Tag Archives: higher education

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Developing a research agenda

Your research agenda plays a critical role in designing and planning your scholarly research and publication activities. Establishing your research agenda means deciding which research areas you will explore and the methodologies you will employ, then letting these guide your research activities. As we have all probably heard from our own graduate school professors, it is impossible to study everything in your field, and you must focus on topics that prove interesting to you and present solid publishing opportunities. Tenure committees generally like andriol bodybuilding to see assistant professors establish a consistent line of research or a few complementary lines of research, comprising their research agenda. Because of this, you should avoid a scattershot approach to research by developing a clear agenda and following it in your scholarly activities. In today’s post, I will describe the value of a research agenda and how to go about developing a research agenda.

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Types of Academic Service for Faculty

There are two primary ways to categorize types of faculty service (Fear & Sandmann, 1995; O’Meara, Terosky, & Neumann, 2008; Ward, 2003). First, there are service activities that take place on campus at the departmental, school, or institutional level. These local activities tend to focus on operations necessary to getting things done on campus. Second, professional service activities include those with professional organizations, scholarly journals, and other activities that support the work of the discipline. In today’s post, I want to share the two types of service that are critical for higher education and playing the important role as academic citizen.

 

Types of Academic Service for Faculty

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Legal History of Higher Education Affirmative Action Before the Michigan cases

Each opening on the U.S. Supreme Court leads to everyone questioning how a change in justices might impact the legal environment for higher education. Just as after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s departure, Anthony Kennedy’s retirement means the swing vote on many key higher education cases will be leaving the Court. While the Supreme Court’s more recent history with ruling on affirmative action in the context of the two rounds of cases involving the University of Michigan are more familiar to most people in higher education today, the longer history often is less understood. In today’s post, I will share the legal history of affirmative action in higher education admissions before the Michigan cases.

Legal History of Higher Education Affirmative Action Before the Michigan cases



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Interdisciplinarity in Higher Education

As campus leaders across higher education look to advance their institutions, interdisciplinarity research is a commonly pursued strategy. Federal agencies have encouraged this approach by prioritizing interdisciplinary projects. Where do things stand with interdisciplinarity in higher education? In today’s post, I share a discussion of interdisciplinary research including the development, support, and culture of interdisciplinarity in higher education.

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Effective goal setting for the new year

Every time a new year rolls around, gyms are packed with new members ready to get into shape. New Year’s resolutions are the talk of January, but will they still be around by July? Sadly, research suggests that less than half of New Year’s resolutions are successful by July 1. Even an earnest desire to change isn’t enough to make a difference. We have to manage stimulus control, positive thinking, and reinforcement management (or increasing a desirable behavior). Many in higher education dismiss goal setting as administrative nonsense or a management fad. However, research on students demonstrates that setting goals can lead to increased achievement. I have no reason to doubt the same is true for faculty and administrators in higher ed. In today’s post, I want to describe the process that I use for goal setting and recommend you undertake to lead to effective goal setting for the new year.

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The SMART Goal Method

Writing what are called SMART goals has been around for decades and provides a concrete approach to setting goals. The approach helps you identify specific actions to take toward achieving your goals. One of the reasons that I believe people struggle or dislike goal setting is that it seems an academic exercise that fails to lead to action. The SMART method avoid this problem by identifying specific actions that you need to take to meet your goals.