Vol. 5
2026
Volume 5’s articles demonstrate instructors’ support of learners’ empowerment. In Contract Grading in an Experiential Learning Class, Jessica Mace shares the in-depth version of contract grading she developed for her students, in order to not disadvantage any students and to further her students’ realization that her goal is to support their learning and growth. Likewise, the student-faculty partnership that R. Jordan Hazelwood, Kathryn R. Long, Stacy F. Thornton snd Christopher M. Seiz discuss in Students and Faculty Co-Design Syllabi, was developed with trust in their students and to elicit their students’ deserved sense of self-efficacy.
In Design Thinking for Transferable Skills and Attitudes, Lindsey Caola details how the design thinking unit, she provided first year students, empowered them to create a positive impact in addressing an actual campus challenge. When most of Kiran Qasim Ali’s students did not answer questions about atomic structure, in their chemistry class, Kiran Qasim Ali devised games, which she shares in Playing with Purpose: Non-Digital Game-Based Learning for Conceptual Understanding, that motivate students to tap into their analytic, reasoning ability.
To promote preservice teachers’ and other undergraduates’ asset-based orientation towards diverse students’ environment, Kelly Gavin Zuckerman’s students engage in community-asset mapping. In Community Asset Mapping: Expanding Field Work Insights Kelly Gavin Zuckerman describes the process she used, to scaffold her undergraduates in gaining a stronger realization of the valuable resources within students’ environment, at her students’ field work site.
Patricia Waters’ second year, undergraduate, preservice teachers were given the responsibility, with plentiful support, of designing lessons and teaching actual students, at an elementary school, which Patricia Waters relates in Community-Based Learning Fosters Preservice Teachers’ Development: A Partnership for Environment Sustainability.
Each of the articles emphasizes implementation details, so that readers may easily adopt, adapt or be inspired by what these outstanding educators provide learners. Gratitude for Volume 5 Editorial Board members. The Editorial Board members carefully read manuscripts and provided suggestions and requirements to further enhance potential articles. Appreciation for Volume 5 authors, devoted educators, who share, in detail, outstanding practices, benefiting many more learners. Certainly, appreciation for you, our readers, who diligently seek to create, refine, and expand deeper learning for students or faculty.
Lee Anna Stirling, EdD
Editor-in-Chief