This experimental field study (pre-post-follow-up design) with 184 student teachers examined the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce misconceptions about psychology within an introductory psychology course. For this purpose, over the course's one-semester duration, all students attended six lectures and, in addition, worked individually on…

In this research, pre-service science teachers' writings written in a biology laboratory course were examined and the development of writings skills was monitored from the critical thinking skills perspective. In this context, the preservice teachers were asked to design and build a fully enclosed ecosystem model (bottle ecosystem), collect data…

The Dialectical Map (DMap) is an open-source, web-based argument visualization tool developed and used at a Canadian University to scaffold argument construction. To illustrate the ways that argument mapping can be used in undergraduate courses, this article presents five cases selected from courses in biology, psychology, computing science, and…

The medium of instruction is English in all universities in Singapore. Typically, in engineering, science, and technology degree programmes, academic writing is taught through one or two distinct or 'stand-alone' modules delivered in the first year of students' undergraduate programmes to help them cope with the writing needs of assignments in…

Purpose: While the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and visions for sustainability education apply to many methods, they can be hard to put into practice. This study aims to concern an undergraduate geography course designed not only to teach geographical methods but also to engage with the multi-scalar nature of the SDGs and apply them to…

Critical thinking (CT) is a 21st-century skill critical in education and learning. Second language teaching has focused on language form, and there needs to be a shift from form-focused instruction to a function-focused paradigm, where students simultaneously practice language learning and deal with real-world issues in authentic contexts…

The use of AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, has been widespread in recent years. Its application in education has been criticized by some and supported by others. In this article we present the case of a work carried out as part of a course unit in a computer science degree program in which the use of ChatGPT was not only encouraged but required.…

It is commonly accepted in the academy that developing a critical thinking capacity and related capabilities will make students more effective thinkers and writers, and that these are desirable traits for graduates to have no matter what path they take after graduation. While most academics agree that critical thinking is an essential component of…

This is an exploratory study considering instructional methods in mathematics education. The study examined misconceptions arising from selected assignments undertaken by sixty-five students. The students were attending a calculus mathematical course unit on limits of functions, in different academic areas offered at selected tertiary institutions…

This study focused on comparing the effects on 32 students' argumentative writing qualities when they worked alone or collaborated in pairs and groups and explored the students' opinions towards critical thinking across different writing activities. The 32 students were divided into groups of four (n=8), pairs (n=16) and individuals (n=32). Their…

During a study conducted in two Grade 4 classrooms, the students were provided with numerous opportunities to engage with multimodal print and digital texts, and various compositional tools and devices. The eight- and nine-year-old students' participation in the research included the reading and discussing of, and writing about graphic novels.…

Laboratory pedagogy is moving away from step-by-step instructions and toward inquiry-based learning, but only now developing methods for integrating inquiry-based writing (IBW) practices into the laboratory course. Based on an earlier proposal (Science 2011;332:919), we designed and implemented an IBW sequence in a university bioinformatics…

We conducted a comparative study to evaluate the efficacy of synchronous and asynchronous interaction modes when providing feedback for improving academic writing, achievement motivation and critical thinking. The participants undertook an academic writing task, and were given feedback by a mentor using one of three interaction modes:…

The widespread availability of educational technology has made online discussion forums (ODFs) an increasingly viable teaching resource, but teachers may lack guidance on approaches for making effective use of ODFs in their curricula. The current study reports on how an ODF was incorporated into a summative coursework assignment for an English for…

Due to limited exposure to the reflective genre, students experience cognitive, psychological and linguistic issues that prevent them from producing proficient reflective pieces. This study investigated how these issues could be addressed through modelling, the 6 + 1 traits writing rubric and blended learning. The study reports on the experiences…