Constructive alignment is a learning design approach that emphasizes the direct alignment of the intended learning outcomes, instructional strategies, learning activities, and assessment methods to ensure students are engaged in a meaningful learning experience. This pedagogical approach provides clarity and coherence, aiding students in…

Constructive Alignment (CA) is neither the panacea, nor the unalloyed evil depicted in the majority of higher education discourses. But rather, the theory is a heuristic and accessible representation of commonly agreed upon aspects of modern curriculum and educational theory, designed explicitly to support learning and teaching. However, when…

Most students in higher education at present are 'digital natives.' They use technology in every facet of their life, including their education. They learn from formally organised courses as well as from informal learning. Hence, informal learning has been identified as crucial for the sustainability of higher education in the current global…

There is currently strong and widespread support among university administrators for blended learning at the college level, or courses that incorporate some degree of online instruction. As instructors are called on to incorporate online and face-to-face elements into their instruction, they face the critical question of how to intentionally…

The act of instruction may be conceptualized as consisting of four elements: learning outcomes, learning resources, teaching and learning activities, and assessments and evaluation. For instructors in higher education, the way they manage the relationships between these elements is what could be considered the core of their instructional practice.…

Arts educators and early childhood educators espouse similar philosophies and purposes surrounding young children's educational lives, yet continue to function in largely separate worlds. This article calls for the creation of intentional alliances between the two disciplines, by first recognizing and embracing these alignments. In addition, this…

Often associated with online learning, instructional design is a process utilized in efficiently designing training and instruction to help ensure effectiveness. Typically, the instructional systems design (ISD) process uses a team-based approach, consisting of an instructor, a facilitator, a designer and a subject matter expert. Although library…

Authentic learning is conceptualised as an individualised experience learners undergo fulfilling their unique psychological as well as neurological needs. It provides a deep, more lasting experience and ideally assessed through generic attributes that are related to individual learners' intrinsic characteristics, spanning throughout the life.…

This paper addresses the insufficient traditional method of assessment of tests and examination, which is purely the regurgitation of information. Unfortunately some lecturers tend to cling to the traditional method of assessment as it is an easy route for them to follow. The said method does not encourage the students to become critical thinkers…

Critics often see the European Bologna Process as a univocal standardisation of higher education. By exploring how different qualifications frameworks project different social imaginaries of globalisation, this article takes a different stance. The overarching qualifications framework of the Bologna Process rests on a socially constituted and…

Information literacy is an essential component of the La Trobe University inquiry/research graduate capability and it provides the skill set needed for students to take their first steps on the path to engaging with academic information and scholarly communication processes. A deep learning approach to information literacy can be achieved if…

Many teachers see major difficulties in maintaining academic standards in today's larger and more diversified classes. The problem becomes more tractable if learning outcomes are seen as more a function of students' activities than of their fixed characteristics. The teacher's job is then to organise the teaching/learning context so that all…

Most leadership theories assume that leadership is a quality of leaders (e.g., trait theory), or a response to environments (e.g., situational theory), or a combination of both (e.g., contingency theory). In all these approaches leadership is something knowable and definite. However, after years of research there is no agreed definition of what…

A commonly accepted theoretical paradigm in the research and practice of effective learning and teaching is constructivist. Researchers and practitioners in the higher education community attend educational technology focused conferences to share their findings, seek feedback and collaboration, or challenge. Although researchers may espouse…

A team of early childhood teacher education faculty developed the 3-D talent development model of teacher education, blending theory and research from many sources. These sources include research on talent development, nonuniversal development, and roles of teachers and their professional growth. The faculty integrated constructs from these…