Evidence-based teaching in the 21st Century: The missing link

Throughout my career, I have struggled with the fact that teacher preparation programs do not include a course in educational research. When I mention this to colleagues (or students), a highly predictable response is “Why should teacher candidates learn about research?” After years of trying to give a calm and rational response to that question, I have recently begun to answer with some questions of my own:• Why should medical students learn about medical research?• Why should nursing students learn about health science research?• Why should law students learn about legal research?• Why should engineering students learn about engineering research?

Financial signal processing: a self calibrating model

Previous work on multifactor term structure models has proposed that the short rate process is a function of some unobserved diffusion process. We consider a model in which the short rate process is a function of a Markov chain which represents the 'state of the world'. This enables us to obtain explicit expressions for the prices of zero-coupon bonds and other securities. Discretizing our model allows the use of signal processing techniques from Hidden Markov Models. This means we can estimate not only the unobserved Markov chain but also the parameters of the model, so the model is self-calibrating. The estimation procedure is tested on a selection of U.S. Treasury bills and bonds.Bonds

The Legal Status of the Educational Accrediting Agency

The educational accrediting agency is a powerful instrumentality in the United States-able, with minimal governmental interference, to set policies and standards in an area of vital concern to the public. As education becomes more complex, and as our society increasingly relies upon educational training and upon the standards by which that training is evaluated, the impact which the accrediting agency will have upon educational institutions and students enrolled in them will correspondingly increase. For all its influence, however, the accrediting agency occupies an ambiguous legal position. Therefore, in order to lay the framework for a more thorough understanding of the status of accrediting agencies in our legal system, this Comment will analyze the actual and potential judicial and legislative restraints on their activities

Arts Education Academics’ Perceptions of eLearning & Teaching in Australian Early Childhood and Primary ITE Degrees

This article presents the findings of an investigation of eLearning & teaching in Arts education in Australian Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees. This project used survey and interviews to collect data from academics in 16 universities in 5 Australian states regarding their experiences of eLearning and Arts education. A rigorous and comprehensive thematic, inductive approach to the analysis of data revealed four main themes: congruence and incongruence of eLearning in Arts education with academic identity, dissonance between eLearning and the nature of Arts education, negatively perceived reasons for teaching Arts education in an eLearning mode, and some expressions of positive experiences in this space. These themes revealed a divided, unsettled and challenging space with pockets of acceptance, but characterised by epistemological and pedagogical questions, doubts and uneasiness

Teaching Squares: Crossing New Borders

Teaching Squares is a teaching development initiative that brings instructors together in small groups to observe one-another’s classes and reflect on their experiences in a non-judgmental, supportive environment (University of Waterloo, (n.d.). Durham College, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), and a key industry partner, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), have partnered on a Teaching Squares initiative, enabling primarily face-to-face discussions amongst instructors at all three institutions. Despite positive feedback and minimal time demands, building faculty enrollment and involvement remains challenging to engage instructors across various disciplines, fields, and delivery formats. In the fall 2017 semester, a professor teaching in a fully online program enrolled in Teaching Squares, participating completely online. Although the significance of peer observation to support teaching in an online environment is well documented (Bennett & Santy, 2009; Swinglehurst, et al., 2008), there were logistical challenges, including arranging recordings of face-to-face classes for the online professor to observe, and involving the professor in face-to-face discussions amongst program participants. Despite the challenges, this experience inspired discussion about how Teaching Squares may be piloted in a fully online format. This paper and presentation will continue this discussion, extending it to the possibilities of expanding enrollment to international partners to promote the exchange of ideas across institutional and geographical borders and to provide more diversity of perspectives on Teaching and Learning in a digital context