Provost Academy Books

This book brings together reflections from seventy academics - everyone from doctoral students to a retired provost - who share their lived experiences in graduate school and beyond. Career seekers, adjunct professors, those in or considering graduate school, and tenure-track professors alike will find truths revealed through these shared experiences of struggle, triumph, loss and hope.

Higher education in the United States is a complex, diverse, and important enterprise. The latest book in the Core Concepts in Higher Education series brings to life issues of governance, organization, teaching and learning, student life, faculty, finances, college sports, public policy, fundraising, and innovations in higher education today. Written by renowned author John R. Thelin, each chapter bridges research, theory, and practice and discusses a range of institutions - including the often overlooked for-profits, community colleges, and minority serving institutions. A blend of stories and analysis, this new book challenges present and future higher education practitioners to be informed and active participants, capable of improving their institutions.

Creating a successful and distinctive approach to learning and teaching at scale is a challenge facing all universities. This brief presents the Self-Organizing University (SOU), a transformational whole-of-organization solution for the design, delivery, and evaluation of learning and teaching in all its forms. It describes the elements of the SOU approach along with the implementation process and expected outcomes. It also explains the rationale and research base for each element of the model and how they are connected to create a university-wide model of learning and teaching. It includes guidance for anyone responsible for institutional improvement in the learning and teaching space.

This book questions some of our most ingrained assumptions, not only about the nature of teaching and learning, but about what constitutes education, and about the cultural determinants of what is taught. What if who you think you are profoundly affects what and how you learn? Since Descartes, teachers in the Western tradition have dismissed the role of self in learning. What if our beliefs about self and learning are wrong, and relevance of knowledge to self actually enhances learning, as current research suggests? Jane Fried deconstructs the Grand Western Narrative of teaching and learning, describing it is a cultural fishbowl through which we see the world, rarely aware of the fishbowl itself, be it disciplinary constructs or the definition of liberal education.

Colleges and universities silo diversity and inclusion by creating specific courses to address them, or programs to welcome and support people with a range of identities, whereas in reality students, faculty and staff do not encounter diversity in the fractured ways that match the organizational structures of our institutions. We all simultaneously embody a variety of identities with different saliency in different circumstances and times. This book offers models for institutions to move intentionally toward intersections - of study abroad and multiculturalism, of race and gender and religion, and of other essential aspects of our educational programs and our students' identities - to open doors to new possibilities that better prepare our students for life in a diverse world, and that allow our institutions to become more efficient and effective as we strive to not simply do things better in our own separate spheres, but to do better things by working together across difference.

Gun violence - whether rampage shootings, homicides or suicides - is a potential reality all campuses have to face. This book provides leaders in higher education - and particularly those in student affairs - with data about past incidents, an analysis of trends, and background on the national debate about gun policies and how they impact colleges, state by state. It importantly raises issues about student psychological development, mental health, and the prevalence of alcohol and substance abuse on campus, to better inform discussion about allowing guns on campus and concealed carry.

How can we "fix" our schools? Improve graduation rates in college? What works? These are questions that make the headlines and vex policy makers, practitioners, and educational researchers. While they strive to improve society, there are frequently gulfs of mutual incomprehension among them. Academics, longing for more influence, may wrongly fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully. Policy makers and practitioners may doubt that academics can deliver ideas that will reliably yield desirable results. This book bridges the divide. It argues that unrealistic expectations lead to both unproductive research and impossible standards for "evidence-based" policy and practice, and it offers promising ways for evidence to contribute to improvement.

The author of the best-selling What the Best College Teachers Do is back with humane, doable, and inspiring help for students who want to get the most out of their education. The first thing they should do? Think beyond the transcript. Use these four years to cultivate habits of thought that enable learning, growth, and adaptation throughout life.

This book presents the potential uses and benefits of journals for personal and professional development-particularly for those in academic life; and demonstrates journals' potential to foster college students' learning, fluency and voice, and creative thinking. In professional life, a journal helps to organize, prioritize and address the many expectations of a faculty member's or administrator's roles. Journals are effective for developing time management skills, building problem-solving skills, fostering insight, and decreasing stress. Both writing and rereading journal entries allow the journal keeper to document thinking; to track changes and review observations; and to examine assumptions and so gain fresh perspectives and insights over past events. The authors present the background to help readers make an informed decision about the value of journals and to determine whether journals will fit appropriately with their teaching objectives or help manage their personal and professional lives. They offer insights and advice on selecting the format or formats and techniques most appropriate for the reader's purposes.