News Roundup: Lifelong Learning and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

This week, higher education leaders advocate teaching practices that promote lifelong learning and culturally relevant pedagogy.

Sign up for The ‘Q’ Newsletter for weekly news and insights.

Adapting to the Lifelong Learning Culture
Bernard Bull explains why higher education institutions must adapt to a changing labor market, in which workers can no longer expect to remain in the same positions for decades. Because of this shift, he urges higher education to promote continual learning through efforts like providing feedback and viewing the process as transformational rather than transactional learning. (The Evolllution)

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Can Meet the Needs of Nontraditional College Students
Nontraditional students are at risk for not completing degrees, Kemuel Benyehudah writes. To accommodate the needs of this population, he suggests that community colleges follow the example of HBCUs, as proposed by Marybeth Gasman, and incorporate “culturally relevant pedagogies”—teaching based on students’ values, cultures, and histories—into their curricula. (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education)

The False Choice Between Education and Employment Readiness
Practical and general skills complement each other, Peter McPherson argues, so the debate between a broad education and career readiness is a false choice. He urges institutions to develop new ways of preparing students for careers, highlighting examples such as creating employment-focused minors. (Inside Higher Ed)

Still Learning the Lessons of the ‘60s
In the 1960s, the University of Brasilia experimented with a “personalized system of instruction,” in which students learned course material at their own pace. Other colleges began to follow suit. With so much success attributed to PSI, David Gooblar hypothesizes that using elements of the method today would help instructors see students as individuals with unique backgrounds and capabilities. (Vitae)

How to Use Questions to Promote Student Learning
Facilitating discussions about course material requires the instructor to develop thoughtful questions, Spencer Benson writes. He suggests that faculty strive to generate questions that are “un-Googleable,” meaning students can’t search for the answers online, and to teach students how to develop their own questions and to incorporate these into discussions and assessments. (The Scholarly Teacher)

Learning by Doing for the 21st Century
According to Cathrael Kazin, creating classroom spaces that allow students to learn by doing—putting skills required of their fields into action—would allow students to see the purpose and relevance of the course material and equip them for the modern workforce. (The Evolllution)