Students' prior knowledge may affect their learning of content in a compulsory Indigenous Studies course. Notably, non-Indigenous pre-service teachers' prior knowledge may bring conceptions and misconceptions to their formal Indigenous Studies education, potentially influencing their engagement with and/or resistance to concepts affecting their…

There has been a lack of research systematically identifying the kinds of international students who struggle to succeed academically in the New Zealand tertiary context. This research was conducted to determine whether students who enter through different pathways have equal likelihood of academic success after admission. Statistical information…

We focus on the pedagogical merit of introducing and assessing Thresholds Concepts (TCs) in the curriculum with a view to (inter alia) regain public confidence and trust in the legitimacy of business education and qualifications -- especially since the 2007-2010 global recession. While the education literature foregrounds the role of higher…

Rural students' academic performance is of critical importance for college success and later life outcomes. Prior literature on the rural-urban gap in academic performance has produced mixed results. Drawing on data from students at a highly selective university in Beijing, this study compares the differences in academic performance between…

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (2014) identifies the need for Australian higher education providers to develop health professional students' cultural capabilities. This study investigated whether integrating the Framework's learning outcomes into undergraduate nutrition curricula changed higher education…

This study focused on the transition from upper-secondary school to university. Specifically, it examined whether prior academic achievements and conceptions of learning at the time of completion of upper-secondary school predicted short- and long-term university success (grades at the bachelor's and master's levels). A total of 171 psychology…

Student satisfaction and the quality of education are of compelling interest to students, academic staff, policy-makers and higher education researchers internationally. There is a widespread belief in their "cause and effect" relationship. This paper tests these beliefs and explores how the level of student satisfaction is linked with…

Assessing student learning outcomes has become a global trend in higher education. In this paper, we report on the validation of the Chinese HEIghten® Critical Thinking assessment with a nationally representative sample of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students from 35 institutions in China. Key findings suggest that there was a test…

Successful completion of a university degree is a complex matter. Based on considerations regarding the demands of acquiring a university degree, the aim of this paper was to investigate the utility of complex problem-solving (CPS) skills in the prediction of objective and subjective university success (SUS). The key finding of this study was that…

Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in…

Students in their first year of university face a number of transition issues that can make realising their academic potential difficult. In the sciences, first-year courses cover a large amount of material across broad subject areas, which can make them troublesome for students without background knowledge, and students need to adapt to typically…

The paper presents research findings on students' experiences of the provision both of guidance and feedback, and with respect to examinations as well as coursework assignments. A first- and a final-year bioscience course unit were surveyed in each of three contrasting university departments. The resulting dataset comprised 782 completed student…

The paper addresses the way in which participants in a qualitative study drew upon accounts of relationships and emotions in sharing their perceptions of assessment. By first exploring ideas about emotions and relationships in learning and assessment through the literature and subsequently discussing an interpretation of participant narratives,…

In this study, the academic experiences of 33 male students from an industrial background were investigated as they completed a two-year education degree. The purpose of the study was to investigate the quality of student adjustment to an academic environment following extensive industrial training and experience. Students completed a series of…