Academic advising, if done effectively, can play a significant role in supporting student retention. However, as a relatively new field in South Africa, there is limited locally contextualised research into advising interventions and their effectiveness. So, there is a need for evidence-based approaches that will lead to more intentionally…

This research aims to examine the competencies of pre-service science teachers in designing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) activities and the challenges they encounter in this process. The study was carried out using phenomenology, one of the qualitative research designs. A total of 23 second-year pre-service science teachers…

This article outlines the outcomes of a specialized master's of social work (MSW) training program on students' (N=96) ability to work effectively in behavioral health care settings with adolescents and transitional age youth from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Program design, curriculum development, and associated activities…

The paper describes guidelines for the planning, organization, and implementation of virtual activities within a metaverse environment, aiming to familiarize students with key concepts related to hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) theory. The guidelines are based on experience gained during an online lesson given in January of 2022 for 188…

University orientation plays a crucial role in fostering student engagement, social integration, and retention. This practice report describes the development and refinement of a game-based orientation activity: a digital scavenger hunt designed to enhance engagement, social connectedness, and campus familiarisation. The activity was guided by the…

This article reports on a reconceptualization of the Precalculus course experience at Florida International University. We discuss the details of the redesign process--unified within a faculty learning community (FLC) model--along with a broader change in the course sequence leading up to Calculus. We provide data, including the comparison between…

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate Anadolu University Open Education Faculty Call Center Services Associate Degree Program, which is carried out through open and distance education, according to learner views within the framework of Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) Evaluation Model and to make suggestions for the…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how teaching activities can enhance the professional identity of master's students as they explore careers. Design/methodology/approach: The data were gathered through qualitative semi-structured interviews with 57 participants, 2nd-year master's program students from a Russian business school, shortly before…

This article explores the concept of STEM education and characteristics of truly authentic STEM learning experiences and events. It examines the engineering design process and how engineering glues science, mathematics and technology together. Two engineering challenges, 'Design and build a bridge' and 'Design and make a catapult', carried out…

Knowledge Building has been advanced as a pedagogy of engaged learning where students identify as a community whose purpose is to advance their shared ideas. This approach, which has been studied for three decades (Scardamalia & Bereiter, in: K. Sawyer (ed) Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences, Cambridge University Press, 2014),…

One of the characteristic features of current society is the relevance of technology and audiovisual media. This fact has generated demands in the educational field to adapt objectives and methodologies to non-textual languages. Among the predominant audiovisual media is the cinema, which has many potentialities as a didactic resource. Therefore,…

The present two studies investigated whether students' development of epistemic beliefs about the educational sciences (study A; N = 152) and linguistics (study B; N = 150) can be affected by authentic learning activities in an out-of-school lab (OSL). OSLs aim to engage students in authentic activities that attempt to simulate the ways how…

Undergraduate research experiences are a documented high-impact practice affecting student learning, attitudes, and career outcomes. However, many of these reported benefits are associated with longer-term research experiences. This study pilots the use of a small group metacognition activity in a 10-week summer undergraduate research program. It…

BME HealthReach is an educational outreach program where undergraduate BME students participate in an out-of-class design thinking course to create and teach interactive STEM activities to K-12 students, where children with chronic illnesses are the primary clients. We detail research that seeks to answer the following: (1) what impact does this…

Students on one-year full-time Master's programmes, particularly those studying in English for the first time, or after a break from studies, can struggle with the demands of an academic essay. This study reports the evaluation of the introduction of the use of concept maps as a learning and assessment tool, designed to support students'…