Resources

Designed as a resource for persons interested in improving the quality of teaching and student learning, this book covers aspects of the teaching-learning process that can be altered with relative ease. Practical suggestions are given in chapters focusing on concepts known to have a strong influence on student learning. The chapters include: (1) new ideas on teaching and learning in higher education; (2) exceptionally effective college teachers (identifying and interviewing them, feedback, etc.); (3) learning and evaluation (traditional and alternative uses, critical elements, subject area differences, etc.); (4) mastery learning; (5) motivation and early success (predicting college success, importance of first semester and first test, etc.); (6) time use and student involvement (John Carroll's model, Benjamin Bloom's ideas on learning rate, allocated versus engaged time, etc.); (7) student support services (faculty contact, tutorial services, computer-assisted instruction, etc.); and (8) staff development (collegial sharing, program characteristics, etc.).

The work of faculty is stressful, yet most stress studies focus on faculty's research rather than teaching. This study examined the experience of nine tenured professors in search of answers to these questions: What classroom interactions do faculty find stressful? Why do faculty find these activities stressful? How do faculty explain, perform, and organize classroom practices to cope with these stresses?

Discusses information technology in theological schools. Challenges in the implementation of technology; Sample of theological resources; Factors that drive the creation of virtual seminaries.

Explains that diversification of the faculty brings intellectual diversity in scholarship. Importance of ethnic diversity in colleges and universities to the viability of higher education in the United States (U.S.); Status of the recruitment and retention of faculty of color in the U.S.; Advantages of diverse faculty in the academic community; Effects of affirmative actions in higher education to colored people.

Elizabeth Ellsworth finds that critical pedagogy, as represented in her review of the literature, has developed along a highly abstract and Utopian line which does not necessarily sustain the daily workings of the education its supporters advocate. The author maintains that the discourse of critical pedagogy is based on rationalist assumptions that give rise to repressive myths. Ellsworth argues that if these assumptions, goals, implicit power dynamics, and issues of who produces valid knowledge remain untheorized and untouched, critical pedagogues will continue to perpetuate relations of domination in their classrooms. The author paints a complex portrait of the practice of teaching for liberation. She reflects on her own role as a White middle-class woman and professor engaged with a diverse group of students developing an antiracist course. Grounded in a clearly articulated political agenda and her experience as a feminist teacher, Ellsworth provides a critique of "empowerment," "student voice," "dialogue," and "critical reflection" and raises provocative issues about the nature of action for social change and knowledge.

Discusses the fact that despite a decade of changing ideas about student learning and instruction based on learner-centered education, most faculty still rely on lectures. Identifies individual and group dynamics that impede collaborative learning, considers the moral base of collaborative learning, and offers some guiding principles of growth-oriented learning.

Ask yourself key questions about the proposed group activity, be certain that the activity furthers course objects, allow for team building, encourage students to monitor group processing, promote individual accountability, etc.

There has been little systematic thought about the pedagogical issues that technology creates in theological schools. Addressed both theological institutions and individual professors, this paper addresses basic pedagogical questions. What are the most effective ways to employ technology in the classroom? Are there guidelines for distinguishing productive activities from merely flashy ones? And, what "rules of thumb" exist for enabling novices to make the best use of computer technology for theological learning?

Based on the Situational Leadership model of Hersey and Blanchard, the Staged Self-Directed Learning Model proposes that learners advance through stages of increasing self-direction and that teachers can help or hinder that development. Good teaching matches the learner's stage of self-direction and helps the learner advance toward greater self-direction. Specific methods are proposed for teaching students at each stage, although many different teaching styles are good when appropriately applied. Several pedagogical difficulties are explained as mismatches between teacher style and learner stage, especially the mismatch between a student needing direction and a non-directive teacher. The model is applied to a course, a single class, and the overall curriculum.