In 2004, West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) in Paducah, Kentucky committed to participating in the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) for a period of three consecutive years. The decision to participate in CCSSE was made at the administrative level to provide benchmarking data for the institution's upcoming…

The Take-away Technique was used in High School Physics and Physical Science courses for the unit on Newtonian mechanics in a teacher (6) by grade level (4) partially crossed design (N = 272). All classes received the same IE instructional treatment. The experimental group (classrooms) did a short Take-away after each class summarizing the key…

As lecturers of English and Spanish for international students in higher education, we frequently read reflections supporting the notion that the interaction between teacher and student has a direct influence on their learning and possibly even on their future studies and lives. Using examples taken from language learning histories, student course…

Online instruction offers students a convenient way to access higher education. However, convenience must never trump quality when it comes to participation in a graduate program. Synchronous learning activities in graduate online courses are an effective way to enhance the learning experiences of all students, and especially those from different…

Rates of in-coming college students in need of academic remediation are on the rise, for both community college and four-year colleges. Consequently, many of these students will be required to enroll in some level of academic remediation in reading, writing and/or math to develop the basic skills necessary for student success in college-level…

The purpose of this study was (a) to explore descriptions of students who attended selected religious four-year colleges; (b) to explore relationships between background characteristics and overall college satisfaction and relationships between college experiences and overall college satisfaction; (c) to explore changes over time with respect to…

Many controversial subjects characterize geography in the 21st century. Issues such as climate change, sustainability and social exclusion generate much discussion and often involve clear differences in opinion of how they might be addressed. Higher education is an important space for critical engagement with challenging issues. Preparing for and…

Audience response systems (ARS) are effective tools for improving learning outcomes and student engagement in large undergraduate classes. However, if students do not accept ARS and do not find them to be useful, ARS may be less effective. Predicting and improving student perceptions of ARS may help to ensure positive outcomes. The present study…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of technology proficiency and clicker use on students' perceptions of clickers, engagement and class grade point average. Four hundred and five students completed a questionnaire that measured Student Technology Proficiency (STP; Garcia and Zapf, in press), and participated in the…

Higher education appears to be changing in the Thailand, as students, especially younger students whose social networking concerns match their obsession with mobile technology, may take issue with past academic teaching patterns and practices and opt for more contemporary approaches such as mobile-learning (m-Learning). This research used a…

Introducing creativity to the classroom is a concern for teachers, governments and future employers around the world, and there has been a drive to make experiences at school more exciting, relevant, challenging and dynamic for all young people, ensuring they leave education able to contribute to the global creative economy. "Creative…

This study focuses on the experiences and perspectives of sixth grade girls in a moderately-sized East Coast city as they construct meaning through active engagement in a science classroom and analyzes the ways in which girls change roles and incorporate social interaction during science activities to create their own unique engagement in science.…

Background: The development of socially appropriate behaviour is increasingly seen as an important part of a student's education. Aim: To examine whether changes in a student's behaviour, as part of an ongoing social empathy intervention, can in part be explained by the difference between the student's self-perception of their behaviour and their…

One critical element of increasing science literacy is student engagement. In this article, I report on the impacts of changing an introductory environmental science class to move away from standard lecture delivery and increase student engagement in science. The class was designed around small-group activities, inquiry labs, and substantial use…

This paper brings together the findings of a series of studies that explored the impact of curricular changes on students' approaches to learning. The findings, which were initially surprising, are confirmed by the identification of similar patterns across four different medical educational programmes within Australia and Sri Lanka. The four…