Reconceptualising the Instructional Roles of Academic Librarians in Order to Better Serve Underserved Students at a California Public University

The need to equip society with information literacy (IL) has become essential, as evidenced by the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections, COVID 19 pandemic, and QAnon. A deficiency in information provenance and credibility, combined with internet users’ poor information-seeking habits, has fostered the perfect environment for misinformation. In this atmosphere, higher education institutions (HEIs) must take the lead in developing a citizenry with the necessary IL skills to make informed judgments. The need to impart IL is even more crucial among the underserved student population (i.e., low-income, first-generation college students, and students of colour) who suffer from a deficiency in IL, because of the digital divide, when arriving at HEIs. The problem of practice (PoP) addressed here concerns the impact of Golden State Academy – Valley (GSA-V) not implementing an academic librarian (AL) taught IL credit-bearing course, crucial for its large underserved student population. GSA-V continues to underutilize its AL concerning the development of such courses, despite their expertise in IL and the literature demonstrating the positive impact on academic success. As a proponent of the critical paradigm, I envision this PoP as an opportunity for empowering marginalized voices. Using Kotter’s eight-stage process, combined with distributed and servant leadership principles, this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) proposes the development of an experimental AL-taught IL credit-bearing course. The aim is to utilize this course as an entryway for improving AL instructional roles and developing the IL skills of GSA-V’s underserved student population. The hope is that the experimental course can act as a catalyst for creating a general education IL requirement, thereby significantly increasing the reach and impact of such instruction

Transformation Through Trust and Authenticity: Improving and Aligning Service Learning in an International Baccalaureate School

The International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme places service learning at the core of its curriculum. Yet, challenges with implementing it successfully are omnipresent in international schools. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to support teachers with the implementation of service learning projects at a private, non-profit international school in Western Europe. It is guided and framed by a Problem of Practice (POP) that addresses the current state of service learning at Mountain Range School (MRS) where curriculum and independent service projects are inconsistently designed, implemented and supported. It includes an evaluation of school policies, curriculum, teacher capacity, resources and systems. The underlying leadership approaches to this OIP are authentic and transformational leadership. A consideration of the cultural and logistical aspects that are impacting the implementation of service learning is evaluated. A gap analysis is conducted between the current and future state of service that analyzes inputs, outputs, resources and materials. Four solutions are considered and evaluated against a cost-benefit criteria, resulting in a fifth hybrid solution that combines professional development support for teachers and curriculum implementation strategies. A change path model (CPM) is used to outline the proposed changes and the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle is used to monitor change. The communication and tracking of change is aligned with authentic, transformational leadership approaches that leverage the ethos of service through human interactions that emphasize dialogic, cyclical growth in order to institutionalize change and ultimately improve the program’s effectiveness to impact change in the local community

Context-Aware and Adaptable eLearning Systems

The full text file attached to this record contains a copy of the thesis without the authors publications attached. The list of publications that are attached to the complete thesis can be found on pages 6-7 in the thesis.This thesis proposed solutions to some shortcomings to current eLearning architectures. The proposed DeLC architecture supports context-aware and adaptable provision of eLearning services and electronic content. The architecture is fully distributed and integrates service-oriented development with agent technology. Central to this architecture is that a node is our unit of computation (known as eLearning node) which can have purely service-oriented architecture, agent-oriented architecture or mixed architecture. Three eLeaerning Nodes have been implemented in order to demonstrate the vitality of the DeLC concept. The Mobile eLearning Node uses a three-level communication network, called InfoStations network, supporting mobile service provision. The services, displayed on this node, are to be aware of its context, gather required learning material and adapted to the learner request. This is supported trough a multi-layered hybrid (service- and agent-oriented) architecture whose kernel is implemented as middleware. For testing of the middleware a simulation environment has been developed. In addition, the DeLC development approach is proposed. The second eLearning node has been implemented as Education Portal. The architecture of this node is poorly service-oriented and it adopts a client-server architecture. In the education portal, there are incorporated education services and system services, called engines. The electronic content is kept in Digital Libraries. Furthermore, in order to facilitate content creators in DeLC, the environment Selbo2 was developed. The environment allows for creating new content, editing available content, as well as generating educational units out of preexisting standardized elements. In the last two years, the portal is used in actual education at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Plovdiv. The third eLearning node, known as Agent Village, exhibits a purely agent-oriented architecture. The purpose of this node is to provide intelligent assistance to the services deployed on the Education Pportal. Currently, two kinds of assistants are implemented in the node - eTesting Assistants and Refactoring eLearning Environment (ReLE). A more complex architecture, known as Education Cluster, is presented in this thesis as well. The Education Cluster incorporates two eLearning nodes, namely the Education Portal and the Agent Village. eLearning services and intelligent agents interact in the cluster

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Reconceptualizing Support for Students with Low Language Proficiency in Transnational Higher Education

In a bid to remain competitive and respond to the forces of globalization, higher education institutions are increasingly focusing on internationalization, with English-medium instruction (EMI) as one of the key strategies for achieving this. While most institutions provide dedicated language support in the form of English for Academic Purposes programs, consideration is rarely given to the pedagogical requirements placed on disciplinary faculty for instructing non-native English-speaking students in degree programs. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) examines how the learning and teaching capacity of disciplinary faculty can be developed to support the language needs of students with low language proficiency at a transnational EMI university in China. Feedback from a recent focus group on professional development needs supports such a teaching culture change, indicating faculty desire for EMI training. The OIP is explored through social cognition and cultural lenses utilizing a distributed leadership (DL) approach, with the aim of co-constructing discipline-specific EMI support solutions with faculty. Cawsey et al.\u27s (2016) Change Path Model, Scharmer\u27s (2016a) Theory U, and Jones and Harvey\u27s (2017) Sustainable Enabling and Evaluating Reflective DL Change Process Model underpin a change framework facilitated by sensemaking and growth mindset strategies, to support and guide faculty towards adopting a change in teaching practice. Successive pilots will steer the implementation of this change, monitored and evaluated through a series of participative action research cycles and feedback loops, with the aim of incrementally building support for the change and leading to the institutionalization of a revised approach of EMI

Professional Learning Communities: Perception of Impact on Learning

This research focused on Professional Learning Communities (PLC): Perception of Impact on Learning. The overarching question for the research is: How do principals and teachers in Title I schools perceive the learning benefits in a Professional Learning Community? (a) What do teachers perceive as benefits of participating in a Professional Learning Community? (b) What do teachers perceive as an influence(s) on student learning in a PLC community? (c) What do teachers perceive to be the limitations of a PLC community? This qualitative research study analyzed data from current principals and teachers in proficient Title 1 schools as outlined by the governing state education department. The results of this study may have the potential to highlight a framework for teachers and principals to improve student learning, thus, providing improved instruction. Quality instruction can lead to improved student learning, and student learning is vital for success (Weimer, 2010). When student outcomes are improved, more students graduate and have a greater opportunity to become productive members of their communities

Engage D1.2 Final Project Results Report

This deliverable summarises the activities and results of Engage, the SESAR 2020 Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN). The KTN initiated and supported multiple activities for SESAR and the European air traffic management (ATM) community, including PhDs, focused catalyst fund projects, thematic workshops, summer schools and the launch of a wiki as the one-stop, go-to source for ATM research and knowledge in Europe. Key throughout was the integration of exploratory and industrial research, thus expediting the innovation pipeline and bringing researchers together. These activities laid valuable foundations for the SESAR Digital Academy

A conceptual model proposal : universities as culture change agents for sustainable development

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model that synthesizes the existing findings concerning universities as culture change agents for sustainable development. The model could serve as a guidance on how universities might get involved in the pro-SD activities. It also underlines the prerequisite of the quality culture that should be introduced within all the activities of universities to successfully act as culture change agents for SD. This paper builds upon the holistic and inter-disciplinary approach to demonstrate that SD does not happen in isolation and that the role of universities in its creation is significant. This study includes a literature review to contextualize the impact of universities on culture and their potential role in SD. The conclusions stemming from the literature review materialize in the proposal of the conceptual model of the university as the culture change agent for SD. The elaborated framework responds to the need for greater clarity, ordering and systematization of the role of universities in the processes of initiating, promoting and modelling the SD-oriented changes while appreciating the role of culture as an enabler, means of social change and a result of SD-focused interventions. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a novel perspective on the assumed interrelations between university, its quality culture, university main operations such as education, research and engagement with the society as well as the culture and the agency of stakeholders in the context of meeting the world’s current demands without compromising the needs of future generations

TTA school-based research consortium initiative, the evaluation, final report

This is the final report of the evaluation of th School-Based Research Consortium Initiative which ran in England from 1998 to 2001. The initiative was sponsored via a public/private partnership between the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), a UK Government agency, and the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), a private not-for-profit company. The aim of the initiative was to create local infrastructures of support and action for teachers to engage ‘in and with’ research. Those infrastructures were made up of consortia, consisting in each case of a small number of schools together with a university department of education and at least one local education authority (LEA). Over the three years that it ran, the initiative spawned a considerable range and volume of research activities, including peer observation of teaching, peer review of videos of teaching, interview-based study, surveys measuring such things as rewards and sanctions in the classroom. In addition to well-developed teacher-university collaborations and some joint work with local education authorities, there were many examples of teacher-teacher collaboration (some of it between different schools), and also times when teachers and pupils worked together to devise, carry out or interpret research activity. In practice, the initiative created an environment in which it was possible to develop new research relationships across a range of partners, rather than merely transfer the locus of research to schools. Three aspects of teacher experience of the initiative are important to highlight. The first was the overwhelming testimony of teachers that the value of the initiative for them was the rediscovery of their professional confidence in a climate of low trust accountability, characterised by constant monitoring, target setting and bureaucratic demands. The second was the growth of familiarity with research practices that teachers gained through working collaboratively with their peers, with pupils, and with colleagues from the university. The third was how the process of research itself was necessarily situated in teachers’ own practices

BECOMING RESTORATIVE: DISCOMFORT, PRAXIS, AND ECSTASY AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF RESTORATIVE PRACTICES AND TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

Restorative justice is inclusive of a philosophy and set of practices that have challenged long-standing paradigms that perpetuate harm in schools. Through this lens, schools are recognized as interconnected communities where the well-being and dignity of all members must be valued. While the restorative movement has demonstrated great promise in cultivating the aims of justice, educators have encountered significant hurdles in their efforts toward transformation. A substantial challenge educators face is to identify effective means through which to disrupt persistent pedagogies of violence in primary and secondary education. This dissertation proposed a pedagogy of transcendence, a framework inclusive of restorative and intercultural teaching practices, to invite educators into a process of transformation through examining the paradigms that informed their professional identity development. Moreover, the research questions sought to illuminate the reflections-of-self that emerged for educators as they completed a 3-day training in the pedagogy of transcendence and then implemented the teaching practices in the 1st months of the fall semester. Through a qualitative design, 12 participants engaged in a collective process of storytelling and exchanged 291 stories. I employed critical narrative analysis, as well as theory derived from the affective turn, to emphasize the dynamics of power, body, history, and politics as key theoretical filters through which to understand the complexities of educators’ experiences implementing restorative practices within fixed and often harmful paradigms. In conclusion, I presented four interpretations to frame further inquiry into educators’ experiences in the implementation of restorative practices. First, I recognized restorative practices as encounters of praxis, supporting the cultivation of critical consciousness. Further, I proposed implementation as occurring in structures of feeling, shaped by emotion interrelated with power. Then I offer assemblages, framing restorative practices are settings where emotions meet with discourses and materials to produce an event or encounter, whereby violence or peaceful outcomes are constructed. Lastly, I presented becoming restorative as a moment-to-moment emergence. The results of this study supported the implementation of restorative practices by highlighting the importance of recognizing the complexities of identity, emotion, and power in reaching the ultimate outcomes of justice in schools