Explores educational theory, practice, and research that demonstrates how learning frameworks help shape curricula and teaching strategies that enable students to cultivate integrative and expansive learning capabilities throughout their lifetimes. Results taken from two decades of longitudinal research on the curriculum at Alverno College are used to formulate a theory of "learning that lasts"—defined as an integration of learning, development, and performance— and core curriculum principles are presented. Basic assumptions about student learning, development, and practice are also analyzed, and concrete suggestions for methods with which faculty and academic staff can work together to form effective curricula, design innovative programs, implement key institutional goals, and renegotiate the college culture are presented. The meaning and implications of learning that lasts at each level of educational practice, from the collaborative work of faculty and staff to the level of collegiate culture as a whole, are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter presents an integrative listening model designed by a collaborative team of educators at Alverno College. The authors introduce a unique and practical framework for listening across the curriculum. They explain the components of the Integrative Listening Model (ILM), illustrate the stages in the listening process itself, and provide samples of how listening can be incorporated into classroom activities, assignments and assessments in various disciplines. In a systematic and comprehensive way, the ILM framework presents concrete strategies for developing one's own listening ability. It also stresses contextual and personal filters that impact listening behaviors, as well as self assessment and goal-setting, to promote ongoing listening development. The ILM reflects the authors' beliefs that listening is far more than just hearing and that genuinely effective listening requires commitment, understanding, and practice. It addresses psychological, emotional and cognitive factors that influence human communication and offers a promise of life-long benefits.
This article draws on historical and philosophical lenses and interviews with students to question some fundamental tenets underlying the practice of freshman learning communities (FLCs): that they develop community and improve students' learning experiences. The article brings to the discourse of FLCs some critical questions regarding their value and practice.
Using a historical methodology, this article posits that general education reform at Michigan State College operated in a matrix of influence involving educational research, philanthropy, and inter- and intra-institutional cooperation—rather than a top-down channeling of reform from "prestigious institutions"—and a cyclical interplay between national discussions and local implementation.
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Critical reflection on the course of the Western university system has never been more important than at the juncture of its exportation around the world. The importation of Western academic institutions in the modernizing states of the Muslim world is fraught with contradictions, responding to the desire to craft a citizenship recognizable to the nation-state. Despite the relationship of Western universities to modernization as a disciplining project, these institutions also carry promise. Western universities overseas can hope to revive, in dialogue with their host societies, an alternative person-centered vision of learning shared by Western humanists and classical Islamic pedagogies alike.
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Academic advisers play an important role in making general education relevant and meaningful to student learning by helping to facilitate the three I’s of general education: inter-disciplinarity, integration, and intentionality. This essay argues that the “advising as learning” model of academic advising embodies the kinds of advising practices that can contribute to the promotion of the three I’s. It specifically examines the integral role that quality academic advising plays in individualized major programs. In doing so, it explores how such advising assists students with embarking on an intentional path of study that draws meaningful connections across multiple disciplines in accordance with both their learning goals and those established via general education imperatives. Finally, the essay concludes with some suggestions as to how such advising practices can be extended into other academic programs.
By investigating undergraduates’ epistemological orientations and processes in academic and personal contexts, this study examined whether and how epistemological development in one context is related to development in another context. It is difficult to know how holistic epistemological development is. Our findings suggest there are contextual differences in students’ epistemologies.
Subject comprehension and critical thinking are both key goals of higher education. However, while the former is, on the whole, successfully cultivated in undergraduate students, the latter is not. Few empirical studies have investigated the relationship between subject comprehension and critical thinking. In the present article we suggest that supporting the development of subject comprehension is not at odds with developing critical thinking. In fact, we argue that subject comprehension plays a key role in developing critical-thinking skills. Using an experimental design, we demonstrate differing effects of an intervention on subject comprehension, subject-specific critical thinking, and general critical thinking as a function of students' academic background. We discuss the implications of our results for teaching in higher education.
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American higher education is facing several significant challenges: rapidly rising tuitions, a lack of support from politicians and the public in general, a demand for higher graduation rates, and the lack of a clear articulation of mission. Coping with these issues and many others is a formidable task. No matter what possible solutions and alternative approaches are on the horizon, a new social contract with students needs to be enacted so that students can fully experience and appreciate the path in higher education that they have chosen. Academic advising is at the core of implementing this new contract and is prepared to immediately respond with programs and student/adviser interactions. The purposes of academic advising accommodate all students so that they can make reasoned decisions as they set and enact the goals of their lives.
The component of the baccalaureate degree referred to as general education is at risk. General education is losing traction in the curriculum, as calls for graduate students on a faster time schedule and a desire to produce readily employable graduates head the list of higher education objectives. Little attention is paid to how students come to understand the nature and purpose of the education they have chosen for themselves. As one of few endeavors in higher education with the capacity to reach all students, academic advising can ensure that general education is valued as essential by students who experience it.
Written communication and oral communication are inextricably linked as essential life skills and as desirable educational outcomes. However, there is a clear disconnect between what Alabama colleges expect of their graduates and what they are providing them in terms of oral communication education. The steps taken to develop the general studies curriculum for public colleges in Alabama are described. The current state of oral communication education in Alabama highlights inconsistencies between stated academic goals and the means to achieve them, and it exposes a cancer in the curriculum, “teaching” oral communication as a module in another discipline's course. Very few Alabama high school graduates have ever had an oral communication course, but they have all had four years of required English. The real debate is not whether oral communication should be included in the general studies curriculum but where to put it. Oral communication is currently an option in Area II—Humanities. The regional accrediting agency for public colleges in Alabama states that oral communication is a skill course, like English composition, that does not belong in the humanities. The recommendation is to move oral communication to Area I and rename it Communication—Written and Oral.
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In this essay, I explore the idea that “academic” advisers are “academics” who play a major role in connecting the general education curriculum to the students’ experience as well as connecting the faculty to the students’ holistic experience of the curriculum. The National Academic Advising Association Concept of Academic Advising is used as a framework to consider advisers as academics and to imagine how this idea can be operationalized on college and university campuses within the context of the current challenges facing higher education.
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We discuss a model of academic rigor and apply this to a general education introductory astronomy course. We argue that even without central tenets of professional astronomy—the use of mathematics—the course can still be considered academically rigorous when expectations, goals, assessments, and curriculum are properly aligned.
This article examines the relationship between academic specialization and student exposure to a range of academic domains of knowledge. It uses a concentration measure—the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index—to investigate whether students who choose single majors or double major are more or less concentrated in nine domains of knowledge most postsecondary institutions consider to be the intellectual core of a liberal arts general education. The results, based on an analysis of 240 undergraduate transcripts, indicate that—relative to single majoring—choosing similar majors (hyperspecialization) significantly concentrates student learning and choosing very different majors (hypospecialization) leads to more breadth.
Academic advisers play an important role in making general education relevant and meaningful to student learning by helping to facilitate the three I's of general education: interdisciplinarity, integration, and intentionality. This essay argues that the “advising as learning” model of academic advising embodies the kinds of advising practices that can contribute to the promotion of the three I's. It specifically examines the integral role that quality academic advising plays in individualized major programs. In doing so, it explores how such advising assists students with embarking on an intentional path of study that draws meaningful connections across multiple disciplines in accordance with both their learning goals and those established via general education imperatives. Finally, the essay concludes with some suggestions as to how such advising practices can be extended into other academic programs.
This study examined the subjective experience of academic disengagement. Flow theory, which describes an intense form of engagement, structured writing-to-learn activities undergraduates applied in major and liberal arts courses. Results suggest that writing to learn can transform academic anxiety and boredom by facilitating concentration, providing feedback, and enhancing enjoyment.
Written communication and oral communication are inextricably linked as essential life skills and as desirable educational outcomes. However, there is a clear disconnect between what Alabama colleges expect of their graduates and what they are providing them in terms of oral communication education. The steps taken to develop the general studies curriculum for public colleges in Alabama are described. The current state of oral communication education in Alabama highlights inconsistencies between stated academic goals and the means to achieve them, and it exposes a cancer in the curriculum, “teaching” oral communication as a module in another discipline's course. Very few Alabama high school graduates have ever had an oral communication course, but they have all had four years of required English. The real debate is not whether oral communication should be included in the general studies curriculum but where to put it. Oral communication is currently an option in Area II—Humanities. The regional accrediting agency for public colleges in Alabama states that oral communication is a skill course, like English composition, that does not belong in the humanities. The recommendation is to move oral communication to Area I and rename it Communication—Written and Oral.
By investigating undergraduates’ epistemological orientations and processes in academic and personal contexts, this study examined whether and how epistemological development in one context is related to development in another context. It is difficult to know how holistic epistemological development is. Our findings suggest there are contextual differences in students’ epistemologies.
For a variety of reasons, student engagement in general education continues to be a challenge. Perhaps one way to increase engagement is to connect general education with a deep student need: finding meaning and purpose in their lives or exploring what some have called “big questions.” Recent scholarship has defined these clusters of meaning and purpose needs as “spirituality.” General education can address these larger questions not only through “culture and belief ” types of courses but also by having students study the world through multiple disciplines and perspectives. Academic advisers, who regularly talk with students about their values and goals and advise them on the entire curriculum, are in a prime position to help students make personal connections between their search for meaning and purpose and general education.
Subject comprehension and critical thinking are both key goals of higher education. However, while the former is, on the whole, successfully cultivated in undergraduate students, the latter is not. Few empirical studies have investigated the relationship between subject comprehension and critical thinking. In the present article we suggest that supporting the development of subject comprehension is not at odds with developing critical thinking. In fact, we argue that subject comprehension plays a key role in developing critical-thinking skills. Using an experimental design, we demonstrate differing effects of an intervention on subject comprehension, subject-specific critical thinking, and general critical thinking as a function of students' academic background. We discuss the implications of our results for teaching in higher education.
Higher education institutions are continually seeking to recruit nontraditional adult students yet struggle at the same time to meet their needs effectively. The following case study offers strategies to address this situation by documenting the pedagogical design and initial outcomes of an interdisciplinary, nineteen-month leadership-themed liberal studies undergraduate degree completion program at Grand Valley State University. As an innovative, accelerated, hybrid cohort model, it incorporates a wide range of high-impact practices focused on developing the skills leaders use and employers require. The curriculum integrates practices from motivational and experiential learning, community-based learning, and design thinking to scaffold students' learning across their courses. The program thereby encourages students to wrestle with the complexity of social issues in their communities and develop the skills and virtues necessary for addressing those problems. As a case study, this article is particularly relevant for educators and administrators hoping to uncover a means for catalyzing innovative co-participatory engagement projects that engage with the needs of the surrounding community in a format supportive of nontraditional learners.
Higher education institutions are continually seeking to recruit nontraditional adult students yet struggle at the same time to meet their needs effectively. The following case study offers strategies to address this situation by documenting the pedagogical design and initial outcomes of an interdisciplinary, nineteen-month leadership themed liberal studies undergraduate degree completion program at Grand Valley State University. As an innovative, accelerated, hybrid cohort model, it incorporates a wide range of high-impact practices focused on developing the skills leaders use and employers require. The curriculum integrates practices from motivational and experiential learning, community-based learning, and design thinking to scaffold students’ learning across their courses. The program thereby encourages students to wrestle with the complexity of social issues in their communities and develop the skills and virtues necessary for addressing those problems. As a case study, this article is particularly relevant for educators and administrators hoping to uncover a means for catalyzing innovative co-participatory engagement projects that engage with the needs of the surrounding community in a format supportive of nontraditional learners.
This research study investigated the assessment practices of five different undergraduate business programs. It examines the learning outcomes required for the business programs and their linkages with general education outcomes. Specific assessment methods, the results from assessments, and how business program faculty use assessment findings to make changes are highlighted.
Two studies were conducted regarding the achievement goal orientations of college students within two contexts: coursework in all courses and in general education courses. Interactions were detected for achievement goals by class level and context. Findings raise concern about student attitudes toward general education, despite its importance to other stakeholders.
Despite efforts of both administration and faculty, the intent and the execution of new curricular initiatives are not always in alignment. To understand how the declaration of a campus-wide general education initiative was being implemented, this article combines analyses of syllabi and courses from across disciplines. In an initial review, the goal was to understand how new elements of Core Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes were being incorporated into syllabi. After this general review, the authors sought to understand how core elements associated specifically with reading were being implemented in syllabi and in the classroom. This article finds that while critical analysis and reading are valued as cornerstones of the university, the details of who is responsible for teaching and assessing these important features remains less clear. “Reading” is variously prevalent across disciplinary courses: while present in the course structure and assessment mechanisms of syllabi across the university, there is little evidence that instructors are holding themselves responsible for teaching and assessing it as an intellectual practice. Amid a national scholarly conversation about reading and its role in critical thinking, this study contributes ideas for how institutions can more explicitly align stated values with curricular outcomes in practice.
Understanding student motivations for participating in high-impact educational practices is important for improving learning experiences. This article explores student motivations across and within five forms of experiential learning at Elon University: study abroad, research, internships, service-learning, and leadership experiences. Surveys and interviews were used at the end of students' senior year to understand what drives choices, the obstacles hindering student decisions, and the perceived value of each experience. A complex web of motivations arose related to majors and career goals, the perceived value of different opportunities, learning goals, financial need, minority status, and other factors. Students perceived many benefits from experiential learning related to worldview (93 percent of students), career development (87 percent), and academic learning (84 percent), though students varied widely in reporting which experiences they valued most and least. Findings suggest four implications for practice: making experiential learning a more substantial part of curricula, having a diverse set of experiential learning opportunities available to meet diverse student needs, being attentive to the socioeconomic situations of students, and promoting the benefits of each experiential learning opportunity in a balanced way that promotes multiple facets of a liberal education.
To enhance student performance, prevent attrition, and build a learning community, two courses were linked together by requiring concurrent enrollment. Students in an unlinked class were used as a comparison group. Grades, evaluations, and attrition rate suggest that linking courses can improve writing and exam scores and reduce attrition.
Understanding student motivations for participating in high-impact educational practices is important for improving learning experiences. This article explores student motivations across and within five forms of experiential learning at Elon University: study abroad, research, internships, service-learning, and leadership experiences. Surveys and interviews were used at the end of students' senior year to understand what drives choices, the obstacles hindering student decisions, and the perceived value of each experience. A complex web of motivations arose related to majors and career goals, the perceived value of different opportunities, learning goals, financial need, minority status, and other factors. Students perceived many benefits from experiential learning related to worldview (93 percent of students), career development (87 percent), and academic learning (84 percent), though students varied widely in reporting which experiences they valued most and least. Findings suggest four implications for practice: making experiential learning a more substantial part of curricula, having a diverse set of experiential learning opportunities available to meet diverse student needs, being attentive to the socioeconomic situations of students, and promoting the benefits of each experiential learning opportunity in a balanced way that promotes multiple facets of a liberal education.
We assessed students in General Psychology classes and examined their SAT/ACT scores, GPAS, and attempted and earned hours. Exams in General Psychology were superior to the SAT/ACT in predicting GPA, supporting the use of an introductory course as a "gateway" for identifying at-risk students and engaging them in academic services.
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Qatar can afford to purchase pretty much anything—including top-quality American university education. However, given the vast differences in culture, dress, religion, and social mores, along with youth’s global unemployment rates and their hankering for all things technological, does it make sense for Qatar to import a course in acting? Many academics debate whether bringing Western liberal curricula to Middle Eastern classrooms is a good idea at all, but learning to see and experience the world from other people’s perspectives can be a lesson worth learning.
