scholarly journals 'The Emperor is Naked!': Exposing (In) efficiency of Self- Assessment and Group – Assessment in Higher Education

Pedagogika ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Inga Minelgaitė ◽  
Rasa Nedzinskaitė-Mačiūnienė ◽  
Kari Kristinsson ◽  
Sigurdur Gudjonsson

In this study, we examine how students grade themselves in comparison with their peers and teachers. Results were formed from a sample of 169 first-year students signed up to the course “Introduction to Management”, run by the School of Business at the University of Iceland and based on a cooperative learning strategy. Irrespective of whether students were evaluating their individual or group work, the mean outcomes suggest that their own grading is much higher than that of their peers, and higher again than their teachers. These results suggest that the self-interest of the Homo economicus was clouding objectivity, and it is also likely that the inexperience of the new undergraduates in such grading approaches played a role. Future research should not abandon the idea of self-assessment as a means of developing critical capacities among students, but rather seek to explore whether these results are replicated in other educational settings, such as different disciplines and sub-disciplines, and whether more experienced students, such as third-year undergraduates, demonstrate similar behavioral responses.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liora Tuchman ◽  
Ida Williams

The purpose of this study was to examine if going to sleepaway camp before the age of 16 was a factor that reduced levels of homesickness in first-year students at the University of Florida. In this study, the researcher sent out an online survey to first-year students at the University of Florida through social media, email, and text message. The questions asked the participants about both college and camp experience and asked the participants if they attended sleepaway camp before the age of 16. The results show going to sleepaway camp had a minimal effect on homesickness levels in first-year students at the University of Florida, but attending sleepaway camp had a positive impact on “college experience.” These findings provide implications for future research by showing factors of the camp experience that help in the college experience. Ultimately, discovering if there is a connection in attending sleepaway camp and a positive camp experience will not only help the students themselves but also the camp community and parents of children who attend sleepaway camp.


Author(s):  
Paweł Krząstek ◽  
Ewelina Flis

<p class="Default">The aim of the study was to compare meteorological and climatological knowledge among first year students of Geography at two universities: UMCS in Lublin and Warsaw University in Warsaw. Due to the curriculum changes in secondary schools, as well as different conditions of recruiting candidates, the level of knowledge of students in the coming years, as well as in various colleges and universities, may be different. Identic surveys were conducted twice among first year students of first level full-time studies: in late November and December 2014 and in the second half of May 2015, what allowed knowledge changes evaluation at the beginning of the study and after the first year of studying geography.</p><p class="Default">The problem was a matter of self-assessment of knowledge by the respondents, as many of them are not able to correctly identify her. It was found that there was a marginal increase in the level of knowledge of students of Warsaw University and the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ramona Barbour Eisen ◽  
Yves Bertrand ◽  
Lamine Boubakar ◽  
Jean-Pierre Gesson ◽  
Sylvie Pautrot ◽  
...  

In this paper, we will describe the Cursus Master en Ingénierie (CMI) program, as well as the Formation à l’InGénierie par des Universités de REcherche (FIGURE) university network, and analyze its development and place in the French higher education context. Overseen by the FIGURE university network since 2012, CMI is a 5-year academic program designed for the most ambitious students in systems engineering. In the fall of 2017, 107 CMI programs recruited first-year students in 28 French universities. Key features of the frame of reference established by the FIGURE network are selection of students based on high school records and interviews, strong link with research from the beginning, 20% additional coursework compared to the supporting bachelors and masters, at least 25% of ECTS credits in applied learning situations, development of self-assessment skills and a compulsory international mobility. Accreditation of the university is granted by the network for 5 years. After completing a CMI program the students receive a master's degree from their home university and a national certificate co-delivered by the university and the network.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.


Author(s):  
Diarmaid Lane ◽  
Sheryl Sorby

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a surge in research in spatial thinking across the international community. We now know that spatial skills are malleable and that they are linked to success across multiple disciplines, most notably Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While spatial skills have been examined by cognitive scientists in laboratory environments for decades, current research is examining how these skills can be developed in field-based environments. In this paper, we present findings from a study within a Technology Teacher preparation programme where we examined first-year students’ spatial skills on entry to university. We explain why it was necessary to embed a spatial skills intervention into Year 1 of the programme and we describe the impact that this had on students’ spatial scores and on academic performance. The findings from our study highlight a consistent gender gap in spatial scores at the start of the first-year with female students entering the Technology Teacher preparation programme at a lower base level than male students. We describe how we integrated spatial development activities into an existing course and how an improvement in spatial scores and overall course performance was observed. The paper concludes by discussing the long-term sustainability of integrating spatial interventions within teacher preparation programmes while also highlighting the importance of future research to examine spatial skills as a fundamental component of technological capability.


Author(s):  
Evgeniya N. Popova

The issue of adaptation of modern first-year students to the educational process at the university is one of the current pedagogical tasks. Successful adaptation significantly affects the quality of received education, the degree of formation of personal and professional qualities, contributes to the development of motivation, self-education, and self-development. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the criteria, indicators, and levels of adaptation of first-year students to the learning process at the university. The material for the study was the domestic scientific sources of studying the peculiarities of the adaptation process of students to educational activities in higher education. Research methods: analysis and generalization of psychological-pedagogical and educational-methodical literature on the research topic. We determine as the main criteria for the adaptation of first-year students to the university, the adaptive potential and professionally important qualities of students, consider these concepts, their structure, and their basic properties. On the basis of the analysis and generalization of the existing indicators of the implementation of the adaptive potential, we formulate the author's indicators for determining the level of its development. The degree of formation of professionally important qualities of students are low, medium, and high levels of development of emotional intelligence, negative communicative attitude, intellectual lability, and stress tolerance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Heba Almbayed

The study aimed to analyze the reality of e-learning at Palestine Technical University-Khudouri/Tulkarem, and to identify the most important challenges facing students when using the education system, as well as to analyze the extent to which university students interact with the e-learning system, and to show the differences between the average opinions of the study sample on e-learning according to the study variables due to the nature of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used, in order to reach practical results, and to achieve and analyze the reality of e-learning  a questionnaire consisting of (34) paragraphs was designed, where the study community consisted of (6,559) students, and a simple random sample of (522) students was taken, and the questionnaire was distributed electronically because it was not able to be distributed manually due to the prevailing conditions _ the spread of the Corona pandemic- at the time of the preparation of the study. The results of the study showed that (63.136%) of the researched believe that the reality of e-learning at the university suffers from different problems. The study indicated that (87.97%) among respondents, complaints have increased in the e-learning system after the Corona pandemic and that (81.36%) among the researchers, the infrastructure was one of the most barriers in e-learning. While (63.934%)of the researched that e-learning has a role to play in achieving Interaction among students, as the results of the study showed no differences Statistically significant to the reality of e-learning according to the gender variable, and there are no differences depending on the variable of the scientific qualification except in the field of e-learning reality, there are also no differences Statistics according to the variable of the academic level ,except for the field of Interaction with students. In the light of the results of the study, a series of recommendations were made, the most prominent of which were: 1.Include an e-learning system item in The computer course assigned as a university requirement for first-year students 2. Provide opportunities to train and develop the capabilities of all educational parties to use and apply E-learning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Benjamin Amoakohene

Writing is considered as a daunting task in second language learning. It is argued by most scholars that this challenge is not only limited to second language speakers of English but even to those who speak English as their first language. Thus, the ability to communicate effectively in English by both native and non-native speakers requires intensive and specialized instruction. Due to the integral role that writing plays in students’ academic life, academic literacy has garnered considerable attention in several English-medium universities in which Ghanaian universities are no exception. It is therefore surprising that prominence is not given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). In this paper, I argue for much time and space to be given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills, a programme that seeks to train students to acquire the needed skills and competence in English for their academic and professional development. This argument is based on the findings that came out after I explored the errors in a corpus of 50 essays written by first year students of  UHAS. The findings revealed that after going through the Communicative Skills programme for two semesters, students still have serious challenges of writing error-free texts. Out of the 50 scripts that were analyzed, 1,050 errors were detected. The study further revealed that 584 (55.6%) of these errors were related to grammatical errors, 442 (42.1%) were mechanical errors and 24 (2.3%) of the errors detected were linked to the poor structuring of  sentences. Based on these findings, recommendations and implications which are significant to educators, policy makers and curriculum developers are provided. This study has implications for pedagogy and further research in error analysis. 


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg Raven

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.


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