The distinction between similarity-based and rule-based strategies has instigated a large body of research in categorization and judgment. Within both domains, the task characteristics guiding strategy shifts are increasingly well documented. Across domains, past research has observed shifts from rule-based strategies in judgment to…

Students in a large introductory organic chemistry class were given the freedom to choose an organic compound of interest and were challenged to develop an educational object (physical or digital) designed to be shared with the broader public via social media. Analysis of the project results shows that most students appreciated the open nature of…

Academic outcomes assessment in student affairs is integral for both service improvement and demonstrating the unit's value to the university's academic mission. However, identifying the right measures is challenging. We implemented three common measures (pre-post self-reported academic functioning, retrospective perceptions of service impact, and…

An undersupply of generalists doctors in rural communities globally led to widening participation (WP) initiatives to increase the proportion of rural origin medical students. In 2002 the Australian Government mandated that 25% of commencing Australian medical students be of rural origin. Meeting this target has largely been achieved through…

When students are offered choices within assignments it increases buy-in and, therefore, motivation toward the task--and ultimately for the class itself. As a professor in an academic setting in which many millennials seem to be suffering from a persistent lack of motivation, it was a no-brainer for the author to consider creating a way to offer…

The diversity of engineering education research provides an opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas and creativity, but it also can result in fragmentation of the field and duplication of effort. One solution is to establish a standardized taxonomy of engineering education terms to map the field and communicate and connect research…

This commentary explores theoretical alternatives for viewing the problem identified by Volny Fages and Virginie Albe in their article entitled Social issues in nanoscience and nanotechnology Master's degrees: The socio-political stakes of curricular choices. An approach to social research is suggested that would render visible the associations…

The specifics of how growth models should be constructed and used for educational evaluation is a topic of lively policy debate in states and school districts nationwide. In this article, we take up the question of model choice--framed within a policy context--and examine three competing approaches. The first approach, reflected in the popular…

Background: Quasi-randomization might expedite recruitment into trials in emergency care settings but may also introduce selection bias. Methods: We searched the Cochrane Library and other databases for systematic reviews of interventions in emergency medicine or urgent care settings. We assessed selection bias (baseline imbalances) in prognostic…

Purpose: Keeping Spivak's essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in mind, the purpose of this paper is to examine the itinerant curriculum theory (ICT) as a subaltern momentum unveiling how ICT informs subaltern ways of being and thus, potentially, the research lens for qualitative approaches. In this context, the paper examines how curriculum…

The present work proposes an integrative model of creativity that includes personality traits and cognitive processes. This model hypothesizes that three high-order personality factors predict two main process factors, which in turn predict intensity and achievement of creative activities. The personality factors are: "Plasticity" (high…

In partnership with both formal and informal learning institutions, researchers have been building a suite of online games, called choicelets, to serve as interactive assessments of learning skills, e.g. critical thinking or seeking feedback. Unlike more traditional assessments, which take a retrospective, knowledge-based view of learning,…

This paper examines a natural experiment in which Washington State teachers were offered the opportunity to choose between enrolling in a traditional defined benefit (DB) plan and a hybrid plan with defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components. We find plan preference is weakly related to estimates of the relative financial benefits of…

Wage differentials across college majors are huge and have been increasing. The type of college education becomes important for college students in terms of future earnings. Understanding the treatment effect of major choice in a certain occupation is difficult because of the sorting behavior and the effect of occupation choice. In order to…

After students acquire a skill, mastery often requires them to choose to engage in assigned academic activities (e.g., independent seatwork, and homework). Although students may be more likely to choose to work on partially completed assignments than on new assignments, the partial assignment completion (PAC) effect may not be very powerful. The…