Building Faculty Learning Communities

Take an in depth look at discipline-centered learning communities. Using psychology as an example, this issue provides prescriptive advice for those interested in developing a learning community in any academic discipline or program. Learning communities are a powerful vehicle for creating and sustaining connections among students, faculty, and the curriculum, but creating one can be a challenge. By providing resources, practical case studies, and theoretical grounding, this volume can both inspire and guide faculty, staff, and administrators in meeting their pedagogical and curricular goals. Learn how the five types of learning communities—based curricularly, residentially, in the classroom, on the students themselves, and even virtually—can be used to enhance student engagement and learning. Illustrating the versatility of the practice across a wide range of settings, student populations, and institutional types, this issue also contains an extensive listing of resources that go beyond disciplinary boundaries and open possibilities for all in higher education. This is the 132nd volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education series. New Directions for Teaching and Learning offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers.

Explore an important, yet understudied concept: faculty scholarly learning. Taking a broad view, this volume explains how scholarly learning is defined and conceptualized by scholars. The authors synthesize the recent literature and organize the findings according to Boyer?s four forms of scholarship (discovery, teaching, engagement, and integration). They then offer a counternarrative to faculty scholarly learning and the ways in which it is enacted and supported. Recommendations for developing, supporting, and evaluating faculty scholarly learning are also presented. This volume answers: What does scholarly learning look like at different types of institutions? What contexts and/or supports hinder or help faculty members? scholarly learning at the different institutional types? What challenges are noted in the extant literature on faculty work around further study or better understanding of faculty members? scholarly learning across institutional types? This is the second issue of the 43rd volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

It is clear that service-learning has the potential to yield tremendous benefits to students, communities, and institutions of higher education. Increased student learning has been well documented. As communities gain new energy to meet their needs and greater capacity to capitalize on their assets, service-learning enables higher education to fulfill its civic responsibility. When service-learning lives up to its potential to lead colleges and universities to transform themselves into fully engaged citizens of their communities and the world, its ability to bring about positive social change is limitless. To be successful, service-learning must be grounded in a wide range of solid, reciprocal, democratic partnerships. Building Partnerships for Service-Learning assembles leading voices in the field to bring their expertise to bear on this crucial topic. Faculty, administrators, student leaders, and community and corporate leaders will find this volume filled with vital information, exemplary models, and practical tools needed to make service-learning succeed. Comprehensive in scope, Building Partnerships for Service-Learning includes: Fundamentals and frameworks for developing sustainable partnerships Assessment as a partnership-building process The complex dynamics of collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs Partnering with students to enhance service-learning How to create campuswide infrastructure for service-learning Profiles and case studies of outstanding partnerships with neighborhoods, community agencies, and K-12 schools Partnerships for collaborative action research Exploring the challenges and benefits of corporate and international partnerships The dynamic relationship of service-learning and the civic renewal of higher education Building Partnerships for Service-Learning is the essential guide to taking service-learning and partnerships to the next level.

An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities «Startup communities» are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world.

The missing how-to manual for being an effective team leader The Art of Coaching Teams is the manual you never received when you signed on to lead a team. Being a great teacher is one thing, but leading a team, or team development, is an entirely different dynamic. Your successes are public, but so are your failures—and there's no specific rubric or curriculum to give you direction. Team development is an art form, and this book is your how-to guide to doing it effectively. You'll learn the administrative tasks that keep your team on track, and you'll gain access to a wealth of downloadable tools that simplify the «getting organized» process. Just as importantly, you'll explore what it means to be the kind of leader that can bring people together to accomplish difficult tasks. You'll find practical suggestions, tools, and clear instructions for the logistics of team development as well as for building trust, developing healthy communication, and managing conflict. Inside these pages you'll find concrete guidance on: Designing agendas, making decisions, establishing effective protocols, and more Boosting your resilience, understanding and managing your emotions, and meeting your goals Cultivating your team's emotional intelligence and dealing with cynicism Utilizing practical tools to create a customized framework for developing highly effective teams There is no universal formula for building a great team, because every team is different. Different skills, abilities, personalities, and goals make a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective at best. Instead, The Art of Coaching Teams provides a practical framework to help you develop your group as a whole, and keep the team moving toward their common goals.

The essential guidebook for effective faculty hiring committees Best Practices for Faculty Search Committees presents a clear, direct action plan for faculty and administration involved in hiring. Written by a veteran university administrator, this book lays out a step-by-step process for selecting the right candidate for the job. Practical guidance on application review, interviewing, and evaluation walks you through established and effective methods, while case studies and examples from a variety of institutions provide insight into real-world implementation. Whether you're serving on a faculty search committee for the first time, or simply seeking a more efficient route to the best candidate, this book provides invaluable guidance that can streamline the search and selection process. Tenure-track and long-term opportunities don't come about every day, so it's essential for hiring committees to make the correct choice. While the search process may be codified to an extent by your institution, there is still plenty of room for error or misjudgment; this book helps you keep the process on track and moving forward until the best candidate is identified. Develop criteria for efficient and informative application review Conduct in-depth interviews that provide a clear picture of fit Evaluate final candidates on the most pertinent points for the job Most faculty search resources are technical in nature, with little guidance on getting the job done properly and efficiently; best practices tend to be unwritten, and frequently verge into «habit» rather than critically evaluated method. Best Practices for Faculty Search Committees provides clear, concise, concrete guidance for a more efficient, effective, and successful candidate search.

Gain a greater understanding of the academic, cultural, and social experiences of first-generation college students (FGS). Fascinating, heart-touching, and important, the research and the stories presented here enlighten what FGS often have to overcome to successfully complete their degrees. With an emphasis on improving FGS' college success, retention, and graduation rates, this volume first covers common obstacles and the trend of FGS continuing on for graduate degrees. Section Two discusses the complex interplay of social, academic, emotional, and financial influences on academic performance. The chapters collectively affirm that the commitment of university resources is critical to college success. This is the 127th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report New Directions for Teaching and Learning, which offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers.

This third edition of the classic resource, Building Expertise draws on the most recent evidence on how to build innovative forms of expertise and translates that evidence into guidelines for instructional designers, course developers and facilitators, technical communicators, and other human performance professionals. Ruth Colvin Clark summarizes psychological theories concerning ways instructional methods support human learning processes. Filled with updated research and new illustrative examples, this new edition offers trainers evidence-based guidelines to help them accelerate genuine expertise within their organizations.

Service-Learning Essentials is the resource you need to help you develop high-quality service-learning experiences for college students. Written by one of the field's leading experts and sponsored by Campus Compact, the book is the definitive work on this high-impact educational practice. Service-learning has been identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as having been widely tested and shown to be beneficial to college students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Organized in an accessible question-and-answer format, the book responds clearly and completely to the most common questions and concerns about service-learning. Each chapter addresses issues related to individual practice as well as to the collective work of starting and developing a service-learning center or program, with examples drawn from a variety of disciplines, situations, and institutional types. The questions range from basic to advanced and the answers cover both the fundamentals and complexities of service-learning. Topics include: Determining what service-learning opportunities institutions should offer How to engage students in critical reflection in academic courses and in cocurricular experiences Best practices for developing and sustaining mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships Integrating service-learning into the curriculum in all disciplines and at all levels, as well as various areas of student life outside the classroom Assessing service-learning programs and outcomes The dilemmas of service-learning in the context of power and privilege The future of service-learning in online and rapidly globalizing environments Service-learning has virtually limitless potential to enable colleges and universities to meet their goals for student learning while making unique contributions to addressing unmet local, national, and global needs. However, in order to realize these benefits, service-learning must be thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented. This easy-to-use volume contains everything faculty, leaders, and staff members need to know about service-learning to enhance communities, improve higher education institutions, and educate the next generation of citizens, scholars, and leaders.

Institute a culture of learning to boost organizational performance and agility What makes organizations successful? Today, most successful companies are learning organizations. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to join their ranks and bring your organization up to the head of the class. This book is a practical, actionable guide on how to boost performance, successfully manage change, and innovate more quickly. Learning organizations are composed of engaged, motivated employees who continually seek improvement, which leads to organizational agility and the ability to innovate ahead of the curve. When you encourage learning at every level, from the intern to the C suite, you gain a more highly skilled workforce with a greater ability to act in any situation. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to create this culture in your organization, with detailed explanations, practical examples, and step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away. Written by a recognized thought leader in the training industry, this informative and insightful guide is your roadmap to a more effective organization. You will discover how to: Attract, retain, and motivate the best employees Become a more innovative and agile organization Create a culture of continuous self-improvement Encourage learning at all levels and translate it into action Learning and education doesn't end at graduation—it's a lifelong process that keeps you relevant, informed, and better able to achieve your goals. These same benefits apply at the organizational level, making the culture self-sustaining: learning organizations attract top workers, who drive the organization forward, which attracts more top workers. If you want the best people, you have to be their best option. Building an Innovative Learning Organization gives you a blueprint for building a culture of learning, for a stronger, more robust organization.