Welcome to the ninth volume of the International Journal of Process Education.  In this issue, we present an exciting collection of scholarship. The collaborative
research presented in this volume ranges from scholarship examining classroom techniques to examinations of institutional culture.

• From the Editorial Board

  In our first article, Use of Reading Logs to Promote Learning to Learn in a Freshman Course, Hurd, Beyerlein and Utschig analyze the use of reading logs with instructor feedback. The authors correlate students’ levels of reading performance with their performance on course assignments and projects that were dependent upon critically thinking about the readings. The authors indicate that the use of the tool with instructor feedback increased student performance.

  Graham and Burke examine the skills that students identify through their self-assessments in our second article, Students’ Perceived Areas for Improvement in an Online Learning Environment. The authors utilize answers to a self-assessment tool to examine the aff ective and cognitive skills identifi ed by the students as areas for improvement in an online learning environment. Additionally, a case study examines the timing of the transition from identification of improvement affective skills necessary to learning to only identifying cognitive skills.

  Watts provides a thorough examination of the Learning Process Methodology in our third article, The Learning Process Methodology: A Universal Model of the Learning Process and Activity Design. Watts correlates each of the steps of the Learning Process Methodology to models for instructional design as well as providing an in-depth discussion of each step.

  In their article, Impact of Higher Education Culture on Student Mindset and Success, Apple, Jain, Beyerlein and Ellis utilize the fourteen cultural aspects as a theoretical framework to compare and contrast the culture of teaching and learning. The authors examine the fourteen aspects of a traditional culture within Higher Education as compared to a transformational culture through the lens of institutional values, faculty mindsets, practices and student mindsets.

  Finally, in their article, 100 Best Practices for Teaching Learning to Learn and Self-Growth, Sweeney, Apple and Ulbrich delineate the best practices for teaching and learning. While classifying the practices into eleven Process Education areas, the authors discuss and reference the key tools and practices that practitioners can utilize to will transform and empower students.

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• Use of Reading Logs to Promote Learning to Learn in a Freshman Course

  by Betty Hurd, Steve Beyerlein, and Tristan T. Utschig

  Abstract

  Student reading performance is foundational for follow-on coursework in a broad spectrum of disciplines. Literature on learning science informs us on pedagogical choices in freshman courses that promote this goal. A rubric to measure the quality of student reading log entries was developed based on Bloom's Taxonomy and elements of the AACU VALUE critical thinking rubric. This tool was used in a freshman Fashion Analysis course. Three raters were engaged to discern/validate levels of reading performance. Reading Log performance was then correlated with performance in course assignments, including a substantive project that involves content from the reading. Initial results show that instructor feedback to students on their performance has improved Reading Log performance by one-half to a full letter grade. Through Reading Log activities, such as those reported in this article, students can gain self-awareness and selfconfidence that can be productively translated into many other teaching/learning situations.

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• Students’ Perceived Areas for Improvement in an Online Learning Environment

  by Katherine Graham and Kathleen Burke

  Abstract

  For a variety of reasons, students are enrolling in online courses in increasing numbers. Students often approach online courses with the perception that since they are convenient and flexible, and computer based, they should be easier than the same course taught in a traditional face-to-face classroom. However, as these students quickly discover, the online course is often more difficult than what they expected. The nature of an online course, where students are typically working asynchronously at home with material delivered via computer, is very different from that of a traditional face-to-face course. Oftentimes, the skills that students have developed to succeed in the traditional face-to-face classroom may not be sufficient for success in the online environment. While scholarly research has been conducted regarding the importance of online learning skills from an institutional or instructor's perspective, little has been revealed from the students' perspective. This research involves examining the learning skills necessary to succeed in an online environment from a student's perspective obtained through student self-assessment. The information provided by these self-assessments will enable faculty to better focus on the issues and concerns of students learning throughout a course in an online environment.

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• The Learning Process Methodology: A Universal Model of the Learning Process and Activity Design

  by Matthew Watts

  Abstract

  The study of learning and instructional design has produced many overlapping models for the learning process and activity design. Specific to Process Education, the Learning Process Methodology (LPM) is inclusive of most elements of these models. The evolution of learning activity templates has produced components that reveal strong correspondence with this methodology. This paper will support each step of the LPM, show which components in activity design are justified from these steps, provide criteria for eff ective design of these components, and reveal the overlap of the LPM with other models for the learning process and learning activities. This will in turn show how universal this methodology is for both learning as a process and for the design of learning activities.

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• Impact of Higher Education Culture on Student Mindset and Success

  by Daniel Apple, Chaya Jain, Steven Beyerlein, and Wade Ellis

  Abstract

  Student mindsets and academic behaviors are strongly infl uenced by an institution's culture, its values, faculty mindsets and prevalent teaching and learning practices. From recent Process Education-based research centered on possible ways for post-secondary educational institutions to become more effective, 14 cultural aspects that define an educational culture were identified and differentiated in the Transformation of Education (Hintze-Yates et al., 2011). Adopting these 14 cultural aspects as the theoretical framework, this paper articulates a transformation of traditional educator practices to a set of "research based best practices” that contributes significantly to the development of quality collegiate learners. Thus, this discussion has a two-fold objective: (1) to contrast traditional and transformational educational cultures; and (2) to articulate how the impact of transformational practices can shift student mindsets toward successful academic behaviors. Accordingly, our theoretical inquiry focuses on five distinct elements: institutional values, faculty mindsets, faculty practices, student mindsets, and learner characteristics for each of the referenced 14 cultural aspects. Analysis of the traditional culture and its teaching and learning traits reveal reasons that contribute to and exacerbate student risk factors (Horton 2015). In contrast, analysis of the transformational culture and its teaching and learning traits demonstrates how development and enhancement of success factors (Apple, Ellis & Hintze, 2015) can help mitigate those risk factors.

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• 100 Best Practices for Teaching Learning to Learn and Self-Growth

  by Chris Sweeney, Daniel Apple, and Ingrid Ulbrich

  Abstract

  Process Education has always focused on empowering learners through teaching students how to learn and how to facilitate their own growth in learning and other performance areas. Learning to learn is most effective in a growth-oriented culture where students steadily develop more and more of the behaviors needed to succeed in college. This paper identifies 100 learning to learn and self-growth “best practices” of teaching and learning that transform and empower learners to become self-growers. These 100 practices are divided into 11 Process Education areas to help faculty improve their performance as learning to learn facilitators.

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