Extracurricular Activities in Higher Education and the Promotion of Reflective Learning for Sustainability

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life and learning experiences of indigenous and non-Indigenous university and college students in Ontario, Canada: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The years people spend attending university or college are often filled with transition and life change. Younger students often move into their adult identity by working through challenges and encountering new social experiences. These transitions and stresses have been impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to dramatic change in the post-secondary experience, particularly in the pandemic's early months when colleges and universities were closed to in person teaching. The goal of this study was to identify how COVID-19 has specifically impacted the postsecondary student population in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

METHODS

The Cost of COVID is a mixed methods study exploring the social and emotional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on families, youth, and urban Indigenous People. The present analysis was completed using a subset of qualitative data including Spryng.io micronarrative stories from students in college and university, as well as in-depth interviews from service providers providing services to students. A double-coded phenomenological approach was used to collect and analyze data to explore and identify themes expressed by postsecondary students and service providers who worked with postsecondary students.

RESULTS

Twenty-six micronarratives and seven in-depth interviews were identified that were specifically relevant to the post-secondary student experience. From this data, five prominent themes arose. Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of technology was important to the post secondary experience. The pandemic has substantial educational impact on students, in what they chose to learn, how it was taught, and experiences to which they were exposed. Health and wellbeing, physical, psychological and emotional, were impacted. Significant impacts were felt on family, community, and connectedness aspects. Finally, the pandemic had important financial impacts on students which affected their learning and their experience of the pandemic. Impacts did differ for Indigenous students, with many of the traditional cultural supports and benefits of spaces of higher education no longer being available.

CONCLUSION

Our study highlights important impacts of the pandemic on students of higher education that may have significant individual and societal implications going forward. Both postsecondary institutions and society at large need to attend to these impacts, in order to preserve the wellbeing of graduates, the Canadian labor market, and to ensure that the pandemic does not further exacerbate existing inequalities in post-secondary education in Canada.

Towards Sustainability in Higher-Education Institutions: Analysis of Contributing Factors and Appropriate Strategies

To depict detailed sustainability efforts that have been implemented in campus environments, research was conducted at the Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP), a leading green campus in Indonesia. The aim of the current study was to explore how sustainable development has been conducted by UNDIP and to identify factors that may indicate the existence of sustainability activity in higher-education institutions (HEIs). Factors affecting sustainability implementation in HEIs were derived using bibliometric analysis. Information on the implemented strategies to maintain the sustainability of HEIs was obtained via a closed questionnaire to 40 relevant experts, and analyzed using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, and quantitative strategic-planning matrix (QSPM) analysis. Institutional commitment to sustainability and guidance to implement sustainability in HEIs were found to have the highest scores with regard to internal and external factors. The respondents selected more aggressive strategies for the enhancement of sustainability implementation at UNDIP. Fostering external collaboration should be a priority for UNDIP since this can provide mutual benefits and significant improvement towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The current study provides a robust self-assessment method for selecting appropriate strategies to maintain HEI sustainability.

Analysis of Psychometric Properties of the Quality and Satisfaction Questionnaire Focused on Sustainability in Higher Education

The aim of this research was to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the quality of education, from a sustainability perspective, in higher education institutions of Naples (Italy), and determine whether differences exist between the groups (families, teachers and, students) with respect to their level of satisfaction concerning that quality, since it is important that education policies promote that assessment from an economic, social, environmental, and organisational dimension. The questionnaire was validated using a quantitative, quasi experimental, cross sectional method. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted on a sample of n = 1091 subjects to study the differences between the groups and their level of satisfaction. The results show a good reliability and validity. In this MANOVA, significant differences and large effect sizes were found. Families and teachers consider that quality management in higher education is adequate. The three groups are very satisfied with teaching management, and the teachers’ group has the higher level of satisfaction with teaching planning. It is concluded that this validated questionnaire provides information on the opinions about the quality of education from a sustainability perspective and that the self-assessment of those responsible for teaching is essential to achieve continuous improvement.

Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Cooperative Learning Dimensions Based on Higher Education Students’ Perceptions

This study analyzes the perception, mainly on motivation, interpersonal relationships, and learning outcomes, of higher education students from seven university disciplines derived from Cooperative Learning (CL) activities undertaken in the course of their degree studies. The cross-disciplinary dimensional analysis on cooperative learning included students’ motivation, academic performance, students’ relationships within cooperative groups, group organization, and teacher involvement. The study was carried out using a questionnaire validated by a number of CL experts. The subsequent analysis of a sample of 162 student’s perceptions on the CL dimensions provided first, positive students’ perceptions regarding satisfaction, motivation, learning outcomes, and interpersonal relationships, and second, that differences between university degrees on CL were significant, suggesting a strong dependence of cooperative dimensions on the implemented approach.

Transferring COVID-19 Challenges into Learning Potentials: Online Workshops in Architectural Education

The paper addresses the shift in architectural education regarding the need to develop new approaches in teaching methodology, improve curricula, and make advancements in new learning arenas and digital environments. The research is based on the assumption that online workshops could offer a unique learning experience for students in higher education. Accordingly, workshops are considered an essential element in teaching emergency design. As a result, this can produce broader and more innovative solutions to COVID-19 challenges regarding social distancing, limited movements, regulated use of public space, and suspended daily activities. The theoretical notions of emergency design and education for sustainable design enabled the identification of research perspectives and spatial levels to be taken as a starting point of the workshop “COVID-19 Challenges: Architecture of Pandemic” that was conducted by the University of Belgrade—Faculty of Architecture in April 2020. The critical review of the workshop’s procedural and substantial aspects led to identifying four main COVID-19 design challenges perceived in performance, innovation, alteration, and inclusion. Additionally, the paper’s findings concern the identification of learning potentials and limitations arising from a current topic affecting global society, for which neither solutions nor adequate answers in the field of architecture and urbanism have been found.

Understanding the Role of Social Interactions in the Development of an Extracurricular University Volunteer Activity in a Developing Country

The relevance of participating in structured extracurricular activities (ECA from here onwords) in higher education is increasing. Involvement in these activities helps students develop personal and social skills that positively affect academic and professional training, well-being, and the development of attitudes toward community involvement. This study analyzes the role of social interactions in the perceived benefits of students, who have participated in an ECA in a developing country. Moreover, this research aspires to explore whether students perceive that these interactions positively impact academic training, professional development, and adjustment to the university context, psychological well-being, and development of community involvement attitudes. As a result, 46 in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 students who participated in the experience. 23 in-depth interviews were conducted before the experience and another 23 after it. Data analysis was carried out using the IRaMuTeQ software to conduct a descending hierarchical classification (DHC). This study highlights the value of social interactions in an ECA to increase the motivation of students to improve academic and professional performance, to build shared knowledge with others, and to develop personal and social skills that contribute to the integral development of participants. ECAs help students reflect on their actions and privileges and develop positive attitudes toward themselves and others. This fact is linked to the achievement of high levels of well-being that allow the enhancement of the students' self-esteem. Finally, this experience has allowed volunteers to become aware of other sociocultural realities and to reflect on the possible ways of contributing to the development of a more sustainable society.

Investigation on Evaluation Framework of Elementary School Teaching Materials for Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) forms part of Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goal 4 in the 2030 Agenda. This paper presents an effort to propose an evaluation framework of elementary school teaching materials in Taiwan for sustainable development considering three dimensions of sustainability: Environmental, social, and economic. The proposed framework comprises four levels: Lever 1, education for sustainable development; Level 2, teaching scopes; Level 3, learning indicators, and; Level 4, learning topics. This study first, through literature reviews, proposed an initial evaluation framework and then, through in-depth expert interviews, obtained a modified framework. Thereafter, the Delphi questionnaires were conducted to establish the final evaluation framework. The framework includes four teaching scopes, ten learning indicators and twenty-one learning topics. Furthermore, the weights of each scope and its associated indicators were analyzed and compared through AHP questionnaires to obtain the scoring table for sustainability teaching materials implemented in a school. Finally, the scoring table was applied to an existing elementary school to investigate its implementation of the teaching materials on sustainable development. Based on the result from the scoring table, the areas needed for improvement were identified and the improvement strategies were then proposed.