Volume 2024 No. 2

Exploring Integrated Active Learning Practices in an Accelerated Fully Online Graduate-Level Course at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Pierre M. Lu, Associate Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; Seokmin Kang, Assistant Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Abstract

The purpose of the study aimed to explore integrated active learning (IAL) practices in a graduate-level fully online, accelerated course at an HSI, with a focus on students’ perceptions, and to evaluate the implementation of integrated active learning based on student feedback and reflections. Course instructors started implementing IAL practices for the same course in 2022. Data from before and after IAL implementation in terms of course syllabi and course designs on Blackboard, the LMS used in the HSI, were collected. To investigate students’ perceptions, survey methods were also conducted. Findings revealed that graduate students overwhelmingly preferred IAL over traditional online learning approaches. Implications and recommendations were discussed. 

Every Interaction of Every Moment of Every Day:

Establishing Positive Middle School Teacher-Student Connections 

Kenneth Lloyd Reimer, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg (Canada)

Abstract

This qualitative study, conducted in 2022, invited Canadian middle school classroom teachers (n=4) into a think tank in order to explore ways in which they attempted to positively connect with middle years aged students and helped students become engaged in their classrooms and schools. This study was conducted in a similar manner to earlier studies with high school teachers (Reimer, 2014) and elementary school teachers (Reimer, 2020). The participants who consented to participate in the study met individually via Zoom. Participants emphasized the need to use every opportunity throughout the day to connect with their students. They provided several unique and creative practices in which they attempted to achieve these approaches. Participants also believed that it was every adult in the school’s responsibility to make positive connections with students. They noted the benefits of positively connecting with students’ families. Finally, participants noted the importance of authenticity, mutual respect, and sincerity.

Women’s Leadership in Senegal: Pedagogical and Feminist Perspectives

Éric Touya de Marenne, Clemson University

Abstract

The article is based on my experience teaching women’s leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of French-speaking Africa. We study three companies founded and managed by women in Senegal (“Femme Auto,” “Taxi Sister,” and “Sooretul,” an e-commerce platform) through pedagogical and feminist approaches that include storytelling, culture, and ethics. Through this inquiry, we explore how students develop critical competencies that enable them to enhance their capacity to rethink issues pertaining to economic justice and inequalities, broaden their knowledge of the world, and become leaders and entrepreneurs sensitive to ethical concerns. 

    Through the testimonies of the Senegalese women entrepreneurs, we will argue that it is essential to conceive alternate economic rationales, inside and outside academia, that take real life experiences and the consequences of economic policy into consideration. We will also contend that this reconceptualization, which begins in the classroom, can only be achieved by humanizing the acquisition of business and economic principles through an acute understanding of language, culture and history and their effects on people to develop students’ critical abilities as well as their senses of empathy.

Expanding the Narrative Space of Being an Associate Professor without Tenure Through Personal Narratives and Best Practices

Rick Stoddart, Ed.D., Microcredential Coordinator for SkillStack, Idaho Division of Career Technical Education; Sydney Freeman, Jr., Ph.D., Full Professor of Adult, Organizational Learning, & Leadership, University of Idaho

Abstract

Associate Professor without tenure (APWT) occupies a unique narrative space within higher education. These faculty find themselves at the Associate Professor rank without the accompanying security of tenure. Misunderstandings, miscommunication, and isolation can occur during the APWT tenure processes’ often accelerated nature and within the reduced time for APWT faculty to become acculturated to campus and departmental norms. This article shares two APWT faculty tenure narratives and offers some best practices to help make the APWT experience within the academy more successful and less stressful.

Early Christianity in China: Finding the Forgotten

Dr. Ron Kydd, Emreitus Professor of Christion History, Tyndale University

Abstract

In 2014, I had the privilege of travelling extensively in China. The trip was enriched by my having with me a retired Chinese archaeologist who had previously served China as Director General of The State Administration of Cultural Heritage. It is no surprise that a multitude of issues are currently keeping China near the centre of global interest, but there is one which has consistently been overlooked: the presence of Christianity in China from 635 to 1369 AD. For more than half that period it had recognition from the highest powers in the country. I will be weaving together shards of relevant information supporting that statement. The discussion will move through three phases.

The Role of Storytelling in Post-Pandemic Education

Moira Dougherty, PhD, Independent Researcher

Abstract

Our brains are designed to process information as narrative, and storytelling in classrooms addresses the cognitive and affective dimensions of learning, particularly relevant to the challenges facing education today as educators struggle to find interventions to remediate learning loss resulting from the pandemic.  Storytelling addresses different learning styles, facilitates the development of focused attention span, improves audio processing and increases long-term memory. Storytelling builds reciprocal relationships and fosters the development of empathy. Storytelling gives teachers and students a way of being seen and recognized.

Academic Resilience Perceptions of Graduate Students and Graduate Professors

Blair Carsone, Assistant Professor, Gannon University; Juliana Bell, OTD Student, Gannon University; Maie Grisham, OTD Student, Gannon University

Abstract

This study’s objective was to understand the current perceptions of academic resilience in graduate level health science students and faculty. This study used a descriptive qualitative research design. Six graduate faculty members and four graduate students participated in two separate focus groups. Participants were included if they were full-time faculty or enrolled as full-time students in graduate programs. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews via Microsoft Teams and analyzed through transcription and thematic analysis amongst the three researchers. Perspectives on academic resilience differed between faculty and students. The degree to which faculty felt resilience depended on autonomy and intrinsic motivation, while students felt it depended upon support systems. The inclusion of resilience within graduate level health science programs is needed to promote successful future healthcare practitioners. More research is warranted to continue to develop the facilitation of academic resilience in graduate level students.