Reform of Elastic-Plastic Mechanics and Strength Design of Pipelines Based on Ideological and Political Education

Oil and gas storage and transportation safety courses are very important in oil and gas storage and transportation engineering. With the ideological and political construction of the course in the new period, the mode of professional knowledge teaching cannot meet the teaching requirements. The teaching team has been practicing in the course for many years. By inserting typical characters, typical projects, national policies and industry trends into the course, students' patriotism, academic confidence and environmental protection awareness have been cultivated, and remarkable results have been achieved. At the same time, it can provide some reference for the ideological and political education of engineering majors.

Coeducation in Higher Education of Afghanistan: Students’ Perspective

The study investigated Afghan undergraduate students’ perceptions of positive and negative effects of coeducation. It also examined the impact of students’ gender and ethnicity on their perceptions. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 230 randomly selected students from Takhar University. The authors utilized descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The results showed that students had positive attitudes towards coeducation. They believed that coeducation had both personal and social effects such as improving students’ academic confidence, communication skills, preparing them for real life, promoting gender equality and reducing gender biases and stereotypes. However, less than half of students believed that coeducation had negative effects, e.g., distracting students and male students’ domination of class activities. Moreover, the findings revealed that students’ gender had a significant impact on their responses; female students’ attitude towards coeducation was stronger than that of male students. However, students’ ethnicity did not significantly impact their responses.

Opening up the black box of a Gateway to Medicine programme: a realist evaluation

ObjectivesA Gateway to Medicine programme, developed in partnership between a further and higher education setting and implemented to increase the socioeconomic diversity of medicine, was examined to identify precisely what works within the programme and why.DesignThis study employed realist evaluation principles and was undertaken in three phases: document analysis and qualitative focus groups with widening access (WA) programme architects; focus groups and interviews with staff and students; generation of an idea of what works.SettingParticipants were recruited from a further/higher education setting and were either enrolled or involved in the delivery of a Gateway to Medicine programme.ParticipantsTwelve staff were interviewed either individually (n=3) or in one of three group interviews. Nine focus groups (ranging from 5 to 18 participants in each focus group) were carried out with Gateway students from three consecutive cohorts at 2–3 points in their Gateway programme year.ResultsData were generated to determine what ‘works’ in the Gateway programme. Turning a realist lens on the data identified six inter-relating mechanisms which helped students see medicine as attainable and achievable and prepared them for the transition to medical school. These were academic confidence (M1); developing professional identity (M2); financial support/security (M3); supportive relationships with staff (M4) and peers (M5); and establishing a sense of belonging as a university student (M6).ConclusionsBy unpacking the ‘black box’ of a Gateway programme through realist evaluation, we have shown that such programmes are not solely about providing knowledge and skills but are rather much more complex in respect to how they work. Further work is needed to further test the mechanisms identified in our study in other contexts for theory development and to identify predictors of effectiveness in terms of students’ preparedness to transition.

From adversity to university - the transformational power of a bespoke bridging module to support those affected by homelessness into higher education

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale project which examines how a bespoke bridging module supported those affected by homelessness into higher education. The module was developed on the premise that a successful widening participation project needs to base learning on the lived experience of the individuals. It aimed to support individuals by valuing their personal experiences and developing academic confidence through shared ownership of learning. The findings draw on qualitative interviews with six participants who took part in the bridging module. All had been affected by homelessness and many were recovering from alcohol and/or drug addiction. A narrative methodological approach was used, drawing on Brown and Gilligan's Listening Guide (1991), to explore how participants changed throughout the course of the module. Out of the six who took part, five were accepted onto higher education courses. In addition, all experienced multiple personal benefits, including increased confidence, raised aspirations, improvements in mental health, support with recovery from alcohol/and or drug addiction, and new and renewed relationships. It is concluded that a bespoke bridging module can be both powerful and transformational for those who have been affected by homelessness.

Undergraduate Student Gender, Personality and Academic Confidence

Within a socio-situational and socio-behavioural context, the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and the academic confidence of university students and how they differed by sex of the student was explored. Previous research has identified both conscientiousness and academic confidence as being linked to university performance. In respect of sex, female students have been found to score higher on all of the Big Five measures, whereas the relationship between sex and academic confidence has been mixed. Using self-report measures of personality and academic confidence from 1523 Spanish students, it was found that the female students were more confident in their grades, studying and attendance components of academic confidence and had higher scores for conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism personality measures. A multiple regression analysis found that personality predicts academic confidence, with conscientiousness being the trait that statistically loaded the most strongly. This research further confirms the validity of the Academic Behavioural Confidence scale and suggests that measures of personality and, especially, academic confidence could be usefully used in student support situations to help students acquire the strategies and skills that lead to successful university study. It is suggested that further research in the area needs to include outcome or achievement measures and measures of hypothetical constructs, such as personality and academic confidence, that go beyond self-report measures.

Individual factors that keep online English learners from greater success: the case of HCMC Open University

A variety of challenges in online training are found in numerous learning environments such as cultural background, accessibility, technology, learning content and so on. In the developed or western societies, the online training has been developing in a stable way for decades, while numerous typical obstacles seem to be visible in developing countries including student support, flexibility, teaching and learning activities, access, academic confidence, localization and attitudes (Andersson, 2008). These difficulties are not excluded in the context of online English training system (OETS) at Ho Chi Minh City Open University (HCMCOU). Although this institution ever makes effort to limit these possible challenges for ages, plenty of impactful issues leading to serious difficulties of OETS also obviously exist. Hence, to fully explore the key factors that cause greater barriers in this training system, a qualitative on traditions of bioghaphy and grounded theory method was applied. The qualitative data is to be collected from the responses on openended questionaire sent for 30 online English majors and indirect interviews with 5 salient learners were also conducted. The findings show that some minor limitations of learners such as negative learning habits, willpower shortage and neglected learning perception lead to greater barriers of online English training.