The present multiyear study sheds light on the effects of faculty status on student evaluations of teaching (SETs). By comparing "actual" SETs of full- versus part-time marketing faculty, this study fills a void in the marketing education literature. Collecting first-hand institutionally administered SETs (N = 6,123) over a seven-year…

It is often assumed that higher prestige colleges and universities, via the rankings, have a better quality of education. Yet, the prestige structure in U.S. higher education favors resources, research, and student selectivity over teaching and undergraduate educational practices. Using quantitative observational data from 587 courses across 9…

The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic affected higher education in a myriad of ways. One of the most notable effects however was the rapid and sudden transition of nearly all courses at most institutions to an online environment. And while there are a growing number of courses offered online already, this transition to nearly 100% remote…

Rural schools face particular challenges with teacher quality. The Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium was a collaborative reform effort among rural schools with a key goal of improving the quality of instruction in math and science to support its efforts to expand academically rigorous courses. This study examines progress…

Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on Earth. Most living beings depend on it directly or indirectly. Knowledge about photosynthesis enables us to understand how the world functions as an ecosystem and how photosynthesis acts as a bridge between the non-living and living worlds. It is, therefore, understandable that…

The tension between the rigour and the relevance of higher education research remains an important and hotly contested topic among scholars, administrators, practitioners and policymakers. This debate is most evident in professional programmes in which scholars are challenged to pursue new knowledge independent of its immediate relevance to…

This paper describes the results of a qualitative study using ground theory to investigate the different approaches used by chemists when answering open-ended problems. The study involved undergraduate, industrialist and academic participants who individually answered three open-ended problems using a think aloud protocol. Open-ended problems are…

Learning to write well is a significant outcome of higher education, as confirmed and illustrated in the Written Communication VALUE Rubric of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Scholars agree that writing and thinking are linked. Thinking about this relationship between writing and thinking in the context of…

The evidence of the huge challenges of literacy development faced by South African learners is primarily gleaned from the results of learners' external assessments. There is little research which explores, in-depth, the strategies used by teachers to teach reading literacy and reading comprehension specifically. Questions remain about what is…

This study was conducted to determine the themes present in the context of high schools, to determine any significant differences in themes for high and low performing high schools, and to determine if significant differences were present for the same sample of high schools based on school size. An analysis of the content of mission statements…

Effective history teaching includes ample opportunities for students to develop historical thinking skills and habits of mind which encourage them to learn content beyond simple acquisition of facts. Covering the profound topic of segregation by employing multiple perspectives and encouraging investigation beyond the traditional narrative provides…

This qualitative content analysis was conducted to determine how Mexico and Mexican people are portrayed in contemporary U.S. elementary social studies textbooks. Three textbooks from each of three major publishers were analyzed. Findings are presented in five sections: images and photographs, holidays, Mexican people and heroes, contested…

Most experts in the testing community have presumed that the $350 million promised by the U.S. Department of Education to support common assessments would promote those that made greater use of open-ended items capable of measuring higher-order critical-thinking skills. But as measurement experts consider the multitude of possibilities for an…

A study investigated the relationship between undergraduate admissions selectivity at 40 research universities and academic rigor of course examination questions, as determined by the level of understanding required. Results suggest that more selective institutions do not provide more academically rigorous instruction than less selective ones.…

This study documents the transformation of a graduate-level course for teachers that had traditionally been taught in a face-to-face (f2f) model, in multiple sections, at a large university. By designing the course for online delivery and developing various interactive multimedia modules, the university was able to offer the course at a…