The task of turning undergrads into academics requires teaching them to reason about the world in a more complex way. We present the Argument Complexity Scale, a tool for analysing the complexity of argumentation, based on the Integrative Complexity and Conceptual Complexity Scales from, respectively, political psychology and personality theory.…

In an attempt to better understand the role of relationship between the use of English indefinite article and L1 transfer in L2 countability judgments by speakers of non-classifier languages, the current study investigates how Saudi EFL learners judge noun countability in English. The current study aims to find; (1) if countability judgments…

What should activist-scholars teach in the social problems classroom? In this conversation, I challenge the assertion that advancing a sociology of social problems is an overly academic enterprise of little use to students and other publics. I introduce the potential of a pedagogical framework for promoting social problems literacy: a set of…

Justification and argumentation have been identified as important mathematical practices; however, little work has been done to understand the knowledge and pedagogy teachers need to support students in these ambitious practices. Data for this research was drawn from the "Justification and Argumentation: Growing Understanding in Algebraic…

This paper outlines how examining student teachers' perceptions of the use of seminars in HE led to reflections about the role and significance of seminars in initial teacher education (ITE). Whilst the generic literature on student learning provides useful insights about how they approach their learning and tutors' teaching strategies, we know…

The present experimental study explores whether teachers are "clever" thinkers when assessing students' credibility, i.e., saving cognitive resources when possible and making accurate judgments. Participants were asked to decide whether student statements about using unfair means during a test were true or deceptive. First, participants'…

Humans have a unique ability to generate novel norms. Faced with the knowledge that there are hungry children in Somalia, we easily and naturally infer that we ought to donate to famine relief charities. Although a contentious and lively issue in metaethics, such inference from "is" to "ought" has not been systematically…

When searching and using resources on the Web, students have to evaluate Web pages in terms of relevance and reliability. This evaluation can be done in a more or less systematic way, by either considering deep or superficial cues of relevance and reliability. The goal of this study was to examine how systematic students are when evaluating Web…

There are certain threats embedded in scientific development that confront society. Gaining practical and instrumental experiences in addressing topics related to the major challenges that confront society today can be possible by tapping the socio-scientific issues as a part of science teaching and learning. This research aimed to explore…

Despite compelling evidence of its potential effectiveness, uptake of self and peer assessment in higher education has been slower than expected. As with other assessment practices, self and peer assessment is ultimately enabled, or inhibited, by the actions of individual academics. This paper explores what academics see as the benefits and…

Learning analytics focuses on extracting meaning from large amounts of data. One of the largest datasets in education comes from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that typically feature enrollments in the tens of thousands. Analyzing MOOC discussion forums presents logistical issues, resulting chiefly from the size of the dataset, which can…

The current study aimed to review studies on computational thinking (CT) indexed in Web of Science (WOS) and ERIC databases. A thorough search in electronic databases revealed 96 studies on computational thinking which were published between 2006 and 2016. Studies were exposed to a quantitative content analysis through using an article control…

This article reports a study that is based on the framework of personal epistemology proposed by Kuhn, Cheney, and Weinstock (2000). The instrument developed by Kuhn et al. (2000) for assessing the three positions (absolutist, multiplist and evaluativist) of epistemological understanding across five judgements' domains was translated and…

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder often do not have access to crucial peer social activities. This study examines how typically developing adolescents evaluate decisions not to include a peer based on disability status, and the justifications they apply to these decisions. A clinical interview methodology was used to elicit judgments and…

The goal of this study is to investigate the role of English Language Arts (ELA) teachers' verbal discourse moves in scaffolding adolescent students' argumentative thinking in small group interpretive discussions about literature. Demands related to argumentation may present particular challenges for adolescent students (Biancarosa & Snow,…