Career Ready Education Through Experiential Learning

Despite the promise of competency-based education (CBE), learner-centered issues related to support, retention, and program completion rates remain problematic. In addition, the infrastructure for higher education, including issues related to faculty (intellectual property, workload, and curriculum), pose barriers and challenges in the design, development, implementation, and delivery of CBE. In response, administrators, faculty, designers, and developers of competency-based experiences must incorporate innovative strategies that are foreign to the traditional institution. A strong emphasis on retention and graduation rates must surround the student with support, starting with the design and development of the CBE system. There are few resources that can help prepare instructional designers, advisors, academic administrators, and faculty to meet the many challenges of designing, developing, implementing, and managing CBE. Career Ready Education Through Experiential Learning is an essential reference book that includes strategies for design and development of competency-based education (CBE) programs, as well as administrative and delivery strategies as examples of how CBE can be implemented. Through a strong theoretical framework, chapters present the best practices, strategies, and practical tips as examples and scenarios that can be used in higher education settings. While highlighting education courses, programs, and lessons across various institutions and educational domains, this book is ideal for higher education administrators and policy designers/implementors, instructional designers, curriculum developers, faculty, public policy leaders, students in curriculum and instruction and instructional technology programs, along with researchers and practitioners interested in CBE and experiential learning in higher education.

Experiential learning is a powerful and proven approach to teaching and learning that is based on one incontrovertible reality: people learn best through experience. Now, in this extensively updated book, David A. Kolb offers a systematic and up-to-date statement of the theory of experiential learning and its modern applications to education, work, and adult development. Experiential Learning, Second Edition builds on the intellectual origins of experiential learning as defined by figures such as John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and L.S. Vygotsky, while also reflecting three full decades of research and practice since the classic first edition. Kolb models the underlying structures of the learning process based on the latest insights in psychology, philosophy, and physiology. Building on his comprehensive structural model, he offers an exceptionally useful typology of individual learning styles and corresponding structures of knowledge in different academic disciplines and careers. Kolb also applies experiential learning to higher education and lifelong learning, especially with regard to adult education. This edition reviews recent applications and uses of experiential learning, updates Kolb's framework to address the current organizational and educational landscape, and features current examples of experiential learning both in the field and in the classroom. It will be an indispensable resource for everyone who wants to promote more effective learning: in higher education, training, organizational development, lifelong learning environments, and online.

How can educators ensure that young people who attain a postsecondary credential are adequately prepared for the future? Matthew T. Hora and his colleagues explain that the answer is not simply that students need more specialized technical training to meet narrowly defined employment opportunities. Beyond the Skills Gap challenges this conception of the “skills gap,” highlighting instead the value of broader twenty-first-century skills in postsecondary education. They advocate for a system in which employers share responsibility along with the education sector to serve the collective needs of the economy, society, and students. Drawing on interviews with educators in two- and four-year institutions and employers in the manufacturing and biotechnology sectors, the authors demonstrate the critical importance of habits of mind such as problem solving, teamwork, and communication. They go on to show how faculty and program administrators can create active learning experiences that develop students’ skills across a range of domains. The book includes in-depth descriptions of eight educators whose classrooms exemplify the effort to blend technical learning with the cultivation of twenty-first-century habits of mind. The study, set in Wisconsin, takes place against the backdrop of heated political debates over the role of public higher education. This thoughtful and nuanced account, enriched by keen observations of postsecondary instructional practice, promises to contribute new insights to the rich literature on workforce development and to provide valuable guidance for postsecondary faculty and administrators.

Students taught with a social justice framework will ideally have a stronger sense of what is just and fair and choose careers and lifestyles that support their communities. Over time, students look at current and historical events—even their own actions—through the lens of social justice, promoting better decision-making. Building trust impacts the bottom line for global companies, and multilingual communication is a core pillar for effective growth. It is essential to promote this trust through social justice and educate learners on intercultural and multilingual communication. The Handbook of Research on Fostering Social Justice Through Intercultural and Multilingual Communication explores innovative teaching, learning, and assessment practices that foster social justice and enhance intercultural and multilingual communication in primary, secondary, post-secondary, and higher education. It demonstrates the value of adopting a social justice lens in education by broadening and strengthening the evidence base of the impact that this can make for students, educators, and society as a whole. Covering topics such as game-based assessment, social adaptation, and plurilingual classroom citizenship, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for educators and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, librarians, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, government officials, educational managers, linguists, researchers, and academicians.

Traditionally understood as an ancient teaching method conceived by the philosopher Socrates, scholars in education have boldly explored the definitions, philosophical underpinnings, assumptions, and uses of Socratic dialogue in various learning situations and educational settings. Despite its ancient origins, the Socratic Method has an impact on contemporary leadership, critical thinking skills, e-learning, adult education, and social-emotional learning. Enhancing Teaching and Learning With Socratic Educational Strategies: Emerging Research and Opportunities presents scholarly work, philosophical investigations, educational claims, and the latest empirical research on the process and outcome of the Socratic Method in educational contexts. It delves deeply into the instructional strategy uncovering its practical impact in educational contexts and its philosophical and societal consequences in the modern world. Covering topics such as female voice, maieutic instruction, and teacher preparation, this book is an essential resource for philosophers, educational administration, educators, researchers, pre-service teachers, academicians, and government programs.

Past injustice against racial groups rings out throughout history and negatively affects today’s society. Not only do people hold onto negative perceptions, but government processes and laws have remnants of these past ideas that impact people today. To enact change and promote justice, it is essential to recognize the generational trauma experienced by these groups. The Research Anthology on Racial Equity, Identity, and Privilege analyzes the impact that past racial inequality has on society today. This book discusses the barriers that were created throughout history and the ways to overcome them and heal as a community. Covering topics such as critical race theory, transformative change, and intergenerational trauma, this three-volume comprehensive major reference work is a dynamic resource for sociologists, community leaders, government officials, policymakers, education administration, preservice teachers, students and professors of higher education, justice advocates, researchers, and academicians.