Search

The affordances of Open Educational Resources (OER) have resulted in various initiatives around the world, but most of them cease to exist once the initial project funding stops. Communities might be a means to create sustainable practices, yet, such communities can only function if their members perceive these communities as valuable. We applied the value creation framework of Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat to examine the value teachers ascribe to their engagement with an inter-institutional community on OER. In this community, 15 universities of applied sciences collaborated on sharing knowledge and resources across their institutional barriers. We collected data through user statistics, an online questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Major value creation occurred from teachers' personal needs, with dominant immediate and potential values. Findings on applied and realized values denote that it became easier for teachers to connect with peers, and to initiate collaboration projects across institutes. The framework we used is helpful to inform actions to further promote value creation in communities on OER. Recommendations relating to communities' aspirations, its relations with the wider organization, and adoption of OER are formulated to inform sustainable practices of inter-institutional communities.

Brokers are individuals who facilitate transfer of knowledge and resources, and coordinate efforts across boundaries of organizations. They are defined by their role rather than their organizational position. Brokers might be imperative for the formation and maintenance of inter-institutional relationship as they have the responsibility and the necessary structural position to connect otherwise separate groups. In the context of this study, brokers had the role to cultivate an inter-institutional community around open educational resources (OER) by connecting groups of teachers across higher education institutes. OER provide higher education institutes with an aid to face the challenges of improving teaching and learning. Yet most OER users encounter challenges that relate to finding resources that are relevant, up-to-date, and of good quality. Communities could minimize this issue, but many OER initiatives fizzle out as expanding their impact is an arduous task. This qualitative descriptive study draws upon cultural-historical activity theory to understand the complexities associated with the role of brokers in creating sustainable collaboration on OER across 15 higher education institutes in the Netherlands. Data was collected from project documents, process reports, reflections reports, and a retrospective focus group. The findings show that brokers engaged in a wide variety of actions but that a small-scale, personal, and content-oriented approach to encourage teachers to engage with the OER repository and the online community was perceived as the most valuable. Brokers also experienced conflicts due to the demanding context they were operating in, the ambiguity of their role, and the organizational constraints they were confronted with. Practical implications refer to supporting higher education institutes that wish to initiate sustainable collaboration across institutes.

Transnational education is rather common in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with among the highest TNE enrolments of any region worldwide. Approximately a third of the Omani students in higher education are registered in programmes offered transnationally, and a UK university is the main provider. The aim of this study was to identify the challenges that Omani students perceive when studying in transnational education by means of a survey and in-depth follow-up interviews. The findings show that challenges relate mainly to students' adaptation to transnational higher education pedagogies, the challenges of academic writing, and challenges related to the international or UK culture of the programme. It argues in favour of widening the definition of contextualisation from simply including local examples to a pedagogical approach in TNE that supports students in dealing with their challenges in the TNE contexts.

A central aim of university teaching is to transform students' conceptual understanding of disciplinary knowledge. In order to achieve this, lecturers make decisions on subject matter and teaching approaches. However, there seems to be little attention for the role of subject matter pedagogy in university teaching. This study aims to explore a knowledge base of teaching through lecturers' accounts of a relation between subject matter, theory and practice in Child and Education Studies (CES). Four narratives of the lecturers suggest that subject matter is central to how a relation between theory and practice is taught. At the same time, orientation towards teaching was relevant to teaching subject matter. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that every lecture runs into their own limits when teaching theory and practice. The findings suggest that university pedagogy is informed by specific subjects rather than the discipline. Implications for teaching and academic development are discussed.

In any country, there is a group of students who are at risk of dropping out of school without any qualifications. This is detrimental for many of those students, because failure to graduate increases risks of unemployment and societal exclusion. To reduce this risk, specialized curricula aim to prepare these students for their working life by fostering the development of a vocational identity, that is, how they define themselves as workers. As a prerequisite to achieving this goal, students need to attend school and feel engaged with school. The curricula seek ways to stimulate emotional school engagement, taking into account the heterogeneous target group of students they serve. To address potential consequences of individual differences, this questionnaire study (N=996) conducted in the Netherlands explored how various individual characteristics of students in these specialized curricula moderated the relationship between emotional school engagement and vocational identity. Results show that stronger school engagement always coincided with a stronger vocational identity; however, the strength of the relationship varied. Stimulating emotional school engagement was specifically important for the subgroups of students who are young, less agreeable, less motivated, and less resilient. In order to foster the vocational identity of their students, the specialized curricula are recommended to draw nuanced conclusions and formulate refined strategies to effectively respond to the heterogeneous group of students who are at risk of dropping out.

Brokers are individuals who facilitate transfer of knowledge and resources, and coordinate efforts across boundaries of organizations. They are defined by their role rather than their organizational position. Brokers might be imperative for the formation and maintenance of inter-institutional relationship as they have the responsibility and the necessary structural position to connect otherwise separate groups. In the context of this study, brokers had the role to cultivate an inter-institutional community around open educational resources (OER) by connecting groups of teachers across higher education institutes. OER provide higher education institutes with an aid to face the challenges of improving teaching and learning. Yet most OER users encounter challenges that relate to finding resources that are relevant, up-to-date, and of good quality. Communities could minimize this issue, but many OER initiatives fizzle out as expanding their impact is an arduous task. This qualitative descriptive study draws upon cultural-historical activity theory to understand the complexities associated with the role of brokers in creating sustainable collaboration on OER across 15 higher education institutes in the Netherlands. Data was collected from project documents, process reports, reflections reports, and a retrospective focus group. The findings show that brokers engaged in a wide variety of actions but that a small-scale, personal, and content-oriented approach to encourage teachers to engage with the OER repository and the online community was perceived as the most valuable. Brokers also experienced conflicts due to the demanding context they were operating in, the ambiguity of their role, and the organizational constraints they were confronted with. Practical implications refer to supporting higher education institutes that wish to initiate sustainable collaboration across institutes., Author(s): Marjon Baas [sup.1] [sup.2] , Robert Schuwer [sup.3] , Ellen van den Berg [sup.2] , Tjark Huizinga [sup.2] , Roeland van der Rijst [sup.1] , Wilfried Admiraal [sup.4] Author [...]

Background: Mentors guide students in their challenges at school and in life. At-risk students in last-resort programs who are at a high risk of leaving school unqualified are especially in need of highly competent and adaptive mentors. This study therefore aimed to identify mentor qualities as perceived by at-risk students and their mentors that meet students' needs and mentors' capabilities. Methods: Face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and mentors of two specialized programs in the Netherlands. Sensitizing concepts, derived from literature, were used to identify themes. Data analysis was conducted using thematic analyses and was validated by performing an audit. Results: The mentor qualities that at-risk students and their mentors reported were classified in three different themes. Mentor tasks consisted of guiding and motivating students and providing them with tangible methods of support. Relationships between mentor and student were based on levels of respect, equality, and bonding. Characteristics of mentors related to empathy, care, and trust. Research implications: Emotional responsiveness deserves further exploration as it appears to be an underlying concept of being a good mentor. Future research might explore mentor qualities in the context of other last-resort programs for at-risk students. Practical implications: Findings implicate that mentors have to walk a tightrope between keeping professional distance and being sensitive, suggesting constant attention to their professional development is needed. Originality: In the context of last-resort programs, an alternative perspective on mentoring at-risk students is outlined, based on perceptions of both students and mentors.

Vocational identity is a prerequisite for enhancing societal inclusion of at-risk emerging adults. School curricula and rebound programs need insights into individual differences of these youths to effectively foster their vocational identity. Identifying three aspects of vocational identity, a questionnaire study among at-risk emerging adults in The Netherlands (N = 996) examined the relationship between clusters of demographic, personality, self-sufficiency, self-competence, and school engagement characteristics and vocational identity performing blockwise entry analyses. Largest proportions of variance were explained by personality traits and, to a lesser extent, motivation, resilience, and valuing school outcome. These malleable characteristics offer opportunities for interventions.

Recent studies have shown that students' interests are decisive in making a substantiated higher education choice, yet do not indicate how students decide which interests they aim to pursue. This study aimed to find the considerations students have when weighing interests and higher education programmes. Thematic analysis was applied to uncover considerations based on semi-structured interviews with 20 Dutch high-school seniors. Students weighed their interests from an interest-to-programme perspective (contrasting interests and deciding which is most important for their future) and from a programme-to-interest perspective (evaluating how possible programmes reconcile with one's interests). By applying both perspectives simultaneously, students dynamically considered which programmes and interests they wished to pursue. These findings imply that higher education choice theory and studies should acknowledge that the programmes and interests students consider are dependent on the feed forward of the considered interests on programmes and the feed back of considered programmes on interests.

Musicians nowadays need to be able to work both creatively and collaboratively, often in a wider range of artistic, social and cultural contexts. A strong vision on conservatoire pedagogy is needed to reach this goal and at the same time align with the demands of higher education. At the start of the 21st century, renewal of curricula concentrated on implementing the teaching of a broader range of skills, knowledge and attitudes, including problem-solving, reflective, cooperative and communicative competences, as part of the Bologna process of implementing bachelor and master of music programmes. In semi-structured interviews, leaders of conservatoires in Belgium (Flanders) and the Netherlands reflected on their curriculum and revealed their observations and perceptions of its connection to professional practice. Based on a thematic analysis, conservatoire leaders' observations and perceptions of the process of curriculum reform were identified. They indicated that teaching professionals continue to maintain an autonomous position, practising traditional forms of teaching and learning. Conservatoire leaders were rather hesitant in implementing new pedagogies, teaching principles and guidelines, due to a dedication to craftsmanship and a large amount of respect for the expertise of their teaching professionals.

In the past two decades, transnational education has been increasing and so has the need for staff to teach on these programmes. This study sought the views of non-Anglophone expatriate academics teaching transnationally in Oman by means of a survey and follow-up interviews. It highlights the challenges that they face in a teaching and learning environment that is academically and culturally new to them. These challenges relate mostly to the students, as they need extensive structured guidance, and to maintaining programme quality in meeting the learning outcomes, particularly critical thinking and writing in English. Teaching adaptation and quality assurance were less challenging. Findings indicate that for a more enhanced teaching and learning environment, both the provider and host institution need to continuously invest in face-to-face professional development addressing the challenges expatriate academics experience, and that the sole focus on quality assurance by provider universities is not sufficient to create this.

Opportunities for students to participate in research practices promote student beliefs about the relevance of research for later work practices. Yet engaging undergraduates in learning activities that mirror the way in which research is used in practice settings is not that straightforward. This longitudinal study aims to assess the influence of authentic research practices in the learning environment on medical undergraduates' perceptions of research and their beliefs about the relevance of research. In total, 947 students completed the Student Perceptions of Research Integration Questionnaire. Our findings suggest that research practices promote student motivation for research and foster the belief that research is relevant to learning. We suggest that to foster student learning about research, it is beneficial to include elements of professional practices that stimulate students' enthusiasm for research and focus students' attention on the way research findings are produced. Furthermore, implications are given for further research and teaching practice.

The learning benefits of peer assessment and providing peer feedback have been widely reported. However, it is still not understood which learning activities most facilitate the acquisition of feedback skills. This study aimed to compare the effect of a modeling example, i.e., a model that demonstrated how to give feedback, on the acquisition of feedback skills. The participants were second-year bachelor students in pedagogical sciences (N = 111). They were assigned randomly to a "practice condition," in which they practiced giving feedback on oral presentations, or a modeling "example condition," in which a teacher demonstrated how to give feedback on a good and a bad presentation. Students then gave feedback to a presenter in a video (direct feedback measure). One week later, they gave each other peer feedback on oral presentations (delayed feedback measure). On the direct feedback measure, students in the modeling example condition used assessment criteria more often in their feedback, and produced significantly more overall feedback, and significantly more positive and negative judgments than students in the practice condition. There was no significant difference in the amount of elaboration and feed-forward between the two conditions. On the delayed feedback measure, there were no significant differences between the two experimental conditions. The results suggest that, at least in the short term, a modeling example can stimulate the use of assessment criteria and judgments in feedback. The results and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Curriculum development initiatives, especially those involving educational technologies, provide a rich learning space for university teachers. In-depth interviews with teaching staff (n = 11) were qualitatively analysed to gain insight into the variety of individual learning paths and to identify potential relationships between learning paths, motivation, and conceptions of teaching and learning through educational technology. Three distinct learning paths relating to teachers' learning preferences and activities were identified: learning by performing daily teaching activities; deliberately experimenting with new teaching approaches; and reflecting on teaching experiences. The relationships between learning paths and relevant factors are described and implications for professional development practices are discussed.

Research skills are important for university graduates, but little is known about undergraduates' motivation for research. In this study, self-efficacy beliefs and intrinsic motivation for several research activities were measured three times during an undergraduate research project (N = 147 students). In order to promote self-efficacy for writing and collaboration, a collaboration script was developed and tested on half of the students. Twelve students were interviewed three times to gather in-depth information about motivational and self-efficacy beliefs. All measures except intrinsic motivation for research increased significantly during the project. Interview results suggest that enactive mastery and positive social interdependence promoted self-efficacy. Feelings of relatedness seemed to promote intrinsic motivation for writing. Lack of autonomy and low perceived relevance may explain why motivation for research remained stable. The script had no impact on self-efficacy beliefs. Relatedness, autonomy and positive social interdependence may boost motivation for research, but more evidence is needed.

Internationally, universities and policy-makers are calling for stronger integration of research into teaching. However, it is unclear how to implement this in practice in different disciplinary areas and contexts. This study contributes to this understanding with a focus on language teaching in the Chinese context. We surveyed 152 university teachers regarding their beliefs about and their perceived actual integration of research in their teaching practice. The teachers highly valued integration of research in teaching in an ideal situation but perceived low integration of research into their actual teaching practice. This gap was smaller for teachers from research-intensive universities and for those who had more research experience and spent more than 25% of their work time on research. Other reasons for this gap included fixed curricula, heavy teaching tasks, lack of student motivation and difficulties reconciling integration of research into teaching with the institutional aim of improving students' language proficiency.

Higher education (HE) is engaged in a variety of educational innovations, as well as professional development initiatives (PDIs) to support teachers in attaining the required expertise. To improve teacher professional learning and development (PLD) and innovation processes, it is important to understand whether, how and why different PLD practices work for different innovations, contexts and populations. However, research is characterized by descriptive, single case studies and lacks a common framework to relate research findings. To address this shortcoming, this study collected and compared a wide variety of cases to develop a typology of practices. The results showed that educational innovations and teacher PLD were typically configured in three ways: (1) the focus is on implementing a new form of education and teacher learning is used as a means to this end, (2) the focus is on teachers' professional learning and the educational innovations are spin-offs, and (3) the focus is on stimulating innovations and teacher learning is a side-effect. These types of configurations differed regarding the educational innovation, required teacher expertise, professional development initiatives, teacher learning, and outcome measures. The typology serves as a framework that may help to reflect on practices, bridge disciplines, and formulate hypotheses for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research integrated into undergraduate education is important in order for medical students to understand and value research for later clinical practice. Therefore, attempts are being made to strengthen the integration of research into teaching from the first year onwards. First-year students may interpret attempts made to strengthen research integration differently than intended by teachers. This might be explained by student beliefs about learning and research as well as student perceptions of the learning environment. In general, student perceptions of the learning environment play a pivotal role in fostering student learning outcomes. This study aims to determine whether a curriculum change intended to promote research integration fosters student learning outcomes and student perceptions of research integrated into teaching. To serve this purpose, three subsequent cohorts of first-year students were compared, one before and two after a curriculum change. Learning outcomes of these students were measured using scores on a national progress test of 921 students and assessments of a sample of 100 research reports of a first-year student research project. 746 Students filled out the Student Perceptions of Research Integration Questionnaire. The findings suggest that learning outcomes of these students, that is, scores on research related test items of the progress test and the quality of research reports, were better than those of students before the curriculum change.

Growing interest in student research projects in higher education has led to an emphasis on research supervision. We focus in this study on novice supervisors' approaches to research supervision as they explore their practices and experience difficulties supervising medical-students. Teacher noticing was used as a sensitising concept and relations with teacher dilemmas were explored in the research supervision context. To provide in-depth insights into supervisors' practices and pedagogical choices, twelve stimulated recall interviews with supervisors were analysed. The supervisors were involved in individual undergraduate or master degree student research projects at a research-intensive university. Analysis revealed four kinds of dilemmas which may influence research supervision practices, namely questions regarding regulation, student needs, the student-supervisor relationship and supervisors' professional identity. We explain the relationship between novice supervisors' practices and dilemmas in detail. Implications are given to enhance initiatives for professional development of supervisors.

Research should be explicated in undergraduate teaching in a way that stimulates student learning. Previous studies in higher education have shown that student perceptions of research integrated into teaching could promote student learning, but have also indicated that it can be difficult to confront first-year undergraduates with research during courses. In this study, we describe relationships between first-year medical student perceptions of research, learning outcomes and beliefs about the value of research. The Student Perception of Research Integration Questionnaire was filled out by 261 students. Answers were related to student achievement. The findings suggest that student motivation for research is strongly related to merging current research into teaching. Students rather recognised an emphasis on research methodologies than research engagement. Particularly student beliefs about research are related to achievement. It is suggested that to foster positive beliefs about research, teachers should familiarise students with current research and create enthusiasm for research.

This study explores how academics who expanded their teaching-only positions to include research view their (re)constructed academic identity. Participants worked in a higher professional education institution of applied research and teaching, comparable with so-called new universities. The aim is to increase our understanding of variations in academic identity and to be better able to support academics' 'role making' within and across different worlds of practice. Data from semi-structured interviews with 18 academics at a Dutch new university were analysed using a grounded theory approach. This revealed six well-rounded academic identities reflecting participants' personal scholarly objectives: the 'continuous learner', 'disciplinary expert', 'skilled researcher', 'evidence-based teacher', 'guardian of the research work process' and 'liaison officer'. The researcher role served to promote the overall development of participants' identities. The 'disciplinary expert' matured through participation in the academic world and research activities. Participants discovered what 'being' and 'becoming' a researcher in the new university might entail, and contributed to the professions' knowledge base. Participants learned to apply various research-based teaching approaches. As brokers, they linked research projects to practices in meaningful ways. The six identities embodied an emergent power in creating and preserving a complete academic profession. Participants' accounts showed tensions inherent in an extended role portfolio and constraints in 'role making' given inconsistencies between the university's espoused research mission and the one in use. These imply challenges for university managers in aligning policies and practices, and scaffolding academics' attempts to integrate their academic roles in different worlds of practice.

Faculty development in learning-centred medical education aims to help faculty mature into facilitators of student learning, but it is often ineffective. It is unclear how to support educators' maturation sustainably. We explored how and why medical educators working in learning-centred education, more commonly referred to as student-centred education, mature over time. We performed a qualitative follow-up study and interviewed 21 senior physician-educators at two times, ten years apart. A hierarchical model, distinguishing four educator phenotypes, was employed to deductively examine educators' awareness of the workplace context, their educational competencies, identity, and 'mission,' i.e. their source of personal inspiration. Those educators who grew in awareness, as measured by advancing in educator phenotype, were re-interviewed to inductively explore factors they perceived to have guided their maturation. A minority of the medical educators grew in awareness of their educational qualities over the 10-year study period. Regression in awareness did not occur. Maturation as an educator was perceived to be linked to maturation as a physician and to engaging in primarily informal learning opportunities. Maturation of medical educators can take place, but is not guaranteed, and appears to proceed through a growth in awareness of, successively, educational competencies, identity, and mission. At all stages, maturation is motivated by the task, identity, and mission as a physician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational education is rather common in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with among the highest TNE enrolments of any region worldwide. Approximately a third of the Omani students in higher education are registered in programmes offered transnationally, and a UK university is the main provider. The aim of this study was to identify the challenges that Omani students perceive when studying in transnational education by means of a survey and in-depth follow-up interviews. The findings show that challenges relate mainly to students' adaptation to transnational higher education pedagogies, the challenges of academic writing, and challenges related to the international or UK culture of the programme. It argues in favour of widening the definition of contextualisation from simply including local examples to a pedagogical approach in TNE that supports students in dealing with their challenges in the TNE contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a variety of research approaches and instruments, previous research has revealed what university students tend to see as benefits and disadvantages of the integration of research in teaching. In the present study, a questionnaire was developed on the basis of categorizations of the research-teaching nexus in the literature. The aim of the Student Perception of Research Integration Questionnaire (SPRIQ) is to determine the factors that capture the way students perceive research integration in their courses. The questionnaire was administered among 221 students from five different undergraduate courses at a research intensive university in The Netherlands. Data analysis revealed four factors regarding research integration: motivation, reflection, participation, and current research. These factors are correlated with students' rating of the quality of the course and with their beliefs about the importance of research for their learning. Moreover, courses could be distinguished in terms of research intensiveness, from the student perspective, based on the above-mentioned factors. It is concluded that the SPRIQ helps to understand how students perceive research integration in specific courses and is a promising tool to give feedback to teachers and program managers who aim to strengthen links between research, teaching, and student learning.

The number of international Chinese students enrolled in research programmes in Western universities is growing. To provide effective research supervision to these students, it is helpful to understand the similarities and differences in the supervision process between the host country and their home country. We explored which learning outcomes supervisors of master's theses aim for in two cultures, China and the Netherlands, and how they help their students to achieve these learning outcomes. Semi-structured interviews with 10 Chinese and 10 Dutch supervisors revealed, besides a strong resemblance, some clear differences between the two groups. For example, the Chinese supervisors aim to prepare their students for future jobs and use explicit assessment and regulation to monitor student progress, while the Dutch supervisors aim to enhance student well-being and use implicit regulation, emotional support and frequent posing of questions to facilitate student learning. Implications for cross-cultural and international education are provided.

We explored how the institutional and individual backgrounds of university teachers influence their beliefs about what the role of research in university teaching should be and their perceptions of how they have managed to incorporate research into their actual teaching. A total of 132 teachers from research universities (RU) and universities of applied sciences (UAS) participated in our survey study. Teachers from both institutions highly value the role of research in teaching. The teachers from the RU were more positive about the incorporation of research into their teaching than the teachers from the UAS. To explain these differences, the institutional and individual backgrounds of the teachers were investigated in terms of: perceived research support and the institutional research culture, time spent doing research, educational background and research experience. Research support and research culture were found to be particularly and highly relevant for the teachers at the UAS. The teachers with higher educational backgrounds and more research experience--at the RU--were more positive about incorporating research into their actual teaching. We conclude that both institutional and individual backgrounds play a significant role in the incorporation of research into university teaching, particularly in the case of universities of applied sciences.

During the past decades, university teachers from both the East and the West have been increasingly called to involve their students in research, therefore they have to rethink not only their research and teaching practices but re-evaluate the role of research in their ongoing teaching. Thus, a survey was conducted to explore (1) what Chinese and Dutch university teachers "believe" the role of research "should be" in their teaching, (2) how they "perceive" their "actual" incorporation of research into their current teaching practice, and (3) how their beliefs about the role of research relate to their beliefs about teaching. Altogether, 284 university teachers from China and the Netherlands participated in the study. One striking result was that the Chinese and the Dutch university teachers were similar in several ways. They both highly valued the role of research in teaching, and were dissatisfied with the actual incorporation of research into their ongoing teaching practice. However, despite all similarities, the Chinese teachers were also found to be different from the Dutch teachers: They scored lower on how much they valued the role of research, how well they could incorporate research into their current teaching practice, and how much they agreed with teaching as conceptual change and focusing on an active role of the student. In general, the differences between the Chinese and the Dutch teachers may have their roots in the Confucian versus Western educational philosophies, respectively, and the similarities identified perhaps reflect the Western influence on Asian higher education.

A central aim of university teaching is to transform students' conceptual understanding of disciplinary knowledge. In order to achieve this, lecturers make decisions on subject matter and teaching approaches. However, there seems to be little attention for the role of subject matter pedagogy in university teaching. This study aims to explore a knowledge base of teaching through lecturers' accounts of a relation between subject matter, theory and practice in Child and Education Studies (CES). Four narratives of the lecturers suggest that subject matter is central to how a relation between theory and practice is taught. At the same time, orientation towards teaching was relevant to teaching subject matter. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that every lecture runs into their own limits when teaching theory and practice. The findings suggest that university pedagogy is informed by specific subjects rather than the discipline. Implications for teaching and academic development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]