There are perennial debates in civic education regarding the definition, rights and responsibilities of citizenship while failing to address the issue of civic dispositions. Underpinning the discourse is a consensus that a democracy can only function when citizens are knowledgeable of and adept at exercising their rights (Weissberg, 2001). Yet the…

The present study employs social cognitive theory (SCT) and social capital as the guiding frameworks to explain online interaction quality among learners in a blended learning program (N = 179). Capturing performance expectancy by perceived learning benefits and online interaction quality with nuanced cognitive measures, the study aims to validate…

Institutional belonging has been connected in the literature to college student well-being, achievement, persistence, and retention. However, much of this literature uses a one-dimensional scale to examine this construct. The University Attachment Scale (UAS; France, Finney, & Swerdzewski, 2010) is a multidimensional instrument with purported…

To provide more insights into inconsistent findings on the relationship of organizational commitment to effectiveness, this study conducted a questionnaire survey among 188 academics in Beijing. Analysis of survey responses suggested that organizational commitment presented significant relationships to performance and effectiveness. These…

Because both race and gender are important to the development of African American women, student affairs professionals need to understand the unique experiences of African American women within the context of the college environment. In this phenomenological study, we examined African American women's lived experiences as college students at a…

This article analyzes a programmatic effort in teacher education, "The Community Teaching Strand" (CTS), to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates (TCs) in two postgraduate teacher preparation programs in a large research university. Three different conceptions of the nature and purpose of…

The research problem concerns the sphere of relationships with the environment and an individual's awareness in the aspect of satisfying the need for belonging. This research aims to determine the conditions of relationships with the environment and an individual's awareness in the process of personality formation. The research is constituted by…

This article investigates the prevailing social inertia of vocational training. Previous research indicates that gendered social norms contribute to sustaining gender segregation. Few studies, however, have paid attention to how the interplay of emotional and material factors impact on gender norms in vocational training. The article builds on an…

In this paper the authors will review research on international projects which have used communications technologies, primarily email and web-based video conferencing, to bring learners together across geographic, political, religious and cultural boundaries in the interest of building more cohesive communities in places frequently characterised…

While scholars argue that "multicultural education" initiatives are rooted in liberal Western ideals, such projects are increasingly being exported to non-Western countries with significantly different sociohistorical contexts. This article examines the adaptation of multicultural education on the Nigerian version of "Sesame…

Attending classes develops an ability in students to understand others' perspectives and help them to interact with their fellow peers in more adaptive ways. Teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction in a classroom facilitate students' participation in various class activities, which in turn oblige them to regard human values.…

Research has identified the positive effect of participation in extracurricular activities on students, such as strong belief in self, increased resilience and positive relationship to achievement (Hebert, 1998; Schreiber & Chambers, 2002). However, there has been virtually no research that looks at the effect of participating in…

In order to better understand faculty perceptions of group work, a survey was deployed to online teaching instructors. Results suggest that most faculty find student socialization (e.g., being supportive, caring about each other), communication, reliability, and dependability important in the group process. However, very few faculty rated the…

Deliberative democracy, a consensus model of decision making, has been used in real-life policy making involving controversial, science-related issues to increase citizen participation and engagement. Here, we describe a pedagogical approach based on this model implemented in a large, lecture-based, nonmajors introductory biology course at an…

This study profiles gender differences in instrumental performance self-efficacy perceptions of high school students (N = 87) over the course of a three-day orchestra festival in which students competed against one another for rank-based seating and then rehearsed and performed as a group. Reported self-beliefs rose significantly for the sample…