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University Faculty's Informal Learning and Professional Reflections: Text Mining for Processing Interviews

Authors :
Kyung Hee Park
He Li
Chang Liu
Source :
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. 2024 16(2):497-509.
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Purpose: As university faculty faced new challenges, such as rapid digital social and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response, this study aimed to identify the daily changes in the interaction between the faculty and the organizational environment (colleague, policy and new issue) by exploring their recent dynamic educational efforts and the professional development. Design/methodology/approach: This is a study wherein perceptions of 20 faculty from 15 universities and colleges were collected through in-depth online interviews. The authors analyzed interview data by arranging and visualizing the analyzed data using network clustering. Further, they applied the Latent Dirichlet allocation of the topic modeling to monitor the appropriate number of clusters, ultimately determined as four clusters using partial clustering. Findings: The results showed that university faculty spontaneously tried to solve the problems through informal learning while the commitment to peer learning was deepening, reflecting the collectivist orientation nature of Chinese culture. Besides, the faculty also required support to reflect on their daily efforts for professional development. These results about their various learning routines prove the justification for the faculty's professional development to be discussed from the "learning by doing" perspective of lifelong learning. Originality/value: This study proved the significance of informal learning for university faculty's professional development and the reasonable value of peer learning, and provided insights into how the Chinese context may influence university faculty's informal learning experience.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2050-7003 and 1758-1184
Volume :
16
Issue :
2
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ1415534
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-09-2022-0292