Congratulations to Our EDEX Grant Awardees!
We’re thrilled to celebrate Dr Jennifer Cash, Dr He Xiaoling, and Ms Esther Soo on receiving EDEX grants (FLC) for their projects in interdisciplinary teaching, language pedagogy, and metacognitive development!
Warmest congratulations to them!
Dr. Jennifer Cash
Team-Teaching in Interdisciplinary Contexts
Abstract:
We are focused on improving the quality of interdisciplinary team-based teaching, specifically by articulating and improving the model being developed in the ICC course “Science and Technology for Humanity” (CC0007).
There are multiple models of team-based teaching, and CC0007 employs at least 3 simultaneously: supportive, parallel, and complementary. Our most successful teaching teams intuit a balance between these models. However, we lack a shared terminology for training all of our instructors, strategically developing our course, and communicating the specificity of our approach across NTU and beyond. We particularly lack shared frameworks for developing our team-based teaching to best model team-based learning for our students.
We will study existing SOTL models and other team-based practices across NTU’s Schools. Our aim is to produce a model of our pedagogical practices that is translatable and facilitates ongoing improvement of team-based teaching in the interdisciplinary contexts of our course and beyond.
He Xiaoling
The Language We Teach, The Language We Use: A Joint Exploration of Medium of Instruction in Foreign Language Classrooms
Abstract:
This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) project explores the use of different mediums of instruction (MoI) in foreign language classrooms, focusing on when, why, and how instructors shift between the target language (L2) and students’ first language (L1) across various proficiency levels. Bringing together faculty members and student representatives, the project investigates pedagogical decision-making and student responses through a multi-phase approach, including reflective dialogues, classroom observations, surveys, and interviews. By promoting collaborative inquiry over 18 months, the project aims to bridge classroom practices with student experiences, enhance teaching effectiveness, and contribute to institutional understanding of MoI strategies in language education.
This project is co-facilitated by four dedicated colleagues representing Korean, Japanese, Korean, and Thai language modules: Narae Jung; Dr. Kuriko Shinozaki, Dr. Chen Liandong, Dr. Sureenate Jaratjarungkiat. Their leadership and collaboration play a vital role in shaping the project’s direction and outcomes.
Esther Soo
Balancing Structure and Autonomy to Promote Student Voice: A Study of Student Metacognition in Academic Writing
Abstract:
This FLC comprises of faculty members from SoH, MSE and EEE who have come together with a common desire to understand how students develop and employ metacognitive abilities to express personal voices in structured academic writing assignments across various disciplines, in the era of AI.
In universities, students have to navigate expressing their voices within assignment guidelines and academic conventions. Assessments typically focus on final products that students produce rather than the metacognitive journey that produced them.
With the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools easily accessible to students, the products seem more sophisticated. Yet, upon closer scrutiny, gaps in logic and organization are identified in the students’ works, which seem to indicate a lapse in their thinking of the writing tasks. Thus, it has become even more important for students to develop their metacognitive abilities and document their metacognitive processes as they make decisions about what they write and own their voices.
Therefore, we aim to learn about and answer three research questions:
(1) What metacognitive abilities do students engage in when accomplishing an academic writing assignment?
(2) How do students’ actual metacognitive practices align with or diverge from those explicitly taught in the curriculum and by the instructors?
(3) In what ways do assignment structures and instruction enable or constrain the development of students’ metacognition and authentic voice in the era of AI?
Congratulations!
