scholarly journals Editorial Transforming Higher Education Teaching and Learning Environments – Introduction to the Special Issue

Author(s):  
Erkko Sointu ◽  
Laura Hirsto ◽  
Mari Murtonen
Author(s):  
Robin K Morgan ◽  
Julie Saam

We find this verbalized in many ways by those inside higher education and those outside of academia but nonetheless it remains true: “Whoever does the work does the learning” (Wong, 2013). Would you like to have your students take ownership of their learning? Wouldn’t you like your students to “do the work?” For this to happen successfully, we need to create learning environments that scaffold and personalize their learning. In turn, our students are more likely to develop metacognition and begin to self-regulate their own learning. The contributions to this special issue of the Journal of Teaching and Learning With Technology highlight how instructors have used their learning management system (LMS) to help their students self-regulate learning. We are excited to share with you ways to get your students “working.”


Author(s):  
Jane Kotzmann

The Introduction highlights the importance of higher education and the existence of educational disadvantage in society, contextualised within current political events and discussions. It describes the intrinsic importance of education in allowing people to learn about themselves and the world they live in. It details the significant instrumental importance of education in the likelihood people will obtain employment and command higher incomes. It also provides a brief outline of different historical perspectives in relation to how best to provide higher education teaching and learning. The importance of law and policy for higher education is discussed, and the purpose and limitations of the research identified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SI) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceclia Jacobs ◽  

The notion that universal ‘best practices’ underpin higher education teaching is problematic. Although there is general agreement in the literature that good teaching is not decontextualised but rather that it is responsive to the context in which it occurs, generic views of teaching and learning continue to inform practices at universities in South Africa. This conceptual paper considers why a decontextualised approach to higher education teaching prevails and interrogates factors influencing this view, such as: the knowledge bases informing this approach to teaching, the factors from within the higher education sector that shape this approach to teaching, as well as the practices and Discourses prevalent in the field of academic development. The paper argues that teaching needs to be both contextually responsive and knowledge- focused. Disrupting ‘best practices’ approaches require new ways of undertaking academic staff development, which are incumbent on the understandings that academic developers bring to the enterprise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Marsha Bradfield ◽  
Shibboleth Shechter

Abstract The Millbank Atlas is an open-ended project that maps and remaps the neighbourhood of Millbank, an area of London, UK. This is home to Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London) and our course, BA (Hons) Interior and Spatial Design, which has anchored the Atlas since 2016. We offer the following reflections as tutors on this course and co-researchers on the Atlas, along with our students and members of the local community. Central to this discussion is the kind of learning journey enabled by this type of project, and how it benefits from being distributed across cultural, social, geographical, discursive and other environments. This raises fundamental questions for teaching and learning, especially the potential to complicate normative assumptions in higher education about where knowledge is produced and who learns from whom.


Author(s):  
Gina Tovine ◽  
April Fleetwood ◽  
Andrew Shepherd ◽  
Colton J. Tapoler ◽  
Richard Hartshorne ◽  
...  

While the growth of blended learning environments in higher education and non-educational settings has continued to increase in recent years, this has not been the case in K-12 settings. Recently, in an effort to explore the viability and effectiveness of K-12 blended learning environments, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has been piloting blended learning communities in a number of their schools, providing opportunities to explore factors that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to report the results of a study designed to assess conditions that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities, and to explore learner, instructor, course, and other factors important to successful blended learning communities. Findings will inform the design, development, and implementation of future K-12 blended teaching and learning environments in an effort to support and strengthen student achievement, the preparation of teachers to facilitate effective blended learning environments.


Author(s):  
Charlotte Baker ◽  
Rebecca J. Blankenship

In this summary, authors Charlotte Baker and Rebecca Blankenship provide an overview of the cases and their impact on the overall DLI initiative. They also explore similar initiatives at other colleges and universities and how these technical transformations are changing the higher education teaching and learning culture. The authors examine the DLI in terms of other short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals as noted in the 2019 Horizon Report and how the DLI initiative can be used as a vehicle to actuate an ongoing culture of innovation and digital transformation in colleges and universities across the country.


Author(s):  
Joseph George M. Lutta

For more than 40 years, cognitive psychological perspectives have dominated pedagogical frameworks and models for designing technology-mediated teaching and learning environments. Social learning perspectives are increasingly becoming viable or even desirable frames for research and practice as pertains to teaching and learning, particularly in web-based learning environments (WBLEs). The author considers these social learning perspectives and how they relate to the design and implementation of curricula that are delivered in web-based learning environments in higher education. The author further reviews the foundational theories of adult learning that enhance adult learners' experiences in cross-cultural web-based learning environments. This review and analysis of the research related to social learning perspectives on WBLEs have three implications for future research and practice: (1) examining learners' individual characteristics in WBLEs, (2) identifying strategies for promoting social interaction in WBLEs, and (3) developing effective design principles for WBLEs. The author presents recommendations for future research.


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