Introduction
Jason Olsen, Ph.D.
Some of the realities of the last few years might seem too unbelievable to have made for a convincing work of science fiction. Technology capable of creating complicated and coherent texts out of thin air in seconds? Educators suddenly relearning how to teach their students seemingly from scratch? All of us trying to innovate to keep up with a world that moves more quickly than we could have ever thought possible? Well, maybe science fiction is the perfect guide for us as we traverse this brave new world—a place of unsettling familiarity, great unknowns, and remarkable possibilities.
Speaking of A Brave New World, a quote from Aldous Huxley’s science fiction classic comes to mind when considering our world and its constant change: “Every change is a menace to stability” (Chapter XVI). Of course, while stability can be an admirable goal, complacency isn’t, and if change can “menace” complacency, maybe that’s a way for instructors to remain effective. The world is changing, and the way our students learn is changing, too. Perhaps an overreliance on stability—especially in a world that pushes against it—will prevent educators from innovating in ways that will impact their students’ abilities to succeed.
Our articles in this issue of Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence are far from fiction, but the methods and innovation on display are as creative and bold as anything you might find in more fanciful volumes. A changing world means the things that worked before simply can’t work in the same ways any longer. As Mary Shelley writes in the sci-fi masterpiece Frankenstein, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine, or the clouds might lower: but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before” (169). This realization of change shouldn’t be wholly negative—just because things have changed doesn’t mean they’re inherently worse. They just require a different mindset than what might have worked before.
That’s a driving force of “Adapting Interteaching to a Hybrid Format: A Framework for Implementation” by Carmen Farrell (University of South Carolina Beaufort). In this article, Dr. Farrell discusses ways of revisiting a pre-pandemic era teaching innovation (interteaching) into our new reality of myriad teaching deliveries at the university level (specifically in hybrid courses). Interteaching was envisioned as a method exclusive to in-person teaching, but that is no longer the norm, and this article reminds us that effective teaching strategies deserve adaptation.
Our next article shows us the importance of adapting to our ever-changing world by reminding future teachers of the importance of “relationships and lived experiences.” Crystal C. Loose (West Chester University of Pennsylvania) and Rose Jagielo-Manion bring us “Preservice Teacher Education Preparation: Implementation of Personalized Learning and Technology in the Fifth Industrial Revolution.” This study e