American College Student in Higher Education - Research Paper Example

? American College in Higher Education Question A Educational s have the responsibility of making sure that students learn within an environment that ensures the achievement of educational delivery. The minimum requirement for any learning facility is that it ensures that students enjoy a physical environment that is secure, accessible, well illuminated, safe, comfortable, and pleasing (Strange & Banning, 2001). I conducted a number of literature reviews as well as research surveys and have come with a number of recommendations on how the master building plan can ensure student success while taking into consideration various environmental issues. They include: a. Classrooms should be located in areas that have a warm environment because this will encourage students to attend classes. The rationale is that a conducive environment is an incentive for students to spend most of their time studying because they enjoy the weather around them. b. The surrounding environment should have the least level of distraction. For example, the buildings should not be located close to roads because of the noise from cars. The rationale is that the school environment will experience low levels of pollution such as noise and harmful gases. c. Learning areas should have a lot of trees because they bring fresh air and shadows from where students can relax while engaging in group discussions. It brings some form of relaxation and creates a conducive environment for resting after spending long periods of time in the classroom (Evans, Forney, Guido, Patten, & Renn, 2010). Question B The most important national challenge for any educational institution is making sure that the diverse student population is able to get the best out of the existing educational systems. In order to achieve such a goal, George Kuh developed a number of educational practices that he considered to be effective in ensuring that students get the best out of their college experience. Kuh mentioned a number of high impact educational practices including common intellectual experiences, first year seminars and experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, undergraduate research, collaborative assignments, global learning, internships, service learning, and capstone projects (Kuh, 2008). The best approach to achieve at least two of the high-impact activities is ensuring that students participate in one of the activities during their first year and the remaining activity when they select a major field of study. The program will include the introduction of first year seminars, service learning, and learning communities. Every student will be exposed to common intellectual content because it enables students to share some of the ideas that they experience in their respective classes. In an ideal situation, the curriculum structure will be designed in such a way that students have access to one high impact activity every single year. This will be subject to the number of students available in the institution especially those from underserved groups that have historically been underserved. However, it is important to note that the success of any educational program requires the use of incentives that will guide purposeful behaviors among students. For example, the program will assign students to learning communities and require each of them to take at least two writing-intensive courses in all majors. Furthermore, it will be mandatory that each of the students participate in some form of field placement and internships. Question C I will focus on promoting the positive aspects of student effort and achievement along with their human strengths (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001). Therefore, I will assess the pros of the strengths-based approach using a number of theories such as student development, psychological identity, and the strengths based theories. This will ensure that I get an overview of what the strength based approach entails and will promote effectiveness and efficiency. The following will be the main components of my project: a. Recognizing and appreciating the presence of protective factors that will contribute towards building resiliency among students. b. Support for teachers towards getting a better understanding of what cultural knowledge students bring to school. For instance, this can be achieved through mentoring. c. Recognizing the skills and expert knowledge that exist within the school community. This will also involve putting in place programs that will promote cultural safety within the school. d. Development of resources and activities that will reinforce the knowledge and skills already in existence among students (Kuh, 2008). During the development stage of the project, there will be the development of various strengths that will be assessed among students and identifying tools of assessments such as questionnaires. There will also the development of the areas where the student’s will be assessed such as school and home. Using information from the development stage, I will move to the implementation which will involve the following activities along with their timelines: a. Engagement This will involve the creation of a positively oriented relationship with various stakeholders including students, parents, and teachers. This stage aims at discovering the strengths of students and positive expectations. This will last throughout the first year and may even overlap to include subsequent years (Evans, Forney, Guido, Patten, & Renn, 2010). b. Exploration This stage will involve a comprehensive and formal assessment of the strengths of the student and will involve multiple environments such as school, home, and recreation (Kuh, 2008). This may last for a period of three months which is the equivalent of one academic school term. c. Expansion This stage will involve various stakeholders including teachers, parents, and students reflecting on the strengths identified in the previous stage. This may last for a period of one week. d. Evolution The educator will challenge the student to positively use his or her strengths towards achieving positive results in terms of their academics, behavior, emotions, and even social life. This may take a whole term. References Buckingham, M., & Clifton, D.O. (2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: The Free Press. Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F., Patten, L., & Renn, K. (2010). Student development theory in college: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kuh, G. (2008). High Impact Educational Practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington DC: AACU. Retrieved from http://www.neasc.org/downloads/aacu_high_impact_2008_final.pdf Strange, C., & Banning, J. (2001). Educating by design: Creating campus leaning environments that work. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Read More