The aim of this article is to review the state of the art of research and theory development on student learning patterns in higher education and beyond. First, the learning patterns perspective and the theoretical framework are introduced. Second, research published since 2004 on student learning patterns is systematically identified and reviewed. This part includes two main sections. In the first section, new evidence on internal and external relationships of learning patterns is reviewed. Four themes are covered here: the dimensionality and the internal relationships of learning patterns and relationships of learning patterns with personal, contextual, and outcome variables. In the second section, new directions in learning patterns research are examined. These include studies on learning patterns in new international contexts and populations, longitudinal development of learning patterns over time, methodological advances in learning patterns research, and studies on fostering the quality of students’ learning patterns. Next, relationships with adjacent theories on student learning are discussed, the learning patterns perspective is critically examined, and pathways are derived to move the model forward. Finally, future conceptual and methodological directions for learning patterns research are derived.

Background: Challenge‐based learning (CBL) is a pedagogical approach increasingly adopted in engineering education. Despite its growing practice, there is little consensus in the literature about how CBL is implemented in engineering curricula and what experiences teachers and students have in relation to it.Purpose: To address this gap, the following research questions guided the study: How is CBL currently implemented in engineering education? What difficulties and lessons learned are associated with the implementation of CBL?Methods: We systematically reviewed the empirical literature published between 2010 and 2021. Forty‐eight empirical studies describing CBL implementation were analyzed using the curricular spider‐web framework.Results: The review shows the variation in CBL implementation at the course and project levels. CBL courses and projects shared the use of open‐ended, real‐world challenges as a starting point for student learning. However, they differed in the embeddedness of a challenge in specific courses and the focus of the learning, which ranged across knowledge acquisition, knowledge application, and development of transversal skills. CBL experiences also varied in terms of challenge characteristics, such as the link with global societal challenges, stakeholders' involvement, and multidisciplinarity. Similar difficulties and lessons learned were reported by teachers and students across the different examples of CBL implementation.Conclusions: CBL as a pedagogical approach in engineering education can promote student engagement with complex societal challenges within a real‐world context. However, there are limitations to the review and implications of the findings for educational research and practice.

University students’ epistemic beliefs may have practical consequences for studying and success in higher education. Such beliefs constitute epistemic theories that may empirically manifest themselves as epistemic profiles. This study examined university students’ epistemic profiles and their relations to conceptions of learning, age, gender, discipline, and academic achievement. The participants were 1515 students from five faculties who completed questionnaires about epistemic beliefs, including a subsample who also completed a questionnaire that included conceptions of learning. We measured epistemic beliefs: reflective learning, collaborative knowledge-building, valuing metacognition, certain knowledge, and practical value. First, we analyzed structural validity by using confirmatory factor analysis. Second, we conducted latent profile analysis that revealed three epistemic profiles: Pragmatic (49%), reflective-collaborative (26%) and fact-oriented (25%). Then, we compared the conceptions of learning across the profiles as well as demographic information, credits, and grades. The profiles’ conceptions of learning varied: The reflective-collaborative group scored high on conception of learning named “construction of knowledge.” Its members were more likely to be females, teachers, and mature students, and they had the highest academic achievement. The fact-oriented group (mostly engineering/science students) scored highest on “intake of knowledge.” The pragmatic group scored highest on “use of knowledge:” During the second year, their academic achievement improved. In sum, the epistemic profiles were closely related to conceptions of learning and also associated with academic achievement.

The aim of this study is to develop more understanding about strategies to support teachers' professional development in curriculum innovations, in which pedagogy and content change simultaneously compared to the conventional curriculum. A pre‐existing framework, including strategies for professional development, was adapted, implemented, and evaluated from the perspective of teachers' sense‐making in teaching context‐based science curricula. This framework guides the design of activities that support teachers' development in three new aspects of teaching context‐based science units: setting a context in class, performing a new teaching role, and teaching new content. In a case study, six teachers in secondary education participated in a professional development program based on the adapted framework. A qualitative inner‐case analysis was conducted to describe teachers' sense‐making during the program, in terms of the categories “assimilation,” “accommodation,” “toleration,” and “distantiation.” Results showed that teachers participating in the professional development program successfully assimilated and accommodated all three aspects; however, the process of teachers' sense‐making of the new content followed a different path compared to the processes of the other aspects. The relation between these results and the adapted framework are discussed to retrieve strategies for planning professional development programs to support teachers in curriculum innovations.

In this paper, we set out the first step towards the measurement of learning gain in higher education by putting forward a conceptual framework for understanding learning gain that is relevant across disciplines. We then introduce the operationalisation of this conceptual framework into a new set of measurement tools. With the use of data from a large-scale survey of 11 English universities and over 4,500 students, we test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument empirically. We find support in the data for the reliability of most of the measurement scales we put forward, as well as for the validity of the conceptual framework. Based on these results, we reflect on the conceptual framework and associated measurement tools in the context of at-scale deployment and the potential implications for policy and practice in higher education.