre-surveys' potential to guide instruction requires flexible study designs so we can change our pedagogy, including our study's "intervention," if necessary, on the fly.
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- 2023
34. Impact of Cultural Competence in Graduate School Settings
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Rita DiLeo
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The range of challenges for educators in the graduate school setting includes students' differences associated with age, language barriers, learning styles, disability, and culture. The literature also demonstrates student populations in higher education differ in academic ability, gender, socioeconomic factors, religion, and life experiences. Thus, the integration of cultural competence in the graduate school settings is imperative as the student populations becomes increasingly more diverse. The educators must demonstrate an understanding to the student to engage and motivate them to learn. Higher education faculty and administrators must determine the strategy they will employ to meet the student demands and simultaneously compete with other colleges. The strategy should address arenas where the curriculum engages the diverse student population in humanities, liberal arts, professional activities, and conveys the career opportunities. The purpose of this research is to understand the types of learning barriers in higher education, assess the importance of cultural competence, and evaluate the correlation between cultural competence and learning outcomes. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]
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- 2023
35. The Learning-Centered University: Making College a More Developmental, Transformational, and Equitable Experience
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Steven Mintz and Steven Mintz
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In "The Learning-Centered University," renowned historian Steven Mintz unveils a comprehensive blueprint for addressing the critical issues of stagnating incomes and productivity, persistent wealth inequalities, and political polarization plaguing colleges and universities today. With practical strategies and a deep understanding of the history and future of higher education, Mintz outlines how we can transform higher education to promote access, affordability, degree attainment, and equity. Mintz provides a thought-provoking analysis of the challenges facing higher education, from the growing disparities in resources and facilities to the need for a more holistic approach to students' development. He offers actionable solutions to create a more interactive, engaging, and skills-focused learning environment. From seamless community college transfers to embedding career preparation throughout the undergraduate experience, Mintz steers institutions toward a future that embraces innovation and student success. This essential guide also explores the transformative potential of technology in education, the importance of equity and student support services, and the future of the humanities. Drawing on his vast teaching experience and expertise in student success, Mintz provides practical insights and strategies for driving academic innovation and overcoming resistance to change. "The Learning-Centered University" is an invaluable resource for educators, administrators, and policy makers who are dedicated to offering a more equitable, accessible, and impactful learning experience for all students.
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- 2024
36. Working-Class Student-Hood and 'Job-Readiness': Affective Relations of Class, Gender and Employability Policy in Higher Education
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Maree Martinussen and Dianne Mulcahy
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Past decades have seen increased emphasis on graduate employability as a driver of higher education policy. In the Australian context, employability discourses in the public domain have become inflected with anti-intellectual sentiment, serving to reproduce the perception that the humanities and social sciences are of less value to graduates' employability than are science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Against this backdrop, and with particular reference to the Job-ready Graduates Package, we investigate how diverse notions of employability shape student-hood for working-class female students who are largely engaged in the social sciences. Attending to affective dynamics, we show how employability imperatives 'land' for these students, individually, and as an 'equity group'. While employability policies are typically positioned as a salve for class inequalities, they can also discredit educational and employment endeavours of working-class students, and reproduce class tensions. To enhance employability policies, there is a need to move beyond reductionist models of job-readiness, towards responding to the complexities of policy as enacted through lived relations. We propose attending to the variability of both identity and value positions and recognising the contribution of affect and emotion to this complex set of policy dynamics.
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- 2024
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37. Revisiting the 'U-Curve' Hypothesis: International Students' Academic, Sociocultural, and Psychological Adjustment Trajectories at a British University
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Xuan Zhao and Alina Schartner
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This mixed-methods longitudinal study investigated the academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment trajectories of international students undertaking one-year postgraduate degrees in the humanities and social sciences at a single British university. It also sought to re-examine the applicability of 'U-curve' hypothesis. Three waves of self-report questionnaires (N = 120, 108, 102) measured international students' adjustment satisfaction and their adjustment patterns throughout nine months period. Additionally, three rounds of semi-structured interviews (N = 16) were conducted to explore students' lived experiences and adjustment trajectories over time. The findings revealed complex adjustment patterns that differed across academic, sociocultural, and psychological domains. Enablers and barriers to adjustment, as perceived by the students, included cultural distance, English language ability, academic workload, previous personal experiences, and university support. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of international students' adjustment, provides insights into the experiences of student sojourners in the UK higher education context and increases knowledge regarding student support services.
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- 2024
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38. The Story of Women Immigrants from FSU and Their Integration into Israeli Academia
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Victoria Kot, Katerina Bodovski, and Miri Yemini
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The under-representation of minorities at senior levels in academia has received some research attention in recent years. However, the experience of immigrant women from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israeli academia has not been examined. These women are mostly from a generation known as the '1.5 generation' who immigrated to Israel as children. This study focuses on the intersection of immigration and gender that shape the lives and careers of the 1.5 generation women currently employed as senior academics in Israel. Using the theoretical framework of capital, Bourdieu's concepts of cultural and social capital, as well as Borjas' ethnic capital, we analyzed twenty in-depth interviews to examine the perception of these women, their life story, and their professional integration into Israeli academia. We identified two focal points that fostered their success -- (1) the Soviet heritage- selective adoption of ethnic capital, encompassing cultural and social capital of an ethnic group and (2) role models within and outside the family often based on ethnicity. We discuss the obstacles faced by minorities in attempting integration into selective professional guilds.
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- 2024
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39. A Systematic Review of Research on Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) for Online Teaching in the Humanities
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Shuqiong Luo and Di Zou
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In recent years, studies on technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) have been increasing; however, integrating TPACK into online teaching has generated concerns among teachers across various subject domains in the humanities. Since there have been few recent reviews of teachers' online TPACK research in the humanities, the present study systematically reviews research in this area published between January 2012 and June 2022. This review aims to advance the knowledge on using TPACK in different subject disciplines while providing practical implications for technology integration in online teaching. The review of 24 articles revealed article frequency reached a peak in 2021 and 2022 covering various subject domains in the humanities. Most studies collected data through qualitative methods while focusing on in-service teachers. The articles were categorized into three research areas: exploring, measuring, and applying TPACK. Among the disciplines, the results showed that language teachers had various TPACK competencies in online teaching; journalism teachers' collaborations during online course delivery were facilitated when integrating TPACK; and music teachers' individual beliefs for online teaching were predicted by TPACK. The reviewed research used TPACK as the theoretical basis for scale development to assess teachers' readiness for flipped teaching. The reviewed articles indicated that TPACK was helpful for language teachers' technology integration as well as course and platform design during their online teaching.
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- 2024
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40. A Challenge to Self-Education: The Purpose and Potential of a Database Annotating Works of Art for Adults Who Are Existential Exemplars for Children
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Stein M. Wivestad
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How can an open access database annotating pictures, films, music and texts support adults as existential exemplars? This article explores the opportunities of a Norwegian database called the OE-database. Its target group is all adults who want to become better exemplars for children through encounters with art and conversations in small groups. Educational sources contain many annotations of art and literature for the education of children and youth, but material for adults' self-education, published in databases and thus easily accessible for all, are lacking. The article invites readers to a critical conversation on the purpose and potential of the OE-database and to create similar databases in other languages. The narratives that provide the foundation of the OE-database are influenced by Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Søren Kierkegaard. The article highlights Kierkegaard's concept 'upbuilding' (edification) and three stages in a process that encourage adults to let themselves be 'built up' as exemplars.
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- 2024
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41. Transdisciplinary Humanities for Social Transformation: The Global Digital Humanities Degree at Mondragon University AS Fabrik
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Aitor Zuberogoitia, Monika Madinabeitia, and Davydd Greenwood
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The new degree in the Global Digital Humanities has been launched by the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Mondragon University on its new urban campus of Bilbao AS Fabrik. In a time of increasing urbanisation, universities must reflect on their relationship to surrounding cities and regions and develop ways to incorporate the urban and regional setting in their educational offerings. This BA shows the value of a transdisciplinary Action Research approach in facing complex social challenges and contributing to innovative social transformations in the city and region. The new campus also marks the beginning of an internal university process to develop mutual knowledge and greater permeability between different degree programmes in pursuit of a new organisational culture and practice that moves beyond narrow disciplinary models.
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- 2024
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42. Living with the Impact Agenda -- Humanities Academics Negotiating and Resisting the Impact Agenda as Researchers and Doctoral Supervisors
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Signe Skov and Søren Smedegaard Bengtsen
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Purpose: In Denmark, there has been, over decades, an intensified political focus on how humanities research and doctoral education contribute to society. In this vein, the notion of impact has become a central part of the academic language, often associated with terms like use, effects and outputs, stemming from neoliberal ideologies. The purpose of this paper is to explore how humanities academics are living with the impact agenda, as both experienced researchers and as doctoral supervisors educating the next generation of researchers in this post-pandemic era. Specifically, the authors are interested in the supervisor-researcher relationship, that is, the relationship between how the supervisors navigate the impact agenda as researchers and then the way they tell their doctoral students to do likewise. Design/methodology/approach: The authors have studied how the impact agenda is accommodated by humanities academics through a series of qualitative interviews with humanities researchers and humanities PhD supervisors, encompassing questions of how they are living with the expectation of impact and how it is embedded in their university and departmental context. Findings: The study shows that there is no link between how the supervisors navigate the impact agenda in relation to their own research work and then the way they tell their doctoral students to approach it. Within the space of their own research, the supervisors engage in resistance practices towards the impact agenda in terms of minimal compliance, rejection or resignation, whereas in the space of supervision, the impact agenda is re-inscribed to embody other understandings. The supervisors want to protect their students from this agenda, especially in the knowledge that many of them are not going to stay in academia due to limited researcher career possibilities. Furthermore, the paper reveals a new understanding of the impact agenda as having a relational quality, and in two ways. One is through a positional struggle, the reshaping of power relations, between universities (or academics) and society (or the state and the market); the other is as a phenomenon very much lived among academics themselves, including between supervisors and their doctoral students within the institutional context. Originality/value: This study opens up the impact agenda, showing what it means to be a humanities academic living with the effects of the impact agenda and trying to navigate this. The study is mapping and tracking out the many different meanings and variations of impact in all its volatility for academics concerned about it. In current, post-pandemic times, when manifold expectations are directed towards research and doctoral education, it is important to know more about how these expectations affect and are dealt with by those who are expected to commit to them.
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- 2024
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43. Are Satisfied Students Simply Happy People in the First Place? The Role of Trait Affect in Student Satisfaction
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Florence T. T. Phua, Gerard H. Dericks, Edmund R. Thompson, and Jürgen Enders
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We propose and test the proposition that innate personality differences in trait affect explain significant variance in student satisfaction. Using three standard measures of trait affect and data from a student sample (n = 409) of PhD candidates across science, social science and humanities in 63 universities from 20 countries, we find that 24% of variance in student satisfaction is accounted for by trait affect. We also find that both discipline studied and research orientation of university have moderating effects on the relationship between trait affect and student satisfaction. Our findings suggest student satisfaction scores need to be viewed with caution because, in part, they merely reflect individual-level trait affect that--like all innate personality traits--academics, university administrators and education ministers alike are powerless to alter. Our findings indicate that governments, universities and other organisations gathering student satisfaction data could usefully adopt measures to control for trait affect. Our findings also raise the possibility that universities might strategically incorporate innate affect in their student selection criteria to game satisfaction ratings.
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- 2024
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44. Hello GPT! Goodbye Home Examination? An Exploratory Study of AI Chatbots Impact on University Teachers' Assessment Practices
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Alexandra Farazouli, Teresa Cerratto-Pargman, Klara Bolander-Laksov, and Cormac McGrath
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AI chatbots have recently fuelled debate regarding education practices in higher education institutions worldwide. Focusing on Generative AI and ChatGPT in particular, our study examines how AI chatbots impact university teachers' assessment practices, exploring teachers' perceptions about how ChatGPT performs in response to home examination prompts in undergraduate contexts. University teachers (n = 24) from four different departments in humanities and social sciences participated in Turing Test-inspired experiments, where they blindly assessed student and ChatGPT-written responses to home examination questions. Additionally, we conducted semi-structured interviews in focus groups with the same teachers examining their reflections about the quality of the texts they assessed. Regarding chatbot-generated texts, we found a passing rate range across the cohort (37.5-85.7%) and a chatbot-written suspicion range (14-23%). Regarding the student-written texts, we identified patterns of downgrading, suggesting that teachers were more critical when grading student-written texts. Drawing on post-phenomenology and mediation theory, we discuss AI chatbots as a potentially disruptive technology in higher education practices.
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- 2024
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45. 'Go to Oxbridge, Get an Education, Start a Career. 'Do All the Right Things'': The 'Low Value' Arts Degree and the Neoliberal University
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Orlaith Darling and Áine Mahon
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Departments of Arts and Humanities globally face increasing financial threat from falling enrolment, rising costs, and 'strategic realignment' at university level. In the UK, in particular, cuts to the Arts and Humanities sector are becoming endemic, with complex ramifications for prospective students as well as academic and professional staff. In light of these structural and ideological challenges, this paper proposes a revisiting of the philosophical work of Richard Rorty. Rorty has argued compellingly for the morally educative importance of the arts as well as the distinct gift of a liberal education more generally. Ultimately, however, we argue that Rorty's liberal ideals are radically threatened in the present context of neoliberalism and that they have been particularly problematised in philosophical and literary work since Rorty's death in 2007. The theoretical writings of Lauren Berlant as well as the literary fiction of Nicole Flattery and Natasha Brown are our key exemplars here. Through our analysis of these texts, we interrogate what we might desire of education "beyond" the liberal paradigm underpinning Rorty's thought; and we sketch a framework for the Arts and Humanities perhaps more responsive to the crises of our contemporary age.
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- 2024
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46. Narratives of 'Delayed Success': A Life Course Perspective on Understanding Vietnamese International Students' Decisions to Drop out of PhD Programmes
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Hao Phuong Phan
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PhD (non-)completion rates have been considered important criteria with which to evaluate the effectiveness of doctoral programmes and of universities' performance. To date, there has been a lack of qualitative studies on the voices and experiences of funded international students who discontinue doctoral research degrees. This paper uses qualitative methods and six themes of a life course perspective to uncover the 'hidden' experience of international Vietnamese students who dropped out of funded doctoral programmes in social sciences and humanities. Its findings suggest that linked/independent lives and the timing of live themes helped to understand reasons for international doctoral students to drop out, which underline their engagement with research networks, academic identity and familial responsibilities. Meanwhile, the consequences of dropout illustrate the intersections of five themes: linked/independent lives, development risk and projects, the timing of lives/interplay of human lives and historical times, and diversity in life courses. The five themes capture diverse life trajectories and forms of agency developed by PhD non-completers while negotiating social pressures and institutional politics in their home institution as well as their perceptions of well-being and life priorities. Their life trajectories and forms of agency are gendered and culturally specific, with female non-completers being more active in searching for and building back their 'agentic orientations' through learning new skills, entering motherhood or leaving academic institutions. These findings are useful for reflecting on the current supporting structures, especially mental health support, for international doctoral students and supervisor training.
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- 2024
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47. Curriculum as Invader: Normalising White Place in the Australian Curriculum
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Bryan Smith
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Curriculum, as a policy and way of moving through educational experience, is entwined with an ongoing history of invasion in Australia and similar invader-colonial contexts. As a result of this, the conceptual foundations of curriculum in Australia reproduce colonial epistemologies as normative modes of knowing and consideration. One way of seeing how this is possible and easily reproduced is through a consideration of how renderings and representations of "place" -- the complex entanglements of lands, histories, and identit(y/ies) -- mediate both how (a) invasion can be normalised as a historical, geographic, and political "placial" reality, and (b) students and teachers might experience education in and of place. Indeed, "place" is a central guiding concept in official curriculum policy just as much as place is an experienced curriculum both within the school and in the broader world. In this respect, this paper looks to unpack how the concept of place is represented in curriculum policy and the attendant assumptions and implicit discourses that this (re)produces about the experiences of people in/of invaded place. Through a look at the coming revision to the Humanities and Social Science's learning area of the Australian Curriculum, I look to how the curriculum as policy frames place as synonymous with invader place epistemically and how this mediates what students can know and themselves feel about the embodied experience of learning about/in/of place.
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- 2024
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48. World Humanities - Towards an Ontology of Policy
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Andrew G. Gibson and Søren SE Bengtsen
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The border-crossing nature of science is well recognised, and has long been a focus of policy-makers with an interest in governing this space. The international aspect of the humanities is less clearly understood, and the extent to which it has been a focus of policy is similarly not well conceptualised. UNESCO's efforts in this area provide a useful corpus of texts through which international humanities policy can be explored. Drawing on Theodor Adorno's negative dialectics, this paper considers what UNESCO's attempts at developing international humanities policy have to say about the ontological status of the humanities, and of policy itself. In setting out an ontology of policy, it generates a concept of 'world humanities' as a means of reconstituting the humanities its own specific mode of inquiry and form of knowledge.
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- 2024
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49. No Time to Read? How Precarity is Shaping Learning and Teaching in the Humanities
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Helena Kadmos and Jessica Taylor
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Humanities educators are frequently frustrated by students' poor engagement in reading. The contemporary student experience is characterised by disruption and precarity. Similarly, is that of teachers who work in casual employment. This discussion is located within broader conversations around the neoliberal university, but aims to make more visible ways that teaching and learning are increasingly shaped by precarity, and consequences for the humanities. It describes what precarity in higher education looks like and considers the kinds of strategies that students and their teachers are positioned to develop by virtue of engaging in education under such conditions, amid chaos, making these meaningful through the learning theory of connectivism. This discussion points to some examples of humanities-based pedagogical innovations that seek to strengthen reading skills, while also acknowledging the changing circumstances of students to point towards avenues for ongoing consideration, reflection, and innovation in the humanities.
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- 2024
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50. Perceptions of Graduate Attribute Development and Application in PhD Graduates from US and NZ Universitiess
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Rachel Spronken-Smith, Kim Brown, and Claire Cameron
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With increasing focus on the outcomes of doctoral education, especially regarding employability, we aimed to explore how PhD graduates from humanities and social sciences (HASS), and science disciplines perceived the development of a holistic set of graduate attributes during their doctoral study and the application of these attributes in the workplace. We analysed 136 survey responses and interviews with 21 PhD graduates from one NZ and two US universities. We found that overall, PhD graduates are satisfied with their development as researchers, but had concerns regarding the development of some transferrable skills and attributes. Graduates from the three universities perceived the application of attributes in the workplace similarly. Comparisons of graduate attribute application to their development revealed the following areas requiring better support: teamwork, communication, project management, entrepreneurship, and networking. While development of affective attributes related to global citizenship was lower than expected, graduates perceived these were not always required in the workplace. Universities should consider how their doctoral training programmes can promote a more holistic development of desirable skills and attributes. We provide a possible categorisation to evaluate attainment of desirable attributes for PhD graduates, to ensure researchers and institutions are targeting key attributes.
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- 2024
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