Editorial

This issue of IETI has contributors from Famagusta Northern Cyprus, USA, UK, Turkey, South Africa, China, and Hong Kong and considers topical issues ranging between PBL, learning technology in action, social leaning, curriculum, educational development and a host of other issues including international experiences.

Tracey Bretag University of South Australia and Robert van der Veen, Oxford Brookes University, UK look at different boundaries in ‘Pushing the boundaries’: Participant motivation and self-reported benefits of short-term international study tours’, considering their international study tours, finding self-reported benefits of increased confidence, enhanced intercultural understanding, improved interpersonal skills and influence on perceptions of career goals, particularly in relation to working overseas. Also focusing on internationalisation, discussing ‘Co-curricular activity-based intercultural competence development: Students’ outcome of internationalisation at universities’, Lihe Huang, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, argues for the development of intercultural competence as an important outcome of institutional internationalisation and proposes a working model of intercultural competence that consists of three dimensions: knowledge, action and reflection.

In ‘Rotational critique system as a method of culture change in an architecture design studio: Urban design studio as case study’, Mukaddes Fasli, and Badiossadat Hassanpour Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, consider ways of developing critical thinkers with risk-taking abilities through innovative methods of teaching in architectural education using a nonlinear critique method shown as supportive of students’ autonomous design ability.

PBL and problemsolving are a focus in two essays. From the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA Catherine Francis Brooks in ‘Disciplinary convergences and interdisciplinary curricula for students in an information society’, considers disciplinary ‘convergence’ as a construct useful for student development and employability and that contemporary problems in an information society can be best addressed by broadly-trained experts problemsolving across traditional academic boundaries. In ‘Transitioning from traditional to problem-based learning in management education: The case of a frontline manager skills development programme’, Yvonne Delaney, Bob Pattinson, John McCarthy & Sarah Beecham, University of Limerick, Ireland, provide evidence-based insights into transition in PBL by detailing how a management development programme for 10 frontline managers transitioned from traditional to pilot PBL delivery and suggesting five key characteristics enabling this.

Technology and change are topics considered by several essays. In ‘Beyond change blindness: Embracing the technology revolution in higher education’, Kimberly Kode Sutton and Josh DeSantis York College of Pennsylvania, USA introduce three foundational educational technology theories, and explores recent trends in education technology and capabilities which new pedagogical tools make possible and in ‘User acceptance of social learning systems in higher education: An application of the extended technology acceptance model’, Ibrahim Akman and Cigdem Turhan, Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey, explore users’ behaviour and acceptance of social media for learning in higher educational institutions with the help of the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), finding significant predictors of actual behaviour towards using social media for learning.

Nitin Naik Ministry of Defence (MoD), UK explores ‘The use of GBL to teach mathematics in higher education’ presenting an innovative game-based learning approach to the teaching of basic mathematics in higher education through the example of a first-year mathematics module of the BSc Computer Science course offered by the Aberystwyth University (UK).

In ‘Investigating learning with an interactive tutorial: a mixed-methods strategy’ M. R. (Ruth) de Villiers and Daphne Becker School of Computing, University of South Africa describe interactivity research employing usability-testing technology to analyse cognitive learning processes; personal learning styles and times; and errors-and-recovery of learners using an interactive e-learning tutorial.

Engineering learning is treated in two essays. Cecilia K. Y. Chan, et al., Hong Kong, explore ‘Evidence-based conclusions concerning practice, curriculum design and curriculum reform in a civil engineering capstone design course in Hong Kong’, providing evidence-based conclusions from students showing how students were able to develop depth and breadth in engineering knowledge and skills previously not covered in ‘The positive influence of active learning in a lecture hall: An analysis of normalised gain scores in introductory environmental engineering’, Timothy J. Kinoshita, David B. Knight, Badin Gibbes, Virginia Tech, United States and The University of Queensland, Australia show statistically significant differences between learning gains in content delivered using the active learning method versus a traditional, lecture-only delivery.

The book review by Frances Deepwell, Leicester Learning Institute, University of Leicester looks at ‘Advancing practice in academic development’ (eds), David Baume and Celia Popovic Abingdon: Routledge, 2016, Emphasiding the opening proposition:

We suggest an overall purpose for academic development – to lead and support the improvement of student learning.

The book is both an historical account of progress in the field of ‘academic development’ over time, and an invitation to readers to advance their own practices by methods revealed in the various chapters.

Gina Wisker
Cambridge and Brighton
[email protected]