When the grade distribution within a course shifts towards higher grades, it may be due to grade inflation or grade improvement. If the positive shift is accompanied by an increase in achievement or learning, it should be considered grade improvement, "not" grade inflation. Effective learning-centered teaching is designed to promote student…

In this essay I argue that online education, artificial intelligence, and market pressures are driving higher education to adopt the industrial model and to find a new paradigm for delivering education at low costs. In addition, there is tremendous pressure from the federal government to make universities more accountable while making higher…

As publication pressure has increased in the world of higher education, more journals, books, and other publication outlets have emerged. Thus it is critical to develop clear criteria for effectively evaluating the quality of publication outlets. Without such criteria funding agencies and promotion committees are forced to guess at how to evaluate…

In this article we present an overview of a recently launched cohort-based Ed.D. program that prepares participants to conduct group dissertations. The program, a hybrid model of online learning activities and monthly face-to-face class sessions, is delivered through a partnership between a university's college of education and the administrative…

We predicted that students in a sociology course that included contemplative practices (i.e., mindfulness meditation) would show an increase in performance on higher level cognitive abilities (executive functions) over the semester compared to a control group of students. Change in executive functions performance was not significantly different…

We describe an objective way to measure whether curricula, educational programs, and institutions are learner-centered. This technique for benchmarking learner-centeredness uses rubrics to measure courses on 29 components within Weimer's five dimensions. We converted the scores on the rubrics to four-point indices and constructed histograms that…

This article describes the experience in Spain of a specific collaboration between university teachers and school counselors, which used case-based approaches in a teacher training program. The collaboration ran for four years and involved 300 graduate students, two university teachers, and six school counselors. Three basic features enabled this…

In response to a growing movement within higher education to provide interdisciplinary educational programs, this study describes the creation of an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in healthcare policy and management. Building on prior research, we surveyed healthcare executives to examine their perceptions about the need for such a…

Whether our students are sitting in the room with us as we teach, sitting in their home listening, participating by video-conference, or answering discussion questions on an online platform, technology can play a pivotal role in student learning. In this article we discuss technology in higher education, specifically its role in hybrid or online…

Since the publication of The Boyer Commission Report (1998), inquiry-guided learning, has acquired a certain cachet and is often suggested as a universal answer for various teaching and learning ills, particularly in research universities. However, while the report focused on inquiry-guided learning, it defined the term only generally or chiefly…

In the late 1980s a large northeastern university implemented a critical thinking course for undergraduate students. Combining insights from cognitive psychology and philosophy, this class was designed to give students concrete strategies to promote self-regulated learning and ensure academic success. The analyses in this study are based on…

Debates about the education doctorate continue; and, while some individuals focus on the problematic, others work to distinguish this degree from the Ph.D. The author is part of the latter, and in this article I explain how faculty members at one university are using action research as a signature pedagogy to create stewards of practice, that is,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of higher education faculty members concerning the application of the learning organization disciplines, as proposed by Senge (1990), in the university environment. The study surveyed 202 faculty members at the Hashemite University, one of the leading state universities in Jordan. Results…

Regional accrediting bodies require evidence that higher education institutions are meeting their stated goals. Institutions have answered this call for accountability by assessing student learning. Managing change in order to implement assessment practices is a challenge, however, particularly when autonomy, academic freedom, and shared…

This article examines a common problem in higher education--how to create more widespread use of improved practices, often commonly referred to as innovations. I argue that policy models of scale-up are often advocated in higher education but that they have a dubious history in community development and K-12 education and that higher education…