This study advances the emerging research on shared metacognition through the lens of the community of inquiry framework. It seeks components and utterances of the community of inquiry and shared metacognition in online collaborative learning environments to bring an instructional design model to the fore. A three-cycle design-based research…

Indigenous language revitalization (ILR), or the act of reversing the language shift from English back to Native languages, is an essential task. Since their inception, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) have worked to support and often lead language communities in this task. Since its beginning, Sitting Bull College (SBC), located on the…

Community, inclusion, and perseverance are essential for student success in STEM. To promote these values, we developed two discussion-based activities for implementation in introductory college STEM courses. Both activities incorporate watching videos that portray scientists telling the stories of their career trajectory, in-class discussions,…

Every college and university has as one of its clear purposes to develop students' critical thinking. This is, of course, essential. However necessary critical thinking is as a goal of higher education, it is not sufficient on its own. Critical reflection is a vital complement to critical thinking. Critical reflection enables students to…

Caucusing, as a social justice activity, is traditionally implemented to provide an insider space for marginalized persons to share experiences and build a space for belonging and safety by excluding those who hold privileged identities. Within a particular event that combines privileged and oppressed, experiences are uneven, with insiders…

Student engagement is an important factor in higher education learning, but engaging students in online learning settings has been found to be challenging. Little research has been conducted yet into how online learning activities can engage students. In this study, students' experiences with online education were examined during the COVID-19…

This article describes a student-led assessment of a writing showcase event sponsored by a composition learning community at an urban R1 university. Participants conducted student-to-student interviews at the semi-annual writing showcase event to help assess whether and how the learning community event supported learning outcomes. The interviews,…

Belonging, or the feeling of being a valued member of a community, has been linked to numerous positive outcomes in higher education. Although creating a sense of belonging at the campus level is important, equally important is fostering belonging in the classroom. Research has shown that belonging is more likely to occur in classes where students…

The gradual shift to online modes of learning in higher education institutions over the past 2 decades accelerated drastically on a global scale between 2020 and 2022. Students and educators, who have initially grappled with the shift, have now become accustomed to online teaching; however, there are concerns about the quality of learning that has…

In 2020, staff at Griffith University, Australia used a best practice and evidence-informed orientation event framework to create the University's first series of fully online, university-wide orientation sessions. The PECS design framework was created to ensure that orientation events at Griffith focused on developing students' sense of belonging…

Appreciation of policy practice and its rudiments can be achieved beyond the walls of a university classroom, an understanding exemplified by Syracuse University School of Social Work's annual James L. Stone Legislative Policy Day (LPD). This article describes the school's approach and its creative use of the Onondaga County Legislative Chambers…

Blogs have the potential to improve in-depth thinking, reflection, interaction and sense of community in higher education settings. Although the effectiveness of blogging on performance and thinking skills, student interaction and collaboration have been investigated by many educators, the number of studies on what influences learning in…

A fundamental challenge for all instructors in higher education is demonstrating the relevance of the material for our students. With the implementation of new technologies, and facing ever-increasing challenges, instructors need to adapt their approach, especially in the teaching of theory. This presentation provides one such approach. Instead of…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] The communities of practice framework has become an essential framework for understanding identity development both in physics education research (PER) and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, more broadly. However, the use of communities…

Learning environments that enable young people to participate in and engage with diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) practices hold promise for reimagining what counts as STEM and, ultimately, for broadening participation (Eisenhart & Allen, 2020). Out-of-school time (OST) STEM learning experiences have great…