scholarly journals The effects of Covid-19 on student transition from school to university in STEM subjects

Author(s):  
Daniel Cottle

Covid‑19 restrictions affected most of the post‑16 learning experience of the students who will begin university courses in STEM in the UK in autumn 2021. Ongoing disruption to learning culminated in the cancellation of normal A-level examinations which were replaced with teacher assessments. Informal discussion with secondary school teaching colleagues reveals some possible consequences for the students’ transition to degree level study in STEM subjects. The main suggestion is that, despite the resilience that students have shown both academically and socially, there have been significant omissions from the normally studied curriculum that may affect their progress on degree courses in STEM including: lack of experimental practice and skills, lack of specific subject knowledge and lack of experience of assessment.

Author(s):  
Orla C Kelly ◽  
Odilla E Finlayson

This short communication discusses research, which has investigated students‟ self-perception of their skills. This was to identify which skills they felt most and least confident in upon starting university. General and scientific and practical skills as well as skills related to improving learning were explored. The results suggested that students felt most confident in working in groups, interacting with people to obtain the necessary information and assistance, and observing chemical events and changes among others. In contrast students felt least confident in planning and presenting an oral presentation, analysing and evaluating experimental data, and using the internet and other resources to gain information. Details of how the findings were used to make effective changes to an existing module will be discussed. Furthermore, the relevance of this in terms of supporting our first year students in their transition to university-level work and subsequently planning appropriate modules will be discussed in relation to the recently published results from the UK Physical Sciences Centre Review of the Student Learning Experience in Chemistry and in light of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills Higher Ambitions and Skills for Growth papers.


Author(s):  
Veronika Bikse ◽  
Inese Lūsēna - Ezera ◽  
Una Libkovska ◽  
Baiba Rivža

The purpose of this research study is to examine theoretical findings and, based on them, to identify the career choice factors that affect Latvian and UK secondary school students’ occupational interests. The research was based on the theoretical concepts of the occupational interests, and the data gained from a survey of Latvian and UK secondary school students. The results of the research indicate that the most essential factors that help individuals to choose a career is to understand their own interests and explore their own capabilities. Also, learning experience and parents' advice is important for them. The occupational interests of the students, who were interviewed, are not harmonized with the demand in the economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-87
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Shcherbinina

The article is devoted to the genesis of personal and eponymous nicknames as a vivid phenomenon in the history of language and speech, which has irrefutable potential for developing methods of teaching and educating schoolchildren. The main varieties of nicknames, the conditions for their formation and the specifics of daily life in different historical periods are considered. The interconnections of nicknames with similar and related phenomena of Russian and European speech cultures are analyzed. The feasibility of analysing nicknames in the methodological practice of secondary school is postulated. Possible ways of the implementation of intrasubject and intersubject communications in the school teaching of humanities are offered on the basis of familiarizing students with the history of eponymous and personal nicknames.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariha Azalea

This article exposes how STEM-based learning is applied in science class to give students meaningful learning experience in the topic of Pascal Law. This study is motivated by the demand of 21st century skill which expect people to have 4C skills; critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. In this study, STEM-based learning is conducted at a private secondary school located in Bandung with 28 students of grade 8 as the subjects. Students are provided a problem related to the application of Pascal Law namely hydraulic bridge. They are challenged to design their own hydraulic bridge which can be lifted with maximum angle but in minimum time. A descriptive study is taken where all the data is obtained through direct observation and students’ interview. Based on cognitive test, there is difference on pre-test and post-test score that resulting in the number of gain. Based on direct observation, none of students just sitting on their seat without activities and all are on collaboration to reach their goal. Students’ interview indicates they enjoy learning process as it is their first experience accomplishing a project and it makes them more understand the concept through the real application. Overall of the study, STEM-based learning through hydraulic bridge project stimulates students to be able to think critically, to be creative, to collaborate, and to communicate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-171
Author(s):  
Kelly Rose ◽  
Claire O’Malley ◽  
Laura Brown ◽  
Louisa Jane Ells ◽  
Amelia A. Lake

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-113
Author(s):  
Diann Hanson

This article explores the relationship between capital and education through the experiences of a British secondary school following a grading by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills that placed the school into special measures, considering the underlying assumptions and inequalities highlighted and obfuscated by the special measures label. The formulaic and ritualistic manner in which operational and ideological methods of reconstruction were presented as the logical (and only) pathway towards improvement is examined in an effort to disentangle the purpose of the ‘means-to-an-end’ approach within prevailing hegemonic structures, requiring a revisit to contemporary positioning of Gramscian concepts of ideology through the work of Gandin. The decontextualisation of schools from their socio-economic environments is probed in order to expose the paradoxes and fluidity of resistant discourse. The ambiguities between a Catholic ethos, neo-liberal restructuring and the socio-economic context of the school and the greater demands to acquiesce to externally prescribed notions of normativity are considered as a process that conversely created apertures, newly formed sublayers and corrugations where transformation could take root. Unforeseen epiphanies and structures of dissent are identified and will enrich the narrative of existence and survival in a special measures school in an economically deprived northern town in the UK.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1394-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Matthews ◽  
Michael Nelson ◽  
Asha Kaur ◽  
Mike Rayner ◽  
Paul Kelly ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveObesity levels are rising in almost all parts of the world, including the UK. School food offers children in Great Britain between 25 % and 33 % of their total daily energy, with vending typically offering products high in fat, salt or sugar. Government legislation of 2007 to improve the quality of school food now restricts what English schools can vend. In assessing the effect of this legislation on the quality of English secondary-school vending provision, the response of schools to these effects is explored through qualitative data.DesignA longitudinal postal and visit-based inventory survey of schools collected vending data during the academic year 2006–2007 (pre-legislation), 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 (both post-legislation). Interviews with school staff explored issues of compliance. Product categorisation and analysis were carried out by product type, nutrient profiling and by categories of foods allowed or prohibited by the legislation.SettingEnglish secondary schools.SubjectsA representative sample of 279 schools including sixty-two researcher-visited inventory schools participated in the research.ResultsSchool vending seems to have moved towards compliance with the new standards – now drinks vending predominates and is largely compliant, whereas food vending is significantly reduced and is mostly non-compliant. Sixth form vending takes a disproportionate share of non-compliance. Vending has declined overall, as some schools now perceive food vending as uneconomic. Schools adopting a ‘whole-school’ approach appeared the most successful in implementing the new standards.ConclusionsGovernment legislation has achieved significant change towards improving the quality of English school vending, with the unintended consequence of reducing provision.


Author(s):  
Kenji Kuzuoka ◽  
Takeshi Miyakawa

AbstractThis paper reports on results of teaching experiments with a study and research path carried out in Japanese lower secondary school classrooms. The generating question relates to the change of world population. Based on these results, we discuss the conditions and constraints for implementing inquiry in ordinary teaching in.Keyword: ATD, Study and Research Course, Questioning the world.RésuméDans cet article, nous présentons quelques résultats de l’expérimentation de parcours d’étude et de recherche qui est conduite dans les classes d’un établissement secondaire au collège au Japon. La question concernant le changement de population mondiale est utilisée. Nous discutons, en nous appuyant sur ces résultats, les conditions et les contraintes pour la mise en place d’une enquête dans une classe ordinaire au Japon.Mots-clés : TAD, Parcours d´Études et de Recherche, Questionnement du monde. 


2022 ◽  
pp. 168-193
Author(s):  
Helen Lawton Smith ◽  
Muthu L. R. De Silva

This chapter presents the multi-dimensional approach to the teaching of entrepreneurship at Birkbeck, University of London in the UK. It is approached by presenting the curricular and extra-curricular programmes as a series of juxtaposed paradigms. The term “paradigm” is here used as conceptualising ways of thinking about the entrepreneurial learning experience, from the perspective of the content of the programmes and how the students learn. Birkbeck students' learning experience includes academic modules as well as hybrid modules which combine theory and hands-on practice.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sônia Palha

Interactive Virtual Math (IVM) is a visualization tool to support secondary school students’ learning of graphs by dynamic events. In the prototype version students construct a graph and try to improve it themselves and with the feedback of the tool. In a small-scale experiment, which involved four classes at secondary and tertiary education and their mathematics teachers we investigated how the students used the tool in the classroom. In this study we focus on the students learning experience and the results are expected to provide knowledge and directions for further development of the tool. The corpus data consists of self-reported questionnaires and lessons observations. One main finding is that students, at different school levels, find the tool useful to construct or improve graphical representations and it can help to get a better understanding of the subject. The tool features that helped students most were the self-construction of the graphs and to get feedback about their own graph at the end. Other findings are that the students can work independently with the tool and we know more about the tool features that are attractive or need to be improved.


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