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This chapter examines the practical and conceptual limitations and possibilities of using ethnographic methods in the college writing classroom for the purpose of instructors’ professional development. The study is based on ethnographic research with a second-year course in Stanford University’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric. The study’s dual foci included the teacher–researcher’s pedagogical practices and students’ learning, and entailed participant-observation and the recording of ethnographic fieldnotes. It builds on the anthropology of literacy, a tradition of action research among educational ethnographers, and scholarship on composition pedagogy. Participant-observation could be helpful to other college instructors interested in improving their teaching. However, combining participant-observation with direct student feedback through interviews or surveys will be most effective in shaping educators’ professional development. Using participant-observation for professional development in the college writing classroom did not only situate me, the ethnographer, as both subject and object of research. Unexpectedly, my research also placed ethnographic methods as objects of research. By examining student learning and teaching practices ethnographically, researchers create opportunities to illuminate assumptions related to research as well as broader lessons about the study of teaching and learning.

How was I going to engage the students in my ancient Roman Art and Architecture course, especially the five football players who had signed up in the fall of 2015? In this chapter, I will discuss the commitment I made to the students and myself to ensure that each class period was one in which an active learning technique was used, often paired with some lecture, and sometimes not, to engage students and help them learn about Roman Art and Architecture. I will discuss what assignments I chose based on research and my own observation, as well as the results of a focus group held with the football players a year later about what they remembered. Football players tend to be kinetic learners and thus were chosen as the follow-up to see how the active learning techniques in this class met objectives. Specifically, this chapter will discuss the inclusion of a Reacting to the Past role-playing game, a research project on “Daily Life in Ancient Rome,” and presentations on different methodologies of interpreting an image from a Pompeiian tavern.

The quality of higher education has become a topic of increasing interest to researchers in recent decades. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the comparative effectiveness of instructors at higher education institutions in Kuwait and the USA, while also investigating the parallel differences in student culture and gender.

The researchers employed a quantitative research paradigm, using a questionnaire survey method to examine four dimensions of effective instructorship (teaching skills, human relations, ethics, and assessment). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data from 254 college students (N = 254), comprising 132 students at Bemidji State University in the USA and 122 students at Kuwait University in Kuwait.

The findings showed that students ranked “human relations” as the most significant attribute of an effective university instructor. Study results also indicated that culture is an important influencer of student perceptions regarding effective instructor characteristics. Gender also played a role in student perceptions of teacher effectiveness. Cross-culturally, female participants ranked teacher effectiveness dimensions such as human relations, ethics, and assessment, significantly higher than did their male colleagues, while within each culture, male students at the American university showed significantly greater concern for ethics in comparison to their counterparts in Kuwait.

This study offers findings from a cross-cultural comparative perspective. It provides value to administrators, deans, and department chairs at higher educational institutions who are evaluating their current rank, tenure, and promotions criteria and processes for teaching faculty. Additionally, while K-12 education has received significant attention over the past few decades regarding the qualities and practices of effective teachers in that realm, this study extends such research significantly into higher education.

This chapter considers the work of preparing educators to teach in culturally sustaining/revitalizing ways. It is based on a qualitative study that examined 60 preservice interns’ cross-cultural experiences in schools in Alaska Native villages. The chapter explores the interns’ descriptions of the schooling contexts related to school-based instruction of Indigenous languages and cultures and considers pedagogical implications for preservice programs that aim to prepare culturally sustaining/revitalizing educators. Findings include accounts of instructional practices in classrooms teaching Indigenous languages and cultures and themes presenting the schooling contexts as crisis, struggle, and hope. Implications for teacher education are discussed consisting of pedagogical responses to the contexts interns described and considerations for supporting preservice teachers’ transformative learning.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the experiences of tertiary students learning oral presentation skills in a range of online and blended learning contexts across diverse disciplines.

The research was designed as a “federation” of trials of diverse online oral communications assessment tasks (OOCATs). Tasks were set in ten courses offered across all five faculties at University of Newcastle, Australia. The authors collected and analysed data about students’ experiences of tasks they completed through an anonymous online survey.

Students’ engagement with the task was extremely positive but also highly varied. This diversity of student experience can inform teaching, and in doing so, can support student equity. By understanding what students think hinders or facilitates their learning, and which students have these experiences, instructors are able to make adjustments to their teaching which address both real and perceived issues. Student experience in this study highlighted five very clear themes in relation to the student experience of undertaking online oral communications tasks which all benefit from nuanced responses by the instructor: relevance; capacity; technology; time; and support.

Using well-designed OOCATs that diverge from more traditional written assessments can help students successfully engage with course content and develop oral communication skills. The student experience can be used to inform teaching by catering for different student learning styles and experience. Student centred approaches such as this allows instructors to reflect upon the assumptions they hold about their students and how they learn. This understanding can help inform adjustments to teaching approaches to support improved student experience of learning oral communications tasks.

The importance of learning oral communication skills in tertiary education is widely acknowledged internationally, however, there is limited research on how to teach these skills online in a way that is student centred. This research makes a contribution toward addressing that gap.

As international boundaries fade and financial pressures increase, universities are redefining the norm in educational models. The move from a synchronous classroom to a blended classroom or a completely asynchronous environment has forced faculty to be creative in delivery while overcoming complexities in the associated infrastructure. Furthermore, geographic boundaries have diminished, leaving universities seeking ways to reach out to growing student markets, such as South‐east Asia. However, this rapid international growth and nearly constant revision of delivery has raised serious questions regarding the maintenance of the quality and reputation of the institution. This is particularly challenging for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs requiring laboratory facilities, commercial software, and detailed, highly interactive theoretical analysis. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution, in the aforementioned environment, of a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)‐centric university.

This paper will examine an example of using a local provider in an international setting to deliver content originating from three universities collaborating to deliver a single STEM degree.

The question of quality of education is found to overshadow this entire process, particularly given the strict constraints placed by accrediting organizations.

The example under consideration has addressed these issues in a variety of means, that is examined through the course of this paper as a case analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the impacts of earthquakes on schools and education services and demonstrate the critical role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in supporting the continuity of education delivery during temporary school closures after seismic events.

This paper relies on a conceptual analysis that shows the potential role of the online educational environment during post-earthquake school closures by relying on the available ICT tools.

This paper proposes a pro-active strategy for schools that transforms traditional education into an online learning environment to restore education delivery during school closures after earthquake which disrupts face-to-face teaching and denies students and staffs access to schools.

The sustainability of education delivery in the aftermath of earthquakes presents a challenge to governments, schools, people and communities. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the role of online learning in sustaining educational delivery services after moderate earthquakes.

Teaching library skills to college freshmen has been a challenge for academic libraries for decades. Year after year, librarians grapple with these questions: What library skills should freshmen have? How should these skills be taught? How does basic library instruction fit in with the curriculum of the college or university?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ understandings of ocean sustainability and the pedagogical influence of higher education on those conceptions.

The conceptions of ocean sustainability of 54 university students of various academic disciplines enrolled in the 2014/2015 semester course “Sustainable Oceans” were assessed through use of auto-photography. Data were collected at the beginning and end of the course. Inter-rater reliability was measured by percentage of identical coding outcomes by two coders.

Auto-photography is effective in assessing notions of sustainability. Social and economic dimensions were captured less frequently than environmental aspects in the students’ photographs. Overall, students demonstrated vague perceptual awareness about who should take responsibility concerning lifeworld-related issues. Also, their perceptions were affected by their choice of academic discipline. Engaging students in inter-/transdisciplinary learning, integrating the arts, science and community, helped develop a more balanced, action-motivated conception of sustainability. Post-test patterns of change in students’ vision and action were observed.

Implementing sustainability education in a university’s coordinating bodies is effective in constructing a campus-based learning network, and participation in local community empowerment promotes a substantial and multidimensional concept of sustainability, and teaching material that includes content from the fine arts, literature or music stimulates students’ awareness of, and sensitivity to, lifeworld issues.

This paper provides an innovative, auto-photography-based methodology, including an operational procedure, coding book and method of analysis, for assessing students’ conceptions of sustainability. It also develops an interdisciplinary course that serves a “threshold” intervention role in ocean sustainability education.