scholarly journals Undergraduate scholarship: Local is global, and global is local

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Usher
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Competency ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Travel Abroad ◽  
Scholarly Projects ◽  
Real World Problems

Research and Travel Abroad are considered two important high impact practices for undergraduate students, but are seen as separate learning opportunities. However, we know that these experiences are connected: faculty often study and collaborate internationally, and employers are seeking students who can apply knowledge to real-world problems and have cultural competency (Hart Research Associates, 2015).  In this conversation with faculty, I build on five years of Students as Scholars experience to promote a more nuanced and integrated view of “global” research. Students work on projects that usually fall into one of three categories: locally/regionally-focused, internationally-focused, and site-independent (with implicit global value). The location of the research can be at Mason, or in an international location. By framing the scholarly projects using this intersection of topic and location, we can create projects in and beyond the classroom in ways that intentionally teach about global issues through inquiry and research.  During this session, after presenting the model, participants will brainstorm ways to integrate global perspectives in research courses, study abroad experiences, and scholarly projects that involve students. Hart Research Associates (2015) Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-survey-falling-short

scholarly journals Bridging the Gap: Understanding the Differing Research Expectations of First-Year Students and Professor

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg Raven
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Instruction Strategies ◽  
Research Instruction ◽  
The University

Objective: This study sought to better understand the research expectations of first-year students upon beginning university study, and how these expectations differed from those of their professors. Most academic librarians observe that the research expectations of these two groups differ considerably and being able to articulate where these differences are greatest may help us provided more focused instruction, and allow us to work more effectively with professors and student support services. Methods: 317 first-year undergraduate students and 75 professors at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS were surveyed to determine what they each expected of first-year student research. Students were surveyed on the first day of term so as to best understand their research expectations as they transitioned from high school to university. Results: The gulf between student and professor research expectations was found to be considerable, especially in areas such as time required for reading and research, and the resources necessary to do research. While students rated their preparedness for university as high, they also had high expectations related to their ability to use non-academic sources. Not unexpectedly, the majority of professors believed that students are not prepared to do university-level research, they do not take enough responsibility for their own learning, they should use more academic research sources, and read twice as much as students believe they should. Conclusions: By better understanding differing research expectations, students can be guided very early in their studies about appropriate academic research practices, and librarians and professors can provide students with improved research instruction. Strategies for working with students, professors and the university community are discussed.

scholarly journals THE PLANNING OF INTEGRATED STEM EDUCATION BASED ON STANDARDS AND CONTEXTUAL ISSUES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG)

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Loh Su Ling ◽  
Vincent Pang ◽  
Denis Lajium
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Real World ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
After School ◽  
Curriculum Standards ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Integrated Stem ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Real World Problems

Two important features in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) education are integration and solving real world problems.  Despite the efforts to promote STEM education awareness and interest among students and teachers, documented studies on how to explicitly integrate the existing STEM subjects curriculum standards in solving real world problems are limited. This paper describes the planning of after-school STEM education program focusing on relevant global issues related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that integrates the existing curriculum standards of three STEM subject in the lower secondary level. The data collection is mainly through document analysis of the three individual STEM subjects’ standard documents and the planned curriculum map for the school, along with the document on ‘Education for Sustainable Development Goals Learning Objectives’.  Four possible design challenges were formulated based on the themes in SDG incorporating selected standards from the three STEM subjects as well as addition of a few new related concepts and skills.  The description offers a way to assist educators in planning similar STEM education lesson or programmes or activities through integration of the existing individual STEM disciplines curriculum standards for different level and context relevant to the students.   Keywords: Contextual problem solving, integration, standard-based, STEM education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Cite as: Loh, S. L., Pang, V., & Lajium, D. (2019). The planning of integrated STEM education based on standards and contextual issues of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Journal of Nusantara Studies, 4(1), 300-315. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss1pp300-315

Striving to Meet Global Health Competencies Without Study Abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 104365962095319
Author(s):  
Roxanne Amerson
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Virtual Classroom ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Global Learning ◽  
Innovative Learning ◽  
Travel Abroad ◽  
Diverse Cultures

Introduction: The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has radically changed the future of study abroad, yet students require the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide care for diverse cultures across geographical boundaries. The purpose of this article is to facilitate innovative learning opportunities in order to meet global health competencies in the physical or virtual classroom when study abroad is not feasible. Approach: Based on a review of published literature related to global health competencies and nursing over the last decade, a description of suggested global learning activities is provided. Results: Few research publications exist to describe activities for meeting global health competencies when travel abroad is restricted. The proposed activities provide a foundation to address the gap in literature and to establish a trajectory for future research. Discussion: The challenge is to demonstrate evidence of global health competency attainment when students are confined to their local community.

Portfolio Assessment in Engineering

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Taylor ◽  
Lois R. Harris ◽  
Joanne Dargusch
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Portfolio Assessment ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Instructional Resources ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
First Time

Learning professional skills through exposure to real-world contexts demands sophisticated assessment practices. However, complex and often novel genres can be daunting for undergraduate students. This study examined student perspectives as they engaged in Portfolio assessment for the first time within a core undergraduate engineering unit. 42 students were surveyed (27%) with 11 participating in a follow-up telephone interview. Students rated content derived from their contributions to team projects as the most valuable component of their portfolio in terms of demonstrating the unit learning outcomes and developing the skills and dispositions needed in professional practice. The team structure of many learning opportunities encouraged students to collaborate and to draw on each other as instructional resources. The data indicated it is highly worthwhile for instructors to develop static resources that reduce students' need to contact instructors with trivial questions, though lecturer contact was deemed essential and effective for comprehending more complex tasks.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Cultural Competency Among Premedical Undergraduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 238212052093482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reeti Goyal ◽  
Skky Martin ◽  
Dana Garbarski
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Competency ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Medical Training ◽  
Medical Doctor ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Premedical Students ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Definition Of

Background: Cultural competence is a difficult skill to teach, as it has several operational definitions as well as limited and unstandardized training procedures. Currently, there is no formal cultural competency training at the undergraduate level for students who seek to become a medical doctor. The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of cultural competence among premedical undergraduates by assessing how they define and understand cultural competency and their knowledge (and sources thereof) of sociocultural realities in health and medicine. Methods: Structured in-depth interviews took place in 2016 and 2017 at a medium-sized private college in the Midwestern United States. Twenty premedical students were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and thematically coded following an inductive, iterative, and systematic process. Results: Most students can provide a definition of cultural competence that includes at least one component of how it is conceptualized by the Association of American Medical Colleges. However, students focus largely on defining cultural competence as individual attitudes and interaction rather than systemic or structural realities that produce inequalities in health care. When explicitly asked, students varied in the level of detail provided in explaining the social determinants of health (such as race or ethnicity, sex, gender, and socioeconomic status) and varied in the accuracy of their definitions of traditional health practices. Each student noted the importance of training on cultural competence and many placed patients’ health at the center of their reason for doing so rather than focusing on their own training as a motivation. Students discussed various aspects of sociocultural differences and the need for physicians to understand patients’ outlooks on health care and be able to communicate to patients the purpose of suggested medical treatment, as well as the inherent tension in balancing patients as individuals and members of sociocultural groups. Premedical undergraduate students see their own cultural competence as an informal skill that is gained through social interactions across various areas of life, such as work, family, friends, and school. Conclusion: This study traces the sources of sociocultural information that premedical students will bring to their medical training as well as places where cultural competence can be further explored, practiced, and formally integrated in premedical education.

Introducing “Advanced” Tuned Vibration Absorbers in an Undergraduate Vibrations Course

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Hoi Koo ◽  
Fernando Goncalves ◽  
Hong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Smart Materials ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Vibration Absorbers ◽  
Active Materials ◽  
New Class ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Tuned Vibration Absorbers ◽  
Real World Problems

The primary objective of this paper is to bridge the theory of tuned vibration absorbers (TVA) with the practice of implementing TVAs in systems. Often, the practice of implementing TVAs in systems is a far departure from the theory expressed in many textbooks. These departures are often required in practice to account for the less than ideal conditions that the TVAs will be operating under. Many retrofitted TVAs use “smart” or active materials along with various control techniques to improve the performance of the traditional TVA proposed in textbooks. The intent of the current paper is to demonstrate several of these modern methods of implementing retrofitted TVAs to undergraduate students. The first author introduced the methods in a junior level vibrations course, and is developing a laboratory experiment. Teaching these advanced TVAs to undergraduate engineering students will help them understand how theories learned in class are used in real world problems, and motivate them to explore new fields of research. After introducing a “textbook” vibration absorber theory, this paper describes principles and operations of a new class of vibration absorbers. In reviewing conventional TVAs, students are introduced to many of the engineering challenges encountered in the implementation of TVAs. One such challenge is inevitable off-tuning caused by system parameter changes with time. After identifying many of the challenges associated with the implementation of TVAs, the students are introduced to many modern solutions to these problems. Many of these solutions involve the use of smart materials, such as piezoceramics, magnetorheological fluids, magnetorheological elastomers, shape memory alloys, etc. Through this experience, students are introduced to many smart materials and have the opportunity to see how these smart materials can provide solutions to many engineering challenges and improve existing technologies.

scholarly journals Infusing the UN Sustainable Development Goals into a global learning initiative

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-105
Author(s):  
Sommer Mitchell ◽  
Holly Swayne ◽  
Kara A. Fulton ◽  
Jennifer Jones Lister
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Global Learning ◽  
Academic Goals ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Development Goals

The Global Citizens Project (GCP) is a university-wide global learning initiative at the University of South Florida, aimed at enhancing undergraduate students’ global competencies through curricular and co-curricular experiences. The GCP uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for these experiences. Understanding the SDGs allows students to expand their ideas on issues that exist in the world and how we might respond to the challenges. The purpose of this article is to provide a case study showing how the GCP has introduced students from all disciplines and undergraduate degree programmes to the SDGs through interdisciplinary workshops, with the aim of helping them to better understand the SDGs and connect global issues to their academic goals, professional objectives and everyday experiences. To determine whether the aims of the workshops were met, qualitative content analysis is employed to analyse the constructed responses of students who attended them. The results of the study suggest that the SDGs provide a relevant and sufficiently robust framework for guiding undergraduate students in their thinking about global issues as well as their relationship with these issues.

scholarly journals Cultivar Trial Setup: A Case Study for Potted Plant Production Specialists

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil O. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Student Role ◽  
Potted Plant ◽  
The Board Of Directors ◽  
Space Limitation ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Cultural Requirements

A case study is presented for use as an active learning tool for students in a floriculture potted plant production class. This is the second case study developed for Floratech, a potted plant finisher. Students work together in small groups to solve the proposed problems; each student role-plays as a Potted Plant Production Specialist. A memorandum from the Board of Directors is delivered in their first month on the job at Floratech. Objectives of this case study are to determine the students' fluency in terminology and crop-specific cultural requirements for potted plant production of cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) and primrose (Primula sp.) as well as their ability to setup a scientifically rigorous and unbiased cultivar trial for Floratech personnel and selected customers. Students research the latest commercial catalogs to determine which species, series, and cultivars are available, as well as their relative merits, prior to choosing the appropriate cultivars to include in the trial. The trial setup has a space limitation of 2,000 ft2 (186 m2). This case study was tested with 20 undergraduate students during Fall Semester 1999. The case study demonstrated the students' fluency with terminology and crop-specific cultural requirements for both crops. Their ability to set up a scientifically rigorous trial varied widely, often with an inadequate sampling of cultivars and excessive replications (56 ± 37 cyclamen to 132 ± 65 primrose). A mean ± sd of 4 ± 1 cyclamen and 7 ± 3 primrose series were chosen. The number of cultivars varied from 6 ± 2 cyclamen to 9 ± 4 primrose and the number of distributors was similar for the crops. Trial design and additional questions raised by the case study were discussed in class and applied in a cultivar trial in the lab. Unanswered questions were used as learning opportunities during class tours with local growers.

scholarly journals Promoting Students’ Global Perspectives Through a Gamified e-Learning Platform

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frankie Y. W. Leung ◽  
Martin Lau ◽  
Kelvin Wan ◽  
Lisa Law ◽  
Theresa Kwong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Experience ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Before And After ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Learning Platforms ◽  
Cognitive Knowledge ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Development Of Students

With the rapid growth of internationalization in tertiary institutions worldwide, the development of students’ global perspectives has attracted the attention of many universities. However, this development is a challenging one due to the complicated nature of global issues and their incompatibility with traditional subject-specific boundaries of classroom teaching. Through two eTournaments organized on a proprietary gamified e-learning platform named “PaGamO,” this study examined participating students’ learning experience and their change of global perspectives due to their participation in the eTournaments. Data were collected before and after the two eTournaments, and 217 survey responses were considered to be valid and were further analyzed. The findings showed that participating students achieved the satisfaction level of enjoyment (M = 3.62) and their awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (M = 3.96) had been improved. In addition, the findings also revealed that 1) students enjoyed and perceived a better understanding of the SDGs in terms of perceptual dimensions like value-oriented and partnership-oriented, rather than the global issues about substantial threats or environmental issues; 2) the “intrapersonal effect” of students had been significantly reduced after the eTournaments; 3) positive significant correlations were found between the level of enjoyment and frequency of question-attempt in relation to the change of cognitive knowledge and interpersonal social interaction. The findings of this study offered some possible insights into students’ gameplay experience concerning dimensions of global perspectives and also support the findings of prior research on how gamified e-learning platforms could contribute to the development of students’ global perspectives.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document