Teacher educators have the task of identifying skills most needed by pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to describe teacher concerns over different stages of teacher development. A three-part instrument consisting of a teacher concerns statement, a Likert-type scale of concerns and demographic data was…

The validity and reliability of three instruments, the "Counselor Rubric for Gauging Student Understanding of Academic Planning," micro-analytic questions, and the "Student Survey for Understanding Academic Planning," all based on social cognitive theory, were tested as means to assess self-efficacy and self-regulated learning in college academic…

This is the final paper in a five-paper series describing our national study of the teaching and learning of cosmology in general education astronomy college-level courses. A significant portion of this work was dedicated to the development of five new "Lecture-Tutorials" that focus on addressing the conceptual and reasoning difficulties that our…

Exploring student and teacher perspectives on approaches to learning and teaching reveals interesting insights and new understandings for practice by involving the two key groups of participants in the learning and teaching story. Do students understand and experience learning and teaching similarly or differently from the way teachers intend them…

All undergraduate students are required by state law to take six credited hours in political science. This study will help us identify if differences exist in self-determination among students enrolled in American Public Policy and American Government at a large, Southwestern public university. Because some types of motivation are associated with…

The study explored the relationship between types of spatial experiences and spatial abilities among 13- to 14-year-old high academic achievers. Each participant completed two spatial tasks and a survey assessing favored spatial activities across five categories (computers, toys, sports, music, and art) and three developmental periods (early…

The future of Russian agriculture and rural community depends on the willingness of skilled workers to accept conditions of village life and the demands of agricultural work. Surveys of potential rural specialists indicate that they are concerned about the lack of up-to-date technologies, the difficult working conditions and low prestige of…

Learning approaches, learning methods and learning environments have different effects on students? academic performance. However, they are not the sole factors that impact students? academic achievement. The aims of this research are three-fold: to determine the learning approaches preferred by most students and the impact of the learning…

Describes a two-part study of the research needs of graduate students at Georgetown University. The first part, conducted in May 2010, consisted of an online survey about students' research practices and opinions about the library. The second part, conducted in May 2011, consisted of focus groups with particular subsets of graduate students. The…

This article reports on an exploratory study that examines how social networks can be used in foreign language teaching and learning. Qualitative data including interviews, online observations, and students' responses to open-ended survey questions was collected. The data suggests that there are both advantages and challenges associated with using…

This study uses survey and focus group methods to explore attitudes toward and experiences of nature among millennial-aged students in northern Colorado. First, results confirm that young people possess a strong interest in the outdoors yet time, transportation, and new technologies hamper their ability to visit public lands and outdoor spaces.…

A mixed methods project was devoted to understanding college students' justification for digital piracy. The project consisted of two studies, a qualitative one and a quantitative one. Qualitative interviews were conducted to identify main themes in students' justification for digital piracy, and then the findings were tested in a quantitative…

There are numerous issues surrounding the provision of assessment-related feedback in Higher Education, which in recent years have been highlighted in the National Student Survey. In this paper questionnaire data from staff and students at the University of Reading are used to confirm the main issues encountered with feedback, namely problems of…

Approximately five years ago, the library at Emporia State University started a laptop lending service to provide laptops for use in the library. The program has been highly successful. In the last few years, some modifications were made to the program, and netbooks were added. In this article, the authors will explore laptop programs in a variety…

Psychological capital (PsyCap) consisting of the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resiliency, and optimism has been empirically demonstrated in the published literature to be related to manager and employee positive organizational outcomes and to be open to development. However, to date, little attention has been devoted to the impact of…