Browsing by Author "Campbell, Anita"

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    Avoiding frustrations of unprepared students with online quizzes
    (Clute Institute, 2013) Campbell, Anita; Rajaratnam, Kanshukan
    The hierarchical nature of many degrees enables higher-level courses to build on knowledge that has been developed in earlier courses. However, when students enter with weak prior knowledge, lecturers have to spend time addressing this before starting with the new material. This adds time pressure and frustration to lecturers as well as students who have strong prior knowledge. In this paper, we discuss a strategy that we implemented in order to encourage students to revise or learn prerequisite material at the beginning of a master's level module. Students were asked to take an online quiz on the prerequisite topics. Immediate feedback directed the students to resources which could enhance their knowledge and understanding of the material prior to course commencement. We discuss the multiple benefits this had, for both students and the lecturer, drawing on students' written responses to reflective questions about the experience and reflections from the lecturer on the use of online quizzes.
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    Enabling 'growth mindsets' in engineering students
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Campbell, Anita; Craig, Tracy; Collier-Reed, Brandon
    Student failure is often attributed to a lack of work by students. While this view has some merit, it implies that only students need to change and reduces the incentive for lecturers, curricula, assessment practices to be interrogated. In this thesis, I take a comprehensive look into why students do not work. Firstly, I place social psychology factors in context with other factors that impact student success and show how beliefs about academic ability underpin the academic behaviour that leads to success. By placing a learning theory lens on six characteristics of fixed mindsets (beliefs that ability can only be developed to an individually pre-determined level) and growth mindsets (beliefs that that effective effort will lead to unlimited self-improvement), I develop a theoretical framework that explains how both fixed and growth mindsets can be encouraged by teaching practices. As students with fixed mindsets may be more vulnerable to dropping out of university, lecturers should be aware of the mindset messages they are sending to students through their words, actions and choice of activities and assessment practices. To address the question of how growth mindsets can be developed, I present results from a systematic literature review of growth mindset interventions aimed at engineering students, drawing on databases in education, engineering, and psychology. The findings show that most interventions involved informing students about mindsets and asking students to reflect on or teach others about mindsets, using personal examples. An intervention was devised to develop growth mindsets in engineering students through tutoring groups on the social media platform WhatsApp. Poor group functioning was addressed using a design-based research approach for the establishment of effective groups. Unexpectedly, assessments of engineering students' mindsets through surveys and interviews showed very low numbers of students with fixed mindset views. Reasons for this result are explained by categorizing growth mindset enablers identified from literature and comparing the literature findings with interview data from engineering students. The thesis culminates by contributing a critique on mindset assessment and a framework for creating learning environments conducive to student success.
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    Enhancing students' learning through practical knowledge taught by industry professionals
    (Clute Institute, 2013) Rajaratnam, Kanshukan; Campbell, Anita
    A topic of interest in teaching business courses is incorporating the practical aspect of the subject matter into teaching as this helps to bridge theory and real-world practice. Research indicates that students gain a deeper understanding of material when theory is contextualized through real-life practical examples. However, given the traditional career-path of academics in finance in countries such as South Africa, a significant proportion of finance lecturers have little or no relevant practical experience in the subject matter. In this paper, we discuss a strategy implemented in finance courses at sophomore and senior levels in order to link theory and practice. Guest speakers were invited from industry to contextualize the topics for the students. Students' perceptions on the benefit they derived from the speakers were deduced from statistical analyses of student evaluations. The results indicate that the experience was positive and aided in their understanding of the subject.
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    A new selection model for the academic development programme for engineering at UCT
    (SASEE, 2018-02-16) Campbell, Anita; Craig, Tracy S; le Roux, Pierre
    The Academic Support Programme for Engineering at the University of Cape Town (ASPECT) has operated under a slowly evolving model since its inception in 1989. Different models of access and curriculum are frequently under consideration and in 2014 we had the opportunity to put into practice a new model, involving self-selection and delayed transition into ASPECT driven by first term assessment. In this paper we present a historical overview, reflect on the 2014 experiences of students and staff in light of relevant theory and conclude with an argument in favour of the delayed transition model.