Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of advance organizers and audio narrations used to complement animated instruction on tests measuring different educational objectives. One hundred forty-one participants were randomly assigned to five treatment groups, received their respective instructional presentation and completed four criterion measures. No statistically significant differences in achievement were found among the five treatment groups on each of the criterion measures indicating that the type of cognitive strategies employed to complement animation did not instigate deeper levels of information processing and were not effective in facilitating higher order learning outcomes. These results raised concerns about the usefulness of prior research related to advance organizers and audio narrations when the objective is to complement animated instruction to facilitate higher order learning objectives.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: This study explored the benefits and limitations of mentoring relationships between pre-service and practicing K-12 teachers. Thirteen pre-service education students at a university in the southeastern United States and 17 practicing teachers from four states participated. The student participants were in their senior year in a teacher education program, during the semester just previous to their student teaching experience. Pre- and post-surveys, email exchanges and student email reflections were utilized to gather data concerning the effectiveness of the project. Results indicated that online mentoring was overall a highly positive experience that provided the student participants unique and practical insight into the field of teaching. The experience was not without problems however, as student participants voiced concern with the procedure for obtaining mentors, timely responses from some mentors and the degree to which their questions were addressed in some cases.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: We present descriptive data about the nature and correlates of classroom conflict using a national sample of 226 faculty members. We differentiated two different types of conflict, inattentive versus hostile, in our survey. Levels of conflict were not associated with instructors? demographic traits or characteristics of their courses, but were related to professors? choice of teaching methods, their demeanor, and how they responded to challenging situations. We also found that those conflict management techniques that address the relationship between faculty and students were most effective in reducing conflict.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: Teaching a course entitled Introduction to Theories of Education requires that one practice what one is preaching. We describe an attempt to organize and provide undergraduates enrolled in an introductory course of 300+ students, with a viable, yet more collaborative and ?product-based? alternative to the familiar lecture and test format. This qualitative study considers various forms of feedback that were elicited from both students and the course teaching assistants regarding the learning outcomes facilitated or hindered by this alternative format. Our analysis offers insight into some important ways the particular learning activities promoted in this course design intersect with larger institutional norms that infuse organizations (like universities) with social value, and how students negotiate the university experience. Findings suggest that ?good students? spend considerable energy learning to conform to what they believe to be their instructors? expectations, often at the expense of learning-with-understanding. However, learning-with-understanding may also be encumbered by the ambiguity or uncertainty that accompanies the removal of clear and explicit expectations. Tentative suggestions are offered explaining why and how some students gained proficiency in goal-formation and metacognition while simultaneously overcoming a sense of ambiguity or uncertainty.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: This paper evaluates a peer observation of teaching scheme one year after its introduction in a United Kingdom (UK) university. In order to understand why the case study institution chose to implement peer observation, there is discussion of the national policies that have encouraged its use in the UK and the lessons learned from universities in the United States and Australia. A series of themes are identified which provide an analytical framework for the consideration of the responses of individual academics from some of the departments involved to the underlying principles, processes and practices of the scheme. The research demonstrates the importance of implementing peer observation sensitively, taking account of the organizational culture of the different departments and being fully aware of the anxieties and concerns of academic staff.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: This article presents an investigation into the meaning of ?learning? It uses cybernetics as a framework to look at the fundamental questions of: What is learning and why do people learn? Why do they learn this (and not something else)? How does learning happen? The article first describes the origin of cybernetics and its central tenets of circularity, feedback and communication, which suggest that learning is fundamentally about living. The living system learns as it fits with the environment in an integrated brain/body/environment learning system. This leads to a discussion of teaching and learning as building relationships with self and others in communication, with self and others, with or without the intention of changing and being changed in the encounter. Teacher and learner inevitably change (learn) as they interact whatever the context. The article suggests that what is happening in the encounter between teacher and learner, that which we call ?learning?, happens to each of us in the same way all of the time. Learning is change; change learning. ?Teacher? and ?Learner? change (learn) together in a constant feedback network of communication.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: Grant writing experience can be a valuable asset for students completing masters-level degree programs across a variety of disciplines. A service learning grant writing project was incorporated in a multidisciplinary program evaluation course as part of a writing requirement. Twelve students served as ?ghost writers? and wrote grant proposals to foundations for community organizations. Projects were assessed by ratings provided by faculty across departments who served as judges. Qualitative data was collected from students and organizational sponsors that showed high levels of satisfaction from both groups and an awareness of reciprocity of benefit from service learning were observed in both groups. Benefits and limitations of the pedagogical technique are discussed.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: In this article, Lewin?s (1951) social field theory is used as a framework for analyzing the potential for implementing scalable and sustainable e-learning initiatives in the academy. Powerful external economic and social forces coming to bear on academic leadership decisions are considered. The impacts of the emergence of the global learning society, knowledge economy, and information technology paradigm are explored. Five social forces?postmodernism, the interpretive turn, identity politics, globalization, and the post-colonial critique (Lincoln, 2001)?are examined. Existing and emergent pressures, exerted by both external and internal socioeconomic forces, are analyzed for their potential to support or inhibit adoption of e-learning initiatives into research, teaching, and learning activities. An e-learning policy field is posited.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: This paper describes a peer-mentoring program in a large language department. Experienced Teaching Associates (TAs) served as peer mentors to novice TAs, providing the type of individualized guidance that new TAs need. The peer mentoring model has several advantages over the supervision-only model, including one-on-one help, multiple classroom visits and meetings, and regular feedback on various aspects of teaching. The experience that TAs share at different levels, as teachers and as students, is also important and plays a positive role in a peer mentoring program. Even though the program described has been instituted in a language department, the model may be useful to departments in other disciplines that also employ a large number of TAs.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.

Abstract: This paper proposes a model for building pedagogical knowledge and improving teaching based on the practice of lesson study. In lesson study a small group of instructors jointly designs, teaches, studies and refines a single class lesson called a research lesson. We describe how college teachers can do lesson study in their classrooms. We explore how the practice of lesson study creates multiple pathways for improving teaching and how the knowledge teachers create can help to advance the practice of teaching in their fields.

Send article to:

Submit

As an open-source journal, IJTLHE makes articles freely available. This utility allows you to email the current article to anyone you wish. Simply enter their email address and click on Submit.