Facilitating Students' Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in a Telecollaborative Project

Scientific creativity and innovation ability and its determinants among medical postgraduate students in Fujian province of China: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND

Graduate education is the main approach to training high-level innovative elites. With the expansion of the scale of graduate education in China, it has gradually emerged that the lack of innovation ability of graduate students is recognized as the primary problem in graduate education. How to comprehensively improve the quality of postgraduate teaching has become the core task of educational reform and development. However, data about the current cultivation and development of the innovative ability of graduate students in China is limited.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was conducted among medical postgraduate students. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis methods were used to analyze the data to describe the current innovation ability in advanced medical education and potential influence factors.

RESULTS

A total of 1241 medical students were surveyed, according to the results of questionnaire data analysis. The proportion of subjects who participated in the College Student's Entrepreneurship and Innovation program or any other scientific research programs are fairly high which are 46.82% and 29.20% respectively. Most of the participants are observed with high levels of self-motivation and active learning and have good performance in creative thinking. However, only a small number of participants (16.6%) reported academic achievements such as publications. Most of the students are satisfied with the current scientific research environment and think that the current postgraduate training system is qualified for the cultivation of innovation ability, and expects the inclusion of course specialized in systemic medicine and medical informatics in the curricula. Multiple logistic regression results showed that among the factors studied, gender, medical specialties, and types of master's degrees are associated with cognition & skills, academic performance, and creativity.

CONCLUSIONS

It will be important to incorporate more techniques for creating and improving creativity in the curricula of the current postgraduate education, especially for courses such as systemic medicine and informatics. Guidance in earlier school life can stimulate creativity and an early introduction to scientific research work will facilitate innovative thinking and behavior. Scientific research programs such as the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training for the universities of PRC have been widely implemented in the undergraduate education system throughout the country. However, the training effectiveness of the current scientific research programs is worth improving.

Enhancing Foreign Language Learning Outcomes and Mitigating Cultural Attributes Inherent in Asian Culture in a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Environment

To achieve sustainable language learning, we designed a foreign language learning activity that extended traditional lectures in classrooms to informal learning in the real world using mobile technology. Chinese undergraduate students participated in our learning activity. We tested whether our learning activity could enhance their language learning outcomes through employing a single group pretest post-test design. We explored how the participants perceived the usefulness of the activity to foster language learning by administering a questionnaire survey. Finally, we investigated whether our learning activity could mitigate the cultural attributes inherent in Asian culture through interviews with the participants and their instructors. Our results demonstrated that participant learning outcomes improved during the learning activity. The results also showed that the perceptions of most participants of the value of the exercise were high. In the interviews, the participants and the instructors revealed that they felt the learning activity was useful and interesting. They also claimed that the learning activity helped mitigate cultural attributes, such as shyness, reservedness, passiveness, inhibition, lack of confidence, risk-avoidance, test-oriented learning, reliance on teachers for knowledge, and memorization. Based on these results, we provide some implications and useful suggestions for educators and researchers.

A Review of Research on Technology-Supported Language Learning and 21st Century Skills

Modern society needs people to be equipped with 21st century skills (e.g., critical thinking, creativity, communication, digital literacy, or collaboration skills). For this reason, teaching and learning nowadays should promote not only students' knowledge acquisition in various learning contexts but also their 21st century skills, and language learning context is no exception. This study reviewed research on technology-supported language learning and 21st century skills. The reason is that earlier studies reviewed only articles related to language learning supported by technology and mostly focused on languages, language skills and technologies used. That is to say, 21st century skills were not considered in earlier review studies. The present study selected and reviewed 34 articles published between 2011 and 2022 (February) and focused on the following dimensions: (1) research focus such as language skills and 21st century skills; (2) theoretical foundations; (3) technologies; (4) learning activities; (5) methodology; and (6) findings. The present research found that reviewed studies had focused most frequently on such language skills as speaking and writing and on such 21st century skills as communication and collaboration. The social constructivism theory was often used by scholars to base their studies on. Facebook, Google Docs, and Moodle were popular technologies in reviewed studies to facilitate language and 21st century skills. Scholars in reviewed studies reported that technology-supported language learning activities provided learners with good learning experiences and enhanced their learning motivation, engagement, and confidence. However, some challenges that learners faced during learning activities were also reported. Based on the results of the review, this study made several recommendations for stakeholders such as educators and researchers in the field.