scholarly journals Integrating reading and writing: supporting students' writing from source

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Adeline Cooney ◽  
◽  
Eamon Darcy ◽  
Denis Casey ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lesson Study ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Skill ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Writing From Sources ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Practice Opportunities ◽  
Example Critiquing

Writing from sources is an important academic skill but students find it a difficult skill to learn. The lesson study method was used to design and evaluate learning and teaching strategies aimed at improving students’ writing from sources skills. The team developed a seven-part lesson plan and associated learning activities and practice opportunities which was delivered over 12 hours. The lesson was delivered to first-year students (n = 150) taking a Critical Skills module. Students’ writing was analysed to identify how they approached integrating sources into their writing. Analyses of student texts suggest significant improvement in some skills, for example, finding, interpreting and synthesising content across sources. Other skills showed less marked improvement, for example, critiquing sources and creating new text. This paper shares the lesson and makes suggestions for future iterations of the lesson.

Learning to LOLIPOP

2010 ◽  
pp. 176-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bruen ◽  
Juliette Péchenart ◽  
Veronica Crosbie
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Electronic Version ◽  
First Year ◽  
European Language ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Intercultural Studies

The focus of this chapter is twofold: firstly, on the development of an electronic version of a European Language Portfolio, known as the LOLIPOP ELP,1 and, secondly, on its integration into a study and research skills module for first-year students on the BA in Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. The chapter begins with an introduction to the concept of a European Language Portfolio (ELP) in the context of current trends in foreign language learning and teaching. It then describes the development and key features of the LOLIPOP ELP. It explains how it was integrated into a first-year, undergraduate research and study skills module focusing on elements of course design and assessment. Finally, the chapter concludes by analysing the output from the participants in this study which indicates that they appreciated the opportunity to engage with the LOLIPOP ELP and found it beneficial to their language learning although issues remain around its design and integration into an academic programme.

scholarly journals Perceptions of First-Year Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds on E-Learning at a South African University of Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serathi Molokwane ◽  
Luther-King Zogli
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
South African ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
First Year ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
School Career ◽  
E Learning

The introduction of innovative e-learning and teaching methods at universities of technologies necessitates the examining of students’ perceptions of these methods in the promotion of student success. In South Africa, the majority of first-year students are not exposed to technology-aided learning methodology during their high school career, especially those from disadvantaged demographics. The purpose of the study is to examine student perceptions regarding their experience of e-learning at a South African university of technology with specific reference to the success of first-year students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Using qualitative research methods through semi-structured interviews, the researchers discovered that first-year students from disadvantaged backgrounds are experiencing challenges in terms of access to resources such as computers, laptops and reliable internet connection. Furthermore, inadequate training on the use of online resources and unsatisfactory performance during online assessment were discovered and these are heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic. First-year students from disadvantaged backgrounds are exposed to a variety of barriers that have an adverse impact on their success. The study recommends that higher education institutes provide the necessary resources to facilitate seamless assimilation of first-year students into the new environment.

scholarly journals Exploring the first-year experience in a diverse population: Using participatory action research to explore strategies to support student transition into fast-track undergraduate degree programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Greg Rickard ◽  
Marguerite Bramble ◽  
Hazel Maxwell ◽  
Rochelle Einboden ◽  
Sally Farrington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fast Track ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Transition ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
University Life

As the cohort of students in Australian universities become increasingly diverse, attention to ensuring their success is an emerging issue of social justice in tertiary education. Navigating transitions through the student journey is crucial to their success. Exploring and responding to the needs of a cohort of first-year students is the focus of this research. Using a participatory action approach, this project aimed to discover what is meaningful for first-year students, by exploring how students experienced the processes of admission, enrolment, commencement, and learning and teaching in two fast-track and one online health degrees. Nine students were partnered with nine academics for a six-month period. The analysis offers insights into equity issues in relation to the institution’s admission processes, the quality of support and engagement from academics to students when transitioning to university life, and how students find their ‘place’. Strategies to support the transition process for first-year students are identified and discussed.

Social determinants of health: A pedagogical framework for advancing the Citizen Scholar

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Velardo
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teaching To The Test ◽  
Change In Practice ◽  
Bachelor Of Education ◽  
Radical Shift

The concept of the Citizen Scholar highlights the potential for universities to act as vehicles for social change by supporting the development of active, engaged graduates who are geared to respond to current and future global challenges. This demands a radical shift in teaching towards more interactive pedagogies, which may prove difficult for some educators and students who are comfortable with a traditional model of learning and ‘teaching to the test’. Despite these challenges, universities have a responsibility to bring about change in practice to prepare undergraduate students for the complex outside world. This article reports on a revised version of a 12-week Australian undergraduate course in health promotion that was delivered to 147 first-year students enrolled in a Bachelor of Education and/or Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. Significant revisions were made to the curriculum and modification of teaching methodology, with the aim of encouraging greater social awareness and students’ capacity for social change. In this article, I reflect on various teaching strategies employed to develop skills and proficiencies akin to the Citizen Scholar, with a particular emphasis on fostering critically health literate graduates who are empowered to create healthy, just societies. Strategies included the facilitation of discussions to ignite empathy, integrating problem-solving activities and building advocacy competencies. A collaborative, learner-directed approach is considered as a way forward for other university educators, as a way of disrupting previous pedagogic work that emphasises knowing ‘about’ social problems rather than ‘acting on’ them.

scholarly journals Three heads are better than one: Students, faculty, and educational developers as co-developers of Science curriculum

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Goff ◽  
Kris Knorr
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Curriculum Planning ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Learning Modules ◽  
Better Than

Curriculum planning should be a shared responsibility that involves students. To encourage higher education students to actively participate in their own education, we believe in the idea of engaging students as partners in learning and teaching. We have developed an Applied Curriculum Design in Science course at McMaster University that is aimed at engaging students as co-creators of curriculum. In this course, upper-year students form partnerships with faculty and educational developers and work in groups to co-create learning modules that become key components of a foundational Science course offered to first-year students. We present a scholarly exploration of our rationale for the course, the implementation and critical analysis of the initiative, and ideas for sustaining the co-created pedagogical approaches and continued student engagement in co-creating components of the curriculum.

scholarly journals Teaching and Assessing Problem Solving: An Example of an Incremental Approach to Using IRAC in Legal Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 106-124
Author(s):  
Kelley Burton ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Incremental Approach

Legal reasoning is a type of problem solving, and is situated within thinking skills, one of the six threshold learning outcomes established under the auspices of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s Bachelor of Laws Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement. The threshold learning outcomes define what law graduates are ‘expected to know, understand and be able to do as a result of learning’ (Kift et al., 2010, p. 9). The assessment of legal reasoning, and thus problem solving, should receive greater attention in legal education discourse (James, 2011, p. 15, James, 2012, p. 88). The dominant approach for problem-based questions in the discipline of law over the last 40 years is IRAC (issue, rule, application and conclusion). The acronym IRAC is not offensive and potentially instils a positive professional legal identity and is a student-centred approach to problem solving. This journal article documents an incremental approach to IRAC in law where first year students answer a problembased law question using a grid format before preparing a barrister’s advice.

scholarly journals TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ORIENTAL PHILOLOGY

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
Olha Draginda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
First Year ◽  
Evaluative Judgment ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Approach To Teaching

This publication is a detailed lesson plan on the topic “Power and Money” within the course of the English language taught as the second foreign language to the first-year students majoring in the oriental languages. The lesson focuses on enhancing topical vocabulary through practicing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. It also aims at developing students’ skills of reasoning and evaluative judgment. The tasks are introduced in the plan in accordance with the principles of the contemporary communicative student-oriented approach to teaching foreign languages.

scholarly journals TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ORIENTAL PHILOLOGY

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-54
Author(s):  
Olha Drahinda
Keyword(s):  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
First Year ◽  
European Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Approach To Teaching

The publication presents a detailed lesson plan on the topic “Every Generation is the Product of their Times” within “General course of Western European language” for the first-year students majoring in Oriental Philology. The lesson is aimed at enhancing English vocabulary on the topic, improving listening, speaking, and writing skills as well as at developing critical thinking in the first-year students majoring in Oriental philology. All the activities developed by the teacher meet the basic principles of communicative, student-centered approach to teaching foreign languages.

scholarly journals Engineering the Future

2012 ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Clark ◽  
Jane Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Student Attrition ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering Education ◽  
Innovative Thinking ◽  
The Uk ◽  
High Level

With the demand for engineering graduates at what may be defined as an unprecedented high, many universities find themselves facing significant levels of student attrition—with high “drop-out levels” being a major issue in engineering education. In order to address this, Aston University in the UK has radically changed its undergraduate engineering education curriculum, introducing capstone CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) modules for all first year students studying Mechanical Engineering and Design. The introduction of CDIO is aimed at making project / problem based learning the norm. Utilising this approach, the learning and teaching in engineering purposefully aims to promote innovative thinking, thus equipping students with high-level problem-solving skills in a way that builds on theory whilst enhancing practical competencies and abilities. This chapter provides an overview of an Action Research study undertaken contemporaneously with the development, introduction, and administration of the first two semesters of CDIO. It identifies the challenges and benefits of the approach and concludes by arguing that whilst CDIO is hard work for staff, it can make a real difference to students’ learning experiences, thereby positively impacting retention.

Mentoring to Become a Self-Directed Learner

2022 ◽  
pp. 135-162
Author(s):  
Dionne Clabaugh ◽  
Nora Dominguez
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Mentoring Relationships ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
College Life ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Learning Growth ◽  
First Year Student

This chapter provides a mentoring roadmap for success in college life and when transitioning to the workplace. First-year students learn that a successful mentee is self-directed, knows what to look for in a mentor, uses skills to engage in effective mentoring, and recognizes there are various types of mentoring relationships. The authors describe what a first-year student should look for when seeking an effective mentor. Readers are shown the benefits for using a developmental mentoring network and for becoming self-directed learners and mentees. The chapter includes activities and exercises to develop critical skills in self-understanding, listening, help-seeking, problem solving, and goal setting to be applied in both academic and professional settings. When successful people receive an award or recognition, what they have in common is they did not make it alone – others guided and supported their learning, growth, and success.

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