Empathic Teaching: Promoting Social Justice in the Contemporary Classroom

Nicholas D. Young, American International College et al.

Empathic Teaching: Promoting Social Justice in the Contemporary Classroom is written for those who are committed to employing social justice practices in the classroom. The intent is to educate the next generation to value tolerance and to have respect and empathy for others in society. While this tome will largely focus on understanding the role that equity should play in P-12 education, it will do so with an acute awareness that there are myriad factors that influence student engagement and the motivation to learn. Although some of the subjects under consideration have been written about elsewhere broadly, this tome will offer a unique contribution by examining each from a social equity perspective. As schools move to ensure a more inclusive and well-rounded student body, this book will be a substantial asset to anyone interested in advancing a social justice agenda.

Captivating Campuses: Proven Practices that Promote College Student Persistence, Engagement and Success

Nicholas D. Young, American International College et al.

What role does student engagement play in educational achievement on the post-secondary campus? And, what factors affect each student’s ability and motivation to engage with the full college experience, both in and outside of the classroom? It is now widely acknowledged that post-secondary institutions must not only focus on facilitating the transition from high school to college, but that they must also make a concerted effort to listen to the needs and experiences of their students in order to achieve maximal involvement within the college environment. Students need to be captivated by at least one element of their college experience - whether that be in the classroom, dorm, or extracurricular activities - in order to form a bond with their institution and feel motivated and attached enough to put in the hard work until graduation. Campuses that capture their students’ interests and passions, provide spaces for them to develop as individuals, and opportunities to form meaningful professional and personal relationships have a far greater chance of both retaining their students to graduation and helping them develop as whole human beings who will contribute. This book studies the many facets of student engagement as it attempts to define student engagement, differentiating it from involvement, and covers seminal theories of college student engagement. The contributions to this volume discuss the powerful role that relationships play in helping students identify their interests and talents, and other examples of best practice when it comes to creating engaging classroom experiences, such as collaborative projects with peers, study abroad, and learning that is situated in real-life problems that are of importance to the student.

Design School: After Boundaries and Disciplines

Edited by Paul A. Rodgers, University of Strathclyde, UK and Craig Bremner, Charles Sturt University, Australia

By examining the contemporary situation of the Design School from a global perspective, this book explores how the structure of design learning and teaching, research and practice, is being transformed by a number of internal, external, and contextual factors and the implications of these factors for future iterations of the Design School. Exploring contemporary design education, this book asks whether Design Schools are shaping a new type of designer, or if tomorrow’s designers will emerge from other professions such as business, health care, education, and computing, where design ‘thinking’ is now regularly applied. The book is proposed at a time when governments and markets across the world are reshaping education. In a time of rapid and intensive change, it looks internationally at the shape of the Design School of the future. The book has been developed from a series of summits that explored the future of the contemporary Design School informed by international perspectives from high level invited speakers from design education, culture and industry who were asked: * How can a Design School in the age of the Anthropocene best prepare future designers for this complex world? * How can the Design School maximize the potential opportunities suggested by this future, uncertain world at a time of rapid and intensive change? * Having changed the planet how should the Design School react to the planet changing us? The three summits reflect three significant turns in the contemporary Design School. The first focused on the current issues surrounding the Design School from the academic perspective. The second summit examined the increasingly intensive relationship between industry and Design Schools. The third summit focused on the increasingly close relationship between the Design School and the Cultural Sector. The book includes essays from the expanding landscape of the Design School, including educational providers, the design museum sector, the international design festival circuit and influential practitioners engaged in design education. The essays in this book provide a valuable, comprehensive examination of the future of the Design School and render a unique forecast of its probable trajectory.

From Sentences to Essays: A Guide to Reflective Writing through Reflective Thinking

Student's Edition

Mara Cogni, Oslo Adult Education Center Sinsen, Norway

There is hardly any doubt that reading and writing are related activities, and that both rely on creating meaning. When we read, as well as when we write, we find ourselves in the process of becoming. We change our knowledge and understanding along the way. However, writing is a daunting activity not only for language learners but for anyone who wants to communicate their thoughts and ideas persuasively and accurately. When students engage in speaking activities, they are often able to communicate extraordinarily interesting ideas with few problems. Yet, when asked to form these ideas into coherent texts, they seem helpless. From basic sentence structure to writing persuasively, this book aims to help students tackle the various challenges and difficulties they face when writing. Divided into three accessible sections, Cogni presents a comprehensive and reflective approach to writing that combines grammar, vocabulary, and literature into a simultaneous and coherent whole. Cogni acknowledges that today more than ever learning a language needs to be perceived as a deeply meaningful process, and this book seeks to make that possible.

Artistic Pedagogical Technologies: A Primer for Educators

Katherine J. Janzen, Mount Royal University, Canada et al.

Research has shown that what students desire most in the post-secondary milieu is engagement. As traditional forms of teaching that include lecture or PowerPoint presentations no longer adequately engage today’s technology adept students, educators may find themselves at a loss for where to locate teaching strategies which both engage students, and are tried and tested in an actual classroom setting. This book does just that. It provides a critical look at not only what is lacking in today’s classrooms to promote engagement, but actual solutions and strategies to help nurse educators as they prepare to teach. Artistic Pedagogical Technologies were first envisioned by Dr. Beth Perry in 2005, while over twelve years of research confirms that these arts-based teaching strategies actually work. As theory-based topics can be among the most difficult to engage students, included in this book are selected lesson plans that have been employed in actual classrooms. In total thirty five strategies are provided that can be utilized in a variety of classroom settings and applied to various nursing topics. Students, as part of the human family, have an innate need to be creative. This creativity can display itself within Artistic Pedagogical Technologies as a melding of technology, edutainment and play. The strategies in Artistic Pedagogical Technologies: A Primer for Educators have changed the classroom life of the authors as educators, and they can change your teaching too.