Using Business Simulations to Assist Undergraduate Students from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds with Employability Skills Development: A Meaningful Learning Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Christine Armatas ◽  
Andrew Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Business Simulations

scholarly journals Evaluating undergraduate research conferences as vehicles for novice researcher development

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Kneale ◽  
Andrew Edwards-Jones ◽  
Helen Walkington ◽  
Jennifer Hill
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Conference ◽  
Researcher Development ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the undergraduate research conference as its sphere of study and investigate the impact of significance of participation and socialisation in such activities on student attitudes and professional development. Using situated learning to theoretically position the undergraduate research conference as an authentic learning context, connection is also made with the concept of graduate attributes. Design/methodology/approach The Vitae (2014) Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is used to provide a template for charting the experiences and development of undergraduate students as researchers. This can be applied to short-term activities and programmes and to long-term career plans. The insights from 90 undergraduate students participating in three national undergraduate research conferences were obtained through interviews, and thematically analysed to map the students’ skills development against the RDF criteria. Findings Three main aspects of undergraduate research conference participation were considered particularly important by the students: the value of paper presentations, the value of poster presentations and the value of the overall conference experience. Within these themes, participants identified a wide range of skills and attributes they felt they had developed as a result of either preparing for or participating in the conferences. The majority of these skills and attributes could be mapped against the different domains of the RDF, using a public engagement lens for comparing actual with expected developmental areas. Research limitations/implications This research helps undergraduate research conference organisers construct programme content and form it in such a way that students’ skill development can be maximised prior to, and during, the course of an event. Learning developers can also use these findings to help understand the support needs of students preparing to deliver papers at such conferences. So far, little empirical research has examined students’ skills development within the undergraduate research conference arena. Originality/value The outcomes of this study show the diversity of the skills that students developed and the value of the conference format for offering networking practice and enhancing the communication skills which employers value.

scholarly journals Role Play Activities: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Speaking Skills in an ESL Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Nurhamimi Togimin ◽  
Haliza Jaafar
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Real Life Situation ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Esl Classroom ◽  
Speaking Skills

Encouraging students to speak during classroom activities is an effective strategy to improve their acquisition of the target language. Activities related to real life situation such as role play, debate and simulation provide substantial rehearsal and practice and they allow students to not just learn phrases, but also learn how to communicate in various circumstances. Recent studies have revealed that students who are exposed to learning using role play activities improve significantly in speaking competency. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate how role play activities in an ESL classroom can be an innovative approach in improving students’ speaking skill. A total of nine undergraduate students from the Faculty of Computing in a public university in the Southern region of Malaysia were involved in this study. The main purpose for choosing the students as participants of the study was due to their low English proficiency based on their MUET results. The instruments used in this study were observation checklist and questionnaire. All the findings were tabulated and analysed qualitatively (observation checklist) as well as quantitatively (questionnaire). From the analysis carried out, it was evident that the students made positive improvement particularly in fluency, comprehension, context, and interactive communication. Besides that, the students felt that role play activities had brought positive effects on their English-speaking skills as obtained from the results of the questionnaire. Thus, it can be deduced that role play activities do have positive effects on students’ English-speaking skills.

scholarly journals Kilimanjaro: A Case of Meaningful Adventure And Service Learning Abroad

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-433
Author(s):  
Cathy Cavanaugh ◽  
Ewa Gajer ◽  
John Mayberry ◽  
Brendan O’Connor ◽  
Jace Hargis
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Female Undergraduate ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Mount Kilimanjaro ◽  
The World

This qualitative evaluation explored how female undergraduate students developed an understanding of themselves and the broader world as a result of an adventure and service learning experience in Tanzania, Africa. The project built upon theoretical frameworks regarding meaningful learning—active, constructive, intentional, and authentic—and applied activity theory as a framework for interpreting outcomes. The study included multi-faceted examination of student perceptions of the effects of the year-long experience that culminated in a ten day trip to Tanzania, including a climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Students’ reflections on the impacts of the trip focused on wanting, doing, reflecting, and relating. Thus, the experience catalyzed change in students’ understanding of the world that strongly indicates a meaningful learning experience.

scholarly journals Grammatical Positions of Focuser Like Among Native English-Speaking Undergraduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Basim Alamri
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Midwestern University ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

Discourse markers (DMs) are used in everyday conversations to serve different meanings and functions. The present exploratory study investigated grammatical positions of focuser like among 60 undergraduate native-English-speaking students at a midwestern university in the United States. Students were asked to read and place focuser like in this sentence: “We have to read five chapters for the final exam”. Then students were required to indicate a degree of acceptability of the placement of like at every possible position in sentences that contained the discourse marker like in 10 different grammatical positions. The results showed that students preferred inserting the DM like before a noun phrase, at the beginning of a sentence, and before a verb phrase, respectively. In terms of gender, females frequently posited focuser like before a sentence, whereas males placed it before a noun phrase. Also, the discourse marker like does not occur within auxiliary. Finally, this study draws conclusions about different grammatical positions and broader usages of discourse marker focuser like among younger students. 

scholarly journals Learning Approaches, Learning Difficulties and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students of Physiotherapy

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreemathi Mayya ◽  
A. Krishna Rao ◽  
Ramnaryana K.
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Difficulties ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Academic Problems ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Surface Approach

A locally developed ‘Approaches to Learning Inventory (ALI)’ was administered to explore the learning difficulties and learning approaches of undergraduate students of Bachelor of Physiotherapy, College of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal. University examination marks of these students were also collected. Learning approach and learning difficulties were summarized by computing mean, standard deviation and percentage of students experiencing some of the academic and non-academic problems. Spearman’s correlation was computed between standardized scores of examination marks, learning approach and learning difficulty scale scores. Academic performance has shown significant negative correlation with surface approach and various problems of learners like fear of failure and lack of confidence, non-academic distracters and poor English language ability. This study demonstrated significant positive association between surface approach and various problems of the learners. The students have also reported a number of academic and non-academic problems.

EXPLORING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS USE OF A SKILLS DEVELOPMENT APP

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Paine Schofield ◽  
Grace Brown ◽  
Viktor Nilsson ◽  
Ken Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Skills Development

Engaging the Students in Activity Based Learning for Future Employability

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Ross ◽  
Geoff Staples ◽  
Mark Udall
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Group Work ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Professional Issues ◽  
Direct Benefit

The paper discusses the introduction of Activity Based Learning for professional issues for undergraduate students in the School of Computing and Communications at Southampton Solent University. Its aim is to assist the students with their final year project and future employability. The use of the university’s learning environment, based on the Moodle open source software as a key component of the Activity Based Learning, the preparation by the students prior to the tutorials, and the group work within the tutorials are described. The views of the students on this approach are discussed. The paper describes how the students become more self reliant and self motivated in their learning approach. This will be of direct benefit to them in maintaining lifelong learning in their future profession.

scholarly journals Exploring the Perception of Students using Student-Centered Learning Approach in a Malaysian Public University

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Abderrahim Benlahcene Benlahcene ◽  
Sana Anwar Lashari ◽  
Tahira Anwar Lashari ◽  
Muhammad Waleed Shehzad ◽  
Wu Deli
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Public University ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Student Centered Learning ◽  
Cognitive Mediation ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Learning Technique ◽  
Language Courses

This study investigated students’ perception towards language courses using student-centered learning approach at University Utara Malaysia (UUM). Students’ perception was measured through a model termed as environmental, cognitive, affective, and metacognitive mediation (ECAM) which is a common teaching and learning technique used in classroom activities. To assess the implementation of ECAM; qualitative analysis was conducted based on observations of students’ activities in two language courses. The findings of the study indicated that the students employed the techniques of ECAM model. However, cognitive mediation learning technique was extensively used by the students. Moreover, audio-taped interviews were also conducted with four voluntary undergraduate students. The findings from the interviews’ interpretation revealed that students also explicit positive viewpoints about student-centered learning approach.       

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