scholarly journals Transformative Learning: A Precursor to Preparing Health Science Students to Work in Indigenous Health Settings?

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bullen ◽  
Lynne Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Transformative Experiences

Australian undergraduate programmes are implementing curriculum aimed at better preparing graduates to work in Indigenous health settings, but the efficacy of these programmes is largely unknown. To begin to address this, we obtained baseline data upon entry to tertiary education (Time 1) and follow-up data upon completion of an Indigenous studies health unit (Time 2) on student attitudes, preparedness to work in Indigenous health contexts and transformative experiences within the unit. The research involved 336 health science first-year students (273 females, 63 males) who completed anonymous in-class paper questionnaires at both time points. Paired sample t-tests indicated significant change in student attitudes towards Indigenous Australians, perceptions of Indigenous health as a social priority, perceptions of the adequacy of health services for Indigenous Australians and preparedness to work in Indigenous health settings. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that after controlling for Time 1 measures, the number of precursor steps to transformative learning experienced by students accounted for significant variance in measures of attitudes and preparedness to work in Indigenous health contexts at Time 2. The knowledge gained further informs our understanding of both the transformative impact of such curriculum, and the nature of this transformation in the Indigenous studies health context.

Driving Transformative Learning within Australian Indigenous Studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (01) ◽  
pp. 12-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bullen ◽  
Lynne Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Classroom Community ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Teacher Rapport

Australian undergraduate programmes implementing Indigenous studies courses suggest transformative educational outcomes for students; however, the mechanism behind this is largely unknown. To begin to address this, we obtained baseline data upon entry to tertiary education (Time 1) and follow-up data upon completion of an Indigenous studies health unit (Time 2) on student learning approaches, student-teacher rapport, classroom community, critical reflection (CR) and transformative experiences within the unit. Three-hundred-thirty-six health science first-year students (273 females, 63 males) completed anonymous in-class paper questionnaires at both time points. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that (a) CR was the strongest predictor of transformative learning experiences, (b) the relationship between deep learning approach upon entry to tertiary education and transformative learning experiences was mediated by CR and (c) rapport and classroom community accounted for significant variance in CR. These results suggest that students benefit from tutors’ ability to develop rapport and classroom community, leading to greater capacity for student CR. This in turn promotes transformative learning possibilities within the Indigenous studies learning environment. These findings provide a further rationale for institutions to embed Indigenous knowledge into courses and highlight the importance of evaluating their effect and quality.

Transformative Learning in Mastery-Oriented CS0 Course

2021 ◽  
pp. 234763112110072
Author(s):  
Srinivasan Lakshminarayanan ◽  
N. J. Rao ◽  
G. K. Meghana
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Guided Discovery ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Cognitive Levels ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Core Course

The introductory programming course, commonly known as CS1 and offered as a core course in the first year in all engineering programs in India, is unique because it can address higher cognitive levels, metacognition and some aspects of the affective domain. It can provide much needed transformative experiences to students coming from a system of school education that is dominantly performance-driven. Unfortunately, the CS1 course, as practiced in almost all engineering programs, is also performance-driven because of a variety of compulsions. This paper suggests that the inclusion of a course CS0 can bring about transformative learning that can potentially make a significant difference in the quality of learning in all subsequent engineering courses. The suggested instruction design of this course takes the advantage of the unique features of a course in programming. The proposed CS0 course uses “extreme apprenticeship” and “guided discovery” methods of instruction. The effectiveness of these instruction methods was established through the use of the thematic analysis, a well-known qualitative research method, and the associated coding of transformative learning experiences and instruction components.

‘Working Together’: An Intercultural Academic Leadership Programme to Build Health Science Educators’ Capacity to Teach Indigenous Health and Culture

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Durey ◽  
Kate Taylor ◽  
Dawn Bessarab ◽  
Marion Kickett ◽  
Sue Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Academic Leadership ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Science Educators ◽  
The Impact

Progress has been slow in improving health disparities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australians and other Australians. While reasons for this are complex, delivering healthcare respectful of cultural differences is one approach to improving Indigenous health outcomes. This paper presents and evaluates an intercultural academic leadership programme developed to support tertiary educators teaching Indigenous health and culture prepare interdisciplinary students to work respectfully and appropriately as health professionals with Indigenous peoples. The programme acknowledges the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians and draws on theories of the intercultural space to inform reflection and discussion on Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations and their impact on healthcare. Furthermore, the programme encourages establishing a community of practice as a resource for educators. Evaluation indicated participants’ confidence to teach Indigenous content increased following the programme. Participants felt more able to create intercultural, interdisciplinary and interactive learning spaces that were inclusive and safe for students from all cultures. Participants learned skills to effectively facilitate and encourage students to grapple with the complexity of the intercultural space, often tense, uncertain and risky, to enable new understandings and positions to emerge that could better prepare graduates to work in Indigenous health contexts.

Influence of Training on First-Year Nursing Department Students’ Attitudes on Death and Caring for Dying Patients: A Single-Group Pretest–Posttest Experimental Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgül Cerit
Keyword(s):  
Student Attitudes ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Attitudes Toward Death ◽  
Dying Patients ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Collection Data ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Nursing Department

The study examined the influence of training on first-year nursing department students’ attitudes on death and caring for dying patients. Utilizing the experimental model, the study sample consisted of 81 first-year students attending the nursing department of a university. Death Attitude Profile-Revised and Frommelt Attitude toward Care of the Dying Scale were used for data collection. Data analysis included means, standard deviation, and t test for related samples. Student attitudes toward death were measured as 146.43 (16.741) and 152.75 (15.132) for pre- and posttraining, respectively. Student attitudes toward caring for dying patients were established to be 103.02 (7.655) during pretraining period and 111.02 (10.359) at posttraining period. The difference between pre- and posttests for mean attitudes toward death and caring for the dying patient was statistically significant. Study results determined that training was effective in forming positive student attitudes toward death and caring for dying patients.

scholarly journals First-Year Students’ EFL Reading Difficulties at a Greek Merchant Marine Academy: An Activity Theory Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 378
Author(s):  
Emmanouela Seiradakis
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
First Year ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Merchant Marine ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Marine Engineering

This paper explores how the transition from secondary to tertiary education influences Greek marine engineering students’ EFL reading behaviors and strategies from an activity-theory perspective. Data were gathered through individual semi-structured interviews with four first-year students who struggled with reading texts in English. Findings suggest that these students experience difficulties in reading lengthy discipline-specific texts such as technical manuals due to the fact they still use the same EFL reading strategies and have the same expectations they had before entering tertiary education. From an activity theory perspective, these students’ difficulties are associated with two distinct EFL reading activity systems which have diverse goals, tools, values, and division of labour. The first system is placed within the wider Greek foreign language education context these students belonged in high school. The second, involves the system that emerged after they entered the Merchant Marine Academy as tertiary education students. These two EFL reading systems clash and create obstacles in their discipline-specific reading which in turn slows down their disciplinary socialization in the marine engineering community.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of the First Year University Students’ Motivation for Learning in Samples of Riga and Smolensk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Jermolajeva ◽  
◽  
Svetlana Silchenkova ◽  
Larissa Turusheva ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Education ◽  
International Study ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Psychological Climate ◽  
First Year ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Motivation For Learning ◽  
First Year University ◽  
The Impact

The demand for tertiary education among young people is growing worldwide. However, in the first months of the studies, freshmen face increasing difficulties, which sometimes negatively affect their learning motivation. For the successful pedagogical process, teachers need to study the motivation of students of the first study year, monitor it and take into account its peculiarities while developing learning materials and choosing educational strategies. The article presents the results of an international study of freshmen’s motivation. The study aim to compare the motivation of the first-year students at the universities of Riga and Smolensk, to identify prevailing motives and to assess the impact of the psychological atmosphere in the student group on their motivation. In the survey carried out in December 2019, 129 students from two universities in Riga (Latvia) and Smolensk (Russia) participated. The tools for collecting information were the technique of diagnostics of learning motivation by 7 content scales and the technique of measuring the psychological climate in the collective by 10 bipolar scales. For data processing, descriptive statistics, analysis of statistical indicators, and Spearman correlation analysis were used. In both national samples, professional motives for learning prevail over other motives, while prestige motives and avoidance motives take the penultimate and last place relatively. The importance of other groups of learning motives is assessed somewhat differently. For the Smolensk sample of students it was found out that their motivation to learn depends on the psychological atmosphere in the group, especially on the overall atmosphere of success in the group. However a similar correlation has not been revealed in the survey of the Riga sample of students. The study shows that a few months after the start of studying, the first-year students’ overall motivation has not dropped below the critical level. However, for more successful training, it could and should be improved. Some ways to increase freshmen’s motivation for learning are proposed in the article.

scholarly journals First-year student’s work and rest balance as an enabler to transition to adult learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Živilė Nemickienė ◽  
Emilija Nemickaite
Keyword(s):  
Time Management ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Study ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Hours Of Work ◽  
University Life ◽  
Study Programs ◽  
Multiple Challenges

The present research analyses one out of multiple challenges the first-year students face during their transition to academic life, namely, the first-year students’ work and rest balance. The balance, if managed wisely, might become a strong enabler to a successful transition to university life. The study analyses a series of factors, such as the balance of work and rest of the first-year students, skills of time management and the psychological state during the first months at university. The study employs a comparative analysis to evaluate the average hours of work and rest per week of a first-year student comparing with the planned time. The data of students’ work and rest balance was collected from the diary they were asked to record for two months. A focus group was comprised of twenty-five respondents of finance, twelve students of language and three of health science study programs at Lithuanian universities.

scholarly journals Exploring the first-year experience in a diverse population: Using participatory action research to explore strategies to support student transition into fast-track undergraduate degree programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Greg Rickard ◽  
Marguerite Bramble ◽  
Hazel Maxwell ◽  
Rochelle Einboden ◽  
Sally Farrington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fast Track ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Transition ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
University Life

As the cohort of students in Australian universities become increasingly diverse, attention to ensuring their success is an emerging issue of social justice in tertiary education. Navigating transitions through the student journey is crucial to their success. Exploring and responding to the needs of a cohort of first-year students is the focus of this research. Using a participatory action approach, this project aimed to discover what is meaningful for first-year students, by exploring how students experienced the processes of admission, enrolment, commencement, and learning and teaching in two fast-track and one online health degrees. Nine students were partnered with nine academics for a six-month period. The analysis offers insights into equity issues in relation to the institution’s admission processes, the quality of support and engagement from academics to students when transitioning to university life, and how students find their ‘place’. Strategies to support the transition process for first-year students are identified and discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring Habitus and Writer Identities: An ethnographic study of writer identity construction in the FET Phase at two schools in the Western Cape

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Michelle Van Heerden
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Ripple Effects ◽  
Institutional Values ◽  
Pluralistic Societies ◽  
Deficit Discourses ◽  
Writer Identities

Globalisation processes have resulted in increasingly pluralistic societies, a phenomenon with ripple effects in contexts such as universities, which now provide access to heterogeneous student populations with diverse rituals, beliefs, cultures and languages. For this reason, deficit discourses that frame students as underprepared for the demands of tertiary studies are a global phenomenon (Boughey, 2003; Lillis, 2003; Lea & Street, 1998). Furthermore, the different identities, histories and dispositions (Bourdieu, 1990) of students result in hybrid linguistic repertoires, with some repertoires being more powerful than others (Blommaert, 2001; Blommaert, Collins &Slembrouck, 2005; Rampton, 2003). Therefore, having access to the preferred linguistic repertoire - in most cases standard English - is an asset, because this repertoire is more closely aligned than others to tertiary education practices and discourses. As a result, the scholarly community can be daunting for many first-year students whose linguistic identities are not always aligned to institutional values, practices and discourses; students can easily be indexed as under-achieving or incompetent.

scholarly journals First Year University Students Arrive with Some Search Skills, But Struggle with Scholarly Sources

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Cari Merkley
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Information Literacy Skills

A Review of: Salisbury, F., & Karasmanis, S. (2011). Are they ready? Exploring student information literacy skills in the transition from secondary to tertiary education. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(1), 43-58. Objective – To determine what existing information literacy skills first year students possess upon entering university. Design – Quantitative survey questionnaire. Setting – A research university in Australia. Subjects – 1,029 first year students in the health sciences. Methods – First year students enrolled in the health sciences were asked to complete a paper questionnaire in their first week of classes in 2009. The 20 question survey was distributed in student tutorial groups. The first 10 questions collected information on student demographics, expected library use, and existing information seeking behaviour. The remaining 10 questions tested students’ understanding of information literacy concepts. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS. Main Results – Most of the students who responded to the questionnaire were between the ages of 16 and 21 (84.3%) with only 2.2% over the age of 40. Approximately 15% of respondents had completed some postsecondary university or vocational education prior to enrolling in their current program. The students ranked Google, a friend, and a book as the top three places they would go to find information on something they knew little about. Google was also the most popular choice for finding a scholarly article (35% of respondents), followed by the library catalogue (21%). A large proportion of students correctly answered questions relating to identifying appropriate search terms. For example, one third of the students selected the correct combination of search concepts for a provided topic, and 77% identified that the choice of search phrase could negatively impact search results. Students also demonstrated prior knowledge of the Boolean operator AND, with 38% correctly identifying its use in the related question. Most students were also able to identify key markers of a website’s credibility. Questions relating to ethical information use and scholarly literature proved more challenging. Almost half (45%) of the students said that they did not know the characteristics of a peer reviewed journal article. Twenty five percent of respondents indicated that citing an information source was only necessary in the case of direct quotes, with only 28% correctly identifying the need for citing both quotes and paraphrasing. Only 23% were able to select the example of a journal citation from the list presented. Conclusion – Students enter university with existing strengths in concept identification and basic search formulation, but require the most assistance with locating and identifying scholarly literature and how to cite it appropriately in their work. The findings will inform the development of an online information literacy assessment tool to assist incoming students in identifying areas where they may require additional support as they transition to university.

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