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The Prudent Professor: Planning and Saving for a Worry-Free Retirement from Academe
by Edwin M. Bridges Brian D. BridgesThis is a guide for anyone in the academy – faculty member, administrator or professional staff – at whatever point she or he may be along the career path. Whether you are a newly-minted Ph.D. landing your first job, at mid career, or even already retired and concerned about how long your money might last, Ed Bridges offers you a straightforward, easy-to-grasp, and structured way to think about money, learn how it works, understand the priorities for your stage in life, determine your objectives, and develop a personal plan most likely to achieve them.Why a book specifically for those who work in higher education? The chances are that your retirement funds are mostly invested in TIAA-CREF funds, and that the plans created by the different institutions where you have worked, or will work, impose sometimes conflicting limitations of how you can manage your retirement money. This is potentially complex terrain with which many professional financial advisors are unfamiliar. This book provides ample guidance for you to manage your retirement funds, but if you do prefer to seek professional advice, it sets out the criteria for choosing a reliable advisor, and may even be a book from which your advisor can benefit if he or she is not fully conversant with TIAA-CREF’s offerings, and the quirks of academic retirement plans.What makes this book unique is that Ed Bridges shares with you his self-education about the risky business of investing and retirement planning. As he writes, “In schooling myself, I adopted the mind-set that I had used as a social scientist for the past forty-six years. I distinguished between fact and opinion and scrutinized the evidence behind every author’s claims; moreover, I searched for research that might corroborate or refute these claims. In the process, I learned a great deal about the route I should have taken to retirement from the time I accepted my first academic appointment to the time I submitted my intention to retire. Join me as I relive my long journey so that you may avoid my wrong turns and succeed in reaching your ultimate destination, a worry-free retirement, despite the risks and uncertainties you will surely face when you retire.”The book includes simple questionnaires and worksheets to help you determine where you stand, and think through your options.
The Business of Innovating Online: Practical Tips and Advice From Industry Leaders
by Kathryn E. LinderThe Business of Innovating Online responds to a critical need for concrete narratives of innovation success that can serve as a foundation for administrators and leaders who are in need of practical guidance as they scale and grow their online learning organizations.Through specific examples and practical suggestions from experienced e-learning leaders, readers will be introduced to concrete strategies for how to create a climate of creativity and innovation that can lead to more successful and scalable online programs and initiatives. The Business of Innovating Online demystifies the relationship between business, creativity, and innovation by describing the logistics required to create an agile online education enterprise. Topics discussed will include:- Defining innovation and creativity for online education and e-learning- Knowing when and how to innovate- Creating a culture of innovation- Effectively leading innovation- Collaborative innovation- Making innovation stick and transitioning innovative strategies into day-to-day practice- Assuring quality in the midst of innovation- Staffing structures/administrative stability to support creativity and innovationThe Business of Innovating Online provides both novice and experienced online education administrators with a comprehensive overview of a range of online innovations, how they came to be created, the components that led to their success, and concrete steps that they can take to create a more innovative culture for their own e-learning organization.
The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities (Series on Engaged Learning and Teaching)
by Jennifer E. Eidum and Lara L. LomickaThis practical resource examines how colleges and universities foster sustainable faculty involvement in living learning communities (LLCs). This volume delivers evidence-based research as well as practical examples and voices from the field, to guide and support faculty serving in different capacities in LLCs, to serve as a resource for student affairs practitioners collaborating with faculty in residential environments, and to offer guidance to administrators developing new and revising existing LLC programs.This book demonstrates that faculty are key to creating equitable, engaging, and sustainable LLCs in diverse higher education settings. Chapters delve into both the micro-level experiences of individual faculty – and their families, as in the vignettes at the beginning of each chapter – and the macro-level campus-wide planning that positions LLCs as a meaningful learning experience for students. The book is divided into three sections. The chapters in the first section envision a future of faculty-student engagement that meets the needs of new-majority students and faculty through intentional planning and forward-looking models of faculty engagement. Campus culture and administrator involvement play important roles in creating residential spaces where equity and inclusion are prioritized among students and faculty. The second section outlines ways to capitalize on faculty and residential life partnerships for successful LLCs. Authors focus on key areas of LLC development, including collaboration on programming, co-developing LLC curricula, fostering broad campus partnerships, and creating the conditions for effective faculty-student engagement. The third section serves as a resource for new and seasoned faculty-in-residence (FIR) who may wish to better understand their roles, as well as the roles and expectations for partners and families living with them, and strive to find a reasonable work-life balance. The chapters detail the lived experiences of FIR—they provide both a theoretical context as well as concrete ideas for new and seasoned faculty members who are serving LLCs.In the conclusion the editors look toward the future of faculty involvement in LLCs. They explore pathways for both expanding and deepening faculty involvement in LLCs and underscore the many avenues for faculty support and incentives presented throughout the book to enable administrators, staff, and faculty themselves to advocate for resources they need to thrive while working with students in LLCs.Visit the Faculty Factor Companion Page, hosted by the Center for Engaged Learning.
The First Generation Student Experience: Implications for Campus Practice, and Strategies for Improving Persistence and Success (An ACPA Co-Publication)
by Jeff DavisCo-published with More first-generation students are attending college than ever before, and policy makers agree that increasing their participation in higher education is a matter of priority. Despite this, there is no agreed definition about the term, few institutions can quantify how many first-generation students are enrolled, or mistakenly conflate them with low-income students, and many important dimensions to the first-generation student experience remain poorly documented. Few institutions have in place a clear, well-articulated practice for assisting first-generation students to succeed. Given that first-generation students comprise over 40% of incoming freshmen, increasing their retention and graduation rates can dramatically increase an institution’s overall retention and graduation rates, and enhance its image and desirability. It is clearly in every institution’s self-interest to ensure its first-generation students succeed, to identify and count them, and understand how to support them. This book provides high-level administrators with a plan of action for deans to create the awareness necessary for meaningful long-term change, sets out a campus acclimation process, and provides guidelines for the necessary support structures.At the heart of the book are 14 first-person narratives – by first-generation students spanning freshman to graduate years – that help the reader get to grips with the variety of ethnic and economic categories to which they belong. The book concludes by defining 14 key issues that institutions need to address, and offers a course of action for addressing them. This book is intended for everyone who serves these students – faculty, academic advisors, counselors, student affairs professionals, admissions officers, and administrators – and offers a set of best practices for how two- and four-year institutions can improve the success of their first-generation student populations.An ACPA Publication
State Postsecondary Education Research: New Methods to Inform Policy and Practice
by Kathleen M. Shaw Donald E. HellerThis is an opportune time for researchers in higher education to examine policy via cross-state comparative analyses. Momentous court, legislative and policy developments that impact state-level higher education policy are emerging at a rapid rate. The states have emerged as postsecondary policy innovators in the areas of student financing, institutional accountability, and student access.Following political scientists’ "rediscovery" of states as units of analysis--because they constitute unique "natural laboratories" for testing theory and hypotheses about political behavior and policy adoption dynamics--this book introduces this perspective as an increasingly important tool for researchers in higher education.State Postsecondary Education Research provides an in-depth examination of the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting cross-state higher education policy research. The authors of each chapter use their individual research projects to demonstrate the array of methodological, theoretical, analytical, and political challenges inherent in conducting comparative state-level policy research. Among the innovative methods described is the use of pooled cross-sectional time-series analytic techniques and event history analysis--now widespread within the disciplines of economics and political science--to shift the unit of analysis from the state to the state-year, thus expanding greatly both the statistical power of the models being tested and the data-demands of those models.The goal is to introduce comparative state-level postsecondary policy research to a broader audience, and to contribute to discussions of both the challenges and the importance of this approach to higher education policy research.The book is intended as a resource for researchers in higher education policy and as a text for higher education policy courses. It may also appeal to scholars of educational policy as well as higher education policymakers.
Teach Yourself How to Learn: Strategies You Can Use to Ace Any Course at Any Level
by Saundra Yancy McGuireFollowing up on her acclaimed Teach Students How to Learn, that describes teaching strategies to facilitate dramatic improvements in student learning and success, Saundra McGuire here presents these "secrets" direct to students. Her message is that "Any student can use simple, straightforward strategies to start making A’s in their courses and enjoy a lifetime of deep, effective learning." Beginning with explaining how expectations about learning, and the study efforts required, differ between college and secondary school, the author introduces her readers, through the concept of metacognition, to the importance and powerful consequences of understanding themselves as learners. This framework and the recommended strategies that support it are useful for anyone moving on to a more advanced stage of education, so this book also has an intended audience of students preparing to go to high school, graduate school, or professional school. In a conversational tone, and liberally illustrated by anecdotes of past students, the author combines introducing readers to concepts like Bloom’s Taxonomy (to illuminate the difference between studying and learning), fixed and growth mindsets, as well as to what brain science has to tell us about rest, nutrition and exercise, together with such highly specific learning strategies as how to read a textbook, manage their time and take tests. With engaging exercises and thought-provoking reflections, this book is an ideal motivational and practical text for study skills and first year experience courses.
Why Students Resist Learning: A Practical Model for Understanding and Helping Students
by John Tagg Anton O. Tolman Janine KremlingHowever personally committed faculty may be to helping students learn, their students are not always as eager to participate in this endeavor, and may react with both active and passive resistant behaviors, including poor faculty evaluations. The purpose of this book is to help faculty develop a coherent and integrated understanding of the various causes of student resistance to learning, providing them with a rationale for responding constructively, and enabling them to create conditions conducive to implementing effective learning strategies. In this book readers will discover an innovative integrated model that accounts for student behaviors and creates a foundation for intentional and informed discussion, evaluation, and the development of effective counter strategies. The model takes into account institutional context, environmental forces, students’ prior negative classroom experiences, their cognitive development, readiness to change, and metacognition. The various chapters take the reader through the model’s elements, exploring their practical implications for teaching, whether relating to course design, assessments, assignments, or interactions with students.The book includes a chapter written entirely by students, offering their insights into the causes of resistance, and their reflections on how participating on this project has affected them. While of great value for faculty, this book is also useful to faculty developers advising future and current faculty, as well as to administrators, offering insight into how institutional values impact teaching practice and student attitudes.
Working With Students in Community Colleges: Contemporary Strategies for Bridging Theory, Research, and Practice (An ACPA Co-Publication)
by S. Kelsay Lisa M. Zamani-Gallaher EboniCo-published with This timely volume addresses the urgent need for new strategies and better ways to serve community colleges’ present and future students at a time of rapid diversification, not just racially and ethnically, but including such groups as the undocumented, international students, older adult learners and veterans, all of whom come with varied levels of academic and technical skillsThe contributing researchers, higher education faculty, college presidents, and community college administrators provide thorough understanding of student groups who have received scant attention in the higher education literature. They address the often unconscious barriers to access our institutions have erected and describe emerging strategies, frameworks, and pilot projects that can ease students’ transition into college and through the maze of the college experience to completion. They offer advice on organizational culture, on defining institutional outcomes, on aligning shifting demographics with the multiple missions of the community college, on strengthening the collaboration of student and academic affairs to leverage their respective roles and resources, and on engaging with the opportunities afforded by technology.Divided into three parts – understanding today’s community college campuses; supporting today’s community college learners; and specialized populations and communities – this book offers a vision and solutions that should inform the work of faculty, administrators, presidents, and board members.
Using a Competency Development Process Model in Higher Education: A Practical Guide
by Nancy Latham Johnna Darragh Ernst Tiffany Freeze Stephanie Bernoteit Bradford WhiteWhat if educational programs designed curriculum with the end in mind, teaching and assessing only the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the workplace and broader life applications? Competency-Based Education (CBE) provides an answer to questions such as this one that key stakeholders such as employers, learners, parents, and educators are asking. In this book, the authors offer a Competency Development Process Model (CDPM) with unique features that emphasize the interdependence of competencies, assessments, and a robust learning journey within a fully developed career pathway. Two case examples are used throughout the book to contextualize the CDPM. There are seven steps of the model: ·Step 1: Define the Problem·Step 2: Establish the Competency Framework·Step 3: Draft the Competency Statements·Step 4: Establish Competency Measurability·Step 5: Develop Competency Assessments·Step 6: Adopt and Implement Competencies in Learning Journey and Credentialing Systems·Step 7: Evaluate Impact Over TimeThe model addresses the importance of situating competencies within a professional learning context using a backward design approach. In doing so, the model aims to elevate the work of designing competencies from merely developing a list of expectations to in-depth analysis and design, with the goal of developing competencies that can be readily used for assessment and career pathway development.Each step in the CDPM is treated as a chapter, and each chapter identifies the central question that must be answered, provides an overview of the tasks in the step, and illustrates the steps in action through the two case examples. Each chapter concludes with “Your Turn”—guiding questions for the reader to apply the step to their own context.
White Women Getting Real About Race: Their Stories About What They Learned Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
by Julie Landsman Judith M. James Nancy PetersonFor many White women teachers and teachers in training – who represent the majority of our teaching force today – the issue of race is fraught with discomfort. It may challenge assumptions, evoke a sense of guilt, or give rise to a fear of making mistakes or saying the wrong thing.This book presents the first-person stories of White women teachers who tell us not only how they have grappled with race in diverse classrooms, but how they continue to this day to be challenged by issues of color and privilege. These are no stories of heroic feats or achievement of perfection, but stories of self-disclosure that lay bare their authors’ emotions, ideas, curiosity, vulnerability, and reflections as they engaged with race, and challenged practices of color blindness and empathetic distance. Avoiding abstract educational lingo, these teachers come clean about the emotional cost of dealing with racism, White privilege, and fear of being racist in our rapidly diversifying schools. Admitting their cultural mistakes, they hope their readers can find a safe place to use theirs for honest dialogue and positive learning.In approaching chapter authors for this book, the editors asked the writers to ask themselves, “Will my well-being and sense of self be at risk if I tell this story?” Recognizing what’s at stake, they wanted writers who would be real with themselves.The women in this book hope that their stories will resonate with readers, help them feel less alone, and give them courage to begin a dialogue with colleagues, friends, staff and administrators around race concerns. Each chapter concludes with a few questions to prompt self-reflection at home, or for use as exercises to use in small groups or staff development training.
The Student Companion to Community-Engaged Learning: What You Need to Know for Transformative Learning and Real Social Change
by David M. Donahue Star Plaxton-MooreThis compact, accessibly written text prepares students for their experience of community-based learning. It is designed for students to read and reflect on independently or to foster discussion in class on their motivations and dispositions toward community engagement and service learning. It prepares students to work with diverse individuals, groups, and organizations that may be outside their prior experience. Faculty can use the book as a tool to deepen the educational experience of the course and enrich community engagement. This text is a guide to what’s involved in community-engaged learning, from understanding the pervasiveness of social, economic and environmental problems, to learning about how individuals and organizations in communities work to overcome them. Students will discover through a process of reflection how service connects to personal development and the content of their courses, builds their ability to engage with people different from themselves, and develops new life skills, all in the context of working with communities to overcome systemic injustice.Critical questions woven into each chapter prompt students to reflect on ideas and perspectives about social justice, community development, and their role in fostering them.The book concludes with case studies of students who have experienced the transformative power of community-engaged learning. The stories illustrate common themes inherent in the student experience, including listening to understand, challenging stereotypes, learning the nature of their role, and seeing the world through a new lens.A special feature of this book is the embedded QR codes that provide access, as students read the text, to online resources, and original and public videos that explore particular themes or perspectives more deeply. The authors also include text directed to faculty to provide ideas about framing their community-engaged course and integrating the book.
Improving College Student Retention: New Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice
by Robert D. Reason, John M. BraxtonHigher education institutions have already begun to see decreasing enrollment numbers, even as higher education enrollment is predicted to drop precipitously starting in 2025. Much of the decrease in enrollment will be driven by demographic trends about which higher education institutions can do little, making the retention of students who do enroll that much more important. Overall retention rates have stagnated and differential retention rates by race and ethnicity have persisted. If higher education institutions, researchers, and policy makers are to improve retention rates, a critical examination of the current state and future directions of retention research is essential.This edited volume begins that examination by addressing several questions: What are the needed directions in theory and research on college student persistence and how do we translate new theory and research into effective practices? Are we asking the right questions, looking in the right places, or trying to apply out-of-date theories to new populations? In short, how can the research community help institutions improve retention in this challenging time?
Integrating Study Abroad Into the Curriculum: Theory and Practice Across the Disciplines
by Elizabeth Brewer Kiran CunninghamWith the increased interest in study abroad from government, educators, employers and students, the question is: is study abroad engendering the desired intercultural competencies and intellectual development?To achieve this goal, this book proposes two strategies: structure study abroad to bridge the separation of academic learning from experiential and intercultural learning; and integrate study abroad with the undergraduate curriculum.In proposing this integration, the editors take into account the need for institutional change, and recognize faculty members’ concerns about maintaining the integrity of the curriculum, teaching in areas outside their expertise, and keeping up with ever-evolving institutional missions.This book opens with two chapters presenting different theoretical perspectives relevant to the integration of study abroad into the curriculum. The following nine chapters provide examples from a variety of disciplines – from anthropology and religious studies, to literature, urban studies, biology and public health – and within such contexts as distance learning, service learning, and the senior thesis. The concluding chapter considers faculty development activities and institutional structures and policies that support curriculum integration. While the examples are drawn from Beloit College and Kalamazoo College – liberal arts colleges with substantial study abroad enrollments, and nationally recognized for their innovative practices – readers will recognize they are easily adaptable to their own institutions. The two colleges achieved their curricular innovations with limited financial resources, and in the context that most of their students are dependent on financial aid. The transformational ideas and practices described here provide material for reflection and campus conversations for anyone concerned with developing global citizens and well-educated students, and offer a blueprint for implementation.
Rising to Full Professor: Pathways for Faculty of Color
by Nancy Cantor Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner Christine A. StanleyAcademe has made little progress in hiring and advancing faculty of color.Through the narratives of full professors of color, this book aims to make visible their journeys -- beset with lack of criteria transparency, marginalization, discouragement, and discrimination on the way to success -- to provide insights for junior and mid-level scholars as they negotiate their pathways to full professorship.This book offers readers a unique, micro-and macroscopic window into the lived experiences of individuals who represent a multitude of social, ethnic and cultural identities, disciplinary domains, academic and professional credentials, and socialization experiences. They share their doubts and fears as they began their applications, the contradictory advice they received, who they consulted for guidance, some of the indelible costs of the experience and, when they encountered it, how they dealt with initial rejection.In describing their persistence and success, the contributors reflect on the rewards of the position and the opportunities it offers to play influential decision-making roles and become agents of change, shifting institutional culture, values, and practices.Beyond filling a gap in the literature and research on, and promotion to, this position, this book uniquely addresses the experiences of women and men faculty of color, raising broad implications for how higher education recruits, evaluates, and rewards faculty work, as well as the broader context of racial and social institutional goals and outcomes.This book is intended for several audiences. First, for faculty of color who aspire to the rank of full professor. Second, for faculty in general, including allies who work tirelessly for social justice, to dismantle white supremacy, racism, sexism, and the range of discriminatory practices Third, for administrators in senior leadership positions to make them aware of the inequitable path to full professorship and the gross underrepresentation of faculty of color at that rank whose experiences and expertise are now more than ever needed as student demographics are changing.
Sentipensante (Sensing / Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation
by Laura I. Rendón“Challenging, inspiring, beautifully written, and unusual, this book calls readers to find ways to link mind and heart -- thinking and feeling -- to transform teaching and learning in higher education. Laura Rendón has illustrated how one can unite one's deep beliefs, values, and feelings, with one's keen analytical and intellectual abilities...an important, thought-provoking, and unique addition to the literature on teaching, learning, and the academic life.”—The Review of Higher Education on the first editionThis new and expanded edition of the acclaimed and successful book by nationally-recognized student advocate, activist scholar and contemplative educator, Laura Rendón, will surely find new audiences who are eager to create teaching and learning environments where the learner is fully present and engaged using the full capacities of mind, body and senses; and where the learning experience can be simultaneously subjective and objective, a view which challenges the privileged notion that only reason and objective modes of learning are valid. While the pedagogy can be employed with all students, Rendón provides support for faculty who work with low-income, first-generation, and racially-minoritized learners. Sentipensante Pedagogy benefits all students through holistically meeting their emotional needs and quest for knowledge, and simultaneously fostering their civic sense, critical consciousness, and community engagement.Rendón offers an inspirational and contemplative pedagogy that leverages student assets and addresses the rhythmic balance and interconnection between intellectual, social, emotional, and inner-life skill development. The book blends academic discussions about pedagogy and diverse world views as it inspires a new generation of faculty and staff to develop blueprints for democratic, decolonial teaching and learning environments.The sensing / thinking approach has been successfully adopted and adapted in courses and seminars across many academic disciplines, including STEM, in two- and four-year colleges institutions. Several colleges and universities have created centers around contemplative studies and pedagogy with applications extending to the K-12 education arena.As with adopting any new pedagogical approach, planning and thought needs to be given on how to integrate its reflective and creative elements with course content. This book offers inspiration and guidance for faculty who want to holistically address the needs, aspirations, and individual development of their students
Social Presence in Online Learning: Multiple Perspectives on Practice and Research (Higher Education Ser.)
by Michael Grahame Moore Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena Aimee L. Whiteside Amy Garrett Dikkers Karen SwanPublished in Association with 2020 AECT Division of Distance Learning Book AwardSocial presence continues to emerge as a key factor for successful online and blended learning experiences. It is commonly described as the degree to which online participants feel connected to one another. Understanding social presence—with its critical connections to community-building, retention, and learning outcomes—allows faculty and instructional designers to better support and engage students. This volume, Social Presence in Online Learning, addresses the evolution of social presence with three distinct perspectives, outlines the relevant research, and focuses on practical strategies that can immediately impact the teaching and learning experience. These strategies include creating connections to build community, applying content to authentic situations, integrating a careful mix of tools and media, leveraging reflective and interactive opportunities, providing early and continuous feedback, designing with assessment in mind, and encouraging change in small increments. Because student satisfaction and motivation plays a key role in retention rates and because increased social presence often leads to enriched learning experiences, it is advantageous to mindfully integrate social presence into learning environments.Social Presence in Online Learning brings together eminent scholars in the field to distinguish among three different perspectives of social presence and to address how these viewpoints immediately inform practice. This important volume: • Provides an overview of the evolution of social presence, key findings from social presence research, and practical strategies that can improve the online and blended learning experience• Differentiates three distinct perspectives on social presence and explains the ideas and models that inform these perspectives• Explores specific ways in which social presence relates to course satisfaction, retention, and outcomes• Offers practical implications and ready-to-use techniques that are applicable to multiple disciplines• Introduces current research on social presence by prominent researchers in the field with direct inferences to the practice of online and blended learning • Looks at future directions for social presenceSocial Presence in Online Learning is appropriate for practitioners, researchers and academics involved in any level of online learning program design, course design, instruction, support, and leadership as well as for graduate students studying educational technology, technology-enhanced learning, and online and blended learning. It brings together multiple perspectives on social presence from the most influential scholars in the field to help shape the future of online and blended learning.
Social Responsibility and Sustainability: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Through Service Learning
by Tracy McDonaldThis concluding volume in the series presents the work of faculty who have been moved to make sustainability the focus of their work, and to use service learning as one method of teaching sustainability to their students. The chapters in the opening section of this book – Environmental Awareness – offer models for opening students to the awareness of the ecological aspects of sustainability, and of the interdependence of the ecosystem with human and with institutional decisions and behavior; and illustrate how they, in turn, can share that awareness with the community.The second section – Increasing Civic Engagement – explores means for fostering commitment to community service and experiencing the capacity to effect change.The concluding section – Sustainability Concepts in Business and Economics – addresses sustainability within the business context, with emphasis on the “triple bottom line”—the achievement of profitability through responsible environmental practice and respect for all stakeholders in the enterprise.
Reflection in Action: A Guidebook for Student Affairs Professionals and Teaching Faculty (Higher Education Ser.)
by Kimberly A. KlineThis guidebook aims to stimulate student affairs professionals and higher education faculty alike to adopt new approaches when discussing sensitive or controversial topics with their students. It provides teachers and professionals with a critical social understanding of social justice, social agency, reflection, and actionable knowledge to develop new and effective skills, practice them in safe spaces, and apply them in the field. It offers tools that are equally applicable in a classroom or cocurricular setting.The exceptional teachers, scholars, and professionals contributing to this volume provide a diverse and alternative lens through which to examine the intersection of social justice education and professional practice. The text is organized in three overarching themes: Part One, “Existing Theories, Examining Claims, and Proposing New Understandings”; Part Two, “Concrete Tools and Safe Spaces for Practicing Difficult Dialogues in Professional Practice”; and Part Three, “Professional Development, Action Research, and Social Agency.” In Part Four, “Moving Forward,” the book concludes with a chapter on implications for daily life and practice.The action-oriented research model provides strategies and frameworks for using social science research to engage in critical social and educational problem solving. The emphasis is on moving colleges and universities to widen their moral and ethical lenses, beyond understanding diversity, to developing multicultural competence and enriching their campus communities.Written for faculty in higher education and student affairs professionals, along with master’s and doctoral students in these fields, this book provides a framework that is grounded in research and sound pedagogies and theories.
Researching Learning and Teaching with Adults: An Introduction
by Ralf St. ClairDesigned to help the reader move through an empirical research project, this book describes how they can think like a researcher. Methods and methodologies are presented as pragmatic tools to address research questions. Research into adult learning is different from educational research more broadly as it recognizes and applies the power of narrative and experience. Adult learning is a localized and highly diverse endeavor, and inevitably reflects the life experiences and identity of those involved, making their stories essential. There is a fundamental link between adult learning and the lifeworld of those who are involved in that learning. Whether we are considering a community project supporting adults to tell their immigration stories in a new language, a university instructor encouraging students to think about the assumptions behind the economics curriculum, a group working to re-establish an Indigenous language in a community, or a corporate trainer delivering anti-harassment sessions, the vast majority of education for adults does not fit the taken for granted assumptions of school-centered educational research. One implication is the need for researchers in adult learning to apply the tools differently.The book is organized in four parts. A satisfying research project has coherence across the various parts (research question, methodology, methods, claim to knowledge) and the parts of the book reflect these four areas. Part 1 is about learning to think like a researcher, including ethical guidelines and how to work out the details of a research question. Part 2 discusses methods in a concrete way, to give readers a sense of what the activity of researching looks like. This book looks at a range of qualitative approaches but does not shy away from research with numbers as a way to generate knowledge. Part 3 discusses methodologies for connecting the data generated by methods to findings. Part 4 deals with communicating findings, and also looks at research proposals. A glossary helps readers encountering new terminology, and appendices include a sample research proposal and a sample consent form, as well as resources to learn more about the topic.
Overcoming Educational Racism in the Community College: Creating Pathways to Success for Minority and Impoverished Student Populations
by Angela LongOverall, nearly half of all incoming community college students “drop-out” within twelve months of enrolling, with students of color and the economically disadvantaged faring far worse. Given the high proportion of underserved students these colleges enroll, the detrimental impact on their communities, and for the national economy as a whole at a time of diversifying demographics, is enormous.This book addresses this urgent issue by bringing together nationally recognized researchers whose work throws light on the structural and systemic causes of student attrition, as well as college presidents and leaders who have successfully implemented strategies to improve student outcomes.The book is divided into five sections, each devoted to a demographic group: African Americans, Native Americans/American Indians, Latino Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Caucasian students in poverty. Each section in turn comprises three chapters, the first providing an up-to-date summary of research findings about barriers and attainments pertaining to the corresponding population, the second the views of a community college president, and the final chapter offering a range of models and best practices for achieving student success.The analyses--descriptions of cutting edge programs--and recommendations for action will commend this volume to everyone concerned about equity and completion rates in the community college sector, from presidents and senior administrators through faculty and student affairs leaders. For educational researchers, it fills blanks on data about attrition and persistence patterns of minority students attending community colleges.ContributorsKenneth AtwaterGlennda M. BivensEdward BushCara CrowleyMaria Harper-MarinickJoan B. HolmesG. Edward HughesLee LambertCynthia Lindquist, Ta’Sunka Wicahpi Win (Star Horse Woman)Angela LongRussell Lowery-HartJamillah MooreChristopher M. MullinBrian MurphyEduardo J. PadrónDeborah A. SantiagoWei SongRobert TeranishiRowena M. TomanengJames UtterbackJ. Luke Wood
Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks: Decode the Critical Thinking of Your Discipline
by Joan Middendorf Leah ShopkowDecoding the Disciplines is a widely-used and proven methodology that prompts teachers to identify the bottlenecks – the places where students get stuck – that impede learners’ paths to expert thinking in a discipline. The process is based on recognizing the gap between novice learning and expert thinking, and uncovering tacit knowledge that may not be made manifest in teaching.Through “decoding”, implicit expert knowledge can be turned into explicit mental tasks, and made available to students. This book presents a seven-step process for uncovering bottlenecks and determining the most effective way to enable students to surmount them.The authors explain how to apply the seven steps of Decoding the Disciplines – how to identify bottlenecks, unpack the critical thinking of experts, teach students how to do this kind of thinking, and how to evaluate the degree to which students have learned to do it. They provide in-depth descriptions of each step and, at the end of each chapter, at least one exercise the reader can do on his or her own. Because the decoding process works well with groups, they also provide exercises for leading groups through the process, making available to informal groups as well as groups led by professional developers, the tools to transform their understanding of teaching and learning by getting the student view that they refer to as “the bottleneck perspective”. Because it focuses on the mental moves that underlie the cognitive competencies we want students to develop, spelling out what critical thinking consists of for any field, the methodology helps teachers to get beyond focus on content delivery and transmission and provides criteria to select from the bewildering array of teaching tools the methods most appropriate to what they are teaching.This is a book for faculty who want their students to develop disciplinary forms of reasoning, and are moreover interested in a methodology with the potential to transform and reinvigorate their teaching. It is particularly suitable for use in communities of practice, and should be indispensable for any one engaged in cross-disciplinary teaching, as it enables co-teachers to surface each other’s tacit knowledge and disciplinary assumptions.
Passport to Change: Designing Academically Sound, Culturally Relevant, Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs
by Hilary Landorf Susan Lee Pasquarelli Robert A. Cole Michael J. TysonThere has been enormous growth in faculty-led short-term study abroad programs because they offer flexibility and expand opportunities for students and faculty members who wish to study and work abroad but do not have the resources or time to spend a semester or year away. These experiential programs offer unique opportunities for university faculty to teach their disciplines abroad while engaging students in direct, authentic cultural encounters for transformative change.This volume provides a detailed framework and guidance on how to plan and implement a faculty-led study abroad program. Seasoned faculty leaders and administrators describe an overall program development process, comprehensively identify the elements for designing the curriculum, and offer advice and solutions to unique challenges inherent in various types of programs. The contributors cover the logistics for managing program details at home and abroad provide advice on writing a university proposal, creating a budget, the marketing and recruitment of students, handling abroad logistics, and preparing students for the abroad experience – all illustrated by examples drawn from their experiences. Most importantly, readers will come to understand the difference between experiences that are more touristic than scholarly and gain guidance on designing or redesigning their own programs to ensure academically sound, culturally-relevant curricula that complements the international field site.The opening section sets the scene by describing the overall process of designing and delivering faculty-led abroad programs, from conception to implementation. The core of the book is grounded in evidence-based research for designing international curricula and syllabi, and includes five case studies illustrating short term programs focused on interdisciplinary subject matter, field study, global service learning, internship immersion, and language and cultural study. This practical guide concludes with faculty activities critical to a program’s success: marketing and recruiting students; preparing teaching events for before, during, and after the abroad experience; and formulating a plan to leave a small footprint abroad. This book constitutes a handbook for college and university professors who plan to or already conduct short-term study abroad programs as well as administrators and staff of global and international programs.ContributorsBilge Gokhan CelikRobert A. Cole Darla K. DeardorffCandelas Gala Javier Garcia GarridoDale LeavittRoxanne O’ConnellSusan Lee PasquarelliMichele V. PriceAutumn Quezada de Tavarez Victor Savicki Michael ScullyMichael TysonKerri Staroscik WarrenPaul Webb Brian WysorMin Zhou
Driving Change Through Diversity and Globalization: Transformative Leadership in the Academy
by James A. AndersonThis book significantly advances discussion of the mission of higher education in today’s multicultural environment and global economy. It sets out the challenges and considerations that must be addressed by administrative leaders, by trustees, and others who shape the vision and direction of the institution – but most particularly by academic deans and faculty.The author makes the case that the inclusion of diversity and globalization in disciplinary work contributes to the research agendas of individual faculty and their departments, aligns with scholarly values, and promotes such student learning goals as tolerance of ambiguity and paradox, critical thinking and creativity. He offers a strategic vision of success, backed by theory and examples of effective application, for creating transformative change; and provides a roadmap to implementing inclusive pedagogical practices and curricula. With implementation dependent on leadership and participation at every level of an institution, everyone with a stake in its future should read this book.
Engaged Research and Practice: Higher Education and the Pursuit of the Public Good
by Betty Overton Penny A. Pasque John C. BurkhardtWhat practices can researchers use to gain a more nuanced understanding of educational issues in the community and be part of the solution to those issues?Engaged Research and Practice is about two prevailing and complementary ideas that have surfaced in the higher education arena: engaged research and higher education for the public good. Engaged research is scholarship that not only attempts to open up new knowledge, but it does so with a sense that the new knowledge, insight and directions have a direct relationship to needs and problems within our communities, institutions, and policy arenas. Engaged, actionable, or participatory research and scholarship attempts to tackle the identified issues of our communities and society. This handbook offers important insights and tangible examples of how higher education leaders may work directly with communities and in policy settings to understand the deeper meanings often lost in conversations about educational opportunity. Each chapter addresses the ways in which faculty, community and administrative leaders may connect research and practice through unique research projects. The authors offer clear explanations of "how" their engaged research was conducted to illustrate explicit pathways for practitioners. This book also includes short narratives where authors involved with this research reflect on their experiences and the lessons they have learned while immersed in community and policy related work.
Engaging Virtual Environments: Creative Ideas and Online Tools to Promote Student Interaction, Participation, and Active Learning
by Joanne Ricevuto Laura McLaughlinIn a classroom setting interaction among students is the norm. How do you replicate that informality, spontaneity, and focus online? This book provides you with a framework to think about the different kinds of engagement you want to foster -- whether participation, collaboration, or quick feedback -- and then introduces you to available online tools, some of which may be in your LMS, offers practical tips, and guides you to how make the most of commonly available technologies to achieve your goals.Within the context and progression of a course -- from developing a welcome page, presenting yourself and the purpose of your course, to icebreakers, assignments, and alternative forms of assessment -- the authors introduce you to a range of easy-to-use online tools that they have introduced to the faculty and teachers in their classes, and that foster active learning and student engagement. In doing so they provide a checklist that you can also access and print from the Web, to help you review additional tools from the wide and ever-growing range of tools that are available online and determine whether they are appropriate for what you want to accomplish.This book will help you connect with students, whether you’re teaching synchronously or asynchronously, regardless of the devices students may be using; develop community; and introduce you to gamification to add enjoyment and variety to your students’ experience of your class.Recognizing that using new tools with confidence requires practice, the authors offer ideas for implementing them in private online spaces. Each chapter concludes with reflection questions that can be addressed individually by the reader or within a learning community to encourage faculty to work together and support each other in virtual teaching and learning. This book addresses the challenge of embracing new models of course offerings to students in the evolving landscape of virtual learning.