This article explores how an integrated concept map of student engagement could improve its use in higher education (HE). In doing so it addresses three problems: (1) there is no consistently accepted understanding of student engagement; (2) no meta-theory integrates engagement's diverse and complex concepts, nor does the literature identify a…

Building on the theoretical framework of social contact theory, this article explores what it means to feel a sense of belonging, and how colleges and universities can equip students to enter a diverse, fractured world with a mindset of hospitality. 12 Christian Colleges and Universities share insights and best practices from creative programs…

Despite their growing numbers, college students with disabilities (SWD) are often overlooked in the context of campus support for career development. The purpose of this practice brief is to provide a framework and a set of recommended actions for higher education leaders, administrators, and staff in disability and career services in order to…

Courses: Media and Society, Introduction to Mass Media, Digital Culture. Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to: describe dominant news media discourse about digital and social media; elucidate connections between dominant discourse and the perceived effects of technology; and recognize and critique arguments that rely…

Critical approaches to service learning courses may not innately maximize student engagement, civil discourse, and the confrontation of stereotypes. The purpose of this article is to propose the utilization of Moral Foundations Theory as a complimentary framework for service learning courses seeking to critically analyze systems and policies.…

In response to the paradigm shift of feedback from information to process, the notion of 'student feedback literacy', which refers to students' capacities and dispositions to use feedback, has been increasingly promulgated in the higher education assessment literature recently. Student feedback literacy has been conceptualized into three…

To a growing student population for whom smartphone and Internet use started in their early childhood, social media and popular culture can be effective tools to mitigate potential anxiety and alienation students may feel when taking a theory course. This paper offers strategies and insight on the endeavor of utilizing both popular and social…

Social work education in Ukraine has changed dramatically over the last decades. It has a strong connection with the evolution of social work education as a field of professional practice. Recent changes in Ukrainian social policy, in particular the implementation of professional education requirements, based on the competency-oriented approach,…

In recent years a host of scholars have considered the contributions of various critical and post-structural perspectives to the study of college student development. This body of work has drawn on critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, among others, to advance more power-conscious approaches to student development. Critical…

Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning--desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural…

This article explicates the ways that the popular television series "Sons of Anarchy" in conjunction with our content analysis coding tool can be used to teach theories and concepts central to Sociology of Deviance courses. We detail how students learned to understand deviance as a social constructed phenomenon by coding and analyzing…

This article describes a class that draws on postcolonial insights to create a global sociological imagination. Postcolonial approaches can make visible how global connections have shaped our local environments even if these relations are not always immediately visible. Specifically, students in this class highlight how global relations, such as…

This article describes an exercise that allows students to experience and understand the importance of perception in leader emergence. Based on implicit leadership theories, this exercise asks students to provide one another with anonymous feedback about what extent they exhibit various trait-based leader behaviors. This exercise, which can be…

Given the challenging depth of queer theoretical concepts, this article argues that one of the most effective ways to teach the complexities of queer theory is by utilizing comics in the classroom. I focus on how college-level instructors can use the content, form, and history of comics to teach students how to enact and do queer theory. By…

Common concerns in required theory courses are student disengagement when encountering difficult texts and hesitation to engage in theorizing. To address these challenges, we have developed an interactive exercise, which we call the theory forum. Students work in groups to develop questions from the perspective(s) of one or more theorists, and…