Academic self-concept predicts students' future goals and is affected by a student's relative success compared with his or her peer group. This exploratory study used structural equation modeling to examine the contributions of the perceived level of difficulty of the curriculum, in addition to the contributions of social comparison and…

This exploratory study examines the impact of a collaborative inquiry- and design-based afterschool program on urban high school students' IT/STEM learning--using information technology (IT) within the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The study used a mixed methods design, involving 77 participants within…

Practical work has a long history in science education in the UK. This article explores how the influences of curriculum and assessment policy have shaped practical work over recent years. We argue that, together with changes in teacher training programmes, these influences have weakened science teachers' capacity to meet the challenge of calls…

Evaluating the quality of inquiry using technology in blended contexts at university is a complex phenomenon as there are many variables which could account for qualitative variation in the experience. This study looks at reasons for qualitative variation in the university student experience of inquiry using technologies. It considers approaches…

Online courses provide students flexible access to class at anytime and anywhere. Most online courses currently rely on computer-based delivery. However, computers still burden instructors and students with limited mobility and flexibility. To provide more convenient access to online courses, smartphones have been increasingly adopted as a mobile…

In Canada, there is a dearth of research on school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) students. Using social networking, 60 students from high schools in Saskatchewan participated in a climate survey. Results indicated that anti-LGBQ speech was widespread, as were other forms of harassment. The more victimization that was…

An online guidance and counselling services was established at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in December, 2010. This study was designed to examine the undergraduates' disposition to the online counselling services after 24 months. It also investigated the prevalent disposition, dispositional types and distribution of students across the…

Teacher preparation programs face great challenges in ensuring their graduates are prepared for the demands of today's classrooms. The authors explore how teacher accountability has evolved based upon federal legislation leading to adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Recognizing that future teachers will be held accountable for…

This paper presents an evaluation study of an innovative and theory-based initial teacher education course entitled Learning Study, the aim of which is to develop the instructional design and teaching competency of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. The Learning Study course is offered to all second year students as part of the Bachelor of…

This article evaluates the effect of a community project that was adopted by the students of a school of social work in Israel. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used. The pretest was administered during the planning stage of the project and the posttest a year later, during the implementation period. The findings show a significant…

This study explored the impact of Web-Based Learning Tools (WBLTs), also known as learning objects, in secondary school mathematics and science classrooms. Surveys, open-ended questions, and student performance data were collected from a sample of 8 teachers and 333 students. Teachers rated the learning benefits, quality, and engagement value of…

The challenge of teaching programming in higher education is complicated by problems associated with large class teaching, a prevalent situation in many developing countries. This paper reports on an investigation into the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning of programming in a class of more than 200 students. A course and…

An extended body of research has documented the outmigration of the "best and brightest" youth from rural areas. Some of this scholarship has suggested that rural schools and educators may be complicit in this process as they devote extra attention and resources to the highest achieving students--those most likely to leave their rural…

There are no universal, precise, or explicit criteria for completing a doctoral degree successfully. Researchers and practitioners have pointed out how difficult and time consuming the supervision of graduate student research can be. When students in doctoral programs complete their degrees via distance delivery, supervision of graduate students…

Colleges and universities are being pressed to seek innovative ways to measure student learning outcomes and identify the conditions that lead to their development. Understanding how students group according to a multidimensional set of learning outcomes provides information on the extent to which institutions are meeting goals. This study…