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This systematic literature review (SLR) scrutinizes the trends and interrelationships prevalent in Virtual Reality (VR) applications within educational frameworks, analyzing a comprehensive pool of 43 theses conducted in a Eurasian country. The primary objectives encompass investigating learning-teaching theories, learning domains, design elements, VR typology, and the departments undertaking VR research. Findings from the SLR underscore a significant concentration of VR research activities within technology-oriented departments. The prevalent approach involves experimental assessments of diverse variables within VR learning environments, yet a conspicuous dearth of design-centric investigations is observed. This highlights a critical need for comprehensive studies elucidating the design and developmental processes within VR applications, especially in light of the current characterization of VR research as lacking established standards. Moreover, a noteworthy revelation is the prevalent absence of a robust theoretical framework across the majority of studies. This absence may pose impediments to the widespread adoption of VR within educational paradigms, given the pivotal role of learning-teaching theories in guiding pedagogical processes. Examination of design elements highlights the prominence of realistic experiences, passive observation, mobility, and interaction with the environment. Recognizing the potential impact of diverse design elements on enhancing realism, aligning specific elements with distinct learning domains holds promise for augmenting the immersive quality of VR experiences. This research emphasizes the critical need for more comprehensive, theory-guided, and design-focused VR studies to propel its integration effectively within educational landscapes.

Current research on the academic writing performance of EFL students has identified a number of robust factors. These factors include self-efficacy, metacognition, and a growth mindset. In the area of academic writing performance, however, there is a paucity of research combining these factors into a single study. In light of this, the purpose of this research was to conduct a structural model evaluation to investigate the relationships between self-efficacy, metacognition, a growth mindset, and academic writing performance. In this research, academic writing performance was situated within the context of EFL undergraduate thesis writing. The respondents of this study were 464 Indonesian students majoring in EFL education and literature from Central Java and Papua, Indonesia. In the data collection, an online questionnaire gauging the four variables was distributed. PLS-SEM 23 was used for data analysis. The findings of the structural model evaluation demonstrated that all assumptions established were accepted. The findings also revealed the statistically positive and significant associations among the predicted variables, namely self-efficacy, metacognition, a growth mindset, and academic writing performance. It is recommended that future studies construct a structural model of academic writing components by including other significant variables that may lead to learning differences.

Service-Learning (SL) is a powerful methodology to acquire competences and values in Higher Education. However, there is still no widespread use in Information and Computer Science (ICS) degrees where most of the subjects are focused on the development of theoretical and practical contents purely related to technical competences. In this paper, we show the structure of a SL methodology to develop Bachelor's Thesis: 1) definition of proposals considering all the competencies of the Bachelor's Thesis subject and the needs of entities; 2) development of applications using agile methodologies, and 3) assessment of the SL experience from students, entities and professors. We present an experience developed in the 2019/2020 academic year with two entities devoted to disfavoured people. The results show both the high technical and professional quality of the projects and the high satisfaction of entities and students. We hope that the development of applications with the collaboration of non-profit entities allows the acquisition of both specific and transversal competencies on ICS degrees at the same time enhancing the development of useful professional ones.

Considering the importance of subject retrieval for scientific visibility, and the need to guide authors in self-archiving their papers in institutional repositories of university libraries, this study observed the patterns and strategies used by authors while indexing for keyword assignment. The study examined four categories of analysis: criteria for keyword assignment; use of controlled vocabulary for keyword assignment; understanding of the importance of keywords; and ordering criteria and function of assigned keywords. The study found that, while assigning keywords, authors: consider fundamental concepts for representing significant content of the text; act as domain expert indexers; and are unaware that keyword assignment is an indexing process that requires controlled vocabularies. The research suggests that institutional repositories implement a hybrid information representation and retrieval system to allow for both the representation of more specific subjects of knowledge domains, as well as controlled vocabulary indexing terms.

This essay begins with the premise that Italo Calvino's Memos serve as a fundamentally educational proposition. Each of his lectures can be regarded as a substantive proposal, encouraging a revaluation of our contemporary world through unconventional forms of knowledge, especially considering the challenges posed by the new millennium. The essay's central objective is to further the intellectual movement initiated by Calvino, but with a specific focus on theorizing education. It aims not to simply apply Calvino's principles and insights to education or provide a pedagogical analysis but rather to actively engage with them, fostering educational-philosophical reflections centred around the concept of "lightness", as identified by the Italian writer. Key questions emerge from this exploration: How can "lightness" be considered an educational quality? Can it serve as a valuable guide for navigating the complexities of contemporary education? Can the notion of "lightness" inspire the creation of new pedagogical languages that resist the instrumentalizing tendencies in education? The essay proceeds to elucidate Calvino's primary theses on "lightness" while also examining the potential for a productive dialogue between Calvino and Richard Rorty's ideas on irony, both in public and private dimensions. It illustrates how ironic practices, such as sarcasm, satire, and wit, conveyed through artistic expressions, can embody the essence of "lightness" that Calvino encourages. Ultimately, the essay concludes by reflecting on the pedagogical implications of embracing "lightness" in education, particularly in the affirmative/post-critical and Arendtian sense, as a means of bequeathing a world that genuinely belongs to future generations.

This study comprehensively explores cogenerative dialogue in science education from a sociocultural perspective. Analyzing 120 papers and theses from January 2001 to December 2022 in Korean and English journals, we examine their objectives, themes, methods, learners, educational levels, participants, researcher roles, coteaching connections, and program durations. Our data analysis reveals growing diversity in cogenerative dialogue research objectives and subjects across countries. Consistent patterns emerge regarding researcher roles, participant groups, and program durations. This research offers insights into the evolving cogenerative dialogue landscape in science education, informing future investigations and highlighting trends in this field. The findings presented not only shed light on the current state of research but also provide direction for future investigations, highlighting trends and distinctive features in various facets of cogenerative dialogue-related studies. Specifically, we offer suggestions for the need for research in Korean science education contexts and more broadly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Although questionnaire surveys are widely applied in second-language research, there is still little research on the application of questionnaire among early career researchers. Problems such as the lack of details concerning why the questionnaire survey is adopted, how the questionnaire is constructed, and how the survey is administered and reported are prevalent in student teachers' research proposals or theses, which greatly impairs the quality of their academic work. However, few studies have been conducted to address these problems. This study aims to explore the real situation of the questionnaire survey application by examining student teachers' perceptions of a questionnaire survey and their application of this research method to their theses. Using a mixed-method approach, the study collected quantitative and qualitative data from 138 student teachers, including 103 fresh undergraduates and 35 post-graduates. Quantitative data analysis used descriptive statistics, while qualitative data analysis used semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The study found that: (1) student teachers had some basic but unsystematic perceptions of the questionnaire survey. They had insufficient awareness of the rules of writing good questions, piloting questionnaires, sampling strategies, doing reliability, and validity analysis, etc. (2) Most student teachers developed questionnaires based on existing questionnaires without explaining reasons and adjustments. They introduced questionnaire design in their theses in an incomplete way, with piloting, selecting sample strategies, and statistical analysis methods often missing. Thus, some pedagogical implications can be drawn to improve student teachers' awareness and competencies of the questionnaire survey.

Writing an undergraduate thesis will inevitably encounter various obstacles and problems. A high adversity quotient is needed to complete an undergraduate thesis. Other psychological abilities need to be analyzed in relation to increasing the adversity quotient. The aim of this study is to analyze other factors that affected the adversity quotient in compiling an undergraduate thesis. The cross-sectional design was conducted on 110 students who were preparing their undergraduate thesis. Respondent characteristics (gender), intrinsic motivation, adversity quotient, self-directed learning readiness (SDLR), and anxiety were measured for all respondents. The results of the analysis showed that the adversity quotient was significantly associated with intrinsic motivation, SDLR, and anxiety, but not with gender. The strength of the relationship of all these factors is ranged from very weak to weak. The conclusion of this study is the adversity quotient is one of the individual responses to a certain situation or condition. Correlation between these factors describes that all factors appear in responses to the situation or conditions. However, these factors do not play a role in increasing a person's adversity quotient.

This study analyzed studies done in Turkey in the context of curriculum evaluation (CE) by asking, "How is it made? The study was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the document analysis method used 215 theses written between 1991 and 2020 on CE were analyzed according to the "thesis review form." In the second stage, depth analysis was made through semi-structured interviews with the authors (students) and the field experts (supervisors of the authors) of the theses to make the results of the first stage more understandable. Interviews were conducted with 32 participants. A maximum sampling method was used to determine the participants. The data analysis calculated percentage and frequency values for the data obtained in the first stage. In the second stage, descriptive analysis and content analysis were carried out with the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program. The majority of theses did not employ a CE model as a consequence of the research, and the CIPP model was the most popular CE model. Many of the theses were not justified in using the CE model. Model usage increased as time passed to the present day. Many theses used quantitative models but did not explicitly state the sampling technique. Teachers were mainly used in this research as a source for data gathering, and participant numbers ranged from 10 to 50. Additionally, most studies used questionnaires and interviews as the primary data-gathering tools. All of these findings suggest that CE studies have several flaws.

This study aimed at analyzing the procrastination of IAIN Curup students in completing their thesis and growing responsibility with reality counseling. This study used a mixed methods research design. There were two instruments used in the process. The participants consisted of 46 volunteer students (XIV semester) who experienced procrastination in completing their thesis spread across 6 study programs at IAIN Curup. Data collection instruments were a questionnaire, and an in-depth interview form. The obtained data were analyzed based on three stages of grounded analysis: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The research results revealed that the highest cause was 97.1% anxiety about not being able to complete the thesis on time; 74.3% estimated that it did not match reality; and 62.9% found it difficult to find a supervisor for thesis guidance. In addition, it was found out that completing a thesis takes awareness and responsibility of students and counseling is needed via appropriate steps.

Feedback is necessary for English language Teaching (ELT) students due to their difficulties while writing theses. Presently, limited research has been conducted on students' preferences and perspectives regarding feedback received on the thesis. Many undergraduates extend or discontinue their four-year studies due to thesis advisers' unprecedented expectations, which discourage timely responses to feedback. Therefore, this research examined students' opinions regarding the types of feedback preferred during thesis preparation. This research used a case design and recruited participants from groups of students completing their theses under the supervision of seven doctoral-level advisers. Key findings were that thesis advisers' feedback on students' research projects was insufficiently detailed as opposed to the significant amount anticipated. In this case, the advisers may have been unaware of the amount of significant feedback required on initial and subsequent drafts. Besides, advisors provided more feedback on linguistic than content issues, as opposed to students of undergraduate level due to limited research capacity. The results showed that students are expected to have written and oral feedback in the one-to-one consultation.

Comparative education is very important in terms of addressing the similarities, differences, interactions, and interaction levels of education systems. In comparative education studies the similarities and differences between the education systems implemented by the countries under consideration are investigated and presented within the framework of certain criteria. This study aims to compare Iranian and Turkish special education systems in terms of aims and principles. In the study, a qualitative study based on the document/document analysis method is adopted to compare the special education principles of the two countries. In this study, which focuses on the aims and principles of special education in Turkey and Iran, the data were collected using the relevant laws, regulations, legislation, theses, books, articles, publications, and websites of ministries and institutions. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method in terms of similarities and differences in accordance with document analysis in comparative education. According to the results, Iran and Turkey have a similar general purpose in special education: to prepare the individual for society and the future. The main purpose of special education is to meet the educational needs of individuals with special needs. While the Turkish special education approach is more family-oriented and cares about the child's environment, the Iranian special education approach focuses on the individual in need of special education.

The aim of this research was to determinate the relationship between formative research and the achievement of skills based on undergraduate theses in university higher education, considering three dimensions: student perception in the investigative endeavor, the role of the instructor and the institutional support in the process of building research skills. The methodology corresponds to a quantitative approach, and a survey technique was applied. A 21-item questionnaire card was designed, with a Likert scale that ranged from 1 to 5 for the formative research variable, and 30-item card with a Likert scale from 0 to 4 for the attainment of skills based on the thesis review. The instrument was validated by expert opinion, reaching an average of 85%. The reliability of the questionnaires was 0.92 and 0.95, respectively, according to the Cronbach's alpha method. The population consisted of 1448 theses published in the institutional repository from 2016 to 2020, and the sample was made up of 110 theses from 11 colleges, with a 95% level of confidence. The results indicate that the perception of the achievement of research skills, instructor support during the research process and institutional support are "positive"; likewise, review of the theses reached a "successful" level. It is concluded that there is a direct relationship between formative research and the achievement of competences.

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), all students who are studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree need to complete a piece of independent research in order to gain their "honours" (U.S. "honors") status. As a university faculty we have very specific ideas about the purpose of this research and the positive impact that we hope that it will have upon the U.K. settings (mainly schools and kindergartens) in which it is carried out, which we discuss in this article. Although our approach would appear successful, this judgement has so far been based upon the evidence of the final, summative project alone. Obtaining a small amount of funding from the university for students to act as co-researchers provided the ideal opportunity to explore the topic further by collecting empirical data from students and settings. Because our original plans for data collection were disrupted by COVID-19, we gained responses through an anonymous survey which enabled frank responses from both students and staff in settings. Although the data collected was, overall, encouraging, it did raise some issues for us, as faculty tutors, to consider. These include the way that we convey the importance of students carrying out their projects "independently" (that is, without university supervisor intervention) to settings themselves, and how we ensure that the students collaborate with settings at "all" stages of the project.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to comprehensively investigate the experiences in writing undergraduate theses, the challenges faced, and strategies to alleviate the encountered challenges, of ten EFL student teachers at one higher education institution in Jambi. To collect the data, we employed semi-structured interviews guided by an interview protocol to elicit the participants' responses. The results of the study, through thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), indicated that there are four major themes of challenges in writing an undergraduate thesis, including linguistics and writing knowledge issues, psychological issues, media and resources issues, and supervision and time management issues. To cope with those challenges, the participants employed some strategies, such as self-management strategy, technological help, and help from others. This study suggests EFL student teachers identify issues they struggle with in writing their theses. It is necessary so they could find a helpful way to deal with the challenge.

This mixed-method analysis investigates thesis-writing burnout among 117 Chinese postgraduates, probing the patterns, magnitude, and influencing factors. A measurable burnout trend emerges across thesis-writing stages - Thesis-Writing Proposal (TTP), Thesis-Writing 3-Chapter (TW3C), and Thesis-Writing 5-Chapter (TW5C) - peaking (X=4.41) during TW3C, reflecting heightened exhaustion and cynicism. Notably, burnout varies with demographic attributes, specifically gender and marital status. Concurrently, exhaustion and cynicism levels fluctuate with thesis-writing progression, while professional efficacy gradually escalates. Participants convey a shift from profound exhaustion and cynicism in TTP and TW3C stages to resilience, manageable fatigue, and self-assuredness during TW5C. Predisposing factors encompass uncertainty, anxiety, and advisory attributes, spanning styles, diligence, and personality traits. These aspects, especially autocratic and laissez-faire approaches, exacerbate stress and impact motivation and research methods. These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of academic burnout during thesis-writing among Chinese postgraduates, necessitating stage-specific interventions. Such tailored strategies facilitate burnout prevention, promote thesis completion, and yield profound implications for Chinese conventional postgraduate education. The research also establishes the vital role of advisors in modulating stress levels, underscoring the need for proactive support measures and fostering a conducive academic environment. This study augments understanding of academic burnout, offering valuable insights to counteract its detrimental effects and bolster postgraduate students' academic journey.

In the contemporary milieu of academia and quotidian endeavors, the faculty of critical thinking is recognized as an essential and irreplaceable aptitude for each individual. Over the course of recent decades, the subject of critical thinking has garnered substantial attention across the sphere of higher education, with Chinese students being no exception. The present investigation seeks to elucidate the exigencies evaluation of international Chinese postgraduate students' perceptions pertaining to the incorporation of critical thinking methodologies within research methods coursework, in conjunction with their requisites and expectations for the inculcation of critical thinking proficiencies as an integral constituent of the academic writing curriculum. This empirical inquiry, employing a mixed-methods approach, drew upon the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI) as its primary instrument. A total of 147 Chinese international college master's students voluntarily partook in the study. The resultant data revealed that the understanding of critical thinking abilities among the overseas Chinese postgraduate population was marked by ambiguity and perplexity. Such a phenomenon can be attributed to the influence of the traditional Chinese educational system, which engenders a prevalent indifference towards critical thinking competencies among the majority of the international Chinese postgraduate demographic. To address the exigency of bolstering their scholastic achievements and enhancing their thesis-writing efficacy through more analytical and critical means, the Chinese postgraduate respondents underscored the imperative to amalgamate critical thinking skills into their research methods coursework.

In higher education in the United Kingdom (UK), students from ethnic minorities get lower grades than White students. This study focused on the experiences of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students completing an undergraduate psychology dissertation module. Self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) underpinned this study. A reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) methodology was used. Eleven BAME students engaged in individual interviews about their lived experience when completing an undergraduate psychology dissertation module. Participants spoke about the following five themes: module content, tutor, project, other students, and ethnicity. Participants who wanted to research ethnicity-focused topics had tutors with insufficient understanding of the topic. When interacting with tutors and peers, participants stopped to consider whether their ethnicity would negatively impact how they were perceived. They reported challenges in understanding the material and engaging in academic discussions, and they spoke about inconsistency amongst tutors. Students discussed how locating the relevant information took up time, which was particularly worrying for students with work or family commitments. These findings indicate that universities should diversify their staff and student pool and ensure students have access to supportive and effective tutors. Students should be sufficiently prepared for the dissertation module, and assessment and marking guidance should be communicated clearly to both tutors and students. Furthermore, module materials should capture achievements of minority populations.

Over the last decades, applied linguistics and language teaching/learning have investigated language errors committed by learners for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Initially, error analysis was conducted manually and involved a limited number of corpus. However, computer software advancement has facilitated much larger amounts of data analysis. This study aimed at analyzing the errors identified in undergraduate thesis abstracts written by 28 students of an English Education study program in Jakarta. Data were analyzed using UAM Corpus Tool. The results show that, successively, the types of errors most frequently committed in the corpus are: (1) grammatical errors; (2) phrasing errors; and (3) punctuation errors; while the rarest errors are pragmatic errors and lexical errors. These findings indicate that the students need to improve their mastery of grammatical rules, ability to prevent their first language interference, and skills to use correct punctuation to empower them to write more effective thesis abstracts.

The provision of support has always been central to the role of the undergraduate dissertation (UD) supervisor, but little research has been done on its contextual determinants in web-facilitated contexts. Beyond the general recognition of the importance of institutional support for the development of supervisors' technological and pedagogical knowledge and the importance of technology and pedagogy in maximizing the impact of supervisors' support for students, the effect of technology tools and students' prior skills on the type and level of supervisors' support is not well understood. Drawing partially on the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, the present work uses Partial-Least Square Structural Equation Modelling to examine the effect of supervisors' Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), their perception of students' soft skills, and the technology tools they use (face-to-face, social media or a learning management system) on the level of educational and motivational support they provide. The results indicate that institutional support to UD supervisors positively affects their TPK, which in turn positively affects their educational and motivational support to students. However, supervisors' educational and motivational support is inversely related to their perception of students' soft skills and is also affected by the technological tools used. In short, supervision styles are not static since different contextual factors affect the management of the process of supervision. The implications for UD supervision are discussed, and some recommendations are proposed in the article.

Students completing undergraduate thesis projects rely on supervisory feedback to improve their academic writing and research abilities. Despite its critical role, supervisory feedback on undergraduate theses is under-researched. Adopting a qualitative multiple case-study approach, this study explores how students' motivation for writing the undergraduate thesis and English proficiency might influence their engagement with supervisory feedback. Four students participated in the research through purposive sampling. Multiple sources of data were collected from the focal participants, including stimulated recalls, interviews, and focal students' thesis drafts. The findings suggested that students' motivation for writing their undergraduate thesis and English language proficiency played pivotal roles in the extent and manner of their engagement. Pedagogical implications derived from the findings are discussed to enhance undergraduate thesis supervision quality in the Chinese tertiary context.

The supervision of degree theses is one of several institutional practices in higher education that are regulated by various systems of rules. However, the social roles involved in the practices may still be largely based on interpretation, negotiation and personal choice. Research on supervision has primarily targeted the doctoral level, but the present study targets the Bachelor level. Existing inventories of roles are based on supervisor roles, but the present study also includes student roles. Existing inventories are not always based on empirical data, but the present study uses focus group discussions with supervisors and responses to open-ended questions from a questionnaire to students as a basis for extracting supervisor and student roles. The supervisor and student participants came from two language departments at a Swedish university. The local guidelines relevant to supervision underspecify roles. The findings show a considerable complexity and a broad repertoire when it comes to roles attributed to supervisors as well as students. Some roles may be plotted along a scale, where stakeholders may have different preferences and needs, such as along transactional and interactional types, or between support and management; or between seeing the thesis primarily as a process or a product.

This study explores how master's students perceive their research experiences and interpret the concept of research. Master's education has been regarded as a steppingstone for doctoral study for several decades in many higher education systems; however, the meaning of 'master' has transformed academically and socially. Accordingly, the research requirement in many master's programmes has become flexible or been replaced by other learning outcomes. This raises the question: what meanings do 'thesis' and 'research' have in the context of master's education? In this study, we interviewed 73 master's students from various universities and fields of study in Hong Kong to explore their perceptions of research. The thematic analysis showed that research was interpreted via multiple perspectives among the master's students, such as learning outcomes, learning processes, and separate tasks. Three themes, namely eligibility, accountability, and agency, were identified as key elements of writing a thesis and understanding the research. The interpretations of research varied according to aspects of the students' backgrounds, such as their academic discipline and work experience. Most importantly, research supervision was found to play a central role in shaping the students' perceptions of research. This study suggests how research can be meaningfully integrated into today's master's education.

Purpose: Writing a thesis is a difficult endeavor for undergraduate students, especially in management careers, due to the highly practical approach of the discipline. Students often find difficult to understand and apply research methods in concrete research projects, so a proper set of teaching-learning strategies is critical. This study aimed to examine the effect of these strategies on the academic performance of students in two research seminars in an undergraduate management program in Peru. Design/methodology/approach: The research adopted a mixed approach. The quantitative component included a survey of 249 students in both seminars, while the qualitative one involved only some of the students using three focus groups. The corresponding data analysis included stepwise linear regression models and content analysis. Findings: The study found that a clear course structure, adequate research methods literature, good advisor-student communication and goal planning and achievement were the key determinants of the students' final grades. Originality/value: This research fills a gap in previous studies on the subject by including a broader set of strategies and by statistically estimating the strategies' effects on academic performance.

Previous research has suggested that bachelor's and master's students seem to experience challenges with thesis writing, and the need for support might be greater when studying at a distance. To further develop supportive practices for thesis writing, this study points to a need to acknowledge materialities and spaces as active and necessary components in thesis writing. The study uses a rhizoanalytical approach that offers possibilities to study learning spaces in higher education and to explore the complexities and multiplicities of supporting thesis writing at a distance. Building on an action research project that developed academic writing workshops to support bachelor's and master's students' thesis writing processes, this study explores the academic writing workshops enacted in hybrid learning spaces (e.g. Zoom, Padlet, and Moodle). The study suggests that various hybrid thresholds make a difference in supporting students' thesis writing. The hybrid thresholds produce a closeness to the texts in becoming, suggested to be essential for enacting an effective writing pedagogy at a distance; an embodied distance to peers, calling for building personal relationships through other means than face-to-face interaction; and collaborative-and-individual support through (a)synchronous connections, no matter the students' geographical location. Taken together, the academic writing workshops enacted in hybrid learning spaces can potentially support students' thesis writing, enabling (un)predictable and spontaneous mo(ve)ments across hybrid thresholds and digital platforms that create a closeness to the theses in becoming.

Students seem to encounter various challenges when writing bachelor's and master's theses, indicating a need to support them in their writing processes. In this study, academic writing workshops for students writing bachelor's and master's theses were developed and investigated during three years of a participatory action research project. The study uses a more-than-human approach to students' thesis writing to explore how academic writing workshop practices are produced. Based on diffractive analytical engagements, this study conceptualizes the workshop practices as the enactment of academic writing workshop-ing in the spacetimemattering of the workshops. The workshop-ing recognizes the workshops as active doings with students and writing tutors in social and material realities; workshop-ing is an enacted practice, rather than preexistent or preceding. The study contributes to the existing literature with insights about how different entanglements matter in thesis writing practices and how workshop-ing can become productive in supporting students' thesis writing.

It is widely acknowledged in research that common criteria and aligned standards do not result in consistent assessment of such a complex performance as the final undergraduate thesis. Assessment is determined by examiners' understanding of rubrics and their views on thesis quality. There is still a gap in the research literature about how analytic and holistic judgments are made and how they are integrated in decisions about the final grade. This interview study aims to identify the sources of inconsistency in analytic and holistic assessment. Ten examiners assessed three final undergraduate theses from a primary school teacher education programme at a Swedish university. The analytic assessment focused on two parts: "theoretical framework" and "academic language" style, which revealed inconsistencies in assessment. The analysis of the holistic assessment showed how examiners weighted different dimensions of the thesis and how they made judgements for the final grade awarded. The findings reveal several sources of inconsistency, such as examiners' own constructs, their interpretations and expectations about students' ability to manage academic work. The study calls for further discussion about whether it is possible to make criterion-based assessment reliable.

Purpose: In the Netherlands, thesis assessment quality is a growing concern for the national accreditation organization due to increasing student numbers and supervisor workload. However, the accreditation framework lacks guidance on how to meet quality standards. This study aims to address these issues by sharing our experience, identifying problems and proposing guidelines for quality assurance for a thesis assessment system. Design/methodology/approach: This study has two parts. The first part is a narrative literature review conducted to derive guidelines for thesis assessment based on observations made at four Dutch universities. The second part is a case study conducted in one bachelor's psychology-related program, where the assessment practitioners and the vice program director analyzed the assessment documents based on the guidelines developed from the literature review. Findings: The findings of this study include a list of guidelines based on the four standards. The case study results showed that the program meets most of the guidelines, as it has a comprehensive set of thesis learning outcomes, peer coaching for novice supervisors, clear and complete assessment information and procedures for both examiners and students, and a concise assessment form. Originality/value: This study is original in that it demonstrates how to holistically ensure the quality of thesis assessments by considering the context of the program and paying more attention to validity (e.g. program curriculum and assessment design), transparency (e.g. integrating assessment into the supervision process) and the assessment expertise of teaching staff.

It has been a consensus that growth mindsets, self-efficacy, and metacognition have played their respective roles in academic writing. However, very few previous studies have investigated the contributions of those variables all together in single studies. Thus, the present study aimed to examine the interplay among academic writing growth mindsets, self-efficacy, and metacognition concomitantly as a single study by formulating seven hypotheses. Using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), this quantitative study conveniently involved 464 undergraduate students from several majors, working with undergraduate theses. They were the students from four state universities and two private universities in Central Java and Papua, Indonesia. A valid and reliable questionnaire negotiating academic writing growth mindsets, self-efficacy, and metacognition was copied into the Google form, and the links were distributed to the respondents. Results demonstrated that, in the academic writing context, positive and significant relationships were encountered between growth mindsets and ideation self-efficacy, growth mindsets and convention self-efficacy, growth mindsets and self-regulation self-efficacy, ideation self-efficacy and convention self-efficacy, ideation self-efficacy and self-regulation self-efficacy, convention self-efficacy and self-regulation self-efficacy, and self-regulation self-efficacy and metacognition. Self-regulation self-efficacy mediated the correlation between growth mindsets and metacognition. Future's studies are expected to develop a structural model of academic writing factors by incorporating the other influential variable, e.g. critical thinking skills, because it might contribute to differences in academic writing skills.

Literature reviews provide the literature that illustrates the common knowledge and the researchers' stand in their research. The literature review is designed with suitable organization and framing so the readers can build their knowledge. However, only few studies on the organization and framing of a literature review. Therefore, the researcher wanted to conduct a study on English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) theses. There are two research questions in this research: "How are the literature reviews of the ELESP students' theses organized?" and "How are the literature reviews of the ELESP students' theses framed?" The goal of this research is to explore the organization and framing of the literature review of the ELESP students' theses. This research used content analysis. The data were gathered from thirty theses in education and linguistic fields from batch 2016 to 2018. The instruments to gather the data were two structured observation sheets for the organization and framing. The result shows that for the organization, thirty theses used thematic organization, none of them used chronological organization, and combinations of organization existed. Regarding the framing, some elements, author, year, topic, and result, were always mentioned in every observed thesis.

The purpose of this study is to review the postgraduate theses on science/physics education in Turkey to guide the teaching of the sound concept. Although the theses examined within the scope of this study belong to a certain region, the previous literature shows us that the learning difficulties/misconceptions are generally independent of culture. Thirty-three theses in the database of The Council of Higher Education Thesis Center were analyzed inductively in the semi-systematic review process. For this, the stages of content analyses were used: Elimination and coding, placing them in themes, ensuring reliability and validity were followed respectively. Unit of analyses was conclusions of the theses and suggestions of the theses. In conclusion, both conventional and contemporary approaches have a positive effect on achievement or conceptual change on the sound concept. On the other hand, students and teachers/ candidates, in general, cannot relate their knowledge of sound to daily life, their level of knowledge is inadequate, and they have misconceptions/errors and confusions. It is beneficial to consider this situation in education. The most important output of this study is the lists of possible misconceptions or confusion about the concept of sound. Teachers and researchers can use these lists in their lessons or research. [Note: The page range (257-278) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 257-275.]

Universitas Pembangunan Nasional "Veteran" Jawa Timur (UPNVJT) is a university with state defense education's characters. In practice, those character did not cover the academic field as a whole. Through the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the research carried out the process of internalizing state defense values in thesis writing as a form of character graduates. The research was conducted using a quantitative approach involving stakeholders at UPNJT, namely LP3M and head of department. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) software. The results found that two TPB variables, namely attitudes and subjective norms in the organization, had an influence on the intention in implementing state defense values. The intention in implementing state defense values will influence perceived self-efficacy of state defense values. Meanwhile, the subjective norms of the perpetrators and the perception of behavioral control in accordance with the state defense values have no influence on the intention in implementing the state defense values.

Purpose: Academics are at the forefront of criticisms about so-called "fake news" considered to undermine evidence-based approaches to the understanding of complex social, political, and economic issues. However, universities contribute to the production of fake news through the legitimization of measures that promote student performativity rewarding their academic non-achievements. This conceptual article will seek to illustrate how this can occur via the writing of methodology chapters by postgraduate students. Design/Approach/Methods: This article provides a critical analysis of the writing of methodology chapters in dissertations and theses in postgraduate education in the social sciences. In so doing, it applies the concept of performativity to student learning. Findings: It is argued that the pressures on students to comply with the requirements of emotional performativity in respect to ideology and method in close-up, qualitative research can lead to fake learning. This phenomenon may be exemplified by reference to a number of practices, namely, phony positionality, methodolatry, ethical cleansing, participatory posturing, and symbolic citation. Originality/Value: This article provides an illustration of the concept of student performativity. It demonstrates that emotional performativity plays a significant role in the way in which students are required to comply with expectations that give rise to inauthenticity in learning.

The present case study explores the assessment practice of two examiners from different academic backgrounds on an undergraduate thesis work in mathematics education. Reflection notes and feedback from two instances of a thesis-writing process are interrogated using a framework based on a semiotics perspective to meaning-making. It is shown that the examiners utilize aspects that are 'immediate and non-contested' to successively make accessible that which is 'withdrawn yet to be revealed.' In this process, varied interventional approaches are observed to support desirable aspects of teacher professional knowledge including critical-analytical disposition. The study also highlights knowledge integration for teaching, scientific disposition, collaboration, and knowledge transformation as some of the desirable aspects of teacher professional knowledge. The findings indicate that knowledge integration and transformation remain an issue of concern for pre-service teachers. This raises the question of how desirable traits for a teacher-as-a researcher can be promoted within the context of thesis work.

Despite numerous previous studies that investigated the adoption of photovoice as the method to capture both students' and teachers' past experiences in qualitative research and educational settings, more needs to be done to explore how student-teachers voice their learning experience (e.g., beliefs, emotions, values or perceptions) and, in particular, online thesis examination experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. To extend this scholarship, this phenomenological case study reports how student-teachers articulated their critical incidents while enacting an online thesis examination in a higher education context using the under-utilized data collection method of photovoice. Out of sixteen student teachers who took part in an online thesis examination, three student-teachers were recruited as the participants in this study. Findings reveal a visual illustration of the experiences and provide insight and understanding of this phenomenon. This study demonstrates that teacher educators, curriculum developers, and faculty members should recognize students' feelings during an online thesis examination to provide a more responsive experience.

Students' Arabic thesis writing comprises several grammatical errors of different types. This study aimed to find out: (1) errors in writing Arabic phrases on students of the Arabic Language Education Master's Program at universities of Indonesia, and (2) factors that caused these writing errors. This research sued a qualitative research design, with the library research approach and Error Analysis techniques. The primary data comprised errors in the application of Arabic phrases from 110 student theses at three universities from 2019 to 2021. The results of this study included: (1) students' Arabic theses writing errors can be classified in four phrases, namely: murakkab ismiy (nominal phrase) of 24%, murakkab fi'liy (verbal phrase) of 28%, tarkib i?afiy (Combination of Nouns) of 26%, tarkib wa?fiy (adjective phrase) of 22%; (2) two factors caused these errors, namely: (a) language input errors, inaccuracy, and translation from an electronic dictionary without correction; (b) error caused by not heeding grammar rules, not practicing nahwu correctly, and not studying seriously the Arabic grammar. The study recommends that students should revalidate their writings and avoid copy-paste writing techniques, and lecturers should check students' writing according to grammar, especially phrases by reviewing seriously.

The study aimed to determine the difficulties and challenges experienced by the Library and Information Science students from Bulacan State University, Philippines, during the Pandemic. The respondents of the study are 92 students from the first batch of graduates. The study was done in the 2nd Semester of S.Y. 2020-2021. The study utilized a mixed-methods type of research. A validated survey questionnaire was sent to the respective students via messenger, and a focus group discussion was implemented via google meet. Descriptive statistical tools like frequency, percentage, and weighted mean were utilized. For the qualitative data, thematic analysis was applied. The study's results regarding the personal factors difficulties stated that all the respondents found difficulty in deciding the title of their thesis. Regarding socio-cultural, they are neutral; perhaps these students knew how to socialize with others. The linguistic indicators were found to have a low weighted mean. In terms of the challenges experienced by students, a lot of issues were raised. Furthermore, recommendations were submitted to the administrators to address further the problems.

This research used Novakian concept mapping and interview techniques to track changes in knowledge and understanding amongst students and their supervisors in the course of full-time research towards a laboratory science-based PhD. This detailed longitudinal case study analysis measures both cognitive change in the specific subjects that are the topic for research, and the understanding of the process of PhD level research and supervision. The data show the challenges for students and supervisors from different national, ethnic, cultural, and academic backgrounds and traditions with a focus on how this impacts the PhD research process and development. Working cross-culturally, and often in a setting different from either the student or the supervisor's background and training, can lead to a lack of common language and understanding for the development of a pedagogically oriented supervisory relationship. Documenting change in knowledge and understanding among PhD students and their supervisors is key to surfacing what the joint processes of mutual democratic research and of supervision may entail. This study explores how one of these key processes is a student's developing sense of belonging (or non-belonging). Specifically, this paper engages the concepts of belonging, and democratic education through mutual learning, to explore the practices of working across national, cultural, ethnic, and diverse academic backgrounds, for both supervisors and students. Doctoral study is understood as a situated context in which belonging also acts as a gateway for who can join the global scientific community.

Writing a thesis is often the culminating experience for undergraduate students enrolled in university honors programs in the United States. Because writing a thesis is one of the most difficult academic tasks that an undergraduate student may undertake, it requires a high level of self-efficacy, or belief in one's capabilities to achieve certain results (Bandura 1997). However, the factors that contribute to students' efficacy expectations when writing a thesis are not fully understood. This qualitative study followed 11 honors students over the course of several months in order to understand their experiences as they completed their theses. Data was gathered through a series of four questionnaires and two interviews. Analysis revealed six themes: previous research experiences, emotions, project timelines, structure, advisors, and support networks. These themes suggest that students' abilities to manage their emotions and employ self-regulatory strategies play a critical role in their self-assessments of efficacy during work on challenging academic tasks, findings which have implications for a variety of academic programs and campus support services. In addition, this study reveals that faculty mentoring of undergraduate students may require greater attention to cultivating emotional awareness and regulation than does the mentoring of graduate students.

The researchers have asserted thesis writing's important role and demanding nature for EFL postgraduate students. However, the experience of writing an EFL postgraduate thesis in non-native English-speaking contexts has been relatively neglected. Besides, most of the previous studies have been confined to genre analysis or text-based interpretation. The available literature indicates a need to explore the process of writing a thesis from the writers' perspective. The current research aims to explore what EFL postgraduate students experience when writing a thesis at a university in northeastern Thailand. Fifteen EFL graduate students from eight disciplines participated in the study. First-hand accounts were collected through written narratives and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The thematic analysis finds that the practice of thesis writing, challenges & strategies, and emotions contributed to the students' perceptions of the experience. EFL postgraduate thesis writing is more than writing itself. It is also a site for the students to develop scholarly identity and exercise agency. The students encountered linguistic, personal, and social challenges. Despite the challenges and emotional ups and downs along the journey, the students learn to handle the writing practice and strive toward the desired acceptance as newly emergent members in academia.

The relationship between foreign language anxiety (FLA) and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' performance is constantly being examined through experimental and theoretical studies. The aim of this study is to examine the association between FLA and EFL performance through meta-analysis. As a result of an extensive literature review, 69 studies from fourteen countries (N= 23.150) were identified as eligible to be included in the analysis process. The overall correlation between FLA and EFL performance was calculated as - 0.61. In terms of moderator variables, the results revealed that while grade level and country in which studies were conducted did not have an effect on the association between FLA and EFL performance, type of anxiety was found to have a moderator effect. It was observed that listening, test, speaking, reading, and writing anxiety affected EFL learning performance respectively from the most to the least. Finally, publication year and sample size were found to have a significant effect on the association between FLA and EFL performance through meta-regression analysis. Based on the findings, it is concluded that in order to increase EFL learners' performances, their foreign language anxiety should be decreased.

The individual's learning process begins with birth and continues with discoveries in the living spaces. The curiosity-driven learning process is the basis of cognitive development, and nowadays, much research is being done to understand this development field. Determining the focal point of research on cognitive development in preschool in Turkey has shed light on the work to be done later. This study consists of theses and articles written in development and education related to the field of cognitive development in children aged 3-6. The study consists of 53 studies chosen randomly from the scientific research published between the years 2008-2018 within the field of cognitive development in 3-6 aged children. The keywords of "cognitive development, mental development, cognition" were applied while searching through the Higher Education Council Theses Center and The Turkish Academic Network and Information Center (ULAKBIM). Twenty-four theses that have been in Higher Education Council Theses Center and 29 articles in The Turkish Academic Network and Information Center (ULAKBIM) were reviewed using content analysis through a form that includes subject areas, data collection tools used in the research, data analysis methods, references, and sample characteristics. In this study, it was found that academic studies of early childhood were focused on 60-72 months. It has been observed that there has been an increase in the number of studies conducted on children aged 0-2 years. The increase in the number of new academic studies on this period, which is critical for brain development, will also prepare a strong ground for understanding and developing the later stages of early childhood.

Research is a requisite for most of the undergraduate honors degrees offered by universities worldwide and these undergraduates are expected to submit a dissertation based on their research. Given the new demands of this independent component of learning, it is important to understand the challenges faced by students and the strategies that they employ in successfully navigating the various components of this process. This knowledge is useful to mentors and course developers as it provides insights about the firsthand experience of the students. The present study used a qualitative research design to investigate the research experience of a purposive sample of undergraduates who completed their Bachelor of Arts Honors in English and English Language Teaching in an open and distance university in Sri Lanka in the academic year 2017/2018. The responses from 12 undergraduates in the form of written stories were coded and analyzed thematically. The study revealed areas which need attention by mentors, faculty, and universities, especially those in open and distance contexts, when providing support to novice researchers.

In this research, the purpose is to develop a systematic perspective on the research on citizenship education within the scope of social studies field, to reveal the tendency of the studies, and to reach a synthesis in this direction. Meta-synthesis method was used for this purpose. Researches on "citizenship" were collected and reviewed according to certain criteria, and then the reading process was repeated in order to identify the relationships between the researches, similar, different aspects were identified by using perspective-based continuous comparison, and a synthesis has been reached based on the obtained findings. The researches were obtained from National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education and Ulakbim TRDizin. During the analysis of the data process, thematic synthesis and descriptive analysis were utilized. Three main themes were reached: citizenship types/approaches, citizenship perception, and components of citizenship education. Citizenship types/approaches are addressed as spatial, environmentally responsible, effective/effectual/active citizenship, global and digital citizenship. In the context of citizenship perception, it is seen that the subjects of meaning attributed to citizenship, citizenship awareness/identity construction, good/ideal citizen, patriotism are taken as a basis. Under the main theme of components of citizenship education, three sub-themes were generated: basic elements in citizenship education, approaches in citizenship education, and problems in citizenship education. It can be suggested to examine the factors that cause the formation of nationalist and socialist citizenship perception, which is frequently encountered in the studies examined. In addition, comparative studies can be carried out by expanding the databases.

Purpose: Assessment rubric often lacks rigor and is underutilized. This article reports the effectiveness of the use of several assessment rubrics for a research writing course. In particular, we examined students' perceived and observed changes in their Chapter One thesis writing as assessed by supervisors using an existing departmental rubric and a new task-specific rubric. Methodology: Using action research methodology, two of the authors played active roles as course supervisors, i.e. practitioners. Two final year undergraduate students from a communication department (one from each supervisor) participated by writing three drafts of Chapter One of their research: (1) without a rubric, (2) with an existing departmental rubric, and (3) with a revised rubric. We collected data on the students' drafts, students' interviews and the supervisors' reflections over the course of four months. We employed content analysis to evaluate the students' writing, and thematic analysis to analyze the students' semi-structured interviews and the supervisors' reflections. Findings: The findings suggest substantial improvements between the three drafts of the students' writing. Each student-supervisor pair acknowledged improvements in the students' writing after the introduction of the departmental rubric. With the newly revised rubric, they noted additional as well as specific improvements especially in the scope of literature searches, problem statements, formulation of research questions, and operational definitions of variables. Generally, they also indicated improvements in the clarity of writing by way of examples and relevant explanations tailored to the research topics. Significance: With effective scaffolding in supervision, students will regulate their learning and assess the quality of their own research report writing. We demonstrated the importance and benefits of a properly designed and validated rubric tailored to the programme and course objectives to help students improve their drafts. Collective collaboration and input-sharing from faculty and instructors in developing and improving a rubric specific to the course and programme objectives will produce quality assignments, provide constructive learning experience for students, and achieve better grading for the programme and department.

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is a student-centered strategy within the constructivist learning approach. This strategy is an important approach that makes students active inside and outside the classroom, and enables students to work in groups, conduct research, present their research, and increase their academic success. When the literature is reviewed, there are many studies that show that IBL increases the academic success of students. The aim of this study is to make the meta-analysis of articles and theses carried out in Turkey between the dates of 01.01.2000 and 01.03.2020 that investigate the impact of IBL on the academic achievement. In this study, meta-analysis method was used to determine the effects of IBL on students' academic achievement based on grade levels and publication types. The studies evaluated within the scope of this study were created by using the databases of Google Scholar and the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education. To this end, 30 studies were selected in accordance with year, method, data, and publication type criteria. In this study, the thesis and article evaluation form developed by the researchers was used as the main means of data collection. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) program was used to analyze the data. According to the results of this study, it is concluded that IBL significantly increases the academic achievement and the effect sizes are meaningful when grade levels are compared. That is, IBL at high school level is more effective than other educational levels, and when the effect sizes are examined, there are no significant differences based on the types of publication (i.e., articles and theses).

Librarians play a key role in the understanding, retrieval, and assessment of gray literature (also spelled "grey literature") as it pertains to evidence-based clinical practice, particularly nursing. With the rise of evidence-based research and curriculum-specific requirements in advanced nursing programs, gray literature instruction has become a necessity rather than a nicety. References to gray literature are not restricted to structured literature reviews but serve broader purposes within evidence-based nursing, which aims to use the best available evidence to make informed decisions about patient care. Given the vast landscape and varied types of gray literature, identifying resources specific to nursing and quantifying their role in evidence-based nursing are challenging. Citation analysis can be used to identify types of gray literature types commonly found in nursing studies. This article seeks to establish the need for gray literature instruction in nursing curricula.