Threshold concepts were introduced nearly 10 years ago by Ray Land and Jan Meyer. This work has spawned four international conferences and hundreds of papers. Although the idea has clearly gained traction in higher education, this sub-field does not yet have a fully fledged research methodology or a strong critical discourse about methodology.…

To help in-service English teachers improve their teaching practices and pupils' learning opportunities through an enquiry-oriented and cooperative approach, the author carried out collaborative action research during a practicum in a teacher education course at a university in Hong Kong. This article describes how the collaborative research…

This article foregrounds the iterative journey of a group of educational development (ED) practitioners at a research-led university towards an enhanced understanding of the ED opportunities we offer. Reflecting on the intention of our interventions to facilitate academics' professional learning, we developed a framework within which the range of…

Assessment tasks can focus student efforts in what they choose to study. This paper describes the development and initial application of an assessment matrix to support student learning in postgraduate research studies at the University of Adelaide. Students and supervisors in the multi-disciplinary Master programmes also benefit from the clear…

In 2001, Harold Guetzkow reached out to Kent Kille, a scholar beginning his academic career, and subsequently helped inspire and support a project that culminated in the publication of the edited volume "The UN Secretary-General and Moral Authority: Ethics and Religion in International Leadership." This article recounts the project, which would…

New England universities performed more than $4 billion worth of research and development (R&D) in 2009, but the region's share of total R&D performed by all U.S. universities remained at 7.3%, down from more than 10% in the 1980s. The region's university research labs have been world-famous for ideas that breed companies and whole…

Changes in higher education institutions characteristic of a knowledge society are strongly affecting academic life, scientists' working conditions and the social dynamics of scientific groups. In such situations, it is important to understand the different ways in which these groups are tackling the structural dilemmas posed by the changes…

This article presents an autoethnographic and theoretical reflection on my justifications for the use of "neoliberal deconstruction" in the undergraduate social foundations classroom. I engage the reader in a discussion concerning the need to make neoliberal agendas, as they pertain to corporate reform in education, salient to students.…

This report addresses a critical knowledge gap between reconciliation theory and practice in post-conflict settings. Spearheaded by the Center for Applied Research on Conflict at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the larger project goal is to map reconciliation practices to better understand how reconciliation is conceived, what…

This paper proposes a project that aims to construct a general framework of civic competency that will help understand civic competence as a blended measure of civic knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, beliefs, behavioural intentions and behaviours. By distinguishing between civic potential, civic behaviour and civic outcomes, with empirical…

The research and development in Europe of new educational technologies and methodologies is in continuous progress. We are not, however, seeing at the same time an equally wide diffusion of these technologies and methodologies in organizational contexts (Blain, 2011). In short, there is a quite marked difference between the speed with which…

The purpose of this research was to describe the individual experiences of support group members from a vulnerable population who had participated in Photovoice, a participatory action research strategy aimed at social change. The two research questions that guided this research were: 1. What are the experiences of individuals participating in a…

On July 2, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed Justin Morrill's second agriculture-school bill into law. Along with another measure he championed, in 1890, it created a system of land-grant colleges that rooted agriculture firmly in university research and helped democratize American higher education, creating institutions not for the sons and daughters…

Managing contemporary campuses and taking decisions that will impact on those of tomorrow is a complex task for universities worldwide. It involves strategic, financial, functional and physical aspects as well as multiple stakeholders. This article summarises the conclusions of a comprehensive PhD research project which was enriched with lessons…

As part of a research project to evaluate the effects of sand and gravel mining on water quality, students were trained to analyze their own drinking water for simple quality indicators. Indicators analyzed were pH, conductivity, hardness, nitrate, chloride, and dissolved iron. Approximately 523 analyses were completed by students between 2006 and…