Shared governance impacts every member of the campus community, including faculty, staff, students, and administrators. Contributors to this volume—presenters at multiple SUNY Voices conferences on Shared Governance—explore how campus members can effectively improve the dialogue about critical issues and become better informed about the subtle, sophisticated strategies needed to move from discussion to action. Readers will gain new insights, enabling them to reexamine their own governance, both their current circumstances and possible futures. Included here are examinations of the key elements and models of shared governance, the role of faculty governance in institutional diversity and inclusion, relationship and rapport-building, and communication in times of change. Also discussed are assessment rubrics, campus and systemwide experiences, and analyses of shared governance in the accreditation process.

As the quality and quantity of information needed to function in our social institutions increases, colleges and universities are being asked to graduate students who are information literate and can operate indepAndently in a rapidly changing, complex, information-rich environment. This volume of New Directions for Higher Education explores the concept of information literacy as an essential element in defining an educated person living and working in the Information Age. The strategy to achieve this goal centers around resource-based learning, which requires students to critically analyze and synthesize information from a wide variety of sources available outside of the traditional classroom. The goal is to develop students as active learners who can obtain, integrate, and apply information from diverse sources. This is the 78th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Higher Education. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

This book explores the dynamic approach to student-centred learning known as project-based learning, or project work. It addresses both the concepts and practical application of project-based learning to enhance teaching and learning. It describes empirical case study research into the impact of research-based project work on independent learning for academically-able secondary school students at Hwa Chong Institution, a premier independent school in Singapore. The research investigated how students dealt with an innovative project-based learning curriculum built on a social constructivist approach designed to foster independent learning attitudes. The students had to research and initiate their own projects, and see through the entire process with guidance from their teacher mentors. The case study findings give rich insights into student perspectives and experiences as they engage in projects and respond to real-life challenges and problems. A new theory of project-based learning is presented in the form of theoretical propositions. The research has implications for the professional development of teachers as project work mentors to help prepare their students to be ‘future-proof’ in dealing with 21st century study, work and social challenges with confidence. The book highlights compelling reasons for schools to include some form of research-based project work within their curricula, thereby allowing students to engage in collaborative, authentic research.