High quality student outcome measures provide the foundation for effective learning assessment. These outcomes can be organized into different categories, such as skills or habits of mind, and evidence types, such as direct or indirect. Prevailing models of assessment, however, focus only on the distinction between direct and indirect evidence…

Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking ways to leverage the available educational data to make program and course quality improvements. The development of automated curriculum analytics can play a substantial role in this effort by bringing novel and timely insights into course and program quality. However, the adoption of…

The past [approximately]15 years have seen increasing interest in defining disciplinary core concepts. Within the field of physiology, Michael, McFarland, Modell, and colleagues have published studies that defined physiology core concepts and have elaborated many of these as detailed conceptual frameworks. With such helpful definitions now in…

Pedagogical foundations exist for incorporating technology in instruction; however, these foundations have not kept pace with technology's evolution. Through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), students now can share content directed at external audiences, i.e., audiences other than the instructor. These audiences are…

Critical thinking (CT) is widely viewed as an essential skill for college students. Nevertheless, the use of CT skills in the classroom often varies across disciplines. This article summarizes perceptions of CT, including various definitions and constructs as well as barriers to its implementation in higher education. Faculty members from various…

In this manuscript, I present data related to my work alongside Jane Watson (pseudonym), a White female identifying, first-year, third grade teacher in a rural majority-White public school. Over a two-year period while Jane was in her final year at a teacher preparation program and into her first-year teaching, we met through both traditional and…

This article aims to examine the integration of Students as Partners (SaP) in dance education. An SaP teaching framework has been embraced by academic educators from various disciplines to improve engaged learning. To encourage autonomy and choice making in their education, students can partner with faculty to design a dance curriculum.…

The relation between what many students desire and how the nature of the teaching is related to the core notion in Entwistle's paper -- the need for teachers to consider the constructive alignment in the interactions between teaching and learning. First proposed by John Biggs (1996), the claim is that there should be alignment between the outcomes…

Competency-based education systems hold promise for maximizing high-quality teaching and learning for the growth of all students. Such systems, if well designed and implemented, can serve critical equity aims by ensuring that all students are supported in meeting key learning and development targets. Competency-based education systems, however,…

This White Paper offers a framework for art educators to evaluate the alignment of their assessment methods and goals/objectives for student learning. This effort is an attempt to develop "understandable guidelines" for classroom assessment, specifically attending to the issue of validity. Assessments are valid insofar as they produce…

The multidisciplinary nature of English language courses prompts teachers and students to pursue meaningful tasks that delve on significant issues in society. One significant project that classes can develop are advocacy presentations that help stimulate awareness and engagement among different stakeholders. This practical paper presents three…

This article describes the development of a curriculum specialization, Cultural Heritage Information Management (CHIM), at a library and information science (LIS) graduate program. It was designed to address market needs, created by the convergence of practice in libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) of emerging practices in managing unique…

In this commentary, I consider the three empirical studies in this special issue based on two main aspects: (a) the nature of the learning progressions and (b) what formative assessment practice(s) were investigated. Specifically, I describe differences among the learning progressions in terms of scope and grain size. I also identify three…

Educators continually strive for better ways to engage students in course content and reflect on learning. Process maps originate from the business field while concept maps are used across disciplines. We adapted the process map to demonstrate its use as an effective assessment tool. This article describes the process of implementing Group Process…

The process of setting and evaluating student learning objectives (SLOs) has become increasingly popular as an example where classroom assessment is intended to fulfill the dual purpose use of informing instruction and holding teachers accountable. A concern is that the high-stakes purpose may lead to distortions in the inferences about students…