‘Centering’ Teaching Excellence in Higher Education

This paper explores the complexity of ‘teaching excellence’ (Kreber, 2002) in contemporary higher education. It describes how a university academic, who has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards, questions if they really are an ‘excellent teacher’ and if their student-centered philosophy is sustainable. An analysis of data related to teaching and learning effectiveness over a seven year period highlights a significant weakness in how the academic approached the teaching of undergraduate students. This had a subsequent negative effect on several levels. The paper concludes by describing the merits of academics ‘centering’ themselves between the corporate university and the needs of students in striving for ‘teaching excellence’.

Flipped Classroom Evaluation using the Teaching Analysis Poll

The increasing digitalization also affects universities. Therefore, electronic teaching is experiencing an upwind. Flipped Classroom is a special form of digital teaching is. Here, the basics are taught via online content and are interactively deepened in presence phases in class. For this quite modern variant of blended learning, there are numerous case descriptions in research with different evaluations available. However, a systematic examination of the evaluation of this form of teaching has not yet been carried out. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to diminish this research gap and to present the model of the Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP) as a systematic and easy to handle evaluation method in the Flipped Classroom. After a short review of recent research in the corresponding areas, we give a systematic overview of evaluations of Flipped Classroom. We introduce from the example of a Flipped Classroom Course the application of TAP as an adequate evaluation format.

University performace through Multiple Factor Analysis

This work applies the Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) as an exploratory methodology to analize the indicators of the education´s management that belong to 32 Colombian public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) along the year 2013. The product of this work indicates that the majority of HEIs have similar structures, being different and better scored the following: La Universidad Nacional (UNAL), Antioquia (UDEA), Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD), Pamplona y del Valle. Also the UDEA has a high development in extension, formation, capacity and research which is considered one of the best HEIS in the country. The university of Valle has a high degree of welfare, formation and extension, besides moderate capacities on research in comparission with the UDEA wich is superior to the rest of the HEIs. Pamplona has too a high level of formation, extension and moderate weflare, research and capacity in relation to the UNAD. It worth to mention that UNAL is the best located on extension. However, it is surpassed by other University (UDEA) because has a better development in some variables associated to research and extension. To finish, there are other HEIs with too many weaknesses on the indicators of the education´s management wich are UFPS Ocaña, Sucre and Pacifico. These universities show certain problems of research, extension and capacity, but fundamentally strong shortcomings in formation and welfare.

Management of wastewater trough theatre

Compulsory study course on wastewater treatment and sewage systems contains lectures, classroom calculations, technical project and laboratory practicum. The course is addressing not only the developing skills in wastewater treatment technologies but also provides preparation of professionals that can communicate with institutions involved in water and wastewater sector. Over the years it has been observed that even after receiving the most sophisticated knowledge and highest markings, students often lack skills in practical communication with industry and implementation of theoretical knowledge in praxis. Here we describe student-centred teaching method that is based on the activities that are similar to theatre and allow: (i) the teacher to find and understand the weaker places in student knowledge gained during the semester; (ii) the students to form professional skills during the active communication with colleagues and mentors from industry. The students work in several groups “INDUSTRY”, “MUNICIPALITY” and EXPERTS”, try to find better solution for industrial sewage treatment and cooperation model with the municipality and present their results. After 2 years of the modernisation and adjustment, the training course has created an interest not only from student side but also from the industry representatives that are interested in communication with the new specialists and develop strong contacts with the university.

Improving Evidence-Based Practice education in healthcare courses: A Participatory Action Research multiple-case study

This paper synthesises the results of three participatory action research (PAR) studies undertaken to improve the integration of evidence-based practice (EBP) education in three undergraduate health courses at one Australian university: Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Occupational Therapy, and Bachelor of Physiotherapy. The PAR process with interested academics uncovered a range of EBP education strengths and weaknesses in the three courses. Common themes were evident, which are likely to be applicable in other similar courses. Identified weaknesses included a lack of explicit teaching about the meaning, principles, steps, and importance of EBP, partly stemming from a lack of shared understanding. A relative lack of emphasis on certain EBP steps was also noted, particularly the first step of ‘asking’ questions. A lack of communication with workplace learning (WPL) supervisors about how to facilitate EBP was also noted, raising concerns about variable EBP-education quality across WPL settings. Opportunities for improvement were identified by academics in each course, across multiple subjects and year levels. In our experience, PAR has been a highly constructive approach to EBP curriculum improvement. We encourage consideration of a PAR approach for addressing similarly complex curriculum challenges.

Teachers’ perceptions about the use of the Learning ePortfolio as learning and assessment tool in Mondragon Unibertsitatea

The aim of the present study is to analyse teachers’ initial perceptions about the use of the Learning ePortfolio as the main learning and assessment tool in Early Years Education and Primary Education Degrees. This is a piece of a major longitudinal research being carried out in the Faculty of Humanities and Education in Mondragon Unibertsitatea. Results show that teachers are aware of the flexibility offered by the Learning ePortfolio to assess students’ learning processes. Indeed, teachers think the Learning ePortfolio is a valuable tool for both students and teachers. However, there are still some outstanding issues to discuss with all the teachers involved in the use of the Learning ePortfolio. Conclusions drawn from this study show that the Learning ePortfolio constitutes a helpful and valuable tool for both students and teachers and it helps when carrying out formative assessment processes. Nevertheless, more training is needed to solve the gaps identified for its use.

About Students’ Abstractions - Evaluation of Items Requiring Abstract Thinking Competence

thinking is one of the most important competences in computer science. When starting my research, there was no complete definition of the competence nor was there a tool to assess first-semester students’ competence level. Thus, I developed a competence model of abstract thinking, which allowed me to derive an assessment tool. In this work, I will present first insights gained by analyzing the tests of 134 incoming students of computer science and scientific computing. The analysis confirms the assumption that incoming students often lack in this essential competence. Moreover, the overemphasis of the data aspect of classes in object oriented programming can be confirmed for university level education. Further investigations will follow. In the future, the insights gained can be used to develop teaching units or whole teaching concepts.

Creative writing and Critical Thinking Enhancement at Higher Education

Currently, educational policymakers identify Critical Thinking (CT) as an essential aspect of progress and knowledge growth in any field and in the broad society. Peer interactions and individual writing are helpful pedagogical strategies for CT development that could be enhanced by the use of technologies (Guiller, Durndell, & Ross, 2008). Starting from the above-mentioned evidence, a university module was designed by combining collaborative and creative writing with the critical analysis of literary texts and the fruition of figurative arts. 123 students worked in groups and their CT level was assessed at different times of the course. Most of the students’ groups showed an increase in their CT level whilst a few did not. The difficulties in the management of group dynamics corresponded to the decreasing CT level. On the contrary, groups able to organize their work improved their CT throughout the course. Additionally, students’ work modes had an impact on their performance at different CT tasks. The research results could be used to improve university course design for CT education.

From scribe to YouTuber: A proposal to teach the History of the English Language in the digital era

The present paper deals with a proposal for enhancing students’ engagement in the course ‘History of the English Language’ of the Degree in English Studies (Universitat de València). For the purpose, the traditional lectures will be combined with a research project carried out by groups of students (research teams) in which two digital tools will be used: electronic linguistic corpora and YouTube. Electronic linguistic corpora, on the one hand, will allow students to discover the diachronic development of certain linguistic features by looking at real data and making conclusions based on frequencies by themselves. YouTube, on the other, is a most appropriate online environment where students will share a video lecture so that their classmates can benefit from the research work they did, fostering peer-to-peer learning. The expected results are to make students more autonomous in their learning process, as they will be working on their project from the very beginning of the course; and to engage them more effectively since they will be working in a format that resembles what they do at their leisure time.