Predictors of student academic success do not always replicate well across different learning designs, subject areas, or educational institutions. This suggests that characteristics of a particular discipline and learning design have to be carefully considered when creating predictive models in order to scale up learning analytics. This study…

The digitalization of operations is disrupting frontline technical jobs, entailing new competency needs currently not being met by upper secondary education and corporate training programs. To discuss how technical universities can help bridge the resulting "middle-skills gap" without incurring an unwarranted academization of these…

This study examines whether tutors (N?=?15) in a problem-based learning curriculum were able to predict students' success in their first year and their entire bachelor programme. Tutors were asked to rate each student in their tutorial group in terms of the chance that this student would successfully finish their first year and the entire…

Though the notion of the "problem" is central to self-directed and research-like problem-oriented learning approaches in universities, few studies have focused on how students themselves conceptualize it. The purpose of this study is to investigate how university students communicatively frame "the problem-oriented problem" in…

In the Netherlands, university programs increasingly use the binding study advice (BSA) to select students after the first year. Students with insufficient progress after the first year and who therefore do not conform to pre-defined BSA norms have to quit their program. This study investigated whether the introduction of the BSA is associated…

Learning through inquiry is a widely advocated pedagogical approach. However, there is currently little systematic knowledge about the practice of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in higher education. This study examined descriptions of learning tasks that were put forward as examples of IBL by 224 university teachers from various disciplines in three…

A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural…

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between students' epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning. The results showed that the epistemological beliefs dimension "learning effort/process" was positively related to the constructivist conception of teaching and learning, and negatively related…

This article presents the findings of a study of the interrelationships between students' individual characteristics, self-efficacy beliefs, parental involvement, university and classroom learning environments; teachers' individual characteristics, teaching efficacies, university and classroom learning environments, teacher outcomes and approaches…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between student influence, students' strategic approaches to studying and academic achievement, and to examine differences between students in a Master's programme in Engineering with conventional teaching and one based on problem-based learning in a sample of 268 students. A version of…

Interdisciplinarity is widely practised and theorised. However, relatively few studies have reflected on university-wide attempts to foster the concept. This article examines interdisciplinary teaching and learning at Griffith University, Australia. It reflects on the foundations of interdisciplinarity at the university and situates them within…

This article presents a phenomenographic study that investigates students' approaches to achieving understanding. The results are based on interviews, addressing physiological phenomena, with 16 medical students in a problem-based curriculum. Four approaches--sifting, building, holding and moving--are outlined. The holding and moving approaches…

Previous research on students' learning strategies has examined the relationships between either perceptions of the learning environment or personality and learning strategies. The focus of this study was on the joint relationships between the students' perceptions of the learning environment, their personality, and the learning strategies they…

This study reports teacher and student experiences of problem-based learning (PBL) in three Asian countries. PBL was introduced to provide an education that would allow students to compete successfully in a changing world. Student and tutor experiences were positive and PBL was seen to work extremely well, despite the typical problems that…

This study investigated the impact of students' conceptions of constructivist learning activities on academic achievement and drop-out. Although constructivism represents an influential view of learning, studies investigating how students conceptualize this perspective have not been conducted before. A structural equation modelling approach was…