57,025 research outputs found

    A critical analysis of interpretive research studies in cooperative education and internships

    Get PDF
    Much research in co-op has utilized a quantitative or experimental approach within a positivist paradigm. Here we present a critical analysis of interpretive/qualitative studies in terms of output, diversity, quality, along with an overview of the topics investigated. Our analysis suggests that interpretive work is a substantial part of co-op research output, and that is spans a wide range of programs, disciplines and geographical locations. Similar themes to those investigated by a quantitative approach are investigated by interpretive researchers, but there is emphasis in interpretive work on understanding more details of co-op issues in relation to the educational context

    Why do we teach the way we do? : the relationship between tutors' conceptions of teaching and learning, the design/teaching of their online courses and effecive online teaching principles : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

    Get PDF
    There is an increase in the use of e-learning within tertiary institutions and many courses are moving to online learning as the means to deliver all or part of courses that were previously delivered face-to-face. Online delivery, primarily through the internet, provides new challenges for tutors in delivering courses that demonstrate effective teaching principles. This study researched the perspectives and practice of twelve tutors from three different New Zealand polytechnics via a multiple case study. It investigated how tutors’ conceptions of teaching and learning aligned with the design and teaching of their online courses, and with effective online teaching principles. Enablers and barriers to tutors using effective online teaching principles were also examined. Interaction between students, between tutor and student and between tutor and content were all found to be important conceptions of teaching and learning shared by the participants. It appeared that an understanding of learning theory was related to tutors’ conceptions of teaching and learning aligning with the design of their courses. In addition, this understanding influenced tutors’ use of effective online teaching principles. The research identified that all tutors’ courses aligned with the effective online teaching principles of constructive alignment, the chunking of content and tasks into appropriate sizes, and scaffolding of information. The principles related to student interactivity with content, between students and with the tutor were evidenced on two of the polytechnics’ courses with limited evidence on the third polytechnics’ site. The effective online teaching principles of promoting student ownership of the learning process, and interaction with a larger learning environment was demonstrated on few of the tutors’ online courses in this study. The enablers and barriers experienced by tutors played a key role in the extent to which tutors implemented effective online teaching principles in their courses. Institutional processes related to course design, and tutor professional learning and support played a critical role in providing tutors with the knowledge and time they needed to effectively teach online

    Assessing collaborative learning: big data, analytics and university futures

    Get PDF
    Traditionally, assessment in higher education has focused on the performance of individual students. This focus has been a practical as well as an epistemic one: methods of assessment are constrained by the technology of the day, and in the past they required the completion by individuals under controlled conditions, of set-piece academic exercises. Recent advances in learning analytics, drawing upon vast sets of digitally-stored student activity data, open new practical and epistemic possibilities for assessment and carry the potential to transform higher education. It is becoming practicable to assess the individual and collective performance of team members working on complex projects that closely simulate the professional contexts that graduates will encounter. In addition to academic knowledge this authentic assessment can include a diverse range of personal qualities and dispositions that are key to the computer-supported cooperative working of professionals in the knowledge economy. This paper explores the implications of such opportunities for the purpose and practices of assessment in higher education, as universities adapt their institutional missions to address 21st Century needs. The paper concludes with a strong recommendation for university leaders to deploy analytics to support and evaluate the collaborative learning of students working in realistic contexts

    Indian nurses in Italy: a qualitative study of their professional and social integration

    Get PDF
    AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the lived subjective experiences of immigrant Indian nurses in Italy and specifically their professional and social integration. BACKGROUND: To study the worldwide, nursing flux is a health priority in the globalised world. The growth in migration trends among nurses, not only from Philippines or India, has proliferated in recent years. The research on nurses' mobility for Southern European countries is underexplored, and in Italy, the out-migration flows of Indian nurses were never analysed. DESIGN: Qualitative methodological approach. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were completed with Indian clinical nurses working in Italy for more than one year mainly in private organisations. A purposive sampling technique was used for recruitment. The data were then content-analysed using an inductive method. RESULTS: The findings were categorised into four themes: (1) aspects of professional integration and working experience, (2) intra- and interprofessional relationships and perceptions of the IPASVI Regulatory Nursing Board, (3) initial nursing education and continuous professional development and (4) perceptions of social integration. CONCLUSION: The results show that for Indian nurses in Italy emigration is important to gain opportunities to expand economic and social privileges as well as escape from historical assumptions of stigma associated with nursing work, especially for women. However, these conclusions have to be seen in wider socio-cultural complexities that are at the basis of transnational fluxes (Prescott & Nichter ). RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The research offers an insight into the complicated reasons for Indian nurses out-migration to Italy. Without comprehending the interwoven textures of the political and social relations that are continually constructed and re-constructed among different nations, it is difficult to understand nurses out-migration and consequently have a better and safer collaborative teamwork in the host countries

    Lines-of-inquiry and sources of evidence in work-based research

    Get PDF
    There is synergy between the investigative practices of police detectives and social scientists, including work-based researchers. They both develop lines-of-inquiry and draw on multiple sources of evidence in order to make inferences about people, trends and phenomena. However, the principles associated with lines-of-inquiry and sources of evidence have not so far been examined in relation to work-based research methods, which are often unexplored or ill-defined in the published literature. We explore this gap by examining the various direct and indirect lines-of-inquiry and the main sources of primary and secondary evidence used in work-based research, which is especially relevant because some work-based researchers are also police detectives. Clearer understanding of these intersections will be useful in emerging professional contexts where the work-based researcher, the detective, and the social scientist cohere in the one person and their research project. The case we examined was a Professional Studies programme at a university in Australia, which has many police detectives doing work-based research, and from their experience we conclude there is synergy between work-based research and lines of enquiry. Specifically, in the context of research methods, we identify seven sources of evidence: 1) creative, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews; 2) structured interviews; 3) consensus group methods; 4) surveys; 5) documentation and archives; 6) direct observations and participant observations; and 7) physical or cultural artefacts, and show their methodological features related to data and method type, reliability, validity, and types of analysis, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. This study thereby unpacks and isolates those characteristics of work-based research which are relevant to a growing body of literature related to the messy, co-produced and wicked problems of private companies, government agencies, and non-government organisations and the research methods used to investigate them
    • 

    corecore