This study explores the process of Community of Practice (CoP) building for language teachers' professional development through the support of a WeChat group. WeChat is an instant messenger app that provides a multimodal platform for one-on-one and group interactions through text, audio and video. In order to support the implementation of flipped…

With the increasing diversity of pedagogic models of delivery in higher education, universities are continually exploring practises of learning and teaching designed to enhance student experience and retention. The number of courses provided online continues to grow through, among other reasons, an escalation of higher education (HE) students…

This study reports the implementation of a parental involvement intervention coupled with small group discussions aimed at facilitating transformative experiences (TEs) in science courses (biology and chemistry) in an all-girls middle and high school. Specifically, the goal was to generate parental involvement, TE, and interest. Analyses showed…

The benefits of international education experiences for students are well documented. The effect on the individual of international experiences has been researched and theorised by authors for at least the last 20 years. In this paper the experiences of three academics who accompanied pre-service teachers on a 3 week international practicum are…

This study originates from ongoing action research that aims to develop institutional opportunities to reflect on and take decisions about inclusion in the School of Accounts and Administration of Rio de Janeiro's State Accounts Office. The research was organized in three phases. The first phase was an inservice course to sensitize professionals…

This paper provides an overview of the "NEST 2014" retreat. The Northeast Scientific Training (NEST) Programs retreat was established with three purposes in mind: (1) to provide underrepresented minority member (URM) trainees with "a community of scholars retreat setting" as an alternative to the formal and highly structured…

Critical language awareness (CLA) has aimed to raise critical consciousness in language education about the social aspects of language use, and especially the relationship between language and power, and is considered to play a significant role in enabling learners to participate effectively in democratic citizenship within and beyond the…

Transferable skills such as team working, communication, information gathering, critical thinking, and peer assessment are essential for graduates seeking employment in the competitive jobs market. Use of online discussion boards have grown to allow students to communicate with each other at a time and location of their choosing. This study aimed…

This study draws on the authors' first-hand experience of designing, developing and delivering (3Ds) a massive open online course (MOOC) entitled "Understanding Research Methods" since 2014, largely but not exclusively for learners in the humanities and social sciences. The greatest challenge facing us was to design an assessment…

This qualitative inquiry, situated within the social networking site, Facebook and an urban public library, examined the way six Black adolescent girls represented self and made sense of and disrupted representations of Black girlhood through book club discussions of the street literature text, PUSH by Sapphire. Online discussions, field…

Neo magnets are neodymium magnet beads that have been marketed as a desktop toy. We proposed using neo magnets as an alternative building block to traditional ball-and-stick models to construct carbon allotropes, such as fullerene and various nanocone structures. Due to the lack of predetermined physical connections, the versatility of carbon…

Early career academics around the world frequently see themselves as being in need of targeted career support to navigate the years directly following PhD graduation. The growth of discussion groups on Twitter that target these users raises questions about their potential usefulness to address career development support needs. This paper reflects…

This article examines the potential for creating an alternative learning context using digital tools in English classrooms to better support the identities and language practices of diverse learners. We explore the role language plays in the relationships between preservice teachers in central Illinois and their 10th-grade partners in Los Angeles.…

Recent years have witnessed a surge in classroom-based pedagogies aimed at targeting student engagement. This paper seeks to report on the design, delivery and small-scale evaluation of a final year undergraduate module in developmental psychology. Adopting a range of innovative teaching/learning methodologies, the author sought to support student…

Researchers have yet to examine whether discussion group size affects student performance in an interteaching-based course. In the current study, we addressed this question by manipulating discussion group size (smaller groups of 2 students vs. larger groups of 4 students) across 2 sections of an undergraduate psychology course. We found no…