Virtual praxis: Constraints,approaches, and innovations of online creative arts teacher educators

Higher education, and in particular, initial teacher education, has been significantly transformed through the introduction of e-learning. However, online teacher education presents particular challenges in the creative arts, which has traditionally developed student understanding through embodied and collaborative learning experiences. In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight online arts educators in teacher education programs to understand their perspectives and pedagogy in online arts coursework. Using Engeström’s Activity Theory as an analytical lens, the findings highlight how these academics navigated challenges and opportunities to facilitate authentic, praxis-focused arts experiences to prepare pre-service teachers for the classroom.     

Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm.     

Mathematics and online learning experiences: a gateway site for engineering students

This paper focuses on the preliminary design of a multifaceted computer-based mathematics resource for undergraduate and pre-entry engineering students. Online maths resources, while attractive in their flexibility of delivery, have seen variable interest from students and teachers alike. Through student surveys and wide consultations, guidelines have been developed for effectively collating and integrating learning, support, application and diagnostic tools to produce an Engineer's Mathematics Gateway. Specific recommendations include: the development of a shared database of engineering discipline-specific problems and examples; the identification of, and resource development for, troublesome mathematics topics which encompass ideas of threshold concepts and mastery components; the use of motivational and promotional material to raise student interest in learning mathematics in an engineering context; the use of general and lecture-specific concept maps and matrices to identify the needs and relevance of mathematics to engineering topics; and further exploration of the facilitation of peer-based learning through online resources.     

Developing conceptions of teaching and the scholarship of teaching through a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education

There is increasing pressure toward professionalisation of university teaching, through the attendance of academic development courses and programmes. This is based on the expectation that such courses lead to more student‐focused perspectives on teaching and learning and more effective teaching and learning practices. In this study we interviewed alumni of a Graduate Certificate programme, to explore its effects on teachers’ self‐reported experiences of teaching and the scholarship of teaching. This suggested that the programme had been successful in fostering the development of more complex experiences for most interviewees.

En Australie comme à l’étranger, les pressions visant la professionnalisation de l’enseignement universitaire se font sentir, en particulier par la participation à des cours et des programmes de développement pédagogique. Ceci repose sur la prémisse selon laquelle les cours de développement pédagogique dans l’enseignement supérieur, du certificat postgradué au niveau master, mènent au développement de perspectives pédagogiques qui sont davantage centrées sur l’apprenant, de même qu’à l’adoption de pratiques pédagogiques davantage efficaces. Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous avons effectué des entretiens auprès de diplômés d’un programme de certificat postgradué de façon à explorer si le programme affectait les expériences d’enseignement et de Scholarship of Teaching de ces enseignants, telles qu’ils les rapportaient. Les témoignages autour de ces expériences suggèrent que le programme a réussi à favoriser le développement d’expériences davantage complexes pour la majorité des personnes interviewées.     

Beyond the student teaching seminar: examining transformative learning through arts-based approaches**

This qualitative study examined the question: How can arts-based approaches facilitate transformative learning in a student teaching seminar? Two teacher educators facilitated a supplemental and voluntary arts-based ST seminar that comprised six, two-hour sessions. Thirty-four student teachers participated over five semesters making use of Theater of the Oppressed and other arts-based activities to process dilemmas they faced in their student teaching contexts. Data included video recordings, photographs, journal reflection, participant artwork, and transcribed focus group interviews. Data analysis employed line-by-line coding to identify critical incidents. We offer examples where pre-service student teachers worked with a dilemma, examined their assumptions, engaged in perspective-taking, and in the process explored new possibilities. Engaging in embodied reflections, naming, imagining, and critically reflecting provided rich opportunity for constructing new ways of thinking and feeling, which could lead to transformative learning. Issues relating to the seminar environment like safety, starting with participants’ dilemmas, and willingness to take risks and ownership in the learning process supported transformative learning in an arts-based student teaching seminar.     

University teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments: a theoretical analysis of teaching and learning practices

The aim of this article is to clarify the university teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments, with a view to assisting in the design of professional development activities. This referential framework results from an extensive review of the literature and from analysing professional development designed in different European universities. It is worth mentioning that the definitions that will be produced do not refer to standards of teacher performance; on the contrary, we would like to emphasise the notion of socially situated competencies which are derived from the roles and tasks attributed to university teachers in online learning environments, without losing track of the dialectics and integrity of their exercise.     

Mystery novel reveals model for educators: reflections on teaching and learning

A narrative passage from a novel is used to explicate knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes of good teachers. Emphasis is on teacher–student interactions designed to facilitate a positive educational experience. Asserted strategies and principles of good teaching are supported by recent literature.     

The emergence of online teaching practices: a socio-material analysis

The aim of this article was to analyse relations between online teaching practices and their virtual material arrangements. Two higher education online settings were studied using an online ethnographic approach in which observation of the teaching process was of central importance. The first setting was a course in education carried out on itslearning^© (a learning management system) and the second setting was a language course in Second Life^® (a virtual world). A socio-material perspective based on practice theory was used in the analysis, and the focal point was the co-constitutive relation between teaching practices and material arrangements in online settings. A number of relations between practice and arrangement were identified and analysed in the results section. It is argued that the relation between online arrangements and practice is not fixed and determined beforehand, but emerges and alters as the teaching unfolds.     

Paradoxical tensions in creating a teaching and learning space within a graduate education course on spirituality

Much has been written recently about inclusive learning environments in higher education. Most of this writing has unproblematically assumed a simple link between inclusion and access to institutions. In this paper I suggest that inclusive learning environments need to be reconceptualised as contexts within which a 'democratisation of knowledge' occurs. I draw upon my experience as a tutor on a professional development course for university lecturers to explore this reconceptualisation, looking in particular at issues to do with experiential knowledge, gender and sexuality.     

Creating global networks through an online engineering graduate programme

Internationally, the railway industry is facing a severe shortage of engineers with high-level, relevant, professional and technical knowledge and abilities, in particular amongst engineers involved in the design, construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure. A unique graduate level programme has been created to meet that global need via a fully online, distance education format. The development and operation of this Master of Engineering degree is proposed as a model of the process needed for industry-relevance, flexible delivery, international networking and professional development required for a successful graduate engineering programme in the twenty-first century. In particular, this paper demonstrates how a mix of new and more familiar technologies are utilised through a variety of tasks to overcome the huge distances and multiple time zones that separate the participants across a growing number of countries, successfully achieving close and sustained interaction amongst the participants and railway experts.     

The role of HE in professional development: some reflections on a foundation degree for teaching assistants

Rapid change in higher education (HE) has lead to a reappraisal and debate about the role and ‘mission’ of the university and the university teacher. In the diversification of the HE sector, it is possible to see a shift away from the ‘advancement of knowledge’ as the primary purpose of the HE sector as a whole. This article focuses on a particular dimension of this change referred to as the ‘vocationalisation’ of HE and evident in the growing role of work-based learning (WBL) in the academy. In particular, foundation degrees provide a context for examining the role of WBL and the university in professional development. Analysis of interviews with 19 students on, or progressing from a foundation degree for teaching assistants reveals how they construct their learning and the relationship between work-based and academic learning. The author concludes that notions of ‘equivalence’ between work-based and academic learning are flawed and fail to recognise HE's distinctive contribution to professional learning, and argues for recognition of the distinctive contributions that both WBL and ‘academic’ learning make to professional development.     

将科研引入课堂 让学生走入科研——利用科研项目对高职学生进行专业教学的新法初探

本文结合近几年的教学实践及国家示范性专业建设成果,阐述了将科研引入课堂的意义和措施,以期为新时期高职教育的人才培养模式提供一条新的思路和途径。本文还提出了科研引入课堂时应注意的几点问题。     

A teaching narrative: my growth as a foreign language educator through teaching diaries

The aim of this paper is to share my perceptions and reflections on the experience of introducing elements of autonomy in a constrained educational setting in Argentina. I recorded these perceptions in teaching diaries written weekly after each class for the academic year 2005 (over 35 weeks). These teaching diaries are part of a larger, long-term, qualitative action-research study aimed at introducing some elements of autonomy in my University-based classroom for the first time, and diary writing as a vehicle for channelling my reactions to the innovation. The teaching diaries portray my feelings, emotions, values, and beliefs and offer testimony of my professional growth as I struggled to modify my classroom practices to make my teaching more responsive to my beliefs about good pedagogy within the constraints at my University.     

The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis

A universal lack of attention to the professional learning needs of teacher educators is the driver for this study, which considers the most effective ways to support the professional learning of higher education-based teacher educators. At a time when many industrialised countries are engaged in systemic educational reform, this study provides an international and comparative needs analysis through a survey of 1158 higher education-based teacher educators in the countries participating in the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development: Belgium, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Our results suggest that while teacher educators are only moderately satisfied with their professional development experiences, a strong desire exists for further professional learning. This desire, influenced by their professional context, relates to their current beliefs concerning ‘best practice’ in teacher education, the academic skills required to further their professional careers and knowledge of the curriculum associated with their fields of expertise.     

Eliminating language barriers online at European prisons (ELBEP): a case-study

ELBEP (Eliminating Language Barriers in European Prisons Through Open and Distance Education Technology) is a multilateral project funded by the European Union (EU) Lifelong Learning, Grundtvig (Adult Education) Programme. It aims to overcome language/communication problems between prison staff and foreign inmates at European prisons via online language teaching programs for the staff. This paper discusses the rationale and application of the project with an eye to the related literature and theoretical background. The project outcomes and findings can serve as an example for similar research studies.     

Becoming researchers: doctoral students' developmental processes

A key step in the development of skills to conduct independent research is the ability to develop topics of interest into research studies that examine problems of significance in a field of study. This qualitative interview study conducted in the USA examined how seven novice qualitative researchers who had taken course work in qualitative research methods selected topics for research and developed these into studies for dissertation research. Findings identify processes contributing to novice researchers' abilities to conceptualize their topics as significant. These processes include recognizing the need to integrate their interests in existing disciplinary fields, learning that occurred through the practice of fieldwork, applying guidance from advisors and committee members, and developing a deeper understanding of the relationship of their studies to existing research. The paper suggests points of tension for new scholars in the development of research topics, exploring how doctoral supervisors and instructors might assist students in learning how to design and conduct qualitative studies for doctoral research.     

Educating the educators: developing those who support learning for students with additional learning needs

This article reports findings from a research project which developed and introduced the Enhanced Learning Support Assistant Programme (ELSAP) as a source of professional development for learning support assistants who were supporting students with additional learning needs in a college of further education in England. The purpose of this article is to share findings from the project and to highlight the benefits experienced when learning support assistants can participate in professional development activity. The research project was a mixed methods study with participants drawn from learning support assistants within one college of further education in England. Data were collected throughout the 14‐week intervention. Findings indicate that the programme had a positive effect on participants' confidence, sense of professional identify and of being valued, as well as improving their ability to perform their role.     

Applying the scholarship of teaching and learning: student perceptions,behaviours and success online and face-to-face

This study compares student perceptions, learning behaviours and success in online and face-to-face versions of a Principles of Microeconomics course. It follows a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach by using a cycle of empirical analysis, reflection and action to improve the learning experience for students. The online course design involves 58 interactive narrated online modules, interactive online quizzes and biweekly online meetings with the instructor via video and voice-over-IP technology. Findings indicate that schedule flexibility motivates students to choose the online course format. Students in both learning environments felt they had high-quality communication with the instructor, while online students indicated limited peer-to-peer communication. Online students report studying more at home than face-to-face students, but not enough to compensate for the time face-to-face students spend in class. Reflecting on the findings, the authors suggest actions to improve the online course experience.     

高校创业教育研究:回顾、分析及前瞻

采用质的研究方法对2000年至2006年7月国内核心期刊出现的高校创业教育研究进行检索、编码和讨论。从研究主题、内容和研究方法上进行回顾和分析,对未来国内高校创业教育研究提出展望。     

Six teaching orientations of Holocaust educators as reflections of teaching perspectives and meaning making processes

This study explored processes of curricular reinterpretation made by teachers who teach about the Holocaust. We conducted holistic narrative analyses of in-depth interviews with 31 American Holocaust educators. Six teaching orientations were identified: passionate historical, mythologizing-transforming, social-contemporizing, empathic-personalizing, riveting-shocking, and pragmatic-socializing. We offer vignettes for each orientation and compare them to other teaching perspective typologies, highlighting the novelty and utility of the presented typology. The findings demonstrate how narrative identity, meaning-making processes and teaching perspectives interconnect and lead teachers to reinterpret the Holocaust in their teaching. These findings have implications for teaching complex and value-laden topics.