Current higher education is characterized by a proliferation of distance education programs and by an increasing inclusion of nontraditional students. In this study we investigated whether and to what extent nontraditional students are particularly at risk for attrition (vs. graduating) from distance education programs. We conducted a secondary…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer an exciting range of opportunities to widen access and participation in education. The massive and open nature of MOOCs places the control of learning at the discretion of the learner. Therefore, it is essential to understand learner behaviour. This paper examines the psychological considerations inherent…

Given the call for change in medical school curriculum towards a more humanistic approach, it remains clear that there is an urgent need to study the effects of personal development classes on medical students' skill level. Using participants from an ethical influence communications class, this study explored the impact of the use of…

How individuals position themselves as "students" within the university landscape can provide insight into the personal experience of entering this environment. This article will explore how one group of female students narrated their identity work as they moved through the first year of study in an Australian university. These students…

Learning in formal schools violates several simple principles: that no one can learn on an empty spirit; that true learning requires an absence of fear or authority; that learning is the most natural of human instincts. By making schooling compulsory, we have abandoned trust in our individual and collective experience in favour of experts and…

Given the way that student, teacher, principal, and school testing and accountability measures are currently leaning, it is understandable why a child's moral development sometimes gets less attention than her aptitude in algebra. Yet even with nearly all major accountability incentives heaped upon the tests in math and English, there are still…

In this article, the professional school counseling community is introduced to the value of addressing student spirituality as a way to foster personal and social growth. Prior to discussing the robust theoretical and research foundation for this endeavor, 3 workable definitional strands of spirituality are summarized and applied to educational…

Action research and activity theory are considered by a number of followers as socio-critical approaches, whereas others do not relate them to social-criticism and use them merely as methods to improve practice. This article searches for general insights in Kurt Lewin's and Lev S. Vygotsky's work into how one proceeds and acts critically. In their…

Albeit well-intentioned, the practice of selectively changing the strike zone to promote young players' welfare is critically flawed. After discussing the central purpose of competitive sport, the duty of officials, and the significance of impartiality in officiating, this article demonstrates that this practice presents numerous practical…

Purpose: To examine the contents and characteristics of seniors' online communities and to explore their potential benefits to older adults. Design and Methods: Quantitative content analysis of a full year's data from 14 leading online communities using a novel computerized system. The overall database included 686,283 messages. Results: There was…

This study used longitudinal data to examine the effects of spousal illness on depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older married individuals and the extent to which the adverse effects of illness in a spouse were mitigated by 2 psychological resources, mastery and self-esteem. Using 1,704 married participants who were 51 years of age on…

The objectives were to describe the stated motives of participants who enrolled in a program at the Open University for the Elderly (UnATI, in Portuguese), identify correlations between the stated motives and sociodemographic data, and find a set of predictors related to the listed motives. A total of 306 middle-aged and elderly adults aged 50 or…

An increase in Latinos in the social work academy is critical due to current underrepresentation in social work education programs and rapid Latino population growth in the United States. In this qualitative study, perceptions of Mexican American master's of social work-level practitioners regarding social work doctoral education and academia were…

Research on volunteer mentor programs has demonstrated mostly positive outcomes for mentees. As a result, many schools seek to attract and retain volunteers to assist children in need of support. The researchers interviewed 26 adult volunteers (from Australian companies) who help children with reading difficulties and examined intervention effects…

It has been projected that 33% of all school children will be from immigrant households by the year 2040 (Suarez-Orozco et al., 2010). For school personnel (e.g., administrators, counselors, teachers) working with immigrant youth and adolescents, understanding ethnic identity development is an essential cultural competency. In this essay, the…