Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Getting Lecturers To Take Discussion Seriously, Stephen Brookfield, Stephen Preskill

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this chapter we examine how faculty resistant to experimenting with discussion methods can be encouraged to take them seriously. We begin by acknowledging and addressing publicly the objections to using discussion most frequently raised by skeptical faculty. We then turn to proposing what we believe are the most common reasons why attempts to use discussion sometimes fail: that teachers have unrealistic expectations of the method, that students are unprepared, that reward systems in the classroom are askew, and that teachers have not modeled their own participation in, and commitment to, discussion methods. For each of these reasons we suggest …

Faculty Development Centers In Research Universities: A Study Of Resources And Programs, Delivee L. Wright

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The purpose of this study was to compile updated information on resources and programs of faculty/instructional development centers in Carnegie classification Research I and Research II universities. It allows centers across the country to see where they stand in regard to a number of specific aspects of center operation. Size of institution, mission, resources, budgets, and staffing vary greatly, while activities and services have a greater degree of similarity. The data reveal a number of questions for further study and discussion.

Teaching Systems Science In High School Compared To Graduate School, Wayne W. Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper compares System Dynamic models built by graduate students to those built by high school students. The motivation behind this comparison is to explore the question: "How effectively is feedback-oriented system dynamics being taught in secondary schools compared to graduate school?" The paper will also speculate regarding implications for other systems concepts.

The Challenge And Test Of Our Values: An Essay Of Collective Experience, Kay Herr Gillespie

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Departing from a specific experience at the 1998 POD conference, the values of the organization—most specifically and directly the “valuing of peopk”—were challenged and put to the test of whether or not we genuinely and sincerely strive to actualize our values. This situation is generalizable to our daily professional and personal lives, and the essay invites readers’ reflection through an examination of our values in combination with the story. The challenge continues, and the test is not finished.

On The Path: Pod As A Multicultural Organization, Christine A. Stanley, Matthew L. Ouellet

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Since 1993, the Professional and Organizational Development Network (POD) has made an increasingly stronger commitment to becoming a multicultural organization. Poised at the entrance to a new century, it seems useful to examine the current standing of this goal in the context of the overall growth and development of POD. In this article the authors take stock of the organization’s history related to multiculturalism, discuss POD’s current organizational strengths and challenges related to models of multicultural organizational development, and offer suggestions for further progress on the path to becoming a multicultural organization.

Qilt: An Approach To Faculty Development And Institutional Self–Improvement, Mike Laycock

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In a climate of increasing emphasis on quality assurance and extra-institutional quality scrutiny, the author argues that faculty developers have a role in encouraging an enhancement-led culture. Faculty ownership of,and responsibility far, continuous quality improvement can help to provide an engagement with teaching and learning issues and may help to overcome resistance and mistrust. At the University of East London, UK, an enabling, whole-institutional framework called QILT (Quality Improvement in Learning and Teaching), whereby faculty create and implement funded improvement plans, has helped to generate this culture.

Finding Key Faculty To Influence Change, Joan K. Middendorf

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To succeed in getting faculty to accept new teaching approaches, academic support professionals can benefit from the literature on planned change. By understanding the different rates at which faculty accept change, we can also identify the faculty most likely to lead their colleagues to accepting new approaches. Opinion leaders can offer insight into faculty reactions to new approaches; their involvement in project planning can influence acceptance. Innovators, when selected carefully, can demonstrate and test new teaching approaches. Knowledge of when and how to involve these two kinds of faculty can reduce frustration and enhance efforts to spread new ideas about …

Student Collaboration In Faculty Development: Connecting Directly To The Learning Revolution, Milton D. Cox, D. Lynn Sorenson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although faculty developers have worked successfully with faculty to focus on ways to enhance learning and listen to student voices, developers have rarely formed partnerships with students. This chapter reviews established practices involving students directly in faculty development, such as student observer/consultant programs. It also describes the nature, dynamics, and outcomes of some interesting new programs involving students in teaching development activities, thereby empowering students to join developers as change agents ofcampus culture. Finally, this chapter raises issues for faculty developers to reflect on as they consider establishing direct connections-partnerships-with students.

Transforming Introductory Psychology: Trading Ownership For Student Success, Randall E. Osborne, William Browne, Susan J. Shapiro, Walter F. Wagor

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As colleges struggle to maintain enrollments, many have shifted from a primary focus on recruitment of new students to an increased focus on retaining students once they begin attending the college or university. An examination of introductory courses on our campus, however, revealed significant differences between faculty perceptions of student skills and the actual skills students brought into the classroom. This prompted shifts in the manner in which we teach introductory psychology on our campus in order to enhance the skills necessary for success in survey courses and to provide a foundation of learning and thinking skills that would translate …

“It's Hard Work!”: Faculty Development In A Program For First–Year Students, Martha L. A. Stassen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Academic programs designed specifically for first-year students provide an important opportunity for faculty growth. This chapter contributes to the limited literature on this topic through a qualitative analysis of interviews with faculty members who taught in an experimental living-learning community for first-year students at a Research I Public University. The analysis suggests atleast four dimensions of faculty growth as a result of their involvement in first-year programs. In addition to outlining the types of impact this experience has on the faculty involved, the article suggests the implications of these findings for faculty development.

The Influence Of Disciplinary Differences On Consultations With Faculty, Virginia Lee

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In recent years researchers have begun to investigate the nature of disciplinary differences in higher education and their implications for teaching and learning. While researchers have studied several aspects of disciplinary differences, they have given comparatively little attention to the significance of these differences for faculty development. After reviewing selective, representative studies from the literature on disciplinary differences, this paper develops a general framework for determining how the characteristics of a discipline influence the dynamics of the consulting relationship using the example of the hard sciences. It explores what kinds of discipline-specific knowledge will be important for consultants and under …

Broadly Speaking - December, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Broadly Speaking - November, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Broadly Speaking - October, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Volume 13, Number 01, Don Forrester Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 13, Number 01 of Reaching Through Teaching.

Broadly Speaking - August 19, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Volume 12, Number 02, Don Forrester Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 12, Number 02 of Reaching Through Teaching.

Broadly Speaking - March, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Broadly Speaking - February, 1999, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Listening In The Classroom: A Two-Way Street, Elisa Carbone

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Listening to our students creates a supportive environment in which students feel respected. If students feel respected and valued, they will be less afraid to ask questions, express opinions, and share insights; and they will be more likely to listen to each other during discussions. This is an environment conducive to the enhancement of learning.

It is well worth taking the time to teach students how to improve their listening habits. Let them know about the differential between thought speed and speech speed. Encourage them to do mental summaries of your lecture while you re speaking. Have them act out …

The Nature Of Expertise: Implication For Teachers And Teaching, Ronald A. Smith, Richard G. Tiberius

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

How do teachers become experts at teaching-at helping their students become experts? In a culture dependent on high performance, teachers need to understand the nature of the expertise that their students want to acquire as well as the nature of their own expertise. How we view expertise determines the goals we set for our students, as well as the standards we use to inform and measure our own development as experts in teaching.

The Uses Of Uncertainty In The College Classroom, Virginia S. Lee

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Psychological research has corroborated the importance of uncertainty to learning at the psychophysiological level. Recent studies in brain dynamics have demonstrated that the brain manifests an inherent variability that increases with the presentation of new stimuli. This psychophysiological uncertainty plays a significant catalytic role in learning, It opens up the organism to experience, causing it to investigate the environment with enhanced receptivity, preparing it for different behavioral actions, and facilitating the central processing and encoding of information received from such renewed exploration. Searching, exploring, and trial-and-error behaviors indicate psychophysiological uncertainty and accompany the appearance of reorganization, stability, and progressive development …

Class In The Classroom, Lee Warren

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Class is an often invisible form of difference. Yet it is there all the time, affecting how and what students learn at every turn. It pervades the values and the purposes of colleges and universities. It contributes to determining the courses offered and the books read and discussed. Still, it is a diversity issue rarely acknowledged.

International Business And Culture Course Development And Teacher Growth, Deborah Lang Bainbridge

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the development process of an International Business and Culture Course for a new certificate program at the Colorado International Education and Training Institute (CIETI). I was hired for the specific purpose of designing this course. This paper is a compilation of some of the resources I’ve collected, experiences of what worked and what did not work, learning and teaching ideas I’ve incorporated from my course work at SIT, and my personal values and beliefs. My keen interest is in emotional intelligence and I have used it as a unifying theme to explain why I have chosen to …

Critical Thinking Requires Critical Questioning, Karen J. Thoms

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Just what is a critical thinker? According to Richard Paul (1990), a critical thinker is someone who is able to think well and fair mindedly about his or her own beliefs and viewpoints as well as those which are diametrically opposed. The critical thinker does not just think about these beliefs and viewpoints, but explores and appreciates their adequacy, cohesion, and reasonableness. Attitudes and passions are included. To become a critical thinker is not to be the same person you are now, but only with better abilities; it is to become a different person (page iii).

Critical thinking is expected …

Timed Conversation: One Routine For Engaging Large Classes Of Non-Motivated Learners In Meaningful Oral Communication, Bradley J. Deacon

MA TESOL Collection

This paper will explore an activity called “Timed Conversation” that I use in large classes of relatively unmotivated first and second year non-language majors in a Japanese university setting. Timed Conversation is designed to help students to communicate in native-like and incrementally longer sustained dialogues in the target language. In the activity, the students interact with many partners and practice conversations while practicing various language expressions. In every lesson over the course of a semester they speak in conversations about a number of topics for a set limit of time. The goal is to be able to speak more fluently …

Interdisciplinary Teaching And Learning, Deborah Dezure

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Interdisciplinary initiatives are proliferating throughout higher education at an unprecedented rate (Edwards, 1996; Gaff and Ratcliff, 1997; Klein, 1996). They can be found in general education, replacing and augmenting distribution requirements; in emerging disciplines, such as cultural and gender studies, environmental studies, and neuroscience; in new curricular designs, such as learning communities, capstone courses, and service learning; and in the new pedagogies, such as collaborative learning, discovery and problembased learning, and the use of technology, particularly the Internet for instruction.

If we want our students to engage in complex intellectual tasks to integrate the insights of different disciplines, then lets …

Learning Outside The Box: Making Connections Between Co-Curricular Activities And The Curriculum, Myra S. Wilhite, Elizabeth A. Banset

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Students have much to gain from the integration of co-curricular activities into the curriculum. In out-of-class experiences, students tend to take greater responsibility for their own learning; they learn from one another as well as their instructors. In addition, cocurricular activities promote personal growth, physical and mental health, academic achievement, social and cultural awareness, and help students formulate short- and long-range goals.

Successful co-curricular programs encourage the development of friendships, a sense of belonging, enhanced intellectual awareness, improved academic performance, an appreciation of different perspectives, and close interaction with faculty and staff members who really care about students.

Are We Going To Cyberspace, Or Is This Just Another Trip To Abilene?, William K. Jackson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

The costs of technology are high, and the options for its use are varied. In order to avoid arriving at a technological Abilene, we must continually ask and answer the question "what ought we do with technology?" and not "what can we do with technology?" Purpose must lead deployment. Otherwise, we risk expending great efforts and scarce resources to produce the educational equivalent of "Thank you for calling, press 1 if you. . ."

Broadly Speaking - October 16, 1998, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.