Teaching and Learning

THE ACADEMIC DEVOLUTION? Movements to Reform Teaching and Learning in US Colleges and Universities, 1985-2010

Steven G. Brint
2009

This paper traces the history of two reform movements organized more than two decades ago to improve teaching and learning in U.S. colleges and universities: the teaching reform movement, led by the liberal philanthropies, and the accountability movement, led by the states and, later, the regional accreditors. The paper concludes that the teaching reform movement helped to dislodge research as the accepted center of academic life and helped to spread progressive education methods throughout academe. Both of these changes are consistent with continuing low levels of student effort and...

Recognizing and then Using Disciplinary Patterns of the Undergraduate Experience: Getting Past Institutional Standards

Steve Chatman
2009

The assertion that there are a limited set of generalizable good educational practices (Chickering & Gamson, 1987) with a common model of preferred active student engagement in learning (Kuh, 2001) is appealing to those responsible for simply stated institutional outcomes and to the faculty who teach in fields that espouse the same practices and outcomes (Braxton, 1998). After all, if they are wrong and educational experience and good educational practices differ in important, substantive, and replicable ways by area of academic major, then assessment, accountability, administration,...

Decoding Learning Gains: Measuring Outcomes and the Pivotal Role of the Major and Student Backgrounds

Gregg Thomson
John Aubrey Douglass
2009

Throughout the world, interest in gauging learning outcomes at all levels of education has grown considerably over the past decade. In higher education, measuring “learning outcomes” is viewed by many stakeholders as a relatively new method to judge the “value added” of colleges and universities. The potential to accurately measure learning gains is also viewed as a diagnostic tool for institutional self-improvement. This essay compares the methodology and potential uses of three tools for measuring learning outcomes: the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), the National Survey of...

Undergraduate Research Participation at the University of California, Berkeley

Elizabeth Berkes
2008

Although the University of California, Berkeley has increased efforts to involve undergraduates in scientific research, little data exists regarding the number of undergraduate researchers. The University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) presents an opportunity to investigate the extent of undergraduate research involvement at the UC Berkeley. The data (N=5,347) show that the frequency of student participation in research under the direction of a faculty mentor varies significantly based on whether students are receiving course credit, pay, or working as a...

Shifting Identities, Blurring Boundaries: The Changing Roles of Professional Managers in Higher Education

Celia Whitchurch
2008

This paper builds on earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education (Whitchurch, 2004; 2006a; 2006b), and describes an empirical study that was undertaken between 2004 and 2007. It progresses the argument that the generic terms ‘administration’ and ‘management’ no longer do justice to the activities of these staff, and uses the concept of identity to develop four categories of bounded, cross-boundary, unbounded and blended professionals. Via these categories it is shown how individuals are not only...

Two Cultures: Undergraduate Academic Engagement

Steven Brint
Allison M. Cantwell
Robert A. Hannerman
2008

Using data on upper-division students in the University of California system, we show that two distinct cultures of engagement exist on campus. The culture of engagement in the arts, humanities and social sciences focuses on interaction, participation, and interest in ideas. The culture of engagement in the natural sciences and engineering focuses on improvement of quantitative skills through collaborative study with an eye to rewards in the labor market. The two cultures of engagement are strongly associated with post-graduate degree plans. The findings raise questions about...

Internet as Teenager In Higher Education: Rapid Growth, Transformation, Uncertain but Bright Future

Gary M. Matkin
2007

This is a personal reflection on the impact of Internet technologies on higher education around the world over the last 13 years. It chronicles my observations of differences between perceptions and realities, of enthusiasm and disappointment, and the changes that have taken place in learning, teaching, and the structure of higher education during this period. Based on the work of others, this reflection also includes a prediction of the near term introduction of new instructional technologies and draws implications for higher education from these predictions and this history. I...

Multiple Goals, Satisfaction, and Achievement in University Undergraduate Education: A Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project Research Paper

Heinke Roebken
2007

This study examines the relationship between student goal orientation and student satisfaction, academic engagement, and achievement. A variety of studies has shown that the type of goal orientation determines students’ cognitive and behavioral reactions as well as their educational performance. Using data on 2309 college students from the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), this study analyzes the relationship between different types of goal orientations and student behavior and academic outcomes. Three questions are addressed in this paper: First, it...

The Regulation of E-learning: New National and International Policy Perspectives

Diane Harley
Shannon Lawrence
2007

The universe of postsecondary education is expanding. It is an era of rapid demographic and labor market changes, increased competition and shifts in institutional form (e.g., the rise of for profit degree granters, the hybrid form of nonprofit/for-profit partnerships, corporate universities), and new forms of delivery driven by emerging technologies. In nearly all of these cases, the pace of innovation and establishment of new institutional forms outstrips the ability of regulators or policy makers to stay ahead of the curve.

To better understand the complex interplay of public...

Why Study Users? An Environmental Scan of Use and Users of Digital Resources in Humanities and Social Sciences Undergraduate Education

Diane Harley
Jonathan Henke
Shannon Lawrence
2006

This paper presents an overview of a two-year study funded by the Andrew W. Mellon and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations that (1) mapped the universe of digital resources available to undergraduate educators in the humanities and social sciences (H/SS) and (2) examined how a better understanding of the variation in use and users can benefit the integration of these resources into undergraduate teaching. In order to address questions around user demand and resource sustainability, we used a variety of methodologies that included an extensive literature review; discussions with and...