Scholarship on Teaching
In the field of education, researchers firmly believe that non-cognitive skills and factors are equally or even more important than cognitive aspects in the educative process and for employment potentials. When identifying the personal qualities that are required to function well in the 21st century, the role of non-cognitive factors is often highlighted in the discourse. In recent years, increasing attempts have been made to investigate the role of non-cognitive factors in academic success. The notion of ‘non-cognitive’ has many phraseological collocations. Among frequently used collocations are constructs, traits, skills, abilities, variables, outcomes, attributes, and predictors. In addition, a myriad of other specific skills have been identified as non-cognitive. To name a few: grit, tenacity, curiosity, attitudes, self-concept, self-efficacy, anxiety, coping strategies, motivation, perseverance, confidence are among those frequently referred to in the literature. In some instances, non-cognitive factors are considered multifaceted. Some refer them to soft skills and personal characteristics that fall under the purview of affective domain. This book attempts to define non-cognitive traits, ways to measure them, impact of non-cognitive factors and how they can affect the positive outcomes in academic achievement, influence in employability, and success in social life. The information contained in this book provides knowledge growth and current thinking about non-cognitive factors and educational strategies that can be effectively used to nurture the well-being of individuals. (From the Publisher)
A document prepared by a committee working through the American Academy of Religion, that proposes a basic level of cultural competency that every graduate of a two- or four-year college should develop. It argues that some critical understanding about the ways in which religion shapes and is shaped by human behavior should be part of the general education of every person who receives an undergraduate degree.
Click Here for Book Review Best Practices in Engaging Online Learners Through Active and Experiential Learning Strategies is a practical guide for all instructors and instructional designers working in online or blended learning environments who want to provide a supportive, engaging, and interactive learner experience. This book explores the integration of active and experiential learning approaches and activities including gamification, social media integration, and project- and scenario-based learning, as they relate to the development of authentic skill-building, communication, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills in learners. Readers will find guidelines for the development of participatory peer-learning, cooperative education, and service learning opportunities in the online classroom. In addition, the authors provide effective learning strategies, resources, and tools that align learner engagement with course outcomes. (From the Publisher)
Click Here for Book Review This book provides higher education faculty and administrators a scholarly resource on the most salient aspects and emerging trends in creative learning in higher education today. International contributors explore ways to foster creativity in any student, regardless of academic discipline or demographic characteristics and demonstrate that creativity is a skill all students can and should learn. Chapters analyzes how different countries and cultures implement creative learning, exploring issues of instruction, assessment, and ultimately how these practices are transforming learning. This important book helps higher education professionals understand and cultivate creative learning across disciplines in any college and university setting. (From the Publisher)
Click Here for Book Review This book offers a moral rather than instrumental notion of university education whilst locating the university within society. It reflects a balancing of the instrumentalization of higher education as a mode of employment training and enhances the notion of the students’ well-being being at the core of the university mission. Compassion is examined in this volume as a weaving of diverse cultures and beliefs into a way of recognizing that diversity through a common good offers a way of preparing students and staff for a complex and anxious world. This book provides theoretical and practical discussions of compassion in higher education, it draws contributors from around the world and offers illustrations of compassion in action through a number of international cases studies.
Click Here for Book Review Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy N. Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come. (From the Publisher)
One-page Teaching Tactic that describes assignments using the new Religious Sounds Project database, helping students explore what counts as "religion."
One-page Teaching Tactic describing break out groups that integrate online-distance students with face-to-face students in the classroom.
One-page Teaching Tactic that helps students reflect critically on their own positionalities and to culturally and historically contextualize the life of a human figure they are studying.
One-page Teaching Tactic that uses pages from a children's book to concretize theoretical lessons about exegesis such as the contextual translation of words, reading in community, and larger literary, historical, social, and theological contexts.