Teaching Communication Across Disciplines for Professional Development, Civic Engagement, and Beyond


Book Description

This volume addresses teaching and research across disciplines, communication and identity development, and the centrality of communication in our quickly changing world. Contributors convey the social and global need, value, and responsibility of communication instruction across disciplines.




Community Engagement Findings Across the Disciplines


Book Description

This book is a reference for administrators and educators at institutions of higher learning who are thinking about taking serious steps to link their educational mission to helping their surrounding communities. Various research findings across the disciplines in higher education about integrating community engagement in traditional coursework are presented. This book provides a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach to both incorporating and studying the effects of community engagement (service learning) in the curriculum. Multiple departments, from Kinesiology to Sociology, as well as various types of classes (undergraduate, graduate, online, face-to-face, traditional, international) are represented here. Both qualitative and quantitative work is included. Methods involved include interviews, case studies, reflections, and surveys. One chapter also uses longitudinal data collection to address the overall effect of engaging in community engagement during the undergraduate college experience. If you are not sure how to study the effects of community engagement on students at your university, this book is for you.




Teaching Civic Engagement


Book Description

Teaching Civic Engagement provides an exploration of key theoretical discussions, innovative ideas, and best practices in educating citizens in the 21st century. The book addresses theoretical debates over the place of civic engagement education in Political Science. It offers pedagogical examples in several sub-fields, including evidence of their effectiveness and models of appropriate assessment. Written by political scientists from a range of institutions and subfields, Teaching Civic Engagement makes the case that civic and political engagement should be a central part of our mission as a discipline.




Higher Education Beyond COVID


Book Description

This book illustrates how higher education responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and grew from it. The pandemic impacted faculty development, drew a greater focus on the measurement of effective teaching in higher education, and provided a better understanding of what was needed to better aid educators in colleges and universities nationwide. The stage is set for a more resilient higher education with chapters illustrating new paradigms and promise. Three themes are highlighted throughout this volume. Authors underscore the need to explore different modalities of delivery for faculty development and instruction, to enhance the leverage of technology in course design, and to refine faculty development for holistic development. Pulling together empirical data on college faculty administration, and student responses to the pandemic, chapter authors address the unique issues faced by educators and highlight successes and challenges in working with existing Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) and information technology structures. Featuring contributions from diverse institutions, each chapter provides specific guidelines and recommendations for higher education to set the stage for innovation and change. Laying the groundwork for the design of more effective models of faculty development for higher education, this book is a valuable resource for higher education administrators and faculty to improve higher education going forward.




Applications of Service Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

In higher education, a pressing issue has emerged—how to authentically connect academic pursuits with real-world challenges. The last decade has witnessed an escalating call for heightened interaction between universities and the "real world". Demands have grown for higher education institutions to instill democratic citizenship and address students' moral development. In response to this rise in demand, there has been a notable shift toward emphasizing service learning within academia. As educators grapple with the imperative to seamlessly integrate theory and practice, Applications of Service Learning in Higher Education steps into the forefront, delving into the myriad applications of service learning to effectively address this critical issue. Applications of Service Learning in Higher Education examines the complexities surrounding service learning in higher education. At its core, the book aims to showcase concrete examples of successful service learning applications, acting as a catalyst for the integration of this transformative pedagogy into the academic fabric. Beyond the surface, the book delves into the intricate planning, execution, and assessment stages of service learning projects, whether manifested within local communities or on an international scale. It seeks to fill notable knowledge gaps, particularly in less-explored regions like Latin America and the Caribbean and underscores the significance of multidisciplinary experiences. As the narrative unfolds, the book addresses the symbiotic relationship between service learning and students' programs of study, transforming communities into vibrant classrooms where learning transcends traditional boundaries.




Enhancing Student Learning and Development in Cross-Border Higher Education


Book Description

Higher education is expanding, internationalizing, and changing rapidly around the world. Yet, many of the broader international higher education community and funders are unaware that much of what the United States has achieved in quality higher education derives from the student affairs staff. This volume addresses the opportunities and challenges in creating student learning and development programs and strategies that are culturally appropriate and use best practices from regions around the world. This volume includes: suggestions using the whole institutional environment—curriculum and co-curriculum; examples from China, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; and holistic and engaging approaches through student affairs, student development, and student services. This will be of interest to all those who value quality higher education no matter what their role. The intent is to convince broader constituencies of the merit of enhancing the student experience so that students worldwide will benefit from enhanced learning and development opportunities. This is the 175th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Higher Education. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher education decision makers on all kinds of campuses, it provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.




Research Anthology on Service Learning and Community Engagement Teaching Practices


Book Description

The need for more empathetic and community-focused students must begin with educators, as service-learning has begun to grow in popularity throughout the years. By implementing service and community aspects into the classroom at an early age, educators have a greater chance of influencing students and creating a new generation of service-minded individuals who care about their communities. Teachers must have the necessary skills and current information available to them to provide students with quality service learning and community engagement curricula. The Research Anthology on Service Learning and Community Engagement Teaching Practices provides a thorough investigation of the current trends, best practices, and challenges of teaching practices for service learning and community engagement. Using innovative research, it outlines the struggles, frameworks, and recommendations necessary for educators to engage students and provide them with a comprehensive education in service learning. Covering topics such as lesson planning, teacher education, and cultural humility, it is a crucial reference for educators, administrators, universities, lesson planners, researchers, academicians, and students.




Handbook of Research on Developing Students’ Scholarly Dispositions in Higher Education


Book Description

Scholarly dispositions represent the practices and habits of mind that support consistent success in teaching, learning, and knowledge creation. To be successful in their undergraduate and graduate education, students must develop academic skills that transcend content knowledge, such as receiving and responding to critical feedback and learning how to collaborate, master academic writing, and be mindful of ethical research practices. Much is still unknown about how to teach dispositions, such as how to design a curriculum to best cultivate habits of mind, and this book attempts to address this gap while providing practical methods and strategies that can help higher education practitioners to cultivate and assess the scholarly dispositions of their students effectively. The Handbook of Research on Developing Students’ Scholarly Dispositions in Higher Education provides insight on dispositions that students must learn in higher education and how higher education faculty can help students to develop these dispositions, as well as evidence-based methods that help develop scholarly dispositions for undergraduate and graduate education. This book provides a plethora of information on scholarly dispositions and related elements, including teaching time management, collaboration, and research ethics. It is an ideal reference source for teachers, academicians, administrators, researchers, and students aspiring to become researchers and scholars themselves.




Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education


Book Description

Community-engaged scholarship is an equitable and democratic approach to scholarship that seeks to identify and solve community-based problems. Community-engaged scholars aim to serve the public good by developing and sustaining community-campus partnerships built on trust, reciprocity, and mutual benefit. As universities orient themselves towards serving the public good, they face a number of challenges: faculty and students may not possess the competencies or commitment to build fruitful community partnerships, graduate and undergraduate students may lack the necessary training and mentorship required to develop their identity as community-engaged scholars, and institutional leaders may not know how to motivate faculty and students for this ambitious and challenging endeavor. Unless these challenges are addressed, universities will fail to prepare the next generation of community-engaged scholars. Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education is an essential research book that explores how faculty and academic leaders can create learning opportunities and intellectual cultures that support the development of community-engaged scholars. Additionally, it will examine how university coursework can help undergraduate and graduate students to develop the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary for productive and responsible community-engaged scholarship. Featuring a range of topics such as mentorship, higher education, and service learning, this book is ideal for higher education faculty, university leaders, deans, chairs, educators, administrators, policymakers, curriculum designers, academicians, researchers, and students.




Educating for Civic-mindedness


Book Description

Imagined at their best, how might professions contribute most effectively to their local and global communities, and how could higher education support graduates/future professionals in making this contribution? The answer proposed in this book is to educate students for ‘civic-mindedness’, an overarching professional capability grounded in certain dispositions and qualities, ideals, types of knowledge and political emotions. ‘Civic-mindedness’, and its internal counterpart, the practitioner’s self-cultivation, give rise to an engagement with professional practice that is authentic, civic and democratic. The tension between responsiveness or regard for others and regard for self is overcome by recognising that authentic professional identities are constructed through practices around shared purposes and ideals. Drawing on a wide range of theorists including Dewey, Arendt, and Nussbaum, professions are envisaged to play a vital role. Primarily professions support society’s well-being by ensuring access to public goods, such as local and global justice, access to information, health, education, safety, housing, the beauty and sustaining power of the ecological environment, among others. Yet professions also protect the fundamental good of citizen participation in free deliberation and decision-making on issues affecting their lives. The book concludes with a vision of higher education that is transformative of graduates/professionals, pedagogies, professional practices and communities. Issues of increasing social awareness are a key concern for anyone involved in teaching professionals and this book, which builds best practice around a sound theoretical and philosophical framework, will prove both thought-provoking and practical in application.