Resources

Mapping the Territory of Teaching offers a review of the most current and important writings on the topic of scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education. One of the foremost experts in the field, Editor Maryellen Weimer is uniquely qualified to bring this information together. (From the Publisher)

Higher education is becoming destabilized in the face of extraordinarily rapid change. The composition of the academy's most valuable asset—the faculty—and the essential nature of faculty work are being transformed. Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein describe the transformation of the American faculty in the most extensive and ambitious analysis of the American academic profession undertaken in a generation. A century ago the American research university emerged as a new organizational form animated by the professionalized, discipline-based scholar. The research university model persisted through two world wars and greatly varying economic conditions. In recent years, however, a new order has surfaced, organized around a globalized, knowledge-based economy, powerful privatization and market forces, and stunning new information technologies. These developments have transformed the higher education enterprise in ways barely imaginable in generations past. At the heart of that transformation, but largely invisible, has been a restructuring of academic appointments, academic work, and academic careers—a reconfiguring widely decried but heretofore inadequately described. This volume depicts the scope and depth of the transformation, combing empirical data drawn from three decades of national higher education surveys. The authors' portrait, at once startling and disturbing, provides the context for interpreting these developments as part of a larger structural evolution of the national higher education system. They outline the stakes for the nation and the challenging work to be done. (From the Publisher)

Sustaining Teacher Leadership describes a model for linking leadership and learning and identifies six components of an enabling culture for teacher leadership: learning, valuing, nurturing, supporting, sharing, and coaching. The model is based on an historical review of artifacts from earlier qualitative studies that report on eight years of a middle school's restructuring and restructuring experiences. (From the Publisher)

In this age of seemingly endless mandated reforms, reflective practice is a truly effective, empowering way to make meaningful, positive changes. Written for teachers, counselors, administrators, and professional development specialists in schools and universities, this book is an educators' guide to reflective practice. The authors explain its potential to create meaningful change in schools and show you how to integrate it effectively into the daily work of schools. The book: * Explains reflective practice as a professional development strategy * Offers ideas and practical strategies to facilitate collaborative, data-based inquiry, dialogue * Describes reflective practice in action and illustrates its power to create meaningful change in classrooms * Shows how reflective practice is an important step in creating professional learning organizations (From the Publisher)

With more than a few misgivings but desperate to pay off her loans, Nicole Adams, a newly minted Ph.D. in philosophy, accepts an assistant professorship at Higher State, a small state university in "the middle of the Midwest". Little does she suspect that on just her second day, still flustered and disoriented in her new surroundings, she'll be plunged into a mystery. Crusty R. Reynolds Raskin, with whom she uneasily shares an office, disappears after his desk and files have been ransacked. The police are called. Two weeks later, with Raskin still missing, Nicole receives a threatening phone call... Read one way up, this is an entertaining parody of an academic mystery that satirizes the ways of academe. Turning the book upside down reveals another purpose: each chapter is in fact a case study, as is revealed by a series of discussion questions intended for faculty orientation and development. As the mystery unfolds, each chapter shows Nicole encountering testing situations such as student incivility and sexual harassment, problems with her first day of class, dilemmas concerning teaching evaluation and peer observation and issues related to assessment, classroom technology and the rights of faculty and students, among others. This little book can be read and used both ways: as pure entertainment or as a series of cases whose humorous presentation will break down academic barriers and promote spirited discussion. (From the Publisher)

Lack of time may be the single most commonly experienced problem among American faculty. It is fair to say that the overwhelming majority of the roughly 400,000 full time faculty in American colleges and universities feel overloaded in their teaching lives; they perceive that they do not have time to do their basic faculty duties properly; and they believe that overload goes with the job. We complain yet we do not reflect on and evaluate our paradigms for how we use our time. Perhaps a pernicious norm has evolved: anyone not complaining about being overwhelmed is suspect. We act as if we have no choice. Einstein once remarked, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." A Lakota Sioux saying puts the idea in concrete terms, "When your horse is dead, the proper strategy is to dismount." When it comes to avoiding overload, many of us sit on our dead horses kicking them in the sides over and over again, insanely, wondering why we don't get anywhere. However, we do have choices about how we use our time. Einstein suggested a way to discover our choices when he further observed, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." Essentially, that is the objective of this book: to elevate our awareness of how we use our time and how we might improve that use of time. We need to shift our perspective on using time from subject (a perspective from which we act naively) to object (a perspective on which we act intentionally). The tool that we will use to stimulate this shift in awareness comes from a vintage analysis of systems theory and research and focuses on managing the boundaries of our teaching selves better. In Making Time, Making Change, author Douglas Reimondo Robertson leads you on the road to a more rewarding, and less harried, teaching life! (From the Publisher)

“Academic leaders may be the least studied and most misunderstood management position in the world,” authors Gmelch and Miskin state. Although chairs come to the position for varied reasons, few come with any specific leadership training. Once in the position, they are critiqued, judged, and evaluated by both their faculty and administrators—groups which frequently have conflicting criteria. Based upon their extensive study of the demands on and needs of chairs, the authors have distilled their findings into a practical and highly accessible volume to guide chairs in their growth. Despite the varied paths to the position, the authors state that all chairs find themselves in an environment distinct from their former faculty situation. One of the most dramatic changes is that chairs need the ability to switch from one task or situation to another very quickly and must develop a facility for refocusing. As chairs, individuals assume four basic roles: faculty developer, manager, leader, and scholar. Because of these roles and the need to quickly refocus, Gmelch and Miskin advocate becoming a swivel chair. They state: “To balance their roles, chairs must learn to swivel without appearing dizzy, schizophrenic, or ‘two-faced.’” (From the Publisher)

This collection reflects the experiences of librarians, teaching faculty and library directors, whose perspectives range from cynicism to cautious optimism and idealism when it comes to working with teaching faculty. The volume includes case studies, surveys, sample questionnaires, statistics and a toolkit for establishing an effective library liaison program. The essays examine the teaching and learning environment, course growth and maintenance, and the "professor librarian" model. (From the Publisher)

This volume addresses the limitations of an instrumental perspective on collaboration and explores why stakeholders in higher education should refocus attention on collaboration as a source of faculty learning. The chapters establish a theoretical basis for thinking about faculty learning and then use case studies to explore this topic in the context of service or outreach, research, and teaching. Included as well are a meta-analysis of the cases to demonstrate what they teach about contexts that promote faculty learning and a discussion of the implications of the analysis for higher education policy and practice, including the evaluation of collaboratively produced work. The framework and cases are useful to an audience of academic leaders committed to faculty development and to creating hiring, promotion, and tenure policies that reward the full range of scholarly pursuits. They should also prove instructive to faculty embarking on interdisciplinary teaching, research, or outreach activities. This is the 102nd issue of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Teaching and Learning. (From the Publisher)