This action research aimed to enhance the curriculum knowledge of 37 pre-service teachers in early-childhood education through backward design (BD) as an innovative framework. Participants enrolled in an online curriculum development course focusing on curriculum elements and underwent BD-based instruction for five weeks. Multiple data collection…

The growing use of analytics has increased the demand for more highly data literate graduates. Awareness of ambiguity in data has been suggested as a new data literacy skill. Here, we describe a student-centered semester-long project that can be used to teach this skill in an introductory analytics or database course. The project requires students…

Drawing on their years of experience leading transformative online classrooms in higher education, the authors present an approach for teaching online that is both engaging and effective. This practical book provides an overview of essential approaches, bolstered by examples from various instructors who are teaching online courses. The authors…

Student-centered learning broadly encompasses teaching approaches that shift the focus of instruction from teacher to student by placing an emphasis on what as well as how students want to learn. This approach allows students to become active participants in their own learning and has been shown to increase learning, autonomy, and…

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to develop an innovative pedagogic tool: an escape room board game to be played in-class, targeting an introduction to an ethics course for engineering students. The design is student-centred and aims to increase students' appreciation, commitment and motivation to learning ethics, a challenging endeavour for…

Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT), as opposed to teacher-centered practices, actively engages students in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss the importance of adopting LCT strategies in family science courses to improve student learning outcomes. Family science is particularly apt for LCT because of the interpersonal focus of the…

Journal clubs are widely used as an educational tool in graduate life science programs. In journal clubs, students are assigned to read specific journal articles to achieve a broad knowledge in their field of study and to gain competence in reading and assessing scientific publications. However, students often show low motivation to read assigned…

Resulting from the collaboration between five practicing professionals and an LIS faculty member, this article illuminates the experiences of librarians and archivists who engage with LIS students on a continuous basis as guest speakers in LIS classrooms. The phenomenological approach helps to elicit first-hand accounts that encapsulate…

In response to national concerns a decade ago, driven by research that showed that higher education was making little impact on students' development of broad competencies and critical thinking, the provost and president of Purdue University, a research university, instituted a program whose goals were to build on the accumulated knowledge on…

In the trend of innovating university teaching methods in the direction of student-centered learning, this article proposes the application of problem-based learning (PBL) in teaching English communication skills to engineering students at University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University. With a combination of qualitative and…

"English Language Learning in the Digital Age" is a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical background and real-world application of IDLE (Informal Digital Learning of English). Designed for teachers and future teachers preparing to teach English as a second or other language, this highly practical guide focuses on incorporating…

For too many students, today's PhD is a bridge to nowhere. Imagine an entering cohort of eight doctoral students. By current statistics, four of the eight--50%!--will not complete the degree. Of the other four, two will never secure full-time academic positions. The remaining pair will find full-time teaching jobs, likely at teaching-intensive…

In the recreation and leisure field, educators often strive to attain a level of experiential learning in the classroom. As we prepare students for the future, it is unlikely that they will be placed in a quiet room and asked to take an objective test. It is more likely that they will be asked to defend their ideas, collaborate in decision making,…

Integrating the WMSF Case Study competition into a capstone course will create a whole new dynamic for students. The case studies provided by WMSF are valuable for students because they demonstrate that strategically selecting a target and creating a media mix that will communicate to the chosen target sometimes requires a flexible, human brain…

This book traces the historical background of liberal arts education from west to east, expounds its implication and fundamental goal of universities, and introduces its application in Western and Chinese universities, particularly its experimentation at University of Nottingham Ningbo China. It takes the University of Nottingham Ningbo China as…