Promoting Critical Thinking and Learning in a Large-Enrolment Humanities Class

To promote the development of critical thinking abilities in an introductory undergraduate humanities course in the context of mass higher education, we implemented a course design that employed a series of scenario-based multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and informal peer discussions. Using an online survey to gather perception data and self-reported behavioral data, this study examines the extent to which the course design was effective at promoting critical thinking and student experience. Deductive analysis of students’ qualitative responses indicate that the course design was successful in promoting students’ development of critical thinking. Both deductive and inductive analysis of students’ qualitative responses also suggest that students largely had favorable attitudes towards this course design, though there are also some who express concerns. Our design may be useful for instructors and instructional designers aiming to promote critical thinking and learning in university courses.

A Church with the Soul of a Nation

World War II generated concern for restoring values in Western civilization. The Harvard Report of 1945 urged study of the best in the West, including religious texts as one source of such values. The Truman Commission report of 1947, Higher Education for a Democratic Society, added more practical concerns for the new mass higher education. Humanists such as Robert Hutchins were appalled. The postwar era saw a broad religious revival in mainstream higher education, blending broadly Protestant, democratic, and humanistic ideals. Reinhold Niebuhr and other leading scholars provided guidance. The problem, though, was that the liberal Protestant emphasis on freedom tended to undercut any specific religious demands. Senator Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade helped test the extent and limits of freedom. Leading educators often saw Catholics and their schools as too authoritarian. William F. Buckley’s critique of Yale’s claim to be a meaningfully Protestant institution should be understood in this context.

Mass University and Social Inclusion: The Paradoxical Effect of Public Policies

The objective of this article is to revisit the role of public policies in the social production and reproduction of university access inequalities that have been made evident more than ever in the current intensified mass higher education context. Although the situation is complex and varies from one societal context to another, a systematic review of the existing literature highlights the undeniable responsibility of public policies in this reproduction through three main channels: guidance systems and educational pathways, institutions’ stratification and hierarchization of fields of study and, finally, the financing of studies and tuition fees.

Possibilities of using a "PR stunt" in strategic communication of higher education

"PR stunt" or „Publicity Stunt“ is a carefully planned event with the aim of drawing public attention to the organizers of the stunt or to another goal of the stunt organization. The reasons for considering the use of a promotional stunt have a great potential for a return to investment and the "earnings" from unpaid advertisements in the media which spontaneously reported that something interesting had happened. Apart from the media themselves, the general public also significantly contributes to the spread of publicity through stunts, so that today practically everyone can record the interesting thing they come across via their smartphone and share it on the Internet. Higher education, but also general education, has transformed from a traditional centuries-old approach where the focus was on teachers and institutions to a modern mass approach where the focus is on students and studying occurs through partnership and cooperation within the learning process. The emergence of mass higher education in almost all countries of the world now implies public criticism of factors such as: the quality of lifelong learning services, the success of examinations, the management of the institution, the form of funding and the student standard. Massification is accompanied by the expansion and diversification of higher education, and the result of the latter is the emergence of competition among individual higher education institutions. Therefore, the importance of effectively conveying the message of a higher education institution to a (potential) student or his sponsor of education therefore becomes the subject of professional marketing communication. The paper provides an overview of PR Stunts in Croatia and the world and proposes thematic guidelines for their organization.

Institutional conditions of internationalisation of higher education: Mass higher school

Introduction. Currently, internationalisation is a priority for the development of higher education, as an institutional component of its academic functioning, both in terms of ensuring the quality of education, and in connection with the implementation of a multi-level integration agenda, in which a modern university is involved. In order to increase the effectiveness of the international dimension of higher education, it remains necessary to clarify a number of theoretical and fundamental questions, among them one of the most important is the problem of the institutional conditions of the academic environment that contribute to the emergence of internationalisation. Mass higher education can be found as fundamental condition and in that relation the clarification of the interrelations between massification and internationalisation of higher education can expand the theoretical understanding of current processes in higher education, providing the necessary theoretical framework for further applied research.The aim of the present article is to investigate the interrelations between the massification and internationalisation of higher education in order to clarify the institutional conditions that contribute to the development of the international dimension of the modern university.Methodology and research methods. The methodological framework of this research involves socio-philosophical tools. In particular, the research is based on a retrospective analysis and philosophical deconstruction of the socio-historical transition of higher education from elite to mass model. Both statistical data and analytical materials on the national conditions of transition to mass higher education are used to investigate the issue.Results. The massification of the higher school became reality due to the historical development of social systems, representing the further evolution of global higher education. Acting as a source of society's emancipation and democratisation, the massification of higher education ensured the reorientation of universities from upbringing needs (ideology) to professional competence (economics). Meanwhile, mass higher education is considered to be the reason of destruction of the imperialist agenda, including the problem of alienated labour. Institutionally, the massification of higher education has become possible due the state-private cooperation. The implementation of this cooperation requires two options: 1) via government subsidies to private higher education, 2) via private investments into public higher education. Mass higher education is an institutional factor of internationalisation development: 1) it creates a need to improve the quality of education; 2) it acts as an instrument of the international integration.Scientific novelty. The connection between mass education and internationalisation of higher education has been found. Mass higher education acts as an institutional factor in the formation of academic demand for the development of internationalisation processes: 1) forming the need to improve the quality of education; 2) acting as one of the tools for implementing the integration agenda. The absence of processes of massification and internationalisation in the modern system of higher education may indicate on fundamental barriers in the national development of a particular state.Practical significance. The results obtained will contribute to further fundamental research in the fields of philosophy and sociology of education. Moreover, the present findings could be applied as a theoretical basis for further practical research on modern processes of higher education development.

Distance learning under conditions of pandemic (example of V.P. Astafiev Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University)

Presented is the study of problems arising in the field of mass higher education (level: bachelor's degree) as a result of the transfer of education to a distance format. This task is implemented based on the study of monitoring the activity of teachers and students of the KSPU named after V.P. Astafiev in the electronic university environment (Moodle), as well as analysis of educational practices used by teachers in the process of distance learning, and analysis of student behavior patterns in a new situation of total e-learning for them. The study examines two groups of problems, namely: problems associated with the activities of teachers in the electronic university environment, and problems associated with the activity of students in the digital educational space. As a result of the analysis, a number of issues are identified that need to be addressed, namely: the need to develop e-didactics that reveals the possibilities of distance learning, the design of appropriate teaching methods and assessment systems and the transformation of educational programs, taking into account the formation of “soft skills” necessary for the productive work of students in electronic educational space.

Nem lineáris életutak a felsőoktatásban, avagy hogyan kerüljük el a lemorzsolódást?

Összefoglaló. Napjainkban a felsőoktatás-kutatás egyik kiemelt területe a lemorzsolódás vizsgálata. Tanulmányunk első részében foglalkozunk a tömeges felsőoktatás problémájával, az expanzió elméleti hátterét ismertetve nemzetközi szakirodalmon keresztül adunk példákat a fogalom mai megjelenésére. A tanulmány a hallgatói életutakat vizsgálja, saját automatikus megoldást kínálva az adatelemzésre. Ebből kitekintve, foglalkozunk a műszaki képzési területen is megjelenő újra beiratkozás (re-gólya) jelenségével. Az eredményekből láthatjuk, hogy az újra beiratkozás alternatívát kínál a lemorzsolódásra. Summary. Nowadays some of the most important areas of higher education research are dropping out and related case studies. The first part of our study deals with the development of mass higher education, describing the theoretical background of the expansion. This part provided examples of the current appearance of basic concepts through international literature. The study is about students’ life paths, also covers the topic of dropout researched by many, offering our own automated solution for data analysis. Looking out of the topic of dropout, we are dealing with the re-freshman phenomenon in the field of technical discipline. It can be seen, that other choices, such as re-enrollment, offer an alternative to dropout.