Search results

It's official – my sister is black. It says so in the second paragraph of the autopsy report – “The body is that of a normally developed obese black female whose appearance is compatible with the recorded age of 41 years.” OK, the obese part we knew – but black? This finding was confirmed on her death certificate as well: there in black and white the word “Black” in the Race category. It's ironic that my sister achieved in death what had eluded her in life: an official, unambiguous racial identity.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to improve faculty and institutional development and to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions to enhance faculty and institutional development. This chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should be a place where lifelong and lifewide learning is cultivated and where self-directed learning is nurtured. To that end, this chapter argues that IBL helps cultivate a learning environment that is more meaningful, responsive, integrated, and purposeful.

This chapter provides insight into unique experiences of and provides special considerations for working with rural African American high school and college students. The Emerging Scholars (ES) program has evolved over 17 years as the coordinators built relationships with rural and underserved communities. By examining this model, other programs will be provided with ideas, and the complexity, challenges, and opportunities of the work will be highlighted.

Building programs connecting rural and university teams and communities is neither easy nor prescriptive. By considering specific needs of students, families, schools, and universities, and geographical, political, historical, and cultural contexts, sustainable programs can be developed.

Additionally, this chapter includes a personal narrative from a graduate of the program who now works as an ES staff member. This perspective adds depth and a personal examination of the program's impact. Finally, the chapter concludes with a list of questions and considerations in building, enhancing, or maintaining campus–community partnerships in support of African American rural students.

This paper aims to provide an overview of Keller’s ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction) model of motivational design and explores how three instruction librarians at different institutions have integrated the model into their teaching practices to improve student motivation during information literacy (IL) sessions.

Case studies describe how instruction librarians began to incorporate the ARCS model into library instruction. Three librarians used self-reflective practice and a range of assessment techniques to evaluate and improve teaching practice.

ARCS is valuable for improving student engagement during IL instruction. The authors suggest best practices for learning about and integrating the model and propose instructional strategies that align with it.

This paper fills a gap in literature on practical applications of motivational design in library instruction and suggests best practices for teaching and assessment using the ARCS model.

ABA has been described as a precise psychological approach to the study of behavior (Bailey & Burch, 2002), involving well-defined principles that can be used in the analysis and modification of individual behavior (Miltenberger, 1997). Special education, on the contrary, has been characterized as “a customized instructional program designed to meet the unique needs of the individual learner” (Gargiulo, 2009, p. 9). Certainly the two disciplines have much in common; indeed, ABA specifically addresses issues at the focal point of IDEA. For instance, ABA's stance on the right to effective behavioral treatment (Van Houten et al., 1988) is similar to special education regulations regarding the right to an appropriate public education and the right to be educated in the least restrictive environment.

The focus of the study was to explore the understanding of family among homeless adults in Southeast Texas. We incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods by interviewing two key groups (short-term homeless, long-term homeless) over a 16-week period. Thirty homeless participants were interviewed using 18 questions designed to explore their understanding of family and the social supports that lead to resiliency. Participant ages ranged from 19 to 56 with an average of 44 years. Twenty-six participants were male and four were female. Half of all homeless participants claimed to lack familial support from either biological family or close friends. Among short-term homeless individuals, five of seventeen identified their biological family as fulfilling the role of a traditional family, while among long-term homeless adults, five of thirteen identified their friends as fulfilling the role of a familial unit. A recurring theme emerged in which participants defined family as those individuals who were consistently accessible for support, whether biological relations or non-related friends and companions. As we seek to improve our programs of assistance and advocacy, these findings become important as a step toward honoring our clients and recognizing the validity of their perceived realities as we reconstruct the models by which we facilitate interaction and intervention.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research within the multidisciplinary programs. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions within multidisciplinary programs. The chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should be a place where students learn “how-to-learn” – where increasingly higher levels of self-directed learning is fostered – and where students grow in the three key areas of learning: cognitively, emotionally, and socially. To that end, this chapter argues that IBL, if designed and implemented properly, can be an important approach to enhancing and transforming teaching and learning.