This article concludes a longitudinal study with the broader aim to explore learner development as a long-term, social process. One goal has been to inform the endeavours of improving student engagement, retention, as well as under-representation of certain demographics in computing. Students of two computer science-related study programmes…

Technology and engineering functional literacy should be intentionally developed in the school system -- like any other competence, it does not develop spontaneously. For this purpose, a didactic model, the Metacognitive model for developing technology and engineering literacy (McM_T&E), was developed, implemented and evaluated. The results of…

In the last two decades, higher education researchers have reported numerous benefits of integrating technology tools in course instruction and their subsequent impact on the students' learning process. In spite of the accumulation of the large amount of evidence and multiple calls to adopt technology tools in instruction, traditional lecturing is…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is one of the most commonly-reported quantitative methodology in the social sciences, yet much of the detail regarding what happens during an EFA remains unclear. The goal of this brief technical note is to explore what "rotation" is, what exactly is rotating, and why we use rotation when performing…

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) was commissioned by the "Bloodhound Education Programme" (BEP) to conduct an audit of its activities throughout 2012 and early 2013. The audit included: telephone consultations with a range of stakeholders; analysis of monitoring and internal evaluation data; and attendance at two…

Background: Working effectively in a collaborative team is not only an outcome required by ABET but also one that scholars and practitioners recognize as necessary for being a successful professional engineer. Technology-based solutions hold promise for supporting collaboration; however, research has shown that technology alone is not sufficient…

In principle, the research-teaching nexus should be seen as a two-way link, showing not only ways in which research supports teaching but also ways in which teaching supports research. In reality, the discussion has been limited almost entirely to the first of these practices. This paper presents a case study in which some student field-trip…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to address the challenges of teaching sustainable development to computer engineering students. Part of the problem is that they perceive the topic as irrelevant for their future profession. Design/methodology/approach: To address this challenge, we introduced a project element into a course on sustainable…

Previous studies have shown that motivation and interpersonal communication between teacher and student contribute to the learning of language. Till date, there is no quantitative study to assess the impact of prosocial and positive emotional contents that influence English learning and modulate the habits of students. This paper examines the…

English is required as the official working language for oceangoing seafarers across the world. In China, much time and effort has been dedicated to improving maritime students' Maritime English (ME). However, low English proficiency is still one of the main barriers for Chinese seafarers to compete in the international maritime labor market.…

The modern world requires engineering specialists with excellent hard skills as well as soft skills that contribute to better communication, creativity, and self-realisation of a person. The authors discovered that modern educational standards are starting to focus on soft skills development, proposing requirements for educational programs that…

As the world races to combat a pandemic, slow climate change, and solve many other public health challenges, it is clear that developing young people's scientific knowledge should be an urgent priority in schools. The goal of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is to foster scholars and citizens who can think critically and creatively to…

Research findings This study aimed to explore whether the fusion of constructivism and instructivism could be observed in the teaching dialogs during the Engineer Block Building (EBB) activities in Chinese kindergartens. Altogether 20 block building activities about the theme of architecture were videotaped and coded with the "Engineer Design…

Peer-to-peer programs are growing in popularity in higher education (HE) due to institutions' increased interest in engaging students as partners in learning and teaching. This study explores one institution's approach to engaging level 5 and level 6 undergraduate students as teaching assistants (TAs) in engineering to support the first-year…

Little is known about why people decide to mentor in the context of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the motivations of undergraduate student mentors working in an afterschool STEM program for underrepresented elementary schoolboys. We used self-determination theory…