An Exploration of Professors’ Use of Twitter in Higher Education

Scant research has explored how professors in Canadian universities use Twitter as a teaching tool or to augment knowledge about their subject disciplines. This case study employed a mixed-method approach to examine how professors in an Ontario university use Twitter. Using a variation of the technology acceptance model, the survey (n = 17) found that professor participants—41.2% of whom use Twitter—perceive Twitter as somewhat useful as a teaching tool, not useful for finding and sharing information, and not useful for personal use. Participants’ gender and number of years teaching are not indicators of Twitter use. Furthermore, the level of support from peers and the university may be reasons why some do not use Twitter or have stopped using Twitter. Face-to-face interviews (n = 3) revealed that Twitter is not used in classrooms or lecture halls, but predominantly as a means of sharing information with students and colleagues. Another deterrent to using Twitter is not knowing who to follow. Findings indicate that some professors at this university embrace Twitter, but not necessarily as an in-class teaching tool. The challenge and the advantage of using Twitter is to discover and follow people who tweet material and to select relevant material to pass along to students and colleagues. Professor participants in the study found a use for the social network as a means to increase student engagement, create virtual information-exchange communities, and enrich their own learning.

Web based content and hybrid teaching: student perceptions of the effectiveness of using web based content and hyper-linked teaching units in teaching hybrid business and marketing post secondary classes /

This exploratory, descriptive action research study is based on a survey of a sample of convenience consisting of 172 college and university marketing students, and 5 professors who were experienced in teaching in an internet based environment. The students that were surveyed were studying e-commerce and international business in 3^^ and 4*'' year classes at a leading imiversity in Ontario and e-commerce in 5^ semester classes at a leading college. These classes were taught using a hybrid teaching style with the contribution of a large website that contained pertinent text and audio material. Hybrid teaching employs web based course materials (some in the form of Learning Objects) to deliver curriculimi material both during the attended lectures and also for students accessing the course web page outside of class hours. The survey was in the form on an online questionnaire. The research questions explored in this study were: 1. What factors influence the students' ability to access and learn from web based course content? 2. How likely are the students to use selected elements of internet based curriculum for learning academic content? 3. What is the preferred physical environment to facilitate learning in a hybrid environment? 4. How effective are selected teaching/learning strategies in a hybrid environment? The findings of this study suggest that students are very interested in being part of the learning process by contributing to a course web site. Specifically, students are interested in audio content being one of the formats of online course material, and have an interest in being part of the creation of small audio clips to be used in class.

An exploration of transformation theory and the western tradition: a critical evaluation of a graduate studies class

This qualitative study is an exploration of transformation theory, the Western tradition, and a critical evaluation of a graduate studies class at a university. It is an exploration of assumptions that are embedded in experience, that influence the experience and provide meaning about the experience. An attempt has been made to identify assumptions that are embedded in Western experience and connect them with assumptions that shape the graduate class experience. The focus is on assumptions that facilitate and impede large group discussions. Jungian psychology of personality type and archetype and developmental psychology is used to analyze the group experience. The pragmatic problem solving model, developed by Knoop, is used to guide thinking about the Western tradition. It is used to guide the analysis, synthesis and writing of the experience of the graduate studies class members. A search through Western history, philosophy. and science revealed assumptions about the nature of truth, reality, and the self. Assumptions embedded in Western thinking about the subject-object relationship, unity and diversity are made explicit. An attempt is made to identify Western tradition assumptions underlying transformation theory. The critical evaluation of the graduate studies class experience focuses upon issues associated with group process, self-directed learning, the educator-learner transaction and the definition of adult education. The advantages of making implicit assumptions explicit is explored.

Preparing to teach : learning from an exploration of teachers' experiences of teaching in classrooms of difference

This qualitative study explores practicing teachers' experiences of teaching in classrooms of diversity, that is, classrooms where students represent a variety of differences including race, culture, ethnicity, and class. More specifically, this study investigates the types of curricular and pedagogical practices teachers employ in their classrooms. This study attempts to make a contribution to the scholarship of critical pedagogy by drawing upon the works of critical pedagogues to make sense of participants' descriptions oftheir curricular and pedagogical practices. Four participants were involved in this study. Participants were elementary teachers in classrooms of difference in Ontario who contributed the primary sources of data by engaging in 2 individual interviews. Additional sources of data included a focus group meeting that 2 ofthe participants were able to attend, school board curriculum resource documents assisting teachers in teaching critically, as well as a research journal which the researcher kept throughout the study. The scholarship of critical pedagogy (Ellsworth, 1992; Giroux, 1993; McLaren, 1989) informs the analysis of participants' descriptions of their teaching experiences. Many of the participants did not engage in a practice of critical pedagogy. This study explores some of the challenges and possibilities of using critical pedagogy to create spaces in classrooms where teachers can build connections between the curriculum mandated by the government and the multiple identities and experiences that students bring into the classroom. This study concludes with a discussion on what teachers need to know to be able to begin creating equitable and educational experiences in classrooms of difference.

Enhancing teaching and learning speech acts: action research of Japanese as a foreign language /

This action research observes a second year Japanese class at a university where foreign language courses are elective for undergraduate students. In this study, using the six strategies to teach Japanese speech acts that Ishihara and Cohen (2006) suggested, I conducted three classes and analyzed my teaching practice with a critical friend. These strategies assist learners toward the development of their understanding of the following Japanese speech acts and also keep the learners to use them in a manner appropriate to the context: (I) invitation and refusal; (2) compliments; and (3) asking for a permission. The aim of this research is not only to improve my instruction in relation to second language (L2) pragmatic development, but also to raise further questions and to develop future research. The findings are analyzed and the data derived from my journals, artifacts, students' work, observation sheets, interviews with my critical friend, and pretests and posttests are coded and presented. The analysis shows that (I) after my critical friend encouraged my study and my students gave me some positive comments after each lesson, I gained confidence in teaching the suggested speech acts; (2) teaching involved explaining concepts and strategies, creating the visual material (a video) showing the strategies, and explaining the relationship between the strategy and grammatical forms and samples of misusing the forms; (3) students' background and learning styles influenced lessons; and (4) pretest and posttests showed that the students' Icvel of their L2 appropriate pragmatics dramatically improved after each instruction. However, after careful observation, it was noted that some factors prevented students from producing the correct output even though they understood the speech act differences.

Teaching Adolescents to Think and Act Responsibly Through Narrative Film-making: A Qualitative Study

The current qualitative study examined an adapted version of the psychoeducational program, Teaching Adolescents to Think and Act Responsibly: The EQUIP Approach (DiBiase, Gibbs, Potter, & Blount, 2012). The adapted version, referred to as the EQUIP – Narrative Filmmaking Program, was implemented as a means of character education. The purpose of this study was three-fold: 1) to examine how the EQUIP – Narrative Film-making Program influenced student’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours; 2) to explore the students’ and the teacher’s perception of their experience with the program; and 3) to assess whether or not the integrated EQUIP – Narrative Film-making Program addressed the goals of Ontario’s character education initiative. Purposive sampling was used to select one typical Grade 9 Exploring Technologies class, consisting of 15 boys from a Catholic board of education in the southern Ontario region. The EQUIP – Narrative Film-making Program required students to create moral narrative films that first portrayed a set of self-centered cognitive distortions, with follow-up portrayals of behavioural modifications. Before, during, and after intervention questionnaires were administered to the students and teacher. The student questionnaires invited responses to a set of cognitive distortion vignettes. In addition, data was collected through student and teacher interviews, and researcher observation protocol reports. Initially the data was coded according to an a priori set of themes that were further analyzed according to emotion and values coding methods. The results indicated that while each student was unique in his thoughts, feelings, and behavioural responses to the cognitive distortion vignettes after completing the EQUIP program, the overall trends showed students had a more positive attitude, with a decreased proclivity for antisocial behaviour and self-serving cognitive distortion portrayed in the vignettes. Overall, the teacher and students’ learning experiences were mainly positive and the program met the learning expectations of Ontario’s character education initiative. Based on these results of the present study, it is recommended that the EQUIP – Narrative Film-making Program be further evaluated through quantitative research and longitudinal study.

Using Effective Teaching Strategies and Personality Type to Enhance the Mathematics Classroom: A Handbook for Intermediate Math Teachers

This project addressed the need for more insightful, current, and applicable resources for intermediate math teachers in Canadian classrooms. A need for a handbook in this division seemed warranted by a lack of government resource support. Throughout an extensive review of the literature, themes and topics for the handbook emerged. The handbook was designed to not only provide educators with examples of effective teaching strategies within the mathematics classroom but to also inform them about the ways in which their personal characteristics and personality type could affect their students and their own pedagogical practices. Three teaching professionals who had each taught in an intermediate math class within the past year evaluated the handbook. The feedback received from these educators was directly applied to the first draft of the handbook in order to make it more accessible and applicable to other math teachers. Although the handbook was written with teachers in mind, the language and format used throughout the manual also make it accessible to parents, tutors, preservice education students, and educational administrators. Essentially, any individual who is hoping to inspire and educate intermediate math students could make use of the content within the handbook.