Socialising of nursing students into homecare practice in Denmark: a Berger and Luckmann-inspired interview study

In 2016, Denmark's nurse education eliminated diagnoses, age and care settings from the curriculum. How students are trained for homecare is unknown. This article illuminates how students of non-Danish origin were socialised into homecare practice during nurse education in Denmark. Semi-structured interviews with eight students and a theoretical inspired latent thematic analysis of data were conducted. The SRQR checklist was used. The results are presented under three themes: Unprepared students stepped out from university college, Clinical supervisors as instructive and questioned role models, and Patients and relatives acted as co-supervisors. Theoretical highlights on homecare nursing were scarce from students’ perspectives. Clinical supervisors and encounters with patients and relatives in their homes socialised students into professional roles within homecare. The organisation of education in homecare pointed to a clinical, professional socialisation of nursing students in patients’ homes rather than a theoretical socialisation with an inherent formation at university college.

Book Review: Creating the Path to Success in the Classroom: Teaching to Close the Graduation Gap for Minority, First-Generation, and Academically Unprepared Students

In this article, the author reviews Kathleen F. Gabriel’s 2018 book Creating the Path to Success in the Classroom: Teaching to Close the Graduation Gap for Minority, First-Generation, and Academically Unprepared Students. The book offers instructors both theories and practical tips for implementing inclusive success strategies within the classroom environment. The review identifies the primary purpose of the book, reviews key themes, explores a chapter in detail, and offers a critique of the entire work.

A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS COURSE WITH COMPUTER-ASSISTED REMEDIAL LEARNING SYSTEM SUPPORT FOR VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

One of the significant and distinguishing curriculum characteristics of STEM compared to other subjects domains is hands-on skill development. Hands-on training enables the enhancement of learning because it parallels with the concrete-to-abstract nature of cognitive development, providing additional sources of brain activation via kinaesthetic involvement and elevating students’ motivation and engagement. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, and advance unprepared students’ hands-on skills, this research proposed and implemented an innovative STEM course with the computer-assisted remedial learning system (CARLS) in the vocational high school experience in Taiwan. The effects of STEM course were examined through an experiment with learning performances hypotheses. A total of 32 students in a vocational high school in Taiwan voluntarily participated in this research and a one-group pre-test and post-test pre-experimental design was adopted. The results of this experimental course demonstrated that CARLS is effective and contributed in enhancing students’ knowledge, achievement and hands-on skill performance in this STEM course. Suggestions and implications for STEM education is also made for practitioners and educators. Key words: hands-on activities, STEM, Computer-Assisted Remedial Learning System, vocational high school.

The Problem of First-Year Seminars: Risking Disengagement Through Marketplace Ideals

First-year seminars (FYS) have become increasingly prevalent in North American postsecondary institutions. The popularity of such initiatives owes much to the belief that providing unprepared students general life and academic skills can bolster engagement and thereby improve retention. In this paper we argue that, despite their good intentions, many FYS actually perpetuate the kind of disengagement they were designed to alleviate due to their reliance on a narrow, instrumental view of education. To demonstrate, we briefly outline the history and curricula of the FYS movement to draw attention to its dependence on marketplace ideals, rationales, and strategies. We demonstrate some of the ways this vision of education impoverishes the university experience and suggest that, in order to be robust, FYS must focus first and foremost on cultivating rich understandings of the broader purposes of higher education and its relation to the good life, both for and beyond one’s own fulfillment.

Avoiding Frustrations Of Unprepared Students With Online Quizzes

The hierarchical nature of many degrees enables higher-level courses to build on knowledge that has been developed in earlier courses. However, when students enter with weak prior knowledge, lecturers have to spend time addressing this before starting with the new material. This adds time pressure and frustration to lecturers as well as students who have strong prior knowledge. In this paper, we discuss a strategy that we implemented in order to encourage students to revise or learn prerequisite material at the beginning of a masters level module. Students were asked to take an online quiz on the prerequisite topics. Immediate feedback directed the students to resources which could enhance their knowledge and understanding of the material prior to course commencement. We discuss the multiple benefits this had, for both students and the lecturer, drawing on students written responses to reflective questions about the experience and reflections from the lecturer on the use of online quizzes.

Catching up in Community Colleges: Academic Preparation and Transfer to Four-Year Institutions

Background/Context Transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions remains a contentious issue in higher education, with proponents showing that students do indeed transfer to four-year institutions and opponents arguing that starting in community colleges hinders baccalaureate degree attainment. One particularly salient issue in this debate is academic preparation. Although virtually all studies of transfer control for academic preparation, there is a dearth of research focusing on whether and how academically unprepared students can catch up in higher education. Research Questions We address two research questions: To what extent do academically unprepared students transfer to four-year institutions? And, can successful completion of intermediate outcomes, such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate's degree, diminish the role of initial preparation and increase the probability of transfer? Research Design Using event history techniques, we estimate the likelihood of transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions. Analyses include 20,900 first-time degree-seeking students who enrolled in Florida community colleges in the fall of 1998. Student enrollment is tracked through the summer of 2003. Results Community colleges can indeed serve as an alternative road of access to four-year institutions, even for academically unprepared students: Almost 20% of students in our sample who entered community colleges unprepared for college-level work made the transition to four-year institutions. Moreover, we found that successful completion of intermediate outcomes, such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate's degree, enhances the probability of transfer. However, the ability of community colleges to mitigate the negative effects of inadequate academic preparation on transfer is limited; regardless of the intermediate outcome completed, academically unprepared students continued to lag substantially behind their more prepared counterparts. Conclusion Community colleges can serve as a democratizing force in higher education; however, their ability to overcome inadequate academic preparation with which some students enter higher education is limited. Improving academic preparation in K–12 is thus a crucial component of enhancing transfer.