This report describes the self-reported attitudes and motivations of first-year students nationally at the beginning of the undergraduate experience, based on a 100-item motivational assessment administered in the summer and fall of 2009. In particular, the report examines attitudes that may have posed barriers and opportunities for students as…

This paper reports on an empirical research on the Interaction Equivalency Theorem posited by Anderson (2003a), consisting of the three elements of teacher-student-content interaction. Using an author-developed survey, the paper reports the priority order of interaction elements to assure learning quality with two parameters of learning modes and…

This paper reports the findings of a study on pre-service teachers' background and confidence in music and visual arts education. The study involved 939 non-specialist pre-service primary teachers from five countries. Initially the paper identifies the students' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to music and visual arts…

This study focuses on the effects of situated learning on students' knowledge acquisition by investigating the influence of individual differences in such learning. Seventy-nine graduates were recruited from an educational department and were assigned to situated learning and traditional learning based on a randomized block design. Results…

Teachers are developing an increasingly active role in the education of students in areas of sensitivity, including issues such as sexuality, mental health, grief and loss and child protection. There is a growing expectation for teachers to become competent not only in educating students in these areas but also in recognising and dealing with such…

Background: Adolescence may be a crucial period for developing obesity and associated mental health problems. This study examined the relationship of weight status on body image, eating behavior, and depressive symptoms in youth. Methods: A survey was conducted on 1490 youth attending grades 7-12. Participants completed questionnaires on body…

Podcasting is used commonly recreationally and is now increasingly used in education. The technology for podcasting is readily available, easy to use and inexpensive, making it an attractive option for providing additional flexible learning resources for students. However, little is known about how podcasts are used by students and the…

We report about an active learning demonstration designed to use a virtual class to present computer-mediated group communication course concepts to show that students can learn about these concepts in a virtual class. We designated 1 class period as a virtual rather than face-to-face class, when class members "attended" virtually using…

Since 1998, the Flanders' educational government in Belgium has been urging teacher education institutions by decree to implement competences in teacher training programs. Since then, years have gone by, and institutions have acted in order to achieve the competence-based goals. However, have they succeeded in implementing them? This is the…

A web-based virtual laboratory exercise in identifying an unknown microorganism was designed for use with a cohort of 3rd-year university food-technology students. They were presented with a food-contamination case, and then walked through a number of diagnostic steps to identify the microorganism. At each step, the students were asked to select 1…

Due to the increased importance and usage of self-managed virtual teams, many recent studies have examined factors that affect their success. One such factor that merits examination is the configuration or composition of virtual teams. This article tackles this point by (1) empirically testing trait-configuration effects on virtual team…

The purpose of this study was to develop and establish the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure students' attitudes toward geometry. Participants consisted of 264 undergraduate students from two universities, one in the Midwest and one in the Southwest. The instrument is a 5-point Likert-scaled survey consisting of 32 statements…

Personality traits of 178 Mexican American college students were surveyed to test applicability of the Five Factor Model of personality and to investigate gender differences within this bicultural group. Results revealed atypical gender differences on neuroticism. Men scored significantly higher than did women, which is opposite cross-cultural…

Widespread availability of computers and the Internet provide considerable enrichment in terms of variety of material and formats for presentation over what was possible with the old correspondence courses. As a result, a large number of universities have begun to offer an extensive list of online courses in various programs. We set out to answer…

Although information systems are an integral part of every modern organization, IS faculty often struggle to show MBA students the value of the core IS course in the MBA curriculum. This is also evidenced by the fact that some business schools do not have an IS course in the core MBA curriculum. MBA courses often use case analyses to provide…