Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice

Developing Problem Solving Competency for Future Engineers in Medicine

Monikka Mann — 2024-06-12

This paper summarizes five critical aspects of problem-solving competency for engineers in medicine, including the balance of depth and breadth, research capability, ideation skills, teamwork, and communication skills. Furthermore, the paper outlines the imperatives for enhancing undergraduate engineering education to cultivate problem-solving competency. An interdisciplinary approach to education in medical engineering can cultivate students to develop a holistic view of the field and equip them with a broad range of skills for problem-solving.

Bringing the World to a Rural Campus

Michael Fields — 2024-06-12

In July 2021 the United States Department of State and United States Department of Education released a joint statement on the need for higher education to be global. At rural universities across our nation this can be a challenge. One method to globalize the curriculum and experience of students is to utilize the international students studying on your campus. In the fall 2019 this method was used for a cultural mentoring project pairing international MBA students with undergraduate students in an introductory course. This led to student sharing their experiences and cultural exchanges increasing the global and intercultural competence of all the students involved.

Measuring Dropout Intention in College Students: A Systematic Literature Review

Karla Muñoz-Inostroza — 2024-06-12

University dropout is a global challenge, but current instruments often omit key factors, limiting understanding. Our study analyzed dropout intention measurement in university students via systematic review. We selected 6 relevant articles from significant databases. Most instruments have 3-5 factors, reliable dimensions, and are available in English. Though they’re mostly based on theoretical models, these seem underrepresented when examining dimensions and items. This highlights the need for better-grounded instruments, especially in Latin America where they’re scarce.

Course-Embedded Advising for International Students: Opportunities for Engagement Building

Michelle Dennis — 2024-06-12

This pilot involved the implementation of a course-embedded advising model in a graduate level ethics course of a small international university. Online education has been employed to reduce the effects of massification and target resources (Franco et al., 2019; Yann & Ibrahim, 2020) with the aim of increasing assess to education in underserved and developing countries. Online education improves access but access alone does not suffice. Quality in online courses, determined in part by engagement, is one factor that may address inequity of access Adarkwah (2021). Lessons learned and future directions are discussed in the context of Self-Determination Theory.

Strategy to Increase the Effectiveness of Differentiated Learning

Nandang Hidayat — 2024-06-12

Implementing differentiated learning is a challenge for schools that are not yet “Sekolah Penggerak”. This research aims to formulate a strategy to increase the effectiveness of differentiated learning, especially in private junior high schools that implement the "Independent Curriculum" independently. The strategy is formulated based on a structural model between the effectiveness of differentiated learning variables with academic supervision and exogenous organizational culture variables and achievement motivation as an intervening variable. This cross-sectional research was conducted on 182 private junior high school teachers in Cibinong District, Bogor, who were randomly selected proportionally. SmarPLS 3 software was used to help analyze the data. The results of this research conclude that academic supervision, organizational culture, and achievement motivation are important factors in increasing the effectiveness of differentiated learning. Achievement motivation mediates the influence of academic supervision and organizational culture on the effectiveness of differentiated learning. The effectiveness of differentiated learning can be increased by implementing academic supervision strategies and organizational culture that can increase teacher achievement motivation.

The Impact of Using Online Training Internship on Special Education Students at King Khalid University During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Sereen Talal Al Bakri — 2024-06-12

This study aimed to uncover challenges faced by students transitioning from field training to virtual training due to primary school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It also sought to explore the emotions of female students during virtual training and their satisfaction levels. Employing a narrative design within the qualitative method, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews, including individual written interviews and focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the results. The study included 28 first-semester students in the academic year 2021, with 12 participating in individual written interviews and 7 in the focus group. The results revealed numerous challenges stemming from the transition, such as the closure of primary schools, hindering access to specialized teachers, and the difficulty in finding suitable substitutes for teaching children with learning difficulties. Additionally, there was a notable inability to obtain authorization to teach children with learning difficulties remotely.

Blended Learning in Marketing Education: Using Alumni Experiences to Increase Student Motivation

A. Estima — 2024-06-12

During the COVID-19 pandemic, both teachers and students underwent significant adaptation and flexibility in higher education courses. The literature documenting these experiences has grown extensively, with educators highlighting challenges and opportunities in distance learning formats. These reports are crucial to understanding how forced adaptations resulted in more productive activities for students than we had thought of before. These experiences also hold fundamental importance for deriving insights for the future, serving as valuable lessons for colleagues to draw inspiration from and apply them to their disciplines. This article describes an experience developed in an introductory Marketing subject that, due to university directives, adopted a blended learning regime during COVID-19. What started as a problem turned into an opportunity. An alumni engagement activity was devised to enhance student motivation — an undertaking that would have been challenging in an exclusively classroom-based setting. This activity became essential, elevating student motivation, promoting new experiences, facilitating networking, and encouraging collaborative work.

University Administrators, Leadership, and Faculty Views on the Internationalization of Curriculum (A Perspective Through Decolonial Lenses From the Global South)

Alina Pap — 2024-06-25

Using a qualitative single case study approach this paper explores the views of academics which ultimately impact their actions to implement international curriculum within one institutional context in South Africa. The results show that a tailored IoC at an institution situated at the peripheries of the Western world is a policy that advances diversity of thought, decolonization of curriculum content, and appreciation of indigenous cultures and languages. The theory that emerged in this study underscores that IoC is a bottom-up customized policy as it applies to the needs of the students to become wider thinkers and professionally integrated in the intercontinental and global job markets. Further recommendations for future theory and practice suggest IoC as an educational approach that accounts for the geographic positionality of the institution, and all aspects of diversity, rather than for a collective institutional identity.

Sentiment Analysis and Ratings of Professors: A Comparison of Rate-My-Professor and Department Results

Faruk Guder — 2024-06-25

Previous studies employing numeric scores have observed that anonymous postings on the Rate-My-Professor (RMP) site tend to be more negative than ratings within a school. In this study, rather than using numeric evaluations, we compared the official UNIV evaluations with the RMP evaluations at the individual faculty course level, employing sentiment analysis on the text comments in evaluations. We compared positive sentiments in ratings on RMP to those in a specific business school department at a university. Our results show a statistically significant difference, with higher positive ratings at the university. We also analyzed emotions using NRC, finding a significant difference, with RMP having higher levels of negative emotions.

Proactively Addressing New Teacher Retention and Attrition During the Senior Year: A Comprehensive Course Redesign

Robert F. Sumowski — 2024-06-25

After being named a 2022-2023 Georgia Governor’s Teaching Fellow, the author was asked to identify a course or a project that would be the focal point of his work during the year-long series of monthly symposia that constituted the program. The program enabled the author to conduct a comprehensive redesign of a relatively outdated course. The course, entitled EDEX 4334: Teachers as Leaders, was transformed into a relevant, real-world educational experience designed to address the issues of teacher attrition, retention, and burnout using activities designed to enhance the experience of undergraduate Special Education majors at Georgia College & State University. The result was a reimagined course that incorporated components addressing key issues facing new teachers such as navigating the hiring process, resume preparation, rehearsing the interview processes, handling Special Education IEPs and caseloads, managing paraprofessionals, supervisors, and colleagues, honing time management skills, and addressing self-care in order to prevent new teacher attrition and burnout.

Education Management in the Development of Contextual Problems Using Mobile Augmented Reality to Support Mechanical Engineering Students Creativity in Learning Mathematics

Khoerul Umam — 2024-06-12

There are still many mechanical engineering students who are passive in learning activities. The aim of this research is to create Mobile Augmented Reality to provide contextual problems to mechanical engineering students. So, students can imagine and be active in learning. The method used is 4D development (Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate). Apart from that, it uses quantitative research to influence the use of mobile augmented reality. Next is qualitative research to analyze the use of mobile augmented reality. The conclusion of this research states that there is a significant influence on the activeness and creativity of mechanical engineering students after developing and using mobile augmented reality in mathematics learning activities.

Students’ Self-efficacy under the Blended Teaching Model: A Case Study of Huaihua University, China

Ling He — 2024-06-28

Blended teaching is a teaching mode that combines traditional face-to-face teaching and online learning. In recent years, blended teaching has been regarded as an innovative teaching method in China’s higher education, attracting extensive attention from teachers and students. In this paper, based on the characteristics of blended teaching, the self-efficacy of students from Huaihua University in economics and management is investigated under the blended teaching model. A self-efficacy scale is developed from four dimensions, and its reliability and validity are verified. The results show that students are seldom confident in learning economics, and students’ self-efficacy level is low in the blended teaching model. The average level of ability-related factors is the lowest, and most students find economics courses abstract and challenging to understand. After the individual characteristics of the respondents are differentiated, their self-efficacy has significant differences in several dimensions. Specific recommendations are made to improve the quality of teaching and learning by differentiating the needs of different students.