Academic Advising and the First College Year by
Published in partnership with NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising Academic advisors help students learn to make the most of their college years, not merely by completing requirements toward a degree but also by growing intellectually and developing all aspects of their identity. Yet, many professional and faculty advisors are new to academic advising and may feel ill-equipped to do more than help students register for classes. This new edited collection provides an overview of the theory and best practice undergirding advising today while exploring the transition challenges of a wide-range of first-year college students, including those attending two-year colleges, coming from underrepresented backgrounds, entering underprepared for college-level work, and/or experiencing academic failure.
Academic Advising Approaches by
Strong academic advising has been found to be a key contributor to student persistence (Center for Public Education, 2012), and many are expected to play an advising role, including academic, career, and faculty advisors; counselors; tutors; and student affairs staff. Yet there is little training on how to do so. Various advising strategies exist, each of which has its own proponents. To serve increasingly complex higher education institutions around the world and their diverse student cohorts, academic advisors must understand multiple advising approaches and adroitly adapt them to their own student populations. Academic Advising Approaches outlines a wide variety of proven advising practices and strategies that help students master the necessary skills to achieve their academic and career goals. This book embeds theoretical bases within practical explanations and examples advisors can use in answering fundamental questions such as: What will make me a more effective advisor? What can I do to enhance student success? What conversations do I need to initiate with my colleagues to improve my unit, campus, and profession? Linking theory with practice, Academic Advising Approaches provides an accessible reference useful to all who serve in an advising role. Based upon accepted theories within the social sciences and humanities, the approaches covered include those incorporating developmental, learning-centered, appreciative, proactive, strengths-based, Socratic, and hermeneutic advising as well as those featuring advising as teaching, motivational interviewing, self-authorship, and advising as coaching. All advocate relationship-building as a means to encourage students to take charge of their own academic, personal, and professional progress. This book serves as the practice-based companion to Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook, also from NACADA. Whereas the handbook addresses the concepts advisors and advising administrators need to know in order to build a success advising program, Academic Advising Approaches explains the delivery strategies successful advisors can use to help students make the most of their college experience.
The New Advisor Guidebook by
This is an exciting time to be an academic advisor--a time in which global recognition of the importance of advising is growing, research affirms the critical role advising plays in student success, and institutions of higher education increasingly view advising as integral to their missions and essential for improving the quality of students' educational experiences. It is essential that advisors provide knowledgeable, realistic counsel to the students in their charge. The New Advisor Guidebook helps advisors meet this challenge. The first and final chapters of the book identify the knowledge and skills advisors must master. These chapters present frameworks for setting and benchmarking self-development goals and for creating self-development plans. Each of the chapters in between focuses on foundational content: the basic terms, concepts, information, and skills advisors must learn in their first year and upon which they will build over the lengths of their careers. These chapters include strategies, questions, guidelines, examples, and case studies that give advisors the tools to apply this content in their work with students, from demonstrations of how student development theories might play out in advising sessions to questions advisors can ask to become aware of their biases and avoid making assumptions about students to a checklist for improving listening, interviewing, and referral skills. The book covers various ways in which advising is delivered: one-to-one, in groups, and online. The New Advisor Guidebook serves as an introduction to what advisors must know to do their jobs effectively. It pairs with Academic Advising Approaches: Strategies That Teach Students to Make the Most of College, also from NACADA, which presents the delivery strategies successful advisors can use to help students make the most of their college experience.
Transformational Learning in Community Colleges by
Transformational Learning in Community Colleges details the profound social and emotional change that nontraditional and historically underserved students undergo when they enter community college. Drawing on case study material and student observations, the book outlines the systematic supports that two-year institutions must put in place to help students achieve their educational and professional goals. Chad D. Hoggan and Bill Browning articulate the transformative changes that many community college students experience--or need to experience--in order to successfully navigate post-secondary education and launch professional careers. The authors provide a window into the student experience of transformation by drawing on research, theory, and the voices of students. They offer practical guidance on how a renewed focus on student transformational learning can complement the skills curriculum, accelerate current community college reforms, and help lead to higher student success rates in college and careers. The book offers recommendations, classroom practices, and action points that can be integrated systemwide across departments and programs, and tapped by faculty, administrators, staff, and leadership eager to champion student success. These institutional changes, the authors contend, will render the community college a more robust, nimble entity, one capable of supporting students at each critical stage of their academic and emotional development. At a time when community colleges are being called to account for the measurable success of their students--in college and in the workforce--this book is a call to change how they approach their work so that they can fulfill their mission to promote social and economic equity for all of their students.
The Undecided College Student by
The world of technology is advancing at a rapid pace. New career fields are emerging, new interdisciplinary majors are being developed, and new college majors are being formed to prepare students for an ever-changing workplace. This revised edition provides extensive and systematic accounts of research (old and new), model programs for assisting students, and diverse theory for understanding the undecided college student. The text focuses on the unique needs of college students who are undecided regarding a field of study and/or career path, and the various approaches that advisers and counselors may take. A comprehensive examination of the undecided college student is offered, from a review of the vast research to the practical methods for advising and counseling. The book includes many ways in which the Internet serves as a useful tool for assisting the gathering of resources for the undecided college student. In addition, theoretical frameworks relevant to undecided students, types of undecided students, administrative models and scopes of services, program components, and exemplary practices are discussed. Advisors, counselors, and faculty will garner useful theoretical and practical information that can be applied in individual counseling, group settings, and workshops.
The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars by
A practical guide to effective grant writing for researchers at all stages of their academic careers Grant funding can be a major determinant of promotion and tenure at colleges and universities, yet many scholars receive no training in the crucial skill of grant writing. The Grant Writing Guide is an essential handbook for writing research grants, providing actionable strategies for professionals in every phase of their careers, from PhD students to seasoned researchers. This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, examples of how researchers use skills, helpful tips, and exercises. Drawing on interviews with scores of grant writers, program officers, researchers, administrators, and writers, it lays out best practices, common questions, and pitfalls to avoid. Betty Lai focuses on skills that are universal to all grant writers, not just specific skills for one type of grant or funder. She explains how to craft phenomenal pitches and align them with your values, structure timelines and drafts, communicate clearly in prose and images, solicit feedback to strengthen your proposals, and much more. Ideal for course use, The Grant Writing Guide is an indispensable road map to writing fundable grants. This incisive book walks you through every step along the way, from generating ideas to finding the right funder, determining which grants help you create the career you want, and writing in a way that excites reviewers and funders.
The Empowered University by
There are few higher education leaders today that command more national respect and admiration than Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the outspoken president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Named one of America's Best Leaders by US News & World Report and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World, Hrabowski has led a community transformation of UMBC from a young, regional institution to one of the nation's most innovative research universities. In The Empowered University, Hrabowski and coauthors Philip J. Rous and Peter H. Henderson probe the way senior leaders, administrators, staff, faculty, and students facilitate academic success by cultivating an empowering institutional culture and broad leadership for innovation. They examine how shared leadership enables an empowered campus to tackle tough issues by taking a hard look in the mirror, noting strengths and weaknesses while assessing opportunities and challenges. The authors dig deeply into these tough issues in higher education ranging from course redesign to group-based and experiential learning, entrepreneurship and civic engagement, academic inclusion, and faculty diversity. The authors champion a holistic approach to student success, focusing on teaching and learning while offering an array of financial, social, and academic supports for students of all backgrounds. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the important role of analytics in decision-making. They also explore how community members and senior leaders can work together to create an inclusive campus through a more welcoming and supportive racial climate, improved Title IX processes, and career support for faculty of all backgrounds. Ultimately, The Empowered University is as much a case study of the authors' work as it is an examination of institutional change, inclusive excellence, and campus-community partnerships. Arguing that higher education can play a unique role in addressing the fundamental divisions in our society and economy by supporting individuals in reaching their full potential, the authors have developed a provocative guide for higher education leaders who want to promote healthy and productive campus communities.
Higher Education's Road to Relevance by
Explores the current context, role, and challenges of post-secondary education and presents options for promising pathways forward. The post-secondary educational system has undergone dramatic changes and experienced immense stress in the past two decades. Once regarded as the logical next step toward career opportunities and financial security, higher education is a subject of growing uncertainty for millions of people across the United States. It is more common than ever to question the return on investment, skyrocketing cost, and student debt burden of going to college. Prospective students, and many employers, increasingly view attending institutions of higher learning as inadequate preparation for entering the 21st century workforce. High-profile scandals--financial impropriety, sexual abuse, restrictions of free speech, among others--have further eroded public trust. In response to these and other challenges, leading voices are demanding strengthened accountability and measurable change. Higher Education's Road to Relevance illustrates why change is needed in post-secondary education and offers practical solutions to pressing concerns. The authors, internationally recognized experts in college-level teaching and learning innovation, draw heavily from contemporary research to provide an integrative approach for post-secondary faculty, staff, and administrators of all levels. This timely book helps readers identify the need for leadership in developing new networks and ecosystems of learning and workforce development. This valuable book will help readers: Understand the forces driving change in higher education Develop multiple pathways to create and credential self-directed learners Promote access to flexible, cost-effective, and relevant learning Adapt structures and pedagogies to address issues and overcome challenges Use an inclusive approach that extends to employers, K-12 educators, post-secondary educators, and policy-makers, among others Higher Education's Road to Relevance is a much-needed resource for college and university administrators, academic researchers, instructors and other faculty, and staff who support and interact with students.
How College Students Succeed; Making Meaning Across Disciplinary Perspectives by 
Radical Hope by
Higher education has seen better days. Harsh budget cuts, the precarious nature of employment in college teaching, and political hostility to the entire enterprise of education have made for an increasingly fraught landscape. Radical Hope is an ambitious response to this state of affairs, at once political and practical--the work of an activist, teacher, and public intellectual grappling with some of the most pressing topics at the intersection of higher education and social justice. Kevin Gannon asks that the contemporary university's manifold problems be approached as opportunities for critical engagement, arguing that, when done effectively, teaching is by definition emancipatory and hopeful. Considering individual pedagogical practice, the students who are the primary audience and beneficiaries of teaching, and the institutions and systems within which teaching occurs, Radical Hope surveys the field, tackling everything from impostor syndrome to cell phones in class to allegations of a campus "free speech crisis." Throughout, Gannon translates ideals into tangible strategies and practices (including key takeaways at the conclusion of each chapter), with the goal of reclaiming teachers' essential role in the discourse of higher education.
Supporting Neurodiverse College Student Success by
The basic premise of neurodiversity is that there is no "normal" baseline for brain processes, but that all individual brains vary and therefore are diverse. The CAST organization estimates that 11% of college students enrolling in post-secondary campuses having a learning disability or learning difference. As neurodiverse students enroll in post-secondary education, the environments within which these students learn, can either support or impede their ability to succeed. Simply put, a neurodiverse campus population means that educators recognize that all students process and learn differently and must adapt our approaches and services in order to reach and support all students enrolled on our campuses. Neurodiverse students are a growing population on today's college campus. Their growing presence prompts new approaches to support their success and change traditional student services and collegiate experiences. This practical guide: Assists readers in better understanding neurodiverse students and the way campus services can create welcoming environments Explores the role Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Executive Functioning (EF) plays in student success, and Focuses on specific collegiate offices and services that effectively address the needs of neurodiverse learners. Chapters cover tutoring, learning supports, academic coaching, academic advising, career services, residential living, and classroom experiences that impact and assist neurodiverse college students.
The Transfer Experience: A Handbook for Creating a More Equitable and Successful Postsecondary System by
Co-published with At last there is a handbook that everyone in higher education can use to help increase transfer student success. This comprehensive resource has been brought together to meet the need for a truly holistic approach to the transfer experience. The book brings together research, theory, practical applications, programmatic illustrations, case studies, encouragement, and inspiration, and is supplemented by an online compendiumfor continual updates of resources, case studies, and new developments in the world of transfer. Based on a totally different way of thinking about, understanding, and acting to increase transfer student success, The Transfer Experiencegoes far beyond the traditional, limited view of transfer as a technical process simply about articulating credits, a stage of student development, or a novel enrollment management strategy. Rather, the book introduces a stimulating array of new perspectives, resources, options, models, and recommendations for addressing the many needs of this huge cohort - making the academic, civic, and social justice cases for improving transfer at both transfer-sending and transfer-receiving institutions.
America's Hidden Economic Engines by
Five in-depth case studies reveal the innovative practices that position U.S. community colleges as pathways to quality employment. In America's Hidden Economic Engines, editors Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson spotlight community and technical colleges as institutions uniquely equipped to foster more equitable economic growth across America's regions. As Schwartz and Lipson show, these colleges are the best-placed institutions to reverse the decades-long rise in US economic inequality by race, class, and geography. In the book, Harvard Project on Workforce researchers introduce detailed case studies of five institutions--Lorain County Community College in Ohio, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Pima Community College in Arizona, and San Jacinto Community College in Texas--that show what is possible when governments, employers, and communities invest in their community colleges' economic and workforce development mission. These case studies reveal key institutional policies and practices, leadership behaviors, and organizational structures of successful collaborations between colleges and their regional partners in the public and private sector. Each case underscores how, although community colleges face distinct challenges based on local context, successful schools demonstrate a consistent focus on economic mobility and good jobs across all their programs and activities. In a concluding chapter, the editors champion community colleges as the most critical institutions for the future of US workforce development policy.
The American Community College by
A comprehensive analysis of community colleges in the United States--updated with the latest research The revised seventh edition of The American Community College is an essential resource for practitioners and graduate students in the field of higher education. This book has been providing up-to-date information and statistics about community colleges for four decades and is a trusted and revered reference. Covering community college students, faculty, curriculum, assessment, finance, governance, and more, this book provide a thorough understanding of the role community colleges play in the American educational system. For educators, policymakers, and philanthropists alike, community colleges are important as the nexus of national efforts to prepare a highly skilled workforce and as the lynchpin of the K-20 education pipeline. This book delivers the facts and context readers need to make informed decisions in the community college space. Written by leading researchers in the field, The American Community College has been thoroughly revised with a greater focus on equity. Further, this edition includes access to online supplemental materials, including end-of-chapter guiding questions and a guide for transitioning from the 6th to the 7th edition. Additional updates include coverage of collaborations with community, economic, and workforce development organizations; a greater focus on entrepreneurship and innovation; recent efforts to improve student persistence and attainment through guided pathways and equity-minded student supports; and the growing emphasis on preparing a skilled workforce via noncredit training, credit for prior learning, micro-credentials, and community college baccalaureate programs. Readers of The American Community College will: Benefit from a comprehensive analysis of the most recent findings and up-to-date information on the American community college. Find completely revised and updated information about recent changes in the community college landscape Obtain current information on student access and outcomes, instruction, student services, and curricular functions Learn from updated tables and graphs that reflect the most current data and incorporate new examples of the services that colleges provide Since it was first published in 1982, The American Community College has become the primary resource that faculty, administrators, trustees, and researchers look to for information on these quintessentially American institutions.
Assessing Student Learning in the Community and Two-Year College: Successful Strategies and Tools by
This is a practical resource for community and two year college professionals engaged at all levels of learning outcomes assessment, in both academic and co-curricular environments. It is designed as a guide both to inform the creation of new assessment efforts and to enhance and strengthen assessment programs already established, or in development. Each chapter addresses a key component of the assessment process, beginning with the creation of a learning-centered culture and the development and articulation of shared outcomes goals and priorities. Subsequent chapters lead the reader through the development of a plan, the selection of assessment methods, and the analysis of results. The book concludes by discussing the communication of results and their use in decision making; integrating the conclusions in program review as well as to inform budgeting; and, finally, evaluating the process for continuous improvement, as well as engaging in reflection. The book is illustrated by examples developed by faculty and student affairs/services professionals at community and two year colleges from across the country. Furthermore, to ensure its relevance and applicability for its targeted readership, each chapter has at least one author who is a community college or two-year college professional. Contributors are drawn from the following colleges: Borough of Manhattan Community College David Phillips Buffalo State College Joy Battison Kimberly Kline Booker Piper Butler County Community College Sunday Faseyitan California State University, Fullerton John Hoffman Genesee Community College Thomas Priester Virginia Taylor Heald College Megan Lawrence Stephanie Romano (now with Education Affiliates) Hobart and William Smith Colleges Stacey Pierce Miami Dade College John Frederick Barbara Rodriguez Northern Illinois University Victoria Livingston Paradise Valley Community College Paul Dale San Diego Mesa College Jill Baker Julianna Barnes San Diego State University Marilee Bresciani San Juan College David Eppich Stark State College Barbara Milliken University of Akron Sandra Coyner Megan Moore Gardner
Education Roads Less Traveled by
Every year, large numbers of American young people who are not terribly interested in attending a four-year college reluctantly enroll anyway, effectively pressured by combinations of parents, peers, teachers, guidance counselors, and the normative air they breathe. More than occasionally, they wind up confirming that collegiate life is not for them and, sooner or later, drop out. From there, again more than occasionally, they find themselves unemployed or underemployed, in big-time student debt, and quite possibly feeling like a failure. Cratered paths like these routinely stunt entries to middle-class jobs and careers. These are often needless delays and losses, because other education and career routes are primed to better serve millions of young men and women, especially those who enjoy working with their hands. Taking advantage of these routes also simultaneously enriches our economy. Digging deeply into issues like these is the book's main aim. Helping teenagers think through what they want to do with their lives occupationally is its main educational mission. Recognizing the economic and other dangers posed by severe skill gaps, made worse by the retirement of skilled baby boomers, adds urgency to the mix.
Enhancing Performance: A Best Practices Guide for Innovations in Community Colleges by
Enhancing Performance: A Best Practices Guide for Innovations in Community Colleges is a collection of essays from community college leaders across the country addressing challenges facing today's community colleges and providing practical, successful solutions their institutions have implemented. Some of the essays address foundational issues, including the role of innovation, strategic enrollment management, and campus safety strategies on the future of community colleges. In the essays, leaders suggest ways campuses can create opportunities for intentional student-faculty connections, provide revitalized advising services, and support the needs of marginalized student populations. The essays also address the role of community colleges in promoting civic engagement, responding to community crises, and addressing critical need. Each essay challenges us to delve deeper into the issues and find workable solutions. The essay authors are community college leaders who are alumni, faculty, or advisory board members in the doctoral program in Community College Leadership (DCCL Program) at Ferris State University (Michigan).
How to Interview and Conduct Focus Groups by
This book shows students and early-career researchers how to prepare for and conduct interviews and focus groups. Interviews and focus groups are essential tools of qualitative research.This book shows researchers how to plan for and conduct interviews and focus groups, and how to use them in various qualitative research designs. It also explains how to code, analyze, and report the data once it's been gathered. By following the advice in this book, you will hone your inductive logic skills and learn how to convey the authentic voices of your interview subjects. In addition, you will learn professional skills for using technology ethically and appropriately. Helpful tools in the book include example interview protocols, tips for recruitment and requesting consent, group facilitation guidelines, instructions for creating codebooks, and samples of different writing and publishing formats. This book is part of APA's Concise Guides to Conducting Behavioral, Health, and Social Science Research series. Aimed at undergraduate students in research methods courses or others with a lab or research project, each book describes a key stage in the research process. Collectively, these books provide a solid grounding in research from start to finish.
Nontraditional: Life Lessons from a Community College by
Written by an NSCC adjunct instructor, this book describes lessons learned during many semester at community college
Transformational Learning in Community Colleges by
Transformational Learning in Community Colleges details the profound social and emotional change that nontraditional and historically underserved students undergo when they enter community college. Drawing on case study material and student observations, the book outlines the systematic supports that two-year institutions must put in place to help students achieve their educational and professional goals. Chad D. Hoggan and Bill Browning articulate the transformative changes that many community college students experience--or need to experience--in order to successfully navigate post-secondary education and launch professional careers. The authors provide a window into the student experience of transformation by drawing on research, theory, and the voices of students. They offer practical guidance on how a renewed focus on student transformational learning can complement the skills curriculum, accelerate current community college reforms, and help lead to higher student success rates in college and careers. The book offers recommendations, classroom practices, and action points that can be integrated systemwide across departments and programs, and tapped by faculty, administrators, staff, and leadership eager to champion student success. These institutional changes, the authors contend, will render the community college a more robust, nimble entity, one capable of supporting students at each critical stage of their academic and emotional development. At a time when community colleges are being called to account for the measurable success of their students--in college and in the workforce--this book is a call to change how they approach their work so that they can fulfill their mission to promote social and economic equity for all of their students.
Academia Next by
The outlook for the future of colleges and universities is uncertain. Financial stresses, changing student populations, and rapidly developing technologies all pose significant challenges to the nation's colleges and universities. In Academia Next, futurist and higher education expert Bryan Alexander addresses these evolving trends to better understand higher education's next generation. Alexander first examines current economic, demographic, political, international, and policy developments as they relate to higher education. He also explores internal developments within postsecondary schooling, including those related to enrollment, access, academic labor, alternative certification, sexual assault, and the changing library, paying particularly close attention to technological changes. Alexander then looks beyond these trends to offer a series of distinct scenarios and practical responses for institutions to consider when combating shrinking enrollments, reduced public support, and the proliferation of technological options. Arguing that the forces he highlights are not speculative but are already in play, Alexander draws on a rich, extensive, and socially engaged body of research to best determine their likeliest outcomes. It is only by taking these trends seriously, he writes, that colleges and universities can improve their chances of survival. An unusually multifaceted approach to American higher education that views institutions as complex organisms, Academia Next offers a fresh perspective on the emerging colleges and universities of today and tomorrow.
Community College Leaders on Workforce Development: Opinions, Observations, and Future Directions by
This book has two things going for it that are rarely combined--it is fundamentally purposeful and it is useful. As the authors point out, there is a trilogy of needs confronting any business leader with a change agenda and/or transitioning into a new top role: influence, coalition building, and performance consulting. Of the three, performance consulting has received the least amount of attention in both the public and private-sector businesses. Because the focus on performance consulting rests primarily on the worker and the workplace environment, the authors contend that we must have a picture of how that environment has changed over the years. In this book, visionary leaders of community colleges will present their views about the present challenges and future approaches needed for community colleges to be successful.
Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education by
A quiet revolution is sweeping across US colleges and universities as schools rethink how students learn both inside and outside the classroom. Technology is changing not only what should be taught but how best to teach it. From active learning and inclusive pedagogy to online and hybrid courses, traditional institutions are leveraging their fundamental strengths while challenging long-standing assumptions about how teaching and learning happen. At this intersection of learning, technology, design, and organizational change lies the foundation of a new academic discipline of digital learning. Coalescing around this new field of study is a common critical language, along with a set of theoretical frameworks, methodological practices, and shared challenges and goals. In Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education, Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney explore the context of this new discipline, show how it exists within a larger body of scholarship, and give examples of how this scholarship is being used on campuses. What Kim and Maloney demonstrate in this foundational text is an understanding that change is a complex dynamic between what happens in the classroom and the larger institutional structures and traditions at play. Ultimately, the authors make a compelling case not only for this turn to learning but also for creating new pathways for nonfaculty learning careers, understanding the limits of professional organizations and social media, and the need to establish this new interdisciplinary field of learning innovation.
The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux by
A leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past--and shows how we can revolutionize it for our era of constant change Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy N. Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come.
Post-Pandemic Pedagogy by
Post-Pandemic Pedagogy: A Paradigm Shift discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic radically altered teaching and learning for faculty and students alike. The increased prevalence of video-conferencing software for conducting classes fundamentally changed the way in which we teach and seemingly upended many best practices for good pedagogy in the college classroom. Whether it was the reflection over surveillance software, or the increased mental health demands of the pandemic on teachers and students, or the completely reshaped ways in which classes and co-curricular experiences were delivered, the pandemic year represented an opportunity for one of the largest shifts in our understanding of good pedagogy unlike any experienced in the modern era. This edited collection explores what we thought we knew about a variety of teaching ideas, how the pandemic changed our approach to them, and proposes ways in which some of the adjustments made to accommodate the pandemic will remain for years to come. Scholars of communication, pedagogy, and education will find this book particularly interesting.
Robot-Proof by
How to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover--filling needs that even the most sophisticated robot cannot. Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence. Robots can climb stairs, open doors, win Jeopardy, analyze stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces, advise oncologists. In the past, automation was considered a threat to low-skilled labor. Now, many high-skilled functions, including interpreting medical images, doing legal research, and analyzing data, are within the skill sets of machines. How can higher education prepare students for their professional lives when professions themselves are disappearing? In Robot-Proof, Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun proposes a way to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover--to fill needs in society that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence agent cannot. A "robot-proof" education, Aoun argues, is not concerned solely with topping up students' minds with high-octane facts. Rather, it calibrates them with a creative mindset and the mental elasticity to invent, discover, or create something valuable to society--a scientific proof, a hip-hop recording, a web comic, a cure for cancer. Aoun lays out the framework for a new discipline, humanics, which builds on our innate strengths and prepares students to compete in a labor market in which smart machines work alongside human professionals. The new literacies of Aoun's humanics are data literacy, technological literacy, and human literacy. Students will need data literacy to manage the flow of big data, and technological literacy to know how their machines work, but human literacy--the humanities, communication, and design--to function as a human being. Life-long learning opportunities will support their ability to adapt to change. The only certainty about the future is change. Higher education based on the new literacies of humanics can equip students for living and working through change.
The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us by
"Indelible and extraordinary."--Tara Westover, author of Educated: A Memoir, New York Times Book Review A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice The best-selling author of How Children Succeed returns with a powerful, mind-changing inquiry into higher education in the United States Does college still work? Is the system designed just to protect the privileged and leave everyone else behind? Or can a college education today provide real opportunity to young Americans seeking to improve their station in life? The Years That Matter Most tells the stories of students trying to find their way, with hope, joy, and frustration, through the application process and into college. Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for. And it introduces us to the people who really make higher education go: admissions directors trying to balance the class and balance the budget, College Board officials scrambling to defend the SAT in the face of mounting evidence that it favors the wealthy, researchers working to unlock the mysteries of the college-student brain, and educators trying to transform potential dropouts into successful graduates. With insight, humor, and passion, Paul Tough takes readers on a journey from Ivy League seminar rooms to community college welding shops, from giant public flagship universities to tiny experimental storefront colleges. Whether you are facing your own decision about college or simply care about the American promise of social mobility, The Years That Matter Most will change the way you think--not just about higher education, but about the nation itself.