Search

A bachelor's thesis can be characterized as a proof of basic research and a trajectory of academic writing. This study addresses students' ways of experiencing the writing process at the halfway stage, a stage that has been ignored in research. In a phenomenographic interview-study design, semi-structured interviews with 15 nursing students were carried out. A phenomenographic analysis of the data represents an outcome space with four categories of ways of experiencing writing: "A. Structure," "B. Comparison," "C. Shift," and "D. Relation." The categories of ways of experiencing the writing of a bachelor's thesis constitute a range of foci, from solitary writing and assurance of the textual structure to a shared understanding, discussion, and transformation. This study confirms that sharing the preparation of texts in groups at the halfway stage can promote academic and relational skills. Conclusions address the nature of academic writing at the halfway stage and discuss potential pedagogical implications of the transformation from writing for oneself to writing for others, across disciplines and beyond academic levels.

This study investigates parents' lived experiences of having a child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The aim was to explore parents' meaning-making processes in relation to their children's ADHD with a focus on understanding the impact that receiving a diagnosis had on the parents' perceptions of, and ways of managing, their children's challenging behaviours. Drawing on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 parents, we carried out a content analysis of the parents' accounts, producing a range of categories describing different aspects of the parents' meaning-making processes in relation to their child receiving an ADHD diagnosis. Five conceptual categories were identified, describing components of a process of adaptation through which the parents -- using the diagnosis as a tool -- were able to transform feelings of distress over their difficulties in managing their child's challenging behaviours into feelings of being able to cope with these challenges of integrating the ADHD diagnosis into everyday family life. This research suggests that understanding the long-term processes involved in parents' meaning-making of an ADHD diagnosis is important and can open up a pathway to developing initiatives to support parents in dealing with their child's challenging behaviours in everyday life.

The aim of this study was to explore challenging encounters experienced by registered nurses (RN) during their first year in the emergency medical service by using the social learning theory of communities of practice. During the first year in a new professional practice, a new RN experiences a transition during which the new professional identity is being formed. This is a challenging and demanding period of time. According to the learning theory of communities of practice by Lave and Wenger, individuals' learning and development in a new professional practice occurs through participation in social activity and is influenced by context. This study is based on the qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. Thirty-two RNs working in the Swedish emergency medical service were interviewed via telephone during the spring of 2017. A qualitative content analysis with deductive reasoning of the interviews was used. The analysis process generated the main category; "New RNs participation is challenged by unpredictability and uncertainty in practice." The main category was based on three generic categories; "Loneliness in an unpredictable context," "Uncertainty about the team," and "Uncertainty in action." The challenges new RNs encounter during the first year relate to all three dimensions of a community of practice; mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire. The encountered challenges also relate to the EMS context. Taking into account all these aspects when designing support models for RN's professional development may be advantageous for creating positive development for RNs new to the EMS and/or similar practices.

This study investigates the relationship between approaches to studying and course completion in two online preparatory university courses in mathematics and computer programming. The students participating in the two courses are alike in age, gender, and approaches to learning. Four hundred and ninety-three students participating in these courses answered the short version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST). Results show that students demonstrating a deep approach to learning in either course are more likely to complete. In the mathematics course, a combination of deep and strategic approaches correlates positively with course completion. In the programming course, students who demonstrate a surface approach are less likely to complete. These results are in line with the intentions of the course designers, but they also suggest ways to improve these courses. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that ASSIST can be used to evaluate course design.

This combined interview and survey study explored the relationship between interview data and data from an inventory describing engineering students' ratings of their approaches to studying. Using the 18-item Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) students were asked to rate their approaches to studying in relation to particular statements. A subsample of nine first-year engineering students participated in subsequent interviews exploring their experiences of studying and learning. The students' views were examined and interpreted into inventory scores which were compared to the students' actual ratings. The interviews confirmed the scales measured in the inventory and provided illustrations to them. While students who were extreme in either approach were easier to interpret, others provided a good example of the complex combination of approaches that can exhibit itself in one individual. The study illustrates how combined data sets can contribute to achieve a holistic understanding of student learning in its context.

Background: How students go about studying, including the learning activities that students engage in both during and between classes, is not easily understood. Previous research indicates that critical student features, such as approaches to learning and decisions of how to organise studying activities, develop in bidirectional interactions between personal and learning environmental factors. However, attempts to influence students' studying activities in certain directions by manipulating the learning environment often prove unsuccessful. A deeper analysis of the student perspective is needed, since students' subjective perceptions of the learning environment to a great extent will influence their individual ways of going about studying and learning. In particular, we need to clarify which aspects steer students towards focusing on certain studying activities in a particular course context. Purpose: This study aimed at elaborating the student perspective of the process of selection of studying activities. It did this by searching for similarities in references to factors perceived as guiding this process among students representing very different combinations of approaches to learning. Sample, design and methods: Students' approaches to learning were evaluated with the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) in two successive psychology introductory courses (N = 261). A random (N = 5) and a purposive (N = 6) student sample was then selected and interviewed. Seven of the students also took part in follow-up interviews six months later. The qualitative analysis aimed at mapping and extracting similarities in students' perceptions of, and dealing with, the selection of studying activities. Results: Despite considerable differences in students' approaches to learning and reported studying activities, all students interviewed referred to a common set of reference points perceived as guiding their ways of studying, i.e. their perception of (1) previous studying experiences, (2) course recommendations, (3) learning outcomes, (4) assessment demands and (5) time and effort spent on studying. Conclusions: We suggest that students' selection of studying activities may be seen as a process of negotiation based on input from certain reference points. In the course context under study, the "targeting" process resulted in a general "homogenisation" of studying activities and permitted students to feel they were "studying efficiently." Although possible generalisation of the results remains to be investigated, it is suggested that understanding students' perceptions of reference points and general understanding of the targeting process could contribute to a better grasp of how student factors, course contexts and students' perceptions of these, interact.

The aim of the research reported in this paper was to explore students' "journey" towards conceptual understanding during an undergraduate course. The task that medical students face--to learn a substantial quantity of detailed knowledge and integrate into a coherent whole in a limited time frame--is demanding. Seven students were interviewed in a group, and 17 students gave their reflections in writing. Data was gathered from both groups on five separate occasions. The findings suggest that students seek different kinds of understandings as they get to grips with their studies. The forms of understanding were: understanding as "knowing the language", "knowing the map", "knowing the catalogue" and "experiencing an integrated whole". Students first appeared to focus on the first two forms, and later in the course, as they learned more, they focused on the "catalogue" or the "integrated whole". The findings point to potential pathways students might take towards gaining deeper understanding.

This study aimed to explore student teachers' experiences of learning in teacher education, with a focus on how students describe their ways of thinking about their own learning in relation to their future professional role as teachers and how these descriptions relate to emerging cosmopolitan visions for student learning in teacher education. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with a small sample of student teachers at two Swedish universities. Thirty student teachers writing their final exam papers were invited to participate in an interview. Of these, 14 volunteered for audio-recorded, individual interviews exploring the students' experiences of studying and learning. The analysis drew on a conceptual framework developed in research on students' approaches to studying and learning and focused on how students described their experiences of learning in the course of studying, with an emphasis on the ways in which students reflected on their own emergent understandings of knowledge that they believe to be central to the process of becoming a professional teacher. These reflective accounts were subsequently analysed with a focus on the ways in which they connect to current philosophical ideas of cosmopolitan learning in teacher education. While the student teachers did not explicitly link their own understandings of what is involved in becoming a teacher to any cosmopolitan views raised in their teacher education, their ways of thinking about their own emergent professional understanding of teaching revealed a certain reflexive potential that can be linked to ideas of cosmopolitan learning in teacher education. This study contributes to educational research by linking an empirically derived conceptualisation of student learning in higher education to broader philosophical visions of higher education specifically addressing the challenges that teacher education faces in the light of the globalisation of society as a whole.

Recent research on conceptual change has argued that it is insufficient to assume that prior knowledge is the only aspect relevant in order to explain the conceptual change process. In addition, "warm constructs" such as emotions, epistemological beliefs, and values have been proposed to play a determinative role. In this study, we aim to further the understanding of the qualitative aspects of such constructs. By investigating how 20 science students interpret Michael Billig's critical theory of nationalism in written exam papers, we explore how values are involved in university students' meaning making of nationalism. The results indicate that students in different ways bring alternative values, such as togetherness, pride, and personal identity, in their reasoning, and these become a significant aspect of their meaning making in political science. This suggests that the students enter the classroom with their own ideas and principles of what is "good" or "right" when "practicing political science." The study thus provides an example of how conceptual change involves accepting prescriptions of a certain intellectual activity.

The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion on how examinations can be designed to enhance students' learning and increase throughput in terms of the number of students who sit, and pass, the course examination. The context of the study is a basic level political science course on power analysis, which initially suffered from low throughput. The contribution of the article is to demonstrate that no other changes to the course than the introduction of an element of meta-reflection in the take-home examination -- a so-called "reflection exercise" -- helped increase throughput by 70-80%. The aggregated performance of the students was thus significantly enhanced after they were explicitly encouraged to meta-reflect on problems posed in the take-home examination, and on different strategies for tackling these problems. The introduction of another meta-reflection exercise in the mandatory seminars did not "further" increase throughput, but made a qualitative difference in terms of the positive feedback that students received on their work.

Purpose: This study aims to explore and understand first year nursing students' experiences of learning at a clinical education ward. Design/methodology/approach: The setting is a clinical education ward for nursing students at a department of infectious diseases. A qualitative study was carried out exploring students' encounters with patients, supervisors, students and other health care professionals. A total of 19 students were interviewed. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis investigating both the manifest and the latent content. Findings: The most important components in students' learning are mutual relationships and a sense of belongingness. A mutual relationship between the students and the patients is created and becomes the basis of students' learning. Belongingness means the students' experience of being for real a part of the team taking care of the patients. Research limitations/implications: The study, while linked to a particular teaching hospital, offers insights of more general nature by linking the findings to a theory of transformative learning. Originality/value: This study adds a deeper understanding of students' perspectives of significant characteristics to take into account when organizing clinical practice in health care education. Being entrusted and supported by a team of supervisors to take care of patients at a clinical education ward early in the education program provides an experience of internal and external authenticity. The students learn from, with and through the patients, which contributes to meaningful learning, understanding nursing, and professional development. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The study investigates medical students' ways of approaching a medical task. Fourteen medical students in their clinical years responded to a written patient case on chest pain. Variations in the students' responses to the task were analysed from a contextual and linguistic perspective. Students approached the task in two distinctly different ways. Either they treated the task as a problem situated within a purely academic context--listing concepts relevant to the symptom, applying the steps in the diagnostic process only once--or dealt with the task as a problem contextualised within a hypothetical clinical situation--testing alternative meanings of the symptom, elaborating on implications for the patient. It is not students' conceptualisations of medical theory that explain these outcomes but rather how students construct contexts in which these conceptualisations are embedded. The results highlight the importance of being sensitive to what students make of a given task, how their interpretations relate to what was intended by the teacher, the desired outcome of the curriculum, and the influences exercised upon students by the various educational settings confronting them in their studies.

This study aims to provide a greater insight into how formative assessments are experienced and understood by students. Two different formative assessment methods, an individual, written assessment and an oral group assessment, were components of a pathology course within a medical curriculum. In a cohort of 70 students, written accounts were collected from 17 students and group interviews were carried out to explore the students' experiences of these two forms of assessment. All students were engaged in both assessment methods, which were conducted a few weeks apart, and data were collected soon after each assessment. Our findings suggest that formative assessments motivate students to study, make them aware of what they have learned and where they need to study more. Thus, formative assessment can act as a tool for learning, contributing to the process and outcomes of learning. A closer look at students' experiences of each form of assessment reveals interesting differences. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Research on student learning in higher education suggests that threshold concepts within various disciplines have the capacity to transform students' understanding. The present study explores students' understanding in relation to particular threshold concepts in mathematics--integral and limit--and tries to clarify in what sense developing an understanding of those threshold concepts involves a transformation of understanding in relation to ways of thinking in mathematics. Drawing on data collected in interviews with students taking a basic course on calculus the analysis offers an initial characterization of students' understandings as algorithmic. It then proceeds to construct a more fine-grained theoretical account for how these understandings develop in the course of the interview, suggesting that the transformative aspects of threshold concepts may be conceptualized in terms of shifts in students' contextualisations allowing the development of conceptions at different levels of abstraction simultaneously interacting to shape students' awareness of the ways of thinking and practicing in the subject.

The study explores the nature of students' conceptual understanding of calculus. Twenty students of engineering were asked to reflect in writing on the meaning of the concepts of limit and integral. A sub-sample of four students was selected for subsequent interviews, which explored in detail the students' understandings of the two concepts. Intentional analysis of the students' written and oral accounts revealed that the students were expressing their understanding of limit and integral within an "algorithmic context," in which the very "operations" of these concepts were seen as crucial. The students also displayed great confidence in their ability to deal with these concepts. Implications for the development of a conceptual understanding of calculus are discussed, and it is argued that developing understanding within an algorithmic context can be seen as a stepping stone towards a more complete conceptual understanding of calculus. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

Findings are presented from a study of undergraduate students' experiences of understanding in first-year engineering. At the end of their first year of study 86 Swedish students of electrical engineering and computer science were asked to reflect in writing on their experiences of studying and learning. Fifteen of them also took part in interviews which explored in some detail their experiences of understanding in relation to perceived constraints of the teaching-learning environment. The analyses of the students' written accounts and the interview data focused on the students' experiences of studying and of understanding in relation to course work in engineering. The majority of the students reported problematic first-year experiences and testified to a sensation of "falling out of phase" with their studies. This sensation was frequently coupled with a lag in coming to understand course material, which may be characterised in terms of "delayed understanding." The notion of delayed understanding is discussed in relation to ideas about students' perceptions of the learning environment and the impact that those perceptions might have on students' opportunities to reflect on learning material and develop a solid understanding of course material in engineering education. In conclusion, it is suggested that the the notion of delayed understanding captures the complications of a study situation in which a perceived lack of time to reflect on learning material obstructs students' understanding of course material in engineering, and also points up a more general aspect of learning observing that time to reflect on previous experiences is an essential component of the process of coming to understand learning material in a particular educational setting.

Copyright of Högre Utbildning is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)