Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

The Core Of Professional Growth In Work-Related Teacher Education, Leena Aarto-Pesonen, Päivi Tynjälä

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents a Glaserian grounded theory study of adult students’ holistic professional growth in a two-year tailored, work-related, teacher qualification program in physical education. The data consisted of reflective learning diaries, interviews and the written texts of 20 adult students. The data analysis followed the stages of Glaserian grounded theory analysis with substantive and theoretical coding processes carried out using the constant comparative method. The article presents the emotional core and its properties (criticality, ethicality and empowerment) of physical education teacher students’ professional growth. In addition, the article introduces a substantive theory of a process of adult students’ multifaceted …

Teaching Students How To Make Their Dreams Come True: An Autoethnography Of Developing And Teaching The Dream Research Methods Course, E. James Baesler

The Qualitative Report

How to make students’ dreams come true is the central focus of this autoethnography that chronicles the story of the transformation of a traditional undergraduate communication research methods course into a new and creative dream research methods course. Pedagogical and institutional issues in teaching the traditional methods course join personal influences in my life story to birth the new dream research methods course. The content and format of the new course are described chronologically using personal stories, student perspectives, advice to teachers, and reflection questions. I encourage teachers, by experimenting with the ideas in the dream research methods course, to …

Navigating A Social Justice Motivation And Praxis As Student Affairs Professionals, Nadeeka D. Karunaratne, Lauren M. Koppel, Chee Ia Yang

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

While diversity and social justice are espoused values of the field of student affairs, student affairs professionals are socialized to varying degrees in regard to the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to be social justice advocates. Through qualitative interviews with nine entry- and mid-level student affairs professionals, we explored the motivations and experiences of student affairs professionals who enact values of social justice in their praxis. Participants shared strategies to navigating the field and their advocacy, the influence of theirs and others’ identities on their work, techniques for implementing intentional social justice praxis, challenges faced in their advocacy, and how …

To Game Or Not To Game? How Using Massively Multiplayer Online Games Helped Motivation And Performance In A College Writing Course: A Mixed Methods Study, Papia Bawa, William Watson, Sunnie L. Watson

Journal of Research Initiatives

The use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOGs is receiving attention in the educational world due to increased availability of such games, a growing consumer base, and the proven benefits of video games as engagement tools. MMOGs that have been known to possess a significantly high capacity to keep users involved over sustained periods, which gives them the potential to enhance learning experiences and performances. However, most available studies on MMOGs do not discuss relationships between MMOG use and performance outcomes in Higher Education. Additionally, majority of such studies focus on examining a single MMOG, providing limited scopes of …

Elucidation Of Effective Professional Development Experiences: Addressing Inclusion For Students With Autism, Jennifer Lee Suppo

Journal of Research Initiatives

Open interviews were conducted with a special education teacher and a general education teacher. The overall guiding question was to provide elucidation of what is needed in a professional development program to meet the needs of both the general and special education teachers who teach children with a diagnosis of autism in an inclusive setting. Overall, the themes of diversity, knowledge and collaboration emerged as important variables for professional development experiences. Furthermore, in-depth knowledge and flexibility arose as important qualities of the facilitator of a professional development experience. Implications are a set forth for the expansion of the study and …

The Benefits Of Constructing An Effective Internship Program, Danielle Harrison

Journal of Research Initiatives

The internship program offers opportunities for learners to fulfill their scholastic, professional, and personal interests through a contractual agreement. The various stakeholders within the internship experience are vital and should be aware of the internship program structure. The goal is to prepare the intern for life outside of the collegiate experience and to transition from novice to expert. To ensure best practices while creating, implementing, and maintaining experiential learning programs, the need for an effective program structure is addressed in this paper.

Undergraduate African American Males’ Narratives On The Personal Factors Influencing Retention In The Social Sciences, Dorrance Kennedy, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of undergraduate African American social science majors on the personal factors that influenced their retention in higher education. This was a qualitative study with 15 African American males who were enrolled in three universities in the University of North Carolina system. The data were collected using face-to-face interviews of approximately 45 minutes duration that took place on two separate occasions. They appeared eager to discuss their experiences as freshmen and the factors that influenced them to return to the university a second year. The main findings from this study were …

Stalled At The Gate: Addressing Student Failure In A "Gateway" Course, Susan Rhoades Neel

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article is a case study of how student data can guide instructors in course redesign. A significant percentage of students enrolled in an American Civilization course did not successfully complete the course. An examination of ACT scores, GPAs, grades in math and English composition, reading tests, and assignment completion rates indicated that two key obstacles to student success were a lack of student engagement and a disparity between student reading capabilities and the required instructional materials. Following a change in the topical focus of the course, the addition of active learning projects, and supplemental aids to the textbook, course …

Book Review: The End Of College: Creating The Future Of Learning And The University Of Everywhere, Bruce Henderson

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Review of Kevin Carey's The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere.

Increasing Research Requirements For Tenure At Teaching Universities: Mission Creep Or Mission Critical?, Elizabeth Blakey, Crist Khachikian, Daisy Lemus

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

What social forces are driving the increase in research requirements for tenure at teaching universities? Engaging Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this case study examines a state comprehensive university, at multiple levels of analysis, and via multiple methods. Field theory is a viable alternative to neoinstitutional theory for higher education scholars. The methods used are quantitative content analysis, qualitative discursive analysis and interviews. The study provides a detailed account of whether economic or cultural forces are the stronger influence on the trend to increase research requirements. Economic factors, such as national enrollment trends, do not necessarily have a strong effect on …

Understanding Chinese Students’ College Choice To Increase Chinese Student Recruitment: A Focus On Music Majors, Tamara Yakaboski, Sonja Rizzolo, Lei Ouyang

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

The focus of this study was to understand why 20 Chinese students selected a rural, regionally focused research university. The research sought to (1) offer new, nuanced understanding of how Chinese students selected a university not well-known to international students and (2) advance how an institution of this type could meet its goal of improving and increasing Chinese student recruitment. As a majority of the Chinese students who selected this institution were majoring in music, this study offers implications for niche marketing and recruitment. In addition to the knowledge produced, this study models academic and student affairs collaboration where the …

Story Sharing For First-Generation College Students Attending A Regional Comprehensive University: Campus Outreach To Validate Students And Develop Forms Of Capital, Colby R. King, Jakari Griffith, Meghan Murphy

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

This paper describes a story-sharing program, called Our Stories, in which faculty and staff at a regional comprehensive university share their personal experiences about attending college as first-generation, working class, or financially insecure (FGWCFI) students with an audience of undergraduate students of various backgrounds. Using preliminary qualitative and quantitative data, we find evidence that these programs validate the experience of these student attendees and build their social, cultural, and psychological capital. This paper reviews literature on outreach to first-generation students, provides an overview of the story-sharing program, discusses how these events support student success, and suggests that such outreach efforts …

Using Films To Increase Cultural Competence In Working With Lgbtq Clients, Melodie H. Frick, Heather Thompson, Russ Curtis

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

There is a dearth of research on effective strategies for teaching counselors-in-training how to work more effectively with LGBTQ clients. Experiential learning activities, such as watching films, can increase students’ knowledge of their attitudes and beliefs about themselves and culturally diverse clients. This qualitative study explored, in the context of a sexuality and counseling course, how 27 students’ awareness, knowledge, and skills were influenced by the use of two films, For the Bible Tells Me So and Normal, which illuminate the experiences of LGBTQ individuals and their families. Results and implications for counselor educators are provided.

Against The Clock, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

In The Slow Professor, Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber's thoughtful contribution to the conversation on academic labor is to challenge what often goes without saying: that it's good to be more efficient, to be faster, to manage as many tasks as possible at once. How can we practice slowness and pleasure in thoughtful ways for the good of our disciplines and colleagues and, more importantly, for those whom our decisions and actions affect profoundly?

The Apparition Of These Screens In The Crowd, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

To unpack some of our assumptions about attention, learning, and technology in the classroom, CELT's Trey Conatser spoke with Dr. Yuha Jung and Dr. Rachel Shane of the Department of Arts Administration. Jung and Shane have worked with colleagues to integrate technologies into their teaching so that students are more likely to be on task. What follows is an informal exploration of what it means to pay attention and to learn in the context of the contested value of digital technologies.

The Building Blocks Of History, Nicole Martin

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Steve Davis is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches precolonial and modern South African history using the popular video game Minecraft. CELT's Dr. Nicole Martin asked Dr. Davis about his goals for student learning, and how he encourages students to develop skills in historical analysis through virtual world-building.

Designing For Universal Success, Nicole Martin, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Deb Castiglione is the Universal Design and Instructional Technology Specialist at CELT. She has worked to get a campus-wide license at the University of Kentucky for the software Read&Write Gold, which follows principles of universal design for learning. We asked Dr. Castiglione about what the software can do for learners, and why we should think more about inclusive practices such as universal design in our teaching.

On Cheating And Prosperity, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

At the outset of a new academic year, we'd do well to reflect on how we pitch academic integrity—and the concept of cheating—to our students. Not only does it affect how they see us as teachers and scholars; it also affects in profound ways how we see (or don't see) students as complex human beings. And this asks us to go against our gut reactions to the apparent moral legibility of cheating. If we understand cheating as an evasive concept, and as a product of our institutions, we're much less likely to incentivize it.

Facilitating An Intergenerational Classroom, Lee Ferrell

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

At the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year, Needham Yancey Gulley published an Inside Higher Edarticle challenging educators to move away from a seemingly dated term—nontraditional—because it labeled students in a way that could harm their opportunities in the classroom. At the same time, there really are differences among and between the generations, as both the academic literature and popular culture attest. Rather than enjoying a cohesive or intergenerational approach, Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers are often pitted against one another in what The Washington Post calls “generational warfare.” This essay considers ways to facilitate an intergenerational classroom …

Entitled Or Engaged?, Kate Collins

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Recent student activism on campus, particularly around safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions, has led to rising criticism lobbied against millennials as a generation unwilling to engage opposing beliefs or challenging discourse. Yet, taking into consideration all that young adults navigate to pursue higher education, their dissident presence on campus does more to reveal how they actively participate in the world, including their education.

Front Matter

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

The Source, Yolanda Carr, C.J. Smith

The Source

No abstract provided.

Theological Foundations Of Pastoral Care In Catholic Universities, Thomas V. Gourlay

eJournal of Catholic Education in Australasia

One defining element of life in any Catholic educational institution, whether it be primary, secondary, or tertiary, is the focus on pastoral care for staff and students. This paper provides a distinctly Catholic definition of the term ‘pastoral care’ and briefly examines the theological foundations that underpin this concept, particularly, in relation to its application in the Catholic university. The paper traces the motif of pastoral care through the Scriptures and, building on insights from St. Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990) and the broader theological anthropology of the Vatican II Council. The …

How Do Former Undergraduate Mentors Evaluate Their Mentoring Experience 3-Years Post-Mentoring: A Phenomenological Study, Kari L. Nelson, Christine E. Cutucache

The Qualitative Report

This phenomenological study involves a unique, longitudinal assessment of the lived experiences of former undergraduate mentors (n=7) in light of their current experiences (i.e., career or advanced schooling). The objective of a phenomenological study is to engage in in-depth probing of a representative number of participants. Specifically, we followed up with graduates of the Nebraska STEM 4U (NE STEM 4U) intervention 3 years post-program, with the overall goal of describing the mentors’ experiences using the lens of their current experiences. This type of longitudinal perspective of mentoring is greatly lacking in the current literature. At the time of the interviews, …

The Source, Yolanda Carr, C.J. Smith

The Source

No abstract provided.

Music Education And Its Impact On Students With Special Needs, Sarah V. Foley

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Using music in a setting that includes students with special needs can have an effect on student communication and socialization. A review of the literature indicates that little is known about the effect of music on student's academic performance and behavior. Overall the research indicates that using music in a classroom, particularly with children with special needs has a positive effect on communication and socialization. Additional studies are needed to document the effect of music on student learning.

Equity-Minded High-Impact Learning: A Short-Term Approach To Student-Faculty Collaborative Research, Valerie Chepp

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article explores the potential for high-impact learning practices—and specifically student-faculty collaborative research—to address inequality in U.S. institutions of higher education. In theory, student-faculty research holds much promise for promoting diversity and social justice in higher education. This high-impact practice reflects ideals around collaboration and mentoring, and offers a more egalitarian approach to the traditional student-faculty power relationship. In practice, however, collaborative research runs the risk of reproducing inequality, thereby undermining its transformative potential. Drawing upon bell hooks’ (1994) notion of radical pedagogy, and in the spirit of being equity-minded, I propose a short-term version of student-faculty collaborative research. This …

In Conversation With Seth Pollack, Seth Pollack, Marshall Welch

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

In November 2016, EPiCHE Editor Marshall J. Welch sat down with service-learning scholar and practitioner Seth Pollack. They explored how the spiritual and religious dimensions of Seth’s life have influenced his personal passions and academic career.

Seth Pollack is Professor of Service Learning, and the founding faculty director of the Service Learning Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). For the past 17 years, Seth has provided overall leadership for the Service Learning Institute at CSUMB. In 2005, he received the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning, recognized as the nation’s outstanding faculty in the field of community …

In Our Time: Advancing Interfaith Studies Curricula At Catholic Colleges And Universities, Eboo Patel, Noah Silverman, Kristi Del Vecchio

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

People who orient around religion differently are interacting with greater frequency than ever before. These interactions, especially in the context of college and university campuses, require young people to grapple with their own identities in ways that previous generations could more easily avoid. Conversations about religious diversity have become elevated at colleges and universities, which has led Drs. Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen to claim that religion is “no longer invisible” in the context of American higher education.

As an organization that works with hundreds of American colleges and universities every year, Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) believes that Catholic …

Hoping To Teach Someday? Inquire Within: Examining Inquiry-Based Learning With First-Semester Undergrads, Erik Jon Byker, Heather Coffey, Susan Harden, Amy Good, Tina Lane Heafner, Kathrine Brown, Debra Holzberg

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Using case study method, this study examines the impact of an inquiry-based learning program among a cohort of first-semester undergraduates (n=104) at a large public university in the southeastern United States who are aspiring to become teachers. The Boyer Commission (1999) asserted that inquiry-based learning should be the foundation of higher education curricula. Even though inquiry pedagogies are emphasized in teacher education, many prospective teacher candidates have limited experience with inquiry as a constructivist practice from their K-12 settings. This study investigates the effects and first-semester undergraduates’ perceptions of an inquiry-based learning project. The research is grounded in Knowledge Building …