Higher Education Commons^™

The Clinical Placement Process Through The Lens Of The Director Of Clinical Education: A Qualitative Multiple Case Analysis, Jamie L. Greco, Katherine Myers

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The placement process is a key contributor to current challenges in health science clinical education. The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) is the central figure in coordinating the placement process in physical therapist education. Despite their central role, there is no research exploring the DCE perspective during this process. The purpose of this study was to explore the DCE’s experience in navigating the placement process to further understand how the DCE role is impacted by barriers and facilitators encountered during this process. Methods: Fourteen DCEs representing private and public institutions from across the country participated in the …

The Relationship Between Social Stigma And Career Decisions Of Individualized And Freelance Male Sex Workers, Luis Miguel Dos Santos, Ho Fai Lo

The Qualitative Report

Switching from a white-collar professional to a sex worker is not an easy step, particularly for individuals with a postgraduate degree in South Korea who may have significant expectations from their parents, peers, and communities. Based on the social stigma theory and social cognitive career and motivation theory, this study aims to understand how stress and pressure impact the motivations, career decisions, and decision-making processes of individualized and freelance male sex workers and their career transition experiences in South Korea. Based on the thematic analysis, ten highly educated male sex workers joined and shared their experiences. The researchers categorized three …

Associating Academic Identity With Language Socialization In Virtual Community: A Case Study Of A Chinese Graduate Student’S Learning Experiences In Religion Studies, Xiaolong Lu

The Qualitative Report

This longitudinal case study explored the academic identity and language socialization of a Chinese graduate student enrolled in an online religion course at a U.S. university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via online classroom observations, oral interviews, and artifacts. The theoretical framework was taken from language socialization and identity, together with positioning theory. The study differs from previous research, arguing that instead of language competence, the constructed academic identity is occasionally crucial for the successful academic discourse socialization of international students in bilingual and virtual settings. Moreover, the inclination toward interactive positioning between students and instructors can arise …

Perceptions Of Business Private Sector Employers On The Employability Of Distance-Only Institution Candidates In The United States: A Case Study, Tanacha Gaines

Theses and Dissertations

The applied dissertation was designed to understand the perceptions of private-sector employers regarding the selection of candidates from distance-only higher education institutions. Guided by signaling theory as a framework, the study explored the mismatch between institutional, student, and employer expectations of skills and readiness for the labor market. Research into the employability of students and the acceptability of their distance-only degrees in the business sector could be informative as to whether the investment of students and their families provided fruitful employment opportunities. The literature showed an increase in enrollment for online learning, legislative expectations of higher education with the lack …

Exposing The Mythology Of Balance And The Ecology Of Graduate Student Mother Resilience In Covid-19, Carolyn A. Oldham Ph.D., Kelly D. Bradley Ph.D.

The Qualitative Report

While the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the once marginalized conversation of academia’s gendered imbalance of opportunity, discussion of its impact on graduate student mothers has remained absent. Resilience has been cited as key to overcoming in the pandemic era with little discussion of how its conceptualization continues to marginalize females in the academy. Our phenomenological study explores graduate student mothers’ conceptualizations of balance, failure, success, and resilience using a family resilience framework which acknowledges the multiple identities to which they may avow and contexts in which they may operate. Employing an ecological conceptual framework, we engaged nine graduate student mothers …

University Students’ And Teachers’ Wellbeing During Covid-19 In Bangladesh: A Qualitative Enquiry, Shaila Sultana, M Moninoor Roshid, Md. Zulfeqar Haider, Rubina Khan, Mian Md. Naushaad Kabir Phd, Akhter Jahan Phd

The Qualitative Report

The wellbeing of teachers and students has emerged as a common concern in research studies in recent times, specifically during the critical period of COVID-19. Based on the findings drawn from the qualitative data through focus group discussions of five groups of teachers (16 females and 8 males) and students (10 males and nine females) at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh, this paper shows that online teaching during COVID-19 is affected by personal and social challenges, and consequently, both teachers and students experience anxieties and stresses. Teachers are anxious because of the university authorities' surveillance, frequent pay cuts, …

Justice-Oriented Learning: Reconfiguring Experiential Education With A California Farmworker Community, Judith Hope Munter Dr., Nathan Harkleroad, Manuel Cervantes, Andrea Tinajero

Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

This community-based research project examines a land-based education program which creates opportunities for contextualized learning, acknowledging the value of immigrant farmworkers’ lived experiences. The study highlights how this culture of learning can be a means for promoting social and environmental justice. Participatory research methods involved collective inquiry in which co-researchers and community stakeholders engaged in all steps of the process with the goals of improving practice and bringing about transformative change.

Assessing The Comprehensive Academic Needs Of Occupational Therapy Assistant Program Students: A Focused Review Of Polk State College, Jasmine M. Thomas

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

In 2016-2017, the NBCOT revised and field-tested the certification examinations for occupational therapists (OTRs) and certified occupational therapy assistants (COTAs). The revised examinations begin officially being administered and scored in 2018-2019 (NBCOT, 2021). In recent years, the Polk State College (PSC) OTA program’s faculty and staff witnessed its graduating cohorts decline from a 100% passage rate to a 75% passage rate on the revised NBCOT COTA examination (NBCOT, 2021). The purpose of this review was to examine potential causes for the decline in student passage rates, with the goal of completing an academic needs assessment of PSC OTA program students. …

The Effects Of An Authentic Collaborative Project On University Directing Students’ Learning Experiences, Nur Hilyati Ramli, Safia Najwa Suhaimi, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan

The Qualitative Report

This phenomenological study reports an authentic collaborative project between students of acting and directing (AD) and students of Teaching English as Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in University Sains Malaysia (USM). The project, which is integrated and infused with features of authentic learning and creative drama education, aims to provide the AD students with new learning experiences that are authentic in nature and that focuses on their abilities to direct a full theatre performance. Using qualitative data collection methods (i.e., online reflections and open-ended items), the study identified and determined six meaningful learning experiences that the 29 AD students gained: …

Academics’ Understandings Of The Literacy Needs Of International Graduate Students, Edwin Creely, Raqib Chowdhury, Jane Southcott

The Qualitative Report

This article critically explores the understandings about the English academic literacy needs of international graduate students from the perspective of academic teaching staff in a Faculty of Education at a large Australian university. Research suggests that international graduate students for whom English is another language, on coming to English speaking countries, acquire English academic literacies as part of a complex set of academic competencies needed for successful graduate study. In this study, 16 academic teaching staff participated in focus groups and revealed their understandings and practices about academic literacies in the context of their experiences of working with international graduate …

Iranian Students’ Experience Of K-12 And Higher Education: Use Of Drawings To Convey The Difference Between Ideals And Reality, Iman Tohidian, Abbas Abbaspour, Ali Khorsandi Taskoh

The Qualitative Report

The focus of education during K-12 and Higher Education (HE) in Iran is on theoretical empowerment of students; therefore, our students get an illusion of knowing. In fact, what happens is not learning and understanding; rather, it is verbatim transfer of available information in the textbooks into the students’ minds. It might be because the students and teachers (as the main stakeholders of the education) are the least powerful parties within the pyramid of power amongst educational practitioners and policymakers. It means their voice, feedback, needs, and ideologies have no place in the educational decisions and policies. In alignment with …

Textual Borrowing In Dissertation Writing: Perceptions Of Supervisors And Supervisees, Yin Ling Cheung, Shuangjuan Kang

The Qualitative Report

The existing literature shows issues pertinent to students’ inappropriate textual borrowing behaviors require further examination. Our study aims to address two questions: What are the reasons why postgraduate students’ misuse their dissertation sources? How do the dissertation supervisors react to students’ inappropriate source use, if any? In this situated qualitative study (Atkinson, 2005), we used data collected through in-depth email interviews with two applied linguistics postgraduate students and their dissertation supervisors. Regarding the analytical process, the researchers condensed the provisional themes through techniques suggested by grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The results reveal that causes for postgraduate students’ misuse …

Postgraduate University Students’ Experiences And Attitudes Toward Culturally Diverse Learning Environments, Orhan Sahin, Louise Jenkins

The Qualitative Report

In this paper we investigate the attitudes that Australian domestic university students hold toward cultural diversity on a large, metropolitan university campus. We employed a qualitative approach incorporating five individual semistructured interviews, and a focus group in order to gather data on the participants’ attitudes toward cultural diversity, and the contributing influences on these attitudes. The findings of this study indicate that the participants’ attitudes were impacted significantly by past and present experiences of cultural diversity, and the immersion in a culturally diverse university campus. The research contextualizes how these life experiences are responsible for shaping attitudes toward cultural diversity …

Flop To Flip: Integrating Technology And Team-Based Learning To Improve Student Engagement, Diana A. Veneri, Elizabeth M. Mongillo

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The first attempt to develop and instruct a new course in evidence-based practice in a physical therapy curriculum proved problematic. The purpose of this paper is to describe the method of revising this traditionally taught course using a combination of flipping the classroom, team-based learning, and technology. Methods: Working with an Instructional Design Specialist, a weekly online preparatory module was created for each content topic using a variety of multimedia learning provisions including micro learning videos (PowerPoint with voiceover), transcript of the PowerPoint, a list of vocabulary words, reading, Quizlet, Flipgrids and Concept Checks. Each week’s module was introduced …

Informal Learning About Teaching Among Novice University Professors, Laia Encinar-Prat, Joaquín Gairín Sallán

The Qualitative Report

In this article, we present results of a study on informal learning about teaching among novice university professors at one university in Spain. The study identified teaching competencies developed through informal learning, strategies of informal learning used, and organizational factors that might foster or hinder the acquisition of teaching competencies. We gathered data through 18 individual interviews with novice university faculty, two focus groups with university professors, a document analysis and a focus group of experts. We conducted content analysis of the transcripts of the interviews and focus groups, as well as the documents obtained. The results showed that the …

Tasman Connections Through Song: Engaging In Classrooms And In Community, Dawn Joseph Dr, Robyn Trinick Mrs

The Qualitative Report

Community is an overarching word that encompasses people in formal and informal settings covering a broad range of activities. Engaging through sound “in community” and “as community” provides the opportunity for participants to come together making and sharing music through song. This paper focuses on voice (singing) across the Tasman within formal and informal locations. Author One draws on interview data within an “informal” space with three community choirs in regional Victoria (Australia) from her wider study Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the Community. The data shows that choir members use voice to connect with their local community around issues …

Through Army-Colored Glasses: A Layered Account Of One Veteran’S Experiences In Higher Education, Phillip A. Olt

The Qualitative Report

There is a lack of research on military veterans in higher education that captures the issues from an insider’s perspective. To that end, I sought to reflect upon my own experiences with higher education as military veteran—from a budding recruit all the way through to now being an administrator and faculty member. I utilized a layered-account autoethnographic approach (Ronai, 1995) to interrogate my multiple perspectives that developed over time on veterans’ issues in higher education. I found that the GI Bill—the modern iteration of the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944—was a powerful motivator both in starting my military career and …

Digital Technology And Qualitative Research: A Book Review Of Maggi Savin-Baden And Gemma Tombs’ Research Methods For Education In The Digital Age, Marice Kelly-Jackson

The Qualitative Report

Maggi Savin-Baden and Gemma Tombs’ Research Methods for Education in the Digital Age is part of an educational series on methodology by The Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education. They wrote their book for qualitative researchers planning to use any form of digital technology such as digital recorders for face-to-face interviews, telecommunications application software (e.g., SKYPE) to conduct interviews, social media websites for data collection, digital imagery, and Computer Assisted/Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) for their study. Savin-Baden and Tombs also have a chapter that examines the use of digital technology in quantitative research. As a novice researcher, I found …

Athletic Training Students Demonstrate Supplemental Oxygen Administration Skill Decay, But Retain Knowledge Over Six Months, David C. Berry, Jennifer K. Popp

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Research suggests skill decay occurs with emergency skills, such as supplemental oxygen administration (OA), since the frequency of medical emergencies in clinical settings is low. Identifying the presence and timeline for skill decay allows educators to employ strategies to prevent this occurrence. Therefore, this study evaluated retention of knowledge and clinical skills associated with supplemental oxygen administration, specifically nasal cannula (NC) and non-rebreather mask (NrM) usage in professional athletic training students.

Methods: Cross-sectional study. Twenty-nine athletic training students (males=11, females=18; age=21.03+1.38) enrolled in a Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE)-accredited professional athletic training programs. Participants’ …