Increasing recreational reading is a priority in a climate of growing adolescent aliteracy. Raising the social appeal of books has been identified as one potential avenue for arresting this trend. An understanding of the current social acceptability of book reading amongst contemporary adolescents is important in informing an effective approach to…

This article responds to the need for more student voices in digital literacies research by discussing the results of interviews with two college students concerning the roles that their non-academic digital literacy practices can play in first-year college writing courses. The author reviews recent literature that has indicated that value of…

Contemporary views of literacy, and of English and Language Arts curriculum recognise the importance of digital culture and communication forms in many young people's lives and the multiple forms of literacy students engage with as they work, interact and play. Amongst these, videogames, whether played on PCs, laptops, wiis, or on mobile…

A case study approach was used to examine the potential knowledge-transforming role of writing with 27, Year 12 chemistry students'. The study was prompted by changes to external chemistry examinations that required students to write connected discourse, and supported by the chemistry teacher's belief in the instructional value of…

Background: To date there is limited information documenting growth patterns in the narratives of bilingual children with and without primary language impairment (PLI). Aims: This study was designed to determine whether bilingual children with and without PLI present similar gains from kindergarten to first grade in the macro- and microstructure…

Background: Little evidence exists for the effectiveness of therapy for children with receptive language difficulties, particularly those whose difficulties are severe and persistent. Aims: To establish the effectiveness of explicit speech and language therapy with visual support for secondary school-aged children with language impairments…

Background: In recent years, there has been increased identification of disfluencies in individuals with autism, but limited examination of disfluencies in the school-age range of this population. We currently lack information about whether the disfluencies of children with autism represent concomitant stuttering, normal disfluency, excessive…

This quasi-experimental study examined whether there was any difference in the quantity and quality of the written texts produced by two groups (N = 18) of intermediate Chinese language learners. Over one semester, students in the experimental (E) group wrote weekly updates and comments in Chinese on a designated Facebook group page, while…

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) has existed now for nearly two decades with its application to foreign language instruction chronicled in some 340 implementation studies. For several years already, proponents have claimed that MALL is commonplace in foreign language instruction. In reality, with few exceptions, published studies of MALL…

Students need support to complete research masters degrees. Many of the studies aimed at enhancing the student experience to date have tended to focus on structural aspects of the degree, the academic needs of the students or the qualities of the supervisor. Few studies focus on the support needed to complete research masters degrees and even…

This paper presents a study of students' experiences of joint supervision practices and supervisors' professional work in doctoral education in one department of a Finnish university. A qualitative methodology was used to explore students' experiences of joint supervision practices and an inductive protocol was used to analyse the…

The importance of education in developing ethically sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning when facing dilemmas has been widely acknowledged (Pascarella and Terenzini 1991; Rest et al. 1999b). However, ethics is typically omitted from the higher level curriculum and, if raised at all, comprises a very minor element of the course…

A clear understanding of how students view plagiarism is needed if the extensive efforts devoted to helping them engage in high-quality scholarship are to be worthwhile. There are a variety of views on this topic, but theoretical models to integrate the literature, take account of international differences and guide practitioners are limited.…

In educational studies much attention has been directed to engagement as a precondition for positive student outcomes. Very few studies, however, have focused on the engagement of the faculty members. This is a regrettable omission because engagement has been argued to lead to more satisfied, more productive and healthier faculty members. In this…

The growing interest in the higher education sector in publishing pedagogical research has led to a focus on professional development for staff who wish to engage in this endeavour. This paper describes and evaluates a specific programme designed to help university staff to prepare and submit a high-quality paper to a peer-reviewed journal.…