School leaders struggle in their efforts to implement standards-based grading reforms in large part because they fail to address the inconsistency in grading practices among individual teachers. This article describes three crucial steps necessary to gain greater consistency in teachers' grading practices: (1) Reaching consensus on a purpose…

This study is based on the hypothesis that group cohesion and efficacy have significant effects on the academic performance of individuals in online (virtual) education environments no less than in-person education environments. To that end, this study explores the effectiveness of group activities in a virtual classroom environment using VC…

This research explored the concepts of Sense of Belonging and Campus Cultural Capital among first-generation transfer students who were accepted to attend the EOP Transfer Bridge Program in 2018 and 2019. The methodology employed for this study was a transformative and mixed methods design that utilized the lens of Student Validation and Critical…

Motivation, belonging, and inclusion are all critical factors for student success but can be difficult to support in asynchronous online courses. Active learning and required group work have been shown to increase student motivation in in-person and synchronous online courses, but little is known about their impact in online asynchronous settings.…

School sense of belonging is critical for students' academic achievement and emotional well-being. The development of a sense of school belonging is influenced by direct and indirect factors within the school environment. Categorization into low and high achievement groups based on academics is a process largely outside the direct control of a…

Black students have faced several challenges and inequities in higher education (Williams et al., 2020). However, their experiences were not solely defined by the barriers in their way. Therefore, this study aimed to explore asset-based approaches (Denton et al., 2020) to Black students' success, including institutional support through a sense of…

bell hooks was a prolific and trailblazing author, poet, feminist, cultural critic, and professor. The author of more than three dozen wide-ranging books, hooks published her first title, the poetry collection "And there we wept," in 1978. Her influential book "Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism" followed in 1981. Three…

Two-phase testing assesses individual performance (phase 1) and then allows collaborative learning within small groups (phase 2). While groups typically outperform individuals, less is known about the social decision schemes that influence member collaboration. In a classroom setting, we compared individual and group performance on a standard test…

Student sense of belonging is a current challenge to higher education providers, with consistently declining ratings in national surveys. For universities globally, this is a concern linked to student attrition, student satisfaction, and student success. Importantly, low sense of belonging is typically associated with non-traditional learners, and…

The expansion of higher education has led to greater diversity among students, with a significant portion of them aged 25 and above. This demographic group represents a range of intersecting identities associated with their different roles, responsibilities, and life trajectories. While older students face obstacles to engagement, persistence, and…

Although collaborative-learning as an instructional method has shown promising results since the 1970's, a number of significant problems within collaborative learning environments have been encountered. These problems relate to aspects of group dynamics including group cohesion, participation, communication, collaboration, and trust. Although the…

A growing body of research has explored the effects of Covid-19-induced online learning on students' experiences. However, there is a lack of validated tools that measure the perceived online learning experiences of domestic and international students in various national and cultural contexts. To address this gap, this article aims to develop the…

First-year STEM students often interpret academic challenges as diagnostic of belonging. Studies demonstrate that a social-belonging intervention helps undergraduates reframe belonging uncertainty as temporary and universal. We implemented this intervention with first-year engineering majors. In Study 1 (N = 284), we analyzed data from engineering…

A study was conducted considering a mathematics learning center as a figured world, that is, as a social space that is treated as if individuals within the space share certain meanings about the space and interactions within it (Holland et al., 1998) from the perspective of the undergraduate peer tutors employed in it (for the larger study, see…

With respect to supporting student well-being and success, the current research developed a peer support scheme, built on the principles of Social Identity Theory (SIT). This was targeted towards first year undergraduate psychology students, in which measures of collective identity, sense of belonging, group efficacy, happiness and resilience were…