Numerous studies have attempted to explain the role of social networking platforms within educational environments, though none of them has reported on their potential for enhancing professional development in education. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the reflections of prospective teachers who were assigned to design and…

Gender equity and the empowerment of women is a significant international issue. Successful adult education programs are vital to enhance women's situation. Lessons learned from a personal development program provided for thousands of women are analysed. The program is conducted by community service providers in Australia and internationally, with…

Teaching, learning, and retention processes have evolved historically to include multifaceted techniques beyond the traditional lecture. This article presents related results of a study using a healthcare learning community in a southwest Georgia university. The value of novel techniques and tools in promoting student learning and retention…

Purpose: This article investigates the extent of multiple knowledges among smallholders and connected non-farm agents around Mount Elgon in Kenya and Uganda in order to build the communicative competence needed to scale up conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS). Design/methodology/approach: Our methodological approach examines local…

The phenomenal growth in the use of social media in the past 10 years has dramatically and irreversibly changed the way individuals communicate and interact with one another. While there are undoubtedly many positives arising out of the use of social media, irresponsible or inappropriate use can have significant negative consequences. In the…

Facebook is a website with over one billion users worldwide that is synonymous with social-networking. However, in this study, Facebook is used as an "instructional network". Two sections of an undergraduate calculus course were used to study the effects of participating in a Facebook group devoted solely to instruction. One section was…

This paper will describe pedagogical approaches for re-purposing an open educational resource (OER) designed and produced by the Deutsche Welle. This free online program, "Deutsch Interaktiv," consists of authentic digital videos, slideshows and audio texts and gives a contemporary overview of the culture and language in Germany, Austria…

WhatsApp is a Smartphone application for instant messaging. Lately the application's popularity has risen. One of the unique features of the application is its ability to enhance communication within a group. Classroom communication between teaching faculty and high school students using WhatsApp has not yet, to our knowledge, been researched…

This study expanded the definition of reading practices to include both print- and Internet-based reading, and examined the relationship of reading profiles to Taiwanese college students' performance on various practices. The results showed that more time was spent on Internet-than print-based extracurricular reading, and that the three…

This study examines an innovative model program for the mentorship of diverse graduate students entitled the "Inter-Ethnic/Interdisciplinary Mentoring Institute for Graduate Education" (i.e., "Mentoring Institute"), which was established by the Graduate Student Diversity Programs in the Office of the Vice President for Research…

This case study report uses the conceptual framework of Bakhtinian notions of dialogism to explore how a highly motivated 10th grade English student, Aaliyah, developed strategies for combating her disengagement in academic writing. Aaliyah?s anxiety and boredom stemmed from multiple factors relating to the distance between her home and school…

An inquiry-based learning pedagogy coupled with a seamless learning environment is a potential way to realise the educational goal of learner-centred learning in digital classrooms in the 21st century. An overarching research framework is proposed for preparing teachers to effectively develop pedagogical designs that are premised on theoretical…

Social networking tools have become an integral part of a pre-service teacher's educational experience. As a result, the educational value of social networking tools in teacher preparation programs must be examined. The specific problem addressed in this study is that the role of social networking tools in teacher education learning communities…

The theme of the 2016 National Conference of the Australian College of Educators (ACE), "Challenges and changes: The power of education to build the world to which we aspire," provided a unique opportunity for education professionals to carefully consider and propose papers, workshops, and poster sessions to stimulate discussion and…

Empowered by mobile computing, teachers and students can benefit from computing in more scenarios beyond the traditional computer classroom. But because of the much diversity of device specification, learning contents and mobile context existing today, the learners get a bad learning experience (e.g. rich contents cannot be displayed correctly)…