Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons^™

Writing Majors: Eighteen Program Profiles, By Greg Giberson, Jim Nugent, And Lori Ostergaard, Cheryl Hofstetter Duffy

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Giberson, Greg, Jim Nugent, and Lori Ostergaard, ed. Writing Majors: Eighteen Program Profiles. Logan: Utah State UP, 2015. What does a writing major look like? In Writing Majors: Eighteen Program Profiles, Greg Giberson et al. have compiled a diverse and detailed collection of answers to that question. The book’s plural title, Writing Majors, is apt, for this is not a description of the writing major; instead, we find little consensus among the many programs outlined here. The notion of a writing major, it turns out, is amorphous. Sometimes a writing major is housed in its own department, as are the …

The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging And Other Behavioral Strategies Can Improve Education, By Benjamin Castleman, Amanda Fields

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Castleman, Benjamin J. The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging and Other Behavioral Strategies Can Improve Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. 152 p. ISBN 978I421418742. $22.95. In The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging and Other Behavioral Strategies Can Improve Education, Benjamin J. Castleman offers specific approaches for recruiting and retaining college students, especially those students whose socioeconomic conditions may deter them from making informed choices about their education. Castleman asks university stakeholders to be cognizant of the overabundance of information students and their families must wade through when seeking out a university. He suggests the need for more effective …

The Impact Of Transdisciplinary Threshold Concepts On Student Engagement In Problem-Based Learning: A Conceptual Synthesis, Maggi Savin-Baden

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

There has been much recent discussion about student engagement in higher education, and in the last few years a number of authors have undertaken extensive international research on the topic, which has been summarized in a number of literature reviews. However, to date, there has been relatively little in-depth exploration of student engagement in problem-based learning (PBL) or the impact of different forms of engagement on distinct forms of PBL. Drawing on a number of studies over the last 15 years, this paper argues that student engagement in PBL can be troublesome as both a concept and a practice. It …

Surfing Around The Country, Learning About Teaching And Learning, John C. Bird, Teaching And Learning Center

The Weekly Reader

This week, surfing the web to find resources to make us better teachers. There’s a lot out there!

Oh What A Mistake We Make When We Assume We Know What Our Students Know How To Do…And What To Do About It, John C. Bird, Teaching And Learning Center

The Weekly Reader

This week, making assumptions about what students can and can’t do, and what to do about that.

University Rankings: Evidence And A Conceptual Framework, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jacob Fowles, H. George Frederickson

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated …

Principles And Practices Fostering Inclusive Excellence: Lessons From The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’S Capstone Institutions, Patricia Marten Dibartolo, Leslie Gregg-Jolly, Deborah Gross, Cathryn A. Manduca, Ellen Iverson, David B. Cooke Iii, Gregory K. Davis, Cameron Davidson, Paul E. Hertz, Lisa Hibbard, Shubha K. Ireland, Catherine Mader, Aditi Pai, Shirley Raps, Kathleen Siwicki, Jim E. Swartz

Publications and Research

Best-practices pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aims for inclusive excellence that fosters student persistence. This paper describes principles of inclusivity across 11 primarily undergraduate institutions designated as Capstone Awardees in Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) 2012 competition. The Capstones represent a range of institutional missions, student profiles, and geographical locations. Each successfully directed activities toward persistence of STEM students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, through a set of common elements: mentoring programs to build community; research experiences to strengthen scientific skill/ identity; attention to quantitative skills; and outreach/bridge programs to broaden the student pool. This paper …

Critical Pedagogy And The Information Cycle: A Practical Application, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, Frances Suderman

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Reflecting On The Red Balloon Project, George L. Mehaffy

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

On a warm July afternoon in 2010, AASCU convened its Academic Affairs Summer Meeting in Chicago. The hotel ballroom had a festive look about it, with red balloons hanging from every imaginable place. At that conference, we used the red balloons to announce the launch of the Red Balloon Project, a national initiative focused on reimagining undergraduate education. The Red Balloon Project grew out of three critical challenges for AASCU institutions: declining state support, increasing expectations, and dramatic changes in technology. The year 2010 witnessed an acceleration of disinvestment in public higher education as states, struggling with the consequences of …

The Puzzle Of The Class Personality—Why Is This Section So Lively, And Why Is This Other One So Dead?, John C. Bird

The Weekly Reader

This week, trying to solve the puzzle of class personalities.

A Context For Extramural Funding At State Comprehensive Universities: Tilting At Windmills Or Fighting The Good Fight?, John Falconer

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Once upon a time, colleges hired professors to teach students. It was a simple world. But in the 1800s, the German model of higher education began to influence American higher education, and we embraced the notion of faculty members who would both develop knowledge and transmit it to students. This expanded the job of the professor considerably, although the spread of this model across higher education was gradual. Indeed, it is still underway. Despite the widely held notion that a faculty member who is engaged in his or her discipline offers more to a department and to students than someone …

Freedom Through Inquiry, Francis Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

I delivered this speech at the Inquiry‐Based Learning Forum & 19th Annual Legacy of R.L. Moore Conference on August 4, 2016. It is partly an homage to an influential teacher, partly an excuse to articulate what makes some styles of teaching so effective, and partly an excuse to talk about difficult issues facing our nation and our classrooms today.

Cultivating Minority Scientists: Undergraduate Research Increases Self-Efficacy And Career Ambitions For Underrepresented Students In Stem, Anthony Carpi, Darcy M. Ronan, Heather M. Falconer, Nathan H. Lents

Publications and Research

In this study, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) is used to explore changes in the career intentions of students in an undergraduate research experience (URE) program at a large public minority-serving college. Our URE model addresses the challenges of establishing an undergraduate research program within an urban, commuter, underfunded, Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). However, our model reaches beyond a focus on retention and remediation toward scholarly contributions and shifted career aspirations. From a student’s first days at the College to beyond their graduation, we have encouraged them to explore their own potential as scientists in a coordinated, sequential, and self-reflective process. …

Cool Newsletter, Fall 2016, Coastal Office Of Online Learning

Coastal Office of Online Learning/Digital Learning Publications

No abstract provided.

Learning Styles Of Physical Therapy And Physical Therapist Assistant Students In Accredited Physical Therapy Programs, Margaret A. Lowdermilk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students and associate degree Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) students and identify any association between their learning styles and examine the association between gender and age by learning style.

Participants included 337 DPT and PTA students attending CAPTE accredited institutions with doctoral DPT or associate PTA programs in Tennessee and southwest Virginia. The Felder (1996) and Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) was used to determine learning style preferences within 4 learning style dimensions (active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, visual-verbal, and sequential-global).

Demographics included program of study, …

Social Justice And The Future Of Higher Education Kinesiology, Brian Culp

Faculty Articles

This article presents a rationale for the infusion of social justice into kinesiology programs for the purpose of reducing inequities in society. Specifically, the current climate for social justice is considered and discussed using examples from an university-inspired service-learning initiative, law, and politics. Of note are the following areas of discussion: (a) differentiation between social diversity and social justice, (b) public pedagogy as a means by which to inspire service action, (c) the creation of climates for speech and application of social justice, (d) modeling and socialization for equity, and (e) the neoliberal threat to inclusiveness. The article concludes with …

Quizmastery: Students As Bloggers And Testers In Pursuit Of Grammatical Competence, Sue Norton, Odette Gabaudan

Articles

This article considers the challenges confronted by instructors of composition and writing skills in higher education. Identifying key aspects of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, it argues that a grammatically informed terminology is helpful to learner-writers endeavouring to improve the clarity of their written assignments. To aid assimilation of this terminology, and the concepts it signifies, e-learning tools can be integrated into the curriculum so that students can consolidate knowledge through their own construction of it. As they create blogs and peer to peer quizzes, they become more theoretically and practically informed about the basis of effective writing practices.

Quantitative Literacy At Michigan State University, 3: Designing General Education Mathematics Courses, Samuel L. Tunstall, Vincent Melfi, Jeffrey Craig, Richard Edwards, Andrew Krause, Bronlyn Wassink, Victor Piercey

Numeracy

In this paper, we describe the process at Michigan State University whereby we have created two courses, Math 101 and 102, designed to foster numeracy and alleviate mathematics anxiety. The courses--which are not sequential--provide a means of satisfying the University's general education requirement without taking college algebra or calculus, among other options. They are context-driven and broken into modules such as "The World and Its People" and "Health and Risk." They have been highly successful thus far, with students providing positive feedback on their interest in the material and the utility they see of it in their daily lives. We …

Grassroots Numeracy, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

The readers and authors of papers in Numeracy compose a multidisciplinary grassroots interest group that is defining and illustrating the meaning, content, and scope of quantitative literacy (QL) and how it intersects with educational goals and practice. The 161 Numeracy papers that have been produced by this QL community were downloaded 42, 085 times in a total of 178 countries, including all 34 OECD countries, during 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. A scatterplot of normalized downloads per month vs. normalized total downloads for the eight years of Numeracy’s life allows identification of the 24 “most popular” of …

Commentary: Posing Questions To Support And Challenge -- A Guide For Mentoring Staff, Suzanne T. Nevers, Sherri Melrose

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Staff development educators seeking to mentor health care practitioners towards thinking more critically may integrate a questioning approach into their teaching. However, posing questions that both support and challenge learners is an intentional process. This article provides an overview of the contextual considerations, dynamics and mechanics that educators need to understand in order to pose high level questions that invite learners to engage in reflection, problem solving and evidence informed practice. The approaches are framed from a constructivist theoretical perspective, a mentoring model of instruction and Socratic dialogue. The suggestions are practical mentoring strategies that can be readily integrated into …