Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal
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Do More Labs Lead to Increased Student Learning?
Get PDFBackground: Integrated lab-lecture courses are popular in undergraduate engineering courses as they employ the benefits of hands-on activities without the student dissatisfaction of a flipped classroom. Hypothesis: The goal of this project was to test the hypothesis that the number of hands-on activities is positively correlated with student achievement (i.e., grades). Methods: This work was done within a junior/senior-level Machine Components course. The number of hands-on, physical lab activities and overall course grades were collected from 132 students over three semesters. The correlation of these two variables was quantified using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Student evaluation scores were also analyzed better to understand the effect of hands-on activities on achievement. Results and Discussion: The number of hands-on lab activities was not statistically correlated with overall student grades for the semester, rs = -0.16, p = 0.06. Although, this negative correlation of relative significance may support critical claims in the literature of the meshing hypothesis and suggest a more diverse range of labs (e.g., hands-on, computational) may be a better approach. Interestingly, increasing the number of hands-on activities was associated with better student ratings of the instructor’s overall teaching effectiveness. This trend suggests students were more satisfied with the course overall as more hands-on experiences were added
From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Student Tales of the Transformative Power of Interpersonal Communication
Get PDFThis reflective essay explores the transformative power of interpersonal communication, especially when coupled with experiential learning. It follows the unique stories of four college students, as their lives evolve when interpersonal communication empowers them
Building 21st Century Skills Using an Academic Makerspace
Get PDFThis article aims to contribute to the growing, yet still limited, research related to the development of 21st century skills in the post-secondary population by demonstrating that the use of academic makerspaces in curricula can facilitate the learning of 21st century skills. This article reviews literature regarding current information about 21st century skills and their development in teaching and learning facilitated by academic makerspaces. On the completion of a Capstone course delivered in an academic makerspace, a qualitative research study was conducted with the participating fourth-year Child Studies students. The research focused on the development of 21st century skills, the impact of 21st century skills on the practice of child and youth care, and the suggestions for the implementation of similar programming in other post-secondary institutions
Teaching in Virtual Environments: Global Educational Development to Respond to Challenges and Opportunities of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFInstructors and students from around the globe faced numerous educational challenges during the pandemic, such as appropriate course design, effective assessment techniques, and how to incorporate and assess fieldwork and experiential educational opportunities. In this paper, we reflect on online teaching design and innovations on topics such as virtual student exchanges and development and assessment of virtual lab/fieldwork. This paper shares examples from a series of interactive online trainings we organised to build capacity among faculty to respond to the shift in education brought on by COVID-19. We build upon expertise and interests of members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). In the series, pedagogical experts from a range of disciplines and countries facilitated discussion and collaboration by sharing case study examples of how to create a sense of community in virtual classrooms across geographies and leverage technological tools to meet shared global health educational challenges. We also addressed strategies to address equity and meet the needs of students beyond the classroom. These strategies and lessons can be applied to the future to continue to improve the educational experience for students and educational development for faculty
"Good Writing": Defining It and Teaching It
Get PDFWhile process-based approaches to writing instruction have emphasized the steps that writers go through to produce a piece of writing, comparatively little scholarship has been devoted to the question of what qualities a finished piece of writing should have. While it is true that writing criteria vary widely across disciplines, genres, and writing situations, there are some rhetorical elements that are generally applicable to any act of structured communication, and recognizing these criteria can help to inform writing instruction and to clarify instructors’ expectations for student writing. This article identifies five rhetorical dimensions associated with effective communication, and it outlines specific strategies for providing explicit instruction that encourages students to develop these qualities in their writing
The Role of Dialectical Tensions in Making Sense of Failures in Teaching and Learning
Get PDFHow can our teaching failures be used to improve student learning? This question has been examined from various academic viewpoints - ranging from “productive failure” in education to “meaningful failure” in the biological sciences to “failing forward” in business management. The current article seeks to contribute to this growing body of scholarship by providing insights derived from Baxter & Montgomery’s theory of relational dialectics that inform how teaching failures can be used to improve student learning. Along with the goal of using dialectical tensions to re-construe perceived teaching failures, the overall objective of this article is to create a space for intentional and transformative dialogue about the meaning that can be derived from the failures in our professional lives - in order to better prepare our students to manage their own
Navigating the Chaos: The Value of SoTL During Times of Uncertainty
Get PDFThe value of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) frequently is overlooked or misunderstood within higher education institutions. COVID-19’s disruption of higher education has highlighted the importance of embracing roles of teacher and learner, flexibility, and a focus on systematically studying teaching and learning embrace as strategies to navigate this chaos. Based on our multidisciplinary, multi-positional, and multi-national perspectives, we make connections between the skills learned through SoTL scholarship and their applicability in times of chaos. Our intent is to highlight the skills and approaches acquired through SoTL engagement and by doing so, emphasize the valuable contributions of SoTL scholars within higher education
Northwest Biosciences Consortium: The Evolution of a Faculty Network
Get PDFMore often than not, faculty have limited opportunities to interact with colleagues that teach similar classes at nearby institutions. Particularly in regions with many institutions and institution types within a close geographic area, these interactions can be important to support student transfer between institutions. Increasingly, our students do not go to just one institution for the UG degrees but transfer from one to many different institutions over the course of their degree. The development of a regional network was our solution to this problem. The aim of the Northwest Biosciences Consortium (NWBC) was a broad implementation of the Vision & Change recommendations with two emphases: (1) incorporation of Vision and Change recommendations into the introductory biology curriculum for majors and non-majors, and (2) curricular support for students transitioning between and within institutions. We describe how these objectives shaped the development of the NWBC along with other formative factors, the lessons we learned from this work, and recommendations regarding the development of a regional faculty network
Nitawahsin Nanni and Disrupting Journeys
Get PDFNitawahsin Nanni
written by Michelle Yeo, as explained by Gabrielle Lindstrom:
Nitawashin Nanni means the land
but also
how
you are participating in the land
and with the land--
how you
are a part of it.
It is your
relationship
to the land, encompassing
how you interact with the land
land not
as a noun, but what you are doing.
The land is you
and
you are participating in it.
Land is a body
Land is a body
of which you are part--
this is hard.
But the grasping
creates ethical space,
as Willy Ermine says.
This is hard to understand: the land is a body,
but the land is also you,
and you are participating together.
Try to understand.
Nitawashin Nanni
Theories, Models, and Effects—Oh My! Differentiating Similar Constructs
Get PDFTheories, models, and effects are related constructs that students often struggle to distinguish. However, these are important psychological tools, and by understanding them and their functions, students will better be able to apply them to psychological phenomena and broaden their depth of knowledge of the field. This article reviews the basic distinction between the constructs and highlights their functions within the field. Generally speaking, theories are broad in scope, offer the best explanatory power, and are generative in nature. Models are moderate in scope and are particularly well suitable for prediction and provide clarity of processes. While effects are narrow in scope and are primarily descriptive. Although distinct constructs, there will ultimately be overlap between them. The role of psychology lecturers to teach these constructs to their students is discussed