Resources
Click Here for Book Review Abstract: In this wide-ranging book, Elana Michelson invites us to revisit basic understandings of the 'experiential learner'. How does experience come to be seen as the basis of knowledge? How do gender, class, and race enter into the ways in which knowledge is valued? What political and cultural belief systems underlie such practices as the assessment of prior learning and the writing of life narratives? Drawing on a range of disciplines, from feminist theory and the politics of knowledge to literary criticism, Michelson argues that particular understandings of `experiential learning’ have been central to modern Western cultures and the power relationships that underlie them. Presented in four parts, this challenging and lively book asks educators of adults to think in new ways about their assumptions, theories, and practices: - Part I provides readers with a short history of the notion of experiential learning. - Part II brings the insights and concerns of feminist theory to bear on mainstream theories of experiential learning. - Part III examines the assessment of prior experiential learning for academic credit and/or professional credentials. - Part IV addresses a second pedagogical practice that is ubiquitous in adult learning, namely, the assigning of life narratives. Gender, Experience, and Knowledge in Adult Learning will be of value to scholars and graduate students exploring adult and experiential learning, as well as academics wishing to introduce students to a broad range of feminist, critical-race, materialist and postmodernist thinking in the field. (From the Publisher)
Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Sharing and engaging in interactions and discussion as required for collaborative teaching and learning can be a foreign concept to students coming from Asia or growing up in an Asian family. As such, this first volume in a two-volume edition helps lecturers, educators, and teachers create collaborative teaching and learning experiences with multicultural adult learners in higher education. Topics include: - assessment and evaluation techniques that focus on collaborative teaching and learning with diverse students - students’ cultural beliefs and strategies for outcomes-based collaborative teaching and learning in Asia, and - an understanding of the unique learning motivations of contemporary Asian students. This is the 142nd volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education series. It 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. (From the Publisher)
This essay describes a transformation in my experience as an adjunct teaching underprepared students from one of shame toward a desire to assert the value of this work. Insights from my feminist theological training helped me to affirm the importance of encouraging transformative learning in teaching the academically marginalized and prompted my analysis of student writing in an introductory World Religions course, in order to determine whether or not the course was a site of transformative learning. I argue that despite many contextual limitations, the movement toward deepening self-awareness and increasing openness to religious diversity seen in student writing demonstrates that transformative learning began in this course, and that is valuable for students' lives whether or not they are academically successful.
Assessments of student behavior in first- semester design experiences suggest that early team- based design projects can promote a team performance goal orientation that undermines students’ learning goals. In particular, we find that gender-correlated division of work can easily and unconsciously occur in these teams and that performance-oriented teams may be more likely to undermine womens’ learning goals then mens’ learning goals. We propose mechanisms to explain the effect and present results of promising interventions. 
A forum on race and teaching theology and religion, launched in the wake of the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent protests and police response in Ferguson, Missouri, but framed more broadly to encompass teaching for racial and social justice, dismantling the structures of white privilege in academia, and diversifying the faculty, the students, and the canon.
A short essay written by a student in the 1990s who regards herself as introverted, describing the particular qualities and experiences associated with her personal style. Posted on Mark Unno’s website, who teaches Buddhism at the University of Oregon.
A short essay written by a student in the 1990s who regards herself as extrovert, describing the particular qualities and experiences associated with her personal style. Posted on Mark Unno’s website, who teaches Buddhism at the University of Oregon.
Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Teaching across Cultures: Building Pedagogical Relationships in Diverse Contexts captures the tensions and complexities, as well as the transformational potentials, of teaching across multiple cultural contexts. The book evolved from cumulative self-studies that examined one teacher educator’s teaching practice, the cultural impact on that practice, and how she facilitated transformative teaching and learning. While every act of teaching occurs across cultures, such as institutional culture, invisible cultures, and classroom cultures, among others, educators who teach as cultural outsiders have to navigate the tensions, complexities, and contradictory realities of cross-cultural teaching. The tensions can be reduced or managed through responsive pedagogy, relationship building, and teaching in the third space. These transformational approaches not only help to identify and close the perpetual gaps in teaching and learning, but they also position effective teaching within a pedagogical common ground that values student voices, facilitates pedagogical flexibility, and uses diversity as a teaching tool. In a world of ubiquitous and interactive learning environments, both the physical and virtual spaces play a vital role in teaching and teacher-student relationships. The book points to the necessity of teacher educators’ learning through diverse, professional networks and, more importantly, through self-study. It is only through this introspective examination of one’s teaching and students’ learning, as well as taking an ontological attitude toward teaching, can educators achieve success in diverse contexts. (From the Publisher)
Vygotsky in Twenty-first Century Society is an ensemble of novel perspectives about the legacy of Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria. The book illustrates how well the legacy of their work is being applied and continued in contemporary research, and how cultural historical theory has been constructed and re-constructed. Together, these collected essays inform a broader discussion of how a developmentally-oriented cultural paradigm can guide learning and teaching in social and educational policy and in group or individual counseling. Readers will find discussions of issues in human development that have previously been overlooked. This book is important and timely in addressing these issues and fault-lines, particularly for advancing both equity and scientific understandings. (From the Publisher)
Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Here is an introduction to salient topics and issues affecting Black males as they engage in adult basic education programs, pursue employment, and obtain higher education. The chapters include academic research as well as program descriptions and personal narratives with a concern for the “lived experiences” and the voices of the men. While not exhaustive, this volumne does hope to challenge commonly held stereotypes, interactions, and policies. It is designed to raise questions about the unique experiences of this specific population and to explore the sociocultural dynamics that impact their education. This is the 144th volume of the Jossey Bass series New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Noted for its depth of coverage, it explores issues of common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors, and policymakers in a broad range of education settings, such as colleges and universities, extension programs, businesses, libraries, and museums. (From the Publisher)