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This book explores the many ways in which the obsession with \"being smart\" distorts the life of a typical college or university, and how this obsession leads to a higher education that shortchanges the majority of students, and by extension, our society's need for an educated population. The author calls on his colleagues in higher education to return the focus to the true mission of developing the potential of each student: However \"smart\" they are when they get to college, both the student and the college should be able to show what they learned while there.Unfortunately, colleges and universities have embraced two very narrow definitions of smartness: the course grade and especially the standardized test. A large body of research shows that it will be very difficult for colleges to fulfill their stated mission unless they substantially broaden their conception to include student qualities such as leadership, social responsibility, honesty, empathy, and citizenship. Specifically, the book grapples with issues such as the following: Why America's 3,000-plus colleges and universities have evolved into a hierarchical pecking order, where institutions compete with each other to recruit \"smart\" students, and where a handful of elite institutions at the top of the pecking order enroll the \"smartest\" students. Why higher education favors its smartest students to the point where the \"not so smart\" students get second-class treatment. Why so many colleges find it difficult to make good on their commitment to affirmative action and \"equality of opportunity.\" Why college faculties tend to value being smart more than developing students' smartness (i.e., teaching and learning).

Co-published with AIR. Published in association with Assessment and accountability are now inescapable features of the landscape of higher education, and ensuring that these assessments are psychometrically sound has become a high priority for accrediting agencies and therefore also for higher education institutions. Bringing together the higher education assessment literature with the psychometric literature, this book focuses on how to practice sound assessment. This volume provides comprehensive and detailed descriptions of tools for and approaches to assessing student learning outcomes in higher education. The book is guided by the core purpose of assessment, which is to enable faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals with the information they need to increase student learning by making changes in policies, curricula, and other programs. The book is divided into three sections: overview, assessment in higher education, and case studies. The central section looks at direct and indirect measures of student learning, and how to assure the validity, reliability, and fairness of both types. The first six chapters (the first two sections) alternate chapters written by experts in assessment in higher education and experts in psychometrics. The remaining three chapters are applications of assessment practices in three higher education institutions. Finally, the book includes a glossary of key terms in the field.

\"50 Techniques for Engaging Students and Assessing Learning in College Courses Do you want to: Know what and how well your students are learning? Promote active learning in ways that readily integrate assessment? Gather information that can help make grading more systematic and streamlined? Efficiently collect solid learning outcomes data for institutional assessment? Provide evidence of your teaching effectiveness for promotion and tenure review? Learning Assessment Techniques provides 50 easy-to-implement active learning techniques that gauge student learning across academic disciplines and learning environments. Using Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning as its organizational framework, it embeds assessment within active learning activities. Each technique features: purpose and use, key learning goals, step-by-step implementation, online adaptation, analysis and reporting, concrete examples in both on-site and online environments, and key references--all in an easy-to-follow format. The book includes an all-new Learning Goals Inventory, as well as more than 35 customizable assessment rubrics, to help teachers determine significant learning goals and appropriate techniques. This book also provides access to a downloadable worksheet to guide teachers through the seven steps of the Learning Assessment Techniques planning and implementation cycle. College teachers today are under increased pressure to teach effectively and provide evidence of what, and how well, students are learning. An invaluable asset for college teachers of any subject, Learning Assessment Techniques provides a practical framework for seamlessly integrating teaching, learning, and assessment\"-- Provided by publisher.

The assessment of students an activity central to the role of any professional in further and higher education, and is an area that is the subject of constant innovation and debate. This book provides a scholarly account of the many facets of assessment, with a particular focus on student involvement. Peer and self-assessment are powerful assessment tools to add to the existing tutor-based methods of assessment and feedback, and this book is a comprehensive guide to the the methods and issues involved.Practical and accessible in style, yet grounded in research and rich in evidence-based material, Improving Assessment Through Student Involvement will be valued by all FE or HE professionals wanting to enhance both the effectiveness and quality of their assessment methods.

Enrich your students and the institution with a high-impact practice Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses is a practical, research-backed guide to creating a course that is valuable for both the student and the school. The book covers the design, administration, and teaching of capstone courses throughout the undergraduate curriculum, guiding departments seeking to add a capstone course, and allowing those who have one to compare it to others in the discipline. The ideas presented in the book are supported by regional and national surveys that help the reader understand what's common, what's exceptional, what works, and what doesn't within capstone courses. The authors also provide additional information specific to different departments across the curriculum, including STEM, social sciences, humanities, fine arts, education, and professional programs. Identified as a high-impact practice by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities' LEAP initiative, capstone courses culminate a student's final college years in a project that integrates and applies what they've learned. The project takes the form of a research paper, a performance, a portfolio, or an exhibit, and is intended to showcase the student's very best work as a graduating senior. This book is a guide to creating for your school or department a capstone course that ties together undergraduate learning in a way that enriches the student and adds value to the college experience. * Understand what makes capstone courses valuable for graduating students * Discover the factors that make a capstone course effective, and compare existing programs, both within academic disciplines and across institutions * Learn administrative and pedagogical techniques that increase the course's success * Examine discipline-specific considerations for design, administration, and instruction Capstones are generally offered in departmental programs, but are becoming increasingly common in general education as well. Faculty and administrators looking to add a capstone course or revive an existing one need to understand what constitutes an effective program. Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses provides an easily digested summary of existing research, and offers expert guidance on making your capstone course successful.

Assessing Student Learning is a standard reference for college faculty and administrators, and the third edition of this highly regarded book continues to offer comprehensive, practical, plainspoken guidance.

How Assessment Supports Learning: Learning-oriented Assessment in Action invites teachers in higher education to rethink the purposes of assessment and to revise their assessment practices in the interests of improved student learning. It combines practic