1,720,972 research outputs found
The Contours and Expressions of Contemporary Student Spirituality at a New Zealand University: An Exploratory Study
No full textAs a chaplain at two tertiary institutions, I have an interest in students’ spirituality as well as the relationship between spirituality and students’ well-being. The aim of this project was to explore the contours and expressions of contemporary student spirituality at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (NZ). In particular, to investigate how students at one residential college understood their sense of spirituality, how they supported it and lived it out in practice, and what difference they perceived their spirituality made to their well-being while at university. Seventy (14%) of the 495 students, in the college selected, agreed to participate in the study.
This project drew on research into student spirituality conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) among more than 100,000 college students in the USA between 2004 and 2007. This thesis employed a survey instrument based on the HERI one, modified in a minor way (some linguistic changes to suit the NZ context). In addition to the HERI format, a number of open-ended questions were added to the survey to add some richness and depth to the quantitative questions. The thesis sought to answer three main questions.
Regarding the first question, In what ways do first year students at one residential college at the University of Otago conceptualise and operationalise their sense of spirituality? , the overall findings suggested that students were able to articulate definitions and/or experiences of spirituality and/or religion that accorded well with definitions in the literature. For example, meaning and purpose, relationship, beliefs and values, etc. When asked to describe their current views about spiritual/religious matters (from a list of options), more than half of the respondents indicated that their views were either conflicted, doubting, or seeking. This may suggest that quite a large number of respondents were possibly engaging somehow with religious/spirituality-related questions. But just 10 percent reported that they seek to follow religious teaching in their everyday life.
Regarding the second question, How do the results of this study compare with those found by the UCLA HERI study of student spirituality in the USA? similar mean scores were reported by both Otago students and the USA students in the HERI study with respect to spiritual identification, an awareness of being on a spiritual quest, and a sense of equanimity. Similarities between the mean scores for the HERI and Otago cohorts were also observed for most of the spiritually related qualities, except charitable involvement with lower scores for Otago. With regards to the religiosity scales, the US respondents scored considerably higher than the Otago students. NZ census figures have indicated, and anecdotal evidence supports, the understanding that New Zealanders are far less religious than North Americans with respect to religious identification and practice and are far more religiously sceptical.
Concerning the third question In what ways do students’ sense of spirituality contribute to their well-being?, both answers to individual questions and the different scales suggested that respondents were definitely interested in areas of spirituality that related to well-being, even if they may not have realised or articulated in other answers that they were interested in spirituality. These areas included the search and interest in questions of purpose and meaning in life, and a desire to feel centred, a sense of peace and connectedness to the world. The results also suggest that as an institution we may need to be somewhat concerned about the status of well-being of first-year students.
The survey was conducted in a residential college for first year students. Seventy students, 14 percent of the total population responded to the survey. All respondents were 18 or 19 years old, 67 percent were female, and 70 percent were born in New Zealand. Overall the demographic characteristics of the respondents reasonably reflected those of the total college population
Overall, the findings suggested that there are some distinct possibilities for tertiary chaplains to play a role in enhancing the well-being of first-year students. The aspects of spiritual and psychological well-being seem closely connected. Chaplains might play a greater role in the context of staff development, as well as direct involvement in teaching optional or compulsory courses
The pedagogical reasoning underpinning the adoption and non-adoption of the flipped classroom model in New Zealand higher education institutions
Full text linkResearch evidence suggests that active learning and student engagement are important considerations in teaching and learning environment within higher education. Notably, existing research has frequently focused on the design of teaching models/approaches that could provide more flexible and focused learning opportunities for learners on campus and at home. The Flipped Classroom Model is considered one possible model that promotes active approaches to teaching and learning and can help increase the levels of students’ interaction in the classroom. However, the introduction of the Flipped Classroom Model in higher education has received both positive and negative responses from the main stakeholders, lecturers and students. Studies have found that teacher attitudes and their beliefs about teaching and learning determine the adoption of any instructional methods. In addition, barriers and/or challenges in implementing new instructional methods have also been found to affect teachers’ response to pedagogy change.
The objective of this study was to investigate the pedagogical reasoning underpinning the adoption or non-adoption of a Flipped Classroom Model in higher education. The study explored what influences the teachers’ adoption of the model and what drives or inhibits adoption. In addition, contextual factors that foster and undermine the adoption of the flipped model are identified.
The research design utilised a mixed-method approach using a convenience sample of lecturers teaching in three universities in New Zealand. Individual, semi-structured interviews and questionnaire data were collected. The data collection and analysis process produced a rich set of data that provided a multi-layered view of the participants, both of adopters and non-adopters of the Flipped Classroom Model.
Findings indicate that the pedagogical reasoning underpinning the adoption and non-adoption of a Flipped Classroom Model within higher education was multidimensional. Participants’ positive attitude towards technology-based instruction in general and disinterested attitude towards the implementation of Flipped Classroom Model were shown to co-exist. The emphasis on technology use, especially the use of video-clips as opposed to live lectures, and a lack of understanding of the Flipped Classroom Model concept may be possible reasons that some participants steered away from adopting the model. In addition, assumptions about students’ inability to embrace autonomous learning were also shown to be reasons why some participants did not want to adopt the Flipped Model. A range of other factors also undermined the adoption of Flipped Classroom Model, most notably, time pressures, lack of institutional support, and general ideas about pedagogies for effective student learning
The Contours and Expressions of Contemporary Student Spirituality at a New Zealand University: An Exploratory Study
Full text linkAs a chaplain at two tertiary institutions, I have an interest in students’ spirituality as well as the relationship between spirituality and students’ well-being. The aim of this project was to explore the contours and expressions of contemporary student spirituality at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (NZ). In particular, to investigate how students at one residential college understood their sense of spirituality, how they supported it and lived it out in practice, and what difference they perceived their spirituality made to their well-being while at university. Seventy (14%) of the 495 students, in the college selected, agreed to participate in the study.
This project drew on research into student spirituality conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) among more than 100,000 college students in the USA between 2004 and 2007. This thesis employed a survey instrument based on the HERI one, modified in a minor way (some linguistic changes to suit the NZ context). In addition to the HERI format, a number of open-ended questions were added to the survey to add some richness and depth to the quantitative questions. The thesis sought to answer three main questions.
Regarding the first question, In what ways do first year students at one residential college at the University of Otago conceptualise and operationalise their sense of spirituality? , the overall findings suggested that students were able to articulate definitions and/or experiences of spirituality and/or religion that accorded well with definitions in the literature. For example, meaning and purpose, relationship, beliefs and values, etc. When asked to describe their current views about spiritual/religious matters (from a list of options), more than half of the respondents indicated that their views were either conflicted, doubting, or seeking. This may suggest that quite a large number of respondents were possibly engaging somehow with religious/spirituality-related questions. But just 10 percent reported that they seek to follow religious teaching in their everyday life.
Regarding the second question, How do the results of this study compare with those found by the UCLA HERI study of student spirituality in the USA? similar mean scores were reported by both Otago students and the USA students in the HERI study with respect to spiritual identification, an awareness of being on a spiritual quest, and a sense of equanimity. Similarities between the mean scores for the HERI and Otago cohorts were also observed for most of the spiritually related qualities, except charitable involvement with lower scores for Otago. With regards to the religiosity scales, the US respondents scored considerably higher than the Otago students. NZ census figures have indicated, and anecdotal evidence supports, the understanding that New Zealanders are far less religious than North Americans with respect to religious identification and practice and are far more religiously sceptical.
Concerning the third question In what ways do students’ sense of spirituality contribute to their well-being?, both answers to individual questions and the different scales suggested that respondents were definitely interested in areas of spirituality that related to well-being, even if they may not have realised or articulated in other answers that they were interested in spirituality. These areas included the search and interest in questions of purpose and meaning in life, and a desire to feel centred, a sense of peace and connectedness to the world. The results also suggest that as an institution we may need to be somewhat concerned about the status of well-being of first-year students.
The survey was conducted in a residential college for first year students. Seventy students, 14 percent of the total population responded to the survey. All respondents were 18 or 19 years old, 67 percent were female, and 70 percent were born in New Zealand. Overall the demographic characteristics of the respondents reasonably reflected those of the total college population
Overall, the findings suggested that there are some distinct possibilities for tertiary chaplains to play a role in enhancing the well-being of first-year students. The aspects of spiritual and psychological well-being seem closely connected. Chaplains might play a greater role in the context of staff development, as well as direct involvement in teaching optional or compulsory courses
An investigation into the way PhD students utilise ICT to support their doctoral research process
No full textThe use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has grown enormously in the last decade with computers and smart devices becoming indispensable in tertiary students’ study practices. There is, however, limited documented research about the ways PhD students use ICT in their research practice. Under normal circumstances, it is assumed that PhD students will make use of ICT (e.g., computer technologies) throughout their research journey for a variety of generic and specialised purposes.
This study thus examines the degree to which PhD students use ICT to support their doctoral research in their daily academic practices. In order to better understand the role of ICT among PhD students in an uncontrived context, the study adopted the interpretive, naturalist enquiry and analysis approach proposed by Guba and Lincoln (1989), from social constructivist perspectives. This approach underpinned the decision to select a small number of participants from within a particular context to investigate their understandings of their experiences and use of ICT to support their research, in light of the adopted socio-technical framework (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977a). Three data sources were used in this study. Computer activity data was extracted from the computer devices of nine full time PhD students who self-reported as being skilled computer users. The second data source consisted of drawings gathered from the same group of participants about their doctoral research process involving the use of ICT. The third dataset represented photographs of this cohort of participants’ work areas as well as individual and group discussion sessions about the participants’ ICT use in this process.
The analysis took into account the emphasis of the socio-technical framework: the relationship and/or the tensions that exist between the PhD student participants (the social aspect) and ICT (the technical aspect). An analysis of the five areas of findings revealed that:
1) The ways PhD students used ICT in the process of undertaking doctoral research were similar, regardless of the phase of their PhD.
2) The ways PhD students used ICT in the doctoral research process were similar, regardless of their discipline backgrounds (the only difference was the frequency of the document types they accessed in their daily research practices).
3) The socio-technical systems in the doctoral research process in regard to the PhD students’ goal-directed behaviours of producing a doctoral thesis in the “best possible ways” are co-adopted and co-adapted to each other at a minimum level.
4) The computer activities of the PhD students in their day-to-day research practices showed a misalignment between their level of computer literacy and their academic achievement.
5) Individual PhD students presented differences in their ways of using ICT during their doctoral research process but their concept of ICT use was not different as a cohort. In addition, the characteristics of “Curation”, “Combat”, “Coping” and “Conforming” situate within the context of PhD students’ ICT use in the process of accomplishing their doctoral research in relation to their notion of the best possible ways to be “efficient” and “effective”.
The findings of this study raise questions about the role played by ICT in advancing learning in higher education and highlights an aspect of limitation in these students’ academic or research-orientated use of ICT. This could be due to taken-for-granted and/or overlooked acceptance that all students are proficient ICT users which may result in a lack of intervention, support, and emphasis of ICT support, as well as educational approach for ICT use in the process of undertaking doctoral research. The ways participants use ICT as represented in this study did not lead them to the construct of using ICT in the “best possible ways” within the doctoral research process. The tension that exists between the social (the PhD students in this context) and the technical (ICT) systems within this process could be the main concern as well as the main cause of this phenomenon. Such tension, however, could be resolved if there is a “shared” construct for the ideas of the notions of computer literacy, ICT teaching and learning, the process of carrying out PhD study, and the use of technology in this process.
In summary, the findings of this study have relevance for the broader tertiary population to engender awareness of a different way to understand research into student behaviour. In this way, the study will provide an opportunity for academics, especially supervisors of postgraduate research students, to understand to what extent ICT plays a role in PhD students’ research processes and/or to what degree technological support might be required to support PhD students. Further, it is hoped that the findings generated from this study will help promote a deeper conversation about the ways PhD students use ICT in their research. Perhaps research on larger and more diverse groups of students could be considered to obtain more representative data of the student population, as this study is focussed on a small group of students at one university. Additionally, visual and situated behavioural data could be employed in researching ICT use as such data may offer new insights not found in data gathered through questionnaires and surveys
An investigation into the way PhD students utilise ICT to support their doctoral research process
Full text linkThe use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has grown enormously in the last decade with computers and smart devices becoming indispensable in tertiary students’ study practices. There is, however, limited documented research about the ways PhD students use ICT in their research practice. Under normal circumstances, it is assumed that PhD students will make use of ICT (e.g., computer technologies) throughout their research journey for a variety of generic and specialised purposes.
This study thus examines the degree to which PhD students use ICT to support their doctoral research in their daily academic practices. In order to better understand the role of ICT among PhD students in an uncontrived context, the study adopted the interpretive, naturalist enquiry and analysis approach proposed by Guba and Lincoln (1989), from social constructivist perspectives. This approach underpinned the decision to select a small number of participants from within a particular context to investigate their understandings of their experiences and use of ICT to support their research, in light of the adopted socio-technical framework (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977a). Three data sources were used in this study. Computer activity data was extracted from the computer devices of nine full time PhD students who self-reported as being skilled computer users. The second data source consisted of drawings gathered from the same group of participants about their doctoral research process involving the use of ICT. The third dataset represented photographs of this cohort of participants’ work areas as well as individual and group discussion sessions about the participants’ ICT use in this process.
The analysis took into account the emphasis of the socio-technical framework: the relationship and/or the tensions that exist between the PhD student participants (the social aspect) and ICT (the technical aspect). An analysis of the five areas of findings revealed that:
1) The ways PhD students used ICT in the process of undertaking doctoral research were similar, regardless of the phase of their PhD.
2) The ways PhD students used ICT in the doctoral research process were similar, regardless of their discipline backgrounds (the only difference was the frequency of the document types they accessed in their daily research practices).
3) The socio-technical systems in the doctoral research process in regard to the PhD students’ goal-directed behaviours of producing a doctoral thesis in the “best possible ways” are co-adopted and co-adapted to each other at a minimum level.
4) The computer activities of the PhD students in their day-to-day research practices showed a misalignment between their level of computer literacy and their academic achievement.
5) Individual PhD students presented differences in their ways of using ICT during their doctoral research process but their concept of ICT use was not different as a cohort. In addition, the characteristics of “Curation”, “Combat”, “Coping” and “Conforming” situate within the context of PhD students’ ICT use in the process of accomplishing their doctoral research in relation to their notion of the best possible ways to be “efficient” and “effective”.
The findings of this study raise questions about the role played by ICT in advancing learning in higher education and highlights an aspect of limitation in these students’ academic or research-orientated use of ICT. This could be due to taken-for-granted and/or overlooked acceptance that all students are proficient ICT users which may result in a lack of intervention, support, and emphasis of ICT support, as well as educational approach for ICT use in the process of undertaking doctoral research. The ways participants use ICT as represented in this study did not lead them to the construct of using ICT in the “best possible ways” within the doctoral research process. The tension that exists between the social (the PhD students in this context) and the technical (ICT) systems within this process could be the main concern as well as the main cause of this phenomenon. Such tension, however, could be resolved if there is a “shared” construct for the ideas of the notions of computer literacy, ICT teaching and learning, the process of carrying out PhD study, and the use of technology in this process.
In summary, the findings of this study have relevance for the broader tertiary population to engender awareness of a different way to understand research into student behaviour. In this way, the study will provide an opportunity for academics, especially supervisors of postgraduate research students, to understand to what extent ICT plays a role in PhD students’ research processes and/or to what degree technological support might be required to support PhD students. Further, it is hoped that the findings generated from this study will help promote a deeper conversation about the ways PhD students use ICT in their research. Perhaps research on larger and more diverse groups of students could be considered to obtain more representative data of the student population, as this study is focussed on a small group of students at one university. Additionally, visual and situated behavioural data could be employed in researching ICT use as such data may offer new insights not found in data gathered through questionnaires and surveys
Discussion to the special issue: Supporting the transition of a diversity of students: Developing the “whole student” during and beyond their time at higher education.
Full text linkApart from the current Covid19 context, the higher education sectors across the world have been faced with major challenges over the last few decades (Auerbach et al., 2018; Haggis, 2004), including increased numbers and diversity. Considering the many challenges in higher education, especially the rise of students’ mental health issues, I am strongly convinced that education sectors, but in particular the higher education sector, have a societal responsibility to not just focus on students as learners of knowledge and/or professional skills, but to support them in being developed as “whole students”. All these challenges also raise a need for research into the broader context to identify how we can better support the diverse student population as they transition into higher education, but also how to prepare them for a positive experience during and beyond their time in higher education.
Overall, it can be said that the contributions to this special issue beneficially addressed some of the main foci to widening the perspectives on diversity related to the transition into higher education. The contribution came from different European countries, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
De Clercq et al. (in this special issue) indicated that environmental characteristics, such as distinctiveness of countries, is often overlooked in research. In this discussion article, therefore, some particular references will also be made to a specific country, New Zealand. This may be of interest and relevant for the particular questions raised in this special issue as focusing on student diversity in educational contexts has been considered important for some time in this country. Aoteraroa New Zealand is a country in the South Pacific colonised by Europeans in the 19th century. In the second part of the 20th century, the focus across the New Zealand education sectors, including higher education, started to develop beyond just a European perspective, and started to focus more on recognition of student diversity. Initially, the main focus was on the indigenous population, the Māori people. In the last few decades of the 20th century, the focus was extended to the Pacific Island people, many of whom migrated to New Zealand from a wide range of different islands in the South Pacific. In the 21st century, the focus on Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) groups was further extended, and over the last decade also because of the increase of refugees from the Middle East and Asia. Providing some insights from the other end of the world, in quite a different and de-colonised ex-European nation may help European (and other) countries to reflect on their own approaches
Mapping first semester challenges : first-year students making sense of their teaching and learning environments
No full textThis thesis investigates first-year students' challenges in making sense of the learning and teaching environment during their first semester at university. The aims for the research are threefold. Firstly, mapping the range of challenges students at one university faced in their learning and teaching environments in the first semester. Secondly, developing a greater understanding of those challenges. Thirdly, identifying what educational initiatives the university could consider that might assist students to meet those challenges. The challenges were examined in the context of changes in higher education.
My interest and motivation for this research project concerns improved practices in the first-year teaching and learning environment, rather than improved students. This means that I did not look for deficits within students, but for indications of what helps or does not help students' introduction to the new environment of academia. By mapping students' challenges in the first semester, I hope to contribute to the understanding of academic staff of the range of challenges students have to deal with.
The interpretation of the results and my line of argument are partly influenced and shaped by the theoretical framework of academic literacies, and the notion of de-familiarisation.
For this project, two data sources were used. The first source was data from a survey carried out in May 2004 amongst students enrolled in 100-level courses. The second source was data from interviews conducted with first-year students in the same year. In considering the analysis as a whole, a number of key issues could be discerned. These related to communication, academic skills, access to resources and help, and engagement and connection. The results showed that some of these issues had less to do with educational practices, and more to do with contested understandings of the nature of university education, and the nature of students now entering university. I argue that underlying these issues there are contentious questions of who should adjust or adapt to whom: students to the university, or the university to students?
Students' reported experiences further suggest that some teachers seemed more aware than others that first-year students face particular challenges. Students did not consider their experiences as reflective of the university as a whole. The university was experienced as an institution with divergent ways of organising courses, of valuing aspects of university learning, and of interpreting seemingly similar things. This suggests that where students experienced challenges, these were not necessarily a function of students' characteristics, or students' attitudes to studying, but of particular course environments.
The overall picture that presents itself, then, is that there are challenges that could be considered unnecessary. Whereas few students would experience all of the challenges identified in the results chapters, I argue that there are some aspects that warrant improvement. Improvement initiatives in first-year education, however, are not necessarily considered important by all academic staff. This is another contested issue in universities.
A more explicit introduction of first-year students to academia as a range of heterogeneous communities would respond to first-year students' needs for familiarisation and clarity, as well as reflect some of the values that universities could be said to espouse. Successful interventions in first-year education, however, will also depend on ongoing dialogue with staff about various contested issues, the changed and changing context of higher education, and related challenges and opportunities
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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