Students' failure is one of the most debatable topics in tertiary education in Malaysia. Failure in certain courses might delay students' progress to graduate-on-time (GOT). This will result in increased cost, time and resources to both the university and student. From an academic perspective, a higher rate of failure will give a negative…

Internships in science research settings have received increasing attention as a means of helping students construct appropriate understandings, practices, tools, and language in scientific activities. To advance student-scientist partnerships beyond the status quo, the study aimed to investigate how cogenerative dialogs (cogens) may help high…

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning…

The increasing prevalence of online courses mandates an examination of the similarities--and differences--in the faculty training and development needs of those teaching online. With institutions facing increasingly limited resources, there is a need to prioritize faculty development initiatives that will encourage faculty participation. An…

Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) is an instructional method reported to increase student learning in STEM courses. As mathematics is a significant hurdle for many freshmen engineering students, a PLTL program was implemented for students to attempt to improve their course performance. Here, an analysis of PLTL for freshmen engineering students in…

Two sections of an introductory microbiology course were taught by one instructor. One was taught through a hybrid format and the other through a traditional format. Students were randomly assigned to the two sections. Both sections were provided with identical lecture materials, in-class worksheets, in-class assessments, and extra credit…

This article reports on an action-research project designed to investigate the effect of a technological intervention on the complex interactions between student engagement, participation, attendance and preparation in a large lecture delivered as part of a compulsory first-year law course, a discipline which has not been the focus of any previous…

This instructional paper is intended to provide an alternative approach to developing lecture materials, including handouts and PowerPoint slides, successfully developed over several years. The principal objective is to aid in the bridging of traditional "chalk and talk" lecture approaches with more active learning techniques, especially in more…

A traditional physical science course was transformed into an environmental physical science course to teach physics to non-science majors. The objective of the new course was to improve the learning of basic physics principles by applying them to current issues of interest. A new curriculum was developed with new labs, homework assignments,…

Grade related contingencies such as tests resulted in high student attendance in class, but frequent quizzing resulted in lower attendance at nontest sessions. (Editor)

Factors that may affect a medical student's decision to attend basic science lectures were investigated. Basic science faculty members and administrators' views on student lecture attendance were elicited to construct a questionnaire. A total of 103 first-year and 75 second-year medical students attending a Puerto Rican medical school responded to…

Gender differences have attracted attention in today's educational research and practice. Very few studies, however, explore the gender differences in the use of technology in higher education. The authors conducted a study on technology adoption at a large Canadian university. One of its purposes was to inform our understanding of how gender…

This exploratory case study investigates relationships between use of an inquiry-based instructional style and student scores on standardized multiple-choice tests. The study takes the form of a case study of physical science classes taught by one of the authors over a span of four school years. The first 2 years were taught using traditional…

As a consequence of the Civil Rights Movement and related social movements, the past 30 years have witnessed an unprecedented rise in higher education enrollments among ethnic minority groups, women, and low-income students, as well as increases in the financial aid available to these groups. However, certain ethnic minority populations, such as…

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 is the most recent in a very ambitious series of international assessments conducted in nearly 50 countries to measure trends in mathematics and science learning. The aim of TIMSS, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, is to improve the teaching and…