Reform and Innovation in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment


Project Description

Since the call for reform in undergraduate education during the mid 1980s, campuses and consortia of institutions have responded with a range of activities directed towards the improvement of teaching, learning, and the use of assessment. This research project, which is part of Project Area 5 of the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement (NCPI), is designed to identify and examine the development, adoption, and actual use of strategies geared toward the improvement of teaching and student outcomes (broadly defined). The project is one of two approaches toward the study of Academic Programs and Students, designated as area 5.3, which encompasses a review of national data on students and faculty to understand the utility of national resources for the improvement of undergraduate education in the country. (Find information on the Metadata Review Project as the other 5.3 research initiative).

The Study of Reform and Innovation Practices

We are documenting current reforms and innovation movements in order to examine:

1. How innovations are brought about, identifying key actors facilitating these practices.

2. How institutions have come to identify problems in the way teaching and learning takes place, and the fundamental changes occurring in the ways that undergraduates are taught.

3. How assessment, student diversity, and use of new technology are incorporated in the current innovation movements.

While innovations in teaching and learning are occurring across the country within postsecondary education, we will select a few institutions for in-depth study whose strategies hold promise for broad adoption across the diversity of institutions in higher education. This study of undergraduate improvement efforts will provide information on how the many aspects of teaching, learning, and assessment work in tandem to produce results. Our intent is to focus on faculty and students within specific cases of institutions that gauge the impact of changing educational practices in higher education. These data on students and faculty will be linked with information from Projects 5.1 and 5.2 to present a coherent portrait of our knowledge and changing practices in teaching, learning, and assessment that affect students, faculty, and academic programs.

Involved in an activity designed to improve teaching, student learning, and assessment on your campus? We are interested in hearing about the activity and whether the practices in our summaries encompass the range of campus activity in response to improving undergraduate education. Click postcard to drop a line to our project. We are interested in a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary reforms and innovations designed to improve undergraduate education. Let us know how you or campus colleagues are initiating new activity to improve undergraduate education.



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