An online group work project for off campus students, using wikis as the collaboration platform, has been conducted successfully for several years. Students were given the opportunity and technical means to collaborate, and staff could assess individual students' participation. However, the actual level of collaboration was less than hoped for,…

The use of writing groups to support students undertaking post-graduate research within universities has begun to receive attention from academic supervisors and doctoral researchers. Very little has been written by doctoral students themselves on the benefits of working within such writing groups. In this article, the experiences of working…

Vocabulary acquisition research has been paid attention these years (e.g. Beck, McKeown & McCaslin, 1983; Harley, 1996; Huckin, Haynes, & Coady, 1993; Zahar, Cobb & Spada, 2001). A serious methodologies had been reported, including applying learner dictionaries (Nesi, 1999; Tribble, 2003), using forms of visual glossing (Al-Seghayer,…

Belbin team role self and observer perceptions were applied to a large cohort (145) of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences undergraduates in a module assessed through two separate group projects. Students self-selected groups for the first project; for the second, groups were more "balanced." Results show slight improvement in…

The idea of the "entrepreneurial university" has captured the imagination of academics and policy makers for some time now. However, most of the recent writings on the subject have tended to emphasize technology transfer in terms of spin-off creation and licensing. This article takes its point of departure in the strategy formulations of…

The decline in the popularity of physics over the period of secondary schooling and its consequent low uptake at A-level and beyond continues to cause concern on educational and economic grounds. The aim of this study is to explore whether physics might be made more attractive to students by employing an extended range of classroom and laboratory…

This paper reports the development of the Negative Group Work Experiences questionnaire (NGWE), an assessment tool for measuring negative experiences of group work. Study 1 involved two samples of undergraduate psychology students (second-year sample n = 425; first-year sample n = 443), who completed research modules incorporating substantial…

This article discusses feedback methods for the enhancement of collaborative learning. It presents results of an exploratory study in which self- and peer-assessments were applied in order to provide students with feedback regarding their perceived individual learning involvement in the collaboration process of face-to-face and face-file-face…

This paper reports a study on children's classroom-based collaborative creative writing. Based on socio-cultural theory, the central aim of the research was to contribute to current understanding of young children's creativity, and describe ways in which peer collaboration can resource, stimulate and enhance classroom-based creative writing. The…

The respective roles of the environment and innate talent have been a recurrent question for research into expertise. The authors investigated markers of talent, environment, and critical period for the acquisition of expert performance in chess. Argentinian chess players (N = 104), ranging from weak amateurs to grandmasters, completed a…

Beliefs about the validity and merit of self-, peer- and group-assessment practices are presented from 213 pre-service primary teachers and 30 staff who teach them. Both groups were surveyed using comparable items. A subset of seven staff participated in semi-structured interviews. Staff were far more supportive of peer- and self-assessment…

Students increasingly need to learn to communicate statistical results clearly and effectively, as well as to become competent consumers of statistical information. These two learning goals are particularly important for business students. In line with reform movements in Statistics Education and the GAISE guidelines, we are working to implement…

The action learning set (ALS) is an often-used tool in practice development to facilitate group reflection. As such, its use evolves in the hands of the participants as they become more comfortable with the process and as trust develops amongst group members. This paper aims to discuss the journey of one ALS over a 2-year period. It seeks to…

We adopted the method of classroom observation and carried out research on five elementary school teachers in western China's rural areas who have shown enormous transformation after receiving training on participatory teaching to investigate the strengths and weaknesses in teachers' practice of participatory teaching. Results indicate that (a)…

Teaching to large classes is often challenging particularly when the faculty and teaching resources are limited. Innovative, less staff intensive ways need to be explored to enhance teaching and to engage students. We describe our experience teaching biochemistry to 350 students at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) under…