The proliferation and expansion of massive open online courses (MOOCs) prompts a need to revisit classical pedagogical questions. In what ways will MOOCs facilitate and promote new e-learning pedagogies? Is current learning design adequate for the "massiveness" and "openness" of MOOCs? This article discusses the ways in which…

The author defends and clarifies a previous assertion that college faculty may need to be taught to take advantage of classroom opportunities to make insights and awareness clear to their students. (MSE)

A University of Maryland program of required upper-level undergraduate courses designed to foster intellectual maturity consists of a selection of general education courses reflecting the interests of individual faculty members and using more sophisticated intellectual skills than most distribution courses. (MSE)

Arons's article on the role of critical thinking in the liberal arts curriculum is criticized for its assumptions about the high level of intellectual development of faculty and its condescension toward students. It is suggested that Arons's proposals for faculty development in critical thinking be extended to include both teaching and scholarly…

The work of English specialists is taking place in a changing context, exemplified in a fusion of elements from new technology, personal growth, and critical theory. Rather than replacing the old with the new, English specialists are incorporating the best of the past with the most interesting and productive pedagogical implications of the…

Jane Tompkins, a Duke University (North Carolina) English professor, is working to transform the conventional approach to college teaching from combative to communal, focusing on students' personal development as well as their intellect and deemphasizing faculty career development. Critics feel her approach is extreme and unreasonable; supporters…

William Perry argued that adult development can be marked by a progressively refined set of questions focused on how Authorities like teachers can support multiple right answers and still maintain that there are wrong answers. When prospective English teachers view right and wrong answers as relativistic, they seem to view themselves as…

An interview with David Riesman, founder of Harvard University's (Massachusetts) freshman seminar program, covers the origins and structure of the seminars, Riesman's own college experience, the importance of the college experience, faculty research, and the role of faculty in student intellectual development. (MSE)

Describes a course at the University of Missouri that gives doctoral students a chance to explore teaching issues in a setting that emphasizes reflection, critical thinking, and individual risk taking. Discusses how the class approaches learning about college students' intellectual development; curriculum design for programs in journalism and mass…

Faculty fellowships, designed to foster individual achievement, are in trouble as doubts emerge about individual efficacy in a global environment that requires teamwork and collaboration. They have become politicized, divided by conflicts over criteria. If they are to be renewed, the dominance of research over teaching and service must be…

Despite some concerns about its limitations, one college English teacher has found the reflective judgment model (1) very useful in a first-year course on the Vietnam War for understanding students' processes of deliberation, (2) supportive of undergraduate teaching approaches that emphasize critical inquiry, and (3) helpful in guiding responses…

A retired academic describes the process by which he became interested in the profession of teaching and comments on college teaching as a career, focusing on the satisfactions of the college environment, rewards of academic work, and the pleasure of sharing intellectual excitement with peers. (MSE)

The issues surrounding faculty role and faculty development are addressed in the context of a nontraditional graduate program that maximizes opportunities for the use of experiential learning. Sponsored experiential learning provides one context through which adult developmental and intellectual goals may be simultaneously recognized and pursued.…

This book addresses the process of achieving, maintaining, and restoring academic and intellectual quality in American higher education. It argues that: (1) the fundamental mission of the undergraduate institution is to prepare learners through the use of words, numbers, and abstract concepts; and (2) public responsibility for the support of…

College faculty are not trained for intensely emotional discussion of non-Eurocentric topics that may arise in a diversified curriculum. They must learn to teach students to separate facts from cultural assumptions; shift perspective and acknowledge the validity of other viewpoints; and differentiate between personal discomfort and intellectual…