This study involved five English instructors at a Hispanic-serving community college who participated in professional development workshops on culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP). Three themes emerged from analysis of the survey and interview data: (1) Integration of disciplinary identity contributes to instructors'' satisfaction with the…

This article describes a studio approach to faculty development in a First-Year Seminar (FYS) program. The studio concept helps structure and theorize faculty development efforts in the program. Meeting for regular in-term reflections on their FYSs, instructors collectively generate responses to teaching challenges specific to the program as well…

Several reports have highlighted the need to improve teaching within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, particularly at the undergraduate level. These reports have encouraged the use of more evidence-based teaching practices in the classroom to improve teaching. The authors explore how faculty members' decision to…

Learning in higher education is often perceived from the standpoint of the students, yet faculty are also learners. To investigate what faculty learn from their interactions with students, the authors analyzed interview data from 40 early post-tenure faculty and learned that (1) faculty approach subject matter differently than students and (2) the…

Many teachers are aware of the benefits of small-group learning. However, implementation, especially in classrooms with communication challenges, can be difficult. For students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) in mainstream classrooms, communication is most often supported through sign language interpreters and captioning. This model of…

An adaptation of Halpern's (1998) model of critical thinking (CT) was implemented for seven semesters of data collection involving 904 students in 44 classes. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized for evaluating student growth in CT. The model comprised the development of higher education students' CT skills and dispositions by…

The authors present an example of a social constructivist framework and a backward design approach to enhance an underutilized peer mentoring program for teaching assistants. Following a needs assessment for quality improvement, the authors designed a mentoring workshop and revised guidelines: Mentoring pairs now use a four-step process to frame…

This study examined the effectiveness of reflective pedagogy in advancing integrative learning experiences in an urban community college. The researchers measured this effectiveness by looking at the change in the level of students' learning. The findings were supported through quantitative data from several disciplines and qualitative data from a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether college students' attitudes toward group work could be influenced by thoughtful group project design. Undergraduate students (N = 123) in a lifespan human development course were assigned to groups and asked to create a smartphone app for a specific life stage. The authors utilized a convergent…

Instructors' ability to foster students' disposition to engage in critical thinking (CT) is instrumental for CT growth. University students' (N = 1,352) semester-long gains across specific dispositions were compared when taught by professors who had received zero, one, two, or three semesters of training in CT pedagogy. All groups experienced…

Classroom space limitations and increasing student enrollments push universities to the development of alternative course delivery models. The authors describe how a high-enrollment, general elective course was converted into a HyFlex model. A HyFlex course provides flexible participation, allowing students the choice of attending face-to-face…

The authors report outcomes for veteran-friendly initiatives on the regional and main campuses of a mid-sized university in the Midwestern U.S. Across three years, 1270 military-affiliated students were self- or institutionally identified (paid tuition with VA benefits) and invited to complete telephone or online surveys assessing their…

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in student perceptions of instructor and course characteristics for courses that students deemed to be high in learning versus high in enjoyment. Realizing that students differ from faculty in how they view the traits of a highly effective instructor, the authors created a survey of student…

The flipped classroom, based on constructivist theory, focuses on acquiring strengths within a discipline rather than knowledge transmission. While the process of flipping the classroom has been extensively explored, little discussion has followed concerning how to effectively evaluate student learning in this new teaching paradigm. The authors…

This study examines student-faculty relationships at a small women's college where STEM students rely almost exclusively on faculty members for academic support. Students at comparison schools, including two of similar size, rely primarily on peer study groups. To understand this difference, students and faculty interviews, classroom observations,…