Topology optimization (TO) has been a useful engineering tool over the last decades. The benefits of this optimization method are several, such as the material and cost savings, the design inspiration, and the robustness of the final products. In addition, there are educational benefits. TO is a combination of mathematics, design, statics, and the…

Capstone experiences (CEs) serve a variety of purposes in higher education as opportunities to apply academic skills, explore post-graduate life and employment, and achieve a meaningful undergraduate event. This study investigated the purposes of CEs through a content analysis of institutional course syllabi/course outlines/module outlines and…

The Zimbabwean crisis, which began around 2000, had serious ramifications for the teaching of history in the country, especially in high schools. This study investigated the impact of Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis on the production of syllabi for teaching history at high schools. It analyses the hurried changes in the secondary school…

Cultural competence is described as a set of skills, values, and principles that acknowledge, respect, and work toward optimal interactions between the individual and the various cultural and ethnic groups with which an individual might come into contact. Scholars have been critical of cultural competence training because the three-dimensional…

For several years, I taught a general education course on the Manhattan Project for students majoring in the arts and humanities who needed a physical science credit as a condition of their graduation requirements. As might be imagined, the challenge in teaching this course was to find a balance between quantitative and qualitative content. A…

A hands-on polypeptide engineering experience that focuses on project management was developed and incorporated in a graduate-level course. The goal was to have doctoral students in chemical engineering learn about project planning tools, and experience what it might be like to plan and execute a project in industry or business. The motivation…

This study explores how different online syllabus formats affect students' engagement and their course-taking intentions. Using a 2 (format: online learning management system vs. instructor's website) X 2 (information amount: more vs. less) between-subjects design, an experimental study was conducted with undergraduate students at a large…

This paper analyses the context, emergence, organisation and curriculum of the school subject known as 'Culture of Religions' ("Kultura religija"), which is given as an example of good practice in the Toledo Guiding Principles of the Organization for Security and Clarity in Europe (OSCE). It was designed, piloted and to a certain extent…

Purpose: Current approaches to sustainability science and education focus on (assessing and addressing) the external world of ecosystems, wider socio-economic structures, technology and governance dynamics. A major shortcoming of such approaches is the neglect of inner dimensions and capacities (which constrains education for sustainability as an…

Learning outcomes are inevitably to be declared by any university and educational institution at every level of their programmes. It should have a general scheme for all programmes regardless of the discipline specificities, individual courses or even independent instructional units. Such outcomes are stated at different levels based on the…

This article discusses the way teachers in primary and secondary schools in England engaged with a project to develop a Worldviews approach to Islam in the RE classroom. The project identified challenges and barriers to the teaching of Worldviews that were demonstrated by some teachers' unwillingness to engage with knowledge and curriculum content…

Objective: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces anxiety among undergraduate students; however, there is limited evidence demonstrating mechanistic underpinnings. Theoretical models implicate cognitive self-regulation as a mechanism. This study explored whether an adapted MBSR embedded in a college course reduced anxiety and if…

As a "wicked problem," climate change requires interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration in order to prepare future leaders to develop solutions. To this end, as an ecologist and an anthropologist at a mid-sized university in the southeastern U.S., we designed a pair of interdisciplinary, research-intensive courses for first-year…

The presentation of economics in introductory courses has been highlighted as potentially exacerbating the underrepresentation of women in economics. The authors study the impact of a gender-neutral change in content and instruction in introductory economics courses intended to increase student engagement. By implementing meaningful applied…

Hip hop is the most popular music in the US and remains on the fringes of the music education profession as both under-integrated, researched, and utilised. The purpose of this project was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate music students who facilitated a hip hop project with hip hop experts in a local youth arts…