Student engagement has become a key feature of UK higher education, but until recently there has been a lack of data to track, benchmark and drive enhancement. In 2015 the first full administration ran in the UK a range of survey items drawn from the US-based National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This is the latest example of international…

Asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is used in many tertiary education courses, and assessing it has been shown to enhance critical thinking outcomes. There has, however, been debate on what should be assessed and how the assessment should be implemented. The most common form of assessment involves grading the individual discussion contributions,…

This study is based on an intervention designed to enhance early childhood teacher candidates' critical thinking abilities. The concept, elements, standards, and traits of critical thinking were integrated into the main course contents, and the effects of the intervention were examined. The results indicated that early childhood teacher…

This paper reports on data collected during an evaluation of two higher education courses designed to attract mature entrants aged between 21 and 60 to undergraduate degree programmes. Employing an evaluation design informed by a critical realist approach, the study utilised a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the outcomes…

This study developed an interview-based critical spatial thinking oral test and used the test to investigate the effects of Geographic Information System (GIS) learning on three components of critical spatial thinking: evaluating data reliability, exercising spatial reasoning, and assessing problem-solving validity. Thirty-two students at a large…

A solution to the problem of preparing non-college ready students has been to offer developmental/remedial courses in community colleges. Studies have shown that students who begin and persist in these courses do just as well, if not better, than non-developmental education students. The majority of studies, however, have not examined the…

The purpose of this study was to determine ways "Digital Biographies," a Project Based Learning Unit, developed 21st century skills while simultaneously supporting NCLB accountability standards. The main goal of this study was to inform professional practice by exploring ways to address two separate, seemingly opposing, demands of…

This paper reports on a study that sought to uncover and explore the beliefs female secondary pre-service teachers held about teaching and being the teacher as they entered into their teacher education programs. The results indicated that for the participating teacher candidates it was their prior teachers in their intended subject who most…