Digital technologies and emerging educational objectives: The need for transformational changes in teacher education and training

The institutionalization of information technology in human society has necessitated the emergence of new educational goals and objectives.This study identifies the emerging educational goal and objectives of the twenty-first century and examines the challenging role of higher education in the information age.This article introduces four models that can guide and fast-track the integration of new knowledge domains in the curriculum structure and the development of new instructional and pedagogical designs in higher education to facilitate the attainment of the educational goal and objectives of the twenty-first century. The article also introduces a structural model of providing the foundation needed for higher education in the twenty-first century in the present information and technology-driven world of globalization. Based on existing studies, this article considers the role of teacher education as being critical in addressing the various challenges associated with the transformation changes needed for higher education in the twenty-first century

The impact of web-based collaborative inquiry for science learning in secondary education

Current educational practice in higher education shows a growing use of CSCLenvironments. In secondary education, however, we only see the first signs of transformation in the age of technology and the Internet, and many of these signs are particularly at the administrative level rather than in the classroom. Nevertheless, research, as well as national standards, support collaborative learning and the integration of ICT as an answer to the decreased interest and motivation in science learning and the growing importance that is attached to inquiry skills. This research project deals with the use of web-based collaborative inquiry as a promising approach for secondary science education. In particular, this study investigated the impact of the implementation of a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) on students’ content knowledge, their inquiry skills and their attitude and engagement towards science. An empirical study in 19 secondary science classes was conducted and 375 students were involved. Additionally, this study focused on gender differences and highlighted the transformation of the teachers’ role in web-based teaching. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of this innovative instructional approach in the attempt of making science accessible and interesting to all and to rectify the gender imbalance in science education

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe effective use of technology is increasingly important in many fields where online and digital communication, collaboration, and production have become more prevalent. Although it is clear that many higher education students come into the classroom with skills involved with consuming technology, they often are much less capable of producing technology, such as editing videos or creating websites. Recently, many K-12 and higher education institutions have been redesigning instructional methods to better meet the needs of students in today's work environment through teaching collaborative, authentic technology tasks. Relatively few studies have examined the role of student communication practices in technology classrooms that involve collaboration and authentic tasks, so this dissertation describes a multiple-semester, comparative case study of student communication patterns and themes. Operating as an engaged observer, I monitored an advanced Web design course during three semesters to better understand how students' communication practice influence their collaboration on authentic tasks. Through participant observation, in-depth interviews, gathering student documents, and transcription of group talk, I was able to use Situated Learning theory to examine the way students talk about their activities and proceed through a 16-week learning period. An inductive analysis revealed several discursive patterns and practices including how using technology influenced their communication practices and their development (or not) as a community of practice. These patterns are also discussed in light of their enabling and constraining qualities and the extent to which they echo discourses within other technology classrooms. Particular focus is given to the development and process of student learning teams, categorized into stages, from Individualism, Coalescing, Maturing and Identity formation, to Production and Transformation. Finally, Situated Learning theory's and small group communication's notions of discourse is extended within the technical sphere, as students both use and create new technologies, to become Community of Practice Development theory (CPDT)

The psychological dimension of transformation in teacher learning

Against a background which recognises pedagogical content knowledge as the distinctive element of teacher competence/expertise, this theoretical essay argues for its central construct - that of transformation – to be understood by teachers and teacher-educators in psychological terms (as was originally proposed by Dewey). Transformation requires teachers to fashion disciplinary knowledge such that it is accessible to the learner. It is argued that for transformation to happen, teacher thinking must include a sophisticated grasp of cognition and metacognition if teachers are to be characterised as competent, let alone expert. This article is written within a context of considerable social and academic scrutiny in the United Kingdom of the form and content of professional teacher preparation and development. In recent years the contribution of psychological knowledge to teacher-education has been filtered through procedural lenses of how best to 'manage classrooms', 'assess learning', 'build confidence' or whatever without a matched concern for psychological constructs through which such issues might be interpreted; thus leaving teachers vulnerable in their professional understandings of learning and its complexities. That society now requires high-level cognitive engagement amongst its participants places cognitive and metacognitive demands on teachers which can only be met if they themselves are conceptually equipped

An Introduction to the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection Framework (I-CELER)

Cultivating ethical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics researchers and practitioners requires movement beyond reducing ethical instruction to the rational exploration of moral quandaries via case studies and into the complexity of the ethical issues that students will encounter within their careers. We designed the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (I-CELER) framework as a means to promote the ethical becoming of future STEM practitioners. This paper provides a synthesis of and rationale for I-CELER for promoting ethical becoming based on scholarly literature from various social science fields, including social anthropology, moral development, and psychology. This paper proceeds in five parts. First, we introduce the state of the art of engineering ethics instruction; argue for the need of a lens that we describe as ethical becoming; and then detail the Specific Aims of the I-CELER approach. Second, we outline the three interrelated components of the project intervention. Third, we detail our convergent mixed methods research design, including its qualitative and quantitative counterparts. Fourth, we provide a brief description of what a course modified to the I-CELER approach might look like. Finally, we close by detailing the potential impact of this study in light of existing ethics education research within STEM

Higher Education 4.0, The Digital Transformation of Classroom Lectures to Blended Learning

This book chronicles a 10-year introduction of blended learning into the delivery at a leading technological university, with a longstanding tradition of technology-enabled teaching and learning, and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Hence, both teachers and students were familiar with the idea of online courses. Despite this, the longitudinal experiment did not proceed as expected. Though few technical problems, it required behavioural changes from teachers and learners, thus unearthing a host of socio-technical issues, challenges, and conundrums. With the undercurrent of design ideals such as “tech for good”, any industrial sector must examine whether digital platforms are credible substitutes or at best complementary. In this era of Industry 4.0, higher education, like any other industry, should not be about the creative destruction of what we value in universities, but their digital transformation. The book concludes with an agenda for large, repeatable Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to validate digital platforms that could fulfil the aspirations of the key stakeholder groups – students, faculty, and regulators as well as delving into the role of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as surrogates for “fees-free” higher education and whether the design of such a HiEd 4.0 platform is even a credible proposition. Specifically, the book examines the data-driven evidence within a design-based research methodology to present outcomes of two alternative instructional designs evaluated – traditional lecturing and blended learning. Based on the research findings and statistical analysis, it concludes that the inexorable shift to online delivery of education must be guided by informed educational management and innovation

Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices

Reviews current practices in and strategies for incorporating innovative technology into the teaching of remedial math at the college level. Outlines challenges, emerging trends, and ways to combine technology with new concepts of instructional strategy

Academic Resilience and Achievement

This study uses narrative analysis to understand the ways in which Mexican university faculty members used their self-motivational resources to persist in an instructional technology training program within adverse work conditions. The methodology included interviews and participant observation. Findings suggest that faculty’s academic resilience was based on faculty’s self-definition as permanent learners and innovators, the perception of instruction as a field of reflection-in-action and systematization, and the caring instructional approach used by training instructors

Maximizing Competency Education and Blended Learning: Insights from Experts

In May 2014, CompetencyWorks brought together twenty-three technical assistance providers to examine their catalytic role in implementing next generation learning models, share each other's knowledge and expertise about blended learning and competency education, and discuss next steps to move the field forward with a focus on equity and quality. Our strategy maintains that by building the knowledge and networks of technical assistance providers, these groups can play an even more catalytic role in advancing the field. The objective of the convening was to help educate and level set the understanding of competency education and its design elements, as well as to build knowledge about using blended learning modalities within competency-based environments. This paper attempts to draw together the wide-ranging conversations from the convening to provide background knowledge for educators to understand what it will take to transform from traditional to personalized, competency-based systems that take full advantage of blended learning