Abstract: Previous studies have confirmed the prevalence of social media adoption by university students. However, research has focused predominantly on student perspectives of social media’s impact on learning and teaching, student engagement, and recruitment. This pilot study explores the methods, attitudes, and perceptions of academics regarding social media use in their teaching while investigating strategies used to navigate perceived challenges posed by social media technology. The survey of 53 academics from an Australian university found that 49% used social media in their teaching and did so due to its speed and accessibility in communicating with students. Yet, this communication was largely to broadcast information, neglecting social media’s two-way functionality. Concerns regarding privacy, bullying, and time scarcity in relation to social media were key themes present in the data. Setting rules with students at the beginning of social media use was a common strategy employed by academics to address these challenges.

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Abstract: This study explores how university teachers perceive the features and characteristics of a good university teacher and how they self-evaluate their experienced pedagogical competency. Furthermore, this study explores how the experienced pedagogical competency and perceived features and characteristics of a good university teacher are related. The data were collected by a questionnaire (N=73) from two groups of university teachers: the participants and non-participants of an educational development project. The results showed that the teachers perceived a good university teacher as having a wide knowledge base, having versatile professional roles, and continuously developing their professional competency. They also self-evaluated social reflection, emotions, and active participation in teaching development as core areas of their pedagogical competency. The university teachers perceived ideal of a good university teacher was mainly consistent with their experienced pedagogical competency, however, an emotional aspect was not perceived to include the ideal of a good university teacher. Comparing the two groups revealed differences in how the university teachers experienced their expertise as teachers. It seems that strategic educational development projects can act as gateways to develop teaching skills through systematic development of teaching for university teachers who may not find formal university pedagogy courses suitable for them.

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Abstract: Reflective practice, in its comprehensive intent, allows a practitioner to make meaning of complex situations. While opportunities for developing reflective thinking are readily available in health professional education programs, opportunities for developing reflective practice abilities are limited. This pilot study was undertaken to address that gap and assess student physical therapists’ perceptions of a series of non-graded, video-recorded practice experiences on developing their reflective practice abilities. The study used a quasi-experimental design with collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Physical therapy students reported an increased awareness of their verbal and nonverbal strengths and areas for improvement, their ability to give and receive feedback to a peer, and ways to improve their psychomotor skill performance. Students identified that they would have liked to have initiated this type of self- and peer-assessment earlier in the curriculum. The assignment served as a specific method of teaching reflective practice in the physical therapy curriculum and has broader application for other healthcare and higher education programs.

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Abstract: Research in the higher education literature argues that communities of practice (CoPs) can be effective staff development by helping academics to share teaching experiences and innovations. One of the key proposed benefits of CoPs involves the opportunity for early career practitioners to learn from more experienced colleagues. This raises the question as to whether the benefits of a CoP differ across academics according to their teaching experience, seniority, or other demographic features. After establishing a CoP within a highly ranked UK business school, this paper provides a statistical analysis of its ability to engage and influence different academics. As consistent with our hypothesis, the main findings show that that: 1) junior staff were significantly more likely to participate in the CoP than senior staff, and 2) conditional on participation, junior participants were also more likely to engage with the CoP by transferring an idea they had learned into their teaching practice.

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Abstract: To explore new opportunities to promote self-regulated learning (SRL) across a variety of contexts, this study applies a novel assignment called Pink Time in seven different courses at two universities. The assignment asks students to “skip class, do anything you want, and give yourself a grade.” In each case, instructors adapted Pink Time to fit the needs of their course. Altogether, 165 students completed 270 self-directed projects and self-assessments targeting five component behaviors of SRL. Findings show that: (1) students were more likely to perceive success in certain behaviors of SRL than in others, (2) students’ perceptions across courses were similar for some behaviors but not others; and (3) subsequent iterations of the assignment supported higher perceived measures of some SRL behaviors but not others. Together these findings illustrate the value and flexibility of this progressive assignment as well as persistent challenges in supporting students’ SRL.

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Abstract: Clickers are used to improve student learning, motivation, and engagement. Smartphones can serve as clickers; however, instructional use of smartphones may lead to students multitasking between instructional and alternative media. This study investigates whether students are distracted after instructional use of smartphones in a lecture-based classroom. Outcomes were assessed through both self-reported smartphone use and in-class observations of actual smartphone use. Students were observed covertly for 5 minutes following instructional use of smartphones to determine whether multi-tasking distraction occurred and/or persisted following the instructional use of smartphones. Even though the self-reported data indicate that students disagreed to somewhat disagreed that smartphone use was a distraction, our findings show that 42% of students began to use their smartphones for non-instructional purposes immediately following the instructional episode, and 28% of students persisted in this behavior five minutes after the instructional episode ended. The observations contradicted the students’ self-reported survey responses, thus emphasizing the need to critically consider self-reported outcomes related to multi-tasking distraction in the classroom. Policies or practices to limit multi-tasking distraction due to non-instructional use of smartphones in the classroom should be considered in cases where smartphones are being used for instructional purposes.

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Abstract: Higher education faculty use of current digital technologies based on their perception of importance, competence, and motivation is examined in this study. Two hundred and forty-seven faculty in the United States responded to an online survey on current digital technology use. Descriptive statistics and categorical means for the digital technologies are provided. Faculty rated the use of learning management system as the highest in terms of importance and competence. They rated social media as the lowest in terms of importance and adaptive learning in terms of competence. For motivation to integrate digital technology, faculty rated benefit to learning as the most influential factor and reappointment, promotion, and tenure as the least influential factor. Faculty characteristics such as gender, teaching level, primary teaching method, faculty rank, and teaching experience and its association with faculty beliefs of importance, competence and motivation on using digital technologies are also examined in this study.

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Abstract: Funded by a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant from a University in western Canada, this paper reports on findings from an educational design research study (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) investigating the ways, and the extent to which, particular technological supports and other interventions impacted the acquisition of academic writing skills for Bachelor of Education students working within a blended learning environment. Among the various findings, students emphasized the importance of integrating writing interventions in coordination with one another, as well as introducing a variety of effective pedagogical practices tailored to meet the needs of specific course assignments. Instructors found that by incorporating student feedback into the design and then redesigning the course, they were able to improve students’ academic writing abilities without sacrificing course content.

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Abstract: Writing in English holds great importance throughout the world, especially when it comes to academic and professional excellence. Therefore, writing in English is given due status in Pakistan too. However, despite learning English for years, Pakistani students face difficulty in writing like other foreign language learners. One of the major issues in their writing is organization of ideas in a paragraph to convey the desired sense. The present qualitative study was, thus, conducted to analyze the factors that influence paragraph organization in the English language writing of students at the intermediate level. In this regard, semi-structured interviews were conducted from six participants belonging to different cities, and their writing samples were also collected and were later analyzed using a thematic analysis technique. The findings reveal that rote learning, more focus on grammar, and surface level feedback from teachers were the key factors at play. Hence, the students are unable to produce a well-organized text.

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Abstract: Graduate programs typically expect students to publish their scholarly work; however, few researchers have investigated their experiences in publishing. What literature does exist suggests that mentorship through co-authorship is helpful in supporting the development of emerging scholars. Importantly, there were no studies exploring the perspectives of education graduate students regarding their publication experience. The researchers of this article were all affiliated with an education journal run by and for graduate students who encountered student-authors who were not well prepared to engage in the publication process. In order to understand these student-authors’ needs, the researchers conducted a needs assessment through the framework of Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 2014). Specifically, this needs assessment provided voice to thirty education graduate students regarding their career aspirations, previous publishing experience, helpful influences, barriers, and needed supports to engage in the publication process. The findings suggested that the students in this needs assessment lacked formal instruction on how to navigate the publication process, and they perceived mentorship from supervisors, when it existed, as helpful. Implications for graduate training based on the findings are also discussed.

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Abstract: The aim of this article is to discuss a portfolio of interventions used to improve student outcomes in an accredited southeastern university’s baccalaureate nursing program. Faculty identified three specific student-focused issues challenging student learning: (a) a steady trend of increasing student enrollment, (b) increased difficulty level of the national licensure exam, and (c) lack of a structured remediation/mentoring process to improve student skills. Increasing student enrollment challenged faculty to explore teaching strategies designed for larger class sizes, to maximize teaching effectiveness, and to use standardized exam results to inform curricular changes. A Learning Improvement Team (LIT) was strategically formed with university resources; The Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (BC), the Office of Academic Assessment (OAA), and the School of Nursing. Faculty, particularly junior-level, are taking the lead role in implementing pivotal changes in courses. Strategies include student learning outcomes improvement efforts as a departmental goal and expectation, dashboard communication for data-based curricular decisions, faculty workshops spotlighting successful classroom strategies, and interdisciplinary university partnerships. Lessons learned included recognition of the need for congruent faculty role expectations and workload, as well as awareness of the critical role of institutional support and collaboration. This successful partnership positively impacted nursing faculty, transformed departmental culture, and improved student outcomes.

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Abstract: Through anthropological analysis, two professors—one Mestiza (Apache and Spanish American), one Northern-Western European American (Danish, Swedish, German, French, English, and Irish), and six Native American educational leadership doctoral students offer storied sketches of three college professors on intersections of culture and college teaching. Professors took part in a year-long culture and teaching faculty development project and engaged in cultural introspection to understand how their values, identities, and cultural origins influence their teaching and interpretations of students. Researchers used open thematic and metaphorical analysis of published cultural autobiographies, teaching observation notes, and interview transcripts for each professor to develop storied sketches of their meaning making of culture and teaching. Professors’ cultural self-reflections yielded original insights about teaching across cultures. Authors share paths forward for culture and teaching introspection and for developing teaching across cultural strengths and ways of being.

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Abstract: Digital literacy is increasingly central to the experience of learning and teaching in higher education. This paper details the design, implementation, and results of a student-staff partnership project that utilized a mixed method research strategy to “map” the digital curriculum within a sociology program, measure the digital capacity of students across the degree (n=104), and explore their experience of that curriculum (n=12). The findings reveal that digital capabilities of undergraduates did develop over the course of their degree. However, not only is the development of digital curricula often without signposts, the results suggest that we should not assume that all students are “digital natives.” Indeed, many struggle to adapt to the technological demands upon entering higher education while others fail to connect educational uses of digital technology to their everyday lives. In detailing the tools that were developed as part of the project, the paper goes on to outline the value of student partnerships in the context of information and digital literacy, as well as higher education more generally.

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Abstract: This paper develops the concept of mentoring through co-teaching as a framework for faculty development in higher education. Mentoring relationships provide an excellent method of improving growth and development of workers within virtually every profession. As a structure for professional development, a mentoring model centered on the concept of co-teaching can maximize instructional competency and scholarship for both faculty and graduate students in the higher education setting. Implementation of successful co-teaching strategies into the higher education mentoring environment requires consideration of several factors, including an understanding of the model, creation of a joint teaching plan, and ongoing development of a collaborative relationship. Creating learning through co-teaching experiences may enhance mentoring relationships, produce better faculty, enrich experiences for students, and empower all to become more effective and self-directed learners in the 21st century.

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Abstract: This study examines the impact of a pedagogical strategy using individual life mapping as a foundational piece of a graduate educational leadership program. We argue that active learning opportunities, like life mapping, allow educational leadership students to explore more fully their sense-making processes about systems leadership, which is foundational to their developing mindsets and leadership skills. Jäppinen (2014) suggests that educational leadership programs should aim to allow students to make sense of the complexity around them and study the viewpoint of collaborative non-linear human interactions in their journey to leadership. Data and artifacts were collected from 41 graduate students; their ages ranged from 29 to 65 with the median age being 46. All the participants were enrolled in the closed-cohort, executive educational leadership program working toward an Educational Specialist degree and superintendent certification. The final condensing of the initial categories into macro-level themes illustrated that students perceived the life mapping activity as a catalyst for learning about themselves and others, building a successful cohort, and affirming their decisions to become systems leaders.

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Abstract: This article reviews How did you get here? Students with disabilities and their journeys to Harvard, written by Thomas Herir and Laura A. Schifter. The authors explain the collegiate success stories of several students with varied disabilities and extrapolate themes from interviews with the students and people close to each of them. The book includes many detailed examples and thoughtful questions lead the analysis throughout. Overall, I highly recommend this book as the stories can be an inspiration to any student. Additionally, this book would be a fantastic addition to a course for new professionals in schools or for parents of a child with a disability. Publisher: Harvard Education Press (Boston. MA, 2015). ISBN: 9781612507811. List price: $35.00 (U.S.). 252 pages.

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