Search Results for
"Students"

This study explores the development and implementation of specific rubrics for the assessment of competencies in the practicum of the Master’s Degree in Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Training, and Language Teaching (MCSE). Higher education programs, particularly in teacher training, including the Practicum of the MCSE, have generated a significant amount of written feedback to support competency assessment and professional development. Through an iterative collaborative process, assessment rubrics were developed and refined with twin focuses on the quality of students’ reports and their attitude during their practicums. The result is two rubrics that have better alignment of learning objectives and praxis and that can support more detailed and more objective assessment. Notably, the involvement of the tutoring team in the validation process was crucial in refining the competency of descriptors to provide comprehensive feedback and greater consistency of assessment. The involvement of tutors is essential, as they not only provide external perspectives that enrich the analysis of Practicum activities but also help clarify learning objectives and promote the development of students’ competencies. In this process of guidance and monitoring, rubrics stand out as effective tools for assessing acquired competencies, fostering teacher training that meets the contemporary needs of the educational environment. © 2025 Common Ground Research Networks. All rights reserved.

This study investigated postsecondary students’ team-level creative thinking using online peer assessment as a tool for electronic brainstorming. Student teams developed ideas for a public service announcement within the platform peerScholar. Following an explanatory sequential mixed method design, the researchers surveyed student perceptions of online peer assessment as a support for team-based creative thinking, then qualitatively analyzed textual interactions within teams that may have influenced those perceptions. Nine out of 10 teams gave a high score for online peer assessment supporting team-based creative thinking (M ≥ 3.8). However, scores varied across teams (ranging from M = 3.7 to 4.8), with strength in agreement of scoring within teams ranging from rWG = 0.67 to 0.96. Textual analysis revealed that students provided a range of Cognitive and Affective feedback. Affective feedback was often supportive, while Cognitive feedback tended to be direct but nonabrasive, usually involving suggestions or identifying issues with ideas. Teams that balanced Cognitive and Affective feedback tended to reach stronger agreement about online peer assessment supporting team-based creative thinking while maintaining high mean scores. These patterns indicate that integrating higher frequencies of both feedback may support team-based creativity by fostering a unified belief in the value of the collaborative work. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

We explored the role of workplace learning and mentoring in the relationship between future work self and career calling among students. The nationwide sample comprised 741 Science and Engineering students from six higher vocational colleges in China (female = 46.56%; mean age = 19.23 years, SD = 1.05 years). The students completed the Future Work Self Scale, the Internship-Related Learning Outcomes Scale, the Mentoring Functions Questionnaire, and the Chinese Calling Scale. The future work self was significantly associated with higher career calling. Workplace learning played a partial mediating role between future work self and career calling among students, resulting in higher career calling. Mentoring played a moderating role in the process of workplace learning on career calling, and the interaction between mentoring and workplace learning strongly influenced career calling, with a higher mentoring making it stronger. These findings suggest a need for mentored workplace learning interventions to support career calling among college students. © 2025 Africa Scholarship Development Enterprize.

Information and communication technology development in recent years has brought significant educational changes. Virtual learning environments (VLEs) provide students with interactive and flexible online learning. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the virtual lab platform (VLP) in improving students' programming skills, focusing on aspects of logic and algorithms, syntax and code structure, and variables and functions. The total sample of 64 students was chosen using a purposive sampling technique and was divided into the experimental group (34 students) and the control group (30 students). Data collection in this study involved several methods: programming skill tests, questionnaires, and monitoring VLP activity logs. According to research results, VLP improves students' programming skills more significantly than conventional methods. Data analysis shows significant differences between the experimental group with VLP and the control group with conventional methods, supporting the effectiveness of VLP as an alternative to learning. In addition, students' positive perception of VLP contributes significantly to learning motivation and ease of use, suggesting that learning technologies such as VLP can improve overall learning motivation. This study provides an empirical basis for educational institutions to consider VLP as a teaching strategy to increase students' learning potential in programming. © 2025 Malque Publishing. All rights reserved.

This article explores the implementation and sustainability of innovative educational practices in a joint collaborative research project involving Estonia and Lithuania. Four interventions following the Educational Learning Lab approach were designed to counteract drop-out from vocational education and training for young people at risk of social exclusion. The study investigates the conditions for vocational teachers' knowledge appropriation leading to sustainable innovation in the empowerment of vulnerable students. Through applying the Knowledge Appropriation Model to the design of intervention cases, data collection and analyses, the article discusses how knowledge maturation, scaffolding, and appropriation practices emerged during the Educational Learning Labs. © © 2025 Väljataga, Ümarik, Loogma, Bentsalo, Daukilas, Kaminskiene, Vaitkute, Gedviliene and Tutlys.

This study provides an overview of the level of students’ cognitive load in learning English in vocational schools. A quantitative descriptive study uses a cross-sectional survey conducted to measure the level of cognitive load of students in learning English in vocational schools. The subjects are 69 respondents who are students from one of the private vocational schools in Denpasar City. A questionnaire with 9 Likert scales is used to measure Intrinsic Cognitive Load (ICL) and Extraneous Cognitive Load (ECL). Data are analysed with 5 category scales based on the ideal score of the instrument used. The results show that Intrinsic Cognitive Load (ICL) dominates English learning in vocational schools compared to Extraneous Cognitive Load (ECL). The percentage of cognitive load level is dominated at a high level for Intrinsic Cognitive Load (ICL) and a medium level for Extraneous Cognitive Load (ECL). Because the results of this study explain the high cognitive load of Intrinsic Cognitive Load (ICL) level, it is recommended to balance the cognitive challenge in teaching materials so as not to burden students in learning English speaking in vocational schools. Future research should aim to examine the factors that influence these differences in cognitive load levels more comprehensively in a broader context to improve generalizability. © 2025, Universitas Negeri Makassar- Faculty of Languages and Literature. All rights reserved.

Diagnosing students’ misconceptions in engineering education is a crucial task for designing targeted instructional interventions. This study presents a new approach to the development and validation of Four-Tier Diagnostic Test as an instructional tool for assessing engineering students’ conceptual understanding and misconceptions. The study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the developed instrument and to identify the level of engineering students’ conceptual understanding and misconceptions in microwave engineering courses. A cohort of 141 undergraduate engineering students who took part in the course were administered with the developed 28-item Four-tier Diagnostic Test. Results of the study indicated that 24.7% of students demonstrated scientific knowledge, while 20.3% exhibited misconceptions. Regression analysis revealed a logarithmic relationship between students’ misconceptions and their overall performance, with misconceptions being present even among higher-performing students. Item response analysis using the mirt package showed that test items were effective in discriminating between students with different levels of conceptual understanding. While satisfactory KR-20 reliability coefficients for scientific knowledge (KR- 20=0.739 ) and misconceptions (KR- 20=0.749 ) were achieved respectively, the overall scale marginal conditional reliability (ρ > 0.907 ) indicates high precision of the instrument in measuring students’ conceptual attributes. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating how multi-tiered diagnostic assessment coupled with advanced psychometric approaches can enhance the precision of educational diagnostics test. © 2013 IEEE.

In this article, we examine how students’ practice in the subject vocational specialisation is assessed, with a particular focus on the cooperation between teachers and supervisors. The subject was introduced in 2006 to give students in vocational programmes the opportunity for vocational specialisation already during the school-based part of their education, and to provide them with a good basis for choosing a trade for apprenticeship. Particularly in the second year of vocational education and training (VET), vocational specialisation is mainly carried out in working life, and the regulations state that assessment in the subject must be based on cooperation between teacher and supervisor in the company. The study was conducted in the sales and tourism field and is based on qualitative interviews with both vocational teachers and supervisors. Our analysis indicates that teachers’ presence at the workplace and supervisors’ assessment skills are of particular importance for the cooperation between schools and working life on the assessment of students’ practice. We conclude that there is potential to further develop cooperation between school and working life on assessment in vocational specialisation and discusses possible measures and suggestions for further research. ©2025 Ida Kristine Larsen & Evi Schmid.

Universities are under increasing pressure to justify socio-economic benefits of degrees and to achieve positive graduate outcomes. Employability and career services are integral but require student engagement, which is often sporadic, reflecting the individuality of each learner journey. Adopting a qualitative methodology this study explored factors influencing student engagement, to inform future HE employability/careers practice. Thirty-one final year undergraduates at a post-92 university were interviewed, studying vocational disciplines including pre and post-pandemic cohorts for comparison. Thematic analysis revealed that students who embraced employability opportunities achieved career gains, but all were distracted beyond academic life. Whilst the pandemic was a compounding factor this was no more prominent than family, relationships, and finances. Bourdieusian principles were evident, magnified by the vocational discipline that students were studying. students shared psychographic characteristics and vocational habitus, whilst expressing individual dispositions, and behaviours, which were changeable, conflicting, and influenced by multi-layered structures, and fields where they were positioned. This impacted careership and self-efficacy. Disengagement with employability/careers services was prominent, indicating pastoral, academic and professional support teams must align more closely. An individualised and fluid approach is recommended, providing an effective balance between laissez-faire employability guidance and more controlled and prescriptive support for students at risk. © The Author(s) 2025.

Supervisor support is essential to the success of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences, yet previous research suggests supervisors need more practical guidance on supporting students. This paper aims to identify the areas of supervisor support that need the most improvement through a concurrent triangulated mixed-method research design. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via an online cross-sectional survey of co-operative education students (N = 323). Quantitative data were analyzed through importance-performance (IP) analysis and qualitative data were thematically analyzed to confirm and elaborate on the quantitative findings. The study revealed gaps between the support students want to receive and the support that supervisors offer, the largest gap concerning constructive feedback. The findings coalesced into a conceptual model of supervisor support called the 4C Model, an acronym that represents four ways supervisors should support their students: create meaningful work, communicate regularly and effectively, connect students to the organization, and care about students. The model will help WIL practitioners educate supervisors about how best to support students. © 2025 HERDSA.