Researchers in the scholarship of teaching and learning are converging on the need to examine deeper motivational processes. This research addresses the conceptual and methodological issues identified in the learning literature. Using situated learning theory and motivational theory we develop hypotheses related to the perceived relational quality…

Supported by the Learning by Giving Foundation or other philanthropic sources, many college courses are allowing students to give away charitable grants to nonprofit organizations. In this article, the author shares the experience of a Learning by Giving Economics of Altruism class taught at an introductory level. The class is taught using best…

What do grades mean? What purpose do they serve? What role do they play in the learning process? Teachers and scholars have recently begun to re-examine these questions central to our current grading system. As a result, many have started to re-assess how grades are assigned in their classes. In this case study, I examine the effectiveness of…

Educators responsible for creating an introduction to religions course often struggle to design a syllabus that does not reinforce a world religions paradigm (WRP). This article offers an inquiry-driven course model for teaching about religion that guides students through a process for reading, contextualizing, and critiquing WRP-based information…

It has been said that one of the greatest failures in the education system has been a longstanding problem of public and private school educators failing to recognize victims of child abuse and neglect in their classrooms (Jennings, 1989). The maltreatment of children is a prevalent problem as we know that the number of child maltreatment cases…

Topology optimization (TO) has been a useful engineering tool over the last decades. The benefits of this optimization method are several, such as the material and cost savings, the design inspiration, and the robustness of the final products. In addition, there are educational benefits. TO is a combination of mathematics, design, statics, and the…

The literacy classroom is a powerful context for students to learn about their own lives and the lives of others. By integrating lessons on identity and diversity in the literacy classroom, the learning experiences become more relevant and engaging. Not only is this the case for K-12 students, but also for the preservice teachers in teacher…

Much of the research on Open Educational Resources (OER) focuses on student perceptions of materials and their impact on student learning outcomes. However, in the case of large, general education courses, student interaction with course material may be predicated on their interest in the subject matter, a factor unaccounted for in the current…

Unexpected developments in an environment often drive the evolutionary process. This is as true for the evolution of societies as it is for species. The effective evolution of education will involve knowing what the key adaptation factors are and making them central to how educators respond to shifts in socio-pedagogical environments on local,…

In the past 10 years, new data science courses and programs have proliferated at the collegiate level. As faculty and administrators enter the race to provide data science training and attract new students, the road map for teaching data science remains elusive. In 2019, 69 college and university faculty teaching data science courses and…

In an effort to boost enrollment, remain competitive, and to offer students flexible schedules, two-year colleges throughout the nation have been offering more online courses to attract students from all races, ethnicities, and genders. Gateway courses are among the many types of courses being offered both in synchronous and asynchronous models.…

The role of faculty in online education is critical to its sustainability and success. In "Time for Class: Lessons for the Future of Digital Learning in Higher Education," Tyton Partners (2017), a strategy consulting firm, asked administrators the most important factor for successful digital learning and the top response was…

With this research, it is aimed to evaluate professional teaching knowledge courses considering the opinions of the academic instructors and pre-service teachers. Phenomenology was used in the research designed in accordance with the descriptive research method. The study group of the research was determined by criterion sampling method. The main…

The introductory sociology course is typically the only course most students take in sociology; hence, the introductory textbook becomes the only sociology textbook they may ever read as college students. The textbook, however, often lacks rigor in explaining concepts. This study focused on the thoroughness of explanations of the relations of…

Background: Many engineering students fail to proceed through required prerequisite mathematics courses. Since these courses strongly influence engineering student attrition, we should examine to what degree these courses truly serve as prerequisites for following engineering coursework. Purpose/Hypothesis: We examined two research questions:…