Professionalization of Educational Leadership for the Members of the Association of African Universities

This study sets out to theorize and conceptualize internal stakeholders’ provision of Educational Leadership for the Members of the Association of African Universities (AAU). It reviews research materials, policies and modalities in developing educational leadership, African Philosophies of Education (APE) and interviews of university academic staff and students in measuring the success of professionalization of educational leadership. The purposive sampling technique of data collection is used to ensure representativeness and qualitative methodology, including the use of document-based content analysis in order to generate valid, reliable and rich data based on interviews with academic staff, administrators and students. The findings of this study will contribute to the deeper understanding of internal stakeholders’ provision of a decolonized Educational Leadership Curriculum (DELC) objective at Postgraduate Diploma, Master’s and Doctorate programmes in Educational Leadership is therefore proposed for African universities. This will enable education leader, schools and School system leaders to play a critical role in having a clear vision, the ability to communicate the vision to team members, the ability to organize in an effective and efficient manner, inspiring subordinates towards the fulfillment of the organization’s goals, and balancing the conflict of interest of all subordinates and stakeholders. The proposed leadership learning programs focus on the actual improvement of schools and the educational systems to achieve equity, diversity, social inclusion, peace, economic growth and prosperity. These leadership programmes will address the challenges of developing human capital and well-being, promoting employment and economic integration, governance, strategic management and democracy in the different African union countries

Learning Patterns of Engineering Students in a Singapore Tertiary Education Context and the Implications for Continuing Education in the Field of Engineering

In 1997, Singapore implemented radical changes to its education curricula to foster deep, self-directed learning which were thought to be important for lifelong learning. The aim of this study was to establish if there was any evidence that Singapore tertiary students, having been through the revised curricula, had indeed developed desirable learning patterns for continuing education. The samples comprised polytechnic Engineering undergraduates from the Year 1 (N=638), Year 2 (N=616) and Year 3 (N=705) cohorts. The study also included a control sample of working adults (Professionals) (N=140) who had returned for continuing education. A mixed methods design was executed with a cross-sectional study using the 100-item English version of Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles, together with semi-structured group interviews. A flexible learning pattern was reported to be common among undergraduates. Besides that, a prove-yourself directed pattern was reported by first and third year students, while a passive-idealistic pattern was indicated by second year students. The other two patterns reported in each group were variations of the reproduction and undirected patterns. The meaning directed and application directed learning patterns were not clearly distinguishable among the undergraduates. Sub-scale scores related to deep processing and self regulation strategies were not significantly higher in the second and third years, while scores for stepwise (surface) processing and external regulation were not lower. There seemed to be insufficient evidence to indicate that the changes in the curricula by the Singapore Ministry of Education and the polytechnic were effective in fostering the desired learning patterns. Among the Professionals, the meaning and application directed learning patterns were more clearly distinguishable. Subscale scores related to the use of knowledge and vocation were significantly higher than for the undergraduates. Working adults appear to have a stronger conception that learning was for the useful application of knowledge, and were clearer in their motives to enhance their vocation through their studies compared with the undergraduates. This suggested that learning patterns could be modified if learning conceptions and motives could be changed. This study has extended the understanding of learning pattern development particularly in a Singapore context, and generally in the wider Asian context. Cultural and educational contexts appear to play a role in influencing students’ learning conceptions and motives which, in turn, shape their learning patterns. Interventions that superficially manipulate the learning environment have limited effect in changing learning patterns. To bring about desired changes, all four domains of a learner – learning conceptions, motives, regulation and processing strategies, need to be addressed. This remains a challenge for institutions of higher learning and has implications for educational policy, curricula design and delivery, instructional approaches, assessments and other factors that impact the learner and the learning environment

Student Access and Success: Issues and Interventions in South African Universities

Low rates of access and success in post-secondary education are arguably the single biggest challenge facing South Africa's public education system. The sustem is failing to meet the educational needs of young people, a growing economy, and a rapidly changing society. Black students, particularly those from poor backgrounds are deeply affected. Senior managers, 30 in all, at 18 of the country's 23 public universities were interviewed to understand issues such as primary academic interventions designed to support and improve student success. The authors conclude that no single intervention is likely to shift student performance and success. The answer, however, will require "understanding the holistic needs of students." The authors also feel it is crucial that the imporatnce of teaching and learning - as well as research- be understood

Lone parents as higher education students

This paper focuses on how the personal experience of lone parents who become students informs their learning and experience of university life. Longitudinal qualitative research with a sample of 79 lone parents studying at a range of UK higher education institutions (HEIs)demonstrates the powerful impact personal experience has upon successful and satisfying higher education completion for this group of learners. The research found personal experience to impact upon university life across a range of causes and effects. Work on the conflicting demands of the family and university as ‘greedy institutions’, each making insatiable claims on individual members’ time and energies, is particularly relevant (Acker, 1980; Edwards, 1993). The paper explores the relevance of lone parents’ wider lives in particular their experience of housing, mental health, social inclusion/isolation, family ties, friendships, employment, on-line social spaces and leisure time

Blended Learning: An Exploration of the Experiences of Lecturers and Students in Post Qualification Nurse Education

Blended learning (BL), defined broadly as a mixture of face-to-face teaching and e-learning, is a concept that has been developed across education. Nurse education has relatively recently adopted this learning mode which has largely arisen as resources have been reduced and the purchasers of education, primarily the National Health Service, require their growing workforce to have increased access to wide professional development opportunities. This can lead to problems as BL in nurse education is largely untested. This study considered the experiences of lecturers and students regarding BL in post qualification nurse education. Understanding lecturers’ and students’ perceptions of this change is important to facilitate a smooth transition and ultimately to ensure that blended learning enhances the learning and teaching experiences. An interpretive, in-depth, qualitative approach in one nursing school setting was adopted. An initial study, with two focus groups to elicit student and lecturer experiences of blended learning in post-qualification education, informed the conduct of the main study and the interview questions. The main study involved semi-structured interviews with three lecturers and ten students, purposively selected as participants. Data were analysed thematically. The findings indicated a lack of understanding of BL. Issues raised included problems with accessing information technology. Lecturers viewed blended learning only in terms of the e-learning site and this site was only used by them as a repository for information; thus for them blended learning was not an interactive concept. In contrast students wanted the interaction creating potential discord between students and lecturers. The reduced sense of community and student isolation were concepts that were also raised by several participants. The study developed a more precise definition of BL and a useful conceptual framework which was informed by the Conversational Framework of Laurillard (2002) and the Community of Inquiry Framework of Garrison and Anderson (2003)

Using podcasts to mediate reflective learning : a case of a postgraduate programme at a higher education institution

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117).Although reflective learning in higher education is increasing, not much research has been conducted on using reflective learning for discursive knowledge production among students whose first language is not English. Discursive knowledge production is the meaning making process initiated when one encounters new information. This implies that students whose first language is not English are less likely to be active discussants and are disadvantaged participants in discursive knowledge production activities. The research question this study sought to answer is: how are podcasts used to mediate reflection among postgraduate students at an institution of higher education? The researcher used Hatton and Smith’s framework to explore and identify the types of reflection that podcast use mediates

Triggering physics lecturers' reflections on the instructional affordance of their use of representations: a design-based study

There is growing awareness in the physics education research community about the importance of using representations in physics teaching and the need for lecturers to reflect on their practice. This research study adopted a design-based research approach in an attempt to design a reliable, valid and practically useful artefact (framework/strategy) that could be used to trigger introductory physics lecturers’ reflections on their instructional use of representations. The artefact, which was instantiated with physics lecturers, comprised an observation protocol, an accompanying definitions key, a communication platform, and an instrument to assess the outcome (the levels of reflection). The video-data of lecturer practice were analysed using a priori codes to generate profiles of teaching practice. The resulting profiles were used to trigger individual video-stimulated reflection. The levels of reflection were assessed using a purpose-designed ‘Expectations of Reflection’ taxonomy. Thereafter a set of design guidelines and design principles were generated to guide further similar design-based educational studies. The process was validated via interview data but, while it was deemed a valid and reliable solution to the research problem, there were varying levels of perceived value of the artefact among the participating lecturers

Investigating how educational technologies can enhance learning experiences by assisting different learning activities

Current educational technology implementations are done independently and not necessarily linked, neither with key elements of the pedagogic model, nor accommodating different learning styles. This work focuses on developing a framework that would standardise the use of assistive technologies in education. In particular, the focus of this work is on how social media, computer-assisted assessment, augmented and mixed reality can be used to improve the learning experience in certain educational contexts. This research study is based on a combination of grounded theory that included a literature review on the following relevant areas, covering key topics that correspond to the dimensions of the proposed framework: i) communication in education; ii) assessment; iii) and feedback. This stage provided a review of the learning activity spectrum that can be affected by educational technologies. The deliverable of this stage was a detailed literature review with distinct links to the action research in the form of specific pilot studies. The following stage provides a discussion on the impact of educational technologies on learning activities. The main deliverable is a review of current technologies with emphasis on how they affect specific learning activities The research also included an element of action research in the form of six pilot studies: i) Google Glass: Student Experience; ii) Google Glass: Presentation Feedback; iii) Google Glass: Feedback on Feedback; iv) Google Glass: Voting System; v) Social Media: Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn; vi) Student Observable Behaviour. The pilots were conducted and analysed in order to provide sufficient evidence supporting the proposed framework guidelines. The framework proposed consists of four dimensions: i) content; ii) communication; iii) assessment; iv) feedback. This framework is a framework of good practice. It can be used to support academics who wishes to deploy educational technologies in support of a range of learning activities. Furthermore, the framework has the flexibility of applying different educational technologies for different scenarios without missing a standardised evaluation criteria