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This chapter describes three active learning activities developed for use in the introductory financial accounting class: an interview with a financial statement user, an internal control paper, and a financial statement project where students analyze two competing businesses. We gathered student surveys and direct assessment data to see if these activities add value to the introductory accounting course.

The learning activities were originally developed using Fink’s (2003) Taxonomy of Significant Learning, aligning the activities with Fink’s learning dimensions, which also support the higher order learning skills in Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Students completed surveys by comparing how well traditional class activities (i.e., homework and tests) and the new activities support the core competencies of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). We also asked students open-ended questions on how they felt about these new activities. Researchers then compared pre- and postadoption assessment data to investigate the impact of the new learning activities on class completion rates and grades.

Based on faculty comments and student survey results, the three active learning assignments appear to be more effective in developing many of the AICPA’s core competencies and real world skill sets valued by professionals, providing more value than traditional teaching methods. In addition, the passing rates in the course at the Youngstown State University increased by 12% after adopting the learning innovations.

Faculty unionization is growing, and library faculty members are included in many collective bargaining units. Yet there is a dearth of information on how well collective bargaining contracts address the sometimes unique nature of library faculty work. This article explores contracts in a number of Ohio universities and from selective institutions around the country to see how well they accommodate the professional and work-related needs of librarians. Major contractual issues addressed include governance, academic freedom, workload, salary, and the retention, tenure, and promotion (RTP) of faculty, among others.

The typical accounting curriculum focuses on technical knowledge, which makes it challenging to devote time toward developing other important skills, such as examining how accounting rules may impact a company’s financial statements. Recently, the accounting rules for lease transactions changed significantly, and this chapter provides an overview of an assignment used in an intermediate accounting course to engage students in a real-world application. Students had the opportunity to apply accounting rules to a publicly traded company, measure the significance of changes to generally accepted accounting principles, read financial disclosures, reinforce concepts of present value and ratio analysis, and engage in critical thinking. This type of assignment does not have to be limited to leases, and instructors could discuss any accounting rule by following a similar model, whether the rule itself is current or proposed. This would offer students context beyond textbook learning.

Research has already uncovered a great deal of evidence about the individual and organizational qualities that enhance effective teaching and the kinds of qualifications (attributes) that are associated with effective teaching and learning. From a research perspective, increased precision and specificity in the definition and refinement of specific concepts (e.g., pedagogical content knowledge) will increase academic knowledge about the relationship between teacher characteristics, working conditions, and the quality of instruction that takes place. This knowledge may have little effect on policy formation. From a policy perspective, a holistic or organic conception of teacher quality will be critical for effective policy formation and implementation. At some point, academic knowledge about different aspects of effective or “quality” teaching need to be connected to a general concept of a quality teacher in order to be effectively inserted into policy debates and the general media. Systematic use of academic knowledge is often hindered by either the narrow focus of the research, or by its limited application to actual teacher practice. In spite of these limitations in academic research, there are areas where academics, policymakers, and practitioners have achieved consensus or are converging on shared constructs of promise. In other areas, both academic and political debates seem locked into conflict over constructs related to teacher quality. Identifying these three broad categories of consensus, convergence, and conflict provides a broad framework to assess the kinds of research and the kinds of reform that need to be carried out in order to promote and sustain teachers’ development and implementation of their professional skills in the classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to report about the presence of misconceptions in the historical thinking of fifth-grade children with learning disabilities (LD) and their normally achieving (NA) peers. We also sought to determine the effects of implementing an integrated instructional unit about 19th century U.S. Westward Expansion on children's historical misconceptions. This unit was taught over an eight-week period by a special education teacher (subsequently referred to as Ms. M) who had approximately two years of prior professional teaching experience. In addition to quantitative information about changes in children's content knowledge, we report interview data about children's understanding of historical content and historical reasoning. Furthermore, we captured on videotape approximately 12h of classroom instruction. Ms. M and the first author of this paper independently reviewed and then discussed these videotapes for the purpose of assessing the effects of her teaching practices on the development of children's historical understanding. The implications of our findings are discussed.

In Africa, the community college model, catered to nontraditional college aspirants, has been increasingly seen as an important alternative to respond to the growing demand for postsecondary education. By highlighting the case of Ethiopia, this chapter explores the implications of the community college model through the examination of the system, teacher training, and perspectives of students and employers. Some education and training can be more efficiently delivered at the community college level by means of focused and high-quality teaching, rather than through a long duration of bachelor's program.

Team teaching in higher education requires a great deal of coordination and commitment from both the professors teaching together, as well as administrators coordinating courses. Given the difficulties in logistics, it is not surprising that many teams give up on team teaching after only one or two semesters. The literature and lived experience by the authors verify the benefits that come from team teaching: multiple perspectives on the course material, more than one-course delivery method, greater attention from students used to just one instructor, and a greater level of energy in the room and on-line when more than one presenter shares the lecture time. Team teaching (or co-teaching as it is also referred to), in the Service Management Specialization at the Gustavson School of Business in Victoria, Canada, is sharing a cohort of students across three classes, and while each professor is responsible for separate course topics, each makes the time to integrate topics and share time in the classroom together multiple times during the semester.

The authors have been part of a team delivering curriculum this way for over 20 years, and this chapter examines how the material is organized and delivered to team teaching success. Critical elements include funding to support team teaching, commitment from professors to coordinate together, willingness to share materials, and building bridges from class to class to enable students to follow and integrate learnings. Team teaching has resulted in greater cohesiveness among faculty teaching in the program, higher teaching evaluations than professors experienced in solo teaching, and students who feel better prepared to tackle complex business problems that cross the interdisciplinary boundaries of marketing, operations, and talent management.

While some may perceive technology as disruptive in higher education, this chapter makes a case that video technology can be used to increase collaboration and engagement in learning and teaching. It is argued that digital storytelling can be integrated as part of the assessment in graduate-level courses without compromising expectations related to academic rigor. Rather, digital storytelling advances multimedia literacy for the individual and supports the generation of bounded learning communities, specifically in online and blended programmes. Covering social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence, the chapter draws on two examples of digital storytelling used in the MA in Conflict Analysis and Management and the MA in Global Leadership at Royal Roads University, Canada. Overall, the chapter makes a contribution to the conversation of how assessment formats can be updated to match the shift from traditional, lecture formats and brick-and-mortar institutions to applied, collaborative programmes that are often delivered in blended and online formats. Thus, as the field of higher education continues to evolve and adapt alongside technological innovations, the chapter suggests that digital storytelling can be one way to complement and update assessment formats to match the evolution of the twenty-first century.

This chapter outlines the efforts of two tenure-earning faculty members in distinctly different disciplines. Those navigating through a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) context face a unique set of challenges relative to institutional infrastructure that lends support for teaching, student development, research implementation, and scholastic activities. To address these shortfalls, the authors took action by implementing a novel and collaborative course redesign. While these efforts aimed to enrich existing course instruction, develop undergraduate students' research and teaching pedagogy, and provide culturally relevant teaching services to a partnering primary education institution, early incidents that emerged from the redesign revealed the utility of affording students such as innovative research experience (RE). The authors developed the novel assignment in accordance with Florida A&M University's Quality Enhancement Program, #WriteOnFAMU, which seeks to create a culture in which students become actively engaged in their learning through writing proficiency. Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) supports high-impact practices, undergirded by multiple opportunities for students to participate in cocurricular writing opportunities.

Moreover, the cross-curricular integrative writing approach implemented by the instructors of these courses (the authors) provided students enrolled in the Colleges of Education and the College of Social Sciences, Arts, & Humanities a unique opportunity to become actively engaged in a multidisciplinary approach to learning. The assignment not only enhanced students' writing proficiency but also broadened their exposure to content area knowledge, afforded students an opportunity to synthesis materials across disciplines, and allowed for critical analysis relative to an action-based, translational RE. The collaborative research assignment entailed two major objectives: the developed project was to (1) improve elementary education preservice students' lesson plan writing and implementation proficiency and (2) develop emerging psychology students' ability to produce and implement an action-based research project within the realm of Social Psychology. Students enrolled in RED3013 (Teaching Reading and Diagnosing its Growth) and SOP3003 (Social Psychology) worked collaboratively to complete the course requirements. Throughout the chapter, the authors describe how this teaching approach aided in faculty and student development. The narrative elaborates on tenure-earning elements of teaching and service via peer collaboration. Additionally, the authors highlight the scanty resources that create pitfalls for affording students opportunities to develop as researchers.

The landscape of learning and teaching is changing through the recognition of a diversity of learning types, new student generations as well as advances in technology and theory in education. While claims for interdisciplinary research and inquiry-based approaches, as well as integration of new media and technologies are at the heart of current discourses on teaching and learning, most educational activities still take place in a conservative format of the hierarchical teacher–student relationship in rather traditional educational facilities. As an architect and anthropologist, but most of all, as an academic who is devoted to teaching and research, I believe in teaching and learning experiences that are based on theoretical and methodological explorations in different disciplines in order to develop practical, research and critical thinking skills among the students. Students are motivated and engaged when they understand why information is important for them. Through an inquiry-based approach, abstract information becomes tangible and contextualized. In this chapter, I will first discuss common characteristics of our learners, today’s generation of students (the Millennials). Second, I will conceptually locate my approach to teaching among inquiry-based approaches such as Situated Learning, Learner-centered Teaching and Universal Design for Learning, which I see as complementary to each other. Third, I will explain my course design and give an account of two courses as examples for Inquiry-based Learning in action. Although these courses address architecture students, the Inquiry-based Learning and teaching experiences from these courses will inform a larger, more general audience interested in the subject matter.