CEL facilitates multi-institutional research on engaged learning topics. Participants from institutions around the world collaborate over three years, producing scholarship that shapes research and practice globally.
CEL is home to two book series. In addition, CEL research seminars and other initiatives have produced 100+ publications (to date).
CEL’s concise guides offer research-informed practices for engaged learning.
CEL’s concise guides offer practical strategies for studying engaged learning.
CEL brings together international leaders in higher education to develop, synthesize, and share rigorous research on central questions about student learning.
The CEL Scholar role and CEL Student Scholars program enable Elon faculty and students to deepen their understanding of and professional development in scholarly activity on engaged learning.
Brundiers, Katja, Arnim Wiek, and Charles L. Redman. 2010. "Real‐world Learning Opportunities in Sustainability: From Classroom into the Real World." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 11 (4): 308-324.
Brundiers et al. look at sustainability education and how it can be supported by real world experiences, including project-based learning, service learning, and internships. Giving students real world experiences helps their acquisition of goals related to the sustainability education they are receiving. From collaborative work to and problem-solving skills, these real-world experiences contributed to the student’s sustainability education. This article also highlighted how real-world experiences play into the curriculum and then how the skills they are supposed to be acquiring fit into the progression. This article served as a case study for what implementation of real-world experiences may look like, and how they can be fit into the curriculum on a wider scale.
Annotation contributed by Ellery Ewell, 2021-2023 CEL Student Scholar
Evans, Karen, David Guile, Judy Harris, and Helen Allan. 2010. "Putting Knowledge to Work: A New Approach." Nurse Education Today 30 (3): 245-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2009.10.014.
This article examines the process of connecting theory to practice and outlines a “new approach” to formulating these connections. Allan et al. utilize nursing education as a case study to frame their approach. The main tenet of their approach is re-contextualization; knowledge learned in one context has to be recontextualized to in different ways that utilize that knowledge. The framework of recontextualization overcomes the theory to practice gap that they saw in nursing education. They also examine some of the implementations in terms of how it plays into building curricula. They discuss gradual release, which is reflective of how curricula are scaffolded, building on base knowledge and skill as learners move through their education. The principle of gradual release is integral to building connections to broader contexts and the principles of recontextualization will help us how to increase these connections to broader contexts.
