Teaching and Learning Digital Collection: Active Learning

Active Learning Strategies in Higher Education by Anastasia Misseyanni (Editor); Paraskevi Papadopoulou (Editor); Christina Marouli (Editor); Militiades D. Lytras (Editor) In the era of the 21st centuryknowledge society, higher education can play an important role as a driver for innovation, leadershipand creativity, as it helps develop not only well informed and knowledgeable citizens but also responsible and creative individuals. The challenges of globalization, tightly linked with rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the need to address issues of quality and inclusiveness for a better quality of life and a sustainable future, have become drivers of change in higher education institutions. We are experiencing a shift towards more interdisciplinary curricula and a more integrated and student-centredapproach to teaching. Instructors increasingly use active learning and other pedagogies of engagement as a means to increase learning and improve student attitudes.  This book explores best practices for effective active learning in higher education. Experienced instructors from different disciplines and countries share their experiences and reflect on best practices, as well as on the theoretical underpinnings of active learning. Contributors share their thinking on strategies based on different active learning methods such as the use of ICTs, collaborative learning and experiential learning, as well as their implications for teaching, assessment, curriculum design and higher education administration.  Active learning provides skills for real life problem solving and prepares students to become responsible and active citizens. This book will be a very significant resource for educators who are interested in making a difference in students' lives.

A Concise Guide to Teaching with Desirable Difficulties by Diane Cummings Persellin; Mary Blythe Daniels; Mary-Ann Winkelmes (Foreword by) This concise guidebook on desirable difficulties is designed to be a resource for academics who are interested in engaging students according to the findings of peer-reviewed literature and best practices but do not have the time to immerse themselves in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Intentionally brief, the book is intended to: summarize recent research on five aspects of desirable difficulties; provide applications to the college classroom based on this research; include special sections about teaching strategies that are based on best practices; and offer annotated bibliographies and important citations for faculty who want to pursue additional study. The book will provide a foundation for instructors to teach using evidence-based strategies that will strengthen learning and retention in their classrooms. In addition to chapters on the desirable difficulties, the book also includes chapters on teaching first-year and at-risk students to embrace this approach, on negotiating student resistance, and on using this approach in teaching online.

Creating Self-Regulated Learners by Linda Nilson; Barry J. Zimmerman (Foreword by) Most of our students neither know how learning works nor what they have to do to ensure it, to the detriment both of their studies and their development as lifelong learners. The point of departure for this book is the literature on self-regulated learning that tells us that deep, lasting, independent learning requires learners to bring into play a range of cognitive skills, affective attitudes, and even physical activities - about which most students are wholly unaware; and that self-regulation, which has little to do with measured intelligence, can be developed by just about anyone and is a fundamental prerequisite of academic success. Linda Nilson provides the theoretical background to student self-regulation,the evidence that it enhances achievement, and the strategies to help students develop it. She presents an array of tested activities and assignments through which students can progressively reflect on, monitor and improve their learning skills; describes how they can be integrated with different course components and on various schedules; and elucidates how to intentionally and seamlessly incorporate them into course design to effectively meet disciplinary and student development objectives. Recognizing that most faculty are unfamiliar with these strategies, she also recommends how to prepare for introducing them into the classroom and adding more as instructors become more confident using them. The book concludes with descriptions of courses from different fields to offer models and ideas for implementation. At a time of so much concern about what our students are learning in college and how well prepared they are for the challenges of tomorrow's economy and society, self-regulated learning provides a reassuring solution, particularly as studies indicate that struggling students benefit the most from practicing it.

The Faculty Factor by Martin J. Finkelstein; Valerie Martin Conley; Jack H. Schuster Over the past 70 years, the American university has become the global gold standard of excellence in research and graduate education. The unprecedented surge of federal research support of the postWorld War II American university paralleled the steady strengthening of the American academic profession itself, which managed to attract the best and brightest educators from around the world while expanding the influence of the "faculty factor" throughout the academic realm. But in the past two decades, escalating costs and intensifying demands for efficiency have resulted in a wholesale reshaping of the academic workforce, one marked by skyrocketing numbers of contingent faculty members. Extending Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein's richly detailed classic The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers, this important book documents the transformation of the American faculty--historically the leading global source of Nobel laureates and innovation--into a diversified and internally stratified professional workforce. Drawing on heretofore unpublished data, the book provides the most comprehensive contemporary depiction of the changing nature of academic work and what it means to be a college or university faculty member in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The rare higher education study to incorporate multinational perspectives by comparing the status and prospects of American faculty to teachers in the major developing economies of Europe and East Asia, The Faculty Factor also explores the redistribution of academic work and the ever-more diverse pathways for entering into, maneuvering through, and exiting from academic careers. Using the tools of sociology, anthropology, and demography, the book charts the impact of waves of technological change, mass globalization, and the severe financial constraints of the last decade to show the impact on the lives and careers of those who teach in higher education. The authors propose strategic policy recommendations to extend the strengths of American higher education to retain leadership in the global economy. Written for professors, adjuncts, graduate students, and academic, political, business, and not-for-profit leaders, this data-rich study offers a balanced assessment of the risks and opportunities posed for the American faculty by economic, market-driven forces beyond their control.

Hitting Pause by Gail Taylor Rice; Kevin Barry (Foreword by) Pauses constitute a simple technique for enlivening and enhancing the effectiveness of lectures, or indeed of any form of instruction, whether a presentation or in an experiential setting. This book presents the evidence and rationale for breaking up lectures into shorter segments by using pauses to focus attention, reinforce key points, and review learning. It also provides 65 adaptable pause ideas to use at the opening of class, mid-way through, or as closers. Starting with brain science research on attention span and cognitive load, Rice bases her book on two fundamental principles: shorter segments of instruction are better than longer ones, and learners who actively participate in instruction learn better than those who don't. Pausing helps teachers apply these principles and create student engagement without requiring major changes in their lesson plans. With careful planning, they can integrate pauses into learning sessions with ease and significantly reinforce student learning. They will also gain feedback on students' comprehension. Rice sets out the characteristics of good pauses, gives advice on how to plan them and how to introduce them to maximum effect. She provides compelling examples and concludes with a repertory of pauses readers can easily modify and apply to any discipline. This book contains a compendium of strategies that any teacher can fruitfully use to reinforce learning, as well as a stepping stone to those seeking to transition to more active learning methods. It: * Makes the case for using pauses * Identifies the primary functions of pauses: focusing, refocusing, enhancing retention, or closing off the learning experience * Provides research evidence from cognitive science and educational psychology * Provides practical guidance for creating quick active learning breaks * Distinguishes between starting, middle, and closing pauses * Includes descriptions, with suggested applications, of 65 pauses

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Education by Pantelis M. Papadopoulos (Editor); Roland Burger (Editor); Ana Faria (Editor) This book explores the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship through multiple lenses in the context of education. Mixing equal parts of theory and practice, this volume takes a closer look on how innovation and entrepreneurship are approached around the globe as disciplines, methods, and mindsets. Focusing on ubiquitous learning and transcending the borders of formal, informal, and non-formal learning, the book presents theoretical models and case studies of initiatives, practices, and projects on how innovative pedagogies and ICT could support the development of innovation and entrepreneurial skills for business and everyday life. Featured examples illustrate how emerging learning theories and technology could become powerful agents in nurturing creativity, self-efficacy, problem-solving, social connectedness, and inclusion. The book provides a glimpse at the state-of-the-art in innovation and entrepreneurship in education as seen through the latest academic studies and business currents.

Learning Communities from Start to Finish by Mimi Benjamin While the phrase "learning communities" has various definitions, at the heart of all programs is the goal of enhancing the student learning experience in the community of others. This volume provides valuable information about learning communities--from start to finish--including: * historical and theoretical foundations that guide these programs, * structures of learning communities that provide varied opportunities for student participation, with a focus on specific student populations who may benefit from learning community experiences, and * elements of staffing and assessment, as well as an annotated bibliography of recent learning community literature. The authors consider critical elements of learning community programs and offer recommendations and options for faculty and staff who work with, or hope to work with, this particular curricular and cocurricular learning structure. This the 149th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly series. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past: Research on High Impact, Active Learning Practices by C. Edward Watson and Thomas Chase Hagood

Student-Centered Learning Environments in Higher Education Classrooms by Sabine Hoidn This book aims to develop a situative educational model to guide the design and implementation of powerful student-centered learning environments in higher education classrooms. Rooted in educational science, Hoidn contributes knowledge in the fields of general pedagogy, and more specifically, higher education learning and instruction. The text will support instructors, curriculum developers, faculty developers, administrators, and educational managers from all disciplines in making informed instructional decisions with regard to course design, classroom interaction, and community building and is also of relevance to educators from other formal and informal educational settings aside from higher education. 

Transformative Learning Through Engagement by Jane Fried; James E. Zull (Foreword by) Jane Fried's overarching message is that higher education is based on a profoundly outdated industrial model of the purpose and delivery of learning and needs urgently to be changed. Student affairs professionals and academic faculty have become frustrated with the alienation of so many students from academic learning because they cannot see its connection to their lives. This book - addressed to everyone involved in helping college students learn - presents what we now know about the learning process, particularly those elements that promote behavioral change and the ability to place information in a broader context of personal meaning and long term impact. Central to its argument is that learning must be experiential and engage students holistically; that it must be grounded in brain science and an understanding of the cultural drivers of knowledge construction; that academic faculty and student affairs professionals must cooperate to help students make connections and see the implications of their learning for their lives; and that the entire learning environment needs to be integrated to reflect the organic nature of the process. A second purpose of this book is to enable student affairs professionals to articulate their own role in helping students learn. Student affairs, as a profession, has had difficulty describing its work with students as teaching because the dominant paradigm of teaching continues to suggest a classroom, an academic expert and a model of learning that is basically verbal and cognitive. Student affairs professionals who read this book will be able to understand and articulate the processes of experiential, transformative education to their academic colleagues and to help collegially design integrated learning experiences as partners with academic faculty. The book concludes with a number of brief invited chapters that describe a few emerging models and programs that illustrate Jane Fried's vision of transformative learning experiences that integrate experience, study, and reflection. This book was written with contributions from: Craig Alimo Julie Beth Elkins Scott Hazan Elsa M. Núñez Vernon Percy Christopher Pudlinski Sarah Stookey