Fostering and Developing Culturally-Aware Mentorship Practices

This chapter describes the creation of a workshop that focuses on institutional capacity building through fostering and developing culturally aware mentorship practices across institutional barriers. The theme of the work is a commitment to fostering a personal journey and in connection fostering relationships with others. Fostering connection and relationships creates a thriving inclusive support network that extends far beyond the classrooms and student centers, and into other important spaces where non-instructional staff, faculty, and administration can effectively support and mentor our students. What may not have been intentional but was an effective component in the success of these workshops was the collaboration between the authors as staff and faculty coming together to create and present these culturally based mentorship workshops.

HEALTH STATUS OF INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS WITH SPECIAL TRAINING CONDITIONS

The aim is to study the level and dynamics of instructor officers’ somatic health during the course of employment at Ukrainian higher education institutions with special training conditions Materials and methods: The study involved male instructor officers of the National Academy of Internal Affairs (Kyiv, Ukraine) of different age groups (n=103), who conduct training sessions with cadets – future police officers. The first age group (up to 25 years of age) comprised 8 instructors, the second one (26-30 years of age) – 11 instructors, the third one (31-35 years of age) – 14 instructors, the fourth one (36-40 years of age) – 16 instructors, the fifth one (41-45 years of age) – 19 instructors, the sixth one(46-50 years of age) – 17 instructors, and the seventh one (over 50 years of age) – 18 instructors. The study was conducted in 2017-2019. The level of instructor officers’ health was examined according to the methodology of G. L. Apanasenko, which provides for the calculation of body mass, vital, strength, and Robinson indices, as well as the duration of recovery of heart rate after standard exercise. The research methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of literature sources, pedagogical testing and observation, methods of mathematical statistics. Results: Insufficient level of health was revealed among instructor officers of all age groups – the level of somatic health of the vast majority of instructional staff (over 75 %) is assessed as “low” and “below average”, more than 95 % of instructors are below the “safe zone” according to the methodology of G. L. Apanasenko. Conclusions: The research shows that the current system of physical training of higher education institutions with special training conditions is ineffective and needs to be refined in order to strengthen the health of instructor officers, increase their efficiency and, in general, improve the effectiveness of training future police officers at higher education institutions.

The Effectiveness of Stress Management Related to Employee’s Efficiency-Chiaroscuro

This module is intended to be used by educational employees who want to assist learners develop their capacity to deal with stress. It provides learners with information and usage strategies, but it also includes recommendations for incorporating components into the teaching of course content. For example, business learners exploring executives could examine stress management in terms of work stressors The purpose of this configuration is to help instructional staff provide a greater understanding and understanding of exertion to their learners. It also aims to include healthy habits to prevent discomfort and promote better university adjustment

Visionary leadership in the administrative staff of the Guapan educational unit

The purpose of the present study lies in determining the visionary leadership manifest in the administrative staff of the Guapan Educational Unit, with the research taking the form of a positivist descriptive research study that will deepen the knowledge of the variable that concerns us: visionary leadership. Through the application of field designs, the information was obtained directly from interaction with the subjects, who made up a population of (62) subjects, among whom were (07) administrators and (55) educational professionals, with the sample consisting of 38 instructors. The instrument used was an 18-item multiple-choice questionnaire (Almost always, Sometimes and Almost never), which was validated by three experts, with a reliability of 0.97, which demonstrates that it is highly reliable. The consolidation of this research showed with its results that the administrative staff engages in visionary leadership in the Guapan Educational Unit. The opinion of the instructional staff, however, shows just the opposite, judging that the administrators show weakness in visionary leadership. For this reason, guidelines are offered to the administrators of the state-funded private school located in the Cañar province, Azogues district, Guapan parish.

Three Perspectives of Planning, Implementation, and Consistency in Instructional Coaching

School administrators are choosing or required to implement instructional coaching on their campuses to improve student-learning opportunities. The school community must be aware that effective instructional coaching is job embedded, encourages teachers to become reflective practitioners, and requires time to commit to the implementation. School administrators must support instructional coaches by ensuring there is significant time allotted to provide coaches time in the classroom to observe, provide feedback, and support classroom teachers in their practice and reflection. Instructional coaches build trust and rapport with the instructional staff by implementing best-practice protocols, providing feedback, and planning the next steps. The instructional staff must be disposed to take the feedback and be willing to implement best practices and reflect upon the process. This article reflects each author’s personal experiences in their roles as a school administrator, instructional coach, and classroom teacher with the distinct focus on instructional coaching from the practitioners’ diverse perspectives. Current research on instructional coaching is examined and discussed. Best practices for classroom implementation of instructional coaching are reviewed. The article concludes that implementing instructional coaching in a school setting requires the school administrator to engage all stakeholders to understand the diverse perspectives of the individuals involved in the process. Implementing instructional coaching in a school setting must include the instructional process and student achievement as priorities.

Exploring Local Level Factors Shaping the Implementation of a Blended Learning Module for Information and Geospatial Literacy in Ontario

The objectives of this research study were to examine local level factors shaping the implementation of a blended pedagogical approach for geospatial- and information-literacy, and to understand implementer satisfaction. As such, we addressed the following research questions: What local-level factors shape the implementation of the blended learning model? and How satisfied are implementers (faculty, administrators and library instructional/support staff) with the new blended learning model for geospatial and information fluency? Focus groups (n=7) plus one interview (total n=22) were conducted with key stakeholders (e.g., staff, faculty, administrators) to better understand facilitators, barriers, and/or issues related to module development, in addition to perceptions about how the modules are utilized by teaching assistants (TAs), instructional assistants (IAs), and instructors. Participants were identified according to their status as either discipline-specific instructional staff (i.e., instructor, TA, IA) or staff who supported the development of modules (i.e., library instructional staff, library management, administrators). From an ontological standpoint that privileges an individual perspective on the nature of reality, while epistemologically seeking to understand the relationship between the “knower” and what can be known, we adopted a theory of constructivism to support this inquiry. Transcripts were imported into a qualitative analysis software package (NVivo 8.0) for organization, coding and analysis. Instructors found value in the online modules, particularly in a blended learning setting. Instructors felt that having the material in advance, in-class time could be better focused on interaction, assignments, and assessments and resulted in reduced anxiety in busy lab environments. Several key themes emerged, including: (a) instructor expectations (time constraints, sustainability, and collaborative nature of development process) and assessment (student grades and performance); (b) implementation benefits (course content consistency, more lab time devoted to instructor support, provision of additional course resources, and opportunities for student reflection; (c) implementation challenges (inadequate support for information literacy, perceptions of an increase in student workload, and definitional issues surrounding blended learning); (d) course-tailored modules (dichotomy of needs – course tailored vs. generic modules, value in a quiz component, and changing context of lab environment); and (e) key areas for improvement. Focus group respondents illustrated the importance of engaging students in the process of blended learning model development. Future iterations of blended learning modules should explicitly incorporate student feedback through focus groups during their development. Les objectifs de la présente étude de recherche étaient d’examiner les facteurs au niveau local qui affectent la mise en oeuvre d’une approche pédagogique hybride pour l’acquisition des connaissances en littératie géospatiale et en littératie informationnelle, et de comprendre la satisfaction de ceux qui exécutent cette approche. À cette fin, nous avons examiné les questions de recherche suivantes : Quels sont les facteurs au niveau local qui affectent la mise en oeuvre du modèle d’apprentissage hybride? Et : Dans quelle mesure les personnes qui exécutent ce modèle (les professeurs, les administrateurs et le personnel enseignant et de soutien de bibliothèque) sont-elles satisfaites du nouveau modèle hybride d’apprentissage pour en arriver à la maîtrise de la littératie géospatiale et de la littératie informationnelle? Des groupes de discussion (n=7) plus une entrevue (total n=22) ont été organisés avec les acteurs principaux (personnel, professeurs, administrateurs) afin de mieux comprendre les facilitateurs, les barrières et/ou les problèmes liés au développement des modules, ainsi que les perceptions sur la manière dont les modules sont utilisés par les chargés de cours, les assistants pédagogiques et les instructeurs. Les participants ont été identifiés selon leur statut : personnel enseignant spécifique à une discipline (c’est-à-dire instructeurs, chargés de cours, assistants pédagogiques) ou personnel qui soutient le développement des modules (c’est-à-dire personnel enseignant de bibliothèque, gestionnaires de bibliothèque, administrateurs). D’un point de vue ontologique qui privilégie une perspective individuelle sur la nature de la réalité tout en recherchant de façon épistémologique à comprendre la relation entre celui qui « sait » et ce qui doit être su, nous avons adopté une théorie de constructivisme pour aider à mener à bien cette enquête. Les transcriptions ont été importées dans un logiciel d’analyse qualitative (Nvivo 8.0) pour l’organisation, l’encodage et l’analyse. Les instructeurs ont apprécié la valeur des modules en ligne, en particulier dans le cadre d’un apprentissage hybride. Les instructeurs ont déclaré que le fait d’avoir accès à la documentation à l’avance permettait de mieux utiliser le temps passé en classe pour l’interaction, les devoirs et les évaluations et que cela avait eu pour résultat une diminution de l’anxiété dans les laboratoires débordants d’activité. Plusieurs thèmes clés ont été identifiés : (a) attentes des instructeurs (contraintes de temps, durabilité, nature coopérative du processus de développement) et évaluation (notes et résultats des étudiants); (b) avantages de la mise en oeuvre (uniformité du contenu des cours, davantage de temps en laboratoire consacré au soutien par les instructeurs, ressources de cours supplémentaires, opportunités de réflexion pour les étudiants); (c) défis présentés par la mise en oeuvre (soutien inadéquat pour l’acquisition des connaissances en littératie informationnelle, perceptions d’une augmentation de la charge de travail des étudiants et problèmes de définition concernant l’apprentissage hybride); (d) modules conçus spécifiquement pour des cours donnés (dichotomie des besoins – cours conçus spécifiquement versus modules génériques, valeur apportée par les tests de contrôle, contexte changeant dans les laboratoires); et (e) domaines clés pour l’amélioration. Les répondants des groupes de discussion ont illustré l’importance d’engager les étudiants dans le développement du processus d’apprentissage hybride. Les éditions futures des modules d’apprentissage hybride devraient explicitement incorporer la rétroaction des étudiants par le biais de groupes de discussion pendant la phase de développement.