Active learning occurs when a learning task can be related in a non-arbitrary manner to what the learner already knows and when there is a personal recognition of the links between concepts. The most important element of active learning is not so much in how information is presented, but how new information is integrated into an existing knowledge base. In order to successfully implement active learning into higher education, its effect on student engagement must be studied and considered. The Handbook of Research on Active Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education focuses on assessing the effectiveness of active learning and constructivist teaching to promote student engagement and provides a wide range of strategies and frameworks to help educators and other practitioners examine the benefits, challenges, and opportunities for using active learning approaches to maximize student learning. Covering topics such as online learning environments and engagement approaches, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, practitioners, researchers, librarians, industry professionals, educators, and students.

Written by scholars and educators based in Canada and the USA, this book articulates and implements a new cutting-edge theoretical framework entitled the disruptive learning narrative (DLN). The contributing authors analyze their experiences with international service learning students using DLN to uncover important lessons about race relations, power and privilege. They offer fresh insight on how DLN is useful in understanding and unpacking controversial teaching moments abroad and provide further reflections on how others can adapt the DLN framework to meet the contextual needs of their international educational experience. The chapters offer case studies and learning from international service learning and study abroad programs in Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Kenya, Tanzania, and the USA. The book provides essential knowledge and insights for educators who wish to address the inherent messiness and complexity of international experiences. It will help educators and researchers to better understand the controversial and sensitive issues of race relations, power and privilege dynamics.

In this digital age, faculty, teachers, and teacher educators are increasingly expected to adopt and adapt pedagogical perspectives to support student learning in instructional environments featuring online or blended learning. One highly adopted element of online and blended learning involves the use of online learning discussions. Discussion-based learning offers a rich pedagogical context for creating learning opportunities as well as a great deal of flexibility for a wide variety of learning and learner contexts. As post-secondary and, increasingly, K-12 institutions cope with the rapid growth of online learning, and an increase in the cultural diversity of learners, it is critical to understand, at a detailed level, the relationship between online interaction and learning and how educationally-effective interactions might be nurtured, in an inclusive way, by instructors. The Handbook of Research on Online Discussion-Based Teaching Methods is a cutting-edge research publication that seeks to identify promising designs, pedagogical and assessment strategies, conceptual models, and theoretical frameworks that support discussion-based learning in online and blended learning environments. This book provides a better understanding of the effects and both commonalities and differences of new tools that support interaction, such as video, audio, and real-time interaction in discussion-based learning. Featuring a wide range of topics such as gamification, intercultural learning, and digital agency, this book is ideal for teachers, educational software developers, instructional designers, IT consultants, academicians, curriculum designers, researchers, and students.

Transitioning from secondary to higher education is not a natural step for many first-year students in higher education institutions. There is a considerable difference between being a student at school and university, and previous research has highlighted the difficulties faced by first-year university students during their transition phase. Higher education institutions and their departments acknowledge the challenges faced by new students, and they differ in their approach to coping with the issue; each seeks to find the most effective solution for its students. To reduce the withdrawal rate during the first year of college, higher education providers are expected to apply transition programs to help students transition. Coping Mechanisms for First-Year Students Transitioning to Higher Education presents a comprehensive account of the dynamics in higher education institutions and culture shock for new students and analyzes models and theories of adjustment of new students in higher education institutions. Covering key topics such as gender, institutional support, and success factors, this reference work is ideal for administrators, higher education professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This book provides practical help and guidance for non-native English-speaking higher education lecturers faced with the need to deliver lectures and seminars in English. It builds on the authors' years of experience as researchers and teacher trainers in the area of English Medium Instruction (EMI), combining practical advice and research findings with useful case studies from different global settings, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Slovakia, Spain, the UK and the USA, and a range of subject areas, such as philosophy, mathematics and genetics. The authors present an overview of what generally happens when university teachers make the transition to teaching in English. After dispelling some common myths and setting out priorities, Ruth Breeze and Carmen Sancho Guinda move on to explain how practitioners can prepare to give lectures and interact with both local and international students effectively in English, tackling difficult issues, such as encouraging participation, promoting creativity and critical thinking, and evaluating written student work. The final chapters address good practices in EMI, proposing ways to achieve excellence in global settings.