Wide-lens angle: International students’ constructions of academic support in a selected South African university

The study is an attempt to better understand the complex nature of academic support in higher education, particularly, drawing from the voices of the existing international postgraduate students at a selected university in South Africa. This qualitative study is explorative and participatory in nature and draws on the question: what are the international postgraduate students’ constructions of academic support in a South African university? 12 full time international students were purposively selected. The main findings are illustrated and discussed under 3 broad themes namely: intrapersonal relationships and resilience’s; improved interpersonal relationships among international students; as well as the effect of postgraduate strategic teaching and learning programmes. Significantly, the findings of this study revealed that the international postgraduate students reported a slightly higher level of agency towards their academic activities. A possible explanation may be found in the diverse set of university activities that students access for support. This paper concludes by exploring what lessons emerge when participatory visual methodologies, such as photovoice, are integrated into research with students about their own learning.

EFFECTS OF ACTIVE STRATEGIC TEACHING MODEL (ASTM) IN CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS

Improving creative and critical thinking is one of the most important objectives in architectural education. The present research has been performed to investigate the effects of active strategic teaching model (ASTM), on creative and critical thinking skills of architecture students. This quasi-experimental study is of a causal-comparative type and was done as two-group experimental research (control and intervention) using pre-test, post-test method during 2014-2016. The statistical society of the research consists of students of Architecture Design Studio 4 at Tabriz Islamic Art University. The students of control group were carried out with conventional method while the intervention group received active strategic model. The creative and critical thinking skills were compared in both groups in specific dimensions based on reviewing the design process. The statistical analysis was conducted by SPSS software and descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square and ANOVA were used. However, interpretation of the results weren’t causal. In this review, the majority of students could obtain proper results dependent on the amount of their efforts which indicate the relative success of both methods. But, comparing the mean differences of the results in two groups shows a significant difference in enrichment of critical and creative thinking skills of the intervention group in comparison with the control group. In fact, using ASTM led to develop the critical and creative thinking skills as one of the main missions of architectural education and finally led to more and also sustainable achievements in creative procedure of architectural design.

Do Teachers Facilitate the Strategies their Pupils Need?

Learner strategies play an important and unique role in second or foreign language teaching and learning. Knowledge of effective steps and techniques helps pupils reach better study results and become more independent and autonomous learners. The role of a teacher shifts and changes in autonomous learning; rather than a teacher, he or she is a consultant, helper and facilitator of learner strategies. The study brings an insight into strategic teaching of 13 Czech teachers who taught 202 pupils with completed primary education and who also focused on the strategies teachers facilitate, but their pupils do not apply. The study aims at a model of strategy facilitation which helps teachers implement strategy-based teaching into a foreign language curriculum. The article also aspires to address teachers of different subjects as giving advice on learning to learn plays a vital role in teaching. Furthermore, learner strategies are an important part of competence to learn, which helps teachers to understand why some learners are more successful than their peers.