Back to the Future

This chapter corroborates competence-based and social-situational educational practices with the principles of Blended Shore Education (BSE) and Metagogy. These two theorems emerged from several action research projects that engaged Chicago community members, university students, and educators from around the world. The principles, tenets, and descriptions of applied instructional methods in the context of civic and social engagement projects demonstrate how teaching and learning praxes and curricula and program design can be achieved by and with the learners, by the university, and by the community stakeholders to result in relevant and meaningful education models in higher education.

The Moment I Realized I Had to Give Back by Teaching

The author provides insight into surviving a traumatic, life-altering experience and returning to school to finish attaining a degree later in life. Completing the process of gaining a higher education can be more than simply rewarding, for a survivor, for someone older than the average student, or for someone simply searching for their place in life. The journey can help people recover, overcome obstacles and fears, and not only put their lives back together, but improve their quality of life. Finding the right school and a mentoring program, one that helps guide a student through a higher education, can be more than a scholastic achievement; it can be a part of the process of rebuilding a life and moving on. In fact, it can be transforming and inspiring. This chapter examines the process and offers insight and advice on the importance of reaching goals, despite any obstacles.

The Contribution of Part-Time Work Experience to Pre-Service Teachers' Development of Graduate Employability

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has been found to be effective in developing graduate employability. Working part-time while undertaking undergraduate studies may produce similar effects; however, its contribution to the development of students' employability has not yet been examined adequately. Therefore, this chapter will report a study investigating 22 Vietnamese pre-service teachers' experiences of how working as teaching assistants in commercial English language centers has contributed to their employability. Content analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that part-time work experience elevated the pre-service teachers' specialized knowledge and skills, equipped them with soft skills, expanded their social networks, enhanced their adaptability to different work cultures, and modified their teacher identity. The chapter calls for universities to award credits for part-time work experience as a type of WIL, develop a mechanism for integrating it into curricula, and help graduates evidence their work experience to their future employers.

Developing a Competency-Based Instructor Training Model of Professional Development

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a set of instructor competencies for faculty professional development when transitioning to competency-based instructional programming. This chapter details considerations when designing and developing a competency-based, instructor training model. A competency-based education (CBE) program ought to have instructors that are competent analyzing, designing, developing, and evaluating competency-based instructional offerings. If the purpose of competency-based instructional programs is to move beyond static and passive, knowledge-only based instruction, then instructors should also be capable of providing dynamic, active knowledge and skill-based opportunities for learning.

Potentials of Reflection for Better Practice

This chapter describes how adult learners in competency-based degree programs learn to reflect actively on their learning and performance. Vignettes of adult learners portray what they perceive as the benefits of reflective practice for their personal and professional lives. The author, an adult educator, shares her experience facilitating reflection in two different contexts: reflection that focuses on the individual and reflection that is done in collaboration with others. In the context of competency-based programs, many of the adult learners emphasize reflection on self that includes movement to social action. The chapter concludes with a discussion of reflective practice with regard to frameworks of experiential learning and brain-aware learning.

Mentoring at Minority-Serving Institutions

This chapter highlights mentorship strategies of a southeastern Historically Black College and University (HBCU) adult degree program. In serving the nontraditional student population of this Black university, the institutions have cultivated strategies used to mentor and motivate adult students to achieve successful outcomes. Some of these strategies are built around activities and organizations designed to include adult students while other measures can be contributed to the development of the family like atmosphere that the college provides nontraditional students on campus and virtually. These insights were gathered from the experiences of current and previous students of the program as well as faculty and administrators through informal interviews and observation. This work will first address the literature on mentoring adult learners, highlight the strategies that were used to develop the college's approach to adult mentorship, and share examples. The chapter will close with recommendations and insights on how our approach could be replicated at other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Situated Learning Meets Community Needs

This chapter describes a community-based learning project (CbLP) in the Chicago West Side community of Austin. This learning setting provided the context for applying instructional strategies, methods, and techniques that are grounded in principles of social-situational learning and competence-based education and the education philosophy of emancipatory or popular education. Student perceptions are presented in excerpts of their critical reflection journals and learning product samples, which were both resource contributions to the community and deliverables for assessment and evaluation of learning for students. The chapter illustrates key features of designing and facilitating learning within a civic engagement-themed CbLP.

Self-Efficacy and the Future Selves Construct

This chapter assesses and evaluates whether or not positive interfaces between adult learners and their instructors and academic advisors affect their learning experience and the concept of their possible positive future selves. This chapter promotes the importance of strategies that support self-efficacy and the future selves construct, and raises awareness of the impact this concept can have on undergraduate adult learners' academic and personal success. In addition, this chapter focuses on an in-depth perspective from the undergraduate adult learner as to whether or not they believe they were supported by educators with regards to developing or strengthening self-efficacy and the future selves construct, and whether or not they believed these factors impacted their academic performance. The aim is to enhance the abilities of instructors and contribute ideas to full and part-time faculty members by sharing strategies to enhance teaching efforts that positively impact learning for the undergraduate adult learner.

Making the Postsecondary Education Experience a Primary Focus for the Evolving Student Population

As the United States grapples with the changing realities associated with a rapidly post-industrial economy, the need for a robust postsecondary educational structure is taking on an outsized importance for social and societal viability. While the need to augment and prepare current and future workforces is apparent, the best practices and ideas for what is needed, who needs it, and how to deliver the needed educational undergirding for a transformative workforce are less certain. The existing paradigms of higher education—be they college- or vocation-oriented—are struggling to maintain relevance in serving a student consumer for whom traditional education models are less relevant and often too slow to adapt to the demands of a changing work environment.

Public School Education

This chapter examines public schools in low income communities in the U.S. by example of two low income high schools in Chicago. It addresses how alliances between U.S. corporations and local government, and public-school officials do not work in the best interest of students of color in low income communities in their pursuit of higher education. The chapter posits that schools for low income communities do not prepare students for white collar corporate positions, putting them at risk of not qualifying for higher education. Considering the claimed school to prison pipeline, the author calls for closing the educational gap between low income and rich public schools in the U.S. by eradicating racism and classism that appears to prevail in U.S. institutions of education.