Teaching Diversity across Disciplines: Reflections from African-American Faculty in Four Different Academic Settings

The authors, male and female African-American faculty from different academic disciplines at predominantly white institutions, share personal reflections on their experiences teaching postsecondary graduate and professional courses that focus on diversity and multicultural themes. This article provides tools and strategies for improving the overall effectiveness for those who teach diversity courses from a framework the authors have codified as a “3-C” perspective: context, characters, and curriculum.     

The Comparative Effects of BASIC and Logo Instruction on Problem-Solving Skills

No abstract available for this article.     

The Importance of Mentoring Faculty Members of Color in Schools of Social Work

Mentoring has received little attention in the social work literature. The career advancement needs, and the importance of mentoring faculty members of color, have not been adequately addressed, nor have mentoring strategies. This article includes a review of the literature, a definition of mentoring, benefits of mentoring for mentors and mentees, and discussion of the need and importance of mentoring junior faculty members of color in schools and departments of social work, along with strategies to achieve this goal.     

Graduate student/faculty mentoring relationships: Who gets mentored,how it happens,and to what end

Given the importance of mentoring in the academic context, this study proposed five objectives. Analyses of surveys from 145 students across 12 universities and diverse disciplines, revealed first of all, a demographic profile of the typical graduate student protégé and faculty mentor. Second, ten diverse communication strategies emerged that demonstrate how students initiate a mentoring relationship. Third, protégé evaluations of their initiation attempts revealed their efforts to be somewhat ineffective and unduly difficult. Fourth, students reported their mentors to provide primarily psychosocial, rather than career support. And fifth, proteges characterized their mentoring relationships as extremely positive and satisfying. Results throughout are, for the most part, independent of both protégé and mentor demographics (including ethnicity).     

What drives students to complete online courses? What drives faculty to teach online? Validating a measure of motivation orientation in university students and faculty

Although online student enrollment has shown double digit growth for almost a decade and academic leaders recognize that online education is necessary for enrollment growth, little is known about what motivates students to enroll in or faculty to teach face-to-face (F2F) versus online courses. The psychometric properties of a motivation scale were examined with students (n = 235) and faculty (n = 104) at a large, public, urban university in the southeastern USA. Analyses revealed that the scale was reliable as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for online and F2F courses were similarly constructed for students and faculty; additionally, results revealed that motivations for online and F2F education are distinct concepts. Findings also demonstrated that online extrinsic motivation predicted the number of online courses students completed, while F2F intrinsic motivation negatively predicted the number of online courses a faculty member had taught. These results address several limitations with existing motivation measures and enhance the ability to predict student and faculty outcomes in online education.     

大学英语教师发展问题与对策——基于“外教社杯”全国大学英语教学大赛的思考

教师发展问题是关乎高校教育发展的核心问题.通过全国大学英语教学大赛选手的教学展示发现,目前教师发展存在的问题是：对教材的把控能力不够,教学方法陈旧,对新理念理解不到位,不能应用于具体的教学.以上问题在很大程度上与教师的结构、师范院校的课程设置、培训以及高校的评价机制有关,需要各高校完善课程设置、构建符合教师发展的管理和评价机制,实施高校教师发展的国培计划.     

普通师范院校英语专业新生学习状况调查与研究

进入大学后,英语专业的新生面对细分的专业课会出现诸多的不适应.为了解他们的学习状况,课题组进行了问卷调查.调查涉及四个方面：新生在中学的学习情况、入学后的学习动机、自主学习能力和对学习困难的态度.通过调查和分析,了解到了新生的学习状况.在此基础上,提出了具体的学习指导建议,以期帮助他们克服学习困难,顺利度过大一这一过渡时期.     

The Scholar-Teacher

While many factors play into college student success, interaction with faculty has been identified as a key component. In highly challenging and anxiety-provoking courses, the student–faculty relationship may be all the more important. This study uses organic chemistry as a case example to investigate the role of the student–faculty relationship in such a setting. The study surveys 113 undergraduates in six organic chemistry courses to examine the relationship of student–faculty relationship to grade, course confidence, and sense of science identity. In regression analyses, student–faculty relationship positively predicted grade as well as confidence, but not science identity. Suggestions for faculty practices are offered.     

Teaching Haiku Poetry in the Humanities Classroom

Abstract

The author reflects on his experience in the Center for Teaching and Curriculum at Emory, identifying six principles or problems that the current concern with teaching seems to embody. These principles are: the false opposition between “teaching” and “research,” a formulation that misrepresents the nature of academic work; the difficulty of evaluating the double allegiance of teaching—toward a discipline and toward its disciples; the paradox that although teaching is discipline-specific, meaningful discussion of it seems to take place across disciplines; the value of teachers' becoming students of another subject; the difficulty of proving that discussions of teaching lead to improvement; and the culture clash between faculty and administrators over the nature of the university within which teaching takes place.     

New Books

ABSTRACT

How can we best support instructors to learn, practice, and retain student-centered, active-learning teaching strategies in their undergraduate courses? While approaches like professional development workshops may inspire some, permanent adoption of new pedagogy is rare. Here, we investigate “paired teaching” to achieve adoption and continued use of evidence-based practices. In this model, an instructor with little or no experience in student-centered teaching is paired with an experienced instructor in a semester-long course that has established student-centered pedagogy. This study evaluates information from eight pairs of instructors over a three-year period. Data was collected before, during, and after the paired teaching semester through interviews, written reflections, and teaching observations. Results indicate that paired teaching is beneficial as a professional development model for new instructors who have little teaching experience. The teaching practice of these instructors evolved to be increasingly student-centered, and they continued to use this pedagogy in subsequent classes. More established instructors who were less familiar with active learning showed lower tendencies to incorporate new pedagogies into their existing classes. We suggest best practices to maximize benefits and mitigate challenges associated with paired teaching.