Birmingham City University's Library and Learning Resources' strategic aim is to improve student satisfaction. A key element is the achievement of the Customer Excellence Standard. An important component of the standard is the mapping of services to improve quality. Library and Learning Resources has developed a methodology to map these…

This study examined the use and perceived effectiveness of standards published by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education in student affairs units at a community college in the Southwest. The available literature mainly addresses use of the CAS standards at four-year rather than two-year colleges. The study investigated…

This qualitative study of understandings of critical thinking in higher education aimed to identify themes that could help to demystify critical thinking and inform its more explicit incorporation in the psychology curriculum. Data collected from focus groups with 26 undergraduate psychology students and individual semistructured interviews with 4…

This paper explores how students' talk in classrooms is influenced by a whole-school focus on lifting the quality, and the substantive nature, of classroom dialogue as an approach to improve student engagement, and to develop listening and speaking skills. Specifically, we show how designing and participating in whole-school professional learning…

In the March-April 2013 issue of "Change," Patti McGill Peterson and Robin Matross Helms described the disheartening status of internationalization on American college campuses. Despite internationalization being touted as a strategic goal in higher education, over the past 15 years little has changed at most colleges. Student learning…

This exploratory study presents a different approach to studying transition by involving students as researchers. The aim was to investigate how students talked about their experiences of transition in university. Nineteen first and second year undergraduate psychology students participated in focus groups and semi-structured interviews, conducted…

As part of a multi-state study on health message development, a group of family researchers, Extension faculty, and a learning technologist used audience-response systems, or "clickers," to display and record focus group participants' responses to questions. This article describes how the authors used clicker technology in focus group…

As the shortage of special education teachers has led to increasing numbers of teacher candidates enrolled in alternative certification programs, there is a need to provide systematic mentoring and coaching. The relationship between support providers and novice teachers enrolled in an alternative certification program in a diverse, urban…

Background: Coaching holistically and viewing coaching as interdisciplinary, where different knowledges meet, interconnect and dissect, has increasingly gained recognition. In an effort to engage more effectively with this agenda and to educate coaches to meet the integrated, fluid nature of their work, Jones and Turner advocated a problem-based…

This study investigates the sources of mentors' knowledge about teaching. A mixed-method research design combining quantitative and qualitative data collection methods was used to examine this area. The findings of the study suggest that: mentors' knowledge about teaching is practice orientated and emerges from their professional experiences,…

A sandtray group experience is a creative intervention that counselors may want to incorporate into their work with adolescents. This qualitative inquiry explored the experiences of adolescent females who participated in a sandtray group while attending an alternative school. The researchers identified five themes that emerged from the data: (a)…

University environments are fertile grounds for risky sexual behaviors. This study investigated students' risky sexual practices at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 1,405 questionnaires were administered, and 80 in-depth interviews and four focus…

This work has its origins with research into the effects of pedagogy on student engagement and learning outcomes. It summarises the development of self-report and observation instruments for measuring student engagement suitable for early years to senior secondary. The measures are sensitive to the context and experience of learning rather than,…

In England, the overwhelming majority (78%) of under fives' nursery places, remains in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector where there is no requirement to employ a qualified teacher. Compared to the maintained state sector early years workforce, this dominant PVI sector tends to be staffed by a poorly qualified workforce. From…

The importance of parent involvement in Parents who monitor their student's schoolwork and daily activities, communicate frequently with teachers and help develop schools and its relationship to student achievement have been widely studied. Nevertheless, many principals and teachers report that lack of parent involvement continues to be an…