Assessing and Developing Academic Literacy in First Year Health Undergraduates

For higher education institutions to produce graduates capable of contributing to society and the economy in a productive manner, educational emphasis is placed on the development of critical thinking. The above necessitates that higher education institutions are able to engage in responsive curriculum design and delivery for enhanced student success and access. Public Administration programmes focus on equipping students to work within the broader government sector, able and capable of delivering public functions responsive to the needs of society. Literature suggests that there are a number of factors which influence the success ratio of any undergraduate programme in the South African context, including, inter alia, increased enrolments, student–staff ratios and the overall decline of professional and intellectual life in the country. Further complicating matters are classes too big to be participatory and crammed syllabi preventing in-depth discussions. The notion of embedding academic literacy development in curriculum design through a scaffolded approach aims to influence the academic performance of students through engaged and active learning in order to attain a higher level of achievement as well as benefit from the process of scaffolding. The research comprises a mixed method approach using a case study of the first-year students enrolled for a Public Administration degree. Data collected included an analysis of 2015, 2016 and 2017 student cohorts in: determining their academic literacy level upon registration (set as a baseline before any academic literacy intervention); tracking their academic performance through their formative and summative assessments (through a scaffolded approach); and reflecting upon their learning through their completion of a semi-structured survey. The research intends to argue that the use of a scaffolded approach to learning enhances epistemic access, which sees students moving beyond propositional, or foundation knowledge to epistemic or reflexive knowledge.

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The relationship between self-efficacy and reading proficiency of first-year students: An exploratory study

Reading & Writing ◽

10.4102/rw.v6i1.52 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Naomi A.N.Y. Boakye

Keyword(s):

Reading Instruction ◽

South African ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Reading Proficiency ◽

First Year ◽

Tertiary Institution ◽

First Year Students ◽

Affective Factors ◽

The Relationship

Self-efficacy, which is the belief about one’s ability to perform a task successfully, has been widely acknowledged as important in learning. This affective factor, though not explicitly evident, has been said to play an important role in academic performance. However, its role in reading development has not been widely investigated. To determine the relationship between self-efficacy and reading proficiency, a study was conducted with first-year students in a South African tertiary institution. Students’ self-efficacy levels were elicited through a questionnaire and their reading proficiency was obtained through the Test of Academic Literacy levels (TALL), which essentially assesses reading proficiency. An analysis of variance showed a robust relationship between reading self-efficacy and reading proficiency for this cohort of students. Regression analysis conducted with other affective factors showed self-efficacy as the best predictor of students’ reading proficiency. Results are discussed as they relate to previous research and recommendations are made to include the development of self-efficacy in reading instruction.

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Sense of belonging and first-year academic literacy

Canadian Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.47678/cjhe.v42i3.2044 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 116-142

Author(s):

Steve Marshall ◽

Mingming Zhou ◽

Ted Gervan ◽

Sunita Wiebe

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Mixed Method Study ◽

First Year ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Writing Courses ◽

Literacy Course ◽

The University

In this article, we analyze a broad range of factors that affect the sense of belonging of undergraduate students taking a first-year academic literacy course (ALC) at a multicultural, multilingual university in Vancouver, Canada. Students who fail to meet the university’s language and literacy requirements are required to pass ALC before they can enrol in writing courses across the disciplines. Consequently, many of those students feel that they have yet to be accepted as fully legitimate members of the university community. We present data from a two-year, mixed-method study, which involved asking students in surveys and interviews about their sense of belonging, as well as analyzing their reflective writing samples for issues related to their sense of belonging. We found that the participants’ perceptions of sense of belonging are multilayered and context-dependent, relating to changes in time and space, classroom pedagogy, and other social, cultural, and linguistic factors. Implications for higher education are discussed.

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Academic Reading and Pacific Students: Profiling Texts, Tasks & Readers in the First Year of University in New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.16993639.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Mary Ruth Toumu'a

Keyword(s):

Cultural Context ◽

Tertiary Education ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Minority Student ◽

First Year ◽

Good Reader ◽

Cultural Traditions ◽

Academic Reading ◽

Specific Discipline ◽

The Individual

<p>Central to tertiary study in the literate world is the storage, transmission and retrieval of knowledge via the written word through the complex, multi-faceted and largely invisible process of academic reading. With New Zealand's changing demographics and increasing participation in tertiary education by students of Pacific descent, it cannot be assumed that there is a sufficient degree of match between the cultures of academic literacy of the institution and those of the linguistic /ethnic minority student readers; and this is an issue that requires in-depth investigation. This thesis focuses on student readers of Pacific descent undertaking their first year of study in selected 100-level Humanities and Commerce courses in a NZ university. By drawing together the composite skills, cognitive and socio-cultural traditions of reading research, this study conceptualizes academic reading as the dynamic interplay between Text-Task-Reader within any given socio-cultural context. This three-part understanding of academic reading enables a rich profiling of Readers, Texts, and Tasks within their contexts. It permits the systematic discovery and documentation of the nature of the challenge inherent in the academic texts and tasks of the first year of university, and enables the characteristics of the prototypical 'good reader' in a specific discipline to be established. By identifying and holding the core first year academic reading Task of 'reading to understand and remember' constant, the complex interactions between the Reader and Text were able to be observed, thus providing insights into the ways in which these Pacific readers made meaning from Text. Then, through the holistic profiling of cognitive, affective, skills, and socio-culturally based reader features, the Pacific student readers' academic reading personae were constructed. Combined, the readers' profiles reveal group trends, and individually, the complete holistic profiles of two case study readers were able to be woven together from the various profiling 'strands', thus highlighting the usefulness of the profiling system and the uniqueness of the individual readers. Finally, a comparison between the 'good reader' and the 'real' student readers affords an understanding of the degree of 'fit' between the readers' characteristics and the expectations of the institution. It is argued that this type of holistic profiling is of considerable value to institutions, enabling them to respond in informed, strategic ways to the academic literacy development requirements of their Pacific (and other) students, on both an individual and group scale.</p>

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Experiential Learning and Peer Teaching to Develop PowerPoint Slide Formatting Skills

Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education ◽

10.36021/jethe.v2i2.42 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 23-41

Author(s):

Kay Maree Hammond

Keyword(s):

Experiential Learning ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Peer Teaching ◽

First Year ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Literacy Course ◽

Effective Use ◽

Face Time ◽

Further Development ◽

Specific Learning

Construction of visual material to enhance audience understanding of an oral presentation is an important skill in educational and professional settings. Many first-year undergraduates may not be familiar with the basic principles of effective slide design to increase audience understanding. However, faculty face time pressures to train students on effective use of information technology for educational activities. This paper reports on the development and use of a time-efficient, engaging, in-class activity involving specific learning criteria for slide design in an academic literacy course. The activity is based on experiential learning and peer teaching to increase student ability and confidence with creating PowerPoint slides for first year undergraduates. Students evaluated the activity positively and were able to achieve most of the learning criteria. Recommendations for further development of the activity are provided.

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Treasure Hunt in the Library: An Exercise in Academic Literacy

10.28945/3092 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dorothy Langley

Keyword(s):

Public Libraries ◽

World View ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Public Library ◽

Classification Systems ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Academic Publications ◽

Literacy Course ◽

The Impact

This paper presents an Academic Literacy course designed for first year students in our department. The course is based on a set of relevant reading materials and covers knowledge levels and classification systems, logical and physical library organization principles, physical and virtual search for publications, bibliographic citations and referencing methods and purposes. The paper describes two, out-of-class, activities related to the academic and public libraries in the information age. The first activity, the “Book Hunt”, organizes the students’ conceptions of the variety of functions being served and the impact of information technology on retrieving academic publications. Students’ response to a reflective assignment dealing with concepts and impressions is described. The second activity “Visiting a public library”, involves interviewing the librarian and writing a report on the structure and functions of the library. The paper discusses features of students’ reports and indicates the contribution of the activities to the students’ academic world view.

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Academic Reading and Pacific Students: Profiling Texts, Tasks & Readers in the First Year of University in New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.16993639 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Mary Ruth Toumu'a

Keyword(s):

Cultural Context ◽

Tertiary Education ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

Minority Student ◽

First Year ◽

Good Reader ◽

Cultural Traditions ◽

Academic Reading ◽

Specific Discipline ◽

The Individual

<p>Central to tertiary study in the literate world is the storage, transmission and retrieval of knowledge via the written word through the complex, multi-faceted and largely invisible process of academic reading. With New Zealand's changing demographics and increasing participation in tertiary education by students of Pacific descent, it cannot be assumed that there is a sufficient degree of match between the cultures of academic literacy of the institution and those of the linguistic /ethnic minority student readers; and this is an issue that requires in-depth investigation. This thesis focuses on student readers of Pacific descent undertaking their first year of study in selected 100-level Humanities and Commerce courses in a NZ university. By drawing together the composite skills, cognitive and socio-cultural traditions of reading research, this study conceptualizes academic reading as the dynamic interplay between Text-Task-Reader within any given socio-cultural context. This three-part understanding of academic reading enables a rich profiling of Readers, Texts, and Tasks within their contexts. It permits the systematic discovery and documentation of the nature of the challenge inherent in the academic texts and tasks of the first year of university, and enables the characteristics of the prototypical 'good reader' in a specific discipline to be established. By identifying and holding the core first year academic reading Task of 'reading to understand and remember' constant, the complex interactions between the Reader and Text were able to be observed, thus providing insights into the ways in which these Pacific readers made meaning from Text. Then, through the holistic profiling of cognitive, affective, skills, and socio-culturally based reader features, the Pacific student readers' academic reading personae were constructed. Combined, the readers' profiles reveal group trends, and individually, the complete holistic profiles of two case study readers were able to be woven together from the various profiling 'strands', thus highlighting the usefulness of the profiling system and the uniqueness of the individual readers. Finally, a comparison between the 'good reader' and the 'real' student readers affords an understanding of the degree of 'fit' between the readers' characteristics and the expectations of the institution. It is argued that this type of holistic profiling is of considerable value to institutions, enabling them to respond in informed, strategic ways to the academic literacy development requirements of their Pacific (and other) students, on both an individual and group scale.</p>

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Decolonising an Academic Literacy curriculum at the University of the Free State with creative writing: challenges and opportunities

Journal of Decolonising Disciplines ◽

10.35293/jdd.v1i2.34 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 87-103

Author(s):

Peet van Aardt

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Academic Literacy ◽

First Year ◽

Literacy Curriculum ◽

African Students ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Literacy Course ◽

Graded Readers ◽

The University ◽

Local Narratives

As part of the first year Academic Literacy course at the UFS, students are required to study graded readers. The booklets are abridged versions of Western fiction, therefore these narratives reinforce the colonial presence in our curriculum. But South African students need to read local narratives in order to learn about each other – from each other. By taking part in the Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN) students improve our curriculum by writing their own short stories so that they become contributors of material that will be graded and tested to form part of the UFS Academic Literacy curriculum. Thereby, students contribute to larger bodies of knowledge through their lived experiences. This paper reflects on the challenges and opportunities within the iCAN process.

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Learning from contrasts: first-year students writing themselves into academic literacy

Journal of Further and Higher Education ◽

10.1080/0309877x.2020.1813264 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Gunhild Marie Roald ◽

Patric Wallin ◽

Ingunn Dahler Hybertsen ◽

Jorun M. Stenøien

Keyword(s):

Academic Literacy ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students

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