The study goal was to assess the innovation level of engineering students' team projects and to examine the relationships between project innovation and team heterogeneity in two online environments. Applying a two-stage mixed methods research design, the qualitative and quantitative data were obtained by interviews with experts in engineering…

In the English-speaking world, university Schools of Education are usually heavily involved in the professional preparation of teachers. Yet, in England and the USA in particular, the role of universities in teacher education has increasingly seemed under threat as alternative providers of training have come on the scene, often with the overt…

Given that postsecondary institutions are increasingly seen as sites to promote health, critical scholars are calling attention to how the contemporary Western weight-centred health paradigm reinforces a "size matters" message that is fueling harmful attitudes towards and judgments of bodies. As such, research that highlights strategies…

Educational phenomena and child development fascinate many disciplines for which they offer a tremendous field of experimentation and application. More than a hundred years ago, when educational sciences adopted the main institutional emblems of an academic discipline (chairs, diploma, laboratories, scientific network etc.), they obviously…

This article presents the results of a comparison of didactics textbooks in two countries: on the one hand it examines a textbook in the tradition of German Didaktik, and, on the other hand, a textbook in the tradition of "Instructional Design" from the USA. The main research question is: How do authors write didactics textbooks? Is it…

In order for culturally and linguistically diverse faculty members to thrive in their teaching role, it is important that their adjustment to the culture and climate of the US colleges and universities be understood and supported. To that end, this qualitatively oriented study of 28 NNES (non-native English speaking) faculty members addresses the…

The author asserts that something is wrong with university-based education for librarianship in Australia. Librarianship does not have a clear disciplinary identity in universities. The lack of differentiation between the roles of technicians and professionals clouds the issue. For these and other reasons, education for librarianship in Australia…

In Europe, there is a growing interest in honors education, not only in the bachelor's but also in the master's degree. The Dutch government, for instance, is actively promoting excellence in both bachelor's and master's degrees through honors programs (Siriusteam). Most Dutch universities have honors programs at the bachelor's level or are…

In the English-speaking world educational research is often conceived as the interdisciplinary study of educational processes and practices. Hence research in education strongly relies on theoretical input from a range of different academic disciplines. What is virtually absent in this construction of the field is the idea of education as an…

Since 2005, the first-year engineering program at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, has been significantly restructured to include more hands-on learning. A major grant (2004-2009) under the department level reform (DLR) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) facilitated this restructuring. A number of hands-on learning modules were developed…

The number of doctorates being awarded around the world has almost doubled over the last ten years, propelling it from a small elite enterprise into a large and ever growing international market. Within the context of increasing numbers of doctoral students this book examines the new doctorate environment and the challenges it is starting to face.…

Stimulated by social scientists' and especially social psychologists' contributions during World War II, as well as by America's post-war economic and population growth, the period from 1945 to 1970 was widely viewed as a "Golden Age" for American social science. Interdisciplinary social psychology arguably was in the vanguard of these…

There are good reasons to be very careful about generalizations about Catholic higher education in the United States. Recall that the 220 or so Catholic colleges and universities are of very different kinds, very different sizes, with different student bodies, and are located in different parts of a country that sometimes have quite different…

James E. Hartley tracks the rise of American Studies early in the twentieth century as a scholarly effort to draw distinctions between American culture and things European. The radical impulse for relevance in the 1960s brought an end to that and to the quaint concept that great books allow an easy summing up of our values and ideals. Professor…

Background/Context: In the last several decades, a college education, in particular the bachelor's degree, has become the key to higher earnings, and overall, to a middle-class lifestyle in the United States. In an increasingly globalized economy, privileging information and communication technologies, it is more than likely that this emphasis on…