Reflective assignments are a powerful tool in undergraduate STEM courses to promote student metacognition and give instructors and researchers a view of that process. We were interested in understanding student challenges in our developmental biology course, so we used reflective assignments to uncover these challenges and also add to our…

The purpose of this article is to present the author's anecdotal findings from using a grade defense assignment as a supplemental aspect of an ePortfolio assignment. This is not a full research study, but the author did a few semesters of testing with the assignment before implementing the grade defense in all sections of the University Seminar…

In self-study, researchers explicitly identify how their practices add to the body of knowledge in teacher education (Vanassche & Kelchtemans, 2015). This self-study aims to document and analyze some of my learning as an early career teacher educator in Ontario, Canada. Being cognizant of the well-researched theory-to-practice gap in teacher…

Reflective Learning Journals are used to engage students in the learning process. To motivate students to complete the Reflective Learning Journal it is common practice to allocate marks and it is in this area that problems arise. To address the problems rubrics have been used however, most rubrics are based on assigning marks to very…

In this paper, we develop an open-ended approach to evaluating students' citizenship competences. We aim to give students the opportunity to describe what citizenship means for them in personally relevant contexts. We developed three rubrics relevant to students' citizenship in daily life. Students in grade 10 and 11(M[subscript age] = 16)…

In this article, the authors contribute to the conversation on High Impact Practice (HIPs) focusing on the connection between sense of accomplishment and what is high impact by discussing data from their study of signature assignments. Signature assignments are assignments within a single course or unit that give students choice, require synthesis…

This study outlines how handwritten reflection cards lead to the retention of the Japanese kana alphabets. Handwriting is said to help improve retention of the Japanese alphabets. Currently, in-person classes provide most of the materials and assignments via the university's Learning Management System (LMS), and students have the choice to…

The paper introduces the student-coined term "digital instinct" which describes students' disposition to resorting to digital technology for solving problems and doing school assignments. Taking cues from the term "digital instinct," the paper describes a student perspective on digital literacy emerging from 100 lived…

Promoting critical thinking (CT) skills has largely attracted the concern of numerous relevant stakeholders, including teachers, students, and policymakers, with the assumption that CT is a vitally learned skill needed by graduates. This study explores the extent of classroom-based assessment strategies used to promote the CT ability of…

There is a large gap between minority representation in the field of dietetics and the United States population, and nutrition students need advanced cultural competence training in preparation for future work with diverse populations. Universal recommendations for delivering and evaluating cultural competence training in nutrition programs are…

In a series of three video-recorded assignments over a 6-week period, undergraduate music education students (N = 16) enrolled in an instrumental methods course described aloud what they were thinking about as they practiced a three-note melody on a secondary brass instrument. Later, I completed a content analysis of the students' practice…

There is increasing evidence that literacy coaching is an effective method for supporting teachers' professional development. At the same time, teacher evaluation systems have intensified in response to reform initiatives, raising questions about what happens at the intersection of teacher evaluation and coaching. Despite the potential of coaching…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to explore public school teachers' knowledge and use of student reflection as a pedagogical tool in a small public school district in the Southwestern United States. Reflection is reviewing and evaluating your own work or the work of others. The theoretical framework for this study is based on…

This article reflects on an instructor's experience of incorporating an optional assignment in a theology class wherein students are invited to learn a new athletic skill, journal while doing so, and then theologically reflect on their experience. It begins with the instructor making a case for the need to bring the body back into the classroom.…

This paper discusses the creation and implementation of an experiential learning assignment focused on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, which aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Using a grounded theory approach that combines analyzing 90 senior-level marketing students' reflective essays…