Using Piaget's perspective of individual cognition and Vygotsky's theory of social constructivism as lenses, this paper reports on the instructional prompts that are used by biology lecturers to promote student interaction. The study further reports on the link between the prompts used and the subsequent quality of the interaction. Three lecturers…

In-service trainings for teachers provide information to influence teacher practice within the complex, dynamic environment of the classroom. Transfer of learning, the ability to use previously learned information in a novel setting or time, is necessary for generalization to actual practice (Sork and Caffarella, 1998). Teachers report that…

This paper addresses the question of identifying a concept dependency graph for a MOOC through unsupervised analysis of lecture transcripts. The problem is important: extracting a concept graph is the first step in helping students with varying preparation to understand course material. The problem is challenging: instructors are unaware of the…

The present paper reports on a small investigation that took place in the author's teaching environment to highlight her students' academic lecture comprehension needs related to the new subject matter of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The aim of this research endeavour was to ponder over students' perspective of the difficulties emerging…

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a global education phenomenon in recent decades, especially in higher education. However, its implementation is still facing criticism. On the one hand, learners are welcoming the envisaged benefits of preparing them with professional content knowledge and English language proficiency to compete in the…

One of the biggest barriers preventing teachers from utilizing the flipped classroom approach in their teaching practices is the lack of a general and practical framework for guiding the design and implementation of flipped classrooms. This leads to the fact that the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach is unconfirmed. Building on…

The Human Orrery is a representation of the Solar System at a human scale, on which positions of planets over time are symbolized by different discs. Learners can then walk along the orbits of the planets with the right pace. This pedagogical tool uses the principles of enacted cognition to promote a better understanding of the scientific laws of…

Authentic materials such as TED Talks have become an everyday presence in the ELT classroom, often for practice listening and taking notes. However, teachers can struggle to teach the sub-skills that are involved in notetaking, and instead often simply tell students to 'take notes'. This approach lacks the scaffolding required for the complex…

Impacts of incorporating active learning pedagogies into a lecture-based course were examined among 266 students across nine research methods course sections taught by one instructor at a large public university. Pedagogies evaluated include lecture only, lecture with small group discussions, and lecture with simulations. Although…

As calculus instruction moves further from lecture-based instruction toward student-centered pedagogy, support services must align with the changing goals for the course. This paper describes the work of a department as they collectively design and redesign a co-requisite Calculus I course, in an effort to better promote students' academic and…

We propose a new model for learning that relates video watching behavior and engagement to quiz performance. In our model, a learner's knowledge gain from watching a lecture video is treated as proportional to their latent engagement level, and the learner's engagement is in turn dictated by a set of behavioral features we propose that quantify…

This contribution reports on the findings of a project whose aim was to explore the construct of the language-teaching methodology interface (LTMI) in lecturing through English. Evidence of its existence will be provided and implications for teacher training will be considered. On the assumption that the LTMI can be characterised by the…

Researchers have pinpointed recognition from others as one of the most important dimensions of students' science and engineering identity. Studies, however, have found gender biases in students' recognition of their peers, with inconsistent patterns across introductory science and engineering courses. Toward finding the source of this variation,…

This study investigates the effects of adding stem preview to an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) multiple-choice listening assessment. In stem preview, listeners may view the item stems, but not response options, before listening. Previous research indicates that adding preview to an exam typically decreases difficulty, but raises concerns…

There is much literature focused on supporting students diagnosed with learning difficulties within higher education, in particular those with dyslexia. However, there is relatively little that discusses perceptions of and support for academics who have been diagnosed with the same learning difficulties. Although statistics from the Higher…