Pat Hutchings

American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectivenessShift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivatedLearn how assessment results can help inform decision-makingUse assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.

Faculty often worry that students can't or won't read critically, a foundational skill for success in academic and professional endeavors. "Critical reading" refers both to reading for academic purposes and reading for social engagement. This volume is based on collaborative, multidisciplinary research into how students read in first-year courses in subjects ranging from scientific literacy through composition. The authors discovered the good (students can read), the bad (students are not reading for social engagement), and the ugly (class assignments may be setting students up for failure) and they offer strategies that can better engage students and provide more meaningful reading experiences.

Faculty often worry that students can't or won't read critically, a foundational skill for success in academic and professional endeavors. "Critical reading" refers both to reading for academic purposes and reading for social engagement. This volume is based on collaborative, multidisciplinary research into how students read in first-year courses in subjects ranging from scientific literacy through composition. The authors discovered the good (students can read), the bad (students are not reading for social engagement), and the ugly (class assignments may be setting students up for failure) and they offer strategies that can better engage students and provide more meaningful reading experiences.

Citizenship Across the Curriculum advocates the teaching of civic engagement at the college level, in a wide range of disciplines and courses. Using "writing across the curriculum" programs as a model, the contributors propose a similar approach to civic education. In case studies drawn from political science and history as well as mathematics, the natural sciences, rhetoric, and communication studies, the contributors provide models for incorporating civic learning and evaluating pedagogical effectiveness. By encouraging faculty to gather evidence and reflect on their teaching practice and their students' learning, this volume contributes to the growing field of the scholarship of teaching and learning.

This groundbreaking book explores the current state of doctoral education in the United States and offers a plan for increasing the effectiveness of doctoral education. Programs must grapple with questions of purpose. The authors examine practices and elements of doctoral programs and show how they can be made more powerful by relying on principles of progressive development, integration, and collaboration. They challenge the traditional apprenticeship model and offer an alternative in which students learn while apprenticing with several faculty members. The authors persuasively argue that creating intellectual community is essential for high-quality graduate education in every department. Knowledge-centered, multigenerational communities foster the development of new ideas and encourage intellectual risk taking.

Over recent decades, the evaluation of teaching has undergone dramatic change. In accessible language and supportive detail, Changing Practices in Evaluating Teaching provides not only a cogent overview of these changes but also reflects on current developments to present several useful strategies for implementing new tools and methods in the evaluation of teaching. The authors are all prominent educators who have performed seminal work in the improvement of teaching evaluation. Written for university and college administrators as well as faculty, this book is a complete guidebook that supplies a wealth of case studies, examples, tables, Web sites, and exhibits that further enhance its utility. It explains how to Gain genuine faculty and administrative supportAvoid common weaknesses in teaching evaluation by students, peers, and selfEvaluate teaching by examining student learningSuccessfully combine disparate sources of dataEstablish a climate conducive to evaluationHow to structure and use classroom visits, rating forms, electronic classroom assessment, and teaching portfolios Changing Practices in Evaluating Teaching makes evident the compelling reasons why colleges and universities must institute fair teaching evaluation systems, and explains how to do so. With a notable focus on improving student learning, this book offers readers the kind of research-based and ready-to-use information required to foster truly effective and equitable teaching evaluation at their institutions.

A publication of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, this important resource builds on the work of Carnegie's best-selling books, Scholarship Reconsidered and Scholarship Assessed. The Advancement of Learning explores the premise that the scholarship of teaching and learning holds the key to improving the quality of higher education. The Advancement of Learning answers questions readers are likely to have: What are the defining elements of the scholarship of teaching and learning?What traditions does it build on?What are its distinctive claims and possibilities?What are the implications of the scholarship of teaching and learning for academic culture and careers?How does it shape the student experience? In addition, authors Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings introduce a new concept that expands on the scholarship of teaching and learning--the teaching commons. As the authors explain, the teaching commons is a conceptual space in which communities of educators committed to inquiry and innovation come together to exchange ideas about teaching and learning and use them to meet the challenges of educating students for personal, professional, and civic life.

Describes strategies through which faculty can document and "go public" with their teaching—be it for purposes of improvement or evaluation. Each of nine chapters features a different strategy—from the fairly simple, low-risk "teaching circle," to "course portfolios," to more formal departmental occasions such as faculty hiring—with reports by faculty who have actually tried each strategy, guidelines for good practice, and an annotated list of resources.