Resources

This essay examines the gap between the dominant ethical frameworks for education and ideas about subjectivity, and proposes an ethic of hospitality as a framework that assumes a decentered subjectivity. First, I provide a brief overview of the ethics of autonomy, virtue, and care and highlight the conception of the subject that informs each of them. Second, I outline some philosophical critiques of the subject, as well as misunderstandings about the “death” of the subject. It should then be clear that there is a tension between new ideas about subjectivity and the ethical frameworks of autonomy, virtue, and care. Finally, I propose an ethic of hospitality and make suggestions for how this ethic might inform educational practice. 

Focused on a biology classroom, but provides a helpful overview of the types of student resistance as well as hypotheses from other disciplines about the potential origins of student resistance. Also includes classroom strategies for preventing or addressing student resistance after it occurs. 

Initial findings from this exploratory study indicate significant questions, such as: why does the focus of faculty work appear to shift and, in later career? How do the administrative and leadership roles often assumed by midlife and mid-career faculty affect other dimensions of faculty work? Is the level of work satisfaction of mid-career faculty a function of the job demands or of life assessment and career questioning? What roles do institutional context and disciplinary field play in the experiences and perceptions of the middle years of the academic life cycle?

Assessments of student behavior in first- semester design experiences suggest that early team- based design projects can promote a team performance goal orientation that undermines students’ learning goals. In particular, we find that gender-correlated division of work can easily and unconsciously occur in these teams and that performance-oriented teams may be more likely to undermine womens’ learning goals then mens’ learning goals. We propose mechanisms to explain the effect and present results of promising interventions. 

A brief list of research findings matched with implications for specific recommended practices for  effective online learning.

Despite disparities in the conceptualization of work–life balance (WLB) and work–life harmony (WLH) in the literature, there remains no evidence till date to validate these differences. Furthermore, there are currently no insights that shed light on the relationship between work–life initiatives and key business strategies of contemporary organizations. Hence, the current study investigated the differences between the constructs of WLB and WLH using a cognitive dissonance approach and assessed the impact of work–life interventions, based on these approaches, on individual creativity at work. Hundred participants, age ranging from 18 to 32 years (M = 23.94, SD = 3.87), with at least 6 months of working experience were recruited. Using an online questionnaire, participants were randomly assigned into WLB (n = 55) or WLH (n = 45) conditions. Participants were tasked to complete pre- and post-intervention measures of individual creativity, as well as a manipulation check using a cognitive dissonance scale. Results showed that participants in the WLB condition elicit higher levels of cognitive dissonance compared with participants in the WLH condition. This indicates an implicit difference in the constructs of WLB and harmony. Second, findings also suggest that work–life interventions adopting a WLH approach will have a more positive impact on individuals’ creativity at work compared with interventions targeted at achieving balance. Research, practical, and cultural implications of the findings are discussed in the article.

Approaches to classroom instruction have evolved considerably over the past 50 years. This progress has been spurred by the development of several learning principles and methods of instruction, including active learning, student-centered learning, collabora- tive learning, experiential learning, and problem-based learning. In the present paper, we suggest that these seemingly different strategies share important underlying characteristics and can be viewed as complimentary components of a broader approach to classroom instruction called transformational teaching. Transformational teaching involves creating dynamic relationships between teachers, students, and a shared body of knowledge to promote student learning and personal growth. From this perspective, instructors are intel- lectual coaches who create teams of students who collaborate with each other and with their teacher to master bodies of information. Teachers assume the traditional role of facilitating students’ acquisition of key course concepts, but do so while enhancing students’ personal development and attitudes toward learning. They accomplish these goals by establishing a shared vision for a course, providing modeling and mastery experiences, challenging and encouraging students, personalizing attention and feedback, creating experiential lessons that transcend the boundaries of the classroom, and promoting ample opportunities for preflection and reflection. We propose that these methods are synergistically related and, when used together, maximize students’ potential for intellectual and personal growth.

This paper, co-authored by two instructors and four of their undergraduate students, details an experimental use of 'Open Space Technology' in a Religion course on social constructionism at the University of Toronto. In addition to describing the format and its purpose, four undergraduate evaluations of the course are offered.

Nine academics participated in semi-structured interviews to explore possible linkages between their teacher identities and the pedagogies they employ. A content analysis of the interviews was performed to gain insight into the factors playing a role in how academics define themselves as teachers, the larger educational goals they espouse and the pedagogies they use. The data were subsequently re-interpreted through the lens of authenticity, an evocative yet elusive construct whose meaning was clarified in earlier work. The study surfaces several conceptual linkages between teacher identity, pedagogy and authenticity, and suggests that authenticity might constitute a crucial link between teaching and the achievement of complex learning outcomes at undergraduate level. Academics' personal theories of teaching, in particular the conceptions they hold of learners, are revealed as critical to the extent to which their pedagogies are "authentic"; the latter, ideally, offering contexts within which students are supported in developing "their" authenticity. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Discoveries by both the professor and the students, in a seminar on the anthropology of Christianity at Candler School of Theology.