Other Education Commons^™

Extended Instruction In Business Courses To Enhance Student Achievement In Math, Lessie Mcnabb Houseworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poor achievement on standardized math tests negatively impacts high school graduation rates. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate if math instruction in business classes could improve student achievement in math. As supported by constructivist theory, the students in this study were encouraged to use prior knowledge and experiences to make new connections between math concepts and business applications. The key research question examined if there was a significant increase in the standardized mathematics test scores of students enrolled in business classes with extended mathematics instruction compared to the standardized test scores of students not enrolled in business …

Assessing Student Leadership Competencies And Adequacy Of Preparation In Seminary Training, Valerie Miles-Tribble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As more seminary student-practitioners seek non-pastoral leadership roles in faith-based

and secular organizations, the complexities of the roles demand leadership competencies beyond traditional religious study. Limited research assessing leadership competencies in seminary contexts raises uncertainty about whether leadership preparation needs are addressed adequately in seminary. This quantitative study focused on whether or not student self-assessed adequacy of preparation is related to, affected by, or influenced by self-assessed leadership competencies, individually or in the aggregate. The theoretical foundation joined Evers, Rush, and Berdrow's learner-centered theory that urges student input on competency development needs and Boyatzis's leadership competency theory that frames a …

Systems Alignment For Comprehensive Faculty Development In Liberal Arts Colleges, Vicki L. Baker, Laura G. Lunsford, Meghan J. Pifer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Using an alignment framework, the authors explore faculty development initiatives in liberal arts colleges in order to understand the connection between organizational priorities and processes as connected to faculty members’ stated needs. The study draws on mixed methods data from The Initiative for Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges (IFDLAC), including survey andinterview data from the 13 member institutions of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA).The authors offer future implications for faculty development practice.

Flipping The Mindset: Reframing Fear And Failure To Catalyze Development, Diane E. Boyd, Josie Baudier, Traci Stromie

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Despite the attempts to target success and predisposition to taking risks to promote innovation, sometimes educational developers encounter moments where they fail to meet expectations set forth—by their institutions, colleagues, or themselves. Attempts to avoid potential failures can stymie the creative process, preventing them from meeting difficult challenges. What can be done to catalyze useful responses to failure when events and interactions do not go according to plan? Most researchers suggest reflecting on the failure in order to grow. To assist, a field tested reflective process (the IDeAS process) that helps flip the approach to failure and move toward the …

Creating A Supportive Teaching Culture In The Research University Context: Strategic Partnering And Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between A Teaching Centerand Academic Units, Marie Kendall Brown, Patricia A. S. Ralston, Kathy B. Baumgartner, Melissa A. Schreck

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This paper describes 2 “strategic partnering” and “interdisciplinary collaboration” case studies between a Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and an academic unit at a mid-sized metropolitan research university in the American Midwest. These faculty development partnerships were developed to meet the unique needs of faculty members who share a discipline area, present current information on specific teaching topics in order to deepen pedagogical knowledge and skills, provide opportunities for faculty to form a collegial group, and advance unit-specific goals relative to faculty development. The work is grounded in literature about the characteristics of a supportive teaching culture, characteristics of …

Encouraging Faculty Attendance At Professional Development Events, Dakin Burdick, Tim Doherty, Naomi Schoenfeld

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

For faculty development events to have the greatest impact on campus practice, faculty developers need to attract and include as many faculty members as possible at their events. This article describes the testing of a checklist regarding faculty attendance at professional development events through a survey of 238 faculty members at small colleges in the United States. The results demonstrate the influence of social relationships upon faculty attendance at teaching and learning events, the difficulties of scheduling such events, and motivational differences between full-time and adjunct faculty. The use of food as a motivator for attendance is also appraised. The …

Mentoring Within A Community Of Practice For Faculty Development: Adding Value To A Ctl Role, Patricia E. Calderwood, Suzanna Klaf

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

E. R. Smith, P. E. Calderwood, F. Dohm, and P. Gill Lopez’s (2013) model of integrated mentoring within a community of practice framework draws attention to how mentoring as practice, identity, and process gives shape and character to a community of practice for higher education faculty and alerts us to several challenges such a framework makes visible. In this exploratory study, we apply the model, and the consideration of the challenges it highlights, to consider how mentoring might figure in and configure a community of practice for faculty development localized in a university Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for …

A View From The Margins: Situating Ctl Staff In Organizational Development, Emily O. Gravett, Lindsay Bernhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The authors explore assumptions that underlie work on organizational development in their field, which reveal hierarchical and homogenizing tendencies, despite commitments to inclusivity. Given that the aim of recent literature, such as Schroeder and Associates’ Coming in from the Margins, is to situate educational developers in relation to organizational development, and given the field’s values, then both staff and directors must be considered. The authors examine how the margins can be valuable sites of knowledge production, highlighting the ways staff might contribute to organizational development. The authors hope that readers will gain several ideas for how to incorporate staff into …

A Worthy Asset: The Adjunct Faculty And The Influences On Their Job Satisfaction, Telvis Rich

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The author explored the intrinsic factors that foster job satisfaction of adjunct faculty members working in the southeastern United States. The literature concerning adjunct work experiences is limited, although adjuncts comprise the great majority of the faculty pool in many community and technical colleges. Twenty-seven adjuncts’ work experiences were examined to identify the key intrinsic workplace factors that impact their job satisfaction. Data were collected concerning the adjuncts’ work environment; professional relationships with administrators, students, and fellow adjuncts; and the overall perceptions on job satisfaction. The findings, implications of the study, limitations of the study, and recommendations for improved adjunct …

Teaching Renewal For Midcareer Faculty: Attending To The Whole Person, Catherine Ross

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In light of the research on the distinct needs of mid-career faculty and the pressures faced by this group in the academy, we offer here an example of an educational development effort that looks at the renewal of teaching through the lens of renewing the whole person in his/her academic roles.Opportunities for mid-career faculty to focus on renewal in a holistic way are few, so this model, The Graylyn Teaching Renewal Retreat, was designed and developed as an annual opportunity for faculty from diverse institutions and disciplines.

Unpacking And Communicating The Multidimensional Mission Of Educational Development: A Mission Matrix Tool For Centers Of Teaching And Learning, Connie Schroeder

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In recent decades, the work of educational developers in Centers of Teaching and Learning (CTLs) is complex and diverse. The wide range of services and programs makes it difficult understand the mission and purpose of CTLs and communicate this effectively. The Center Mission Matrix Tool enables analysis and articulation of all facets of the Center’s mission. Juxtaposing the Center mission with three levels of impact—individual, departmental, and institutional—the Matrix adapts to each Center construct and provides a visual snapshot to multiple audiences, including the field of educational development, institutional stakeholders, and to the Center staff for internal purposes.

Negotiating A Seat At The Table: Questions To Guide Institutional Involvement, Gregory J. Siering, Suzanne Tapp, Debra Rudder Lohe, Micah Meixner Logan

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In addition to traditional roles, educational developers increasingly find themselves considering their involvement in issues of institutional change. However, this evolution leads to new challenges as educational developers attempt to discern whether and how to be involved inparticular organizational change efforts. This chapter provides a framework that can help centers of all types reflect on the broader risks and rewards of institution-level leadership. Through a series of context-based reflective questions, the authors hope to promote strategic thinking among educational developers (particularly center directors) and to spur new questions and research as our field continues to evolve.

A Teaching Conference Of One’S Own: Inviting Faculty Into The Scholarly Work Of Teaching, Julie Sievers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay examines the value of creating a peer-reviewed conference on teaching at one’s own campus. A conference created by faculty and for faculty is an effective way to address several challenges faced by many teaching centers, especially the challenge of involving a wide range of faculty in scholarly approaches to teaching. I cite experience and data from my center’s work in this area over the past six years and contextualize it amidst the literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Implementing A University Wide Change Initiative, Ronald A. Styron Jr.

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This paper provides an account of the pilot and first year of a university improvement initiative, developed in response to a reaffirmation mandate from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The initiative focused on increasing student retention and enhancing learning through the campus-wide use of team-based learning (TBL) (Michaelsen, Knight, & Fink, 2004). The strategy used in implementing the initiative was based on a conceptual framework created from the integration of E. M. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory (2003), J. P. Kotter’s Leading Change strategies (1996), and T. Littman’s Planning Principles and Practices (2013). To date, …

Overcoming Pedagogical Solitude: The Transformative Power Of Discipline Specific Faculty Learning Communities, Mariela Tovar, Rosalie Jukier, Jennie Ferris, Kristen Cardoso

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article describes a multiyear Faculty Learning Community (FLC) program as a strategy to overcome pedagogical solitude (Shulman, 1993) in a discipline specific context. Participant interviews shed light on their FLC experiences and perceived impact on their teaching and students’ learning. Grounded within the particularities of the disciplinary context and based on the results of interviews reflecting a highly positive experience, key factors that had a major role in the success of the FLCs are articulated, framed within V. Lee, M. Hyman, and G. Luginbuhl’s (2007) concept of readiness. The authors also suggest contextual questions to consider when transferring their …

Developmental Stages Of New Graduate Student Instructional Consultants: Implications For Professional Growth, Mary C. Wright, Laura N. Schram, Kristen S. Gorman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Effective consulting is a key skill for educational developers. Although most educational developers are new to the field, there is limited research about how new practitioners develop consulting skills. The key research question this study explores is: How do new graduate teaching consultants develop as practitioners? This study empirically applies several “classic” models of consulting to better understand new consultants’ perceived development of expertise, preferred consulting approaches, and reflection about them. The findings are generally confirmatory of the ways that classic frameworks map onto the development of consultants. They also suggest greater attention to supporting new consultants beyond “getting started,” …

The Cultural Adaptation Process During A Short-Term Study Abroad Experience In Swaziland, Nathan W. Conner, T Grady Roberts

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

Globalization continuously shapes our world and influences post-secondary education. This study explored the cultural adaptation process of participants during a short-term study abroad program. Participants experienced stages which included initial feelings, cultural uncertainty, cultural barriers, cultural negativity, academic and career growth, feelings throughout the program, and cultural growth. The findings from this study should be used to design and implement short-term study abroad programs that infuse cultural learning with academic learning and focus on experiential learning practices.

Outdoor Education Integrated Curriculum Program Impact On Adolescent Self-Authorship, Amanda Lee Mcgowan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

One of the challenges currently faced by secondary schools is to teach 21st century skills, such as self-authorship. Self-authorship is the command of one’s life, or the capacity to invent one’s beliefs, identity, and relationships with others. This study investigated the impact a one-semester outdoor education program has on adolescents’ perceived self-authorship development, as measured by the 27-item self-report Self-Authorship Questionnaire (SAQ). The sample population (n=26) for this study was made up of 10th and 12th grade students from two classes of one-semester outdoor education programs at a public secondary school in Ontario, Canada. Analysis of paired t-tests of the …

Success After Failure: Academic Effects And Psychological Implications Of Early Universal Algebra Policies, Keith Howard, Martin Romero, Allison Scott, Derrick Saddler

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the authors use the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) national database to analyze the relationships between algebra failure, subsequent performance, motivation, and college readiness. Students who failed eighth-grade Algebra I did not differ significantly in mathematics proficiency from those who passed lower-level courses, but initially demonstrated significantly lower mathematics interest, mathematics utility, and mathematics identity. Both groups were less likely than the general population to meet college requirements in the eleventh grade, although students who passed a lower-level mathematics course fared better than those who failed Algebra I. Implications for policies addressing mathematics course enrollments are …

A Forward To The Special Issue On Neoliberalism In Education The Long Road To Redemption: Critical Pedagogy And The Struggle For The Future, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Peter McLaren introduces a special issue of Texas Education Review focused on Neoliberalism in Education by advocating for critical pedagogy in the face of the challenges and harms wrought by American capitalism, politics, and "economic exploitation, racism, homophobia, sexism, imperialism, the coloniality of power and White supremacy".