In comparison with traditional lectures, active learning methods have the potential to foster learner agency and consequently raise academic performance. However, these methods are often applied with little knowledge about their effectiveness. In this study, we introduced two concept maps in an undergraduate cell biology course, to investigate…

Introductory physics is taught to several hundred thousand university students every year. It is seen as especially difficult by many and the failure rate is often high. A relevant question is whether one can increase the success rate among the weaker students? Retrieval practice is an established learning strategy with large benefits. However, as…

Supporting student participation and learning in STEM involves motivating students to engage in the most effective learning activities. In this article, we study how student motivation interacts with learning activities, and we pay special attention to active learning and the Scandinavian context where participation in learning activities is…

Inadequate academic functioning among students might be a main cause of the considerable dropout rates, and well-being and achievement problems in higher education. Few studies address the role of motivation for academic functioning. Thus, using Self-Determination Theory, the main goal of this study was to investigate motivational determinants of…

In light of a growing emphasis on student-centred learning approaches, feedback is viewed as an activity that has potential to facilitate higher education students' explorations of knowledge contents and practices. However, research shows that feedback does not always lead to the expected student engagement. This qualitative study proposes a…

Peer Instruction gives practice in the abstract language of physics, addresses common misconceptions among students, and is more effective than traditional lecturing. However, it is not clear what makes Peer Instruction effective nor how we might improve the method. An emerging perspective is that what makes Peer Instruction effective is how it…

ICAP is a framework that classifies learning processes based on students' explicit behaviors. The framework is developed for testing the hypothesis that interactive exercises are better than constructive exercises, and active exercises are better than the passive exercises for higher cognitive engagement and better learning outcomes. The ICAP…

Recent years have seen a rise in interest in how education can foster critical thinking and discourage epistemically unwarranted beliefs. Considering this, this paper seeks to explore whether master's physics students are more critical and skeptical in the philosophical tradition of 'Scientific skepticism', than 1st year students. This is done by…

This paper reports an investigation of biology students' discussion of knowing in work placements, as accounted in blogs. Twenty-two blogs, containing 78 individual entries, written in conjunction with a work placement course for students in a tertiary level biology program, have been analysed in the study (The blogs are publicly available here:…

Teaching and learning of quantum physics at secondary level is an active field of research. One important challenge is finding ways to promote understanding of quantum concepts without the mathematical formalism that is embedded in quantum mechanics but unavailable on the secondary level. We investigated Norwegian secondary students' (N = 291)…

This study explored how agency is expressed when undergraduate students cross curricular boundaries to learn software development by realising affordances enabled by resources on online platforms. The study employed a qualitative research design based on individual stimulated recall interviews with 27 computer and software engineering students.…

We investigate a model based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to predict academic achievement and dropout intentions among biology students in higher education in Norway. Students (n = 754) from a representative national sample participated in this cross-sectional study. The results align with our hypotheses and SDT assumptions. The model…

Scholarly digital storytelling combines academic research and digital skills to communicate scholarly work within and beyond the classroom. This article presents three case studies that demonstrate efforts to integrate scholarly digital storytelling, a technology-enhanced assessment, across disciplines, geographic locations, and teaching contexts.…

There is growing attention to student assessments designed to reach beyond the classroom, including assessments with an immediate or future audience. The impact of audience, however, has not been examined in multimodal assessments across continents, institutions, disciplines, and teaching contexts. Using qualitative data, this article examines the…

For research areas to advance, researchers are required to carry out studies that are in line with the inadequacies in the field and to have a grasp of the studies in the field. One of the most important means of identifying inadequacies in a field is to review studies between certain years. In this sense, it is important to analyze the…