Reasoning skills are needed in the future work life. As such, it is important that reasoning skills be assessed in higher education, both in the selection phase and during education. This study aims to describe the instruments that are used to assess reasoning skills in higher education. The ultimate goal is to provide information upon which…

A rapid increase of available information affects students' perception of any message and formation of priorities; the period of concentration on one subject is reduced; students prefer concise vivid visual images. Internet memes become a part of students' daily communication and broadcast today's cultural and information realities. The aim of the…

Conflicting explanations and unrelated information in science classrooms increase cognitive load and decrease efficiency in learning. This reduced efficiency ultimately limits one's ability to solve reasoning problems in the science. In reasoning, it is the ability of students to sift through and identify critical pieces of information that is of…

Active learning classrooms provide an ideal opportunity to develop key workplace skills such as teamwork, information processing, critical thinking, and problem solving. Although many active learning pedagogies implicitly support student development of these skills, the role of the instructor in explicitly prompting and assessing these skills in…

This article describes impromptu presentations, a new pedagogical approach for college classrooms that produces full engagement and rapid information processing by students. The technique offers an additional tool to the growing literature on active and collaborative learning. Given a short timeframe, students are required to investigate, analyze,…

We implemented a "how to study" workshop for small groups of students (6-12) for N = 93 consenting students, randomly assigned from a large introductory biology class. The goal of this workshop was to teach students self-regulating techniques with visualization-based exercises as a foundation for learning and critical thinking in two areas:…

To identify the most important competencies for college graduates to succeed in the 21st century workforce, we conducted an analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. O*NET is a large job analysis operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor. We specifically analyzed ratings of the importance of abilities (52…

Geography is rapidly becoming more interactive, especially with the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their adoption in the public and private sectors. The days of two-dimensional maps are quickly being replaced by geographic images that are stored electronically in computers and handheld…