The researchers in the study explored the lived experiences of Syrian refugee students in the Canadian classroom. The participant sample included four students who entered their first year in a South-western Ontario public school as of the 2015-2016 calendar year. Data were collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Analysis of results indicated the District’s growing need for understanding refugee students using a holistic approach, utilizing and building peer relationships for language acquisition, and recognizing the effects of the structure of the learning environment on student experiences.

Multimodality is an important element of teaching and learning in early years settings. It provides opportunities for young children to communicate using different resources they feel comfortable with. This paper focuses on multimodality and multimodal learning in early years education and the different approaches, which can be used to create a multimodal learning environment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how two powerful approaches, such as the Reggio Emilia and the Mosaic allow multimodal learning, which is crucial for children’s holistic development. The Reggio Emilia approach and the Mosaic approach are discussed, focusing on the strategies used to support children in their development using their multimodal ways of communication. The Reggio Emilia approach is analysed as an example that appreciates the artistic work of children (i.e., drawings to express their way of thinking) while on the other hand, the Mosaic approach is analysed as an example that supports children to have a leading role in their learning journey. This paper can be used as a starting point in raising awareness of practical multimodal teaching practices in early years education.

Priming effect is, in a great part, an implicit learning mechanism; it may influence insight problem solving both consciously and unconsciously. The present study investigates interactions between personality traits and priming effects in insight problem solving involving novel object associations in complex situations over time. Based on the findings of past literature, a two-path (conscious vs. unconscious process) model exploring the moderation effects of two personality traits (emotional creativity and Big Five personality traits) were analyzed in this study. One hundred and fifteen college students participated in a randomized block design experiment (non-primed vs. primed) which included three runs of insight problem solving. During the experiment, the participants were exposed to partially direct priming with recognition memory tasks that associated novel objects (associative response priming) and then were challenged by situation-based insight problems; the interaction effects of priming manipulation and personality traits on insight problem solving were analyzed. The results showed that emotional creativity as well as extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism, and conscientiousness play important moderating roles during the processes of insight problem solving when associative response priming was offered. Overall, the priming effects as well as the moderating effects of these personality traits on insight problem solving grew over time. The findings suggest that insight problem solving, although largely governed by an implicit learning mechanism, involves both conscious and unconscious cognitive processes; moreover, mindfulness, focused attention, persistence, positive emotion, and flexible thinking can be important mechanisms that facilitate insight problem solving in primed situations.

This paper proposes a literature-based composition course for advanced Non-native English Speaking (NNES) students in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) program and provides a rationale, a syllabus, and some suggested pedagogy for consideration. The principal reasons for choosing a literature-based format include the following: (1) extended writing about a text, or texts, should lead to reading comprehension improvement; (2) culturally responsive literature should enhance engagement; (3) reading literature, as writerly reading, will assist NNES students with developing strategies applied to reading-to-write tasks and to integrated writing skills; (4) reading for writing (RFW) will expose NNES students to a wide range of genres, syntactic constructions, discourse structures, and words and word families; (5) RFW should lead to the development of multiple-documents literacy; and (6) contemporary writing models incorporate reading as a component of the composing process, which emphasizes the inter-dependency of reading and writing.

This article addresses major lacunae in higher education from the standpoint of Anthropocenic survival. Wicked problems transcend national, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Eco-survival, international migration, destabilized global markets, shifts in the balance of strategic power, population pressures, cultural imperialism, post-secular quests for meaning-in-life, ambivalence of bio-scientific progress, to name a selection, are global. The case is put that features of a postmodern orientation to the academic curriculum—transdisciplinarity, transnationalism, wicked problem engagement—are better equipped to meet the fuzzy knowledge interests of tomorrow’s world than traditional mono-disciplinary curricula. However, both subject-based and transdisciplinary approaches can coexist with profit in the education of tomorrow’s global citizens. A paradigm shift in how we educate for survival is proposed here.

This retrospective emergent design qualitative evaluation study documents the development of a unique model for community engagement and engaged scholarship in higher education. The primary novel aspect of the model is participatory involvement of both the target audience for the program and representatives of various stakeholder groups who initiated, conceptualized, tested, assessed, and evaluated the courses and program with the professor. Members of the target audience and stakeholder groups also recruited participants, contributed to refining the courses and program to meet the needs of the stakeholder groups, and contributed to redesigning courses for online learning. The model emerged while developing and evaluating the Informal Science Institutions Environmental Education Graduate Certificate Program (ISI Program) at the University of South Florida. Garnering the resources of a previously untapped audience, the informal science education (ISE) community, presented the university with a way to increase enrollment. Also reported are sample benefits accrued to learners in the program, to the ISI community, to the community at large, and additional benefits to the University.