Mentoring Faculty to Improve Teaching and Student Learning

For teaching to improve, three factors must be in place. First, the college must use a valid and reliable student evaluation instrument in combination with other feedback mechanisms. Second, there must be an accompanying norming report that provides comparative and diagnostic information to departmental chairs and teachers. Raw data from even a valid and reliable instrument may not be informative. Third, the college must have a mentoring process in place. This article discusses briefly each of the three elements to initiate and sustain a successful mentoring program to improve teaching and student learning. Of course, if the school does not reward improved or effective teaching it is not likely to occur.     

Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Learning Communities: Bridging the Divide to Enhance Teaching Quality

Institutions of higher education are increasingly hiring non-tenure track faculty members (NTTF) to help meet the demands of the institutional teaching mission. Research suggests NTTF experience inadequate working conditions that hinder performance and negatively impact the quality of undergraduate education. Given the growing number of NTTF responsible for teaching undergraduates, it is essential for institutions to help them be effective teachers. In this article we consider the use of cohort based faculty learning communities (FLCs) to engage and socialize NTTF, thereby enhancing their working conditions, performance, and the quality of undergraduate education. We discuss implications of using FLCs for the promotion of good practice and future research.     

Faculty at Mid-Career: A Program to Enhance Teaching and Learning

While the number of mid-career faculty currently in U.S. higher education is significant, professional development programming that addresses the teaching and learning issues of this population has not been a priority. This article describes the Mid-Career Teaching Program (MCTP) and presents data that assesses its impact on participants' professional and personal lives. Survey and interview results indicate positive changes in teaching behaviors and knowledge as well as an increase in teaching satisfaction and confidence. Faculty also reported that MCTP renewed their energy and enthusiasm and positively impacted their life outside of the academy.     

Faculty as Learners: Developing Thinking Communities

The shifting demographics of faculty ranks, expansion of faculty work, and the expectations of accountability and revenue production place new demands on today’s faculty. Collaborating with other faculty members is one option for easing workload demands and reinvigorating faculty members in the conduct of their teaching and research. In this article we discuss the importance of collaboration among faculty members in deriving new strategies for the classroom and approaches to research, and we provide suggestions for moving beyond short term collaborations and toward the creation of thinking communities that have the potential to re-energize faculty members and bring passion back to their work.     

坚持以人为本,完善民办高职教师管理体制

坚持以人为本的科学发展观,是我们党一切工作的着眼点和立足点。在民办高职教师管理中坚持以人为本,既是学习“三个代表”重要思想的体现,也是坚持科学教育发展观的本质要求。文章从分析当前我国民办高职教师管理体制中出现的问题出发,探讨如何完善民办高职教师的管理体制,真正落实以人为本的科学教育发展观。     

教师教学能力协作式行动学习训练模式的构建

国内外对教师教学能力都给予了极大的关注和重视。将“例中学”、“做中学”和反思等几种已被证明是十分有效途径的思想合理地融入教学能力训练当中,构建了教师教学能力的协作式行动学习训练模式,使信息技术更好地促进教师教学能力的培养,旨在为教师教学能力训练提供可参考的新型培养模式。     

Adult Students at Two-Year Colleges: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Adults constitute a continually increasing proportion of students at two-year colleges. While adult students presumably have special needs, little is known about them. This study focused on the characteristics and needs of 17,137 students enrolled in 100 randomly selected two-year colleges across the country, separately for different age levels. Using a wide variety of variables collected at entrance, after one term, at graduation, and three years after graduation, differences by sex among the following four age groups were ascertained: age 19 or younger, 20–24, 25–39, and 40 or older. Major trends with age, differences among age groups, and interactions between age and sex were found for a number of variables: abilities, grades, attrition, self-perceptions, aspirations and goals, competencies, job values and preferences, satisfaction with and rating of various aspects of the college, expressed needs for help, extracurricular participation, outside work during school, postgraduate jobs obtained and how obtained, job satisfaction, percent going to and graduating from four-year programs, and preference for entering a two-year program if they had to do it all over again. Adult students do have many special needs that vary with age level. We think a repeat of the study but comparing across other groupings of adults would be desirable, even though extreme diversity also exists within such groups. Another consideration is that many new kinds of adult students will in the future be entering postsecondary education in large numbers.     

Fostering Faculty Collaboration in Learning Communities: A Developmental Approach

Colleges and universities are adopting learning communities to increase student learning and build cohesion. As learning communities grow in popularity, institutions need to invest in faculty development (Oates, 2001) and understand faculty experiences (Mullen, 2001). The University of Hartford created a program that prepared faculty for collaborative teaching in first-year learning communities. Faculty learned to engage in collaborative behaviors, to think outside disciplinary borders, and to employ a specific template as a heuristic for course development. Results of focus group research about the faculty experience and the impact of the experience on their pedagogy are summarized.Catherine B. Stevenson, whose M.A. and Ph.D. are from New York University, is currently an Associate Professor of English and Drama and Academic Dean of International and Honors Programs. She and her coauthors are affiliated with the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT. Her special interests include nineteenth and twentieth century literature, curriculum reform, pedagogy, and international education. Robert L. Duran, Professor in the School of Communication, who earned his M.A. at West Virginia University and Ph.D. at Bowling Green State University, is a specialist in program evaluation, evaluation research, and research methods. Karen A. Barrett, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, has an M.S. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her special interests include interdisciplinary general education curriculum, higher education administration, and diagnostic hematology and microbiology. Guy C. Colarulli, earned an M.A. at the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. at The American University. He is the Associate Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, whose special interests include Higher Education Administration, First-Year Experience, as well as American Government, and Politics     

学习型社区的现实社会构建:要领、方法与模式

学习型社区的现实社会建构是社会各界,尤其是有关成人办学单位普遍关心的一个热点问题,本文从文献调研的角度,结合平日的调查观察思考,对于学习型社区的创建要领、创立方法和创设模式.做了梳理总结和阐释,为广大社区教育教育工作者深入思考有关问题.提供了一个有益的参照视角.     

建构促进教与学的课堂学习评价

课堂教学需要凭借对学生学习过程和结果的评价来判断教学的实际效果,调整教学设计,改进教学实施.目前教师进行课堂学习评价的实践还存在着诸多问题,很多教师没有将学习评价看作教学设计的组成部分,已有的课堂学习评价在评价方式和结果运用等方面尚需提高有效性.针对课堂学习评价的现实问题,结合教学实例,从两个方面提出改进对策：首先,要将符合教育评价基本规律的学习评价整合为教学设计和实施的一个环节.其次,在开展学习评价的情况下,对于评价结果的分析和运用要突出对教学目标和教学内容的追问与澄清.     

Using Cogenerative Dialogues to Improve Teaching and Learning

Traditional ideas about teaching and learning can run deep. Stephanie Bondi shares her experience of sharing power, voice, and responsibility with her students on a radical scale.     

行动研究:提高高师《教育学》教学质量的有效途径

怎样提高高师教育学教学质量，一直是广大师范教育理论工作者和教师关心的重要课题。过去，针对高师教育学令人担忧的教学状况，人们较多地从教育学理论体系建构和教材建设等方面作出反省。但是，笔者认为，要真正提高高师教育学教学质量，必须同时十分重视开展以教育学教师为主体的以提高自身教学水平和效果为目的的行动研究。一、运用行动研究改进高师《教育学》教学的意义所谓行动研究，就是“由社会情景的参与者，为提高对所从事的社会活动及其依赖的背景的理解，进行的反思研究”，“是通过对社会实践情境的研究去提高该情境中行动的质…     

优化自主学习提高教学有效性

叙述教师通过优化自主学习.来提高教学有效性的方法:通过探索组织学生自主学习,认真编写自主学习提纲;有一定的自学要求;及时引导学生关注知识的重点和难点;保证足够的自学时间;有效进行教学效果的检测.这样培养学生的阅读能力、分析归纳能力、发现问题及解决问题能力以及语言袁达能力,从而更有效地提高学习效率,充分体现学生的主体性.     

高职院校外语教学模式理念探讨

本文简要回顾了教育部颁布的三个关于高职院校《英语课程教学基本要求》（1993,2000,2009）的指导性文件,探讨当前“职业型”或“就业型”英语教学改革的模式及如何提升语言人文素质的相关问题。本文认为,要解决高职院校英语教学的“两用”（实用与应用）和“两业”（职业与就业）问题,教学模式仍需回归大学外语教学的语言性和人文性,澄清和加强学科建设的公共性和衔接性。     

Order Matters: Sequencing Scale-Realistic Versus Simplified Models to Improve Science Learning

Teachers choosing between different models to facilitate students’ understanding of an abstract system must decide whether to adopt a model that is simplified and striking or one that is realistic and complex. Only recently have instructional technologies enabled teachers and learners to change presentations swiftly and to provide for learning based on multiple models, thus giving rise to questions about the order of presentation. Using disjoint individual growth modeling to examine the learning of astronomical concepts using a simulation of the solar system on tablets for 152 high school students (age 15), the authors detect both a model effect and an order effect in the use of the Orrery, a simplified model that exaggerates the scale relationships, and the True-to-scale, a proportional model that more accurately represents the realistic scale relationships. Specifically, earlier exposure to the simplified model resulted in diminution of the conceptual gain from the subsequent realistic model, but the realistic model did not impede learning from the following simplified model.     

加强和改进高职院校社团建设的有效途径

高职院校社团不仅是校园文化的重要载体,而且也已成为大学生发现自我、展现自我、超越自我、提高个人综合素质的重要舞台。本文分析了当前高职院校社团发展中存在的主要问题,提出高职院校应在社团的组织与支持、创建技术技能型品牌社团、社团干部培养等方面积极探索,努力创新,以保证学生社团的健康可持续发展。     

开展数学思想方法教学的探讨

数学思想,就是对数学知识和方法的本质认识,是对数学规律的理性认识.数学方法,就是解决数学问题的根本程序,是数学思想的具体反映.数学思想是数学的灵魂,数学方法是数学的行为.理解、掌握和运用数学思想方法是数学学习的重要内容,因为“没有脱离数学知识的数学思想方法,也没有不包括数学思想方法的数学知识”.因此,在数学教学中,不仅要重视数学知识的学习,同时也要注重数学思想方法的掌握,只有二者兼顾,才能切实培养和提高学生的数学能力.     

劳技教学中学生学习兴趣的培养

劳技教学是以学生获得积极劳动体验,提高学生技术创新与技术应用的意识和能力,形成良好技术素养为目标。从自主学习、合作探究、创设情境等几个方面阐述如何培养学生的学习兴趣,以帮助学生获得知识、掌握技能,促进学生全面而富有个性发展。     

Satisfaction and Retention Among African American Men at Two-Year Community Colleges

A large majority of African American males begin their postsecondary education careers at two-year community colleges. Prior research has focused largely on Black students at four-year institutions, and even theoretical work has assumed that influences on retention are the same at two-year and four-year institutions. Drawing on Tinto's (1993 Tinto , V. ( 1993 ). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition () , 2nd ed. . Chicago , IL : University of Chicago Press . [Google Scholar]) retention theory and Astin's (1993 Astin , A. W. ( 1993 ). What matters in college: Four critical years revisited . San Francisco , CA : Jossey-Bass . [Google Scholar]) input-environment-outcome (IEO) model, this study estimated the impact of academic and social integration on retention—controlling for an array of intervening variables—based on a sample of African American males who responded to the Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Findings suggest a statistical link between social integration and satisfaction in college; factors explained approximately 27% of the variance in the dependent variable. Implications for future policy and practice are highlighted.