Higher education institutions are currently undertaking a challenging process in moving from teacher-orientated to student-focused approaches. Students' ability to asking questions is fundamental to developing critical reasoning, and to the process of scientific enquiry itself. Our premise is that questioning competences should become a central…

A study of a national population of 103 higher education institutions is addressing the question: What criteria can be used to identify the level of implementation of reform in an undergraduate science course? Results of a survey characterizing the institutions and a review of literature initially suggest reform course characteristics. (Contains 1…

In recent years, student interest in civic engagement has resulted in increased opportunities to volunteer on college campuses across the country. Unfortunately, these efforts are often not supported by or coordinated with academic curricula, and, as a result, their benefits can be short-lived. Despite a growing consensus that civic education…

Begun in 2003, the National Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Evaluation, conducted in regular universities every five years, has surveyed the significance of evaluation and index scheme improvement at 171 higher education institutions. The launch in January 2007 of the national project of Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform in…

The authors have systematically investigated the state of undergraduate learning in contemporary colleges and universities. Following several thousand traditional-age students as they enrolled in coursework from Fall 2005 to Spring 2009, across a wide range of four-year colleges and universities, the authors found a set of conditions suggesting…

Teaching methods at the University level are supposed to emanate from the Nigerian National Policy on Education and stated curriculum, which have been found to affect learning outcomes significantly. This study surveyed popular teaching methods at the undergraduate level in Universities within the South-West geo-political zone of Nigeria. Six…

In October 2005, the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine released a policy report that served as a call to action. The report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future" observed that "the scientific and technological building blocks…

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which greater than 50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in…

"The Future of Nursing" explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single…

President Obama's higher education goal is to provide "every American with a quality higher education--whether it's college or technical training." The work must begin now, despite the current economic downturn, since Americans believe that doing so is critical to the future competitiveness of their nation. In this article, the authors describe…

The national initiative that undergraduate students receive education in public health is well-aligned with the philosophy of liberal education which recommends that baccalaureate students receive a wide breadth of knowledge, adaptable skills, principled values, and a sense of societal responsibility. This article explores this new application of…

Before we consider the German tertiary system, we review the education system and consider other relevant background details. We then concentrate on the tertiary system and observe that the mathematical enrolments are keeping up with the overall student enrolments. At the same time, the first year mathematics enrolments for women are greater than…

At North Carolina State University, inquiry-guided learning offered a compelling framework for integrating the undergraduate curriculum across general education and the major. Rather than adopting a definition of inquiry-guided learning as a prescribed set of approaches, participating faculty and staff members agreed on four overarching intended…

In the US, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) recommends the study of ethics so that students acquire "an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility". For the most part, teaching of the subject relies upon the use of scenarios--both hypothetical and "real"--and open discussion framed by the codes. These…

The number of interdisciplinary, degree-granting fields in American colleges and universities has grown rapidly, with socially incorporative programs (women's studies, ethnic studies, and non-Western area studies) accounting for a large share. These fields have diffused widely over time, while other interdisciplinary fields have not. Variables…