Advancing Higher Education
University of Valencia
Co-designing Graduate Courses: Leveraging Learners' Expertise for Optimal Engagement View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anneris Coria Navia, Duane Covrig
Adult learners bring a wealth of experience to graduate courses. Their funds of knowledge can be used in creatively co-designing adult learner flexible courses, tap into work and life projects, and draw materials useful for other participants. This approach ensures learner ownership, co-instructing and facilitating learning, and recognizes that the teaching and learning process is multidirectional. We discuss attitudes and beliefs that underpin co-designing. We also present the technological and interpersonal skills and tools that support this model. Examples are provided for face-to-face and online courses.
STEM Strategy in Pre-service Physics Teacher Education: Science Literacy and STEM View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Renata Holubova
The aim of this study is to consider STEM teaching objectives in pre-service physics teacher education. The objectives must reflect the education needs of the 21st century and should be focused on transforming the content of education and on reducing social inequalities in education. The aim of our research that has been carried out at the university (first term students and students leaving the university took part in this research) was to find out critical places in the study program. The question was, what can be done to mitigate the discrepancy between the strategy of education (science literacy) and STEM education and the content of the educational program for pre-service physics teacher at the university. Findings of this research lead to innovations of the study program. The main ideas of the study program (STEM subjects, types of teaching practice) are presented.
How Faculty and Student Preferences for Active and Traditional Instruction Relate to Their Beliefs, Quantity, and Quality of Experiences, Knowledge of the Benefits, and Professional Training View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tammy Shilling, Anneris Coria Navia, Heather Ferguson
The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study is to explain the relationships between faculty preferences and student preferences for active over traditional methods and their beliefs, the frequency and positiveness of their experiences, and the amount and extent of the knowledge or training they have had regarding active and traditional teaching methods. This study surveyed faculty and students in Doctorate of Physical Therapy, graduate Communication Sciences and Disorders, and undergraduate nursing programs from seventeen different institutions in the United States. Regression and correlation analyses were conducted on faculty and students as a whole, by program, and type of course to determine any group differences. A two-variable model reveals that more frequent faculty experiences uniquely predict 26.0% and positive faculty experiences 2.25% of the variance in faculty preferences for active over traditional methods. A three-variable model reveals that student knowledge uniquely predicts 16.0%, student beliefs 7.2%, and positive student experiences 2.3% of the variance in student preferences for active over traditional methods. There are minimal group differences for faculty and students when examined by the program and type of course. A myriad of factors influences pedagogical decision-making and implementation. When comparing the factors influencing preferences for active over traditional methods in this study, distinct differences appear between faculty and students. Understanding these relationships may further inform and refine health professional education infrastructure changes to support faculty in pedagogical change as they prepare students with the higher-order thinking skills needed for clinical practice in the workforce setting.
Talking Trees: A Virtual Journey to the East in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lan Lo
This paper presents a preview of a collaborative research project that provides students from the University of Nottingham (UoN) with the opportunity to ‘Journey to the East’ without actually travelling to the country. It is located within the literature on student migration and chimes with previous projects delivered either separately or in partnership by Lo and Pinchbeck around notions of migration and belonging. It was devised in collaboration between Dr Lan Lo, Assistant Professor in Chinese Language and Society, from the UoN and Dr Michael Pinchbeck, Reader in Theatre (MMU) during the Covid-19 pandemic as an alternative to study placement for students taking Chinese on university degree programmes. It was part of a package of measures designed to address these students’ language and cultural study needs in the context of lockdown and restrictions on international travel including to China. For this event the team will share work-in-progress of an audio walk. Talking Trees/树说/述说 involves a living archive of stories to be listened to at trees, imported from China, by downloading the audio via a QR code. The stories explore the notion of roots/routes and how trees have grown over time as a metaphor for migration and belonging. One tree represents the idea of ‘leaving home’ while the other tree represents the idea of ‘arriving home’. At each of the two trees you are invited to listen to verbatim interviews with Chinese speakers on a range of relevant themes. The voices were provided by international students from a range of backgrounds.
