The perceptual fluency hypothesis claims that items that are easy to perceive at encoding induce an illusion that they will be easier to remember, despite the finding that perception does not generally affect recall. The current set of studies tested the predictions of the perceptual fluency hypothesis with a picture generation manipulation.…

Misconceptions and biases in energy perception could influence people's support for developments integral to the success of restructuring a nation's energy system. Science education, in equipping young adults with the cognitive skills and knowledge necessary to navigate in the confusing energy environment, could play a key role in paving the way…

Neoliberal education policies have altered the operational environments of schools and affected school principals' job descriptions and requirements. As a result of managerialism, decentralisation and marketisation of education, principals are increasingly responsible for profitability, marketing and striving in competition, in addition to their…

Creativity is one of the important skills of the twenty-first century and central to higher education (HE). When we look closer into research on creativity in HE, however, it is not clear how university teachers conceptualise student creativity. How do teachers grasp, observe and express student creativity? Different methods such as interviews and…

During the post-formation phase, young ventures are often in danger of sliding into bankruptcy. The entrepreneur has to deal with a multitude of complex problems, decisions have to be made under time pressure or uncertainty, and upcoming crises have to be perceived in time. This paper presents seven critical incidents that are (1) realistic,…

Modern attempts to explain why some assessment tools are readily adopted by school-based personnel whereas others are not have focused on the concept of usability. Usability encompasses not only the degree to which consumers find an assessment tool to be acceptable, but also the degree to which it is well-understood, believed to be feasible,…

Today's universities are, accordingly to Clark's entrepreneurial model, sustained by managerialism, whereas collegialism may remain in contrast or work in a different way. More recent literature suggests the clash such as the potential for coexistence between managerialism and collegialism. The study analyses data from a survey of 26 universities…

Students' learning activities frequently compete with their leisure options, leading to regret after decisions to study. Using a sample of 233 German and 194 Australian undergraduate students, the authors explored possible determinants of the personality construct regret. They investigated whether the level to which students rely on intuition in…

This paper focuses on the views of 16-17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video,…

Civics courses strive to promote students' political competencies, which according to the model of Detjen et al. incorporate content knowledge, abilities to make political judgements and take political action, as well as motivational skills and attitudes. For achieving these goals, high hopes are placed on active learning tools such as political…

This article explores how power relations are constructed in the governance of higher education institutions. It examines and deconstructs, from a Foucauldian perspective, power relations and mechanisms in the relationship between the state and higher education institutions, and between academic and management staff. This research article…

In 2002, English-medium degree programmes (EMDPs) became a permanent feature of German higher education (HE). While this action marked an important step towards government-supported institutionalisation of English in Germany, no formal strategy or guidelines governing the role of English in HE have been developed. To date, research in this area in…

In this article, deviant action is analyzed on the basis of ideas derived from Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory. Presumedly, self-control in interaction with opportunities can explain deviant action. This assumption is elaborated using the concept of high- and low-cost situations from rational choice theory. From this point of view,…

This study investigates who chooses primary teaching and how prospective primary school teachers differ from future teachers in other types of schools. Using variance analysis, future student-teachers of different types of schools are compared with regard to their motives for the choice of studies and profession. As a main result, prospective…

This year the Research Institute for Higher Education in Hiroshima University hosted an international conference in close collaboration with Hijiyama University. The main purpose of the 2008 conference was to enable the participants to give preliminary country/regional reports based on their national/regional surveys. This publication reports the…