Toward an Expanded Conceptualization of Transformative Learning: A Case Study of International Service-Learning in Nicaragua

This dissertation research stems from both practical and theoretical problems related to understanding the nature of transformation in international service-learning. In terms of the practical problems, the primary motivation for conducting this study had to do with pedagogical challenges associated with fostering adult college students\u27 transformational learning as the coordinator and instructor of Tompkins Cortland Community College\u27s international service learning program (TC3-NICA)1 over the past eight years. A review of theoretical and empirical literature in the fields of adult learning, service-learning, and intercultural learning did not adequately address the concerns that ( had about the significant and problematic nature of change TC3-NICA students were experiencing as a result of their participation in service in Nicaragua

Exemplars and Nudges : Combining Two Strategies for Moral Education

This article defends the use of narratives about morally exemplary individuals in moral education and appraises the role that 'nudge' strategies can play in combination with such an appeal to exemplars. It presents a general conception of the aims of moral education and explains how the proposed combination of both moral strategies serves these aims. An important aim of moral education is to make the ethical perspective of the subject – the person being educated – more structured, more salient and therefore more 'navigable'. This article explains why and how moral exemplars and nudge strategies are crucial aids in this respect. It gives an empirically grounded account of how the emotion of admiration can be triggered most effectively by a thoughtful presentation of narratives about moral exemplars. It also answers possible objections and concludes that a combined appeal to exemplars and nudges provides a neglected but valuable resource for moral education

How the Chameleon Overcame its Complex: ENGAGE and the Formation of a Prefigurative Social Movement

U.S. students who participate in justice-oriented study abroad programs face great challenges reintegrating to life in the United States. In addition to working through culture shock, these students ultimately confront the dilemma of putting into practice a newfound transformed worldview that runs counter to hegemonic norms. Faced with the challenge of negotiating this dissonance, students can choose to blend in and conform to the status quo while struggling internally with their un-actualized perspective transformation – like a chameleon with a complex – or they can find ways to resist assimilation by acting on their transformation and taking action in the world. This study utilizes a case study approach to understand the efforts of one returned study abroad alumni network – the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange (ENGAGE) – to work with students who return from justice-oriented study abroad programs, and assesses if these efforts are an effective strategy for helping students overcome or resist the malaise of the chameleon complex. This paper concludes with a series of recommendations for how ENGAGE might improve its efforts to work with this particular subset of students. The tool for assessing ENGAGE was developed by reviewing the theory of transformational learning, existing research on the transformational learning process of study abroad students, and key programmatic components unique to justice-oriented study abroad programs that contribute to student transformation. The assessment framework is used as a lens to ‘read’ ENGAGE as a ‘text’ to determine whether or not its efforts to support returned study abroad students aligns with what theory says is best practice for nurturing ongoing perspective transformation and social change. This study concludes that ENGAGE has an emergent approach to education (albeit in need of being formalized and better articulated) that does provide an outlet for students to act on their newfound perspective transformation, as well as better negotiate the dissonance caused by conflicting and competing worldviews, the byproduct of the justice-oriented study abroad experience. Factors that contribute to this assessment include ENGAGE’s commitment to experiential learning; its efforts to build and maintain solidarity with grassroots peoples’ movements in the U.S. and abroad; its campaigns and projects in which returned study abroad students can participate; its commitment to social justice; and its self-articulation as an educational movement that is not issue or topic oriented. The results of this project will be used by ENGAGE to formalize and refine existing programs and to help conceptualize new programmatic offerings that might better meet the needs of returned study abroad students. This study also contributes to a larger discourse within the field of study abroad by offering insights into how the unique needs of a small subset of study abroad students can be better served

Trendswatch 2013: Back to the Future

TrendsWatch 2013 highlights six trends that CFM's staff and advisors believe are highly significant to museums and their communities, based on our scanning and analysis over the past year. For each trend, we provide a brief summary, list examples of how the trend is playing out in the world, comment on the trend's significance to society and to museums specifically, and suggest ways that museums might respond. We also provide links to additional readings. TrendsWatch provides valuable background and context for your museum's planning and implementation

Transforming lives through international community service-learning : a case study

Through a case study of the experiences of eight undergraduate students participating in the St. Thomas More College/Intercordia Canada international community service-learning programme (2008), this thesis seeks to assess whether the participants’ learning has proved transformational through an analysis of the forms and processes of transformative learning as developed by Richard Kiely (2002, 2004, 2005). Content analysis of semi-structured student interviews (pre and post-participation), programme materials, student journals, academic reflections and essays reveal transformative shifts across the political, moral, intellectual, cultural, personal and spiritual learning domains. The study adds to the research on international community service-learning through an analysis of Kiely’s transformative learning theory in a new context, and explores how context affects learning processes. Findings indicate the dynamics of participant vulnerability and acceptance from host communities can provide for transformational relationships of solidarity across difference

Boosting Your Giving Programs Through Prospect Research

This book explores how to utilize prospect research strategies to boost fundraising success and strengthen donor relationships. Includes a review of predictive statistical modeling, annual and planned giving programs, and privacy standards, as well as practical examples and success stories

AI Advice

This Article merges one of our most ancient technologies for the promotion of welfare-advice-with some of our most recent-artificial intelligence (Al) and big data. AI is already writing novels, poetry, newspaper articles, and tweets. Big data may soon capture not only our online activities, but also our real-time heart rate, sleep patterns, and even our current mood. This is the first Article to introduce and examine the possibility of AI advice. AI advice offers the potential for exceedingly accurate personalized recommendations. It also reveals important limits within the burgeoning literature on personalized law. The Article first rejects recent attempts to rehabilitate mandatory disclosures by personalizing them. Ironically, the technological progress required to create effective big data disclosures will itself substantially reduce the need for such disclosures. In this future, advice, not disclosure, will be the dominant paradigm. The Article then dissects our everyday practices of advice-giving to unearth a number of powerful features of advice that promote self-efficacy, reduce motivated reasoning, and make it more likely that people will hear and heed good advice. The capacity to bundle these features with exceedingly accurate recommendations makes AI advice a promising alternative to its two main regulatory rivals: mandatory disclosure and nudges

AI Advice

This Article merges one of our most ancient technologies for the promotion of welfare-advice-with some of our most recent-artificial intelligence (Al) and big data. AI is already writing novels, poetry, newspaper articles, and tweets. Big data may soon capture not only our online activities, but also our real-time heart rate, sleep patterns, and even our current mood. This is the first Article to introduce and examine the possibility of AI advice. AI advice offers the potential for exceedingly accurate personalized recommendations. It also reveals important limits within the burgeoning literature on personalized law. The Article first rejects recent attempts to rehabilitate mandatory disclosures by personalizing them. Ironically, the technological progress required to create effective big data disclosures will itself substantially reduce the need for such disclosures. In this future, advice, not disclosure, will be the dominant paradigm. The Article then dissects our everyday practices of advice-giving to unearth a number of powerful features of advice that promote self-efficacy, reduce motivated reasoning, and make it more likely that people will hear and heed good advice. The capacity to bundle these features with exceedingly accurate recommendations makes AI advice a promising alternative to its two main regulatory rivals: mandatory disclosure and nudges