(MIS)PERCEIVED DRINKING NORMS AND HAZARDOUS DRINKING BEHAVIOURS IN UNIVERSITY FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AND THE EFFECTS OF GENDER

Purpose: Across Canada, undergraduate university students are one of the highest alcohol-consuming populations. Many students engage in hazardous drinking and are at risk for negative health and social consequences. Social Norms Theory suggests that students’ overestimation of drinking norms can result in an increase in their drinking behaviour. As of yet, none of the literature addresses the possible link between drinking norm (mis)perception and hazardous drinking in a Canadian undergraduate context. This is the first Canadian study to examine this potential association in first-year undergraduate students across multiple universities using gender as an effect modifier. Methods: Using data collected by the Caring Campus Project, for 2347 first-year students from three Canadian universities, I evaluated the prevalence of drinking norm misperceptions by site and gender. Using multiple-logistic regression models, I analyzed the relationship between misperceived drinking norms and hazardous drinking behaviours (assessed via AUDIT-C). Results: The proportion of students who overestimated drinking and binge drinking frequency norms varied by site and gender. There was a positive relationship between overestimated drinking/ binge drinking frequency norms and hazardous drinking, modified by gender. Controlling for living arrangement and site, the odds of female students being hazardous drinkers increased by a factor of 2.27 (CI: 1.73-2.99) when the drinking frequency norm was overestimated. A non-significant association was found for male students. Among female students, when living arrangement and site were controlled, the odds of being a hazardous drinker were 1.83 (0.84-3.95) and 2.69 (1.24-5.83) times greater when the drinking frequency norm was perceived at “2-4 times per month” and “2 or more times per week”, respectively. Among male students, when living arrangement, previous residence and site were controlled, the odds of being a hazardous drinker were 4.03 (2.62-6.19) and 8.54 (5.41-13.49) times greater when the binge drinking frequency norm was perceived at “2-4 times per month” and “2 or more times per week”, respectively. Conclusion: This novel study enhances the understanding of the association between (mis)perceived drinking norms and drinking behaviours in Canadian undergraduate students. The demonstrated importance of gender and site provides a strong impetus for Canadian universities to develop targeted alcohol reduction interventions.

An exploration of students’ perceptions and attitudes towards creativity in engineering education

This study used a mixed methods approach to develop a broad and deep understanding of students’ perceptions towards creativity in engineering education. Studies have shown that students’ attitudes can have an impact on their motivation to engage in creative behavior. Using an ex-post facto independent factorial design, attitudes of value towards creativity, time for creativity, and creativity stereotypes were measured and compared across gender, year of study, engineering discipline, preference for open-ended problem solving, and confidence in creative abilities. Participants were undergraduate engineering students at Queen’s University from all years of study. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was adopted to study students’ understandings and experiences with engineering creativity. Eleven students participated in oneon- one interviews that provided depth and insight into how students experience and define engineering creativity, and the survey included open-ended items developed using the 10 Maxims of Creativity in Education as a guiding framework. The findings from the survey suggested that students had high value for creativity, however students in fourth year or higher had less value than those in other years. Those with preference for open-ended problem solving and high confidence valued creative more than their counterparts. Students who preferred open-ended problem solving and students with high confidence reported that time was less of a hindrance to their creativity. Males identified more with creativity stereotypes than females, however overall they were both low. Open-ended survey and interview results indicated that students felt they experienced creativity in engineering design activities. Engineering creativity definitions had two elements: creative action and creative characteristic. Creative actions were associated with designing, and creative characteristics were predominantly associated with novelty. Other barriers that emerged from the qualitative analysis were lack of opportunity, lack of assessment, and discomfort with creativity. It was concluded that a universal definition is required to establish clear and aligned understandings of engineering creativity. Instructors may want to consider demonstrating value by assessing creativity and establishing clear criteria in design projects. It is recommended that students be given more opportunities for practice through design activities and that they be introduced to design and creative thinking concepts early in their engineering education.

Study Abroad Course Development: Pre-Departure Sessions

Study abroad is a highly encouraged component of the undergrad business program at Bella Lake University, with the large majority of undergraduate students choosing to study and live in a foreign country to expand on their international experiences. Currently, there is no learning structure or learning outcome expectation for students that will participate in the study abroad experience. This project focuses on the development of a course that supports students in the pre-departure phase of their study abroad journey and prepares them to set goals, understand the learning process and the practices of experiential learning to encourage students to achieve both personal and professional goals, and encourage the development of intercultural competence. The discourse surrounding the perceptions and efficacy of the course development is based on a self-assessment survey completed by 121 undergraduate business students that participated in the pre-departure sessions prior to leaving for study abroad in March 2016. The self-assessment results overall showed that the course achieved its aims with the majority of students rating that they were more likely to understand and engage in experiential learning, set goals for their study abroad experience and felt more prepared for study abroad after attending the pre-departure sessions. The project concludes that in order for the pre-departure course to maintain its value, the conversation with students surrounding experiential learning in study abroad needs to continue with further course development focusing on both during and post-study abroad. Further exploration can also be done to find varying ways to motivate different students to engage in the learning potential of study abroad.

Academic Integrity and Senior Nursing Undergraduate Clinical Practice

Background: Academic integrity (AI) has been defined as the commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility with courage in all academic endeavours. The senior years of nursing studies provide an intersection for students to transition to professional roles through student clinical practice. It is essential to understand what predicts senior nursing students’ intention to behave with AI so that efforts can be directed to initiatives focused on strengthening their commitment to behaving with AI. Research Questions: To what extent do students differ on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) variables? What predicts intention to behave with academic integrity among senior nursing students in clinical practice across three different Canadian Schools of Nursing? Method: The TPB framework, an elicitation (n=30) and two pilot studies (n=59, n=29) resulted in the development of a 38 question (41-item) self-report survey (Miron Academic Integrity Nursing Survey—MAINS: α>0.70) that was administered to Year 3 and 4 students (N=339). Three predictor variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control) were measured with students’ intention to behave with AI in clinical. Age, sex, year of study, program stream, students’ understanding of AI policies, and locations where students accessed AI information were also measured. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that background, site, and TPB variables explained 32.6% of the variance in intention to behave with academic integrity. The TPB variables explained 26.8% of the variance in intention after controlling for background and site variables. In the final model, only the TPB predictor variables were statistically significant with Attitude having the highest beta value (beta=0.35, p<0.001), followed by Subjective Norm (beta=0.21, p<0.001) and Perceived Behavioural Control (beta=0.12, p<0.02). Conclusion: Student attitude is the strongest predictor to intention to behave with AI in clinical practice and efforts to positively influence students’ attitudes need to be a focus for schools, curricula, and clinical educators. Opportunities for future research should include replicating the current study with students enrolled in other professional programs and intervention studies that examine the effectiveness of specific endeavours to promote AI in practice.

Mitigating Social Risk in the Extractive Sector: Developing Intercultural Competence as a Tool for Negotiating Western-Indigenous Perspectives within the Undergraduate Mining Engineering Curriculum

Drawing upon critical, communications, and educational theories, this thesis develops a novel framing of the problem of social risk in the extractive sector, as it relates to the building of respectful relationships with indigenous peoples. Building upon Bakhtin’s dialogism, the thesis demonstrates the linkage of this aspect of social risk to professional education, and specifically, to the undergraduate mining engineering curriculum, and develops a framework for the development of skills related to intercultural competence in the education of mining engineers. The knowledge of social risk, as well as the level of intercultural competence, of students in the mining engineering program, is investigated through a mixture of surveys and focus groups – as is the impact of specific learning interventions. One aspect of this investigation is whether development of these attributes alters graduates’ conception of their identity as mining engineers, i.e. the range and scope of responsibilities, and understanding of to whom responsibilities are owed, and their role in building trusting relationships with communities. Survey results demonstrate that student openness to the perspectives of other cultures increases with exposure to the second year curriculum. Students became more knowledgeable about social dimensions of responsible mining, but not about cultural dimensions. Analysis of focus group data shows that students are highly motivated to improve community perspectives and acceptance. It is observed that students want to show respect for diverse peoples and communities where they will work, but they are hampered by their inability to appreciate the viewpoints of people who do not share their values. They embrace benefit sharing and environmental protection as norms, but they mistakenly conclude that opposition to mining is rooted in a lack of education rather than in cultural values. Three, sequential, threshold concepts are identified as impeding development of intercultural competence: Awareness and Acknowledgement of Different Forms of Knowledge; Recognition that Value Systems are a Function of Culture; Respect for varied perceptions of Social Wellbeing and Quality of Life. Future curriculum development in the undergraduate mining engineering program, as well as in other educational programs relevant to the extractive sector, can be effectively targeted by focusing on these threshold concepts.

Effects of introspection on meta and structural attitude bases

Introspection is the process by which individuals question their attitudes; either questioning why they hold their attitudes (Why introspection), or how they feel about a particular attitude object (How introspection). Previous research has suggested that Why-introspection induces attitude change, and that Why and How introspection influence attitude-behaviour consistency,persuasion, and other effects. Generally, psychologists have assumed that affective and cognitive attitude bases are the mechanism by which introspection leads to these effects. Leading perspectives originating from these findings suggest that either Why introspection changes the content of cognitive attitude bases (the skewness hypothesis), or increases the salience of cognitive attitude bases (the dominance hypothesis); whereas How introspection may increase the salience of affective attitude bases (another part of the dominance hypothesis). However, direct evidence for these mechanisms is lacking, and the distinction between structural and meta bases has not been considered. Two studies investigated this gap in the existing literature. Both studies measured undergraduate students’ attitudes and attitude bases (both structural and meta, affective and cognitive) before and after engaging in an introspection manipulation (Why introspection / How introspection / control), and after reading a (affective / cognitive) persuasive passage about the attitude object. No evidence was found supporting either the skewness or dominance hypotheses. Furthermore, previous introspection effects were not replicated in the present data. Possible reasons for these null findings are proposed, and several unexpected effects are examined.