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How commencement of a part time study impacts the lives of mature students
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In an ever evolving landscape of higher education, the need to widen access and participation onto higher education courses has become a mainstay of many universities in the United Kingdom (UK). One of the proposed solutions to create additional tuition revenue is to focus strategic marketing initiatives onto part time, non-traditional students. However, research suggests that this student group have differing needs and expectations and if they are to graduate successfully from their programmes, a more purposeful set of support mechanisms must be employed. This study, using the phenomenological concept of Lifeworld, examines individual experiences of nine non-traditional students at a case university. It details their experiences within the first six weeks of their program of study and highlights the importance of a sound induction process, the need for greater empathy and support from instructors and an improved communication system amongst faculty to alleviate anxiety and stress with completing the requirements of the programmes.
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An increased use of blended learning environments in higher education has been an emerging trend in the 21st century. Sometimes the definition of blended learning has been so broad that it makes it hard to find any learning environment in higher education that would not be included. Many research studies have been reporting the pros and cons of blended learning from the university perspective and the learner perspective. There are less studies on the teacher view of blended learning environments. This study had the aim to explore, analyse and discuss teachers' perceived problems and barriers to a successful implementation of blended learning at university level.
The used research strategy was a qualitative cross-sectional study where data has been collected with semi-structured interviews. Six teachers that all are subject matter experts and instructional designers for courses on computer science were interviewed. In a computer assisted thematic analysis found codes and keywords was grouped together to create themes.
Four themes or problematic areas were found, and that they combined could give an explanation to what teachers experience as problems when implementing blended learning environments. First theme is documentation and support, where teachers find the scarcity of documentation in their virtual learning environment a problem for implementing extension modules. Second theme is introduction and training, where teachers find it problematic that they rarely get a proper introduction or further training on the use of tools and modules. Third theme is the time aspect, teachers suffer from the lack of time to implement blended learning thoroughly in their courses. Last found theme is didactics, where teachers do not feel that they have the required knowledge or skills to apply the appropriate instructional design for blended learning environments.
The papers for this special issue were selected from a pool of nearly 700 presentations which were made at the 10th Congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), which was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 12 to 17 July 1998. The congress was hosted by the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES) and held on the campuses of the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town. The papers were selected by the convenors of the conference's standing commissions, which provided a significant focus for the conference proceedings. These commissions were on the following themes: Teachers and teacher education Curriculum - Higher education - Lifelong learning - Language, literacy and basic education - Gender and education Policy - Theory and theory shifts Basic education in Africa Peace and Justice Dependency European Education Policy Research in Africa Culture, Indigenous Knowledge and Learning The papers presented, as the discussion below makes clear, ranged widely in subject matter and theoretical perspective and addressed issues of concern both to individual countries and to regions of the world. While some of the papers use comparison as an approach, it remains a matter of concern that the comparative perspective is so little in evidence. It is hoped that the com parative research approach will be more in evidence in the future.
Growing up Constructivist - Languages and Thoughtful People Unpopular Philosophical Ideas - A History in Quotations Piaget's Constructivist Theory of Knowing The Construction of Concepts Reflection and Abstraction Constructing Agents - The Self and Others On Language, Meaning and Communication The Cybernetic Connection Units, Plurality, and Number To Encourage Students' Conceptual Constructing.
Educational Convergence and Socio-Economic Determinants: a Spatial Analysis from Moroccan Data
Bringing levels of economic development closer together is a major concern for regional policies in Morocco. This problem manifests itself in particular in the existence of a large number of regions with poor school performance. Based on provincial data from the 1994 and 2004 General Population and Housing Census and on the analysis of spatial data, the aim of this work is to analyze the disparities in the Moroccan educational system, and then to show how spatial inequalities in education are conditioned by socio-economic inequalities.