Community colleges across the United States are experiencing an extraordinarily high demand for new instructors. Hiring exemplary instructors is at once an educational and an economic imperative, for the typical community college spends over $3 million on the career of one faculty member. Institutions must make sound, long-term decisions by…

Describing an online faculty member or community college faculty member may soon be synonymous. The role of the online faculty and the knowledge and skills associated with the growth of online course enrollments are transforming the nature and characteristics of community college faculty as a profession. To accomplish these tasks, an online…

As online learning continues to grow, so do the free or nearly free Web 2.0 and emerging online learning technologies available to faculty and students. This chapter explores the implementation process and corresponding considerations of adapting such tools for teaching and learning. Issues addressed include copyright, intellectual property,…

This chapter explores the potential of social networking sites for increasing student engagement for distance education learners. The authors present a modified student engagement model with a focus on the integration of technology, specifically social networking sites for community college distance education learners. The chapter concludes with…

The use of online technology in community colleges has exploded over the past two decades, changing the manner in which services need to be delivered to students. This chapter examines online student services at the community college, beginning with a brief historical overview of the growth of online student services. The authors then explore…

The notion of quality in regard to teaching and learning has always been highly debatable. Is it best measured by qualitative or quantitative measures? Summative or formative assessments? Comparative or independent studies? As someone deeply involved with online education for many years, the author continues to seek definitive answers. During her…

The Internet has expanded the potential for learning exponentially. Its greatest gift has been greater access, and while academics will continue to debate the "equivalency" of online course work, no one can dispute the personal empowerment that has resulted. Much like the goal of the Coke commercial, online learning has become a means for…

Because learning to meditate shares important qualities with learning to be a better reader and writer--for example, dispassionate noticing, becoming more aware of inner processes, a faith in inner wisdom, effort made with a light touch, the cultivation of a practice through simple, regular doing--practice in mindfulness meditation was used to…

This article introduces contemplative practices and explains how contemplative practices, studies, and pedagogy differ. It analyzes the mechanics of some key contemplative practices and reviews the research on contemplative practices and learning. It ultimately argues in support of this new direction in pedagogy.

Contemplative teaching can offer both teachers and students a middle way between two reigning fundamentalisms: the secularist one of nonadvocacy, relativism, and equivocation and the forced univocity of fundamentalism. Its antidote is the depth, relatedness, and even transcendence of a contemplative teaching style. This chapter explores the…

Contemplative education, including meditation, mindfulness, "lectio divina," and freewriting, regularly practiced in a classroom where a climate of "ahimsa" and nonjudgment are defining attitudes, can restore wholeness and foster engagement, imagination, and compassion in both instructors and students. This chapter proposes that a contemplative…

Contemplative practices can transform curricula, classrooms, and students. Community college teachers are accustomed to greeting rooms full of students each semester who are there simply because someone told them they have to be. The decision to attend college in general may have been theirs, but the particular courses they take are largely…

This chapter explores the correlation between human services practice and stress and examines the use of contemplative practices in the classroom as a way to teach self-care. The chapter also discusses ways in which contemplative practices can be incorporated as a critical component of human services education. Examples include stillness practices…

One of the important aspects of integrating contemplative practice into higher music education is the emphasis the practice places on individual experience. Students begin to learn to sensitize both their outer and inner listening. They begin to trust their own experience and the inner guidance that can be found in that trust. They begin to trust…

From 1998 to 2008, the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) offered its employees a variety of options for formation, a type of reflective practice. The district encompasses 10 locations, seven of them independently accredited colleges. Formation is based primarily on Parker Palmer's model for Circles of Trust as described in "A Hidden…