scholarly journals Driving departmental change through evaluation: some outcomes and problems

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hall ◽  
Derek Harding
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Teaching Techniques ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Teaching Innovation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Barriers To Change ◽  
Integration Of Learning ◽  
Context Of Learning

This paper will focus upon some of the outcomes from the first year of the Courseware for History Implementation Consortium (Chic), a Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP), Phase 3 project. It is particularly important that the consortium addresses the issue of embedding change within organizations if it is to succeed in its aims. However, as Brown (1998) has noted, the integration of learning and teaching innovation into the broader fabric of an institution, by projects with a fixed remit and life cycle, is problematic. Here we will investigate how the Chic project has related evaluation outcomes to disciplinary pedagogical imperatives in order to foster a greater sense of purpose and cohesion towards the project and its objectives. This recognizes the value of evaluation in affecting the context of learning, through the iteration of teaching techniques and resource provision. The resultant implications for institutions, and the barriers to change, need to be examined in the light of the pedagogical context of the history discipline. Whilst accepting the premise that change needs to be placed in the context of institutional policy (Hart, Ryan and Bagdon, 1999; Li and Kaye, 1999), this paper will show how a culture of change can be promoted within departments.DOI: 10.1080/0968776000080103

scholarly journals Communication Idol: Using popular culture to catalyse active learning by engaging students in the development of entertaining teaching and learning resources

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 24-40
Author(s):  
Tinashe Dune ◽  
◽  
John Bidewell ◽  
Rubab Firdaus ◽  
Morwenna Kirwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Peer Ratings ◽  
Teaching Innovation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Professional Health

Bringing popular culture to tertiary education can potentially increase student engagement with learning tasks and content, especially when the learning task has students producing the content. Using a singlegroup intervention plus post-test design, this study implemented and evaluated a purposely developed learning and teaching innovation capitalising on popular and consumer culture to promote active over passive learning in a large, interprofessional health science unit. Students were invited to develop educational video presentations in a friendly competition based on high-rating television musical and vocal talent quests, with cash prizes based on peer ratings, this being the intervention. From a cohort of 569 students in 12 undergraduate allied health programs, 14 students in seven teams of 1 to 3 students produced seven, high-quality videos about communication in professional health practice, and recorded their experiences of doing so. Ratings showed the majority found the process fun (85%) and instructive (64%), with 29% finding the task harder than expected. The prospect of prizes along with intrinsic motivators were reasons for producing a video. A further 285 students viewed the productions and for extra marks completed evaluation of the videos’ educational value. Videos were perceived as an educationally valuable yet entertaining way to engage unit content. Producers of videos rated the teaching and learning experience significantly more positively than students not involved in production. Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses supported relevant numerical findings. Barriers to producing videos were identified as time, resources, confidence and lack of a team. Results should encourage educators contemplating similar initiatives. The project highlights benefits of harnessing popular genres with which students identify, to encourage involvement in producing educationally justifiable content that rewards both performer and audience. The project shows how learning content and tasks created and presented in familiar and entertaining formats can catalyse students’ agentic engagement in tertiary curricula.

scholarly journals FOCUS on technology-supported learning in further education

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Smith
Keyword(s):  
Staff Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Ict In Education ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Software Products ◽  
Third Phase

The Dearing Report of 1997 has raised the profile of the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in learning and teaching. This in turn has led to a demand for staff development on the successful incorporation of ICT in education (Smith and Oliver, 2000). In HE, there have been a number of targeted funding initiatives such as the Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) and the current third phase of the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme. This latter programme focuses on embedding learning technologies rather than developing software products, leading to generic projects on the implementation of ICT in education. As these projects aim for cross-institutional transferability, there seems no reason why - although carried out in the context of HE - they should not be widened to address the needs of the FE sector.DOI:10.1080/0968776000080309 

scholarly journals A critical appraisal of WinEcon and its use in a first-year undergraduate Economics programme

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Brooksbank ◽  
A. Clark ◽  
R. Hamilton ◽  
D. G. Pickernell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Education Economics ◽  
Higher Education Economics ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Introductory Economics

WinEcon is a Windows-based introductory Economics CAL package designed for use in higher education. It is the product of the Economics Consortium of the TLTP (Teaching and Learning Technology Programme) consisting of eight university Economics departments. Each of these has been responsible for producing some of the 25 chapters (tutorials) of the finished product. Content is based on covering the common core of introductory Economics as revealed by a survey of higher-education Economics departments. WinEcon is provided, with an accompanying workbook, for a nominal registration fee in the UK. The package is important insofar as it is aimed at all first-year undergraduates studying Economics, which encompasses not only those taking straight Economics degrees but large numbers of students following introductory Economics as part of a Business Studies or Combined Studies course. With no competition to speak of, WinEcon is likely to become a significant feature of the learning experience of a large tranche of the undergraduate population, across a number of degree schemes. Indeed, for many of these students WinEcon will constitute their first major experience of CAL.DOI:10.1080/0968776980060307

Impact Of Instructional Technology Inclusions In Course Delivery For Engineering And Business Education

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 443-448
Author(s):  
Rizwan Muhammad ◽  
Nisa Fakharun ◽  
Adeel Muhammad ◽  
Ramzan Muhammad ◽  
Lal Mohan Baral
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Technology ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Improved Learning

AbstractAs new technologies are emerging, new trends are also emerging in teaching and learning. Technology inclusion in teaching provides alternative ways to deliver education in pursuit of promoting learning. One of the innovative methods is Blended Learning (BL). This method incorporates both, the traditional Face-to-Face (F2F) instruction and Web-based distance learning method and it imparts an improved learning experience for the students. In this case study, BL models were adopted involving the teaching of two courses—business management and industrial manufacturing at University of Management and Technology (UMT) Lahore. In the models, students’ performance in terms of their liking threshold, were used as the output. The results revealed that instructional technology inclusion caused greater successes in terms of course acceptability by students. This showed an average improvement of 64% in the student performance. ICT or Information and Communication Technology have gained popularity in education sector. In the recent years the term “e-learning” has emerged as a result of the integration of ICT in the education field, but some pitfalls have been identified and this have led to the “Blended learning” phenomenon. The paper can provide directions for the future blended learning environment that may be opted by all the three main stakeholder student, tutors and institution to make strategic decision about the learning and teaching initiatives. The paper concludes that blended learning offers the most flexible and result oriented learning. This paper provides case studies of two of the BL courses including the mode of offering, content with assessment strategies for students to meet the learning outcomes of the courses in detail.

scholarly journals Teaching and Learning Vocabulary through Reading as a Social Practice in Saudi Universities

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Sultan Altalhab
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Teaching Techniques ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Context Of Learning

<p>The study explores the social practice of vocabulary learning by examining vocabulary teaching techniques employed by teachers, the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) identified by students as most useful and the ones they felt most competent in using when reading and teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards learning vocabulary through reading. While most vocabulary research is quantitative, this study used a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative data collected from a range of sources. One hundred and fifty students majoring in English from four different universities completed a semi-structured questionnaire and twenty-two of them were interviewed. In addition, nine teachers of vocabulary and reading subjects were interviewed and their classes observed. A systematic analysis for the prescribed textbooks was also conducted. The findings revealed that both teachers and students were negotiating their autonomy on an ongoing basis, which means that the social context of learning has a powerful influence on what students learn. The study concludes that vocabulary learning is a social practice influenced by a range of factors, such as teaching techniques, VLSs, the prescribed textbook, participants’ beliefs and attitudes, learners’ interests, cultural values and learners’ level of competence in English.</p>

Qatari students’ pre-college experience with information literacy

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Ethan P Pullman
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
College Experience ◽  
Learning Preferences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning And Teaching

Purpose – There’s little information available on Qatari students’ experience with information literacy. What little information does exists draws from outdated surveys and assumptions about the current population. The purpose of this paper is to describe how data collected from first-semester Qatari students who enrolled in a semester-long information literacy course at Carnegie Mellon University helped update perceptions of this population, drove changes made to content and instructional delivery, and enabled a reflective process for teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach – Pre- and post-surveys completed by students explore Qatari students’ pre-college experience with information literacy concepts, using libraries, and writing. They also compare the students’ attitude toward information literacy before and after taking the course. Qatari students’ data were extracted from the overall student population to focus on this population and analyzed descriptively based on cumulative responses. The pre-survey data were used to inform changes made to instructional content and delivery throughout the term. Findings – Contrary to assumptions, first-year Qatari students expressed familiarity with information literacy concepts before attending college. The data indicated strong learning preferences and a positive attitude toward information literacy. Research limitations/implications – Since information collected in this study relied on student perceptions of their experience, results must be paired with performance measurement before drawing additional conclusions about information literacy competencies of first-year Qatari students. Further, the study did not explore gender and sociocultural differences; therefore no general conclusions should be drawn. Practical implications – Instructional design should be based on a current understanding of local information needs and searching habits. In addition, this approach encourages reflective learning and teaching and help instructors avoid prior assumptions about their students. Originality/value – This paper provides information on how Qatari students perceive their experience with information literacy before college, the importance of understanding information literacy concepts and its role in their personal, academic, and professional lives. It centers on a population for whom information literacy concepts remain both relatively challenging and critical for their future learning development and offers suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals Champions or Helpers: Leadership in Curriculum Reform in Science

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-90
Author(s):  
Elizabeth D. Johnson ◽  
◽  
Fiona L. Bird ◽  
Jeanette Fyffe ◽  
Emma Yench ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Teaching ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
School Directors ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
School Director ◽  
Associate Dean ◽  
Perceptions Of Leadership

This study describes the perceptions of embedded teaching and learning leadership teams working on curriculum reform in science teaching departments. The teams combined a formally recognised leader, School Director of Learning and Teaching, with a project-based, more junior academic, Curriculum Fellow, to better leverage support for curriculum reform. Teams were established on the principles of localizing support and maximising credibility with discipline staff. The core teams were supported by a larger Faculty team of Associate Dean Academic, academic developer, educational designer, first year coordinator and project manager. Key themes emerging from the collected data were the complementary roles of members of the team, different perceptions of leadership between the School Directors of Learning and Teaching and the Curriculum Fellows, the importance of acting locally within the disciplines and the synergistic value of working in a team. The combination of formal and informal leadership aggregated into the FSTE School teams offers a model to support sustainable improvement in science teaching and learning in higher education.

scholarly journals Balancing the local and global: A review of teaching and learning literature from Colombia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Lucía Guerrero Farías ◽  
Alison Kay Reedy
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Teaching Innovation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning Research ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Learning Research

This paper presents a systematic review of the extent and nature of teaching and learning research in Colombia. The study identified that teaching and learning research is growing but is unevenly spread amongst a small number of Colombian private and public universities. The quantity of learning and teaching research emerging from a small number of institutions is linked to the presence of education development centres that support the research and dissemination of teaching innovation. The dominance of research related to technology innovation reflects the purpose of these centres. The teaching and learning research literature emerging from these universities reflects global educational themes but contains little of the issues and challenges related to diversity, inequality, and other social, political and economic realities that situates higher education research within local contexts. This study concludes that a critical approach to teaching and learning research is needed to balance the local with the global in teaching and learning research in Colombia.

scholarly journals An agile approach to co-creation of the curriculum

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-97
Author(s):  
John Owen ◽  
Catherine Wasiuk
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Agile Approach ◽  
Context Of Learning ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Teaching In Higher Education

The importance of developing meaningful student engagement through partnerships is an increasing area of interest and practice within the context of learning and teaching in higher education. This case study reports on an approach used in a co-created curriculum project that aligned the values and principles of student-staff partnerships with those of an agile framework. Through an analysis of the individual team reflections captured during and after the project, the study explores how the agile approach could help address imbalances of power between students and staff in higher education. The results of the study show that team members found that working in this new way increased confidence in co-creating teaching and learning with staff and fostered a positive team relationship, although some reflections indicate that assumptions of power are deeply embedded within the structures and roles of higher education. However, our findings suggest that this way of working can result in positive experiences for students and staff and could be applied to a wide range of student-staff partnership projects.

scholarly journals Developments on Technology Integration in Language Teaching and Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (III) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Saima Iqbal ◽  
Safia Niazi ◽  
Muhammad Hafeez
Keyword(s):  
Technology Integration ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teaching Language ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Learning English

The way people obtain information, learn, and connect with others across the world has changed dramatically as a result of technological advancements. Technology has eliminated distance constraints, allowing higher education to efficiently teach anybody. In order to improve teaching and learning, technology integration is becoming more common in classrooms. A better pattern for recognizing new teaching models has evolved as a result of the fast expansion of technology integration. As a result, it is critical in both learning and teaching language skills. There are numerous advantages to using technology to offer an environment for teaching and learning English skills. The objectives of the current review article were to discover answers to the issues of how technology integration promotes language learning and what the most current developments in language learning are. According to research, introducing technology into classrooms substantially improved teaching and learning English language skills.

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