This article is an analysis of the unique needs of returning service members at the college or university level that impact the teaching decisions made by instructors. The article also discusses the challenges that service members are individually addressing while acclimating themselves to their new environment of learning. With the reduction in forces occurring after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, many higher level learning institutions are struggling to adequately meet the needs of returning veterans. In turn, veterans often find that the style of instruction and the general college-level universe are difficult to negotiate. The combination of these factors can often result in veteran students performing below expectation or leaving school without finishing. The article proposes a variety of ways to understand and address these challenges including the use of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) strategies and characteristics.
Tag: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Faculty Perception on Support to Do Their Job Well
Research has commonly suggested that adequate and appropriate mentoring and faculty perception of support for a work-life balance are important factors in the recruitment, development, and retention of university faculty. To better understand the role of these factors in faculty job performance at teaching universities, faculty from such a university were surveyed about their experiences with these forms of support and the factors that influenced their perception of the ability to do their job well. Results indicate that faculty mentoring was an important predictor for support at the department level. Additionally, perceived work-life balance was a significant factor at the college and university levels.
Using the Learning Activities Survey to Examine Transformative Learning Experiences in Two Graduate Teacher Preparation Courses
The Learning Activities Survey (LAS) detected whether, and to what extent, a perspective transformation occurred during two graduate courses in teacher preparation. The LAS examined the types of learning identified as contributing to their transformation experiences. This study examined pre-service teachers’ critical reflection of the course materials and learning experiences in a Capstone course in Reflective Teaching and a course in Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Results suggest that similar learning experiences were identified as triggering a perspective transformation. When learners have the opportunity to engage in critical reflection, they may more easily question their personal perspectives as a result.
The Five Cs of Digital Curation: Supporting Twenty-First-Century Teaching and Learning
Digital curation is a process that allows university professors to adapt and adopt resources from multidisciplinary fields to meet the educational needs of twenty-first-century learners. Looking through the lens of new media literacy studies (Vasquez, Hartse, & Albers, 2010) and new literacies studies (Gee, 2010), we propose that university professors be savvy consumers of multimedia through purposeful content curation. In this paper, we will discuss practices that university professors may use to transform teaching and learning through effective collection, categorization, critiquing, conceptualization, and circulation of resources deemed to have curricular and content standards value.
An Assessment of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Public Administration from 2009-2013
The acceptance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a legitimate form of scholarly investigation and the shape that it takes in post-secondary education are inherently discipline-specific. This paper examines how the character and heritage of public administration influence the acceptance of SoTL, and the form that it takes. It argues that the applied nature of public administration and its interdisciplinary character have influenced SoTL in the discipline. This study concludes systematic self-reflection by disciplines may be needed to identify potential factors that limit the acceptance and/or direction of SoTL in a discipline.
Reaching Resisters in a Teaching Assistant Training Program
In the past decade, there has been limited longitudinal qualitative research examining the effects of training programs on graduate students’ teaching performance. One gap in this research is a discussion of Teaching Assistants (TAs) who resist such programs and an examination of strategies for overcoming this resistance. This action research study attempts to fill that gap by evaluating the relationship between TAs’ participation in one university’s Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) program and their resistance to its pedagogical strategies. The study defines the types of resistance and analyzes the reasons behind it. Findings address ways to more effectively reach resisting TAs and improve our own teaching practices.
“I Hate Group Work!”: Addressing Students’ Concerns About Small-Group Learning
This article identifies the strategies used by architecture professors and their undergraduate students to mitigate common issues that students raise about group work. Based on participant-observation, interviews with students and faculty, and analysis of instructional materials and student work, this IRB-approved ethnographic case study complicates the separation of collaborative, cooperative, and problem-based learning into distinct pedagogical models. Rather than viewing students’ concerns as a form of resistance that can be avoided with the right approach to small-group learning, this article explores how the hybrid model operating in design studio pedagogy confronts the problems inherent in any form of group work.
Teaching Small Group Communication: A Do Good Project
This paper focuses on the parameters of a semester-long project called the “Do Good” project, geared towards developing small group communication skills in undergraduate students. This project highlights participation in a social engagement project that allows students to bridge concepts learned in small group communication lectures (e.g., team dynamics, project management, conflict resolution, decision making, leadership) with community outreach. Included are an overview of the project, and examples for how each component both challenges students’ ability to communicate in groups and provides motivation that foster students’ ability to link in-class knowledge with practical, real world application.
The Role of Educators in Preparing the Confident Graduate Student
With large numbers of non-BSW graduates gravitating toward MSW programs of study, BSWs must demonstrate their ability to handle the rigor of graduate school in order to remain competitive in the classroom and field. This study utilized an online survey of MSW students (N=107) from four different universities to examine how well students believe their particular undergraduate degree program prepared them to meet the academic demands of the MSW programs. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed and results indicate BSW graduates feel more prepared than non-BSWs to complete their MSW program. The exception for BSWs was found in areas of research and statistics when compared specifically to those with psychology bachelor degrees.
Exit Tickets Open the Door to University Learning
Four instructors from a mid-western university implemented exit tickets in their university courses. The exit tickets were based on Marzano’s (2012) four types of exit tickets and were analyzed for patterns. Faculty completed a journal to reflect on what was learned examining the exit tickets. A survey was completed by both instructors and university students to determine the benefits of the use of exit tickets as a formative assessment at the university. Researchers share the processes used for implementing exit tickets and the results of the data collected along with implications for the use of exit tickets at the university.