Mentoring of some sort is always part of the socialization process as new faculty members join the life and mission of a university. One type of mentoring is informal in nature. Newer members of a community pick up on the ways of an institution through "water cooler" conversations, casual interactions with colleagues, and even the…

Across higher education there is a misalignment between the policies and practices of evaluation and the core values for which universities profess to stand. Values of inclusion, transdisciplinarity, and publicly engaged scholarship are routinely undervalued in university practices of evaluation. Shifting attention toward high-impact ends of…

This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed…

Librarians from two research institutions developed a qualitative and quantitative survey to bring faculty voices into the discussion of incorporating the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" into instruction. The survey aimed to (1) gauge the level of faculty support for information literacy; (2) solicit rankings of…

Teacher preparation programs commonly use observational instruments to assess the progress and the exit performances of teacher candidates. However, while these instruments have been described and several have been studied for effectiveness, the field lacks a close examination of how they position participants: teacher candidates, K-12 pupils, and…

The event administration industry exploded as an academic discipline in the 1990s, and data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows a 33 percent faster growth rate, in comparison to all other occupations, for event-planning jobs from 2012 to 2022. With these changes, the need for qualified college graduates entering the recreation and…

Objective: Women assertively resisting sexual aggression have the best chances of avoiding completed rape. Especially with acquaintances, there are significant social and psychological barriers to resistance. Novel vignettes depicting acquaintance rape were designed to enhance self-efficacy, reduce unrealistic optimism, and empower assertive…

This article explores using spoken word poetry and song analysis in the classroom to inspire students to analyze their identities and strive for social justice in their research efforts. Poetry is empowering. It can show students how people express themselves, push them to consider their own identities, and inspire them to seek social change.…

How can youth be educated and empowered to become responsible food citizens? Evidence from a university-community partnership with youth in Michigan is presented to illuminate participatory approaches to youth engagement in food systems. We found that youth have valuable knowledge to enhance our understanding of food environments. At the same…

In response to a request from a campus student organization, faculty from three fields came together to develop and teach an integrated interdisciplinary course on water issues and social activism. This course, "Water as Life, Death, and Power", brought together topics from the fields of anthropology, biology and chemistry to explore…

The United States has lost ground internationally as a leader in educational attainment. Personal empowerment, national economic progress, and democratic ideals are enhanced through education, yet inequalities persist in the educational attainment of certain groups, such as low-income families or underrepresented minorities. Because the evolving…

Before graduate school, before his undergraduate degree, before community college, all throughout K-12, this author was considered an "at-risk" student--at risk of dropping out of school. During those early years, he took note of the things that seemed unjust and now he directs his academic work toward engaging at-risk students and…

Student discussions are a common teaching approach in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses because of their benefits to student learning, and to future professional development for natural resources professionals. However, traditional student-led discussions often are ineffective at meeting course and learning objectives and suffer from…

Assessment is a worthwhile undertaking when meaningful data are generated, evidence-based improvement initiatives are thoroughly considered and discussed, and results are ultimately used to improve educational effectiveness. National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) results are oriented toward such practical use. Each year, more campuses use…

Because of advances in psychotropic medications, psychiatric rehabilitation methods, the implementation of civil rights legislation, and empowerment movement of consumers with psychiatric disabilities, students with mental illnesses are increasingly able to access and complete higher education. Disability services offices on college campuses can…