Examines how the structure of learning communities shapes the teaching/learning task, and describes the kind of pedagogical adjustments that learning communities demand of students and faculty. Notes that the structure creates avenues for intellectual and pedagogical exploration; the attitude of shared inquiry and mutual, responsible community can…

Sound ethical decisions depend on clear problem definition, careful review of alternatives, consideration of consequences, and thoughtful application of relevant principles of responsibility. Often they also require a willingness to receive corrective insight and to check judgments with moral intuitions. Higher education has a special…

Increased emphasis on research and grantsmanship leaves college faculty with little time or inclination for undergraduate teaching. Concern for education has given way to concern for power. Higher education is now only distantly connected with shaping a citizenry. (Author/MSE)

Public schools must play a more central role in teacher education than they do now. What is needed is an organization separate from public schools, the university, and the teachers' organizations that can act as an effective force for teacher professionalization. (Author)

Explores a new epistemology for the scholarship of community engagement, asserting that it requires both the rethinking of the nature and purposes of scholarship that Boyer initiated, and assumptions about truth and ground rules for determining it that are consistent with the emerging paradigms of the postmodern era. (EV)

This tongue-in-cheek committee report from a fictional liberal arts college illustrates how college ranking scales, projects for image enhancement, and similar activities that preoccupy today's college administrators detract from the main business of undergraduate teaching and liberal education. (Author/MSE)

Describes and compares five major types of college learning-community curricular models: linked courses; learning clusters; freshman interest groups; federated learning communities; and coordinated studies. Characteristics of each model are outlined concerning institution size, basic unit of instruction, number of students involved, faculty roles,…

With replacement of over half of the United States' college faculty necessary in the next decade, the task of preparing the next generation of faculty requires higher priority in graduate education. Graduate schools have the responsibility and capability to exert greater influence in adequately preparing the new generation of professors. (Author)

A discussion of the increasing conservatism on college campuses looks at education's heritage of cultural geneticism and at the role of the humanities in higher education. It is concluded that cultural diversity must be included, not superficially but in every aspect of the college curriculum. (Author/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…

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…

Informed by an interdisciplinary body of scholarship yet focusing on developmental challenges and competencies of the young adult years, this chapter argues that public scholarship is the best form of education for young adults in democracies.

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)

Stress is an inevitable characteristic of academic life, but colleges and universities can introduce stress management activities at the organizational level to avert excessive tension. Preventive actions are described, including flexible work schedules and social supports. (Author/MSE)

Offers a checklist for implementing sustainable learning communities in colleges and universities. Addresses issues including determining focus and design, use of faculty resources, coordination with current institutional initiatives, administrative support needed, resources needed, promotion and marketing, institutionalization of the concept, and…