Liberal Arts

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Higher education today is being called on to deliver a new and more powerful kind of education, one that prepares students to be more engaged citizens, better equipped to solve complex problems at work and better prepared to lead meaningful lives individually.

To respond to this call, teachers in colleges and universities need to learn how to design more powerful kinds of learning into their courses. In 2003, Dee Fink published a seminal book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, that offered teachers two major tools for meeting this need: the Taxonomy of Significant Learning and the model of Integrated Course Design. Since that time, educators around the world have found Finks ideas both visionary and inspiring.

This issue of New Directions for Teaching and Learning contains multiple stories of how college-level teachers have used these ideas in a variety of teaching situations, with subject matter ranging from the sciences to the humanities. Their conclusion? The ideas in Finks book truly make a difference. When used properly, they lead to major improvements in the level of student engagement and the quality of student learning! This is the 119th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Teaching and Learning, which offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface

ch. 1 Shoeboxes and Taxes: Integrated Course Design Unleashes New Creativity for a Veteran Teacher (Marsha M. Huber)
ch. 2 Bringing Language to Life in Second-Year Spanish (Debra Dimon Davis)
ch. 3 More Significant and Intentional Learning in the Economics Classroom (Laurence Miners, Kathryn Nantz)
ch. 4 Inspiration and Intellect: Significant Learning in Musical Forms and Analysis (Bruce C. Kelly)
ch. 5 Using Fink's Integrated Course Design: How a Book Changed Our Students' Learning, Our University, and Ourselves (Carolyn R. Fallahi, Laura E. Levine, Joan M. Nicoll-Senft, Jack T. Tessier , Cheryl L. Watson, Rebecca M. Wood)
ch. 6 Using Integrated Course Design to Build Student Communities of Practice in a Hybrid Course (Harriet R. Fayne)
ch. 7 Integrating Big Questions with Real-World Applications: Gradual Redesign in Philosophy and Art History (Marice Rose, Roben Torosyan)
ch. 8 Integrated Design of a Virology Course Develops Lifelong Learners (Joseph C. Mester)
ch. 9 An "Extreme Makeover" of a Course in Special Education (Joan M. Nicoll-Senft)
ch. 10 Sooner City: Reflections on a Curriculum Reform Project (Randall L . Kolar, David A. Sabatini, K.K. Muraleetharan)
ch. 11 Still Learning (L. Dee Fink)
ch. 12 Lessons We Can Learn from the Voices of Experience (Arletta Knight Fink, L. Dee Fink)

Index

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Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: Provides a developmental science basis to inform necessary transformations in undergraduate educational practices
Argues that emerging adulthood is an especially dynamic time of reorganization and development of the brain that both influences, and is influenced by, the undergraduate experience
Synthesizes advances in our understanding of human development and learning
Has direct implications for undergraduate education practices

The major challenges facing higher education are often framed in terms of preparing students for life-long learning. Society's 21st century needs require civic-minded individuals who have the intellectual and personal capabilities to constructively engage political, ethnic, and religious differences, work effectively, and live together with many different kinds of people in a more global society. In this volume, Robert J. Thompson aims to influence the current conversation about the purposes and practices of higher education. Beyond Reason and Tolerance adopts a developmental science basis to inform the transformations in undergraduate educational practices that are necessary to empower students to act globally and constructively engage difference. It synthesizes current scholarship regarding the nature and development of three core capacities deemed essential: A personal epistemology that reflects a sophisticated understanding of knowledge, beliefs, and ways of thinking; empathy and the capacity to understand the mental states of others; and an integrated identity that includes values, commitments, and a sense of agency for civic and social responsibility.

Beyond Reason and Tolerance argues that to foster the development of these capabilities, colleges and universities must recommit to providing a formative liberal education and adopt a developmental model of undergraduate education as a process of intellectual and personal growth, involving empathy as well as reasoning, values as well as knowledge, and identity as well as competencies. Thompson focuses on emerging adulthood as an especially dynamic time of reorganization and development of the brain that both influences, and is influenced by, the undergraduate experience. Advances in our understanding of human development and learning are synthesized with regard to the direct implications for undergraduate education practices.

Readership: Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in psychology, human development, and education who have an interest in intergroup relations and cognitive and social development during the period of emerging adulthood. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface


ch. 1 American Higher Education in the 21st Century

ch. 2 Emerging Adulthood: A Developmental Science Perspective

ch. 3 Personal Epistemology

ch. 4 Empathy

ch. 5 Identity and the Process of Self-Authorship

ch. 6 Campus Culture: Developing the Capacities to Constructively Engage Difference

ch. 7 Providing a Formative Undergraduate Liberal Education


References
Index

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This monograph examines what educational research reveals about five educational practices: first-year seminars, learning communities, service learning, undergraduate research, and capstone experiences. The authors explore questions such as: What is the impact on students who participate in these practices? Is the impact the same for both traditional students and those who come from historically underserved student populations? The monograph includes a foreword by George D. Kuh, High-Impact Practices: Retrospective and Prospective, and recommendations for how to improve the quality of high-impact practices. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements

ch. 1 First Year Seminars
ch. 2 Learning Communities
ch. 3 Service Learning
ch. 4 Undergraduate Research
ch. 5 Capstone Courses and Projects
ch. 6 Integrated Approaches
ch. 7 Discussion

Afterword
References
About the Authors

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This paper presents a critique of a set of teaching strategies known as “contemplative pedagogy.” Using practices such as meditation, attentive listening, and reflective reading, contemplative inquiry focuses on direct first-person experience as an essential means of knowing that has historically been overshadowed and dismissed by an emphasis on analytical reasoning. In this essay, I examine four problematic claims that appear frequently in descriptions of contemplative pedagogy: (1) undergraduate students have a kind of spiritual hunger; (2) pedagogies focused on cognitive skills teach students only what, not how, to think; (3) self-knowledge fosters empathy; and (4) education needs a new epistemology centered on spiritual and emotional, rather than intellectual, experience. I argue that these claims underestimate the diversity of undergraduate students, the complexity of what it means to think and know, the capacity for self-knowledge to become self-absorption, and the dangers of transgressing the boundaries between intellectual, psychological, and religious experiences. [See as well “Response to Kathleen Fisher's ‘Look Before You Leap,’” by Andrew O. Fort and Louis Komjathy, published in this issue of the journal.]

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Abstract: Catholic colleges and universities have long engaged in conversation about how to fulfill their mission in creative ways across the curriculum. The "sacramental vision" of Catholic higher education posits that God is made manifest in the study of all disciplines.

Becoming Beholders is the first book to share pedagogical strategies about how to do that. Twenty faculty—from many religious backgrounds and teaching in fields as varied as chemistry, economics, English, history, mathematics, sociology, and theology—discuss ways that their teaching nourishes students' ability to find the transcendent in their studies. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface (Karen E. Eifler and Thomas M. Landy)

Part I - The Sacramental Imagination as a Theological Perspective
ch. 1 Finding God in All Things: A Sacramental Worldview and Its Effects (Michael J. Himes)
ch. 2 Detectives of Grace in the Adventures of Scholarship (James Corkey, SJ)

Part II - A Long, Loving Look at the Real
ch. 3 Practice Makes Reception: The Role of Contemplative Ritual in Approaching Art (Joanne E. Ziegler)
ch. 4 Radical Transcendence: Teaching Environmental Literature at a Catholic University (Kimberly P. Bowers)
ch. 5 You Are Here: Engagement, Spirituality, and Slow Teaching (Anita Houck)
ch. 6 Pauses

Part III - Word and Sacrament
ch. 7 Rhetorics of Silence: A Pedagogy of Contemplation, Empathy, and Action (Melissa A. Godlthwaite)
ch. 8 Stumbling toward Grace: Meditations on Communion and Community in the Writing Classroom (Anne E. Green)Hello - Thanks for providing your street address.  The book will be mailed today.
ch. 9 Looking into the Bible (Michael Patella, OSB)

Part IV - In Places of Struggle and Challenge
ch. 10 Catholic Social Teaching, Community-Based Learning, and the Sacramental Imagination (Susan Crawford Sullivan)
ch. 11 Solidarity through “Poverty and Politics” (William Purcell and Rev. William Lies, CSC)
ch. 12 Exorcizing Taboos: Teaching End-of-Life Communication (Michael P. Pagano)
ch. 13 Who Decides? Encountering Karma and Catastrophe in the Catholic Liberal Arts (Michael Bathgate)
ch. 14 Beholding the Eschaton: Transforming Self and World through the Study of World History (Eric Cunningham)

Part V - Appreciating Where We Stand and What Other See
ch. 15 Shiver of Wonder: A Dialogue about Chemistry with Sister Angela Hoffman, OSB (Karen E. Eifler)
ch. 16 “Finding the Unfamiliar in the Familiar Places”: The Regis Community-Based Spanish/English Exchange Project: Journeys in Place (Obdulia Castro and Elizabeth Grassi)
ch. 17 Dialogues of Discernment: Science for Social Justice (Audrey A. Friedman)
ch. 18 Cultivating Empathy and Mindfulness: Religious Praxis (Angela Kim Harkins)
ch. 19 This I Believe: Linking the Mathematical Axiomatic Method with Personal Belief Systems (Stephanie Anne Salomone)
ch. 20 Mutual Benefice: Helping Students Find God in a Research Methods Course (Joanthan W. Bowman)

About the Authors

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The Common Core State Standards clearly define the skills students need for success in college and the 21st century workplace. The question is, how can you measure student mastery of skills like creativity, problem solving, and use of technology? Laura Greenstein demonstrates how teachers can teach and assess 21st century skills using authentic learning experiences and rigorous, varied assessment strategies. Based on the best ideas of renowned experts in education, this book provides a framework and practical ideas for measuring

• Thinking skills: critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and metacognition
• Actions: communication, collaboration, digital and technological literacy
• Living skills: citizenship, global understanding, leadership, college and career readiness

Included are numerous rubrics and checklists, a step-by-step model for developing your own classroom assessments, a lesson planning template, and sample completed lesson plans. Assessing 21st Century Skills gives you the tools and strategies you need to prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing world. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author

ch. 1 Introduction
ch. 2 A Synthesis of 21st Century Skills
ch. 3 Assessment Fundamentalsv ch. 4 Assessment Strategies
ch. 5 Assessing Thinking Skills
ch. 6 Assessing Actions
ch. 7 Assessing Skills for Living in the World
ch. 8 Multipurpose Assessments
ch. 9 Moving Assessment Into the 21st Century

Appendices
References
Index

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In response to our increasingly global and multicultural world, undergraduate degree plans have come to include courses, which meet the Diversity requirement. While diversity may have a variety of definitions, clearly the educational institution believes that all students earning a degree should complete course work that exposes them to cultures not their own. Courses that fulfill Diversity requirements often include "Introduction to World Religions," among others. Even a traditional-style teaching of such a course will accomplish a certain degree of broadening of students' perspectives. The risk, however, is that at the end of the course the students are simply better informed about sets of people whom they would still objectify as the other. This article describes an experiential method of teaching which enables students to begin to change their consciousness, as well as their body of information, by learning to experience the other as self. The author calls this the identification/participation method.

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Abstract: Few books have ever made their presence felt on college campuses—and newspaper opinion pages—as quickly and thoroughly as Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s 2011 landmark study of undergraduates’ learning, socialization, and study habits, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. From the moment it was published, one thing was clear: no university could afford to ignore its well-documented and disturbing findings about the failings of undergraduate education.

Now Arum and Roksa are back, and their new book follows the same cohort of undergraduates through the rest of their college careers and out into the working world. Built on interviews and detailed surveys of almost a thousand recent college graduates from a diverse range of colleges and universities, Aspiring Adults Adrift reveals a generation facing a difficult transition to adulthood. Recent graduates report trouble finding decent jobs and developing stable romantic relationships, as well as assuming civic and financial responsibility—yet at the same time, they remain surprisingly hopeful and upbeat about their prospects.

Analyzing these findings in light of students’ performance on standardized tests of general collegiate skills, selectivity of institutions attended, and choice of major, Arum and Roksa not only map out the current state of a generation too often adrift, but enable us to examine the relationship between college experiences and tentative transitions to adulthood. Sure to be widely discussed, Aspiring Adults Adrift will compel us once again to re-examine the aims, approaches, and achievements of higher education. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments

ch. 1 College and Emerging Adults
ch. 2 Social and Academic Learning in College
ch. 3 Making It in the Labor Market
ch. 4 Parents, Partners, and Optimism about the Future
ch. 5 A Way Forward

Appendix A: Data, Methods, and Statistical Analyses
Appendix B: Survey Instrument and Interview Protocol
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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The comeback of the religious studies major and the importance of religious studies in the studies of politics, history and other disciplines.

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Educating Citizens reports on how some American colleges and universities are preparing thoughtful, committed, and socially responsible graduates. Many institutions assert these ambitions, but too few act on them. The authors demonstrate the fundamental importance of moral and civic education, describe how the historical and contemporary landscapes of higher education have shaped it, and explain the educational and developmental goals and processes involved in educating citizens. They examine the challenges colleges and universities face when they dedicate themselves to this vital task and present concrete ways to overcome those challenges. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Foreword
Preface
The Authors

ch. 1 Educating Citizens in a Pluralistic Society
ch. 2 The Broader Undergraduate Context
ch. 3 When Educating Citizens is a Priority
ch. 4 The Multiple Dimensions of Moral and Civic Development
ch. 5 Pedagogical Strategies for Educating Citizens
ch. 6 Weaving Moral and Civic Learning into the Curriculum
ch. 7 Faculty: The Cornerstone
ch. 8 Moral and Civic Learning Beyond the Classroom
ch. 9 Assessment in Moral and Civic Education
ch. 10 Bringing Moral and Civic Learning to Center Stage References

Name Index
Subject Index

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This report of the Greater Expectations National Panel calls for a new focus on excellence to better prepare students for the 21st century world. The report recommends the creation of a New Academy characterized by high expectations, a focus on learning, commitment to demonstrated achievement, intentional practices, and an engaged, practical liberal education for all students. (From the publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments i
Preface iii
Executive Overview vii
Ch 1. College in the 21st Century
The century is dawning... 1
We are a college-going nation... 1
Our nation goes to college because... 4
We expect college to be... 8
To preview the vision... 10
Ch 2. Barriers to Quality from School through College
We have made great strides in opening the doors to college, but ... 11
Hope is on the horizon... 19
Ch 3. The Learning Students Need for the 21st Century
The education all students need... 21
The education all students need has been called... 24
Ch 4. Principles of Good Practice in the New Academy
We can reach the goals by... 29
We can bring students along by... 37
We can ensure ongoing improvement by... 38
Ch 5. Achieving Greater Expectations: A Shared Responsibility
Greater Expectations mean... 43
The Greater Expectations New Academy includes... 46
To achieve Greater Expectations, the National Panel strongly recommends... 48
Our call to action... 52
Our pledge...53

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Journal Issue. Full text is available online.

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Distinctive, Not Disposable: Religious Studies in American Public Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century (Joanne Robinson, Guest Editor)
ch. 2 From Traditions to Topics to Themes, within an Era of Technological Change (Joel Gereboff)
ch. 3 Religious Studies in the Context of Liberal Education (Brian C. Wilson)
ch. 4 Teaching Religion, Teaching Disruption: Inculcating Independent Critical Thinking through the Study of Religion (Stephen C. Finley)
ch. 5 The Examined Life: Religious Studies and the Cultivation of Self-Reflection (Laura Ammon)
ch. 6 The Lively Classroom: A Fusion of Gen Ed and Religious Studies (Celia Brewer Sinclair)
ch. 7 Hybrid Vigor in Religious Studies Courses (Lora Hobbs)
ch. 8 Religious Studies in American Public Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Suggested Resources

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"Graff offers a highly readable and down-to-earth perspective on some of the most ballyhooed issues in higher education today. . . . By encouraging us to argue together, he may yet help us to reason together."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Higher education should by a battleground of ideas: the real problem, Gerald Graff says, is that students are not getting more out of the battle. In this lively book, Graff argues that the "culture wars" now being fought over multiculturalism and political correctness are actually a sign of the intellectual vitality of American education—but they need to be used creatively, made part of the educational process itself. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface

ch. 1 Introduction: Conflict in America
ch. 2 The Vanishing Classics and Other Myths: Two Episodes in the Culture War
ch. 3 Ho to Save "Dover Beach"
ch. 4 Hidden Meaning, or, Disliking Books at an Early Age
ch. 5 "Life of the Mind Stuff"
ch. 6 Other Voices, Other Rooms
ch. 7 Burying the Battlefield, or, a Short History of How the Curriculum Became a Cafeteria Counter
ch. 8 When Is Something "Political"?
ch. 9 Turning Conflict into Community

Notes
Index

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The purpose of this essay is to offer a survey of religious studies capstones from twenty-nine U.S. colleges and universities, to identify the most common frustrations about the capstone, and to observe how departments resolve such frustrations. I conclude that the most successful capstones -- in terms of students’ performance and faculty satisfaction -- are those that are carefully linked to their department’s major curriculum, pedagogies, and staffing, that set out to achieve a reasonable set of objectives, and that are aligned with their institutional mission, culture, and expectations for assessment. Yet, I argue that it is becoming increasingly difficult to design our capstone experiences according to the above principles because of the proliferation of departmental and institutional pressures we presently face. Finally, I offer some guidelines by which we might devise or revise our capstones to alleviate some of the most common pressures.

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Religious studies suffers from the outside threat of less and less funding like all the humanities and from the inside challenge that religious studies is simply an ideology. Schneider argues that the religious studies major "needs to grow up" and learn to articulate what it is good for. He articulates several of these goods.

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This volume collects essays and lectures of renowned scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith, many previously published in out-of-the-way periodicals or unavailable in print.

For more than thirty years, Jonathan Z. Smith has been perhaps the most important voice of critical reflection within the academic study of religion. His essays are cited constantly, his books used in undergraduate and graduate classes. Smith has also produced a significant corpus of essays and lectures on teaching and on the essential role of academic scholarship on religion in matters of education and public policy. Many of these articles appeared in education journals, which unfortunately most academic scholars do not read; others are collected in specialist volumes of conference proceedings on Judaic Studies, for example. Many were originally delivered as keynote speeches to the AAR and other major scholarly organizations, and although scholars reminisce about hearing Smith deliver them, the works themselves are not readily available. Education is not a side issue for Smith, and his essays continually shed light on fundamental questions. What differentiates college from high school? What are the proper functions of an introductory course? What functions should a department serve in undergraduate and graduate education? How should a major or concentration be conceived--if at all? What roles should the academic guilds play in public discourse on education and on religion? Most importantly, what does it mean to say that one is both a scholar and a teacher, and what responsibilities does this entail? On Teaching Religion collects the best of these essays and lectures into one volume, along with a new essay by Smith. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
A Prefatory Note
Introduction: Approaching the College Classroom

Part One: Religion in the Academy
ch. 1 The Introductory Course: Less Is Better
ch. 2 Basic Problems In the Study of Religion
ch. 3 Scriptures and Histories
ch. 4 Here and Now: Prospects for Graduate Education
ch. 5 Connections
ch. 6 Religious Studies: Whither (Wither) and Why?
ch. 7 Are Theological and Religious Studies Compatible?
ch. 8 'Religion' and 'Religious Studies': No Difference at All

Part Two: The Academic Profession
ch. 9 Re-Forming the Undergraduate Curriculum: A Retrospective
ch. 10 Why the College Major?: Questioning the Great Unexplained Aspect of Undergraduate Education
ch. 11 Puzzlement
ch. 12 Towards Imagining New Frontiers
ch. 13 To Double Business Bound

Editorial Remarks (Christopher I. Lehrich)
Index

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The author describes her participation in a religious studies teaching workshop where she was asked to think creatively about the art of teaching, what implications result from changes in the field, and the relationship of religious studies to other fields. General conclusions endorse pedagogies that are dialogic, participatory, and experiential and invite possibilities provided by changes in the field that encourage courses that are more inclusive of marginal voices and attentive to multicultural inflections. In assessing the relationship of religious studies to other fields, the author draws on her interdisciplinary background in religion and literature to apply Aristotelian rhetoric to the interpretation of a short story, thereby providing an actual model of how disciplines can complement each other while also highlighting aspects of the pedagogical and multicultural principles endorsed by the workshop participants. The application of Aristotelian principles of logos, ethos, and pathos becomes for the workshop participants a religious studies rhetoric: a provisional model for how to interpret classroom conduct.

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Discussions of world citizenship that elide the challenge of grappling with religious worldviews expose a covert intolerance at the very core of secularism, calling into question the “liberality” of liberal education. The ethical imperative of engaging with different worldviews not only demands that religions be taught, but also raises questions regarding how religious worldviews should be taught.

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AAR Teaching Religious Studies Series (Oxford University Press)
Teaching Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies offers an introduction to the philosophy and practice of Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies and takes up several significant ongoing questions related to it. This volume emerges from sustained conversations about the pedagogy of Undergraduate Research by a group of teacher-scholars in the discipline, and it seeks to extend those conversations. For those new to Undergraduate Research, this book provides an overview of fundamental issues and pedagogical questions and practical models for application in the classroom. For seasoned mentors, it acts as a dialogue partner on emerging issues and offers insight into pertinent questions in the field based on the experience of recognized experts. Individual chapters focus on select theoretical and practical topics including the nature of collaboration between faculty and students, what it means for undergraduate students to make an "original contribution" in their research, how to identify and shape a research project that is appropriate and manageable, the types of institutional and professional support systems needed to adequately support and reward faculty who participate in this kind of pedagogy, and procedures for adequate and appropriate assessment. Student perspectives highlight the importance of Undergraduate Research to student learning. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Contributors
ch. 1 Theorizing Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies (Bernadette McNary-Zak and Rebecca Todd Peters)

Part I - Defining Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
ch. 2 Contributing to the Discipline (Rebecca Todd Peters and Bernadette McNary-Zak)
ch. 3 Mentoring Undergraduate Research (Lynn Huber and John Lanci)
ch. 4 Thinking about Method (Robin Rinehart)

Part II - Approaching Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
ch. 5 Exploring Archival Material (Paul O. Myhre)
ch. 6 Reading Religion and Culture (Carolyn M. Jones)
ch. 7 Sending Students into the Field (Jeffrey M. Brackett)
ch. 8 Examining History (David C. Ratke)
ch. 9 Working with Texts (Lynn R. Huber and Robin Rinehart)

Part III - Proposing Standards for Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
ch. 10 Training the Undergraduate Scholar (Nadia M. Lahutsky)
ch. 11 Promoting Institutional Support (Mark Gstohl)
ch. 12 Afterword: Mastering Undergraduate Research (Ann Marie Chilton)

Appendix I: Working Statements on Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
Appendix II: Learning Contract
Bibliography
Index

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This article employs George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's work on metaphor (1980) to examine the current use of the term “learning outcomes” within higher education. It argues that “learning outcomes” is an ontological metaphor (education becomes focused on results that one can understand and measure) that resonates with contemporary academic capitalism. Yet because metaphors highlight some things and conceal others, thinking about teaching and disciplines using “learning outcomes” hides other dimensions of academic capitalism and obscures unquantifiable and highly complex aspects of education. Finally, the article explores ways in which an emphasis upon outcomes has consequences for the field of Religious Studies.

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Taken ad seriatim, these essays present a wide range of differing theoretical positions and practical strategies for reform. It is our hope that, when read from this point of view, they will evoke the kind of very specific discussions, debates and actions that will be required if real change is to occur. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Reconstructing liberal education : a religious studies perspective (Frank E. Reynolds)
ch. 2 University, the liberal arts, and the teaching and study of religion (Charles H. Long)
ch. 3 "Seeking an end to the primary text" or "putting an end to the text as primary" (Lawrence E. Sullivan)
ch. 4 Rethinking the humanities for the 1990s : redressing the balance (George W. Pickering)
ch. 5 Confidence and criticism : religious studies and the public purposes of liberal education (Robin W. Lovin) -- Education and the intellectual virtues (Lee H. Yearly)
ch. 6 Legal status of religious studies programs in public higher education (W. Royce Clark)
ch. 7 Four modes of discourse : blurred genres in the study of religion (Sheryl L. Burkhalter)
ch. 8 Beyond ours and theirs : the global character of religious studies (James H. Foard)
ch. 9 Religious studies and exposure to multiple worlds in the liberal arts curriculum (Judith A. Berling)
ch. 10 Writing across the curriculum : a religious studies contribution ( James H. Foard)
ch. 11 Dearth in Venice (William R. Darrow)

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One of the most remarkable things about the human consciousness is that each of us has the capacity to observe our thoughts and feelings as they arise in our consciousness. Why shouldn?t cultivating this ability to observe one?s own mind in action,becoming more self aware or simply more "conscious" be one of the central purposes of education? Even a cursory look at our educational system makes it clear that the relative amount of attention that higher education devotes to the exterior and interior aspects of our lives has gotten way out of balance. Thus, while we are justifiably proud of our "outer" development in fields such as science, medicine, technology, and commerce, we have increasingly come to neglect our "inner" development the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self understanding. This growing awareness of the importance of spirituality in higher education was recently underscored by the Templeton Foundation through its award of a $1.9 million grant to UCLA?s Higher Education Research Institute to support a large scale longitudinal study of spiritual development in college undergraduates. A pilot study of 3,700 students enrolled at forty-six colleges and universities was initiated in spring 2003, and a full-scale assessment of 90,000 students enrolling at 150 institutions will be initiated in fall 2004. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind about spirituality is that is touches directly on our sense of community. More than anything else, giving spirituality a central place in our institutions will serve to strengthen our sense of connectedness with each other, our students, and our institutions. This enrichment of our sense of community will not only go a long way toward overcoming the sense of fragmentation and alienation that so many of us now feel, but will also help our students to lead more meaningful lives as engaged citizens, loving partners and parents, and caring neighbors.

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This volume addresses the limitations of an instrumental perspective on collaboration and explores why stakeholders in higher education should refocus attention on collaboration as a source of faculty learning. The chapters establish a theoretical basis for thinking about faculty learning and then use case studies to explore this topic in the context of service or outreach, research, and teaching.

Included as well are a meta-analysis of the cases to demonstrate what they teach about contexts that promote faculty learning and a discussion of the implications of the analysis for higher education policy and practice, including the evaluation of collaboratively produced work. The framework and cases are useful to an audience of academic leaders committed to faculty development and to creating hiring, promotion, and tenure policies that reward the full range of scholarly pursuits. They should also prove instructive to faculty embarking on interdisciplinary teaching, research, or outreach activities.

This is the 102nd issue of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Teaching and Learning. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Editor's Notes

ch. 1 Learning as professional practice (Lisa R. Lattuca and Elizabeth G. Creamer)
ch. 2 Faculty work as learning : insights from theories of cognition (Lisa R Lattuca)
ch. 3 Interdisciplinary collaboration and academic work : a case study of a university-community partnership (Marilyn J. Arney and Dennis F. Brown)
ch. 4 Insight from multiple disciplinary angles : a case study of an interdisciplinary research team (Eizabeth G. Creamer)
ch. 5 The challenge of integration in interdisciplinary education (Michele Minnis and Vera John-Steiner)
ch. 6 Observations : taking seriously the topic of learning in studies of faculty work and careers (Anna Neumann)
ch. 7 Promoting the effective evaluation of collaboratively produced scholarship : a call to action (Elizabeth G. Creamer)

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An early review of Barbara Walvoords’ study showing a "great divide" in the introductory religious-studies classroom, especially at schools with a religious affiliation: While instructors want to prioritize the development of critical thinking, students want discussion that will develop their own religious beliefs and their moral & ethical values. (This is less true at secular colleges, where students are more on board with putting critical thinking first.)

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One page Teaching Tactic: building review into a lecture.

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Diverse teams of faculty and other academic and student affairs professionals from a wide range of institutions has drafted and revised institutional-level rubrics (and related materials) to correspond with the AAC&U "Essential Learning Outcomes." Each VALUE rubric contains the most broadly shared criteria or core characteristics  considered to be critical for judging the quality of student work in a particular outcome area, including: intellectual/practical skills (such as critical thinking and  communication), personal and social responsibility (such as civic engagement and ethical reasoning), and integrative and applied learning.

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This classic and rather poignant argument that education is the answer to the questions posed by Anglo-Saxon cultures was written by Meiklejohn (late president of Amherst College and founder of the U. of Wisconsin's Experimental College) as the horrors of World War II were a daily event. In such a time and with such a background, it is no surprise Meiklejohn freely ties theory to practice, policy, and pedagogy as he describes Protestant-capitalist education, the problem of reconstruction according to Rousseau, pragmatism according to Dewey, and the social contract as the primary basis of a form of education that will result in brotherhood and reasonableness. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Introduction
Forward
Preface

Book I. Protestant-Capitalist Education
Book II. The Problem of Reconstruction
Book III. The Pragmatic Episode-A Study of John Dewey
Book IV. The Social Contract as Basis for Education

Index

Additional Info:
Harvard deans argue it’s time to reimagine higher education’s civic mission. The public purposes of education should go beyond benefits to individuals and focus on a tripod of intellect, morality, and action, all grounded in a knowledge base of American history and constitutional principles.

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Three conceptions of general education developed under the titles 'general,' 'generalist,' and 'generalizing' are matched with appropriate strategies for teaching the Bible. These provide the basis for two points relevant to teaching the Bible in colleges and universities: first, that the prime object of attention is not the Bible, but rather a corporate agreement regarding an educational project; and second, that the ways in which the Bible might be taught will vary, appropriately, according to the ways in which that educational enterprise is understood. A corollary is stated: teachers of the Bible need to be as informed about research in teaching as they are in biblical research.

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Effective pedagogy in the capstone course or integrative seminar — a 1000 word response to a Call for Papers.

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The thousands of immigrants who enter the United States each year, the increasing number of children who speak a first language other than English in the schools, and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor are some of the realities that educators face today. Given these conditions, it is increasingly difficult to prepare students for democratic citizenship. Bringing together years of work as an expert on multicultural education, James Banks shows how we can prepare students to effectively participate in a society that reflects ethnic, cultural, and class diversity at the same time that we promote national unity and the public good. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Series Foreword
Preface

Part I Citizenship Education and Diversity
ch. 1 Reconstructing Citizenship Education
ch. 2 Citizenship Education in a Multicultural Society
ch. 3 Teaching Social Studies for Decision-Making and Citizen Action

Pt. II Citizenship Education and Epistemological Issues
ch. 4 Ethnicity, Social Science Research, and Education
ch. 5 The Persistence of Ethnicity: Research and Teaching Implications
Pt. III Citizenship Education and the Dimensions of Multicultural Education
ch. 6 Multicultural Education and Curriculum Transformation
ch. 7 Equity Pedagogy and Multicultural Education
ch. 8 Citizenship Education and the Development of Democratic Racial Attitudes
Pt. IV Educating Teachers, Leaders, and Citizens
ch. 9 Teaching Multicultural Literacy to Teachers
ch. 10 Multicultural Education: Goals for the Twenty-First Century
ch. 11 Cultural Democracy and Citizenship Education

References
Index
About the Author

Additional Info:
As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience--an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers--is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.

In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In arguing for what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise.

In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America's colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface
Introduction

ch. 1 What Is College For?
ch. 2 Orgins
ch. 3 From College to University
ch. 4 Who Went? Who Goes? Who Pays?
ch. 5 Brave New World
ch. 6 What Is to Be Done?

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Additional Info:
How College Affects Students, Volume 2 is the long awaited sequel to the landmark work that was first published in 1991. Offers the most comprehensive resource available on what is known about the effect of college on students. In this book, Pascarella and Terenzini provide current information and empirical research from the decade since their first book was published which distills what is know about how students change and benefit as a consequence of attending college. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Studying college outcomes in the 1990s : overview and organization of the research
ch. 2 Theories and models of student change in college
ch. 3 Development of verbal, quantitative, and subject matter competence
ch. 4 Cognitive skills and intellectual growth
ch. 5 Psychosocial change
ch. 6 Attitudes and values
ch. 7 Moral development
ch. 8 Educational attainment and persistence
ch. 9 Career and economic impacts of college
ch. 10 Quality of life after college
ch. 11 How college affects students : a summary
ch. 12 Implications for research, practice, and policy

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This volume of New Directions for Teaching and Learning increases our knowledge and understanding of the causes and consequences of disciplinary differences in the patterns of teaching and learning, in the instructional strategies to increase teaching effectiveness, in the culture and environment in which teaching takes place, and in faculty and students' attitudes, goals, beliefs, values, philosophies, and orientations toward instruction. Despite their practical and pervasive influence, disciplinary differences have been subjected to relatively little systematic study, especially in their effect on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. This volume both provides new summaries of important studies on disciplinary differences and points out promising directions for further research. This is the 64th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Teaching and Learning. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Disciplinary differences in knowledge validation(Janet G. Donald)
ch. 2 What is taught in an undergraduate lecture? : differences between a matched pair of pure and applied disciplines (Nira Hativa)
ch. 3 Disciplinary differences in classroom teaching behaviors (Harry G. Murray and Robert D. Renaud)
ch. 4 The relationship of disciplinary differences and the value of class preparation time to student ratings of teaching (Jennifer Franklin and Michael Theall)
ch. 5 Disciplinary and institutional differences in undergraduate education goals (John C. Smart and Corinna A. Ethington)
ch. 6 Disciplines with an affinity for the improvement of undergraduate education (John M. Braxton)
ch. 7 Discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge in linguistics and Spanish (Lisa Firing Lenze)
ch. 8 Subject-matter differences in secondary schools : connections to higher education (Susan S. Stodolsky and Pamela L. Grossman)
ch. 9 Disciplinary differences in what is taught and in students' perceptions of what they learn and of how they are taught (William E. Cashin and Ronald G. Downey)
ch. 10 Approaches to studying and perceptions of the learning environment across disciplines (Noel Entwhistle and Hilary Tait)
ch. 11 Disciplinary differences in students' perceptions of success : modifying misperceptions with attributional retraining (Verena H. Menec and Raymond P. Perry)
Concluding remarks : on the meaning of disciplinary differences

Additional Info:
Contentious debates over the benefits—or drawbacks—of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism—often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student’s capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America’s long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education.

Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. DuBois’s humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington’s educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams’s emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey’s calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Ch. 1. From Taking in the World to Transforming the Self
Ch 2. Pragmatism: From Autonomy to Recognition
Ch 3. Controversies and Critics
Ch 4. Reshaping Ourselves and Our Societies

Notes

Index

Additional Info:
Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: The recent trend of trying to measure higher education’s return on investment misses a fundamental point, argue Charity Johansson and Peter Felten. The central purpose of a college or university is to transform the lives of students—not to merely change them or help them mature. This transformation is an ongoing process of intentionally aligning one’s behavior with one’s core sense of personal identity. It is the university’s central role to lead students in this transformation, a process that shapes students into intentional, critical, and engaged individuals.

Recognizing the remarkable influence of the college experience on peoples’ lives, the authors offer a guide to how colleges and universities can effectively lead students through this life-changing process. Drawn from extensive interviews with students and graduates, faculty and staff, Transforming Students gathers diverse stories to show how students experience the transformation process, which rarely follows a neat or linear path. The interviews illustrate central themes from the literature on transformative learning and the undergraduate student experience.

A sequel of sorts to George Keller’s classic Transforming a College—which chronicled Elon University’s metamorphosis from struggling college to a top regional university— Transforming Students addresses the school’s core educational mission: to shape students into engaged adults who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor. Given this effect, the college experience is much more than preparation for a career. It is preparation for life. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments
Introduction

ch. 1 On the Threshold
ch. 2 Creating Openness
ch. 3 Thinking It Through
ch. 4 Moved to Action
ch. 5 In the Company of Others
ch. 6 From Individuals to Institutions

References
Index

Additional Info:
Our schools and colleges often make the intellectual life seem more impenetrable, narrowly specialized, and inaccessible than it is or needs to be, argues the eminent scholar and educator Gerald Graff, whose provocative book offers a wealth of practical suggestions for making the culture of ideas and arguments more readily understandable. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments
Introduction: In the Dark All Eggheads Are Gray

Pt. I Confusing the Issue
ch. 1 The University Is Popular Culture, But It Doesn't Know It Yet
ch. 2 The Problem Problem and Other Oddities of Academic Discourse
ch. 3 The Mixed-Message Curriculum

Pt. II Intellectualism and Its Discontents
ch. 4 Two Cheers for the Argument Culture
ch. 5 Paralysis by Analysis?

Pt. III Communicative Disorders
ch. 6 Unlearning to Write
ch. 7 Scholars and Sound Bites: The Myth of Academic Difficulty
ch. 8 Why Johnny Can't Argue
ch. 9 Outing Criticism
ch. 10 The Application Guessing Game with Andrew Hoberek

Pt. IV Teaching the Club
ch. 11 Hidden Intellectualism
ch. 12 A Word for Words and a Vote for Quotes
ch. 13 Wrestling with the Devil
ch. 14 Deborah Meier's Progressive Traditionalism

Epilogue: How to Write an Argument - What Students and Teachers Really Need to Know
Notes
Index

Additional Info:
The Association of American colleges and Universities (AAC&U)supports liberal education nationally through publications, meetings, public advocacy and programs. Its web site provides a wealth of resources, position papers, and descriptions of its initiatives. The organization also supports a robust program of publications (periodicals, pamphlets, books), available for a small fee.

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Click Here for Book Review
This book explores the many ways in which the obsession with “being smart” distorts the life of a typical college or university, and how this obsession leads to a higher education that shortchanges the majority of students, and by extension, our society’s need for an educated population.

The author calls on his colleagues in higher education to return the focus to the true mission of developing the potential of each student: However “smart” they are when they get to college, both the student and the college should be able to show what they learned while there.

Unfortunately, colleges and universities have embraced two very narrow definitions of smartness: the course grade and especially the standardized test. A large body of research shows that it will be very difficult for colleges to fulfill their stated mission unless they substantially broaden their conception to include student qualities such as leadership, social responsibility, honesty, empathy, and citizenship.

Specifically, the book grapples with issues such as the following:
• Why America’s 3,000-plus colleges and universities have evolved into a hierarchical pecking order, where institutions compete with each other to recruit “smart” students, and where a handful of elite institutions at the top of the pecking order enroll the “smartest” students.

• Why higher education favors its smartest students to the point where the “not so smart” students get second-class treatment.

• Why so many colleges find it difficult to make good on their commitment to affirmative action and “equality of opportunity.”

• Why college faculties tend to value being smart more than developing students’ smartness (i.e., teaching and learning). (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Introduction

ch. 1 The Higher Education Pecking Order
ch. 2 Admissions Madness
ch. 3 Developing Smartness: Higher Education’s True Mission
ch. 4 The Challenge to Engage Educational Equity
ch. 5 Which Kinds of Smartness Really Matter?
ch. 6 Faculty Culture: The Core of the Problem
ch. 7 Is There Any Way Out?

References

Additional Info:
In A New Agenda for Higher Education, the authors endorse higher education's utility for enhancing the practical as well as intellectual dimensions of life by developing a third, different conception of educational purpose. Based on The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes an educational aim of "practical reason," focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.
The book includes case studies of instructors from a wide array of disciplines including those who educate their students for practical responsibility. The authors document the process by which they learned to collaborate with one another across fields and, in the end, produced a new discourse of practical reason. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction

ch. 1 Partners in the Field: Part One
ch. 2 Partners in the Field: Part Two
ch. 3 A Narrative of the Seminar
ch. 4 Practical Reason as an Educational Agenda

Conclusion: Taking Formative Action

Appendix 1 Partner Syllabi
Hessel Bouma III, "Human Biology," Calvin College
Elliot N. Dorff, "Issues in Jewish Ethics," American Jewish University
Gary Lee Downey and Juan Lucena, "Engineering Cultures," Virginia Tech and Colorado School of Mines
Daisy Hurst Floyd, "Advanced Legal Ethics: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in Legal Life," Mercer University School of Law
Allen S. Hammond IV, "Contracts," Santa Clara University School of Law
Robert McGinn, "Ethical Issues in Engineering," Stanford University
Timothy Murphy and Michele Oberman, Selected Cases from "Ethics and Law," University of Illinois College of Medicine
William C. Spohn, "Scripture and the Moral Life," Santa Clara University
Barbara S. Stengel, "Foundations of Modern Education," Millersville University

Appendix 2 Seminar Assignments
Assignment for Session One, September 2002
Assignment for Session Two, January 2003
Syllabus Narrative Writing Assignment, Summer 2003
Assignment for Session Three, November 2003
Follow-Up Reflection Questions, January 2004

References

Additional Info:
Inquiry-driven learners anticipate, embrace, and adapt to disruptive change. Clifton Conrad and Laura Dunek advance a transformative purpose of a college education. They invite stakeholders from across higher education to engage in vigorous dialogue about the aims of a college education—and how to realize those aims.

Increasingly influenced by market forces, many universities employ a default purpose of a college education: preparing students for entry into the workforce. As a result, students remain unprepared for a world in which much of the knowledge they acquire will have a shelf life of only a few years.

Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners charts a new way forward. It proposes that a college education prepare students to be innovative and adaptable by developing four signature capabilities: core qualities of mind, critical thinking skills, expertise in divergent modes of inquiry, and the capacity to express and communicate ideas. In concert, these capabilities empower students to explore and foster ideas that will prepare them to successfully navigate constant change, capitalize on career opportunities, enrich their personal lives, and thoughtfully engage in public life.

This innovative book also explores a wide range of initiatives and practices for educating inquiry-driven learners. Examples illustrate possibilities for developing inquiry-driven learners across the curriculum and are drawn from institutions with remarkably different missions and identities—from research universities to liberal arts colleges.

"This book revitalizes the notion of a 'well-rounded' education by describing how inquiry-driven learning is critically important for these times. It is the sort of foundational text that invites discussion and debate and describes with clarity and economy of prose the pressures facing colleges and universities and how they ought to respond."—Matthew Hartley, University of Pennsylvania. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface

Part I - What Is The Purpose of A College Education?
ch. 1 Contemporary Discourse on the Purpose of a College Education
The Dominate Discourse: Eclipse of the Legacy of Liberal Education
Contemporary Ideas on the Purpose of a College Education
The Absence of a Fundamental Purpose of a College Education

Part II - Approaching Obsolete: Higher Learning In The Twenty-First Century
ch. 2 A Rapidly Changing World and the Need for a Response
The Rapidly Shifting U.S. Economy: From Industrial Production to Knowledge and Innovation
Four Trends Affecting Higher Education, All Driven by Monetary Incentives
Lessons from Other Sectors of Society, All Reshaped by the Same Market Forces Buffeting Higher Education
Proactively Directing External Forces and Preparing Students for a New World

ch. 3 Hurtling toward Obsolescence: The Default Purpose of a College Education
Shortcomings of the Default Purpose: Knowledge-Inundated, Workplace Commodities
The Need for a Fundamental Purpose of a College Education

Part III - Becoming An Inquiry-Driven Learner
ch. 4 Portrayal of an Inquiry-Driven Learner
Definition of an Inquiry-Driven Learner
Core Qualities of Mind
Critical Thinking Skills
Expertise in Divergent Models of Inquiry
The Capacity to Express and Communicate Ideas
Building upon a Legacy of Ideas

Part IV - Developing Inquiry-Driven Learners
ch. 5 Ideas for Developing Inquiry-Driven Learners
Initiatives at Eight Institutions
Institutional Practices for Educating Inquiry-Driven Learners
A Concluding Note

Notes
References
Index

Additional Info:
This edited transcript of a roundtable “fishbowl” conversation at a session of the 2018 national conference of the American Academy of Religion brings three teaching scholars together around a shared reading of Jane Fried's book, Education, Fishbowls, and Rabbit Holes: Rethinking Teaching and Liberal Education for an Interconnected World (Stylus, 2016). Fried's concept of student “self‐authorship” quickly emerges as the dominant theme of the conversation, providing fresh perspectives on the purposes and goals of an academic classroom and the place of the study of religion within the liberal arts curriculum.

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A college student getting a liberal arts education ponders filling out a questionnaire that includes an opportunity for him to evaluate his instructor. At times it appears that the purpose of his education is just to entertain him.

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Much of the confusion and meaninglessness of the twenty-first century stems from the fragmentation of knowledge. Our postmodern times cry out for a return to wholeness. Enter Stratford Caldecott, who calls for renewal in education in Beauty for Truth's Sake. By reclaiming the classic liberal arts and viewing disciplines such as science and mathematics through a poetic lens, the author explains that unity is present within diversity. Ultimately, God is behind all truth.

This book will benefit parents, homeschoolers, lifelong learners, and readers interested in the history of ideas. It is appropriate for Christian college and university students and will play an especially important role in curriculum development.

EXCERPT
I've heard many exasperated parents say to me, "If I can just get my kid through their teenage years then they'll be okay." There have been many tiring and frustrating days where I could agree with that sentiment. But I think you would agree with me that "just making it through" wouldn't exactly qualify as a lofty goal. As if somehow the goal of parenting is just to protect or tolerate and then hope for the best. That goal doesn't take into account the sponge effect.

Last year, our daughter got a package of animal bathtub sponges as a gift. Each sponge was the size of a large multi-colored vitamin. She dropped one in the sink and we all watched as it started to grow. Within a few minutes it was the size of her hand. The sponge seemed to just keep soaking and soaking. Once it grew to its full size it never shrunk back again. After we drained the basin, we set the sponge animal on a towel and the water slowly seeped out of it. It took a longtime for it to dry out because it had taken in so much.

Teens are like those sponges. They're not just trying to "make it through" these few years. They're soaking up everything in their environment. And they learn first and foremost through their experiences with you. If you have always responded to people in our culture out of fear, your teen will generally tend to do the same. If you respond with anger, so will your teen. If you model a disdain for the people that make up your culture, your teen may also. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "To Sing with the Universe"

ch. 1. The Tradition of the Four Ways
The Great Tradition
Adapting the Medieval Model
Beauty for Truth's Sake
Beauty on the Cross

ch. 2. Educating the Poetic Imagination
"A Beauty Which Defies Time"
Rediscovering Poetic Knowledge
The Symbolic Cosmos
A Key to the Ancient Mysteries

ch. 3. The Lost Wisdom of the World
Sacred Number
Beyond Pythagoras
Irrational Beauty
Phi and the Natural Numbers
Symmetry

ch. 4. The Golden Circle
A Journey into God
Theology of the Trinity
In Search of the Logos
Geometry as Prophecy
The Goldem Circle

ch. 5. "Quiring to the Young-Eyed Cherubims"
Good Vibrations
Humane Architecture
At Home in the Cosmos
Secrets of the Sky
The End of the Road

ch. 6. The Liturgical Comsummation of Cosmology
The Construction of Modernity
A Sense of the Sacred
Liturgy as Remembering to Give
An Education in Beauty
The Holy City

Conclusion: Beyond Faith and Reason
Bibliiography
Index

Additional Info:
Creating ways to make a discipline come alive for those who are not experts - even for students who may not take more than one or two courses in the disciplines they study - requires rigorous thought about what really matters in a field and how to engage students in its practice.

Faculty from Alverno College representing a range of liberal arts disciplines - chemistry, economics, history, literature, mathematics and philosophy - here reflect on what it has meant for them to approach their disciplines as frameworks for student learning.

The authors all demonstrate how the ways of thinking they have identified as significant for their students in their respective disciplines have affected the way they design learning experiences. They show how they have shaped their teaching around the ways of thinking they want their students to develop within and across their disciplines; and what that means in terms of designing assessments that require students to demonstrate their thinking and understanding through application and use. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Introduction

ch. 1 Common ground : how history professors and undergraduate students learn through history (James Roth)
ch. 2 Learning to think mathematically (Susan Pustejovsky)
ch. 3 Teaching students to practice philosophy (Donna Englemann)
ch. 4 Making economics matter to students (Zohreh Emami)
ch. 5 Reading and responding to literature: developing critical perspectives (Lucy Cromwell)
ch. 6 Articulating the cognitive processes at the heart of chemistry (Ann van Heerden)
ch. 7 Because Hester Prynne was an existentialist, or why using disciplines as frameworks for learning clarifies life (Rebecca Valentine)

Additional Info:
"Ancient Christianity, Ancient Cities – and Cyberspace?" was a teaching experiment combining the study of theology, religion, history, and new computer technologies. The course included both a regular class meeting and a concurrent digital media lab. All student assignments were digital. Students came in with a wide variety of technical knowledge and backgrounds in classical and religious studies. In addition to learning about the history and theology of early Christianity, students became critical learners of technology within the ideal of a liberal arts education.

Additional Info:
An engaging and accessible rumination on the purposes of liberal arts education and how they have been undermined in the past 50 years.

Additional Info:
Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: Constrained by shrinking budgets, can colleges do more to improve the quality of education? And can students get more out of college without paying higher tuition? Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs conclude that the limited resources of colleges and students need not diminish the undergraduate experience. How College Works reveals the surprisingly decisive role that personal relationships play in determining a student’s collegiate success, and puts forward a set of small, inexpensive interventions that yield substantial improvements in educational outcomes.

At a liberal arts college in New York, the authors followed a cluster of nearly one hundred students over a span of eight years. The curricular and technological innovations beloved by administrators mattered much less than the professors and peers whom students met, especially early on. At every turning point in students’ undergraduate lives, it was the people, not the programs, that proved critical. Great teachers were more important than the topics studied, and even a small number of good friendships—two or three—made a significant difference academically as well as socially.

For most students, college works best when it provides the daily motivation to learn, not just access to information. Improving higher education means focusing on the quality of a student’s relationships with mentors and classmates, for when students form the right bonds, they make the most of their education. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 The Search for a Solution
ch. 2 Entering
ch. 3 Choosing
ch. 4 The Arithmetic of Engagement
ch. 5 Belonging
ch. 6 Learning
ch. 7 Finishing
ch. 8 Lessons Learned

Appendix: Methods
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Additional Info:
In this short and powerful book, celebrated philosopher Martha Nussbaum makes a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education.

Historically, the humanities have been central to education because they have been seen as essential for creating competent democratic citizens. But recently, Nussbaum argues, thinking about the aims of education has gone disturbingly awry in the United States and abroad. We increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable, productive, and empathetic individuals. This shortsighted focus on profitable skills has eroded our ability to criticize authority, reduced our sympathy with the marginalized and different, and damaged our competence to deal with complex global problems. And the loss of these basic capacities jeopardizes the health of democracies and the hope of a decent world.

In response to this dire situation, Nussbaum argues that we must resist efforts to reduce education to a tool of the gross national product. Rather, we must work to reconnect education to the humanities in order to give students the capacity to be true democratic citizens of their countries and the world.

In a new preface, Nussbaum explores the current state of humanistic education globally and shows why the crisis of the humanities has far from abated. Translated into over twenty languages, Not for Profit draws on the stories of troubling—and hopeful—global educational developments. Nussbaum offers a manifesto that should be a rallying cry for anyone who cares about the deepest purposes of education. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Forward (Ruth O'Brien)

Ch 1. The Silent Crisis
Ch 2. Education for Profit, Education for Democracy
Ch 3. Educating Citizens: The Moral (and Anti-Moral) Emotions
Ch 4. Socratic Pedagogy: The Importance of Argument
Ch 5. Citizens of the World
Ch 6. Cultivating Imagination: Literature and the Arts
Ch 7. Democratic Education on the Ropes

Afterword to the Paperback Edition: Reflections on the Future of the Humanities-at Home and Abroad

Additional Info:
Located at Wabash College, the Center of Inquiry is dedicated to using evidence to strengthen liberal arts education for all students at all institutions, including collaborating with faculty and staff to build and strengthen the capacity of assessment programs to gather and use evidence to improve student learning.

Additional Info:
This book questions some of our most ingrained assumptions, not only about the nature of teaching and learning, but about what constitutes education, and about the cultural determinants of what is taught.

What if who you think you are profoundly affects what and how you learn? Since Descartes, teachers in the Western tradition have dismissed the role of self in learning. What if our beliefs about self and learning are wrong, and relevance of knowledge to self actually enhances learning, as current research suggests?

Jane Fried deconstructs the Grand Western Narrative of teaching and learning, describing it is a cultural fishbowl through which we see the world, rarely aware of the fishbowl itself, be it disciplinary constructs or the definition of liberal education.

She leads us on a journey to question “the way things are”; to attend to the personal narratives of others from ethnic, racial and faith groups different from ourselves; to rediscover self-authorship as the core task of learning in college; and to empower ourselves and students to navigate the disorientation of the Alice in Wonderland rabbit holes of modern life.

This is a book for all educators concerned about the purpose of college and of the liberal arts in the 21st century, and what it is we should reasonably expect students to learn. Jane Fried both upends many received ideas and offers constructive insights based on science and evidence, and does so in an engaging way that will stimulate reflection. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Themes, Terminology, and Reader Engagement

ch. 1 Teaching, Learning, and Storytelling
ch. 2 Life Beyond the Fishbowl: The Grand Narrative, Academic Disciplines, and Deep Learning
ch. 3 Everybody Learns, Some Teach
ch. 4 Entr’acte: Is “Teach” a Transitive Verb?
ch. 5 Self-Authorship: A New Narrative of Learning
ch. 6 Professional Boundaries and Skills: Searching for Meaning Is Not Counseling
ch. 7 Curriculum, General Education, and the Grand Narrative
ch. 8 Assessment: Documenting Learning From Alternate Perspectives--Peter Trioano

Conclusion . . . Well, Maybe Not

Appendix A: Working in Groups and Facilitating Discussions
Appendix B: Contemplative Methods for Classroom Use

References
About the Authors
Index

Additional Info:

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Greening the College Curriculum provides the tools college and university faculty need to meet personal and institutional goals for integrating environmental issues into the curriculum. Leading educators from a wide range of fields, including anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, literature, journalism, philosophy, political science, and religion, describe their experience introducing environmental issues into their teaching. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction (Jonathan Collett and Stephen Karakashian)

ch. 1 Reinventing Higher Education (David W. Orr)
ch. 2 Anthropology (William Balée)
ch. 3 Biology (David G. Campbell and Vern Durkee)
ch. 4 Economics (Gerald Alonzo Smith)
ch. 5 Geography (Lisa Naughton-Treves and Emily Young)
ch. 6 History (John Opie and Michael Black)
ch. 7 Literature (Vernon Owen Grumbling)
ch. 8 Media and Journalism (Karl Grossman and Ann Filemyr)
ch. 9 Philosophy (Holmes Rolston III)
ch. 10 Political Science (Michael E. Kraft)
ch. 11 Religion (Steven C. Rockefeller)
ch. 12 Reinventing the Classroom: Connected Teaching (Jonathan Collett)

Contributors

Additional Info:

Additional Info:

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Delivers uncomplicated and useful techniques for better teaching to nonmajors in liberal arts courses.
Teaching Nonmajors focuses on what dedicated teachers want to know—how can I teach better in the classroom? Unlike most books on teaching, this book delivers uncomplicated and immediately useful techniques and strategies for teaching required courses to nonmajors. Providing practical examples and brief anecdotes drawn from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, the author describes simple ways to break up lectures, how to stimulate the best discussions, the art of assignments, how to improve student ratings, and successful strategies for engaging nonmajors and for handling problem students. Teaching Nonmajors is written especially for liberal arts college and university professors at all career stages—from adjuncts and new professors, to seasoned professors looking for a fresh approach heading into a new term. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Give better lectures
ch. 2 Break up lectures
ch. 3 The best discussions and student presentations
ch. 4 The art of assignments
ch. 5 Sensible policies
ch. 6 Professor and student problems
ch. 7 Understand and improve student ratings
ch. 8 Conclusion

Index

Additional Info:
Teaching biblical studies in the undergraduate liberal arts classroom poses many challenges. Do biblical studies deserve a place at a secular liberal arts college? In church-affiliated colleges, should courses in Bible toe the denominational line? Can we claim that biblical studies advance the goals of liberal education, whatever we might think they are?

On a more practical level, how can an instructor engage the attention of students who are taking a course in biblical studies only to fulfill a requirement? How best to begin with students from non-religious backgrounds who begin a course with no real knowledge of the Bible at all? How best to deal with students who already think they know what the Bible is all about, and resist any ideas or approaches that might threaten their ideas?

This collection of pedagogical essays reflects the practical experience of instructors who have spent years teaching biblical studies successfully to undergraduates at liberal arts colleges. The essays address both methodological approaches and specific classroom strategies for teaching biblical studies effectively in a way that advances the skills of thinking and expression that are essential to a liberal arts education. The product of several years of conversation among working professors from an array of liberal arts colleges, these essays offer insights and inspiration for biblical studies instructors who work in a very specific and demanding academic environment. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Part I: Biblical Studies In The Liberal Arts
ch. 1 A Forensic Rationale for Biblical Studies in American Liberal Education (Matthew C. Baldwin)
ch. 2 Occupy Academic Bible Teaching (Susanne Scholz)
ch. 3 Challenges to Teaching Biblical Literature as a General Education Requirement (Stan Harstine and Phillip Wisely)
ch. 4 ‘Not as the Scribes’: Teaching Biblical Studies in the Liberal Arts Curriculum (Glenn S. Holland)
ch. 5 What Do Athens and Jerusalem Have to Do with Sioux Falls? (Murray Joseph Haar and Anna Madesen)
ch. 6 Teaching the Bible in a Secular School (Christian Brady)
ch. 7 Engaging Diverse Students in a Required Biblical Studies Course (Margaret P. Cowan)
ch. 8 Arts Integration and Service-Learning in Introduction to Biblical Literature (Sharon Betsworth)
ch. 9 The Role of the Upper-Level Biblical Studies Seminar (Benjamin White)

Part II: Pedagogical Theory and Biblical Studies
ch. 10 Teaching the Material and Teaching the Students (Shane Kirkpatrick
ch. 11 Service-Learning in Undergraduate Biblical Studies Courses (Janet S. Everhart)
ch. 12 The Reality of Multiple Voices in Biblical Religion (J. Bradley Chance)
ch. 13 Collaborative Learning and the Pedagogy of the Bible (Alison Schofield)
ch. 14 Shifting Contexts and Goals for Introducing the Bible (Bryan D. Bibb)

Part III: Case Studies
ch. 15 Bible-Trek, Next Generation: Adapting a Bible Survey Course for a New Audience (Jonathan David Lawrence)
ch. 16 Dildos and Dismemberment: Reading Difficult Biblical Texts Classroom (Janet Everhart)
ch. 17 Reading Textual Violence as ‘Real’ Violence (Amy C. Cottrill)
ch. 18 Engaging Students Online: Using Wiki Technology (Carl Toney)
ch. 19 What’s the Harm in Harmonization? Using Jesus Films (Margaret E. Ramey)
ch. 20 Teaching with Meta-questions (Jane S. Webster)
ch. 21 Course Design and the Use of Meta-Questions (Russell Arnold)
ch. 22 Biblical Studies and Metacognitive Reading Skills (Rodney K. Duke)
ch. 23 Teaching Revelation to the Left Behind Generation (Susan E. Hylen)

Additional Info:
Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: In Class Not Dismissed, award-winning professor Anthony Aveni tells the personal story of his six decades in college classrooms and some of the 10,000 students who have filled them. Through anecdotes of his own triumphs and tribulations—some amusing, others heartrending—Aveni reveals his teaching story and thoughts on the future of higher education.

Although in recent years the lecture has come under fire as a pedagogical method, Aveni ardently defends lecturing to students. He shares his secrets on crafting an engaging lecture and creating productive dialogue in class discussions. He lays out his rules on classroom discipline and tells how he promotes the lost art of listening. He is a passionate proponent of the liberal arts and core course requirements as well as a believer in sound teaching promoted by active scholarship.

Aveni is known to his students as a consummate storyteller. In Class Not Dismissed he shares real stories about everyday college life that shed light on serious educational issues. The result is a humorous, reflective, inviting, and powerful inquiry into higher education that will be of interest to anyone invested in the current and future state of college and university education. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Acknowledgments
Introduction

ch. 1 Why I Teach
I Love You, Miss Cohen
Dreams of Skywatching
The Ones I Remember
Archetype of the Professor
Learning, Loving, Breathing

ch. 2 What I Teach
From Mountaintop to Classroom
Assignment One
Acquiring the Tool of My Trade
Encountering the Liberal Arts
A Little History
The Core of the Liberal Arts: What Is It and What’s It Good For?
Tradition vs. Change, or How to Move a Graveyard
Diversity, Modernity, and Globalization: New Cores for New Generations

ch. 3 How I Teach
Teaching as Storytelling and Showing Learning by Experience
Am I the Sage on the State: What Makes for a Good Lecture?
Or the Guide on the Side: Is Techno-learning the Answer?
What’s on the Test? Teaching and Measuring Basic Student Skills
How To and How Not To Teach?

ch. 4 Questioning Teaching
Are Sound Teaching and Strong Scholarship Compatible?
Should My Job Be Guaranteed for Life?
How Can Teachers Serve the Wider Community?
In Loco Parentis: I’m Not Your Paren - or Am I?
Can We Really Measure Good Teaching?
Better Grades for Better Students?
Why Are Professors under Siege?
How Do We Teach in a Dummied-Down Culture?
The Life of Mind and Body: Do They Really Go Together?
How Can We Improve Our Colleges and Universities?
Why College Anyway?

ch. 5 Epilogue: Class (Not) Dismissed

Notes

Additional Info:
The learning goals of a well‐designed course in the liberal arts include not only the imparting of knowledge but also the development of critical thinking and disciplinary expertise. A class on Luther can help students acquire those intellectual skills associated with the discipline of history and the liberal arts more generally as they consider broader questions about institutional religion, spirituality, moral choices, and human agency. Current scholarship on how people learn highlights the importance of adequate mental frameworks for the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of new ideas and information. This scholarship underlies the choice of specific strategies used to teach about Luther and the Reformation. Assignments provide “scaffolding,” which begins with modeling and then moves from simpler to more complex assignments. Students practice the specific intellectual skills of critical reading and textual analysis over the course of the semester.