Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Lessons Learned: Using Faculty Learning Communities To Foster Pedagogical Skills And Cultivate Community, Caitlin Brez, Linda Behrendt

Perspectives In Learning

Academic expertise has traditionally served as the measure of faculty’s effectiveness in the classroom. Twenty-first century changes in the landscape of higher education have brought the need for sound pedagogy as a foundational tool in the college classroom. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are an effective method to facilitate the development of pedagogy, which, in turn, has shown to have a direct effect on student success and graduation rates. This article examines the experiences of two faculty members at a Midwestern university who developed a 10-week inter-disciplinary FLC that was offered over 5 semesters, as well as participant feedback.

Www (When Websites Work): Students’ Perceptions Of Their Engagement When Using A Website Creation Tool, Jamie J. Els

Perspectives In Learning

When students find value in technology and can apply that technology in their learning and beyond, they become more actively engaged in the classroom. After having first-year seminar students use Web 2.0 technology, specifically a website creation tool as part of an assignment, they participated in a survey to provide feedback over their engagement in creating a Google Sites® website. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed to determine students’ perceptions of their engagement when using website creation tools to complete a modified discussion assignment. Results indicated students were significantly more engaged than the normal population when they used …

How To Drink From A Firehose: Systemic Supports For Polytechnic Chairs, Jocelyn R. Crocker

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is centred on the Problem of Practice of the inadequate institutional supports for academic Chairs at Prairie Polytechnic (a pseudonym), a large public higher education institution in Western Canada. Chairs are pivotal for higher education institutions because they impact student, departmental, and institutional outcomes; however, the leadership development needs of Chairs are overlooked, and the limited training available for Chairs is primarily ad hoc, episodic, short-term, and self-guided. The objective of this OIP is to determine how Prairie Polytechnic can provide more effective systemic supports for Chairs. Postmodernism is used to explore the relationships between …

On Becoming Online Educators: Developing Hybrid Learning-Centered Pedagogy, Rachel Toncelli Edd, Leila Rosa Phd

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Recent global events pushed in-person learning to online formats. As K-12 teachers struggled with shifting from in-person to online teaching while adapting and adjusting instruction, and higher education prepared to do the same, two faculty members in a TESOL teacher preparation program joined forces to question assumptions about online teaching, reflect on praxis, and revisit pedagogy and practices through a critical autoethnographic study. Building from adult constructivist learning theory and collegial inquiry, the researchers utilized the pandemic as a stage for innovation and an opportunity to study their own ability, as …

Accreditation Of Teaching And Research Universities In Afghanistan: A Policy Implementation Analysis, Sayed Javid Mussawy

Doctoral Dissertations

The quest for quality has encouraged many countries to establish quality assurance and accreditation models to sustain and improve quality. While some established their own procedures, a great majority of the countries including those in the developing world have adopted quality assurance policies developed in the Global North to respond to internationalization and to participate in the knowledge economy. However, most universities in developing countries lack adequate infrastructure to implement accreditation standards. Thus, investigating the implementation of accreditation policies in developing nations provides new insight into the opportunities and challenges posed by internationalization of quality assurance and accreditation. This study …

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Parenting Adult Learners Regarding Persistence In Two-Year Community Colleges, Michelle T. Webb Ed.D.

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examined the results of semi-structured interviews conducted with six parenting adult learners (ParentALs) enrolled in three public two-year community colleges in the United States. This study investigated the problem of a lack of understanding of the experiences of ParentALs enrolled in community colleges. The purpose of this study was to examine how the lived experiences of ParentALs enrolled in community colleges may influence their persistence. Three themes emerged from the literature review and data analysis: the identity of the ParentAL, characteristics and intersectionality of factors, experiences, and perceptions that may influence ParentAL persistence in community college, …

A Pen, A Pencil, Or A Keyboard: Writing Center Tutors’ Perceptions, Mirta Ramirez-Espinola

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

A Pen, A Pencil, or a Keyboard: Online Writing Center Tutors’ Perceptions

Author, Adjunct Faculty, Grand Canyon University

Abstract

Writing can be challenging for some students, even those who have graduated high school and are moving forward to higher learning. Thus, an idea about students and writing support led to a study about writing centers and the individuals responsible for supporting struggling writers. This qualitative case study explored the tutors’ perceptions of online writing tutoring and investigated how tutors perceive their work using both asynchronous and synchronous online tutoring modes at a 4-year university. Though the writing center participating in …

Introduction To Transparency In Learning And Teaching, Mary-Ann Winkelmes

Perspectives In Learning

Introduction to Transparency in Learning and Teaching

Facilitating Tilting As A Faculty Community, Debra Palmer, Carrie Bachhofer, Allen Brown, Alaina Kaus, Michele Mckie, Thelma Sexton

Perspectives In Learning

In this paper, we describe our perspectives and experiences working as one of several small groups within a campus-wide program at our university to help implement transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) principles. Faculty were asked to implement TILT into lower-and upper-level courses, as well as co-curricular activities, by transforming some aspect of their course or activities to be more "transparent," meaning students would be able to better understand its purpose and value and how it relates to their major, future career, and personal lives. The program followed a faculty learning community (FLC) model, where members supported one another through …

Facing The Crises Of Higher Education: Reflections On A State University’S Experiment With Tilt, John Lejeune, Judy O. Grissett

Perspectives In Learning

Facing the Crises of Higher Education:

Reflections on a State University’s Experiment with TILT