This edition of Innovations in Education and Teaching International considers a range of topics including the effects of feedback, social media, research use in English language teaching, adult returners and for doctoral students the precarity of supervision and usefulness of communities among others. Contributors are from China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Iran, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and South Africa.
In their article, ‘The effects of online peer feedback and epistemic beliefs on students’ argumentation-based learning’, Omid Noroozi and Javad Hatami from Tarbiat Modares University, Iran and Wageningen University, the Netherlands, use pre and post-test argumentative essays and response to feedback to look at whether and how engagement with argumentative feedback helps to improve students’ argumentative essay writing and domain-specific learning. However, contrary to popular assumptions, their findings did not prove any impact of students’ epistemic beliefs on argumentation-based learning.
Kerry Shephard, Kim Brown, Tess Guiney, Lynley Deaker and Gala Hesson of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand look at ‘Exploring the use of social media by community-engaged university people’ exploring the communication devices and processes used during community engagement, with a focus on social media, and in the context of identifying the professional development needs of colleagues within their institution, using interviews and context-generating discussions and workshops. Their data reveals varying degrees of successful targeted use of social media, disappointment in the performance of social media, and confidence in traditional communication approaches. They identify rational decision-making to find workable approaches, in an academic environment supported by skill transfer from private life to work life and discuss the implications for academic development.
Students’ use of mobile learning is a major focus in their article ‘Investigating University students’ intention to use mobile learning management systems in Sweden’ for Asher Irfan Saroia and Shang Gao, Örebro University, Sweden . They used a research model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and nine research hypotheses considering perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, academic relevance, university management support and perceived mobility value, tested with 130 university students in Sweden. Seven of the nine research hypotheses were supported, contributing to the validation of the extended TAM for mobile learning and demonstrating the hypothesised model moderately predicts students’ intention to adopt mobile learning management systems in higher education in Sweden.
Shutao Wang and Demei Zhang from Tsinghua University, and Beijing Normal University, China discuss ’ Student-centred teaching, deep learning and self-reported ability improvement in higher education: Evidence from Mainland China’ considering the benefits of student-centred teaching methods for students’ cognitive and practical improvement and the mediating effect of deep learning on the relationship between them. Using exploratory analysis, they collected data from 976 students in 16 large classes in a university in Mainland China. Results showed student-centred teaching methods positively predicted students’ use of deep learning approaches, self-reported ability improvement in large classes, and a mediating effect on the relationship between the two. This finding supports the effective use of student-centred methods even in large classes, to improve cognitive and practical abilities.
In ’ Integrating research into language teaching: Beliefs and perceptions of university teachers’ Yanjuan Hu, Roeland van der Rijst, et al of Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Leiden University, The Netherlands and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, consider language teaching in the Chinese context using a survey of 152 university teachers regarding beliefs about and actual integration of research in their teaching practice. The institutional aim of improving students’ language proficiency was consistent but while all valued the research integration, teachers from research-intensive universities or with more research experience and time for research were more able to use research in their teaching while for others fixed curricula, heavy teaching tasks, lack of student motivation and difficulties reconciling integration of research into teaching made this more difficult.
John Bostock, Edge Hill University, UK in ‘Exploring in-service trainee teacher expertise and practice: Developing pedagogical content knowledge’ uses a qualitative, longitudinal study of in-service teacher trainee cohorts in two UK HEIs, preparing to teach Law, Construction, Nursing, Hairdressing, Police and Fire service training in the Post-Compulsory sector to explore whether the course fully meets their professional requirements in generic teaching skills and, subject specific skills. The research suggests participants require more subject related pedagogy within generic teacher education.
A variety of disciplines are the focus of ‘Autonomous work and skill learning strategies: Applying problem-based learning: experience of innovation in subjects related to disability’ by Carolina Fernández-Jiménez and colleagues, Campus de Cartuja, Granada, Spain and Faculty of Educational Sciences, Huelva, Spain. They explore the autonomous work strategies used by students studying Social Education, Early Childhood Education and Pedagogy, applying problem-based learning, determining student profiles according to their learning strategies and exploring the relationship between strategies used and the level of achievement using The Autonomous Work Strategies Questionnaire with 239 students. They found that across the board, the use of autonomous learning strategies was associated with better results.
Adult education is a locus for Martina Kotzé and Liezel Massyn from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa in ‘Predictors of academic performance in an adult education degree at a Business School in South Africa’. In South Africa under apartheid, higher education was unavailable to a large segment of the population which explains the high numbers of mature students or ‘adult learners’ over 25. Considering mature learners as differing from their younger colleagues, they explore the role of cognitive abilities and personal competencies in the academic performance of 207 adult education students enrolled in the first year of an undergraduate degree at a Business School and found that for these adult learners cognitive abilities, particularly verbal reasoning, were a more consistent predictor of academic success than personal competencies.
In ‘The rise of non-dissertation track Master’s programmes: An academic literacies approach’ Mostafa Hasrati and Parvaneh Tavakoli, George Brown College, Ontario, Canada and University of Reading, UK look at faculty views on MA TESOL dissertations in five Anglophone countries, drawing on the academic literacies tradition and informed by Bourdieusian concepts of ‘field’,‘habitus’, and ‘symbolic violence’, finding the need for more student intake has affected the presence or absence of the dissertation component in MA TESOL programmes.
Doctoral students are the focus of the next two articles . Margaret J Robertson and Jeanette Fyffe, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia; ask ’What happens to doctoral supervision when university departments have high levels of precarious academic employment?: An Australian case study’. They report on supervision of doctoral studies in Australia and work from grounded theory using interviews to highlight the effects of precarious employment on doctoral supervision in a research-only department of a large Australian university. Their findings indicate that precarious employment presents challenges to the provision of quality supervision and while team supervision mitigates the impact for students, there are career development impacts for short-term contract and postdoctoral researchers.
In their paper ‘Candidate and supervisor experiences of doctoral study in a structured, interdisciplinary training environment’, Margaret Kiley, the ANU Australia, and Douglas P. Halliday, Durham University, UK aim to understand doctoral candidates’ and supervisors’ positive and negative experiences of undertaking a doctorate in a structured interdisciplinary research training environment. Interviews were held with 16 candidates and eight supervisors where most candidates were undertaking a disciplinary focussed doctorate while being active participants in the centre’s doctoral education programme. Findings highlighted three themes that influence positive or negative experiences: the design of the interdisciplinary environment; the critical role of communication; and the qualities of candidates and supervisors deemed important to work effectively in such an environment. They conclude with suggestions that might help develop an effective interdisciplinary research environment for doctoral students.