It Works for Me with High Impact Practices

Authors: 

  Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe, & Russell Carpenter

High impact practices are a twenty-first-century phenomenon, but if you’ve read any of the authors’ books, you know, for instance, that for many years they have been collaborating, instructing undergraduates how to research like full professors, and teaching writing intensive courses—in short, employing some high impact practices, even though, back then, they were merely effective teaching strategies.

What impresses the authors the most about HIPs is that they have been rigorously assessed, and no doubt remains that they work, resulting in deeper learning. Moreover, what started as a top-ten practices list has already grown to eleven with the demonstrated efficacy of the e-portfolio. And that list will surely grow as more and more research is performed.

For this title, there is one point the authors would like to stress: No law exists that prevents you from using more than one HIP at a time in a learning experience. In fact, as their PLC experience proved, piggybacking the HIPs makes them even more effective, or, as Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be . . . wonderful.”

Preface                                                                                                                           vii

An Introduction to High-Impact Practices................................................................. ix

 I. First-Year Seminars and Experiences...................................................................... 1
What Factors Make First-Year Undergraduate Experiences Successful?................ 2
OMG—An Orientation to Media Genres for College Freshmen............................. 4

II. Common Intellectual Experiences........................................................................... 7
Picture This............................................................................................................... 8
Using the Deathly Hallows: Combining High-Impact Practices
for First-Year Success..................................................................................... 10
Improving Course Plans Via Standardized Committee Review............................ 13

III. Writing-Intensive Courses.................................................................................... 15
       Developing Scientific Thinking Through Writing.................................................. 16
A Case of Their Own............................................................................................. 18
Getting Rid of the Research Paper......................................................................... 19
Writing in the Discipline—Learning the Discourse
of Future Professional Communities............................................................... 21

IV. Collaborative Assignments and Projects............................................................. 25
How Structured Small Groups (Cooperative Learning)
Can Motivate Students.................................................................................... 26
Helping Introverts Thrive During Cooperative Group Work................................. 29
12 Step Recovery Program for Lectureholics......................................................... 32
Learning the Agile Way with Iterative and Incremental Projects.......................... 39
Effective and Interactive Group Assignments in an Online Course...................... 42
The Promise and Challenges of Synchronous Online Cooperative Learning......... 44
Using Oral History for Collaborative Projects....................................................... 48
Five Approaches to Implementing End-of-Course Group Projects....................... 51
Creating Collaborative Learning with Storytelling................................................ 52
Collaborative Lesson Planning: It Works For Me.................................................. 54
Weaving Collaboration Throughout a Course........................................................ 57
Pairing High School and College Students So They Can Learn
from Each Other.............................................................................................. 60
Student-Organized Speaker Visits: A Diversity of Voices.................................... 62
Team Work Does Not Have to Be a Bad Thing..................................................... 63
Introducing Students to Tools to Support Collaboration....................................... 66

V. Undergraduate Research....................................................................................... 69
Scholarly and Creative Undergraduate Learning Partnership
Team (SCULPT): Triple Areas of Focus......................................................... 70
Opening the Doors of Research Laboratories to All.............................................. 73
Involving Undergraduate Students in Research.................................................... 75
An Interview Project for the Arts Classroom......................................................... 77
A Research Laboratory Course as a High-Impact Practice.................................... 79
Developing a Collegial Relationship with Undergraduate
Research Students........................................................................................... 82
Facilitating Research Engagement and Student Success....................................... 84

VI. Diversity/Global Learning.................................................................................... 89
A New Framework for 21^st Century Classrooms................................................... 90
A Passport to Innovation: Teaching Abroad.......................................................... 93
Making Immersion Experiences During Multicultural Training
Appropriate and Meaningful for Minority Students....................................... 95
What Makes a Good Study Abroad Program........................................................ 98
Hip Hip Here and Away...................................................................................... 101
Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms......................................................... 103
Can 100 People Tell a Meaningful Story?............................................................ 108
Discovering the Use of Interactive Scenarios to Address
Diversity/Global Learning............................................................................. 112
Using Students’ Second Language to Tackle Prejudice and Misconceptions..... 116

VII. Service-Learning/Community-Based Learning.............................................. 119
Making Play Not Just for Fun: Service-Learning Project
in Children’s Museum.......................................................................................... 120
University-Level Factors Affecting Outcome of Community-Based Learning............ 123
Changing Lives and Minds: A Win-Win.............................................................. 125
Tiered Journaling: Multiple Paths to Reflecting on Service Learning.................. 127
Service Learning in the Visual Arts...................................................................... 130
Highlight Your Students’ Work: Art Show (but not by artists)!......................... 132

VIII. Internships........................................................................................................ 135
Why an Internship................................................................................................ 136
One Size Doesn’t Fit All...................................................................................... 138
Internships with Impact: Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education................ 140

IX. Capstone Courses and Projects.......................................................................... 145
Motivating Students to Learn with Project-Based Learning............................... 146
The Power of Reflection: The `Thought-Piece’ in Capstone Courses.................. 148
Preparing Preservice Teachers for the edTPA: Frustrations
and Tips for Teacher Educators..................................................................... 151
Effective Utilization of a Capstone Project: A Case Study Oral Exam............... 154
Using Graduate-Level Action Research to Impact Teacher Effectiveness
and Student Achievement............................................................................. 156
From Paper to Social Networking: Updating Capstone Assignments
for the Electronic Age................................................................................... 157

X. ePortfolios.............................................................................................................. 163
Six-Word Stories—A Simple, Powerful Portfolio Reflection Tool..................... 164
ePortfolios as a Multidimensional Learning Experience
for Preservice Teachers.................................................................................. 168
ePortfolios Help Students Integrate Their Learning............................................ 170

Afterword................................................................................................................... 173

About the Authors..................................................................................................... 175

Charlie Sweet, Ph.D. (Florida State University, 1970), is the Co-Director of the Teaching & Learning Center at Eastern Kentucky University.  With Hal, he has collaborated on over 1200 published works, including 17 books, literary criticism, educational research, and ghostwriter of the lead novella for the Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.

Hal Blythe, Ph.D. (University of Louisville, 1972), is the Co-Director of the Teaching & Learning Center at Eastern Kentucky University.  With Charlie, he has collaborated on over 1200 published works, including 17 books (eight in New Forums’ popular It Works For Me Series), literary criticism, and educational research.

Russell Carpenter, Ph.D. (University of Central Florida, 2009), directs the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity and Minor in Applied Creative Thinking at Eastern Kentucky University where he is also Assistant Professor of English. He is the author or editor of several recent books including The Routledge Reader on Writing Centers and New Media (with Sohui Lee), Cases on Higher Education Spaces, Teaching Applied Creative Thinking (with Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe, and Shawn Apostel), and the Introduction to Applied Creative Thinking (with Charlie Sweet and Hal Blythe). He serves as President of the Southeastern Writing Center Association and Past Chair of the National Association of Communication Centers.

 2018 [ISBN: 1-58107-320-8; 190 pages; 7 ½ x 9 ¾ inch; soft cover] $20.95