Democracy in Higher Education Courses: Transformative Strategies

Teaching/Learning can be a mutual journey in higher education. It requires more than wanting to approach teaching and learning differently. Our schema about power and teaching must be addressed. It is not a simple thing to tease out what part of submission in learning is vital to gaining mastery and learning to think deeply and critically, and what part is inhumane. It also requires a complex skill set for ourselves and for students that must be experienced and embraced by us, then taught and practiced. It is a complex change full of excitement and cognitive as well as personal challenges. Can we allow teaching and learning to become inseparable parts of a greater whole? Constructive teaching in higher education is not just about our ability to transcend the moment but the mutual journey, all participants teaching and learning that is the miracle

Schema and Enhanced Teaching/Learning

Recent research advances offer new perspectives on teaching and learning. Minds are complex personality connected, emotion laden entities. The inclusion of schema could support these findings and provide insights into why we need to focus on differentiated instructional and teaching practices that empower students. The paper concludes with suggestions for retooling that will honor these newest findings about how we learn