There is widespread concern that students are increasingly becoming passive consumers of education who primarily attend university to obtain the credentials they need for the labour market. To interrogate this view, a longitudinal qualitative study examined what 47 students in three countries wanted to get out of studying for their degree (their…

This study examines how student engagement and social relationships between teachers and students may enhance the learning experiences of students in a South African university. Two separate sets of semi-structured interviews were held with 27 university teachers and 51 students respectively. The findings revealed that that the relationships…

Following the gradual post-COVID-19 return of international student flows, it is important to examine how higher education institutions and international students are reacting to their new environment and how they relate to each other. Central to this relationship is the concept of "belonging"; what it means for international students,…

Given a peculiar sociocultural pressure for knowledge to reap immediate socioeconomic benefits in Africa, philosophy courses have gained a very low valuation by African students. They misperceive the courses not to be relevant to their future careers, leading to a lack of engagement with the courses. Focusing on South Africa, this paper proffers…

The Australian Universities Accord's (Department of Education, 2024) focus on expanding underrepresented groups' access to higher education underscores an on-campus-online paradigm shift, or post-pandemic digital transformation, to address students' flexibility and accessibility needs. The shift identifies that online student engagement, and…

Technology is key to making education systems more resilient to disruptions. In the South African higher education sector, technology will continue to play a much larger role than the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology, however, cannot replace the value gained through social contact and concerns about relational disengagement in…

The aim of this study resonated with the pursuit of achieving enhanced engagement in teaching and learning that informs critical thinking, and knowledge retention among students. Despite the growing trend of technological integration in teaching and learning, however, there exists a lack of empirical evidence and comprehensive studies that…

In this article we report on pre-service teachers' mathematical engagement regarding the total surface areas of geometric solids. Despite several attempts at improvement, the poor performance of South African learners in mathematics persists. This is attributed to instructional approaches. In the study reported on here we explored how pre-service…

Initial teacher education should mould well-rounded teachers proficient in scientific investigations, and advocate sustainability amid global ecosystems' degradation. The research sought to explore pre-service science teachers' views concerning scientific investigations and sustainable development goals, and synergy between skills and different…

Student success and the perceptions of success are growing areas of research. At the University of the Western Cape the impact that using a learning management system in blended learning approaches had on student success and perceptions of success was unknown. The research investigated perceptions of lecturers and students of the Arts Faculty…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced universities worldwide to move their teaching online within an unprecedentedly short timeframe. Whilst the move online learning has increased the reach of tertiary educational delivery it has also raised significant issues of equity, accessibility and student engagement. This includes concerns around access to…

ICAP is a framework that classifies learning processes based on students' explicit behaviors. The framework is developed for testing the hypothesis that interactive exercises are better than constructive exercises, and active exercises are better than the passive exercises for higher cognitive engagement and better learning outcomes. The ICAP…

Purpose: Doctoral students' ill-being in terms of stress, exhaustion and high levels of mental health problems has been well documented. Yet, the well-being of doctoral students is more than the absence of these negative symptoms. The number of studies exploring the combination of positive and negative attributes of doctoral students' well-being…

Can social media platforms positively impact students' academic learning progress? This question and many more are issues confronting students and scholars in developing countries, and this study aims to address it. Social media platforms provide students with continuous opportunities in their learning progress. Students in developing countries…

This article reports on the empirical results and practical aspects concerning the teaching and learning of first-year engineering mathematics at a distance. The investigation over two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) is meant to yield prospects and contribute to the development of suitable pedagogies for online mathematics teaching and learning…