Teaching and Learning focused on Higher Ed.

[Josh J.]

Hello all,

So I hold two masters degrees (one in religion, one in history), and a decent amount of teaching experience in higher education. Being a good instructor has always been important to me, and I've unfortunately seen a lot of HORRIBLE teaching at the college and graduate school level.

I am very interested in studying teaching and learning at the collegiate level. There are a million programs out there for studying teaching K-12 teaching, but, from what I've been able to find, hardly anything on teaching in higher education.  What little I have found have been masters degrees focused on creating effective community college teachers, with 18 hours of disciplinary work, along with more hours focused on effective teaching.

So my question is this: am I simply missing these programs, or are there really no programs at all that focus on college level teaching and learning? I should probably also say I'm totally uninterested in Higher Ed leadership studies...I want to focus on the best practices of teaching in higher ed.

[Sandmaster]

They definitely exist. They may not necessarily all be degrees though. I just completed a 15 graduate credit certificate on teaching and learning in higher and adult education along side my master's. But just gotta look and it depends on what you wish the program to focus on. Mine was pretty open so I chose online and technology integrated learning as the focus for my certificate.

[Josh J.]

Thank you, Sandmaster. I see you are doing a PhD in C&I now. May I ask, are you planning on focusing on higher ed, or K-12? 

 

 

[Sandmaster]

13 hours ago, Josh J. said:

Thank you, Sandmaster. I see you are doing a PhD in C&I now. May I ask, are you planning on focusing on higher ed, or K-12? 

 

 

I am focusing mostly on Higher Ed, but may include some research in K-12 (though probably not for the sake of time). My master's was in higher education administration with a cert in teaching and learning in higher ed so that was a nice mix of courses. I took lots of courses in adult and higher education instruction andragogy/practices as it relates to traditional and online learning environments. So I am primarily interested in and focused on studying instruction for higher/adult education.

The research I will be starting in a few weeks for the PhD program is focused on adaptive learning environments in STEM programs within higher education. Feel free to message me if you want more details, or want any advice. I am happy to connect and share my experiences and the quest searching for programs to apply to as well. 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Sandmaster

[easteregg]

My graduate institution (and most of the schools I applied to for my master's) had a certificate program for PhD students in college teaching & learning. Courses/seminars I saw for that certificate were a foundations in college teaching, inclusive teaching, evidence based teaching, active learning in STEM, using digital tools, course development, and college student learners. This program also had several short seminars and one time workshops that counted for credit. Not sure if this is similar to what you're looking for, but in the programs I applied to this type of thing was geared toward PhD students

[t_ruth]

Yes, they certainly exist. You will find programs with this focus in Higher Education and also in Educational Psychology and probably some others.

[ZeChocMoose]

I can't tell - do you want to do research on teaching & learning in higher ed or do you want to learn how to teach in higher ed?  Depending on your answer, that would lead to different programs.

[Josh J.]

On 5/24/2018 at 11:30 PM, ZeChocMoose said:

I can't tell - do you want to do research on teaching & learning in higher ed or do you want to learn how to teach in higher ed?  Depending on your answer, that would lead to different programs.

I am interested in doing research on teaching and learning in higher ed...specifically focused on humanities and the social sciences.

[ZeChocMoose]

All of the higher ed programs that I am familiar with tend to research teaching and learning focused on the STEM disciplines.  Depending on what definition of STEM that you are using that also includes social science fields such as sociology, political science, economics, and psychology. (FYI- higher ed programs are more than just higher ed leadership.  There are at least 10-15 programs that focus on research about the field of higher education)

It does sound like examining PhD programs in either higher ed, curriculum & instruction, or joint programs in education and a social science/humanities discipline would be a good bet. Although at the PhD level, it is more about the faculty that you want to work with than the program of study.  I suggest finding faculty that you want to work with by reading journal articles that you find interesting and then see where the authors of those articles work and which program(s) they are affiliated with.

[ps1024]

I suggest looking into Learning Sciences programs, which are buried under Educational Psychology, Education, Instructional Technology, and other related programs. Learning Sciences is all about the theories of teaching and learning, and of course, people specialize in higher education (as I've found, undergrads are easy participants to get on a university campus!). I study how to enhance teaching and learning with ed technology in higher education, but in STEM. However, I do know that social science/humanities work in higher ed does exist! It's just hard to find because there's so much more grant money in STEM, plus these fields tend to use more tech and other "innovative" interventions. 

You can take a look at some of the syllabi here to see if this type of work is of interest to you: http://isls-naples.psy.lmu.de/syllabi/index.html

This list also gives you some names of folks in the field, plus you can click NAPLES members to see schools with these programs. They are all very different, which I've found through applying and speaking with other grad students.

I also second looking into the work of specific professors and using that to figure out what program to look into, but there are also general programs that can probably get you close enough to start. Northwestern, for instance, has a rotation system so you can explore in the first year.

Happy to talk more about what I've experienced, so feel free to message me!