Learning and Teaching (LATISS)

In this issue of Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, authors from the United Kingdom, Peru and Australia report on empirical research carried out with students or academics. Two of the articles are about the internationalisation of higher education, a theme this journal has covered quite extensively in the past. The other two articles concern the use of digital tools for teaching remotely and the design of a course unit to promote a sense of community amongst first-year undergraduates.

This article studies the multicultural experience of students who completed a group project in an undergraduate economics course. Students were required to work in groups of four consisting of at least two nationalities. Feedback on this multicultural experience was gathered through a questionnaire. The results show strong support for intervention by academic staff to promote multicultural interactions on campus, identify many benefits and highlight potential challenges. We found evidence that students interacted on topics wider than the project topic itself, such as differences in culture, university life, and leisure activities, and that almost half of them agreed that their quality of work improved when they worked in mixed groups. Cultural diversity in group work should be built into the early years of degree programmes to help students develop multicultural competency.

Many studies have addressed the needs and challenges of international students in their host countries; however, there is relatively less work on the potential contributions these students make to their curricula. This article presents a bibliographic analysis of the academic references (n = 7,273) used by Chinese students to construct their final essays on the theme of education and international development at a leading global university based in the United Kingdom. It examines (1) what knowledge resources are used in their essays; and (2) what the characteristics and patterns of these choices are. When allowed to construct their own essays, Chinese students appear to choose to use a significant proportion of Chinese knowledge resources within English academic essays. This use increases when their lecturers and tutors explain and accept the value of non-English academic resources. This article then discusses the implications of this result for lecturers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the major concerns at the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de América Latina (UCAL; the University of Sciences and Arts of Latin America) has been to keep offering high-quality education with effective teaching methodologies and creativity at its core. This article aims to describe and understand the use of digital tools for class preparation, synchronous encounters, storage, interaction, collaborative work and assessment by UCAL's instructors in creative careers. It finds that instructors were proactive about learning and using a variety of digital tools. Gamification apps and interactive boards were instructors’ favourites because they tended to motivate their students the most. No statistically significant associations were found between tool selection and course, sex, or age. Based on the evidence, this article will propose general guidelines for a training plan for instructors.

Transitioning to university can be challenging for many first-year students. This study focusses on a Health and Physical Education (HPE) subject delivered at an Australian regional university and designed to support first-year preservice teachers training to teach in primary schools. The aim of this mixed-methods research was to investigate if a purposely structured first-year HPE subject could support primary preservice teachers’ confidence to (1) be part of a community of learners; (2) promote success and retention at university; and (3) develop the skills for teaching HPE, specifically, Fundamental Movement Skills. Survey results indicated 90 per cent or more of the preservice teachers’ self-reported confidence across the three areas being investigated. Interview responses highlighted the importance of well-structured coursework and real-world learning experiences in developing confidence for teaching HPE.

Barbara Bassot (2020), The Research Journal: A Reflective Tool for Your First Independent Research Project. Bristol: Policy Press, 188 pp., ISBN: 978-1-4473-5278-5

David J. Staley (2019), Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 268pp., ISBN: 978-1-4214-2741-6

Keyan G. Tomaselli (2021), Contemporary Campus Life: Transformation, Manic Managerialism and Academentia. Cape Town: Best Red, 245pp., ISBN: 978-1-928246-26-8