Compendium of effective practice in higher education: Volume 2

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Kapborg, I. (1994) An evaluation of Swedish nurse students’ calculating ability in relation to their earlier educational background. Nurse Education Today. 15 (1), 69–74. Maag, M. (2004) The effectiveness of an interactive multimedia learning tool on nursing students’ math knowledge and selfefficacy. Computers, Informatics, Nursing. 22 (1), 26–33. Mcmullan, M. (2010) Exploring the numeracy skills of nurses and students when performing drug calculations. Nursing Times. 106 (34), 10–12. McMullan, M. et al. (2012) Math anxiety, self-efficacy, and ability in British undergraduate Nursing students. Research in Nursing and Health. 35 (2), 178–86. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2007) Essential skills clusters for pre-registration programmes. London: NMC. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2006a) Standards of proficiency for nurse and midwife prescribers. London: NMC. O'Shea, E. (1999) Factors contributing to medication errors: A literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 8 (5), 496–504. Sabin, M. (2001) Competence in practice-based calculation: Issues for nursing education. London: Learning and Teaching Support Network. Sandwell, M.C. and Carson, P. (2005) Developing numeracy in Child Branch students. Paediatric Nursing. 17 (9), 24–6. Tang, F. et al. (2007) Nurses relate contributing factors involved in medication errors. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 16 (3), 447–57. Wright, K. (2005) An exploration into the most effective way to teach drug calculation skills to nursing students. Nurse Education Today. 25 (6), 430–6. Wright, K. (2008b) Can effective teaching and learning strategies help student nurses to retain drug calculation skills? Nurse Education Today. 28 (7), 856–64. 50
Enhancing the quantitative skills of business students in a creative way: Assessment by portfolio Stefania Paladini* and Xavier Pierron, Coventry University Business School *aa5862@coventry.ac.uk Coventry University Priory Street Coventry, CV1 5FB Keywords quantitative analysis portfolio student experience academic success Nature of the intervention Maximise student engagement and academic success in quantitative methods at Coventry University Business School in the Department of Strategy and Applied Management. Focus of intervention An intervention of an academic nature, aimed at enhancing student experience and improving practice is presented. Description of intervention To address the particular issues involved in teaching a quantitative analysis module in a business school, the authors decided to design the coursework of a first-year module, Quantitative Analysis Management, in order to combine different kinds of assessment. In particular, a portfolio was introduced. This effort clearly aims to embed the findings of the What Works? model in the current academic practice, in order to take advantage of its findings. The key elements identified are the need to maximise student engagement from the beginning and to encourage more peer interactions and group projects. The portfolio, allowing for a flexible mix of individual and group work, which has been introduced since Year 1, looked to be a particularly suitable tool. Another method has also been identified: by integrating the portfolio in an integrative assessment including three first-year modules, where other components of the model have been embedded. While this has not been discussed in detail in the present article, for reasons of space, nevertheless some observations have been provided in the conclusions. Poor numeracy skills in the UK appear to be a persistent problem that is often reported by the UK press (The Guardian, 4 April 2009; the Independent, 8 December 2010). Other evidence comes from a research project funded by the Department for Education and Skills and undertaken at the University of Sheffield between April 2005 and March 2007. This study demonstrated that of the three key skills of reading, writing and numeracy, it is the latter which was the weakest amongst students. The report concludes that “on average, numeracy skills in England are poorer than in many other countries, especially industrialised ones” (NRDC, 2010: 8). Also, concerns have been raised by a number of British universities that the quantitative skills of their home students have been declining. Undergraduate business students seem to find quantitative modules particularly challenging (Pokorny and Pokorny, 2005). Research into the teaching of statistics in higher education found a correlation between class attendance and results, suggesting that practice plays an important part in determining the success rate of students, no matter what their country of origin (Lawrence & Singhania, 2004). Moreover, it has been pointed out (Chen and Lin, 2008) that the type of assessment used and the level of student engagement are key factors that determine the degree of academic success. This case study will outline and assess the impact of an innovative assessment method that was introduced on a quantitative skills module for business students. The use of portfolios has gradually become popular in higher education. A major part of the rationale behind their introduction was that they were seen as a way of encouraging students to link theory and practice, translating abstract notions into real case studies and exercises. Such an approach is recommended by Gibbs (1988), who argues that “It is not enough just to do, and neither is it enough just to think. Nor is it enough simply to do and think. Learning from experience must involve linking the doing and the thinking” (Gibbs, 1988: 9). 51
Page 1 and 2: Compendium of effective practice in
Page 3 and 4: Contents Section Page Contents Fore
Page 5 and 6: Introduction The UK higher educatio
Page 7 and 8: ‘Academic and social survival gui
Page 9 and 10: Evaluations of the pre-arrival guid
Page 11 and 12: Information about Startonline is di
Page 13 and 14: Lowe, H. and Cook, A. (2003) Mind t
Page 15 and 16: university email accounts. The grou
Page 17 and 18: Thomas, L. (2011) Do pre-entry inte
Page 19 and 20: The sessions themselves combine tra
Page 21 and 22: References Boyle, A. et al. (2011)
Page 23 and 24: The majority of the week consists o
Page 25 and 26: Supporting the transition of founda
Page 27 and 28: As a team, we have been able to fee
Page 29 and 30: Links are made with staff to suppor
Page 31 and 32: The opportunity to communicate priv
Page 33 and 34: Figure 2: ‘Snakes’ cards Each g
Page 35 and 36: The workshop reflects a constructiv
Page 37 and 38: Enhancing the induction period thro
Page 39 and 40: together. This information will now
Page 41 and 42: Moving Forward showcases taking res
Page 43 and 44: Although this only provides a snaps
Page 45 and 46: Research methods teaching in the so
Page 47 and 48: Student evaluation of the modules h
Page 49: How the intervention engages studen
Page 53 and 54: X1 The chart shows that the majorit
Page 55 and 56: An inquiry-based approach to teachi
Page 57 and 58: ecommend them to other students. Th
Page 59 and 60: Description of intervention Aimed a
Page 61 and 62: Using role emerging placements to e
Page 63 and 64: Theme Category Codes Professional d
Page 65 and 66: Thomas, Y. et al. (2005) Australian
Page 67 and 68: Self assessment Tutor assessment De
Page 69 and 70: 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1
Page 71 and 72: Swansea University Department of Cr
Page 73 and 74: processes such as the SSC, the Stud
Page 75 and 76: Lecture recordings support student
Page 77 and 78: comprehensively throughout the prog
Page 79 and 80: Phillips, R. et al. (2007) Staff an
Page 81 and 82: were difficulties for staff in meet
Page 83 and 84: Conclusion Formative feedback forms
Page 85 and 86: Neutral facilitator The facilitator
Page 87 and 88: Conclusion The examples described (
Page 89 and 90: Have academic conventions been cons
Page 91 and 92: Section 3: Supporting students In t
Page 93 and 94: How the intervention engages studen
Page 95 and 96: The impact of Academic Skills Centr
Page 97 and 98: Students Attendance at Business and
Page 99 and 100: End-of-week reflective meetings to
Page 101 and 102:
Informal learning outcomes Students
Page 103 and 104:
How the intervention engages studen
Page 105 and 106:
Retaining non-standard students in
Page 107 and 108:
ecause until needed, they are unkno
Page 109 and 110:
Supporting “complicated” traine
Page 111 and 112:
This first group continues to flour
Page 113 and 114:
Curtin University mentor programme:
Page 115 and 116:
My Mentor. . . Strongly Agree Agree
Page 117 and 118:
Engaging with students as partners
Page 119 and 120:
However, as noted in the report its
Page 121 and 122:
The impact of a robust peer mentori
Page 123 and 124:
Of the total 29 mentees who took pa
Page 125 and 126:
Section 4: Participation and belong
Page 127 and 128:
needs that students brought to us,
Page 129 and 130:
Embedding mandatory personal tutori
Page 131 and 132:
Conclusion The previous personal tu
Page 133 and 134:
In Civil Engineering and various bu
Page 135 and 136:
helped to further illuminate “wha
Page 137 and 138:
Whatever challenges are presented t
Page 139 and 140:
Using Twitter to increase engagemen
Page 141 and 142:
Well-timed and appropriate media: T
Page 143 and 144:
Engaging students to engage the cam
Page 145 and 146:
Evidence of effectiveness/impact Si
Page 147 and 148:
Section 5: Utilisation of data and
Page 149 and 150:
Key recommendations made by student
Page 151 and 152:
use of available online/VLE resourc
Page 153 and 154:
An academic mentoring pilot scheme
Page 155 and 156:
HERE project toolkit: A resource fo
Page 157 and 158:
Students ranked their response to f
Page 159 and 160:
References Lane, P. L. et al. (2002
Page 161 and 162:
using appropriate technologies crea
Page 163 and 164:
Higher Education Funding Council fo
Page 165 and 166:
The strategies introduced were in a
Page 167 and 168:
Conclusion The success of this inte
Page 169 and 170:
Senior Academic Support Tutors: Fos
Page 171 and 172:
Service use SAST continues to exper
Page 173 and 174:
Thomas, L. (2011) Do pre-entry inte
Page 175 and 176:
assessment using volunteer members
Page 177 and 178:
References General Pharmaceutical C
Page 179 and 180:
student volunteering on a number of
Page 181 and 182:
The Recruit, Retain, Employ group:
Page 183 and 184:
Evidence of effectiveness/impact Co
Page 185 and 186:
Developing staff capacity for stude
Page 187 and 188:
“Yes, wide range from understandi
Page 189 and 190:
Synergy, variety and relationships:
Page 191 and 192:
needed to be put into place - with
Page 193 and 194:
Concluding Remarks Following the su
show all

Compendium of effective practice in higher education: Volume 2

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?