Education Commons^™

Data-Driven Iterative Refinements To Educational Development Services: Directly Measuring The Impacts Of Consultations On Course And Syllabus Design, Chad Hershock, Laura Ochs Pottmeyer, Jessica Harrell, Sophie Le Blanc, Marisella Rodriguez, Jacqueline Stimson, Katherine Phelps Walsh, Emily Daniels Weiss

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Evidence-based practice in educational development includes leveraging data to iteratively refine center for teaching and learning (CTL) services. However, CTL data collection is often limited to counts and satisfaction surveys rather than direct measures of outcomes. To directly assess impacts of consultations on course and syllabus design, we analyzed 94 clients’ syllabi (32 faculty, 62 graduate students and postdocs) before and after consultations. Faculty and non-faculty clients demonstrated significant change following consultations (6% and 10% gains in syllabus rubric scores, representing 50% and 31% of possible gains and effect sizes of 0.73 and 1.04 standard deviations, respectively). We compared faculty …

Transforming Departmental Culture: Empowering A Department Through Appreciative Inquiry, Symphony D. Oxendine, Kerry K. Robinson, Michele A. Parker

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article outlines an appreciative inquiry (AI) into a departmental professional development process and describes the resulting implementation of an appreciative peer evaluation meeting as one part of the new professional development process. Using AI, a departmental faculty development committee sought to re-envision the professional development process. Also, the authors discuss how using AI can result in positive impacts for culture change and how the model for peer evaluation can promote both individual and collective development of faculty.

Fellow Travelers: Taking Stock Of Faculty Fellows Programs In The Age Of Organizational Development, Susan A. Colby, Laura Cruz, Danielle Cordaro, Clare Cruz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty fellows have long served as a staple of centers for teaching and learning (CTLs), but to date little to no evidence has been gathered regarding their broader impact. The current study provides a snapshot of U.S.-based faculty fellows programs today, based on a comprehensive review of CTL websites. We categorize faculty fellows programs across five modalities that reflect decades of evolution and adaptation in the field of educational development. Our findings are intended to provide the foundation for new pathways of research, practice, and inquiry regarding the implementation of CTL fellowship programs.

Reflections On Pedagogical Practice And Development Through Multidisciplinary Triadic Peer Mentorship, Nicole Charles, Nathalie Moon, Andrew P. Dicks

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article presents a critical reflection on the experiences of three university instructors (two teaching stream and one tenure stream) within a 6-month peer-to-peer mentoring for teaching community of practice (P2P CoP). As part of the P2P CoP, the authors (who were previously unknown to one another) formed a “teaching triad” at a tri-campus, research-intensive Canadian university. They regularly met in person for 1 hour on a weekly basis throughout the Winter 2019 semester to discuss teaching-related matters, undertook classroom visits to observe one another teach, and participated in pedagogical workshops with other P2P CoP members. In this article, the …

Centering Black Women Faculty: Magnifying Powerful Voices, Christen Priddie, Dajanae Palmer, Samantha Silberstein, Allison Brckalorenz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

While much of the quantitative research on Black women faculty has taken a comparative approach to understanding their experiences, this study provides a counternarrative, centering their experiences as faculty. This large-scale, multi-institution glance at Black women faculty helps to give us an overview of these women across the country, looking at who they are, where they are, how they spend their time, and what they value in undergraduate education. This study allows us to strengthen various arguments made in qualitative studies of Black women faculty and amplify their perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, it reaffirms and reinvigorates the need for educational …

Discrimination In The Employment Search: Narratives From International Students Of Color, Yi Xuen Tay

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

International students are “taking away jobs from Americans” (Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, 2020). Such a narrative popularized by the previous Trump administration positioned international students in the U.S. as threats to the country, and in this case, American workers. This narrative also targeted existing immigration policies, Optional Practical Training (OPT) and H-1B Specialty Occupations work visa, for allowing international students/nonimmigrants to work in the U.S. Yet, this narrative failed to account to the employment search experiences of international students, or international Students of Color, the subject of this study. While OPT and H-1B present as opportunities for international students, …

Social Role And Role Congruity Influences On Perceived Value Of Women’S Leadership At Southwestern Research Universities, Stephanie J. Jones, Patricia Ryan Pal

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

This qualitative survey study, framed by social role and role congruity theories, explored the perceptions and experiences of 33 women faculty and academic administrators at doctoral-granting highest research-intensive universities located in the Southwestern region of the U.S. The purpose of the study was to expand on our understanding of how social role and role congruity theories can explain and further our understanding of how women are perceived to be valued as leaders in the higher education space, and how society supports this continued valuation. For purposes of this study, social value is explored through the operational processes of higher education …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2022

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Forum Essays on “The Value of Honors to its Graduates”: Authors: Paul Ewing, University of Toledo; Andy Walker, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Laura Barrett, LIU Brooklyn; John Major, Ohio State University; Teri Grieb, Columbia College, South Carolina; James A. Keller, University of Delaware; LLeweLLyn Cooper, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Ayesha Ahmed, Northeastern Illinois University; Mary Beth Messner, Youngstown State University; Eric W. Miller, West Virginia University; Sara McCane-Bowling, Eastern Kentucky University; Michelle Panuccio, Youngstown State University; Lia M. Shore, Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody; Jennifer N. Dulin, Texas A&M University; Pepper Hayes, …

Jnchc, Vol. 23, No. 1: Frontmatter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Front cover

Masthead, etc.

Contents

Call for papers

Editorial policy

Dedication: Anne N. Rinn

Editor’s introduction: Ada Long

Nefdc Exhange, Volume 36, Spring 2022, New England Faculty Development Consortium

NEFDC Exchange

Contents

President's Message, Annie Soisson

A faculty learning community on assessment and equity

Swimming with students: Organizing effective fishbowl discussions

Designers and deliverers: Undergraduates co-creating a flipped and blended college course

Subverting the dominant paradigm: Holistically fostering transformative learning

Additive assessment

Quick tips for teaching and faculty development

Faculty helping faculty: Ten minute takeaway

NEFDC Board members

Taking Teaching And Learning Seriously: Approaching Wicked Consciousness Through Collaboration And Partnership, Adam H. Smith, Laurie L. Grupp, Lindsay Doukopoulos, John C. Foo, Barbara J. Rodriguez, Janel Seeley, Linda M. Boland, Laurel L. Hester

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has demanded large-scale collaboration within all organizations, including higher education, and taking teaching and learning seriously, in this moment, means leveraging partnerships to address the wicked (large, complex) problems cited by Bass (2020). These problems are not ours alone to solve; rather, we make the case for a “wicked consciousness,” an amalgam of perspectives, in educational development. Guided by intellectual humility, our success as educational developers ought to be measured by the quality of our collaborations as well as our ability to learn with others, form equitable partnerships, and lead others by our example.

Wicked²: The Increasing Wickedness Of Educational Developers As Dei Cultural Influencers, Lauri Dietz, China M. Jenkins, Laura Cruz, Amber Handy, Rita Kumar, Rita Kumar, Julia Metzger, Ian Norris

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The global pandemic that began in 2020 amplified the chasm between higher education’s stated goals to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the systemic realities that many students, instructors, and staff grapple with on a daily basis. We contend that attenuating the barriers to DEI outcomes means first acknowledging that DEI is a wicked problem, in that it is impossible to solve because of competing, conflicting, and complex sociocultural forces from within and outside our institutions. We also contend that educational developers (EDs) are particularly well situated within the higher education ecology to be key cultural influencers in how …

Caring For Our Communities Of Practice In Educational Development, Christopher V. H.-H. Chen, Katherine Kearns, Lynn Eaton, Darren S. Hoffmann, Denise Leonard, Martin Samuels

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Given the backdrop of multiple concurring crises—a global pandemic, political instability and violence, and multiple structural inequalities—we see the problem of now as this: How do educational developers continue to address the wicked problems in teaching and learning when we are simply so exhausted? Our article presents the importance of communities of practice for educational developers, inviting us to witness and name the communities in which we belong; the important functions they engage; who they nurture and how; and what care is undertaken to sustain these groups and ourselves. To help educational developers understand and appreciate the ways that communities …

Contexts For Agency: A Framework For Managing Educational Development Work, Kathleen Landy, Anna L. Bostwick Flaming, Suzanne Tapp, Eric C. Kaldor

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Often working in multiple roles and operating at multiple scales, educational developers deal with layered tensions and a complex context that can be difficult for an individual or team to reconcile. In May 2020, the authors participated in a cross-institutional scholarly project, the Pandemic Educational Development Research Collaborative (PEDRC), designed to explore the impact of multiple crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic and our collective civil and political unrest) and associated large-scale instructional changes on educational developers and their work. The Contexts for Agency framework reflects the project’s emergent theme that the circumstances in which we act have considerable influence on …

Building Resilience In Ctls: Reflections On Practice, Lisa J. Hatfield, Julie Maxson, Jennifer Marshall Shinaberger, Hanna E. Norton, Cynthia (Cia) H. Demartino, Annette Finley-Crosswhite, Gigi Gokcek

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

What are the qualities of the “now” that make teaching and learning an urgent, if not a moral, imperative? A group of faculty, administrators, and educational developers respond to this question with individual narratives bound together by a common theme of reflective practice in times of crises to help faculty become more resilient in preparing for ongoing upheavals and unexpected crises while pursuing more inclusive communities. Our personal narratives reflect on the subjects of flexibility in the face of crises, technology and ethics, study abroad exposure to ethical challenges, students’ growing anxiety and mental health, modeling metacognition with peers and …

Toward Institutionalizing Successful Innovations In The Academy, Sarah B. Wise, Courtney Ngai, Joel Christopher Corbo, Mark A. Gammon, Jaclyn K. Rivard, Clara E. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Due to the “wicked problem” of the Academy’s resistance to innovation, new teaching and learning programs struggle to become integrated into the fabric of the Academy, which slows the uptake of evidence-based practices. This wicked problem is rooted in the lack of slow, intentional mechanisms for cultural change in the Academy. In this article, we analyze the institutionalization journey of the Departmental Action Team (DAT) project, which is a model for slow, intentional change. Over the last four years, partnering with two campus centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) allowed the DAT project to make institutionalization progress.

This analysis is …

The Lexicon Of Honors Education, Laura Barrett

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

The word of the year, as my LIU Brooklyn Honors Program peers and I would identify it in 1979, was “juxtaposition,” not a word I was very familiar with before entering college but one that was tossed about with abandon by professors in my first-year seminars (including Bernice Braid, director and co-founder of the LIU Brooklyn Honors Program) and that would become a close friend by …

Jnchc 23:1 Backmatter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

about the research authors

about the nchc monograph series

NCHC Monographs & Journals

NCHC Publications Order Form

In This Issue

Forging An Honors Bond, Taylor C. Bybee

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Standing in line at the local fire station, my wife and I were waiting for our COVID-19 inoculations. The firefighters had been commissioned to administer the vaccines. Health department workers were examining paperwork, and volunteers were guiding patrons through the line. Looking around while trying to manage our children, I noticed a volunteer with a familiarlooking face, half-concealed by a mask. I had not seen the …

The Honors Connection: Openness And Empathy, Samantha Bronow

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I entered college as a performing arts major and graduated with a degree in economics, a rather seismic shift at face value. College is a time of great exploration and soul-searching, and while such freedom is exhilarating, it is often very stressful to sort through constantly evolving goals. Despite transitioning through three different majors, I was able to graduate in four years as planned, largely thanks …

A Bridge To Belonging, Angeline Best

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Growing up as a child of immigrants in a predominantly white community, I felt the tension of an identity crisis early on. I remember being the only Vietnamese person in my class and having to explain why my mom packed me rice for lunch instead of sandwiches. I remember not being able to make friends easily at school, instead seeking out other Vietnamese children down the …

From Community Service And Advocacy To A Life Of Civil Service, Autumn Barszczowski

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

The value of an honors education goes far beyond a specific honors course or project as students gain valuable skills that impact both their personal and professional life. In the almost three years since graduating university, I still find that my honors education has impacted my outlook on life and how I approach various situations in my day-to-day life. After graduation, I decided to pursue a …

My Honors Experience As Authentic To My Life, Ayesha Ahmed

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Me, Snoop, And Rich Old People, Or Intersectionality And Its Impending Effect On Paradigm Shaping And Life Trajectory, Llewellyn Cooper

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

T he UAB HP transformed me. It really started with an article—two articles—in a Vibe Magazine I was given by the HP Director. The September 1993 issue included two people— one of whom I did not previously know existed—who would change my paradigm. As a 21-year-old from North Birmingham, I was all about Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, and hard-core hip hop, and that article about the old …

The Spark Of Reimagination, Corey D. Clawson

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Each experience was a thrilling opportunity to reimagine the world. The honors program at Utah State University presented my peers and me with challenge after challenge to envision the world through new eyes. Journalism historian Mike Sweeney offered perspectives for understanding global conflict and everyday communication in his Propaganda, Persuasion, and Censorship honors seminar, offered in 2003 as the U.S. was attempting to justify the decision …

Gadgets And Gizmos, Seth Blanton

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Life in honors largely took place in a lounge on the first floor of the Liberal Arts building. Students congregated after, before, and in-between classes, discussing life, school, love, food, and all things in between. Discussions veered into decisions—courses, graduate school, love, and food. That is to say, through its organization, location, and design honors, examined life fastidiously and fatuously. Honors provided community and guidance. It also introduced us to ideas, books, movies, and people that otherwise would have been absent from our educations. Many of the books have faded from my memory, but the people and ideas continue to …

The Secret Of Honors Education: Driven By Discourse, Depth Of Disciplines, And Dedication To Diversity, Merry Benner Chiu

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

The Dean of my undergraduate Honors College disguised a very clever secret right in plain sight of his students. What we thought to be a well-rounded, four-year education was, in reality, so much more: a carefully cultivated undergraduate program that propelled us into an engaged adulthood driven by meaningful discourse, appreciation for a breadth and depth of disciplines, and an unyielding dedication to diversity. My honors …

From Jersey Shore To Ap Lit Teacher, Ashley Gerstle

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

My undergraduate experience was mundane, average, and boring. I excelled academically, a little too easily. I could skip the readings and ace my classes half asleep. It was a normal experience for me to write entire papers an hour before the due date and receive As. In one instance a professor publicly recognized me as having written the best paper in the entire class. I beamed …

Ten Of Ten, Would Recommend, Jamie Beason

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I sit on the Honors College Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, my alma mater, where I participated in the Business and University Honors Programs from 2004 through 2008. My first draft of this essay was written before listening to a current honors student describe how University Honors is impacting their life. In that moment, I quickly realized that what they were …

Interdisciplinary Survival, Paul Ewing

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In 1966, the University of Toledo Honors Program encouraged students to create their college curriculum. As a result, I created an interdisciplinary major in Russian studies. When confronted with different disciplinary approaches, goals, and values, students must think outside the boxes. Interdisciplinary studies generate critical thinking, flexibility, and creativity. Russian language, history, and political science raised questions about the relationships between culture, political theory, and historical …