A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural…

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…

This article discusses the findings of a recent study which demonstrates that generic attributes are highly context-dependent, and are shaped by the disciplinary epistemology in which they are conceptualised and taught. Generic attributes have, for a long time, been viewed as super-disciplinary, and hence as separated from and overlayed onto…

Two related studies are reported in this article. The first aimed to analyse how academic discipline is related to university teachers' approaches to teaching. The second explored the effects of teaching context on approaches to teaching. The participants of the first study were 204 teachers from the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki School…