This article reports on research into the experience of professional doctoral students and is written by the students themselves. We, the authors, are currently studying for the Doctorate in Education at the University of Manchester, UK. We place our work in the context of recent empirical research into the development of doctoral student…

Higher education is challenged to produce innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary knowledge in response to increasing social demands. Faculty are often ill-prepared to engage in such work, raising questions as to the balance between disciplinary identity and interdisciplinary engagement. This article examines the experiences of 40 students…

Over the last two decades, many Australian universities have relaxed their selection requirements for mathematics-dependent degrees, shifting from hard prerequisites to assumed knowledge standards which provide students with an indication of the prior learning that is expected. This has been regarded by some as a positive move, since students who…

Directive communication is a key leadership practise in schools. However, very little direct attention has been given to this important feature of the school communication system. The purpose of the research reported here was to produce a richer description of directive communication in the context of Australian primary schools, and in so doing,…

Higher education is an increasingly competitive global market. Consequently, it is crucial that universities fully understand students' motivations in university selection. While past research mainly focused on university-level attributes, this study extends the factors used to evaluate different international universities to include both the…

Stories have been one means by which qualitative researchers have attempted to engage participants and construct, analyze and present data or findings in a meaningful way. In this article, I look at the impetus for, and potentials of crafting and sharing researcher-written "factional stories" with research participants as a…

This paper evaluated how academics, at a mid-sized UK university, used their iPads for teaching. The data were gathered using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Eighty-four academics completed a survey while 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Eleven interviewees reported that they used their iPads for teaching purposes and the…

This article explores sense-making in a municipality-led temporary organization established in response to the introduction of a new curriculum and marking system in Sweden. Qualitative data were extracted from audio-recorded interviews (n = 18) and observations of central subject group meetings (n = 6). By applying core elements of sociological…

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for analysis from which to interpret the transformations that take place, as perceived by the participants, when commercial video games are used in the classroom. We will show how Activity Theory (AT) is able to explain and interpret these changes. Method: Case studies are…

Few youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) nationally report receiving services to help them transition from the pediatric health care system to the adult health care system. For example, only one-fifth (21.1%) of youth with ASD receive any transition planning services. To better understand why the transition from pediatric to adult health care…

The deployment of a family member can be very distressing for military children, but it also can supply opportunities for growth. This study addresses calls for research on the changes, challenges, and opportunities facing youth during a family member's tour of duty. It uses the relational turbulence model to frame research questions about how…

This article presents a case study of four academic scientists. These academics teach in the first year of a Bachelor of Science degree at a large research-focused Australian university that has demanded and supported a greater focus on undergraduate learning. Taken as a whole, the accounts of science that the first-year academics in this case…

In this article, we analyse the problem-solving-related beliefs, competence and classroom practice of three Cypriot upper-primary teachers. Data derived from semi-structured interviews focused on teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematical problems, problem-solving, and their competence as both problem-solvers and teachers of…

Numerous theories of development position infants as inherently driven to make sense of the world around them, and the acquisition of language is a fundamental developmental milestone of this period. The purpose of this study was to document the first year of implementation of a Spanish/English dual language program in an infant classroom, using a…

Teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is seen as a priority for science education in many national contexts. The present paper focuses on one central issue in learning about NOS: understanding the nature and status of scientific theories. A key challenge in teaching about NOS is to persuade students that scientific knowledge is generally…