Education Commons^™

Chair Leaders—Strategies For Success, Angela Lumpkin, Stephanie J. Jones

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Successful and effective Department Chairs can positively impact faculty, staff, and students through enacting specific and practical strategies in the essential areas of personnel, communication, budget, instruction, culture, and change and to help them further develop their leadership abilities. This work is based on a review of the literature and conversations among mentors and mentees participating in one institution’s group mentoring program. This review and qualitative process reaffirms that most Chairs are inexperienced and ill-prepared for the myriad roles and responsibilities Chairs are expected to fulfill and need professional mentoring and guidance in enhancing their leadership skills. Chairs need to …

A Preliminary Investigation Into The Impact Of A First-Year Stress Management Seminar, Lisa B. Smith, Mary E. Ignagni

Perspectives In Learning

Research reveals that high stress levels in undergraduate students may negatively impact their emotional and physical well-being. Short-term approaches to introducing stress management on college campuses have been explored. The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether a first-year stress management seminar course helped students reduce their stress a year after completing the course, identify which stress management skills students preferred, and assess the effectiveness of specific teaching techniques on student learning. Participants included students enrolled in two sections of a first-year stress management course. A survey was administered in 4 waves during the 2020 to 2021 academic …

Preliminary Pages, Jennifer L. Brown

Perspectives In Learning

Preliminary Pages for Volume 20, Issue 2

Supporting Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Design Of Differentiated Instruction With A Transparent Lesson Plan Template, Charlotte A. Mundy-Henderson, Aaron Gierhart, Saoussan Maarouf

Perspectives In Learning

Planning and differentiation are key components of elementary teachers’ work in classrooms. Therefore, teacher education programs must prepare their preservice teachers for this future responsibility. This study examines how the integration of a more targeted lesson plan template and increased explicit in-class instruction impacts preservice teachers’ knowledge and implementation of differentiated instruction in an Elementary Education teacher certification program. Findings indicate that the new, more targeted lesson plan template and increased time dedicated to explicit differentiated instruction across the Elementary Education program led candidates to feel more knowledgeable about differentiated instruction and how to design and implement instruction for diverse …

Lessons Learned: Using Faculty Learning Communities To Foster Pedagogical Skills And Cultivate Community, Caitlin Brez, Linda Behrendt

Perspectives In Learning

Academic expertise has traditionally served as the measure of faculty’s effectiveness in the classroom. Twenty-first century changes in the landscape of higher education have brought the need for sound pedagogy as a foundational tool in the college classroom. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are an effective method to facilitate the development of pedagogy, which, in turn, has shown to have a direct effect on student success and graduation rates. This article examines the experiences of two faculty members at a Midwestern university who developed a 10-week inter-disciplinary FLC that was offered over 5 semesters, as well as participant feedback.

Www (When Websites Work): Students’ Perceptions Of Their Engagement When Using A Website Creation Tool, Jamie J. Els

Perspectives In Learning

When students find value in technology and can apply that technology in their learning and beyond, they become more actively engaged in the classroom. After having first-year seminar students use Web 2.0 technology, specifically a website creation tool as part of an assignment, they participated in a survey to provide feedback over their engagement in creating a Google Sites® website. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed to determine students’ perceptions of their engagement when using website creation tools to complete a modified discussion assignment. Results indicated students were significantly more engaged than the normal population when they used …

The “Best Test” For Success In Academic Advising: Exploring The Purpose Of Advising Through The Lens Of Servant-Leadership., Jeffrey Mcclellan

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

For years, advising has been associated with student success and retention. However, while these are valuable byproducts of effective academic advising, they do not represent the purpose of advising. This article explores the purpose of academic advising through the lens of servant-leadership theory with an emphasis on Greenleaf’s (2002) best test, which asks, “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?” (p. 27). The outcomes alluded to in this statement are examined and explored as they relate to the purpose of academic advising and student …

Promoting Student Success With Tilt In Asynchronous Online Classes, Sabrina Wengier, Lorraine Dubuisson

Perspectives In Learning

Research has shown that the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TiLT) framework is an equitable practice that promotes student success by emphasizing the purpose and real-world applicability of academic work (Winkelmes et al., 2019). Most of the research on TiLT has focused on in-person instruction. In this article, we chronicle our implementation of TiLT as a “guiding philosophy” (Carpenter et al., 2021) to (re)design our asynchronous, online classes. As instructors, we noted that TiLT made a tangible, positive difference in student ownership and engagement in classroom tasks. To understand TiLT’s impact on students, we conducted a small-scale study in which …

Making Composition-I Count: “Tilt-Ing” The Course To Better Aim At Student Learning, Anish Dave

Perspectives In Learning

This article is being submitted on behalf of the author for consideration in the TILT special-topics issue. An abstract was not included with the manuscript.

Preliminary Pages, Jennifer Brown

Perspectives In Learning

preliminary pages

Introduction To Transparency In Learning And Teaching, Mary-Ann Winkelmes

Perspectives In Learning

Introduction to Transparency in Learning and Teaching

Facilitating Tilting As A Faculty Community, Debra Palmer, Carrie Bachhofer, Allen Brown, Alaina Kaus, Michele Mckie, Thelma Sexton

Perspectives In Learning

In this paper, we describe our perspectives and experiences working as one of several small groups within a campus-wide program at our university to help implement transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) principles. Faculty were asked to implement TILT into lower-and upper-level courses, as well as co-curricular activities, by transforming some aspect of their course or activities to be more "transparent," meaning students would be able to better understand its purpose and value and how it relates to their major, future career, and personal lives. The program followed a faculty learning community (FLC) model, where members supported one another through …

Institutionalizing Tilt Across A University, Judy O. Grissett

Perspectives In Learning

Transparency of learning and teaching (TILT) is key to student success, as it allows students to understand directions and make concrete steps toward completing a set of tasks. The present paper outlines the early stages of a campus-wide program at one institution that infuses TILT practices across campus in the classroom as well as non-academic units. TILT practices make the purpose, required tasks, and criteria for success clear to students in everyday campus interactions with faculty and staff. TILT programming for faculty and staff is described, including strengths, challenges, and future directions.

Positive Impacts Of Tilt: Two Professors’ Journeys In Creating More Student-Centered Teacher Education Courses, Michael Crosby, Rebecca Short

Perspectives In Learning

As the K-12 classroom changes to support the needs of our every-changing society, so should the teacher education courses change on the university level. Additionally, the focus on higher education has become more student-centered with an emphasis on transparency in teaching and learning (TILT). The purpose of this article is to highlight the positive experiences two teacher education professors had using TILT to examine assignments and course syllabi. The journey of developing transparent assignments and student-centered syllabi is time-consuming, challenging, and on-going, but the benefits of a student-centered classroom are invaluable.

The Impact Of Transparent Instructions Upon Academic Confidence And Writing Performance, Ellen Cotter, Kerri Ann Battle, Cedarian Holsendolph, Jonathan Nguyen, Annabelle P. Smith

Perspectives In Learning

Recent demographic changes in college enrollment have led to an increased emphasis on retaining students. High-impact practices such as transparent assignments are one possible way to encourage student retention, but more empirical data related to student outcomes are needed. In this quasi-experimental study, students received either transparent or standard instructions for written assignments and completed a survey of academic confidence. A pre-test/post-test design was used to examine potential differences associated with instruction type. Results indicated no significant differences in essay scores or survey responses between conditions, and there were no consistent trends indicating improved performance in the transparent condition. Implications …

Can Tilt Be Used To Teach Study Tactics? A Case Study In A Biology Classroom, Anne Jacobs

Perspectives In Learning

Recently, there has been a movement encouraging instructors in higher education to use the Transparency in Teaching and Learning (TILT) framework when designing assignments. This framework helps instructors clarify their expectations and evaluation criteria. Making assignments more transparent may result in greater student success. However, it is less clear how this framework can be applied to classes that use exams as a main method of assessing student learning. One option might be to use a TILTed assignment to introduce students to learning tools to improve their studying. I did this by giving students in an introductory biology class an assignment …

A Multiple-Choice Study: The Impact Of Transparent Question Design On Student Performance, John Lejeune

Perspectives In Learning

This university classroom study seeks to better understand how, and to what extent, designing more transparent (or TiLTed) multiple-choice questions would impact student performance. Ninety-two students in an introductory American Government class were randomly assigned “TiLTed” and “unTiLTed” versions of thirty-five test questions. Questions were “TiLTed” and “unTiLTed” in one of three ways—involving either (a) adding or eliminating unnecessarily difficult vocabulary from the stem; (b) adding or eliminating “all-of-the-above” and “none-of-the-above” answer options; or (c) adding or omitting additional cues or context. Statistical analysis showed that TiLTing questions generally increased student scores, with twelve questions showing positive statistical significance at …

Facing The Crises Of Higher Education: Reflections On A State University’S Experiment With Tilt, John Lejeune, Judy O. Grissett

Perspectives In Learning

Facing the Crises of Higher Education:

Reflections on a State University’s Experiment with TILT

Assessing Academic Advisement Preferences Among Master’S Students: A Modification Of The Prescriptive/Developmental Preference Scale, Marian "Gina" Sample

Theses and Dissertations

Academic advisement plays a significant role in enrollment retention and degree attainment. Little is known, however, about what master’s students want and need from their advisement experience, as most research on advisement preferences has focused on undergraduate students. The Prescriptive/Developmental Preference Scale (Yarbrough, 2010) was designed to assess students’ academic advisement preferences, particularly as they relate to prescriptive and developmental advisement. The author of the PDPS, which was piloted with undergraduate students, found that the instrument had construct validity issues, especially regarding the Prescriptive construct. This study aimed to modify and expand the PDPS to reliably assess master’s students’ advisement …

Gamification: Game-Based Learning / Serious Games And 21st Century Soft Skill Development In Nursing Education, Stephanie Marie Adams

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the development of 21st century skills through gamification, game-based learning (GBL), and serious games in nursing education in institutions of higher education in the United States. This paper reviews the history of gamification in nursing pedagogy through three domains of research. It includes an overview of research related to the development and implementation of gamification, GBL, and serious games in nursing education as well as the impact on the development of 21st century skills in digital natives. The focus was on the historical literature related to gamification, GBL, and serious games at institutions of higher education in …

The Effect Of Social Stratification On College Students' Academic Performance & Progress, Detrenyona Nekebra Chester

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study is to understand the variables of social stratification, academic performance, and academic progress and how those variables affect a student’s decision to drop out of college. The researcher selected participants for this study from the database at a 4-year private HBCU located in the northern part of Jacksonville Florida. Many students enrolled in college encounter outstanding tuition balances that threaten their ability to obtain adequate housing and remain actively enrolled in college. The researcher explored social stratification as measured by high school Title I status, academic performance as measured by overall institutional …

Agency Development Of Preservice Teachers Progressing Through An Undergraduate Education Program, Tracy Christina Stockdale

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests student achievement improves when teachers connect with their students and create lessons and instruction based on their needs (Hattie, 2003; Stronge, 2018). Unfortunately, educators throughout the United States report losing control over the educational decisions they make in their classrooms at startling rates (Ingersoll, 2011; Wright, 2020). A recent study by Ingersoll, Merrill, Stuckey, and Collins (2018) found that approximately 50% of educators leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. An analysis of the attrition data showed that teachers often leave the profession due to perceptions of low classroom autonomy (Ingersoll et al., 2018). The …

Building Resilient Business Students: Faculty As Servant Leaders, Jason L. Eliot, Holly Osburn

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the normal cadence of life. These disruptions affected students in higher education in many ways as well increasing the stress and anxiety levels of college students and having a considerable negative impact on their mental health. Business students were not exempt from the negative mental health impact of COVID-19.

Aware of the stress its students are experiencing, higher education can play a role in creating environments which support learning and the development of skills to rebound from that adversity. This is particularly true for business schools who are also monitoring how business itself is being affected …

The Effects Of Entrepreneurial Education On Haitian Entrepreneurs Of The Bel Initiative Program, Ronald Cetoute

Theses and Dissertations

Entrepreneurship is seen as a vehicle to improve the economy of communities and countries. BEL Initiative is a program that provides entrepreneurship education and resources to entrepreneurs based in Haiti. The program supports the ecosystem in Haiti with the intention to contribute to Haiti’s economy through education and promoting investment. Though the program seems to be helping educate entrepreneurs, what effects do participants of the BEL Initiative have on the Haitian economy? What do they take away from the program? Furthermore, what concepts and information are they able to apply in Haiti’s business environment from American influenced entrepreneurship education?

The …

Preparing Students For Civic Engagement In The Era Of `Fake News’, Nathan J. Combes

Perspectives In Learning

I recommend that instructors allow students to determine the content for Introduction to American Government. I also recommend that instructors assign students to conduct independent research on each unit of American Government rather than assigning a textbook. There are numerous benefits to implementing these practices. Students take ownership of their education and feel empowered to fill gaps in knowledge. Students are more prepared for class. It allows course content to match current events in real time. Students learn how to analyze the credibility of various sources. Class conversations are more dynamic. Students develop a better understanding of opinions that …

A Mathematics Teacher's Learning Through Reflection-In-Action, Theodore J. Rupnow, David Barker

Perspectives In Learning

In this study, I investigated the learning of one secondary mathematics teacher through observations in two class periods. I analyzed his learning in relation to the communities of practice framework and found reflection-in-action was instrumental in his learning. I characterized the teacher’s reflection-in-action with the descriptors: developmental, hypothetical, and experimental. Developmental reflection-in-action involved the development of new understandings or practices. Hypothetical reflection-in-action involved imagined future situations. Experimental reflection-in-action involved repeated trials. I propose that the use of a cycle of reflection-in-action in professional communities may have a positive impact on teacher learning.

Analogy Co-Construction As A Learning Strategy In Life-Span Development Classes, Joseph A. Mayo

Perspectives In Learning

Analogies are commonplace heuristic tools in classrooms across all educational levels and content areas. In the present investigation, analogy-enhanced learning was examined in relation to conceptual applications of major developmental theories in undergraduate life-span development classes. To this end, systematic comparisons were undertaken between a learning condition in which individual students created their own analogies and a learning condition involving analogy co-construction as generated by small groups of students working cooperatively. On all quantitative and qualitative measures, results favored group co-construction of analogies over self-generated analogy creation. Findings are discussed in terms of social-constructivist and transformative-learning principles.

Volume 19 Issue 1 Preliminary Pages, Jennifer Brown

Perspectives In Learning

n/a

Tools That Facilitate The Reflective Process: Supporting The Learning And Development Of College Educators, Rachel Wlodarsky

Perspectives In Learning

The author discusses an ongoing study that focuses on one particular concept, personal and professional reflection, as a means toward learning and development for educators working within the system of higher education. The purpose of this paper is to give greater attention to the tools component within the Event Path model, a reflective process that emerged from the data. Faculty members were asked to define reflection and discuss tools they use to facilitate their reflection. A thorough description of those tools and the characteristics associated with them is detailed. The author argues that faculty members and other professionals must realize …

Stand And Deliver: An Epistemologically-Driven Perspective Of College Lecture, Bonnie Bost Laster, Matthew Davis

Perspectives In Learning

Current pedagogical trends reveal lecture is steadily losing favor as contemporary techniques (e.g., constructivist, experiential, and flipped) gain popularity in higher education. While these techniques have merit and evidence for their use is compelling, we contend that lecture need not be abandoned entirely. With support from personal epistemological theories, as well as research on student preference, we purport that there is still a place for lecture in the modern academy. We consider students’ personal epistemological maturation during the college years; namely, the ways in which students view and construct their knowledge and beliefs. We posit that active lecture may be …