Redefining Scientific Thinking For Higher Education

This book examines the learning and development process of students’ scientific thinking skills. Universities should prepare students to be able to make judgements in their working lives based on scientific evidence. However, an understanding of how these thinking skills can be developed is limited. This book introduces a new broad theory of scientific thinking for higher education; in doing so, redefining higher-order thinking abilities as scientific thinking skills. This includes critical thinking and understanding the basics of science, epistemic maturity, research and evidence-based reasoning skills and contextual understanding. The editors and contributors discuss how this concept can be redefined, as well as the challenges educators and students may face when attempting to teach and learn these skills. This edited collection will be of interest to students and scholars of student scientific skills and higher-order thinking abilities.

Teachers, professors, and educational professionals have the opportunity to create new, challenging, significant, and interactive learning experiences for today’s students. Escape rooms are growing in popularity as they provide numerous benefits and opportunities for learning; however, the use of escape rooms in higher education is not always taken seriously. Learning With Escape Rooms in Higher Education Online Environments proves that it is possible to take escape rooms to higher education with great results for both teachers and students by presenting different escape room proposals that are explained in detail with the instructions and materials used so that any teacher could replicate it in their subject. Covering key topics such as online learning, student learning, and computer science, this reference work is ideal for principals, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.

This edited volume explores how undergraduate research and research-based teaching is being implemented in countries around the world. Leading educators come together to discuss commonly accepted definitions of undergraduate research, country-specific models and partnerships for student research, university policies and practices to support faculty and staff who engage students in research, and available assessment data that supports the effectiveness of undergraduate research as a means to increase student engagement and academic achievement. As undergraduate research has spread around the world, professors, administrators, and policymakers benefit by learning about other approaches and models of undergraduate research.

This edited volume presents a broad range of original practice-oriented research studies about tertiary mathematics education. These are based on current theoretical frameworks and on established and innovative empirical research methods. It provides a relevant overview of current research, along with being a valuable resource for researchers in tertiary mathematics education, including novices in the field. Its practice orientation research makes it attractive to university mathematics teachers interested in getting access to current ideas and results, including theory-based and empirically evaluated teaching and learning innovations. The content of the book is spread over 5 sections: The secondary-tertiary transition; University students' mathematical practices and mathematical inquiry; Research on teaching and curriculum design; University students’ mathematical inquiry and Mathematics for non-specialists.

Development of Adult Thinking is a timely synthesis and evaluation of the current knowledge and emerging issues relating to adult cognitive development and learning. Focusing on psychological and educational cutting-edge research as well as giving an overview of the key theorists such as Piaget and Kohlberg, Kallio and the team of expert contributors offer a holistic view on the development of adult thinking, representing perspectives from developmental, moral, and social psychology, as well as education and philosophy. These topics are divided into three sections: Adult cognitive and moral development, Perspectives of adult learning, and Open questions and new approaches, offering introduction, analysis, and directions for future research. This text is essential reading for students and researchers in developmental psychology and related courses as well as adult educators and teachers working in adult education.

This book invites us to critically reflect on the value of research in, on and for teacher education. It explores the nature and role of teacher education research and identifies ways to enhance its value for policy and practice. It gathers together studies that deploy a wide range of methodologies, including small-scale practitioner-focused research and large-scale empirical studies, considering the value of both approaches for the development of teacher education research that is meaningful for practice, but also valid and relevant for policy. The studies collected in this book were undertaken in different countries and put forward powerful messages for teacher education research in the 21st century. The ultimate objective is to contribute to the generation of a knowledge base for teacher education, identifying strategies and acknowledging challenges. The various arguments presented here can be utilised by teacher education policymakers, practitioners and researchers wishing to enhance the role of teacher education research in their own countries and contexts. Contributors are: Evi Agostini, Herbert Altrichter, Rinat Arviv, Ilanit Avraham, Tali Berglas-Shapiro, Yvonne Brain, Charalambos Charalambous, Michalis Christodoulou, Ina Cijvat, Gerry Czerniawski, Ricarda Derler, Maria A. Flores, Ulla Fürstenberg, Conor Galvin, Ainat Guberman, Mirva Heikkilä, Tuike Iiskala, Fjolla Kacaniku, Lisa-Maria Lembacher, Joanna Madalińska-Michalak, Aziza Mayo, Jonathan Mendels, Stephanie Mian, Mirjamaija Mikkilä-Erdmann, Hagit Mishkin, Jan Morgenstern, Helma Oolbekkink-Marchand, Nazime Öztürk, Katrin Poom-Valickis, Elena Revyakina, Kari Smith, Marco Snoek, Vasileios Symeonidis, Jullia Tölle, Triin Ulla, Anu Warinowski, Heike Wendt and Cinzia Zadra.