Bringing Theory to Practice

Research

The Bringing Theory to Practice Leadership Coalition Faculty Survey: Perspectives on Teaching, Professional Reward Structures, and Job-Related Outcomes (pdf)
This study was developed to provide greater empirical understanding of the ways in which faculty innovate and enhance their teaching and the degree to which they feel these efforts are valued on campus. The study surveyed faculty across 20 colleges and universities, of various institutional type and size, regarding faculty practice and perspectives on what encourages and limits pedagogical innovation, views on institutional and disciplinary cultures of teaching and learning (including promotion and tenure processes), and the presence and influence of institutional rewards or incentives intended to encourage excellence in teaching. Additionally the study addresses the relationship between these reward structures and the presence of institutional cultures of teaching and learning on relevant faculty outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment, and mental well-being. Content from this study, including findings, is the property of Ashley Finley and the national Bringing Theory to Practice Project, funded by the S. Engelhard Center.  When citing any part of the study or findings, attribution must read: “This study was supported by the Bringing Theory to Practice Project and conducted by Ashley Finley, Ph.D, National Evaluator for Bringing Theory to Practice and Director of Assessment & Research at AAC&U.”

College Outcomes Project (pdf)
The College Outcomes Project (COP), directed by Dr. Richard Hersh (Senior Consultant, Keeling & Associates; former President, Trinity and Hobart & William Smith Colleges) is an extension of the Bringing Theory to Practice Project (BTtoP) and has received support from both the S. Engelhard Center and from the Spencer Foundation in Chicago, to study and report on what a deeper analysis of learning outcomes might mean and suggest for change in higher education.
While there has been much discussion on the need to address the nature and quality of higher education and the well-being of students, little has been said of how we can achieve these goals. The Outcomes report has found that higher education must become far more transformational and integrative, and that formative learning outcomes assessment must be aligned with summative assessment and far more explicit, systematic, and tightly linked to standards, objectives, curricula, and pedagogy.
COP Team of Scholars, Researchers & Practitioners: Richard H. Hersh, Chair; Matthew Bundick; Richard Keeling; Corey Keyes; Amy Kurpius; Richard Shavelson; Daniel Silverman; Lynn Swaner
Related material: Richard J. Shavelson, et al: On Assessing Learning Broadly and Responsibly (pdf)

COST STUDY FINAL REPORT(pdf)
The Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP) Cost Study identified and itemized specific direct and indirect costs related to resources, personnel, and programming employed by colleges and universities to address the various symptoms of student disengagement. Nine (9) institutions of various type (e.g., public vs. private) and size participated in a limited study of these costs and related trends in spending and resource allocation through the use of an online survey instrument. Aggregate resource allocation generally rose over time, with the study finding a 67.56% increase over five years in institutional commitments toward total resource allocation for BTtoP core dimensions (counseling and psychological services, alcohol and substance abuse prevention, civic engagement, and engaged learning). Staffing resources for these areas either largely declined or stagnated however; thus while schools might be spending more on these dimensions, the question is raised of how effectively resources are being distributed. In addition to presenting the findings of the Cost Study, this report also provides suggestions for institutions interested in furthering the development and dissemination of campus commitment for the promotion of engaged learning, civic development, and student mental health and well-being efforts. The Cost-Study Report and Instrument are the property of Bringing Theory to Practice.  Please do not reprint or distribute either without the consent of the authors or Bringing Theory to Practice. COST STUDY INSTRUMENT(Microsoft Excel file)

Bridging Civic Engagement and Mental Health (pdf)
In 2008, Dr. Penny A. Pasque, University of Oklahoma, compiled this monograph from the proceedings from the National Symposium for Civic Engagement and Mental Health, held March 16-17, 2008 at the University of Michigan.

Bringing Theory to Practice Advisory Board members Jonathan Metzl (University of Michigan) and Rebecca Herzig (Bates College) are published in the medical journal The Lancet, reviewing medicalisation in the 21st century.
In 2005, Metzl and Herzig convened a small gathering of scholars from such fields as sociology, history, philosophy, and anthropology to debate the issues of medicalisation. The goal was to bring the tools of disciplines outside medicine to bear on questions about the process by which the medical expands to incorporate common events and to circumscribe experience. The group explored the relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, culture, politics, and medicine; who is responsible for medicalisation; what medicalisation has to do with power, status, expertise, and professionalism; how race, class, and gender affect the process of medicalisation; and whether medicalisation is a problem, and if so, who should solve it. Has technology become the dominant driver of clinical practice? Are patients now nothing more than consumers, and doctors only providers of services? Does the expansion of medicine always contribute to health? Has medicine overstepped its boundaries? Can it be restrained?

The results of the discussion culminated in a series of essays published in a special section of the February 24, 2007 issue of the Lancet. Here readers will find topics including HIV/AIDS, race, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, and the pros and cons of drug advertising. But these issues are explored in ways that may be novel and surprising, as they range widely beyond clinical practice. This is medicine examined through many lenses. Readers will find the arguments here enlightening, troubling, and doubtless a basis for ongoing debate. http://www.thelancet.com/
Links to PDFs of the articles are included here as a resource for those without access to The Lancet:
Lancet-Introduction
Medicalization--Tomes
Medicalization--Rose
Medicalization--Duster
Medicalization--Metzl
Medicalization--Patton

This PowerPoint presentation from Ashley Finley, then at Dickinson College, compiles research from the 2004-2007 Demonstration Sites.

The Project supports research that characterizes what is available and known regarding the specific nature of "engaged learning" in higher education, and how such learning may be related to student mental health and civic development.

In 2003, the Project supported a literature review by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA). That report, Depression, Substance Abuse and College Student Engagement: A Review of the Literature, is available online in pdf format.

With continuing support, the Project also supported a national survey of student attitudes by CASA in 2005. That report, Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Engaged Learning: Summary of Findings from CASA's Focus Groups and National Survey, is available online in pdf format.

April 2005, BTtoP also supported a major research study completed by Dr. Lynn Swaner, that examines both the theoretical levels and the available empirical research regarding the linkages among forms of engaged learning, forms of depression and substance abuse, and the civic development of students. That review, “ Linking Engaged Learning, Student Mental Health and Well-being, and Civic Development: A Review of the Literature" is available online in pdf format.

Additional Research of Interest:

“Key Findings from Focus Groups Among College Students and College-Bound High School Students” (AAC&U and Peter D. Hart Research, 2004) http://www.aacu.org/leap/public_opinion_research.cfm

Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More, by Derek Bok (Princeton UP, 2005)

National Survey of Student Engagement: see their most recent final report for information about the frequency with which students report having “high impact” learning experiences NSSE_2007_Annual_Report.

Faculty Survey of Student Engagement FSSE2007.

"Should College Focus More on Personal and Social Responsibility?" – findings from campus climate surveys administered as part of Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility (for more information on the Core Commitments Initiative: http://www.aacu.org/core_commitments/psri.cfm )

High Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access To them, and Why They Matter (forthcoming, 2008, AAC&U)