scholarly journals Doctoral Supervision Practice: What’s the Problem and How Can We Help Academics?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Carter ◽  
Barbara Kensington-Miller ◽  
Matthew Courtney
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Time Constraints ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Supervision Practice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Doctoral Supervision ◽  
Discipline Differences

Academics are feeling squeezed by increasing research supervision demands within tightening time constraints. In a changing higher education environment, demands on doctoral supervisors need to be better understood in order to provide them with the right support at supervision pressure points. As academic developers, our aim was to better understand supervision challenges across multiple disciplines. A two stage study firstly sought differences in research and supervision practice between faculties by means of an anonymised digital questionnaire [n226]. Twenty-two questions explored supervisors’ experiences of project management, communication and writing. Secondly, we interviewed 11 experienced supervisors from disciplines other than our own (education), focusing on supervision’s discipline-specific challenges and constraints. We expected to find discipline-differences between science and humanities. However, analysis showed that supervision challenges are the same across disciplines. We report on what these entail and argue that, as graduate numbers rise in an internationalised academy, supervision support can and should be developed centrally in order to address the growing pressures on faculty.

scholarly journals Student Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing OpStudent Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing Open and Restricted Textbooksen and Restricted Textbooks

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Woodward ◽  
Adam Lloyd ◽  
Royce Kimmons
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Student Voice ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Textbook Evaluation ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Right ◽  
Open Textbooks

<p class="3">Advocates for student voice in higher education believe students should have the right and power to engage in much of the decision-making traditionally dominated by instructors or administrators. This qualitative study examines the role of student voice in the evaluation of textbook quality. Evaluators included two graduate students enrolled in a project management course at a university in the western U.S. and their instructor. Evaluators used their own student-created metric to analyze the comparative quality of eight graduate-level project management textbooks, two of which were open and six copyright-restricted. The purposes of this study were to assess the comparative quality of low-cost open textbooks and traditional copyright-restricted textbooks and to identify key student-generated criteria wherein all textbooks may be improved to better serve student needs. The analysis revealed that textbooks can be rigorously and meaningfully evaluated by students, that open textbooks can compete with restricted textbooks in terms of quality, and that polyphonic approaches to textbook evaluation can be valuable for learning. We discuss the implications of open textbooks as viable, high-quality classroom options, and the importance of valuing both student voice and instructor perspectives to ensure the highest quality textbook selection for courses in higher education.</p>

scholarly journals Towards a humanising pedagogy: an autoethnographic reflection of my emerging postgraduate research supervision practice

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suriamurthee Maistry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Student Attrition ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Supervision Practice ◽  
Critical Autoethnography ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Writing Competence

Postgraduate supervision in South Africa is a fraught academic space. The ASSAF Report (2010) indicates that supervisor competence is a key contributing factor in student attrition. The coupling of autonomous student and competent supervisor is far from being the usual pattern in South African higher education. Furthermore, postgraduate supervision workshops and courses seldom focus on how particular practices are likely to result in social exclusion, giving far more attention to technical aspects of supervision. This paper considers instead the unwitting ‘othering’ that has occurred in my history as a supervisor and gives an account of ideas and principles that have guided me in seeking to improve my own practice. I focus in particular on those elements or aspects of my practice that are likely to (or do) alienate and marginalise my postgraduate students as I engage with supervising their work. My paper records an ongoing exercise in self-reflexion, shaped methodologically by the tenets of critical autoethnography, as a means to examine potentially subjugating effects that I can identify in my practice as supervisor with a diversity of postgraduate students. In this paper I reflect on two important aspects of supervision: verbal critique and written critique. I probe these two aspects with a view to altering my own trajectory of development in the direction of a more productive level of self-awareness in my practice. I argue that a sustained, careful and considered approach to student supervision that understands and conceptualises writing as a process (rather than a product) has enormous potential for facilitating and developing student academic writing competence. A heightened sensitivity to the debilitating and demeaning effects of careless feedback commentary and embracing research supervision as humanising pedagogy have significant implications for helping students to negotiate the liminal space in which they must master the threshold competences needed for success in advanced higher education research.

THE FACTORS OF CAREER SELF-DETERMINATION OF STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
Inna Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right

Choice of profession is a social phenomenon that every person has to face in life. Numerous studies convince us that not only the well-being of a person depends on the chosen work, but also his attitude to himself and life in general, therefore, the right and timely professional choice is very important. Research about factors of career self-determination of students of higher education institutions in Ukraine shows that self-determination is an important factor in the socialization of young person, and the factors that determine students' career choices become an actual problem of nowadays. The present study involved full-time and part-time students of Institute of Philology and Mass Communications of Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine" in order to examine the factors of career self-determination of students of higher education institutions (N=189). Diagnostic factors of career self-determination of students studying in the third and fourth year were carried out using the author's questionnaire. Processing of obtained data was carried out using the Excel 2010 program; factorial and comparative analysis were applied. Results of the study showed that initial stage of career self-determination falls down on the third and fourth studying year at the university, when an image of future career and career orientations begin to form. At the same time, the content of career self-determination in this period is contradictory and uncertain, therefore, the implementation of pedagogical support of this process among students is effective.

A CUSTOMISED FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE PODCAST INTEGRATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Shane Pachagadu ◽  
Liezel Nel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Effective Integration

Numerous studies have explored the potential of podcast integration in teaching and learning environments. This paper first presents and organises perspectives from literature in a conceptual framework for the effective integration of podcasting in higher education. An empirical study is then discussed in which the guidelines presented in the framework were evaluated for applicability in a selected course at a South African University of Technology. Since the results of the study revealed a number of aspects not accounted for in the conceptual framework, the framework was customised to make it more applicable for the particular higher education environment. The customised framework identifies four principles and a series of related guidelines for the effective integration of podcasts in a South African higher education teaching and learning environment. This framework can become a valuable resource for effective podcast integration in similar environments.

AN INDUCTIVELY DERIVED RESEARCH FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION IN ODL: THE HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
Marry Mdakane ◽  
Christo J. Els ◽  
A. Seugnet Blignaut
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Education Environment

Student satisfaction, as a key psychological-affective outcome of tertiary education, is a direct measure of the success of Open Distance Learning (ODL). It is therefore vital for ODL Higher Education Institutions to assess and improve student satisfaction constantly. Existing theories on student satisfaction are mostly derived from deductive research, i.e. from research that considers the existing body of knowledge, followed by an investigation of a specific aspect or component, in order to reach a specific conclusion. We, however, maintain the inductive stance that a research framework for student satisfaction in ODL should be derived from students themselves. Accordingly, we purposively collected qualitative data from N=34 South African postgraduate ODL students, representative of various cultural language groups, with regard to student satisfaction. Supported by Atlas.ti, we composed an integrated dataset comprised of students’ responses to two focus-group interviews, as well as students’ written narratives in response to qualitative questions. Through meticulous qualitative data-analysis, we detected data categories, sub-categories, patterns and regularities in the integrated dataset. Theories and findings from the existing corpus of knowledge pertaining to student satisfaction in ODL illuminated our qualitative findings. This paper reports on the knowledge we gained from our participants pertaining to their student satisfaction with the Higher Education (HE) environment, the first of three main research components of an inductively derived research framework for student satisfaction in ODL.

La juventud rural en Colombia: estudio crítico sobre el acceso a la formación académica superior

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (14) ◽  
pp. 166-181
Author(s):  
Elvis Pinzón Laitón
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Education ◽  
Rural Sector ◽  
Life Project ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
The Right ◽  
Public Politics

El escrito demuestra que los(as) jóvenes del sector ru- ral, con relación a la educación superior, requieren de una pronta y justa atención por parte del Estado para ayudarlos(as) a superar las dificultades que afrontan una vez terminan la educación media, de modo que no vean frustrado el desarrollo de su proyecto de vida. Enfatiza en la importancia de la formulación y ejecución de polí- ticas públicas claras y adecuadas a las necesidades de los egresados de aquellos municipios distantes a las universi- dades, caso específico los de Tununguá, Boyacá, Colom- bia. Defiende la educación como el medio más importante para el desarrollo del sector rural en el país; esto implica cobertura, ayuda económica, orientación a las familias y compromiso del (la) joven para hacer parte de procesos formativos a nivel profesional en el campo de conocimien- to de su preferencia, y de esta forma acceder a otros estilos de vida para su familia, en el marco de un país que recono- ce el derecho a la igualdad.The writing shows that the young’s of the rural sector in relation to higher education, require a prompt and fair attention of the state to help to overcome the difficulties they face once, they finish their media education studies, frustrating the development of the life project, of each teenage, which is built in this time lapse. It focuses on the importance of the formulation and execution of clear public politics suitable to the necessity of the graduates of those towns distant of the universities as is the specific case of Tununguá (Boyacá, Colombia). It defends the ed- ucation line the most suitable media for the development of the rural sector in our country. It implies coverage, economic help, orientation to the families and commit- ment of the young to make part of formative processes at professional level in the knowledge field the student selects and on this way to get other life styles for their families inside the framework of a country that promul- gates the right to equality. 

1. Controversial Speakers, Moral Disagreements, and the Middlebury Moment

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ashley Floyd Kuntz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Moral Epistemology ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
Free Inquiry ◽  
The Right

Abstract Student protests have developed on campuses throughout the country in response to controversial speakers. Overwhelmingly, these protests have been framed as conflicts over the right to free speech and the importance of free inquiry on college campuses. This essay reframes conflicts like these as moral disagreements over the role of individuals and institutions in producing and disseminating knowledge that supports or undermines justice within a pluralistic, democratic society. Using the specific case of Charles Murray’s visit to Middlebury College in spring 2017 and drawing insight from social moral epistemology, the essay aims to clarify the moral concerns at stake in clashes over controversial speakers and to identify possibilities to advance the moral aims of institutions of higher education in response to such events.

Textbook Popery

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra L. Yacovazzi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public School ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Female Teachers ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
School Movement

By the 1840s, convent narratives gained more middle-class, respectable readers, moving away from descriptions of sex and sadism and focusing instead on convent schools and the education of young women. Popular works such as Protestant Girl in a French Nunnery described "tricks" used by nuns to convert female pupils and lure them into convents. Such literature warned that as neither wives nor mothers, nuns could not train the right kind of women for America. The focus on convent schools converged with the common or public school movement. At the same time, teaching became an acceptable occupation for women, prompting more women to seek opportunities for higher education. This chapter compares the approach to education among nuns and other female teachers alongside the caricatures of convent schools in anti-Catholic print culture. I seek to answer why convent schools faced such heightened animosity even as teaching became feminized.

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