Search results for "Independent study"

Flipping and Blending : An Action Research Project on Improving a Functional Programming Course

2016

This article reports on an action research project on improving a functional programming course by moving toward a practical and flexible study environment—flipped and blended classroom. Teaching the topic of functional programming was found to be troublesome using a traditional lectured course format. The need to increase students’ amount of practice emerged while subsequent challenges relating to students’ independent practical coursework were observed. Particular concerns relating to group work, learning materials, and the attribute of flexibility were investigated during the third action research cycle. The research cycle was analyzed using a qualitative survey on students’ views, teach…

Engineering Students' Experiences in Studying Entrepreneurship

2014

Background Entrepreneurial learning, or the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills, in engineering at the college level has become an important topic. The labor market needs engineers who are prepared to adapt to changing market conditions and enhance innovations that offer new value to customers and society as a whole. An entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are closely related to innovation and creativity as enablers of entrepreneurial actions that are essential to prepare students for a successful professional life. Purpose This study sought to examine how engineering students experience studying entrepreneurship in a course that is based on a socio-constructivist vie…

Speechlessness, anxiety, and confusion in a teacher education student group

2017

The aim of the study was to explore the tensions, as experienced by student teachers, in a teacher education program that is based on psychodynamic theory. Previous research shows that students have had orientation problems in innovative university studies because it involves students having to take steps toward their discomfort zone. It was therefore considered important to study the mismatch or match of the training model and student experiences. The data were gathered through student interviews. The data analysis utilized a case study methodology and proceeded from thematic network analysis toward a deeper interpretation of the data. The analysis shows students struggle to understand the…

Teacher beliefs regarding learning, pedagogy, and the use of technology in higher education

2017

This study examines university teachers’ beliefs about the role of technology in achieving the pedagogical aims of learning within teaching development initiatives at a Finnish university. The initiatives targeted technology adoption in teaching and learning and were enhanced within teacher groups, with support from a university level network program. Thematic interviews were conducted with the members of 11 initiative groups, covering 18 teachers from various disciplines. The qualitative content analysis revealed diverse belief groups. Technology was perceived as a tool for: the promotion of self-paced studying without explicit learning aims; active and interactive learning; integrative le…

Doctoral Education and Doctoral Theses — Changing Assessment Practices

2008

Most European countries are today highly interested in the quality of doctoral education. Undoubtedly, the Bologna Process has also given impetus to a reassessment of national doctoral education systems. There is a need to find comparable indicators measuring the efficiency and quality of doctoral education systems and educational practices alike. At the centre of the doctoral education agenda are not only national research funding systems, research training and doctoral programmes but also issues involving international collaboration and mobility (Enders and de Weert 2004; Tomusk 2006). It is widely accepted that doctoral candidates and doctoral theses make a major contribution to the crea…

Flipping burgers or flipping pages? Student employment and academic attainment in post-Soviet Latvia

2007

Latvian higher education has undergone a dramatic transition since 1991. This study employs a survey of nearly 1000 social science students studying in 13 different institutions in Latvia to consider the impact of the increase in the number of students who are working while studying. Evidence indicates employment has a strong and significant negative impact on school performance, and the negative impact increases as weekly hours worked increase. This manifests itself through reduced class attendance and reduced time spent in independent study. Finally, we find that the probability of student employment is most significantly affected by the availability of financial aid, gender, ethnicity, a…

2017

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of challenges and factors which influence learning efficiency with electronic-portfolios. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989) we analyzed external variables (e.g., computer-anxiety) that influence technology acceptance and the actual system use in form of self-regulated learning. Additionally we included computer related attitudes and correlated them with external variables as well as measures of self-regulated learning. To foster learning efficacy with electronic portfolios the program Microsoft OneNote was used. A group of N = 32 preservice teachers worked on an electronic-port…

Pedagogical experiments with MathCheck in university teaching

2019

MathCheck is a relatively new online tool that gives students feedback on their solutions to elementary university mathematics and theoretical computer science exercises. MathCheck was designed with constructivism learning theory in mind and it differs from other online tools as it checks the solutions step by step and shows a counter-example if the step is incorrect. It has been in student use since the autumn of 2015 and under design-based research from the first online day. The main research questions of this study are the following. 1) How can the usage of MathCheck support the aspects of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency of constructivism learning? 2) How can MathCheck em…

Self‐Directed Learning in Creative Activity : An Ethnographic Study in Technology‐Based Work

2020

Under conditions of rapid changes in working life, there is an urgent need to examine the nature of creativity and learning in organizations. The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of self‐directed learning (SDL) practices in creative activity in technology‐based work. We focus on both individual and collective practices but also on the importance of organizational culture. The data consist of 46 interviews and observational field notes collected from participating organizations. Thematic and ethnographic analyses were utilized as tools to reveal the nature of SDL in creative activity. We found three themes describing of the nature of SDL in creative activity: a combination of …

IDENTIFYING STUDENTS’ WAYS OF LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

2019

The Mathematics study course is one of the core subjects in study programs of Technical Universities. To acquire this course successfully it is necessary to have mathematics background of sufficiently high quality. The authors of this paper recognize the difficulties first year students face due of their insufficient mathematical knowledge.Today, universities emphasize independent study work by students and allocate special time slots for this. To be successful, students need to plan their study time, use appropriate learning methods, and have motivation. Because of the significance of students’ individual work, a questionnaire was developed to research how students plan their time and acti…