Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education

by Caralyn Zehnder, Cynthia Alby, Karynne Kleine

Our society urgently needs education that motivates, challenges, engages, and affirms all students. No matter their previous successes or failures, every student has enormous learning potential and important contributions to make now and in the future. Such meaningful learning experiences don't just happen, they need to be intentionally designed. This book supports those who will undertake this vitally important work. Learning that Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education is a pragmatic resource for designing courses that engage college students as active citizens. This "work" book provides research-informed approaches for creating learning experiences and developing innovative, intellectually-engaging courses. Whether a novice or a veteran, by engaging with the text, collaborating with colleagues, and reflecting on the important work of a teacher, any motivated educator can become a transformative educator. Every college course has the potential to transform students' lives. Through implementation of critical concepts such as connected and authentic assessments; dilemmas, issues, and questions; portable thinking skills and engaging strategies; and a purposeful focus on inclusivity and equity, readers begin the process of change needed for preparing students who will be able to address the monumental challenges facing our society.

Genres: Teaching

225 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2020

Reviews

[Bonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Designing and facilitating learning experiences is an essential part of the work of faculty throughout higher education. In Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education, readers are gifted with abundant opportunities to reflect on our teaching and ample guidance for taking action on what we discover through the process. Designed to be used either as a group or by an individual, this resource charts a path for taking sound educational theory and turning it into practice in our pedagogy. The authors have embedded equity and social justice throughout each page of this important book. They have given us ways to be more intentional in aligning our instructional design with our values.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book, because I know one of the authors and had already learned so much about teaching from her. Happily, the book fully met my expectations, and I learned even more from it.

I appreciate how thoughtfully organized it is, as each chapter begins with thought-provoking questions, and then sets out clear goals for the chapter. Each chapter is a good balance of researched, evidence-based ideas and explanations, combined with first-person experiences, activities and strategies to try, and resources for follow-up. I am going to be recommending this book a lot.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book with lots of opportunities to reflect on what you're already doing in your courses, why you're doing it that way, and how you might change your practices to be more inclusive and more student-centered. If you are already deeply immersed in the scholarship of teaching and learning, I don't think there's a lot of new stuff here that you won't have encountered before, but I think if you are going to lead a faculty learning community or do a workshop or training there's a lot in here than can be adapted for use in those settings.

[Claire Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for educators, administrators and policy makers. The authors offer a compelling vision of what education could be if we focus on the learning that matters most to students and society. They provide a wealth of examples of how this can be accomplished in schools, colleges and universities. They also describe how to design courses that help students become engaged in their learning, foster meaningful connections with each other, and develop skills that will prepare them for success in their careers. I am writing a review of such books by taking necessary help from writers hired from https://write-my-essay.online/write-my-personal-statement/ source to help beginners. The authors argue that traditional assessments that focus on memorizing facts or performing routine tasks do not measure what students have learned or the skills they need for their future careers. Instead, they call for assessments designed to measure higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication skills.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best text on the art, science, craft, and more of the pedagogy of teaching. Cultivated throughout with a lens of culturally-inclusive pedagogical practices, I’d strongly recommend for all faculty, notably those of us who enter the profession with little (to no) formal training on student instruction.