Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Roundtable – Teaching Human Rights: Challenges And Best Practices, Shayna Plaut, Kristi Kenyon, Joel Pruce, William Simmons

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Over the past 20 years, courses addressing human rights have grown dramatically at both the undergraduate and graduate levels worldwide. Many of these courses are housed in specific disciplines, focus on specific issues, and require practical experience in the form of internships/practicums. Amid this growth there is a need to reflect on teaching human rights including the challenges, fears, and best practices.

Recognizing that education takes place inside and outside a classroom, this roundtable brings together scholars teaching human rights in a variety of settings to examine the current state of university human rights education. This includes a discussion of …

Curriculum Impact On Educational Philosophy Identification, Rebecca Tuttle

Student Research Symposium

An educator’s teaching philosophy represents their personal beliefs regarding the purpose of classroom instruction and the methods used to facilitate learning. While an individual’s educational philosophy often transforms over time, more research is needed to characterize influences on evolving theory and practice. This survey-based study was conducted to determine if the curricular content has an impact on teaching methodology despite a teacher’s philosophical identification. The study population comprised of adult learner-educators enrolled in a graduate educational philosophy class. The subjects were surveyed after completing a term examining the main tenets of five main educational philosophies (Liberal, Behavioral, Progressive, Humanist, Radical). …

Critical Reading, Critical Research: Practical Strategies To Develop, Amanda L. Hiner

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Perhaps no other skill affects students’ intellectual achievement more profoundly than the skill of critical reading. The analysis and assessment of written texts requires specific, learned skills in unpacking a text’s meaning, understanding its claims and implications, assessing its logic and coherence, evaluating its evidence, and drawing logical conclusions based on its claims. Both anecdotal evidence and qualitative research suggest that these skills are lacking in many high school and college students, and though teachers are intuitively aware of how crucial such skills are in the research and writing process, they often struggle to help students practice and apply critical …