Healthcare vs social sciences students: who identifies the most?

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-594
Author(s):  
Alba Barbarà-i-Molinero ◽  
Cristina Sancha ◽  
Rosalia Cascón-Pereira

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the level of professional identity strength between healthcare and social sciences students. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 339 students, the authors conduct an ANOVA analysis in order to compare students’ professional identity strength across the abovementioned groups. Findings The authors’ results show that there are significant differences in professional identity strength between healthcare and social sciences students. In particular, healthcare sciences students show stronger professional identity than social sciences students. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature on professional identity in higher education by being the first study comparing student’s professional identity between bachelor degrees from different professional fields of study and by showing the relevance of discipline as a contextual variable in the study of students’ professional identity.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M. Wong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the teaching innovations that have been implemented in higher education institutions in Asia and the perspectives of educators on them. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 educators who were affiliated with 23 higher education institutions in ten Asian countries/regions. The interviews covered information about the teaching innovations of the participants’ institutions, the characteristics of the innovative practices and the participants’ views on them. The relationships between the characteristics of institutions and their teaching innovations were also examined. Findings The results showed that the teaching innovations included two main categories, namely, those which involved the use of advanced technologies and those which did not. The innovations that involved the use of advanced technologies were mainly from larger institutions, while the other category was mainly from smaller ones and had been practised for less than 1.5 years. Differences were also identified between the two categories in terms of the aims and importance of innovations, innovative features, the evaluation of innovations and improvements needed for them. Originality/value The results highlighted that technology is only one of the many aspects of teaching innovations, which is different from the view prevailing in the literature. They also suggested that differences in the scale of institutions (in terms of number of students) possibly influences the kind of teaching innovations adopted.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-328
Author(s):  
Ian Pepper ◽  
Ruth McGrath

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of an employability module, the College of Policing Certificate in Knowledge of Policing (CKP), on students’ career aspirations, their confidence and wish to join the police along with the appropriateness of the module. This will inform the implementation of employability as part of the College of Policing-managed Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF). Design/methodology/approach A three-year longitudinal research study used mixed methods across four points in time to evaluate the impact on students studying the employability module. Findings The research suggests that the employability-focussed CKP was useful as an introduction to policing, it developed interest in the police and enhanced the confidence of learners applying to join. Lessons learnt from the CKP should be considered during the implementation of the PEQF. Research limitations/implications The ability to generalise findings across different groups is limited as other influences may impact on a learner’s confidence and employability. However, the implications for the PEQF curriculum are worthy of consideration. Practical implications As the police service moves towards standardised higher educational provision and evolution of policing as a profession, lessons can be learnt from the CKP with regards to the future employability of graduates. Originality/value Enhancing the employability evidence base, focussing on policing, the research identified aspects which may impact on graduates completing a degree mapped to the PEQF. The research is therefore of value to higher education and the professional body for policing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 793-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Bonet

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the boundaries of rhetoric have excluded important theoretical and practical subjects and how these subjects are recuperated and extended since the twentieth century. Its purpose is to foster the awareness on emerging new trends of rhetoric. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on an interpretation of the history of rhetoric and on the construction of a conceptual framework of the rhetoric of judgment, which is introduced in this paper. Findings – On the subject of the extension of rhetoric from public speeches to any kinds of persuasive situations, the paper emphasizes some stimulating relationships between the theory of communication and rhetoric. On the exclusion and recuperation of the subject of rhetorical arguments, it presents the changing relationships between rhetoric and dialectics and emphasizes the role of rhetoric in scientific research. On the introduction of rhetoric of judgment and meanings it creates a conceptual framework based on a re-examination of the concept of judgment and the phenomenological foundations of the interpretative methods of social sciences by Alfred Schutz, relating them to symbolic interactionism and theories of the self. Originality/value – The study on the changing boundaries of rhetoric and the introduction of the rhetoric of judgment offers a new view on the present theoretical and practical development of rhetoric, which opens new subjects of research and new fields of applications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Bayart ◽  
Sandra Bertezene ◽  
David Vallat ◽  
Jacques Martin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the use of “serious games” with students can improve their knowledge acquisition and their academic performance. Design/methodology/approach – The research is an exploratory investigation resorting to the use of a serious game to evaluate the evolution of the students’ competencies in project management, through questionnaires processed using a structural “learning model.” Findings – This research shows indeed that the use of “serious games” improves the knowledge acquisition and management competencies of the students with the evidencing of significant factors contributing to this improvement. Practical implications – The findings of this research show that serious games can be an effective tool to be used in teaching students particularly as traditional methods are less and less accepted by today's students. Originality/value – Although the use of games is not something new in education, it is still limited in teaching practices in higher education. This experiment can help lecturers and trainers to resort to them in their pedagogy and to conceive them according to variables that can enhance their effectiveness.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxin Zhang ◽  
Jagannath Patil

Purpose After the “quantity era,” today higher education has entered into the “quality era” and as “the gate keepers of quality,” quality assurance agencies (QAAs) are playing more and more irreplaceable important roles and their social status are becoming more and more prominent. However, how to guarantee the quality of the QAAs? Who can review the QAAs? The purpose of this paper is based exploration of these questions. Design/methodology/approach Following the founding of the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) for Higher Education, the Asia Pacific Quality Register (APQR) became the second in the international quality assurance (QA) networks to implement QA register, in 2015 with initiative of Asia-Pacific Quality Network. Findings This paper first retrospects the history and process of APQR, and subsequently the implementation of APQR is described in detail from the two aspects of the criteria and the procedure, and at the end, the paper concludes with a summary of the three characteristics of this first formal implement of APQR: APQR is an international register open to all the QAAs; APQR emphasizes characteristics evaluation of diversity; and APQR highlights the combination of quantitative assessment and qualitative assessment. Originality/value Today on the international stage of QA, APQR has emerged as “the watchman of quality” in the Asia-Pacific region as counterpart of EQAR in Europe. How far away does such newly emerging form of guaranteeing the QAAs’ quality go forward, what is its future prospects and other concerning issues, are some of the question that need enthusiastic attention and contribution.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaz Rahrovani ◽  
Mahdieh Mirzabeigi ◽  
Javad Abbaspour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trained and untrained users’ mental models compatibility with search module icons in three Iranian digital library applications, namely, Nika, Azarakhsh, and Simorgh. Design/methodology/approach The population of this survey consisted of two groups including trained and untrained users. The trained user group consisted of 174 samples, all of which were included in the study due to scarcity of the samples. The untrained user group consisted of 8,210 samples, from which 267 cases were selected through stratified sampling. Findings Results showed that the trained users’ mental models were more compatible with the search module icons than those of the untrained users. The comparison of three software applications showed that the mental models of trained and untrained users had the highest compatibility with the search icons of Azarakhsh and the lowest compatibility with those of Nika. Concerning the untrained users’ status in terms of their fields of study, results showed that users majoring technical and engineering field and those in agriculture had, respectively, the highest and lowest mental models compatibility with the icons embedded in the user interface of the studied applications. Originality/value Since the mental models may be incomplete or inaccurate, the study of the trained and untrained users’ mental models compatibility with the search module icons of user interface embedded in various library applications may help in assessing the software’ status and the designers’ level of success in conveying the content. This also may assist information literacy specialists to estimate the required amount of training for trained and untrained users.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Sokorutova ◽  
Natalia Prodanova ◽  
Inna Ponomareva ◽  
Oleg Volodin

PurposeThe most important problem for higher education in the post-COVID period is the production of highly qualified specialists for the labor market. The purpose of this study is to determine effective criteria for assessing the quality of training of future specialists and the adequacy of their readiness to solve real problems of the future specialty.Design/methodology/approachA study was carried out among students in order to determine some of the most important characteristics of them as future specialists. Based on the survey results, non-academic indicators were identified that participants perceive as significant for a highly professional employee. The empirical study included 300 undergraduate students from four universities (66% women and 34% men aged 20–21). All participants represent full-time training.FindingsThe survey showed that the participants identified the ability to learn and personal development as the most significant personal qualities.Originality/valueMany criteria for assessing the quality of training of specialists in different professional fields have not been precisely defined. Several ways of solving this problem can be proposed: developing criteria for assessing quality in hiring; revising the methods of work of universities; presenting to students the criteria for development in the profession or adopting international criteria for assessing pedagogical quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeniffer Fonseca Zanitt ◽  
Izabela Simon Rampasso ◽  
Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves Quelhas ◽  
Milena Pavan Serafim ◽  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
...  

Purpose This study aims to analyse how the materials selection courses of engineering undergraduate programmes can be better aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach Initially, a content analysis was performed in 39 materials selection course descriptions from 40 engineering undergraduate programmes of Brazilian higher education institutions, and subsequently, Delphi method procedures were conducted with professors that teach or have taught the course and are knowledgeable in the subject of sustainability. Findings Considering the analysed course descriptions, it was shown that most of the materials selection courses do not consider or present little emphasis on sustainability aspects. Regarding the Delphi method, eight items were evidenced to consider sustainability aspects in the analysed courses. Originality/value This study contributes to the debates about sustainability insertion in engineering undergraduate programmes. More specifically, the findings presented consolidated information that professors and coordinators can use to align materials selection courses with the SDGs better.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Skakni

Purpose This study aims to examine how PhD students with diverse profiles, intentions and expectations manage to navigate their doctoral paths within the same academic context under similar institutional conditions. Drawing on Giddens’ theory of structuration, this study explores how their primary reasons, motives and motivations for engaging in doctoral studies influence what they perceive as facilitating or constraining to progress, their strategies to face the challenges they encounter and their expectations regarding supervision. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative design, the analysis was conducted on a data subset from an instrumental case study (Stake, 2013) about PhD students’ persistence and progression. The focus is placed on semi-structured interviews carried out with 36 PhD students from six faculties in humanities and social sciences fields at a large Canadian university. Findings The analysis reveals three distinct scenarios regarding how these PhD students navigate their doctoral paths: the quest for the self; the intellectual quest; and the professional quest. Depending on their quest type, the nature and intensity of PhD students’ concerns and challenges, as well as their strategies and the support they expected, differed. Originality/value This study contributes to the discussion about PhD students’ challenges and persistence by offering a unique portrait of how diverse students’ profiles, intentions and expectations can concretely shape a doctoral experience.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hines ◽  
Alexandra Whittington

Purpose A research project exploring emerging student needs explored six aspects of student life: living, learning, working, playing, connecting and participating. Design/methodology/approach A modified version of the University of Houston’s “Framework Foresight” method was used to explore the future of six aspects of future student life. The resulting scenarios were analyzed for their implications, including the use of the World Café technique, and ultimately led to the identification of nine emerging student needs. Findings Nine specific emerging needs of future students could be used strategically by institutions of higher education to guide and inform planning and to generate innovative ideas for university offerings. Specific examples of offerings that would meet the projected future needs are recommended. Research limitations/implications In terms of research limitations, the paper is focused on the needs of students and does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis of all of the issues influencing higher education. It views the future of higher education through the lens of students and their emerging needs. Practical implications The paper is intended for educators, researchers and administrators to provide insight on how the needs of students, their key customers, are evolving. Originality/value This piece explores student life in its totality as way to more accurately identify student needs in the future.


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