Gamification, the use of game design elements within nongame contexts, can be found across a wide range of digital products and is used to increase user engagement and simplify complex tasks for the user. While the use of gamification can be problematic with some content and contexts, these same strategies do have potential for engaging students…

Simulation is well-documented as an effective pedagogy in teaching social work practice. However, the financial and human resources needed to provide simulation-based teaching in large social work programs are prohibitive. Partnering with other disciplines with established simulation programs is one way to bring simulation to social work students…

Many data science applications involve generating questions, acquiring data and preparing it for analysis--be it exploratory, inferential, or modeling focused--and communicating findings. Most data science curricula address each of these steps as separate units in a course or as separate courses. Open-ended term projects, however, allow students…

In mid-March of 2020, the United States realized the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic was real and was affecting our world in ways not seen for 100 years. From its tattered beginnings to now, teachers have answered the call and have remained vigilant and flexible regarding their professional practices, pedagogy, and overall sense of what it truly means…

Our university is one campus of the larger, 23-campus California State University system. In 2017, the Chancellor of the system discontinued the developmental mathematics programs at all 23 campuses. This caught us by surprise and compelled us to act quickly. This article gives an overview of our response, highlighting the change our department…

This paper describes the development of a three-phase approach our team of educational developers finds useful in curriculum projects in our Teaching and Learning Centre. Informed by the literature on the importance of flexibility and iteration (Knight, 2001; Wolf, 2007) and an orientation towards Appreciative Inquiry (Srivastra & Cooperrider,…

Teacher collaboration continues to be deeply grounded within effective professional development. Teacher teams, where small groups of teachers work together in teaching and learning, have become progressively more popular and are considered one of the most effective approaches to improvement and growth. However, teacher teams are situated within a…

A local education agency (LEA) preschool program serving 3- to 5-year-old children is committed to high-quality inclusion for young children with disabilities and their neurotypical peers. The school is investing in using evidence-based practices to support all children in learning and development, building meaningful friendships, and a sense of…

This work outlines a model for creating momentum for active learning at the departmental level through a Community of Practice. This approach focuses on empowering members of the community by providing easy access to active learning tasks, pacing guide, and teaching tips for the course.

Over the last two decades, the academy has experienced a renaissance of diversity in pedagogical techniques with the introduction of experiential learning, active learning, flipping the classroom, and, more recently, team-based learning (TBL). TBL adopts a two-stage process that incorporates individual learning with team collaboration. While…

Morehouse School of Medicine elected to restructure its first-year medical curriculum by transitioning from a discipline-based to an integrated program. The anatomy course, with regional dissection at its core, served as the backbone for this integration by weaving the content from prior traditional courses into the curriculum around the anatomy…

One strategy for creating a healthy school culture is to integrate health concepts into core subject areas. In this article, a health and wellness coordinator and a curriculum specialist explain the meticulous process and discoveries that led to the development of a district-specific health curriculum.

Co-planning is considered an integral part of a successful co-teaching relationship in which both teachers have parity and use their individual expertise to benefit all students. However, the literature has not discussed adequately how co-planning is achieved within the parameters of the already full schedules of two teachers. This column shares…

This paper describes some elements of a specific kind of design-based research, cooperative engineering. In the first part of the paper, we argue that cooperative engineering can be analyzed through a joint action framework. We first present some conceptual tools that the Joint Action Theory in Didactics proposes in order to understand didactic…

This paper describes a unique organizational approach involving education specialists and faculty members in the continuous development of a Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. The described curriculum includes extensive use of technology with blended learning and use of interactive videoconferencing to three campuses. This curriculum is…