Transitioning to university can be a daunting endeavour, with student success dependent on a myriad of effects (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Understanding how to navigate university systems, who to meet, how to get help, how to study, and what goals to set can be hard to grasp (Valle et al., 2003). We provide an overview of the new…

This study explored Canadian and American pre-service elementary teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for literacy instruction, as well as the contextual factors (i.e., course and field experiences) that contribute to these self-efficacy beliefs. Survey data were collected over a two-year period at the beginning and end of a required elementary…

How do we close the gap between the lack of academic experience incoming students have--with the expectation that students know the rules of writing and taking exams? Academic integrity (AI) is essential in post-secondary academia yet insufficient time is allocated to teaching and practicing its concepts. Talks at orientation, lectures in the…

Interest in student conception of experimentation inspired the development of a fully validated 14-question inventory on experimental design in biology (BEDCI) by following established best practices in concept inventory (CI) design. This CI can be used to diagnose specific examples of non-expert-like thinking in students and to evaluate the…

For students, the early years at universities can be discouraging as they may face large classes, limited interaction with instructors, and a disconnection between the scholarly experience they might have expected to encounter and that which they in fact endure. In this article the authors describe a case study project (CSP) designed specifically…