At most institutions, annual fund-giving is down. Crowdfunding sites allow people with a great idea or worthy cause to bypass traditional funding methods and take their case directly to web-savvy investors and donors. This article describes how higher education institutions are expanding their donor pool through such crowdfunding sites as USEED,…

Peers have a paradoxical influence on each other's educational decisions. On one hand, students are prone to conform to each other's ambitious educational decisions and, on the other hand, are discouraged from ambitious decisions when surrounded by successful peers. In this study I examine how peers influence each other's decision to apply to an…

Friendship and peer groups are important to youth. However, adults in afterschool programs and other youth-serving community-based organizations often either ignore peer relationships or deem them detrimental to desired youth outcomes. What would it mean to consider young people's friendships in a different light? How can this important element of…

Acquiring English in Puerto Rico involves the perceived advantages of bilingualism in contact with socio-political and economic forces that encourage and constrain the development of a population that is bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English. Using a mixed design we report the perspectives of 86 experienced English teachers on the…

This study investigated the psychosocial adjustment and anxiety of adolescents during a 7-month exercise intervention programme. In addition, extensive research on the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents during intense physical activity was performed. The experimental group included adolescent girls (n = 110) and boys (n = 107) aged between 14…

This study investigated friend influence over mathematics achievement in 202 same-sex friendship dyads (106 girl dyads). Participants were in the third grade (around age 9) at the outset. Each friend completed a questionnaire describing interest in mathematics and a standardized mathematical reasoning assessment. Peer nominations provided a…

Student-run Facebook groups offer librarians a new means of interacting with students in their native digital domain. Facebook groups, a service launched in 2010 enables university students to create a virtual forum to discuss their concerns, issues, and promote events. While still a relatively new feature, these groups are increasingly being…

Purpose: Self-efficacy and outcome expectations influence the development of career interests, which, in turn, affect career choices. This study aims to understand self-efficacy beliefs and expectancy outcomes for African-American graduate students and faculty with a focus in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs,…

The pressures inherent in trying to be perfect can undermine learning and exacerbate anxiety in certain students. In the current article, we review existing research and theory on the role of perfectionism in language learning anxiety and performance deficits. Our analysis highlights the complexities inherent in the perfectionism construct,…

Measuring the quality of the "product" is elemental in education, and most studies depend on observational data about student achievement factors, focusing overwhelmingly on quantitative data namely achievement scores, school data like attendance, facilities, expenditure class size, etc. But there is little evidence of learner…

Background: This paper reports part of the findings of a study which exposed sexual violence in schools for learners with mild intellectual disability in South Africa. Special attention was paid on factors contributing to such a problem. Methods: Data were collected using focus groups and individual interviews with 16 learners with mild…

This investigation was done to explore the effectiveness of "Ask, write, throw" (AWT) technique in improving the writing skills of B2 level learners of Turkish as a foreign language compared to traditional teaching technique. To this end, 35 learners at similar levels were recruited. There were 18 learners in the AWT (experimental) group…

Language teachers devote a lot of time and energy to provide corrective feedback (CF) to help student writers improve the accuracy of their writing. However, regardless of the CF approach adopted, similar types of errors usually appear in students' new pieces of writing. Thus, most teachers have some doubt about the impact of CF, and some see it…

The future of Christian higher education is not certain, and faith-based institutions will need to continue to convince prospective students that the experiences they offer are worth the investment. What is missing in the discussion of what makes Christian higher education special is the transformational experience provided outside of the…

Self-regulated learning (SRL) plays a key role in student's academic achievement. This study used a social cognitive lens and qualitative methods to discover and describe the SRL of a group of eight students during their first semester in college. Each participant was interviewed four times at strategic points between August and December 2012. In…