Calls to improve undergraduate STEM education have resulted in initiatives that seek to bolster student learning outcomes by promoting changes in teaching practices. Written by participants in a series of ground-breaking social network analysis (SNA) workshops, Researching and Enacting Change in Postsecondary Education argues that the academic department is a highly productive focus for the spread of new, network-based teaching ideas. By clarifying methodological issues related to SNA data collection and articulating relevant theoretical approaches to the topic, this book leverages current knowledge about social network theory and SNA techniques for understanding instructional improvement in higher education.
This is an opportune time for researchers in higher education to examine policy via cross-state comparative analyses. Momentous court, legislative and policy developments that impact state-level higher education policy are emerging at a rapid rate. The states have emerged as postsecondary policy innovators in the areas of student financing, institutional accountability, and student access.Following political scientists’ "rediscovery" of states as units of analysis--because they constitute unique "natural laboratories" for testing theory and hypotheses about political behavior and policy adoption dynamics--this book introduces this perspective as an increasingly important tool for researchers in higher education.State Postsecondary Education Research provides an in-depth examination of the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting cross-state higher education policy research. The authors of each chapter use their individual research projects to demonstrate the array of methodological, theoretical, analytical, and political challenges inherent in conducting comparative state-level policy research. Among the innovative methods described is the use of pooled cross-sectional time-series analytic techniques and event history analysis--now widespread within the disciplines of economics and political science--to shift the unit of analysis from the state to the state-year, thus expanding greatly both the statistical power of the models being tested and the data-demands of those models.The goal is to introduce comparative state-level postsecondary policy research to a broader audience, and to contribute to discussions of both the challenges and the importance of this approach to higher education policy research.The book is intended as a resource for researchers in higher education policy and as a text for higher education policy courses. It may also appeal to scholars of educational policy as well as higher education policymakers.
This book examines how previously excluded high-achieving, low-income students are faring socially and academically at an Ivy League college in New England. In the past, research conducted on low-income students in elite schools focused mainly on the admissions process. As a result, there is a dearth of research on what happens to low-income students once they are admitted and attend classes. This book chronicles an ethnographic study of twenty low-income men and women in their senior year at Dartmouth College and follows up with them four and twelve years post-graduation. By helping to bring visibility and self-awareness to low-income students and expose class issues and struggles, the author hopes to encourage elite institutions to change their policies and practices to address the needs of these students.
Measuring the Value of a Postsecondary Education is an insightful collection of essays that respond to current and pressing questions in the field of higher education: What do we mean by "quality" of education? What do courses and programs promise to deliver, and do they succeed? What do we know about improving learning outcomes, and is reform possible? Comprised of papers presented at a conference of experts convened by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario in 2011, the book begins by evaluating pioneering initiatives in Europe, and follows this with reports on efforts to measure and evaluate learning outcomes. Drawing on over two decades of work by international agencies, governments, and foundations in identifying and evaluating learning outcomes in higher education, Measuring the Value of a Postsecondary Education encourages educational institutions to draw on this evidence in revising course and program offerings. Bringing together international leaders and innovators in the field, this book is an important analysis of progress in enhancing learning quality and directions for future reform. Contributors include Jeana Abromeit (Alverno College), Roger Benjamin (Council for Aid to Education), Ken Dryden (Canadian politician), Michael Gallagher (Group of Eight), Virginia Hatchette (Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board), Jillian Kinzie (Indiana University), Diane Lalancette (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Holiday Hart McKiernan (Lumina Foundation), Robert Wagenaar (University of Groningen), and Lorne A. Whitehead (University of British Columbia).
Higher education is in an unprecedented time of change and reform. To address these challenges, university leaders tend to focus on specific interventions and programs, but ignore the change processes and the contexts that would lead to success. Joining theory and practice, How Colleges Change unmasks problematic assumptions that change agents typically possess and provides research-based principles for approaching change. Framed by decades of research, this monumental book offers fresh insights into understanding, leading, and enacting change. Recognizing that internal and external conditions shape and frame change processes, Kezar presents an overarching practical framework that can be applied to any organizational challenge and context. How Colleges Change is a crucial resource for aspiring and practicing campus leaders, higher education practitioners, scholars, faculty, and staff who want to learn how to apply change strategies in their own institutions.
