A growing body of evidence had demonstrated that increased student exposure and commitment to evidence-based teaching (EBT) leads to improved academic performance, greater persistence, and higher buy-in to instructional methods. Despite the increasing number of teaching development opportunities available to STEM instructors, which often encourage…

Within their classrooms, instructors may engage in a variety of behaviors including those perceived to be charismatic. Though researchers have uncovered instructor behaviors that have been postulated to theoretically represent charisma in the classroom, to date no quantitative data have been presented to support these claims. The current study…

Given the increasing importance of soft skills in the computing profession, there is good reason to provide students withmore opportunities to learn and practice those skills in undergraduate computing courses. Toward that end, we have developed an active learning approach for computing education called the "Pedagogical Code Review"…

The purpose of this study was to integrate domain-learning theory and goal theory to investigate the learning processes, achievement goals, social goals, and achievement of 141 college students. Cluster-analytic procedures were used to categorize participants at different levels of expertise based on their responses on knowledge, interest, and…

As the number of college students studying science continues to grow, it is important to identify variables that predict their success. The literature indicates that motivation and learning strategy use facilitate science success. Research findings show these variables can change throughout a semester and differ by performance level, gender and…

This study investigated writing apprehension, motivational levels, and writing performance of 68 undergraduates enrolled in four freshman composition courses during one semester. Participants in the treatment groups received relevance, confidence, or a combination of relevance and confidence motivational strategies based on Keller's ARCS model. In…

Critical thinking is a highly desirable goal of online higher education courses. This article presents qualitative data from a mixed-method study that explores how asynchronous discussions within online courses influence critical thinking among students. In this study, online discussions were related to higher levels of critical thinking, but…

This document offers teaching tips to be used if, on administration of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a class were to present a profile of scores that would suggest the need for help in one or more of the motivation or learning strategies areas assessed by the MSLQ. Some tips are supported by research; others are based…

The role of motivation and collaboration in STEM learning and performance is paramount. A learning community represents an educational approach that can engage students in learning in a motivated, thoughtful, active, and collaborative way. The focus of this article is on the nature of students' interest, attitudes, learning experiences and…