Despite a tiered system of higher education was introduced in Russia quite a long time ago, there still exist some problems with the training of masters, which reduces the attractiveness of most ...engineering master degree programmes. The paper introduces an approach to identify and evaluate the factors influencing the attractiveness of the master degree programmes for the students. The main contribution of this research is providing ways to increase, first, the master degree programme attractiveness and, second, the students' motivation.
This study explores physiotherapists' perspectives on the experience of undertaking study at master's level and the impact of this process on specific areas of their professional lives.
Practising ...physiotherapists who had completed physiotherapy taught master's courses provided by a UK university took part in a focus group interview. The results were transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. Undertaking study at master's level had an immense impact on the participants of the study. It had enhanced career progression, development of clinical practice, and had a wider enhancing effect on aspects of participants' lives. This enhancing effect was mainly attributed to the acquisition of higher skills and knowledge, an increase in confidence, adoption of a positive attitude towards change, and the opening-up of career opportunities and options.
In contrast to the enhancing effect of master's level study, some barriers were faced in the workplace which, although they were not direct effects of the master's programmes, were the results of returning to clinical practice with higher ability and expectations. These barriers to individuals' professional development were the under-use of professionals' potential, an unrewarding career structure, the resistance to change by forces of the workplace, and the negative attitudes of some professional groups towards master's qualified physiotherapists. The value of master's level study is discussed, with particular reference to its relevance to clinical practice and the development of expertise.
Fit for purpose: the relevance of Masters preparation for the professional practice of nursing. A 10‐year follow‐up study of postgraduate nursing courses in the University of Edinburgh
Continuing ...education is now recognized as essential if nursing is to develop as a profession. United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) consultations are currently seeking to establish appropriate preparation for a ‘higher level of practice’ in the United Kingdom. The relevance of Masters level education to developing professional roles merits examination. To this end the results of a 10‐year follow‐up study of graduates from the Masters programme at the University of Edinburgh are reported. The sample was the entire cohorts of nurses who graduated with a Masters degree in the academic sessions from 1986 to 1996. A postal questionnaire was designed consisting of mainly closed questions to facilitate coding and analysis but also including some open questions to allow for more qualitative data to be elicited. The findings indicated clearly that the possession of an MSc degree opened up job opportunities and where promotion was not identified, the process of study at a higher level was still perceived as relevant to the work environment. This applied as much to the context of clinical practice as to that of management, education or research. The perceived enhancement of clinical practice from a generic Masters programme was considered a significant finding. Also emerging from the data was an associated sense of personal satisfaction and achievement that related to the acquisition of academic skills and the ultimate reward of Masters status. The concept of personal growth, however, emerged as a distinct entity from that of satisfaction and achievement, relating specifically to the concept of intellectual sharing, the broadening of perspectives and the development of advanced powers of reasoning.
Background. Literature on the evaluation of the Master’s Degree in Nursing is scarce. The objective of this pilot study was to test a questionnaire aimed at monitoring the activities of nurses after ...receiving the Master’s degree.
Methods. An electronic questionnaire was administered to 36 graduates who obtained the Master’s degree during the academic year 2010/2011.
Results. Almost 80% of the participants judged their level of improvement in knowledge and skills during the course to have been satisfactory, but the level of implementation of these competencies at work was quite low.
Conclusion. Competencies acquired during the Master’s degree course are not always put into practice.
In this article, personality-related learning outcomes in education and teacher training Master programs are defined as professionally relevant personality traits, of which personal and professional ...identity are the core. An empirical study involved undergraduates in Educational Psychology Master programs (60 in the first round and 35 in the second one). The study used Lydia Schneider’s personal and professional identity diagnostic methods, L. Michelson’s communicative competence test adapted by Y. Gilbukh, and Mehrabian and Epstein’s empathy scale. It was established that Master’s degree students experienced significant changes to their professional identity in the course of their programs, making considerable progress in the development of communicative competence and empathy. Professionally relevant personality traits were found to show ambivalent dynamics during the first and second years of Master studies. The article outlines avenues of further research on educational psychology assessment of personality-related learning outcomes in Master programs.
Objective: To empirically examine whether the educational background of child welfare supervisors in Florida affects performance evaluations of their work. Method: A complete population sample ...(yielding a 58.5% response rate) of administrator and peer evaluations of child welfare workers' supervisors. ANOVA procedures were utilized to test if performance scores on a multitude of items differed for supervisors with university degrees in social work, psychology, sociology, criminology, education, business, and other fields. Results: The ratings of social workers' skills and competency did not statistically differ from those supervisors with other educational backgrounds on 30 measures of performance. Conclusions: Educational background of child welfare supervisors is a poor predictive variable of their performance as evaluated by their superiors and peers. However, more research is needed to determine if performance evaluations of supervisors are positively correlated with successful service outcomes with clients and evaluations of supervisory performance as gauged by front-line workers.
We explored the effects of a non-traditional Master of Education Professional Development Learning Community program on its students at a mid-size Midwestern public university. Two primary questions ...in this study were: 1) Is the term transformative learning justified in describing program outcomes? and 2) To what extent did practices of our program approximate those recommended by transformative learning advocates? We solicited transformation stories from program faculty, staff, and students. Outcomes expressed were consistent with transformative learning concepts found in educational literature as were the educational environments and practices characterizing our program. Results indicated more than one-third of the stories as gains in “confidence”. The role of emotion and alternative views in transformative learning outcomes were also presented.
Whilst portfolios have increasingly been used to assess attainment and competence in nursing and other health care professions for over a decade, the assessment processes and criteria for assessing ...them have remained largely rudimentary and undeveloped. In fact, assessment often remains localised, impressionistic and dependent upon the interpretation and adaptation of criteria developed generically for work at this level within individual Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). This paper presents Masters’ level marking criteria for portfolios from practice-based healthcare disciplines developed from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) descriptors of Masters level achievement and graduateness Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 2001. The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland in combination with practice-based outcomes. A six-stage methodology was devised to analyse these descriptors, develop, re-order, test and refine them in order to enhance their applicability to portfolios from practice-based disciplines. As part of this process the emerging criteria were tested against existing portfolios. Extracts from these are presented to illustrate the criteria. Two case study sites from diverse areas of England are used where Masters’ courses in nursing and healthcare disciplines are offered.
For portfolios to be effective in demonstrating Masters’ level academic criteria, learning outcomes and advanced professional practice they need to demonstrate coherent structure, conclusions drawn from reflection on practice and a body of evidence that is coherent with, and linked to their reflective commentaries. The marking criteria presented to assess these attributes incorporate features of the structures, processes and outcomes of both practice and learning. The strategy can be used by both assessors and students, in formative and summative assessment, to identify student attainments, strengths and weaknesses.
This work constitutes of a brief presentation about the manufacturing graduation program that attends the new demands of a challenging global world. It is about the COPEC Institute of Education and ...Research New Graduation Program: The Manufacturing Engineering (ME) Program. It has been specially designed in order to fulfill the lack of formation of dedicated professionals to work hard with the goal of promoting the development of Manufacturing (and Management) researches. The main objective of this program is to empower manufacturing engineers to operate at a higher level of efficiency and effectiveness. Manufacturing is still a big employer and it tends to be a very visible one in many places.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors affecting Mainland Chinese students pursuing a Master of Education degree in Hong Kong on their study abroad decision and return ...intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate factors that affect Mainland Chinese students pursuing MEd degrees in Hong Kong. Participants were first invited to fill out a questionnaire. After collecting and analyzing the survey data, in-depth interviews with a selected group of students were carried out by the research team to obtain useful qualitative data to triangulate the survey findings. A purposeful and convenience sampling method, carried out through the personal network of the research team, was used to recruit MEd Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong to participate in the current study.
Findings
The findings provided compelling evidence that Hong Kong was an attractive study destination to this particular group of MEd Chinese students. The findings also indicated that academic factors were more important than social, cultural and economic factors when it came to choosing their study destination. In contrast to previous studies, participants expressed a much stronger desire to return home upon graduation. The three most influential predictors of their decision to return were the lack of a Hong Kong teaching certificate (r=+0.36), the opportunity to contribute to their hometown (r=+0.31) and the inclination to be closer to family and friends (r=+0.20).
Originality/value
While a number of studies have been carried out to study why Mainland Chinese students chose Hong Kong as their study destination to pursue their teacher training degree, none of these studies focused exclusively on fee-paying MEd Chinese students. Hong Kong is facing keen competition from both traditional host countries and emerging host countries to recruit students from Mainland China. It is therefore crucial to understand the needs of these Mainland Chinese students in a competitive, globalized, tertiary education market, as the satisfaction of students, in the form of positive discussion among alumni, promotes a university’s reputation and sustains its advantage in attracting students.
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