In this study we examined the developmental trajectories of a national sample of students who participated in a formal leadership program regarding their leadership-related skill, motivation to lead, and leader self-efficacy. We found increases in all areas immediately after participation, with tapering occurring over time. A significant gender…

Nature experiences are essential for fostering pro-environmental behavior. In this study, a wildlife observation toolbox was provided to students to encourage participation in nature observation clubs. A total of 340 adolescents joined the clubs. We identified the determinants of participation intentions with a mixed approach combing…

This article raises two inter-related issues: firstly there is a correlation between the needs of doctoral students that are strongly related to age and career stage; and secondly, because these needs differ according to their demographic, the current discourse of developing work-readiness skills of doctoral students is misplaced for the growing…

Recent research shows that reading comprehension relies heavily on prior knowledge. Far more than generic "reading skills" like drawing inferences, making predictions, and knowing the function of subheads, how well students learn from a nonfiction text depends on their background knowledge of the text's subject matter. And in a cyclical…

Most published journal articles describing professional development (PD) initiatives for K-12 music teachers have not explicitly alluded to the "features of high-quality PD", a solid theoretical framework arisen in content areas with more tradition in PD research (e.g. mathematics and science education). The goal of this review was to…

In this article, Kang discusses how she scaffolded a comic book project in a university L2 writing class and argued for its pedagogical value in teaching multimodal argument and fostering critical thinking skills. Although this project was assigned in a specific university L2 writing class, it can be adapted to other types of writing courses and…

In the discourse on diversity in colleges and universities in the United States, an often-neglected population is nontraditional adult learners. This article explores this invisible aspect of undergraduate diversity, and addresses how competence-based education, which focuses on demonstrating the actual ability "to do," is an innovative…

Thanks to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, veterans are entering American colleges and universities in numbers not seen since World War II. Very few of today's veterans, however, attend our nation's most selective institutions. Military-connected students constitute about 5% of the total college-going population, but make up only 2% or less of the student…

Willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently been researched as a dynamic variable, with some investigations viewing it as a complex dynamic system (CDS). One important property associated with CDS is the notion of attractor states, which are characterized by stable patterns of behavior. The present study employed an idiodynamic method to monitor…

COVID-19 challenged higher education to rapidly shift to remote course delivery. This study surveyed community college students (N = 356) about their confidence in completing learning related tasks before and after the shift, access to technologies used in in remote learning, and disruptions that impacted their learning. Results indicated notable…

A Midwest community college's culinary arts program is experiencing a trending decline in student persistence to degree completion rates year after year. Low persistence to degree completion rates impacts post-traditional students, this community college, and employers. This research is needed, as this and other community colleges could inform…

Purpose: In 2 experiments, we examined the influence of prior knowledge and interest on 4th- and 5th-grade students' passage comprehension scores on the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (QRI-4) and 2 experimenter constructed passages. Method: In Experiment 1, 4th- and 5th-grade students were administered 4 Level 4 passages or 4 Level 5…

This paper follows undergraduate students' engagement with the concept of childhood presented to them during a year-long childhood and youth studies module. Through the application of "threshold concepts" as concepts which transform students' understandings of a subject, the challenges of learning new ideas or concepts of childhood are…

Children recognize that people who know more are better informants than those who know less. How does an individual's prior knowledge affect children's decisions about whom to inform? In 3 experiments, 3- to 6-year-old children were invited to share a novel piece of information with 1 of 2 potential recipients who differed in their recent history…

This paper reveals the significant historical traces which informed the learning practices of teachers at one particular school site in a rural and regional educational district in Australia. Drawing upon recent theorising into professional practice, the paper argues that teacher learning practices are intrinsically "ecologically"…