Everyone loves new books. However, it is easy to forget that we need to examine books historically as well. This article discusses the contributions made by various authors before they were the recipients of awards and honors. Additionally, the authors point out some important "firsts" in the industry as well as resources for locating…

Qualitative and multimethod scholars face a wide and often confusing array of alternatives for case selection using the results of a prior regression analysis. Methodologists have recommended alternatives including selection of typical cases, deviant cases, extreme cases on the independent variable, extreme cases on the dependent variable,…

Case studies appear prominently in political science, sociology, and other social science fields. A scholar employing a case study research design in an effort to estimate causal effects must confront the question, how should cases be selected for analysis? This question is important because the results derived from a case study research program…

Young athletes are bombarded with images and messages in the media about what sport is supposed to represent. In addition to coping with the potentially negative influences of the media, coaches also face having to address the variable influences of their athletes' peers and parents. This article presents a rationale and a relatively simple method…

This article sets out to determine the association between the reasons why university students in Tanzania select their fields of study and intention to join their respective professions upon completion of their studies. A mixed methods research approach was adopted to study a random sample of 1043 undergraduate students (Male=61%, Female=39%)…

Language functions are often used as fundamental guiding principles in ESL (English as a Second Language) textbooks especially now that focus on meaning has become crucial to ESL teaching and learning. This paper identifies general and specific language functions used in five beginner ESL textbooks to provide baseline data that will guide…

Given the importance of education and the growing public demand for improving education quality under tight budget constraints, there has been an emerging movement to call for research-informed decisions in educational resource allocation. Despite the abundance of rigorous studies on the effectiveness, cost, and implementation of educational…

Studies examining feedback in educational settings have largely focused on feedback that is received, rather than chosen, by students. This study investigates whether adult participants learn more from choosing rather than receiving feedback from virtual characters in a digital poster design task. We employed a yoked study design and two versions…

One of the main problems faced by university students is to create and manage the semester course plan. In this paper, we present a course enrollment recommender system based on data mining techniques. The system mainly helps with students' enrollment decisions. More specifically, it provides recommendation of selective and optional courses with…

This paper is prompted by the author's experience as a researcher of English literary education in three different geographies over the past three years: Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Affect theory, as discussed in this paper, concerns atmospheres, surfaces, bodies, emotions, moods, vicinities and capacities. Drawing on affect theory,…

As the nature of Extensive Reading (ER) emphasizes the reading activity, most ER follow up activities are developed to support the act of reading. This might neglect the fact that reading can also be a stimulus for creative and imaginative writing. Although ER has a potential role to develop students' L2 writing, not many have explored it. This…

Purpose: Higher education institutions play an important role in the economic growth of any country, through skills and productivity of their graduates. Employers have some expectations about the skills the graduates possess when they graduate out of universities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the skills employers look for in graduates…

There are international calls to enhance learner engagement in STEM. Further, there are international concerns about the gender disparity in interest, aspiration, and participation in STEM. These calls recognise the role that learners' motivation in, and emotional response to, STEM plays in their participation and achievement in STEM education.…

We explore the effects of a statewide policy change that increased the number of high school math courses required for admission to four-year public universities in North Carolina. Using data on cohorts of eighth-grade students from 1999 to 2006, we exploit variation by district over time in the math course-taking environment encountered by…

Reading motivation declines across elementary school. Although a substantive body of empirical work exists specific to the reading motivation of older children, researchers have paid less attention to younger readers. Given that children's perceptions of school experiences shape motivation, and motivation impacts achievement, it is imperative that…