Transforming Learning Environments Research Articles

Meeting the Health Needs of Society Through Curricular Innovation in Physical Therapist Education: Examples From 3 Entry-Level Programs.

Entry-level physical therapist (PT) education programs play a critical role in inspiring future leaders to become moral change agents, capable of understanding and addressing evolving societal health needs. Social reconstructionism represents an educational philosophy focused on alleviating pervasive inequities and improving the health of society; however, its application in PT education is not well understood. The purpose of this article is to describe the approach 3 entry-level PT programs used to manifest social reconstructionism within their curricula to foster social consciousness and strengthen moral agency. The Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health informed the development of a conceptual framework that illustrates the role of PT education programs in creating transformative learning environments and preparing learners to meet societal health needs. Concepts within this framework were operationalized according to 5 domains put forth by Jensen et al. and related competencies put forth by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Narratives from each program demonstrate how the design and implementation of curricula, grounded in social reconstructionism, can be accomplished through 1) ongoing modifications, 2) thoughtful reconstruction, and 3) initial design. Sample learning activities, objectives, and assessment strategies are provided. The proposed method was effective in guiding meaningful objectives, learning activities, and assessment strategies grounded in social reconstructionism. Such findings can inform the design of curricula that inspire the next generation of transformative leaders who work to alleviate pervasive inequities and improve the health of society.

Virtual Reality In Education: Transforming Learning Environments

Virtual Reality In Education: Transforming Learning Environments

Exploring science teachers' efforts to frame phenomena in the community

AbstractThis article examines two teachers' efforts to re‐organize their science teaching around issues of environmental and food justice in the urban community where they teach through the pedagogical approach of community‐oriented framing. We introduce this approach to teachers' framing of phenomena in community as supporting students' framing of phenomena as personally and locally relevant. Drawing on classroom observations of remote learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic, we took an analytic approach that characterized features of classroom discourse to rate community‐oriented framing at the lesson level. Results show that teachers framed phenomena as both social and scientific, and as rooted in students' lived experiences, with classroom activities designed to gather localized and personalized evidence needed to explain or model phenomena. We also share examples of how Black and Latinx students took up this framing of phenomena in their classroom work. By providing a detailed description of the launch and implementation of activities, findings illustrate how community‐oriented framing supported teachers in posing local questions of equity and justice as simultaneously social and scientific, and helping students perceive science learning as meaningful to their everyday lives. Community‐oriented framing offers a practical means of designing locally and socially relevant instruction. We contribute to justice‐centered science pedagogies by conceptualizing transformative science learning environments as those in which students understand their goal in science class as understanding, and later addressing, inequities in how socioscientific issues manifest in their community.

Connected Art Practice: Transformative Learning Environments for Transdisciplinary Competences

This article explores the implementation of Connected Art Practice in diverse learning environments, serving as an immersive entry point for students and researchers to develop collaborative transdisciplinary skills. This innovative approach integrates audio, educational, and sustainability research, employing sound-interaction methods applied to tangible objects. Participants engage in exploring the interplay between objects representing interests or values, fostering the creation of a visual and linguistic network of interconnectedness. Inspired by artistic research, particularly Dérive, the practice provides experiences of connectedness to others and the environment, intertwined with reflections and discussions that foster a community of inquiry. This community collaboratively designs shared practices or projects, encouraging a holistic approach to transformative learning, addressing heterogeneity, complexity, authenticity, critical awareness, and emotional connectedness. All three case studies utilized qualitative analysis in artistic and academic settings. Datasets were collected in case study two from group discussion, participant observation, press releases and documentary photographs. In case studies one and three, audio–visual recordings, participant observation, field notes, and photo-documentation were collected. This study demonstrates that “Connected Art Practice” enhances competences in artistic expression, communication, and collaboration across disciplinary, social, and cultural boundaries. Specifically, it contributes to creative reinvention, personal sharing, self-reflection, and the capacity to co-design diverse projects. The paper concludes by discussing findings and pointing out the essential qualities of Connected Art, providing insights and resources for educational and research institutions seeking to foster transdisciplinary engagement and transformative learning in their curricular activities.

Gaze and reflexivity in postcolonial cinema: the pragmatic turn in critical tourism studies

This article examines the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical integration of postcolonial cinema into critical tourism education. These works help viewers understand the influence of film as a primary source of postcolonial gaze, with the goal of decolonizing tourism studies. Postcolonial cinema reconnects geographic inquiry with the impacts of colonialism and postcolonialism on people and places in specific localities and across regions. Critical pragmatism is presented as synthesizing critical theory’s emphasis on listening, reflecting, and deliberating and traditional pragmatism’s emphasis on practice and place, as well as mixed research methods and multiple realities. Critical reflexivity is explored in critical tourism studies as relocated in pragmatist thought and a basis for abductive methodology and pedagogy. Abductive methodology is identified as a basis for addressing complex tourism issues and researcher positioning, while abductive pedagogy creates transformative learning environments where shared dialogue generates new knowledge. Critical pragmatism, enriched with gaze and reflexivity honed through postcolonial cinema, addresses perceived ontological and ‘realist’ deficiencies in critical tourism studies, while offering an alternative philosophical framework for informing and contrasting popular epistemologies and methodologies.

Adoption of 3D Holograms in Science Education: Transforming Learning Environments

Adoption of 3D Holograms in Science Education: Transforming Learning Environments

Navigating the Age of Crisis: Exploring the Pathway to Engaged Pedagogy for the Transformative Learning Environment

ABSTRACT Pedagogy for the future: sociology, innovation, and the classroom, a special issue of Sociological Focus takes readers on a journey of self-reflection, research, and dialogue about the importance of teaching sociology in the wake of polarization, crisis, and fear. In times of crisis sociology is uniquely positioned to help us think more critically about the world. Teaching while in crisis taught us to be more responsive to the various needs of students, administrators, universities, colleagues, our families, and our needs as teacher-scholars. This special issue walks us through lessons learned during an era of “crisis teaching.” Our call to action? How can we be better teacher-scholars? The future of sociology in the classroom is through engaged pedagogy, which transforms the learning environment. This article lays the foundation for readers to grapple with pedagogical challenges related to pandemic teaching, polarization, the attack of sociology as a discipline, and the systemic challenges that come with teaching in the age of crisis. Furthermore, this article builds a roadmap to engaged pedagogy designed to transform sociology classrooms of the future.

Transforming Learning Environments with Information Technology: Trends and Best Practices


 This research was conducted as a way to examine contextual factors in the effective application of information technology to help the learning environment which can help carry out transformation in the field of education as a new learning method. The research method used is a qualitative descriptive method by prioritizing library or literature studies in the research process. By referring to the design components and also the implementation of initiatives in the field of education as a way of educational transformation, this research can describe what happens with the advancement of information technology to transformation in the world of education and learning which is also related to the integration of technology, policy recommendations, and also resources. sustainable power. The transformation of the education system of course supports national competitiveness as one of the long-term efforts that receives continuous support and also visionary leadership in providing input for the world of education with the help of advanced information technology.
 Keywords: Learning Environments, Information Technology, Effective Application

TEACHER PERSPECTIVES ON AI-DRIVEN GAMIFICATION: IMPACT ON STUDENT MOTIVATION, ENGAGEMENT, AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

This study delves into the insights and experiences of teachers regarding the influence of AI-driven gamification on student motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. Through qualitative research methods, teacher perspectives are explored to unravel the multifaceted aspects of AI-enhanced gamification within educational settings. The study identifies several significant themes, including positive perceptions of AI-driven gamification, challenges in implementation, elevated motivation and engagement, enhanced learning experiences, improved learning outcomes, and the complexities of assessing long-term effects. The findings underscore the transformative potential of AI-driven gamification, as educators highlight its ability to create democratic, effective, and transformative learning environments. Nevertheless, the study also uncovers challenges related to professional development, technical glitches, and curriculum alignment in the implementation of this innovative approach. Moreover, the study reveals a resounding consensus among teachers regarding the positive impact of AI-driven gamification on student motivation, participation, and learning experiences. Teachers emphasize how AI-driven gamification can turn ordinary learning into enjoyable and meaningful journeys, offering students autonomy and real-time feedback. Furthermore, teachers believe that AI-driven gamification contributes to improved learning outcomes, fostering a deeper understanding of subject matter, knowledge retention, and enhanced problem-solving skills. Despite these short-term gains, teachers acknowledge the need for longitudinal studies to comprehensively assess the long-term effects of AI-driven gamification on learning outcomes.

When Everyone Wins: Dialogue, Play, and Black History for Critical Games Education

In this article, we reflect on the process and outcomes of using dialogue, play, and a focus on Black women’s history to support critical media literacy in game design education. Over three years we developed a dialogue-based introductory undergraduate course in the game design program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute intended to deepen engagement by students in game design practice. We specifically focused on critical approaches to explore the history and culture of games, utilizing dialogic pedagogy to develop transformative learning environments rooted in social justice education, and helped students develop skills for intercultural dialogue and communicating “across difference.” The dialogue experience created a powerful learning environment that resulted in higher quality and more critical student game design work. This was evident in the 2019 iteration of the course, which included two sections of students and in which we had a semester-long group project on the history of Harriet Tubman, culminating in a selection of student games being shown at a local gallery in an exhibition celebrating Tubman’s legacy. The Tubman project was liberatory not only for students, but also instructors, as we learned together how to navigate discomfort and gain a more critical understanding of the material realities of white supremacy in games, self, and each other. This article shares details from the design and methodology of our course, outcomes as evidenced by student work, survey responses, and instructor observations, and concludes with reflections on areas for further research and opportunities for other educators to incorporate new methods in design education.

TRANSFORMUOJANČIOS MOKYMOSI APLINKOS IR ANDRAGOGO BENDRŲJŲ KOMPETENCIJŲ POREIKIS: SVEIKATOS PRIEŽIŪROS SPECIALISTŲ POŽIŪRIS

With the changing and expanding approach to the creation of a learning environment as one of the essential factors in the quality of the organisation of the learning process, the article reveals the links that underpin the importance of an andragogue’s general competencies for the development of a transformative learning environment. The relevance of the scientific problem is highlighted by the theoretical and empirical search for the general competencies of the andragogue, which creates favourable preconditions for the transformation of the learner’s empowerment personality. The participants in the research were employees of health-care institutions in various regions of Lithuania who have participated in in-service training events at the Centre for Continuing Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Klaipėda University. The analysis of the need for health-care professionals due to the importance of an andragogue’s general competencies in creating a transformative learning environment has highlighted the direct impact of age on different needs. The results of the research show that an andragogue’s general competencies help to create a transformative learning environment, in which the totality of intellectual, emotional and practical dynamics enables the learner’s transformation, focusing on personal qualities, abilities, skills, attitudes and positive attitudes, and the development of a mindset for continuous improvement. Suggestions are provided to andragogues on how to streamline changes in adult learning that focus on personality change by creating a transformative learning environment.

Co-Creating a Transformative Learning Environment Through the Student-Supervisor Relationship: Results of a Social Work Field Placement Duo-Ethnography

In an in-house third-year social work research placement, a duo-ethnography showed that the student–supervisor relationship had far more impact on transformative learning than the assigned placement tasks. A model for co-creating an environment of transformative learning is described, putting student learning and growth at the center. Attributes that contributed to a transformative learning environment included being Trustworthy, Respectful, Engaging, Caring, and Humble. A range of actions within each of these attributes is described. The findings showed that in this context, a crisis-type of disorienting dilemma did not occur. Rather, transformation evolved as part of a learning outcome that included the development of a professional identity as a social worker. Findings suggested the need for further exploration of the role that humility plays in reducing the power imbalance in the student–supervisor relationship. The importance of addressing self-care and avoiding models that risk perpetuating patriarchy in the student-supervisor relationship were highlighted.

Vlogging as a Tool in the Self-Reflective Journey: Professional Identity Development as a Space Between

The authors present an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) case study used to uncover the meaning-making system of professional identity development experienced by a graduate student completing a two-semester school counseling internship. The intern engaged in critical self-reflections as weekly vloggings, which are single-turn video monologs. The rigor of IPA allowed the researchers to explore the intern’s personal reflexivity as a space between what the intern was doing and his process of becoming a professional. The super-ordinate theme that emerged from the analysis in this case study was connecting the dots. . . it’s all about the kids. Findings from this research have implications in higher education and professional studies for creating a transformative learning environment and engaging individuals in the professional identity development process.

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-Based Learning Agent for Classifying Learning Styles in Self-Regulated Smart Learning Environment

The increasing development in smart and mobile technologies are transforming learning environments into a smart learning environment. Students process information and learn in different ways, and this can affect the teaching and learning process. To provide a system capable of adapting learning contents based on student's learning behavior in a learning environment, the automated classification of the learners' learning patterns offers a concrete means for teachers to personalize students' learning. Previously, this research proposed a model of a self-regulated smart learning environment called the metacognitive smart learning environment model (MSLEM). The model identified five metacognitive skills-goal settings (GS), help-seeking (HS), task strategies (TS), time-management (TM), and self-evaluation (SE) that are critical for online learning success. Based on these skills, this paper develops a learning agent to classify students' learning styles using artificial neural networks (ANN), which mapped to Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM) as the expected outputs. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the consistency of classification data, and positive results were obtained with an average accuracy of 93%. The data from the students were grouped into six training and testing, each with a different splitting ratio and different training accuracy values for the various percentages of Felder-Silverman Learning Style dimensions.

Parenting Through Pandemics: Imagining and Demanding Justice in Schools

Our reflections in this manuscript serve to share what we have experienced being teachers, advocates of public education, researchers, and parents of two young children through a global pandemic, public and environmental crises, and racial reckoning in our country. We acknowledge our privileged positions and draw from the adaptations required of us as children of immigrants who grew up in urban Los Angeles contexts very similar to those we taught in. While we imagine a future, we look back to our past selves to demand transformative shifts, just futures, and expansive learning environments for children and youth of color.

Co-Designing for Equity in Informal Science Learning: A Proof-of-Concept Study of Design Principles

Informal science learning has great potential to engage diverse learners, but faces issues of persistent inequities. While systemic change is needed to address these issues at a structural level, there is also a need for practical tools to support the organisations and the educators who are working to engage audiences in informal science that is authentic, culturally responsive, interest driven and learner centered. This article presents a collection of design principles, generated through a design approach which actively involved informal science learners, practitioners and researchers from nineteen countries as contributors. We present the design approach adopted, and suggest that participatory design methods could play a role in supporting equity efforts in informal science learning since several of the educators involved in the process decided to adopt participatory methods in their own practice. We also present an overview of the design principles generated through this process, and discuss the application of an early draft of these in an authentic informal science education programme. By adopting and adapting these principles and approaches in their practices, educators can work towards creating equitable and transformative informal science learning environments and experiences.

Down the rabbit hole: Creating a transformative learning environment

This paper explores the transformative learning potential of an experiential, theatre-based workshop titled, Down the Rabbit Hole. Lewis Carroll’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is a tale in which Alice goes down a rabbit hole and embarks upon a fantastical and transformative journey of self with others. Loosely based on this story, in this workshop we encourage learners to take an embodied journey down the rabbit hole by tuning into the personal call for adventure, identifying active stories, and initiating a journey of discovery through theatre-based activities. We explore the transformative potential of this workshop by drawing from Yorks and Kasl’s two-part taxonomy of expressive ways of knowing, which speaks to (a) creating a learning environment conducive to whole-person learning and (b) working with learners within that environment. We use this taxonomy to frame a discussion of how we create environments conducive to transformative learning and how we use theatrical conventions to work with participants in such environments. In so doing, we advance Dirkx’s notion that transformative learning can be an on-going, mythic journey of the soul and discuss how we draw upon embodied methods and theatrical conventions to provoke our collective creative potential.

Improving accessibility to cultural heritage for people with Intellectual Disabilities: A tool for observing the obstacles and facilitators for the access to knowledge

The Convention on the rights of people with disabilities (UN, 2006) stated that participation in social life is a fundamental human right emphasizing the importance to rethink the concept of accessibility in cultural spaces. Cultural heritage sites, as well as museums and galleries, express an increasing interest in adopting strategies to improve accessibility and participation for all. We used an Inclusive Research paradigm, actively involving a group of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) with the goal to investigate participants’ perceptions and ideas of obstacles/facilitators to knowledge accessibility. A particular focus has been given to readability and comprehensibility of the existing textual resources in a cultural heritage site. The inclusion of people with ID as informants during the entire research process allowed not only to assess their point of view, but also to realize a questionnaire using the easy-to-read criteria. The main variables assessed through the questionnaire are: (a) Perception and Physical Interaction with content resources, (b) Language and symbols, (c) Content comprehension, (d) Engagement with knowledge. We argue that the proposed questionnaire may be useful to inform the process of creating and transforming learning environments adopting an audience-centered dialogue. Enhancing the contribution of special pedagogy in this innovative research field means improving our understanding of people's needs and the complexity of potential outcomes, from an inclusive perspective.

Flipped Classroom in Legal Education: Achievements and Challenges of Innovating the Teaching of a Basic Law Course

Unlike the traditional method of teaching, new educational trends focus on transforming learning environments into spaces where the teacher is a guide and not the provider of information. This article presents a proposal for a flipped classroom approach to teaching an entry level undergraduate law course. The implementation of the flipped approach, which was supported by ICT-based virtual learning environment, took place at the University of the Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). The qualitative and quantitative results of this methodology show its positive contribution to promoting student autonomy in the learning process, collaborative work and articulation between theory and practice (learning by doing) while strengthening lawyering skills.

Transformative learning in community college human geography: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACTThe study explores the extent to which transformative learning occurs using quantitative and qualitative methods in a human geography course (N = 35) and explores student affect in relation to the learning environment. We used the eight-scale Transformative Learning Environments Survey (TLES) instrument for the quantitative analysis and an aligned analysis of student reflective work to capture the “voice” of the student as a qualitative approach that provided a rounded perspective of transformative learning. The TLES proved reliable where the sub-scale Alpha reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.93 and a separate affect scale of Satisfaction was 0.95. The standardized regression coefficient between Satisfaction and the sub-scale of Student-Acting demonstrated the strongest positive association (0.27), followed closely by Disorienting Dilemma-Environment (0.24). The qualitative results supported the quantitative associations in most cases, but not all. The qualitative aspect to this present study offers a deeper look – beyond just statistical outcomes – using students’ own voices to explain their perspectives related to transformative learning.