Higher education classrooms are increasingly diverse in regards to student culture, including rac... more Higher education classrooms are increasingly diverse in regards to student culture, including race, gender, nationality, and intersecting identities. Yet faculty members oftentimes do not have adequate training in teaching, cultural competence, or inter- cultural communication. Building upon the principles of Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC), the authors in this chapter explore different bodies of literature in order to pull together common principles for promoting culturally responsive pedagogy in U.S. higher education. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on teach- ing practices that go beyond inclusive intentions, and instead focus on pedagogy that is truly responsive to diverse groups of students, especially in terms of the most prominent cultural aspects, such as race, gender, and nationality. Specifically, the five principles are described and detailed: 1) Instructor awareness of epistemology, 2) Recognition of diverse knowledge systems, 3) Inquiry based instruction, 4) Incorporation of student choice, and 5) Expanded use of formative feedback.
Critical thinking is a highly desirable goal of online higher education courses. This article pre... more Critical thinking is a highly desirable goal of online higher education courses. This article presents qualitative data from a mixed-method study that explores how asynchronous discussions within online courses influence critical thinking among students. In this study, online discussions were related to higher levels of critical thinking, but qualitative data indicate that the way discussions are used and facilitated is vital for encouraging critical thinking. Online discussions typically have the purpose of creating a space and time for informal, open-ended thinking to occur. Critical thinking appears to be best encouraged among students when a more consistent emphasis is placed on the discussions, and when instructor facilitation is less frequent but more purposeful.
Perhaps the most promising and understudied aspect of online education is course assessment. Cour... more Perhaps the most promising and understudied aspect of online education is course assessment. Course assessment is important because it has a strong impact on learning and is an indicator of the quality of learning occurring in a class. In the online environment, methods of assessment can be very different. However, the online education literature is currently lacking empirical data about the general status of assessment practices or how those practices relate to student learning. This article lays the groundwork for future studies by providing a description of formative and summative assessment and learning strategies in 60 online courses and suggesting some ways that assessment practices lead to different types of learning. In this study, instructors appear to follow effective practice by using multiple and alternative assessment methods, dispersing grades over time, and providing timely and frequent feedback to students. Students report focusing on relatively more complex learning strategies, such as elaboration and critical thinking over rehearsal. However, online instructors need to ensure that assessments are used strategically and that feedback is productive and able to be acted upon by students.
ABOUT CAMPUS / JULY–AUGUST 2004 THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY for instru c t i o n has been tried and dec... more ABOUT CAMPUS / JULY–AUGUST 2004 THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY for instru c t i o n has been tried and decried as far back as we can trace formal learn i n g . Socrates pre d i c t e d that a new medium, the written wo rd , would “ c re a t e forgetfulness in the learn e rs ’ s o u l s , because they will not use their memori e s ; t h ey will trust to the external wri tten characters and not remember of themselve s ” ( S o c r a t e s , as cited in Plato, 360 B. C. , n . p. ) . T h o m a s Edison claimed that motion p i c t u res we re “destined to revolutionize our educational system”(p. E2) and quickly replace textbooks. Most re c e n t l y, i n n ova t i o n s in the Internet and pers o n a l computing technology have been heralded by countless claims of revo l u t i o n , f ro m the spirited charge that t e c h n o l ogy will cure the ills of bad teaching to fears of i s o l a t e d , mute students expecting “ e d u t a i n m e n t ” and plagi a rizing all their work from the Internet. C l e a r l y, neither of those extreme effects of c u rrent technologies has m a t e ri a l i z e d . But just as the written wo rd and mov i e s became standard in our society and transformed the way we live, so will the Internet and personal computing. We are in the midst of what has been called a slow revo l u t i o n .The ways in which we communicate and do business are different from how they we re a decade ago. Students also spend their time and energy on campus d i f f e rently than they did a decade ago. U n d e rs t a n d i n g these changes will allow us to shape our future as mu c h or more than the changes shape us. Student engagement is a promising approach for analyzing how technology changes the eve ry d ay activities of college students. Engagement, defined simply as the time and effort spent on activ i t i e s , has become an e s t a blished means of understanding the experi e n c e and quality of student l e a rning in higher educat i o n . It is measured by using s p e c i fic behav i o rs such as discussing class material or p a rticipating in cocurri c ular activ i t i e s . A number of studies in recent decades h ave shown that students who are more engaged e x p e rience greater learn i n g and accelerated deve l o pment and persist at higher r a t e s .The 725 colleges and u n ive rsities that curre n t l y p a rticipate in the annu a l National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) demonstrate the grow i n g acceptance of engagement as a way to think about collegiate quality. In the spring of 2002, I conducted a qualitative study that used student engagement as a lens thro u g h which to analyze the effects of technology on campus. The setting was a four-year private institution that had, t h ree ye a rs pri o r, instituted a laptop computer re q u i rement for undergraduate students.The study used focus NEW PATTERNS OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Uploads
Books by Bridget Arend
Papers by Bridget Arend