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This paper examines a communication model based on six theoretical facets. Each facet was operationalised according to two aspects of Habermas' theory of communicative action: strategic and understanding-oriented action. The aim of the empirical analyses was to ascertain whether the postulated model could be used to measure different levels of competence, employing analyses from item-response-theory. We used a sample of 515 students from 11 German higher education institutions. Our empirical study confirmed qualitatively different levels of competence in all six facets. By linking rubrics with quantitative results, we were able to describe each level of competence qualitatively and to relate the different facets to each other. The purpose of this study is to support higher education institutions in the development of concrete strategies for helping students master complex competencies that aid them in their personal and professional development.

Previous research has shown that temporary employment is negatively associated with many psychological and job-related outcomes, such as well-being, health, wages, organisational commitment, and job satisfaction. Among recent doctoral graduates, the proportion of temporary contracts is particularly high. However, research on the association between contract type and job satisfaction specifically among doctoral graduates is scarce. Therefore, whether and how obtaining permanent employment affects doctoral graduates' job satisfaction remains a notable research gap that we intend to narrow by using panel data from a recent doctoral graduation cohort and by adopting a panel research design. We examine what effect obtaining permanent employment has on doctoral graduates' job satisfaction and whether this effect differs by labour market sector. We use panel data that are representative of the 2014 doctoral graduation cohort in Germany and their career trajectories up to five years after graduation. We apply fixed-effects regression to approximate the within-effect of obtaining a permanent employment contract on job satisfaction. The analyses indicate that obtaining permanent employment increases doctoral graduates' job satisfaction and that this increase is not driven by time-varying confounders. We also find that doctoral graduates' labour market sector moderates the effect: the increase in job satisfaction is highest in the academic sector and statistically significantly different from that in the private sector. Overall, this paper offers new insights into the effect of obtaining a permanent contract on the job satisfaction of recent doctoral graduates throughout their first years after graduation, when they are often employed on temporary contracts.

This paper examines the internationalisation processes in the higher education sector in Latvia and explores the motives of international students to study in Latvia, their experience and their plans. The study uses a quantitative data collection method -- a survey -- the results of which allow us to judge the main trends of internationalisation processes in Latvia. The differences between different groups were investigated, highlighting the countries with the most respondents -- India and Germany, and comparing them with each other and with students from other countries. The results show that there are substantial differences between the groups. For German students, Latvia was more of a second option when they failed to get into their preferred university in their home country or elsewhere. They chose to study in Latvia mainly because of the university's study programmes. At the same time, students from India were also interested in factors such as culture, the Baltic region and the attractiveness of Riga.

Much psychological research depends on participants' diligence in filling out materials such as surveys. However, not all participants are motivated to respond attentively, which leads to unintended issues with data quality, known as careless responding. Our question is: how do different modes of data collection--paper/pencil, computer/web-based, and smartphone--affect participants' diligence vs. "careless responding" tendencies and, thus, data quality? Results from prior studies suggest that different data collection modes produce a comparable prevalence of careless responding tendencies. However, as technology develops and data are collected with increasingly diversified populations, this question needs to be readdressed and taken further. The present research examined the effect of survey mode on careless responding in a repeated-measures design with data from three different samples. First, in a sample of working adults from China, we found that participants were slightly more careless when completing computer/web-based survey materials than in paper/pencil mode. Next, in a German student sample, participants were slightly more careless when completing the paper/pencil mode compared to the smartphone mode. Finally, in a sample of Chinese-speaking students, we found no difference between modes. Overall, in a meta-analysis of the findings, we found minimal difference between modes across cultures. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The paper investigates how teacher trainees in higher education geography and external, non-scientific partners perceive and experience collaborations in an active teaching and learning approach. Such formats are recommended in education for sustainable development (ESD) but are likely to be challenging experiences for all actors involved. The study analysed two transdisciplinary-oriented courses, where future teachers in geography and primary social and science education collaborated with civil society partners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 students and partners; course evaluations complemented the database. The analysis identified several approaches to collaboration and aspects that either led to intensive collaboration or challenged its transdisciplinary character. Furthermore, the study revealed the interdependencies between the external partners' expectations, their motives and the perceived effects of the collaborations. The partners anticipated a wide range of expectations, some of which went beyond what the students could reasonably deliver. Our analysis also showed that the collaborations enabled students to learn, experience and reflect on an active teaching and learning approach to ESD. We conclude that transdisciplinary-oriented courses can oscillate along the spectrum between "nice try" and "valuable initiative". The paper ends with recommendations for shaping and delivering transdisciplinary-oriented courses effectively.

Economists receive high social recognition in media, politics and business discourses where they often obtain a status as 'star economists' and 'financial prophets'. This paper investigates the social conditions that make the formation of size in the economic sciences possible. It analyses the "institutional constraints," "professional networks," "forms of academic knowledge" and "publication strategies" of early career economists as part of an academic dispositif. A position of 'size' is achieved when academics take a privileged scientific discourse position via publications, presentations and various evaluation reports for journals, funds and other academic institutions. To understand the formation of privileged academic discourse positions, we need to investigate the entire construction processes that start already at the "earlier phases of the professional biography." Based on narrative-biographical interviews with economists in UK and Germany, this paper will focus on "four sorts of resources" that are analysed as 'biographical discourse capital'. Biographical resources as 'discourse capital' are mobilised by early career researchers to solve practical problems in their daily life. The paper shows how specific tacit and conceptual knowledge interact with access to professional networks in order to find a 'proper topic' that help young economists to finally publish an A+ or 'Four*' paper.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the current state of education for sustainable development (ESD) at Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT) and to propose a guide for analysing sustainability at higher education institutions (HEI) in terms of implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and sustainability dimensions in the cognitive domain of education. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a new combination of two frameworks, the "Phase Model of Sustainability in MBA (Master of Business Administration) Education", developed by Hart "et al." (2017), to classify sustainability-focused topics and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) learning objectives for ESD (UNESCO, 2017) to classify sustainability-related topics. This paper analysed CUT's study programs and faculties, the websites of the study programs and the (junior) professorships, using documentary analysis with a new set of keywords relating to the topic of incorporating sustainability in curricula. Findings: The faculties and study programs of CUT are at different stages of integrating ESD. However, topics such as sustainable energy and production, recycling, sustainable management and innovation are prominent in the educational offerings of CUT. As the university is a technical university, the focus on these topics reflects the general direction of the organisation. Based on this study results, this study gives recommendations for further development for ESD at CUT. Originality/value: This paper presents the case of CUT and a new guide for analysing sustainability at HEI, including recommendations for further development in relation to ESD.

This paper intends to illustrate the didactic potential of Python-based Jupyter notebooks in teaching translation technology, machine translation in particular, to translation students. It discusses the basic makeup of Jupyter notebooks and shows how these notebooks can be set up for students who have had little to no prior exposure to the Python programming language. Then, the paper discusses the general didactic benefits of Jupyter notebooks for both students and lecturers in a translation studies context. It shows how students can interact with these notebooks, which translation technological and translation-oriented natural language processing (NLP) concepts can be taught using them and to what extent interaction with these notebooks can help students understand, in a very general way, some basic principles of (NLP-oriented) Python programming. Finally, the paper presents the results of a pilot study on the use of Jupyter notebooks in a machine translation course in an MA programme in specialised translation.

Purpose: This paper presents findings of a classroom-based research project that investigated the use of plurilingual tasks in the English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching context. The project aimed at examining: (1) the impact of the use of plurilingual tasks on language learning processes and learners' identity construction; and (2) the pedagogical gaps that need to be addressed in language teacher education. This paper focuses specifically on the first research question. Design/methodology: The project was carried out in the form of five case studies conducted in four primary schools and one secondary school in Germany. Research data were collected via a variety of ethnographic research instruments namely classroom observations and field notes, video recording of school lessons, in-depth interviews with teachers, teachers' reflective journals, anonymous questionnaires, and learner focus group interviews. Research findings: Drawing upon Darvin and Norton's (2015) concept of investment, the paper discusses research findings indicating that the use of plurilingual tasks had a positive impact on the EFL learners' investment in language learning activities. Originality/Value: The main implication that can be drawn from the findings is that the effective integration of plurilingual-inspired pedagogies in the foreign language classroom does not involve necessarily a drastic reformulation of learning goals and teaching procedures, but mainly a change in teachers' attitudes towards plurilingualism in the classroom.

Purpose: Higher education institutions (HEIs) should play a fundamental role in achieving the international 2030 sustainable development (SD) agenda. Quality education is the fourth of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and one of the targets related to this is to ensure that by 2030 all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote SD. Therefore, the SDGs provide a motive for HEIs to integrate SD concepts into their day-to-day practices. This study aims to introduce a framework for HEIs' sustainable development assessment. Such a framework guides HEIs and educational leaders to support their countries' commitments to achieving the SDGs. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents the results of a case study analysis of the role and successful techniques of HEIs in achieving SD in three countries, namely, Germany, Japan and Egypt. Primary data was collected by semi-structured interviews with three Cairo University officials, while secondary data was collected by reviewing the universities' official websites, reports, publications and related papers. This study introduces a novel framework for HEIs' SD analysis and assessment, which guides HEIs and educational leaders to support SD to fulfill their countries' commitments to achieving the SDGs. This framework is based on the following five categories: strategic direction and institutional working practices, supporting students, supporting university staff competencies, supporting society's stakeholders and networking and sustainable campus. Consideration is given to the potential role of HEIs to support SD in each of these areas. Findings: Cairo University could learn from the novel and pioneer practices of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and the University of Tokyo to fill in the gaps it has in different roles. It can also put more effort into adopting the suggested higher education programs of Egypt's Vision 2030. Research limitations/implications: This paper is limited to a case analysis comparing three countries, Germany, Japan and Egypt. Second, this study has not considered school education, which is equally essential in countries' SD. Practical implications: HEIs can use the framework and the findings in this paper to evaluate their current roles in supporting SD, identify the gaps and take actions accordingly to address their weaknesses. Originality/value: The paper compares three universities, one in each of the case study countries. It draws conclusions that identify ways in which the paper's framework and findings can guide SD practice in HEIs internationally, especially those in the developing world.

Purpose: Free and open-source software (FOSS) has been used worldwide because of the advantages of user control, cost-saving, flexibility, openness, freedom, more security and better stability. The purpose of this study is to explore the status quo of educational application of FOSS and the trends from international perspectives and its implications for higher education in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The method of cluster analysis was used in this study. The Web of Science database was used as the data source and all relevant literature for the year 2010-2020 on the theme of "FOSS" was collected for analysis. The information visualization software CiteSpace was used for citation visualization analysis, revealing the research results of FOSS worldwide, including hot spots and development trends. Findings: This paper found that FOSS has become an important research area and is playing an important role in the reform and development of education. Meanwhile, the development and application of FOSS have regional imbalances and strong differentiation, including the educational sector. The paper also found that although FOSS has entered the stage of interdisciplinary development, the research and development of FOSS in the field of education is insufficient, which poses a huge challenge to decision-makers, teachers and students. Originality/value: Implications for higher education in Hong Kong including: attach importance to and vigorously promote FOSS research and practice to benefit more teachers and students; teachers and students need to be trained for acquiring the awareness and skills of FOSS applications and formulate different strategies; the government should provide greater support to formulate and implement a short and middle-term development plan to facilitate the application of FOSS; and Hong Kong higher education institutions may strengthen exchanges and cooperation with counterparts around the world to jointly promote the development of FOSS. It is hoped that the findings will provide a reference for the study and application of FOSS in higher education in Hong Kong.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the development and piloting of a novel European framework for community engagement (CE) in higher education, which has been purposefully designed to progress the CE agenda in a European context. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed framework was co-created through the European Union (EU)-funded project towards a European framework for community engagement in higher education (TEFCE). The TEFCE Toolbox is an institutional self-reflection framework that centres on seven thematic dimensions of CE. This paper follows the development of the TEFCE Toolbox through empirical case study analysis of four European universities and their local communities. Findings: The findings in this paper indicate that the TEFCE Toolbox facilitates context-specific applications in different types of universities and socioeconomic environments. Incorporating insights from engagement practitioners, students and community representatives the TEFCE Toolbox was successfully applied in universities with diverse profiles and missions. The process facilitated the recognition of CE achievements and the identification of potential areas for improvement. Originality/value: Despite a range of international initiatives, there remains an absence of initiatives within the European higher education area that focus on developing tools to comprehensively support CE. The TEFCE Toolbox and case-study analysis presented in this paper address this gap in knowledge. The broader societal contribution and social responsibility of higher education have become increasingly prominent on the European agenda. The TEFCE Toolbox represents an innovative, robust and holistic European framework with the potential to support universities in reflecting upon their pursuit of addressing grand societal challenges, whilst promoting CE.

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the development track of skills mismatch research and discover the hidden internal connections between literature. Design/methodology/approach: The authors gathered data through scientometric quantitative analysis using CiteSpace. Specifically, this article applied basic analysis, journal cocitation analysis (JCA), author cocitation analysis (ACA) and document cocitation analysis (DCA), cluster analysis, citation burstness detection, scientific research cooperation analysis and coconcurrence analysis of keywords of 3,125 documents from Web of Science core collections for the period 2000-2020. Findings: Through the document cocitation analysis and the keywords' co-occurrence, this article identifies influential scholars, documents, research institutions, journals and research hotspots in research on the skills mismatch phenomenon. The results showed that the publications had ballooned, and the phenomenon has become an interdisciplinary research subject. The USA and Finland remain the main contributors, which is attributed to their high-yield institutions such as the University of Helsinki, the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Washington and so on. While the African continent lacks research on skills mismatch even with the continent's effort to overcome such a crucial issue. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of skills and educational mismatch issues to better understand the evolutionary trajectory of the collective knowledge over the past 20 years and highlight the areas of active pursuit. Research limitations/implications: The authors only used Web of Science core collection to collect data; however, they can added Scopus indexed database as well to extend the research trends and explore more new research hot topics to solve the skills mismatch phenomenon. Originality/value: The scientometric analysis is of great significance for identifying the potential relationship between the literature and investigating the knowledge evolution of skills mismatch research. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization are the giants who are mostly concerned of the mismatch skills phenomenon. Researchers can refer to this study to understand the status quo, gaps and research trends to deal with the skills mismatch issue.

Purpose: Virtual collaboration provides students with an opportunity to develop cultural intelligence while fitting into the team where the members are from diverse cultures. The purpose of this study is to explore whether global virtual team (GVT) projects raise students' understanding of cultural differences. In addition, it is interesting to know how internationally disruptive events such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic influence GVT projects. Design/methodology/approach: The research involved two parts--In the first part, a two-wave longitudinal study was conducted to investigate how intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence coevolve within a group of international students enrolled in a virtual business professional project. In the second part, using word clouds and topic modelling on the participants' perceptions, the study investigated whether the sudden disruption caused by the pandemic show similar results in performance, focussing primarily on the resilience of virtual teams. Further, the study explored participants' perceptions towards online learning in higher education institutions as well as the attitude of corporate organizations towards remote working in the post-pandemic years. Findings: The results confirmed that GVT projects, in fact, do raise students' understanding of cultural differences and the need to adjust their behaviour accordingly in order to engage with their culturally different counterparts effectively. Participants reported an increase in their cognitive, behavioural and affective attributes. Research limitations/implications: Among the limitations of this study is the relatively small number of student participants. Furthermore, the number of respondents from India dominated the sample. Since the Indian students were disproportionately affected by the shutdown, causing them to return often to rural areas with poor Internet connectivity, responses concerning the disruption caused by the pandemic may be overriding negative. The same could be said of responses from US-American students, who often rely heavily on-campus employment or whose parents became unemployed during the pandemic, and thus were faced with disproportionate economic insecurity. Practical implications: This paper provides insights to the educators and international organizations on how such projects provide the skills essential for reducing costs, accessing knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) across borders, maintaining flexible work schedules and arrangements, and taking advantage of multiple time zones to increase productivity. Originality/value: While highlighting the significance of cultural intelligence, this paper investigated how the sudden disruption caused by a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic impacts performance, focussing primarily on the resilience of virtual teams.

This is a conceptual paper that examines the origin and development of universities and their current role in global society. There has been an unprecedented and exponential growth of technology and artificial intelligence capabilities over the past ten years which is challenging current working practices and affecting all areas of society. The paper examines how this role may change to match the new demands placed on them by a digitally enabled society that has greater leisure time. The design of the paper is first to detail some of the changes in work practices that are taking place and how these will impact on society. It then offers several ways in which universities could modify their role to respond to these emerging challenges. This could include new courses, new organisational structures and new pedagogical practices. The paper provides a platform for discussion and debate around the strategic vision and direction of travel for higher education.

One of the most important tasks of higher educational institutions is the training of specialists to be able to adapt to changes in their professional life. At the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the 21st centuries, some methods for developing foreign language competence, needed for their future professional activity, were created by teachers. However, the effectiveness of these methods has not been studied. This fact has aroused the authors' interest and generated the idea about the necessity to conduct scientific research in order to identify the most effective methods of teaching foreign languages for special purposes. Methods: The given research paper is based on the analysis of Russian and foreign scholars' scientific works covering the problem of teaching foreign languages for special purposes to the students of humanitarian professions, as well as on the basis of the results from questioning students of bachelor degree programs who study foreign languages for special purposes in the field of humanitarian professions, and also of the results from questioning teachers specializing in teaching foreign languages for special purposes. Results: In the students' opinion, the most effective methods of teaching foreign languages for special purposes in the field of humanitarian professions are the following: discussion, ICT (information and communication technologies), and SCRUM (framework that helps teams work together, encourages team to learn through on a problem). According to the interviewed teachers' opinion, the most effective methods are discussion, ICT, and round table. The "dilemma" method is the least effective according to the students. As for the teachers, the less effective method is CLIL (content and language integrated learning). Conclusions: The study showed some common views among teachers and students concerning the effectiveness of methods of teaching foreign languages for professional purposes, such as discussion and ICT. The effectiveness of the discussion method is explained by the fact that it allows the integration of students' knowledge from different areas when solving a problem and provides an opportunity to apply language knowledge and skills into practice. This contributes to forming students' ability to think clearly, to perceive information critically, to highlight the main idea and find the means and arguments to confirm and substantiate it, and, consequently, to improve the understanding of any theoretical material. The use of ICT in the educational process allows the efficiency of the educational process itself to be improved significantly and leads to new approaches and organizational forms of educational work. In fact, while preparing educational programs and creating didactic materials, special attention should be given to the implementation of ICT methods and discussions in educational activities. Nevertheless, the respondents' subjective opinion should not reduce the scientific value and effectiveness of other methods of teaching a foreign language for professional purposes. The authors of the paper believe that methods that have not found much support from students and teachers should be studied more thoroughly and carefully. To this end, it could be recommended to organize special training seminars that would allow teachers to be informed of new methods of teaching foreign languages for professional purposes, of their particularities, and to help their active implementation in the learning process.

This paper examines practices of teaching and learning in the era of digitalization. More specifically, it addresses practices of teaching and learning for students with professional experience who work alongside their studies. Based on the assumption that digitalization is a means of allowing more open and flexible pathways for teaching and learning in higher education, the paper focuses on the perspectives and perceptions of both students and teachers in digital supported teaching and learning environments as forms of blended learning. It brings together findings from two qualitative empirical studies: one focused on students' perspectives of their development over the course of their studies; the second addressed teachers' perspectives and their teaching strategies and activities. Based on the findings of these two research studies, the paper outlines future perspectives for teaching and learning and the role of digitalization, with a particular emphasis on programs of lifelong learning at universities.

WhatsApp groups are considered useful for creating and supporting virtual communities. This mixed method case study explores the patterns that emerged when we used WhatsApp to create a community of learning during the multimodal presentation of a postgraduate course in research proposal writing. Three questions drive the study: (1) What kinds of messages were sent? (2) Who participated and how? (3) How did the learners experience the use of WhatsApp in support of the community of learning? Data were collected during the presentation of a five-evening proposal writing workshop that was conducted using Zoom, WhatsApp, and YouTube as communication platforms. To answer the first question, all WhatsApp messages were analysed through both manual (individual) and automated (meta) content analysis. The third question was answered by analysing students' responses to the end-of session online questionnaire that was administered via Google Forms. Results indicate that many messages were administrative in nature, while the most notable academic messages concerned a discussion of empirical research, research paradigms, and research design. The presenter and co-presenter together accounted for almost half of the messages sent, and the other messages were evenly distributed between members of the class, with five notably vocal students. Student responses indicated that they liked the high level of interactivity and the content, but that they disliked the time it took to form groups. The paper contributes to the literature by showing how this use of multiple WhatsApp groups was effective in creating a sense of community by facilitating access, relationships, vision, and function (West and Williams, 2017). More research is needed in determining the extent to which students might support one another with conversations outside of the main WhatsApp group.

Student success and drop-out predictions have gained increased attention in recent years, connected to the hope that by identifying struggling students, it is possible to intervene and provide early help and design programs based on patterns discovered by the models. Though by now many models exist achieving remarkable accuracy-values, models outputting simple probabilities are not enough to achieve these ambitious goals. In this paper, we argue that they can be a first exploratory step of a pipeline aiming to be capable of reaching the mentioned goals. By using Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods, such as SHAP and LIME, we can understand what features matter for the model and make the assumption that features important for successful models are also important in real life. By then additionally connecting this with an analysis of counterfactuals and a theory-driven causal analysis, we can begin to reasonably understand not just "if" a student will struggle but "why" and provide fitting help. We evaluate the pipeline on an artificial dataset to show that it can, indeed, recover complex causal mechanisms and on a real-life dataset showing the method's applicability. We further argue that collaborations with social scientists are mutually beneficial in this area but also discuss the potential negative effects of personal intervention systems and call for careful designs.

The research presented in this article is a systematic review of the literature on the assessment of mathematical modeling in the setting of mathematics education published in the previous five years. This research has compiled the current best information from around the world to offer an overview of the assessment of mathematical modeling for pre-service mathematics teachers or mathematics teachers. We followed the approach used in Joklitschke et al. (2021), which involved 10 steps in systematic literature review (SLR). We accessed using Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and mathematics education journals that are ranked 1-10. Based on a full-text analysis of 18 peer-reviewed papers published in English, most of the research was conducted among pre-service mathematics teacher and most of the studies were conducted in Turkey, United States, and Germany. The future trends and opportunities were also discussed. We also found that most test types employed for measuring modeling competency were project, cognitive dimension, holistic approach, and the tests utilized more qualitative approach.

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

This special issue expands the scope of a panel presentation at the Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference 2019 and makes two identified contributions to the field. First, drawing from existing literature, this introductory paper proposes three categorisations of employability as: outcomes approach, process approach and conceptual approaches. This moves beyond normative conceptualisation of employability from mostly the outcomes approach. The applicability of the categorisation is further enumerated by the diversity of contributions in this special issue that highlights (a) the complexity in the field and (b) the interrelatedness of the categories. Second, the special issue puts together a rarely combined collection of global perspectives on conceptualisations of employability, and insights from research on little studied groups in Western and non-Western contexts (the UK, Portugal, Australia, the Indo-Pacific Region, Germany, Kenya and Kazakhstan). The papers, therefore, illustrate the need to widen our scope of understanding employability beyond current dominant perspectives. The broadening that is required in employability discourses is further needed in view of unprecedented disruption brought on higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the need to rethink our conceptualisations of employability amidst uncertainty and potential disruption to the future of work.

Reaction mechanisms are a core component of organic chemistry. Being able to handle these mechanisms is a central skill for students in this discipline. Diagnosing and fostering mechanistic reasoning is hence an important branch of chemistry education research. When it comes to reasoning about mechanisms, students often experience difficulties because they either lack conceptual understanding, cannot make appropriate inferences, or struggle to link representations to chemical concepts. Instructional tools to bridge this gap are thus required in organic chemistry education. Recently, scaffolds to support students to make connections between properties and reaction pathways as well as connecting a representation to chemical concepts are documented to be helpful to foster students' reasoning. Although the advantage of scaffolds is reported, the question arises of how students are working with scaffolds and if scaffolds can influence students' scores in a conceptual knowledge test. In this study, we explored in a pre--post mixed methods approach how students recruited from an organic chemistry course are working with a written scaffold. We correlated their level of causal complexity and multivariateness expressed in the scaffolds with their score in a conceptual knowledge test pre and post. The task used consisted of scaffolded contrasting cases of two addition reaction steps of a nucleophile on a carbonyl carbon. The paper-pencil test used for pre-, and posttest covered the respective conceptual knowledge. We qualitatively identified patterns along the dimensions of causal complexity and multivariateness in students' written responses in the scaffold and looked for relationships between students' scores in the pre- and posttest and these two dimensions. We found five different patterns in students' responses and were able to show that the score they achieved in the pretest influenced how effectively students were supported by the scaffold. Thus, this exploratory study provides encouraging implications and insights into the use of scaffolds.

Students from a lower socioeconomic background have a higher risk of dropping out of higher education. The underlying mechanisms of this association between socioeconomic background and higher education dropout are not well understood. Previous research in higher education has followed Tinto's model of academic and social integration to explain dropout but has largely neglected social inequality therein. In contrast, social stratification research draws on rational choice theory to explain social inequality in educational attainment but has rarely been applied to explain dropout from higher education. In our paper, we combine these two strands of research. Utilizing data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we draw on a largescale, representative sample of students in Germany to quantify the relative contribution of each theoretical approach for explaining social inequality in dropout from higher education. Binary logistic regression models reveal that both students' integration and costs-benefit considerations are associated with their dropout risk net of each other. While academic and social integration appears to better predict dropout, rational choice theory accounts for a larger proportion of social inequality therein. We conclude that combining Tinto's model and rational choice theory provides a more comprehensive perspective of dropouts from higher education and social inequality therein.

The expansion of opportunity in higher education and the recognition of the influence of academic research on economic development have motivated policy reforms in many national systems of higher education including Japan. Many of these national reforms involve facilitating market forces in higher education, which is a new context for many universities. What has been learned about the impacts of these policies on the university sector? This paper will review research on the three primary policy instruments for creating market competition in a sector: policies altering the basic conditions of a market -- the framework laws and values within which universities operate; policies affecting market structure -- the number of buyers and sellers, the pricing of goods and services, freeing and simulating markets; and policies directly affecting the conduct of buyers and sellers -- government regulation and the provision of information. Given the recent regulatory developments in Japanese higher education, the paper will particularly focus on the design of quality assurance policies in the university sector.

International student mobility has been an important indicator for the degree of internationalisation in higher education. Today, international student mobility has moved from unorganised or self-organised study abroad to a variety of mobility forms organised within programmes. It has also become an issue of economic competitiveness, like attracting best talent, wealth creation and brain drain. This paper focuses on mobility as a limited period of study abroad (typically between six and 12 months) and not on mobility for the purpose of studying a whole degree programme abroad. Meanwhile, it takes ERASMUS program in Germany for example, analyzes the barriers to student mobility and possible solutions, and draws conclusions that widening participation and broadening geographical scope. (Contains 2 tables.) [This paper was presented at the Beijing Forum "The Harmony and Prosperity of Civilizations" in the Subgroup Education "Education and Human Development from the Global Perspective" (Beijing, China, August 23-25, 2004).]

A concept for undergraduate mechanics courses at universities is introduced where traditional pencil-paper based exercises are partially replaced by experimental exercises, in which smartphones are used as measurement devices. A detailed guidance for practical realization and implementation of these tasks formats into the course is presented. Three smartphone-based experimental exercises 'The tilting smartphone', 'The oscillation balance' and 'Using the Smartphone in a Torsion Pendulum' are presented. First empirical results with respect to the learning achievement indicate a mid size effect on the understanding of the physical concepts. Compared to the traditional pencil-paper based exercises, the students performance in the experimental exercises is slightly lower, although the motivation to solve these tasks is higher.

University lecturers and coordinators of business and economics courses around the world are faced with the challenge that beginning students in these courses have heterogeneous entry conditions in terms of personal characteristics. This article focuses on the economic knowledge of German and Japanese beginning students in a business and economics degree programme. The German and Japanese versions of the US-American Test of Economic Literacy were used for the assessment of the economic knowledge of German (N = 901) and Japanese (N = 571) students. The TEL consists of 45 items in two questionnaire versions and is based on 20 globally accepted core standards of economics. The analyses in this paper are based on the total score of all 45 items of the TEL as well as the subscores for the 20 standards. A special focus of this paper is on gender-specific differences in economic knowledge. While gender has a strong effect on economic knowledge in Germany, only a small number of the core standards in Japan exhibit a difference between male and female test takers. The paper concludes by applying interpretative approaches to the different findings in both countries and suggests potential methods for further research on the gender effect in economics education.

How is the content of university programs selected and structured? How does it evolve? In the anthropological theory of the didactic, external didactic transposition designates the processes through which knowledge to be taught is delimited and developed for delivery within a school institution, including universities. This paper presents a first international comparative research project focused on the external didactic transposition in European and Canadian undergraduate programs in mathematics. The project aims at analyzing the factors that motivate the evolutions of the programs, the procedures to develop them, as well as the constraints that limit broader modifications and can explain their current state. The exploratory study presented in this paper considers 10 case studies from universities in Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain. Data is mainly collected from semi-structured interviews with faculty having participated in recent design of undergraduate mathematics programs and syllabi. We identify both similarities and differences between programs and syllabi, with the differences being relatively significant between Canadian and European universities when it comes to the overall structure of programs, and less visible when considering the European programs, as well as the processes in general.