Using Lego® Serious Play® in Higher Education with Law Students: Encouraging Playfulness and Creativity within Library Workshops

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 222-226
Author(s):  
Alan Wheeler

AbstractThe following article began life as a ten-minute presentation titled ‘Building student engagement brick by brick; using Lego® Serious Play® to explore subject engagement in HE’, presented at BIALL's 2020 virtual conference on 12 June 2020. Since 2016 I have been incorporating Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) within my practice as an academic librarian at Middlesex University. This article will explore how I have embedded LSP into workshops with students and staff, the tactics employed to gain acceptance for using LSP within academic settings and offering some tentative predictions on whether playful approaches will be successful in the current Higher Education (HE) landscape, dominated as we currently are by virtual learning and screen technologies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 184-205
Author(s):  
Lesley Andrew ◽  
◽  
Ruth Wallace ◽  
Ros Sambell ◽  
◽  
...  

The global COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid shift to online delivery in higher education. This learning and teaching environment is associated with reduced student engagement, a crucial prerequisite of student satisfaction, retention and success. This paper presents a case study that explored student engagement in the synchronous virtual learning environment, during the mandatory move to exclusive online learning in Australian higher education in April to June 2020. Three university instructors used the Teaching and Learning Circles Model to observe a series of their peers' synchronous virtual classrooms, from which they reflected on ways to enhance their own practice. The findings demonstrate how student engagement in these classrooms can be strengthened across the four constructs of Kahu and Nelson’s (2018) engagement conceptual framework: belonging; emotional response; wellbeing and self-efficacy. The case study also reveals limitations of the synchronous virtual environment as a means of supporting student engagement in the online learning and teaching environment, and proposes ways to address them. Against emerging reports of increased mental health issues among isolated university students during the current pandemic, the case study's recommendations to improve student wellbeing and belonging are particularly salient. This article also highlights the usefulness of the Teaching and Learning Circles Model of peer observation as a way to guide its participants' reflections on their own practice, support their collegiality with academic peers and build their confidence and competence in the synchronous virtual learning environment.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen C. H. Zhoc ◽  
Beverley J. Webster ◽  
Ronnel B. King ◽  
Johnson C. H. Li ◽  
Tony S. H. Chung

Author(s):  
Larrilyn L. Grant ◽  
Michael J. Opperman ◽  
Brennan Schiller ◽  
Jonathan Chastain ◽  
Jennelle Durnett Richardson ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Abed Dahleez ◽  
Ayman A. El-Saleh ◽  
Abrar Mohammed Al Alawi ◽  
Fadi Abdelmuniem Abdelfattah

PurposeThis research examined the factors affecting several types of student engagement, namely agentic, behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement. Specifically, it examined the effect of e-learning system usability on student engagement and explored teacher behavior's possible intervening impact on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 418 students studying at different specializations at Omani private academic institutions. This study employed a quantitative methodology and utilized the Smart-PLS for data analyses.FindingsThe findings showed that e-learning system usability influenced significantly and positively agentic, behavioral and cognitive engagement. However, the link between e-learning system usability and emotional engagement was not significant. Moreover, teacher behavior mediated the relationship between e-learning system usability and the four types of engagement.Originality/valueThis study improves one’s understanding of how the interaction of e-learning system usability and teacher behavior affects several aspects of student engagement. It also helps higher education administrators and policymakers by exploring the influential effects of e-learning systems usability and teacher behavior on facilitating students' engagement.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cipta Pramana ◽  
Ratna Susanti ◽  
Qristin Violinda ◽  
Fransina Yoteni ◽  
Emmilia Rusdiana ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Nataliya Yushkova ◽  
Yuliya Fedeneva

The article reviews the outcomes of the Russian scientific and methodological seminar with international participation «Modern problems of teaching foreign language legal discourse» organized by the chair of Russian and foreign languages and speech culture of Ural State Law University. Scientific and methodological themes of the seminar led to a constructive discussion of legal discourse phenomenon within the framework of the complex development of the law students’ linguistic identity in modern teaching practice in higher education institutions. The participants reported on very important issues of educational technologies that need to be revised from the scientific and methodological points of view. Those issues deal with (a) development of practice-oriented skills that would allow students to take an active part in communication in their second language; (b) implementation of interactive forms of work in distant learning class; (c) difficulties in translating legal texts.


Author(s):  
Naomi Nichols ◽  
David Phipps ◽  
Johanne Provencal ◽  
Allyson Hewitt

ABSTRACT This article is a qualitative literature synthesis in the areas of community-campus collaborations, knowledge mobilization and social innovation. The article aims to be useful to people who work in academic settings, community organizations, public institutions, and government. The authors utilized a purposive sampling methodology to explore the following questions: 1. How can university-based knowledge mobilization leverage investments in higher education research and development (R&D) through community-campus collaboration and social innovation? 2. What is the role of university-wide knowledge mobilization projects in supporting community-campus connections and ultimately social innovation strategies that contribute to the public good? Our review indicates considerable interplay between community-campus collaborations, knowledge mobilization and social innovation given that knowledge mobilization facilitates – and is facilitated by – collaboration. With sufficient knowledge mobilization, community-campus collaborations stimulate social innovation. The article concludes with recommendations based on our review of the literature. RÉSUMÉ Cet article se fonde sur une synthèse littéraire qualitative portant sur les collaborations communautaires/académiques, la mobilisation du savoir et l’innovation sociale. Il se veut utile pour toute personne travaillant dans un milieu académique, un organisme communautaire ou une institution publique. Les auteurs ont recours à une méthode d’échantillonnage raisonné pour répondre aux questions suivantes : 1. Comment la mobilisation du savoir universitaire – au moyen de la collaboration communautaire/académique et de l’innovation sociale – peut-elle faire augmenter les investissements en recherche et développement dans l’enseignement supérieur? 2. Comment les projets de mobilisation du savoir universitaire peuvent-ils resserrer les liens entre campus et communauté et, en fin de compte, appuyer des stratégies d’innovation sociale qui contribuent au bien commun? Notre évaluation indique qu’il y a beaucoup d’influences réciproques entre les collaborations communautaires/académiques, la mobilisation du savoir et l’innovation sociale, surtout que la mobilisation du savoir facilite la collaboration et vice versa. En effet, avec une mobilisation du savoir suffisante, les collaborations communautaires/académiques stimulent l’innovation sociale. Cet article se termine par des recommandations provenant de notre analyse documentaire.


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