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Pod Network News, Winter 2011

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: POD Network News

No abstract provided.

Memo To Departments: Outcomes Assessment Really Is A Good Idea, Wayne Jacobson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Outcomes Assessment has an image problem. For some people, it calls to mind standardized testing and centralized data collection systems. Others may think of file drawers full of unexamined reports. For many, it gets pictured alongside those other “A” words (accountability and accreditation) that they associate with satisfying someone else’s expectations. For some people, in some places, at some times, these are the kinds of images that outcomes assessment has evoked.

But these are not the only ways to see outcomes assessment, and it has never meant just those things. Outcomes assessment is first and foremost for departments: It helps …

Designing A Collaborative Blog About Student Success, Melissa L. Johnson, Alexander S. Plattner, Lauren Hundley

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The term “web log,” or “blog,” was first coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger (Blood). Blogs have been used in education as online journals, discussion platforms, course websites, and alternatives to mainstream media publications (EDUCAUSE, 2005). Two of the more common blogging platforms, Wordpress and Blogger , are relatively simple to use, requiring no knowledge of HTML to post entries. One of the many advantages of using blogs is that they can foster interaction among peers, thereby building community (EDUCAUSE, 2005; Richardson). For further explanation of how blogs work, Common Craft has created an easy-to-follow video entitled Blogs in Plain …

A Penny’S Worth Of Reflections On Honors Education, John Zubizarreta

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Giving the presidential address is a daunting task. For several weeks already, I’ve been receiving emails and phone calls from some of you, asking how my speech was coming along. “Oh, fine, just fine,” I fibbed, as I juggled the innumerable responsibilities back home that I know all of us share in our demanding roles as teachers, learners, and leaders. In past years, the address was a formidable one-hour-or-more event over sit-down dinners or luncheons. But times change. As the conference has grown steadily, year after year, and hours—no, even just minutes—have become precious, the address has had to shrink …

Team Teaching On A Shoestring Budget, Jim Ford, Laura Gray

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Team teaching is an established pedagogical practice, particularly in honors education. Many institutions have long traditions of combining the gifts of multiple faculty in one honors course. For schools that lack such a tradition, however, securing the institutional resources to support team teaching can be a daunting obstacle. If team teaching is really a part of “The New Model Education,” as Gary Bell argues (57), can it be done on a shoestring budget? The Rogers State University Honors Program began in the fall of 2005 with an extremely tight budget and no money for compensating faculty. Despite this challenge, we …

Preparing A Master Plan For An Honors College, John R. Vile

Honors in Practice Online Archive

My experience as an honors dean, like my previous experience as a departmental chair, is that it is easier to spend time putting out fires than engaging in long-term planning. The myriad daily tasks tempt administrators to succumb to the “the tyranny of the now.” We almost always have classes to schedule and teach, books and articles to write and edit, students to advise, scholarship applications to proof, theses to read, special events to publicize, committee meetings to attend, building tours and speeches to give, students to recruit, conferences to attend, and numerous other worthy tasks that call for immediate …

Dedication: Vishnu Narain Bhatia (1924-2003)

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Vishnu (Vic) Narain Bhatia was one of the founders of the National Collegiate Honors Council in the early 1960s, and his influence was prominent in the organization for the next three decades.

Born in Lucknow, India, and having received his BS in Pharmacy from Banaras Hindu University, he immigrated to the United States in 1947. After earning his MS and PhD in pharmacy at the University of Iowa, he was offered a faculty position in the College of Pharmacy at Washington State University in 1952, and he remained on the faculty there for forty-seven years. He became Associate Chair of …

Some Multidisciplinary Practices, Kathleen Black

Honors in Practice Online Archive

From the beginning of the Northwestern College Honors Program in 2002, we have operated with several underlying principles, three of which relate to our goal of being multidisciplinary. Based upon our recognition of multiple intelligences and our acknowledgment of scholarship in all academic disciplines, we have made it our goal that a single definition of either intelligence or giftedness should not suffice as a strategic design concept for the program or as a selection criterion for the students who participate in it.

In creating our program, the Faculty Honors Program Committee decided that our honors program would not include only …

Understanding And Defining Addiction In An Honors Context, Sarah W. Feldstein Ewing, Bevin Ehn

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Exploration and development of identity, autonomy, sexuality, academic functioning, and peer relationships are important age-appropriate tasks of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Baer & Peterson; Cicchetti & Rogosch; Erikson). During college, this developmental stage may manifest as questioning prior beliefs and assumptions and exploring fresh philosophies and behaviors (Schulenberg & Maggs). Many emerging adults try out what they believe are different facets of adult life. Some of the requisite experimentation may include risk-taking behavior, including experimentation with alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana (Baer & Peterson; Shedler & Block; Winters). College provides opportunities to experiment with potentially addictive substances at peer-run social events …

The Neptune Academy: Honors Students Give Back, Douglas Corbitt, Allison Wallace, Corey Womack, Patrick Russell

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In August of 2008, two faculty members of the University of Central Arkansas Honors College were charged by their dean, Rick Scott, with designing a summer academy for local teens deemed to be at academic risk. The central goal of the program would be to offer selected honors college upperclassmen—beneficiaries of full-ride scholarships, compelling interdisciplinary seminars, and close faculty mentoring—an opportunity to share with struggling youngsters their pre-professional training as well as their own gifts of character and personality. Our hope was that the experience might serve as a meaningful intervention in the lives of adolescent students.

What resulted from …

Beyond Formulas: A Collaboration Between Liberal Arts Honors Underclassmen And Senior Math Majors, Alissa S. Crans, Robert J. Rovetti

Honors in Practice Online Archive

“Congratulations! Sony Pictures producers have hired you as a scientific consultant to assist them in producing a remake of the classic film Gone With The Seabreeze, which chronicles the founding of the Westchester campus of Loyola University in 1929. The original film features shots of various old buildings that can still be found across campus today. The producers wish to recreate these shots, but need to know where to position the camera, which they have tasked you with finding.”

Thus began the month-long, collaborative project at Loyola Marymount University between the honors underclassmen in HNRS 140, On Motion and Mechanics, …

Editor’S Introduction, Ada Long

Honors in Practice Online Archive

John Zubizarreta of Columbia College leads off this volume of Honors in Practice with a revised version of his presidential address at the 2010 annual NCHC conference in Kansas City, Missouri. His speech, entitled “A Penny’s Worth of Reflections on Honors Education,” was, in a characteristic honors mode, interactive. He asked the audience to participate with him in enacting the “challenge, risk, creativity, collaboration, reflection, inquiry, [and] community” of honors education. Zubizarreta, both in his speech and in this essay, describes and illustrates honors education, the NCHC, and its conferences as embodying the “rough magic” of Shakespeare’s Prospero.

Kateryna A. …

Rethinking Asian Studies In The Interdisciplinary Honors Setting, Adam D. Frank

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In an interdisciplinary honors setting, especially at colleges and universities with minimal Asian studies offerings, teaching interdisciplinary Asian studies courses can present a particularly difficult challenge. The problem, as Charles Holcombe notes, is that “Asia is simply too enormous, spanning the better part of the entire Old World, and too diverse, to serve as a very meaningful label” (9). Unless students already have a background in Asian studies, have studied Asian languages and cultures, or are themselves from Asian countries, they often lack the basic, macro-level knowledge of geography, history, and politics necessary to address complex issues, particularly Orientalist stereotypes …

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

Honors in Practice Online Archive

For the past four fall semesters, I have taught a first-year honors seminar to help talented incoming students establish purpose in college, take responsibility for their own education, and make the transition to college-level thinking and writing. My strategy in accomplishing these goals is asking students to analyze the systems through which youth in the United States are processed into college students. We spend fifteen weeks studying intersections of youth and student cultures, college honors populations, and U.S. secondary and higher education systems. The objective is to empower class members to become intentional learners who understand the purpose of liberal …

Honors In Practice, Volume 7 (Complete Issue)

Honors in Practice Online Archive

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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 …

About The Authors

Honors in Practice Online Archive

No abstract provided.

Honors Thesis Rubrics: A Step Toward More Consistent And Valid Assessment In Honors, Mark Haggerty, Theodore Coladarci, Mimi Killinger, Charlie Slavin

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Several recent issues of the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council have devoted considerable space to questions of grading and assessing honors student work: the 2006 Forum on “Outcomes Assessment, Accountability, and Honors” (Frost et al.), the 2007 Forum on “Grades, Scores, and Honors” (Andrews et al.), and Greg Lanier’s expansive piece in 2008, “Towards Reliable Honors Assessment.” One target of assessment is the honors thesis, which is either a required or optional component of many honors programs and colleges and which poses a myriad of assessment challenges. What follows is a description and analysis of the attempt at …

Faculty Development Beyond Instructional Development: Ideas Centers Can Use, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Tara Gray, A. Jane Birch

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Most faculty development programs focus on the faculty member as teacher. However, faculty seek support in many areas, including orientation, mentoring, scholarly writing, time management, career advancement, leadership, and service. Research and practice also suggest that faculty and facuity development programs benefit from an integrated approach to professional development. This chapter fills a gap in faculty development practice by suggesting ways that centers can create programming that goes beyond instructional development, thereby supporting a more expansive range of faculty work.

Next Generation @ Iupui: A Leadership Development Program For Faculty Of Color, Megan M. Palmer, Julianna V. Banks, Joshua S. Smith, Sherree A. Wilson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Next Generation @ IUPUI is an intensive one-year leadership program designed to develop the leadership potential off acuity of color. The program expands the pool off acuity who are ready to assume leadership positions. In addition to addressing higher education administration theories and trends, participants receive individualized coaching and mentoring to develop a broad network of peers.

There Was Something Missing: A Case Study Of A Faculty Member’S Social Intelligence Development, Tamara Rosier

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Some faculty members seem to lack the social intelligence or relational skills needed to successfully “read” and respond to their students. This chapter describes the process of developing social intelligence skills in one faculty member. During a series of ten coaching sessions, there was demonstrable change in the faculty member’s behavior and a self-reported increase in his social intelligence skills. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that social intelligence can be developed, and it has the potential to have a positive effect on teaching practices and faculty success.

About The Authors, Volume 29 (2011)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

About the editors and authors of volume 29 (2011) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

Preface, Volume 29 (2011), Judith E. Miller

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Preface to volume 29 (2011) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Judith E. Miller of University of North Florida.

Acknowledgments, Volume 29 (2011)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Acknowledgments for volume 29 (2011) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Judith E. Miller of University of North Florida.

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ethical guidelines for educational developers.

Taking Stock: Contemplating North American Graduate Student Professional Development Programs And Developers, Dieter J. Schönwetter, Donna Ellis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A two-stage study was conducted to identify key competencies in graduate student development programs at Canadian and U.S. institutions. Once thirty-nine key competencies were identified, developers of graduate students were asked to rate the importance of each competency in their programming, the extent to which each competency was explicitly taught, and their own confidence in the training received to help teach these competencies. One key finding suggests that numerous potential gaps exist in the training of those who deliver graduate student development programs, which organizations such as the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education can help to address.

Growing A New Generation: Promoting Self-Reflection Through Peer Observation, Allison Boye, Micah Meixner

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many faculty developers understand the value of self-reflection in effective teaching and aim to cultivate the practice in their programming. However, many instructors regard peer observation as punitive or evaluative in nature and overlook how the practice can promote thoughtful self-reflection by the observer. This chapter outlines a model of group peer observation that supports introspection and community, thereby transforming that negative perception. We discuss how the process promotes cross-disciplinary open-door teaching and reflective practice in teaching improvement and how faculty developers from institutions and programs of all sizes can help nurture that growth.

Support Needs Of University Adjunct Lecturers, Sarah M. Ginsberg

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Little is known about the support needs of the part-time instructors on university campuses, despite the fact that they represent more than 50 percent of the instructors teaching in higher education. This study of adjunct lecturers investigated their support needs and their preferences for receiving support. Results indicated that adjuncts wanted information about their students and effective teaching methods beyond lecturing. They expressed frustration over the fact that there was no systematic approach to information sharing, particularly with the tenure-track faculty in their programs. They evenly favored resources provided either electronically or face-to-face.

Understanding And Supporting Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: A Needed Change, Genevieve G. Shaker, Megan Palmer, Nancy Van Note Chism

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As the face of the American faculty profession changes, targeted academic development becomes more important. A phenomenological qualitative study of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty in English portrays an experience characterized by a love of teaching but fraught with professional challenges stemming from low status and poor reward and recognition structures. These data provide the point of departure for recommendations on expanding organizational and faculty development strategies for supporting, integrating, and encouraging full-time, non-tenure-track faculty.

Cross-Domain Collaborative Learning And The Transformation Of Faculty Identity, James B. Young

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter addresses how faculty from disparate backgrounds collaborate in interdisciplinary learning communities and how this cross-domain collaboration leads to a tangible change in identity. Faculty enter learning communities playing the more common roles of expert and teacher, but they leave taking on the additional roles of novice, learner, and knowledge integrator. The experience of cross-domain interaction is both rewarding and transformative for faculty as they are well equipped to communicate across the disciplinary landscape and gain a rhetorical awareness that is an invaluable ingredient for learning community participation.

A Coaching-Based Framework For Individual Consultations, Deandra Little, Michael S. Palmer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational developers committed to promoting effective teaching and learning practices often make the same mistake we advise instructors to avoid: privileging content over process in individual consultations. We describe a process-oriented consultation model based on effective practices from the literature on individual consultations, coaching, learning, and motivation. Using this three-step model, educational developers can systematically create a collaborative environment that is nonjudgmental and nonprescriptive and draws on the client’s capabilities, experiences, aspirations, and resourcefulness.