This study aims to describe components and levels of upper secondary social science students' reasoning about social problems. We consulted conceptualizations of social scientific reasoning in sociology textbooks and social science education literature, analyzed student papers, and conducted focus groups with social science teachers and teacher…

Polymathy may be defined as the productive pursuit of multiple endeavors, simultaneously or serially, across a lifetime. As such, polymathic breadth of interest across knowledge domains characterizes Nobel laureates in the sciences, literature, economics, and peace, though interest patterns vary between groups. Economics laureates, like science…

The spatial mobility of students and academics as part of the internationalisation of higher education is becoming increasingly relevant in securing top-tier positions, especially within academia. While the number of doctoral candidates is rising, new positions are not created at the same rate, leading to scarcer career opportunities in academia…

This article investigates attitudes to societal impact of research as an entry point into understanding academic identities. Conceptually, we position academic identity at the intersection of global scientific fields and national science policies. We argue that the degree of alignment or misalignment between the two can create coherent academic…

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…

This article explores the usefulness of Maude's translation of Young's idea of powerful knowledge into geography education. Maude's classification of five types of powerful knowledge in geography education was used to analyse the written curriculum of the 'human and society' interdisciplinary domain in four schools in the Netherlands. The…

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles published in the Web of Science category "Education and Educational Research" in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). A total of 2091 journal articles published in this category and cited more than 100 times up to the end of the year 2016 were retrieved as highly…

The use of advanced quantitative methods within mixed methods research has been investigated in a limited capacity. In particular, hierarchical linear models are a popular approach to account for multilevel data, such as students within schools, but its use and value as the quantitative strand in a mixed methods study remains unknown. This article…

Little is known about how the complex notion of higher education quality is understood and (strategically) handled by a specific group of key university actors: directors of educational programmes. A framing analysis of in-depth interviews was conducted to explore how bachelor-programme directors in Dutch social science departments understand and…

European institutions of higher education have increasingly sought to improve the accountability and transparency of teaching and research with formal procedures and performance criteria. In a longitudinal analysis conducted in faculties of social sciences and economics at universities in the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, we examined…

This paper investigates the interactions between policy drivers and academic practice in international research collaboration. It draws on the case of the Open Research Area (ORA), a funding scheme in the social sciences across four national research agencies, seeking to boost collaboration by supporting "integrated" projects. The paper…

In Europe, there is a growing interest in honors education, not only in the bachelor's but also in the master's degree. The Dutch government, for instance, is actively promoting excellence in both bachelor's and master's degrees through honors programs (Siriusteam). Most Dutch universities have honors programs at the bachelor's level or are…

Presymptomatic genetic testing generates socioscientific issues in which decision making is complicated by several complexity factors. These factors include weighing of advantages and disadvantages, different interests of stakeholders, uncertainty of genetic information and conflicting values. Education preparing students for future decision…

Although students in the social sciences perceive quantitative methods courses negatively, this need not mean that they devalue empirical research, or lack capacity to become informed consumers of research. To explore this possibility, we administered two measures to Canadian students (n = 194) enrolled in first-year social science courses, and to…

This article considers the appropriateness of international instruments to measure the separate concepts of graduateness for a research university context. The four concepts of graduateness--reflective thinking, scholarship, moral citizenship and lifelong learning--are operationalized using five existing instruments. These instruments were…