Higher education institutions are increasingly concerned with the professional insertion of graduates in the labour market and with the design of institutional mechanisms to facilitate students’ transition from higher education to work, particularly given the context of scarcity of financial resources and the rise of graduate unemployment. This issue has been addressed, inter alia, through the creation of study programmes with internships. Despite the public discourse encouraging the use of such strategies, there is a general consensus regarding the absence of empirical studies on the professional value of these strategies. This article aims to assess two interrelated questions: the extent to which measures of graduate unemployment rate tend to decrease after the introduction of internships in Portuguese study programmes; and the extent to which this effect applies to the different institutions that comprise the Portuguese tertiary education landscape. It also seeks to contribute to the debate on the relevance of the structure and nature of internships, which are factors frequently neglected in the literature.

Background: Critical thinking is one of the very highest orders of cognitive abilities and a key competency in higher education. Asking questions is an important component of rich learning experiences, structurally embedded in the operations of critical thinking. Our clear sense is that critical thinking and, within that, critical questioning, is heavily context dependent, in the sense that is applied, used by critical learners in a contextualised way. Purpose: Our research deals with enhancing science undergraduates’ critical questioning. We are interested in understanding and describing the nature and development of students’ critical questioning. The purpose is to conceptualise critical questioning as a competency, into three domains – knowledge, skills and attitudes/dispositions. We have no interest in a taxonomic category of context-free question-types called ‘critical questions’. In contrast, our view is that ‘being a critical questioner’ trades heavily on context. Sources of evidence: Four cases are considered as illuminative of the dimensions of science undergraduates’ critical questioning. Data were collected in natural learning environments through non-participant observation, audio-taping teacher-students interactions and semi-structured interviews. Students’ written material resulting from diverse learning tasks was also collected. Main argument: Our supposition is that one vehicle for achieving university students as critical thinkers is to enable them not just to ask critical questions, but to be critical questioners. We relate critical questioning to three domains: (1) context, (2) competency and (3) delivery, and propose a model based on illuminating examples of the in-classroom action. Conclusions: The dimensions of the competency-context-delivery model provide a framework for describing successful student critical questioning, showing that students’ capacity to be critical can be developed. It is possible, in our view, to generate critical questioners by means of promoting a true spirit of critical inquiry. The model also gives important insights into the design of teaching, learning and assessment contexts, where critical questioning could be promoted.

This paper focuses on the relationship between preferential teaching approach (PTA) and the concept of teachers' questioning practices (TQP), as part of a large‐scale three‐year project aimed at developing the scholarship of teaching and learning at one Portuguese university. In order to contribute to understandings of how teachers' questioning is connected to teachers' concepts and motivations, two dimensions were considered for analysis: (1) teachers' main changes in their PTA and TQP, when lecturing to undergraduates, during the three years of collaboration; and (2) differences in teachers' PTA and TQP when lecturing students at different academic levels. Data were gathered through observation of master and undergraduate lectures, during the 2009/2010 academic year. All lectures were audio‐taped. Fifty per cent of these were fully transcribed and analysed considering TQP. Teachers responded twice to a Portuguese version of the revised approaches to teaching inventory, one for each academic level, and were also interviewed. The results revealed that the four professors maintained their initial PTA and the corresponding teaching and learning conceptions for both dimensions of analysis. However, looking at their TQP some changes were observed. These results could imply that it is ‘easier’ to ‘modify’ (over time) and switch (between academic levels) particular teacher practices, such as questioning, than their global PTA, rooted in specific teaching/learning conceptions. The findings of this longitudinal study, bridging two areas of research, enabled recommendations to be made regarding the design of training strategies to enhance reflection on high‐quality teaching and learning processes.

Curricular internships are increasingly seen as an effective strategy capable of contributing to the objectives and targets of the sustainable development paradigm, both in its social, economic and institutional dimensions. This positive outlook is ingrained within the large bulk of existing research, which has been focused on the discussion of positive outputs, such as the enhancement of graduates′ competences (employability) and their work integration (employment). An important, albeit relatively unexplored, feature of the sustainable institutional politics of curricular internship management pertains to the assessment of its associated liabilities and tensions. This article seeks to address this challenge, by analyzing two interrelated dimensions. First, it seeks to understand the internship processes ranging from the planning to the implementation stages. Second, it elicits the associated negative aspects (the ‘lunar side’) of internships, allowing for an assessment of the features where there is room for improvement. Empirically, this article draws on in-depth qualitative research. It presents the results of four focus groups, voicing the perceptions of top management structures and students involving first cycle degrees in the areas of Marketing, Management, and Accounting from four public Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)-three polytechnics and one university. Findings confirm the general positive outlook of internships. Perceived negative perspectives report to both internal problems (such as the lack of institutional support and curricular design) and external problems (e.g., the shortage of suitable internship placements), constituting barriers towards sustainable institutional policies and strategies. Adaptive strategies to overcome specific difficulties are highlighted (e.g., establishment of advisory committees with local businessmen). Finally, recommendations regarding curricular internship management at HEIs are delineated (e.g., investment in monitoring and evaluation strategies of internships).