Instructor Reflections Research Articles

Team Teaching of Creative Advertising and Public Relations Courses

Advertising and public relations are complex practices, and it is challenging for educators to find instructors who can fulfill expertise across disciplines, particularly in creative applications involving technology. Team teaching is one approach to provide multiple proficiencies. This paper describes how two co-taught courses, Design for Advertising and Public Relations and Commercial Production for Advertising and Public Relations, were developed, delivered and assessed. A literature review of team teaching and creative instruction provides a framework for course designs and student surveys. Course evaluations and instructor reflections are the evidence used for evaluation. The study is important, as specialties from multiple practices, including those that require technology, are increasingly necessary for preparing students for these industries. The study adds to the literature about team teaching and provides a foundation for effectively collaborating on creative courses.

Curriculum creation: Reflection as a tool for enhancement

Reflection plays an important role in the development of new courses and curriculum. Professional skills development is the focus of two newly developed and required courses, one of which uses reflection as a primary pedagogical practice. These foundational courses are scaffolded by design. The scope of this presentation will be on the first of these two courses, designed for students entering the university environment and serving as early exposure to the field. Presenters will share the role that reflection played, and continues to play, in the development of these courses. One assignment, a product of this reflection, will serve as a focus of this presentation. It was developed to challenge students to consider past experiences and how they might apply to the development of their professional skills, both now and in the future. Peer review and feedback sessions serve as another instructional tool to facilitate this critical thinking process.The first focus of this presentation will be on continual instructor reflection on course and curriculum design as a method for enhancing the pedagogical approach, instruction, and assignments, and it will continue to play a role in the assessment of course outcomes. The second focus will be on the role that critical reflection plays as a pedagogical practice in course design and classroom instruction. Session attendees will be asked to reflect on their pedagogical practice and the role reflection has played in their approach to classroom learning.

Faculty Teaching Performance: Perceptions of a Multi-Source Method for Evaluation

Evaluating college and university faculty teaching performance is necessary for multiple reasons, including assurance of student learning and informing administrative decision making. A holistic system of evaluating university teaching is needed due to several factors, including limitations of student evaluations and the complexity of assessing teaching performance. University faculty members were interviewed to determine their perceptions of the multi-source method of evaluating (MME) teaching performance after a revision of policies and procedures was approved. The MME is comprised of three primary data sources: student evaluations, instructor reflections describing attributes of their own teaching such as the teaching philosophy, and a formative external review. While the faculty perceived the MME as a useful tool, they believe it operates primarily to produce a summative product than work as a formative process, which counters the goal of the MME policy. A formative process would be supported by addressing several factors, including timing, accountability, and mentoring.

Cultural responsiveness in EFL teaching: reflections from native instructors

Abstract In recent years, many international students from different parts of the world have been studying at Turkish universities, which creates a multicultural educational setting. Due to the multicultural educational setting, English has become the most widely used language for exchanging and sharing knowledge, therefore many international universities in Turkey put a great emphasis on English language education and offer English preparatory courses to students. In order to succeed at better language education, universities employ native English instructors to provide a richer language experience with cultural components embedded in language content. In this qualitative case study, cultural reflections of native English instructors at a Turkish university were investigated. Individual and focus group interviews were data sources for the study. Findings indicated that cultural responsiveness was considered to be constructed through time, and a necessity of orientation process was emphasized. However, the native instructors’ presumptions cause intolerance and underestimation of the host culture. In addition, educational issues and students’ misbehaviors, such as cheating and calling their instructors by their first name, were attributed to cultural background of the students.

PRACTICING WHAT WE TEACH: USING ACTION RESEARCH TO LEARN ABOUT TEACHING ACTION RESEARCH

In this article, action research is explored as a process for instructor reflection, professional learning and collaboration. The context for the professional learning was the teaching of graduate level education courses in which action research, in conjunction with a cohort-based, collaboratory approach to learning, was used to facilitate students' design and enactment of site-based action research. Action research was used as a research methodology by course instructors who reflected on the design of the course and their pedagogical practices in order to engage in continuous quality improvement. The collaboration took place over a two-year period in which the instructors taught multiple online sections of the course. Using action research to collectively deepen understanding about teaching action research proved to be a valuable reflective experience for the instructors and continues to inform ongoing instructional design processes and the development of future research agendas related to instructor collaboration and action research.

Agroecology Education by Bicycle on Two Continents: Student Perceptions and Instructor Reflections

Given that much of the learning about international agroecology would ideally occur outside the classroom, adventure learning (AL) and systems action education (SAE) can offer synergistic approaches that synthesize these methodologies into a cohesive student learning experience. This article reports on the evolution of a series of international agroecology courses offered from 2009 to 2011 that progressively integrated AL and SAE approaches in course design. The courses were taught by a University of Minnesota professor as he bicycled across Africa (2009 and 2010) and South America (2011), exploring various landscapes, crops, climatic regions, and food systems with students back home via distance technologies. End-of-course survey responses indicated that students (1) did not find the course any more rigorous than similar level courses, (2) found the course much more unique (p < 0.01), and (3) increased their desire to travel abroad (p < 0.01). Our examination also revealed challenges and opportunities inherent with AL and SAE–merged classrooms. Overall, we found that AL and SAE approaches could be integrated to enhance agroecology education and can make courses inspiring, challenging, and rewarding. The result could have implications for schools that seek to prepare students to work in a global environment.

‘I have a love–hate relationship with ATLAS.ti’™: integrating qualitative data analysis software into a graduate research methods course

While research on teaching qualitative methods in education has increased, few studies explore teaching qualitative data analysis software within graduate-level methods courses. During 2013, we required students in several such courses to use ATLAS.ti™ as a project management tool for their assignments. By supporting students’ early experiences with ATLAS.ti™, we anticipated that they might continue using the tool in their future research work. Using a case study and reflective practice approach, we reviewed course materials, including student and instructor reflections, to understand what happened when data analysis software was integrated into an advanced methods course. We identified five major themes: (1) a needed push out of their comfort zones; (2) various forms of support working together; (3) keys to motivation; (4) a new generation educating the current one and (5) use of the software beyond coursework. Implications for practice include ensuring adequate access and support for learning the software, balancing methodological and technical instruction, and creating meaningful student assignments and feedback opportunities.

Discursive diversity in introductory environmental studies

Introductory environmental studies and sciences (ESS) classes can be powerful and formative experiences for undergraduates. Indeed, instructors likely aspire towards influencing and enhancing the perspectives, analytical tools, and critical-thinking skills their graduates carry forward into careers in and beyond environment-related fields. This task, however, is doubly challenging: not only to meaningfully engage students with environmental issues but ideally also to think critically about the at-times competing ideologies and perspectives in ESS. This requires that courses be taught in ways that further critical thinking, develop metacognitive skills, and introduce students to a diversity of environmental discourses. In this paper, we present the results of a brief empirical survey of a small sample of North American ESS undergraduate programs. Using discussions of climate change as an example, we pay particular attention to the explicit goals, diversity of literature presented, and organization of the courses, using typologies e.g., Nisbet (Wiley Interdiscip Rev Clim Chang 5(6):809-823, 2014) to highlight the prevalence of particular environmental discourses and not others. We highlight a handful of promising practices and potential blind spots in the pedagogical design of these courses, while arguing for the importance of instructor reflection, iterative improvement, and further research into potential common weaknesses in ESS instruction.

Purposeful Error as a Diagnostic Tool to Assess Student Understanding and Determine Teaching Needs in the Neuromuscular Curriculum

Background and Purpose. Entry-level physical therapist (PT) students tend to make common errors when learning critical examination skills. Instructors often provide feedback on these errors during laboratory activities to enhance learning and knowledge of performance. Purposeful error by the instructor may also be used as a learning tool and as a tool for instructors to understand areas of difficulty for students. The purpose of this case report is to describe the development, implementation, and outcomes of a neurologic examination demonstration and discussion that included purposeful error to assess student weaknesses. Instructor reflections and student feedback following the session were then used to inform teaching priority areas. Case Description. Upon reflecting on performance during practical examinations, common mistakes were being made. To address these issues early in Neuromuscular 2 (NM2), the second course in a 3-part series, a plan was developed to simulate an examination. The instructors served as the patient/PT team and simulated an examination in which some items were performed correctly and others incorrectly. Students observed and identified correct/incorrect components. Areas of confusion were discussed as each error was identified. The simulation served several purposes: (1) to act as a diagnostic test to understand areas in which students were struggling, (2) to allow clarification of points of confusion, and (3) to allow instructor reflection on student weaknesses to guide teaching. Outcomes. This simulation lab has been conducted for 3 years. Each year, the instructor reflected on the examination demonstration lab and used these reflections to modify teaching of difficult concepts throughout the course. Students were pleased with the demonstration activity and felt that it was beneficial. Throughout the course, the instructor felt that student decision making improved at the midterm practical examination and scores on the final practical examination steadily increased. Discussion and Conclusion. This demonstration laboratory activity led to changes within the neuromuscular courses that were successful in improving student performance. Through a process of identifying the problem, conducting the exam as a diagnostic test, assessing immediate outcomes, altering teaching, and assessing student outcomes, the instructor was able to address the initial concern about student difficulty with some aspects of the neurologic examination. In the process, the instructor also developed as a teacher through reflection and application of change.

Enhancing the Quality and Relevance of Higher Education through Effective Teaching Practices and Instructors’ Characteristics

The five key behaviours for effective teaching are: lesson clarity, instructional variety, and instructor task orientation, engagement in the learning process and student success rate. This study examines the reflections of university students and instructors regarding the implementation of effective teaching practices and instructors' characteristics in engineering education. Data gathered from two groups (engineering students & instructors) interviews were developed and 25 item Likert scale questionnaires were completed by a sample of 69 students and 64 instructors. Means, ranking, and standard deviation followed by other analyses indicated that there was a high degree of similarity between students and instructors with respect to the perceived attributes of effective and ineffective teaching. It appears that the effective instructors are the mirror image of the ineffective by being imbued with a generous dose of personality traits in addition to skills. Both instructors and students in this research conducted in the selected universities of Ethiopia depicted the effective/excellent university instructor as someone who: (1) is respectful, (2) makes classes interesting, (3) is fair in evaluating, (4) cares about students' success, (5) shows a love for their subject, (6) is friendly, (7) encourages questions and discussion, (8) is always well prepared and organized, and (9) makes difficult subjects easy to learn. Findings of students' and instructors' perspectives suggest that effective teaching is the blending of both personality and ability factors. The key factor, however, remains the instructors' personality.

Sequential Online Course Redesign: When “It Just Takes Time” Works No Longer

Despite the increase in formats of online education, evidence suggests that the academic achievement gap could widen without iterative adaptation. This comparative case study analyzes the implementation of an online undergraduate course delivered consecutively in hybrid and fully online formats. Student feedback and instructor reflection address adaptive processes for online learning and adjustments to enhance the second course following a sequential redesign. Results include students’ challenges with technology and workload, benefits of cross-course collaboration, instructor efforts to mediate challenges without sacrificing rigor, and advice for educational developers as they support online teaching through rapid adaptation by design.

Using Clickers to Collect Formative Feedback on Teaching: A Tool for Faculty Development

Incorporation of clicker technology in an introductory chemistry class is described as a method for collecting and automatically tabulating student feedback for use in formative faculty development. Students are polled in real-time on issues of classroom management and the success of various teaching methods. Tabulated data is displayed on the classroom screen and used to facilitate classroom discussion. This method was introduced in a first-year general chemistry class for non-majors and resulted in unusually high student evaluation marks in categories related to communication with the instructor. The success of the method was evaluated using midsemester and final student evaluations, informal written student evaluations, peer observation, and instructor reflection.

Sequential Online Course Redesign: When “It Just Takes Time” Works No Longer

Despite the increase in formats of online education, evidence suggests that the academic achievement gap could widen without iterative adaptation. This comparative case study analyzes the implementation of an online undergraduate course delivered consecutively in hybrid and fully online formats. Student feedback and instructor reflection address adaptive processes for online learning and adjustments to enhance the second course following a sequential redesign. Results include students’ challenges with technology and workload, benefits of cross-course collaboration, instructor efforts to mediate challenges without sacrificing rigor, and advice for educational developers as they support online teaching through rapid adaptation by design.

Discovering Calculus on the Surface

Students can often solve single-variable calculus problems by connecting expressions like to the graphical features of a function, but the difficulty of sketching and visualizing multivariable functions often leaves students to use only algebraic methods to solve higher-dimensional problems. To help students strengthen their geometric understanding, the authors designed real, tangible surfaces cut with a Computer Numerical Control machining center upon which students could discover key properties of multivariable calculus. This paper describes the surfaces and four activities covering level curves, gradient vectors, directional derivatives, and Lagrange multiplier problems. Student and instructor reflections on using the surfaces in class are also included.

Reflections of EFL university instructors on teaching and learning after the revolution in Egypt

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the different ways through which the revolution has influenced teaching and learning in Egyptian universities after January 25, 2011.Design/methodology/approach – Through detailed life‐history interviews with two female university instructors, the researcher aimed to find out how the revolution has influenced the identities of the instructors and their perspectives on teaching and learning.Findings – One can see that the revolution has not only helped university instructors question what the new roles of their professional selves should be but also directly affected the way they viewed teaching and learning. The revolution did not only help teachers shape their new personal and professional identities but also drew their attention to new educational landscapes that they were not allowed to explore before.Research limitations/implications – One of the recommendations of the study is that more large‐scale research should be conducted to learn about the hopes...

Exploring Elementary Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences and Learning Outcomes in a Revised Inquiry-Based Science Lesson: An Action Research

In order for teachers to implement inquiry-based teaching practices, they must have experienced inquiry-basedlearning especially during science content and methods courses. Although the impacts of inquiry-basedinstruction on various cognitive and affective domains have been studied and documented little attention hasbeen paid to how PSTs experience inquiry in these classrooms. The aim of this action research project was toexplore our instructional strategies and elementary PSTs’ learning experiences as we developed and implementedan inquiry-based lesson in a science content course for elementary education students. Video observation data,instructor reflections, and student reflections were analyzed to shed light on students’ conceptual understandingof the physical science concept, their learning experiences including team interactions, motivation and interest,and concerns and frustrations, as well as the role of the instructor in the revised lesson.

A First-Year Course That Teaches Research Skills

In the Fall semester of 2009, I taught a first-year course that focused on skills required to successfully complete undergraduate research. This paper will discuss the Simpson College first-year course requirements, my course goals, the graph theory topics covered, student feedback, and instructor reflection.

‘My body speaks to them’: instructor reflections on the complexities of power and social embodiments

The dynamics of instructor embodiments and their relation to notions of power are explored in this paper. Informed by feminist poststructural theory, the author argues that, in classrooms where the focus of study is on conceptions of identity such as gender and race, the body of the instructor becomes an explicit pedagogical example. Through interviews with eight instructors who teach these ‘critical identity courses’, issues of ‘bodies in power’ and the instructor as both powerful and powerless are explored. The author concludes that thinking of power relations in the university classroom as productive – rather than as a binary of powerful versus powerless – points to the temporality and fluidity of the classroom space and the bodies that are found within it.

(Re) Focus on Local Food Systems through Service Learning

Recent nutrition professional discourse has emphasized reintegration of food and society concepts into undergraduate programs currently entrenched in the intricacies of nutritional science. To reintroduce this macro-approach, a community–university partnership was developed to address the strengthening of local food systems to improve community food security. Service learning, an experiential pedagogical technique, allowed students to work with a community agency on a community defined problem and emphasized connection of classroom theory to real-world situations. Two courses integrated service learning opportunities for forty-seven students in eighteen projects that developed awareness-building and advocacy tools for community organizations. Evaluation of these course components included written reflections of the experience, shared learnings in classrooms, instructor reflections and community feedback. A thematic analysis organized these data into empowerment domains for community capacity development. Results indicated that service learning and community–university partnerships can be key tools for enabling empowerment of future nutrition professionals, while integrating food systems into courses.

Toward an Understanding of What Works in Professional Development for Online Instructors: The Case of PBS Teacherline

Research conducted in various settings suggests that preparation and support for online instructors should be considered separately from efforts to prepare face-to-face instructors. However, very few studies outline the ways in which preparation to teach online should differ, and only a handful link these practices to measurable outcomes that help define what is meant by effective. PBS TeacherLine’s professional development model presents an opportunity to examine a comprehensive, well-established effort that has undergone regular refinements over the past 11 years. Results from the yearlong study presented in this paper showed that PBS TeacherLine’s professional development model contributes positively to instructor satisfaction, retention, high quality online instruction, increased instructor reflection, and learner outcomes such as an overall positive course experience. These findings reveal promising best practices for online faculty professional development that are specific to the online environment.