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Online teaching is an inseparable part of the education system and necessitates the development of educators' abilities to integrate knowledge on assessment and techno-pedagogic knowledge to enable the intelligent use of basic online assessment methods. This study considers how the cocreation of a teamwork rubric to assess the production of a learning unit designed by students in groups contributed to the online self-assessment of collaborative work processes from the perspective of student-teachers. Cocreation of a rubric was combined with graded self-assessments to stimulate students' increased responsibility for the learning process. I employed a mixed-methods methodology for the research, including both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis to investigate students' attitudes concerning the contribution of their cocreation of rubrics to the improvement of their assignments and their assessment skills. The sample included 120 student-teachers at the graduate level. The results clarify the contribution of cocreating rubrics to student-teachers' online assessment of collaborative work processes and reveal their attitudes concerning the use of collaborative processes in their teaching. Creating a positive learning experience for the student-teachers can train and encourage them to employ alternative assessment methods in their teaching.

This chapter describes a course teaching unit, carried out in a teacher education college in central Israel, that aims to develop techno-pedagogical skills in different disciplines, fostering independent and collaborative learning. The unit constituted modelling for the flipped classroom strategy using constructivist teaching. The unit was applied with 35 student-teachers from different disciplines online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The teaching method of the unit is described through the humanist theoretical lens, while highlighting the teaching and learning processes, the content knowledge, the techno-pedagogical environments and the learners' reflective insights. This process consolidates pedagogic models of teaching and learning methods according to a humanist, constructivist approach in an online learning environment

When reasoning about science studies, people often make "causal theory errors" by inferring or accepting a causal claim based on correlational evidence. While humans naturally think in terms of causal relationships, reasoning about science findings requires understanding how evidence supports--or fails to support--a causal claim. This study investigated college students' thinking about causal claims presented in brief media reports describing behavioral science findings. How do science students reason about causal claims from correlational evidence? And can their reasoning be improved through instruction clarifying the nature of causal theory error? We examined these questions through a series of written reasoning exercises given to advanced college students over three weeks within a psychology methods course. In a pretest session, students critiqued study quality and support for a causal claim from a brief media report suggesting an association between two variables. Then, they created diagrams depicting possible alternative causal theories. At the beginning of the second session, an instructional intervention introduced students to an extended example of a causal theory error through guided questions about possible alternative causes. Then, they completed the same two tasks with new science reports immediately and again 1 week later. The results show students' reasoning included fewer causal theory errors after the intervention, and this improvement was maintained a week later. Our findings suggest that interventions aimed at addressing reasoning about causal claims in correlational studies are needed even for advanced science students, and that training on considering alternative causal theories may be successful in reducing casual theory error. [This article was published in "Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications" (EJ1322131).]

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the transition from traditional teaching methods to online distance teaching and learning in all educational institutions including schools and higher education institutions. This change means that student-teachers need to have online learning experience and acquire professional skills needed to become online distance teachers. In the last two decades, research has investigated various aspects of online teaching but a main subject which has not been studied in depth is the learners' feeling of belonging in an online distance course, especially among student-teachers. The research investigated the contribution of student-teachers' self-perceived readiness for learning online and a collaborative online learning environment to the learners' sense of belonging. For this purpose, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from pre- and post-tests and personal and collaborative blogs from 172 student-teachers' studying in two large teacher-education colleges in the center of Israel, to measure their self-perceived readiness for online collaborative learning, their sense of belonging and the learning experiences and changes they underwent along the course. It was found that a student-teacher, who had previously enjoyed a good experience in a collaborative online course, and had strong technological literacy for online learning, performed better in an online course, operated optimally in collaborative task performance, and felt a strong sense of belonging to the group at the course's end. These findings can inform future teacher training, the formation of new pedagogic models and teaching methods for collaborative online environments and their implementation in teaching-learning.

The instructor in an online course needs online teaching experience and should adapt the course contents to the digital environment. The purpose of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of students' perceptions of the pedagogical aspects of online teaching, pointing up characteristics of online courses that extant literature in this field has found reflected in different online and blended courses. Online courses necessitate meticulous planning by the instructor and adaptation through the student's learning. The research reported here related to the attitudes of 216 students, who participated in 52 courses delivered by 36 different instructors. Some of the courses included both face-to-face meetings and online lessons, while other courses were solely presented online. The research findings may be informative for instructors planning online courses and for students contemplating participation in online courses, in order to prepare in an optimal manner for the teaching, learning and evaluation processes.

Scholars and the public alike have questioned the benefits of obtaining an undergraduate education. Although research has extensively examined short-term outcomes associated with college experiences, relatively few studies have investigated non-economic outcomes beyond graduation. This paper explored the link between college experiences and post-college outcomes among 21,716 bachelor's degree recipients from 68 private institutions. Although some variation across demographics was observed, good teaching, academic challenge, and diversity experiences were consistently--and often strongly--related to alumni's perceptions of intellectual and civic growth.

This empirical article presents student affairs and services practitioners' perceptions regarding the sense of accomplishment they feel in their job. Results show helping students, collaborating among colleagues, contributing positively to a broader community, and the autonomous and engaging nature of the work itself provided SAS staff across countries and regions with a sense of accomplishment. Authors discuss findings in terms of supporting SAS practitioners in light of changes globally in higher education's expectations and culture.

Student affairs and services has a long history in higher education and associations followed suit to assist in the efforts of professionalization. This region differs in that in the US and Canada there are many specialized associations for certain functions in SAS but this report examines the works of four of the most established associations in three countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic required adjustments and limitations in university teaching, thereby challenging teaching concepts in anatomy requiring in-person contact, including the gross anatomy course. Therefore, the present study investigates the impact of COVID-19-associated adjustments on students' perception of the gross anatomy course's importance and quality, students' preferred learning setting and outcome, and their motivation to involve themselves in academic activities, including becoming a future peer-teacher of the course. Using paper-based questionnaires in Ulm, Germany, 397 (response rate: 82.3%) students of the winter term of 2020/2021 were surveyed using quantitative and qualitative items, which were compared with cohorts prior to the pandemic. Students reported a higher global rating on course quality during COVID-19 (pre-COVID-19: 5.3 ± 0.9, during-COVID-19: 5.6 ± 0.7, p < 0.001; 1 = very bad, 6 = very good). Students' perceived importance of the gross anatomy course showed a small but significant increase (pre-COVID-19: 4.2 ± 0.6, during-COVID-19: 4.3 ± 0.6, p < 0.001; 1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree). Students' motivation to apply as a peer-teacher remained stable, nevertheless, they reported less interest in transferring their knowledge to junior students. Finally, students reported that they spent significantly more learning time alone and their examination grades remained unchanged during the pandemic. Astonishingly, despite radical changes of the teaching environment due to COVID-19, students appreciate the offered teaching and highly valued the gross anatomy course.

The Studentische Poliklinik is Germany's first student-run free clinic. Prior to fulfilling clinical obligations there, students must complete an extensive peer-assisted learning program (PAL). Due to capacity constraints, a web-based learning program involving virtual patients has been launched. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of Virtual Patient Learning (VPL) vs. PAL in the acquisition of basic medical knowledge and skills. Forty undergraduate medical students (m=9; f=31) in their third year were randomly assigned to either the PAL (n=20), or VPL (n=20). Short-term (after each seminar) and long-term learning retention (after completion of the electives) was measured using a validated theoretical test. Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) were used to assess practical knowledge. Additionally, the course itself was evaluated. Differences in theoretical knowledge between students in the PAL and VPL existed over the short term (VPL median = 100%; PAL median = 80; p = 0.006), but not over the long term (VPL = 94.17; PAL = 95.62 %; p = 0.617). An assessment of practical skills showed no differences in OSCE scores between the two different groups (VPL = 79.30 %; PAL = 80.26 %; p = 0.141). Students assessed their learning experience and the comprehensibility of seminars as either "very good" or "good". Basic medical knowledge and skills can be taught as effectively using VPL as PAL. Given the cost-effectiveness, high reproducibility and freedom of time and place, VPL should be performed more often when teaching family medicine in student-run free clinics. Ultimately, this may result in enhanced treatment quality and patient satisfaction.

This article focuses on the analytical competence of teachers, which can be defined as the ability to properly perceive and assess lessons in terms of the effectiveness of pupils' learning. However, learning opportunities for fostering this competence in teacher education can only be justified if the components of this construct are theoretically defined and empirically proven. This was the purpose of two studies on which we report here. The studies were combined to a mixed methods design in which the analytical competence of teachers has been investigated. The data were collected using a quantitative method (standardized test; N = 800) as well as a qualitative method (content analysis of interviews; N = 18). The construct of teachers' analytical competence was defined as having two dimensions: a content and a formal dimension. The content dimension is made up of two factors: pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge. The formal dimension of the construct is defined using different levels as factors of complexity with which teachers can process information relevant for teaching. Both studies provided empirical evidence for the validity of the underlying construct. Based on these results, recommendations for teacher education are given.

Recently, colleges have begun to employ online learning courses for multiple participants. Consequently, students need to master online learning skills. To improve this teaching model, this study investigated the considerations and teaching patterns of two lecturers in the same multiparticipant online courses: 102 students in one course and 70 students in the second. The students' learning patterns and preferences were also investigated, especially the preferences of students with learning disabilities, the time they invested in learning, their insights, and their level of satisfaction with teaching-learning methods. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with the lecturers, a questionnaire for all their students, ten semistructured interviews with students at the end of the course, and the course forum correspondence and the course blog. Questionnaire responses underwent quantitative analysis with SPSS software. Interviews and responses to open questions underwent qualitative content analysis. Thematic categories were produced from data from the forums and blogs. The findings show a preference for small groups within the multiparticipant course, fewer targeted messages from the lecturer, and fewer multiple messages from colleagues. Both lecturers' and students' visibility and social presence improved in small groups as did the students' commitment to learning. However, in the large group, multiplicity of participants was advantageous, creating a large community of learners rich in "mass wisdom," but this required different course assignments and communication practices. Replacing less successful elements in each model (small groups vs. one large group) with more successful elements produces optimal teaching patterns for multiparticipant online courses and opens up further research.

To respond to needs arising from the field and institutional constrictions, various video-integrated teaching methods were offered to students in multiparticipant courses. Two hundred ninety-five students studying in two Sociology of Education courses agreed to participate in the research. One hundred sixty-two students participated in Course 1, in which all the lectures were recorded and three studio recordings were included in the course. One hundred twenty-three students participated in Course 2, in which only two lectures were recorded and four studio recordings were included in the course. The study aimed to identify the students' learning preferences, their attitudes regarding the use of video recording, and the extent to which recorded lectures influenced attendance. Students' video use patterns and attitudes were elicited from an online questionnaire, including 17 closed-ended questions and two open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS software and responses to open-ended questions underwent content analysis. The findings indicated that the students saw video-assisted learning as a positive experience that helped them to understand the learning materials. The recordings of the lectures that were uploaded to the course site responded to various student needs. These conclusions are significant given the intention to use video technology to improve teaching, provide improved teaching-learning experiences, and inform construction of video-assisted pedagogical models in teaching.

This study aimed to examine whether principles of effective teaching constitute essential criteria for a systematic and successful analysis of lessons. After watching a video of a complete lesson, the participants (each of nine experienced and pre-service teachers) were asked to analyse this lesson in terms of effectiveness for pupils' learning in the form of an open dialogue. Their comments were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis and revealed that the experienced teachers independently used the wide range of principles of effective teaching and differed significantly from the pre-service teachers in this regard. Particularly striking were the large differences in the activation of knowledge about these five principles: goal orientation, relating cognitive activities to prior knowledge, classroom climate/learning atmosphere, clarity, and using appropriate examples. These differences point to specific development tasks, in order to improve the analytical skills of student teachers within teacher education.

When reasoning about science studies, people often make causal theory errors by inferring or accepting a causal claim based on correlational evidence. While humans naturally think in terms of causal relationships, reasoning about science findings requires understanding how evidence supports--or fails to support--a causal claim. This study investigated college students' thinking about causal claims presented in brief media reports describing behavioral science findings. How do science students reason about causal claims from correlational evidence? And can their reasoning be improved through instruction clarifying the nature of causal theory error? We examined these questions through a series of written reasoning exercises given to advanced college students over three weeks within a psychology methods course. In a pretest session, students critiqued study quality and support for a causal claim from a brief media report suggesting an association between two variables. Then, they created diagrams depicting possible alternative causal theories. At the beginning of the second session, an instructional intervention introduced students to an extended example of a causal theory error through guided questions about possible alternative causes. Then, they completed the same two tasks with new science reports immediately and again 1 week later. The results show students' reasoning included fewer causal theory errors after the intervention, and this improvement was maintained a week later. Our findings suggest that interventions aimed at addressing reasoning about causal claims in correlational studies are needed even for advanced science students, and that training on considering alternative causal theories may be successful in reducing casual theory error.

This article describes the authors' experiences developing and implementing an innovative curriculum connecting mathematics and the biological sciences. It describes the original plan, the modifications that were necessary, and some advice to readers who might want to develop comparable programs.

Science teachers should be able to notice student preconceptions in order to adapt instructions to their students' needs and support the learning process. Noticing as a core practice of teaching should thus be implemented early in science teacher education. A crucial prerequisite for noticing is knowledge about students' preconceptions, which is an important element of science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. To enhance pre-service teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, flipped classroom approaches seem especially promising as they combine a theoretical introduction to important didactic concepts with a direct application of these concepts in profession-oriented learning tasks. Furthermore, flipped classrooms seem to satisfy the three basic personal needs of experience in competence, social relatedness, and autonomy according to the self-determination theory of motivation, thus enhancing learning. This intervention study investigates the effect of a course on physics didactics designed according to the flipped classroom approach on pre-service teachers' (N = 87) learning to notice student preconceptions. Specifically, we analyzed how pre-service teachers' perception of competence, social relatedness, and autonomy during course participation related to their noticing abilities. We found a significant increase (d = 0.40) in PSTs' noticing abilities, operationalized as absolute number of recognized preconceptions between pre- and posttest. However, this increase was not mediated by PSTs' perception of competence, social relatedness, and autonomy.

The article reviews the use of Web 2.0 environment in teacher education, emphasizing the constructivist social pedagogy approach. Pedagogical abilities of Web 2.0 tools are discussed, demonstrating their applications in teaching various subjects, especially to assist collaborative and creative learner-oriented teaching. Contributions of these tools to teaching-learning are described in three collaborative environments-based courses. The tools included: forums, collaborative synchronous lectures, Wiki environment, a closed Facebook group, blog writing, collaborative documents writing, using smartphones in lessons and location-based activities, class YouTube channel for student-teachers' clips and debates, structuring collaborative knowledge and online anonymous peer assessment regarding discussion on digital citizenship, group data collection through surveys etc. Intertwining various environments to assist course teaching increased student-teachers' awareness of effective exploitation of these environments for teaching objectives. Pedagogical considerations for choice of tools, environments, and applications are discussed. Conclusions relate to the contributions of ICT, contents, and pedagogy integration to teacher education.

This study aims to explore the way teacher educators cope with technological-pedagogical change processes during their teaching and tutoring and adapt the teaching methods to the present age. 86 educators and 186 pre-service teachers filled an online questionnaire which included quantitative as well as qualitative, open questions. In addition, 11 interviews were conducted. The study results indicate that despite the ubiquitous changes that we experience in our environment, methods of teaching and learning have not changed substantially. Students feel that in fact, educators are not making a genuine effort to lead the change that they recognize as so important. While preservice teachers and educators agree that experiencing new technological environments is an important step toward a different educational future, they both feel they do not have enough knowledge about essential pedagogical changes and about the skills they will require in order to cope with the new reality.

Contribution: This paper examines ideation practices of biomedical engineering (BME) students in a capstone design course during a designated team ideation session and provides recommendations for structuring idea generation instruction. Background: Capstone courses provide students with opportunities to engage with open-ended and complex engineering problems requiring knowledge from multiple disciplines. Limited work has focused on how BME students engage in idea generation in capstone courses. Yet, success in solving problems depends on how students engage with and organize their idea generation efforts. Research Questions: What design activities do BME students engage in during a session designated for idea generation? What factors impact how students approach their ideation sessions and select the ideation approaches to use in a design course? Methodology: Five student teams were recorded during their idea generation sessions. Post-session interviews were conducted with a subset of students. Qualitative analysis of transcripts revealed themes related to design activities and factors impacting idea generation. Findings: Students commonly moved into convergent idea evaluation activities during generation. Their approaches to ideation were influenced by course activities and structures, design requirements, and sponsor feedback.

Research has suggested ePortfolios reveal and support students' metacognition, that is, their awareness, tracking, and evaluation of their learning over time. However, due to the wide variety of purposes and audiences for ePortfolios, it has been unclear whether there might be common criteria for identifying and assessing metacognition in ePortfolios across varied contexts. The purpose of this study was to identify evidence of metacognition across ePortfolios of three distinct populations of students: traditional-age undergraduates, graduate Education students, and adults returning to school to complete a bachelor's degree. We set out to explore if and how ePortfolios could support these different learners' growth as reflective, intentional learners and professionals. Through a qualitative coding process, we identified four key metacognition markers across students' ePortfolios in these three populations. We conclude students can be guided to engage in metacognition in concrete ways through thoughtful assignment design and assessment process, no matter their context.

Social networks facilitate activities that promote involvement, collaboration and engagement. Modelling of best practices using social networks enhances its usage by participants, increases participants confidence as to its implementation and creates a paradigm shift to a more personalized, participatory and collaborative learning and a more positive attitude towards its implementation. The contribution of the study described in this paper resides in the enhancement of teaching and learning methods that make use of the social network environment and shifts the focus of learning from the teacher to the learner. This breaks down the boundaries of time and place for teaching and learning. Another contribution is the strengthening of teachers' personal and professional capabilities and the promotion of teaching-learning processes transpiring beyond the classroom boundaries by sharing contents, current communication, active learning and collaborative work.

There is growing interest in promoting metacognition among college and university students, as this has been linked with positive student learning outcomes. This study explores the relationship between student writing anxiety and self-efficacy on undergraduate students' self-reported use of metacognitive writing strategies. Using undergraduate student survey data from a large, research-intensive university in Ontario, Canada, we found reductions in writing anxiety and increased self-efficacy had a statistically significant association with students' perceptions of using metacognitive writing strategies. These findings have implications for both theory and practice. They demonstrate that writing metacognition is influenced by emotional factors, such as the level of anxiety and the extent of self-beliefs around writing. It also suggests that writing interventions that seek to reduce anxiety and increase undergraduate students' self-efficacy with respect to writing may positively enhance students' use of metacognitive writing strategies, and ultimately improve student writing outcomes.

This paper presents an analysis of engineering students' use of Design Heuristics as part of a team project in an undergraduate engineering design course. Design Heuristics are an empirically derived set of cognitive "rules of thumb" for use in concept generation. We investigated heuristic use in the initial concept generation phase, whether heuristic-inspired concepts were carried through to later design process stages, and how concept synthesis within each team's design process related to heuristic use. The results reveal widespread use of Design Heuristics among the concepts generated by individuals and selected by teams for further development, and a prevalence of concept synthesis within approximately half of the observed teams' design processes.

This paper reports the use of Google Docs in a master's degree program as an online tool for collaborative co-construction of knowledge and self-assessment. Participants included eighty graduate teachers in a master's degree. The study employed a mixed method approach. Among the tools applied were a questionnaire, focus group discussions, collaborative Google Docs, students' comments, class discussions and instructor assessments of the collaborative process. Results indicated positive experiences when using Google Docs for online collaboration in the co-construction of knowledge. This collaborative tool facilitated the instructor's close monitoring of the students' progress, enabling the instructor to provide feedback and effectively assist the writing process. The students' self-assessments throughout the process enabled enhancement of the collaborative writing experience. The results indicate how to enhance coherence, writing quality, professional development and provide useful information concerning the optimal content knowledge, writing process and pedagogical methods needed for the successful integration of collaborative pedagogy.

Peer mentorship at colleges and universities is often thought of in the context of formal programs. This paper examines mentorship from an informal lens as the everyday advice students give their peers. This study utilized focus groups to see how students responded to questions their peers asked about their experiences. Four themes emerged that can be used to inform research and practice: academic development, psychological and identity development, interpersonal and social development, and life-skill development.

Background: Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and diverse ideas for solutions. By considering multiple problem perspectives varying in scope and focus, designers position themselves to increase their understandings of the "real" problem and engage in more diverse idea generation processes leading to an increasing variety of potential solutions. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to investigate systematic patterns in problem exploration in the early design phases of mechanical engineers. Design/Method: Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solutions addressed. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems. Results: The set of patterns in engineers' problem exploration that emerged from the analysis documents alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems. Conclusions: Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Perspectives, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Perspectives may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Perspectives to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.

While there is great interest in higher education about teaching creative process, there have been relatively few studies of how courses can facilitate the development of creative skills. The goal of this study was to document how college instructors structure courses intended to develop students' creative processes. The study data included interviews from instructors and students using a critical case sample of fifteen courses at a single U.S. University. A qualitative analysis of the transcripts yielded a set of 14 pedagogical elements appearing across courses. Common elements were open-ended projects and skill-building activities, and less frequently, risk taking experiences and self-reflection. The sample included undergraduate courses in engineering, education, the liberal arts, and the arts, and the elements observed were often shared across courses from different disciplines. These findings provide a diverse set of pedagogical approaches and opportunities for building creative process skills within undergraduate courses.

Student affairs and services divisions and the partnerships and collaborations in which they engage with faculty, students, and the community form the structural centre of institutions' approaches to student support. Although past research has identified areas typically associated with the student affairs and services portfolio and factors that influence the organizational structure, little is known about how staff perceive their institutions' organizational structures relative to supporting student success. The purpose of this study was to understand student affairs and services staff members' perceptions of the role organizational structure plays in their day-to-day work supporting student success in colleges and universities in Ontario. Although staff commented on their institutions' formal organizational structures (referring to titles, reporting lines, and breadth of portfolio), their comments focused more specifically on how they saw the nature of their work and changes they have experienced in supporting student success as student bodies become more diverse.

With increasing demand for improved medical equipment and healthcare, next-generation biomedical engineers need strong design skills. Equipping biomedical engineering students with tools for idea generation and development can increase student design success. Design Heuristics are an ideation tool developed through empirical studies of product designs. While identified in the mechanical engineering space, Design Heuristics may be applicable in biomedical engineering design. In our study, we implemented a Design Heuristics session during upper-level undergraduate and first-year graduate biomedical engineering design courses. We examined the applicability of Design Heuristics within individual and team concept generation contexts. The findings demonstrated that biomedical engineering students were able to use Design Heuristics to generate multiple concepts, and that initial concepts produced using Design Heuristics were carried over into final team design. The results support the applicability of Design Heuristics to student idea generation in biomedical engineering design.

Numerous studies have shown the value of introducing cognitive supports to encourage the development of creative ability, and researchers have developed a variety of methods to aid in generating ideas. However, design students often struggle to explore more ideas after their initial ideas are exhausted. In this study, an empirically validated tool for idea generation, called "Design Heuristics," was introduced as a means of productively pushing past creative exhaustion in an industrial design course at a large Midwestern university. Students worked on a simple design task on their own, generating an average of 6.1 concepts in a 30-min session; then, after 10 min of instruction on the "Design Heuristics" tool, students generated an average of 2.8 additional concepts for the same task using Design Heuristics for an additional 30 min. The concepts created in this second session using Design Heuristics were rated as higher in novelty, specificity and relevance. These results suggest that students benefit from introducing support tools following a period of working on their own ideas. Once their own ideas are exhausted, students may be more open to using and learning from support tools, and these tools may support skill development while producing higher quality outcomes.

Self-assessment and peer-assessment are strategies employed to encourage students to take more responsibility for the learning process. Although the advantages are not obvious, the process has the potential to empower learning and to assist the development of assessment skills, which are so important for future teachers. The research aimed to identify student-teachers' attitudes concerning the contribution of self-assessment and anonymous peer-assessment to the quality of their assignments and improvement of their assessment skills, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The sample included 300 students studying for bachelor's or master's degrees. Texts that were analysed included: responses to a questionnaire, self and peer-assessments, word comments on the assignments and written blog content relating to students' activities and their performance of peer evaluations. The students noted that they significantly benefitted from the process, learned various methods of assignment and assessment performance and it positioned them in relation to others, noticing how others evaluated them. Anonymous evaluation allowed students to overcome inhibitions in evaluating peers' works and improved their assessment skills.

Introduction: The constraints-led approach (CLA) and more generally a complex systems perspective on motor learning emphasizes the role of perceptual-motor exploration during learning in order to ensure the acquisition of a highly individualized, adapted and adaptable movement pattern. Recent studies have shown that human beings have a strong tendency to exploit already stable patterns rather than looking for new potentially more efficient patterns. In order to shape the amount of exploration, we implemented two learning designs based on a CLA where constraints were used to limit the boundaries of the perceptual-motor workspace of the learners. We sought to highlight how practitioners can play with the perceptual motor workspace boundaries in order to (i) promote the use of exploratory behaviours and (ii) guide the learner towards task-relevant functional areas. Method: For the experiment, twenty-four beginners in breaststroke swimming were allocated to three groups of learning: a "control group" receiving only the goal of the learning, an "analogy group" receiving the goal of learning accompanied by an analogy about 'how to perform', a "pacer group" receiving information on the goal of learning and the use of a metronome to continuously push them to 'perform better'. Based on their assigned group, each learner then followed a learning protocol of 16 sessions with a 10*25 m swimming distance per session with the goal of increasing the stroke length for a fixed swimming speed. Both performance (i.e. stroke length) and motor behaviour (i.e. arm-leg coordination) were collected for each session. The arm-leg coordination patterns were computed by the continuous relative phase between knee and elbow angles. Thereafter, a cluster analysis was performed on the coordination in order to get a qualitative label for every cycle performed during the entire process of learning. Based on the use of cluster analysis, an exploration/exploitation ratio was calculated and the increase in performance was determined based on the increase in stroke length. Results and Discussion: With reference to the exploration/exploitation ratio, our results showed that additional temporary constraints-led learners to increase both the nature of their exploration and also the quantity of their exploration. In the meantime, the three groups showed an equivalent final performance enhancement. The aim of manipulating the constraints was not only to push the learner out of his comfort zone, but also to provide relevant information about 'where' to explore during learning. For this purpose, the use of analogy appeared as the most relevant constraint to encourage the emergence of efficient behaviour. Interestingly the impact of the analogy was modified by adding the metronome, showing an interaction effect of both constraints. The group using the metronome exhibited different behaviours as compared to the analogy group and showed an increase in exploration during learning compared to the control group. However, although the metronome constantly pushed the learner to improve performance, it did not actually lead to a better improvement of performance when compared to the analogy group. The simple assumption that the constraints forced the learner to explore therefore does not seem a mandatory condition to promote an exploratory learning. Rather, the qualitative nature of the constraint seems the most relevant characteristic that can be manipulated to promote an exploratory learning by "guiding" the learner within the perceptual motor workspace.

This chapter details the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program at Montana State University, describing the intent and design of the program, as well as how FYRE participants differed in their approaches to learning from non-participants.

With this article we honor the 60th anniversary issue of the "Journal of College Student Development "(JCSD) by tracing the reach, scope, and breadth of internationally focused articles published in the journal from January 2010 to April 2019. This time frame was selected as it reflects the journal Editor's decision to create a position for an Associate Editor for International Research and Scholarship. This decision supported ACPA--College Student Educators International's strategic commitments. During the time frame examined, 12.4% of the journal's published work consisted of pieces with an international perspective and/or resulting from research conducted in the postsecondary educational contexts of 26 countries, territories, or special administrative units.

The nature of Educational Psychology is such that the fulfillment of its primary purpose--the improvement of education--depends largely upon the effective communication and use of its findings to and by a wide variety of people outside the discipline itself; thus, it depends on the teaching of educational psychology, not only to pre-service and in-service teachers, but also to administrators, policymakers, parents, and the public. Yet surprisingly little research has been published in this area, especially as regards communication with the latter groups, and what little research there is appears scattered throughout a variety of educational journals. It is the purpose of this journal to foster research and the sharing and discussion of ideas in this essential field.

In this article, we report on student teachers' perceptions of their cohort experiences. Using the lens of social capital theory, we analyzed their responses to an open-ended question on a survey and faculty members' responses in focus groups. The structural properties of cohorts--closure, stability, interdependence, and shared ideology--facilitated the development of social capital. Closure and stability promoted social and emotional support while interdependence and shared ideology prompted both positive and negative effects. The cohort model better served some students than others. We found that students were more likely to develop social capital by bonding with their cohort peers than by bridging with those outside their cohorts.

We examined whether each subscale of the Calling and Vocational Questionnaire (i.e., transcendent summons, purposeful work, and prosocial orientation) relates to career preparation behavior (CPB) after controlling for demographic variables, current employment-seeking status, self-esteem, and work volition. We also looked into whether CPB mediates the relationship between calling and meaning in life (MIL) among 214 South Korean college students. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that the 3 subscales of calling in combination additionally explained 17% of the variance in the CPB, with the purposeful work subscale as the only significant variable. CPB was found to partially mediate the relationship between calling and MIL, indicating that students with a higher sense of calling are likely to experience a higher sense of MIL in part because they tend to engage in higher levels of CPB.

Utilizing an ecological model as a framework, we analyze the role of peers as connectors between an array of microsystems within a student's post-secondary experience. We examine data from 128 student focus group participants from four colleges and eight universities in Ontario, Canada and conclude that peer interactions, both formal and informal, are critical in supporting student success. Respondents articulated that their peers connected them with resources and opportunities on campus, served as coaches and confidantes, co-constructed the environment to meet student needs and served as role models who they wished to copy or emulate.

We investigated how learning outcomes of students majoring in interdisciplinary fields differ from those of students in discipline-based majors. We found that students in interdisciplinary majors report less change in Critical Thinking and Need For Cognition than their peers in disciplinary majors, but no difference in change in Positive Attitude Toward Literacy. Students' gains in Critical Thinking and Need For Cognition do not vary by the characteristics of the interdisciplinary major, but some program characteristics influence modest changes in Positive Attitudes Toward Literacy. Future research should address selection effects, develop measures of interdisciplinary learning, and further explore curricular and instructional patterns in interdisciplinary programs.

Teachers must be proficient at using data to evaluate the effects of instructional strategies and interventions, and must be able to make, describe, justify, and validate their data-based instructional decisions to parents, students, and educational colleagues. An important related skill is the ability to accurately read and interpret progress-monitoring graphs. This study examined preservice special education teachers' graph reading and interpretation skills at two points in time. Participants used a think-aloud procedure to interpret a curriculum-based measurement (CBM) progress monitoring graph, and results were compared to those of CBM experts. Overall, preservice teachers tended to say fewer words than graph experts did. Furthermore, their descriptions of CBM graphs were less sequentially coherent, specific, and reflective. Little change was observed at time 2. Implications for improving teacher preparation in this skill area are discussed.

With integrated curricula and multidisciplinary assessments becoming more prevalent in medical education, there is a continued need for educational research to explore the advantages, consequences, and challenges of integration practices. This retrospective analysis investigated the number of items needed to reliably assess anatomical knowledge in the context of gross anatomy and histology. A generalizability analysis was conducted on gross anatomy and histology written and practical examination items that were administered in a discipline-based format at Indiana University School of Medicine and in an integrated fashion at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and Rush University Medical College. Examination items were analyzed using a partially nested design [sx(i:o)] in which items were nested within occasions (i:o) and crossed with students (s). A reliability standard of 0.80 was used to determine the minimum number of items needed across examinations (occasions) to make reliable and informed decisions about students' competence in anatomical knowledge. Decision study plots are presented to demonstrate how the number of items per examination influences the reliability of each administered assessment. Using the example of a curriculum that assesses gross anatomy knowledge over five summative written and practical examinations, the results of the decision study estimated that 30 and 25 items would be needed on each written and practical examination to reach a reliability of 0.80, respectively. This study is particularly relevant to educators who may question whether the amount of anatomy content assessed in multidisciplinary evaluations is sufficient for making judgments about the anatomical aptitude of students.

This chapter explores institutional capacity building in cross-border student affairs and services. The focus is on human capital and its importance to international higher education within local contexts.

The use of quick response (QR) codes within undergraduate university courses is on the rise, yet literature concerning their use in medical education is scant. This study examined student perceptions on the usefulness of QR codes as learning aids in a medical gross anatomy course, statistically analyzed whether this learning aid impacted student performance, and evaluated whether performance could be explained by the frequency of QR code usage. Question prompts and QR codes tagged on cadaveric specimens and models were available for four weeks as learning aids to medical (n?=?155) and doctor of physical therapy (n?=?39) students. Each QR code provided answers to posed questions in the form of embedded text or hyperlinked web pages. Students' perceptions were gathered using a formative questionnaire and practical examination scores were used to assess potential gains in student achievement. Overall, students responded positively to the use of QR codes in the gross anatomy laboratory as 89% (57/64) agreed the codes augmented their learning of anatomy. The users' most noticeable objection to using QR codes was the reluctance to bring their smartphones into the gross anatomy laboratory. A comparison between the performance of QR code users and non-users was found to be nonsignificant (P?=?0.113), and no significant gains in performance (P?=?0.302) were observed after the intervention. Learners welcomed the implementation of QR code technology in the gross anatomy laboratory, yet this intervention had no apparent effect on practical examination performance.

As the disparity between educational standards and reality outside educational institutions is increasing, alternative learning infrastructure are challenging traditional modes of teaching. This study was based on an experiment with middle school pupils, pre-service teachers and college lecturers. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which the use of smartphones for teaching affects pupils' motivation. Moreover, it explored pre-service teachers' and lecturers' attitudes toward the implementation of smartphones in education: the types of usage they implement and suggest and whether they think that smartphones should be implemented in academia as well as in schools at all. The study was conducted by a qualitative and quantitative analysis. Relevant information was collected based on the questionnaires, correspondence, personal journals and interviews. There was a difference in the level of technical difficulties various groups face, the personal use each generation performs as well as their attitude toward smartphone implementation.