Search Results for
"Higher education"

This paper reports on a narrative review of the criticality of problem-solving and troubleshooting skills for undergraduate Electronics Engineering students and its significance for industry readiness. The review was undertaken to understand the problems and troubleshooting skills learned and possessed by the Electronics Engineering training programme for students in higher education. It is argued that the curriculum designed for undergraduate engineering students does not include troubleshooting. The essential criticality of troubleshooting in electronics engineering education is well described in this review. The narrative review of the literature covered peer-reviewed papers that focus on problem-solving and troubleshooting and were published in English between 2000 and 2022. Findings from the articles meeting relevant criteria were synthesised into themes. The review found that although problem-solving is seen broadly as a critical skill required for engineers in engineering education, most engineering programmes emphasise design problem-solving, such as in designing products, engineering processes, systems, and methods. Other essential problems involving technical troubleshooting and problem-solving skills are critical for their future career development but are inadvertently neglected in the curriculum. The study considered some implications for curriculum reform in Electronics Engineering programmes. The study further offers insights into the complexities and gaps in the Electronics Engineering curriculum and novice undergraduates’ troubleshooting skills. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Background: Competency-based education (CBE) is adopted to reform health professionals’ education. The goal is to produce graduates who are not only competent in their fields but also equipped with the necessary social accountability skills for safe practice. Aim: The study aimed to explore nursing education stakeholders’ perspectives on competency-based primary healthcare (PHC)-oriented nursing education programmes in the South African context. Setting: The setting for this study was a higher education institution in South Africa. Methods: A descriptive qualitative method was used in this study. After taking ethical clearance from the university ethics committee, data were purposively collected and theoretically sampled from 40 participants through focus group discussion, individual interviews and document analysis. Results: The data findings reported categories that emerged from this study, which include the attributes of a competency-based PHC-oriented programme and the outcomes of a competency-based PHC-oriented programme. Conclusion: In the context of this study, the concept of CBE was portrayed as a programme with strong social accountability that aims at addressing priority health needs surrounding communities and ensuring that the health needs of the community are met while providing health delivery service to communities in their natural environment. Contribution: These findings add to the growing evidence base around CBE as an approach to strengthen PHC-oriented health services in low-and middle-income countries, a key aspect of which is providing service within communities. This enables the accessibility of quality healthcare closer to where people live and work to achieve Sustainable Development Goal number three. © 2024. The Authors.

This study examines the determinants of learning strategies employed by undergraduate accounting students in an emerging economy. Specifically, it investigates the impact of institution, teacher, and personal determinants on accounting students’ utilisation of a particular learning strategy. In line with Information Process Theory (IPM), a descriptive research design was adopted to conduct a questionnaire-based survey among 246 accounting students from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Africa. Multiple regression analysis was employed to analyse the collected data. The study reveals that institutional determinants, including performance assessment and a conducive teaching and learning environment, teacher determinants such as learner-centred teaching methods, and personal determinants like intrinsic motivation and time spent studying, significantly influence accounting students’ adoption of deep learning strategies. Conversely, higher workload and engagement in extracurricular activities reduced the use of deep learning strategies, while adherence to the accounting curriculum guide encouraged surface learning. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Globalisation demands proficient English educators to produce graduates competent in the English language for the 21st century. Achieving this goal necessitates optimising teacher training programs, yet challenges persist, such as ESL pre-service teachers’ unpreparedness in utilising technology. The Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, while commonly used to assess teachers’ technology integration competencies, falls short of fully incorporating 21st-century competencies and self-efficacy, both of which are essential to a teacher’s professional development. Hence, this study seeks expert consensus on modifying the TPACK framework for ESL pre-service teachers within teacher training programs. This study employed the Design and Development research design (Type 2). The Fuzzy Delphi method was used to analyse data from 12 appointed experts. The experts concurred on the need to integrate both the 21st-century competencies construct, and the self-efficacy construct into the modified TPACK framework. This research contributes to the discourse on teacher training by recognising the essential roles of 21st-century competency and self-efficacy. It can potentially enhance pedagogical practices and address the evolving educational landscape. Further investigations could explore into ESL pre-service teachers’ specific challenges, advancing scholarly understanding of effective teacher preparation. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Professionally, India is encountering a skill shortage. In spite of having enough supply of well-qualified jobseekers, they stay out of employment as they are incapable of offering the technical skills and training required. In the modern high-tech world, application proficiency is high in demand with theoretical knowledge, and sometimes, specialised training is much more needed. Regrettably, in India, vocational courses are not gaining popularity. Hence, the unemployment rate is so high. Over time, various approaches and programmes recommended by specialised commissions on education have been taken into effect, recognising the urgency of undertaking vocational courses with general studies. Recently, the rephrasing of the earliest education policy has been approached, called National education Policy, 2020, with the commitment to assure vocational education and training for all. This study has demonstrated a brief review of India’s performance and achievements in vocational education, including training, in association with the policies taken so far. In continuation of the analysis, several reports have been availed from the official sources, like the All India Survey on higher education (AISHE), Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and finally, the National Sample Survey (NSSO). The policies that have already been considered are also mentioned here. In conclusion, the targets set and guidelines made under the National education Policy (NEP), 2020 have also been described, as well. © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Nilendu Chatterjee, Suchandra Biswas and Kalyan Chattopadhyay.

Although recent research on curriculum management has been extensive, the studies focused solely on public schooling sectors. Our study examined curriculum management in Indonesian Islamic schools to fill this gap, given the significant number of Islamic-based schools in Indonesia. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews, passive participation observation, and document studies. The findings were organized into three themes: (1) the design of the curriculum, (2) the implementation of the curriculum, and (3) the evaluation of the curriculum. The analysis suggests curriculum management was enacted under micro, meso, and macro practices. The study revealed three key findings: the curriculum design was anchored by structural administration from the government, the curriculum implementation was based on surrounding needs, and both internal and external stakeholders evaluated the curriculum. Based on these findings, this study recommends a model for designing, implementing, and evaluating curriculum management in other contexts. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The university is an environment that allows the student to be able to diversify different situations, and there is a need to train sensitive and empathetic professionals for a competent society. The objective of this research was to design a didactic strategy to develop socioemotional competencies in students at a university in Lima. A qualitative methodology of non-experimental, cross-sectional, and descriptive design was used. The sample consisted of 34 students and four teachers. The techniques used included questionnaires, observations and interviews. The results showed 11 emerging categories, seven of which were approximate to the a priori category and four were influential in the research. A validated didactic strategy was presented with two lines of action composed of three stages: classroom emotional diagnosis, management of socioemotional teaching activities, and transformative evaluation; all under a model of Social and Emotional Learning, the Theory of Emotional Intelligence, and the epistemological positions of Neuroscience in Learning. © 2024 Sciedu Press. All rights reserved.

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are either in the public domain or published on an open licence which permits various forms of redistribution, reuse and repurposing. Many organisations and higher education institutions around the world are using such resources, and anecdotally many believe this is supporting innovations in practice. However, there is scant research into how such innovations should be understood or evaluated conceptually. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework that can describe and evaluate innovative practice as well as results from a study of 44 cases using this framework in the context of the ENCORE+ (European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in education) project (2021–2023). This conceptual framework provides a rich qualitative description for instances of innovation which use OER. Our examples cover many countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, UK, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, USA, and Zanzibar. The sample includes organisations of all sizes and maturities of implementation. This allowed us to differentiate OER value propositions for a range of stakeholders at different levels of maturity of OER use. We explore whether variables such as the size and maturity of an organisation influences innovation strategies and the perception of stakeholder relationships. Our data indicates four elements to the development of OER value propositions as innovation vectors. Firstly, OER value propositions tend to be transformative, and focused on modifying or redefining pedagogical activity. Secondly, they are practical, targeting users/providers and influencing behaviour in direct and achievable ways. Thirdly, OER users and advocates emphasise observability, simplicity and compatibility as key aspects for communicating OER value propositions. Fourthly, OER innovation is aspirational in that greater maturity of organisations using OER sees the OER value proposition widened to include more stakeholder types. © 2024 The Author(s).

The aim of this study was to explore innovative methods for teaching the literary works of folk poets. The research focused on the use of modern technologies to enhance the teaching of folk literature in secondary schools and higher education institutions in the Kyrgyz Republic. The study emphasized the cultural significance of teaching folk poetry, which enriches students’ cultural knowledge, instils moral values, promotes patriotism and respect for national traditions. The study proposed several innovative teaching strategies, including gamification (through role-playing and quests), integration of video and audio resources, use of social media platforms, project-based learning, and organizing meetings with folk culture and poetry experts. An example of implementing these approaches was provided using the works of Barpy Alykulov, a renowned Kyrgyz poet. Additionally, a comparison between traditional and innovative teaching methods was made, with recommendations for selecting appropriate techniques based on student age, interests, and developmental needs. © The Author(s) 2024.

higher education career centers should tailor their services toward empowering students to make them employable after graduation to meet the demands of the 21st century world of work. This paper aims to reflect on career counseling services provided by higher education Institutions. We start by presenting a brief history of their development around the world, with particular emphasis on Portugal. Next, a study about the current situation of these services in the country is presented, starting with an analysis of their organization, the type of actions/activities/services provided, as well as their accessibility. Results indicate that the Career Services in some Portuguese higher education Institutions appear not to be fully developed, and where they exist, they often focus mostly (and sometimes solely) upon job placement or internship provision. More investment is needed to meet the new employability needs and demands of both students (and their families) and the labor market. © © 2024 Khurumova and Pinto.