An expert on extremism, far-right movements, and youth radicalization, Cynthia Miller-Idriss is the director of research at American University's Center for University Excellence, where she runs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). PERIL addresses issues of youth polarization and extremist radicalization through…

Educators who recognize the need to clarify their programs' goals have focused much effort over the past decade on learning outcome statements that summarize complex academic ideas in succinct terms. But have the projects gone far enough? While faculty have worked to demystify disciplines and programs, the words they use still come across as…

"Experience" is a healthy-sounding word, but what do educators really mean by it? And how do educators persuade people that higher education fosters important forms of experience, that "experience" is an integral part of any vital liberal learning? The author suggests that educators might begin by getting clearer in their own minds just what they…

It is the responsibility of faculty as a group to preserve academic freedom by recognizing, acknowledging, and withstanding the pressures against it at every level of the academic enterprise. (MSE)

It is argued that not only are academic standards central to the justification for tenure, but if they are maintained in college and universities in the future, it probably will be because of tenure. The role of individual faculty in the maintenance of the academic community is discussed. (MSE)

When faculty assess what and how well students are learning, the kind of learning they say they value must be reflected in their evaluation of the learning as well as their instruction. (MSE)

To achieve the kind of reform advocated in recent reports on higher education, faculty designing new curricula will have to overcome their existing perceptions of the incoming student and inform themselves about real students' characteristics, skills, and cognitive styles. (MSE)

The author defends and clarifies a previous assertion that college faculty may need to be taught to take advantage of classroom opportunities to make insights and awareness clear to their students. (MSE)

The myth of the teacher-scholar is injurious to liberal education because when it becomes the ideal for a liberal arts college, the development of experts takes priority over the development of wise people. The liberal arts college must resist vocationalism, deemphasize faculty publishing, and create a reward system to restore teaching to utmost…

It is proposed that issues presented in the Association of American Colleges and Universities' 1985 report, "Integrity in the College Curriculum," need to be reexamined in light of the dramatically altered context of higher education today. The impact of the report is discussed and the important role of the college teacher is emphasized.…

A discussion of retrospective evaluation of student learning looks at the purposes, expectations, and values inherent in evaluation and proposes faculty-developed, course-based assessment as a controllable and beneficial evaluation method. (MSE)

As long as colleges and universities deem football worth teaching alongside academic subjects, coaches' performance should be measured by traditional faculty evaluation criteria: teaching effectiveness as judged periodically by students and colleagues, professional activity such as writing for publication and participating in peer conferences, and…

The traditional values held by academicians concerning individual academic autonomy, authority, comparison among colleagues, and the source of policy are viewed from the perspective that the liberal ideal of autonomous rationality may ultimately undercut the effectiveness of the institution. (MSE)

Arons's article on the role of critical thinking in the liberal arts curriculum is criticized for its assumptions about the high level of intellectual development of faculty and its condescension toward students. It is suggested that Arons's proposals for faculty development in critical thinking be extended to include both teaching and scholarly…

Many aspects of the liberal arts college's institutional culture combine to work against effective classroom teaching, including student demands for educational relevance and concrete answers, faculty ambition, the desire for institutional prestige, and the need for enrollments. (MSE)