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"Students"

Skills and knowledge which increase the likelihood of university graduates finding employment is an increasingly important factor for higher education institutions. Even though subject matter expertise remains a primary objective, supporting students to build life skills that are desired by employers is essential to enhance graduate employability. Firstly, we draw on consultive interviews with 11 graduate recruiters to build a life skill ability scale. Through these interviews, we identify two constructs worth measuring (resilience and adaptability) not yet represented in extant life skill ability scales. Thereby contributing to life skills measures and their link to graduate employability. Secondly, this paper explores the influence of a team-based business simulation on the development of life skills at two higher education institutions in the UK for first- and fourth-year undergraduate students. Through a pre-survey and post-survey, this paper empirically finds that experiential learning by means of a team-based business simulation has an overwhelmingly positive influence on first-year students’ self-assessed life skill development as well as their course-specific subject matter expertise. Yet, the findings show less significant results for fourth-year students. This contributes to our understanding of business simulations as a pedagogical practice and its benefits for students beyond their education. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Programming is an indispensable ability in the current era of artificial intelligence. It has become a topic of interest for educators and researchers to explore the effective instructional strategies to improve students’ programming knowledge and skills. Cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding have proven to have the potential to facilitate programming performance. However, their comparative effects on programming performance have received scant attention. To fill this research gap, the current study aimed to explore how cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding influence elementary school students’ Scratch programming knowledge and skills in an information technology course based on a quasi-experimental design. Three intact classes, including 126 fifth graders, were randomly assigned to a control group and two experimental groups: a cognitive scaffolding and a metacognitive scaffolding group. The findings indicated that the metacognitive scaffolding group showed significantly better scores in programming knowledge and skills than the non-scaffolding group. However, no significant differences were found between the metacognitive and cognitive scaffolding groups, or between the cognitive scaffolding and non-scaffolding groups. This study provides implications for the design and development of scaffolding based on Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive and metacognitive mediation, and also contributes to our comprehension of how scaffolding types influence students’ programming knowledge and skills. © 2024 ISTE.

An important part of STEM education is students’ acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for career success, all of which emerge from a combination of classroom and co-curricular activities. Work-related experiential activities (WREAs) offer the opportunity for students to engage in experiential activities before degree completion, and these experiences provide students with an important way to refine their skills that facilitate career success. Generally, prior research confirms the benefits of work-related experiential activities in students’ transition to the workforce, but more evidence is needed to examine the contribution of WREA participation in the development of career competencies. This paper focuses on engineering and computer science students’ perceptions of skills related to career competence that were enhanced during WREA participation. Sixty-three percent of the students surveyed in spring 2021 and spring 2022 at five institutions in one U.S. state said they completed one or more WREAs during their baccalaureate studies. With only a few significant differences by students’ gender, race/ethnicity, or financial aid status, student responses indicated high value in developing skills related to career competence, and in particular, professionalism and communication. Student perceptions are detailed, and implications for STEM research and education are discussed. © This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2024.

This article focuses on using action research (AR) to support preschool teacher graduate students in developing professional identity. An effective means of generating new knowledge and transforming school practices, AR has increasingly been adopted in research on education due to allowing teachers to act as researchers and directly benefit from the research process. The objective of our study was to explore how engaging in AR can enhance the development of professional identity among preschool teacher graduate students. For data, we collected journal from 30 students while and after they engaged in AR for a full year under the guidance of university teachers and preschool-based mentors. The findings, based on our analysis of five students’ journals, suggest that engaging in AR supported the students in developing professional identity and increased their confidence as soon-to-be professionals. Moreover, the students reported that the support provided by the university teachers, the preschool-based mentors, and the students’ course group was crucial to their success. Overall, our findings highlight not only the value of AR in supporting preschool teacher graduate students’ professional growth but also the importance of collaborative support for their positive professionalisation. © 2024 Educational Action Research.

Work Integrated Learning is essential for healthcare degrees where students learn to become healthcare professionals. As a complex form of learning the quality of student placement experiences are variable, impacting student wellbeing and development of professional competencies. Getting it right, students enter the workforce ready to practice. Getting it wrong can have deleterious effects on all stakeholders. Although research has examined placement quality for students, less is known about the experiences of other stakeholder groups (e.g. placement educators, university academics and professional support staff). Our research addresses this gap. Using narrative interviewing methods, underpinned by social constructionism, we interviewed fifty-one participants: 19 allied healthcare students, 15 placement educators, 12 university academics and 5 professional staff from a large Australian university. We identified four preparedness themes impacting on placement quality, namely: University, Placement Site, Placement educator and Student preparedness. Within these themes, good practice is highlighted alongside examples of unsettling experiences. Curricula should be reviewed to ensure students are prepared as agentic learners for the complexities of the workplace. Furthermore, universities should co-design placements in partnership with healthcare organisations and educators to enable students to optimise their learning and contribution to patient/client care. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The global landscape and labour market are rapidly evolving in the twenty-first century, requiring individuals to adapt flexibly to new situations. Soft skills, such as problem-solving and communication skills, are becoming increasingly important for preparing students in higher education for future job opportunities. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 4,358 research studies with the aim of guiding future research and practice. We sought to answer the following research question: What research themes involving soft skills are discussed in the literature, and what further research avenues can inform us about teaching soft skills? Given the interdisciplinary, cross-cutting nature of soft skills, we analysed research from various fields to uncover the relevance of and relationships among different soft skill topics and to identify which soft skill topics are particularly important in higher education settings. To help researchers develop a holistic approach to soft skills education, we provide a summary of existing soft skills research and identify directions for future research. In addition, we outline the evolution of keyword clusters to illuminate the future directions. This approach facilitates a deeper and more nuanced exploration of the relevant concepts. Our research supports practitioners and fosters a better understanding of the meaning of soft skills and how they can be taught in higher education, especially in digital environments. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

New Jersey (NJ) Safe Schools Program (NJSS) provides code-required trainings for NJ teachers supervising students in work-based learning (WBL) experiences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased use of chemical cleaning, sanitization, and disinfectant products (CSDPs) led to ventilation and other health concerns. NJSS conducted two surveys of newer NJ WBL teachers between October 2021 and June 2023, with a follow-up in fall 2022 for those who completed initial surveys before summer 2022. This study focused on questions regarding workspace ventilation; respirator and CSDPs trainings; awareness of government resources for safety and health (S&H); and demographics. Over 65% of participant classrooms have operable windows or ventilation systems, while 13% of school salons have ceiling fans. Half of participants didn’t receive training on handling CSDPs, although 90% were aware of government S&H resources. Data suggested teachers have well-ventilated workspaces and are aware of different resources available, which is important to continue post COVID-19. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.