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Full-Text Articles in Education

Wikis As Platforms For Authentic Assessment, Pamela L. Eddy, April Lawrence Jan 2017

Wikis As Platforms For Authentic Assessment, Pamela L. Eddy, April Lawrence

Pamela L. Eddy

Calls for accountability focus attention on assessment of student learning. Authentic assessment involves evaluating student learning as students perform real world tasks. We present a four-stage conceptual framework for authentic assessment. We argue first that evaluation is a process rather than a static one-time event. Second, authentic assessment involves evaluating experiential learning. Third, multiple evaluators assess student work, including self-assessment or review by a public audience. Finally, authentic assessments offer more learner choice. Wikis, as user-friendly web spaces that support easy web authoring for individuals or for collaborative groups, provide a platform for both student learning and authentic assessment


Policies That Enhance Learning And Teaching, Shannon M. Chance, Pamela L. Eddy, Gavin Duffy, Brian Bowe, Jen Harvey Jan 2017

Policies That Enhance Learning And Teaching, Shannon M. Chance, Pamela L. Eddy, Gavin Duffy, Brian Bowe, Jen Harvey

Pamela L. Eddy

Educational institutions often implement policies with the intention of influencing how learning and teaching occur. Generally, such policies are not as effective as their makers would like; changing the behavior of third-level teachers proves difficult. Nevertheless, a policy instituted in 2006 at the Dublin Institute of Technology has met with success: each newly hired faculty member must have a post-graduate qualification in “Learning and Teaching” or successfully complete one within the first two years of employment. The intention is to build teachers’ knowledge about student-centered pedagogies and their capacity to implement them. As a result of this policy (and associated …


In The Middle: Career Pathways Of Midlevel Community College Leaders, Regina L. Garza Mitchell, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

In The Middle: Career Pathways Of Midlevel Community College Leaders, Regina L. Garza Mitchell, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

The leadership crisis in community colleges has led to speculation on who will lead these colleges in the future and how best to prepare leaders for these positions. Traditionally, little research occurred regarding midlevel administrators despite the fact that the majority of presidents come from within the ranks. The findings from this research show that midlevel administrators have little desire to move into top-level positions. Colleges need to consider how to make leadership more attractive and begin developing leaders for future openings.


Framing The Role Of Leader: How Community College Presidents Construct Their Leadership, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

Framing The Role Of Leader: How Community College Presidents Construct Their Leadership, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

Presidents are one of the most studied of administrative roles, yet little research occurs on understanding how these leaders construct their own leadership. Thus, the question guiding the research reported here concerned how community college presidents cognitively framed their leadership roles. This study involved the interviewing of 9 community college presidents. Findings uncovered 3 themes. The first theme identified how the presidents' underlying mental maps guided decision-making and leadership on campus. The second theme linked the basic cognitive orientation of the presidents with on-going situated cognition in their new work settings. Learning evolved based on environmental factors. The final category …


New Faculty On The Block: Issues Of Stress And Support, Pamela L. Eddy, Joy L. Gaston-Gayles Jan 2017

New Faculty On The Block: Issues Of Stress And Support, Pamela L. Eddy, Joy L. Gaston-Gayles

Pamela L. Eddy

The research reported investigated the experiences of new faculty in their first three years of employment in higher education administration programs. New faculty face stress relative to work-life integration, issues pertaining to gender or color, teaching responsibilities, and unclear expectations. The findings of this study highlight the role of graduate school socialization and identification as a "chosen" student targeting a faculty position as an influence on new faculty and their acclimation during their first years. Implications include the need for intentional mentoring, inclusive support for all students seeking faculty roles, and the need for specificity on the part of hiring …


Faculty As Learners: Developing Thinking Communities, Pamela L. Eddy, Regina L. Garza Mitchell Jan 2017

Faculty As Learners: Developing Thinking Communities, Pamela L. Eddy, Regina L. Garza Mitchell

Pamela L. Eddy

The shifting demographics of faculty ranks, expansion of faculty work, and the expectations of accountability and revenue production place new demands on today's faculty. Collaborating with other faculty members is one option for easing workload demands and reinvigorating faculty members in the conduct of their teaching and research. In this article we discuss the importance of collaboration among faculty members in deriving new strategies for the classroom and approaches to research, and we provide suggestions for moving beyond short term collaborations and toward the creation of thinking communities that have the potential to re-energize faculty members and bring passion back …


Nested Leadership: The Interpretation Of Organizational Change In A Multicollege System, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

Nested Leadership: The Interpretation Of Organizational Change In A Multicollege System, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

College leaders serve important roles as guides for campus understanding during times of change. Within multicollege districts, campus members deal with several levels of leadership, ranging from department chairs, to the college president, to the system chancellor. These leaders may send conflicting messages regarding change, or have competing end goals for change. The research reported here sought to investigate the influence of the system chancellor on change initiatives at the individual colleges within the system. Findings from this investigation concluded that leadership within the system was nested, whereby the overall direction of change came from the chancellor, and was replicated …


Leaders As Linchpins For Framing Meaning, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

Leaders As Linchpins For Framing Meaning, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

Community college leaders serve as linchpins for framing meaning on campus. The current pressures on institutions (given declining financial resources, demands for accountability, changing faculty ranks, and societal need for new knowledge) require presidents to juggle multiple priorities while presenting a cohesive message to campus constituents. This study examined how the presidents at nine community colleges communicated with college constituents and framed the meaning of those communications to help the college community make sense of ongoing change. Interviews with the presidents, as well as with key administrators, faculty members, and staff members, revealed that the presidents used emissaries to disseminate …


Faculty In The Hinterlands: Cultural Anticipation And Cultural Reality, Pamela L. Eddy, Jeni Hart Jan 2017

Faculty In The Hinterlands: Cultural Anticipation And Cultural Reality, Pamela L. Eddy, Jeni Hart

Pamela L. Eddy

Using qualitative inquiry, this paper employs a cultural lens to explore the work life experiences of faculty who work in smaller higher education administration programs in institutions that are not high-level research universities. The research focus included understanding how participants made sense of the institutions in which they worked and the consequences of that for their lives. Implications for the field of higher education administration, faculty work, and graduate socialization are examined. Ultimately, this research suggests that a single model of faculty work life identity drawn using a research institutional prototype does little to support all faculty members, many of …


Crossing Boundaries Creating Community College Partnerships To Promote Educational Transitions, Marilyn J. Amey, Pamela L. Eddy, Timothy G. Campbell Jan 2017

Crossing Boundaries Creating Community College Partnerships To Promote Educational Transitions, Marilyn J. Amey, Pamela L. Eddy, Timothy G. Campbell

Pamela L. Eddy

Community college partnerships with institutions in other educational sectors (including schools and universities) are important and strategic ways of meeting the educational needs of college constituents and maximizing resources to achieve local and state economic development goals. Understanding what is required for effective partnerships is important in determining when and how to engage in these collaborative, but sometimes costly, arrangements. This article presents a model of partnership development that emphasizes the role of social and organizational capital in the formation of partnership capital that contributes to the long-term success of collaborative efforts.


Grocery Store Politics: Leading The Rural Community College, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

Grocery Store Politics: Leading The Rural Community College, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

Rural America is characterized by decreasing populations, increasing poverty, limited economic growth, and limited access to cultural events. The context of the rural environment makes leading colleges in these locations different than in larger, more urban regions. The research reported here investigated the experience of rural community college leaders to determine more about the phenomenon of how they constructed their leadership given their rural context. Findings indicate less anonymity for rural community college leaders, a reliance on relationship building to accomplish goals, and a smaller local peer network to aid in reflecting upon the duties of the president.


Developing Leaders: The Role Of Competencies In Rural Community Colleges, Pamela L. Eddy Jan 2017

Developing Leaders: The Role Of Competencies In Rural Community Colleges, Pamela L. Eddy

Pamela L. Eddy

Pending retirements underscore the need to develop community college campus leaders. Rural community colleges will be particularly hard-hit by changes in leadership as they represent the majority of 2-year colleges and face unique challenges given their location. To help address the anticipated leadership transition, the American Association of Community Colleges developed a set of competencies to frame critical skill areas and guide leadership development efforts. The research reported here showed both resource development and organizational strategy as areas of weakness for rural leaders and, paradoxically, the areas of most need. Leaders acquired competencies predominantly on the job, which has implications …


Emerging Definitions Of Leadership In Higher Education, Pamela L. Eddy, Kim E. Vanderlinden Jan 2017

Emerging Definitions Of Leadership In Higher Education, Pamela L. Eddy, Kim E. Vanderlinden

Pamela L. Eddy

The higher education literature suggests that alternative leadership styles are replacing the traditionally held definitions of leadership and provide new and different (and possibly superior) ways to understand leadership. This article looks for parallels within the current leadership literature to see if community college administrators use the alternative language or emerging definitions of leadership to self-describe their own leadership or if their self-descriptions fit the more traditional hierarchical ideal of the positional or "hero" leader.