Centering Humanism in STEM Education


Book Description

Research demonstrates that STEM disciplines perpetuate a history of exclusion, particularly for students with marginalized identities. This poses problems particularly when science permeates every aspect of contemporary American life. Institutions’ repeated failures to disrupt systemic oppression in STEM has led to a mostly white, cisgender, and male scientific workforce replete with implicit and/or explicit biases. Education holds one pathway to disrupt systemic linkages of STEM oppression from society to the classroom. Maintaining views on science as inherently objective isolates it from the world in which it is performed. STEM education must move beyond the transactional approaches to transformative environments manifesting respect for students’ social and educational capital. We must create a STEM environment in which students with marginalized identities feel respected, listened to, and valued. We must assist students in understanding how their positionality, privilege, and power both historically and currently impacts their meaning making and understanding of STEM.




Democracy and Education


Book Description

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.




The Learning Sciences in Conversation


Book Description

The Learning Sciences in Conversation explores the unique pluralities, complex networks, and distinct approaches of the learning scientists of today. Focused on four key scholarly areas – transdisciplinarity, design, cognition, and technology – this cutting-edge volume draws on empirical and theoretical foundations to illustrate the directions, perspectives, methods, and questions that continue to define this evolving field. Contributions by researchers are put in dialogue with one another, offering an exemplary analysis of a field that synthesizes, in situ, various scholarly traditions and orientations to create a critical and heterogenous understanding of learning.




Teaching and Learning STEM


Book Description

The widely used STEM education book, updated Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide covers teaching and learning issues unique to teaching in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. Secondary and postsecondary instructors in STEM areas need to master specific skills, such as teaching problem-solving, which are not regularly addressed in other teaching and learning books. This book fills the gap, addressing, topics like learning objectives, course design, choosing a text, effective instruction, active learning, teaching with technology, and assessment—all from a STEM perspective. You’ll also gain the knowledge to implement learner-centered instruction, which has been shown to improve learning outcomes across disciplines. For this edition, chapters have been updated to reflect recent cognitive science and empirical educational research findings that inform STEM pedagogy. You’ll also find a new section on actively engaging students in synchronous and asynchronous online courses, and content has been substantially revised to reflect recent developments in instructional technology and online course development and delivery. Plan and deliver lessons that actively engage students—in person or online Assess students’ progress and help ensure retention of all concepts learned Help students develop skills in problem-solving, self-directed learning, critical thinking, teamwork, and communication Meet the learning needs of STEM students with diverse backgrounds and identities The strategies presented in Teaching and Learning STEM don’t require revolutionary time-intensive changes in your teaching, but rather a gradual integration of traditional and new methods. The result will be a marked improvement in your teaching and your students’ learning.




Think Like a Girl


Book Description

Think your way to a more confident, successful you. Women's brains are different. It's not one-size-fits both men and women. Yet many women still believe the myths we tell ourselves. Myth: Women make emotional decisions when stressed. Myth: Women suffer more from unhappiness than men. Myth: Women have to act like men to be effective leaders. Dispel the myths! Stop underestimating your abilities. Stop downplaying your successes. And stop apologizing. In Think Like a Girl, award-winning psychologist, professor, and TEDx speaker Dr. Tracy Packiam Alloway will help you discover how: sticking your hand in a bucket of ice can help you make a less emotional decision changing one word can provide a buffer against depressive thoughts adopting a more relationship-centric leadership approach can be better for mental health Dare to think differently. Dare to think like a girl.










The Adult Learner


Book Description

How do you tailor education to the learning needs of adults? Do they learn differently from children? How does their life experience inform their learning processes? These were the questions at the heart of Malcolm Knowles’ pioneering theory of andragogy which transformed education theory in the 1970s. The resulting principles of a self-directed, experiential, problem-centred approach to learning have been hugely influential and are still the basis of the learning practices we use today. Understanding these principles is the cornerstone of increasing motivation and enabling adult learners to achieve. The 9th edition of The Adult Learner has been revised to include: Updates to the book to reflect the very latest advancements in the field. The addition of two new chapters on diversity and inclusion in adult learning, and andragogy and the online adult learner. An updated supporting website. This website for the 9th edition of The Adult Learner will provide basic instructor aids including a PowerPoint presentation for each chapter. Revisions throughout to make it more readable and relevant to your practices. If you are a researcher, practitioner, or student in education, an adult learning practitioner, training manager, or involved in human resource development, this is the definitive book in adult learning you should not be without.







Cases on Establishing Effective Collaborations in Academic Libraries


Book Description

The forming and nurturing of new partnerships and collaborations is a critical component of librarianship. Academic libraries have a long history of collaboration within the library, across their institutions, and in their local communities. However, forming new partnerships can be time-consuming, and at times frustrating, leaving important opportunities, connections, and projects unrealized. Cases on Establishing Effective Collaborations in Academic Libraries presents case studies on effective collaborations in a variety of settings with different objectives, staffing levels, and budgets that have proven to be successful in creating and maintaining strong and productive partnerships. It identifies and shares the role of the academic library in developing effective partnerships and collaborations within academia and the broader community. Covering topics such as controlled digital lending, research computing, and college readiness enhancement, this premier reference source is a vital resource for librarians and libraries, consortiums, university administrators, students and educators of higher education, community leaders, researchers, and academicians.




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