Transforming Curriculum Through Teacher-learner Partnerships (Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development)

Empowering learners for life requires a fundamental shift in higher education curriculum design. New priorities, pedagogies, technologies, spaces, and assessment strategies are required to enable learners to take ownership of their learning. "Student-centeredness" concepts are still prescriptive in nature as most decisions on curriculum, assessment, teaching, and learning approaches are still teacher-centric. Teachers are developing student-centered learning environments without the involvement of the learners in the planning, decision making, and/or design process. In addition, some lecturers are still practicing the traditional approaches of content delivery and conventional assessment methods rather than experimenting with innovative practices suited for student-centered approaches. Therefore, there is an ongoing need for research focused on the importance and effectiveness of a paradigm shift in education that involves student-teacher partnerships, fueled by innovative teaching and learning designs, where students take an active role and contribute as partners in learning. Transforming Curriculum Through Teacher-Learner Partnerships captures experiences and evidence among teachers in exploring the possibility of active student participation in curriculum design, delivery, and assessment through teacher-learner partnership. The chapters address issues of teacher-learner partnerships in designing the learning environment and how student-centered methods create resilient, adaptable, and future-capable learners. While highlighting topics within this scope such as learner autonomy, learning performance, self-efficacy, and teaching pedagogy, this book is ideally intended for teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in issues related to the teacher-learner partnership.

Pradeep Nair is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Chief Academic Officer of Taylor’s University, Malaysia. A multiple national and international award winning leader, Pradeep focusses on Innovation in Higher Education. He has led numerous institutional turnarounds and pioneered new concepts and ideas to embed “Whole Person Education” in university curricula. In 2018, he successfully implemented the Taylor’s Curriculum Framework (TCF), a bold initiative to transform all undergraduate degrees to be broad-based, flexible and personalized. He is a member of the National Curriculum Board for Polytechnics in Malaysia, the Deputy President of the Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities and the Founding President of the ASEAN Tourism Research Association.

Chee Leong Lim was a senior lecturer at Taylor’s Business School, Taylor’s University and now the Director of e-learning Academy (eLA), a department under Centre For Future Learning that has been set up with the specific mandate to drive and support the implementation of blended learning at Taylor’s University. Mr. Lim has been in the education industry for 20 years, both in teaching and administration. He is passionate in exploring, evaluating and integrating various emerging classroom technologies in teaching, learning and assessment activities. He is also actively conducting innovative workshops to promote “learning how to teach with technology” and “Be A 21st Century Educator: Reimagine Learning, Redesigning Teaching”. He has contributed very significantly in transforming the learning and teaching of students in the University. He is the first notable individual from a private university in Malaysia to be awarded the prestigious National Academic Award (Anugerah Akademik Negara, AAN2013) by the Ministry of Education Malaysia for his innovative teaching methodologies.

TamilSalvi Mari is a Senior lecture in Architecture, Taylor’s University. Salvi’s research area revolves around investigating the humane design-the interaction between humans, built environment, and natural environment, focusing on current societal and environmental needs. Thus, she is interested in exploring ways in the process of designing a better living/working environment to accommodate the elements of humane design and tapping into nature not only for the resources but also as the inspiration. Her research interests are also shaped by the emerging trends of sustainability in multi-storey residential/office buildings in urban areas focusing on wellbeing, carbon footprint, alternative building materials, and exploring the potential of vertical/urban farming to mitigate urban heat island issues, operational energy and to promote social sustainability.

Nurhanim Hassan is currently the Lead e-Specialist (Training & Development) at the Teaching and Educational Development (TED) department, Centre for Future Learning, Taylor's University. In her current role, she assist lecturers in maximizing technologies in their teaching. both through Blended Learning and online training modules. She has vast experience in e-Learning and Instructional Design, and is among the pioneers in online content development in Malaysia. She has served the National Information Technology Council of Malaysia (NITC), and supported NITC policy agenda via research and ICT training.