Search Results (7)

Background/Objectives: Numerous studies have examined nursing students’ academic dishonesty; however, there is still a gap in understanding the predictors of such behavior. This study aimed to identify personal (intrapersonal and interpersonal) and contextual factors predicting nursing students’ dishonesty during clinical training. Methods: A two-phase, prospective, predictive study was conducted at a nursing faculty in Croatia. The validated “Mentor Support Evaluation Questionnaire” was used in the first phase to assess students’ evaluations of the quality of mentor support during clinical training. The validated instruments “Optimism/Pessimism Scale” and “Nursing Student Perceptions of Dishonesty Scale” were used in the second phase to examine self-reported dishonesty and its contributing factors. The second phase also investigated the students’ knowledge of the university’s ethical and disciplinary regulations. Results: Of 398 participants, 195 (48.9%) reported engaging in clinical dishonesty. Hierarchical regression analysis identified critical predictors of frequent clinical dishonesty: lack of fear of consequences (β = −0.072), positive attitudes toward dishonesty (β= −0.081), higher incidence of academic dishonesty in the classroom (β = 0.221), lack of knowledge of the university’s regulations (β = −0.349), and low quality of mentor support (β = −0.430). The final model explained 60.7% of the variance in participants’ clinical dishonesty (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The identified predictors indicate that interpersonal factors, i.e., the quality of mentor support, influence students’ clinical dishonesty more than intrapersonal factors (e.g., attitudes or knowledge). Contextual factors (healthcare employment and study overload) were unrelated to clinical dishonesty. This finding can help develop strategies to reduce nursing students’ dishonesty and improve patient safety. Full article

An individual’s social identity, often overlooked in Europe in the field of Spanish as a second or foreign language (S2L/SFL), has always been the focus of attention in the teaching of heritage Spanish in the USA, especially in programmes designed from critical pedagogy and based on a reconstructive narrative of Latino immigration. There, heritage speakers (HS) strengthen their identity as linguistic experts and contribute to positive social change that counteracts the scholastic subordination of Spanish to English in primary schools. In this research based on verified questionnaires, we investigate in the European context (Italy, Poland, Germany, Portugal, and Belgium) how primary–middle school HSs attending extracurricular S2L/SFL classes self-perceive their identity in comparison to S2L/SFL students. The results show that the incidence of the factor “country of origin” is central to identity recognition and highlight the feelings linked to different classroom conditions and dynamics for heritage and S2L/SFL students. To conclude, these results are contrasted with those obtained in the United States. Full article

This exploratory qualitative study sought to understand the role of transformational leadership in promoting educational sustainability (ES) through examining three classroom critical incidents. For this undertaking, the study employed a quadratic method integrating four theories: Ethnomethodology (particularly indexicality and contextualization), Flanders’ Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC), Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS), and Transformational Leadership (TL). Two of the three incidents took place during face-to-face classes, while the third transpired online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses of teachers’ TL and communication strategies were administered, and each respective event was unfolded, explored, and evaluated qualitatively through a bidirectional model designed by the researchers. Data were collected and the study revealed that teachers demonstrated varied levels of TL based on their perceptions of incidents, the awareness of their professional roles as leaders, and the linguistic choices they made. In addition, analyzing the results of teachers’ discourses, TL was demonstrated to be a leverage point for promoting educational sustainability. Proven to be an effective tool, the bidirectional model can be advocated by policy makers to help teachers assume their roles as leaders, and even to qualify them as leaders. Full article

This study seeks to explore social representations and attitudes of university teachers in relation to sexual diversity. The study has a qualitative approach through content analysis. The research was collected through 62 critical incidents with university professors, with at least one year of experience in undergraduate teaching, in five universities located in the northern macro zone of Chile. The results highlight that there are teachers who take on three different types of roles when faced with situations of gender diversity.. Some are in favour of the inclusion of the sexual minority community, others are more like external observers and a third group, with little interest in inclusion, practice for the students belonging to sexual minorities, within the diversity of the university classrooms. Many teachers tend to contain and compensate for the scarce support that sexually diverse young people have within their families. Teachers demand more training than they currently have in order to be able to carry out adequate interventions in the classroom. Finally, the number of feelings and emotions described by teachers in the face of events and experiences related to sexual diversity in their university institutions is highly significant. Full article

Strong communication skills, in varied professional settings, have become an absolute necessity for young professionals. Therefore, university educators are challenged to provide novice specialists with the effective foreign language training that could bring the real professional world into the classroom. This study suggests an innovative method for teaching communication skills to students, through the use of real-life scenarios, drawn from the professional context. The core objective of the research was to define whether the scenario-based instruction could effectively enhance the development of professional communication skills of students in the context of university foreign language training. The data were collected through active observation and critical incidents technique, analyzed and summarized by means of descriptive statistics. The results of the study indicate the efficacy of scenario-based communication training in higher education. However, scenario-based instruction requires careful assessment of learners’ needs and expectations, thoughtful selection and design of teaching materials, and the development of an active learning environment. Full article

Unexpected conflicts, or eruptions, in class during discussions of controversial issues are not uncommon in the field of English language teaching (ELT). This can be especially true for critical English language teachers who hope to address social justice issues in their classrooms. Existing literature of these events often mentions emotional responses of teachers and students, without fully analyzing the ways in which emotions are processed and constrained around these eruptions. This article examines a homophobic incident during an in-service English language teacher course taught by the author to illustrate ways in which emotions shaped the response to the incident, and how social justice aims can be achieved for critical language teachers in emotionally challenging environments, where there may be competing claims of injustice and narratives of oppression. Drawing on feminist theories of emotion, the case is made for a conceptualization of emotions not as private, individual experiences, but rather as public, socioculturally and materially mediated experiences. Social justice is theorized as an active fight against injustices that cannot be seen as an individual, isolated effort. Implications for critical language educators are shared. Full article

The purpose of this study is to investigate how constant changes in team allocation within a modified flipped team-based learning (FTBL) study can affect student’s perception of a course (gathered by an online questionnaire) and academic performance. This teaching strategy is a team-based learning (TBL) approach combined with flipped classroom learning methodology, in which BSc students studying pharmaceutical science/biotechnology courses in a UK satellite campus in China preview online lectures and apply their knowledge in different in-class activities. The students are randomly assigned into teams in each session. The project was run across the full academic year (sixteen sessions). Students’ perceptions regarding modified FTBL were statistically analyzed, and their academic performance was compared with previous results obtained by the initial FTBL study. Although students initially showed reluctance to leave their ‘comfort zone’—the main limitation of this study—our findings show that learners perceived benefits to the adoption of continued random allocation, which resulted in the removal of limitations from their social clustering and eventual accustomization to this learning approach. Modified FTBL assisted students in enhancing their team-work skills, improving their academic performance, developing their reflective capabilities, improving their rapport building skills, learning and academic performance. Learners also believed that this learning strategy creates critical incidents that can simulate their future work environment, as they might be expected to work in unfamiliar situations. Therefore, the present study indicated strong support for the modified FTBL method, which was seen to work exceptionally well despite some minor problems that students experienced working in a team with different teammates in every session. Full article