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The purpose of this study is to explore rural children’s own perspectives on health, well-being, and nutrition to better understand how they approach, navigate, and make sense of these topics.

This study uses a qualitative ethnographic research design theoretically informed by the “new” Sociology of Childhood and methodologically informed by constructivist grounded theory. This ongoing study with fifth-grade students in an elementary school in a small rural school district in central Illinois consists of ethnographic observations conducted at the school, in-depth interviews with students, and participatory tools that seek to involve students more fully in the process of data collection.

Preliminary findings of this pilot study suggest that many aspects often discussed in the context of childhood obesity, especially in rural settings, including knowledge or education about healthy eating, increasing physical activity levels, or access to healthy foods, are complex and multifaceted and do not easily lend themselves to standard interventions. Findings also indicate that children’s ideas about healthy eating deviate from their own eating practices.

Conceptualized as a grounded theory study, the research is not intended to be generalizable or reproducible. Instead, the study seeks to develop hypotheses directly from the field and study participants’ views and voices. These perspectives will inform a more in-depth study of childhood obesity in rural settings planned for 2019.

Findings from this pilot study will inform innovative, informed interventions that are guided by children’s own experiences and perspectives. Study findings will also be of benefit to practicing pediatricians and other child health professionals as they understand how to better think about and address challenges of health and weight management of patients and their families.

This chapter draws on data from a qualitative study examining the extent to which children and young people age 7 to 17 are able to participate and influence matters affecting them in their home, school, and community. It was commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland to inform the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020. Utilising Lundy’s (2007) conceptualisation of Article 12 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Leonard’s (2016) concept of generagency, this chapter will examine children and young people’s everyday lives and relationships within the home and family in the context of agency and structure.

In the study, home was experienced by children generally as the setting most facilitative of their voice and participation in their everyday lives reflecting research findings that children are more likely to have their initiative and ideas encouraged in the family than in school or their wider communities (Mayall, 1994). Key areas of decision-making included everyday consumption activities such as food, clothes, and pocket money as well as temporal activities including bed-time, leisure, and friends. This concurs with Bjerke (2011) that consumption of various forms is a major field of children’s participation. Positive experiences of participation reported by children and young people involved facilitation by adults whom they respected and with whom they had some rapport. This locates children as relational beings, embedded in multiple overlapping intergenerational processes and highlights the interdependency between children’s participation and their environment (Leonard, 2016; Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential and the challenges of successful integration of ePortfolios and graduate attributes into the curriculum.

An argument is presented about the positioning of ePortfolios, and their links to graduate attributes, that draws upon the experiences of working with teachers to design, implement and support effective teaching practices to inform the challenges and opportunities that ePortfolios present for institutions, teachers and business curricula.

The potential of ePortfolios for supporting student learning must be balanced against the difficulties of embedding the necessary curriculum changes. Institutions expecting to see take‐up of ePortfolios by their teachers will need different strategies than those that accompanied the introduction of learning management systems.

The paper is based on experiences in an Australian context and a small‐scale trial. The limited availability of studies of student learning and the longitudinal use of ePortfolios in the social networking Web 2.0 context are also limitations.

A range of potential uses of ePortfolios is considered with a particular focus on seeing their use from the whole‐of‐program viewpoint, with discussion of the limitations for curriculum if decisions about ePortfolio use are left entirely to teachers to decide.

The paper's value is in its argument about the potential for linking ePortfolios to an integrated curriculum by addressing a common problem with the process of embedding of graduate attributes, and in suggesting a role for changed assessment practices to make this possible.

The purpose of this study is to examine effects of classroom-level and student-level factors on student engagement in the context of a higher education system vertically differentiated into research, applied and comprehensive university types.

The study used a cross-sectional multilevel design to explain student engagement based on class and student variables. Specifically, the study collects data from 656 students and 61 randomly selected teachers at both levels and uses multilevel modeling to explain relationship patterns.

The results show that institutions vary significantly in student engagement scores. In addition, while a significant variation is found at the student and classroom level, the effects of academic achievement, instructional quality, teaching experience and teacher qualifications on student engagement vary across classrooms in institutions. However, the interaction effect of classroom and student-level variables on student engagement remains non-significant.

The main contribution of this lies in the explanation of student engagement using classroom and student level factors in a vertically differentiated higher education system using multilevel modeling. Student engagement varied in classrooms research universities applied and comprehensive universities.

This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who participate in start-up programs, as well as how the processes and outcomes of entrepreneurial learning are potentially shaped by this context.

The study follows multiple cohorts of students who have participated in an extra-curricular start-up program managed by three collaborating universities in Greater Copenhagen. The data have been inductively analyzed using semi-structured interviews with students and project managers during and after the start-up program, complemented with project progress reports, observation notes and survey data.

The analysis generates a grounded, theoretically informed process model of entrepreneurial learning situated in extra-curricular start-up programs. The model depicts how the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice subsequently enables students to expand knowledge structures and develop greater self-confidence in performing entrepreneurship. The model identifies three interconnected components that trigger entrepreneurial learning among students, which allow them to acquire two set of competencies: venture creation competencies and enterprising competencies.

The findings offer unique insights into how the social and relational environment influence and shape the learning experience of students, hence filling the research void on entrepreneurial learning in the situated context of extra-curricular enterprise activities. The findings also elucidate how individual learning experiences of students are potentially shaped by the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice.

THE ROBBINS REPORT has been described as the most important social document since the Beveridge Report: we agree with this assessment.

This paper presents an overview of a lifelong learning scheme. It outlines the design of the scheme that was initially targeted for electrical and electronic engineering students and later students across the faculty of engineering in the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM). The scheme named “Students’ Continuing Personal Development (S-CPD)” is developed to improve student participation in extra-curricular activities and at the same time, to create awareness among students of the importance of lifelong learning and to facilitate the development of such skills.

The scheme involves creating and developing more than 30 categories of activities together with a well-structured information technology infrastructure. Various strategies, such as offering awards, are applied to promote student engagement. In 2015 the pilot scheme was rolled out in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and adopted by all departments in the faculty of engineering in the subsequent year.

S-CPD scheme is aligned to the importance institutions of engineers in the world places on continuing professional development and also to the importance industry and employer places on transferable skills. The scheme provides students with a structured way to plan, participate and record their participation in extra-curricular activities that is relevant to their future careers as engineers in a holistic way. S-CPD scheme not only provides a good platform for students to hone particular “soft” skills and they are also aware of the importance and engaging in lifelong learning to make the most out of their university and also life experience.

This research could lead to many other studies including the factors that affect students' engagement in extra-curricular activities, short-term and long-term impacts of S-CPD scheme, and also involve psychology research such as psychological factors influencing students' engagement in the scheme.

This scheme could be repeated in worldwide university programmes.

The S-CPD scheme can be viewed as having a two-pronged growth strategy. The first is to engage students in extra-curricular activities that enhance and improve their learning and personal experiences. The second prong of the growth strategy is to inculcate the growth mindset for lifelong learning, hence adapting well when their profession involves fulfilling CPD requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to explore undergraduate international students’ experiences in a flipped classroom environment in an Australian university.

In total, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted with undergraduate international students at one Australian university by three researchers.

The learning experiences of international students in a flipped classroom environment include increased flexibility in learning; enhanced engagement with content and; more confident participation in face-to-face workshops. In addition, the analysis further illustrates that international students intrinsically develop soft skills (e.g. increased confidence and communication skills), learning skills (e.g. research and critical thinking) and employability skills (e.g. time management and accountability).

These findings focus only on the positive learning experiences of undergraduate international students in one Australian university.

The study contributes to the literature by identifying learning experiences of undergraduate international students in a flipped classroom environment and the connection with their development of soft skills, learning skills and employability skills.