In undergraduate science education, laboratory courses stand as essential cornerstones of experiential learning. Chemistry laboratory courses offer students unique hands-on experiences that bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. The journey through the undergraduate chemistry curriculum is paved with a series of…

Peer assessment has become a primary solution to the challenge of evaluating a large number of students in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In peer assessment, all students need to evaluate a subset of other students' assignments, and then these peer grades are aggregated to predict a final score for each student. Unfortunately, due to the…

Research on flexible assessment suggests that providing students with choice in assignments can increase motivation and deepen investment in learning. Although instructors are often advised to adopt flexible assessment, they are also warned about potential detriments such as perceived lack of rigour among colleagues, the stress that…

Pedagogical foundations exist for incorporating technology in instruction; however, these foundations have not kept pace with technology's evolution. Through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), students now can share content directed at external audiences, i.e., audiences other than the instructor. These audiences are…

In this conceptual paper, borne from the experiences of two academic literacy lecturers at the NWU, we ask, regarding elements of assessment, how we can sensibly adapt an intervention-style writing course in a post-COVID higher education context. We propose a course correction model, applicable to academic literacy writing courses, to address the…

We conducted a survey of about ten different pedagogical tools with students of seven different small undergraduate business classes with average class size of 27 students. We propose that the higher the students' agreement with specific pedagogical methods the higher their motivation as well as their learning outcomes. A statistical significance…

In this think piece, the author explores a conundrum and tension related to using rubrics to evaluate doctoral work. She ponders whether the use of rubrics provides beneficial ways for students to "crack the code" of academia, and/or whether the use of rubrics is perhaps a tool to engender conformity. With these competing ideas in mind,…

Group work, where students work on projects to overcome challenges together, has numerous advantages, including learning of important transferable skills, better learning experience and increased motivation. However, in many academic systems the advantages of group projects clash with the need to assign individualised marks to students. A number…

A perennial problem for teachers of political thought is to decide what thinkers to include in the required course readings. In many cases, teachers have come to rely on an established Western canon as they seek to build a shared disciplinary identity, impart key theoretical insights and provide common points of reference. Increasingly, however,…

In the context of rapid technological changes and modernization of society, the issue of ensuring adequacy of content in secondary education based on the use of advanced information technologies (ICT) is being updated. The necessity of an appropriate level of primary intellectual activity development in a person in terms of the current trends in…

This piece reports on an early attempt at gamification (reframing post-secondary classrooms drawing on the structure of games). The attempt began in the 2011-2012 academic year and is structured to allow students substantial autonomy in determining which assignments, and how many of them, to complete over the course of the semester. Initial…

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief literature review and useful suggestions for using advertisements as tools for organizing and accomplishing science teaching and learning. Newspapers and advertisements can be used as a context for developing scientific literacy and for promoting the development of critical thinking skills, through…

This paper is a sequel to an earlier one that examines "the efficacy of two innovative peer-assessment templates ("PET" and "PACT") introduced to enable students provide evidence of their fairness in evaluating peer contributions to group project work" (Onyia, O. P. and Allen, S., 2012). In the present paper, three…

This article details the principles and practices animating an "ethnographic" method of teaching social theory. As opposed to the traditional "survey" approach that aims to introduce students to the historical breadth of social thought, the primary objective of teaching ethnographically is to cultivate students as participant…

The role of assessment is constantly evolving and systematically scrutinised within the realm of higher education. It is often argued that students learn faster and more effectively when they have a clear sense of how they are doing and how they can improve through the use of consistent and timely feedback. This paper presents research with a…