The report “High Impact Educational Practices,” provides a direct response to assisting students in America who are extraordinarily diverse to obtain the full economic, personal and civic benefits of their college studies. This has been a critical nationwide challenge in the higher education. The modern, open-minded education has grown to encourage the extensive learning and also practical skillfulness and practice that students critically need. The report assists AAC&U to identify and confirm a list of successful learning practices (Kuh, 2008). These practices are associated with affirmative educational outcomes for students coming from extensively different backgrounds. He appropriately labels the practices that were initially described as useful by LEAP report as high-impact practices. He argues that these practices brought about considerable educational benefits to the students. However, Kuh reports that a large fraction of the present day’s students in college are yet to access these practices, and consequently many are still in line waiting for complete inclusion.
The report raises an idea of extending the indicators for students’ in college success. Usually, graduation, access, retention, and at times the grade point mean, are the markers of students’ success. More gradation terms probe deeper. These could include the retention impact welcoming institution climate, cohort engagement and supportive mentoring. However, they still function around the limits of students’ tangible learning and do not address the learner’s cumulative educational success throughout the various college curriculum levels. Graduation and retention remain necessary but insufficient indicators of college student success. The college degree gains meaning only when it corresponds to the forms of knowledge that are esteemed by the community and are also empowering to the graduate. This is a reality that 21st century needs to capture.
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The report advocates for several practices that are believed to impact the success of college students positively. These include; Internships, diversity learning, research projects, writing-intensive courses, study groups, standard courses, and first-year seminars among others. Evidence about persistence, the learning quality, and completion need to be addressed. The world is undergoing intercultural, environmental, scientific, technological, and many more changes. These transformations have in-depth effects on all practices that aim at empowering knowledge. Indeed, the world demands knowledgeable people. In response, the college learning designs are transforming across the globe.
Kuh reports that college success does not only include attaining a degree from the college but also the graduates’ preparedness with knowledge, personal contributes and also capabilities that can enable them to contribute and prosper in today’s fast-transforming world. Kuh points out that the new indicators for college student success need to consider the way learners spend their learning time in school; the students’ results and their frequency in engaging in learning practices such as pedagogical, curricular and co-curricular activities; and how these activities influence the expected learning results. However, he acknowledges that persistence even now counts. His report reveals that the modern framework for college student success requires addressing the type of activities that cultivate expected results in addition to the students’ educational outcomes.
Following the first-year intake, the college holds seminars that help the students to interact with the faculty on a consistent basis (Kuth, 2008; Sandeen, 2012). During this experience, frequent writing, important inquiry such as scholarships and memberships, collaborative learning, info literacy and other proficiencies that build up the student’s practical and intellectual competencies are communicated. Many colleges offer general courses programs. These include highly developed integrative lessons and the necessary contribution to a training community. Often the programs merge broad topics such as global interdependence, society, and technology with a number of co-curricular and curricular choices for the students.
Some courses stress on writing at every stage of education and throughout the curriculum. These include the assignments done in the college final year. Such courses encourage the students to study different types of writing for various audiences in different disciplines. This repeated practice effectively results in analogous efforts in matters like quantitative reasoning, information literacy, oral communication, and sometimes, ethical inquiry. The learning communities in the college encourage the integration of studying across lessons and also involve learners with critical questions that concern outside the classroom. Frequently, the learning communities examine a common theme.
Collaborative studying helps the students to learn to address problems and work as a team and also sharpens the students’ understanding through listening to group-mates ideas especially those with variable life experiences and backgrounds (Brownell & Swaner, 2009). The undergraduate research projects aim to involve learners with enthusiastically challenging questions, advanced technologies, empirical observations and the excitement feeling brought about by working to solve critical questions. Internships are an added common type of practical learning. Students are provided directly with practice in a job setting that is typically allied with their career benefits. The experts in the field offer training and supervision to the students. Reports of the internships are completed and approved by a staff member.
Various universities offer programs and courses that ensure the students experience cultures, worldviews, life experiences which are different from theirs. These studies may often deal with difficult differences like ethic, racial discrimination, gender inequality, and struggles for power, freedom and human rights. The report can communicate its message effectively. The author, George Kuh, is an associate of the LEAP council. He gives clear and honest ideas about extending the indicators for students’ in college success and also explains to the staffs why there is need to implement these new ideas by exploring the effectiveness of the high-impact practices. Possible ways to achieve student’s success by use of these activities are described. It gives a guidance by which high-impact activities harvest smart students’ results. The report explains reasons behind some activities being more effective than others. Facts and conclusions are drawn from research outcomes making the statement more acceptable.
However, the report does not account for what is in for the staffs. Achieving implementing these high-impact activities is not an easy job. Therefore the report ought to have explored the benefits of these activities to the staffs to communicate effectively (Limeade Marketing, 2014). This could have motivated the faculty to enhance the high-impact educational practices.
I concur with the report’s conclusions that the one thing which can be done to improve the learner engagement and increase his/her success; is to enable all students to take part in a minimum of two high-impact activities in the course of their undergraduate program(Kuh,2008). The students have to devote considerable effort and time for a high-impact activity to result in success (Tukibayeva & Gonyea, 2014). These practices essentially demand the students to interact with staffs and friends about substantive topics, usually over prolonged time periods. With such activities, a student learns firsthand the way a staff member reasons and handles the inevitable challenges that emerge during the study. The frequency of participation in a number of these activities raises the odd that the college students will be subjected to diversity during interaction with different individuals. For example, during internships, study groups, and studying abroad. Even with the variable settings and structure of these activities, students usually receive performance results in each. They present an opportunity for the students to synthesize, assimilate and use knowledge which is essential to extensive, meaningful studying experiences.
After reading the report, I feel that its' genuinely innovative nature is calling for me as an education professor to answer. My response will include encouraging students to adopt other ways past research that are precise to our topic to gain from previous projects and the most excellent practices from other segments of higher education. I have to try and be involved in ensuring every student participates in these high-impact activities. In addition to the internships, capstone projects, first-year seminars and learning communities that the college program offers, I will also employ research with my students, yearlong introductory group experiences and also service learning. I will also encourage interdisciplinary study.
To incorporate these high-impact practices, I will use online programs like NYU’s. This provides well-thought-out opportunities for the learners to experience student services offered, meet with other students, and also see and chat online and access opportunities for networking and collaboration with friends and professors from outside college (Sandeen, 2012). By analyzing incoming comments and views by their fellow students, and also through blog analysis, the learner’s critical thinking is enhanced. The staffs and I will need to review the entire curriculum to assimilate certain kinds of activities steadily throughout the whole program. To achieve good learning outcomes, I will use internships to inculcate teamwork, social responsibility, intercultural skills, and applied learning. Integrating international students and involving them in discussions during lessons helps the students to gain global knowledge and cross-cultural skills. Involving projects will sharpen students writing and communication skills. Providing the staffs with data concerning the employer preferences and learning outcomes from research text can motivate them to allow more high-impact activities into programs. I will consider making these incorporations a duty for the staffs. Nevertheless, free time or if possible additional compensation for taking part in the program reviews will be awarded to the teams.
References
Brownell, J. E., & Swaner, L. (2009). Outcomes of high-impact educational practices: A literature review. Diversity and Democracy , 12 (2), 4-6.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). Excerpt from high-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities .
Limeade Marketing . (2014). 8 ways to communicate change to employees . Retrieved from https://www.limeade.com/2014/04/8-ways-to-communicate-change-to-employees/
Sandeen, C. (2012). High-impact educational practices: What we can learn from the traditional undergraduate setting. Continuing Higher Education Review , 76 , 81-89.
Tukibayeva, M. & Gonyea, R. (2014). High-impact practices and the first-year student. New Directions for Institutional Research , 2013(160), 19-35.
