Higher education professionals often are tasked with providing evidence to stakeholders that programs, services, and practices implemented on their campuses contribute to student success. Furthermore, in the absence of a solid base of evidence related to effective practices, higher education researchers and practitioners are left questioning what…

Policy and research engagement is a timely topic for researchers, decision-makers, and higher education institutions that aim to promote engagement and impact. Examination of the complex research-policy relationship in the higher education sector has been largely overlooked. This paper addresses this issue by presenting findings from in-depth…

Students' evidence-based reasoning was examined across two studies. In Study 1, students were asked to evaluate newspaper excerpts including anecdotal, descriptive, correlational, and causal evidence provided in support of causal claims as well as to justify their quality ratings for two of these excerpts. In Study 2, students' justifications for…

Across higher education, educational developers and their supporting campus communities are being called upon to scale up evidence-informed practices, to enhance student experiences, and to document the changes. This article builds on the work of scholars who have taken up this evaluative challenge, by examining varied aspects of the evidencing…

Feedback is an integral part of education and there is a substantial body of trials exploring and confirming its effect on learning. This evidence base comes mostly from studies of compulsory school age children; there is very little evidence to support effective feedback practice at higher education, beyond the frameworks and strategies advocated…

Authentic assessment is a widely discussed concept in higher education, but it has a problem: the concept has become so all-encompassing that its meaning is now unclear. The notion has been expanded and diluted. For example, adding social justice to the definition or positioning exams as authentic, adds to the contradictions inherent within in the…

In many developed countries, disagreement on important policy issues between groups with different social identities ('ideological polarisation') is increasing. In professional settings, these disagreements undermine cooperation and trust between employees, which negatively affects work relationships and managerial decision-making. We investigate…

The evidence deployed in the policy process is often done so from sources hoping to shape policy along preconceived ideological lines. This chapter presents the data and research cited as evidence in tuition-free community legislation proposed and enacted by 10 states, along with the sources that produced this evidence when applicable. Results…

This paper provides a brief overview of the history of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), its prominence in the literature, and its use within the educational community. It then provides a critical analysis of the literature base linked to UDL checkpoint 1.2 by examining the relevance to the current trends in education and technology and…

Sustainable development has become a momentous global concern since the end of the twentieth century. The 2015 adoption of the SDGs represents a significant challenge for higher education globally as it compels widescale consideration of how the sector will address the SDGs and contribute to the 2030 Agenda. Seven years after the adoption of the…

Scientific argumentation skills are a key component of science learning practices needed by students in the 21st century. Where the essence of scientific argumentation is to support the argument with evidence and reasoning and then refute the claims and evidence of the opponent's argument. Supporting arguments with evidence and reasoning can be…

University participation gaps between free school meals (FSM) and non-FSM students have remained largely stable in the UK since 2006. The efficacy of UK widening participation (WP) interventions in changing attitudes towards university and increasing participation of disadvantaged students is uncertain. Some approaches have shown to be effective…

Teaching physics in real-life contexts continues to be a challenge for teachers at different educational levels. In this article, three context-rich problems are proposed to be implemented in the classroom for higher education, using the explosion that occurred in Beirut as a case study. These problems require the search and analysis of real data,…

The newest publication in a series of reports on the AAC&U Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Initiative--?We Have a Rubric for That: The VALUE Approach to Assessment--compiles ten years of evidence to provide an argument-based framework for the assessment of student learning in higher education using the VALUE…

The higher education sector is under increasing pressure to deliver more and to evidence the fruits of its contribution to society. There is a particular focus on the enhanced engagement of students in order to maximise success, and for this engagement to be achieved equitably across the student body, regardless of demographic backgrounds. This…