Education Commons^™

Ngandutshiebue_Dissertation.Docx, Farida E. Ngandu Tshiebue

Farida Ngandu Tshiebue

Scholastics, Pabulum, Clans, Transformation: A Journey Into Otherness, David Lausch, Eric D. Teman J.D., Ph.D., Cody Perry

Eric D Teman, J.D., Ph.D.

The Middle Landscape Of The Private College: A Bicentennial Perspective, George W. Geib

George W. Geib

America's Private Colleges and Universities have entered the bicentennial year expressing deep concern for their individual and collective futures. They seem constantly engaged in a search for new students and additional financial contributors; they darkly aver that they may be forced to close forever if their search fails; and they point to the dozens of others campuses that passed from the scene in the last decade as proof of the urgency of their case. To some observers these forebodings of doom may appear, like the associated press reports about Mark Twain's demise, greatly exaggerated. But the immediacy and intensity with …

The Why And Where Of Big History: Building A Program, Mojgan Behmand

Mojgan Behmand

The goals of our First Year Experience program are aligned with our institutional mission, our core values, and the goals of our General Education program. The program is designed to promote: recognition of the personal, communal, and political implications of the Big History story; critical and creative thinking in a manner that awakens curiosity and enhances openness to multiple perspectives; and, development of reading, thinking, and research skills to enhance one’s ability to evaluate and articulate understanding of one’s place in the unfolding universe.

The Digital Mind And The Future Of Liberal Arts Education, Harlan Stelmach, Martin Anderson

Harlan Stelmach

Today higher liberal arts education is challenged by the continuing emphasis on vocational, business, and science majors among administrators and the decline in the demand for humanities majors among students anxious about their economic future. More fundamental and far-reaching, however, are the historic changes in the physical form in which ideas are preserved and communicated, the time people allocate to contemplating those ideas, and the ways people process them as society shifts from the book age into the digital age.1 Those who grew up in the book age can visualize the problem by thinking of this question: What is your …

Big History As General Education, Nicola Pitchford, Mojgan Behmand

Nicola Pitchford

A presentation on the emerging discipline "Big History" and how it could be integrated into the general education curriculum, using the First Year Experience at Dominican University of California as an example.

Big History As General Education, Nicola Pitchford, Mojgan Behmand

Mojgan Behmand

A presentation on the emerging discipline "Big History" and how it could be integrated into the general education curriculum, using the First Year Experience at Dominican University of California as an example.

The Digital Mind And The Future Of Liberal Arts Education, Harlan Stelmach, Martin Anderson

Harlan Stelmach

Today higher liberal arts education is challenged by the continuing emphasis on vocational, business, and science majors among administrators and the decline in the demand for humanities majors among students anxious about their economic future. More fundamental and far-reaching, however, are the historic changes in the physical form in which ideas are preserved and communicated, the time people allocate to contemplating those ideas, and the ways people process them as society shifts from the book age into the digital age.1 Those who grew up in the book age can visualize the problem by thinking of this question: What is your …

The Digital Mind And The Future Of Liberal Arts Education, Harlan Stelmach, Martin Anderson

Harlan Stelmach

Today higher liberal arts education is challenged by the continuing emphasis on vocational, business, and science majors among administrators and the decline in the demand for humanities majors among students anxious about their economic future. More fundamental and far-reaching, however, are the historic changes in the physical form in which ideas are preserved and communicated, the time people allocate to contemplating those ideas, and the ways people process them as society shifts from the book age into the digital age.¹ Those who grew up in the book age can visualize the problem by thinking of this question: What is …

Improving Curriculum Design And Development: A Case Study From The University Of Guyana, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

The curriculum is a very important document which details how learning and teaching is to be done. Since this document is a guide for learning, it must be properly planned, designed and developed, if it is to achieve success in its implementation stage. Bearing this in mind, this case study centres its attention on the analysis and evaluation of a Spanish course curriculum document from the University of Guyana. The aim of this paper is to highlight those areas that are deficient in the current course curriculum, analyse and revise them, and make recommendations for improvements. Information about the University …

Equitable Society With Equal Opportunites, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

Equal access to education for women and girls will be ensured. Special measures will be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical skills by women. Reducing the gender gap in secondary and higher education would be a focus area. Sectoral time targets in existing policies will be achieved, with a special focus on girls and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities. Gender sensitive …

Women's Studies At Umass Boston: Celebrates 25 Years 1973-1998, Sherry H. Penney, Jean Mcmahon Humez

Sherry Penney

What follows is an impressionistic overview of our program's first twenty five years, derived in part from our archives and in part from our collective recollections, and written by the current program director. As with any celebratory institutional history, it makes no claim to objectivity. Our aim is to look back at the main lines of our growth and development, and in so doing to acknowledge many of the individuals who have contributed to the building of the program over time. We gratefully acknowledge the work of our first archivist, UMass Women's Studies / Sociology graduate dian fitzpatrick who, in …

Truth, Rhetoric, And Critical Thinking, Lajos L. Brons

Lajos Brons

Despite the extraordinary amount of attention critical thinking has received in the last few decades, the teaching and fostering of critical thinking in higher education is largely failing, and critical thinking has become an empty buzzword. However, given its importance as an aim of education, it needs to be “refilled”, but that is possible only after identifying the causes of the current failure, i.e. the obstacles to fostering critical thinking. Three such obstacles are identified in this paper, two actual and one hypothetical: (1) the lack of clarity and agreement about what critical thinking is, (2) current teaching practice, and …

Do Historically Black Institutions Of Higher Education Confer Unique Advantages On Black Students? An Initial Analysis, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Donna S. Rothstein

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Despite the declining relative importance of HBIs in the production of black bachelor's degrees, in recent years they have become the subject of intense public policy debate for two reasons. First, court cases have been filed in a number of southern states that assert that black students continue to be underrepresented at traditionally white public institutions, that discriminatory admissions criteria are used by these institutions to exclude black students (e.g., basing admissions only on test scores and not also on grades), and that per student funding levels, program availability, and library facilities are substantially poorer at public HBIs than …

Are Black Colleges Producing Today's African-American Lawyers?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

In past years, almost all of America's black lawyers came from historically black colleges and universities because these schools were the only ones that would admit black students. Today, it appears that black colleges are producing increasingly fewer of the nation's black lawyers.

Why Not A Fifty-Fifty Goal? Increasing Female Leadership In Higher Education, Sherry H. Penney, Nancy Kelly

Sherry Penney

One of the key factors determining the economic status and success of women is their level of education. Women have been turning to education in ever increasing numbers, and they now comprise the majority of students in our institutions of higher education. Yet women hold only 10 percent of the most senior positions — college and university presidencies. Clearly if institutions are to be responsive to the needs of all students, that percentage must change. Those who make up the ranks of this elite achieved their professional standing by overcoming inequities that linger in the academy even as we enter …

Promoting Dialogue On The Transgender Experience In College Courses Through Films And Literature, Elizabeth H. Rowell

Elizabeth H Rowell

Although transgender individuals have been part of every culture and society in recorded human history, many people today are unaware of gender variant individuals among them and discussions of rights and equality have usually excluded trans people. This lack of recognition and intolerance often makes being transgender today very difficult. Much work remains to be done to educate the public and improve the safety and well-being of trans people. College professors can help to promote understanding of and advocacy for gender variant individuals. This is an overview of one professor's experiences in weaving critical thinking and dialoguing about the transgender …

Broom Closet Or Fish Bowl? An Ethnographic Exploration Of A University Queer Center And Oneself, Eric D. Teman Ph.D., Maria K. Lahman Ph.D.

Eric D Teman, J.D., Ph.D.

Enabling Leadership Capacity Through Authentic Learning: The Faculty Scholars Program, Geraldine E. Lefoe, Dominique Rene Parrish

Geraldine Lefoe

An identified gap in the higher education sector is the development of leadership capacity for teaching and learning. Significant funding has been allocated by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) to support the development of academic leadership in higher education. The outcomes of this initiative will ultimately improve the student experience as a more scholarly approach to the many aspects of teaching and learning is adopted. One project funded by ALTC supported four universities to develop and trial a framework for leadership capacity development. Five critical factors for success were identified including authentic learning activities that were situated in …

The Specter Of ‘Spirituality’—On The (In)Utility Of An Analytical Category, Chad M. Bauman

Chad M. Bauman

I would like to make it clear that nothing in this article should be taken as a comment, one way or another, on the question of whether "spirituality" deserves a place in higher education. I consider that issue a distinct one, though no doubt in some ways related to the one I am addressing here, particularly since many of those authors who write about spirituality do so in order to argue for greater institutional and classroom attention to the spiritual lives of college students.

Fuzzy But Not Warm: On The (Continuing) Descriptive And Analytical Inutility Of ‘Spirituality', Chad M. Bauman, Gene Gallagher, Davina Lopez

Chad M. Bauman

In her response, Nadine Pence helpfully turns the conversation towards actual practices in teaching and the array of practical decisions that have to be made in the classroom and on campuses when it comes to addressing "Big Questions" and students' aspirations and interior lives. Several dimensions of her argument are worth amplification.

Graduate Retention: An Investigation Of Factors Relating To Older Female Graduate Students, Linda Serra Hagedorn

Linda Serra Hagedorn

While admissions at the undergraduate level are experiencing a surge of students over 30 years of age, the pool of traditionally aged students is declining. These phenomena indicate that older (over age 30) students will also be enrolling in graduate programs in increasing numbers. This paper addresses the issue of retention as it pertains to older female graduate students. Data are examined from a fall 1991 survey and its 1992 followup at a large Midwestern research university. The study evaluated such potential obstacles to female graduation as concern family issues, relationships with faculty and fellow students, difficulty of the coursework, …