University students of all disciplines are expected to display critical thinking. Critical thinking may, however, be impeded by psychological and sociological factors such as: belief and confirmation biases, framing, social pressure to conform and poor assessment of probability and risk. These factors are rarely, if ever, thoroughly examined in…

An important contemporary challenge to the large-group lecture in higher education is that it encourages passive learning which is claimed to be out of sync with academic rhetoric and social needs. Attempts to change this practice have salvaged some aspects of the higher education experience for students, but they have not transformed the learning…

Many academic institutions are investing thousands of dollars in technology-based classrooms to market themselves as modern and adapt to the new generation of students for whom technology forms part of their everyday lives. This technology is also believed to provide the added benefit of better knowledge acquisition, improved critical thinking and…

Current forms of marketisation in university systems create pressures towards purely ends-focused expectations among students and have implications for learning and assessment processes. The potential harm that these trends have on "learning" should be resisted by educators and students alike. Critical Pedagogy approaches offer one way…

While much of the recent academic literature into university seminar teaching has focused on collaborative learning involving student-student interaction, little research has been done into tutor-student interaction and how tutors interact with students during whole class, group-based and one-to-one teaching. In response to this finding, this…

The study looks at issues around the power of the hidden curriculum of assessment and its effects on student behaviour. The assessment regime at school level has an impact on study approaches at university level, and if we are to help students to make the transition from school to university, then it is important that we understand the beliefs and…

In this article, the impact of assessment tasks on examination result (measured by examination grades) is investigated. Although many describe the advantages of electronic assessment tasks, few studies have been undertaken which compare a traditional approach using a classical examination with a new approach using assessment tasks. The main…

Mind Mapping has predominantly been used by individuals or collaboratively in groups as a paper-based or computer-generated learning strategy. In an effort to make Mind Mapping kinesthetic, collaborative, and three-dimensional, an innovative pedagogical strategy, termed Physical Webbing, was devised. In the Physical Web activity, groups…

One activity-rich way to utilize collaborative learning, team-based learning (TBL), can present students and teachers with both opportunities and challenges. TBL requires students to prepare for each class, where they are then assessed for their "readiness" to apply the concepts learned during their pre-class preparation. This study addresses two…

Educators have integrated instructor-produced audio files in a variety of settings and environments for purposes such as content presentation, lecture reviews, student feedback, and so forth. Few instructors, however, require students to produce audio files and share them with peers. The purpose of this study was to obtain empirical data on…

With the rise of Web 2.0, a multitude of new possibilities on how to use these online technologies for active learning has intrigued researchers. While most instructors have used Twitter for in-class discussions, this study explores the teaching practice of Twitter as an active, informal, outside-of-class learning tool. Through a comparative…

Previous work has shown that students' notes often fail to record key facts and concepts. The relatively recent widespread adoption of PowerPoint slides and handouts might now help students to record key issues, but only if they can recognize the cues that identify these. 238 note-sets were taken from first-year students attending four lectures…

Since the advent of PowerPoint and course delivery programs like Blackboard, more instructors in higher education are providing students with outlines of their lectures and expecting students to supplement these with their own notes. Although some have found that instructor-provided notes appear to enhance student learning, others suggest that…

This article reports a study which sought to evaluate the different learning strategies adopted by students when accessing virtual learning environment (VLE)-hosted resources because, if student achievement corresponds to the learning strategy that is adopted whilst accessing VLE resources, directed tasks can be put in place that will encourage…

Failure to establish meaningful and effective transition for undergraduates can lead to academic underachievement. Student engagement represents a key component of student success. This study sought to investigate the impact of a bespoke transition programme featuring a wide range of innovative, student-centred activities on enhancing students'…