Compassion in the Bhutanese Gross National Happiness (GNH) infused classrooms

There is a growing interest in research on the role of compassion in the fields of positive psychology and social psychology. Compassion in the educational setting is focused on well-being and relationship-based approaches to support students to flourish academically, emotionally and socially. This paper is a review of compassion in the literature and provides a foreground of future research on compassion in the Bhutanese classroom. It also presents a discussion on compassion in relation to benefits for self and others, compassion fatigue and self-compassion. More importantly, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of compassion in education in building the teaching-learning process and foregrounds the need for further investigation into compassionate teaching and learning for a range of school-based curriculum subjects

An Evaluation of the use of an Online Demonstration School

In 2016, a change was made to the approach taken for delivery of the first practicum placement experience for initial teacher education students at [the university]. Rather than the traditional 20-day in-school observation placement, an alternative 10-day online experience, called the Online Demonstration School (ODS), was developed. The ODS provided students with a fully online practicum experience involving viewing videos of a variety of classroom situations developed in conjunction with local schools. Subsequent reflection and collaboration with peers and academics allowed targeted aspects in the classroom situations to be examined in depth. This article summarises the literature supporting this change and presents a comparison of the effectiveness of these two alternative approaches based upon an analysis of mentor teacher grading of the second practicum placement completed. The analysis indicates that there are few significant differences in grading of the second in-school practicum placement by mentor teachers based upon whether students complete the in-school placement or the ODS. The benefits of the use and possible future development of the ODS are discussed

Vulnerability: An uncomfortable means to a positive place

In this chapter we share our metaphors of transformation towards an academe environment. Metaphor has provided a powerful tool for capturing, making explicit, and thus transforming our tacit understandings of ourselves as individuals and the continual revisiting and reformation of our professional identities. Our initial metaphors shared with openness and an acceptance of a vulnerable state provided each of us with the self-confidence and ability to transition … our ways of being, thinking, and relating in academe. Through the process of sharing and analysing our metaphors, we have found that the metaphor images become embodied. Their significance to us, as colleagues, becomes carried forward and is often applied to new personal and professional situations. We have come to believe that accepting the state of vulnerability and working within it enhances the quality of relationships, positive interactions, and connections. Through doing so, we have a far greater understanding of our roles and responsibilities within a shared teaching and learning context - academe. Accepting, and working with our vulnerabilities, supports relationships absent of fear, ridicule, and harassment, and results in a sense of belonging and greater creative expression, exploration, and imagination

Shifting mindsets within: self-study of professional learning

In an educational environment focused on providing flexible learning options to diverse student groups — rural and remote, cross-cultural, mature-aged, and second-chance learners—there need to be effective capacity building strategies for the professionals who provide these educational services. People do not resist change; they resist being changed. This chapter describes the capacity building of early childhood educators redesigning curriculum for distance learning. They engaged in self-study using metaphor as a research strategy to investigate their own adaptive practices. The creation of a professional learning community was made possible by supporting personal mastery and reflecting on the shared vision. The process of focusing meta-cognition on one's own values and beliefs brought about a change in attitudes and perspectives relating to what could be achieved in an online learning environment. This chapter describes the research strategies and outcomes of an academic self-study professional development project. In addition, the authors suggest broader application of metaphor analysis as an elucidating strategy for capacity building

Social media-enabled learning and the curriculum in Australian higher education: A literature review

This study is centred on the impact of social media-enabled learning on the curriculum within higher education in Australia and focuses on curriculum in relation to distance education. The impact on curriculum design of the trend for rapid uptake of social media, but with less active contribution of user generated content, is discussed, as are the implications for higher education of other central ethical issues in relation to the protection of identity and development of trust in utilizing social media sites in higher education. The review explores the applicability of six curriculum models within a social media-enriched learning environment: curriculum as product, curriculum as a body of knowledge for transmission, curriculum as process curriculum, as praxis, curriculum as knowledge creation and community as curriculum. The importance of open and flexible design methodologies emerges; the conclusion being that social media-enabled learning moves higher education beyond a focus on content provision into a dynamic communal process of sense-making and knowledge

An Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal find Relational space: Yarns from a Joint Leadership Team at a Rural Community Based Preschool

Members of the dominant culture have generally not been prepared to relinquish power or status as professional leaders in education (Colbung, Glover, Rau, & Ritchie 2007; Huggins 1998). My research tells our story, one of a relationship of belonging, of community, of creating a place for early childhood education. It is a story of three women, two of whom came together as joint directors of a community based preschool in a rural district. Two of the main characters are women from the local Bundjalung people who are the traditional custodians of the land where the preschool is situated. The other woman, myself, is non-Aboriginal. An objective of my thesis is to share reflections about myself as a non-Aboriginal person collaborating with the Bundjalung community for over twenty five years, rather than another white expert or observer of Aboriginal people. As an active participant of my community, I can discuss my own discoveries, such as the knowledge gained through learning to turn down the 'white noise' (McCoy 2000). My methodology is an auto-ethnographic narrative that has been influenced by phenomenology, yarning, feminist poststructural method, and postmodern emergence. This methodology permits me to write in an accepted academic method, which also honours the spiritual essence of my story. This thesis tells a story; it is my story, their story, our story. It is the story of our day. It is a story of moving from contact zone to relational space

Social Media-Enabled Learning: A Review of the Research in Higher Education

The meta-analysis/literature review discussed in this article focuses on social media-enabled learning in higher education and is trans-disciplinary in focus. It seeks to examine design methodologies that are effective for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of effective teaching and learning for social media-enabled environments in the higher education system. Through examining the academic literature and also engaging directly with social media, what has emerged is the importance of design methodologies that are open and flexible, collaborative, and learner-centered. Social media-enabled learning is learning which moves higher education beyond a focus on content provision into a dynamic communal process of sense-making and knowledge creation in which answers lead to further questions. It is through integrating social media within higher education that the scope and reach of higher education will be extended

Exploring the Use of Peer Tutors in Introducing Software to Young Children

Two primary school children, acting as peer tutors were videotaped introducing the game, The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, to classmates. This popular problem solving mathematical software immerses children in dynamic learning environments. The peer tutors were effective. Unlike traditional peer tutoring situations, the power of the computer to change the variables modified the role of the tutors. They became actively engaged in problem solving. We recommend peer tutoring as it benefits children, peer tutors and teachers. Management issues surrounding the use of computers in classrooms may also be reduced by allowing the teacher to become more of a facilitator

Canadian Picture Books: Shaping and Reflecting National Identity

A nation's literature has traditionally been seen as a reflection of the values, tensions, myths, and psychology that identify a national character. Benedict Anderson defines a nation as "an imagined community." He maintains that the members of a nation never know each other, meet each other, or hear each other, yet they hold in common an image of who they are as individuals in community with each other. Undoubtedly, one of the building blocks of national identity is literature. Sarah Corse writes that literature is "an integral part of the process by which nation-states create themselves and distinguish themselves from other nations." She then makes the case that national literatures not only reflect a nation's unique identity, but also play an active role in shaping that identity. A strong Canadian national identity has only recently developed. Until the mid-twentieth century, Canadian identity was seen as an amalgam of blurred French, British, and American values and cultures. The mutual distrust present between the French-speaking and English-speaking cultures created a tension in Canada that has lasted from the eighteenth century to the present. Both French and English nationalists, according to Ramsay Cook, reject "the validity of the concept of political nationhood and cultural duality which has been central to the Canadian experience." They do not believe that a culturally divided community can produce a common national identity

Writing to Succeed in Elementary School Mathematics

From 1989 to the present, mathematics curriculum documents have emphasized the importance of communication in mathematics learning and teaching. In order to understand concepts and processes, learners (and teachers) need to talk about, write about, and represent their understandings. Through communication ideas are clarified, and in turn communication becomes clearer. This article presents some of the writing and teaching strategies used in elementary mathematics classrooms in three schools over the last 13 years. Via these strategies, students developed a repertoire of powerful learning strategies. They articulated connections between new learning and what they already know, and made personal sense of their learning