scholarly journals Learning and Language: Supporting Group Work So Group Work Supports Learning

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-16
Author(s):  
Terri Mylett ◽  
◽  
Russell Gluck ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Group Work ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
First Year ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Learning Group ◽  
Lecture Theatre ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
The University

This paper reports on developments in teaching and learning for first year employment relations students at the University of Wollongong based on creating conditions of learning informed by Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’ theory. Essentially, this meant emphasising collaborative learning (group work) in the lecture theatre and in assessment tasks to provide opportunities for students to ‘learn the language’ of employment relations. The paper also considers collaboration between an employment relations discipline lecturer and an learning development discipline lecturer that helped identify the objectives for teaching and learning (the desired attributes of a Wollongong Graduate, ethical concerns about how students’ may affect one another in group work, and developing knowledge and skills to equip students to be effective in employment relations practice) within a particular task environment (characterised by an organisational imperative to ‘do more with less’, and students’ beliefs that lectures have the purpose of didactic information delivery) simultaneously with teaching. This paper offers readers a case study of the application of a teaching and learning theory that may stimulate reflection on their practice.

Implementation of Learning Outcomes in Mathematics for Non-Mathematics Major by Using E-Learning

2012 ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Divjak
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Social Software ◽  
First Year ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Undergraduate Study ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The University

Learning outcomes are considered to be a key tool for student-centered teaching and learning. They can be successfully implemented in teaching and learning mathematics on higher educational level and together with appropriate level of technology enhanced learning can provide the framework for successful learning process even for students that have not been primarily interested in mathematics. The aim is to present the case study of implementation of learning outcomes and e-learning in several mathematical courses at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics of the University of Zagreb. First of all, there are examples of mathematical courses in the first year since the first study year is crucial for retaining students. Further, there are mathematical courses taught at higher years of undergraduate study and the first year of graduate study. Again, educational process is appropriately supported by ICT and executed through blended e-learning, as well as the use of social software.

scholarly journals Understanding the University and Faculty Investment in Implementing High-Impact Educational Practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison White
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
High Impact ◽  
First Year ◽  
Educational Practices ◽  
High Impact Practices ◽  
Completion Agenda ◽  
Cumulative Learning ◽  
The University

A variety of assessment options utilizing high-impact educational practices have emerged to assist faculty in higher education with college student learning outcomes. High-impact practices are defined as teaching and learning designs which have been demonstrated to increase student engagement and persistence. Practices such as first-year seminars, tech-rich learning communities, collaborative projects, undergrad research, global/diversity learning, service learning, practicums, and internships are educational tools making it possible to assess the practices’ contribution to students’ cumulative learning. However, utilization of these practices is unsystematic due in part to the required investment of time, training, and money. This paper describes high-impact practices that support course and program level learning outcomes in conjunction with the investments for implementation. Exploration into why these types of practices are effective and which students have access to them emphasizes the need for this investment to meet accreditation standards and the mandates of our government’s “completion agenda” geared towards preparing America’s future workforce.

scholarly journals MIND MAPS IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSES: A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Phan Van Hoa ◽  
Ngo Thi Hien Trang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mapping Technique ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
Mind Maps ◽  
The University

Speaking, one of the two productive skills, has been paid much attention to by first-year students at the Faculty of English, University of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Danang (FE, UFLS - UD). There are a variety of strategies and techniques assisting EFL teachers and learners, and mind mapping technique is among these which could be implemented to improve teaching and learning performances in general and speaking skill in particular. Mind maps are being taken advantage of by EFL students in classes to improve their speaking skill. In this study, the researchers have assumed that mind maps have the facilitating impact on the oral speech performance of the first-year students at FE, UFLS - UD. We have conducted this research quantitatively and qualitatively whose data is from interview questions and a set of questionnaires for first-year students, and the researchers’ classroom observation. This is a case study which aims to explore the reality of using mind maps including the frequency, speaking stages, and freshmen’s attitudes when utilizing this technique to enhance this skill. Its suggestions could be applied in teaching and learning English speaking skill effectively.

scholarly journals Language Support for First Year Human Physiology and Biology

2011 ◽  
pp. 129-159
Author(s):  
Karen Elizabeth Mate ◽  
John Cameron Rodger ◽  
Brett Andrew Lidbury
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Language Support ◽  
Teaching And Learning Strategies ◽  
The University

This chapter examines student performance in Human Physiology and Biology in response to a number of interactive language-focused and career-oriented interventions that were integrated into both lecture and tutorial formats. The study took place at the University of Newcastle, Australia and involved around 1000 students on two campuses. Although it was not possible to demonstrate a clear overall improvement in student performance as a result of these interventions, the activities were viewed positively by the majority of students. Arguably, the major impact of the language and other interventions was in the level of student motivation and engagement with the course topic. Contemporary university students are highly focused on the relevance of a course to their chosen career path, suggesting that language-based teaching and learning strategies would be most effective if placed within a vocation-specific context.

Levering Critical Collaboration

2017 ◽  
pp. 169-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lara Crosby ◽  
Adam C. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Group Work ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
First Year ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
The University

This chapter presents an intervention in Design Thinking, a first year interdisciplinary design subject at the University of Technology Sydney. Over two iterations of this subject, researchers reframed the ‘group work' component as critical collaboration, drawing from the momentum in the design professions for more participatory and collaborative processes and the increasing acknowledgement of design as being critical to sustainable human futures. The online self and peer assessment tool SPARKPlus was used to change the way students approached collaboration and then reflected on it following their experiences. In this model, self and peer assessment is used as a leaver to encourage critical thinking about collaboration, rather than as a hammer to enforce participation.

scholarly journals REDESIGNING THE UBC FIRST YEAR INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING: SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Ostafichuk ◽  
Carol P. Jaeger ◽  
Jon Nakane ◽  
Susan Nesbit ◽  
Naoko Ellis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
First Year ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
University Of British Columbia ◽  
Practical Engineering ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
High Level ◽  
The University

A new first year introduction to engineering experience was developed at the University of British Columbia. This paper provides an overview of the two new courses and the lessons learned both in developing and delivering the courses. Several key problematic areas in the previous curriculum were addressed, namely, to improve student connection with the engineering profession, increase design and practical engineering experiences, more effectively integrate sustainability into the curriculum, and better emphasize the human and social connection to engineering.The courses operate in a flexible learning framework with a sequence of online, lecture, and studio components arranged in a whole-part-whole format delivered to a class of 850 students. Elements of numerous effective course design, teaching and learning practices, including integrated course design, constructive alignment, components of Team-Based Learning, classroom assessment techniques, peer evaluation, and peer grading were incorporated into these courses. Student feedbackthrough surveys has shown that the new format has been highly successful in addressing most of the key high-level goals, such as establishing a student connection to the engineering profession, helping students understand what engineers do and how they do it, and providing an introduction and appreciation for design, sustainability, decision-making, professionalism, and ethics..

scholarly journals A confluence of two rivers: A reflection on the meeting point between community development and higher education teaching and learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Derounian
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Development Activity ◽  
Higher Education Teaching ◽  
Word Search

Community development (CD) and higher education (HE) teaching and learning have climbed the political agenda in the United Kingdom, in light of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lock-downs; and also because of constrained public finances and austerity measures. In response to such challenges this PhD has a central aim to explore and determine the nature and degree of connectedness between higher education teaching and learning, and community development theory and practice. In this retrospective, auto-ethnographic account, the author has explored a 40-year career spanning both community development and HE teaching. In doing so the researcher is acutely conscious of Bourdieu’s notion of habitus (1990): that an individual’s dispositions generate practices which emerge in their everyday actions. The thesis is also built around reviewing nine peer-reviewed publications, that investigated aspects of both CD and HE teaching. Furthermore, I present forty-three characteristics shared by higher education teaching and CD as an appendix; these resulted from a key-word search of the 2015 National Occupational Standards for Community Development (2015) and UK national lecturer job specification. The author shows the connection between these features and his own publications. Given the retrospective nature of this research, the prevailing political context is provided and discussed for the year’s in which the selected works were published. A critical view is given of both the methodology, and also of the positive and negative aspects of community development and higher education teaching. The findings and conclusions are presented under three headings: First, Coherence of this PhD by published work. As one example, the researcher’s community development activity and higher education pedagogy, and publications, represent a continuous thread from 1979 to 2020. Second, the author highlights the originality of this doctoral thesis. As an illustration, he brings together Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development ZPD and Snyder’s (2000) Hope Theory. Snyder argues that hope provides fuel for progression. Hopeful thinking can generate pathways towards a desired goal; thereby enabling a person or community to bridge across Vygotsky’s ZPD from what is known to new knowledge and capabilities. Third, the author presents the local, national, international and sector-wide impacts of his work.

scholarly journals Adoption of innovative e-learning support for teaching: A multiple case study at the University of Waikato

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Marcia Johnson ◽  
Bronwen Cowie ◽  
Willem De Lange ◽  
Garry Falloon ◽  
Craig Hight ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Multiple Case Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Support ◽  
Tertiary Teaching ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
The University

<span>In response to recent social, economic, and pedagogical challenges to tertiary-level teaching and learning, universities are increasingly investigating and adopting e-learning as a way to engage and motivate students. This paper reports on the first year of a two-year (2009-2010) qualitative multiple case study research project in New Zealand. Using perspectives from activity theory and the scholarship of teaching, the research has the overall goal of documenting, developing, and disseminating effective and innovative practice in which e-learning plays an important role in tertiary teaching. A "snapshot" of each of the four 2009 cases and focused findings within and across cases are provided. This is followed by an overall discussion of the context, "within" and "across" case themes, and implications of the research.</span>

scholarly journals How a Public Relations Crisis Led to the Development of a Partnership Between Academics and Student Affairs to Enhance Student Success.

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Smith ◽  
Tom Brophy ◽  
Adam Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Student Affairs ◽  
Student Development ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
First Year ◽  
Strategic Enrollment Management ◽  
Student Development Theory ◽  
The University

In 2013, a public relations crisis led a mid-size university to reconsider the concept of student success on campus. Collaborations between Academic and Student Affairs leaders have resulted in important changes at the university. The university developed increased ability to support student success by investing in staff positions, exploring best practices to increase student success and retention, and implementing several initiatives including a first-year seminar pilot. Relying on data from national surveys, areas for improvement were identified. Underscoring all of these activities was a focus on student development theory, an increased understanding of institutional data, and a commitment to a comprehensive pan-institutional approach. Because the university has a lower than desired graduation rate (55%), several action teams were created to oversee various goals related to communications, year-long orientation experiences, and an academic anchor. Ultimately, this work has now reached the stage where a strategic enrollment management plan is under creation.

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