In a previous publication we examined the connections between high-school computer science (CS) and computing higher education. The results were promising -- students who were exposed to computing in high school were more likely to take one of the computing disciplines. However, these correlations were not necessarily causal. Possibly those…

This study investigated what features undergraduate EFL learners perceive as affecting the difficulty of model paragraphs. Four hundred and seventy-five Vietnamese undergraduates participated in a partial least squares structural equation model design. They ranked five paragraphs from easiest to most difficult and responded to a 10-point Likert…

Prior programming knowledge of students has a major impact on introductory programming courses. Those with prior experience often seem to breeze through the course. Those without prior experience see others breeze through the course and disengage from the material or drop out. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that novice student…

Students experience many difficulties learning the fundamental relationships in Newtonian mechanics, partly due to preexisting mental models that originate from their everyday lives. These preconceptions often persist even after instruction in mechanics and lead to a supposed incompatibility between physics lessons in school and personal…

This study explores the effect of self-regulated learning support on learners' cognitive load and problem-solving performance, considering cases from well-structured to ill-structured tasks in a computer programing course. Sixty-seven undergraduate students in a computer programing fundamentals course were randomly assigned into one of two groups:…

An opportunity exists to attract students from historically underrepresented communities into the geosciences, the least diverse of the STEM fields. Home to a diverse population, Riverside County in Southern California supports several community colleges with thriving geoscience programs where students can take a range of geology courses in…

A growing number of studies have stressed the significance of foreign language anxiety in foreign language learning. However, these studies have generally demonstrated foreign language anxiety to be associated with foreign language achievement not with 21st century skills particularly decision-making strategies. Based on this, this study aims to…

This study investigated the foreign language anxiety (FLA) construct of U.S. college learners of Chinese as a foreign language (N = 149) and examined whether the following factors, "gender," "language class level," and "whether foreign language(s) were learned prior to learning Chinese," had significant influences on…

Limited research exists that examines factors influencing student affairs professionals' attainment of the professional competencies that are expected of them. The study described in this article analyzed student affairs professionals' survey responses to determine which demographics, pre-professional experiences, and educational experiences…

The focus of this study is on Open University students' entry-level critical thinking skills. The research questions were: how are students' age, and level and discipline of previous education related to critical thinking skills; is the level and discipline of previous education connected to the accuracy of students' self-evaluation of their…

Nowadays, mobile learning (m-learning) presents new and powerful opportunities for effective teaching and learning. Two significant factors that serve in understanding if students accept m-learning technology are self-efficacy and attitudes towards m-learning usage. For this purpose, the present study investigated vocational college students'…

Data driven pedagogy has been introduced into Australian schools over the last decade to improve student learning outcomes, but are teacher educators preparing preservice teachers to be data literate? We used a survey to investigate ready-to-graduate preservice teachers' beliefs regarding their knowledge and skills in data literacy. Before…

Game-based learning has been a strong emerging trend in the 21st century, but several research studies on game-based learning reports that the educational potential of games has not been fully realised. Many educational games do not combine learning outcomes with entertaining gameplay. At the same time as there is a tendency to digitise and…

Disciplines such as Geography are well placed to respond to the changing needs of society and the effective application of geographical knowledge to real-world problems. This project surveyed first year Geography undergraduates' understanding of "What is Geography?", both before and after an exercise in which geographic topics were…

Prompted by the poor state of mathematics education in South Africa and the shortage of competent mathematics teachers, this study sought to identify what factors influenced 40 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students at three universities in the Western Cape Province, with Mathematics as a major subject, to choose teaching as a…