Robert McGrath's article has the great virtue of asking an important question: "What is character education?" He argues that currently "what it means to call something a character education program remains unclear." Without a clear definition, McGrath says, one cannot differentiate character education from other programs…

This is the opening paper of a special issue that focuses on certain cultural tendencies that have emerged as topical issues in the school curricula, in both flourishing and struggling against their social frames, namely: gender, sexuality and diversity. At the same time, new approaches to teacher education have ranged from varieties of feminism…

Student success in higher education (HE) is dependent on the possession of a positive learner identity, the development of which is a complex longitudinal process of change. Exploring the growth of learner identity within the transition between school and university is therefore apposite, especially for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who…

Universities in sub-Saharan Africa have been adopting various forms of blended distance courses to meet the demand of higher education. However, the lack of reliable and efficient support services for students taking various blended programs has continued to be the main challenge. This study developed a mobile application for enabling instructors…

The purpose of this post-intentional phenomenological research study was to better understand connectedness in personal learning networks. The study was situated within the context of the field of learning design and technologies, and more specifically in distance learning. The conceptual framework comprised of theories of motivation, learning,…

Formative assessment has been shown to have the potential to significantly enhance student achievement, but a strong research base about how to support teachers to implement such a practice is lacking. This is particularly so for a conceptualisation of formative assessment as a unity of integrated formative assessment strategies. The aim of this…

Doctoral studies are often described as solitary and challenging endeavors, dependent on candidates' highly developed skills, self-driven nature, and commitment to engage in years of research activity. A range of university initiatives are specially crafted to support higher research degree students, for example, through digital and physical…

"Tutorials in Physics: Quantum Mechanic" is a set of curricular materials for supplementing upperdivision quantum mechanics instruction, developed by the physics education group at the University of Washington. We describe the development of a sequence of three tutorials that focused on quantum measurements and time dependence. This…

Mobile technology is increasingly widespread in geographic instruction, raising questions about how to integrate and analyse data from multiple users. Collector for ArcGIS allows researchers to gather multi-sensory field data, and is therefore a prospective way to integrate qualitative and quantitative information. We evaluate students' experience…

Fieldwork is the most powerful learning invitation in the toolkit of Geographical Education. This review of papers in "The Journal of Geography in Higher Education" (JGHE) suggests seven modes in the development of fieldwork. These are arrayed as a kind of historical, perhaps evolutionary, sequence but most remain current in Geography…

The Internet has become a pivotal source of information among university students. However, studies routinely show that many students lack digital information literacy skills (i.e. skills needed to find and evaluate information online). In this paper, we report results from an experimental study testing the effect of a workshop for third-year…

Although different authors define the SMART acronym differently, an IEP-related interpretation of the acronym is as follows: specific, measurable, action verbs, realistic, and time limited. In addition to these features, well-written IEP goals reflect students' unique strengths and needs. This article discusses how educators can produce specific,…

This case study tracks an established collaborative partnership between faith-based organisations and the local community of North Belfast. The initial stages of the project of implementing a welcome day, a cultural food and activities fest day and an Ulster University led Unblocking Potential programme. This set the scene for social cohesion and…

Although education research has shown collaboration to be of the utmost importance, schools continue to lack the necessary means to help them incorporate communities of practice (CoPs) to facilitate and sustain their development and growth. We analysed the process by which CoPs were successfully implemented, under the guidance of a…

This article contains the analytical results of qualitative and descriptive research regarding the definition of specialisation courses in the areas of "Informatics" and "Management" for extra-occupational study offers within the discipline of Business Informatics. The subjects were IT specialists with either foundation or…