This paper reports a quantitative study about university students' conceptual understanding of simple DC-circuits when entering firstyear physics at a South African university. The aim was to investigate how conceptual understanding relates to the students' personal and school background. The conceptual framework was based on an existing model of…

During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, edX launched an initiative, called the Remote Access Program, to give access to free certificates for its Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to the communities of its partners. This paper describes the experience of a Higher Education (HE) institution in Europe participating in this initiative as a strategic…

Contract cheating, or students outsourcing their assignments to be completed by others, has emerged as a significant threat to academic integrity in higher education institutions around the world. During the COVID-19, when traditional face-to-face instruction became unsustainable, the number of contract cheating students increased dramatically.…

Black women have disproportionate rates of HIV compared to women of all other racial groups. The purpose of this analysis was to investigate perceived HIV risk, HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing behaviors, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) knowledge and attitudes among Black sexual minority women (SMW) and examine differences…

The purpose of this literature review is to identify patterns and discuss key perspectives from empirical studies published during the last decade that explore how young children (birth to six years old) and teachers together engage with digital technologies in early childhood education and care institutions. An inductive thematic analysis results…

The goal of the current study was to investigate the effects of an immersive virtual reality (IVR) science simulation on learning in a higher educational setting, and to assess whether using self-explanation has benefits for knowledge gain. A sample of 79 undergraduate biology students (40 females, 37 males, 2 non-binary) learned about…

Background: Literature shows a litany of health issues disproportionately impacting Black Americans, with physical inactivity as a major risk factor. Purpose: This study seeks to understand the role of smartwatches in physical activity uptake and subsequent improvement in health outcomes for students at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges &…

Understanding college-level sex education can help campus stakeholders understand student knowledge, inform policies, and influences on culture. Although there is a large amount of research on sexual health programming, little is known about the types of sex education curriculum on college campuses. This systematic literature review evaluates the…

The ability to apply various reading skills is an important prerequisite to comprehend expository texts commonly found in history textbooks, but it is unclear which specific skills contribute to students' historical content knowledge and historical reasoning abilities. This study used a digital learning environment (DLE) to measure and support…

This article uses Cultural Theory (CT) to complement the Knowledge Deficit Model (KDM) in explaining the environmental concern of Chinese youth. We use a large-scale nationwide sample and adopt multiple multi-level models. We find that the effect of knowledge varies with measurements of knowledge and environmental concern. Youth whose cultural…

Many researchers have stressed the embodied nature of mathematical understanding. Here we explore how embodied knowledge may evolve as students learn a basic calculus concept: the rate of change. We examined undergraduate students with different levels of calculus knowledge working in pairs to model the rate of change in an everyday phenomenon.…

This project revealed the positive impact of the "SSS for SEL Success" program (SSS-SEL) on students' academics and perceived social/emotional adeptness. SSS-SEL, a new iteration of the "Student Success Skills" (SSS) program, teaches critical social/emotional concepts and strategies and was modified in this study to be…

Researchers have found that teachers do not always understand how to educate students with dyslexia. The research problem addressed in this study was this gap in knowledge leading to a gap in practice regarding teaching students with dyslexia. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine how and if third-grade general education…

Teachers are increasingly sought after to support students that are experiencing mental health concerns. Some of the most common mental health concerns include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention [CDC], 2020a). In the United States, these mental health diagnoses have…

Civic and political engagement is woven into the fabric of higher education and many higher education institutions have intentionally incorporated this in their mission statements. Civic engagement often refers to passive activities like community service, partnership, and reciprocity with others in society while political engagement refers to…