This literature review considers the use of action research in higher education. It specifically looks at two areas of higher education activity. The first concerns academic teaching practice and includes a discussion of research and pedagogy practice, and staff development. The second considers student engagement. In both these core features of higher education, action research has proved to be a central approach to the investigation, reflection and improvement of practice. Each of these main foci includes a discussion of the limitations of the literature. The review illustrates the extent and range of uses to have benefited from an action research approach.Keywords: higher education; action research, literature review; reflective practice 2 Literature Review on the Use of Action Research in Higher EducationThe centrality of students as fee paying customerts, besides based on the value of their fees, has focused UK Government policy in the higher education sector on the importance of the quality of teaching and rates of retention. On 1 July 2015, Jo Johnson, UK Minster for Higher Education, confirmed the second of his party's election pledges concerning teaching in higher education: secondly, delivering a teaching excellence framework that creates incentives for universities to devote as much attention to the quality of teaching as fee-paying students and prospective employers have a right to expect. (Johnson 2015) The justification for such a scheme is as follows:to meet students' high expectations of their university years and to deliver the skills our economy needs, we need a renewed focus on teaching. (ibid.)A process was put in motion that seeks to enact changes to put teaching at the heart of higher education policy. The extrinsic value of teaching, or its value for money, is thus established as a metric of the level of skill, inferred from its calculative value: as a professional activity -as a vocation -higher education is undermined. Whether this exposes the essence of higher education provision is contentious, but the rebalance of emphasis from research to teaching in our mass participation higher education system clearly has intrinsic merit, and certainly possesses political leverage. Amid the development of lecturers' capability to teach and facilitate learning is the enhancement of pedagogical practice through reflection and research into practice (Gibbs, Angelides and Michaelides 2004). In this context, the importance of action research (AR) as a method of revelation, instruction and improvement, and as the realisation of technical skill and facilitation of learning, is hard to overemphasise. Informed practice removes the consumeristic notion of lecturers as emotional labourers, intent on satisfying students' consumerist desires, and balances the edifying mission of higher education institutions. This literature review is undertaken to contribute to this aim. It attempts to reflect AR from a number of perspectives and to consider its implications and limitations in regard to generating the...
Recently, there has been an increased volume of pedagogical research and practice of mobile learning (m-learning) and gameplay in education. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the effect on achievement and explored student perception towards quiz-game play prior to an anatomy assessment in first year Higher Education students. Achievement data was collected over two academic years at all module assessment (A1-A4) points. A1 was used as a baseline, showing no difference between groups or years, A2 and A3 were comparable online assessments done on the lower and upper limbs that followed the same format; A4 was a viva-voce to assess the whole module learning. The optional 15-minute quiz-gameplay intervention (G) using a mobile application was initiated prior to A3, those students who chose not to participate performed their traditional study routine; no other changes to assessments were made resulting in a Gameplay and non-gameplay (G, NG) group for each year. Students were invited to participate in an online focus group (N = 84) and a sample undertook indepth interviews (N = 9) to gain qualitative data on their perceptions of the intervention. Students who participated in the gameplay (G) group (N = 87) demonstrated a significant improvement in A3 compared to A2, and the non-game play (NG) group (N = 164) a significant decrease. A thematic analysis was undertaken on the focus group and interview data revealing key aspects of quiz-gameplay as a learning tool. This paper offers insight into the potential benefit of encouraging m-learning gameplay as part of revision or learning for anatomy students. This information could help educators and study support facilitate efficient revision methods as well as initiate further research into the use of anatomy gameplay to enhance the student learning experience.
Summary Introduction Body mass index (BMI) is often criticized for not being able to distinguish between lean and fat tissue. Waist circumference (WC), adjusted for stature, is proposed as an alternative weight status index, as it is more sensitive to changes in central adiposity. Purpose The purpose of the study is to combine the three dimensions of height, mass, and WC to provide a simple, meaningful, and more accurate index associated with percentage body fat (BF%). Methods We employed a four independent sample design. Sample 1 consisted of 551 children (320 boys) (mean ± SD of age = 7.2 ± 2.0 years), recruited from London, UK. Samples 2, 3, and 4 consisted of 5387 children (2649 boys) aged 7 to 17 years recruited from schools in Portugal. Allometric modelling was used to identify the most effective anthropometric index associated with BF%. The data from samples 2, 3, and 4 were used to confirm and cross‐validate the model derived in sample 1. Results The allometric models from all four samples identified a positive mass exponent and a negative height exponent that was approximately twice that of the mass exponent and a waist circumference exponent that was approximately half the mass exponent. Consequently, the body shape index most strongly associated with BF% was BMIWC. The WC component of the new index can simply be interpreted as a WC “weighting” of the traditional BMI. Conclusions Compared with using BMI and WC in isolation, BMIWC0.25emcould provide a more effective and equally noninvasive proxy for BF% in children that can be used in public and community health settings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.