The development of students' entrepreneurial confidence, aptitude and self-efficacy, irrespective of their discipline, is strongly advocated by researchers, policy makers and the media as an important societal institution, indispensable for economic growth and development, social cohesion, job creation and indeed the changing world of work. This…

It is imperative to bridge the disparity between college students' practical capabilities and professional expectations. To help facilitate such a progression, an electronic engineering course oriented around the Creative Innovation Practice project has been designed with the objectives of student-centric instruction, integration of both…

Transformative human rights education (HRE) implies a pedagogic intention to generate human rights cultures, protecting against and preventing human rights violations. This article draws on Freirean critical pedagogy to define transformative HRE as requiring four pedagogical principles: an explicit pedagogic intention; critical engagement on…

This research explores the acquisition of soft skills in a service learning project in the Complutense University of Madrid's library and information science undergraduate program. Reaching its fifth edition in 2021-22, the project aimed to integrate older persons into the social fabric of a residential enclave of Madrid known as "Parque…

Studies over the past two decades have provided relevant data on the relationship between music and reading abilities although they fundamentally refer to aspects of the first language reading process of young children. The foreign language reading acquisition process of adult learners has, in this sense, been less explored. Research in this area…

A master's degree from an ALA-accredited institution can prepare graduates for a wide range of job functions and career paths, but the variety of jobs raises some questions about how LIS programs are meeting the wide range and evolving needs of employers in order to best prepare students for professional positions. What knowledge, skills, and…

Cybersecurity faculty do not have the time to respond to the rapid and pervasive cybersecurity academic landscape. For faculty to respond to this challenge, they are expected to continuously adapt to remain competitive. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the cybersecurity faculty's perceptions of their need to…

Computer programmers in the U.S. labor force are facing a shortage. Focusing on recruiting females has the potential to address this shortage. Computing is a male dominated field which provides an opportunity to recruit the other 50% of the population, females, to fill the open positions. This work studies gender differences in computer…

Continuous changes in social demand and development provide an acute and continuous pressure on universities. The question is whether higher education institutions (HEI) in Ecuador deliver graduates with the competences to provide timely economic, ecological, and sustainable solutions. Additionally, HEIs should prepare graduates to find employment…

This investigation proposes to apply the methods of training creativity in the natural sciences to teaching a foreign language for specific purposes. This approach is based on the testing of foreign language competencies in different countries, on the task of training higher education specialists, including foreign language training, on the…

Recent studies on the learning of L2 prosody have suggested that pitch gestures can enhance the learning of the L2 lexical tones. Yet it remains unclear whether the use of these gestures can aid the learning of L2 intonation, especially by tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic-level Spanish were asked to learn three…

Sales competitions provide students with opportunities to apply their understanding of sales. Despite a long tradition of scholarship on sales role-plays, the answer to what drives student performance in sales competitions remains elusive. In this research, we examine how motivation (work engagement) and ability (cognitive aptitude and…

This study investigates 128 Chinese college students to examine the effects of their musical aptitude and musical training on phonological production in four foreign languages. Results show that musically-trained students remarkably possessed stronger musical aptitude than those without musical training and performed better than their counterpart…

Conflicting research results have stirred controversy over the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) compared to direct instruction at fostering content learning, particularly for novices. We addressed this by investigating effectiveness with respect to recognition learning and transfer and conducting an aptitude-treatment interaction…

Deliberate practice is important in many areas of learning, including that of learning to program computers. However, beliefs about the nature of personal traits, known as "mindsets," can have a profound impact on such practice. Previous research has shown that those with a "fixed mindset" believe their traits cannot change;…