In this article, we explore the process of creating spaces for the practice and inquiry of transformative listening through the development of the Transformative Listening Protocol (TLP). Our premise is that embodied listening opens doors to transformations via a process to improve listening and safe spaces where people may engage with each other…

One way to bring about change in higher education is to introduce professional development programs for higher education, however these programs have been found to be ineffective at promoting positive change for individuals and departments. To address the need for better programs, I worked on two projects: one project attempts to identify a way to…

Although extensive research has been carried out on massive open online courses (MOOCs) as representative of connectivist environment, none of them has succeeded to enlighten our understanding about the individual learning experience in connectivist environment at higher educational context. This paper taped into this crucial issue and traced the…

This paper is a discussion and critical review of grading practices at a large flagship public university. In this paper, I examine the rights a student has when calling into question the authority and decision-making abilities of teachers in a classroom setting. Following my recent experience with a professor (noted at the beginning of this…

It is now well accepted that working in research teams that span universities, jurisdictions and countries can be rewarding and economically prudent. To this end, investigators collaborate in the pursuit of knowledge to address human and societal problems and translate results into local and global contexts. This implies that investigators need to…

In response to the lecture format coming under "attack" and being replaced by online materials and smaller tutorials, this paper attempts to offer not only a defence but also to assert that the potential value of the lecture is difficult to replicate through other learning formats. Some of the criticisms against lectures will be…

As the demand for accountability and transparency in higher education has increased, so too has the call for direct assessment of student learning outcomes. Accompanying this increase of knowledge-based, cognitive assessments administered in a higher education context is an increased emphasis on assessing various noncognitive aspects of student…

In a graduate education course geared toward developing reflective teaching practice in in-service teachers, backchannels, in the form of chat rooms, were employed in small groups to facilitate peer feedback during viewings of video recorded instruction. This study examined the nature and quality of peer feedback exchanged in the digital medium…

Faulty group processes have harmful effects on performance but there is little research about intervention protocols to pre-empt them in higher education. This naturalistic experiment compared a control cohort with an inducted cohort. The inducted cohort attended a workshop, consultations, elected a leader and used tools (a group log and group…

Social networks of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been characterized as smaller and less diverse than those of typical peers. Advocates have focused on strengthening those social networks by expanding circles of social support, protection, and friendship. As young adults with ID experience increasing levels of community…

Technology continues to shift the definition of what it means to be literate. As literacy educators in teacher preparation programs, we must consider how emerging and mobile technology may be used within coursework to not only create multiple ways to conceptualize teaching 21st century literacy, but also as a professional imperative. This article…

An increasing number of writing programs and assessments are employing writing-from-sources tasks in which reading and writing are integrated. The integration of reading and writing in such contexts raises a number of questions with regard to writers' use of sources in their writing, the functions these sources serve, and how proficiency affects…

This study used an interactive dynamic simulation of action potential to explore social practices of learning among first year undergraduate biology students. It aimed to create a learning environment that fosters knowledge building discourse through working with multiple concept-specific representations. Three hundred and eighty-nine students and…

A cognitive construct that is important when solving engineering design problems is executive control process, or metacognition. It is a central feature of human consciousness that enables one "to be aware of, monitor, and control mental processes." The framework for this study was conceptualized by integrating the model for creative design, which…

The purpose of our research was to examine the influence of an online protocol on asynchronous discussions. A mixed-methods study compared two online graduate classes: one that used a protocol and one that did not use a protocol for the same discussion about a complex reading. Analysis of the data revealed that the online protocol more evenly…