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While most of the discourse surrounding high-impact educational practices is laudatory, the current manifestation of these practices is not above scrutiny. The benefits of integrating high-impact educational practices into the United States college experience are well-documented, especially for students from groups that have been historically underserved by higher education; however, relative to their more traditionally advantaged counterparts, these populations face greater barriers in accessing these beneficial learning experiences. This paper synthesizes existing high-impact educational literature in the United States, highlights the importance of using an equity-minded framework when exploring the often-overlooked pitfalls in their implementation, and focuses on equal access and outcomes for historically underserved populations. In order to rectify inequities, this paper suggests an ambitious new direction that should systematically catalog existing, more accessible, modified high-impact practices and, subsequently, evaluate their effectiveness. Without this research agenda, high-impact educational practices may continue to perpetuate inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explain changes made in an introductory Real Analysis classroom that address common challenges and that may allow for all levels of students to meet a high standard of learning and written work. We aim for this goal by fusing elements of a hybrid course with scaffolded collaborative work to improve student learning. The hybrid structure allows students to engage new material at their pace, while the scaffolding allows for more challenging coursework and models for students some typical arguments in analysis. As a result, students that initially submitted proofs needing significant improvement in coherence and organization show positive gains in self-confidence and are enabled to progress quickly to submitting mathematical writing of a high calibre. Our case study occurred at a large institution serving many underrepresented and non-traditional student populations. The approach may be effective at schools with similar goals and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of students in a macro practice social work elective, which integrated critical service-learning and creative placemaking. In a community-university partnership, twenty-four students from a variety of disciplines worked with a university Artist in Residence and social work professor to create a participatory mosaic mural in an ethnically diverse and rapidly gentrifying area. Of the 21 students in the class, eight participated in the study and completed hour-long semi-structured interviews. Analysis revealed three primary themes: (1) role and power of art, (2) importance of relationships, and (3) impact of this community engagement class. The findings support the importance of art and community- embedded learning in engaging students. Especially relevant to social work education, student learning focused on cultivating communication and collaboration skills across individuals, groups, and communities. This paper will contribute to the growing body of literature which supports the value of critical service-learning, creative placemaking, and community-based collaborations in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates perceived stress and coping styles among undergraduate students using a mixed-methods design. The quantitative study data came from a cross-section of 210 undergraduate social work students from two large public universities in the United States, using paper survey questionnaires. Thirty students from the same quantitative study participated in a follow-up qualitative focus group. Our mixed data revealed that most students are stressed, and primary factors related to stress include academic demands, personal and family-related issues, and financial concerns. Students in senior year, and female students, reported higher perceived stress than students in junior year and their male counterparts. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that problem-focused coping was negatively associated with perceived stress. In contrast, avoidant coping and the sum of life events experiences were positively associated with perceived stress. Notably, students who utilized avoidant coping strategies and reported experiencing more significant life events also reported higher perceived stress. Our study results demonstrate the importance of enhancing positive coping strategies among students to cope with the stress and pressure of academic demands. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work's (SW) goal of preparing a workforce more representative of the diversity of people served by the profession requires the use of theories that actively confront long-held assumption of White hegemony. This paper centers the discussion of race for its simultaneous invisibility and its power to transform SW educational spaces in the United States (US) context. An overview of the cultural competence (CC) model, a theoretical framework often used to prepare SW practitioners, is provided with a critique of its avoidance of any analysis of race and racism. The ways in which this "color-blind" approach severely limits the CC model's ability to both recognize and meet the needs of Black SW students as they navigate their dual-identities as professionals-in-training and members of a racial group who has endured historical oppression are explored. Critical race theory (CRT) is offered as an alternative conceptual framework which centers discussions of race and racism, offering opportunities to both recognize and support the learning needs and experiences of Black SW students. Guidelines for adapting SW curricula and assignments to utilize CRT in ways that support the development of critical analytic skills for SW practice are provided. Global implications for this work beyond the American context are discussed throughout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing recognition that social work educators must do more to ensure that social work students transitioning into the profession are prepared to engage in adept self-care practices. However, documented curricular efforts targeted at meeting this aim are few. This paper documents the impact of a credit-bearing self-care course on student (N = 40) competency about self-care. The course occurred in a social work education program at a large public institution in the United States. The researcher used a pre-experimental (e.g. pre/post) design to assess course outcomes. Results indicate significant improvements in student knowledge about self-care, skills related to engaging in self-care practices, and value related to self-care. After a review literature, this paper will provide a foundational overview of the course, delineate outcome variables and measures, explicate evaluative findings, and discuss salient implications derived from this endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a mixed-methods study about using virtual reality (VR) tools (Google Cardboard and Expeditions) for developing students' oral proficiency in learning Chinese as a second language. Twelve students role-played as tour guides for six locations throughout a semester: four of them with VR tools and two without. Data collection included oral presentations recorded at four different times of the semester (for Presentations 1, 3, 4, and 6), class observations, participants' reflection papers, and individual interviews at the end of the semester. Results revealed that the content and vocabulary of participants' oral presentations when using VR tools scored statistically significantly higher than when not using VR tools. Qualitative data showed that participants felt that VR tools facilitated preparation and encouraged active learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population of English learners (ELs) continues to grow in schools across the United States and around the world. In this article, we share one urban university's collaborative approach to building educational capacity for cultural and linguistic diversity through professional development efforts that brought together stakeholders from classrooms, schools, communities, and districts. This grant-funded project aimed to build educator expertise to effectively support and positively influence students' language development and disciplinary learning. Grounded in sociocultural theory, we used an apprenticeship framework of teacher development, strategically planning and implementing collaborative capacity building efforts to foster learning across individual, interpersonal, and institutional planes. In this paper, we share the results of professional development efforts across three years of this project, drawing from observation, interview, and focus group data. Findings indicate that classroom-, school-, and district-level educators developed knowledge of discipline-specific language development, pedagogical skills for effective EL teaching and learning, and leadership abilities to positively shape institutional responses to their culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Implications focus on fostering teacher professionalism through bottom-up development of EL-specific expertise and expanded opportunities for leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education (EE) has a history of support for critical place-based pedagogy as a means of learning through engagement in space, both cultural and biophysical. In this paper I tell the story of how Franco - a non-white, non-American undergraduate - engaged with local discourses in a watershed-focused EE program in the rural Midwestern US. I examine how the five tenets of critical race theory (CRT) can be used to interpret Franco’s experience, where he encountered multiple instances of racism and xenophobia. I argue that without a critical analysis of race in place-based EE programs, instructors may (a) privilege their own ways of knowing in local settings, (b) rely on ‘grit’ narratives as mechanisms for mediation of racism, and (c) send non-white students home having learned that they cannot effect meaningful change for sustainability. I conclude with recommendations for faculty in predominantly white institutions on how CRT might foster the development of critical consciousness of race in place-based EE programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acrimonious and hateful rhetoric dominating the public and political arenas and the tide of division and nationalism gaining support in many parts of the world (Arnova et al. 2013. Comparative education: the dialectic of global and local. Landahm, MD: Rowan & Littlefield) seem to be reflected in the US school system. As evidenced by a growing number of faith-based private schools, and charter and public schools being segregated along ethnic, religious, cultural and racial lines (Orfield and Gordon 2001. Schools more separate: consequences of a decade of resegregation. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project, Harvard University). Being an educator and a Muslim, I find myself concerned with the phenomenon of an increasing number of Muslim students turning to private Islamic schools, instead of public schools for their education (Badawi 2005. Parental reasons for school choice: a case study of an Islamic school in the United States of America. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). Informed by the present status of Muslims in the US and the relevant literature on integration, assimilation, and multiculturalism, the purpose of this paper that was developed through an autoethnography is to start a critical conversation, about the rights of Muslim students to receive equitable public education opportunities that recognise their cultural rights as a minority in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent shifts in web map technology away from proprietary software and toward development on the Open Web Platform have increased the number and complexity of technical skills needed to do cartography on the Web. Web-based cartography curricula likewise must be adapted to prepare geography, cartography, and GIS students with the skills needed to make use of open source technology. This paper describes the design and evaluation of a novel curriculum for the laboratory component of a web mapping course offered by a university geography department. We drew from constructivist educational theory to create a scaffolded and spiralled lab curriculum that builds on prior understanding and progressively increases student independence and confidence. We evaluated the success of the new curriculum through an instructor log, student feedback on assignments, and an exit survey. The evaluation revealed significant growth in student abilities and confidence in the use of Open Web Platform-based mapping tools as a result of the curriculum scaffolding. This research provides a methodology for designing and evaluating curriculum around highly technical skills that are increasingly in demand in research, education, and industry careers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a descriptive account of how short-term international and multicultural experiences can be integrated into early design experiences in an aerospace engineering curriculum. Such approaches are considered as important not only in fostering a student's interest in the engineering curriculum, but also exposing them to a multicultural setting that they are likely to encounter in their professional careers. In the broader sense, this programme is described as a model that can be duplicated in other engineering disciplines as a first-year experience. In this study, undergraduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Universidad del Turabo (UT) in Puerto Rico collaborated on a substantial design project consisting of designing, fabricating, and flight-testing radio-controlled model aircraft as a capstone experience in a semester-long course on Fundamentals of Flight. The two-week long experience in Puerto Rico was organised into academic and cultural components designed with the following objectives: (i) to integrate students in a multicultural team-based academic and social environment, (ii) to practise team-building skills and develop students’ critical thinking and analytical skills, and finally (iii) to excite students about their engineering major through practical applications of aeronautics and help them decide if it is a right fit for them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents findings from research that investigated students and academic staff working in partnership to co-create curricula. Using case study methodology, the study investigated three examples within higher education in the UK, Ireland and the USA, where academic staff and students co-designed curricula. Findings focus on the approach to co-created curricula described by academic staff within each setting, followed by presentation of cross-case themes and outcomes from the three examples. The discussion focuses on drawing out key messages from the study results including the importance of students’ views being taken seriously and a range of early design decisions that are taken by academic staff and which are useful to those considering co-creating curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we describe an exercise that challenges hetero-normative and sexist notions of sexuality, allowing students to envision alternative models. Research shows how active learning eases student anxiety over challenging or threatening material. After reading Jessica Fields'Risky Lessonsand Waskul, Vannini, and Weisen's article entitled ‘Women and Their Clitoris’, students designed a sex education curriculum that challenges conventional methods. Beyond critiquing existing sex education models, this exercise provides a space for students to reflect on their own sex education experiences, develop their own ideas for teaching about sex and become comfortable discussing sex and sexuality with their peers. All but one of the students reported finding the activity enjoyable or interesting. More than half of students reported change in their views about sex and sex education as a result of the activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]