Universities may offer students from disadvantaged personal or socioeconomic contexts a lower threshold for entry compared to students from a more stable or affluent background; this is termed a contextual offer. Examples may include having a health condition, disability or living and going to school in a less affluent area. While there has been…

A challenge for using evaluation data to improve climate change education in schools is access to an instrument for teachers to measure behavioral changes and their antecedents. We report on teachers' implementation of a brief survey measuring climate-related beliefs, self-efficacy, intention to act, action, and anxiety before and after their…

Statistics anxiety is experienced by a large proportion of psychology students, even though conducting statistical analyses is a fundamental skill for students to acquire. The research on statistics anxiety has tended to explore either dispositional factors (e.g. personality) or situational factors (e.g. teacher effects). One potential predictor…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse student perspectives on the contribution that teaching anticipatory reflection can make to the development of their reflective practice. The project explores lived student experiences of anticipatory reflection and the value students attribute to these in helping them bridge the transfer gap between reflective…

Even though distance education from the home environment has seemed comfortable and economic for students with disability in formal higher education during the pandemic, insufficiency in their academic self-efficacy, satisfaction and an increasing tendency to drop out were observed. This quantitative research is based on development of the scales…

A mixed-method study was undertaken to investigate factors affecting the transition to university of life sciences students at a research-intensive UK university. Questionnaire responses (N= 234) suggested that undergraduate students tended to agree that they had successfully transitioned to university level study in the first year. However,…

While in most countries today women attain higher levels of education than men, on average, they are less likely than men to be employed and they earn less. There are many reasons why these gender gaps open; some are apparent in secondary school. For example, even when they outperform boys academically, girls are less likely than their male peers…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the relative importance of four key entrepreneurial characteristics identified in the literature (proactiveness, attitude to risk, innovativeness and self-efficacy) in predicting students' entrepreneurial intention (EI) across a range of faculties offering different subjects at a UK higher…

Feedback can rarely enhance learning unless it is used; however, few studies have examined individual differences in students' engagement with feedback. The present study explored: (1) the extent to which personality variables and achievement goal orientation are associated with students' self-reported use of feedback; and (2) whether beliefs…

Employability is a complex, contested concept which has tended to be considered in terms of a dominant discourse of skills. This article argues that employability needs to be thought of more holistically, as ongoing, life-long, situated learning, whilst acknowledging that the contested language of skills and the need to demonstrate competency…

Female students and those with a low socioeconomic status (SES) typically score lower in assessments of self-efficacy and ability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In this study, a cohort of over 200 UK students attended an intensive, active learning, physics workshop, with pre- and post-assessments to measure both…

Background: The work forms part of a study conducted in the UK at the time of the "Principia" Mission, in which the British astronaut, Tim Peake, went to the International Space Station. Purpose: This paper describes the development and use of an on-line instrument to measure young people's attitudes to STEM subjects and to human…

Learner autonomy is a primary learning outcome of Higher Education in many countries. However, empirical evaluation of how student autonomy progresses during undergraduate degrees is limited. We surveyed a total of 636 students' self-perceived autonomy during a period of two academic years using the Autonomous Learning Scale. Our analysis suggests…

In recent years there have been calls to increase both the number and diversity of engineering graduates within the UK. In addition to this, technological advancement and the need to solve complex socio-economic problems, have contributed toward a shift in the skills and abilities that practicing engineers require. Such changes have led to an…

This study considers the impact of using a series of Mindset interventions during a five-day outdoor personal development (OPD) course. Self-efficacy, resilience and Mindset were measured pre course, post course and one month post course. It was hypothesised that both experimental and control groups would increase their self-efficacy and…