Explores how, although individual innovations like collaborative learning, service learning, or the use of technology in teaching are finding their way onto some campuses, a holistic approach that looks at teaching and learning strategies from an integrated perspective may offer the greatest impact. (EV)

Why is it so hard for colleges and universities to change? Why do even innovative institutions that invest considerable time and effort in attempts to improve performance often fall back into long-established patterns? Why is the whole of educational innovation often less than the sum of the parts? Consider three colleges and universities.…

The Mina Shaughnessy Scholars Program provides funds for innovators in postsecondary education to develop and disseminate their ideas. Its goal is to improve practice, rather than to advance knowledge, and the search is for practitioners who can make the most difference in improving postsecondary education. (MLW)

The University of California at Santa Cruz had an innovative curriculum but in 1976 was unable to hold on to its students, and enrollments started to fall. The Santa Cruz experience gives an insight into liberal learning and the impact of professionalization on education today. (MLW)

Writers and artists near or in retirement need some device for keeping the creative forces alive. A project proposed by William Plater at the University of Illinois calls for a series of contemporary, or living, history courses by emeriti professors whose own contributions may have shaped their fields. (MLW)

Describes how the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) has played a central role in sponsoring innovations in the medical and health sciences, including landmark medical projects to integrate women's health issues into the medical curriculum and to use lay people in the teaching and evaluating of medical students. (EV)

During the '40s and '50s, an experiment in general education was conducted at the undergraduate college at the University of Chicago. "The Chicago Plan" included: students would enroll after two years of high school; a strictly prescribed curriculum; an autonomous faculty; and comprehensive exams to assess students' progress. (MLW)

Elderhostels are examined in terms of the circumstances influencing their rise, class participation, kinds of students involved, and factors making the elderhostels an irreversible program. It is suggested that future elderhostels may join national adult education programs, national issues may surface around regional courses, and courses may have…

When traditional methods of teaching composition--such as those based on great books or emulation of models--failed, the author found that television was useful for teaching necessary skills. His University of Michigan freshman composition course, based strictly on television programs, is discussed. (JMD)

The University Seminars at Columbia University demonstrate how faculty members can enrich their intellectual lives through contact with colleagues from other fields and institutions and with nonacademic researchers. The development of the program at Columbia and similar programs at other institutions are described. (MLW)

The unique program offered at Oakes College, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, attempts to capitalize on the ethnic and cultural differences of minority students while offering them remedial instruction and support services to enable them to compete with majority students within the California System. (JMF)

Describes how, from its beginning, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) has supported providing education to citizens everywhere, first by sponsoring face-to-face instruction in remote locations and now by encouraging institutions to use online technologies to reshape education by providing it anytime and anywhere. (EV)

Tennessee's higher education funding based on institutional performance is discussed by three key participant-observers of the state's initiatives: Steve Cobb, Arliss Roaden, and John Folger. Money for remedial education was taken out of university budgets and put in special college preparatory institutes. These institutes are discussed. (MLW)

The financial and accreditation problems of the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, an innovative institution that includes the Union Graduate School and the undergraduate University Without Walls, are examined. Also discussed is the Union's ability to retain its experimental character as it faces retrenchment. (JMD)

Discusses stakeholder learning collaboratives, or collaboration among schools, colleges, and employers committed to decentralized small work groups, employee collaboration, and other high-performance practices. Details the core principles and initiatives of these innovative collaborations and offers examples of their implementation. (EV)