Editorial

This edition picks up on an earlier theme of doctoral supervision, in this case with a focus on writing. The first of these papers, from Kelly McKenna and Christine Kyser from Colorado, describes a study that looks at providing intensive writing workshops as an aid to international doctoral students. The paper suggests that not only do such workshops improve writing ability, but they also provide other benefits for international students. The second, from Xiujuan Sun and John Trent, of the Education University of Hong Kong, looks more closely at the importance of the supervisor in developing the writing process and the effects of other processes on this relationship.

The third article looks at a different realm – that of assessment. Geraldine O’Neill and Lisa Padden of University College Dublin, look at the possibilities of diversifying assessment in the light of changes in the learning environment and the barriers to doing so. The conclusions suggest that student engagement is heightened with diversified assessment, but that perceived barriers were not necessarily as problematic as opponents suggest.

The next clutch of articles looks at aspects of the learning process. A team from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile introduce a study of using metacognition as a way to introduce active learning with large classes. Their approach is essentially one of problem-based learning aided by a process of: Initial Response, Feedback, New Response, and Peer Review/Self-assessment. Some improvement in critical thinking skills was observed in the study but it is unclear whether this is due to the PBL approach or metacognition. A team from McMaster University look at a wider range of transferable skills in a study looking at the benefits of co-curricular voluntary programmes. They suggest that such programmes are a valuable tool in the development of some transferable skills. On a slightly different tack, a team from Chongqing University of Science and Technology report on a study of approaching curriculum as a design problem. The teaching is increasingly project-based and the study suggests that this be supported by more online materials and improved assessment, as well as strengthening projects and case studies to more accurately represent industrial practice. An international team, from Tehran and Wageningen in the Netherlands, introduce learning analytics into the equation with a, somewhat limited, study of the introduction of this into a constructivist approach. The study was undertaken into an online course, for postgraduate students, on teaching skills. This showed a positive impact on student engagement. Student engagement is also one of the concerns of Samra Bashir and Iqra Hamid, of Islamabad’s Capital University of Science and Technology, in their study of pharmacy students. This is focused largely on the impact of using a ‘flipped classroom’ and suggests that the approach enhanced student learning as well as engagement.

With a slightly different look at the use of technology, Tommaso Agasisti and colleagues at the Politecnico di Milano studied the use of MOOCs for remedial education. The aim, in this case, was to support students who were struggling with a foundation course in Physics. The research suggests that those who completed the online course were likely to score more highly on the subsequent exam.

The important issue of student mental welfare is the focus of our last two papers. A multi-disciplinary, international team, from Germany, Russia and Switzerland explores the use of medical hypnosis as an aid to reducing student anxiety. The study measured students’ test anxiety using the PAF exam anxiety questionnaire and focused on the most anxious, with half of these undertaking hypnosis and half acting as a control group. The group undertaking hypnosis were shewn to have improvement on three of the four test scores, compared with the control group. In the final article, Helen Payne of the University of Hertfordshire puts forward a proprietary approach, devised by her and marketed by her university, as a way of supporting the mental health of university students. She suggests that this more supportive package can help overcome the reluctance of some students to seek mental health advice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bland Tomkinson

Bland Tomkinson is a Visiting Academic at the University of Manchester, having retired from the post of University Adviser on Pedagogic Development in 2009. In the thirty years prior to that he held a number of posts within UMIST and the University of Manchester.