1,085,537 results on '"social sciences"'
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52. Disciplinary Disparity and Attitudinal Differences Towards English as a Medium of Instruction: Voices of Students
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Khuong Vo Van, Phuong Ngo Le Hoang, and Huy Nguyen Van
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Situated against the increasingly popular role of English and the internationalization of higher education, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has become an observable phenomenon in Vietnamese tertiary education. However, there is still a dearth of studies looking at how EMI is viewed and understood by students from different disciplines. This study aims to investigate the attitude of university students majoring in natural sciences and social sciences towards EMI. By exploring the students' attitudes towards EMI, the study attempts to explain the challenges they encountered. Data were collected using questionnaires administered to 215 university students, including a group of 103 natural science students and another group of 112 social science students. The data highlight significant attitudinal differences between these two groups of students. Those majoring in natural sciences were recognizably satisfied with more obviously-defined learning intentions in EMI classes, whereas those majoring in social sciences were more concerned about their levels of concrete achievement in English proficiency. Based on the study findings, it is implied that lecturers should develop an informed EMI pedagogical competence and assist students in developing discipline-relevant EMI learning strategies.
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- 2023
53. Teacher Training for Social Sciences Education and a Democratic Citizenship in a Post-Conflict Society. The Case of the Basque Country
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Aritza Sáenz del Castillo Velasco, Joseba Iñaki Arregi-Orue, Leire Agirreazkuenaga Onaidia, and Joseba Jon Longarte Arriola
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Purpose: The Basque Country has been suffering political conflict and human rights´ violation for decades, tearing the social fabric. Human rights and peace education carried out through the testimony of the victims and their memory about this recent violent past can play an essential role in reestablishing the social understanding. This article aims to make known the experience of Adi-Adian initiative developed with the victims of the politic violence in the Teacher Training School of the University of Basque Country and asses its effectiveness in terms of critical thinking and empathy. Design/methodology/approach: This research is based on group discussion and personal surveys focused on students' feedback as a suitable method to analyze the way of thinking of students, their feelings and opinions about the violence. Findings: The results indicate that these initiatives implemented at school might be suitable to achieve the goals of human rights and peace education and deepen on democratic citizenship.
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- 2023
54. Between the Lifeworld and Academia: Defining Political Issues in Social Science Education
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Nora Elise Hesby Mathé and Johan Sandahl
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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discuss mutual understandings of political issues among students and academics. The aim is to suggest a framework that teachers can use to address politics from both the discipline's and the students' perspectives. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on semi-structured interviews with twelve students in six upper secondary schools and eight social science academics in Norway and Sweden. Findings: We identified four guiding aspects for defining political issues in social science education to connect disciplinary thinking with students' views of the political. These aspects are: 1) collective, 2) contemporary, 3) conflictual, and 4) contextual. Limitations: This study relied on interviews with a selection of students and academics and what they chose to express. The results may not be applicable to other samples. Implications: The framework presented can be used in social science education to understand and discuss the nature of political issues.
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- 2023
55. Undergraduate Students' Perception of Exit Examination at Haramaya University
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Chala Mosisa Hunduma and Yilfashewa Seyoum
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The study aimed to investigate students' perceptions of undergraduate programs in relation to exit examinations, employing a mixed research design. A total of 145 students participated in the study. Deans, Department Heads, and College Quality Assurance Coordinators were selected based on availability and purposive sampling methods. The study focused on three colleges each with four years program durations, including Colleges of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH), Business and Economics (CBE), and Natural and Computational Sciences (CNCS). Two departments were randomly selected from each college, ensuring equal representation. Survey data was analyzed using mean, stepwise regression, and one-way ANOVA, while interview data was directly cited from respondents. Results of the study revealed that students' perceptions of exit exams varied across colleges, with CBE students demonstrating a more positive perception compared to CSSH and CNCS. Stepwise regression analysis identified significant predictor variables, including anxiety, stress, risk of exclusion, and resource scarcity, all of which influenced students' perceptions of exit examinations. Overall, the study found that students generally held negative perceptions of exit exams. It was evident that factors such as anxiety, stress, unknown content of the exam, risk of exclusion, and resource constraints contributed to the undesirable perceptions. A collaborative approach involving various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education (MoE), educational institutions, and departments is necessary to reduce excessive stress and anxiety levels, emphasize the importance of exit examinations, address resource deficiencies, and undertake a nationwide study. MoE needs to formulate a well-defined policy concerning students who do not successfully pass their exit exams.
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- 2023
56. The Bologna in the Field of Social Sciences and Humanities: A Precondition for Successful University Education
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Jelena Osmanovic Zajic and Jelena Maksimovic
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The Bologna Process represents the most significant extensive reform of higher education in Europe. The particular aspects of the Bologna Process still incite critical evaluations as regards the successfulness of its implementation. The theoretical part of the paper analyzes the fundamental principles defined in the Bologna Declaration, requirements and critical views of the Bologna Process, as well as the relevant research conducted on this issue used for the comparative analysis. The introduction of the Bologna Process into the Serbian university education has initiated numerous changes, the increase of the student mobility being the most striking one. The empirical part of the paper focuses on the study of the following problem: the manner in which students of social sciences and humanities perceive the Bologna Process fifteen years after its implementation into the Serbian university education. Consequently, the subject matter of the research is the observation and description of students' attitudes to this phenomenon with the purpose of acquiring relevant information "firsthand." The achievable objective of the presented research reviews the context and condition of the Bologna Process during 2019/2020 academic year and its feasible improvements, which can contribute to comparative study of similar researches in the time of the pandemics. The specific research tasks include the study of the Bologna requirements, attitudes to the Bologna Process, benefits and restrictions of this reform, and particularly the attempt to suggest the improvement of the Bologna Process realization from the perspective of students of social sciences and humanities. The research sample consisted of the Bachelor students of social sciences and humanities from the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš (N=150). The survey technique and the scaling technique with a rating scale questionnaire were used (BOL-JM-JOZ). The questionnaire had five closed-ended questions, while the Likert scale was comprised of 23 items. The test of the instrument consistency proved its reliability. The obtained results were shown by the chi square test, which proved a statistically significant difference in the respondents' answers as regards the year of study, p<0.05. The main factors were extracted from the assessment scale by the application of the factor analysis. These factors examined the students' perceptions of the Bologna Process, comparing the answers provided by the students of the first, second, third and fourth year of study of social sciences and humanities, p<0.05.
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- 2023
57. Relationship between Digital Leadership Competencies and Teachers' Performance: Structural Equation Model Analysis
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Haq Nawaz, Muhammad Naveed Jabbar, and Farah Qadir Malik
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Leadership competencies contribute to the ability of teachers to perform successfully and efficiently in the modern technology era. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between digital leadership competencies and teachers' performance. The study was correctional following the cross-sectional survey method. The sample of the study consisted of 273 social sciences teaching faculty members of Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad and Virtual University of Pakistan selected through a simple random sampling technique. The reliability of the instruments; digital leadership competencies and teachers' performance were confirmed by calculating Cronbach's Alpha score; 0.969 and 0.936 respectively. After ensuring ethical considerations from participants, the data were collected by administering the Six E-Competencies model of Roman et al., (2019) consisting of 18-items and Goodman and Svyantek (1999) Teachers' Performance (TP) scale comprised of 15-items mode of 7-points Likert responses. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling [PLS-SEM] was computed to analyze the proposed hypotheses in this study while the measurement model and structural model were assessed. The findings of the study showed a significant correlation between digital leadership competencies and teachers' performance. The study helps to enhance the performance of university teachers through the support of digital leadership by using modern technology tools.
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- 2023
58. An Unknown World: The Academic Experiences of Korean Immigrant Students at Two Universities in Toronto, Canada
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Kim, Eun Gi
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Although the participation of immigrant students from diverse cultural backgrounds continues to increase in Canadian universities, there is still a lack of a good understanding of their experiences. This study compared the experiences of nine Korean immigrant students in the sciences and social sciences at two Toronto-based universities and the support resources they utilized. Using Reason's (2009) persistence framework, different aspects of student experiences, including the transition from high school to university and their academic studies, were examined through semi-structured focus groups and interviews. Research participants commonly had difficulties adjusting to Canadian universities and encountered linguistic difficulties throughout their lecture participation and assessment completion that hindered their persistence toward their goal of graduation. The participants varied in the difficulties they encountered with the disciplinary natures of the sciences and social sciences throughout their studies. The participants developed strategies of audio-recording lectures, reaching out to their peers and teaching staff, and using online resources to overcome the challenges. Differences in participant experiences between the two universities appeared regarding Korean student groups, which they found as the most beneficial source of support. Suggestions are made to better support the experiences of immigrant students in Canadian universities.
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- 2023
59. 'I'm Afraid to Fail the Test' -- Motivational Orientation, Statistics Anxiety and Academic Dishonesty
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Yovav Eshet, Pnina Steinberger, and Keren Grinautsky
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The present study deals with the mediation of statistics anxiety and motivation in the relationship comprising academic dishonesty, personality traits, and previous academic achievements in three different learning environments (Face to Face -- F2F, Planned Online Environment -- POE, and Emergency Remote Teaching -- ERT). Self-determination theory provides a broad psychological framework for these phenomena. Data were collected from 649 bachelor-degree students in Social Sciences at five Israeli academic institutions. Structural equation modelling was employed to investigate the research variables' relationships. Findings indicate that statistics anxiety mediates the relationship between personality traits and academic dishonesty in the POE and the ERT learning environments. Findings also indicate mediation of the relationship between students' achievements and academic dishonesty, but only in the ERT learning environment. In contrast, motivation mediates the relationship between students' achievements and statistics anxiety only in the POE learning environment. This study unveils that learning environments determine the mediating role of statistical anxiety. We discuss potential implications and suggest designing online courses according to student-centred approaches. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]
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- 2023
60. A Case Study on the Value of Humanities-Based Analysis, Modes of Presentation, and Study Designs for SoTL: Close Reading Students' Pre-Surveys on Gender-Inclusive Language
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Sarah Copland
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Close reading has long been heralded as a humanities-specific methodology with significant potential for SoTL. This essay fills a gap in SoTL literature with a full case study demonstrating what, exactly, close reading shows us about our data that social science-based quantitative and qualitative analyses may not. Close reading-based analysis of first-year writing students' pre-surveys on gender-inclusive language entails attention to the interrelated form and content of students' self-reflections. This analysis reveals nuances and complexities that, if overlooked, would result in inadvertent misrepresentation of the data. This case study responds not only to calls for humanities-specific SoTL methodologies but also to related calls for greater legitimation of diverse forms for SoTL dissemination, some of which originate in the humanities. It is therefore cast as a reflective essay based on its author's scholarly personal narrative (SPN) as a new, humanities-based SoTL researcher. Finally, this case study demonstrates the value of flexible, deliberately unscientific study designs that are responsive to emergent conditions but foreign to SoTL's dominant social science paradigm. As guides to instruction, pre-surveys are necessary complements to pre-quizzes: learning what students think they know about a concept or skill, their attitudes towards it, and their contexts of prior learning about it--not just their knowledge of it, which is all pre-quizzes can tell us--is an important precursor to effective instruction. But maximizing pre-surveys' potential to guide instruction requires flexible study designs so we can change our pedagogy, including our study's "intervention," if necessary, on the fly.
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- 2023
61. Evaluating an Interdisciplinary and Multi-Pedagogical Approach to Equipping Students to Create Social Change
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Michael Lynch and Elizabeth Bowen
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Modern social problems are complex, multifaceted, and challenging to solve. Scholars are increasinglyapplying the concept of social innovation as a path to addressing social issues. Social innovation is aninterdisciplinary framework for producing social change that requires creativity, problem-solvingskills, and collaboration across systems. Higher education is progressively understanding the need toprovide interdisciplinary educational opportunities for students; however, little is known about theeffectiveness and impact of providing interdisciplinary learning experiences grounded in a socialinnovation framework. This article describes and analyzes an interdisciplinary summer fellowshipprogram focused on social innovation for graduate students in social work, business, and thehumanities and social sciences. The program employed multiple pedagogical approaches, includingclassroom-based instruction, field learning, and interdisciplinary teamwork. We used qualitative andquantitative pre- and post-evaluation student feedback to examine students' learning and overallexperiences. We found that the fellowship was a dynamic learning experience, through which studentsstrengthened their communication skills and translated academic concepts into practical ideas. The experience also impacted the students' career trajectories, influencing students to pursue careers thatinvolved working toward social progress in a variety of ways.
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- 2023
62. Student Group Work in Widely Interdisciplinary Teams
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Emanuel Istrate and Shawn M. Soobramanie
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Group work is often used in university courses. This article examines group work in a widely interdisciplinary holography course that combines both art and science, for students from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In these interdisciplinary teams, how much specialization of labor (dividing work according to students' pre-existing abilities or personal interests) is acceptable? We present student survey responses regarding their attitudes toward interdisciplinary group work, and their practices in dividing the work, to determine how much specialization of labor is taking place within the interdisciplinary teams. The surveys indicate a mix of approaches among groups concerning the division of labor based on prior skills. In the presence of specialization of labor, students learned from their partners and displayed a positive attitude toward working with someone from a different discipline. We believe that the intriguing nature of the holography projects helped many students avoid dividing the work according to their prior skills, and helped them see the value of working in a widely interdisciplinary team.
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- 2023
63. Proceedings of International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (IConSES) (Las Vegas, Nevada, October 19-22, 2023). Volume 1
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International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) Organization, Mack Shelley, Valarie Akerson, Mevlut Unal, Mack Shelley, Valarie Akerson, Mevlut Unal, and International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) Organization
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"Proceedings of International Conference on Social and Education Sciences" includes full papers presented at the International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (IConSES), which took place on October 19-22, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The aim of the conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, discuss theoretical and practical issues, and to connect with the leaders in the fields of education and social sciences. The IConSES invites submissions that address the theory, research, or applications in all disciplines of education and social sciences. The IConSES is organized for: faculty members in all disciplines of education and social sciences, graduate students, K-12 administrators, teachers, principals, and all interested in education and social sciences. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]
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- 2023
64. The Importance of Improving Students' Decision-Making on Socio-Scientific Issues about Climate Change
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Suci Indah Putri, Ida Hamidah, and Winny Liliawati
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Decision-making is one of the important skills that must be possessed by students in the 21st century. One of the topics that require the right decision to be made for each challenge and the impact it will cause is climate change which has already occurred. This study aimed to find out how students' decision-making and the importance of improving these decision-making skills, especially in making decisions on socioscientific issues about climate change. Data collection was carried out for one day through questionnaires that were distributed directly to students. In total, 44 junior high school student respondents filled out the questionnaire in this study. The results showed that students made decisions based on their personal feelings and there were indicators of good decision-making that had not been trained in students. Meanwhile, students' knowledge of issues related to climate change was still in the low category. The findings above have implications for teacher strategies in training students' decision-making skills that must be optimized to forge the next generation who can accomplish the problems and make good decisions, especially on issues related to climate change. [For the complete proceedings, see ED655360.]
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- 2023
65. Analysis of the Natural and Social Science Curriculum at the Elementary School Level in Indonesia
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Mutiara Eka Betari
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The independent curriculum is designed to be a better future solution for education in Indonesia. This curriculum is expected to reduce the learning losses that occurred after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the independent curriculum at the elementary school level, natural science subjects are changed to natural and social science subjects. Natural sciences and social sciences are combined into one subject at the elementary level. This is due to the fact that children in elementary school tend to see everything as a whole and integrated. In addition, they are still in the concrete and simple, holistic, and comprehensive thinking stage, but not in detail. The combination of these subjects is expected to trigger children's ability to manage the natural and social environments in one unit. The aim of this research is to describe the curriculum of natural and social sciences in elementary schools including goals, content, processes, and evaluations that apply in Indonesia. This study uses the method of a literature review. Researchers collect data sourced from books, government regulations, journals, and previous research. The results of the research show that learning natural and social sciences in elementary schools focuses on the study of knowledge about living and inanimate things in the universe and their interactions, and examines human life as an individual as well as social beings who interact with their environment. The natural and social science curriculum in elementary schools includes material understanding and process skills. The learning process takes 180 hours of lessons per year. Evaluation of learning is carried out through daily assessments, midterm assessments, end of semester assessments, and end of year assessments. [For the complete proceedings, see ED655360.]
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- 2023
66. Proceedings of International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (ICEMST) (Cappadocia, Turkey, May 18-21, 2023) Volume 1
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International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) Organization, Mack Shelley, Omer Tayfur Ozturk, and Mustafa Lutfi Ciddi
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"Proceedings of International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology" includes full papers presented at the International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (ICEMST) which took place on May 18-21, 2023 in Cappadocia, Turkey. The aim of the conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, to discuss theoretical and practical issues and to connect with the leaders in the fields of education. The conference is organized annually by the International Society for Technology, Education, and Science (ISTES). The ICEMST invites submissions which address the theory, research or applications in all disciplines of education. The ICEMST is organized for: faculty members in all disciplines of education, graduate students, K-12 administrators, teachers, principals and all interested in education. After peer-reviewing process, all full papers are published in the Conference Proceedings. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]
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- 2023
67. Proceedings of International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences (Antalya, Turkey, October 20-23, 2023). Volume 1
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International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) Organization, Muhammet Demirbilek, Mahmut Sami Ozturk, Mevlut Unal, Muhammet Demirbilek, Mahmut Sami Ozturk, Mevlut Unal, and International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) Organization
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"Proceedings of International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences" includes full papers presented at the International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences (ICSES) which took place on October 20-23, 2023, in Antalya, Turkey. The aim of the conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, to discuss theoretical and practical issues and to connect with the leaders in the fields of education and social sciences. The conference is organized annually by the International Society for Technology, Education, and Science (ISTES). The ICSES invites submissions which address the theory, research, or applications in all disciplines of education and social sciences. The ICSES is organized for: faculty members in all disciplines of education and social sciences, graduate students, K-12 administrators, teachers, principals and all interested in education and social sciences. After peer-reviewing process, all full papers are published in the Conference Proceedings. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC. The month of the conference on the cover page (November) is incorrect. The correct month is October.]
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- 2023
68. Retrospective Perceptions of Support for Career Development among PhD Graduates from US and New Zealand Universities
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Rachel Spronken-Smith, Kim Brown, and Claire Cameron
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Purpose: PhD graduates are entering an increasing range of careers, but past research has highlighted a lack of preparation for these careers. This study aims to explore the reflections of PhD graduates from science and humanities and social science disciplines regarding support for career development (CD) during their study. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design and collected 136 survey responses and interviewed 21 PhD graduates from two US and one New Zealand universities to investigate their career readiness. Using the lens of Cognitive Information Processing theory, the authors explored the development of self-knowledge and career options-knowledge, and how support at the macro (institutional), meso (departmental) and micro (supervisors) levels influenced CD. Findings: During doctoral study, there was very poor engagement with CD activities. Graduates displayed limited self-knowledge and poor knowledge about career options. Graduates reported drawing mainly on their departments and supervisors for career guidance. Although there were pockets of good practice, some departments were perceived as promoting academia as the only successful outcome, neglecting to support other possible pathways. Some graduates reported excellent supervisor support for CD, but others described disinterest or a damaging response if students said they were not wanting to pursue academia. Originality/value: The enabling aspects for developing self- and options-knowledge are collated into a conceptual model, which identifies key factors at institutional, departmental and supervisor levels, as well as for PhD students themselves.
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- 2024
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69. Information Ecosystems in Early Academic Career Building: How Do Researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities Learn the Tricks of the Trade?
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Marc Vanholsbeeck, Jolanta Šinkuniene, Karolina Lendák-Kabók, and Haris Gekic
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Early career investigators (ECIs) in the Social Sciences and Humanities need to receive adequate information so that they will be empowered to progress in their academic career and deal with the various evaluation processes that constitute an essential part of their professional development. This article relies on an informational-ecosystemic approach originally developed in the context of resilience studies and crisis communication and uses it as a theoretical framework to analyse and understand the "early academic career building information ecosystems" (EACBIEs), into which ECIs professionally develop. The characteristics of these ecosystems are then refined through the analysis of interviews conducted with ECIs from all around Europe in the framework of the European Network for Research Evaluation in Social Sciences and Humanities (ENRESSH), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action. The analysis reveals the remarkable heterogeneity of the information ecosystems into which early career researchers have to build their career in Europe, articulating a diversity of formal, non-formal and informal learning environments, and several related information channels, as well as showing a geographical spread that covers institutional, national and international levels. Furthermore, although the diverse information channels at hand and geographical levels at which they operate appear in some cases to be complementary, and even mutually reinforcing, they can also, in other cases, be dysfunctional, fragmented and unfair to some extent.
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- 2024
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70. Experts' Adaptation of Apt Epistemic Performance: The Role of Practical Knowledge
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Victor M. Deekens, Brian M. Cartiff, and Jeffrey A. Greene
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Background: Today's complex information environment requires effective navigation and analysis of multiple sources to make reliable decisions about complex topics. Learners must enact thinking that reliably leads to well-justified decisions, adapt thinking to specific problems and contexts, and recognize the limits of their existing knowledge (i.e. demonstrate fully apt epistemic performance). Experts can enact such performance in their own discipline but questions of whether and how they adapt that expertise to other disciplines remain. More research is needed regarding whether and how experts adapt disciplinary knowledge to tasks for which they have practical knowledge. Methods: We used inductive coding to analyze think-aloud data gathered from professors from a variety of disciplines (i.e. education, social sciences, and natural sciences) as they read and responded to a flipped classroom pedagogy scenario. Findings: Education experts demonstrated fully apt epistemic performance and more nuanced conclusions than other participants. The social and natural scientists successfully adapted their epistemic performance grounded in practical knowledge, particularly about statistics and higher education careers, to their analysis of the scenario. However, natural scientists overgeneralized their research methods knowledge, demonstrating lower epistemic meta-competence. Contribution: Our findings suggest ways in which practical knowledge supports or hinders adaptation of epistemic performance.
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- 2024
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71. The CASEL Framework and Christian Schools: Using a Hermeneutical Tool to Determine Worldview Alignment
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Jill L. Swisher and Lori B. Doyle
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This article aims to utilize an adapted version of Trentham's Inverse Consistency Protocol (ICP) as a way in which any ecclesial organization can act productively when confronted with seemingly controversial paradigms such as social emotional learning (SEL). The ICP can help Christian leaders discern potential areas of inconsistency or affirm authentic congruence with an organization's faith tradition. Tenets from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) were submitted through the four-step protocol. Findings suggest that CASEL is a valuable framework when applied authentically and that ICP is a constructive tool for engaging in the social sciences with integrity.
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- 2024
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72. The Impact of Extracurricular Activities on University Students' Academic Success and Employability
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Norberto Ribeiro, Carla Malafaia, Tiago Neves, and Isabel Menezes
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This study provides a "narrative synthesis" of the findings published in journal articles from a broad range of scientific fields about the impact of extracurricular activities (ECAs) on the academic success and employability of university students. The analysis included 39 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, published over the period 2010-2021. Results show that the vast majority of ECAs have a positive impact on the academic success and employability of university students. ECAs showing a negative impact are residual. In light of these results, higher education institutions should promote activities with an educational purpose outside the strictly curricular objectives and beyond the classroom, fostering a more holistic development of students that combines academic success with a better capacity/preparation to enter the labour market.
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- 2024
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73. The VSSL Scale: A Brief Instructor Tool for Assessing Students' Perceived Value of Software to Learning Statistics
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Udi Alter, Carmen Dang, Zachary J. Kunicki, and Alyssa Counsell
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The biggest difference in statistical training from previous decades is the increased use of software. However, little research examines how software impacts learning statistics. Assessing the value of software to statistical learning demands appropriate, valid, and reliable measures. The present study expands the arsenal of tools by reporting on the psychometric properties of the Value of Software to Statistical Learning (VSSL) scale in an undergraduate student sample. We propose a brief measure with strong psychometric support to assess students' perceived value of software in an educational setting. We provide data from a course using SPSS, given its wide use and popularity in the social sciences. However, the VSSL is adaptable to any statistical software, and we provide instructions for customizing it to suit alternative packages. Recommendations for administering, scoring, and interpreting the VSSL are provided to aid statistics instructors and education researchers understand how software influences students' statistical learning.
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- 2024
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74. The Relationship between Situated Reading Motivation and Perception of the Learning Environment for Adolescent Students
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Travis VanderVelden
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Reading proficiency is particularly crucial for adolescent students who are expected to adopt and approximate a multitude of authentic literacy practices in several different content areas within the span of a single school day. A large number of adolescent students are failing to master basic levels of reading, and are thus uniquely disadvantaged in secondary schools, where reading is not only more complex, but teachers also spend less time teaching students how to read. Reading motivation has been a focus of research to address the lack of reading proficiency in classrooms. An understudied area within this field of research is the effects of the learning environment on student reading motivation (Neugebauer & Gilmour, 2020). The current study investigates the effects of student perception of the learning environment on their self-reported reading motivation in four different content areas (English, social science, math, science) at a large, public high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Students took a daily reading motivation measure to capture their unique motivations within different content areas, as well as a measure of their perception of the learning environment. Four different aspects of the learning environment, "teacher support," "student cohesiveness," "involvement," and "investigation," were regressed on student reading motivation, which was comprised of two variables: "reading involvement" and "reading curiosity." For all content areas and for both "reading curiosity" and "reading involvement" as dependent variables, the only learning environment variable to significantly predict reading motivation was "investigation." "Investigation" refers to the extent of emphasis placed on problem-solving and inquiry in the classroom and falls under the personal growth category of learning environment dimensions (den Brok et al., 2010). The more perceived emphasis placed on investigation in all content areas, the more students felt individually motivated to read in that content area. This finding suggests that teachers can potentially maximize students' motivation to read by introducing more investigation into their classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
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- 2024
75. Social Reproduction on Campus: Quantitative Investigations into the Reproduction of Gender and Socioeconomic Inequality through Higher Education
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Ned William Tilbrook
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This dissertation examines two key axes of inequality in higher education -- gender and socioeconomic status (SES) -- in terms of differences in college persistence and college major using the nationally-representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. While gender differences in terms of STEM majors has been oft-studied, this dissertation contributes to this body of literature by advancing Health & Social Sciences (HSS) majors as a separate category and examining the ways in which men and women may be sorted into these different types of major before and during college, despite the strong overlap in science and math related content. The second study introduces the main theoretical contribution of this dissertation by examining differences in college persistence between first- and continuing-generation students through a field-specific cultural capital lens, documenting the way in which continuing generation students' college-specific cultural capital (most notably in the form of seeking academic help) facilitates their higher persistence rates. The final study documents the way in which STEM-specific cultural capital, passed down by parents with STEM degrees, assists in persistence in STEM fields, bringing together the theoretical and topical contributions of the previous two studies. Throughout, recommendations are made on how institutions can change to better serve women and lower-SES students generally and specifically in STEM fields. Recommendations include framing course (particularly STEM) content in terms relevant to students' lives, training for faculty and staff on how to communicate with students in an accessible way, and de-stigmatizing the use of support services. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
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- 2024
76. Pathways to Professional Digital Competence to Teach for Digital Citizenship: Social Science Teacher Education in Flux
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Alex Örtegren and Anders D. Olofsson
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Increasingly pervasive digital technologies in societies are placing complex demands on the development of young people's digital citizenship and digital competence. Social science education and teacher education (TE) play important, but poorly understood, roles in this development. Through reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this paper explores 15 Swedish teacher educators' (TEDs) views of teaching for digital citizenship, particularly social science TE's role. We also consider organisational and personal conditions that may influence TEDs' views of professional digital competence (PDC) for such teaching. Their views are examined through a postdigital lens, with a focus on democratic implications in evolving socio-technical environments. The results indicate that TEDs acknowledge the importance of social science TE in teaching for digital citizenship, but find maintaining responsiveness to societal changes challenging. Challenges are also posed by the multidisciplinary character of social science education, including how personal trajectories shape TEDs' views of their dual-didactic task of teaching to teach for digital citizenship. This paper contributes knowledge of how TEDs, as 'street-level bureaucrats' in social science TE, navigate between written and performed education policy in teaching for digital citizenship, with specific attention to the dynamic character of PDC in social science education.
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- 2024
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77. Working-Class Student-Hood and 'Job-Readiness': Affective Relations of Class, Gender and Employability Policy in Higher Education
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Maree Martinussen and Dianne Mulcahy
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Past decades have seen increased emphasis on graduate employability as a driver of higher education policy. In the Australian context, employability discourses in the public domain have become inflected with anti-intellectual sentiment, serving to reproduce the perception that the humanities and social sciences are of less value to graduates' employability than are science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Against this backdrop, and with particular reference to the Job-ready Graduates Package, we investigate how diverse notions of employability shape student-hood for working-class female students who are largely engaged in the social sciences. Attending to affective dynamics, we show how employability imperatives 'land' for these students, individually, and as an 'equity group'. While employability policies are typically positioned as a salve for class inequalities, they can also discredit educational and employment endeavours of working-class students, and reproduce class tensions. To enhance employability policies, there is a need to move beyond reductionist models of job-readiness, towards responding to the complexities of policy as enacted through lived relations. We propose attending to the variability of both identity and value positions and recognising the contribution of affect and emotion to this complex set of policy dynamics.
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- 2024
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78. Evaluating the Criteria for Selection of Web Resources for Academic Pursuit
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Swati Datta and Shiv Kumar
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This paper focuses on finding the criteria adopted by users to select free information retrieved from the Web for academic use. A close-ended questionnaire was formulated to record the opinions of the respondents. A survey for various categories of users such as post graduate students, research scholars and faculty members from five universities of Chandigarh, Haryana, and Punjab was administered. The category-wise and discipline-wise analysis depicted that quite a good number of respondents applied various parameters while referring to Web resources, but a reasonable number of users did not apply certain parameters to verify the nature of free information being used for educational purposes. The convenience factor leads them to depend on free Web resources which can be accessed anywhere and saves time. The findings of the study suggest that user education programs should be conducted to create awareness regarding the credibility of the subscribed library resources and their effectiveness in enhancing the quality of teaching, learning, and research.
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- 2024
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79. Revisiting the 'U-Curve' Hypothesis: International Students' Academic, Sociocultural, and Psychological Adjustment Trajectories at a British University
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Xuan Zhao and Alina Schartner
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This mixed-methods longitudinal study investigated the academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment trajectories of international students undertaking one-year postgraduate degrees in the humanities and social sciences at a single British university. It also sought to re-examine the applicability of 'U-curve' hypothesis. Three waves of self-report questionnaires (N = 120, 108, 102) measured international students' adjustment satisfaction and their adjustment patterns throughout nine months period. Additionally, three rounds of semi-structured interviews (N = 16) were conducted to explore students' lived experiences and adjustment trajectories over time. The findings revealed complex adjustment patterns that differed across academic, sociocultural, and psychological domains. Enablers and barriers to adjustment, as perceived by the students, included cultural distance, English language ability, academic workload, previous personal experiences, and university support. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of international students' adjustment, provides insights into the experiences of student sojourners in the UK higher education context and increases knowledge regarding student support services.
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- 2024
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80. The Story of Women Immigrants from FSU and Their Integration into Israeli Academia
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Victoria Kot, Katerina Bodovski, and Miri Yemini
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The under-representation of minorities at senior levels in academia has received some research attention in recent years. However, the experience of immigrant women from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israeli academia has not been examined. These women are mostly from a generation known as the '1.5 generation' who immigrated to Israel as children. This study focuses on the intersection of immigration and gender that shape the lives and careers of the 1.5 generation women currently employed as senior academics in Israel. Using the theoretical framework of capital, Bourdieu's concepts of cultural and social capital, as well as Borjas' ethnic capital, we analyzed twenty in-depth interviews to examine the perception of these women, their life story, and their professional integration into Israeli academia. We identified two focal points that fostered their success -- (1) the Soviet heritage- selective adoption of ethnic capital, encompassing cultural and social capital of an ethnic group and (2) role models within and outside the family often based on ethnicity. We discuss the obstacles faced by minorities in attempting integration into selective professional guilds.
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- 2024
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81. Institutionalizing Internships: Enhanced Civic Culture via State Capital Internship Programs
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Lauren S. Foley and Marty P. Jordan
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Decades of scholarship on teaching and learning affirm the benefits of public service internships on student learning outcomes. Studies emphasize how hands-on fieldwork can increase students' substantive knowledge, political efficacy, trust in government, and civic participation, among other factors. However, most articles treat internships equally without accounting for the variation in the institutionalization of experiential-learning programs within and across universities. We theorize that more structured internship programs (e.g., more student credits, intentionally designed curricula, additional faculty guidance) yield larger impacts on learning objectives centered on civic culture and education. We test this theory by analyzing three years of student data from two public universities' fieldwork programs. We compare pretest and posttest survey results from undergraduates (1) participating in structured public service internship programs run in a state capital, (2) participating in internships pursued independently, and (3) majoring in a social science degree but having yet to complete an internship. We find that students pursuing a solo internship or via a structured program begin and end with higher political knowledge, efficacy, civic engagement, and related attitudes than the control group. We also find the more systematized an internship experience, the bigger the effect on key student learning outcomes. These results underscore how political science departments can fortify civic culture through more structured public service internship programs.
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- 2024
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82. Teaching Research Methods in Education: Using the TPACK Framework to Reflect on Praxis
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Barbara Class
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This article contributes to the discussion on research methods pedagogy by adding a technological dimension to Nind's use of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in research methods education (RME). Within a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning approach, this research-inspired reflection is based on the literature, on the scholar's praxis and on the on-going design-based research project she has been conducting since 2014. Trained in educational technologies more than 20 years ago, she shares an initial understanding of the use of the TPACK framework for the teaching of research methods in education. Findings include initial definitions of each type of individual knowledge (CK, PK, TK), overlapping knowledge (TPK, TCK, PCK) and a proposal for TPACK as a whole. Secondly, the findings show that technology appears to be a revealing indicator of current praxis in RME, inviting scholars to question "methodolatry" and "technodolatry." As a corollary, Content Knowledge (CK) needs more attention to reconnect RME with its philosophical foundations. Research method teachers and students in the social sciences will foremost benefit from this study and are invited to contribute to the debate within a broader collective intelligence endeavour.
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- 2024
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83. As if We Were Not Friends: From (De)objectifying and (Re)positioning and Back
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Sophie Del Fa
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Based on three vignettes taken from interviews with friends who were members of a social-ecological transition initiative of which I was both an active participant and a researcher, this paper explores ethnography in friendship. Breaking with the methodological proposals known as friendship as method, this text proposes to reflect on the ways friendship acts in ethnographic interviews. Through a ritual that unfolds during the interview, leading us to act 'as if we were not friends', this article seeks to ponder the types of knowledge produced and raises issues related to the researcher's positioning within this kind of relationship. It turns out that the duo friendship-ethnography creates a particular space in which specific types of knowledges are produced and in which the researcher's subjectivity is resolutely transformed.
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- 2024
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84. Hello GPT! Goodbye Home Examination? An Exploratory Study of AI Chatbots Impact on University Teachers' Assessment Practices
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Alexandra Farazouli, Teresa Cerratto-Pargman, Klara Bolander-Laksov, and Cormac McGrath
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AI chatbots have recently fuelled debate regarding education practices in higher education institutions worldwide. Focusing on Generative AI and ChatGPT in particular, our study examines how AI chatbots impact university teachers' assessment practices, exploring teachers' perceptions about how ChatGPT performs in response to home examination prompts in undergraduate contexts. University teachers (n = 24) from four different departments in humanities and social sciences participated in Turing Test-inspired experiments, where they blindly assessed student and ChatGPT-written responses to home examination questions. Additionally, we conducted semi-structured interviews in focus groups with the same teachers examining their reflections about the quality of the texts they assessed. Regarding chatbot-generated texts, we found a passing rate range across the cohort (37.5-85.7%) and a chatbot-written suspicion range (14-23%). Regarding the student-written texts, we identified patterns of downgrading, suggesting that teachers were more critical when grading student-written texts. Drawing on post-phenomenology and mediation theory, we discuss AI chatbots as a potentially disruptive technology in higher education practices.
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- 2024
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85. Are Satisfied Students Simply Happy People in the First Place? The Role of Trait Affect in Student Satisfaction
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Florence T. T. Phua, Gerard H. Dericks, Edmund R. Thompson, and Jürgen Enders
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We propose and test the proposition that innate personality differences in trait affect explain significant variance in student satisfaction. Using three standard measures of trait affect and data from a student sample (n = 409) of PhD candidates across science, social science and humanities in 63 universities from 20 countries, we find that 24% of variance in student satisfaction is accounted for by trait affect. We also find that both discipline studied and research orientation of university have moderating effects on the relationship between trait affect and student satisfaction. Our findings suggest student satisfaction scores need to be viewed with caution because, in part, they merely reflect individual-level trait affect that--like all innate personality traits--academics, university administrators and education ministers alike are powerless to alter. Our findings indicate that governments, universities and other organisations gathering student satisfaction data could usefully adopt measures to control for trait affect. Our findings also raise the possibility that universities might strategically incorporate innate affect in their student selection criteria to game satisfaction ratings.
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- 2024
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86. Causation in Complex Systems Where Human Agency is in Play
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David Byrne
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Conventional approaches to causation in the social sciences draw on approaches in the Philosophy of Science in which a causal force acts on cases and generates change in the form of events. This relies on just one of the Aristotelian conceptions of cause - efficient cause - what brings the effect in to being. We should also pay attention to Final Cause - purpose and Formal cause, what makes something what it is and no other. The somethings are complex far from equilbric socio-ecological systems in which human agency has causal powers. This resonates with the understanding of the nature of effect in the complexity frame of reference as the state of the system both in relation to stability and transformation of kind. Effects are systems states. The argument draws on Hegel's and Dewey's understandings of cause / effect relationships as not separable but intimately interwoven. Effects have continuing reciprocal impacts on causes themselves as in positive feedback in systems. This way of thinking about causation allows us to engage with macro social change. The argument will be illustrated by a discussion of the transformation from industrial to post-industrial character across port city regions in high income countries.
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- 2024
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87. Causal Inferences from Observational Studies in Education Policy: Towards Pragmatic Social Science
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Kenneth A. Frank, Qinyun Lin, and Spiro J. Maroulis
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In the complex world of educational policy, causal inferences will be debated. As we review non-experimental designs in educational policy, we focus on how to clarify and focus the terms of debate. We begin by presenting the potential outcomes/counterfactual framework and then describe approximations to the counterfactual generated from the general linear model, regression discontinuity designs, the propensity to be treated, and instrumental variables. Noting the advantages and limitations of each method, we turn to literature showing that conventional linear models, which can be extended to fixed and random effects models and difference-in-differences designs, are particularly useful when covariates include pre-tests. Recognizing that no technique fully resolves concerns about inferences, we quantify the conditions necessary to invalidate an inference. We review additional considerations including accounting for context, heterogeneous treatment effects, and mediation. Throughout we focus on the role of the researcher in making analytic choices, accentuated in the Quantcrit framework. [This chapter will be published in: "Handbook on Education Policy Research," edited by L. Cohen-Vogel et al., American Educational Research Association.]
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- 2024
88. Narratives of 'Delayed Success': A Life Course Perspective on Understanding Vietnamese International Students' Decisions to Drop out of PhD Programmes
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Hao Phuong Phan
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PhD (non-)completion rates have been considered important criteria with which to evaluate the effectiveness of doctoral programmes and of universities' performance. To date, there has been a lack of qualitative studies on the voices and experiences of funded international students who discontinue doctoral research degrees. This paper uses qualitative methods and six themes of a life course perspective to uncover the 'hidden' experience of international Vietnamese students who dropped out of funded doctoral programmes in social sciences and humanities. Its findings suggest that linked/independent lives and the timing of live themes helped to understand reasons for international doctoral students to drop out, which underline their engagement with research networks, academic identity and familial responsibilities. Meanwhile, the consequences of dropout illustrate the intersections of five themes: linked/independent lives, development risk and projects, the timing of lives/interplay of human lives and historical times, and diversity in life courses. The five themes capture diverse life trajectories and forms of agency developed by PhD non-completers while negotiating social pressures and institutional politics in their home institution as well as their perceptions of well-being and life priorities. Their life trajectories and forms of agency are gendered and culturally specific, with female non-completers being more active in searching for and building back their 'agentic orientations' through learning new skills, entering motherhood or leaving academic institutions. These findings are useful for reflecting on the current supporting structures, especially mental health support, for international doctoral students and supervisor training.
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- 2024
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89. Governing European Educational Research through Ideas? Incremental Ideational Change in the European Union's Framework Programme (1994-2020)
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Marcelo Marques
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The European Union Framework Programme (EUFP) is the most institutionalised form of supranational thematic programming in the world and the centrepiece of European Union research policy. Since 1994, the EUFP has also funded collaborative research projects in the social sciences. Surprisingly, little attention has been paid to its genesis, development, and effects in shaping the development of European science, especially examined by discipline or multidisciplinary fields. The EUFP is thus analysed here through an "instruments-as-institutions" approach that conceptualises the EUFP as an institution. Content analysis of the official documents of each funding cycle (n = 5) and a sample of European-funded educational research projects (n = 122) was analysed in conducting this research. The results show incremental ideational change of the EUFP's guiding ideas: from knowledge as an instrument to knowledge as a resource; within-the-EU to outside-the-EU internationalisation; and cooperation to an integration rationale of Europeanisation from the EUFP4 and EUFP5 (1994-2002) to the EUFP6 onwards (2002-2020). European-funded educational research contents are shaped by such representations of what is expected of European research. If the policy instrument steers European-funded educational research, ideas more than regulatory features significantly--though incrementally--change the direction of European social science.
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- 2024
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90. Curriculum as Invader: Normalising White Place in the Australian Curriculum
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Bryan Smith
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Curriculum, as a policy and way of moving through educational experience, is entwined with an ongoing history of invasion in Australia and similar invader-colonial contexts. As a result of this, the conceptual foundations of curriculum in Australia reproduce colonial epistemologies as normative modes of knowing and consideration. One way of seeing how this is possible and easily reproduced is through a consideration of how renderings and representations of "place" -- the complex entanglements of lands, histories, and identit(y/ies) -- mediate both how (a) invasion can be normalised as a historical, geographic, and political "placial" reality, and (b) students and teachers might experience education in and of place. Indeed, "place" is a central guiding concept in official curriculum policy just as much as place is an experienced curriculum both within the school and in the broader world. In this respect, this paper looks to unpack how the concept of place is represented in curriculum policy and the attendant assumptions and implicit discourses that this (re)produces about the experiences of people in/of invaded place. Through a look at the coming revision to the Humanities and Social Science's learning area of the Australian Curriculum, I look to how the curriculum as policy frames place as synonymous with invader place epistemically and how this mediates what students can know and themselves feel about the embodied experience of learning about/in/of place.
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- 2024
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91. Emerging Trends in Statistics Education
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Gail Burrill and Maxine Pfannkuch
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The rapidly increasing capacity of technology to collect, organize, and manage data has spurred changes in the practice of statistics: new methods of collecting data, large data sets, new forms of data, different ways to visualize and represent data, and recognition of the importance of being able to understand and to communicate data-based arguments and findings from the perspective of data consumers and data producers. Using a narrative review based on Delphi methods, we asked leading members of the statistics education community to describe trends they have observed in the field and to identify interesting and relevant papers related to those trends. We received 24 responses and over 200 suggestions for papers. Our analysis included papers published in journals, book chapters, conference proceedings, handbooks, and curricular documents. We focused on future directions for statistics education research, and thus included articles based on opinion or principles if the arguments made a strong case supported by evidence as to why the idea was needed. From our analysis of 50 papers in this review, we suggest four emerging themes in statistics education research, challenging what should be taught and suggesting new ways of thinking about the teaching and learning of statistics: Data Science, Visibilizing Statistical Concepts, Social Statistics, and New Contexts for Learning. The review focuses on articles from 2017-mid 2022 and highlights the relevance and importance of each theme. Our choice of a particularly important paper for each theme is annotated in the references.
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- 2024
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92. Challenges in Gaining Ethical Approval for Sensitive Digital Social Science Studies
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Charlie Winter and R. V. Gundur
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The swift evolution of digital spaces challenges the established norms of ethical research policy. Ineffective ethical review diminishes researchers' ability to conduct cutting-edge and socially sensitive research, institutions' ability to engage at the forefront of technology, and the relationship between researcher and committee. In criminology and other disciplines that navigate sensitive research, especially when working with ephemeral data in digital field sites, researchers require fast ethical approval turnarounds and ethics committees that can navigate ethical issues that challenge norms of analogue research. Few publications consider the ethical challenges that digital research on topics of criminological interest encounter. This study appraises experiences of ethical review in published studies and draws on a survey of digital criminological researchers who faced rejections and roadblocks from ethical review. We show that, when researchers report a disconnect between their needs and their ethics committees' responses, roadblocks to ethics approval emerge and preclude research, that may be authorized in other comparable research institutions, from proceeding.
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- 2024
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93. Supervisory Feedback: Supervisors' Reasons for Not Giving Timely Feedback
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Marinette Bahtilla
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Timely insightful feedback during the supervision process is crucial to completing a dissertation and acquiring sustainable research skills. Insightful feedback from research supervisors can significantly improve the quality of the dissertation. This study was focused on finding out factors that hinder timely feedback during the supervision process. This study adopted the exploratory case study research design. A qualitative methodology was used. The study participants were 66 research supervisors in the Social Sciences from two universities in Cameroon. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data. The qualitative data collected was analysed thematically. The study found that late feedback during the supervision process is due to heavy workload, poor quality of the dissertation, lack of engagement with the supervisory feedback, late submissions by students, the disparity in research interest, lack of reward and recognition. Implications are given to ensure timely feedback during the supervision process.
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- 2024
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94. Perceptions of Graduate Attribute Development and Application in PhD Graduates from US and NZ Universitiess
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Rachel Spronken-Smith, Kim Brown, and Claire Cameron
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With increasing focus on the outcomes of doctoral education, especially regarding employability, we aimed to explore how PhD graduates from humanities and social sciences (HASS), and science disciplines perceived the development of a holistic set of graduate attributes during their doctoral study and the application of these attributes in the workplace. We analysed 136 survey responses and interviews with 21 PhD graduates from one NZ and two US universities. We found that overall, PhD graduates are satisfied with their development as researchers, but had concerns regarding the development of some transferrable skills and attributes. Graduates from the three universities perceived the application of attributes in the workplace similarly. Comparisons of graduate attribute application to their development revealed the following areas requiring better support: teamwork, communication, project management, entrepreneurship, and networking. While development of affective attributes related to global citizenship was lower than expected, graduates perceived these were not always required in the workplace. Universities should consider how their doctoral training programmes can promote a more holistic development of desirable skills and attributes. We provide a possible categorisation to evaluate attainment of desirable attributes for PhD graduates, to ensure researchers and institutions are targeting key attributes.
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- 2024
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95. Assessing Geography Knowledge in Primary Education with Mental Map Analysis: A Balearic Islands Case Study
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Jaume Binimelis Sebastián, Antoni Ordinas Garau, and Maurici Ruiz Pérez
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The article underscores that the cartographic language used in social science textbooks for primary education in Spain is unsuitable and does not meet the demands of the official syllabus. Consequently, pupil literacy in geography with regard to regional geography is markedly ethnocentric. To demonstrate this, the cartographic content of textbooks is compared to the knowledge pupils have acquired on regional realities towards the end of this education stage. Specifically, certain aspects of mental maps of the Balearic Islands produced by year six primary pupils at twelve Majorcan schools are analysed. Based on this school cartography, a diagnostic exercise is performed on island pupils' literacy in geography in their last year of basic education. The use of spatial analysis tools enables us to conclude that there is low-level intersectionality between academic knowledge (insufficient) and ethnocentric knowledge (majority) - symbolic proof that the educational philosophy at most Spanish schools provides significantly poor learning.
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- 2024
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96. Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Digital Era: An Anthropology of Education Study in Islamic Higher Education Institution
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Hasyim Haddade, Askar Nur, Muhammad Nur Akbar Rasyid, and Abd Raviq R.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the strategy and innovation of the Faculty of Adab and Humanities in developing the quality of education in digital era by using anthropology of education approach. Design/methodology/approach: In accordance with the research purpose to demonstrate the strategy and innovation of the Faculty of Adab and Humanities in developing the quality of education in the digital era using an educational anthropology approach, the method used is descriptive qualitative, which refers to data in the form of interviews obtained from the field. Findings: The results of this research indicate that there are strategies and innovations to develop the quality of higher education at the Faculty of Adab and Humanities in the digital era. These include adjusting the curriculum with the context of the era, implementing the learning process based on research and reinforcing on aspects of digital literacy among students through the innovation of the library based on digital. Originality/value: This study can be considered in the process of evaluating policies related to quality reinforcing strategies and innovations at the Faculty of Adab and Humanities in facing the challenges of the times. The study is only limited to tracing and analyzing strategies and innovations to reinforce education in the Faculty of Adab and Humanities and their impact on human resource development. For further research, it can be done in more detail and depth and on a larger scale.
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- 2024
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97. Preparing for Medical School: How Sociology Helps Premedical Students Prepare for the MCAT and Beyond
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Elizabeth Culatta, Melissa Powell-Williams, and Kim Davies
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Educators have recently highlighted the importance of social science courses for students entering the medical field. This has led to the inclusion of sociological theories and concepts on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), a requirement for any student seeking formal medical training. Using open-ended survey data responses provided by students who recently completed the MCAT, we explore how students perceive that sociology courses prepare them for the MCAT and their lives more generally. We find that students report that their sociology courses introduced them to key concepts and laid a foundation for material assessed on the exam, but those courses could improve by aligning with the MCAT structure by prioritizing application of concepts and critically analyzing case studies. Students also reported that sociology courses helped them develop empathy and inclusivity and use their sociological imaginations, which will ultimately positively impact their careers in the medical field and lives overall.
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- 2024
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98. Differences in Support within the Social Science Graduate Admissions Pipeline
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Michael L. Tidwell and Ellis S. Logan
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand demographic group (race, first-generation college graduate, gender, age) differences among perceived family and faculty social and family financial support within the US graduate school admissions pipeline in the social sciences. Design/methodology/approach Using data from a cross-sectional convenience sample survey (N = 99), this paper looks at ordinal social support variables (faculty member support, family social support and family financial support) by demographic groups. This paper uses a Mann-Whitney U test to compare first-generation status, race and gender and a Kruskal-Wallis H test to compare age groups. Findings: This paper finds that applicants over 27 years old had significantly less faculty support in the graduate admissions pipeline compared to other age groups; differences in faculty support across race were marginally significant (p = 0.057). Regarding family social support, this paper finds first-generation applicants, male applicants and applicants over 27 years old report lower levels of support. Finally, this paper finds first-generation applicants and applicants over 27 years old report lower levels of familial financial support. Originality/value: Previous literature on graduate admissions -- published in this journal (Pieper and Krsmanovic, 2022) and others -- does not consider experiences up to and before applicants hit the "submit" button on graduate applicants, which the authors term the graduate admissions pipeline. Instead, most previous literatures focus on faculty committees and validity of required application materials. Thus, this study begins to answer Posselt and Grodsky's (2017) call to develop an understanding of applicant experiences and support within the graduate admissions pipeline.
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- 2024
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99. Teaching Note - A Survey of Suicide Content in Social Work Programs
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Rebecca G. Mirick
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Although suicide has been identified as a major public health issue in the United States, social work education has not yet clearly determined its role in suicide prevention. There has been a dearth of research on suicide content and education within social work programs, particularly baccalaureate programs. This teaching note presents the result of a cross-sectional survey of social work practice instructors (N=289) from Bachelor of Social Work (46.7%) and Master of Social Work (53.3%) programs. Almost all participants (87.5%) include suicide content in some of their practice courses. Teaching practices about suicide in suicide education are described, including frequency that topics and competencies are taught, factors affecting the inclusion of suicide content in the classroom, and instructors' perceptions of student competence on completion of the course. Implications for social work education are identified, including the need to increase continuing education for practice instructors, and to expand coverage of some topics, such as evidence-based practices, and the role of culture in suicide assessment.
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- 2024
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100. Unpacking Racism among Puerto Rican Scientists: Intersectionality of Colorism, Colonialism, and the Culture of Science
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Lilliam Casillas-Martínez, Mariluz Franco-Ortiz, Rosa Elena Carrasquillo, and Wilson González-Espada
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This mixed-methods study reports the results of a survey completed by a sample of Puerto Rican social and natural scientists (STEM-S) regarding their perceptions of the intersectionalities of racism, colorism, colonialism, and the culture of science. Most participants ranked themselves as light-skinned and were familiar with the racist stereotypes presented in the survey, with female participants reporting hearing racial stereotypes significantly more frequently than males. Dark-skinned Latinx scientists were more likely to experience discriminatory practices in general, in K-12 schools, and at meetings with colleagues or peers. The higher the professional level, the fewer the interactions with coworkers or peers who were darker-skinned. Power differences among lighter and darker-skinned scientists were attributed to systemic and covert racism, discrimination, and the influences of slavery and colonialism. Fostering anti-racist education in K-16 STEM courses, and more Black and Afro-descendant mentors and role models were suggested as ways to challenge racial inequities in STEM-S fields.
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- 2024
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