Education Commons^™

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong

Journal of Global Catholicism

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, the Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do the former. Aiming to ‘widen the lens’ on the variety of Catholic communities and practices, the site delivers on this goal by introducing viewers to a vast array of articles, pictures and videos from around the world. The organization of the site by country and by certain key features of lived Catholicism offers some interpretive guidance. However, the project could be strengthened as a pedagogical resource if it were more extensively thematized and hosted reflections on potential …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.

Teacher Professional Learning In A Writing-As-Making Mooc, Vicki Mcquitty, Sarah Lohnes Watulak, Joseph Runciman

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Teaching students to compose multimodal, digital writing is imperative in today’s world. Yet, few teachers feel prepared to effectively teach writing, particularly digital composing. This study investigated the design and implementation of an online professional development, Writing-as-Making Massive Open Online Collaboration(wmMOOC). In its design, wmMOOC drew upon elements of the maker movement, principles of connected learning, and the social practices of the National Writing Project. Results indicate that participants took ownership over their writing/making and learning processes and engaged in risk-taking—two necessary stances for creating effective digital compositions. However, they did not critically evaluate the traditional writing in their …

Foregrounding The Margins: A Dialogue About Literacy, Learning, And Social Annotation, Lauren Zucker, Jeremiah H. Kalir, Michelle L. Sprouse, Jeremy Dean

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Annotation, or the addition of a note to a text, enables readers-as-writers to make their thinking visible. This article, which is structured as a dialogue among four literacy educators, discusses the potential for social annotation to transform literacy learning, assessment, and teacher education. Collectively, the authors argue for social annotation as a vital and transformative practice in hybrid and post-pandemic education. The authors reflect on their personal and pedagogical uses of annotation, sharing related resources for educators across K-12 and higher education contexts.

Uncharted Waters: Sustaining A Meaningful Student Teaching Experience Amidst A Global Pandemic Via An Online Stem Curriculum, Nanette I. Marcum-Dietrich, Cindy Stunkard, Zachary Krauss, Steve Kerlin

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

Field experience is the culminating experience for pre-service teacher training. As COVID-19 closed schools across the country, pre-service teachers’ field experiences were disrupted. This case study examines how a student teacher, a team of mentor teachers, and a university supervisor at a regional public university adapted to remote learning. The findings suggest that there were gains and losses in terms of the pre-service teachers’ ability to develop essential skills; classroom management skills suffered while formative assessment practices, innovative lesson delivery, and reflection on instruction were enhanced. The transition to remote learning also caused the way student teachers’ skills were valued, …

A Comparative Study Of Saudi Arabian And U.S. Pre-Service Teachers’ Readiness For Technology Integration, Yosra M. Bugis, Randy Larkins

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The purpose of this study is to understand how prepared teachers in two countries are to utilize technology effectively in a physical and virtual classroom environment. This research is a comparative study of Saudi Arabian and US preservice teachers’ readiness for technology integration in their actual teaching practices. Survey methodology was used to measure both knowledge and attitudinal variables found to be important to later integration of technology into teaching among preservice teachers. The results provide updated insight into the status of US and Saudi Arabian preservice teachers’ proficiencies and attitudes toward integrating technology into their teaching and implications for …

The Effect Of Using Web Quests And Learning Platforms For Teaching Mathematics On Developing The Mathematical Power Among Eighth Grade Students, Dr. Mofeed Ahmad Abumosa, Dr. Jafar Awad Saleh

International Journal for Research in Education

The study aimed to identify the effect of using web-quests and learning platforms to develop mathematical power among eighth-grade students. The study adopted the semi-experimental approach. A ninety-eight graders in the second semester 2018-2019 participated in this study. Participants were randomly distributed into three groups. The first group represented the first experimental group (web-quests), the second group represented the second experimental group (learning platforms), and the last group represented the control group (traditional). An achievement for mathematical power test was developed. The results showed statistical differences at (p < 0.05) among the average scores of the three study groups. Results showed that the second experimental group (learning platforms) was better than other groups. Moreover, the first experimental group (web-quests) was better than the third one (traditional). Recommendations to adopt learning platforms in teaching mathematics may help in developing mathematical power.

Real-World Modelling To Increase Mathematical Creativity, Robert Weinhandl, Zsolt Lavicza

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Modelling could be characterised as one of the core activities in mathematics education. However, when learning and teaching mathematics, mathematical modelling is mostly used to apply and deepen mathematical knowledge and competencies. Our educational study aims to explore how mathematical modelling, using real objects and high-quality mathematical technologies, could be utilised to acquire mathematical knowledge and competencies, and how learners could creatively use their existing knowledge. To discover the potential of mathematical modelling using real objects and high-quality mathematical technologies to acquire mathematical knowledge and competencies, and to stimulate learners' creativity, first, we combined cognitive and creative spirals and mathematical …

Quality Of Online Learning Participation In A Context Of Crisis, Jorge Chávez, Rosa Barrera, Rosa Montaño, Jaime Sánchez, Jaime Fauré

Higher Learning Research Communications

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions to adopt online tools in order to conduct emergency remote teaching and make efficient use of virtual learning contexts. However, although these contexts may serve to improve teaching processes, a number of issues must be taken into consideration in order to ensure quality student learning. We analyze a computer programming module taught during the first year of a Computer Science degree course at a Chilean university. The module is taught online using a Learning Management System (LMS). We discuss the type of participation required in order to achieve the construction of more complex …

Changes That Should Remain In Higher Education Post Covid-19: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of The Experiences At Three Universities, Águeda Benito, Kubra Dogan Yenisey, Kavita Khanna, Manuel Felipe Masis, Rosa Maria Monge, Mehmet Ali Tugtan, Luis Diego Vega Araya, Rekha Vig

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: The goal of the present study is to describe how the transition to remote emergency delivery was addressed in three universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the satisfaction levels of their students and faculty with this new teaching-learning experience, and to gather their opinions about the future of higher education.

Method: The study uses a mixed-methods approach, including faculty and student surveys and focus groups

Results: The study shows high satisfaction with the emergency remote delivery and clearly reflects the relevance of enhancing the digital components of future learning experiences in higher education and a unanimous preference for …

Creating Greater Awareness Of The Australian Professional Standards For Teachers In Initial Teacher Education, Melissa Cain, Chris Campbell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Throughout their initial teacher education training in Australia, students are informed about the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) and the necessity of gathering evidence to achieve these for teacher registration. Whilst the use of digital technologies as tools for reflection has become increasingly popular, there remains a paucity of research around the types of digital technologies that students use to document their ability to achieve accreditation requirements. This study presents details of how PebblePad, a specialised ePortfolio platform, can assist teacher education students to gain increased awareness about the 37 APST descriptors through the use of tagging. Results demonstrate …

How Constructivist Theories Of Development Can Be Used To Re-Conceptualise Naplan As An Opportunity To Develop Student Resilience, Robert M. Vanderburg, Paul Trotter

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teachers have come under increased pressure to improve educational outcomes as Australia has sought to meet the challenges of competing on an international level. This intensified pressure has been accompanied by improved levels of funding, a National Curriculum for all Australian states, and territories, along with assessments to measure these key outcomes. However, this increased level of scrutiny has affected the pedagogical choices of teachers. Traditional modes of instruction have been reinforced, with teachers moving away from effective constructivist approaches to learning. This article will propose that a reinterpretation of constructivist theories of development is needed to arrest this decline, …

Use Of A Webinar To Assess Fieldwork Educator Readiness To Provide Occupational Therapy Services And Supervise Students Through Telehealth, Jennifer A. Calabrese, Jeanne M. Coviello, Anna Y. Grasso, Kelly A. Otchet, Erica A. Pugh, Mary Beth Thomas, Bridget Trivinia

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, many school-based occupational therapy practitioners experienced intensified job demands including a rapid shift to telehealth service delivery. Additionally, academic fieldwork coordinators sought to find effective methods of delivering fieldwork education and supporting those involved, including the occupational therapy fieldwork educators and students, as they navigated the new context imposed by the pandemic. A study was completed using a synchronous webinar format and post-webinar survey to explore school-based occupational therapy practitioners’ perceptions of readiness to provide occupational therapy services through telehealth, the perception of preparedness of potential, current, and …

Flop To Flip: Integrating Technology And Team-Based Learning To Improve Student Engagement, Diana A. Veneri, Elizabeth M. Mongillo

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The first attempt to develop and instruct a new course in evidence-based practice in a physical therapy curriculum proved problematic. The purpose of this paper is to describe the method of revising this traditionally taught course using a combination of flipping the classroom, team-based learning, and technology. Methods: Working with an Instructional Design Specialist, a weekly online preparatory module was created for each content topic using a variety of multimedia learning provisions including micro learning videos (PowerPoint with voiceover), transcript of the PowerPoint, a list of vocabulary words, reading, Quizlet, Flipgrids and Concept Checks. Each week’s module was introduced …

Design Science Research – Alternative Pathway For Aviation Training-Related Studies, Guilherme A. Da Silveira, Éder Henriqson

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Relevance is a permanent requirement of academic research, which means it is worth discussing methods and paradigms that provide the most useful outcomes to the most relevant problems, while maintaining rigor and criteria at a high level. The class of problems associated with aviation [pilot] training-related studies demands pragmatic solutions that are not always conspicuous from traditional qualitative or quantitative methods akin to the natural sciences. Hence, an interface between the natural and the artificial is required. The purpose of this theoretical essay is to review design science research (DSR) methodology, considering its applicability to aviation [pilot] training problems, thus, …

Beyond Tickets And Comma Splices: Using Writing Center Coaching Techniques To Support Online Learners, Lisa Mcneal, Jennifer P. Gray

Georgia Educational Researcher

Many college students struggle with technical difficulties when enrolled in an online or hybrid class. Sometimes students do not even have a choice about online options, such as in the COVID-19 era, when the shift to remote instruction has happened and could happen at any time. Students need support for success in the online environment, yet many support models focus on the immediate problem rather than deeper root causes for the problem or misunderstanding. Traditional support models may use a ticket-based system that strives to quickly resolve the issue at hand. While the ticket-based system has some merit, there is …

Interactive Modules For Flight Training: A Review, Stephanie G. Fussell Ph.D., Robert Thomas Ph.D.

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

The use of animation and video, combined with auditory and text components, to teach complex subjects can be beneficial to deepen understanding. A review of the literature was conducted to better understand how interactive learning modules can give flight students tools to enhance the learning process outside of traditional instruction. Instructional theories and educational environments were considered through the lens of designing course content for flight students. Several research questions were asked to guide the course of the research, all focused on how students learn a complex subject matter using interactive material. Guidelines and principles are discussed to ensure the …

Digitalization Of Educational And Methodological Support For The Training Of Aviation Dispatchers, Zair Ziyaevich Shamsiev

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The tasks of improving the educational process of training civil aviation dispatchers on the basis of the development and implementation of digital teaching aids are considered. Legislative and regulatory documents are accepted as an object of digitalization. The end result of the research is expressed in the provision of the educational process with a special electronic educational complex, which has the functions of providing the necessary information and conducting practical exercises to deepen, consolidate and control knowledge in the field of aviation documents.

Multiple-Role Perspective On Assessing Teaching Ability: Reframing Tvet Teachers’ Competency In The Information Age, Jun-Feng Diao, Juan Yang

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

In the information age, technology has changed people's lives as well as working and learning styles. The teaching competency of vocational teachers’ is facing new challenges. Based on the modernization of vocational education, "Internet + Vocational Education", and "reform of teachers, teaching materials and teaching methods", the study intends to enrich the research on vocational teachers’ teaching competency theoretically by establishing the framework, criteria and assessing instrument. In practice, the study aims to provide benchmarks and tools for the diagnosis and assessment of vocational teachers’ teaching competency. Furthermore, the study wishes to provide guidelines for vocational teachers' professional development and …