Volume XXXIX, No. 4 | February 9, 2017 Tale of Two Department Chairs When you think of the job title “Department Chair” what comes to mind? Roles and responsibilities are ever-changing in higher education. The division or department chair position at community and technical colleges has morphed into a myriad of roles, including business [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 3 | February 2, 2017 Navigating a Topsy-Turvy Classroom “The only constant is change.” In fact, even that well-known saying was altered from the original: “Change is the only constant in life.” Either way, as educators, it’s safe to say we’re familiar with change. Often, the hardest adjustments—decisions made by campus [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 2 | January 26, 2017 Don’t Reinvent the Critical Thinking Wheel: What Scholarly Literature Says About Critical Thinking Instruction As colleges face accreditation requirements, or as departments undergo program review, they generally seek to integrate formal statements about critical thinking into their documentation. Yet, it is not uncommon for these institutions to [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 1 | January 19, 2017 Teaching Applied Education Courses Online There is growing demand for online courses in higher education, and applied education courses are no exception. This alternate mode of delivery leverages advances in information and communication technology to increase the geographical reach of education and training. Not only does [...]
Why and How to Globalize a Community College Issue No. 6 • January 2017 In “Why and How to Globalize a Community College,” Nan McRaven, Principal, McRaven Consulting and Trustee, Austin Community College (TX), and Patricia Somers, Associate Professor, Higher Education, The University of Texas at Austin (TX), discuss the responsibility of community colleges to prepare students [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 29 | December 1, 2016 Using a New Tool in a New Way Many students find studying difficult, perhaps because they’ve never been taught how to study. There is ample evidence that shows repeated exposure to course material, especially in different contexts, helps move course material into long-term memory (Baddeley, [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 28 | November 17, 2016 Teach Students HOW to Learn: Metacognition is the Key! “Miriam, a freshman calculus student at Louisiana State University (LSU), made 37.5 percent on her first exam, but 83 percent and 93 percent on the next two exams. Robert, a first-year general chemistry student at LSU, [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 27 | November 10, 2016 Close Reading With Open Eyes Learning to read a text closely and carefully is a practical skill that serves students in any discipline—and introductory literature is no exception. Every semester of my English 1302 course begins with an introduction to tragedy and the ancient Greeks, [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 26 | November 3, 2016 Is Fair Grading Futile? Evaluating and Rethinking Assessment "Teachers often replicate what they experienced as students.” –Pula Stitt Educator Challenges What is one of the most challenging aspects about your job as an educator? The usual suspects come to my mind: time constraints, course load, [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 25 | October 27, 2016 Using Dilemmas and Case Studies to Promote Critical Thinking and Interpersonal Skills “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein For many of us, our student populations are diverse—military, veterans, fathers, mothers, grandparents, siblings, caretakers, [...]