Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

The Digital Academy: Preparing Faculty For Digital Course Development, Sunay V. Palsole, Beth L. Brunk-Chavez

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

New generations of learners necessitate new ways of teaching, and hybrid courses can help institutions leverage technologies to improve teaching and learning. The adoption of a new instructional paradigm, however, requires attention to the facuity’s ability to create and deliver effective courses. The University of Texas at El Paso has developed the Digital Academy to help facuity interweave online elements with face-to-face teaching. The model is pliable and portable in its application to other universities.

Peer Review Across Disciplines: Improving Student Performance In The Honors Humanities Classroom, Julie M. Barst, April Brooks, Leda Cempellin, Barb Kleinjan

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The term “peer review” often elicits a negative response from teachers and students alike. The process involves numerous challenges; anyone who has used the technique knows that students often feel awkward giving feedback to their peers and even more uncomfortable accepting the advice of peers in a classroom setting. They hesitate to voice negatives about performance, possibly because they doubt their own reaction to the material presented or fear that, in retaliation, they will be rated poorly as well. In addition, when teachers fail to establish and communicate clearly defined expectations, student authors do not produce high-quality drafts, and student …

Writing Groups For Work-Life Balance: Faculty Writing Group Leaders Share Their Stories, Dannielle Joy Davis, Kara Provost, Amanda E. Major

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty writing groups can promote both the work-life balance and productivity of members of the professoriate. The benefits of such development initiatives expand beyond productivity to include retention, promotion, and improved teaching. Through the development of writing groups, faculty developers can empower faculty to meet research obligations, establish equilibrium in their work practices, and maintain work-life balance.

The Citizenship Imperative And The Role Of Faculty Development, Jeffrey L. Bernstein, Rebecca S. Nowacek, Michael B. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

By teaching the capacity for citizenship across the curriculum, colleges and universities can better serve their role as socially responsive institutions. We argue that citizenship themes can be more central to a wide variety of classes, including some in disciplines not considered traditional homes for civic education. Faculty development centers can play a critical role in helping facuity integrate citizenship into the curriculum and evaluate the learning that occurs in their citizenship-oriented classes. We offer guidelines for how learning communities can best serve these purposes.

Enhancing Out-Of-Class Communication: Students' Perspectives, Bonnie S. Farley-Lucas, Margaret M. Sargent

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Out-of-class communication between faculty and students is linked to student learning, engagement, and success. As the source for mentoring, advising, and supplemental instruction, out-of-class communication and its barriers require explicit attention. Using a faculty-student collaborative research approach, we interviewed a diverse group of thirty-three undergraduates regarding behaviors, statements, and practices that contributed to or discouraged out-of-class communication. We found that in-class communication sets the stage for whether students approach faculty outside class and that faculty misbehaviors and disconfirming communication in class almost inevitably lead to out-of-class avoidance.

Effecting Change In Limited-Control Classroom Environments: A Case Study, Allison P. Boye

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many instructors face the dilemma of possessing little control over their own curriculum or even their own pedagogy. This chapter examines three instructors who were teaching the same course over several years, facing the same problematic issues beyond their control, and describes the role of faculty developers in helping effect practical change for those instructors and for the course. The findings of this study, using longitudinal data derived from student evaluations and qualitative responses from instructor interviews, suggest that faculty developers can help instructors realize change on an individual level as well as at the department and big-picture levels.

An Honors Alumni Mentor Program At Butler University, Jaclyn Dowd, Lisa Markus, Julie Schrader, Anne M. Wilson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Butler University is a comprehensive master’s university of approximately 4,000 undergraduate students with five colleges: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the College of Education; the College of Business; the Jordan College of Fine Arts; and the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The Butler University Honors Program is an interdisciplinary program open to undergraduates from all five colleges. Incoming students admitted to Butler who meet certain benchmark requirements (1320/30 or higher SAT/ACT or top five percent of graduating class) are invited to apply to our honors program. If students perform well in their first year at the university, …

Table Of Contents

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Editorial Policy

Submission Guidelines

Dedication to Vishnu Narain Bhatia

Editor’s Introduction • Ada Long

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

A Penny’s Worth of Reflections on Honors Education • John Zubizarreta

ON COLLABORATIVE COURSE PROJECTS

Into the Afterlife and Back with Honors Students • Kateryna A R Schray

The Last Class: Critical Thinking, Reflection, Course Effectiveness, and Student Engagement • Elizabeth Bleicher

Designing a Collaborative Blog about Student Success • Melissa L Johnson, Alexander S Plattner, and Lauren Hundley

ON CURRICULUM

Why Honors Students Still Need First-Year Composition • Annmarie Guzy

Rethinking Asian Studies in the …

Institutional Encouragement Of And Faculty Engagement In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning, Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Tony Ribera

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Framed by Huber and Hutchings’s defining features of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), the study described in this chapter examines institutional encouragement of and faculty engagement in SoTL. Faculty at forty-nine U.S. colleges and universities participating in the 2009 Faculty Survey of Student Engagement completed items about SoTL. Results suggest that institutional encouragement of and faculty engagement in the public dissemination of teaching investigations lag behind encouragement and engagement in other aspects of SoTL. Some faculty subgroups (among them, women and faculty in education) on average feel more institutional encouragement and engage in SoTL activities more than their …

Defining Critical Thinking In Higher Education: Determining Assessment Fit, Martha L. A. Stassen, Anne Herrington, Laura Henderson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Critical thinking is an important learning outcome for higher education, yet the definitions used on campuses and national assessment instruments vary. This article describes a mapping technique that faculty and administrators can use to evaluate the similarities and differences across these definitions. Results demonstrate that the definitions reflected by standardized tests are more narrowly construed than those of the campus and leave dimensions of critical thinking unassessed. This mapping process not only helps campuses make better-informed decisions regarding their responses to accountability pressures; it also provides a stimulus for rich, evidence-based discussions about teaching and learning priorities related to critical …

Academic Dishonesty Among International Students In Higher Education, Krishna K. Bista

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

University instructors address and want to eschew student academic misconduct. These educators presume that students understand fully what cheating and plagiarism are. However, the issue of academic dis-honesty among international students is complex and difficult. This study investigated the perceptions of international undergraduate and graduate students in a southern U.S. university about possible causes for academic misbehavior. Results reveal several causal variables: previous learning style, English language proficiency, unfamiliarity with American academic cultures, relationship between student and teacher, and availability of technical and educational resources associated with academic dishonesty.

Why Honors Students Still Need First-Year Composition, Annmarie Guzy

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Let me be among the first to welcome you to the honors program at Regional Public University. During your orientation today, you will be registering for your fall semester courses, and as you browse through the class listings, let me strongly recommend that you include first-year Honors Composition in your schedule even if you have taken AP English Literature and Composition or English Language and Composition courses and exams.

According to the College Board, the company that administers the Advanced Placement program, enrollment in AP has increased dramatically over the past decade. As you can see in Table 1 below, …

Forty Percent Of 2 Million: Preparing To Serve Our Veterans With Disabilities, Bruce C. Kelley, Emetta L. Fox, Justin M. Smith, Lisa A. Wittenhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

On August 1, 2009, the Post-9111 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 was passed, and as a result, almost 2 million veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will soon enroll in postsecondary education. Up to 40 percent of these veterans are estimated to have disabilities. This chapter examines some of the characteristics of this group, the challenges that veterans face as they transition into life as college students, and how faculty developers can help faculty better serve these incoming veterans.

Working Effectively With Psychologically Impaired Faculty, Carolyn B. Oxenford, Sally L. Kublenschmidt

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

More than one-fourth of all residents of the United States experience mental health disorders in any given year. Evidence suggests that faculty are more likely to suffer from psychological impairment than the general population. This chapter reviews evidence on faculty stress and impairment and helps facuity developers recognize signs that mental health issues may be affecting faculty performance. It also will help faculty developers understand legal issues in relation to facuity impairment and help them work effectively with colleagues who are coping with psychological impairments.

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Honors in Practice Online Archive

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NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL MONOGRAPHS & JOURNALS

Into The Afterlife And Back With Honors Students, Kateryna Schray

Honors in Practice Online Archive

One of the best and funniest student evaluations I have ever received read: “if this professor taught a course on Hell and how to get there I would take it.” This generous compliment sounded like a good course idea, and a year or so later, Dr. Caroline Perkins and I successfully proposed an honors seminar called “Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory in Literature and Culture.” Like other programs described in previous issues of Honors in Practice, the Marshall University Honors Program is built on team-taught interdisciplinary seminars— in this case Classics and English—and emphasizes student leadership and collaborative learning.

Presumably …

Self As Text: Adaptations Of Honors Practice, Michaela Ruppert Smith

Honors in Practice Online Archive

City as Text™, the experiential learning program developed by the NCHC Honors Semesters Committee, has been adopted and adapted by hundreds if not thousands of educational institutions throughout the United States and beyond. Having served on the Honors Semesters Committee, I exported this learning strategy to Switzerland when I took a teaching position in the International Baccalaureate Program of the Collège du Léman in Geneva. I adapted City as Text™ for multi-disciplinary college preparatory students in Europe, and that adaptation might now serve in turn as a model for experiential learning in honors programs and colleges back in the United …

Diffusing The Impact Of Tokenism On Faculty Of Color, Yolanda Flores Niemann

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In addition to the expected challenges related to teaching, research, service, and the tenure and promotion process, faculty of color often experience the impact of token status, or tokenism.. This chapter describes the personal, psychological, and career-damaging impacts of tokenism and provides guidelines for professional development professionals that may diffuse these negative impacts by assisting department heads to mentor faculty of color.

Difficult Dialogues And Transformational Change Through Cross–Cultural Faculty Development, Elizabeth Roderick

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Across the globe, our current way of life is taking us to the edge of the cliff The systems and consciousness that we have used to try to solve problems are not working. Young people need to think and work in new ways.

Go For The Gold: Fundraising For Teaching Centers, Mark A. Hohnstreiter, Tara Gray

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

At New Mexico State University Teaching Academy, we have developed a comprehensive model to raise funds from faculty and others for our teaching center, which has resulted in a culture of giving. The payoff from a fundraising effort is huge, not only in terms of money, but in terms of the personal investment of participants, both valuable in difficult economic times. We explain in this chapter how to establish a fundraising program so that your teaching center can go for the gold.