Faculty Teachers Research Articles

The Use of Digital Technologies in Pedagogical Education in Kazakhstan: Problem State

Digital society, the digital economy, has become true and in turn, generates unique challenges due to the rapid pace of growth of information and communication technology. Digital capabilities and skills are necessary to achieve professional achievement and the personal growth of any person in this world. In terms of reform and modernisation of the global educational system, digitalisation of education is one important trend. Digitisation means the transformation into the digital language of all forms of information (text, sound, visuals, video and other data from different sources). When debating digitalisation, different experts and scholars view the transition from education into the digital phase as a turning point in education history. The UK is supposed to be the first in the world to add compulsory IT and software in 2015 to the schoolchildren's curriculum at age 5 - 16. The article deals with a very actual problem of digitalization of pedagogical education on the basis of a combination of environmental, competence-based and activity-based approaches. The results of the survey of Pedagogical Faculty instructors and students of Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda State University are presented in the article. The results show that although both groups of respondents are aware of using digital technologies in education, they do not develop systematic use of all their (technologies) opportunities. According to these results, the article states the need for developing a model for the development of cognitive independence of future educators based on the use of digital technologies.

Musicians' Earplugs: Do They Affect Performance or Listeners' Perceptions?

Does wearing musicians' earplugs while performing affect the quality of the performance? Can listeners perceive a difference in sound when musicians are performing with or without earplugs? The risk of hearing loss is a concern for musicians, but some are reluctant to wear hearing protection due to factors such as an inability to hear their own instrument properly and the possibility of decreased sound quality for listeners. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of musicians' earplugs on instrumental pitch accuracy and the perception of tone quality, intonation, and dynamic contrast, as perceived by musicians and listeners. Ten university studio faculty teachers were recorded performing single pitches and lyrical and technical passages, first without earplugs and then immediately after with earplugs. A sample of 8 studio faculty teachers and 88 undergraduate music education students completed a researcher-created music perception test of tone quality, intonation, and dynamic contrast. Objective analyses of the single pitch recordings made by faculty with and without earplugs indicate that pitch accuracy did not favor either condition consistently. Results from the perception test indicate that although both faculty and student listeners perceived some differences, the most frequent perception was that the audio pair was equal, and there was no clear difference between performing with and without earplugs in terms of tone quality, intonation, or dynamic contrast. These findings suggest that musicians should feel confident that wearing musicians' earplugs while performing does not adversely affect pitch accuracy or listeners' perceptions of their timbre and dynamic control.

Faktor Internal Yang Mempengaruhi Tingkat Pemahaman Matematika Sekolah Mahasiswa Pendidikan Matematika FKIP Univeristas Mataram

Mahasiswa pendidikan matematika FKIP Universitas Mataram harus mengusai matematika sekolah sebagai bagian dari kompetensi professional calon guru. Fakta menunjukkan pemahaman matematika mahasiswa sangat rendah sehingga penting untuk mendapatkan data tentang kriteria faktor-faktor internal yang mempengaruhi tingkat pemahaman matematika sekolah mahasiswa pendidikan matematika FKIP Unram. Untuk itu dilakukan penelitian deskriptif kuantitatif dengan populasi mahasiswa pendidikan matematika angkatan 2015 sampai 2019 dengan sampel sebanyak 214 mahasiswa dipilih dengan metode Cluster Random Sampling. Berdasarkan hasil analisis diperoleh sikap mahasiswa terhadap matematika berada pada kategori positif dengan rata-rata 80,7, Minat mahasiswa terhadap matematika berada pada kategori sangat tinggi dengan rata-rata 64,9, motivasi berprestasi mahasiswa berada pada kategori sangat tinggi dengan rata-rata 112,9, dan kebiasaan belajar mahasiswa berada pada kategori baik dengan rata-rata 58. Korelasi antara masing-masing faktor diperoleh minat mahasiswa memiliki korelasi yang kuat dengan kebiasaan belajar yaitu 0,61 sedangkan faktor-faktor internal lain memiliki korelasi sedang dan sikap terhdap kebiasaan belajar memiliki korelasi lemah. Berdasarkan data-data terkait dengan sikap, minat, motivasi berprestasi, dan kebiasaan belajar menunjukkan hal yang positif disebabkan karena sampel penelitian adalah mahasiswa program studi pendidikan matematika. Sehingga perlu diadakan penelitian lanjutan untuk mendapatkan faktor lain yang menyebabkan rendahnya pemahaman mahasiswa pendidikan matematika terhadap matematika sekolah.

Backwash in Higher Education: Calibrating assessment and swinging the pendulum From Summative Assessment

Now more than ever, there exists a plethora of empirical evidence to uphold that examinations used in educational institutions have a backwash effect, a well-recognized phenomenon among applied linguists, educators and teachers, which is the effect of test on teaching and learning (Alderson & Wall, 1993; Bailey, 1999; Messick, 1996; Widen et al., 1997; Hughes, 2003; Yi-Ching, 2009). This article essentially targets this phenomenon in Moroccan higher education. It seeks to provide a concise theoretical framework to render the reader au fait with such an unfamiliar term. It aims at examining the extent to which higher education assessments affect EFL students’ academic achievements through sketching examples from the summative assessment practices used by faculty instructors at Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco. It also aims at suggesting some pedagogical implications to harness teaching and learning in Moroccan higher education.

Global Citizenship: From the Lens of the Education Faculty Instructors

Study objective: This research attempts to reveal the education faculty instructors’ views on the concept of global citizenship. Method: The research utilized a phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research designs. The participants of the research consisted of seven education faculty instructors who work at a higher institution in Turkey during the 2019-2020 academic year and who were selected by the convenience sampling method. This research employed a semi-structured interview method. Thus, a semi-structured individual interview form was prepared by the researchers as a data collection tool. The first part of the form includes questions related to the participants’ demographic information and the second part holds five questions regarding their views on global citizenship. The open-ended questions were prepared in line with the research questions by taking into consideration the relevant literature and two experts’ opinions to ensure scope validity. Content analysis was used during data analysis. Result: Research findings revealed that the instructors mostly focus on “values and attitudes” dimension of the global citizenship including respect for differences and values, sense of belonging, tolerance, concern for global issues, dedication to equal rights and sensitivity to global issues. Besides, all instructors were found to express that global citizenship is a must for pre-service teachers for both themselves and their professional life. All participants were identified to do practices in different ways by intermingling the issue of global citizenship with their course during the educational process to raise their students’ awareness towards global citizenship, and they mostly faced student-based challenges during the practices. The instructors mostly recommended that seminars should be organized in advance to raise both students’ and instructors’ awareness.

Animal sciences undergraduate education since the ASAS centennial: a national survey and scoping review.

The rapid pace of advancement in animal sciences is drastically changing conditions for undergraduate teaching and learning in the discipline. Shortly after the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) centennial, we conducted a national survey of 90 faculty instructors from 49 academic institutions to assess their perceptions of emerging teaching topics. Participants rated 18 learning outcomes (LO) and 16 types of courses and experiences (CE) with respect to their importance and the adequacy of available offerings. This study presents the results of the survey along with a scoping review of animal sciences teaching and learning publications since 2008 (n = 71). Results indicated that discipline-specific competencies and core experiential learning remain central to animal sciences teaching and identified several distinct needs for research. Namely, we suggest that future research in animal sciences teaching and learning 1) develop animal-science-specific expertise on a greater variety of pedagogies, 2) validate improved methods for assessing transferable skills, 3) expand pedagogical knowledge of emerging topics (e.g., sustainability, data science, welfare science, social science), and 4) deepen and broaden animal sciences’ teaching and learning identity through theory-building work and collaborations across instructors, disciplines, and institutions.

Blended Learning Approach for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Students: Investigating university teachers' views

This qualitative study investigated the views of teachers at a university in the Riyadh Region toward blended learning for students who were deaf or hard of hearing. Adopting a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were used to collect experiential data from three faculty teachers. The content analysis tool was also used. Participants experiences in using blended learning with students who were deaf or hard of hearing were overwhelmingly positive. Minor challenges incurred when implementing blended learning could be overcome when educators were committed to this type of instruction and created the required curriculum. Recommendations to increase higher education access and opportunities for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing include training instructors in blended learning and issue binding university decisions for its use. These recommendations are consistent with Saudi Arabia’s vision for digital transformation by 2030.

Socially enabled actors: the emerging authorship of fixed-term instructional faculty to enact and sustain organizational change

ABSTRACT There have been calls for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) faculty in higher education to transition from traditional lecturing to instructional practices that are supported by empirical evidence. Administrators can coordinate such transitions through organized change initiatives. At the same time, there has been a shift towards using more fixed-term faculty (instructors) to deliver instruction, especially in large introductory STEM classes. Change initiatives aimed at instigating adoption of evidence-based instructional practices face tensions when balancing the roles, responsibilities, rewards, and acknowledgement of administrators and instructors. In addition, change must be sustained through system-level structures and practices after the formal change initiative ends. This ethnographic study focuses on a change initiative designed to harness distributed expertise of faculty members to lead to the adoption of evidence-based practices. Using the framework of Productive Disciplinary Engagement, we uncover the role of two instructors who became socially enabled actors (SEAs) through developing social connections provided by interactions with the change initiative. Each SEA pursued a personal vision toward effective change in STEM education. Over the three-year study, each SEA’s vision became more tangible, more sustained, and more spread. The emergence of these SEAs helped to relieve the tensions between the traditional roles and responsibilities of administrators and instructors by engaging instructors as leaders in STEM education change. In addition, these SEAs maintained authority and developed system-level efforts that could sustain change beyond the ending of the funded project. Importantly, the SEAs’ statuses shifted as they were repositioned to become more valued members of the STEM education community doing challenging and important work.

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Social Work Education and Training in Mental Health, Addictions, and Suicide: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT Social workers have an important role in the field of mental health, and social work programs have a responsibility to prepare students for practice in the field. This scoping review mapped and synthesized the literature on mental health, addictions, and suicide in social work education and training. We found 51 articles that examined social work education in addictions (n=23), suicide (n=17), and mental health (n=7), and some articles (n=4) focused on more than one area. Most articles were empirical studies that used quantitative methods, and only one article did not examine social work education in the United States. The studies showed variability in teaching methods, format of training programs, extent to which theory and practice were linked, and the integration of culture and diversity in the programs. The articles contained recommendations to increase teaching students about mental health, addictions, and suicide in all social work programs. Studies also recommended training for faculty and field instructors, using simulation-based learning methods, including competencies in training programs that target knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs; identifying a theoretical framework; integrating culture and diversity; and evaluating training programs. The article discusses implications for best practices in social work education in mental health, addictions, and suicide.

MINDFULNESS SESSION: Mindfulness Activities to Incorporate into Your Courses (30 mins)

Instructional faculty and our students are living in a time when massive change and stress are at an all-time high. This stress creeps into our classrooms and disrupts learning. Luckily, faculty don’t need to be experts on the science and application of well-being to support their students. In this session, Dr. Milagros (Millie) Rivera from the Office of Faculty Affairs and Development and Melissa Schreibstein from the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being will teach you how to integrate well-being into your classroom without adding one more item on top of your overflowing plate. Attendees will learn a few simple and quick well-being activities that can be relied on in virtual and in-person environments to promote focus and centered learning.

Online Teaching Resources

Because of the global COVID-19 pandemic during the spring of 2020, colleges and universities found themselves rapidly moving all courses to online modalities, a format that many instructors were not experienced in or comfortable with. Academic librarians were called upon to help support faculty in this sudden transition, as well as migrating their own library services and instruction online. For many, it felt like a mad scramble to find best practices for online teaching, or even just “good-enough” practices, as well as specific tools that instructional faculty and librarians could utilize to keep their students engaged and learning during such a trying time. At the time of this writing, some universities have announced that they will continue to hold most, if not all, courses online in the fall 2020 term. Resources to support online teaching are critical now, and they will continue to be important going forward even after the global pandemic subsides. The reviews in this column cover a variety of online instructional tools and instructional support sites. The resources reviewed range from providing best practices for online pedagogy, creating engaging formative assessment tools, developing video discussion boards, creating interactive images, using virtual bulletin boards for student collaboration, and ensuring online content meets accessibility requirements. These resources will be useful for librarians and instructional faculty as they continue to teach in the online environment.

Learning assistant approaches to teaching computational physics problems in a problem-based learning course

An increasing number of introductory physics courses are seeking to incorporate “authentic practices,” and a large area of focus in this trend is the incorporation of computational problems into the curriculum. These problems offer students an opportunity to engage with the programming practices and numerical problem-solving methods used by physicists. Understanding how instructors approach teaching such problems is essential for improving instruction and problem design. We conducted a phenomenographic study using semistructured interviews with undergraduate learning assistants in a problem-based introductory mechanics course that incorporates several computational problems. The learning assistants’ prior involvement as students, along with their relatively fewer experiences with programming and physics compared to the faculty instructors, give them a unique perspective on teaching in the course. We present here the results of our analysis: the identification of four approaches that learning assistants make take to teaching computational problems in this course. These approaches, programming focus, learning physics via computation focus, computation as a tool focus, and shifting perceptions of learning focus, provide a lens for understanding the different ways learning assistants perceive computation, the degree to which they take up course-intended learning goals surrounding computation, the factors that may impact the approaches they take, and how we might affect their approaches through training and support.Received 6 February 2019Accepted 12 May 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010139Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasEpistemology, attitudes, & beliefsInstructional strategiesTechnologyPhysics Education Research

HIGHER SCHOOL IN THE PERIOD OF GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR (ON THE EXAMPLE OF IVANOVO AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE)

The Great Patriotic War left a deep mark in the history of our country. The higher school, in particular, Ivanovo agricultural Institute, did not become an exception. This article considers the main milestones in the institute’s life in the period of the war, shows the directions of its scientific activity, provides statistical data on the number of students, graduates and teachers of the Institute who worked and studied in it. The study showed that the university not only retained its enrolment, but also managed to increase it by opening a new veterinary faculty. Despite the difficult conditions of wartime, research activities of Ivanovo agricultural Institute have increased markedly, and the connection of university science with industry has become even closer. The war certainly affected the educational process as well. Some buildings were transferred to hospitals. Classes were held in two shifts. The period of study was reduced to three years. However, such difficulties did not affect the quality of graduates’ training and their importance for the country. The staff and students of Ivanovo agricultural Institute took an active part in the labor front, bringing the Victory closer by their activities. A special part of the article is devoted to biographical notes about frontline teachers, who fought bravely at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. This is S.K. Voita - Director of Ivanovo agricultural Institute in 1939-1941, N.I. Belonosov - Rector of Ivanovo agricultural Institute in 1961-1974, V.K. Baluyev - Vice-Rector of the Scientific Department, Dean of the zootechnical faculty, I.P. Skurikhin - Vice-Rector on Educational and Scientific Work, Dean of the agronomy faculty and other teachers of the institute.

Implementation and Initial Construct Validity Evidence of a Tool, myTIPreport, for Interactive Workplace Feedback on ACGME Milestones

To describe implementation of myTIPreport for milestone feedback and to initiate construct validity testing of myTIPreport for milestones. myTIPreport was used to provide workplace feedback on Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education required milestone sets. Performance of senior learners (postgraduate year [PGY]-4s) was compared to that of junior learners (PGY-1s) to begin the process of construct validity testing for myTIPreport. A convenience-based site selection of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) residency programs. OBGYN residents and faculty. Amongst the 12 participating OBGYN residency programs, there were 444 unique learners and 343 unique faculty teachers. A total of 5293 milestone feedback encounters were recorded. Mean PGY-4 performance was rated higher than mean PGY-1 performance on all 25 of the compared milestone sets, with statistically significant differences seen for 19 (76%) of these 25 milestone sets and nonsignificant differences in the predicted direction observed for the other 6 milestone sets. myTIPreport detected differences between senior and junior learners for the majority of compared feedback encounters for OBGYN residents. Findings support the emerging construct validity of myTIPreport for milestone feedback.

Sviluppare le competenze dei docenti universitari nella prospettiva del formative assessment: una ricerca valutativa su un intervento formativo rivolto a docenti delle Università del Myanmar

Il presente contributo concerne una ricerca valutativa di tipo quantitativo su un intervento formativo orientato a sviluppare le competenze valutative dei docenti universitari birmani nella prospettiva del formative assessment.

Generation Green – A holistic approach to implementation of green principles and practices in educational programmes in pharmaceutical and medical sciences at the University of Helsinki

Solving the environmental and sustainability challenges associated with drug development, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end-of-life requires comprehensive change in the mindset of healthcare professionals on all fronts. Besides current professionals, the faculty teachers and students have a critical role in facilitating the implementation of green principles and practices in educational programs, but no change occurs unless the need and the tools are properly established and their impact understood. This article describes the evolution of green pharmacy practice in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Helsinki, following a previously published framework for change management. Furthermore, the article describes the dissemination of the principles and good practices into medical education.

Addressing Students’ Mental Health Needs in Faculty-Led Study Abroad Courses

ABSTRACT The increased enrollment of students with mental health needs in U.S. higher education, paired with increasing emphasis on study abroad participation has led campus mental health professionals to consider how their services might extend to serve students with mental health needs who are studying abroad . When it comes to faculty led courses, instructors can play a key role in providing on-the-ground support for students experiencing mental health challenges. The findings from this study provide key insights that college mental health professionals can use to better understand and support these instructors as they serve on the front lines of addressing students’ mental health needs while they are away from campus. In particular, our findings point to key ways that college mental health professionals can partner with education abroad offices to provide effective pre-departure training and in-country support for faculty instructors.

Developing a Novel 4-C Framework to Enhance Participation in Faculty Development

Phenomenon: Universities offer a variety of voluntary faculty development to ensure quality education, but face inconsistent faculty participation. Therefore, all Dutch universities require all faculty to obtain a teaching qualification certificate. Yet, like other medical centers, University Medical Center Utrecht continued to struggle with faculty nonparticipation. It has been postulated that clinician teachers may face unique challenges with responsibilities for patient care in addition to teaching and research, challenges that cannot be overcome by merely mandating faculty development or a teaching certificate. This project was conducted to gain insight into factors that hinder faculty participation and better understand what is needed to enhance faculty engagement in their professional development as teachers. Approach: UMC Utrecht has had a teaching certificate requirement for over 20 years. In 2015-2016, we conducted a local needs assessment, gathering faculty perspectives about the teaching certification process. To convey seriousness of purpose and promote commitment to change, we formally engaged key stakeholders from the outset, obtained grant funding for the needs assessment, and had an outside consultant lead the project. Faculty who were stalled or never started were questioned via semi-structured interviews. A focus group with those actively in the process of obtaining their certificate discussed perceived challenges in the process and recommended solutions. Faculty who obtained their teaching certificate completed an anonymous evaluation form. All evaluation comments and transcripts were thematically analyzed using open and axial coding. A literature review was performed to contextualize our findings and identify potential solutions. We compared our initial themes to these findings and found key challenge/solution categories, which we subsequently developed into a novel framework. Findings from the study and literature review were organized using this framework and shared with different stakeholders, all of whom engaged in problem-solving. Ideas and potential solutions were incorporated into a final report with recommendations for improving faculty support and provided to the institutional leadership. Findings: Of 23 faculty teachers approached, 8 (34.8%) agreed to be interviewed; 7 of 25 (28.0%) participated in the focus group; and 83 of 156 (53.2%) completed the evaluation. From the transcripts and evaluation comments, three themes emerged related to context and barriers: (a) skill development versus certification; (b) workplace priorities and culture, and (c) visibility and feasibility of the teacher’s role. Triangulation of these themes with the literature revealed four challenge/solution categories – Competence, Context, Community, and Career. This 4-C framework facilitated communication of findings, structured the development of an action plan in response to the findings, and assured implementation of new initiatives for faculty support beyond competence development. Insights: Simply adopting requirements for faculty development may be insufficient and even invoke resistance. Improving faculty participation in faculty development and the quality of education requires institutional attention to not just faculty Competence needs, but also the factors of Context, Community, and Career that together comprise the culture experienced by faculty teachers. With institutional buy-in and commitment to change, the 4-C framework can help focus institutional attention on existing gaps in all four domains and guide the development of comprehensive solutions.