Changing the Conversation about Higher Education

American colleges and universities are laboring with sharply reduced resources and being asked pointed questions about their efficiency and effectiveness in educating students like never before.
For those administrators, faculty and all readers who want to understand how colleges can get better at their most important work, they will find invaluable guidance in Changing the Conversation about Higher Education. Robert Thompson has brought together the work of more than twenty professionals across thirteen universities to present important research on the obscure issues of vision, structure, and cultural transformation as they pertain to administrators and faculty. The result is a much-needed discussion on how to improve faculty and curricular reform for student success. Changing the Conversation about Higher Education addresses the contributions and findings from this research and is intended for academic administrators, faculty, and graduate students who are dedicated to improving undergraduate teaching and learning. The research was directed at two core aims of a liberal education: critical thinking and writing.

Dr. Robert Thompson is professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University where he has served as head of the division of medical psychology, director of the undergraduate program in human development, dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Dr. Thompson received the Bachelor of Arts degree from LaSalle College in 1967 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Dakota in 1971 and served on the faculties of Georgetown University Medical School and Catholic University of America prior to coming to Duke University in 1975.

Table of Contents
Forward:
Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University
Preface:
Content Overview:
Acknowledgements:
Contributors:
Introduction:
Robert J. Thompson, Jr., Duke University
Part One: Effective Teaching and Learning Practices
Chapter 1. From Bottlenecks to Epistemology in History: Changing the Conversation
about the Teaching of History in Colleges and Universities
Leah Shopkow with Arlene Diaz, Joan Middendorf, and David Pace
Indiana University
Chapter 2. Using Scaffolding and Metacognitive Processes to Improve Critical Thinking
in the Disciplines
Andrea Follmer Greenhoot, University of Kansas
Chapter 3. Think like/write like: Metacognitive Strategies to Foster Students' Development
as Disciplinary Thinkers and Writers
Deborah Meizlish, Danielle LaVaque-Manty, Naomi Silver, and Matthew Kaplan
University of Michigan
Chapter 4. How Writing-to-Learn Practices Improve Student Learning: Connecting
Research and Practice through a Consideration of Mechanisms of Effect
Christopher Thaiss,University of California-Davis
Julie Reynolds, Duke University
Part Two: Approaches to Assessment
Chapter 5. Assessment Approaches and Perspectives: Engaging Faculty and
Improving Student Learning
Jessica L. Jonson, Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Robert J. Thompson, Jr., Ph.D., Duke University
Chapter 6. Developing a Process for Assessing General Education Learning Outcomes
Across a Multi-College University
Erin Blankenship, Shari J. Stenberg, and David E. Wilson
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chapter 7. Disciplinary-Specific Thesis Assessment Protocol: A Validated Rubric
that Promotes Student Learning and Faculty Development
Julie Reynolds, Duke University
Part Three: The Role of University Centers: Professional Learning Communities
Chapter 8. Teaching and Learning Centers as Professional Learning Communities
Daniel Bernstein, University of Kansas
Chapter 9. Amplifying the Impact of Pedagogical Research: The Role of Teaching
Centers and Writing Centers
Matthew Kaplan, Deborah Meizlish, Naomi Silver, and Danielle LaVaque-Manty,
University of Michigan
Part Four: Next Steps in the Continuing Efforts to Transform the Culture of
Undergraduate Education
Chapter 10. Systematic to Systemic: A Heuristic Framework to Improve Educational
Practices and Student Learning
Robert J. Thompson, Jr., Duke University
Chapter 11. Changing the Conversation, Changing the Culture: The Place of
Foundations in the Learning Commons
Annie W. Bezbatchenko, The Teagle Foundation
Andrea Conklin Bueschel, The Spencer Foundation
Donna Heiland, The Teagle Foundation
References: