The authors report on a pilot project designed to integrate habits of mind into a skills-based first-year seminar. This project featured the development of a curriculum map outlining the primary learning objectives for seven habits of mind--curiosity, perseverance, introspection, courage, humility, empathy, and civility--and this study shares that…

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a locally-sourced corpus to address the specific needs of an ESL writing program. The paper begins with a description of the motivation and development of the "Corpus of Ohio Learner and Teacher English" (COLTE), a large in-house corpus consisting of assessed ESL student writing…

The Effective Team Dynamics (ETD) Initiative at Georgia Tech developed curriculum to improve function of student teams. ETD uses the language of CliftonStrengths® to help students identify the areas in which they are the strongest and to apply those strengths to interpersonal contexts. ETD has developed curriculum for five "Touchpoints,"…

This article introduces the guiding principles of integrated multicultural instructional design (IMID), a new pedagogical model created to promote retention by addressing multicultural perspectives and social justice issues across the curriculum. To illustrate the model, specific strategies for implementing IMID in a content-based,…

The term "assessment" sends shivers down academic spines. For faculty, it signals marching orders from external parties who may or may not appreciate the subtle and not always quantifiable value of faculty efforts. For administrators, it means the dual challenge of recalibrating internal measures to meet external mandates but also…

Traditional views of critical thinking instruction focus on teaching students to develop skeptical responses to the texts they read. Genuinely powerful and generative forms of critical thinking, however, require students to read creatively as well. To balance the rigor of analysis and exorbitance of creativity, a freshman honors seminar was…

This article examines issues encountered over a two-year period by a faculty librarian at the Penn State University Libraries while developing and delivering course-related library instruction employing problem-based learning (PBL) in the First-Year Seminar (FYS) of the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). The process of…