Institutional researchers can play a key role in linking basic, policy, and evaluation research to improve teaching and learning. Potential intervention points to improve teaching and learning, types of research, institutional research role, learners and teachers, curriculum content, etc. are discussed. (MLW)

Synthesizing results from surveys of graduates, employers, and sociology departments, this article identifies seven changes which may help students market their sociology degree to prospective employers. Among the changes identified are: (1) the need to help students identify the transferable skills they have learned, and (2) improving the image…

Provides suggestions for changes that would move campuses toward the ideal of fostering growth of critical thinking skills. Recommendations are divided into the areas of campus atmosphere, classroom behavior, student attitudes, curriculum materials, and criterion-referenced evaluation instruments. (JDH)

The decline in the instruction of "close reading" and in interest in the power of language is to blame for students' frustration with and lack of interest in literature. Students want to believe in literature and language but don't know how. (MSE)

Focuses on eight components of teaching-learning excellence implemented for the past 15 years at Hinds Junior Colleges; e.g., emphasis on instruction; diverse curriculum; testing, counseling, and advising; faculty selection and reward; orientation and faculty development; learning resources systems; and continuing performance appraisal. (DMM)

Responds to the argument that service-learning must be supported by a theory of knowledge--antifoundational pragmatism--holding that this characterization of the pragmatist model retains the dualism seen as a fault of traditional epistemology. Suggests a remedy, and then extends the original argument by setting more restrictive limits on the range…

The current debate about the content of collegiate general education is more amicable and more productive when waged in terms of alternative answers to fundamental questions than in terms of allocation of turf. As long as differences are merely tolerated, and their causes not explored, political and educational divisions will deepen. (MSE)

This essay describes a special topics creative writing course designed for nursing students, and argues that creative writing strategies work to improve nurses' compositional skills. Also discussed are other potential benefits from creatively writing patients' lives, notably, the blending of arts and sciences, and the ways in which medical schools…

This paper outlines the work in progress undertaken by the School of Engineering Technology faculty to identify, assess, and develop a course to address the depth and breadth of drafting/plan preparation and plan reading skills required by the various engineering technology programs offered at Youngstown State University. The methodology used to…

This paper addresses the issue of defining the concept of core curriculum by first examining some of the literature on the subject, discussing why there is resistance to defining "core," citing common uses for the term "core curriculum," and exploring the historical roots of core curriculum. Next, the paper describes eight…

Focusing on the teaching of alternative dispute resolutions at universities, Claudia L. Hale and Leda M. Cooks argue that mediation should be taught primarily as a communication process that involves the joint efforts of mediator and disputants. Teachers of mediation should begin by distinguishing mediation from other forms of dispute resolution,…

Developed by unit managers in Central Ohio Technical College's Academic Affairs division, this annual plan for 1983-84 attempts to provide the basis for communication with individuals both within and outside the division; unify the campus around shared goals; and review progress. Introductory material describes the development of the program plan,…

A discussion of educational design with emphasis on development of behaviorally stated objectives for a course. (JT)

Cornell University (New York) was among the first to remove normative religious instruction and mandatory religious practice from their previous pervasiveness in higher education. This has removed from the university the responsibility for safeguarding the cultural authority of religion and allowed religion to enter the realm of ideas to be…

This concluding chapter offers thoughts about educational philosophy and how higher education might view technology as it moves between the seemingly paradoxical ideas of making the academic experience more user-friendly and making distance education available to the masses. (EV)