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This research aims to examine the educational philosophy of teachers in classrooms. Teachers' educational philosophy influences the power balance, course content function, student and teacher roles, responsibility for learning and assessment purposes and processes. The research also analyzes whether gender, qualification, specialization and experience significantly influence classroom educational philosophies.

The study utilized a quantitative research design, utilizing data from 193 teachers working in a public higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman. The study utilized a survey method to solicit data from the respondents. Besides utilizing descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, the study used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test to test the hypotheses.

Analysis revealed an instructional strategy's preference, including elements of both teacher-centered and student-centered educational philosophies. Elements of progressivism, constructivism, reconstructivism and perennialism are more relevant in the teacher's instructional design. The results show no significant differences in teachers' pedagogical philosophy that exist based on gender, specialization and experience. However, teachers' age significantly influences their educational philosophy preferences.

This research centers on a public higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman, with a particular focus on the Department of Business Studies. This resarch delimits its discussion on teachers' chosen educational philosophy. Other possible factors may also impact student retention and effective teaching and learning.

This research offers valuable insights to academicians, higher education administrators, and policymakers. Specifically, this research emphasizes the significance of employing a blended approach, which incorporates both student-centered and teacher-centered educational philosophies, to enhance student engagement, retention, and effective teaching and learning.

This research emphasizes the importance of educators' adoption of a blended educational philosophy in promoting student retention and engagement within higher education institutions. To achieve desirable outcomes, policymakers in higher education must ascertain which educational philosophy is most effective in the classroom. Additionally, ensuring congruence between preferred educational philosophy and teachers’  instructional practices is vital in facilitating effective teaching and learning.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind among teachers in higher education in the Sultanate of Oman. The outcome of this study helps detail the specific strategies teachers deploy and categorize into various educational philosophies.

This study aims to investigate the role of professors as gatekeepers for sustainable development competencies (SDC) in disciplinary study programs. It aims to understand which factors are crucial for professors to integrate SDC into their teaching, their basic understanding of SDC, the actual degree of SDC integration and how suitable they perceive student-centered teaching strategies for teaching SDC.

The results are based on the qualitative content analysis of interviews with 16 professors after they participated in a didactic training program focused on combining student-centered teaching strategies with SDC.

Psychological factors, like the attribution of responsibility, value orientations and cost-benefit considerations, are not the only reasons for integrating SDC into a course, as disciplinary requirements play their role. When teaching SDC, professors focus on systems-thinking, strategic and normative competencies. They consider student-centered teaching strategies especially suitable to teach systems-thinking and interpersonal competencies.

Promoting changes toward teaching SDC may best be done by supporting professors’ intrinsic motivations: by fulfilling the need for growth in teaching skills, activating values and creating an environment in which everybody feels responsible for teaching SDC.

Teaching SDC with student-centered teaching strategies is relevant even in study programs that show little relation to sustainability issues. professors are experts in their field, but not necessarily in the field of sustainability. Understanding how such professors might include sustainable development competency development in their syllabi can widen the influence of SDC on higher education.

This paper aims to report empirical research investigating how school‐based management (SBM) and paradigm shift (PS) in education are closely related to teachers' student‐centered teaching and students' active learning in a sample of Hong Kong secondary schools.

It is a cross‐sectional survey research involving 31 secondary schools, 1,119 teachers and 7,063 students with seven sets of questionnaires: three for students, three for teachers and one for principals.

The results of analysis indicate the following findings. The greater tendency towards SBM of a school associates with the greater extent of PS from the site‐bounded paradigm towards the triplization paradigm in education. Both the measures of SBM and PS in education are closed related to teachers' student‐centered teaching (in terms of facilitating student learning, facilitating student thinking and facilitating student self‐reflection and assessment) and students' active learning (in terms of positive learning attitudes, application of various learning methods, learning effectiveness, multiple thinking in learning and satisfaction in learning). The profiles of “high SBM and high‐PS” schools are much more preferable than “low SBM and low‐PS” schools in terms of various measures of teachers' teaching and students' learning.

Even though SBM and PS in education are strongly emphasized in ongoing educational reforms in different parts of the world, there is lack of empirical study to show how they are related to teachers' teaching and students' learning in practice. The findings of the research contribute to filling this research gap and advancing theoretical and practical understanding in such a frontier area.

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to examine the ambiguity surrounding course learning outcomes and how they are perceived by faculty members in four private universities, while simultaneously investigating the dominant teaching perspectives, practices and assessment techniques. In parallel, theory of constructive alignment was shared with faculty members and students as a possible teaching-learning model.

This study is a qualitative multiple-case study designed based on Yin’s (2009) case study protocol and Stake’s (2006) cross-case analysis report. In the process, 52 faculty members were interviewed, and 38 of the 52 were observed teaching, plus 15 of 52, faculty members participated in separate focus groups about constructive alignment. Further, 18 students were interviewed in separate focus groups to find out how they perceive effective teaching and constructive alignment.

The findings showed why faculty members misunderstood the course learning outcomes. Both faculty members and students withheld similar perceptions when it came to efficient teaching; however, they disagreed regarding the utility of constructive alignment as a proposed teaching-learning model. The 52 faculty members were mainly knowledge transmitters and this contradicts with the notion of the learning outcomes, which is student-centered. In addition, they are not familiar with the teaching-learning theories or with the various pedagogical tools that may render learning constructive.

The fact that this study is a multiple-case study automatically implies that the results cannot be generalized within the larger higher education context. Nevertheless, the research findings can help to clarify the reasons hindering the proper implementation of the learning outcomes in other institutions, as it can serve as a guide to improve all the detected weaknesses, which may be applicable in other contexts. It can also aid administrative bodies at the different institutions in dealing with the obstacles that restrict the workability of the learning outcomes.

Teaching in higher education must be nurtured through continuously investing time and effort in supporting faculty members to develop their teaching-learning skills to suit the changing profiles of students to render learning a durable experience.

The study is unique in how it combined Yin’s protocol with Stake’s cross-case analysis report. Additionally, the classroom observation instrument was, to an extent, a precedent in terms of higher education research in the Lebanese context. Further, the results obtained added to the results of previous research, i.e. the reasons why the learning outcomes were not functional. Plus, a cyclical/retrograding motion learning model emerged in the process, and the practicality of the theory of constructive alignment in the Lebanese context was questioned.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how secondary school teachers adaptively make use of the classroom learning environment. The approach illustrates the intimate relationship between teaching style, learning style and the adaptive use of space as well as the preferences for different learning environments.

A multi method study approach was used to carry out the research. Two main methods were used in the study. In the first method, trainee teachers recorded spatial observations (mapping). Maps of the chemistry classrooms were produced. The observers marked all fixed, semi‐fixed and flexible elements in the classroom space. The second method involved two questionnaires. The first questionnaire (Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS)) was used to identify and describe teachers' teaching styles. The second questionnaire (Questionnaire of the Classrooms' Physical Properties) was used by trainee teachers acting as observers. It consists of a set of items that enable the evaluation of classroom quality related to specific physical properties. Research data were collected from ten secondary schools (upper level of the Polish secondary schools) in five cities located in South‐West part of Poland.

The results suggest that the traditional row and column classroom seating arrangement was dominant. It was found that teaching styles could be identified determined using factors identified using the PALS scale. Teachers generally perceived their own learning environment as more teacher‐centered or more student‐centered. Their teaching styles were combinations of student‐centered and teacher‐centered activity.

The research has practical significance in that it had developed a questionnaire that can be used by students and teachers to monitor the quality of physical classrooms environments and provide guidelines for the improvement of learning spaces.

The application of the multi‐method described in this study creates possibilities for a deeper understanding of secondary school classroom environments. A structured data collection system was valuable for the trainee teachers. They acquired a useful knowledge of classroom management and how to create effective learning environments, during the professional practice period. Trainee teachers gain awareness that would enable them to make changes to the classroom environment as an adaptive resource.

This paper aims first to describe the most prevalent teachers’ and students’ behaviors in synchronous online classes in emergency remote teaching; second, to discern behavior profiles and third, to investigate what features explain the observed behaviors.

An adapted COPUS observation protocol was employed to observe 292 online classes from 146 higher education teachers.

The most prevalent behaviors were: Presenting for teachers and Receiving for students, followed by Teachers Guiding and Students Talking to Class. Furthermore, cluster analysis showed two groups: Traditional and Interactive. The variables that better explained belonging to the Interactive lecture group were disciplinary area – social sciences and humanities –and teaching in technical institutions.

In a context where higher education institutions intend to project the lessons learned into post-pandemic learning experiences, this study provides observational evidence to realize the full potential expected from online and blended teaching and learning.

Despite the prevalence of synchronous online lectures during COVID-19, there is a paucity of observational studies on the actual behaviors that occurred in this context. Most research has been based on surveys and interviews. This study addresses this gap.

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.

Using student-centered teaching methods presents a great challenge to many new middle and high school history teachers. Having experienced mostly teacher-centered instructional approaches (such as lectures and teacher-led discussions) in secondary school and college classes, they begin student teaching with few models for how to teach using less traditional forms of instruction. This paper discusses “Ideas, Issues, and Insights,” a strategy for prospective history teachers, as they explore the use of student-centered teaching methods with middle and high school students. It analyzes written reflection papers where history teacher candidates identify their ideas for three student-centered instructional methods — small group work, primary source analysis, and historical role-plays and simulations — as well as issues that arise when these student-centered methods are implemented in the classroom. As history teacher candidates respond to their ideas and issues, they generate insights about how they can best use student-centered teaching methods in their future classrooms. The first-person perspectives of history teacher candidates are highlighted to show how college students in one university-based teacher preparation program think about their student teaching experiences and their choice of instructional methods to use with students.

The aim of this paper is to explain how errors in policymaking contribute to the minimal impact that structural, curricular and cultural changes have made on teaching practice in American schools.

Drawing on the author's research legacy, the paper extends an historical analysis to explore and explain current dilemmas of change in schools and schooling.

Over the last century, educational reforms have most often led to first order classroom change, represented by the development of hybrids of old and new teaching practices. Second order change at the classroom level has proven elusive. Factors at the policymaking level that explain the minimal impact on classroom practice include a misplaced trust in structural reform, an understanding of schools as complicated rather than complex systems, and the tendency not to distinguish teacher quality from the quality of teaching.

The paper proposes that the lack of impact of reform on classroom practice is explained in large part by errors in assumptions and thinking that policymakers commit, a focus seldom explored in research.

The paper aims to propose a virtual reality (VR) wisdom teaching model in open university English course from the perspective of “Metaverse”. The study aims to testify the stimulation for English learning and the effectiveness of English-expressing with VR tools for adult learners from the practice in a pilot reform project.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using ICARE Design Model as the framework, under the grounded theories of constructivism and multi-modal teaching. The study compared the evaluation data of one-semester English learning performance between the experimental class (67 students) with VR practice and the controlled class (67 students), including speaking test score, qualitative feedback and in-depth experience analysis. The data were complemented by reflection paper analysis, including manual evaluation (the criteria of semantics, pronunciation, fluency and completeness), questionnaire survey (in the form of five-point Likert scale) and semi-structured interview.

The paper provides empirical insights about the VR wisdom teaching model in English language teaching and learning in a Chinese Open University. The empirical results suggest that “3I” features of VR technology could make up for the shortcomings of traditional English classes in open universities in China, and VR resources designed with curriculum teaching materials could also be helpful for students’ command of knowledge points and language skills. What’s more, the sense of authentic experience in virtual could promote the teaching and learning effect in college English classes.

The present study focuses on a wisdom mode of foreign language teaching and learning for adult learners in open education, so the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to further explore the deep integration of VR/artificial intelligence in foreign language teaching and learning.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how VR tools provide an engaging, fun and immersive language learning environment, to enhance autonomous learning and learning engagement.