Scholars and practitioners alike often assume that discomfort is a necessary and productive aspect of the college experience. We used a range of theories grounded in the concept of dissonance to question these assumptions and critically analyze the role of discomfort in collegiate learning and development for today's diverse college student…

Empathy is an important affective attribute for graduates entering future practice with diverse populations. Self- and bodily awareness and the ability to take others' perspectives are essential for developing, maintaining and encouraging the cognitive, affective and motivational elements of empathy. This paper presents a thematic analysis of…

Research into Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) in Higher Education has largely focused on the positive effects of PASS on student motivation, retention and engagement. Less attention has been given to the cognitive, affective and professional development of the PASS Student Mentors through their engagement with students and academic staff. At…

This article describes examples of reflection documented in a longitudinal research comprising two studies: a three-year three-stage study on technology project-based learning (TPBL) and a three-year two-stage study on engineering thinking (ET). Both studies used qualitative tools such as interviews, active observations, and document analysis.…

Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes have been identified as a critical platform to encourage the exploration of alternative teaching approaches by pre-service teachers. However, the socio-cultural constraint of acculturation or past physical education and sporting experiences results in the maintenance of the status…

There is a growing need to provide curricula that meets the changing needs of students in higher education. To train pre-service teachers according to the demands of the new educational contexts, the move from teacher-centered curricula to learning-centered curricula is a must. The aim of this research is to examine the currently used curriculum…

The present study employs a mixed methods approach to understanding the psychological functions and contexts of music use. Seventy-six emerging adults selected a single piece of music that they considered personally significant and elaborated on the reasons for this significance in response to written prompts. A constant comparative analysis of…

Through the regular use of what Donald Schon has termed reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, students can learn to improve their "reflection-in-presentation," in Kathleen Blake Yancey's term. Students are often asked to do this type of reflection-in-presentation as a capstone to first-year or basic writing courses. However, a number of…

Funded by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts (CILA) at Wabash College, the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) is a multi-institution, multi-year, longitudinal study designed to identify the academic and non-academic collegiate experiences that foster liberal learning. This article describes how the study was done and…