Approaching Higher Education

2010 ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Shirley Booth ◽  
Eva Wigforss
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Life World ◽  
Academic Practices ◽  
The University

The chapter tells of two women with low educational qualifications who embark on a journey into higher education by taking a distance course to introduce them to and induct them into academic practices, under the auspices of their trades union. In order to analyse and describe their learning, we look more closely at their contexts for learning, their life-worlds, using the conceptual framework of life-world phenomenology. Learning, in this case, means learning to find their place in higher education, and we place this against a background of the variation of ways in which the whole cohort of students was found to conceptualize the university. Grounded in an analysis of two interviews and written course assignments, we find superficial similarities and deep differences in their journey into higher education, and we give consideration to this from a gendered perspective.

'A place where open minds meet': The constraints of alignment and the effects of compulsory teacher training on teaching and learning in higher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Mihailova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Academic Practices ◽  
Disciplinary Expertise ◽  
University Lecturers ◽  
The University ◽  
Shed Light

The article investigates how university lecturers taking part in the compulsory teacher training at Stockholm University (SU) conceive of the effects of standardised and formalised training on their teaching. The study explores the emotions and responses evoked among academics when everyone is required to embrace the same pedagogic philosophy of constructive alignment (Biggs 2003), adopt the language of learning outcomes and assign the same standards to diverse academic practices. The article attempts to shed light on different conceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education and the interplay between the lecturers' values of academic freedom, collegiality and disciplinary expertise and the university leadership's values of efficiency, accountability and measurability of performance. The article considers how these conceptions coexist and are negotiated within the university as an organisation.

scholarly journals Beyond the metrics: the importance of intangible assets in the HE context

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Fiona Smart ◽  
Elizabeth Cleaver ◽  
Alastair Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Intangible Assets ◽  
Constructive Comment ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The University

As a statement of fact, the Higher Education (HE) sector gathers data. Commonly these data are metrical in format, used in some way to report on some aspect of performativity, whether within the institution or beyond its bounds. This paper does not seek to dispute the need for measurement, but it does argue the limitations of metric-based proxies alone if we are to truly understand the space of the university and how it operates in the interests of students, staff, employers, government and all other stakeholders. Our interest in the limitation of metrics in the HE context inspired a study funded by QAA (Scotland). The study focused on capturing, evidencing and affirming intangible elements of HE that are not easily counted or quantified, but form key aspects of an institution’s identity, culture and ethos, described by us as intangible assets. This brief paper provides an overview of our study and its outcomes to date. In presenting our progress and conceptual framework, we are inviting reflection, constructive comment and further dialogue in respect of the model itself, and its helpfulness in re-prioritising qualitative data in our assessment of our assets in higher education.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Marijk van der Wende ◽  
Simon Marginson ◽  
Nian Cai Liu ◽  
William C. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Research Cooperation ◽  
Global Context ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
Global Flows ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The University

The Introduction presents the conceptual framework of the research project: “The New Silk Road: Implications for higher education and research cooperation between China and Europe.” The areas of inquiry focused on are: the academic flows and activities emerging along the NSR; university responses and their rationales; the conditions under which activities are taking place; defined by whom, and the values underpinning the mission of the university in society. It places the NSR in global context: how China’s rise in science and higher education results in shifting global flows, impact, and rising tensions. It explores the evolving China–European relationship and concludes that while the idea or model of the university may travel along the NSR, it does not necessarily change because of it. Despite the current unknowns, in the long run, Chinese–European cooperation on or beyond the New Silk Road offers a new landscape for higher education on both ends of Eurasia.

scholarly journals tool for assessing multiliteracy in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Miguel-Ángel Marzal ◽  
Jussara Borges
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
New Literacies ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Model Application ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
The University

This study describes the premises underlying Voremetur, a project conducted in the context of higher education. It hypothesises the need to support a competence education method adapted to new educational formulas (from e- to m-learning), new educational challenges (e-science, big data) and the convergent competences now characterised as info-communication literacy, which has favoured the transition from edu-communication to multiliteracy. Such competences should be organised into competence programmes, where the assessment of the beneficial results for learners and the university should be included as an essential element. The article discusses an assessment model for new literacies, including its conceptual framework, ideal evaluation tools and conversion into an ad hoc questionnaire. Lastly, the paper describes model application to a target group and analyses the results most relevant to information behaviour.

scholarly journals Infrapolitics and role abeyance: How Irish military officers experience university

2021 ◽  
pp. 079160352110054
Author(s):  
Andrew G Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Role Strain ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Alternative Route ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Military Officer ◽  
University College ◽  
The University

Starting in 1969, the Irish Defence Forces began to send its officers to attend civilian university in University College Galway as part of their professional formation, through the University Service Administrative Complement (USAC) scheme. Using a conceptual framework that combines role theory with James C. Scott’s concept of ‘infrapolitics’, this paper interrogates how or whether full time, commissioned officers negotiate role tensions while attending civilian higher education as part of their professional military formation. Role theory would suggest that those who are expected to maintain two roles simultaneously, i.e. as student and military officer, would be expected to experience ‘role strain’. This paper illustrates instead that student officers deploy a variety of infrapolitical tactics and strategies, thus creating an alternative route to negotiating role tensions and anxiety.

scholarly journals Insights into teachers’ views on sharing ways of knowing and ways of teaching between and beyond existing disciplines

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-34
Author(s):  
Anne Algers ◽  
Linda Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
View Sharing ◽  
Trading Zones ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Academic Practices ◽  
Academic Teachers ◽  
The University

Since academic teachers belong to different disciplines and thus discourses, they have different ways of knowing and teaching. Recent societal challenges call for thinking beyond boundaries and re-visiting academic practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate how academic teachers view sharing of knowledge and teaching. The study is based on survey data from eight faculties and interviews of teachers from each of these faculties at the University of Gothenburg. The results show that professional development courses in higher education teaching and learning, as well as open practices, and collaboration between academic disciplines and society are practices, which Galison (1997) termed trading zones. These trading zones are sources of learning to theorize and to facilitate exchange among peers with the potential to develop knowledge, identity and moral commitments necessary to address societal challenges. Further, the results suggest that universities need to scaffold these sharing practices. The findings inform how academic teachers’ practices can be transformed into sharing between and beyond academic disciplines.

scholarly journals Using Design-Based Research in Higher Education Innovation

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristi Ford ◽  
Darragh McNally ◽  
Kate Ford
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Design Based Research ◽  
Learning Software ◽  
The University

This paper discusses the design-based research approach used by the Center for Innovation in Learning and Student Success at the University of Maryland (CILSS), University College. CILSS is a laboratory for conducting applied research that focuses on continuous improvements to the university's instruction of curriculum, learning models, and student support to identify promising innovations for underserved populations in adult higher education; to drive adoption of next-generation transformational online learning; to develop new educational models based on learning science, cutting edge technology, and improved instructional methods; to help more UMUC adult students succeed by increasing retention and graduating more students in shorter time frames (thus reducing their costs). As such, leveraging technology and pedagogy in innovative ways is key to the Center's work. CILSS serves as the research and development arm for the university, promoting innovative ideas and breakthroughs in learning. The paper details one interpretation of design-based research (DBR) and how it can be applied by an innovation center working within a university for program evaluation. This paper also posits that the conceptual framework and assumptions of andragogy (Knowles, 1984) has applicable relevance to the instructional shifts that include adaptive learning in the curriculum. A review of the literature on DBR explores the central features of this approach. A review of andragogy as the conceptual framework for this paper highlights what we believe to be the central features of the evaluation approach of adaptive learning software. We then present the model used by CILSS when designing and testing a pilot project. To illustrate the approach, we provide the example of a recent pilot that uses the adaptive learning software RealizeIt in UMUC’s Principles of Accounting I course, a course that traditionally has lower than average success rates.

Actors, Networks and Assessment

2011 ◽  
pp. 178-191
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tummons
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Course Assessment ◽  
The University

This chapter is an exploration of one particular form of non-traditional provision of higher education (HE) in England, known as higher education in further education: the provision of HE courses that are offered on a franchise basis in one or more colleges of further education (FE colleges). Focussing on assessment on one teacher-training course, this chapter offers ways of conceptualising the responses of FE colleges where the course is run to the quality assurance systems and procedures established by the university that provides the course. Assessment has been chosen as the specific focus of this paper for several reasons: it is an activity that must be performed in certain ways and must conform to particular outcomes that are standardised across colleges; it is an established focus of research; and it is a focus of specific traceable activities across both the university and the colleges. Drawing on data collected over a three-year period, the chapter suggests that the ways in which assessment processes are regulated and ordered are characterised by complexities for which actor-network theory provides an appropriate conceptual framework.

scholarly journals Factors Affecting Scholarly Practices in Private Higher Education Institutes in Sri Lanka: A Conceptual Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
Wasantha Rajapakshe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
National Level ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The University

Over the years, entering a university has been increasingly competitive which have triggered many problems with regard to the higher education sector in Sri Lanka. To overcome this crisis on university entrance, since 1978, the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka, the apex body of the University System in Sri Lanka granted permission to the private sector to award degrees as an integral part of the higher education policy.  The objective of this policy was to minimize the foreign currency outflow incurred on overseas education and support the needy students to get admission for higher education at the national level. However, it has been identified that most of these institutes consider enhancements of quantity rather than development of quality which can facilitate academicians' scholarly achievements. It is observed that research and innovation in local private Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are far behind the country's requirements. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting scholarly practices in private HEIs in Sri Lanka. After reviewing the literature, a conceptual framework and twelve testable hypotheses were developed for this study. This study uses secondary data to identify determinant factors. Accordingly, environmental stimulus, perceived organizational culture stimulus and the psychological stimulus were selected as important determents which can directly as well as indirectly mediate with stress and happiness to enhance the performance of academicians, concerning the scholarly practices in private HEIs.

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