Promoting Competence-Based Learning and Assessment Through Innovative Use of Electronic Portfolios

This chapter focuses on how innovative use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) can contribute towards meeting the needs of 21st century learners by promoting competence-based learning and assessment. The author explores various strategies and functionalities of e-portfolio application in higher education. Further, fundamental issues that relate to successful implementation of student academic e-portfolios are examined. Specifically, the relevance of congruent theoretical perspectives and teacher's involvement in the process of e-portfolio development are articulated among other key issues. Based on the emergent perspectives elucidated through this chapter, best practices to inform innovative and effective uses of e-portfolios are identified. The chapter illuminates how the effective use of e-portfolio can promote meaningful learning experiences and development of core competences including interactive collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, digital literacy, problem solving and self-efficacy.

Essential Skills for the 21st Century Workforce

This chapter contends that increasing technological innovation has disrupted and continues to disrupt the labor markets making some jobs obsolete and workers redundant. The key to success in the twenty-first century and future labor markets is to combine hard and soft skills into a comprehensive package tailored to specific needs including the ability to think clearly about complex problems, apply creative and innovation solutions to solve problems, and apply new knowledge and skills in new settings. This chapter will provide a discussion of some of the reasons underlying the demand for higher workforce skills and a descriptive overview of curricula and pedagogy that promote students' acquisition and application of critical thinking skills as well as other skills considered essential for 21st century workforce.

Teacher-Centred Delivery Approach in Uganda's Secondary School Education and Empowering Learners With Higher Order Skills

This chapter analyses the extent to which the teacher-centred delivery approach has influenced the quality of learning in private secondary school education in Uganda. Theories applied are: The Stimulus-Response (S-R) Learning theory, the Social Learning theory and the Transmission model. A Self-administered questionnaire, Focus Group discussion and interview guides were used to collect data. Discussion of the chapter centered on how the teacher's roles inside the classroom result into attainment of problem solving skills, interpersonal skills and preparing the learner for occupation. Findings showed that, to equip learners with higher order skills, teachers demonstrated all the five roles. However, effective use of this approach was encumbered by a number of limitations that recommendations are provided. Key among these is incorporating a number of activities to inter-marry the philosophies of the teacher-centred and the student-centred approaches in secondary school education.

Technology-Enhanced Classroom to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills

This chapter describes how the impact of digital technology can now be felt in all spheres of life leading to global competition especially in education. The vision for technology-enhanced classrooms is one in which student groups work on long-term, multidisciplinary projects involving challenging content that is interesting and important to them with the support of technological tools for collecting, analyzing, displaying and communicating information. In the face of severe social and economic challenges, many developing countries are struggling to overcome barriers to the integration of digital tools in education to help students develop high-order skills and global competences for life and work. This chapter is intended to further discussions on incorporating technologies into instruction in order to bridge the gap between critical thinking skills and digital tools, and helping learners to become globally competent at the digital workplace.

Cultivating Critical Thinking Amongst University Graduate Students

The importance of critical thinking in 21st century knowledge economy is no longer disputable. Yet, its cultivation amongst learners remains a challenge - even to the most accomplished teachers. This chapter examines the perceptions of critical thinking held by faculty members of a university's college of education in Uganda. The study findings reveal that faculty members have different perceptions of what critical thinking is, its importance, and how it is cultivated amongst graduate students. Additionally, the faculty reported several challenges while cultivating critical thinking among students. It was thus concluded that the differences in faculty members' perceptions of critical thinking were responsible for its inadequate cultivation amongst students, other factors notwithstanding. Therefore, the study recommends for the formal inclusion of critical thinking in the curricula of graduate programs in order to strengthen its cultivation among students.

Interactive Digital Instruction

This chapter explores the concepts of pedagogy and its development in the typical higher education classroom as a lecture-focused activity, to how improvements could be made to the process of teaching students from a critical perspective utilizing constructivist principles. The author details the process of moving from a teacher-focused closed system of learning to a student-centered digital pedagogy that engages the student in uniquely rigorous ways utilizing varied technologies. The author describes the development of the process from its inception to the most advanced stages and offers critiques and insights for others to follow utilizing TPACK.

The Role of Teacher Education in Developing Employability Skills in Higher Education

This chapter explores the need to equip student teachers with the skills that will enable them to train and develop their learners for employability. However, given the broad understanding of employability, it is important to recognize that the quality of a university graduate is not just a reflection of the quality of the curriculum and its supporting academic environment. It reflects the demands of the industry as well as the competence of the regulating body (i.e. related government institutions) in shaping the characteristics of higher education graduates. It might be overly simplistic to say that universities are encouraged, if not pressured, to produce employable graduates. The higher education sector therefore needs to recognize and understand the context of employability for their graduates to ensure that their students can live up to the expectations from governments and employers.

Entrepreneurial Skills for the 21st Century Workplace

The foundation of graduates' employability is based on skills and by extension, workers. Due to the high levels of unemployment among young people, entrepreneurial skills for graduates and the workforce becomes an imperative to scholars and policy makers trying to tackle unemployment issues by providing students with skills, and competences that fulfill the needs of a very competitive labor market (Pereira, Vilas-Boas & Rebelo, 2016). To encourage collaboration on educational innovation, to promote entrepreneurship education, and to improve university technology and knowledge transfer to industry and society, several initiatives were developed. This chapter discusses some of those initiatives and contributes to the skills discourse by proposing strategies to empower, structure, and improve innovative curriculum, workplace, and life. Some skills shortages identified for the 21st century workplace are: learning and innovation skills, career and life skills; adaptability, self-reliance and social skills, team building, technology, leadership and responsibility skills.

Developing Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Competence Across Liberal Arts Campuses

The rapidly changing world requires students to be prepared to address change and diversity with empathy, tolerance, and competence. To help prepare them, the authors collaboratively developed and implemented a set of blended, cross-campus multicultural competence modules in graduate and undergraduate courses. This chapter discusses the use of blended learning techniques, digital tools, and learning management technologies, as well as instructional design and collaborative approaches to teaching, learning, and course development. The modules were created to be disseminated for use in multiple courses, disciplines, and collegiate levels across college campuses in an effort to better prepare students for the rapidly changing social landscape of interpersonal relationships and technological developments. Recommendations for similar development and implementations are provided.

Using Learner Centered Pedagogy and Social Justice Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Technical and Professional Communication Writing Courses

This chapter discusses the author's approach to implementing social justice and learner-centered pedagogies in a course titled Technical Communication in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter. The author uses the Black Lives Matter movement as a springboard for teaching technical communication students about the responsibilities of workplace writers. Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) make use of a skills-based pedagogy and, at times, omits the importance of providing students with cultural competency skills. However, there is a shift in the field of TPC as some scholars are advocating for the inclusion of topics such as race, culture, gender, and class in pedagogical discussions. Discussed in this chapter are the theories behind the author's pedagogical choices when creating the described course, the student assignments, and the challenges encountered while teaching the course.