Quality Enhancement Plan 2011-2012


Book Description

The University of North Alabama's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for SACSCOC accreditation will encourage students to discover through the application of academic research, thus building for success in their future careers. The plan focuses on academic research literacy, which comprises the specific reading, data and information collection, analysis, and presentation skills (written or oral) required to successfully participate in problem-solving within any given discipline and career.




Making the Most of College


Book Description

Why do some students make the most of college, while others struggle and look back on years of missed deadlines and missed opportunities? What choices can students make, and what can teachers and university leaders do, to improve more students’ experiences and help them achieve the most from their time and money? Most important, how is the increasing diversity on campus—cultural, racial, and religious—affecting education? What can students and faculty do to benefit from differences, and even learn from the inevitable moments of misunderstanding and awkwardness? From his ten years of interviews with Harvard seniors, Richard Light distills encouraging—and surprisingly practical—answers to fundamental questions. How can you choose classes wisely? What’s the best way to study? Why do some professors inspire and others leave you cold? How can you connect what you discover in class to all you’re learning in the rest of life? Light suggests, for instance: studying in pairs or groups can be more productive than studying alone; the first and most important skill to learn is time management; supervised independent research projects and working internships offer the most learning and the greatest challenges; and encounters with students of different religions can be simultaneously the most taxing and most illuminating of all the experiences with a diverse student body. Filled with practical advice, illuminated with stories of real students’ self-doubts, failures, discoveries, and hopes, Making the Most of College is a handbook for academic and personal success.




QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PLAN.


Book Description




Improving Quality in Education


Book Description

This book explores an approach to school improvement that merges the traditions of educational effectiveness research and school improvement efforts. It displays how the dynamic model, which is theoretical and empirically validated, can be used in both traditions. Each chapter integrates evidence from international and national studies, showing how the knowledge-base of educational effectiveness research can be used for improvement purposes. In a clear and practicable manner it outlines: Foundations of the improvement approach Research projects investigating the impact of the dynamic approach Guidelines and practical solutions to translating the approach into action Further developments for school improvement Exploring the crucial factors in the establishment of this environment, the authors outline a dynamic framework that helps schools collect data, through self-evaluation mechanisms, taking decisions about priorities for improvement, and developing appropriate policies and action plans. This approach emphasises educational targets and provides means to achieve them that are flexible enough to fit in with the circumstances of the individual school. The book draws upon research across the world, conducted especially in the United States, Europe, and Australasia, expertly showcasing how the dynamic approach can be used in a wide variety of educational settings A key book for all professionals working in education; academics, researchers, policy-makers, school advisors and practitioners will find it invaluable. Not only it is a must for graduate students, university libraries, and individual academics but also for school management teams, school support agencies and officials in educational policy.




Rehearsing New Roles


Book Description

In Rehearsing New Roles: How College Students Develop as Writers, Lee Ann Carroll argues for a developmental perspective to counter the fantasy held by many college faculty that students should, or could, be taught to write once so that ever after, they can write effectively on any topic, any place, any time. Carroll demonstrates in this volume why a one- or two-semester, first-year course in writing cannot meet all the needs of even more experienced writers. She then shows how students’ complex literacy skills develop slowly, often idiosyncratically, over the course of their college years, as they choose or are coerced to take on new roles as writers. As evidence, Carroll offers a longitudinal study of a group of students and the literacy environment they experienced in a midsize, independent university. Her study follows the experiences that altered their conception of writing in college and fostered their growing capacities as writers. Carroll’s analysis of the data collected supports a limited but still useful role for first-year composition, demonstrates how students do learn to write differently across the curriculum in ways that may or may not be recognized by faculty, and evaluates the teaching and learning practices that promote or constrain students’ development.




Reclaiming Accountability


Book Description

Reclaiming Accountability brings together a series of critical case studies of writing programs that have planned, implemented, and/or assessed the impact of large-scale accreditation-supported initiatives. The book reimagines accreditation as a way to leverage institutional or programmatic change. Contributions to the volume are divided into three parts. Part 1 considers how specialists in composition and rhetoric can work most productively with accrediting bodies to design assessments and initiatives that meet requirements while also helping those agencies to better understand how writing develops and how it can most effectively be assessed. Parts 2 and 3 present case studies of how institutions have used ongoing accreditation and assessment imperatives to meet student learning needs through programmatic changes and faculty development. They provide concrete examples of productive curricular (part 2) and instructional (part 3) changes that can follow from accreditation mandates while providing guidance for navigating challenges and pitfalls that WPAs may encounter within shifting and often volatile local, regional, and national contexts. In addition to providing examples of how others in the profession might approach such work, Reclaiming Accountability addresses assessment requirements beyond those in the writing program itself. It will be of interest to department heads, administrators, writing program directors, and those involved with writing teacher education, among others. Contributors: Linda Adler-Kassner, William P. Banks, Remica Bingham-Risher, Melanie Burdick, Polina Chemishanova, Malkiel Choseed, Kyle Christiansen, Angela Crow, Maggie Debelius, Michelle F. Eble, Jonathan Elmore, Lorna Gonzalez, Angela Green, Jim Henry, Ryan Hoover, Rebecca Ingalls, Cynthia Miecznikowski, Susan Miller-Cochran, Cindy Moore, Tracy Ann Morse, Joyce Magnotto Neff, Karen Nulton, Peggy O’Neill, Jessica Parker, Mary Rist, Rochelle Rodrigo, Tulora Roeckers, Shirley K. Rose, Iris M. Saltiel, Wendy Sharer, Terri Van Sickle, Jane Chapman Vigil, David M. Weed




The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring


Book Description

The first collection in the area of mentoring that applies theory to real-world practice, research, programs, and recommendations from an international perspective In today’s networked world society, mentoring is a crucial area for study that requires a deep international understanding for effective implementation. Despite the immense benefits of mentoring, current literature on this subject is surprisingly sparse. The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring fills the need for a comprehensive volume of in-depth information on the different types of mentoring programs, effective mentoring practices, and emerging practical and applicable theories. Based on sound research methodologies, this unique text presents original essays by experts from over ten different countries, demonstrating the ways mentoring can make a difference in the workplace and in the classroom; these experts have an understanding of mentoring worldwide having worked in mentoring in over forty countries. Each of the Handbook’s four sections—mentoring paradigms, practices, programs, and possibilities—include a final synthesis chapter authored by the section editors that captures the essence of the lessons learned, applies a global context, and recommends research avenues for further exploration. This innovative volume demonstrates how mentoring in any culture can help employees to complete tasks and advance in their positions, aid in socialization and assimilation in various settings, provide diverse groups access to resources and information, navigate through personalities, politics, policies, and procedures, and much more. Offers an inclusive, international perspective that supports moving mentoring into a discipline of its own and lays a theoretical foundation for further research Shows how emerging practical theories can be implemented in actual programs and various scenarios Examines a wide range of contemporary paradigms, practices, and programs in the field of mentoring, including a panorama of introspections on mentoring from international scholars and practitioners Includes historical and epistemological content, background information and definitions, and overviews of fundamental aspects of mentoring The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring is an essential volume for a global readership, particularly teachers of mentoring courses, trainers, and researchers and practitioners in a variety of fields such as business, education, government, politics, sciences, industry, or sports.




A guide to quality improvement methods


Book Description

A guide to quality improvement methods from Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) brings together twelve quality improvement (QI) methods, providing an overview of each and practical advice on how and when to implement them, with illustrative case examples. QI methods covered include clinical audit; Plan, Do, Study, Act; model for improvement; LEAN/Six Sigma; performance benchmarking, process mapping and statistical process control and it is aimed at all professionals with an interest in QI. The purpose of this guidance is to signpost those working within, leading, commissioning and using healthcare services to a broad range of quality improvement methods. It should be especially useful to those putting together quality improvement programmes.




College Writing and Beyond


Book Description

div Composition research consistently demonstrates that the social context of writing determines the majority of conventions any writer must observe. Still, most universities organize the required first-year composition course as if there were an intuitive set of general writing "skills" usable across academic and work-world settings. In College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction, Anne Beaufort reports on a longitudinal study comparing one student’s experience in FYC, in history, in engineering,;