A 19-question online survey was administered to all 115 directors of Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLIs) across the United States to explore the extent to which research is being conducted and for what purposes. A response rate of 87% was attained. Findings revealed that most research focused on issues such as course and instructor…

Effective dissemination is crucial if innovation and development in teaching and learning in higher education are to lead to sustainable changes in practice. In 2003, King used an agricultural metaphor to challenge innovators to understand the purposes behind their dissemination aims. Similar to the way that seed can be spread, one could choose to…

In this article, we compare two recent university reform projects: the Korean Brain Korea 21 project and the German Universities Excellence Initiative. We describe and compare both projects' goals, selection processes, and preliminary outcomes. While the Korean project is characterized by a relatively high level of political intervention and can…

Many biology educators at the undergraduate level are revamping their laboratory curricula to incorporate inquiry-based research experiences so that students can directly participate in the process of science and improve their scientific reasoning skills. Slugs are an ideal organism for use in such a student-directed, hypothesis-driven experience.…

In the early 1990s, in an effort to enhance their majors' ability to communicate mathematical ideas, the Mathematics Department at Bellarmine University added a capstone course, "Readings in Mathematics," to the curriculum of each degree program in the department. We provide an overview of the course, noting its unique aspects, with…

This article focuses on the degree to which students in further education (FE) colleges in England personally engage with global learning during specific initiatives to incorporate global learning in the curriculum, drawing on findings from the 'Global Learning for Global Colleges' (2009-12) research and development project, funded by the UK…

With the increasing complexity of technology and large quantities of data in our digital age, learning and training has become a major cost of employers. Employee competence depends more and more on how quickly one can acquire new knowledge and solve problems to meet pressing deadlines. This paper presents a practical method to use REU (Research…

Expansion of higher education has been perceived as the major tool through which China can raise its international competitiveness. To raise educational quality, the Ministry of Education initiated a new employment reform and a Teaching Quality Assessment for Undergraduate Programs. In this research, we employed a qualitative method to investigate…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is one of the world's leading educational research centres. ACER's mission is to create and promote research-based knowledge, products and services that can be used to improve learning across the life span. This annual report describes ACER's milestones and accomplishments for the 2015-2016…

Lesson Study is rapidly becoming one of the most adopted models of teacher professional development worldwide. In this paper, we examine the teachers' discussions that are an integral part of the Lesson Study research cycle. In particular, we investigate the "dialogic mechanisms" that enable teachers' pedagogical intentions to be…

This article explores the degree to which student collaborations on research and writing assignments can effectively realize learning outcomes. The assignment, in this case, encouraged students to contribute discrete parts of a research project in order to develop their complementary abilities: researching, consulting, drafting, and revising. The…

Although the importance of undergraduate research experiences in preparing students for graduate study and research careers is well documented, specific examination of program components is needed to assess the impact of these programs on underrepresented (UR) students. The Leadership Alliance, a consortium of leading PhD-granting and…

The purpose of this compendium is to catalog NCER's and NCSER's contributions to social-behavioral research. Research undertaken as part of these projects is contributing to a knowledge base that ultimately aims to improve academic outcomes for students via improvements in students' social-behavioral competencies, teachers' practices, and the…

This compendium organizes information on the math and science projects sponsored by NCER and NCSER into two main sections: Mathematics and Science. Within each section, projects are sorted into chapters based on content area, grade level, and intended outcome. In determining the chapters, we considered the emerging college- and career-readiness…

Current approaches to improving diversity in scientific research focus on graduating more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, but graduation with a STEM undergraduate degree alone is not sufficient for entry into graduate school. Undergraduate independent research experiences are becoming more or less a prerequisite…