Download or read book Redefining Scientific Thinking for Higher Education written by Mari Murtonen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the learning and development process of students’ scientific thinking skills. Universities should prepare students to be able to make judgements in their working lives based on scientific evidence. However, an understanding of how these thinking skills can be developed is limited. This book introduces a new broad theory of scientific thinking for higher education; in doing so, redefining higher-order thinking abilities as scientific thinking skills. This includes critical thinking and understanding the basics of science, epistemic maturity, research and evidence-based reasoning skills and contextual understanding. The editors and contributors discuss how this concept can be redefined, as well as the challenges educators and students may face when attempting to teach and learn these skills. This edited collection will be of interest to students and scholars of student scientific skills and higher-order thinking abilities.

Download or read book The Thinking University written by Søren S.E. Bengtsen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reinvigorates the philosophical treatment of the nature, purpose, and meaning of thought in today’s universities. The wider discussion about higher education has moved from a philosophical discourse to a discourse on social welfare and service, economics, and political agendas. This book reconnects philosophy with the central academic concepts of thought, reason, and critique and their associated academic practices of thinking and reasoning. Thought in this context should not be considered as a merely mental or cognitive construction, still less a cloistered college, but a fully developed individual and social engagement of critical reflection and discussion with the current pressing disciplinary, political, and philosophical issues. The editors hold that the element of thought, and the ability to think in a deep and groundbreaking way is, still, the essence of the university. But what does it mean to think in the university today? And in what ways is thought related not only to the epistemological and ontological issues of philosophical debate, but also to the social and political dimensions of our globalised age? In many countries, the state is imposing limitations on universities, dismissing or threatening academics who speak out critically. With this volume, the editors ask questions such as: What is the value of thought? What is the university’s proper relationship to thought? To give the notion of thought a thorough philosophical treatment, the book is divided into in three parts. The focus moves from an epistemological perspective in Part I, to a focus on existence and values in higher education in Part II, and then to a societal-oriented focus on the university in Part III. All three parts, in their own ways, debate the notion of thought in higher education and the university as a thinking form of being.

Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education written by M. Davies and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-25 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education provides a single compendium on the nature, function, and applications of critical thinking. This book brings together the work of top researchers on critical thinking worldwide, covering questions of definition, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, research, policy, and application.

Download or read book Handbook of Research on Advancing Critical Thinking in Higher Education written by Wisdom, Sherrie and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of critical thinking has surged as academics in higher education realize that many students, upon entering college, lack the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed. While much has been written regarding the ‘lack’ of critical thinking, less has been written on the success of methods implemented to develop this fundamental skill. The Handbook of Research on Advancing Critical Thinking in Higher Education explores the effective methods and tools being used to integrate the development of critical thinking skills in both undergraduate and graduate studies. Due to the difficulties associated with teaching critical thinking skills to learners of any age, this publication is a crucial addition to the scholarly reference works available to pre-service and early career teachers, seasoned educational professionals, professors across disciplines, curriculum specialists, and educational administrators.

Download or read book Higher Education s Road to Relevance written by Susan A. Ambrose and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the current context, role, and challenges of post-secondary education and presents options for promising pathways forward. The post-secondary educational system has undergone dramatic changes and experienced immense stress in the past two decades. Once regarded as the logical next step toward career opportunities and financial security, higher education is a subject of growing uncertainty for millions of people across the United States. It is more common than ever to question the return on investment, skyrocketing cost, and student debt burden of going to college. Prospective students, and many employers, increasingly view attending institutions of higher learning as inadequate preparation for entering the 21st century workforce. High-profile scandals—financial impropriety, sexual abuse, restrictions of free speech, among others—have further eroded public trust. In response to these and other challenges, leading voices are demanding strengthened accountability and measurable change. Higher Education's Road to Relevance illustrates why change is needed in post-secondary education and offers practical solutions to pressing concerns. The authors, internationally recognized experts in college-level teaching and learning innovation, draw heavily from contemporary research to provide an integrative approach for post-secondary faculty, staff, and administrators of all levels. This timely book helps readers identify the need for leadership in developing new networks and ecosystems of learning and workforce development. This valuable book will help readers: Understand the forces driving change in higher education Develop multiple pathways to create and credential self-directed learners Promote access to flexible, cost-effective, and relevant learning Adapt structures and pedagogies to address issues and overcome challenges Use an inclusive approach that extends to employers, K-12 educators, post-secondary educators, and policy-makers, among others Higher Education's Road to Relevance is a much-needed resource for college and university administrators, academic researchers, instructors and other faculty, and staff who support and interact with students.

Download or read book Teacher Thinking Beliefs and Knowledge in Higher Education written by N. Hativa and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-11-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses the important problem of understanding good university teaching, and focuses on the thinking, beliefs, and knowledge, which accompany teachers' actions. It is the first book to address this area and it promises to become a landmark volume in the field - helping us to understand a complex area of human activity and improve both teaching and learning. It is for education researchers, staff/faculty developers and educational developers.

Download or read book American Higher Education in the Twenty First Century written by Philip G. Altbach and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-02-25 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition explores current issues of central importance to the academy: leadership, accountability, access, finance, technology, academic freedom, the canon, governance, and race. Chapters also deal with key constituencies -- students and faculty -- in the context of a changing academic environment.

Download or read book Independent Thinking on Teaching in Higher Education written by Erik Blair and published by Crown House Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A refreshing and invigorating exploration of what really matters and what really works in higher education teaching. Dr Erik Blair's Independent Thinking on Teaching in Higher Education: From theory to practice is a refreshing and invigorating exploration of what really matters and what really works in higher education teaching. This book offers an insight into an area of higher education that has become more significant of late: the art of teaching. It focuses on the actual work of teaching and gives thought-provoking and perceptive guidance on how to teach in a meaningful and engaging manner.Independent Thinking on Teaching in Higher Education doesn't bamboozle with abstract terminology. Instead, Erik guides readers through topic-driven chapters that offer practical answers supported by rationales drawn from everyday experience. Alongside the core themes, he also provides bite-sized 'nuggets of wisdom' that prompt readers to implement flexible and effective strategies as part of their daily practice. The book offers a deeper understanding of the roles and responsibilities of those who teach in higher education, and also covers the three areas measured in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF): teaching quality, the learning environment, and the educational and professional outcomes achieved by students. Furthermore, Erik goes beyond the lecture theatre and seminar room by including a section dedicated to teaching online - that is, how to get the best out of delivering content to students remotely via the virtual learning environment. Ideal for those new to teaching in higher education as well as more experienced practitioners who want to continue honing their craft, Independent Thinking on Teaching in Higher Education embraces teaching and learning as a personal and human activity - and encourages educators to reflect on how the suggested approaches can be applied in their particular teaching environment. Suitable for all educators working in higher education.

Download or read book Design Thinking in Higher Education written by Gavin Melles and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-19 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the contributions of design thinking to higher education and explores the benefits and challenges of design thinking discourses and practices in interdisciplinary contexts. With a particular focus on Australia, the USA and UK, the book examines the value and drawbacks of employing design thinking in different disciplines and contexts, and also considers its future.

Download or read book Generous Thinking written by Kathleen Fitzpatrick and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the university solve the social and political crisis in America? Higher education occupies a difficult place in twenty-first-century American culture. Universities—the institutions that bear so much responsibility for the future health of our nation—are at odds with the very publics they are intended to serve. As Kathleen Fitzpatrick asserts, it is imperative that we re-center the mission of the university to rebuild that lost trust. Critical thinking—the heart of what academics do—can today often negate, refuse, and reject new ideas. In an age characterized by rampant anti-intellectualism, Fitzpatrick charges the academy with thinking constructively rather than competitively, building new ideas rather than tearing old ones down. She urges us to rethink how we teach the humanities and to refocus our attention on the very human ends—the desire for community and connection—that the humanities can best serve. One key aspect of that transformation involves fostering an atmosphere of what Fitzpatrick dubs "generous thinking," a mode of engagement that emphasizes listening over speaking, community over individualism, and collaboration over competition. Fitzpatrick proposes ways that anyone who cares about the future of higher education can work to build better relationships between our colleges and universities and the public, thereby transforming the way our society functions. She encourages interested stakeholders to listen to and engage openly with one another's concerns by reading and exploring ideas together; by creating collective projects focused around common interests; and by ensuring that our institutions of higher education are structured to support and promote work toward the public good. Meditating on how and why we teach the humanities, Generous Thinking is an audacious book that privileges the ability to empathize and build rather than simply tear apart.

Download or read book The Business of Higher Education written by John C. Knapp Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-10-22 with total page 969 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time of great economic uncertainty, The Business of Higher Education looks at the pros and cons of colleges and universities taking a more business-like approach to fulfilling their missions. How can colleges and universities navigate their way between shrinking commitments and the increasing expectations of their students? Does the answer lie in taking a more business-like approach? This extraordinary resource considers the costs and benefits to both public and private institutions and to society when academe embraces business models for improving cost-efficiency, marketing, hiring practices, and customer service. Bringing together a diverse team of contributors from the academic and business worlds, The Business of Higher Education offers 35 essays in three volumes. The first volume explores issues of leadership and culture, the second focuses on management and fiscal strategies, and the third volume takes up issues of marketing and consumer interests. Throughout, the work balances the contrasting perspectives of those within the academy and those outside of it, as it considers whether higher education and the public interest are ultimately helped or harmed by the application of business methods to essential academic functions.

Download or read book Academically Adrift written by Richard Arum and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there? For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list. Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents—all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa’s report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.

Download or read book A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education written by Dilly Fung and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to bring university research and student education into a more connected, more symbiotic relationship? If so, can we develop programmes of study that enable faculty, students and ‘real world’ communities to connect in new ways? In this accessible book, Dilly Fung argues that it is not only possible but also potentially transformational to develop new forms of research-based education. Presenting the Connected Curriculum framework already adopted by UCL, she opens windows onto new initiatives related to, for example, research-based education, internationalisation, the global classroom, interdisciplinarity and public engagement. A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education is, however, not just about developing engaging programmes of study. Drawing on the field of philosophical hermeneutics, Fung argues how the Connected Curriculum framework can help to create spaces for critical dialogue about educational values, both within and across existing research groups, teaching departments and learning communities. Drawing on vignettes of practice from around the world, she argues that developing the synergies between research and education can empower faculty members and students from all backgrounds to contribute to the global common good.

Download or read book The Thinking Student s Guide to College written by Andrew Roberts and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each fall, thousands of eager freshmen descend on college and university campuses expecting the best education imaginable: inspiring classes taught by top-ranked professors, academic advisors who will guide them to a prestigious job or graduate school, and an environment where learning flourishes outside the classroom as much as it does in lecture halls. Unfortunately, most of these freshmen soon learn that academic life is not what they imagined. Classes are taught by overworked graduate students and adjuncts rather than seasoned faculty members, undergrads receive minimal attention from advisors or administrators, and potentially valuable campus resources remain outside their grasp. Andrew Roberts’ Thinking Student’s Guide to College helps students take charge of their university experience by providing a blueprint they can follow to achieve their educational goals—whether at public or private schools, large research universities or small liberal arts colleges. An inside look penned by a professor at Northwestern University, this book offers concrete tips on choosing a college, selecting classes, deciding on a major, interacting with faculty, and applying to graduate school. Here, Roberts exposes the secrets of the ivory tower to reveal what motivates professors, where to find loopholes in university bureaucracy, and most importantly, how to get a personalized education. Based on interviews with faculty and cutting-edge educational research, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College is a necessary handbook for students striving to excel academically, creatively, and personally during their undergraduate years.

Download or read book Politics by Other Means written by David Bromwich and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberal education has been under siege in recent years. Far-right ideologues in journalism and government have pressed for a uniform curriculum that focuses on the achievements of Western culture. Partisans of the academic left, who hold our culture responsible for the evils of society, have attempted to redress imbalances by fostering multiculturalism in education. In this eloquent and passionate book a distinguished scholar criticizes these positions and calls for a return to the tradition of independent thinking that he contends has been betrayed by both right and left. Under the guise of educational reform, says David Bromwich, these groups are in fact engaging in politics by other means. Bromwich argues that rivals in the debate over education have one thing in common: they believe in the all-importance of culture. Each assumes that culture confers identity, decides the terms of every moral choice, and gives a meaning to life. Both sides therefore see education as a means to indoctrinate students in specific cultural and political dogmas. By contrast, Bromwich contends that genuine education is concerned less with culture than with critical thinking and independence of mind. This view of education is not a middle way among the political demands of the moment, says Bromwich. Its earlier advocates include Mill and Wollstonecraft, and its roots can be traced to such secular moralists as Burke and Hume. Bromwich attacks the anti-democratic and intolerant premises of both right and left--premises that often appear in the conservative guise of "preserving the tradition" on the one hand, or the radical guise of "opening up the tradition" on the other. He discusses the new academic "fundamentalists" and the politically correct speech codes they have devised to enforce a doctrine of intellectual conformity; educational policy as articulated by conservative apologists George Will and William Bennett; the narrow logic of institutional radicalism; the association between personal reflection and social morality; and the discipline of literary study, where the symptoms of cultural conflict have appeared most visibly. Written with the wisdom and conviction of a dedicated teacher, this book is a persuasive plea to recover a true liberal tradition in academia and government--through independent thinking, self-knowledge, and tolerance of other points of view.

Download or read book The Real World of College written by Wendy Fischman and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why higher education in the United States has lost its way, and how universities and colleges can focus sharply on their core mission. For The Real World of College, Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner analyzed in-depth interviews with more than 2,000 students, alumni, faculty, administrators, parents, trustees, and others, which were conducted at ten institutions ranging from highly selective liberal arts colleges to less-selective state schools. What they found challenged characterizations in the media: students are not preoccupied by political correctness, free speech, or even the cost of college. They are most concerned about their GPA and their resumes; they see jobs and earning potential as more important than learning. Many say they face mental health challenges, fear that they don’t belong, and feel a deep sense of alienation. Given this daily reality for students, has higher education lost its way? Fischman and Gardner contend that US universities and colleges must focus sharply on their core educational mission. Fischman and Gardner, both recognized authorities on education and learning, argue that higher education in the United States has lost sight of its principal reason for existing: not vocational training, not the provision of campus amenities, but to increase what Fischman and Gardner call “higher education capital”—to help students think well and broadly, express themselves clearly, explore new areas, and be open to possible transformations. Fischman and Gardner offer cogent recommendations for how every college can become a community of learners who are open to change as thinkers, citizens, and human beings.

Download or read book Academic Librarianship by Design written by Steven J. Bell and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2007-07-02 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scenarios, case studies, and profiles throughout illustrate the successes that real "blended librarians" are having on campuses. This practical, hands-on guide expands the possibilities for academic librarians in public service, reference, instruction, information literacy, and even library and information science students.