This scholarly inquiry critically examines the pedagogical aspects pertaining to the instruction and acquisition of Abstract Algebra within the realm of University Mathematics Education (UME). Drawing upon multiple lenses, including epistemological, cognitive, phenomenological, and institutional perspectives, this study investigates the formidable…

This study investigates the effectiveness of the Toulmin argumentation model in developing critical thinking skills and epistemological beliefs concerning the internet in an online educational setting, especially during the global coronavirus pandemic. The subject of the research was carried out in the "Child Development Department" of a…

High Leverage Practices (HLPs), as a core set of teaching practices, represent important instructional priorities and provide instructional guidance for students' engagement in practice-based instruction. The goals of this research were to: (1) understand how an epistemic community (the people designing and leading courses and programs) viewed the…

A plethora of work has been done to examine the dynamics of learning in higher education contexts to foster positive learning outcomes. The 3P model (Biggs in Teaching for quality learning at university, Open University Press, Birkshire, 2003) is one theoretical model that has been well researched. However, much of the work to date has focused on…

The concept of research paradigm is one that many higher degree research students, and even early career researchers, find elusive to articulate, and challenging to apply in their research proposals. Adopting an ethnographic and hermeneutic methodology, the present paper draws upon our experiences as lecturers in Research Methods over many years,…

The reliability and validity of inventories should be verified in multiple ways. Although the epistemological beliefs about the physical science survey (EBAPS) has been deemed to be reliable and valid by the authors, the axes or factor structure proposed by the authors has not been independently checked. Using data from a study sample we discussed…

Analyses of learning based on student discourse need to account not only for the content of the utterances but also for the ways in which students make connections across turns of talk. This requires segmentation of discourse data to define when connections are likely to be meaningful. In this paper, we present an approach to segmenting data for…

We discuss here conceptual change and the formation of robust learning outcomes from the viewpoint of complex dynamic systems (CDS). The CDS view considers students' conceptions as context dependent and multifaceted structures which depend on the context of their application. In the CDS view the conceptual patterns (i.e. intuitive conceptions…

In this exploratory study, we investigated the personal epistemologies of statisticians in academia with the aim of offering some insight into what might be an availing epistemology for learning statistics. Findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six academics in the UK currently researching within the field of statistics showed…

Since the 1970s, critics have asked universities to "do more" to support Indigenous learners and learning. Universities usually respond by increasing Indigenous student and faculty representation on campuses and adding on units with Indigenous content in existing courses. However, a lot of curriculum and pedagogy remains vacant of…

Learning to solve "complex problems"--problems whose solutions require the application of more than basic facts and skills--is critical to meaningful participation in the economic, social, and cultural life of the digital age. In this paper, we use a theoretical understanding of how professionals use reflection-in-action to solve complex…

This dissertation explores and connects the concepts of self-creation and self-care as a means to better address the evolving needs of students seeking to actualize themselves in and beyond higher education. These needs include helping students manage change, and other issues such as stress, anxiety, substance abuse, and physical health…

Using a national dataset containing responses from 14,527 college students at 136 institutions, this study empirically tested a theoretical model for fallibilist Christian spirituality. Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated an acceptable fit between the specified model and the actual structure of the data, suggesting that a…

The purpose of the current study was to explore learners' evaluation of the credibility of scientific models that represent natural entities and phenomena. Participants were 845 students in grades 9-11 (aged 15-17 years) and 108 prospective science teachers in Oman, totaling 953 students. A survey called Epistemologies about the Credibility of…

Inquiry learning environments increasingly incorporate modelling facilities for students to articulate their research hypotheses and (acquired) domain knowledge. This study compared performance success and scientific reasoning of university students with high prior knowledge (n = 11), students from senior high-school (n = 10), and junior…