Nursing Students' Learning Engagement Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Namibia: Implications for Nursing Education

Introduction

Ensuring strong student engagement in both traditional and virtual learning settings was essential for achieving positive educational results during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, fostering student engagement in both the traditional (face-to-face) and virtual learning environments has been accompanied by distinct challenges. There has been a lack of research specifically addressing the issue of nursing students' engagement within a blended learning setting in Namibia.

Aim

To explore and describe nursing students' learning engagement experiences at a university campus in Namibia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological study was employed to collect data from 10 purposively selected nursing students at a university campus in Namibia. Data from in-depth, face-to-face, individual interviews were collected using a semistructured interview guide. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step method.

Results

The findings of the study describe students' learning engagement experiences under four distinct themes: (a) conditions and contexts of engagement; (b) student acts of engagement: positionality of teacher- and student-facilitated engagement; (c) consequences of engagement in a blended learning environment; and (d) student engagement dispositions: students' initiatives.

Conclusion

The research findings revealed that despite mental health challenges, both teacher-facilitated and student-facilitated engagement were necessary for positive learning engagement in the blended learning environment. Student-facilitated engagement was significantly responsible for enabling students to maintain focus, adhere to guidelines, and adapt to the blended learning environment. These findings are useful in understanding the challenges faced by students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings thus provide valuable data for future studies seeking to address challenges associated with the blended learning environment.

Person-centred study on higher-order interactions between students' motivational beliefs and metacognitive self-regulation: Links with school language achievement

Variable-centred studies assume that the links between motivation and metacognition with academic achievement are uniform across all students. However, this assumption may not hold and multiple interactions between motivational beliefs and metacognitive self-regulation may occur. To this end, the present study sought to explore these higher-order interactions and their links with school language achievement in a low-performance context. A large sample (N = 1046, 53.14% girls) of Greek secondary school students (M = 13.97, SD = .80) was drawn. Latent profile analyses were deployed to mimic higher-order interactions. Unexpectedly, the results indicated only three distinct well-defined profiles of students' motivated metacognitive self-regulation, namely exceptional motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (23.3%), adequate motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (48.2%), and minimal motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (28.5%). Incompatible profiles of motivation and metacognitive self-regulation did not emerge, contrary to previous findings suggesting negative higher-order interactions. The BCH method revealed large mean differences in school language achievement between the profiles, adjusting for covariates. Latent multinomial logistic regression indicated that gender and age predicted greater odds of membership to the minimal motivation and metacognitive self-regulation profile. Socio-economic status and spoken language at home predicted less chances of membership to the minimal profile only. Educational interventions are needed to target both motivational beliefs and metacognition to prevent underachievement.

Self-regulated learning, online mathematics learning engagement, and perceived academic control among Chinese junior high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis and mediation analysis

Objectives

Under the COVID-19 prevention and control policy, online learning has been widely used. The current study aimed to identify latent profiles of self-regulated learning in the context of online mathematics learning during the recurrent outbreak of COVID-19, and examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between self-regulated learning and online mathematics learning engagement among Chinese junior high school students using variable-and person-centered approaches.

Methods

A sample of 428 Chinese junior high school students (47.66% female) completed questionnaires on self-regulated learning, perceived academic control, and learning engagement. Mplus7.0 was used to analyze the latent classes of self-regulated learning. A mediation model was conducted using the software SPSS PROCESS macro.

Results

Three profiles of self-regulated learning were identified and named as low self-regulated learning (16.12%), medium self-regulated learning (43.23%), and high self-regulated learning (40.65%). In the mediating analysis, results of the variable-centered approach showed that perceived academic control mediated the effects of self-regulated learning on learning engagement. For the person-centered approach, we selected the low self-regulated learning type as the reference profile, and the analysis revealed that compared with the reference profile, perceived academic control partially mediated the link between the medium self-regulated learning profile and learning engagement; perceived academic control partially mediated the relationship between the high self-regulated learning profile and learning engagement.

Conclusion

This study showed the heterogeneity in the online mathematics self-regulated learning patterns of Chinese junior high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing the internal mechanisms of Chinese junior high school students’ online mathematics learning engagement using variable-and person-centered approaches. Furthermore, the findings of the study have important implications for promoting online mathematics learning engagement among junior high students during the pandemic.

Understanding the Development of Self-Regulated Learning: An Intervention Study to Promote Self-Regulated Learning in Vocational Schools

Self-regulated learning (SRL) provides the foundation for building sustainable knowledge and is therefore important for schools, classrooms, and lifelong learning in general. Especially in vocational education and training, the concept of SRL remains fundamental as it relates to preparing future employees. However, further research is needed on how vocational students situationally regulate their learning process and the extent to which this may be related to a dispositional change in their SRL. In this study, we analyzed longitudinal questionnaire data from 159 students who attended either SRL-conducive or regular vocational classes. We refer to Perry and colleagues' (2018) framework of an SRL-conducive learning environment, which focuses on (meta)cognitive, motivational, and emotional aspects of learning. Using multilevel analysis, we found differences in the development of (meta)cognitive components of learning, whereas no clear differences could be identified for motivational and emotional components. The results support the assumption that process analyses can be used to draw a more differentiated picture of SRL in vocational schools. Moreover, indirect approaches to promoting SRL should be designed to include all SRL-relevant aspects.