Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Academic Entitlement And The Decision-Making Of Tenured Professors, A. Roland Chambers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Academic entitlement is a concern in higher education because of the potential societal and market driven influences on credible scholarship. Most of the research has focused on negative attitudes and behaviors attributed to students. The considerations of tenured professors who interact with academically entitled students and strategies for effective classroom management has not been fully explored. Constructivism provided the theoretical framework for the qualitative case study. Data were collected from open-ended, semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample of 10 tenured professors from a state college in the Southeastern United States to explore (a) the meanings participants attributed to academic entitlement, …

Educational Module On Health Literacy For Hypertension In The Inmate Population, Pamela Mokoko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hypertension is a major public health issue in the United States that affects approximately 70 million adults; the high blood pressure of nearly half is considered to be uncontrolled. Uncontrolled hypertension is especially true in the incarcerated population. Due to low health literacy on hypertension in the inmate population, there are recurrent hospital visits, an increase in the admission rate and an increased length of stay in hospitals, all of which may lead to an increase in the cost of healthcare. The purpose of this scholarly project was to develop an expertly reviewed, evidence-based, self-paced, computerized, educational module to promote …

Toward Learning And Justice, Through Love, Isis Artze-Vega

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter responds to the call for educational developers to isolate the one perspective that guides our work. It retraces the author’s career steps, seeking the origin of love as a guiding principle, and describes its evolution and application during her career. To do so, the piece includes a theoretical perspective on love and argues that its utility as a characterizing perspective for our profession stems from its significance to learning and justice. It suggests the timeliness and urgency of elevating the role of love in our field, notes associated risks and rewards, and suggests resources for doing so.

The Idea Of Educational Development: An Historical Perspective, Laura Cruz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay examines the idea of educational development, inspired both in content and approach by John Henry Newman’s influential 19th century work on the idea of a university.

Changing The Lens: The Role Of Reframing In Educational Development, Donna E. Ellis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

One core concept in educational development is reframing, which involves new labels, new perspectives, and the examination of assumptions. In this reflective article, I explore the use of reframing at different levels of educational development work via the 4M framework (micro, meso, macro, and mega) in an effort to assess the utility of this concept to practitioners. I conclude that reframing has utility at all levels and posit why it may assist with change management. Connections to educational developer identity are also explored.

From The Editors: The One Thing: A Pluralistic Approach To Research And Practice, Gary Hawkins, Brian Smentkowski

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

From the editors of volume 37, issue 1 of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2018), Gary Hawkins of Hampshire College and Brian Smentkowski of the University of Idaho.

Equity-Minded Faculty Development, Aeron Haynie

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A governing principle of equity-minded faculty development is a commitment to supporting marginalized populations who may feel unwelcome in academia: from minority college students to first-generation graduate students to faculty of color. Faculty development should encourage faculty to notice inequities and not dismiss them as student’s individual failures; to examine institutional data on student, graduate student, and faculty achievement patterns; and to collaborate with other campus partners on interventions. As we work with faculty to develop strategies to ensure all students can succeed, we must also enact the same empowering, strengths- based practices we promote.

Seeking And Doing Justice Through Educational Development, Wayne Jacobson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

One thing that has shaped my understanding of educational development more than anything else is a commitment to seeking and doing justice. I see this commitment as the animating force that breathes life into the best of what educational developers do and the core value that continually challenges us to do better. In the many contexts in which we work, the one thing that defines the role of educational development is the recognition that we need to continually examine and improve how well our institutional systems are doing justice to the communities that we are trusting them to serve.

“Once A Scientist…”: Disciplinary Approaches And Intellectual Dexterity In Educational Development, Katherine Kearns, Molly Hatcher, Mara Bollard, Michele Dipietro, Devon Donohue-Bergeler, Leslie E. Drane, Elizabeth Luoma, Andrew E. Phuong, Laura Thain, Mary C. Wright

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The authors claim that disciplinary epistemologies—disciplinary habits of mind and ways of thinking—offer productive lenses for observing teaching practices. Furthermore, they argue that educational developers who draw from multiple epistemologies in combination provide rich evidence with regard to teaching and learning and can speak to academic colleagues from an array of disciplines. Clarity is provided for career paths in educational development for colleagues from academic disciplines who are contemplating part- or full-time work in a teaching center. The authors hope that this opening collection develops into a toolkit and area of inquiry about disciplinary approaches to the practice of educational …

Good To Great In Educational Development, Bruce Kelley

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We have been asked to describe One Thing that guides us as educational developers. For me, this is the strategic planning process described in Jim Collins’ Good to Great (2001). Collins provides a model that helps leaders navigate through change to build effective and influential centers. This framework has allowed me to develop a successful center despite periods of transition and uncertainty. Much of what I experience in my professional life is good. The challenge is to take it to the next level—to turn good into great. Collins’ strategic model provides a roadmap for how this might be accomplished.

The Four Rs: Guiding Ctls With Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, And Research, Mary C. Wright, Debra Rudder Lohe, Tershia Pinder-Grover, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We offer a framework for guiding an effective Center for Teaching and Learning: Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, and Research. Our intention is to fill a gap in the literature on guidance for CTL leadership. These four principles are grounded in both scholarly and experiential evidence, drawing from multiple CTL directors with a range of experience levels at different center and institutional types.

Mentoring Graduate Student Staff In A Center For Teaching And Learning: Goals And Aligned Practices, Kristin Rudenga, Joseph Lambert

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Graduate student staff (GSS) positions, commonly used in centers for teaching and learning (CTL) to expand capacity and extend disciplinary connections on campus, also offer the potential for a meaningful developmental experience for the students who fill them. Drawing on the literature on graduate student mentorship, we lay out goals and aligned practices to inform the mentoring of GSS in CTL aimed at advancing their pedagogical, professional, and personal development. Such deliberate attention to mentoring in a CTL context can enhance the experience and development of the GSS themselves, as well as improve the work of the CTL.

Measuring Transparency: A Learning-Focused Assignment Rubric, Michael S. Palmer, Emily O. Gravett, Jennifer Lafleur

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

By combining recommendations for effective assignment design with principles of transparency and the value-expectancy theory of achievement motivation, we developed a rubric capable of for assessing the quality and guiding the design of assignment descriptions. This rubric defines criteria characteristic of well-designed assignments; breaks the criteria down into concrete, measurable components; and suggests what evidence for each component might look like. While the full rubric is valid for major, signature assignments, it can accommodate a diverse range. It can also provide summative, quantitative information to educational developers for research and formative, qualitative feedback to instructors for gauging the quality of …

A Minimalist Model Of New Faculty Mentoring: Why Asking For Less Gives More, Heather Lobban Viravong, Mark Schneider

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We describe a research-based mentoring program for new full-time faculty at a small residential college, which emphasizes the empowerment of the new faculty themselves to identify and obtain the resources they need for success. In our model, the mentor takes on a role of primarily providing accountability, easing the burden on mentors, thereby making for a more sustainable program. Our mixed methods assessment of the program suggests that, paradoxically, these lessened expectations foster closer personal relationships between mentor and protégé than might have occurred if that were a programmatic expectation.

Transforming The Classroom At Traditionally White Institutions To Make Black Lives Matter, Frank Truitt, Chayla Haynes, Saran Stewart

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In recent years, many college campuses across the United States witnessed a significant increase in campus activism regarding the range of experiences and conditions facing racially minoritized communities in higher education. As critical and inclusive pedagogues and scholars, we embrace the belief that a focus on making Black Lives Matter in the classrooms of traditionally White institutions (TWIs) provides educators with the best chance to improve the educational outcomes of all students. In this essay, we examine seven principles of critical and inclusive pedagogies that have the potential to make Black Lives Matter in TWI classrooms and identify several implications …

Workshopping A Workshop: Collaborative Design In Educational Development, Eleanor V. H. Vandegrift, Amy B. Mulnix, Jennifer R. Yates, S. Raj Chaudhury

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Working remotely and collaboratively, our interdisciplinary team created an educational development workshop, Thinking Skills for the 21st Century: Teaching for Transfer, in which participants not only experience, apply, and reflect on teaching across educational settings but also connect this work to principles that have been demonstrated by learning science to support the transfer of knowledge. We used backward design to develop the workshop and evidence-based pedagogies in its implementation. We facilitated the workshop at two different national meetings for distinct audiences and also as part of an on-campus faculty development program. Here, we report on the workshop development and revision, …

The Paradoxical Experiences Of Young Hispanic College Students: Academic Success In The Face Of Age-Related Stigma, Marilyn Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There has been growth in programs such as the Early College High School Initiative in order to address the inequalities that racial/ethnic minorities, such as Hispanics, face when it comes to pursuing a higher education. As a result, there has been an increase of nontraditionally aged students (i.e., young students under 18) in higher education. Despite likely increases in young students attending universities, little is known about the young students' academic performance and the challenges they face while attending college; this Thesis addresses that limitation through two studies using institutional and interview data from one university. The first study used …

Beyond Teacher Knowledge: Connections Between Content Knowledge, Mindset For Learning, And Teaching In Two-Year College Mathematics Faculty, Lucy Hernandez Michal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Addressing thousands of students entering unprepared to enroll in college freshman mathematics courses is a challenge two-year college mathematics faculty face every semester. The study addresses this challenge through a mixed methods sequential nested multi-case design to investigate what faculty need, beyond teacher knowledge, to teach mathematics effectively to students. The three-part study measured the mindset learning profile and content knowledge of a sample of mathematics faculty at a two-year college. The quantitative and qualitative data provided references to select four faculty typologies to interview and observe. Interviews reflected faculty perceptions of teaching and learning. Class observations captured images of …

Adult Public Library Patrons' Perceptions Of An Academic Library E-Learning Resource, Lavonia.Lonzo Lonzo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many Americans lack the skills required to use public access computers and the Internet at public libraries (PLs). Staff members of a PL in the Midwestern United States provide basic computer training to support patrons' Internet and public access computer use. However, adult patrons who are beyond the basic skills level and those with sensory-disabilities are underserved. The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to understand how an academic library's information literacy e-resource affected the PL's adult patrons' learning based on the perceptions of adult patrons at a PL. Kling's social informatics served as the study's conceptual framework and …

Motivators And Demotivators Of Dominican Immigrant High School Esl Students In Puerto Rico, Luis A. Amador

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem is that Dominican student immigrants enrolling in Puerto Rican high

schools need to be English proficient and the English as second language program (ESL)

is not effectively supporting these students to develop English proficiency to graduate

from the target high school. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand

the perceptions of Dominican immigrant ESL students regarding motivators and

demotivators in ESL classes to develop English proficiency at the target site. Using

Krashen's conceptual framework, students' perceptions of motivators and demotivators

regarding ESL classes, and their suggestions for improving the ESL instruction were

explored. A qualitative …

Small College Title Ix Coordinators' Response To Male Complainants, David Scott Chambers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Male survivors of sexual assault face increased mental health concerns due to commonly held beliefs and lack of quality services. College and university administrators, under guidance provided by the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Education, must respond to all incidents of sexual misconduct, no matter the gender identity of the complainant or respondent. The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate how the Title IX Coordinators at small colleges understand and implement governmental guidelines to decrease the secondary victimization experienced by male survivors by analyzing current policies and programs. Critical theory provided the conceptual framework …

Efl Teachers' Identities And Their Teaching And Assessment Practices In A Public University Of A Major City In Colombia, Diana Patricia Pineda Montoya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This one-year long ethnographic case study seeks to add to the body of literature on EFL teachers' identities in Colombia by drawing on ethnographic methods and sociocultural theories to examine the identity construction of four EFL teachers at the university level. Specifically, this study explores how EFL teachers' identities shaped and were shaped by their teaching and assessment practices. The study was conducted at a public university and involved ethnographic participant-observation with four cátedra teachers (adjunct faculty) situated across five language programs in the Foreign Language Teaching Section (FLTS) of the Department of Languages.

The analysis of multiple data sources …

Seven Voices, Seven Developers, Seven One Things That Guide Our Practice, Frances Kalu, Patti Dyjur, Carol Berenson, Kimberley A. Grant, Cheryl Jeffs, Natasha Kenny, Robin Mueller

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational development philosophy statements provide a framework to communicate the values and beliefs that guide the practices and approaches of individual educational developers across various career stages. This paper presents narratives to illustrate how seven educational developers conceptualize the one thing that guides our work through the process of reflecting on the beliefs that we articulate through our educational development philosophy statements. Although each narrative illustrates our diverse backgrounds and philosophies, common themes are revealed relating to reflective practice, scholarly approaches, and facilitating change, which lead to improvements in student learning. This exploration suggests further opportunity to conduct research on …

Publish & Flourish: Helping Scholars Become Better, More Prolific Writers, Tara Gray, Laura Madson, Michelle Jackson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Some scholars want help from educational developers to become better, more prolific writers. This study examines one such program, Publish & Flourish, that holds participants accountable for writing daily and for receiving weekly feedback from peers on drafts of writing. In this mixed methods study, 95% of participants (N = 93) reported that they improved their writing by making it more organized and reader centered. Participants also reported that they increased their extrapolated average of submissions of scholarly manuscripts per year from about two to almost six. We then compared Publish & Flourish to several other studies of scholarly writing …

Invitations And Expeditions, But Hardly Ever Destinations, Tracy W. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay characterizes educational development as an invitation. The author provides a rationale for using Invitational Theory (IT) to guide educational development programming and practice. The five assumptions of IT are included and linked to scholarly literature that grounds educational development. Examples of invitational educational development initiatives or programs are provided for each assumption.

Is Sotl A Signature Pedagogy Of Educational Development?, Peter Felten, Nancy Chick

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this article, we focus on questions that come into view when we look at educational development through the lenses of signature pedagogies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We offer this as a thought experiment in which we consider if SoTL is a signature pedagogy of educational development, simultaneously enacting and revealing the practices, values, and assumptions that underpin the diverse work of our field. By envisioning SoTL in this way, we may more clearly see the purposes and practices that unite—and that ought to guide—educational developers and educational development.

One Thing For All Learners, Linda B. Nilson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay showcases cognitive psychology and neuroscience research as the “one thing” that guides my work. This research shows how to learn on one’s own, paves the way for student success, and fosters inclusive teaching. These principles have implications for concrete classroom and online instructional practices that are easy for both faculty and students to implement. Because students have to attend to and process their learning experiences, faculty must motivate them to do so. Psychology offers us some useful, albeit limited, tools, and more research on ways we can help students set goals can reduce the limits.

Balancing Direction And Response: Four Dimensions Of Transformative Facilitation In Educational Development, Roben Torosyan, Alison Cook-Sather

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this article we present 4 dimensions of transformative facilitation, each conceptualized using the “wisdom of practice” (Weimer, 2006, p. 54) gathered through our experience facilitating educational development and through the experiences posted by participants in a POD Network conference session. Composed of theoretical underpinnings we drew from several bodies of literature and practical applications generated by us and participants during the session, these dimensions include: (a) liminality (context); (b) organization (structures); (c) attitudinal stance (tone); and (d) process. Through their multidirectional interactions with one another, these dimensions aim to transform facilitation as enacted across educational development contexts.

The Chakra System As A Framework For Holistic Educational Development, Michele Dipietro

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As my interests and job duties have shifted toward holistic educational development beyond teaching support, I have sought a conceptual framework to organize my efforts. Joining my identities of educational developer and yogi, I have adapted the chakra system from yoga philosophy. The One Thing in my personal life has become The One Thing in my professional life too, informing programming and pointing out voids to fill. This essay reviews the classic articulation of the chakra system in the seven major chakras and offers examples of how the chakras can illuminate our institutional work, both individually and as an integrated …

Ways Of Doing: Feminist Educational Development, Emily O. Gravett, Lindsay Bernhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In response to the recent special call in To Improve the Academy, we offer the following collaborative essay that describes how feminism is our characterizing perspective on educational development. The essay details various, interrelated facets of feminism that inform our work in the field: gender, intersectionality, power, privilege, standpoint theory, and collaboration. Not only do these facets characterize our own feminist approach to educational development—from consultations to organizational development to publications—but, we argue, they also align well with the values and approaches of the field as a whole.