University students' perceptions of influences on external studies     

Agnes E. Dodds  Jeanette A. Lawrence  Patrick de C. Guiton 《Distance Education》1984,5(2):174-185

Fifty‐three external university students and a comparison group of 51 on‐campus social and political theory students responded to a written questionnaire on their perceptions of the factors influencing their external studies. Responses were obtained to objective questions and by written open‐ended advice to two hypothetical prospective external students.

In both sets of responses students identified family, job and life circumstances as major influences on external university study.. Advantages of external study were self‐reliance and finances, and disadvantages were related to access to the library and academics' demands. Students expressed preference for studying on‐campus or by the combination of campus and external courses which was available at the university. The study provides base‐line data about students' perceptions of contextual frames or constraints on external study.  相似文献   

How should the higher education workforce adapt to advancements in technology for teaching and learning?     

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme 《The Internet and Higher Education》2012,15(4):247-254

In a time of change, higher education is in the position of having to adapt to external conditions created by widespread adoption of popular technologies such as social media, social networking services and mobile devices. For faculty members, there must be opportunities for concrete experiences capable of generating a personal conviction that a given technology is worth using and an understanding of the contexts in which it is best used. The paper examines approaches to educational professional development at The Open University, including recent initiatives related to faculty development in relation to mobile learning. The paper reflects on what can be learnt from these experiences and proposes a lifelong learning perspective which can help the higher education workforce to adapt. Faculty members have to commit to lifelong learning, remembering that ‘professional role model’ to students is one of the main roles of the teacher.  相似文献   

The effects of expressions of fear induced by background music on reading comprehension     

Agnes S.K. Wong  Matthew Moreno  Samantha Burns  Earl Woodruff 《Journal of Research in Reading》2023,46(2):143-162

Background

Research has suggested that background music can have a positive or negative effect that can influence the affective state of individuals. Although research has demonstrated that fear negatively influences our cognitive performance, there is a research gap in understanding the combined effects of different background music tempo and fear in influencing reading comprehension performance.

Methods

Data were collected from 70 participants enrolled at a public university in Canada. Participants were required to listen to background music of varying speeds with three conditions (no music, slow music and fast music). We adopted a cross-sectional multi-level modelling approach for the main analyses, and further analyses using t-test and ANOVA.

Results

Results indicated that expression of fear was not a significant predictor of participants' reading comprehension performance (Model 1). However, when music condition was added (Model 2) in addition to expression of fear, a significant relationship between reading comprehension performance and music condition was found, showing better reading comprehension performance in the slow music condition than in the no music condition. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between music condition and expression of fear on reading comprehension performance (Model 3). Importantly, not all individuals were affected by the music to the same extent, with the possibility that baseline level of fear being the key issue in influencing comprehension performance.

Conclusions

Considering both expression of fear and music condition is required to understand the combined effects on cognitive performance. Expression of fear during cognitive tasks such as reading could be an essential signal that interventions should be applied. Such strategies may be especially beneficial for task performers with higher baseline levels of fear and possibly provide us with insights for best practice and research implications in the field of reading comprehension among individuals with special needs.

  相似文献