In fall 2014, Wellesley College began mandating pass/fail grading for courses taken by first year, first-semester students, although instructors continued to record letter grades. We identify the causal effect of the policy on course choice and performance, using a regression discontinuity-in-time design. Students shifted to lower-grading science,…

The current study considered the role of broad life orientations of university students on their academic engagement and burnout within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine whether life purpose orientations predicted student academic engagement and burnout directly and indirectly through…

Educational research has emphasized the importance of help-seeking in learning and engagement. However, little is known about the impact that help-giving may potentially have on student engagement and academic achievement. There is also a lack of knowledge about the environmental factors that might facilitate help-giving. This study investigated…

This academic inquiry examines the efficacy of virtual reality (VR)-based pedagogy for higher learning, specifically analyzing immersive digital instruction for rural agriculture undergraduates studying soil science in Colombia. The investigation tests two hypotheses: first, simulated learning situations improve academic achievement and student…

Over recent years, considerable effort has been put into increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) participation in higher education. While there are signs that enrolments are increasing, the sustained engagement and successful completion of higher education remains challenging, particularly in remote locations. With this in…

This study investigated changes in learners' motivation, engagement, performance, and spatial reasoning over time and across different levels of virtual reality (VR) immersion. Undergraduate participants explored a virtual solar system via a moderately immersive or highly immersive VR platform over three sessions. In a third condition,…

WeChat has become an indispensable part of university students' life in China. However, there was little research into the relationship between WeChat and learning. This study investigates university students' attitudes towards the impact of WeChat on learning, the determinants of WeChat learning engagement, and how WeChat usage influences…

Research suggests that parents and principals perceive school shootings as one of the leading threats to school safety and among the most likely hazardous events that would affect safety at school. However, exposure to nonfatal victimization, such as fighting, threats, theft, vandalism, bullying, hate crimes, and gang activity, has become far more…

Engagement in early childhood has been linked with later achievement, but the relation between these variables and how they are measured in early childhood requires examination. We estimated the overall association between academic engagement and achievement in children prior to kindergarten entry. Our systematic literature search yielded 13,521…

This paper investigated the effect of grade dropping on students' performance, engagement, and satisfaction. In three different engineering courses that were taught by the author, an optional second midterm exam was offered near the end of the semester. The optional second midterm exam covered materials that were not covered by the first midterm…

Successful lessons are explicit, yet also inspire active learning and opportunities to respond. As the one shaping lessons, can you do better? Probably, and you're not alone. Research shows teachers consistently offer students far fewer than the recommended opportunities to respond, leaving all students--including those with special needs and…

Engagement and academic achievement are generally correlated among elementary school students without learning disabilities (LDs). However, it is unclear if this pattern holds for students with LDs, who have lower achievement and engagement than their peers. This study examined whether links between achievement and student-reported behavioral…

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…

In higher education teaching, a leadership lens is used to conceptualize teaching quality as 'instructor-leadership'. Instructor-leadership research has largely focused on transactional and transformational leadership. But, increasing student distress along with the existence of mediocrity and abusiveness in higher education teaching warrants the…

Teaching modalities such as Flipped Classroom Approach (FCA) are becoming increasingly popular in higher education. FCA requires that instructional content is completed outside the classroom, thus allowing active-learning activities to take place in class. In this article, we investigate the application of this approach to an undergraduate…