In the present study I examine meaning-making as an integral aspect of successful writing assignments in political science. Results of a semester-long quasi-experimental pilot study show that meaning-making writing tasks help students in Introduction to American Politics courses become more politically engaged through the inculcation of civic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the process evaluation of a pilot randomised control trial of an anti-smoking intervention for Malaysian 13-14-year olds, conducted in 2011/2012. It was hypothesised that trained peer supporters would promote non-smoking among classmates through informal conversations. Design/methodology/approach:…

Developing effective methods for improving student learning in higher education is a priority. Recent findings have shown that feedback on student work can effectively facilitate learning if students are engaged as active participants in the feedback cycle; where they seek, generate and use feedback in the form of dialogue. This novel study…

The purpose of this study was to determine the suitability of the DSAP Framework to guide instructional design and technology integration for teachers piloting a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiative and to measure the impact the initiative had on the amount and type of technology used in pilot classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative data were…

An exploratory applied study, using a set of attention and working memory strategies specifically developed for students and named Memory Mates, was completed with normally developing students attending a primary school. Students in one classroom received the intervention, while the other classroom functioned as a control group. The study was…

Recording the home languages of schoolchildren has long been acknowledged as a useful way of mapping community multilingualism. However, the need to process large quantities of data on many different languages has meant that in order to assess the vitality of community languages, researchers have had to rely on schoolchildren's self-reported…

Two major goals of teaching include educating students to communicate effectively and encouraging students to critically engage with information. To what extent can student blog writing help us achieve these goals? In this pilot study, I analyze how short "blog-style" writing assignments compare to more traditional short research essays…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that values-focused assessment can provide a useful lens for integrating sustainability and institutional performance assessment in universities. Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a values elicitation methodology for indicator development, through thematic analysis of…

This study focuses on interactive multimedia e-learning aims to improve our understanding about the dynamics of e-learning. The objective is to critical evaluate and better understand the interrelationships in the proposed framework between internal, external and the pedagogy dimensions in adoption of interactive multimedia and e-learning. It…

The study described in this article incorporates qualitative research through in-depth, individual, structured interviews with 12 biology faculty from two Midwestern universities to explore perceptions about how they have learned to teach and how they work to improve their skills.

Purpose: This paper aims to present the result of the pilot run of a research project which aims at evaluating the applicability of project-based action learning (PAL) to shop floor organizational learning (OL) component in a manufacturing company in Dongguan, China. How the PAL framework was introduced and implemented is described. The factors…

Based on the results of the Surrogate Decision-Making Self Efficacy Scale (Lopez, 2009a), this study sought to determine whether nurses working in the field of intellectual disability (ID) experience increased confidence when they implemented the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN) Seizure Algorithm during telephone triage. The…

Transitional periods, such as lesson starts, are necessary steps from one activity to another, but they also compete with time for actual learning. The aim of the present study was to replicate a previous pilot study on lesson starts and explore possible disturbances. In total, 130 lesson starts in Finnish basic education in grades 1-9 were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of development and the pilot implementation of a preventive life skills curriculum for Indigenous middle school students in a very remote community college in the West Arnhem region of North Australia. The curriculum integrates proven educational and psychological techniques with…

The Distance Clinical Connecting Candidates and Children (DC4) is an innovative new model for providing a clinical experience in a reading methods course. Pre-service teachers used this model to implement assessments and lessons via SKYPE with local elementary students. I designed this model to provide a clinical experience when faced with…