The final decision will be made during the conference by the best paper committee based on the presentation and Q&A. The award will be announced and conferred during the closing session (Thursday, 23rd June 2016 at 13:00).

Best paper nominees

Assessing the Role of General Chemistry Learning in Higher Education
Margarida Figueiredo, José Neves, Guida Gomes, Henrique Vicente

Opinions on “Classroom Response System” by first-year engineering students
José Luis López-Quintero, Marta Varo-Martínez, Ana Mª. Laguna-Luna, Alfonso Pontes-Pedrajas

Software Engineering Management Education through Game Design Patterns
Nuno Flores, Ana C. R. Paiva, Pedro Letra

Combining Mathematical Revision Courses with Hands-on Approaches for Engineering Education Using Web-based Interactive Multimedia Applications
Daniel Nickchen, Bärbel Mertsching

Entry to study expectations of STEM postgraduate taught students
Ines Direito, Michelle Morgan

Best student paper nominees

Bullying and Harassment of Trainee Teachers
Marie Drüge, Karin Schleider, Anne-Sophie Rosati

Massive Open Online Courses for IFRS education: a point of view of Spanish Accounting Educators
Julieth E. Ospina-Delgado, Maria A. Garcia-Benau, Ana Zorio-Grima

Analysing the Effects of Personality Traits on the Success of Online Collaborative Groups
Seyma Kucukozer Cavdar, Tugba Taskaya Temizel

We are glad to announce that the final HEAd’16 Conference Program has been announced in our website. There, you can find complete information about the schedule and contents of each session, as well as of the breaks for relaxing or having lunch. You can look up the program here: HEAd’16 Program

Critical Thinking with Rationale:
Argument Mapping as a way to develop structured thinking, critical thinking and writing skills

Critical thinking is becoming increasingly central in education. Many students struggle to reason clearly, to structure and analyze argumentation, and fail to pick up these transferable skills without dedicated practice.

Argument mapping is a technique for structured thinking and writing and for improving critical thinking. It involves drawing diagrams of reasoning and argumentation. Extensive research at e.g. the University of Melbourne, Carnegie Mellon and NUI Galway indicates that practice based on argument mapping can substantially enhance critical thinking skills.

Rationale is the most user-friendly and developed tool to make argument maps. The methodology Critical Thinking with Rationale has shown to be very effective. This method emphasizes deliberate practice of reasoning skills by argument mapping. Rationale has been developed by ReasoningLab to facilitate the implementation of this technique into teaching practice and is used in classrooms internationally to develop critical thinking and writing skills. This organization, directed by Timo ter Berg, brings evidence-based programs to develop skills in structured thinking, critical thinking, writing and decision making.