Students and faculty often have different goals for the first day of class. While teaching advice books recommend actively engaging students in the course from the start, students often "shop" for classes and report being primarily concerned with gathering practical information. The aim of this article is to introduce a reciprocal interview…

Managing the space in which learning takes place is subject to ongoing debate. Spatial management and movement can impact upon the construction of meaning within education and upon the dynamic of learning. It is suggested that there are now different learning goals and expectations and consequently a need for different learning environments. We…

Assessment is critically important to education both for accreditation and to support learning. Yet the literature dealing with formative and summative assessment definitions and terminology is not aligned. This article reports an empirical small-scale study of lecturers in Education at an English university. The research posits that these…

Two studies examined the free recall for course content of 314 American undergraduate students across various course levels. The purpose was to examine how students' memories and level of understanding for introductory materials would differ from those of more advanced classes. Across all class levels, the most frequently listed items were…

When university academics implement changes in learning, such as introducing blended learning, it is conventional practice to examine and evaluate the impact of the resulting curriculum reform. Judging the worth and impact of an educational development is a complex task involving subtle differences in learning. Qualitative methods to explore these…

The literature on learning styles suggests that although the behaviour of some students may appear different from what is defined as a "high-quality learning process," their conduct does not demonstrate an "inferior" approach to learning. Furthermore, existing and emerging academic literature that associates learning theories with the studies of…

It is important to demonstrate to those taking courses for new teachers that approaches to learning have a relational nature--that they are influenced by the teaching and learning context. This article describes a workshop activity, based on the Revised Study Process Questionnaire. Workshop participants recorded their approaches to learning in two…

Based on survey data from 1222 undergraduate students studying at UK higher education institutions, this article addresses students' engagement with the internet as a source of academic information for their studies. In particular the article explores how academic use of the internet is patterned by a range of potential influences such as…

A literature review of published case studies reporting progress file implementation was conducted with the intent of discovering how this is being interpreted and implemented in higher education institutions. The three studies found were analysed using an ideal type categorization developed by Clegg and Bradley (2006), that is, professional,…

The use of lectures is ubiquitous in higher-education institutions, but also heavily criticized from an andragogical viewpoint. A current challenge for lecturers is to provide opportunities for active learning during these sessions and to evaluate their impact on student experience. Three one-minute interventions based on the lecture materials…

Written assessment feedback has not been widely researched despite higher education students continually expressing the need for meaningful and constructive feedback. This qualitative study employing focus groups captures and interprets the student perspective of written assessment feedback. Participants were Registered Nurses and non-traditional…

This article reports findings from a study which interviewed 36 undergraduate students about aspects of the teaching and learning environment which motivated or demotivated their study. It was found that students were motivated by a teaching environment characterized by eight main elements. This article reports in detail on the element of…

There is an increasing acceptance in the education literature and in classroom settings for "best practice" to be linked with verbal clarification of knowledge and reasoning, ideally in collaborative contexts where students construct both group and individual knowledge. Problem-based learning (PBL) is one such classroom context in which…

This article reports on a study investigating strategies that students can use to develop skills in managing team learning. Two groups of second-year management students participated in a semester-long action research project over two semesters. The students were educated on team development, team processes and conflict management and how to…

Recently there has been an increasing interest in plagiarism detection systems, such as the web-based Turnitin system. However, no study has so far tried to look at how students react towards those systems being used. This exploratory study examines the attitudes of students on a postgraduate module after using Turnitin as their standard way of…