The First-Year Gateway Experience: A Groundbreaking Model

Based on calls for a paradigm shift in higher education, which have appeared in the literature for years (Barr &Tagg, 1995; Tagg, 2003, Bryant University transformed its first-year experience into an innovative model, The First-Year Gateway). Informed by research from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education, the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ Liberal Education for America’s Promise, and the Wabash National Study, a group identified five learning outcomes: effective communication, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, diversity awareness, and information literacy. Key to this undertaking was faculty development, and utilizing assessment data to improve curricular design and learning outcomes. The result is an interdisciplinary 13 credit first-year program developed to foster a successful transition into Bryant University. Launched in fall 2012, assessment data was gathered to determine whether common learning outcomes were achieved. Faculty embedded student success goals into their courses, which are designed to foster purposeful adjustment to higher education. Preliminary assessment indicates institutional gains in retention, academic standing, and student and faculty engagement during the implementation year. The new model, based on Wenger’s community of practice (COP), created opportunities to discuss pedagogy. Most importantly, the model fostered faculty’s deeper understanding of first-year transitions

Improving and Assessing Information Literacy Skills through Faculty-Librarian Collaboration

This article addresses ways to assess the effectiveness of integrating information literacy into college courses by taking a close look at a partnership developed between Dr. Amy Dailey and the reference librarians at Gettysburg College

Planning and implementing Patani Malay in bilingual education in southern Thailand

In this article, the authors discuss a mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTB BE) program designed to use Patani Malay (PM) or Thailand Melayu, as well as Thai, in the teaching and learning process at the preprimary and primary level, which is the level of compulsory education in Thailand. Many fear that the Thai education system is being used to destroy the local language and religious identity. In response to these fears, an attempt to use PM in bilingual education in southern border provinces of Thailand was proposed as a way to improve the situation. The PM speaking children are encouraged to retain their Malay identity at the local level and to add a Thai identity at the national level, as discussed in this paper.Australian National Universit