we recommend examining the illusions that maintain traditional academic scholarship (often distanced and privileging of particular forms of data) as the premier form of writing about teaching.

Legitimating Reflective Writing in SoTL

by Sophia Abbot When I first began working in higher education, I would ask students and faculty I worked with to reflect on transformative learning moments, how they felt about particular classroom experiences, or how they’d grown and changed over…

adding a service-learning aspect to study abroad programs appears to be an excellent way to amplify and maximize the immersive learning potential of the existing experience.

International Service-Learning

Imagine a group of college students, under the guidance of a professor, working on a community-driven project where the lived experience of members of that community and the problems they would like to solve are the driving force behind the…

As an institutional practice, WIL provides an established framework grounded in learning theory to support students’ learning in and through workplace settings.

What is Work-Integrated Learning?

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is a well-theorized pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ learning through connecting or integrating experiences across academic and workplace contexts (Billett, 2009). Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario’s 2016 Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning offers a helpful introduction and resources for…

Developing Attitudes and Habits of Mind for Mentorship

In fall 2010, Caroline Ketcham and I (Eric Hall) entered into a co-mentoring relationship with an undergraduate research student who was interested in hippotherapy (horse therapy) and the potential impacts that these programs could have on motor/postural changes as well…

Higher education has struggled with defining the capstone, understanding the purpose or the desired outcomes of the experience, and agreeing on how to assess characteristics of a successful experience.

Communicating the Goals of Capstones

George Bernard Shaw once said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”  Over the next year, as 2018-2020 CEL research seminar participants continue to contemplate the future of the capstone experience, we cannot…

Can we teach curiosity?

by Peter Felten Curiosity might be bad for cats, but it is essential for human learning. As Eleanor Duckworth notes, “What you do about what you don’t know is, in the final analysis, what determines what you will know” (The…

High Impact Undergraduate Experiences and How They Matter Now

The Center for Engaged Learning and the Elon Poll recently collaborated on a national survey of nearly 1,600 U.S. college graduates, age 18-34, to: Explore how commonly graduates experienced high impact undergraduate experiences, including meaningful relationships with faculty, undergraduate research,…