Welcome to the eighth volume of the International Journal of Process Education. As an Editorial Board, we endeavor to create a community of practice that encompasses scholars and educators dedicated to transforming higher education. The scholarship presented in this volume delineates the key concepts and tools within the scholarship of Process Education and examines a wide range of issues in academia including student perceptions of reading, curricular methods to meet future changes in Higher Education, and models for constructive alignment and a successful collegiate learner. The authors have come together from different disciplines and organizations and from all over the globe.

• From the Editorial Board

  In our first article, Major Topics in Process Education: A Directory of Scholarship and Tools, Hintze and Beyerlein delineate 30 major topics aligned with the scholarship presented in the Faculty Guidebook and the International Journal of Process Education. The authors define and contextualize these topics, also noting the key tools that are associated with these topics. This article itself can serve as a tool to help guide readersto key research.

  A mixed method approach is utilized by Lasley, Haas, and Pinto in our next article, Examination of Undergraduates’ Perception of the Purpose for Academic Reading. The authors examine students’ perception of their own reading ability and their purpose for complying with academic reading assignments, as well as their perception of their instructors’ view of their reading ability and the purpose for academic reading. Additionally, the authors examine the alignment of their findings with the reading methodology.

  El-Sayed presents the changing demographics and the challenges that Higher Education will need to meet in order to best serve the needs of future students in her article, Community Building Through Participatory Curricula Transformation. She uses a case study of curriculum transformation at Marygrove College to highlight how an institution can proceed through the transformation in curriculum while incorporating engaged decision-making and building community.

  In the article, Leveraging Elements of Process Education to Extend Biggs’ Model of Constructive Alignment for Increasing Learner Achievement, Jain and Utschig reflect on the findings of a study comparing outcomes from a traditionally-taught course with one utilizing a collaborative learning environment. Their reflection yielded a model of constructive alignment that incorporates principles and practices from Process Education.

  Finally, Apple, Duncan and Ellis discuss the development of a Profile of a Quality Collegiate Learner (PQCL) in our last article, Key Learner Characteristics for Academic Success. The authors examined Process Education practice and the published literature to identify a list of common learner characteristics that lead to student success.

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• Major Topics in Process Education: A Directory of Scholarship and Tools

  by Denna Hintze and Steve Beyerlein

  Abstract

  This article offers a directory of 30 major topics of Process Education, sharing a definition and overview for each, as well as the most up-to-date and pertinent scholarship from both the Faculty Guidebook and the International Journal of Process Education. Additionally, any key tools associated with the topic are also noted (and shown in the online and interactive version of the article). Readers may also use this article as a pathfinder for the topics in Process Education as presented in the International Journal of Process Education article, 25 Years of Process Education. While that article traces the development of these topics, the goal of this article is to offer a selection of resources to help meet just-in-time needs of all Process Education practitioners, from the interested novice to the seasoned expert.

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• Examination of Undergraduates’ Perception of the Purpose for Academic Reading

  by Elizabeth Lasley, Lory E. Haas, and Prasopsuk Pinto

  Abstract

  Learning to learn is a predominate topic in current education research. This topic accompanies the need for undergraduate students’ active engagement in applying their literacy skills for learning, specifically the academic reading process. The research presented here examines the perception of 402 undergraduate with respect to their reading ability and purpose for complying with academic reading assignments. This research also includes students’ perception of their instructors’ view of student reading ability and the purpose for academic reading. This study uses a mixed-methods approach, the basic premise of which is to enhance the reliability within the quantitative and qualitative data. From a dual lens perception of required reading, undergraduates indicated differences in the purpose for reading between their individual goals and instructor requirements. Despite these differences, students identified academic reading ability as a significant component in academic success. Findings from this study are also analyzed against the Process Education reading methodology and the use of reading logs, through which significant alignment is noted as well as the need for faculty to preassess academic reading skills and provide constructive intervention on steps within the reading methodology.

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• Community Building Through Participatory Curricula Transformation

  by Jacqueline El-Sayed

  Abstract

  With the changing student demographics and graduates’ needs, new ways of teaching must be mastered and infused into practice. Higher education campuses must intentionally design curriculum for diverse students while simultaneously building sustainable learning communities. This can be accomplished by utilizing active participation and engaged decision-making techniques to select, develop and integrate new content and delivery. Active participation techniques can be dovetailed with engagement efforts to target students and faculty efforts toward the priority needs of the surrounding community. It can also be used to harvest the wisdom of community members, and identify collaborations while building trust and buy-in. To actualize this, thoughtful, intentional processes should be used.

  This paper provides an overview of changing student demographics, new ways of teaching for future graduates’ expanded needs and methods of engaged decision-making for sustainable community building. A case study example is provided of Marygrove College in Detroit that illustrates how processes to transform curricula can utilize participatory and engaged decision-making practices to also simultaneously build community. Aligned with the College’s urban social justice mission, Marygrove completed an intensive institutional initiative to infuse Urban Leadership (UL) into all curricula, co-curricula and campus life, across all institutional and program levels, utilizing a process inclusive of both campus and community stakeholders. In addition, new programming, such as pre-engineering, was seeded under the UL umbrella. UL is now incorporated into all majors, general education and experiential learning, including community engagement activities as well as new programs, making Marygrove College unique in its institutionalization of UL (Tice, 2015) and an exemplar of curricula and community transformation processes.

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• Leveraging Elements of Process Education to Extend Biggs’ Model of Constructive Alignment for Increasing Learner Achievement

  by Chaya R. Jain and Tristan T. Utschig

  Abstract

  During the academic year 2014-15, a pilot study was conducted to compare the student achievement in a traditional versus a collaborative learning environment in two sections of the same course at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The finding, a deviation from the conventional evidence, indicated the traditional group’s academic achievement to be slightly higher than the collaborative group’s. The conclusion prompted considerable reflection about what teaching and learning components may have impacted student achievement of the intended learning outcomes in the collaborative environment. As a result, we propose a process-based theoretical model extending on Biggs’ model of constructive alignment to incorporate essential Process Education’s (PE) principles and practices. The new process model incorporates four pillars of PE supporting student growth, where the concept of student growth involves the process of learning to learn in addition to the achievement of student learning outcomes. The four pillars are: (1) Creating a Quality Learning Environment (2) Instructional Design (3) Facilitation, and (4) Assessment. Further, we suggest this new model is particularly relevant for educators having culturally diverse learners.

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• Key Learner Characteristics for Academic Success

  by Daniel Apple, Wendy Duncan, and Wade Ellis

  Abstract

  The development of a Profile of a Quality Collegiate Learner (PQCL) is presented in this paper with the goal of assisting colleges in clearly determining the characteristics they seek to develop in their learners to increase student success. The characteristics that correlate with successful learning performance emerged from the authors’ 20 years of experience in facilitating, assessing, and researching Learning to Learn Camps, improving Learning to Learn curriculum, and engaging with the scholarship of Process Education. These characteristics were refined through a meta-analysis of student success research and resulted in a profile describing a student who would be successful in any undergraduate program. The characteristics that make up the PQCL are organized into seven performance categories: (1) growth mindset, (2) academic mindset, (3) learning processes, (4) learning strategies, (5) affective learning skills, (6) social learning skills, and (7) productive academic behaviors. While characteristics in the PQCL correlate with success, the very definition of Process Education and its core principles support the idea of causation— that collegiate learners are not just born but can be developed. Research cited in this paper provides strong support for this assertion, especially the excerpts from students' Self-Growth papers illustrating how the Learning-to-Learn Camps strengthen these learner characteristics.

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