Search Results for
"Higher education"

This study examines the effectiveness of Smart Home Training Kits in enhancing higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) among vocational education students. The research follows a quasi-experimental design involving two groups: an experimental group utilizing Smart Home Training Kits and a control group employing traditional instructional methods. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to evaluate improvements in critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. Results indicate a significant improvement in HOTS within the experimental group, demonstrating superior performance in analyzing, evaluating, and synthesis of potential solutions related to smart home concepts. Furthermore, the Smart Home Training Kits provided detailed, practical insights into technical principles, allowing students to gain a more realistic understanding of complex topics. The findings suggest that integrating Smart Home Training Kits into vocational curricula could bridge the gap between theory and practice, fostering critical thinking and innovation skills essential in addressing modern workplace challenges. © 2025; Los autores.

Most research on feedback in higher education focuses on evaluative feedback and its recipience, uptake, and enactment. Evaluative feedback information includes judgments, critiques and suggestions for improvement provided by a teacher, peer, self, pre-programmed automatic feedback, or artificial intelligence tutoring systems. In contrast, we elaborate the neglected concept of consequential feedback. Consequential feedback offers information about the natural effect (consequence) of an action, such as getting burned when touching a hot stove, eliciting a laugh (or not) from a comedy routine, or the trajectory of a newly designed model rocket. This information is available during (simulated) professional/disciplinary/social practice when using professional or disciplinary tools or systems (e.g. stoves), audiences, clients, or products (e.g. comedy routines or rockets). We discuss how this concept builds on and extends the literature on feedback in higher education. We draw on examples from the health professions, business, mathematics and the arts to illustrate how we can harness the power of consequential feedback to create more impactful feedback. We centre educational simulations, first considering how non-human actors offer consequential feedback and then how human interactions embedded in role plays present consequential feedback. We conclude by exploring implications for research and practice. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Although personal values are considered the critical psychological factor influencing individuals’ motivation, behavior, and preferences, their role in influencing international students’ university selection criteria has been largely overlooked. To fill this gap, 47 international students at a private Southwest university in the United States were interviewed and analyzed through the Means-End Chain (MEC) approach. The Hierarchical Value Model shows that achievement, self-direction (thought and action), security (personal and societal), and hedonistic values were the most important values influencing their choices. By adopting the MEC approach, this study contributes to education psychology literature by highlighting the importance of personal values in determining international students’ university selection criteria. © 2024 Society for Research into higher education.

STEM education is crucial for driving economic growth, fostering technological innovation, and addressing global challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2023, Malaysia and India emerged as leading contributors to STEM education. Malaysia excels with approximately 43.5% of tertiary students earning STEM degrees, while India, with 34.0% of its students in STEM, tops the global charts in STEM graduates due to its massive population of about 1.4 billion. With nine of the top ten emerging jobs by 2025 projected to be in STEM fields, these nations are well-positioned to meet future workforce demands. Recognizing this, we examined key challenges in STEM education and calls for strategic investments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We leveraged the PRISMA-ScR framework and content analysis of literature from 2010 to 2024, identifying seven STEM education challenges across all levels of educational institutions: Teaching practices, learning approaches, gender disparities, location, career interest, student enrollment, and student soft skills. The most pressing challenges in STEM education are teaching practices, learning approaches, and gender disparities, with issues most pronounced at the secondary school level and continuing into higher education. The study‘s findings advance theoretical understanding of STEM education obstacles and provide a foundation for further research. Practically, this work offers crucial insights for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders, enabling the development of targeted interventions to improve teaching quality, enhance learning experiences, and foster gender inclusivity in STEM. Addressing these issues is vital to advancing Sustainable Development Goal 4, promoting a more accessible, equitable, and impactful STEM education across the Asia-Pacific region. This study thus enriches the literature on the challenges of STEM education by offering a comprehensive, unbiased review of past research, drawing broader conclusions, and outlining pathways for future exploration. © 2025 AIMS Press.