The transition from secondary education to the first year of higher education is a phase in which students are faced with many challenges. First-year students may lack the academic capital that is needed to understand explicit and implicit rules of higher education. We investigated students’ participation in a preacademic program and the development of their academic capital. In a mixed method study, we showed that first-year students who participated in a preacademic program perceived peer mentors and teachers to be relevant sources of information, learned how to overcome educational barriers, and became more acquainted with explicit and implicit college requirements.
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The transition from secondary education to the first year of higher education is a phase in which students are faced with many challenges. First-year students may lack the academic capital that is needed to understand explicit and implicit rules of higher education. We investigated students’ participation in a preacademic program and the development of their academic capital. In a mixed method study, we showed that first-year students who participated in a preacademic program perceived peer mentors and teachers to be relevant sources of information, learned how to overcome educational barriers, and became more acquainted with explicit and implicit college requirements.
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These are hard days for companies: they have to survive in a market that has been hit by a financial crisis. Many countries in Europe have severe problems trying to overcome this financial crisis. The main remedy applied by governments is to cut back on expenditure, but on the other hand it is said that it is important for a country, and especially for companies, to invest in innovation. These innovations should lead to innovative products that will lead to profitability turnovers for these companies and, as a consequence, improve the economic conditions in a country. Universities provide students with engineering competences, like develop innovation, with which they can show a higher degree of ability to answer complex questions such as how to become players in the market again. Teaching students to become more innovative engineers, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Engineering, has designed a curriculum in which students are educated in the competence innovation. An important element in the process of teaching innovation to students is the approach of inquiring into possibilities of patents. In the second semester of the first year, students can decide to join an innovative project called: ‘The invention project’. The basis of this project is that students are given the opportunity to create their own invention and with their previously acquired knowledge and skills they design, calculate, prototype and present their invention. In a research project, the experiences of students in this Invention Project have been analysed. The goal of this study was to understand what the success factors are for such a project. The basis of this inquiry is a questionnaire to identify the opinions of students. The research was carried out in the spring semester of 2012. In total 31 students were involved in this research. The results show that there was a high degree of student satisfaction about the Invention Project focused on innovation development. Success factors for this project in the first year of the curriculum were seen: 1 to work on own inventions, 2 development of student’s perception of the total product creation process and 3 to make students see the relevance of contacts with real professionals from industry and from the patent office in their own project. Improvements can be made by: 1 helping students more during the creativity stage in the project and 2 to coach them more on the aspect of engineering a successful invention of which they can be proud. This Invention project is a interesting with which collaborations with other universities can be set up.
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In this paper I investigate the differences between the 960 first year students at the department of Media, Information and Communication (MIC) of the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam (UASA) in their use of new media and their background variables. With statistical test the various variables will be measured and compared with each other in order to give insight in the distribution of the variables among the students and possible relations between new media use and the students’ background. This study is part of a broader PhD research that investigates the relation between aspects of media literacy and students’ success. Therefore, the background variables that had proven to be factors of influence in student success by previous studies were also measured in this study. The use of new media was measured in the same survey amongst the students. The digital questionnaire was part of the career counselling course and mandatory for all students. With the insight of the distribution and relations between the different variables and the use of new media, this study will provide us a better few on the differences between the so-called Internet generation. Especially in the Netherlands, where 98% of all households with children have access to the Internet, a closer look into the differences could provide useful information for future research in digital divide and it’s shift from access to skills and differences in usage of the Internet.
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The first year of study is very exciting for many students. Everything is new: the school, your schedule, the teachers, and your fellow students. How can a university ensure a smooth transition for first-year students? For this, Inholland launched the Students for Students (S4S) project in the 2019-2020 academic year. In this project, second-year students (studentcoaches) support first-year students with their studies. They do this based on their own experience and the training they receive during their year as studentcoaches. Research shows that peer-mentoring is very successful in aiding first-year students through their first year of the study program. Peer-mentoring has the potential to increase well-being, social bonding, the feeling of belonging, and student resilience. It also ensures smoother academic integration, as peer-mentoring focuses on developing academic skills as well. Additionally, a studentcoach is often a low threshold point of contact for students where they can go with questions.
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Study orientation tools are frequently grounded in the notion that achieving person-environment (PE) fit is key to academic success. Nevertheless, the literature reveals two notable gaps: the focus on predictive rather than explanatory role of PE fit within a broader set of variables, and its varying impact on outcomes across study programmes. This study aimed to address these gaps by investigating the relative importance of PE fit within a comprehensive set of pre-enrolment predictors to predict programme-specific persistence. We analysed data from 1305 prospective first-year students across five study programmes, with at least 200 students per programme. Data analysis included propensity score weighting and logistic LASSO regressions with cross-validation. The results indicated prediction accuracy in each programme ranging from 67% to 77% in the training data, which reduced to 50–75% in the test data, reflecting good prediction of persistence but challenges in predicting dropout. Inspection of the retained predictors revealed varying predictors across study programmes, with interest and skill fit variables representing the largest effects. This study underscores the necessity of programme-specific predictions to understand the relationship between PE fit and first-year persistence. The findings lay the groundwork for more personalised feedback in study orientation tools.
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Before the start and during the first weeks of their first year, it has been observed by teachers that engineering students start with a high level of motivation, which often seems to decrease during the course of the first semesters. Such a decrease in motivation can be a main driver for students dropping out of University early. A qualitative research will be carried out to answer the main questions that have been raised within the engineering department of the Fontys University of Applied sciences: to what extent does a decrease in the motivation of first-year students exists, exactly when during the course of the first year does this decrease occur and what are the underlying reasons causing this decline in motivation? Gaining more insight in the motivation drop of students could result in modifications to the curriculum. The final objectives are reducing the dropout level of students in the first year and increasing the quality level of young propaedeutics. In [1] and [2] studies are carried out to measure student’s motivation constructs, which have been carried out for first year Engineering students. The authors describe a certain level of motivation drop for first year students at an Engineering University. In Geraedts 2010 [3] it is defined that Maslow rules for students can be seen as an element of a student’s perception onto his or hers education. Often it can be observed that in most cases undergraduates start their education as an unconscious insufficient competent student having a very limited view on the work arena and complexity of the engineering discipline. Quickly after the start of the education year this view develops into a more defined perception of what the content and complexity of the future work field is and what is expected of the student during his or hers education. It is hypothesised that this gain in insights of the student into the work field and the related expectations is a significant contributor to the decline of intrinsic motivation. In this paper the investigated hypothesis and possible other aspects that influence the motivation of students will be presented. Based on results, potential corrective and preventive measures will be defined and discussed. Corrective and predictive measures depend on the results of this study and could be aimed for instance at: 1) making adjustments to the content and/or structure of the first semester curriculum, 2) improving the support of students in making adaptations into a better learning strategy and 3) improve the information on-which students decide to start a mechanical engineering education. This paper will focus on the first year mechanical engineering students of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences. About 100 first year students will be questioned using predefined questionnaires and additionally 20 of them will be interviewed for validation. References [1] Brett D. Jones, Marie C. Paretti, Serge F. Hein, Tamarra W. Knott, An analysis of Motivation Constructs with first-Year Engineering students, Journal of Engineering Education; Oct 2010; 99, 4; Research Library pg. 319 [2] L. Benson, A Kirn, B. Morkos, CAREER: Student Motivation and Learning in Engineering, 120th ASEE annual conference & Exposition June 2013 [3] HGM Geraedts (2010) Innovative learning for innovation ISBN 978-90-5284-624-8 4751
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Background: Despite increasing shortages of highly educated community nurses, far too few nursing students choose community care. This means that a strong societal problem is emerging that desperately needs resolution.Objectives: To acquire a solid understanding of the causes for the low popularity of community care by exploring first-year baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of community care, their placement preferences, and theassumptions underlying these preferences.Design: A quantitative cross-sectional design.Settings: Six universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.Participants: Nursing students in the first semester of their 4-year programme (n =1058).Methods: Data were collected in September–December 2014. The students completed the ‘Scale on Community Care Perceptions’ (SCOPE), consisting of demographic data and three subscales measuring the affective componentof community care perception, perceptions of a placement and a profession in community care, and students' current placement preferences. Descriptive statistics were used.Results: For a practice placement, 71.2% of first-year students prefer the general hospital and 5.4% community care, whereas 23.4% opt for another healthcare area. Students consider opportunities for advancement and enjoyable relationships with patients as most important for choosing a placement. Community care is perceived as a ‘low-status-field’ with many elderly patients, where students expect to find little variety in caregiving and few opportunities for advancement. Students' perceptions of the field are at odds with things they believe to be important for their placement.Conclusion: Due to misconceptions, students perceive community care as offering them few challenges. Strategies to positively influence students' perceptions of community nursing are urgently required to halt thedissonance between students' preference for the hospital and society's need for highly educated community nurses.
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Background/aim We aimed to investigate the magnitude and characteristics of injuries and illnesses in Dutch physical education teacher education (PETE) students.Methods During the first 21 weeks of the academic year, 245 first-year students registered their health problems online using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre (OSTRC) Questionnaire on Health Problems.Results A total of 276 injuries, 140 illnesses and 69 unclassified health problems were reported. We found an injury incidence rate of 11.7 injuries per 1000 hours (95% CI 10.4 to 13.2). Injury characteristics were: 42% overuse injuries, 62% causing absence from sports (median injury time loss=2 days) and 64% reinjuries. Most injuries were located at the knee, lower leg (anterior) and ankle. The duration of the illnesses was short (<1 week).Summary and conclusions We implemented a new registration method in the PETE academic programme. The results show that the risk for health problems is high for PETE students. Prevention is necessary, and to decrease injuries prevention programmes should focus on the lower extremities.
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An on-going investigation in the learning effects of IPD projects. In three subsequent semesters the students were asked how they rated their competencies at the start of the project as well as at the end of it. Also questionnaires were filled out and students were interviewed. A lot of students tended to give themselves lower ratings in the end than in the begin. It appeared that if they met any difficulties in for instance communication or co-operation during the project, that they interpreted this as a decrease in competencies. Finally the students were explicitly asked to mention an eventual increase in competencies and also a possible contribution for this effect. Only a few factors that actually contribute to the learning effects have been defined.
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