This article discusses various ways for student affairs professionals, faculty, educators, and policymakers to contribute to the personal, academic, and professional development of international graduate students in the U.S. higher education within their functional areas and their expertise. By highlighting the culturally sensitive support and…

The collegiate experience provides opportunities for learners to engage with others in an environment that prepares graduates for twenty-first century challenges. This chapter offers reasons why students should engage with other students by doing, feeling, and thinking, and posits that engagement on campus not only serves students individually and…

Academic personnel who were first-generation college students (FGS) are uniquely positioned to consider the questions these students often have about the college experience. Academia needs first-generation and working-class voices to diversify an academic culture that is often socially stratified. As more FGS enroll in colleges and universities,…

As colleges and universities face pressure to expand enrollments and provide access to diverse students, they find it difficult to recruit and retain first-generation college students (FGS). First-generation college students are significantly less likely to graduate due to lack of family support, financial strains, poor academic preparation, and…

Academic dismissal resulting from poor scholastic achievement is an unfortunate reality at American universities, and one that involves students, faculty, and academic advisers. This chapter analyzes learning outcomes of the academic dismissal process for first-generation college students (FGS) resulting from a year-long study conducted at a…

Drawing on interviews with first-generation college students (FGS), the author argues that the students' culture affects college attendance and success. Although FGS often have a vocational perspective to college, the author found that they seek meaningful work with good pay. The author also suggests that good decision making, academic…

Four contexts that are important to the quality of college instruction are discussed, including faculty scholarship, student characteristics and attitudes, what the faculty know and practice about learning and teaching, and the presence or absence of a community for learning. (MSE)

The contemporary conception of learning communities addresses modern problems, but its roots are in early 20th-century reform movements. Combining curricular structure and some pedagogical insights from these earlier experiments and much theory about the teaching/learning processes from John Dewey, learning communities provide an economically…

Faculty learning communities have many attributes that can contribute to the successful preparation of graduate students as future faculty members. (Contains 1 table.)

Lists institutions and individuals experienced in the five models of college learning community (linked courses, learning clusters, freshman interest groups, federated learning communities, coordinated studies), as well as networks supporting learning-community and other collaborative efforts, and major works on learning communities and…

Explores the characteristics and attitudes of faculty participating in college learning communities, what faculty value about the experience, opportunities for intellectual inquiry offered by the models, issues encountered in teaching in this context, and implications for the future of faculty work. (MSE)

Reviews and synthesizes a number of motivational models, issues, and strategies, showing their interrelationship, relevance to higher education, and strongly similar conceptual themes and terminology. The models' consistency suggests that inclusion in a coherent community raises awareness and enhances positive attitudes; what emerges is a…

A detailed examination of faculty burnout looks at what it is, why it strikes, and what colleges and universities can do about. It concludes that in a broad sense, burnout is the condition of boredom, indifference, and discontent with the profession. (Author/MSE)

Describes the shift at King's College (Pennsylvania) from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered campus culture. Issues discussed include the curriculum redesign process, strategies used for developing trust and sustaining change, creating leadership for change, and strategies for motivating faculty. A survey of faculty concerning motivation…

The traditional college classroom has a distinct culture to which educators have been blind, assuming that the classroom is culturally neutral. It often constrains the success of students from other cultural backgrounds. The alternate cultures of white women and men and women of color have implications for improvement of instructional design.…