Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of Burnout Among Graduate Students In Health Professional Programs, Svanhild B. Hansen, Thomas Virden

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Objective: To measure the level of burnout among graduate students in health professional programs. A comparative analysis was used to explore differences in burnout scores among the participating programs.

Methods: The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) was distributed to students at two Universities with a focus on health professional educations. We assessed for demographics such as gender differences, and added an additional scale aimed at measuring school-related burnout.

Results: Burnout and program dissatisfaction were positively correlated. Students in their third year reported the highest burnout scores, with the pharmacy program reporting the highest scores of burnout across all the programs participating. …

Educators’ Use And Views Of Simulations As Teaching Tools Within A Discipline: The Example Of Hospitality And Tourism, Cynthia S. Deale, Stephanie Bae, Seung-Hyun Lee

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning study investigated hospitality faculty members’ perceptions and use of industry-related simulations in hospitality and tourism education to help the authors understand how simulations are and can be used as educational tools. Using learning engagement theory as a framework, respondents to a survey perceived that simulations help students develop decision-making skills, increase problem-solving skills, integrate knowledge from other classes, learn to work with others, and link theory to practice, and noted that simulations are fun to use. A significant positive relationship was found between the number of semesters educators have used simulations and their satisfaction …

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …

Academic Goal Orientation: New Insights And Cultural Adaptation Of Academic Goal Orientation Questionnaire Into The Turkish Language, Fuat Findikoglu, Mehmet Gurol

Georgia Educational Researcher

This study aims to review and provide new perspectives for academic goal orientation. The study introduces first chronological history of goal orientation and depicts how goal orientation evolved into a new construct in learning from the discussion on motivational factors. At first, this study isolates goal orientation from motivation and provides novel insights into goal orientation as a separated factor affecting learning. Then, this study provides analyses of the adaptation work of the academic goal orientation questionnaire into the Turkish language. The translated scale was applied to a sample of 729 undergraduate students, 376 (51.6%) of which were female and …

Enhancing Academic Self-Efficacy And Performance Among Fourth Year Psychology Students: Findings From A Short Educational Intervention, Alexis R. Foulstone, Adrian Kelly

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Academic self-efficacy is the degree to which students believe they are capable of learning or accomplishing an academic task within a specific area of education. High academic self-efficacy has been associated with positive education outcomes such as enhanced learning, motivation, self-determination, and ultimately academic performance. The current study designed, implemented and evaluated an educational intervention to enhance the academic self-efficacy and performance of 21 psychology students enrolled in a group supervised Honours course, the outcome being a thesis dissertation. Students completed pre-intervention surveys in class half way through the course and then another survey after the 8-week intervention. Measures of …

Learning Preferences Instead Of Learning Styles: A Case Study Of Hospitality Management Students’ Perceptions Of How They Learn Best And Implications For Teaching And Learning, Cynthia S. Deale

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) study focused on understanding more about how hospitality and tourism students prefer to learn and considers the implications that these preferences have for teaching methods. The case is made that learning preferences matter even though critics indicate that there is no evidence for the use of learning styles. Perceptions of students’ learning preferences were gathered from students in six face-to-face undergraduate hospitality and tourism classes at a university in the southeastern United States. In accordance with previous research, hospitality students in this sample tended to prefer active learning opportunities. Implications, suggestions for teaching …

Layers Of Estrangement: Social-Emotional And Educational Implications Of Homelessness On K–12 Students, Rajni Shankar-Brown

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Journal

This qualitative case study examines and illuminates the social-emotional and educational experiences of children ages 5 to 18 residing in an urban, family emergency housing shelter located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Data were collected and triangulated through participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Findings revealed deep educational estrangement and adverse impacts on the social-emotional development of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The study suggests an urgent need to provide high-quality educational preparation to public school administrators and teachers working with children living in poverty and experiencing homelessness in the U.S. With persistent and rising child …

Learning Outcomes In An Online Vs Traditional Course, Steven Stack Dr.

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Relative enrollment in online classes has tripled over the last ten years, but the efficacy of learning online remains unclear. While two recent Meta analyses report higher exam grades for online vs. traditional classes, this body of research has been marked by two recurrent limitations: (1) a possible problem of selection bias wherein students self select the mode of course delivery and (2) a relative lack of proctoring of exams in online sections. Both of these confounders contribute to observed differences in performance. The present study addresses these limitations. Data refer to 64 students enrolled in criminology classes at a …

Building Connections Through Contextualized Learning In An Undergraduate Course On Scientific And Mathematical Literacy, Melanie K. Rathburn

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

With increasing demands for universities to create graduates that are numerically and scientifically literate, it is important to determine effective ways to engage students so that they can acquire these literacies. Using an undergraduate, interdisciplinary course that focused on scientific and mathematical literacy, I examined how contextualization influenced students’ abilities to build connections between their learning and their lives. In their written reflections, students connected course concepts with their social lives, academic pursuits and global or societal issues without specific prompting. I suggest that contextualization combined with reflection allows students to illustrate their understanding and apply this knowledge to novel …

A Sense Of Belonging: How Student Feelings Correlate With Learning About Race, Cyndi Kernahan, Wei Zheng, Tricia Davis

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Learning about race and racism can be a difficult process. Previous work has shown that courses in this area can help to increase awareness of racial bias and discrimination, but less work has focused on how that change occurs. We hypothesized that feelings of belonging within the classroom could correlate with student learning and our results indeed showed a strong correlation among these factors. Across three courses, all focused on race and diversity, feelings of belonging predicted not only perceptions of learning, but also graded forms of learning and increases in racial awareness. Results are discussed in terms of the …

From ‘Sage On The Stage’ To ‘Guide On The Side’: A Good Start, Charles D. Morrison

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

While the now-clichéd shift from ‘sage on the stage’ to ‘guide on the side’ that characterizes the changing role of teachers is a good start, it is just that – a start. In this paper, I argue for a detailed look at the concomitant shift in the role of students, as they leave the world of passive recipients and join the ranks of active participants in the teaching-learning nexus. The paper discusses the problematic conflation of the terms ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ that surfaces in consideration of the shifting roles of teachers and students, and argues that, in addition to defining …

Challenging The Academically Adrift: A New Decision-Making Tool To Help Improve Student Commitment To Academic Preparation, Carolyn D. Davis

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This paper describes research in progress concerning the development and use of a newly created tool, the Decision-Making Grid, which was designed to teach undergraduate management students to develop and use metacognitive regulation skills to improve decision-making by requiring students to construct improved decision-making models in a boundedly rational manner. When students are required to use the metacognitive skills of planning, monitoring and evaluating focused on important and relevant decision-criteria, students are better positioned to commit to appropriate academic preparation.

The null hypothesis proposing that there would be no variance in means in the measure of commitment to academic preparation …

Student Preferences For Live Versus Virtual Rats In A Learning Course, Mirari Elcoro, Melissa Trundle

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

We examined the preference of undergraduate students for a live or a virtual rat when learning about concepts of operant conditioning. Students were provided with the opportunity to directly compare a virtual and a live rat in a supplemental exercise for Learning courses. We argue that the design of teaching exercises should involve a systematic examination of student preferences between different available techniques. In general, students preferred a live rat over a virtual rat when learning concepts in operant conditioning, specifically a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement. Students also listed advantages and disadvantages of using a virtual rat versus a live …

Students Who Aren't Prepared For College Find Less Value In Books And Lecture Than Students Who Are Prepared, Jeffrey B. Henriques, Lyrissa I. Kusse

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Students in three sections of introductory psychology, N = 1051, were asked about the utility of traditional, e.g. instructor, lectures and textbook, and nontraditional, e.g., clickers, podcasts and online lecture slides, teaching tools. Students who felt unprepared for college (25.9%) differed from their peers in their perceived utility of these tools. Both groups of students reported that novel teaching tools were less helpful than traditional teaching tools and while there was no group difference in the perceived usefulness of the novel tools, underprepared students found traditional teaching tools to be less helpful than did prepared students. When the individual tools …

Sotl As Women's Work: What Do Existing Data Tell Us?, Kathleen Mckinney, Nancy L. Chick

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

In this essay on the field of SoTL, we report on an exploratory, descriptive study of the levels of participation of men and women in various types of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) activities. Drawing on 25 national and international sources of existing data on sex and involvement in SoTL, we find the following patterns: women are over-represented, relative to the numbers of men and women faculty/academic staff in higher education, in both self-selected with other approval or confirmation’ activities. The involvement of women and men was more representative to their numbers for activities in the ‘primarily invited, awarded, …

Correlates Of Success In The Sociology Major, Kathleen Mckinney

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

My focus in this exploratory study is on factors related to success in the sociology major. One hundred, fourteen graduating majors from a mid-sized, public university completed a self-administered questionnaire. Students reported that talking with others about the material as well as using application, real world examples, and review strategies are critical to their learning. In multiple regression analyses, there is limited evidence for a positive relationship between several interpersonal academic/study behavior variables and success. Multiple and ordinal regression analyses point to a negative relationship between age and success in the sociology major at this institution. Implications for teaching and …