This research study aims to highlight the personal experiences encountered by the participants, compare the differences between both narrations, and lastly identify common phenomena. This study utilized the auto-ethnographical research study. Ellis and Bochner (2000) describe autoethnography as "an autobiographical form of writing that exhibits several levels of awareness, linking the personal to the cultural". Autoethnography may include a wide variety of topics, from personal research experiences to parallel explorations of the researcher's and participants' experiences, as well as the researcher's (...) experience while undertaking a particular piece of research (Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Maso, 2001). It appears that practice teaching enables interns to experience the actual classroom teaching and school paperwork preparation. Aside from the technical aspects of the internship process, it prepares the student-teachers as well in the different course of school activities that will immerse them in the process of management. Generally, the personal experiences of the different interns vary from the school environment, protocols, and learning resources of the school assigned. The different practice- teaching experiences narrated by the interns that will have a common phenomenon will be a strong determinant of a certain situation. (shrink)

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) weaves together rigor and relevance while it improves student achievement and engagement. The Philippine Department of Education implemented Indigenous People’s education to respond to the demands for culturally responsive teaching. Teacher education graduates are expected to articulate the rootedness of education in sociocultural contexts in creating a learning environment that recognizes respect, connectedness, choice, personal relevance, challenges, engagement, authenticity, and effectiveness. Practice teachers need relevant exposure and immersion to fully develop their competence in (...) CRT. This scenario necessitates attention to assessing the competence of 191 practice teachers in CRT, correlating their competence across dimensions, and verifying the role of gender and degree programs in competence development. This investigation provides evidence on the role of gender in competence development toward culturally responsive teaching. Such competence is vital in practice teachers, especially because they are exposed to learners with diverse backgrounds during their teaching internship. This evidence informs supervising instructors in molding practice teachers. (shrink)

This is a teaching and learning guide to accompany "Explanation in Mathematics: Proofs and Practice".

In its ideal conception, the post-apartheid education landscape is regarded as a site of transformation that promotes democratic ideals such as citizenship, freedom, and critical thought. The role of the educator is pivotal in realising this transformation in the learners she teaches, but this realisation extends beyond merely teaching the curriculum to the educator herself, as the site where these democratic ideals are embodied and enacted. The teacher is thus centrally placed as a moral agent whose behaviour, in the (...) classroom space particularly, should, ideally, represent and communicate the values we aspire to cultivate in post-apartheid South African society generally. Thus, this notion of what teaching encompasses fits broadly into the conception of a “practice” in the sense developed by Alasdair MacIntyre, in that it is a transformative activity the enactment of which not only benefits the practitioner, but also extends to and benefits the broader community as well. Furthermore, practices are grounded in features of social or moral life we hold to be significant and, importantly, it is only through their active cultivation that they can be made tangible and further developed. MacIntyre’s theory of virtue is based on a three-fold interrelationship between practices, how they meaningfully narrate and shape an individual life, and how, in turn, this builds and sustains our moral and social traditions. Using these ideas to analyse post-apartheid South Africa, and the structural transformation paradox it is in, reveals the difficult and complex nature of a society that is in this transitional space. The claim is that attentiveness to practices in the educational space, and to the way they shape and inform moral and social traditions, is necessary to more fully understand and guide this societal transformation. (shrink)

As any other kind of language teaching, English for Specific Purposes is first and foremost based on the process of learning, a process which nevertheless addresses the needs of certain communities of learners, namely individuals interested in acquiring some professional skills and performing job related practices. Due to its oriented focus, ESP exhibits some characteristics that differentiate it from ESL (English as a Second Language) or EGP (English for General Purposes). First, it is language in context, this fact requiring (...) real life learning situations, scenarios that tent to replicate the specific working or professional settings the ESP students might be related to or interested in. Instead of focusing on general grammar, vocabulary and language structures, this teaching – learning intercourse stresses the importance of practicing the necessary skills one would mostly employ in their future fields of activity. Since its emergence in the late 1960s, ESP has undergone a constant process of development, defining its scope, improving methodology, shaping its objectives and orientations, and enlarging the number of course books designed to serve its purposes. Yet, ESP teaching practices remain extremely varied depending on practitioners, institutions and countries. Therefore, this conference focuses on today’s diversity of ESP teaching/learning. It also raises the question of the theoratical foundations of ESP practices and, as such, welcomes papers on all aspects and issues of ESP didactics. The main objective of the conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners in the field of ESP over discussions of various themes building upon their classroom experiences and field research tracking day- to- day challenges and obstacles In sum, the encompassing ambition of the conference is to attain solutions that would, hopefully, improve the teaching of ESP by discussing the importance of developing and intorducing training programs for ESP practitioners. (shrink)

Drawing on recent developments in dialogic approaches to learning and teaching, I examine the roots of dialogic meaning-making as a concept in classroom practices. Developments in the field of dialogic pedagogy are reviewed and the case for dialogic engagement as an approach to classroom interaction is considered. The implications of dialogic classroom approaches are discussed in the context of educational research and classroom practice. Dialogic practice is contrasted with monologic practices as evidenced by the resilient of the (...) IRF as the default discourse structure in classrooms. Recent evidence suggests the IRF is resistant to attempts to introduce interactive approaches to whole class teaching. Discussion of dialogic practice as a vehicle for increasing pupil engagement at a deep level and raising the quality of classroom interaction is illustrated through a consideration of Philosophy for Children, which is identified as a dialogic approach to classroom practice which has transformative potential for children's learning. Philosophy for Children offers an approach to pedagogy which enables teachers to value pupil voice and promote reflective learning. As such it has much to offer the current debate on dialogic teaching and learning. Research evidence suggests it will promote improved pupil outcomes on a range of assessments. (shrink)

Philosophers sometimes wonder whether academic work can ever be truly interdisciplinary. Whether true interdisciplinarity is possible is an open question, but given current trends in higher education, it seems that at least gesturing toward such work is increasingly important. This volume serves as a testament to the fact that such work can be done. Of course, while it is the case that high-level theoretical work can flourish at the intersection of dance and philosophy, it remains to be seen how we (...) might share this with undergraduate students. For many of us in philosophy and dance, a large number of the students we teach are neither philosophy nor dance majors. As such, we are familiar with the challenge of convincing our students to care about our fields. Both philosophy and dance, qua disciplines on a college campus, face similar challenges. These disciplines are often deeply misunderstood, frequently presumed to be “impractical” (a powerful, but confused objection), intimidating, and frivolous. In this chapter, we offer an account of the course we co-taught at Southern Utah University in the Spring of 2016 titled “Movement and Space” as a rough framework for how to introduce the intersection between philosophy and dance to students. We simultaneously attempted to break students of their misconceptions about philosophy and dance, and worked to engage students and professors alike in a truly interdisciplinary educational experience. Treating philosophy as an embodied endeavor, and employing philosophical concepts through the act of dance encouraged students and faculty alike to rethink the fundamental nature of aesthetics. (shrink)

Teachers began preparing for modular and interactive distance learning under the presumption that teaching would continue regardless of the situation. Teaching is attainable, but there are difficulties as well. This quantitative study was to investigate and describe how teachers coped during the COVID-19 pandemic, including innovative practices used by teachers to defeat or simply overcome the difficulties and challenges of the modular teaching and learning approach. The study employed a descriptive-correlational research design and utilizing a purposive random (...) sampling technique in selecting the respondents of the study. There was a total of 50 public school teachers across the study’s locale who responded to the conduct survey, which set the research sample size limitation. The findings of the study showed that the significant relationship between theinnovative practices and coping mechanisms of the educators and their ability to overcome the difficulties and challenges of the modular instruction and learning approach during the COVID-19 pandemic had the overall correlation coefficient of 0.642 with a sig. (2-tailed of 0.397). Teachers must fortify their hearts to carry out their work and responsibilities despite the greater circumstances. To succeed and develop into a frontline teacher who is effective, they must devote all their effort. (shrink)

Indigenous communities have a rich cultural heritage encompassing diverse ways of knowing, learning, and understanding the world around them. This mixed methods study utilized the explanatory sequential design to determine the level and relationship of the IP mathematics teachers' beliefs and teaching practices and gain a deeper insight into these beliefs and attitudes. There are 115 respondents for the quantitative phase, while 10 participants in the qualitative phase. Data were collected through survey and key informant interviews and were analyzed (...) through mean, standard deviation, Pearson product moment correlation, and thematic analysis. Results showed that the IP mathematics teachers possess high levels for both beliefs and teaching practices, and a significant moderate positive relationship exists between the two variables. Qualitative data analysis revealed that teachers' beliefs include the ideal qualities of an effective mathematics teacher, respect for students' culture and background, and a constructivist approach to teaching. Teaching practices include discussing student performance and intervention during meetings, implementing culturally relevant approaches, technology, varied activities, and peer mentoring and coaching. Further, it is concluded that teachers’ belief, which influences teaching practices, is shaped by different environmental factors. It is recommended that IP mathematics teachers continue to participate in personal and professional development activities and strengthen collaboration and reflection. (shrink)

This paper provides suggestions for educators who have a desire to learn about, or are already committed to, challenging ableism and disablism. As philosophy teachers, we have the opportunity to facilitate student reflection regarding disability, which puts students in a position to make decisions about whether to retain their habitual ways of comporting themselves toward disabled people or to begin the process of forming new perceptual practices. I contend that existential phenomenology, as formulated by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Linda Martín Alcoff, (...) provides insights regarding the habitual formation of perceptual practices that are useful for thinking about ways that perception may be informed by ableism and disablism. Jessica Cadwallader demonstrates how their insights can be usefully applied to thinking about perceptions of disability. Through analysis of past encounters with people with disabilities, Cadwallader suggests that students change their habitual ways of responding to people with disabilities. While such reflections may be valuable for making habitual perceptual practices explicit, I would suggest that this is only a condition for the possibility of changing ablist perceptual practices rather than the change itself. Students are likely to enter the classroom lacking the insight that they are even engaging in perceptual practices informed by cultural narratives rather than simply perceiving people with impairments as they are. I argue that an approach to teaching on disability that thematizes perceptual practices regarding disability, and takes experiences of disabled people into account, would be more effective than the one Cadwallader describes. Understanding the ways that people with disabilities experience being constructed as a problem through ableist perceptual practices could help students recognize their own potential to impact others in positive and negative ways. (shrink)

The COVID-19 outbreak spurred unplanned closures and transitions to online classes. Physical environments that once fostered social interaction and community were rendered inactive. We conducted interviews and administered surveys to examine undergraduate STEM students’ feelings of belonging and engagement while in physical isolation, and identified online teaching modes associated with these feelings. Surveys from a racially diverse group of 43 undergraduate students at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) revealed that interactive synchronous instruction was positively associated with feelings of interest (...) and belonging, particularly for students of color, while noninteractive instruction reduced social belonging, but was related to more cognitive engagement. Small group and one-on-one interviews with 23 of these students suggest that students derived feelings of connectedness from their instructors, peers, and prior experiences and relied on their sense of competency to motivate themselves in the course and feel a sense of belonging. Two embedded cases of students in physics classrooms are compared to highlight the range of student feelings of connectedness and competency during the lockdown. Findings reaffirm that social interaction tends to support belonging and engagement, particularly for under-represented (Black or African American and Hispanic) racial groups in STEM. STEM instructors who aim to support feelings of belonging and engagement in virtual learning environments should consider increasing opportunities for student–student and student–teacher interactions, as well as taking a flexible approach that validates and integrates student voice into instruction. Future research is needed to further explore the themes of relatedness and competency that emerged as aspects of course belonging. (shrink)

A Practical Role for Philosophy, Abstract This paper argues that philosophy departments should endeavour to assist the multitude of other departments and faculties in a university or college that have or wish to present an ethics course .A majority of departments at the writer’s university present such a course. Each department has to develop its own ethics course. The assistance would comprise an identification of which of those many ethical theories that a philosophy department teaches that would have application across (...) the other faculties that comprise a university - engineering, medicine, business, history, architecture etc. Moral philosophy or ethics is a necessary part of education and training of students prior to entering the real world. Philosophy departments have this obligation to assist the other departments, but ignore it. They concentrate solely on educating philosophers to educate other philosophers. (shrink)

Many of my first students at Anzaldúa’s alma mater read Borderlands/La Frontera and concluded that Anzaldúa was not a philosopher. Hostile comments suggested that Anzaldúa’s intimately personal and poetic ways of writing were not philosophical. In response, I created “American Philosophy and Self-Culture” using backwards course design and taught variations of it in 2013, 2016, and 2018. Students spend nearly a month exploring Anzaldúa’s works, but only after reading three centuries of U.S.-American philosophers who wrote in deeply personal and literary (...) ways about self-transformation, community-building, and world-changing. The sections of this chapter: 1) describe why my first students rejected Anzaldúa as a philosopher in terms of the discipline’s parochialism; 2) present Anzaldúa’s broader understanding of herself as a philosopher; 3) summarize my reconstructed Anzaldúa-inspired American Philosophy course and outline some assignments; 4) discuss how my students respond to Borderlands/La Frontera when we read it through the lens of self-culture; and 5) explain my attempt to shape the subdiscipline of American Philosophy by teaching Anzaldúa to specialists at the 2017 Summer Institute in American Philosophy. (shrink)

These days philosophy teaching in universities follows two main views: the continental philosophy and the analytic philosophy. Each one of those traditions has very different philosophical and pedagogical practices. My objectives in this article are: 1. to show the distinctions between the practices that continental and analytical philosophies cultivated at the universities; 2. to indicate that there is a confusion at the characterization of what is analytic philosophy, and that the critics driven to it are in fact driven to (...) logical positivism; 3. to show that the analytic practices are the ones we consider as genuinely philosophical. / Atualmente o ensino de Filosofia nas universidades tem seguido duas visões principais: a filosofia continental e a filosofia analítica. Cada uma dessas duas tradições diferem bastante em suas práticas filosófica e pedagógica. Meus objetivos neste artigo são: 1. mostrar as distinções entre as práticas cultivadas dentro das universidades pela filosofia continental e pela filosofia analítica; 2. indicar que há uma confusão na caracterização do que é filosofia analítica e que as críticas a ela dirigidas na verdade apontam para o positivismo lógico; 3. mostrar que as práticas analíticas são aquelas que consideramos como genuinamente filosóficas. (shrink)

Within the Computer Science community, many ethical issues have emerged as significant and critical concerns. Computer ethics is an academic field in its own right and there are unique ethical issues associated with information technology. It encompasses a range of issues and concerns including privacy and agency around personal information, Artificial Intelligence and pervasive technology, the Internet of Things and surveillance applications. As computing technology impacts society at an ever growing pace, there are growing calls for more computer ethics content (...) to be included in Computer Science curricula. In this paper we present the results of a survey that polled faculty from Computer Science and related disciplines about teaching practices for computer ethics at their institutions. The survey was completed by respondents from 61 universities across 23 European countries. Participants were surveyed on whether or not computer ethics is taught to Computer Science students at each institution, the reasons why computer ethics is or is not taught, how computer ethics is taught, the background of staff who teach computer ethics and the scope of computer ethics curricula. This paper presents and discusses the results of the survey. (shrink)

This essay narrates what I have learned from Søren Kierkegaard & John Dewey about teaching philosophy. It consists of three sections: 1) a Deweyan pragmatist’s translation of Kierkegaard’s religious insights on Christianity, as a way of life, into ethical insights on philosophy, as a way of life; 2) a brief description of the introductory course that I teach most frequently: Ethics, Happiness, & The Good Life; and 3) an exploration of three spiritual exercises from the course: a) self-cultivation by (...) means of writing in an Ethics Notebook, b) an “existential experiment” in which we practice one of Aristotle’s virtues for a week, and c) a 15-hour service-learning component. (shrink)

Pedagogical leadership has become an emerging and essential debate in the field of educational administration and leadership. This was a result of the shift from the hierarchical type in the past to a more inclusive, collaborative, and participative leadership. Previous studies indicate the furtherance of the inquiry into pedagogical leadership since it is a work in progress. Method: For this reason, a systematic literature review mapped the literature relevant to pedagogical leadership. Findings: The review drew the lines between the empirical (...) and theoretical-conceptual contributions, including the methodologies considered in both contributions. Implications for Research and Practice: The results have implications for a more robust theoretical-empirical model or framework of pedagogical leadership applicable to specific levels of education, especially higher education contexts. The study also implies applying pedagogical leadership in the team, at departmental and organizational levels. Results imply promoting the culture of pedagogical leadership. (shrink)

Doing Practical Ethics supports the deliberate practice of philosophical skills relevant to understanding, evaluating, and developing arguments in forms commonly used in the field of practical ethics. Each chapter includes an explanation of a specific moral reasoning skill, demonstration exercises with sample solutions that offer students immediate feedback on their initial practice attempts, and extensive sets of practice exercises. It is suitable for any ethics course that centrally features argument from principle, argument from analogy, or inference to (...) the best explanation. It may be used as a standalone text in a debate-focused course. Paired with an anthology in a readings-focused course, it will help students develop the skills they need to understand and evaluate the arguments in the assigned readings. (shrink)

This essay discusses five main topoi in the Divine Comedy through which teachers might encourage students to explore the question of the Divine Comedy’s treatment of philosophy. These topoi are: (1) The Divine Comedy’s representations in Inferno of noble pagans who are allegorically or historically associated with philosophy or natural reason; (2) its treatment of the relationship between faith and reason and that relationship’s consequences for the text’s understanding of the respective authoritativeness of theology and philosophy; (3) representations in the (...) Divine Comedy that relate to the question of the practical value of philosophical (not to mention theological) speculation; (4) the text’s treatment of the respective merits of practical and contemplative activities; and (5) its implicit defense of philosophy’s authority with respect to ethical and political questions. (shrink)

A central task of schooling is to cultivate reasonableness in students. In this chapter we show how the teaching of reasonableness can be practiced successfully in secondary schools, using materials from the Western Australian curriculum. The discussion proceeds in four stages. We first defend the claim that the teaching of reasonable is a key aim of schooling. Here we offer an account of reasonableness, which we take to be both a skill and a disposition. Students learn reasonableness through (...) the practice of specific skills such as open and curious questioning, clarifying, and categorizing, and evaluating the merits of each contribution toward the problem or question under consideration. Reasonableness comes about as a joint commitment between the individual and the group to be honest in their views, to take care of those views, and for everyone to recognize that each member is a partial bearer of truth. Secondly, we discuss the pedagogies that cultivate reasonableness. The Philosophical Community of Inquiry is a natural pedagogy for this purpose. This can be supplemented with the thinking tools approach of Cam’s Twenty Thinking Tools or Harvard Project Zero’s Thinking Routines. In addition, we introduce our own two skill-building exercises, the Reasoning Game and the Argument Game. Thirdly, we show how this approach can be applied not just in Philosophy classes, but in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We argue that our approach brings these subjects to life, it develops understanding and reasonableness, and it bumps up student engagement. Fourthly, we discuss the assessment of reasonableness. In this type of learning environment, the way students perform in the philosophical community of inquiry is the focus of assessment. The desirable qualities of being reasonable become the assessment criteria for an on-balanced judgment about the student. (shrink)

This article examines one way institutionalized sexism operates in the university setting by examining the gender roles and gender hierarchies implicit in (allegedly gender-neutral) university tenure and promotion policies. Current working assumptions regarding (1) what constitutes good research, teaching, and service and (2) the relative importance of each of these endeavors reflect and perpetuate masculine values and practices, thus preventing the professional advancement of female faculty both individually and collectively. A gendered division of labor exists within (as outside) the (...) contemporary academy wherein research is implicitly deemed "men's work" and is explicitly valued, whereas teaching and service are characterized as "women's work" and explicitly devalued. (shrink)

Mathematics textbooks teach logical reasoning by example, a practice started by Euclid; while logic textbooks treat logic as a subject in its own right without practical application to mathematics. Stuck in the middle are students seeking mathematical proficiency and educators seeking to provide it. To assist them, the article explains in practical detail how to teach logic-based skills such as: making mathematical reasoning fully explicit; moving from step to step in a mathematical proof in logically correct ways; and checking (...) to make sure inferences are logically correct. The methodology can easily be extended beyond the four examples analyzed. (shrink)

Although expert consensus states that critical thinking (CT) is essential to enquiry, it doesn’t necessarily follow that by practicing enquiry children are developing CT skills. Philosophy with children programmes around the world aim to develop CT dispositions and skills through a community of enquiry, and this study compared the impact of the explicit teaching of CT skills during an enquiry, to The Philosophy Foundation's philosophical enquiry (PhiE) method alone (which had no explicit teaching of CT skills). Philosophy with (...) children is also said to improve metacognitive (MC) skills but there is little research into this claim. Following observable problems with ensuring genuine metacognition was happening in PhiE sessions - on a reasonably strong understanding of what metacognition is – a method has been developed and trialed in this study to bring together, in mutual support, the development of critical thinking and metacognitive skills. Based on the work of Peter Worley and Ellen Fridland (KCL)The Philosophy Foundation ran an experimental study with King's College London in Autumn 2017 and Autumn 2018 to compare the impact of teaching CT skills and MC skills against classes that just have philosophical enquiry. The approach developed and used for the study employs the explicit teaching of some CT and MC skills within the context of a philosophical enquiry (as opposed to stand-alone teaching of these skills) and yields some positive findings both qualitative and quantitative. Both studies took place over one term (12 weeks) and a control and intervention group were used in each study. This report focuses on the second year of the study, with 220 ten and eleven-year-old children involved in eight classes across three state schools in South East London. Although there were limitations to the study the results indicate that the explicit teaching of these skills during a philosophical enquiry can help children use CT and MC skills more successfully than philosophical enquiry alone. (shrink)

The purpose of our lives is to grow step by step toward a fundamental transformation. Instead of always seeking some form of gratification, we can learn to give to others with no self-interest at all. The is the essential teaching of the Kabbalah portrayed in these essays by Baal Hasulam – the greatest modern explicator of Kabbalah. Rabbi Gottlieb provides an illuminating commentary as a living Chassidic rebbe devoted to the practice and teaching of Baal Hasulam’s spiritual (...) path. (shrink)

My argument in this paper is that humility is implied in the concept of teaching, if teaching is construed in a strong sense. Teaching in a strong sense is a view of teaching as linked to students’ embodied experiences (including cognitive and moral-social dimensions), in particular students’ experiences of limitation, whereas a weak sense of teaching refers to teaching as narrowly focused on student cognitive development. In addition to detailing the relation between humility and (...) strong sense teaching, I will also argue that humility is acquired through the practice of teaching. My discussion connects to the growing interest, especially in virtue epistemology discourse, in the idea that teachers should educate for virtues. Drawing upon John Dewey and contemporary virtue epistemology discourse, I discuss humility, paying particular attention to an overlooked aspect of humility that I refer to as the educative dimension of humility. I then connect this concept of humility to the notion of teaching in a strong sense. In the final section, I discuss how humility in teaching is learned in the practice of teaching by listening to students in particular ways. In addition, I make connections between my concept of teaching and the practice of cultivating students’ virtues. I conclude with a critique of common practices of evaluating good teaching, which I situate within the context of international educational policy on teacher evaluation. (shrink)

This study aims to look at the role of the practice of excellence strategies in education in achieving sustainable competitive advantage for the Higher educational institutions of the faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, a model, and the study considered the competitive advantage of educational institutions stems from the impact on the level of each student, employee, and the institution. The study was based on the premise that the development of strategies for excellence in (...) education, and its implementation is a vital important prerequisite to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in higher educational institutions. The study followed a systematic exploratory descriptive methodology through review of the theoretical literature, and the adoption of the experience of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza as a model for its unique experience in the field of excellence in education. The study results showed that the most important are: There is a strong correlation between the level of exercising excellence strategies in education and the achievement of higher educational institutions to the sustainable competitive advantage. The results include a general required number of important sub results on the subject of the model - Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza as follows: - The student considered the academic focus of the operation in the development process of the workers’ skills, particularly academics at the university helps to distinguish students and increase the employment rate after graduation. - The existence of consistency in development efforts and quality improvement for all three levels (student, employee, and the university), and this contributes to the Faculty excellence. - The Faculty has been able to achieve competitive advantages by offering excellent services without harming the efficiency, and this alone is a great success because improving service properties requires great investments, which negatively affect the continued institutional development. The study also reached a set of recommendations as follows: - The need to exercise excellence strategies in education, excellence reward at the national level, and those higher educational institutions follow the criteria for measuring the competitive advantages of its institutions always. - There is a need to increase efforts to implement programs of excellence, the allocation of adequate time, reward outstanding efforts as well. There is a necessity for each faculty to achieve competitive advantage and sustainability, using the general philosophies of competitive advantage, but with a different strategically content from what is in the private commercial sector, it reflects the Faculties mission and objectives, depending on making improvements and excellence in processes that ensure the safety of its outputs. As well as the need to find a balance between the work of teaching and research work of the faculty members, this has important implications regarding the criteria used in the process of excellence evaluation. The study recommended the adoption of strategies for excellence in education on a national public policy level mainly in the processes of change in higher education institutions. The need to support the existence of a common understanding of the efforts of excellence to create a general culture that appreciates excellence in faculties and universities. This underlines the need for transparent, fair rewards systems, to encourage innovation in education. The need to conduct a comprehensive surveys on the graduates of faculties and universities including the areas of employment and skills, because that will give accurate indications of the graduates and will help to establish a link to a more precise about the relationship of excellence strategies with the competitive advantages. (shrink)

This paper provides a retrospective and prospective overview of TU Delft’s approach to engineering ethics education. For over twenty years, the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Section at TU Delft has been at the forefront of engineering ethics education, offering education to a wide range of engineering and design students. The approach developed at TU Delft is deeply informed by the research of the Section, which is centered around Responsible Research and Innovation, Design for Values, and Risk Ethics. These theoretical (...) approaches are premised on the notion that technologies are inherently value-laden, and as such contain the possibility of fostering or hindering moral values. Each of these approaches encourages students to take a proactive attitude with respect to their projects and profession, thinking creatively about – and taking responsibility for – how to both prevent harm and do good via the technologies they help develop. To explain how this is put into practice, this paper sketches a brief history of ethics teaching at TU Delft, outlines current activities, and presents future plans for Bachelor and Master’s level engineering ethics education at TU Delft. (shrink)

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) have been used, researched, and debated for many decades. It is a common practice in higher education institutions, with the supposed purpose of improving course quality and effectiveness, but with unintended consequences of encouraging and motivating poor teaching and causing grade inflation. There is strong evidence that SET “effectiveness” does not measure teaching effectiveness. This paper reviews empirical research examining common concerns about the usefulness (positive and negative) and accuracy of SETs. (...) The findings reveal that student satisfaction relates to their anticipated/expected grades in their courses; hence, they want to get good grades and their instructors want to get a good rating of SET, and this results in grade inflation. The key points are that SETs (1) allow students to speak their “mind”, (2) have no compelling correlation between quality of teaching and learning effectiveness, (3) reward easy, less demanding, and lazy teachers with a positive rating, (4) are biased against gender, attractiveness, ethnicity, race, etc., (5) are weaponized against “some” faculty members, and (6) are like asking convicts awaiting sentencing to evaluate the judge or jurors who convicted them. (shrink)

I analyse the 2014 policy to promote 'British values' in schools from the perspective of the two main positions in contemporary liberal theory, comprehensive liberalism and political liberalism. I highlight in what ways comprehensive and political liberal defences of the policy are unsatisfactory, before briefly sketching a possible alternative position – ‘thin comprehensive liberalism’ – and discussing its potential for justifying a substantive education in liberal values. In light of this theoretical perspective, I suggest some ways that the existing British (...) values policy might be amended in practice so as to bring it more in line with the liberal ideal. (shrink)

This study aimed to determine the health practices among the secondary school teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic in Ichon National High School. This considered the socio - demographic profile of the teachers in terms of age, sex, civil status and teaching load and the extent of practice employed by the teachers in the said health dimensions. A total of 53 teachers from Ichon National High School participated as respondents in the evaluative method of research that consists in three (...) parts questionnaires. The statistical treatment used in the computation and analysis of gathered data to determine the socio-demographic profile of the respondents are the descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. As to the significance of health practices during COVID-19 pandemic, Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the significant differences on the extent of practices among the different health dimensions. The very high extent of the implementation on the health practices during COVID-19 pandemic shows that the teachers are frequently practiced the health practices. The highest mean in mental aspect is conclusive that teacher during the pandemic exert effort to stay healthy on this and other areas as well. It is recommended to conduct further study regarding on the health practices among the secondary school teachers. (shrink)

Rationale and objectives: Medical humanities are becoming increasingly recognized as positively impacting medical education and medical practice. However, the extent of medical humanities teaching in medical schools is largely unknown. We reviewed medical school curricula in Canada, the UK and the US. We also explored the relationship between medical school ranking and the inclusion of medical humanities in the curricula. -/- Methods: We searched the curriculum websites of all accredited medical schools in Canada, the UK and the US (...) to check which medical humanities topics were taught, and whether they were mandatory or optional. We then noted rankings both by Times Higher Education and U.S. News and World Report and calculated the average rank. We formally explored whether there was an association between average medical school ranking and medical humanities offerings using Spearman's correlation and inverse variance weighting meta-analysis. -/- Results: We identified 18 accredited medical school programmes in Canada, 41 in the UK, and 154 in the US. Of these, nine (56%) in Canada, 34 (73%) in the UK and 124 (80%) in the US offered at least one medical humanity that was not ethics. The most common medical humanities were medical humanities (unspecified), history, and literature (Canada); sociology and social medicine, medical humanities (unspecified), and art (UK); and medical humanities (unspecified), literature and history (US). Higher ranked medical schools appeared less likely to offer medical humanities. -/- Conclusions: The extent and content of medical humanities offerings at accredited medical schools in Canada, the UK and the US varies, and there appears to be an inverse relationship between medical school quality and medical humanities offerings. Our analysis was limited by the data provided on the Universities' websites. Given the potential for medical humanities to improve medical education and medical practice, opportunities to reduce this variation should be exploited. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to discuss aspects of the teaching of philosophy in basic education in light of the concept of action set forth in chapter V of Human Condition of Hannah Arendt, identified in the revelation of the agent through discourse and action. We suggest the reflection of the concept of action as motivating consciousness for the philosophy teaching investing in educational policies that consider diversity as a favorable element for the construction of knowledge between (...) teachers and students. We’re here in an adverse movement to the technicist practices, that invest in sterile experiments, fated to the mechanism of relations. For we believe that Philosophy Teaching besides being one constant invite to reflection is also a stimulus to human freedom tha can be can be driven by the resourcefulness of more stimulating teaching practices. Based on activities experienced during philosophy classes in basic education, we present some reflections in favor of plurality in semi public space favoring perspectives of philosophy teaching from philosophizing in the classroom. (shrink)

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the practices of secondary public school teachers in preparing for classroom observation amidst the new normal of education. The emphasis of this study was drawn from the central question, "What are the practices of secondary public school teachers in preparing for classroom observation amidst the new normal of education?". Research Methodology: This study used a qualitative research design. It employed a phenomenology design to explore the practices of secondary public school teachers in preparing the (...) new normal classroom observation. Results: Teachers believe that classroom observation is a measuring tool for achieving their professional goals or performance level. They also think that classroom observation can evaluate and assess the students' learning outcomes effectively and efficiently. Limitations: This study was limited to 22 secondary public school teachers in Cagayan, Philippines. Contribution: It can be helpful for teachers to improve their teaching techniques, strategies, methods, and instructional materials to be used amid this new normal of education. (shrink)

One way in which the practice of inclusion can be actualised in classrooms is through the use of consistent, appropriate differentiated instruction. What remains elusive, however, is insight into what teachers in different contexts think and believe about differentiation, how consistently they differentiate instruction and what challenges they experience in doing so. In the study reported on here high school classrooms in a private and a government school in Lesotho were compared in order to determine teachers’ thoughts and beliefs (...) about differentiation, the frequency of differentiated instruction, and the challenges faced by teachers who implement this inclusive practice. Sampled teachers offered their views on what they understood differentiated instruction to be, the frequency of differentiated instruction, and identified challenges via an administered questionnaire. Data analysis was based on frequency counts and bar charts for comparative purposes. Findings indicate that private school teachers have a higher frequency of differentiated teaching practice, with time constraints indicated as the main challenge. Government school teachers had a lower frequency of differentiation, and identified a lack of resources, and the learner-teacher ratio as challenges, among others. In the study we highlighted the critical role that private schools can play in the national call for the implementation of inclusive teaching in Lesotho, in terms of active collaboration with surrounding government schools. Private schools, with their resources and access to professional development opportunities, can become catalysts in the implementation of inclusive teaching practices. (shrink)

Part I of this paper outlined the three standard approaches to the teaching of critical thinking: the normative (or philosophical), cognitive psychology, and educational taxonomy approaches. The paper contrasted these with the visualisation approach; in particular, computer-aided argument mapping (CAAM), and presented a detailed account of the CAAM methodology and a theoretical justification for its use. This part develops further support for CAAM. A case is made that CAAM improves critical thinking because it minimises the cognitive burden of prose (...) and the demands that arguments in prose typically place on memory. CAAM also has greater usability, complements the imperfect human cognitive system, and adopts a logic of semi-formality which is both natural and intuitive. The paper claims that CAAM is an important advance given that traditional stand-alone critical thinking courses do not teach critical thinking as well as they as they are assumed to do. It is also important given that tertiary education fails to deliver improvements in critical thinking gains for too many students. The paper outlines results from a number of empirical studies that demonstrate that CAAM yields robust gains in critical thinking as measured by independent tests. Students themselves also believe CAAM to be beneficial as noted in coded responses to surveys. I conclude the paper by comparing the traditional approaches to the teaching of critical thinking to the visualisation approach. I argue that CAAM should taken seriously in the context of contemporary educational practices. (shrink)

Harmonizing materials and practices of senior high school teachers in the contextualization of various learning areas are crucial in the current curriculum. The study determined how teachers in the senior high school harmonize materials and practices in teaching the various subjects and analyzed the contextualization across the K12 curriculum. Qualitative research was employed in the study specifically grounded theory. Eleven participants were included in the study where five were grade 12 students and six were senior high school teachers. Purposive (...) sampling was employed in the conduct of the study and has employed key informant interviews and the focus group discussion. In analyzing the data, Grounded theory Analysis as modeled by Charmaz (2006), as well as Glasser and Strauss (2017), was employed. Relevance, coherence, and appropriateness as contextualization connectivity are considered in harmonizing materials and practices in the contextualization of lessons in senior high school. The themes culled were sources of contextualized materials, conceptualizing contextualized materials, teachers contextualized materials and practices, coherence, relevance, and appropriateness in contextualization. Formulation of the conceptual paradigm vis-à-vis contextualization across curricula emerged in the study. (shrink)

This research article examines the potential of multimodal techniques in promoting inclusive practices in the English language classroom, delving into the multidisciplinary fields of English Language Teaching (ELT) and inclusive education. This study intends to investigate how multimodal resources, such as visual aids, technology, and creative activities, may be effectively integrated to meet the various learning needs of students using a pedagogical lens. This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings and practical implications of using multimodal approaches in ELT settings, shedding (...) light on their potential to promote inclusivity, engagement, and language acquisition among learners with diverse abilities and backgrounds. It does this through a thorough literature review and analysis of pedagogical frameworks. (shrink)

The articles in the symposium “Teaching Early Modern Philosophy: New Approaches” provide theoretical reflections and practical advice on new ways of teaching undergraduate survey courses in early modern philosophy. This introduction lays out the rationale for the symposium and summarizes the articles that compose it.

Chapter 1 What Do Zen Masters Teach Us Today? The Case of Sŏn Master Hyeam Sŏnggwan Jin Y. Park Introduction Korean Sŏn Master Hyeam Sŏnggwan (慧菴性觀, 1920–2001) is a relatively unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized. One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K. ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down (K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently (...) asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage. (shrink)

The study aims to develop a technology for designing educational materials in English for agrarian universities based on pedagogical design. The paper identifies the main problems of the existing textbooks in a foreign language for students pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at agrarian universities, formulates methodological principles for designing modern educational materials, develops the stages of the technology. The scientific novelty of the study lies in elaborating and providing a scientific substantiation for the content of the analytical, design-related, content and activity (...) related, evaluation-effective stages of the technology of designing educational materials in a foreign language for students pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at agrarian universities. As a result, the problem of designing modern educational materials in a foreign language for students pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at agrarian universities that would possess communicative significance, competence orientation and implement the full range of didactic functions was solved. (shrink)

Islam' literally means submission but when the term is used in a religious context it means submission to Allah alone. Accordingly, a Muslim is one who submits to the Divine injunctions and does not deviate from them. "Al-Islam implies that you testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and you establish prayer, pay zakat, observe the fast of Ramadan, and perform pilgrimage to Holy Ka'ba at Mecca once in a lifetime if (...) you are solvent enough (to bear the expense of) journey". The most important principle in Islam is worshiping one and only one God. Islam calls for human rights; no one is better than another with his colour, race, gender, or culture. All are equal and difference among people is based on piety and doing good deeds. Islam considers all human free and has free will. Islam calls protecting environment. Islam calls all people to recognize that our life in the planet is short and that we should prepare ourselves for the second eternal life where everyone will be judged by the Creator in what he did in his first life for himself, community, and environment. In brief, the teachings of Islam are based on Quran (Holy book of God revelation to prophet Mohamed) and Prophet Mohamed (peace upon him) sayings and practices. The teachings are based on two wings: Worship: This is to follow the five pillars of Islam and believe in the 6 pillars of faith. Good deeds: This to do what is beneficial to community and to mankind. The fulfilment of these duties means the fulfilment of the remaining duties as well. That is why it is mentioned in a tradition that only these duties have been called "Islam". Language: Arabic. (shrink)

Many studies have been conducted to investigate the implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in ESL and EFL contexts, but those conducted in EFL context, have reported that the application of CLT was challenging. Still, as far as the Afghan EFL context is concerned, there is a lack of empirical research investigating the issue. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore afghan EFL lecturers’ perceived challenges in practicing CLT. The study also aims to examine if there is (...) any significant relationship among teachers use of CLT, the perceived challenges, and their demographic profiles. This study uses a quantitative research approach in which a survey questionnaire was given to EFL lecturers teaching in a public university. The results of the study revealed that the EFL lecturers had positive perceptions of using CLT activities, as there were evidence of a number of major CLT activities conducted in their classrooms. The results also revealed that they faced certain challenges that prevented them from implementing CLT effectively. Furthermore, significant correlation was found between students’ related challenges and teachers’ perceptions of using CLT; however, no significant correlations were found among teachers’ demographic profiles and CLT perceived challenges. This research is significant since it could be used as a resource presenting a comprehensive picture of CLT implementation in EFL classrooms in Afghanistan. (shrink)

In this article it is argued that the optical metaphor and critical practice of diffraction further developed by Donna Haraway and Karen Barad might be no less significant than the widely spread notion of reflection, when the questions of various practices of knowledge are addressed. By considering Paul Ramsden’s approach to learning/teaching and its underlying theory in higher education alongside Karen Barad’s methodology of diffraction, it is shown that Ramsden’s understanding of learning/teaching is rather based on the (...) theoretical assumptions of diffractive practice. His notion that teaching/learning are closely related and actively shaping each other, and that learners are not disconnected from the environment and their previous experiences with the subject matter and learning process itself, adds to Barad’s onto-epistemological position that knowers know the world at the same time as being the part of the world in its ongoing intra-activity. Ramsden’s understanding of relation is diffractive, because it is not about predefined binary entities and their fixed identities, but about layers and entanglements of various previous experiences and reactions to the learning environment. In addition, looking at learning/teaching processes through a different perspective also leads to a different approach to teaching and other ways of problem-solving. Both Ramsden and Barad distrust homologies, analogies, and causality-based conceptions of knowledge sharing. Instead, the ability to respond to an always new learning/teaching environment is assessed, which implies a diffractive type of sensitivity to the context, iterative process of re-turning, and the creation of dangerously indeterminate relationships and commitments. In this way, some of Barad’s philosophical notions, i.e., the diffraction pattern, intra-activity, returning, and others, also may acquire new practical content. (shrink)

Over the last three years I have been fortunate to teach an unusual class, one that provides an academic background in ethical and social and political theory using the medium of comedy. I have taught the class at two schools, a private liberal arts college in western Pennsylvania and a public regional state university in southern Georgia. While the schools vary widely in a number of ways, there are characteristics that the students share: the school in Pennsylvania had a large (...) population of students raised in a middle class industrial context, and the school in Georgia had a majority of students from middle-to-lower class agricultural backgrounds. Because of recent collapses in the economy of the tool and dye industry in the Great Lakes region, and the ongoing concerns for development in rural and urban areas of the southeastern United States, both groups of students were in similarly dire economic and working conditions. All faced the distinct possibility that they would not do as well in life as their parents. Most of the students grew up with television and film and had a love of comedy when they arrived at college. -/- Entertainment and mass media contributed to the students' mindset and the lens through which they viewed and interpreted their lived experience. Comedic mass media in the form of television sitcoms and films were common choices for inexpensive entertainment, in their childhood, in their past, in their homes, and now in their college dorms and apartments. In asking students to connect their own history with cultural trends depicted in comedy in film and television, even through the history of television, gave the students a familiar venue to critically consider their own intellectual growth and development and that of American society as a whole. -/- Many of them were familiar with the internet, and enjoyed the internet as a source of information about celebrities as well as the history and episodes of their favorite television shows and films. Students are rediscovering and discovering television programs that their professors may have watched as children, with the availability of a wide range of comedy television programs available on cable, especially TVLand, Comedy Central and Nick-at-Night. -/- In this article I will elaborate on the value of comedy as a teaching tool for philosophers and professors. I will provide a number of examples, showing how comedy can provide fertile examples of ethical theory at work, and I will show how comedy can be used to clarify cultural norms and values. Finally, I will discuss the political activism and student empowerment involved in teaching Philosophy, Comedy and Film in southern Georgia. (shrink)

School administrators are mandated to take the instructional leadership roles. On this premise, a study assessed the extent of instructional leadership practices of public elementary school administrators in El Salvador City Division, Philippines. Also, it explored their actual practices, challenges encountered, and the ways they overcome the challenges in practicing instructional leadership. It employed a mixed-method research design. It administered the adopted assessment tool on instructional leadership to 15 school administrators and 12 of them were involved in the individual interviews. (...) This was conducted between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the extent of instructional leadership practices. Also, it analyzed the actual practices, the challenges encountered, and the ways of overcoming these challenges using thematic narrative analysis. Results revealed that public school administrators have always practiced the four domains or strands of instructional leadership to a very high extent. Providing the technical assistance, conducting clinical supervision, and innovating teaching and learning emerged as themes of their actual practices. These administrators had encountered challenges in dealing with teachers’ attitudes, conflicting schedules and activities, and teachers’ resistance to changes. They overcome the challenges by trying to meet the competency standards, adapting and modifying the existing programs, contextualizing teaching and learning, and inculcating the value and benefits of class observation. Looking at the findings from the lens of deliberate practice theory, it was concluded that school administrators have indicated they have acquired knowledge and a high level of understanding of their instructional leadership roles. But despite of this, they still met challenges and have tried their best to manage them. This study presented some doable and practical recommendations to the Department of Education (DepEd) and concerned offices which may benefit both the internal and external stakeholders of the schools. (shrink)

The COVID -19 is one of the most contagious and fatal diseases known today, which had spread in communities very fast. This deadly virus affecting the lives of many people and causing fatalities. Besides the strong practice of praying and putting trust in Allah for the cure of disease, Islam also recommends taking medications and adopt sufficient precautions for the safety and well-being of the community. Before 1400 years ago, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) introduced the quarantining (...) and hygiene practice, at a time there was very little known to combat the contagious diseases. Currently, modern societies are emphasizing on hand hygiene, social distancing, quarantining, and social isolation to combat COVOD-19. Islam has superseded modern societies by establishing the idea of quarantines and hygienic practice for contagious and fatal diseases. The commandments to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by worldwide public health organizations are almost in line with the teachings of Islam. (shrink)

The claim is made in the book, Applied Ethics, published under the auspices of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics (AAPAE), that it can strengthen ethical behaviour. That claim, embodied in the subtitle, is based on more than a half dozen practices set out in the book. In total, they are drawn from an examination of ethical practices across fourteen different disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to outline and support that claim, drawing primarily on chapters of (...) the book, but also drawing on a small amount of additional information. The research on the ethical issues in each of these disciplines, and the writing of the chapters, were undertaken by members and associates of AAPAE. The fourteen disciplines were Marketing, Business, Accounting, Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine, Veterinary & Animal Ethics, Engineering, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Journalism, Policing, Politics, the Law and the Sciences. The findings have significance for the teaching of ethics by moral philosophers, for not all ethics classes follow the practices suggested by these findings. A few of the practices are even rejected by some moral philosophers. That the practices will improve ethical behaviour is the principal position taken by this paper. -/- . (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to clarify and evaluate the possibility of teaching doing philosophy. Using analysis as a main method, I argue that philosophizing, as an activity, has different levels, some of which are connected with specifically philosophical abilities. By analyzing John Rudisill’s minimal conception of “doing philosophy,” I demonstrate that many philosophical practices, such as the interpretation, analysis, and critical assessment of arguments and presuppositions, as well as the application of simple philosophical concepts, do not need (...) a background of specifically philosophical abilities. However, other philosophical practices, including the application of sophisticated philosophical concepts and the development of novel approaches, need such a background. I show that specifically philosophical abilities are: (1) high ability of abstract thinking, (2) high motivation to achieve intellectual autonomy, and (3) capability to feel “philosophical astonishment.” I also argue that there is a real possibility to teach doing philosophy, although students without specifically philosophical abilities will successfully learn only basic levels of philosophizing. Consequently, careful selection of prospective students for philosophy courses is important. Moreover, I claim that the possibility of teaching doing philosophy highly correlates with a teacher’s expertise in the pedagogical approaches and techniques of philosophy teaching. The results of my research provide to philosophy teachers information to help them choose proper methodology and raise teaching effectiveness. (shrink)