The Scholarship Committee is excited to announce registration for the Fall 2023 POD Scholarly Reads.

Theme: Supporting Neurodiverse Learners

The last few years have brought increasing attention to neurodiversity among post-secondary students. While the term ‘neurodiversity’ refers to the diversity of ways people process information, it is often used in the context of conditions involving neurological differences (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and learning disabilities). Neurodivergent learners can enjoy a successful and fulfilling academic experience; yet, they continue to face serious barriers and challenges in the higher education classroom, such as accommodation needs, functional differences, and stigma and prejudice. Higher education, however, has the potential to create a context in which neurodiversity can be welcomed and celebrated as a strength. As educators and educational consultants, we can play a key role in creating teaching and learning experiences that promote a positive experience for neurodivergent students, individually and within teams.

Please register for this semester’s series here: https://forms.gle/jwpfMH8MPAHd8Gs6A

Please note the different days/times to allow for broader participation across schedules. 

Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 1:00-2:00 PM EST

Clouder, L., Karakus, M., Cinotti, A., Ferreyra, M. V., Fierros, G. A., & Rojo, P. (2020). Neurodiversity in higher education: a narrative synthesis. Higher Education, 80(4), 757-778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00513-6

Neurodiversity is an umbrella term, including dyspraxia, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyscalculia, autistic spectrum and Tourette syndrome. The increasing number of students with learning difficulties associated with neurodiversity entering higher education (HE) poses a shared and growing challenge internationally for teachers and institutional leaders. This narrative synthesis draws together a corpus of international literature on how neurodiverse students experience higher education and the ways in which higher education institutions respond to the cluster of neurodiverse conditions. 

Thursday, November 2, 2023, 2:00-3:00 PM EST

Zolyomi, A., Ross, A. S., Bhattacharya, A., Milne, L., & Munson, S. A. (2018, April). Values, identity, and social translucence: Neurodiverse student teams in higher education. In Proceedings of the 2018 chi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-13). http://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174073

To successfully function within a team, students must develop a range of skills for communication, organization, and conflict resolution. For students on the autism spectrum, these skills mirror the social, communicative, and cognitive experiences that can often be challenging for these learners. Since instructors and students collaborate using a mix of technology, we investigated the technology needs of neurodiverse teams comprised of autistic and non-autistic students.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023, 2:00-3:00 PM EST

Atchison, C. L., Hawthorne, T. L., Torres, H. R., Visaggi, C. C., Bencivenga, P., Haralson, J., Relyea, D., & Jarrett, O. S. (2022). Designing inclusive community-based geography research experiences across the spectrum of ability. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 46(4), 541–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2021.1928026

Through the voices of both faculty and student authors, we discuss the intentional integration of neurodiversity in an undergraduate, community geography research program. This exploratory case study takes conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion from theory to practice presenting the development of an inclusive learning community through the lens of education and geoscience education frameworks. Through multiple perspectives advocating for systemic change for inclusive community geography, this paper presents actionable recommendations others in geography can draw from in their own efforts to broaden participation within geography field programs.

 

POD Scholarly Reads

What is it? 

POD Scholarly Reads is a professional development initiative of the POD Scholarship Committee that aims to:

  • support POD members in meaningful engagement with scholarly literature and
  • provide POD members with low-investment, ongoing opportunities to participate in a scholarly community

How does it work?

Anyone can join the POD Scholarly Reads group, which meets monthly to discuss a scholarly article during a 60-minute Zoom meeting run by the Scholarship Committee. We are often fortunate enough to be joined by the authors of the article, and the group is a great way to engage with research, researchers, and POD members from a variety of institutions.

Our readings focus on one topic for a 3-month series (see previous topics below). Topics and readings are chosen based upon POD member suggestions. Commit to one article or the 3-month series, the choice is yours!

During the Zoom session, the Scholarship Committee facilitator introduces the session, and if present, gives the author of the article a chance to share a bit about the origins of the study. The facilitator then breaks up the larger group into smaller (4-5 participants) breakout rooms to discuss the article. Some of the questions that drive the small group discuss include:

  • What are the primary strengths and weaknesses of this study, in terms of its design?
  • How does this study connect with other work you may be involved in (e.g., questions your faculty have, programs you offer, initiatives at your institution, the broader landscape of higher education)?
  • What else do you want to learn about as a result of reading this study?
  • What questions do you have for the author?

After the small group discussion, the facilitator brings the group back together to ask the author questions.

Who participates? 

We typically have anywhere from 15-20 participants per Zoom session, which include:

  • Scholarship committee members, including:
    • Heather Dwyer, Tufts University
    • Chris Kilgore, UT-Knoxville
    • Kate Hamilton, Harvard University
    • Isabeau Iqbal, University of British Columbia
    • Kimberly Fournier, Florida Gulf Coast University 
  • Article author(s) and/or researchers in the same field as author(s)
  • POD members and faculty members (who may or may not be POD members) from a wide variety of institutions

How do I register for the next session?

For more information and to register, please go to: POD Scholarly Reads Registration. 

What do participants read? 

Educational Developer Burnout and Well-Being (Spring 2023) 

  • February 24, Kolomitro, K., and Kenny, N., and Sheffield, S. (2019). A call to action: exploring and responding to educational developers’ workplace burnout and well-being in higher education. International Journal for Academic Development. 25. 1-14. doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2019.1705303 
  • March 28, Landy, K., Flaming, A. L., Tapp, S., & Kaldor, E. C. (2022), Contexts for agency: A framework for managing educational development work. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, 41(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.445
  • April 24, 1:00-2:00 PM EST Elue, C. & Howard, L. (2023). “Care for Faculty in Challenging Times: Considerations for Exploring Hope and Healing.” 

Recent Patterns of (Dis)Engagement (Fall 2022) 

  • October 4: Hensley, L. C, Iaconelli, R., & Wolters, C. A. (2022). “This weird time we’re in”: How a sudden change to remote education impacted college students’ self-regulated learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 54:SS203-S218. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1916414 
  • November 3: DeFelippo, A. M, & Dee, J. R. (2022). Vitality in the academic workplace: Sustaining professional growth for mid-career faculty. Innovative Higher Education, 47:565-585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09589-z 
  • November 30: Loi, N. M. & Pryce, N. (2022). The role of mindful self-care in the relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout in university students. The Journal of Psychology, 156(4): 295-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2022.2045887

Intergenerational Challenges (Summer 2022)

  • June 7 Grayson, J. P. (2021). “Boomers and Generation Z on campus: Expectations, goals, and experiences.” Canadian Review of Sociology, 58:549-568. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12362
  • July 12 Schlee, Regina P., Eveland, Vicki B., and Harich, Katrin R. (2020). “From Millennials to Gen Z: Changes in student attitudes about group projects.” Journal of Education for Business, 95(3):139-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2019.1622501

Students as Partners (SaP) (Spring 2022)

  • February 8: Felten, P., Abbot, S., Kirkwood, J., Long, A., Lubicz-Nawrocka, T., Mercer-Mapstone, L., & Verwoord, R. (2019). Reimagining the place of students in academic development. International Journal for Academic Development, 24(2), 192-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2019.1594235
  • March 8: Cook-Sather, A., Addy, T. M., DeVault, A., & Litvitskiy, N. (2021). Where Are the Students in Efforts for Inclusive Excellence? Two Approaches to Positioning Students as Critical Partners for Inclusive Pedagogical Practices. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.961
  • April 5: Debelius, M., McGowan, S., Maciel, A., Reid, C., & Eason, A. (2021). “Things are different now” a student, staff, and faculty course design institute collaboration. In Thurston, T. N., Lundstrom, K., & González, C. (Eds.), Resilient pedagogy: Practical teaching strategies to overcome distance, disruption, and distraction (pp. 272-288). Utah State University. https://doi.org/10.26079/a516-fb24. 

Alternative Approaches in Assessment: Beyond Ungrading (Fall 2021)

  • October 12: Montenegro, E., & Jankowski, N. A. (2020). A New Decade for Assessment: Embedding Equity into Assessment Praxis. Occasional Paper No. 42. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED608774
  • November 1: Buckmiller, T., Peters, R., & Kruse, J. (2017). Questioning points and percentages: Standards-based grading (SBG) in higher education. College Teaching, 65(4), 151-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2017.1302919
  • December 7: Quintana, R., & Quintana, C. (2020). When classroom interactions have to go online: The move to specifications grading in a design course. Information and Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0119

Ungrading (Summer 2021)

  • July 6:  Guberman, Daniel (2021). “Student Perceptions of an Ungraded Course.” Teaching and Learning Inquiry 9(1). https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.1.8
  • August 3:  Martin, Travis L.; Winslow, Matthew P.; Gremp, Michelle A.; Korson, Stacey J.; Bedetti, Gaby; McMahan, Ellen Hutcheson; Stumbo, David; Short, Elaina; and Morrow, Holdyn (2021). “Ungrading Across the Disciplines: Reflections of a Professional Learning Community.” Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings. 7. https://encompass.eku.edu/pedagogicon/2020/specialaudiences/7 

Centering Underrepresented Experiences in Higher Education (Spring 2021)

Prepared in Collaboration with the POD Diversity Committee

COVID’s Impact on Students, Faculty, and Educational Developers (Fall 2020)

  • December 1 (educational developer perspectives): POD Network members Lindsay Wheeler and Eric Kaldor are leading a collaborative Scholarship of Educational Development research project to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and large-scale instructional changes in higher education have impacted educational developers and their work. They will join us to share some of the preliminary findings from their work.

Student Evaluations of Teaching (Spring 2020)

  • February 4: NEW! We are going to change it up and listen to an episode of Doug McKee and Edward O’Neill’s Teach Better podcast with Betsy Barre, focused on an overview of the student evaluation literature: http://teachbetter.co/blog/2018/03/22/tbp-episode-72/
  • March 3: Linse, A. R. (2017). Interpreting and using student ratings data: Guidance for faculty serving as administrators and on evaluation committees. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 54, 94-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.12.004
  • April 7: Peterson, D. A., Biederman, L. A., Andersen, D., Ditonto, T. M., & Roe, K. (2019). Mitigating gender bias in student evaluations of teaching. PloS one, 14(5), e0216241. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216241

Imposter Syndrome (Fall 2019)

  • Walton, G. M., & Brady, S. T. (in press). The social-belonging intervention. In G. M. Walton & A. J. Crum (Eds.) Handbook of Wise Interventions: How Social-Psychological Insights Can Help Solve Problems, Guilford Press: New York, NY.
  • Rudenga, K. J., & Gravett, E. O. (2019). Impostor Phenomenon in Educational Developers. To Improve the Academy, 38(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/tia2.20092
  • Hutchins, H. M. (2015). Outing the imposter: A study exploring imposter phenomenon among higher education faculty. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 27(2), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/nha3.20098

SoED and Technology (Summer 2019)

  • Stephanie Vie (2016). “What’s Going On?: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Media Use in the Writing Classroom” Journal of Faculty Development, 29, no. 2
  • Kayla Morehead, John Dunlosky, Katherine Rawson (2019). “How Much Mightier Is the Pen than the Keyboard for Note-Taking? A Replication and Extension of Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014)” Educational Psychology Review, 31(3), 753-780. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09468-2
  • Ashley N. Castleberry et al. (2018). “5-Minute University: A Description and Discussion of 5-Minute Faculty Teaching Training Videos” Journal of Faculty Development, 30, no. 2.

Innovative Assessment (Spring 2019)

  • Sarah Boesdorfer et al. (2018) “Emphasizing Learning: Using Standards-Based Grading in a Large Nonmajors’ General Chemistry Survey Course” Journal of Chemical Education, 95(8), 1291-1300. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00251
  • Deborah S. Meizlish, Mary C. Wright, Joseph Howard, & Matthew L. Kaplan (2017), “Measuring the impact of a new faculty program using institutional data,” International Journal for Academic Development, 23(2), 72-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2017.1364644
  • Carol Hurney et al. (2016) “The Faculty Learning Outcome Assessment Framework” Journal of Faculty Development, 30, no.2.

Resistance to Active Learning (Fall 2018)

Diversity and Inclusion (Summer 2018)

  • David A. Green & Deandra Little (2016). “Family portrait: a profile of educational developers around the world”, International Journal for Academic Development, 21(2), 135-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2015.1046875
  • China Jenkins & Mary Alfred (2018). “Understanding the motivation and transformation of White culturally responsive professors” Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 24(1), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477971417738793
  • Gregory Walton & Geoffrey Cohen (2007). “A Question of Belonging: Race, Social Fit, and Achievement” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 82. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82