Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal
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Take Your Choice: A Case Study of Student Voice at the Prishtina International Summer University (PISU)
Get PDFPrishtina International Summer University (PISU) is an international summer University in which students take classes of their own choice for a period of two weeks. This qualitative case study aims to explore how the students enrolled in the program experience student choice, whether in the courses in which they enroll or the subjects they explore within them. The project serves as both a lens and model for the power of negotiated curriculum within an intensive course format in the context of emerging democracies
Virtual Active Learning of Brain Science to Engage Diverse Learners
Get PDFIn this narrative account, a university instructor and her students from an Educational Psychology course in a diverse public university in California reflect on the brain science lesson and its applications in professional lives. The original curriculum was developed by the instructor and her colleague in 2014; however, with COVID-19 where the modality changed to 100% online, the instructor adapted the curriculum and instruction for virtual active learning to engage students over the camera. The instructor describes active learning methods used throughout the lesson such as visual aids, hand gestures, cutting and smelling an apple, reciprocal teaching in the breakout rooms, among others. In the second part, two students reflect on applications of the brain science they learned in the course to their professional lives as K-12 educators
Positioning Theory in SoTL Inquiry: Converging Perspectives
Get PDFThis article embarks on an exploratory journey to understand the role of theory in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), particularly within the context of methodologically sound, inclusive, multi- and transdisciplinary inquiry. It begins with an overview of SoTL inquiry and the role of theory in articulating and designing an inquiry. A vibrant virtual panel discussion, with Manarin, Miller-Young, Yeo, Santucci Leoni, and Nasrollahian Mojarad addressed questions of how theory may act as a scaffold, enriching SoTL as a welcoming and dialogical space. The panel conversation also inspired critical reflections on foundational concepts and processes that anchor theory’s positionality within SoTL. The article concludes with a call to the readers, inviting them to reflect on their SoTL experiences, contemplating the significance of theory in their inquiry
Dispatches from the Interface: Assessment Professionals in the CTL
Get PDFAssessment and educational development are often constructed as separate and even conflicting fields in higher education, despite shared institutional goals. This phenomenon reflects a broader tendency toward institutional siloing of different professional fields in education. In this reflective essay, we draw on our experience as assessment professionals who work within Centers for Teaching and Learning to advocate for meaningful integration of these professional fields through a learning systems paradigm. From our positions at the interface of assessment and educational development, we explore ways these fields overlap, occasions where siloing logics impede institutional efforts, as well as opportunities for the fields to be more fully integrated. Based on our personal experiences in these roles, we present three of the most salient ways that we encounter and work against barriers that divide the work of assessment and educational development: (a) reframing assessment and pedagogy as interrelated and mutually reinforcing; (b) navigating alignment between course- and program-level assessment; and (c) advocating for synergistic access to both data and faculty. We conclude by offering possible next steps to further unify these two fields, specifically focusing on putting a learning systems paradigm into practice and collectively championing a culture of institutional accountability to center students, equity, and mission-driven institutional change
The Current and Future State of the Integration of Assessment and Educational Development
Get PDFArticles over the past few years have suggested the value of partnership and collaboration between educational development and the assessment of student learning. A mixed-method survey study was designed to investigate the current degree of integration of educational development work with work on the assessment of student learning. The survey was sent to educational development leaders at separate institutions and included survey items with both closed-ended responses (scaled items, demographic items, etc.) and open-ended responses. The results revealed a diversity of the level of integration of assessment and educational development across institutions, as well as differences in the perceived value of such integration. In addition, the results suggested factors that may impact the likelihood of institutions to support a fuller integration of the work of these two professional fields
Relational Hospitality in SoTL: Transdisciplinary Acts of Giving, Trust, and Service
Get PDFThis paper explores the characteristics of relationships in SoTL, informed by the lived experiences of the authors. We situate our discussion in literature relating to relationship-rich education and academic hospitality, and propose three features that characterize SoTL-focused relationships: acts of giving, vulnerability and trust, and service. Taken together, and drawing on existing literature, we present the notion of relational hospitality as a key aspect of SoTL-focused relationships. The development of this piece itself was a relational act: the authors weave through insights drawn from multiple conversations, each conversation building on shared reflections, co-creating commonalities and questions, and collaborative editing of each other’s writing
Intentional Connections: How One Center’s Educational Development and Assessment Work Complement Each Other
Get PDFThe Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning (CTAL) at the University of Delaware (UD) is an ongoing, intensive collaboration between educational developers and educational assessment professionals. The three examples described in this article – Foundational Course Initiative, General Education assessment, and the Winter Institute on Learning – show three instances where this collaboration has been particularly productive. Although these examples occurred in the context of a merged unit where assessment and educational development routinely occur side-by-side and seamlessly, collaborations between assessment professionals and educational developers can occur in other contexts, as recommended in this article
Understanding Group Differences and Predicting the Impostor Phenomenon Among University Staff and Faculty
Get PDFThe Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is defined by an individual’s experience of internalized fraudulence relative to their own successes and is characterized by cognitive (e.g., decreased self-esteem), affective (e.g., low mood, anxiety) and behavioural dimensions (e.g., avoidance of job-related challenges). Previous research has demonstrated the prevalence of the IP in academic settings among staff and professors, as well as its deleterious connections with burnout and emotional exhaustion. A sample of 162 academic staff and professors completed measures of the IP, resilience, general self-efficacy, and satisfaction with life. Results indicated higher IP scores among professors and early-career professionals but not in women or individuals who identify as visible or sexual minority group members. Negative correlations were found between the IP and resiliency, work engagement, general self-efficacy, and satisfaction with life. IP scores were predicted by lower general self-efficacy, being a professor, and lower resilience. Implications for wellness among academic staff and professors, as well as the wider institutional climate, are considered
What (Is It) About Dialogue? We Make the SoTL Road by Walking
Get PDFThe authors of this article engaged in a serendipitous “dialogue about dialogue” in summer and fall 2023. Through correspondence and live discussions, we pondered about the nature and affordances of the act of dialogue among colleagues in SoTL. We represent diverse disciplinary and national identities yet found in our conversation kindred thinkers and unexpected points of theoretical commonality. We offer here a glimpse into the dialogue we engaged in, illuminating the complex nature of transdisciplinary and intersubjective conversation through the lenses of hermeneutics, immediacy, and vulnerability. While we do not aspire to reach a definite framework for the role of dialogue in SoTL, we explore the transformative potential of engaging deeply in exchanges that allow new possibilities to emerge. This piece has been co-created to invite others into the conversation—we offer it as an opening rather than a conclusion
The City in Song: Popular Music, Ethnographic Insights, and Urban Studies Pedagogy
Get PDFScholarly research on the relationship between music and place draws on interdisciplinary insight from geographers, sociologists, musicologists, and others. Common themes include origins/dissemination of musical styles, the cultural politics of music, and the role music in urban economies. Sometimes overlooked, one of the most compelling ways in which music is spatial is in its ability to tell stories about places, conditions, and issues – providing ethnographic insight into urban life. We consider the efficacy of employing popular music to engage first-year college students and influence their understanding of urban issues and public policy. This is examined through reflection on two offerings of a freshman seminar course called “The City in Song.” Analysis comes from students’ written reflections and data from pre- and post-tests that gauged students’ familiarity with urban studies concepts. We argue that it is possible to use a diverse community of songs, in conversation with one another, to explore how cities change, the policies and social factors that cause those changes, and how different groups can experience the same city differently. We conclude with ideas for more robust approaches to incorporating music into urban studies pedagogy