Linked Courses for General Education and Integrative Learning - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1579224865 ISBN 13: 9781579224868

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

Research indicates that of the pedagogies recognized as “high impact”, learning communities – one approach to which, the linked course, is the subject of this book – lead to an increased level of student engagement in the freshman year that persists through the senior year, and improve retention.

This book focuses on the learning community model that is the most flexible to implement in terms of scheduling, teacher collaboration, and design: the linked course. The faculty may teach independently or together, coordinating syllabi and assignments so that the classes complement each other, and often these courses are linked around a particular interdisciplinary theme. Creating a cohort that works together for two paired courses motivates students, while the course structure promotes integrative learning as students make connections between disciplines.

This volume covers both “linked courses” in which faculty may work to coordinate syllabi and assignments, but teach most of their courses separately, as well as well as “paired courses” in which two or more courses are team taught in an integrated program in which faculty participate as learners as well as teachers.

Part One, Linked Course Pedagogies, includes several case studies of specific linked courses, including a study skills course paired with a worldview course; a community college course that challenges students’ compartmentalized thinking; and a paired course whose outcomes can be directly compared to parallel stand-alone courses

Part Two, Linked Course Programs, includes a description of several institutional programs representing a variety of linked course program models. Each chapter includes information about program implementation, staffing logistics and concerns, curriculum development, pedagogical strategies, and faculty development.

Part Three, Assessing Linked Courses, highlights the role of assessment in supporting, maintaining, and improving linked course programs by sharing assessment models and describing how faculty and administrators have used particular assessment practices in order to improve their linked course programs.

About this title

Book Description:

“The subtitle of this book is ‘A Guide for Faculty and Administrators,’ and it more than lives up to the promise of guidance. The introduction gives the rationale for learning communities and discusses linked courses as the most popular model, while various essays focus on the pedagogies involved and on the design and implementation of specific linked courses."―Sarah McLeod, Research Professor of Wrioting, UC Santa Barbara Writing Program

"Linked Courses shows college administrators and teachers across disciplines a versatile, workable―and assessment-sensitive―model for making the most of college and presents a blend of new and time-tested strategies that together provide an inspiring response to the call for higher education reform."―Christopher Thaiss, Clark Keer Presidential Chair

Research indicates that of the pedagogies recognized as “high impact”, learning communities – one approach to which, the linked course, is the subject of this book – lead to an increased level of student engagement in the freshman year that persists through the senior year, and improve retention.

This book focuses on the learning community model that is the most flexible to implement in terms of scheduling, teacher collaboration, and design: the linked course. The faculty may teach independently or together, coordinating syllabi and assignments so that the classes complement each other, and often these courses are linked around a particular interdisciplinary theme. Creating a cohort that works together for two paired courses motivates students, while the course structure promotes integrative learning as students make connections between disciplines.

This volume covers both “linked courses” in which faculty may work to coordinate syllabi and assignments, but teach most of their courses separately, as well as well as “paired courses” in which two or more courses are team taught in an integrated program in which faculty participate as learners as well as

About the Author:

Margot Soven

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1579224865
• ISBN 13: 9781579224868
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Soven Margot, Lehr Dolores, Naynaha Siskanna, Olson Wendy