Emerging Academic and Social Spaces

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Matthew Gordon Ray Courtney
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Development ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
International Student ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Strategic Integration ◽  
University Lecturers

The number of international university students in Australasia is set to increase over the next five to ten years, making the integration of this group important to the region. Whilst university lecturers continue to play an important role in this process, much of university students' communicative behaviour with peers continues to shift more and more to social network sites (SNS), namely Facebook (FB). Using a large response-driven sample (N = 491) and structural equation modelling (SEM), this study presents a dual-path model of international student integration that illustrates two parallel processes to improved institutional commitment: (1) the staff-academic system, where staff's genuine concern for student development improves students' perceived academic progress, and commitment; and, (2) the student social-network-site system, where strategic integration of FB contributes to the on- and offline maintenance of close friends, and improves institutional commitment. The implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Insight into online teaching behaviour of lecturers in Zimbabwean universities during the COVID-19 era and beyond: issues and challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Rudhumbu ◽  
Wilson Parawira ◽  
Crispen Bhukuvhani ◽  
Jacob Nezandoyi ◽  
Cuthbert Majoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
Teaching Behaviour ◽  
University Lecturers

PurposeThis study aims to establish the online teaching behaviour of university lecturers as well as examine issues and challenges for online teaching in universities in Zimbabwe during the COVID-19 era and beyond.Design/methodology/approachThe study assumed a quantitative approach that employed a structured questionnaire for data collection. Structural equation modelling using AMOS version 22 and independent samples t-test were used for data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for data purification.FindingsThe results of the study showed that organisational factors, technological factors, pedagogical factors, student factors and the gender of lecturers have a significant influence on the behavioural intentions of lecturers to teach online. The results also showed that the behavioural intentions of lecturers to teach online has a significant influence on the actual online teaching behaviour of the lecturers. The results also showed that lecturers mostly used the WhatsApp platform for teaching. Issues and challenges affecting the online teaching behaviour of lecturers in universities in Zimbabwe were also identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study have implications for policy and practice with regard to online teaching and learning during periods of pandemics and beyond.Practical implicationsThe results showed that for effective teaching to be done in universities, universities should not continue focusing on single platforms such as blackboard, Moodle and others, but should allow for a multimedia approach that factors in platforms such as WhatsApp, Google Classroom and others. This will ensure that even universities with limited technology infrastructure will be able to have online teaching occurring.Social implicationsThe study demonstrated the influence of gender in online teaching by showing that there are gender differences in the way university lecturers conduct online teaching. This also has implication on teaching and policy as these results demonstrate a need for universities to come up with strategies and policies that ensure despite gender differences, university lecturers should be able to effective teach online.Originality/valueWhile the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology has been widely used in research, the current study represents the first opportunity that the theory has been used to establish the online teaching behaviour of university lecturers in the context of Zimbabwe.

scholarly journals University Students’ Persistence With Technology-Mediated Distance Education: A Response to COVID-19 and Beyond in Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Norman Rudhumbu
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
External Stakeholders ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Technology-mediated distance education (TDE) has become part of the new normal in the range of teaching strategies used in universities in Zimbabwe. Contemporary literature abounds with studies that highlight challenges associated with access to education in universities, yet very little is highlighted about how TDE can be used to enhance access to education in Zimbabwean universities during the COVID-19 era and beyond. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate determinants of students’ behavioural intentions to persist with TDE in universities in Zimbabwe during COVID-19 and beyond. The study employed a quantitative approach that used a self-constructed structured questionnaire for data collection from a sample of 1,300 distance learning students selected from five universities using a stratified random sampling strategy. Structural equation modelling using IBM SPSS Amos 22 was used for data analysis. Results of the study show that cultural and norms issues (β = .325; p < .001) and characteristics of the students (β = .329; p < .001), the lecturer (β = .362; p < .001), the institution (β = .427; p < .001), and external stakeholders (β = .279; p < .001) were all significantly associated with the behavioural intentions of university students to persist with TDE. Results of this study have implications for both policy and practice with regard to implementing TDE in universities.

scholarly journals Association of Motivational Climate With Addictive Behaviors Depending on Type of Sport in University Students: Structural Equation Analysis

SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824401986607
Author(s):  
Ramón Chacón-Cuberos ◽  
Félix Zurita-Ortega ◽  
José Luis Ubago-Jiménez ◽  
Gabriel González-Valero ◽  
Manuel Castro-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
University Students ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Motivational Climate ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Addictive Behaviors ◽  
Fit Index ◽  
Individual Sports

This research study aims at contrasting a structural model of the associations between the alcohol consumption, tobacco dependence, and the problematic use of video games with motivational climate toward sport depending on the category of sports practiced in a sample of Physical Education university students. The sample consisted of 775 university students from the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain), aged between 21 and 35 (22.22 ± 3.76) years. The instruments used were the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ-2), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and the Questionnaire of Experiences Related to Video Games (QERV) questionnaires. A path model that fitted properly in the multigroup analysis for both categories of sports was used, χ2 = 19.843; gl = 8; p = .011; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.911; normed fit index (NFI) = 0.903; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.912; root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) = 0.085. An inverse association was shown between task climate and tobacco consumption in individual sports, being weaker in collective sports. This association is not significant for collective sports, but it is for individual sports for ego climate. However, a positive association was found between ego climate and the use of video games in individual sports, not being significant in the case of collective sports. The importance of promoting motivational climates oriented toward tasks that are based on the practice of collective sports is established, because they could act as protective factors against the development of addictive behavior in university students.

scholarly journals Vladavina svetovnega razvrščanja v izobraževanju: politika in praksa raziskave PISA

Šolsko polje ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol XXXI (1-2) ◽  
pp. 131-138
Author(s):  
Paul Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
Educational Policy ◽  
Student Development ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Negative Impacts

The governmental work of global rankings in education: PISA politics, policy and practice This article offers a critique of the OECD’s triannual PISA international student assessment programme understood as a globalized space of governmentality, power and influence. The article addresses how PISA has managed to become such a taken-for-granted benchmark of national educational performance in the face of a vast critical literature. PISA results rest on shaky foundations, making inferred causal links that are, at best, unproven, based on deeply worrying, deterministic, and reductionist ideological assumptions and on a steadfast refusal to address localized contexts that might question the production of decontextualized indicators that purport to be universal in scope. The focus is on three different interrelated levels: the economic and political ideology that underpins PISA; the use and misuse of PISA in educational policy and the potentially negative impacts of PISA at the coal face, in terms of student development, teacher well-being and the prospects for critical, progressive pedagogy. Insofar as PISA focuses on headline results rather than on the mass of valuable data it generates, it lacks the adaptive qualities needed for good evaluation systems. Keywords: PISA study, educational policy, political ideology, neoliberal ideology

Effect of Job-Insecurity, Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intention: A Case Study of Newcomer Lecturers at Private Islamic Universities in East Java Province, Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Asep Saifuddin Chalim
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Pls Analysis

This study discussed employee turnover as one of the crucial problems faced by every organization. This study sought to analyze the determinants of turnover intention, such as job insecurity, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The objects of this study were newcomer lecturers of private Islamic universities in East Java Province, Indonesia. To analyze the relationship among independent variables and dependent variable; this study employed a correlation path model. To build the structural formulation of the correlation path model, this study used the variance-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as a Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis. The study found that job insecurity influenced job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Moreover, job satisfaction and organizational commitment had positive impacts on the turnover intention. In contrast, job insecurity did not have a direct significant impact on the turnover intention, but it had indirect effect that influences job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

scholarly journals Do Prospective Teachers Care About PISA Studies? A Pilot Study among University Students in Germany

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Ioannidou ◽  
Despoina Georgiou ◽  
Andreas Obersteiner ◽  
Nilufer Deniz Bas ◽  
Christine Mieslinger
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
International Student ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Very High ◽  
Expected Outcomes

The results of international comparison studies such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have initiated intense discussions about educational reforms in Germany. Although in-service and pre-service teachers are an essential part of such reforms, little is known about their attitudes towards PISA studies. The present study aims to fill this gap through the investigation of pre-service teachers’ awareness, interest, perception, and attitudes towards PISA. A questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 107 university students who were participating in a teacher education program. The results reveal that 100% of the participants are aware of PISA. Nearly 69% of the participants think that the impact of PISA is rather high or very high, while 41% of them believe that PISA results are reliable. Accordingly, half of the participants seem to be interested in PISA results for their country. The present study discusses these findings in the light of the expected outcomes as proposed in standards for teacher education.

An Explanatory Model of Problematic Internet Use of Southern Spanish University Students

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932199865
Author(s):  
José-María Romero-Rodríguez ◽  
José-Antonio Marín-Marín ◽  
Francisco-Javier Hinojo-Lucena ◽  
Gerardo Gómez-García
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Internet Addiction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Problematic Internet Use ◽  
Moderate Degree ◽  
Cross Sectional

The problematic Internet use (PIU) has become a topic of special relevance since it is a problem that affects the whole world. It has been detected that the population at greatest risk is university students along with adolescents. At the same time, Spain is one of the countries with the highest PIU rate. The purposes of this article were to analyze the presence and degree of Internet addiction among university students and to check the sociodemographic factors that influence the PIU. To this end, 13 hypotheses were put forward and contrasted using a structural equation model. The study adopted a cross-sectional approach by applying the Internet addiction test to a sample of undergraduate students in southern Spain ( n = 1,013). The results indicated a prevalence of PIU among students of almost 12.5% and with a moderate degree of addiction. In turn, the following hypotheses that had a significant effect on the PIU were supported: gender; field of knowledge; living in the parents’ home; Internet daily use for leisure; Internet daily use for academic purposes; number of social networks; sexual orientation; marital status. Finally, the main findings of the study were reviewed, and the main recommendations and implications for mitigating the negative effects of technology and enhancing the positive ones were established.

scholarly journals University Students’ Self-Rated Health in Relation to Perceived Acoustic Environment during the COVID-19 Home Quarantine

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2538
Author(s):  
Angel M. Dzhambov ◽  
Peter Lercher ◽  
Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽  
Nadezhda Petrova ◽  
Stoyan Novakov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Human And Nature

Background: Online education became mandatory for many students during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and blurred the distinction between settings where processes of stress and restoration used to take place. The lockdown also likely changed perceptions of the indoor acoustic environment (i.e., soundscape) and raised its importance. In the present study, we seek to understand how indoor soundscape related to university students’ self-rated health in Bulgaria around the time that the country was under a state of emergency declaration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Between 17 May and 10 June 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey among 323 students (median age 21 years; 31% male) from two universities in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Self-rated health (SRH) was measured with a single-item. Participants were asked how frequently they heard different types of sounds while at home and how pleasant they considered each of those sounds to be. Restorative quality of the home (the “being away” dimension of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale) was measured with a single-item. A priori confounders and effect modifiers included sociodemographics, house-related characteristics, general sensitivity to environmental influences, and mental health. Our analysis strategy involved sequential exploratory factor analysis (EFA), multivariate linear and ordinal regressions, effect modification tests, and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: EFA supported grouping perceived sounds into three distinct factors—mechanical, human, and nature sounds. Regression analyses revealed that greater exposure to mechanical sounds was consistently associated with worse SRH, whereas no significant associations were found for human and nature sounds. In SEM, exposure to mechanical sounds related to lower restorative quality of the home, and then to poorer SRH, whereas nature sounds correlated with higher restorative quality, and in turn with better SRH. Conclusions: These findings suggest a role of positive indoor soundscape and restorative quality for promoting self-rated health in times of social distancing.

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