This chapter explores the "educational alliance" among students and between students and instructors. We contend that this is a framework that can help us understand how active learning classrooms facilitate positive educational outcomes.

This chapter describes the results of an assessment project whose purpose was to improve the faculty-development program for instructors who teach in technology-infused TILE (Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage) classrooms at the University of Iowa. Qualitative research methods were critical for (1) learning about how students and instructors…

This chapter argues that the most important thing for a nonnative English-speaking teacher is to have an open and positive attitude toward students. A teacher's willingness to work out problems with individual students, coupled with openness to students' ideas and criticism, should help improve students' negative attitudes toward…

The author addresses the importance of relationships in order for learning to take place in an inclusive manner. Anecdotes illustrate the value in beginning where the learner is and the unexpected opportunities the journey can lead to when both teacher and learner venture through unchartered paths together.

This chapter discusses the opportunities created by out-of-class interactions. These interactions allow for ego-engaged exchanges between students and professors.

This chapter recounts the development of faculty and student groups whose purposes are to promote mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy on the California State University-Chico campus through work both on the campus and in the greater Chico community. The "Mindful Campus" a student organization formed in 2011, merged with the "Faculty Initiative…

Faculty in higher education may find themselves reading student work or hearing students' voices in class or in online course discussion boards that reveal a lot of personal information, information that they think might be better kept private, information that may be concerning or even threatening. In their attempts to create richer learning…

This chapter explores relational boundary crossing in doctoral education as a way to improve student learning and faculty satisfaction. A brief introduction sets the stage by articulating a recognized set of challenges for student learning in the current context of U.S. doctoral education. The chapter then introduces elements of an innovative…

This chapter explores the use of social media in the higher education classroom highlighting potential issues for student-faculty boundary management and providing suggestions for praxis. Social media has captured the attention of educators and provides exciting new ways to engage students in course material. However, instructors and students…

Students' relationships with authority and information are changing rapidly, and this presents a new set of interpersonal boundary challenges for faculty. The topic of setting boundaries often conjures up thoughts of how to protect oneself. The intent of this chapter is to explore how good rapport between teacher and student can be developed and…

Prior to working on this sourcebook, the author thinks that if asked, she would have responded that the essence of setting boundaries was in the moments "with" students--the moments when she clarifies her availability or make the split-second decision about whether to self-disclose or not. After working with the contributing authors for this book…

Working with adult learners presents a unique set of interpersonal boundary questions. In this chapter, the authors discuss the characteristics of working with adult learners that have led them to explore questions about boundaries between them and their students. They then identify how they might define, set, maintain, adjust, and work close to…

This chapter explores international students' perspectives of boundaries in the American graduate-level classroom, specifically considering the culturally based essence of boundaries. The authors focus on graduate-level Japanese international students. This population is particularly helpful in their consideration of boundaries because research…

Informed by Rosenberg's (2003) concept of nonviolent communication, the author's pedagogical perspective encourages educators to criticize institutional and classroom practices that ideologically place underserved students at disadvantaged positions. At the same time, this perspective urges teachers to be self-reflective of their actions through…

Academic personnel who were first-generation college students (FGS) are uniquely positioned to consider the questions these students often have about the college experience. Academia needs first-generation and working-class voices to diversify an academic culture that is often socially stratified. As more FGS enroll in colleges and universities,…