Search results

To outline the structure and development of a library‐based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) training programme at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and to describe its origins, implementations and long‐term goals. To explain why WIT Libraries was prepared to diversify from its traditional role and to take on the challenges involved in this project.

Case study report on the VLE training initiative as it has progressed at WIT. Describes WIT Libraries' experience as the main instigator of the WebCT training programme at WIT and questions whether or not this has been an effective medium for the introduction of WebCT to WIT.

Concludes by stating that the Library Unit is capable of implementing a varied, diverse and successful VLE programme. Stresses the importance of the personnel involved to the success of the project to date.

The project is still at an early stage of development. The study provides a short‐term view of one small academic library service's experience of implementing a VLE. No full‐scale user survey has been conducted to date.

This account of WIT Libraries” experience of working with a VLE is likely to be a useful source of practical information for libraries in similar positions, of similar scale, faced with similar challenges.

Offers practical solutions for libraries in similar positions. The successful diversification of the traditional library role is likely to be of interest to all members of the library profession.

Our lived experiences are complex, dynamic and increasingly connected locally and globally through virtual realities that call for an evolution and responsiveness from the field of architecture education. To ensure future built environments are designed to nurture healing and health, this paper aims to address a critical need in architecture education to integrate knowledge of health and social-behavioral disciplines in students' course work. The authors will outline the process of preparing a new multidisciplinary course on health and the built environment (HBE) at the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA, as an effort to challenge the barriers of discipline-specific pathways to learning in the field of architecture.

The central question is how to develop an active learning pedagogy to foster a multidisciplinary learning environment focused on the “practice” (how to) of human-design-oriented approaches to improve the capability of built and natural environments to promote health and healing. The course intentionally centered on the real-life experiences of students to ground their new understanding of health and well-being fields. The course proposal went through an extensive peer-review process of reviewers from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other departments at Morgan State University to ensure a balance between health- and architecture-specific curricula with a transdisciplinary approach to understanding complex health issues.

This paper shows the effectiveness of tools and techniques applied in the course to challenge architectural students to integrate various health and behavior perspectives in their designs and to apply health and healing principals to their current and future design projects.

While there are courses in American universities that offer a traditional introduction to health concerns related to the built environment, there is limited focus on the perspective of the design field approach to improve health and healing outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an online faculty development pilot course on how to engage students online. A framework was used, referred to as the Trifecta of Student Engagement, for the design of the course. The Trifecta of Student Engagement proposes that students, in order to be fully engaged in a course, need to be engaged with their course content, with their peers and with their instructor. The course has three units of content that each correspond to the Trifecta of Student Engagement. This course has gone through one pilot with faculty and has impacted students and faculty positively.

An online faculty development course was piloted with eight faculty members across a range of disciplines who participated in the program. After taking the course, they had to apply the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to a course they taught and share what they did via written report, webinar, or web presentation. This study summarized the faculty participants’ written reports and presentations as well as provided a qualitative evaluation on the impact this course had on students and faculty.

After faculty applied the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to courses taught, faculty saw an improvement in student engagement, satisfaction, learning and achievement. Three faculty surveyed students to determine their engagement and satisfaction and found students to respond positively to the use of tools and activities for student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement. Two faculty examined student grades to determine if there were changes in student outcomes. One professor saw average grades increase by 11 percent. Another professor saw grades improve by 8 percent. She also found that student assessment of learning increased by 0.57. Both faculty attributed the improvement to the effectiveness of the teaching strategies employed.

This research is limited to the eight faculty who participated in the pilot. Some faculty used methods to attempt to measure the impacts of their teaching practices by surveying students and looking at student performance data. A second pilot is needed for additional faculty to take the course and apply the Trifecta of Engagement framework to generate more data for impact.

Institutions looking to create an online teaching professional development course for faculty can utilize the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework for their course design. Additionally, faculty can read about tools and strategies that they can immediately apply to create more student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement.

Faculty can be more intentional in how they engage students in their online course experience.

This paper adds to the literature on faculty development regarding student-centered teaching practices. Other institutions looking to create a faculty development course or program that utilizes a student-centered framework may find aspects of this paper useful for their own online teaching professional development initiatives.

Education is the most promising and prominent domain for entrepreneurs who are willing to infuse innovation and creation to initiate the change in existing educational practices. These changing agents are known as edupreneurs. Educational domain generates an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to balance work and life, both. However, women edupreneurs community needs to enhance their competencies and capacities to handle diverse issues and challenges posed by stakeholders. This paper aims to explore competencies helpful in designing a customized leadership development program, especially for women edupreneurs community.

From the extensive literature, a number of competencies for women's edupreneurs were found and 12 competencies were selected in this study after experts’ opinions. These competencies were analyzed by an integrated analytical hierarchy process (AHP)-TOPSIS approach.

The study has extracted competencies (visionary, delegative, inquisitive, learning agility, cognitive ability, self-reflection, tolerance, decisive, self-development, receptive to feedback, building partnership networks and save face) to be included in leadership development program specially designed for women edupreneurs community engage in operating child care, pre-school, primary-elementary schools and secondary-high schools, addressing the problems and issues related to students and parents community.

Future leadership development programs designed for women edupreneurs can include these competencies and trainers, educators and policymakers can follow the suggested structure for execution purpose.

This study is an initial attempt to set a benchmark for improving competencies of women edupreneurs.

This paper aims to outline the prosocial leadership development process for guiding pedagogical and social justice course goals as a means to foster prosocial leadership values within the millennial generation.

The paper is guided by a social justice framework and proven classroom pedagogies as a means to align millennial characteristics within the four stages of the prosocial leadership development process.

An educational rubric is provided as a means to guide classroom pedagogies, course goals and millennial characteristics through a prosocial leadership development process.

The paper is conceptual in nature, and therefore, theoretical correspondence remains speculative.

The research in this paper provided guidelines for educators to use pedagogical practices as a means to develop prosocial values as a basis for organizational leadership behaviors.

This leadership development process when facilitated through proven pedagogical techniques (guided by established social justice curriculum goals) and is within the context of millennial characteristics (those born between the years 1982 and 2005) becomes catalytic in empowering leaders to be a remedy for the world’s environmental and social challenges.

This paper connects characteristics of millennials to a prosocial leadership development model.

The aim of this study is to examine the pedagogy courses of teacher education programs implemented in two universities in Turkey and the USA in terms of multicultural education. The teaching practices in the pedagogy courses of teacher education programs in the USA might have multicultural education principles, and they could be models for teacher educators in Turkey. In addition, this study can contribute to the cross-cultural studies on teacher education between the USA and Turkey.

Ten teacher educators participated in the study; all of them had experience in teaching pedagogy courses in the early childhood teacher education program. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The open-ended questions were related to objectives, content, teaching methods and activities. Assessment procedures and methods were also asked from the participants to evaluate their teaching experiences in terms of multicultural education. Thematic analysis was used to examine data of the study.

The results of the study revealed that there were differences between the objectives, content, teaching process and assessment methods of the courses in the teacher education programs in Turkey and the USA in terms of multicultural education. The results of this study revealed that the objectives, content, teaching process and assessment methods planned and implemented by teacher educators in the USA are more multicultural and multiethnic when compared with their counterparts in Turkey.

This study can contribute to the cross-cultural studies on teacher education between the USA and Turkey.

The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of internship experience on final-year pre-service teachers (PSTs) studying for a Bachelor of Education in Abu Dhabi. The UAE is undergoing a period of rapid education reform with a strong emphasis on use of student-centered learning strategies in the classroom. Teacher-training colleges, such as the one in which this research took place, have had to customize their programs to prepare and train teachers who can effectively implement this new approach.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten PSTs to explore the usefulness of the college science courses during their internship experience, and the challenges they faced during their internship. We also looked at how these experiences have influenced their confidence levels and the type of science teachers they want to be in the future.

Results have shown that PSTs have variable opinions on the usefulness of the college courses. A perceived lack of emphasis placed by mentor teachers upon science may have long-term effects on the PSTs’ eventual use of teaching strategies. It was also shown that some of the PSTs still lacked confidence in science teaching.

This research may provide national guidelines for teacher-training colleges in the UAE or in countries undergoing educational reform and moving towards student-centered approaches to learning.

Research studies on the effect of internship on PSTs have been conducted in different countries but such studies have great novelty in the UAE.

This study examined educators’ self-perception as practitioners of inquiry-based math and science instruction, their motivation to produce videos to share that practice, and the impact of video production on their use of inquiry and role in the professional development community. Semi-structured interviews were used to address the research questions. Participant responses indicated a high level of self-reflection and a keen understanding of the nature of inquiry-based math and science teaching. Participants were motivated to share their practice largely by their desire to help other educators develop as inquiry practitioners. Articulating how and why they used inquiry-based techniques for the videos deepened their already reflective teaching. The positive aspects of participation also increased their confidence in their ability to engage in professional development as teacher-leaders. Overall this study indicated that videos created for the purposes of professional development had a transforming effect on those who produced them in addition to their benefit for others.

Many situations that affect the teaching of English have been unevenly examined in the scholarship. Asking the question, “What research in English teacher education will address the demands of preparing English language arts teachers for 21st century contexts?,” the authors provide recommendations to the field that will make our work more relevant and propose areas for further study based on current situations in English education in the United States that will move the field forward. The chapter suggests topics for further research centered on the English language arts-specific methods (pedagogy) course that includes exploring the tensions between literacy and English studies, integrating technology, moving theory into practice, the effects of high-stakes testing and assessments, and supporting more diverse student populations.