Reflection on thesis writing when it is over

In my blog entry I would like to share my feelings about thesis writing. In general thesis writing can be a challenging experience, but eventually it brings a lot of satisfaction when you get the result. When reading literature I met an inspring author Simon Marginson whose works strongly my research and my vision of higher education in general.

Writing the literature review was a big challenge for many. So many theories about globalization and the role of global university rankings in it. I was especially impressed by the writings of Australian scholar Simon Marginson who gives a very deep insight in the processes of competition in higher education, relations of power and Anglo-American dominance in higher education. Such authors as Simon Marginson can be really inspiring for young researchers.

However, when I was reading Marginson and other notable scholars, I did not agree with some of their points. I thought that Western scholars do not understand post-soviet higher education issues and challenges, and I expected to receive different results from what I read in the literature review. To my surprise, I received findings which strongly support opinion of Western scholars about global university rankings, despite the fact that I was conducting my research in the post-soviet context. My practical experience made me value western research methods more than I was learning about them from books: I see this as a big learning outcome for me: I understood that Western scholarly approach is very valid and prcatical and that it really works. 

Private Higher Education.

This blog I dedicated to my thesis topic connected to the private higher education, somehow explain the reason for students to  choose private institutions.

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The beginning of the private higher education started from the burning issue of mass higher education (Teixeira, Rocha, Biscaia&Cardoso, 2013). The large student population desired to be educated and at the same time education expansion was in diversification of the educational programs (Teixeira et al., 2013). It increased “policy interest in the development of diverse types of training” (Teixeira et al., 2013, p.4955). The public and private institutions compete with each other for the best educational programs offered to the students (Teixeira et al., 2013). This means that the private higher education gives more freedom in choosing specialization, the public universities have standard programs.

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The scholars raised the question of the quality offered by the private institutions because the main goal of private universities is a profit (Hensley, Galilee-Belfer&Lee, 2013). However, the private universities perform the duties of the public universities, allocating students that are not suited to the admissions of public ones. No matter of the fact that private institutions rely on tuition fee, they meet the demands of the market and students’ interest too (Teixeira et al., 2013, p.4950). The empirical research done by Teixeira et al. (2013) demonstrated that the programs offered by private universities are more specialized than in public and “more responsive to shifts in the demand” (Teixeira et al., 2013, p. 4957).

In the Kazakhstani context, the private higher education has doubtful reputation. The citizens of Kazakhstan enroll in private institutions in order to get a diploma (diploma mill), and most of the universities are “demand absorbing” (Levy, 2011, p.389). They have “lack of academic status” (Levy, 2011, p. 389).

References

Hensley, B., Galilee-Belfer, M., & Lee, J. J. (2013). What is the greater good? The discourse on

public and private roles of higher education in the new economy. Journal of Higher

Education Policy and Management, 35(5), 553-567.

Levy, D. C. (2011). Public policy for private higher education: A global analysis.Journal of

Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 13(4), 383-396.

Teixeira, P., Rocha, V., Biscaia, R., & Cardoso, M. F. (2013). Competition and diversification in

public and private higher education. Applied Economics,45(35), 4949-4958.

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Turnitin detecting system

The education at the Nazarbaeyv University (NU) is really difficult, and the students of NU will agree with me. The most terrible part is the APA format in writing, the style of citing avoiding plagiarism case. The software program used by the university to check our papers for originality is Turnitin.

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Turnitin is the best “tool to teach students what plagiarism is” (Heckler, Rice&Bryan, 2014, p.233). And it is true, because it has SafeAssingment and Web world database service, where can be saved all your previous papers submitted earlier, in a result you cannot cheat from early written essays. “Turnitin was the most advanced for detecting semi-automatic forms of plagiarism, and SafeAssingnment was best for detecting Web plagiarism”(Heckler, Rice&Bryan, 2014, p.232). The Turnition detection program makes happy the professors around the world by facilitating with the help of the following services: “GradeMark, PeerMark, iThenticate and Originality check” (Heckler, Rice&Bryan, 2014, p.233). The services help you to check the originality of the paper by percentages, allow to write some comments on paper, the same feedback can be given by an anonymous student. The iThenticate service is mostly for the scholars who desire to have the excellent paper to publish, shows the originality of the research writing.

There are 32 languages in the Turnition detection program, so it is applicable to other languages, not only English language. The universities, especially some departments of foreign languages will be satisfied with the opportunities offered by Turnitin.

In my opinion, this is a great system to use in the educational system to avoid plagiarism. I think it can be applicable to the Kazakhstani educational system, by adding some modernizations, like adding Kazakh language to Turnitin languages.

 Heckler, N. C., Rice, M., & Hobson Bryan, C. (2013). Turnitin systems: A deterrent to

plagiarism in college classrooms. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 45(3), 229-248.

The advantages and peculiarities of collaborative/co-operative learning strategy.

  

Retrieved from: http://www.dougwoods.co.uk/curation/ailink/2979/learning 

Education strategy is one of the indicators of the success in the classroom. Century to century variety of strategies has been developed and improved in order to meet needs of each one every learner in the classroom. This post is  devoted to one of the education strategies; collaborative/ co-operative.

To begin with definition of key words, collaboration/ cooperation is the process of working together to accomplish common, shared goals. During cooperative- collaborative activity individuals search for the results that are beneficial to all members of the group.  (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2006). Next, learning, which is the process by which students get new knowledge and a process by which they keep that knowledge taken through the educational process. And finally, collaborative/ co-operative learning is the one of the education strategy, which aims to engage group of students in learning process (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 2006). 

In OECD report Slavin cite that “there was a time when it was taken for granted that quiet class was a learning class, when participants walked down the hall excepting to be able to hear a pin drop” (p.163). However, time has changed and role of collaborative/ co-operative learning strategy has been widened and prioritized. Additionally, Slavin (2010) argues that collaborative/ co-operative learning is the process of learning of 21^st century. He supports active engagement to the learning and shares the idea that in aggressive world of technology teachers have to compete with all sorts of technology such as television, Internet, and computer games. Jolliffe (2015) asserts similar idea that collaborative/ co-operative learning is a tool to take into consideration diverse the needs of each and every student. In this sense, it is obvious that nowadays teaching and learning process has become more active and it is almost unrealistic to archive lesson objectives without active participation of teachers and students.  Interestingly, Phuong-Mai (2005), in her research argues that not all types of collaborative/ co- operative learning strategies can be successfully implemented in any countries. For instance, the Asian countries with Confucian heritage culture (CHC), which includes China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan. The reason is common characteristics of a collectivist society in named countries. Moreover, those counties due to the peculiarities of the culture, and consequently rules within the society can fail in implementation of western- based educational strategies. In her research Phuong-Mai, describes a case when during the co- operative learning activity boys and girls were reluctant to mix up, or when students wanted to make a group only with friends. 

As the foregoing has demonstrated, active pedagogy process is demand of the time that can develop successful outcomes. However, such "innovative" techniques should be at the same time culturally appropriate in certain countries or adapted accordingly to location.

References:

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (2006). Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom. Retrieved from  June 10, 2015 http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/prod/groups/ohr/@pub/@ohr/documents/asset/ohr_89185.pdf

Jolliffe W.  (2015).   Bridging the gap: teachers cooperating together to implement cooperative learning.   International Journal  of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education.  43(1), 70-82.

Phuong-Mai, N. Terlouw, C. Pilot, A. (2005). Cooperative learning vs Confucian heritage collectivism: confrontation to reveal some cultural conflicts and mismatch. Online Springer-Verlag 403-419.  Retrived from June 10, 2015

http://www.academia.edu/1836934/Asia_Europe_Journal_Cooperative_learning_vs_Confucian_heritage_culture_s_collectivism_confrontation_to_reveal_some_cultural_conflicts_and_mismatch

Slavin, R. E. (2010). Co-operative learning: what makes group work work? In H. Dumont, D. Istance, & F. Benavides (Eds.), The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice (pp. 161–178). Paris: OECD Retrieved from June 10, 2015 

http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/the-nature-of learning_9789264086487-en#page163