This article describes a narrative study exploring the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter when using humor in North American university classrooms. Twenty participants were recruited from twelve teaching fields. Each ITA participated in two interviews and a videotaped teaching observation. The participants talked…

Dewey's philosophy of experience has aesthetic experience at its core as he melds artificial dualities between thinking and experiencing [Dewey, J. 1934. "Art as Experience." In "John Dewey the Later Works," 1925-1953, Vol. 10. 1988, edited by J. Boydston, 1-352. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press]. This deeply…

'Relaxed performances' allow theatre spectators to experience a non-judgmental environment, featuring adjustments to make them more accessible to a range of audiences. The Autism Arts Festival attempted to develop the idea of relaxed performances further to create an entirely autism-friendly festival in Canterbury. The organisers developed a suite…

Collaborative learning is well-established as a method to improve student learning and retention in engineering classrooms. One problem with collaborative learning is difficulty maximizing engagement of all students during group activities. We tested a change in implementation of collaborative problem solving sessions (Workshops) in a first-year…

In this article the authors described their exploration of a particular design element they labeled "video in the middle." As part of the video in the middle design, the viewing of carefully selected video clips from teachers' classrooms is sandwiched between pre- and postviewing activities that are expected to support teachers'…

The purpose of this study was to determine how the design and organisation of primary school playground spaces may result in the inclusion or exclusion of some groups of children. Two primary school playgrounds in rural New South Wales, Australia, were selected for this investigation. Data were collected through observations and unstructured…

This case study examines how a cognitive apprenticeship was utilized as a faculty development tool to improve instructional design practices in the classroom. Three instructors participated in a cognitive apprenticeship where they were taught how to implement learner-centered instructional strategies into their coursework. The cognitive…

Reading and discussing texts as a means for learning subject content are regular features within educational contexts. This paper presents an approach for intertextual content analysis (ICA) of such text-related discussions revealing what the participants make of the text. Thus, in contrast to many other approaches for analysing conversation that…

Very few empirical studies have investigated programmes in which doctoral students act as peer facilitators in faculty writing groups. We report on the development of a centrally delivered doctoral student writing programme in which twenty student participants were mentored and provided with the resources to initiate their own faculty-based…

Purpose: U.S. schools have traditionally been characterized by teacher privacy and independence, yet theory and empirical work suggest that peer observation and support--or "de-privatized instruction"--can help improve pedagogical practice. In this study, we investigate whether the introduction of video technology into a school--through…

Many teachers and administrators recognize the importance of social and emotional development for student success but do not feel that they have the time or tools to support social and emotional learning (SEL). The American Institutes for Research developed the "Social and Emotional Learning Coaching Toolkit: Keeping SEL at the Center"…

Today, education is massively affected by marketisation and the drastic demands of the global economy. Integration training for immigrants has fallen prey to that; immigrants are employed to serve market needs, which has been attributed to the creation of "integration as business." In the article, the authors examine how integration…

This project focuses on the design and implementation of an online professional development platform tailored to teachers' needs to improve and promote their intercultural knowledge. Drawing upon the framework of virtual communities of practice, the project escapes from traditional professional development programmes. Although a total of 103…

A valuable supplement to student evaluations of teaching (SETs) is the mid-semester feedback (MSF) technique, an intervention that can facilitate meaningful improvement of the teaching and learning experience. Scheduling time for an MSF enables a systematic, formative evaluation of instruction on a specific student population in a given semester.…

The use of technology has become customary for many faculty teaching in institutions of higher education. And, many institutions provide professional development (PD) for integrating instructional technology into the classroom. But, research shows that many PD opportunities emphasize the use of specific technology tools and are inefficient at…