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Deadline: October 31, 2020

Division 15 members are invited to contribute a research or comprehensive review article for consideration for publication in Sustainability, an international Open Access journal which provides an advanced forum for research findings in areas related to sustainability and sustainable development. The journal publishes original research articles, reviews, conference proceedings (peer-reviewed full articles) and communications.

About the Special Issue, “Instructional Support and Engagement: Working Toward Sustainable Education”

Sustainable educational and learning environments have never been more critical in today’s fast paced exchange of information. In a context in which misinformation is all too easily conveyed, learning environments that encourage and support learners to more critically engage information should be our aim.

Instructional support to date has been studied in various settings including contextual support (Skinner & Belmont, 1993), teacher practices (Patall, Dent, Oyer, & Wynn, 2013), general classroom practices (Eccles, 2006), classroom social environment (Patrick, Ryan, & Kaplan, 2007), and teacher-student relationships (Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, & Oort, 2011), all of which support a multidimensional and process-oriented view of instructionally supportive contexts for the development of student motivation, classroom action, and academic learning (Anderman, Andrzejewski, & Allen, 2011). The provision of relevance, for example, has been defined as classroom actions that highlight the connection of the academic material to students’ interests and goals (Finn & Voekl, 1993). Along with relevance of instruction, instructor/teacher involvement is another important aspect of instructional support and has, thus far, been defined as the dedication of time, resources, and warmth with individual students (Belmont, Skinner, Wellborn, & Connell, 1992; Nix, Fraser, & Ledbetter, 2005). From learners’ perspective, engagement is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct, comprising behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions (Fredericks, 2011; Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kindermann, 2008; Wang & Eccles, 2013).

This Special Issue—Instructional Support and Engagement: Working Toward Sustainable Education—is intended to highlight innovative research on instructional support and student engagement, with emphasis on sustainable educational and learning environments.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI’s English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Please contact Dr. Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume with questions (agutierrez@ georgiasouthern.edu).