New Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning

Traditional classroom environments are constantly evolving. Technological advances afford integration of on-site and off-site learning in a blended synchronous learning environment. Such an approach alleviates constraints in collaborative adult learning. This paper aims to investigate graduate students’ on-site and off-site learning experiences in a technology-enabled learning space. A total of 42 graduate learners undertook a M.Ed. course at a Singaporean teacher education institute in a technology-enabled seminar style classroom environment called the Next Generation Learners’ Terrace (NGLT). Mixed methods research design was used following an explanatory embedded design (QUAN + qual) where the quantitative data was collected using College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI). Qualitative data was collected in the form of case studies from a select group of 10 students. The paper focused on the scales of student cohesiveness, involvement and personalisation and delved into two specific research questions, firstly whether there are significant differences between graduate students’ on-site and off-site learning experiences in the domains of cohesion, involvement and personalisation, and secondly whether graduate students’ on-site and off-site learning experiences differed in the same three domains. To conclude, on-site had a higher mean for each scale, however the off-site was not far behind when the technology issues were resolved and when the instructors made deliberate attempts to include off-site participants. Cohesiveness was felt to be more active and rigorous on-site as compared to off-site, which is attributed to social affordances of relationships and interactions among peers. The positive experience from the learner both on-site and off-site was supported by the personalisation aspect of the instructor’s fairness and one-to-one time for all.    

Economic growth and globalization policies have increased the number of internationally mobile students and the perceived value of an international education. Unfortunately, the high demand for an international education adds to the already intense workload of secondary school students, and the need for a diverse, global student population drives universities to quickly expand their intake of international students (Bista & Foster, 2016). The combination of academic pressure and receiving institutions that have neither sufficient resources nor experience frequently causes retention problems and leaves students disappointed with their education (e.g. Green, 2013; Chouhada & Schulmann, 2014; Redden, 2015). Too often, the solution is to place students in pre-university or bridge programs that provide traditional study skills and EAP training. While study skills and English proficiency are certainly important, programs that define college readiness too narrowly do little to address key factors such as academic burnout, lack of motivation and purpose, and community engagement. An important challenge of sustainable international education is to provide inclusive programs and support that serve the interests of all members (e.g Conley, 2008; Ting & Morse, 2016).
In this paper we describe a program designed to increase college readiness by mitigating academic burnout and facilitating meaningful community engagement through service-learning and peer mentoring. The Inspire Program is a semester-long program at Jönköping University designed to improve the quality of education for international students. Unlike traditional preparatory or bridge programs, the Inspire Program focuses on “soft skills” and includes training and support for university faculty and local students. The program helps students become independent, inspired learners and empowered and contributing participants in their future learning communities. The paper explains the theoretical foundation of the program and discusses outcomes and challenges. The paper includes examples of activities and assignments and explains how the concepts of joy of learning, distributed learning, and community engagement are incorporated in the curriculum and tasks to help students develop social-academic competence, confidence, and a sense of purpose. The paper ends with a discussion of how our experiences from the program might be of use to teachers in other contexts.

Achievement emotions have been identified as important psychologic constructs that are closely linked with self-regulated learning and academic achievement (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011). Very recently, a team of researchers (Pekrun, Lichtenfeld, Marsh, Murayama, & Goetz, 2017) have identified the reciprocal relationships between achievement emotions and academic performance through longitudinal design. Despite these desirable outcomes associated with positive achievement emotions, experimental studies aiming to enhance students’ positive emotions are rare. This study extends achievement emotions research by using an experimental design. An intervention approach termed Team-based Learning (TBL, Michaelsen & Sweet, 2011) was implemented in a general breath course in a Hong Kong university. Experimental and control classes were used. Two negative emotions (anxiety and boredom) were included in order to better understand the effect of TBL as an intervention approach to promote positive and reduce negative emotions in learning. The Chinese version of learning-related Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (L-AEQ, Yang, 2017) was used to test students’ positive and negative emotions (enjoyment, hope, anxiety, boredom). The results showed in the TBL class, students’ enjoyment and hope significantly enhanced, meanwhile students’ boredom and anxiety declined. Comparatively, there were no significant changes in terms of positive and negative emotions in the control class. Implications of TBL as one of productive educational interventions to promote students’ enjoyment and hope in learning are discussed in relation to the control-value theory of achievement emotions.