While much has been written about the impact of metrics in higher education, less is known about the variety of response orientations that individual academics may adopt in reaction to the increasing metricization of academia. Taking the English higher education sector as a case study, this research surveyed the views of academics from Education…

Most institutions of higher education presume that the pursuit of truth is central to their missions. However, the status of truth has been seriously challenged in contemporary society--by postmodern critiques, confusion about the goals and methods of scholarly disciplines, and the seductive power of social and other digital media. In this essay,…

An academic learning environment has a significant role in shaping students' learning experience, scholarly identity construction, and socialization into academic culture. The aim of the present study was to understand the experiences of PhD students from their learning environment and the challenges and problems they may face. This case study was…

Using critical discourse analysis to analyse the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that "both" creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite the prevalence of these often used terms, assessment practices and feedback were found to unwittingly encourage…

Accounts of emotion and affect have gained popularity in studies of learning. This article draws on qualitative research with a group of non-traditional students entering an elite university in the UK to illustrate how being and becoming a university student is an intrinsically emotional process. It argues that feelings of loss and dislocation are…

The author suggests that we need to focus on a "failure of communication" rather than on a "failure of community" in order to help establish online learning environments that are most likely to support engaged collaborative learning. She first briefly considers the problematic nature of the idea of learning communities based on belonging, and then…