Independent learning is one of the cornerstones of UK higher education yet it is poorly understood by students and is seen by politicians as a poor substitute for face to face teaching. This paper explores students' understandings, approaches and experiences of independent learning and how they may become more effective independent learners. This…

Reflection is an increasingly essential component of experience-based learning in higher education to encourage students to draw connections between theoretical and practical knowledge and experiences. This qualitative study examines the reflections of undergraduate students in a service-learning course for secondary English teacher candidates.…

This article reviews teaching intercultural competence in the classroom with a group of homogeneous Chinese university students. This is explored through teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing in a way that changes Chinese students' thinking. It involves a change of cultural perspectives by placing the concept of "the…

The focus of this article is on the experiences of staff members involved in a student support programme. The experiential, social, and student-centred approaches incorporated in this programme provided not only students, but also academics with pathways to lifelong learning. Functioning in a community of practice (CoP) (with students and also…

Reflective journal writing is acknowledged as a powerful method for promoting student learning in higher education contexts. Numerous scholars highlight the benefits of reflective writing and journaling for students and teachers in a wide range of teaching areas. There is however, little discussion of how reflective writing is used in teaching and…

Existing research identifies that students' approaches to assignments are related to their general approaches to study. It is suggested that students need to better understand the requirements of assignments and acquire new concepts such as "argument". This fine-grained study proposes four qualitatively distinct assignment pathways: gathering,…

Self-directed learning (SDL), is an essential concept in problem-based learning (PBL), and, in a broader sense, student-centred learning. Considering the complex nature of SDL, it has been taken for granted and given a shallow meaning, i.e. self-study. In order to develop a deeper understanding and make use of the potential in SDL, this paper…

A four-phase study identified factors in teaching excellence, compared the teaching strategies of university faculty across disciplines, and compared these with the learning processes of students in their first and third years. Results suggest excellent professors prefer a deep approach to teaching, incongruent with students' more common surface…