This commentary begins by summarizing the five contributions to this special issue and briefly recapping the background to the topic of student learning in higher education. Narrative and systematic reviews are compared, and the relative value of different bibliographic databases in the context of systematic reviews is assessed. The importance of…

Engineering is being currently taught in the full spectrum of the P-12 system, with an emphasis on design-oriented teaching (Brophy, Klein, Portsmore, & Rogers, 2008). Due to only a small amount of research on the learning of engineering design in elementary and middle school settings, the community of practice lacks the necessary knowledge of the…

This literature reviews explores the pedagogical approach, skills, and motivation factors that influence or are influenced by distance education instructors. Discusses Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs), a collaborative, problem-based asynchronous course design; and the need for instructor training and development to improve skills needed that…

The purpose of this paper is to review evaluation theories and techniques in both the medical and educational fields and to propose an evaluation theory to explain the condition variables, the method variables, and the outcome variables of student assessment in a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. The PBL definition and process are presented,…

This paper describes the use of a participatory action research model to teach undergraduate social work research and statistics. Strategies of the model include (1) integration with social work education, (2) policy analysis, (3) literature review, (4) collaboration with practitioners, (5) collaboration with the target population through…