One of the goals of China's 'Double First-class' initiative is to boost the top-notch disciplines in those next-to-top universities and allow their differentiated paths towards development. This study investigates Chinese universities' policy interpretations and strategic responses to this national initiative through a social network analysis of…

Promoting students' critical thinking is an important task of Teacher Education. This is a review paper of 39 research papers regarding the critical thinking practices that are utilised in Teacher Education programmes, including instructional approaches and strategies, ways of assessment, their results, and the factors that affect their success.…

This article presents the results of a study aimed at determining the perceptions of students participating in reflective learning (RL) experiences at the University of Girona (Spain), specifically regarding the benefits and challenges of this methodology. Four focus groups were organized with students who had participated in RL experiences on…

Learning has been described by two conceptual metaphors: as individual acquisition of knowledge ("acquisition metaphor"), and as an enculturation into a subject community ("participation metaphor"). On the other hand, academics' conceptions of teaching are usually reported to vary between teacher and student orientation. In…

Though the notion of the "problem" is central to self-directed and research-like problem-oriented learning approaches in universities, few studies have focused on how students themselves conceptualize it. The purpose of this study is to investigate how university students communicatively frame "the problem-oriented problem" in…

This article aims to evaluate the alignment between subject learning outcomes (SLOs) that represent the role of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) and the course curricula documents. Content analysis was conducted to map SLOs in the curricula documents of a set of compulsory courses offered by the department of C&I. A…

Teaching is connected with a variety of emotions, but research on this area is scarce in the field of higher education. The present study explores the role of emotions and confidence within six different teacher profiles. Furthermore, the study aims to analyse emotions that arise during participation in courses on university pedagogy. Altogether…

Nine academics participated in semi-structured interviews to explore possible linkages between their teacher identities and the pedagogies they employ. A content analysis of the interviews was performed to gain insight into the factors playing a role in how academics define themselves as teachers, the larger educational goals they espouse and the…

The aim of the study was to compare students in a control group with those in a treatment group with respect to evaluative comments on psychological accounts of motivation. The treatment group systematically scrutinized the nature and interpretation of evidence that supported different accounts, and the assumptions, logic, coherence and clarity of…